After working at almost 20 odd jobs, that included waitressing, she decided to start her own business. So she took a $1000 loan from her wealthy boyfriend at that time and used that to co-create a business in real estate which she called ‘The Corcoran Group’. By mid 1970s Barbara Corcoran started publishing ‘The Corcoran Report’ that featured real estate data developments. Later on her boyfriend ran away with her secretary but left Corcoran with a thriving business and no regrets. Corcoran had laudable entrepreneurial skills as she managed to turn a $1000 into billions. In 2001, the real estate mogul sold her real estate company to NRT LLC for seventy million dollars.
Inspiring Women Speakers
Lisa Caputo : Marketing and Branding
Lisa Caputo is Executive Vice President of Marketing and Communications for Travelers. She oversees the company’s marketing, research and corporate communications functions. She joined Travelers from Citigroup, where she was most recently Executive Vice President, Global Marketing and Corporate Affairs.
Robyn Benincasa
Motivational speaker Robyn Benincasa expresses inspires people to do insane things like climb Mount Kilimanjaro, run their first triathlon, start their own adventure racing team, or even start their own businesses. This is, after all, what she does best: inspire people to do amazing things. One of “California’s Fittest Women,” Robyn Benincasa has been breaking barriers and making an art form of extreme performance for years.
Ariane de Bonvoisin : Change Optimist
Ariane de Bonvoisin is the Founder, CEO and Chief Change Optimist of First30Days, a New York City-based media company focused on guiding people through all types of changes, both personal and professional and social or global. The company, which launched its web site, first30days.com, in February 2008 currently features 60 life change subjects, including those relevant to our times such as losing a job, selling a home, starting a business, dealing with depression, smart investing, reducing debt and getting divorced. She also hosts a popular on-line show, “ChangeNation,” where she interviews experts and thought leaders on all aspects of life changes.
Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus
Keynote speakers Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus are the co-authors of The Nanny Diaries, the literary sensation that rose to the top of The New York Times book charts to become the longest-running best seller of 2002. Adapted into a major motion picture in 2007, “The Nanny Diaries” stars Scarlett Johansson & Alicia Keys.
Caroline Casey
Speaker Caroline Casey brings a unique blend of leadership and vision to the business and political world in relation to promoting the abilities of those with disabilities on a national and international level. She has received several high profile awards in recognition of her work worldwide. She became the first Irish person to be appointed a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum in 2006.
Dara Torres
Motivational speaker Dara Torres is arguably the fastest female swimmer in America. She entered her first international swimming competition at age 14 and competed in her first Olympics a few years later in 1984. She went on to compete in the 1988, 1992 and 2000 Olympics, winning an Olympic medal every time.
Zoë Keating : Artist Empowerment
Zoë Keating is a one-woman orchestra. She uses a cello and a foot-controlled laptop to record layer upon layer of cello, creating intricate, haunting and compelling music. Zoë is known for both her use of technology – which she uses to sample her cello onstage – and for her DIY approach, releasing her music online without the help of a record label.
Tali Sharot : Neuroscientist
Tali Sharot’s keynote career centers around sharing the research she has completed regarding human thought processes and interaction. The cognitive neuroscientist and author is a Faculty Member at the University College London and graduated from New York University with both a B.A in psychology and economics as well as a Ph.D in psychology and neuroscience. Her findings in the field of human memory, optimism and the decision-making process have been published in numerous scholarly journals and featured in The Wall Street Journal and Forbes magazine.
Maria Bello : Actress, Author and Activist
Maria Bello has captivated audiences with her many diverse roles in such films as The Cooler with William H. Macy, (Golden Globe and SAG Nomination), A History of Violence opposite Viggo Mortenson and Ed Harris (NY Film Critics win and Golden Globe nomination), along with close to 30 other films. Bello began her career as an activist at Villanova University where she majored in Peace and Justice Education and worked at the Women’s Law Project in Philadelphia.
Minka Kelly : Actress and Philanthropist
The star of Friday Night Lights, Parenthood and Charlie’s Angels, Minka Kelly is currently focusing on a new project: giving back. Minka recently teamed up with fashionABLE, an organization which creates employment opportunities for women in Africa through the production and sales of clothing and accessories.
After a trip to Ethiopia in 2009, Minka was inspired to help the countless women she met who are unable to provide for themselves and their families.
Amy Jaffe : Energy
Amy Jaffe is a leading expert on the geopolitics of oil and gas, energy security and risk and an influential thought leader on global energy policy, sustainability, Amy Myers Jaffe is executive director for Energy and Sustainability at University of California, Davis and a frequent keynote speaker at major energy industry and investment conferences and board of directors meetings.
Ann Rhoades : JetBlue Airways Executive
Ann Rhoades has an extensive national speaking platform spanning a range of industries including: health care, airlines, hospitality, finance, retail, restaurants, food and beverage, convenience stores, public utilities, entertainment, law enforcement, nonprofit, higher education, and business schools.
Grace Coddington : American Vogue
“If Wintour is the Pope . . . , Coddington is Michelangelo, trying to paint a fresh version of the Sistine Chapel twelve times a year,” Time magazine said in 2009, after Vogue’s creative director rather unexpectedly was launched into the public consciousness by the hit documentary The September Issue.
Lauren Bush Lauren : World Hunger
Lauren Bush started her work as an Honorary Spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP) in 2004, when she helped to launch their Universities Fighting Hunger initiative. Over the past four years Lauren has traveled to many countries with WFP and UNICEF to learn about the realities of poverty and hunger firsthand.
Lori Greiner: The Warm Blooded Shark
Lori Greiner started with one idea and turned it into a multi-million dollar international brand. She is now regarded as one of the most prolific inventors of retail products, having created over 400 products, and holds 120 U.S. and international patents. She is a star shark on the hit entrepreneurial business show, Shark Tank on ABC, where she invests in companies and helps turn dreams into a reality.
Ivanka Trump
As Executive Vice President of Development & Acquisitions of The Trump Organization, Ms. Trump is charged with the domestic and global expansion of the company’s real estate interests. Ms. Trump directs all areas of the company’s real estate and hotel management platforms. She is involved in all decisions—large and small—from the acquisition phase to determining the interior selections for residences and hotel suites.
Avital Zeisler : Self-Defense Expert
Avital Zeisler is a self-defense expert and motivational speaker. This once professional dancer, who trained at the National Ballet School of Canada, overcame the trauma of an assault, leading her to re-define self-defense for herself and other women. After studying self-defense in Israel, she began her career as a hand to hand combat instructor, specializing in Krav Maga, the self-defense system of the Israeli Defense Forces.
Pamela Meyer : Liespotting
Fraud expert, Harvard MBA and bestselling author of “Liespotting,” Pamela Meyer reveals the deception epidemic plaguing our society. Meyer believes you should know everything a CIA operative knows about deception. She trains corporate executives on facial micro-expression reading, advanced interrogation techniques, body language analysis, and behavior elicitation techniques.
Sahar Hashemi : Coffee Republic
Sahar Hashemi is an excellent business keynote speaker on the topics of being an entrepreneur, business growth, leadership strategies. Sahar still lives and travels from London, where she founded Coffee Republic.