Filter by:

The Lavin Agency Speakers Bureau

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

Stephanie Mehta

Any company can become a Fast Company by pushing their creative boundaries.

CEO of Mansueto Ventures | Former Editor-in-Chief of Fast Company

Now Playing

Why Innovating Your Process Matters (4:30)

Now Playing

AI Will Put a Premium on Creativity

Now Playing

Three Strategies for Encouraging People’s Best Ideas

Now Playing

Reflecting Brand Authenticity

Lavin Exclusive Speaker

The world is changing quickly, and if we want to succeed, we need to move even faster. STEPHANIE MEHTA will help us step on the gas. She was the Editor-in-Chief of Fast Company, the most influential business magazine of its generation, naming the most innovative, creative, forward-thinking companies on the planet. Stephanie has the most unique and savvy view on business in America, and she’ll show you how to prepare your company for the pace of the future: like utilizing generative AI like ChatGPT to make your business more productive. It’s not just about learning how to deal with disruption—it’s how to build disruption into everything you do.

Whether she’s investigating the prodigious rise of Silicon Valley, the domino effect of technology on our lives, or what makes a workplace truly innovative in the post-pandemic world, Stephanie Mehta has her finger on the pulse. With over twenty-five years of experience in business journalism, Mehta first served as editor-in-chief of Fast Company—the publication that businesses all over the world turn to for inspiration and guidance—before being promoted to CEO of its parent company Mansueto Ventures (which also publishes Inc.). The magazine has a storied history of eschewing traditionalism, rules, and the “old way” of doing things, instead showcasing the people, teams, and organizations inventing the future of business. Today, the company operates a number of franchises that highlight the world’s most progressive leaders and companies, including “Most Creative People,” “Most Innovative Companies,” and “World Changing Ideas.”

With a prolific career that includes long-term posts at Vanity Fair, Fortune, Bloomberg LIVE and The Wall Street Journal, Mehta has come to value a human-centered approach to her work, modeled by her commitment to thoughtful storytelling. “[Businesses] are part of an ecosystem that includes more than just their shareholders—they are part of communities, they have employees and customers,” Mehta explains. In her dynamic keynotes, she draws on those stories to show the next generation of business leaders how to push creative boundaries, nurture a radical vision, and make innovation happen.

Prior to Fast Company, Mehta was Deputy Editor at Vanity Fair, where she coedited the influential New Establishment ranking, curated the New Establishment Summit, and oversaw the Founders Fair conference for women entrepreneurs. Previously, she was editor of Bloomberg LIVE, and Bloomberg Media’s global conference division. Mehta spent 14 years as a writer and editor at Fortune, where she rose to the No. 2 position on the masthead. While at Fortune, she directed the magazine’s technology, management, Washington, and international coverage, and helped set its overall editorial direction. Mehta also spent six years as an editor and writer at The Wall Street Journal. She received a BA in English and an MS in journalism from Northwestern University.

Testimonials

Stephanie Mehta was dazzling, diving deep into her expertise to drive genuinely insightful, relevant, and current insights into current business trends. It was as if she held up a mirror to the audience and made them see themselves differently, but did so in the most engaging way possible. She also customized her presentation to her audience and was an absolute delight to work with behind the scenes. She was terrific!

BOMA Canada

Lavin Exclusive Speakers

Angela Duckworth

Grit, more than talent, IQ, looks, or wealth, is a powerful indicator of success.

Nikole Hannah-Jones

There isn’t a beat you can cover in America—education, housing—where race is not a factor.

Greg Hoffman

Great brands don’t simply reach customers: they create real emotional bonds with them.

Heather McGhee

Racism has a cost for everyone—but there are ways we can prosper together.

George M. Johnson

Stories of queer identity and Black joy have the power to educate us on diversity, inspire social justice activism, and build community.

Speech Topics

Corporate Culture

The "Next" NormalCreating the Workplace After Tomorrow

For all the focus on the “new normal” of work as businesses start to reopen, the greatest innovators in design, technology, and workplace leadership are thinking about the next normal—a world in which flexibility and resilience are the coins of the realm. Fast Company editor-in-chief Stephanie Mehta speaks to the design firms, Silicon Valley innovators, digital transformation experts, and creatives who are creating the workplace after tomorrow to find out exactly what it entails.

In this information-packed session, Mehta considers how the physical footprint of offices and work campuses will change and evolve; the far-reaching impacts of the grand remote work experiment of 2020; and how we can best manage hybrid teams made up of a some remote and some in-person workers. Perhaps most importantly, Mehta addresses the underlying question of how a “next normal” mentality will set leaders up to deal with future pandemics and business interruptions.

Innovation

Building an Innovative Culture7 Ways to Make Your Company Faster

Fast Company Editor-in-Chief Stephanie Mehta spends time with the entrepreneurs and inventors who are transforming business at dizzying speeds. She also knows, from her years interviewing the chieftains of the biggest corporations in the world as an editor at Fortune and The Wall Street Journal, that big organizations are working hard to inject their cultures and processes with entrepreneurial and innovative zeal. A natural storyteller, Mehta provides a lively, anecdote-filled roadmap that offers executives practical, actionable insights on how they can make any department or company a fast company.

Innovation

Rules are Meant to be BrokenSecrets of the Most Creative People in Business

When the robots come to take our jobs, what skills will matter most? Machines are capable of outmaneuvering humans at almost anything; they can even teach themselves to play strategy games like chess and Go. But, to paraphrase superagent Ari Emanuel: “Find me the machine that can think like Larry David.” The future, increasingly, belongs to creative thinkers whose brains don’t follow a traditional set of rules. Fast Company Editor-in-Chief Stephanie Mehta is the rare business editor who talks to pure creatives like Pharrell Williams and Kerry Washington and corporate leaders. Drawing on 10 years of Fast Company’s reporting on the Most Creative People in Business, Mehta explains how to bring a creative, rule-breaking mindset to any aspect of business, from engineering to marketing to forecasting and planning.