Their journeys often involve overcoming challenges, taking risks, and innovating within competitive industries, which gives them unique insights into what drives business success. Entrepreneurs bring practical insights into running a business, from scaling operations to managing finances and leading teams. Their experiences of both failure and success offer valuable lessons that resonate with audiences. Beyond practical advice, they inspire with their resilience, creativity, and problem-solving skills, emphasising the importance of persistence, adaptability, and vision. As keynote speakers, entrepreneurs provide a clear understanding of the strategies and mindset needed for success, motivating attendees to pursue new ideas, overcome challenges, and innovate in their own ventures. Some of our top entrepreneurs are known for popular TV shows like Dragon’s Den and The Apprentice, lending them credibility and adding expert knowledge that resonates with audiences. Their personal stories of triumph and adversity provide valuable lessons for navigating the competitive business world, making them an excellent choice for business-oriented events.
With access to a wide range of accomplished entrepreneurs, including those with notable media presence, Great Business Speakers can match you with a speaker who aligns with your event’s objectives and audience. Whether hosting a corporate seminar, conference, or virtual event, we ensure you have the right expert to elevate your event and deliver key insights for business growth and success.
Discover our Entrepreneurs below, or contact the team at Great Business Speakers to enquire or book. +44 1753 439 289
Dr Ant Webb – otherwise known as The Brain Whisperer – is a CEO, entrepreneur, author, mindset expert, and keynote speaker.
With over 25 years of experience in founding, running, and supporting businesses, Dr Ant is passionate about helping leaders overcome mental challenges that come with running a business.
Anita Brightley-Hodges is a family business advisor, mentor, exceptional mediator, coach, keynote speaker, and champion of women.
With over 35 years of experience in working with families, Anita has the experience and passion to ensure your event goes without a hitch.
Anita Brightley-Hodges has spoken at events all around the world, appearing at leadership conferences, award ceremonies, university courses, networking events, on radio shows, and podcasts, and has worked for clients including the University of Oxford, EY, Campden Wealth, Saïd Business School, and KPMG.
Julie Waddell grew up in Northern Ireland, surrounded by foodies as her Grandparents were in the catering trade.
After university, Julie ended up working as a radio news presenter at the BBC in 2005.
Julie’s passion for food and broadcasting came together when she took on a role on BBC Radio 4 as a journalist on The Food Programme in 2012.
Angeline Francis Khoo is the founder and chief executive of Rosie On Fire, a luxury kimono brand that blends high-end fashion with social impact.
Rosie On Fire is a purpose-driven fashion company that puts into practice Angeline’s combined passion for business, social impact and fashion retail.
Inspired by the challenges faced by her autistic siblings in finding work, Angeline founded Rosie On Fire in 2013 to both fill a gap in the market in creating easy, glamorous pieces for women, and stable, meaningful job opportunities for marginalised people often excluded from the workforce.
Dominic McGregor is a successful entrepreneur and advocate with a strong background in business, mental health, and sobriety.
Dominic co-founded Social Chain, a global marketing agency that achieved significant growth and success. After leaving Social Chain, Dominic co-founded Fearless Adventures, an investment fund focused on supporting and scaling new businesses.
Dominic is also involved in the Fearless Academy, which aims to provide education and skill development in the digital space.
Jules Coleman founded, built and sold UK based domestic cleaning marketplace start-up, Hassle.com, an online cleaning service platform.
Famous for bronzing more celebrity bodies than we’ve had hot dinners, Judy Naaké is an entrepreneur with a difference.
Most recently seen as the subject of Eamonn and Ruth’s highly acclaimed How The Other Half Live and BBC2’s much acclaimed Peter Jones Meets series, Judy’s story is an inspirational one.
Jonny Wilkinson is a former legend of English rugby who is famous for the drop goal in the final minute of extra time that won the 2003 Rugby World Cup. He is widely celebrated as one of the best Rugby Union players of all time.
In 2002, Jonny was awarded an MBE for services to Rugby Union. Two years later, he was promoted to an OB,E and then in 2015, he became a CBE.
Since retiring, Jonny has established himself as a sustainability advocate, health and wellbeing ambassador, a coach, business founder and philanthropist. He is also a sought-after public speaker.
As a player, Jonny played club rugby for 12 seasons, while amassing 91 caps at the international level for England. Following his retirement in 2014, Jonny became a popular sports pundit for ITV and Sky Sports, while also launching his own health drink brand No 1 Living.
Andrew Priestley is a multi-award-winning business leadership coach; ranked in the top 100 UK Entrepreneur Mentors 2017; best-selling author and speaker.
Qualified in Industrial and Organisational Psychology he talks enthusiastically about a broad range of fascinating topics including business leadership, fast uplift business growth, core fundamental human values, motivation, goal setting, and building neurones for success for peak performers.
Andrew is entertaining, instructive, challenging, and always relevant.
John Vincent is the co-founder and CEO of the natural-food chain LEON, which he founded in 2004 alongside Henry Dimbleby.
Prior to founding LEON, John was a strategy consultant for Bain & Company where his business travels made him realise that the majority of food available ‘on the go’ was unhealthy.
He is also known for his work in developing the 2013 School Food Plan, for which he was appointed and MBE, and for chairing the Council of Sustainable Business.
Andini Makosinski is a Filipino-Polish-Armenian “Renaissance Woman”. inventor, STEM, UN Youth ambassador, writer, and influencer.
When Ann was fourteen years old, she found out that her friend Maria in the Philippines failed a grade in school because her family couldn’t afford electricity. Maria therefore had no light to study with when darkness hit at 6 pm, so Ann set about finding a solution. Ann ended up inventing the Hollow Flashlight, a flashlight that runs off the heat of the human hand. During the beginning of her grade 11 year, the flashlight went viral online and Ann won in her age category at the Google Science Fair in Mountainview, California.
Ann Makosinski then invented another device – the eDrink. The eDrink harvests the excess heat of one’s hot drink and converts it into electricity, giving one’s phone a boost of energy.
More awards and interviews followed, and Ann with her father set up Makotronics Enterprises Incorporated in Victoria BC to manage the patenting and licensing of her inventions.
Ann’s gift of speech and presentation launched her into becoming one of the most sought-after keynote speakers of her generation. She has spoken at places and events ranging from Peter Diamandis’ Singularity University, 5 TEDx , Dubai, Iceland, Chile, Argentina, Berlin, Armenia, etc.
Jodie Armore-White is a bilingual English/Japanese speaker and presenter who was born in Australia, had a global upbringing and now lives in the UK.
Jodie prides herself on being a ‘realist’ and offers an insight into the role that psychology and experience play in personal, professional and business behaviour and performance. Her style is refreshing, factual and importantly, humorous.
Regardless of the subject matter, she’s conscious that her keynote is strategically well balanced verbally and visually to ensure maximum delegate engagement, benefit and entertainment.
David Coulthard is One of the world’s most widely recognised sports personalities, a former Formula 1 Grand Prix driver, television broadcaster, author and entrepreneur.
His business interests include co-founding Whisper Films, one of the UK’s fastest growing television production companies which produces sports and entertainment content including from NFL, Formula 1, SailGP, US Open Golf, FA Women’s Football and the Paralympic Games.
He is also a partner in Velocity Experience which develops and produces branded events for a wide range of corporate clients.
In 2010 he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
Jo Malone has been described as an “English scent maverick” and the woman responsible for creating some of the world’s most-loved fragrances.
Originally a facial therapist, Jo fell in love with fragrance whilst working from her discreet skin care clinic which she set up from her London home. Discovering an instinctual talent for creating scented products by hand in her kitchen, word of her exceptional potions quickly spread and soon Jo was unable to keep up with demand.
From these artisan beginnings, Jo launched her first brand, Jo Malone London which gained cult status around the world.
In 1999, Jo sold the business to Estée Lauder Companies and remained Creative Director until she left in 2006.
Jimmy McLoughlin is the former Special Advisor to the British Prime Minister, PR & marketing professional, and current Head Podcaster on Jimmy’s Jobs of the Future.
Jimmy’s Jobs has since become one of the UK’s top listened to podcasts.
Jessica Butcher MBE is a serial technology entrepreneur, angel and advisor, co-founder of Tick, and Blippar.
She has been named a CNBC “Top 50 Disruptor” in 2015-2017 alongside companies such as Uber, Air BnB, and Spotify.
Jessica is the recipient of numerous awards including the BBC’s Top 100 Women, Fortune’s Most Powerful Female Entrepreneurs, The Evening Standard’s ‘Progress 1000’ list & Europe’s Top 50 Inspiring Women in Tech.
Jermaine Beckford is a former footballer who played for Bolton, Everton, Leicester City, and Preston, as well as for Jamaica on an international level.
Since retiring from playing, Jermaine has become a regular media analyst and pundit, appearing on Sky Sports, Sky Sports News, and the Premier League channel.
More recently Jermaine and his wife Laura founded Supernova Living, a plant-based health business.
Jeremy Schwartz is a business expert on accelerating the performance of individuals and teams to profit from sustainability. As a former CEO & MD with iconic consumer and retail companies, Coca-Cola, L’Oréal, The Body Shop and Pandora, he delivers audiences ‘valuable actionable insights.’’
Jeremy draws on his leadership roles where he inspired teams to turn around Pandora and Sainsburys and innovate sustainability initiatives, delivering in excess of $20 billion of shareholder value.
This, he combines with a prediction of the future.
“Alison delivers clear business impact, with a human touch and personable approach.”
Dr Alison Edgar MBE, is an expert in improving performance inside organisations. Throughout Alison’s years advising entrepreneurial businesses, she has analysed the important factors that make them successful. Alison takes these lessons and applies them to big companies, enhancing motivation, communication, and agility. She is known both for her practical tools that teams can implement immediately and for the ground-breaking and lasting impact she has on audiences.
Alison Edgar was one of the few women to be awarded an MBE on the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 2020 for her services to entrepreneurship and business. After gaining her knowledge and experience in the corporate arena for over 25 years, Alison has mentored some of the world’s leading entrepreneurs, from start-ups to multi-million-pound turnovers.
A dyslexic author of two international best-selling books, Alison Edgar has mastered the balance of how to enhance readers’ personal and professional development. Her debut book was not only a WHSmith Top Ten Business Book but named one of the top business books written by a woman in 2019 by The Independent newspaper.
Alex Hunter is a branding and customer experience expert, keynote speaker, and angel investor. He is also the creator and host of Attaché, an award-winning online travel show, aimed at showing frequent travelers all they need to know before visiting a city on company business.
Previously, Alex served as the global Head of Online for the Virgin Group, overseeing the Virgin brand’s global digital strategy in its entirety, as well as Sir Richard Branson’s personal digital strategy.
After studying for her master’s degree at the University of Chicago and working on a political campaign there, Alex Depledge returned to the UK to work as a consultant at Accenture. She specialised in customer and channel execution. In 2012, Alex teamed up with her friend and fellow Great Business Speakers Jules Coleman to start the online business Hassle.com, now known as ‘Helping’. Impressively, Alex raised the largest VC capital funding ever for a solely female owned business at the time.
What started life as a rather modest booking page allowing users to book all manner of services, became a well-known brand. The duo would go on to sell the company in 2015 for an impressive £24 million.
The following year, the duo set up Resi.co.uk – with Alex as CEO and Jules as CTO – an online architectural platform helping UK homeowners renovate and extend their homes.
Alex is now a popular entrepreneurial speaker, looking at start-up mentality, branding, scaling up a business, overcoming obstacles, the importance of duty of care, diversification, and how to respond to customer needs.
Daniel Chappell is a forward-thinking entrepreneur dedicated to redefining the health and wellness landscape through creative innovation and effective leadership.
Backed by a solid academic foundation, he has built his career in elite sporting environments, applying his expertise to drive both performance and wellbeing.
With more than ten years’ experience in the sports sector, Daniel has held strength and conditioning roles with organisations including Richmond upon Thames College, Bristol Bears, Bath Rugby, Imperial College London, Ealing Trailfinders Rugby Club, and PerformancePro.
In 2020, he launched VTMN, a premium supplement brand designed to support the demands of modern professionals. He is also the co-founder of UNTIL – the world’s first members’ club for health and wellness practitioners – created to give independent professionals the tools, space, and support they need to run thriving businesses without compromising their own wellbeing.
Alan O’Neill can guide your team through his structured path to profit increase, tailoring his insight to the needs of your business. Wherever you are on your journey, Alan’s no-nonsense expertise, infectious enthusiasm and sheer depth of experience can reignite your company’s passion for growth.
A seasoned expert in facilitating organisational change in culture and strategy, Alan can help your team to navigate any stormy waters and overcome resistance. His tried-and-tested formula will help you transform your business to deliver the meaningful experiences your customers crave.
Practical, empathic and very commercial, Alan’s refreshing and passionate style will inspire and challenge your organisation to embrace change and grow, using real-life business models and memorable success stories.
Alan brings 30 years of wide industry experience, from retail to manufacturing and distribution, FMCG to financial services, hospitality to professional services, motor to travel and tourism and more. His work history spans blue-chips and PLCs, SMEs, family businesses and the Public Sector across Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Daniel Bobroff is the founder of Coded Futures, a creative technology advisory firm focused on the future of retail, and formerly the co-founder and Investment Director of ASOS Ventures, the online fashion company’s venture capital division.
In over two decades as an innovator, entrepreneur, mentor and investor, Daniel Bobroff has pioneered in-game advertising – “selling Mario to the admen” – starting an advertising medium that is today an eight-billion-dollar market, has developed chart-topping video games that sold in their millions, and is, today, a leading thought leader and keynote speaker in the world of retail and fashion technology.
