Founder, Happier | Author, Happier Now
Nataly Kogan is a Russian-born, American entrepreneur. She came to the US as a refugee in her teen years, and resided in the projects outside of Detroit. From struggling to adapt to American society, to becoming a leading venture capitalist in a male-oriented industry, life’s challenges never stopped Nataly.
In her career, Nataly has held top positions at Manhattan-based firms McKinsey and Co. and Hudson Ventures. Additionally, she served as the only female board member at Constant Contact. Nataly was the VP of Consumer Experience at WHERE, where Nataly helped to sell PayPal in 2011.
Despite her accomplishments, Nataly found herself vastly unfulfilled. Initially a skeptic of the research related to the positive effects of mindfulness in our daily lives, Nataly decided to incorporate happiness into her own life—solely in order to prove the research wrong.
The more she applied these techniques, the more she immersed herself in and embraced the science and research—experiencing firsthand how effective happiness can be as a tool for realizing full potential in all aspects of work and life.
Rather than chasing “The Big Happy” of career, money and achievements, Nataly soon decided to dedicate her life to discovering and sharing the tools and best practices required to reframe the concept of “I’ll be happy when…” to the more powerful “I’m happier now because…”
With this mission in mind, Nataly launched Happier to an overwhelming global response and has since built a community that has shared over six million happy moments (and counting) on the Happier mobile application and website.
Since launching Happier, Nataly has been featured in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, New York Magazine and Time Magazine, and has appeared as an expert on Dr. Oz, Bloomberg TV, and “One World” with Deepak Chopra.
When she isn’t running Happier, she can be found painting in her art studio, doing creative projects with her daughter.
Emotional health and happiness aren’t some touchy-feely nice to have ideas. They are your and your organization’s greatest unrealized assets, that will help you thrive and lead a human-centered workplace culture where your employees and teams are dramatically more engaged, productive, and innovative.
In this practical and inspiring session, Nataly Kogan shares science-backed techniques to help you and your employees improve emotional health, increase resilience through challenges and change, and reconnect to a sense of purpose at work — and life!
In this powerful and honest talk, Nataly encourages women to cultivate their true purpose, learn how to deal with fear, and connect to their best self to move from a position of strength to achieve significant growth and fulfillment in their careers, regardless of the obstacles. In the wake of #MeToo and #TimesUp, Nataly sheds light on what it takes to build equitable, inclusive work environments where every voice is heard and every person empowered to succeed. Having spent her career in male-dominated industries of venture capital, finance, and technology, Nataly acknowledges the significant challenges women face and the frustrations of trying to meet extremely high personal expectations. In offering frank stories and paradigm shifts in thinking, she reveals practical strategies to help women cultivate a personal sense of well-being and insights into transforming workplace culture. Nataly shows that by connecting to their best self, leaning into fear, and dealing with bias, women can unlock more of their potential to thrive in today’s workplace.
Nataly reveals what individuals and organizations can do to not just cope but excel during times of change. Taking audiences through her research-backed 5 Core Happier Skills, Nataly shares practical strategies and easy-to-implement practices that will help leaders and employees adapt to change, manage stress and uncertainty, and find new opportunities to thrive.