Storytelling & Business Communication

Why organisations work with Richard Coles He is one of the very few public figures in Britain who can speak about bereavement, faith and sexuality in front of a corporate audience without the room flinching. Audiences trust him because he has lived each subject in public. Twelve years co-presenting BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live gives him the interviewer’s craft: he can host an awards night, chair a panel of executives, or turn a CEO conversation into something a room actually wants to listen to. He is a Sunday Times number one bestselling novelist, the writer of The Madness of Grief, and the inspiration for the BBC comedy Rev. The cultural recognition gets him in the door; the substance is why he is asked back. His pop-to-pulpit story (member of The Communards, “Don’t Leave Me This Way” at number one in 1986, then ordination as an Anglican priest) is the most genuinely unusual second-career narrative on the speaking circuit, and he tells it without nostalgia. Biography highlights Co-presenter, BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live, 2011 to 2023 Church of England priest, ordained 2005; former vicar of Finedon, Northamptonshire Multi-instrumentalist in The Communards with Jimmy Somerville; UK number one with “Don’t Leave Me This Way” in 1986 Author of twelve books, including the Sunday Times bestseller The Madness of Grief (2021) and the Canon Clement crime series, optioned by ITV Regular panellist on Have I Got News For You, QI, and Would I Lie To You? Inspiration and consultant for the BBC comedy Rev Biography “Don’t Leave Me This Way” was the best-selling single in the UK in 1986. The man playing the keyboards on it is now a Church of England priest, a Sunday Times bestselling novelist and one of the most recognisable broadcasters on British radio. Few public lives have travelled this far between chapters, and fewer still have done so with the same lack of edit. Coles spent twelve years co-presenting BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live, the long-form Saturday morning programme heard by more than two million listeners. The role made him a national interviewer: a priest who could draw a stranger out, hold a difficult moment on air, and make space for the kind of conversation British broadcasting often avoids. The Communards, the priesthood, the radio, the books, the dachshunds, the dance floor on Strictly: each chapter brought a new audience without losing the previous one. The writing has become its own career. The Madness of Grief, published in 2021 after the death of his civil partner David, is a Sunday Times bestseller and one of the rare popular books on bereavement written from inside the experience rather than around it. The Canon Clement Mysteries, beginning with Murder Before Evensong in 2022, became a Sunday Times number one cosy crime series and an ITV drama starring Matthew Lewis. For corporate audiences, the value is the combination most public figures cannot offer: a hosting craft built over twelve years of live radio, lived experience of the subjects organisations now want to discuss honestly (grief, faith, identity, sexuality, mental health), and a sense of timing that comes from working a microphone for three decades. The result is a speaker who can carry a black-tie dinner, a leadership offsite or a memorial event with the same register. Key speaking topics Grief and bereavement in public life Faith, ethics and the modern workplace Identity, sexuality and being openly gay in public roles Reinvention and second careers The craft of conversation and interviewing Mental health and the inner life Public broadcasting and cultural commentary Ideal for Awards ceremonies, gala dinners and milestone events seeking a host who can carry the room Leadership and culture conferences addressing grief, mental health, identity or inclusion Internal employee events tied to wellbeing, faith networks or LGBTQ+ programming Membership organisations and professional bodies booking a literary, cultural keynote Audience outcomes A frank, unsentimental treatment of grief and bereavement that gives leaders language they can actually use at work A model of public conversation about faith and sexuality that does not retreat into either piety or politics A reframing of mid-career reinvention drawn from one of the most unusual second-career trajectories in British public life An event hosted or anchored with the timing, warmth and interviewing craft of a senior BBC broadcaster

Why organisations work with Michael Owen A first-hand account of operating at the top of a global sport from the age of 17, with the goalscoring record at Liverpool, Real Madrid, Newcastle, Manchester United and England to back it. One of only nine Englishmen to win the Ballon d’Or, and the most recent, which gives any audience an unusually direct line to what world-class performance actually requires day to day. A second career built deliberately rather than by accident: Manor House Stables in Cheshire, founded with Andrew Black in 2007, has become a working thoroughbred yard now training under Hugo Palmer. Active broadcast presence with TNT Sports and Amazon Prime Video Premier League coverage, which keeps the perspective current rather than retrospective. Author of Reboot: My Life, My Time (2019), a candid account of injuries, scrutiny and the transition out of professional sport that gives an after-dinner or Q and A session real substance. Biography highlights 2001 Ballon d’Or winner, the first English recipient since Kevin Keegan in 1979. 89 England caps, 40 international goals; sixth on England’s all-time scoring list at retirement. Named in Pele’s FIFA 100 list of the greatest living players in 2004. Career clubs: Liverpool, Real Madrid, Newcastle United, Manchester United, Stoke City. Author of Off the Record (2004) and Reboot: My Life, My Time (Reach Sport, 2019). Co-founder of Manor House Stables, Cheshire; pundit for TNT Sports and Amazon Prime Video. Biography Liverpool were 1-0 down to Arsenal in the 2001 FA Cup final when Michael Owen scored twice in the last eight minutes to win the trophy. That season he helped Liverpool to a treble of the FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup, and in December he was named European Footballer of the Year. He was 22, and the most recent English winner of the Ballon d’Or to this day. The career around that moment is the substance of his speaking. A debut at Liverpool at 17, a Premier League Golden Boot in his first full season, 89 England caps, 40 international goals, and spells at Real Madrid, Newcastle, Manchester United and Stoke. Pele included him in the FIFA 100 list of the greatest living players. The lived experience underneath those numbers, including injury, scrutiny and the discipline of staying selectable across four major tournaments for England, is what audiences buy when they book him. Life after football has been built deliberately. In 2007 he and the entrepreneur Andrew Black converted a cattle barn in Cheshire into Manor House Stables, now a Classic-winning operation with Hugo Palmer as resident trainer and a racing club that opens ownership to a broader audience. He works as a pundit for TNT Sports and Amazon Prime Video, with regular Premier League coverage. His 2019 autobiography Reboot: My Life, My Time is a frank account of what playing through pain, public criticism and the end of a top-level career actually felt like. For corporate audiences the value is direct testimony rather than a framework. Owen speaks to what it takes to perform under sustained pressure, how to keep going when the body and the press are against you, and how to construct a second act on purpose rather than by drift. That makes him a strong fit for after-dinner formats, leadership offsites with a sports lens, and brand-ambassador work where credibility and recognition matter as much as content. Key speaking topics Performance under pressure Lessons from elite sport for business leaders Resilience through injury and setback Transition from professional sport to entrepreneurship Building a second career: Manor House Stables and racing Football punditry and the modern Premier League Ideal for After-dinner audiences at corporate events, partner conferences and client hospitality Sales, leadership and high-performance offsites that want a credible sporting voice Brand and sponsorship activations where a recognisable name is part of the value Q and A and fireside formats with a host who can draw out career stories Audience outcomes A direct account of what world-class performance demands across a 17-year career Specific stories about Liverpool, Real Madrid, Manchester United and England rather than generalised lessons A candid view on injury, scrutiny and the pressure of being the youngest player in the room A working example of building a second career on purpose, through racing, broadcasting and writing

Why organisations work with Swarzy Macaly A working broadcaster with a current BBC Radio 1Xtra Weekend Breakfast slot, which gives her live editorial reflexes that most corporate moderators do not have. Track record on the largest UK live-TV moments, including the London New Year’s Day Parade in 2022 and 2024, and panel hosting at COP26 and the BBC Climate Creative Forum. A founder credential that supports the editorial content. Too Much Source, her annual exhibition for Black British creatives, has run since 2017 with the Barbican and Roundhouse. Substantive moderation history with Unilever, Ofcom, GroupM, ITV, Nike, TikTok and DAZN, so brand and regulator audiences are familiar territory. Recognition from named bodies: Best Presenter at the UK Entertainment Awards 2021 and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s 2020 Next Generation Trailblazers list. Biography highlights Presenter, BBC Radio 1Xtra Weekend Breakfast, Saturdays 7-10 am. Founder, Too Much Source, an annual exhibition celebrating Black British creatives, established in 2017. Trustee, My Life My Say, the youth-led democratic participation charity. Best Presenter, UK Entertainment Awards 2021. Named to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Next Generation Trailblazers list for Black History Month 2020. Panel host at COP26 and the BBC Climate Creative Forum; live-TV host of the London New Year’s Day Parade in 2022 and 2024. Biography Most corporate inclusion conversations fail on stage long before they fail in policy. The voice in the room is usually too polished, too cautious, or too far from the audience to land. Swarzy Macaly is one of the few broadcasters in the UK who can run that conversation in front of a live brand audience and keep it honest. Her main work is at the BBC. She presents the Weekend Breakfast Show on Radio 1Xtra and contributes across BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds, including the Daily Service and Sunday Worship strands. She came into broadcasting through a national presenter competition at KISS FM in 2016, then moved into the BBC and onto live television, hosting the London New Year’s Day Parade in 2022 and 2024. The editorial spine sits alongside that hosting career. She founded Too Much Source in 2017, an annual exhibition for Black British creatives that has run with the Barbican and Roundhouse. She is a trustee of My Life My Say, the youth-led democratic participation charity, where she has interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, Sadiq Khan and John Podesta on its Question Time series. Her panel work at COP26 and the BBC Climate Creative Forum extends the same instinct into climate. Brands and institutions book her for the same reason. Unilever, Ofcom, GroupM, ITV, Nike, TikTok and DAZN have used her as a moderator on internal and public events where the conversation could easily go wrong. The work earned her Best Presenter at the UK Entertainment Awards in 2021 and a place on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s 2020 Next Generation Trailblazers list. Key speaking topics Inclusion and representation in UK media Social mobility and access to the creative industries Womanhood and intersectional identity Climate communication for general audiences Faith, community and public life Panel moderation and conference hosting Ideal for Brand, marketing and ER leaders running employee, partner or consumer events where inclusion content has to be credible. Communications and policy teams at regulators and broadcasters convening external panels on representation, access or climate. Conference programmers and chairs need a host who can chair contested topics without flattening them. Foundations, charities and youth-focused organisations are running flagship public conversations with senior political guests. Audience outcomes A live conversation that holds editorial weight, with named guests, real disagreements, and no PR varnish. Sharper framing of inclusion and social mobility messaging that audiences under 40 actually believe. Confident chairing across sensitive subjects: race, faith, climate, gender, and generational difference. A high-craft moderator who can shift register between corporate, broadcast and youth audiences in the same event.

Why organisations work with Marianna Evenstein DW News anchor experience translates directly to live event control: she keeps senior speakers on the question, manages timing without visible effort, and reads a multilingual room in real time. Three working languages (English, German, Russian) let her host the same agenda for a Berlin board, a global trade fair, and a Russian-language guest in one programme without handoffs. Has hosted events for Adidas, Allianz, BASF, Bayer, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Telekom, Mercedes-Benz, Samsung, Volkswagen, and Philips, which is the relevant proof for a corporate communications lead deciding whether she can carry a tier-one stage. Advises on programme design and speaker preparation before the event, not just on-the-day delivery, which raises the quality of what panels actually produce. Doubles as a media coach for executives who will be on the same stage, useful when the brief includes both running the event and getting senior leaders camera-ready. Biography highlights News editor and television anchor at DW News, Germany’s international broadcaster, since 2008. Former radio host and reporter for DW’s Newslink. Moderator at Falling Walls 2025, the Berlin science and society summit. Hosts and moderates conferences, panels, galas, and trade fairs for clients including Adidas, Allianz, BASF, Bayer, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Telekom, Hugo Boss, Mercedes-Benz, Philips, Samsung, and Volkswagen. Media coach for executives preparing for interviews and on-camera appearances. Comparative Literature and Philosophy degree, New York University. Biography A live event with five named speakers, three languages, a hard finish time and a senior audience is not a panel discussion. It is a production. The person at the front of the room is responsible for whether the agenda translates into something the audience can use, or whether it dissolves into competing monologues. Marianna Evenstein has spent her career on that side of the camera. As a news editor and television anchor at DW News, Germany’s international broadcaster, she has worked the same discipline live for international audiences since 2008, after starting in radio at DW’s Newslink. The transferable skill is not charisma. It is timing, accurate listening, and the ability to redirect a conversation without losing the speaker’s dignity. That is the basis on which she is booked by Adidas, Allianz, BASF, Bayer, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Telekom, Mercedes-Benz, Philips, Samsung, Volkswagen and Austrian Airlines, among others, to host conferences, summits, trade fairs, and gala evenings. She works in English, German, and Russian, which removes the seam most international events have to design around. In 2025 she moderated Falling Walls in Berlin, a summit format that demands quick comprehension across science, policy, and business in a single afternoon. Her work also extends backwards into the agenda. She advises clients on programme design and speaker preparation, and runs media coaching for executives who will be on stage themselves. This is the part of the offer that distinguishes her from a presenter who arrives on the day with cue cards. Key speaking topics Conference and summit moderation Panel moderation across business, policy, and science Awards ceremony and gala hosting Trade fair and product launch presenting Multilingual event hosting (English, German, Russian) Media coaching for executive interviews Programme design and speaker preparation Ideal for Heads of communications and event directors planning international flagship events with multilingual audiences. Corporate teams whose agenda includes senior internal speakers who need on-camera coaching alongside event hosting. Foundations, NGOs, and policy institutes running cross-sector summits where panel discipline matters. Trade fair and awards organisers needing a presenter who can carry a televised-quality main stage. Audience outcomes A live agenda that finishes on time with the planned questions actually answered. Panels in which senior speakers are kept on point without visible correction. Smooth handover between English, German, and Russian segments without translation friction. Executive contributors who arrive better prepared because they were briefed and coached in advance.

Why organisations work with Marc Priestley He spent a decade inside McLaren Racing during a Drivers’ Championship-winning era, and can describe how a thirty-second pit-stop is engineered, rehearsed and recovered when something goes wrong. Few speakers have lived that operational tempo. His material is structured around the actual mechanics of high-performance teams: role clarity, debrief culture, marginal gains, and how senior figures handle blame after a public failure. Not motivational; operational. His broadcast work for BBC, Sky Sports F1 and ESPN, plus Discovery’s Wheeler Dealers, makes him a natural choice when the brief calls for a speaker who can also host, moderate or anchor a programme. His two books, The Mechanic and Pitlane Lessons, give a senior audience a written through-line they can recommend internally after the session. Biography highlights McLaren Racing F1 mechanic, 2000-2009, including Number One Mechanic and pit-stop crew duties. Part of the McLaren team during Lewis Hamilton’s 2008 Drivers’ Championship season. Author of The Mechanic: The Secret World of the F1 Pitlane (Yellow Jersey, 2017). Author of Pitlane Lessons: What F1 Can Teach You About Life and Work, foreword by Jake Humphrey. Co-host of Wheeler Dealers on Discovery alongside Mike Brewer. Broadcaster and pundit for BBC, Sky Sports F1 and ESPN; founder of the Pitlane Life Lessons Podcast. Biography A McLaren pit-stop in 2008 took just under three seconds. The crew had rehearsed it thousands of times, knew exactly what each pair of hands would do, and had a debrief structure for every error. Marc Priestley spent a decade inside that environment, working his way up to Number One Mechanic before leaving the team in 2009. What he carried out of the paddock was a precise model of how a high-performance operation actually runs. Role design, communication protocols, blameless debriefs, recovery discipline after a public mistake. His keynote work translates those mechanics for senior leaders who recognise the pattern in their own teams: the failure under pressure that nobody had stress-tested for. Two books anchor the material. The Mechanic, published by Yellow Jersey, is a behind-the-scenes account of life inside an F1 team. Pitlane Lessons, with a foreword by Jake Humphrey, applies the operating principles to leadership and work. Both give buyers a written reference point alongside the keynote. The broadcasting career runs parallel. Priestley is an analyst and pit-lane reporter for Sky Sports F1, has worked for the BBC and ESPN, hosts the Pitlane Life Lessons Podcast and co-presents Discovery’s Wheeler Dealers with Mike Brewer. That range is why corporate clients book him for keynotes, panel chairing and full-event hosting from the same brief. Key speaking topics High-performance teamwork under time pressure Communication in operationally complex environments Marginal gains and continuous improvement Debrief culture and recovery after failure Decision-making in time-critical settings Leadership lessons from elite motorsport Event hosting, moderation and panel chairing Ideal for Senior leadership teams looking to stress-test how their organisation behaves under operational pressure. COOs, transformation leads and operations directors responsible for complex, time-critical execution. Sales and engineering leadership groups using offsites to reset team standards and feedback culture. Conference organisers who need a speaker who can also host, moderate or anchor the programme. Audience outcomes A clearer picture of how elite teams design roles so individuals can act fast without waiting for permission. A practical reference for blameless debriefs and how senior people respond after a public error. Named examples from inside an F1 team that translate to corporate operational settings. A framework for thinking about marginal gains as a discipline, not a slogan.

Why organisations work with Savvas Trichas A working academic record in the field he speaks on: peer-reviewed publication in The Leadership Quarterly on how facial expression shapes leadership perception, co-authored with Birgit Schyns. Certified coder in the Facial Action Coding System (FACS), one of a small group qualified to read facial muscle activity to research standard, applied to executive communication. Guest lecturer for the FBI National Academy Associates Cyprus chapter on deception detection, giving leaders a credible voice on lie detection that does not rely on stage tricks. A practitioner’s grasp of negotiation drawn from Harvard and MIT-tradition material, paired with a researcher’s discipline on what the body signals during a deal. Material is built for boards and executive teams that already know what to say and want to know why they are not being heard. Biography highlights PhD in Human Resource Management and Marketing. Co-author, “The face of leadership: perceiving leaders from facial expression,” The Leadership Quarterly, 2012. Three-time TEDx speaker (Las Vegas, Lausanne, Athens). Certified coder, Facial Action Coding System (FACS). Manuscript reviewer, The Leadership Quarterly. Guest lecturer, FBI National Academy Associates Cyprus Police, on management, communication, and deception detection. Biography Most leadership training teaches what to say. Trichas works on the harder question of why audiences accept it. His peer-reviewed research with Birgit Schyns in The Leadership Quarterly examined how a leader’s facial expression shapes followers’ trust and judgements of effectiveness, a finding that sits underneath every senior communication moment, from a board update to a negotiation. That research base separates him from most communication speakers. He is a certified coder in the Facial Action Coding System, the anatomical method developed for the precise analysis of facial muscle movement, and he reviews manuscripts for The Leadership Quarterly. The science is not a credential dropped into a keynote; it is the source of the material. The applied work runs across persuasion, storytelling, negotiation, and deception detection. Trichas lectures for the FBI National Academy Associates Cyprus chapter on communication and deception, and has built a parallel track on negotiation drawn from the Harvard and MIT canon. Three TEDx appearances and a bestseller, “The Power of Communication,” sit alongside corporate work for organisations including PwC, Coca-Cola, and MDRT. The argument he offers a board is unfashionable and useful. Strategy and message are necessary but not sufficient. Whether a leader is trusted, whether a negotiation closes, whether a transformation lands, often turns on signals that operate below the words, and those signals are now well enough understood to teach. Key speaking topics Nonverbal communication and leadership perception Negotiation and persuasion Executive presence and credibility Storytelling for senior leaders Deception detection in business contexts Servant leadership and empathy Public speaking for executives Leading transformation through communication Ideal for Boards and executive teams preparing for high-stakes external communication: investor updates, M&A, regulatory testimony. CHROs and leadership development heads designing programmes for newly senior leaders on presence and credibility. CCOs, heads of negotiation, and commercial leaders responsible for high-value deals. Sales leadership conferences where persuasion and trust signals carry commercial outcomes. Audience outcomes A research-grounded view of how leaders are read, not just heard, in board and town hall settings. Specific cues from the Facial Action Coding System tradition that leaders can use to read counterparts in negotiation and meetings. A working framework for credibility that separates persuasion, narrative, and nonverbal channels rather than collapsing them into “communication skills.” A more disciplined view of deception detection, what the evidence supports and what it does not, useful for interviewing, due diligence, and negotiation. Confidence that the speaker’s claims rest on peer-reviewed research and applied work with law enforcement, not stage technique.

Why organisations work with Ben Garrod Two decades of frontline conservation work across Africa, Asia, South America, the Caribbean and the Arctic, including several years running a chimpanzee field site for the Jane Goodall Institute, give him direct evidence of ecosystem collapse that most ESG briefings lack. A tenured Chair at a Russell-adjacent research university (Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Science Engagement at UEA) places him inside the scientific community rather than adjacent to it, which matters for boards scrutinising sustainability claims. A long BBC broadcast record alongside David Attenborough, plus his own series Secrets of Bones and Secrets of Skin, means he can carry a main-stage room without the usual trade-off between scientific credibility and audience access. Trustee of the Jane Goodall Institute UK and Vice President of Norfolk Wildlife Trust, so the conservation positions in his talks are backed by governance roles in the organisations doing the work. Can also chair and moderate science, sustainability and innovation programmes where the host needs genuine subject fluency rather than generic presenter polish. Biography highlights Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Science Engagement, University of East Anglia PhD from UCL and the Zoological Society of London on island-primate evolution in the Lesser Antilles Presenter of BBC documentaries including Attenborough and the Giant Dinosaur, Attenborough and the Mammoth Graveyard, Secrets of Bones and Secrets of Skin Trustee of the Jane Goodall Institute UK; Vice President of Norfolk Wildlife Trust; Fellow of the Linnean Society Author of the Extinct series and the Ultimate Dinosaurs series for Head of Zeus; author of The Chimpanzee and Me Regular contributor to BBC Radio 4’s The Infinite Monkey Cage and Inside Science; columnist for The Guardian and The Conversation Biography The chimpanzee population in the forest where Ben Garrod once ran a Jane Goodall Institute field site has fallen within a single professional lifetime. That kind of data point, drawn from direct fieldwork rather than a secondary report, is what a conversation with him tends to start from. It is also why leadership teams working through ESG and climate exposure increasingly want him in the room. His academic base is the University of East Anglia, where he holds the Chair of Evolutionary Biology and Science Engagement. The PhD, completed at UCL and the Zoological Society of London, looked at how primate species diverge on Caribbean islands, a question about the mechanics of evolution that connects directly to how ecosystems respond under pressure today. The published work, including the Extinct series and the Ultimate Dinosaurs series for Head of Zeus, extends that lens across deep time. The broadcast profile matters for the room he can command. He has presented alongside David Attenborough on Attenborough and the Giant Dinosaur and Attenborough and the Mammoth Graveyard, and carried his own BBC Four series Secrets of Bones and Secrets of Skin. On radio he is a familiar voice on The Infinite Monkey Cage and Inside Science, and he writes regularly for The Guardian and The Conversation. The governance roles are worth reading closely. He is a Trustee of the Jane Goodall Institute UK, Vice President of Norfolk Wildlife Trust, a Fellow of the Linnean Society and a Patron of the Natural Sciences Collections Association. For buyers assessing the difference between a broadcaster with an environmental hobby and a scientist with genuine standing in the field, those are the signals that settle the question. Key speaking topics Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse Climate risk through an evolutionary lens Extinction science and what deep time tells us about current pressures Great ape conservation and the economics of protecting megafauna Sustainability and ESG reporting grounded in field evidence Science communication for non-specialist audiences Ideal for Sustainability, ESG and CSR leads briefing boards on biodiversity and nature-related risk Corporate offsites and industry conferences where the climate session needs to land with scientific weight Financial services, insurance and asset management teams assessing nature and biodiversity exposure Science, innovation and R&D events needing a chair or keynote with genuine subject fluency Audience outcomes A clearer line between biodiversity loss in the field and the risk categories that now appear in ESG and TNFD reporting Specific evidence from African, Asian and Caribbean fieldwork rather than the familiar stock of climate statistics A sharper sense of how extinction and ecosystem science inform current corporate sustainability decisions For mixed audiences, a scientific voice that holds the room without retreating into jargon or headline generalities

Why organisations work with Kirsty Wark Thirty-one consecutive years on BBC Newsnight, the highest-pressure interview chair in British current affairs, brings a discipline of questioning that few corporate moderators can match. BAFTA Fellowship (2025) and Royal Television Society lifetime achievement award (2024) signal a level of public recognition that lends weight to an event where the chair is visible alongside the principals. Long-established moderation credit with serious institutions including Deutsche Bank, Investec, Lloyds TSB, Procter and Gamble and the Cambridge MIT Institute, indicating a track record in commercially sensitive rooms. Comfortable holding senior political and business figures on the record without losing room temperature, a specific craft built across decades of live broadcast. Biography highlights Presenter of BBC Newsnight, 1993 to 2024, the programme’s longest-serving anchor. BAFTA Fellowship, 2025 British Academy Television Awards. Royal Television Society lifetime achievement award, RTS Journalism Awards, 2024. Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 2017. Honorary Doctor of Letters, University of St Andrews, 2023. Author of “The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle” (Two Roads, 2014), shortlisted for the Saltire First Book of the Year. Founder of Wark Clements, the production company behind arts and current affairs strands including “Words With Wark” and “Restless Nation”. Biography Newsnight closed its desk on her in 2024 after thirty-one years. Few broadcasters in any market have sat in the same interview chair for that long, across that many political cycles, with that level of consistent editorial weight. The chair itself is the credential. Wark’s commercial value to corporate audiences sits in the same craft. She moderates, chairs and interviews at the level senior boards are used to seeing in flagship current affairs. The discipline of holding a principal on a single question, of moving a panel through a contested topic without losing the room, of taking an audience question and translating it back into something the speaker can usefully address, was built across decades on Newsnight, The Late Show and BBC Two arts programming. The public recognition is unambiguous. The BAFTA Fellowship in 2025 sits alongside the Royal Television Society lifetime achievement honour from 2024, Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of St Andrews. Her corporate moderation roster, Deutsche Bank, Investec, Lloyds TSB, Procter and Gamble, Statoil, the Cambridge MIT Institute and the Rolex Mentor and Protege Arts Initiative among them, indicates clients who book her for rooms where the chair has to carry the same authority as the speakers on stage. She also writes fiction. Her debut novel, “The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle”, was published by Two Roads in 2014 and shortlisted for the Saltire First Book of the Year Award, a side credential that signals range and a working ear for narrative, useful in any room where the format moves between interview, panel and audience exchange. Key speaking topics Conference moderation and panel chairing Interview-format keynotes and fireside conversations Awards hosting and ceremonial presenting Media scrutiny and leadership communication UK political reporting and current affairs analysis Scottish public life, arts and culture Ideal for Annual leadership conferences and investor events requiring a moderator with broadcast-level authority Awards nights, gala dinners and ceremonial events with a principal-speaker line-up Fireside-format keynotes where a senior executive or external figure is interviewed on stage Sensitive panels on regulatory, political or reputational topics needing a chair the room will trust Audience outcomes A panel or interview that lands the substantive content rather than drifting into platitude Senior speakers handled with the same composure they would expect from a flagship broadcast interview Audience questions translated into useful exchanges, not lost to the room A ceremonial event that holds its pace and authority across the full running order

Why organisations work with Kirsty Lang She has interviewed at the highest level for BBC Radio 4 Front Row, BBC World News and Channel 4 News, which means she can pressure-test a CEO, minister or artist on stage without losing the room. Her foreign-correspondent grounding, including covering the 1989 revolutions and the Balkans wars from Budapest for the BBC World Service, gives her real authority on geopolitics, conflict and Europe. She brings governance credibility from the inside of major institutions: Chair of Global Witness, Chair of BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, and two full terms as a Trustee and Non-Executive Director of the British Council. She is fluent across two often-separated worlds, hard news and the arts, which makes her the right chair for philanthropy, soft power and cultural-diplomacy conversations that cross both. She has chaired and moderated for organisations including EY, IBM, the WHO, NICE, the Bosch Foundation and the British Medical Association, so the moderating brief is familiar territory rather than a stretch. Biography highlights Lead presenter, BBC Radio 4 Front Row, for 19 years (2003 to 2022). Host, BBC Radio 4 Round Britain Quiz, from 2022. Chair of the Board, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead. Chair of the Board, Global Witness, from January 2024. Trustee and Non-Executive Director, British Council, 2014 to 2020 (two full terms). Chair of judges, Orange Prize for Fiction, 2008. Visiting professor, Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, 2012. Biography The Berlin Wall came down in November 1989. Kirsty Lang was the BBC World Service’s Central European correspondent in Budapest, reporting the revolutions across the region and, soon after, the wars in the former Yugoslavia. That decade of foreign reporting, including a stint as Paris correspondent for The Sunday Times, sits underneath everything she does on a stage today. She moved into anchor roles at Channel 4 News between 1998 and 2002, then returned to the BBC to launch BBC Four’s evening news. For 19 years, from 2003 to 2022, she was a lead presenter of Front Row on BBC Radio 4, the network’s flagship arts and culture programme, interviewing writers, artists, film-makers and policymakers nightly. Since 2022 she has hosted Round Britain Quiz on the same network. Her governance record gives her an unusual second register. She chairs the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, served two full terms as a Trustee and Non-Executive Director of the British Council between 2014 and 2020, and in January 2024 became Chair of the Global Witness Board, the international NGO investigating environmental and human rights abuses linked to natural-resource exploitation. That mix is what organisations book her for. She moves between hard news, the arts, and institutional governance with equal command, which is why she is asked to chair conferences for clients including EY, IBM, the World Health Organization, NICE, the British Medical Association and the Bosch Foundation. Key speaking topics International affairs and Europe Soft power and cultural relations Philanthropy and the third sector The arts and cultural policy Storytelling and narrative Conference moderation and panel chairing Media interview craft Ideal for Boards and senior leadership convenings on international affairs, soft power or cultural diplomacy. Foundations, NGOs and cultural institutions running flagship donor, trustee or stakeholder events. Multi-stakeholder conferences in healthcare, professional services and policy that need a chair who can hold expert panels to account. Awards ceremonies, literary festivals and high-profile interview formats with named guests. Audience outcomes A conference programme that surfaces the actual argument, because the chair has read the brief and can press the panel. On-stage interviews that reach the difficult questions without alienating the guest. Audience engagement sustained across long-form sessions through pace, follow-up and editorial judgement. Cross-disciplinary conversations, including geopolitics with culture, or policy with philanthropy, kept coherent for a senior audience.

Why organisations work with Kirstie Allsopp Twenty-five years of unbroken primetime presence on Channel 4 means audiences arrive already familiar with her, which shortens the warm-up phase of any event and lifts the room from the first minute. She runs her own production company, Raise the Roof, and her own product range, so she briefs as a working businesswoman rather than as talent reading lines, and questions on retail, brand and property land with substance. Property, home and consumer behaviour are the core subjects she has covered on screen since 2000, which makes her a natural fit for property, housebuilding, retail, lifestyle, charity and DIY brand audiences without needing a forced bridge. A direct, unscripted on-stage style. She is comfortable with live Q and A, off-the-cuff interviewing of executives, and the kind of room where a guarded host would stall. Sustained ambassadorship of Home-Start UK gives her credibility with charity galas and corporate-foundation audiences where a frivolous host would jar. Biography highlights Co-presenter of Channel 4’s Location, Location, Location with Phil Spencer since the show’s launch in 2000. Co-founder of Raise the Roof Productions, the Glasgow-based independent television company behind Location, Location, Location, Love It or List It UK and the Kirstie’s craft series. Founder in 1996 of Kirmir, a high-end home search agency operating in central and west London. Author of Kirstie’s Homemade Home, Kirstie’s Vintage Home, Kirstie Allsopp Craft and Kirstie’s Christmas Crafts, all published by Hachette. Creator and presenter of the Kirstie’s craft franchise on Channel 4, including Handmade Britain, Vintage Home, Celebrity Craft Masters and House of Craft. Long-standing ambassador for Home-Start UK. Biography Location, Location, Location launched on Channel 4 in 2000. More than two decades and forty series later, it is still on air, still presented by the same two people, and still one of the most reliable property formats in British television. Kirstie Allsopp has been one half of that pairing since the first episode. The career around it is broader than the show. She founded Kirmir, a central and west London home search agency, in 1996, four years before the cameras arrived. She co-founded Raise the Roof Productions, the independent company behind Location, Location, Location, Love It or List It UK and the Kirstie’s craft series, and sits inside the business as co-owner rather than as on-screen talent. Her published work with Hachette covers homes, vintage interiors and craft, and her Channel 4 craft franchise has run alongside the property work for more than a decade. For corporate audiences, the relevance is practical. She has spent twenty-five years interviewing buyers, sellers, retailers and small producers in front of a national audience, and she has run her own businesses across property, production and product. That gives her a working vocabulary for retail, property, brand and consumer behaviour that most television hosts do not carry. On stage she is direct, fluent without a script, and at ease with live audiences, which is the qualification that matters most when an organisation hands a host the room for an evening. She is also a sustained ambassador for Home-Start UK, the family-support charity, and her fundraising work there gives her credibility in charity-led and corporate-foundation settings where a purely entertainment host would feel mismatched. Key speaking topics Awards hosting and corporate compering After-dinner presence Property and the UK housing market Consumer behaviour in home and lifestyle British craft and small-producer retail Building a brand alongside a broadcasting career Charity event hosting Ideal for Property, housebuilding, mortgage and estate agency conferences booking a recognisable host with subject fluency Retail, lifestyle, DIY and home-furnishing brand events and awards Charity galas and corporate-foundation evenings, particularly those with a family, home or community focus After-dinner slots and awards ceremonies for senior corporate audiences who want a familiar Channel 4 face Audience outcomes A confidently paced evening where transitions, awards reads and guest interviews land cleanly Authentic engagement with property, retail and consumer-brand themes when the brief calls for them Live, unscripted interviewing of executives, winners and panellists that adds energy rather than filler Warmth and access for charity audiences where a sincere host materially affects giving and mood

Why organisations work with Katie Pilbeam She has anchored live financial television, including a weekly business programme she produced herself, which means she can carry a market-facing conversation without an earpiece feeding her the next question. She has interviewed Christine Lagarde, Steve Wozniak, Boris Johnson and Sadiq Khan on camera. The standard for senior-stage moderation is set by that calibre of guest. Twelve editions of the Geneva Forex Events and recurring London Stock Exchange conferences mean buyers are hiring a known quantity in the trading and capital-markets circuit, not a generalist host. NCTJ-trained, with rolling news experience on the Israel-Hamas conflict, the Ukraine-Russia war and the 2023 NATO summit, so a geopolitical brief does not need to be simplified to fit her. Biography highlights Main news anchor for RT in Moscow for four years, including her own weekly business programme Venture Capital. News and business presenter credits at Reuters TV, TRT World, TalkTV, IG Markets, London Live News and Proactive Investors. Earlier business-presenting roles at Dukascopy TV in Geneva and IG Trading Group in London. Feature reporting from the World Economic Forum in Davos, the St Petersburg Economic Forum, the Shanghai Financial Forum and the Sochi Winter Olympics. Anchored rolling coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict, the Ukraine-Russia war, the Wagner rebellion and the 2023 NATO summit in Vilnius. NCTJ-qualified journalist, English Literature graduate of the University of Southampton. Biography A finance summit at the London Stock Exchange or a forex conference in Geneva does not need a celebrity host. It needs someone who can read a Bloomberg ticker on camera, follow a central banker into the detail, and run a panel of traders without losing the audience in the back row. That has been Katie Pilbeam’s working brief for more than a decade. She trained as an NCTJ-qualified print journalist before moving into financial television, first at Dukascopy TV in Geneva and IG Trading Group in London. Four years as a main anchor for RT in Moscow followed, where she produced and presented her own weekly business programme, Venture Capital, alongside long shifts on rolling news. The on-air catalogue since has been heavily geopolitical and market-facing: Reuters TV, TRT World, TalkTV, IG Markets, Proactive Investors, and feature shows from Davos, the St Petersburg Economic Forum and the Shanghai Financial Forum. She has anchored rolling coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict, the Ukraine-Russia war, the Wagner group rebellion and the 2023 NATO summit in Vilnius. The interview list is the cleanest proof point: Christine Lagarde, Steve Wozniak, Boris Johnson, Sadiq Khan, Donald Trump. Conference buyers are hiring the same instinct that produces those exchanges live, applied to their CEO, their regulator, or their keynote guest. Key speaking topics Conference moderation and panel hosting Financial markets and trading Global business news Geopolitics and international affairs Awards and gala hosting Live event anchoring Ideal for Banks, asset managers and exchanges running flagship client conferences Financial services firms hosting trading, forex or capital-markets events Corporate communications teams running CEO interviews, AGMs or investor days Conference organisers in geopolitics, foreign policy and international business Audience outcomes A senior panel that stays on its strongest material instead of drifting into platitudes Live interviews with principals that produce usable broadcast and social clips A host who can absorb a last-minute change of running order, guest or news event without breaking the room A market-fluent moderator who can press a CFO or central banker on substance, not just on tone

Why organisations work with Katie Derham Fifteen years anchoring national news at the BBC and ITV News, where she covered general elections, royal weddings and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. That live-broadcast discipline is what shows up on stage when a panel goes off script. A working economics background. She read Economics at Cambridge and started at BBC Radio 4’s Money Box, which is why finance and business clients book her over generalist presenters. A serious arts and culture credential. Face of the BBC Proms on television since 2010 and presenter of Radio 3’s In Tune, with the cultural literacy that comes with both. Author of The Classical Music Book for DK’s Big Ideas Simply Explained series, and a 2017 judge on the Women’s Prize for Fiction. The reading and editorial work behind those credits informs the way she prepares and questions. A name that travels. Strictly Come Dancing finalist, Classical Brit Awards host, household-recognisable, which matters when the brief is a high-profile awards ceremony or televised gala. Biography highlights Presenter, BBC Proms television coverage on BBC One and BBC Two since 2010. Presenter, In Tune on BBC Radio 3. Former Media and Arts Editor and lead newscaster, ITV News (1998 onwards), the youngest ITN newsreader since the broadcaster’s launch in 1955. Host of the Classical Brit Awards at the Royal Albert Hall. Author, The Classical Music Book, DK Big Ideas Simply Explained series (2018). 2017 judge, Women’s Prize for Fiction. Strictly Come Dancing 2015 finalist (fourth place, partnered with Anton Du Beke). Patron of Eastside Educational Trust and ambassador of the Ashdown Forest Foundation. Biography The hardest part of any conference is not the keynote. It is the connective tissue: the on-stage interview that has to draw something new out of a CEO, the panel that has to land in 40 minutes, the awards ceremony that has to keep a room of 800 people on side from cocktails to the final trophy. That work belongs to the host. Katie Derham came to that work through 15 years of national news. She joined ITN in 1998 as Media and Arts Editor for ITV News and, at 27, became the youngest national newscaster the broadcaster had appointed since its founding in 1955. The roster from those years includes general elections, royal weddings, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which is the schooling that produces a host who can hold a stage when the autocue fails. Her second act has been arts broadcasting at scale. She has presented BBC Proms television coverage from the Royal Albert Hall every season since 2010, fronts In Tune on BBC Radio 3, and authored The Classical Music Book in DK’s Big Ideas Simply Explained series. She has hosted the Classical Brit Awards and judged the 2017 Women’s Prize for Fiction. The economics is what differentiates her commercially. She read Economics at Magdalene College, Cambridge, and started her career as a BBC Radio 4 Money Box researcher, which is why finance, business and brand clients book her over presenters who have only ever covered culture. That dual fluency, business credibility and arts authority, is the reason serious organisations put her in front of their leadership team. Key speaking topics Conference and event hosting On-stage CEO and leadership interviews Awards ceremony presenting Panel moderation Classical music and the arts Broadcast journalism and live media Women in broadcasting and media careers Ideal for CEOs and chairs who want their on-stage interviewer to do the briefing properly and ask the next question. Comms and brand teams running flagship customer events, awards ceremonies, or televised galas. Investor days, AGMs and finance sector conferences that need an economically literate host, not a generalist presenter. Cultural institutions, philanthropic galas and arts boards programming high-profile public events. Audience outcomes A room that stays with the agenda from the opening session through the closing remarks. Sharper, more candid contributions from senior interviewees, because the questions land. Smooth transitions across a complex run-of-show, with live recovery when timings slip. A stage presence the audience remembers and associates with the brand hosting the event.