Resilience & Stress Management

Why organisations work with Alex Staniforth Both of Staniforth’s Everest attempts (2014, 2015) ended in catastrophe, which means his argument about resilience, failure, and redefining success is not constructed from triumph. That credibility is difficult to replicate. His personal mental health disclosure; depression, anxiety, eating disorders, epilepsy, and a lifelong stammer, is specific and public. It allows him to reach parts of a leadership audience that pure performance speakers cannot, including people who are privately struggling. The ‘Resilience Rucksack’ gives audiences a named, practical framework to take away: not just an inspiring story, but a set of tools mapped to real workplace pressures. As co-founder of Mind Over Mountains, a national UK charity combining outdoor experience with professional mental health support, he brings an institutional track record to conversations about psychological safety that extends well beyond the stage. His Honorary Doctorate (DLitt) from the University of Chester, awarded in 2025 for his contribution to young people’s mental health, positions him credibly across both the performance and the clinical ends of the wellbeing conversation. Biography highlights Survived the 2014 Khumbu Icefall avalanche and the 2015 Nepal earthquake, the two most significant disasters in Everest history, on consecutive attempts, as a teenager First and fastest person to complete all 446 Nuttall mountains in England and Wales under human power in 45 days; fastest ever ascent of all 100 UK county tops (72 days) Author of Icefall (Coventry House Publishing, 2016) and Another Peak (2019) Co-founder, Mind Over Mountains: national UK charity restoring mental health through therapeutic outdoor programmes (est. 2020) Honorary Doctorate (DLitt), University of Chester, 2025: for outstanding contribution to young people’s mental health services Prime Minister’s Points of Light award, 2023; Pride of Britain Granada Reports Fundraiser of the Year, 2017; over £150,000 raised for charity across endurance challenges Biography Everest has a way of clarifying what resilience actually means. Alex Staniforth attempted the summit twice – the 2014 season ended by the Khumbu Icefall avalanche, the 2015 attempt halted by the Nepal earthquake – and returned from neither having reached the top. Both experiences form the foundation of his argument to organisations: that the most useful preparation is not for success, but for what happens when things go wrong. Since those expeditions, Staniforth has completed a series of documented endurance records. He is the first and fastest person to run and cycle all 446 Nuttall mountains in England and Wales in 45 days and holds the record for the fastest ascent of all 100 UK county tops. He is the author of Icefall and Another Peak, and in 2020 co-founded Mind Over Mountains, a national UK charity that combines outdoor experience with professional mental health support. What separates his contribution from most adventure-based speaking is where it goes beyond the summit metaphor. Staniforth has spoken publicly about depression, anxiety, and eating disorders experienced as an endurance athlete: alongside epilepsy and a lifelong stammer. This specificity allows him to speak credibly in mental health conversations where most performance speakers cannot go. His practical framework, the ‘Resilience Rucksack’, translates that experience into tools that leadership audiences can name and apply. His keynotes have been delivered to Rolls-Royce Submarines, Samsung, Bank of America, Accenture, FedEx, and the NHS, among others. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate (DLitt) by the University of Chester in 2025 for his contribution to young people’s mental health, and received the Prime Minister’s Points of Light award in 2023. He is an ICF-trained coach and certified Gazing Red2Blue practitioner. Key speaking topics Resilience under pressure Mental fitness and sustainable performance Leadership through adversity and change Burnout prevention and psychological safety Goal setting and redefining success Team performance in uncertainty Wellbeing as a performance foundation Ideal for Senior leadership teams navigating organisational change or post-disruption recovery CHROs and people leads building mental health or wellbeing programmes with senior buy-in Leadership development and high-potential programmes requiring a resilience anchor Corporate conferences where performance and wellbeing are a combined agenda item Audience outcomes A practical, named framework (the ‘Resilience Rucksack’) for maintaining performance during setbacks, change, and high pressure A more specific understanding of the relationship between mental fitness and sustained performance – not as a trade-off, but as the same investment Increased confidence among leaders in modelling openness around mental health, and in recognising early warning signs in their teams A shift in how failure and setback are framed – from evidence of inadequacy to material for growth Reference points from extreme conditions that translate directly to the pressures of demanding professional environments

Why organisations work with Troy Deeney He speaks from a verifiable record of collapse and recovery: prison in 2012, back in the Watford team within weeks of release, club captain inside two years, and the side’s all-time leading Premier League scorer by the end of his Watford career. His material on mental health is not theoretical. He has written publicly about counselling, grief and identity in Redemption: My Story, and brings that into the room without the polish that usually sands the substance off. He has run a real campaign, not just commented on one. Where’s My History? involved a YouGov teacher survey, a 50,000-signature petition, a Channel 4 documentary and direct engagement with the Department for Education. He is a working broadcaster, which means the room gets a confident communicator. Sky Sports EFL, TalkSport, BBC Sounds and the Deeney Talks podcast are part of his weekly diet. He works well in fireside and Q&A formats, which suits clients who want a real conversation with a senior audience rather than a scripted keynote. Biography highlights Made 500+ professional appearances and scored 160+ career goals across Watford, Birmingham City and Forest Green Rovers. Captain of Watford for the second half of his career there; club record Premier League scorer; FA Cup finalist and promotion winner. Author of Troy Deeney: Redemption: My Story (Hachette / Octopus), reviewed widely and named “Footie book of the year” by The Sun. Fronted Troy Deeney: Where’s My History? on Channel 4 (2022), a 60-minute documentary on the lack of Black, Asian and minority ethnic content in the UK school curriculum. Pundit on Sky Sports EFL, regular on TalkSport, co-host of BBC Sounds’ Football Firsts with Jermain Defoe, and host of the Deeney Talks podcast. Served as head coach of Forest Green Rovers after a player-coach role, holding a UEFA A coaching licence. Biography Watford were 2-1 down to Leicester in the 2013 Championship play-off semi-final when Troy Deeney scored in the 97th minute to put them in the final. The goal is still played on highlight reels. Eighteen months earlier he had been in HMP Birmingham, serving time for affray, and had assumed his career was finished. That gap, between prison cell and one of the most famous goals in modern English football, is what gives his speaking material weight. Redemption: My Story, published by Hachette in 2021, is his own account of the road between the two: a childhood on one of Europe’s largest council estates, a father who dealt drugs and went in and out of prison, three months inside, counselling, and the discipline of rebuilding. The Sun named it football book of the year. It is unusually candid about mental health, grief and the specific work of recovery. Since retiring from playing, Deeney has built a parallel career as a broadcaster and campaigner. He is a Sky Sports EFL pundit, a regular voice on TalkSport, and co-hosts BBC Sounds’ Football Firsts with Jermain Defoe. He fronted Where’s My History?, a Channel 4 documentary on the absence of Black, Asian and minority ethnic content in the national curriculum, supported by a YouGov teacher survey, a public petition and an open letter to the Secretary of State for Education. He spent a season as player-coach and then head coach at Forest Green Rovers in 2023 to 2024. For senior audiences the value is specific. He talks about what actually changed in counselling, how he handled a dressing room, why public failure is survivable, and what the inside of a serious personal reset looks like. The register is plain, unsanitised and grown-up, which is rare in the speaker market for this kind of material. Key speaking topics Resilience and recovery after public failure Self-leadership under pressure Mental health, identity and life after sport Captaincy and leading a dressing room Race, education and social change in the UK Storytelling and authentic communication Ideal for Leadership offsites and senior team away days where a candid personal-story session is more useful than another expert lecture Employee engagement, DEI and mental health programmes that need a credible male voice on vulnerability and recovery Sales kick-offs, customer events and after-dinner formats wanting a sports-world figure with substance, not just anecdotes Sport, media, education and youth-focused organisations working on race, opportunity and curriculum Audience outcomes A clearer view of what recovery from public failure actually requires, beyond motivational language. Practical insight into how a captain holds a dressing room together through pressure, scrutiny and bad results. A more honest framework for talking about mental health with senior male audiences who tend to discount the subject. A specific case study in turning personal experience into an evidenced public campaign, useful for organisations thinking about advocacy and voice.

Why organisations work with Luke Tyburski He talks about depression, eating disorders and suicidal ideation from the inside, which lets internal wellbeing leads open conversations that polished clinical content does not reach. He pairs the personal material with two named frameworks, K.E.N. for resilience and View-Think-Act for daily mindset, so audiences leave with a structure rather than a story. The 2,000km Morocco-to-Monaco Ultimate Triathlon is a documented world-first with an award-winning film attached, giving the proof point credibility that generic “extreme athlete” billing does not. He has been booked by national sporting teams, embassies and global companies across 16 countries, which signals he can read a senior corporate room as well as a sports audience. He is an accredited executive coach (ICF and EMCC), which means the resilience and mindset frameworks he delivers from stage are the same ones he uses in one-to-one work with senior leaders, not repackaged motivational content. Biography highlights Former professional footballer whose career ended after seven surgeries. Created and completed the world-first 2,000km Ultimate Triathlon from Morocco to Monaco in 12 days, filmed as the award-winning documentary “The Ultimate Triathlon” (2016) and recounted in his book “Chasing Extreme”. 2023 TEDx speaker, “Generate Momentum With 1% Thinking”. Has spoken in 16 countries across five continents, including for national sporting bodies, embassies and global companies. Accredited executive coach (ICF and EMCC), working one-to-one with executives, founders and senior leadership teams. Featured on The Rich Roll Podcast and Michael Gervais’s Finding Mastery, and in The Guardian and The Huffington Post. Biography Most mental health content for executives lives in two registers: clinical advice from professionals who have not experienced what they describe, and motivational stories that stop at “I came through it.” Luke Tyburski works the gap between the two. He talks about his own depression, eating disorder and two moments standing on bridges in plain language, then turns the experience into corporate frameworks that wellbeing leads can use after he leaves the room. The platform for that work is unusual. A football career ending in seven surgeries pushed him into ultra-endurance, where he ran the Sahara, descended Everest, crossed a Chinese forest without food or water, and built a 2,000km, 12-day triathlon from Morocco to Monaco that became the basis of the 2016 documentary “The Ultimate Triathlon”. He wrote about the project in his book “Chasing Extreme”. The speaking work draws on that material but is structured around two named tools. As an accredited executive coach (ICF and EMCC), he uses the same frameworks in one-to-one work with executives and leadership teams that he brings to the stage. K.E.N. is his resilience framework for individuals and teams under sustained pressure. View-Think-Act, the spine of his “Mastering Mindset” keynote, breaks daily performance into how people read a situation, what they tell themselves about it, and what they do next. He presented the underlying ideas in a 2023 TEDx talk, “Generate Momentum With 1% Thinking”. The audience has widened well beyond sport. Over more than a decade he has worked with national sporting teams, embassies and global companies across 16 countries on five continents. The through-line is the same: a usable language for performance and mental health that does not collapse when the conversation gets serious. Key speaking topics Mental health and wellbeing in the workplace Resilience and recovery under sustained pressure Performance mindset and daily habits Self-leadership through setback and injury Lived experience of depression and suicidality Endurance and adventure as corporate metaphor Ideal for CHROs and wellbeing leads designing serious mental health programmes beyond awareness campaigns Sales and high-performance teams operating under sustained targets and travel pressure Leadership offsites where the brief includes resilience and personal sustainability Conferences in sport, insurance, finance and professional services that want a credible mental health voice Audience outcomes A clearer language for talking about mental health internally without it becoming a clinical or HR conversation The K.E.N. framework as a shared reference for how teams respond to setback and pressure View-Think-Act as a daily structure for individual performance Permission to acknowledge that high performers can be unwell, and a model for what to do about it A concrete account of what sustained recovery looks like from inside it

Why organisations work with Sophie Morgan A founder credential rather than a commentator one. Morgan built Rights On Flights into the Assisted Air Travel Act, presented at the House of Commons in September 2023, after airline mishandling destroyed her wheelchair. Operator-grade media reach. Nearly a decade as a Channel 4 lead Paralympics presenter, NBC Paralympics host, Loose Women regular, and Conde Nast Traveller columnist gives her the platform to test what inclusion language actually lands. A production-company perspective on representation. Through Making Space Media, her first-look deal with Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine, she sits inside the commercial machinery of disability storytelling rather than commenting on it. A presenter who can host the room, not only speak from a lectern. Awards hosting, panel chairing and on-stage interview work are part of her core offer, useful when the brief is to run an event rather than fill a keynote slot. Biography highlights Lead presenter on Channel 4’s coverage of the Summer Paralympic Games for nearly a decade; presenter on NBC’s US Paralympics coverage. Author of Driving Forwards (Sphere/Little, Brown, 2022), a memoir on life after spinal cord injury. Founder of the Rights On Flights campaign; the Assisted Air Travel Act was presented at the House of Commons in September 2023. Co-founder of Making Space Media with Keely Cat-Wells, with a first-look unscripted deal with Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine. Regular panellist on ITV’s Loose Women; presenter of Living Wild, Fight to Fly, and Crufts; contributor to BBC Horizon, The One Show and Channel 4’s No Go Britain. Patron of Scope, Back Up and Human Rights Watch; voted into the UK’s Top 10 most influential people with a disability three years running. Biography A wheelchair was destroyed on a BA flight from Los Angeles to London in January 2023. The passenger was Sophie Morgan. Within weeks she had turned that single incident into Rights On Flights, the campaign that produced the Assisted Air Travel Act, presented at the House of Commons in September 2023 alongside MPs, airline industry figures and a White House delegation. That sequence, personal injury to legislative draft, is the pattern of her work. Morgan was paralysed from the chest down in a car crash at eighteen and has spent the years since translating private experience into public infrastructure. She is one of a small number of presenters with a physical disability working at broadcaster scale: lead presenter on Channel 4’s Summer Paralympics coverage for nearly a decade, NBC’s US Paralympics host, regular Loose Women panellist, and front of Channel 4 series including Living Wild and Fight to Fly. Her 2022 memoir Driving Forwards (Sphere/Little, Brown) sets out the argument that runs through her advocacy: the goal is not to overcome disability but to design environments in which disabled people can live well. The same argument shapes Making Space Media, the disabled-led production company she co-founded with Keely Cat-Wells in 2023, which holds a first-look unscripted deal with Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine and is building a talent pipeline on both sides of the camera. For organisations, the value is sharper than awareness. Morgan brings a working knowledge of where inclusion policy fails on contact with a real customer, employee or passenger, and a track record of forcing the response to be specific. She is a patron of Scope, Back Up and Human Rights Watch, and a Conde Nast Traveller columnist on accessible travel. Key speaking topics Disability inclusion and accessibility in the workplace Authentic representation of disabled people in media and brand Accessible travel and consumer experience Resilience after life-changing injury Campaigning, advocacy and policy change Inclusive event design and audience access Ideal for CHROs and DEI leads designing accessibility into hiring, retention and physical workplace CMOs, brand and customer experience leaders responsible for disabled customers and audiences Travel, hospitality, aviation and live events businesses with disabled customer touchpoints Conference and awards organisers seeking a host with on-screen credibility and inclusion fluency Audience outcomes A sharper sense of where inclusion policy and lived accessibility diverge in their own organisation Concrete examples of how disabled customers and employees experience services, drawn from broadcast, travel and consumer brand contexts A working understanding of how the Rights On Flights campaign turned a single incident into policy, and what that model implies for corporate accountability Renewed confidence to commission, hire and represent disabled talent inside their own commercial pipeline

Why organisations work with Sam Quek A first-hand account of how a team becomes the first British women’s hockey side to win Olympic gold, told from inside the defensive line that held the Netherlands in a penalty shootout final. Credibility on composure under pressure that comes from two careers, 125 international caps and a live broadcasting schedule across the BBC, Channel 5, and TNT Sports. A perspective on team culture shaped by a squad that won European gold, captained England with two broken ribs, and converted four years of preparation into a single result. Hosting and moderation experience suited to awards nights, conference panels, and high-profile event presentation, including the Eurovision 2023 opening ceremony. Biography highlights Olympic gold medallist, Rio 2016, women’s hockey, Great Britain. MBE, 2017 New Year Honours, for services to hockey. 125 international caps for England and Great Britain; captained England at the 2014 Champions Trophy. First permanent female team captain on BBC One’s A Question of Sport, alongside Ugo Monye. Co-host of BBC One’s Morning Live with Gethin Jones; co-anchor of BBC’s Olympic Breakfast for Tokyo 2020. Author of Hope and a Hockey Stick (2018) and Roar: A Celebration of Great Sporting Women (Allen and Unwin, 2024). Biography The British women’s hockey team had never won an Olympic gold medal until August 2016. They beat the Netherlands, the reigning world and Olympic champions, on penalties after a 3-3 draw in Rio. Quek played in the defensive line that kept the score close enough for the shootout to matter. Her playing career produced 125 international caps, a European Championship gold in 2015, and a stretch captaining England through the 2014 Champions Trophy with two broken ribs that she did not know she had until the tournament ended. The MBE followed in the 2017 New Year Honours. The second career began almost immediately. By 2021 she was the first permanent female team captain on A Question of Sport. In 2022 she joined Morning Live as co-host. The broadcasting roster now spans NFL on Channel 5, hockey on TNT Sports, football on Channel 4 and LFC TV, and a stint on BBC Radio 5 Live’s 606. She co-anchored BBC’s Olympic Breakfast for Tokyo and co-hosted the Eurovision 2023 opening ceremony. For corporate audiences, that combination provides something unusual. The Olympic experience is direct evidence of what high-performing teams do under terminal pressure. The broadcasting career adds the discipline of live performance, daily, without the option of a second take. Both feed the same material when she works with organisations on resilience, team culture, and composure when the stakes are visible. Key speaking topics Resilience and performance under pressure Team culture in high-stakes environments Olympic preparation and the four-year cycle Women in elite sport and broadcasting Career transition from athlete to broadcaster Self-leadership and composure Event hosting and panel moderation Ideal for Conference and awards hosting briefs requiring a recognised broadcaster. Sales kick-offs and all-hands events focused on team performance and resilience. Leadership programmes addressing composure and high-pressure decision-making. Diversity and women in leadership audiences seeking a senior sporting voice. Audience outcomes A specific account of what a winning team does in the hours and minutes before a terminal moment. A working sense of how composure is built before it is needed. Language for talking about team culture grounded in elite sport rather than business abstraction. Energy and credibility from a speaker comfortable in front of large rooms and television cameras.

Why organisations work with Ryan Thomas Recognition that opens a room. Sixteen years on Coronation Street, a Celebrity Big Brother win and a Dancing on Ice title give Thomas an audience-warmth most corporate hosts cannot manufacture. A credible voice on men’s mental health. His sustained work with CALM, including the ten-marathons-in-ten-days fundraiser, places him in the small group of UK television figures who speak about suicide prevention with substance. Hosting craft built on live television. Awards, gala dinners, internal recognition events and panel facilitation are his primary booking categories, and he can move between scripted hosting and unscripted audience interaction without losing pace. Cross-generational reach inside a UK workforce. Coronation Street and reality-format wins give him recognition across age brackets that a single-demographic celebrity rarely matches. Biography highlights Played Jason Grimshaw in Coronation Street from 2000 to 2016, returning to the role in 2025 Winner of Celebrity Big Brother (2018) and ITV’s Dancing on Ice (2024) Ambassador for CALM, the Campaign Against Living Miserably, a UK suicide prevention charity Walked ten marathons in ten days in 2021 to fundraise for CALM Co-host of the Mancs on the Mic podcast with brothers Adam and Scott Thomas Appeared on Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls (2017) and Celebrity MasterChef (2022) Biography Men’s mental health remains one of the most stubborn challenges inside UK organisations. Suicide is still the largest cause of death for men under fifty in the country, and the workforce demographics most affected, men in trade, sales, operations and middle management, are the hardest to reach with formal wellbeing programmes. CALM, the Campaign Against Living Miserably, works directly on that audience, and Ryan Thomas has been one of its most visible ambassadors. Thomas reached that audience through television, not through advocacy. He played Jason Grimshaw on Coronation Street for sixteen years, then won Celebrity Big Brother in 2018 and Dancing on Ice in 2024. The Coronation Street audience is the same demographic CALM is trying to reach, and his standing inside it gives him a credibility on the subject that policy-led speakers cannot easily replicate. In 2021 he walked ten marathons in ten days for the charity, a fundraising effort that reframed his public profile from soap actor to active campaigner. He co-hosts the Mancs on the Mic podcast with his brothers Adam and Scott, which has built a parallel audience inside the same demographic. For corporate clients, Thomas is most commonly booked as a host, awards presenter or after-dinner speaker, with the mental health content available as a substantive secondary anchor when the brief calls for it. Buyers commission him because the room recognises him before he opens his mouth, and because he can carry a conversation about suicide prevention without flattening it. Key speaking topics Men’s mental health and suicide prevention CALM advocacy and the male workplace Event hosting, awards presenting and MC work Resilience and reinvention in a public career Television, reality formats and public profile Brotherhood, family and the Mancs on the Mic podcast Ideal for Internal recognition events, awards dinners and conference plenaries seeking a recognised UK host HR, wellbeing and EAP leads commissioning men’s mental health content for predominantly male workforces Charity galas and fundraising events with a CALM, suicide prevention or men’s health angle Sales, trade and operations audiences where a soap-and-reality television profile lands harder than a policy speaker Audience outcomes A live conversation about men’s mental health that lands with audiences usually closed to the subject Permission to talk about suicide prevention at work, anchored by a recognisable advocate A confident, paced host or MC presence across awards, recognition and gala formats A first-hand account of the CALM ten marathons fundraiser and what motivated it

Why organisations work with Michaela Strachan Recognised across forty years of British television, from 1980s Saturday morning audiences to current Springwatch viewers and the 2025 Dancing on Ice final. That cross-generational recognition is unusual for a single broadcaster. Decades of on-location wildlife filming with named conservation organisations including SANCCOB in South Africa, the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation and the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. The specialism is built from fieldwork. BAFTA Best Children’s Presenter (2005) for Michaela’s Wild Challenge, with co-presenter status on BBC’s flagship Springwatch, Autumnwatch and Winterwatch since 2011 alongside Chris Packham. Live performance pedigree across formats most television presenters never touch. BBC live broadcasts, the 2018 Walking with Dinosaurs arena tour, and the 2025 Dancing on Ice final as the oldest contestant in show history. A genuine personal story for resilience and wellbeing briefs as a Breast Cancer Now ambassador, following her own 2014 diagnosis. Biography highlights BAFTA Best Children’s Presenter (2005) for Michaela’s Wild Challenge (Channel 5) Co-presenter, BBC Springwatch, Autumnwatch and Winterwatch (2011 to present), alongside Chris Packham Presenter, BBC Countryfile (1999 to 2009) Presenter, BBC’s The Really Wild Show (1993 to 2006) Presenter for Channel 5, National Geographic and Animal Planet, including Safari Live from Kruger National Park, Big 5 Little 5, Digging for Treasure and Extreme Conservation for BBC World News Author, Michaela Strachan’s Really Wild Adventures (2013) Finalist, ITV Dancing on Ice (2025), oldest contestant in the show’s history Biography Springwatch is one of British television’s most enduring nature programmes. Strachan has co-presented it since 2011 alongside Chris Packham, on location at reserves including Slimbridge and Wild Ken Hill. The role demands what few broadcasters can sustain over fifteen years: holding an audience through serious conservation content without losing either the science or the warmth. Before Springwatch came ten years on BBC’s Countryfile and thirteen years on The Really Wild Show, the BBC1 children’s wildlife series that ran until 2006. Earlier still, the breakthrough roles in 1980s Saturday morning television. Wide Awake Club and Wacaday with Timmy Mallett, then late-night music as the ‘Her’ in The Hitman and Her with Pete Waterman. The presenting craft is BAFTA-validated. She won Best Children’s Presenter at the 2005 British Academy Children’s Awards for Michaela’s Wild Challenge on Channel 5. International filming with SANCCOB, the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation and the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust gives her the fieldwork credentials behind the broadcasting craft. Audiences from forty years of British television recognise her on stage. That reach is unusual. Sustainability and conservation briefs benefit from a host with subject knowledge to back the warmth. Resilience and wellbeing programmes can draw on her work as a Breast Cancer Now ambassador after her own 2014 diagnosis. Few television presenters span Wide Awake Club, Springwatch and the Dancing on Ice final. Key speaking topics Wildlife and conservation Climate and sustainability communication Hosting and moderating live events Personal resilience and reinvention Breast cancer awareness and recovery Television and broadcasting craft Ideal for Sustainability conferences, climate events and ESG forums needing a credible host who is comfortable with the subject matter Wildlife festivals, conservation fundraisers and environmental charities Awards ceremonies, gala dinners and corporate emcee briefs that benefit from a familiar British television voice Health, wellbeing and women’s events drawing on personal cancer recovery and resilience themes Audience outcomes A grounded picture of what conservation actually looks like behind the camera, from Borneo orangutan rescues to penguin colonies in South Africa Stories of professional reinvention across forty years on television, useful for audiences thinking about long careers and second acts A clear, generous account of life through a breast cancer diagnosis and recovery Behind-the-scenes detail on how Springwatch and other live nature broadcasts are actually made

Why organisations work with Steve Backshall Two decades of first-hand evidence on climate and biodiversity change, anchored by Our Changing Planet, the BBC’s seven-year longitudinal study of six fragile ecosystems. Credibility across two audiences in one booking: the executive room responsible for climate strategy, and the wider workforce that responds to adventure, resilience, and human performance stories. A scientific spine behind the broadcaster, including an MSc in bioscience and an honorary doctorate from the University of Exeter, which lifts the content above motivational generality. Experience hosting and moderating at scale, including a sold-out UK and Australia theatre tour, which makes him a low-risk choice for plenary, fireside, or interview formats. A working conservationist, not a commentator. President of Buglife and an active patron, which gives his environmental content first-party authority rather than secondary analysis. Biography highlights Two BAFTAs in 2011: Best Children’s Presenter and Best Factual Series, both for Deadly 60. MBE, 2020, for services to wildlife conservation and charity. Honorary PhD, University of Exeter; MSc Bioscience, Canterbury Christ Church University. National Geographic Channel “Adventurer in Residence”, 1998 to 2003. Presenter of Our Changing Planet (BBC One), Expedition with Steve Backshall (BBC Two and Dave), Deadly 60 (CBBC), and Lost Land of the Tiger / Volcano / Jaguar. Author of Deep Blue, Mountain, Wildlings, Expedition, and The Falcon Chronicles novels. Biography The natural world is no longer a separate file in the corporate risk register. Climate volatility, biodiversity collapse, and ocean health now feed directly into supply chains, insurance pricing, and licence to operate. The leaders who handle this best tend to be the ones who have spent time looking at the physical evidence, not only the disclosure templates. Steve Backshall has spent his career inside that physical evidence. As presenter of the BBC’s Our Changing Planet, he has tracked six of the world’s most fragile ecosystems over a seven-year arc, returning to the same sites to document what has actually changed. Earlier work for National Geographic, where he served as Adventurer in Residence from 1998, gave him a comparable long view across reefs, jungles, and polar regions. The credentials sit on top of fieldwork, not the other way round. He holds an MSc in bioscience from Canterbury Christ Church University and an honorary PhD from the University of Exeter, and he serves as President of Buglife. His two BAFTAs in 2011, for Deadly 60, and his MBE in 2020 for services to conservation, anchor a public profile that reaches well beyond the specialist audience. The same body of work supplies a second register that organisations use heavily: first-descent kayaking expeditions in New Guinea, first ascents on Venezuelan tepuis, world record paddles, and the operational discipline behind them. That material translates cleanly into sessions on resilience, decision-making under risk, and team performance in environments where failure is not abstract. Key speaking topics Climate and biodiversity change observed in the field Ocean health and marine conservation Expedition leadership and decision-making under risk Resilience and human performance in extreme environments Conservation strategy and corporate environmental responsibility Adventure, exploration, and the science behind both Ideal for Sustainability, ESG, and corporate affairs leaders responsible for climate narrative and substance Senior leadership offsites and all-hands events where one speaker needs to land with the boardroom and the wider workforce Conference hosts and moderators needing a credible plenary anchor across science, exploration, and sustainability tracks Internal leadership programmes on resilience, team performance, and decision-making under pressure Audience outcomes A grounded view of what is actually happening in climate and biodiversity systems, beyond the headline framings A clearer link between environmental change and operational, commercial, and reputational exposure Concrete stories on risk, preparation, and team behaviour drawn from genuine first-descent and first-ascent expeditions Renewed appetite for ambition and long-horizon thinking inside the organisation

Why organisations work with Jason Harris He brings a working framework, No Fail Trust, that he has applied with Cisco Systems, Caterpillar, Ford and Lockheed Martin, not a set of war stories repackaged as leadership lessons. His operational credibility is current. He still flies commercial widebody aircraft for American Airlines, so the standards he teaches are standards he is still held to. He commanded a KC-46 air refuelling squadron, which means he has run a real organisation with real accountability for safety, performance and people, not only led from the cockpit. He taught Strategy and Innovation at the US Air Force Academy, which gives the framework an academic spine that most ex-military speakers do not have. His material translates cleanly to civilian teams under restructure, hybrid working strain or post-incident recovery, where the question is whether trust will hold when conditions degrade. Biography highlights Retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, nearly 30 years of service across active duty and the Air Force Reserve Command, concluding as a flying Squadron Commander. US Air Force Academy graduate, later instructor in the Academy’s Military and Strategic Studies department. 11 combat deployments, 470 combat sorties, more than 2,000 combat hours across Iraq, Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa. Co-author of “Aiming Higher: A Journey Through Military Aviation Leadership” (RTI Press, 2022), reviewed in the USAFA Journal of Character and Leadership Development. Commercial pilot with American Airlines, type-rated on the Airbus A320 family and Boeing 757, 767 and 777. Featured in Forbes and on the History Channel series “Bermuda Triangle: Into Cursed Waters”. Biography A cargo aircraft taking fire on approach is not the place to discover that a crew does not trust each other. The cost of unspoken doubt in that environment is measurable in seconds and lives. Jason Harris flew 470 combat sorties in environments where that calculation was not theoretical. That operating context shaped a leadership method, not a memoir. The No Fail Trust framework codifies what high-functioning aircrews actually do: the habits of disclosure, calibration and accountability that hold a team together when conditions degrade. He has carried it into Cisco Systems, Caterpillar, Ford and Lockheed Martin, where the trust problem looks different on the surface but obeys the same logic underneath. Harris also brings the structural side. He taught Strategy and Innovation at the US Air Force Academy and commanded a KC-46 air refuelling squadron, which means he has been responsible for organisational design, safety culture and people decisions, not only flight operations. His co-authored book “Aiming Higher” (RTI Press, 2022) was reviewed in the Academy’s Journal of Character and Leadership Development, which is rare for a bureau speaker working in this lane. He still flies. As an American Airlines pilot type-rated across the Airbus A320 family and the Boeing 757, 767 and 777, the standards he asks corporate teams to consider are standards he is still operating under in the next week’s flight schedule. Key speaking topics Trust as an operational capability Leadership under high-consequence pressure Team performance in distributed and hybrid environments Psychological safety and crew resource management Decision-making under uncertainty Culture in safety-critical organisations Leading after restructure or incident Ideal for Boards and executive teams confronting a trust gap after restructure, leadership change or a public incident CHROs and culture leads designing for safety-critical or distributed teams Operational leadership cohorts in regulated sectors: aviation, energy, defence, logistics, financial services Sales kick-offs and leadership summits where the brief calls for credibility under pressure rather than motivational lift Audience outcomes A working definition of trust that can be observed, measured and rebuilt, rather than asserted A method for surfacing unspoken doubt inside senior teams before it becomes an operational cost A clearer view of how psychological safety, accountability and decision speed reinforce each other under pressure Specific behavioural habits drawn from aircrew practice that translate to civilian operating environments A sharper read on what leadership presence looks like when conditions are not stable

Why organisations work with Damon Dunn He has built and run the businesses he talks about. A 38-unit franchise system, a 31-property retail portfolio with tenants such as Walmart and CVS, and three CEO seats give him P&L credibility most leadership speakers do not have. His Hoover Institution work on welfare-to-work, K-14 education and workforce skilling connects boardroom growth questions to the labour and human-capital realities that actually determine whether a scale-up works. His path from severe poverty in Fort Worth to Stanford, the NFL and a multi-company operating career gives audiences a resilience story that is specific and verifiable, not generic. He is fluent in two registers buyers rarely get in one room: operator and policy fellow. That makes him useful for leadership offsites that need both growth substance and a wider economic frame. Biography highlights Hoover Institution Fellow, Stanford University, working on economic mobility, welfare reform and skills-based education. Author of Punting Poverty: Breaking the Chains of Welfare (Pacific Research Institute). Three-time CEO. Current CEO of Sagan Sign Talent. Founder of Lagunita Franchise Operations, scaled to 38 Dunkin locations across six states. Co-founder of Tricor SW Corporation, which developed 31 retail properties. BA, Public Policy, Stanford University. Harvard Business School Executive Education (2005). Former NFL wide receiver: Jacksonville Jaguars, Cleveland Browns, New York Jets, Dallas Cowboys. Republican nominee for California Secretary of State, 2010. Founder of Long Beach College Prep Academy, which has sent 158 students from low-income families to college. Biography Build a 38-unit franchise system from a single location and you learn quickly which growth ideas survive contact with payroll, leases and operators on a Tuesday morning. Damon Dunn has done the work three times as a CEO, in franchising at Lagunita, in retail development at Tricor, and most recently in industrial talent at Sagan Sign Talent. Tricor developed 31 retail properties across the United States, securing tenants including Walmart and CVS. Lagunita scaled to 38 Dunkin locations across six states, with around 500 employees and roughly thirty million dollars in revenue. The throughline is the same: capital deployed against real assets, real customers and real labour markets, with a P&L that has to clear at the end of every period. Alongside the operating work, Dunn is a Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, where he writes on welfare reform, K-14 education and the skills-based pathways that actually move people out of poverty. His book Punting Poverty: Breaking the Chains of Welfare, published with the Pacific Research Institute, sets out a workable agenda for that mobility question. He was the Republican nominee for California Secretary of State in 2010. His own route from severe poverty in Fort Worth to a Stanford scholarship, four NFL teams and a working operator’s career gives the policy argument something most policy arguments lack: an author who has been the subject. Boards and leadership teams get a speaker who can work the labour question from inside the labour market, not from a podium above it. Key speaking topics Entrepreneurship and scaling Growth strategy under capital and labour constraints Economic mobility and workforce skilling Leadership across business, sport and policy Resilience and high-performance under pressure Public policy on welfare-to-work and K-14 education Ideal for CEOs, founders and country managers running scale-up plays in capital-constrained conditions. Boards and executive teams looking for a credible operator’s view alongside macro and policy framing. Industry conferences in franchising, retail, real estate and consumer where unit economics drive growth. Leadership offsites that want substance on resilience without the standard sports-keynote arc. Audience outcomes A working operator’s view of how franchise and retail systems actually scale, with the trade-offs named. A clear link between workforce policy, skills and the practical labour economics inside a growing business. A resilience narrative grounded in named institutions and verifiable career stages, not motivational abstraction. Useable language for leaders trying to communicate ambition without overpromising on capital or timelines.

Why organisations work with Jodie Kidd A recognisable on-camera presenter with two decades of live broadcast experience, including Channel 5’s The Classic Car Show and ITV’s coverage of the Isle of Man TT, equally at home with a live audience and a camera. Genuine credibility in automotive, motorsport and lifestyle briefs: a former Maserati Trofeo Series driver, Mille Miglia competitor, and Top Gear “Star in a Reasonably Priced Car” series leader. An operating entrepreneur, not a name on a brand. Owner since 2017 of The Half Moon in Kirdford, an AA 2-Rosette gastropub featured at Tom Kerridge’s Pub in the Park; co-owner of beauty brand Skin & Tonic. A reinvention story with substance behind it: Vogue covers and the McQueen debut runway, then a Maserati seat, then a working pub through the post-pandemic hospitality squeeze. Useful when a brief calls for a panel voice on backing yourself outside a single career lane. Polished, warm, unflappable on stage. The kind of host clients rebook for the second year because the first one ran on time. Biography highlights International fashion model from age 15. Vogue covers, opened for John Galliano, walked Givenchy and Alexander McQueen’s debut runway show. Maserati Trofeo Series racing driver. Competed in the Mille Miglia for Jaguar. Top Gear “Star in a Reasonably Priced Car”: topped the leader board across an entire series, becoming a long-running Top Gear reference point. Co-presenter, Channel 5’s The Classic Car Show, and ITV’s coverage of the Isle of Man TT. Strictly Come Dancing (BBC One, 2008) and Celebrity MasterChef finalist. Owner since 2017 of The Half Moon, Kirdford, a Grade II listed gastropub holding AA 2 Rosettes four years running and featured at Pub in the Park from 2019 to 2022. Author of Balance Your Life (2019); co-owner of beauty brand Skin & Tonic; host of YouTube automotive channel Kidd in a Sweet Shop. Biography Television careers built on a single specialism are easier to write about than ones built across several. Jodie Kidd has covered fashion, motorsport, lifestyle and food on BBC, ITV and Channel 5 over more than two decades, and the through-line is the live work: a host who can carry an awards room, a paddock interview, a cookery final or a panel on hospitality. The starting point was modelling. Discovered at 15, she was on the cover of British Vogue at 17, opened shows for John Galliano and walked Alexander McQueen’s debut runway. The pivot into broadcast came through cars. She raced in the Maserati Trofeo Series, competed in the Mille Miglia for Jaguar, and topped the Top Gear leader board for an entire series, which translated into long-running automotive presenting on Channel 5’s The Classic Car Show and ITV’s Isle of Man TT coverage. In 2017 she took on The Half Moon in Kirdford with two business partners, learning the gastropub business from the kitchen out. The pub holds AA 2 Rosettes four years running and has appeared at Tom Kerridge’s Pub in the Park. She co-owns the beauty brand Skin & Tonic and wrote Balance Your Life, a six-week diet and exercise book published in 2019. For event organisers, the value is straightforward. A senior buyer hiring Kidd is hiring an experienced live broadcaster with genuine subject footing in automotive, lifestyle and small-business hospitality, and a calm hand on a long evening. She works as host, awards presenter, panel moderator and panellist, and as a speaker on her own reinvention across fashion, motorsport and entrepreneurship. Key speaking topics Awards hosting and event presenting Panel moderation Automotive, motorsport and the classic car world Hospitality and independent pub ownership Entrepreneurship and brand-building outside a primary career Reinvention across industries Health, wellbeing and lifestyle Ideal for Brand and consumer events in automotive, lifestyle, fashion and hospitality Industry awards evenings looking for a recognisable, experienced live host Conference panels on entrepreneurship, small-business hospitality, or career reinvention Internal leadership or sales conferences wanting an after-dinner speaker with a broad public profile Audience outcomes A live event that runs on time, with an audience that stays in the room Panel conversations that draw out senior speakers without drifting A first-hand account of building and running a working hospitality business through a difficult market A frank reinvention story across modelling, motorsport, broadcasting and small business For automotive and motorsport audiences, an interviewer who knows the subject

Why organisations work with Jeanette Kwakye A working national broadcaster, not a former athlete trading on past results. Buyers get a host who runs live BBC Sport and ITV current affairs every week, with the on-stage instincts that come with it. Rare credibility on women in sport and media. She broke a 24-year drought as a British woman in the Olympic 100m final, then became the first Black female UK presenter to front a terrestrial boxing production. Hosting and moderation experience with Google, Nike, BMW, the IOC and World Athletics, which translates into clean panel craft for senior leadership audiences. Direct, unsentimental on the transition from elite sport to a second career. Useful for talent, learning and DEI conversations that have grown tired of the standard sportsperson keynote. Biography highlights Sixth place in the 100m final at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, the first British woman in that final since 1984. Silver medallist over 60m at the 2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships, equalling the British record of 7.08. BBC athletics trackside reporter; host of BBC Radio 5 Live’s Football Daily podcast; co-host of BBC Radio 5 Live Weekend Breakfast. Co-host of The Martin Lewis Money Show on ITV1. First Black female UK TV presenter to lead a boxing production on a terrestrial channel, on Channel 5. Appointed MBE in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to sport and sports broadcasting. Loughborough University graduate in Politics and Economics; author of the children’s book Femi the Fox. Biography A British woman had not reached an Olympic 100m final for twenty-four years when Jeanette Kwakye ran 11.14 in Beijing in 2008 and finished sixth. The earlier rounds, not the final, are the part that matters. She trained at Loughborough, came through British championships in both the 100m and 200m, and took silver over 60m at the World Indoors that same year, equalling the British record of 7.08. The second career has the same shape. After retiring in 2014 she went through an NCTJ qualification, started in local BBC radio, and built outwards. She is now a BBC athletics trackside reporter, hosts the Football Daily podcast on BBC Radio 5 Live, co-hosts Weekend Breakfast on the same station, and co-presents The Martin Lewis Money Show on ITV1. In 2020, she became the first Black female presenter on a terrestrial UK boxing production. Her hosting and moderation portfolio outside broadcast covers Google, Nike, BMW, the International Olympic Committee and World Athletics. Senior audiences hire her because she runs a room cleanly, pushes panellists, and brings a working journalist’s instinct to questions of representation and performance rather than a retired-athlete reflection. She was appointed MBE in 2021 for services to sport and sports broadcasting. She is also the author of the children’s book Femi the Fox. Key speaking topics Representation in sport and media Women in broadcasting and elite sport High-performance mindset Career transition from elite sport Olympic preparation and selection Sports broadcasting and journalism Resilience after injury Ideal for Conference and summit organisers needing a host or moderator with senior on-stage credibility DEI, talent and people leaders running events on representation and women’s progression Sports industry, federation and rights-holder events Internal kick-offs and leadership offsites looking for an Olympic-finalist perspective on performance under pressure Audience outcomes A clearer picture of what representation actually changes inside elite environments, told from inside two of them A working definition of high performance that survives contact with injury, deselection and reinvention Practical ground for talent and DEI leaders considering how the pipeline into senior visible roles really moves A panel or fireside that lands cleanly, with a host who keeps senior speakers honest