Motivation and Inspiration

About Pete Cann Since discovering Laughter Yoga and all of its mental health benefits during a mind opening experience at a well-being festival (an event he now runs himself!) company owner Pete immediately saw the wide ranging benefits of laughter. Since this moment of epiphany Pete has reshaped his chef recruitment company, started a successful new business, Canned Laughter, and has used laughter to transform his family’s life to ensure that happiness is at the core of everything he does. Pete brings his boundless energy and enthusiasm to every facet of his personal and professional life. His fast paced Laughter Yoga sessions took off during the Covid-19 pandemic when Pete was able to utilise video communication to offer remote well-being guidance and motivation to audiences just when it was needed. Since then his business has gone from strength to strength. Pete’s unique approach to Laughter Yoga means that he can tailor his sessions to help in the areas that most need attention; reducing stress and anxiety, connecting teams or just a great cardio workout. Pete’s passion for all things laughter will lift any crowd and his energy and infectious personality means he’s always a hit with audiences. His ethos is simple; get the crowd laughing because when you laugh, it’s impossible to feel anything but happy! Happy Clients – Pete The Laughter Yoga Facilitator Since starting Canned Laughter in 2019, Pete has smashed his way into the industry, immediately creating an outstanding name for himself as “The Energizer”; lifting spirits and giving giggles at events, team-building days and at in-person and virtual Laughter Yoga sessions. In such a short time, word of Pete’s laughter lunacy has spread around the world, from India to the USA and he’s racked up an impressive list of high-profile clients who have all hired him to lead laughter for their teams.

Why organisations work with Joss Stone A first-hand global perspective from a singer who performed in all 193 UN member states and partnered with local charities in each, a frame of reference very few keynote speakers can claim. A Grammy winner and double BRIT Award winner whose presence brings cultural weight and warmth to a corporate, charity, or values-led event. A founder’s account of running the Joss Stone Foundation, which supports more than 200 charities, told without corporate distance. A speaker who draws on Live 8, One Young World, and two decades inside the music industry to talk about purpose, resilience, and creative independence in plain language. Biography highlights Grammy Award winner for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals (2007), with John Legend and Van Hunt. Two BRIT Awards (2005): British Female Solo Artist and British Urban Act; Guinness World Records as youngest BRIT solo winner at age 17. Debut album The Soul Sessions shortlisted for the 2004 Mercury Prize; approximately 14 million records sold worldwide. Performed at Live 8 (2005) and the One Young World Summit (2012). Completed The Total World Tour (2014 to 2019), performing in over 200 countries including all 193 UN member states, collaborating with local artists and charities. Founder of the Joss Stone Foundation, supporting more than 200 charities globally. Biography Most artists at the peak of a recording career do not put it down to spend five years performing in every country on earth. Joss Stone did. The Total World Tour ran from 2014 to 2019, reached all 193 UN member states, and paired every show with a charity visit and a local-artist collaboration. The Joss Stone Foundation grew directly out of it. Stone arrived at this work with credentials already in place. Her debut record was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize when she was sixteen. By seventeen she held two BRIT Awards and a Guinness World Records entry as the youngest solo winner of the prize. A Grammy followed in 2007 for her collaboration with John Legend and Van Hunt. Roughly 14 million records sold worldwide put her among the best-selling British soul artists of her generation. What she now brings to a stage is the rarer asset. She has sat with charity workers, musicians, and communities in places most senior leaders only see in briefing notes. She has built and run an international foundation. She has done it while staying recognisably herself, with the directness that audiences at One Young World, Live 8, and corporate summits have responded to. For organisations talking about purpose, global responsibility, or the human side of a values agenda, Stone offers proof that the work is doable and worth doing. The argument lands because she has done it. Key speaking topics Purpose and humanitarian leadership Global perspective through music and travel Founding and running a charitable foundation Creative independence and career longevity Cultural collaboration across 193 countries Resilience inside the music industry Ideal for Charity galas, foundation events, and CSR or ESG conferences Corporate summits on purpose, values, and employee engagement Awards dinners and after-dinner keynote slots Women’s leadership, young leaders, and One Young World style platforms Audience outcomes A vivid first-hand account of building a global humanitarian project from the ground up A reset of what purpose looks like when it is lived rather than messaged Specific stories from 193 countries that translate abstract values into human terms A reminder, from someone who has done it, that creative independence and commercial success can coexist

Why organisations work with Jamie Clarke He has an unusually specific evidence base for leadership under pressure: two Mount Everest summits, the Seven Summits, a 1,126 km camel crossing of the Empty Quarter, and two failed Everest attempts that shape how he talks about recovery. He is a named performance coach to the 2018 Stanley Cup winning Washington Capitals and Hockey Canada’s 2018 PyeongChang team, so his material translates into elite team environments, not just general audiences. His academic base at the University of Calgary’s Haskayne School of Business Centre for Advanced Leadership gives the work a teaching structure, not only a story arc. He pairs expedition narrative with operator experience, having built and run LiveOutThere.com through growth, a Profit Hot 50 ranking in 2013 and eventual closure, so the failure material is first-hand. His delivery is built for senior audiences that have heard every motivational speaker before; the work is about decisions under uncertainty, not summit photography. Biography highlights Summited Mount Everest on 23 May 1997 and again on 17 May 2010, after two earlier unsuccessful attempts. Completed the Seven Summits between 1993 and 2008. Crossed the Empty Quarter of Arabia by camel in 1999, a 1,126 km, 40-day expedition with brother Leigh Clarke and Bruce Kirkby. Associate adjunct professor and fellow at the University of Calgary’s Haskayne School of Business, Centre for Advanced Leadership. Performance coach for the 2018 Stanley Cup winning Washington Capitals and Hockey Canada in PyeongChang 2018. Author of Everest to Arabia (2001) and co-author of The Power of Passion with Alan Hobson, later republished as Above All Else: The Everest Dream. Founder of LiveOutThere.com, ranked No. 39 on Profit Magazine’s 2013 Hot 50. Biography The second Everest attempt came apart at 8,300 metres in 1994. The team Clarke was part of had the summit in reach and turned back. He went home, rebuilt the expedition, and made the top in 1997, then returned and did it again in 2010. Two failed attempts sit on the same CV as two successful ones, and that is the part of the story he now teaches from. The work is about what teams do in the hours after the plan stops working. Clarke has built a leadership practice on specific expedition evidence rather than metaphor: the 1997 and 2010 Everest summits, the 1,126 km Empty Quarter crossing by camel in 1999, the Seven Summits completed across fifteen years, and the 2019 Mongolian motorbike traverse with his son Khobe. Each expedition produced a different failure mode, which is the material he uses with senior teams. His academic base is the University of Calgary’s Haskayne School of Business, where he is an associate adjunct professor and fellow in the Centre for Advanced Leadership. His coaching work has been with elite performance environments under real stakes, including the Washington Capitals through their 2018 Stanley Cup run and Hockey Canada at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics. Barry Trotz’s on-record comment after the Capitals won reads as a working review, not a blurb. Clarke also operated as a founder. LiveOutThere.com grew into a Profit Hot 50 retailer in 2013 and closed in 2017. He has run the inside of a business that did well and then did not, which is why the failure and recovery material in his talks sounds like first-hand accounting rather than adventure content. Key speaking topics Leadership under uncertainty Team performance in high-stakes environments Recovery after setback and failure Resilience and decision-making under stress Expedition leadership as organisational case study Culture and morale in long-cycle projects Coaching elite teams through pressure Ideal for CEOs and executive teams going into contested strategic bets Leadership development and executive education cohorts Sales and performance leaders preparing teams for long, high-pressure cycles Boards and senior groups that have already heard the standard motivational set Audience outcomes A sharper sense of how high-performing teams behave in the hours after a plan breaks. Specific expedition decisions, named and dated, that map onto organisational choices under pressure. A working language for separating recoverable setbacks from terminal ones. A clearer view of the leader’s job when morale, information and authority are all moving at once. Practical reference points drawn from elite hockey and Olympic environments, not generic motivation.

Why organisations work with David Brabham He has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans outright, a 24-hour team sport where one weak link across 60 people ends the race. That is a different reference point to draw on than a pure individual-sport narrative. He is the only driver in the history of the American Le Mans Series to win races and take pole positions in all four competitive classes, a credential that signals adaptability across very different cars, teams, and race formats. He carries the Brabham name through three operating contexts: driver for the family F1 team, overall Le Mans winner for Peugeot, and founder of Brabham Automotive. Audiences get sport, corporate, and entrepreneurial perspectives from one speaker. He stayed in the car at Simtek in 1994 after the death of his team mate Roland Ratzenberger at Imola. When he speaks about composure under pressure, the source material is direct. He is comfortable in after-dinner and hosted formats as well as keynotes, which gives event teams flexibility on how to place him in a programme. Biography highlights Overall winner, 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans, with Peugeot (908 HDi FAP), co-driving with Alexander Wurz and Marc Gene. Le Mans GT1 class winner in 2007 and 2008 with Aston Martin Racing (DBR9). American Le Mans Series LMP champion, 2009 and 2010, with Patron Highcroft Racing and Acura. Formula One driver with Brabham (1990) and Simtek (1994); team mate to Roland Ratzenberger. Japanese GT Championship winner, 1996. Bathurst 1000 winner, 1997. Founder of Brabham Automotive and the BT62 track car, launched in London in 2018. Member of the British Racing Drivers’ Club. Patron of the UK cancer charity Hope for Tomorrow. Biography Le Mans is a 24-hour race with roughly 60 people behind every car and a failure rate that runs close to half the grid. Winning it outright once is a career. David Brabham did it in 2009, with Peugeot, having already taken the GT1 class twice in the two previous years with Aston Martin. The pattern underneath those results is the story he brings to corporate audiences. He is the only driver in the history of the American Le Mans Series to have won races and taken poles in all four classes, from prototype to production GT. Back-to-back ALMS titles in 2009 and 2010 with Patron Highcroft and Acura came in a series where small execution advantages decide seasons. Consistency at that level is a team capability, not a personal one, and he talks about it that way. The wider career sharpens the material. He drove in Formula One for his family team in 1990 and for Simtek in 1994, where he lost team mate Roland Ratzenberger at Imola and continued to race the rest of the season. Later he built Brabham Automotive around the BT62 and launched it publicly in London in 2018, carrying the family brand into its own manufacturing business. For senior audiences the value is practical. He can describe, from the cockpit and the pit wall, how elite teams handle risk, prepare for conditions they cannot control, and recover when something goes wrong mid-race. The references are specific, named, and drawn from the highest level of professional motorsport. Key speaking topics High-performance teamwork Decision-making under pressure Leadership in competitive environments Resilience and focus after setbacks Brand building and heritage Preparation and execution at elite level Ideal for Senior leadership teams looking at how elite performance environments coordinate under pressure Sales and commercial leadership meetings focused on consistency of execution Automotive, engineering, and manufacturing organisations with technical workforces Annual conferences and after-dinner programmes where event teams want a credible non-business voice in the room Audience outcomes A clear picture of how a 60-person team wins a 24-hour race, and which of those mechanics transfer to a corporate setting Specific examples of how elite drivers prepare for conditions they cannot control on the day A direct account of composure and continuity after a team loss, from someone who lived it in 1994 A different vocabulary for talking about risk, handover, and recovery inside a business

Meet Juan Pablo Montoya Juan Pablo Montoya is a Colombian Formula 1 driver and the only motor racing professional to win a CART Serie title, the Indianapolis 500, and the Daytona 24 hours, all in his first attempt. He inherited the love of his father for cars and from the age of five he began his passion for speed. From an early age, he began to demonstrate his skills in this sport, becoming a young promise of Formula 1. Montoya competed in three different categories at the same time, achieving good results, until he decided to move from Colombia to Europe to follow his dream of racing in Formula 1. He is an example of personal growth and how working with perseverance will help you to achieve everything you need. Although Formula 1 may seem an individual sport, the key to success is teamwork. Juan Pablo Montoya stands out by exploiting the capabilities of each person and looking into available resources within themselves, creating efficient, committed, and united teams that will be able to work under pressure. Just like he did with his working teams in professional motorsports, Montoya is a speaker sending a contagious and powerful positive message of motivation and improvement to his audience. In his conferences, he gives, through his personal and professional experience in motorsport, the keys of leadership to manage a team with success. Juan Pablo Montoya won the CART series in 1999 and achieved ten victories in two seasons with Ganassii. Afterwards, he began to race in Formula 1, stage when he won 7 victories, 30 podiums and 13 poles. 2003 was his stellar season: he won the Monaco Grand Prix, one of the most important and prestigious races in the world. It was also in 2003 when he beat the world record racing, the latest lap in Formula 1, at 250,844 Kilometers/hour in the Italy Grand Prix. Since 2017, he has been part of Team Penske 2017, one of the most prestigious teams of motorsport and he is considered by many the best driver of Colombia.

Why organisations work with Mark Webber Twelve seasons inside Formula One across four teams gives him a working model of how high-stakes organisations succeed and fail, told from the cockpit rather than the pitwall. Won the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship with Porsche after a full F1 career, which is a credible demonstration of building a second peak in a different system after a first one ended. Speaks with the authority of a competitor who finished on the Formula One podium 42 times and reached second at Le Mans, not a generalist drawing analogies from sport. Officer of the Order of Australia recognises both the racing record and sustained work for medical and youth charities, which lands with audiences that want substance behind the speaker, not a highlight reel. Active Channel 4 Formula One analyst and Porsche brand ambassador, so the perspective on current team dynamics, driver decisions and engineering culture is live, not retired. Biography highlights 217 Formula One starts for Minardi, Jaguar, Williams and Red Bull Racing across 2002 to 2013. Nine Grand Prix wins, 42 podiums, 13 pole positions and three third-place finishes in the World Drivers’ Championship. 2015 FIA World Endurance Champion with Porsche, sharing the Porsche 919 Hybrid with Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley. Officer of the Order of Australia, 2017 Australia Day Honours. Author of Aussie Grit: My Formula One Journey, Pan Macmillan, with foreword by Sir Jackie Stewart. Channel 4 Formula One analyst and global Porsche brand ambassador. Biography A Formula One driver makes thousands of decisions in a season that the rest of the team only sees the result of. The job is to be calm enough to execute them and honest enough afterwards to say which were wrong. Mark Webber spent twelve seasons doing that work in public. He started 217 Grands Prix between 2002 and 2013, drove for Minardi, Jaguar, Williams and Red Bull Racing, and finished his Formula One career with nine wins, 42 podiums, 13 pole positions and three third-place finishes in the World Drivers’ Championship. The Red Bull years overlapped with four consecutive Constructors’ titles, which is the part of his record that speaks most directly to how a small group sustains performance at the limit. After Formula One he moved to endurance racing with Porsche and won the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship in the Porsche 919 Hybrid alongside Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley, finishing second at the 24 Hours of Le Mans the same year. He was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia in 2017 for service to motor sport and to charity, and his memoir Aussie Grit, with a foreword by Sir Jackie Stewart, gives a candid account of what those years inside the sport actually felt like. Today he is a Channel 4 Formula One analyst and a global Porsche brand ambassador, which keeps him close to the engineering, driver and team conversations that shaped his own career. For senior audiences, the value is not the trophy cabinet. It is a clear-eyed account, from inside the car, of how decisions are made when there is no time to make them well. Key speaking topics Performance under sustained pressure Team dynamics inside elite organisations Recovery from setbacks and reinvention Decision-making at the edge of capacity Culture and standards in small high-stakes teams Lessons from Formula One and endurance racing for business leaders Ideal for Executive leadership teams and board offsites focused on high performance CHRO and talent leaders shaping standards inside elite teams Sales kick-offs and commercial leadership conferences After-dinner audiences at senior client events where authority and storytelling are both required Audience outcomes A working picture of how a competitive team functions when results are public and margins are small. Specific examples of where pressure breaks people and processes, drawn from named races and team episodes rather than generic anecdotes. A more honest internal language for talking about setbacks, recovery and standards. Practical reference points senior leaders can use when their own teams are operating at the edge.

Why organisations work with Divyanshu Ganatra He brings clinical psychology training together with a record of firsts in adventure sport, so the conversation about resilience is grounded in evidence rather than in motivational narrative alone. He runs Adventures Beyond Barriers Foundation, a working inclusion organisation, which means his content on inclusive leadership comes from operating practice with cross-disability teams, not from a deck. He is recognised by the Vice President of India through the National Award for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, which gives senior buyers a defensible credential when positioning the session internally. He speaks credibly to CXO forums and Fortune 500 audiences on attitudinal barriers, the specific tension that stalls most inclusion programmes once policy and quotas have been set. His material translates between personal decision-making under pressure and organisational decision-making under restructure, which makes him a fit for leadership offsites that need both registers. Biography highlights Founder, Adventures Beyond Barriers Foundation (ABBF), 2014, an inclusive adventure-sports organisation working across cross-disabilities. India’s first blind solo paraglider pilot, 29 April 2014. First blind tandem cyclist to complete the Manali to Khardung La route, 2016, the world’s highest motorable road, now ABBF’s flagship M2K expedition. First blind Indian to summit Mount Kilimanjaro, 2018. Master’s in Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Pune, where he was the first blind student to graduate in the field; clinical psychologist by training. National Award for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, presented by the Vice President of India; named among the Ten Outstanding Young Indians by the Junior Chamber International. Biography Most inclusion programmes inside large organisations stall at the same point. Policy is in place, quotas are tracked, and senior leaders still cannot describe what changed in how the organisation actually works. The blockage is rarely structural. It is attitudinal, and it sits with the leadership group itself. That is the tension Divyanshu Ganatra was trained to read. He lost his sight to glaucoma at nineteen and went on to become the first blind student to complete a Master’s in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Pune. He works as a clinical psychologist, and the discipline shapes how he frames inclusion to senior audiences: as a behavioural and decision-making problem, not a values statement. In 2014 he founded Adventures Beyond Barriers Foundation, an inclusive adventure-sports organisation that puts people with and without disabilities into the same physical task. The same year, he became India’s first blind solo paraglider pilot. In 2016 he led the first blind tandem cycling crossing from Manali to Khardung La, the world’s highest motorable road, which now anchors ABBF’s annual M2K expedition. In 2018 he became the first blind Indian to summit Mount Kilimanjaro. The Vice President of India presented him with the National Award for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, and the Junior Chamber International named him among the Ten Outstanding Young Indians. With CXO forums and Fortune 500 audiences he treats those firsts as case material, not biography, working back from each one to the decision sequence that made it possible for a leadership team to use. Key speaking topics Inclusion as a leadership capability Attitudinal barriers and behavioural change Decision-making after personal and organisational shock Resilience grounded in cognitive neuroscience Disability and workplace inclusion Innovation through cross-ability collaboration Ideal for CHROs and DEI leads designing inclusion strategy beyond compliance Executive committees and leadership offsites focused on resilience and composure under pressure CXO forums and Fortune 500 leadership audiences working on culture change Boards and senior teams setting the inclusion agenda for the next reporting cycle Audience outcomes A reframing of inclusion from policy mechanic to leadership behaviour, with named attitudinal barriers to look for in their own organisation. A working model for decision-making in the period that follows acute personal or organisational shock. A clearer view of what cross-ability collaboration produces operationally, drawn from ABBF’s M2K expedition and other inclusive programmes. A direct first-person account of building competence after sight loss, used as case material for senior leaders managing reinvention in their own teams.

Why organisations work with Richard Coles He is one of the very few public figures in Britain who can speak about bereavement, faith and sexuality in front of a corporate audience without the room flinching. Audiences trust him because he has lived each subject in public. Twelve years co-presenting BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live gives him the interviewer’s craft: he can host an awards night, chair a panel of executives, or turn a CEO conversation into something a room actually wants to listen to. He is a Sunday Times number one bestselling novelist, the writer of The Madness of Grief, and the inspiration for the BBC comedy Rev. The cultural recognition gets him in the door; the substance is why he is asked back. His pop-to-pulpit story (member of The Communards, “Don’t Leave Me This Way” at number one in 1986, then ordination as an Anglican priest) is the most genuinely unusual second-career narrative on the speaking circuit, and he tells it without nostalgia. Biography highlights Co-presenter, BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live, 2011 to 2023 Church of England priest, ordained 2005; former vicar of Finedon, Northamptonshire Multi-instrumentalist in The Communards with Jimmy Somerville; UK number one with “Don’t Leave Me This Way” in 1986 Author of twelve books, including the Sunday Times bestseller The Madness of Grief (2021) and the Canon Clement crime series, optioned by ITV Regular panellist on Have I Got News For You, QI, and Would I Lie To You? Inspiration and consultant for the BBC comedy Rev Biography “Don’t Leave Me This Way” was the best-selling single in the UK in 1986. The man playing the keyboards on it is now a Church of England priest, a Sunday Times bestselling novelist and one of the most recognisable broadcasters on British radio. Few public lives have travelled this far between chapters, and fewer still have done so with the same lack of edit. Coles spent twelve years co-presenting BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live, the long-form Saturday morning programme heard by more than two million listeners. The role made him a national interviewer: a priest who could draw a stranger out, hold a difficult moment on air, and make space for the kind of conversation British broadcasting often avoids. The Communards, the priesthood, the radio, the books, the dachshunds, the dance floor on Strictly: each chapter brought a new audience without losing the previous one. The writing has become its own career. The Madness of Grief, published in 2021 after the death of his civil partner David, is a Sunday Times bestseller and one of the rare popular books on bereavement written from inside the experience rather than around it. The Canon Clement Mysteries, beginning with Murder Before Evensong in 2022, became a Sunday Times number one cosy crime series and an ITV drama starring Matthew Lewis. For corporate audiences, the value is the combination most public figures cannot offer: a hosting craft built over twelve years of live radio, lived experience of the subjects organisations now want to discuss honestly (grief, faith, identity, sexuality, mental health), and a sense of timing that comes from working a microphone for three decades. The result is a speaker who can carry a black-tie dinner, a leadership offsite or a memorial event with the same register. Key speaking topics Grief and bereavement in public life Faith, ethics and the modern workplace Identity, sexuality and being openly gay in public roles Reinvention and second careers The craft of conversation and interviewing Mental health and the inner life Public broadcasting and cultural commentary Ideal for Awards ceremonies, gala dinners and milestone events seeking a host who can carry the room Leadership and culture conferences addressing grief, mental health, identity or inclusion Internal employee events tied to wellbeing, faith networks or LGBTQ+ programming Membership organisations and professional bodies booking a literary, cultural keynote Audience outcomes A frank, unsentimental treatment of grief and bereavement that gives leaders language they can actually use at work A model of public conversation about faith and sexuality that does not retreat into either piety or politics A reframing of mid-career reinvention drawn from one of the most unusual second-career trajectories in British public life An event hosted or anchored with the timing, warmth and interviewing craft of a senior BBC broadcaster

Michael Owen’s background Michael Owen is an English former footballer who played as a striker for Liverpool, Real Madrid, Newcastle United, Manchester United and Stoke City as well as the England national team. He is a regular pundit on BT Sport football coverage and sometimes appears on BBC’s Match of the Day as a pundit. The son of former footballer Terry Owen, Owen was born in Chester and began his senior career at Liverpool in 1996. He progressed through the Liverpool youth team and scored on his debut in May 1997. In his first full season in the Premier League he finished as joint top scorer with 18 goals. He repeated this the following year and was Liverpool’s top goal scorer from 1997–2004 and gained his name as a proven goal scorer, despite a recurring hamstring injury. In 2001, Liverpool won a cup treble of the UEFA Cup, FA Cup and Football League Cup, and Owen was the recipient of the Ballon d’Or. He went on to score 118 goals in 216 appearances in the Premier League for Liverpool, and 158 goals in 297 total appearances. Regarded as one of the greatest Liverpool players, Owen came 14th in the “100 Players Who Shook The Kop” – an official Liverpool fan poll. Michael Owen moved to Real Madrid for £8 million in mid-2004; he was frequently used as a substitute. He scored 13 goals in La Liga before returning to England the following season where he joined Newcastle United for £16 million. After a promising start to the 2005–06 season, injuries largely ruled him out over the next 18 months. After his return he became team captain and was the team’s top scorer for the 2007–08 season. Newcastle were relegated in the 2008–09 season and Owen moved to Manchester United as a free agent. He spent three years at Old Trafford before joining Stoke City in September 2012. Owen is one of seven players to have scored 150 or more goals in the Premier League. Owen is also the youngest player to have reached 100 goals in the Premier League.On 19 March 2013, Owen announced his retirement from playing at the end of the 2012–13 season. Internationally, Michael Owen first played for the senior England team in 1998, becoming England’s youngest player and youngest goalscorer at the time. His performance at the 1998 FIFA World Cup brought him to national and international prominence and he went on to score in UEFA Euro 2000, the 2002 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2004. He is the only player to have scored in four major tournaments for England. He played at the 2006 FIFA World Cup but suffered an injury which took him a year to recover from. Occasionally playing as captain, he is England’s tenth most-capped player and has scored a national record of 26 competitive goals, with 40 in total from 89 appearances, most recently in 2008. Owen’s long injury absence after the 2006 World Cup resulted in a dispute between FIFA, The Football Association and Newcastle United, and eventually resulted in an unprecedented £10m compensation award to Newcastle, and brought changes to the compensation arrangements between club and country regarding injuries sustained by contracted club players while on international duty.

Meet Marianna Evenstein Marianna Evenstein is a charismatic and versatile event moderator based in Berlin, Germany. Originally from New York City, she brings an international flair to every event she hosts. Known for her ability to effortlessly engage diverse audiences, she combines elegance, energy, and a personal touch to create memorable experiences. From corporate events to global conferences and high-profile galas, Marianna has built a reputation for making each event resonate with both clients and audiences alike. Fluent in English (her native language), German, and Russian, she excels at connecting across cultures, ensuring every event feels both professional and accessible. Marianna’s clients include multinational corporations, innovative start-ups, and influential non-profits, all of whom rely on her ability to handle complex topics with poise and keep discussions on track. Whether she’s moderating a panel, hosting a live event, or guiding a workshop, her warmth and attention to detail make her a trusted choice for events of all sizes. In addition to her work as an event host, Marianna is a seasoned journalist. As a news editor and anchor for DW (Deutsche Welle), Germany’s international broadcaster, she brings the same clarity and confidence to the screen that she does to live audiences. Prior to her television career, Marianna was a radio host and reporter for DW’s Newslink, where she honed her storytelling skills in the fast-paced world of current affairs. Combining her expertise in event moderation with her background in broadcast journalism, Marianna Evenstein is a dynamic professional who ensures every event is not only smoothly run but also impactful.  

Why organisations work with Jacques Villeneuve He is one of only two drivers in history, alongside Mario Andretti, to have won the Formula One World Championship, the CART IndyCar title, and the Indianapolis 500, which gives him a claim to performance at the highest level that almost no other speaker can match. His rookie Formula One records from 1996 (pole on debut in Australia, four wins, 11 podiums, 78 points) still stand, offering leadership audiences a concrete example of arriving inside an elite team and performing from day one. He brings an insider’s reading of how Formula One organisations align hundreds of engineers, mechanics, and commercial staff around a weekend deadline, useful for leaders managing complex global operations. A decade of analyst work for Sky Sport Italia and broader F1 broadcasting means he is fluent on camera and comfortable translating elite sport into plain language for corporate audiences. He speaks from direct experience of reinvention across disciplines, from CART to F1 to sportscars at Le Mans to NASCAR at Daytona, which grounds conversations about adapting when the rules of your industry change. Biography highlights 1997 Formula One World Drivers’ Champion with Williams, Canada’s first F1 world champion. 1995 Indianapolis 500 winner and 1995 CART IndyCar Series champion with Team Green. 1996 Formula One debut season with Williams: pole in his first race, four victories, 11 podiums, runner-up in the championship. Second overall at the 2008 24 Hours of Le Mans with the Peugeot 908 HDi FAP alongside Marc Gene and Nicolas Minassian. Competed in the 2022 Daytona 500 with Team Hezeberg, finishing 22nd. F1 analyst for Sky Sport Italia since 2013 and confirmed on the Sky Sports F1 broadcast team for 2026. Biography Very few drivers have ever held the three races that define the sport. Fewer still have held them the way Jacques Villeneuve did, inside three seasons, on two continents, before turning 27. The 1995 Indianapolis 500, the 1995 CART championship, and the 1997 Formula One World Championship sit together on a record that only Mario Andretti also owns. His arrival in Formula One in 1996 is the part that tends to interest leadership audiences. Williams put him in the car, he put it on pole in Melbourne, and he ended the year with four wins, 11 podiums, and a set of rookie records that have not been beaten since. The following season he won the title in a championship-deciding race at Jerez against Michael Schumacher. After Williams, Villeneuve spent five seasons helping build the British American Racing team from a start-up into a Formula One constructor, then went on to contest the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Peugeot, finishing second in 2008, and later qualified for the 2022 Daytona 500 at the age of 50. The common thread is a driver who kept stepping into unfamiliar machinery and making it work. He now speaks, writes, and broadcasts about the sport, including a long-running analyst role with Sky Sport Italia since 2013 and a confirmed seat on the Sky Sports F1 team for 2026. For corporate audiences, he is useful on the same question that sits behind every race weekend: how leaders and teams hold their standard when the conditions keep changing and the margin for error is measured in tenths. Key speaking topics High-performance culture in elite teams Decision-making under pressure Composure and focus in competitive environments Leadership inside Formula One organisations Safety, risk, and calculated aggression Reinvention across disciplines and formats Teamwork in deadline-driven operations Ideal for Executive leadership teams preparing for high-stakes decision cycles Sales kick-offs and commercial leadership conferences focused on competitive edge Client events hosted by brands with motorsport, engineering, or performance heritage Operations and engineering leadership audiences interested in elite-team execution Audience outcomes A first-person account of how world-class drivers and teams prepare for moments where hesitation is the failure mode. A view from inside Formula One on how large technical organisations align around a weekend deadline they cannot move. Language leaders can take back to their own teams about composure, standards, and the difference between aggression and recklessness. A sharper sense of what sustained high performance actually costs, across a career rather than a single season.

Why organisations work with Mika Häkkinen Two World Championships won against Michael Schumacher, the rival Schumacher publicly named as the one he most respected. The competitive credibility is hard to manufacture. A near-fatal crash at the 1995 Australian Grand Prix, with a trackside tracheotomy keeping him alive, followed by championship titles in 1998 and 1999. The resilience story is documented, not retrofitted. Continues to operate inside elite Formula 1 as McLaren Partner Ambassador and as a permanent on-site Viaplay F1 analyst, which keeps the perspective current rather than nostalgic. Eleven seasons inside one of the most data-driven team environments in global sport, with first-hand experience of how engineers and decision-makers stay aligned when the consequences are immediate. Biography highlights Two-time Formula 1 World Drivers’ Champion (1998, 1999) with McLaren-Mercedes 20 Grand Prix victories, 51 podium finishes and 26 pole positions across 11 F1 seasons 1990 British Formula 3 Champion with West Surrey Racing McLaren Partner Ambassador since 2017; F1 analyst for Viaplay since 2022, alongside David Coulthard and Jos Verstappen Autosport Gregor Grant Award (2018) for lifetime contribution to motorsport; member of the Laureus World Sports Academy Biography Eleven seasons in Formula 1 produces a particular kind of operator. The environment is data-rich and unforgiving of indecision. A driver wins or loses by hundredths of a second, but the result depends on hundreds of people working in alignment for months. Mika Häkkinen won two World Drivers’ Championships in that environment, with McLaren-Mercedes in 1998 and 1999. He secured 20 Grand Prix victories and 51 podiums across his F1 career. Michael Schumacher, his principal rival across both title-winning seasons, named Häkkinen as the driver he most respected during his own career. His career also includes a near-fatal accident. In 1995, a tyre failure during qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix sent his McLaren into a barrier at high speed. FIA medical delegate Sid Watkins performed an emergency tracheotomy at the trackside, and Häkkinen spent two months in hospital. He returned to racing the following season and won his first championship three years later. Two roles keep Häkkinen close to the sport. He is McLaren’s Partner Ambassador, working with the team’s commercial leadership on strategic accounts. He is also part of Viaplay’s permanent on-site F1 broadcast team alongside David Coulthard and Jos Verstappen. The current exposure matters for the speaking work; the lessons land differently when the speaker is still inside the paddock most race weekends. Key speaking topics High-performance team execution Decision-making under pressure Resilience after public setbacks Sustained competitive performance over long campaigns Risk management in high-stakes environments Leadership in technically complex teams Focus and mental discipline Ideal for Senior leadership teams in sectors where execution margins are tight and outcomes are visible Sales and commercial organisations whose performance is measured continuously Annual conferences and after-dinner functions for high-performance corporate audiences Executive programmes focused on resilience and recovery from setbacks Audience outcomes A first-hand account of what sustained competitive excellence requires when the margins are narrow and the data is constant Specific lessons on how elite teams stay aligned through long, high-pressure campaigns A credible perspective on returning to the top after a serious public setback Direct insight into how senior operators make decisions in the seconds where most performance is decided