A biography by Executives Diary Magazine
Helen Kareva: The Visionary Behind SpeakUp
Helen Kareva is a global innovator reshaping how the world discovers and elevates expert voices. From leading talent development for organizations with hundreds of thousands of employees to co founding SpeakUp, she has redefined access, visibility, and opportunity in the speaker economy. Her work blends technology and human connection, creating a future where stories move freely and influence is earned, not gated.
When the Lights Turn On
For years, Helen Kareva built her dreams like a runner training in the dark, quietly and relentlessly, trusting a vision that no one else could yet see. Then one day, the lights turned on. Cameras. Crews. A global show. A stage where millions would witness the story she had been shaping long before anyone watched. As the world tuned in, she realized she had never been chasing the spotlight. She had been preparing for the responsibility that comes with it, the responsibility to rebuild an industry, reshape opportunity, and give every unheard voice a place to rise.
That moment did not mark the beginning of her journey. It simply illuminated the path she had already chosen with absolute conviction.
Early Life and the Making of a Builder
Helen Kareva’s professional ascent did not emerge from luck or timing. It was built on a deep curiosity about how people grow, how leaders are shaped, and how systems can either unlock potential or hold it back. Originally from Russia, Helen pursued a Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources Management, setting the stage for a career rooted in understanding what drives human potential.
Even in her early years, she saw how often talented people were overlooked not because they lacked expertise, but because they lacked access. It is a belief she would articulate years later when describing her mission for SpeakUp. The world, she would say through her work and words, is full of brilliant voices waiting for the right stage. This conviction became the foundation of a career where her focus was never on hierarchy. It was on opportunity.
Climbing Through Corporate Leadership
Before she became a founder, Helen built a powerful corporate career defined by scale, precision, and vision. She served as Human Resources Director at GasZnak, then joined Russian Post, one of the largest employers in the region with 350 thousand employees. As Chief Talent Officer, she designed leadership evaluation systems, created competence maps, and shaped development pathways for both emerging and seasoned leaders.
Her work was not transactional. It was philosophical. She approached leadership development with the same belief that later fueled her entrepreneurial journey. Talent is everywhere. Access is not. Her next role at NLMK Group, a global metals company operating across Russia, the United States, Italy, and India, reinforced this point. There, she crafted career tracks and strengthened leadership capabilities across continents.
During these years, Helen began to sense the scale of what she wanted to build. She saw how organizations struggle to identify the right voices for the right moments. She saw how expertise often hides behind process. And she saw how stories that could inspire and educate often never reach an audience. The problem was bigger than corporate HR. It was systemic.
The Breakaway Decision
Helen did not leave corporate leadership impulsively. She left because she recognized a global gap no one was addressing. The speaker economy was outdated and inefficient. Event organizers were booking the same names repeatedly. High value experts struggled to be discovered. Podcasters and journalists spent hours searching for meaningful voices. Agencies created friction that made access dependent on connections rather than competence.
Helen wanted to change this. She believed that if access to talent could be rebuilt from the ground up, then the entire ecosystem of events, media, and thought leadership could evolve.
In 2025, she co founded SpeakUp, a mobile first AI powered platform that allows speakers, creators, organizers, journalists, and podcasters to match instantly and directly. The idea behind SpeakUp was rooted in the same insight that guided her corporate years. Real opportunity should not require a gatekeeper.
Shortly after founding SpeakUp, Helen wrote something that summarized the mindset behind her leap into entrepreneurship. Reflecting on the early milestones, she said one startup. Global stage. Billions of eyes. This is only the beginning. Her words captured both the scale of her ambition and her grounding in reality.
Building SpeakUp Into a Global Force
SpeakUp launched on iOS and Android and quickly began reshaping the event and media ecosystem. Under Helen’s leadership, the company expanded across the UAE, LATAM, Singapore, and new international markets. Its growth was driven by a simple but powerful premise. Matching the right voice with the right stage should be as easy as tapping a screen.
Her leadership earned global recognition. SpeakUp was nominated by the UAE for the UN affiliated WSA Global Awards in Innovation. It became a finalist in the Startup World Cup across multiple regions, including Ecuador and Macao, where it secured second place and strengthened partnerships that accelerated global traction.
In one of the most defining moments of the company’s rise, SpeakUp was selected as one of the final sixteen startups featured on the regional television program The Final Pitch on OSN. The experience allowed the world to witness not only the product, but the resilience behind it. Watching the premiere, Helen wrote that it is a spark turned into a story and now that story is about to reach millions. It was more than a reflection. It was a recognition of the moment SpeakUp shifted from a startup to a movement.
On Global Television: The Story Reaches the World
SpeakUp’s appearance on The Final Pitch went far beyond visibility. It became a cultural moment for founders across the region who saw themselves in Helen’s journey. As she reflected on the experience, she described the startup path as running a marathon in the dark guided only by the glow of your own vision, a metaphor that resonated deeply with entrepreneurs familiar with uncertainty and perseverance.
When the cameras rolled, Helen brought more than a product. She brought her philosophy. Her belief in building systems that lift people. Her conviction that stories deserve stages. Her commitment to reshaping an industry built on exclusivity into one fueled by access.
The show amplified something she had long understood. Innovation is not about competition. It is about contribution. She articulated this in another defining moment when she said that while others fight for a piece of the stage, we are building the whole arena. It became an anchor line for SpeakUp’s mission and a defining idea for the modern event economy.
Breaking the Odds
Helen’s relationship with adversity is grounded in strategy rather than sentiment. When she compared the odds of getting into Y Combinator with the odds of being selected for The Final Pitch, she wrote with unmistakable clarity that if your odds are 0.001 percent and you still break through, you are already playing in a different league. It was not a boast. It was a reminder that exceptional outcomes often come from those willing to act when the probabilities are smallest.
Awards and Global Recognition
In 2025, Helen became a winner in two major categories of the Women Changing the World MENA Awards: Changemaker and Woman of the Year. These awards recognized the impact she had made not only as a founder, but as a storyteller, a leader, and an architect of new opportunities. She will represent the MENA region in Paris during the worldwide ceremony in 2026.
Her feature interview in MAGNAV Emirates added another layer of depth to her public narrative. She spoke candidly about leaving corporate stability, identifying an unstructured market need, and building a product centered on human connection at a time when AI dominates global conversations. Her view is anchored in the idea that technology can accelerate many things, but it cannot replace authenticity. It cannot replace influence born from truth.
Incorporating Insights
Helen’s quotes throughout her journey reveal a mind shaped by resilience and a voice shaped by clarity. Her reflections underscore her belief that innovation requires courage, that visibility requires responsibility, and that momentum begins with a single decision: to speak up before anyone is listening.
Her words are not slogans. They are snapshots of a founder who sees opportunity in friction and possibility in moments when the odds say otherwise.
Vision For The Future
Helen’s mission for SpeakUp is simple. Build the world’s most efficient system for discovering expertise and connecting it with stages, media, and audiences. She envisions a future where booking a speaker or expert is as intuitive as sending a message. Her focus is on deepening AI capabilities, expanding into new regions, strengthening partnerships, and elevating human influence in an era shaped by automation.
For Helen, the mission is not technical. It is human. It is about giving people the ability to share their voice without waiting for permission. It is about designing a world where access is fair, opportunity is open, and the best ideas rise because they deserve to, not because they know someone.
She believes that stories connect people, ideas move industries, and voices shape the future. And she is building the technology that ensures those voices are heard.
Editorial Note
Helen Kareva’s journey is a reminder that leadership is defined not by position, but by purpose. Her transition from corporate executive to global innovator reflects what happens when discipline meets vision and when conviction refuses to stay quiet. The rise of SpeakUp stands as proof that industries can be rebuilt when someone is willing to step forward and say the old way is no longer enough.
Her story invites readers to trust their instincts, act before the spotlight arrives, and pursue the version of their future that feels impossible until the moment it becomes real. The future belongs to those who speak up and to those who build platforms where others can rise with them.
