Marisa Santoro

Marisa Santoro, a former Wall Street IT executive with a 21-year career in Financial Services, is the founder of the career leadership platform and Gutsy Leader community, In Our Shoes (www.InRShoes.com). She is a corporate leadership trainer, keynote speaker, career coach, diversity and inclusion consultant, and author of "Own Your Authority" (McGraw Hill) and "Influence Through Instinct".

Santoro's expertise in leadership and professional development, as well as effective business communication, has supported business leaders across various industries at organizations such as Pfizer, Merck, American Express, UBS, Anheuser-Busch, Allianz Global Investors, Sony Music, S&P Global, State Farm, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), New York Council of Nonprofits, Women in Tech International (WITI), Aetna Healthcare, New York University (NYU), NYU Langone Medical Center, and government agencies. She has also worked with New York and New Jersey municipalities.

A TEDx speaker and Woman of Influence award honoree from New York Business Journal and BizWomen.com, Santoro has been recognized for mentoring and coaching midcareer leaders, executives, healthcare professionals, and sales leaders to achieve higher levels of influence. She writes a career column for American City Business Journals, covering their how-to career and business strategy sections, with articles published across 44 cities in the United States.

Her TED talk, 'Speaking Without Apology,' guides professionals on how to detach from language that feeds into the 'Sorry Syndrome', making subtle tweaks in speech to highlight their assets. Santoro delivers seminars, workshops, webinars, coaching, microlearning 'just in time' modules, and self-paced multimedia courses to fit organizational training needs. Her programs address how to authentically build trust as leaders and advance in careers, focusing on personal branding, effective delegation, and developing influential soft skills. Her courses, based on "The Success Principles®" curriculum, are designed to boost confidence, tackle daily challenges, and achieve personal and professional goals.