According to Gallup and Edelman, in the post AI world, what people most need from their leaders isn't more data — it's more hope. Afdhel Aziz is the world's leading expert on hopeful storytelling: the leadership discipline built to close the Hope Gap and unlock engagement, innovation and growth.
Afdhel, a former Fortune 500 business executive, embarked on a remarkable journey after experiencing the devastating effects of the Indian Ocean tsunami in his home country of Sri Lanka. This life-altering experience prompted him to seek a deeper purpose beyond the confines of corporate life.
In 2017, after a 20 year career leading brands at Procter and Gamble, Nokia, Heineken and Absolut Vodka, Afdhel made a pivotal decision to leave the corporate world and establish
Conspiracy of Love. Today it is one of the world's leading strategic consultancies, offering its expertise to iconic companies such as Adidas, Coca Cola, The Gap and Sephora. It's also a B Corp Best for the World Business.
He is also the Co-Founder of Good is the New Cool, a creative company dedicated to making stories and content that fill 'The Hope Gap', recently partnering with Time Studios on 'The Solutionaries'.
Afdhel's impact extends far beyond the boardrooms of influential companies. As an international keynote speaker, he has graced stages in more than thirty countries, sharing his insights at leading corporations like Disney, Microsoft, Walmart, and JP Morgan Chase. He has also spoken at such prestigious venues such as Cannes Lions Festival, the Fast Company Innovation Festival, and the United Nations.
The Purpose Trilogy, Afdhel's best-selling books (co-authored with Bobby Jones), has earned acclaim from industry leaders, for their insightful and accessible approach to unpacking the complex topics of brand purpose, personal purpose and how businesses can be a force for good.
His journalism for Forbes as a Contributor allows him to shine a light on an inspiring movement of leaders, entrepreneurs and creators disrupting business with sustainability and impact.
Afdhel's prowess as an award-winning poet ('China Bay Blues'), novelist ('Strange Fruit'), and documentary filmmaker ('The Genius of the Place: The Life and Work of Geoffrey Bawa, Sri Lanka's Premier Architect') underscores his fascination with the art and craft of storytelling. He serves on the board of Choose Love, an inspiring non-profit helping refugees and displaced people around the world with humanitarian aid.
Talking Points
Filling the Hope Gap - The Five Principles of Hope Leadership (for C-Suite & Senior Leaders)
The leadership skill that AI cannot replace.Filling the Hope Gap - The Five Principles of Hope Leadership (for C-Suite & Senior Leaders)
In the age of AI, your people have never had more data – yet they have never felt more despair. Gallup's 2026 research confirms that hope — not trust, not charisma, not authority, not a compelling strategy deck — is the single most important thing followers need most from the leaders in their lives.
The leaders who will define the next decade are not the ones with the best answers. They are the ones who can make the future feel possible again. This is the key to unlocking engagement, innovation and growth at every level.
In this powerful and insightful keynote, Afdhel gives senior leaders a practical five-step framework for hopeful storytelling that closes the Hope Gap at every level of the organisation — turning the invisible drag on performance into a named, measurable, solvable leadership challenge. Leaders don't just leave feeling hopeful. They leave knowing exactly what to do differently on Monday morning.
*Available as a keynote or half-day workshop.
Find Your Story. Fill the Hope Gap. - The GPS to Purpose Model for Engagement and Performance (for Teams & Employees)
How every person in this room finds the story that changes everything. Find Your Story. Fill the Hope Gap. - The GPS to Purpose Model for Engagement and Performance (for Teams & Employees)
Disengagement doesn't happen because people stop caring. It happens because they lose the story of why their work matters. Gallup's research shows that hope is the foundational human need — the one whose presence most reliably lifts people from merely functioning to genuinely thriving. And yet the Hope Gap doesn't just exist between leaders and organisations. It exists inside each person in the room: the distance between who they are and the contribution they feel they're actually making.
No benefits package, no town hall, no engagement survey closes that gap. What does is something more personal and more lasting: helping each person find their own GPS to Purpose — the intersection of their unique Gifts, their deepest Passions, and their capacity for Service — and showing them how that intersection connects directly to the work they do every day.
In this keynote, Afdhel brings his GPS to Purpose framework — drawn from his bestselling book and proven at companies including Disney, Google, and Coca-Cola — to life in a way that is equal parts energizing and immediately actionable. Each person leaves not just re-inspired but re-oriented: with a clearer sense of who they are, why their contribution matters, and how to become the hopeful storyteller their team and organisation desperately needs right now.
*Available as a keynote or half-day workshop.
Filling the Hope Gap with a Soloutionary Mindset (for Innovation & Brand Leaders)
How to build a culture of hope-driven innovation.Filling the Hope Gap with a Soloutionary Mindset (for Innovation & Brand Leaders)
The most audacious innovators Afdhel has encountered — across five hundred conversations for his Forbes column and as Executive Producer of The Solutionaries with TIME Magazine — don't close the Hope Gap with better resources or better technology. They close it with something rarer and more teachable: the Moral Imagination.
The capacity to feel the distance between the world as it is and the world as it should be — and to experience that gap not as a market opportunity, not as someone else's problem, but as a personal design brief. A calling. A story worth telling with everything you have.
That capacity is what separates the brands people believe in from the brands people merely buy from. It is what separates innovation cultures that generate the future from those that spend their energy reacting to it. And according to Gallup's own research, it is what drives the kind of hope that makes teams not just more engaged — but measurably more likely to thrive.
In this keynote, Afdhel shows marketing and innovation leaders how to cultivate the Solutionary Mindset across their teams — building a culture that doesn't just respond to disruption, but generates the ideas that everyone else will have to respond to.
Video
Afdhel Aziz Speaker Reel | Inspiring AAPI Keynote Speaker
Conspiracy of Love, founded by Afdhel Aziz, is one of the world’s leading Purpose consultancies, offering its expertise to iconic companies such as Adidas, Coca Cola and Sephora. Aziz, a former Fortune 500 business executive, embarked on a remarkable journey after surviving the devastating tsunami in his home country of Sri Lanka. This life-altering experience prompted him to seek a deeper purpose beyond the confines of corporate life. In 2017, Aziz made a pivotal decision to leave the corporate world and establish Conspiracy of Love as a B Corp certified global consultancy and AAPI-owned Minority Business. The company specializes in advising major corporations on finding new pathways to sustainable and inclusive growth by inspiring purpose within their employees and organizations. This unique approach has resulted in engaged and empowered employees, breakthrough innovations and growth, and substantial investments in causes such as racial justice, arts education, and childhood hunger. Aziz's impact extends far beyond the boardrooms of influential companies. As an international keynote speaker, he has graced stages in more than thirty countries, sharing his insights at leading corporations like Disney, Microsoft, JP Morgan Chase, and The Gap. His presence has also been felt at prestigious events such as the United Nations, Cannes Lions, and the Fast Company Innovation Festival. "The Principles of Purpose," Aziz's best-selling book co-authored with Bobby Jones, has earned acclaim from industry leaders, with former Unilever CEO Paul Polman acknowledging its role in showcasing purpose as the growth story of the 21st century. Aziz's prowess as an award-winning poet, writer, and documentary filmmaker underscores his fascination with the art and craft of storytelling. This passion is not only evident in his professional work but also in his commitment to conveying messages of purpose and change.Purposeful Growth: How Your Business Can Be A Force For Good | Afdhel Aziz
Purpose-driven companies outperform their competition on every metric, from employee engagement to innovation to profitability. Based on the pioneering work of his consultancy Conspiracy of Love at Fortune 500 companies like Adidas, Coca-Cola, Sephora, and his bestselling book the Good is the New Cool Guide to Conscious Business, inspiring keynote speaker Afdhel Aziz shares how companies can unlock the ‘Purpose Flywheel’ of ‘growth through impact’ with devoted customers, happy employees and loyal investors. Afdhel has spoken on this topic at Fortune 500 companies like JP Morgan Chase, Coca Cola, as well as at Conscious Capitalism, the Fast Company Innovation Festival, and the United Nations.Good is the New Cool: How Meaningful Marketing Can Drive Brand Growth | Afdhel Aziz
How do traditional brands reinvent themselves for the new age of Conscious Consumers? Consumers say they are four to six times more likely to purchase, protect and champion a brand that they believe has positive social and environmental impact. And this number skyrockets when you consider Millennials and Gen-Z, the two biggest and newest generations of customers. In this insightful and motivational talk based on his best-selling book the Good is the New Cool Guide to Meaningful Marketing, and the pioneering work of his consultancy Conspiracy of Love, Afdhel shows how marketing can drive brand growth by serving the ever-evolving needs of their consumers and communities. Afdhel has spoken on this topic at companies like Walmart, Levi’s, PepsiCo, Mondelez and conferences such as the Forbes CMO Summit, SXSW and the Cannes Lions Festival.Leading with Purpose: How to Supercharge Your Career With Meaning and Impact | Afdhel Aziz
According to Gallup, only 30% of workers are engaged and motivated - but in companies that have a higher Purpose that number rises to 90%. Today’s employees are looking for meaning – not just money. In this transformational talk based on his upcoming book the Good is the New Cool Guide to Personal Purpose, inspiring keynote speaker Afdhel Aziz shows leaders and employees how to use the revolutionary GPS to Purpose framework to find their purpose - and drive meaning, motivation and career success. Inspired. Motivated. Pumped. This is how employees in companies like Disney, Microsoft, HP and the North Face have described feeling after hearing Afdhel speak on this topic.Audio
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