Ben McBean

Why organisations work with Ben McBean

• He turns disability inclusion from a compliance topic into a human conversation audiences keep having after the session ends.
• His recovery from catastrophic injury gives mental health and resilience messaging a weight that consultants and clinicians cannot replicate.
• As presenter of ITVX’s “For Crown and Country,” he has a documented public-facing body of work on race and the British Armed Forces, which makes him credible for DEI briefs that demand more than personal story.
• He has spoken to Chelsea FC, Lloyds Bank, JP Morgan, Ernst & Young, Vodafone, and Citigroup, so he reads corporate rooms with the same ease he reads public ones.
• He is comfortable with young audiences, employee resource groups, and senior leadership sessions, which lets a single booking do work across an organisation.

Biography highlights

• Former Royal Marine, 40 Commando, medically discharged in 2010 after an IED injury in Helmand Province.
• Overcoming Adversity winner at The Sun Military Awards 2009 for becoming the first double amputee to finish the London Marathon.
• Outstanding Global Achievement Award at Britain’s Best Award 2008, presented by the Prime Minister.
• Rotary Young Citizen Award, 2012.
• Presenter, “For Crown and Country,” ITVX Fresh Cuts, 2023.
• Corporate client list includes Chelsea FC, Lloyds Bank, JP Morgan, Ernst & Young, Vodafone, and Citigroup.

Biography

An IED exploded near Kajaki Dam, Helmand Province, on 28 February 2008. Ben McBean lost his left arm and right leg and was flown home on the same aircraft as Prince Harry, who later called him the “real hero” of that flight. He was twenty years old.

A year later he finished the London Marathon in six hours and twenty minutes, the first double amputee to complete the course. He did it again the following year, faster. The Sun Military Awards recognised him for Overcoming Adversity in December 2009.

What McBean does for organisations now grew out of what happened after the marathons. He spent years speaking in schools, at veterans’ events, and inside companies that were trying to make inclusion and mental health feel real rather than performative. In 2023 ITVX asked him to present “For Crown and Country,” a Fresh Cuts documentary on the contribution of Black British servicemen and women, which extended his platform from personal testimony into commissioned social history.

Corporate audiences at Chelsea FC, Lloyds Bank, JP Morgan, Ernst & Young, Vodafone, and Citigroup have booked him for the same reason. A policy document can tell a workforce that difference is welcome. A room full of people who have just listened to McBean walks out knowing what that looks like when it is tested.

Key speaking topics

• Disability inclusion in the workplace
• Mental health and recovery from trauma
• Resilience after catastrophic setback
• Diversity, equity and inclusion
• Veterans’ experience and reintegration
• Race and representation in institutional settings

Ideal for

• DEI leads, CHROs, and employee resource group sponsors designing inclusion programming with real behavioural reach.
• Wellbeing and mental health leads running Mental Health Awareness Week, wellbeing conferences, or post-crisis staff events.
• Learning and development teams building resilience content for managers and frontline staff.
• Armed Forces charities, veterans’ networks, and public sector employers convening on race, service, and belonging.

Audience outcomes

• A sharper read on how disability and difference are actually experienced inside a team, not how policy says they should be.
• Permission to talk about mental health and recovery in direct language, without workplace euphemism.
• A human reference point audiences return to when their own setback, illness, or loss arrives.
• Renewed conviction that inclusion is a behaviour practised in meetings, not a statement published on an intranet.