Storytelling & Business Communication

Why organisations work with Rageh Omaar A reporting record built on the ground in Baghdad, Kabul, Darfur and across the wider Middle East and Africa, not a studio commentator with borrowed authority A Peabody for BBC dispatches from Darfur and a BAFTA for the BBC’s Afghanistan coverage, two of the most demanding awards in international news A daily editorial seat at ITV News that keeps his read on conflict, sanctions and the international order current rather than retrospective A track record chairing senior-stakes events for Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, The Economist and DNV in Oslo, where the brief is to keep a difficult conversation moving without flattening it Biography highlights International Affairs Editor, ITV News, and presenter on ITV News at Ten and the current affairs strand On Assignment Former senior BBC foreign correspondent, the lead face of BBC News during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and the only western television journalist inside Taliban-held Kabul as it fell in 2001 Peabody Award winner for BBC reporting from Darfur, BAFTA winner for the BBC’s coverage of the invasion of Afghanistan Presenter of Witness and The Rageh Omaar Report on Al Jazeera English between 2006 and 2010 Author of Revolution Day: The Real Story of the Battle for Iraq (Penguin) and Only Half of Me: Being a Muslim in Britain (Viking) Authored long-form documentary series for the BBC including The Life of Muhammad (BBC Two) and The Ottomans: Europe’s Muslim Emperors (BBC Two) Biography Baghdad in March 2003 was the first conflict of the modern news cycle, fought as much through television as through the air. Rageh Omaar led the BBC’s coverage from inside the city as the bombing began, and his nightly dispatches became, for British and international audiences, the picture of how the war was unfolding. The reporting won him an international audience and a permanent association with the most difficult kind of foreign coverage, journalism done from the place the story is happening. The career sits on a longer record. Omaar was the only western television journalist inside Taliban-held Kabul as it fell in 2001, work that earned the BBC a BAFTA. His subsequent reporting from Darfur for the BBC was recognised with a Peabody, the most stringent broadcast journalism prize awarded in the United States. After a period at Al Jazeera English presenting Witness and The Rageh Omaar Report, he moved to ITV News in 2013 and was promoted to International Affairs Editor a year later. Beyond breaking news, his work has consistently turned to the long story of the Islamic world and its relationship with Europe. Documentary series including The Life of Muhammad and The Ottomans: Europe’s Muslim Emperors, both for BBC Two, sit alongside his books Revolution Day and Only Half of Me, the second a study of British Muslim identity drawn partly from his own Somali-British background. That body of work is what differentiates him from a general-purpose news anchor when corporate audiences want a serious on-stage conversation about the Middle East, Africa or the wider rules-based order. On the platform, he is engaged most often as moderator, chair and interviewer for senior audiences at firms including Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, The Economist and DNV. The brief in those rooms is to handle a sensitive subject in front of a room that knows the surface of it, and to draw out a guest or a panel without letting the conversation drift. That is the craft he brings, supported by reporting credentials that let him hold the room when the topic is geopolitics rather than industry talk. Key speaking topics Geopolitics and international affairs The Middle East and the rules-based order Africa, conflict and economic development Foreign reporting and the modern news cycle Islam, identity and the West Conference moderation, panel chairing and on-stage interviewing Ideal for Boards and executive committees commissioning a serious on-stage conversation on geopolitical risk, the Middle East or Africa Annual conferences and global leadership offsites that need a credible chair for the international-affairs session Policy, energy and financial-services events where the moderator must hold authority on conflict, sanctions and political risk Corporate award ceremonies and after-dinner formats that require a recognisable broadcaster with substance behind the name Audience outcomes A grounded read on the international story currently shaping board-level decisions, drawn from a working editor’s seat rather than archive material A clearer sense of how the Middle East and Africa look from inside the reporting, beyond the cable news framing An on-stage conversation or panel that holds together at the level senior audiences expect, with difficult questions asked and not avoided A frame for thinking about Islam, identity and the West that comes from sustained reporting and writing, not commentary

Why organisations work with Philip Hesketh A behavioural framework, the Seven Drivers of Motivation, published by Wiley and built specifically for sales, pricing, and client conversations, not generic influence theory. Direct operator credibility: he ran a 150-person advertising agency with clients including the BBC, Nestle, Disney, and HSBC, so the case studies come from his own P&L. A specific, repeatable answer to the pricing question. His “How to hold high prices and fees” session is built around what makes buyers concede on value rather than discount. Two Amazon number-one books on persuasion, giving the speaker a public reference point the audience can revisit, share with their teams, and use as a working text. Biography highlights Founder and managing partner of Advertising Principles, Leeds, grown over 17 years to £48m in billings with 150 staff and clients including the BBC, Nestle, Disney, and HSBC. Author of two Amazon UK number-one bestsellers on persuasion, “How to Persuade and Influence People” and “Persuade”, both published by Capstone/Wiley, and a third book, “The Golden Rules for a Happy Life”. Psychology graduate of Newcastle University and former Procter & Gamble salesperson, named P&G Salesman of the Year. Vistage UK “Outstanding Performer” and “Most Requested Speaker”; TEC Australia “Overseas Speaker of the Year” 2009. Visiting Fellow of Newcastle University. Has delivered keynote and training programmes for sales, professional services, and leadership audiences across more than 20 countries. Biography Most pricing pressure does not come from competitors. It comes from how sales and account teams handle the conversation when a client pushes back. The behavioural science of why people say yes, why they concede on value, and why they stay loyal sits at the heart of that conversation, and it is the territory Philip Hesketh has worked in for two decades. Hesketh is a Newcastle University psychology graduate who started in sales at Procter & Gamble, where he was named Salesman of the Year. In 1986 he founded Advertising Principles in Leeds and built it over 17 years into a £48m agency with 150 staff and clients such as the BBC, Nestle, Disney, and HSBC. The frameworks he now teaches were developed inside that business, not bolted on afterwards. His two Wiley books, “How to Persuade and Influence People” and “Persuade”, set out the Seven Drivers of Motivation: a working model of what moves buyers, decision-makers, and colleagues to act. Both reached number one on Amazon UK in their categories. The model is built for commercial use, with direct application to pricing, negotiation, and client relationship work. Vistage UK named him “Outstanding Performer” and “Most Requested Speaker”; TEC Australia named him “Overseas Speaker of the Year”. Beyond the awards, the practical proof is repetition: chief executive groups book him back, which only happens when the content moves the conversations leaders are actually having about value, fees, and customers. Key speaking topics Psychology of persuasion and influence Pricing and value negotiation Client acquisition and retention Sales performance and conversion Behavioural drivers of buyer decisions Customer experience and loyalty Ideal for CCOs, sales directors, and revenue leaders facing margin compression Professional services partners and client-facing leaders in agencies, law, accountancy, and consulting Account management and key client teams in B2B environments Leadership audiences at Vistage, YPO, EO, and similar peer-group settings Audience outcomes A working vocabulary for the seven psychological drivers behind buyer decisions Specific techniques for holding price and defending fees in negotiation A sharper read on why clients defect, and what conversations keep them Practical questions and conversational moves teams can put to work the next day A clearer separation between price objections that are real and price objections that are tested

Why organisations work with Phil Spencer 25 unbroken years on a flagship Channel 4 show means audiences recognise Phil Spencer before he walks on. Few hosts in UK broadcasting can match that level of advanced familiarity. He moves between hosting and substance. Spencer founded Garrington Home Finders in 1996, one of the first UK property businesses built around buyer advocacy, and has since built two further businesses, including Move iQ. His past corporate hosting credits include British Gas, HM Land Registry and Norwich Union. Bureau testimonials repeatedly point to his ability to hold difficult rooms without losing them. Property is the obvious entry point, but the wider relevance is consumer trust in markets structured around the seller. That makes him useful to financial services, mortgage providers, insurers and housebuilders looking for a credible voice on customer-side decisions. The MBE awarded in the 2026 New Year Honours, for nineteen years of patronage at homelessness charity St Mungo’s, adds reputational gravity to the broadcasting credit. Biography highlights Co-presenter of Channel 4’s Location, Location, Location since 2000 with Kirstie Allsopp, across 44 series and counting. Founder of Garrington Home Finders (1996), one of the first UK property buying agencies built around buyer-side representation. Co-founder of Raise the Roof Productions (2010), now a major independent supplier to Channel 4, based in Glasgow. Founder of Move iQ (2018), the consumer property advice platform with a podcast, YouTube channel and Property Report tool. Awarded MBE in the 2026 New Year Honours for charitable services, recognised for nineteen years of patronage at homelessness charity St Mungo’s. Author of three Vermilion-published property books: How to Buy a House (with Kirstie Allsopp), Adding Value to Your Home, and How to Buy Your First Home. Biography Most consumer property markets are organised around the seller. Estate agents are paid by vendors and conveyancers work transaction by transaction. The buyer walks into the largest financial decision of their life without anyone professionally obliged to represent them. Phil Spencer founded Garrington Home Finders in 1996 after qualifying as a surveyor at London South Bank University. The business grew to four offices, thirty staff and £3.5m annual turnover before he stepped back in 2008. The buyer-agent model has since been widely copied across the UK property industry. Television came almost by accident. A Scottish production company looking for a property consultant on a new format invited him to screen-test as a presenter. Location, Location, Location launched in 2000 with Kirstie Allsopp and is now in its 44th series, the longest-running property programme in British television. The two later founded Raise the Roof Productions, now a major independent supplier to Channel 4, based in Glasgow. For corporate audiences, the proposition is unusual. Twenty-five years of continuous broadcasting give Spencer the immediate audience recognition that hosting demands. Three businesses sit behind the screen: Garrington in 1996, Raise the Roof in 2010, and Move iQ in 2018. The MBE in the 2026 New Year Honours, for nineteen years of patronage at homelessness charity St Mungo’s, adds a public-service credit beyond the broadcasting career. Key speaking topics The UK property market and the buyer’s journey Consumer-side business models in seller-led markets Entrepreneurship and category creation Awards hosting and conference facilitation Independent television production Career storytelling from Location, Location, Location Ideal for Property and housebuilding businesses running customer or industry events Mortgage providers, insurers and consumer financial services firms hosting client and broker conferences Awards programmes and industry recognition ceremonies that need a confident broadcast host Conference organisers booking after-dinner speakers with an entrepreneurial story behind the broadcasting credit Audience outcomes The Garrington story: how a category-defining property business was built around buyer advocacy in a seller-led market Honest commentary on the UK property market that goes beyond the news cycle into transaction-level dynamics How Move iQ was built as a consumer media platform inside an established broadcasting career A confidently held event programme with the pacing of British broadcast television

Why organisations work with Peter Guber He has built and led organizations across film, music, professional sports, and esports. The storytelling framework that runs through his work has been pressure-tested in each, and senior audiences hear it from someone who has actually used it to move boards, talent, partners, and capital. He authored the only mainstream business book on storytelling to hit #1 on the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists simultaneously. Tell to Win and his HBR cover article The Four Truths of the Storyteller give audiences a portable framework they can take into their own communications work, not a collection of war stories. He speaks from current operating experience as Chairman and CEO of Mandalay Entertainment, co-executive chairman of the Golden State Warriors, and owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The material reflects problems he still has to solve every week. The same discipline has been honed across more than forty consecutive years of teaching at UCLA Anderson School of Management and the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, recognized in 2017 with the UCLA Medal, the university’s highest honor. Biography highlights Chairman and CEO of Mandalay Entertainment Group; former Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment; former Chairman and CEO of Polygram Entertainment; former President of Columbia Pictures; co-founder of Casablanca Record & Filmworks. Films he produced or executive produced have grossed over $3 billion worldwide and received 50 Academy Award nominations, including five Best Picture nominations and the Best Picture win for Rain Man. Other titles include Batman, The Color Purple, Midnight Express, Flashdance, Gorillas in the Mist, The Witches of Eastwick, and The Kids Are All Right. Co-Executive Chairman and co-owner of the Golden State Warriors (NBA Champions 2015, 2017, 2018); owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers (World Series winners 2020 and 2024); Owner and Executive Chairman of Los Angeles Football Club (MLS); Co-Executive Chairman of aXiomatic Gaming, owner of esports franchise Team Liquid. Author of Tell to Win (Crown Business, 2011), instant #1 New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestseller; named by Fortune one of “5 Business Books You Can Really Use.” Earlier books include Shootout: Surviving Fame and (Mis)Fortune in Hollywood, which became a seven-year AMC television series he hosted. Author of the Harvard Business Review cover article “The Four Truths of the Storyteller” (December 2007). Professor for more than forty years at UCLA Anderson School of Management and UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. UCLA Medal recipient (2017). Appointed to the University of California Board of Regents by Governor Jerry Brown (2017). Biography Sony Pictures Entertainment led the industry in domestic box office market share for four straight years after Peter Guber became Chairman and CEO in 1989. Over the same period, the studio earned 120 Academy Award nominations, the most ever recorded by any company in any four-year stretch. What ran through that work, and through the decades before it at Columbia Pictures, Polygram, and Casablanca Records, was a discipline Guber later codified. He could take a strategic intent and translate it into a story the audience he needed to move had reason to act on. He named it purposeful storytelling. The Harvard Business Review cover article The Four Truths of the Storyteller laid out the four conditions a story has to meet to do real work in a room: true to the teller, the audience, the moment, and the mission. Tell to Win, his expansion of the same thesis, hit number one simultaneously on the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists in 2011. Fortune named it one of “5 Business Books You Can Really Use.” In Guber’s argument, data is the cost of entry; persuasion is the work that closes the deal. Guber still runs Mandalay Entertainment Group, co-owns the three-time NBA champion Golden State Warriors and the World Series-winning Los Angeles Dodgers, and chairs the esports investment vehicle aXiomatic. He has taught the same craft at UCLA Anderson and the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television for more than forty consecutive years, by the Chancellor’s account never missing a year. In 2017, UCLA awarded him the UCLA Medal, its highest honor, the same year Governor Jerry Brown appointed him to the University of California Board of Regents. Key speaking topics Purposeful storytelling in business Leadership communication and persuasion Leading through uncertainty and disruption Innovation and organizational culture High-performance team building across industries Storytelling for marketing and brand strategy Ideal for CEOs and executive leadership teams preparing to communicate strategic change to internal and external audiences. Chief commercial, marketing, and sales leaders rebuilding the persuasion infrastructure of their organizations. Founders and senior operators raising capital, recruiting talent, or pitching boards. Executive education clients, leadership development programs, and partner or customer summits where the centerpiece is communication craft. Audience outcomes A working test for their own communications: whether the story is true to the teller, the audience, the moment, and the mission. A sharper distinction between informing an audience and persuading them, with a clearer view of where most leadership communication breaks down. Specific examples from film, sports, and the boardroom that they can map onto their own decisions and pitches. A method for finding and shaping the right story for a specific audience and a specific moment. Shared vocabulary they can take back to their teams and demand of communications, marketing, and IR functions.

Why organisations work with Pellegrino Riccardi His TEDxBergen talk on cross-cultural communication has been viewed nearly two million times – giving him a level of pre-built credibility and independent reach that few speakers in this space can point to before they walk on stage. He does not study cultural difference from the outside. Born in the UK to Italian parents and living in Norway since 1995, he has navigated three distinct cultural systems from the inside – a quality of embedded perspective that changes what his audiences trust him to know. His “Six Basic Human Needs” framework gives leadership teams a diagnostic for why motivation and engagement falter in multicultural environments – not a generalisation about national character, but a universal human model applied precisely to the point where cultural difference becomes organisational friction. He makes the Nordic workplace model legible and actionable for global organisations – addressing a specific and growing gap for multinationals operating in, entering, or partnering with Scandinavian markets. Named Norwegian Speaker of the Year by Talerlisten in 2020, selected from more than 600 national nominees, and a finalist in both 2021 and 2022 – a competitive national award that reflects consistent delivery rather than a single strong appearance. Biography highlights Norwegian Speaker of the Year 2020 (Talerlisten); finalist 2021 and 2022 – selected from a field of more than 600 national nominees Three TEDx talks; TEDxBergen cross-cultural communication talk approaching two million views Two Master’s degrees from the University of Leeds and the University of Oslo; additional qualifications in psychology, NLP, and pedagogy Author of Drowning Quietly: Memoir of a Man’s Shortcomings (Greenleaf Book Group, 2022) Regular commentator on Norwegian national television on culture and immigration Client work spans Merck, Skanska, DNB, IKEA, IBM, BP, ExxonMobil, and the European Commission Biography Most cross-cultural training starts with the other culture. Pellegrino Riccardi starts with you. His central argument – that misunderstanding in multicultural teams rarely begins with ignorance of another culture, but with the unchecked assumptions you carry about your own – has reached nearly two million people through his TEDxBergen talk alone. It is not an academic position. It is a practitioner’s diagnosis, sharpened over three decades of working with organisations where the gap between cultural intent and daily reality was costing them real performance. Riccardi was born in the UK to Italian immigrant parents and has been based in Norway since 1995. He is not a consultant who has studied these three cultural systems – he has lived inside all of them. That distinction is audible in the room. His definition of culture, “a system of behavior that helps us act in an accepted or familiar way,” is deliberately simple: it is designed to move the conversation from observation to self-examination, fast. For senior leaders who have sat through cultural awareness sessions and left unchanged, the shift in entry point matters. His frameworks give organisations something to work with after the session. The Six Basic Human Needs – which he describes as the human batteries that determine whether people bring their full energy to work – and the Three Human Drives give teams a shared language for diagnosing disengagement that does not reduce to personality or politics. He holds two Master’s degrees from the University of Leeds and the University of Oslo, with further qualifications in psychology, NLP, and pedagogy, and appears regularly on Norwegian national television as a commentator on culture and integration. In 2020 he was named Norwegian Speaker of the Year by Talerlisten from a field of more than 600 national nominees – a recognition he followed with finalist standings in both 2021 and 2022. His memoir Drowning Quietly (Greenleaf Book Group, 2022) extends his examination of human identity and behaviour beyond the professional context. His organisational client list includes Merck, Skanska, DNB, IKEA, IBM, BP, ExxonMobil, and the European Commission. Key speaking topics Cross-cultural communication and workplace dynamics Corporate culture and culture transformation Nordic workplace values and leadership mindsets Employee motivation and human engagement Multicultural team performance Change, uncertainty, and organisational resilience Storytelling as a driver of business culture Ideal for CHROs and People & Culture leaders managing globally distributed or multicultural workforces Leadership teams of multinationals operating in, entering, or partnering with Nordic markets Organisations navigating culture change, post-merger integration, or rapid workforce diversification Senior leaders seeking to move beyond cultural awareness programmes to measurable change in team communication and trust Audience outcomes Why good people misunderstand each other at work, and the invisible assumptions that drive it A working definition of culture that changes how leaders recognise the source of cross-cultural friction The Six Basic Human Needs framework, and a sharper read on why unmet needs surface as quiet disengagement rather than open dissatisfaction How Nordic communication norms (silence, economy of language, psychological safety) read to outsiders, and what global teams need to do differently Practical ways to build trust and create the kind of conversations people actually feel safe having

Why organisations work with Omar Johnson He has a documented commercial result at the scale most marketers will never reach: Beats by Dre from $20 million to $2 billion, acquired by Apple for $3 billion. He is operating, not reminiscing. As founder of Øpus Intelligence, he is currently applying generative AI to cultural relevance for clients including Nissan, the NBA 2K League, and NFL franchises. He built the campaigns marketing teams still study: the 2012 Beats Olympics athlete play that drove a 600% international sales lift, and the “Straight Outta Somewhere” meme generator that reached over a billion people on a near-zero media budget. He gives senior marketing leaders a working model for cultural relevance as a commercial discipline, with named brand cases from Nike, Apple, Coca-Cola, and Kraft, rather than agency-side theory. Biography highlights Former Chief Marketing Officer, Beats by Dre, and former Vice President of Marketing, Apple. Led Beats from $20 million to over $2 billion in revenue, culminating in the $3 billion acquisition by Apple in 2014. Founder of ØPUS United and founder of Øpus Intelligence, a generative AI platform for cultural relevance, with clients including Nissan, NBA 2K League, Tennessee Titans, and Minnesota Vikings. Author of “Dear White Corporate America,” following a full-page New York Times open letter on racial equity in June 2020. Named “Brand Genius” by Adweek and one of the “Most Innovative CMOs” by Business Insider. Earlier marketing leadership across Nike (including campaigns with LeBron James and Kobe Bryant), Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods, and Campbell Soup. MBA from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. Biography Beats by Dre grew from $20 million to more than $2 billion in revenue in four years and was acquired by Apple for $3 billion in 2014. Omar Johnson was the third employee through the door and the Chief Marketing Officer who built the brand engine that made the trajectory possible. The case studies have lasted longer than the headphones themselves. At the 2012 Olympics, instead of paying for sponsor rights, Beats put national-flag headphones on athletes through a private lounge, lifting international sales by 600%. In 2015, the “Straight Outta Somewhere” meme generator reached over a billion people on a near-zero media budget. Both built category leadership through cultural participation, not paid reach. After Apple, Johnson founded ØPUS United, a brand management firm, and then Øpus Intelligence, a generative AI platform that productises cultural relevance for marketers. Live clients include Nissan, the NBA 2K League, and NFL franchises, with a 2025 partnership with Sundial Media (parent of ESSENCE, Refinery29, AFROPUNK) extending the model further into culture media. His earlier career across Nike, Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods, and Campbell Soup gave him the inside view of large brand systems; his post-Apple work gives him the operator’s view of what is breaking in them now. Adweek named him a Brand Genius. Business Insider named him one of the Most Innovative CMOs. His 2020 New York Times open letter, “My Open Letter to White Corporate America,” became the book “Dear White Corporate America.” Key speaking topics Brand building and category leadership Marketing strategy and growth Cultural relevance as a commercial discipline Generative AI in marketing and brand management Customer experience and brand authenticity Storytelling and creative campaign design Ideal for CMOs, brand directors, and senior marketing leadership teams CEO and executive committee offsites where growth depends on brand strength Consumer, retail, sports, media, and entertainment audiences Innovation, creative, and customer experience functions exploring AI in marketing Audience outcomes A working definition of cultural relevance that can be applied to a brand plan, not a slogan Named campaign cases (Beats Olympics, Straight Outta Somewhere, Nike commercials with LeBron James and Kobe Bryant) used to illustrate how cultural participation beats paid reach A current view from inside a generative AI marketing platform on what the technology actually changes for brand teams A direct provocation to senior leaders on authenticity, representation, and the commercial cost of getting either wrong

Why organisations work with Oliver Kamm He has lived on both sides of the analyst’s desk. Twenty years at the Bank of England, HSBC Securities and Commerzbank Securities, then sixteen years and counting writing The Times leaders on economics and foreign affairs. He reads the data the way a strategist does and frames it the way an editor does. His weekly Times economics column is a primary reference point for British policy debate, which means audiences are hearing the same analysis Westminster, the City and Whitehall are reading the next morning. Authored Accidence Will Happen, endorsed by Steven Pinker as “a unique and indispensable guide to usage”, a credential that signals the rigour he brings to argument and language as well as numbers. He moves cleanly between keynote, panel moderation and after-dinner formats, which lets a single booking cover macro briefing, on-stage interrogation of a CEO and a sharper closing address. Biography highlights Leader writer and columnist at The Times since 2008, covering economics and international affairs. Twenty-year City career: Bank of England, HSBC Securities (European Equity Strategist), Commerzbank Securities (Head of Strategic Research) and founder of WMG Advisors LLP. Author of Anti-Totalitarianism (Social Affairs Unit, 2005), Accidence Will Happen (W&N, 2015) and Mending the Mind (2021). Regular contributor on Newsnight, The Today Programme, Channel 4 News, The Daily Politics, Radio 5 Live and Sky News. Bylines in The Guardian, Prospect, The New York Times and The Jewish Chronicle. Educated at New College, Oxford and Birkbeck College, University of London. Biography The case for booking a serious economics voice for a senior audience usually comes down to translation. Boards are not short of data. They are short of a credible reader of the data who can take a position without flinching, and explain it in language a non-economist will repeat in a meeting the next day. That is the role Kamm has occupied at The Times since 2008. He writes a twice-weekly economics column and is the paper’s principal leader writer on economics and international affairs, which means his analysis sits inside the daily editorial line of one of the few British newspapers still read across Westminster, the City and Whitehall. Before journalism he spent two decades inside the markets he now writes about. Bank of England, HSBC Securities as European Equity Strategist, Commerzbank Securities as Head of Strategic Research, then WMG Advisors LLP, which he founded in 2004. The City background shapes how he reads policy. Capital flows, currency exposure and the actual mechanics of investment decisions are not abstractions when he speaks about them. He is also a working author outside economics. Accidence Will Happen, his 2015 guide to English usage drawn from his Times “Pedant” column, was praised by Steven Pinker for relying on “scholarship rather than dogma”. Mending the Mind followed in 2021. The range matters: it is the reason he holds a room as moderator or after-dinner speaker as confidently as he does in a macro keynote. Key speaking topics Global economy and macro outlook International politics and policy The British economy and public policy Markets, capital flows and the City Media, journalism and editorial judgement Language, communication and clear writing Ideal for Boards and executive committees taking capital allocation or geographic-exposure decisions under macro and geopolitical uncertainty CFOs, treasurers and risk leads briefing internal audiences on the British and global outlook Conference programme owners needing one person to keynote, moderate the CEO panel and close the dinner Audience outcomes A clear, defensible read of the current macro and geopolitical picture, framed for non-economists A working sense of which signals in financial markets and policy actually matter for the year ahead Sharper questions to ask of internal economics and strategy briefings Confidence in the editorial framing of the company’s own external communication on economics and policy

Why organisations work with Nik Wood BBC business desk credibility on stage. Years anchoring Working Lunch, Business Breakfast and Wake up to Money mean he reads board-level interviewees with the calibration of a working business journalist, not a hired host. He produces as well as presents. Through Good Call Media he brings his own camera and editing capability into the event, so live film inserts, recorded interviews and stage content are built and run by the same team that hosts the day. He is equally comfortable interviewing a CEO and a frontline employee. The marketing and communications grounding at Hammonds before broadcast journalism shows up in how he handles mixed-seniority panels. A working journalist’s instinct for the unscripted moment. He has interviewed four UK prime ministers and a string of African heads of state across his career, which translates to composure when a corporate panel goes off-script. Biography highlights Former BBC business correspondent and presenter on Working Lunch, Business Breakfast and Wake up to Money. Co-founder and director of Good Call Media, an independent corporate film and event production company established in 2007. Career interviews include four UK prime ministers and several African presidents. Reporting background covers the Northern Ireland conflict and financial markets across London, Asia and the United States. Earlier career as Director of Marketing and Communications at Hammonds law firm. Corporate and not-for-profit clients include the Eden Project, CQI, IMLPO and Build Africa. Biography The host of a senior corporate event has a narrow job and a wide one. The narrow job is timekeeping and introductions. The wide job is reading the room, extracting the argument from each speaker, and giving the audience a reason to lean in after the third panel of the morning. Nik Wood does the wide job. His credibility on stage comes from the BBC business desk. As a business correspondent and anchor on Working Lunch, Business Breakfast and Wake up to Money, he interviewed chief executives, regulators and policymakers as a working journalist, not as a meeting facilitator. Earlier reporting work spanned the Northern Ireland conflict and financial markets in London, Asia and the United States. Four UK prime ministers and several African presidents sat across the desk from him. In 2007 he co-founded Good Call Media with producer Fiona Molloy. The company is a working film and event production house, not a personal speaking vehicle. That matters operationally: when Nik hosts an event, the same team builds the film inserts, runs the recorded interviews and edits the day’s content. The audience gets a single coherent production rather than a host bolted onto someone else’s running order. He began his career as Director of Marketing and Communications at Hammonds law firm. The combination of in-house corporate communications experience and broadcast journalism explains the range he is booked for: investor and analyst events, awards ceremonies, internal town halls, board-facing panels, and client engagements at organisations from the Eden Project to Build Africa. Key speaking topics Conference moderation and event chairing On-stage interviewing of senior executives Awards ceremony hosting Panel facilitation Live broadcast interviewing Corporate film and video production Business journalism Ideal for Companies running investor days, AGMs or analyst events that need a host who can interview a CFO with credibility. Internal leadership offsites and town halls where the chair needs to draw out both board and frontline voices. Awards ceremonies and recognition events requiring a confident master of ceremonies. Conference organisers who want host and production handled by a single team. Audience outcomes A running order that holds together across a full day, with each session building on the last. Interviews with senior speakers that surface the actual argument, not the prepared statement. Live film and video content integrated into the stage programme, used to set up sessions and shift pace. A panel discussion that stays on the question the audience came to hear answered.

Why organisations work with Nik Gowing A research base built from hundreds of confidential interviews with corporate, political and military leaders, distilled in the book Thinking the Unthinkable, which gives boards a vocabulary for the failures of imagination they recognise but rarely name. Forty years of front-line international reporting, from martial law in Poland to 9/11, that lets him press senior audiences on geopolitical and operational risk without flinching or flattering. A moderator’s authority earned at BBC World News and across hundreds of senior international forums, used to host board offsites, ministerial roundtables and CEO summits where the conversation has to go somewhere uncomfortable. Standing inside the institutions buyers trust: Distinguished Fellow at RUSI, Visiting Professor at Kings College London, former council member at Chatham House and ODI. A track record of making leaders engage with what they have been avoiding, rather than rehearsing the slide they came to deliver. Biography highlights Main news presenter, BBC World News, 1996 to 2014. Diplomatic Editor, Channel 4 News, 1989 to 1996; bureau chief in Rome and Warsaw with ITN. BAFTA, 1981, for coverage of martial law in Poland. Co-author, Thinking the Unthinkable: A new imperative for leadership in the digital age (John Catt, 2018), and founder of the Thinking the Unthinkable project. Author, Skyful of Lies and Black Swans, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford. Visiting Professor, Kings College London; Distinguished Fellow, Royal United Services Institute; Honorary Doctorates from the universities of Exeter and Bristol. Biography The leaders Nik Gowing has spent four decades interviewing, in studios, at summits and behind closed doors, share a pattern. They saw the signal. They had the data. They did not act. Thinking the Unthinkable, the project he founded in 2014 and the book he co-authored with Chris Langdon in 2018, is built on hundreds of confidential conversations with senior figures in business, government and the military about why that keeps happening, and what could change it. The credibility for that conversation comes from the years before. Gowing was a main news presenter on BBC World News from 1996 to 2014, on air for the announcement of Princess Diana’s death and through the live coverage of 9/11. Before the BBC he spent 18 years at ITN, as bureau chief in Rome and Warsaw and as Diplomatic Editor of Channel 4 News. A BAFTA followed his coverage of martial law in Poland in 1981. That broadcast career left him with a particular skill that boards now buy: the ability to chair a difficult conversation in front of senior people, on the record, without losing control of the room or the argument. He moderates regularly for institutions including the World Economic Forum, RUSI and Chatham House. The academic and institutional scaffolding is genuine, not decorative. He is a Visiting Professor at Kings College London’s School of Social Science and Public Policy, a Distinguished Fellow at RUSI, and a former council member at Chatham House and the Overseas Development Institute. The Reuters Institute at Oxford published his earlier study, Skyful of Lies and Black Swans, on institutional vulnerability in the modern information environment. Few moderators bring that depth into the room with them. Key speaking topics Leadership under disruption Anticipating the unthinkable in board strategy Geopolitical risk and the rules-based order Crisis communication and decision-making under pressure Institutional resilience in the digital information environment Senior conference moderation and panel chairing Ideal for Boards, CEOs and executive committees confronting strategic shocks they suspect they are under-rehearsing. Risk, strategy and corporate affairs leaders working on scenario planning, geopolitical exposure and institutional resilience. Convenors of senior international forums, ministerial roundtables and CEO summits who need a moderator who can hold the room. Audience outcomes A direct account of why senior teams systematically miss disruptive signals, drawn from confidential interviews with leaders who lived through it. A sharper read on geopolitical and information-environment risks, from someone who has reported them at first hand. The questions a board should be asking itself before the next unthinkable lands, not after. A working sense of what conformity costs at the top of organisations, and what it takes to break it.

Why organisations work with Nigel Risner He gives senior leaders a working language for personality difference inside their own teams, the Zoo Keeper model of Lions, Monkeys, Elephants, and Dolphins, that they can use in the next leadership meeting. He is one of six UK holders of the Professional Speaking Award of Excellence (PSAE) from the Professional Speakers Association, a peer-judged credential that signals platform craft of a different order from a typical motivational keynote. He is the only speaker named Speaker of the Year by all four major CEO peer-advisory networks in Europe (Vistage, The Academy for Chief Executives, TEC, and Footdown), which is the closest thing the CEO peer-group market has to a buying signal. His material is built from running a brokerage as one of the UK’s youngest CEOs and rebuilding after the late-1980s financial crash, so the leadership content is grounded in operating experience, not theory. He works at any audience size, from a 12-person CEO peer group to conference rooms of several thousand, with the same delivery discipline. Biography highlights Author of “The Impact Code: Live the Life You Deserve” (Capstone) and its follow-up “The Impact Code at Work”. Author of “It’s a Zoo Around Here: The new rules for better communication”, the source text of his Zoo Keeper personality framework. Author of “You Had Me at Hello: The new rules for better networking”. One of six UK speakers awarded the PSAE (Professional Speaking Award of Excellence) by the Professional Speakers Association. Speaker of the Year for Vistage, The Academy for Chief Executives, The Executive Committee, and Footdown. Client work spans BT, BSkyB, Pfizer, GSK, Siemens, HSBC, Pepsi, British Airways, Marks and Spencer, and Royal Bank of Scotland. Biography Most leadership problems inside large organisations look strategic and turn out to be communicative. A capable executive briefs a team, the team agrees in the room, and three weeks later the work has not moved. The diagnosis is usually that the leader spoke in their own dominant style and assumed the rest of the room would translate. Nigel Risner has built a twenty-year speaking career around fixing exactly that gap. His Zoo Keeper framework, drawn from his book “It’s a Zoo Around Here: The new rules for better communication”, gives leaders a fast, memorable way to read the personalities in front of them: Lions who want results, Monkeys who want energy, Elephants who want detail, Dolphins who want harmony. The point is operational. A leader who can flex into all four registers gets decisions made in the meeting rather than relitigated by email afterwards. The credential layer is unusual for a motivational speaker. Risner holds the PSAE from the Professional Speakers Association, a peer-judged award held by only six UK speakers, and is the only speaker in Europe to have been named Speaker of the Year by Vistage, The Academy for Chief Executives, The Executive Committee, and Footdown. Those four bodies are the gatekeepers for CEO peer-advisory work in Europe, which is why his material reads as built for boards and executive teams rather than for general audiences. His later books, “The Impact Code: Live the Life You Deserve” and “The Impact Code at Work”, widen the same argument into executive presence and personal credibility. The throughline is consistent. Senior leaders are paid for the impact they have on other people in a room, and that impact is a learnable craft, not an inherited trait. Key speaking topics Leadership communication and executive presence Personality and behavioural styles in teams Building high-trust senior teams Influence and personal impact for senior leaders Leading through change and disruption Networking and first-impression effectiveness Motivation and peak performance for executive groups Ideal for CEO peer-advisory groups (Vistage, Academy for Chief Executives, YPO style forums) where the audience is operating leaders Senior leadership offsites where the brief is “we are not communicating well as a team” Sales and client-facing leadership conferences focused on influence and presence Newly promoted senior leaders in formal executive development programmes Audience outcomes A practical model for identifying the four dominant personality styles in their own team and adjusting how they brief, sell, and decide A clearer read on which behaviours are reducing their personal impact at senior level Specific habits for opening meetings, opening conversations, and opening relationships in the first ten seconds Renewed appetite for leading the team rather than working around it A shared vocabulary the leadership team can carry into the next 90 days of meetings

Why organisations work with Nick Ferrari A daily live audience of more than a million listeners on LBC means the interviewing reflex is current, not nostalgic. The questions land because they were sharpened that morning. Thirty years inside national news, from The Sun and the Daily Mirror to the launch of Sky News and Fox TV in New York, gives him a working knowledge of how organisations get covered and where their messaging breaks. Sony Radio Academy Awards for Breakfast Show of the Year and Speech Broadcaster of the Year are external markers of broadcasting craft, not bureau adjectives. He is comfortable with contested material. Politicians, regulators and CEOs have all sat across from him on air, which is the relevant experience for chairing a panel where audiences expect more than sponsor-friendly questions. Biography highlights Presenter, Nick Ferrari at Breakfast, LBC (since 2004; first LBC breakfast slot in 2001) Launch Editor, Sky News, 1989 Vice President of News and Programming, Fox TV, New York Sony Radio Academy Award, Breakfast Show of the Year, 2006 Sony Speech Broadcaster of the Year, 2009; Arqiva Breakfast Show of the Year, 2010 Former editor of The Sun’s Bizarre column and Deputy Editor of the Daily Mirror Biography National breakfast radio is the hardest live format on British media. Three hours, five days a week, with politicians, regulators, listeners on the line and no script. Nick Ferrari has held the LBC breakfast slot since 2004 and has been awarded Sony Radio Academy honours including Breakfast Show of the Year in 2006 and Speech Broadcaster of the Year in 2009. The journalism behind the broadcasting is unusually broad. Ferrari was Launch Editor of Sky News in 1989, then Vice President of News and Programming at Fox TV in New York. Before that he edited The Sun’s Bizarre column and was Deputy Editor of the Daily Mirror. The sequence matters for organisations: he has run rooms in tabloid Fleet Street, in start-up television and in network American news, and knows how each treats a corporate story. That background is what makes him useful in front of a corporate audience. He chairs panels with regulators, ministers and chief executives without slipping into either deference or grandstanding. He hosts award dinners with the timing of a daily presenter rather than a guest speaker. The reason organisations book him is not access to a thesis; it is access to an interviewer who knows how to keep a senior panel honest and a room awake. Key speaking topics Conference hosting and chairing Panel moderation with senior public figures After-dinner speaking and corporate awards hosting Broadcasting and journalism Media, politics and current affairs Interviewing and on-stage Q&A Ideal for Annual conferences and senior leadership offsites that need a chair, not a keynote Corporate award dinners and gala evenings looking for a known broadcaster as host Regulator, financial services and public-sector events with politically sensitive panels Internal town halls or executive forums where leaders need to be interviewed in front of staff Audience outcomes A panel that produces real answers rather than rehearsed lines, because the chair pushes back An evening or conference paced with broadcast timing, on the clock and on the brief Senior executives interviewed in a way that feels credible to staff, journalists and clients in the room A host the audience already knows from national radio, which lifts the perceived authority of the agenda

Why organisations work with Nicholas Owen A hard-news anchor pedigree built on News at Ten, Channel 4 News and ITV Lunchtime News, which gives him the authority to chair regulated, high-stakes and politically sensitive sessions without losing the room. A documented track record on serious scientific and medical platforms, including the European Society of Cardiology and the European Haematology Association, where clinical accuracy and pacing matter as much as presence. Royal Television Society award-winning reporting credentials from his years as ITN Royal Correspondent, which translate into a calm, considered interview style suited to senior leaders and high-profile guests. After-dinner range built over fifty years in journalism and still in active demand, drawing on the memoir Days Like This, with material that works for City audiences, charity galas and trade dinners alike. Charity-sector credibility through long-standing Ambassador roles with The Prince’s Trust and The Children’s Trust, useful when the event has a philanthropic dimension that needs handling with care. Biography highlights Anchor of ITV’s News at Ten, Channel 4 News and ITV Lunchtime News across more than two decades at ITN. ITN Royal Correspondent 1994 to 2000; central to ITN’s RTS Award-winning coverage of the death and funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales. Channel 4 News Business and Economics Correspondent, following seven years at the Financial Times and earlier roles at the Evening Standard and Daily Telegraph. BBC News presenter from 2007; main relief presenter for BBC Weekend News on BBC One and the BBC News Channel. Author of Diana: The People’s Princess (Carlton Books) and the memoir Days Like This (Blenheim Press). Honorary Doctor of Letters, University of Brighton (2015); Ambassador for The Prince’s Trust and The Children’s Trust. Biography A live audience programme is harder than a news bulletin. The autocue is gone, the running order will slip, and the chair has to interview a CEO, a clinician and a winner in the same hour without losing pace. Nicholas Owen has done versions of that job, on air and on stage, for the better part of fifty years. His broadcast record runs from the Surrey Mirror in 1964 through Fleet Street (Evening Standard, Daily Telegraph, seven years at the Financial Times), into BBC North East in 1981 and then ITN from 1984. At ITN he anchored News at Ten, Channel 4 News and ITV Lunchtime News, served as Business and Economics Correspondent on Channel 4 News, and presented Midnight Special during the First Gulf War. He rejoined the BBC in 2007 as a presenter on BBC News and the BBC News Channel. The work that defined his public profile was the ITN Royal Correspondent role he held from 1994 to 2000. He was central to ITN’s coverage of the death and funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, for which ITN received a Royal Television Society Award. He later wrote Diana: The People’s Princess for Carlton Books, and his own memoir Days Like This in 2012. Corporate buyers hire him for the craft built across those decades: chairing industry conferences and awards ceremonies, moderating international medical congresses including the European Society of Cardiology and the European Haematology Association, and handling question time sessions and after-dinner programmes for City and charity audiences. The University of Brighton awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2015 for his journalism and his charity work as Ambassador for The Prince’s Trust and The Children’s Trust. He remains on air, presenting on Classic FM and contributing to radio and television. Key speaking topics Conference hosting and chairing Awards ceremony presenting Panel moderation and question time Medical and scientific congress facilitation After-dinner speaking and corporate entertainment Broadcast journalism and the Royal story Economic trends and business news interviewing Ideal for Corporate awards organisers and trade body event leads commissioning a known broadcast face to chair the night. Conference programme directors at medical, scientific and financial industry congresses needing a chair who can handle technical content with clinical pacing. Heads of internal communications running senior leadership town halls, AGMs and results events that need a steady external presence. Charity and foundation event leads where Ambassador-level fluency in Prince’s Trust and Children’s Trust subject matter adds value. Audience outcomes A programme that runs to time, handles overruns cleanly and keeps senior speakers in their slots. Interviews with panellists and award winners that draw out something memorable rather than reading the brief back at them. A host who can move between a serious clinical session, a corporate prize-giving and an after-dinner address in the same event week. An audience that leaves with the sense that the event was professionally held, not merely populated.