Focusing on key themes such as resilience, teamwork, and mental health, these speakers help audiences develop the mindset and skills necessary to overcome challenges and achieve personal and professional success. Our Personal Development speakers empower individuals to bounce back from setbacks while promoting the importance of teamwork to drive collaboration, innovation, and collective growth. Additionally, by addressing mental health, they emphasise the significance of maintaining emotional well-being, creating a balanced approach to both personal and professional development.
Our Great Business Speakers provide actionable tools and techniques that foster a positive mindset, enhance interpersonal skills, and encourage self-care. They motivate individuals to embrace change, develop a strong sense of purpose, and work together to overcome obstacles. Our Personal Development Speakers create a transformative experience through real-life, motivational examples and engaging stories, equipping audiences with the tools to build a healthier, more productive, and successful future.
Discover our Personal Development Speakers below, or contact the team at Great Business Speakers to enquire or book. +44 1753 439 289
Matt Lindley was an RAF Pilot, specialising in flying VIPs such as The Queen, members of the Royal Family and Government Ministers, as well as flying missions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo and Sierra Leone. He is now a commercial long haul pilot.
Matt was one of the first ever gay pilots in the Royal Air Force, and is now a very influential military figure. Matt had dreamt of being a RAF pilot ever since he was a child, and he wasn’t going to let something like LGBTQ+ prejudice stand against him. His brave journey has paved the way for change in the Armed Forces and to ensure all sexualities are represented.
Matt now runs workshops and keynotes based on lessons he has learnt whilst flying, aimed at reducing human error in the workplace. He uses fascinating case studies of aircraft accident, applies basic psychology and provides lots of ‘take homes’ for any audience.
Lisa Baskott is the award-winning founder and CEO of 2nd Line of Defence, a private security recruitment agency that focuses on filling roles with a new, diverse and inclusive workforce. The business was an Enterprise Vision Awards winner in 2023 in the New Business category.
As part of her commitment to serving the community, Lisa Baskott has been a Magistrate for 11 years, sitting as a Presiding Justice in both the Adult and Youth Courts in Sussex. In 2021, Lisa was one of seven newly-appointed regional Inclusion and Diversity Magistrates (IDM).
Lisa became a qualified Security Industry Authority (SIA) licensed door supervisor in 2021. She is celebrated for her commitment to advancing diversity and inclusivity within the private security industry and is especially focused on getting more women into the frontline security sector.
She has written numerous articles on the subject, has appeared on national television and radio, as well as being interviewed on many podcasts.
Jeff Dewing is not your typical speaker. He’s an International Energiser, Founder and CEO of Cloud and author of the bestselling business book Doing the Opposite, where he underpins his philosophy that the best solution is often not the obvious one. By doing the opposite of the expected, you can generate astounding results.
His journey to success is a testament to this belief. Jeff’s first business went bankrupt, leaving only £7.60 in his bank account, while also relying on benefits.
Jeff refused to give up. Instead, he turned his life around, learnt to code and started Cloud from his garden shed. He built it from the ground up to a £70M turnover without a penny of investment.
Jeff has since worked with some of the world’s biggest brands, including Tui, Pizza Express, Chiltern Railways and The Rank Group.
In a landscape where businesses seek a catalyst for change, Jeff uses his decades of lived leadership experience to shake things up, reignite passion and challenge leaders to rethink their ways of working. Jeff does things differently.
For instance, he gives his team two paid hours per week for reflection – a simple yet powerful practice that has improved employee wellbeing and doubled Cloud’s engagement levels compared to industry standards.
Jasmine Birtles is best known as a financial expert, TV presenter, author, journalist, business commentator, and humourist, often combining all her experience into one job.
Her mission is to demystify money and give practical advice to help people get out of debt and manage their finances by spending less, making more, and investing for a secure future.
She has money-saving and money-making ideas, as well as wise spending habits. With a background in stand-up comedy and comedy writing, she’s a financial expert with a twist. She is able to combine her knowledge of business and personal finance with her comedy skills, making a worrying subject palatable and easy to understand.
Best known for his stint on Dragons’ Den (2007-12), James Caan CBE is a successful entrepreneur, investor, philanthropist, and author.
He is the founder of headhunting company Alexander Mann, management advisory company Hamilton Bradshaw, and investment company Recruitment Entrepreneur. In 2009, James worked with the UK Government to create the iAwards to support innovation in the UK. Three years later, he was appointed the Chairman of the UK Government start-up loans scheme.
James now utilises his years of experience by being an in-demand keynote speaker, event host, and conference panellist. He has worked for companies including Google and Samsung, and appeared at events such as The Business Show, and the MADE Festival. A veteran of entrepreneurship, James inspires his audiences with anecdotes and motivational tips.
James was appointed a CBE in 2015 for his services to entrepreneurship and charity.
Chief Happiness Officer Henry Stewart is the founder of Happy Ltd., a corporation focused on creating happy and productive workplaces
Initially founded in his back room over three decades ago, it has now gained a reputation for enjoyable IT training and has won recognition for its innovative approach to management. Happy was named one of the top 2 workplaces in the UK in 2022, in the SME section, and one of the top 15 in Europe.
Henry Stewart was listed in the Guru Radar of the Thinkers 50 list of the most influential business thinkers in the world. “He is one of the thinkers who we believe will shape the future of business”, explained list compiler Stuart Crainer.
It all comes down to one single moment. After only two weeks working in professional New Zealand rugby, Henry Cheetham felt a deeper sense of belonging to the team and community than anywhere he had worked or lived over the past 24 years.
Was this one of the ‘secrets’ underpinning the mythical New Zealand All Blacks, he thought.
Needless to say, this kick started his journey to uncover the universal principles underpinning the world’s best teams. Since then, he has led human performance departments in some of the most successful teams and cultures in the world.
International Leadership Expert, author of Leadership Laid Bare! and founder of the award-winning Successfactory™ Graham Wilson is a leading performance facilitator and inspirational developer of leaders.
His key purpose is to awaken possibility in leaders to deliver extraordinary results.
He is skilled in teaching New World Leadership, Senior Team Development, Strategy, Business Modelling, Organisational Development, Salesforce Transformation, Developing High-Performance Teams, Innovation and revitalising organisations suffering from Change Fatigue!
Graham works internationally with organisations and their Senior Teams to align strategy and action, specialising in the people aspects of change.
Since his early days in the Army, and then working for Dupont, Graham Wilson has consulted, trained and coached top-level business people in the public and private sector in the UK, US, Europe, Asia, Australia and the Middle East.
Graham Wilson has been described by clients as an ‘igniter of human potential’ – ‘a true leadership wizard’ – ‘an inspirational storyteller’ and ‘an inspirational provider of practical insights that make a difference – immediately’.
Global transformation director Gina Buckney is a two-time TEDx global speaker, former head of UK customer services for BT, author, and keynote speaker.
Qualified in a range of subjects from neuroscience to emotional intelligence to business management, Gina is the founder of YOUR PEOPLE POWER, a company built to revolutionise industries and redefine work cultures through scientifically backed education.
With over two decades worth of experience, Gina is a passionate female leader on organisational change and cultural transformation. She is also a meditation and mindfulness champion, a published author, and in-demand corporate speaker.
Current most requested speaking topics are: The Power To TAP (Transform At Pace), Power Skills For A Players, Building Winning Teams With D&I, Emotionally Intelligent Leaders, Beating Burnout.
“Enjoy life, learn forever and make a difference.”
Starting his career as a Chef de Rang at the three-star Michelin restaurant La Tante Claire; Fred Sirieix then went on to develop his skills in many of London’s top restaurants including Le Gavroche, Sartoria and Brasserie Roux. He was also the General Manager at the Michelin-starred restaurant Galvin at Windows on Park Lane for 14 years.
Fred Sirieix is a popular face on our television screens, appearing in Michel Roux’s Service (2011), Remarkable Places to Eat (2019-2021), Snackmasters (2019-2021) and The Apprentice in 2012. He is best recognised for being the charismatic host and maître d’ on the BAFTA Award winning Channel 4 show First Dates (2015-). His TV career continued to flourish with him as the host of the BBC show Million Pound Menu (2018-2019), a Dragons’ Den style programme which saw restaurant entrepreneurs go head-to-head to secure a life-changing investment for their business.
He also makes a good triple act alongside chefs Gordon Ramsey and Gino D’Acampo. In 2017 they got together to present Gordon, Gino and Fred’s Great Christmas Roast where they had to deliver a banquet for deserving members of the public and emergency services, such as those who risked their lives in the aftermath of terror attacks and the Grenfell disaster. The three chefs continued with Gordon, Gino and Fred’s Ultimate Roadtrip (2018) where they visited Italy, France and Scotland, American Roadtrip (2020) and Go Greek! (2021) as well as a number of special episodes where they visited the likes of Morocco and Finland.
“It’s not just about perfection, it’s about cultivating charisma, gravitas, and energy that transmits”.
With over 20+ years of coaching experience, Evelyne Brink’s background as a performer and producer of her own shows, record deals, author, coaching, corporate training expertise, and keynote speaker, make her a popular choice to help support senior leaders to develop their personality in the spotlight.
Evelyne Brink is the founder of Brink Coaching, was once Europe’s Number one Madonna impersonator, and is the mother to the first survivor of having no small intestine from birth.
In 2022, she presented a TEDx talk at TEDx Católica Lisbon SBE entitled ‘How to dare to be you when everyone is watching’.
Esther Stanhope is a highly sought-after confidence speaker and travels all over the world spreading her ‘Impact’ and ‘oomph’ to encourage people to speak up and get their voice heard in business.
She speaks on topics including pitching, presenting, confidence, getting promoted, and succeeding in your career.
Erica Farmer has over 20 years experience in learning and development, apprenticeships and digital training, having worked for big brands such as LV, British Gas and Virgin.
Her area of specialism is the future of work and skills, and digital learning. Erica is passionate about providing opportunities in business, specifically driving innovation and thought leadership.
In 2021 Erica co-founded Quantum Rise Talent Group, a leader in Learning and Development, and she is currently the Business Director.
Damian Hughes expertly combines his practical experience and academic background in sports, organisational development, and change psychology to assist organisations and teams in cultivating a culture of high performance.
With eight bestselling business books under his belt – such as Liquid Thinking, Liquid Leadership, How to Change Absolutely Anything, How to Think Like Sir Alex Ferguson, and The Five STEPS to a Winning Mindset – Damian has demonstrated his profound knowledge and insights.
His 2023 books, How Performance: Lessons from the Best on Becoming Your Best, and How to Change Your Life, have both been number one Sunday Times bestsellers. His books have already been translated into a dozen languages.
He is also the co-host with Jake Humphrey of The High-Performance Podcast, which has featured some of the leading figures in business and sports spheres with over 100 million downloads and counting.
Colin Minto is a world leader in resilience, workforce stress, burnout and EDI. He supports organisations to develop resilient workers and environments where employees can openly talk about mental health.
Having overcome and managed his own personal battle with OCD, anxiety and stress over 40 years, he now helps others do the same, combining his lived experience with his knowledge and understanding of the corporate world. Drawing on his own mental health challenges, he shares how each time he has come back faster, stronger and smarter.
In a 30 year career in HR, recruitment and talent acquisition, Colin has worked with global organisations such as Disney, Deutsche Bank, Liberal Democrats, Lloyd’s of London, AXA, Marriott, and HSBC.
Colin’s open, honest and thought-provoking talks, first shock with his inspirational journey …but then provide practical ways to optimise mental health to survive and thrive in a modern world.
Coach Chris Browne is a man who lives with a passion to help others overcome their personal blocks in life especially in their careers and general work life.
His passion comes from his own experience of challenges that he had to overcome, and a realisation that this is transferable to many other challenges that we all have to deal with in life and work, therefore through his study of Personal Development combined with his experience he has helped many overcome their challenges to date.
‘Your competition is not with others, your competition is with you to become better today than you were yesterday, and just fantastic tomorrow’.
He delivers impactful talks and workshops on Effective Interview techniques, Potential and Direction, Career Goals, Employee Engagement, Confidence building, Effective Communication skills, and The Power of Teamwork, amongst other areas of development to organisations, and individuals of whom have given raving testimonies of having life-changing results in their work, careers, and personal lives after attending his workshops. When it comes to interviewing skills he has perfected a style to help you overcome your fears and sell the better you.
Christopher TS Harvey has spent the past two decades mastering the complexity of change and how to manage change successfully.
Since studying alongside the Prince and Princess of Wales at the University of St Andrews, Chris has been busy in the change space. Unaware at the time, he was somewhat of a trailblazer in the Change Management domain, obsessed with the human-centric, psychological nature of change. Pushing himself ever since to operate at the ‘bleeding edge’ of the change sphere.
What makes him a standout as a speaker is his ability to convert extensive academic understanding and hands on experience of complex change, into meaningful learnings and tangible takeaways for the audience to better manage through change. All done against a captivating backdrop of 80s/90s soundtracks, balloon metaphors and ‘tongue in cheek’ British humour.
Chris has been published extensively in GQ Magazine around the world, on change subjects ranging from natural disasters to workplace burnout. He’s also written for the Daily Mail, The Telegraph, HR Magazine, Business Insider, been interviewed by BBC, TalkRadio and many more. His proudest achievement will be publishing the book he continues to work on, whilst educating the next generation of change leaders through his guest lecturing.
Christopher Howell shows how in change management, innovation and professional development, creativity is one of the most valuable skills we can develop. He delivers his inspirational talks and workshops using magic to show how to think creatively ‘like magicians’.
Christopher entertainingly demonstrates learning concepts to add energy to your conference. This can be backed up by interactive exercises to teach new skills. Your audience will finish the session with a tool kit full of useful and inspiring material to put to work.
A certified coach and member of The Magic Circle with worldwide experience, Christopher’s fun and practical sessions teach how to escape comfort zone behaviour and boldly take steps into fresh creative terrain. Google called his recent appearance “The Event of the Year”.
Chris Roebuck has a unique experience and approach that helps leaders, teams, and organisations understand how they can reach their full potential and be successful in just a few steps.
His innovative and inspiring manner shows everyone that they already know what delivers success, but just don’t recognise it. Once they do, they can quickly transform their performance by using a few simple actions. This adds investor value, serves customers better, builds the brands, boosts the bottom line by 10% at no additional cost, and supports effective risk management and cost-efficiency.
For over 30 years he has led global teams growing C Suite and other leaders as high-performance human leaders to accelerate success by meeting their key objectives and beating challenges. Chris Roebuck has delivered award-winning major transformations and culture change, grown new talent to build entrepreneurial future focussed organisations, and shown how people power can boost profits. His experience, supported by over 250 real-life studies, has helped him develop his successful approach, focussing predominantly on:
Corporate Leadership: How to develop leadership in major global corporations and SMEs to enable both personal and organisational success.
Governmental Leader: Talks around his own experience working with the UK Government and public sectors on major change and leadership projects.
By the time he arrived in Iraq in 2004, Major Chris Hunter was one of the most experienced counter-terrorist bomb disposal specialists in the British Army. In 14 years, he’d seen active service in the Balkans, East Africa, Northern Ireland, Colombia and Afghanistan.
But Iraq was different… despite being shot and wounded in an ambush just four days into his tour, he and his team became so successful at disabling insurgent bombs that the bombers ended up placing a price on his head and designing bombs specifically for him.
Chris Hirst is an innovative and inspirational leader, keynote speaker, and award-winning author with an impressive track record of successful business transformation.
With over a decade of experience as a global CEO, he is now known for his no-nonsense approach to business transformation and his focus on wiping away the bullsh*t to bring clarity and insight to modern leadership.
Through his experience as a successful CEO, Chris shares his first-hand experience leading organisational change to deliver record growth and cultures of lasting success. In 2022, Chris was shortlisted by Campaign Magazine as global CEO of the year.
Chris Griffiths is a high-profile keynote speaker on creativity, innovation, and mind mapping and a bestselling author published in over 20 languages worldwide.
In 2006, he founded OpenGenius, a company focussed on helping transform creativity, learning, and thinking. His passion for creativity links to his strong support of neurodiversity. Through his work with The Inspire Genius Foundation, he aims to promote the inclusion of neurodivergent thinkers and how that can add value to any business.
Millions have used his technology solutions, and he has personally worked with Nobel laureates, governments, royal families, and business CEOs.
Chris Cook is an ex Double Olympian & Double Commonwealth swimming champion having completed globally at international level.
He is a former BBC North East Sports Personality of the Year.
Chris is an accomplished motivational business and educational speaker with his keynote talk ‘Two Lengths’.
Chris Brindley MBE is a prominent UK Business Leader, Chair AT MCRactive and Zellar Limited, and Non-Executive Director (NED) at companies including Four Recruitment, Her Spirit, Equilibrium Asset Management, and Goodson Thomas. He is also an Elite Sports Business Mentor for The Premier League, Leadership Coach for Metro Bank, and a Trustee of Switch the Play Foundation.
He is the former Chair and NED of the Rugby Lead World Cup 2021 Board, Chair of GreaterSport Manchester and Sporting House, a Non-Executive at Rugby Football League, Super League, Move With Peppa, Rapport, and Manchester Football Association, and former Executive of British Gas, Metro Bank, and NatWest.
A leading authority on sales management, employee engagement and satisfaction, and customer experience, Chris holds Non-Executive Director positions at multiple organisations, and has been awarded UK Non-Executive Director (NED) of the Year, Most Outstanding Employer, and Britain’s Best Boss.
He has studied for a range of topics including strategic retail management at Manchester Business School, performance management, and executive coaching at Hult Ashridge, customer experience at Duke University, managing strategic risk at The Wharton School, managing for value creation at INSEAD, and executive leadership from the prestigious Harvard Business School.
