Leadership

Why organisations work with Eric Termuende He gives leadership teams a working language for incremental change. The “one-degree shift” framework reframes culture work as a sequence of small, low-resistance moves teams can actually make, instead of a programme to be launched. His research base is original. Rethink Work and the surveys behind it focus on what attracts and retains the right people for a specific workplace, not the best people in the abstract, which is a more useful question for most CHROs. He pitches at team level, not enterprise level. Most future-of-work speakers operate at workforce-strategy altitude. Termuende speaks to the manager and the leader of leaders, which is where engagement and retention are actually won or lost. He has tested the material against operating environments at Amazon, IBM, Coca-Cola, Toyota, and Nokia. The keynotes have been refined through repeated commercial use, not built for the stage. Biography highlights Co-Founder of NoW of Work, a workplace innovation and leadership consultancy. Author of Rethink Work (Barlow Books), an Amazon best-seller on engagement and retention. Named to American Express’s Top 100 Emerging Innovators under 35. 2022 Arch Award for Early Career Achievement, Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary. TEDx speaker (TEDxBCIT, “Bigger than Work”) and Walrus Talks contributor. Host of the One Degree Shift podcast, interviewing operators and executives on incremental team change. Biography Most culture programmes fail not because the diagnosis is wrong, but because the prescribed change is too big to land. Teams are asked to adopt new behaviours on top of existing workload, and the new behaviours do not survive the first quarter. Eric Termuende’s work begins from this observation. The argument running through Rethink Work and the surveys behind it is that engagement and retention are decided at the team level, by a small number of recurring behaviours, and that the right intervention is operational rather than aspirational. NoW of Work, the consultancy Termuende co-founded, is built around that premise. The “one-degree shift” framework is its working vocabulary: small, specific behaviour changes designed to reduce friction and build trust without triggering another transformation initiative. The credentials sit underneath the argument. American Express named him to its Top 100 Emerging Innovators. The University of Calgary’s Haskayne School of Business gave him its Arch Award for Early Career Achievement in 2022. The material has been refined in front of audiences at Amazon, IBM, Coca-Cola, Toyota, Nokia, and Zoom, and on TEDx and Walrus stages. For senior people leaders, the proposition is unusually concrete. Termuende leaves an audience with a way to act on Monday morning, not a thesis to debate. That is rare in the future-of-work category, where most speakers operate one level too high to be useful to the line managers who actually run the teams. Key speaking topics Future of work and workforce design Team performance and trust Talent attraction and retention Workplace culture and engagement Multigenerational teams Leadership in uncertainty AI and the manager’s role Ideal for CHROs and people leaders responsible for engagement and retention strategy Leadership development and learning teams designing manager curricula Operations and divisional leaders running multigenerational teams under change Executive offsites focused on culture and talent in growth or post-merger contexts Audience outcomes A working framework for designing small behavioural shifts that hold at team level A clearer answer to which people the organisation should be attracting, not just how to attract more Practical positions on the multigenerational workforce that line managers can apply A reframing of culture work as operational practice, not communications activity

Why organisations work with Damon Dunn He has built and run the businesses he talks about. A 38-unit franchise system, a 31-property retail portfolio with tenants such as Walmart and CVS, and three CEO seats give him P&L credibility most leadership speakers do not have. His Hoover Institution work on welfare-to-work, K-14 education and workforce skilling connects boardroom growth questions to the labour and human-capital realities that actually determine whether a scale-up works. His path from severe poverty in Fort Worth to Stanford, the NFL and a multi-company operating career gives audiences a resilience story that is specific and verifiable, not generic. He is fluent in two registers buyers rarely get in one room: operator and policy fellow. That makes him useful for leadership offsites that need both growth substance and a wider economic frame. Biography highlights Hoover Institution Fellow, Stanford University, working on economic mobility, welfare reform and skills-based education. Author of Punting Poverty: Breaking the Chains of Welfare (Pacific Research Institute). Three-time CEO. Current CEO of Sagan Sign Talent. Founder of Lagunita Franchise Operations, scaled to 38 Dunkin locations across six states. Co-founder of Tricor SW Corporation, which developed 31 retail properties. BA, Public Policy, Stanford University. Harvard Business School Executive Education (2005). Former NFL wide receiver: Jacksonville Jaguars, Cleveland Browns, New York Jets, Dallas Cowboys. Republican nominee for California Secretary of State, 2010. Founder of Long Beach College Prep Academy, which has sent 158 students from low-income families to college. Biography Build a 38-unit franchise system from a single location and you learn quickly which growth ideas survive contact with payroll, leases and operators on a Tuesday morning. Damon Dunn has done the work three times as a CEO, in franchising at Lagunita, in retail development at Tricor, and most recently in industrial talent at Sagan Sign Talent. Tricor developed 31 retail properties across the United States, securing tenants including Walmart and CVS. Lagunita scaled to 38 Dunkin locations across six states, with around 500 employees and roughly thirty million dollars in revenue. The throughline is the same: capital deployed against real assets, real customers and real labour markets, with a P&L that has to clear at the end of every period. Alongside the operating work, Dunn is a Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, where he writes on welfare reform, K-14 education and the skills-based pathways that actually move people out of poverty. His book Punting Poverty: Breaking the Chains of Welfare, published with the Pacific Research Institute, sets out a workable agenda for that mobility question. He was the Republican nominee for California Secretary of State in 2010. His own route from severe poverty in Fort Worth to a Stanford scholarship, four NFL teams and a working operator’s career gives the policy argument something most policy arguments lack: an author who has been the subject. Boards and leadership teams get a speaker who can work the labour question from inside the labour market, not from a podium above it. Key speaking topics Entrepreneurship and scaling Growth strategy under capital and labour constraints Economic mobility and workforce skilling Leadership across business, sport and policy Resilience and high-performance under pressure Public policy on welfare-to-work and K-14 education Ideal for CEOs, founders and country managers running scale-up plays in capital-constrained conditions. Boards and executive teams looking for a credible operator’s view alongside macro and policy framing. Industry conferences in franchising, retail, real estate and consumer where unit economics drive growth. Leadership offsites that want substance on resilience without the standard sports-keynote arc. Audience outcomes A working operator’s view of how franchise and retail systems actually scale, with the trade-offs named. A clear link between workforce policy, skills and the practical labour economics inside a growing business. A resilience narrative grounded in named institutions and verifiable career stages, not motivational abstraction. Useable language for leaders trying to communicate ambition without overpromising on capital or timelines.

Why organisations work with Tom Flatau He brings formal NeuroLeadership Institute accreditation into client rooms, so the brain science behind his coaching is grounded in a recognised body of research rather than self-styled commentary. His firm’s programmes are quality-assured by the Institute of Leadership and Management, which gives L and D buyers a credentialed delivery standard alongside the keynote. Two decades of repeat work with HSBC, Unilever, Siemens, Louis Vuitton, Emirates and the BBC means the material has been pressure-tested across regulated finance, consumer goods, engineering, luxury retail and broadcast. He translates neuroplasticity, threat response and bias research into specific leadership practice on negotiation, change communication and team collaboration, so audiences leave with mechanism, not metaphor. Biography highlights CEO and founder of Teamworking International, with custom leadership programmes quality-assured by the Institute of Leadership and Management. Accredited brain and behaviour specialist trained by the NeuroLeadership Institute. Master’s in Business Analysis and Systems Design; Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management. Long-standing client roster including HSBC, Unilever, Siemens, Louis Vuitton, Emirates, American Express, Qatar Airways, British American Tobacco and the BBC. Conference speaker for bodies including the Chartered Institute of Building and the Institute of Directors. Signature keynote portfolio covering the inner game of leadership, the neuroscience of unconscious bias, leading through change, team collaboration, sales mastery and black belt negotiation. Biography Most behaviour change in organisations fails because it stops at the conscious mind. Leaders are taught new frameworks and new vocabulary, then return to the same threat responses, biases and habits the moment a quarter goes sideways. Tom Flatau built Teamworking International around a different premise: that leadership behaviour shifts when the brain underneath it shifts. The credentials matter here. Flatau is an accredited brain and behaviour specialist trained by the NeuroLeadership Institute, holds a Master’s in Business Analysis and Systems Design, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management. His firm’s programmes are quality-assured by the ILM, which is unusual in a market crowded with self-styled neuroscience commentators. For more than two decades, the work has been delivered into HSBC, Unilever, Siemens, Louis Vuitton, Emirates, American Express, Qatar Airways, British American Tobacco and the BBC. Across regulated banking, consumer goods, engineering, luxury and broadcast, the same patterns surface: leaders making decisions under threat, teams misreading each other’s intent, salespeople reverting to scripts. His material translates the relevant brain research into practice for each. His keynote portfolio sits along that line. “The inner game of leadership” examines the subconscious behaviours that erode senior credibility. “The neuroscience of unconscious bias” treats bias as a wiring problem with intervention points, not a values lecture. “Black belt negotiation” and “Sales mastery: hello science, goodbye myths” apply the same lens to deal-making. The throughline is mechanism: what is happening in the brain, and what to do about it. Key speaking topics Applied neuroscience for leadership Neuroscience of unconscious bias Leading through change Executive coaching and the inner game of leadership Mindset and team collaboration Negotiation and influence Sales behaviour and buyer psychology Ideal for CEOs, executive committees and senior leadership teams are responsible for behaviour change at the top of the organisation CHROs, L and D directors and heads of leadership development, designing accredited leadership pipelines Sales and commercial leadership teams looking to upgrade negotiation and buyer engagement Diversity and inclusion leads who want a brain-science framing of bias rather than a values framing Audience outcomes A working understanding of how stress, threat and reward responses shape leadership decisions in real time Specific mechanisms for interrupting unconscious bias in hiring, promotion and day-to-day team interactions Practical communication moves for leading people through change without losing trust Sharper read on the neuroscience of negotiation and how buyer brains actually respond to influence attempts

Beatrice Ngalula Kabutakapua is an inspiring trainer and genius storyteller who speaks on a range of topics including leadership, business storytelling, employee engagement and story-based communication with incredible energy. Having been an award-winning international journalist, Beatrice has the great ability to train people in how to tell better stories even if they have never done it before so that they can enhance communication and be inspiring. Her unique approach to business storytelling is innovative because she focuses on internal stories within organisations to foster a positive company culture. Using her coaching skills, knowledge of human behaviour, and empathy, Beatrice doubles employee’s confidence in writing stories that are targeted to specific audiences. People who have worked with her shared that their ability to apply stories to their workplace as well as training people in storytelling has increased exponentially. Her clients in DEI, People and Culture, L&D departments have referred to her work as being “thought-provoking”, “genius” and “empowering”. Through her content, speeches and training, Beatrice has reached more than 10,000 people from Los Angeles to Istanbul and in three different languages: French, English and Italian. Beatrice is currently working on her first book on leadership and storytelling, which is a guide to help leaders transform their lived experiences into their leadership superpowers.

About Tess Morris-Paterson Dr Tess Morris-Paterson is a chartered scientist who worked as a Head of Performance in elite and professional sport, before transitioning her expertise to human spaceflight. She gained experience at NASA Ames Research Center as a visiting scientist and attended International Space University, before starting her own business that specialises in the selection and training of astronauts. During her time working in sport, for five years she was one of three women working in the Premier League. She also worked for the Football Association and Women’s Super League. She went on to apply her expertise in multiple other sports, including Formula One with McLaren and world number 1 ranked athletes in tennis and golf. During this time, she pioneered new techniques, such as a novel method to measure muscle mass by taking a pill, and created bespoke solutions for athlete nutrition, seeking the marginal gains that could mean the difference between winning and losing. She finished her career in sport as an Olympic and Paralympic Head of Performance, managing a team of experts responsible for the mental and physical health, well-being, and optimization of athletes. In human spaceflight, Tess is an expert in how the body responds to microgravity. This included her work at NASA where she was in GeneLab, a team that investigates spaceflight-related molecular level changes. Her research has resulted in awards from the International Astronautical Federation, the Aerospace Medical Association, and NASA Human Research Program. In 2019, she was voted by global experts as an Emerging Space Leader and received a scholarship from the UK Space Agency and European Space Agency. This experience, plus her own diligent approach toward Astronaut Selection, was ideal preparation for starting her own business where she provides support to international space agencies looking to develop their own astronaut selection and training. In her spare time, Tess is a British Army Reserve Officer in the Royal Engineers, a corps that has ~5% women, and has been responsible for a unit of up to 100 soldiers. She enjoys flying light aircraft, where she received the Faith Bennett Navigation Cup from the British Women Pilots’ Association for a World Record Attempt to fly around the USA. She is a keen ski instructor and master scuba diver.

Chris Grant OBE is one of the UK’s leading facilitators of organisational change. Chris has been CEO of a successful UK-wide charity (Sported); chaired one of the UK’s biggest ever public-facing behaviour-change programmes (the introduction of Chip & PIN); tutored multiple medal-winning coaches in the Olympic and Paralympic sports, and worked as a consultant on leadership, strategy and change across the public, private and voluntary sectors. Recently appointed Chair of the British Basketball Federation, he also led English Professional Football’s Integrated Coaching Board, and from 2015 to 2021 he chaired the judging of the Sport Industry Awards. Chris has delivered well-received keynotes at events ranging from the World Cities Forum to the NHS Medical Directors’ Conference. His exceptional ability and willingness to take a brief, do background research and to read the room ensure high levels of relevance and engagement. His contributions often include interactive elements, and his goal is always that those listening will feel like active participants in a conversation, rather than a passive audience. Beneficiaries of Chris’s facilitation and group leadership workshops have included senior leaders from financial services, retail, healthcare and sport. The title for this body of work  – MeWe – was borrowed from Muhammad Ali, with whom Chris shared a stage just before the opening ceremony of London 2012. Chris served two terms as an Independent Board Member of Sport England, where he focused on widening participation in sport and activity for all. He remains a driving force in initiatives aiming for national teams and leaders in sport to reflect the broader population. He was a member of the Commission on the Future of Women’s Sport and Deputy Chair of International Inspiration, the ground-breaking London 2012 International Development Programme. Chris has an MSc. in People Development and Organisational Culture, but often says that his first degree in French Studies and other experiences, in roles ranging from Saturday jobs in retail to Sabbatical General Secretary of Manchester University Union, have contributed just as much to his own learning. His book Better Decisions was published by Quarto, and he has been heard and seen on a number of podcasts and news programmes, including BBC Radio’s Today. In the 2021 Queen’s Birthday Honours, Chris was awarded an OBE for services to sport.

About Dr Kevin Fong Dr Kevin Fong OBE has worked as a doctor with NASA and currently flies as part of a Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) crew in the UK. As of March 2020, Kevin was seconded to NHS England COVID-19 Emergency Preparedness Resilience & Response team. As a frontline emergency physician, his expertise lies in understanding teamwork, risk management and decision making under extreme pressure. With degrees in astrophysics, medicine and engineering, he is also something of a renaissance man. Having worked with NASA’s human space flight programme in Houston, Kevin also has a unique perspective on science, technology, exploration and the limits of the human body which he has brought to life in his incredible talks inspiring a global audience at both public and corporate events. In 2015, he delivered the prestigious Royal Institution Christmas Lectures. Kevin has also brought his expertise to both television and radio. He co-presented Astronauts: Do You Have What it Takes and Operation Goldrush with Dan Snow. He wrote and presented Space Shuttle: The Final Mission, To Boldly Go and several Horizon programmes including We Need to Talk about Death, Cyber Attack, Back from the Dead and How to Avoid Mistakes in Surgery. He presented Channel 4’s Extreme A&E and his radio documentaries include Game Changer: Fortnite on 4 and Trauma Medicine: The Fight for Life on BBC Radio 4. Kevin hosted the worldwide hit podcast 13 Minutes to the Moon produced by Andrew Luck-Baker and Rami Tzabar for BBC World Service. The podcast won Best Factual Podcast 2019 at the AIB Awards, sharing the prize with Hans Zimmer who composed original music for the series, and Silver in the Audio category at the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Awards. World Service has an audio audience of over 173 million listeners worldwide. Recently, he hosted The NHS: Who Cares? and co-hosted The Artificial Human with Aleks Krotoski, both for BBC Radio 4. As an author, Kevin has written Extremes which won an American Association for the Advancement of Science Award (AAAS) in 2015. He was awarded an OBE for services to science, medicine and healthcare in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2019.

Johnny C. Taylor, Jr.: A Visionary Leader Shaping the Future of Work and Leadership Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., SHRM-SCP, stands at the forefront of a global movement shaping the future of employment, culture, and leadership as the President and Chief Executive Officer of SHRM. In his role, he leads nearly 340,000 members spanning 180 countries, influencing the lives of over 362 million workers and their families worldwide. With a career spanning over two decades, Mr. Taylor has been an influence for good across numerous roles, serving as a lawyer, a human resources executive and CEO in both the not-for-profit and for-profit sectors. He has held senior and chief executive roles at IAC/InteractiveCorp, Viacom’s Paramount Pictures, Blockbuster Entertainment Group, the McGuireWoods law firm, and Compass Group USA. He most recently left his mark on the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, where he served as President and CEO. A highly valued thought leader, Mr. Taylor is a regular fixture in the media and in congressional hearings, where he provides insight on critical workforce issues. He also educates a broader audience via his USA Today column, “Ask HR,” where he offers accessible advice and perspectives on the modern workplace. Mr. Taylor cemented his influence in September 2021 with the release of the national bestseller, RESET: A Leader’s Guide to Work in an Age of Upheaval. Its success secured its position in the top three of The Wall Street Journal’s best-selling hardcover business books, where it was praised for its candid and forward-thinking vision for leaders to reimagine their company cultures in a time of global upheaval, all while presenting data-driven strategies for a foundational reset. All author proceeds benefit the SHRM Foundation, dedicated to empowering HR as a social force for change. Mr. Taylor sits on a number of boards and holds advisory roles. Appointed chairman of the President’s Advisory Board on Historically Black Colleges and Universities and serving as a member of the White House American Workforce Policy Advisory Board during the Trump Administration, he actively shapes policy and advocates for educational and workforce opportunities. In the corporate arena, Mr. Taylor serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of the University of Miami, Independent Director of the Flores & Associates corporate board, and is a member of the corporate boards of Guild Education and XPO Logistics (NYSE: XPO). His multifaceted leadership positions reflect a commitment to driving change, fostering inclusivity, and advancing the conversation on the future of work. In every role and endeavor, Mr. Taylor emerges as a dynamic force, providing a visionary roadmap for leaders and organizations navigating the complexities of the evolving global workforce. Speaking Johnny’s magnetic delivery and research-backed content will help you and your organization elevate your executive leadership, maximize the power of human capital, future proof your business, and more. Don’t settle for just one perspective — bring Johnny to your event to hear from a thought leader representing more than 362 million workers and their families, and shaping the future of work through research, policy, and more. Begin by selecting the message that best addresses your audience’s needs. Each talk can be tailored to your audience profile and additional keynote topics are available. Accolades “DC’s 500 Most Infuential People” by Washingtonian Magazine “300 Most Influential Executives in Corporate America” by Savoy Magazine “2023 Trailblazer in Gender Equity and Diversity” by Women Business Collaborative CEO Update’s “CEO of the Year” “LinkedIn Top Voice” in Company Culture

Why organisations work with Alan Stein Jr. Direct working access to Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, and Kobe Bryant during their formative years gives him firsthand observation of how the highest performers in modern basketball actually prepare, not the version told in interviews. Three published books (Raise Your Game, Sustain Your Game, Next Play) form a connected curriculum on individual performance, sustained output without burnout, and focus discipline. Leaders can extend a keynote into a longer programme. Translates athletic preparation into language a corporate audience already uses. Sales teams, retail operators, and frontline managers leave with habits they can run on Monday morning. Repeat client list crosses retail, financial services, healthcare, and franchise operations: American Express, Pepsi, Under Armour, Starbucks, Charles Schwab, Orangetheory Fitness. The material travels across sectors. Biography highlights Performance coach at the LeBron James Skills Academy and the Jordan Brand Classic Trained Stephen Curry in the month before the 2009 NBA Draft Author of Raise Your Game (Hachette), Sustain Your Game (Hachette Book Group), and Next Play (Amplify Publishing, 2025) Foreword to Raise Your Game by ESPN analyst Jay Bilas, who also features on the Next Play audiobook Corporate clients include American Express, Pepsi, Under Armour, Starbucks, Charles Schwab, Orangetheory Fitness Host of the Raise Your Game podcast Biography The best basketball players in the world are not the most physically gifted people in the room. They are the most prepared. Alan Stein Jr. spent fifteen years inside that preparation as a basketball performance coach, training Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, and Kobe Bryant during the years their habits were being formed. That access is the substance of his work. As a coach at the LeBron James Skills Academy, the Jordan Brand Classic, and Mike Jones’s DeMatha programme, Stein watched how elite players approached the unseen hours: warm-ups, recovery, film, the same drills repeated for years. The behaviours were unglamorous and learnable. He now teaches them to senior leaders and their teams. His three books map a single argument across individual, sustained, and focused performance. Raise Your Game (Hachette), with a foreword by ESPN’s Jay Bilas, sets out the habits. Sustain Your Game (Hachette Book Group) addresses stress, stagnation, and burnout. Next Play (Amplify Publishing, 2025) takes Coach K’s two-word philosophy and turns it into a discipline for what to do after a mistake or a win. Corporate clients use the material because it crosses sectors without losing specificity. American Express, Pepsi, Under Armour, Starbucks, Charles Schwab, and Orangetheory Fitness have all booked him. The vocabulary is athletic, but the application is operational: how a sales team prepares for a quarter, how a frontline manager recovers from a bad week, how a leader sets a daily standard the team can see. Key speaking topics Peak performance habits for senior leaders Self-leadership and preparation under pressure Team cohesion and high-performance culture Stress, burnout, and sustained output Sales performance mindset Lessons from elite athletes for corporate leaders Ideal for Sales leaders and chief revenue officers running performance offsites CHROs and L&D leads building leadership development programmes Franchise and retail operations leaders running annual conferences Senior leadership teams resetting standards after a difficult quarter or year Audience outcomes A clear set of preparation habits modelled on how elite athletes actually train Specific routines for managing stress and sustaining performance over a full year, not a quarter A shared vocabulary for accountability and standard-setting that a leadership team can use the next day Concrete examples from named NBA players that make the principles memorable for frontline staff A reframe of “talent” as habit and preparation, useful for managers building younger teams

Jeffrey Schnapp: Visionary Scholar Shaping the Future of Knowledge, Media and Mobility Jeffrey Schnapp is one of the most dynamic and interdisciplinary minds in the digital humanities and cultural history landscape. As the founder and faculty director of metaLAB (at) Harvard, Schnapp leads a team at the forefront of integrating technology with humanistic inquiry. His work bridges media studies, design, architecture, and the history of knowledge, with a particular emphasis on how emerging technologies actively reshape our interaction with archives, museums, and libraries through both theoretical exploration and practical innovation. Originally trained as a medievalist, Jeffrey Schnapp’s career has expanded to encompass a wide array of disciplines, from the material history of literature to the study of Fascist Italy and avant-garde movements such as Futurism and Dada. His expertise in these fields has led to notable collaborations with institutions like the Triennale di Milano, where he contributed to exhibitions on Italian design and architecture, and the Canadian Centre for Architecture, where his work further bridged technology, culture, and history. Schnapp’s leadership extends into the realm of innovation and mobility as the Chief Visionary Officer of Piaggio Fast Forward. In this role, he has overseen the development of groundbreaking robotic cargo transporters, including the award-winning Gita and Gita Mini. These robots have garnered international recognition for their innovative contributions to personal mobility design, including winning the prestigious Red Dot Award for Best of the Best in 2020. At Harvard, Schnapp holds the prestigious Carl A. Pescosolido Chair in Romance Languages and Literatures and Comparative Literature, where he teaches courses that reflect his deep interest in experimental humanities and radical pedagogy. His projects, such as the Trento Tunnels, have redefined curatorial practice by transforming public spaces into immersive historical narratives. His commitment to reshaping how we engage with the past and future is also evident in his curatorial work, including the BZ ’18-’45 museum project and exhibitions like Universo Futurista, which highlighted the cultural impact of Italian Futurism. His publications reflect his wide-ranging intellect, with works such as The Electric Information Age Book and FuturPiaggio, combining historical insight with a forward-thinking vision. He also co-authored The Library Beyond the Book, a critical examination of how libraries can adapt to the challenges and opportunities of the digital era. Schnapp is a sought-after speaker who captivates audiences across the globe. His lectures span topics from AI and digital culture to design-driven innovation and the future of knowledge systems. He frequently speaks at academic conferences, corporate innovation summits, and cultural forums, where his ability to fuse historical perspective with modern innovation consistently draws praise. Ideal Audience Schnapp’s presentations are ideal for audiences at the intersection of academia, technology, and the arts. His speaking style is engaging and thought-provoking, making him a perfect fit for innovation summits, digital humanities conferences, and cultural institutions, where his interdisciplinary insights consistently resonate.

Why organisations work with Karim Ellis A John Maxwell Team founding partner, which puts him inside the most widely sold leadership development network in the US corporate market and gives buyers a recognised pedigree to point to internally. Corporate training experience across Ford, Honda, Toyota, General Electric, Johnson and Johnson, Procter and Gamble, Kroger, USPS and the US Department of Defense, so he is calibrated for large, regulated, blue-collar and white-collar audiences in the same brief. A signature framework, GPS My Success, published as a book and built around five named principles for translating individual vision into action, which gives organisers a structured deliverable rather than a generic motivational set. A platform style trained directly under Les Brown, certified at Platinum level, which is what a programme committee is buying when they want an energising US-style closing keynote that lifts a room. Biography highlights Founding partner of the John Maxwell Team. Author of GPS My Success: The Address You Input In Life Determines Your Destination (2020). Two-time TEDx speaker, including TEDx Cincinnati. Les Brown Certified Platinum Speaker. 2022 Speakercon Motivational Speaker of the Year. Corporate clients include Ford, Honda, Toyota, General Electric, Johnson and Johnson, Procter and Gamble, Kroger, USPS, SHRM and the US Department of Defense. Biography Large organisations spend significant budgets on leadership and engagement programmes that fail to move the dial on day-to-day behaviour. People are inspired in the room, then the routine resumes. The problem is rarely talent or content. It is the absence of a shared, repeatable language for what good looks like and how individuals contribute to it. Karim Ellis works in that gap. As a founding partner of the John Maxwell Team, he trained inside the leadership network John C. Maxwell built, then developed his own framework, GPS My Success, around five principles for turning individual vision into a destination the rest of the organisation can recognise. The book of the same name, published in 2020, is the spine of his corporate keynote. His audiences are mainstream US corporate: Ford, Honda, Toyota, General Electric, Johnson and Johnson, Procter and Gamble, Kroger, USPS and the US Department of Defense, alongside SHRM and the National Urban League. The brief is consistent. Lift the room, give people a structured way to talk about ambition and accountability, and send them back to work with something they can use on Monday. The platform craft sits on top of formal training with Les Brown, where Ellis holds Platinum certification, and two TEDx appearances. Speakercon named him its 2022 Motivational Speaker of the Year. The work is built for events that need an energising US-style keynote backed by a defined leadership and personal-development model, not a strategy lecture. Key speaking topics Leadership development Vision and goal-setting Personal effectiveness and peak performance Motivation and audience engagement Communication and presence Sales and customer service mindset Ideal for Internal leadership development conferences and L and D programmes. Annual sales kick-offs and field-force events seeking an energising main-stage keynote. Diversity, employee engagement and culture events looking for a US motivational headliner with corporate fluency. Audience outcomes A named five-part framework, GPS My Success, that individuals can apply to their own goals after the session. A shared language for vision, ambition and accountability that managers can carry back into team conversations. A renewed sense of personal agency on performance, grounded in concrete principles rather than slogans. A high-energy closing or opening moment that lifts engagement scores for the event.

Why organisations work with Justin Roethlingshoefer He brings the performance science used to keep professional hockey players on the ice into the language of P&L, calendar pressure and executive fatigue, with frameworks tested over a fifteen-year career across NCAA and NHL environments. His method starts from individual biological data, including bloodwork, HRV and DNA inputs, so the room leaves with personalised next actions rather than a generic wellness playbook. He has built and runs OWN IT Coaching, which means the content is informed by what is currently working with paying executive clients, not theory drawn from a former career. His book The Power of Ownership gives audiences a structured reference point after the keynote, extending the conversation beyond the event. Biography highlights Founder of OWN IT Coaching, a health and performance company serving founders, executives and corporate teams. Fifteen years in elite sport across NCAA and professional hockey, with strength and performance responsibilities tied to the San Diego Gulls and the Anaheim Ducks organisation. Author of four books, including The Power of Ownership, listed as a USA Today bestseller. Master’s in Human Development with a Sport Performance concentration; postgraduate work in HRV, sleep and recovery science. Host of The OWN IT Show podcast and a regular contributor on SimpliFaster and Muscle & Strength. Featured in Fox News, Esquire, USA Today, LiveScience and Well+Good. Biography The cost of high-performance leadership tends to show up in the body before it shows up in the numbers. Sleep degrades, recovery collapses, decisions get slower and shorter, and the wellbeing programme on the company intranet does not touch any of it. That is the gap Justin Roethlingshoefer’s work addresses. He spent fifteen years inside elite hockey, first in the NCAA and then in the professional system, with strength and performance responsibilities tied to the San Diego Gulls in the AHL and the Anaheim Ducks organisation. His job was to keep human beings playing at their physical ceiling across a punishing season, using data on load, fatigue, sleep and recovery. He brought that operating model out of the locker room and into the office. OWN IT Coaching, the company he founded, applies the same approach to executives, founders and corporate teams. The starting point is individual biology, bloodwork, HRV, wearables and DNA testing, with structured coaching on the back of it. His four books, including the USA Today bestseller The Power of Ownership, set out the underlying argument: health is an ownership decision, and senior leaders who treat it that way protect the asset their organisations depend on most. His sports-science training sits behind everything he says, which is what separates him from the wider wellness category. The case he makes to a senior audience is concrete: the same monitoring that keeps a Stanley Cup contender on the ice can keep a CEO sharp through a year that was not built for human pacing. Key speaking topics Executive health and performance Burnout prevention in senior leadership Sleep, recovery and HRV in high-pressure roles Wearables, biometric data and personalised health Ownership as a personal operating principle Health risk in founder-led and high-growth organisations Team performance and resilience Ideal for CEOs, founders and executive committees carrying sustained operational load CHROs and heads of people designing senior leader wellbeing and retention Leadership offsites and partner retreats in professional services Sales and high-performance teams working under structured pressure Audience outcomes A clear separation between generic wellness advice and the variables that actually move executive performance A working understanding of how sleep, HRV, recovery and load data translate into leadership capacity Personal next actions framed as ownership decisions rather than corporate programme tweaks Language to discuss executive health as an organisational asset with boards and HR A reference framework drawn from The Power of Ownership to extend the conversation after the event