Michael Sheldrick Book as a speaker/entertainer for your next event

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Key Points for Michael Sheldrick

  • Michael Sheldrick’s work has been published in Forbes, the Guardian, Huffington Post, The Diplomat Magazine, The South China Morning Post, Australian Outlook, the Chicago Council for Foreign Affairs, The Hill, The West Australian, The Age, and the Sydney Morning Herald. Michael has been interviewed by ABC, BBC, CNN, The New Yorker, Forbes Magazine, VICE Impact and Sky News. Michael’s work and that of his team was also featured in a 6 part National Geographic series in 2019 called Activate.
  • Michael is a board member for the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens alongside 8th UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, former Austrian President Heinz Fischer, and Professor Jeffrey Sachs.
  • He has spoken on global affairs, activism and development at numerous conferences and summits around the world including at the C20, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, TEDx talks, the Vatican Youth Symposium, the Australian Institute of International Affairs National Conference, Ditchley House in the UK, the British Council, countless university campuses, the World Bank and IMF annual meetings and the United Nations.
  • Michael Sheldrick has previously been listed amongst the Sunday Times 50 best and brightest Western Australians, was named a Young Western Australian of the Year, was a state finalist for Australian of the Year, and has also been a finalist for Young Commonwealth Person of the Year.
  • He has worked on/produced/executive produced the annual Global Citizen Festival for the past decade on the Great Lawn of New York’s Central Park, with a live audience of 60,000 people and some of the world’s biggest artists. The 2021 show, “Global Citizen Live”, was a 24 hour show taking place in multiple cities around the world and which saw $1.1 billion pledged. Michael also served as a producer on the 2018 Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100 in Johannesburg that highlighted what would have been Nelson Mandela’s 100th birthday and helped mobilize $7.2 billion for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
  • During the course of the pandemic, Global Citizen produced countless campaigns including "One World: Together At Home" and VAX Live campaigns, which reached millions of people in over 150 countries and saw over $2 billion announced in cash grant funding in support of the covid relief and vaccine equity efforts. Amongst other awards, One World received Guinness World Records for most money raised for charity by a remote music festival.

Topics for Michael Sheldrick

  • Pop meets policy - A global citizen story
    How to use popular culture to galvanize support and drive people towards meaningful action, and ultimately impact based on 10 years of heading up Global Citizen’s impact and policy team.
  • The role of the private sector in ending poverty and addressing climate change
    According to data released last year, 10,000 publicly listed companies alone are responsible for 40% of all climate warming emissions. It is clear we can’t end extreme poverty and mitigate climate change without the private sector, but exactly how to do that is not always clear or easy. This talk will outline concrete and meaningful actions companies can take to start making an impact right now.
  • From Perth to New York, and the power of education and inspiration
    Inspired by his high school teacher who took the time to teach in a different way, Michael went from being the bottom kid in class to graduating in the top 1%. It was then another teacher who encouraged him to put his skills to good use and make a difference in the world. Michael’s gratitude for the education opportunities he had is what inspires him today in Global Citizen’s mission to end extreme poverty.
  • Pivoting in the pandemic with speed and impact
    As Michael became one of the first amongst his friends and family to get covid in March 2020, Global Citizen was already pivoting at the request of the WHO to support pandemic relief efforts. In the span of just a few weeks, the organization produced the biggest show it had ever done with over 100 musicians and reaching 150 countries. It has since responded on voter registration, vaccine inequity, climate change and most recently Ukrainian refugee efforts, mobilizing billions of dollars in support.
  • A new roadmap for ending poverty and addressing climate change
    From vaccine nationalism to the war in Ukraine, it is clear that our current approaches in global cooperation are failing. Drawing on his insights from the last decade working alongside the UN, governments including that of President Zelenskyy and organizations at the grassroots from Poland to Nigeria, Michael proposes outlines a new way forward for addressing the key challenges of our time.
  • Revolutionizing philanthropy and addressing the giving pledge bottleneck
    The world is seeing record levels of poverty while at the same time unprecedented levels of wealth amongst the world’s wealthiest. Despite these trends philanthropic giving has with a few notable exceptions not seen the increases much needed. Even those who pledged to give away at least 50% of their wealth are not giving at a rate that will see this promise achieved. Michael unpacks some of the reasons for this and proposes a new innovative model for resolving this “Giving Pledge bottleneck,” including through the new Global Citizen Impact Funds that combines result-based giving and impact investing.

Testimonials for Michael Sheldrick

The sign of a good speaker is to first be a good listener and to focus more on what the audience needs to hear rather than what the speaker wants to say. Pushing words out for the sake of speaking is the surest way to disengage an audience. Unlike anyone I have met, Mick listens to people intently ahead of time, seeks to understand what they need to know and hear in order to be moved by his words, and adapts his message and approach if he needs to in the moment as he reads the room. Mick is a naturally effective speaker, exhibiting a casual, yet powerful presence. He breaks the medium immediately with his words and his inviting aura. When Mick begins to speak, he is already operating with the currency of trust with the audience because he carries with him on stage a reputation as a person of immense character and deep compassion for human life.
Arthur W Page Society Annual Conference

I first met Michael Sheldrick a few years ago at a conference and since then have been consistently impressed with his undeniable passion for tackling urgent global challenges like poverty, the climate crisis, vaccine inequality, among others, through the activist nonprofit he co-founded, Global Citizen (GC). More people need to hear him speak about GC to be exposed to his sincere vision and intense drive to truly make the world a better place - we need his critical voice in these complicated times to give us more hope. His unique path to forming GC from Perth to NYC will inspire the next generation of activists to solve the world’s problems; his leadership in organizing events raising billions for important challenges will be of much value to nonprofit, government and corporate folk; and his thought leadership and engagement with world leaders globally has given him a unique perspective on international affairs which more audiences should learn about. In a world of growing global risk, we are constantly in search of genuine role models with sincere voices and new ideas who actually are creating positive change - Michael really is one of those rare gems!
NYU Professor & Author
World Economic Forum Risk Expert

Micheal Sheldrick is a remarkably insightful speaker who often juxtaposes facts with statistics captivating the imagination of his audiences. Micheal has a unique ability of simplifying complex issues and inspiring action in simple and practical ways. He is also a profoundly good story teller and connects with his audiences in a very engaging manner. He typically challenges the status quo and drives the audience to arrive at novel conclusions. Irrespective of the crowd size Michael connects with his audience from the start to finish. I have listened speakers from all over world and typically I am hard to impress, but over the years I have been impressed by Michael’s profound ability to keep the subject matter relevant, uplifting, entertaining and the same serious. Whether it is seeking to inspire action, understanding the impact of climate change or accessing the impact unfair economic policies on developing countries, Michael will bring his wealth knowledge to every conversation, provoking one’s thoughts and stimulating progress.
Former Secretary-General
Junior Chamber International
CEO
International Institute, Missouri

As one of the co-organizers of several international meetings such as the UN South-South Cooperation meeting in Antalya as well as MIKTA G20 side event and the Bosphorus Summit in Istanbul, I have invited Michael Sheldrick to Turkey as a speaker. On all of these occasions, Michael has proven to be one of the best speakers on the topics he addressed ranging from sustainable development, poverty, girls education, migration and refugees. In his effectively delivered presentations, he presented succinct and convincing arguments based on verifiable facts, sparked enthusiasm about the ideas he shared and called for meaningful and feasible action. His speeches are rich with examples of multistakeholder partnerships that have created much desired positive change in the lives of disadvantaged people in the world. I would highly recommend Michael as a key-note speaker or a panelist at events dealing with global issues.
Turkish Ambassador
Bangladesh
Organizer
Bosphorus Summit

Michael Sheldrick is one those rare breeds in that he makes big vision become reality. I’ve known him many years now and am always struck by the way no challenge is insurmountable to him. He has that knack of seeing the big problem and then working out how he can bring people together to fix it. We so need more big thinkers and do-ers like Michael - he inspires and encourages us all to take that big leap.
ABC Perth Presenter
CEO

Michael Sheldrick was the initial winner of the Australian Institute of International Affairs WA Bursary, which enabled young Australians to have an educational experience in Asia. He used it to spend time in India to be part of the campaign to eliminate polio there. He had previously given talks in Perth on the global elimination of polio, a project of Rotary Clubs worldwide. On his return from India, he spoke at the AIIA on his experiences. Michael showed himself to be an engaging, colourful and winning speaker, and went on to build a career in the international development field.
Australian Institute of International Affairs