This year, we are thrilled to welcome keynote speaker Shailee Basnet. An intrepid adventurer who made history by conquering the world’s tallest peaks, Basnet has transitioned from sucessful mountaineer to visionary leader.

She now guides transformative leadership treks in the Himalayas, where she shares stories of navigating perilous situations with diverse teams across the globe. As the founder of a nonprofit dedicated to providing career training to female survivors of human trafficking and abuse, Basnet exemplifies resilience and empowerment.

Join us as she reveals how each of us has the power to overcome crisis, pursue ambitious goals, and redefine what is possible.

Where: La Crosse Center Riverside Ballroom, 300 Harborview Plaza, La Crosse, WI 54601

When: Tuesday, October 22, 2024; 11:30 am – 1:00 pm

Shailee Basnet is the leader of the Seven Summits Team, the first female team to climb the highest peak on every continent. 

Born and raised in Nepal, she dreamed of living a physically active life, but attended a school where girls’ participation in sports was almost a taboo. After completing a degree in business management, she discovered a group attempting to form an all-female Nepali expedition to Mt. Everest. Eager for adventure, she completed a rigorous training program and in 2008, she was one of ten Nepali women representing six different ethnic backgrounds to climb Mt. Everest—most, like Shailee, were first-time mountaineers.

Following the Everest expedition, Shailee went on to lead the Seven Summits Women Team—the world’s first female group to scale the highest peak in each continent: Mt. Everest, on the border of Nepal in 2008; Mt. Kosciuszko in Australia and Mt. Elbrus in Russia in 2010; Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa in March of 2013 (where the team honored International Women’s Day) ; and then the final three summits—Mt. Aconcagua in Argentina, Mt. Denali in Alaska, and Mt. Vinson Massif in Antarctica—all in 2014.

As a speaker, Shailee shares lessons learned from her epic missions on leadership, teamwork and dealing with conflict together with key takeaways on what makes a team “a force,” why mountain leadership translates so well to business, why the ego always has to take a back seat to the goal, and why diversity in a team’s makeup is critical to its success. Shailee has been a guest lecturer for multiple business programs, including the NYU Business program and the Entrepreneurial Master’s Program, and she is a frequent keynote for business and leadership audiences. She is also in demand as a speaker for international aid organizations such as the World Bank and the United Nations and to NGOs, non-profits, government and university audiences across the world.