Resilience & Stress Management

Why organisations work with Chloe Morgan She has lived the dual-career argument that organisations now ask of high performers: practising as a personal injury solicitor at Irwin Mitchell while playing in goal for Tottenham, Arsenal, and Crystal Palace. Her inclusion content carries weight that policy slides do not: she is a Football Black List honouree, DIVA Sports Star of the Year, and a Pride Power List entrant, recognised by the named bodies in those communities. She speaks to LGBTQ and BAME representation from inside elite sport, not as a commentator on it, which gives senior teams a credible voice for inclusion work that has lost traction since 2020. She runs She’s a Baller, the UK’s largest independent women’s football publisher and creative agency, and brings a working operator’s view of where brand and inclusion narratives still come apart. Biography highlights Former goalkeeper for Tottenham Hotspur Women, Arsenal Women, and Crystal Palace Women across an eight-year elite career. Qualified solicitor (University of Leeds law graduate); civil litigation lawyer at Irwin Mitchell during her playing career. Cyrille Regis Players Award winner, Football Black List 2020. DIVA Sports Star of the Year, 2021; Pride Power List, 2021. Co-host of “Upfront”, the women’s football podcast on the Football Ramble network. Head of She’s a Baller, the UK’s largest independent women’s football publisher and creative agency. Biography Most inclusion programmes were built for an audience that has now moved on. The reputational risk has shifted, the public mood is harder to read, and the people inside the organisation can tell the difference between a values statement and a working environment. The question senior teams now ask is narrower and more practical: what does inclusion look like once the press release has gone out. This is the territory Chloe Morgan speaks from. She played eight seasons at the top of the women’s game, in goal for Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, and Crystal Palace, including Tottenham’s promotion campaign into the Women’s Super League. She did it while qualifying as a solicitor and working as a civil litigation lawyer at Irwin Mitchell, a dual career that is unusual at any level of professional sport and almost unheard of at the elite end. Her inclusion work is recognised by the bodies that matter in the relevant communities. She received the Cyrille Regis Players Award on the Football Black List in 2020, was named DIVA Sports Star of the Year in 2021, and entered the Pride Power List the same year. She speaks as an openly gay Black athlete who has been inside the dressing rooms, boardrooms, and law firms in question, not as a commentator standing outside them. Since retiring in 2022 she has moved into media and operating roles. She co-hosts “Upfront” on the Football Ramble network and now leads She’s a Baller, the UK’s largest independent women’s football publisher and creative agency, where she works with brands on the gap between women’s football marketing and the actual culture of the women’s game. Key speaking topics Inclusion in elite performance environments LGBTQ representation in sport and professional services Race and representation in women’s football Dual-career discipline and high performance Resilience in male-dominated workplaces Women’s sport as a brand and commercial category Leadership lessons from the goalkeeping position Ideal for CHROs and DEI leads rebuilding inclusion programmes after the post-2020 retreat Brand and marketing teams investing in women’s sport sponsorships and partnerships Employee resource groups, particularly LGBTQ and Black professional networks Leadership audiences interested in dual-career performance and resilience Audience outcomes A clearer view of what inclusion looks like in environments with measurable performance pressure, not only in policy. Specific reference points from elite women’s football and a UK law firm, drawn from one career rather than secondhand. A more honest read on where brand activity in women’s sport lands well with players and fans, and where it misfires. Confidence that resilience and dual-career performance can be discussed with substance, not slogans.

Why organisations work with Serena Guthrie She has the rare credential of captaining a national team in the cycle immediately after its biggest win, with the specific leadership problem of defending a standard rather than chasing one. Her playing record is decided in the strongest leagues in the sport: Team Bath in England, Northern Mystics in New Zealand, Giants Netball in Australia, where she was named club MVP for the 2017 season. She speaks credibly about the captain’s role inside a high-performance system, including how a senior player holds a dressing room when the head coach is making selection calls that hurt teammates. An MBE for services to netball and a continuing role as Performance Lead at Jersey Netball mean her authority sits in current practice, not retired commentary. Biography highlights 110 senior caps for England; captain of the Vitality Roses from November 2018 to retirement in March 2022. Gold medal, 2018 Commonwealth Games, with the England Roses. Bronze, 2019 Netball World Cup, as captain. Three Netball World Cups (2011, 2015, 2019) and two Commonwealth Games (2014, 2018). Club career across the three strongest leagues in the sport: Team Bath, Northern Mystics, Giants Netball. Giants club MVP, 2017. MBE, 2020 New Year Honours, for services to netball. Performance Lead, Jersey Netball; founder of Legacy Netball; accredited executive coach; business coaching work with Humanise Solutions. Biography England had never won a major netball title before April 2018. When the Roses came home with Commonwealth gold, the team that had spent forty years finishing behind Australia and New Zealand was suddenly the one being chased. Seven months later, Serena Guthrie was named captain. The captaincy she took on was the difficult one. The first World Cup cycle after a defining win is the cycle in which a team has to prove the result was not a peak. Guthrie led the Roses to bronze at the 2019 World Cup in Liverpool under head coach Tracey Neville’s final campaign, and stayed in the role through the next three years of restructure, coaching change, and a pandemic that interrupted the international calendar. She retired in March 2022 with 110 caps and 28 as captain. Her club career sits alongside that international record. She played at Team Bath in the Vitality Netball Superleague, moved to Northern Mystics in New Zealand’s ANZ Premiership, and then to Giants Netball in Australia’s Suncorp Super Netball, the strongest domestic league in the sport, where she was named club MVP in her first season. That is a player who tested her standards in the environments her opponents came from. What she offers corporate audiences now is the substance of the captain’s role inside a high-performance system. She is direct about the gap between leading on the court and managing the room around selection decisions made by someone else; about how senior players hold standards when results turn; and about what defending a benchmark feels like compared with chasing one. Her current work as Performance Lead at Jersey Netball, founder of Legacy Netball, and an accredited executive coach with Humanise Solutions keeps that material in active practice. Key speaking topics Captaincy and senior leadership inside high-performance teams Holding standards after a defining win Team culture under public pressure and scrutiny Selection, accountability, and the senior player’s role Resilience and composure in decisive moments Talent development and the long arc of an elite career Ideal for Executive teams operating under the pressure to repeat or defend a recent result HR and talent leaders working on captaincy, succession, and senior player roles inside teams Women’s leadership programmes and senior development cohorts Sales and commercial leaders running through a defined competitive cycle Audience outcomes A concrete account of what a senior captain does inside a high-performance system when selection calls are not theirs to make A working reference point for holding team standards after a result everyone now expects you to repeat Honest perspective on the personal weight of leading peers, including senior teammates, through public results A usable model of long-career resilience across three of the most competitive leagues in a global sport

Why organisations work with Keira Walsh She has held the central midfield role in two winning European finals for England, including as Player of the Match at Wembley in 2022, which is a specific position about reading risk and keeping a team in shape under pressure. Her career carries the weight of a world-record transfer fee, which is a useful frame for any leader being asked to perform after a step-change in expectation, scrutiny or investment. She offers an inside account of an elite team culture, the Lionesses under Sarina Wiegman, that has now won back-to-back European Championships and reached a World Cup final. Her move from Barcelona to Chelsea in January 2025 is a recent, deliberate case study in choosing environment and ambition over comfort, told first-hand. Biography highlights MBE in the 2026 New Year Honours for services to association football. UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 final Player of the Match; UEFA Women’s Euro 2025 winner with England. World-record transfer fee in women’s football when Barcelona signed her from Manchester City in September 2022. Two UEFA Women’s Champions League titles with FC Barcelona. Chelsea midfielder since January 2025 on a four-and-a-half-year deal. Over 100 senior England caps; ever-present in Sarina Wiegman’s midfield through two winning European Championship campaigns. Biography Holding midfield in a winning international final is, in football terms, the most exposed leadership job on the pitch. It is the role that connects defence to attack, absorbs pressure when the opposition raises tempo, and decides which risks the team can afford in the last twenty minutes. Walsh has now done that job twice, at Euro 2022 and Euro 2025, in the two most scrutinised matches in the women’s game. The 2022 final at Wembley was the case study. England were level with Germany when Walsh produced the assist for Ella Toone’s opening goal and was named Player of the Match. UEFA’s technical observers noted that she “balanced the team throughout the game” and rarely lost possession. Three years later she was back in the starting line-up for the Euro 2025 final in Basel, helping England retain the title in a penalty shoot-out against Spain. Her club career has carried a comparable weight of expectation. Barcelona paid a reported 400,000 pounds for her in September 2022, a world record in women’s football, and she went on to win two UEFA Women’s Champions League titles and a domestic continental quadruple. In January 2025 she returned to England with Chelsea on a four-and-a-half-year contract, signed explicitly to help the club convert domestic dominance into European success. For corporate audiences, the substance is composure under exposure. Walsh is a working professional who has been the named senior player in a unit twice asked to win a continental final, and a transfer asset twice priced at the top of her market. The MBE awarded in the 2026 New Year Honours marks the public record. The more useful material is the operating detail behind it. Key speaking topics Composure and decision-making under pressure Elite team culture and cohesion Resilience after setback and injury Performing after a step-change in expectation Women’s sport and the commercial reset of the game Leadership in the holding role Ideal for Leadership teams preparing for a high-scrutiny year: post-IPO, post-acquisition, new mandate CHROs and culture leads building cohesion in senior teams under sustained pressure Conference audiences in sport, media and consumer brands engaging with the growth of women’s football Employee and partner events where the brief is human performance rather than technical content Audience outcomes A first-hand picture of how a winning international squad makes decisions in the final twenty minutes of a closely fought match. A working definition of composure that is usable by senior leaders, not motivational language. A concrete example of what changes when an individual is priced and expected to operate at the very top of their market. An honest account of leaving a winning environment for a harder one, and the reasoning behind it.

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 Dean Ashton A first-person account of how an elite career ends without warning, and what it takes to construct a credible second one from scratch in a watched, public arena. Direct experience of performing under scrutiny, from Premier League football and an FA Cup final to live broadcast on talkSPORT, Sky Sports, ITV and Quest, is useful to leaders whose own work has become more publicly observed. A grounded, unvarnished voice on mental health, injury and identity loss, drawn from being told at 26 that the work he had trained his life for was over. An after-dinner presence that lifts the energy of a room, with material a sports-literate UK audience recognises immediately: Crewe academy, Norwich, the £7.25m move to West Ham, the 2006 cup final, the England debut against Trinidad & Tobago. Biography highlights Capped by England at the senior level; made his debut against Trinidad & Tobago on 1 June 2008. Signed by West Ham United from Norwich City in January 2006 for a then club-record £7.25m fee. Scored in the 3-3 FA Cup final against Liverpool in May 2006. Career ended in December 2009 at age 26 following a long-term ankle injury sustained in England training in August 2006. Product of the Crewe Alexandra academy under Dario Gradi; scored 74 goals in 177 appearances for the club. Now a pundit and co-commentator across talkSPORT, Sky Sports, ITV, Premier League TV and The EFL Show on Quest. Biography Ashton was a £7.25m centre-forward, an FA Cup final scorer, and an England international by the time he was 24. By 26, he was retired. The ankle injury sustained in an England training session in August 2006 never fully healed, and in December 2009, West Ham confirmed publicly what he had been trying to outrun for three years. The interesting part of the story for organisations is what came next. The default path for a player in that position is a quiet drift out of public life. Ashton instead built a second career inside the same scrutiny he had been performing in as a player, this time as a broadcaster, working as a pundit and co-commentator across talkSPORT, Sky Sports, ITV, Premier League TV and The EFL Show on Quest. That arc is the substance of his speaking work. The material is not abstract resilience theory. It is a specific account of identity loss at 26, the practical mechanics of rebuilding professional credibility in a new field, and the discipline of performing under live scrutiny when the result is judged in public. He talks honestly about mental health, public pressure and the version of yourself you have to construct when the original plan is gone. For a UK corporate audience, Ashton sits at the intersection of after-dinner sports speaker and credible voice on dealing with career shock. The football material gives the room an immediate point of entry. The reinvention material is what a leadership audience actually takes away. Key speaking topics Resilience after career-ending shock Reinvention and second careers Performing under public scrutiny Mental health and identity in elite performance environments Team culture and high performance in professional sport After-dinner sports speaking and Premier League punditry Ideal for HR, leadership and wellbeing conferences where the brief calls for an honest first-person voice on resilience and mental health. Sales kick-offs, awards dinners and partner events are looking for a UK sports-literate after-dinner speaker with substance behind the anecdotes. Internal leadership offsites addressing change fatigue, role loss after restructure, or the reset that follows a strategic shock. Audience outcomes A grounded sense of what resilience looks like in practice when the original plan is no longer available. A more honest internal vocabulary for talking about mental health, identity and pressure at senior levels. A reference point for thinking about career reinvention as a deliberate, constructed process rather than a recovery story. An engaged, sports-literate room, set up well for the rest of the agenda.

Why organisations work with Ade Oladipo He brings live broadcast craft to corporate events: DAZN Boxing, talkSPORT and Amazon Prime Premier League coverage are all built on holding a live audience under pressure, which is exactly what large internal conferences and award nights demand. His career is a documented case of breaking a colour barrier in UK sports media, becoming the first Black presenter of a live Premier League match in December 2023. That is concrete material, not abstract DEI commentary. His speaking themes (adversity, mental health, working in media) are grounded in his own route through fostering, East London, sports trials and a non-traditional path into journalism, which gives the content specificity rather than slogans. He is equally credible as keynote speaker, panel moderator and awards host, which makes him useful for clients who need one booking to cover the whole evening. Biography highlights Lead presenter for DAZN Boxing and host of “The DAZN Boxing Show”, covering Anthony Joshua, Canelo Alvarez, Gervonta Davis and KSI fights. First Black presenter of a live Premier League match in the UK, anchoring Amazon Prime’s coverage of Crystal Palace v Bournemouth in December 2023. Presenter across the talkSPORT network, including “The Social” on talkSPORT 2 and pundit work on “Kick Off Added Time”. Winner of the 2021 Audio Production Awards “Best New Voice”. Co-host of the 2023 ARIAS-nominated podcast “The Men’s Room”. Prior credits include Sky Sports News (Premier League and EFL transfer reporting), ESPN, Fox Sports and Arise News. Biography Live boxing on DAZN, Premier League football on Amazon Prime, weekly radio on talkSPORT. Three different audiences, three different production cultures, one presenter holding the room when the broadcast is live and the script has gone. That is the working life Ade Oladipo has built, and it is the material he brings into the corporate room. In December 2023 he became the first Black presenter of a live Premier League match in the UK, leading Amazon Prime’s coverage of Crystal Palace against Bournemouth. The story behind that night runs through Brighton foster care, East London, Essex football and athletics, a Tottenham Hotspur Academy trial, and an entry into sports journalism in 2015 at Arise News. None of it was the standard route. His speaking work draws on that route directly. The themes are adversity, mental health, and what it takes to keep doing the work when you are the only person in the room who looks like you. Awards include the 2021 Audio Production Awards “Best New Voice” and a 2023 ARIAS nomination as co-host of “The Men’s Room” podcast, evidence that the craft holds up alongside the story. For corporate clients his most direct value is hosting craft: keynote, Q&A, awards, panel moderation, all delivered with the calm of someone who presents live boxing for a living. The keynote on adversity and mental health is the additional offer when the brief calls for it. Key speaking topics Mental health and resilience in high-pressure work Adversity and non-linear career paths Race and representation in UK media Sports broadcasting and live presenting Event hosting and panel moderation Awards night MC Ideal for Corporate event organisers needing a host who can carry a full evening: keynote, panel, awards. Internal CHRO and DEI leads commissioning content on lived experience rather than policy. Sports, media and entertainment industry conferences. Employee Resource Group events, particularly those focused on Black professionals in white-majority industries. Audience outcomes A clear sense of what sustained mental health practice looks like for someone working under public scrutiny. A specific story of breaking into and breaking through a closed industry, used as material for their own career conversations. A sharper view of what genuine inclusion feels like from inside, beyond the slide deck. An event held together by a presenter trained on live broadcast, not a corporate stage.

Why organisations work with Aoife Mannion She has rebuilt her career twice from ACL ruptures, including a 16-month layoff after a Champions League injury, and can describe the rehab discipline that goes with it without losing the room. Her mental-health work is institutional rather than personal commentary: she sits on FIFPRO’s Mental Health Taskforce, the global players’ union body that shapes player welfare standards. She holds back-to-back PFA WSL Team of the Year selections from her Birmingham City years, a peer-voted credential rather than a media one. She represents the Republic of Ireland after a long youth career in the England system, and can speak credibly to identity, belonging and late-career reinvention without trading on clichés. Biography highlights Centre-back for Newcastle United Women and the Republic of Ireland senior squad Former Manchester United, Manchester City, Birmingham City, and Aston Villa player 2024 Women’s FA Cup winner with Manchester United PFA WSL Team of the Year 2017-18 and 2018-19 Member of FIFPRO Mental Health Taskforce Senior Ireland debut on 22 February 2023 versus China Biography Recovery from a serious ACL injury takes around twelve months on a clean run, longer when the second one arrives before the first is fully behind you. Aoife Mannion has done both. The first rupture came during a 2019 Champions League tie against Atletico Madrid and kept her out for sixteen months. The second came in March 2022, eight months into her Manchester United contract. She was a peer-voted selection for the PFA WSL Team of the Year in two consecutive seasons at Birmingham City, then won the Women’s FA Cup with Manchester United in 2024 after that second comeback. She now plays for Newcastle United Women in the WSL2 and the Republic of Ireland senior squad, having made her international debut in February 2023 after a long youth career inside the England system. The mental health work is structural. Mannion sits on FIFPRO’s Mental Health Taskforce, the global players’ union body that sets welfare standards across professional football, and has spoken through FIFPRO on what long injury layoffs do to identity and to a person’s relationship with the work that defines them. The argument she makes to corporate audiences is the one she had to make to herself twice: composure is a discipline you build before you need it, and the conversation around the setback is the part that reduces the suffering. She speaks for organisations dealing with people in long, uncertain recoveries of their own, whether after restructure, after public failure, or after the kind of personal setback that does not respect the working week. Key speaking topics Resilience after a serious setback Rehabilitation discipline and the long return Mental health in high-performance environments Self-leadership under prolonged pressure Identity, belonging and dual nationality Feedback and honest performance conversations Ideal for CHROs and people leaders building resilience programmes that go beyond wellbeing branding Executive teams and leadership offsites where the brief is composed under sustained adversity Organisations in or after restructure where the workforce is dealing with prolonged uncertainty Networks for women in sport, performance and corporate leadership Audience outcomes A clearer language for what real recovery from a setback looks like over months, not weeks A practical view of how mental health support works inside elite teams, drawn from FIFPRO’s policy work Honest reference points for separating identity from role when the role is interrupted Reasons to take rehabilitation, recovery and feedback seriously as leadership disciplines, not soft skills

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

Why organisations work with Tanya Oxtoby She has built winning environments at both ends of the resource spectrum: Bristol City Women, operating on the WSL’s smallest budget, and Chelsea Women under Emma Hayes, the most dominant club side in English football. She has held a UEFA Pro Licence in a sport where fewer than a handful of women in the British and Irish game hold that qualification, and she has used it inside national-team rebuild conditions at Northern Ireland. She speaks directly about leading squad transitions; under her at Northern Ireland the average age of the squad dropped from 27 to 23, nine players debuted, and the world ranking improved while results remained mixed. That is the texture of real change leadership rather than the slide version. She brings a working perspective on inclusion as performance practice, drawing on her own indigenous Australian background and her record of developing female coaches and players inside the elite game. Biography highlights Manager, Newcastle United Women, appointed November 2025 on a contract to June 2029. Former manager, Northern Ireland senior women’s national team, 2023 to 2025. Former assistant coach, Chelsea FC Women, under Emma Hayes; two FA Women’s Super League titles and three Women’s FA Cups during her two seasons. Former manager, Bristol City Women, July 2018 to early 2022; record WSL points tally and a sixth place finish in her first season, with two Manager of the Month awards. UEFA Pro Licence holder. Former professional centre-back for Perth Glory, Western Waves and Doncaster Rovers Belles; captained Western Australia and Perth Glory. Biography Bristol City Women had the lowest budget in the Women’s Super League when Tanya Oxtoby took over in July 2018. By the end of her first season they had a record points tally, a sixth place finish in the WSL, and she had collected two Manager of the Month awards. That is the work that defines her as a leader: building standards inside teams that are not supposed to win at the level they end up competing at. The Chelsea years sharpened the credential. Two seasons as assistant to Emma Hayes, two FA Women’s Super League titles, three Women’s FA Cups. She joined the staff in 2021 and left in 2023 for the senior international job with Northern Ireland, a four-year project to reset a national team that had qualified for its first major tournament under the previous regime. Northern Ireland was the harder leadership test. She handed nine players their senior debuts, dropped the average squad age from 27 to 23, and improved the country’s world ranking, while results on the pitch stayed inconsistent. The squad reset was the point. In November 2025 she left to take the manager’s job at Newcastle United Women, on a contract running until 2029, in a recruitment process led by Director of Women’s Football Grace Williams. Oxtoby is one of a small group of women in the British and Irish game who holds a UEFA Pro Licence. She speaks publicly about her indigenous Australian heritage and the absence of visible role models from that background during her playing career at Perth Glory and Doncaster Rovers Belles. That gives her work on inclusion a specificity that most sports-speaker treatments of the subject lack. Key speaking topics Leadership under resource constraint Building winning cultures inside elite teams Squad and team renewal Performance leadership in high-pressure environments Inclusion and representation in elite sport Coaching at the top of professional football Ideal for CHROs and senior people leaders managing teams through restructure or budget pressure Operating leaders and divisional heads inside organisations rebuilding underperforming units Women’s leadership networks and senior development programmes Executive teams looking for an outside performance perspective on sustained pressure and public scrutiny Audience outcomes A sharper read on what raising standards actually looks like inside a team that is outspent or under-resourced A working framework for thinking about squad and team renewal without losing the people you keep A specific account of how a leader holds standards while results are inconsistent An honest perspective on inclusion as performance work rather than corporate signalling

Why organisations work with Perry McCarthy He brings a first-person account of operating inside a Formula One team that was actively working against its own driver, including being sent out at Spa with a broken steering component pulled from his teammate’s car. The lesson lands because the stakes were physical. His route into F1 ran through fourteen-hour shifts on North Sea oil rigs to fund the seat. Audiences hearing about resilience from him are hearing it from someone who priced it. The Stig role gives him a cultural hook into rooms that would not normally book a motorsport speaker, which makes him a strong choice for sales conferences, kick-offs, and after-dinner slots that need energy without losing substance. He is a working media commentator on Sky News and BBC News, not a retired driver reading off a script. The delivery is current and the timing is built for live audiences. Biography highlights Drove for Andrea Moda Formula in the 1992 Formula One World Championship. Tested for Williams and Benetton F1 teams. Competed at the 24 Hours of Le Mans on five occasions between 1996 and 2003. Original black-suited Stig on BBC’s Top Gear across the first two series. Author of “Flat Out, Flat Broke: Formula 1 the Hard Way!” (2002), with a foreword by Damon Hill. Regular motorsport contributor on Sky News and BBC News. Biography Reaching Formula One as a privateer is a financial problem before it is a sporting one. McCarthy worked fourteen-hour shifts on North Sea oil rigs to fund his junior career, then arrived at the 1992 world championship with Andrea Moda Formula, a team owned by an Italian shoe businessman that was, by any honest reading, set up to fail. He never made the grid. He also never crashed the car, which at one point was sent out at Spa with a broken steering component lifted from his teammate’s car. What he did get from that season was a working knowledge of how to keep operating when the people around you are not. He went on to test for Williams and Benetton, then built a career in sports cars that included five appearances at the 24 Hours of Le Mans between 1996 and 2003. In 2002, a chance meeting with Jeremy Clarkson at the launch of his autobiography “Flat Out, Flat Broke” led to the role that made him recognisable outside motorsport. He was the original Stig on BBC’s Top Gear, the black-suited version, across the first two series. His identity was exposed by a Sunday newspaper in early 2003. The speaking work is built on the same material. Damon Hill’s line about him still travels: “I have constant admiration on how he turns a no hope situation into some sort of triumph.” For a corporate audience, that is the asset. McCarthy can describe, with specifics, what it takes to keep performing when the equipment is wrong, the support is missing, and the result is no longer in your hands. Key speaking topics Performance under pressure Resilience and recovery from setback Self-leadership in hostile conditions Team performance and trust Risk and decision-making Motorsport as a business analogy Ideal for Sales conferences and annual kick-offs needing high-energy keynote opening or close After-dinner audiences at corporate hospitality, awards, and partner events Leadership offsites focused on composure and persistence under pressure Automotive, motorsport-adjacent, and engineering brand events Audience outcomes A vivid, first-person account of operating inside a Formula One team that was actively against its own driver A practical reframe of resilience as a daily working habit rather than a slogan The cultural payoff of hearing the Top Gear Stig story directly from the original Stig Energy and humour that sets the tone for the rest of the agenda

Why organisations work with Mariana Atencio Field-tested authority on trust. Her reporting from family separations at the US border, cartel territory, and the Syrian border gives her arguments about authentic leadership a weight that pure motivational content cannot match. A bilingual broadcaster who has crossed from Univision to NBC News and back to independent media, which makes her credible to audiences and leadership teams operating across the Americas in both English and Spanish. Perfectly You, published by HarperCollins in English and Spanish, gives buyers a published, citable thesis on authenticity at work rather than a talk built from generic insights. A working journalist’s instinct on stage. She has moderated heads of state, Fortune 100 CEOs and panels at Microsoft, Nasdaq and the UN General Assembly, which is the same skill set buyers want when the brief is high-stakes interviewing rather than a standard keynote. Biography highlights Peabody Award winner for the Univision investigative documentary Rapido y Furioso on US-Mexico weapons trafficking. Three Emmy nominations, a Hillman Prize, and the NAHJ Presidential Award for reporting on cartel violence, migrant family separation and women’s rights. Former NBC News and MSNBC correspondent; prior bilingual correspondent at Univision. Author of Perfectly You: Embracing the Power of Being Real (HarperCollins, 2019), published in English and Spanish. 2021 Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute. Founder of GoLike Media and creator of the 2022 true crime podcast Lost in Panama, which reached Apple Podcasts’ top 10. Biography The hardest assignments in network news are the ones where the people on camera have every reason not to trust the person holding the microphone. Atencio spent a decade in those rooms, reporting on family separations at the US border, cartel violence in Mexico, and women’s rights along the Syrian border for Univision and then NBC News. The Peabody Award came from that work, alongside a Hillman Prize, three Emmy nominations and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Presidential Award. That experience is the foundation for the second half of her career. Perfectly You: Embracing the Power of Being Real, published by HarperCollins in 2019 in English and Spanish, sets out a thesis on authenticity drawn directly from the field: that the leaders, families and communities who hold together under pressure are the ones who tell the truth about themselves and their circumstances. The book reads as reporting on trust, not self-help. She founded GoLike Media in 2020 and created Lost in Panama in 2022, a true crime podcast on the disappearance of two young Dutch hikers that became a top-10 Apple Podcasts release and was used as a platform to surface the wider issue of missing women in the region. She is a 2021 Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute. For corporate audiences, the combined record matters more than either half alone. A Peabody-winning correspondent who has interviewed heads of state and translated live on-air for NBC speaks about credibility, belonging and culture from a different place than a speaker who has only worked the keynote circuit. That is what buyers are paying for when they put her in front of a leadership team. Key speaking topics Authentic leadership and trust Belonging and culture in cross-border organisations Communication and storytelling for senior leaders Resilience and reinvention under pressure Latino market and the Americas Bilingual moderation, hosting and high-stakes interviewing Ideal for Leadership teams rebuilding internal trust after restructure, contested change or public scandal. CHROs and culture leads designing belonging and inclusion programmes with substance rather than signalling. CMOs, communications leaders and Latin America country heads briefing on bilingual audiences across the Americas. Conference hosts who need a moderator credible with heads of state, Fortune 100 CEOs and a sceptical room. Audience outcomes A sharper view of what authenticity actually costs senior leaders, and where the line sits between candour and overshare. A working framework for how trust is rebuilt with employees and external audiences who have stopped listening to corporate communications. Concrete examples of credibility under pressure, drawn from her on-the-ground reporting in conflict zones, migrant camps and political crises. A clearer read on the US Hispanic and broader Latin American audience for organisations operating across the region.

Why organisations work with Jose Ucar A structured methodology for cross-cultural influence, set out in Global Influence, shortlisted by The Institute of Leadership for its 2024 Leadership Book of the Year. Direct experience operating across four continents and two working languages, with delivery for Procter & Gamble, Amazon, SEAT-CUPRA, DAF Trucks, Hyundai, and Chiesi Pharmaceuticals. A practical lens on the gap between what senior leaders intend to communicate and what their international counterparts actually receive. Material that travels: the same frameworks land with a UK board, a Spanish-speaking sales team, and a multinational engineering function. Biography highlights Author of Global Influence: How business leaders can simplify, improve, and amplify their international impact, shortlisted for The Institute of Leadership’s Leadership Book of the Year 2024. TEDx speaker and host, including talks at TEDxSheffieldHallamUniversity and TEDxUniversityofSalford. Founder of Jose Ucar Ltd and the World-Class Communicator online programme. Delivered to Procter & Gamble, Amazon, SEAT-CUPRA, DAF Trucks, Hyundai, Chiesi Pharmaceuticals, Oral-B, UK Research and Innovation, the NHS, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Featured in LA Weekly, Yahoo Finance, Thrive Global, and Authority Magazine. Works fluently in English and Spanish; has lived, studied, and worked across Venezuela, Sweden, the UK, and beyond. Biography Most senior leaders are competent communicators in their home market and surprisingly ineffective the moment the room shifts language, culture, or hierarchy. Global Influence, Ucar’s book, is built around that gap. The Institute of Leadership shortlisted it for its 2024 Leadership Book of the Year, a recognition specifically tied to leadership practice rather than communications craft. His starting point is that international influence is a learnable discipline, not a personality trait. The frameworks set out in the book and on stage are designed to be portable across countries and functions, so a UK executive can use the same approach with a Spanish sales team, a German engineering function, and a US investor without re-engineering their style each time. That portability shows up in the client list. Procter & Gamble, Amazon, SEAT-CUPRA, DAF Trucks, Hyundai, Chiesi Pharmaceuticals, UK Research and Innovation, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development have all booked him to work with leaders who carry international remits. The common brief is consistent: senior people whose technical authority is established and whose cross-border influence is not yet where it needs to be. His own background sits behind the work. Born in Venezuela, schooled in Sweden from sixteen, based in the UK, fluent in English and Spanish, with delivery experience across four continents. He uses that lived experience as evidence rather than ornament, which is what separates the material from generic communication training. Key speaking topics Cross-cultural communication and influence International leadership and global business Executive presence across cultures Communication and storytelling for senior leaders Personal brand and authentic leadership Resilience and mindset in international roles Ideal for CEOs, MDs, and country leaders with multi-market remits Senior commercial, sales, and partnership leaders working across borders HR, talent, and L&D leaders investing in international leadership capability Global teams in regulated, technical, or engineering-led industries where communication failure carries commercial cost Audience outcomes A clearer reading of how their current communication style lands in unfamiliar cultural contexts A working framework for adapting message, delivery, and presence without losing authenticity Specific language for the cross-cultural moments that most often derail senior conversations Renewed confidence to lead difficult conversations across markets, languages, and hierarchies