John Amaechi

Why organisations work with John Amaechi

• The giants framework – introduced in The Promises of Giants (New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller, 2021 Porchlight Business Book Award winner) – gives senior leaders a precise accountability tool: every person with influence shapes culture through their most ordinary behaviour, whether they intend to or not.
• He has held non-executive director appointments at FTSE 250 company Greencore Group plc and served a decade as board director at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust – giving him verified access to the governance conversations his clients face, not just advisory proximity to them.
• As Professor of Leadership at the University of Exeter Business School and a Chartered Psychologist, he can name the specific behavioural mechanisms – not just the desired outcomes – that distinguish leaders who consistently build high-performing teams from those who inadvertently undermine them.
• His reframing of unconscious bias as “entrenched assumption” – from The Promises of Giants – shifts the inclusion conversation from psychological absolution to direct leadership accountability, making it actionable for boards and executive committees that have grown fatigued by compliance-oriented framing.
• Inducted into HR Magazine’s Hall of Fame in 2022, after multiple appearances on its Most Influential Thinkers list, he is recognised across HR, governance, and psychology communities – not within a single professional silo.

Biography highlights

• Founder, APS Intelligence Ltd (est. 2008), working with executive teams and boards across FTSE 100 companies in financial services, technology, legal, and engineering sectors
• Professor of Leadership (HC), University of Exeter Business School; Research Fellow, University of East London; Chartered Psychologist (British Psychological Society), Chartered Scientist, Chartered Fellow of the CIPD
• Author of The Promises of Giants (New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller; 2021 Porchlight Business Book Award, Leadership and Strategy category) and It’s Not Magic: The Ordinary Skills of Exceptional Leaders
• Former non-executive director, Greencore Group plc (FTSE 250); former 10-year board director and HR Scrutiny Committee Chair, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust
• HR Magazine Hall of Fame inductee 2022; Sport Industry Integrity and Impact Award 2023; OBE 2011
• First Briton to have a career in the NBA; appointed European Ambassador to the NBA

Biography

Culture gaps in senior teams are almost always a behaviour problem. APS Intelligence, the consultancy John Amaechi OBE founded in 2008, was built on that premise, and his advisory engagements, governance roles, and published research have only strengthened the case.

Amaechi has held non-executive director appointments at FTSE 250 company Greencore Group plc and served a decade as board director at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. This places him inside the governance conversations most consultants observe from outside. He holds academic roles as Professor of Leadership at the University of Exeter Business School and Research Fellow at the University of East London, where his research focuses on the mechanisms of inclusive leadership, team performance, and organisational design. His professional credentials sit across three chartered bodies: Chartered Psychologist of the British Psychological Society, Chartered Scientist, and Chartered Fellow of the CIPD.

The Promises of Giants (2021) introduced the giants framework, the argument that every leader shapes culture through their most ordinary behaviour, intentionally or not. The book became a New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller and won the Porchlight Business Book Award in Leadership and Strategy. His follow-up, It’s Not Magic: The Ordinary Skills of Exceptional Leaders, translates the framework into specific, repeatable actions that distinguish leaders who build high-performing environments from those who inadvertently undermine them.

Amaechi was inducted into HR Magazine’s Hall of Fame in 2022, after multiple appearances on its Most Influential Thinkers list, and is a LinkedIn Top Voice and LinkedIn Influencer with sustained reach across professional audiences. Before his consultancy career, he was the first Briton to have a career in the NBA. That background informs his understanding of how culture either releases or suppresses individual potential, and what it costs organisations when it does the latter.

Key speaking topics

• Leadership behaviour and culture
• Inclusive leadership
• High-performance team dynamics
• Executive accountability and governance
• Leadership through permanent disruption
• AI integration and the human organisation

Ideal for

• Executive teams and C-suite leaders where a gap exists between declared culture and how people actually experience leadership
• Board members and non-executive directors engaged with governance, leadership accountability, and inclusive decision-making
• CHROs, CPOs, and people leaders designing culture and inclusion strategies that connect directly to performance outcomes
• Senior leadership cohorts in organisations navigating culture transformation, post-merger integration, or leadership succession

Audience outcomes

• A specific vocabulary for naming the leadership behaviours – not strategy documents or values statements – that create or undermine the culture an organisation is trying to build
• Clarity on why inclusion programmes stall at leadership level, and what it takes behaviourally to move them forward
• A personal accountability framework – the giants principle from The Promises of Giants – that senior leaders can apply immediately to audit and adjust their own daily behaviour
• Greater understanding of how identity and belonging affect individual contribution, team cohesion, and organisational performance
• Practical, evidence-based tools from organisational psychology for building psychologically safe environments where high performance is sustainable