John Amaechi

John is an accomplished motivational speaker with experience addressing a diverse cross-section of organisations, including corporations, charities and educational institutions, throughout Great Britain and the United States. John inspires, informs and charms audiences with his candour and wealth of international experience in sport, business and life. At the age of 17, John was considered “too late to the game” and “not athletic enough” to have any chance of success in domestic sport, much less overseas. Twelve years later, John became the first and only Britain to be inducted into the U.S. Basketball Hall of Fame. He has captained the England squad since his arrival to the team in 1997 and even in ‘retirement’ is leading the Commonwealth Games team as it marches towards the 2006 games in Melbourne. He has been part of two European championship teams and was offered a seven-year contract from the most successful team in American Sports over the last decade. John is the only British player to have had a career in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and was honoured as one of the NBA’s most improved players in 2000, showing an amazing ability to adapt and learn well into his career. Since retirement from basketball, John has continued to pursue his PhD in psychology, recently co-authoring a paper on the subject of self-esteem, goal setting and personality. He is also well versed in the use and interpretation of the MBTI personality inventory and other psychometric testing platforms. John is a regular sport and current affairs pundit for the BBC, ITV and SKY as well as a presenter on a range of radio and television programmes, including ITV’s ongoing “Britain on the Move” series and Channel 5’s weekly “Sport on Five”. In addition to maintaining broadcast interests in the United States, he is currently the face of Sport England’s latest “Everyday Sport” campaign as well as an Ambassador for the London 2012 Olympic Bid. He maintains a broad political interest and has met on several occasions with the leaders of all three major parties and even interviewed the conservative leader, Michael Howard as part of the build-up to the general election. John is highly regarded for his ability to overcome adversity, including a life-threatening injury, in his quest for international success. He has made a habit of achieving the seemingly impossible in sports and life for more than a decade. Indeed, he has even been described as “a player with little innate physical talent, who rose to remarkable heights on the back of exceptional personal drive, terrific will and a tremendous goal-setting and life-planning strategy”. He has first-hand knowledge of planning for your dream, setting goals and maintaining standards of achievement for the long haul. He understands motivation and personal development, the roots of success. Having lived in Continental Europe for four years before moving to America for a further ten, his international and cross-cultural experience is immense and his formulas apply to an endlessly diverse clientele across Europe and the Americas. John has extensive expertise in keynote and motivational speaking, conference chairmanship and workshop administration. He is able to set and maintain tone, as well as use wit, warmth and insight to link the individual facets of any programme. His demeanour and experience allow for an inspiring, entertaining and unforgettable interaction.