Crisis Management

Baroness (Karren) Brady

Karren ran the business side of Birmingham City FC through promotion, relegation – and brain surgery. Karren’s mantra for leaders growing any enterprise can be summed up in 5 tips: work hard (be persistent); use every opportunity to network (spread your message); move on (failure is history); don’t get side-tracked, and do your sums.

Alastair Campbell

Alastair ran Labour’s communications for ten years, in and out of government. Alongside co-hosting The Rest is Politics podcast, he advises on both political and organisational strategy, as well as working extensively with charities and campaigning around mental health. He’s written a slew of books including Winners, drawing inspiration from high achievers in sport, business and politics. In presentations Alastair explains what to do when you come under pressure: “Challenge your basic assumptions, put yourselves in your opponent’s shoes, devise a tight plan from t...

Rt Hon Lord (Sebastian) Coe

On the track Seb’s talent and commitment earned eleven world records and two Olympic gold medals; he has since led the most successful Games in recent history. After serving as one of many Vice Presidents, Seb is tasked with turning around World Athletics and restoring the reputation of international athletics, in the gaze of the world’s media. In speeches he shares the lessons as an athlete and as a leader delivering a vision, managing crisis and bringing about change.

Chris Hadfield

Chris learned Russian and emergency medicine on top of his test pilot and aeronautical training before spending six months in orbit. He is now best-known for performing Bowie’s Space Oddity in space – as well as publishing An Astronaut’s Guide To Life On Earth and appraising the candidates in BBC2’s Astronauts - Do You Have What It Takes? Chris shares insights on leadership, collaboration, human ingenuity and how to avoid being paralysed by fear in the four seconds between system failure and death. He also reveals what spacewalking tells us about life on Earth.

Rt Hon Lord (William) Hague

William served as Party Leader, Commons Leader and Foreign Secretary – contending with war in Libya, terrorist threats, and relations with Europe. He weighs up the impact of Brexit, China, the invasion of Ukraine, and inflation on government policy, national security and globalisation. How will political leaders respond to the key challenges: from migration and populism to Putin's aggression and Xi Jinping's attitude towards tech and trade battles?

Christian Horner

After a successful career on the track Christian started his own racing team only to be approached shortly afterwards to run the new Red Bull set-up. As new entrants to one of the most technical and competitive sports in the world, within five years they’d won both drivers’ and constructors’ championships, and repeated the feat for each of the following three seasons. Christian reveals what it’s taken to build and maintain success in the face of rivals with more money, resources, and political power in the sport. He considers what makes the culture of Red Bull spe...

Lord (Digby) Jones

After heading the CBI, Digby entered government and circled the globe, lobbying on behalf of British business. He remains both an ardent supporter and insightful critic of business and business leaders, challenging them to better embrace change and innovation, to empower their people to take risks and explore new ideas, and to look globally for inspiration, competition and opportunities.

Baroness Manningham-Buller

As Head of the Security Service, Eliza dealt with the wake of 9/11 and a growing threat from Al-Qaeda. As Chair of the Wellcome Trust, one of the world’s largest charitable funders of medical research, she oversaw an organisation that both predicted and led work tackling the Covid-19 pandemic and its long-term effects. With insights and lessons on leadership from throughout her career, Eliza explains that leaders' priorities must change in order to keep pace with the constant emergence of new, often unimagined challenges, from existential threats such a...

Ciaran Martin

Ciaran Martin is Professor of Practice in the Management of Public Organisations at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government. He was the founding Chief Executive of the National Cyber Security Centre, part of GCHQ. He has worked directly with five Prime Ministers, and a variety of Senior Ministers from three political parties. 

Steve Ridgway

CEO of Virgin Atlantic for over a decade, Steve oversaw the huge expansion of what has become one of the world’s biggest and most respected airlines. Widely admired for their service culture, marketing and innovation, Steve offers an insight into the Virgin brand and strategy. After dinner, Steve reveals the boardroom secrets of Richard Branson and what it was like taking charge of the Virgin Challenger Blue Riband yacht team.

Prof Sir Jonathan Van-Tam

Professor Jonathan Van-Tam was Deputy Chief Medical Officer. He led on health protection and played a significant part in the UK's response to the covid pandemic.

Will Whitehorn

As Richard Branson’s right hand man, Will took the space tourism venture, Virgin Galactic, from a vague dream to a project with real spacecraft and its own spaceport. Now involved in businesses from communication to tech to cutting-edge transport systems, including as a long-term non-exec with online estate agents Purplebricks, Will also considers brand, disruption and innovation in a world of fast-changing technology and increasing customer expectations.

Roger Bootle

Roger is a former HSBC Chief Economist and winner of the Wolfson Prize for his and his team's study on how a country would leave the Euro. In his book The Trouble With Europe he considers how to make Brexit a success and how to reform the EU. Speaking without hyperbole, Roger weighs up the arguments for ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ outcomes, explores how trading relationships might work and considers the concerns of key industries and the implications for Scotland. He also looks at the potential impact of technology and AI on business, policy making and the wider economy...

Tim Bradshaw

Tim is a former British Army Intelligence Officer and graduate of the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. His work as a Covert Human Intelligence Officer and Target Acquisition Patrol Soldier saw him recruit and run foreign agents worldwide and influence the outcome of extremely sensitive and dangerous situations. Since leaving the Army, Tim founded, and is a director of Sandstone Communications, an international leadership and team building consultancy.

Brett Bruen

Having served as a diplomat and foreign service officer for the US State Department, Brett was appointed to the White House as Director of Global Engagement under the Obama administration. With a wide-ranging view on political and diplomatic relations around the world, as well as America's role internationally, he now considers the key issues any organisation needs to prepare for. Additionally he looks at how to plan for the unexpected, the effects of policy shifts, what effective leadership looks like, and how to assess risk whether it's cybersecurity, ethics, or market fluctuat...

Peter Cardwell

Peter has had a unique career in both the highest levels of Government and broadcast journalism. He was appointed by two successive Prime Ministers as Special Adviser to two Northern Ireland Secretaries, a Home Secretary, Housing Secretary and Justice Secretary, delivering tactical and strategic advice, crisis management and media handling within significant government departments. He recounted much of it in his book, The Secret Life of Special Advisers. He is now the Political Editor and Presenter at TalkRadio.

Lord (Kim) Darroch

With a diplomatic career spanning over forty years, primarily focusing on national security issues and European policy, Kim has now retired from frontline diplomacy but maintains a keen view of relations with the US and the geopolitical uncertainty affecting everything from trade to military conflict to democracy.

Tony Fernandes

Tony bought his airline business from the Malaysian government at its lowest ebb. Leasing was available, qualified staff were keen to work and within a year the company paid off its debts. He’s now focused on expansion throughout the South East Asia region. In speeches Tony shares insights into growing an Asian business, seizing opportunity in a flat economy, and creating an environment that allows innovation to flourish. He also reveals his role in Apprentice Asia.

Daryl Fielding

Daryl went from New Labour’s advertising communications in the 1997 election to devising the famous Dove ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’ – secretly enlisting the daughters of the all-male board. The campaign has become a case study of purpose branding. After leading global strategy for food brands with $9bn sales, she joined Vodafone with a mission to make the provider focus on people rather than product. In speeches Daryl covers everything from brand strategy to leadership and company culture, dealing with crises in the age of social media, and understanding customers.

Cecilie Fjellhøy

Cecilie's experiences, as documented in the Netflix series The Tinder Swindler, has seen her become an international advocate for change and a role model of resilience and determination for fraud victims. Through her personal story she explores how technology has created a new type of crime, what regulators and businesses need to do to tackle it, and how education, empathy and knowledge are essential for us all to build a more trusting, safer online world.

Professor Kevin Fong

Kevin is both astrophysicist, medical specialist and a natural storyteller. After working with NASA he specialised in lessons from the effects of extremes on human physiology. He is also part of hospital Emergency Response and Major Incident Planning, an air ambulance Emergency Doctor, and worked as a National Clinical Advisor to NHS England during the Covid-19 pandemic. All of this provides a unique insight into how we all cope with risk, planning and making decisions under pressure, as well as teamwork. He’s the author of Extremes – probing the limits of the human...