Loree Draude

Are you looking for a entertaining and relatable speaker who can provide both motivation and inspiration for your audience?

Loree Draude is a unique combination of military combat jet pilot, technology leader and inspirational artist. From her experiences of landing a jet on an aircraft carrier over 300 times, to leading some of the highest performing technology teams in the world, to writing and performing her award-winning, one-woman show off-Broadway, Loree had embraced a fulfilled life and shares with her audiences the secrets that have enabled her to soar.

But it hasn't all been easy. She's experienced many of the same challenges that frustrate and hold us back. She's been laid off, fired, divorced and had to shut down one of her companies. During her first and second deployments to the Persian Gulf, she lost eight of her friends and fellow aviators–including the navy's first female fighter pilot–because of aviation mishaps. This loss drove home the point that life is precious and we need to live our lives according to our values.

One of Loree's core values is service. After her military service, Loree supported teams in Silicon Valley for almost twenty years before becoming an executive coach and professional speaker. She is passionate about enabling leaders to lean into their strengths and propel their organizations to greater success.

Loree is also an artist. She used her first book, She's Just Another Navy Pilot (USNI Press, 2000), as the foundation for a one-woman show–I Feel the Need– that she performed off-Broadway, where it won an award at the United Solo Festival for Best Direction, at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the 2023 Hollywood Fringe Festival, where it was nominated for several playwriting awards. 

Recent testimonials:

"Loree's personal stories of flying fighter jets and landing on aircraft carriers captured the audience’s attention through exhilaration and wit.  She reminded us of the power of perseverance, sharing her technique of turning every failure into a lesson.  Her stories also emphasized the importance of both candor and appreciation at all levels of any organization.”

Rhea Loney

Chief Compliance Officer

BetMGM

"The way in which Loree seamlessly connected her military and professional work, the struggles and ability to overcome, to what our GM’s face on a daily basis was incredible.  The team left feeling energized and more ready than ever to take responsibility as a leader of their individual units to drive performance!  I appreciate the time she took to really pull through Marriott core values and synergize that to SOARing!"

Lindsy Wnorowski

Regional Senior Director, Operations & Owner Services

Marriott International

Loree's Biography:

Loree Draude was one of the first women to fly combat jets in the navy. She grew up around the world as the daughter of a career Marine Corps infantry officer and a mother who also served as a Marine during Vietnam.

She graduated from high school in Hawaii and attended college in San Diego. During her freshman year of college, Loree enrolled in the Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC). She went on a field trip that changed her life-visiting the military air stations in San Diego and Orange County. There, she met naval aviators who flew all types of aircraft and loved their jobs. She decided that was what she wanted to do, so when she returned to the University of San Diego, she changed her major to mathematics and took a couple of flying lessons to make sure she wouldn't get airsick. On the contrary, she absolutely loved it.

Loree graduated cum laude and proceeded to flight school, where she excelled in primary flight training and was selected for jet training, which she completed in Kingsville, TX. She began her naval flying career as a support pilot, flying F/A-18 Hornets at NAS Lemoore, CA, where she'd pretend to be a missile, flying fast and low, so other aircraft and ships could practice tracking her. When the Combat Exclusion law for women was lifted, Loree transitioned to a combat aviation squadron, flying the S-3B Viking, and completed two six-month deployments to the Persian Gulf on the USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS Kitty Hawk. During her second deployment, she became the first woman Air Wing-qualified Landing Signal Officer (LSO), a role awarded to a small percentage of naval aviators for the responsibility of helping fixed-wing pilots land safely on the carrier.

She completed her sea duty and was selected to become a S-3B flight instructor, a sought-after role where she was responsible for instructing new naval aviators on how to land on aircraft carriers. She completed her naval service with over 1600 flight hours and 300 carrier landings-99 of them at night.

She earned her MBA at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in Entrepreneurial Management, and began a career in the tech industry in Silicon Valley. She led teams at companies including Facebook and Meta, as well as tech startups, including one she founded. She's spoken frequently about leadership and team-building in front of audiences, from more intimate fireside chats of 50 up to 1,000 attendees at a tech conference.

Loree is a certified executive coach who works with corporate clients and individuals to help them develop their leadership abilities. She has facilitated training for StrengthFinders; Discovering your Values and Life Purpose and How Leaders Can Thrive During Challenging Times. Loree is the host of the podcast, "Supersonic Leaders & Teams."

She is the author of She's Just Another Navy Pilot (USNI Press, 2000) and the Amazon bestseller, Soar Into Joy: A Combat Pilot's Wisdom on Falling in Love with Your Life (Hybrid Global Press, 2023).

Loree is also a writer and actor who performed her one-woman show, I Feel the Need, over 30 times for global audiences. 

A mother of two adults, Loree enjoys traveling, bookstores, dancing and boxing.