The Leading Speakers Bureau

Former Team Principal, Team McLaren Mercedes & Chairman & CEO, McLaren Group

Ron Dennis was head of the world-beating McLaren Formula 1 team from 1980 to 2009. Having announced his decision to step down as McLaren team principal in 2009, he makes it very clear – he is not retiring, but going to work harder, so that McLaren can “power through this recession”. Lauded as one of Britain’s most successful managers, he is known for combining an obsessive attention to detail with a powerful long-term vision.

“Formula One’s kingmaker…a man rated as F1’s supreme operator'” – The Observer

[expand title=”In detail”] At just 21, Ron Dennis headed up engineering and mechanics for Australia’s triple world Formula 1 champion Jack Brabham. He created the McLaren International team in 1980 when he merged his own company, Project Four, with Team McLaren Limited. The outfit dominated Formula One in the 1980s and at either end of the 1990s, with four consecutive constructors’ titles. McLaren has competed in Formula One since 1966, but it was under Dennis that it achieved dominance in the 1990s, becoming the most successful Formula One team in history at that time, with 148 Grands Prix wins. The team has also claimed eleven Formula One Drivers’ World Championships and eight Formula One World Constructors’ Championships.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]Ron Dennis, the ultimate Formula One street fighter, shares with his global audiences his experience and knowledge of how to lead in the fastest, most competitive global marketplace of all. Ron’s McLaren has been called a frictionless machine and he reveals how to create a culture that brings together the top talent from your industry and unites them behind a common goal.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]Ron Dennis’ truly captivating and highly motivating presentations are not to be missed. His insights into to the establishing of a world class company, that continually pushes forward the frontiers of technical design and application in many fields of advanced engineering, are relevant to every industry.[/expand]

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Founder of Ohrling Ltd

Antti Ohrling is the founder of Ohrling Ltd, a specialised marketing strategy & go-to-market firm operating in Europe, China and India.He advises companies on how to capitalise on the opportunities in the new, digitally-driven world, by combining digital possibilities with plain common sense often found in brick-and-mortar environment. He is a serial entrepreneur who combines creativity with strategy. He has worked in the FMCG, retail and wholesale, media, advertising, mobile gaming and IT and telecommunication industries.

“Antti’s trademark, in his own words, is to make things happen”

[expand title=”In detail”] Antti has brought Angry Birds to India and Southeast Asia as regional director and has helped to restructure Jolla/Sailfish, an independent mobile operating system working as their COO in Hong Kong. He co-founded Blyk, the first and original ad-funded mobile network, in 2005. He was the CEO of Blyk UK and then the Chairman of Blyk Media India until April 2012. Prior to Blyk, Antti founded Contra Advertising Group, an international advertising group operating in three continents, now part of Touch Worldwide.He is a Fellow at RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Art, Manufactures and Commerce, UK) and Honorary Member of Board in MMA APAC. He is also inventor of over 20 international patents.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]Antti draws on his experience as a corporate executive and serial entrepreneur and as someone with exposure to management styles across the world and from large MNCs to sizzling start-ups, to share his perspective on the two distinct styles of management. He takes the audiences through the characteristics and the advantages and drawbacks of both styles.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]Through examples, Antti helps the audience understand how to arrive at that vision and create a nurturing environment for innovation in their company. [/expand]

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Complexity Scientist, TED Senior Fellow & Co-Founder of Vibrant Data Inc.

Eric Berlow is an internationally recognised ecologist, complexity scientist and speaker who specialises in not specializing. He is co-founder of Vibrant Data Inc., a company with a social mission to help people think more holistically about complex problems. Vibrant Data is building mappr – a cloud-based, multimedia, interactive network visualization and publishing platform to share stories about how things are connected. Their affiliated mapprlabs leverages mappr to help untangle complex problems that hold the promise of exceptional positive impact for humanity.

“Eric is named among the Top 100 creatives by Origin magazine”

[expand title=”In detail”] He was the founding director of the University of California’s first environmental research center in Yosemite National Park, where he continues to research climate change impacts to protected ecosystems and endangered species. Since 2004 Eric has been a Research Scientist at Pacific Ecoinformatics and Computational Ecology Laboratory, Berkeley CA. He is a TED Senior Fellow and his talk with Sean Gourley was named one of the top 8 data visualization talks on TED.com. Eric earned a BA in Biology from Brown University and a Ph.D. in Ecology from Oregon State University.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]Eric applies his work on ecosystems to the business world, to help audiences rethink the way they structure their business. He helps audiences from any industry think bigger, question prevailing wisdom, and better assess their market. [/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]Eloquent and thought provoking, Eric’s presentations are invaluable sources of actionable information that engages audiences around the globe. [/expand]

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CEO& Co-founder, Games2win

Alok Kejriwal is a serial entrepreneur who specializes in launching digital startups and making them profitable. He has been successful in building ventures in India, China and the US. He is currently the CEO and Co-founder of Games2win, one of the largest casual mobile gaming companies in the world. His previous ventures include contests2win.com, India’s first online contesting site and Mobile2win, acquired by Walt Disney in China and Norwest Ventures in India.

“A successful startup digital entrepreneur”

[expand title=”In detail”] Alokholds a master’s degree in commerce from Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics, Mumbai. He has vast fund raising experiences,having successfully raised venture capital from some of the world’s leading VCs such as Softbank China, Siemens Acceleration, Clearstone Venture Partners and Silicon Valley Bank. Alok collaborates with like-minded partners to startup companies and pounds the pavement to create rapid business traction. His signature is the ability to create companies that capture tremendous value with minimal capital investment. [/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]Alok actively mentors first generation entrepreneurs looking at starting up on their own and helps them with startup strategy, VC contacts, negotiating funding, introduction to fortune 500 brand owners and media owners.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]Alok is a persuasive and charismatic speaker who has a tremendous knack for making business ideas come to life in an easily way.[/expand]

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Internationally Renowned Motivational Percussionist

Steve Barnett is the world’s premier motivational non-speaker. Performing internationally to audiences ranging from 25 to 25000 people, Steve utilizes African percussion, mime and humour to create an inspiring interactive experience that transcends cultural and hierarchical boundaries. Steve’s performances draw their energy from a long lineage of African rhythm and music, which he has integrated into an interactive, percussive, comic yet non-verbal presentation. This energy is used in both motivational and team building presentations, and also as highly entertaining and theatrical shows.

“He has an exceptional gift”. – Reverend D. Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus, Nobel Peace Laureate

[expand title=”In detail”] In our modern society, group drumming has also found its rhythm. This unique and communal medium is being used as a tool within the business environment as a means to facilitate team building, stress-release, interpersonal interaction and celebration.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]Steve Barnett uses his natural communication skills to illustrate the parallels between the modern business environment and making music. He vividly shows how they are surprisingly similar; most obviously, they both depend on individuals working, as part of a whole, in pursuit of a common goal.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]Steve Barnett draws on the rhythm and energy of the audience, making them an integral part of the presentation. They are orchestrated to participate in a way that focuses, empowers and thoroughly entertains. Steve unites the audience in a collective rhythmic euphoria that changes their perceptions and encourages positive transformation.[/expand]

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Professional Photographer

Giles Duleyworked for 10 years as an editorial photographer in the fashion and music industries in both the US and Europe. Giles now focuses his work on humanitarian projects. Giles works with well-respected charities such as Medecins Sans Frontiers, IOM and UNHCR to highlight lesser-known stories deserving of public attentionandaction. Although documenting challenging, and at times, horrific situations, Giles captures the strength of those who fight their adversity rather than succumb. His photographs draw the viewer to the subject, creating intimacy and empathy for lives differing from ours only in circumstance.

“Do you ever have one of those mornings, when you just can’t be bothered to put your legs on?”

[expand title=”In detail”] In 2011, whilst on patrol with 75th Cavalry Regiment, United States Army in Afghanistan, Giles stepped on an improvised explosive device (IED). He was severely injured, losing both legs and an arm. Despite the fact that the horrific accident left Giles a triple amputee, he continues to dedicate his life to telling stories through photography. His work has been exhibited and published worldwide in many respected publications. In 2010 he was nominated for an Amnesty International Media Award and was a winner at the Prix de Paris in 2010 & 2012. His self-portrait was selected for the 2012 Taylor Wessing Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]With stories that are by turns moving, inspiring and amusing, Giles looks at the passion for his work that helped him overcome his injuries. He offers a look at a world few see first-hand, putting things in perspective, but also offering lessons in personal commitment, goals, and work values. He considers what businesses can learn from the power and importance of telling a story as well as his own resilience and determination.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]In his moving talks, Giles tells stories of lives lost and found — including his own. Humorous, engaging and a fascinating story teller, Giles offers fresh insights and hard-won truths gathered over his years as a photographer.[/expand]

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Founder of Social Bite and Social Entrepreneur

Alice Thompson is the founder of Social Bite and one of Scotland’s leading entrepreneurs. Alice tells the story of her journey to Social Bite & explains how she took the idea of Social Business and has used it to transform the lives of the formerly homeless staff, addressing many of the social challenges that are traditionally the responsibility of the public services.

“Inspiring, important, emotive and thought provoking”

[expand title=”In detail”] Having started out in the events business at the tender age of 19, Alice travelled to Bangladesh in 2011 to meet Nobel Peace Prize Winner Prof Muhammad Yunus to convince him to speak at the first ever Scottish Business Awards. What she got instead was a different direction in life. She sold the events business and ploughed every penny into opening the first Social Bite shop in Edinburgh. In the last 4 years Social Bite went from one small shop to eight operating units and from 10 staff to 100 staff. All while continuing to run The Scottish Business Awards, which has in the last 5 years seen speakers such as President Bill Clinton, Sir Richard Branson, George Clooney and the 2016 speaker Leonardo DiCaprio.[/expand]

[expand title=”What she offers you”]Alice has had the unique experience of being able to harness the power of business and direct it towards society’s toughest problems, from homelessness to addiction, abuse, discrimination and mental health. By telling her emotional and sometimes hilarious story, Alice gives a fresh, unique and honest look into her experience of entrepreneurship, and raises your awareness to the power we and the council have to make a real difference, if we want to.[/expand]

[expand title=”How she presents”]A heart felt, emotional and commanding speaker who can bring the audience to tears and always leave them wanting to create a better world, for everyone, either through the immense power of business or by what we can do on a local or individual basis.[/expand]

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Motivational Speaker, Entrepreneur and Adventurer

Marc Hauser is a successful speaker, adventurer and entrepreneur. He is an exceptional motivator with first-hand experience. He has the ability to empower people to make unbelievable things possible because he did it himself.His motivational speeches are around the topics of courage, endurance and making dreams tangible. Marc reveals the background for his experience, substantiated with scientific insights. He depicts experiences in-depth and intensely.

“The world belongs to the creatives”

[expand title=”In detail”] Although afraid of heights, Marc set the world record for the fastest horizontal free fall in speed tracking, a form of skydiving in 2012. As a conceptual artist he sold the second most expensive picture at his first exhibition, without really being able to paint.As an entrepreneur, he established the naming agency erfolgswelle® Ltd. as a leading agency in Europe within just six months. For Marc, a name is definitely a success factor. A name is a proof of existence. He is convinced that as soon as we are able to shout our big dreams out loud, we become their designer.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]Marc Hauser has the unique ability to understand, implement and realize desires and dream. He facilitates the path from idea to action and inspires his audience to do the same. When Marc enters a room and begins a speech, he brings fresh motivation and new courage with a long-term effect: Successful self-management becomes tangible.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]Marc combines information and emotion as infotainment with a good portion of humor. He inspires people to perform their own heroic deeds. [/expand]

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Chief Data Officer at Telefónica

Chema Alonso is the CDO – Chief Data Officer – at Telefónica. In this position he heads the company’s Big Data strategy, Advertising and the Fourth Platform. As part of the work to define the Fourth Platform, he also leads the Personal Data Bank team and is the main internal promoter of the Data Transparency Lab. He is also responsible for global cybersecurity and data security, having created the new Global Security Unit with the Information Security Global Business in B2B & B2C and Eleven Paths.

A world-renowned security expert

[expand title=”In detail”] Chema was previously the founder and CEO of Eleven Paths, a subsidiary of Telefónica Digital focusing on innovation in security products, and General Manager of Global Security Business in the B2B unit of Telefónica Business Solutions. Before joining Telefónica in 2013, he spent 14 years working for and directing Informática 64, a company focusing on computer security and training. He obtained doctorates in Computer Security at the King Juan Carlos University of Madrid, Computer Engineering at the same university and IT Systems Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, an institution which appointed him Honorary Ambassador of the University School of Computer Science in 2012. He has also directed the Master’s Degree in Information Security at the European University of Madrid.Chema is the author of several books and other works specializing in cybersecurity.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]Chema Alonso regularly presents his experience and skills at the most prestigious conferences the world over offering an in-depth insights, recommendations and comments on technology security, big data and digital risk.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]A passionate and engaging speaker, Chema’s presentations are a veritable wealth of new ideas delivered in a unique and highly creative way.[/expand]

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Author of Lean Analytics and Solve for Everything

Alistair Croll is an entrepreneur with a background in web performance, analytics, cloud computing and business strategy. In 2001, he cofounded Coradiant, an early pioneer in User Experience Management acquired by BCM in 2011, and has since helped launch Rednod, CloudOps, Bitcurrent, Year One Labs and several other early-stage companies. He works with start-ups on business acceleration and advises larger companies on innovation and technology.

“Solve For Interesting. Otherwise Life Is Dull”

[expand title=”In detail”] Alistair has founded and run a variety of conferences, including Interop’s cloud content, Cloud Connect and the Enterprise Cloud Summit. He is the chair O’Reilly’s Strata + Hadoop World conference, the International Startup Festival and O’Reilly’s Findata content. He has also written several books on technology and business, including the best-selling ‘Lean Analystics’. Alistair tries to mitigate chronic ADD by writing about far too many things at “Solve For Interesting” and on Medium. He graduated from Dalhousie University with a B.Com (Honours) and an advanced major in Strategic Marketing.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]A sought-after speaker on data-driven innovation and the impact of technology on society, Alistair helps decision makers understand how a connected world is changing business as well as society and ethics. His presentations are tailored to each client giving a meaningful theory along with practical applications. Alistair is also an experienced conference host.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]His high-level knowledge delivered in a fun, easy to understand, passionate and insightful way make Alistair a sought after commentator at a wide range of conferences world-wide. [/expand]

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