Todd Sampson
Adventurer, Award-winning Documentary Maker, Presenter & Businessman
A leading entrepreneur, media personality, and global keynote speaker, Todd has a unique ability to combine business insight with creativity. His presentations inspire audiences to embrace innovation, challenge conventional thinking, and unlock human potential.
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Adventurer, award-winning documentary-maker, television presenter and businessman, Todd Sampson has been ranked one of the most influential executives in Australia by The Financial Review and News Limited.
Todd is also the breakout star of the hit ABC show Gruen and a co-host on the Channel 10 news show, The Project. He is the writer, producer and host of the award-winning documentary series Redesign My Brain, Life on the Line, Mirror Mirror and Discovery International adventure-science series BodyHack.
Todd is the former Chief Executive Officer and Non-executive Chair of the advertising agency Leo Burnett. During his time with the agency, they won Agency of the Year twelve times on a local, regional and global level and were in the world’s Top 10 Creative agencies three times. As CEO of Leo Burnett, Todd was one of few CEOs in Australia to come from a strategic background. He had been a Managing Partner and Head of Strategy for over 10 years and during that time helped lead some of the most successful and creative agencies in the world.
He is the co-creator of the Earth Hour initiative, which has been recognised as one of the best ideas in the world. The campaign won the Titanium Lion at Cannes and was awarded the Yahoo Chair for Innovation and B&T’s Creative Campaign of the Year in Australia. In 2009, Earth Hour was the biggest environmental movement in history with over 1 billion people participating in over 4000 cities around the world.
In 2013 Todd was the subject of a ground-breaking science documentary series Redesign My Brain for ABC TV. The series, for which Todd was writer, producer and host, won the 2014 AACTA Award for Best Documentary Television Program.
Poised, articulate and humorous, Todd Sampson is an engaging speaker who is highly sought after for his insights surrounding creativity, advertising, marketing, management, leadership and personal achievement.
Outside of work, Todd enjoys mountain climbing and has climbed to the top of Mount Everest unguided.
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Brain Power
Todd Sampson is the writer, host and human guinea pig of the award-winning Discovery Science Series called REDESIGN MY BRAIN. The premise of the series was simple. For over 70 years, science has told us that our brains are fixed. You are born with the brain you have;-]2uj’ it develops rapidly until age 7 and then it starts a steady decline from age 30 until you die. There was nothing you could do about it. But science has now proven that to be false. In fact, modern science has now shown that our brain is plastic and that we ALL have the ability to improve it at any age and at any time. This presentation will show you how to boost your Creativity and Brain Power.
Todd will not only take you behind the scenes of this extraordinary scientific journey, he will also provide you with the practical tools, strategies and techniques to improve your brain. We are all capable of more than we realise – and modern science is showing us how.
Creativity and Fear
In this compelling keynote, Todd Sampson unpacks the two most powerful forces in leadership and innovation: creativity and fear.
He shares the origin story of Earth Hour, now one of the largest global environmental movements in history—an idea born in a Sydney hotel room by a small, ordinary group of people using nothing more than their imagination. That story becomes the anchor for a deeper message: creativity is the last competitive advantage in a world increasingly driven by algorithms and sameness.
Drawing on personal experiences—from being trapped in a blizzard on Denali to taking the reins as a reluctant CEO—Todd reveals how fear is often the invisible force that kills our best ideas before they begin.
Using humour, insight, and actionable techniques, he shows how creativity can be learned, and fear managed—if we’re willing to be braver for just five minutes longer.
This talk is both a rallying cry and a roadmap for leaders and teams to embrace bold thinking, take action, and tap into the creative potential that exists within all of us.
Because if Earth Hour taught us anything, it’s that ordinary people with a simple idea can help change the world.
