Dr. Rui Pedro Silva – Leadership reimagined: Transformation through courage, humanity and methodology
Rui Pedro Silva is a global top executive at Adidas, TEDx speaker, author, and a leading voice on leadership transformation and sustainable change. With impressive authenticity, he combines personal resilience with scientifically sound leadership.
Whether as Vice President at Adidas or as a sought-after keynote speaker, Rui inspires people and organizations worldwide to shape change from within.
Rui Pedro Silva’s Lecture topics
- Ordinary People, Extraordinary Leadership
What global changemakers teach us about leading with heart.
From Uganda to Singapore, Rui Pedro Silva has interviewed people who created extraordinary impact with limited resources. Paired with his own story — from humble beginnings in Portugal to leading at Adidas while navigating ADHD and OCD — he reveals the deeper truths of leadership: it’s not about titles or skills, but about who you are when it matters most.
- What Sports Teach Us About Leadership
High-performance habits from the world’s greatest game.
From interviews with 60+ football legends of Portugal and Brazil to his role at Adidas, Rui Pedro Silva uncovers the habits and mindsets that drive champions. He shows how these lessons apply to business leadership, inspiring teams to embrace discipline, resilience, and teamwork.
- The Brutal Truth About Transformation
Why most transformations fail — and how to make yours succeed.
Rui Pedro pulls back the curtain on corporate transformation with brutal honesty. Drawing from 20 years leading global change paired with his own scientific research and findings, he shares hard-earned lessons and stories that reveal why organizations stumble — and what leaders must do differently to truly deliver change.
- The Four Floors of Success
How to turn bold visions into practical results.
Every company has big ambitions, but few know how to build them step by step. Rui shares real-world stories of businesses that transformed by moving through four “floors” — from defining a clear vision to executing with precision. A simple, powerful roadmap for results.
- Crafting a Culture That Lasts
The hidden architecture of thriving organizations.
Culture is more than words on a wall — it’s the values people live by, the behaviors leaders model, the traits teams embody, and the shared stories that hold it all together. Drawing on global leadership experience, Rui Pedro Silva shows how to design culture with intention, turning it into a competitive advantage that endures long after strategies and structures change.
About Rui Pedro Silva
Born in northern Portugal and raised in modest circumstances, Rui Pedro Silva struggled with mental health challenges such as ADHD and obsessive-compulsive disorder for over two decades. But it was precisely this that helped him develop a strength that today makes him an exceptional leadership expert. His career has taken him to senior positions at Adidas, Maersk, ERIKS, and SONAE – across six countries.
He is currently Global Vice President of Leadership and Talent Development at Adidas. In this role, he not only designs programs, but also brings about real transformations in the thinking and actions of managers. His best-selling book Pensa Digital Mas Não Compliques and his Ph.D. in Behavioral Transformation show that Rui combines practical experience with academic depth.
With his self-developed models (including ASCEND, FRAME, ALIGN, ENRICH), Rui Pedro Silva creates structured approaches for personal and organizational development.
He inspires with his lively manner, humor, and ability to convey even complex topics in an understandable and moving way.