BIOGRAPHY
Manley Hopkinson is a highly regarded and sought-after speaker on leadership, peak performance and strategy.
He twice served as an officer in the Royal Navy, re-joining for the first Gulf War. Between times Manley Hopkinson was an Inspector in the Royal Hong Kong Marine Police.
In 2000, he was selected as a skipper in the BT Global Challenge round the world yacht race, leading a team of volunteers, including novices, for 9 months in a 32,000 mile journey, the “wrong way”!
Manley continued his adventures as part of the 3-man team that won the inaugural race to the Magnetic North Pole. The team faced polar bear attacks and sub-zero temperatures, learning huge lessons about both surviving and competing in very difficult circumstances. Their record time of 10 days and 9 hours still stands.
In 2014, Manley Hopkinson published Compassionate Leadership: How to Create and Maintain Engaged, Committed and High-Performing Teams. In this entertaining and hugely readable book, Manley combines the two worlds of business and adventure to encourage leaders everywhere – at work, at home, in sports and mid-ocean – to take a new approach to creating teams of developed, self-aware and committed individuals. The 2nd edition was published in 2022, with 2 additional chapters on Resilience and Remote Leadership. Manley has been commended for his work on compassion by the Dalai Lama.
Manley sits on the Board of a number of organisations globally, including the ATLAS Consortium, Defence UK, Ark Data Centres and, currently, Sweet Projects, where he delivers true “high performance cultures”.
In 2018, Manley launched the Compassionate Leadership Academy (CLA) as a continuation of all his work and designed to transform the way people access leadership and personal development and further spread the impact of compassionate leadership worldwide. The CLA suite of products is accredited by the Institute of Leadership, CPD Approved and available in many languages.
For more information on peak performance speaker Manley Hopkinson, contact VBQ founding agent Leo von Bülow-Quirk on leo@vbqspeakers.com.
MANLEY HOPKINSON: SPEAKER
Manley has delivered way over 500 inspiring keynotes all over the world – each one uniquely tailored to the specific needs of the event. The feedback from Manley’s interventions say that not only is he inspiring, entertaining, motivational, witty, (and humble) but relevant and memorable. He has an impressive ability to engage with the audience, giving them a real sense of purpose and direction.
Drawing on his life of adventure and record-breaking success, Manley Hopkinson’s talks continue to inspire, motivate, educate and entertain audiences around the world.
Manley delivers inspirational and memorable presentations that incorporate his compassionate leadership style.
He is brilliant on topics such leadership, peak performance, strategy and how to deliver lasting cultural change. What’s more, his extensive business experience means he knows exactly how to engage a corporate audience.
His inspiring presentations are brought to life with high quality video and pictures taken during the BT Global Challenge and The Polar Race.
Testimonials
“Well what a breath of fresh air you were at our conference! You had the “meerkat” effect on all of my team. The “meerkat” effect is when people sit up straight, concentrate, pay attention and do the long neck thing to get a better look!” – Royal Bank of Scotland
“Manley’s presentation was fantastic and everyone enjoyed it but more importantly walked away with some real thought provoking ideas.” – Civica UK
“The feedback since has been outstanding. His engaging approach to storytelling kept our audience captivated wbo learnt all about this experience of leading a team while taking part in the toughest yacht race on Earth. Our colleagues were left feeling motivated by his story.” – Travis Perkins