Steve Smith

Recently voted the Academy of Chief Executives Speaker of the year, Steve Smith is one of the country’s best and most sought after motivational speakers. He has extensive experience of working with leading corporate organisations and elite level sport, in particular premier league football.
Despite being considered too short to be a world class high jumper, he is still Britain’s most successful ever jumper having won a medal in every major championship including the Olympic Games and his British record has now stood untouched for an incredible 17 years.

Well known as an athlete who always delivered when it really mattered, his ability to respond to the pressure situation of an all or nothing third attempt was key to his success and gained him a reputation as one of the toughest mental competitors on the circuit.

Steve was the inspirational captain of the British team for the European Championships in 1998. His rousing team talk set the tone for Britain’s most successful ever championships. A ruptured achilles tendon finished Steve’s career in 1999 at a time when he was the World number one and was seen by many as the favourite for the Sydney Olympics.

Since retirement he has gone on to be a successful restaurateur and a broadcaster for Sky, Channel 4 and the BBC.

Steve is a highly engaging and adaptable speaker. His presentations are interactive and challenging as he takes the audience on a rollercoaster journey through his Olympic experience using visual props to bring the experience to life.

Although sport based, his business experience ensures that the real links into the audience’s roles are never forgotten and delegates have a clear understanding of how the sporting parallels relate to them.

A recent survey of over 100 presentations showed that 98% of delegates attending his sessions agree to take something away from his presentation to impact upon their own performance.

Career Highlights:
1996 Olympic Bronze
1994 European Championship Silver
1994 Commonwealth Games Silver
1993 World Championship Bronze

The feedback from the team at Boots after Steve spoke at our communications event was overwhelmingly positive. Steve is a very engaging speaker and has a fantastic ability to draw parallels between his experiences as a top class athlete and the challenges of the commercial world. He was able to inspire a diverse (and sometimes cynical) cross-section of people with everybody coming away from the event feeling energised and motivated. I’m now looking at opportunities to work with Steve in the future building on the fantastic success of this initial event” – Boots.

“The event with Steve Smith on Friday was a great success. I know my people were very inspired and enthused about the talk. Steve was very well prepared in arriving early to set up and meeting with the audience after for coffee. It was overall a great success.” – Barclays

“I want to thank Steve Smith for joining me and my team of managers. I certainly enjoyed the presentation as, I know, did the team. From the presentations they gave later that day, it has certainly given them all some food for thought.” RBS

“We would like to pass on our thanks to Steve Smith for delivering a fantastic and inspiring presentation. The feedback we have received has been superb and we feel that your presentation has really motivated our staff, providing them with the tools and techniques to succeed in any chosen goal they have.” – Lloyds