Mary Pat Knight is on a mission to develop more humanized leaders inside workplaces all over the world. She is the CEO and Founder of Leaders Inspired, a global training and development firm dedicated to personal and leadership transformation, and a speaker, author, coach, and consultant who is an expert in leadership and emotional intelligence.

Mary Pat’s 30-year career spans executive leadership positions in marketing, operations, strategic planning, human resources, management and employee development, and executive coaching. Her impact has been felt as the Director, Vice President, President, and Chief Operating Officer of multimillion-dollar companies. Her experiences have shown her how important it is for organizations to build engagement and retention by supporting leaders to show up as their most authentic selves, build strong relationships with those they lead, and create cultures of accountability.

Mary Pat based her book, The Humanized Leader, on her simple, yet powerful “Leadership Mastery” signature system that she practiced and perfected for 15 years while training, coaching, and mentoring thousands of corporate leaders to improve their emotional intelligence and become more effective leaders.

Her customized leadership development programs have transformed teams, inspired senior leaders, and improved the performance of corporate executives at the likes of organizations including BP, the U.S. Marines, MasterCard, Northwestern Mutual, Brinker International, the National Restaurant Association, the Conference for Companies Running on EOS(tm), FIM (the Female Integrators Mastermind), to name just a few.

Outside the workplace, Mary Pat learned a tremendous amount about communication and leadership – first as the oldest child / grandchild / niece / cousin in a second-generation immigrant Irish family, and later raising her three now-adult children as a single parent. Mary Pat’s first career as an actress also informed her understanding of how people think and act. She calls Chicago home.