Cody Keenan spent fourteen years as Barack Obama's speechwriter and trusted collaborator — and more than twenty years helping leaders find the words that matter. He is a New York Times bestselling author, a renowned professor at a top ten university, a sought-after public speaker, and one of the world's foremost speechwriters and executive communications strategists.

From blank page to monument. Today, Cody is a partner at Fenway — the preeminent speechwriting and executive communications firm. His clients are political candidates, CEOs, nonprofit leaders, comms teams, and public figures who need more than someone who can write, but a collaborator who has been in the room when the stakes are high and the margin for error is zero. (He cannot guarantee that every speech will end up on the side of a building.)

Cody has written and delivered enough speeches to know exactly what makes a bad one. He tries not to give those. Cody speaks at conferences, universities, and leadership forums around the world, and runs half-day workshops for communications and leadership teams. His talks draw on more than twenty years at the center of American political and executive communication — the campaign trail, the Obama White House, the boardroom, and the classroom. He speaks from experience, not from theory. The material is specific, the stories are real, and the talk is built around the audience in the room. (And he writes it all himself.)

Cody’s first book, GRACE: President Obama and Ten Days in the Battle for America, became an instant New York Times Bestseller. President Obama called it “an antidote to cynicism that will make you believe again,” and Samantha Power called it “a masterpiece of political memoir.” Cody is particularly proud that his meticulous narration for the audio version only required four minor cleanup takes.