MEET THE ALPHA WOOLF
Lauren Woolf, founder of MRS WOOLF, is driven by her passion for the business of creativity. She has a career in advertising, marketing and business consulting that spans over 20 years, including leadership roles at Ogilvy, British American Tobacco, and in the marketing services company she started then sold in Switzerland; Antipod. Her last corporate role before starting her entrepreneurial journey consulting as the Alpha Woolf, was that of Chief Marketing & People Officer for Ogilvy South Africa.
In 2017, Lauren received an Executive MBA through The Berlin School of Creative Leadership and Innovation. Her Masters Thesis explored the paradoxical lack of organisational marketing and creativity within creative companies. She’s a lifelong learner and currently enrolled at UC Berkeley for a course on Artificial Intelligence for Strategy and Application.
Her professional experience and special interest into how creativity and innovation impact organisational growth, has led her into a career working with companies that either have or strive for creativity as a key tool for growth.
Supported by a Woolf Pack of talent around the world, Lauren is based in Auckland, New Zealand.
Recent mandates include CMO-on-Call for NZ’s iconic fashion brand, SABEN; marketing and audience engagement lead for Auckland-based arts eco-system, DEPOT; leading the global NZ Tech & Innovation Story design implementation project, consulting on a global digital asset project for GLORIOUS DIGITAL and multiple strategy, design and facilitation projects for clients in the USA, New Zealand, UK and South Africa.
Lauren is a respected keynote speaker and workshop facilitator. Themes are curated around creativity, leadership, tech, art and social impact.
When she’s out-of-her-office, she can be found on the advisory board for yWhales, a USA-based corporate helping leaders and companies transition from Web 2 to 3 as well as on the NZ exco for YPO.
As an active member of global creative communities, Lauren is a marketing mentor to Youth Arts New Zealand (YANZ), patron and mentor of the Artists Proof Studio (APS) and a business mentor for Business Arts South Africa (BASA) .
In 2020, she co-founded The Lockdown Collection, an innovative art initiative founded to capture the historic Covid-19 lockdown and support vulnerable artists through the sale of contemporary African works around the world.
LAUREN WOOLF // SPEAKER & FACILITATOR
You can book Lauren as a keynote speaker and/or workshop facilitator. Topics and themes enjoyed by previous audiences:
CREATIVITY & CREATIVE LEADERSHIP
Creative Leadership || What it means to lead with one of the top skillsets of the future.
Designing a Personal Learning Network || What are you paying attention to?
Lessons for Leadership from a global Creative MBA.
The Creativity of Business: How Creativity grows Business.
The Business of Creativity: How to market a creative business - and why?
TECHNOLOGY & CREATIVITY
Welcome to the Future || You’re never too old to learn something new.
WAGMI* = We All Gonna Make It. The future and what we can expect.
WHY ART MATTERS
Why Art is worth collecting?
THE LOCKDOWN COLLECTION: THE ART OF GIVING (Launching a new brand virtually, during COVID lockdown, in 48 Hours - and why it was a sell-out)
LAUREN HAS BEEN AN INVITED SPEAKER AT MULTIPLE COMPANIES, EVENTS AND FORUMS:
COMMENTS AND REVIEWS
BUDDY
“If you’re looking to unlock creativity and create connection, Mrs Woolf is a must-have for your next workshop or event. Her original takes, inspiring content and engaging facilitation style made sure everyone got value out of the session.”
Lisa Kagen,
Co-Founder, BUDDY
TECH FOR GOOD | AUCKLAND
“Creative. Engaging. Inspiring: It's hard to sum up the incredible energy Lauren exudes!”
We had the great pleasure of welcoming Lauren to the Tech for Good NZ stage to share her deep dive into the fascinating world of Web3. Our community was enamoured, informed and inspired by Lauren. She is brilliant to work with, and I cannot recommend her more highly.
Samantha Taylor,
Navigator, Tech for Good NZ
OLD MUTUAL INVESTMENT GROUP
“Thank you for guiding us to embrace new thoughts and realities, you've demonstrated the importance of stepping out of our echo chambers. Fostering diverse content consumption, both online and offline, is crucial, and your emphasis on designing transformative personal learning networks is a testament to that. Grateful for your partnership and the ways in which you challenge and elevate our thinking. Here's to many more collaborations! .
Wendy Bergsteedt,
Head of Marketing, Old Mutual Investment Group
CREATIVE MORNINGS | AUCKLAND
“Lauren Woolf was the featured speaker of our Creative Mornings May ‘22 event, and shared her experience as a co-founder of The Lockdown Collection (TLC). Lauren was extremely enjoyable and professional to collaborate with, and shaped a keynote that deeply resonated with our community of creatives. Lauren is an engaging, inspiring and informative speaker, who leaves the audience feeling motivated and ready to take action. The Auckland creative community is lucky to have Lauren amongst us, and I look forward to seeing her at many more events in future!”
Laura Kerrison,
Chapter Chair, Creative Mornings Auckland
LADIES WINE & DESIGN
"Lauren Woolf was our guest speaker for our Ladies Wine & Design (Cape Town chapter) where she shared her insightful research into the future of creative leadership. Lauren is a total creative champion and a real force for women everywhere. It was an honour to have her speak at our event, our ladies left feeling so inspired - we can't thank her enough.”
Wendy Dixon & Mel Cook,
Leaders of the Cape Town Chapter of Ladies, Wine & Design
SUITS & SNEAKERS
“Lauren Woolf has spoken at two different Suits & Sneakers events and she has been absolutely brilliant both times. I am a massive fan of Lauren’s work which is why I asked her to speak. Her stage presence exudes elegance and her articulation of creativity and leadership is unique. But don’t just take my word for it. After every event, we always ask our attendees to review our speakers and both time, Lauren was an absolute fan favourite. I can’t speak highly enough of Lauren and any event that has her on stage is the better for it!”
Mark Sham
Founder & CEO of Suits & Sneakers
KING JAMES GROUP/ACCENTURE INTERACTIVE
“We were lucky enough to have Lauren Woolf spend some time with our people, across the King James Group, sharing her experiences and thesis insights. Lauren is one of the unique talents in our industry that doesn’t fit a single mould. She moves effortlessly between being a super-smart business brain to a champion of creativity and ideas that can change our world.
Tabatha King,
Head of Talent
APPLE SA
"Lauren was our keynote speaker at the launch of the Edtech Women’s breakfast club. A forum for South African women transforming education through technology. Her brief was to inspire and to share insights that our delegates could use to bring creativity to their lives, their businesses and education institutions . She delivered more than 100%. Her topic was Living, Learning and Leading for Creativity. Her presentation was sincere, her messaging inspirational and her insights relevant. The feedback from the audience was overwhelmingly positive.“
Michelle Lissoos,
Managing Director, Think Ahead (Core Group/Apple SA Education Partners)
BUSINESS OF DESIGN
“Lauren was one of the speakers at our annual Business of Design conference. In her self-assured and dynamic way, she struck a chord with many of our delegates who have been struggling to find the balance between creativity and design generation, and business acumen and leading their small-business teams. Lauren illustrated creative thinking's essential role in business, showing how it can be adapted according to needs and personalities. By demonstrating how innovative marketing produces commercial results, she motivated our delegates to go out and take action in promoting their own enterprises. As a result of her talk, she was inundated with delegates trying to get five minutes with her during networking drinks. She really is an asset to the South African creative community; one of the few who know how to link up design thinking with business - and obtain results!”
Tracy Lynn Chemaly
Program Director
