Berättande och affärskommunikation speakers

Why organisations work with Amy Carroll She works on the specific moments leadership training usually skips: board challenges, negotiations that stall, team conversations that tip into defensiveness. Leaders leave with something they can apply on Monday, not a model to file. Her 7 Partner Mindset methodology, built on the licensed Predator, Prey or Partner model from Pat Kirkland Leadership, gives executives a usable vocabulary for power dynamics most leaders feel but cannot name. The client list runs through organisations that do not buy soft skills lightly: Nestle, Novartis, Cisco, UBS, Ernst and Young, the World Economic Forum, the United Nations, the European Stability Mechanism. Thirty years across psychology, executive coaching, and psychiatric and managed-care settings give her range on human behaviour that communications trainers rarely carry. Recognition from Global Gurus, including a Top 20 position in the Communication category, places her among a small group of named practitioners in the field. Biography highlights Author of The Ego Tango: How to Get More of What You Want More Often with Less Hassle, Using These 7 Partner Mindset Techniques Host of Partner Up! with Amy Carroll on VoiceAmerica Business Channel, available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Ranked among Global Gurus’ Top 30 Communication Professionals, placing #18 in 2023 Professional Certified Coach (PCC) and Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, with a BA in Psychology Coaching and training clients include Nestle, Novartis, Microsoft, Cisco, UBS, Ernst and Young, Procter and Gamble, Medtronic, the World Economic Forum, the United Nations, and the European Stability Mechanism Licenses the Predator, Prey or Partner model from Pat Kirkland Leadership Inc. and built the 7 Partner Mindset methodology on top of it Biography Most leadership failures happen in conversation. A board member challenges an assumption and the chief executive concedes ground she should have held. A senior partner pushes harder than the client will accept. A team leader in a performance review slips from clarity into apology. The cost is rarely dramatic, but it compounds, and it sits outside what strategy decks or standard communications training address. Amy Carroll works on that gap. Her 7 Partner Mindset methodology, built on the licensed Predator, Prey or Partner model from Pat Kirkland Leadership, gives executives a working vocabulary for the power dynamics they feel in the room but cannot usually name. The framework draws from three decades in psychology, executive coaching, and earlier work in psychiatric and managed-care settings, which is a wider behavioural base than most communications coaches bring. Her book, The Ego Tango, sets out the methodology through cases from the workshops she runs with multinational clients. The client list is instructive: Nestle, Novartis, Cisco, UBS, Ernst and Young, Medtronic, the World Economic Forum, the United Nations, the European Stability Mechanism. These are organisations where a senior leader’s composure under challenge is a measurable commercial asset. She hosts Partner Up! with Amy Carroll on VoiceAmerica Business Channel, and has been named among Global Gurus’ Top 30 Communication Professionals, including a Top 20 placement in 2023. The recognition is useful context; the substance is the work itself, which is a repeatable method for holding authority when the stakes rise. Key speaking topics Leadership communication under pressure Power and influence in senior conversations Executive presence and authority High-stakes negotiation dynamics Emotional intelligence for senior leaders Storytelling and persuasion in business Coaching culture and leadership development Ideal for C-suite and senior leadership teams preparing for board, investor, or regulator-facing conversations Partners and client-facing leaders in professional services and financial services HR and Learning leads building executive development programmes Senior women navigating authority in traditionally male-dominated rooms Audience outcomes A named vocabulary for the power dynamics that sit beneath difficult conversations, so leaders can diagnose what is happening in the moment Specific techniques from the 7 Partner Mindset model to stay composed when challenged and to influence without escalating A sharper read on their own default patterns under stress, including where they concede and where they overreach Language for feedback, negotiation, and disagreement that holds authority without damaging the relationship A practical sense of how senior presence is built through behaviour, not positioning

Why organisations work with Ana Andjelic Her “aspirational economy” thesis that brand value is now built through social, cultural, and environmental capital rather than product features or advertising reach gives leadership teams a conceptually rigorous basis for repositioning brands in fragmented consumer markets, not just a set of tactics. She has delivered verified results at scale: the Banana Republic rebrand under her leadership produced a 27% year-on-year comparable sales increase, which means boards are not being asked to take a theory on faith. Her two Routledge-published books, combined with The Sociology of Business newsletter (ranked among Substack’s top 15 business publications), mean her framework is publicly available, continuously tested, and already in use by the marketing leaders her audiences need to influence. She brings C-suite brand experience across three distinct commercial contexts – global mass retail (Banana Republic, Esprit), contemporary luxury (Mansur Gavriel), and independent fashion (Rebecca Minkoff), making her diagnostic toolkit applicable beyond any single category or brand tier. A Columbia sociology doctorate and a senior career at agencies including Droga5 and Havas means she can diagnose what has broken in a brand’s relationship with culture and explain why, not just describe the symptoms. Biography highlights Chief Brand Officer at Banana Republic, rebrand delivered a 27% year-on-year comparable sales increase Former Global Chief Brand Officer at Esprit, led brand repositioning across Europe and market re-entry in North America and Asia-Pacific Author of two books published by Routledge: The Business of Aspiration and Hitmakers: How Brands Influence Culture Recognised three times by Forbes for CMO work, including Forbes CMO Next Publishes The Sociology of Business, ranked among the top 15 business publications on Substack Contributor to Harvard Business Review, Financial Times, Fast Company, The Guardian, Adweek, and Vogue PhD in Sociology and MA in Media Studies; senior agency experience at Droga5, Havas Media, and Spring Studios Biography Ana Andjelic spent two decades in C-suite brand roles, at Banana Republic, Esprit, Mansur Gavriel, and Rebecca Minkoff, while simultaneously building a body of intellectual work that explains why most brand strategy fails. The result is a perspective with unusual commercial credibility: she has made the argument at board level and then delivered the numbers. Her central thesis, developed in The Business of Aspiration (Routledge), is that modern consumers no longer signal status through wealth or possessions but through taste, curation, and values – what she calls social, cultural, and environmental capital. The organisations that understand this are not running better advertising. They are restructuring brand strategy around cultural influence: collaborations, creative communities, content, and what she identifies in her second book, Hitmakers: How Brands Influence Culture, as the systematic production of cultural hits. At Banana Republic, she translated this framework into a full brand repositioning that delivered a 27% year-on-year comparable sales increase. At Esprit, she oversaw the brand’s repositioning across Europe and its re-entry into North American and Asia-Pacific markets. Both assignments required her to make cultural arguments in commercial terms and to redesign the marketing function to deliver them. Andjelic holds a PhD in Sociology from Columbia University and a Masters in Media Studies. Her Sociology of Business newsletter is among Substack’s top 15 business publications. She contributes to Harvard Business Review, the Financial Times, Fast Company, and Vogue, and is a frequent expert source for the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post. Key speaking topics Brand strategy and repositioning Cultural influence and the aspirational economy Consumer aspiration and shifting status symbols Cultural hitmaking as commercial strategy The Creative Class and cultural audience segmentation Brand storytelling and narrative architecture Retail innovation and brand-driven growth Ideal for Chief Marketing Officers and Chief Brand Officers leading brand repositioning or category entry C-suite leaders in fashion, luxury, and retail responsible for connecting brand investment to commercial outcomes Strategy and brand teams in consumer-facing businesses seeking a model for cultural relevance that scales Boards and leadership teams reviewing brand value architecture, growth planning, or market re-entry Audience outcomes A working framework for understanding how social, cultural, and environmental capital now drive brand value and purchase decisions, and what that means for brand investment A practical model for redefining brand strategy as cultural influence, with organisational and operational implications Clarity on the role of cultural products, collaborations, content, entertainment, community, in building sustainable brand growth beyond advertising A method for segmenting audiences by their relationship to culture, including how the Creative Class functions as an amplification layer Tested examples of how cultural strategy translates into commercial results, including the conditions that made the Banana Republic repositioning work

Why organisations work with Anastasia Graham-Yooll She has reported conflict from the inside, as part of the CNN team that won the 2022 Emmy for Outstanding Breaking News Coverage of the war in Ukraine, and more recently on the Iran war. Few moderators on a geopolitics panel have stood that close to the story. She has produced for outlets at opposite ends of the political spectrum, from CNN and Al Jazeera English to Fox News and News Nation. For a board-level panel on a divisive issue, that means a chair who can hold a partisan room without being read as taking a side. Two decades of editorial work across CNN International, Bloomberg TV, and Al Jazeera English means she can shape a programme arc, brief speakers in advance, and keep a session on the record without drift. As a Ukrainian journalist based in London, she brings primary-source authority on the fracturing rules-based order that few UK-based moderators can match. She brings a working position on press freedom, journalist mental health, and neurodiversity in newsrooms to media, culture, and people-focused programmes. Biography highlights Co-recipient of the 2022 Emmy for Outstanding Breaking News Coverage of the war in Ukraine, as part of the CNN team. Over two decades of broadcast and production experience across CNN International, CNN en Español, Bloomberg TV, and Al Jazeera English. Recent reporting spans the political spectrum, including production work on the Iran war for the US networks Fox News and News Nation. Founder and Executive Director of HGY Media Ltd, a London-based documentary production and media consultancy firm. Former media consultant to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, advising on communications for its agribusiness and food-security strategy. Public advocate for press freedom, ethical storytelling, journalist mental health, and neurodiversity in newsrooms. Biography A geopolitics panel is only as good as the person in the chair. Put partisan voices in the same room and most moderators either pick a side or let the session drift into headlines. The discipline of holding that room, pressing each speaker on substance while staying neutral, is what Graham-Yooll has built over two decades of broadcast journalism. She was part of the CNN team that won the 2022 Emmy for Outstanding Breaking News Coverage of the war in Ukraine, reporting in the earliest days of the Russian invasion. Her career runs across CNN International, CNN en Español, Bloomberg TV, and Al Jazeera English. More recently she has produced coverage of the Iran war for the US networks Fox News and News Nation, and royal coverage with the Associated Press’s AP 360. Reporting for outlets at opposite ends of the political spectrum is itself the credential. It is why she can chair a divided room without being read as partisan. Away from live coverage, she founded HGY Media Ltd, a London production and consultancy firm working on documentary projects and purpose-driven campaigns on human rights, conflict communication, and freedom of expression. Her earlier advisory work for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, on communications around agribusiness and food security, gives her technical footing on the sustainability and supply-chain questions that increasingly sit inside the geopolitical brief. She also speaks on the working conditions inside modern newsrooms, from the mental health toll of conflict coverage to the case for neurodiversity in editorial teams. For media, culture, and people programmes that want substance over presenter polish, that track is the draw. Key speaking topics Geopolitics and conflict reporting Editorial impartiality across the political spectrum Press freedom and ethical storytelling Editorial leadership and narrative strategy Neurodiversity in the newsroom Mental health in journalism The geopolitics of food security Ideal for Conference organisers seeking a panel chair for geopolitics, defence policy, or Ukraine and Middle East programmes Boards and policy forums that need a neutral chair for politically divided or high-stakes sessions Corporate communications and policy forums on press freedom, disinformation, and crisis communications Media, HR, and culture programmes on newsroom mental health and neurodiversity Audience outcomes A panel that stays editorially controlled, on record, and on time, with each speaker challenged on substance Geopolitical context on Ukraine, the Middle East, and the wider European security picture from a journalist with frontline reporting credit A read on how the same story is framed differently across the political spectrum, from US partisan media to international broadcasters A direct view of what ethical storytelling and press freedom mean for organisations operating in politically volatile markets The practical case for neurodiversity and mental health support in high-pressure editorial and communications teams

Why organisations work with Andrea McLean Thirteen years anchoring Loose Women gives her a craft of audience handling that few corporate keynote speakers can match, useful for events that need a host who can hold a room as well as deliver content. She speaks publicly about her own surgical menopause, breakdown and career exit, which lets internal audiences raise menopause and midlife anxiety as workplace issues without the conversation feeling clinical or performative. As co-founder and CEO of This Girl Is On Fire, she brings the perspective of someone who has built a women’s personal growth business from scratch, not just a presenter reading a script on the topic. Confessions of a Menopausal Woman and This Girl Is on Fire gave her a defined, recognisable position in the UK menopause and midlife conversation, useful for employer events targeting women in their forties and fifties. She can move between keynote, panel chair, awards host and after-dinner storyteller in the same engagement, which suits women’s networks, internal D&I events and customer-facing brand evenings. Biography highlights Longest-serving anchor of ITV’s Loose Women, on the panel from 2007 to 2020. Began her television career as a GMTV weather presenter in 1997, building a 24-year run across UK daytime broadcasting. Author of four books published with Hodder & Stoughton and others, including Confessions of a Menopausal Woman (2018) and the Sunday Times bestseller This Girl Is on Fire (2020). Co-founder and CEO of This Girl Is On Fire, a women’s personal growth platform launched in 2018 with masterclasses, podcast, app and live events. Has interviewed Oprah Winfrey, Beyoncé, Drew Barrymore and Michael Bublé across her broadcasting career. Runs a CPD-accredited media coaching course used by founders, authors and executives preparing for high-stakes broadcast appearances. Biography Most organisations still treat menopause, anxiety and midlife reinvention as private events that happen to women alongside their work, rather than as workplace issues. The result is a steady, quiet loss of senior women at exactly the point they should be moving into their most influential roles. Andrea McLean has spent the past decade turning that private territory into public conversation. For thirteen years she anchored ITV’s Loose Women, the longest-serving lead on a panel show built around women talking honestly about their lives. The role gave her a particular kind of authority: the craft of holding a room of strangers, and the experience of doing it while navigating a surgical menopause, anxiety, two divorces and, in 2019, a public breakdown that became the trigger for leaving television. In 2018 she co-founded This Girl Is On Fire with her husband Nick Feeney, a personal growth platform for women that now runs masterclasses, a podcast, an app and live events. Confessions of a Menopausal Woman and This Girl Is on Fire established her as a recognisable UK voice on midlife women’s health and reinvention, with the second book reaching the Sunday Times bestseller list. She is most useful to organisations that need someone who can host an event, deliver a keynote and answer questions about midlife transition without flinching. The audience is usually a women’s network, a D&I forum, or a customer event aimed at women in their forties and fifties. The substance is personal, the room is her craft, and the topic is one she has built a company around. Key speaking topics Menopause in the workplace Midlife reinvention for senior women Anxiety and personal recovery Women’s networks and inclusion events Storytelling for high-stakes communication Confidence and career pivots Building a business in midlife Ideal for Women’s networks and ERGs at large employers D&I and wellbeing events focused on women aged 40 to 55 Customer-facing brand evenings and awards nights needing a host with on-air craft Internal leadership events seeking a candid voice on midlife transition and resilience Audience outcomes A frank, named account of menopause, anxiety and recovery delivered without clinical distance. Permission for senior women in the room to raise midlife and health issues as workplace topics. A story of leaving a high-profile career and building a business in midlife, useful for audiences considering their own pivot. A room held with the pace and warmth of a broadcaster, not the rhythm of a corporate presenter.

Why organisations work with Andrew Brodsky He gives leadership teams a named, research-backed framework, PING (Perspective-taking, Initiative, Non-verbal cues, Goals), that turns ad hoc virtual habits into a deliberate operating practice. His evidence is original, not aggregated: peer-reviewed studies in the Journal of Applied Psychology and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin on how channel choice changes what gets said, heard and believed. He answers a question most consultants avoid: when is audio better than video, when does email outperform a meeting, and what does that mean for managers who default to whatever is easiest. His client roster includes Dell Technologies, PwC, Amazon and Novo Nordisk, which means the work has been pressure-tested inside organisations running global hybrid operations. The book Ping, published by Simon & Schuster and Penguin, has been endorsed by Adam Grant and Katy Milkman, placing his work alongside the leading voices in applied behavioural science. Biography highlights Management professor, McCombs School of Business, The University of Texas at Austin PhD in Organizational Behavior, Harvard Business School; BS, The Wharton School Author, Ping: The Secrets of Successful Virtual Communication (Simon & Schuster, Penguin, 2025) CEO and founder, Ping Group Named one of the world’s Best 40-Under-40 MBA Professors by Poets&Quants Research published in the Journal of Applied Psychology and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin; commentary in The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, The Economist, CNBC, The New York Times and TIME Biography Hybrid work settled the location question and left a harder one open. Inside most companies, the decision about which channel to use for which conversation is still made by habit. The cost is measurable: slower decisions, weaker trust, meetings that exist to compensate for messages that should never have been sent. Brodsky has built a research programme around that gap. His peer-reviewed work in the Journal of Applied Psychology and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin examines the operating consequences of specific channel choices, from how email shapes emotional authenticity to why audio-only calls often outperform video. The findings are precise enough to act on, which is unusual in a field crowded with generalities about remote work. The book Ping, published by Simon & Schuster and Penguin in 2025, consolidates that research into a four-part framework used inside teams at Dell Technologies, PwC, Amazon and Novo Nordisk. Adam Grant and Katy Milkman have endorsed the work, and HBR IdeaCast featured the argument as a guide for leaders auditing their own virtual practices. His credibility rests on a clear point: virtual communication is now an executive skill, not a logistics question. Boards and senior teams that treat it as the latter pay the cost in performance. Key speaking topics Virtual and hybrid communication strategy Channel choice and operating performance Leadership in distributed teams Trust and authenticity in digital workplaces Conflict reduction across asynchronous communication AI in workplace communication Inclusion in remote and hybrid settings Ideal for CHROs and heads of people redesigning hybrid operating models Executive teams auditing the performance cost of their meeting and communication habits Transformation and digital workplace leads setting team-level communication norms Senior leadership offsites focused on trust, decision speed and team effectiveness Audience outcomes A working framework for matching communication channel to task, with named criteria Specific research findings on when email, audio, video and instant message each outperform the alternatives A clear view of how leadership behaviour in virtual channels shapes trust and response patterns across teams Practical guidance on reducing conflict and misinterpretation in asynchronous communication A defensible position on AI-assisted interpersonal communication and the trust consequences of getting it wrong

Why organisations work with Andrew Wilson A decade reporting from Moscow, Jerusalem and Washington gives him the standing to interview heads of state, ministers and CEOs without deferring to them, and without grandstanding. RTS-winning presenting craft from Sky News Live at 5 means he controls pace, time and tone on a live stage the way a broadcast studio expects, which is rare on the corporate circuit. Regular moderator at the World Economic Forum in Davos and at COP conferences, which means he arrives fluent in the vocabulary of geopolitics, macro risk and climate policy rather than briefed on it the night before. A Reuters track record of sit-down interviews with international CEOs, directly applicable to sponsor-led fireside formats, AGMs and leadership off-sites where the quality of the questions is the product. Editorial independence on sensitive material: conflict coverage from Afghanistan, Ukraine, Gaza, Chechnya and Iraq means he is comfortable in rooms where the subject matter is politically live. Biography highlights Former Sky News foreign correspondent in Moscow, Jerusalem and Washington DC, with international awards from each posting. Presenter of Sky News Live at 5, winner of the RTS Best News Programme award in 2016. Ten years presenting current affairs on Sky News, including coverage of three US presidential elections, Russian and Israeli elections, and conflicts in Afghanistan, Libya, Gaza, Ukraine and Iraq. Moderator and interviewer at the World Economic Forum in Davos and at COP environmental conferences; host of Virgin Formula E events in New York and Paris. Conducted CEO interview series internationally for Reuters. Member of BAFTA, mentor with the John Schofield Trust, and contributor to the Westminster foreign-affairs think tank Global Strategy Forum. Biography Live-television credibility is hard to fake on a corporate stage. A host either controls the room, the clock and the interview, or the audience quietly checks out. Wilson spent a decade as a Sky News foreign correspondent in Moscow, Jerusalem and Washington, then close to ten years anchoring current affairs in London, which is where that control comes from. The editorial range is unusually wide for an event moderator. He reported the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and, since then, conflict and breaking news from Afghanistan, Ukraine, Gaza, Chechnya, Lebanon, Iraq and the Asian Tsunami, along with three US presidential cycles and Russian and Israeli elections. His programme Live at 5 won the RTS Best News Programme award in 2016. That grounding now carries into a second career hosting leadership conversations where the subject matter is serious. He moderates at the World Economic Forum in Davos and at COP environmental conferences, has run CEO interview series for Reuters, and hosts Virgin Formula E events in New York and Paris. He is a member of BAFTA, mentors emerging journalists through the John Schofield Trust, and contributes to the Westminster foreign-affairs think tank Global Strategy Forum. For organisations putting a senior figure on stage, the value is specific. Wilson is the journalist in the chair who has already covered the story, already interviewed the type of person sitting across from him, and already worked to a live clock every night for a decade. Key speaking topics Corporate event hosting and conference moderation CEO fireside interviews and on-stage panels Geopolitics and international affairs US politics and elections Climate policy, COP and sustainability Media and communications skills training Ideal for Boards, CEOs and investor-day organisers commissioning a live on-stage interview or panel Sustainability, ESG and policy conferences wanting a moderator fluent in COP and Davos language Global sales kick-offs, leadership summits and AGMs where the chair needs to handle live Q and A with senior external guests Communications and PR leaders running media-skills or crisis-interview training for executives Audience outcomes A meeting where senior speakers are drawn out rather than read from notes, with time kept and the agenda landed. Panel discussions with clearer editorial framing and sharper questions than an internal moderator typically delivers. On-stage CEO interviews that read as credible to journalists, analysts and investors in the room. Sessions on geopolitics and sustainability that are chaired with working knowledge of the vocabulary, not a briefing document read aloud.

Why organisations work with Andy Goode A name and voice that audiences already know from broadcast rugby coverage, which shortens the trust-building gap between the speaker and the room on the night. Premiership Rugby Hall of Fame status and a five-title Leicester Tigers career give the credibility a rugby audience tests for in the first two minutes of any after-dinner slot. Co-hosts The Rugby Pod with Jim Hamilton and Dan Biggar, so he brings live, current insight into the modern professional game, not nostalgia from a finished career. Comfortable across formats: keynote, after-dinner, awards host, panel moderator, Q&A with current players, which suits sponsors and hospitality programmes that need one person across a full event. When the brief calls for it, he speaks substantively on team performance, recovery from setback and reinvention after sport, drawing on a career that included two retirements, multiple club moves and a post-playing media reinvention. Biography highlights Five English Premiership titles with Leicester Tigers (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2007). Two Heineken Cup winners’ medals (2001, 2002). 17 England caps between 2005 and 2009, debut against Italy in the Six Nations. 423 senior club appearances and 3,934 points across Leicester Tigers, Saracens, CA Brive, the Sharks, Worcester Warriors, Wasps and Newcastle Falcons. Second-highest points scorer in Premiership Rugby history and former record holder. Inducted into the Premiership Rugby Hall of Fame, June 2021. Co-host of The Rugby Pod with Jim Hamilton and Dan Biggar; rugby pundit and analyst for major UK broadcasters including BT Sport and TalkSport. Biography Few fly-halves have stood in front of a Premiership pack across as many seasons as Andy Goode. He arrived at Leicester Tigers from school in 1998 and was inside the squad through the club’s record run of four straight Premiership titles, then returned for a second spell that produced a fifth title in 2007 and made him the all-time leading points scorer in the league, a record he held until Charlie Hodgson overtook him. The career that followed is what gives the after-dinner material its range. Saracens, then Brive in the French Top 14, a short spell with the Sharks in Super Rugby, then Worcester Warriors, Wasps and Newcastle Falcons. Across 423 senior games he scored 3,934 points and earned 17 England caps between 2005 and 2009. He was inducted into the Premiership Rugby Hall of Fame in 2021. The second career has been built on the same instincts that ran a back line for nearly two decades. Goode reads the game on air the way he ran it on the pitch, which is why The Rugby Pod, co-hosted with Jim Hamilton and Dan Biggar, has become the most-listened-to rugby podcast in the world. He works as a pundit and analyst across major UK broadcasters and is a familiar voice to anyone following the modern professional game. For corporate audiences he is most often booked as a host, after-dinner speaker or awards MC for events where rugby is the hospitality currency. The substance, when the brief asks for it, is the same substance the playing career rested on: a team’s habits under pressure, the discipline of recovery from setback, and what an elite career looks like when the playing chapter ends. Key speaking topics Professional rugby and the modern game Team performance under pressure Career reinvention after elite sport After-dinner speaking and event hosting Awards and ceremony hosting Panel moderation and player Q&A Ideal for Corporate hospitality programmes built around rugby (Six Nations, Premiership Rugby, Rugby World Cup) Sponsor activations and client dinners during the rugby calendar Industry award ceremonies and gala dinners requiring a recognisable sports host Sports clubs, rugby unions and member organisations running fundraising events Audience outcomes A room that warms up quickly because the host already has the audience’s recognition A credible voice on the current state of the professional game, not generic sports anecdotes A storyteller who can hold the centre of a long-format dinner without slipping into stand-up For motivational briefs: a first-person account of resilience, repeated reinvention and elite-sport team culture

Why organisations work with Andy Lopata He reframes networking as a leadership discipline. The argument lands with executives who have dismissed the topic as junior or transactional, and gives them a structured way to think about who supports them, how, and why. The Relationship Matrix gives leaders a tangible way to audit their professional support system, identify where it is thin, and decide where to invest. Few speakers in this space work at that level of operational specificity. His mentoring work, anchored in The Financial Times Guide to Mentoring co-authored with Dr Ruth Gotian of Weill Cornell, gives organisations a serious reference point for designing mentoring programmes that retain senior talent. Twenty-five years inside the topic, recognition from the Financial Times and Forbes, and a 2025 Thinkers50 Coaching and Mentoring Award shortlist place him in a small group of speakers who have built genuine institutional credibility on professional relationships. He works with the cultural problem behind the leadership one: why senior people will not ask for help, and what it costs the organisation when they do not. Biography highlights Author of six books, including Connected Leadership (2020) and The Financial Times Guide to Mentoring (Pearson, 2024, with Dr Ruth Gotian). Shortlisted for the 2025 Thinkers50 Coaching and Mentoring Award. Two-time board member and former President of the Fellows Community of the Professional Speaking Association UK and Ireland; holder of the PSAE, the PSA’s Hall of Fame distinction. Fellow of the Learning and Performance Institute; member of the Association of Business Mentors and the Meetings Industry Association. Contributor to Harvard Business Review and Psychology Today; host of The Connected Leadership Podcast. Clients include PayPal, Google, Harrods, BBC, HSBC, GlaxoSmithKline, Allen and Overy, Saïd Business School and Brother International Europe. Biography Most senior leaders rise on technical and commercial credibility, then hit a level where the job is mostly relational. They under-invest in mentors, hesitate to ask for help, and end up isolated at exactly the point where their decisions carry the most weight. That gap is what Lopata’s work addresses. For more than twenty-five years he has worked on professional relationships as an executive capability rather than a soft skill. The Financial Times has called him one of Europe’s leading business networking strategists; Forbes has described him as a true master of networking. The label undersells the work. His Relationship Matrix gives leaders a structured way to audit who supports them, where the gaps are, and where to invest. Frameworks like the Seven Stages of Professional Relationships and The Influence Wheel extend that work into stakeholder mapping, influence and senior mentoring practice. His books map the territory in detail. Connected Leadership argues that executive success is built on a deliberate web of relationships, and was shortlisted for the Business Book Awards in 2021. The Financial Times Guide to Mentoring, co-authored with Dr Ruth Gotian of Weill Cornell Medicine in 2024, gives organisations a reference text for treating mentoring as a strategic retention and development tool. The book was a runner-up for Leadership Book of the Year at the 2024 Leadership Awards. The institutional weight follows the work. He is a former President of the Fellows Community of the Professional Speaking Association UK and Ireland and holds its PSAE Hall of Fame distinction. He was shortlisted for the 2025 Thinkers50 Coaching and Mentoring Award, contributes to Harvard Business Review and Psychology Today, and has worked with PayPal, Google, HSBC, GlaxoSmithKline, the BBC and Saïd Business School on the same underlying problem: how senior people stop performing in isolation and start leading through the relationships around them. Key speaking topics Professional relationships as a leadership capability Mentoring strategy and programme design Asking for help and the cost of not asking Vulnerable leadership Referral and influence networks Connected leadership and executive support systems Psychological safety and speaking up at senior level Ideal for CEOs, executive committees and partners moving into senior leadership roles where the work becomes relational CHROs and learning leaders designing mentoring, succession and retention programmes Professional services and partner-track populations where business development depends on relationship quality Sales leaders rebuilding referral networks and account relationships Audience outcomes A clear framework, the Relationship Matrix, for auditing the professional support system around a senior role A different language for mentoring as a strategic asset rather than a benefit programme Specific shifts in how leaders approach asking for help, and why most do not A more honest read on where executive isolation is costing the organisation in retention, succession and decision quality Practical adjustments to how teams use referrals, networks and senior relationships in commercial contexts

Why organisations work with Angela Barnes She is a sitting business editor, not a retired one. The Euronews remit means she walks into a room with the same week’s markets, policy and corporate stories already loaded. The Big Question is a CEO-interview franchise she writes and presents every week. Boards hiring her for a fireside or on-stage interview are hiring a format she runs as a day job. Her reporting reach spans Sky News, CNBC (including East Tech West), ITV, Yahoo Finance and The Telegraph, which gives her fluency across markets, technology and energy without a single-sector tell. She has moderated for the IMF and the Paris Finance Forum, so the step up to finance-ministry-level panels does not require coaching. The technology background from Sky Swipe and CNBC East Tech West means a tech-and-AI panel does not need a separate host. Biography highlights Managing Editor of Business, Euronews, Brussels Anchor and interviewer, The Big Question, Euronews Over a decade at Sky News as producer, reporter and presenter, including the Swipe technology show Contributor credits at CNBC (East Tech West), ITV, IG, Yahoo Finance and The Telegraph Moderator credits include the IMF and the Paris Finance Forum Described by Ireland’s Better Business magazine as “one of Europe’s most prominent news figures” Biography The Big Question goes out weekly on Euronews. Angela Barnes writes it, produces the conversation and puts the questions to a rolling cast of chief executives, ministers and investors. That is the core of her working life, and it is why she is in demand on stage. Barnes runs business, markets and economics for Euronews from Brussels, which puts her inside the policy bloodstream of the European Union and within a short flight of the financial centres her audience trades in. Before Euronews she spent more than a decade at Sky News as a producer, reporter and presenter, including on the Swipe technology programme, and has contributed to CNBC’s East Tech West, ITV, IG, Yahoo Finance and The Telegraph. As a moderator she has worked with the IMF and the Paris Finance Forum, which means the vocabulary of sovereign balance sheets, energy transition finance and central-bank communication is already familiar. Ireland’s Better Business magazine called her “one of Europe’s most prominent news figures.” The practical point for a board hiring a host: the person on stage has done the interview that morning, on camera, with someone senior, and will do another one next week. That keeps the questions current and the pace sharp. Key speaking topics Global markets and the macro picture Energy markets and the energy transition European economic and political risk Technology, AI and the platform economy Central bank policy and financial stability Corporate strategy and CEO accountability Business journalism and media strategy Ideal for Annual conferences and investor days needing a moderator who can interview a CEO and a finance minister in the same programme Financial services, energy and technology clients hosting C-suite and board-level forums Public-sector and multilateral convenings on economic policy, trade and transition finance Audience outcomes A panel or fireside that stays on point because the host has read the file and the morning’s news Senior guests stretched on the questions that matter, without hostility, so the audience learns something new A running thread between sessions that ties markets, policy and technology into one narrative for the day A tighter run of show, because a working editor manages time on air for a living

Why organisations work with Angie McQuillin Gives technically strong managers the specific behavioural tools to hold difficult conversations they currently avoid, not a theory of why those conversations matter. Works the seam between imposter syndrome and assertiveness where most confidence training stops short: what to say, how to say it, and how to hold the line when pushed back on. Psychology degree and MBTI-certified, with 15+ years inside corporate HR at Boeing, Imperial Tobacco and Camelot, so the behavioural science lands in language an operating leader recognises. Track record as a keynote for mixed senior and emerging-leader audiences, including the BOSS Leaders of the Future Conference and in-house programmes at Disney, EasyJet, Amazon, Barclays and KPMG. Sessions are designed as interactive workshops, not lectures, so participants leave with scripts and techniques they can test the next working day. Biography highlights BSc (Hons) in Psychology and certified MBTI Practitioner. 15+ years in corporate HR and international staffing, including roles across Boeing, Imperial Tobacco and Camelot. Keynote speaker and workshop lead for Walt Disney, EasyJet, KPMG, Barclays, Amazon, Bath University, Jumio and Norcan Petroleum. Announced keynote speaker at the BOSS Leaders of the Future Conference, Birmingham. Coaching practice focused on confidence, assertiveness, imposter syndrome, conflict resolution and leadership communication. Biography Most confidence programmes stop at the mindset. They tell people to back themselves and leave them there. The harder problem, what to actually say in the moment a senior colleague pushes back, a peer oversteps, or a direct report underperforms, is where careers get made or quietly stall. Angie McQuillin builds her work at exactly that point. Trained in psychology with a BSc (Hons) and certified as an MBTI Practitioner, she spent 15 years inside corporate HR and international staffing at Boeing, Imperial Tobacco and Camelot before moving full time into coaching and speaking. That HR background matters. She has sat in the rooms where promotion decisions get made and watched capable people lose ground because they could not have one specific conversation. Her sessions translate that pattern into behaviour. Managers and emerging leaders learn how to raise a concern without apologising for it, handle pushback without escalating, and hold a position under pressure. Imposter syndrome, assertiveness and conflict are treated as linked problems rather than separate workshops. Client rosters reflect the range: Walt Disney, EasyJet, KPMG, Barclays, Amazon, Bath University, Jumio and the keynote slot at the BOSS Leaders of the Future Conference in Birmingham. The register is interactive rather than inspirational. Audiences leave with scripts and techniques they can test in their next meeting, which is the test that matters to the HR directors and L&D leads who hire her. Key speaking topics Self-confidence and imposter syndrome Assertive communication Leadership communication Conflict resolution and difficult conversations Growth mindset Resilience under pressure Personal impact and influence Ideal for CHROs, L&D directors and talent leads building emerging-leader and first-time manager programmes. Women’s leadership networks and ERGs addressing confidence, voice and visibility. Technical and functional leadership populations where communication is the bottleneck to promotion. Organisations running culture work on feedback, psychological safety and conflict norms. Audience outcomes A working vocabulary for the conversations they currently avoid, including pushback, performance and boundary-setting. Specific techniques for handling imposter syndrome as it arrives, not as an abstract concept. A clearer read of their own communication defaults under stress and what to adjust first. Confidence grounded in behaviour they can repeat, not a temporary lift from the room.

Why organisations work with Anita Jones A live-broadcast presenter who hosts boardroom and large-audience corporate events with the pacing and composure of a Champions League studio. Bilingual English and Spanish presenting capability for international events, conferences and panel sessions, including interviews at the level of Lionel Messi and Jude Bellingham. A named, parliamentary-level voice on endometriosis as an Endometriosis UK ambassador, giving women’s health an editorial weight beyond a wellness slot. A British-Nigerian broadcaster credible on representation in sport and media without retreating into generic DEI framing. Biography highlights Presenter, CBS Champions League and CBS Golazo. Reporter, Premier League Productions, reporting weekly from clubs across England. Sky Sports broadcaster; earlier roles with BBC, Channel 4, and Arsenal Nation Live. First-class degree in European Studies, King’s College London; fluent in Spanish and English. Has covered the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, the Women’s World Cup, and the Women’s Champions League. Ambassador for Endometriosis UK; has spoken in Parliament on endometriosis, including for Endometriosis Action Month. Biography Live football broadcasting is unforgiving. A presenter has to carry a Champions League studio, hold the line in a noisy stadium tunnel, and translate a Messi or Bellingham answer on the fly. That is the working environment behind Anita Jones’s day job at CBS Champions League, CBS Golazo, Sky Sports and Premier League Productions. The route in was journalistic rather than celebrity. A first-class degree in European Studies from King’s College London, then early reporting and presenting roles at the BBC, Channel 4 and Arsenal Nation Live, before the move into Premier League Productions and CBS. Bilingual English and Spanish broadcasting has been a consistent edge across the work, particularly around major tournaments including the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, the Women’s World Cup and the Women’s Champions League. The hosting craft transfers cleanly to corporate stages. Jones works as an event host, moderator and panel chair, with the pace and authority of a live broadcast rather than the cadence of a guest speaker. Briefs that require multilingual delivery, sports tie-ins, or a presenter who can carry a high-profile interview in front of a senior internal audience all sit naturally inside her week. The second strand of her public work is women’s health. Diagnosed with endometriosis in 2018 after a laparoscopy, Jones became an ambassador for Endometriosis UK and has used her broadcast profile to put the condition on the record, including in Parliament during Endometriosis Action Month. For employers looking to treat women’s health as an operating issue rather than a wellness panel, that lived and named platform is what she adds. Key speaking topics Event hosting and live moderation Panel chairing for international and bilingual audiences Sports broadcasting and media Women in sports media Endometriosis and women’s workplace health Representation and diversity in sport Ideal for Corporate conferences and annual events looking for a host or MC with live-broadcast pacing International and bilingual English and Spanish audiences, particularly in sport, sponsorship and brand activation Employee network and ERG events on women’s health, with a focus on endometriosis Sports industry, sponsor and federation events requiring an experienced football moderator Audience outcomes A professionally paced event with clear handovers, sharp interviewing and confident audience handling. A concrete picture of how endometriosis presents in working life and what better workplace support actually looks like. A first-hand view of how representation in sports media has shifted, and what it took to move from a regional reporter role to a Champions League studio. For bilingual audiences, an event delivered with equal fluency in English and Spanish rather than translated through a second voice.

Why organisations work with Ann Handley She built two of the businesses that defined modern digital marketing, ClickZ and MarketingProfs, so her advice on content operations comes from running them, not theorising about them. Everybody Writes, now in a second edition, gives commercial teams a single shared standard for how the company writes to customers, prospects and employees. She has spent 15+ years shaping the agenda at the MarketingProfs B2B Marketing Forum, which gives her a working view of what is actually moving the pipeline for B2B marketers right now. Her Total Annarchy newsletter, read fortnightly by more than 51,000 marketers, is itself the case study: subscriber-driven, voice-first, low-volume, high-trust. IBM named her among the seven people shaping modern marketing; that recognition reflects influence on how the discipline is practised, not just commented on. Biography highlights Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs (600,000+ subscribers; annual B2B Marketing Forum). Co-founder of ClickZ, an early authority in digital marketing news and commentary. Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Everybody Writes; co-author of Content Rules; works translated into 19 languages. Named by IBM as one of “the 7 people shaping modern marketing,”; cited by Forbes as a top thought leader. Writes Total Annarchy, a fortnightly newsletter with 51,000+ subscribers. Contributing writer to Entrepreneur, Inc., Mashable, Huffington Post and the Wall Street Journal. Biography Most marketing functions have a content problem they have decided to call a strategy problem. They publish more, segment harder, automate further, and the writing still sounds like everyone else’s. Ann Handley’s working argument is that the words are the product, and that an organisation’s marketing is only as serious as the sentences it is willing to put its name to. She has tested that argument inside the businesses she helped build. As co-founder of ClickZ and Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs, she has spent two decades running marketing operations rather than narrating them, and the MarketingProfs B2B Marketing Forum has become one of the few places where senior B2B marketers go to compare notes on what is actually working. Her book Everybody Writes, a Wall Street Journal bestseller now in a second edition, gives commercial teams a shared operating standard for marketing writing. Content Rules, her earlier title with C.C. Chapman, did the same job for the wider content stack. Both have been translated into 19 languages and are used inside marketing organisations as training material, not coffee-table reading. What sets her work apart at the keynote level is the refusal to treat content as a category. IBM placed her among the seven people shaping modern marketing because she keeps pulling marketing back to the part of the job that is hardest to fake: writing something a customer would actually want to read. Key speaking topics Content marketing strategy Marketing writing as a commercial discipline B2B marketing and demand generation Brand voice and editorial standards Email and newsletter strategy Customer experience through content Storytelling for business Ideal for CMOs and heads of marketing are rebuilding content operations for measurable commercial outcomes Heads of brand, communications and content responsible for editorial standards across teams B2B marketing leaders working on demand generation and customer engagement Founders and commercial leaders whose growth depends on the company sounding like itself Audience outcomes A clearer working definition of what good marketing writing looks like inside their own organisation Specific tests for whether a piece of content earns the attention it asks for A view on how to run content as an operating function, not a campaign output Concrete examples of B2B and B2C brands using writing and editorial voice to win commercially A more honest read on what their current marketing sounds like to a customer