Storytelling & Business Communication

Why organisations work with Andrew Wilson A decade reporting from Moscow, Jerusalem and Washington gives him the standing to interview heads of state, ministers and CEOs without deferring to them, and without grandstanding. RTS-winning presenting craft from Sky News Live at 5 means he controls pace, time and tone on a live stage the way a broadcast studio expects, which is rare on the corporate circuit. Regular moderator at the World Economic Forum in Davos and at COP conferences, which means he arrives fluent in the vocabulary of geopolitics, macro risk and climate policy rather than briefed on it the night before. A Reuters track record of sit-down interviews with international CEOs, directly applicable to sponsor-led fireside formats, AGMs and leadership off-sites where the quality of the questions is the product. Editorial independence on sensitive material: conflict coverage from Afghanistan, Ukraine, Gaza, Chechnya and Iraq means he is comfortable in rooms where the subject matter is politically live. Biography highlights Former Sky News foreign correspondent in Moscow, Jerusalem and Washington DC, with international awards from each posting. Presenter of Sky News Live at 5, winner of the RTS Best News Programme award in 2016. Ten years presenting current affairs on Sky News, including coverage of three US presidential elections, Russian and Israeli elections, and conflicts in Afghanistan, Libya, Gaza, Ukraine and Iraq. Moderator and interviewer at the World Economic Forum in Davos and at COP environmental conferences; host of Virgin Formula E events in New York and Paris. Conducted CEO interview series internationally for Reuters. Member of BAFTA, mentor with the John Schofield Trust, and contributor to the Westminster foreign-affairs think tank Global Strategy Forum. Biography Live-television credibility is hard to fake on a corporate stage. A host either controls the room, the clock and the interview, or the audience quietly checks out. Wilson spent a decade as a Sky News foreign correspondent in Moscow, Jerusalem and Washington, then close to ten years anchoring current affairs in London, which is where that control comes from. The editorial range is unusually wide for an event moderator. He reported the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and, since then, conflict and breaking news from Afghanistan, Ukraine, Gaza, Chechnya, Lebanon, Iraq and the Asian Tsunami, along with three US presidential cycles and Russian and Israeli elections. His programme Live at 5 won the RTS Best News Programme award in 2016. That grounding now carries into a second career hosting leadership conversations where the subject matter is serious. He moderates at the World Economic Forum in Davos and at COP environmental conferences, has run CEO interview series for Reuters, and hosts Virgin Formula E events in New York and Paris. He is a member of BAFTA, mentors emerging journalists through the John Schofield Trust, and contributes to the Westminster foreign-affairs think tank Global Strategy Forum. For organisations putting a senior figure on stage, the value is specific. Wilson is the journalist in the chair who has already covered the story, already interviewed the type of person sitting across from him, and already worked to a live clock every night for a decade. Key speaking topics Corporate event hosting and conference moderation CEO fireside interviews and on-stage panels Geopolitics and international affairs US politics and elections Climate policy, COP and sustainability Media and communications skills training Ideal for Boards, CEOs and investor-day organisers commissioning a live on-stage interview or panel Sustainability, ESG and policy conferences wanting a moderator fluent in COP and Davos language Global sales kick-offs, leadership summits and AGMs where the chair needs to handle live Q and A with senior external guests Communications and PR leaders running media-skills or crisis-interview training for executives Audience outcomes A meeting where senior speakers are drawn out rather than read from notes, with time kept and the agenda landed. Panel discussions with clearer editorial framing and sharper questions than an internal moderator typically delivers. On-stage CEO interviews that read as credible to journalists, analysts and investors in the room. Sessions on geopolitics and sustainability that are chaired with working knowledge of the vocabulary, not a briefing document read aloud.

Why organisations work with Alex Hunter He ran Virgin Group’s global digital strategy and Sir Richard Branson’s personal digital presence. That is rare operator experience at the intersection of corporate brand and personal brand at global scale. As a founding-team member at Virgin America, he built the marketing campaign that won the airline public support during its certification process. His work was covered by Time, CNN and CNBC. His travel series Attaché has been named Travel Vlogger of the Year at the Travel Media Awards four separate times. He has had to build and keep a digital audience himself, which sharpens how he thinks about customer loyalty for the brands he advises. His client work spans Volkswagen, IKEA, Adobe, Shell, Salesforce, L’Oréal, Pepsi and McDonald’s. The pattern recognition he brings to a brand question comes from operating across categories where customer expectations look nothing alike. Biography highlights Former Global Head of Online for the Virgin Group, including oversight of Sir Richard Branson’s personal digital strategy. Founding-team member at Virgin America as Manager of Interactive Marketing. Work honoured with ad:tech and Webby Award recognition and covered by Time, CNN and CNBC. Creator and host of Attaché. Named Travel Vlogger of the Year at the Travel Media Awards in 2016, 2017, 2023 and 2024. Co-host of Layovers, an air travel and aviation podcast that has charted at number one in more than fifty countries. Venture Partner at Ignite Accelerator. Former trustee of UK alcohol education charity Drinkaware and advisor to the Prince of Wales’ Rainforest Trust on social media engagement. Speaker and advisor to organisations including Volkswagen, IKEA, Adobe, Shell, Salesforce, Twitter, L’Oréal, Pepsi, McDonald’s and the BBC. Biography Virgin runs across airlines, telecoms, music, trains, space travel and wellness, and the brand reads as a single personality in each. Getting that kind of consistency out of a global portfolio is a specific operational discipline. Alex Hunter spent years running it. As Global Head of Online for the Virgin Group, Hunter oversaw digital strategy across the entire brand portfolio and ran Sir Richard Branson’s personal digital presence. Before that he was a founding-team member at Virgin America, where his marketing campaign won the airline public support during certification and was covered by Time, CNN and CNBC. He has also worked the other side of the table, as a creator. His travel series Attaché has been named Travel Vlogger of the Year at the Travel Media Awards four times since 2016. His aviation podcast Layovers has charted at number one in over fifty countries. Both have required him to build and hold an audience himself, which is what the brands he advises are trying to do at scale. His client list runs through Volkswagen, IKEA, Adobe, Shell, Salesforce, L’Oréal, Pepsi and McDonald’s. What he gives each is a view shaped by running Virgin’s digital brand at portfolio scale and then earning his own audiences from zero. The first taught him that brand consistency is a daily editorial discipline. The second taught him that customer loyalty is won episode by episode and can be lost in one. Key speaking topics Brand strategy in a digital-first market Customer experience and loyalty Digital marketing and audience engagement Content, storytelling and brand voice Building brands at corporate scale and startup pace Customer expectations across industries Ideal for Chief Marketing Officers, Chief Brand Officers and Chief Customer Officers setting brand and loyalty agendas Digital, e-commerce and customer experience leadership teams Agency leadership and in-house creative teams briefing against enterprise clients Board and executive forums where brand reputation sits alongside revenue and risk Audience outcomes A sharper view of where their brand actually lives in a customer’s day, and where it does not The specific places digital investment earns loyalty and the specific places it wastes it A working definition of customer experience that separates noise from the decisions that move repeat business Examples from inside Virgin, Virgin America and his own Attaché audience of what consistency costs and what it earns

Why organisations work with Alastair Campbell Direct experience of running government communications through general elections, war, and the daily pressure of Downing Street, applied to corporate equivalents: contested deals, regulatory crises, leadership transitions. A working method for handling hostile media and political environments that has been tested at the centre of UK government, not theorised about. Author of Winners: And How They Succeed, drawing named lessons from political, business, and sporting leaders that translate directly into how senior teams plan, decide, and execute. One of the UK’s most prominent voices on workplace mental health, with lived experience and the institutional credibility of an honorary fellowship of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. A platform that reaches senior decision-makers at scale: The Rest Is Politics runs at around eight million downloads a month, giving him a current read on the political and economic context boards are trying to interpret. Biography highlights Director of Communications and Strategy for Prime Minister Tony Blair, 1997 to 2003, after running Blair’s communications in opposition from 1994. Co-host with Rory Stewart of The Rest Is Politics, one of the most-listened-to political podcasts in the UK and the leading politics show on YouTube during the 2024 general election. Bestselling author of The Blair Years, Winners: And How They Succeed, Living Better, and But What Can I Do?, alongside the All In The Mind novels. Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists; former Mind Champion of the Year; co-founder of Equality4MentalHealth. Editor-at-large of The New European and a long-standing political columnist and broadcaster. Senior journalism background at the Daily Mirror and Today before moving into political communications. Biography Communication inside government is judged on the days when something has gone wrong. For nine years from 1994, Alastair Campbell sat at the centre of those days for Tony Blair, first as press secretary, then as Director of Communications and Strategy, through the 1997 election, the early years of devolution, Northern Ireland, Kosovo, and Iraq. The job was not press handling. It was the operational core of how a government decided what to say, to whom, and when. That experience now sits behind a second career as an author, broadcaster, and advisor. Winners: And How They Succeed set out a working theory of strategic leadership drawn from named figures across politics, business, and elite sport. The Blair Years and his subsequent diaries are the most detailed account of decision-making inside a modern UK government. His work is read by leaders who have to make calls under the same kind of scrutiny, in different sectors. The mental health work is the second strand. Living Better is an account of his depression and the systems, clinical and personal, he has used to manage it. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, a former Mind Champion of the Year, and a co-founder of Equality4MentalHealth, the cross-party campaign that secured an additional 600 million pounds for UK mental health services. For corporate audiences, this is not an add-on topic. It is a senior leader who has built a public discipline around a private struggle. The Rest Is Politics, his podcast with former Conservative minister Rory Stewart, reaches several million listeners a month and led the UK politics charts through the 2024 election. The podcast is an unusual asset for a speaker: a current, weekly read on the geopolitical and domestic context in which boards and executive teams are now operating. Key speaking topics Communications strategy under pressure Leadership and decision-making in crisis Political risk and the geopolitical operating context Workplace mental health and senior leader resilience Lessons from winners across politics, business, and sport Media, scrutiny, and reputation management Campaign strategy and persuasion Ideal for CEOs, chairs, and executive committees facing contested decisions, regulatory scrutiny, or leadership transitions Communications, public affairs, and corporate affairs leaders responsible for crisis and reputation HR and people leaders building senior-level mental health and resilience programmes Leadership development audiences and partner conferences in professional services, financial services, and regulated sectors Audience outcomes A clearer view of how to make and communicate decisions when scrutiny is hostile and information is incomplete. Specific, named lessons from inside government and elite performance environments on what separates winners from competent operators. A more honest framework for senior leaders to think about their own resilience, including mental health, as a strategic variable rather than a personal weakness. A current read on the political and geopolitical environment shaping commercial decisions over the next cycle. Practical reference points for handling media, public scrutiny, and internal communication under pressure.

Why organisations work with Ade Adepitan He has lived disability discrimination in three intersecting dimensions – Nigerian-born, Black, and physically disabled in working-class East London – giving organisations a perspective on inclusion that is personal, structural and political, not theoretical. His Paralympic bronze, World Championship gold and 20 years as one of the UK’s first visibly disabled television presenters mean he speaks from earned authority on both peak performance and public representation – not campaigning alone. His Channel 4 documentary on Nigeria’s polio eradication prompted Bill Gates to invite him to address the Global Vaccine Summit in 2020 – evidence that his work on disability and global health has real policy reach beyond the broadcasting world. The 2023 RTS Best Sports Presenter Award and BAFTA-winning Paralympic coverage give him peer recognition from the broadcast industry as a communicator of genuine authority, which directly validates his use as a platform for any inclusion message. As Chancellor of Birmingham City University since 2024, he brings current institutional standing – and a live stake – in questions of access, diversity and representation in education and public life. Biography highlights Bronze medallist, 2004 Athens Paralympic Games (wheelchair basketball, Great Britain); gold medallist, 2005 Paralympic World Cup, Manchester; silver medallist, European Championships MBE (2005) for services to disability sport; Honorary Doctorates from Loughborough University and the University of East London One of the first visibly disabled television presenters in the UK; over 20 years broadcasting for Channel 4 and the BBC Lead presenter, Channel 4’s BAFTA-winning coverage of the 2012 London Paralympic Games (alongside Clare Balding) RTS Award, Best Sports Presenter (2023), for Channel 4’s 2022 Winter Paralympics coverage Named in the Powerlist 2020 – 100 most influential Black British people Chancellor of Birmingham City University (from 2024), succeeding Sir Lenny Henry Speaker, Global Vaccine Summit: We Changed History (2020), at the invitation of Bill Gates, following Channel 4 documentary on Nigeria’s polio eradication Biography Disability rarely gets equal airtime in inclusion conversations – and when it does, it tends toward legal compliance rather than lived experience. Ade Adepitan MBE has spent over two decades making that distinction impossible to ignore: as a Paralympic medallist, a BAFTA-winning broadcaster, and now as Chancellor of Birmingham City University. His credentials begin with sport. Contracting polio in Lagos at 15 months and growing up in East London, he reached the highest level of wheelchair basketball – winning bronze at the 2004 Athens Paralympics and gold at the 2005 Paralympic World Cup in Manchester. The disciplines of elite competition – preparation, decision-making under pressure, and recovery from setback – form the foundation of everything he brings to organisations on resilience and performance. He became one of the first visibly disabled presenters on British television and has been a lead voice for Channel 4 and the BBC for over 20 years. That includes the BAFTA-winning 2012 London Paralympic Games coverage, the four-part BBC Two documentary Africa with Ade Adepitan, Climate Change: Ade on the Frontline, and extensive coverage of Paralympic Games from Athens to Paris. The 2023 Royal Television Society Award for Best Sports Presenter – for his 2022 Winter Paralympics work – came with judges describing him as a broadcaster of genuine insight and charisma, not a ceremonial accolade. His reach extends into policy. His Channel 4 documentary investigating Nigeria’s polio eradication prompted Bill Gates to invite him to address the Global Vaccine Summit in 2020. He appears on the Powerlist of the 100 most influential Black British people. And in 2024 he became Chancellor of Birmingham City University, where his stated mission is to be a torchbearer for disability rights in education and public life. Organisations working with Ade Adepitan are engaging someone whose work has moved from screens into summits – and whose authority on inclusion is earned from all three directions at once. Key speaking topics Disability inclusion and workplace accessibility Resilience and elite performance mindset Diversity, equity and representation in organisations Storytelling and the role of media in shaping social perception Global health advocacy and public responsibility Climate change and environmental impact Inclusion in education and leadership pipelines Ideal for CHROs and DEI leads developing or stress-testing disability inclusion strategies Leadership conferences addressing the gap between ESG commitments and workforce experience Organisations with social impact and public accountability mandates Education sector and public institutions focused on access, representation and opportunity Audience outcomes A sharper understanding of how disability inclusion differs from – and connects to – broader DEI programmes, grounded in direct lived experience An honest account of how resilience and elite performance are built over time, drawn from competitive Paralympic sport and a 20-year public career Insight into the role organisations and media play in either sustaining or dismantling the invisibility of disability Awareness of the strategic cost of treating disability as a compliance exercise rather than a cultural and commercial priority A credible, evidence-based challenge to the assumption that DEI commitments translate automatically into inclusion

Key speaking topics UK politics and government Global political developments Election campaigns and political strategy Media and political broadcasting US politics and transatlantic relations The role of journalism in modern democracy Political leadership and decision-making Ideal for Corporate leadership teams seeking political and geopolitical context Financial services and global businesses monitoring political risk Conferences focused on public affairs, media or government relations Organisations hosting moderated discussions with political leaders or policymakers Audience outcomes Clearer understanding of the UK political landscape and decision-making environment Insight into global political developments and their implications for organisations Perspective on election campaigns, political strategy and leadership Understanding of how political narratives are shaped in modern media Context for interpreting government policy and political risk Why organisations work with Adam Boulton Extensive experience covering UK and international politics across broadcast media. Ability to explain complex political developments in clear, structured terms for business audiences. Credibility built through decades of political reporting, interviews with national leaders and major election coverage. Skilled moderator and conference host able to guide informed discussions on politics, policy and public affairs. Biography Adam Boulton is one of the most experienced figures in British political broadcasting, with a career spanning more than four decades reporting on UK and international politics. As the founding Political Editor of Sky News, he played a central role in shaping the channel’s political coverage and became a prominent voice in live political journalism and election reporting. During his time at Sky News he hosted several of the network’s flagship political programmes, including All Out Politics, Boulton and Co, Sunday Live and Week in Review. He has fronted major live political and election coverage and conducted interviews with every UK Prime Minister from Sir Alec Douglas-Home onwards, alongside extensive reporting on US politics since the Reagan era. Earlier in his career he served as Political Editor at TV-am before joining Sky News, and he was elected chairman of the Parliamentary Lobby. His contribution to political journalism has been recognised with the Royal Television Society’s supreme judges’ award. Alongside his broadcasting career, Adam is an established political commentator and presenter. He hosts Sunday Morning with Adam Boulton on Times Radio, contributes commentary for Sky News, and has written political analysis for publications including Reaction. Adam is also an author. His books include Tony’s Ten Years: Memories of the Blair Administration and Hung Together: The 2010 Election and the Coalition Government, written with Joey Jones. Beyond broadcasting and writing, Adam is a sought-after moderator and speaker for corporate and public affairs events. He brings decades of experience covering government, elections and global political developments, helping organisations understand the forces shaping political decision-making and international affairs. He has also served as a governor of Sevenoaks School and received an honorary Doctor of Business from the University of Plymouth.

Why organisations work with Robert Cialdini His Seven Principles of Influence – Reciprocity, Commitment and Consistency, Social Proof, Authority, Liking, Scarcity, and Unity – are the most widely referenced persuasion framework in business, grounded in peer-reviewed experimental research rather than practitioner observation. No comparable model carries equivalent scientific credibility. Pre-Suasion introduced a counterintuitive and commercially actionable argument: the moment before a message is delivered determines whether it will be received. That gives leaders, negotiators, and commercial teams a lever – the deliberate management of attention and context – that most organisations have never systematically deployed. His research has been applied across contexts from US presidential campaign strategy to national energy conservation policy, demonstrating that the principles are not industry-specific – they describe universal mechanisms of human decision-making. Influence is listed in Fortune’s “75 Smartest Business Books” and CEO Read’s “100 Best Business Books of All Time”; Pre-Suasion was a Financial Times Best Business Book of 2016. The durability of both titles means organisations are reinforcing, not introducing, a framework that their people already partially know – which accelerates adoption. The Society for Personality and Social Psychology has named a prize in his honour – a signal of the field’s verdict on the quality and societal relevance of his research, not merely its commercial reach. Biography highlights Regents’ Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing, Arizona State University; visiting scholar at Stanford Graduate School of Business, Ohio State, and the Annenberg School of Communications Author of Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (1984) and Pre-Suasion (2016) – combined sales of over seven million copies in more than 44 languages Pre-Suasion was a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller; named a Financial Times Best Business Book of 2016 Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2018) and the National Academy of Sciences (2019) Described by Harvard Business Review as “the foremost expert on effective persuasion”; Influence listed in Fortune’s “75 Smartest Business Books” and CEO Read’s “100 Best Business Books of All Time” President and CEO of INFLUENCE AT WORK; holds honorary doctorates from Georgetown University, the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (Wroclaw), and the University of Basel Biography Robert Cialdini’s foundational research did not begin in a laboratory. He spent three years working undercover inside the professions of compliance – car dealerships, fundraising organisations, telemarketing firms – observing how influence actually operates in real commercial settings. That methodology produced Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, published in 1984. The Six Principles it identified – Reciprocity, Commitment and Consistency, Social Proof, Authority, Liking, and Scarcity – became the most applied persuasion framework in business, referenced from sales training programmes to business school curricula to the annual letters of Berkshire Hathaway. More than thirty years later, Cialdini returned with a second argument. Pre-Suasion proposed that the persuasive moment does not begin when a message is delivered – it begins before. The conditions set in the moments prior to communication determine whether an audience is receptive. Changing minds, he argued, requires changing states of mind first. Pre-Suasion became a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, and a Financial Times Best Business Book of 2016. It also introduced the seventh principle – Unity – based on the finding that shared identity is among the most powerful drivers of influence. The commercial applications are direct and cross-functional. Sales and marketing teams use the principles to structure offers and sequence communications. Leaders apply them to change management and stakeholder alignment. Negotiators use the Pre-Suasion concept to set the conditions before a position is stated. Harvard Business Review has described Cialdini as “the foremost expert on effective persuasion.” Richard Thaler, co-author of Nudge, has said no psychologist’s research has been applied more often or more successfully. Cialdini is Regents’ Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University and has held visiting scholar appointments at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and the Annenberg School of Communications. He has been elected to both the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The Society for Personality and Social Psychology has named a prize in his honour – awarded for research that demonstrates societal relevance through field methods, which is precisely the standard his own work set. Key speaking topics The Seven Principles of Influence Pre-Suasion and the psychology of attention Ethical persuasion in leadership and negotiation Behavioural science in sales and marketing Social proof and organisational decision-making The Unity principle and collaborative alignment Science-based communication strategy Ideal for CMOs, sales directors, and commercial leadership teams seeking evidence-based frameworks for customer and stakeholder communication C-suite and board-level audiences navigating change, alignment, or strategic persuasion challenges Heads of marketing, brand, and communications responsible for message design and audience receptivity Negotiation, procurement, and business development professionals Audience outcomes A working understanding of the Seven Principles of Influence – including Unity – and how each applies in commercial, leadership, and negotiation contexts A clear grasp of the Pre-Suasion concept: how to shape audience receptivity before a message is delivered, and why this is distinct from refining the message itself A framework for distinguishing ethical influence from manipulation – and a practical understanding of why the distinction matters commercially as well as reputationally Specific, research-grounded adjustments to the sequencing, framing, and context of communication that improve persuasive effectiveness Confidence to apply the principles immediately across sales, leadership, and change management settings without requiring institutional change first

Why organisations work with Lior Zoref He gives leaders a tested method for sourcing decisions and ideas from hundreds or thousands of people, drawn from his Bar-Ilan PhD research and his book Mindsharing rather than from anecdote. His TED 2012 talk, the first ever crowdsourced TED talk, is itself a working demonstration of the method, complete with a live audience experiment that hit within three pounds of the right answer. He has run the same playbook inside Microsoft as a VP, which means he can speak to senior teams about adoption, internal politics and the practical limits of crowd input, not just the upside. His current work on collective and artificial intelligence gives executives a usable frame for where human crowd input still beats algorithms, and where the two should be combined. Boards and CEO offices can put him in front of an audience that includes Bill Gates, Al Gore and Jeff Bezos at TED-level events without losing them on technical depth or losing the room on accessibility. Biography highlights PhD in crowdsourcing, Bar-Ilan University; BA and MA in computer science, the Technion. Fourteen years at Microsoft, ending as Vice President of Marketing for Consumer and Online Services. Author of Mindsharing: The Art of Crowdsourcing Everything, listed by Inc. magazine among its top books for entrepreneurs. Delivered the first crowdsourced TED talk at TED 2012 in Long Beach, including a live ox-weighing experiment that became one of the conference’s most-discussed moments. Keynote client list includes SAP, KPMG, Jaguar, Kodak, Nike, LinkedIn, Element Fleet Management and the Consumer Technology Association. Coverage and citation in Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, NPR, The New Yorker, Inc. and the BBC. Biography The first crowdsourced TED talk was delivered in 2012 by a former Microsoft marketing VP who walked on stage at Long Beach with a live ox. Five hundred audience members guessed its weight. The crowd’s average came within three pounds. The point of the demonstration was simple. Groups, properly used, are often more accurate than the smartest individual in the room. The speaker behind it, Lior Zoref, has spent the years since turning that idea into a working method for organisations. His PhD in crowdsourcing at Bar-Ilan University, combined with fourteen years inside Microsoft, gives him a rare double position. He can argue the academic case for crowd wisdom and explain what it actually takes to run it inside a large company with established hierarchies and politics. Mindsharing, his book on the topic, was named by Inc. magazine among its best books for entrepreneurs and has been translated into multiple languages. It treats social and internal networks as a decision-making asset that most leaders still underuse, with examples drawn from how he crowdsourced his own TED talk and his book. His current keynote work focuses on the line between collective human intelligence and artificial intelligence. The argument he brings to senior audiences is not that AI replaces the crowd, or that the crowd outperforms AI, but that organisations that learn to combine the two will out-decide and out-innovate those that pick a side. Key speaking topics Crowd wisdom and collective intelligence Innovation and idea generation at scale Decision-making in complex environments Collective intelligence and artificial intelligence Leadership in the era of networked organisations Crowdsourcing for product, marketing and strategy Ideal for CEOs and executive teams looking to widen the input set on major strategic decisions Innovation, R and D and product leaders running idea-generation programmes CMOs and customer experience leaders using community and customer crowds as a strategic asset Leadership offsites and TED-style flagship events that need a high-credibility, demonstration-led keynote Audience outcomes A working understanding of when crowd input beats expert input, and when it does not Concrete techniques for running crowdsourced decisions inside an organisation, with named examples A clearer view of how to combine human collective intelligence with AI tools rather than treating them as substitutes A memorable, demonstration-led case for changing how senior teams generate options before they choose

Why organisations work with Sir Trevor McDonald He is one of a small group of living public figures whose presence at the front of a room is itself a statement about the seriousness of the occasion. Royal events, charitable galas, and major industry awards have used him in this capacity for over thirty years. His firsthand interviews with Nelson Mandela on his release, Saddam Hussein on the eve of the first Gulf War, Colonel Gaddafi, Yasser Arafat, Bill Clinton and Tony Blair give him a stock of stories about global power that no contemporary commentator working from secondary sources can match. He carries the credibility of more than thirty years anchoring ITV’s flagship evening news, where he was repeatedly polled as Britain’s most trusted news presenter. Audiences across age groups recognise him on sight. He brings the perspective of a journalist who reported from every continent across five decades, including over ten years covering the Northern Ireland Troubles, giving any audience access to someone who watched the modern world being shaped from the front row. Biography highlights Knighted in 1999 for services to broadcasting and journalism, awarded OBE in 1992 BAFTA Fellowship (2011), Royal Television Society Gold Medal (1998), BAFTA Richard Dimbleby Award (1999), Royal Television Society Judges’ Award (2005), National Television Award for Special Recognition (2003) Sole presenter of ITV’s News at Ten from 1992 until December 2005, and host of ITV’s Tonight from 1999 to 2007 First British television journalist to interview Nelson Mandela following his release in 1990, and the only British journalist to interview Saddam Hussein on the eve of the first Gulf War Author of An Improbable Life: The Autobiography (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2019), a Sunday Times bestseller Former Chancellor of London South Bank University; honorary degrees from the University of Plymouth, the Open University, Liverpool John Moores, the University of the West Indies, Kingston University and others Biography Nelson Mandela walked out of Victor Verster Prison in February 1990 to face a global press pack. The first British television journalist to sit down with him for an interview was Sir Trevor McDonald, then Diplomatic Editor at ITN. Later that same year, on the eve of the first Gulf War, he became the only British journalist to secure an interview with Saddam Hussein. Those two assignments are typical of a career that placed Sir Trevor in proximity to most of the people who shaped late twentieth century geopolitics. Across more than five decades at the BBC, ITN and ITV, he reported from every continent. He covered Northern Ireland’s Troubles for over a decade, the negotiations over Britain’s entry to the European Common Market, the Reagan and Gorbachev summits, and the 1985 Philippine “people power” elections that won Channel Four News a BAFTA. From 1992 to December 2005 he was the sole presenter of ITV’s News at Ten, the country’s flagship evening news. He was repeatedly polled as Britain’s most trusted news presenter and named Television and Radio Industries Club Newscaster of the Year on multiple occasions between 1993 and 2009. Knighted in 1999 for services to broadcasting, awarded the BAFTA Fellowship in 2011, he is one of a handful of figures in British public life whose name is itself a guarantee of seriousness at an event. His later work moved into long-form documentary for ITV, including Inside Death Row, To Catch A Serial Killer and Fred and Rose West: The Real Story. He published his Sunday Times bestselling autobiography An Improbable Life with Weidenfeld & Nicolson in 2019. He is a former Chancellor of London South Bank University, has chaired the Better English Campaign, and co-chaired a Nuffield Foundation inquiry into the teaching of foreign languages in British schools, work for which he was honoured by the French and German governments. Key speaking topics Geopolitics and international affairs Reporting from conflict zones The arc of late twentieth century world events Trust and credibility in public communication Journalism, media and public life Witness to modern political history Ideal for Boards, executive committees and senior leadership audiences requiring gravitas at major in-house events Industry associations hosting flagship awards, conferences or anniversary dinners Trustees and committees of major public-interest charities, foundations and royal patronages Conference programme leads commissioning international affairs panels, moderated discussions or main-stage interviews Audience outcomes Stories from the room where Nelson Mandela gave his first British television interview after his release, and where Saddam Hussein sat for his only British television interview before the Gulf War A perspective on the long arc of post-1970 geopolitics from someone who reported it as it happened, not from someone analysing the archive Reflection on what serious public communication looks like, drawn from over thirty years anchoring Britain’s most-watched evening news A room that feels significant from the moment he takes the stage, which is the principal reason organisations rebook him

Why organisations work with Matthew Luhn He spent more than 20 years inside Pixar’s story room, working on Toy Story, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, Up and Ratatouille, so the principles he teaches are the ones that actually shipped some of the most commercially successful films ever made. His book The Best Story Wins (Morgan James, 2018) gives buyers a named, documented methodology, not a generic storytelling pitch. Teams leave with a structure they can apply to a keynote, a sales call, or a brand campaign. He is one of very few speakers who has been inside a working creative culture at scale, and can speak credibly to how Pixar’s Braintrust process produces honest creative feedback without breaking trust. His client list on this material includes Apple, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, Capital One, Procter and Gamble, Sony and Target, which signals that senior brand, marketing and innovation leaders are the audience he is built for. He treats storytelling as a commercial competency, not a soft skill. The work is aimed at sharper messaging, stronger brand recall, and better internal communication of strategy. Biography highlights Story artist and story supervisor at Pixar Animation Studios across more than two decades, with credits on Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, Cars, Ratatouille, Up, Toy Story 3 and Monsters University. One of the original 12 animators hired on the first Toy Story film in 1995. Youngest animator hired on The Simpsons at age 19, with credits on six 1992 episodes including Kamp Krusty and Lisa’s Pony. Author of The Best Story Wins: How to Leverage Hollywood Storytelling in Business and Beyond, Morgan James Publishing, 2018. TEDx speaker (TEDxUCSB), and corporate keynote speaker for Apple, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, Capital One, Procter and Gamble, Sony, Target, Vrbo, Adidas and Lego. Trained at the California Institute of the Arts character animation program; BFA from the Academy of Art University. Biography Pixar built one of the most reliable creative engines in modern business by treating story as a discipline, not a talent. Inside that engine sat a small group of story artists whose job was to find, in every film, the emotional truth a global audience would respond to. Matthew Luhn was one of them, across more than 20 years and films including Toy Story, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, Up and Ratatouille. That work began early. He was the youngest animator hired on The Simpsons at 19, then joined Pixar in 1995 as one of the first 12 animators on Toy Story. He moved into the story room for Toy Story 2 and stayed there, eventually as story supervisor, through some of the most commercially successful animated films ever made. The carry-over to business is direct. The same questions a story artist asks about a film, what does the audience need to feel, what is the change, what is the one thing they should remember, are the questions a leader should be asking about a strategy launch, a sales pitch or a brand campaign. His book, The Best Story Wins (Morgan James, 2018), turns those questions into a working methodology. Buyers tend to find him through a specific tension. Their messages are accurate but not memorable. Their brand is recognised but not loved. Their internal communications inform but do not move people. Apple, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, Capital One, Procter and Gamble, Sony and Target have used his work to address those gaps. Key speaking topics Business storytelling Brand narrative and customer engagement Creative culture and the Pixar Braintrust process Innovation and creative differentiation Leadership communication Sales and pitch storytelling Ideal for CMOs, brand directors and content leaders rebuilding how the company shows up to customers. Innovation leads and product organisations that need to make new ideas land internally and externally. Sales leadership and revenue teams sharpening pitch craft and customer-facing narrative. Internal communications and HR leaders running large town halls, change programmes or culture launches. Audience outcomes A working structure for building a story around any business message, drawn from the Pixar story process. Sharper sense of what makes a brand or product narrative memorable rather than merely accurate. Tools for giving and receiving honest creative feedback, modelled on the Pixar Braintrust. A clearer separation between information delivery and persuasion, applied to keynotes, pitches and internal comms. Specific, repeatable techniques the team can apply to the next campaign, all-hands or customer presentation.

Why organisations work with Martin Bayfield A rare first-hand account of operating inside two of England rugby’s most successful sides of the 1990s, including the 1992 Grand Slam squad and the 1993 Lions Test pack, told without sentimentality. Direct insight into how a career-ending neck injury reshapes identity, preparation and decision-making, and what that demands of leaders managing people through forced change. A serving police officer for much of his international career, which gives him a working understanding of accountability, public scrutiny and operating under formal command structures alongside elite sport. Two decades of broadcasting craft on ITV rugby, BT Sport and BBC One’s Crimewatch, which translates into a stage manner that holds a senior room rather than performing at it. One of the few keynote speakers who can move credibly between high-performance team sport, public service and major popular culture, with the Hagrid body-double work in the Harry Potter films sitting alongside the rugby record. Biography highlights 31 caps for England at lock; member of the 1992 Five Nations Grand Slam squad and the 1995 Rugby World Cup squad. Three Test appearances for the British and Irish Lions on the 1993 tour of New Zealand, partnering Martin Johnson in every Test. Club career at Bedford Blues and Northampton Saints; retired in 1998 after a neck injury sustained in a Northampton training session. Police service with the Metropolitan Police from 1985 to 1989, then with Bedfordshire Police. Author of A Very Tall Story, published by Simon and Schuster UK in 2022. Co-presenter of BBC One’s Crimewatch with Kirsty Young from 2012 to 2016; rugby presenter for ITV at the 2007 and 2011 Rugby World Cups, and for BT Sport and TNT Sports; body and stunt double for Hagrid in the Harry Potter films. Biography Most leadership stories about elite sport are told in highlight reel. The more useful version is what happens inside the squad on the days when the plan is failing, the body is hurt and the public verdict has already been written. Martin Bayfield played in that environment for most of the 1990s, winning 31 England caps and three Tests for the British and Irish Lions in New Zealand in 1993 alongside Martin Johnson. He did it while still a serving police officer, first with the Metropolitan Police and then with Bedfordshire Police, which gave him an unusual vantage point on accountability and command. The amateur era forced players to hold two careers at once, and Bayfield speaks about that compression with the directness of someone who lived it rather than the nostalgia of someone who reads about it. His playing career ended in February 1998 when a neck injury in a Northampton Saints training session closed the door overnight. The reinvention that followed is the part that resonates with senior audiences. Broadcasting work for ITV at the 2007 and 2011 Rugby World Cups, BT Sport and TNT Sports rugby coverage, four years co-presenting BBC One’s Crimewatch with Kirsty Young, and a parallel screen career that includes serving as Robbie Coltrane’s body and stunt double for Hagrid across the Harry Potter films. The 2022 memoir A Very Tall Story, published by Simon and Schuster, sets out the same material in his own voice: the shambolic last days of amateurism, the two Grand Slam squads, the players around him from Will Carling to Brian Moore, and what a sudden ending teaches about identity. For senior leadership audiences, that is the substance behind the talk. Key speaking topics High-performance team dynamics in elite sport Leadership under public scrutiny Career-ending change and personal reinvention Accountability inside high-trust groups Lessons from the British and Irish Lions and international rugby Communication and presence on camera Ideal for Executive leadership offsites and board strategy days focused on team performance under pressure Sales kick-offs and major customer events where a keynote also needs stage authority and humour After-dinner and conference dinner slots at gala formats where senior audiences expect substance with delivery Audience outcomes A specific account of how the 1993 Lions and Grand Slam-era England squads built trust and held discipline when results were in doubt. A grounded perspective on accountability drawn from playing and policing alongside one another. A useable frame for thinking about identity and reinvention after a forced career change. A senior-room reset on what high-performance teamwork actually looks like up close, separated from the cliches.

Why organisations work with Jon Acuff He brings original research, not commentary. The Soundtracks framework is built on a study of 10,000 participants run with researcher Mike Peasley, PhD, which gives leaders a defensible behavioural model rather than a motivational pep talk. Finish is a Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller built around a specific, uncomfortable data point: most goals fail in the middle, not the start. Teams leave with a method for surviving the middle of any initiative. He is one of Inc. Magazine’s Top 100 Leadership Speakers and a repeat keynote at FedEx, Walmart, Microsoft, Nissan, Lockheed Martin, Chick-fil-A and Nokia, which means his frameworks have already been pressure-tested inside large, complex workforces. His sessions convert into language a workforce can use the next morning. Soundtracks, Finish, Do Over and All It Takes Is a Goal each give teams named tools they can apply without a consultant in the room. He is funny in a way that lowers defences without lowering the bar. Senior audiences engage with behavioural content they would normally resist when it arrives as a slide titled “mindset”. Biography highlights New York Times bestselling author of Soundtracks, Finish, Start, Do Over, and All It Takes Is a Goal. Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done was a #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller. Named to Inc. Magazine’s Top 100 Leadership Speakers list. Keynote client list includes FedEx, Walmart, Microsoft, Nissan, Lockheed Martin, Chick-fil-A, Nokia and Comedy Central. Soundtracks framework built on a 10,000-participant study of overthinking conducted with Mike Peasley, PhD. Host of the All It Takes Is a Goal podcast; earlier career as a copywriter for The Home Depot, Bose, and Staples, and three years as a touring speaker at Dave Ramsey’s Lampo Group. Biography Most large organisations do not have a strategy problem. They have a finishing problem. Goals are set in January and re-set in July. Initiatives stall in the middle. Smart teams overthink themselves to a stop. The work that gets booked is the work that helps a workforce close the gap between intention and execution, which is the territory Jon Acuff has spent two decades inside. His method is built on research, not anecdote. The Soundtracks framework, published in the bestselling book of the same name, was developed alongside researcher Mike Peasley, PhD, using a study of 10,000 participants on how overthinking degrades performance. Finish, his Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller, sits on a similar evidence base and reframes goal failure as a problem of the middle, not the start. Soundtracks, Finish, Start, Do Over and All It Takes Is a Goal have collectively crossed a million copies in print. Inc. Magazine ranks him among its Top 100 Leadership Speakers, and the keynote client list reads like a stress test of the work itself: FedEx, Walmart, Microsoft, Nissan, Lockheed Martin, Chick-fil-A, Nokia, Comedy Central. He came to the stage through an unusual route, beginning as a copywriter for The Home Depot, Bose and Staples, then spending three years at Dave Ramsey’s Lampo Group, before going independent in 2013. What makes the work usable is the language. A workforce cannot run on a 200-page model. It can run on a phrase like “retire the broken soundtrack” or a tool like the Finish principle of choosing what to do imperfectly. Acuff’s audiences leave with named tools that survive the trip back to the desk on Monday morning. Key speaking topics Overthinking and decision-making Goal completion and follow-through Performance and motivation in large workforces Behaviour change at scale Resilience through career and role transitions Leadership communication and storytelling Ideal for CHROs and people leaders running annual goal-setting, performance, or engagement cycles. Sales and revenue leaders preparing kick-offs that need execution lift, not just energy. Transformation and change leads inside large workforces where initiative fatigue is a real risk. Annual all-hands and leadership conferences for organisations of 1,000-plus employees. Audience outcomes A working vocabulary for the overthinking patterns slowing teams down, drawn from the Soundtracks research. A repeatable method for finishing initiatives in the messy middle, taken from the Finish framework. Named tools, not abstractions, that managers can use in one-to-ones the following week. A measurable shift in how a workforce talks about goals, motivation, and personal accountability. Confidence that a serious behavioural message can land in a room without losing its evidence base.

Why organisations work with Christian Gansch His work draws directly on the governance and communication structures of professional orchestras to diagnose alignment failures inside organisations – not as analogy, but as operational system analysis. Leaders leave with a replicable model, not just a perspective. His 14 years as a senior producer at Deutsche Grammophon (1990-2003) mean he has exercised genuine executive authority – across production, marketing, sales, and commercial strategy – inside a major global institution. This is the experience of a manager who performed at the highest level, not a performer who later studied management. His book «From Solo to Symphony» (2006) gives his framework a named, tested structure that organisations can return to. The central argument – that orchestras are precision operating systems, not just inspiring metaphors – is the intellectual spine of every engagement. He puts a question to leadership teams that most frameworks avoid: how many high-performing soloists can a team accommodate before individual excellence starts to fracture collective output? The orchestra offers a concrete, daily-tested answer. He speaks and consults in both English and German, making him an operationally practical choice for pan-European organisations and those with significant DACH-region leadership presence. Biography highlights Leader (concertmaster) of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra from 1981 to 1990 Senior producer at Deutsche Grammophon from 1990 to 2003; responsible for approximately 190 classical recordings including productions with Pierre Boulez, Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Lang Lang, and Anna Netrebko Multiple Grammy Award winner as a producer; recipient of the Record Academy Award Tokyo (Gold) in the Best Concerto Disc category Conducted major orchestras internationally, including the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France Paris, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, and BBC National Orchestra of Wales BBC Proms debut at the Royal Albert Hall; conducted Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the orchestra and chorus of Teatro La Fenice, Venice; opera credits include Le nozze di Figaro with Opera North Author of «From Solo to Symphony – What businesses can learn from orchestras» (2006) and a second German-language business book; corporate consulting and keynote work with clients including Airbus, BASF, Deloitte, and Roche since 2003 Biography Christian Gansch spent a decade as leader of the Munich Philharmonic. He then spent fourteen years as a senior producer at Deutsche Grammophon. In both roles, the daily challenge was identical: turning highly skilled, independently minded specialists into a functioning collective. His book «From Solo to Symphony» (2006) makes a specific argument from that experience. Professional orchestras are not simply compelling analogies for corporate life – they are operational systems, with precise structures for authority, communication, and coordination. Most large organisations have never consciously built those structures. The gap shows up in execution. His 190 recordings at Deutsche Grammophon were produced across commercial, artistic, and logistical functions simultaneously. That cross-functional executive experience – managing complexity at the level of a major global label – is what separates his framework from that of performers who later turned to speaking. Gansch operated inside the institution, not just on stage. Since 2003, his consulting and keynote work has taken him to organisations including Airbus, BASF, Deloitte, and Roche. The question he brings to every leadership engagement is the one an orchestra solves in every rehearsal: when each individual in the room is an expert in their own domain, what structure of communication and authority allows the group to act as one? Key speaking topics Orchestral leadership and organisational alignment High-performance team dynamics in expert-driven environments Communication and authority structures in complex organisations Leadership decision-making under pressure Managing the tension between individual excellence and collective output Change readiness and adaptability Ideal for C-suite and senior leadership teams working on alignment, coordination, and collective performance CHROs and organisational development leads designing performance culture in large, expert-heavy organisations Executive conferences and leadership summits with DACH-region or international audiences Organisations in professional services, engineering, or life sciences navigating cross-functional complexity Audience outcomes A named operational framework – the orchestral model – for thinking about authority, communication, and coordination in large organisations Specific diagnostic questions for their own leadership teams about the relationship between individual performance and collective output A clearer vocabulary for the gap between team capability and team alignment – and what structures close it Practical perspectives on decision-making under pressure, drawn from the specific demands of conducting at the highest level A changed understanding of what «communication» requires at an organisational level, beyond cultural aspiration