Chad Foster

Executive Dealmaker, Billion $ Generator, Job Creator, Resilience Leader

Topics: DE&I – Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Inspirational & Motivational, Attitude, Empowerment, Resilience, Personal Development, Strategy, Business, Health & Well-Being

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Biography

Read Chad Foster’s resume, and you know he’s a rainmaker, a billion-dollar revenue generator, a job creator, and a tech innovator. What’s not so obvious? He’s blind. And when he speaks to audiences, he shares a powerful message: His loss of eyesight as a young adult didn’t hold him back. Instead, he embraced obstacles as opportunities.

Chad became the first blind executive to graduate from Harvard Business School’s leadership program and did what Oracle said couldn’t be done, becoming the first to create CRM software for the visually impaired. Turning adversity into advantage, he thrived at a Fortune 500 company, directing financial strategies that resulted in billions in revenue, industry-leading growth, and best-in-class margins despite hypercompetitive market conditions.

Today, Chad teaches this same overcomer mindset to companies worldwide. He breaks down the anatomy of resilience using his tried-and-tested tools to empower people to emerge from setbacks stronger, sleeker, and resolute to succeed. He believes in helping others turn their challenges into opportunities, a mission he values even more than his eyesight.

Connecting inspiration to implementation, Chad provides a roadmap for overcoming obstacles and achieving the impossible. His keynotes blend heartfelt stories, entertaining delivery, no-fluff truth-telling, and practical strategies tailored to empower individuals and teams to transcend their limitations. With Chad, audiences receive actionable insights on fostering a mindset of growth and resilience, driving them to redefine their boundaries.

His keynotes are not just talks but transformative experiences that ignite change, inspire action, and unlock potential. When you invite Chad to your event, you’re securing a catalyst for positive transformation, leaving your audience motivated, equipped, and eager to tackle their challenges with newfound vigor.

His direct and confident style, combined with a go-for-it inspiring belief system — he is an avid downhill skier and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner (that’s not a joke) – has made him a high-impact keynote speaker for leaders at companies such as Google, IBM, Salesforce, GE and Microsoft. He’d be honored to inspire actions that drive outcomes at your next event.

Videos

Speech TopicsExpand each topic to learn more

Blind Ambition

In this signature keynote, Chad will entertain, inspire, and move your audience, while teaching them how to shift their mindset from victim to visionary™. Going blind at 21-years-old and facing a life with seemingly limited opportunities, Chad had to reinvent himself before even having a shot at success. Turning obstacles into opportunities, he became a Harvard-educated rainmaker, created countless jobs, and now he teaches teams how to cultivate resilient mindsets, adapt and thrive in change, and set ambitious goals with the right mindset to achieve them.

This program gives your people the tools and inspiration to overcome difficult circumstances and create a promising positive future. More than just a motivational talk, this session connects inspiration to implementation.

Diversity

Chad was born part of the privileged white majority, but after going blind in college, he was treated differently as a disabled minority. After living over 20 years in both groups, his unique vantage points of both worlds allow him to equip your teams to think differently about Diversity and Inclusion (DnI) in the workplace.

Chad goes beyond just valuing each person. He will show how DnI drives business innovation. We know that diversity of thought creates change, and when harnessed correctly, change drives innovation. How can we create a culture that invites diversity of thought to have a welcomed seat at the table so each individual feels valued to contribute? This session shows how you can unlock the value of DnI in your workplace to power the innovation your business needs to thrive.

No More Comfort Zones

Life without obstacles removes opportunity for growth. For any of us to grow, we need to step outside our comfort zones. In this powerful keynote, Chad teaches how the obstacles that lie in front of us can propel us towards our goals.

Every organization finds itself face-to-face with problems that seem insurmountable. Beyond Chad’s personal path of overcoming overwhelming odds, his business track record for moving through challenges and improving results gives a unique perspective on how comfort zones hold us back.

Chad will talk about how he’s not successful in spite of being blind. He is successful because he’s blind. He embraced his problem and turned it into a solution. In this session Chad will teach your teams how to realize exponential growth through adversity.

Victim to Visionary

In this workshop Chad will lead you through the steps you can take to improve resilience. He teaches the practical tools you can apply to any situation in order to move your mindset from victim to visionary.

During this session you will map out your resilience journey. After setting out your own personal vision of greatness, you will see your life more clearly than you ever have before. It can set you free to discover the amazing advantages that your disadvantages offer. You can then seek your own gifts that are disguised in terrible wrapping paper, and see how the unique perspectives you’ve gained from those disadvantages contribute to your vision of greatness.

Nothing in life is permanent. Everybody and everything changes. The only certainty is change. The key is figuring out how you will adapt.

Testimonials

The highlight of the Sales Kick Off … was Chad’s inspirational talk. I have eyes but lack [his] vision…. [He is] indeed a visionary.

– IBM

He energized the crowd with a laughter-filled presentation [and] a high-impact message, earning a standing ovation from the hundreds of business leaders in attendance.

– Harvard University

Chad’s presentation was unique, interesting, emotional, and, dare I say, spellbinding. In an auditorium of over 4,000 people, we could have heard a pin drop. The way Chad laid out his story kept the audience engaged until the last word. Not only did Chad make us look good, but he was attentive prior to the meeting to assure he was “on point,” great to work with the day of the event, and gracious with his time after his presentation. Chad was an absolute home run for our Annual Meeting. I would not hesitate to recommend Chad Foster to any organization looking for something different and special.

– American Society of Association Executives

Far exceeded anything I expected… 700 people…everyone was just on their heels, really inspired…entertaining, it was meaningful, it had content, it was just great.

– Event Sponsor

Highly recommend Chad if you are looking to build a team that thrives in change!

– Salesforce

I walked out with a whole new outlook on life just listening to Foster sharing his life experience. A true visionary!!

– Red Hat

Chad E. Foster is as authentic as they come. He could have easily gone the other way but instead when he lost his vision, he decided to use it to show people that you decide your story, not the life events we go through. Happiness is a decision we make every day when we wake up. His positive spin on life with a no bs attitude is something we can all benefit from. He raises the question of “is being in the dark & losing your vision a blessing?” For him, it seems like it may have been! He is very relatable and good at what he does. Highly recommend him for any business/professional event.

– YPO

If you’ve had trouble dealing with disappointments in life you need to read Blind Ambition!

– Tony Dungy, Hall of Fame NFL Player and Super Bowl Winning Coach