Rich Hua is one of the world's foremost experts in building emotionally intelligent cultures of innovation at scale. He built the world's largest corporate-based EQ community of 70,000 members at Amazon, making him one of the few people who has successfully scaled emotional-social intelligence from theory into a global movement.
 
Formerly the Chief EQ Evangelist and Worldwide Head of EPIC Leadership at Amazon, Rich founded the EQ@Amazon initiative, which reached over 1.5 million leaders, employees, customers, and partners worldwide. He created the EPIC Leadership framework (Empathy, Purpose, Inspiration, and Connection), which has reshaped the mindset and behavior of hundreds of thousands of leaders at organizations all over the world, including Amazon, Cisco, NVIDIA, Capital One, Johnson & Johnson, IBM, National Australia Bank, BMW, bolttech, Petronas, Equals Group, Novartis, HubSpot, Volkswagen, and Mitsubishi. 
 
Rich was the expert advisor to the Amazon Alexa team as they imbued Alexa+ with empathy and emotional intelligence, helping shape the world’s most pervasive AI-powered virtual assistant embedded in over 600 million devices. He also served as Amazon's Culture of Innovation Ambassador in Silicon Valley, where he advised thousands of C-suite executives on Amazon's unique leadership principles, culture, and operating mechanisms.
 
Rich is a globally sought-after keynote speaker who has consistently delivered the highest-rated sessions at elite leadership events such as AWS ExecLeaders (London, New York, Tokyo, Shanghai, Pelican Hill), Imagine for Nonprofits, re:Invent, IBM Elevate, Cognizant Elevate, and Petronas Innovation Day. He has also been a featured speaker at Stanford University, University of California at Berkeley, Wharton School of Business, Mensa Foundation, and Chief of Staff Association, speaking to audiences as large as 10,000+. In his talks, Rich artfully blends science, storytelling, and actionable tools into a compelling message about the crucial "human" skills needed to optimize personal and professional success, leadership effectiveness, and innovation and transformation in our AI-powered world.
 
Rich has collaborated with the world’s foremost researchers in emotional-social intelligence and translated decades of science into mindsets and tool sets leaders can use in real-world corporate environments. He has has been featured in The Guardian, The Washington Post, and AWS Executive Insights as well as Daniel Goleman’s book, Optimal, and Marc Brackett’s book, Dealing with Feeling.
 
Early in his life, Rich aspired to be a “genius robot”—hyper-logical, emotionally detached, and optimized for delivering results. The plan worked for a while: he earned a perfect SAT score (1600) and studied Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at UC Berkeley. But he eventually discovered that IQ without EQ was profoundly insufficient, and that long-term success—in leadership, relationships, and life—required integrating emotional intelligence with cognitive horsepower. Today he  describes himself as a recovering automaton and sums up his career trajectory with a poignant phrase: "from geeky guy to ikigai."
 
Rich founded the EPIQ Leadership Group to help executives and organizations worldwide build adaptable, resilient, and innovative cultures that are both high-performing and deeply human. This is especially critical in a world being reshaped and redefined by AI. His message is unmistakable and urgent: IQ alone is not enough. Leaders and organizations must harmonize their EQ + IQ—what he calls the EPIQ skill set—to thrive and succeed in the midst of complexity, ambiguity, and opportunity.


Featured in the News

Forbes: 3 Lessons Amazon's Chief EQ Evangelist Learned Scaling EQ to 1.5 Million People

 

Rich was featured in Forbes for his work as Worldwide Head of EPIC and Chief EQ Evangelist at Amazon. He shares the important lessons he learned as he scaled emotionally intelligent culture across Amazon globally. These include:

  • To scale EQ, you need to bake it into the culture
  • Scaling EQ with ambient learning, not just training events
  • As AI grows, so will the need for EQ


The Guardian: What surprising skills do leaders need to innovate with Generative AI?

 

Leaders need cognitive skills, but they also need emotional-social skills to succeed in an AI-fueled future. Leaders need the right mindset, skillset, and toolset to drive digital transformation. A key to success is knowing how to optimize yourself and your organization to achieve what Daniel Goleman calls "maximum cognitive efficiency."

 

Learn how you can take advantage of these exciting and uncertain times and successfully navigate your organization into the AI future. Hear the inspiring story of how Mitsubishi Electric is leveraging these skillsets and mindsets to drive innovation.


Washington Post: Deepening Your Defenses:

Why CISOs must lead with emotional intelligence to

maximize cybersecurity outcomes.

 

Cybersecurity leaders looking to strengthen their organizations’ defenses should add emotional intelligence to their skillsets.

Emotionally intelligent leaders display qualities that contribute to a people-first environment in which team members can thrive and operate at peak efficiency. Some of the most important of these qualities are covered under the EPIC leadership program from AWS.

 

“Security is not only a technical challenge, it’s also a human challenge,” says Rich Hua, WW Head of EPIC at, AWS.


 


World-renowned experts and leaders interview Rich Hua

Daniel Goleman, Author of Emotional Intelligence and global expert in EQ:

Talks about Rich Hua's work in his book, Optimal

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

Keynotes at Premiere Events


 
 
 
 

[Slides] 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 (on YouTube)

 

Partnering Leadership Podcast: How to become a more emotionally intelligent leader (on YouTube)

 

Moonshot Podcast:  EQ vs IQ: Who Survives the AI Revolution?!

 

Maximize Life Podcast: Optimal and Peak Performance with Rich Hua

 

Empathy Edge Podcast: Starting an EQ Revolution at Amazon (on YouTube)

 

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

 
 
 

INTERVIEWS WITH LEADERS, AUTHORS AND LUMINARIES


 
Rich Hua has interviewed the world's greatest authors, experts, and luminaries on the Amazon Talks podcast: 


Testimonials


"You've built the largest emotional intelligence community that I know of in the world."
• Daniel Goleman, World-renowned expert on emotional intelligence and author of Emotional Intelligence
 
"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, Best-selling author and Wharton Professor

 

"Your workshop was very impactful for our leadership team. I've received nothing but positive

feedback around how engaging and valuable it was. It's given the team new ways of thinking about EQ

and developing deeper insights to fuel their own personal and professional growth.”

• SVP of RevOps, Global CRM company

 

"What a privilege it was to have you guide our colleagues through your leadership workshop. EQ is incredibly important for understanding and solving the challenges that impact a customer’s experience so this is incredibly important for the future of our business. Your very human and highly engaging style aligned perfectly with our strategy. Thank you for helping our colleagues to develop their ‘tool kit’ of resources. They left the session with a deeper understanding that success for our customers will be found through a mindset of innovation, resilience, and genuine empathy for each other."

• Chief Data Officer, Leading Australian Bank

 

"The EPIC engagement produced positive changes for me as a leader and these changes rippled through the broader

organization. People who were typically quieter in meetings started to speak up more, and team members proactively

supported each other to ensure all voices were heard. EPIC training is a key tool to support our ambitious global growth

plans and unleash the full creative potential of our people."

• Chief Technology Officer, UK Fintech Company

 

"Thank you for leading the EQ workshop for our leadership team. The feedback from the participants has been

overwhelmingly positive. The workshop was a valuable experience for our leaders, and I believe that many other teams

could benefit from your expertise. I will be recommending your expertise and the workshops to the

broader teams here!"

• VP of Cloud Technology, Global Financial Services Company