Peak Performance

Why organisations work with Jeremy Snape He has run the experiment in public. As performance coach to Shane Warne’s Rajasthan Royals, he built the dressing-room culture that won the inaugural IPL title against far better-resourced franchises. His work sits at the join between two credentials most consultants only have one of: an England international playing career and a master’s in sport psychology, applied across Premier League football, England Rugby and South African cricket. The “Inside the Mind of Champions” podcast gives him a continuously refreshed evidence base. Guests include Sir Alex Ferguson, Pep Guardiola, Eddie Jones and Rahul Dravid, and the material feeds directly into his executive sessions. Through Sporting Edge, he has spent two decades translating sport psychology into corporate practice rather than telling sporting war stories with a thin business gloss on top. Biography highlights Former England international cricketer, 10 ODIs and one T20I, with a Man of the Match award on ODI debut against Zimbabwe. County career at Northamptonshire, Gloucestershire and Leicestershire; captained Leicestershire and lifted the Twenty20 Cup in 2004. Master’s degree in sport psychology, taken during the latter stage of his playing career. Performance coach to the Rajasthan Royals during their IPL title-winning campaign under Shane Warne, with subsequent roles at Delhi Daredevils, England Rugby, Premier League football clubs and the South African national cricket team. Founder and Managing Director of Sporting Edge, the performance consultancy he established in 2005. Non-Executive Director of the League Managers Association since 2013, supporting leadership development for football managers at St George’s Park. Host of the “Inside the Mind of Champions” podcast, with guests including Sir Alex Ferguson, Pep Guardiola, Eddie Jones, Rahul Dravid and Shane Warne. Biography The Rajasthan Royals were the cheapest-bought, lowest-rated franchise in the inaugural Indian Premier League. They won it. The performance coach embedded with that team, working alongside Shane Warne to build a culture out of nothing in a few weeks, was Jeremy Snape. That project is the cleanest illustration of what he does. Snape played 10 One Day Internationals for England and captained Leicestershire to the Twenty20 Cup, and during the back end of his playing career he took a master’s in sport psychology. The combination is unusual: a working international athlete who became a credentialed performance specialist, rather than an academic with a fan’s interest in sport. Since founding Sporting Edge in 2005, he has taken those methods into corporate work, alongside continued roles in elite sport, including Delhi Daredevils, England Rugby, Premier League football and South African cricket. In 2013 he joined the League Managers Association as a Non-Executive Director, helping design the leadership programmes that football managers take at St George’s Park. His “Inside the Mind of Champions” podcast keeps the research live. Conversations with Sir Alex Ferguson, Pep Guardiola, Eddie Jones, Rahul Dravid and Shane Warne are not entertainment for him; they are the working material that feeds the frameworks he takes into boardrooms on team trust, composure under scrutiny and the unglamorous standards that separate first place from fourth. Key speaking topics High-performance culture Leadership under pressure Team trust and standards Mindset and mental resilience Performance psychology for business Talent development and succession Ideal for CEOs and executive teams entering a sustained period of pressure, scrutiny or transition Senior leadership offsites focused on team standards, trust and decision-making in stretch conditions Sales, trading and client-facing leadership groups whose performance hinges on composure under public-facing risk HR and L&D leads designing leadership development programmes for high-stakes commercial roles Audience outcomes A specific read on how elite sport builds composure and how that translates into executive decision-making under scrutiny. Concrete language for what high-performing team standards actually look like day to day, beyond the values poster on the wall. A clearer view of where individual mindset ends and where team culture has to take over. Methods for sustaining performance after a setback, drawn from named figures in elite sport who have done it publicly.

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

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

Key speaking topics High-performance competition Performing under pressure Elite motorsport leadership Risk and decision-making in competitive environments Team dynamics in world-class sport Resilience in international competition Ideal for Senior leadership teams Sales and high-performance teams Global corporate conferences Organisations operating in competitive or high-risk environments Audience outcomes Insight into competing at the highest level of international sport Understanding of decision-making under pressure Perspective on team performance in complex environments Clarity on resilience and sustained competitive focus Why organisations work with Jacques Villeneuve Proven success at the highest levels of global motorsport. First-hand experience of winning world championships and major international races. Cross-category racing career spanning Formula One, IndyCar, endurance racing, and NASCAR. Media and ambassador experience that translates elite sport into commercially relevant insights. Biography Jacques Villeneuve is recognised globally for competing and winning at the highest level of international motorsport. As a Formula One World Drivers’ Champion with Williams and Indianapolis 500 winner, he is part of a select group of drivers to have succeeded across the most demanding racing series in the world. He finished runner-up in his debut Formula One season before securing the World Championship, demonstrating sustained performance under pressure on a global stage. In North America, he claimed both the Indianapolis 500 and the IndyCar (CART) championship, reinforcing his reputation for consistency and competitive excellence. Villeneuve’s career extends beyond Formula One and IndyCar. He finished second overall at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Peugeot and has competed in NASCAR, including qualifying for and racing in the Daytona 500. His experience spans single-seater racing, endurance competition and stock car racing, offering a broad perspective on team performance in complex, high-stakes environments. Alongside his racing career, he has worked as a Formula One television analyst and served as an ambassador for Williams, translating elite sport into clear insight for international audiences. His first-hand experience of championship-winning teams and world-class competition makes him a compelling voice on performance, resilience and decision-making at the highest level.

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

Why organisations work with Neil Martin He built the probabilistic strategy modelling systems now used by more than half the current Formula One grid – not a commentator on F1 decision-making, but the person who changed how the sport models decisions under uncertainty. Two specific, named race outcomes are directly attributed to his calls: Red Bull Racing’s first Formula One win at the 2009 Chinese Grand Prix, and Räikkönen’s win at the 2005 Monaco Grand Prix – both the product of real-time probabilistic reasoning under extreme competitive pressure. He translates a specific, working methodology – Monte Carlo simulation and game theory applied to real-time competitive decisions – into frameworks organisations can use when multiple futures must be weighed against each other with no time to wait for certainty. His experience spans the full decision chain: building the analytical models, leading the strategy team live in the race, and managing the operational culture of teams working against non-negotiable deadlines with global coordination demands. As Co-Founder of PACETEQ GmbH, he continues to build and deploy competitive analytics tools across motorsport, which means his perspective is operational and current rather than retrospective. Biography highlights BSc in Mathematics with Computer Science and MSc in Operational Research, University of Southampton; MSc project on optimal pit-stop and refuelling strategies secured a full-time role at McLaren Racing Pioneered the application of Game Theory and Monte Carlo simulation to F1 race strategy at McLaren from 1998, replacing deterministic planning with stochastic models that could account for uncertain events in real time Team Leader of Operational Research at McLaren Racing; Chief Strategist at Red Bull Racing; Head of Operations Research and Strategy at Scuderia Ferrari (2011-2015) Strategic calls directly credited with Red Bull Racing’s first-ever Formula One win at the 2009 Chinese Grand Prix and Räikkönen’s victory at the 2005 Monaco Grand Prix Co-Founder of PACETEQ GmbH, an AI-powered motorsport analytics business; software originating from his work in active use across more than half the Formula One grid Covered in the Financial Times; featured speaker at the Gartner Data and Analytics Summit Biography Neil Martin joined McLaren Racing in 1996 to solve a specific problem: race strategy was being built on deterministic models that assumed a single most-likely future. He replaced those models with stochastic ones, applying Game Theory and Monte Carlo simulation to uncertain events. Traffic patterns, overtake probabilities, safety car timing – these could now be modelled, and strategy built around a range of probable outcomes rather than one. That shift produced verifiable results at the highest level. At the 2005 Monaco Grand Prix, Martin sent an email from McLaren’s Woking base instructing Räikkönen to stay out under a safety car; the call won the race. At the 2009 Chinese Grand Prix, as Red Bull Racing’s Chief Strategist, he kept both cars out in wet conditions when almost every competitor pitted. It was the team’s first-ever Formula One win – a 1-2 finish built on asymmetric risk reasoning under pressure. Martin joined Scuderia Ferrari in 2011 as Head of the newly created Operations Research department, brought in alongside Pat Fry to rebuild the team’s race operations. He left in 2015. Since then, he has founded Random Logic and co-founded PACETEQ GmbH, an AI-powered analytics business whose tools now run on more than half the current Formula One grid. For senior leaders, the argument is direct. Performance under pressure is not determined by the quantity of data available. It is determined by the quality of the frameworks used to act on it. Martin’s career is a proof of concept for what that discipline looks like when competitive stakes are at their highest. Key speaking topics Decision-making under uncertainty Probabilistic risk modelling Data-driven competitive strategy High-performance operations Risk management in live environments Marginal gains and continuous improvement Analytics-led performance optimisation Ideal for C-suite and senior strategy leaders making high-stakes decisions with incomplete data and competitive time pressure Risk, analytics, and data science functions seeking to operationalise probabilistic thinking across the organisation Boards and executive teams benchmarking their decision culture against elite performance environments Corporate conferences in financial services, technology, and professional services where data-driven decision-making is a strategic priority Audience outcomes A named conceptual shift: from deterministic “most likely scenario” planning to probabilistic mapping of multiple futures and their associated likelihoods Clarity on the conditions under which data produces better decisions, and the organisational habits that close the gap between having information and acting on it with confidence Specific, race-derived examples of asymmetric risk reasoning applicable to resource allocation, market entry, and competitive response decisions Practical understanding of how high-performance teams coordinate under non-negotiable deadlines without sacrificing analytical discipline A benchmark for what genuinely data-driven operational culture looks like when competitive stakes leave no margin for deterministic thinking

Key speaking topics High-performance sport and elite competition Formula One and global motorsport Leadership and decision-making under pressure Motorsport governance and regulation Innovation in racing and automotive technology Media, broadcasting and sports analysis International sport and commercial motorsport operations Ideal for Corporate leadership teams Automotive and mobility sector organisations Sports industry conferences Organisations exploring performance culture and governance Audience outcomes Insight into the realities of competing at Formula One level. Understanding of decision-making in high-pressure environments. Perspective on the commercial and governance structures of global motorsport. Greater clarity on the relationship between performance, technology, and regulation in elite sport. Why organisations work with Karun Chandhok First-hand experience of Formula One competition and global motorsport. Combination of elite sporting background and broadcast analysis expertise. Board-level governance experience within UK and international motorsport. Ability to translate complex sporting and regulatory environments into clear, structured insights for business audiences. Biography Karun Chandhok brings together elite Formula One experience, international endurance racing, and senior motorsport governance to offer organisations a rare perspective on high-performance sport and complex regulatory environments. As one of only two Indian drivers to compete in Formula One, he raced in 11 Grands Prix with Hispania Racing and Team Lotus, operating at the highest level of global motorsport. His career spans multiple international championships, including the FIA World Endurance Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, as well as participation in the inaugural season of Formula E with Mahindra Racing. This breadth of competition across traditional and electric racing formats gives him first-hand insight into performance, technology, and innovation in a rapidly evolving industry. Alongside his driving career, Karun has established himself as a respected motorsport broadcaster and analyst, working with Sky Sports F1 and other networks. His media work reflects an ability to break down complex technical and strategic issues for broad audiences while retaining depth and accuracy, an approach that translates effectively to corporate environments. Karun also holds influential governance roles within the sport. He serves on the Board of Directors of Motorsport UK and has been a member of the FIA Drivers’ Commission, contributing to the regulatory and strategic direction of international motorsport. In addition, he works with Williams as a Heritage Driver, testing and demonstrating historic Formula One cars at major events. Beyond competition and governance, he has supported the operational delivery of the Indian Grand Prix with Formula One Management and the Jaypee Group, and has been involved in Nissan’s GT Academy activity in India. Through his annual Karting Carnival, he also supports charitable fundraising focused on education for underprivileged children in India. Combining top-tier racing experience, broadcast analysis, and board-level oversight, Karun Chandhok offers senior leaders a practical understanding of performance, risk, regulation, and innovation in one of the world’s most demanding competitive arenas.

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 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.

About Katherine Grainger With five Olympic medals made up of one gold and four silver, Katherine is the only female athlete to ever gain medals in five consecutive Olympic Games. This honour saw her be announced in the 2013 New Year’s Honours as having been granted a CBE. Her ability to dominate in her sporting arena while also gaining a PhD at one of the top 25 universities in the world has cemented her status as one of the most in demand corporate speakers on the circuit. Katherine took up rowing at Edinburgh University in 1993 and made such good progress she was awarded the Eva Bailey Trophy as their most outstanding female athlete in 1996 and again in 1997 when she won her first international Gold medal at the U23 World Rowing Championships. Katherine first won silver at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 in the woman’s Quadruple Sculls. In Athens in 2004, she won silver in the coxless pairs. And, in Beijing 2008 she won her third silver, again in the Quadruple Sculls. At the London Olympics 2012, Katherine and Anna Watkins broke the Olympic record as they qualified for the Double Sculls final, before going on to win the gold medal. Katherine has also won eight medals at World Championships, between 1997 and 2011. Other awards include, being named as Scottish Sportsperson of the Year and awarded the “Emirates Lonsdale Trophy” by Commonwealth Games Scotland in 2009. She’s also been elected to the British Olympic Association’s Athlete Commission and became a member of the Board for the charity ‘International Inspiration’. Grainger has been appointed as the chair of UK Sport for a term of four years. Katherine has also appeared on multiple TV shows including an appearance on the ‘Superstars’ and guest appearances on ‘A Question of Sport’, ‘Countdown’ and ‘The Clare Balding Show’. She has also spent time working for the BBC as a co-presenter on the Rowing World Cup coverage, the BBC ‘Inspire’ series and as a pundit during the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Katherine is a highly sought-after keynote and after-dinner speaker. Excelling when talking of teamwork, overcoming challenges, motivation, winning and the importance of communication.    

Key speaking topics Leadership under pressure Team culture and accountability High-performance environments Resilience and mental wellbeing Inclusive leadership Sustaining excellence in teams Ideal for Senior leaders and leadership teams Corporate and professional sports organisations Organisations focused on culture and inclusion Teams operating in high-pressure environments Audience outcomes Clear insights into long-term leadership and captaincy. Practical understanding of building and sustaining team culture. Perspective on resilience and wellbeing in performance settings. Lessons from elite sport applied to organisational contexts. Why organisations work with Kate Richardson-Walsh Brings first-hand experience of leading teams at the highest international level. Offers credible, lived insights from an Olympic gold medal-winning programme. Connects leadership, culture and inclusion to real performance outcomes. Provides practical perspectives drawn from elite sport and coaching roles. Biography Kate Richardson-Walsh is one of the most experienced captains in international team sport, with a career defined by long-term leadership, elite performance and sustained accountability at the highest level of competition. As a former England and Great Britain women’s hockey international, she led national teams through multiple Olympic cycles and remains the most-capped female player in the programme’s history. She captained Great Britain and England for 13 years, guiding teams through periods of challenge, transition and renewal. Her leadership culminated in Olympic gold with Team GB women’s hockey, following an earlier Olympic bronze, and appearances across four Olympic Games. Her tenure as captain is widely recognised for its focus on standards, responsibility and collective ownership within high-performance environments. Alongside her international playing career, Kate has built senior coaching experience, including head coach and assistant coach roles within elite club and international programmes. This has strengthened her perspective on leadership from both athlete and coach viewpoints, bridging performance, development and culture. Kate is co-author of Winning Together: An Olympic-Winning Approach to Building Better Teams, which translates lessons from elite sport into practical frameworks for organisational leadership, collaboration and culture. She also speaks openly about mental health challenges in high-performance settings, contributing to informed and grounded conversations about resilience, wellbeing and sustainable success. Together with her wife, Helen Richardson-Walsh, Kate made history as the first same-sex married couple to win Olympic gold as part of the same team. Her work with organisations draws on lived experience of leadership under pressure, inclusive team cultures and delivering results in complex, demanding environments.

Why organisations work with Jessica Ennis-Hill Her experience of performing as the public face of a home Olympics – carrying national expectation while managing injury recovery and a multi-discipline competition – gives leaders a concrete, pressure-tested model of composure under scrutiny that no training programme replicates. As founder of Jennis, she has applied elite athletic methodology to a commercial problem – closing the gender data gap in sport and exercise science – giving her credibility in conversations about evidence-based decision-making and innovation, not just personal achievement. Her perspective on women’s health and female performance, backed by clinical collaboration with physiologist Dr Emma Ross and a funded femtech business, adds substance to DEI and wellbeing conversations that goes well beyond lived experience. She has maintained a high-profile public platform post-retirement – BBC lead analyst across four Olympic cycles, Times columnist, podcast host – which means audiences arrive with recognition and trust already established. Her career narrative – career-threatening injury before Beijing 2008, gold in London 2012, return from maternity leave to World Championship gold in 2015 – gives her a specific, sequenced story about recovery and reinvention that senior leaders find directly applicable to organisational context. Biography highlights Olympic heptathlon gold medallist, London 2012; silver medallist, Rio 2016; three-time World Heptathlon Champion; European Champion; World Indoor Pentathlon Champion Appointed DBE in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to athletics BBC Sports Personality of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award, 2017 – second woman and first British woman to receive the award Founder of Jennis, a femtech platform using CycleMapping technology developed with women’s health physiologist Dr Emma Ross; raised £1M in pre-seed funding, 2021 Regular BBC athletics analyst: Olympic Games 2020 and 2024, World Athletics Championships 2019, 2022 and 2023, Commonwealth Games 2018 and 2022 Columnist for The Times; host of Gold Minds podcast (High Performance network); author of autobiography Unbelievable Psychology graduate, University of Sheffield Named in Forbes 30 Most Influential Under 30s in Europe, 2016 Biography Jessica Ennis-Hill won Olympic heptathlon gold at London 2012 as the publicly designated face of the Games – carrying a level of expectation that few athletes at any level have been asked to manage. That she delivered one of the most complete performances in the event’s history, having missed the Beijing Games entirely through injury four years earlier, is the foundation of everything she brings to a business audience. The comeback from a career-threatening stress fracture, the return from maternity leave to win the World Championship in Beijing in 2015, and the silver medal in Rio in 2016 give her career a specific structure – repeated reinvention under constraint – that organisations find more useful than a single triumph. The discipline behind those performances: meticulous preparation, managing uncertainty, performing at the moment that matters, is the substance of her speaking work. Post-retirement, she has built a second career with genuine intellectual weight. As founder of Jennis, she identified a specific commercial and scientific gap – most sport and exercise research is conducted on male subjects, leaving women without evidence-based training guidance – and built a femtech business to address it, in clinical partnership with physiologist Dr Emma Ross and backed by institutional investment. That work sits inside a broader argument about female performance and health that she has developed as a BBC analyst, Times columnist, and podcast host. For organisations, she represents something specific: a high-performer who has tested the connection between preparation, recovery, and execution across multiple high-stakes moments, and who has since applied that understanding to build a credible entrepreneurial venture. That combination – elite athletic credential plus founder experience plus sustained media presence – is what separates her from the broader field of sports motivational speakers. Key speaking topics Peak performance under pressure Resilience and recovery from setback Leading through reinvention and uncertainty Women’s health and the gender data gap in performance science Preparation, process, and high-stakes execution Entrepreneurship and building from elite expertise Mindset and mental performance Ideal for Senior leadership teams and executive conferences seeking a performance mindset frame grounded in real-world pressure CHROs and people leadership forums addressing female talent, wellbeing, and the conditions that enable sustained high performance Organisations navigating periods of change or recovery who need a credible, non-generic narrative around reinvention Boards and C-suite audiences where public recognition and media credibility matter alongside substantive content Audience outcomes A concrete, sequenced model of how elite performers build resilience – not as a trait but as a practiced discipline – that teams can apply to their own context Greater clarity on the specific role preparation and process play in sustaining performance under public scrutiny, with direct organisational parallels An evidence-based perspective on women’s health and performance science that gives HR and people leaders new language and framing for wellbeing conversations Sharper thinking on what recovery from setback actually requires, drawn from a career defined by structured comebacks rather than uninterrupted success A founder’s account of translating elite expertise into commercial impact – relevant to innovation, entrepreneurship, and growth conversations