Melissa Clark-Reynolds ONZM
Melissa equips organisations to anticipate change, embrace disruption, and innovate with confidence.
Melissa Clark-Reynolds ONZM is exclusively represented and managed by ODE Management for all keynote, workshop, MC and speaking engagements worldwide. ODE Management holds Melissa's diary and confirms all availability and fees for keynotes on futurism, strategic foresight and governance. Event organisers can book direct, and speaker bureaus can book on behalf of their clients.
To check availability, contact ODE Management on +61 2 9818 5199 (Asia Pacific) or +1 877 950 5633 (USA).
My speaker bio...
Melissa Clark-Reynolds is a street-smart futurist and tech entrepreneur who helps leaders cut through noise, tackle change head-on, and build clear pathways to tomorrow.
Trained by the Institute for the Future and appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the technology industry, she’s worked with everyone from Spark and IAG to NASA and Australian Pork, tackling everything from company strategy to digital disruption. Melissa brings principled insight and practical tools that help teams turn uncertainty into direction.
People often leave her sessions with their minds blown and their thinking reset — about risk, responsibility, and what to act on now. Whether she’s guiding a CEO through a tough transition or challenging a conference audience on the future of AI, Melissa is known for her grounded foresight and ability to call it like it is, with clarity and warmth.
Melissa was great at taking on feedback and continuing to iterate her presentation based on what was best received by the audience.
TradeMe Property
Melissa doesn't just leave people inspired, she leaves them thinking differently. One of the most valuable and inspiring keynote sessions our team has attended.
General Manager, Product Management, Brevil
She was incredibly easy to work with and down to earth.
Transporting New Zealand
Melissa was so thought provoking! We had so much positive feedback. She definitely set the conference off in high gear!
Executive Officer | NZ Ethical Employers
What a way for our conference to open - we couldn't have wished for better. Melissa Clark-Reynolds was outstanding - we couldn't have asked for more. Gut-wrenching emotion, laughter, tears, 'sudden intakes of breath'. Melissa touched the audience in so many ways.
CE, Lampenalectus Recruitment
My speaking topics...
Turning Signals into Strategy
How to spot the shifts reshaping your industry before your competitors do.
Every leadership team is reading the same headlines. Only a few act on what sits underneath them, and that gap is where market share is won and lost. The future may be uncertain, but it is not unknowable.
In this highly customised keynote, futurist Melissa Clark-Reynolds decodes the real signals shaping your sector right now and shows your team how to turn them into practical strategy. Audiences leave with foresight they can use in Monday's leadership meeting, not theory for someday.
Format: 50-minute keynote plus interactive session.
Audience: scales from boardroom to main stage.
Through this presentation, your audience will learn how to:
- Spot the shifts reshaping their market before competitors turn them into lost customers or missed revenue
- Tell a passing fad from a lasting shift, so time and investment go where they will actually pay off
- Turn the risks that feel most threatening into their next source of growth and advantage
- Apply practical futures thinking straight away, starting at their next leadership meeting
Watch me...
From Search to Advice
How AI is rewriting the customer journey, and what it means for your brand.
The sale is increasingly being made by an algorithm before your customer ever reaches you. Their first human interaction with your brand may not involve a human at all. Search now has an opinion, AI agents are starting to shop and compare on your customers' behalf, and the old funnel of awareness, consideration and loyalty is collapsing into milliseconds.
Futurist Melissa Clark-Reynolds maps what this shift means for marketing, sales and customer experience, and shows which businesses are pulling ahead. And for organisations not there yet, that is exactly why this session matters: they leave knowing where to start.
Format: 45 to 50-minute keynote plus Q&A.
Audience: Marketing, CX, Sales and Leadership.
Through this presentation, your audience will learn how to:
- Understand why customers may stop finding them the way they used to, and what to do about it
- Influence how AI tools describe and recommend their brand, so they are not left off the shortlist
- Get ahead of the AI shopping assistants now comparing and choosing on their customers' behalf
- Keep customer trust and loyalty as more of the buying journey happens without a human
Watch me...
What Keeps the Boardroom Up at Night
Signals for ANZ directors on the risks now landing on their desk.
The risk register just got a lot longer. Geopolitics, generational change, climate and AI are no longer someone else's problem, and the organisations getting caught out are the ones not yet reading the signals.
Futurist Melissa Clark-Reynolds helps ANZ directors read the horizon like a futurist, not a fire warden. This session puts the shocks that matter on the radar early, so directors can prepare while there is still time to act.
Format: 45-minute keynote, or a half-day governance session that works the signals into your board's own risk register.
Audience: Boards, NEDs and C-suite.
Through this presentation, your audience will learn how to:
- See how global instability could hit their supply chains, markets and costs, and prepare before it does
- Plan for an ageing population and shrinking workforce, and the talent and cost pressures they bring
- Treat climate as the financial and audit risk it has become, not just a sustainability line item
- Ask the AI questions the board should be raising now, before the risks land on their watch
Watch me...
Seeing Around Corners
Foresight is a leadership skill, not a crystal ball, and it can be taught.
The best leaders are not lucky. They have trained themselves to see what is coming. Foresight is not a gift reserved for a few; it is a discipline that can be built, rehearsed and made part of how a leadership team works.
Futurist Melissa Clark-Reynolds shows senior leaders how to scan for the signals that matter without drowning in noise, and how to build foresight into their normal operating rhythm. Organisations that practise it recover faster from shocks, and often see those shocks coming. Audiences leave with a practical foresight toolkit they can put to work immediately.
Closing provocation from Melissa: what have you stopped questioning because it has always been true?
Format: 45 to 50-minute keynote, or a full-day "Strategic Foresight for Leaders" workshop that builds the toolkit hands-on with your team.
Audience: Senior leaders, NEDs and strategy teams.
Through this presentation, your audience will learn how to:
- Build foresight into how the team works, so the business stops being caught off guard
- Cut through the noise to focus on the few signals that actually matter to their future
- Plan for several possible futures, so one wrong bet does not sink the strategy
- Spot the blind spots that cause even strong teams to miss change until it is too late
Watch me...
See me...
https://odemanagement.com/speakers/melissa-clark-reynolds#sigProIdd6453f5c95
Watch me...
Seeing Around Corners
Foresight is a leadership skill, not a crystal ball, and it can be taught. The best leaders are not lucky. They have trained themselves to see what is coming. Foresight is not a gift reserved for a few; it is a discipline that can be built, rehearsed and made part of how a leadership team works. Futurist Melissa Clark-Reynolds shows senior leaders how to scan for the signals that matter without drowning in noise, and how to build foresight into their normal operating rhythm. Organisations that practise it recover faster from shocks, and often see those shocks coming. Audiences leave… Read more +
What Keeps the Boardroom Up at Night
Signals for ANZ directors on the risks now landing on their desk. The risk register just got a lot longer. Geopolitics, generational change, climate and AI are no longer someone else's problem, and the organisations getting caught out are the ones not yet reading the signals. Futurist Melissa Clark-Reynolds helps ANZ directors read the horizon like a futurist, not a fire warden. This session puts the shocks that matter on the radar early, so directors can prepare while there is still time to act. Format: 45-minute keynote, or a half-day governance session that works the signals into your board's own… Read more +
From Search to Advice
How AI is rewriting the customer journey, and what it means for your brand. The sale is increasingly being made by an algorithm before your customer ever reaches you. Their first human interaction with your brand may not involve a human at all. Search now has an opinion, AI agents are starting to shop and compare on your customers' behalf, and the old funnel of awareness, consideration and loyalty is collapsing into milliseconds. Futurist Melissa Clark-Reynolds maps what this shift means for marketing, sales and customer experience, and shows which businesses are pulling ahead. And for organisations not there yet,… Read more +
How food became a battleground for identity, and what leaders can learn from it
Food is no longer just about nutrition. It is about identity, politics and gender. Futurist Melissa Clark-Reynolds ONZM reveals how cultural coding is reshaping consumer behaviour and what leaders in food, retail and marketing need to do about it. Read more +
Why Construction Leaders need a Futurist in the room
Construction is not immune to disruption. If anything, the forces reshaping business today — shifting labour markets, AI, supply chain volatility, and rapid changes in materials and energy — hit the built environment sector with particular force. The question is not whether change is coming. It is whether leaders are positioned to see it early enough to act. That is exactly where futurist and tech entrepreneur Melissa Clark-Reynolds ONZM comes in. Read more +
What 2026 Holds for Real Estate and Construction
Declining birth rates, geopolitical supply shocks, and interest rate volatility are reshaping real estate faster than most leaders realise. Futurist keynote speaker Melissa Clark-Reynolds ONZM helps property and construction professionals decode what's coming — and build strategies that turn uncertainty into competitive advantage. Read more +
The Cyber Security Challenges Shaping 2026
Cybersecurity is no longer just an IT issue. It's a leadership conversation about trust, ownership, and integrity in an AI-driven world. Melissa Clark-Reynolds ONZM brings 35 years of tech expertise to help organisations build the clarity and governance they need to lead with confidence. Read more +
Three Shifts Reshaping Health and Life Insurance
Futurist Melissa Clark-Reynolds ONZM identifies three critical shifts transforming health and life insurance: GLP-1 drugs, AI-powered search, and the widening affordability gap. Read more +
Turning Signals into Strategy: Futures Thinking for Today’s Educators
Education is being reshaped by waves of technological, cultural, and societal change. From the rise of artificial intelligence and digital disruption to shifting expectations around creativity, ownership, and trust, educators face an urgent question: how do we prepare students for a world we can’t fully predict? As a leading education futurist keynote speaker, Melissa Clark-Reynolds helps schools and universities navigate this uncertainty with clarity and confidence. Read more +
Leading When Nothing Is Certain: Why Melissa Clark-Reynolds is the Voice Every Modern Leader Needs to Hear
Futurist Melissa Clark-Reynolds delivers a powerful keynote on leading through uncertainty in an AI-disrupted world. With clarity, humour, and real-world insight, she equips leaders to rethink business models, embrace change, and stay human in a fast-moving future. Audiences leave inspired, informed, and ready to act. Perfect for leadership events, tech summits, and any organisation facing rapid transformation. Read more +
Turning Signals into Strategy
How to spot the shifts reshaping your industry before your competitors do. Every leadership team is reading the same headlines. Only a few act on what sits underneath them, and that gap is where market share is won and lost. The future may be uncertain, but it is not unknowable. In this highly customised keynote, futurist Melissa Clark-Reynolds decodes the real signals shaping your sector right now and shows your team how to turn them into practical strategy. Audiences leave with foresight they can use in Monday's leadership meeting, not theory for someday. Format: 50-minute keynote plus interactive session. Audience:… Read more +
Reimagining What’s Possible
What if “impossible” was just a starting point? In this interactive keynote, futures thinking and innovation keynote speaker Melissa Clark-Reynolds invites you to stretch your thinking, challenge assumptions, and rediscover the power of imagination — not as fantasy, but as a strategic tool for navigating real change. Drawing on cutting-edge insights and grounded foresight, leadership and future strategy speaker Melissa Clark-Reynolds shows you how to spot the future hiding in plain sight, and how we can build momentum toward it, together. Every attendee plays a part in this session. Through guided activities and collective exploration, together we’ll uncover new possibilities, connect…
Turning Chaos into Opportunity
Making Sense of the Mess AI, Robotics, deepfake science, geopolitical unrest, labour shortages and social change – is it all too hard to keep up? In this keynote, futurist and tech entrepreneur Melissa Clark-Reynolds shares practical tools for spotting patterns in the noise and turning today’s turbulence into tomorrow’s advantage. With a clear-eyed view of what’s coming — and what’s already here — resilience and future strategy speaker Melissa Clark-Reynolds helps leaders reframe uncertainty as a catalyst for action and growth. Rather than being overwhelmed by chaos, audiences learn how to decode disruption, anticipate shocks, and build the resilience needed…
Owning the Future
Intellectual Property vs. the World What do Prince, GitHub, gene editing, the future of advertising, and identity theft have in common? They all raise big questions about ownership in an AI-driven world. As artificial intelligence reshapes how we create, share, and commercialise ideas, the rules around intellectual property — and the very notion of “original” — are being stress-tested. In this keynote, futurist and tech entrepreneur Melissa Clark-Reynolds explores the shifting landscape of knowledge, creativity, and control. From deepfakes to data scraping, she unpacks what leaders need to understand now to protect their value, their work, and their integrity. As…
Leading When Nothing Is Certain
AI disruption. Economic volatility. Shifting work models. It’s a lot — and it’s accelerating. In this keynote, leadership in uncertainty and disruption keynote speaker Melissa Clark-Reynolds tackles the hard questions facing today’s leaders: How do you lead when the ground keeps shifting? What do you do when the way you’ve always worked no longer works? And how do you stay focused — and human — as AI rewrites the rules of business, productivity, and value? This is not just a tech story. It’s a leadership one. From billing models to job redesign, AI disruption and future leadership speaker Melissa Clark-Reynolds…
