James Hewitt

Transcend The Leadership Paradox: High Performance Demands Can Break Leaders, But They Don’t Have To

Most leadership advice ignores a brutal paradox: the very demands of leadership often impair the capabilities needed to lead well—clarity, resilience, decision-making, and focus. In this keynote, Dr. James Hewitt reveals how today’s high-performing leaders can escape the trap of chronic overload, reclaim their cognitive edge, and lead with strategic clarity and sustainable energy.

Drawing from neuroscience, elite sport, and his own experiments with global organizations, James equips leaders with tools to lead smarter under pressure without burning out themselves or their teams.

The Regenerative Workplace: Why Your Wellbeing Strategy Isn’t Working, And What to Do Instead

Despite billions invested in corporate wellbeing, engagement and burnout are moving in the wrong direction. Why? Because most initiatives treat wellbeing as an individual responsibility—when it’s actually a systems issue.

In this provocative and practical keynote, Dr. James Hewitt shows how forward-thinking leaders are redesigning their workplaces as regenerative environments: places that actively improve human capacity instead of depleting it. He shares lessons from Formula 1, finance, and fast-growth companies to help audiences transform wellbeing from a perk into a business-critical lever for growth.

Peak Performance In The Age Of Distraction: How to Reclaim Focus, Beat Digital Fatigue, and Get the Right Work Done

The average employee switches tasks every 47 seconds. Teams are overwhelmed by meetings, messages, and interruptions, and it’s destroying their ability to focus, produce, and recover. In this high-impact keynote, Dr. James Hewitt reveals the neuroscience behind distraction and overload and how organizations can redesign attention to unlock high-quality, high-efficiency performance.

This isn’t about time management. It’s about cognitive architecture, energy rhythms, and building a team culture that protects deep work and accelerates recovery.

The Future Of Human Performance In The Age Of AI: How to Use AI to Elevate Human Potential, Not Erase It

AI is no longer a future concern; it’s here, reshaping how we work. While many worry about being replaced, most people are simply overwhelmed by digital debt, repetitive tasks, and unclear expectations. In this keynote, Dr. James Hewitt offers a clear-eyed roadmap to build AI-employee alliances that enhance wellbeing, performance, and innovation.

This talk goes beyond AI hype or fear. Drawing from his work inside organizations integrating AI with human performance strategy, James shows how leaders can use tech to amplify the best of being human, not automate it away.

It was a real masterclass in turning something scientific and complex into something wonderfully accessible to everyone. It was everything I was hoping for… and more.

Alison Oliver MBE: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alison-oliver-mbe-444b5a27/ 

Chief Executive Officer, Youth Sport Trust

We were looking for an inspiring speaker that would be able to share new insights and a new perspective. What we didn’t expect was for a total experience. From the moment, James, stepped onto stage to his closing remarks, the audience was gripped. James is able to combine elements of his work in sport, science and the corporate world to provide an engaging presentation.

Katherine Shenton: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/katherineshenton 

Global Head of Marketing & Communications, QuantumBlack, a McKinsey company

James received really high customer evaluations. He empowered the audience with takeaways that are easily put into practice. The message was all science-backed, and the presentation was exciting. On top of that, James was super nice and easy to work with.

Ville Saarikalle: https://fi.linkedin.com/in/ville-saarikalle-512a98a6 

Head of Speaker Relations, Nordic Business Forum

When booking James we knew that we needed to find someone who can be educational yet engaging at the same time. James did not disappoint. He brought many interesting findings to light while engaging our MBA Alumni community. Through his story telling, presentation of data and personality, James was able to successfully tailor his message of sustainable high performance to a highly competitive crowd. If you are looking for someone who can captivate an audience and also bring forth evidence, James is the right person to call. We would gladly have James back on our campus in the future.

Thomas R. Bucher: https://ch.linkedin.com/in/thomas-bucher 

Corporate Relations Manager, University of St. Gallen

The more than 400 professionals from our firm felt that, first of all, each of them got something concrete to take away and implement in their daily lives. Second, I believe James succeeded in offering more theoretical take-aways, principles if you will, for the more senior people, like myself, that support acting in leadership roles in knowledge economy. Third, James has a truly engaging presence and made everyone feel like he genuinely cares about the improvement of each audience member’s experience. James’ message has longevity beyond the one session and, when shared across the firm, supports working smarter as individuals and as a team.

Mikko Manner: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikko-manner-5082b/ 

Managing Partner, Roschier

James’ talk was the perfect mix between leadership, motivation and technology. It was entertaining and relevant at the same time. Our team loved the practical take-aways that were dropped into the story and some of them will definitely help to boost our performance. I would definitely recommend James for any corporate event.

Floor Bleeker: https://ae.linkedin.com/in/floorbleeker 

Group Chief Information Officer, Accor Hotels

I have had an opportunity to benefit from James Hewitt’s teaching, workshops and keynotes – including his personal coaching insights on sustainable high performance – for a few years now. He has managed to take the pursuit of this vitally important leadership dimension to a wholly new level. Most importantly, the insights are broken into every day practical applications with immediate benefits for my self-leadership, and indeed the underlying performance culture of my leadership team. To change human performance to the better is, in many ways, the ultimate challenge for any leader – James is a true game changer, helping any leader or organisation to reach this ambitious goal.

Harri Sundvik: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/harri-sundvik-66464012a 

Deputy Chairman at Spinnova OY

James’ knowledge in performance science coupled with business acumen is something that companies and individuals can draw on in a wide variety of ways; anyone working with James will very quickly be able to implement and put his expertise to use. Needless to say, he is also a remarkable public speaker and I have seen him captivate rooms filled with 6000+ people. The world needs more people like James.

Johan Brear: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johan-brear-b3815041 

Chairman of the Board at Aito Ventures

James was a keynote speaker during UBS Global Health Week. He captivated the audience from the first minute of his presentation till the very end. I found James a great speaker: as we all know it’s not that easy to keep attention of the audience the whole time of the presentation, but James did it. His speech was dynamic and passionate.
It was not only the speech that was amazing, but the fact that within an hour of his presentation, James managed to inspire a lot of people to make a change in their lives, or at least, to consider making a change.  I highly recommend James Hewitt as a speaker if you want to bring a change and innovation in your business.

Lesia Nünlist: https://ch.linkedin.com/in/lesia-nuenlist

Digital Marketing Manager at UBS

Future Perspectives: Unveiling the Emerging Trends in Workplace Wellbeing | Peak Performance Decoded: Winning the Workplace Endurance Race by Achieving More with Less | The High-Performance Paradox: Balancing Productivity and Wellbeing for Sustainable Success | Resilience Reimagined: Cultivating Anti-Fragility in a VUCA World | Burnout Uncovered: Understanding and Combating the Hidden Epidemic of the Modern Workplace