Kevin O’Leary
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Toronto , Ontario
Entrepreneur & Investor | Shark Tank Star | Business Strategy & Finance Expert
- Videos
- Expertise
- Podcasts
- Media Interviews
- Books
- Articles
- Business Growth
- Innovation & Creativity
- Brand Strategy & Storytelling
- Sales
- Strategic Thinking
- Business Management
- Entrepreneurship
- Mergers & Acquisitions
- Small Business Development
KEVIN O’LEARY BIOGRAPHY
Kevin O’Leary is a Canadian entrepreneur, investor, author, and television personality known internationally for his expertise in business, finance, and market strategy. He is recognized for his appearances on Shark Tank, Dragons’ Den, and The Lang & O’Leary Exchange.
Born in Montreal, Quebec, in 1954, Kevin O’Leary grew up in a multicultural family with Irish and Lebanese heritage. His mother, a skilled investor, taught him the value of saving, reinvestment, and portfolio balance—principles that became the foundation of his future success.
Kevin O’Leary earned an honours bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies and Psychology from the University of Waterloo and an MBA in Entrepreneurship from the Ivey Business School at Western University. His early career began at Nabisco, where he developed expertise in brand management and marketing analytics.
He co-founded Special Event Television, producing sports programming before launching SoftKey Software Products in 1986. Under his leadership, SoftKey acquired multiple competitors, including The Learning Company, Mindscape, and Broderbund, creating a dominant global presence in educational software.
The 1999 sale of The Learning Company to Mattel for $3.7 billion established Kevin O’Leary as a leading figure in Canadian entrepreneurship. The deal remains one of the largest in the consumer software sector.
Following his exit from software, Kevin O’Leary became an active investor and fund manager. He founded O’Leary Ventures, a private venture capital firm, and O’Leary Funds, a mutual fund management company that grew to manage over $1 billion in assets.
Kevin O’Leary later launched O’Shares Investments, an exchange-traded fund company focused on rules-based investing. His disciplined, yield-oriented approach reflects his philosophy that every investment must generate measurable returns.
He has written multiple bestselling books, including Cold Hard Truth: On Business, Money & Life and Cold Hard Truth on Men, Women, and Money. His writing provides practical insights into finance, negotiation, and leadership, emphasizing accountability and value creation.
As an investor on Shark Tank, Kevin O’Leary evaluates new ventures with a focus on profitability, scalability, and founder integrity. He is known for his candid assessments and preference for structured deals that reward performance.
Beyond investing, Kevin O’Leary has appeared on Discovery Channel’s Project Earth, hosted Redemption Inc., and served as co-anchor of The Lang & O’Leary Exchange on CBC. His commentary on business and economics continues to influence policy and investment audiences worldwide.
Kevin O’Leary also ran for leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada in 2017, advocating for entrepreneurship, fiscal responsibility, and innovation within government.
An active philanthropist and patron of the arts, Kevin O’Leary supports charitable causes through proceeds from his photography and other creative ventures. He is also a member of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin and a lifelong enthusiast of wine, watches, and fine art.
Kevin O’Leary continues to mentor founders, invest globally, and speak to organizations on the principles of disciplined investing, market leadership, and sustainable success.
His international profile spans media, academia, and finance, with a reputation built on transparency, measurable outcomes, and strategic execution.
Kevin O’Leary remains one of the most influential voices in global entrepreneurship and financial education, combining decades of business experience with a commitment to teaching others how to build, scale, and sustain success.
Kevin O’Leary Topic Presentations
Kevin O’Leary Toronto , Ontario, Canada delivers keynote presentations, workshops, fireside chats, moderated Q&A, and other presentation formats on a wide variety of topics. Each presentation is unique, customized and tailored for audiences, industries, conferences and event formats.
The Cold Hard Truth On Business Success
Investing With Discipline: Rules for Financial Independence
Leadership, Negotiation & Decision-making Under Pressure
The Future of the Economy: Markets, Innovation & Global Shifts
Building Wealth Through Entrepreneurship
Kevin O’Leary Speaking Testimonials
Kevin O’Leary Speaker Topic Ideas
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FAQ
How to book Kevin O’Leary for an event?
Kevin O’Leary keynote speaker is an expert presenter and has a wide range of experience speaking to a wide variety of audiences and organizations. Kevin O’Leary delivers keynotes, workshops & training sessions. They may also host or emcee events. Hire Kevin O’Leary from Toronto, Ontario for your event to inspire the audience to take action and make change in their work and their lives. Your workplace will benefit from our keynote speaker and their keynote talks and speeches will shift the mindsets or behaviours for the audience members in Canada.
Interested in booking Kevin O’Leary for an event?
Are you looking to hire Kevin O’Leary for your event? Kevin O’Leary Toronto, Ontario is a dynamic and engaging speaker that offers audiences researched content paired with expertise and a dynamic speaking ability. Kevin O’Leary is also a Canadian corporate consultant and coach and facilitates workshops and training sessions for a corporate audience. Kevin O’Leary is an expert keynote presenter and speaks on wide variety of topics. Hiring a great speaker for your event is important and working with a thought leader like Kevin O’Leary from Speakers Canada's roster will engage audiences into the content of the presentation to bring awareness and a fresh perspective for their approach to their work and their lives. Book Kevin O’Leary to educate, motivate and activate the audience through an interactive and entertaining presentation at corporate meetings and gatherings.
Known as a popular key note speaker in Canada, Kevin O’Leary creates life changing experiences for the participants with practical insights and strategic advice they can implement right after the session. Working with one of our leading expert speaker like Kevin O’Leary from Toronto, Ontario offers organizations a fresh perspective to assist the people of the organization. No matter if it is a government, association, or business crowd, Kevin O’Leary is a perfect speaker for your event. Through unique practical insights for trending topics and years experience speaking to different organizations, Kevin O’Leary focuses on changing individuals to make better decisions at work and their lives. No matter if you are holding an in person or virtual event, having an influential speaker such as Kevin O’Leary will engage, motivate, and activate the audience to make a change in their lives and inspire action for results to meet organizational goals. Your workforce will benefit from Kevin O’Leary's presentations and speeches, with measurable results set to shift the people of the organization and core direction of the company. Book Kevin O’Leary speaker for your annual general meeting, conference, summit, or convention in Canada.
How much does it cost to hire Kevin O’Leary for a keynote presentation or virtual event?
Kevin O’Leary is an expert professional key note speaker with a lot of experience speaking and delivering engaging talks to organizations and audiences in Canada. Each of Speaker Bureau Canada's talent have different ways to assess their fees, and Kevin O’Leary speaker fee ranges depending on the size of the audience, event format (in person or virtual), event location, and if the organization booking them is a non profit, association, government department/government agency or business/corporation. The speakers we work with are flexible with their fees, and it is important for us to learn more about your event before we approach them, as it is our role to work for you, and to help you find a speaker within budget.
Please contact Speakers Bureau of Canada and provide us with your event details so that we can contact Kevin O’Leary to check availability or confirm the pricing and associated costs to hire a great speaker like Kevin O’Leary for your event. As Kevin O’Leary's agent and as a Canadian top speaker bureau and talent agency for speakers, we are able to propose each event opportunity from each host organization's behalf to try to help you get in touch with Kevin O’Leary and confirm them for your in person or online meeting/event. We can also provide and advise on the booking process and potentially negotiate their fee. Speakers Canada is a client focused speaker agency, and we work for you in finding good speakers for your team meetings and booking processes.
Kevin O’Leary Disclaimer
Speakers Bureau Canada assists companies and event planning teams seeking to hire talent like Kevin O’Leary for speaking engagements, virtual meetings, conference appearances, training sessions and workshops facilitations. Our Canadian speakers bureau does not claim to exclusively represent Kevin O’Leary, however they are represented by Speakers Canada, and we work with them closely for their Canadian speaking opportunities and bookings. As Canada's top speaker bureau, we represent Canadian motivational keynote speakers and professional guest speakers that will be available on your upcoming events date and location that are withing the budget. Our talented bureau speaker booking agency can help find business speakers or celebrity speakers that aligns with each organization, audience, event theme and the topic themes you hope for the speaker to address in their presentation.
When SBC receives a request to book Kevin O’Leary we provide you with their speaker fees, travel costs and check their schedules. We work closely with the host organization's event planning team and the speaker to handle the logistics and to relay or negotiate associated costs. Our talented team members then will work with our talent directly or their agent/manager/assistant to confirm the Canadian speaker fee and travel expenses, so that event planning teams can receive an official quote for the speaker appearing at the event. Speaker fees and travel costs vary per speaker and our role is to contact Kevin O’Leary about your event, after we have connected with the event organizers to learn all the event details and/or conference program. Each booking request is unique since session durations and audience sizes can vary which may affect the speaker's fees. If you are looking to hire Kevin O’Leary, we recommend filling out the booking request form so a booking agent from Speakers Bureau Canada can get in touch with our talent to help you coordinate with your team to engage the speaker for a successful event.











