Photos and images courtesy Alison Fragale
Leadership
The 2025 Biz 417’s Ladies Who Launch Keynote is a Likeable Badass
Alison Fragale, Ph.D., is an organizational psychologist, professor at the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School, and bestselling author. Biz 417 is proud to announce her as the 2025 Ladies Who Launch Keynote Speaker.
by Annah Crow
Jan 2025
Biz 417’s Ladies Who Launch, presented by Forvis Mazars, is in its 8th year and poised for growth. With that, it brings some big energy with the keynote. Alison Fragale is an organizational psychologist and award winning professor who researches status, power, negotiation and influence and equips thousands of women across the United States with tools to get the success they deserve.
Alison resides in Chicago with her husband and her three children, who are all named after professional athletes. She also loves, in no particular order:cheap coffee, not-so-cheap wine, fabulous shoes, sushi, the Pittsburgh Steelers, Peloton workouts, Hallmark movies, and The Golden Girls.
“Throughout my years of research, speaking gigs and mentoring, I’ve been bombarded with questions from women of all stripes—from rising stars to those in the C-suite. How do we get credit for both likeability and competence? How can we get the recognition we deserve, negotiate like a boss and navigate the intricate dance of office politics without losing our sanity or the respect of our peers?
Well, my friends, the answers are here, and they’re served up in Likeable Badass. Based on my twenty years of work studying power, status and perceptions, I know one thing is true: No fancy title, degree or achievement is going to get us the rewards we deserve if it doesn’t impact how others perceive us. So, I’m pulling back the curtain on decades of science to reveal what all successful women have in common—they have found their unique way to show up as a likeable badass. All we need to do is follow their lead.”–Alison Fragale.
About Alison Fragale
Alison Fragale, Ph.D., is an organizational psychologist, professor at the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School, and bestselling author of Likeable Badass: How Women Get the Success They Deserve (Doubleday, September 2024).
Fragale’s academic research on status, power, negotiation, and influence have been published in her field’s top academic journals as well as national media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. She is a sought-after keynote speaker who uses behavioral science to help individuals, especially women, excel. Prior to her academic career, Fragale worked as a consultant for McKinsey and Company, Inc.
She holds a B.A. in Mathematics and Economics from Dartmouth College and a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
