Motivation and Inspiration

Why organisations work with Sir Mo Farah Second athlete in Olympic history, after Finland’s Lasse Virén, to defend both the 5,000m and 10,000m at consecutive Games. Almost no one else can speak to sustained dominance at that level from direct experience. Delivered the distance double under two very different forms of pressure: home-crowd expectation at London 2012 and defending-champion pressure at Rio 2016. Both required the same habits, applied in different contexts. Trained inside elite endurance programmes for over a decade, including a long stint at the Nike Oregon Project. The talk goes into how Olympic preparation actually works at the operational level. In 2022 he disclosed in the BBC documentary The Real Mo Farah that he had been trafficked into the UK as a child under another boy’s name. For audiences focused on resilience, this part of his story now sits alongside the running. Biography highlights Four Olympic gold medals: 5,000m and 10,000m at London 2012 and Rio 2016. Second man in Olympic history, after Lasse Virén, to defend both distances at consecutive Games. Six World Championship golds and five European Championship golds. Most successful individual male athlete in European Championships history. Knighted in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to athletics; appointed CBE in 2013. BBC Sports Personality of the Year, 2017. Won the 2018 Chicago Marathon in a European record time of 2:05:11. Subject of the 2022 BBC One documentary The Real Mo Farah, which disclosed his trafficking into the UK as a child. Biography In over a century of Olympic history, only one athlete had ever defended both the 5,000m and 10,000m at consecutive Games. Sir Mo Farah is the second. The career was not luck. From the European junior 5,000m title in 2001, through training inside the Nike Oregon Project under Alberto Salazar and later under Gary Lough, Farah built an operational discipline. It produced ten global championship golds: four Olympic, six World Championship. He remains the most successful British track athlete in modern Olympic history. In 2022, the BBC One documentary The Real Mo Farah disclosed publicly that he had been trafficked into the UK as a nine-year-old child under the name of another boy. He spent his formative years as a domestic servant in West London before a PE teacher, Alan Watkinson, identified both his athletic ability and the conditions he was living in. The disclosure changed how audiences understood the runner. The discipline that built the medals had been built first under far harder conditions. What Farah gives an audience is access to the operational substance behind a public performance. The four-year cycle leading into a Games. The tactical patience required to hold position through 24 laps of a track race and execute a final 400m sprint that competitors cannot match. He left elite track competition after a sixth World Championship gold in 2017 and turned to road racing, winning the 2018 Chicago Marathon in a European record of 2:05:11. Key speaking topics Sustained elite performance over multiple Olympic cycles Resilience under public scrutiny The mechanics of Olympic preparation Tactical execution and decision making under pressure Reinvention from track racing to the marathon The training and recovery cycle behind elite endurance Ideal for Sales and revenue team conferences focused on execution and performance under pressure Large leadership and all-hands events anchored around resilience and sustained achievement After-dinner engagements at corporate and association conferences High-performance team kick-offs entering a multi-quarter or multi-year cycle Audience outcomes A specific picture of what an Olympic four-year cycle actually involves, from long preparation through to race-day execution Resilience presented as a set of repeatable daily disciplines, anchored in concrete examples from elite training Direct testimony on how elite performers manage public expectation and the cost of public defeat A real example of mid-career reinvention, illustrated through the transition from track racing to the 2018 Chicago Marathon win

Why organisations work with Mike Horn The scale, continuity and repetition of Horn’s expeditions – solo, human-powered, across polar regions, equatorial oceans, mountain ranges and both poles over thirty years – gives him a compounding body of tested evidence that no single-event adventurer can match. His insight is not drawn from one defining story but from decades of escalating exposure to the same high-stakes conditions. His track record with elite competitive teams is documented and attributable. At the request of coach Gary Kirsten, he conducted performance sessions with the Indian Cricket Team ahead of their 2011 Cricket World Cup win. He worked with the German national football squad in preparation for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, which they won. These outcomes give organisations a concrete reference point beyond speaking testimonials. His published work – including «Conquering the Impossible» (St. Martin’s Press, 2007) – sets out the principles he has derived from expedition experience as structured frameworks, not only as anecdote. Organisations receive insight they can apply, not only a story they can admire. His degree in Human Movement Science from Stellenbosch University grounds his observations in performance physiology and behavioural science. This distinguishes his insight from standard adventure motivation and makes it analytically durable for leadership development programmes with real accountability requirements. Horn is still actively exploring. His current «What’s Left» expedition is ongoing, meaning his perspective remains one that is still being tested in the field – not retrospectively assembled from a career that has ended. Biography highlights Solo equatorial circumnavigation without motorised transport, 1999-2000; 2001 Laureus World Alternative Sportsperson of the Year First solo, non-motorised traversal of the 20,000 km Arctic Circle («Arktos»), 2002-2004 First winter crossing of the North Pole in total darkness, with Børge Ousland, 2006 World’s longest solo, unassisted crossing of Antarctica (5,100 km in 57 days by ski-kite), 2017 Performance advisor to the Indian Cricket Team before their 2011 Cricket World Cup win, and to the German national football squad before their 2014 FIFA World Cup win Author of «Conquering the Impossible» (St. Martin’s Press, 2007) and «Latitude Zero» (2001); Laureus World Sports Academy member Biography Mike Horn’s career as an explorer spans thirty years and every major hostile environment on Earth – polar oceans, equatorial jungle, high-altitude mountain faces above 8,000 metres. These are not settings where leadership theory is applied in safety. The decisions made in them carry physical consequences, and the team dynamics that determine survival are the same dynamics that determine whether organisations hold together under real pressure. His expedition record is defined by deliberate escalation. He completed the first solo equatorial circumnavigation without motorised transport (1999-2000), then the first non-motorised traversal of the 20,000 km Arctic Circle. With Norwegian explorer Børge Ousland, he made the first winter crossing of the North Pole in total darkness in 2006. In 2017, he completed the longest solo, unassisted crossing of Antarctica at 5,100 km. The logic across all of it is consistent: remove the safety nets, increase the stakes, and discover what actually works. At the request of coach Gary Kirsten, Horn ran performance sessions with the Indian Cricket Team ahead of their 2011 Cricket World Cup win. He worked with the German national football squad in preparation for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, which they also won. These engagements addressed team cohesion, pressure tolerance and decision-making under conditions of uncertainty – the same conditions his expeditions demand. Horn holds a degree in Human Movement Science from Stellenbosch University, grounding his observations in performance physiology rather than raw adventure narrative. He is a member of the Laureus World Sports Academy and the 2001 Laureus World Alternative Sportsperson of the Year. His book «Conquering the Impossible» (St. Martin’s Press, 2007) translates expedition experience into applicable frameworks. For organisations building leadership capability for genuinely difficult conditions, his perspective comes with thirty years of tested evidence. Key speaking topics Leadership under sustained pressure Decision-making in high-stakes, low-information conditions Team cohesion and trust in hostile environments Resilience and mental endurance Risk management and performance under uncertainty Human performance at physical and psychological limits Environmental responsibility and sustainability Ideal for Senior leadership teams preparing for or navigating periods of significant organisational stress or strategic transition CHROs and L&D directors designing executive development programmes with real performance accountability High-performance sport organisations, elite teams and coaching structures focused on competitive readiness Boards and executive committees in high-risk sectors: energy, defence, deep-sea operations, financial services Audience outcomes A clearer model of how decision quality and team cohesion hold – or degrade – under sustained pressure, drawn from environments where the consequences of each are unambiguous Practical insight into the behaviours that distinguish high-performing teams when conditions deteriorate: communication discipline, risk calibration and mutual accountability under strain A framework for distinguishing trained resilience from assumed resilience, and the leadership conditions required to develop the first Direct exposure to case studies where decisions made under incomplete information had irreversible physical consequences, making leadership dynamics visible in their most unambiguous form A recalibrated understanding of what individuals and teams are capable of when development genuinely tests, rather than simulates, pressure

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

Why organisations work with Matthew Pinsent One of only three rowers ever to win gold at four consecutive Olympic Games, giving leadership audiences a rare first-person account of how a team holds form across more than a decade. Direct experience of rebuilding a winning crew after the retirement of Sir Steve Redgrave, a credible parallel for any executive team facing the loss of a defining figure. Two decades inside Olympic broadcasting for the BBC, covering eight Games as reporter and commentator, which gives him a wider view of high performance than his own career alone. Speaks from a discipline measured in fractions: the Athens 2004 final was decided by ten centimetres after a three-minute review, and he uses that margin as the spine of his argument about preparation and discipline. Honoured with the Thomas Keller Medal, rowing’s highest individual recognition, alongside a knighthood, providing audiences with credentials a buyer can name without hedging. Biography highlights Four Olympic gold medals: Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 Ten World Championship gold medals across his international career Knight Bachelor (2004) and CBE; Thomas Keller Medal recipient (2005) Elected to the IOC Athletes’ Commission in 2001 BBC sports broadcaster covering Olympic Games from Beijing 2008 to Paris 2024 Author of “A Lifetime in a Race”, a Sunday Times Bestseller published by Ebury Biography Athens 2004 came down to ten centimetres. The British and Canadian coxless fours crossed the line together, and three minutes of officials’ review separated the gold from the silver. That final was Pinsent’s fourth Olympic title in a row, the closing chapter of a partnership with Sir Steve Redgrave that had defined British rowing for more than a decade. The thread through his career is repetition under pressure. Pinsent and Redgrave won at Barcelona, Atlanta, and Sydney before Pinsent built a new crew with James Cracknell, Ed Coode, and Steve Williams for Athens. The team changed; the standard did not. He retired with four Olympic golds and ten World Championship titles, and was knighted in the New Year’s Honours of 2004. Since 2004 he has worked as a BBC sports broadcaster, reporting from the Olympic Games in Beijing, Vancouver, London, Sochi, Rio, Tokyo, Beijing again, and Paris. He fronted the BBC’s “World Olympic Dreams” series ahead of London 2012, following twenty-five athletes across multiple sports, and directed “Unbelievable: The Chad Le Clos Story” in 2016. That second career has given him a working knowledge of elite performance well beyond his own discipline. For corporate audiences he draws on the specifics. How a crew is selected, how trust is built across a boat where one weak stroke loses a race, what changes when the senior figure retires and the unit has to find a new centre of gravity. His memoir “A Lifetime in a Race” set out the same material in long form and reached the Sunday Times Bestseller list. Key speaking topics Sustained high performance Team leadership under pressure Building a crew after a defining figure leaves Preparation and marginal gains Olympic broadcasting and elite sport Resilience across long competitive cycles Ideal for Executive teams and boards working through leadership transition or succession Sales, partnership, and customer-facing leadership conferences focused on sustained output rather than one-off wins Awards dinners and recognition events where a credible Olympic voice frames the evening Leadership development cohorts studying high-performing teams Audience outcomes A sharper sense of what separates one-time success from repeated success across cycles A clearer picture of how senior teams absorb the loss of a defining figure Concrete language for talking about preparation, selection, and trust inside a small unit A first-person account of competing and winning by margins measured in centimetres

Why organisations work with Matt Dawson A direct, first-person account of the 2003 Rugby World Cup final, including the pass that set up Wilkinson’s drop goal, used as material for what shared accountability looks like in a single moment. Twenty years inside one of the most-watched sports panel shows on British television, which translates into a presenter and host who can carry a corporate room without scripting. Lessons on team culture grounded in named clubs and named coaches: Northampton Saints, London Wasps, Sir Clive Woodward’s England squad, not generic sports analogy. A second career arc as a broadcaster and Lyme disease advocate, giving him credible material on resilience, identity after performance, and leading a public conversation on health. Biography highlights Member of the England squad that won the 2003 Rugby World Cup; assist for Jonny Wilkinson’s winning drop goal. 77 England caps, nine as captain; three British and Irish Lions tours. MBE for services to rugby. Team captain on BBC’s “A Question of Sport” for two decades. Winner of BBC Celebrity MasterChef; finalist on Strictly Come Dancing. Author of “Nine Lives” (HarperCollins, 2004). Biography The 2003 Rugby World Cup final in Sydney came down to a single phase of play with seconds left. The scrum-half made an unscripted break, took the ruck deep into Australian territory, then fed the ball to the fly-half for the winning drop goal. That scrum-half was Matt Dawson, and the moment is taught in coaching rooms as a study in shared accountability under pressure. Across 77 caps for England and three British and Irish Lions tours, Dawson played at the centre of a generation of English rugby that professionalised the sport’s performance culture. He played for Northampton Saints and London Wasps, won a Premiership title in his first season at Wasps, and was awarded an MBE for services to the game. His autobiography “Nine Lives”, published by HarperCollins in 2004, gives an unusually candid first-hand account of the dressing-room dynamics that produced the World Cup result. Since retiring he has held one of the most consistent presences in British broadcasting, as a team captain on BBC’s “A Question of Sport” since 2004 and as a rugby pundit and presenter on BBC Radio 5 Live. He won Celebrity MasterChef in 2006 and reached the final of Strictly Come Dancing, work that gave him the on-camera range that distinguishes him from most former-athlete speakers. In 2016, after a tick bite in a London park, Dawson was diagnosed with Lyme disease and underwent two heart surgeries. He has since become one of the most visible UK voices on tick-borne disease awareness, partnering with The Big Tick Project and using national platforms to push the issue into public health conversation. Key speaking topics Teamwork and team culture Leadership under pressure Winning mentality Performance in elite environments Resilience and recovery Broadcast hosting and event facilitation Ideal for Sales kick-offs and annual conferences seeking a credible team-performance keynote Awards ceremonies, gala dinners and client hospitality requiring an experienced host or after-dinner speaker Leadership offsites that want a sport-to-business translation grounded in a named, verifiable team result Health, insurance and public-sector audiences engaging with patient advocacy and tick-borne disease awareness Audience outcomes A specific, lived account of how an elite team prepares for a single decisive moment. A clear sense of what shared accountability looks like in practice, anchored in named teammates and a named result. Concrete language for talking about culture, standards and trust without resorting to abstraction. A change in register: humour and warmth from a broadcaster who has hosted live television for two decades.

Why organisations work with Mark Foster A first-person performance argument for inclusion. Foster competed at five Olympics while hiding that he was gay; his account of what that cost him is harder to dismiss than any case study. Twenty-three years of elite-level pattern recognition on what separates athletes who reach a final from those who win it, drawn from a career that produced six World Championship golds and eight world records. Credibility with broadcast audiences. As a BBC Sport analyst across four Olympics and four Commonwealth Games, he is comfortable in front of senior rooms, on stage with a host, and in moderated panel formats. A flag-bearer story that is not the usual one. Foster led Team GB into the Beijing 2008 opening ceremony, the first British swimmer to do so since 1964, and uses it to talk about visibility and what representation actually does for the people watching. Biography highlights Five-time Olympian: Seoul 1988, Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, Beijing 2008 Six World Championship golds, eleven European titles, two Commonwealth titles, eight world records across a 23-year career Flag bearer for Great Britain at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games opening ceremony BBC Sport swimming analyst across the London 2012, Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Olympics, alongside Clare Balding and Rebecca Adlington Honorary Doctor of Health Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University (2016) Patron of The Anaphylaxis Campaign and ambassador for SportsAid UK Autobiography, My Double Life, scheduled for 2026 publication Biography Most performance cultures are built around what people produce, not around what people are carrying while they produce it. The gap between the two is where output quietly gets lost. Foster’s contribution is to make that gap legible to a corporate audience using the only evidence harder to argue with than data: a 23-year career he competed through while hiding who he was. The competitive record stands on its own. Six World Championship golds, eleven European titles, two Commonwealth titles, eight world records, and selection for five Olympic Games between Seoul 1988 and Beijing 2008. He carried the Union Flag at the Beijing opening ceremony, the first British swimmer to lead the team in since Anita Lonsbrough in 1964. What he has said publicly since 2017, and what his autobiography My Double Life addresses in full, is the part of that career that did not appear in the results. Foster competed at the highest level while closeted, and has been specific about the energy that consumed and the performance margin it cost. For a senior leader thinking about inclusion as a productivity question rather than a values one, that is a useful first-hand source. His broadcast work keeps him sharp on stage. Foster has been a BBC Sport swimming analyst across four Olympics and four Commonwealth Games, regularly on air with Clare Balding and Rebecca Adlington, and Anglia Ruskin University awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2016 in recognition of the contribution. Key speaking topics Inclusive performance cultures Visibility and representation in high-performance environments Resilience across a long career Goal-setting and reinvention Olympic-level preparation and mindset Working under pressure Coming out at work Ideal for CHROs and DEI leads building the business case for inclusion in performance terms Senior leadership offsites where the brief is performance under sustained pressure Employee Resource Groups and Pride networks looking for an external voice with sporting credibility Awards dinners, conferences and broadcast-style panels needing a confident on-stage presenter Audience outcomes A clearer picture of how concealment at work shows up in output, and what it actually costs A practical view of what twenty-three years of competing taught him about setbacks, plateaus and second acts A sharper sense of why representation at senior levels matters, told from the person being represented A reframing of resilience as something built across a career, not summoned in a moment

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

Why organisations work with Lewis Pugh He has helped secure formal protection for more than two million square kilometres of ocean, including the Ross Sea Marine Protected Area, the largest in the world. That is a track record on environmental policy outcomes very few private-sector advisors or speakers can match. He brings a working maritime lawyer’s grasp of treaty, sovereign negotiation, and multilateral process. His framing of climate and ocean commitments is grounded in how rules actually move, which lands with boards wrestling with regulatory and ESG risk. As the UN’s first Patron of the Oceans, he carries institutional weight inside the system most companies are now being judged against, including UNEP, COP processes, and national governments. He converts physical expeditions into specific decisions about preparation, team selection, and changing course under hostile conditions. Audiences leave with a usable account of how leaders behave when the plan stops working, sourced from the North Pole, Mount Everest, the Red Sea, and Antarctica. Biography highlights UN Patron of the Oceans, appointed by the United Nations Environment Programme in 2013. Founder of The Lewis Pugh Foundation, established in 2015 to drive the creation of Marine Protected Areas worldwide. First person to complete a long-distance swim in every ocean of the world; first across the North Pole, the length of the English Channel, the Red Sea, and around Martha’s Vineyard. Maritime lawyer trained at Jesus College, Cambridge and the University of Cape Town; former practitioner at Ince and Co in the City of London; former Reservist in the British SAS. Author of Achieving the Impossible (Simon and Schuster, 2010) and 21 Yaks and a Speedo (2014); twice a TEDGlobal speaker. Awarded South Africa’s Order of Ikhamanga (Gold Class); named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum; inducted into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame; named a National Geographic Adventurer of the Year. Biography The Ross Sea Marine Protected Area, off Antarctica, is the largest protected ocean reserve on the planet, larger than the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Italy combined. Lewis Pugh swam in its near-freezing waters in a Speedo to push 25 nations, including Russia, into signing the agreement that created it. Few advocates working on the ocean and climate file have that kind of policy outcome attached to their name. Pugh trained as a maritime lawyer at Jesus College, Cambridge and the University of Cape Town, and practised at Ince and Co in the City of London. During those years he served as a Reservist in the British SAS. The combination matters for the work he now does. The legal training shapes how he reads treaties, jurisdiction, and sovereign behaviour. The military background shapes how he plans expeditions and assembles teams. The endurance swimming is the public-facing instrument that pulls governments to the table. In 2013 the UN appointed him as its first Patron of the Oceans. In 2015 he founded The Lewis Pugh Foundation, dedicated to Marine Protected Areas, the ocean equivalent of national parks. Through that work he has helped secure protection for more than two million square kilometres of marine ecosystem, an area the size of Western Europe, and is campaigning for 30 percent of the world’s oceans to be formally protected by 2030. His books, Achieving the Impossible (Simon and Schuster) and 21 Yaks and a Speedo, sit alongside two TEDGlobal talks that TED’s editors describe as the work of a “master story-teller”. For corporate audiences, the substance is not the swimming. It is the working method behind it: how a small team prepares for hostile conditions, how an advocate moves sovereign signatories, and how leaders decide when to keep going and when to change course. Key speaking topics Ocean and climate policy Sustainability and ESG commitments at board level Marine Protected Areas and treaty negotiation Resilience and leadership in hostile conditions Team preparation and decision-making under pressure Purpose-driven leadership Ideal for Boards and executive teams setting climate, ocean, and ESG strategy Sustainability leaders, chief sustainability officers, and ESG committees Senior leadership offsites focused on resilience, preparation, and decision-making under pressure Public-sector and multilateral audiences working on environment and oceans policy Audience outcomes A clearer view of how high-level environmental commitments are converted into binding agreements and protected areas. A working account of how small teams plan for, and recover from, conditions where the original plan fails. A direct line of sight into the UN, COP, and Marine Protected Area processes that increasingly shape corporate disclosure and risk. A sharper sense of what credible, evidenced advocacy looks like, drawn from named expeditions and named outcomes.

Why organisations work with Les Hewitt A coaching method that has been deployed inside more than 300 companies, including Wells Fargo, RBC, FedEx, RE/MAX and the Million Dollar Round Table, with a focus on sales-led and franchise organisations rather than abstract leadership theory. Co-authorship of The Power of Focus with Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, a book that has sold more than 825,000 copies in North America and given Hewitt a recognisable thesis his audiences have often already encountered. Three decades of building and running The Power of Focus coaching program, including more than 900 delivered workshops, so the content is operating practice and not a recycled keynote. A clear diagnostic for why senior teams underperform: unclear future targets, leaders not protecting their top objectives, weak internal communication, and habits that quietly cost productivity. Built specifically for sales leaders, owner-operators and franchise networks, audiences that are usually underserved by leadership-development speakers pitched at corporate HQ. Biography highlights Co-author with Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen of The Power of Focus, an international bestseller translated into more than 20 languages. Founder of The Power of Focus Coaching Program, used by more than 300 companies across North America, the UK, Ireland, Australia, the Gulf, Singapore and Russia. Named clients include Wells Fargo, Royal Bank of Canada, FedEx, Cameron Inc., Nexen Energy, RE/MAX, Royal LePage, Investors Group and the Million Dollar Round Table. Author of further titles in the series, including The Power of Focus for Women, The Power of Faithful Focus and The Power of Focus for College Students. Built and ran Achievers Canada, the seminar business that delivered more than 450 leadership and sales programs before evolving into the current coaching practice. Originally from Belfast; rose to top salesperson in an international network marketing company before moving into coaching and authorship. Biography Most senior teams are not failing on strategy. They are failing on follow-through. Targets get diluted by competing demands, the highest-value work slips down the calendar, and the habits that quietly govern productivity go unexamined. Hewitt has spent more than thirty years building a coaching practice around that gap. The Power of Focus, the book he co-authored with Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, was the first articulation of his method outside the workshop room. It became a long-running international bestseller, has been translated into more than twenty languages, and seeded the coaching program that now carries the same name. The book gave him a public thesis. The coaching business gave him the operating evidence behind it. That coaching business has been deployed inside more than 300 organisations, including Wells Fargo, Royal Bank of Canada, FedEx, RE/MAX, Royal LePage, Cameron Inc. and the Million Dollar Round Table. The work concentrates on a specific cohort: sales-led and franchise organisations where individual leader habits and team focus translate directly into commercial results. More than 900 workshops have been delivered, so the material is tested under load. Hewitt’s distinctive value is the combination of a recognisable book and a long working catalogue of what actually changes inside companies when leaders narrow their targets and protect their top priorities. Audiences leave with concrete habits and language to install on Monday, not a framework to file away. Key speaking topics Focus and follow-through for senior leaders Goal clarity and execution discipline Productivity habits in sales-led organisations Leadership effectiveness and self-management High-performance team behaviour Ideal for CEOs and owner-operators of mid-market and growth-stage businesses Sales leaders, franchise principals and broker networks Senior leadership teams running annual planning and offsite resets Member organisations such as MDRT, RE/MAX, Royal LePage and similar producer networks Audience outcomes A clearer set of personal and team targets, written down and prioritised before they leave the room. Specific habits to protect the highest-value hours of the working week. A common language for accountability that the team can keep using after the event. Practical tactics drawn from sales and entrepreneurial environments rather than abstract leadership theory.

Why organisations work with Kevin Kelly His Xceptional Execution methodology is not motivational scaffolding – it is a documented framework built from original case study research with high-growth entrepreneurs across the globe, making the argument that execution, not vision, is the real driver of commercial success. Do! The Pursuit of Xceptional Execution was endorsed by Tom Peters, co-author of In Search of Excellence, as the book Peters himself had always wanted to write – a specific, named validation from one of the most cited figures in management literature. The Triple A (Attention, Awareness, Authentic Action) and Storytelling frameworks give teams named, repeatable tools for immediately improving how they earn attention, structure conversations, and close in markets where buyers are already sceptical before a call begins. His cross-industry track record is verifiable: rated the highest-performing speaker at Microsoft’s World Partner Conference (92.5% satisfaction score, ahead of five other speakers on the programme) and a repeat keynote speaker at the Million Dollar Round Table – two of the most commercially exacting professional audiences in technology and financial services. His starting point is always the specific failure mode that sales leaders recognise – the knowing-doing gap – rather than generic motivation; audiences leave with a named diagnosis and specific tools, not energy that fades by the following Monday. Biography highlights Founder of Advanced Marketing, established in Ireland in 1990 following a career breaking sales records across construction and manufacturing sectors in Ireland and internationally Author of five business books, including Do! The Pursuit of Xceptional Execution, endorsed by Tom Peters, co-author of In Search of Excellence How? When You Don’t Know How sold 15,000 copies in Ireland – a bestseller for an independent Irish author on a first title Developed the Xceptional Execution Video Series for Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Community; rated top speaker at the 2015 Microsoft World Partner Conference with a 92.5% audience satisfaction score Repeat keynote speaker at the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT), one of the most selective annual platforms for financial services professionals globally Has addressed audiences across more than 35 countries, with named corporate clients including GE Healthcare, KPMG, Hologic, Hang Seng Bank, Lane Crawford, and ICON Clinical Research Biography The central problem in most commercial teams is not a shortage of knowledge. It is a shortage of consistent execution. Kevin Kelly, founder of Advanced Marketing, has built a 30-year methodology on that distinction: the argument that competitive advantage in sales and leadership is won not by the team with the most insight, but by the team that acts on ordinary ideas with extraordinary discipline. His framework, Xceptional Execution, emerged from structured research with entrepreneurs and executives across the globe: people who achieved outsized commercial results not through original thinking, but through repeatable, disciplined action. Do! The Pursuit of Xceptional Execution captured this research and was endorsed by Tom Peters, co-author of In Search of Excellence, as the book Peters himself had always wanted to write. The frameworks Kelly uses in his sessions: Triple A (Attention, Awareness, Authentic Action) and Storytelling, are designed to be immediately applicable by sales and leadership teams returning to their desks the next morning. At Microsoft’s World Partner Conference he was rated the highest-performing speaker on a six-speaker programme, with a 92.5% audience satisfaction score. He has since delivered keynotes for the Million Dollar Round Table and for commercial audiences across more than 35 countries spanning financial services, healthcare, technology, and professional services. Based in the west of Ireland, Kelly holds a marketing degree and began his career breaking sales records in construction and manufacturing before founding Advanced Marketing in 1990. His first book, How? When You Don’t Know How, sold 15,000 copies in Ireland. His subsequent body of work (five books in total) returns repeatedly to the same conviction: that performance, at the individual and organisational level, is almost always a question of execution rather than ambition. Key speaking topics Sales performance and commercial execution Attention and persuasion in distracted markets Xceptional Execution methodology and frameworks Storytelling and business communication Leadership, engagement, and team performance Entrepreneurship and growth through disciplined action Communication and influence in multicultural environments Ideal for Sales directors and commercial leaders seeking to close the gap between sales training and sustained field performance CEOs and senior executives accountable for execution culture across distributed or international teams Partner and channel organisations – particularly in technology and financial services – where performance depends on enabling third-party sales behaviours Associations and conference organisers serving entrepreneurial, financial services, or sales professional audiences (including MDRT-type communities) Audience outcomes A named framework (Triple A and Storytelling) for structuring sales conversations and earning attention from overloaded, sceptical buyers A shift in perspective from sales as persuasion to sales as disciplined execution – with specific practices that distinguish knowing from consistently doing Practical storytelling tools for making commercial messages stick in distracted, multicultural, and low-trust environments Clarity on the specific behaviours and mindsets that separate average teams from those that execute consistently under pressure Approaches to converting disengaged employees and resistant prospects into active advocates – grounded in the Xceptionalists research from Do!

Why organisations work with Karl Burrows He turns abstract values into a physical, shared act. Teams leave having done something together, not just heard about it. His framing of authenticity as ego-aware self-leadership cuts through the usual corporate language and gives senior leaders a more honest vocabulary for how they show up. The cultural source material is genuine. Burrows is of Maori and European descent, learned haka and te reo through his Taranaki tribal connection, and treats the practice with the seriousness that distinguishes it from team-building theatre. His commercial track record speaks to a range. Hakaworks has worked with IBM, Vodafone, BP, Shell, Philips, BT, Deloitte, GSK and American Express across keynote, workshop and after-dinner formats. He brings a corporate operator’s lens. An MBA from Cranfield and years as a commercial lawyer for Procter and Gamble, DHL and Equifax mean he speaks the language of the room he is working with. Biography highlights Founder and Managing Director of Hakaworks, London. Co-founder of Manaia, the performance and education company established in London in 2004. MBA, Cranfield University. Former commercial lawyer and negotiator for Procter and Gamble, DHL and Equifax. Corporate engagements include IBM, Vodafone, BP, Shell, Philips, BT, Deloitte, GSK and American Express. Host of the Haka Works Talks podcast; podcast guest on The New P&L Principles and Leadership and TeamBonding. Biography Most corporate culture work happens in slides and surveys. Hakaworks works in the body. The London-based company Karl Burrows founded uses Maori cultural practice, including haka, to make team identity something a group does together rather than describes to itself. The methodology has taken Hakaworks into IBM, Vodafone, BP, Shell, Deloitte, GSK and American Express. The grounding is genuine. Burrows is of Maori and European descent, learned te reo and the haka of his Taranaki tribal area, and co-founded Manaia in London in 2004 as a way for haka performers to share the practice. Hakaworks grew from that, and the seriousness of the cultural source is what separates the work from generic team-building. The intellectual frame underneath the practice is authentic leadership. Burrows argues that authenticity demands self-awareness about ego and the discipline to set it aside, so leaders respond from values rather than identity defence. The argument lands harder because it is paired with a physical act that asks a room to commit visibly to a shared intent. He brings a corporate operator’s vocabulary to the work. An MBA from Cranfield and years as a commercial lawyer for Procter and Gamble, DHL and Equifax mean he understands the rooms he is invited into, and reads what a leadership team actually needs from a session rather than delivering a fixed set piece. Key speaking topics Authentic leadership and ego Team unity and trust Organisational culture and values in practice Purpose and collective performance Ritual as a leadership tool Maori cultural practice in business contexts Ideal for CHROs and culture leads running team-bonding offsites or culture interventions Senior leadership teams working through trust and unity issues Sales kickoffs, all-hands moments and conferences that need a shared experience rather than another panel Executive development programmes focused on authentic leadership Audience outcomes A shared physical experience the team can refer back to long after the room empties A more direct vocabulary for talking about ego, authenticity and how leaders show up under pressure A practical sense of how ritual and ceremony can be used to mark commitment to a strategy or change A felt understanding of what collective intent looks like, beyond a values poster

Why organisations work with Jonny Wilkinson A first-person account of what elite pressure does to judgement, body, and identity, drawn from the kick that won the 2003 Rugby World Cup and the years that followed it. Authority on performance and mental health that comes with a CBE, World Rugby Hall of Fame induction, and 91 England caps, not a consultant’s reframing of athlete clichés. A founder’s perspective from One Living, the B Corp drinks business he built around his own recovery, giving the talk commercial substance beyond the sporting story. Long-form work on presence and human potential through the I Am… podcast and two books, which means the content is developed, not improvised on stage. Biography highlights 91 caps for England, two British and Irish Lions tours, scorer of the drop goal that won the 2003 Rugby World Cup final against Australia. BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2003; IRB International Player of the Year 2003; OBE 2003; CBE 2015. Inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame in 2016. Author of Jonny: My Autobiography and Tackling Life, the latter co-authored with long-time mentor Steve Black. Founder of One Living, a B Corp certified kombucha and functional drinks business stocked nationally in Tesco. Host of the I Am… With Jonny Wilkinson podcast, in conversation with thought leaders on performance, presence and mental health since 2022. Biography The drop goal that won the 2003 Rugby World Cup is one of the most replayed sporting moments in British memory. The man who struck it spent the next decade trying to explain to himself why it did not feel like the answer. Wilkinson’s body broke down through repeated injury, and the perfectionism that had driven the career became the thing he had to dismantle to live well. That second act is what gives his speaking content its weight. He writes and talks about presence, fear, and the relationship between high performance and mental health, drawing on his own recovery rather than secondhand frameworks. Tackling Life, written with his long-time mentor Steve Black, set the early ground. The I Am… podcast, running since 2022, has extended it into a body of conversation with global thinkers on potential and self-awareness. The credentials are not in doubt. 91 England caps, two Lions tours, the 2003 BBC Sports Personality award, the 2003 IRB International Player of the Year, an OBE the same year, a CBE in 2015, and induction into the World Rugby Hall of Fame in 2016. As a founder he has built One Living, a B Corp certified drinks brand born directly out of his own work on gut health, mental health and recovery. For a corporate audience, the value sits in the honesty about what elite pressure costs and how composure is rebuilt afterwards. The story is recognisable to anyone responsible for performance under public scrutiny, and the takeaways are practical rather than motivational. Key speaking topics Performing under pressure Mental health and recovery after high performance Presence and self-leadership Resilience and reinvention after a defining career Founder lessons from One Living Mindset, fear and the cost of perfectionism Ideal for Senior leadership offsites where composure under pressure is the practical theme CHRO and people director audiences focused on mental health, wellbeing and high-performing cultures Sales kickoffs and annual conferences seeking a credible performance keynote with intellectual depth Awards dinners, panel moderation and after-dinner appearances where rugby authority and on-stage authenticity carry the room Audience outcomes A grounded account of what perfectionism and fear do to performance at the top, and how that pattern is changed Specific habits Wilkinson uses for presence, focus and recovery, drawn from his own practice rather than a generic framework A reframing of mental health as a leadership capability, not an HR concern Permission to talk openly about the gap between visible success and private cost