Corporate Culture

Key speaking topics High-performance team leadership Formula 1 team management Competitive strategy in elite sport Organisational transformation Governance and regulatory environments Engineering leadership Operational excellence under pressure Ideal for Senior leadership teams Executive and board-level audiences Engineering and technical organisations High-performance and elite sport conferences Audience outcomes Clear understanding of how Formula 1 teams are structured and led Practical insights into building and sustaining high-performance cultures Perspective on managing performance under regulatory and competitive constraints Lessons in operational leadership during periods of organisational transition Real-world examples of strategic decision-making in complex environments Why organisations work with Otmar Szafnauer Direct experience leading multiple Formula 1 teams at board and team principal level. Proven track record of guiding teams through ownership transitions and competitive rebuilding. Combines engineering expertise with executive-level commercial and governance experience. Brings practical insight from operating in one of the world’s most competitive and regulated sporting environments. Biography Otmar Szafnauer brings decades of senior leadership experience from the pinnacle of global motorsport, where performance, governance and operational precision determine competitive success. He has held team principal and executive roles across multiple Formula 1 organisations, leading complex teams in one of the most demanding and regulated environments in sport. At the Silverstone-based Formula 1 team that evolved from Force India to Racing Point and Aston Martin, he served in senior leadership for more than a decade, including as Team Principal and CEO. During this period, the team progressed to regular points-scoring performance, achieved a 4th place finish in the Constructors’ Championship, and secured a Formula 1 race victory. He later led the BWT Alpine Formula 1 Team as Team Principal, guiding the organisation to a 4th place Constructors’ Championship finish under the Alpine name. His leadership experience spans competitive rebuilding, ownership transition and performance management at board and operational level. Earlier in his career, Szafnauer held senior roles within Honda’s Formula 1 programme, rising to Vice President of Honda Racing Development. His responsibilities included executive leadership and involvement in regulatory-facing work within the sport’s governance structures. An engineer by training, he holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from Wayne State University and a master’s degree in business and finance from the University of Detroit Mercy. He began his career at Ford Motor Company before moving into Formula 1 leadership roles in the late 1990s. Alongside his motorsport career, he founded the software company Soft Pauer and serves as its chairman, reflecting his continued interest in technology and data-driven performance.

Why organisations work with Tom Coleman He brings clinical sleep science into operational contexts where it actually changes behaviour, including shift-working teams, elite sport and high-pressure corporate environments. His client base spans nine of the top ten pharmaceutical companies along with Coca-Cola, Pfizer, Roche, Deloitte and Samsung, demonstrating that the content lands across regulated, industrial and consumer-facing workforces. He works with institutional partners that most wellbeing speakers do not, including An Garda Siochana on officer resilience and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland on shift-working nurses. His framing treats burnout and recovery as biology, not motivation, which gives senior leaders a defensible language for investment decisions on workforce health. Biography highlights Honours Degree in Public Health and qualified health scientist. Resident sleep expert for Bauer Media, with regular contributions to Newstalk and Today FM. Consultant to An Garda Siochana on health and resilience strategy for serving officers. Collaborator with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland on educational material for shift-working healthcare staff. Corporate clients include Coca-Cola, Pfizer, Roche, Deloitte, Samsung, eBay, PayPal, AIB, Dropbox, DHL and Irish Rail. Has worked with Olympic and elite athletes on sleep analytics and recovery. Biography Most wellbeing programmes treat sleep as a personal problem. Coleman treats it as an operating risk. His work translates clinical sleep science into inputs that organisations can actually manage, including shift schedules, recovery protocols and executive workload. The grounding is academic and applied. An Honours Degree in Public Health, qualification as a health scientist, and over a decade of consulting with corporate and elite-sport clients give him a base most wellness speakers cannot match. He has worked with Olympic athletes on recovery analytics, with An Garda Siochana on officer resilience, and with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland on educational content for shift-working nurses. The corporate footprint is substantial. Nine of the top ten pharmaceutical companies have used his programmes, alongside Coca-Cola, Pfizer, Roche, Deloitte, Samsung, eBay, PayPal, AIB, Dropbox and Irish Rail. The work is consistent across very different operating models, which is what gives senior buyers confidence that this is a scalable intervention rather than a single-keynote topic. As Bauer Media’s resident sleep expert in Ireland, he is the voice most regularly consulted by Newstalk and Today FM on sleep and recovery. That media role keeps the content sharp, current and accessible to non-specialist audiences, which matters when the brief is a board offsite or an all-hands rather than a clinical seminar. Key speaking topics Sleep science in the workplace Burnout prevention and recovery Shift work and circadian performance Recovery for high-pressure roles Stress, fatigue and decision quality Health and longevity for executives Ideal for CHROs and heads of wellbeing redesigning health and resilience strategy Operations leaders accountable for shift-working populations in healthcare, manufacturing, logistics or emergency services Executive teams under sustained workload pressure where recovery is the bottleneck Talent and engagement leaders looking to move beyond mindfulness app procurement Audience outcomes A clear separation between fatigue, stress and burnout, with different organisational responses for each Specific behavioural inputs that improve sleep quality, applicable to executives and shift workers alike A defensible business case for recovery as a performance variable rather than a benefits line item Practical structures for managers responsible for high-pressure or round-the-clock teams

Why organisations work with Russell Beck His 6C© model (Compensation, Career, Cause, Community, Culture, Company) gives people teams a structured, actionable framework for talent strategy: not a list of principles, but a diagnostic and planning tool organisations can apply directly. His career spans engineering project leadership across 25 countries, European Head of Talent at Yahoo!, MD of a £120m talent outsourcing business, and Global Head of Consulting at Impellam Group: a level of operational depth that most future-of-work commentators do not have. The World of Work to 2030 was recognised by the Financial Times as a business book to read and won the Institute of Leadership’s Book of the Year giving his frameworks independent, named validation rather than self-asserted authority. He translates megatrend analysis into specific commercial decisions. His sessions leave teams with a clear view of what the talent market will require of them by 2030, not just why it matters. Biography highlights Author of The World of Work to 2030, published by Bloomsbury Business (2024) Winner, Institute of Leadership Leadership Book of the Year 2024 Recognised by the Financial Times as a business book to read; regular interviewee in the FT Former European Head of Talent, Yahoo! – built one of the first pan-European talent functions Former Managing Director, Carlisle Managed Solutions – grew business to £120m turnover in 30 months; former Global Head of Consulting, Impellam Group Engineering project leader across 25+ countries, including a USD500m programme; co-owner and Director of Inspiration, ImagineThinkDo Biography Work is changing faster than most organisations’ talent strategies can keep up with. The labour market that defined hiring and retention practices for the last thirty years has shifted structurally, and the organisations still winning on compensation alone are discovering the limits of that approach. Russell Beck has spent three decades working through this tension as an operator running large-scale engineering programmes across 25 countries to building Yahoo!’s first pan-European talent function, to leading a £120m talent outsourcing business as Managing Director. His book, The World of Work to 2030, published by Bloomsbury Business, maps the megatrends reshaping organisations and careers and translates them into a practical action framework. It won the Institute of Leadership’s Leadership Book of the Year in 2024 and was recognised by the Financial Times as a business book to read. The book’s argument is not that change is coming, it is that most organisations are already behind, and that closing that gap requires deliberate, structured action on people strategy now. The 6C© model (Compensation, Career, Cause, Community, Culture, Company) is Beck’s proprietary framework for diagnosing and rebuilding talent strategy in a market where employees hold structural leverage. It has been deployed with organisations across sectors including Vodafone, the NHS, Cambridge University Press and the Top Employers Institute. Through ImagineThinkDo, the consultancy and development firm he co-owns with Alison Beck, he works directly with senior leadership teams on workforce transformation, leadership development and cultural change. His perspective combines the research discipline of an engineer, the strategic experience of an operator who has led at scale, and the practical tools of a practitioner who has done the work inside organisations, not just advised on it from outside. Key speaking topics Future of work and workforce strategy Talent attraction, retention and the 6C© model Organisational culture and belonging The multigenerational workforce Purpose-led leadership Leadership in uncertainty Future skills and employability Megatrends and their organisational implications Ideal for CHROs and people directors designing future-fit talent strategy Senior leadership teams navigating workforce transformation Talent, learning and organisational development functions CEOs and MDs seeking a commercially grounded view of the future labour market Audience outcomes A structured view of the megatrends reshaping work, and their specific implications for organisational and talent strategy Familiarity with the 6C© model as a practical tool for rebuilding attraction and retention approaches Clearer understanding of why belonging – not diversity alone – determines whether inclusion strategies deliver measurable outcomes Practical steps leaders can take to close the gap between current people strategy and what the labour market will require by 2030 A leadership lens for embedding purpose and meaning at work in ways that affect retention and performance

Why organisations work with Wema Hoover She ran global DEI inside four of the most scrutinised employers in the world: Google, Pfizer, Sanofi and Bristol-Myers Squibb. The advice is shaped by what survives in regulated, multinational environments. She separates the politics of DEI from the operating substance, which lets boards keep the practice going without the labels that now invite litigation and activist pressure. Her work covers the full stack: hiring, promotion, belonging, manager capability, and how leadership teams behave under public scrutiny. Not awareness training. She writes for Fast Company on the structural questions, gender investment, leadership double standards, beyond the DEI backlash, which means buyers get a thinker, not a workshop facilitator. Coqual Hidden Brain Drain Task Force membership signals she works alongside the most serious researchers in this field, not adjacent to them. Biography highlights Former Global Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Google Former Chief Diversity Officer / Global Head of DEI at Pfizer, Sanofi and Bristol-Myers Squibb Published contributor at Fast Company, Inc. and Diversity Magazine Member, Coqual Hidden Brain Drain Task Force Board member, Ten By Three MSc Human Resource Management and Master’s Certificate in Organizational Change Management, The New School; BA Psychology, Rutgers; GPHR certified Biography The DEI conversation has fractured. Court rulings, shareholder activism and political pressure have made the language toxic in some markets, while the underlying organisational questions, who gets hired, who gets promoted, who feels they belong, are now more commercially material than they have been in a decade. Wema Hoover spent the last fifteen years running that practice inside large, regulated, global employers. As Global Head of DEI at Google, and in equivalent senior roles at Pfizer, Sanofi and Bristol-Myers Squibb, she designed and operated inclusion programmes in the kinds of environments where the work has to clear legal, board, regulator and workforce scrutiny. That operator background is what makes her useful now. She is not arguing for DEI as a value; she is showing leadership teams how to keep the operating substance, hiring discipline, manager capability, advancement pipelines, belonging metrics, without the rhetorical scaffolding that has become a liability. Her Fast Company writing and her “Beyond the DEI Backlash” work track the same argument in public. She holds an MSc in Human Resource Management and a Master’s-level Certificate in Organizational Change Management from The New School, a BA in Psychology from Rutgers, and a Global Professional in Human Resources certification. She sits on Coqual’s Hidden Brain Drain Task Force, the working group most senior corporate DEI heads consult on talent equity research. Key speaking topics Inclusion strategy after the DEI backlash Belonging and culture inside global, regulated employers Women’s advancement, sponsorship and the leadership double standard Manager capability for inclusive teams Cross-cultural leadership in multinational workforces Executive coaching for senior leaders navigating cultural change Ideal for CHROs and Chief People Officers managing inclusion programmes through political and legal headwinds Boards and ExCos that need to reset their position on DEI without abandoning the substance Global employers with regulated workforces (pharma, tech, financial services) where inclusion is tied to talent risk Senior leadership development programmes for newly promoted women and underrepresented executives Audience outcomes A clear read on what has changed in the DEI landscape, in the US and globally, and what that means for their own programme design A working distinction between inclusion as compliance theatre and inclusion as operating capability Practical decisions on which existing initiatives to keep, which to retire and which to rename Confidence in how to brief their board on DEI in the current environment without overpromising or retreating A sharper view of where sponsorship and advocacy, not training, actually move the dial on women’s advancement

Why organisations work with Stephanie Davies A working method that gets cynical adult audiences to engage with behaviour change without the eye-rolling that usually accompanies culture training. A track record on hard conversations, with a programme at HSBC training more than 500 leaders to handle performance and feedback without flinching. A point of view on engagement grounded in published psychology, set out in her book Laughology: Improve Your Life with the Science of Laughter (Crown House). Two decades inside corporate culture work across HSBC, Nespresso, Nando’s, and government, so the content lands as practitioner advice rather than commentary. A delivery style that holds the room. The comedy training is a tool for retention and recall, not a gimmick layered on top of the content. Biography highlights Founder and CEO of Laughology, founded 2006. Author of Laughology: Improve Your Life with the Science of Laughter, Crown House Publishing. Master’s-level training in psychology, focused on humour and organisational performance. Designed and delivered performance-conversation training at HSBC for 500+ leaders. Culture and behaviour programmes with Nespresso, Nando’s, Virgin, O2, and UK government departments. Regular columnist for Training Journal; previously an award-winning stand-up comedian. Biography Most culture programmes lose the room in the first ten minutes. Adults arrive sceptical, the language is corporate, and the behaviours being asked of them feel performative. Laughology was built to solve that delivery problem. Stephanie Davies founded it in 2006 to pair applied psychology with the craft of stand-up, and uses humour as a mechanism for behaviour change rather than as decoration. The substance sits behind the style. Her book, Laughology: Improve Your Life with the Science of Laughter, sets out humour as a thinking skill, drawing on positive psychology and the cognitive research on how laughter shifts perspective and learning retention. Her master’s-level work in psychology runs through the firm’s programmes on engagement, leadership behaviour, and feedback. The client list reflects the practical bias. HSBC commissioned performance-conversation training for more than 500 leaders. Nespresso brought her in to strengthen retail leadership. Nando’s, Virgin, O2, and government departments have used Laughology for culture and behaviour work. Across these, the brief is consistent: get people to commit to a change in how they behave, not just understand why it matters. That practitioner record is what distinguishes her in a crowded happiness-at-work category. Most speakers in the space arrive from coaching, HR, or pop-psychology. Davies arrives from a working comedy career and a psychology specialism in humour, with twenty years of corporate delivery behind her. Key speaking topics Workplace engagement and culture change Psychology of humour at work Performance and feedback conversations Behaviour change in large organisations Leadership development and team culture Mental health and wellbeing in the workplace Resilience and positive psychology Ideal for CHROs and people directors running engagement or culture change agendas. L&D and OD leads commissioning leadership, feedback, or behaviour-change programmes. Boards and executive teams looking for a substantive culture session that an internal audience will actually engage with. Conference organisers programming a keynote that has to do real work on a wellbeing or culture theme. Audience outcomes A working model of humour as a behaviour-change tool, not as entertainment. Language and techniques for running performance and feedback conversations without avoidance. A clearer view of what drives engagement at the level of daily behaviour. Practical positive-psychology techniques for resilience and team morale. A session people actually remember, which is the precondition for any of the above changing behaviour.

Why organisations work with Katie Hilborn She built and ran a frontline humanitarian organisation across Nepal, Uganda, Bolivia, Tanzania, and Vietnam, so her account of leading under pressure is operational, not anecdotal. Her “Impact Architect” and “Change Compass” sessions translate that field experience into a usable model for leaders trying to hold culture together through restructure. She is a credible voice on purpose-led leadership for buyers who are tired of generic inspirational keynotes; the proof points are specific programmes, named countries, and measured outcomes at Compass Rose International. Recognition includes a Silver Anthem Award for Humanitarian Leader of the Year in the same cycle as the Dalai Lama and Jane Goodall, multiple Telly Awards, and The President’s Call to Service Award. She works as effectively with student and emerging-leader audiences as with executive groups, which gives her range across all-hands events, ERG summits, and leadership offsites. Biography highlights Founder and CEO, Compass Rose International (formerly Global Orphan Prevention), a nonprofit operating mental wellness and girls’ education programmes including the Girls INpowerment Centers in Nepal. Led 13 aid missions in Nepal after the 2015 earthquake; uncovered and reported a child trafficking ring during relief operations. Silver Anthem Award, Humanitarian Leader of the Year, recognised in the same cohort as the Dalai Lama and Jane Goodall. Multiple Telly Awards; The President’s Call to Service Award; member of the Forbes Nonprofit Council. B.A., Colorado Mesa University (Mass Communications, Public Relations, Political Science); M.Ed., Grand Canyon University; certified secondary teacher (English Language Arts and Social Studies). Featured in New York Magazine, NBC Denver, and ABC Chicago; speaker at the Global Family Office Investment Summit, Northern Illinois University, and the 100th Annual PTA Convention. Biography The 2015 Nepal earthquake collapsed entire villages within minutes. Katie Hilborn flew in without an organisation behind her, ran 13 aid missions across remote districts, and in the process uncovered an active child trafficking ring operating under cover of disaster response. The work that followed became Compass Rose International, a nonprofit running mental wellness and girls’ education programmes across Nepal, Uganda, Tanzania, Bolivia, and Vietnam. That field record is the substance behind her keynote work. Hilborn talks about purpose-led leadership because she has had to operationalise it under conditions where the wrong call has immediate human cost. Her two flagship sessions, Impact Architect and The Change Compass, translate that experience into a working model for senior teams trying to hold culture together through restructure, integration, or strategic reset. Her credentials sit on top of that operating record rather than substituting for it. She is a Silver Anthem Award winner for Humanitarian Leader of the Year, a recipient of The President’s Call to Service Award, a Forbes Nonprofit Council member, and holds an M.Ed. alongside teacher certification. Compass Rose International itself carries the Guidestar Platinum Seal of Transparency. For corporate audiences, the value is a leader who has built and run something real, can speak with conviction about why purpose holds when the strategy shifts, and offers a structured way to think about heart-led decisions without sliding into the soft register that senior buyers usually push back on. Key speaking topics Purpose-driven culture and leadership Heart-centric leadership through change Resilience and decision-making under pressure Social entrepreneurship and impact at scale Intuition and leadership judgment Employee engagement and meaning at work Humanitarian leadership lessons for business Ideal for CHROs and people leaders rebuilding engagement after restructure or mission drift CEOs and executive teams setting culture through integration, transformation, or strategic reset Foundations, family offices, and impact investors framing purpose for portfolio leadership teams All-hands and emerging-leader audiences where the brief is conviction and resilience, not content depth on a technical topic Audience outcomes A working definition of purpose that survives contact with budget, headcount, and reorganisation decisions A specific lens, drawn from frontline humanitarian operations, for making heart-led decisions that still hold up to scrutiny Renewed belief among leaders that conviction is a strategic asset, not a soft skill, with examples to back it up A vocabulary for talking about meaning at work that does not collapse into cliche when senior leaders use it Practical takeaways from Compass Rose’s operating record on building and sustaining mission-led teams

Why organisations work with Simon T. Bailey Original research on workforce resilience. His State of Working America: Thriving in Resilience and Brilliance study surveyed over 1,000 US workers and underpins his keynotes with current data rather than received wisdom. A customer experience playbook rooted in operational reality. His SPARK methodology distils what he learned as Sales Director of the Disney Institute into practices that frontline teams can apply. Award-winning published work. Resilience@Work won both the Next Generation Indie Book Award and the Independent Press Award, signalling editorial credibility beyond bureau-circuit hype. Reach that translates into recognition inside client organisations. His 14 LinkedIn Learning courses have reached more than 400,000 professionals, so audiences often arrive already familiar with the material. Biography highlights Founder and CEO, Brilliance Institute, Inc. Former Sales Director, Disney Institute (seven years as a Disney cast member). Author of 11 books, including Release Your Brilliance (HarperCollins), ranked No. 17 by 800-CEO-Read among the top 100 books being read by corporate America. Resilience@Work recipient of the Next Generation Indie Book Award and the Independent Press Award. Named to Success magazine’s Top 25 thought leaders alongside Brené Brown, Tony Robbins, and Oprah Winfrey. 14 LinkedIn Learning courses with a combined audience of 400,000+ professionals. Executive MBA, University of East London; three honorary doctorates, most recently a Doctorate of Science in Business Administration from Cleary University. Biography Disney spent decades teaching the world that service is a system, not a personality trait. Bailey was inside that system as Sales Director of the Disney Institute, and his work since has carried that operating discipline into the wider corporate world. The premise of his current research is straightforward. Engagement scores plateaued during the pandemic and have not recovered. His State of Working America: Thriving in Resilience and Brilliance report, drawn from over 1,000 US workers, gives leaders an evidence base for why and what to do about it. Resilience@Work, the book built on that research, won the Next Generation Indie Book Award and the Independent Press Award. The intellectual through-line across his 11 books is the connection between how people feel about their work and what customers experience at the other end. Release Your Brilliance, published by HarperCollins, was ranked among the top 100 books being read by corporate America. His SPARK methodology turns that thesis into operating practice for frontline teams. His reach inside organisations is unusual for a keynote author. 14 LinkedIn Learning courses have placed his material in front of 400,000+ professionals, which is why Success magazine listed him among its Top 25 thought leaders, in the company of Brené Brown, Tony Robbins, and Oprah Winfrey. Key speaking topics Workforce resilience Employee engagement and retention Customer experience and service culture Leadership development Personal and professional brilliance Inclusive and values-based leadership Ideal for CHROs and chief people officers rebuilding engagement after sustained workforce fatigue Customer experience and service leaders translating brand promise into frontline behaviour Sales and commercial leadership teams looking to renew energy and conviction HR and L&D summits, organisational town halls, and customer-facing field events Audience outcomes A current evidence base, drawn from Bailey’s State of Working America research, on what is driving disengagement and what restores it. The SPARK service framework, translated into specific behaviours frontline teams can adopt the following week. Renewed conviction in the link between how employees feel and what customers experience. A vocabulary leaders can use to talk about resilience and brilliance without slipping into wellness platitudes.

Why organisations work with Onyeka Nubia Brings primary-source historical research to a conversation that has become dominated by opinion and ideology, giving inclusion content intellectual credibility rather than activist framing. Has spent a decade rewriting how British history teaches diversity, with seminars in roughly half of UK universities that teach history, so the methodology travels into corporate contexts with academic weight. Author of Blackamoores and England’s Other Countrymen, the two reference works most cited in debates on Black presence in pre-modern Britain. Reframes a contested topic on factual ground. Equally comfortable at the Houses of Parliament, the National Portrait Gallery and on BBC and Channel 4 history programming, which means the register adjusts to the room without losing substance. Useful precisely because he does not sound like a DEI consultant. The frame is historical, cultural and intellectual, which is the register many boards now prefer. Biography highlights Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Nottingham Fellow of the Royal Historical Society Advance HE National Teaching Fellow, recognised for embedding diversity in university history curricula Author of Blackamoores: Africans in Tudor England (2013) and England’s Other Countrymen: Black Tudor Society (2019) PhD by publication, University of East Anglia Keynote presenter at the Houses of Parliament, the National Portrait Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery of Scotland Television contributor for BBC’s Digging for Britain and History Cold Case, Channel 5’s Walking Victorian Britain, and Channel 4’s London’s Lost Graveyard and The Queens Who Changed the World Over fifty articles in History Today, BBC History Magazine, European History Quarterly and the Times Literary Supplement Biography For most of the last decade, the inclusion conversation inside large organisations has been carried by HR language and political framing. That register is now strained. Boards want substance, not slogans, and the people leading inclusion work need a deeper well to draw from. Onyeka Nubia offers that well. As Assistant Professor of History at the University of Nottingham and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, his research has rewritten what is known about Black presence in pre-modern Britain. Blackamoores and England’s Other Countrymen are now standard references on Tudor diversity, drawn from parish registers, court records and primary archives rather than secondary commentary. The Advance HE National Teaching Fellowship recognises a parallel achievement: a body of curriculum work, delivered in roughly half of the UK universities that teach history, that has changed how the subject is taught. The methodology, evidence first, identity later, is exactly what corporate audiences are reaching for as the DEI conversation moves out of advocacy and into substance. His broadcasting work, from Digging for Britain to The Queens Who Changed the World, sharpens the public-facing register. The audience he is most useful to is a senior leadership team that wants to keep talking about inclusion seriously, without the language that has stopped working. Key speaking topics Black British history and the Tudor period Cultural intelligence and national identity Diversity, equity and inclusion grounded in historical evidence Decolonising knowledge and curriculum Race, otherness and the British imagination Renaissance and pre-modern multiculturalism Storytelling and historical method Ideal for CHROs and heads of inclusion looking to reset the intellectual frame for their DEI work Boards and executive teams under pressure on the politics of inclusion who want substance over signalling Cultural and educational institutions reviewing how they curate history, identity and audience Leadership development programmes that want a serious treatment of cultural intelligence Audience outcomes A historically grounded language for diversity and identity that holds up to scrutiny A clearer view of how British national identity has been constructed, and what that means for inclusion now Confidence to lead inclusion conversations on evidence rather than ideology Exposure to the primary sources that reshape commonly held assumptions about race in British history A sharper sense of how curriculum and culture change actually happens inside institutions

Why organisations work with Rachel DeAlto She brings a working framework for relatability that translates a soft concept into specific leader behaviours, sourced from her own research and applied across Fortune 500, government and nonprofit settings. Her dual training in law and psychology gives her credibility with both legal-minded executives and people-function leaders, two audiences that often talk past each other on culture work. As Chief Connection Officer at Match Group, she works inside a business whose product is human connection at scale, which gives her examples that land with commercial audiences rather than HR-only ones. She holds the Certified Speaking Professional designation and has worked across more than 200 national media platforms, so the delivery is polished without sliding into performance. The work is built for multigenerational teams specifically, which is where most leadership programmes fail in practice. Biography highlights Chief Connection Officer at Match Group, parent company of Match.com, Tinder and Hinge. Author of The Relatable Leader and relatable, both published by Simon & Schuster. TEDx speaker; Being Authentic in a Filtered World featured on TED.com. Television expert on Lifetime’s Married at First Sight and TLC’s Kate+Date. Certified Speaking Professional, National Speakers Association. JD, Seton Hall University; MA in Psychology, Arizona State University; BA in Communications, Syracuse University. Biography Most organisational culture problems present as engagement problems first. People stop volunteering ideas, hand-offs get sloppy, turnover ticks up in the wrong roles. The diagnosis is usually slower than the decline. Rachel DeAlto’s argument is that what looks like disengagement is often a relational deficit at the leader level, and that the deficit is fixable with specific skills rather than slogans. Her two books, relatable and The Relatable Leader, both published by Simon & Schuster, build the case. The first sets out how people connect with each other under conditions of distraction, filtering and fatigue. The second turns the argument toward leadership and the practical question of how a senior manager builds trust quickly across a workforce that spans five generations and several working modes. DeAlto’s background is unusual for the topic. She trained as an attorney at Seton Hall, holds a master’s in psychology from Arizona State, and now serves as Chief Connection Officer at Match Group, where connection is the commercial product. That combination shapes the work. She speaks the language of executives, draws on psychological research rather than anecdote, and tests her frameworks against a business whose users vote on connection every day. The audience is corporate, but the substance is granular. Whitepapers on the multigenerational workforce, signature programmes on customer experience and sales relatability, and a Certified Speaking Professional designation that signals a craft-level investment in delivery. The closing claim is not that culture is everything. It is that culture is built from countable leader behaviours, and those behaviours can be taught. Key speaking topics Relatability and human connection Leadership and team performance Multigenerational workforce dynamics Communication and emotional intelligence Customer experience and relatable sales Organisational culture and engagement Ideal for CHROs and chief people officers building engagement and retention strategy Senior leaders managing newly hybrid or distributed teams Sales and customer experience leaders rebuilding trust in long-cycle buyer relationships Leadership development teams designing programmes for multigenerational workforces Audience outcomes A vocabulary and a framework for relatability that turns a soft concept into observable leader behaviours A clearer view of where engagement breaks down inside multigenerational teams and what to do about it Specific tactics for building trust at speed in hybrid and high-turnover environments A shift in how senior leaders think about communication, from broadcast to connection

Key speaking topics Emotional intelligence in leadership Leadership performance under pressure Team effectiveness High-stakes communication Personal leadership accountability Momentum and performance habits Executive presence and influence Ideal for Senior leaders and executives Leadership teams People managers Organisations focused on performance and culture Audience outcomes A practical framework for managing high-pressure leadership moments Clear strategies to strengthen emotional intelligence in the workplace Tools to improve communication and relationship management Greater awareness of personal leadership impact Practical habits to build performance momentum Why organisations work with Steve Gutzler Combines keynote delivery with executive coaching expertise Provides a structured, repeatable framework for leadership under pressure Aligns emotional intelligence with measurable performance improvement Brings experience working with global brands and professional sports organisations Delivers commercially relevant leadership insights for corporate audiences Biography Steve Gutzler works with organisations seeking to strengthen leadership performance, emotional intelligence, and team effectiveness in high-pressure environments. As President of Leadership Quest, he partners with senior leaders and executive teams to improve how they lead, communicate, and perform when it matters most. His work centres on the practical application of emotional intelligence in business. Through his “17% moments” framework, Steve helps leaders manage critical interactions, reduce reactive behaviour, and build stronger relationships that directly impact performance and culture. A keynote speaker and executive coach, he brings a structured, repeatable approach to leadership development that resonates with board-level audiences, HR leaders, and growth-focused organisations. His programmes are designed to translate insight into measurable behavioural change across teams. Steve is the author of Splash: The Ten Remarkable Traits to Build Momentum in Life and Leadership and co-author of Lead with No Fear. His published materials also include a guided Life & Leadership journal, reinforcing his focus on practical tools for sustained leadership growth. He has delivered presentations for organisations including Microsoft, Starbucks, the Seattle Seahawks, Spotify, Boeing, Cisco, Starwood Hotels, Ritz-Carlton, and the U.S. Department of Commerce, supporting leaders across corporate, government, and professional environments.

Why organisations work with Mark Sanborn The Fred Factor is a recognised internal language for service standards. Costco, FedEx, Harley-Davidson and ServiceMaster have used the book and keynote to give frontline employees a shared definition of what extraordinary looks like. He treats leadership as a behaviour, not a role. You Don’t Need a Title to be a Leader gives organisations a way to mobilise discretionary effort from people who will never sit on an executive team. The Potential Matrix from The Potential Principle is a named framework for closing the gap between current performance and capacity, structured around four domains and four tools that managers can apply without consultants. Hall of Fame credentials with weight. Past President of the National Speakers Association, holder of the Cavett Award and a CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame member, the three highest distinctions the profession confers. Leadership Expert in Residence at High Point University since 2019, an active academic affiliation that grounds the keynote content in current student and faculty work. Biography highlights Author of The Fred Factor, over two million copies sold in 20-plus languages, a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and BusinessWeek bestseller. Eight books in total, including You Don’t Need a Title to be a Leader, The Potential Principle and The Intention Imperative, published by Currency, Crown Business and Thomas Nelson. Leadership Expert in Residence, High Point University. Past President, National Speakers Association; CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame; Certified Speaking Professional. Cavett Award recipient, the NSA’s highest honour. Leadership programmes taught in 90 countries via Crestcom International; client list includes Costco, FedEx, Harley-Davidson, Cisco, IBM, KPMG, ESPN, General Motors and Toyota Financial Services. Biography Postal carrier Fred Shea delivered mail in Denver with such care that he became the subject of a book that has sold over two million copies in more than twenty languages. The Fred Factor turned a single neighbourhood story into a corporate standard for service, and gave Mark Sanborn the platform from which a much broader body of leadership work has been built. The work treats leadership as a daily behaviour rather than a position. You Don’t Need a Title to be a Leader argues that organisations underestimate the influence of people without formal authority, and overestimate the influence of those who only have it. The argument lands with operating leaders because it maps onto the gap they already feel between strategy and execution. Subsequent books extend the same thesis into structured frameworks. The Potential Principle sets out the Potential Matrix, four domains (thinking, performing, learning, reflecting) crossed with four tools (disrupt, refocus, engage, expand), for closing the distance between current and capable performance. The Intention Imperative argues that culture, inspiration and emotion are the three deliberate practices of the modern leader, not the soft consequences of good strategy. The credentials are unusually concentrated. Past President of the National Speakers Association, CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame member, holder of the Cavett Award, Leadership Expert in Residence at High Point University, and creator of training programmes taught in 90 countries through Crestcom International. Costco, FedEx, Harley-Davidson and IBM return to the same body of work because it makes service and leadership behaviour teachable at scale. Key speaking topics Everyday leadership without formal authority Service excellence and customer experience standards Organisational performance and accountability cultures Personal and team potential Intentional culture and engagement Leadership legacy and succession Ideal for CEOs and operating leaders setting service or culture standards across a distributed workforce CHROs and learning leaders building scalable leadership development for non-managerial staff Customer experience and service leaders in retail, hospitality, logistics and financial services Franchise and dealer networks where brand experience depends on people the corporate centre does not employ Audience outcomes A shared vocabulary for what extraordinary service looks like inside their own organisation A practical model for developing leadership behaviour in employees who hold no formal authority The Potential Matrix as a working tool for identifying where individual and team performance is capped A clearer view of culture, inspiration and emotion as deliberate leadership practices, not side effects Specific behavioural changes that frontline managers and individual contributors can apply the next working day

Why organisations work with Jim Knight Twenty years inside Hard Rock International leading global training, not a consultant looking in from outside. The frameworks he teaches were stress-tested across cafes, hotels, and casinos in fifty-plus countries. A culture and service argument anchored in three books (Culture That Rocks, Leadership That Rocks, Service That Rocks), the last two Amazon No. 1 bestsellers, with a consistent thesis rather than a topic catalogue. Practical fluency in the operating mechanics of training, onboarding, and frontline development. The work translates for hospitality, retail, franchise, and any business where the customer meets the brand through a junior employee. A delivery style built for energy-driven audiences. Knight’s background as a music teacher and his Hard Rock pedigree mean conference and franchise audiences treat him as a peer, not an academic visitor. Biography highlights Twenty years leading Global Training and Development for Hard Rock International, including Corporate University, e-learning, and leadership transition programmes. Founder and CEO of Knight Speaker, delivering culture, leadership, service, and engagement programmes worldwide. Author of Culture That Rocks (third edition), Leadership That Rocks (Amazon No. 1), and Service That Rocks (Amazon No. 1). Contributing member of the Rolling Stone Culture Council since 2020. Co-host of the Thoughts That Rock leadership podcast with Brant Menswar. Multiple Telly Awards for corporate training video, plus Brandon Hall Gold Best in Class for service recovery e-learning. Lifetime member of CHART. Biography Hard Rock built a global brand on the idea that the cafe, the hotel, and the casino should each feel like a live show. Holding that standard across more than fifty countries is not a marketing job. It is a training job. For two decades, Jim Knight ran that training function. That experience sits behind the Culture That Rocks series. The first book argued that culture is the operating system, not the wallpaper, and was named by Entrepreneur Magazine among the books most likely to change how a business is run. Leadership That Rocks and Service That Rocks extended the thesis into how leaders behave and how the customer actually feels the brand. Both reached Amazon’s No. 1 spot. The work translates particularly well for organisations whose product is delivered by frontline staff at scale: hospitality, retail, franchise systems, healthcare networks, and any consumer brand where a twenty-year-old in a uniform is the face of a billion-dollar logo. Knight speaks to those audiences as someone who has trained that workforce, not theorised about it. Beyond the speaking practice, he co-hosts the Thoughts That Rock podcast with Brant Menswar, contributes to the Rolling Stone Culture Council, and supports No Kid Hungry and Cannonball Kids’ Cancer through book and speaking proceeds. Among bureau-circuit culture speakers, the rarity is the operator pedigree. Most started as consultants. Knight started inside the room. Key speaking topics Organisational culture Customer experience and service differentiation Employee engagement and retention Leadership development Team building and frontline talent Hospitality, franchise, and consumer-brand operations Ideal for CHROs, learning and development leaders, and culture leads in consumer-facing organisations Franchise systems and multi-site operators where culture must scale across independent owners Hospitality, retail, and service-brand leadership audiences Conference and annual-meeting audiences looking for a high-energy culture keynote with operating substance Audience outcomes A working definition of culture as an operating system, with the mechanisms that hold it in place at scale Specific moves on hiring, onboarding, and frontline development drawn from Hard Rock’s training playbook A service-design lens for separating a brand experience from competitor parity Language and structure leaders can use to talk about engagement without falling into wellness-industry generalities