Ambassador Kirsten Hillman

Speaking topics

Presentations listed below include in-person and virtual keynotes, as well as workshops, fireside chats, and other presentation formats.

• A New World Order: Global Trade, America First, and What It Means for You

  The global trading system that took decades to build has changed — dramatically and permanently. America First trade policies, escalating tariffs, and a fracturing multilateral order are not a passing storm. They are the new baseline, and waiting for things to return to the way they were isn’t a strategy.

  Ambassador Kirsten Hillman has spent three decades at the centre of global trade — as a negotiator, policy architect, and diplomat. She offers audiences a practical guide to the forces reshaping the global order, what they mean for their organization and sector, and where the opportunities lie within the disruption.

  Key takeaways include:

  • What America First trade policies are actually trying to achieve — and why the effects will outlast any single administration.
  • How the rules-based trading order is being reshaped, and what is emerging in its place.
  • Practical frameworks for navigating supply chain uncertainty, shifting partnerships, and policy volatility.

• Canada and the United States: Where We Are, Where We're Headed, and How We Get There

  Few people have navigated the Canada-U.S. relationship with the depth and continuity of Ambassador Kirsten Hillman. As one of Canada’s longest-serving ambassadors to the United States, she stewarded the bilateral relationship across three U.S. administrations, two Canadian governments, and the COVID-19 pandemic — serving as one of Canada’s foremost strategic voices in Washington.

  In this session, Hillman delivers a candid account of where the Canada-US relationship truly stands, what is driving its transformation, and what Canada must do to protect and advance its interests. She is honest about the challenges and purposeful about the path forward — combining insight from the diplomatic front lines with practical guidance on what leaders and organizations can do right now.

  Key takeaways include:

  • The current state of the Canada-U.S. relationship and the forces reshaping it.
  • Understanding the American political landscape and how Canada must engage across it.
  • The case for greater Canadian self-reliance — and what that looks like in practice.
  • A frank, forward-looking assessment of the opportunities available to Canada right now.

• Leading Through Volatility: Lessons from the Diplomatic Front Lines

  Over a 30-year career advising three Prime Ministers and leading some of Canada’s most complex diplomatic and policy challenges, Ambassador Kirsten Hillman has developed a clear conviction: no challenge, however large or high-stakes, is insurmountable when the right team is behind it.

  Hillman’s leadership philosophy is to conduct rather than command — establishing a clear, precise mission, creating and mobilizing great teams around it, and empowering them to deliver. By taking audiences inside those moments, she makes a compelling case for why the bigger the challenge, the more a diversity of skills becomes the decisive advantage. Audiences leave with tangible strategies for assembling, aligning, and inspiring teams to take on the most complex, high-stakes challenges — and win.

  Key takeaways include:

  • How to make the unmanageable manageable: Defining a mission that clarifies not only goals but boundaries, and breaking complex challenges into achievable pieces.
  • Building and mobilizing teams: How to bring together a diversity of skills and align them around a shared purpose.
  • The conductor model: Leading with direction and empowerment rather than command and control.
  • Building alliances and bridges across institutions, governments, and interests — including those that don’t share your starting point.

• Being a First and an Only: Women in Leadership

  Throughout her career — as a trade negotiator, senior diplomat, and the first woman ever appointed as Canada’s Ambassador to the United States — Ambassador Kirsten Hillman was frequently the first and often only woman in the room. Over the course of her career, she learned firsthand how to navigate those spaces, build authority, and get results.

  Hillman speaks candidly about her experience — what worked, what didn’t, and the hard-won lessons she carries with her today — offering women at every stage of their career an honest, practical perspective on forging their own path.