Peak Performance

Why organisations work with Roberto Forzoni Authored the textbook the Football Association embedded into its national coaching curriculum (The Official FA Guide to Psychology for Football, Hodder, 2004). The intellectual model has been tested at scale across FA coach education, not only in private practice. Built the “Team Murray” multidisciplinary support model during his tenure as National Performance Psychologist at the Lawn Tennis Association, 2007 to 2009. The structure has since been adopted by other federations and players as a template. Has done the hands-on work alongside the consultancy. First-team coaching roles under Steve Coppell at Crystal Palace, Brentford and Brighton; performance psychology at West Ham United, Southampton, Charlton and Norwich City. He has been in the dressing room when pressure broke a team and when it did not. Holds an MSc in Sport Sciences (Distinction) from Brunel University and BASES accreditation, with applied training in CBT, motivational interviewing and solution-focused practice. The clinical depth is unusual for a performance speaker. Standing BBC consultant on performance and mindset for more than two decades, with further contributions on Sky and Al Jazeera. The perspective has been publicly tested over time, not assembled for the stage. Biography highlights Lead author of The Official FA Guide to Psychology for Football (Hodder & Stoughton, 2004), embedded by the Football Association into its national coaching curriculum. National Performance Psychologist at the Lawn Tennis Association from 2007 to 2009. Created the “Team Murray” multidisciplinary support model during Andy Murray’s early Grand Slam years. First-team coaching and performance psychology roles across eight Premier League clubs, including West Ham United, Southampton, Brentford, Brighton, Crystal Palace, Charlton Athletic and Norwich City. MSc Sport Sciences (Distinction), Brunel University. BASES-accredited Sport Psychologist, with further training in CBT, motivational interviewing and solution-focused practice. BBC consultant on performance and mindset across BBC TV and BBC Radio for more than two decades, with further contributions on Sky and Al Jazeera. Psychological coach to Olympic and World Championship athletes, including heavyweight Derek Chisora’s preparation for his title fight against Tyson Fury and Olympic sprinter Ashleigh Nelson. Biography The West Ham squad that brought in Roberto Forzoni as performance psychologist was running a 23% win rate. Nine games later, after the team had completed a Premier League double over both Manchester United and Arsenal, the win rate sat at 78%. The intervention was psychological. That kind of recovery has shown up repeatedly across Forzoni’s thirty years inside elite sport. He has held first-team coaching and performance psychology roles at eight Premier League clubs, including West Ham United, Southampton, Brentford and Crystal Palace. He prepared heavyweight Derek Chisora for the title fight against Tyson Fury, and built the “Team Murray” multidisciplinary model during Andy Murray’s early years on the tour. The published work sits in football. Forzoni is the lead author of The Official FA Guide to Psychology for Football, the textbook the Football Association embedded into its coach education programme in 2004. The intellectual base draws on an MSc in Sport Sciences (Distinction) from Brunel University, BASES accreditation, and applied training in CBT and solution-focused practice. More than two decades of BBC consultancy on performance and mindset have put the perspective into wide public circulation. What Forzoni brings into a corporate room is a particular reading of senior team behaviour under pressure. The patterns he watches for were diagnosed in dressing rooms and on Centre Court. Composure narrows under scrutiny. Strong personalities stop bringing their best to the group when results turn. For Forzoni, these are coachable problems, drawn from the same evidence base a relegation-threatened Premier League squad would use. Key speaking topics Performance psychology Team dynamics under pressure Composure and emotional regulation in senior leadership Recovery from public setback Mindset and behavioural change in elite environments Wellbeing and sustained performance Ideal for Senior leadership teams under sustained external scrutiny or after a publicly visible setback CEOs and executive committees in restructure, post-merger integration or change cycles, where the constraint has become team behaviour CHROs and L&D directors building team-effectiveness and resilience programmes for senior talent High-stakes client-facing teams in sales, professional services and trading environments Audience outcomes A specific language for the behaviours that hold a team together under pressure and the behaviours that split it apart The techniques used inside Premier League dressing rooms and Grand Slam tennis to regulate nerves and recover after a public setback An honest read of the gap between a leadership team’s stated values and how it actually behaves when results stall Composure approached as a deliberate behaviour leaders can train, with specific drills Forzoni uses inside elite sport The discipline of asking “Did I work as hard as I could today?” as a daily performance check, a question Forzoni draws from elite athletes

Why organisations work with Rhys Jones He has turned back 200 metres from a summit in order to get a team home safely. That experience anchors his safety leadership work: he speaks credibly to the hardest call in any high-risk operation, which is stopping a job when stopping is the right answer. INEOS is the documented engagement. Jim Ratcliffe (then INEOS Chairman) sponsored his record-setting Everest climb in 2006, and the relationship developed into operational work, including a four-presentation programme for INEOS Olefins and Polymers in Texas. That is a reference a buyer can verify directly. The world record is documented and time-stamped. He completed the Seven Summits on his 20th birthday in May 2006 and held the title as the youngest in the world until Jordan Romero broke it in December 2011. The dates and the climb logs are public. He still runs an active expedition company. Monix Adventures, which he co-founded with his wife Laura, operates today as a luxury expedition and adventure travel business, so his material draws on current operational mountaineering rather than a single career-defining climb. His safety presentations are built around the recurring root causes of preventable injuries. Audiences come away with usable observations on team behaviour and the cultural habits that show up consistently in safer operations. Biography highlights Held the world record as the youngest person to climb the Seven Summits, completing the challenge on his 20th birthday in May 2006; record stood until December 2011. Set two earlier records on the way: youngest Briton to summit Mt McKinley (Denali) at age 17, and youngest summiteer of Mount Vinson in Antarctica at age 19. Everest expedition sponsored by INEOS, with public endorsement from Jim Ratcliffe at the time of the climb. 2007 expedition to South East Greenland produced first ascents of four previously unclimbed peaks. 2014 self-supported ski mountaineering ascent of Gunnbjorn Fjeld, the highest mountain in the Arctic, with his wife Laura. Co-founder of Monix Adventures, a luxury expedition and adventure travel company; documented safety leadership engagement with INEOS, including a four-presentation programme for INEOS Olefins and Polymers in Texas. Biography Organisations in oil and gas, construction, and aviation have written every safety procedure that needs writing. The injuries that still happen on site come from judgment under pressure and team behaviour in the moment a decision is taken. That is the territory Rhys Jones works in. Jones brings a specific source of authority to the conversation. In May 2006, on his 20th birthday, he became the youngest person in the world to climb the Seven Summits, holding the record until Jordan Romero broke it in 2011. The route there included two earlier records: youngest Briton up Denali at 17, and youngest summiteer of Mount Vinson in Antarctica at 19. INEOS sponsored the final Everest climb, beginning a corporate relationship that would later extend into his speaking work. What is distinctive is how he uses the experience. The talks are organised around moments of decision under stress. The central case is a climb on which he turned back 200 metres short of the top because conditions did not justify the final push. That kind of call is the central problem in safety culture, and the hardest thing to deliver in the moment. Today Jones runs Monix Adventures with his wife Laura, a luxury expedition company that takes private clients and corporate teams into the mountains. The speaking work sits alongside that. His longest documented client relationship is with INEOS, beginning with the company’s sponsorship of his Everest climb in 2006 and continuing through to a four-presentation programme for the Olefins and Polymers division in Texas. Key speaking topics Safety leadership in high-risk industries Decision-making and risk management under pressure Team behaviour in safety-critical operations Operational resilience and goal-setting Wellbeing and personal achievement Inspirational and after-dinner speaking Ideal for Heads of HSE and operations leaders in oil and gas, construction, infrastructure, and aviation Frontline supervisors and site teams in safety-critical industries who need a credible voice on the human factors behind preventable injuries Senior leadership offsites where the brief is risk decision-making, team accountability, and resilience Annual sales kick-offs, after-dinner engagements, and award ceremonies that need a credible keynote on goals and discipline Audience outcomes A grounded picture of where preventable injuries actually originate, framed around the recurring judgment and team-behaviour patterns that show up in incident analysis. The language and the standing to stop a job when conditions have changed, including who in a chain of command has the authority to make that call. Specific moments from extreme mountaineering that map onto high-risk industrial operations, useful as reference points in safety conversations afterwards. Stories from current expedition work that connect personal goal-setting and recovery habits to sustained performance at work.

Why organisations work with Rasmus Ankersen He has actually built the model he talks about. As chairman of FC Midtjylland, the club won three Danish Superliga titles using a data-led recruitment and set-piece method that was later studied across European football. His book The Gold Mine Effect is grounded in seven months of field research inside the world’s most productive talent ecosystems, from Brazilian football academies to Ethiopian distance running, not a desk study of secondary literature. Through Sport Republic, he runs a multi-club investment platform now controlling Southampton FC and Goztepe SK, so the lens on capital allocation, scouting markets and downside management is operational, not theoretical. He gives boards a vocabulary for the awkward conversation about success: how organisations stop learning the moment results turn positive, and what to do about it before the next cycle. Biography highlights Co-founder and CEO of Sport Republic, owner of Southampton FC and majority owner of Goztepe SK. Co-director of football at Brentford FC, 2015 to 2020, the platform that produced Premier League promotion in 2021. Chairman of FC Midtjylland during a period that included Danish Superliga titles in 2015, 2018 and 2020. Author of The Gold Mine Effect (Icon Books, 2012) and Hunger in Paradise (2016). TEDxManchester speaker on football analytics applied to organisational decision-making. Has delivered keynotes for LEGO, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Boston Consulting Group, Roche, AstraZeneca, Coca-Cola and Cisco. Biography Brentford were a mid-table Championship club when Matthew Benham, Rasmus Ankersen and a small analytics team set out to build a Premier League squad without Premier League money. The same logic was applied at FC Midtjylland in Denmark. Both clubs went on to win, repeatedly, against opponents with bigger budgets and longer histories. That track record is the foundation of Ankersen’s argument to corporate audiences. The bias to overvalue established names and undervalue evidence is not a football problem. It is a recruiting problem, a capital allocation problem, and a strategy problem. His book The Gold Mine Effect, published in 2012 after seven months living inside elite training environments from Kenya to Brazil, makes the case that performance hotbeds are produced, not discovered. His second book, Hunger in Paradise, takes the harder question. Why do successful organisations stop learning. He frames complacency as the silent failure mode of a winning strategy, and argues that the work of leadership is to keep the system honest after the results turn good. The thesis has resonated with senior teams at LEGO, Google, BCG, Roche and others who have brought him in. Today he runs Sport Republic, the investment vehicle that acquired Southampton FC in 2022 and now operates a multi-club model across England, Turkey and Belgium. The day job means his frameworks are tested in real time, against real capital, in one of the most ruthless performance markets there is. Key speaking topics High-performance culture Talent identification and development Data-driven decision-making Avoiding complacency in successful organisations Performance environments and ecosystems Lessons from elite sport for business Leadership and decision-making under pressure Ideal for CEOs and executive teams in scaled organisations entering a new performance cycle CHROs and talent leaders rebuilding recruitment and assessment models Strategy and corporate development leaders responsible for capital allocation and M&A Boards examining why a winning strategy is starting to plateau Audience outcomes A sharper view of where the organisation is overpaying for proven names and underinvesting in evidence. A working definition of complacency that can be diagnosed in the business, not just lamented. Concrete examples of how data and judgement combine in high-stakes decisions, drawn from Brentford, Midtjylland and Southampton. A reframing of what a “performance environment” is, and why most attempts to import one fail.

Why organisations work with Pierluigi Collina He is the only figure in global sport who achieved celebrity status not as a player or coach but as the person whose sole function was to make consequential public judgments under pressure – his perspective on authority and decision-making has no direct equivalent in the business speaker market. His post-playing career adds institutional weight that most performance speakers cannot match: two decades in senior governance roles across Serie A, UEFA, and FIFA, including leading the global implementation of VAR – the most disruptive change to officiating rules in the sport’s history. My Rules of the Game, translated into more than ten languages across twenty countries, demonstrates that his framework for elite performance and disciplined decision-making has cross-cultural resonance far beyond football. His economics background (cum laude, University of Bologna) and career as a financial consultant mean his analytical lens on preparation, risk, and judgment is grounded in professional rigour, not athletic instinct alone. For organisations working through governance reform, accountability culture, or leadership under scrutiny, he offers a case study of sustained credibility at the highest levels of a globally watched, deeply contested environment. Biography highlights Refereed the 2002 FIFA World Cup Final (Brazil v Germany), the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final (Manchester United v Bayern Munich), the 1996 Olympic Games Final, and the 2004 UEFA Cup Final Named IFFHS World’s Best Referee for six consecutive years, 1998–2003; Serie A Referee of the Year six times Chairman of the FIFA Referees Committee since January 2017; previously UEFA Chief Refereeing Officer and Chairman of the Referees Committee (2010–2018); Chairman of the Serie A referees committee (2007–2010) Led preparation and training of referees for VAR introduction at the 2018 FIFA World Cup Author of My Rules of the Game (Macmillan, 2003), translated into more than ten languages across twenty countries Economics graduate cum laude, University of Bologna; former professional financial consultant Appointed Commendatore of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (2003); Honorary Doctor of Science, University of Hull (2004) Biography Making a decision that 1.2 billion people will immediately scrutinise is not a leadership metaphor. For Pierluigi Collina, it was the 2002 FIFA World Cup Final – the most-watched sporting event on the planet, and the last in a career that also included the 1999 Champions League Final and the 1996 Olympic Games Final. What those moments produced was not simply a record of high-profile matches, but a working methodology for sustained authority under conditions of total public exposure. Collina was named IFFHS World’s Best Referee six consecutive years from 1998 to 2003 – a period that also produced My Rules of the Game, his account of the preparation, discipline, and judgment required to perform at the top of an intensely adversarial profession. Translated into more than ten languages across twenty countries, the book demonstrated that his thinking on decision-making under pressure had relevance well beyond the sport. His economics degree cum laude from the University of Bologna and a parallel career as a financial consultant are consistent with a mind that approached officiating analytically, not intuitively. His retirement from the pitch in 2005 opened a second, structurally significant chapter. He led the Serie A referees committee, moved to UEFA as Chief Refereeing Officer, and since January 2017 has served as Chairman of the FIFA Referees Committee. In that role, he was central to the design and implementation of VAR – the most consequential change to football’s decision-making infrastructure in modern times – preparing referees globally for a system that required them to re-examine, in public and in real time, decisions already made. For organisations grappling with accountability culture, judgment under scrutiny, and the conditions under which authority holds – or fails – Collina brings something rare: not a sporting story applied to business by analogy, but a career-long, institutionally tested practice of making high-consequence decisions when the cost of error is immediate and the audience is watching every call. Key speaking topics Decision-making under public scrutiny Authority, credibility, and trust in leadership Performance preparation and elite standards Governance and institutional integrity Conflict management and de-escalation Accountability and rule-based leadership Technology-led change in high-stakes environments Ideal for Senior leadership teams navigating high-visibility, high-accountability environments Boards and governance professionals addressing decision-making culture and institutional integrity C-suite and executive development programmes focused on judgment, authority, and performance under pressure Transformation leads and HR directors building accountability frameworks within complex organisations Audience outcomes A structured understanding of how preparation, not instinct, is the foundation of sound judgment under pressure Practical perspectives on how authority is built and maintained – and the specific behaviours that erode it A framework for making and communicating consequential decisions in ways that command trust rather than invite challenge Clearer thinking on the relationship between governance structures and individual performance standards Concrete examples of how high-stakes decision-making principles from elite sport translate to organisational and leadership contexts

Why organisations work with Peter Schmeichel Captained Manchester United to the 1999 Treble, the most successful season in the club’s history. The lessons from holding that dressing room together speak directly to what ‘team first’ demands of senior people when stakes are public. Delivered the opening keynote at IMD Business School’s flagship Orchestrating Winning Performance programme to more than 400 senior executives. Few former athletes are invited onto that platform, and the appearance gives the corporate content genuine business-school provenance. Played twenty-two years at top-flight football across England, Denmark and Portugal, winning major titles in three different leagues. The perspective is built on a long career across changing teams and competitions, not a single peak. Goalkeeping is the most unforgiving position in elite team sport. Every mistake is visible and there is nowhere to hide. The lessons on composure and accountability under that exposure carry into senior leadership without strain. Biography highlights Captained Manchester United to victory in the 1999 UEFA Champions League final, completing the club’s only Treble of Premier League, FA Cup and European Cup. Won the UEFA European Championship with Denmark in 1992, defeating Germany in the final after the Danish squad entered as late replacements for Yugoslavia. Voted IFFHS World’s Best Goalkeeper in 1992 and 1993 and named in the FIFA 100 list of 125 greatest living footballers in 2004. Earned 129 caps for Denmark between 1987 and 2001, the Danish national-team caps record for more than two decades. Inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2003 and awarded an honorary MBE in the 2001 New Year Honours. Has worked as a football pundit and analyst for the BBC, the Premier League Channel, CBS Sports and FOX Sports, where he joined the studio for UEFA Euro 2024. Biography Manchester United were a goal down in the 1999 Champions League final with two minutes left. They scored twice in stoppage time and won the European Cup. Peter Schmeichel, captain that night, lifted the trophy in his last game for the club. Those eight years yielded five Premier League titles, three FA Cups and a Champions League. He was twice voted the world’s best goalkeeper. The trophy count is the headline. Holding standards in that dressing room under Sir Alex Ferguson for nearly a decade is the harder achievement. IMD Business School invited him to translate that experience when he opened its flagship Orchestrating Winning Performance programme. His keynote, Putting Everything on the Line, argued that consistency at the top is a different problem from reaching it. Talent reaches the top once. Holding that level for a decade demands a discipline most organisations underestimate. The international career sits behind every story he tells. He earned 129 caps for Denmark and won Euro 1992. The Danish squad had replaced Yugoslavia at ten days’ notice and beat Germany in the final. He now broadcasts for the BBC, the Premier League Channel, CBS Sports and FOX Sports, where he covered UEFA Euro 2024. Key speaking topics Leadership and standards in high-performance teams Sustained elite performance across long careers Captaincy and team-first culture Composure and decision-making under public scrutiny Recovery from mistakes in unforgiving environments Lessons from elite team sport for senior leaders Ideal for Senior leadership teams in industries where performance is publicly scrutinised Conferences, offsites and leadership programmes focused on team standards and accountability Organisations going through periods of sustained success that risk complacency Sales, customer-facing and high-pressure operational teams Audience outcomes A specific account of what ‘team first’ requires of senior people, drawn from inside one of the most successful dressing rooms in modern football The argument that holding standards is a separate problem from reaching them, with a working vocabulary for naming that problem in their own organisations Examples of how elite teams handle mistakes and the temptation to relax once a major goal has been reached A sharper view of the role of the captain in protecting team standards from individual ego

Why organisations work with Pete Goss He is one of very few speakers whose composure under pressure is documented in two state honours, the MBE and the Legion d’Honneur, awarded for a single named decision in the 1996 Vendee Globe. He has built and led multi-million pound sponsored projects with workforces of 100 plus, including Aqua Quorum, Team Philips and Spirit of Mystery, which gives him a working vocabulary for boards on stewardship, sponsor relationships and visible failure. The Team Philips abandonment in 2000 is part of his material, not edited out of it, so leaders get a credible account of what comes after a public, capital-heavy programme collapses. His teaching credentials sit inside serious institutions: Associate Fellow at Said Business School, Oxford, and regular lecturer at London Business School, which calibrates the content for senior audiences rather than after-dinner crowds. The Dinelli rescue is a teachable case, not a war story: a decision made on incomplete information, against the speaker’s own commercial interest, with a precise sequence of operational choices a board can interrogate. Biography highlights Skippered Aqua Quorum in the 1996/97 Vendee Globe; rescued Raphael Dinelli in a Southern Ocean hurricane on Christmas Day 1996. Awarded the MBE and France’s Legion d’Honneur for the Dinelli rescue. Named Yachtsman of the Year following the Vendee Globe. Author of Close to the Wind (Headline, 1998), an account of the race and rescue. Built and skippered Spirit of Mystery, a 37 ft Cornish lugger, on an 11,800 mile voyage from Newlyn to Melbourne in 2008 to 2009. Associate Fellow, Said Business School, University of Oxford; regular lecturer at London Business School; former Royal Marine. Biography The Vendee Globe is the hardest race in solo sailing: one boat, one person, no stops, around the world. On Christmas Day 1996, in 80 knot winds in the Southern Ocean, Pete Goss received a distress signal from Raphael Dinelli, a French competitor whose boat was sinking. Goss turned back, fought upwind for two days, and pulled Dinelli, near death, out of a life raft. The decision ended his race and won him the MBE from Queen Elizabeth II and the Legion d’Honneur from the President of France. Before that race, Goss was a Royal Marine. After it, he became one of the more credible voices on what leadership looks like when the plan stops working. He is the author of Close to the Wind (Headline, 1998), the bestselling account of the race and the rescue, and was named Yachtsman of the Year. He is an Associate Fellow of Said Business School at Oxford and lectures regularly at London Business School, so the material reads to senior audiences as judgement work, not adventure storytelling. His later projects sharpen the case. Team Philips, a 120 ft catamaran built for a round-the-world record, was abandoned in mid-Atlantic in December 2000 after structural damage in heavy weather. Spirit of Mystery, a 37 ft replica Cornish lugger, sailed 11,800 miles from Newlyn to Melbourne in 2008 to 2009 to recreate the 1854 voyage of the original lugger Mystery. One programme failed in public after large sponsor investment. The other succeeded after years of preparation in obscurity. Goss treats both as case material. What makes this useful in a boardroom is the specificity. The Dinelli decision is not a metaphor, it is a sequence of operational choices made against personal interest, with a paper trail. Senior leaders can interrogate it the way they would a real case, and most do. Key speaking topics Decision-making under extreme pressure Self-leadership and composure Recovery after public failure Sponsor and stakeholder leadership in capital-intensive programmes Team conduct in small, high-stakes crews Long-form planning and execution Risk and judgement at sea and in business Ideal for Boards and executive committees facing a high-stakes call where the right answer is commercially costly Leadership programmes for senior operators who have not yet been tested in a public failure Capital project sponsors and programme directors managing visible, multi-year commitments Off-sites where the brief is judgement and resilience rather than motivation Audience outcomes A working reference case for what good looks like when a leader has to abandon a plan mid-execution. A clearer view of how to separate personal stake from organisational duty when the two diverge. A more honest account of what happens after a programme fails in public, drawn from Team Philips. Specific language for talking to sponsors, crews and boards in conditions of real uncertainty.

Why organisations work with Pete Cohen A named, co-authored framework (STOP 2 THINK) for the specific moment a leader switches from reactive to intentional response, applied directly inside meetings and high-pressure conversations. A coaching track record that crosses elite sport and corporate leadership, including Ronnie O’Sullivan’s 2004 World Snooker title and senior teams at Dell, IBM, Pfizer and Heineken. Twelve years as resident Life Coach on ITV’s GMTV plus a presenter slot on Discovery’s “The Coach”, which means he reads a room and a camera in a way few corporate speakers do. Twenty plus published titles including “Habit Busting” and “Fear Busting”, giving the keynote content a tested behavioural backbone rather than a one-off thesis. A delivery style built for leadership audiences fatigued by abstract wellness content, focused on what to do in the next conversation, not the next quarter. Biography highlights Resident Life Coach on ITV’s GMTV for twelve years. Presenter of “The Coach” on the Discovery Channel. Author of around 20 books including “Habit Busting”, “Fear Busting”, “Shut the Duck Up”, “Life DIY” and “Sort Your Life Out”. Co-developer of the STOP 2 THINK leadership framework with Professor Dr Ray Sylvester. Performance coach to Ronnie O’Sullivan, Sally Gunnell, Ellen MacArthur, Roger Black, the Kent Cricket team and Arsenal Football Club. Keynote speaker for organisations including Dell, IBM, Pfizer, Novartis, Boehringer Ingelheim, Heineken, Boots, Four Seasons Hotels and the Royal Bank of Scotland. Biography Most leadership failures under pressure are not failures of intelligence. They are failures of pause. The leader keeps moving when the situation has changed, and the team carries the consequences for weeks. STOP 2 THINK, the framework Pete Cohen co-developed with Professor Dr Ray Sylvester, treats that pause as a trainable leadership behaviour, not a personality trait. Cohen has spent more than thirty years working at the intersection of psychology, sport and corporate performance. As resident Life Coach on ITV’s GMTV for twelve years and presenter of “The Coach” on the Discovery Channel, he learned to translate behavioural science into language that lands in seconds. The same instinct shapes how he works with executive teams. His sports coaching list includes Ronnie O’Sullivan in the run-up to his 2004 World Snooker title, Olympic hurdler Sally Gunnell, sailor Ellen MacArthur, and sprinter Roger Black. The corporate list is equally direct: Dell, IBM, Pfizer, Novartis, Boehringer Ingelheim, Heineken, Boots, Four Seasons Hotels and the Royal Bank of Scotland. Across both, the brief is the same. People who already perform at a high level need a way to recover composure inside the moment, not after it. The published work, around twenty titles including “Habit Busting” and “Fear Busting”, gives the keynote content its behavioural foundation. The STOP 2 THINK keynote is the operating layer on top: simple tools a leader can apply in the next meeting, not the next offsite. That is what senior teams under restructure, transformation or sustained market pressure tend to be looking for, and what most wellbeing programming does not deliver. Key speaking topics Leadership behaviour under pressure The STOP 2 THINK framework Composure and decision-making in uncertainty Behavioural change and habit formation Performance psychology Resilience for senior teams Mindset for leadership in restructure and change Ideal for CEO, COO and senior leadership teams holding decisions through restructure or market shock CHROs and people directors briefing leadership development at executive level Sales and commercial leaders managing high-pressure performance cycles Boards and partner groups looking for behavioural rather than motivational content Audience outcomes A named behavioural pause point leaders can use in the next meeting, not the next quarter A clearer read on the difference between reactive habit and intentional decision in their own leadership Practical language for coaching their direct reports through pressure moments Evidence-grounded confidence that composure is a trainable behaviour, not a personality trait A simpler internal vocabulary for decision quality under stress

Why organisations work with Oliver Kahn He is the only goalkeeper in history to be named best player of a FIFA World Cup, a credential that earns immediate attention from any audience and frames the conversation around individual performance under maximum visibility. He has held leadership roles on both sides of the touchline: 49 times captain of the German national team and CEO of FC Bayern Munich AG between 2021 and 2023, giving him a working vocabulary for boardrooms as well as dressing rooms. His MBA from Privatuniversitaet Schloss Seeburg, with a thesis on strategic management in professional football, gives him an analytical frame for talks that goes beyond anecdote. He speaks with first-hand authority on the technical content of composure, recovery from public failure, and what it costs to sustain elite standards across a 14-year run at one club. Biography highlights 86 caps for Germany; 49 as captain. 2002 FIFA World Cup Golden Ball winner, the only goalkeeper to receive the award. Eight Bundesliga titles and the 2000–01 UEFA Champions League with FC Bayern Munich. Four UEFA Best European Goalkeeper awards and three IFFHS World’s Best Goalkeeper awards. CEO of FC Bayern Munich AG from July 2021 to May 2023. MBA, Privatuniversitaet Schloss Seeburg (2012); ZDF football analyst since 2008; author of “Ich. Erfolg kommt von innen.” (riva Verlag, 2008). Biography Pressure is what separates the people who win things from the people who almost do. The 2001 UEFA Champions League final went to a penalty shoot-out against Valencia. Bayern Munich’s goalkeeper saved three of them, was named man of the match, and added a Champions League winner’s medal to a set that already included a UEFA Cup, a German title, and the captaincy of the national side. Twelve months later, Oliver Kahn became the only goalkeeper in the history of the FIFA World Cup to be named the tournament’s best player. Germany lost the final to Brazil and he made a costly error on the opening goal, playing through a torn ligament. The Golden Ball was awarded after that match, alongside the Lev Yashin Award for best goalkeeper. The two together describe how his peers and the international press read his career: the most demanding individual position in the sport, played at the highest level for two decades. The numbers from the club career are unusual even in elite football. Eight Bundesliga titles, six DFB-Pokal wins, four consecutive UEFA Best European Goalkeeper awards from 1999 to 2002, three IFFHS World’s Best Goalkeeper honours, two German Footballer of the Year trophies. Kahn played 557 Bundesliga matches for Bayern, the most by any goalkeeper in the league’s history. The second career is what makes him unusual on a corporate stage. He took an MBA at Privatuniversitaet Schloss Seeburg in 2012 with a thesis on strategic management in professional football, worked as a ZDF analyst across multiple international tournaments, and served as CEO of FC Bayern Munich AG from July 2021 until May 2023. His book “Ich. Erfolg kommt von innen.” was published by riva Verlag in 2008 and remains the published source for his thinking on the inner conditions of sustained performance. Key speaking topics Composure and self-leadership under pressure High-performance culture in elite teams Accountability at the individual position Recovery from public failure Leadership transitions from operator to executive Mental preparation and the psychology of winning Ideal for Executive leadership teams and boards setting the tone on accountability and standards Sales organisations and front-line revenue teams operating under monthly and quarterly visibility Senior leaders moving from operating roles into executive seats Annual leadership conferences and corporate kick-offs anchored on performance and resilience Audience outcomes A clearer working definition of composure as a trained capability, not a temperament Specific reference points from elite sport for how teams sustain standards across years, not seasons A direct account of what high-pressure decision-making feels like at the position where every error is visible Language for talking about accountability inside a team without it becoming punitive A sharper view of the difference between individual excellence and team performance, from someone who held both responsibilities

Why organisations work with Oliver Bierhoff His perspective is executive, not athletic. He spent 18 years running one of world football’s most scrutinised national programmes – managing coaching changes, institutional restructuring, and major tournament cycles – as a director, not a player. He has managed through both sides of accountability. He was part of Germany’s 2014 World Cup-winning operation and was the senior official who left following the 2022 Qatar group-stage exit. Few speakers can speak with equal authority about sustaining success and owning failure. The structural reform he led at the DFB – unifying men’s football, women’s football, and the national academy under one strategy for the first time in German football history – is a transferable case study in how large institutions resist and achieve meaningful integration. His current advisory roles span strategy consulting (McKinsey & Company), American professional sport (New England Patriots), and sports investment (FINVIA Sports GmbH) – he is operating at the intersection of sport, finance, and organisational strategy, not stepping back from it. He holds a Diplom-Kaufmann in business economics and conducted his studies by correspondence during his playing career, a signal of intellectual intent that goes beyond the typical athlete-to-speaker trajectory. Biography highlights Scored the first «Golden Goal» in major international football history – Germany’s Euro 96 final – and earned 70 caps, scoring 37 goals for the national team Serie A top scorer in 1997–98 (27 goals); Serie A champion with AC Milan in 1998–99; holds the league record for most headed goals in a single season (15) Appointed Germany’s first national team manager in 2004; part of the management structure that delivered the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2017 Confederations Cup Served as DFB Director of National Teams & Academy from 2018–2022; first to unify women’s football, men’s football, and the national academy under a single organisational strategy in German football history Business Advisor to the New England Patriots (DACH region); Senior Advisor at McKinsey & Company; Chairman and Co-Founder of FINVIA Sports GmbH Diplom-Kaufmann in business economics, University of Hagen, completed by correspondence during his professional playing career Biography Oliver Bierhoff scored the first Golden Goal in major international football history in Euro 96 and went on to become Serie A’s leading scorer, a champion with AC Milan, and a 70-cap Germany international. Most sports speakers stop there. What followed was the more instructive part of his career. In 2004, he was appointed Germany’s first national team manager – a role created specifically to bridge players, coaches, sponsors, and the football association across multiple coaching cycles. He held that responsibility through the 2014 FIFA World Cup win in Brazil and the 2017 Confederations Cup, before being elevated to Director of National Teams & Academy in 2018. In this role, he integrated men’s football, women’s football, and the DFB Academy under a single department and unified strategy – the first time this had been done in German football history – and launched the «Project Future» youth development programme in partnership with the German Football League. That tenure ended in December 2022, when Germany were eliminated in the group stage of the Qatar World Cup. Bierhoff accepted accountability and left by mutual agreement. That willingness to be held responsible for outcomes – not just processes – is the thread that runs through everything he says about performance culture and leadership under scrutiny. Since leaving the DFB, he has moved into strategic advisory work at a level that goes beyond sport: Senior Advisor at McKinsey & Company, Business Advisor to the New England Patriots for their DACH market expansion, and Chairman and Co-Founder of FINVIA Sports GmbH, a sports investment vehicle. He holds a business economics degree completed by correspondence during his playing career. The organisations that work with him are not looking for a former footballer with motivational stories. They are looking for someone who built systems, owned consequences, and kept operating. Key speaking topics Building performance cultures in institutional organisations Leadership continuity across coaching and management transitions Accountability and decision-making under public scrutiny Structural integration and organisational reform in complex institutions Translating elite team sport into business performance frameworks Pressure, resilience, and the psychology of competitive environments The business of sport: investment, strategy, and international expansion Ideal for Executive leadership teams and C-suite audiences focused on performance culture and organisational resilience CHROs, Chief People Officers, and transformation leads navigating structural change Organisations rebuilding or reorienting after public setbacks or leadership transitions Sports business, private equity, and investment audiences interested in the intersection of elite sport and institutional strategy Audience outcomes A clearer framework for distinguishing performance culture from performance results, and why the gap between them causes most high-profile failures Practical perspective on managing accountability across leadership transitions without sacrificing stability Insight into how institutional restructuring actually works at executive level: what changes, what resists, and what determines whether integration sticks A more honest lens on public failure: what it demands of leaders, how to process it, and how to use it without being defined by it Transferable lessons from an 18-year executive career in one of world sport’s most scrutinised environments

Why organisations work with Nigel Risner He gives senior leaders a working language for personality difference inside their own teams, the Zoo Keeper model of Lions, Monkeys, Elephants, and Dolphins, that they can use in the next leadership meeting. He is one of six UK holders of the Professional Speaking Award of Excellence (PSAE) from the Professional Speakers Association, a peer-judged credential that signals platform craft of a different order from a typical motivational keynote. He is the only speaker named Speaker of the Year by all four major CEO peer-advisory networks in Europe (Vistage, The Academy for Chief Executives, TEC, and Footdown), which is the closest thing the CEO peer-group market has to a buying signal. His material is built from running a brokerage as one of the UK’s youngest CEOs and rebuilding after the late-1980s financial crash, so the leadership content is grounded in operating experience, not theory. He works at any audience size, from a 12-person CEO peer group to conference rooms of several thousand, with the same delivery discipline. Biography highlights Author of “The Impact Code: Live the Life You Deserve” (Capstone) and its follow-up “The Impact Code at Work”. Author of “It’s a Zoo Around Here: The new rules for better communication”, the source text of his Zoo Keeper personality framework. Author of “You Had Me at Hello: The new rules for better networking”. One of six UK speakers awarded the PSAE (Professional Speaking Award of Excellence) by the Professional Speakers Association. Speaker of the Year for Vistage, The Academy for Chief Executives, The Executive Committee, and Footdown. Client work spans BT, BSkyB, Pfizer, GSK, Siemens, HSBC, Pepsi, British Airways, Marks and Spencer, and Royal Bank of Scotland. Biography Most leadership problems inside large organisations look strategic and turn out to be communicative. A capable executive briefs a team, the team agrees in the room, and three weeks later the work has not moved. The diagnosis is usually that the leader spoke in their own dominant style and assumed the rest of the room would translate. Nigel Risner has built a twenty-year speaking career around fixing exactly that gap. His Zoo Keeper framework, drawn from his book “It’s a Zoo Around Here: The new rules for better communication”, gives leaders a fast, memorable way to read the personalities in front of them: Lions who want results, Monkeys who want energy, Elephants who want detail, Dolphins who want harmony. The point is operational. A leader who can flex into all four registers gets decisions made in the meeting rather than relitigated by email afterwards. The credential layer is unusual for a motivational speaker. Risner holds the PSAE from the Professional Speakers Association, a peer-judged award held by only six UK speakers, and is the only speaker in Europe to have been named Speaker of the Year by Vistage, The Academy for Chief Executives, The Executive Committee, and Footdown. Those four bodies are the gatekeepers for CEO peer-advisory work in Europe, which is why his material reads as built for boards and executive teams rather than for general audiences. His later books, “The Impact Code: Live the Life You Deserve” and “The Impact Code at Work”, widen the same argument into executive presence and personal credibility. The throughline is consistent. Senior leaders are paid for the impact they have on other people in a room, and that impact is a learnable craft, not an inherited trait. Key speaking topics Leadership communication and executive presence Personality and behavioural styles in teams Building high-trust senior teams Influence and personal impact for senior leaders Leading through change and disruption Networking and first-impression effectiveness Motivation and peak performance for executive groups Ideal for CEO peer-advisory groups (Vistage, Academy for Chief Executives, YPO style forums) where the audience is operating leaders Senior leadership offsites where the brief is “we are not communicating well as a team” Sales and client-facing leadership conferences focused on influence and presence Newly promoted senior leaders in formal executive development programmes Audience outcomes A practical model for identifying the four dominant personality styles in their own team and adjusting how they brief, sell, and decide A clearer read on which behaviours are reducing their personal impact at senior level Specific habits for opening meetings, opening conversations, and opening relationships in the first ten seconds Renewed appetite for leading the team rather than working around it A shared vocabulary the leadership team can carry into the next 90 days of meetings

Why organisations work with Neal Petersen A first-person account of self-leadership at the edge of human tolerance: 195 days alone at sea, completing the 1998 to 1999 Around Alone circumnavigation as the first Black sailor to race solo around the world A story arc that translates directly to senior leadership: a hip defect, apartheid-era barriers, and no capital, met with a multi-year build of his own ocean-racing yacht and a top-five finish in his class Material credibility for diversity, inclusion, and access conversations that goes beyond commentary, grounded in lived experience inside an elite, almost entirely white sport A National Outdoor Book Award winning memoir, Journey of a Hope Merchant, and a PBS documentary, which give audiences a coherent reference text to engage with after the keynote A track record of repeat keynotes for IBM, Microsoft, Intel, MasterCard, Salesforce, and senior government audiences, with content adapted to the specific operating challenge in the room Biography highlights First Black sailor to race solo around the world, completing the 1998 to 1999 Around Alone race in Class II Designed and built his own 38-foot yacht, Stella R, while funding the project through North Sea oil-rig and commercial diamond diving work Author of Journey of a Hope Merchant: From Apartheid to the Elite World of Solo Yacht Racing (2004), winner of the 2005 National Outdoor Book Award, History/Biography Subject of the PBS documentary No Barriers: The Story of Neal Petersen Repeat keynote speaker for IBM, Microsoft, Intel, Salesforce, MasterCard, AXIS Capital, and US federal and state government audiences Born 1967 in Cape Town, South Africa, into apartheid-era classification with a hip defect that required three childhood surgeries Biography The 1998 to 1999 Around Alone circumnavigation was a 27,000-mile solo yacht race, completed by nine sailors, with Cape Horn and the Southern Ocean as the central trial. Neal Petersen, racing in Class II aboard a yacht he had built himself, was one of those nine. He finished the course after 195 days at sea, becoming the first Black sailor to race solo around the world. The route to that starting line is the substance of the keynote. Born in Cape Town in 1967, classified under apartheid, and recovering from three childhood hip surgeries, he taught himself the sport from magazines in a hospital bed. He funded the yacht, Stella R, by working as a North Sea oil-rig diver and a commercial diamond diver off the South African coast. The boat was built from donated and reclaimed parts. Journey of a Hope Merchant, his 2004 memoir, won the 2005 National Outdoor Book Award in the History and Biography category, and PBS produced a documentary on the same story. The published record gives senior audiences a coherent reference text rather than a stage anecdote, which matters for the kind of programme that wants the talk to keep working after the lights go up. The booking pattern reflects what corporate audiences actually want from this material. Repeat engagements with IBM, Microsoft, Intel, Salesforce, MasterCard, and senior government audiences point to a speaker whose value lies in the practical content of composure: how to make decisions when the cost of being wrong is total, how to hold a course through months of degraded conditions, and how to lead yourself when no one is watching. Key speaking topics Self-leadership under sustained pressure Resilience and decision-making in extreme conditions Diversity, inclusion, and access in elite environments Goal-setting and execution over multi-year horizons Adaptability when plans break down Building from limited resources Ideal for C-suite and senior leadership offsites focused on resilience and composure Sales kickoffs and annual conferences that need a credible, non-generic peak-performance keynote DEI leadership programmes seeking lived experience over commentary Government, defence, and association audiences working under prolonged operational strain Audience outcomes A reference framework for self-leadership during sustained adversity, drawn from a documented multi-year build and a 195-day solo race Specific decision-making lessons from the Southern Ocean, applicable to leaders operating without immediate support A renewed view of barriers as design constraints rather than stop signs A coherent narrative audiences can carry back into team conversations, supported by an award-winning memoir and a PBS documentary

Why organisations work with Monty Halls A first-hand account of leadership built in two domains where mistakes are not theoretical: Royal Marines command and multi-year expedition leadership across four global circumnavigations. Leaderbox, the training system he founded in 2016, gives clients a structured method drawn from military, elite sport and business practice rather than a one-off keynote moment. Three decades of working with teams under physical and psychological load, translated into language a corporate audience can use the next morning. Credibility on the substance of resilience that does not rely on rhetoric: the Bish Medal from the Scientific Exploration Society, an Honorary Doctor of Science from Plymouth University, presidency of the Galapagos Conservation Trust. An ability to hold an audience for an after-dinner or conference slot through specific story material, including the 2002 Mahabalipuram expedition and BBC Two “Great Escape” series, without sliding into generic adventure rhetoric. Biography highlights Former Royal Marines officer; served with the British Military Assistance and Training Team in South Africa during the early-1990s peace process. First Class Honours in Marine Biology, University of Plymouth, 1999. Honorary Doctor of Science, Plymouth University, 2010. Bish Medal, Scientific Exploration Society, 2003, for the expedition to the sunken temple complex at Mahabalipuram. Presenter of the BBC Two “Great Escape” trilogy (Applecross, North Uist, Connemara, 2009 to 2011) and the BBC Two series “Great Barrier Reef” (2012). Author of titles including “Monty Halls’ Great Escape: Beachcomber Cottage”, “The Fisherman’s Apprentice”, “Escaping Hitler” and “My Family and the Galapagos”. President of the Galapagos Conservation Trust since 2015. Patron of the Shark Trust and of Help for Heroes. Founder of Leaderbox, 2016. Biography Most leadership content describes how teams should behave on a good day. The harder material is what happens to a unit when it is cold, tired, behind schedule and short on information. Halls has spent a working life in environments where that is the operating condition, first as a Royal Marines officer, then as an expedition leader. After leaving the Marines he completed a First Class Honours degree in Marine Biology at the University of Plymouth and led the 2002 Scientific Exploration Society expedition to the sunken temples of Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu, work for which the Society awarded him the Bish Medal. He went on to four circumnavigations of the globe filming wildlife and adventure content for the BBC, Channel 4, National Geographic and Discovery, anchored by the BBC Two “Great Escape” series and the 2012 BBC Two production “Great Barrier Reef”. The corporate practice grew out of that. Halls founded Leaderbox in 2016 as a structured training system drawing on Royal Marines doctrine, elite sport and business practice, and now delivers leadership and team-building work to clients including Google, Visa and Virgin. His subject is the behaviour of teams under pressure, the conditions that create high-performing culture, and the discipline of self-leadership when a leader is as fatigued as the people they are responsible for. He is President of the Galapagos Conservation Trust, a patron of the Shark Trust and of Help for Heroes, and the author of nine books across exploration, marine biology and modern history, including “Escaping Hitler”, a study of the courage of Allied servicemen on the wartime escape lines through occupied Europe. Key speaking topics Leadership under pressure Team culture and high-performance environments Self-leadership and composure Resilience and decision-making in adverse conditions Expedition leadership lessons for corporate teams Marine conservation and the Galapagos Lessons from Royal Marines selection and training Ideal for CEOs, COOs and executive teams stress-testing how their leadership behaviour holds up under sustained operational pressure HR directors and L&D leads designing leadership development that goes beyond classroom theory Sales and operational leadership teams building high-trust, high-tempo culture Conference, leadership offsite and after-dinner audiences where credibility on resilience and team behaviour is the brief Audience outcomes A working vocabulary for what high-performing teams actually do differently when conditions deteriorate A clearer view of self-leadership as a daily discipline rather than a one-off response to crisis Specific, transferable lessons from Royal Marines training and expedition command that translate directly into commercial team settings Story material drawn from named expeditions and operational moments that audiences can carry into their own leadership conversations