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Maureen Ryan Fable Honored as Transformative CEO of the Year

FIRST Recognition

FIRST is proud to announce that Maureen Ryan Fable, Group CEO, has been recognized by The CEO Forum Magazine as a Transformative CEO of the Year.

This prestigious honor underscores Maureen’s vision for redefining how events shape culture, inspire connection, and drive growth for global organizations.

The Transformative CEO Award is one of the most trusted validations of organizational and leadership impact. Founded by Robert Reiss, who coined the term and co-authored The Transformative CEO, the award honors leaders who “create new value that reinvigorates the company, reinvents the industry, or reboots society.”

Maureen’s recognition is a testament to her two-decade journey of building FIRST into a global leader in brand experiences powered by a client-centric, agile, and human-first approach.

Featured in The CEO Forum Magazine 

As part of this recognition, Maureen is also featured in The CEO Forum Magazine, a publication read by the top 10,000 CEOs in America. In the article, she shares her perspective on the power of events to: 

  • Align leadership teams on vision and strategy 
  • Shape organizational culture in meaningful ways 
  • Foster agility and growth in a rapidly evolving business landscape 

Her perspective highlights how intentional, human-first experiences have become essential to leadership and transformation.

Speaking at the 5th Annual Leadership Transformative CEO Summit 

Maureen also participated in the 5th Annual Leadership Transformative CEO Summit, themed Trust + Culture + AI = Growth. As a panelist on The Secret of Great Entrepreneurship: Trust, AI, and Innovation, Maureen shared highlights from her journey and the future of events: 

  • Trust as the Foundation: From FIRST’s early days to today, she emphasizes that trust fuels client partnerships, long-term relationships, and meaningful collaboration. 
  • AI as the Accelerator: While AI can scale efficiency, personalization, and agility, she underscored that it cannot replace creativity or human connection. Instead, AI should act as an interface layer to help people work smarter and navigate complexity. 
  • Innovation as the Outcome: With trust and AI working together, innovation naturally follows, creating experiences that cut through noise and spark genuine impact. 

Read Maureen Ryan Fable’s full feature in The CEO Forum Magazine.

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