Speaker Spotlight
She Left a Wall Street Career for Housing Advocacy. Boeing, BlackRock, the Red Cross and the CDC Have All Put Her in Front of Their People Since.
Jen Borrero — Founder of Common Ground Development · UN Association Global Goals Ambassador · TEDx Speaker · 30 Under 30 for Social Impact · Atlanta
The career pivot is a well-worn speaking topic, and most versions of it are told once the outcome is safe. Jen Borrero’s is more useful because she is direct that it was not a plan. It was bold, messy reinvention, public failure included, and a long stretch of asking questions until the work fit the person.
She left finance for grassroots organizing, national advocacy and international development, and now runs Common Ground Development, working where housing, policy, real estate and storytelling meet.
Her core argument is one line: leadership is not about individual success, it is about creating the conditions for other people to move forward too.
Leadership Without Permission
Her signature keynote is aimed at the largest and most overlooked group in most organizations: the people with conviction and no title.
Igniting Change is built for students, emerging leaders and anyone who has been waiting to be told they are ready. Jen gives them a framework for driving change from where they already sit, amplifying other voices, and getting through the barriers that stop most people at the idea stage.
This is the right booking for a campus event, a young professionals group, an ERG summit or the opening of an emerging leaders program. It is also a reasonable all-staff session for an organization trying to get initiative out of people below the leadership tier.
Two Sessions Aimed at Specific Rooms
Pressure of a Dream speaks to first-generation professionals. As the only US-born member of her family, Jen grew up carrying the expectation to succeed while honoring where her family came from, and she is candid about the financial strain, the isolation at college, and the years of turning guilt into something workable.
It gives an audience tools for holding ambition and cultural expectation at the same time, and for the version of imposter syndrome that comes from identity rather than from skill. For a first-generation program, a Hispanic Heritage Month event or a student audience, that specificity is the point.
Building Dreams is the housing and real estate session, treating affordable housing as a community-building instrument rather than a line item. She frames it as a conversation rather than a lecture, covering inclusive development and how individuals, organizations and policymakers can each contribute. It suits real estate associations, nonprofit conferences and civic audiences.
Reinventing Purpose Through Trial and Error is the corporate version of her own story, and it is pitched at organizations rather than individuals: how to treat reinvention as a retention advantage, support internal mobility, and keep rising leaders engaged instead of watching them leave to find purpose elsewhere.
The Platforms Are the Credential
Her work has been featured by TED, the American Red Cross, Boeing, BlackRock and the CDC, which is an unusually wide spread. A corporate audience at BlackRock and a public health audience at the CDC want different things from a speaker, and appearing in both suggests the material adapts rather than being delivered fixed.
She has also served as a Global Goals Ambassador with the United Nations Association and was recognized in 30 Under 30 honors for social impact. She is currently developing a documentary series on housing and belonging across cultures.
Audience feedback consistently uses the same two words, raw and practical, which is a harder combination to deliver than either one alone. One attendee described the session as reassuring and compassionate and said they would recommend it to any nontraditional student.
Where She Fits
Jen works well for campus and student events, emerging leader programs, women’s conferences, nonprofit and civic gatherings, real estate and housing audiences, and corporate ERG or culture programming.
Full topic descriptions and takeaways are on her speaker profile.
Book Jen Borrero
Available for keynotes on leadership without authority, reinvention and purpose, first-generation professional identity, and housing as community development.