As the leader of Changemakers Keynote Experiences, Ryan is a highly experienced communications coach. Ryan plays an active role in every aspect of what we do, from co-creating and delivering keynote experiences to leading workshops and courses.

Ryan spent 11 years as the head coach of the speech team at Northwestern University where he coached 33 combined team and individual national championships. He is the record holder for the most Division 1 Team National Championships coached in the history of collegiate competitive speaking. All of the changemakers below were once competitors on those historic Northwestern University Speech Teams.

After leaving Northwestern, he went on a search to understand what it was that was so unique about his teams and how that formula could be replicated for others. He has interviewed leaders at some of the world’s largest companies, studied championship teams across the world of competition, and even completed certifications in Strategy Execution from Harvard, Organizational Design for Digital Transformation from MIT, and Experience Design from Kaospilot. This, combined with his academic and coaching experience have grounded him in a unique perspective on how individuals and teams reach their absolute best. His keynote experiences teach others how do to the same while incorporating many of the same techniques for entertaining and engaging audiences that allowed his teams to win. He typically joins on stage at some point for all Changemakers Keynote Experiences.

While at Northwestern, he won excellence in teaching awards for his time teaching graduate and undergraduate students in the School of Communication and for teaching workshops in Strategic Communication in the Kellogg School of Business.

As an academic, his published works range across the field of communication, including leadership communication, crisis communication, small group communication, team communication, persuasion, limited preparation speaking, public speaking, storytelling, narrative, performance, communicating vision, and numerous others.

In 2017, he founded the National Speech Championship, the first widely supported national tournament of it’s kind in over fifty years. He has since led this event with over one hundred colleges and universities participating. In 2017, he was also voted national coach of the year.

Since his time at Northwestern, Ryan has continued his work as a private communication consultant, working with CEO’s, law firm partners, professional musicians, political advisors, and numerous others. To date, he has provided professional feedback to over 20,000 presentations.

Ryan’s ideas and works have been discussed in Forbes, CNN, The Boston Globe, Newsy, Voice of America, The Singapore Straits Times, and dozens of local publications across the U.S.