Keynote speaker
Resilience | transformation | leadership | adaptability | mindset | inclusion
​Ollie's story is one of unparalleled resilience and adaptability in the face of trauma. He learnt how to embrace change, build a resilient mindset and manage fear. He has since been able to translate these lessons across multiple environments. He continues to test himself by dreaming big and setting himself exciting and challenging adventures to push the boundaries of what people believe is possible
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Building a personal and relatable connection with an audience, provoking a compelling call to action. A natural story teller, bringing together the importance of accountability, leadership and resilience, experienced in multiple environments underpinned by the psychology of performance.
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Tailored to each audience with a deep belief in evoking a human connection and emotion to create change. He has spoken to audiences from small groups of C-Suite to large audiences of 2,500+.
Ollies keynotes are guaranteed to captivate, educate and inspire towards personal and professional goals.
Showreel
EXAMPLE Keynotes
The strength you don't know you have
The Myth of the Innovator
When Everything Changes
Inclusion as a Competitive Advantage
Demystifying Disability Inclusion
The Strength You Don’t Know You Have is a compelling talk about what happens when life, leadership, or circumstance strips away certainty and forces you to discover what you’re truly made of.
Drawing from a life-changing injury, elite sport, global humanitarian work, and leadership in big business, Ollie Thorn takes audiences on a journey through the moments where comfort disappears and character is forged. With warmth, honesty, and practical insight, he explores how resilience isn’t something you’re born with — it’s something you build, one decision at a time.
This talk goes beyond motivation. It gives people a framework for navigating change, managing fear, and stepping forward when confidence feels out of reach. Through powerful storytelling and tangible, real-world tools, audiences learn how to unlock hidden strength in themselves and in those they lead.
By the end, individuals don’t just feel inspired — they leave with a renewed sense of ownership over their challenges, a deeper connection to their purpose, and the belief that even in the hardest moments, there is strength waiting to be discovered.
The Myth of the Innovator challenges the belief that innovation belongs to a gifted few. Drawing on a life-changing journey from Army officer training to life as a wheelchair user living paralysed from the chest down, to athlete and leader in business and charity, Ollie Thorn reveals how progress is rarely sparked by brilliance — but by disruption, perspective, and the courage to begin again.
Blending powerful storytelling with practical leadership insight, this keynote introduces three principles — Perspective, Adaptability, and Micro-Innovation — to show how constraints can become catalysts, how teams stay relevant in changing environments, and how small, consistent experiments create meaningful, lasting impact.
Audiences leave with a clear framework for building psychologically safe cultures where people feel empowered to question, test, and evolve — transforming innovation from a rare event into a daily habit.
When Everything Changes is a powerful, practical talk for organisations operating in an era of constant disruption, complexity, and accelerated transformation.
After a life-changing injury forced him to rebuild his world from the ground up, Ollie Thorn discovered that adaptability isn’t a personality trait — it’s a capability that can be developed, strengthened, and scaled. Drawing on his journey through elite sport, global humanitarian work, and leadership roles in major businesses, he shares how individuals and teams can reframe uncertainty as a catalyst for growth.
With honesty and emotional depth, Ollie explores the realities of recovery, identity shift, and resilience under pressure — and translates these experiences into clear, transferable frameworks for the workplace. Audiences learn how to take ownership of change, build confidence in the face of ambiguity, and create cultures where accountability, purpose, and collaboration thrive.
This session goes beyond inspiration. Leaders and teams leave with practical tools to shape mindset, elevate performance, and turn challenge into sustained organisational advantage.
Inclusion as a Competitive Advantage is a high-impact leadership talk that reframes inclusion as a driver of performance, innovation, and sustainable growth.
Drawing on a life-changing injury, elite sport, and leadership experience in global businesses, Ollie Thorn explores how the most successful organisations don’t just attract diverse talent — they build cultures where every voice is heard, challenged, and valued. He reveals how psychological safety, access, and accountability translate directly into better decisions, stronger collaboration, and faster adaptation in complex environments.
This session moves beyond intention and policy to focus on real-world leadership behaviours. Audiences gain practical frameworks for designing inclusive systems — from meetings and feedback to hiring and development — that remove hidden barriers and unlock discretionary effort across teams.
The result is more than a values conversation. Leaders and organisations leave with clear, actionable strategies to turn difference into advantage, elevate performance under pressure, and build a culture that outpaces change rather than reacts to it.​
Ollie speaks extensively about disability. Please learn more on the disability inclusion page.