SPEAKER · AUTHOR · TEACHER · RESEARCHER · FOUNDER
SARAH
Deane
Advancing the science of human energy and performance — with original research, a proprietary algorithm, a Masters in AI and a decade of applied work understanding human capacity behind every talk.
SXSW
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Gartner
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SHRM
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Wall Street Journal
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Reworked
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Business Insider
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World Leaders in Data and AI Forum
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Thrive Global
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Stanford University
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Huffington Post
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The Street
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HRWest
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CIO Magazine
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Psychology Today
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SXSW ● Gartner ● SHRM ● Wall Street Journal ● Reworked ● Business Insider ● World Leaders in Data and AI Forum ● Thrive Global ● Stanford University ● Huffington Post ● The Street ● HRWest ● CIO Magazine ● Psychology Today ●
About Sarah
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Sarah Deane is a researcher, teacher, and founder advancing the science of human energy — and its relationship to performance, health, and how we live and work. As CEO of MEvolution, she has spent nearly a decade exploring, applying, and refining her understanding of human energy as a measurable asset — mapping its inputs and outputs, identifying what drains and restores it, and quantifying its direct relationship to human performance. Her work is grounded in original, proprietary research that turns these insights into evidence-based, immediately actionable frameworks.
She has facilitated hundreds of workshops and trainings globally — in person and virtually — spanning Fortune 50 to start-up, corporate to clinical settings. She holds an MEng in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, has led programs at Fortune 50 scale, studied human behavior around the globe, taught at Stanford University, spoken at conferences such as SXSW and Gartner, and was named Reworked Contributing Author of the Year 2025. To every engagement she brings research, practical application, and a no-nonsense determination to get to what actually works.
"My favorite thing is seeing the lightbulb turn on — those ah-ha moments that transform mindsets and disrupt ways of thinking. I bring research, practical application, and a good dose of sarcasm. You can trust me to tell you how it is."
— Sarah Deane
NPS 90
SPEAKER RATING
AUTHOR OF THE YEAR
Reworked, Workplace and Leadership
4.9/5
STANFORD COURSE RATING
3x HR TODAY MVP
Leadership · Analytics · What’s next in HR
A story build on curiosity, data, and a desire to make a difference.
THE JOURNEY
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Hailing from London, Sarah ended up in heart of Silicon Valley, living in Spain, New York and Mexico City. She has spent the last 10 years of her career asking a single, deceptively simple question: What does it actually take for people to thrive? Her path from AI engineer to founder — from Fortune 50 corridors to global stages — has been driven by data and a determination to find what actually works.
The Foundation
Engineer, London → World
Sarah graduated with an MEng in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence (nearly two decades ago), beginning a career where she would spend years using her extraordinary ability to see connections in data and her novel approach to measurement systems to change the way people think and behave.
Fortune 50
Hewlett-Packard — Worldwide Scale
At HP, Sarah held a variety of roles, including leading the Worldwide Workplace Experience Program serving over 320,000 global employees — and created and ran the Experience Lab at HQ. She built deep fluency in designing for human behavior at enterprise scale, studying experience, engagement, and productivity through a distinctly scientific lens.
The Pivot
EffectUX — The Frustration that Sparked a Framework
Fed up with data that gave insight without a clear path to act on it, Sarah built a methodology for quantifying hard-to-measure goals — one that also surfaced the roadmap forward. She then started her first company, EffectUX, recognized in IDC's Peerscape as an industry best practice. Clients included:
In 2017, during this chapter, the seed of the Energy Management Quotient was first planted.
Today · MEvolution
The Science of Human Energy — Fully Realized
Building on the EMQ algorithm developed in 2017, Sarah founded MEvolution — dedicated to advancing the science of human energy and performance. Her framework has been applied across enterprise organizations, leadership development, youth programs, and healthcare settings.
HER CORE PROPOSITION
Performance = Capability
× the Capacity to Execute
That capacity is determined by the brain's available energy — and how effectively it is used. This is the foundation of everything Sarah researches, teaches, and speaks about.
PROPRIETARY RESEARCH
The Energy Management Quotient
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Sarah brings original, proprietary research to the stage — the Energy Management Quotient is a data-driven algorithm she developed in 2017 and has been refining ever since. Built on over 1,200 indicators, it measures human energy as a quantifiable, actionable asset and gives her an unusually deep understanding of exactly what drives — and depletes — human capacity.
It is the scientific foundation beneath everything she teaches.
Selection of Podcast Appearances
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Future Worlds TL;DR
How do we create more inclusive start-ups?
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AFN Network Expert Session
Building Capacity and Harnessing the Power of Human Energy
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Opportunity Knocks Podcast
Secrets to Unlocking Human Potential
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Get Carried Away Podcast
Train Your Mind Ft. Sarah Deane
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Awesome Inside Out Podcast
Energy Management: the single most effective tool to achieving health and happiness.
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emPowered
Leveraging data to cultivate harmonious workplace cultures.
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Women Changing The World Podcast
Personal Energy Management: personal sustainability, energy management, and how to go from exhausted to thriving.
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Impact Table Podcast
Your Personal Energy Blueprint with Sarah Deane
Speaker
From AI Ambition to AI ROI
Leadership Action Network Event
Human Excellence in the Age of AI
World Leaders in Data and AI Forum, San Diego CA
Reputation Management: Energy Management
Guest Lecturer, Stanford University Graduate School of Business
Energize Your Life: A Scientific Approach
Guest Lecturer, Stanford Continuing Studies
Life Hacks to Be a Power Leader
A Watermark Webinar
HRWest: Unleashing the Whole Human Potential
Virtual Conference
The Global Workplace Wellness Summit
San Mateo, CA
Up Leveling Your Confidence
Los Angeles, CA
SXSW: The Productive Workplace — UX, Technology & You
Austin, TX
Energy Management for Health and Longevity
Soul-Full, Holistic Women's Health and Wellness
Managing Energy as an Asset
Co-teacher, Vitality & Performance in the Age of AI · Stanford University, School of Medicine
EmpowHer: Women in Corporate America
Panelist, Centene Corporation — 2,000+ employees
Gartner: Designing for Human Capacity
Virtual Conference
A.I., Culture & the Non-Desk Workforce
San Francisco, CA
Executive Presence for Women
Stanford University, CA
Invent Your Future Conference
Santa Clara, CA
Energy Management: The Single Most Effective Tool to Achieving Health and Happiness
Awesome Inside Out Podcast
World Leaders in Data & AI Forum
San Diego, CA
A sample of previous speaking engagements
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Host
The BeEnergized Fireside Chat Series
Sarah hosted and facilitated, along with Craig Hinkley, the popular BeEnergized chat series that focused on raising awareness about energy management, exploring mental and emotional wellness, and bringing different viewpoints to the audience from science to leadership and personal life. Not afraid to ask hard questions, sharing her own experiences, and her standard no B.S. approach, these chats have been called informative, provocative, and inspiring.
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Stanford Continuing Studies students evaluate every instructor. These are Sarah's average scores across all course evaluations.
NPS
89
Preparedness
5/5
Knowledge
5/5
Class Management
4.9/5
"Sarah has always impressed me with her intuitively scientific approach. She is able to translate complex tasks into a few easy steps by combining her deep knowledge of the brain with data-rich analysis of how people react to their environment."
Renee Niemi · SVP Plantronics
Teacher
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Stanford Continuing Studies
Sarah created two courses at Stanford — The Power of Energy Management (WELL18) and Living Your Values (WELL17), both achieving, excellent and above average ratings for both course content, experience, and her abilities as an instructor. She also guest lectures, including experience at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and School of Medicine on managing energy as the currency of performance.
Course Evaluation Instructor Feedback
What Sarah Speaks About
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Sarah focuses on harnessing the power of human energy and capacity — how to unlock, manage, and optimize it for sustained high performance. Every talk is grounded in her original research and adapted to the audience.
Human Excellence in the Age of AI
What it takes to perform — and sustain that performance — when AI transforms everything around us. The human side of the AI equation.
Managing Energy as the Currency of Performance
The science of personal energy: what fuels it, what drains it, and how to optimize it as a measurable, strategic asset.
Designing for Human Capacity
How organizations build cultures and environments that fuel — rather than quietly drain — the people inside them.
Authenticity, Values & Sustained Leadership
How personal core values connect directly to performance, engagement, and the kind of leadership that doesn't burn out.
From AI Ambition to AI ROI
Why AI initiatives stall — and how building human capacity is the missing factor in actually delivering results at scale.
Sustaining the Capacity to Care
The science of human energy applied to healthcare and caregivers — what it takes to keep showing up fully for the people who depend on you, without burning out.
Writer
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Sarah's writing spans nearly two decades and multiple fields — from employee and customer experience, to data and measurement, to human energy and capacity. Her thought leadership has followed her career: each chapter grounded in the questions she was asking, the research she was doing, and what she found actually worked.
Sarah's writing has won three HR Today MVP Awards. She was named Reworked Contributing Author of the Year 2025 for her work exploring human capacity in the context of leadership, organizational effectiveness, and the age of AI.
The Wellness Formula
Based on original research into the 12 factors needed to perform and feel your best throughout the day — Sarah's evidence-based framework for sustainable human performance.
WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP
Empowering a diverse pipeline to leadership
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Sarah draws on her research and tools to support women and underrepresented leaders — helping them build the mental capacity to perform, lead, and sustain that leadership without burning out.
"Every little girl who thinks she can't is watching. We owe it to her to show her she can. And the only thing standing between who she sees today and who she could become — is us, working on ourselves."
— Sarah Deane
Ready to book?
Bring Sarah to your next event
Sarah doesn't just inspire — she equips. Audiences leave with clarity, tools, and a roadmap they can use the next day.
Keynotes ● Conferences ● Company Events ● Panels ● Workshops