Motivation and Inspiration

Why organisations work with Marc Priestley He spent a decade inside McLaren Racing during a Drivers’ Championship-winning era, and can describe how a thirty-second pit-stop is engineered, rehearsed and recovered when something goes wrong. Few speakers have lived that operational tempo. His material is structured around the actual mechanics of high-performance teams: role clarity, debrief culture, marginal gains, and how senior figures handle blame after a public failure. Not motivational; operational. His broadcast work for BBC, Sky Sports F1 and ESPN, plus Discovery’s Wheeler Dealers, makes him a natural choice when the brief calls for a speaker who can also host, moderate or anchor a programme. His two books, The Mechanic and Pitlane Lessons, give a senior audience a written through-line they can recommend internally after the session. Biography highlights McLaren Racing F1 mechanic, 2000-2009, including Number One Mechanic and pit-stop crew duties. Part of the McLaren team during Lewis Hamilton’s 2008 Drivers’ Championship season. Author of The Mechanic: The Secret World of the F1 Pitlane (Yellow Jersey, 2017). Author of Pitlane Lessons: What F1 Can Teach You About Life and Work, foreword by Jake Humphrey. Co-host of Wheeler Dealers on Discovery alongside Mike Brewer. Broadcaster and pundit for BBC, Sky Sports F1 and ESPN; founder of the Pitlane Life Lessons Podcast. Biography A McLaren pit-stop in 2008 took just under three seconds. The crew had rehearsed it thousands of times, knew exactly what each pair of hands would do, and had a debrief structure for every error. Marc Priestley spent a decade inside that environment, working his way up to Number One Mechanic before leaving the team in 2009. What he carried out of the paddock was a precise model of how a high-performance operation actually runs. Role design, communication protocols, blameless debriefs, recovery discipline after a public mistake. His keynote work translates those mechanics for senior leaders who recognise the pattern in their own teams: the failure under pressure that nobody had stress-tested for. Two books anchor the material. The Mechanic, published by Yellow Jersey, is a behind-the-scenes account of life inside an F1 team. Pitlane Lessons, with a foreword by Jake Humphrey, applies the operating principles to leadership and work. Both give buyers a written reference point alongside the keynote. The broadcasting career runs parallel. Priestley is an analyst and pit-lane reporter for Sky Sports F1, has worked for the BBC and ESPN, hosts the Pitlane Life Lessons Podcast and co-presents Discovery’s Wheeler Dealers with Mike Brewer. That range is why corporate clients book him for keynotes, panel chairing and full-event hosting from the same brief. Key speaking topics High-performance teamwork under time pressure Communication in operationally complex environments Marginal gains and continuous improvement Debrief culture and recovery after failure Decision-making in time-critical settings Leadership lessons from elite motorsport Event hosting, moderation and panel chairing Ideal for Senior leadership teams looking to stress-test how their organisation behaves under operational pressure. COOs, transformation leads and operations directors responsible for complex, time-critical execution. Sales and engineering leadership groups using offsites to reset team standards and feedback culture. Conference organisers who need a speaker who can also host, moderate or anchor the programme. Audience outcomes A clearer picture of how elite teams design roles so individuals can act fast without waiting for permission. A practical reference for blameless debriefs and how senior people respond after a public error. Named examples from inside an F1 team that translate to corporate operational settings. A framework for thinking about marginal gains as a discipline, not a slogan.

Why organisations work with Kavita Oberoi A first-hand account of selling into the NHS and global pharma as an outsider, including the specific moves that turned a Pfizer pilot into a multi-client healthcare consultancy. An OBE-recognised entrepreneur who is candid about the parts of company building that most founders gloss over: pricing the first big contract, hiring before revenue, and surviving the move from founder-led sales to a delivery team. A public profile shaped by The Secret Millionaire and ongoing BBC, Sky and ITV business commentary, which translates into audience trust before she opens her mouth. Genuine credibility on the diversity-and-resilience angle without the usual abstractions, drawing on a documented path from a 15-year-old taking a Saturday job against family expectation to chairing the Global Girls’ Fund. Biography highlights OBE for services to entrepreneurship and start-up businesses, Queen’s 2014 Birthday Honours. Founder and Managing Director of Oberoi Consulting, healthcare IT and clinical audit firm working with the NHS and pharmaceutical industry since 2001. Founder of Oberoi Business Hub, Derby’s Pride Park, serviced and virtual office facility for start-ups, opened 2012. Named in the 2009 HBOS report on Britain’s 100 Most Entrepreneurial Women. Chair of the Global Girls’ Fund, the international fundraising arm of Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting. Honorary Doctorate, University of Huddersfield, 2013; BSc Applied Chemistry, First Class, University of Huddersfield, 1992. Television: Channel 4’s The Secret Millionaire, BBC’s The Apprentice You’re Fired, ITV News Business Club panellist, BBC Breakfast, Sky News. Biography The clinical audit gap inside UK general practice was the opening Kavita Oberoi spotted in 2001. GP surgeries needed structured data work that pharmaceutical companies and the NHS both wanted, and almost nobody was packaging it as a service. From a standing start she won a contract with Pfizer, and Oberoi Consulting grew from there into a healthcare support business serving GP practices, primary care groups, private healthcare providers and global pharma. The route to that point matters because it shapes what she actually says on stage. A first-class chemistry degree from Huddersfield, then a stint as one of Bayer’s highest-performing medical representatives, gave her the technical credibility to sell into clinical buyers. Leaving a corporate salary at 30 to start a consultancy without a network or a war chest gave her the rest. In 2012 she opened Oberoi Business Hub on Derby’s Pride Park, a serviced and virtual office facility built specifically for start-ups and small companies that need infrastructure they cannot yet afford to own. The wider portfolio now spans healthcare consultancy, shared workspace, commercial property and media work, and earned her an OBE in 2014 for services to entrepreneurship and start-up businesses. She chairs the Global Girls’ Fund, the international fundraising body of Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting, set up the Derby Breakfast Club to feed children before school, and was named in the 2009 HBOS report on Britain’s 100 Most Entrepreneurial Women. Her Channel 4 Secret Millionaire episode put a lot of that work in front of a national audience and continues to drive board, charity and conference invitations across the UK. Key speaking topics Building a services business in a regulated sector Founder-led sales into NHS and pharmaceutical buyers Scaling beyond the first major contract Entrepreneurship and start-up infrastructure Women in business and overcoming cultural barriers Philanthropy and corporate giving Ideal for Founders, owner-managers and aspiring entrepreneurs inside accelerator, incubator or membership programmes Sales and growth leaders selling complex services into healthcare, pharma or public-sector buyers Diversity and women-in-leadership audiences inside FTSE and professional services firms Awards hosting and after-dinner addresses where the brief is credibility plus warmth, not theoretical content Audience outcomes A clear-eyed view of how a single enterprise contract can be turned into a sustainable services company, with the operational moves named. The questions a founder should be answering before they leave a corporate salary, drawn from someone who actually made that jump. A practical sense of what selling into the NHS and global pharma looks like from the supplier side, and where most start-ups misread the buyer. Renewed confidence in personal agency for audiences whose backgrounds are not typically reflected on the founder stage.

Why organisations work with Lauren Steadman She has reinvented her elite career twice, from Paralympic swimmer to gold-medal paratriathlete, which gives her a precise vocabulary for what changing disciplines actually costs and what it returns. She speaks with the authority of medals at three consecutive Paralympic Games and competition across five, not a single peak moment, so the resilience argument is built on sustained output across sixteen years. Her Master’s in Business and Management from Portsmouth means she translates training-floor language into the operating language of strategy, KPIs and talent, rather than leaving the audience to do the work. Mainstream broadcast credibility from Strictly Come Dancing and SAS: Who Dares Wins makes her instantly recognisable to a mixed corporate audience without diluting the seriousness of the sporting record. An MBE for services to triathlon and a body of charity work through her wellness brand Sizu give the wellbeing material a real foundation rather than a borrowed one. Biography highlights Five-time Paralympian: Beijing 2008 and London 2012 in swimming; Rio 2016 silver, Tokyo 2020 gold and Paris 2024 bronze in paratriathlon. Three-time World Paratriathlon Champion (Edmonton 2014, Chicago 2015, Gold Coast 2018) and eight-time European Champion. Appointed MBE in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to triathlon. BSc (Hons) Psychology and MSc Business and Management, University of Portsmouth. Strictly Come Dancing 2018 semi-finalist and joint winner of Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins. Co-founder of Sizu, a wellness apparel brand whose proceeds support mental health and children’s charities. Biography Most elite athletes peak in one sport. Lauren Steadman has done it in two, taking podium finishes as a Paralympic swimmer at Beijing 2008 and London 2012 before switching disciplines and going on to win paratriathlon medals at Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024. Five Paralympic Games across sixteen years is the rare kind of record that lets a speaker talk about reinvention from the inside. The intellectual frame she brings to that record matters as much as the medals. A first-class psychology degree and an MSc in Business and Management from the University of Portsmouth give her a working language for how organisations actually run. She is not borrowing business metaphors. She is using a vocabulary she has studied and tested. Her TV work, a Strictly Come Dancing semi-final with AJ Pritchard and a joint win on Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, has put her in front of audiences far beyond sport. The result is a speaker who is recognisable to a generalist boardroom and credible to a high-performance one. An MBE in the 2022 New Year Honours sits alongside her co-founding of Sizu, a wellness brand that channels proceeds into mental health and children’s charities. The argument for booking her is straightforward. When the question is how a team holds its standards through a change of discipline, three Paralympic cycles of medal-winning evidence is a sharper answer than most. Key speaking topics Performance and reinvention through career change Resilience under sustained pressure Mindset and preparation in elite environments Mental health and athlete wellbeing Goal setting across long horizons Adapting standards when the discipline changes Women in high-performance careers Ideal for Leadership offsites and senior conferences focused on change and reinvention Sales kick-offs and performance events where sustained output is the brief Talent and people functions running wellbeing or resilience programmes Graduate, early-career and women-in-business audiences Audience outcomes A clearer working definition of what resilience looks like across years, not weeks. Specific reference points for how to hold standards through a change of role or discipline. A grounded view on the relationship between mental health and high performance. Confidence that reinvention is a process with named stages, not a personality trait. Language that connects elite preparation to the everyday rhythm of corporate work.

Why organisations work with Kelly Hoppen She has run a creatively-led business across forty years of cycles, from private residential commissions to hotels, yachts, cruise ships and a direct-to-consumer product line, and can speak to the commercial trade-offs at each stage. Her Dragons’ Den seat on BBC Two gave her direct, public investor experience evaluating early-stage consumer brands, including portfolio names such as Skinny Tan and Reviveaphone. The “East meets West” design philosophy is a defined intellectual signature that has carried through books, product ranges and international commissions, demonstrating how a creative point of view translates into a brand asset. As chair of the GREAT Ambassadors’ group, she has represented British creative industries to overseas markets at a level few founders are asked to operate at. A CBE for services to the GREAT campaign and an MBE for services to interior design provide independent validation of contribution beyond the studio. Biography highlights CBE awarded in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to the GREAT campaign; MBE awarded in the 2009 New Year Honours for services to interior design. Founder of Kelly Hoppen Interiors, with international projects including One Park Taipei, the Celebrity Edge cruise ship for Celebrity Cruises and LUX* Grand Gaube in Mauritius. Investor “Dragon” on BBC Two’s Dragons’ Den, series 11 and 12 (2013 to 2015). Author of multiple interior design books, beginning with “East Meets West: Global Design for Contemporary Interiors”. Winner of the Andrew Martin International Interior Designer of the Year Award (1996) and the European Woman of Achievement Award (2007). Chair of the GREAT Ambassadors’ group and ambassador for The Prince’s Trust. Biography A single kitchen, designed for a family friend, was the first commission. Kelly Hoppen had left school at sixteen. The business that grew from that job now spans private residences, yachts, jets, hotels, cruise ships and a direct-to-consumer product range, and trades on a name that has become its own design vocabulary. The creative argument is “East meets West”, set out in her first book and carried through more than a dozen titles since. It gave the studio a recognisable signature long before personal brands were a formal commercial category. The same instinct shaped the move into product, retail and licensing, where the discipline is no longer a single client but a coherent offer at scale. Public-market judgement followed. Hoppen sat as an investor on BBC Two’s Dragons’ Den across series 11 and 12, backing early-stage consumer companies including Skinny Tan and Reviveaphone, and speaking openly afterwards about which bets were working and which were not. That experience sits alongside four decades of running her own balance sheet. Recognition has come from outside the design world as well as inside it. An MBE for services to interior design in 2009, a CBE for services to the GREAT campaign in 2020, and the chair of the GREAT Ambassadors’ group, where she represents British creative industries to overseas markets and government counterparts. Key speaking topics Creative entrepreneurship and building a personal brand Design-led business and the commercial value of a distinctive aesthetic Women in business and founder resilience Investor judgement on early-stage consumer brands British creative industries and global market positioning Career reinvention across forty years of cycles Ideal for Founders and CEOs of design-led, consumer or lifestyle businesses considering brand expansion or licensing Senior marketing and brand leaders working on a defined creative signature Women’s leadership and founder networks across consumer industries Trade and government audiences focused on UK creative-industry exports Audience outcomes A working view of how a creative signature becomes a defensible brand asset, and the commercial decisions that protect or dilute it. Investor-side perspective on what makes an early-stage consumer brand fundable, drawn from public Dragons’ Den deals. Honest reflection on what forty years of running a name-led business teaches about cycles, partners and product extensions. A confident position on how British design and creative industries compete in international markets.

Why organisations work with Dame Kelly Holmes A first-hand account of competing, and winning, at the highest level while concealing identity for fear of personal and professional consequence, a story directly relevant to inclusion, wellbeing, and retention agendas. Operational credibility on mental health: trained Mental Health First Aider and Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, not a generic wellness presence. A track record of building a durable institution beyond sport. The Dame Kelly Holmes Trust has paired retired elite athletes with disadvantaged young people since 2008, giving her practical, not theoretical, content on mentoring and transition. Cross-format flexibility for major corporate moments: keynote, after-dinner, awards host, panel chair, in-conversation interviewee, television-grade on stage. Biography highlights Won 800m and 1500m gold at Athens 2004; first British woman to win two golds at the same Olympic Games. Appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005; MBE in 1998 for service in the British Army. Served almost a decade in the British Army, including as an HGV driver and Physical Training Instructor, before turning fully professional in athletics. Founded the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust in 2008, mentoring disadvantaged young people through retired elite athletes. Author of “Unique: A Memoir” (2023), shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2024. Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (2024) and a trained Mental Health First Aider. Biography Winning two Olympic gold medals in the same week, at 34, is rare. Doing it while hiding a private fear that began in the British Army, where being gay was illegal until 2000, is the part of the story that matters most to organisations now. That is the spine of Holmes’s public work today. Her sporting record is well documented. Athens 2004, 800m then 1500m, made her the first British woman to win two golds at a single Games and the oldest woman to win either distance at the Olympics. The MBE in 1998 recognised her army service. The Damehood followed in 2005. The substance of her speaking comes from what happened next. In 2008, she founded the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust, an institution that pairs retired elite athletes with disadvantaged young people, now nearly two decades old. She trained as a Mental Health First Aider and was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 2024, anchoring her wellbeing work in something more rigorous than personal testimony. In June 2022, she came out publicly through an ITV documentary, “Kelly Holmes: Being Me”, and a year later published “Unique: A Memoir”, shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2024. The book traces 34 years of concealment, including standing on the Athens podium in fear of being outed. For a corporate audience it is unusually specific evidence of what hidden identity costs a high performer, and how that cost compounds under pressure. Key speaking topics Mental health and wellbeing in high-performance environments Resilience and performance under pressure Identity, belonging, and the cost of concealment at work Mentoring and the transition out of elite careers Inclusion and LGBTQ+ visibility in regulated and uniformed settings Goal-setting and sustained motivation across long careers Ideal for HR, CPO, and CHRO audiences responsible for wellbeing, mental health, and inclusion programming Leadership conferences where peak performance and personal resilience are central themes DEI and ERG events, particularly around LGBTQ+ inclusion in regulated, military, or traditional sectors Awards dinners, anniversary moments, and major town halls requiring a recognisable keynote presence with substantive content Audience outcomes A direct, named example of what concealing identity costs senior performers over a career Practical language for talking about mental health at work without slipping into wellness cliche A clear account of how mentoring, structured rather than informal, changes outcomes for young people and post-career athletes An honest read on how high performers actually manage pressure, injury, and self-doubt over time

Why organisations work with Katie Derham Fifteen years anchoring national news at the BBC and ITV News, where she covered general elections, royal weddings and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. That live-broadcast discipline is what shows up on stage when a panel goes off script. A working economics background. She read Economics at Cambridge and started at BBC Radio 4’s Money Box, which is why finance and business clients book her over generalist presenters. A serious arts and culture credential. Face of the BBC Proms on television since 2010 and presenter of Radio 3’s In Tune, with the cultural literacy that comes with both. Author of The Classical Music Book for DK’s Big Ideas Simply Explained series, and a 2017 judge on the Women’s Prize for Fiction. The reading and editorial work behind those credits informs the way she prepares and questions. A name that travels. Strictly Come Dancing finalist, Classical Brit Awards host, household-recognisable, which matters when the brief is a high-profile awards ceremony or televised gala. Biography highlights Presenter, BBC Proms television coverage on BBC One and BBC Two since 2010. Presenter, In Tune on BBC Radio 3. Former Media and Arts Editor and lead newscaster, ITV News (1998 onwards), the youngest ITN newsreader since the broadcaster’s launch in 1955. Host of the Classical Brit Awards at the Royal Albert Hall. Author, The Classical Music Book, DK Big Ideas Simply Explained series (2018). 2017 judge, Women’s Prize for Fiction. Strictly Come Dancing 2015 finalist (fourth place, partnered with Anton Du Beke). Patron of Eastside Educational Trust and ambassador of the Ashdown Forest Foundation. Biography The hardest part of any conference is not the keynote. It is the connective tissue: the on-stage interview that has to draw something new out of a CEO, the panel that has to land in 40 minutes, the awards ceremony that has to keep a room of 800 people on side from cocktails to the final trophy. That work belongs to the host. Katie Derham came to that work through 15 years of national news. She joined ITN in 1998 as Media and Arts Editor for ITV News and, at 27, became the youngest national newscaster the broadcaster had appointed since its founding in 1955. The roster from those years includes general elections, royal weddings, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which is the schooling that produces a host who can hold a stage when the autocue fails. Her second act has been arts broadcasting at scale. She has presented BBC Proms television coverage from the Royal Albert Hall every season since 2010, fronts In Tune on BBC Radio 3, and authored The Classical Music Book in DK’s Big Ideas Simply Explained series. She has hosted the Classical Brit Awards and judged the 2017 Women’s Prize for Fiction. The economics is what differentiates her commercially. She read Economics at Magdalene College, Cambridge, and started her career as a BBC Radio 4 Money Box researcher, which is why finance, business and brand clients book her over presenters who have only ever covered culture. That dual fluency, business credibility and arts authority, is the reason serious organisations put her in front of their leadership team. Key speaking topics Conference and event hosting On-stage CEO and leadership interviews Awards ceremony presenting Panel moderation Classical music and the arts Broadcast journalism and live media Women in broadcasting and media careers Ideal for CEOs and chairs who want their on-stage interviewer to do the briefing properly and ask the next question. Comms and brand teams running flagship customer events, awards ceremonies, or televised galas. Investor days, AGMs and finance sector conferences that need an economically literate host, not a generalist presenter. Cultural institutions, philanthropic galas and arts boards programming high-profile public events. Audience outcomes A room that stays with the agenda from the opening session through the closing remarks. Sharper, more candid contributions from senior interviewees, because the questions land. Smooth transitions across a complex run-of-show, with live recovery when timings slip. A stage presence the audience remembers and associates with the brand hosting the event.

Why organisations work with Karren Brady She has actually done the job leaders are usually only asked to talk about: turning round a loss-making business, taking it public, and selling it for a reported 82 million pounds. Few speakers can talk credibly about boardroom decision-making, parliamentary scrutiny and front-page media pressure in the same session. She has lived all three at West Ham, in the House of Lords, and through a televised public role. She brings hard-edged commercial honesty to topics that often get softened, including women in leadership, where her position is built on a CBE for services to entrepreneurship and women in business, not slogan. Her profile, sustained through 16 years on The Apprentice and weekly columns in The Sun and Women & Home, makes her one of the few UK business voices a non-business audience already trusts. Biography highlights Appointed Managing Director of Birmingham City Football Club at 23; oversaw the 1997 London Stock Exchange flotation, the youngest MD of a UK plc at the time. Vice-Chair of West Ham United from 2010 to 2026; led the negotiation behind the move to the London Stadium. Conservative life peer; took her seat in the House of Lords as Baroness Brady in November 2014. CBE in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to entrepreneurship and women in business. Lord Sugar’s aide on BBC’s The Apprentice since 2009. Author of Strong Woman: The Truth About Getting to the Top and Playing to Win: 10 Steps to Achieving Your Goals; columnist for The Sun and Women & Home. Biography Birmingham City Football Club was loss-making and barely solvent when Karren Brady was made Managing Director in 1993. She was 23. Four years later, the club was listed on the London Stock Exchange, and she had become the youngest managing director of a UK plc. It was sold in 2009 for a reported 82 million pounds. That trajectory is the foundation of how she talks about leadership. The commercial discipline came first; the public profile came second. By the time she joined West Ham United as Vice-Chair in 2010, she was operating in one of the most politically exposed boardrooms in British sport. She negotiated and defended the club’s move from the Boleyn Ground to the London Stadium, a decision that drew sustained criticism from supporters, parliamentarians and the press, and held the role for 16 years. In 2014 she was made a CBE for services to entrepreneurship and women in business and took her seat in the House of Lords as a Conservative life peer. She had already served as the UK government’s Small Business Ambassador, sat as a non-executive director on the board of Channel 4, and would later chair Taveta Investments, the parent company of the Arcadia Group, before resigning in 2019 over governance concerns. Few UK business voices have operated across that range of corporate, political and public pressure. Her broadcast and editorial presence sharpens the commercial offer rather than dilutes it. She has been Lord Sugar’s aide on The Apprentice since 2009 and writes weekly for The Sun and Women & Home, with two business books behind her, Strong Woman and Playing to Win. Senior teams book her because she has run real organisations through real scrutiny, and she will say what she actually thinks in front of a room. Key speaking topics Leadership and decision-making under public scrutiny Boardroom governance and accountability Women in business and routes to senior leadership Building and selling a business Commercial strategy in highly visible sectors Resilience and reputation in regulated industries Ideal for Boards and executive committees navigating high-visibility decisions or external scrutiny. CEO and senior leadership offsites where the agenda is commercial discipline rather than inspirational content. Conferences on women in leadership, entrepreneurship and governance that want a speaker with named operating credentials. After-dinner, awards and panel formats where a recognised business name with broadcast presence is the brief. Audience outcomes A clearer view of what board-level decision-making actually looks like when stakeholders, media and politics are all in the room. A practical sense of how senior leaders defend commercial decisions publicly without backing away from them. A grounded read on women in senior leadership from someone who has been the only woman on the board, not the panel discussion about it. A sharper instinct for separating reputation management from substance when an organisation is under pressure.

Why organisations work with Janey Lee Grace She brings a national-broadcast voice to a workplace wellbeing topic most internal teams avoid raising: how alcohol shows up in meetings, client entertainment, conferences and team rituals. Her coaching method is built around grey area drinkers, the majority of working adults who are not clinically dependent but whose drinking quietly affects sleep, mood, decision-making and presenteeism. The Sober Club gives her a live evidence base of what actually shifts behaviour at scale, drawn from a community of members and an accredited coach training programme, not theory alone. She is credible to a senior audience: 25+ years on BBC Radio 2’s Steve Wright in the Afternoon, a TEDx talk on sobriety, and the Amazon No. 1 bestseller Imperfectly Natural Woman. She speaks about alcohol culture without moralising, which is the practical reason internal sponsors trust her in front of mixed audiences. Biography highlights Co-presenter for more than two decades on BBC Radio 2’s Steve Wright in the Afternoon Founder of The Sober Club, an online community and coaching business focused on alcohol-free living Host of the Alcohol Free Life podcast, 450+ episodes, ranked by the publisher in the top 5% globally TEDx speaker, Sobriety Rocks: Who Knew!, TEDxNorwichED, 2019 Author of Happy Healthy Sober, the Amazon No. 1 bestseller Imperfectly Natural Woman, and the memoir From Wham to Woo Founder of the Janey Loves Platinum Awards, an annual awards programme for the natural and wellbeing sector, in its tenth year Biography Most workplaces are quietly built around alcohol. It anchors networking events, end-of-quarter celebrations, client dinners and the social glue between teams. Wellbeing programmes rarely touch it, because the topic feels personal and the social cost of raising it feels too high. That gap is the territory Janey Lee Grace works in. Her route into the subject is unusually credible. She spent more than two decades as a co-presenter on BBC Radio 2’s Steve Wright in the Afternoon, one of the most listened-to shows in the UK, and built a parallel career as an author of bestselling books on natural health, including the Amazon No. 1 Imperfectly Natural Woman. In January 2018 she stopped drinking. The Sober Club, the coaching practice, the Alcohol Free Life podcast and the TEDx talk Sobriety Rocks: Who Knew! followed. What she offers organisations is not a personal story dressed up as a talk. It is a practical argument grounded in the concept of grey area drinking, the working population who are not dependent but whose drinking shapes how they sleep, recover, present and decide. She is a qualified Grey Area Drinking Coach, an NLP Practitioner and an EFT practitioner, and she trains other coaches through an accredited programme. The Sober Club gives her a continuous read on what shifts behaviour for working adults outside a clinical setting. The point for a senior audience is not abstinence. It is to make alcohol a legible part of a wellbeing strategy: visible in policy, visible in event design, visible in how leaders model the social contract of work. That is a conversation most organisations have not had, and she is one of the few public figures equipped to start it without the room going defensive. Key speaking topics Workplace alcohol culture and wellbeing strategy Grey area drinking and performance at work Sobriety, sober-curious living and behaviour change Mental health and the social contract of work Natural health and holistic wellbeing Personal reinvention and second-act careers Ideal for HR, wellbeing and culture leads designing post-pandemic wellbeing programmes DEI and employee resource group sponsors looking at inclusion of non-drinkers and recovering drinkers Internal communications and events teams rethinking the role of alcohol at company events Professional services and finance leaders where client entertainment culture is a live issue Audience outcomes A language for discussing alcohol at work that does not moralise or alienate drinkers The grey area drinking framework as a way to think about wellbeing risk in the working population Specific prompts for redesigning company events, client entertainment and team rituals A clearer view of how alcohol intersects with sleep, mood, presenteeism and decision quality Permission, for leaders who want it, to model a different default

Why organisations work with Ingrid Betancourt Lived authority on operating under conditions no executive training can simulate: six and a half years in captivity, then a return to public life, politics, and scholarship. A first-hand account of how identity, values, and decision-making hold up when external structure is stripped away, told without sentimentality. Credibility across two worlds senior audiences rarely hear combined: frontline political leadership in a fragile democracy and sustained reflection on human dignity from inside a research fellowship at Oxford. The Prince of Asturias Award for Concord and the French Legion of Honour signal an argument about freedom and human rights that serious international audiences already recognise. A voice on resilience that does not traffic in motivational language: the material is concrete, specific, and consequential. Biography highlights Former Colombian senator (1998-2002) and two-time presidential candidate, first in 2002 and again in 2022. Held hostage by FARC for more than six years after her abduction on 23 February 2002; released on 2 July 2008 in Operation Jaque. Laureate of the 2008 Prince of Asturias Award for Concord, awarded by the Princess of Asturias Foundation. Appointed to the French Legion of Honour following her release. Author of Even Silence Has an End (2010), a New York Times bestselling memoir, and The Blue Line (Penguin Press, 2016), a novel set during Argentina’s Dirty War. Research Fellow in Theology at Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford; DPhil in Theology awarded by the University of Oxford in 2023. Biography On 23 February 2002, a presidential candidate walked into FARC-controlled territory in southern Colombia and did not come out for six and a half years. That candidate was Ingrid Betancourt, then a sitting Colombian senator who had built her political career on a direct challenge to institutional corruption. Her release in July 2008, through the Colombian military intelligence operation known as Operation Jaque, returned her to a public life she had to rebuild in full view of an international audience. The 2008 Prince of Asturias Award for Concord and her appointment to the French Legion of Honour recognised not the ordeal, but the argument she had begun to make about democracy, dignity, and the conditions under which human freedom survives. What she has produced since is a body of work that takes that argument seriously. Her memoir Even Silence Has an End became a New York Times bestseller. Her novel The Blue Line, published by Penguin Press, examined political violence in Argentina. In 2023 the University of Oxford awarded her a DPhil in Theology for a thesis on the concept of the non-person in the writings of the liberation theologian Gustavo Gutierrez, and she now holds a research fellowship at Harris Manchester College. For senior audiences, the relevance is practical. Leadership in normal conditions rewards competence and pattern recognition. Leadership when the structure breaks, when the information is hostile, when the horizon is no longer yours to set, rewards something else: a clear sense of what will not be traded, and the discipline to hold it. That is the ground Betancourt speaks from, and very few working speakers can speak from it with her authority. Key speaking topics Resilience and decision-making under extreme pressure Leadership when institutions and information fail Human dignity and democratic values Ethical conduct in high-stakes environments Freedom, captivity, and the inner life of leaders Political courage and anti-corruption Reconciliation after violent conflict Ideal for Board, CEO, and executive committee offsites focused on resilience and crisis leadership Leadership development programmes addressing judgement under sustained pressure International affairs, human rights, and public policy forums Values-led leadership summits at universities and foundations Audience outcomes A sharper sense of which commitments a leader needs to name before a crisis, not during one A concrete account of what resilience looks like when it is not a slogan A more honest reading of how authority, dignity, and ethical conduct interact when external structure disappears A frame for thinking about freedom and human rights that senior audiences can take into policy and strategy conversations Material for their own reflection on leadership character that does not rely on motivational abstraction

Why organisations work with Holly Tucker She built a marketplace that gave more than 5,000 independent businesses a commercial route they could not otherwise access, and can speak directly to what scaled that community and what broke it. Her second act, Holly and Co, is a certified B Corp built around purpose-led small business advice, giving her a live view of what founders are wrestling with now, not a decade ago. As host of Conversations of Inspiration, she has interviewed several hundred founders in long form, which makes her one of the few speakers in the UK with a continuously refreshed sense of what early-stage builders are learning. Her MBE and appointment as a UK Prime Minister’s Business Ambassador give her credibility on the policy side of small business, not only the operator side. She translates founder thinking into language corporate audiences can use: retail teams, marketing teams and transformation teams leave with a sharper sense of what independent brands do that scale players do not. Biography highlights Co-founder of notonthehighstreet.com (2006), the UK marketplace for independent makers. Founder of Holly and Co (2017), a certified B Corporation supporting small businesses. MBE, 2013, for services to small businesses. UK Prime Minister’s Business Ambassador for creative small businesses, 2015. Author of Do What You Love, Love What You Do (Virgin Books, 2021), a Sunday Times bestseller; earlier titles with Simon and Schuster. Presenter of ITV’s Be Your Own Boss and host of the Conversations of Inspiration podcast. Biography Notonthehighstreet.com began as a frustration with nowhere to sell handmade Christmas wreaths. Holly Tucker and Sophie Cornish turned that frustration into the UK’s defining marketplace for independent brands, and over thirteen years it gave more than five thousand small businesses a route to customers they would not otherwise have reached. That is the operator credential Tucker brings into a room. Holly and Co, founded in 2017 and a certified B Corporation since 2022, is where the second chapter sits. It is a platform, a shop and an advice engine for independent founders, and it is the evidence base for most of what Tucker says publicly about small business. The weekly Conversations of Inspiration podcast now runs into the hundreds of episodes, which gives her a continuously updated read on what founders are actually doing, not what commentators think they are doing. Her public role has extended beyond business. An MBE in 2013 for services to small businesses, and appointment as a UK Prime Minister’s Business Ambassador in 2015, placed her inside the conversation about how policy shapes independent enterprise. Three books, including Sunday Times bestseller Do What You Love, Love What You Do, turned that experience into written form for founders at earlier stages. Where Tucker is most useful to a corporate audience is on the question larger companies rarely answer well: what exactly do independent brands do that scale players find hard to replicate, and how should a big business think about that when it partners with them, buys from them, or tries to build its own version. She speaks to that from both sides of the relationship. Key speaking topics Entrepreneurship and the founder mindset Building and scaling marketplaces Independent retail and the creative economy Purpose-led business and B Corp practice Small business advocacy and policy Female founders and enterprise Brand, storytelling and community for consumer businesses Ideal for Retail, consumer and marketplace leadership teams thinking about independent brand partnerships. Marketing and brand leaders who want a grounded view of what small and founder-led brands do that larger ones cannot. Conferences and internal events focused on entrepreneurship, purpose-led growth or the creative economy. Female founder communities and enterprise networks within larger organisations. Audience outcomes A clearer picture of what independent founders actually do differently, drawn from a marketplace of more than five thousand small businesses. A practical read on what purpose-led and B Corp businesses look like in operation, not in theory. Fresh founder stories from a podcast library that now spans several hundred interviews. Language for corporate teams to use when they talk about supporting, partnering with or learning from small businesses. A sharper sense of how policy, platform and community interact in the creative economy.

Why organisations work with Helen Skelton A working BBC presenter on Countryfile, Morning Live and Radio 5 Live who hosts, moderates and interviews at broadcast standard, not as a side line. Two Guinness World Records set for Sport Relief, including the longest solo kayak journey down the Amazon, give her a specific credibility on endurance, preparation and fear that rehearsed speakers cannot match. Her 2023 memoir In My Stride, published by Headline, gives audiences a coherent account of resilience drawn from lived experience rather than a framework borrowed from academia. Known across a broad UK audience from Blue Peter, Countryfile and a Strictly Come Dancing final, which makes her a reliable draw for internal conferences, awards nights and customer events. Biography highlights Presenter on BBC One’s Countryfile since 2014 and regular host of BBC Morning Live. Blue Peter presenter from 2008 to 2013, the 33rd in the programme’s history. Two Guinness World Records from the 2,010-mile solo kayak down the Amazon for Sport Relief in 2010. Guinness World Record for the fastest 100 km by kite ski, set on the 2012 South Pole expedition. Runner-up on Strictly Come Dancing series 20 in 2022 with Gorka Marquez. Author of In My Stride: Lessons Learned Through Life and Adventure, Headline, 2023. Biography The Amazon is not a training ground. Helen Skelton kayaked 2,010 miles of it, alone, in 2010 for Sport Relief, taking two Guinness World Records in the process. Two years later she reached the South Pole by a mix of bicycle, skis and kite ski, setting a further record along the way. These are the facts that tend to open any introduction of her, and they are the right place to start, because the speaking work sits on them. The broadcast career gives the speaking a second foundation. She joined Blue Peter in 2008, became the programme’s 33rd presenter, and stayed until 2013. Since 2014 she has presented Countryfile on BBC One, with regular slots on BBC Morning Live and a Sunday show on BBC Radio 5 Live. The polish audiences see on those programmes is what clients hire when she hosts conferences, moderates panels or presents awards. The speaking content draws on all of it. Her 2023 memoir In My Stride, published by Headline, sets out what endurance, preparation and public scrutiny have taught her about resilience, confidence, and the value of time spent outside. She speaks to audiences about the mental work behind physical challenges, the realities of being a working mother in broadcasting, and the mental health benefits of the natural world, a subject she supports through her work with Mind. She reached a Strictly Come Dancing final in 2022 with Gorka Marquez, which brought her to a wider corporate audience and confirmed the profile clients buy when they book her for a room of several hundred people. Key speaking topics Resilience and mental strength Performance under pressure Working motherhood and life-balance Nature, wellbeing and mental health Broadcasting and media craft Adventure and endurance Awards hosting and conference moderation Ideal for Internal conferences, leadership offsites and awards evenings seeking a credible host plus a keynote in one booking. HR, wellbeing and employee engagement programmes focused on resilience, mental health and working parents. Customer and partner events looking for a recognisable broadcaster with a story that travels beyond a single industry. Audience outcomes A direct account of what preparation, fear and repeated setbacks look like at the edges of physical endurance. Practical reflections on resilience and recovery that avoid platitudes, drawn from first-hand experience. A clearer sense of how time outdoors and small daily habits support mental health, grounded in her work with Mind. Confident chairing or hosting that keeps a programme moving and lifts audience energy across a long day.

Why organisations work with Gabby Logan She holds a live room when the stakes are highest. The BBC handed her the post-Lineker Match of the Day and the main presenting chair at the 2024 Paris Olympics because she steadies high-pressure, high-scrutiny broadcasts in real time, which is exactly the demand of a flagship corporate event. She interviews for a living. Two decades of live, unscripted conversation with athletes, executives, and public figures means she can run a fireside or onstage Q&A that gets past prepared answers, not just read autocue. She brings a second audience most sports broadcasters cannot. Through The Mid•Point and her menopace and women’s-strength advocacy, she reaches a midlife and women’s-health audience, which makes her credible for internal culture, wellbeing, and women’s-network events as well as sport. She has earned recognition outside the studio. An OBE in the 2026 New Year Honours for services to broadcasting and charity, following a 2020 MBE, signals a public reputation buyers can put their name next to. Biography highlights Lead presenter of BBC’s Match of the Day from the 2025/26 season, one of three hosts who succeeded Gary Lineker after his 26-year run Main BBC presenter at the 2024 Paris Olympics and lead anchor for the 2022 and 2025 Women’s Euros, both won by England Appointed OBE in the 2026 New Year Honours for services to broadcasting and charity; appointed MBE in 2020 for services to sports broadcasting and promoting women in sport Co-host of The Sports Agents podcast with Mark Chapman, launched by Global in 2024 as a sports extension of the chart-topping News Agents brand Host of The Mid•Point podcast and author of The First Half (2022 autobiography) and The Midpoint Plan Former international rhythmic gymnast for Wales at the 1990 Commonwealth Games; Law graduate of Durham University Biography The BBC spent a year deciding who could replace Gary Lineker on Match of the Day after 26 years. The answer was a rotating trio, and Gabby Logan was on it. That choice tells you what broadcasters value in her: she can carry a flagship programme through a fragile transition without the show feeling like it has lost its footing. Her career runs through almost every major event in British sport. She anchored the 2024 Paris Olympics for the BBC, led coverage of the 2022 and 2025 Women’s Euros as England won both, and co-presented the 2024 BBC Sports Personality of the Year. She began as a radio presenter in 1992, moved to Sky Sports in 1996, and was among the first women to front terrestrial football coverage, a position she held while the industry was still openly sceptical that she belonged in it. That experience of operating under scrutiny became its own subject. Her 2022 autobiography The First Half and her long-running podcast The Mid•Point opened a second platform on midlife, menopause, and reinvention, reaching an audience far beyond sport. As a Menopace ambassador and advocate for women’s strength training, she now speaks to questions of health, purpose, and staying in the game that resonate well outside a stadium. What a buyer is hiring is judgment under live pressure. An OBE in the 2026 New Year Honours and a 2020 MBE mark a public reputation, but the working proof is simpler: when the BBC needed someone to hold its most-watched football programme together through change, it chose her. Key speaking topics Sports broadcasting and live event hosting Women in male-dominated industries Midlife transition and reinvention Menopause and women’s health awareness Resilience and performing under public scrutiny Career longevity and reinvention Ideal for Conference organisers needing an experienced host or moderator for a flagship multi-day event or awards ceremony Women’s networks and internal culture leads programming around midlife, menopause, and career longevity Leadership and all-staff events wanting an onstage interviewer who can run a credible fireside or Q&A After-dinner and gala audiences wanting a recognisable broadcaster with warmth and live-room control Audience outcomes A flagship event held together by a host who keeps energy and coherence across a full programme Onstage interviews that reach beyond rehearsed answers to something the audience remembers A frank account of building and sustaining a career in an industry that resisted her presence A candid, practical perspective on midlife and menopause that an audience leaves talking about