Chief EQ Evangelist | Culture Architect | Creator of EPIC Leadership | Global Keynote Speaker and Thought Leader
 
Rich Hua is a world-leading expert on emotionally intelligent leadership, innovation, and culture, and one of the few practitioners who has successfully scaled EQ from theory into a global movement.
 
He is the creator of EPIC Leadership—a practical, research-backed framework integrating Empathy, Purpose, Inspiration, and Connection—which has been adopted by tens of thousands of leaders across organizations including Amazon, Cisco, NVIDIA, Capital One, IBM, Cognizant, National Australia Bank, Allianz, Splunk, ServiceNow, BMW, Volkswagen, Mitsubishi Electric, and many more.
 
Formerly the Global Head of EPIC Leadership and Chief EQ Evangelist at Amazon Web Services, Rich launched and scaled Amazon’s Emotional Intelligence & Success initiative, training and engaging over 500,000 leaders, employees, and partners worldwide. What began as a small experiment grew into the largest emotional intelligence community in the world, with 70,000+ members and hundreds of active EQ Champions and Evangelists.
 
Early in his life, Rich aspired to be a “genius robot”—hyper-logical, emotionally detached, and optimized for achievement. The plan worked for a while: he earned a perfect SAT score and studied Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at UC Berkeley. But he eventually discovered that IQ without EQ was suboptimal, and that true success—in leadership, relationships, and life—required integrating emotional intelligence with intellectual horsepower.
 
Rich has collaborated with the world’s foremost researchers in emotional intelligence, including Daniel Goleman, Marc Brackett, Vanessa Druskat, Jamil Zaki, Adam Grant, and Meng Tan, helping translate decades of science into tools leaders actually use under pressure. His work has been featured or cited in Daniel Goleman’s Optimal, Marc Brackett’s Dealing with Feeling, Meng Tan’s Search Inside Yourself, as well as The Guardian, The Washington Post, and the AWS Executive Leaders Podcast.
 
As Daniel Goleman has said, “You’ve built the largest emotional intelligence community that I know of in the world.” Adam Grant adds, “I really admire the way you champion ideas many of us study and actually make them practical for people to use.”
 
Rich is a globally sought-after keynote speaker, consistently one of the highest-rated speakers at elite leadership forums including AWS ExecLeaders (London, New York, Tokyo, Pelican Hill), AWS Sales Kickoff (2019–2024), AWS re:Invent (2022–2024), IBM Elevate, and Cognizant Elevate, speaking to audiences of 10,000+. His talks focus on EQ for Leadership, Innovation, Success, and an AI-Powered World, blending science, storytelling, and immediately actionable tools.
 
Beyond the stage, Rich has taught and lectured at Stanford, UC Berkeley, and Wharton, advised organizations such as the Chief of Staff Association and Mensa Foundation, and serves as a consulting advisor to Goleman Consulting Group. He brings decades of experience leading and influencing large, complex, globally distributed organizations, with prior roles spanning engineering, business development, executive coaching, and innovation evangelism.
 
Today, Rich works with senior leaders and organizations worldwide to build high-performance, resilient, and deeply human cultures—especially in a world being reshaped by AI. His message is clear and hard-won: emotionally intelligent leadership isn’t a soft skill—it’s the ultimate competitive advantage.

World-renowned experts talk with Rich Hua

Dan Goleman, 
does talks about Rich Hua's work in his book, Optimal
 
Daniel Goleman, Author of Emotional Intelligence and global expert in EQ:
Highlights Rich on LinkedIn: here, here,
 
Dr. Marc Brackett, Director of Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence:
 
Dr. Matt Lippincott, Chief Learning Officer for Goleman Consulting Group
 
Ethan Evans, former Amazon VP

Premiere Events featuring keynotes and talks from Rich Hua

 
 
 
 

EQ for Innovation (INO101) at re:Invent 2022

 

 
 
 
UC San Diego & Oceanside Perspective: Secrets of EPIC Leadership Every Leader Needs
 
Mindful Leadership Summit: How to Start an EQ Revolution at Work
 
 
 
 
Hispanic Technology Executive Council (HITEC): How Emotional Intelligence Shapes A Successful Future

Blogs & Podcasts

 
 

 

AWS Innovation Ambassadors: The Human Side of Innovation

 

Partnering Leadership Podcast: How to become a more emotionally intelligent leader

 

Empathy Edge Podcast: Starting an EQ Revolution at Amazon

 

Interview on the Silicon Valley Podcast: Emotional Intelligence with Rich Hua

 

Silicon Valley Podcast (short): Unlocking the power of emotional intelligence
 
 

 

CivilTalk Ep. 19 - The EQ Revolution: Richard Hua on Leadership, Civility, and  Business Transformation

 
 
 

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Rich Hua has interviewed  leaders, luminaries, and authors:
Chade-Meng Tan


"You've built the largest emotional intelligence community that I know of in the world."
- Daniel Goleman

"I really admire the way that you champion ideas that some of us spend our careers studying and actually make them practical for people to use. I think you have a real gift for that."

- Adam Grant