David Goldsmith is known for solving complex challenges quickly—
often achieving in hours what organizations have worked on for months or years.
-50+ Countries
-300+ Industries
-NYU Professor (12 Years)
-15th Printing (Paid to THINK)
-Advisor to Global CEOs & Leadership Teams
-400+ Podcast Conversations
-Built & Led 20+ Businesses Worldwide
-Founder, Project Moon Hut Foundation
-3× TEDx (Hong Kong, Luxembourg, Dubai)
-Lived & Worked Across US, Europe, Asia
-A heart and lung clinic redesigned in 1 day after architects spent 3 months developing the plan.
-A 3,000-person manufacturing operation improved from 463 units per hour to 808 units per hour in a single day with no new equipment.
-The world’s largest shipping company spent 2 years working on a problem that was solved in 3 hours.
-Industry experts spent 7 months developing a global strategy that was redesigned in two hours and implemented worldwide.
-A CEO personally interviewed more than 100 speakers for an executive event serving leaders of multi-billion-dollar companies and only one was selected.
-A major international retail brand in over 52 countries spent 2 months working with a leading marketing firm and better answers appeared in 45 minutes.
-A senior new product executive spent 2 years trying to generate interest and with one sentence changed results appeared within a week.
-“David could have charged $1 million for the presentation and it would have been worth it,” was the CEO’s onstage response to his 150 person executive team.
David Goldsmith’s Speech Topics:
Paid to Think: Leading in an Interconnected Era
Reshape how leader think, decide, and perform across the organization.
Paid to THINK is a high-impact leadership session that helps individuals reshape how they approach their role, their decisions, and their contribution to the organization. Drawing from Enterprise Thinking, David brings together strategy, leadership, innovation, alliances, and forecasting to show how these elements work together in real environments. Rather than focusing on a single topic, the session connects multiple dimensions of how organizations operate so leaders can see more clearly, think more effectively, and act with greater precision. Participants walk away with a practical understanding of how to improve how they plan, prioritize, collaborate, and execute—allowing them to perform at a higher level and contribute more meaningfully to the success of the organization.
Organizations bring David in when they need to:
-Reshape how strategy is actually built and executed
-Turn thinking into structured action that produces results
-Break down silos and connect how the organization truly operates
-Bring a holistic approach to leadership, performance, and growth
-Redefine what’s possible by rethinking the past, present, and future
-Improve how decisions are made across all levels of the organization
-Equip leaders to perform at a higher level—consistently
A high-density session that changes how leaders think, operate, and perform.
Consulting from the Stage
David builds the keynote before he walks into the room.
Before the event, he works directly with select members of the organization—leaders, operators, and key voices inside the system—to understand what’s actually happening beneath the surface.
From those conversations, he builds a session specifically for that audience.
What follows on stage is not a presentation. What happens on stage is a clear, direct view of how the organization actually operates—where it’s working, where it’s not, and what needs to change.
Organizations bring David in when they need to:
-See clearly what is actually happening inside the organization
-Surface issues that are known—but not being addressed
-Understand how decisions, structure, and behavior are interacting
-Identify where the organization is getting in its own way
-Create alignment around what needs to change
-Built before the event. Delivered in the room. Understood immediately.
Videos:
Bio:
Strategic Advisor and Builder
David Goldsmith is President and Co-founder of the Goldsmith Organization, a consulting firm solving big challenges for executive clients worldwide in commerce, nonprofits, governments, militaries, and education. He is the Founder of the Project Moon Hut Foundation and Project Leader of the global social movement, Project Moon Hut’s work is to improve life on Earth for all species through the accelerated development of an earth-and-space based ecosystem over a 40 year horizon. He’s sat on boards of companies ranging from fintech to healthcare. David has hosted two podcast series including Age of Infinite and Redefining Tomorrow and has completed over 400 interviews. In addition to consulting and advising, David presents at events themed for executives on topics ranging from strategy and leadership to innovation, the future including topics regarding AI, robotics, machine learning, synthetic engineering, automation, and space.
Entrepreneurial Work
David is Co-founder of Buzd, LLC (San Francisco), a firm in which he is a patent holder for technological applications and products related to artificial intelligence, cell phone applications, battery technologies, and consumer products. David was the Co-founder of ecosystem.AI (San Francisco/Cape Town, SA), a predictive analytics and visualization company finding hidden value in the market and organizational complexity relationships through identified patterns and spatial trends to reveal how business and organizational ecosystems change over time.
He’s been Co-founder and CEO of TymSync, Inc. (San Diego), a patented-cellphone technology company; Chief Officer of Strategy for N2 (New York), a company specializing in SuperGrid and IOT technology for use in advanced smart city development for the future; and has been an adviser and stakeholder in several innovative startups from around the world; Chief Strategy Officer and Partner in COMO Global SA (Luxembourg) a software company with expertise in managed back end payment solutions for market networks and fully automated invoicing through to reconciliation for large enterprises.
Recognition and Teaching
David is the recipient of the Hollywood Producers’ first Global Visionary Disruptor Award for his work with the Project Moon Hut Foundation. In addition, Hollywood Producers also awarded David and Lorrie Goldsmith for their book, Paid to THINK: A Leader’s Toolkit for Redefining Your Future, a work for which David has earned comparisons to Peter Drucker, the father of modern-day management.
David has received awards and accolades for his entrepreneurial achievements in various industries. During his twelve years of professoriate at New York University, he received the university’s Excellence in Teaching Award. Meetings Magazine also named him as one of its 26 Hottest Speakers for his ability to deliver transformational and engaging “Consulting from the Stage” programs and spoke for the Wharton School of Business for an unprecedented five consecutive years. His content is drawn from the depth and diversity of 30 years of business and organizational experience in over 50 countries, as a practicing businessperson, strategist, and adviser to a global client base.
David’s clients include CEOs, presidents, and CXOs of organizations such as Ferrari, Maersk, Dole, Infosys, Wipro, Aetna, Accenture, Lufthansa, ITW, and others.
Life Beyond Work
David does not subscribe to an all-work and no-play lifestyle. David’s a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, has been a student pilot, experiencing a new culture with “locals” as a world traveler, designed and created his own furniture, a long time ago was a ski racer, loves to draw, paint, and sculpt, can get lost in time when swinging a hammer while doing drywall, plumbing, electrical work, spending time with family, or helping new friends and old. Those closest to David attest that he embodies the promise on the cover of Paid to THINK to Achieve More, Earn More, and Live More.
