Charlotte Storey
Senior people deliver under observation every day, and most have never been trained for it. Presence, voice, and composure under pressure are treated as personality traits rather than teachable skills, which leaves leaders visibly rattled in the rooms that matter most. The same gap shows up in how organisations handle disability and difference: inclusion language is polished, but the working practice of getting non-standard talent into senior positions still lags.
Charlotte Storey is a former West End actor and disabled pilot who coaches senior leaders and high-stakes performers on presence, composure, and communication under pressure.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Charlotte Storey
- She trains leaders in the craft of presence using the same technical toolkit she used on stage: voice, physicality, and mindset under observation. Most executive coaching talks about presence. Hers drills it.
- She has coached the Royal Marines Band through two of the most scrutinised live performances in recent British history: the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II and the coronation of King Charles III. The stakes reference is not theoretical.
- Her work on disability inclusion is grounded in her own route into a commercial pilot’s seat with one arm, which gives her a specific, operational view on how hiring and development systems overlook non-standard candidates.
- Her method is concrete and demonstrable in the room: accent work, physical embodiment, vocal control, and anxiety regulation. Audiences leave with techniques they can rehearse, not concepts they have to translate.
- She bridges two audiences that rarely share a speaker: performance-anxious specialists (musicians, surgeons, pilots, public-facing executives) and HR and inclusion leaders working on disability at senior levels.
Biography highlights
- Former West End actor and professional saxophonist, now working as a performance and communication coach to senior leaders.
- Gained a UK pilot’s licence in 2021 and flies a light aircraft as pilot in command, having lost the use of her right arm in 2008.
- Coached HM Royal Marines Band through the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II and the coronation of King Charles III.
- Delivered a 2023 keynote at the Lockheed Martin UK Leader Conference, described by CEO Paul Livingston as the most impactful presentation seen at the annual conference.
- Client roster includes the BBC, Disney, Nickelodeon, the Bank of England, NatWest, the European Business Aviation Association, Warburtons, and Homebase.
- Lives with Ehlers-Danlos Hypermobility Syndrome and speaks from direct experience on the practical mechanics of disability in high-performance careers.
Biography
The Royal Marines Band rehearsed for months before the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II and the coronation of King Charles III. Charlotte Storey was the performance coach they brought in to handle the part of the job that does not show up in a music score: staying composed when the eyes of the world are on the ensemble and there is no room for a wrong note.
That commission captures the work. Storey started in the West End as an actor and professional saxophonist, then moved into elite voice and acting coaching in UK conservatoires before her current career as a speaker and executive coach. Her specialism is what happens to people technically and physically when the pressure rises: voice tightens, breath shortens, attention collapses inward. She trains it out of them.
The second strand of her work comes from lived experience. In 2008 she lost the use of her right arm following complications of Ehlers-Danlos Hypermobility Syndrome. In 2021, afraid of heights and working with a disability that grounds most pilots, she gained her licence and now flies as pilot in command. That route into the cockpit informs her work on disability inclusion, which she treats as an operational question about how organisations find and promote non-standard talent, not a values statement.
Her keynote list runs from Lockheed Martin UK’s Leader Conference to the BBC, Disney, Nickelodeon, the Bank of England, NatWest, and the European Business Aviation Association. The through-line is the same: a practitioner teaching senior people how to perform, in the craft sense of the word, when it matters most.
Key speaking topics
- Executive presence and the craft of performing under pressure
- Performance anxiety in high-stakes professional settings
- Non-verbal communication and vocal authority for senior leaders
- Disability inclusion in senior hiring and promotion
- Self-mastery and composure for client-facing and public-facing roles
- Audacious leadership and risk tolerance in technical careers
- Team dynamics in elite ensembles and high-performance units
Ideal for
- CHROs, heads of leadership development, and DEI leaders working on presence, progression, and disability inclusion at senior levels.
- Executive teams preparing for high-stakes external appearances: investor days, regulatory hearings, media, large-scale town halls.
- Specialist professional communities where composure under scrutiny is part of the job: aviation, defence, surgery, financial services, broadcasting.
- Conferences seeking an inspirational keynote that has craft content underneath, not only a personal story.
Audience outcomes
- A working vocabulary for what presence is made of, with specific techniques for voice, breath, and physical positioning.
- Practical tools for regulating performance anxiety before high-stakes appearances.
- A sharper view of how hiring and promotion systems filter out disabled and non-standard candidates, and what changes that.
- A reset on the role of rehearsal and craft in senior leadership, drawn from performing arts practice.
- A direct experience of the techniques in the room, delivered by a speaker trained to hold the space.
Talks
A keynote on how introverted senior leaders expand their presence and influence without adopting extroverted performance styles.
Key takeaways:
- A working model of presence that separates volume from authority
- Specific vocal and physical techniques suited to introverted communicators
- A framework for reading and holding a room without overreaching
How senior people and specialist professionals stay composed and effective in their highest-stakes moments.
Key takeaways:
- The physiology of performance anxiety and what to do about it
- Rehearsal habits drawn from professional theatre and music
- Concrete pre-performance routines for executives and technical specialists
A talk on risk tolerance and decisive leadership, grounded in Storey’s own route from disability diagnosis to pilot in command.
Key takeaways:
- How leaders build the tolerance for bold decisions
- The difference between recklessness and trained audacity
- How organisations create room for unconventional leadership moves
A keynote on how hiring and promotion systems filter out disabled and non-standard talent at senior levels.
Key takeaways:
- Where bias sits in standard hiring workflows
- Practical changes that widen the senior talent pool
- What disability inclusion looks like past the entry level