Vilson Simon is a global executive, entrepreneur, board advisor, senior consultant, and executive coach with over 35 years of experience across Brazil, Latin America, the U.S., and global markets. As the founder of Àgora Learning & Consulting, he advises executives, boards, leadership teams, and family-owned businesses on leadership development, strategy execution, cultural transformation, succession, and business performance.
Throughout his career, Simon has integrated corporate leadership, entrepreneurship, governance, executive coaching, and human development, holding senior roles in animal nutrition, animal health, agribusiness, marketing, innovation, turnaround, and organizational transformation. He serves in board and advisory engagements with Pasterovos, Agrivalle, and Rumina, and collaborates with LAK Group in the U.S. and CresCere Treinamentos in Brazil. Additionally, he helped facilitate the introduction of Talexes Assessments to Brazil, serving as a vital liaison between LAK Group and CresCere. He operates on the core belief that leadership is a vocation of service, courage, clarity, accountability, and purpose.
2 topics · no fee, no honorarium, no mileage
Review available topics below. Use the “Request This Free Speech” button and fill out the contact form. Vilson contacts you to discuss the details of the request.
Senior leaders today face a paradox. They are expected to have all the answers, yet they operate in conditions of unprecedented uncertainty: AI disruption, generational change in the workforce, geopolitical volatility, rising mental health pressures, and the loneliness that comes with final accountability. More executives than ever are realizing that the old model of "lead alone, decide alone, carry it alone" no longer works. Executive coaching has moved from a remedial intervention to a strategic discipline used by some of the most thoughtful leaders in the world.
This presentation explores why executive coaching has become essential, what it actually is (and is not), and how its principles apply not only to CEOs but to anyone who carries the weight of leading others: business owners, board members, pastors, nonprofit directors, team leaders, and entrepreneurs.
Drawing from 35 years in the C-suite and current work as an ICF-credentialed executive coach across the United States and Brazil, the talk addresses:
- The real reasons high performers seek coaching today.
- How coaching differs from mentoring, therapy, and consulting.
- The five conversations every leader needs but rarely has.
- What organizations gain when their leaders are coached: better decisions, healthier teams, stronger succession.
- How to recognize when you (or someone you lead) would benefit from a coaching conversation.
This is a candid, practical look at a discipline often misunderstood. Audiences leave with a clearer view of what good coaching looks like, why it works, and how to bring its principles into their own leadership practice, even without hiring a coach.
Suitable for business associations, professional groups, faith-based organizations, nonprofit boards, and community leadership audiences. Available as a keynote (45 to 60 minutes), shorter address (20 to 30 minutes), or interactive workshop. Delivered in English or Portuguese.
Artificial intelligence is reshaping how we work, decide, and lead. But beneath the excitement, leaders are quietly asking the harder questions. What still requires human judgment? Where does AI sharpen us, and where does it make us lazy or even dangerous? What kind of leadership becomes more valuable, not less, in an automated world?
This presentation answers those questions from the perspective of someone who actually led inside the C-suite for 35 years across four continents, and who now integrates AI into executive coaching, board advisory work, and business operations every day. It is not a technology talk. It is a leadership talk for an era when technology is rewriting the rules.
Attendees will leave with:
- clear framework for separating what AI does well from what only humans can do.
- Practical examples of how real leaders are using AI to improve decisions, save time, and stay grounded.
- An honest view of the real risks: judgment erosion, ethical blind spots, and the rise of "AI theater" replacing substance.
- A renewed sense of what leadership is actually for in a world of intelligent machines.
The conversation is candid, practical, and built for leaders who have to deliver results, not headlines. Audiences leave equipped to use AI well without losing the human core of leadership: courage, clarity, accountability, and purpose.
This talk is suitable for executive forums, business associations, professional groups, faith-based organizations, and community leadership audiences. It can be delivered as a keynote (45 to 60 minutes), a shorter address (20 to 30 minutes), or an interactive workshop format, in English or Portuguese.
Free Speakers Milwaukee is a pro bono speakers bureau. Since 2016, our speakers have given free presentations to Rotary clubs, libraries, schools, and community groups across the Milwaukee area. Browse the full list to book a free guest speaker in Milwaukee, or learn more about how it works.
