Member since October 2025
Tracy Lawrence is a sought-after speaker, leadership advisor, and author who helps leaders navigate disruption and remain relevant in a rapidly changing business environment. She is known for translating complexity into clear, practical insight—particularly at moments when leaders are being asked to make high-stakes decisions without reliable precedent.
Before becoming a leadership advisor, Tracy was a senior executive in the media industry, where she held P&L responsibility and ran businesses inside fast-growing, highly competitive organizations. That operating experience gives her a rare perspective: she understands leadership not only as an advisor, but as someone who has lived the pressure of making real decisions, managing teams, and delivering results in volatile environments.
As the founder and CEO of The Lawrence Advisory, Tracy now works closely with CEOs, senior leadership teams, and boards across media, finance, nonprofit, and purpose-driven organizations. Her work focuses on adaptive leadership, organizational culture, and closing the gap between strategy and reality—especially as AI and shifting workforce expectations reshape what effective leadership looks like.
Tracy was the inaugural Executive in Residence at USC Marshall School of Business. She is a contributor to Forbes , writing on leadership strategy. She is he author of the forthcoming book Disconnect: How Leaders Lose Relevance—and How to Get It Back. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Stanford University.
I am deeply passionate about helping people become the most effective and authentic versions of themselves—leaders who are aligned with their unique purpose, strengths, and capabilities, and who can bring that alignment into how they lead and live.
I began my career in marketing at MTV Networks in the 1990s—a time when pop culture and business were colliding in ways no one had ever seen. I was fresh out of Harvard Business School, armed with spreadsheets, case studies, and classical training in how business was “supposed” to work. Then I stumbled onto an ad: MTV Networks is looking for marketing people.
What the heck, I thought. That sounds like fun.
Thousands of résumés poured in. Somehow, I got an interview—and the job. On one of my first days, I joined a national conference call about Madonna’s latest music video, which featured full frontal nudity. Our mission? Figure out how to explain this to our distribution partners without losing our affiliates. I remember thinking, I can’t believe I’m getting paid to do this!
Cable television was exploding, and our networks were growing by double and triple digits. The executives who had been there from the start—many of them rock-and-roll radio veterans—had become legends and were treated as celebrities.
But even then, something didn’t sit right with me. As one of the few classically trained MBA's, I could see what others couldn’t admit: their success wasn’t just brilliance. It was timing and alignment with market forces. Through the years, I witnessed firsthand the rise and later the fall of a cultural icon. The experience led me to my deep interest in the topic of how to build sustained leadership relevance.
My best story is my origin story
I began my career in marketing at MTV Networks in the 1990s—a time when pop culture and business were colliding in ways no one had ever seen. I was fresh out of Harvard Business School, armed with spreadsheets, case studies, and classical training in how business was “supposed” to work. Then I stumbled onto an ad: MTV Networks is looking for marketing people.
What the heck, I thought. That sounds like fun.
Thousands of résumés poured in. Somehow, I got an interview—and the job. On one of my first days, I joined a national conference call about Madonna’s latest music video, which featured full frontal nudity. Our mission? Figure out how to explain this to our distribution partners without losing our affiliates. I remember thinking, I can’t believe I’m getting paid to do this!
Cable television was exploding, and our networks were growing by double and triple digits. The executives who had been there from the start—many of them rock-and-roll radio veterans—had become legends and were treated as celebrities.
But even then, something didn’t sit right with me. As one of the few classically trained MBA's, I could see what others couldn’t admit: their success wasn’t just brilliance. It was timing and alignment with market forces. Through the years, I witnessed firsthand the rise and later the fall of a cultural icon. The experience led me to my deep interest in the topic of how to build sustained leadership relevance.
My best story is my origin story