Motivation og inspiration

Why organisations work with David Brabham He has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans outright, a 24-hour team sport where one weak link across 60 people ends the race. That is a different reference point to draw on than a pure individual-sport narrative. He is the only driver in the history of the American Le Mans Series to win races and take pole positions in all four competitive classes, a credential that signals adaptability across very different cars, teams, and race formats. He carries the Brabham name through three operating contexts: driver for the family F1 team, overall Le Mans winner for Peugeot, and founder of Brabham Automotive. Audiences get sport, corporate, and entrepreneurial perspectives from one speaker. He stayed in the car at Simtek in 1994 after the death of his team mate Roland Ratzenberger at Imola. When he speaks about composure under pressure, the source material is direct. He is comfortable in after-dinner and hosted formats as well as keynotes, which gives event teams flexibility on how to place him in a programme. Biography highlights Overall winner, 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans, with Peugeot (908 HDi FAP), co-driving with Alexander Wurz and Marc Gene. Le Mans GT1 class winner in 2007 and 2008 with Aston Martin Racing (DBR9). American Le Mans Series LMP champion, 2009 and 2010, with Patron Highcroft Racing and Acura. Formula One driver with Brabham (1990) and Simtek (1994); team mate to Roland Ratzenberger. Japanese GT Championship winner, 1996. Bathurst 1000 winner, 1997. Founder of Brabham Automotive and the BT62 track car, launched in London in 2018. Member of the British Racing Drivers’ Club. Patron of the UK cancer charity Hope for Tomorrow. Biography Le Mans is a 24-hour race with roughly 60 people behind every car and a failure rate that runs close to half the grid. Winning it outright once is a career. David Brabham did it in 2009, with Peugeot, having already taken the GT1 class twice in the two previous years with Aston Martin. The pattern underneath those results is the story he brings to corporate audiences. He is the only driver in the history of the American Le Mans Series to have won races and taken poles in all four classes, from prototype to production GT. Back-to-back ALMS titles in 2009 and 2010 with Patron Highcroft and Acura came in a series where small execution advantages decide seasons. Consistency at that level is a team capability, not a personal one, and he talks about it that way. The wider career sharpens the material. He drove in Formula One for his family team in 1990 and for Simtek in 1994, where he lost team mate Roland Ratzenberger at Imola and continued to race the rest of the season. Later he built Brabham Automotive around the BT62 and launched it publicly in London in 2018, carrying the family brand into its own manufacturing business. For senior audiences the value is practical. He can describe, from the cockpit and the pit wall, how elite teams handle risk, prepare for conditions they cannot control, and recover when something goes wrong mid-race. The references are specific, named, and drawn from the highest level of professional motorsport. Key speaking topics High-performance teamwork Decision-making under pressure Leadership in competitive environments Resilience and focus after setbacks Brand building and heritage Preparation and execution at elite level Ideal for Senior leadership teams looking at how elite performance environments coordinate under pressure Sales and commercial leadership meetings focused on consistency of execution Automotive, engineering, and manufacturing organisations with technical workforces Annual conferences and after-dinner programmes where event teams want a credible non-business voice in the room Audience outcomes A clear picture of how a 60-person team wins a 24-hour race, and which of those mechanics transfer to a corporate setting Specific examples of how elite drivers prepare for conditions they cannot control on the day A direct account of composure and continuity after a team loss, from someone who lived it in 1994 A different vocabulary for talking about risk, handover, and recovery inside a business

Why organisations work with David Selves He runs corporate events, awards ceremonies and fundraising dinners as the figure at the front of the room, with a 50-year track record across broadcasting, business and hospitality to draw on. As a charity auctioneer, he has raised over £1 million for good causes, a tangible commercial outcome rather than a stage credit. His business background, including roles as Regional Chairman and National Board Member of the Small Business Bureau, gives him a credible footing on panels with founders, investors and small-business audiences. As Deputy Chairman of the London Press Club and a working broadcaster, he interviews with journalistic instinct, which makes him useful for on-stage Q&A with senior or politically sensitive guests. Biography highlights Founder of The Selves Group (1978), with interests across property, media, finance and leisure. Former Regional Chairman and National Board Member of the Small Business Bureau. Deputy Chairman of the London Press Club; founder of the London Grill Club. Charity auctioneer credited with raising over £1 million for charitable causes. Broadcaster on Radio Faversham, with a long-running interviewing practice. Author of four fictional thrillers, including “Quentin – A Spy” and “The Noble Challenge”. Biography A long evening of speeches, an awards running order or a fundraising auction lives or dies on the person holding the room. The technical name for this is hosting craft, and it is a different discipline from keynote speaking. David Selves has built his career around it. The career sits across banking, broadcasting, hospitality and small-business advocacy. He started as a management trainee at Midland Bank in 1969, founded The Selves Group in 1978, and has held senior positions at the Small Business Bureau as Regional Chairman and National Board Member. The London Press Club, where he is Deputy Chairman, and the London Grill Club, which he founded, anchor him in the working media community. The auctioneering record is the clearest commercial proof point. Over £1 million raised for charitable causes places him among a small group of British fundraising auctioneers who can move a room and a paddle in equal measure. His broadcasting on Radio Faversham, and a long interviewing practice across business and political subjects, give him the ear and pacing that live hosting demands. He also writes fiction, with four published thrillers including “Quentin – A Spy” and “The Noble Challenge”, a reminder that the working tools of the trade are language and timing. Key speaking topics After-dinner speaking Awards hosting Charity auctioneering and fundraising Panel moderation and on-stage interviewing Entrepreneurship and small business Media and broadcasting Ideal for Corporate event organisers booking a host or master of ceremonies for awards nights, gala dinners or conference plenaries. Charity development directors and fundraising leads are commissioning an auctioneer for a high-stakes appeal evening. Communications and marketing leads needing a panel moderator for journalist-style on-stage interviews. Small-business and entrepreneur networks are looking for an after-dinner speaker with operating credibility. Audience outcomes A running order that holds energy from welcome to close, rather than losing the room mid-evening. A fundraising auction run with pacing and judgement, designed to lift the final total. On-stage interviews with senior or politically sensitive guests are handled with journalistic instinct. An after-dinner address that mixes humour with substantive commentary on business, media, or current affairs.

Why organisations work with David Thomas Measurable cognitive credentials that a buyer can name in one sentence: Guinness record for reciting Pi to 22,500 digits, International Grandmaster of Memory, US Memory Champion. Most motivational speakers cannot point to anything comparable. A lived story of reinvention from a troubled start and 11 years in the Fire Service to a global speaking career, which lands with audiences who are themselves being asked to reinvent roles, teams, and businesses. A practical toolkit, not a biography. Audiences leave with specific techniques for recall, preparation, and presenting under pressure that they can apply the next morning. 30 years of professional speaking across more than 30 countries, including after-dinner, keynote, and executive coaching formats, which gives the booker flexibility on room, tone, and length. A rare bridge between motivational storytelling and hard cognitive science, useful for sales kick-offs, leadership offsites, and learning events where a generic inspirational keynote would fall flat. Biography highlights Guinness World Record holder for reciting Pi to 22,500 digits from memory (1998), breaking an 18-year-old record. International Grandmaster of Memory and 2007 US Memory Champion; world record holder for memorising 100 individually shuffled packs of playing cards. Former operational firefighter with the UK Fire Service for 11 years before his speaking career. Author of “Improving Your Memory” in the DK Essential Managers series, published by Dorling Kindersley / Penguin Random House. Featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2003, with further coverage cited across BBC World Service, Wall Street Journal and The Times. Has delivered keynotes, workshops and after-dinner talks in more than 30 countries, with venues including Caesar’s Palace, Wembley and the Tower of London. Biography Most organisations treat memory and attention as personality traits. They are not. They are trainable, measurable disciplines, and the people who treat them that way outperform the ones who do not. David Thomas built a career on that distinction. The shift from the UK Fire Service to the World Memory Championships happened in under a year. Eight months after buying his first memory book to help him pass exams, Thomas placed fourth at the Championships. On 1 May 1998 he recited Pi to 22,500 digits, breaking an 18-year Guinness World Record. He later became an International Grandmaster of Memory, a US Memory Champion, and a world record holder for memorising 100 shuffled packs of playing cards. Those credentials matter because they separate him from the generic motivational field. When he talks about change, resilience, or performance under pressure, he is not borrowing language from the leadership canon. He is describing a discipline he has competed in at world level, published on through the DK Essential Managers series, and taught to more than 250,000 people across 30 countries. The work in the room is practical. Audiences leave with techniques they can use that week: how to remember names in a sales context, how to hold a room without notes, how to prepare when the stakes are real. It is why he still gets booked for sales kick-offs, leadership offsites, and after-dinner events nearly 30 years into the career, including a 2003 appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show that took the message to a global audience. Key speaking topics Memory and cognitive performance Resilience and personal reinvention Change and adaptability Presentation and communication skills Peak performance under pressure Motivation and mindset Ideal for Sales kick-offs and commercial conferences where recall of product, client, and context is a direct revenue lever. Leadership offsites and learning events where a keynote needs to bridge inspiration with practical cognitive skills. After-dinner and awards audiences looking for a serious credential paired with a human story rather than generic motivational fare. Learning and development leaders building programmes on performance habits, attention, and executive presence. Audience outcomes Specific, named memory techniques audiences can apply the next day to recall names, data, and presentation content. A sharper sense of what trainable performance actually looks like, anchored in world-record discipline rather than slogans. Renewed appetite for personal reinvention, drawn from a first-person story of moving from the Fire Service to world-level competition. Practical approaches to preparing for and performing in high-stakes rooms, from boardroom pitches to stage presentations.

Why organisations work with David Weir A track record of winning at the highest level across two decades and seven Paralympic Games. Few speakers can draw on that span of sustained elite output when talking to a leadership team about consistency. Four gold medals in nine days at London 2012, on home ground, under the closest possible scrutiny. The story behind that fortnight is a serious case study in preparing for peak moments. Direct, lived authority on inclusion. The Weir Archer Academy, co-founded with coach Jenny Archer, is an operating organisation that gets young disabled athletes into sport, not a cause he lends a name to. A career that includes quitting the sport after Atlanta 1996 and returning. That arc gives the resilience content real texture rather than the usual highlight reel. Biography highlights Six Paralympic gold medals (two at Beijing 2008, four at London 2012) and ten Paralympic medals in total across Games from Atlanta 1996 to Paris 2024. Eight-time winner of the London Marathon men’s wheelchair race. Appointed CBE in the 2013 New Year Honours, MBE in 2009. Author of “Weirwolf: My Story”, published by Constable and Robinson in 2013 with David Bond. Co-founder of the Weir Archer Academy at Kingsmeadow, Kingston, launched April 2013. Inducted into the Stoke Mandeville Hall of Fame in 2014. Biography Four gold medals in nine days at the London 2012 Paralympics, 800m, 1500m, 5000m and marathon, put Weir at the centre of the most watched disability sport event ever staged. He won on home ground in front of a British crowd that had, by the end of those Games, a different frame of reference for what Paralympic sport was. The arc before that is what gives the story weight. Weir made his Paralympic debut at Atlanta in 1996 at seventeen, came away unimpressed, and quit the sport. He came back, built a partnership with coach Jenny Archer that still runs, and compiled six Paralympic golds and eight London Marathon wins across more than two decades at the top of T54 wheelchair racing. The public work beyond racing is substantive. “Weirwolf: My Story”, written with journalist David Bond and published in 2013, is an unvarnished account of racing, disability, and the training regime behind sustained elite output. The Weir Archer Academy, co-founded the same year at Kingsmeadow in Kingston, exists to get the next generation of disabled athletes into sport rather than to decorate a Paralympian’s post-career CV. Weir retired from Paralympic competition after Paris 2024, closing a run of seven Games. He was appointed CBE in 2013 and inducted into the Stoke Mandeville Hall of Fame in 2014. The corporate audience gets a speaker whose material on performance under pressure, coming back from a year that went wrong, and inclusion inside elite sport is drawn from the record, not constructed around it. Key speaking topics Resilience and comeback after setback Peak performance under pressure Sustained excellence across a long career Disability, inclusion and changing public attitudes Coach and athlete partnerships Goal setting over multi-year cycles Ideal for CHROs and inclusion leads building disability and accessibility into workforce strategy Sales and commercial leadership kick-offs framed around performance under pressure Sports industry, governing body and event organiser conferences Employee network and wellbeing programme events, particularly around mental health and sustained performance Audience outcomes A sharper sense of what consistency at the top actually costs, told through two decades of T54 racing A usable frame for recovering from a setback that does not resolve on its own timetable Specific detail on preparing for a single high-visibility moment, drawn from London 2012 A grounded view of disability inclusion from inside elite sport, rather than from policy language Material on coach and athlete trust that transfers to senior manager and team relationships

Why organisations work with Dean Ashton A first-person account of how an elite career ends without warning, and what it takes to construct a credible second one from scratch in a watched, public arena. Direct experience of performing under scrutiny, from Premier League football and an FA Cup final to live broadcast on talkSPORT, Sky Sports, ITV and Quest, is useful to leaders whose own work has become more publicly observed. A grounded, unvarnished voice on mental health, injury and identity loss, drawn from being told at 26 that the work he had trained his life for was over. An after-dinner presence that lifts the energy of a room, with material a sports-literate UK audience recognises immediately: Crewe academy, Norwich, the £7.25m move to West Ham, the 2006 cup final, the England debut against Trinidad & Tobago. Biography highlights Capped by England at the senior level; made his debut against Trinidad & Tobago on 1 June 2008. Signed by West Ham United from Norwich City in January 2006 for a then club-record £7.25m fee. Scored in the 3-3 FA Cup final against Liverpool in May 2006. Career ended in December 2009 at age 26 following a long-term ankle injury sustained in England training in August 2006. Product of the Crewe Alexandra academy under Dario Gradi; scored 74 goals in 177 appearances for the club. Now a pundit and co-commentator across talkSPORT, Sky Sports, ITV, Premier League TV and The EFL Show on Quest. Biography Ashton was a £7.25m centre-forward, an FA Cup final scorer, and an England international by the time he was 24. By 26, he was retired. The ankle injury sustained in an England training session in August 2006 never fully healed, and in December 2009, West Ham confirmed publicly what he had been trying to outrun for three years. The interesting part of the story for organisations is what came next. The default path for a player in that position is a quiet drift out of public life. Ashton instead built a second career inside the same scrutiny he had been performing in as a player, this time as a broadcaster, working as a pundit and co-commentator across talkSPORT, Sky Sports, ITV, Premier League TV and The EFL Show on Quest. That arc is the substance of his speaking work. The material is not abstract resilience theory. It is a specific account of identity loss at 26, the practical mechanics of rebuilding professional credibility in a new field, and the discipline of performing under live scrutiny when the result is judged in public. He talks honestly about mental health, public pressure and the version of yourself you have to construct when the original plan is gone. For a UK corporate audience, Ashton sits at the intersection of after-dinner sports speaker and credible voice on dealing with career shock. The football material gives the room an immediate point of entry. The reinvention material is what a leadership audience actually takes away. Key speaking topics Resilience after career-ending shock Reinvention and second careers Performing under public scrutiny Mental health and identity in elite performance environments Team culture and high performance in professional sport After-dinner sports speaking and Premier League punditry Ideal for HR, leadership and wellbeing conferences where the brief calls for an honest first-person voice on resilience and mental health. Sales kick-offs, awards dinners and partner events are looking for a UK sports-literate after-dinner speaker with substance behind the anecdotes. Internal leadership offsites addressing change fatigue, role loss after restructure, or the reset that follows a strategic shock. Audience outcomes A grounded sense of what resilience looks like in practice when the original plan is no longer available. A more honest internal vocabulary for talking about mental health, identity and pressure at senior levels. A reference point for thinking about career reinvention as a deliberate, constructed process rather than a recovery story. An engaged, sports-literate room, set up well for the rest of the agenda.

Why organisations work with Debra Searle The Choose Your Attitude Toolkit is a named, practical framework, not a motivational narrative. It gives teams repeatable tools for maintaining focus and performance when conditions are working against them. Debra’s 111 days alone at sea were unplanned and unsupported. She was not a trained athlete or military professional. That specificity matters: the resilience she describes is genuinely transferable to ordinary professionals facing ordinary pressure, not a feat designed to impress. She has founded five companies, including the diversity and inclusion consultancy MIX Diversity Developers, and has held board-level governance roles. She speaks to the organisational realities of change from direct commercial experience, not observation. The research basis she references, that 75% of top performer success is attributable to attitude rather than skillset, gives people leaders and HR teams a frame for workforce conversations that goes beyond inspiration. Her audience feedback is unusually concrete: perfect scores at IBM events (170 delegates, 5 out of 5), ranked best speaker at a major conference above heads of state and global business figures. Biography highlights Rowed 3,300 miles solo across the Atlantic Ocean over 111 days in 2001-2002, after her husband was rescued eight days into the crossing; she was a novice rower at the time Appointed MBE by Her Majesty The Queen in 2002; appointed Member of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO) in 2014 for services to The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Youngest ever Trustee of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, serving a decade alongside HRH Prince Philip and HRH Prince Edward Founder of five companies including MIX Diversity Developers, a diversity and inclusion consultancy BBC presenter across 40+ programmes including Grandstand and Extreme Lives Ranked in Global Gurus Top 30 Motivational Speakers list multiple years; consistently identified as the highest-ranking female speaker in the global ranking Over 1,300 keynote appearances across 40 countries; three books published including “Rowing It Alone” and “The Choose Your Attitude Journal” Biography Debra Searle spent 111 days alone in a 23-foot plywood boat rowing the Atlantic Ocean. She had not planned to do it solo. When her husband was rescued eight days in, she continued; a novice rower, no support vessel, in conditions most professional athletes would not accept. That experience became the foundation of a practical body of work on resilience and mindset that she has spent over two decades translating into organisational tools. The central argument of her work is precise: research suggests that roughly 75% of top-performer success traces to attitude rather than skill. Her Choose Your Attitude Toolkit distils the mental strategies she used at sea into a framework organisations can deploy with teams under pressure; not as inspiration, but as repeatable practice. The toolkit addresses what happens when conditions change faster than plans, when there is no clear end to the difficulty, and when leaders must model steadiness they do not fully feel. Searle’s commercial life runs alongside her expeditions rather than being separate from them. She founded five companies, including MIX Diversity Developers, a diversity and inclusion consultancy, and spent a decade as a Trustee of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, the youngest person ever appointed to the board. That combination of extreme personal experience and working organisational life is what distinguishes her within the resilience and leadership space. Her work is recognised beyond the speaking circuit. The Queen recognised her twice; with an MBE in 2002 and an MVO in 2014. Global Gurus has ranked her among the world’s top motivational speakers multiple years. She has delivered over 1,300 keynote addresses across 40 countries, and her audience feedback, including perfect scores at IBM events, is among the most consistent in the field. Key speaking topics Resilience and performance under pressure Mindset and attitude as organisational tools Leading through change and adversity Women in leadership Motivation and peak performance Entrepreneurship and board-level leadership Ideal for CHROs and people leaders designing resilience or wellbeing programmes Leadership teams navigating significant organisational change or sustained uncertainty Women in leadership conferences and female talent development programmes All-staff or large-format events requiring a keynote that is both commercially credible and personally compelling Audience outcomes A named, structured framework (the Choose Your Attitude Toolkit) that individuals can apply to maintain performance when under pressure A clearer understanding of the psychological difference between coping and adapting, and practical tools to move from one to the other Language and strategies for managing mindset in the absence of certainty, relevant to leaders who must communicate confidence before they feel it Renewed motivation and a reframe of what is genuinely achievable, grounded in a specific and verifiable story rather than abstract optimism

Why organisations work with Dee Snider He has a verifiable, on-the-record case study of standing alone in front of a hostile Senate committee and winning the argument, used as a live example of composure under public pressure. His material is built on four decades of reinvention across music, film, voice acting and production, giving audiences a concrete arc rather than a generic resilience pitch. He delivers a celebrity main-stage presence that conference organisers can use to lift the energy of a sales kick-off, anniversary dinner or awards night without losing substance. His free-speech story sits inside a serious cultural moment, the PMRC hearings, and lands with senior audiences who lived through it. Biography highlights Lead singer of Twisted Sister, writer of “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and “I Wanna Rock”, both certified rock anthems of the 1980s. Testified before the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee in September 1985 against the Parents Music Resource Center, alongside Frank Zappa and John Denver. Author of the autobiography “Shut Up and Give Me the Mic”, published by Gallery Books. Screenwriter of the cult horror feature “Strangeland” and President of production company Defiant Artists. Keynote speaker at “The World’s Most Dangerous Meeting” in Gothenburg, drawing on career lessons for a corporate audience. Voice actor and on-camera presence across film, television and video games, with collaborators including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gordon Ramsay. Biography In September 1985 a U.S. Senate committee called three musicians to testify on the moral content of rock lyrics. Frank Zappa, John Denver and the leather-clad lead singer of Twisted Sister sat in front of the cameras and refused to apologise. The hearing became the founding moment of the modern free-speech argument over music. That afternoon is the spine of Snider’s speaking career. He was 30 years old, painted, and treated by the room as a public enemy. He stayed calm, dismantled the accusations against “We’re Not Gonna Take It” line by line, and walked out with the cultural argument largely intact. Forty years later the moment is still used in journalism and law classes as a case study in composure under public attack. The career around it gives the story weight. Twisted Sister sold millions of records. Snider went on to write the horror film “Strangeland”, run a production company in Defiant Artists, voice video game and animated characters, and publish “Shut Up and Give Me the Mic” with Gallery Books. The through-line is reinvention without softening the original position. For corporate audiences he uses that material to talk about holding a line under public pressure, surviving repeated career reinvention, and the practical content of not backing down when the room wants you to. The delivery is funny, profane and self-deprecating. The argument underneath is serious. Key speaking topics Free speech and standing by a position under public attack Self-leadership and composure under pressure Career reinvention across four decades Creative resilience Storytelling for senior audiences The 1985 PMRC hearings as a leadership case study Ideal for Sales kick-offs, anniversary dinners and awards nights looking for a celebrity main-stage presence with a serious underlying argument Leadership offsites using personal-resilience case studies to anchor a session on composure Communications, brand and public affairs teams studying how to defend a position in hostile public settings Audience outcomes A first-hand account of the 1985 PMRC Senate hearings from one of the three musicians who testified A concrete personal example of holding a position under sustained public attack A four-decade case study of career reinvention without abandoning the original work An entertaining, profane and self-deprecating main-stage set that lifts the energy of a corporate room

Why organisations work with Demi Stokes A first-hand voice from the England squad that won UEFA Women’s Euro 2022, the most commercially significant moment in English women’s football. Nine seasons at the top of the Women’s Super League with Manchester City, including a WSL title, three FA Cups and three League Cups, plus a return to first-team football after the premature birth of her son. A current player and Newcastle United captain, which gives event audiences access to a live insider perspective rather than a retrospective career story. A credible advocate on premature birth and neonatal care through her Pampers UK ambassadorship with Bliss and UNICEF, suited to wellbeing, parental-leave and ERG-focused events. Biography highlights Member of the England squad that won UEFA Women’s Euro 2022; 69 senior caps between 2014 and 2023. Won the FA Women’s Super League, three FA Women’s Cups and three League Cups with Manchester City between 2015 and 2024. Named in the PFA WSL Team of the Year in 2018 and 2019. Captained Team GB to gold at the 2013 Summer Universiade in Kazan and represented Team GB at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Signed for Newcastle United Women in July 2024 and named club captain ahead of the 2025/26 season. Pampers UK ambassador for the #PampersforPreemies campaign with Bliss and UNICEF. Biography Most elite athletes peak inside a single environment. Demi Stokes built her career across four of them. Sunderland gave her a first-team debut at sixteen and an FA Cup final in 2009. A scholarship to the University of South Florida added four years of US college football. A summer at Vancouver Whitecaps in the USL W League followed before Manchester City signed her in January 2015. What she built at City is the substance of the speaking story. Nine seasons, more than 100 first-team appearances, the 2016 FA WSL title, three FA Women’s Cups and three League Cups. Two PFA WSL Team of the Year selections, in 2018 and 2019. A senior England debut in 2014, and a place in the squad that won UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 at Wembley, the most commercially important moment in English women’s football. The personal layer runs alongside the career. Stokes was born ten weeks premature herself, and her son Harlen spent time in a neonatal unit after a difficult pregnancy that included pre-eclampsia. She has spoken openly about that period in interviews with Grazia and Mother & Baby, and works with Pampers UK on the #PampersforPreemies campaign in partnership with Bliss and UNICEF. The throughline that audiences hear is how a senior international footballer sustains performance through events that most workplaces still struggle to talk about. She left Manchester City in May 2024, signed for Newcastle United Women in July, and was named club captain ahead of the 2025/26 season. The story she brings to a room is current, not archived. Key speaking topics Lionesses and UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 Women’s football and the professionalisation of the game Return to elite performance after a difficult pregnancy Premature birth, neonatal care and family advocacy Leadership in a dressing room and team identity Long-career resilience across clubs, countries and codes Ideal for Internal events tied to International Women’s Day, parental-leave policy launches or working-parent ERGs. Wellbeing, EDI and culture programmes looking for a credible voice on resilience and identity rather than a clinical specialist. Sport-sponsorship activations, hospitality nights and awards dinners where a current Lioness presence is the brief. Audience outcomes An inside account of the England squad that won UEFA Women’s Euro 2022, told by a senior squad member. A direct view of how a top-flight athlete returns to performance after a high-risk pregnancy and a premature birth. A useable reference point for managers thinking about how to support employees through major personal events. A current-player perspective on dressing-room leadership and the demands of being a club captain.

Why organisations work with Dame Denise Lewis A first-hand account of winning at the highest level in the hardest conditions: Olympic gold at Sydney 2000, secured while competing through an Achilles injury that threatened every event. Governance perspective from the top of a national sport, currently leading UK Athletics through a period of public financial difficulty and reform. Fifteen years of live broadcast analysis at BBC Sport, reading performance in real time across four Olympic Games and four Commonwealth Games. A view of high performance that moves between the individual and the system: what athletes owe their coaches, what leaders owe their teams, and where accountability actually sits. Credibility with audiences who have heard every sports keynote; the current presidencies (UK Athletics, Commonwealth Games England) put her in a different category from retired-athlete speakers. Biography highlights Olympic heptathlon gold medallist, Sydney 2000; Olympic bronze medallist, Atlanta 1996. Commonwealth Games heptathlon champion in 1994 and 2002; European champion 1998; World Championships silver 1997 and 1999. Appointed DBE in the 2023 New Year Honours; previously OBE (2001) and MBE (1999). President of UK Athletics, elected 2024. President of Commonwealth Games England, extended to Victoria 2026. BBC Sport athletics pundit from 2009 to Paris 2024, covering four Olympic cycles and four Commonwealth Games. Author, “Personal Best: The Autobiography” (2001). President of Sparks children’s medical research charity. Biography The Sydney 2000 heptathlon came down to the final 800 metres, with an Achilles injury that had threatened every event before it. Denise Lewis finished third in that race, hobbled across the line, and scored 6,584 points to become the first European Olympic heptathlon champion. The day was often described as character; closer up, it was preparation meeting a refusal to stop. That composure has defined the career since. Between 2009 and Paris 2024, Lewis was the analytical voice of BBC athletics coverage, reading elite performance in real time across four Olympic Games and four Commonwealth Games. The work demanded a different discipline from competing: quick judgement, live to camera, about people whose careers she understood from the inside. In 2024 she was elected President of UK Athletics, a governance role that began in the middle of a declared financial crisis at the national body. The remit is reform, public accountability and the long-term health of the sport. She also serves as President of Commonwealth Games England, extended through Victoria 2026, and as President of Sparks, the children’s medical research charity. For senior audiences, the value is the composite view: the competitor who held her nerve on the biggest stage, the analyst who has watched hundreds of others succeed and fail under the same pressure, and the administrator now answerable for a system rather than a single performance. Key speaking topics Leadership under pressure High-performance culture and standards Resilience and competitive mindset Governance and accountability in elite sport Team performance and coaching relationships Transition from elite competition to leadership Women in leadership and sport Ideal for Boards and executive committees setting performance standards for the wider organisation. Senior leadership offsites focused on pressure, judgement and decision-making. CHROs and talent leaders shaping high-performance culture programmes. Sport, media and national-body audiences looking at governance and reform. Audience outcomes A concrete sense of what holding standards looks like when the conditions are against you, not in theory. Language for the coach-athlete-administrator triangle that transfers directly to leader-team-board dynamics. A clearer read on the difference between motivation and preparation at the top of a competitive field. A first-hand perspective on governance responsibility: what a president actually answers for when a system is under strain.

Why organisations work with Devon Harris He has lived the exact scenario most leadership talks only describe. Competing at three Olympics after a crash, rebuilds, and a decade of comebacks is not a story, it is a working model for how teams recover from public failure. His credibility carries two rare sources at once: Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and three Olympic Games. Few speakers can frame resilience from both an officer’s training and an athlete’s start line. His Keep On Pushing Foundation, founded 2006, gives the keynote a real institutional spine. Audiences hear from someone who built something durable outside the sport, not a retired athlete trading on a moment. He is a practised corporate keynote with long-standing Fortune 500 clients across pharma, tech, logistics and industrials. Buyers get a speaker who knows how to land a message in a sales kickoff or a leadership offsite, not a sports story recycled on stage. The Jamaican bobsled story is globally recognised shorthand for underdog execution. He uses it as a working case study in team formation under scrutiny, not as a nostalgia piece. Biography highlights Three-time Winter Olympian: Calgary 1988, Albertville 1992, Nagano 1998. Founding member of the Jamaica national bobsled team; captain in 1992 and 1998. Graduate of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst; retired as a Captain in the Jamaica Defence Force. Named WOA Olympian for Life at PyeongChang 2018 by the World Olympians Association. Founder, Keep On Pushing Foundation, a US 501(c)(3) supporting education in disadvantaged communities. Author of “Keep On Pushing: Hot Lessons from Cool Runnings” and the children’s book “Yes, I Can! The Story of the Jamaican Bobsled Team.” Biography The 1988 Jamaican bobsled team crashed on Olympic ice in Calgary with the world watching. Devon Harris was in that sled. Four years later he was back, as captain. Four after that, he was on the ice again. The story that became Cool Runnings is the entry point, but the working material is what happened between the Games. Before the sled, there was Sandhurst. Harris graduated from the Royal Military Academy and took a Queen’s Commission in 1985, serving as an officer in the Jamaica Defence Force until he retired as a Captain. That dual formation, British military training layered on a childhood in Kingston’s Olympic Gardens, is where his view of composure under pressure comes from. It is also why his framing of team performance feels closer to an officer’s debrief than an athlete’s highlight reel. In 2006 he founded the Keep On Pushing Foundation, which funds education for children in disadvantaged communities and started by backing a breakfast program at his own primary school in Kingston. The World Olympians Association named him an Olympian for Life at PyeongChang 2018 for his work beyond sport. He has written two books, including a motivational volume that draws on the Sandhurst-to-Olympics arc and a children’s book on the bobsled story. He now works primarily with leadership and commercial teams at Fortune 500 organisations across pharma, technology, logistics, and industrial sectors. The argument he brings into those rooms is operational. Performance is not a mindset to adopt, it is a set of habits rehearsed under pressure, and the teams that keep pushing when the plan breaks are the ones that built those habits before the crash. Key speaking topics Resilience and performance under pressure Team leadership in high-scrutiny environments Composure and decision-making in volatility Sustained execution after public failure Goal-setting and long-cycle performance Diversity and inclusion in team formation Personal accountability in commercial teams Ideal for Senior leadership teams navigating extended periods of pressure, change, or public setback Sales kickoffs and commercial teams at the start of demanding quarters or transformations Board and executive offsites focused on team composure, resilience, and sustained performance Large culture and engagement events where a credible keynote anchor is required Audience outcomes A working vocabulary for talking about resilience as rehearsed behaviour, not individual grit Specific techniques Harris uses to reset composure after setbacks, drawn from Olympic and military practice A frame for how high-performing teams form quickly under scrutiny and keep performing after failure A renewed sense of personal accountability for the habits that compound into sustained performance

Why organisations work with Diana Nyad She offers a studied, first-person account of what it takes to keep a team aligned across four failed attempts and a decade of setbacks, which is closer to the reality of most major transformations than single-peak success stories. Her material is built on a specific, documented pursuit: five attempts to swim from Havana to Key West, culminating in a 53-hour crossing at age 64. Organisations get a concrete case study, not a motivational abstraction. She speaks from a long second career in serious journalism (NPR, ABC Wide World of Sports, New York Times, CBS News Sunday Morning), which means she can argue a point, not only tell a story. Her TEDWomen 2013 talk “Never, ever give up” is one of the most widely circulated speeches on long-horizon perseverance, giving audiences a reference point before she enters the room. Her story has been examined at length in Knopf’s Find a Way and dramatised in Netflix’s 2023 Nyad, which means her case is unusually well known to senior audiences before a keynote begins. Biography highlights Completed a swim from Havana to Key West in September 2013, approximately 110 miles in roughly 53 hours, on her fifth attempt at age 64. Circumnavigated Manhattan Island in 1975 in 7 hours 57 minutes, breaking a record that had stood for 48 years. Inducted into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame (1978) and the National Women’s Sports Hall of Fame (1986). Sports and culture journalist at ABC’s Wide World of Sports, NPR, CBS News Sunday Morning, The New York Times, and Newsweek. Host of NPR’s The Savvy Traveler, 2001 to 2004. Author of Other Shores (1978), Basic Training for Women (1981), Boss of Me (1999), and Find a Way (Knopf, 2015). Subject of the 2013 documentary The Other Shore and the 2023 Netflix biopic Nyad. Biography The Havana to Key West crossing took five attempts and more than three decades between the first try and the one that finished. The 2013 swim ran roughly 110 miles and took about 53 hours in open water. The story most organisations know from the TED talk is the ending; the part that matters to leaders is the four attempts before it, and the team that kept assembling after each one. Nyad was already an accomplished marathon swimmer well before Cuba. In 1975 she circled Manhattan Island in 7 hours 57 minutes, breaking a record that had stood since 1927. She was inducted into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame in 1978 and the National Women’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1986. That era produced a particular kind of athlete: one who had to build, fund, and lead her own campaigns, because no federation was going to do it for her. The second career is what makes her unusual in this category. She spent roughly thirty years as a sports and culture journalist at ABC’s Wide World of Sports, NPR, CBS News Sunday Morning, The New York Times, and Newsweek, and hosted NPR’s The Savvy Traveler from 2001 to 2004. She is a writer before she is a motivator, and her books, including Knopf’s Find a Way in 2015, argue a case rather than recite a highlight reel. For senior audiences, the Cuba project is useful because it is legible as a management problem. A non-negotiable goal, a team that changes between attempts, four public failures, a shifting set of physical and logistical obstacles, and the question of when to stop. She is also clear-eyed about the ratification questions that followed the 2013 swim, which matters: the material she brings is about method and persistence, not an untouchable record. Key speaking topics Sustained pursuit of long-horizon goals Leading teams across repeated failure Decision-making under physical and psychological duress Resilience as a practised discipline Women in leadership and late-career reinvention Storytelling and the journalism of performance Ideal for Senior leadership offsites dealing with multi-year transformation programmes where setbacks are expected CEO and board sessions framing a non-negotiable strategic objective Sales and commercial leadership kick-offs anchored on persistence and team discipline Culture and people events for organisations rebuilding after a public failure or missed target Audience outcomes A concrete reference case for what a decade-long pursuit looks like from inside the team A clearer frame for the difference between motivation and method when a goal keeps slipping Language for talking to a team about the cost of the next attempt after a visible failure A usable argument that age, tenure, and timing are not the constraints they are usually treated as A reminder, grounded in a specific campaign, that solitary-looking achievements are almost always team outputs

Why organisations work with Diana Ospina and Oscar Lemus They bring an instrument, not a philosophy. BhiPRO produces a quantified Business Happiness Index across 35 indicators with a reported 94% reliability, the kind of evidence a board will fund against. The methodology has earned external academic validation. Harvard Business School teaches a BhiPRO case based on its deployment at Lanco Medical Group, which signals serious analytical credibility for a culture topic that usually trades on anecdote. They speak as a duo with two distinct lenses: Diana on applied neuroscience and culture practice, Oscar on the financial and operational economics of happiness. The split lets them address a CHRO and a CFO in the same room. They are the leading Spanish-language voices on workplace happiness measurement in Latin America, with deployments across 70+ companies and an open study spanning 29 countries. For multinationals with significant LatAm operations, they offer regional substance most international speakers cannot. Their book “Signos Vitales de la Felicidad Organizacional” is prologued by Néstor Braidot, the leading Spanish-language neuroscientist on applied business neuroscience, anchoring their work in a credible scientific tradition. Biography highlights Co-creators of BhiPRO (Business Happiness Index Program), a 35-indicator scientific methodology for measuring organisational happiness, climate and wellbeing. BhiPRO featured as an MBA teaching case at Harvard Business School, based on the Lanco Medical Group implementation. Co-founders of Mide la Felicidad, the Colombian firm that has applied the methodology to 70+ companies in Latin America since 2015. Co-authors of “Signos Vitales de la Felicidad Organizacional” and “Metodología Científica BhiPRO: Cómo Medir la Felicidad Organizacional,” with prologue by neuroscientist Néstor Braidot. Diana Ospina: TEDx speaker (“Monitoreando Felicidad Laboral”, TEDxSanJosédeDavid), NLP practitioner and applied neuroscience specialist. Oscar Rodríguez Lemus: Honorary Doctorate in Human Development and Leadership (2023), trained in Applied Neurosciences and Brain Gym at the Braidot Institute, with two decades in capital markets and finance before his work on workplace happiness. Biography Most organisations cannot answer a basic question about their own culture: how happy are our people, in numbers a finance director would accept. Pulse surveys and engagement indices give partial answers. They do not link wellbeing to performance with enough rigour to defend a culture budget through a downturn. The instrument has been missing. BhiPRO was built to close that gap. Diana Ospina Campuzano and Oscar Rodríguez Lemus spent more than a decade developing a 35-indicator measurement system covering happiness, climate, wellbeing, culture and sustainability, reporting 94% reliability. The methodology now anchors a Harvard Business School MBA case, based on its application at Lanco Medical Group, and has been deployed across more than 70 companies in Latin America since their firm Mide la Felicidad was founded in Colombia in 2014. The duo work in complementary modes. Diana came to the topic through applied neuroscience, NLP and executive coaching, and is a TEDx speaker on workplace happiness. Oscar’s background sits in capital markets and international economic relations, which gives the partnership a financial vocabulary that culture work usually lacks. Together they published “Signos Vitales de la Felicidad Organizacional,” prologued by the neuroscientist Néstor Braidot, and the companion methodology volume on how to measure organisational happiness. For executive teams the value is concrete. A Spanish-language duo who can stand in front of a Latin American leadership team, present a quantified diagnostic of how their culture is actually performing, and link the gaps to specific operational moves. The Harvard case is the credibility marker. The 35-indicator instrument is the working tool. Key speaking topics Measuring organisational happiness with the BhiPRO methodology Workplace wellbeing and employee engagement Applied neuroscience and workplace happiness Organisational culture transformation Talent retention and human loyalty The economics of happiness at work Entrepreneurship and partnership Ideal for CHROs, Chief Happiness Officers and culture leads in Latin American or Spanish-speaking organisations commissioning a quantified culture diagnostic CEOs and CFOs evaluating the financial case for wellbeing and engagement investment Multinationals with significant Latin American operations seeking regionally credible culture expertise HR conferences and leadership summits in Spanish-language markets Audience outcomes A clear understanding of what an audit-grade happiness measurement actually contains and how it differs from a pulse survey The five dimensions and headline indicators that drive the BhiPRO index, and how each links to operational outcomes An evidence-based read on what Latin American workforce data says about engagement, retention and culture Practical entry points for moving a culture programme from narrative to measurement A neuroscience-informed view of why workplace happiness behaves the way it does, drawn from Braidot Institute training