Storytelling & Business Communication

Why organisations work with Simon Jack His position as sitting BBC Business Editor gives direct, current insight into how major financial and corporate stories are selected, framed and brought to national audiences – not historical analysis, but active editorial intelligence A decade in investment banking across London, New York and Bermuda means he interrogates market events and corporate decisions from inside knowledge, not observation; financial audiences notice the difference Uniquely placed to explain the mechanics of media-corporate accountability, how organisations end up on the wrong side of a headline, and what that process actually looks like from within a national broadcaster The Good Bad Billionaire podcast (Best Business Podcast, British Podcast Awards 2024) demonstrates an ability to make wealth, power and business ethics accessible and genuinely engaging for broad audiences – a value signal for any organisation wanting sharp facilitation, not just informed commentary His BBC Panorama film on male suicide brings personal authority to mental health discussions in business contexts that few speakers in this space can match Biography highlights BBC Business Editor since 2016, holding the role previously occupied by Robert Peston, Jeff Randall and Kamal Ahmed Decade in corporate and investment banking across London, New York and Bermuda before joining the BBC PPE, St John’s College, Oxford Lead BBC correspondent for the 2008 financial crisis: Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, AIG bailout, Lloyds TSB/HBOS Co-presenter of Good Bad Billionaire (BBC World Service) – Best Business Podcast, British Podcast Awards 2024 Presented BBC Panorama «A Suicide in the Family» (2015), a personal investigation into male suicide and the death of his father Biography When a major financial institution collapses, a rate decision lands, or a FTSE company comes under scrutiny, the story that reaches boardrooms and living rooms alike passes through a small number of editorial gatekeepers. Understanding how that process works – what gets reported, what gets simplified, what gets missed – is increasingly relevant to any senior leader operating in a complex economic environment. Simon Jack has spent two decades sitting at that interface. Appointed BBC Business Editor in 2016, he leads the corporation’s coverage of business, markets and economic policy across television, radio and digital platforms (a role previously held by Robert Peston). Before entering journalism, he spent a decade in corporate and investment banking in London, New York and Bermuda, building a working understanding of how financial institutions operate, how risk is managed, and how decisions are made under pressure that journalists who came up through newsrooms simply do not have. The dual experience of practitioner then investigator, gives Jack a particular kind of credibility. He has reported from inside major market events, including the 2008 financial crisis across Lehman Brothers, the AIG bailout and the HBOS collapse. He co-presents Good Bad Billionaire for BBC World Service, which won Best Business Podcast at the 2024 British Podcast Awards, demonstrating an ability to make the economics and ethics of extreme wealth engaging for audiences well beyond the specialist. He also presented the BBC Panorama film «A Suicide in the Family» – a personal and investigative piece on male suicide – which established him as a credible voice on mental health in a way that is unusual for a business journalist of his seniority. His value to organisations is not analysis from a distance. It is the perspective of someone who has been inside the financial system, run editorial coverage of it, and understands how the story between those two worlds gets told. Key speaking topics Global financial markets and economic developments Banking, investment banking and institutional risk Media accountability and corporate reputation Business journalism and editorial decision-making Wealth, power and business ethics Male mental health in professional contexts Ideal for Financial services, banking and insurance sector conferences seeking credible external perspective on market dynamics and media coverage Senior leadership and board-level events where understanding the media-corporate interface is strategically relevant Corporate communications, investor relations and policy teams navigating how economic narratives are formed Organisations seeking a facilitator or moderator with genuine financial literacy and broadcast authority Audience outcomes A clearer understanding of how major financial and economic events are selected, shaped and communicated by national media, and what that means for organisational decision-making Insight into the practical gap between financial reality and public narrative, drawn from experience on both sides Greater literacy in reading market events and economic signals, without requiring specialist background A more grounded perspective on how corporate institutions appear under editorial scrutiny, and what factors shape that For events that include the mental health strand: a serious, personally grounded framing of male wellbeing in high-pressure professional environments

Why organisations work with Shashi Tharoor He has held substantive roles at all three levels of global decision-making – UN senior leadership, national government minister, and parliamentary committee chair. His analysis of geopolitical risk is grounded in direct institutional experience, not inference. Inglorious Empire makes a specific, evidenced argument that British colonialism reduced India’s share of world GDP from 23 per cent to 4 per cent. That argument now shapes how India approaches trade negotiations, multilateral engagement, and its relationships with former colonial powers – and any organisation operating in or alongside India needs to understand it. As current chair of India’s Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, he articulates how India’s foreign policy decisions are actually being made and debated. That is not a perspective available from analysts outside the room. His 2015 Oxford Union speech became one of the most-viewed political addresses in recent memory, without institutional amplification, on the strength of its argument alone. Organisations placing him before senior audiences are drawing on a demonstrably high-impact communicator. His Project Syndicate column appears in approximately 80 newspapers, alongside regular contributions to The New York Times and Washington Post – a track record of making geopolitical complexity legible to exactly the audiences his clients are trying to reach. Biography highlights Four-term Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala; current chair of the Lok Sabha Standing Committee on External Affairs 29-year UN career (1978–2007), culminating as Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information under Secretary-General Kofi Annan; India’s official candidate for UN Secretary-General in 2006, finishing second to Ban Ki-moon PhD from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, at age 22 – the youngest in the school’s history at that time; founding editor-in-chief of the Fletcher Forum of World Affairs Author of 23+ books; Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India won the Sahitya Akademi Award (2019) and Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award (2017); The Great Indian Novel won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (1991) Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (France, 2022); Pravasi Bharatiya Samman (India’s highest honour for overseas nationals, 2004); World Economic Forum «Global Leader of Tomorrow» (1998) Contributing author to The New York Times, Washington Post, TIME, and Newsweek International; monthly Project Syndicate column syndicated to approximately 80 newspapers worldwide Biography India’s share of the global economy stood at 23 per cent when the British East India Company arrived. By independence in 1947, it had fallen to 4 per cent. That single data point – made with forensic precision in Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India – is how Shashi Tharoor moved a historical argument into mainstream geopolitical discourse. The book grew from a 2015 Oxford Union speech that accumulated millions of YouTube views and earned cross-party praise in India, including from Prime Minister Modi. It won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2019. Tharoor’s authority on international affairs is not rhetorical. He spent 29 years at the United Nations – joining as a refugee worker in Geneva in 1978 and rising to Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information under Kofi Annan. In 2006, the Government of India nominated him as its official candidate for Secretary-General; he finished second to Ban Ki-moon in the Security Council straw polls. The candidacy was a direct acknowledgement of the stature he had built inside the institution. Since entering elected politics in 2009, he has served four terms as Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram and currently chairs the Lok Sabha Standing Committee on External Affairs. His vantage point spans the full arc of India’s global engagement – from the multilateral institutions he helped lead to the parliamentary committees now setting the direction of India’s foreign and trade policy. For organisations navigating a world where India is simultaneously a growth market, a strategic partner, and an independent geopolitical actor, Tharoor offers something no consultant’s report can replicate: a first-hand account of how power actually works from the inside of both global institutions and national government. He holds a doctorate from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and contributes regularly to The New York Times, Washington Post, and Project Syndicate. Key speaking topics Geopolitics and the fracturing of the multilateral order India’s strategic autonomy and its global rise Post-colonial history and its economic legacy International trade, diplomacy, and political risk India as an emerging market and 21st-century power Multilateral institutions: limitations, reform, and alternatives Leadership in public life and political decision-making Ideal for Boards and C-suite teams with material India exposure or strategic interest in South Asia Senior leaders navigating geopolitical risk in global markets – particularly in the context of US–China–India triangulation Policy-focused leadership conferences engaging with the future of multilateralism and international institutions Organisations in sectors directly affected by India’s trade and regulatory policy: manufacturing, financial services, technology, and energy Audience outcomes A structured framework for understanding India’s geopolitical positioning and what its pursuit of strategic autonomy means for international business Informed context on how post-colonial history is actively shaping India’s trade relationships, diplomatic priorities, and domestic politics A clearer picture of how multilateral institutions are evolving – and what fills the gaps when they fail to hold Practical language for discussing geopolitical risk in board conversations, without resorting to oversimplification A more grounded model for engagement with the Global South, particularly India, that goes beyond market data

Why organisations work with Seth Godin The permission marketing framework, first articulated in 1999, anticipated the mechanics now encoded in GDPR, email consent law, and the inbound marketing movement. Organisations working with Godin are drawing on the original source, not a derivative Purple Cow provides a genuinely testable argument: remarkability must be designed into the product or service from the outset, not applied as a marketing layer afterwards: a direct challenge to most organisations’ R&D and go-to-market sequencing His body of work spans 21 bestsellers over three decades with a consistent intellectual thread; buyers are not engaging with a single-thesis speaker, but with someone whose thinking has proved durable across multiple market cycles Inducted into the Marketing Hall of Fame (2018), the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame (2013), and the Guerrilla Marketing Hall of Fame – the only person known to hold all three – giving him third-party validation across the full spectrum of marketing practice His daily blog, running for over 25 years without interruption, is itself a proof point for the compounding value of consistent, permission-based communication: a lived demonstration of the principle he teaches Biography highlights Author of 21 international bestsellers translated into 38+ languages, including Permission Marketing, Purple Cow, Tribes, Linchpin, This Is Marketing, and This Is Strategy (2024 National Bestseller) Originator of the «permission marketing» and «interruption marketing» frameworks (1999), now foundational to digital marketing, CRM practice, and consent regulation worldwide Founder of Yoyodyne, a pioneering permission-marketing company sold to Yahoo! in 1998; served as Yahoo!’s VP of Direct Marketing post-acquisition Inducted into the Marketing Hall of Fame (AMA New York, 2018), the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame (2013), and the Guerrilla Marketing Hall of Fame MBA, Stanford Graduate School of Business; BA in computer science and philosophy, Tufts University Founder of the altMBA, an intensive online leadership and decision-making workshop Five TED Talks; author of one of the most-read daily business blogs in the world Biography Seth Godin sold his first company, Yoyodyne, to Yahoo! in 1998 for $29.6 million. It was a permission marketing business: built around the then-contrarian argument that reaching people who had consented to hear from you was worth more than reaching vastly more people who had not. That argument is now the structural basis of email marketing, CRM, and data consent regulation across most markets. His 1999 book Permission Marketing named the framework and introduced its counterpart: interruption marketing, the logic of buying attention from people who did not want to give it. The book’s central claim – that anticipated, personal, relevant communication outperforms volume-based reach at every commercial stage – has proved more durable than most marketing theory of its era. HubSpot built a software category around a version of it. GDPR made it legally mandatory. The same structural argument runs through his subsequent work. Purple Cow made the case that a product worth noticing is the precondition for marketing worth running. Tribes reframed leadership as community-building rather than hierarchy. This Is Strategy, published in 2024 and a US National Bestseller, gives organisations a practical framework for distinguishing between long-term systems thinking and reactive planning. Each book refines the same underlying question: what does it actually take to earn the attention and trust of people who have a choice? He holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a degree in computer science and philosophy from Tufts University. Inducted into three marketing halls of fame and the author of 21 international bestsellers, Godin writes a daily blog that has run without interruption for over 25 years; a compounding body of public intellectual work that few business writers at any level have matched. Key speaking topics Permission-based marketing and opt-in engagement Market differentiation and the logic of remarkability Strategy, systems thinking, and long-term planning Tribe leadership and community-driven growth Creative practice and the discipline of shipping work The economics of attention in overcrowded markets Climate communication and collaborative action Ideal for CMOs and brand leadership teams rethinking acquisition and retention strategy CEOs and senior strategy leads pressure-testing their differentiation logic Founders and growth-stage leaders building category identity Boards and executive teams resetting planning frameworks in volatile conditions Audience outcomes A working understanding of the permission marketing framework and how it applies to current customer acquisition and retention strategy A testable argument for why remarkability must precede marketing investment, not follow it Practical framing for the difference between short-term attention tactics and long-term trust-building Exposure to the systems-thinking approach in This Is Strategy, useful for teams that confuse tactics with strategy A challenge to default assumptions about reach, volume, and interruption as commercial levers

Why organisations work with Richard Olivier A method that develops presence and voice as taught capabilities, not personality traits, drawing on theatre direction and Jungian archetype rather than competence frameworks. Author of “Inspirational Leadership: Henry V and the Muse of Fire,” a published thesis that named clients commission as a structured leadership intervention, not a motivational talk. Associate Fellow at Said Business School and former Master of Mythodrama at Shakespeare’s Globe, which gives the work an academic and artistic credibility that experiential leadership programmes rarely combine. Founder of Olivier Mythodrama, a consultancy that has run leadership programmes in more than 40 countries, so the room he holds is a senior international one. Recognised as Thought Leader 2013 by the Best Practice Institute, a credible signal that the methodology has currency beyond his own consultancy. Biography highlights Founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Olivier Mythodrama, delivering leadership development in over 40 countries. Associate Fellow of Said Business School, University of Oxford. Master of Mythodrama at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, 1998 to 2003. Author of “Inspirational Leadership: Henry V and the Muse of Fire” (Nicholas Brealey). Co-author of “Archetypes at Work” with Laurence Hillman. Named Thought Leader 2013 by the Best Practice Institute. Biography Most leadership development teaches behaviour. It does not teach voice. The capability that decides whether a senior leader can hold a room, carry conviction through a hard quarter, or move a tired workforce through another restructure is rarely on the syllabus, and rarely treated as something that can be developed at all. That gap is where Richard Olivier’s work sits. After ten years as a theatre director, including directing Henry V at the opening season of Shakespeare’s Globe in 1997 and serving as Master of Mythodrama at the Globe from 1998 to 2003, he founded Olivier Mythodrama, a leadership development consultancy that uses classical story, Jungian archetypal psychology, and performance technique to develop senior leaders. The consultancy now runs programmes in more than 40 countries. His book, “Inspirational Leadership: Henry V and the Muse of Fire,” published by Nicholas Brealey, became the structural spine of the work. It treats Henry V’s transformation as a sequence of leadership tasks, voice, vision, judgement, and then derives the practical psychology behind each. Said Business School at Oxford uses the material as a leadership intervention; Olivier holds an Associate Fellowship there. The Best Practice Institute named him Thought Leader of 2013, and he co-authored “Archetypes at Work” with Laurence Hillman in 2019, extending the method into a wider framework for leadership identity. The argument across the body of work is consistent: presence is teachable, archetype is diagnostic, and the leaders who inspire their organisations have done specific developmental work to get there. Key speaking topics Inspirational leadership and executive presence Leadership voice and communication under pressure Archetypal psychology in leadership identity Storytelling as a leadership discipline Leading through change and uncertainty Creativity and authenticity in senior roles Ideal for CHROs and Chief Learning Officers commissioning senior leader development Boards and executive committees preparing for major change or restructure Leadership academies and high-potential programmes inside large organisations Partner and managing director cohorts in professional services firms Audience outcomes A working vocabulary for leadership presence as a developable capability, not a personality trait. A structured way to read leadership challenges through archetype, with practical implications for how a leader shows up. Tools drawn from theatre craft for voice, framing, and holding attention in high-stakes settings. A clearer sense of the difference between managerial competence and the inspirational dimension of senior leadership.

Why organisations work with Richard Hammond A face audiences already trust. Two decades on Top Gear and The Grand Tour means a senior room recognises him the moment he walks on, which shortens the warm-up and lifts the agenda. Hosting craft built in live broadcast. Hammond reads a room the way a presenter reads a studio, which is the specific skill awards nights and corporate dinners need. Storytelling drawn from genuine high-stakes experience. The 2006 Vampire crash and the 2017 Rimac crash give him material that lands without rehearsal because it actually happened. Entrepreneurial second act. DriveTribe and The Smallest Cog give Hammond credible commercial experience to draw on when a brief calls for substance beyond hosting, particularly in automotive, media, and brand-building contexts. Comfortable across formats. Awards host, after-dinner speaker, panel moderator, fireside Q and A; he does not need a single staged format to work. Biography highlights Co-presenter, Top Gear, BBC Two, 2002 to 2015, with Jeremy Clarkson and James May. Co-presenter, The Grand Tour, Amazon Prime Video, 2016 to 2024. Author of On the Edge: My Story (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2008) and As You Do (Orion, 2007). Founder of The Smallest Cog, a classic car restoration business in Hereford, opened 2021. Co-founder of DriveTribe, the automotive content platform launched in 2016. Presenter of Brainiac: Science Abuse (Sky One), Total Wipeout (BBC One), and Richard Hammond’s Workshop (Discovery+). Biography Top Gear ran for thirteen years on BBC Two with three presenters who became, between them, one of the most exported television properties in British broadcasting history. Hammond was the smallest of the three on screen and the one audiences most often warmed to first. That recognition is the asset corporate buyers are buying when they put him on a stage. Hosting a room of senior executives is closer to live television than to keynote speaking. The host has to set the tempo, hand off cleanly between segments, recover from a missed cue, and keep the audience with the agenda rather than ahead of it. Hammond has spent more than twenty years doing exactly this work, first across local BBC radio, then across motoring television, and most consistently as one third of the Top Gear and Grand Tour line-up. The 2006 Vampire dragster crash at RAF Elvington gave him a recovery story that has become its own asset. He was travelling at 288 mph when the tyre failed; he spent two weeks in a coma; he wrote about the recovery in On the Edge in 2008. When the brief calls for an after-dinner set with substance behind the laughs, that material is genuinely his. Beyond broadcast, Hammond has a working business in The Smallest Cog, the Hereford classic car restoration workshop he opened in 2021, and a media platform in DriveTribe, which he co-founded with Clarkson and May in 2016 and now runs himself. Both give him commercial ground to stand on when a brief moves from hosting into something closer to a fireside conversation about reinvention, brand, or the economics of motoring media. Key speaking topics Awards hosting and ceremony presenting Corporate after-dinner sets Automotive media and broadcast Recovery and return after the 2006 Vampire crash Building DriveTribe and The Smallest Cog The Top Gear and Grand Tour years Engineering, performance cars, and motoring journalism Ideal for Annual award nights and industry awards ceremonies Corporate dinners, gala evenings and partner events Automotive sector conferences and dealer events Brand activations and customer hospitality with a motoring or engineering audience Audience outcomes An evening that runs on tempo, with a host who keeps the agenda moving without flattening it. A first-hand account of the 2006 crash and recovery that anchors the room when the brief calls for it. A working perspective on automotive broadcast, classic car restoration, and the commercial side of motoring media. The recognition value of a presenter the audience already watches at home.

Why organisations work with Raphael Rowe His story is not a metaphor. He served close to twelve years in prison for a 1988 murder he did not commit, as part of the M25 Three case, before the Court of Appeal ruled the convictions unsafe in 2000. His broadcast credentials are substantial in their own right: host of Netflix’s Inside the World’s Toughest Prisons since season two, BBC Panorama reporter, and a track record on BBC Radio 4’s Today, BBC One’s Six O’Clock News and Pilgrimage: The Road to Santiago. The Panorama investigative work, including on the Barry George case, places him inside the British public-interest journalism tradition rather than on the margin of it. The Raphael Rowe Foundation, his own organisation focused on prison health, education and rehabilitation, gives him a platform on institutional accountability that is active, not historical. He is comfortable on any stage that wants the full range of his experience, from a resilience keynote to a main-stage moderator role to an in-depth session on justice, media and institutional failure. Biography highlights Presenter of Netflix’s Inside the World’s Toughest Prisons since 2018 BBC Panorama reporter, BBC Radio 4 Today programme, BBC One Six O’Clock News, Pilgrimage: The Road to Santiago (BBC Two) Investigative work including the wrongful conviction of Barry George in the Jill Dando murder case Author of autobiography Notorious Founder of the Raphael Rowe Foundation, working on prison health, education and rehabilitation Served close to 12 years wrongly imprisoned as part of the M25 Three case; convictions ruled unsafe, 2000 Biography The M25 Three case is one of the most-cited miscarriages of justice in modern British legal history. Raphael Rowe is one of the three men at the centre of it. Convicted in 1990 for a 1988 murder and a series of aggravated robberies, he spent close to twelve years in prison before the Court of Appeal ruled the convictions unsafe in July 2000. That experience is the reason he speaks with authority on institutional accountability, resilience and the cost of being wrong, and the reason he chose to spend the second half of his working life investigating the same systems from the outside. Since his release, Rowe has built a career in BBC and international broadcast journalism. He has reported for and presented BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, BBC One’s Six O’Clock News and BBC Panorama, where his investigations included the wrongful conviction of Barry George for the murder of Crimewatch presenter Jill Dando. Outside the newsroom, he presented Pilgrimage: The Road to Santiago for BBC Two, a format that allowed him to explore questions of meaning and resilience at long form rather than in soundbites. The Netflix commission is the title that most audiences now know him by. Since 2018 he has hosted Inside the World’s Toughest Prisons, the series that has taken him into maximum-security facilities in more than 20 countries, with a perspective no other presenter in the category has: he is the only host who has served time on the other side of the bars. The advocacy work sits alongside the broadcasting. He founded the Raphael Rowe Foundation to work on health, education and rehabilitation inside prison systems, and his autobiography Notorious is his first-person account of the conviction, imprisonment and rebuild. For corporate audiences, Rowe offers a resilience keynote that cannot be recreated, a host with Netflix-level recognition, and a credible voice on institutional failure when the brief calls for it. Key speaking topics Resilience and rebuilding after catastrophic adversity Criminal justice, wrongful convictions and institutional accountability Investigative journalism and the public interest Prison reform, health, education and rehabilitation Ethics and accountability inside institutions Media craft: hosting, long-form journalism and broadcast storytelling Ideal for Corporate audiences and leadership events looking for a first-person resilience keynote with substance Legal, justice and compliance audiences engaging with institutional accountability and miscarriage of justice Media, communications and PR organisations wanting an investigative-journalism perspective Events requiring a Netflix/BBC-grade host or moderator with a high-recognition public profile Audience outcomes A grounded account of what resilience looks like after a decade inside a system most audiences only study A clearer view of how and why institutions make catastrophic errors, and what breaks that cycle A specific set of examples from Netflix’s Inside the World’s Toughest Prisons and BBC Panorama investigative work Reference points on institutional accountability that are usable in legal, corporate and public-sector contexts The benefit of a recognised Netflix and BBC name in the room for audience engagement and post-event conversation

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