Resilience & Stress Management speakers

Why organisations work with Antonio Giovinazzi A live case study in returning to the top of a discipline after being publicly cut. Dropped from F1 by Alfa Romeo at the end of 2021, he won Le Mans in a factory Ferrari programme eighteen months later. Inside view of one of the most-watched team performances in modern motorsport: the Ferrari 499P #51 win at the 2023 Le Mans centenary, ending Ferrari’s overall absence from victory lane since 1965. Three full F1 seasons partnering Kimi Raikkonen at Sauber and Alfa Romeo Racing. The lessons are about points-finishing in a midfield car, not winning from pole. Continuing reserve and test driver role at Scuderia Ferrari since 2017, alongside an active works endurance race seat. The view is current, not retrospective. Biography highlights Winner, 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans, Ferrari 499P #51 (with Pier Guidi and Calado) Third place, 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans, Ferrari 499P #51 Formula 1 driver for Sauber and Alfa Romeo Racing, 2017 and 2019 to 2021 Career-best F1 finish: fifth, 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix Reserve and test driver for Scuderia Ferrari, continuously since 2017 GP2 Series runner-up, 2016, with Prema Powerteam (five wins) Biography Ferrari had not won the 24 Hours of Le Mans outright since 1965. In June 2023, on the centenary running of the race, the #51 Ferrari 499P crossed the line first. Antonio Giovinazzi shared the car with Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado. The route there was not linear. Giovinazzi reached Formula 1 debut in 2017 with a debut for Sauber, replacing the injured Pascal Wehrlein. He then spent three full seasons partnering Kimi Raikkonen at Sauber and Alfa Romeo Racing, scoring his career-best fifth place at the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix. At the end of 2021, the team did not renew him. What follows is the part organisations tend to be interested in. Rather than treat the F1 exit as the end, he stayed inside the Ferrari system as reserve driver, took a Formula E seat in 2022, and accepted the Ferrari works hypercar role for 2023. The result was Le Mans. In 2024, the same #51 car finished third, 36 seconds off the sister car that won. He still drives at the front of FIA World Endurance Championship grids and remains on the Scuderia Ferrari F1 reserve roster. The talks draw on the discipline of the cockpit and the team behind it: composure when the result is public, recovery when the contract is not renewed, and how a three-driver crew makes a 24-hour race come down to seconds. Key speaking topics Performance under pressure Team execution in high-stakes environments Recovery from a career setback Endurance racing leadership Formula 1 and Formula E experience Ferrari factory programme insight Ideal for Senior leadership offsites focused on resilience and composure Sales kick-offs and high-performance team gatherings in industries where execution is public and measurable Automotive, motorsport partner and luxury brand audiences Conferences seeking a credible Italian voice on elite performance and the Ferrari brand Audience outcomes A first-hand account of how a Le Mans-winning crew makes decisions across 24 hours of competition The reality of being dropped from F1 and the specific choices that led back to a factory works seat Practical observations on how an elite driver manages the gap between qualifying performance and race execution Direct insight into the Ferrari competition culture across F1 and the WEC Hypercar programme

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 Sir AP McCoy Twenty consecutive Champion Jockey titles give him a specific, unmatched claim on the question every leadership team asks: how do you avoid complacency when you are already winning. He speaks from a sport where the downside is injury, not a missed quarter, which makes his account of risk, recovery and getting back on the horse substantive rather than rhetorical. The 2010 Grand National win on Don’t Push It, at his fifteenth attempt, is a concrete case study in long-horizon goal discipline that audiences remember and cite. His current work as ITV Racing pundit, Times columnist and President of the Injured Jockeys Fund means he is a current public figure, not a retired athlete telling old stories. Biography highlights 4,358 career winners, a record for a National Hunt jockey. Champion Jockey in the United Kingdom twenty seasons in a row, from 1995/96 to 2014/15. 2010 BBC Sports Personality of the Year, the first jockey to win the award. OBE in 2010, Knighthood in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to horse racing. Winner of the Grand National, Cheltenham Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase and King George VI Chase. President of the Injured Jockeys Fund, ITV Racing pundit and author of the autobiography Winner: My Racing Life. Biography Twenty consecutive Champion Jockey titles is not a record that rewards talent alone. It rewards a decision, taken every morning for two decades, to ride through injuries, weight constraints and pain that would retire most athletes inside a year. That is the ground from which Sir AP McCoy speaks to organisations. The numerical case is straightforward. 4,358 winners, a British season record of 289 wins in 2001/02, and 1,040 weeks at the top of his sport, longer than any other athlete in any discipline. The harder case is the one boardrooms actually need: how a performer keeps renewing the motivation to win when the trophy is already on the shelf. The Grand National answers part of that question. McCoy had won the Cheltenham Gold Cup, the Champion Hurdle, the Queen Mother Champion Chase and the King George VI Chase before Aintree finally relented. The 2010 win on Don’t Push It, at his fifteenth attempt, made him the first jockey to take the main BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, with 41.98% of the public vote. The discipline behind that result, not the result itself, is what translates. Post-retirement he is a working broadcaster rather than a retired athlete. He is a pundit on ITV Racing, a columnist for The Times and President of the Injured Jockeys Fund, the charity that looks after the riders who are not as lucky as he was. His autobiography Winner: My Racing Life was published by Orion in 2015. The Knighthood followed in the 2016 New Year Honours. Key speaking topics Sustained elite performance Resilience and recovery from setback Goal discipline over long horizons Leadership under physical and mental pressure Motivation after success Lessons from National Hunt racing for business High-performance mindset Ideal for Senior leadership teams facing the complacency risk that follows sustained success Sales and commercial organisations where year-on-year renewal of performance is the central challenge Financial and professional services firms hosting flagship client or partner events Board and executive offsites where a concrete, non-theoretical account of resilience is useful Audience outcomes A specific account of what it takes to stay hungry once winning has already been achieved A memorable case study in long-horizon goal discipline through the fifteen-year pursuit of the Grand National Direct insight from the rider’s own words on how to absorb setback, injury and public failure without losing the next race A measured, credible view on when to stop competing and how to rebuild a second career

Why organisations work with Araceli Segarra A first-hand account of the 1996 Everest disaster from inside the rescue effort, used as a case study in how teams hold together when conditions, command, and information all degrade at once. A career of high-altitude expeditions on K2, Kangchenjunga, Nanga Parbat, and Broad Peak, which gives her authority on prepared decision-making that almost no corporate speaker can claim. The first Spanish woman to summit Everest and to complete the Seven Summits, filmed for the IMAX Everest documentary, which gives the work cultural reach without leaning on celebrity framing. Sessions delivered in English, Spanish, or Catalan, useful for multinational leadership offsites where a single speaker needs to land across language groups. Biography highlights First Spanish woman to summit Mount Everest, 1996, on the expedition filmed for the IMAX documentary Everest by David Breashears. Member of the rescue team during the May 1996 Mount Everest disaster, the deadliest single event on the mountain at the time. Summits include K2, Kangchenjunga, Nanga Parbat, Broad Peak, Shishapangma, and a solo of Ama Dablam. Established new climbing routes in Oman, Iran, and Mali; technical climbs include El Capitan in Yosemite and Pomme d’Or in Canada. Author of Not That High and Not That Difficult, applying mountaineering decision frameworks to business, and the children’s series Los Viajes de Tina. Regular broadcast presenter on Catalan Radio and Barcelona’s Radio 1. Biography The 1996 Everest disaster killed eight climbers in a single afternoon. The IMAX expedition filming on the mountain that season included a climber called Araceli Segarra, who put down her oxygen and went into the rescue. She is credited with marking a helicopter landing zone with an X of red Kool-Aid powder, because at altitude the obvious solutions are usually the ones that work. That episode is the spine of the work she does with leadership teams. The substance is not the summit. It is what teams do when conditions collapse, when the chain of command is fragmented, and when the original plan is no longer a useful instruction set. She returns to the question of how a group of people who depend on each other under load make and revise decisions in real time. The technical record gives the argument weight. Segarra has climbed K2, Kangchenjunga, Nanga Parbat, and Broad Peak, soloed Ama Dablam, and opened new routes in Oman, Iran, and Mali. She is the first Spanish woman to summit Everest and to complete the Seven Summits. The credentials are not framing; they are the source of her position on preparation, role clarity, and the discipline of turning back. She has written Not That High and Not That Difficult, applying climbing decision frameworks to business, and a children’s book series, and she presents on Catalan Radio and Barcelona’s Radio 1. The leadership work draws on a body of named expeditions, a documented disaster, and a track record of technical climbing that almost no business speaker can match. Key speaking topics Decision-making under pressure and incomplete information Team behaviour when plans fail Leadership of small, high-dependency teams Risk assessment and the discipline of turning back Trust and shared responsibility in interdependent teams Resilience and composure under sustained pressure Expedition planning and execution Ideal for Executive leadership teams and boards entering restructure, crisis, or strategic reset Senior and operational leaders responsible for high-stakes, low-margin-for-error environments Leadership offsites focused on team performance and decision-making under pressure Organisations working to strengthen trust and accountability inside interdependent teams International conferences and offsites delivered in English, Spanish, or Catalan Audience outcomes A first-hand account of how a real team made decisions inside the 1996 Everest disaster, usable as a reference case for crisis behaviour Principles for risk assessment and the willingness to abandon a goal that is no longer survivable The behaviours that hold small interdependent teams together under load, and the ones that break them Sharper decision-making when information is incomplete and conditions are changing fast A renewed respect for the unglamorous preparation that decides whether a team holds when conditions degrade

Why organisations work with Ashley Rhodes-Courter A clinical credential behind the personal story. She is an LCSW running a mental health agency, the Foundation for Sustainable Families, which means her work on resilience and wellbeing is grounded in clinical practice, not motivational framing. A specific account of what trauma-informed care looks like in real institutions. Nine years across 14 foster placements gives her a rare credibility on systems that fail vulnerable people, and on what it takes to redesign them. Authority on schools, social services, and helping professions. Her talks for educators and frontline workers address abuse identification, burnout, and self-care with the precision of a practitioner, not a guest speaker. A New York Times bestselling memoir used in college curricula nationally, plus a published children’s book on a transgender sibling listed on the 2022 ALA Rainbow Book List. The body of work is taught, not just sold. Biography highlights New York Times bestselling author of Three Little Words (Simon & Schuster, 2008), with sequel Three More Words and the picture book Sam Is My Sister (Albert Whitman & Company, 2021). Licensed Clinical Social Worker. MSW from the University of Southern California; undergraduate degree from Eckerd College. Founder of the Foundation for Sustainable Families, a non-profit mental health agency providing trauma-informed care. Featured on CNN, Good Morning America, Today, The New York Times, USA Today, and Glamour, including selection as one of Glamour’s Top Ten College Women and to USA Today’s All-USA Academic Team. Profiled on NBC’s Women of Worth (December 2021). Sam Is My Sister included on the American Library Association’s 2022 Rainbow Book List. Biography Most public conversations about resilience treat it as a personal trait. In organisations that depend on people doing emotionally demanding work, teachers, social workers, healthcare staff, HR leaders, that framing breaks down. Resilience is built or eroded by systems, supervision, and the quality of care that workers themselves receive. Ashley Rhodes-Courter’s work begins from that point. She is unusual among speakers on this subject in holding the credential that matches the content. As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with a Master’s from the University of Southern California, she runs the Foundation for Sustainable Families, a mental health agency providing trauma-informed care. The clinical work informs the talks, and the talks track current practice rather than stories from a decade ago. Her authority on the subject is also biographical. Three Little Words, published by Simon & Schuster in 2008, traces nine years across 14 foster placements in Florida. The book began as an essay in The New York Times Magazine, became a New York Times bestseller, and is now used in collegiate social work and education programs. Three More Words extends the account into adulthood and adoptive parenting. Sam Is My Sister, her 2021 picture book with Albert Whitman, was placed on the American Library Association’s 2022 Rainbow Book List. The combination matters for serious buyers. A leadership team that wants a substantive session on burnout, on what schools and social services actually need from staff, or on inclusion as a duty of care, gets a speaker who has lived inside failing systems and now treats people inside the current ones. The argument is not that adversity creates strength. It is that institutions decide whether the people inside them recover or break. Key speaking topics Trauma-informed leadership and organisational practice Burnout and self-care in helping professions Resilience after adverse experience Foster care, child welfare, and adoption Mental health in the workplace Inclusion and family diversity Educator and frontline-worker wellbeing Ideal for CHROs, heads of wellbeing, and people leaders designing trauma-informed support Education sector leaders, district superintendents, and school principals Healthcare, social care, and non-profit boards DEI and inclusion leads working on family diversity and lived-experience inclusion Audience outcomes A clearer working definition of trauma-informed practice and what it asks of managers Specific signals of burnout and abuse that frontline staff and leaders can act on A frame for resilience that holds institutions, not only individuals, accountable A more confident vocabulary for inclusion conversations involving family identity and lived experience

Why organisations work with Ashwin Gulati A founder’s-eye view drawn from 100+ ventures in four countries, not a single startup story extrapolated into a thesis Hands-on experience as interim executive and Entrepreneur-in-Residence inside companies in crisis, not commentary from the sidelines Author of Soul Venture, a 16-year project that documents the human and psychological mechanics of startup failure that most business books edit out Comfortable in the room with boards, family offices and first-time founders, and switches register accordingly Bilingual operator across US and European venture cultures, useful when expansion crosses regulatory and capital-market boundaries Biography highlights 30+ years guiding founders, CEOs and boards across 100+ ventures in the US, UK, Spain and France Founder of Match Point Ventures, working with boards, family offices and executive teams as strategic advisor, interim executive and Entrepreneur-in-Residence Author of Soul Venture: A True Life and Death Journey Into the Startup Culture (Match Point Press) Featured at Claremont McKenna College’s Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum on the unspoken truths of entrepreneurship Quoted and published in Chief Executive, Authority Magazine, Grit Daily, StartupNation, CEO World and LeadershipNow BA in Economics and Mathematics from Claremont McKenna College, with study at King’s College London and the London School of Economics Biography Ninety-seven of every hundred startups fail. The interesting question is not why most fail, but what the survivors paid to get through, and why so little of that cost is ever named in public. Ashwin Gulati has spent three decades inside that question, working alongside founders, CEOs and boards through launches, pivots, expansions and exits in the US, UK, Spain and France. His work spans more than 100 ventures, from early-stage technology companies to family-office-backed operating businesses. Through Match Point Ventures he steps in as strategic advisor, interim executive or Entrepreneur-in-Residence, running diagnostic assessments on capital structure, business model, leadership alignment and market position. The role is not theoretical. It usually begins when something is breaking. Soul Venture, his debut book, took 16 years to write because it does what most entrepreneurship literature avoids. It traces the psychological and human costs that sit alongside the spreadsheet view of company building. The book is part memoir, part field guide, drawn from his own ventures and from the founders he has worked beside. It has been featured by Chief Executive, Grit Daily and Authority Magazine, and anchors his speaking on what he calls the X-factors that separate real builders from the rest. He addresses three moments in venture life with equal seriousness. The take-off, where most founders mistake hustle for traction. The flight, where scaling exposes who can actually lead. And the landing, where exits, succession and legacy decide what the work was for. Key speaking topics Entrepreneurship and the founder journey Scale-up leadership across stages Venture launch and operational sustainability Exit, succession and founder legacy Self-leadership and founder resilience Cross-border venture building Ideal for Founder communities, incubators and accelerators briefing first-time and serial entrepreneurs Boards, family offices and investor networks evaluating venture portfolios Executive teams inside scale-ups confronting transition or crisis Business schools and entrepreneurship programmes building founder development tracks Audience outcomes A clearer map of the launch, scale and exit decisions that decide a venture’s outcome Specific failure mechanics drawn from 100+ companies, not founder mythology Language for the human cost of building, useful in boardrooms that usually avoid it A working frame for legacy and succession that goes beyond the financial exit

Why organisations work with Axel Alletru He offers a rare verifiable proof point for resilience: the first paraplegic driver to win a category at the Dakar Rally, beating able-bodied competitors in the SSV T3S class in 2020. His career crosses three elite disciplines (motocross, para swimming, rally-raid), which lets him speak credibly about rebuilding capability from zero rather than delivering a single-sport anecdote. He works regularly with CAC40 companies, SMEs and business clubs, having delivered more than 400 keynotes since 2017, so his corporate register is already tuned for leadership and all-hands audiences. His two published books, “28 Principes pour rebondir” and “Et toujours rebondir” (Albin Michel), give organisations a structured vocabulary for recovery that extends beyond the keynote itself. Bilingual delivery in French and English makes him directly usable for multi-country leadership events across European and global teams. Biography highlights First disabled driver to win a category at the Dakar Rally: SSV T3S class, January 2020, competing against able-bodied teams. Former MX2 World Championship motocross rider, rated one of France’s strongest prospects in the discipline before his 2010 crash. Three-time European BMX champion and junior world runner-up earlier in his career. 12-time French Handisport swimming champion and European Masters Games gold medallist in 50m and 100m freestyle. Author of “28 Principes pour rebondir” (2018) and “Et toujours rebondir” (Albin Michel, 2024). Subject of the Canal+ documentary “Holeshot, un virage pour la vie”. Biography The 2010 MX2 World Championship season ended for one French rider with a crash that took away the use of his legs at age 20. A full motocross career, built from European BMX titles and a junior world runner-up result, stopped in a single weekend. The question was no longer how to win. It was whether competitive sport was finished. Ten years later, Axel Alletru crossed a Dakar Rally finish line in Saudi Arabia first in the SSV T3S category and seventh in the overall SSV class, making him the first disabled driver to win a Dakar category against able-bodied competitors. Between those two points sat a 12-time French Handisport swimming title, a European Masters Games gold in freestyle, and years of rebuilding physical capacity that doctors had not expected to return. That arc is what corporate audiences actually buy. It gives him a specific answer to the question leadership teams keep landing on: how do people and organisations recover usable performance after a hard stop, not just morale. He has turned the answer into two published works, “28 Principes pour rebondir” and “Et toujours rebondir” with Albin Michel, and into a speaking practice that covers more than 400 engagements since 2017 for CAC40 groups, mid-market firms and business clubs. He delivers in French and English, and his preferred frame is practical rather than inspirational. Teams leave with a working model for how reinvention happens under constraint, anchored in a career that has had to produce results in three elite disciplines rather than one. Key speaking topics Resilience after serious setback High performance under constraint Mental strength and recovery Team and collective performance Sport lessons applied to business leadership Reinvention and career rebuilds Disability and performance Ideal for Executive leadership teams facing restructuring, failed launches or strategic reset All-company events where leaders want a credible frame for resilience rather than generic motivation Sales, operations and transformation groups under sustained performance pressure HR, talent and employee engagement leads programming flagship annual events Audience outcomes A concrete language for recovery that leaders can carry back into their own teams A working model for how people rebuild capability after a hard stop, drawn from three elite disciplines Renewed belief that ambitious targets remain reachable after disruption, supported by specific evidence rather than slogans Stronger read on the role collective structure plays in individual comebacks, relevant to team design and leadership

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 Baroness Grey-Thompson She chaired the government’s independent Duty of Care in Sport review (2017), producing recommendations on athlete welfare, safeguarding, and governing body accountability. Her authority on organisational responsibility comes from having produced the policy, not just commented on it. Her perspective on inclusion is grounded in decades of lived experience as a disabled person navigating institutions not designed for her – which gives her a precision and candour on the subject that no theoretical framework produces. As a sitting crossbench peer, she debates welfare reform, disability rights and sport governance in Parliament. Her understanding of how policy accountability functions – or fails to – is current, not retrospective. She has held board-level positions across sport, transport, broadcasting and the public sector. She speaks to senior decision-makers from a position of peer-level governance experience, not from outside it. Eleven Paralympic gold medals and six London Wheelchair Marathon victories represent one of the most demanding sustained performance records in British sporting history. Her insight into resilience and long-term excellence comes from a context that most performance speakers cannot match. Biography highlights 11 Paralympic gold medals across five Games (Seoul 1988 to Athens 2004); six London Wheelchair Marathon victories; over 30 world records Baroness Grey-Thompson DBE; crossbench member of the House of Lords since 2010; debates welfare reform, disability rights and sport governance Led the government-commissioned independent Duty of Care in Sport review, published April 2017 Chancellor of Northumbria University since 2015; honorary Doctor of Law, University of Cambridge (2016) Member of the Laureus World Sports Academy; BBC Sports Personality of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award, 2019 Board experience includes Transport for London, London Legacy Development Corporation, ukactive (Chair), BBC and UK Athletics Biography The question of how organisations balance the drive for performance with the duty to protect the people inside them is one that Tanni Grey-Thompson has spent three decades navigating – first as an elite athlete competing in systems rarely designed with her in mind, then as a legislator and governance lead responsible for changing them. Her athletic record is the foundation of her credibility. Across five Paralympic Games between 1988 and 2004, she won 11 gold medals in wheelchair racing, set over 30 world records, and won the London Wheelchair Marathon six times. What that record represents, beyond the numbers, is sustained excellence under physical and institutional pressure. She competed with spina bifida in an era when structural support for disabled athletes was limited, and she won anyway – a fact that shapes everything she says about resilience and the conditions that enable long-term achievement. In 2017, the government commissioned her to lead an independent review into duty of care in sport. The resulting report set out recommendations on athlete welfare, safeguarding, mental wellbeing, and the accountability of governing bodies for the people in their systems. It remains the most authoritative published framework on institutional responsibility in British sport, and it gave her a body of work that no other speaker in the inclusion space can claim. She joined the House of Lords as a crossbench peer in 2010, where she debates welfare reform, disability rights and sport governance. Her board experience spans Transport for London, the London Legacy Development Corporation, ukactive, the BBC, and UK Athletics. She has been Chancellor of Northumbria University since 2015. What she brings to a senior audience is not a motivational narrative – it is a working knowledge of how accountability for people actually functions, or fails to, in large organisations. Key speaking topics Elite performance and sustained achievement Inclusion and disability in organisational life Duty of care and institutional accountability Leadership under pressure Governance and board responsibility Disability rights and welfare policy Sport governance and athlete welfare Ideal for Senior leadership and board teams where performance expectations and inclusion commitments are in tension HR, people and DEI leaders responsible for disability inclusion and employee wellbeing strategy Public sector, sport and charitable sector boards with governance and accountability responsibilities Corporate audiences undergoing culture change where the gap between stated values and daily practice is a live concern Audience outcomes A sharper understanding of where performance culture and duty of care come into structural conflict – and what resolving that actually requires First-hand perspective on what inclusion looks like beyond policy, drawn from lived experience in systems not designed for disability Grounded insight into board-level accountability for the wellbeing of people inside an organisation An honest account of sustained high performance – what enabled it, what threatened it, and what the institutions around her got right and wrong Practical framing for the gap between an organisation’s stated commitments and the culture leaders actually sustain

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 Ben McBean He turns disability inclusion from a compliance topic into a human conversation audiences keep having after the session ends. His recovery from catastrophic injury gives mental health and resilience messaging a weight that consultants and clinicians cannot replicate. As presenter of ITVX’s “For Crown and Country,” he has a documented public-facing body of work on race and the British Armed Forces, which makes him credible for DEI briefs that demand more than personal story. He has spoken to Chelsea FC, Lloyds Bank, JP Morgan, Ernst & Young, Vodafone, and Citigroup, so he reads corporate rooms with the same ease he reads public ones. He is comfortable with young audiences, employee resource groups, and senior leadership sessions, which lets a single booking do work across an organisation. Biography highlights Former Royal Marine, 40 Commando, medically discharged in 2010 after an IED injury in Helmand Province. Overcoming Adversity winner at The Sun Military Awards 2009 for becoming the first double amputee to finish the London Marathon. Outstanding Global Achievement Award at Britain’s Best Award 2008, presented by the Prime Minister. Rotary Young Citizen Award, 2012. Presenter, “For Crown and Country,” ITVX Fresh Cuts, 2023. Corporate client list includes Chelsea FC, Lloyds Bank, JP Morgan, Ernst & Young, Vodafone, and Citigroup. Biography An IED exploded near Kajaki Dam, Helmand Province, on 28 February 2008. Ben McBean lost his left arm and right leg and was flown home on the same aircraft as Prince Harry, who later called him the “real hero” of that flight. He was twenty years old. A year later he finished the London Marathon in six hours and twenty minutes, the first double amputee to complete the course. He did it again the following year, faster. The Sun Military Awards recognised him for Overcoming Adversity in December 2009. What McBean does for organisations now grew out of what happened after the marathons. He spent years speaking in schools, at veterans’ events, and inside companies that were trying to make inclusion and mental health feel real rather than performative. In 2023 ITVX asked him to present “For Crown and Country,” a Fresh Cuts documentary on the contribution of Black British servicemen and women, which extended his platform from personal testimony into commissioned social history. Corporate audiences at Chelsea FC, Lloyds Bank, JP Morgan, Ernst & Young, Vodafone, and Citigroup have booked him for the same reason. A policy document can tell a workforce that difference is welcome. A room full of people who have just listened to McBean walks out knowing what that looks like when it is tested. Key speaking topics Disability inclusion in the workplace Mental health and recovery from trauma Resilience after catastrophic setback Diversity, equity and inclusion Veterans’ experience and reintegration Race and representation in institutional settings Ideal for DEI leads, CHROs, and employee resource group sponsors designing inclusion programming with real behavioural reach. Wellbeing and mental health leads running Mental Health Awareness Week, wellbeing conferences, or post-crisis staff events. Learning and development teams building resilience content for managers and frontline staff. Armed Forces charities, veterans’ networks, and public sector employers convening on race, service, and belonging. Audience outcomes A sharper read on how disability and difference are actually experienced inside a team, not how policy says they should be. Permission to talk about mental health and recovery in direct language, without workplace euphemism. A human reference point audiences return to when their own setback, illness, or loss arrives. Renewed conviction that inclusion is a behaviour practised in meetings, not a statement published on an intranet.

Why organisations work with Ben Owen He has spent more than two decades on the operational side of intelligence, from sniper duties in Iraq to leading covert teams against counter-terrorism, counter-proliferation, and counter-espionage targets. Few cyber speakers can speak from that side of the line. He runs live OSINT demonstrations from the stage, exposing what an attacker can assemble about a named executive in minutes. Audiences leave with a visceral understanding of their own exposure, not a slide on the threat landscape. As co-founder of The OSINT Group and Co-Director EMEA for Fortalice Solutions, he advises corporates and high net worth principals on digital risk every week. The keynote content is drawn from current casework, not historical anecdote. His Hunted profile gives him cultural reach that board members already recognise, which lowers the resistance non-technical executives bring to cyber conversations. Biography highlights Co-founder, The OSINT Group, an intelligence-led cyber security consultancy. Co-Director, EMEA Region, Fortalice Solutions, the global cyber and intelligence firm founded by former White House CIO Theresa Payton. Former British intelligence officer, with operational experience in counter-terrorism, counter-proliferation, and counter-espionage. Former sniper in the British Forces, deployed to Cyprus, Kuwait, and Iraq. Lead hunter and Head of Intelligence across the UK, US, and Australian versions of Hunted (Channel 4, CBS, Channel 10). Quoted by The National and Transport + Energy on online fraud and EV charging cyber risk. Biography The attack surface that matters to senior leaders is no longer the corporate firewall. It is the LinkedIn post that confirms a travel date, the loyalty programme that leaks an address, the family member whose social profile fills in the gap. Adversaries assemble these fragments into a picture. Most boards have never been shown that picture. Ben Owen has spent his career on the other side of it. He served as a sniper in the British Forces in Cyprus, Kuwait, and Iraq, then moved into the British intelligence services, where he led covert teams running counter-terrorism, counter-proliferation, and counter-espionage operations. Twenty-five years of operational work sits behind the keynote. He now co-runs The OSINT Group, an intelligence-led cyber consultancy, and serves as Co-Director EMEA at Fortalice Solutions, the firm founded by former White House CIO Theresa Payton. Current client work, on high net worth principals, corporate executives, and institutional risk, supplies the material for his speaking. Television audiences know him as a recurring hunter across the UK, US, and Australian versions of Hunted; corporate audiences see the same skill set turned on their own organisation. On stage he runs live demonstrations. A volunteer’s name and employer are usually enough to build a profile in front of the room. The point is not theatre. It is to compress the gap between abstract cyber briefings and the operational reality a board now has to govern. Key speaking topics Cyber security as a board-level risk Open-source intelligence and digital footprint exposure The human element of modern cyber threats Executive and principal protection in a digital environment Counter-fraud and social engineering Operational leadership under pressure Surveillance, evasion, and the Hunted methodology Ideal for Boards, CISOs, and CROs commissioning a non-technical reset on cyber risk Executive offboarding, principal protection, and family office audiences Sales kick-offs and client events where a recognisable name needs to land a serious message Industry conferences on financial services, energy, transport, and professional services Audience outcomes A working picture of what a determined adversary can learn about a named executive from open sources alone Specific changes to personal digital hygiene that materially reduce exposure within a week A vocabulary for boards to interrogate their cyber and intelligence functions without retreating into IT jargon A sharper sense of where social engineering and OSINT meet, and why the human layer is now the primary breach vector