The Lavin Agency Speakers Bureau

A speakers bureau that represents the best original thinkers,
writers, and doers for speaking engagements.

Neil Hoyne

AI can generate a thousand moves. Strategy is knowing which one to make.

Chief Strategist at Google | Executive in Residence at UCLA | Author of Converted

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Lavin Exclusive Speaker

AI has transformed what companies can do. Deciding what’s worth doing is as hard as it has ever been. Neil Hoyne, Chief Strategist at Google, has spent years in rooms with CEOs, boards, and investors, studying how the world’s most successful leaders make decisions when the ground is shifting beneath them. His message is refreshingly practical: you don’t need perfect data or a perfect plan. The leaders pulling ahead rely on something simpler, and it’s the centerpiece of what Neil brings to the stage. Drawing on frameworks he’s applied with hundreds of Fortune 500 companies, Neil shows leaders how to separate real AI opportunities from expensive distractions and turn new technology into measurable growth.

“Neil is the best keynote I’ve ever seen. He’s a storytelling master, five-star rated speaker, author and someone who we’ll wholeheartedly continue to invite back.”—The Future of Marketing Conference

Over his 20-year career, Neil Hoyne has been at the forefront of worldwide strategies that have generated a staggering $6 billion in revenue for Google, and has helped the world’s biggest advertisers improve conversion rates by over 400%. With a unique perspective, he offers innovative guidance and teachings from other organizations so leaders can use the skills they already have—connecting people and processes—to contribute to data discussions in the boardroom.

In talks, Neil draws on that experience across strategy, digital transformation, decision-making, and behavioral science. Event organizers have called him “the best keynote I’ve ever seen,” a storyteller who holds a room from start to finish. Funny and free of jargon, he helps audiences understand what AI can do for their business right now: which bets rivals are placing, what to test first, and how to hold your own when the boardroom conversation turns to data. And because technology alone has never created growth, he brings every conversation back to what does: the strength of a company’s strategy and the people trusted to carry it out.

His insights also anchor his bestselling book Converted: The Data-Driven Way to Win Customers’ Hearts (Penguin Random House), a research-backed growth playbook for using data to identify your most valuable customers and build your business around them. Wharton marketing professor Peter Fader calls it “a wonderful guidebook on building profitable customer relationships,” and it has been translated into multiple editions worldwide. Neil’s writing and interviews have appeared in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, AdWeek, and McKinsey’s Author Talks series. His second book, Tournaments: Competing for a Meaningful Life, arrives in 2027.

Neil holds degrees from Purdue University and UCLA. A former Senior Fellow at the Wharton School, he continues to teach AI, data, and customer insights through Wharton Executive Education, and in 2026 joined UCLA as an Executive in Residence. He serves on the Purdue University Global Board of Trustees and advises companies and funds, including Prialto, Favikon, and CapitalG, Google’s investment fund.

Testimonials

One of the most interesting conversations we've ever had about AI and the future of AI. Absolutely brilliant.

London Business School

Testimonials

Neil Hoyne is a visionary strategist, and an engaging, compelling speaker. Neil combines an honest, no BS account of his business wins and losses along with thought-provoking insights into his personal beliefs about priorities and work-life balance. The audience is left wiser and energized while also wishing they could hit reset and immediately begin another session with him. Neil's impact as a speaker is undeniable.

The University of Tennessee

Testimonials

Neil is the best keynote I’ve ever seen. He captivates an audience through his wisdom, storytelling, and humorous anecdotes. We have invited Neil twice to keynote large thought leadership events. He keeps the audience engaged, with no slides needed. He’s a storytelling master, five-star rated speaker, author and someone who we’ll wholeheartedly continue to invite back.

The Future of Marketing Conference

Testimonials

Everyone was super impressed with Neil's keynotes—my colleagues who attended told me that "Neil was the highlight, he's insanely good at his job. Everyone loved him." Overall a big success. We're super happy we made it work.

Talon.One

Testimonials

Neil delivered a riveting and thought-provoking keynote at Customer Contact Week that provided invaluable insights on harnessing data to enhance customer engagement and foster organizational growth. His ability to clearly explain how an enriched understanding of data can radically shift strategic thinking for customer contact executives was simply remarkable.

Customer Management Practice

Testimonials

Neil Hoyne delivered big time as a SubSummit Keynote. He had the audience thoroughly engaged, and delivered actionable and inspiring take-aways. He was a pleasure to work with and extremely polished, professional, and down to earth.

Subscription Trade Association

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Chrystia Freeland

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Speech Topics

Artificial Intelligence

AI, Meet P&LBuilding an AI Strategy That Pays for Itself

Every company is under pressure to “do something” with AI. Far fewer can say what, exactly, it’s supposed to help them do. Neil Hoyne has watched company after company launch pilots that stall and buy tools that go unused, with AI strategies written to impress the board rather than move the numbers. He has also seen the exceptions, and pays close attention to what sets them apart.

In this talk, Neil skips the hype and shows how the companies getting real returns from AI decide where to start, what to measure, and when to walk away. Audiences leave with a sharper sense of what AI should and shouldn’t be doing for their business, and a way to tell the difference before the budget is spent.

Change Management

This Time Will Be DifferentWhat Separates Companies That Change from Companies That Talk About It

Neil Hoyne has had a front-row seat to hundreds of corporate transformations: digital, data, and now AI. Few failed for lack of budget or vision. The trouble usually started with something most leadership teams never saw coming. Neil shows what the organizations that actually change do differently, including how they choose their bets and what they do with the skeptics once the launch excitement fades. Leaders leave knowing where their own transformation is most at risk, and what the best companies do when they get there.

Leadership

Faster Than PerfectHow Great Leaders Decide When Certainty Isn't an Option

The most expensive decision a leader can make today is waiting for one more data point. Neil Hoyne has spent his career watching the best leaders act on incomplete information, taking smart risks without being reckless and moving while their competitors are still forming committees. And, drawing on that experience, he can show you exactly what to do to get ahead.

Candid and often very funny, this talk pairs spectacular wins with cautionary tales that rarely make the press, and gives leaders at every level the confidence to act on what they already know.

Marketing

ConvertedWinning Customers' Hearts in the Age of AI

AI keeps getting better at finding customers. But it can’t tell you which ones are worth keeping. Built on the ideas of his bestselling book, Converted, this session makes the case for the one advantage automation can’t replicate: knowing who your best customers are and what they’ll want next.

Neil shows why 80% of revenue comes from cultivating 20% of your customers, and how shifting from a transactional mindset to a relationship-based one changes everything about how you grow. Non-technical and immediately usable, this presentation offers a growth strategy built to outlast any single tool, one where AI works in service of customer relationships.