Dan is a former Royal Navy fighter pilot who has seen combat in major conflict zones. As a UK TOPGUN instructor, he went on to command an airbase of over 3,000 personnel. An influential thinker whose advice has been sought by government ministers, Dan is a former aide-de-camp to Her Majesty The Queen.

A highly experienced speaker with an engaging and interactive style, Dan is extremely skilled at gearing his material to the precise needs of his audience. He uses entertaining and dramatic stories to bring the desired messages to life. Audiences always find Dan’s talks gripping, relevant, thought-provoking and highly memorable.

Dan now runs his own consultancy where he teaches state of the art skills in leadership, resilience, building high performance teams and creating a winning business culture. Find out more on Dan’s website here.

Ed Balls

Ed was UK Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer 2011-2015 and served in the UK Cabinet as Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families 2007-2010. He was the UK Minister for Financial Services 2006-2007 and the Chief Economic Adviser to the UK Treasury 1997-2004 during which time he was Chair of the IMFC Deputies and UK G20 Deputy.

Ed studied economics and philosophy at Keble College, Oxford, and economics and politics (MPA) at the John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard. Ed was a teaching fellow in the Department of Economics, Harvard from 1988 to 1990 and a leader writer and columnist at the Financial Times from 1990 to 1994 where he was the Wincott Young Financial Journalist of the Year. He has also written regularly for the Guardian, New Statesman and Tribune and co-authored a number of books, papers, articles and pamphlets.

Ed’s popular BBC TV series ‘Travels in Trumpland: with Ed Balls’ was broadcast in July 2018 and a second series ‘Travels in Euroland with Ed Balls’ will air on BBC 2 early 2020. Ed has also presented the BBC TV series ‘What Britain Buys And Sells In A Day’ with Ade Adepitan and Cherry Healey which broadcast in October 2019 and offered expert political analysis alongside George Osbourne for the ITV election night coverage for 2017 and 2019 general elections.

He has also appeared in a number of other television programmes including being a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing 2016, competing in Sport Relief Celebrity Bake-off, being a guest chair on Have I Got New for You, and has made guest appearances on Would I Lie to You, Insert Name Here, The Michael McIntyre Show and QI. He is also a regular guest on This Week, Peston on Sunday. In February 2019, Ed climbed Kilimanjaro with eight other well-known climbers, raising over £2m for Comic Relief.

Ed is Vice President of Action for Stammering Children, a Patron of the British Stammering Association and a Patron of Whizz-Kidz. He has run the London Marathon three times since 2011, raising over £160,000 for WhizzKidz and Action for Stammering Children. He is also the co-Chair of the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation and Vice President and former Chairman of Norwich City Football Club.

Helen Glover MBE

Helen Glover is a two time Olympic champion, triple World and European champion, and quintuple World Cup champion. As of June 2016, she and her partner Heather Stanning were the World, Olympic, World Cup and European record holders, plus the reigning Olympic, World and European champions in the women’s coxless pairs. She has also been a British champion in both women’s fours and quad sculls.

Helen grew up in Penzance, where her father runs the local ice cream shop. Despite junior international representation at running and hockey, she seemed destined to take up a career as a sports teacher. On a whim she signed up to the talent ID program ‘Sporting Giants’, and was earmarked by British rowing as a rare talent. Within months she began her world beating career with under 23 champion Heather Stanning. After world championship silver, they took their first gold and were never beaten again.

Following London 2012 Heather took a year with the army in Afghanistan, and Helen was forced to partner another rower, remaining unbeaten and taking another World title. The Olympiad was fraught with challenges including bike crashes, illness, injury and their trusted coach Robin being diagnosed with cancer. Helen battled through, becoming the number one ranked rower in the world.

Helen has not retired from rowing, and is leaving the door open for a possible return for the Paris Olympics. During her break from professional sport Helen has embarked on a variety of other ventures, with standout achievements including broadcasting for Radio Four’s ‘After Gold’, authoring ‘Great Lives’ also for Radio Four, presenting Japan’s secret Wilderness for BBC2, commentated on rowing for BBC Sports, and appearing on a variety of shows including Question of Sport, Strictly Come Dancing for Children in Need, Celebrity Pointless, the Celebrity BoatRace and the Apprentice.

Neil Thubron

Neil is an Executive Mentor & Coach, Sales & Leadership Development Consultant, and Keynote Speaker whose passion enables others to challenge themselves and break through their mental and physical barriers.

It was at IBM, shortly after leaving school, that Neil moved into sales and found his passion for selling. Neil finished his career as European Head of Sales managing 450 sales people in 60 countries across Europe.

As a member of the British Army Reserves Neil went on to complete some of the toughest challenges set for British soldiers. He was commissioned as an officer through Sandhurst College, where he spent time with the Army Reserves and Bomb Disposal Unit. The army sparked Neil’s deep interest in physical challenges, and as a result in 2003 he completed his first Marathon. This subsequently led him onto more extreme physical challenges including an Ironman, the Marathon Des Sables in the Sahara desert, the Ultra Trail de Mont Blanc, the Kalahari Augrabies Extreme Marathon in the South African desert and the Yukon Arctic Ultra – a 300 mile foot race in -55 degrees centigrade, which he won.

Today, Neil is the founder of Extreme Energy – XNRG – Ltd who organise single and multi-day ultra-distance events in the UK. He is also a coach, consultant and teacher who helps companies develop their leadership and sales teams.

Neil works closely with his clients to identify and deliver the right solution to help you achieve your goals, no matter how complex they are. Neil’s mantra on big goals is to “Never Ever Give Up”. He translates his experiences and findings from the world of extreme sports to deliver compelling takeaways for his corporate audiences.

Mike Ling MBE

Mike has taken part in a record 10 display seasons with the Red Arrows. In that time he flew 2,585 sorties in Red Arrows aircraft, played a part in 700 public displays and flew a red Hawk jet into 46 different countries; as far west as New York and as far east as China.

Mike achieved his childhood dream when he was selected to join the Red Arrows for the 2008 display season to fly as Red 3 before then being chosen as Red 7 in the prestigious Synchro Pair for 2009. In March 2010, while leading the Synchro Pair as Red 6, Mike survived a head-on mid-air training collision at a closing speed of over 750 mph. A low-level ejection caused major injuries resulting in surgery and months of rehabilitation before Mike could get back in the air.

In 2012 Mike flew as Red 9 in flypasts for major events including the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony and Her Majesty The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Other career highlights include racing a jet against four-time Formula One World Champion Lewis Hamilton in his F1 car. These achievements have made Mike a familiar face across the air display scene.

Mike was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours List at the end of 2017 for his services to the Red Arrows, and subsequently received the Masters Commendation from the Honourable Company of Air Pilots in October 2018. He became a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society in March 2019.

Mike left the Royal Air Force in April 2019 after 21 years of service. He has since become a commercial pilot and flight instructor and is a full-time member of the Blades Aerobatic Team, the world’s only aerobatic airline. In this role he performs public displays but also relishes in the opportunity to give passengers the chance to experience close formation aerobatics in a team of all ex-Red Arrows pilots.

Andy Torbet

After 10 years in the British Forces Andy left to pursue a career in scientific exploration and film-making. To date Andy has presented on 19 TV series including BBC1, BBC2, CBBC, Discovery US and the History Channel. This has seen him free dive under the Alaskan ice, stand in the middle of a 700 degree fireball, climb a 12 storey glass building, swim with sharks, cave dive inside icebergs and present live on BBC1.

With his background as an ex-Bomb Disposal Officer, Paratrooper and Army Diver Andy uses his own life experiences and love for extreme sports to innovate and push the boundaries of what is possible. As part of a TV series called Beyond Bionic, Andy asked contacts within the UK Space Agency to personally build him a set of jet engines that would allow him to fall faster in a skydive. The project eventually led to Andy being involved as a test pilot with the UK’s Space sector in their development of prototype equipment.

As a keen Skydiver and Wing suiter Andy has made various films for TV in the name of science. This has seen him execute a HAHO (High Altitude High Opening) jump for BBC’s Cloud Lab as well as perform a solo jump from 28,000ft over the Arizona desert with various scientific collection apparatus strapped to his chest, whilst racing a Peregrine Falcon – the fastest animal in the world.

Despite the technical and extreme nature of the work he undertakes, Andy maintains a deep interest in academia. With a degree in Zoology and a Masters in Archaeology, Andy’s academic interests are as varied as his extreme skills. He has a keen interest in science and engineering and he’s a member of Mensa, the High IQ Society – “For every hour I spend in the gym I’ll spend three reading a book”.

Most recently Andy has become involved with elements of the UK Space community assisting in the design and testing of space exploration equipment.

Alice Bufton-Thorneycroft

Alice is constantly researching and working with new inspirational speakers and experts, connecting them with our clients and ensuring a tailored approach for all HTL events. Alice enjoys idea generation and has a natural creative edge which means her solutions to business challenges often have a memorable twist.

In the past Alice has run her own business, Abingdon Management and Consulting, specialising in the area of wellbeing and performance. In particular Alice worked with Dr Frank Dick to deliver practical and sustainable solutions to address performance development issues. Alice was awarded with an ‘excellence’ citation from The American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) for the work both she and Frank Dick carried out within the corporate sector.

Alongside facilitation, Alice is an experienced conference host and interviewer having been asked to perform this role on more than one occasion for the Lloyds Banking Practice Pool Annual Conference, Network Rail, Poggenpohl’s Annual conference and Countrywide Surveyors Annual conference for over 450 people, which culminated in an interview on stage with the CEO of Countrywide Alison Platt and CFO Hamanshi Raja.

Alice has interviewed celebrities Matthew Dawson and Michel Roux JR for Just Retirement in front of 100 of their IFA community. She also interviewed Lord Coe as part of a private evening event held at Simmons and Simmons.

One of Alice’s attributes is her thorough preparation and research skills in order to create a successful interview. Asking the right questions to prompt deep thinking is an essential skill to the success of the interview from the audience’s perspective.

Providing the right balance of questions to meet the needs of the event, to bring out the best of the personality being interviewed and to capture and maintain the audiences’ attention are all skills that have been honed over the years during which Alice has been interviewing for different organisations.

In addition to interviews in front of ‘live’ audiences Alice also has experience of writing and asking interview questions for filming purposes. HTL’s Brilliant Minds Digital platform comprises of video briefing’s centering around a specific topic of relevance to business today and features a variety of pertinent experts offering their insights. Alice has spent many hours behind the camera interviewing experts.

Alice’s work focuses on improving engagement, coaching and presentation skills in conjunction with how to review more effectively for continuous improvement and confidence-building. Alice has worked in a 1:1 capacity with a number of senior leaders to help them improve their presentation and interpersonal skills.

David Coulthard MBE

Winner of 13 Grands Prix, including twice winner of both the British and Monaco Grands Prix, David achieved a remarkable 62 podium finishes during a stellar 15 year Formula One career which saw him race against world class competition including Michael Schumacher, Mike Hakkinen, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton.

David played a key role in helping McLaren to win the Formula One World Championships for Constructors in 1998, the team finishing 2nd in 1999, 2000 and 2001. He also finished 2nd in the 2001 Formula One World Championship for Drivers behind the dominant Schumacher/Ferrari partnership and was 3rd in the World Championship on no fewer than four occasions.

As a founding member of the Red Bull Racing team in 2005, David brought the team its first podium finish in 2006 in Monaco, and was instrumental in developing it into a 4-times World Championship winning team in 2010-2013. When he stopped racing in F1 at the end of 2008 he held the record for being the highest points scoring British Formula One driver of all time.

Since retiring as an F1 driver at the end of 2008, David has continued working for Red Bull Racing, driving its cars in promotional events all over the world. He also remains as a brand ambassador for leading companies including Mercedes-Benz, UBS Bank, Red Bull, IWC, Cooper Tires, Transcal and Heineken.

He has established a successful second career as a world class broadcaster and commentator, initially with BBC Television and more recently at Channel 4, for which David’s production company ‘Whisper Films’ produces the television coverage of Formula One in the UK. Outside of Formula One, David has been a successful entrepreneur, investing in a range of successful businesses which have added to his reputation as being a winner on and off track.

Professor Jo Delahunty QC

Professor Jo Delahunty QC is a highly sought-after specialist children silk entrusted with the most significant and demanding national cases. Jo has become a pioneering force within her profession. Cases in which she is instructed are regularly reported for their legal significance. She is noted for being “brilliant at distilling a case down to its key issues, great at strategic planning, supportive to instructing solicitors and very easy to talk to.”

Jo was appointed Gresham Professor of Law in the summer of 2016 and in that role she has a direct interface with the public and media in a way that singles her out as a practising Queens Counsel and part time judge.

Brought up by a single mum and educated in the state sector, Jo was the first person in her family to stay in education after the age of 16. Against the odds, Jo went to Oxford University to read law: one of only two girls from her school ever to do so. Unsuited to a 9-5 job Jo describes how she had never easily accepted instruction on what to do; she thrived on competition, was a deadline junkie, an independent worker and wanted to make a difference to the world. Becoming a barrister seemed to be the perfect profession.

Jo chose to practise Civil Law initially, but soon found her niche in Public Law child protection cases. Since being called to the Bar in 1986, Jo has come to practise at the High Court level and above. Alongside her practice in the Family Justice System, between 2013-15, Jo acted on behalf of 76 bereaved families in the Hillsborough Inquests and was instrumental in securing the verdict that the inadequate emergency medical response caused or contributed to loss of life.

An accomplished speaker, Jo speaks with passion and insight on what really happens inside and outside of court. Communication, the art of persuasion, how to win an argument, how to lead a team and how to marshal your resources to make an impact to win over adversaries are the tools of her trade: ‘her conversational style of advocacy puts witnesses at their ease yet conceals a rapier –like incisiveness.’ Often representing vulnerable people, Jo explains the importance of effective listening and authenticity and is frank in describing the different ‘voices’ she has acquired to bridge the gap between the public and professionals.

In a competitive and highly specialist silk field Jo has gained a reputation for formidable advocacy and tactical trial management alongside superb client care and court room forensic skills. These strategic skills are highly relevant for leaders across many sectors. Jo describes it as the art of “marshalling information and drowning out the white noise”. Her job as a QC demands that she is highly competitive, resilient in the face of the pressures of an enormous case load, ruthlessly efficient in time management but moving forwards in her career with a strong moral compass to serve society and the clients she represents.

More recently Jo has become known an outspoken voice for gender equality in the Law Profession and is passionate about mentoring and role modelling for all young students and barristers working their way through the ranks. She has spoken openly about the use and abuse of power in the legal profession: described as ‘fearless’ in her pursuit of fairness for those who don’t have a voice or are afraid to use it.

Jo has been interviewed by the First 100 years team for episode 9 of 10 as we approach the centenary of the Sex Discrimination Removal Act 1919. To listen to the podcast click here.

For more of an insight into Jo’s life outside of family law, into giving professional speaking advice to a wider audience, click here.

Speaker Theme: Decision Making

Dan Stembridge MA FRAeS ADC RN