Communication Speakers

Christine Ockrent is both producer and anchor of the weekly current affairs program France Europe Express on France 3 Television.

She is also president of the advisory board of METRO International France, and a columnist for various French and Swiss newspapers.

Born into a family of diplomats, Christine Ockrent is a graduate of The Institute of political Studies in Paris. She began her career as a journalist for American television when she made her career televisual “scoop” in 1979. While going to interview in prison a former Prime Minister for the Shah of Iran a few days before her execution.

Previously she was editor in chief of the weekly news magazine, L’Express, the only journalist granted an interview with Saddam Hussein in the middle of the Gulf War. As well as becoming the first woman to anchor and edit the prime time news. She has had an outstanding career in television, both as producer of documentaries and anchor of the evening news, where she shaped a style as the first woman presenter and editor.

Ms. Ockrent was also deputy director general of TF1 Television and an editor with RTL Radio. She began her career in broadcast journalism at NBC News and worked for eight years at CBS’ 60 Minutes. She has been awarded several French and international distinctions for her work in TV journalism.

She is a graduate of the Institut d’études politiques in Paris and studied at Cambridge University.

She has written eight books, one of which translated in German (“Wie Julius Caesar den Euro erfand” Rowohlt).

Christine Ockrent is also the author of eight books, Chevalier of the Legion of Honour and member of the board of directors of Reporters without borders, she is married to Bernard Kouchner, a senior French Minister and founder, organizer and president of “Médecins sans Frontières” (1971-1979); and of “Médecins du Monde” (non-profit-making organization whose members, all voluntary and doctors and nurses, help in times of emergency and situations of inadequate medical care in the third world) (1980-1988).

Barnaby is Managing Director of the brand bucket® company, a fully integrated creative sales and marketing agency using, The Brand Bucket®, a revolutionary process developed for SAAB in 1985.

For the last 11 years he has been applying this definitive methodology to over 300 businesses at various stages of the business lifecycle building branded sales both in the online and offline arenas.

Although advertising accounts for less than 20% of activity, the agency is ranked in the top level of UK advertising agencies with 30% accounted for by the online arena and the balance on business definition and collateral creation.

There have been fundamental changes in the way marketing works over the last 5 years, businesses are wasting up to 80% of their marketing spend on outdated, demographically inspired media. Barnaby provides insights into the way business works from a ‘customer in’ viewpoint.

Barnaby’s background in re-brands and new business launches extends back to the late 80′s including the introduction of a wide range of products from The Fiat Ducato and Fiorino, The Ford Sierra and Granada, Radion washing detergent, Liptonice Ice Tea, Red Stripe Lager, Toshiba Home Cinema, Boots Opticians, E*Trade, Deutsche Post and full re-brands for the likes of Argos, The Children’s Society, Marie Curie Cancer Care, Bookham Technology and Oclaro, Oncore IT, Payzone Worldwide Money among many others.

In the last 5 years The Brand Bucket Programme has helped start-ups, small to medium enterprises and national FTSE/NASDAQ and especially not for profit organisations. In all with over 200 brands to his name, Barnaby finds himself in the unique position of having acted as marketing director, brand owner and creative consultant on a wide range of business propositions.

Topics include:

How marketing has changed forever
Crossing the business chasm
Creating your value proposition
Creating branded sales
Measure your marketing effectiveness
Online marketing

Rachel Marsden is an internationally renowned political affairs commentator, a communications strategist, analyst, writer, and broadcast journalist.

“Rachel offers incisive comment, witty insight, informed opinion and a rare slice of beauty to modern political commentary” THE POLITICONOMIST

Currently based in Paris, she has presented programmes in varying capacities on Fox News, CNN, CNBC, Fox Business, Al Jazeera, LCP TV France, Paris Premiere (France), iTele (France), France24, Global Television, Sirius Satellite Radio and other TV and radio outlets.

Unique in many respects, Rachel is immersed and informed in political affairs on both sides of the Atlantic. This rare knowledge has made her a popular conference and consultancy choice with many leading global corporations.

Marsden is a contributor to London’s Daily Telegraph online, Human Events, Townhall.com, and many other publications.

Previously a weekly columnist with Sun Media, she contributes to publications such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Washington Times/United Press International, Newsmax Media, and The Vancouver Sun. Marsden has also written a twice-weekly political column for the National Post – one of Canada’s two national newspapers – with one weekly column about national/international politics, and the other about Toronto/Ontario affairs.

Born in Vancouver, Canada, Marsden was raised in the birthplace of political talk-radio, where she grew up listening to Jack Webster and watching Liberal Canadian Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, flip people off. She still holds several major records in competitive swimming from her days as an international level competitor.

The fully bilingual former print and runway model was schooled almost exclusively in French until high school. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from Simon Fraser University on a full academic scholarship before pursuing graduate studies in law and criminology, a journalism degree at the British Columbia Institute of Technology, then political journalism at the National Journalism Center in Washington, DC. For her academic achievements, she was awarded the Canadian Governor General’s medal for academic excellence.

After working as a producer, anchor, camerawoman, and reporter for a cable news outlet in her hometown, and as a videographer for Rugby Canada and BC Rugby, her first major media position was with ABC News’ 20/20 in New York City, where she apprenticed under Connie Chung and learned that you can’t live in New York City on $5/day. After an apprenticeship in talk-radio at the Radio America Network in Washington, DC, Marsden was hired as Director of a DC-based conservative think-tank that was a key component of President George W. Bush’s beltway coalition during the lead-up to the Iraq War.

She returned to her native Canada to work as an operative on two simultaneous federal campaigns for current Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party in the province of British Columbia, specializing in communications strategy and opposition intelligence.

At the same time, she began contributing to United Press International (UPI), and hosting a call-in talk-radio show in Vancouver, BC, where she interviewed and debated guests ranging from Canada’s then Deputy Prime Minister, Sheila Copps, and current International Trade Minister, Stockwell Day, to Ann Coulter and Watergate figure G. Gordon Liddy of the Richard Nixon administration.

It was this hour-long interview with Liddy – in which he talked in-depth about his role in Watergate and the scandal’s aftermath – that caught the attention of David Asper, the Executive Vice-President of the CanWest Global media empire, who offered her a Toronto-based political columnist position at the National Post, in conjunction with then publisher, Lester Pyette.

Having quickly established a unique, controversial, populist conservative voice in the Canadian media, she switched to a regular column in the Sun Media chain, and started her own public relations and communications company on Toronto’s Bay Street.

While based in Toronto, Marsden started out with the Fox News Channel in 2004 as the Canadian Correspondent for The O’Reilly Factor — the top-rated cable news show in the world — after she was spotted as a regular panelist on Dennis Miller’s CNBC show in Los Angeles. She was recruited by Rupert Murdoch’s chief lieutenant and former Ronald Reagan communications strategist, Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, who personally selected her to be the only conservative on a daily national talk show with three other male co-hosts.

After several months, Marsden left the show when it underwent a format change, stating, “The show has drastically changed direction since its inception and apparently no longer has a place for a political pundit.” She has since appeared on Fox Business.

Marsden has since returned to her entrepreneurial roots, picking and choosing interviews, appearances and projects, and working with various television and radio networks as a free-agent. She continues to work as a political operative, opposition intelligence (“oppo”) researcher and media/strategy consultant, in France, the USA, UK, emerging democracies, Canada and elsewhere.

She speaks on Capitol Hill and elsewhere on topics such as national and international politics; the impact of current political events on business; political strategies applied to business; crisis management; the war on terrorism; national security; leveraging media and public relations in business; media and technology; politics and technology; election analysis; the cultural and economic impact of immigration; and various other public policy issues.

In February 2008, Marsden launched an online political talent project and magazine, GrandCentralPolitical.com to cultivate new and emerging media and political talent.

Mark’s face is known to millions. He is the man they see on their TVs when producers need authoritative comment on scandals, celebrity and the media itself. They might seek his opinion on the latest reality TV shock-horror story, a celebrity’s faux pas or on the craft of PR itself. Whenever the celebrity news agenda hits hysteria point, Mark offers thoughtful analysis, a wry point of view and an insider’s insight.

That insight is drawn from hard-won experience. He’s not merely an academic observer of the media and its celebrity machinations: he’s in it, up to his neck, every day. This is the man who has handled PR for some of the biggest names in the business and continues to do so. He’s worked for Eddie Izzard, Graham Norton, Joan Rivers, Macaulay Culkin, Sir Cliff Richard, Shirley Bassey, the Bolshoi Ballet, Cirque du Soleil, the Three Tenors, Michael Jackson, Michael Flatley and Michael Moore. His roster of the rich and famous even extends to Mikhael Gorbachev and Diego Maradona.

Mark has also publicised some of the best TV drama series over the past decade – including Spooks, Our Friends in the North, The Lakes, and 40, and he launched The Word, The Girlie Show, Never Mind the Buzzcocks and They Think It’s All Over, at a time when everybody thought they were very bad ideas.

He’s been behind the high public profile of a string of West End successes, and his portfolio of film promotion includes cult classics such as American History X, Best in Show, and Thank You For Smoking, as well as multi-million-dollar box office hits like The Matrix.

What distinguishes him is his willingness to engage with challenging international work from left-field companies and artists.

Early in his career, he brought to the attention of the British public a ramshackle but inspired grunge circus from France called Archaos. The name is now legendary in alternative theatre circles. At the start of Mark’s stewardship, Archaos was performing in a shoddy 400-seat tent on Clapham Common.

Three years later, thanks in part to the immense media storm he had succeeded in whipping up, it had shifted into a 5,000 seater. During that time, Mark saw to it that Archaos split a moving vehicle in two in Princes Street in Edinburgh (a journalist in the back, who was eight months pregnant went into labour as a result), and leapt over traffic junctions on a motorbike. He encouraged the company’s Iraqi strong man to bend lampposts before claiming he had run away from the circus to join the first Gulf War. Mark pressed performers into running amok with chainsaws in public and deliberately outraged every moral watchdog and local authority wherever it went.

He went on to scale new heights of extreme entertainment by publicising Jim Rose’s S&M Circus Sideshow, in which a selection of freaks dangled breeze blocks from nipple rings, hung flat irons from their penises, ate light bulbs and cockroaches and persuaded audience members to drink the regurgitated contents of their own stomachs. “He is the greatest publicist I know” says Jim, a man ready to hammer a nail into his head at the drop of a hat.

Mark publicised XXX by La Fura, a multi-media Spanish theatre concoction which enacted de Sade’s Philosophy of the Bedroom in the most graphic and explicit detail ever seen on a British stage. Was it pornography? or was it ART? While the debate raged, the press printed the stories and the pictures Mark gave them, securing the total sell-out sought by both the venue and the company.

He also launched the fantastical circus-cum-rave-cum-performance-art aerial ballet De La Guarda in the UK, personally securing the sponsorship to secure their debut at the London International Festival of Theatre (but only after he’d been persuaded to travel to Marseilles to watch them perform in a disused submarine workshop).

A whole roster of off-the-wall, radical and groundbreaking acts owe their success in this country to his tireless, committed and passionate approach to PR. The list includes everybody from the original Stomp, through to Robert Lepage, Momix, Mummenshanz, Lindsay Kemp, Ken Campbell, Philippe Genty, the Kodo Drummers and the Shaolin Monks.

Mark views PR as an instinctive, spontaneous, totally creative business whose sole function is to fire the imagination of the reading and viewing public. He doesn’t care whether this involves leaving a live scorpion in a BBC green-room, inventing a troupe of performing pit bull terriers for no better reason than it seemed a good idea at the time, building the biggest paper boat in the world, staging a theatre show in a two-seater car, twice presenting and twice earning a place in the Guinness Book of Records for the Biggest Custard Pie Fight in the World (on the second occasion in the Millennium Dome, possibly the best use to which it was ever put) or simply doing a Jim Rose by hammering a nail up his nose and setting fire to his chest hair. Anything, in fact, just so long as it gains the column inches that attract attention and bring punters to the box office, or as the great showman Silas Bent once put it, “if there’s no excitement ready made, some must be invented”.

The widely held belief that PR should be about the absolute, rigid, undeviating control of a message is anathema to him. The message, he believes, can only be properly communicated by stirring the imagination, and ultimately what stirs the imagination more than anything else is the ability to conceive and tell a great story. In that sense it would not be too high-flown to say that Mark Borkowski regards PR as an art form in itself.

Entertainment – and the technique which sells that entertainment to the public – is in his bloodstream. His career started with humble beginnings at the Wyvern Theatre in Swindon, followed by a successful tenure as in-house publicist at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, during one of its heydays under Philip Hedley as London’s most vibrant centre for multi-cultural theatre and new writing.

But it would be wholly wrong to pigeon-hole Mark as purely an entertainment publicist, locked into the superficial celebrity circus. While he may be on call for a professional take on Jordan’s latest pneumatic exploits, his opinion is regularly sought on more substantial issues of PR practice, particularly its moral aspects.

He writes opinion pieces for the broadsheets, and produces a regular, provocative and cogent column in The Guardian online, (“Stuntwatch”) which frequently focuses on corporate and political abuses of the media. In academic and industry circles he is a respected lecturer and thinker. During the course of the 2nd Gulf War, he established a significant American audience, through his repeated, thoughtful and detailed criticism of the techniques employed by the US propaganda machine. On this subject, he wrote a BBC 3 documentary How The War Was Spun.

Mark has played a key role in developing the careers of a number of advertising stars, notably Trevor Beattie and Tony Kaye, and he’s increasingly in demand from an industry that is – at last – beginning to understand that its erstwhile poor relation can make a potent contribution to ‘marketing product’.

Much of this side of Mark’s work depends on his understanding of the ways consumer brands operate. Although his profile is connected with celebrity, much of his agency’s day to day work comes from the representation of major brands. In this guise, his company manages – or has managed – PR for the likes of Vodafone, Tiscali, P&O, Eurostar, Smartcar, Lotus, Hovis, Virgin Megastores, Selfridges, Harrods, Norwich Union, Thorntons, Horlicks, Bacardi, Pimm’s, Piat d’Or, Gordon’s Gin, Hasbro UK (Europe’s largest toy maker and manufacturer of Action Man, Trivial Pursuit and Monopoly).

The techniques Mark views as essential to entertainment PR are the identical techniques he strives to use when generating media coverage for corporate clients.

After all, what journalist in his or her right mind would want to write an article, unprompted, about Bacardi Breezer? Breezer is Breezer is Breezer. Let’s not be cynical, but it’s sticky flavoured tart-fuel which gets you drunk, and there are no column inches in that. But if you turn the Tom Cat from the Bacardi ads into a Hollywood star, weave a series of outlandish stories round his contract riders and pampered celebrity lifestyle, take him to film premières, award ceremonies and first night parties, organise media trips to Prague for his latest advertising shoot, get him pictured with glamorous soap stars and finally secure him a newspaper column in a national daily, then the media can’t resist the story.

It’s a showbiz style of PR: it makes the media flock to the brand, and so secures the kind of prominence that the product alone would never warrant. And as far as the bean-counters who control such things can see, it bears fruit on the bottom line. As PT Barnum once observed “Every crowd has a silver lining”.

One of his strengths – and one of the aspects of his character that can be infuriating for his colleagues – is his restless, enquiring mind, his curiosity and his readiness to embrace the new, however far-fetched the concept, however impractical the idea. But what inspires the lasting loyalty and affection of his staff is the knowledge that at least one in ten of those ideas has genuine value and exploitable potential.

Which brings us to the genesis of SONS OF BARNUM. When he began working as a PR in the theatre, Mark’s discovered the extraordinary power to be gained in provoking the press; the power which resides in the ability to create stories the media swallow, and the resultant impact on the public and on sales at the box office. That was his education, pure and simple, in perhaps the hardest PR environment around.

Mark’s growing interest in the history of PR and specifically the publicity stunt led to his creation in 2001 of an exhibition – “Improperganda: the Art of the Publicity Stunt” and an accompanying book – which drew together some of the most classic PR images of all time.

The power of images to communicate directly with an audience had long been a theme in Mark’s work, and the exhibition provided an historical perspective on his established practice.

What also became evident in the compilation of the book was that Hollywood’s early publicists, knowing no other way of working, had adapted Barnum’s techniques to the evolving movie business. There were no rules or constraints, (such as there are today in the modern, tightly controlled superstar environment) and these publicists – amongst them Harry Reichenbach, Warren Cowan, Jim Moran and Russell Birdwell – operated with a free-wheeling, buccaneering spirit which 21st century studio chiefs and PR fuhrers would regard with profound horror. Perhaps for that very reason they scored some resounding successes. They did nothing by the book – there was no book to follow – they were anarchic, indisciplined, and sometimes just plain dangerous. Who today, for instance, would book a crated lion into an hotel room under the pretence that it was a grand piano? And more to the point, why would they think it useful to do so? These pioneers showed a creative spirit and a truly inspired ability to improvise their way out of tight corners.

In the summer of 2004 Mark took to the stage of the Wildman Room at the Edinburgh Festival to premier “Son of Barnum: A Stunt Too Far”, his live one-man exploration of the world of the publicity stunt. Part lecture, part performance, his run on the Fringe was greeted with genuine appreciation, as well as laughter, applause and offers of corporate bookings. The stories he tells in the show are those of the publicists of the past 150 years, going back to Barnum himself in the mid nineteenth century. In short, they were exciting, and the work they produced was also exciting. More than that, it was memorable and thoroughly, thoroughly entertaining.

Following this, Mark was approached by book publishers and a year later he was commissioned by Macmillan to write “In Search of the Sons of Barnum”. That book, now titled The Fame Formula, is out on general release in August 2008

For Mark, this approach is what still lies at the heart of great PR. The means of ‘delivery’ may have changed; we may operate in a far more sophisticated, diversified media market, but at the root it all rests on the ability to fire the imagination of an audience. Spin will never engage, convince or excite the public: real PR will. It’s his belief in these principles, and his practical application of them to business problems, which makes Mark Borkowski

“the proud inheritor of the Barnum tradition” Jeremy Paxman.

It’s often easy to disagree with Jeremy Paxman. In this case it’s impossible not to.

‘THE MAESTRO OF MOTIVATION’

It’s the one thing all businesses absolutely MUST have to generate profits, stay competitive and keep their staff working effectively.

That secret ingredient is MOTIVATION.

It’s not taught much in MBA programmes or Management Training Courses, because it’s such an intangible thing to get to grips with and understand.

But one man who knows more about it than almost anyone is Lawrence Leyton.

Lawrence has been studying the intricacies of Motivation and how to apply it in the workplace all his life. What he discovered, and now teaches, are a set of mind-tools guaranteed to ignite and invigorate the fire and passion in your workforce.

In fact, Lawrence has been so successful in what he does; he’s helped over 200 companies around the world (major blue-chip names like: Microsoft, AstraZeneca, Kimberly Clarke, Vodafone, AMP, The Prudential, Provident, Lombard, plus many others) to change the mind-sets of their staff and turn them into peak performers and high achievers.

Savvy companies like these understand the value Lawrence’s entertaining, engaging, but serious messages bring to their business.

He’s so sought after; he’s appeared as a regular guest on many prime-time TV and radio shows including Richard and Judy and Russell Brand.

He was even snapped up by ITV and Channel 4 to demonstrate his unique skills in three TV specials, one being the popular peak-time Channel 4 show “Fear of Flying”.

On this particular show for example, Lawrence demonstrated another of his amazing skills; helping people overcome phobias and addictions. He helped 40 of the most extreme flying phobics in Britain overcome their fear once-and-for-all. His methods were such a success, many of the participants who would NEVER go on a plane, have now been able to take holidays abroad with their families!

With literally thousands of major stage appearances under his belt, you know you’re in safe hands as Lawrence tailors the speech for the theme of the conference or the message you’re trying to get across.

Here’s just a taste of what Lawrence reveals…

• Why events in your life are not quite what they seem. Your mind is a wonderful thing when you use it the right way, but can also be the biggest obstacle to your success. Here’s how to spot the limiting illusions you carry around with you…

• Discover the Number One factor that makes the difference between success and failure in your life. Top sports people, business leaders and even politicians know how to use this to get to the very top of their chosen field. You can use it too, once you know what it is…

• What three characteristics all ‘Peak Performers’ possess. These three can be honed and perfected by anyone once they’re aware of them. Which one’s are you neglecting and hold you back from reaching your destiny?

• How three simple components control your state of mind. If one or more of these components are not being nurtured regularly, then your behaviour will suffer. Which ones are you neglecting and what you can do to put them right…

• What three members of the audience and a piece of wood can teach you about taking positive action in your life. You’ll discover the factors that hold you back and what you can do to banish those limiting factors from your life… once and for all…

The techniques Lawrence reveals in his entertaining presentations, to thousands of people in auditoriums and conference halls around the world, really do work.

In fact, they’re the very same methods Lawrence uses to run his own successful businesses. These range from Optimum Health Centres, one of the fastest growing family wellness clinics in the UK, to his own multimedia information marketing company.

He’s the author of two books and many personal development related products such as books, CDs, DVDs and seminars.

So with such a successful business background and his own uniquely dynamic and entertaining stage presentation, you don’t have to look any further than Lawrence Leyton to super-charge your workforce, and help them catapult your organisation into the realms of the top peak performance companies in your industry.



This Lawrence Leyton audio course is based on trusted techniques to develop the capabilities a manager or leader needs to create loyalty and improve management effectiveness.






View video material for Lawrence Leyton.

Dr Max Atkinson is a freelance communications consultant and author, best known for developing a new approach to research and training in public speaking, speech writing and presentation. He is a visiting professor at the Henley Management College, where he has run courses on communication skills on executive and MBA programmes since 1985.

He has also taught at the universities of Lancaster, Manchester and Oxford, and has held visiting professorships at universities in Europe and the USA. He has published books on conversation, courtroom language, political speeches and business presentations.

For over 12 years Dr Atkinson served as communications advisor, speechwriter and coach to Paddy Ashdown, former leader of the (UK) Liberal Democrats, and the High Representative in Bosnia & Herzogovina from 2002-2006. In 1985, he ran a seminar on speech writing in the Reagan White House and his work has also been extensively used by Michael Sheehan, Bill Clinton’s chief speech coach.

Atkinson’s widely acclaimed research into public speaking first came to public notice with the publication of Our Masters’ Voices: The Language and Body Language of Politics (London & New York: Methuen, 1984; reprinted 1986, then by Routledge, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1994). Based on a detailed analysis of videotapes of political speeches, it described the main rhetorical techniques used by speakers to trigger applause.

The findings were put to the practical test in front of a mass television audience with the broadcast of a Granada Television World in Action programme, in which he Atkinson was challenged to coach a novice who had never made a speech before to address the 1984 SDP Conference – the result of which was a standing ovation for a speech that ‘lit up the conference as no other speech had done all week’ (The Guardian) , and was described by the late Sir Robin Day as ‘the most refreshing speech we’ve heard so far’.

Subsequently, he formed Atkinson Communications, a consultancy specialising in communication skills training, since when he has worked with a vast array of major corporations in the UK and abroad, often coaching and writing speeches for CEOs and other board level executives.

Dr Atkinson has brought together everything he has learnt about audience reactions to speeches and presentations in two recent books, Lend Me Your Ears: All You Need to Know about Making Speeches and Presentations (London: Vermilion, 2004), and Speech-making and Presentation Made Easy (London: Vermilion, 2008).



They show that the rhetorical techniques first identified by classical Greek and Roman writers 2000 years ago are as effective today as they ever were, and can be used to increase the impact of any kind of speech or presentation. They also explain why the slide-dependent style of presentation that has become increasingly prevalent is actually widely disliked by audiences, and describe how to make more effective use of visual aids. The books also debunks some widely propagated modern myths about the overwhelming importance of body language (e.g. that 93% of communication is non-verbal, that folded arms indicate defensiveness, etc.).

He has also appeared on numerous television and radio programmes, and has published articles in various newspapers, including The Times, Sunday Times, Financial Times, The Independent on Sunday and the Washington Post.

In September 2008, he started a blog, on which his analyses of speeches by Barack Obama and other leading politicians, economists, bankers, etc. have attracted thousands of visitors.

“I found Max’s lectures and teachings to be of great value in my professional development: I first attended one of Max’s sessions 15 years ago and still use what I learned there to this day. His lectures and books are a high quality means to achieving better business results.
Geoff Birkett, Global VP Marketing, AstraZeneca

“There was scarcely a single speech in my eleven years as leader of the Liberal Democrats that I made without benefiting from Max Atkinson’s personal advice and help.”
PADDY ASHDOWN (former leader of the Liberal Democrats, UK)

William Crawley is a broadcaster, journalist and writer of Will & Testament, one of the country’s most popular blogs. The diversity of subjects he deals with on television, radio, in print and online inevitably lead others to describe him as “versatile”, though he wonders himself if it isn’t a sign of a short attention span. Or the fact that he’s Irish.

His TV series “Blueprint”, which explored 600 million years of Ireland’s natural history in three hours of television, was described by the BBC in Northern Ireland as the “most ambitious multi-platform broadcasting project” in their history.

In his BBC interview series “William Crawley Meets …”, he travels around the world to talk to some of the controversial thinkers and activists who help shape the modern conversation — from the biologist Richard Dawkins to the philosopher Peter Singer, from the gay bishop Gene Robinson to the architect Richard Rogers.

After hundreds of interviews on radio and television, he realizes that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. Which may explain why Ian Paisley first revealed in an interview with William Crawley that he had prayed in private with his former enemy Martin McGuinness; why the Nobel prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney first talked about his pot-smoking days in Berkeley, California; and why Richard Dawkins had second thoughts about the use of the word “delusion” in the title of his global bestseller The God Delusion. Alas, it may also explain why the Holywood screen legend Tony Curtis used so many expletives in one live interview during a lunchtime news programme that he made headlines around the world for “turning the BBC airwaves blue” (as the New York Daily News put it).

A former philosophy teacher, with a PhD in the subject, William is an expert on ethics and religion and has made many programmes investigating contemporary moral debates, including “What’s Wrong With …?”, a round-table discussion show, and “Frozen North”, which took him to the Canadian sub-arctic to investigate the impact of climate change.

With a passion for the arts, William presents The Book Programme for BBC Radio Ulster, has hosted the BBC’s TV coverage of the Belfast Festival since 2005, and has presented features on the arts for Radio 3 and Radio Ulster. One of his biggest challenges was a documentary for Radio 4 in which William was tasked with explaining the annual Loyalist bonfires to an English audience without the use of subtitles.

William has also turned the camera on himself in a semi-autobiographical TV series which examined some of the big issues of our modern age, and some of the obsessions of Irish culture: death, booze and religion. In Dying For A Drink, William joined a very short but nevertheless illustrious list of BBC presenters who have become inebriated on screen. That is, inebriated deliberately.

He also regularly presents news and political phone-in shows for the BBC in Northern Ireland, frequently hosts the drive-time news and current affairs programmes for Radio Ulster, gets up early every Sunday morning to present a specialist religion and ethics programme, Sunday Sequence (which was recently named UK Religion Programme of the Year) and can also be heard presenting Radio 4′s Sunday programme from time to time. He presented an edition of Sunday Sequence live from the Ground Zero site shortly after 9/11, and marked the 50th anniversary of South Africa’s Freedom Charter with a programme broadcast from the cell that held Nelson Mandela.

If this looks like a media career, it’s well to remember that it all happened by accident. Ten years ago, William was asked to present a Thought for the Day, which, at less than 3 minutes, is an ideal format for a short attention span. He’s been broadcasting ever since.

After many years in high-level diplomacy Charles Crawford has a unique profile as an imaginative, dynamic and even provocative speaker who has addressed audiences large and small in English, Polish and Serbian

After an Honours degree in Jurisprudence from Oxford University he qualified as a Barrister before joining the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

From 1985-87 Charles served as Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe’s official Speechwriter, contributing ideas/language for speeches by the Foreign Secretary (major set-piece speeches, Parliamentary debates and less formal after-dinner remarks)

His first job on joining the FCO in 1979 was to head the Indonesia Section, followed by his first posting, to communist post-Tito Yugoslavia. He returned to London in 1984 and after a year on the Aviation Desk was appointed FCO Speech-writer. He was posted to South Africa in 1987 as part of the Embassy team led by Ambassador Robin Renwick working to end apartheid.

Returning to London in 1991 he worked in the FCO Department dealing with the Soviet Union as communist rule collapsed. He then spent three years in Moscow as Political Counsellor and then served three times as HM Ambassador: in Sarajevo (1996-1998); in Belgrade (2001-2003) and most recently in Poland (2003-2007).

In 1987 he wrote the FCO’s first Guide to Speech-Writing, a dynamic text full of real-life examples on how to write speeches – and how to weed out lugubrious mistakes. Two decades later it remains a core part of the FCO’s speech-drafting training

He subsequently contributed to speeches by members of the Royal Family and successive Prime Ministers, as well as different Ministers and other senior personalities in public and commercial life

He left the FCO at the end of 2007 to start a new career as writer, consultant, mediator and trainer. In 2009 he joined the UK Conservative Party candidates list

In recent months Charles Crawford led training courses for senior EU and other officials and private clients aimed at improving their communication skills. He has written for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Independent, DIPLOMAT and Total Politics.

In 2009 his audiences included the Headmasters Conference and Conservative Friends of Poland, as well as private groups and academic gatherings

In 2010 he and other former British Ambassadors in partnership with ADR Group launched a new senior strategic dispute resolution panel, ADRg Ambassadors

Charles Crawford’s trenchant observations on public policy issues are now available to a growing readership on his blog




Such honesty has no place in modern government…it’s bloody dangerous!
Andrew Dodge (Samizdata)

The most telling critique of this delusional foreign policy comes in regular instalments in the form of a blog by the former British ambassador to Poland, Charles Crawford. It’s called www.charlescrawford.biz, and if you want to know just how much in despair many of our diplomats are, this is the place to look
Dominic Lawson (The Times, 2010)

In 2005 a humorous FCO email he wrote as Ambassador to Warsaw (a satirical speech by Prime Minister Tony Blair damning other countries’ selfishness on EU Budget issues) caused a stir when it was leaked to the Sunday Times

His FCO written work was praised at the highest levels in London, NATO and the EU for its uncompromising dynamic style:

“fabulously readable and interesting analysis, with practical application … just about the best scenesetter [No10 staff] have ever seen”

“acrobatic and eye-catching in his use of language”

As a speaker Charles Crawford draws on dramatic episodes from his diplomatic career to explain wider policy themes, paradoxes and trends. His presentations are interesting and thought-provoking, but above all memorable

He is strong on foreign and public policy issues such as:

o Communism (and Vampires)
o Dealing with extremists and war criminals
o Climate change and PPP (perverse precautionary principles)
o Amazon Space: how the Internet is changing the strategic policy context
o International negotiation (as explained by Shrek, the Joker and Clint Eastwood)
o UK/European Union relations: Too Big (not) to Fail

Malcolm Levene teaches business leaders and political figures how to significantly improve their communication skills and develop positive personal brand values.

Malcolm’s client list has included former Prime Minister Tony Blair, Alastair Campbell, Michael Marks CBE, Robert Walters (CEO of Robert Walters Plc) and Michael Gove MP.

As a Self Development Business Coach, Malcolm works with companies whose vision demands that their employees, at every level, perform at their optimum. He offers his extensive experience as it relates to enabling business people to attain their goals, maintain focus and be highly effective in their day-to-day interactions. Malcolm’s corporate clients include Prudential, Deutsche Bank, Tesco, CitiGroup, Robert Walters plc, Nestlé, Volvo (UK), The Bank of New York Mellon and M&G Investments.

In a previous business life, Malcolm owned and ran the Malcolm Levene retail fashion business in London’s West End. His retail experience enables him to understand the relevance of the customer experience and how important it is for an organisation to create long-term loyalty and trust.

Malcolm has created the Power of One: Personal Development for Business Success programme as a response to the business-world’s request for ‘something different’. The big difference with Power of One is that it is designed to spark or fuel change – real, sustainable, measurable change. Simply put, it enables people to be the best, most effective person they can be.

Malcolm is a Board Director of the Society of Complementary Medicine (SCM), a registered charity. He is a panel member of YougovStone, a Think Tank that ‘provides feedback on the most important issues facing this country’.

As a passionate advocate of authenticity as a key to success in business. Malcolm writes and speaks eloquently on the subject. The author of two books, published in the UK and USA. He also writes articles for business magazines, focusing on personal development for business success.

Malcolm has been profiled in The New Yorker, The Independent and The Observer. He is frequently quoted by the press, regularly appearing on television as an expert regarding Self Development for Business Success, Identity and Personal Branding.

Brain researcher, Chartered Neuropsychologist, Sony Award-Winning Broadcaster & Best selling author.

Renowned as the ‘father of neuromarketing’ due to his pioneering work in developing the science of Neurometrics, David is Chairman and Director of Research at Mindlab International. Based at the University of Sussex, it is the UK’s leading company specialising in brain research and neuroscience as applied to consumers.

David began his career studying medicine, later switching to psychology, gaining First Class Honours degree in psychology and a doctorate from the University of Sussex. After lecturing in Clinical Psychology and Psychopathology he left, to start his own research organisation.

Over the past twenty years David has made more than a thousand TV and radio appearances as both a presenter and contributor. His television credits include: Red Mist (LWT); Rude London; After Dark; Tomorrow’s World; Shopology (BBC1); 100 Best Television Commercials (Channel 4); Road Rages (BBC1); The Colour Eye (BBC1) – as Presenter; Work is a Four Letter Word (BBC2); The Alpha Plan (BBC1); A Little of What You Fancy (BBC1); Should We Be Worried About? (BBC1) Sky, CNN and the Discovery Channel as well as many others.

David has written many best selling books on practical psychology, including Thinking Better (Rawson Wade) which became a best selling business book and a Fortune Book Club Choice. Also, The Secret Language Of Success (1989) a practical guide to body language which was also a best seller. Business Week wrote: “The best book on the subject”.

Other books include, The Soul of the New Consumer: What People Buy and Why in the New Economy; of this book Tim Waterstone wrote in Management Today: “This is such an enjoyable, important and timely book…required reading.” Bookpage described it as: “…a lucid analysis of a wide range of sales related issues…for anyone in the business of sending those messages, it’s an enlightening and compelling guide.”

David now lectures to major corporations in Europe, Scandinavia, USA and the Far East with clients including IBM, British Airways, BT, Disney, Coca-Cola, MacDonald, Hewlett Packard, SAP, Novartis, Glaxo, and Merck as well as other leading financial institutions and pharmaceutical companies. In 1978 he founded the registered charity Action on Phobias and has been active in working with self-help groups for phobics and anxiety sufferers.

Academic Qualifications & Affiliations
Director of Research Mind Lab International (www.themindlab.org).
First class honours degree in psychology (BSc Hons). University of Westminster, 1981.
Doctorate in Philosophy (D.Phil), University of Sussex, 1986.
Chartered Member of the British Psychological Society.
Fellow of the Institute of Directors.
Fellow International Stress Management Association.
Fellow Royal Society of Medicine.
Member of the American Association for Psychological Science.
Member of the International Society for Neuronal Regulation.
Member of the New York Academy of Science.
Member of the Medical & Scientific Network.
Member MENSA
Member of the Society of Authors.
Member National Union of Journalists.

Stephan Shakespeare is widely known as the charismatic founder of YouGov, PoliticsHome, ConservativeHome and 18 Doughty Street, the world’s first political internet TV station. Born in post war Germany, Shakespeare saw politics at work from an early age through his father who was a Journalist and press officer.

His family relocated to the UK in 1962 where he continued his education graduating from Oxford. Shakespeare was founding Principal of Landmark West Preparatory School in Los Angeles and held several senior teaching positions in California before returning to Britain as a political commentator, including a stint as a pollster for the Conservative party and spokesman for Jeffrey archer. Education remains an area of particular interest to him; he writes regularly for the national press on education policy.

Stephan Shakespeare has an unrivalled ability to understand and predict political outcomes. In the general election of 1997, he was beaten for the Colchester seat by Lib Dem candidate Bob Russell.

Within a year of founding market research and polling company YouGov he scored a major coup by predicting 2001 election victory for Labour to an accuracy of 1%. Shakespeare’s reputation as a fearsome innovator and businessman equals his political ability. YouGov has aquired major investment and now operates in the USA.

The Guardian included him in their line up of UK 100 most influential media personalities in 2008, rating him as “the pollster with the uncanny ability of getting it right”.

In 2008 Shakespeare along with Freddie Sayers established PoliticsHome which became rapidly established as the definitive source for political research and news.

PoliticsHome has become one of the most visited sites for political professionals and commentators, as with YouGov the operation has extended its services to America, and its innovative methods have been applied to the commercial sector across the world.

James Sale FRSA is a Director of Motivational Maps Ltd, an organisation with over 90 Management Consultants and Business Coaches licensed to use its unique product in the UK and abroad.

James is a recognised world expert on motivation, and also the World’s No 1 authority on Motivational Mapping and its application-rich set of tools – Reward Strategies, Management Development, Appraisal and Team Building.

James has 15 years intensive experience in training and mentoring managers, developing teams and appraisal systems, and creating the conditions for change and growth in organisations through understanding how people are incentivised and optimised. His methods and product – the Map – are now increasingly being used in some of the largest companies, the public sector, as well as the small to medium sized businesses.

James has nearly 30 books to his credit listed on Amazon; he has co-authored in total nearer 50 and as a member of the Society of Authors has served as Chair of one of its Writers Groups, and as a member on its Management Board.

Because increased motivation is the foundation of improved performance, the work that James does is exciting, innovative as well as effective. People, teams and organisations learn, usually, for the first time what really motivates them, and exactly how motivated they are, and from that basis how to develop precise reward strategies that target each individual’s, each team’s, and the whole organisation’s needs.

The journey for the managers and the staff is extraordinary – and the HR professionals and senior managers that commission James frequently want training and accreditation in this new expertise and technology. The unique Intellectual Property surrounding the Maps is entirely compatible and often integrated with other well known models of people development – for example, the coaching GROW model.

James is also an outstanding conference speaker, presenter and introducer of Map technology and ideas, which are readily and easily assimilated by staff. One of the outstanding benefits for companies of using its technology is its simplicity – people do not need a degree in psychology to understand what the Map reports mean. Furthermore, because motivation is what it is, it is non-judgemental. Finally, the reward strategies are highly cost effective – managers learn very quickly that money is a motivator for only a small proportion of the staff, and much cheaper methods of motivating are available.

The Builder is motivated by money and material satisfactions. But it is vital to determine what beyond money can motivate or demotivate him or her?

The Creator. We all know that creative types are supposed to be volatile, but are they really and what will set them off? Creators are the key to innovation – how do we unlock them?

The Director likes to be in control of people and resources and loves to be the one making all the decisions. But what happens when he or she doesn’t feel in control?

The Defender likes stability, security and safety? Is this your main motivator at work? Defenders may act irrationally and undermine team objectives if their core security is threatened.

The Searcher. Is doing meaningful work more important to you than the money? What is it you are looking for? Do you know? Does your boss know?

The Spirit. So you like to plough your own furrow, hate rules and paperwork and being bossed around. How can the skills of the spirit type be channelled positively.

The Expert. You love to learn and absorb information you or a colleague may need one day. You want to be master of your trade or profession? How do we expand the talent of the expert to value the

The Friend is a people focussed team player. Work has to be sociable and they will nearly always be the first to show at company social events. Loyalty is high with this type, however they must feel valued.

The Star. You are good at your job and you want everyone to know about it? You must be recognised for your achievements or your loyalty could be questioned.

Differentiate your business by implementing the business motivation tool, improve staff satisfaction and boost team performance with Motivational Maps.

Try your own Personal Motivation Profile to get a taste of what Motivational Maps can do.

BJ possesses a rare combination of business and creative credentials. He is a successful entrepreneur, charismatic speaker and acknowledged thought leader in the field of branding, brand marketing and communications.

He completed his MA in 3-Dimensional design at Middlesex University following his undergraduate degree in Economics and Social History at Exeter University.

On return from his subsequent travels through SE Asia, he started his first enterprise called The Karma Connection, which imported classic cars and Harley Davidsons from LA to London. This stopped abruptly when the market collapsed. He lost everything except his overdraft.

He took his considerable debt and created DEATH™ Cigarettes. His Enlightened Tobacco Company PLC, which he describes as a vertical learning curve, culminated after five years in a spectacular tax arbitrage scheme, threatening to overturn the tobacco industry and truly open up Europe for the consumer.

His Tobacco Direct scheme, took him to the doors of the European Court of Justice, where he found himself up against the combined might of the tobacco industry who were joined by every Member State of Europe. He lost.

His verve and irreverent reputation led him on to establish an Integrated Brand Marketing agency built upon his experience in business and the philosophy of ‘Corporate Religion’, a UK business best seller that he edited and to which he wrote the introduction. He then went on to win business as diverse as Volkswagen, Canon, Fairline Boats, Korn Ferry and Red Devil. He successfully sold the Agency after three years in August 2001, coinciding with the birth of his first child.

More recently, he and his wife have launched the highly acclaimed Georgina Goodman brand of shoes and accessories from their flagship store in the heart of Mayfair. The Georgina Goodman luxury brand is now stocked by the major fashion retailers globally.

After just 18 months GG’s hand made exclusive GG designs, have attracted celebrity clients like Jerry Hall -is seeing profits increase at a rate of 25% per season.e. growth of over 50% yearly, a phenomenal achievement for an unknown designer competing in a rarefied market against designers like Jimmy Choo.

Having recently appointed a new Managing Director GG is set for continued success and to compete with the good and the great designers of this century.

BJ is now channelling his energy into his latest venture and taking his corporate learning into the SME market. In his usual provocative style he will challenge business owners and entrepreneurs to re-examine the truth and their brand.

BJ continues to work as an independent brand marketing consultant and has become a much sought after keynote and after dinner speaker for international conferences and events.

is a writer, communicator and strategist best known for his role as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s spokesman, press secretary and director of communications and strategy. Still active in Labour politics, he now splits his time between writing, speaking, charitable fundraising, politics and campaigns.

He was born in Yorkshire in 1957, the son of a vet. His family moved to Leicester in 1968, where he was educated prior to Cambridge University. He graduated with a degree in modern languages.

Campbell’s journalistic career began with the Mirror Group on local papers in the West Country before joining the Mirror itself in 1982. He left in the mid 80s to work for Eddy Shah’s Today newspaper as news editor but had a nervous breakdown and left to return to the Mirror after convalescence.

He rose to become political editor and the paper’s chief political columnist. He then worked briefly for Today under new ownership in 1994 before being asked by Tony Blair to be his press secretary when Mr Blair became leader of the Labour Party. He did this for three years, and played a key role helping to create New Labour and return the Party to power. After the 1997 election he became the Prime Minister’s Chief Press Secretary and Official Spokesman, which entailed the co-ordination of Government communications and twice daily briefings of the press. He did this job for Labour’s first term but after helping Blair win a second election victory, he became Director of Communications and Strategy. He resigned in September 2003.

Passionate about sport, he was written about different sports for The Times, the Irish Times and Esquire magazine. He was communications adviser to the British and Irish Lions rugby tour of New Zealand in 2005. He has raised funds for Burnley FC, a team he has supported since the age of four. His charity projects have involved him playing football with both Diego Maradona and Pele, and appearing in a one off version of the popular TV programme, The Apprentice.

In his time in Downing St he was involved in all the major policy issues and international crises. He has said that in ten years in the media, and a decade in politics, he saw his respect for the media fall and his respect for politics rise.
He published his first book about his time with Tony Blair in 2007, The Blair Years, which included extracts from his diaries from 1994 to 2003. He published his first novel, All In The Mind, in November 2008, and is currently writing a second, due for publication later in 2009. This book will focus on the theme of fame and friendship.

In 2008 he broadcast a one hour documentary on BBC2 about his own breakdown in 1986. Both the film, Cracking Up, and All In The Mind, won considerable praise from mental health charities and campaign groups for helping to break down the taboo surrounding mental health. He is shortly to front a mental health campaign aimed further at breaking down stigma.
Since resigning he has been spending his time making speeches, writing, working for his charity, and continues to advise the Prime Minister informally. He has signed a deal to write a regular sports column for the Times.

Specialist topic: strategic communications.

Alan Mitchell is a former Editor of Marketing Magazine, marketing correspondent of The Times, and Contributing Editor of Marketing Week. He also serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Brand Management and The Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice, and is consulting editor to The International Commerce Review.

Mitchell is author of two books (with Andreas Bauer and Gerhard Hausruckinger); Right Side Up and The New Bottom Line. He is Founder of the Buyer Centric Commerce Forum. As Founder of Ctrl-Shift, he and his team research and advise organisations about consumer empowerment. He also works with Mydex, a Community Interest Company whose goal is to ‘help individuals realise the value of their personal data’.

A versatile corporate presenter and speaker, Jeremy Jacobs’ experience reflects his professionalism and flexibility.

Successes with BBC local radio and Capital Gold, reports for Sportsmedia and web-TV appearances on Leicester Square Television – a perfect setting in which to hone his interviewing techniques – have prompted regular requests for Jeremy’s skills from the public sector and large corporate clients alike.

Jeremy’s passion and strength lies in his instinctive ability to inspire and motivate. His calm and unruffled style benefits live events and outside broadcasting, the rich tone of his voice has earned him work in the advertising voice-over market for corporate video, national television and radio.

He has the experience of a 25-year career in sales which adds an authentic business edge to his personality and a delivery few other corporate presenters can match.

Having made waves as TV, radio and corporate host, video voiceover artist, speechmaker and MC, facilitator and chairman, Jeremy is a firm believer in the primacy of conveying an effective message. “It’s the most important element of any communication, and it’s key to understanding,” he says. “Whatever the context or medium, I’m committed to finding the way that works best for both client and audience, clearly and unequivocally.”

Television

• Commentator for The Footballers Football Channel. 2003 – 2004
• Presenter of a pilot TV documentary – “The History of Vauxhall Motors” – Big Box Productions. 2005

Voice Over

• Corporate and training voice-overs for such clients as MOD, Nestlé, and Merrill Lynch.

Corporate Training

• Working with Local Government to provide skill-based training to students.
• BBC “Writing for radio” 2002
• BBC Sports reporting & commentary 2004/06
• BBC Voice Training 2003
• Independent Voice training – 2005 – ongoing
• Autocue/TV presenting – 2005 – ongoing
• Other Key Skills and abilities: Public speaking, MC; conference chair.
• Interests include: Football, hiking and drumming.
• Affiliations: Toastmasters Int.

Nick Ross is best known as one of the UK’s foremost broadcasters. founder and is President of HealthWatch. He started working life as a children’s psychiatric nurse before reading Psychology at Queen’s University Belfast, which recently awarded him an honorary doctorate. While at Queen’s he was a sabbatical deputy president of the Union at the time of the birth of the troubles and his involvement in the civil rights movement in the north of Ireland led to his first broadcasting exposure.

He presented the BBC’s top-rated factual programme, Crimewatch UK and has anchored a wide sweep of news-related programmes, chiefly for the BBC, including the breakfast and early evening news programmes, Watchdog and Newsnight, A Week in Politics, Westminster with Nick Ross (television coverage of parliament and Whitehall, for which he was a member of the parliamentary lobby) and the main party conferences. He was named “Broadcaster of the Year” in 1997 for his Radio 4 phone-in Call Nick Ross, earned “Best documentary” for an autobiographical history of the troubles in Northern Ireland, and his programmes have won or been nominated for awards almost every year since, including the National Television Awards 2005.

He founded the Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science at UCL, is an Honorary Fellow of the Academy of Experimental Criminology, and is a regular keynote speaker at police and academic meetings around the world. While his public association is with crime prevention, his background is in health science and the promotion of science itself. He has been a member of the UK’s Committee on the Public Understanding of Science, the Clothier Committee on the Ethics of Gene Therapy, the Department of Health’s Gene Therapy Advisory Committee, the Health of the Nation Wider Working Group, the NHS Review Team, and several other national advisory boards or task forces.

For 6 years, until October 2005, he was a member of Britain’s main bioethics committee, the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, and is currently a member of the Royal College of Physicians Medical Ethics Committee, the Academy of Medical Science study on the use of non-human primates in medical research, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, and a trustee of the UK Stem Cell Foundation.

He regularly chairs meetings for the UK Department of Health and for the NHS, and has moderated at international conferences on rheumatology, paediatric endocrinology, depression and, most recently, neurology.

He was a founder and is President of HealthWatch, an independent body that promotes evidence-based medicine, and is chairman, president or patron of a number of health-related charities including SANEline (a help-line for mental illnesses) and the Defeat Depression Campaign, and the James Lind Library. He has been a lay adviser to the Health Education Authority, a member of the RCP Medical Audit Committee, the BMJ/King’s Fund Rationing Agenda Group, and of a King’s Fund Consensus Panel on breast cancer, a director of the Health Quality Service, and chairman of the Science Book Prize.

Ed Stourton joined the Today programme in January 1999 and left in December 2008 following an illustrious career as a foreign correspondent and television news presenter. Things could have been very different. In his first interview for a broadcasting job after leaving university, John Birt (then at LWT) told him: “I could send you a polite letter saying we had no vacancies, but frankly, it would be a waste of the postage stamp.”

Ed went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read English literature before joining ITN as a graduate trainee in 1979. He was a founder member of Channel Four News in 1982, working as a scriptwriter but adding producer, duty home news editor and chief sub-editor to his duties.

He reported from Beirut for the first time in 1983 and spent most of the next decade covering foreign news. He was appointed Channel 4′s Washington correspondent in 1986 covering the final years of the Reagan presidency and the 1988 presidential campaign.

In 1988, he joined the BBC as Paris correspondent. In 1990 he returned to ITN as diplomatic editor, and during his three years in the job he reported from Baghdad during the Gulf War, from Bosnia during the siege of Sarajevo, from Moscow in the final days of the Soviet Union and from Europe throughout the negotiations leading up to the Maastricht summit.

In 1993, he returned to the BBC to present the One O’Clock News and editions of Correspondent, Assignment and Panorama before joining the Today team in 1999.

An expert on Roman Catholicism, in 1997 he presented Absolute Truth, a landmark, four-part series for BBC Two on the modern Catholic Church and wrote a book to accompany the series.

In addition to his presenting duties on Today, Ed often reports for Radio 4 on religion and current affairs.

Dr Mo Ibrahim is the founder of Celtel International and one of Africa’s most successful business leaders. Originally from Sudan and educated in the Middle East and the United Kingdom, Dr Ibrahim is a respected global expert in mobile communications with a distinguished academic and business career.

In 1998, he founded MSI Cellular Investments, which was later renamed Celtel International. The company now operates in 15 African countries, under licences that cover more than a third of the continent’s population. The company has invested more than $750m in Africa, helping to bring the benefits of mobile communications to millions of people across the continent. In 2005, Celtel was sold to MTC Kuwait for $3.4bn, making it one of Africa’s most successful companies ever.

Dr Ibrahim holds a BSc in electrical engineering from the University of Alexandria, Egypt, an MSc in electronics and electrical engineering from the University of Bradford, and PhD in mobile communications from the University of Birmingham. He is a member of the Africa Regional Advisory Board of London Business School.

The most original business ‘guru’ in the business

A phenomenon who has delighted audiences throughout Britain and abroad, Geoff Burch is an extraordinary speaker, whose unique and hilarious outlook on all manner of business topics has made him the most prolific of speakers in the market. He is the author of one of the most famous business books of all time, ‘Resistance is Useless’, the Art of Business Persuasion which has been published in over 65 countries following its outstanding success in the USA, and his latest book, ‘The Way of The Dog’. ‘Resistance is Useless’ has been referred to by McKinseys’s as a benchmark for business thinking.

His unconventional image and extensive humour have allowed him platforms on both the corporate and stand-up comedy stage. His credentials are impressive having worked extensively with the likes of BT, Barclays, Lloyds, the CBI, Consumers’ Association, Prudential, Phillips, ABTA, and numerous other companies to present, motivate, and train.

Geoff’s latest book ‘The Way of The Dog’ is published by Wiley; the book explores the phenomena of the most unstable staff being the key to inevitable success for the change embracing organisation. His hit 10 week BBC2 series in 2008, ‘All Over The Shop’, focused on retail businesses and how to improve by cutting costs and increasing sales and turnover. His humorous style and easily explained advice worked well and has created a cult following.

The son of a Viennese psychiatrist, Geoff Burch has a wealth of experience in illustrating the thinking required to make our customers love us! Geoff Burch is equally at ease speaking at a conference as he is after dinner. It is our belief that virtually every company could benefit from his entertaining style and compelling message.

Having gained a reputation as both a funny and persuasive speaker, he was constantly being asked to teach his skills to others. His style is relaxed and fun, his observations are unique, and his impact on an audience is amazing. You could fill a room with a cross-section of people from a part-time cleaner to a CEO of an international company, and everybody would come away with new ideas. Geoff Burch looks at every conceivable area of business, and is renowned for taking a sideways look at the latest business fads and fashions – translating the ones of value into a memorable message that everyone can understand.

Geoff Burch is meticulous in preparing his presentation, studying the profile of the audience, the market in which they work, the competition they face, and how to exploit the advantages they have. He then combines this specific information with his generic approach to any situation. His power to make any organisation believe in itself and to establish and maintain the motivation to succeed is central to his presentation.

Geoff Burch can speak amusingly on almost any business topic, and is capable of delivering presentations on subjects such as: ‘FAST’ Companies, Customer Relationships, Change, People Motivation, Sales, Working Together, Empowerment, and How Everyone can Deliver the Vision. All of these are presented in a hilarious, thought-provoking, and memorable way where even apparently the dullest business subject is turned into an exciting rollercoaster ride that leaves the audience thrilled.