Storytelling & Business Communication speakers

Why organisations work with Stephen Sackur Access to a perspective built across nearly four decades of frontline reporting, from the Gulf War and the fall of the Berlin Wall to two decades of adversarial interviews with presidents, prime ministers, and heads of international institutions, that cannot be replicated by analysts working from secondary sources. A forensic, barristerial framework for examining how leaders think and deflect under pressure, drawn from nearly 20 years presenting HARDtalk to audiences in over 200 countries, that translates directly into sharper boardroom questioning and more rigorous scenario analysis. Timely relevance: his forthcoming book Hard Truth (Headline Press, 2026) addresses disinformation, authoritarian political power, and the fight to preserve truth-telling institutions, the precise threats organisations are being asked to assess and respond to now. The ability to moderate high-stakes discussions at board or senior leadership level with the structural discipline of a trained interviewer, not merely facilitating, but drawing out what participants actually believe rather than what they intend to say. Credibility built through direct engagement with the figures who shape geopolitical risk, including Hugo Chávez, Alexei Navalny, Emmanuel Macron, Christine Lagarde, and Bill Clinton, giving his analysis a texture that is absent from most expert commentary. Biography highlights Presented BBC HARDtalk for 19 years (2005–2025), conducting in-depth accountability interviews with heads of state and global leaders broadcast across more than 200 countries 15 years as a BBC foreign correspondent, based in Cairo, Jerusalem, Brussels, and Washington DC; covered the Gulf War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, and 9/11 First correspondent to report the mass killing on the Basra road at the end of the Gulf War; author of On the Basra Road (1991), named a Spectator Book of the Year Named International TV Personality of the Year (Television) by the Association for International Broadcasting, 2010; nominated Speech Broadcaster of the Year, Sony Radio Awards, 2013 Honorary Doctorate, University of Warwick (2018); Henry Fellow, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; BA History (Hons), Emmanuel College, Cambridge Contributor to The Observer, London Review of Books, New Statesman, The Guardian, and The Daily Telegraph; currently presenter of The Times at One, Times Radio Under contract with Headline Press for Hard Truth: 10 Investigations That Shook the World – and Why They Matter Now (due September 2026) Biography When organisations need to understand how geopolitical risk is constructed as the product of decisions made by identifiable people operating under specific pressures, they are looking for something that most commentary cannot supply: direct, structured, adversarial engagement with the people who make those decisions. That is the experience Stephen Sackur brings. As the presenter of BBC HARDtalk from 2005 to 2025, Sackur conducted in-depth accountability interviews with figures including Hugo Chávez, Emmanuel Macron, Alexei Navalny, Christine Lagarde, and Bill Clinton that reached audiences across more than 200 countries. The programme’s defining characteristic was not access but interrogation: a forensic, evidence-based questioning method that was designed to surface what leaders believe rather than what they wish to project. Over nearly two decades, this produced an unusually detailed map of how power operates, deflects, and occasionally fractures under scrutiny. Before HARDtalk, Sackur spent 15 years as a BBC foreign correspondent in Cairo, Jerusalem, Brussels, and Washington DC. He reported on the Gulf War, the Velvet Revolution, the collapse of the peace process in the Middle East, and the political crises of the Clinton era. His 1991 book On the Basra Road, which emerged from being the first correspondent to report the mass killing of retreating Iraqi forces at the end of the Gulf War, was named a Spectator Book of the Year and established the analytical seriousness that has characterised his work since. His forthcoming book Hard Truth: 10 Investigations That Shook the World – and Why They Matter Now (Headline Press, September 2026) makes the case for investigative journalism as a democratic safeguard against disinformation, authoritarian capture, and institutional erosion. Educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Sackur now presents The Times at One on Times Radio and works regularly with international forums and senior leadership audiences as a moderator and speaker on geopolitics, accountability, and the anatomy of power. Key speaking topics Geopolitics and global power dynamics Political risk and democratic accountability Leadership under pressure and public scrutiny The media’s role in holding institutions to account Disinformation and the future of truth-telling High-stakes questioning and structured decision-making International affairs: Middle East, US politics, European security Ideal for Boards and C-suite leadership teams seeking structured geopolitical context rather than generic risk briefings Risk, strategy, and government affairs functions in international financial services, energy, and professional services firms Senior leadership conferences where geopolitical volatility, democratic risk, or institutional trust is on the agenda Organisations seeking a high-calibre moderator for multi-stakeholder panels on international affairs or governance Audience outcomes A clearer framework for distinguishing genuine geopolitical signal from media and political noise Insight into how senior political leaders actually think and behave when their positions are challenged, and what that reveals about institutional resilience A more rigorous vocabulary for assessing democratic risk, disinformation threats, and the erosion of accountability structures that underpin stable operating environments Practical understanding of how adversarial questioning works as a leadership and governance tool, applicable to board effectiveness, media engagement, and stakeholder management A grounded, non-sensationalised view of geopolitical risk derived from direct engagement with many of the figures who have shaped it

Why organisations work with Steve Backshall Two decades of first-hand evidence on climate and biodiversity change, anchored by Our Changing Planet, the BBC’s seven-year longitudinal study of six fragile ecosystems. Credibility across two audiences in one booking: the executive room responsible for climate strategy, and the wider workforce that responds to adventure, resilience, and human performance stories. A scientific spine behind the broadcaster, including an MSc in bioscience and an honorary doctorate from the University of Exeter, which lifts the content above motivational generality. Experience hosting and moderating at scale, including a sold-out UK and Australia theatre tour, which makes him a low-risk choice for plenary, fireside, or interview formats. A working conservationist, not a commentator. President of Buglife and an active patron, which gives his environmental content first-party authority rather than secondary analysis. Biography highlights Two BAFTAs in 2011: Best Children’s Presenter and Best Factual Series, both for Deadly 60. MBE, 2020, for services to wildlife conservation and charity. Honorary PhD, University of Exeter; MSc Bioscience, Canterbury Christ Church University. National Geographic Channel “Adventurer in Residence”, 1998 to 2003. Recent presenting work spans Our Changing Planet (BBC One), the seven-year longitudinal climate study, The Secret Life of Bees (Channel 5), and Whale with Steve Backshall (Sky), alongside the flagship Deadly 60 (BBC). Author of Deep Blue on ocean and environmental science, Wildlings, co-authored with Olympic gold medallist Helen Glover, plus Mountain, Expedition, and The Falcon Chronicles novels. Biography The natural world is no longer a separate file in the corporate risk register. Climate volatility, biodiversity collapse, and ocean health now feed directly into supply chains, insurance pricing, and licence to operate. The leaders who handle this best tend to be the ones who have spent time looking at the physical evidence, not only the disclosure templates. Steve Backshall has spent his career inside that physical evidence. As presenter of the BBC’s Our Changing Planet, he has tracked six of the world’s most fragile ecosystems over a seven-year arc, returning to the same sites to document what has actually changed. More recent films extend the same fieldwork: Whale, following populations across three oceans, and The Secret Life of Bees, which runs pollinator decline into the question of food security. Earlier work for National Geographic, where he served as Adventurer in Residence from 1998, gave him a comparable long view across reefs, jungles, and polar regions. The credentials sit on top of fieldwork, not the other way round. He holds an MSc in bioscience from Canterbury Christ Church University and an honorary PhD from the University of Exeter, and he serves as President of Buglife. His two BAFTAs in 2011, for Deadly 60, and his MBE in 2020 for services to conservation, anchor a public profile that reaches well beyond the specialist audience. The same body of work supplies a second register that organisations use heavily: first-descent kayaking expeditions in New Guinea, first ascents on Venezuelan tepuis, world record paddles, and the operational discipline behind them. That material translates cleanly into sessions on resilience, decision-making under risk, and team performance in environments where failure is not abstract. Key speaking topics Climate and biodiversity change observed in the field Ocean health and marine conservation Expedition leadership and decision-making under risk Resilience and human performance in extreme environments Conservation strategy and corporate environmental responsibility Adventure, exploration, and the science behind both Ideal for Sustainability, ESG, and corporate affairs leaders responsible for climate narrative and substance Senior leadership offsites and all-hands events where one speaker needs to land with the boardroom and the wider workforce Conference hosts and moderators needing a credible plenary anchor across science, exploration, and sustainability tracks Internal leadership programmes on resilience, team performance, and decision-making under pressure Audience outcomes A grounded view of what is actually happening in climate and biodiversity systems, beyond the headline framings A clearer link between environmental change and operational, commercial, and reputational exposure Concrete stories on risk, preparation, and team behaviour drawn from genuine first-descent and first-ascent expeditions Renewed appetite for ambition and long-horizon thinking inside the organisation

Why organisations work with Steve Gaskin Direct senior operational experience at Scotland Yard. DCI rank with homicide and counter-terrorism case exposure is uncommon in the speaker market, where “former detective” often means a junior career repackaged. Pattern recognition that translates between domains. His sales-focused talk shows how the structure of a police suspect interview can be applied directly to a customer conversion conversation, as a working method. Current broadcast credibility. Contributions to Channel 5’s Wayne Couzens: Killer in Plain Sight and ITV’s Playboy Bunny Club Murders keep his analysis grounded in cases audiences may have followed. Decision-making content shaped by real consequences. The material is built from environments where wrong calls had immediate legal and human stakes, which gives it a weight classroom case studies cannot match. Biography highlights Former Detective Chief Inspector with the Metropolitan Police, based at New Scotland Yard, with more than 25 years of service. Case experience spans homicide, counter-terrorism-related operations and serious drug trafficking, including undercover deployment at New Scotland Yard. Contributor to UK true-crime documentary programming, including Channel 5’s Wayne Couzens: Killer in Plain Sight. Director of Huxley Events Ltd and The Crime Lab Ltd, both delivering corporate crime-themed events and consultancy. BSc in Psychology and Mathematics; executive programme at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford; Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management; Associate Tutor at Anglia Ruskin University. Biography Senior detectives at Scotland Yard make calls under pressure, where errors carry immediate legal and human stakes. Structured interviewing and evidence-led decision-making, the disciplines that hold up in those conditions, are learned by practice on real cases. Steve Gaskin spent more than 25 years in that environment and retired as a Detective Chief Inspector. His case experience runs from early 1980s work on the Hyde Park bombing investigation through to homicide and counter-terrorism-related operations. He also served in serious drug trafficking work at New Scotland Yard, including undercover deployment. The connecting thread is decision-making at the point where evidence is incomplete and the cost of waiting is real. That is the foundation of his corporate work. His talks draw structural parallels: police suspect interview frameworks mapped onto sales conversations, and murder squad management compared with leading teams under pressure. The result is applied technique an audience can use the next day. He contributes regularly to UK broadcast crime journalism, including Channel 5’s Wayne Couzens: Killer in Plain Sight and ITV’s Playboy Bunny Club Murders. The cases he discusses on screen are often the same ones that surface in his corporate keynotes. Key speaking topics Decision-making under pressure Investigative interviewing technique Leadership in high-stakes operational environments Workplace psychopathy and personality reading Sales conversation structure drawn from suspect interviewing Crime-based corporate storytelling Ideal for Sales leadership teams looking to apply structured suspect interviewing techniques to prospecting and conversion Senior leadership groups working on decision-making, team management and risk under pressure Corporate audiences seeking substantive after-dinner content with operational credibility Conferences in financial services, professional services and risk-focused sectors Audience outcomes A method for structuring interviews where information accuracy matters, applicable to either suspect interrogation or sales discovery Names and behavioural markers for the personality patterns most likely to disrupt a workplace, drawn from criminal psychology Concrete examples of how operational teams are led through high-pressure investigations Material drawn from recent high-profile cases he has analysed for UK broadcast

Why organisations work with Steve Richards Decades of first-hand interviews with serving and former prime ministers, ministers and senior advisers, which is the basis of an Atlantic Books trilogy on leadership in Number 10 rather than political history written from a distance. A leadership lens on government that translates directly into corporate questions about succession, executive isolation, decision-making under public scrutiny, and the gap between strategy and execution. Editorial credibility built across the New Statesman, The Independent, The Guardian and BBC Radio 4’s Week in Westminster, which gives boards and policy audiences a commentator they already trust. A genuine performer’s command of a room, developed across a decade of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Politics one-man show at the Edinburgh Fringe, which makes him as effective chairing a senior dinner as delivering a keynote. Biography highlights Political Editor of the New Statesman, then Chief Political Commentator at The Independent and Independent on Sunday from 2000. Regular presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Week in Westminster, with BBC television series on Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn. Author of The Prime Ministers: Reflections on Leadership from Wilson to Johnson, Atlantic Books. Author of The Prime Ministers We Never Had: Success and Failure from Butler to Corbyn, Atlantic Books. Author of Turning Points: Crisis and Change in Modern Britain, from 1945 to Truss, Macmillan, named in The Times Best Politics and Current Affairs Books of the Year. Creator and performer of Rock ‘n’ Roll Politics, a touring stage show and podcast that ran for ten consecutive years at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Biography The most useful evidence on leadership under pressure sits in government, where the same individuals can be observed across cabinet, opposition and crisis, often with the receipts public. Steve Richards has spent his career inside that material. As Political Editor of the New Statesman and then Chief Political Commentator at The Independent, he conducted long-form interviews with most living UK prime ministers and the people who advised them. That body of work became a leadership trilogy with Atlantic Books. The Prime Ministers reads ten occupants of Number 10 from Wilson to Johnson against the same questions: what they understood about power before they had it, what they did with the institution once they were inside, and why most of them ended badly. The Prime Ministers We Never Had applies the same lens to the figures who came close, including Butler, Healey and Corbyn. Turning Points, published by Macmillan in 2023, was named in The Times Best Politics and Current Affairs Books of the Year and steps further back, to ten moments that reshaped post-war Britain. On stage, Richards is unusual among British political commentators. He has built Rock ‘n’ Roll Politics into a touring one-man show and podcast that ran for ten consecutive years at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The performance discipline travels: he chairs senior dinners and conferences with a journalist’s command of evidence and a stand-up’s command of a room. For corporate audiences, the value is translation. Cabinet government is an unusually rich case study in executive constraint, succession, advisory teams that work and do not, and the limits of personal authority under public scrutiny. Richards moves between Westminster and the boardroom without losing the specificity that makes the analysis useful. Key speaking topics UK political leadership and prime ministerial power The executive under public scrutiny Outsider movements and political disruption Post-war turning points and political change in Britain Number 10 advisory teams and decision-making Media, message and political communication Ideal for Boards and executive committees seeking analytical commentary on UK political risk and leadership transitions CEOs, chairs and advisers studying succession, executive isolation and decision-making under scrutiny Public affairs, policy and government relations leaders Senior dinners, partner conferences and chaired panels where credibility and command of a room matter equally Audience outcomes A clearer reading of how UK political power actually flows around Number 10, and what that means for forecasting policy direction A leadership case framework drawn from real prime ministerial successes and failures, applicable to corporate succession and executive transitions A sharper sense of why outsider politics keeps disrupting the centre, and how organisations should price that risk A view of post-war turning points that puts current volatility into longer-cycle perspective

Why organisations work with Steven Pinker His argument that human cognitive biases – availability, confirmation, narrative distortion – are not random errors but predictable and correctable patterns gives organisations a diagnostic framework that most behavioural science speakers only gesture towards. The Better Angels of Our Nature and Enlightenment Now provide leaders with a rigorously evidenced counterweight to crisis-driven decision-making: a data-grounded case for long-run institutional progress that challenges the assumption that things are categorically worse than before. Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters grew out of a Harvard course on reasoning, and offers organisations a structured, named toolkit – logic, Bayesian probability, causal inference, game theory – applied directly to the kinds of collective judgments institutions face. His work on language and common knowledge (the study of what people know that others know they know) gives communicators and senior leaders rare analytical precision about why messaging fails, why consensus breaks down, and how shared understanding is actually constructed. Recognised by the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award and elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Pinker brings a level of peer-validated scholarly authority that very few public-facing intellectuals in this space can match. Biography highlights Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology, Harvard University; faculty career spanning Harvard, MIT (1982–2003), and Stanford Elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (2016) Author of thirteen books, including The Better Angels of Our Nature, Enlightenment Now, and Rationality BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Humanities and Social Sciences (shared with Peter Singer) William James Book Prize (three times); Los Angeles Times Science Book Prize; Cundill Recognition of Excellence in History Award Ranked by Academic Influence as the second most influential psychologist in the world, 2010–2020 Regular contributor to The New York Times, Time, and The Atlantic; named to Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World and Foreign Policy‘s 100 Global Thinkers Biography Organisations that operate in complex, information-saturated environments face a specific and underappreciated failure mode: not a shortage of data, but a systematic distortion in how that data is processed. Leaders overweight vivid recent events, underweight statistical baselines, and build strategy around narratives that feel coherent rather than evidence that is reliable. The cognitive science underlying these failures is well-documented – but rarely applied with rigour inside institutions. Steven Pinker has spent four decades studying the mechanisms of language, reasoning, and human cognition at Harvard, MIT, and Stanford. His research is not popularised work drawn from others’ findings: it is original experimental scholarship in visual cognition, psycholinguistics, and the psychology of social relations, conducted at the Johnstone Family Chair in Harvard’s Department of Psychology. What distinguishes his public work is the consistent application of that scientific foundation to questions that organisations – and civilisations – actually face. His most argued books form a coherent intellectual project. The Better Angels of Our Nature (2011) used historical data across centuries to make the case that violence and conflict have declined measurably – not as opinion, but as documented empirical fact – and identified the institutional and psychological forces responsible. Enlightenment Now (2018) extended that analysis across all major indicators of human welfare, arguing that reason, science, and Enlightenment institutions remain the engines of progress. Rationality (2021) turned the lens directly onto decision-making: what cognitive tools are required to think clearly, why they are rarely applied, and how organisations and democracies can build structures that reason more reliably. The book emerged from a course Pinker teaches at Harvard and addresses logic, Bayesian probability, causal inference, and game theory as practical instruments for institutional judgment. Recognised by the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Humanities and Social Sciences – for contributions to the understanding of human rationality and progress that have entered the mainstream of public debate – and elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Pinker occupies a rare position: a research scientist whose work is directly legible to senior leaders grappling with the quality of organisational reasoning and the reliability of their own institutions. Key speaking topics Cognitive biases and institutional decision-making Rationality and evidence-based reasoning Language, communication, and common knowledge The psychology and history of violence Enlightenment values and organisational progress Human nature and social behaviour Clarity and effectiveness in professional communication Ideal for C-suite and board audiences wrestling with strategic decision-making under uncertainty Policy, government, and public affairs leadership Strategy, risk, and scenario planning functions Executive development and leadership faculty programmes Audience outcomes A working understanding of how specific cognitive biases – availability, confirmation, narrative distortion – shape organisational decisions, and what structures can correct them A data-grounded framework for assessing long-run institutional and societal progress, reducing reliance on media-driven perception of perpetual crisis Practical reasoning tools from logic, probability, and causal inference, applied to the kinds of collective judgments senior leaders actually face Greater precision about how language shapes shared understanding – and why institutional communication so often fails to build the common knowledge it intends A clearer sense of where human nature helps and where it hinders, grounded in evolutionary psychology rather than management metaphor

Why organisations work with Sue Barker A rare first-hand account of two distinct elite careers, professional tennis and three decades of live BBC broadcasting, with the practical detail of how each transition was managed. Sustained composure on live television. Hosting Wimbledon, Sports Personality of the Year and A Question of Sport for decades is a working example of executing under scrutiny that few corporate audiences will encounter directly. Credibility with senior, mixed-gender audiences. Recognised by the Royal Television Society and the Crown across three honours, which lands with boards and partner-track audiences in a way generic motivational speakers do not. Strong fit as an awards host, panel chair and after-dinner speaker for corporate events that need a recognisable public figure with broadcast-grade interviewing craft. Biography highlights French Open singles champion, 1976; world No. 3, 1977; eleven WTA singles titles. Host of BBC Wimbledon coverage, 1994 to 2022. Host of A Question of Sport, 1997 to 2021. Host of BBC Sports Personality of the Year, 1994 to 2012. First woman to win the Royal Television Society best sports presenter award, 2001. MBE (2000), OBE (2016), CBE (2021); Sunday Times bestselling author of Calling The Shots and Wimbledon: A Personal Story. Biography The 1976 French Open final was won by a 20-year-old from Devon who had been picked out for coaching at age ten by Arthur Roberts, the coach behind Angela Mortimer’s three Grand Slam titles. That win, eleven WTA singles titles and a world ranking of No. 3 made the first career. The second was longer and arguably harder. After retiring from professional tennis in 1984, Barker moved into broadcasting through Australia’s Channel 7 and Sky, then joined the BBC in 1993. From 1994 she anchored Wimbledon for the corporation, a role she held for almost three decades, alongside A Question of Sport from 1997 and Sports Personality of the Year from 1994. Three Royal honours followed: MBE, OBE and CBE. For corporate audiences, the substance is the craft underneath the visibility. Holding a live two-week tournament on air, running a long-running studio format, and interviewing elite performers in defeat as well as victory are working demonstrations of composure, preparation and reinvention. Her two Sunday Times bestsellers, Calling The Shots and Wimbledon: A Personal Story, document the same material in print. She is most often booked as an awards host, panel chair or after-dinner speaker, where the value sits in broadcast-grade interviewing and the standing she brings to the room. The keynote content on resilience and performing under pressure is drawn directly from those two careers, not assembled from theory. Key speaking topics Resilience and reinvention across a long career Performing under pressure on live broadcast Women in sport and sports media Teamwork in elite competition Awards hosting and panel chairing Interviewing elite performers Ideal for Corporate awards ceremonies and gala dinners needing a recognised public figure to host Leadership offsites where resilience and career reinvention are the brief Conferences requiring a panel chair or interviewer with broadcast-grade craft Client and partner events where brand recognition and audience appeal matter Audience outcomes A first-hand account of how composure is built and held across decades of public performance Specific examples of managing a career transition from elite sport into a second profession A practitioner’s view of women’s progress in sport and sports broadcasting since the 1970s An interviewer’s perspective on what elite performers say about pressure and recovery

Why organisations work with Susan HayesCulleton She holds the CFA charter and runs a financial-training practice with clients across Europe and the United States, so the economic read is grounded in capital-markets discipline, not punditry. She wrote the textbook that Irish students learn economics from twice. That same instinct for sequencing complex material into something a room can act on is what she brings to executive audiences. She presents “Taking Stock” on Newstalk, interviewing experts on the issues moving the world economy each week. The implication for buyers is current material, sourced from named guests, refreshed continuously. She sits on the boards of the Irish International Business Network and the Ireland Hong Kong Business Forum, which gives her a working view of cross-border trade flows that few keynote economists hold. She built #SavvyTeenAcademy and Active Peers AI alongside the speaking practice, which means the economic argument lands with someone who has actually run payroll, raised invoices and made a hire. Biography highlights CFA charterholder; MSc Executive Leadership; BSc Financial Maths and Economics; Diploma in Taxation. Co-author of “Positive Economics”, a market-leading Leaving Certificate economics textbook in Ireland. Author of “The Savvy Woman’s Guide to Financial Freedom” and “The Savvy Guide to Making More Money” (Penguin Ireland). Author of “Money Matters”, a financial literacy textbook sponsored by CFA Society Ireland and distributed to Irish secondary schools. Presenter of “Taking Stock” on Newstalk; host of Fantastic Female Fridays and the ESG and Tech Show. Managing Director, Hayes Culleton Group; Associate Lecturer, Ulster University; board roles with the Irish International Business Network and the Ireland Hong Kong Business Forum. Biography Most boardrooms do not have an economist in the room. They have a CFO with a P&L, a strategy lead with a deck, and a set of macro headlines none of them can confidently translate into a hiring decision or a hedge. Susan HayesCulleton works in that gap. The credentialing matters here. The CFA charter, the MSc Executive Leadership and the BSc Financial Maths and Economics are not decoration; they are the reason the read on rates, currency and capital flows hold up under questioning. The Hayes Culleton Group serves clients across Europe and the United States out of that same training discipline. The public work is what makes the material legible. “Positive Economics”, co-authored twice, is the textbook generations of Irish students sat the Leaving Certificate with. “Money Matters”, sponsored by CFA Society Ireland, went into every secondary school in the country. On Newstalk, “Taking Stock” runs each week with named guests on the issues moving the world economy. The instinct for sequencing technical content into something a non-specialist room can use is the through-line. She also runs businesses. #SavvyTeenAcademy places teenagers into corporate work experience programmes; Active Peers AI captures and diffuses tacit knowledge inside networks. Board seats with the Irish International Business Network and the Ireland Hong Kong Business Forum keep her close to the cross-border trade flows that most economists discuss only in the abstract. Key speaking topics Global economic outlook and macro forecasting Capital markets and investing for non-specialist audiences Cross-border trade, Ireland, UK and Asia-Pacific exposure ESG and sustainability in commercial decision-making Financial literacy and women in finance Entrepreneurship and scale-up economics Ideal for Boards, executive committees and CFOs are preparing capital allocation, hedging or pricing decisions against an uncertain macro backdrop. Banking, financial services and professional services audiences who want a working economist on the platform rather than a generalist commentator. Conferences hosting international trade, ESG, or financial literacy themes. Corporate audiences seeking a credible Irish or European economic voice for European, UK or US-facing programmes. Audience outcomes A clearer read on what the current macro signals mean for the specific decisions in front of the leadership team. Working vocabulary for capital-markets concepts (rates, currency, equity flows) that previously sat with the CFO alone. A view on cross-border exposure for organisations trading into Ireland, the UK, the EU or Asia-Pacific. Confidence to ask the next-level question of internal finance and risk teams. An economic argument paced for a mixed-seniority audience, not a specialist one.

Why organisations work with Susi O’Neill She translates frontier technology into language non-technical executives can act on, drawing on years running global brand content for Kaspersky, the world’s largest privately owned cybersecurity firm. Her practice is built around the adoption gap, not the technology itself, which is why she resonates with leaders whose AI rollouts have stalled at proof-of-concept. She brings a builder’s track record in tech storytelling, including the Platinum MarCom Award winning Insight Story podcast for Kaspersky and Editor-in-Chief roles on Secure Futures magazine and the Tomorrow Unlocked channel. Through EVA and her Rethinking the Hype Cycle newsletter, she works with leaders on inclusive AI adoption, including the lag in women’s engagement with AI tools and what closing it changes about who benefits from the technology. Biography highlights Founder and Executive Director of EVA, a London-based technology and communications consultancy. Former Head of B2B Brand Content (Global) at Kaspersky. Editor-in-Chief of Kaspersky’s Secure Futures magazine and Tomorrow Unlocked cyberculture channel. Creator and host of the Platinum MarCom Award winning Insight Story podcast. Named in Pepper Content’s Top 50 Global Women in Content 2023. Author of the Rethinking the Hype Cycle newsletter on AI and frontier technology adoption. Biography The hard part of AI is rarely the model. It is the distance between an executive sponsor and the team being asked to use a new tool by Friday. O’Neill has spent her career working that distance, first inside one of the world’s largest cybersecurity firms, now from the outside through her consultancy EVA. At Kaspersky, she ran global B2B brand content and edited Secure Futures, the company’s business-leader magazine, alongside the Tomorrow Unlocked cyberculture channel. She commissioned and hosted Insight Story, a podcast unpacking tech trends for executives that won a Platinum MarCom Award in 2023. The work taught her how senior buyers actually absorb information about complex technology, and where the standard tech-marketing playbook fails them. EVA, the practice she founded next, takes that experience into client work on AI strategy, responsible technology and adoption. Her newsletter Rethinking the Hype Cycle puts the same question to a wider audience: what does a serious organisation do once the AI announcement is out and the cultural work begins. She also writes and speaks on inclusive adoption, including the documented lag in women’s use of generative AI tools and what it costs organisations that ignore it. Earlier brand-content programmes for EY, GSK and Unilever, and a recognition in Pepper Content’s Top 50 Global Women in Content, sit behind that current work. The throughline is consistent. Technology only changes a business when the people inside it are willing to use it, and most organisations are still under-investing in the communications and trust work that makes that happen. Key speaking topics AI adoption and the hype cycle Responsible and trusted technology Frontier and emerging technologies for business Inclusive AI and women in technology Tech communications and thought leadership Cybersecurity culture and digital trust Ideal for CIO, CTO and Chief Digital Officer audiences whose AI programmes have stalled in pilot. CMO, communications and brand leaders building tech credibility with non-technical buyers. Boards and executive teams setting AI governance and responsible-use principles. Diversity, talent and L&D leaders working on inclusive AI capability across the workforce. Audience outcomes A clearer reading of where their organisation actually sits on the AI hype cycle, and which moves are worth making next. A practical sense of how to bring sceptical or hesitant employees with them, instead of around them. Specific examples of how serious organisations are translating frontier tech into adoption, not just announcements. A sharper view of inclusive AI as a capability question, including who is using these tools and who is being left behind.

Why organisations work with Suzannah Baum She brings a published methodology, not a personality. The Diamond Speech Structure is a named framework that teams can apply after the engagement ends, which means the investment compounds beyond a single keynote or coaching block. Her client roster is operationally serious: Roche Pharmaceuticals, BMO Capital Markets, the International Civil Aviation Organization, the National Film Board of Canada. These are environments where a misjudged presentation has real commercial or regulatory consequences. She is one of a very small number of speakers who hold both a CAPS national board credential and a published book on the subject they coach in. The standard is set by her peers, not by her own marketing. She works in both keynote and coaching modes, which lets organisations deploy her against either a large internal audience or a specific senior individual preparing for a high-stakes moment. Biography highlights Author, From Nervous to Nailed It! (2022), Amazon listing ISBN 9781778222900 Past President, CAPS Montreal; former National Director, Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (2021 to 2022) Recipient, CAPS E1-R1 Ambassador of the Year Award B.Comm, McGill University; M.A., Carleton University Former public speaking instructor, McGill University DISC Certified Human Behaviour Consultant; eSpeakers Certified Virtual Presenter Named client engagements include Roche Pharmaceuticals, BMO Capital Markets, Service Canada, International Civil Aviation Organization, National Film Board of Canada Media contributor and featured expert: Huffington Post, Montreal Gazette, Elle Canada, Global TV News, CJAD Montreal Biography A senior leader walks into a board meeting with twenty years of operational judgement and twenty minutes to convey it. What happens in those twenty minutes decides whether the room moves with them. This is the territory Suzannah Baum has spent her career inside, and the reason her work shows up in pharmaceutical, banking, and aviation environments where the cost of an unclear presentation is measured in money or licence. Her published methodology, the Diamond Speech Structure, gives senior speakers a repeatable flowchart for building presentations that hold their shape under pressure. The framework sits at the centre of her book From Nervous to Nailed It!, released in 2022, and her online programme used by speakers preparing for high-stakes audiences. The structure is teachable, which is the point. Coaching that depends on the coach is not coaching, it is a dependency. Her institutional credentials carry weight in her own profession. She is a past President of CAPS Montreal, served as a National Director on the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers board, and was awarded the CAPS E1-R1 Ambassador of the Year. She has taught public speaking at McGill University, where she also earned her B.Comm, and holds an M.A. from Carleton. She is a DISC Certified Human Behaviour Consultant, which she uses to adapt her work to the communication style of the individual leader in the room. Her named client engagements run through Roche Pharmaceuticals, BMO Capital Markets, Service Canada, the International Civil Aviation Organization, and the National Film Board of Canada. These are organisations where the gap between a leader’s authority and their audience’s reception is not a soft problem. It is the problem. Key speaking topics Executive presence and presentation credibility Presentation structure for senior leaders Sales and client-facing communication Speaking under high stakes and visible pressure Storytelling for business audiences Building confidence in newer speakers Virtual and hybrid presentation craft Ideal for Senior leaders preparing for investor days, board addresses, or industry keynotes Leadership development programmes for newly promoted executives Sales and client-facing teams in regulated or technical industries Communications, marketing, and HR functions investing in presentation capability across leadership benches Audience outcomes A repeatable structure for building presentations under time pressure, using the Diamond Speech Structure Specific techniques for managing visible nerves in front of senior audiences Sharper editorial discipline in how a leader frames the central message of a talk Practical tools for adapting delivery to different audience types, drawn from the DISC behavioural model A clearer sense of what separates a presentation that gets through from one that lands

Why organisations work with Suzi Perry She has hosted live, high-stakes broadcast for more than two decades, including BBC Formula 1, MotoGP for BBC and BT Sport, Wimbledon and the London Olympics. Few hosts on the corporate circuit carry that volume of unscripted live experience. She is the first woman to have held the permanent main-anchor role on BBC Formula 1, which makes her credible in front of motorsport, automotive and engineering audiences in a way most generalist hosts are not. She has eight years on Channel 5’s The Gadget Show and a long run with Mobile World Congress and Global Mobile Awards, giving her fluency with technology, telecoms and consumer electronics audiences without needing a brief. Repeat corporate clients include BT, Mercedes, Honda, HSBC, Suzuki, DELL, EE, Nikon and Royal Mail, with hosting work spanning awards nights, conference moderation and product launches. Biography highlights First permanent female anchor of BBC One’s Formula 1 coverage, 2013 to 2015. Lead MotoGP presenter for BT Sport, now TNT Sports, since 2016. Thirteen seasons covering MotoGP for BBC Sport before joining Formula 1. Co-presenter of Channel 5’s The Gadget Show for eight years across 17 series. Conference and awards host for BT, Mercedes, Honda, HSBC, Mobile World Congress and Global Mobile Awards. Honorary degree from the University of Wolverhampton. Biography Live broadcast is the part of the modern executive job that gets the least practice and the most scrutiny. Suzi Perry has spent more than twenty years working in exactly that environment, first as the BBC’s MotoGP presenter for thirteen seasons, then as the first woman to hold the permanent main-anchor role on BBC One’s Formula 1 coverage from 2013, and since 2016 as the lead MotoGP presenter for BT Sport and TNT Sports. That work is the basis of how she shows up for corporate audiences. She has hosted at Mobile World Congress, Global Mobile Awards, the Boat Show and conferences for BT, Mercedes, Honda, HSBC, Suzuki, DELL, EE, Nikon and Royal Mail, alongside awards-night work for technology, automotive and consumer brands. Eight years co-presenting Channel 5’s The Gadget Show, and a long association with Gadget Show Live, gave her a separate base of fluency with technology and consumer-tech audiences. Her speaking content draws on the same source material. Two decades of live broadcast at the front of a Formula 1 paddock or a MotoGP grid produce a specific working knowledge: how to prepare, how to recover when a feed drops or a guest goes off-script, how to read a room when the schedule slips. For senior leaders increasingly asked to be the face of their organisation on stage and on camera, that experience is the relevant credential. She holds an honorary degree from the University of Wolverhampton, where she originally studied business and finance, and serves as a patron or ambassador for Promise Dreams, UK Youth, the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, Alzheimer’s Research UK and the Special Olympics. Key speaking topics Live broadcast and presenting craft Awards hosting and conference moderation Motorsport and Formula 1 MotoGP and motorcycle racing Technology and consumer electronics Women in motorsport and broadcasting Ideal for Boards and executive teams preparing for high-visibility live moments: investor days, town halls, AGMs. Automotive, motorsport and engineering audiences looking for a host with technical fluency, not a generalist. Technology and telecoms organisations running keynote stages, awards nights or product launches. CMOs and brand teams briefing for sponsorship-driven hospitality at major sporting events. Audience outcomes A working sense of how experienced broadcasters prepare for live moments where the script can fail. A clearer view of what composure on camera actually looks like in practice. Specific examples from inside Formula 1 and MotoGP that translate to high-pressure corporate stages. A sharper read on how to recover when a live moment goes off plan.

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

Why organisations work with 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.