Ellen McGirt

Keynote Speaker | Editor-in-Chief, Design Observer

ELLEN McGIRT is an author, podcaster, speaker, community builder, and award-winning business journalist. She is the editor-in-chief of Design Observer, an independent media company that has maintained the same clear vision for more than two decades: to expand the definition of design in service of a better world. In a previous life, Ellen established the inclusive leadership beat at Fortune in 2016 with “raceAhead”, an award-winning newsletter on inclusion, race, culture, and business. The TIME, Money, and Fast Company alumna has published over twenty magazine cover stories throughout her twenty-year career, chronicling everything from the rise of social media to the new future of work. In 2024, she collaborated with two-time Peabody-nominated documentarians at Scene on Radio to co-host a thirteen-part podcast series on capitalism. Ask her about fly fishing if you get the chance.