Entrepreneurship speakers

Why organisations work with Marina Díaz Ibarra She has run a regional consumer technology business at scale, leading Mercado Libre’s Argentina, Chile and Peru operation as General Manager, so her view of digital growth is built from operating P&L, not consultancy. She built and exited a digital transformation company, Wolox, which Accenture acquired in 2021, giving her a working view of how incumbents actually buy and absorb innovation. She sits on the boards of Nasdaq-listed AgileThought, Rotoplas, Gentera and IFC (World Bank) portfolio companies, so she can speak to how boards across Latin America are framing AI, fintech and risk decisions. Her advisory work with Bitso, the largest crypto exchange in Latin America, and Jumex gives her live exposure to fintech, blockchain and consumer brand strategy in volatile markets. She wrote “Un mundo sin jefes” (Conecta, 2021), a candid book on executive life and self-leadership, which makes her credible on the human side of transformation as well as the technology side. Biography highlights General Manager for Argentina, Chile and Peru at Mercado Libre, 2015 to 2017. Managing Director of Wolox, the digital product and transformation firm acquired by Accenture in 2021. Earlier global roles at Nike (Emerging Markets Apparel), Under Armour (Global Senior Product Manager), Unilever (Dove, Latin America) and Puratos. Board director of Rotoplas, Gentera (Banco Compartamos), AgileThought (Nasdaq) and IFC (World Bank) portfolio companies. Advisor to Bitso and Jumex. MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Economics degree from Universidad Torcuato Di Tella. Master’s in Project Valuation from ITBA. Author of “Un mundo sin jefes” (Conecta, Penguin Random House, 2021). Biography Mercado Libre is the company that beat Amazon in Latin America. Marina Díaz Ibarra was the General Manager who ran its Argentina, Chile and Peru business between 2015 and 2017, at the point where mobile commerce, payments and logistics were converging into a single operating problem. That seat shapes how she thinks about digital growth: as a question of unit economics, talent and execution, not as a slide on disruption. After Mercado Libre, she moved to the other side of the table. As Managing Director of Wolox, she built a digital product company that helped incumbents in financial services, retail and consumer goods translate ambition into working software. Accenture acquired the business in 2021. The experience left her with a precise view of where corporate transformation programmes break down, and what makes the small number that work different. Her earlier career was inside the brand machinery of Unilever, Nike, Under Armour and Puratos, with regional and global roles spanning Latin America and the United States. That background, combined with an MBA from Wharton and an economics training from Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, gives her an unusual range: she can read a brand P&L, a venture cap table and a board pack with equal fluency. She now sits on the boards of Rotoplas, Gentera, Nasdaq-listed AgileThought and several IFC (World Bank) portfolio companies, and advises Bitso, the largest crypto exchange in Latin America. Her book “Un mundo sin jefes” (Conecta, 2021) put on record the human cost of running at executive speed and the discipline required to keep going. It is the part of the story that boards rarely talk about and that her audiences consistently respond to. Key speaking topics Digital transformation in incumbent businesses Exponential technologies and operating advantage E-commerce, omnichannel and mobile in emerging markets Fintech, blockchain and crypto in Latin America Board-level technology and innovation governance Customer experience and brand in a digital economy Self-leadership and executive resilience Ideal for Boards and executive committees framing AI, fintech and digital transformation decisions CEOs and CDOs of incumbents who have stalled between pilot and scaled deployment CMOs and customer experience leaders rebuilding around digital and mobile commerce Senior leadership audiences in Latin America, the United States and EMEA looking for an operator view from the region Audience outcomes A clear-eyed account of what separates digital transformation programmes that scale from those that stall A working view of how Latin American operators have built consumer technology businesses against larger global incumbents Specific cases from Mercado Libre, Wolox and live board work in fintech, water, microfinance and technology services A frank perspective on the human and leadership cost of running at the pace transformation now demands

Why organisations work with Mark Beaumont He has cycled and recovered from multi-month performance projects with measurable outcomes, but what made them possible was the planning and the team behind the rider. The 18,000 miles in 78 days and 14 hours was a logistics and physiology problem before it was a sporting one. His work as an Operating Partner at Envoy Group, and as an executive chair, gives him a working command of capital allocation and operational discipline that most adventure speakers cannot offer. He has filmed documentaries for fifteen years across the BBC, Amazon Prime and GCN, so he can speak credibly to leaders about performing under public scrutiny and telling a story that lands. He frames endurance as a planning problem: nutrition, sleep, route, contingency, support team. That structure transfers cleanly to a senior team running a long transformation. The British Empire Medal and his Guinness World Records titles are credentials a buyer can put on a board agenda without needing to explain them. Biography highlights World record holder, fastest cycle around the world: 18,000 miles, 78 days, 14 hours (2017). World record holder, fastest solo ride length of Africa: Cairo to Cape Town in 42 days, 8 hours (2015). Author of six books, including The Man Who Cycled the World, Africa Solo, and Around the World in 80 Days. Partner at Eos Advisory, an early-stage innovation fund backing science, engineering and technology companies. BBC documentary subject and contributor for over 15 years, including Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games global coverage. British Empire Medal, 2018 New Year Honours, for services to sport, broadcasting and charity. Biography The 80-day cycle around the world looks like a sporting record. It is closer to a 24-hour-a-day operational project with one performer, a small support crew, a fixed deadline, and no option to renegotiate the route. Holding sixteen hours of cycling a day for eleven weeks, on four hours of broken sleep, is a planning and recovery discipline first. These projects run across two decades and many expeditions: an 18,000-mile circumnavigation in 2008, the length of Africa in 2015, and a faster circumnavigation in 78 days and 14 hours in 2017. The earlier rides were filmed for the BBC, the later ones for GCN and Amazon. All were audited by Guinness World Records and run with a support team handling logistics, nutrition and recovery. What he sells a business audience is the working method behind them. The investor side of the work matters here. Beaumont spent six years as a partner and investor at Eos Advisory, an early-stage fund backing Scottish science and technology businesses, before joining Envoy Group as an Operating Partner. His working week goes on capital allocation, founder assessment and scale-up risk. That gives him a commercial register most adventure speakers do not have when they walk into a leadership offsite. What a senior team gets from him is a structured account of how to plan for the long middle of a hard project: where decisions break down, what data to track, when to slow the team to protect the team. The British Empire Medal in 2018, awarded for services to sport, broadcasting and charity, sits alongside six published books and a documentary record stretching back fifteen years. Key speaking topics Sustained performance under prolonged pressure Planning and execution of multi-month projects Recovery and decision-making after setback Risk management in high-consequence environments Early-stage investment and scale-up discipline Endurance physiology applied to business performance Ideal for Executive teams running multi-year transformation or restructuring programmes Sales and operations leadership conferences focused on sustained performance Founder and scale-up audiences working with early-stage investors Senior offsites where resilience is the substantive agenda, not the entertainment Audience outcomes A working method for pacing senior teams through long, demanding projects Specific lessons from three audited world-record expeditions on planning, support and recovery A clearer view of where decision-making degrades under fatigue and how to design around it An investor-side perspective on what separates ambition from operational discipline

Why organisations work with Mark Franklin He names the specific barriers founders carry into their businesses: not being ready, not being good enough, not having enough time, and fear of failure. Audiences recognise themselves in the language and leave with a vocabulary for what was previously unspoken. His Four Fears framework is trademarked and structured, not improvised motivation. It gives small-business audiences a model they can apply to a stalled product launch, a pricing decision, or a hiring step. Paseda360 Advanced Practitioner credentials, including Havening and Transformational Coaching (ILM Assured), give the work a clinical grounding that ordinary business-mindset talks lack. He uses live drumming as a working metaphor for rhythm, action and recovery in business, which makes the session memorable for audiences who have sat through standard keynotes. Recognition as Highly Commended Rising Star and Finalist for Emerging Coach of the Year at the National Coaching Awards 2025 marks him as a credible voice within the UK coaching profession. Biography highlights Founder of The Four Fears, a trademarked mindset coaching framework for small business owners and creative professionals. Paseda360 Advanced Practitioner, Level One Havening Coach, Level One Limitless Light Practitioner, and Practitioner in Transformational Coaching (ILM Assured). National Coaching Awards 2025: Highly Commended, Rising Star; Finalist, Emerging Coach of the Year. Former Managing Director of Usborne Books at Home, previously Marketing Director. Speaker, coach and emcee, with podcast appearances including The Next 100 Days (Ep. 408) and LiveTrue (Ep. 011). Author of a forthcoming book on the Four Fears of business ownership. Biography Most small businesses do not fail because the market turned. They fail because the owner stopped acting on the things that mattered. Procrastination, perfectionism, imposter feelings and fear of failure are the everyday barriers that quietly drain founders, and they are rarely addressed by ordinary business advice. The Four Fears, Franklin’s trademarked framework, names these four barriers and gives owners a shared language for what is happening inside their own decision-making. The work is built on Paseda360 Advanced Practitioner training, including Havening and Transformational Coaching (ILM Assured), which roots the approach in neuroscience-informed coaching practice rather than generic motivation. His credibility is anchored in two careers. He led Usborne Books at Home as Managing Director after several years as its Marketing Director, which gives him an operator’s read on what running a small enterprise actually feels like. He moved into full-time coaching and speaking and was recognised in 2025 with two National Coaching Awards shortlistings, Highly Commended Rising Star and Finalist for Emerging Coach of the Year. On stage, Franklin works with a drum kit as part of the talk. The drumming is not theatrics; it stands in for rhythm, deliberate action and recovery, the same patterns he asks owners to recognise in their businesses. Audiences leave with a framework, a vocabulary, and an unusually concrete sense of what bravery looks like when applied to a real commercial decision. Key speaking topics Small business mindset and the Four Fears Entrepreneurial procrastination and perfectionism Imposter feelings in founders and creative professionals Action and rhythm in business decision-making Bravery and clarity in self-employment Coaching-led personal development for owner-operators Ideal for Small-business and entrepreneur audiences at conferences, association events and network gatherings Creative professionals, freelancers and independent operators looking for honest mindset content Franchise networks, direct-sales organisations and SME communities running annual or regional events After-dinner and emcee briefs where a speaker also needs to host or moderate the room Audience outcomes A named vocabulary for the four psychological barriers that most often stall small-business owners A practical sense of how to spot which of the four fears is currently in play, in themselves and in colleagues A grounded view of bravery as a working practice in business, not a personality trait Energy and a memorable creative device, the drum kit, that anchors the message after the room empties

Why organisations work with Mark Millar He has run the project management seat on BBC One’s DIY SOS since 2006, including the Swansea build of the UK’s first adapted surf school for people with disabilities, completed in eleven days. That is a specific, televised record of delivery under extreme constraint. He brings the trade voice to corporate audiences. Manufacturers, merchants, installers and developers book him because he speaks the language of the site as well as the boardroom. His Channel 5 presenting work, Dream Kitchens and Bathrooms with Mark Millar and Build Your Dream Home in the Country, makes him a recognisable on-camera host for product launches, awards nights and trade conferences. He runs a working building firm in Bristol with UK and international clients, so the operating advice is current rather than retrospective. Biography highlights Project Manager on BBC One’s DIY SOS, on screen and behind the scenes, since 2006. Presenter of Channel 5’s Dream Kitchens and Bathrooms with Mark Millar (2021) and Build Your Dream Home in the Country (2023). Led the September 2020 DIY SOS and Children in Need build in Swansea of an adapted surf school for people with disabilities, completed in eleven days. Owner of a Bristol-based building firm with UK and international project work. Trained as a carpenter in Northern Ireland through a four-year apprenticeship. Recurring host and guest across BBC and Channel 5 entertainment programming, including Pointless Celebrities and radio appearances. Biography The Swansea adapted surf school went up in eleven days. Mark Millar ran the site as Project Manager for BBC One’s DIY SOS, working with Children in Need on a build that became the first surf school in the UK designed for people with disabilities. That kind of work, where the deadline is fixed by a broadcast date and the brief is emotionally non-negotiable, is the discipline he has spent two decades practising on screen. Mark trained as a carpenter in Northern Ireland and has been the project management voice of DIY SOS since 2006. The role has been editorial as well as practical: he has visited every site and shaped which stories made it to air. The show has accumulated audiences and BAFTA recognition over its run, and Mark is the figure most associated with its delivery rhythm. Channel 5 built two series around him. Dream Kitchens and Bathrooms with Mark Millar (2021) follows homeowners through the rooms they cannot afford to get wrong. Build Your Dream Home in the Country (2023) takes him to self-build projects across the UK. He continues to run a Bristol-based building firm with celebrity and international clients, which keeps the on-screen advice anchored in current site economics. The reason corporate audiences in construction, manufacturing, merchanting and home improvement book him is specific. He is one of the few public figures in UK media who can carry a room of contractors, hold a brand stage, and explain the trade view to a board, without losing any of the three audiences. Key speaking topics Project management on complex builds The realities of running a building firm Trades, training and apprenticeship Television presenting and brand hosting Charity builds and community projects Customer experience in home improvement Ideal for Construction, merchant and manufacturer audiences at trade conferences and dealer events Home improvement and KBB sector brand activations and product launches Corporate hospitality and after-dinner audiences looking for a recognisable TV host Charity and community fundraising events with a build or trade dimension Audience outcomes A clear, on-the-tools view of how complex builds get delivered to fixed deadlines A working perspective on customer trust in trades, told from the contractor’s side Recognisable broadcast presence for awards, panels and product reveals Stories from DIY SOS sites that ground discussion of community impact in specific builds

Why organisations work with Martin McCourt He has run the playbook most boards are still arguing about: taking a single-product, single-market business into more than 60 international markets while protecting the founder’s creative engine. He grew Dyson profits past £300m and crossed £1bn in revenue in 2011, with 80% of the business coming from outside the UK by the time he left. He is one of very few British CEOs who has personally established subsidiaries in the US, Japan, Switzerland, Austria and Germany, and won market leadership in most of them, including the US. He chairs Joseph Joseph and COMPO and sits on the board of Weber, which keeps him close to live boardroom decisions in the design-led consumer and homewares businesses he spent his career scaling. Named UK Business Leader of the Year at the 2010 National Business Awards, recognised for running a company described as the standout performer of the recession. Biography highlights CEO of Dyson for 15 years, leading the move from a single-product UK operation into more than 60 international markets. Took Dyson revenue past £1bn in 2011, with profits above £300m and 80% of revenue from outside the UK. Established Dyson subsidiaries in the US, Japan, Switzerland, Austria and Germany, winning market leadership in most including the US. Earlier senior commercial roles at Mars, Duracell, Toshiba and Pelikan across more than 40 years in manufacturing, design, sales and marketing. UK Business Leader of the Year, 2010 National Business Awards. Currently Chairman of Joseph Joseph and COMPO, a non-executive director of Weber, and a Visiting Professor at Aston Business School. Earlier chair and board roles include Glen Dimplex, the world’s largest electrical heating manufacturer, alongside Tharsus, Lightfoot, Pure Electric, FreeFlow Technologies and Learning Curve Group, several taken through to successful exit. Biography Dyson was a British engineering business with one famous product and one home market when Martin McCourt joined as CEO. Fifteen years later, 80% of the revenue was coming from outside the UK, profits had passed £300m, and the company had crossed £1bn in sales for the first time in 2011. That outcome did not happen by accident. McCourt designed and ran the international strategy that took Dyson into more than 60 markets, building subsidiaries from scratch in the US, Japan, Switzerland, Austria and Germany and winning market leadership in most of them. He moved manufacturing to Asia while increasing skilled UK jobs, and he kept the commercial machine running so that James Dyson could stay focused on inventing. The career underneath that work matters. Before Dyson, McCourt spent more than two decades in senior commercial roles at Mars, Duracell, Toshiba and Pelikan, learning how branded consumer businesses scale and where they break. That history is why he can speak to the practical mechanics of growth, not just the headline outcome. In 2010 he was named UK Business Leader of the Year at the National Business Awards, recognised for running what was described as the standout business of the recession. That work continues at board level. In September 2025 he became Chairman of Joseph Joseph, the British design-led homewares brand, having advised co-founder Richard Joseph in the company’s early years. He also chairs COMPO, the European organic gardening business, sits on the board of Weber in Chicago, and holds a Visiting Professorship at Aston Business School. Key speaking topics International scaling of product-led businesses Building consumer brands across multiple markets The CEO and founder relationship British manufacturing and global competitiveness Innovation-driven growth Leadership through rapid expansion Clean-technology and industrial investment Ideal for CEOs and boards of founder-led or product-led businesses planning international growth Chief Commercial Officers and international MDs scaling consumer brands Industrial and manufacturing leadership teams considering global market entry Leadership programmes for senior operators in product, design and engineering-led companies Audience outcomes A clear-eyed view of what it actually takes to move a single-market business into 60-plus markets A working model for the CEO and founder partnership in inventor-led companies Specific lessons on entering and winning major international markets, drawn from the US, Japan and Europe A sharper sense of where British manufacturing competes and where it does not Boardroom-grade thinking on innovation, capital allocation and long-horizon growth

Why organisations work with Martin Roll He wrote the reference text on Asian brand strategy. “Asian Brand Strategy”, named one of Strategy+Business’s Best Business Books on Marketing the year after publication, is still the credential boards reach for when they need someone who has thought seriously about brand building outside the Western frame. He sits inside the family enterprise field, not next to it. As INSEAD Distinguished Fellow at the Wendel International Centre for Family Enterprise, he advises principals and next-generation leaders on succession, governance, and strategy with a practitioner’s view, not an academic’s distance. McKinsey retains him as a senior advisor on family business and family office mandates. That is a hard credential to fake, and a useful signal for boards that want strategy advice with the rigour of a tier-one firm and the candour of an outside operator. He moves credibly between two audiences most speakers cannot bridge: C-suites at multinational consumer companies looking at Asian growth, and principals of family-controlled enterprises wrestling with continuity. The same frame, branded value creation under contested ownership conditions, applies to both. Biography highlights Distinguished Fellow at INSEAD’s Wendel International Centre for Family Enterprise; Entrepreneur in Residence at INSEAD. Senior Advisor to McKinsey & Company on family business and family office strategy. Author of “Asian Brand Strategy” (Palgrave Macmillan), named a Strategy+Business Best Business Book on Marketing. Co-author of “The Future of Branding” with Kevin Lane Keller, Don E. Schultz and Rajendra K. Srivastava. Faculty across INSEAD, CEIBS and Nanyang Business School; guest lecturer at Harvard, Wharton, ESSEC, IE. Columnist at INSEAD Knowledge and Harvard Business Review; editor and host of the INSEAD Family Business Podcast. Biography Asian companies spent two decades being told that brand-building was a discipline they would eventually import. The argument in “Asian Brand Strategy” was the opposite. The book, published by Palgrave Macmillan and named a Best Business Book on Marketing by Strategy+Business, made the case that Asian firms would build global brands on their own terms, with their own founder dynamics, their own ownership structures, and their own customer logic. Two decades of work since then has tracked that thesis as it played out across consumer goods, luxury, and family-controlled conglomerates. That work runs through Martin Roll Company, the Singapore advisory firm Roll founded after 25 years of board and C-suite counsel to multinationals, Asian corporates, and global business families. He is a Senior Advisor to McKinsey & Company on family business and family office strategy, and Distinguished Fellow at INSEAD’s Wendel International Centre for Family Enterprise, where he leads research and teaching on the strategy and governance questions that decide whether family enterprises survive succession. His teaching reach is unusually wide. He sits on the faculty at INSEAD, CEIBS and Nanyang Business School and guest lectures at Harvard, Wharton, ESSEC, and IE. His writing appears regularly in INSEAD Knowledge and Harvard Business Review, and he edits and hosts the INSEAD Family Business Podcast, which has become one of the more substantive channels for next-generation leaders working through governance and continuity in private. The combined record matters because the questions he answers, how to build a brand outside the Western default, how to professionalise a family enterprise without breaking what made it work, are the kind boards usually meet through three different specialists. Roll holds the brief in one place, and writes about it with the discipline of someone who has had to deliver on it. Key speaking topics Asian brand strategy and global brand building Family business strategy and succession Family office governance and capital strategy Luxury brand management Leadership of family-controlled enterprises Asia growth strategy for multinational corporates Brand-led value creation Ideal for Boards and CEOs of consumer and luxury businesses pursuing Asian growth Principals and next-generation leaders of family-controlled enterprises Family office leadership and investment committees CMOs and brand strategy leadership at multinationals expanding in Asia Audience outcomes A clearer view of how Asian brand-building actually works, including where Western playbooks fail and where they translate. A practical frame for the strategy and governance decisions that determine whether a family enterprise survives the next generation. A sharper read on brand as a commercial asset on the balance sheet, not a marketing line item. A grounded view of what professionalising a family business requires, beyond org-chart changes.

Why organisations work with Matthias Schmitt He has scaled and exited the companies his audience is still inside. wealthpilot reached over 100,000 European customers under his co-founding, and Skigaudi became Germany’s leading student winter festival brand. His Expansion State Method is a named, proprietary coaching framework, not a borrowed model. It is designed specifically for founders navigating the gap between commercial success and personal meaning. He addresses burnout from inside the experience, having walked out of his own companies after hitting it. The credibility with senior operators is earned, not theoretical. He works in the territory most leadership programmes avoid: nervous system regulation, identity after exit, and the practical mechanics of sustaining decision quality under sustained pressure. Entrepreneur Asia Pacific named him to its Top Five Life Coaches to Watch in 2024, which gives the work external editorial validation in a category usually short of it. Biography highlights Co-founder of wealthpilot, a Munich-based FinTech SaaS serving over 100,000 European customers Co-founder of Skigaudi, Germany’s leading winter festival brand for students Founder of the Expansion State Method, a proprietary coaching framework for post-exit founders Named to Entrepreneur Asia Pacific’s Top Five Life Coaches to Watch in 2024 Trained in NLP, behavioural science, nervous system regulation, and meditation as applied to executive performance Works publicly under the title “Chief Fulfillment Officer,” focused on post-exit founders and conscious leaders Biography The exit is supposed to be the win. For many founders, it is also the moment the architecture they built their identity on disappears. The high-performance habits that scaled the company keep firing into an empty room. Matthias Schmitt co-founded wealthpilot, a Munich FinTech that scaled past 100,000 European customers, and Skigaudi, the leading German winter festival brand for students. He exited and hit burnout. The recovery became the work. Today he coaches post-exit entrepreneurs and senior leaders through that transition, using a proprietary framework he calls the Expansion State Method. The practical content draws on NLP, behavioural science, nervous system regulation, and meditation, applied to the specific problem of how senior operators sustain decision quality and meaning after the pressure that organised their lives lifts. Entrepreneur Asia Pacific named him to its Top Five Life Coaches to Watch in 2024. The recognition matters because the category he works in, founder coaching, is crowded with generalists. The differentiator here is operational time served at the level his clients are leaving. Key speaking topics Burnout recovery for founders and senior operators Post-exit identity and purpose Peak performance without collapse Nervous system regulation for high-pressure leadership Sales leadership and revenue performance Purpose-led business building Ideal for Founder communities, scale-up CEO peer groups, and post-exit networks Sales leadership offsites where revenue performance and team wellbeing are both on the table Private wealth and family office audiences working with HNW and UHNW founders Executive development programmes addressing sustained performance and burnout risk at senior levels Audience outcomes A clearer read on where current performance habits are producing diminishing returns Specific practices for nervous system regulation under sustained executive pressure A language for the post-exit transition that senior operators rarely have available Permission to treat fulfilment as a performance variable, not a soft topic

Why organisations work with Mel Abraham A practitioner’s view of personal finance, not a motivational one. Thirty years as a CPA advising founders and high earners sits behind every framework he teaches. Financial wellbeing translated into a workforce metric. His employee financial wellness sessions connect personal money stress directly to productivity, retention, and engagement numbers a CFO recognises. A published, repeatable system. Building Your Money Machine and its Wealth Priority Ladder give audiences a sequenced model they can act on the next morning, not a set of principles to remember. Credibility at the top of the speaker profession. The Certified Speaking Professional designation is held by fewer than one in ten working speakers, and Abraham earned it on top of the CPA qualification. A founder’s story buyers can verify. He built, sold, and reinvested through a cancer diagnosis and recovery, which is why the work avoids the abstract optimism that defines most personal-finance content. Biography highlights USA Today bestselling author of Building Your Money Machine (Hay House, 2024). International bestselling author of The Entrepreneur’s Solution. Certified Public Accountant with more than 30 years of advisory experience to founders and entrepreneurs. Certified Speaking Professional, National Speakers Association. Host of the Building Your Money Machine podcast and YouTube show, reaching around two million viewers. Has shared stages with Tony Robbins, Brendon Burchard, Arianna Huffington, Ed Mylett, and Amy Porterfield. Biography The gap between earning a high income and being financially free is wider than most professionals expect. Lifestyle absorbs salary growth, savings sit idle, and the moment when work becomes a choice keeps moving further out. Mel Abraham has spent three decades inside that gap as a CPA advising founders and high earners, and his work begins with the mechanics of closing it. Building Your Money Machine, his 2024 USA Today bestseller, sets out the sequence: earn, grow, protect. The book introduces the Wealth Priority Ladder and the Five Incomes, frameworks he uses to move audiences from a single salary to a portfolio of cash-producing assets. It followed The Entrepreneur’s Solution, an earlier international bestseller written for owner-operators trying to scale without trading their lives for the business. Inside organisations, Abraham translates the same material into a workforce argument. Personal financial stress shows up as distraction, presenteeism, and turnover, and his Financial Wellness, The Missing Link to Employee Wellness programme reframes it as a measurable productivity issue rather than a soft benefit. Buyers tend to be CHROs, founders, and benefits leads who want financial literacy treated with the same seriousness as physical and mental health. The Certified Speaking Professional designation, held by under one in ten working speakers, sits alongside the CPA credential. The combination is unusual, and it is what allows Abraham to take a stage at a sales kickoff of 20,000 or a boardroom of 10 and treat both as exercises in numerical precision. Key speaking topics Personal financial freedom and wealth-building systems Employee financial wellness and productivity Entrepreneurship and founder economics Wealth priority sequencing for high earners Legacy planning and intergenerational wealth Money mindset and behavioural finance Ideal for Sales conferences, founder summits, and entrepreneur networks CHROs and benefits leads building financial wellbeing into the employee proposition Wealth management, banking, and financial services events for client audiences Professional services firms and partnerships addressing partner and associate financial literacy Audience outcomes A sequenced model for converting earned income into income-producing assets A clearer view of which financial moves come first, second, and third Language for treating financial wellbeing as a measurable workforce outcome, not a benefit line item A founder’s account of building wealth through health crisis and business reinvention Tools drawn from a CPA practice rather than a motivational frame

Why organisations work with Melica Moshiri Operating knowledge of the AI scale-up hiring market. SkillTorch places go-to-market, C-suite and technical leaders into companies across automation, robotics, semiconductors and enterprise AI. A founder’s view of what it takes to start and run a specialist business from cold, not a consultant’s view of someone else’s growth. A public platform built through BBC’s The Apprentice (2025) and a TEDxWorthing talk, giving her access to audiences beyond a typical recruitment specialist. A working perspective on how AI is changing recruiting itself, drawn from running an AI-focused search firm and hosting the SkillTorch Disrupt podcast with founders and operators in the field. Biography highlights Founder, SkillTorch, retained and embedded search for venture-backed AI companies across North America and Europe Host, SkillTorch Disrupt podcast on hiring, leadership and applied AI TEDxWorthing speaker, October 2025: “How to reconnect in a robotic world” BBC The Apprentice 2025 contestant, reached Week 8, won five tasks including Project Manager Speaking platforms include NBCUniversal, Spotify and the University of Brighton BA (Hons) Law with Business, University of Brighton Biography AI companies in their first scaling phase usually have two problems at once. The product is moving faster than the leadership team can hire for, and the executive roles they need most are the ones the founders have never personally done. SkillTorch was built to sit inside that gap. Melica Moshiri founded SkillTorch in 2022 after a decade in recruitment that took her from Pareto Law in the UK through executive search in advertising technology to Los Angeles and Orange County, where she opened a US office for a UK firm before launching her own. The firm runs retained and embedded search for venture-backed AI companies across the US and Europe, placing senior commercial, technical and operational leaders into businesses in automation, robotics, semiconductors and enterprise AI. In 2025 she became a contestant on BBC’s The Apprentice, reaching Week 8 and winning five tasks, including one as Project Manager. The platform extended her public reach across BBC News, BBC Radio 5 Live, the Daily Mail, The Mirror and Persian broadcaster Manoto TV, and led to a TEDxWorthing talk later that year on how technology is reshaping the way people connect at work. She also hosts SkillTorch Disrupt, a podcast with founders and operators building applied AI in real-world settings. The recurring theme across her client work, her broadcasting and her speaking is the same: how small, recently funded companies design leadership teams that can hold up when growth gets ahead of the org chart. Key speaking topics Building and scaling a specialist business in the AI sector Executive hiring for venture-backed technology companies AI’s effect on recruiting and talent strategy Resilience and reinvention as a first-time founder Women founding and leading in technology Personal brand and visibility for entrepreneurs Ideal for Founders and CEOs of early-stage and Series A to C technology companies Heads of Talent and CHROs scaling teams inside AI-native businesses Entrepreneurship programmes, accelerators and university enterprise audiences Conferences on women in technology, leadership and founding Audience outcomes A working picture of how senior hiring inside AI scale-ups actually runs, from brief to closed offer Specific examples of what goes wrong when founders hire too late or too senior, and how to read the signals earlier A candid account of the public, financial and personal exposure that comes with founding a business and a media profile at the same time Practical positioning for women entering or founding in technology, drawn from her own market

Why organisations work with Michael Cusumano He wrote the book leaders cite when they argue about platform strategy. The Business of Platforms, with Gawer and Yoffie, is the reference text for how Apple, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft built their positions, and where new entrants can still find leverage. He has spent three decades studying how software companies actually make money, from Microsoft Secrets through The Business of Software to current work on generative AI as the next platform layer. He bridges Western and Japanese industry. Two Fulbright Fellowships, ten years working in Japan, and a former dean role at Tokyo University of Science give him a working view of competitive dynamics across both markets. He is operator-adjacent. Roughly 100 consulting engagements with organisations including NASA, the World Bank, and the Bank of England, plus a dozen public-company board seats, mean the framework is pressure-tested against real strategic decisions. Biography highlights SMR Distinguished Professor of Management at MIT Sloan; Faculty Director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship; Co-Director of the MIT System Design and Management Program. Author or co-author of 14 books, including The Business of Platforms (2019), Strategy Rules (2015), Staying Power (2010), Platform Leadership (2002), and Microsoft Secrets (1995). Strategy Rules has been translated into 18 languages; Microsoft Secrets into 14. Writes the Technology Strategy and Management column for Communications of the ACM; former editor-in-chief and chairman of MIT Sloan Management Review. Recipient of the 2019 Abbie Griffin High Impact Award from the Journal of Product Innovation Management; IEEE Software 25th-Anniversary Top Pick. Princeton (BA), Harvard (PhD); two Fulbright Fellowships; former Special Vice President and Dean of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Tokyo University of Science. Biography Platform businesses follow a different physics from product businesses. The companies sitting at the top of every market-cap league table, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta, did not get there by selling better products. They built two-sided markets, opened controlled access to complementors, and used network effects to compound advantage. Cusumano’s work, with Annabelle Gawer and David Yoffie, is the reference scholarship on why this works and when it does not. His position at MIT Sloan reflects three decades of close study of the software industry. Microsoft Secrets, written with Richard Selby in 1995, was the first inside account of how a software company actually shipped product at scale. Platform Leadership followed in 2002, naming the pattern Intel, Microsoft, and Cisco had used to organise entire industries around themselves. The Business of Platforms, in 2019, extended the argument into the era of Amazon, Google, and Apple, separating what worked from what failed. He is also one of the few strategy scholars who can credibly write about Silicon Valley and Tokyo in the same paragraph. Two Fulbrights, ten years working in Japan, a former dean role at Tokyo University of Science, and fluent Japanese have produced a comparative view of how Western and Asian firms approach scale, software, and ecosystem competition. The 2019 Abbie Griffin High Impact Award and an IEEE Software 25th-Anniversary Top Pick recognise the influence of that work inside the academic and engineering communities. The current focus is generative AI as a new platform for applications development, which he argues will redraw competitive lines in software again, this time around model providers, infrastructure layers, and application developers. For boards trying to read where value will sit in the next stack, that is the live question, and the framework he has spent thirty years sharpening is the one being applied to it. Key speaking topics Platform strategy and ecosystem competition The economics of software businesses Generative AI as a platform layer Digital strategy in winner-take-most markets Innovation and entrepreneurship inside large firms Competing across US and Japanese technology markets Lessons from Bill Gates, Andy Grove, and Steve Jobs Ideal for Boards and executive committees stress-testing platform or ecosystem strategy CSOs and corporate development leaders evaluating how generative AI reshapes competitive position Technology and product leadership at firms moving from product to platform models CEO summits and senior leadership programmes covering digital strategy and software economics Audience outcomes A working framework for deciding when to compete as a product and when to open a platform. A clear read on why some platforms compound and others collapse, with the named cases that prove the pattern. Sharper questions to bring to AI strategy debates, focused on where value accrues across the stack. A comparative view of how leading US and Japanese firms have built and defended platform positions.

Why organisations work with Michael Johnson He has a defensible body of work on what it actually takes to perform on the single day that matters, drawn from a career where seven undefeated years in the 400m were earned through training design, not talent alone. He is the only male sprinter to hold the 200m and 400m world records simultaneously and the only man to defend an Olympic 400m title, which gives him standing in any room where the topic is sustained excellence rather than a single peak moment. Through Michael Johnson Performance, he has spent more than two decades translating elite training methodology into corporate and athletic settings, so the content is structured rather than anecdotal. As founder and Commissioner of Grand Slam Track, he is currently operating inside the commercial reality of building a new institution under public scrutiny, which gives him relevant material on launch decisions, capital, and pressure that is fresher than most retired-athlete keynotes. He has a long broadcast track record with the BBC, which means he is comfortable with live audiences, panel formats, and sharper interview-style sessions, not only set-piece keynotes. Biography highlights Four Olympic gold medals: 200m and 400m at Atlanta 1996, 400m at Sydney 2000, 4x400m relay at Barcelona 1992 and Atlanta 1996. Eight individual World Championship gold medals and a 400m world record (43.18s, Seville 1999) that stood for 17 years. Author of “Slaying the Dragon” (HarperCollins, 1996), co-written with Jess Walter. Founder of Michael Johnson Performance, a human performance and athlete development business. Founder and Commissioner of Grand Slam Track, the professional sprint league launched in April 2025. Member of the Laureus World Sports Academy and longtime BBC Sport athletics analyst. Biography The 400m at the 1999 World Championships in Seville was won by 43.18 seconds, a world record that stood for 17 years. The runner had been undefeated at the distance for seven years by that point. That kind of sustained dominance is not produced by talent. It is produced by a system: training design, race modelling, recovery discipline, and an unusually clear view of what to do in the final 50 metres when the body is asking permission to slow down. That system is the substance of Michael Johnson’s work outside the track. Across Olympic Games in Barcelona, Atlanta and Sydney, he won four gold medals, including a 200m and 400m double in Atlanta that no other male sprinter has matched. He held world records at both distances at the same time. He wrote about the underlying method in “Slaying the Dragon” with Jess Walter in 1996, and built it into a working business through Michael Johnson Performance, which has trained Olympic and professional athletes for more than two decades. His current platform is Grand Slam Track, the professional sprint league he founded and runs as Commissioner. The league launched in April 2025 with backing from Winners Alliance and a roster of contracted athletes competing across four annual meets. It has since had to restructure under Chapter 11 protection. The point for a corporate audience is not the outcome, which is unfinished. It is that he is currently operating as a founder under public, financial and regulatory pressure, which sharpens the material he brings into the room on decisions, capital, and execution. He sits on the Laureus World Sports Academy and has worked as a BBC athletics analyst across multiple Olympic cycles, which means audiences get a speaker who is comfortable being interviewed and pushed, not only one delivering a prepared keynote. Key speaking topics Performance under pressure Preparation, training design and execution Sustained excellence and competitive longevity Leadership of self and team in high-stakes moments The Olympic mindset Founding and running a new sports league Ideal for Senior leadership offsites focused on execution and composure Sales kickoffs and high-performance team events Board and CEO dinners where authority and presence matter as much as content Sport, media and commercial audiences interested in the business of athletics Audience outcomes A clear account of what elite preparation looks like when the day cannot be repeated A specific framework for composure when the stakes are visible and external A grounded view of what sustained excellence costs, beyond the highlight reel A current operator’s perspective on building a new institution under financial pressure

Why organisations work with Michael Lyon He has mentored more than 100 ventures through the Creative Destruction Lab since 2018, currently anchored in the Oceans stream at the Atlantic site. That is a working accelerator practice, not a retired one. He was Vice President and General Counsel of Space Adventures during the first private spaceflights to the International Space Station (Tito, Shuttleworth). When he talks about commercialising frontier technology, he is describing a market he helped invent. He served as Special Assistant to FDIC Chairman L. William Seidman during the Savings and Loan crisis and as an Assistant Director for Resolutions at the RTC. Few startup mentors have run a federal crisis at that level. His book Accelerating Startups: Lessons From Mentors, foreword by Professor Ajay Agrawal of the Rotman School and contributions including Professor Philip Kotler, gives boards and accelerator programmes a published reference point for what he teaches. He works comfortably in the Gulf Cooperation Council region and Asia, and has done business in more than 100 countries, which makes him useful for venture programmes thinking about international expansion from day one. Biography highlights Founder and CEO of Lyon Capital Services; mentor at the Creative Destruction Lab. Former Vice President and General Counsel, Space Adventures; leadership roles at Zero Gravity Corporation. Special Assistant to the Chairman of the FDIC and Resolution Trust Corporation during the Savings and Loan crisis; Assistant Director for Resolutions at the RTC. Former General Counsel and Director of Business Development at J.E. Robert Company; former attorney at Covington and Burling. Co-founder of Xtronaut Enterprises with the leader of the NASA OSIRIS-REx mission. Author of Accelerating Startups: Lessons From Mentors (foreword by Professor Ajay Agrawal, Rotman School of Management). J.D. cum laude, Harvard Law School; B.A. summa cum laude, Brandeis University; attended London School of Economics. Biography The hardest part of building a serious venture is not the idea. It is the cluster of decisions a founder makes about regulation, capital, geography, and timing in the first three years, almost always with too little information. That is the gap that Michael Lyon has spent two decades closing for founders, first inside the companies and now from the mentor’s seat at the Creative Destruction Lab. His commercial track record is in the part of the economy where regulation, capital intensity, and frontier technology meet. As Vice President and General Counsel of Space Adventures he helped organise the first private spaceflights to the International Space Station, the Tito and Shuttleworth missions. He held leadership roles at Zero Gravity Corporation and co-founded Xtronaut Enterprises with the lead scientist of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission. Before the space sector he was Special Assistant to the Chairman of the FDIC during the Savings and Loan crisis and an Assistant Director for Resolutions at the Resolution Trust Corporation, working on failed thrifts of more than 500 million dollars in assets. He has also been General Counsel and Director of Business Development at the J.E. Robert Company and an attorney at Covington and Burling. The legal training is from Harvard, cum laude. Since 2018 he has mentored more than 100 ventures at the Creative Destruction Lab across the space, ocean, and emerging technology streams. His book Accelerating Startups: Lessons From Mentors carries a foreword by Professor Ajay Agrawal of the Rotman School of Management, who founded CDL, and a contribution from Professor Philip Kotler. It is the most direct expression of what a buyer is hiring when they put him in front of founders or a corporate innovation team. Key speaking topics Commercialising frontier technology in regulated markets Mentorship and founder decision-making inside accelerator programmes The commercial space sector and lessons from the first private orbital flights International market entry, with a focus on the Gulf and Asia Crisis resolution lessons from the Savings and Loan era Corporate innovation, intrapreneurship, and venture building Ideal for Founders and CEOs of early-stage ventures in space, ocean, and other regulated frontier sectors. Corporate innovation, R&D, and venture-building teams setting up accelerator or incubator programmes. Investors, family offices, and government innovation funds backing technology commercialisation. Universities, accelerators, and policy bodies running founder education at scale. Audience outcomes A working playbook for how founders extract real value from accelerators, incubators, and government innovation programmes. A grounded view of how commercial space and ocean ventures actually get built when regulation, capital, and timing are all moving at once. Lessons from the inside of a federal financial crisis applied to how founders and boards should think about risk and resolution today. Specific guidance on entering Gulf and Asian markets without burning the first eighteen months on the wrong structure.