Leila Velez

Leila doesn't just talk about building great organizations — she built one from scratch, starting with less than $200 in a Rio de Janeiro favela, no business pedigree, no safety net, and every reason to fail. What followed was one of Latin America's most extraordinary entrepreneurial stories: 26 years at the helm of Beleza Natural, growing it from a single location into a $100M+ national brand with 4,000 employees, 120,000 monthly clients, and 55+ locations across five states — while simultaneously creating an entirely new market, dismantling beauty industry exclusion, and building one of Brazil's most admired workplace cultures. Leila speaks from that lived reality: the strategic decisions, the leadership failures, the operational breakthroughs, the fundraising battles, the culture-building work that never appears on a P&L but determines everything. Recognized by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader, honored with the Veuve Clicquot Business Women Award, named by Forbes Brazil as one of the eight entrepreneurs to follow, and featured on the covers of Exame and Americas Quarterly, she brings to every stage a rare combination of global credibility and radical authenticity. Her audiences — from MIT Sloan and Columbia Business School to the Milken Institute Global Conference, TEDx, YPO, and the Women's Forum for the Economy and Society — consistently describe her as the speaker who shifts something: the way they think about what's possible, the way they lead their teams, the way they face what looks impossible. Leila delivers more than a keynote. She delivers a perspective that stays with people long after they leave the room.