Saray Khumalo

Helping leaders and teams perform under pressure, navigate uncertainty, and achieve extraordinary results through resilience, purpose, and transformational leadership.

Book Guest Speaker Saray Khumalo on 067 843 2362 or email directly to info@guestspeaker.co.za

Guest Speaker Saray Khumalo is an award-winning mountaineer, transformational leadership speaker, executive coach, and business leader who inspires organisations to build resilience, embrace change, and perform at their highest level. Combining her experience as a corporate executive with extraordinary achievements in mountaineering, she delivers powerful keynote presentations that equip leaders and teams to thrive in challenging environments.

As an experienced business executive, Saray has held leadership roles within some of South Africa’s leading financial institutions, specialising in eCommerce, customer loyalty, and business transformation. Drawing on both her corporate career and expedition experience, she helps organisations develop resilient leaders, high-performing teams, and a mindset capable of navigating complexity and uncertainty.

In 2019, on her fourth attempt, Saray became the first Black African woman to summit Mount Everest and complete the prestigious Seven Summits Challenge. Her remarkable journey stands as a testament to perseverance, courage, and determination, demonstrating that setbacks are often stepping stones to success.

Saray helps leaders perform under pressure by translating lessons from Everest into practical leadership frameworks for boards, executive teams, and organisations navigating risk, complexity, and change. Her presentations combine inspiring storytelling with actionable leadership insights, enabling audiences to build resilience, maintain focus, and perform when the stakes are highest.

Beyond the mountains, Saray is the founder of Summits With a Purpose, an initiative that has raised funds to establish physical and digital libraries in disadvantaged African schools. Passionate about education and literacy, she believes empowering future generations is one of the most powerful ways to create lasting social change.

Her achievements have earned widespread recognition, including numerous national awards for both leadership and sporting excellence. In addition to becoming the first Black African woman to summit Mount Everest and complete the Seven Summits Challenge, she is also the first Black woman to complete the Last Degree to the South Pole, cementing her place as one of Africa’s most accomplished endurance adventurers.

Saray Khumalo’s sessions are particularly well suited to:

• Corporate conferences and leadership events
• Executive and board leadership teams
• Organisations navigating change and transformation
• Women in leadership conferences
• Sales and high-performance teams
• International conferences and business events