Storytelling & Business Communication

Why organisations work with Jaz Ampaw-Farr She gives leadership teams a vocabulary for wellbeing and inclusion that lands with sceptical senior audiences, because the argument is framed through performance and culture rather than through HR policy. Her toolkit is specific and teachable. The Failure CV, Jazlow’s Hierarchy of Needs and the 10% Braver model are named devices line managers can pick up the next day. The credibility sits in two places that rarely combine: a trained teacher with thirty years of front-line education work, and two 2025 honorary doctorates from the University of Hull and Bishop Grosseteste University for contribution to leadership, resilience, wellbeing and diversity. She is a working broadcaster and writer, not a consultant performing. Co-presenter on CBBC’s Hard Spell Abbey, TEDx speaker with a talk above 140,000 views, author of “Because of You, This Is Me” with Ian Gilbert, and 2025 Diversity in Cannes Programmer’s Choice winner for the short film Re-Story Your Life. Buyers book her for rooms that have heard the standard resilience keynote before and did not change anything afterwards. The measurable difference is that leaders leave with a small number of named practices they are willing to try in public. Biography highlights Co-writer and co-presenter, CBBC spelling series Hard Spell Abbey. TEDx speaker, “The Power of Everyday Heroes” (TEDxNorwichED), 140,000+ views. Author, “Because of You, This Is Me: The stories we tell, the stories we change and the power of everyday heroes” (Crown House Publishing, with Ian Gilbert). Honorary Doctor of Letters, University of Hull, 2025. Honorary Doctor of the University, Bishop Grosseteste University, 2025. Programmer’s Choice Award, 2025 Diversity in Cannes Film Festival, for the short film Re-Story Your Life. Speaker of the Year and Best Live Gig, The Speaker Awards UK, 2022. Contestant, BBC The Apprentice Series 9. Biography Five teachers changed the trajectory of a homeless teenager raised in foster care. Decades later, she trained as a teacher herself, and the question of what those five adults actually did, practically, at work, on ordinary days, became the spine of her professional work. That question is the reason organisations book her. It has a usable answer, and it applies inside businesses as much as inside schools. The public platform built up from there. A TEDx talk, “The Power of Everyday Heroes”, now carries more than 140,000 views. “Because of You, This Is Me”, written with Ian Gilbert for Crown House Publishing, turned the argument into a book for educators and leaders. A stretch on BBC’s The Apprentice and co-presenting credits on CBBC’s Hard Spell Abbey gave her the broadcast fluency that makes the live keynote work in front of an impatient senior room. The body of work is named, not generic. 10% Braver treats courage as a daily operational habit rather than a mindset. The Failure CV reframes psychological safety as something a leader practises in public. Jazlow’s Hierarchy of Needs repositions wellbeing as infrastructure for performance. In 2025, the University of Hull and Bishop Grosseteste University both conferred honorary doctorates for her contribution to leadership, resilience, wellbeing and diversity, and her short film Re-Story Your Life won the Programmer’s Choice Award at the Diversity in Cannes Film Festival. What a senior HR or culture buyer is actually getting is a speaker who can hold a room that has already heard the standard resilience keynote, and leave it with a small number of specific things the organisation’s line managers are willing to try on Monday. Key speaking topics Workplace wellbeing and psychological safety Inclusive leadership and belonging Resilience as an operational practice Storytelling for leaders and culture builders Employee engagement and human connection at work Personal courage and the 10% Braver model Culture and performance in high-pressure teams Ideal for CHROs and heads of people building a culture and wellbeing agenda that has to land with a sceptical executive audience Leadership teams running an inclusion, belonging or psychological safety programme that has stalled at policy and needs to move into daily practice Education, health and public sector leadership audiences working through sustained workforce pressure Internal conferences where the brief is to reset the tone before a demanding year, not to deliver a technical update Audience outcomes A named set of practices (Failure CV, 10% Braver, Jazlow’s Hierarchy of Needs) that line managers can use in conversations the next week. A sharper internal language for wellbeing and inclusion that links directly to performance and retention. Permission for senior leaders to be visible about uncertainty and failure in front of their teams. A reframing of resilience as an organisational responsibility, not a personal character test. A live example of storytelling used to shift a room, which leaders can study and borrow from.

Why organisations work with Kamal Ahmed Senior insider perspective on how a national broadcaster makes editorial decisions under political and commercial pressure, drawn from running the BBC News Board. First-hand operating experience building a Gen Z newsroom from zero, with concrete views on where younger audiences actually go for information and what they reject. Practical authority on misinformation as an organisational risk, not an abstract policy debate, grounded in the founding thesis of The News Movement. A working broadcaster’s craft as a moderator and on-stage interviewer, including current podcast hosting at The Telegraph, useful when the brief is high-stakes panel or fireside rather than keynote. A named voice on race, identity and belonging in British public life, supported by his Bloomsbury memoir, when the audience and brief warrant it. Biography highlights Editorial Director, BBC News (2018 to 2021); member of the BBC News Board and BBC Sounds Board. BBC Business Editor (2014 to 2016) and BBC Economics Editor (2016 to 2018). Co-founder and former Editor-in-Chief, The News Movement. Former Director of Audio, The Telegraph; co-host of The Daily T podcast. Author, The Life and Times of a Very British Man (Bloomsbury, 2018). Vice-President, Society of Editors; Trustee, Media Trust. Biography Most boards still plan their external communications as if a national newspaper front page or a BBC Six O’Clock News bulletin is where the audience meets them. Younger employees, customers and investors mostly do not. They meet brands inside short-form video, group chats and platforms whose editorial logic looks nothing like a newsroom’s. Closing that gap is the work Kamal Ahmed has spent the last five years on. He came to it from inside the institution it is reshaping. As Editorial Director of BBC News between 2018 and 2021, sitting on both the BBC News Board and the BBC Sounds Board, he was responsible for editorial standards across the largest English-language news operation in the world. Before that he was BBC Economics Editor and BBC Business Editor, and before that Business Editor at The Daily Telegraph and Political Editor at The Observer. In 2021 he co-founded The News Movement with former Dow Jones chief executive Will Lewis, building a social-first newsroom designed for audiences under thirty rather than retro-fitting an existing brand to them. The thesis was direct: misinformation is not solved by quality journalism in the wrong format. He served as Editor-in-Chief through the launch phase in London and New York. Alongside the operating work, he is a Bloomsbury-published author on race, identity and Britishness, an inaugural winner of the CFA Society’s Ethical and Professional Standards Award, Vice-President of the Society of Editors and a Trustee of Media Trust. The combination matters: he can speak to the leadership room about trust and media as a senior editor who has run them, and as a builder who has tried to construct what comes next. Key speaking topics Trust in media and institutions Gen Z audiences and the future of information Misinformation as organisational risk Editorial leadership under pressure The economy and business after the BBC Race, identity and belonging in British public life Ideal for Communications, brand and corporate affairs leaders rebuilding external narrative CHROs and internal communications leads facing engagement gaps with under-thirty employees Boards reviewing reputational and information-environment risk Conference and summit organisers needing a moderator with broadcast craft and editorial authority Audience outcomes A clear read on where trust now sits across generations, and what that costs organisations that ignore it A concrete picture of how Gen Z audiences receive, interrogate and share information A sharper view of misinformation as a board-level operating risk rather than a policy abstraction A practitioner’s account of how a national newsroom makes decisions, useful for leaders who are interviewed, scrutinised or covered

Why organisations work with Julie Etchingham She has run the room when the stakes were national. Moderating the head-to-head ITV debate between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer on 4 June 2024, and every ITV leaders’ debate since 2015, is the reference point clients book against when they need a chair who can hold senior figures to a question. She is a working anchor of ITV News at Ten, not a former one. The political, regulatory and geopolitical stories that affect a board agenda are the stories she is reading, writing and presenting that evening. She brings a documented record on hard reporting. Her ITV Tonight and Exposure work on modern slavery, including Britain’s Secret Slaves filmed in the UK, Nigeria and Italy, won her access to the Vatican and to Pope Francis, whom she was the first British broadcast journalist to interview. She carries the rare credential of being the first woman to win the RTS Television Journalism Presenter of the Year, an award she has now won twice, alongside London Press Club Broadcast Journalist of the Year. Biography highlights Anchor of ITV News at Ten since January 2008, alongside the relaunch with Sir Trevor McDonald. Moderator of the ITV Leaders’ Debate at the 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2024 UK general elections, including the Sunak v Starmer head-to-head on 4 June 2024. Presenter of ITV’s Tonight current affairs strand from 2010 to 2022; reporter for ITV’s investigative strand Exposure, including Britain’s Secret Slaves on modern slavery. Royal Television Society Television Journalism Presenter of the Year in 2010 (first woman to win) and 2016; London Press Club Broadcast Journalist of the Year, 2016. President of the Women of the Year Lunch and Awards since 2018; Pro-Chancellor of Birmingham Newman University from October 2023. Cambridge graduate (Newnham College, English); earlier career at BBC (Newsround, Midlands Today, BBC Breakfast News) and Sky News, where she anchored coverage of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami and the 7/7 London attacks. Biography The ITV debate studio on 4 June 2024 was the only place a UK prime minister and the leader of the opposition were going to share a stage in front of voters that election. Julie Etchingham chaired the hour live. She had done the same job at every ITV leaders’ debate since 2015, when she became the first woman to moderate a UK general election debate, and again in 2017, 2019 and across the 2022 Conservative leadership contest. That body of work sits on top of a journalism career. Etchingham has anchored ITV News at Ten since the programme’s relaunch with Sir Trevor McDonald in January 2008, and earlier presented Sky News through major breaking stories, including live coverage from Thailand after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami and on air as the 7/7 attacks unfolded in London. From 2010 to 2022 she presented ITV’s Tonight current affairs programme, with reporting for the Exposure investigative strand including Britain’s Secret Slaves, filmed across the UK, Nigeria and Italy on modern slavery. The recognition is on the record. The Royal Television Society named her Television Journalism Presenter of the Year in 2010, the first woman to win the award, and again in 2016. The London Press Club named her Broadcast Journalist of the Year the same year. She was the first British broadcast journalist to interview Pope Francis, and has since moderated conferences at the Vatican on modern slavery under his patronage. For corporate audiences, the offer is practical. She moderates leadership conferences, chairs panels and runs on-stage interviews with the same craft she uses in a debate studio, with a working knowledge of UK politics, elections and the media environment around them. The president’s chair at the Women of the Year Lunch since 2018 and the Pro-Chancellorship of Birmingham Newman University from October 2023 are the institutional version of that same role. Key speaking topics UK politics and general elections Conference moderation and on-stage interviewing Leadership communication under public scrutiny Media, public trust and the information environment Modern slavery and human rights reporting Awards hosting and high-profile event chairing Ideal for Annual leadership conferences and partner summits needing a chair who can run a serious agenda with senior political or business figures on stage. Investor days, AGMs and policy forums where the on-stage interview format requires a journalist who knows the brief. Awards dinners and major institutional events where the host carries credibility with the audience. Boards and executive committees using a private session to pressure-test communications around a political or regulatory moment. Audience outcomes A working read on the UK political cycle and the elections, regulatory shifts and media stories most likely to land on the agenda. A sharper sense of how leaders are scrutinised in front of a national audience, drawn from years of moderating debates with prime ministers and party leaders. A different quality of on-stage conversation when Etchingham is chairing: speakers pushed past talking points without losing the room. Specific reference points from front-line news anchoring and investigative work used to illustrate rather than decorate the argument.

Why organisations work with Lewis Goodall He covers UK politics daily from inside the story, not from the academic perimeter, which means his read on Westminster, Whitehall, and the parties is current rather than retrospective. His investigative work on the 2020 A-level algorithm helped force a national policy reversal and earned an Orwell Prize nomination, which is a specific, verifiable proof of judgment under pressure. He co-hosts The News Agents, the British Podcast Awards 2023 Best Daily Podcast, giving him a working command of how political narrative is set, contested, and consumed. He has reported across Brexit, four general elections, and successive prime ministers, and can translate that pattern recognition into clear implications for regulated and public-facing sectors. His book Left for Dead? on the modern Labour Party is a serious piece of political analysis, not a media memoir, which gives boards confidence that the on-air voice is backed by genuine intellectual work. Biography highlights Analysis and Investigations Editor at Global, the parent company of LBC and Classic FM. Co-host of The News Agents with Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel, winner of Best Daily Podcast at the British Podcast Awards 2023. Presenter of Sunday with Lewis Goodall, LBC’s flagship Sunday political programme. Former Policy Editor of BBC Newsnight and former political correspondent at Sky News. Author of Left for Dead?: The Strange Death and Rebirth of the Labour Party (William Collins, 2018). Orwell Prize nominee in 2021 for investigative reporting on the A-level grading scandal. Biography The 2020 A-level grading scandal began as a technical story about an algorithm. It became, in part because of sustained reporting by Lewis Goodall at BBC Newsnight, a national policy reversal and a case study in how data systems fail in public administration. That work was nominated for an Orwell Prize in 2021 and remains the clearest illustration of what he does on a working day. His route to that story is unusual for British political journalism. He read History and Politics at St John’s College, Oxford, worked as a policy researcher at the Institute for Public Policy Research, and moved into broadcasting via Sky News and then Newsnight. The policy training is visible in how he frames questions, which is closer to a regulatory analyst than a Westminster reporter. In 2022 he left the BBC to help launch The News Agents, the daily news podcast he co-hosts with Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel. It won Best Daily Podcast at the 2023 British Podcast Awards. He also presents Sunday with Lewis Goodall, LBC’s flagship Sunday politics programme, and serves as Analysis and Investigations Editor at Global. His book Left for Dead?: The Strange Death and Rebirth of the Labour Party (William Collins, 2018) traces the collapse of New Labour and the rise and fall of the Corbyn project. For boards exposed to UK political risk, the value of his perspective is concrete: he reads the parties, the policy machine, and the press as a single connected system, and he reports on it every day. Key speaking topics UK political risk and regulatory direction The state of the Labour and Conservative parties Elections, polling, and electoral realignment Brexit’s continuing economic and policy aftermath Public policy formation in Whitehall Investigative journalism and algorithmic accountability The UK media landscape and political narrative Ideal for Boards and executive teams in regulated sectors needing a current read on UK political risk. Public affairs, policy, and corporate affairs leaders briefing C-suites on electoral and regulatory direction. Financial services, energy, and infrastructure firms with material exposure to UK government policy. Annual conferences in politics, economics, and current affairs that need a serious working journalist on stage. Audience outcomes A working read on the current state of UK politics from someone inside the daily news cycle. A clearer view of how regulation and policy are forming inside Whitehall, not just announced. Pattern recognition on elections, party direction, and the signals worth tracking. A more critical read of the media stories shaping public and political opinion. Better questions to take back to internal political risk and public affairs functions.

Why organisations work with Rachel Johnson A Fleet Street interviewer’s instincts brought to the chair: she can press a guest, draw out a quiet panellist, and reset a stalling session in real time. Three decades inside British political and media life, from FT economics desk to LBC Sunday nights, gives her the reference points to host conversations that range across business, politics and culture without losing thread. The Difficult Women body of work, on LBC and in print, is a credible platform for events that want a substantive conversation about women, power and public voice rather than a conference-circuit keynote. Comfort with the broadcast register, sharpened by Question Time, Have I Got News For You and Sky News’ The Pledge, translates directly to large-stage audiences who expect a host to be quick on their feet. Biography highlights First female graduate trainee at the Financial Times, 1989, with a year on secondment to Foreign Office Policy Planning. Ninth editor of The Lady magazine, 2009 to 2012, founded 1885. Sunday-night presenter on LBC and host of the LBC original podcast Rachel Johnson’s Difficult Women. Columnist for the Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph, Evening Standard, Mail on Sunday, The Oldie and The Big Issue. Regular panellist on Question Time, Have I Got News For You and Sky News’ The Pledge. Author of nine books, including the Notting Hell trilogy, A Diary of The Lady, and Rake’s Progress: My Political Midlife Crisis. Biography Most conference panels sag because the chair is a placeholder. The work of holding a room, pressing a guest without breaking rapport, and finding a usable line in the last two minutes is closer to broadcast journalism than to public speaking, and it shows the moment a session is in trouble. That craft is what Rachel Johnson brings to a stage. Her training is Fleet Street: first female graduate trainee at the Financial Times in 1989, three years at BBC Radio Four, then years as a Washington columnist before returning to edit The Lady, the oldest women’s weekly in the world. The instincts that come from that route, the ability to find the question that matters and ask it without flinching, are what hosts and chairs are paid for. Her current platforms keep those instincts live. She presents Sunday nights on LBC, hosts the LBC original podcast Rachel Johnson’s Difficult Women on women who have had to be a pain in the backside to get where they are, and writes regular columns for the Mail on Sunday, The Oldie and The Big Issue. Question Time, Have I Got News For You and Sky News’ The Pledge are routine appearances rather than career events. She is also an author of nine books, including the Notting Hell trilogy, A Diary of The Lady and the political memoir Rake’s Progress, and a board member of Bright Blue and Intelligence Squared. For organisations, the practical value is narrower and clearer than that career suggests: a senior, very experienced host who can run a serious conversation without it becoming dull, defensive, or off-message. Key speaking topics Panel chairing and event hosting Interview and on-stage conversation Women, power and public voice Media, journalism and the British political scene After-dinner and awards-night hosting Current affairs commentary Ideal for Conference organisers needing a senior chair for panels with high-profile or media-trained guests Editorial dinners, awards evenings and member events that need a confident host with a journalistic register Internal leadership events on women, power and public voice Off-the-record fireside conversations with senior business or political figures Audience outcomes A panel that actually moves, with guests pressed on the questions the audience came to hear answered Conversations on women and public voice grounded in named contemporary examples rather than abstract framing A host who can switch register from board-room formal to after-dinner warm without losing the room Coverage of current affairs and political context that buyers can use as scene-setting for their own programme

Why organisations work with Beth Rigby Direct access to a current Westminster lens. As the sitting Political Editor of Sky News, she reads the UK political environment from inside the lobby, not from archive material. Named recognition from a credible body. Royal Television Society Political Journalist of the Year 2024 and inaugural Women in Journalism Woman of the Year 2024, both for her general election coverage. A track record of interviewing under pressure. She has questioned successive Prime Ministers on the record, including the exchange with Boris Johnson on Downing Street parties that the RTS shortlisted for Network Interview of the Year. On-stage interviewer and moderator craft. She hosts Beth Rigby Interviews and the Electoral Dysfunction podcast with Harriet Harman and Ruth Davidson, formats built on drawing out senior figures from across the political spectrum. Non-partisan reading of UK politics for commercial audiences. Useful in board meetings, leadership offsites and client events where the audience needs analysis, not opinion. Biography highlights Political Editor, Sky News, since April 2019. First woman in the role. Royal Television Society Political Journalist of the Year, 2024. Inaugural Woman of the Year, Women in Journalism Awards, 2024. Co-host, Electoral Dysfunction (Sky News), with Harriet Harman and Ruth Davidson. Presenter, Beth Rigby Interviews (Sky News), since March 2022. Former Deputy Political Editor of the Financial Times; former Media Editor of The Times. Biography Westminster has rarely been more consequential for commercial decision-making, and rarely harder to read. Two elections in five years, a referendum, three Prime Ministers in 2022 alone, and a sustained period in which policy direction and political stability have moved week by week. Beth Rigby has covered all of it from inside the lobby as Political Editor of Sky News, the first woman to hold the role. Her route into the job is unusually commercial for a Westminster journalist. She spent seventeen years at the Financial Times, covering hedge funds, retail and consumer industries before moving to political coverage as chief political correspondent and then deputy political editor. That grounding in business and markets reporting is why corporate audiences find her analysis useful. She reads UK politics through the same lens a board does. In 2024 the Royal Television Society named her Political Journalist of the Year, citing her general election coverage and her interviewing of party leaders. The same year she won the inaugural Women in Journalism Woman of the Year award. She also hosted Sky’s televised town hall events with Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak during the 2024 campaign, a format that depends on holding senior politicians to specific answers in real time. Alongside her on-air role she co-hosts the Sky News podcast Electoral Dysfunction with the former Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman and the former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson, a cross-party format aimed at explaining the mechanics of Westminster decisions rather than scoring them. That same dynamic is what makes her effective as an on-stage interviewer for senior audiences: she pushes for the substance, not the soundbite. Key speaking topics UK politics and Westminster General elections and government formation Political risk and policy environment Geopolitics and UK foreign policy Media, broadcast journalism and political communication On-stage interviews with senior leaders and politicians Conference and event moderation Ideal for Board offsites, leadership conferences and partner events where senior audiences need a current read on UK political risk. Client events that require an experienced interviewer for a politician, regulator or business leader. Industry conferences seeking a non-partisan moderator for political and policy panels. After-dinner or fireside-format events where the value is informed analysis of the current Westminster cycle. Audience outcomes A clearer picture of the current Westminster dynamic and its implications for the next twelve to twenty-four months. A non-partisan read of UK policy direction across the main parties. Specific insight into the people, factions and decisions that shape government output. For interview and moderation briefs, a session that draws genuine substance from the guest rather than a rehearsed line.

Why organisations work with Luke Jones He brings the live-broadcast discipline of BBC Radio 4’s PM, The World at One, and The World Tonight to corporate stages, where the brief is to keep a panel of senior leaders specific and on the clock. He is a working political and current-affairs interviewer. He has put questions to Foreign Secretaries, Shadow Cabinet ministers, and Health Ministers on air, and that experience translates directly to chairing fireside conversations with senior executives. As host of The Times’ daily podcast The Story, he reads a story, finds the line that matters, and lands it with an audience. That is the same job a conference chair does for a leadership offsite. He writes The Pitcairn Trials, an investigative podcast nominated for Best Host at the British Podcast Awards. Long-form investigative work is what makes a moderator credible when the on-stage subject becomes uncomfortable. Biography highlights Host of The Story, The Times’ daily news podcast. BBC Radio 4 presenter: PM, The World at One, The World Tonight, Saturday Live, Profile, Front Row, Broadcasting House, Any Questions. BBC World Service presenter: OS, Newsday, Weekend, The Newsroom. Former Times Radio Breakfast presenter (Fridays and weekends, two years). Writer and host of The Pitcairn Trials (2025), nominated for Best Host at the British Podcast Awards; The Times five stars. 2017 ARIAS nomination for Best New Presenter; theatre critic for the Daily Mail; contributor to The Times and Sunday Times. Biography A live two-way on Radio 4’s PM gives a presenter about 90 seconds to set up the issue, ask the sharp question, and get the answer the audience needs before the next item. That is the discipline Luke Jones works in every week, across PM, The World at One, The World Tonight, and Times Radio Breakfast. It is also why organisations book him to chair their stages. He hosts The Story, The Times’ daily news podcast, and presents OS, Newsday, and Weekend on BBC World Service. He has interviewed Foreign Secretaries, Shadow Cabinet ministers, Health Ministers, and the scientists who shaped the UK’s COVID response. The interviewing register he uses on air, polite, persistent, briefed, is what conference organisers want when a CEO sits down for a fireside or a panel needs a chair who will press past the prepared answer. His recent investigative work, The Pitcairn Trials, was rated five stars by The Times and earned a Best Host nomination at the British Podcast Awards. The series is the work of a journalist who can hold a long, difficult story together. That long-form muscle is what separates a competent moderator from one a board will trust with a sensitive on-stage conversation. He is the kind of presenter senior audiences listen to without being told to. The 2017 ARIAS Best New Presenter nomination came early in his career; the body of work since, daily news, podcasting, theatre criticism in the Daily Mail, has been built on the Radio 4 standard. Key speaking topics Conference chairing and on-stage moderation Fireside interviews with senior executives Panel chairing on politics and current affairs UK and US politics Economics and current affairs Investigative journalism and storytelling Media, broadcasting, and the news cycle Ideal for CEO conferences, leadership offsites, and town halls needing an experienced on-stage interviewer CHRO and communications leadership events on internal storytelling and message discipline Industry conferences requiring a panel chair who can press senior figures on policy, economics, or geopolitics After-dinner interview formats where the brief is a credible name and a steady hand Audience outcomes A panel that stays on the question, with senior speakers pressed past their prepared lines A fireside conversation that gets to the substantive answer rather than the corporate one An on-stage interview shaped to the audience in the room, not the speaker’s preferred script A conference programme that holds together because the chair has read the brief and the room

Why organisations work with Tim Kröger Two Whitbread Round the World podiums (1993/94 second, 1997/98 third) and a Mumm 36 World Championship give him direct, named experience of multi-week competitive performance, not generic adventure narrative. Author of Ich bin wir, das Crew-Konzept (Delius Klasing, 2013), a published thesis on how international crews are built and held together, which he uses as the spine of his corporate sessions. Two America’s Cup challenger campaigns (Le Defi Areva and Shosholoza) give him operating experience inside multinational, multilingual professional teams under heavy sponsor and media scrutiny. Holds a working coaching role with the German Sailing Association on the Olympic Mixed Offshore discipline, so the material is current, not retired-athlete reminiscence. Awarded the Silbernes Lorbeerblatt in 1983 alongside the German Admiral’s Cup team, anchoring credibility at national level rather than only within sailing circles. Biography highlights Whitbread Round the World Race: second place 1993/94 aboard Intrum Justitia, third place 1997/98 aboard Swedish Match. Admiral’s Cup winner with the German team, 1983; recipient of the Silbernes Lorbeerblatt the same year. Mumm 36 World Champion, 1995, aboard Corum. America’s Cup challenger campaigns with Le Defi Areva (France) and Shosholoza (South Africa). Author of Ich bin wir, das Crew-Konzept (Delius Klasing, 2013) and Abgerechnet wird im Ziel (2001). Trainer for the Mixed Offshore Olympic discipline with the German Sailing Association; Race Crew Manager in J Class yacht programmes. Biography The Whitbread Round the World Race runs nine months. A crew sails roughly 32,000 nautical miles, much of it in the Southern Ocean. Tim Kröger has finished it twice on the podium: second on Intrum Justitia in 1993/94 under Lawrie Smith, third on Swedish Match in 1997/98 as watch captain. That is the operating environment his corporate work draws from. In 1993 he became the first German to make professional offshore sailing his primary career. The decade after produced a Mumm 36 world title aboard Corum in 1995 and two America’s Cup challenger campaigns: the French Le Defi Areva syndicate from 2001 to 2003, and the South African Shosholoza programme from 2005 to 2007. Both involved running the operational seam between sailors, shore crew, designers and sponsors. His book Ich bin wir, das Crew-Konzept, published by Delius Klasing in 2013, sets out how a crew is actually built and held together: who decides, how watches hand over, how mistakes are handled while the boat is still moving. The argument carries because the crews he describes are named ones he sailed in, not composite illustrations. He continues to work as a trainer for the German Sailing Association in the Mixed Offshore Olympic discipline and as Race Crew Manager in J Class yacht programmes. The Admiral’s Cup win in 1983 brought him the Silbernes Lorbeerblatt, Germany’s highest sporting honour, awarded by the Federal President. Key speaking topics High-performance team dynamics Leadership under sustained pressure Decision-making in offshore racing Communication across multinational crews Accountability inside small expert teams Resilience and recovery on long campaigns Building and managing elite crews Ideal for Executive teams and ExCos preparing for sustained operational pressure (transformations, integrations, restructures) Leadership offsites where the brief is team behaviour, not strategy content Sales and operations conferences seeking a credible narrative anchor with serious substance behind it After-dinner and incentive audiences in DACH and international corporate settings Audience outcomes A working vocabulary for how elite crews hold decision quality when conditions deteriorate Specific techniques for handover, watch discipline and post-error recovery, drawn from named campaigns A clearer view of what accountability looks like in practice inside small expert teams A reframed sense of what sustained pressure does to communication, and what disciplined crews do about it

Why organisations work with Andy Goode A name and voice that audiences already know from broadcast rugby coverage, which shortens the trust-building gap between the speaker and the room on the night. Premiership Rugby Hall of Fame status and a five-title Leicester Tigers career give the credibility a rugby audience tests for in the first two minutes of any after-dinner slot. Co-hosts The Rugby Pod with Jim Hamilton and Dan Biggar, so he brings live, current insight into the modern professional game, not nostalgia from a finished career. Comfortable across formats: keynote, after-dinner, awards host, panel moderator, Q&A with current players, which suits sponsors and hospitality programmes that need one person across a full event. When the brief calls for it, he speaks substantively on team performance, recovery from setback and reinvention after sport, drawing on a career that included two retirements, multiple club moves and a post-playing media reinvention. Biography highlights Five English Premiership titles with Leicester Tigers (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2007). Two Heineken Cup winners’ medals (2001, 2002). 17 England caps between 2005 and 2009, debut against Italy in the Six Nations. 423 senior club appearances and 3,934 points across Leicester Tigers, Saracens, CA Brive, the Sharks, Worcester Warriors, Wasps and Newcastle Falcons. Second-highest points scorer in Premiership Rugby history and former record holder. Inducted into the Premiership Rugby Hall of Fame, June 2021. Co-host of The Rugby Pod with Jim Hamilton and Dan Biggar; rugby pundit and analyst for major UK broadcasters including BT Sport and TalkSport. Biography Few fly-halves have stood in front of a Premiership pack across as many seasons as Andy Goode. He arrived at Leicester Tigers from school in 1998 and was inside the squad through the club’s record run of four straight Premiership titles, then returned for a second spell that produced a fifth title in 2007 and made him the all-time leading points scorer in the league, a record he held until Charlie Hodgson overtook him. The career that followed is what gives the after-dinner material its range. Saracens, then Brive in the French Top 14, a short spell with the Sharks in Super Rugby, then Worcester Warriors, Wasps and Newcastle Falcons. Across 423 senior games he scored 3,934 points and earned 17 England caps between 2005 and 2009. He was inducted into the Premiership Rugby Hall of Fame in 2021. The second career has been built on the same instincts that ran a back line for nearly two decades. Goode reads the game on air the way he ran it on the pitch, which is why The Rugby Pod, co-hosted with Jim Hamilton and Dan Biggar, has become the most-listened-to rugby podcast in the world. He works as a pundit and analyst across major UK broadcasters and is a familiar voice to anyone following the modern professional game. For corporate audiences he is most often booked as a host, after-dinner speaker or awards MC for events where rugby is the hospitality currency. The substance, when the brief asks for it, is the same substance the playing career rested on: a team’s habits under pressure, the discipline of recovery from setback, and what an elite career looks like when the playing chapter ends. Key speaking topics Professional rugby and the modern game Team performance under pressure Career reinvention after elite sport After-dinner speaking and event hosting Awards and ceremony hosting Panel moderation and player Q&A Ideal for Corporate hospitality programmes built around rugby (Six Nations, Premiership Rugby, Rugby World Cup) Sponsor activations and client dinners during the rugby calendar Industry award ceremonies and gala dinners requiring a recognisable sports host Sports clubs, rugby unions and member organisations running fundraising events Audience outcomes A room that warms up quickly because the host already has the audience’s recognition A credible voice on the current state of the professional game, not generic sports anecdotes A storyteller who can hold the centre of a long-format dinner without slipping into stand-up For motivational briefs: a first-person account of resilience, repeated reinvention and elite-sport team culture

Why organisations work with Alex Payne A working operator’s read on the brand-influencer market through The Room, the marketplace business he co-founded in 2017, rather than commentary from outside the category. Ten-plus years presenting live for Sky Sports built the practical communication discipline he teaches to senior leaders: clarity under time pressure, listening on camera, holding a room. A safe pair of hands for high-stakes hosting at scale, with named credits including HSBC, Heineken, the World Rugby Awards and the NSPCC. One of British rugby’s most recognisable broadcast voices, useful for organisations whose audiences sit in or adjacent to that world. Biography highlights Led Sky Sports’ rugby union coverage for more than ten years and hosted the channel’s Rugby Club studio show. Presenter across Sky Sports News and Sky News, with additional credits in tennis and poker coverage. Co-founder of The Room, a marketplace tech business connecting brands and influencers, launched in 2017. Co-host of The Good, The Bad and The Rugby with James Haskell and Mike Tindall, a UK number-one Apple podcast with a 2024 book and live tour. Hosting credits for HSBC, Heineken, Help for Heroes, NSPCC, the World Rugby Awards and the RPA Awards. Biography The brand-influencer market still clears through relationships and gut feel more than through any agreed operating model. That is the gap Alex Payne walked into when he co-founded The Room in 2017, a marketplace tech business built to connect brands and influencers on terms both sides could measure. Before that, and still alongside it, he spent more than a decade as the lead presenter of Sky Sports’ rugby union coverage. He fronted the channel’s Rugby Club studio show and presented across Sky Sports News and Sky News, including tennis and poker assignments. The studio years gave him a working communication discipline that he now teaches to senior leaders. He co-hosts The Good, The Bad and The Rugby with James Haskell and Mike Tindall. The show debuted at number one on Apple Podcasts in the UK and has expanded into live arena tours and a 2024 book. His event-hosting roster includes HSBC, Heineken, Help for Heroes, NSPCC, the World Rugby Awards and the RPA Awards. Payne is most useful to organisations as a host who knows how influence works on the inside. He has built a business in the category, sat behind a camera through ten years of live broadcast, and run rooms for some of the largest sponsoring brands in British sport. Key speaking topics Brand and influencer marketplaces Communication under pressure Media training for senior leaders Sport, sponsorship and audience Live event hosting and moderation Ideal for Marketing and brand leaders rethinking influencer spend Sponsorship and partnership teams in sport, lifestyle and consumer brands Senior leaders preparing for media-facing moments Awards ceremonies, conferences and client events needing a credible host Audience outcomes A clearer view of how the brand-influencer market actually clears, from someone running a marketplace inside it. Practical adjustments to how senior leaders show up on camera and on stage. A working sense of what makes communication land in high-pressure live settings. For hosted events, a steady tempo and named credibility with sport-adjacent audiences.

Why organisations work with Annabel Croft A working broadcaster across BBC Wimbledon, Sky Sports, Eurosport, Amazon Prime and ITV, which means she runs an awards stage or a panel with the timing and composure of someone who does it on live television every season. Her resilience material is grounded in a specific event: walking away from professional tennis at 21 after burnout, then rebuilding a thirty-year media career. That gives the keynote a verifiable spine that few sports speakers can match. Senior buyers get an event host who is also a credible keynote option on peak performance and reinvention, which collapses two suppliers into one for sports nights, gala dinners and conference plenaries. Profile recognition with UK corporate audiences is high after BBC Strictly Come Dancing 2023, which lifts ticket pull for client-facing events without requiring a celebrity-only booking. Biography highlights Former British No. 1 women’s tennis player; youngest Briton to play at Wimbledon for nearly 100 years. Junior Wimbledon and Australian Open champion (1984); WTA Virginia Slims of San Diego title (1985). Represented Great Britain in the Fed Cup and Wightman Cup. Tennis presenter and pundit for BBC, Sky Sports, Eurosport, Amazon Prime and Discovery; on-court interviewer at the 2024 Wimbledon Finals. Presented Channel 4’s Treasure Hunt and ITV’s The Interceptor. Fourth-place finalist, BBC Strictly Come Dancing 2023. Biography A working life in elite sport often ends earlier than the athlete planned. Croft retired from the professional tour at 21, after a decade as one of Britain’s most-watched young players, including becoming the youngest Briton to play at Wimbledon for nearly a century. The interesting part of her biography starts after that. She built a broadcasting career that has now run for more than three decades. She has presented and commentated on tennis for the BBC at Wimbledon, Sky Sports, Eurosport, Amazon Prime and Discovery, and conducted on-court interviews at the 2024 Wimbledon Ladies’ and Men’s Finals. Her early television work spanned mainstream entertainment, including fourteen episodes of Channel 4’s Treasure Hunt and ITV’s action series The Interceptor. For corporate audiences her value is twofold. As a host and moderator, she carries the calibration of someone who chairs live broadcast moments under pressure every season. As a speaker, she draws on the specific content of leaving a defining career at 21 and constructing a second one in public: what reinvention costs, how peak performance habits transfer, and how to manage the end of a role you did not choose to leave. Her recent fourth-place finish on BBC Strictly Come Dancing in 2023 broadened her reach to general UK corporate audiences and added a current point of recognition for client-facing dinners and awards. Key speaking topics Resilience and reinvention after an early career end Peak performance habits transferred from elite sport to working life Career change and identity beyond a defining role Sports broadcasting and media Event hosting and awards moderation Panel chairing and on-stage interviewing Ideal for Corporate awards dinners, gala evenings and sports nights seeking a host with broadcast credibility Conference plenaries needing a panel chair or on-stage interviewer at executive level Sales kick-offs and partner events looking for a peak-performance and resilience keynote Client hospitality at major sporting fixtures, particularly tennis Audience outcomes A first-hand account of how an elite athlete rebuilds a working life after the defining role ends Practical points on the daily habits that translate from professional sport into commercial roles A clear view of how broadcasters prepare and recover under live pressure A polished, current host presence that sets the tone of the room from the opening minute

Why organisations work with Sue Barker A rare first-hand account of two distinct elite careers, professional tennis and three decades of live BBC broadcasting, with the practical detail of how each transition was managed. Sustained composure on live television. Hosting Wimbledon, Sports Personality of the Year and A Question of Sport for decades is a working example of executing under scrutiny that few corporate audiences will encounter directly. Credibility with senior, mixed-gender audiences. Recognised by the Royal Television Society and the Crown across three honours, which lands with boards and partner-track audiences in a way generic motivational speakers do not. Strong fit as an awards host, panel chair and after-dinner speaker for corporate events that need a recognisable public figure with broadcast-grade interviewing craft. Biography highlights French Open singles champion, 1976; world No. 3, 1977; eleven WTA singles titles. Host of BBC Wimbledon coverage, 1994 to 2022. Host of A Question of Sport, 1997 to 2021. Host of BBC Sports Personality of the Year, 1994 to 2012. First woman to win the Royal Television Society best sports presenter award, 2001. MBE (2000), OBE (2016), CBE (2021); Sunday Times bestselling author of Calling The Shots and Wimbledon: A Personal Story. Biography The 1976 French Open final was won by a 20-year-old from Devon who had been picked out for coaching at age ten by Arthur Roberts, the coach behind Angela Mortimer’s three Grand Slam titles. That win, eleven WTA singles titles and a world ranking of No. 3 made the first career. The second was longer and arguably harder. After retiring from professional tennis in 1984, Barker moved into broadcasting through Australia’s Channel 7 and Sky, then joined the BBC in 1993. From 1994 she anchored Wimbledon for the corporation, a role she held for almost three decades, alongside A Question of Sport from 1997 and Sports Personality of the Year from 1994. Three Royal honours followed: MBE, OBE and CBE. For corporate audiences, the substance is the craft underneath the visibility. Holding a live two-week tournament on air, running a long-running studio format, and interviewing elite performers in defeat as well as victory are working demonstrations of composure, preparation and reinvention. Her two Sunday Times bestsellers, Calling The Shots and Wimbledon: A Personal Story, document the same material in print. She is most often booked as an awards host, panel chair or after-dinner speaker, where the value sits in broadcast-grade interviewing and the standing she brings to the room. The keynote content on resilience and performing under pressure is drawn directly from those two careers, not assembled from theory. Key speaking topics Resilience and reinvention across a long career Performing under pressure on live broadcast Women in sport and sports media Teamwork in elite competition Awards hosting and panel chairing Interviewing elite performers Ideal for Corporate awards ceremonies and gala dinners needing a recognised public figure to host Leadership offsites where resilience and career reinvention are the brief Conferences requiring a panel chair or interviewer with broadcast-grade craft Client and partner events where brand recognition and audience appeal matter Audience outcomes A first-hand account of how composure is built and held across decades of public performance Specific examples of managing a career transition from elite sport into a second profession A practitioner’s view of women’s progress in sport and sports broadcasting since the 1970s An interviewer’s perspective on what elite performers say about pressure and recovery