Speaker Spotlight
Most Neurodiversity Talks Get Filed Under Inclusion. Hers Is Pitched at the Chief Sustainability Officer, and One of Them Booked Her.
Valeriya Hjertenaes — PhD-Level Expert in Neurodiversity and Sustainable Leadership · Creator of the 5E ENABLERS Method™ · Speaks Six Languages · Paris
Neurodiversity usually arrives on a conference agenda as an inclusion session, programmed by HR and attended by the people already convinced.
Valeriya Hjertenaes routes it somewhere else entirely. Her argument is that cognitive diversity is a decision-intelligence and performance issue, and she connects it directly to the three-part sustainability model of people, profit and planet rather than to a diversity initiative.
The proof that the framing works is in who endorses her. The Chief Sustainability Officer of Odfjell SE, who also chairs the Maritime Anti-Corruption Network, is one of her two references. That is not the audience a standard inclusion talk reaches.
Two References, Both From the Top of the Room
She has fewer testimonials than most speakers on the roster, and it does not matter much, because of who they are.
Frank-Jürgen Richter, CEO and Chairman of Horasis, watched her speak and described her as commanding the room through conviction and clarity rather than performance. His observation was that the content is sharp and strategically structured through her framework, and that the audience was not simply nodding along.
The Odfjell reference is the more analytically useful one. He noted that her openness about her own neurodivergence, including living with OCD, creates immediate trust and changes how the audience listens. He also drew the distinction that matters commercially: real impact rather than inspiration, with complex ideas made immediately applicable.
The Framework Does the Heavy Lifting
The 5E ENABLERS Method™ is what keeps the material from being a personal story with a conclusion attached. It is a leadership architecture for turning human complexity into measurable performance across those three dimensions, and it gives an executive audience something structural to hold onto.
Her third keynote extends it into the 5E Sustainability Engine™, which puts neurodiversity and AI in the same system rather than treating them as separate agenda items. That is an unusual and genuinely current pairing, and a good fit for a strategy offsite or a future-of-work track.
Three Ways to Program Her
From OCD to PhD is the personal keynote and the one that moves a room. She reframes what tends to get read as limitation into what she calls a cognitive edge, drawing on her own path. Best as a general session or a conference opener.
Neurodiversity as a Leadership Advantage is the business case, connecting cognitive diversity to decision-making, innovation and sustainability outcomes. This is the one for a leadership team or an ESG audience.
The 5E Sustainability Engine™ is the forward-looking session on designing organizations where neurodiversity and AI operate as integrated drivers rather than separate initiatives.
Six languages and an international base also make her straightforward to program for multinational and European events. Full descriptions are on her speaker profile.
Book Valeriya Hjertenaes
Available internationally for keynotes on neurodiversity as performance advantage, sustainable leadership, cognitive diversity and responsible AI.