Cindy Pace

Dr. Cindy Pace is a global executive advisor on culture and thought leadership, organizational anthropologist, scholar-practitioner, speaker, and podcast creator. Her work sits at the intersection of organizational culture, influence, and executive voice. She is the Founder and CEO of PaceForward, a global thought leadership advisory that helps senior leaders and organizations build greater trust, purpose, and impact to navigate complexity and disruption.

She believes culture determines whether thought leadership is trusted, while thought leadership shapes what an organization hears, values, and acts upon. Her approach helps executive leaders translate deep expertise, lived experience, pattern recognition, and human judgment into strategic insights that shape decisions and create value in ways AI can enhance but not replace.

At Columbia University's School of Professional Studies, Dr. Pace is an inaugural faculty member and Lecturer in Human Capital Management, where she developed and teaches courses in Inclusive Leadership and Leading Across Global Organizations. Grounded in adult leadership development and transformative learning, her teaching invites professionals to critically examine what they know, how they know it, and how applying different perspectives strengthens leadership and organizational effectiveness.

Dr. Pace brings more than 25 years of corporate management and enterprise leadership experience across healthcare, biopharmaceuticals, financial services, and insurance. Before founding PaceForward, she served in key executive leadership roles at MetLife, including Vice President, Head of Global Employee Engagement, and Global Chief Inclusion Officer. In these roles, she led culture, inclusion, engagement, change, and talent strategies for 45,000 employees across 40 countries, driving workplace recognition across multiple global regions. Earlier at Pfizer, she held leadership roles spanning clinical research, organizational change, talent strategy, and executive development. Her scientific background as a molecular and clinical microbiologist provides the foundational systems lens she applies to organizational culture and leadership transformation.

Dr. Pace is the creator and host of The SHIFT Forward with Dr. Cindy Pace, a business and management podcast that examines the mega shifts reshaping work, leadership, and value creation. She previously created and hosted the Webby-honored Inclusion Begins with Me: Conversations That Matter. She is a sought-after speaker and thought leader whose insights have been featured in the Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Fortune, and TED + Brightline. She has shared her expertise on prominent stages such as the Global Summit of Women, the Fortune Impact Summit, MV Summit, and at prestigious institutions including Harvard Business School, NYU Stern, Kellogg School of Management, Harvard Kennedy School, MIT Solve, Columbia Business School, ESSEC, Universidad Europa de Valencia, and Columbia Global Centers.

She serves on the Women's Leadership Board of the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School and is US Chair of the G100 Human Resources and Talent Development Wing. Her honors include the President's Lifetime Achievement Award for volunteer service, recognition among Mogul's Top 100 People Leaders, G100 Iconic Women Creating a Better World For All Award, and selection as a Corporate Power Player by PoliticsNY. Dr. Pace earned an Ed.D. from Teachers College, Columbia University, an M.A. from New York University, and a B.S. from Morris Brown College. She divides her time between New York City and Atlanta.