Peak Performance speakers

Why organisations work with Debra Searle The Choose Your Attitude Toolkit is a named, practical framework, not a motivational narrative. It gives teams repeatable tools for maintaining focus and performance when conditions are working against them. Debra’s 111 days alone at sea were unplanned and unsupported. She was not a trained athlete or military professional. That specificity matters: the resilience she describes is genuinely transferable to ordinary professionals facing ordinary pressure, not a feat designed to impress. She has founded five companies, including the diversity and inclusion consultancy MIX Diversity Developers, and has held board-level governance roles. She speaks to the organisational realities of change from direct commercial experience, not observation. The research basis she references, that 75% of top performer success is attributable to attitude rather than skillset, gives people leaders and HR teams a frame for workforce conversations that goes beyond inspiration. Her audience feedback is unusually concrete: perfect scores at IBM events (170 delegates, 5 out of 5), ranked best speaker at a major conference above heads of state and global business figures. Biography highlights Rowed 3,300 miles solo across the Atlantic Ocean over 111 days in 2001-2002, after her husband was rescued eight days into the crossing; she was a novice rower at the time Appointed MBE by Her Majesty The Queen in 2002; appointed Member of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO) in 2014 for services to The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Youngest ever Trustee of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, serving a decade alongside HRH Prince Philip and HRH Prince Edward Founder of five companies including MIX Diversity Developers, a diversity and inclusion consultancy BBC presenter across 40+ programmes including Grandstand and Extreme Lives Ranked in Global Gurus Top 30 Motivational Speakers list multiple years; consistently identified as the highest-ranking female speaker in the global ranking Over 1,300 keynote appearances across 40 countries; three books published including “Rowing It Alone” and “The Choose Your Attitude Journal” Biography Debra Searle spent 111 days alone in a 23-foot plywood boat rowing the Atlantic Ocean. She had not planned to do it solo. When her husband was rescued eight days in, she continued; a novice rower, no support vessel, in conditions most professional athletes would not accept. That experience became the foundation of a practical body of work on resilience and mindset that she has spent over two decades translating into organisational tools. The central argument of her work is precise: research suggests that roughly 75% of top-performer success traces to attitude rather than skill. Her Choose Your Attitude Toolkit distils the mental strategies she used at sea into a framework organisations can deploy with teams under pressure; not as inspiration, but as repeatable practice. The toolkit addresses what happens when conditions change faster than plans, when there is no clear end to the difficulty, and when leaders must model steadiness they do not fully feel. Searle’s commercial life runs alongside her expeditions rather than being separate from them. She founded five companies, including MIX Diversity Developers, a diversity and inclusion consultancy, and spent a decade as a Trustee of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, the youngest person ever appointed to the board. That combination of extreme personal experience and working organisational life is what distinguishes her within the resilience and leadership space. Her work is recognised beyond the speaking circuit. The Queen recognised her twice; with an MBE in 2002 and an MVO in 2014. Global Gurus has ranked her among the world’s top motivational speakers multiple years. She has delivered over 1,300 keynote addresses across 40 countries, and her audience feedback, including perfect scores at IBM events, is among the most consistent in the field. Key speaking topics Resilience and performance under pressure Mindset and attitude as organisational tools Leading through change and adversity Women in leadership Motivation and peak performance Entrepreneurship and board-level leadership Ideal for CHROs and people leaders designing resilience or wellbeing programmes Leadership teams navigating significant organisational change or sustained uncertainty Women in leadership conferences and female talent development programmes All-staff or large-format events requiring a keynote that is both commercially credible and personally compelling Audience outcomes A named, structured framework (the Choose Your Attitude Toolkit) that individuals can apply to maintain performance when under pressure A clearer understanding of the psychological difference between coping and adapting, and practical tools to move from one to the other Language and strategies for managing mindset in the absence of certainty, relevant to leaders who must communicate confidence before they feel it Renewed motivation and a reframe of what is genuinely achievable, grounded in a specific and verifiable story rather than abstract optimism

Why organisations work with Dee Caffari The westabout solo circumnavigation of 2006, 178 days against prevailing winds and currents and completed by only six men in history, gives Caffari a standing in the territory of sustained solo leadership under real pressure that no training environment can replicate and no other speaker in this space can match. As skipper of Turn the Tide on Plastic in the Volvo Ocean Race 2017/18, she led the first mixed-gender, youth-focused international crew formed in partnership with the UN Environment Programme, delivering competitive performance and a global environmental mandate simultaneously. She has direct, tested experience of building high-performance diverse teams when the stakes are visible and the scrutiny is real. Her autobiography “Against the Flow” (Adlard Coles Nautical), published in 2007 and translated into French, Italian, and German, documents the mental framework she developed across her record-setting voyages, evidence that the leadership disciplines she draws from offshore sailing translate across cultural and organisational contexts. As Vice Chair of World Sailing’s Oceanic and Offshore Committee, and previously inaugural Chair of the World Sailing Trust and a decade-long member of the RNLI Operations Committee, she connects frontline leadership experience in extreme environments to the governance and institutional accountability that senior audiences recognise. She has spoken to executive audiences at organisations including Sky, London Business School, Aviva, Citywire, Oracle, and Barry Callebaut, with client evaluation scores consistently at 9/10 and above across independent post-event surveys. Biography highlights Only woman to sail solo, non-stop around the world westabout, against prevailing winds and currents, completing the voyage in 178 days in 2006 and setting a world record Only woman to complete solo, non-stop circumnavigations in both directions; finished 6th from 30 starters in the Vendée Globe 2008/09, known in sailing as the Everest of the seas Only woman to have sailed non-stop around the world four times; seven circumnavigations in total, most recently as co-skipper of The Famous Project, the first all-female crew to complete a non-stop circumnavigation, in January 2026 Skipper, Turn the Tide on Plastic, Volvo Ocean Race 2017/18, mixed-gender, youth-focused international crew formed in partnership with the UN Environment Programme’s Clean Seas campaign MBE, 2007 Birthday Honours, for services to sailing; Honorary Commander RNR (Royal Naval Reserve), appointed September 2011; inaugural Chair, World Sailing Trust (2018 to 2024); ten-year member of the RNLI Operations Committee; Vice Chair, Oceanic and Offshore Committee, World Sailing Autobiography “Against the Flow” (Adlard Coles Nautical, 2007), translated into French, Italian, and German; shortlisted, World Sailing Rolex World Sailor of the Year, 2006 and 2011 Biography Solo decision-making in genuinely hostile conditions, without consultation and without the option to pause, is the environment in which Dee Caffari MBE built her leadership record. She has circumnavigated the globe seven times, including four solo or co-skippered non-stop voyages. No other woman has done this. Few people in history have. The westabout circumnavigation of 2006, completed in 178 days against prevailing winds and currents, set a world record and earned her an MBE. She returned to solo racing in the Vendée Globe (2008/09), finishing 6th from 30 starters in a race the sailing world calls the Everest of the seas. That finish confirmed that the judgment and resilience she had built were not situational; they held across different modes of pressure, different time horizons, and different conditions. The team dimension of her leadership is equally tested. As skipper of Turn the Tide on Plastic in the Volvo Ocean Race 2017/18, she led a mixed-gender, youth-focused international crew in partnership with the UN Environment Programme. Managing competitive performance alongside a global environmental mandate, under sustained media and competitive scrutiny, required the same disciplines she had practised in isolation: clear decision-making, built trust, and accountability that did not depend on favourable conditions. In January 2026, as co-skipper of The Famous Project, she completed the first all-female non-stop circumnavigation of the globe aboard IDEC Sport. Her autobiography “Against the Flow” (Adlard Coles Nautical), translated into French, Italian, and German, captures the mental framework developed across these voyages. She served as inaugural Chair of the World Sailing Trust from 2018 to 2024 and now sits as Vice Chair of World Sailing’s Oceanic and Offshore Committee. Combined with a decade on the RNLI Operations Committee, those roles extend her experience of leadership from the individual to the institutional. She has addressed senior audiences at Sky, London Business School, Aviva, Citywire, and Barry Callebaut, drawing on experience that executive development programmes rarely put under conditions close to the real thing. Key speaking topics Leadership under extreme and sustained pressure High-performance team-building in hostile environments Resilience and mental endurance Risk assessment and decision-making under uncertainty Diversity, inclusion, and mixed-team performance Ocean sustainability and purpose-driven leadership Goal-setting and long-horizon execution Ideal for Senior leadership teams and C-suite audiences preparing for high-stakes or high-change environments CHROs and people directors focused on resilience, team accountability, and diversity in performance Boards and executive committees where sustainability, governance, and leadership credibility intersect Transformation leads and global teams navigating extended pressure or organisational uncertainty Audience outcomes A concrete framework for maintaining clarity and decision-making quality when conditions deteriorate and information is incomplete Practical understanding of how trust and accountability function in diverse, high-pressure teams – and what breaks them Perspective on the relationship between preparation, mental endurance, and sustained performance over long time horizons Insight into leading teams whose purpose extends beyond competitive performance to a broader organisational or environmental mission A personally compelling reference point for resilience that bypasses generic advice and is grounded in verifiable, extreme-condition experience

Why organisations work with Demi Stokes A first-hand voice from the England squad that won UEFA Women’s Euro 2022, the most commercially significant moment in English women’s football. Nine seasons at the top of the Women’s Super League with Manchester City, including a WSL title, three FA Cups and three League Cups, plus a return to first-team football after the premature birth of her son. A current player and Newcastle United captain, which gives event audiences access to a live insider perspective rather than a retrospective career story. A credible advocate on premature birth and neonatal care through her Pampers UK ambassadorship with Bliss and UNICEF, suited to wellbeing, parental-leave and ERG-focused events. Biography highlights Member of the England squad that won UEFA Women’s Euro 2022; 69 senior caps between 2014 and 2023. Won the FA Women’s Super League, three FA Women’s Cups and three League Cups with Manchester City between 2015 and 2024. Named in the PFA WSL Team of the Year in 2018 and 2019. Captained Team GB to gold at the 2013 Summer Universiade in Kazan and represented Team GB at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Signed for Newcastle United Women in July 2024 and named club captain ahead of the 2025/26 season. Pampers UK ambassador for the #PampersforPreemies campaign with Bliss and UNICEF. Biography Most elite athletes peak inside a single environment. Demi Stokes built her career across four of them. Sunderland gave her a first-team debut at sixteen and an FA Cup final in 2009. A scholarship to the University of South Florida added four years of US college football. A summer at Vancouver Whitecaps in the USL W League followed before Manchester City signed her in January 2015. What she built at City is the substance of the speaking story. Nine seasons, more than 100 first-team appearances, the 2016 FA WSL title, three FA Women’s Cups and three League Cups. Two PFA WSL Team of the Year selections, in 2018 and 2019. A senior England debut in 2014, and a place in the squad that won UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 at Wembley, the most commercially important moment in English women’s football. The personal layer runs alongside the career. Stokes was born ten weeks premature herself, and her son Harlen spent time in a neonatal unit after a difficult pregnancy that included pre-eclampsia. She has spoken openly about that period in interviews with Grazia and Mother & Baby, and works with Pampers UK on the #PampersforPreemies campaign in partnership with Bliss and UNICEF. The throughline that audiences hear is how a senior international footballer sustains performance through events that most workplaces still struggle to talk about. She left Manchester City in May 2024, signed for Newcastle United Women in July, and was named club captain ahead of the 2025/26 season. The story she brings to a room is current, not archived. Key speaking topics Lionesses and UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 Women’s football and the professionalisation of the game Return to elite performance after a difficult pregnancy Premature birth, neonatal care and family advocacy Leadership in a dressing room and team identity Long-career resilience across clubs, countries and codes Ideal for Internal events tied to International Women’s Day, parental-leave policy launches or working-parent ERGs. Wellbeing, EDI and culture programmes looking for a credible voice on resilience and identity rather than a clinical specialist. Sport-sponsorship activations, hospitality nights and awards dinners where a current Lioness presence is the brief. Audience outcomes An inside account of the England squad that won UEFA Women’s Euro 2022, told by a senior squad member. A direct view of how a top-flight athlete returns to performance after a high-risk pregnancy and a premature birth. A useable reference point for managers thinking about how to support employees through major personal events. A current-player perspective on dressing-room leadership and the demands of being a club captain.

Why organisations work with Dame Denise Lewis A first-hand account of winning at the highest level in the hardest conditions: Olympic gold at Sydney 2000, secured while competing through an Achilles injury that threatened every event. Governance perspective from the top of a national sport, currently leading UK Athletics through a period of public financial difficulty and reform. Fifteen years of live broadcast analysis at BBC Sport, reading performance in real time across four Olympic Games and four Commonwealth Games. A view of high performance that moves between the individual and the system: what athletes owe their coaches, what leaders owe their teams, and where accountability actually sits. Credibility with audiences who have heard every sports keynote; the current presidencies (UK Athletics, Commonwealth Games England) put her in a different category from retired-athlete speakers. Biography highlights Olympic heptathlon gold medallist, Sydney 2000; Olympic bronze medallist, Atlanta 1996. Commonwealth Games heptathlon champion in 1994 and 2002; European champion 1998; World Championships silver 1997 and 1999. Appointed DBE in the 2023 New Year Honours; previously OBE (2001) and MBE (1999). President of UK Athletics, elected 2024. President of Commonwealth Games England, extended to Victoria 2026. BBC Sport athletics pundit from 2009 to Paris 2024, covering four Olympic cycles and four Commonwealth Games. Author, “Personal Best: The Autobiography” (2001). President of Sparks children’s medical research charity. Biography The Sydney 2000 heptathlon came down to the final 800 metres, with an Achilles injury that had threatened every event before it. Denise Lewis finished third in that race, hobbled across the line, and scored 6,584 points to become the first European Olympic heptathlon champion. The day was often described as character; closer up, it was preparation meeting a refusal to stop. That composure has defined the career since. Between 2009 and Paris 2024, Lewis was the analytical voice of BBC athletics coverage, reading elite performance in real time across four Olympic Games and four Commonwealth Games. The work demanded a different discipline from competing: quick judgement, live to camera, about people whose careers she understood from the inside. In 2024 she was elected President of UK Athletics, a governance role that began in the middle of a declared financial crisis at the national body. The remit is reform, public accountability and the long-term health of the sport. She also serves as President of Commonwealth Games England, extended through Victoria 2026, and as President of Sparks, the children’s medical research charity. For senior audiences, the value is the composite view: the competitor who held her nerve on the biggest stage, the analyst who has watched hundreds of others succeed and fail under the same pressure, and the administrator now answerable for a system rather than a single performance. Key speaking topics Leadership under pressure High-performance culture and standards Resilience and competitive mindset Governance and accountability in elite sport Team performance and coaching relationships Transition from elite competition to leadership Women in leadership and sport Ideal for Boards and executive committees setting performance standards for the wider organisation. Senior leadership offsites focused on pressure, judgement and decision-making. CHROs and talent leaders shaping high-performance culture programmes. Sport, media and national-body audiences looking at governance and reform. Audience outcomes A concrete sense of what holding standards looks like when the conditions are against you, not in theory. Language for the coach-athlete-administrator triangle that transfers directly to leader-team-board dynamics. A clearer read on the difference between motivation and preparation at the top of a competitive field. A first-hand perspective on governance responsibility: what a president actually answers for when a system is under strain.

Why organisations work with Devon Harris He has lived the exact scenario most leadership talks only describe. Competing at three Olympics after a crash, rebuilds, and a decade of comebacks is not a story, it is a working model for how teams recover from public failure. His credibility carries two rare sources at once: Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and three Olympic Games. Few speakers can frame resilience from both an officer’s training and an athlete’s start line. His Keep On Pushing Foundation, founded 2006, gives the keynote a real institutional spine. Audiences hear from someone who built something durable outside the sport, not a retired athlete trading on a moment. He is a practised corporate keynote with long-standing Fortune 500 clients across pharma, tech, logistics and industrials. Buyers get a speaker who knows how to land a message in a sales kickoff or a leadership offsite, not a sports story recycled on stage. The Jamaican bobsled story is globally recognised shorthand for underdog execution. He uses it as a working case study in team formation under scrutiny, not as a nostalgia piece. Biography highlights Three-time Winter Olympian: Calgary 1988, Albertville 1992, Nagano 1998. Founding member of the Jamaica national bobsled team; captain in 1992 and 1998. Graduate of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst; retired as a Captain in the Jamaica Defence Force. Named WOA Olympian for Life at PyeongChang 2018 by the World Olympians Association. Founder, Keep On Pushing Foundation, a US 501(c)(3) supporting education in disadvantaged communities. Author of “Keep On Pushing: Hot Lessons from Cool Runnings” and the children’s book “Yes, I Can! The Story of the Jamaican Bobsled Team.” Biography The 1988 Jamaican bobsled team crashed on Olympic ice in Calgary with the world watching. Devon Harris was in that sled. Four years later he was back, as captain. Four after that, he was on the ice again. The story that became Cool Runnings is the entry point, but the working material is what happened between the Games. Before the sled, there was Sandhurst. Harris graduated from the Royal Military Academy and took a Queen’s Commission in 1985, serving as an officer in the Jamaica Defence Force until he retired as a Captain. That dual formation, British military training layered on a childhood in Kingston’s Olympic Gardens, is where his view of composure under pressure comes from. It is also why his framing of team performance feels closer to an officer’s debrief than an athlete’s highlight reel. In 2006 he founded the Keep On Pushing Foundation, which funds education for children in disadvantaged communities and started by backing a breakfast program at his own primary school in Kingston. The World Olympians Association named him an Olympian for Life at PyeongChang 2018 for his work beyond sport. He has written two books, including a motivational volume that draws on the Sandhurst-to-Olympics arc and a children’s book on the bobsled story. He now works primarily with leadership and commercial teams at Fortune 500 organisations across pharma, technology, logistics, and industrial sectors. The argument he brings into those rooms is operational. Performance is not a mindset to adopt, it is a set of habits rehearsed under pressure, and the teams that keep pushing when the plan breaks are the ones that built those habits before the crash. Key speaking topics Resilience and performance under pressure Team leadership in high-scrutiny environments Composure and decision-making in volatility Sustained execution after public failure Goal-setting and long-cycle performance Diversity and inclusion in team formation Personal accountability in commercial teams Ideal for Senior leadership teams navigating extended periods of pressure, change, or public setback Sales kickoffs and commercial teams at the start of demanding quarters or transformations Board and executive offsites focused on team composure, resilience, and sustained performance Large culture and engagement events where a credible keynote anchor is required Audience outcomes A working vocabulary for talking about resilience as rehearsed behaviour, not individual grit Specific techniques Harris uses to reset composure after setbacks, drawn from Olympic and military practice A frame for how high-performing teams form quickly under scrutiny and keep performing after failure A renewed sense of personal accountability for the habits that compound into sustained performance

Why organisations work with Diana Nyad She offers a studied, first-person account of what it takes to keep a team aligned across four failed attempts and a decade of setbacks, which is closer to the reality of most major transformations than single-peak success stories. Her material is built on a specific, documented pursuit: five attempts to swim from Havana to Key West, culminating in a 53-hour crossing at age 64. Organisations get a concrete case study, not a motivational abstraction. She speaks from a long second career in serious journalism (NPR, ABC Wide World of Sports, New York Times, CBS News Sunday Morning), which means she can argue a point, not only tell a story. Her TEDWomen 2013 talk “Never, ever give up” is one of the most widely circulated speeches on long-horizon perseverance, giving audiences a reference point before she enters the room. Her story has been examined at length in Knopf’s Find a Way and dramatised in Netflix’s 2023 Nyad, which means her case is unusually well known to senior audiences before a keynote begins. Biography highlights Completed a swim from Havana to Key West in September 2013, approximately 110 miles in roughly 53 hours, on her fifth attempt at age 64. Circumnavigated Manhattan Island in 1975 in 7 hours 57 minutes, breaking a record that had stood for 48 years. Inducted into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame (1978) and the National Women’s Sports Hall of Fame (1986). Sports and culture journalist at ABC’s Wide World of Sports, NPR, CBS News Sunday Morning, The New York Times, and Newsweek. Host of NPR’s The Savvy Traveler, 2001 to 2004. Author of Other Shores (1978), Basic Training for Women (1981), Boss of Me (1999), and Find a Way (Knopf, 2015). Subject of the 2013 documentary The Other Shore and the 2023 Netflix biopic Nyad. Biography The Havana to Key West crossing took five attempts and more than three decades between the first try and the one that finished. The 2013 swim ran roughly 110 miles and took about 53 hours in open water. The story most organisations know from the TED talk is the ending; the part that matters to leaders is the four attempts before it, and the team that kept assembling after each one. Nyad was already an accomplished marathon swimmer well before Cuba. In 1975 she circled Manhattan Island in 7 hours 57 minutes, breaking a record that had stood since 1927. She was inducted into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame in 1978 and the National Women’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1986. That era produced a particular kind of athlete: one who had to build, fund, and lead her own campaigns, because no federation was going to do it for her. The second career is what makes her unusual in this category. She spent roughly thirty years as a sports and culture journalist at ABC’s Wide World of Sports, NPR, CBS News Sunday Morning, The New York Times, and Newsweek, and hosted NPR’s The Savvy Traveler from 2001 to 2004. She is a writer before she is a motivator, and her books, including Knopf’s Find a Way in 2015, argue a case rather than recite a highlight reel. For senior audiences, the Cuba project is useful because it is legible as a management problem. A non-negotiable goal, a team that changes between attempts, four public failures, a shifting set of physical and logistical obstacles, and the question of when to stop. She is also clear-eyed about the ratification questions that followed the 2013 swim, which matters: the material she brings is about method and persistence, not an untouchable record. Key speaking topics Sustained pursuit of long-horizon goals Leading teams across repeated failure Decision-making under physical and psychological duress Resilience as a practised discipline Women in leadership and late-career reinvention Storytelling and the journalism of performance Ideal for Senior leadership offsites dealing with multi-year transformation programmes where setbacks are expected CEO and board sessions framing a non-negotiable strategic objective Sales and commercial leadership kick-offs anchored on persistence and team discipline Culture and people events for organisations rebuilding after a public failure or missed target Audience outcomes A concrete reference case for what a decade-long pursuit looks like from inside the team A clearer frame for the difference between motivation and method when a goal keeps slipping Language for talking to a team about the cost of the next attempt after a visible failure A usable argument that age, tenure, and timing are not the constraints they are usually treated as A reminder, grounded in a specific campaign, that solitary-looking achievements are almost always team outputs

Why organisations work with Dion Dublin A first-hand account of returning to elite performance after a life-threatening broken neck in 1999, with the medical and professional detail that gives the story credibility beyond inspiration. Twenty years inside top-flight football dressing rooms at Manchester United, Coventry, Aston Villa and the England squad, used as material for senior-team conversations on cohesion and standards. A working portfolio career that few sports speakers can match: BBC daytime presenter on Homes Under the Hammer since 2015, regular pundit on Match of the Day and Final Score, and inventor of the Dube percussion instrument used by Stevie Wonder. Comfortable on stage as host, panel chair or interviewer, drawn from a decade of live broadcast work, which makes him useful for full event hosting rather than only keynote slots. Biography highlights Premier League Golden Boot, 1997-98 season, shared with Chris Sutton and Michael Owen on 18 league goals. Four senior England caps; clubs included Manchester United, Coventry City, Aston Villa, Norwich City, Leicester City and Celtic. Returned to top-flight football within months of a broken neck sustained playing for Aston Villa in December 1999; helped the club to the FA Cup final the following April. Presenter on BBC One’s Homes Under the Hammer since 2015; pundit for BBC Football Focus, Match of the Day and Final Score. Inventor of the Dube, a four-sided percussion instrument used by Stevie Wonder and the Official England Supporters Band. Board member of Cambridge United F.C. since July 2021. Biography A broken neck in December 1999 should have ended a football career. Dion Dublin ran headfirst into a Sheffield Wednesday defender playing for Aston Villa, fractured three vertebrae and underwent surgery in which part of his pelvis was used to replace a crushed bone in his neck. He was back in the Villa side within months and helped the club to the FA Cup final the following April. He still plays with a titanium plate in his neck. That recovery sits inside a career that began at Cambridge United, took in Manchester United, Coventry City, Aston Villa, Norwich City, Leicester City and Celtic, and produced the Premier League Golden Boot in 1997-98, shared with Chris Sutton and Michael Owen. Four England caps followed. The material he uses with senior teams is drawn directly from that period: how high-performing dressing rooms hold each other to a standard, how players manage themselves through long injuries, and what happens to identity when the playing career ends. The post-playing career is unusual. Since 2015 Dublin has been a regular presenter on BBC One’s Homes Under the Hammer and a pundit on BBC Football Focus, Match of the Day and Final Score. He invented the Dube, a four-sided wooden percussion instrument that has been bought by Stevie Wonder and the Official England Supporters Band. In July 2021 he joined the board of Cambridge United, the club where he started. He finished fourth on Celebrity MasterChef in 2021. For corporate audiences the practical value is twofold. He speaks credibly on resilience and team performance from inside the experience rather than as commentary on it. He also hosts well, with a decade of live broadcast practice behind him, which makes him a strong fit for award nights, conference plenaries and panel sessions where a recognisable presence carries the room. Key speaking topics Resilience after acute setback High-performance team dynamics Career reinvention Mental and physical recovery Leadership under pressure Event hosting and panel facilitation Ideal for Sales and commercial teams running annual kick-offs and awards nights Senior leadership offsites focused on team standards and recovery from disruption Conference organisers needing a recognisable broadcast presence for hosting or interview formats Audience outcomes A grounded account of what elite team standards actually look like day to day A concrete recovery story they can map onto their own organisational setbacks A view of career reinvention drawn from three working chapters: sport, broadcast and product invention A confident, recognisable presence on stage that lifts the room

Why organisations work with Dominic Colenso The IMPACT framework (six elements of confident communication) and the Six Ds (Discover, Distil, Design, Drill, Deliver, Debrief) give organisations a named, repeatable method for high-stakes communication. The same toolkit scales from graduate intake to executive committee. Dominic trained as a director at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and starred opposite Sir Ben Kingsley in the Hollywood remake of Thunderbirds. The acting techniques he teaches in the room are the ones he was paid to use professionally on screen and on the stages of The National Theatre and The Royal Court. He is unusually effective with the audience most communication coaching fails: detail-focused subject matter experts in technology, finance and professional services who command technical credibility and need to convert it into commercial influence. For eight years Dominic has been the lead communication coach on Paysafe Group’s Front Runner programme, working with more than three hundred fintech professionals across successive international cohorts. His YouTube channel on communication and pitching has accumulated over 2.9 million views, and audiences frequently arrive at keynotes already familiar with the frameworks. Biography highlights Played Virgil Tracy in the 2004 Hollywood remake of Thunderbirds, opposite Bill Paxton and Sir Ben Kingsley. Trained as a director at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art; subsequently taught acting at RADA, Drama Centre London and Guildford School of Acting. Author of IMPACT (Rethink Press) and Cut-Through: The Pitch and Presentation Playbook (Practical Inspiration Publishing, 2025), shortlisted for The Business Book Awards 2026. Founder and Head Performance Coach of In Flow Training; lead communication coach on Paysafe Group’s Front Runner programme. Performed at The National Theatre and The Royal Court; on screen in BBC period dramas and feature film. Delivered the TEDx talk “The Power of Telling Your Story” at TEDxVitoriaGasteiz; host of the Why Life’s A Pitch podcast; contributor to Big Think, Fast Company and Entrepreneur UK. Biography When the 2004 Hollywood remake of Thunderbirds went to camera, Bill Paxton played Jeff Tracy and Sir Ben Kingsley played The Hood. Virgil Tracy, the brother who pilots Thunderbird 2, was a 22-year-old Dominic Colenso. The discipline he absorbed on that set, and on the stages of The National Theatre and The Royal Court, is the foundation of his current work. Most communication training works in adjectives. Be confident. Be clear. The actor’s craft works in mechanics: what the voice does under pressure, how the eyes hold a room, how a story is structured so it lands in the time available. Two books distil that craft into frameworks organisations can apply without a drama degree. IMPACT (Rethink Press) sets out six elements of confident communication. Cut-Through (Practical Inspiration Publishing, 2025), shortlisted for The Business Book Awards 2026, walks through the Six Ds of pitch and presentation: Discover, Distil, Design, Drill, Deliver, Debrief. The audience best served by this method is the one most communication coaching struggles with. Technical experts in finance, technology, and professional services are paid for the depth of their knowledge, then asked to distil it for a board, a client, or a 200-person sales kick-off. Across eight years Dominic has led the communication coaching on Paysafe Group’s Front Runner programme, working with more than three hundred fintech professionals in successive international cohorts. Named clients also include John Lewis & Partners, Mars, Abbott, Kerry Group, Benenden Health, British Council, the Co-op, Gallagher, and the National Sales Conference. Beyond the keynote and coaching work, the method has its own distribution. His YouTube channel has accumulated over 2.9 million views on communication and pitching content, and his writing on pitching and presentation appears in outlets including Fast Company and Big Think. The Why Life’s A Pitch podcast interviews business and creative figures, including Daniel Priestley, about how they used storytelling to get where they are. The 2017 TEDx talk “The Power of Telling Your Story” remains in active circulation, including on US college course reading lists. Key speaking topics High-stakes communication Pitch and presentation craft Sales storytelling Executive presence and gravitas On-camera communication Leadership communication under pressure Translating technical depth into commercial influence Ideal for Sales leadership and revenue teams preparing for high-stakes pitches, kick-offs and renewal conversations. Senior leaders preparing keynotes, town halls or investor presentations where the room matters. Heads of L&D and CHROs investing in communication and presence as part of leadership development. Subject matter experts in finance, technology and professional services who need to convert depth into influence. Audience outcomes A named six-step method for designing and rehearsing any high-stakes pitch or presentation. Specific physical and vocal techniques for holding attention and composure when the stakes are highest. A structured approach to distilling complex or technical material into messages an audience can act on. A shared vocabulary for giving and receiving feedback on communication, so the gains continue after the session.

Why organisations work with Dominic Inglot He competed at the highest level of doubles tennis, a discipline that is structurally about two people making correct decisions together in real time under crowd, ranking, and result pressure. That experience translates directly to leadership pairs and small executive teams. He sat inside Great Britain’s 2015 Davis Cup squad, the country’s first title in 79 years, and can speak first-hand to what a team does in the weeks and minutes before a result that has eluded the institution for a generation. Eighteen years on the ATP tour, including Grand Slam semi-finals at the US Open and Wimbledon and an Olympic appearance, gives him a long-arc view on sustained performance, loss of form, and how players rebuild after defeats that would end most careers. His post-tennis work as a BBC and ATP commentator means he reads competitive performance for a living; he is unusually articulate about what is happening inside a match, which gives the keynote substance beyond the personal narrative. Biography highlights Career-high doubles ranking of World No. 18; former British No. 1 in doubles. 14 ATP Tour doubles titles, including Citi Open and Swiss Indoors; 27 ATP finals across an 18-year professional career. Member of the 2015 Great Britain Davis Cup winning squad; awarded BBC Sports Personality Team of the Year. Grand Slam doubles semi-finalist at the 2015 US Open and 2018 Wimbledon; three Australian Open quarter-finals. 2016 Rio Olympian for Team GB in men’s doubles. University of Virginia Finance graduate; 2009 NCAA Men’s Doubles Champion. Tennis commentator for BBC at Wimbledon and for the ATP and WTA world feeds. Biography Great Britain had not won the Davis Cup in seventy-nine years when the 2015 squad arrived in Ghent for the final against Belgium. Inglot was part of that squad. The team won. That fact frames everything else about what he brings to a corporate audience, because the interesting question is not the win, it is the eleven months of preparation, the weight of expectation, and the daily decisions inside a small group of people that produced it. The wider career sits alongside that moment as proof. World No. 18 in doubles, fourteen ATP titles, semi-finals at the US Open and Wimbledon, an Olympic appearance in Rio. Doubles, more than singles, is the closest sporting analogue to a senior executive pair: two people, complementary skills, real-time decisions, no time to caucus. The discipline of that partnership is what he speaks to. Since retiring in 2022, Inglot has worked as a commentator for BBC at Wimbledon and for the ATP and WTA world feeds. That second career matters here because he reads performance for a living. He is articulate about what composure looks like from the outside, what trust between teammates actually consists of in the seconds before a critical point, and why some players keep deciding when the result is uncertain while others stop. His University of Virginia Finance degree and NCAA doubles title sit at the start of the story rather than the end. The argument is not that elite sport is a metaphor for business. It is that elite sport is one of the few environments where the qualities leadership development tries to teach are stress-tested in public every week, and a leader can learn from watching them tested. Key speaking topics Performance under pressure Team trust and partnership Decision-making in real time Career transition and reinvention Resilience after setback Mental discipline in elite sport Lessons from doubles tennis for leadership pairs Ideal for Executive teams and leadership pairs whose effectiveness depends on real-time decisions and trust under pressure. Sales leadership and commercial teams approaching a high-stakes period (year-end, pitch, transaction close). Corporate offsites, annual conferences, and Davis Cup or Wimbledon hospitality activations. After-dinner audiences at industry events where a strong personal story carries the room. Audience outcomes A concrete picture of what composure looks like under genuine pressure, drawn from inside a Davis Cup campaign. A working language for how trust between two senior people is built and tested in real time. A view of career transition that does not flatten the difficulty of leaving a defining identity behind. A renewed standard for what high performance asks of preparation, not only execution.

Why organisations work with Dominique Gisin A first-hand account of nine knee surgeries followed by an Olympic gold, used not as a story arc but as material for how leaders sustain commitment when each new attempt carries diminishing odds. A rare combination of elite sporting pedigree with a scientific frame of reference: a Sochi 2014 gold medal alongside an ETH Zurich MSc in Physics, which lifts the conversation above motivational anecdote. Co-delivery with Dr Christian Marcolli, her long-time sports psychologist, gives organisations a paired performance-and-psychology view in a single keynote rather than a one-voice talk. Operational credibility outside sport: a board seat at the listed TITLIS cable-car company, the CEO role she held at Schweizer Sporthilfe, and a spell flying as a commercial First Officer. The talk is anchored in real decision environments, not sport alone. Bilingual delivery in German and English, with strong relevance to Swiss, German-speaking, and international corporate audiences. Biography highlights Olympic gold medallist, Alpine Skiing Downhill, Sochi 2014, in the first ever Olympic alpine tie for gold (with Tina Maze). Swiss Sportswoman of the Year, 2014. Member of the Swiss National Alpine Ski Team, 2007 to 2015, with multiple World Cup podiums in downhill and super-G. MSc in Physics, ETH Zurich, 2022. CEO and board of trustees member, Schweizer Sporthilfe (Swiss Sports Aid Foundation), 2018 to 2022. Qualified commercial pilot; flew as a First Officer with Swiss carrier Fly7. Biography The downhill at Sochi 2014 produced the first tie for gold in Olympic alpine history. Dominique Gisin shared the podium with Tina Maze on identical times to the hundredth, ending a thirty-year wait for a Swiss women’s downhill gold. The medal arrived after nine knee surgeries and a career that had been written off more than once. What gives the talk its weight is what happened after. Gisin retired from the World Cup circuit in 2015 and was admitted to ETH Zurich, completing an MSc in Physics in 2022. She qualified as a commercial pilot in 2019 and flew as a First Officer for the Swiss carrier Fly7. From 2018 to 2022 she served as CEO and a board of trustees member of Schweizer Sporthilfe, the foundation that funds Swiss athlete development. For senior audiences, the relevant content is not the medal itself. It is the discipline of repeated comeback under thin evidence, paired with a working understanding of how performance, physiology, and decision pressure interact. Her keynote “Making It Happen” is co-delivered with sports psychologist Dr Christian Marcolli, which moves the material beyond personal narrative into a structured account of how composure is built and rebuilt. The pairing of Olympic-level performance, scientific training, and operational responsibility in two further professions is unusual. It gives leadership audiences something specific to take away: a credible read on what it takes to keep deciding well when the body, the data, or the team are all giving reasons to stop. Key speaking topics Resilience after serious setback Composure and decision-making under pressure Elite performance psychology Career reinvention and second-act leadership Team trust and individual accountability Inspiration from elite sport for corporate audiences Ideal for Executive leadership offsites and board awaydays facing a turnaround or post-shock phase HR, talent and L&D leaders running senior development programmes on resilience and performance Sales and commercial conferences anchored on sustained motivation through difficult cycles Audience outcomes A concrete account of how elite athletes prepare for, absorb, and recover from setback, applied to leadership decisions Language for talking about composure as a built capability rather than a personality trait A working frame, drawn from sports psychology, for how individuals and teams stay committed when results are slow to arrive A second-perspective view through Dr Christian Marcolli when the keynote is booked as a duo

Why organisations work with Karim Ellis A John Maxwell Team founding partner, which puts him inside the most widely sold leadership development network in the US corporate market and gives buyers a recognised pedigree to point to internally. Corporate training experience across Ford, Honda, Toyota, General Electric, Johnson and Johnson, Procter and Gamble, Kroger, USPS and the US Department of Defense, so he is calibrated for large, regulated, blue-collar and white-collar audiences in the same brief. A signature framework, GPS My Success, published as a book and built around five named principles for translating individual vision into action, which gives organisers a structured deliverable rather than a generic motivational set. A platform style trained directly under Les Brown, certified at Platinum level, which is what a programme committee is buying when they want an energising US-style closing keynote that lifts a room. Biography highlights Founding partner of the John Maxwell Team. Author of GPS My Success: The Address You Input In Life Determines Your Destination (2020). Two-time TEDx speaker, including TEDx Cincinnati. Les Brown Certified Platinum Speaker. 2022 Speakercon Motivational Speaker of the Year. Corporate clients include Ford, Honda, Toyota, General Electric, Johnson and Johnson, Procter and Gamble, Kroger, USPS, SHRM and the US Department of Defense. Biography Large organisations spend significant budgets on leadership and engagement programmes that fail to move the dial on day-to-day behaviour. People are inspired in the room, then the routine resumes. The problem is rarely talent or content. It is the absence of a shared, repeatable language for what good looks like and how individuals contribute to it. Karim Ellis works in that gap. As a founding partner of the John Maxwell Team, he trained inside the leadership network John C. Maxwell built, then developed his own framework, GPS My Success, around five principles for turning individual vision into a destination the rest of the organisation can recognise. The book of the same name, published in 2020, is the spine of his corporate keynote. His audiences are mainstream US corporate: Ford, Honda, Toyota, General Electric, Johnson and Johnson, Procter and Gamble, Kroger, USPS and the US Department of Defense, alongside SHRM and the National Urban League. The brief is consistent. Lift the room, give people a structured way to talk about ambition and accountability, and send them back to work with something they can use on Monday. The platform craft sits on top of formal training with Les Brown, where Ellis holds Platinum certification, and two TEDx appearances. Speakercon named him its 2022 Motivational Speaker of the Year. The work is built for events that need an energising US-style keynote backed by a defined leadership and personal-development model, not a strategy lecture. Key speaking topics Leadership development Vision and goal-setting Personal effectiveness and peak performance Motivation and audience engagement Communication and presence Sales and customer service mindset Ideal for Internal leadership development conferences and L and D programmes. Annual sales kick-offs and field-force events seeking an energising main-stage keynote. Diversity, employee engagement and culture events looking for a US motivational headliner with corporate fluency. Audience outcomes A named five-part framework, GPS My Success, that individuals can apply to their own goals after the session. A shared language for vision, ambition and accountability that managers can carry back into team conversations. A renewed sense of personal agency on performance, grounded in concrete principles rather than slogans. A high-energy closing or opening moment that lifts engagement scores for the event.

Why organisations work with Kevin Fong He has run the actual command-and-control work organisations rehearse in tabletop exercises: seconded to NHS England as National Clinical Advisor for Emergency Preparedness during COVID-19, embedded with the British Military Emergency Response Team in Afghanistan, and active on a UK air ambulance crew. He brings a tested method for high-pressure decision-making drawn from anaesthesia, prehospital medicine and human spaceflight, sectors where the standards for crew performance are explicit and audited. His Apollo and Apollo 13 work for the BBC, including the World Service podcast 13 Minutes to the Moon, is built from primary interviews with the controllers and astronauts who made the calls. The case material is specific, not anecdotal. He holds a serious clinical and academic post (UCLH consultant; UCL professor; co-director of CASE Medicine), so his framing of human limits and team performance survives scrutiny by technical audiences. He was appointed OBE in 2019 for services to medicine and healthcare, and delivered the 2015 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on space medicine, a platform with a high bar for clarity and authority. Biography highlights Consultant anaesthetist, University College London Hospitals; Professor of Public Engagement and Innovation, UCL. Co-director, Centre for Aviation, Space and Extreme Environment Medicine (CASE Medicine), UCL. National Clinical Advisor in Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response, NHS England (COVID-19 secondment, from March 2020). HEMS doctor, Air Ambulance Kent Surrey Sussex; previously embedded with British Military Emergency Response Team, Afghanistan; alumnus of NASA’s human spaceflight programme, Johnson Space Center. Presenter, 2015 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures (BBC Four); host of BBC World Service podcasts 13 Minutes to the Moon and 13 Minutes Presents: Apollo 13. Author, Extremes: Life, Death and the Limits of the Human Body (Hodder). OBE, 2019, for services to medicine and healthcare. Biography The Apollo 11 lunar module ran out of usable computer memory in the final minutes of its descent. The crew had thirteen minutes to reach the surface or abort. The decision to land was made by a flight director who had spent his career rehearsing exactly that kind of call. Fong’s BBC World Service series 13 Minutes to the Moon was built from first-hand interviews with the controllers and astronauts who made it work, and it is the clearest expression of what his speaking practice is actually about. The thread runs through his clinical career. As a consultant anaesthetist at UCLH, a HEMS doctor with Air Ambulance Kent Surrey Sussex, and a clinician embedded with the British Military Emergency Response Team in Afghanistan, he has spent his working life inside the systems that train teams to function when the cost of error is immediate. In March 2020, he was seconded to NHS England as National Clinical Advisor in Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response, working at the centre of the COVID-19 response and the vaccine rollout. The academic infrastructure underneath the speaking is substantive. He is a professor at UCL and co-director of the Centre for Aviation, Space and Extreme Environment Medicine, with degrees spanning astrophysics, medicine and engineering and a long association with NASA’s human spaceflight programme at Johnson Space Center. The book Extremes and the 2015 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures sit on top of that record, not in place of it. What he gives a corporate audience is a translation. The protocols that make space crews, trauma teams and air ambulance services reliable under extreme strain are not analogies for business leadership; they are concrete practices that can be examined and adopted. The 2019 OBE recognises a body of work that already crosses medicine, science and public communication, which is why his sessions land with technical leaders, not only general audiences. Key speaking topics Decision-making under extreme pressure High-performing teams in safety-critical environments Crisis leadership and command Pandemic response and healthcare resilience Human spaceflight and extreme environment medicine Risk and human factors Leadership lessons from Apollo Ideal for CEOs, COOs and crisis leadership teams preparing for low-probability, high-consequence events Boards and risk committees stress-testing operational resilience and command structures Leadership development programmes for clinical, aviation, energy, defence and infrastructure organisations Conferences for senior medical, scientific and engineering audiences who reject generic motivational content Audience outcomes A working vocabulary for human factors, crew resource management and command structure that can be applied inside their own organisations Specific, named case material from Apollo 11, Apollo 13 and the COVID-19 response, used to interrogate how their own teams would behave A clearer view of where their organisation is rehearsed and where it is improvising under pressure Renewed conviction in the operational standards that distinguish reliable teams from the rest