Speaker · Author · Board Director
lululemon Global CIO · Forbes CIO Next 50 · $2B → $10B
I help leaders build the trust, culture, and capabilities that turn technology investments into lasting change. Former CIO of lululemon. Author of Chief Impact Officer.
Keynotes & Podcasts
Primary Keynote
Chief Impact Officer: Human Leadership in the Age of AI
AI doesn't fix your culture. It reveals it. Drawing from 30 years scaling companies like lululemon, Nordstrom, and REI, Julie delivers a talk built on three pillars: Safety Before Scale, Influence Over Authority, and Culture as Competitive Infrastructure. Real stories, no frameworks you'll forget before dessert, and at least one moment that will stay with you long after the conference ends.
Julie doesn't do corporate platitudes. Her talks blend hard-won lessons from scaling billion-dollar transformations with the kind of honesty you don't usually hear from the stage — about failure, about being underestimated, about the masks we wear and what it costs us to wear them.
She's not a retired executive on the speaker circuit. She's actively advising boards and leadership teams, which means the insights are current, the examples are real, and the bullshit detector is finely calibrated.
Publishing June 16, 2026 · Microsoft 8080 Books
Real transformation comes from human, not just artificial, intelligence
A deeply personal leadership memoir woven with the unvarnished business reality of transforming a global company. Julie shares how being a gay woman in technology shaped the way she led — and why authenticity became her greatest competitive advantage.
While scaling lululemon from $2B to $10B, she discovered that the hardest parts of transformation had nothing to do with systems or code. They were about trust, identity, and unlearning long-standing habits of self-editing and silence.
"The leadership dopamine we all need in the AI era. Julie's authentic reflections provide a precise blueprint for people-first transformation."
— Venki Krishnababu, CTO Dutch Bros, ex CTO Premera, ex CTO lululemon
Press & Media
About Julie
"My mom was an upholsterer and a seamstress. I think of gold thread as the beauty that connects our stories, the craftsmanship that holds transformation together."
Julie Averill spent two decades proving that culture isn't soft — it's the infrastructure that determines whether transformation succeeds or fails. As Global CIO and EVP at lululemon, she led an eight-year transformation that grew the company from $2B to over $10B in revenue while building world-class technology teams across four continents.
Today, through Gold Thread LLC, she advises boards, CEOs, and founders at the critical intersection of technology, strategy, and organizational readiness — the space where most transformations stall.
Chief Impact Officer
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Let's Work Together
Whether you need a keynote that challenges your leadership team's assumptions about AI, a podcast appearance or panel discussion, or an advisor who's navigated what you're navigating — Julie is available for select speaking engagements and advisory relationships.