The Leading Speakers Bureau

One of the First Astronauts on the Moon

Brigadier-General Charles M. Duke Jnr. was the 10th man to walk on the Moon, taking his own steps on the Moon serving as lunar module pilot of Apollo 16 in 1972. He is currently owner of Duke Investments and President of Charlie Duke Enterprises and in great demand worldwide as a motivational speaker.

“As capcom for the Apollo 11 mission, his southern drawl became familiar to millions”

[expand title=”In detail”] Charles M. Duke Jnr. flew for the US Air Force before being selected by Nasa in 1966. He was graduated valedictorian from the Admiral Farragut Academy in St. Petersburg, Florida; received a Bachelor of Science degree in Naval Sciences from the U.S. Naval Academy and a Master of Science degree in Aeronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received numerous awards and honors including the NASA Distinguished Service medal, the JSC Certificate of Commendations (1970).[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]Sharing his fascinating story about how he felt being the capsule communicator on Apollo 11, and about his experiences on Apollo 16, Charles M. Duke Jnr. encourages and inspires his audience to reach their goals and beyond. [/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]Gifted with the combined abilities of storytelling and challenging others, Charles M. Duke’s speeches are entertaining, informative and sprinkled with humour.[/expand]

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Serial Entrepreneur & Founding Member of Skype

Jonas Kjellberg is a serial entrepreneur and one of the creators of Skype. He is co founder of Gear Up, a framework to help people to transform ideas into a high-potential venture in real time. The academic roots of the Gear Up model can be found in Harvard and Stanford University and the book is already in use at Stanford and in the Stockholm School of Economics MBA program. He is also the CEO of Gourmetli which disrupts the existing food industry by connecting buyers and sellers of locally produced delights and global gourmet specialties.

Born Global – Good Ideas Have No Boundaries

[expand title=”In detail”] Jonas earned an MBA from Uppsala University and an engineering degree from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. He is a lecturer at Stanford University and Stockholm School of Economics where he lectures on entrepreneurship and how to create a winning sales culture. He is also one of the authors of the bestseller book ‘Gear up’ written together with Harvard and Stanford professors. Jonas advises business leaders from a wide range of businesses in developing their sales strategies and in creating a winning sales culture to face new customer demands.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]In his presentations Jonas explains the fundamental understanding for how product, sales and profitability must interact in order to create successful businesses. He analyses what kind of innovative thinking is needed for success and why some good ideas and companies made it while others did not.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]The combination of academic knowledge and real-life experience make Jonas Kjellberg a sought after commentator at conferences around the globe.[/expand]

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Expert on HR and The Future of Work

Perry Timms is known for his energy, passion and insight around the world of people and work, particularly what lies in the future. He is the founder and director of PTHR, he is a Chartered Member of the CIPD, a Visiting Fellow at Sheffield Hallam Business School and also lectures on HRM at UK and international universities. Active on all social media platforms, Perry has advised and helped several companies take their steps into the social media world.

“Voted Top 10 in People Management magazine’s HR tweeters and bloggers for 2012 and 2013”

[expand title=”In detail”] His career has journeyed through HR covering technology and business change, learning, talent and OD for over 20 years. Perry started a global learning community of practitioners and is now leading 4 spin-offs into research and innovation, education, digital technology and partnerships. The iPractice is aiming to create alternative models for business and work based on the World Blu freedom at work principles. Perry is a regular writer and blogger for a wide range of organisations and publications such as Glassdor, UKCES and HR Zone and Training Journal. [/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]With his extensive experience in Business Change and HR, Perry has led business change projects, covered project management, organisation development, business transformation and IT change and has designed and built talent strategies. Also a skilled executive coach specialising in high-potential staff, directors & senior managers, Perry helps national and international organisations on HR, Social Media and the future of work topics.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]Enlightening and thought provoking, Perry Timm’s powerful message is well received by audiences at a wide range of events.[/expand]

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Former HR Director at the BBC

Lucy Adams is the best known HR Director in the UK having been on the Board of the BBC during its most turbulent period and acted as its media spokesperson on all people issues. She now advises business leaders and their teams on developing resilience to cope with a disrupted world and is the author of the book to be published next year, ‘Better or Bitter – How to thrive after a setback’.

“Renowned HR Expert”

[expand title=”In detail”] Lucy has led and delivered difficult change in complex organisations for over 15 years. In just two years the BBC had four CEOs, they moved BBC Sport, Children’s TV, Radio 5Live and 2,500 jobs to the North of England, opened the largest multi-media newsroom in Europe, delivered £200m+ of savings and managed numerous crises, most notably the Jimmy Savile scandal. Lucy was at the heart of handling all of these. Prior to the BBC, Lucy was Group HR Director at Serco plc, a multi-national plc delivering large scale government contracts across the world. In 2013 the BBC made the headlines on many occasions including the resignation of its leader after just 54 days. Lucy also found herself on the TV news and in every major newspaper in the UK as she experienced her own personal crisis around the pay-offs to senior BBC Executives.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]Lucy’s experiences of delivering difficult change in complex and challenging environments have given her a unique insight into how individuals and teams cope with the pressures of doing business in a disrupted world. Using her personal experiences and the latest research she helps business leaders explore how resilient they are, how they can better anticipate and manage the risks of driving change, build their own agility and resilience and that of their team, cope with the pressures of modern leadership and recover quickly from setbacks. [/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]Lucy always aims to provide her audiences with very practical take-aways and whilst she does include insights from the latest research, her speeches are essentially very earthy and pragmatic, based on years of actually delivering at the top of very large organisations. Her speeches are incredibly honest and filled with real life examples and anecdotes from the BBC and elsewhere.[/expand]

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Expert on the Future of Payments

Ollie Purdue is CEO & Co-founder of Loot Bank, a new start-up in the banking sector which is building the next generation banking services. Loot Bank will help students have more disposable income through better money management. In 2015 Loot Bank, who is a member of Level39, the largest Fintech accelerator, is launching a pre-paid product with a current account launch due in early 2016.

“Ollie gives fresh insights into money management and payment issues”

[expand title=”In detail”] Ollie’s role as Chief Entrepreneurial Officer and Co-founder has led to the entire organisation of the business. Starting as an initial idea he had while at university, he has grown the company to a point where they have successfully closed their first seed-funding round as well as being accepted into two accelerator programmes. The company is now looking forward to the development of the current account which will begin soon. Ollie graduated from the University of West of England in 2014 with a Law degree.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]In his presentations Ollie analyses the future of payments and particularly the issues affecting today’s youth, the unbanked, emerging markets. He also focuses on the issues of privacy and the use of personal data. His presentations are well received by decision makers from a wide range of global businesses. [/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]Ollie brings fresh and different perspectives on what the next 10 years holds for the payment industry. His education, his young age and wide knowledge of technology make him highly sought after at conferences around the globe.
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Global Thought Leader

Rachel Botsman is regarded as the global thought leader on the power of collaboration and sharing through digital technologies to transform the way we live, work, bank and consume. Rachel is designing the first-ever MBA course on the collaborative economy that she will teach at Oxford University Said School of Business in 2015. She is an associate editor for WIRED UK and has a monthly tech trends column in the Australian Financial Review.

“The global thought leader on the collaborative economy”

[expand title=”In detail”] Rachel’s writings and research have featured in the Harvard Business Review, The Economist, CNN, New York Times, The Guardian, The Financial Times, and other publications. E magazine subsequently named Collaborative Consumption one of the ’10 Ideas that Will Change the World’. Rachel was previously a founding partner in the Collaborative Fund, an early stage investor in disruptive ventures, and a former director at President Clinton’s Foundation. Rachel received her BFA (Honors) from the University of Oxford, and undertook her postgraduate studies at Harvard University.[/expand]

[expand title=”What she offers you”]Rachel believes that enduring ideas that can be widely used by people across industries should be grounded in clear frameworks that make complex theories simple. She has spoken to and advised a diverse range of companies on the power of the collaborative economy as lens to view challenges and unlock new opportunities in the world.[/expand]

[expand title=”How she presents”]Rachel is a dynamic, humorous and thought-provoking speaker who is popular at events all over the world.[/expand]

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Entrepreneur & CEO of Love Home Swap

Debbie Wosskow is an entrepreneur, investor and sharing economy expert. CEO of leading peer-to-peer travel club, Love Home Swap, Debbie is also the founder of the influential Collaborative Consumption Europe networkand led the UK government’s recent review of the Sharing Economy.

“A serial entrepreneur”

[expand title=”In detail”] A former management consultant, Debbie launched her first business, marketing and communications consultancy Mantra, at the age of just 25. Building Mantra over a decade, Debbie sold to the Loewy Group. In addition to her role as CEO of Love Home Swap, Debbie is an active angel investor and sits on a number of advisory boards, as well as being a trustee of Hampstead Theatre. Debbie is a regular commentator on travel, collaborative consumption and entrepreneurship on TV and in print. She graduated with an MA in Philosophy and Theology from New College, Oxford University.[/expand]

[expand title=”What she offers you”]Debbie shares with her audiences her research on the social and economic potential of the sharing economy (including property sharing, time and skill sharing, shared transport and personal items) and offers recommendations on how this potential can be reached. She also looks into the risks to consumers, or established businesses outside the sharing economy.[/expand]

[expand title=”How she presents”]Debbie Wosskow is a charming, professional speaker whose presentations are interactive, entertaining and highly informative.[/expand]

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Vice President, Search Products & User Experience, Google

Marissa Mayer has been featured in numerous publications, including Newsweek (“10 Tech Leaders of the Future”), Red Herring (“15 Women to Watch”), Business 2.0 (“Silicon Valley Dream Team”), BusinessWeek, and Fast Company. In 2008, at 33, Marissa became the youngest woman ever to be included on Fortune’s Most Powerful Women list (#50). She leads Google’s product management efforts on search products – web search, images, news, books, products, maps, Google Earth, Google Toolbar, Google Desktop, Google Health, Google Labs and more.

“A powerful force inside the high-flying company”

[expand title=”In detail”] Graduating with honours, Marissa received her bachelor’s degree in symbolic systems and her master’s degree in computer science from Stanford University. She joined Google in 1999 as Google’s first female engineer and led the user interface and web server teams at that time. Her efforts have included designing and developing Google’s search interface, internationalizing the site to more than 100 languages, defining Google News, Gmail, and Orkut, and launching more than 100 features and products on Google.com. Several patents have been filed on her work in artificial intelligence and interface design. Concurrently with her full-time work at Google, Marissa has taught introductory computer programming classes at Stanford.[/expand]

[expand title=”What she offers you”]Marissa Mayer lives by the old adage that if at first you don’t succeed, try again. In her insightful presentations she pushes aspiring business thinkers to breathe new life into failed ventures, as opposed to cutting the cord. Repackage, rejuvenate, re-market, and re-examine those products or practices you thought would fly, and craft them a new set of wings.

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[expand title=”How she presents”]Keen to uphold her reputation for being highly receptive, Marissa is a great listener and communicator, recognised for her teaching skills at Stanford. [/expand]

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Technology and Business Visionary

Esther Dyson is an authority on emerging digital technology and considered a founding member of Digerati. She is an active angel investor in a variety of start-ups, focusing on technology, health care, human capital and aerospace. Esther is Chairman of EDventure Holdings and since 2013 HiCCup, a startup that will foster and coordinate citywide health intervention programs. In 2008 and 2009, she lived in Star City, Moscow, training as a backup cosmonaut. Apart from this brief sabbatical, she is an active board member for a variety of start-ups.

“Esther Dyson has devoted her life to discovering the inevitable and promoting the possible.”

[expand title=”In detail”] She has a BA in economics from Harvard and was founding chairman of ICANN from 1998 to 2000. In addition, she wrote the best-selling, widely translated book ‘Release 2.0: A Design for Living in the Digital Age’, published in 1997. Her board seats include 23andMe, Airship Ventures, Boxbe, Voxiva, Eventful, Evernote, IBS Group (Russia, advisory board), Meetup, Midentity (UK), NewspaperDirect, Yandex and WPP Group. Some of her other direct IT investments include Flickr and Del.icio.us.[/expand]

[expand title=”What she offers you”]As an investor and respected commentator, Esther Dyson focuses on the impact of technology, new business models and new emerging markets. Her analysis and predictions on how these factors will affect and shape business today but also in the future provide fascinating insights for corporations all over the world.[/expand]

[expand title=”How she presents”]Esther Dyson is a regular keynote speaker at major industry events in Europe, including the World Economic Forum in Davos. She likes to combine a short, punchy keynote followed by a lengthy interactive session.[/expand]

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Social Media, Branding and Digital PR Expert

Mel Carson is the founder of the US based consultancy Delightful Communications which helps businesses and individuals understand and successfully apply strategies that focus on Social Media, Digital PR and Personal Branding. Mel also relishes his work as US Brand Ambassador for Majestic SEO, evangelizing the largest publically available link intelligence database and toolset to marketers and advertising professionals.

“A leading expert on Social Media and Digital Marketing”

[expand title=”In detail”] Mel worked for 7 years as Digital Marketing Evangelist at Microsoft Advertising and was responsible for building relationships within the online advertising community. He was also part of the team that planned and executed the UK roll-out of the Microsoft ad Center in 2006 and helped to set up Microsoft’s Advertising Community Team that same year when it became apparent that Social Media Marketing was going to be huge. Mel began career as an editor at the search engine LookSmart in 2000 and was Account Director at 24/7 Search. He lectured on MBA, MSc and marketing courses at Cranfield School of Management and London University. [/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]For well over a decade Mel continues to inspire decision makers around the world from a wide range of businesses to understand and to make the most of the explosion in the use of digital media and technology.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]Creative, compelling, emotional, engaging and visionary, Mel’s presentations are highly inspirational as well as practical and resonate deeply with audiences around the globe.[/expand]

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