Nelson Cabral

Using his 9 Forces of Creative Leadership™, Creative Leadership Expert CABRAL empowers leaders and executives to unleash a creative storm in their business.
Internationally recognized and creatively acclaimed business keynote speaker Nelson Cabral delivers relevant, entertaining and interactive talks on creativity in leadership. He is known for his high-content, high-energy presentations that are laced with humor, while providing real, actionable creative leadership tools and strategies for maximum value and immediate implementation. He has improved creativity and innovation capabilities in thousands of executives, teams and businesses around the world.
Nelson’s keynote presentations focus on building high performance cultures of innovation. With a dramatic stage presence and contagious enthusiasm, he shares with audiences his management principles, leadership approaches and innovation strategies from decades worth of world-class, market-proven, top-tier, senior strategic creative leadership experience.
If your group is dealing with evolving work environments, complex business situations and accelerating global markets, then Nelson’s Creative Storm talk is perfect to bring you cutting-edge approaches to leadership, talent management and innovation. Unleash your Creative Storm with Nelson Cabral!
Biography
Using his 9 Forces of Creative Leadership™, Creative Leadership Expert CABRAL empowers leaders and executives to unleash a creative storm in their business.
Internationally recognized and creatively acclaimed business keynote speaker Nelson Cabral delivers relevant, entertaining and interactive talks on creativity in leadership. He is known for his high-content, high-energy presentations laced with humor and actionable creative leadership tools and strategies for maximum value.
Nelson has spent the last 25 years leading teams, building companies, and inspiring breakthrough innovative thinking on Fortune 500 brands. He is a successful and award-winning Business Leader and Senior Executive in the industries of advertising, marketing, media, entertainment and design. Nelson’s career also includes stints in Europe and South America where he worked with leading creative businesses. He has improved creativity and innovation capabilities in thousands of executives, teams and businesses around the world.
Nelson’s been an award-winning advertising Writer and Creative Director for some of the world’s most respected global brands including adidas, GE, Microsoft, Anheuser-Busch, Air Canada, Bridgestone-Firestone, VISA, Cadbury, Kellogg’s, Procter & Gamble, Toshiba and many others. His work has been recognized by The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, The London International Advertising Awards, The New York Festivals of Advertising, The Crystals, Mobius, and his Pro-Line “Bar Hopping Aliens” TV spot won first place, “best TV spot in Canada”, in Playback Magazine’s TOP SPOT AWARDS.
Now an International Keynote Speaker, Corporate Trainer, and Management Consultant to CEOs, brands and innovation teams, Nelson delivers business keynotes, training, and consulting programs focused on leading creative organizations and building high performance cultures of innovation around them. With dramatic stage presence and contagious enthusiasm, he shares with audiences his management principles, leadership approaches and innovation strategies from decades worth of world-class, market-proven, top-tier, senior strategic creative leadership experience. Nelson believes innovation requires stimulation and collaboration, and you, as the leader, have the responsibility to unleash a creative storm in your team.
A natural performer with strong stage presence, Nelson has been called highly creative and imaginative, but ferociously strategic and business-minded. Whether helping a leader design an inspired culture of creativity and engagement, or working with a team to accelerate motivation, communication, productivity and performance, Nelson’s business results have attracted recent clients such as Mercedes-Benz, The Estée Lauder Companies Inc., Vodafone, The Government of Latvia, VENN Corporate Innovation, PMI, HDI / UBM, European Lotteries, World Lottery Association, Medical Group Management Association, ProjectSummit-BusinessAnalystWorld and ProjectWorld.
Progress Magazine recently named Nelson and his boutique training firm CABRAL Creative Leadership International Inc. a “Fastest Growing Company”, having landed #2 on the ONES TO WATCH list, with 1227% growth. His newest book, THE CREATIVE STORM: UNLEASHING THE 9 FORCES OF CREATIVE LEADERSHIP was published in 2018.
According to a study by IBM, CEOs cited creativity as the most important leadership quality. And as a result of the digital transformation, “Creative Leadership” is becoming the most sought-after management style in all industries. So Nelson’s fresh perspective on leadership is hot, and highly relevant – to today’s and tomorrow’s executives. He is on a mission to develop and inspire a new breed of leaders: a creative CEO in every enterprise.
“Creative leadership is the only way for businesses to thrive in the face of rapid change,” Nelson Cabral argues. “The Creative Storm” business keynote is how to master it.
Nelson Cabral, Biography, Short Form:
Creatively acclaimed and internationally recognized Creative Leadership Expert Nelson Cabral is known for his high-content, high-energy presentations laced with humor and actionable creative leadership tools and strategies for maximum value. Armed with skills developed from decades of creative leadership experience in the industries of advertising, marketing, media, design and entertainment, he helps leaders drive breakthrough creativity, lead innovation, realize immediate results, achieve lasting success, and permanently raise their bottom line. He is on a mission to develop and inspire a new breed of leaders: a creative CEO in every enterprise.
Speech Topics
The Creative Storm: Unleashing The 9 Forces Of Creative Leadership™
According to a study by IBM, CEOs cited creativity as the most important leadership quality. As a result of the digital transformation, “Creative Leadership” is becoming the most sought-after management style in all industries. It’s the “Next Big Thing” in leadership and a must-have business model for accelerating innovation, growing business and navigating today’s fast-paced and ever-shifting business universe.
Leaders must be focused on building a resilient culture where everyone is engaged. A storm of fresh, creative ideas needs to flow from every level of the organization to blow away assumptions and conventional wisdom. Nelson Cabral believes creativity requires stimulation and collaboration, and you, as the leader, have the responsibility to unleash a creative storm in your team. He will challenge conventional leadership practices and share proven management philosophies and practices to help you build and maintain a high performance culture of innovation.
“The Creative Storm” is a high-impact, high-intensity experience where Nelson reveals his 9 Forces Of Creative Leadership™ as the key to maximizing a leader’s effectiveness in driving profitability through superior levels of performance and innovations. Chances are you are sitting on a goldmine. It is vital that your management approaches unearth the hidden potential of today’s talent in order to increase creative capacity and deliver bottom-line results.
- Drive growth and innovation by building your inspirational and collaborative leadership skills, tools and mindset
- Consistently build and inspire winning teams to drive breakthrough creativity using proven creative leadership and change management tools
- Ramp up and keep your team’s energy fired up so they never lose their mojo…
* Note: this session includes a free innovation audit for each participant. This assessment will provide each individual with 36 insights into how they innovate and lead differently than their peers, which will help Nelson better customize his content, takeaways, and Keynote to your company.
The Creative Storm For Workplace Culture: Blow Away Barriers To Unleash A Pervasive Culture of Innovation
With disruptive forces assaulting organizations from every direction, creativity has been labeled the single-most important business attribute. In fact, some of the world’s most lauded leaders in business have suggested a “culture of innovation” has been the key to their success. The magic ingredient to unlocking creativity? Environment.
In this entertaining, highly practical, and interactive program, Nelson Cabral shares proven practices to help you build, maintain, and nurture a creative culture. He believes the role of a leader is not to have all the ideas, but to create a culture where everyone can have ideas and feel that they’re valued – so it’s much more about creating climates. The only way to sustain long term innovation and growth in an organization is by ensuring a storm of fresh, creative ideas flow from every level of your organization – by co-creating future processes, products, and services.
This presentation is a distillation of the ideas and management principles Nelson has used to develop high performing innovation teams and pervasive cultures of innovation for over two decades. He emphasizes that the key is to not fear risk – or change. It’s an energetic talk for managers who want to ignite the “right” environment where employees are engaged, productivity and performance is elevated, and business grows.
- Build a culture that celebrates fresh thinking and embraces new ideas and change
- Boost quality and quantity of breakthroughs by creating more effective team relationships and interactions
- Create a brilliant “group brain” by tapping into the creative genius inside everyone on your team
- Create and sustain a culture where innovation is allowed to happen again and again
* Note: this session includes a free innovation audit for each participant. This assessment will provide each individual with 36 insights into how they innovate and lead differently than their peers, which will help Nelson better customize his content, takeaways, and Keynote to your company.
The Creative Storm: SHIFT HAPPENS. DEAL WITH IT.
“Creative leadership is the only way for businesses to thrive in the face of rapid disruption,” Nelson Cabral argues. “The Creative Storm” is how to master it.
The pace of disruption today isn’t just fast. It’s evolving at an exponential rate. It has dawned upon most leaders that the pace of change will only increase. To keep pace, leaders are looking for a way to adapt quickly and easily to the digital transformation.
Since change processes occur continually, most will also agree that an innovative and creative mindset and skill set allows for a readiness for change. No other single leadership style, trait or theory can ensure success in today’s fast-paced and volatile business universe – except Creative Leadership. A creative leader’s ability to unleash experimentation to deal with and navigate ambiguity has become as important parameter for success.
During this dynamic, interactive and content-rich keynote, your attendees will learn to use Creative Leadership to get creative juices flowing, how to innovate to stay ahead, and how to prepare for the disruptive forces at work in your industry and beyond. Nelson Cabral will outline how organizations can reshape leadership and the internal workplace culture paving the way for more effective human resources and people development within organizations of the future.
- How to ensure successful change processes when disruption comes calling – avoiding the typical potholes.
- Future organizational culture supports radical innovation – learn how.
- The importance of the leader as the driver for organization’s talent development.
Testimonials
“It was truly delightful to see Nelson and The Creative Storm in action and keynoting in London at our European Lotteries / World Lottery Association Marketing Summit. One rarely sees such dedication and passion in a speaker tailor-making a presentation for a specific audience. His performance and training for our participants was out- standing, both in content and delivery. Bravo!”
– André Noël Chaker, Curator & Moderator, World Lottery Association / European Lotteries Event director / Owner, C&C Global Advocates Oy
“The Creative Storm gives business leaders and managers in any industry an actionable plan to implement creativity throughout all levels of their organization. Author Nelson Cabral distills an imaginative framework for boosting any business by igniting a Creative Storm in innovation and competitiveness through a series of simple, yet effective steps.”
– David Bossert, Producer, Creative Director & Head of Special Projects, The Walt Disney Company
“LOVE THE CREATIVE STORM SO MUCH! If you’ve ever suspected your company could be on the verge of something great, Nelson’s Creative Storm Program offers and effective and comprehensive road map to make it happen. Creativity is innovation’s rocket fuel. Using Cabral’s methodology, leaders can create an invested culture where the latent talent throughout their organization can be unleashed. I especially like Nelson’s ideas around fearless leadership and investing in every employee, at every level, to have a safe space for creativity. If the status quo is your kryptonite, you’ll love Nelson and his Creative Storm!”
– Allison Dick, Former Content Strategist, Corus Entertainment / Director, Digital Content – Marketing Solutions & Customer Experience (CX), Xerox
“If you need help in creating synergy and elevating performance in your organization, we recommend Nelson and The Creative Storm. We loved him because of his contagious enthusiasm and willingness to genuinely listen to our management team and employees. The outcome of Nelson’s business keynotes and workshops was our leaders being prepared to drive innovation and business growth, capture employee commitment and elevate productivity and performance.”
– Andrew Peters, Mercedes-Benz
“The innovation workshops and culture / process improvement program facilitated by Nelson was absolutely perfect for our team. I was getting overwhelmed with what seemed like so many things to do. But with Nelson’s help and strategies, he really brought clarity to what needed to be worked on to improve our processes and culture. And better yet, simplified it for me. I must say, Nelson is an excellent listener. I find that a rare treat nowadays. The Executive Team REALLY enjoyed his facilitation and he has made a huge impact on our organization’s culture and performance.”
– Ken Robinson, Mercedes-Benz
“Nelson was the star of the Conference. Fantastic! As a seasoned Executive, I’ve been to hundreds of conferences. With 99% of the speakers, their program doesn’t resonate with me, or it’s some crap they copied off Google. Then you discover a speaker like Nelson who comes across with authenticity and the chops. His track record of innovation is killer and so refreshing. Nelson brought innovation and a Creative Storm – showed us what he does, and how he gets there. He helped me become inspired again as a leader.”
– Laurie Toscano, Global VP, Global End User Services, The Estée Lauder Companies
“Nelson was amazing with our executive team! I am actually in awe of his talent as a professional keynote speaker and motivator. He was composed, confident, lucid in his thoughts and very personable. We learned a lot from Nelson. I have total respect for Nelson’s talent – and he is The Creative Storm!”
– Gary McGuire, Vice President Brand & Communications, VODAFONE, Prague, Czech Republic, Europe
“The Creative Storm was an amazing keynote by Nelson at our Global POLARIS Forum in Riga, Latvia. An outstanding case study and great inspiration to be innovative and a Creative Leader. Thank you for those very practical tips to boost creativity at any organization!”
– Agnese Zagata, Business Conference Organizer, Global Polaris Summit, Investment and Development Agency of Latvia
“I admit the honor of hosting Mr. Cabral at our offices in Warsaw, where he enraptured the creative staff with his winning formula for unlocking the hidden creative treasures within.”
– John Van Kannel, CEO/Managing Director, The Lowe Group (Lowe GGK, PanMedia Western, GGK PR)
“We’ve held many corporate executive team meeting and planning retreats facilitated by Nelson. We look forward to these meetings because they were creative and different each time and always resulted in a boost in morale, and new ideas that we were able to develop into our business strategy, corporate culture and brands.”
– Heidi Schaeffer, Executive Creative Director, Kaman Corporation
“Nelson’s annual multi-day workshops and executive team development retreats held every year are challenging, motivating and inspiring. Love his “Roxercises”. Our senior team always return from them enlightened and reinvigorated to elevate communication in our culture, and make our business, culture and brands even stronger. Even better, Nelson has the ability to help us translate inspiration into action.”
– Jim Rockwell, Director of Marketing, Latin Percussion