Travels from New York, USA
Casey Gerald's speaking fee falls within range: $25,000 to $30,000
As CEO and Co-founder of MBAs Across America, Casey Gerald has spent his recent years helping young entrepreneurs use their businesses to solve their communities’ problems and revitalize the nation at a grassroots level. Named one of the “Most Creative People in Business,” Gerald is driving a movement to make purpose and doing good business’s bottom line.
While studying at Harvard Business School, Gerald and his friends wondered what would happen if, instead of “marching off in pinstripe suits to slave away in a cubicle,” they set out to the heart of America to put their MBA educations to work helping social entrepreneurs. The result was MBAs Across America and a simple but vital message: There’s a new way of changing the world, and each of us has a part to play.
The message went viral when Gerald put it at the center of his 2014 commencement speech for Harvard University. With his 2016 TED Talk and SXSW keynote generating a massive emotional response, Gerald continues to inspire people to stop waiting for permission from institutions or authority figures and take it upon themselves to act within their communities to create a country where everyone has a shot.
He has witnessed every facet of the American Dream — from his harrowing childhood in Texas, to his tenure at the heights of America’s elite institutions, and to his journeys through the cities and towns of the American heartland where he has spent his recent years as cofounder and CEO of MBAs Across America.
Casey began his career in economic policy and government innovation at the Center for American Progress, and has worked as a strategist with startup social ventures such as The Future Project, as well as companies like The Neiman Marcus Group.
Born and raised in Dallas, Casey received an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he delivered the 2014 commencement address, and a BA in Political Science from Yale College. He has been featured on MSNBC, in the New York Times, Financial Times, The Guardian, and has appeared on the cover of Fast Company, which also named him one of the “Most Creative People in Business”. He currently serves on the advisory board of NPR’s Generation Listen.
From waiting for the Second Coming of Jesus on New Year's Eve 1999 to the promise that Barack Obama's 2008 election would usher in change, Casey Gerald recounts how time and time again the external forces he believed in have failed to deliver. Taking the audience on a roller coaster of emotions, he highlights the events and unjustifiable inequality he's seen in the past twenty years that have caused him to question his beliefs as he challenges us to embrace "the Gospel of doubt."
The Gospel of doubt, he explains, does not mean we can no longer believe, but rather, that we should examine the validity of the answers that society, government, religion, and other institutions have told us, The Gospel of doubt, in his words "raises the question, 'Why?' With all the power that we hold in our hands, why are people still suffering so bad?" It is Gerald's hope that by embracing this Gospel, we can direct our attention to the big problems of our time and find new ways within our own power to solve them.
Called the voice of a generation, Casey Gerald is a riveting story teller on a mission for social justice. His heartfelt presentations on the disconnect between business, America’s 1%, and our most dire real world problems strike a nerve that will keep the conversation going long after his presentation’s conclusion.
Gerald highlights how networks have disrupted hierarchy and allowed us to become entrepreneurs who do not need to wait for permission from authorities. Equipped with hundreds of case stories from his own travels with MBAs across America, he makes the case that doing good over doing well will wake a dying world from its slumber and bring about a recalibration driven by creativity and the people who practice it.
Purpose Is the New Bottom Line After graduating from Harvard Business school, Casey Gerald and his friends wondered what would happen if, instead of “marching off in pinstripe suits to slave away in a cubicle,” they set out to the heart of America to put their MBAs to work helping entrepreneurs. The result is MBAs Across America, whose message is simple but vital: There’s a new way of changing the world, and each of us has a part to play. In this talk, Gerald shares his story and gives us the three aspects of this “New Playbook of Change.”
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“The most electrifying speaker of our generation.”
– Adam Grant, Wharton Professor, Author of Originals & Give and Take
“Casey has lived the breathtaking fullness of America. He is a real-life Forrest Gump — oh, and he’s not yet 30. His sonorous voice, on the page and the stage, will be a bugle call for his generation, and for the rest of us.” — Anand Giridharadas
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