Holly Budge

Holly Budge is a global keynote speaker on risk, innovation, and human potential, operating at the intersection of conservation, science, and bold ideas. As an Everest summiteer and the first woman to skydive Everest, she now focuses less on surviving extremes and more on solving the complex conservation challenges shaping our future. As founder of international NGO How Many Elephants and World Female Ranger Week, Holly explores how nature, technology, and innovation can work together to design smarter systems, from using bees as bio-engineers to reduce human-elephant conflict in Africa, to empowering women as front-line wildlife rangers. Passionate about STEM, space exploration, and frontier innovation, she draws powerful parallels between conservation on Earth and exploration beyond it, asking what both can teach us about adaptability, systems thinking, and survival. Her work has reached over 500 million people globally, been featured in Forbes, and she was recently voted 'Female Thought Leader of the Year in the non-profit sector.