Nick Winton

Nick Winton: Business Leader and Inspirational Speaker

Nick Winton is a distinguished business leader, international speaker, and the son of Sir Nicholas Winton MBE, renowned for organizing the Kindertransport from Czechoslovakia before the Second World War, which saved 669 children. Sir Nicholas was knighted for his extraordinary humanitarian work and also contributed to causes supporting the mentally handicapped and elderly in care.

Business Leadership and Career

Nick’s own journey is marked by resilience, innovation, and leadership. After pioneering a new technology and successfully selling his group of companies, he was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor and given a prognosis of only five years to live. This profound experience deepened his understanding of uncertainty and the importance of adaptability in both life and business. Following surgery, he enrolled at Imperial College Business School, graduating with an MBA (cum laude).

Transitioning into a new phase of his career, Nick became an Interim CEO and Managing Director, guiding numerous companies in both the public and private sectors across London and New York. He specialized in business turnarounds and start-ups, earning a reputation for motivating and managing teams under intense pressure and navigating organizations through challenging transitions. As a business leader, he is known for his ability to inspire teams, drive culture change, and foster innovation.

Nick continues to advise boards of directors and serves as a trustee for Norden Farm Centre for the Arts-an award-winning charity in his family’s hometown of Maidenhead-as well as a charity providing diagnostic genomic solutions.

Speaking and Storytelling

As an international speaker, Nick has captivated audiences ranging from intimate gatherings to crowds of up to 15,000 at corporate workshops, community events, schools, and fundraisers. Drawing on his father’s legacy and his own business leadership experience, Nick addresses critical themes such as:

• The value of teamwork in achieving great things
• Overcoming artificial barriers
• Recognizing the unique value of every individual
• Ethics as the foundation of sustainable company growth
• Leading with purpose, vision, and ethical clarity

Nick’s presentations are tailored to each audience, enriched by images and videos from the Winton family archive, and emphasize the power of individual action to create meaningful change in organizations and society.

Personal Interests

Outside his professional life, Nick enjoys current affairs, economics, opera (especially Mozart), mime, architecture, and exploring gardens and parks. He was trained in aerobatics by the RAF, held a private pilot’s license, and enjoys traveling around Europe by motorbike. Nick and his wife Dominique were married in Prague, the city where his father’s Kindertransport mission began.

Nick Winton exemplifies the qualities of a modern business leader: resilience, ethical clarity, and a commitment to making a positive impact. His personal and professional journey inspires audiences to lead with purpose and to recognize the profound difference one individual can make.