Storytelling & Business Communication

Why organisations work with James Lewer Live broadcast credentials that translate directly to the stage. Reporting for BBC News and Sky Sports News, plus presenting on MUTV, means he is used to going live, unscripted, in front of national audiences without notes or a safety net. A correspondent’s instinct for the room. TRT World assignments covering international conflict reporting build the composure required to handle sensitive subject matter, awards-night reversals or a senior keynote that drifts off brief. Range across business and sport. Sports reporting for Sky Sports and MUTV, alongside political and current affairs work for the BBC, lets him pivot between a corporate audience, a sports awards crowd and a charity dinner without changing register. A documented client record in event hosting, including the Charnwood Sports Awards, with on-record praise from the commissioning council for connecting with both audience and nominees. An experienced interviewer who can draw substance from senior guests, useful when an event format leans on fireside chats, panel facilitation or on-stage conversation rather than scripted keynotes. Biography highlights Reporter and presenter currently working for BBC News, Sky Sports News, TRT World and Manchester United’s MUTV channel. Correspondent for TRT World, covering international conflicts from the broadcaster’s London bureau. Anchored the Times Radio Early Breakfast Show on multiple occasions. Regular contributor to BBC News channel’s newspaper reviews. Broadcast credits across BBC News, Sky Sports News, Sky News, ITV News, talkSPORT, Times Radio and LBC. Host of the 15th Charnwood Sports Awards at Burleigh Court, Loughborough, December 2025. Biography The job of the person at the microphone is not to be the smartest voice in the building. It is to make every other voice in the building work. A national broadcaster who has gone live for the BBC, Sky Sports News and TRT World has done this professionally for years, often in conditions where there is no second take. James Lewer has reported for the BBC across the UK on politics, health and human interest stories, and worked as a TRT World correspondent covering international conflicts from the channel’s London bureau. The same skill set, going live, holding composure, reading an audience in real time, is what corporate event organisers and awards committees are buying when they hire him. His sports broadcasting work for Sky Sports News and Manchester United’s MUTV channel adds a second register. He moves comfortably between a serious news brief and the energy of a sports awards crowd, which is why his hosting record spans both formats. Charnwood Borough Council’s commissioning of him as compere for the 15th Charnwood Sports Awards in December 2025 is one publicly documented example. Lewer has anchored Times Radio’s Early Breakfast Show and contributed to BBC News channel newspaper reviews. The throughline across those formats is interview craft, drawing substance out of guests under time pressure. For event organisers planning fireside chats, panel facilitation or on-stage interviews with senior speakers, that craft is the product. Key speaking topics Event hosting and compere Awards ceremony presenting Conference moderation On-stage interview and fireside chat facilitation Panel facilitation Sports broadcasting and commentary Current affairs and live news context Ideal for Corporate awards evenings and industry recognition ceremonies Annual conferences requiring a confident on-stage host across multiple sessions Sports industry dinners, governing body events and club commercial functions Charity fundraisers and gala dinners Audience outcomes An event that runs to time, with transitions handled cleanly between speakers. Senior guests interviewed on stage in a way that draws out content the audience came to hear. Sensitive moments, technical issues or running-order changes absorbed without visible friction. A room that feels held by the person at the front, freeing executives and sponsors to focus on their own content.

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

Why organisations work with Dan Clark He is one of fewer than 250 speakers ever inducted into the National Speakers Association Speakers Hall of Fame, a peer-voted recognition that signals craft at the level of Zig Ziglar, Colin Powell, and Earl Nightingale. His Art of Significance framework gives leadership teams a language for the difference between hitting targets and building something people want to stay inside. It travels well in family business, sales, and military leadership settings. He was a primary contributing author to the first twelve volumes of Chicken Soup for the Soul, including the number two New York Times bestseller Chicken Soup for the College Soul. His stories are already in the bloodstream of audiences who did not know his name. He works at the top end of storytelling as a business discipline, teaching sales leaders and executives to construct narrative arcs that land without veering into motivational cliche. He has a long track record with U.S. military leadership audiences and with Fortune 500 sales organisations, which gives him a wider room to work than most motivational keynoters. Biography highlights Inducted into the National Speakers Association Speakers Hall of Fame, 2005. Earned the Certified Speaking Professional designation from the National Speakers Association in 1987. Primary contributing author to the first twelve volumes of Chicken Soup for the Soul; author of Chicken Soup for the College Soul, a number two New York Times bestseller. Author of The Art of Significance: Achieving the Level Beyond Success, and further titles including Influential Impact, Making of a Champion, and Transference of Trust. His short story Puppies for Sale was adapted into a 1998 Paramount short film starring Jack Lemmon, directed by Ron Krauss, with a score by Elmer Bernstein. International Board of Governors member, Operation Smile; National Advisory Board member, Operation Kids. Biography Most leadership keynotes run on frameworks. Clark runs on stories, and that choice is the argument. The Art of Significance separates successful people, who get what they think they want, from significant people, who want what they get. Clark treats that distinction as the working problem of senior leadership, not as motivational dressing. The credential stack sits behind the craft. He was inducted into the National Speakers Association Speakers Hall of Fame in 2005, a peer-voted designation held by fewer than 250 speakers in the association’s history. He earned the Certified Speaking Professional mark in 1987. Before that, he was a scholarship athlete at the University of Utah whose football career ended with a spinal injury in a tackling drill, which is where the speaking work began. Clark’s reach into general audiences predates the keynote career by a decade. He was a primary contributing author to the first twelve volumes of Chicken Soup for the Soul, and author of Chicken Soup for the College Soul, which reached number two on the New York Times bestseller list. His short story Puppies for Sale was produced as a 1998 Paramount short film starring Jack Lemmon. The stories travel on their own, which is why the keynote lands inside corporate, military, and family business audiences that would otherwise resist the form. The work for serious organisations is not the motivation. It is the transfer. Clark teaches sales and leadership teams to build narrative arcs their own people can retell without losing the point. For organisations trying to tie culture, performance, and purpose together in front of a leadership audience, that is a specific craft, and there are very few speakers at this level still actively working the room. Key speaking topics The Art of Significance and leadership character Storytelling as a sales and leadership discipline Resilience after setback Team building and high performance culture Executive communication and platform skills Purpose-driven leadership Ideal for CEO and senior leadership offsites where the goal is shared conviction, not a content download Sales leadership kickoffs and top-performer incentive events Family business and family office leadership gatherings Military, public sector, and values-led organisations looking for a Hall of Fame keynote headliner Audience outcomes A working distinction between success and significance that leadership teams can apply to their own decisions. A repeatable approach to building and telling a business story so that it lands with a customer, a team, or a board. A renewed sense of standard inside senior teams that have drifted into transactional mode. Specific, retellable stories that give a leadership event a centre of gravity long after the session ends.

Why organisations work with Carl Leighton-Pope He has sustained a boutique agency relationship with artists like Bryan Adams, Michael Bublé and Billy Ocean across decades of contractual and technological upheaval, which is rare evidence of how to keep large clients inside a small business. The catalogue of names is its own form of credibility: the Marquee Club in 1964, Dire Straits and Simple Minds at NEMS, The Chippendales as a touring product, WWE and Harlem Globetrotters in Europe. Few speakers can draw on a working roster of this length. He is, in commercial terms, an entrepreneur who diversified beyond his core: from agency work into management, into theatre production with Carnaby Street The Musical and LOVE, and into international touring across genres outside music. The delivery is built for audiences who want a senior business story told with humour and specific characters, not a framework deck. Useful for after-dinner, leadership offsites, and entrepreneurial events where the room wants substance carried by narrative. Biography highlights Founder and Managing Director, Leighton-Pope Organisation, London (incorporated 1991, Companies House 02634876). Career began in 1964 at the Marquee Club in Soho, working in an environment that included Rod Stewart, The Who and Eric Clapton. Former agent at NEMS, where he signed Dire Straits, Simple Minds, Patti Smith, The Motors, UFO and Camel. Signed Bryan Adams as an agency client in 1984 and has subsequently represented Michael Bublé, Billy Ocean, Van Morrison, Bonnie Tyler, Chris Rea, Keith Urban and Jeff Healey. Producer and international tour operator for The Chippendales, and his agency has handled WWE and Harlem Globetrotters tours. Writer and producer of Carnaby Street The Musical and the West End play LOVE (2023). Biography The music business has been rebuilt three times in a single working lifetime. Vinyl gave way to CDs, CDs to downloads, downloads to streaming, and the contractual and revenue logic underneath each change tore through agency businesses that could not adapt. The Leighton-Pope Organisation, founded in London in 1991, has carried the same artists across most of that turbulence. That continuity is the credential. Bryan Adams, signed in 1984 while Carl was still building his agency career, remains a client. Michael Bublé and Billy Ocean sit on the current roster alongside historical clients like Van Morrison, Bonnie Tyler, Chris Rea and Keith Urban. Earlier in his career, working at NEMS, he signed Dire Straits, Simple Minds, Patti Smith, The Motors, UFO and Camel. The names matter because they are the proof of an agency model that has held under load. The career began in 1964 at the Marquee Club in Soho. By 1972 he was running a recording studio in Cardiff and managing the band Sassafras on Chrysalis Records. The Leighton-Pope Organisation followed in 1991 and has since extended beyond music into international touring for The Chippendales, WWE and the Harlem Globetrotters, and into theatre production with Carnaby Street The Musical and the West End play LOVE in 2023. The speaking work draws directly on that operating history. The substance is entrepreneurship inside a creative industry, told through specific decisions, specific clients and specific deals over six decades. Audiences leave with named cases and the texture of how a small business keeps very large clients. Key speaking topics Entrepreneurship in the entertainment industry Talent identification and long-term client retention Building a boutique business with global clients Diversification beyond a core service line Music industry reinvention across format cycles Business storytelling for leadership audiences Ideal for Entrepreneurs and founder-led businesses scaling around a small senior team. CEO and board offsites where the brief is business reflection through narrative rather than framework. After-dinner and gala audiences at industry conferences and corporate events. Leadership programmes covering client relationship longevity and creative industry commercial models. Audience outcomes A working understanding of how a boutique agency retains top-tier clients across decades and format changes. Specific cases on signing, developing and managing globally commercial artists. A view on diversification decisions taken across music, live entertainment and theatre. Material on entrepreneurial judgement under industry-wide disruption, drawn from a six-decade career.

Why organisations work with Julian Fisher He brings a working practitioner’s account of how influence is actually built, from twenty years inside diplomatic, military and commercial intelligence operations, not a second-hand interpretation of the field. His nine HUMINT skills and six “Spy-Style” archetypes give leadership teams a shared vocabulary for the parts of executive work that usually go unnamed: reading rooms, recruiting allies, eliciting information without interrogating. He has done the corporate translation already, running security intelligence for HSBC and leading Aegis Defence Services’ Africa practice, so the material lands as commercial practice rather than war story. His book with Headline (Hachette UK) and his lead-trainer role on Channel 4’s Spies give him a public reference point that clients and audiences recognise before he walks into the room. Biography highlights Author, Think Like a Spy: Master the Art of Influence and Build Life-Changing Alliances, Headline (Hachette UK), 2024. Lead trainer, Channel 4 series Spies, 2017. Founder, Africa Integrity Services Ltd, a private intelligence boutique covering the African continent. Former Head of Africa, Aegis Defence Services. Former Head of Security Intelligence, HSBC. Former British Diplomatic Service, with operational postings in East and Southern Africa; PPE, Oxford University. Biography Influence is the part of senior leadership that rarely gets taught directly. Boards and executives are expected to win allies, read intentions and extract honest information from people whose interests do not align with theirs, without the structure of a formal hierarchy to fall back on. The intelligence world has spent decades studying exactly this problem, under conditions where getting it wrong has consequences. That is the body of practice Julian Fisher draws on. He served in a specialist branch of the British Diplomatic Service, with postings in East and Southern Africa, before running operations for Aegis Defence Services as its Head of Africa and leading security intelligence for HSBC. He later founded Africa Integrity Services, a boutique that builds human-source intelligence networks across the continent for corporate and government clients. His 2024 book with Headline, Think Like a Spy: Master the Art of Influence and Build Life-Changing Alliances, sets out the nine skills of Human Intelligence in a form designed for civilian use. The argument is that espionage at its core is relationship work: recruiting, persuading, eliciting, holding trust under strain. Fisher worked through the same material publicly as the lead trainer on Channel 4’s Spies in 2017, putting sixteen members of the public through the recruitment and assessment process. For corporate audiences he reframes that practice as a leadership discipline. Reading a room, identifying the right ally before a vote, asking the question that surfaces the real objection, holding composure in a negotiation where the other side has information you do not, these are the moments his frameworks address, and the moments that decide most senior outcomes. Key speaking topics Influence and persuasion in senior leadership Human intelligence (HUMINT) tradecraft for business Alliance-building and stakeholder negotiation Geopolitical and security risk for boards Elicitation, questioning and reading people Africa-focused political and commercial risk Resilience and decision-making under uncertainty Ideal for C-suite leadership teams and boards working on negotiation, influence and stakeholder strategy Sales, business development and partnerships leaders building long-cycle relationships Heads of security, risk and compliance briefing executive teams on geopolitical exposure Senior leadership programmes covering executive presence, persuasion and judgement under pressure Audience outcomes A practitioner’s vocabulary for the parts of leadership that usually go unsaid: recruitment, elicitation, alliance-building. The nine HUMINT skills as a working framework, not as theory, with examples drawn from real operations. The six “Spy-Style” archetypes as a tool for matching influence approach to counterpart. A sharper sense of how to ask questions, listen and hold composure when interests are not aligned. A first-hand read on how intelligence services think about risk, trust and information, applied to the boardroom.

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 Catherine Hunt She has sat in the editor’s chair at the BBC’s flagship evening news, deciding what leads, what gets cut, and how a story is framed for millions of viewers. Few communications advisors have made those calls in real time. Her training is editorial, not presentational. She works on what a leader is actually saying and in what order, before any work on delivery, which is where most media coaching starts. She has worked across local press, national newspapers, the Press Association, and BBC television, which means she knows how the same story moves and mutates across formats. She runs CHC Media as a working consultancy, so her advice draws on current client engagements rather than archived BBC experience. Biography highlights Editor of the BBC Six O’Clock News, the corporation’s main early-evening television bulletin. Edited live BBC coverage of major domestic and international news events. Reporter for the Press Association and the Daily Mail before joining the BBC. Began in regional journalism at the Evening Argus in Brighton. Founder of CHC Media, a communications consultancy advising private and public sector clients. Author of the psychological thriller “Someone Out There,” set in Brighton. Biography The work of editing a national news bulletin is the work of deciding what matters in the next thirty minutes. Catherine Hunt did that for the BBC Six O’Clock News, one of the UK’s most-watched television programmes, choosing which stories led, which were cut for time, and how complex events were translated for a general audience. That seat carries an editorial discipline that very few communications professionals have ever held. Hunt came to the BBC after a career in print. She started at the Evening Argus in Brighton, then reported for the Press Association and the Daily Mail before moving into broadcast as a producer. Across those roles, she learned how the same fact reads differently in a wire copy line, a tabloid lead, and a televised top story. That cross-format fluency now sits underneath her advisory work. Through her consultancy CHC Media, Hunt advises private and public sector clients on the same questions she handled in the gallery: what is the story, who is it for, and what is the cleanest way to land it. The practical content is editorial first, presentational second. Leaders work on the structure and ordering of what they want to say before anything is done about how they say it. Her work suits the senior client who has to communicate something difficult and knows that the words will be recorded, clipped, and replayed. She wrote a psychological thriller in 2015, “Someone Out There,” set in Brighton, which she covered as a young reporter, which sits alongside her advisory practice as evidence of a lifetime spent on how stories are built. Key speaking topics Media interviews and high-stakes communication Newsroom decision-making and editorial judgement Message structure and prioritisation for senior leaders Crisis communications and breaking-news coverage Storytelling for public and private sector audiences The journalist’s view of corporate communications Ideal for Executive teams preparing for media interviews, regulator hearings, or analyst calls Communications and public affairs leads building internal media-skills programmes Boards and senior leaders rehearsing crisis statements and town halls Conference organisers needing an experienced moderator or panel chair with a journalist’s instinct Audience outcomes A clearer view of how a national newsroom would treat their story, and what that means for what to say first A sharper sense of which message belongs at the top of a statement, and which sits below the line Practical instincts for handling difficult interviews, hostile questions, and breaking news pressure Confidence in editing their own communications down to what actually matters

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.