As Chief Nurse, on the board at the Royal Marsden, Eamonn represents the Trusts 1400 Nurses, Therapists and Pharmacists and is responsible for the patient safety and patient experience portfolios. The Royal Marsden is Europe’s largest cancer centre with the third largest cancer research portfolio globally. It is rated ‘Outstanding’ by the NHS regulator, the Care Quality Commission.

At the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, Eamonn was called upon to become the Director of Nursing at NHS Nightingale London – part of a five person leadership team charged with designing, building and operating the world’s largest temporary Critical Care Unit built at the Excel conference centre, which become operational in just 9 days. Fortunately, Nightingale London was not used to its full capacity, but still cared for 55 critically ill Londoners, becoming at that time, Europe’s largest temporary Critical Care Unit.

Prior to his current role, Eamonn held a number of positions in prestigious NHS Trusts, including – Deputy Chief Nurse at University College London Hospitals and Deputy Chief Nurse at Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospitals.

Eamonn spent much of his clinical career in Adult Critical Care, he holds an MSc in Critical Care from Kings College London. In 2017 he was honoured to become a Florence Nightingale Leadership Scholar.

Outside of the NHS, Eamonn is a Major in the British Army Medical Services (Reserve). He has had the privilege of leading UK and US Army Medical Teams in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, including being appointed as the Officer Commanding Critical Care at Camp Bastion. Eamonn rates these experiences as being pivotal periods in his career.

In October 2020 Eamonn was called upon to become NHS Test and Trace’s first Chief Nursing Officer – he is currently seconded into this position and returns to the Royal Marsden in January 2021.

Eamonn lives in Berkshire with his wife Yamini, an NHS Paediatric Speech Therapist, and their two children.

Richard Cotter

Richard is currently Chairman and CEO of the Fresh Oxygen Group, a strategy consultancy specialising in driving rapid business performance improvement in consumer facing branded, retail and e-commerce businesses. In addition, he is Chairman of American Golf Retail, Chairman of Grace Cole, Chairman of Jollyes the Pet Superstore, Chairman of Outdoor Holdings GP, and also a Main Board Investor NED at New Look Retail.

From playing golf against multiple major winners Sir Nick Faldo, Greg Norman and Sandy Lyle, summiting Kilimanjaro and Mont Blanc with Sir Chris Bonington and building Berghaus, the eponymous British brand, into a global market leader, he has both the experience and a unique ability to correlate the risk and adventure of high-altitude mountaineering, professional sport and elite performance coaching with the risk and adventure of running businesses in corporate life. Drawing parallels which deliver success in both fields and articulating them in a pragmatic and actionable way.

He strongly believes that new generation business leaders must be capable of balancing the here and now with the ability to see what the bright future needs to look like, creating an organisation where business alignment and employee engagement are the two driving forces.

Richards speaking work focuses on challenging and energising audiences to; consider what their Leadership Brand should look like; demonstrate they have sufficient Desire, Belief and Commitment to make it happen; re-visit and evaluate their Strategic Choices; think how they build a High Performance Culture; define what a world class “Team 1” needs to look like; understand how to mobilise an organisation and create Unstoppable Momentum.

Richard has captured his experience and insight in his best-selling book The Zebra Reality, a remarkably practical 5 Step Programme designed to help businesses create unstoppable organisation momentum and achieve all their business goals.

Connie Henry

Connie is a former International Triple Jumper and 1998 Commonwealth Games Bronze medallist. Connie has broadcast experience with companies including BBC, ITV, Sky and the International Association of Athletics Federation, as well as becoming Director of the Track Academy.

Connie’s own experiences of dysfunctional family life and lack of childhood security thrust her into the sporting arena, joining the Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers at just 15 years old. Connie’s determination and commitment continued at St Mary’s University when studying Sports Science and History and her post-graduate teacher training course at Brunel University, while becoming one of the best athletes in the country.

In the autumn of 1997, she moved to Sydney to train with Keith Connor, Australian head coach and British Olympic triple jump medallist, and within 2 years Connie travelled to Kuala Lumpur to compete in the 1998 Commonwealth Games, taking home bronze.

The next phase for Connie saw her gain freelance broadcasting experience with several organisations including the BBC, Sky and the International Association of Athletics Federation. Her work included a memorable stint with boxing promoter Frank Warren, during which she found herself ringside at the heavyweight match between Wladimir Klitschko and Danny Williams in Las Vegas.

In 2007 Connie was approached by Willesden Sports Centre, asking her to lead new track and field activities there. Connie utilised her contacts from the athletics world to grow the temporary work at the centre into 10 years of the Track Academy, a charity which has changed the lives of hundreds of young people.

Gregg Wallace

A high-profile presenter on UK TV, Gregg came to prominence as the co-host of MasterChef, Celebrity Masterchef and Masterchef: The Professionals alongside John Torode. The show has versions in over 25 countries, earning its reputation as the world’s biggest food programme.

Gregg began his career as a greengrocer at Covent Garden Fruit and Veg Market and in 1989 he started George Allan’s Greengrocers, a company that built up to an eventual turnover of £7.5 million and boasted over 500 restaurant clients.

Based on his business success, he was invited to co-present Veg Talk on BBC Radio 4 with Charlie Hicks, which lasted for seven years. In 2002, he was the original presenter of Saturday Kitchen, a show he still features on to this day. Other food-related TV projects include: Eat Well for Less, Inside the Factory, Turn back Time, Harvest and Supermarket Secret.

Along with various food and cookery shows Gregg has appeared on everything from Who Do You Think You Are? to 8 Out Of 10 Cats and also had a stab at Strictly Come Dancing in 2014. Away from the media, Gregg formerly owned a restaurant and was also Managing Director of an online farm shop and distributor of home grown produce to the public and restaurants. He also regularly writes for Good Food and Olive magazine.

Iain Hennessey

Iain Hennessey currently leads an Innovation Team which is working with world leading companies and local small businesses, using gaming technology, sensors and cognitive computing to predict the progression of illnesses and plan individualised treatments.

He graduated from the University of Edinburgh with honours degrees in Medicine, Surgery and Anatomical sciences, before going on to train as a paediatric surgeon in the United Kingdom and Australia. He has always been interested in innovation, helping found a startup surgical simulation company as a trainee and then progressing to become the clinical director of innovation at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. Notable achievements have included forming partnerships with large multi national companies such as Sony and IBM, building a unique underground 1000sqm innovation facility for collaboration with the tech sector and developing a team of clinician entrepreneurs to drive change within the NHS.

He founded the world’s first cognitive hospital AI project for patient support. This was a healthcare innovation ecosystem at Alder Hey, centred on a 1000m2 health innovation hub which also featured an award-winning team.

As Director of Innovation Iain is passionate about working with companies who are at the leading edge of technology; for example, trying out new kit such as virtual reality headsets, or visiting a super computer to see how it crunches data to produce the best care plan for a patient.

Alder Hey is pioneering the use of 3D printed body organs which can be taken into operating theatres, to help guide surgery; and they are helping to develop gaming and the use of artificial intelligence to communicate, entertain and reduce stress in child patients.

He is currently developing a long term strategy to build the worlds first “Living hospital” by adapting emerging technologies to enable the building to care for the children within it, both medically and holistically.

In 2017, he was presented with a gold award for his pioneering leadership of innovation. In 2020 Iain was appointed Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Liverpool.

TALK TOPICS INCLUDE:

Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Living/learning from mistakes
Human factors in the operating room
Creating a culture of innovation
Dealing with fear

Dion Dublin

Dion Dublin is the former Manchester United footballer, turned popular TV personality. Dion has most recently presented Home Under The Hammer on BBC1 and has had a successful media career since retiring from football in 2008.

One of England’s best-loved footballers, Dion was best recognised for his 2 year spell at Manchester United, in which he scored on his debut. He was given legendary status at many of his other clubs including scoring 48 goals at Aston Villa where he was the joint top scorer in the Premier League in 1998. Dion also earnt four England caps when he was playing for Coventry City.

Dion has built a very successful media career as a football pundit for the BBC and Sky. He presented Late Kick Off for BBC1 East and can also be heard regularly on BBC Radio 5 Live.

Aside from his love of football, Dion is extremely passionate about music. He has invented his own instrument called ‘The Dube’ which is a percussion instrument. The Dube has been endorsed by the likes of Courtney Pine and has also been used by bands such as Feeder and The Maccabees.

Chemmy Alcott

Chemmy Alcott is a former Olympian who represented Team GB throughout a 20 year sporting career reaching a high of 8th in the world. She became the first and only British ski racer to win a run in the World Cup.

Since retiring from alpine skiing after Sochi in 2014, she has spent her time challenging herself partaking in the World’s Toughest Ski Race in Greenland in March 2015, 100 mile road race Ride London and other sporting endeavours whilst being a regular presenter of BBC’s Ski Sunday TV Show and commentating on Eurosport.

In 2018, Chemmy became a well-loved BBC Winter Olympic Sport presenter. She was enthusiastic, empathetic and gave a unique insight into the games that only someone who has been through the experience as an athlete could give.

Chemmy created the initiative X-Elle, to develop young girl’s confidence in and through sport with United Learning and toured the UK visiting schools with an eventual reach of impacting the lives of 10,000 young girls.

She is also a prominent public speaker and host, touring the world relaying her inspirational story of overcoming adversity (49 broken bones including her neck when she was 11 and her leg which required over 1028 minutes of surgery) traveling all around the UK and to Dubai and Rwanda.

As a very proactive Ambassador for Right To Play each year she hosts The Big Red Ball which last year raised a massive £650,000 for areas of conflict resolution due in part to a documentary where Chemmy visited Rwanda to learn more about the power of sport. During her recent trip to Greenland, alongside the Arctic V, she helped raise £18,000 for Ski4Cancer and continues to be inspired by her charity work.

Steve McCulley

Steve switched to motorpsort as a second career and made an immediate impact. He has competed in over 50 races in the last four years, with a 50% podium finish rate, and is an ARDS ‘A Grade’ Instructor.

Prior to his motorsport career, he was a commissioned officer in the Royal Marines for seventeen years, where he served in all the Commando Units and deployed all over the world, including operational tours to Northern Ireland, the Balkans, Sierra Leone, Iraq and Afghanistan, before his career was cut short.

Whilst in command of 175 marines on his second operational tour to Afghanistan in 2011, during an extremely hostile period in Helmand Province, his leadership and management skills were fully tested in the most dire of situations. Whilst operating in an area that at the time was considered to be the most dangerous square mile on Earth, he was very seriously injured by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), which put him in a coma for three weeks and physical rehabilitation for over two years.

Whilst in rehab he soon realised that his military career was over and, faced with great adversity, he turned his passion for cycling into a business and established a custom carbon bike building company – LIOS Bikes (abbreviated from the names of his children, Lily & Oscar). In November 2018 Steve won the ‘Heropreneur of the Year’ award, an inaugural event aimed to shine a spotlight on the business achievements of Armed Forces personnel who have founded their own companies.

As he could no longer compete on two wheels, and being a petrol head from a young age, he gravitated towards four wheels and an engine. After being introduced to Mission Motorsport in 2013, Steve soon found himself involved with the forces’ motorsport charity whilst in its infancy and at the beginning of 2014 he was selected to race in the 2014 Caterham Academy.

In 2017 Steve had a 70% podium finish rate in the Caterham 310R Championships and in 2018 he is aiming to translate that success to British GT, where he will be racing a Jaguar F Type SVR GT4 in British GT for the Invictus Games Racing Team. With the ambition to continue competing at the highest levels, he continues to build upon his motorsport career in order to enhance his experience as a talented racing driver, coach and instructor.

Steve is also a polished inspirational speaker. He highlights his experience in leadership and management whilst serving in the marines and setting up a new business. Steve also speaks insightfully about the adversity he faced in overcoming life-changing injuries and he shares his passion for motorsport, that fuels his drive to succeed.

Sophie Hosking MBE

At the 2012 Olympic Games in London, Sophie Hosking raced in the lightweight women’s double scull with Kat Copeland. The duo won their final by over 2 seconds ahead of China, to become Olympic Gold medallists.

Sophie was subsequently awarded an MBE in the 2013 New Year Honours list.

During the 2012 World Cup Series, Sophie won a silver medal. At the 2011 World Rowing Championships Sophie won a bronze medal just a fraction behind the double from Canada. In Munich at the first World Cup of 2011 Sophie and her crewmate won gold.

Sophie started rowing at the age of 14 at Kingston Grammar School after gaining a sport scholarship. She established herself as the leading lightweight woman and in 2009 won the GB Rowing Senior Trials in the single, and with Hester Goodsell winning GB’s first ever lightweight women’s World Cup gold in the double in Munich. In Lucerne they won gold again establishing themselves as a strong partnership for the 2009 World Championships in Poznan.

Sophie joined Durham University in the autumn of 2004 and graduated in Chemistry and Physics in the summer of 2007. She is interested in most areas of sport and also enjoys listening to and playing music. Her father was a World Champion rower in the lightweight eight in 1980.

Speaker Theme: Adversity

Eamonn Sullivan