Peak Performance speakers

Why organisations work with Jodie Burrage She speaks from inside the experience of considering whether to walk away, then choosing not to. That is a different conversation from generic motivational content, and audiences feel the difference. Her examples are dated, specific and verifiable: a top-five win over Paula Badosa, a Wimbledon main-draw debut victory, an all-British WTA final, and a near full ankle ligament rupture in training that cost her a Grand Slam season. She covers mental health from the position of someone who broke down in a training session in 2024 and went back the next day. The credibility on pressure and stress comes from the record, not from a wellness framework. She is a current player, not a retired figurehead. The recovery story is live, which makes the material useful to teams facing their own in-flight setbacks rather than retrospective. Biography highlights Career-high WTA singles ranking of world No. 85, reached in September 2023 Reached the 2023 Nottingham Open final, the first all-British WTA final since 1977 WTA Tour doubles champion at the 2023 Transylvania Open with Jil Teichmann First Grand Slam main-draw singles win at Wimbledon 2023 against Caty McNally Top-five career win over Paula Badosa at the 2022 Eastbourne International Represented Great Britain in the Billie Jean King Cup including the 2026 qualifier against Australia in Melbourne Biography Three ankle surgeries before the age of twenty would have ended most playing careers. Burrage came back from them, broke into the world top 100 in 2023, and reached an all-British WTA final at Nottingham against Katie Boulter, the first of its kind since 1977. The same year she recorded her first Grand Slam main-draw singles win at Wimbledon against Caty McNally and lifted a WTA Tour doubles title in Cluj-Napoca with Jil Teichmann. The 2024 season is the part of the story audiences tend to remember. Wrist surgery in February was followed, just as she was returning, by a near full rupture of her ATFL ankle ligament in a training session with Boulter. She missed the French Open, the grass-court season and Wimbledon. She has since said publicly that she considered retirement during that recovery and broke down mid-session asking how much fight she had left. The material she brings to corporate audiences is built on that ground. The career-high ranking of No. 85, the top-five win over Paula Badosa at Eastbourne in 2022, and her Billie Jean King Cup appearances for Great Britain through to the 2026 qualifier against Australia all sit inside a record of repeated injury and return. She talks about pressure, public accountability and the daily decision to keep going as someone still actively making that decision on the WTA Tour. For leaders who have to ask teams to perform through restructure, setback or sustained uncertainty, the value is the realism. Burrage does not present resilience as a state. She describes it as a series of small choices made on bad days, with the scoreboard public the following week. Key speaking topics Self-leadership under pressure Resilience and recovery from setback Mental health in high-performance environments Goal setting and personal accountability Performing in the public eye Team environments and individual responsibility Ideal for Sales, trading and other performance-measured teams operating under public or visible scorecards HR, talent and L&D leaders building wellbeing and mental health content with credibility beyond the wellness sector Leaders running organisations through restructure, layoffs or sustained operational pressure Early-career and high-potential audiences facing first encounters with public failure Audience outcomes A concrete account of how a current professional athlete makes the decision to continue after setback, rather than an abstract framework Language for talking about mental health in performance settings without softening it into wellness A working definition of accountability when results are visible and the next attempt is days away A reference point for resilience grounded in dated, verifiable career events rather than metaphor

Why organisations work with Jodie Taylor Taylor won the Golden Boot at 31, after a serious knee injury had disrupted her career in her mid-20s. The story is sustained performance through real adversity – not a single peak moment – which is what makes the resilience argument land with competitive organisations. A career spanning 17 clubs across six countries – from NWSL franchises to Lyon’s UEFA Champions League-winning squad – means direct exposure to how elite performance cultures actually differ. She brings comparative insight into what drives delivery under pressure, not a single exportable model. She is now Arsenal Women’s Technical Director – the first person to hold the role at the club – which means her thinking about the conditions for elite performance is being tested in a live organisational context, not drawn solely from memory of a playing career that ended years ago. As the first Englishwoman to score a hat-trick in a major international tournament, she carries a specific, named, verifiable performance record. That kind of credential anchors credibility differently than a career overview. A UEFA A coaching licence and an in-progress Masters in Sports Directorship mean her framework for translating athletic performance into organisational learning has structured analytical rigour behind it – a distinction that matters in leadership conversations where storytelling alone doesn’t carry the room. Biography highlights UEFA Women’s EURO 2017 Golden Boot winner – five goals in four appearances, including the first hat-trick by an Englishwoman in a major international tournament 51 England senior caps and 19 international goals; represented England at the 2015 and 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cups (England won bronze in 2015) UEFA Women’s Champions League winner with Lyon (2019-20); FA Cup winner with Birmingham City (2012) Vauxhall England Player of the Year 2017; Oregon State University Athletics Hall of Fame inductee (2020) Career spanning 17 clubs across six countries – England, USA, Canada, Australia, Sweden, and France Appointed Arsenal Women’s Technical Director (January 2026) – the first person to hold the role at the club Biography At UEFA Women’s EURO 2017, Jodie Taylor scored five goals in four appearances, took the Golden Boot, and became the first Englishwoman to score a hat-trick in a major international tournament. She was 31, and had already spent more than a decade moving between clubs across six countries. That breadth matters. Seventeen clubs in England, the United States, Canada, Australia, Sweden, and France is direct exposure to how elite performance cultures are built, maintained, and dismantled in genuinely different environments. Alongside the Golden Boot, Taylor won the FA Cup with Birmingham City and the UEFA Women’s Champions League with Lyon, earned 51 England caps, and was named Vauxhall England Player of the Year. She did all of it while navigating a serious knee injury and the structural uncertainties of a women’s game that was still building its professional infrastructure. What is less common is the transition she has made since retiring from professional football in 2023. Appointed Arsenal Women’s Technical Director in January 2026 – the first person to hold that role at the club – Taylor now works directly on the organisational conditions that enable elite performance: the structures, cultures, and systems that translate individual talent into consistent team output. She holds a UEFA A coaching licence and is completing a Masters in Sports Directorship. The result is a perspective that sits at the intersection of frontline competitive experience and structured organisational thinking. Taylor has seen high-performance culture from the inside of 17 different teams and is now building it from the outside. That combination is rare, and it is precisely what makes her valuable in leadership conversations about performance, resilience, and what teams actually need to deliver when the stakes are highest. Key speaking topics Performance under pressure High-performance team culture Resilience and sustained performance Leadership in competitive environments Building and maintaining team trust Mindset and focus in high-stakes situations Navigating setbacks and career adversity Ideal for Senior leadership teams and C-suite audiences focused on performance culture and competitive resilience CHROs and People leaders building or transforming high-performance team environments Women’s leadership networks and inclusion programmes Sales, commercial, and performance-driven teams in competitive industries Audience outcomes A concrete, evidence-based account of what the conditions for sustained high performance actually look like – drawn from elite competition across multiple cultures and environments Clearer thinking about the gap between individual talent and collective team delivery, and what leaders can do to close it before pressure arrives Practical reflection on how trust, culture, and individual mindset interact in high-stakes moments A sharper vocabulary for leadership conversations about resilience, performance, and team culture Perspective from a practitioner who has both competed at the highest level and is now building organisational performance structures inside a major professional club

Why organisations work with John Amaechi The giants framework – introduced in The Promises of Giants (New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller, 2021 Porchlight Business Book Award winner) – gives senior leaders a precise accountability tool: every person with influence shapes culture through their most ordinary behaviour, whether they intend to or not. He has held non-executive director appointments at FTSE 250 company Greencore Group plc and served a decade as board director at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust – giving him verified access to the governance conversations his clients face, not just advisory proximity to them. As Professor of Leadership at the University of Exeter Business School and a Chartered Psychologist, he can name the specific behavioural mechanisms – not just the desired outcomes – that distinguish leaders who consistently build high-performing teams from those who inadvertently undermine them. His reframing of unconscious bias as “entrenched assumption” – from The Promises of Giants – shifts the inclusion conversation from psychological absolution to direct leadership accountability, making it actionable for boards and executive committees that have grown fatigued by compliance-oriented framing. Inducted into HR Magazine’s Hall of Fame in 2022, after multiple appearances on its Most Influential Thinkers list, he is recognised across HR, governance, and psychology communities – not within a single professional silo. Biography highlights Founder, APS Intelligence Ltd (est. 2008), working with executive teams and boards across FTSE 100 companies in financial services, technology, legal, and engineering sectors Professor of Leadership (HC), University of Exeter Business School; Research Fellow, University of East London; Chartered Psychologist (British Psychological Society), Chartered Scientist, Chartered Fellow of the CIPD Author of The Promises of Giants (New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller; 2021 Porchlight Business Book Award, Leadership and Strategy category) and It’s Not Magic: The Ordinary Skills of Exceptional Leaders Former non-executive director, Greencore Group plc (FTSE 250); former 10-year board director and HR Scrutiny Committee Chair, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust HR Magazine Hall of Fame inductee 2022; Sport Industry Integrity and Impact Award 2023; OBE 2011 First Briton to have a career in the NBA; appointed European Ambassador to the NBA Biography Culture gaps in senior teams are almost always a behaviour problem. APS Intelligence, the consultancy John Amaechi OBE founded in 2008, was built on that premise, and his advisory engagements, governance roles, and published research have only strengthened the case. Amaechi has held non-executive director appointments at FTSE 250 company Greencore Group plc and served a decade as board director at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. This places him inside the governance conversations most consultants observe from outside. He holds academic roles as Professor of Leadership at the University of Exeter Business School and Research Fellow at the University of East London, where his research focuses on the mechanisms of inclusive leadership, team performance, and organisational design. His professional credentials sit across three chartered bodies: Chartered Psychologist of the British Psychological Society, Chartered Scientist, and Chartered Fellow of the CIPD. The Promises of Giants (2021) introduced the giants framework, the argument that every leader shapes culture through their most ordinary behaviour, intentionally or not. The book became a New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller and won the Porchlight Business Book Award in Leadership and Strategy. His follow-up, It’s Not Magic: The Ordinary Skills of Exceptional Leaders, translates the framework into specific, repeatable actions that distinguish leaders who build high-performing environments from those who inadvertently undermine them. Amaechi was inducted into HR Magazine’s Hall of Fame in 2022, after multiple appearances on its Most Influential Thinkers list, and is a LinkedIn Top Voice and LinkedIn Influencer with sustained reach across professional audiences. Before his consultancy career, he was the first Briton to have a career in the NBA. That background informs his understanding of how culture either releases or suppresses individual potential, and what it costs organisations when it does the latter. Key speaking topics Leadership behaviour and culture Inclusive leadership High-performance team dynamics Executive accountability and governance Leadership through permanent disruption AI integration and the human organisation Ideal for Executive teams and C-suite leaders where a gap exists between declared culture and how people actually experience leadership Board members and non-executive directors engaged with governance, leadership accountability, and inclusive decision-making CHROs, CPOs, and people leaders designing culture and inclusion strategies that connect directly to performance outcomes Senior leadership cohorts in organisations navigating culture transformation, post-merger integration, or leadership succession Audience outcomes A specific vocabulary for naming the leadership behaviours – not strategy documents or values statements – that create or undermine the culture an organisation is trying to build Clarity on why inclusion programmes stall at leadership level, and what it takes behaviourally to move them forward A personal accountability framework – the giants principle from The Promises of Giants – that senior leaders can apply immediately to audit and adjust their own daily behaviour Greater understanding of how identity and belonging affect individual contribution, team cohesion, and organisational performance Practical, evidence-based tools from organisational psychology for building psychologically safe environments where high performance is sustainable

Why organisations work with John Peters A first-hand account of decision-making, fear and recovery under conditions most executives will never experience, used as a working reference for leadership behaviour rather than as a war story. Twenty years of post-RAF consultancy through Monkey Business and UPH Ltd, with engagements at board and senior-team level on leadership, strategy and cultural change. Authority on human factors and safety culture, built on MoD programme leadership that won the Flight International Aerospace Industry Award for Training and Safety. Academic standing that supports the commercial work: former Chair of the Association of MBAs, Visiting Professor at Kingston Business School, Honorary Doctorate of Education from the University of Bedfordshire. Co-author of Tornado Down, a Sunday Times No. 1 bestseller, and Team Tornado, with a BAFTA-nominated documentary in the same body of work. Biography highlights Former Royal Air Force Squadron Leader and Tornado GR1 pilot, shot down on the opening day of the 1991 Gulf War and held as a prisoner of war for seven weeks. Co-author of Tornado Down (Sunday Times No. 1 bestseller) and Team Tornado, with John Nichol. Subject of Cutting Edge: Tornado Down, BAFTA-nominated and Independent Documentary of the Year. Founder and owner of Monkey Business, a leadership and strategy consultancy working with senior teams since 2009; founder of UPH Ltd in 2000. Former Chair of the Association of MBAs; Visiting Professor at Kingston Business School; Associate Professor at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration in Moscow. Honorary Doctorate of Education, University of Bedfordshire (2022). Biography A Tornado GR1 was shot down over Iraq on the opening day of Operation Desert Storm in January 1991. The two crew members, John Peters and his navigator John Nichol, were captured, interrogated and held for seven weeks. The bruised image of Peters on Iraqi state television became one of the defining pictures of the war. That experience is the entry point, not the conclusion. Peters returned to RAF service, then led Ministry of Defence work on aviation safety and human error, including a Human Factors Cultural Change Programme recognised by the Flight International Aerospace Industry Award for Training and Safety. The interest is consistent: how groups of capable people make sound decisions when stakes rise and information thins. Since leaving the RAF in 2000, Peters has worked with senior business teams on the same question, first through UPH Ltd and from 2009 through his consultancy Monkey Business. The frame is practical. Leadership behaviour, team trust and clarity of intent are treated as performance variables, observed and adjusted, not virtues to be admired. The academic work runs alongside the commercial. Peters chaired the Association of MBAs, holds a Visiting Professorship at Kingston Business School and an Associate Professorship at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration in Moscow, and received an Honorary Doctorate of Education from the University of Bedfordshire in 2022. Tornado Down, written with Nichol, remains a Sunday Times No. 1 bestseller and the basis of a BAFTA-nominated documentary. Key speaking topics Leadership under sustained pressure Resilience and recovery after acute setbacks High-performing teams in high-stakes environments Decision-making with incomplete information Human factors and safety culture Cultural change in complex organisations Accountability and personal responsibility Ideal for Boards and executive committees taking on a major change, integration or operational risk CEOs and senior leadership teams stress-testing how they make decisions under load Heads of safety, operations and risk in regulated or safety-critical industries Leadership development and executive education programmes building resilience capability Audience outcomes A working language for what leadership actually looks like when conditions deteriorate A clearer view of how teams hold or lose their composure when judgement is under strain Specific reference points for handling fear, ambiguity and reputational exposure inside a senior team A first-hand case in human factors and safety culture that is hard to obtain from any other source Renewed conviction about the cost of avoiding hard conversations before they become forced

Why organisations work with John Volanthen He has operated at the point where a wrong call costs lives, and can describe the actual mechanics of how a small team made decisions inside Tham Luang when the engineered solutions had run out. George Medal recipient and one of National Geographic’s 2019 Adventurers of the Year: the credentials behind his keynote are not anecdotal, they are state-recognised and internationally documented. His thinking is engineered, not motivational. A working IT consultant who designs his own rebreathers and mapping kit, he treats risk, redundancy and failure modes the way a serious technologist does. Author of “Thirteen Lessons that Saved Thirteen Lives,” a structured account of the rescue built around principles that map directly onto leadership, risk and team performance. Useful in rooms where the leadership question is concrete: how a team builds trust fast across strangers, agencies and disciplines, and keeps making rational decisions when the cost of error is no longer abstract. Biography highlights George Medal, 2019 New Year Honours, for the Tham Luang cave rescue. Named, with the rescue dive team, as one of National Geographic’s 2019 Adventurers of the Year. Royal Humane Society Bronze, Silver and Stanhope Gold medals; Scout Association Bronze Cross; Pride of Britain award. Honorary degree from the University of Bristol, awarded jointly with Rick Stanton in July 2022. World record holder for longest cave penetration dive at 8,800m in the Pozo Azul system, Spain. Author of “Thirteen Lessons that Saved Thirteen Lives: The Thai Cave Rescue” (Aurum Press, 2021). Biography On 2 July 2018, two British cave divers reached an air pocket nine days into a search inside the flooded Tham Luang cave system in northern Thailand. The voice on the now well-known footage, asking “How many of you?”, is John Volanthen’s. Twelve boys and their coach were alive. What happened next is taught in business schools as a case study in cross-agency coordination under extreme constraint. The rescue involved Thai Navy SEALs, foreign militaries, technical cave divers and medical specialists, working through a problem nobody had previously solved. Volanthen and his long-time partner Rick Stanton were the divers who carried children out, one at a time, through kilometres of submerged passage. The technical depth behind that decision-making is not accidental. Volanthen runs an IT consultancy in Bristol, has built and sold two technology businesses, and designs his own rebreathers, underwater mapping devices and communications systems. He approaches survival the way an engineer approaches a system: identify the failure modes, reduce them, accept the residual risk consciously. His book “Thirteen Lessons that Saved Thirteen Lives,” published by Aurum Press in 2021, frames the rescue as a sequence of decisions rather than a feat of nerve. He holds the George Medal, the highest civilian bravery award outside human conflict, alongside Royal Humane Society Bronze, Silver and Stanhope Gold medals. He was named one of National Geographic’s 2019 Adventurers of the Year, and received an honorary degree from the University of Bristol in 2022. He still cave-dives. He still does rescues, as a volunteer. Key speaking topics Decision-making under extreme constraint Risk, redundancy and failure modes Team trust across strangers and disciplines Crisis leadership in real conditions Performance under pressure Cross-agency coordination Ideal for Boards and executive teams preparing for genuinely high-stakes scenarios where preparation, not improvisation, is the deciding factor. CROs, heads of safety, and operational leaders who own consequences when systems fail. Senior leadership offsites focused on trust, judgement and decision quality under pressure. Audience outcomes A concrete account of how a small team made rational decisions inside Tham Luang when standard protocols had run out. A working model for thinking about risk, redundancy and acceptable failure modes that leaders can apply to their own operations. A clearer view of what builds trust quickly between people who have not worked together before. A reset on the difference between motivational courage and engineered preparation.

Why organisations work with Johnny Herbert A first-person account of returning to elite competition six months after doctors at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup debated amputating his foot, told without sentimentality and grounded in specific decisions. One of a small number of drivers to have won both the Le Mans 24 Hours and a Formula 1 Grand Prix, which gives credibility across endurance, sprint and team-strategy framings of high performance. Ten years of Sky Sports F1 punditry from 2012 to 2022 trained him to read a room, host live, and translate technical detail into clean narrative for non-specialist audiences. Seven F1 teams across a career: Benetton, Tyrrell, Lotus, Ligier, Sauber, Stewart and Jaguar. He has lived inside winning cultures and broken ones, and speaks to both honestly. Comfortable as awards host, Q&A guest, panel voice and after-dinner speaker, which makes him a flexible booking when the brief is engagement and presence rather than a fixed keynote. Biography highlights Three Formula 1 Grand Prix wins: 1995 British Grand Prix, 1995 Italian Grand Prix, 1999 European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring. Winner, 1991 Le Mans 24 Hours, with Mazda in the rotary-engined 787B alongside Bertrand Gachot and Volker Weidler. 161 Formula 1 starts across seven teams between 1989 and 2000, with seven podiums and 98 career points. British Formula 3 Champion 1987 with Eddie Jordan Racing. British Junior Karting Champion 1978. Le Mans Endurance Series Champion 2004 and Sebring 12 Hours winner 2002, both with Audi. Sky Sports F1 expert pundit and co-commentator, 2012 to 2022. Author of “What Doesn’t Kill You… My Life in Motor Racing”, published by Transworld. Biography The crash happened at Pilgrim’s Drop, Brands Hatch, on 21 August 1988. Herbert’s Reynard hit a bridge parapet, then a steel barrier. The medical team at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup discussed amputation. They told him his racing career was over. Six months later he was on the grid of the 1989 Brazilian Grand Prix in a Benetton, and finished fourth, eleven seconds behind Nigel Mansell. He could barely walk. The story of the next decade in Formula 1, including wins at Silverstone, Monza and the Nurburgring, sits inside that gap between the medical verdict and the result in Rio. The wider career is unusual in shape. Herbert raced for Benetton, Tyrrell, Lotus, Ligier, Sauber, Stewart and Jaguar across 161 Grand Prix starts. He won Le Mans for Mazda in 1991 in the 787B, the only Japanese car ever to take the overall victory, then went back and won the Le Mans Endurance Series for Audi in 2004 and Sebring in 2002. Few drivers have credibility across both the sprint and the endurance side of the sport. After racing, Sky Sports F1 hired him as a pundit from 2012 to 2022, a decade of live broadcasting on qualifying, races and analysis. The platform sharpened a public voice that had always been direct. His autobiography, “What Doesn’t Kill You… My Life in Motor Racing”, covers the team-mates, rivals and crashes in his own register: dry, specific, occasionally very funny. Key speaking topics Resilience and performance after serious injury Formula 1 strategy, drivers and team culture Endurance racing and the Le Mans 24 Hours High-pressure decision-making in motorsport Behind-the-scenes Formula 1 punditry and broadcasting After-dinner and awards hosting on motorsport themes Ideal for Corporate after-dinner audiences and awards evenings looking for a recognisable F1 name with broadcasting polish. Leadership and sales conferences using sport as an anchor for resilience, comeback and team-culture themes. Automotive, motorsport sponsor and engineering events where technical and team detail land with credibility. Q&A formats and on-stage interviews where the host wants a guest who can carry a room without a scripted keynote. Audience outcomes A specific, first-person account of returning to elite sport from career-ending injury, drawn from Herbert’s own experience rather than borrowed examples. Insider perspective on Formula 1 team cultures across seven different constructors, including Benetton in its title-winning years. Stories of racing alongside Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna, Damon Hill, Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell, with named context rather than generic anecdote. A read on how live broadcasting shapes how a sport is understood, drawn from a decade inside the Sky Sports F1 commentary team.

Why organisations work with Jon Acuff He brings original research, not commentary. The Soundtracks framework is built on a study of 10,000 participants run with researcher Mike Peasley, PhD, which gives leaders a defensible behavioural model rather than a motivational pep talk. Finish is a Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller built around a specific, uncomfortable data point: most goals fail in the middle, not the start. Teams leave with a method for surviving the middle of any initiative. He is one of Inc. Magazine’s Top 100 Leadership Speakers and a repeat keynote at FedEx, Walmart, Microsoft, Nissan, Lockheed Martin, Chick-fil-A and Nokia, which means his frameworks have already been pressure-tested inside large, complex workforces. His sessions convert into language a workforce can use the next morning. Soundtracks, Finish, Do Over and All It Takes Is a Goal each give teams named tools they can apply without a consultant in the room. He is funny in a way that lowers defences without lowering the bar. Senior audiences engage with behavioural content they would normally resist when it arrives as a slide titled “mindset”. Biography highlights New York Times bestselling author of Soundtracks, Finish, Start, Do Over, and All It Takes Is a Goal. Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done was a #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller. Named to Inc. Magazine’s Top 100 Leadership Speakers list. Keynote client list includes FedEx, Walmart, Microsoft, Nissan, Lockheed Martin, Chick-fil-A, Nokia and Comedy Central. Soundtracks framework built on a 10,000-participant study of overthinking conducted with Mike Peasley, PhD. Host of the All It Takes Is a Goal podcast; earlier career as a copywriter for The Home Depot, Bose, and Staples, and three years as a touring speaker at Dave Ramsey’s Lampo Group. Biography Most large organisations do not have a strategy problem. They have a finishing problem. Goals are set in January and re-set in July. Initiatives stall in the middle. Smart teams overthink themselves to a stop. The work that gets booked is the work that helps a workforce close the gap between intention and execution, which is the territory Jon Acuff has spent two decades inside. His method is built on research, not anecdote. The Soundtracks framework, published in the bestselling book of the same name, was developed alongside researcher Mike Peasley, PhD, using a study of 10,000 participants on how overthinking degrades performance. Finish, his Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller, sits on a similar evidence base and reframes goal failure as a problem of the middle, not the start. Soundtracks, Finish, Start, Do Over and All It Takes Is a Goal have collectively crossed a million copies in print. Inc. Magazine ranks him among its Top 100 Leadership Speakers, and the keynote client list reads like a stress test of the work itself: FedEx, Walmart, Microsoft, Nissan, Lockheed Martin, Chick-fil-A, Nokia, Comedy Central. He came to the stage through an unusual route, beginning as a copywriter for The Home Depot, Bose and Staples, then spending three years at Dave Ramsey’s Lampo Group, before going independent in 2013. What makes the work usable is the language. A workforce cannot run on a 200-page model. It can run on a phrase like “retire the broken soundtrack” or a tool like the Finish principle of choosing what to do imperfectly. Acuff’s audiences leave with named tools that survive the trip back to the desk on Monday morning. Key speaking topics Overthinking and decision-making Goal completion and follow-through Performance and motivation in large workforces Behaviour change at scale Resilience through career and role transitions Leadership communication and storytelling Ideal for CHROs and people leaders running annual goal-setting, performance, or engagement cycles. Sales and revenue leaders preparing kick-offs that need execution lift, not just energy. Transformation and change leads inside large workforces where initiative fatigue is a real risk. Annual all-hands and leadership conferences for organisations of 1,000-plus employees. Audience outcomes A working vocabulary for the overthinking patterns slowing teams down, drawn from the Soundtracks research. A repeatable method for finishing initiatives in the messy middle, taken from the Finish framework. Named tools, not abstractions, that managers can use in one-to-ones the following week. A measurable shift in how a workforce talks about goals, motivation, and personal accountability. Confidence that a serious behavioural message can land in a room without losing its evidence base.

Why organisations work with Jonathan Edwards A world record that has stood since 1995 gives him a rare authority on what it actually takes to perform at the top of a discipline, not a generic story about effort. He is a working broadcaster, not a retired athlete reading from cue cards. His BBC and Eurosport background carries directly into hosting awards nights, conferences and panel discussions with credibility on camera and on stage. His career arc covers Olympic gold, Olympic silver, a long stretch of injury and doubt, and a full second career in media. That gives him real material on the difference between winning once and staying competitive. He has worked at the centre of major institutional sport, from the LOCOG board for London 2012 to his current ambassador role with The R&A, which makes him comfortable in front of senior, formal audiences. Biography highlights Olympic triple jump gold medallist, Sydney 2000, and Olympic silver medallist, Atlanta 1996. World Championship gold, Gothenburg 1995, where he broke the world record twice in a single competition. Triple jump world record holder at 18.29m, set on 7 August 1995, still unbeaten three decades later. BBC Sports Personality of the Year 1995. CBE in 2001, MBE in 1996. BBC athletics commentator and presenter, anchoring the BBC’s athletics coverage at the London 2012 Olympic Games before joining Eurosport. London 2012 Olympic Ambassador and athletes’ representative on the London Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Global Development Ambassador for The R&A, with an active public role around The Open Championship. Biography The triple jump world record fell twice in twenty minutes at the 1995 World Championships in Gothenburg. Both jumps were Jonathan Edwards’s. The second, 18.29m, has not been beaten in more than thirty years and is one of the longest-standing records in track and field. What sits underneath that mark is more useful for a business audience than the mark itself. Edwards spent years as a quietly talented British triple jumper who refused to compete on Sundays on religious grounds and seemed unlikely to convert that talent into titles. The breakthrough came late, sustained execution came later still, and Olympic gold in Sydney arrived in 2000, five years after the world record. The arc from talent to record to gold was not a straight line, and he is direct about that. The second career matters as much as the first for the way organisations use him. As a BBC athletics commentator he anchored the corporation’s coverage of London 2012, and his broadcasting work has continued at Eurosport. That experience translates directly into the hosting, moderating and on-stage interviewing brief that most clients book him for. He is comfortable in front of a live, senior audience because he has done it for two decades on television. He has also held formal roles at the centre of British and global sport. He sat on the LOCOG board as the athletes’ representative for London 2012, served as an Olympic Ambassador for the Games, and currently works as a Global Development Ambassador for The R&A around The Open Championship. The result is a speaker who carries the weight of an undefeated world record, the polish of a working broadcaster, and the institutional credibility of long service inside major sporting bodies. Key speaking topics Peak performance under pressure Mental approach to competition Sustained excellence across a career Hosting and moderating major business events Awards presenting and after-dinner speaking Olympic and elite sport insight Resilience through setback and reinvention Ideal for Corporate awards nights, gala dinners and conferences needing a recognisable host with broadcast experience. Leadership offsites and sales kick-offs that want a credible peak performance keynote rather than a generic motivational slot. Boards and senior teams looking to interview a world-class performer on stage, with a moderator who can carry the room. Audience outcomes A clear sense of what world-class performance actually demands, told through one of athletics’ most-studied careers. Concrete language for talking about pressure, preparation and the gap between training and competition. A useful frame for thinking about long careers, where the second act often matters more than the first. A polished, professionally hosted event when he is engaged in a moderating or presenting capacity.

Why organisations work with Jonathan Morgan He took Leicester City Women from a regional fourth tier into the FA Women’s Super League, a multi-season programme of promotion and culture change that maps directly onto how organisations actually move performance. He carries the LMA Championship Manager of the Year award for the 2020–21 season, a peer-judged recognition from the body that governs professional football management in England. He speaks from the manager’s chair rather than the player’s, which is unusual in the sport-to-business category and more useful to executives running teams of their own. His media work for BBC Radio Leicester and Sky Sports has trained him to deliver tactical analysis in plain language to non-specialist audiences, which carries directly into corporate stages. Biography highlights Head coach, Sheffield United Women (2023–2024). Head coach, Burnley Women (2022–2023); team unbeaten for the first 16 league matches of the season. Head coach, Leicester City Women (2014–2021); led the club from FA Women’s Midlands Division One into the FA Women’s Super League for 2021–22. LMA Championship Manager of the Year, 2020–21. UEFA A Licence holder; UEFA Pro Licence candidate. Co-commentator for BBC Radio Leicester and pundit work for Sky Sports. Biography Leicester City Women were a regional side outside the top three tiers of English football when Jonathan Morgan took over as head coach in 2014. Seven seasons later they were in the FA Women’s Super League for the first time, with Morgan named LMA Championship Manager of the Year for the 2020–21 promotion campaign. That arc is the substance of what he carries into a business room. Building a senior team across a long programme of promotions, in a sport where budgets, scrutiny and the public scoreline all move at the same time, is closer to what most executives are trying to do than a single championship-winning season tends to be. He has held head coach roles since at Burnley Women, where his side began the 2022–23 campaign on a 16-match unbeaten league run, and at Sheffield United Women. Alongside the coaching career he has worked as a co-commentator for BBC Radio Leicester and as a Sky Sports pundit, which shapes the way he speaks on stage: a manager’s read of the game in language a non-specialist can follow. The corporate brief he handles best is leadership under pressure: how to hold a group together through losing periods, how to absorb scrutiny without losing the room, and how to plan a multi-year build when the league table will not wait for you. Key speaking topics Leadership under pressure Building a high-performing team from a low base Culture and standards inside elite sport Managing scrutiny and external noise Decision-making in losing periods Long-cycle programmes and promotion campaigns Communication and man-management Ideal for Sales and operational leaders running teams through long performance cycles. Executive offsites and conferences where leadership is the headline theme. After-dinner audiences at sector conferences and customer events. HR and people directors examining culture-building inside high-pressure teams. Audience outcomes A working picture of how an elite coach handles losing weeks, public criticism and squad morale at the same time. Specific examples from an FA Women’s Super League promotion campaign, with the decisions and trade-offs named. A usable language for talking about standards and culture inside a team, rather than as a slogan on a wall. A view of leadership from the manager’s seat, not the player’s, that translates more directly to the audience’s own roles.

Why organisations work with Jonnie Peacock The credibility behind his pressure narrative is specific. He won the London 2012 Paralympic 100m in front of 80,000 people, at 19, as the home favourite, having been largely unknown twelve months earlier. The preparation-to-execution discipline he describes is grounded in that exact moment, and he makes it concrete for business audiences in ways retrospective case studies cannot. His Strictly Come Dancing appearance was a deliberate disability advocacy strategy, not a media opportunity. He has described it publicly as a specific effort to shift mainstream perception of disability, which gives organisations working on inclusion a frame grounded in personal agency rather than policy or HR language. He has won at the highest level and lost at the highest level: two Paralympic golds, a bronze when gold was expected at Tokyo 2020, and a fifth place at Paris 2024 after a career as the public face of British Paralympic sprinting. His account of managing that full arc is something few performance speakers can draw on with equivalent specificity. His Channel 4 series Jonnie’s Blade Camp placed him in a structured coaching role with five young amputees, demonstrating that his performance insight has been tested and applied beyond his own biography. Competing at four Paralympic Games across twelve years, he provides a long-cycle view of high performance: managing injury, rival pressure, public expectation, and identity shift across a career, not just the story of a single peak moment. Biography highlights Two-time Paralympic 100m champion (London 2012, Rio 2016); bronze medallist T64 100m Tokyo 2020; silver medallist 4x100m Universal Relay at Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 World champion at the IPC Athletics World Championships, Lyon 2013, and the World Para Athletics Championships, London 2017; multiple European champion; former world record holder in amputee sprinting (10.85 seconds) MBE for services to athletics, 2013 New Year Honours First amputee Paralympian to compete on BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing (Series 15, 2017), partnered with Oti Mabuse Featured in the Netflix documentary Rising Phoenix (2020) and Channel 4’s “Meet the Superhumans” campaign (2012) Creator and presenter of Channel 4’s Jonnie’s Blade Camp (2021), a structured training programme for young amputees Biography At the 2012 London Paralympic 100m final, a 19-year-old largely unknown twelve months earlier stood behind the start line as the home favourite, in a stadium of 80,000 people. Jonnie Peacock won by a clear margin and set a Paralympic record. The insight that produces is not just biographical. Performing consistently when pressure is highest is one of the hardest things organisations ask of their people. Peacock is a two-time Paralympic 100m champion and former world record holder in amputee sprinting, with medals at three of the four Paralympic Games he has competed in across twelve years. His Channel 4 series Jonnie’s Blade Camp placed him in a structured coaching environment with five young amputees, demonstrating that his understanding of performance development has been applied in a formal teaching context, not only in his own career. His mainstream media presence reflects a deliberate strategy. He became the first amputee Paralympian on BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing in 2017, a decision he has described publicly as an act of disability advocacy rather than entertainment. He features in the Netflix documentary Rising Phoenix and was at the centre of Channel 4’s “Meet the Superhumans” campaign in 2012, both of which sit inside the wider argument about how disability is perceived in high-performance sport. The story underneath all of this is not decorative. Peacock contracted meningitis at five and lost his right leg below the knee. He found athletics through a Paralympic talent identification day and became Paralympic champion in his first competitive senior season. His argument to organisations rests on that arc: the gap between preparation and peak execution under genuine pressure is real, and it can be closed. Key speaking topics Performance under pressure Resilience and adversity recovery Elite competitive mindset Disability and inclusion High-performance team discipline Managing expectation in high-stakes moments Long-cycle career performance Ideal for Executive and leadership teams focused on consistency, decision-making, and execution under scrutiny Organisations running DEI programmes seeking inclusion framed through personal agency and elite performance evidence Commercial, sales, and competitive teams preparing for high-stakes pitches or critical competitive moments HR and people leaders building resilience and wellbeing strategies with credible, first-hand evidence Audience outcomes A first-hand account of what mental preparation for maximum-pressure performance feels like, grounded in verified results across four Paralympic Games Sharper distinction between building capability in training and executing consistently when real scrutiny arrives Disability reframed as competitive capability, evidenced through elite sport rather than policy language Greater clarity on managing external expectation from rivals, public audiences, and an organisation’s own culture A longer view of high performance: how to absorb setback, return to competition, and sustain standards across a career

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

Why organisations work with Jordan Banjo A live broadcaster’s instinct for pace, autocue, links and crowd energy, built across Got to Dance, The Greatest Dancer, Dancing On Ice and the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards Five years of daily live radio hosting on KISS Breakfast, the discipline that translates most directly into running a long awards show without the room flagging Recognition that travels across audiences from boardrooms to family-facing events, anchored to Diversity’s 2009 Britain’s Got Talent win and a continuous national TV presence since A second register beyond hosting: a personal arc through Diversity, family, weight loss and a current move into competitive boxing with DAZN, available where a brief calls for motivational content rather than presenting Biography highlights Founding member of Diversity, winners of Britain’s Got Talent series 3 (2009) Co-host of KISS Breakfast with Perri Kiely, 2020 to January 2026 TV credits include Got to Dance, The Greatest Dancer, Dancing On Ice digital, Eat Well For Less, and the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards UK Runner-up on I’m a Celebrity: South Africa All-Stars (2023); previously a series 16 contestant (2016) On-screen presenter for DAZN boxing coverage Co-author with Ashley Banjo of the children’s books Fly High Crew and The Day We Saved The Future Biography Diversity walked onto Britain’s Got Talent in 2009 as an unknown street dance group from Essex and walked off as the winners of the series. Jordan Banjo, then sixteen, was the youngest on stage. The group has remained a fixture of British popular culture ever since, and Banjo has built the broadest broadcasting career of any of its original members. Most of that career has been live. Got to Dance on Sky, The Greatest Dancer on BBC One, Dancing On Ice digital for ITV, Eat Well For Less, and the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards UK have all required the same skill: keep a room or a camera on rhythm without losing the audience. Five years of daily breakfast radio on KISS, alongside Perri Kiely, sharpened it further. For corporate buyers, the value is straightforward. A host with this volume of live-television and live-radio reps does not freeze on a long running order, does not over-talk a sponsor read, and does not let an awards show drift in the second hour. The face is recognisable to a broad audience, which matters when the brief includes family events, consumer-facing brand moments or all-staff celebrations rather than narrow C-suite rooms. Where a brief asks for content rather than hosting, Banjo can speak from his own arc: the discipline of a winning team rebuilt year after year, public weight loss, family, fatherhood, and a current move into the boxing ring with DAZN, following his father Funso Banjo, a former professional fighter. Key speaking topics Awards and conference hosting Live event presenting Team performance, drawn from Diversity Personal motivation and reinvention Family, fitness and boxing Brand and audience engagement on camera Ideal for Internal all-staff conferences and end-of-year celebrations needing a recognisable host Awards nights and gala dinners requiring a broadcast-trained presenter Consumer brand events targeting family and mainstream UK audiences Sponsorship activations and product launches with on-camera elements Audience outcomes A live event run at television pace, with cleaner cues and tighter links Higher audience energy across long-form running orders, particularly in the second half A recognisable on-stage face that broadens the room beyond a purely corporate audience Where booked as content, a personal story of team success, public scrutiny and physical reinvention