Storytelling & Business Communication

Why organisations work with Marcus Collins He translates cultural anthropology into commercial decisions, turning ideas that usually live in academic departments into practical inputs for brand, product, and growth strategy. His book For the Culture provides a single thesis with named mechanisms for how meaning, identity, and belonging move markets. Buyers get an argument they can hand to a team, not a set of trend observations. He has run the work he teaches. Apple’s iTunes and Nike sport music, Beyonce’s digital strategy, Wieden+Kennedy New York, and named campaigns for Google, Brooklyn Nets, and State Farm sit behind every claim. Thinkers50 named him to the 2023 Radar with the Distinguished Achievement Award for the idea most likely to shape the future of business management. That puts him among a small group of new voices the global management community has formally endorsed. He sits inside the platform side of culture as Professor in Residence at TikTok, which means his read on how brand meaning forms and spreads is current, not retrospective. Biography highlights Clinical Professor of Marketing, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan Professor in Residence, TikTok Former Chief Strategy Officer, Wieden+Kennedy New York Author, For the Culture (PublicAffairs, 2023); Thinkers50 2023 Best New Management Booklist Thinkers50 Radar Distinguished Achievement Award, 2023 American Advertising Federation Advertising Hall of Achievement; Ad Age and Crain’s 40 Under 40 Columnist, Adweek and Forbes Biography Culture, not demographics, decides what consumers buy and what they refuse. Marcus Collins built a career inside that observation. He ran digital strategy for Beyonce, worked on iTunes and Nike sport music at Apple, and went on to serve as Chief Strategy Officer at Wieden+Kennedy New York, the agency behind Nike’s most enduring brand work. His doctorate at Temple University was in cultural contagion and meaning-making, the academic foundation that now sits behind his book For the Culture. Published in 2023, it landed on the Thinkers50 Best New Management Booklist and won him the Radar Distinguished Achievement Award the same year, naming his thinking as the idea most likely to shape the future of business management. He teaches marketing at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, holds a Professor in Residence role at TikTok, and writes columns for Adweek and Forbes. His commercial fingerprints are on Google’s Real Tone, the relaunch of the Brooklyn Nets, the Made In America festival, and State Farm’s Cliff Paul campaign. For senior commercial audiences, his value is specific. He gives marketing, growth, and brand teams a working theory of why some ideas move through a culture and most do not, and he ties that theory to operating choices about positioning, audience, and product. Key speaking topics Cultural contagion and consumer behaviour Brand strategy and meaning-making Marketing in a fragmented media environment The role of identity in consumption Building brands that earn cultural relevance Storytelling and business communication Customer experience and brand Ideal for CMOs and brand leaders rebuilding marketing strategy for a post-demographic environment Growth and commercial leadership teams trying to understand why their category narrative has stopped working Creative agencies and in-house brand teams looking for an applied framework on cultural relevance Consumer-facing businesses, retail, media, sport, technology, where brand meaning is a competitive variable Audience outcomes A working definition of culture that explains why messages succeed or fail, beyond demographic targeting A clear view of how meaning, identity, and belonging move audiences toward or away from a brand Named mechanisms from For the Culture that brand and marketing teams can apply to live campaigns Examples drawn from Apple, Nike, Beyonce, Brooklyn Nets, Google, and State Farm, showing how cultural strategy operates inside real commercial work A sharper sense of why most brand and growth strategies underperform in fragmented markets, and what changes when culture becomes the unit of analysis

Why organisations work with Henry Bonsu Thirty years of live broadcast experience, from BBC Radio 4’s Today to Times Radio, produce a chair who can steer a twelve-person panel in real time without losing either the agenda or the audience. He is the annual host of the African Banker Awards since 2008 and a repeat moderator for the UNDP, WHO Africa Region, UNHCR, and the African Union. When an institution has a reputational stake in the room, it books him back. He has introduced UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and World Bank President Jim Kim on the same stage at the Financing for Development conference in Addis Ababa, and chaired sessions at COP21 in Paris. He handles heads-of-state protocol without friction. Oxford-trained in German and French, fluent across African political economy, Westminster politics, and US affairs, which matters when a panel crosses jurisdictions and language registers in the same hour. Corporate conveners including Maersk, KPMG, and Cartier International use him for sustainability, diversity, and development briefs where a sharp, well-briefed chair is more valuable than a keynote. Biography highlights Magdalen College, Oxford graduate in German and French (1986 to 1990). Former producer on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme and Black Britain on BBC Two. Co-founder and presenter at Colourful Radio, London, from 2006. Current Times Radio presenter, Thursday and Friday 10pm to 1am slots since 2022. Host of the African Banker Awards every year since 2008. Regular moderator for UNDP, WHO Africa Region, UNHCR, and the African Union; chaired sessions at COP21 Paris, the UN General Assembly in New York, and the Financing for Development conference in Addis Ababa. Biography Some conference chairs open a panel, read the bios, and hand the microphone around. Others run the room. Henry Bonsu is in the second group, and the reason is thirty years of live broadcasting behind the craft. He came to moderation through journalism. After reading Modern Languages at Magdalen College, Oxford, he produced BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, fronted Black Britain on BBC Two, and presented the Drivetime show on BBC London 94.9. In 2006 he co-founded Colourful Radio, one of the first London stations built for a Black audience. He is now a regular evening presenter on Times Radio, where he covers UK and US politics, education, and mental health. That broadcast discipline translates directly into how he chairs. He has hosted the African Banker Awards every year since 2008, moderated at COP21 in Paris, and chaired eight sessions at the Financing for Development conference in Addis Ababa, where he introduced UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and World Bank President Jim Kim. The UNDP, WHO Africa Region, UNHCR, and the African Union use him repeatedly. Corporate conveners including Maersk, KPMG, AfrAsia Bank, and Cartier International bring him in for sustainability, diversity, and development briefs. What the buyer gets is a chair fluent in the policy terrain, calm under heads-of-state protocol, and willing to ask the question a nervous room is avoiding. On a stage where the brief is serious and the speakers are senior, that is what holds the discussion together. Key speaking topics Moderation and chairing for international summits African finance and economic development Climate policy and sustainable development goals UK and US political affairs Race, culture, and public debate Media training and executive broadcast coaching Ideal for Heads of communications and event directors at UN agencies, multilateral institutions, and development banks convening ministerial or heads-of-state panels. Corporate sustainability and ESG leads at multinationals hosting external stakeholder summits on Africa, climate, or development finance. Awards programme organisers in the African business, finance, and diaspora space. Executive teams preparing for high-stakes broadcast interviews or crisis media scenarios. Audience outcomes Panels that reach a defined position within the allocated time, rather than drifting into generalities. Senior speakers drawn out with sharper follow-up questions than a generalist host would ask. A chair who can hold protocol for heads of state and principals without dropping the editorial pace. For media training clients, executives who sound clearer and steadier under hostile questioning.

Why organisations work with Tadhg Enright Two decades of live broadcast experience at Sky News, BBC News and RTE, which means he runs a stage on the timing standards of rolling news, not the looser pace of a corporate AGM. Specialist depth in business and economics: he led Sky’s coverage of the Eurozone debt crisis and covered Brexit from London for Euronews, so finance, treasury and policy audiences hear questions framed by someone who reported the story. Hosting work for clients including Chartered Accountants Ireland, the Embassy of Ireland in London and the Irish Exporters Awards, alongside corporate messaging work for Facebook, Tesco and Coca-Cola, signals comfort across regulated, professional and consumer brand contexts. Editorial range across breaking news, business, consumer and culture means he can host an awards dinner, chair a board panel and moderate a press-facing fireside session without changing register awkwardly between them. Biography highlights Presenter of business bulletins on the BBC News Channel and of Business Live on BBC World. Eight-year career at Sky News, including the role of regular presenter of hourly business updates and lead on the Eurozone debt crisis coverage. UK correspondent for Euronews, with extensive London-based reporting on Brexit. Long-running presenter of The Globalist on Monocle 24 Radio, a morning hour on world affairs, business and culture. Helped develop RTE’s first dedicated television business news segment; presenter and reporter on The Consumer Show on RTE One. Journalism training at Dublin City University; corporate messaging work for Facebook, Tesco and Coca-Cola. Biography Live business news rewards a presenter who can do two things at once: read a balance sheet quickly and translate it for a general audience in real time. That is the discipline Tadhg Enright built across eight years at Sky News, where he led coverage of the Eurozone debt crisis from Dublin and London, and where he became a regular face on the channel’s hourly business updates. He now presents business bulletins on the BBC News Channel and Business Live on BBC World. As UK correspondent for Euronews, he covered Brexit from London across the full arc of the negotiations. For eight years he hosted The Globalist on Monocle 24 Radio, an early-morning hour on world affairs, business and culture, which gave him a wider editorial vocabulary than most business presenters carry. The earlier work matters too. At RTE he helped build the broadcaster’s first dedicated television business news segment, then moved into consumer journalism on The Consumer Show, where his investigation into potentially dangerous Bosch dishwashers prompted a nationwide repair action. The same instinct sits behind his corporate messaging work for Facebook, Tesco and Coca-Cola, and behind his event hosting for Chartered Accountants Ireland, the Embassy of Ireland in London and the Irish Exporters Awards. What clients buy, in practice, is editorial command of a room. He runs a stage on the timing standards of rolling news, asks the question the audience came to hear, and keeps senior panellists honest without making the conversation hostile. Key speaking topics Conference and summit hosting Awards and gala dinner hosting Panel moderation and fireside chats Hybrid and virtual event facilitation Business and economics commentary Media training and corporate messaging European political and economic affairs Ideal for CFOs, finance directors and treasury teams convening flagship industry conferences. Professional services firms (accounting, legal, consulting) hosting client summits, partner conferences and awards. Corporate affairs and communications leaders running investor or media-facing events. Trade bodies, chambers and embassies running policy-facing forums and awards. Audience outcomes A panel session that lands its central question rather than rotating through prepared remarks. An audience that follows the financial and economic substance because the chair has translated it without flattening it. Senior speakers held to their own positions, with follow-up questions that pull out the strategic point. A run-of-show that finishes on time and on tone, from opening remarks through Q and A to closing thanks.

Why organisations work with Fredrik Eklund He has built and scaled one of the highest-grossing residential real estate teams in the United States, with $4.6B in sales in 2022 and $3.77B in 2023, so his advice on client acquisition and closing is grounded in operator-scale results rather than theory. The Sell, his New York Times bestselling book with Penguin’s Avery imprint, gives audiences a named, testable ten-step framework for personal selling and pitching, which turns the keynote into a tool the team can use on Monday. A decade on Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing New York gave him unusual fluency in performing under pressure and building a personal brand in public, a capability most commercial leaders are now being asked to develop themselves. He speaks from a dual-market perspective, having built businesses in both Stockholm and Manhattan and having worked previously at SEB across London, Singapore, and Tokyo, which plays well with global sales audiences who want more than a US-only view. His core argument, that everyone in a client-facing organisation is already in sales whether they realise it or not, lands with audiences beyond the sales team itself, including founders, partners, and professional-services leaders. Biography highlights Co-founder, with John Gomes, of the Eklund Gomes Team at Douglas Elliman, reported as the top-producing residential real estate team in the US in recent years. Author of The Sell: The Secrets of Selling Anything to Anyone (Avery, 2015), a New York Times bestseller also released in Sweden and the UK. Original cast member of Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing New York from its 2012 launch through 2022, across nine seasons of MDLNY and two seasons of Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles. Co-star of Bravo’s Bethenny and Fredrik spin-off with Bethenny Frankel in 2018. Recipient, with John Gomes, of Douglas Elliman’s 2021 ICON Award for cumulative career sales of over $15B. Background in finance at SEB in Stockholm, London, Singapore, and Tokyo, and studies at the Stockholm School of Economics, before relocating to New York to build his real estate career from scratch. Biography The Eklund Gomes Team at Douglas Elliman closed $4.6B in residential real estate in 2022 and $3.77B in 2023, figures that place it near the top of any serious ranking of US real estate teams. Fredrik Eklund co-founded that business with John Gomes. The scale matters because it is the evidence base for everything he says on stage about sales, client trust, and building a personal brand in a market where every competitor looks equally credible on paper. Eklund arrived in Manhattan in his mid-twenties with a finance CV from SEB in Stockholm, London, Singapore, and Tokyo, and no real estate contacts. Within a year he was nominated for Rookie of the Year by the Real Estate Board of New York. The through line from that start to today’s team is a clear operating idea: in commoditised markets, the product is the seller. The Sell, published by Penguin’s Avery imprint in 2015 and a New York Times bestseller, sets out that idea as a ten-step framework covering authenticity, pitch construction, negotiation, and closing. A decade on Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing New York, from its 2012 premiere through his departure in 2022, turned Eklund into one of the most recognisable sales figures in American business media. It also taught him something less obvious that keynote audiences value. Senior people in client-facing roles, founders, partners, and relationship leaders, are now expected to carry a visible public profile. Eklund has been practising that craft, on camera and at scale, longer than most. For corporate audiences, the argument lands most sharply on two questions leaders are already asking. How do we train our best people to behave like owners of the client relationship rather than executors of a process, and how do we build the kind of personal credibility that moves a deal before the pitch starts. Eklund answers both from inside a live commercial operation, not from a classroom. Key speaking topics Personal selling and the close Personal brand for commercial leaders Client acquisition in commoditised markets Sales culture and high-performance teams Entrepreneurship and business building Negotiation and pitch craft Real estate and luxury markets Ideal for Sales kick-offs and revenue leadership offsites, particularly in financial services, real estate, professional services, and luxury sectors Partner, MD, and client-facing leader events where personal brand and relationship ownership are on the agenda Founder, entrepreneur, and growth-stage audiences building a commercial operation from scratch After-dinner and awards-night formats where a high-recognition keynote with commercial substance is wanted Audience outcomes A named ten-step framework from The Sell that teams can map directly onto their own pitch, pipeline, and closing process A sharper sense of what “personal brand” means in practical, revenue-linked terms, rather than as a social media activity Specific tactics for opening, holding, and closing a high-stakes client conversation in a commoditised market A harder view of what separates a top-tier sales operation from an average one, drawn from inside a team that has closed billions in annual volume Energy and confidence that translates into action the following week, not a feel-good moment that fades

Why organisations work with Les Brown Rare longevity in the room. Brown has held auditoriums of up to 80,000 people and is one of the few speakers to hold both the NSA Council of Peers Award of Excellence and the Toastmasters Golden Gavel. A first-person story that lands with frontline and senior audiences alike. Adopted at six weeks, labelled “educable mentally retarded” in grade school, elected to the Ohio House of Representatives, hall-of-fame keynote career. Suited to large internal events where the brief is to lift conviction across a workforce, not deliver a strategy frame. Sales kick-offs, awards nights, all-hands moments after restructure. Track record with corporate audiences including General Motors Acceptance Corporation, Allstate Insurance, Mobil Oil, and Northwest Airlines. Author of Live Your Dreams (William Morrow) and the Emmy-winning You Deserve speech series, which became one of the most successful PBS pledge programmes of its kind. Biography highlights Member of the Ohio House of Representatives, 29th District, 1977 to 1981. First African American recipient of the NSA Council of Peers Award of Excellence (CPAE), 1989. Toastmasters International Golden Gavel Award, 1991. Author of Live Your Dreams, It’s Not Over Until You Win, Up Thoughts for Down Times, and Fight For Your Dream. Chicago-area Emmy for the You Deserve PBS speech series, 1990. Founder of Les Brown Enterprises, established 1986. Biography A child labelled “educable mentally retarded” in fifth grade in Miami went on to win the National Speakers Association’s highest honour and serve three terms in the Ohio House of Representatives. That arc is the substance of Les Brown’s work. The story is the argument, and the argument is that conviction is a trainable capacity. Brown moved through sanitation work, broadcasting, and political office before founding Les Brown Enterprises in 1986. By 1989 he had received the NSA Council of Peers Award of Excellence, the first African American to do so. The Toastmasters Golden Gavel followed in 1991. His Emmy-winning PBS series You Deserve became one of the most-aired pledge programmes of its kind. The published catalogue, Live Your Dreams with William Morrow, It’s Not Over Until You Win, Fight For Your Dream, and Up Thoughts for Down Times, sets out a consistent thesis on persistence and self-direction under adversity. The work is built for the moments when an organisation needs its people to stay in the fight, not for boardroom strategy briefings. What buyers get is a stage operator at the top of his craft. Decades of large-room delivery to corporate audiences including Allstate, Mobil Oil, GMAC, and Northwest Airlines, paired with a personal story that gives the message standing. Brown is commissioned where the brief is conviction, not analysis. Key speaking topics Self-leadership and personal accountability Persistence and resilience under adversity Goal-setting and personal vision Peak performance and motivation Communication and presence Overcoming setback and reinvention Ideal for Sales conferences and kick-off events Awards nights, after-dinner programmes, and large all-hands moments L&D and employee development programmes focused on personal effectiveness Internal events following restructure or sustained organisational pressure Audience outcomes A clearer personal stance on persistence when the work gets harder Renewed conviction inside teams that have been through extended pressure A story-anchored framework for goal-setting and self-direction A shared reference point that internal leaders can carry into follow-up sessions

Why organisations work with Tahl Raz The frameworks Raz presents aren’t drawn from his interpretation of others’ research. Rather, he co-constructed them, working directly with the FBI hostage negotiator, the CEO performance researchers, and the business practitioners behind three of the most widely read business books of the past two decades. The CEO Next Door, which Raz co-authored based on analysis of more than 17,000 CEO and C-suite assessments, gives boards and senior leadership teams a data-validated model for identifying and developing executive talent, not one built on anecdote or convention. Never Split the Difference has sold more than five million copies and been translated into over 40 languages, which reflects genuine market validation of the negotiation system Raz helped shape. It is now embedded in corporate training programmes globally. Never Eat Alone is used as a textbook in MBA programmes worldwide, making Raz a source-level contributor to how the next generation of executives is taught to build professional relationships and organisational influence. His background as an award-winning business journalist gives him an ability to take complex behavioural research and make it immediately actionable in a room – a skill that is structurally different from the researchers and practitioners who generated the underlying work. Biography highlights Co-author of Never Split the Difference with former FBI lead hostage negotiator Chris Voss, New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, 5 million+ copies sold, translated into 40+ languages Co-author of Never Eat Alone with Keith Ferrazzi, New York Times bestseller, adopted as an MBA textbook in business schools worldwide Co-author of The CEO Next Door with Elena Botelho and Kim Powell, New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller; CMI Management Book of the Year 2019; based on analysis of more than 17,000 CEO and C-suite assessments; research published as an HBR cover story Award-winning journalist published in Inc., GQ, Harvard Business Review, and the Jerusalem Post Former CEO of MyGreenLight (online education), Chief Content Officer, and founder and editor-in-chief of Jewcy Media Degree in Philosophy, Vassar College Biography The prevailing models for negotiation and leadership development share a common flaw: they were built on theory, intuition, and case studies drawn from a narrow slice of experience. What changes the conversation is evidence. Evidence from 20 years of hostage negotiation under life-or-death conditions, from a decade of performance data on 17,000 executives, from the social science of how professional relationships actually generate career capital. Tahl Raz has spent his career working at the intersection of that evidence and the people who need to act on it. Raz co-authored Never Split the Difference with Chris Voss, former lead international kidnapping negotiator for the FBI, translating a field-tested system developed in extreme-pressure environments into a framework that business leaders and sales teams now use worldwide. The book has sold more than five million copies and been translated into over 40 languages – a scale of adoption that reflects the practical utility of what the negotiation system actually delivers, not just the appeal of the source material. His work on The CEO Next Door, developed with researchers Elena Botelho and Kim Powell, draws on analysis of more than 17,000 CEO and C-suite assessments to identify the four behaviours that statistically separate executives who reach and sustain top performance from those who plateau. The research – published as a cover article in the May-June 2017 issue of Harvard Business Review – overturns widely held assumptions about pedigree, charisma, and the shape of a successful executive career. The book won CMI Management Book of the Year 2019. Before these collaborations, Raz co-authored Never Eat Alone with Keith Ferrazzi, a study of professional networking and relationship capital that remains in use as an MBA textbook in business programmes globally. His journalism has appeared in Inc., GQ, Harvard Business Review, and the Jerusalem Post. That background – knowing how to extract what is genuinely new in a body of research and make it land for a senior audience – is what distinguishes his platform: he is not interpreting these frameworks from the outside, he helped build them. Key speaking topics Negotiation strategy and behavioural influence Executive leadership behaviours and CEO performance Professional relationship capital and network strategy Storytelling and leadership communication Organisational decision-making under pressure Career development and leadership advancement The future of work and professional influence Ideal for C-suite and senior executive audiences in leadership development or strategic offsites CHROs and talent leaders building executive assessment or succession frameworks Sales leadership and commercial teams focused on high-stakes negotiation Boards and governance teams examining executive performance and leadership pipeline Audience outcomes A working understanding of the negotiation tactics developed in FBI hostage situations and how they apply in commercial and leadership contexts Clarity on the four behaviours; decisiveness, engaging for impact, relentless reliability, bold adaptation which CEO performance data identifies as the genuine predictors of executive success A reframed view of professional networking as a deliberate, structured strategic practice rather than a social variable Practical approaches for improving persuasion, communication, and influence in high-pressure conversations Sharper criteria for evaluating leadership potential – their own or others’ – against evidence rather than convention

Why organisations work with Rohit Bassi Three decades of cross-cultural coaching across 21 countries, with named engagements at the World Bank, Oracle, Honeywell, PwC, Bank of America, Canon, and Emirates NBD. A named method, Speak Like A W.I.S.E. CEO, that maps four bearings to four disciplines: words with courage, intention with clarity, silence with conviction, and energy with compassion. It gives leaders a repeatable structure for the specific conversation in front of them. A Gulf-based perspective on executive presence that translates between Western corporate norms and Middle Eastern, South Asian, and Southeast Asian leadership cultures, useful for organisations with distributed senior teams. A practitioner record spanning keynote speaking, sales communication coaching, and authorship of Living Through Self Compassion, which lets him work credibly with commercial leaders and people leaders in the same organisation. Biography highlights Founder of ROI Talks, the coaching and training practice he established in Dubai. Creator of the Speak Like A W.I.S.E. CEO framework for high-stakes communication. Author of five books including Beyond Words on mindful public speaking, Soul of Sales on ethical selling, and Living Through Self Compassion, plus contributing author of Success Mastery alongside Jack Canfield. TEDx speaker, “The Miracle of Compassion” (TEDxCCQ), hosted on the TED platform. Executive Contributor at Brainz Magazine, and member of the National Academy of Best-Selling Authors. Three decades of speaking, coaching, and training across more than 21 countries, with named engagements including the World Bank, Oracle, Honeywell, PwC, Bank of America, Canon, and Emirates NBD. Biography Most leaders are not promoted for how they communicate. They are promoted in spite of it, and only at senior level does the cost surface, in a board that loses patience or a deal that quietly stalls. ROI Talks, the practice Rohit Bassi founded in Dubai, was built for that gap. His method, Speak Like A W.I.S.E. CEO, rests on four bearings. Words carry courage, intention carries clarity, silence carries conviction, and energy carries compassion. Drawn from a long study of mindfulness, it applies to the situations leaders face: executive presence, persuasion under pressure, conflict that has turned organisational, and the daily habits that build or erode trust. He has worked across more than 21 countries with named clients including the World Bank, Oracle, Honeywell, PwC, Bank of America, Canon, and Emirates NBD. His writing runs along the same lines as the coaching. Beyond Words sets out his approach to mindful public speaking, Soul of Sales makes the case for trust-based selling, and Living Through Self Compassion tells the personal story behind the method, a return from depression and self-sabotage. He is also a contributing author of Success Mastery alongside Jack Canfield, and his TEDx talk, The Miracle of Compassion, sits on the TED platform. Known to clients as The Communication Wizard, he coaches senior leaders across Western, Middle Eastern, South Asian, and Southeast Asian cultures, and writes as an Executive Contributor for Brainz Magazine. For organisations with leadership teams spread across those regions, that cross-cultural read on executive presence is rare in the category. Key speaking topics Leadership communication and executive presence Persuasion and influence in high-stakes conversations Mindful communication and emotional intelligence Sales communication for senior leaders Conflict, difficult conversations, and trust repair Resilience and self-leadership under pressure Public speaking for executives Ideal for CEOs and business unit heads preparing for board, investor, or all-hands communication, including investor pitch coaching Sales leadership and commercial teams running high-stakes, value-based B2B conversations Heads of L&D, talent, and executive development commissioning leadership communication programmes Senior leadership teams in multinational and Gulf-based organisations with cross-cultural workforces Audience outcomes The four bearings of the W.I.S.E. compass in language they can use in the next difficult conversation Specific handling for high-stakes moments: persuasion, conflict, trust repair, and assertive listening A read on what each high-stakes conversation puts at stake: financial value, time, risk exposure, and the authority carried into the next room A working approach to composure under pressure that applies the next working day

Why organisations work with Larry Jacobson A source experience that is independently documented and book-published. The six-year voyage, the 40 countries, the tsunami in Thailand, the pirate threat in the Gulf of Aden are not rhetorical devices, they are a verifiable record audiences can read after the keynote. Direct translation between an extreme personal undertaking and the corporate context he left to begin it. Jacobson ran a company before he sailed, and speaks to commercial audiences with the cadence of someone who has carried a P&L. A specific argument that fear is a workable variable, not a problem to be removed. Audiences leave with a clearer sense of how to act while still afraid, rather than waiting for the fear to subside. A track record with mainstream corporate and financial-services audiences, including Northwestern Mutual, Investment & Wealth Institute, and Retirement Coaches Association, alongside two TEDx platforms. Biography highlights Six-year circumnavigation by sailboat, 40,000+ nautical miles, 40 countries visited. Author of The Boy Behind the Gate, an Amazon best-seller and award-winning memoir of the voyage. Two-time TEDx speaker: TEDx Golden Gate (“Passion Trumps Fear”) and TEDx Youth (“Passion, Priorities, and Perseverance”). Additional books include What’s Your Encore? A Step-by-Step Guide to Retiring with Purpose and Fulfillment, Beyond the Meeting Room: A Practical Guide to Mastering Communication in a Remote World, and Navigating Entrepreneurship: 11 Proven Keys to Success, with companion video programmes (Sail Into Retirement, Navigating Entrepreneurship) hosted at Buoy Training. Certified World Class Speaking Coach, the credential awarded through the 12-week certification programme run by 1999 World Champion of Public Speaking Craig Valentine. Keynote and coaching clients include Northwestern Mutual, Investment & Wealth Institute, Retirement Coaches Association, InVision, The Henderson Group, Hill Physicians, CASE District VII. Biography Most leadership content is written for the crisis. The harder problem is the long stretch in between, when conditions stay difficult, fear becomes ambient, and the easy decision is to retreat or wait. Jacobson’s material is built for that stretch. He spent six years sailing around the world after running World Class Incentives, a corporate incentive and meeting planning business. The voyage covered 40,000 nautical miles and 40 countries, and included the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and a transit through the Gulf of Aden during a live piracy threat. The book that followed, The Boy Behind the Gate, became an Amazon best-seller and the spine of his speaking practice. The argument he builds from that experience is practical. Fear is a workable variable in any sustained undertaking, not an obstacle to be removed before starting. Audiences hear how to make decisions while afraid, how to sustain conviction over months rather than minutes, and how to finish a long commitment that no one else can see the end of. He has spoken twice on the TEDx platform and works regularly with corporate, financial-services, and association audiences, including Northwestern Mutual, Investment & Wealth Institute, and the Retirement Coaches Association. His retirement work extends beyond the keynote into What’s Your Encore?, a step-by-step retirement guide, and Sail Into Retirement, the structured video programme advisers use with clients. His other books include Beyond the Meeting Room on remote-world communication and Navigating Entrepreneurship. He is a Certified World Class Speaking Coach, a credential earned through the programme run by 1999 World Champion of Public Speaking Craig Valentine. Key speaking topics Resilience and decision-making under sustained pressure Fear management in leadership Perseverance through long commitments Personal reinvention and career transition Goal-setting and execution Retirement and second-career planning Communication and presentation skills for senior audiences Ideal for Sales kick-offs and annual corporate off-sites where the brief is morale and conviction, not analytical content Financial-services and wealth-management association audiences working on client retirement and life-stage conversations Leadership teams entering a long restructuring or turnaround, where the work will outlast the initial mandate Audience outcomes A direct, named framework for acting while afraid, rather than waiting for confidence to arrive first. A clearer view of what sustains conviction over months of difficult conditions, drawn from a six-year first-person example. Permission to take a personally difficult decision they have been deferring, supported by a specific story rather than abstract encouragement.

Why organisations work with Malaika Vaz She has gone undercover inside wildlife trafficking networks across India, Myanmar and China, and can speak to environmental crime as a live operational and reputational risk, not a policy abstraction. Her documentary Sacrifice Zone, made in association with the National Geographic Society, reported pollution exposure across New Delhi, Dhaka, Baton Rouge and La Guajira, giving boards a concrete picture of what fenceline impact looks like in four very different jurisdictions. She has built Untamed Planet into a production house whose work reaches National Geographic, BBC, Sky, Al Jazeera, PBS and ARTE France audiences in more than 150 countries, which means her storytelling is calibrated for global, non-specialist viewers, not insiders. The credentials are independently verified: Wildscreen Panda Award for On-Screen Talent (2024), Forbes 30 Under 30 North America 2025, Earthshot Prize Advocate, and UNEP recognition as one of six environmentalists changing the world. For a sustainability or risk audience used to consultants, she offers something different: a reporter who has been in the room with traffickers, regulators and affected communities, and can connect those scenes to the decisions executives are making. Biography highlights National Geographic Explorer and presenter; films broadcast on National Geographic, BBC, Sky, Al Jazeera, PBS and ARTE France in more than 150 countries. Co-founder and creative director of Untamed Planet, an independent documentary production company. Wildscreen Panda Award for On-Screen Talent, 2024 Wildscreen Festival, Bristol, for Sacrifice Zone. Forbes 30 Under 30 North America 2025, Media category. Earthshot Prize Advocate; named by UNEP as one of six environmentalists changing the world. Presenter of On the Brink (Discovery Channel and Animal Planet) and Living with Predators (National Geographic), and lead reporter on Peng Yu Sai, a Green Oscar-nominated investigation into the illegal manta ray trade. Biography Manta rays were disappearing from the waters off the coast of Goa. Tracing why led Malaika Vaz, on camera and undercover as a seafood trader, from Indian fishing vessels to the Indo-Myanmar border and into the wildlife trafficking hubs of Hong Kong and Guangzhou. The resulting documentary, Peng Yu Sai, was nominated for a Green Oscar and aired on National Geographic India. That is the kind of reporting Vaz does. As a National Geographic Explorer and co-founder of the documentary production company Untamed Planet, she has built a body of work focused on environmental crime, industrial pollution and the human-wildlife interface. Her films have been broadcast on National Geographic, BBC, Sky, Al Jazeera, PBS and ARTE France, reaching audiences in more than 150 countries. Her 2024 documentary Sacrifice Zone, produced with the National Geographic Society, examined the human cost of industrial pollution in New Delhi, Dhaka, Baton Rouge and La Guajira. It won the Wildscreen Panda Award for On-Screen Talent at the 2024 Wildscreen Festival in Bristol. She has also presented Living with Predators, a three-part National Geographic series on coexistence with India’s big cats, and On the Brink for Discovery Channel and Animal Planet. Forbes named her to its 30 Under 30 North America list in 2025, in the Media category. She is an Earthshot Prize Advocate and was named by the United Nations Environment Programme as one of six environmentalists changing the world. For an executive audience, the value she brings is specific: an investigator who has stood inside the trafficking routes, fenceline communities and ecosystems that sit underneath their environmental and supply chain risk reports. Key speaking topics Environmental crime and illicit wildlife trade Industrial pollution and frontline community impact Supply chain exposure to environmental risk Investigative environmental journalism Biodiversity and human-wildlife coexistence Documentary storytelling for non-specialist audiences Field reporting in fragile and high-risk environments Ideal for Chief Sustainability Officers, ESG leads and risk committees responsible for environmental and supply chain exposure Boards and executive teams setting climate, biodiversity and human rights priorities Communications, brand and public affairs leaders translating environmental commitments into credible external narrative Investor and asset management forums focused on natural capital, biodiversity and climate-related disclosure Audience outcomes A clearer picture of how wildlife trafficking and environmental crime intersect with global supply chains Specific case material from frontline reporting in India, Myanmar, China, the United States and Latin America A sharper sense of where ESG narratives diverge from on-the-ground reality, and what that means for credibility A working model for using storytelling and visual evidence to move non-specialist stakeholders Renewed urgency, grounded in named places and named systems, not abstract climate framing

Why organisations work with Gabrielle Walker Her perspective on carbon removal comes from inside the market. She co-built CUR8, which sources and vets removal credits for corporate buyers, and Rethinking Removals, which shapes standards alongside the UNFCCC – giving her direct sight of which approaches are credible, durable, and scalable, and which are not. She addresses the most contested part of any corporate net zero strategy: the removal of residual emissions that cannot be cut, and how to handle it without regulatory or reputational exposure. Where most climate speakers argue for urgency, she argues for precision – helping senior teams distinguish between carbon removal approaches that will survive investor and legal scrutiny and those that carry long-term risk. Her four books on climate science include The Hot Topic, co-authored with Sir David King, UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser, described by Al Gore on the TED.com platform as “a beacon of clarity” – a scientific credibility that goes beyond most ESG commentators. She has facilitated sessions at COP26 and COP27 in partnership with the UNFCCC, and delivered keynote addresses to organisations including AstraZeneca, BP, KPMG, and Lazard – giving her an uncommon understanding of where corporate intent meets policy reality. Biography highlights PhD in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University; has taught at Cambridge and Princeton Co-founder of CUR8 (for-profit carbon removal market maker) and Rethinking Removals (non-profit in partnership with UNFCCC Climate Champions) TED speaker; main talk “What You Need to Know About Carbon Removal” (TED.com, 2022) Author of four books including The Hot Topic, co-authored with Sir David King, UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser Former Climate Change Editor at Nature; former Features Editor at New Scientist Contributor to The Economist, Wall Street Journal, and New York Times; BBC radio and television presenter Biography Every credible net zero pathway now requires carbon removal – not as an optional extra, but as a scientific necessity. Most corporate climate strategies have yet to reckon with what that means in practice. The gap between what the science requires and what organisations are actually building is where Gabrielle Walker works. Walker has a PhD from Cambridge University. She spent more than a decade at the editorial centre of climate science – first as Climate Change Editor at Nature, then as Features Editor at New Scientist. Her four books – including The Hot Topic, co-authored with UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser Sir David King – have brought the science of climate to boardroom-level audiences. Her 2022 TED talk on carbon removal extended that reach to a mainstream global audience. She co-founded two organisations that sit inside the carbon removal ecosystem rather than describing it from the outside. Rethinking Removals works in partnership with the UNFCCC Climate Champions to put carbon dioxide removal on the policy agenda. CUR8 helps corporations source vetted removal credits and build portfolios that are scientifically sound and commercially realistic. The combination – active policy work, scientific credibility, and commercial market-building in one practitioner – is unusual in this space. At board level, the questions she addresses are precise: which removal approaches are durable enough to withstand regulatory scrutiny, which carry reputational risk, and how a corporate climate commitment should be structured to remain defensible over time. Her work is not about inspiring broad action on climate. It is about helping organisations close the gap between a pledge and a plan that will hold. Key speaking topics Carbon removal and net zero strategy Corporate climate commitments and credibility ESG strategy and carbon markets Energy transition Climate risk and regulatory scrutiny Science communication for business leaders Ideal for Chief Sustainability Officers and heads of ESG developing or defending net zero commitments CFOs and investment officers evaluating climate-related financial risk and carbon credit exposure Boards and executive leadership teams navigating regulatory change in corporate climate strategy Conference organisers seeking a credible moderator for high-level climate, energy, or sustainability debates Audience outcomes A working understanding of what carbon removal is, why it is necessary for net zero, and which approaches are scientifically credible The ability to distinguish between carbon removal strategies that will hold investor and regulatory scrutiny and those that carry reputational risk A clearer framework for evaluating the strength of corporate climate commitments – their own and those of suppliers, partners, and competitors More precise questions to ask of climate advisers, carbon credit providers, and internal sustainability teams A more accurate view of where the carbon removal market stands today and what organisations need to do to stay ahead of it

Why organisations work with Shola Kaye Her Emotional Audacity™ framework reframes empathy as an organisational capability – not a personal virtue – giving leaders a structured approach to courageous communication that is immediately applicable in high-pressure, high-stakes environments She holds an unusual credibility position: a Cambridge and Emory-trained scientist who also performed professionally on four continents. That combination makes her content land differently with technical and analytical audiences who typically resist people-skills programming Her work addresses a gap that DEI programmes and EQ training often miss separately: the intersection of speaking up, psychological safety, and inclusive communication as a single, integrated practice Her two published books and LinkedIn Learning instructor role mean buyers are extending into a content ecosystem, not just a single keynote She has worked across the full range of organisational contexts – from board-level at institutions including The United Nations and Deloitte to company-wide culture programmes – with consistent evidence of rebooking Biography highlights BA Natural Sciences, Cambridge University; PGCE, Oxford University; MSc Analytical Chemistry / Neuropharmacology, Emory University, with postgraduate research at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control Early career in IT management consulting with clients including Goldman Sachs and Prudential Assurance, followed by account director roles in aviation and finance Professional entertainer and jazz singer; performed on four continents including BBC appearances Author of How to be a D.I.V.A. at Public Speaking (Amazon.com #1 bestseller) and Big Talk, Small Talk and Everything in Between (Callisto Media, 2020) Winner of the Jenny Seagrove Speaking Award (2016); Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM), Toastmasters International; Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) Regular contributor to Management Today, HR Zone, and People Management; featured in Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, Forbes, and BBC; TEDx speaker on empathy in the workplace Biography Shola Kaye spent her early career moving between worlds that rarely overlap: neuroscience research at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, management consulting at investment banks in New York and London, and professional performance on stages across four continents. That trajectory is not a curiosity: it is the basis of her work. She understands analytically rigorous environments, the dynamics of corporate invisibility, and what it takes to hold a room. The core tension she addresses is one that organisations consistently underinvest in: the gap between stated inclusion values and the actual behavioural competencies required to make them real. Most people, even experienced leaders, struggle to give honest feedback, speak up under pressure, or navigate difficult conversations without defensiveness. Kaye’s Emotional Audacity™ framework names this gap explicitly: combining empathy, self-regulation, and courageous communication into a single, teachable practice. Her two books and a TEDx talk on workplace empathy establish the intellectual architecture behind the keynotes. Her contributors to Management Today, HR Zone, and People Management position her as a credible voice in the professional management conversation, not only on the conference circuit. Clients including The United Nations, Deloitte, HSBC, Google, and IBM have rebooked or extended her programmes into training formats, evidence that the content holds beyond a single session. What makes Kaye distinctive in a crowded DEI and communication space is the precise nature of her argument: that empathy, done seriously, is not a softening of leadership but a structural condition for high performance. For organisations navigating transformation, hybrid work, or underrepresentation challenges, that reframe tends to land where other approaches have not. Key speaking topics Empathy at work Inclusive leadership Psychological safety and communication Emotional intelligence Courageous workplace communication Diversity, equity and belonging People-first culture Feedback and difficult conversations Ideal for CHROs and People Directors building cultures where psychological safety is a practical reality, not an aspiration Leadership development programmes targeting mid-to-senior leaders managing diverse, distributed, or technically-oriented teams Organisations running DEI initiatives that need to move beyond awareness into behavioural change International Women’s Day and women’s leadership events where communication confidence and visibility are the focus Audience outcomes A named framework (Emotional Audacity™) for integrating empathy, courageous communication, and inclusive behaviour into daily leadership practice Practical tools for navigating difficult conversations, delivering constructive feedback, and creating environments where people feel safe to speak up Greater understanding of the structural conditions – not just the personal attitudes – that determine whether inclusion is felt in practice Specific techniques for communicating with clarity and impact, particularly for those in technical, analytical, or STEM-rooted working environments Renewed understanding of how communication behaviours at the manager level directly affect team performance, retention, and innovation output

Why organisations work with Jamie Siminoff He has the full founder arc on the record: invented a product category in a garage, pitched it on national television and walked out without a deal, rebuilt from near-bankruptcy, and sold to Amazon for about 1 billion dollars. He has run the acquired business inside Big Tech, giving buyers a rare view of what integration, reporting lines, and product autonomy look like after a landmark exit. He has repeated the cycle: founded Honest Day’s Work, sold it to Latch Inc., took the CEO seat at the acquirer, then returned to Amazon as a VP running Ring and adjacent smart home units. Most speakers have one exit story; he has a sequence. The Shark Tank rejection is specific and documented, which makes the resilience material credible rather than motivational. It is cited by the Sharks themselves as one of the biggest misses in the show’s history. He co-authored “Ding Dong: How Ring Went From Shark Tank Reject to Everyone’s Front Door” with Andrew Postman, published in November 2025, which gives buyers a named, durable reference point for the material. Biography highlights Founder and original CEO of Ring, acquired by Amazon in 2018 for approximately 1 billion dollars. Pitched DoorBot on ABC’s Shark Tank in 2013 and left without a deal; returned to the show as a guest Shark in 2018. Earlier founder of PhoneTag, the first voicemail to text service, and Unsubscribe.com, both acquired. Founder of Honest Day’s Work, acquired by Latch Inc. in 2023; subsequently appointed CEO of Latch. Rejoined Amazon in 2025 as Vice President running Ring and related smart home businesses, leading a pivot to AI. Babson College, Class of 1999, and Honorary Doctor of Laws from Babson in 2021, where he delivered the undergraduate commencement address. Co-author with Andrew Postman of “Ding Dong: How Ring Went From Shark Tank Reject to Everyone’s Front Door,” published November 2025. Biography Ring began as DoorBot, a Wi-Fi video doorbell built in a garage in 2011. By 2013 it was on Shark Tank, where every investor passed. The company was close to running out of money. Seven years later, Amazon bought it for roughly 1 billion dollars. That arc is the material Siminoff brings to the stage, and he brings it with the receipts. The more useful part of the story for serious operators is what happened between the rejection and the exit. Siminoff rebuilt the product and the brand, raised from Kleiner Perkins, Qualcomm Ventures, Goldman Sachs, DFJ Growth and Sir Richard Branson, and built Ring into a category defining consumer technology business. After the Amazon acquisition he stayed inside the company for five years, running Ring alongside Blink, Amazon Key and adjacent smart home lines. Most founder talks stop at the exit. His continues through integration. He has since extended the pattern. He founded Honest Day’s Work, sold it to Latch Inc. in 2023, stepped in as Latch’s CEO, and in 2025 rejoined Amazon as a Vice President running Ring and nearby smart home units, now pivoting the category toward AI. In November 2025 he published “Ding Dong” with Andrew Postman, the first full account of how Ring actually got built. A Babson graduate and Honorary Doctor of Laws from the same institution, he is one of a small group of founders who can speak to rejection, category creation, acquisition, and re-entry as connected stages of one working life. Key speaking topics Consumer technology product invention and category creation Scaling from prototype to acquisition Founder resilience through investor rejection Operating an acquired business inside Big Tech Smart home, connected devices, and AI in consumer hardware Brand building in hardware startups Hiring and team building in early stage companies Ideal for Founders, CEOs and product leaders in consumer technology and connected hardware Corporate innovation, strategy and M and A teams working on acquisition integration Investor audiences and startup ecosystems running portfolio or founder programmes Entrepreneurship centres and executive education audiences in business schools Audience outcomes A concrete, non-generic view of what it takes to get a hardware startup from prototype to billion-dollar exit. A working model for how to treat a high-profile rejection as distribution rather than a verdict. Specific insight into how an acquired category runs inside a company like Amazon, and what that means for teams going through similar integrations. A clear read on where consumer smart home and home security technology are heading as AI becomes the core layer of the product. Hiring and early team construction principles drawn from building Ring from a Craigslist hire list to a company sold for 1 billion dollars.