Team Leadership speakers

Why organisations work with Pau Gasol Two NBA championships, three Olympic medals and a FIBA World Cup title give him a working definition of high performance grounded in repeated wins across cultures, coaches and rosters, not a single peak. He speaks credibly about the operating reality of elite teams: ego management next to a generational star (Kobe Bryant), role clarity, and the unglamorous habits that hold a group together across an 82-game season. A Basketball Hall of Fame induction in 2023 and a retired Lakers jersey place him among the small group of athletes whose authority on team and leadership is taken seriously inside a boardroom, not only on a stage. His work outside sport (Gasol Foundation on childhood obesity, IOC Athletes’ Commission, Gasol16 Ventures) shows a leader who has built institutions, not only played in them. The J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award is the NBA’s formal recognition of that. He presents fluently in English and Spanish, with direct experience of US, European and global organisations, which suits international leadership audiences without translation overhead. Biography highlights Two NBA Championships with the Los Angeles Lakers (2009, 2010); six-time NBA All-Star; four-time All-NBA selection. 2002 NBA Rookie of the Year, the first non-American player to win the award. Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Class of 2023; jersey No. 16 retired by the Los Angeles Lakers. FIBA World Cup champion and MVP 2006; three EuroBasket golds with Spain (2009, 2011, 2015); two-time EuroBasket MVP. Three Olympic medals with Spain: silver in 2008 and 2012, bronze in 2016. President and co-founder of the Gasol Foundation; UNICEF Global Champion for Nutrition and Zero Childhood Obesity; member of the IOC Athletes’ Commission; 2012 NBA J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award. Biography Two NBA Championships, three Olympic medals and a FIBA World Cup title are not won by the same individual playing in different teams. They are won by leaders who help different groups behave the same way under pressure. Pau Gasol spent two decades inside the highest-stakes team environments in professional sport, with Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles, alongside his brother Marc on the Spanish national team, and across rosters in Memphis, Chicago, San Antonio and Milwaukee. The interest for senior leaders is not the trophy count. It is what it took to sit beside a generational star like Bryant and still deliver, year after year, in the locker room as much as on the court. Role clarity, ego management, honest conversations between named individuals, and a standard that did not move with the score. Gasol’s account of that period is one of the more credible insider readings of elite team performance available from any speaker in the market. His record off the court is unusually substantive for an athlete. He co-founded the Gasol Foundation in 2013 with Marc Gasol, working on childhood obesity and child wellbeing in Spain and the United States. He serves as UNICEF’s Global Champion for Nutrition and Zero Childhood Obesity, sits on the International Olympic Committee Athletes’ Commission, and runs Gasol16 Ventures, an investment platform in sport, health and wellness. The NBA recognised the community work with the 2012 J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award. Inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2023, with his number retired by the Los Angeles Lakers the same year, Gasol now speaks to leadership audiences in English and Spanish on what it actually takes to build a team that wins more than once. Key speaking topics Leadership and team performance under sustained pressure Building trust and role clarity inside elite teams Resilience and self-leadership through injury, transition and setback Sport as a model for organisational culture and standards Purpose-driven leadership and life after a professional career Child health and the leadership case for long-term social investment Ideal for Senior leadership offsites and CEO conferences focused on team performance and culture Sales kick-offs and annual conferences seeking a credible voice on resilience and standards Sports, health and consumer-brand audiences engaging with athlete leadership International audiences requiring delivery in English or Spanish Audience outcomes A working picture of what elite team performance looks like behind the result, told by someone inside it A direct view of how leaders manage ego, role and trust around a dominant individual Specific reference points for resilience and decision-making through injury, transition and public scrutiny A leadership case for long-term investment in people and purpose beyond the immediate quarter

Why organisations work with Perri Shakes-Drayton She offers a first-person account of returning to elite performance four years after a career-altering injury, useful to leaders managing teams through prolonged recovery rather than single-event setbacks. Her story is grounded in a verifiable competitive record at the highest level: 4x400m relay silver at the 2017 World Championships in London, on the same track where the 2013 injury happened. She speaks credibly about the difference between motivation and discipline, drawing on a coaching relationship and a return-to-sport pathway, not generic mindset language. The narrative arc is unusually clean for buyers programming a values or culture moment: ranked second in the world, injury, surgery, four-year absence, return at the top level. Specific, dated, evidenced. Biography highlights 2013 European Indoor Champion in the 400m, and gold medallist in the 4x400m relay at the same championships in Gothenburg. 2012 World Indoor 4x400m relay gold medallist; 2017 World Championships 4x400m relay silver medallist in London. Personal best of 53.67 seconds in the 400m hurdles, the second-fastest by a British woman, behind only Sally Gunnell. Four-time British Athletics Champion in the 400m hurdles (2008, 2011, 2012, 2013). BSc Sports Science, Brunel University. Nike-sponsored athlete since 2005. Member of Victoria Park Harriers and Tower Hamlets Athletics Club. Founder of Train with PSD, a London-based fitness initiative running outdoor sessions at venues including The Shard and Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Biography The 2013 World Championship 400m hurdles final in Moscow ended at the first hurdle. Perri Shakes-Drayton, ranked second in the world that season with a personal best of 53.67 seconds, landed awkwardly and ruptured the ligaments and cartilage in her left knee. She finished seventh. The surgeon’s instruction afterwards was direct: no more hurdles. What followed was not a comeback story in the conventional sense. It was four years of surgery, rehabilitation, relearning movement, and rebuilding a competitive base in a different event. She returned to the 400m flat, made the Great Britain relay squad for the 2017 World Championships in London, and ran on the team that took silver in front of a home crowd on the track where her injury had happened. The athletic record is verifiable and serious. European Indoor Champion in the 400m in 2013. Gold in the 4x400m relay at the same championships and at the 2012 World Indoors. Four-time British Athletics Champion over 400m hurdles. Second-fastest British woman in history over the distance behind Sally Gunnell, the Olympic and world champion. A Nike-sponsored athlete since 2005, trained out of Victoria Park Harriers in east London, BSc in Sports Science from Brunel. For senior audiences, the value of her account lies in the part most resilience speakers skip: the middle. The years between the injury and the return, where progress is invisible and the question of whether to continue gets asked repeatedly. That is the conversation she is credible on, and the one most leadership programmes are not equipped to host. Key speaking topics Resilience and recovery after career-altering setback Self-leadership and discipline under sustained pressure Goal-setting and the practical content of long-term focus Mental health and athlete wellbeing Team dynamics in high-performance environments Diversity and representation in elite sport Ideal for Senior leadership teams and offsites focused on resilience, recovery and decision-making after a setback HR, talent and wellbeing leads programming culture and mental health moments Employee networks, ERGs and diversity events seeking a credible elite-sport voice Conference openers and after-dinner audiences where the brief is story-led rather than thesis-led Audience outcomes A first-hand reference point for what sustained recovery looks like over years, not weeks A working distinction between motivation and discipline that audiences can use the next day A concrete example of returning to a top level after a four-year absence, useful as a benchmark for teams under pressure A reset on what is realistic to ask of people coming back from professional or personal disruption

Why organisations work with Perry McCarthy He brings a first-person account of operating inside a Formula One team that was actively working against its own driver, including being sent out at Spa with a broken steering component pulled from his teammate’s car. The lesson lands because the stakes were physical. His route into F1 ran through fourteen-hour shifts on North Sea oil rigs to fund the seat. Audiences hearing about resilience from him are hearing it from someone who priced it. The Stig role gives him a cultural hook into rooms that would not normally book a motorsport speaker, which makes him a strong choice for sales conferences, kick-offs, and after-dinner slots that need energy without losing substance. He is a working media commentator on Sky News and BBC News, not a retired driver reading off a script. The delivery is current and the timing is built for live audiences. Biography highlights Drove for Andrea Moda Formula in the 1992 Formula One World Championship. Tested for Williams and Benetton F1 teams. Competed at the 24 Hours of Le Mans on five occasions between 1996 and 2003. Original black-suited Stig on BBC’s Top Gear across the first two series. Author of “Flat Out, Flat Broke: Formula 1 the Hard Way!” (2002), with a foreword by Damon Hill. Regular motorsport contributor on Sky News and BBC News. Biography Reaching Formula One as a privateer is a financial problem before it is a sporting one. McCarthy worked fourteen-hour shifts on North Sea oil rigs to fund his junior career, then arrived at the 1992 world championship with Andrea Moda Formula, a team owned by an Italian shoe businessman that was, by any honest reading, set up to fail. He never made the grid. He also never crashed the car, which at one point was sent out at Spa with a broken steering component lifted from his teammate’s car. What he did get from that season was a working knowledge of how to keep operating when the people around you are not. He went on to test for Williams and Benetton, then built a career in sports cars that included five appearances at the 24 Hours of Le Mans between 1996 and 2003. In 2002, a chance meeting with Jeremy Clarkson at the launch of his autobiography “Flat Out, Flat Broke” led to the role that made him recognisable outside motorsport. He was the original Stig on BBC’s Top Gear, the black-suited version, across the first two series. His identity was exposed by a Sunday newspaper in early 2003. The speaking work is built on the same material. Damon Hill’s line about him still travels: “I have constant admiration on how he turns a no hope situation into some sort of triumph.” For a corporate audience, that is the asset. McCarthy can describe, with specifics, what it takes to keep performing when the equipment is wrong, the support is missing, and the result is no longer in your hands. Key speaking topics Performance under pressure Resilience and recovery from setback Self-leadership in hostile conditions Team performance and trust Risk and decision-making Motorsport as a business analogy Ideal for Sales conferences and annual kick-offs needing high-energy keynote opening or close After-dinner audiences at corporate hospitality, awards, and partner events Leadership offsites focused on composure and persistence under pressure Automotive, motorsport-adjacent, and engineering brand events Audience outcomes A vivid, first-person account of operating inside a Formula One team that was actively against its own driver A practical reframe of resilience as a daily working habit rather than a slogan The cultural payoff of hearing the Top Gear Stig story directly from the original Stig Energy and humour that sets the tone for the rest of the agenda

Why organisations work with Peter Anderton His TEDxDerby talk “Great Leadership comes down to only two rules” is used inside MBA programmes and gives senior teams a shared, memorable language for leadership that survives the room. He treats organisations as systems, drawing on his Chartered Engineer background and early career as a manufacturing systems engineer at ICI, which lands credibly with technical directors and operational leadership teams. He has worked inside leadership populations at Jaguar Land Rover, 3M, KPMG, HSBC, Atkins and NHS leadership academies, so the content arrives already tested against complex matrixed organisations. He cuts through the leadership-development noise. Two rules, three secrets of high-performing teams, applied to the specific bottleneck the senior team is currently sitting on. He is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD, which gives the work professional weight with HR and people directors commissioning leadership programmes. Biography highlights Founder of Internal Alignment, a leadership consulting and executive development practice. TEDxDerby speaker, “Great Leadership comes down to only two rules”, used in MBA curricula internationally. Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). Chartered Engineer; began career as a manufacturing systems engineer at ICI. Named client work includes Jaguar Land Rover, 3M, KPMG, HSBC, Atkins, Huntsman, Equifax and NHS leadership academies. Signature frameworks: “The Two Rules of Leadership” and “CPR: Connection, Purpose, Results” for high-performing teams. Biography The hardest leadership transition is the one nobody schedules. A capable individual gets promoted, then promoted again, until the job is no longer about what they personally deliver but about what their team delivers without them. That shift is where most leadership development quietly fails. It teaches more models when what the leader needs is fewer. This is the territory Peter Anderton has built his work around. As founder of Internal Alignment, he works with directors, MDs and senior teams who have outgrown their own operating habits and need to convert personal capability into team capability. His TEDxDerby talk, “Great Leadership comes down to only two rules”, is now used in MBA programmes internationally and sets out the spine of his thinking: leadership is not about the leader, except in the specific way that it entirely is. His credibility is unusual for the field. Anderton is a Chartered Engineer who started his career as a manufacturing systems engineer at ICI, and he still reads organisations as systems rather than as cultures. That framing travels well into technical and operational businesses such as Jaguar Land Rover, 3M, Atkins and Huntsman, and into financial and professional services including HSBC, KPMG and Equifax. He is also a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD, which anchors the work in the professional standards people directors recognise. What he gives a senior team is compression. Two rules of leadership, three components of a high-performing team in his CPR model: Connection, Purpose, Results. The argument is that most leadership populations do not need more frameworks; they need to act differently on the few that matter. That is the bet his clients are buying when they put him in front of their leadership cohorts. Key speaking topics Leadership fundamentals for senior leaders and directors Leadership in the age of AI and exponential change High-performing teams The leadership transition from doer to enabler Executive development and leadership populations Change leadership and the human side of transformation Difficult conversations and leadership courage Employee engagement through leadership behaviour Ideal for Director, MD and senior leadership populations making the shift from individual contributor to team leader. CHROs, people directors and L&D leaders commissioning flagship leadership programmes. Executive teams in technical, engineering, manufacturing or operationally complex businesses. Senior leadership cohorts inside organisations going through restructure, integration or sustained change. Audience outcomes A shared, memorable language for leadership across a senior cohort, anchored in the Two Rules. A clearer read of where each leader is personally creating the bottleneck their team is working around. Practical handles for handling difficult conversations without the usual avoidance and rework. A working model for high-performing teams using Connection, Purpose, Results. Renewed confidence that leadership effectiveness is a small set of disciplined behaviours, not a longer reading list.

Why organisations work with Peter Crolla He has helped build two Formula 1 teams from scratch. He joined Haas in 2015 as the team’s 14th employee and joined Cadillac in 2025 to prepare its 2026 debut. Few F1 practitioners have stood up a competitive operation from zero more than once. His content is grounded in operational mechanics. Audiences leave with how the pit wall actually works, how a 1.8-second pit stop with 22 staff and 36 tasks is choreographed, and how compliance with FIA scrutineering is built into every weekend. Formula 1 sits where exacting regulation meets competitive margins of milliseconds. Leaders in pharmaceuticals, financial services, aviation, and energy find the comparison directly applicable to their own environments. He can explain how F1 reduced driver fatalities from over 40 between 1950 and 1994 to one in the three decades since. The shift came from a system in which safety stopped being a source of competitive advantage and was shared across rival teams. Two decades across British Touring Cars, F3, McLaren, Haas, and Cadillac give him grounded comparative views on which high-performance practices transfer between organisations and which collapse outside their original context. Biography highlights Race Team Manager at the Cadillac F1 Team, preparing the operation for its 2026 Formula 1 debut. Team Manager at Haas F1 Team for eight seasons, joining as the 14th employee in 2015 ahead of the team’s 2016 debut. Previously Team Leader at McLaren Racing, working alongside World Champions Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso. Oversaw Haas’s maiden Formula 1 pole position at the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix. Helped Haas secure FIA Three-Star Environmental Accreditation ahead of the 2023 season. Awarded the Teamwork Award at the 2013 MIA Business Excellence Awards during his time at Team Dynamics in the British Touring Car Championship. Biography In Formula 1, a pit stop now takes 1.8 seconds. Twenty-two people complete thirty-six tasks while the car is stationary. One missed cue and a podium becomes a points-paying afternoon. That kind of choreography is what Peter Crolla has spent his career producing. He joined the Haas F1 Team in 2015 as its fourteenth employee, before the team had been on a grid, and stayed for eight seasons as Team Manager. In 2025 he left to take the same role at the Cadillac F1 Team, where he is preparing the operation for its 2026 debut. Doing this work twice in a decade puts him in a small group of practitioners who have stood up a competitive Formula 1 team from a standing start. F1 teams of 1800 staff coordinate around twenty-four non-negotiable race weekend deadlines a year, under one of the most exacting regulatory regimes in commercial sport. Crolla speaks about how that machine actually runs. He explains the daily tension between psychological safety and personal accountability, and how F1 turned over forty driver fatalities between 1950 and 1994 into one in the three decades since. The change came from stopping competitive teams from hoarding what they learned about safety. Key speaking topics High-performance team operations Leadership in regulated, high-pressure environments Operational excellence under non-negotiable deadlines Safety culture and risk transformation Building organisations from a standing start Continuous improvement and marginal gains Sustainability in elite motorsport Ideal for COOs and operations directors in regulated sectors such as financial services, pharmaceuticals, aviation, and energy, where compliance and competitive performance have to be solved together. Founders, transformation leads, and executive teams building or rebuilding an organisation from a standing start. Senior risk and safety leaders looking at how F1’s cultural transformation was actually achieved over three decades. HR and people leaders focused on psychological safety and accountability in technical or engineering-led organisations. Audience outcomes The choreography of a 1.8-second pit stop across 22 staff, including where it most often breaks down. The specific practices that keep psychological safety and personal accountability in balance inside an F1 operation. How F1’s safety record went from over forty driver fatalities in its first four decades to one in its last three, including the specific decision to stop competing on safety. A clear separation between high-performance practices that transfer between industries and those that depend on the specifics of F1.

Why organisations work with Peter Schmeichel Captained Manchester United to the 1999 Treble, the most successful season in the club’s history. The lessons from holding that dressing room together speak directly to what ‘team first’ demands of senior people when stakes are public. Delivered the opening keynote at IMD Business School’s flagship Orchestrating Winning Performance programme to more than 400 senior executives. Few former athletes are invited onto that platform, and the appearance gives the corporate content genuine business-school provenance. Played twenty-two years at top-flight football across England, Denmark and Portugal, winning major titles in three different leagues. The perspective is built on a long career across changing teams and competitions, not a single peak. Goalkeeping is the most unforgiving position in elite team sport. Every mistake is visible and there is nowhere to hide. The lessons on composure and accountability under that exposure carry into senior leadership without strain. Biography highlights Captained Manchester United to victory in the 1999 UEFA Champions League final, completing the club’s only Treble of Premier League, FA Cup and European Cup. Won the UEFA European Championship with Denmark in 1992, defeating Germany in the final after the Danish squad entered as late replacements for Yugoslavia. Voted IFFHS World’s Best Goalkeeper in 1992 and 1993 and named in the FIFA 100 list of 125 greatest living footballers in 2004. Earned 129 caps for Denmark between 1987 and 2001, the Danish national-team caps record for more than two decades. Inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2003 and awarded an honorary MBE in the 2001 New Year Honours. Has worked as a football pundit and analyst for the BBC, the Premier League Channel, CBS Sports and FOX Sports, where he joined the studio for UEFA Euro 2024. Biography Manchester United were a goal down in the 1999 Champions League final with two minutes left. They scored twice in stoppage time and won the European Cup. Peter Schmeichel, captain that night, lifted the trophy in his last game for the club. Those eight years yielded five Premier League titles, three FA Cups and a Champions League. He was twice voted the world’s best goalkeeper. The trophy count is the headline. Holding standards in that dressing room under Sir Alex Ferguson for nearly a decade is the harder achievement. IMD Business School invited him to translate that experience when he opened its flagship Orchestrating Winning Performance programme. His keynote, Putting Everything on the Line, argued that consistency at the top is a different problem from reaching it. Talent reaches the top once. Holding that level for a decade demands a discipline most organisations underestimate. The international career sits behind every story he tells. He earned 129 caps for Denmark and won Euro 1992. The Danish squad had replaced Yugoslavia at ten days’ notice and beat Germany in the final. He now broadcasts for the BBC, the Premier League Channel, CBS Sports and FOX Sports, where he covered UEFA Euro 2024. Key speaking topics Leadership and standards in high-performance teams Sustained elite performance across long careers Captaincy and team-first culture Composure and decision-making under public scrutiny Recovery from mistakes in unforgiving environments Lessons from elite team sport for senior leaders Ideal for Senior leadership teams in industries where performance is publicly scrutinised Conferences, offsites and leadership programmes focused on team standards and accountability Organisations going through periods of sustained success that risk complacency Sales, customer-facing and high-pressure operational teams Audience outcomes A specific account of what ‘team first’ requires of senior people, drawn from inside one of the most successful dressing rooms in modern football The argument that holding standards is a separate problem from reaching them, with a working vocabulary for naming that problem in their own organisations Examples of how elite teams handle mistakes and the temptation to relax once a major goal has been reached A sharper view of the role of the captain in protecting team standards from individual ego

Why organisations work with Rafael Camara A current-season elite competitor at the sharp end of an environment built around pressure, qualifying margins, and split-second decisions, not a retired athlete reflecting on a finished career. Direct insight into how a Ferrari Driver Academy programme structures preparation, debrief, and feedback cycles around a young driver who has to perform on schedule. A rookie-year championship in FIA Formula 3 plus the 2024 Formula Regional European title give him a documented record of converting promotion-year pressure into results. Speaks credibly to teams working in multicultural, multilingual environments, having raced and lived across European championships from a Brazilian base since his teens. Biography highlights 2025 FIA Formula 3 Champion with Trident, clinching the title with one round remaining FIA Rookie of the Year and Aramco Best Rookie Award, 2025 2024 Formula Regional European Champion with Prema Racing; first Brazilian to win the title Member of the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy 2021 WSK Champions Cup winner in karting Signed to Invicta Racing for the 2026 FIA Formula 2 Championship Biography Formula 3 has not seen a rookie campaign quite like the one Trident and Camara put together in 2025. Four feature-race victories, five pole positions, and a championship sealed with a round still to run. He took both the FIA Rookie of the Year and Aramco Best Rookie awards in the same season. The year before, he had already done something no Brazilian had managed. With Prema Racing he won the 2024 Formula Regional European Championship and set a single-season points record on the way. Two titles, two teams, two consecutive promotion years. Behind the results sits a Ferrari Driver Academy programme that has produced Charles Leclerc and a structured way of preparing young drivers for the pressure that comes with a Scuderia seat. Camara has been inside that system through his step up from karting into single-seaters, and through his moves to FREC, F3, and now F2 with Invicta Racing for 2026. For business audiences, that is the substance he draws on. How a competitive team uses debrief data, how preparation is structured when you have one qualifying lap to deliver, and what composure looks like when a season turns on a handful of corners. Key speaking topics Performance under pressure Preparation and debrief in elite competition Resilience after setbacks Team performance in multicultural environments Lessons from inside the Ferrari Driver Academy High-stakes decision-making in narrow time windows Ideal for Sales and commercial leadership teams in cyclical, target-driven environments Operations and execution teams where preparation and timing decide outcomes Sponsor activations and partner events with a motorsport or performance theme Talent and leadership development audiences focused on young high-performer cohorts Audience outcomes A first-hand account of how a Ferrari Driver Academy driver prepares for a championship year A working picture of what debrief discipline and feedback loops look like in elite competition Specific examples of how composure is built and held in narrow-margin moments A view of how a young performer manages the step up between levels of competition

Why organisations work with Ralf Schumacher Six Grand Prix victories with Williams between 2001 and 2003, including the team’s most recent 1-2 finish at the 2003 French Grand Prix with Juan Pablo Montoya. Performance at the front of one of the most publicly measured competitions in international sport. Still inside the sport every race weekend as Sky Deutschland’s Formula 1 co-commentator since 2019. His read on team strategy and driver dynamics reflects the current grid, not the one he raced on. Active operational role in motorsport beyond broadcasting: shareholder at Mücke Motorsport since 2013, where he mentors young Mercedes-Benz drivers, and co-team manager at US Racing since 2015 with Gerhard Ungar. Insider perspective on the data-driven culture that defines modern F1, where 1,800-person organisations align around fortnightly race deadlines and pit crews execute roughly 36 tasks in under two seconds. Biography highlights Six Formula 1 Grand Prix wins, 27 podiums, and 180 race starts across 11 seasons (1997 to 2007). Drove for Jordan, Williams, and Toyota in Formula 1; raced in DTM with Mercedes-Benz from 2008 to 2012. Won the 1995 Macau Grand Prix in Formula 3 and the 1996 Japanese Formula Nippon championship in his debut season. Co-commentator and pundit for Sky Deutschland’s Formula 1 coverage since 2019, alongside Timo Glock. Shareholder and mentor at Mücke Motorsport since 2013; co-team manager at US Racing since 2015. With brother Michael Schumacher, the only siblings to have each won Formula 1 Grands Prix. Biography Williams’ most recent 1-2 finish in Formula 1 came at the 2003 French Grand Prix. Ralf Schumacher led, Juan Pablo Montoya followed. It was the fifth of six Grand Prix victories Schumacher recorded across an eleven-season Formula 1 career with Jordan, Williams, and Toyota. The competitive ground that produced those results is unusual. A top Formula 1 team employs around 1,800 people, only a small fraction of whom ever attend a race. Performance depends on aligning that population around a calendar of two dozen race weekends where the deadlines are non-negotiable and the result is broadcast live. Drivers occupy one corner of that operation, with measurable output every fortnight. Since 2019, Schumacher has been a co-commentator for Sky Deutschland’s Formula 1 coverage, alongside Timo Glock. The role keeps his analysis current rather than archival. Each race weekend places him back inside the same strategy calls and driver dynamics he speaks about on stage, which is a meaningful gap between him and former drivers who left the sport a decade ago. Off the broadcast he runs an operational role in motorsport. Since 2013 he has been a shareholder and mentor at Mücke Motorsport, supporting young Mercedes-Benz drivers, and since 2015 he has been co-team manager at US Racing. In August 2024 he returned to racing at the Nürburgring, sharing a Ligier JS P320 LMP3 car with his son David in the Prototype Cup Germany. Seventeen years after his last Formula 1 start, he still occupies a working seat in the sport on both sides of the camera. Key speaking topics Team performance in Formula 1 Data-driven decision-making and marginal gains Risk management and safety culture in elite competition Talent development and mentoring Leadership through technological and regulatory change The business and economics of Formula 1 Ideal for Sales and commercial leadership teams in markets that grade performance every quarter Operations and engineering leaders accountable for repeatable execution against fixed deadlines High-potential and emerging-leader programmes inside multinationals DACH-region corporate audiences and German-speaking conferences Audience outcomes A vocabulary for performance under continuous pressure, drawn from one of the most publicly measured competitive environments in the world. Specific examples of how Formula 1 teams align around fortnightly race deadlines, and where that translates to corporate operating rhythm. An honest account of what F1’s data-driven culture actually produces, beyond the slogan of “marginal gains”. The view of talent development from inside the system that mentors Mercedes-Benz drivers.

Why organisations work with Rhys Jones He has turned back 200 metres from a summit in order to get a team home safely. That experience anchors his safety leadership work: he speaks credibly to the hardest call in any high-risk operation, which is stopping a job when stopping is the right answer. INEOS is the documented engagement. Jim Ratcliffe (then INEOS Chairman) sponsored his record-setting Everest climb in 2006, and the relationship developed into operational work, including a four-presentation programme for INEOS Olefins and Polymers in Texas. That is a reference a buyer can verify directly. The world record is documented and time-stamped. He completed the Seven Summits on his 20th birthday in May 2006 and held the title as the youngest in the world until Jordan Romero broke it in December 2011. The dates and the climb logs are public. He still runs an active expedition company. Monix Adventures, which he co-founded with his wife Laura, operates today as a luxury expedition and adventure travel business, so his material draws on current operational mountaineering rather than a single career-defining climb. His safety presentations are built around the recurring root causes of preventable injuries. Audiences come away with usable observations on team behaviour and the cultural habits that show up consistently in safer operations. Biography highlights Held the world record as the youngest person to climb the Seven Summits, completing the challenge on his 20th birthday in May 2006; record stood until December 2011. Set two earlier records on the way: youngest Briton to summit Mt McKinley (Denali) at age 17, and youngest summiteer of Mount Vinson in Antarctica at age 19. Everest expedition sponsored by INEOS, with public endorsement from Jim Ratcliffe at the time of the climb. 2007 expedition to South East Greenland produced first ascents of four previously unclimbed peaks. 2014 self-supported ski mountaineering ascent of Gunnbjorn Fjeld, the highest mountain in the Arctic, with his wife Laura. Co-founder of Monix Adventures, a luxury expedition and adventure travel company; documented safety leadership engagement with INEOS, including a four-presentation programme for INEOS Olefins and Polymers in Texas. Biography Organisations in oil and gas, construction, and aviation have written every safety procedure that needs writing. The injuries that still happen on site come from judgment under pressure and team behaviour in the moment a decision is taken. That is the territory Rhys Jones works in. Jones brings a specific source of authority to the conversation. In May 2006, on his 20th birthday, he became the youngest person in the world to climb the Seven Summits, holding the record until Jordan Romero broke it in 2011. The route there included two earlier records: youngest Briton up Denali at 17, and youngest summiteer of Mount Vinson in Antarctica at 19. INEOS sponsored the final Everest climb, beginning a corporate relationship that would later extend into his speaking work. What is distinctive is how he uses the experience. The talks are organised around moments of decision under stress. The central case is a climb on which he turned back 200 metres short of the top because conditions did not justify the final push. That kind of call is the central problem in safety culture, and the hardest thing to deliver in the moment. Today Jones runs Monix Adventures with his wife Laura, a luxury expedition company that takes private clients and corporate teams into the mountains. The speaking work sits alongside that. His longest documented client relationship is with INEOS, beginning with the company’s sponsorship of his Everest climb in 2006 and continuing through to a four-presentation programme for the Olefins and Polymers division in Texas. Key speaking topics Safety leadership in high-risk industries Decision-making and risk management under pressure Team behaviour in safety-critical operations Operational resilience and goal-setting Wellbeing and personal achievement Inspirational and after-dinner speaking Ideal for Heads of HSE and operations leaders in oil and gas, construction, infrastructure, and aviation Frontline supervisors and site teams in safety-critical industries who need a credible voice on the human factors behind preventable injuries Senior leadership offsites where the brief is risk decision-making, team accountability, and resilience Annual sales kick-offs, after-dinner engagements, and award ceremonies that need a credible keynote on goals and discipline Audience outcomes A grounded picture of where preventable injuries actually originate, framed around the recurring judgment and team-behaviour patterns that show up in incident analysis. The language and the standing to stop a job when conditions have changed, including who in a chain of command has the authority to make that call. Specific moments from extreme mountaineering that map onto high-risk industrial operations, useful as reference points in safety conversations afterwards. Stories from current expedition work that connect personal goal-setting and recovery habits to sustained performance at work.

Why organisations work with Riccardo Agostini Eight national and international titles across single-seater and GT racing, including three consecutive Italian GT Sprint championships and the Lamborghini Super Trofeo World Final. The credibility is documented, not narrated. A working understanding of how a small, specialised team performs under repeated time pressure. Pit crew, race engineer, and driver decisions land in the same second, and Agostini speaks to how that coordination is built and held. Instructor experience at Centro Internazionale Guida Sicura, the Italian advanced driving school. He coaches as well as competes, which translates into a session that can teach, not only inspire. Italian and English delivery for European corporate audiences without translation overhead. Biography highlights Three-time Italian GT Sprint champion (2019, 2020, 2021) and 2021 Italian GT Endurance champion. 2017 Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America champion and Lamborghini Super Trofeo World Final winner. 2015 Porsche Carrera Cup Italia champion; 2012 Italian Formula Three champion (European and Italian series). Tested a Ferrari Formula One car in November 2012 as the Italian F3 rookie prize. Current factory-supported driver competing for Richard Mille AF Corse in the 2025 European Le Mans Series and the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans. Development driver and instructor at Centro Internazionale Guida Sicura, founded by former F1 driver Andrea De Adamich. Biography A GT car at racing speed sends information to the driver faster than most people can read a single line of text. The driver acts on it, the engineer on the pit wall reads telemetry from the same lap, and the crew prepares the stop. Three roles, one decision, repeated for two hours. That is the working environment Agostini has competed in since 2015. His titles span four manufacturer programmes. Porsche Carrera Cup Italia in 2015. Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America and the Super Trofeo World Final in 2017. Italian GT Sprint with Audi Sport Italia in 2019, 2020, and 2021, alongside the Italian GT Endurance title in 2021. He now races a Ferrari 296 GT3 for Richard Mille AF Corse in the European Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The relevance to leadership audiences sits in two places. The first is composure: how a driver handles a bad lap, a strategy call that goes against him, or a mechanical failure with thirty minutes still to run. The second is coordination: how a driver, engineer, and crew of specialists make a sequence of decisions in compressed time without re-litigating each one. Both translate cleanly to senior teams operating in markets where the response window has shrunk. Agostini also coaches. As an instructor at Centro Internazionale Guida Sicura, the high-performance driving school founded by former F1 driver Andrea De Adamich, he develops younger drivers and corporate clients. That teaching role is what differentiates him from a circuit-only speaker. He has practised the translation from the cockpit to the classroom, which is the part that most motorsport profiles describe but few have actually done. Key speaking topics Performance under pressure Team coordination in compressed decision windows Recovery from mistakes and setbacks Coaching and talent development Discipline and preparation as competitive advantage Resilience through career uncertainty Cross-cultural team leadership in international motorsport Ideal for Sales and commercial leadership teams operating in high-frequency decision environments Operations and manufacturing leaders building cross-functional team coordination Talent and L&D directors designing high-performance coaching programmes Corporate hospitality programmes for automotive, engineering, and luxury brand audiences Audience outcomes A working model for how composure is built and held, drawn from cockpit experience rather than theory Specific examples of how driver, engineer, and crew compress decisions into seconds without losing alignment A view of how mistakes are processed inside a race weekend so that the next session is not compromised A coach’s perspective on developing younger team members under demanding conditions

Why organisations work with Rich Karlgaard Four decades of close-range observation of Silicon Valley business models, written from the editorial chair of Forbes, give him a fluent read on how technology cycles change the rules of competition. The Soft Edge sets out a specific argument that durable advantage comes from trust, intelligence, teams, taste and story, not from strategy and execution alone, and gives boards a vocabulary for the cultural side of growth. Late Bloomers challenges the early-achievement orthodoxy in corporate hiring and promotion, useful for leaders rethinking talent pipelines, succession and the cost of writing off mid-career performers. Team Genius, co-authored with Michael S. Malone, draws on research into team size, composition and dynamics, giving operating leaders a structured way to think about how high-performing groups are actually built. Karlgaard moderates and panels at scale at events such as the Milken Institute Global Conference and the ASU+GSV Summit, comfortable in front of CEO and investor audiences and able to push beyond a prepared script. Biography highlights Editor-at-large and futurist, Forbes Media; publisher of Forbes magazine, 1998 to 2018. Author of Late Bloomers (Currency, 2019), The Soft Edge (Jossey-Bass, 2014), Team Genius (HarperBusiness, 2015, with Michael S. Malone) and Life 2.0 (2004). Long-running Forbes columnist, “Innovation Rules” (formerly “Digital Rules”); regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal opinion pages and panellist on Forbes on FOX. Co-founder of the Churchill Club, Silicon Valley’s largest public business and technology forum, and of Upside magazine and Forbes ASAP. Northern California winner, Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year, 1997. Featured on NPR for Late Bloomers and a regular speaker at the Milken Institute Global Conference and the ASU+GSV Summit. Biography The companies that compound advantage over decades tend to look ordinary up close. They are not always the fastest or the most aggressive. What they share is a set of cultural conditions, trust, taste, intelligence about their own people, that competitors cannot easily copy. That is the argument running through Rich Karlgaard’s work at Forbes and in his books. Karlgaard has watched Silicon Valley from the editorial chair of a major business title for more than two decades. He was publisher of Forbes from 1998 to 2018 and is now editor-at-large and futurist for Forbes Media. He co-founded Upside magazine, Forbes ASAP, and the Churchill Club, the largest business and technology forum in Silicon Valley, work that earned him the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for Northern California in 1997. His books map a single problem from different angles. The Soft Edge (Jossey-Bass, 2014) argues that strategy and execution are necessary but not sufficient, and that durable competitive advantage now sits in five cultural variables led by trust. Team Genius, co-written with Michael S. Malone, applies that lens to team design, drawing on research into how size, composition and conflict actually drive performance. Late Bloomers (Currency, 2019) takes the argument into talent strategy, challenging the SAT-and-startup-founder logic that writes off the people who do their best work at forty, fifty or sixty. For a board or executive audience, Karlgaard’s value is in being a serious commercial voice for the unfashionable side of growth. He does not dispute the importance of speed or technology, he lives inside both, but he treats culture, trust and patient talent development as commercial inputs with measurable returns, not as soft virtues. That framing tends to land with senior leaders who have run the playbook of relentless execution and seen the limits. Key speaking topics Innovation and the future of business Culture as competitive advantage High-performing teams Talent, late bloomers and the corporate path Silicon Valley, technology cycles and disruption Leadership in the age of smart machines Ideal for CEO, board and senior leadership audiences setting innovation and growth strategy CHROs and talent leaders rethinking hiring, promotion and succession beyond early-career markers Investor and CFO audiences who want a fluent read on Silicon Valley business models from a long-standing editorial vantage Conference programmes that need a credible moderator or panellist for executive and investor sessions Audience outcomes A working argument for why durable advantage now sits in cultural and human variables, not just strategy and execution A sharper view of how high-performing teams are actually built, drawn from the research behind Team Genius A direct challenge to the early-achievement bias in corporate hiring, promotion and succession, with named examples A current read on which technology cycles and Silicon Valley operating models matter for the next planning horizon

Why organisations work with Robert O’Neill Operation Neptune Spear is its own category in the speaker market. No other corporate keynoter has placed themselves on that target floor with public corroboration from the mission commander, Admiral William McRaven. Sixteen years inside elite US special operations, including a team leader role at the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, give audiences a concrete reference for what disciplined decision-making looks like when the cost of failure is absolute. Translates military operational frameworks into language that lands with senior commercial teams. Repeat bookings include sales conferences and leadership meetings at companies including Builders FirstSource, Ansys, GuideWell, and USHealth Advisors, with documented standing ovations. Substance behind the headline. Decorated 52 times, including two Silver Stars, four Bronze Stars with Valor, three Presidential Unit Citations, and a Joint Service Commendation Medal with Valor. The record is independently documented through US Navy citations and verified press accounts. Biography highlights Sixteen years as a United States Navy SEAL (1996 to 2012). Retired at the rank of senior chief petty officer, having served as a team leader at the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU), known as SEAL Team Six. Participated in Operation Neptune Spear in May 2011. Identified by mission commander Admiral William McRaven in a 2020 CNN interview as the SEAL who shot Osama bin Laden, an attribution disputed in some published accounts. Decorated 52 times, including two Silver Stars, four Bronze Stars with Valor, three Presidential Unit Citations, and a Joint Service Commendation Medal with Valor. New York Times bestselling author of The Operator: Firing the Shots that Killed Osama bin Laden and My Years as a SEAL Team Warrior (Simon & Schuster, 2017). Co-author with Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer of The Way Forward: Master Life’s Toughest Battles and Create Your Lasting Legacy (HarperCollins, 2021), a national bestseller. Co-founder of the Special Operators Transition Foundation (formerly Your Grateful Nation), supporting special operations veterans moving from active service into civilian careers. Biography Operation Neptune Spear had no margin for error. On 2 May 2011, a small Navy SEAL team flew into Abbottabad, Pakistan, to find Osama bin Laden. Robert O’Neill was the senior chief petty officer who walked up the stairs and engaged bin Laden in his bedroom. Mission commander Admiral William McRaven later identified him in a 2020 CNN interview as the SEAL who fired the shots, an attribution that other public accounts have disputed. The headline mission is one operation in a 16-year career inside the apex of US special operations. O’Neill enlisted in the Navy in 1996 and rose to team leader at the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, known as DEVGRU. He held combat leadership roles in more than 400 missions across four theatres of war and was decorated 52 times. Among other operations, he was part of the team that supported the rescue of Marcus Luttrell in Afghanistan and the unit that freed Captain Richard Phillips from Somali pirates. For corporate audiences, the operational frame he carries matters more than the headline mission. He explains how teams that cannot afford to fail prepare, and how they decide when the cost of being wrong is absolute. His 2017 memoir, The Operator, was a New York Times bestseller and reads as a study of how a particular environment produces a particular kind of decision-maker. The Way Forward, co-written with Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer in 2021, takes the same material into the territory of personal performance and resilience. His corporate keynote work has reached audiences at Builders FirstSource, Ansys, GuideWell, and USHealth Advisors, among others. The substance he brings to those rooms is operational rather than motivational: how preparation and accountability function in environments where the cost of being wrong is absolute. Outside speaking, he co-founded the Special Operators Transition Foundation, which provides individualised support for special operations veterans moving into civilian careers. He served as a Fox News contributor from 2015 to 2021. Key speaking topics High-stakes decision-making Leadership under pressure Team performance in elite units Resilience and recovery Accountability in high-consequence environments Lessons from special operations Veteran transition to civilian leadership Ideal for Leadership conferences and senior management offsites where the agenda turns on decision-making in high-stakes situations Sales kickoffs and incentive events that need to galvanise commercial teams around accountability and execution Boards and executive teams preparing for transformation, crisis response, or other moments where the cost of being wrong is significant Veteran-focused organisations and events linked to special operations, defence, or military transition Audience outcomes A firsthand account of how elite military teams plan and decide when the cost of being wrong is absolute, drawn from named operations including the bin Laden raid. Working perspective on accountability and team trust, drawn from 16 years inside US special operations, that translates into commercial settings. A reference point for what high-stakes execution actually looks like, useful for teams about to enter a transformation or a launch they cannot get wrong. A galvanising opening or close to a major commercial event, supported by a track record of standing ovations from senior corporate audiences.