Viola De Girolami helps leaders turn complex change into clarity, performance and lasting impact.
5.00 of 5
Top rated!5 of 5
“Viola was a speaker at the Norwegian Cinema Conference last week. She held a very interesting presentation, Spirited and unbound in form, with great content. Our participants in the conference gave great feedback and. We are really happy that we booked her.”
Jorgen Stensland, Director
Film & Kino
Viola De Girolami is a keynote speaker, founder and former marketing executive with more than 15 years of experience leading large-scale transformation inside global brands. From Warner Bros. to McDonald’s and Carphone Warehouse, she has worked at the heart of strategic reinvention, digital acceleration and cultural change. Today, she helps leaders and organisations navigate complex transitions, strengthen performance and understand the human dynamics that determine whether change succeeds or fails.
Viola De Girolami is a keynote speaker, founder and former senior marketing executive who brings over 15 years of corporate experience leading transformation at scale. Her career spans Warner Bros., McDonald’s and Carphone Warehouse, where she worked at the centre of strategic reinvention, digital acceleration and performance-driven change.
Across these organisations, Viola operated where strategy, leadership and execution meet. She saw how ambitious visions succeed when culture and behaviour align – and how even the strongest strategies struggle when the human dimension is overlooked. These experiences now shape her work with leaders navigating complexity, uncertainty and pressure.
At Warner Bros., Viola served as Executive Director of Digital Marketing & Data, building the studio’s digital and data capability from the ground up. She led one of the company’s most significant transformations, reshaping how digital strategy and data informed decision-making at scale.
Her work influenced how global cultural phenomena such as Dunkirk, Joker and Barbie were brought to audiences. At the same time, she advised senior leadership on major strategic initiatives, helping bridge commercial ambition with operational reality.
Working inside a fast-moving global studio environment required navigating creative excellence, commercial expectations and organisational complexity. Viola experienced first-hand what it takes to align diverse teams behind a shared direction while delivering measurable results.
Earlier in her career, Viola worked at McDonald’s during a defining period of brand reinvention following the reputational crisis triggered by Super Size Me. She witnessed how one of the world’s most iconic brands rebuilt relevance and trust under intense scrutiny.
This period offered a rare perspective on crisis response, brand repositioning and internal cultural alignment. It demonstrated how sustained performance depends on leadership clarity, decisive action and long-term commitment.
At Carphone Warehouse, she contributed to major digital and customer transformation during a time of industry disruption. As consumer behaviour shifted and competition intensified, the organisation was required to rethink how it created value. Viola played a role in driving digital and customer-focused change, strengthening her understanding of transformation in highly competitive markets.
Having lived transformation from the inside across multiple global brands, Viola identified recurring patterns in why change efforts succeed or fail. Strategy alone is rarely the issue. The real challenge lies in leadership behaviour, trust, communication and the invisible dynamics within teams.
To deepen her understanding, Viola undertook formal training in Positive Psychology, integrating behavioural science and human performance into her work. This combination of corporate experience and scientific insight allows her to approach transformation holistically.
Her work today focuses on helping leaders:
Navigate complex transitions with clarity and confidence
Strengthen performance during periods of uncertainty
Align culture and strategy to drive sustainable results
Understand the behavioural patterns shaping decision-making
Build resilience and accountability within leadership teams
Viola translates theory into practical frameworks leaders can apply immediately. Her approach is grounded, strategic and shaped by real-world experience rather than abstract models.
Today, Viola is the founder of “What Clients Really Want”, where she advises organisations and senior leadership teams facing change, performance challenges and strategic transition. She works closely with decision-makers across sectors, helping them see beyond surface-level symptoms and address the structural and human factors influencing results.
Her advisory work spans leadership teams preparing for transformation, organisations seeking stronger performance alignment and businesses navigating strategic inflection points.
As a keynote speaker, Viola brings clarity, credibility and depth to corporate events, leadership off-sites and conferences. Her talks draw directly from her experience inside global brands and her advisory work with senior leaders.
Audiences value her ability to combine strategic insight with human understanding. She speaks openly about the realities of transformation – the tension, the resistance, the ambition and the breakthrough moments that define lasting change.
Viola delivers keynotes in English, Italian and Spanish, and is comfortable addressing international audiences across industries.
Book Viola De Girolami for your event if you are seeking a speaker who understands transformation from the inside and who can equip leaders with practical, experience-driven insight to strengthen performance in times of change.
5 of 5
“Viola was a speaker at the Norwegian Cinema Conference last week. She held a very interesting presentation, Spirited and unbound in form, with great content. Our participants in the conference gave great feedback and. We are really happy that we booked her.”
Jorgen Stensland, Director Film & Kino
5 of 5
“Viola’s keynote was such an inspirational and impactful moment for me! She is a gifted storyteller and was able to captivate the audience in a unique way. Thanks for the insights!”
Ronnie Fridthjof, Cannes and Emmy award winning film producer Film producer
5 of 5
“Viola has that rare gift of making complex change feel simple and inspiring. Her clarity and strategic vision were at the heart of Warner Brother's digital transformation."
Alex Lewis, SVP of Marketing Warner Bros
5 of 5
"Viola is a fantastic storyteller who captivates from the first moment. Her keynote was thought-provoking and truly inspired people to think and act differently."
Alistair Tucker, Head of Sales Amazon
Keynote by Viola De Girolami:
The Hard Questions We Avoid - And Why Change Fails Without Them OR The Questions Real Change Demands - But We Resist Most organisations aren’t struggling to change, they’re struggling to change well.
In a world of constant disruption, innovation and pressure to act, what remains unclear is how to make change truly work and last. In fact, according to McKinsey, around 70% of transformation efforts fail to meet their goals.
Viola has spent over 15 years as a marketing leader inside organisations like McDonald’s and Warner Bros., witnessing first hand major transformations. In her thought-provoking keynote, she takes audiences behind the scenes of real change.
Mixing her corporate experience with principles from psychology, she reveals what it truly takes to make change work - and last!
Key takeaways:
A powerful mix of creativity, psychology, and strategy that reveals what it truly takes to make change stick.
Watch Viola De Girolami in action
