Julie Benezet

Julie Benezet
Former Real Estate Executive – Amazon
Author, The Journey of Not Knowing Now

Julie Benezet has devoted her professional life to exploring the new, building businesses and helping others do the same. She currently works as an executive consultant, coach and teacher, following 25 years in business and law. She is the founder of The Journey of Not Knowing®, a leadership development program that teaches its executives how to navigate the new. She speaks and writes on leading and succeeding in the 21st Century and decoding human behavior in the face of change. Her book, The Journey of Not Knowing: How 21st Century Leaders Can Chart a Course Where There Is None, received a 2017 Benjamin Franklin Gold Medal from the Independent Book Publishers Association and the 2016 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Silver Medal for Business & Economics.

Julie spent four years as a member of the Amazon.com leadership team that brought the company from the early steep ramp up phase to its emergence as an established business. As its Vice President, Corporate Resources and Director of Global Real Estate, she is credited with leading the delivery of over 7,000,000 square feet worldwide with the supporting corporate infrastructure in just two years. Before joining Amazon.com, Julie built and raised capital for businesses and real estate representing a broad range of industries of diverse sizes, from Fortune 100 companies to start-ups. She practiced law in New York and Seattle.

For ten years, Julie led the “Challenges of Leadership” program for executives at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She has appeared in numerous publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Tech Republic.com and The Zweig Letter. She has served on many profit and nonprofit boards including the Zell-Lurie Real Estate Center at Wharton, Sparling, Inc. (now Stantec) and the CREW Network Foundation. She holds an LLB (law) and M.Sc. (psychology) from McGill University and a B.A. from Cornell University.

After many years of enjoying the intensity of urban life, she moved her base of operations in 2013 to the calmer but no less active Southern Oregon where she lives with her husband and noisy orange cat. When she is not working, she loves to garden, read mysteries, explore new wineries, and wander through compelling physical environments.