Phil Gilbert

Phil Gilbert is a transformation leader, author, startup entrepreneur and former IBM executive who has led one of the largest and most complex culture change efforts in modern business. After selling his third startup to IBM, Phil was asked to take on a formidable challenge: fundamentally change how work was done across the company—impacting nearly 400,000 employees in 180 countries. With no direct authority and no ability to mandate adoption, he was forced to rethink how transformation actually succeeds at scale. Rather than treating change as a rollout or directive, Phil approached it as a product—designed to earn buy-in, tested with real teams, and refined through adoption.

That work became the foundation for his model, Irresistible Change™, and later for his book, Irresistible Change: A Blueprint for Earning Buy-In and Breakout Success. The transformation has been studied as a Harvard Business School case, documented in the award-winning film The Loop, and featured in The New York Times, Fortune, Fast Company and dozens of other media outlets. This work has also been recognized with induction into the New York Foundation for the Arts’ Hall of
Fame and appointment as an Oklahoma Creativity Ambassador.

During his tenure at IBM, Phil also co-chaired the Global Women’s Executive Council and founded the Racial Equity in Design program—reflecting his belief that diversity in all its forms is key to driving differentiated business outcomes.

Today, Phil works with senior leaders around the world who are accountable for high-stakes change driven by technology, AI, culture, and operating-model shifts. As a speaker, he brings candid, firsthand insight from leading change at scale, paired with practical frameworks leaders can apply immediately. His work consistently emphasizes a simple truth: lasting transformation cannot be mandated—it must be earned.

Phil Gilbert lives in Austin, Texas.