Resilience & Stress Management

Why organisations work with Ben Hanlin He has spent twenty years professionally holding the attention of audiences who did not ask to be entertained, a craft most keynote speakers approximate and never master. His engagement and rapport techniques are not theoretical. They are the working methods of a magician adapted for sales teams, client conversations and conference stages, and they were sharp enough to win Best TEDx Speaker at The Speaker Awards 2024. He is one of the few speakers who can credibly anchor a full conference day, opening with a keynote, hosting the agenda, and closing with the awards, without changing register. Major brand audiences including Google, PwC, Coca-Cola and Amplifi book him for the same reason: he reliably resets the energy of a room and gives an audience something to remember about it the next morning. The Speaker Awards 2024 triple, Speaker of the Year, Best Newcomer and Best TEDx Speaker, was judged by industry bookers on content, delivery and bookability. That combination of recognitions in a single year is rare. Biography highlights Creator, writer and star of ITV2’s hidden-camera magic series Tricked, three series broadcast 2013 to 2016. Presenter of Breaking Magic on the Discovery Channel. Series 12 finalist on ITV’s Dancing on Ice (2020), finishing fourth. Speaker of the Year, Best Newcomer and Best TEDx Speaker at The Speaker Awards 2024. TEDx London speaker, “How to Create INSTANT Engagement and Connection” (2024). Combined online following of two million plus across YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. Biography Most keynote speakers learn to hold a room by stepping onto a corporate stage. Ben Hanlin learned it on the street, in pubs and on prime-time television, where the audience has not agreed in advance to pay attention and the speaker has roughly four seconds to earn it. Twenty years of working as a professional magician is, among other things, twenty years of solving that problem. That craft moved onto television with Tricked, the ITV2 hidden-camera magic series he created, wrote and presented across three series between 2013 and 2016, followed by Breaking Magic on the Discovery Channel and a fourth-place finish on series 12 of Dancing on Ice. The work travels: his combined audience across YouTube, Instagram and Facebook now sits above two million. The keynote work is a translation of the same discipline. Hanlin teaches the working methods a magician uses to create rapport, hold attention and make a message stick, applied to sales conversations, client meetings, leadership presence and the inside of a conference room. In 2024 his TEDx London talk “How to Create INSTANT Engagement and Connection” was named Best TEDx Speaker at The Speaker Awards. At the same ceremony he was also named Speaker of the Year and Best Newcomer, judged by industry bookers on content, delivery and bookability. Organisations including Google, PwC, Coca-Cola and Amplifi book him in three modes: keynote on engagement and human connection, full-day conference facilitation, and high-energy awards hosting. The common thread is the same craft applied at different scales, the ability to walk into a room of distracted people and leave it as a connected audience. Key speaking topics Engagement and human connection Instant rapport and audience attention Communication under pressure Innovation and creative confidence Resilience and dealing with failure Conference hosting and awards facilitation Ideal for Sales conferences, kick-offs and national sales meetings Awards nights and gala dinners requiring a host who can also deliver content Leadership and client-facing teams working on rapport, presence and communication Full-day conferences needing a single anchor across keynote, facilitation and after-dinner roles Audience outcomes A working set of rapport and attention techniques drawn from twenty years of professional magic, usable the next morning in client meetings. Sharper instincts for reading a room and recovering it when energy drops. A clearer sense of how to make a message land and be remembered. A shared, high-energy moment that resets the tone of the conference or sales event.

Why organisations work with Lance Armstrong A first-person account of an integrity collapse at the top of elite sport, told without the usual euphemism. Few public figures will sit in that conversation on a corporate stage. Almost none will take unscripted questions on it. A working argument that “winning at all costs” is a leadership failure mode, drawn from the inside of the system that produced the most-litigated example of it in modern sport. Direct relevance to leaders thinking about culture risk, whistleblower dynamics, and the gap between stated values and operating norms in high-performance environments. A separate, substantive track on cancer survivorship and the building of LIVESTRONG, a foundation that has raised more than $500 million and continues operating independently of his sporting reputation. An investor’s lens on sport, fitness, health and human performance categories through Next Ventures, useful for briefs that touch consumer health, wellness, or the commercial side of endurance sport. Biography highlights Won the Tour de France seven consecutive times from 1999 to 2005, titles subsequently stripped by USADA in 2012 and not reallocated by the UCI. Diagnosed with stage-three testicular cancer in 1996, with metastases to lung and brain; returned to professional cycling after treatment. Founder of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, now LIVESTRONG, which has raised more than $500 million in support of people affected by cancer. Confessed publicly to long-term doping in a televised interview with Oprah Winfrey in January 2013, having previously denied the allegations under oath and in litigation. Founder and managing partner of Next Ventures, a venture firm focused on sport, fitness, nutrition and human performance, with earlier personal investments in Uber and DocuSign. Host of THEMOVE and THE FORWARD podcasts on the WEDU platform; the network reports roughly 10 million annual listeners. Biography The 2012 USADA reasoned decision did not just end a cycling career. It documented, in unusual detail, how a high-performance culture had been built around systemic dishonesty, and how that culture had survived a decade of scrutiny by enrolling teammates, doctors, sponsors and the press in its maintenance. Lance Armstrong was the centre of that system. The fall, when it arrived, was institutional as well as personal. That story sits awkwardly on a corporate stage, which is part of why it is useful on one. Most failure-and-recovery talks describe a setback the speaker did not cause. This one does not. Armstrong’s argument, when he is on the right brief, is that a “win at all costs” operating norm is a leadership failure mode rather than a leadership style, and that the costs are paid by people other than the person at the top long before they are paid by the leader. The other side of the public record is also real. The Lance Armstrong Foundation, founded after his 1996 cancer diagnosis and now LIVESTRONG, has raised more than $500 million for survivorship work and continues to operate independently of his sporting reputation. As an investor, he was an early backer of Uber and DocuSign and now runs Next Ventures, a fund focused on sport, fitness and human performance. WEDU, his media platform, hosts THEMOVE and THE FORWARD, two of the more durable podcasts in endurance sport. For audiences willing to engage with the uncomfortable parts, Armstrong is one of the few speakers who can hold a serious adult conversation about reputational collapse, accountability, and what is and is not possible to rebuild after it. The right brief is honest, the right format is fireside or moderated Q&A, and the right room is one that wants substance rather than redemption theatre. Key speaking topics Win-at-all-costs cultures and the leadership cost of them Accountability after public failure Self-leadership under sustained pressure Cancer survivorship and the LIVESTRONG story High-performance teams and the dynamics of dissent Reputation, recovery and the long arc after a public shock Investing in sport, fitness and human performance categories Ideal for CEOs, boards and senior leadership teams interested in culture risk and the gap between stated values and operating norms Executive offsites and leadership development programmes addressing decision-making under pressure Health, wellness, sport and consumer-brand audiences with a survivorship or human performance angle Conferences willing to host an unscripted, on-the-record conversation about institutional failure rather than a polished keynote Audience outcomes A first-person view of how high-performance cultures normalise compromise long before any single decision goes wrong A frank account of what changed, and what did not, after public confession and the loss of a sporting career A clearer sense of what genuine accountability sounds like in practice, distinct from public-relations recovery language An honest portrait of survivorship work through the LIVESTRONG story, separated from the sporting record

Why organisations work with Ben Saunders He holds the record for the longest human-powered polar journey in history, a 108-day, 1,795-mile round trip to the South Pole that gives every lesson he draws a specific factual anchor. His three TED main-stage talks have been viewed more than five million times, and TED describes him as a master storyteller; senior audiences leave with arguments they can repeat, not motivational impressions. His material on composure, energy management and team honesty comes from completing expeditions that defeated Scott and Shackleton, not from secondary reading or coaching frameworks. He pairs the expedition record with a working life in climate-tech investment, including Sequoia Scout status and the founding of Kintanna Ventures, so the parallels he draws to business are not theoretical. Biography highlights Led The Scott Expedition (2013 to 2014), the longest human-powered polar journey on record at 1,795 miles, completing the route that defeated both Captain Scott and Sir Ernest Shackleton. Youngest person to ski solo to the geographic North Pole, spending 72 days alone on the Arctic Ocean (2004). Three TED main-stage talks (2005, 2012, 2014) with over five million combined views. Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society; Honorary Fellow, University of Northampton; Patron of British Exploring; Ambassador for the Scouts and The Prince’s Trust. Author of Shackleton in the Ladybird Expert series (Penguin Random House, 2017); contributor to TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking by Chris Anderson. Founder of Kintanna Ventures, a climate-technology investment vehicle, and a Sequoia Scout angel investor. Biography The Scott Expedition set out from Ross Island on 26 October 2013 and finished 108 days later, on 7 February 2014, after 1,795 miles on foot to the South Pole and back. It is the longest human-powered polar journey on record, and the first completion of the route attempted by Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton more than a century earlier. Ben Saunders led it. Saunders skied solo to the geographic North Pole in 2004 at the age of 26, the youngest person ever to do so, spending 72 days alone on the Arctic Ocean. Across two decades he has led 14 expeditions in the polar regions and covered more than 4,500 miles on foot in conditions that strip away every soft variable in performance. The material he brings to senior audiences is built from that record, not from theory. His three TED main-stage talks have been viewed over five million times and earned the unusual designation of master storyteller from TED itself. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Honorary Fellow of the University of Northampton, Patron of British Exploring and an Ambassador for the Scouts and The Prince’s Trust. His Ladybird Expert volume on Shackleton was published by Penguin Random House in 2017. The commercial life sits alongside the expedition record. Saunders raised more than $10m in sponsorship across his career, brokering multi-year partnerships with Intel, Land Rover, Canada Goose and Bremont, and now founds and runs Kintanna Ventures, a climate-technology investment vehicle, alongside angel investing as a Sequoia Scout. That working knowledge of capital allocation and venture-stage operations is what stops the polar material reading as parable when he places it in front of a board. Key speaking topics Decision-making under sustained physical and psychological pressure Composure and energy management at the limits of human capacity Team honesty and trust in small, high-stakes groups Adaptation to volatile and unforgiving operating environments Recovery and persistence after setback Climate-technology investment and the commercial reality of decarbonisation Ideal for Boards and executive committees facing prolonged operational stress or restructure CEOs, COOs and transformation leads commissioning leadership offsites on resilience and decision quality Senior teams in regulated, safety-critical or capital-intensive industries Sales kick-offs and partner conferences where the brief calls for substance over spectacle Audience outcomes A specific account of what composure looks like as a working discipline, not a personality trait A frame for separating controllable inputs from external noise when conditions deteriorate Practical examples of how small teams maintain honesty and trust through extended pressure A more credible vocabulary for talking about failure, recovery and the gap between plan and execution A fresh reference point for board-level conversations on risk, endurance and the limits of preparation

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

Why organisations work with Frederika Roberts An applied positive psychology MSc and doctoral research base, rather than the wellness-industry credentialling that dominates this space. Author or co-author of five published works on character education and whole-school wellbeing, including titles with Jessica Kingsley Publishers and Sage. European Representative for IPPAed, giving access to current global research on positive education before it filters into mainstream practice. Working content for both education sectors and workplaces, covering character strengths, psychological safety, and Appreciative Inquiry as a change method. Operates in English, Italian, French, and German, which matters for European multi-site organisations and international school groups. Biography highlights MSc in Applied Positive Psychology; doctoral researcher in Education focused on whole-school wellbeing. European Representative for IPPAed, the International Positive Psychology Association’s Positive Education division. Founder of Educate to Flourish CIC, a social enterprise embedding wellbeing into school communities. Co-author, “Character Toolkit for Teachers” (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2018) and “Character Toolkit Strength Cards” (2020). Co-editor, “The Big Book of Whole School Wellbeing” (2021); author, “For Flourishing’s Sake” (2020) and “Recipe for Happiness” (2013). Member of the Professional Speaking Association and the Global Speakers Federation; iPPL Expert Member. Biography Wellbeing has become one of the most over-claimed and under-delivered categories in organisational life. Initiatives proliferate; engagement and mental health indicators rarely move with them. The gap is methodological. Most wellbeing work is built on motivational content rather than on the published research that the field of positive psychology has produced over the last two decades. Roberts works inside that research base. She holds an MSc in Applied Positive Psychology and is completing doctoral research on whole-school wellbeing using Appreciative Inquiry, a change methodology that focuses organisational attention on what is already working and how to build from it. As European Representative for IPPAed, the International Positive Psychology Association’s Positive Education division, she connects practitioners with current academic findings before they reach the trade press. Her published output gives organisations a clear sense of how she translates evidence into practice. “Character Toolkit for Teachers” (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2018) and the “Character Toolkit Strength Cards” (2020) provide working tools rather than abstract frameworks. “The Big Book of Whole School Wellbeing” (2021), which she co-edited, sits across the major contributors in the field. “For Flourishing’s Sake” sets out how policy and practice can be redesigned to put flourishing at the centre. She founded Educate to Flourish CIC to take this work into schools as a social enterprise, and extends the same practice into workplaces, drawing on character strengths, psychological safety, and strengths-based approaches. The work is unusual in the wellbeing market for being explicitly research-grounded and equally credible in front of educators, HR leaders, and policy audiences. Key speaking topics Positive psychology in organisational and educational settings Whole-school and whole-organisation wellbeing Character education and character strengths Appreciative Inquiry as a change method Psychological safety and strengths-based culture Mental health and flourishing at work Ideal for HR and people leaders responsible for wellbeing strategy beyond surface-level programmes School leaders, MAT executives, and university leadership teams Conference audiences in education, public sector, and not-for-profit Boards or executives in family-owned and values-led organisations rethinking culture Audience outcomes A working understanding of what positive psychology research has actually shown about wellbeing and performance. Specific tools from character strengths, Appreciative Inquiry, and strengths-based practice that can be applied immediately. A sharper distinction between wellbeing programmes that produce change and those that do not. Language and a model for connecting individual flourishing to organisational outcomes.

Why organisations work with Sophie Carrigill Her sports psychology credentials (first-class degree from the University of Worcester and an MSc from Sheffield Hallam) mean she can explain what high-performance teams actually do under pressure, not just illustrate it with personal stories. That distinction matters when leaders are making structural decisions, not looking for inspiration. She captained the GB women’s wheelchair basketball squad for four consecutive years, and was the first captain to lead the team through a centralised programme and a full relocation. The leadership challenge she navigated is directly analogous to what organisations face in transformation: maintaining accountability, cohesion and performance through structural disruption. Forbes named her on its 30 Under 30 Europe list for Sports and Games in 2021 specifically for her sporting achievements alongside her work advancing inclusion; a recognition that positions her as a practitioner of inclusion, not a spokesperson for it. Her ten-year international career – across six European Championships, three World Championships, and three Paralympic Games – gives her a perspective on sustained performance that is qualitatively different from speakers whose credibility rests on a single defining event. She does not separate the inclusion argument from the performance argument. Organisations that have struggled to make either case benefit from an approach where both are argued from the same evidence base. Biography highlights Three-time Paralympian, representing Great Britain at Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 World Championship silver medallist (2018, Hamburg) and six-time European Championship competitor, with bronze medals (2013, 2015, 2017) and silver medals (2019, 2021, 2023) U25 World Championship gold medallist (2015, Beijing) Named on Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list, Sports and Games category (2021), recognising sporting achievement and inclusion work First-class honours degree in Sports Psychology, University of Worcester; MSc in Sport and Exercise Psychology, Sheffield Hallam University Captain of the GB women’s wheelchair basketball squad for four consecutive years; first captain to lead the team through a centralised programme and squad relocation Women’s Sport Trust Unlocked programme contributor (2021–2023) Biography High-performance culture and genuine inclusion are managed as separate agendas in most organisations. Resolving that tension – rather than attempting to manage it – is what separates leadership teams that perform under genuine pressure from those that perform only when conditions are stable. Sophie Carrigill has been at the heart of the GB women’s wheelchair basketball programme for over a decade. A three-time Paralympian across Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024, she captained the squad for four consecutive years, becoming the first captain to lead the team through a centralised programme and a full relocation to Sheffield. The 2018 World Championship silver medal, three European bronzes, three European silvers, and a U25 World gold came from a team built under conditions of continuous structural change. The leadership test was not exceptional circumstances; it was the job. Her academic formation distinguishes her from speakers with comparable competitive records. A first-class honours degree in Sports Psychology from the University of Worcester, followed by an MSc in Sport and Exercise Psychology at Sheffield Hallam, equips her to explain the mechanisms behind elite performance, rather than to simply describe what it felt like. Forbes recognised that combination in 2021, placing her on its 30 Under 30 Europe list for Sports and Games for her record on court and her work advancing inclusion in sport. Off the court, she has contributed to the Women’s Sport Trust Unlocked programme and worked at Whisper, a sports and entertainment media production company. In a board or leadership team conversation about resilience, inclusion, or sustained performance under pressure, she does not present three separate cases. She presents one. Key speaking topics Resilience and performance under pressure Leadership through structural change Disability inclusion as competitive advantage High-performance team culture Sports psychology and elite mindset Sustained performance across long competitive cycles Identity, adversity and recovery Ideal for Senior leadership and executive teams examining the relationship between culture, inclusion and performance CHROs and people leaders building inclusion strategies that are anchored in performance outcomes, not compliance frameworks Organisations in transformation or restructuring, where team cohesion and leadership accountability are under active pressure DEI conference audiences seeking a performance-led argument for inclusion rather than a values-led one Audience outcomes A reframed understanding of resilience, as a practised, structural discipline rather than an individual personality trait Concrete examples of how inclusion decisions affect team performance at elite level, drawn from a decade of Paralympic competition A direct challenge to the assumption that high performance and genuine diversity are competing priorities Practical insight into how accountability operates in teams under structural change, including relocation, new systems and shifting leadership A model for sustaining performance across long cycles, not just optimising for peak moments

Why organisations work with Gemma Oaten A credible front-of-house voice on eating disorders specifically, an area most wellbeing programmes underserve because it is hard to discuss without either trivialising or distressing audiences. Operational charity leadership at SEED, which means her content reflects what families, sufferers, and clinicians actually report, not generic resilience messaging. Broadcast craft from BBC Radio and BBC Morning Live work, useful when a wellbeing event also needs an experienced host or interviewer in the room. A TEDx talk and named corporate clients including Samsung, Towergate Insurance, and Health Assured, which gives HR and wellbeing leads a defensible reference list. Biography highlights CEO of SEED Eating Disorder Support Services. Played Rachel Breckle in Emmerdale, 2011 to 2015. TEDx speaker on eating disorders and recovery. Hosted the British Safety Council International Safety Awards Gala Dinner, 2024. BBC Radio presenter across Humberside, Lincolnshire, York, and Leeds; BBC Morning Live contributor. Drama Studio London graduate. Biography Eating disorders are the mental illness most likely to kill the person who has one, and they remain one of the hardest topics for an HR team to handle in front of staff. Gemma Oaten developed anorexia at ten and lived with it, and with bulimia, for thirteen years. SEED, the charity her parents founded to support other families through it, is now the organisation she runs. That dual position, lived experience and charity leadership, is what makes her useful to corporate audiences. She is not describing recovery as a metaphor for resilience. She is describing what eating disorders look like in a workforce, what triggers them, what helps, and what managers tend to get wrong when an employee is visibly struggling. Her broadcast work runs alongside the charity. She has presented across BBC Radio Humberside, Lincolnshire, York, and Leeds, contributed to BBC Morning Live, and hosted the British Safety Council International Safety Awards Gala Dinner in 2024. Her acting credits include four years as Rachel Breckle in Emmerdale, with Best Newcomer nominations at the British Soap Awards and TV Quick Awards. For wellbeing leads commissioning a keynote that staff will actually remember, the value is the specificity. She speaks from inside a charity that takes the calls, and from inside a recovery she nearly did not survive. That is a different proposition from a clinician explaining the science or a coach selling a framework. Key speaking topics Eating disorders awareness and recovery Mental health in the workplace Employee wellbeing Resilience after long-term illness Bullying, body image, and self-worth Lived experience of anorexia and bulimia Hosting and moderation for wellbeing events Ideal for CHROs, wellbeing leads, and HR directors building substantive mental health programmes Health, safety, and wellbeing conferences, particularly in regulated sectors Schools, universities, and NHS audiences working on body image and eating disorders Internal events that need a credible host as well as a keynote voice Audience outcomes A clearer picture of what eating disorders look like in a working population, beyond the stereotypes Practical language managers can use when an employee shows signs of being unwell A frank account of long-term recovery from someone who runs the support charity Renewed permission inside the room to talk about mental health without flinching

Why organisations work with Steven Laureys He brings the working brain into board-level conversations on performance and wellbeing, grounded in clinical neurology rather than wellness orthodoxy. He runs one of the few research groups in the world studying consciousness across coma, anaesthesia, sleep, hypnosis, and meditation, which gives audiences a single coherent framework for thinking about attention and recovery. His Francqui Prize and Canada Excellence Research Chair give a buyer hard evidence of scientific standing in a field crowded with popularisers. He has translated his research into a bestselling popular book on meditation, so audiences get a scientist who can talk to non-scientists without losing accuracy. He works in English, French, and Dutch, which makes him directly usable across European leadership audiences without an interpreter. Biography highlights Founder and head of the Coma Science Group, GIGA Consciousness, University of Liège. Canada Excellence Research Chair in Neuroplasticity, Laval University and CERVO Brain Research Centre. Research Director at the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS). Winner of the Francqui Prize 2017 and the Generet Prize 2019. Author of The No-Nonsense Meditation Book, an international bestseller published by Bloomsbury and translated into multiple languages. TEDx speaker at TEDxBrussels and TEDxLiège, with research featured across major international media. Biography Most of what is sold to organisations as “wellbeing” is built on intuition. The brain that is meant to be helping is the most expensive and least understood asset on the payroll. Steven Laureys studies the brain for a living, and his work has spent two decades pushing the boundary of what can be measured in coma, sleep, anaesthesia, hypnosis, and meditation. He founded the Coma Science Group within GIGA Consciousness at the University of Liège in 2014, and now also holds the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Neuroplasticity at Laval University, based at the CERVO Brain Research Centre. He is a Research Director at Belgium’s FNRS and a clinical professor of neurology, board-certified in neurology and in palliative medicine. The Francqui Prize, Belgium’s highest scientific honour, was awarded to him in 2017 for his work on disorders of consciousness. His public reach is unusual for a clinician of this seniority. The No-Nonsense Meditation Book, published by Bloomsbury, became an international bestseller and made the case for meditation in the language of neuroimaging rather than spirituality. He has spoken at TEDxBrussels and TEDxLiège, and his research has been picked up across mainstream international media. For corporate audiences, he turns the same instruments he uses on coma patients and Buddhist monks toward the working brain: attention, stress, sleep, cognitive recovery, and the conditions under which people make good decisions. The argument he brings is simple. The science is now specific enough to act on, and most organisations are not yet using it. Key speaking topics Neuroscience of attention and focus Stress and cognitive recovery Sleep and performance Meditation and the brain Mental wellbeing in the workplace Human intelligence and artificial intelligence Consciousness, anaesthesia, and altered states Neuroplasticity and lifestyle interventions Ideal for CHROs and chief wellbeing officers are building credible mental health and performance programmes. Executive teams and boards are considering attention, sleep, and stress as performance variables. Leadership development audiences in healthcare, professional services, and high-stakes operating environments. Innovation and R&D leaders interested in the brain science behind creativity and cognitive load. Audience outcomes A clinician’s view of what neuroscience can and cannot yet say about attention, stress, sleep, and meditation. Specific, evidence-based practices that senior people can use on themselves and inside their teams. A clearer line between credible neuroscience and the wellness industry’s claims. Confidence to challenge wellbeing programmes that rest on intuition rather than evidence. A working mental model of the brain under load that maps onto real organisational decisions.

Why organisations work with Dave Steele He turns an abstract inclusion agenda into a room of people who have felt something specific. Poetry, song and personal testimony land with audiences in a way a policy deck cannot. He brings a named platform behind the message: the Stand By Me RP community he founded in 2015 is one of the largest RP groups in the world, and his trilogy topped poetry charts in the US and Australia. He has been trusted by serious institutions to represent the patient and lived-experience voice, including the American Foundation for the Blind (Helen Keller Achievement Awards emcee) and the National Eye Institute at NIH. Brand and product work with Apple, Meta, Audi, Kellogg’s, Navilens and OrCam gives him direct fluency in how large companies are approaching accessibility in practice, not just in principle. He delivers as a performer as well as a speaker, which makes him suited to conference mainstage, awards nights and internal culture events where a standard keynote would not move the room. Biography highlights Author of the “Stand By Me RP” poetry trilogy (2016-2018); Volume I reached number one poetic release in the US and Australia in its first week. Founder of the Stand By Me RP online community (2015), one of the largest Retinitis Pigmentosa support groups on social media. Emcee of the 24th Annual Helen Keller Achievement Awards, American Foundation for the Blind. Invited speaker at the National Institutes of Health, where he opened the National Eye Institute Intramural Program retreat in April 2024. Patron of Henshaws; 2018 Henshaws Impact Award; 2018 Pride of Bury Community Hero Award; 2023 National Diversity Award shortlist (Positive Role Model for Disability). Global Ambassador for Two Blind Brothers; collaborator with Apple, Meta, Audi, Kellogg’s, Parfums de Marly, Navilens and OrCam. Biography Most inclusion work still treats disability as an HR category. A poem, delivered in a room of executives, does something a training module cannot. It gives the audience a few minutes inside someone else’s life, and that is what Dave Steele’s work depends on. Steele was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa in 2014. He had been a singer and a car salesman; the diagnosis ended both careers and left him at home in Manchester with four children and serious debt. In 2015 he started a Facebook page called “Stand By Me RP,” named after a song he had rewritten for a support group. It became one of the largest RP communities on social media and the seed of everything that followed. The poetry came next. His “Stand By Me RP” trilogy, released annually between 2016 and 2018, reached the top of poetry charts in the United States and Australia. He has since written more than 700 poems and songs about sight loss. That body of work is why serious institutions invite him in: he emceed the 24th Helen Keller Achievement Awards for the American Foundation for the Blind, and in April 2024 opened the National Eye Institute’s Intramural Program retreat at NIH at the invitation of its scientific director. The organisational value is different from a typical DEI speaker. Steele does not offer a framework. He offers a specific voice that leaders can put in front of their people when they want an inclusion conversation to stop feeling procedural, supported by active work with Apple, Meta, Audi, Kellogg’s, Navilens and OrCam on how accessibility actually shows up in product and brand. Key speaking topics Disability inclusion and lived experience Sight loss and visual impairment advocacy Resilience after a life-changing diagnosis Accessibility in product, brand and workplace Poetry and storytelling as communication Mental health and identity through chronic illness Patient voice in medical and research settings Ideal for CHRO, DEI and employee experience leaders running disability inclusion or accessibility programmes Healthcare, life sciences and ophthalmology audiences wanting an authentic patient voice Awards nights, conference mainstage slots and internal culture events that need a performer as well as a speaker Consumer, tech and retail brands working on accessibility in product and communications Audience outcomes A first-hand account of what a progressive sight loss diagnosis does to work, family and identity A sharper sense of where stated inclusion policies diverge from daily employee experience Specific references from brand and product work with companies like Apple, Meta and OrCam on accessibility in practice Poetry and spoken-word performance that anchors the message in memory long after the event A reframing of disability as an active contribution to an organisation, not a compliance line

Why organisations work with Azeem Rafiq Primary-source authority on how a major British institution mishandled a discrimination complaint, with the parliamentary record, Cricket Discipline Commission outcomes, and governance changes to evidence it. A working answer to the question every CHRO privately asks: what happens to the person who reports, after they report? Rafiq describes the years that followed his disclosure, not only the moment of speaking out. Lived credibility on the gap between policy and practice. The policies at Yorkshire existed. They were not implemented. The reform conversation he triggered is now standard reading for sport, regulators, and corporate ER teams. A name that lands with sceptical audiences. Boards and senior teams who have seen too many polished DEI keynotes engage differently with a speaker whose testimony is a matter of parliamentary record. Biography highlights Former professional cricketer for Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire CCC; captained England under-15 and under-19 sides. Appointed Yorkshire CCC’s youngest captain and first of Asian heritage in 2012. Gave evidence to the DCMS Select Committee in November 2021; witness statement published by the committee. Triggered a Cricket Discipline Commission process that upheld charges and led to the resignation of Yorkshire’s chair and a board reset under Lord Kamlesh Patel. Author of It’s Not Banter, It’s Racism (Hachette, 2024), longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2024. Submitted further written evidence to Parliament’s Sport Governance inquiry in 2022. Biography Yorkshire County Cricket Club had policies for racism, bullying and player welfare. They were not enforced. When a complaint was raised internally in 2018, the institutional response was to manage the complainant rather than the complaint. That is the gap most organisations underestimate, and it is the gap Azeem Rafiq has spent the past five years describing in evidence. His professional record is on the public file: junior international captain for England, professional contracts at Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire, and the youngest captain in Yorkshire’s history. The reason senior audiences listen now is not the career. It is the witness statement, published by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, and the Cricket Discipline Commission findings that followed. The reform consequences are documented. Yorkshire’s chair resigned. Lord Kamlesh Patel was installed to rebuild the board. The England and Wales Cricket Board was forced to confront governance failures it had previously minimised. Rafiq’s 2024 book with Hachette, It’s Not Banter, It’s Racism, was longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year and remains one of the more honest published accounts of what happens after a whistleblower stops being useful to the institutions briefly aligned with them. What he offers senior audiences now is closer to a case study than a story. He talks about the specific points at which a complaint becomes politically inconvenient, about the role of HR, legal and PR functions in absorbing or deflecting it, and about the human cost on the person at the centre. It is the content most diversity programmes do not have access to. Key speaking topics Institutional racism and culture reform Whistleblowing and speak-up systems in practice Inclusion when policy and practice diverge Governance and accountability in sport Mental health and family impact of public disclosure The aftermath of speaking out Ideal for CHROs, employee relations leads and DEI heads in organisations re-examining their speak-up architecture. Boards and audit committees with whistleblowing oversight responsibilities. Sports governing bodies, regulators and member organisations confronting culture inquiries. Senior leadership offsites where the inclusion conversation has gone stale. Audience outcomes A concrete picture of how a major institution failed to act on its own policies, and the operational reasons why. A more accurate read on what protection a whistleblower actually receives once a complaint enters the system. Specific questions to test inside their own organisation, drawn from cricket’s governance failures. Renewed seriousness about the personal cost of disclosure, useful for anyone designing or sponsoring a speak-up channel.

Why organisations work with Margaret Heffernan She gives executive teams a precise vocabulary for organisational failure. “Wilful Blindness” turned the cognitive mechanics of why leaders ignore the obvious into a working diagnostic, and the Financial Times named it one of the most important business books of the decade. She has run companies, not just studied them. Five CEO roles across media and technology mean her arguments about hierarchy, dissent and decision-making are tested against the operational reality buyers actually face. She offers a serious counterweight to forecasting culture. “Uncharted” makes the case that prediction is a poor tool for navigating uncertainty, and gives leaders a more honest set of practices for acting without it. Thinkers50 inducted her into its Hall of Fame in 2023 for lasting contribution to management thinking, which places her among the most established voices on organisational behaviour working today. She is trusted in the room with senior leaders. Through Merryck & Co. she mentors CEOs of major global organisations, and she serves as Lead Faculty for the Forward Institute’s Responsible Leadership Programme. Biography highlights Professor of Practice, University of Bath School of Management. Thinkers50 Hall of Fame inductee, 2023. Author of eight books including “Wilful Blindness”, “A Bigger Prize” (Transmission Prize winner), “Beyond Measure”, “Uncharted” and “Embracing Uncertainty”, published by Simon & Schuster and Bristol University Press. TED Global speaker; four TED talks with more than 12 million combined views. Former Chief Executive of InfoMation Corporation, ZineZone Corporation and iCast Corporation; senior multimedia roles at Intuit, The Learning Company and Standard & Poor’s. Thirteen years as a BBC producer of drama and documentary programmes; regular Financial Times contributor and BBC Radio 4 broadcaster. Biography Most leadership teams do not lack information. They lack the conditions to act on the information they already have. That is the problem Margaret Heffernan has spent two decades naming, first as a CEO and now as one of the most respected voices on organisational behaviour in Europe. “Wilful Blindness”, her third book, set out the cognitive and cultural reasons people in organisations ignore what they can plainly see. The Financial Times listed it among the most important business books of the decade. “A Bigger Prize” challenged the assumption that competition reliably produces the best outcomes and won the Transmission Prize. “Uncharted” pressed further into the territory of how leaders should think, plan and decide when prediction stops working. The credibility behind the writing is operational. Heffernan ran five companies, including InfoMation Corporation, ZineZone Corporation and iCast Corporation, after thirteen years producing drama and documentary programmes for the BBC. She holds a Professor of Practice post at the University of Bath, leads faculty for the Forward Institute’s Responsible Leadership Programme, and mentors chief executives through Merryck & Co. Thinkers50 inducted her into its Hall of Fame in 2023. Her TED talks, including “Dare to Disagree” and “The human skills we need in an unpredictable world”, have been viewed more than 12 million times. The reason senior teams keep returning to her work is simple: she gives them a serious account of why organisations fail to see, and a usable set of responses. Key speaking topics Organisational blindness and decision-making Leadership under uncertainty The limits of efficiency and forecasting Dissent, candour and constructive conflict Collaboration and the costs of competition Responsible leadership and corporate ethics Building organisational resilience Ideal for CEOs, board members and ExCo teams confronting strategic uncertainty CHROs and senior leadership development heads building executive judgement Audit, risk and governance leaders working on early-warning culture Partner-track and senior leadership programmes inside professional services and regulated industries Audience outcomes A clearer language for the cognitive and structural reasons organisations miss the obvious. A working alternative to forecasting-led strategy when conditions will not hold still. Concrete practices for surfacing dissent and constructive conflict at senior levels. A sharper view of where the pursuit of efficiency is quietly degrading resilience. Confidence to act on partial information rather than wait for certainty that will not arrive.

Why organisations work with Suzi Perry She has hosted live, high-stakes broadcast for more than two decades, including BBC Formula 1, MotoGP for BBC and BT Sport, Wimbledon and the London Olympics. Few hosts on the corporate circuit carry that volume of unscripted live experience. She is the first woman to have held the permanent main-anchor role on BBC Formula 1, which makes her credible in front of motorsport, automotive and engineering audiences in a way most generalist hosts are not. She has eight years on Channel 5’s The Gadget Show and a long run with Mobile World Congress and Global Mobile Awards, giving her fluency with technology, telecoms and consumer electronics audiences without needing a brief. Repeat corporate clients include BT, Mercedes, Honda, HSBC, Suzuki, DELL, EE, Nikon and Royal Mail, with hosting work spanning awards nights, conference moderation and product launches. Biography highlights First permanent female anchor of BBC One’s Formula 1 coverage, 2013 to 2015. Lead MotoGP presenter for BT Sport, now TNT Sports, since 2016. Thirteen seasons covering MotoGP for BBC Sport before joining Formula 1. Co-presenter of Channel 5’s The Gadget Show for eight years across 17 series. Conference and awards host for BT, Mercedes, Honda, HSBC, Mobile World Congress and Global Mobile Awards. Honorary degree from the University of Wolverhampton. Biography Live broadcast is the part of the modern executive job that gets the least practice and the most scrutiny. Suzi Perry has spent more than twenty years working in exactly that environment, first as the BBC’s MotoGP presenter for thirteen seasons, then as the first woman to hold the permanent main-anchor role on BBC One’s Formula 1 coverage from 2013, and since 2016 as the lead MotoGP presenter for BT Sport and TNT Sports. That work is the basis of how she shows up for corporate audiences. She has hosted at Mobile World Congress, Global Mobile Awards, the Boat Show and conferences for BT, Mercedes, Honda, HSBC, Suzuki, DELL, EE, Nikon and Royal Mail, alongside awards-night work for technology, automotive and consumer brands. Eight years co-presenting Channel 5’s The Gadget Show, and a long association with Gadget Show Live, gave her a separate base of fluency with technology and consumer-tech audiences. Her speaking content draws on the same source material. Two decades of live broadcast at the front of a Formula 1 paddock or a MotoGP grid produce a specific working knowledge: how to prepare, how to recover when a feed drops or a guest goes off-script, how to read a room when the schedule slips. For senior leaders increasingly asked to be the face of their organisation on stage and on camera, that experience is the relevant credential. She holds an honorary degree from the University of Wolverhampton, where she originally studied business and finance, and serves as a patron or ambassador for Promise Dreams, UK Youth, the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, Alzheimer’s Research UK and the Special Olympics. Key speaking topics Live broadcast and presenting craft Awards hosting and conference moderation Motorsport and Formula 1 MotoGP and motorcycle racing Technology and consumer electronics Women in motorsport and broadcasting Ideal for Boards and executive teams preparing for high-visibility live moments: investor days, town halls, AGMs. Automotive, motorsport and engineering audiences looking for a host with technical fluency, not a generalist. Technology and telecoms organisations running keynote stages, awards nights or product launches. CMOs and brand teams briefing for sponsorship-driven hospitality at major sporting events. Audience outcomes A working sense of how experienced broadcasters prepare for live moments where the script can fail. A clearer view of what composure on camera actually looks like in practice. Specific examples from inside Formula 1 and MotoGP that translate to high-pressure corporate stages. A sharper read on how to recover when a live moment goes off plan.