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.

Andrew Steele

An Olympic athlete, Andrew spent 12 years competing professionally in track and field, specialising in the 400 metres and the 4×400 metre relay for Great Britain. With a well-known career and profile, Andrew is a respected voice in the media on all topics related to sport, fitness, health and wellbeing.

Andrew is a skilled public speaker, writer and presenter, his athletic career saw him work and represent many global brands across a wide variety of industry sectors, from pharmaceutical giant Glaxo Smith Kline to global logistics company CHEP, all the way to consumer brands like Nike and Asics.

He is a passionate advocate for anti-doping and sporting integrity, in 2017 Andrew became an Olympic medallist after he was retrospectively upgraded from 4th place to 3rd from the Beijing 2008 games as a result of the Russian doping scandal.

Andrew’s experience of success and failure as a professional sportsperson led him to discover the DNAFit technology, and as a result has a very personal and passionate experience as to the utility of personal genetics. Andrew has a wide professional experience covering a number of sectors, including: sports apparel, sports commercial, rights and talent management, print and broadcast journalism and even as a professional music producer. As adept at copywriting and designing marketing campaigns as he is at translating genomics API’s and modelling ruleset algorithms, Andrew uses his personal experience as a sportsman to shape, build and represent the best genetic products possible for DNAFit.

Andrew Steele is one of the founding team at DNAFit, with the role Head of Product & Professional Sport. This role puts Andrew in charge of the entire product offering and structure, from consumer to professional sport clients – including working with the Scientific Advisory Board to accurately communicate genetic science into consumer products, designing and overseeing the visual communication of the various products for appropriate audiences, working closely with development team to create both digital and offline products, as well as overseeing the company brand, voice and marketing output. As a founding team member, Andrew also represents the company in media or press opportunities, as well as playing a role in the corporate management and guidance of the company.

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.

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.

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.

James Pearce

James has reported from eight Olympic Games, representing the BBC as their Olympic Correspondent for the 2012 London Games.

His insights from more than a quarter of a century as a leading BBC broadcaster for television and radio outlets, ranging from the Today programme to Newsnight, give him an invaluable perspective on effective communication. He translates these findings into valuable messages for business leaders.

James has helped to transform the reputation of his highest profile clients, which include the likes of the England football team and a number of FTSE 100 CEO’s. More recently, James has moved into the world of corporate speaking. His teachings enable audiences to prepare key messages and then deliver them with maximum effect.

James has the ability to teach the art of handling difficult questions from colleagues or clients without losing the trust of your questioner – an essential tool for so many of us. When staff have these invaluable skills a business is able to become so much more robust. James truly delivers an entertaining and extremely educational talk. You will quickly understand how James has transformed the mindset of his clients.

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.

Speaker Theme: Performance

Eamonn Sullivan