Motivation and Inspiration

Why organisations work with Dominique Gisin A first-hand account of nine knee surgeries followed by an Olympic gold, used not as a story arc but as material for how leaders sustain commitment when each new attempt carries diminishing odds. A rare combination of elite sporting pedigree with a scientific frame of reference: a Sochi 2014 gold medal alongside an ETH Zurich MSc in Physics, which lifts the conversation above motivational anecdote. Co-delivery with Dr Christian Marcolli, her long-time sports psychologist, gives organisations a paired performance-and-psychology view in a single keynote rather than a one-voice talk. Operational credibility outside sport: a board seat at the listed TITLIS cable-car company, the CEO role she held at Schweizer Sporthilfe, and a spell flying as a commercial First Officer. The talk is anchored in real decision environments, not sport alone. Bilingual delivery in German and English, with strong relevance to Swiss, German-speaking, and international corporate audiences. Biography highlights Olympic gold medallist, Alpine Skiing Downhill, Sochi 2014, in the first ever Olympic alpine tie for gold (with Tina Maze). Swiss Sportswoman of the Year, 2014. Member of the Swiss National Alpine Ski Team, 2007 to 2015, with multiple World Cup podiums in downhill and super-G. MSc in Physics, ETH Zurich, 2022. CEO and board of trustees member, Schweizer Sporthilfe (Swiss Sports Aid Foundation), 2018 to 2022. Qualified commercial pilot; flew as a First Officer with Swiss carrier Fly7. Biography The downhill at Sochi 2014 produced the first tie for gold in Olympic alpine history. Dominique Gisin shared the podium with Tina Maze on identical times to the hundredth, ending a thirty-year wait for a Swiss women’s downhill gold. The medal arrived after nine knee surgeries and a career that had been written off more than once. What gives the talk its weight is what happened after. Gisin retired from the World Cup circuit in 2015 and was admitted to ETH Zurich, completing an MSc in Physics in 2022. She qualified as a commercial pilot in 2019 and flew as a First Officer for the Swiss carrier Fly7. From 2018 to 2022 she served as CEO and a board of trustees member of Schweizer Sporthilfe, the foundation that funds Swiss athlete development. For senior audiences, the relevant content is not the medal itself. It is the discipline of repeated comeback under thin evidence, paired with a working understanding of how performance, physiology, and decision pressure interact. Her keynote “Making It Happen” is co-delivered with sports psychologist Dr Christian Marcolli, which moves the material beyond personal narrative into a structured account of how composure is built and rebuilt. The pairing of Olympic-level performance, scientific training, and operational responsibility in two further professions is unusual. It gives leadership audiences something specific to take away: a credible read on what it takes to keep deciding well when the body, the data, or the team are all giving reasons to stop. Key speaking topics Resilience after serious setback Composure and decision-making under pressure Elite performance psychology Career reinvention and second-act leadership Team trust and individual accountability Inspiration from elite sport for corporate audiences Ideal for Executive leadership offsites and board awaydays facing a turnaround or post-shock phase HR, talent and L&D leaders running senior development programmes on resilience and performance Sales and commercial conferences anchored on sustained motivation through difficult cycles Audience outcomes A concrete account of how elite athletes prepare for, absorb, and recover from setback, applied to leadership decisions Language for talking about composure as a built capability rather than a personality trait A working frame, drawn from sports psychology, for how individuals and teams stay committed when results are slow to arrive A second-perspective view through Dr Christian Marcolli when the keynote is booked as a duo

Why organisations work with Sílvia Vidal She offers a first-person account of high-stakes performance with no team, no rescue, and no communication, on expeditions that run up to two months at a time and include weeks living alone on the wall, which translates directly into senior conversations about judgement under pressure. She holds international recognition at the top of her sport: a Special Mention at the Piolets d’Or 2021 in Briancon for two decades of solo big wall climbing, and Spain’s Gold Medal of the Royal Order of Sporting Merit in 2022. She speaks credibly about fear and uncertainty as managed working conditions rather than abstractions, drawing on first ascents in Patagonia, the Karakorum, the Himalaya, the Andes, and Alaska, among others. She is unusual in choosing complete communication blackout on every expedition: no radio, no phone, no GPS, no weather forecasts. She carries the same principle into daily life, where she has never owned a mobile phone, so the discipline is lived rather than performed. She presents internationally in both English and Spanish, with more than 25 years on stage for corporate and festival audiences across Europe, the Americas, and beyond. Biography highlights Special Mention at the Piolets d’Or 2021, Briancon, for outstanding contribution to solo big wall climbing over two decades Spanish Piolet de Oro (1996), Spanish Mountain Federation, for the solo first ascent of Principado de Asturias Gold Medal of the Royal Order of Sporting Merit (2022), Spanish High Council of Sports Honorary Member of the Spanish Geographic Society (2023) Solo first ascents on remote walls across five continents, including Sincronia Magica (Cerro Chileno Grande, Patagonia, 33 days on the wall) and Un pas mes (Arrigetch, Alaska, 53-day expedition) Master’s degree in Physical Education, INEFC-Barcelona Biography The west face of Cerro Chileno Grande in Patagonian Chile is a 1,200-metre granite wall in one of the least visited corners of the Aysen region. In 2020 Sílvia Vidal spent 33 days alone on it, opening a new route called Sincronia Magica, with no radio, no phone, no GPS, and no weather forecasts. The Piolets d’Or jury cited that climb, and the two decades behind it, when they awarded her a Special Mention in Briancon in 2021. Vidal was born in Barcelona in 1970, came into climbing through adventure racing during a Master’s in Physical Education at INEFC-Barcelona, and within a couple of years was climbing at the hardest aid grades, A5. The 1996 solo first ascent of Principado de Asturias in northern Spain earned her the Spanish Piolet de Oro from the Spanish Mountain Federation. Since then she has put up first ascents on remote walls in Patagonia, the Karakorum, the Himalaya, the Andes, and Alaska, including Un pas mes in the Arrigetch range, a 53-day expedition in 2017. What separates her from most extreme-environment speakers is the choice of complete communication blackout. She hauls her own gear, lives on the wall for weeks, and has no contact with the outside world until she walks out. Spain’s High Council of Sports awarded her the Gold Medal of the Royal Order of Sporting Merit in 2022, and the Spanish Geographic Society made her an Honorary Member in 2023. Across more than 25 years she has presented to corporate and festival audiences in Europe, Canada, and Peru in English and Spanish. The argument she brings to a leadership audience is concrete. Composure under pressure is not a personality trait. It is built before the wall, tested every day on it, and rebuilt every time fear arrives without warning. The lessons that come back down with her are about preparation, self-honesty, and the difference between solitude and loneliness when there is genuinely no help available. Key speaking topics Decision-making under irreversible commitment Composure and self-leadership under sustained pressure Working with fear and uncertainty Preparation as the foundation of high-stakes performance Solitude, focus, and self-reliance Resilience in extreme environments Ideal for Executive and senior leadership off-sites focused on judgement and composure under pressure Risk, operations, and safety leadership audiences who want a practitioner-level account, not a metaphor Company-wide events looking for credible inspiration anchored in a verifiable record Leadership development programmes on resilience, self-management, and decision-making Audience outcomes A concrete benchmark for what sustained performance under pressure actually requires A practical relationship with fear and uncertainty as working conditions, not obstacles Specific language for talking about preparation and risk that leaders can carry into their own decisions A model of resilience built on preparation, daily routine, and self-honesty under sustained pressure A reset on what self-leadership looks like when no one is watching and no help is available A different reference point for attention and focus, from someone whose work depends on sustained concentration with no notifications, no inbox, and no way to call for help

Why organisations work with Nayla Al Khaja She is the first woman to direct a feature film in the UAE, which means her observations on inclusion in restrictive professional cultures come from lived practice, not commentary. She built and runs her own production company, Nayla Al Khaja Films, and founded The Scene Club, the UAE’s first independent film club, giving her a track record of standing up creative institutions where none existed. Her debut feature Three premiered at the Red Sea International Film Festival and released theatrically across the GCC and MENA, evidence of commercial credibility alongside cultural pioneering. Variety named her one of the 50 Most Powerful Personalities in Arab Cinema, a useful external marker for buyers who want a credentialled voice on the Gulf creative economy. She works in Arabic and English at native level, which makes her usable for regional events in the UAE and Saudi Arabia as well as international audiences. Biography highlights First female film director in the United Arab Emirates and CEO of Nayla Al Khaja Films since 2005. BA in film studies, Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University), Canada, on a UAE government scholarship. Founder of The Scene Club, the UAE’s first independent film club, established 2007. Director of Three (2024), her debut feature, which premiered at the Red Sea International Film Festival and released theatrically across the GCC and MENA. Director of BAAB, scored by two-time Academy Award winner A.R. Rahman, with cinematography by Rogier Stoffers ASC. Named to Variety’s 50 Most Powerful Personalities in Arab Cinema (2020); Visionary of the Year, Arabian Business Awards (2011); TEDx speaker on women in Arab cinema. Biography The UAE had no female film director before Nayla Al Khaja. She became the first, then built the production company, the film club and the audience that the country needed for a domestic film industry to be possible at all. That is the work she draws on when she speaks. Al Khaja studied mass communication at Dubai Women’s College, then took a UAE government scholarship to Ryerson University in Toronto for a degree in film studies. She returned and founded what is now Nayla Al Khaja Films in 2005, and in 2007 opened The Scene Club, the country’s first independent film society. Both still operate. Her debut feature Three premiered at the Red Sea International Film Festival in December 2023 and released across the GCC and wider MENA region in early 2024. Her second feature, BAAB, was scored by A.R. Rahman and shot by Rogier Stoffers ASC, two collaborators with serious international standing. Variety placed her in its 50 Most Powerful Personalities in Arab Cinema. For corporate audiences, her usefulness is direct. She is asked how a woman builds a career inside an industry that has no women in it, how a creative business gets capitalised in a market that does not yet exist, and how cultural representation actually shifts when someone takes the job rather than waits for the policy. Her answers come from doing it. Key speaking topics Women in male-dominated industries Creative entrepreneurship in the Gulf Cultural representation in film and media Building a career under restrictive cultural conditions The UAE and Saudi creative economy Storytelling and brand communication Resilience and the long arc of a creative career Ideal for Conferences on women in leadership and inclusion, particularly in the GCC and Levant Corporate diversity, talent and ERG events for organisations operating across the Middle East Creative industry summits, brand and marketing leadership audiences Regional government, tourism and cultural authority programmes on the Gulf creative economy Audience outcomes A first-hand account of how women break through in industries where there is no precedent for them. A clearer view of how the Gulf creative economy actually functions, from someone who built inside it. Specific stories about getting a feature film made in a market that did not previously support one. Practical observations on cultural representation that are usable for brand, marketing and communications teams. A keynote presence that audiences in the region recognise and respond to.

Why organisations work with Andre Agassi He has a documented, named comeback, world No. 141 in 1997 to world No. 1 in 1999, which gives leadership audiences a specific case study in rebuilding after public failure rather than a generic resilience message. He is one of nine men in history to complete a career Grand Slam, a credential that carries instant authority with sales, sports, and executive audiences without requiring any further framing. His second act is operational, not ceremonial. The Turner-Agassi Charter School Facilities Fund has developed more than 120 school buildings, which gives him genuine standing on scaling mission-led ventures, not just philanthropy as biography. Open, his memoir written with J.R. Moehringer, is a No. 1 New York Times bestseller treated seriously by literary critics, which signals the reflective honesty leadership audiences expect from a keynote on reinvention. He is one of very few speakers who can hold a corporate leadership room, a sales conference, and an education forum with equal credibility, because each credential is independently verifiable. Biography highlights Eight Grand Slam singles titles across the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open, and a career Grand Slam completed in 1999. Olympic gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Games, and member of three winning United States Davis Cup teams. 60 ATP singles titles, 101 weeks at world No. 1, and year-end No. 1 in 1999. Inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2011. Founder of the Andre Agassi Foundation for Education, which has raised over $180 million, and the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy in West Las Vegas. Co-founder with Bobby Turner of the Turner-Agassi Charter School Facilities Fund, a real estate vehicle that has financed more than 120 charter school facilities. Author of Open: An Autobiography, a No. 1 New York Times bestseller. Biography In 1997, the player who had won Wimbledon five years earlier was ranked No. 141 in the world. Two years later he won the French Open, completed the career Grand Slam, and finished the season as world No. 1. That arc is the reason serious leadership audiences listen to Andre Agassi. The eight Grand Slam titles, the 1996 Olympic gold, the 101 weeks at No. 1, and the 2011 induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame are the headline credentials. What makes them useful in a boardroom is the honesty about what the comeback cost. Open, written with Pulitzer Prize winner J.R. Moehringer and a No. 1 New York Times bestseller, is the public record of that reckoning, treated by reviewers as a serious memoir rather than a sports book. His operating work has held up to the same scrutiny. The Andre Agassi Foundation for Education, founded in 1994, has raised over $180 million and anchors the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy in West Las Vegas. With investor Bobby Turner, he built the Turner-Agassi Charter School Facilities Fund, a real estate platform that has developed more than 120 charter school buildings serving tens of thousands of students. He is also a board member and investor in Square Panda, an early-literacy education technology company. For a senior audience, the value is the combination. Elite performance credentialed at the highest level, a comeback story that is specific rather than mythologised, and a post-career record built through institutional vehicles that other operators take seriously. A leader preparing for a period of pressure, transition, or public reinvention gets a case study, not a speech. Key speaking topics Performance under sustained public pressure Reinvention after a public setback Leadership through career transition Legacy and second-act ventures Scaling mission-led organisations Education reform and philanthropy at institutional scale Ideal for Senior leadership offsites and CEO forums working through a public reinvention or strategic reset Sales kickoffs and top-performer conferences where the brief is sustained performance under scrutiny Board and philanthropy events focused on legacy, second-act ventures, and mission-driven capital Education sector gatherings on charter school scaling, early literacy, and philanthropic models Audience outcomes A specific, named case study of rebuilding elite performance after public failure, drawn from the 1997 to 1999 comeback. A clear view of what separates a mythologised comeback story from a real operational reset, and what leaders can borrow from each. A working model for how a high-profile career transitions into institutional operating work, using the Agassi Foundation and Turner-Agassi fund as reference points. Renewed clarity on how personal authenticity, honestly examined in Open, functions as a leadership asset rather than a liability.

Why organisations work with Marc Convey A first-hand account of post-traumatic growth that gives audiences permission to discuss adversity, fear, and visible difference without sliding into clinical or HR-policy register. Years as a campaigner for Changing Faces, the UK charity for people with visible difference, which informs how he handles inclusion and self-image conversations inside organisations. A working life that crossed live poker broadcasting, video production, and non-profit leadership, which gives him commercial fluency when speaking to corporate audiences. A track record on charged platforms, including a suicide prevention evening at Brighton Dome for Baton of Hope, where he has delivered a keynote that holds an audience through difficult material. Biography highlights Two-year voluntary campaigner with Changing Faces, the UK charity for people with visible difference. Keynote speaker at the Baton of Hope suicide prevention event at Brighton Dome. Client testimonial from Cristina Proietti, Head of Commercial Operations at WHSmith Travel. Former globally-travelled poker commentator across the live tournament circuit. Founder of his own video production business and operator of a non-profit focused on “working with purpose.” Writes the Substack “Making a Marc” and appears regularly on podcasts including “Man Up / Man Down.” Biography A fire at 14 left Marc Convey with burns that he carries today. The decision that followed shaped the rest of his life: refuse to be defined by the injury, and build the inner resources to face what came next. That choice now sits at the centre of his speaking work. Before turning to the stage, he spent years commentating on live poker tournaments around the world. He then ran a video production company and built a non-profit focused on what he calls “working with purpose.” Each of those careers fed the next, and gave him the commercial language to address corporate audiences without losing the personal core. His signature keynote, The Gift of Adversity, draws on that long road back. Audiences hear a specific story, not a generic message, and leave with a more grounded vocabulary for fear, recovery, and the meaning of difference. The work has reached charged platforms, including a Baton of Hope suicide prevention evening at Brighton Dome, and corporate floors at WHSmith Travel. Beyond the stage he writes the “Making a Marc” Substack and serves a two-year campaigner role with Changing Faces, the UK charity for people living with visible difference. That campaigning work is what separates his content from the wider motivational category: he is in active service to a population whose lived experience he shares. Key speaking topics Resilience and post-traumatic growth Adversity and recovery from setback Mental health and wellbeing at work Visible difference and self-image Fear, change, and personal transformation Authentic leadership and inner resources Team culture grounded in values Ideal for CHROs and HR leaders programming mental health, wellbeing, or culture events Internal communications and culture leads commissioning all-hands or away-day keynotes Charities, healthcare bodies, and public service audiences working on suicide prevention or visible difference Audience outcomes A direct first-hand account of trauma and recovery that gives audiences permission to talk honestly about adversity at work A more concrete vocabulary for fear, setback, and visible difference than wellbeing programmes typically offer Language and reference points that internal communicators can carry into culture and engagement conversations after the talk A confident sense that post-traumatic growth is achievable, anchored in a specific lived example rather than abstract claim

Why organisations work with Tom Turcich His credibility is not analogical: it is verifiable. The world walk is ranked in a finite historical list of ten people, documented in a published memoir, and covered by CNN, BBC, Good Morning America, The Guardian, and The Today Show. Seven continuous years of forward motion without a salary, fixed team, or guaranteed outcome offers a model of value-driven decision-making that is directly applicable to organisations sustaining long-term transformation. His Circle of Possibility framework reframes constraints as inputs to problem-solving rather than barriers to progress, making his content directly usable by teams operating under resource pressure or strategic uncertainty. The journey was values-led from day one: Turcich navigated every decision – including years of solitude, a global pandemic, and active conflict zones – by a clear internal compass. That makes his framework credible for organisations focused on purpose-driven culture rather than performance management alone. Biography highlights Tenth person in recorded history to complete a circumnavigation of the globe on foot Seven-year, 28,000-mile journey across six continents and 38 countries, beginning April 2015 His rescue dog Savannah became the first dog ever to walk around the world Author of The World Walk (Skyhorse Publishing, 2024), a full-length memoir of the expedition Featured by CNN, BBC, Good Morning America, The Guardian, and The Today Show Author of the Savannah’s World of Adventure children’s book series Biography Most people’s resilience is tested in months. Tom Turcich spent seven years walking 28,000 miles across six continents and 38 countries; a journey that placed him in the historically small group of ten people ever recorded to have circled the globe on foot. That context is not incidental to his work with organisations. It is the evidence. The walk began the day before his 26th birthday, prompted by the death of a close friend that forced a reckoning with how a life should be spent. It ended in May 2022. Along the way, Turcich navigated deserts, conflict zones, a global pandemic, and sustained solitude; guided not by a fixed itinerary but by a set of core values he had articulated before he left. His memoir, The World Walk (Skyhorse Publishing, 2024), documents both the physical journey and the decision-making architecture that sustained it. For organisations, the relevance lies not in the spectacle of the achievement but in its mechanics. His talks, built around the Circle of Possibility framework, address the specific tension between ambitious long-term goals and the daily reality of setback, discomfort, and unclear progress. The same principles that kept him moving across the Andes and through Central Asia translate directly to teams operating under sustained strategic pressure. His story has been covered by CNN, BBC, Good Morning America, The Guardian, and The Today Show. The World Walk received endorsements from two New York Times bestselling authors. A second non-fiction book, applying the lessons of the walk to organisational and professional life, is in progress. Key speaking topics Long-term resilience and sustained commitment Values-driven decision-making Goal-setting under uncertainty Reframing constraints as catalysts Purpose and personal accountability Endurance mindset in professional contexts Ideal for Leadership and executive teams navigating multi-year change programmes Sales and commercial conferences requiring a credible performance and resilience narrative Employee engagement and offsite events where purpose and motivation are central themes HR and people leaders building resilience culture within the workforce Audience outcomes A practical framework (Circle of Possibility) for sustaining commitment when progress is slow or unclear A more granular understanding of what resilience looks like in practice over an extended timeframe: not as a trait but as a set of daily decisions Sharper thinking about how personal values can function as a decision-making tool under pressure Perspective on the relationship between constraints and creative problem-solving A reframe of long-term ambition: from an abstract goal to a sequence of deliberate, manageable steps

Why organisations work with David Patton His research with Professor David Best, published in the Journal of Drug Issues, makes a clean argument that pull factors and turning points, not pain or crisis, drive sustained behavioural change. That reframes how leaders think about wellbeing, resilience and post-crisis recovery. He runs New Central Media, the platform behind Recovery Capital: Pathways Through Prison, a book with a foreword by Dame Carol Black that was accepted as national evidence for a Parliamentary review. That is a working track record of turning research into policy traction. His material is built with people who have rebuilt their lives after addiction and incarceration, which gives audiences a level of human authenticity that conventional behaviour-change keynotes cannot match. He has presented at the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs and works internationally with the World Federation of Therapeutic Communities, so he speaks with the authority of someone whose research is taken seriously by policymakers, not only by academics. His framework on connection, collaboration, community and creativity as antidotes to isolation and burnout is directly transferable to corporate culture, employee wellbeing and engagement work. Biography highlights Associate Professor in Criminology at the University of Derby, Centre for Applied Social Sciences, Policy, Practice and Research PhD, University of Sheffield; Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy Founder and Director of New Central Media; lead of Recovery Atlas, a global participatory photovoice archive Co-author with Professor David Best of peer-reviewed work on pull factors and turning points in addiction recovery, published in the Journal of Drug Issues Editor and contributor to Recovery Capital: Pathways Through Prison, Women’s Recovery Capital Pathways and Lived Experience Recovery Organisations Has presented at the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs, including a 2023 manifesto on stigma in addiction recovery Former Senior Researcher at the University of Cambridge; principal investigator on Home Office, ESRC, NIHR and Big Lottery Fund projects Biography The dominant assumption in behaviour-change psychology is that people change when the pain gets bad enough. Research published in the Journal of Drug Issues by David Patton and David Best argues the opposite. Across the life narratives of people in long-term addiction recovery, the consistent driver is not crisis but a pull toward something better: meaning, hope, community, a turning point. That finding moves the conversation about recovery, resilience and wellbeing onto a different footing. Patton is Associate Professor in Criminology at the University of Derby, based in the Centre for Applied Social Sciences, Policy, Practice and Research. His work is built directly with people who have rebuilt their lives after addiction and incarceration, using participatory methods including photovoice and digital storytelling. The international expression of that approach is Recovery Atlas, a global archive linked to recovery communities worldwide. He also runs New Central Media, the publishing platform behind Recovery Capital: Pathways Through Prison, Women’s Recovery Capital Pathways and Lived Experience Recovery Organisations. The prison volume, with a foreword by Dame Carol Black, was accepted as national evidence for a Parliamentary review of prison-based recovery. He has presented at the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs and works with the World Federation of Therapeutic Communities on projects across Latin America and Africa. For organisations rethinking employee wellbeing, post-crisis resilience or behavioural change at scale, Patton brings something specific: an evidence base on what actually sustains change in the hardest cases, drawn from people whose lives depended on getting it right. The transfer into corporate culture, talent and engagement strategy is direct. Key speaking topics Pull factors and turning points in behavioural change Addiction recovery and the science of human flourishing Connection, community and creativity as antidotes to isolation Lived experience and participatory research Stigma, marginalisation and inclusion Drug policy reform and the role of recovery communities Wellbeing and resilience after crisis Ideal for CHROs and wellbeing leads designing mental health, recovery and resilience strategy Leadership teams in healthcare, criminal justice, social care and the third sector Conferences on the future of work, wellbeing, inclusion and human flourishing Policy and public sector audiences working on drug policy, prisons and rehabilitation Audience outcomes A research-grounded reframing of what sustains behavioural change, drawn from peer-reviewed work Specific language for talking about pull factors, turning points and recovery capital inside an organisation Direct insight into how lived experience can be built into research, policy and programme design A clearer view of how connection, community and meaning operate as antidotes to burnout and disengagement Reference material from Recovery Capital: Pathways Through Prison and related publications for follow-up

Why organisations work with Paris Norriss The Grit Code gives organisations a repeatable method for developing resilience: not a motivational moment, but a structured framework built from both extreme first-hand experience and interviews with more than 50 documented high performers. It can be applied, not just felt. His source material is verified broadcast content. The adventures Paris describes are not anecdotes: they are documented on productions distributed via Amazon Prime and Apple TV. When the Pacific storm or the 40-foot wave hits, no one questions whether the stakes were real. He draws a distinction most resilience speakers do not: between teams that perform well when conditions are manageable and teams that hold when those conditions break down. The gap between the two is where most organisational performance is actually lost. His career spans investment banking, media production, and extreme endurance sport, which means he can translate the mechanics of sustained performance directly into commercial and operational terms, without forcing the adventure metaphor. His speaking record runs from the US Military in Hawaii to DHL in Athens to COP28 in Dubai. The breadth of context is itself evidence that The Grit Code’s framework transfers across sector, culture, and seniority level. Biography highlights Creator of The Grit Code, a structured resilience framework built from extreme endurance experience and research with more than 50 high performers Rowed 4,800km across the Pacific Ocean (California to Hawaii) with the Brothers N Oars team over 39 days (2023), raising funds for the Blue Marine Foundation and the Invictus Games Completed the World Marathon Challenge: 7 marathons on 7 continents in 5 days and 21 hours (2025), having previously run a single marathon Host and Executive Producer of “Guy in Dubai” and “Guy in the Sky,” distributed on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, OSN, and Emirates Airlines across more than 120 countries Founder of Blazing Sand Studios (formerly GID Media Production), an Abu Dhabi-based production company established in 2017 Regular contributor to Dubai Eye radio; business columnist for The National MA (Hons), Business Studies (Finance), University of Edinburgh; earlier career in investment banking and private equity Biography Most organisations discover they have a resilience problem not during planning but when things go wrong. A skilled, well-resourced team will perform competently under normal conditions. Whether that same team can sustain judgement, cohesion, and output when conditions break down is a different question: and one that most leadership development programmes never directly test. Paris Norriss has spent a decade answering it under conditions where the cost of failure was not theoretical. In 2023 he rowed 4,800 kilometres across the Pacific Ocean with the Brothers N Oars team over 39 days: navigating two storms, 40-foot waves, and a near-collision with a cargo ship. In 2025, having previously run a single marathon, he completed the World Marathon Challenge across seven continents in 5 days and 21 hours. The experiences are not the argument. The argument is what they required: a decision-making framework that holds when resources, morale, and conditions are all working against you. The Grit Code is that framework. Structured from both Paris’s own extreme experiences and interviews with more than 50 high performers, it gives organisations a repeatable method for developing the mental durability that sustains performance under real pressure. Paris has applied it across audiences spanning the US Military, DHL, Nokia, and COP28; contexts with little in common except the fundamental challenge of keeping a team functional when nothing is going to plan. His parallel career as founder of Blazing Sand Studios and executive producer of “Guy in Dubai” and “Guy in the Sky”, distributed on Amazon Prime and Apple TV across more than 120 countries, separates him from other speakers working in the same space. He has not merely survived extreme experiences; he has spent a career converting them into narrative form for mass audiences. That capacity to distil high-stakes experience into something transferable and usable is precisely what The Grit Code delivers in an organisational setting. Key speaking topics Mental resilience and performance under pressure Team cohesion in high-stakes environments Leadership in adversity Decision-making under stress The Grit Code framework for building organisational resilience Visual storytelling and narrative in business Adventure filmmaking and destination media Ideal for Leadership and senior management teams preparing for high-pressure transformation, restructuring, or sustained competitive pressure Sales, operations, and commercial teams where consistent output under difficult conditions is a performance priority HR and L&D leaders looking to embed resilience as a systemic organisational capability rather than a wellbeing initiative Conference organisers serving Gulf, Middle East, and international markets seeking a speaker with verified regional credibility and global media distribution Audience outcomes A working definition of grit as a learnable, structured capability – not a fixed personality trait Practical tools for identifying the internal motivational triggers that determine how individuals perform under sustained adversity A clear framework for distinguishing teams that hold under pressure from teams that only perform when conditions are favourable Insight into the mechanics of leadership and decision-making during the specific period when resources, morale, and conditions are all depleted simultaneously Understanding of how internal purpose and motivational alignment sustain team output beyond the point where conventional incentives and management techniques lose traction

Why organisations work with Jose Manuel Calderon Fourteen NBA seasons across seven franchises, each requiring a different role, system, and relationship with coaching staff. Few speakers can describe reinvention at that frequency from inside the experience. Captained the Spain national team through its most decorated era, winning the 2006 FIBA World Cup, the 2011 EuroBasket, and three Olympic medals across 2008, 2012, and 2016. Holds the NBA single-season free throw record at 98.05 percent. The story behind that statistic is a precise account of preparation, repetition, and composure that translates directly to high-stakes performance. Now operates inside the business of sport as Special Advisor to the Cleveland Cavaliers, strategic advisor to technology firm Sngular, and co-founder of sport technology venture OWQLO. The post-playing view is operational, not nostalgic. Biography highlights 14 NBA seasons with Toronto Raptors, Detroit Pistons, Dallas Mavericks, New York Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers, Atlanta Hawks, and Cleveland Cavaliers. NBA single-season free throw record holder at 98.05 percent (2008-09, Toronto Raptors). 2006 FIBA World Cup champion and 2011 EuroBasket champion with Spain. Three Olympic medals with Spain: silver in 2008, silver in 2012, bronze in 2016. Special Assistant to the Executive Director at the National Basketball Players Association from 2019. Special Advisor to the Cleveland Cavaliers, strategic advisor to Sngular, co-founder of OWQLO, UNICEF Ambassador. Biography Fourteen seasons in the NBA is not a tenure. It is seven different working environments, seven coaching philosophies, and a constant negotiation of role. Across Toronto, Detroit, Dallas, New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Cleveland, the work was the same every season: arrive, read the room, and become useful to a group of people who did not pick you. That career line is the substance behind Jose Manuel Calderon’s speaking. He captained the Spain national team through the most decorated period in its history, winning the 2006 FIBA World Cup, the 2011 EuroBasket, and three Olympic medals across 2008, 2012, and 2016. The Spanish “golden generation” is studied because it sustained excellence across more than a decade, with changing coaches, ageing key players, and rising rivals. Calderon was a central figure in how that group held together. The detail that travels well into corporate rooms is his free throw record. In 2008-09 he made 151 of 154 attempts, a 98.05 percent season that still stands as the NBA’s highest. The talk that emerges from it is about repeatable performance, not natural talent, and it lands cleanly with audiences who are measured on consistency rather than peaks. After retiring, Calderon moved directly into the business of sport. He served as Special Assistant to the Executive Director of the NBA Players Association from 2019, advises the Cleveland Cavaliers, sits on the advisory board of Spanish technology firm Sngular, and co-founded sport technology venture OWQLO. He is also a UNICEF Ambassador. The result is a speaker who can speak to senior teams in the language they use, drawing on a playing career that is genuinely rare at the level it reached. Key speaking topics Leadership under sustained pressure Team performance across changing line-ups High-stakes decision-making Captaincy and standards Inclusion and identity in elite sport Reinvention across cultures and systems The business of professional sport Ideal for Senior leadership teams under prolonged performance pressure CHROs and people leaders building cohesion across changing structures Sales and commercial leaders who manage on consistency rather than peaks Board and executive offsites looking for a credible outside voice on team dynamics Audience outcomes A practical account of how elite teams hold standards through line-up change, coaching turnover, and external scrutiny. A clear picture of what daily preparation looks like at the level that produces records, not anecdotes about motivation. A working language for captaincy, the responsibility of senior players inside a team, and how that maps to senior leaders inside an organisation. A perspective on inclusion built from a long career across multiple national, cultural, and locker-room contexts.

Why organisations work with Pau Gasol Two NBA championships, three Olympic medals and a FIBA World Cup title give him a working definition of high performance grounded in repeated wins across cultures, coaches and rosters, not a single peak. He speaks credibly about the operating reality of elite teams: ego management next to a generational star (Kobe Bryant), role clarity, and the unglamorous habits that hold a group together across an 82-game season. A Basketball Hall of Fame induction in 2023 and a retired Lakers jersey place him among the small group of athletes whose authority on team and leadership is taken seriously inside a boardroom, not only on a stage. His work outside sport (Gasol Foundation on childhood obesity, IOC Athletes’ Commission, Gasol16 Ventures) shows a leader who has built institutions, not only played in them. The J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award is the NBA’s formal recognition of that. He presents fluently in English and Spanish, with direct experience of US, European and global organisations, which suits international leadership audiences without translation overhead. Biography highlights Two NBA Championships with the Los Angeles Lakers (2009, 2010); six-time NBA All-Star; four-time All-NBA selection. 2002 NBA Rookie of the Year, the first non-American player to win the award. Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Class of 2023; jersey No. 16 retired by the Los Angeles Lakers. FIBA World Cup champion and MVP 2006; three EuroBasket golds with Spain (2009, 2011, 2015); two-time EuroBasket MVP. Three Olympic medals with Spain: silver in 2008 and 2012, bronze in 2016. President and co-founder of the Gasol Foundation; UNICEF Global Champion for Nutrition and Zero Childhood Obesity; member of the IOC Athletes’ Commission; 2012 NBA J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award. Biography Two NBA Championships, three Olympic medals and a FIBA World Cup title are not won by the same individual playing in different teams. They are won by leaders who help different groups behave the same way under pressure. Pau Gasol spent two decades inside the highest-stakes team environments in professional sport, with Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles, alongside his brother Marc on the Spanish national team, and across rosters in Memphis, Chicago, San Antonio and Milwaukee. The interest for senior leaders is not the trophy count. It is what it took to sit beside a generational star like Bryant and still deliver, year after year, in the locker room as much as on the court. Role clarity, ego management, honest conversations between named individuals, and a standard that did not move with the score. Gasol’s account of that period is one of the more credible insider readings of elite team performance available from any speaker in the market. His record off the court is unusually substantive for an athlete. He co-founded the Gasol Foundation in 2013 with Marc Gasol, working on childhood obesity and child wellbeing in Spain and the United States. He serves as UNICEF’s Global Champion for Nutrition and Zero Childhood Obesity, sits on the International Olympic Committee Athletes’ Commission, and runs Gasol16 Ventures, an investment platform in sport, health and wellness. The NBA recognised the community work with the 2012 J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award. Inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2023, with his number retired by the Los Angeles Lakers the same year, Gasol now speaks to leadership audiences in English and Spanish on what it actually takes to build a team that wins more than once. Key speaking topics Leadership and team performance under sustained pressure Building trust and role clarity inside elite teams Resilience and self-leadership through injury, transition and setback Sport as a model for organisational culture and standards Purpose-driven leadership and life after a professional career Child health and the leadership case for long-term social investment Ideal for Senior leadership offsites and CEO conferences focused on team performance and culture Sales kick-offs and annual conferences seeking a credible voice on resilience and standards Sports, health and consumer-brand audiences engaging with athlete leadership International audiences requiring delivery in English or Spanish Audience outcomes A working picture of what elite team performance looks like behind the result, told by someone inside it A direct view of how leaders manage ego, role and trust around a dominant individual Specific reference points for resilience and decision-making through injury, transition and public scrutiny A leadership case for long-term investment in people and purpose beyond the immediate quarter

Why organisations work with Tom Bowen An eight-year international career in one of the most physically and selectively demanding squad environments in elite sport, drawn on for what it teaches about standards inside a small team. A first-hand account of being named Olympic reserve for Tokyo 2020 and not getting on the field, used to talk about preparation, selection, and disappointment in terms a senior team will recognise. Direct experience competing for England at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and the 2022 Rugby World Cup Sevens in Cape Town, alongside more than fifty World Rugby Sevens Series tournaments. A speaker pitched at the practical mechanics of teamwork and pressure, not a celebrity sports billing. Biography highlights Former England Sevens international made debut in October 2014 on the Gold Coast, Australia. Reserve in the Great Britain Rugby Sevens squad for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Selected for England at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and the 2022 Rugby World Cup Sevens in Cape Town. Joined Plymouth Albion in 2012 from Leicester Tigers; top try-scorer for Plymouth Albion in 2013-14 and twice the club’s young player of the season. More than 50 tournaments for England on the World Rugby Sevens Series; signed for Worthing RFC in 2022. Biography A reserve player at the Olympics trains the same hours as the squad, makes the same sacrifices, and watches the tournament from the side of the pitch. Bowen sat in that seat at Tokyo 2020. The talk that comes out of it is less about the moment and more about the years before it: the eight-season England Sevens cycle that put him there. His club path runs through Leicester Tigers and Plymouth Albion, where he switched from centre to wing, scored six tries in his first eighteen RFU Championship appearances, and was named the club’s young player of the season twice in succession. He became Plymouth’s top try-scorer in 2013-14 before the England Sevens debut in October 2014. The international record is the substance of the booking. Fifty-plus tournaments on the World Rugby Sevens Series, the GB Olympic squad in Tokyo, England, at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, and the Rugby World Cup Sevens in Cape Town the same year. Sevens is a short, high-density format where small mistakes are decisive; the lessons travel reasonably well into corporate teams that work in short cycles under scrutiny. What he brings to a room is a working account of how a small group sustains its standards over a long competitive arc, including the years that do not produce a medal. He signed for Worthing RFC in 2022 and continues to coach. Key speaking topics Performance under pressure Team standards in elite sport Resilience after setback Selection, disappointment and recovery Teamwork in short-cycle, high-stakes environments Motivation and confidence Ideal for Sales and commercial leadership conferences focused on team performance and pressure Internal team away-days where leaders want a credible outside voice on standards and culture Early-career and high-potential audiences inside large organisations Audience outcomes A usable reference point for what disciplined, daily standards look like in an elite team environment A grounded view of what it means to prepare fully for an outcome that does not arrive Language for talking about pressure that goes beyond motivation and into specific habits Renewed focus on the role of small-team behaviours in larger organisational performance

Why organisations work with Tara Renze Twenty years inside CareerBuilder and Stella & Dot give her a sales-floor credibility that few EQ speakers carry. She has run the number, trained the new hires, and built a multi-million-dollar book of business before stepping onto the stage. She works in the practical intersection of Shirzad Chamine’s Positive Intelligence and applied emotional intelligence, translating both into language that revenue teams and women’s networks will sit through, take notes on, and act on. Her core framework, “Be Who You Came To Be”, is a trademarked through-line across keynote, workshop and book, which gives client teams a shared vocabulary that survives past the event. Repeat work from operationally serious clients including T-Mobile, Pfizer, Aflac, Amazon, Shaw Industries and Women’s Foodservice Forum, not only inspiration-circuit buyers. Biography highlights Author, Be Who You Came To Be, published by Amplify Publishing Group (second edition). Host, Be Who You Came To Be podcast. Certified practitioner in Emotional Intelligence and Shirzad Chamine’s Positive Intelligence methodology. Former Sales Leader of the Year at CareerBuilder.com; led the company’s national new hire sales training programme. Founder of a multi-million-dollar nationwide social selling business with Stella & Dot. Degree from the University of Kansas; executive leadership studies at the Wharton School and the Kellogg Graduate School of Management. Biography A sales floor is one of the more honest places in a corporation. The number is the number, the pipeline is the pipeline, and the people carrying the quota tell you quickly whether the culture, the leadership and the personal motivation are real. That environment is where Tara Renze spent two decades before she ever called herself a speaker, first as Sales Leader of the Year at CareerBuilder.com, then as the founder of a multi-million-dollar national social selling business with Stella & Dot. She moved into the emotional intelligence and positive intelligence space with that operating background still attached. Her practitioner work draws on the EQ tradition and on Shirzad Chamine’s Positive Intelligence methodology, which she applies to the specific tensions she watched up close for twenty years: high performers who lose their edge, women leaders who hide their ambition, sales teams whose self-talk eats their pipeline. The frame she has built around this work, “Be Who You Came To Be”, anchors a book published by Amplify Publishing Group, a podcast of the same name, and the keynote and workshop programme she takes into clients including T-Mobile, Pfizer, Aflac, Amazon, Shaw Industries and Women’s Foodservice Forum. The through-line is consistent. Authenticity is treated as a performance variable, not a wellness slogan, and mental fitness is taught as a learnable discipline with practical tools that a sales manager or a CHRO can actually deploy on Monday morning. What clients tend to book her for is the combination buyers struggle to assemble otherwise: a speaker who can hold the room on confidence, self-leadership and EQ, who has also personally carried a quota, run a sales training programme and built a national business. Key speaking topics Emotional intelligence in commercial environments Positive intelligence and mental fitness Authentic leadership for women Sales leadership and seller mindset Self-sabotage and saboteur patterns at work Culture, engagement and team performance Ideal for Chief Revenue Officers and sales leadership teams running enterprise sales kick-offs. CHROs and L&D leaders designing manager development and women’s leadership programming. Direct-selling and field-force organisations where individual mindset determines revenue. Industry associations and women’s networks (Women’s Foodservice Forum profile) seeking a keynote that holds an executive room. Audience outcomes A working vocabulary for the internal patterns (self-doubt, saboteur voices, performance anxiety) that quietly degrade individual and team results. Specific Positive Intelligence techniques for interrupting those patterns in real working conditions. A practical reframe of authenticity as a performance discipline, not a personality trait or a wellness extra. A shared language across a team or sales force that survives past the event and can be reinforced by managers.