Leadership shouldn't look like a shield of perfection; it should look like the courage to be human.
Gender equality, artificial intelligence and the future of work are three of the hardest subjects to put in front of a mixed audience without losing half the room. Jamila Rizvi does it with evidence, humour and an unusual amount of warmth. She is a leadership Speaker, best-selling author, broadcaster and executive who works with organisations on workplace gender equality, the impact of AI on work, leading through change and building a career that does not run in a straight line.
As Deputy Managing Director of FW (Future Women), Jamila leads program delivery, government relations, strategy and business development. She co-founded the FW Jobs Academy, a virtual pre-employment program that has helped more than 5,000 Australian women and gender-diverse people return to work.
Her leadership credentials were forged at Mamamia, where as Editor in Chief she helped turn Mia Freedman's one-woman blog into an independent media company. The audience grew by more than 2,000 per cent in four years, under an editorial offering Jamila shaped across feminism, current affairs and parenting. Before that she spent five years advising the Rudd and Gillard governments on media, gender equality, early childhood education and employment, having landed a role with then-new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd before she finished her degree.
Jamila published Not Just Lucky in 2017, The Motherhood in 2018 and the children's picture book I'm a Hero Too in 2020. Broken Brains, co-authored with Rosie Waterland in 2025, recounts her fight for survival against a life-threatening brain tumour and was shortlisted for Non-fiction Book of the Year in 2026. Adaptability and resilience run through her speaking work as a result.
She writes a column for Sunday Life in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, has hosted podcasts for Listnr, ARN, Mamamia and FW, and is a regular guest host and commentator across Australian television and radio. Visit Victoria, UN Women, Westpac, Telstra, Industry Super Australia and the Sydney Opera House have all booked her as a Keynote Speaker, MC or facilitator.
Named in the Australian Financial Review's 100 Women of Influence and one of Culture Amp's 25 Emerging Global Culture Creators, Jamila sits on the board of Women and AI Australia and is an ambassador for PLAN International and the Royal Melbourne Hospital Neuroscience Foundation. She lives in Melbourne with her husband Jeremy, son Rafi and Sonny the dog.
Talking Points
Leading Through Volatility: Human skills for the future of work
Artificial intelligence is reshaping the world at a pace never seen before. Global instability is unsettling long-held assumptions, loneliness is rising, and generations and genders are drifting apart in how they see the world. Named one of Culture Amp's 25 Emerging Global Culture Creators, Jamila Rizvi connects the disruptions leaders are worried about and brings sharp data, unforgettable stories and warmth to the question sitting underneath all of them: how do you lead people and organisations through the most disorienting period of change in living memory? Delivered with humour and hope rather than alarm, this Keynote finds the possibilities in the chaos.Leading Through Volatility: Human skills for the future of work
Key Takeaways:
- Volatility as the new operating condition rather than a passing event, and what it takes to build teams and cultures for that status quo instead of managing one disruption at a time.
- Employee disconnection as the hidden cost of disruption, and the deliberate work of building trust as AI, hybrid work and generational divides pull people apart.
- How to bridge different worldviews and expectations across generations and genders, which is where higher-performing cultures come from.
- Combines data-backed rigour with storytelling craft. Ideal for leadership offsites and conferences tackling change management or resilience.
The Future is Biased: What equality looks like in the age of AI
Artificial intelligence is being built into hiring, healthcare, finance and leadership decisions faster than almost anyone can keep pace with. As it goes, it is learning, embedding and amplifying human bias at scale, unless somebody intervenes. Jamila Rizvi cuts through both the hype and the panic to show exactly where AI puts decades of progress on gender equity and broader inclusion at risk, and how forward-thinking organisations can use this moment to build fairer systems from the ground up. Fast-moving, revealing and useful, it takes a subject most leaders find overwhelming and turns it into a clear opportunity to lead.The Future is Biased: What equality looks like in the age of AI
Key Takeaways:
- Bias in AI is a design choice. Organisations that bring diverse voices, data and lived experience into how they build and buy AI tools end up with smarter, more accurate systems.
- Practical ways AI can close workplace gaps: fairer hiring processes, smarter flexible-work systems, more equitable access to opportunity. AI adoption shifts from a risk to manage to an equity strategy to run.
- Why the organisations shaping how AI gets used now will set the terms of work for decades, and what curiosity and upskilling that asks of the people in the room.
- A fresh angle on the biggest conversation in Australian workplaces. Suits leadership summits, technology and innovation conferences, and inclusion-focused events.
Finding Purpose: What the brain tumour that nearly killed me taught me about living
At 31, Jamila Rizvi was diagnosed with a brain tumour. What followed was hospitals, surgeries, disability and a new dependence on other people. She had assumed, perhaps naively, that the crisis would hand her a grand revelation about who she was and what her life was for. It didn't. In this warm, funny and disarmingly honest Keynote, Jamila shares her search for meaning with real generosity, and turns what she learned into a set of simple, surprising questions any audience member can use to find their own. Audiences leave moved by the story and clearer about what matters to them at work and beyond.Finding Purpose: What the brain tumour that nearly killed me taught me about living
Key Takeaways:
- Managing through uncertainty builds capability. Teams and individuals who can sit with not-knowing adapt fastest and find new strengths when circumstances change.
- Purpose as an everyday practice built from small, intentional choices, available to every employee rather than a gift for the lucky few.
- Permission to talk openly about what energises people at work, which builds trust and strengthens teams rather than only individuals.
- Works as a standalone Keynote or as a reflective close to a major event, sending audiences back to their work reconnected to why they do it.
Not Just Lucky: Why women do the work but don't get the credit
Ask a room of accomplished women how they got there and the same word comes back: lucky. Jamila Rizvi has spent years examining why, and luck has nothing to do with it. Luck is cover for a habit of self-deflection that caps how far talented women let themselves go. In this whip-smart, funny and moving Keynote, Jamila unpacks the hidden confidence gap holding women back and hands every woman in the room a practical way to close it. Audiences leave laughing, recognising themselves, and ready to back their own achievements out loud.Not Just Lucky: Why women do the work but don't get the credit
Key Takeaways:
- Confidence is a trainable skill. Once women understand why self-doubt shows up, they can build it deliberately, using a tool they can apply the same week.
- Clearer self-advocacy from talented women means stronger internal pipelines, better succession planning, and less unclaimed potential sitting inside the organisation.
- Reframing "I was lucky" as "I earned this" changes which roles people put their hand up for, with flow-on effects for retention and advancement.
- Positive and forward-looking, with employers positioned as part of the solution rather than the problem. A natural centrepiece for International Women's Day and women's leadership programs.
- Lands with junior employees and senior leaders in the same room, which makes it a safe choice for a whole-of-organisation audience.
Hidden Inequalities: Opportunities to make work fairer for everyone
We assumed the march towards equality only ever moved forward. Instead, across the world, hard-won gains for women and for other groups long denied opportunity are being clawed back. The obvious barriers at work have gone. The hidden ones remain, and they still shape who gets hired, promoted, heard and paid. Jamila Rizvi uses gender as the lens into a much bigger story about how workplaces decide whose contribution counts, and makes an evidence-based case that real equality is still achievable when organisations act with intention.Hidden Inequalities: Opportunities to make work fairer for everyone
Key Takeaways:
- Where the hidden barriers actually sit, so effort goes into changes that shift outcomes rather than performative diversity and inclusion gestures.
- How unpaid labour, caring responsibilities and gendered career choices get discounted at work, and what that means for the people carrying them.
- Why optimism works as a strategic asset. Organisations that believe equality is achievable, and act like it, see the difference in engagement and retention.
- An entry point through gender that broadens to land with audiences regardless of background. Strong fit for International Women's Day, inclusion events and leadership offsites.
What Next for Gender Equity, When Boys are Falling Behind?
Boys and young men are growing up inside a rising tide of algorithm-fed resentment, confusing messaging and real economic anxiety. Influencers feed their egos, telling them gender equality has gone too far, while chasing the likes, clicks and cash that come with saying so. Meanwhile boys are struggling at school, losing connection to their communities and becoming more isolated. Feminist and mother of a son, Jamila Rizvi takes the issue on directly: where male anger comes from, how boys are being manipulated online, and what a hopeful modern masculinity could look like. This is her rallying cry for a bigger, more inclusive conversation about gender, one where boys can be themselves, men can feel hopeful, and women stay safe.What Next for Gender Equity, When Boys are Falling Behind?
Key Takeaways:
- What is driving disengagement among boys and young men, and what that means for leaders supporting and retaining the next generation entering the workforce.
- Healthy models of masculinity as a safety and culture dividend. Workplaces where men can seek support and take varied paths benefit every employee.
- A way to frame gender equity as a collective project rather than competing interests, turning a potentially divisive topic into culture-building work.
- Suits International Women's Day events reaching mixed-gender audiences, education and parenting conferences, and all-staff culture days.
Master of Ceremonies & Event Host
Jamila Rizvi is a bubbly, confident and experienced Master of Ceremonies. She has infectious energy that captures an audience’s attention, putting them and fellow presenters at ease. Jamila drives an event towards its goal, keeping the mood in the room upbeat and focused. She both thoroughly prepares to be an MC, while accepting that everything can change in the moment. Jamila is flexible to the evolving needs of the client, anticipates problems and is adept at improvising.Master of Ceremonies & Event Host
Jamila has an outstanding command of language and excellent general knowledge of current affairs, public policy, corporate Australia and pop culture. This makes her a comfortable and curious interviewer who facilitates surprising, delightful, and informative conversations. Jamila is a warm, funny, and approachable host who brings a sense of fun and purpose to every event.
High-Profile Interviews & On-Stage Conversations
Jamila Rizvi is an experienced interviewer and on stage facilitator known for her meticulous preparation and calm, audience first approach to high profile conversations. She goes well beyond surface research, identifying patterns, gaps, and defining moments in a subject’s public record to shape interviews that feel thoughtful, original, and purposeful rather than rehearsed. High-Profile Interviews & On-Stage Conversations
Jamila structures conversations around clear themes and flow, ensuring audiences hear both the stories they expect and insights that genuinely surprise. Her focus is not interrogation, but trust building, creating space for senior leaders, changemakers, and public figures to share their perspectives with clarity and confidence. The result is conversations that feel human, intelligent, and deeply engaging, leaving audiences with a stronger understanding of the person and the issues that matter.
Video
Jamila Rizvi | UN Women Australia | International Women's Day Keynote
Author, speaker and equality campaigner, Jamila Rizvi, speaks at UN Women Australia's International Women's Day Melbourne Lunch. Jamila Rizvi is Chief Creative Officer for Nine’s Future Women and a best-selling author for adults and children. She is an opinion columnist for The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, Good Weekend and Sunday Life. Jamila also co-hosts two podcasts, The Briefing and Anonymous Was A Woman. She has advised governments at the highest levels on gender equality, child care, media and employment. She was named in the Australian Financial Review’s 100 Women of Influence and is a 2020 Women and Leadership Australia award winner. Jamila is an ambassador for CARE Australia and the Royal Melbourne Hospital Neuroscience FoundationJamila Rizvi - What aspects of your identity have you held onto for too long? The Imperfects
Jamila Rizvi has not been the perfect sick person. When Jamila was last in our studio, she was deep in the grief stage. Jamila’s life had been irrevocably changed by the imposition of a brain tumour, and the myriad of health complications due to surgery. To put it simply, Jamila didn’t know who Jamila was anymore, and that terrified her. This week, in the Vulnerabilitea House, Jamila answers the questions “what aspects of your identity have you held onto for too long?” The drip-fed loss of cognitive functions and a new hormone condition which made her constantly starving, Jamila felt like her body and mind were no longer her own. Speaking to Hugh, Josh, and Ryan really honestly, Jamila opens up about her eating disorder during this time; how it impacted her sense of self, her relationships, and ability to connect.Jamila Rizvi & Rosie Waterland: How Physical & Mental Health Illness Experiences Can Overlap
Jamila Rizvi & Rosie Waterland have taken their personal pain and come together to write their book, Broken Brains, to help others get through the toughest of times, and they tell us how their different experiences with physical and mental health overlapped in surprising ways.Audio
Jamila is an exceptional speaker. She has such a presence on the stage and speaks to content that is well ahead of the current conversation. I would go as far as to say that she is a gender ... keep reading Women and Leadership Australia
Jamila was incredibly professional and lovely to deal with. Feedback from IWD surveys was universally positive and received highest satisfaction rating. Some feedback from participants: " most relevant speaker content for todays world." "Jamila was phenomenal, delivering a powerful and thought-provoking message that resonated with everyone in attendance. Her insights and passion set the tone for a day of inspiration and encouragement."
It was an absolute pleasure to work with Jamila as emcee of our virtual conference. She brought humour and sincerity in equal measure, and was so calm and composed when the tech inevitably went wrong. We're grateful to have had the opportunity to work with Jamila and look forward to working together in the future. A superstar and 100% recommended.
We have received great feedback from event attendees with people seeming to have been very genuinely moved by her presentation. Jamila delivered a profound yet down-to-earth presentation, that was supported by loads of data and statistics but presented in a way that was very approachable and thoroughly absorbing.
Jamila is one of the most impressive, articulate speakers and creative thinkers. She is warm, engaging and utterly at ease, whether it be interviewing Julia Gillard or talking vajazzling in Sydney Town Hall alongside Ruby Wax.
If you want to start a movement you need someone with energy and warmth to get the ball rolling. You need someone who is genuine, intelligent and kind. Jamila Rizvi takes the energy in the room, shape shifts it right along until you have an united community of leaders with fire in their belly. Jamila is a quite extraordinary and informed speaker.
Funny, inspiring, relevant - Jamila brought all these qualities to her role as MC. In fact she was so good, more than one attendee suggested that she should deliver the 2017 Lecture!
Jamila arrived with a profound understanding of our business and event objectives. She was warm and approachable, with a genuine interest and passion for the product, and this made her presence well received by influencers and vendors alike.
Jamila was a pleasure to work with. She could pivot quickly and engaged the audience very well.
