Member since October 2026
Lauren Fregonese is a keynote speaker who challenges how organizations think about leadership. Her premise is simple: most organizations don't have a people problem. They have a playbook problem.
Her signature keynote, Your Leadership Playbook Has Expired, has been featured most recently at ATD OrgDev 2026 and gives audiences a clear-eyed look at the leadership practices quietly holding their teams back. She is the creator of PastForward Leadership, an approach that pairs the judgment of experienced leaders with the fresh perspective and digital fluency of emerging talent, so knowledge moves in both directions.
Lauren brings more than 20 years of experience building leadership and talent systems across construction, healthcare, and professional services, including roles at KPMG and JRM Construction. Today she also serves as a fractional Chief People Officer and founder of LKF Leadership Advisory, which means her stage material comes straight from the work. Real organizations. Real problems. No theory for theory's sake.
I'm passionate about challenging how we think about leadership. Most organizations are full of untapped potential. What holds it back usually isn't the people. It's practices nobody has questioned in years.
I'm especially drawn to the space between generations. Experience and fresh perspective are equally valuable, and the strongest organizations build environments where knowledge flows in both directions. Not top-down. Both ways.
Ironically, it’s my husband’s story that changed the trajectory of my career.
My husband is a paramedic with the FDNY. For more than 15 years, his focus on every 911 call was the same: my safety, my partner's safety, my patient's safety. That was his whole world.
Then he went for lieutenant, which is the only career path for a paramedic. There's no matrix. He took the civil service exam, and it tested him on EKGs, patient care, medications, and protocols. Everything about the job he already had.
He passed with flying colors. We all went out to Brooklyn for the ceremony and celebrated him. And then Monday came.
Overnight, he went from patient care to scheduling, employee relations, performance reviews, resource management, inventory, and EEO complaints. A completely new job. One he earned by being really, really good at a different one.
The exam to become a leader tested him on everything except leading.
And he's not the exception. He's the system. We promote people for the job they had, not the job they're stepping into, and then wonder why great performers struggle as managers. That's not a bad-manager problem. It's a bad--system problem.
For more than 20 years, I built leadership programs, coached managers, and developed talent. And for a long time, I thought I was solving the right problems.
Employees disengaged? New training. Managers struggling? More tools. Turnover climbing? Fix the people.
Then I started asking a different question. What if the people weren't the problem? What if the playbook had simply expired?
That question changed my career. I founded LKF Leadership Advisory to help organizations stop patching symptoms and start rethinking the systems, expectations, and behaviors that shape how people work together.
Ironically, it’s my husband’s story that changed the trajectory of my career.
My husband is a paramedic with the FDNY. For more than 15 years, his focus on every 911 call was the same: my safety, my partner's safety, my patient's safety. That was his whole world.
Then he went for lieutenant, which is the only career path for a paramedic. There's no matrix. He took the civil service exam, and it tested him on EKGs, patient care, medications, and protocols. Everything about the job he already had.
He passed with flying colors. We all went out to Brooklyn for the ceremony and celebrated him. And then Monday came.
Overnight, he went from patient care to scheduling, employee relations, performance reviews, resource management, inventory, and EEO complaints. A completely new job. One he earned by being really, really good at a different one.
The exam to become a leader tested him on everything except leading.
And he's not the exception. He's the system. We promote people for the job they had, not the job they're stepping into, and then wonder why great performers struggle as managers. That's not a bad-manager problem. It's a bad--system problem.
For more than 20 years, I built leadership programs, coached managers, and developed talent. And for a long time, I thought I was solving the right problems.
Employees disengaged? New training. Managers struggling? More tools. Turnover climbing? Fix the people.
Then I started asking a different question. What if the people weren't the problem? What if the playbook had simply expired?
That question changed my career. I founded LKF Leadership Advisory to help organizations stop patching symptoms and start rethinking the systems, expectations, and behaviors that shape how people work together.