Kevin Gaskell

Why organisations work with Kevin Gaskell

• He has led verifiable turnarounds at three named global brands – Porsche GB from near-bankruptcy to the UK’s most profitable car company, BMW GB to four years of record growth and 500% profitability improvement, and Lamborghini GB – which means his frameworks are grounded in a documented, repeated track record, not a single case.
• His book Catching Giants (Business Book Awards 2023 finalist) makes a specific, testable argument: that resource-constrained teams with clarity of goal and high belief can consistently outperform better-resourced opponents. Organisations working through transformation can put that directly to use.
• His portfolio of 15+ businesses across technology, data, and manufacturing – including taking Fairline Boats from ten years of losses to profit within 14 months – shows the same turnaround approach applied across sectors, which makes it credible to audiences outside automotive.
• The world-record Atlantic and Pacific rowing expeditions are not decorative biography. They are tested case material on exactly the leadership dynamics he teaches: small teams, constrained resources, extreme conditions, and the challenge of sustaining belief and performance when the goal feels unreachable.
• He has delivered keynotes and masterclasses in over 50 countries for clients including Google, Oracle, JP Morgan, P&G, and Airbus – a range that tests his frameworks against diverse industries, organisation sizes, and cultures.

Biography highlights

• MD of Porsche GB: took the business from near-bankruptcy and bottom of UK customer satisfaction rankings to most profitable car company in the UK within five years
• MD of BMW GB: four years of record growth, 70% sales increase, 500% improvement in profitability
• MD of Lamborghini GB; CEO of Fairline Boats, leading the business from ten years of losses to profit within 14 months
• Founder, chairman, and investor across 15+ businesses in technology, data, manufacturing, and professional services; portfolio has created over £3 billion in shareholder value
• Author of Catching Giants (Right Book Press, 2022), shortlisted for the Business Book Awards 2023
• Guinness World Record holder as part of the Ocean 5 team, fastest five-person Atlantic row (2020); world record Pacific row (2025); expeditions to both the North and South Poles
• Keynote and masterclass clients include Google, Oracle, JP Morgan, P&G, Airbus, and Accenture; delivered in over 50 countries
• Recognised as one of the UK’s Top 40 Managers under 40

Biography

Turning round a failing business is one of the most demanding tests of leadership because it requires people to change their behaviour before there is any evidence the change will work. Kevin Gaskell has done that three times – at Porsche GB, BMW GB, and Lamborghini GB – and the mechanism in each case was the same: rebuilding team belief in a new direction ahead of any visible result.

Appointed MD of Porsche GB at 32, he inherited a company close to bankruptcy and ranked at the bottom of UK customer satisfaction tables. Within five years it was the most profitable car company in the UK. At BMW GB, he led four years of record growth, including a 500% improvement in profitability. At Lamborghini GB, the same approach – refocusing the team on a clear goal, rebuilding culture from the inside – produced comparable results. Across these three brands, the pattern was never primarily about strategy. It was about belief.

That same discipline has been applied outside automotive. At Fairline Boats, a business carrying ten years of losses was returned to profit within 14 months. Across a wider portfolio of technology, data, and manufacturing businesses, his teams have created more than £3 billion in shareholder value. His book Catching Giants, shortlisted for the Business Book Awards in 2023, formalises the core argument: that teams with limited resources and a clear goal, led well, can outperform better-equipped competition consistently.

The expedition record – both poles, world-record Atlantic and Pacific rows – provides a parallel body of case material on the same dynamics. Small teams, constrained resources, extreme conditions, and the central leadership question: how do you sustain the belief and cohesion needed to reach an objective that looks, for most of the journey, unreachable.

Key speaking topics

• Business turnaround and performance recovery
• High-performance team leadership
• Organisational culture as a performance lever
• Leading through disruption and uncertainty
• Brand building and repositioning
• Resilience and performance under pressure
• Entrepreneurship and business building

Ideal for

• CEOs, MDs, and executive teams in businesses facing stalled performance, competitive disruption, or active turnaround
• Senior leadership teams initiating or sustaining large-scale transformation programmes
• Board-level and C-suite audiences exploring the human and cultural dynamics of sustained organisational performance
• Commercial and operations leaders responsible for driving step-change performance in established organisations

Audience outcomes

• A specific framework for diagnosing why performance has stalled and what leadership change is needed to address it
• Practical tools for building team belief and shared purpose around an ambitious goal
• Case-based understanding of how cultural change typically precedes financial performance recovery in turnaround situations
• A working model for connecting leadership behaviour to commercial outcomes, drawn from multiple named business examples
• Perspective on sustaining high performance and decision quality under conditions of extreme pressure and limited resource