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Speakers

Business Speakers | Motivational Speakers

Emma Mclean

NZ's working parent expert and inclusive workplace keynote

Overview

Emma Mclean is one of New Zealand's leading voices on working parents, parental leave and gender equity at work. As founder of Works for Everyone, she partners with the country's biggest corporates to wrap genuine support around their parent talent – through programmes, coaching and the systemic change that flows from doing this well.

Who is Emma Mclean? Emma is an executive coach, programme designer and conference speaker focused on how organisations can make working parenthood actually work. She founded Works for Everyone to deliver flagship programmes including Returning with Confidence, Making Space for Dads and the NZ Part-Time Power List. Her work blends coaching, research and lived experience to address the motherhood penalty, the dad shift, and the long-term cost of getting parental support wrong.

Career Highlights

  • Founder of Works for Everyone, partnering with leading NZ corporates

  • Designer of Returning with Confidence, the flagship return-from-parental-leave programme

  • Creator of Making Space for Dads, supporting working fathers

  • Founder of the NZ Part-Time Power List, profiling senior part-time leaders

  • Executive coach to hundreds of working parents and their managers

  • Sought-after speaker on working parents, gender equity and inclusive culture

Key Speaking Themes

  • Working parents and the real economics of the motherhood penalty

  • Designing a parental leave experience that retains your best people

  • Making space for dads: paternity, caregiving and gender equity

  • Part-time leadership and the future of flexible work

  • Inclusive culture, retention and productivity

What Your Audience Will Gain Emma turns the lived experience of working parents into clear actions for HR teams, people leaders and senior executives. Audiences leave with practical changes they can make to retention, parental leave and the daily experience of working parenthood.

Ideal For

  • HR, people and culture summits

  • Diversity, equity and inclusion events

  • Leadership and women in business conferences

  • Parental leave and return-to-work programmes

  • Internal manager and HR training days

Frequently Asked Questions...

What does Emma Mclean speak about? Working parents, parental leave, the motherhood penalty, gender equity, fathers and inclusive workplace culture

What is Works for Everyone? Works for Everyone is the consultancy Emma founded that partners with leading NZ corporates on parental-leave programmes, executive coaching and inclusive culture.

What programmes does Emma Mclean run? Flagship programmes include Returning with Confidence for parents returning from leave and Making Space for Dads for working fathers.

What is the NZ Part-Time Power List? A Works for Everyone initiative spotlighting senior leaders who work part-time, founded to challenge assumptions about flexible work.

Does Emma Mclean coach individuals as well as speak? Yes. Emma is an executive coach who has supported hundreds of working parents and their managers through return-to-work transitions.

How long is a typical keynote? 45 minutes is standard with Q&A optional. Half-day workshops and full programme rollouts are also available.