Mark Mohammadpour: Portland-based Leadership Keynote Speaker
Mark’s signature approach to modern leadership turns tired, disconnected teams into healthy, respected, and trusted advisors for your customers.
Why Local Matters
For Portland Companies and Teams
The whole program costs less.
Without travel, Mark’s fees are already more favorable to your bottom line.
Discovery happens in person.
Stakeholder interviews and the pre-session team pulse over coffee, not over Zoom.
Follow-up is easy to say yes to.
A 30-day check-in is much easier to schedule.
Mark can make a 7:00 a.m. chapter breakfast.
Mark can lead those early board retreats, lunch-and-learns, and manager sessions you need someone to lead.
For Conferences Coming to Portland
Zero travel budget
On a fixed speaker budget, that's usually $1,500-3,000 back.
No weather risk on show day.
Based in Portland, Mark is within minutes of most venues.
A real site visit.
Mark can walk through your ballroom hours or days in advance and connect with your AV team.
He's not flying out after the mic drops.
Mark can attend the reception, connect with your attendees or employees, sit in on a breakout, or take the closing slot without a second travel day on your budget.
Mark Mohammadpour is a Portland, Oregon keynote speaker and executive facilitator. Booked by teams at:
“When we brought our 200-person team together, we wanted them to leave feeling healthier, connected, and more confident. Mark played a critical role in making that happen. Everyone walked out with a one-page accountability plan they genuinely believed they could follow. He didn't preach from a pedestal; he shared his own story, which made people comfortable to share theirs. That brought us closer as a team.”
— Michelle Taylerson, Amazon
Healthy teams are wealthy teams.
A healthy team knows its role, understands how its work influences the business, and is trusted to do its job. When leaders get communication, confidence, and connection right, three things happen.
Your people win.
Toxic culture is the number one predictor of people leaving and is 10x more powerful than pay.
MIT Sloan Management Review
Your leaders win.
People who trust their team leader are 12x more likely to be fully engaged.
ADP Research Institute
Your customers win.
Teams in the top quartile of employee engagement score about 10% higher on customer ratings.
Gallup
Mark has built healthy, confident, and connected teams under intense deadlines.
Mark ran global communications teams and knows the deadlines, the pressure, and what it looks like when good people burn out. After a 150-pound weight-loss journey, he now helps companies build healthy, confident, and connected teams through Keynote Conversations™, team facilitation, and offsites.
Testimonials from three different seats in the room:
The event planner.
“From our initial communication to his time on stage, he was professional, responsive, and genuinely committed to making his session a success.”
America’s Credit Unions
The decision maker.
“Our team was so impressed that we’ve hired Mark to host more conversations to ensure we’re living a Culture of Well-being. We cannot recommend him enough.”
Ashley Hickson, Mutual of Omaha
The attendee.
“I've seen a lot of workshops and speakers that promise to motivate, inspire and provide concrete tools, but fail to deliver. Mark nails this in the first ten minutes.”
Jacque Coe, APR, Fellow PRSA
Mark’s signature areas of focus:
Companies work with Mark to address at least one, if not all three, of these challenges.
Well-being and Burnout
Your people know they should take better care of themselves. They don’t know how to do it in a week that already doesn’t fit. Mark makes it specific enough to start Monday.
Communication
Miscommunication and lack of communication have a real impact. Mark works with teams to ensure clarity across the group on roles, expectations, and business impact.
Trust and Confidence
Lack of confidence and trust, which heightens stress and causes sleepless nights, is usually about something unsaid. Mark’s sessions get it said, kindly and directly.
“Mark was a featured speaker at our annual Leadership Conference to speak about the importance of purpose-driven work and empathetic leadership. According to our post-event survey responses from our leaders, Mark was engaging and insightful. His ability to connect with the audience and maintain that connection throughout his presentation was notable, and the key learnings were simple enough to implement immediately.”
– Tracy Darchini, The Springs Living, McMinnville, Oregon
What separates Mark from others? He shares the microphone with the room.
Mark doesn’t host pep talks that fade once he leaves the stage. These are working conversations that happen to be keynotes.
Real-time polling
No two engagements are the same. The room sees the results in real time.
Built for your room
Mark interviews your stakeholders before the event. Your people’s own words show up on the screen. That’s why attendees say it felt written for them.
Actionable
Participants leave with a commitment, a decision, a next step in their own handwriting as an artifact that extends the conversation.
Don’t take Mark’s word for it.
99% of attendees rate Mark’s sessions as valuable.
98% of attendees want to watch Mark speak again.
100% of clients say they will hire Mark again.
Verified independently by Talkadot. See the live scores here.
“We were thrilled to have Mark Mohammadpour join us for our recent all-company in-person event. This was Mark’s second time presenting for our organization—his first being a powerful manager training on empathy. This time, as our closing day keynote speaker, he once again did a fantastic job. From the very beginning, Mark was flexible and open to tailoring his message to meet our needs and expectations. He thoughtfully wove in the theme of our gathering along with our core values, tying everything together in a way that truly resonated with our team. His keynote was both motivational and relevant, delivered with energy and authenticity that kept everyone fully engaged. Mark’s words left us inspired and motivated, and we deeply appreciated his professionalism, adaptability, and the meaningful impact of his presentation.”
— Sue Schubert, Director of Human Resources, Oregon Catholic Press
Book Mark for your event.
Email Mark at mark@chasingthesunpdx.com, call him at 360.609.1077, or fill out the form below.
Mark will respond to you within one business day.
Frequently asked questions:
Where is Mark based, and where does he travel?
Mark is based in Portland, Oregon. He speaks and facilitates at events across the country and internationally, and travels for keynotes, offsites, and multi-day leadership retreats.
Our conference is national. Will a Portland-based speaker connect with our audience?
Mark speaks nationwide and has worked with teams at Amazon, Microsoft, Adobe, Autodesk, Mutual of Omaha, and UnitedHealthcare, plus national associations including PRSA, SHRM, and NAHB. Portland is where he's based, not the range of the work. Booking local simply removes travel from your budget.
We're holding our conference in Portland. Can booking a local speaker save on our budget?
Yes. A Portland-based speaker removes airfare, hotel, ground transport, and per diem from the speaker line — typically $1,500 to $3,000 per session. Many planners use that to add a breakout or a follow-up workshop instead.
Can Mark speak at the Oregon Convention Center?
Yes. Mark speaks at venues throughout the Portland metro area, including the Oregon Convention Center, the Portland Expo Center, and downtown conference hotels. He can visit the room in advance to check sightlines and test the live polling with your AV team.
Can Mark do more than one session at our conference?
Yes, and being local makes it easier. An opening keynote plus a breakout, or a keynote plus a leadership workshop for your board, costs no extra travel. He can also stay for the reception rather than leaving for a flight.
What is a Keynote Conversation?
It is a keynote that your audience actively takes part in throughout. Instead of listening to Mark for an hour, they answer live polls, work through real situations, and decide together what to change. Everyone participates. They leave with one thing they can use immediately.
Does Mark customize the session?
Every time. Before the event, he interviews your stakeholders and asks your people what is actually happening on their teams. Their answers show up on the screen. That is why attendees say the talk felt written for them.
What is the difference between a keynote and team facilitation?
A keynote starts the conversation in a big room. Facilitation finishes it in a small one. In a facilitated session, Mark sits with your team, names the friction nobody has said out loud, and guides the group to a plan with owners and dates.
What is The Three-Point Impact?
Three steps: the keynote that opens the conversation, a facilitated team session where the team makes real decisions, and follow-up coaching that holds people to them. Most sessions fade by Friday. The Three-Point Impact is what stops that.
Who hires Mark?
Chief human resources officers, VPs of people and culture, conference program chairs, and CEOs who know their team is stuck. Clients include Amazon, Mutual of Omaha, UnitedHealthcare, Autodesk, Holland America, and America's Credit Unions.
What happens after the session ends?
That depends on the format. A keynote ends with every attendee holding a written commitment. A facilitated session ends with a written plan naming decisions, owners, and dates. The Three-Point Impact adds coaching afterward, which is what makes the change hold past the first month.
What does an engagement cost?
The fee depends on the format, the length of the session, travel, and whether you add a follow-up workshop or coaching. Email mark@chasingthesunpdx.com with your date, location, and audience size, and you will have a number back within one business day.