Liana Downey

Liana Downey is an internationally acclaimed strategy advisor, author and speaker dedicated to creating social change.

As the CEO of Liana Downey & Associates, Liana leads a high performing global team that helps leaders increase focus and change lives. Clients include social enterprises, non profits and federal, state and city governments, such as Speak up Africa, Community Solutions, the Nature Conservancy and the NYC Education Department. 

Liana is the author of Mission Control: How Nonprofits and Governments Can Focus, Achieve More and Change the World--which Publisher's Weekly called "Invaluable...the ultimate get a move on guide for nonprofits"

Previously, led the Australian social and public sector practices of McKinsey & Company, taught leadership at NYU's Wagner Graduate School of Public Management and was an special advisor to the Australian Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Liana holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business (Arjay Miller Scholar).

Praise for Liana Downey:

"Liana's natural and approachable style pair powerfully with her depth of experience and skills to make her a remarkable speaker."

Jules Flynn, CEO Citibike NYC

"Liana is a highly articulate, compelling and engaging presenter. She invests time in understanding her audience, tailoring her material, and creates warm, vibrant and inclusive discussions. I would have no hesitation recommending her for your next meeting or event."

Dr. James Slezak, Director of Strategy, New York Times

 "Liana is a rare talent, she's a wonderfully warm and personable speaker, using her real life experiences to create genuine positive change in both corporate and charitable organizations."

Giovanni Donaldson, Managing Director, Sinergia Capital Limited, 

"Liana invested a lot of time in getting to know our team at NYC Education, to help us tackle some important and difficult conversations. She was tactful and sensitive, and able to facilitate broad participation. She is an engaging and articulate presenter, and found multiple ways to challenge people's thinking and pushed toward new ideas, with warmth and integrity. I highly recommend her for your next workshop or meeting."

Joshua Thomases, Chief Innovation Officer, Bank Street Education

"Liana is an expert facilitator with a unique ability to engage and direct diverse stake holders toward consensus. Her clarity of thought and capacity to distill complex situations into a set of digestible and actionable priorities is unparalleled. Liana is often the first person I call when faced with a challenging or pivotal decision. Her calm, measured approach to every project, no matter the urgency, helps everyone to contribute their best work."

Allyson Crawford, Executive Director, Room to Grow, New York

"Liana Downey is a masterful facilitator. She has a natural ability to allow conversations to flow as necessary, while still ensuring the conversations lead to productive dialogues. Because of this keen sensitivity to the audience she is engaging with, Liana provokes thoughtful, meaningful and actionable discussions."

Nadine Maleh, Director, Institute for Public Architecture

"I have had the pleasure of seeing Liana speak many times to public audiences, big and small, and as a trainer.  Whether it is conveying complex messages in a simple and understandable fashion or motivating a team to rise to their best, she is confident and likeable, and with a skill for relating to a variety of different audiences.  Over the many years that I have known her, Liana has managed to weave her personal growth and experiences into her public speaking, tailoring it to the objectives of the meeting rather than delivering the same threadworn jokes that many other speakers do.  I have no hesitation in recommending her."

Matthew Wai-Poi, Senior Economist, Poverty Global Practice, World Bank; Senior Advisor and Socio-economic Policy Director at Ideas Indonesia

"Liana speaks with clarity and poise in whatever situation she finds herself. I have seen her speak under many different circumstances, from running classes and tutorials for groups as small as ten, through to presenting lectures to a room of three hundred. In each case Liana remolded her presentation techniques in ways that engaged with the people in the room, conveyed her information effectively and fulfilled the needs of her varied audiences."

Craig Garrett, Communications Specialist and Researcher

at Griffith University, Australia

"Liana has a unique and marvelous combination of inviting warmth and keen humor when she presents. Her style brings you into subjects, sometimes incredibly complex, with a sense of great ease and enjoyment. I recommend her very highly."

Kate Clement, CEO, Biodanza Australia

"I had the privilege of watching Liana present to, or train, many small and large groups across her time at McKinsey.  She is one of those rare individuals on a stage or at the front of a room who are warm and entertaining, but able to use this to deliver real insight to her audience.  Most importantly she has a unique gift in provoking thought and engagement in her audience, by leading individuals and group on a journey.  She is quite simply, a smart and special storyteller."

Katrina Barry,Managing Director, Contiki Holidays

"As a Director and McKinsey and Company's Australian office I worked extensively with Liana Downey. I had the privilege of seeing Liana present on multiple occasions to large and very senior audiences (including multiple board members and CEOs) in politically charged political environments as part of a major road show we conducted together. I was deeply impressed by her ability to (i) pull together a compelling story and sharply articulate the main findings of our work (ii) navigate and command the audience in an impressive way and (iii) answer tricky questions from the audience in a compelling way."

Dr. Stephan Goerner, Director, McKinsey & Company

"Liana has a natural ability to command authority and engage an audience."

Dedric Lam, CEO Asia-Pacific and Middle East, DataCenter Dynamics

 "I have enjoyed hearing Liana speak many times, and have always found her to be thoughtful and engaging.  She is able to make complicated concepts easily relatable, and is always sure to clearly deliver her message.  Her personal and professional experiences have broad applicability and can offer insight to any organization.  Additionally, her wit and humor are able to bring audiences into her subjects in unexpected ways."

Matthew Spanjers, Chief Development Officer at Caribou Coffee

"Liana Downey engages an audience with her sincerity, warm humor and compelling ideas and insights. She speaks from the heart and connects with people from all ages and backgrounds. She is also a delight to work with!"

Penny Brown, Associate Dean, AIS Leadership Centre, Australia.