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Mark Denton

travels from UK

Skipper of the ‘World’s Toughest’ Around-The-World Yacht Race, Mark excels in leadership, teamwork, resilience, and navigating change. A multi-award-winning speaker, he shares valuable insights and lessons on overcoming adversity and achieving peak performance.

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5 out of 5 stars

A hardworking and conscientious leader and a very capable speaker who prides himself on striving for excellence in all that he does whether in business or sport – I can, without hesitation, recommend him!

Richard Olver, Chairman, British Aerospace See all references

Why you should book speaker Mark Denton

  • He led an amateur team to success in the World’s toughest around-the-world yacht race.
  • He was voted the ‘Bookers Choice’ at the Speaker Awards 2024, judged by a panel of Speaker Bureau Owners and Professionals with a combined 65 years of booking speakers and beating 168 other entries to the top spot.
  • He has decades of expertise and has worked with some of the worlds’ greatest organizations, helping to reshape their cultures and improve their resilience to deliver better, faster, and more sustainably, especially in times of disruption and change.
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About Mark

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Speaker Mark Denton has over 20 years’ experience as a top-flight Leadership, Teamwork and Resilience Speaker, and Performance Consultant to some of the World’s greatest Organisations. Mark’s award winning keynote speeches take audiences on a roller-coaster of a journey through the twists and turns of leading a team to success in the world’s toughest around-the-world yacht race. He immerses the audience in this epic endeavour, whilst sharing the insight and easy to apply methodologies that allowed the Team to succeed come what may. And in many ways he rewrites the rules of Leadership, Teamwork and Resilience for this brave new world. And they’re an absolute bolt of lightning, that never fail to leave minds moved, hearts inspired, and feet called into action.

Why you should book speaker Mark Denton

  • He led an amateur team to success in the World’s toughest around-the-world yacht race.
  • He was voted the ‘Bookers Choice’ at the Speaker Awards 2024, judged by a panel of Speaker Bureau Owners and Professionals with a combined 65 years of booking speakers and beating 168 other entries to the top spot.
  • He has decades of expertise and has worked with some of the worlds’ greatest organizations, helping to reshape their cultures and improve their resilience to deliver better, faster, and more sustainably, especially in times of disruption and change.

Mark is a Leadership, Team, Resilience and Navigating Change Expert, and multi-award winning keynote speaker, most recently voted the ‘Bookers Choice’ Award at the Speaker Awards 2024.
As a professional sailor and Captain, he’s raced in many of the sport’s most gruelling events. But it was the opportunity to lead an amateur team in the ‘world’s toughest’ around-the-world yacht race that was to be his making, an experience so rich that it’s Mark’s sole focus for his speeches.

This epic event sees 12 teams in identical yachts vying for glory across 10 months and 32000 miles, the ‘wrong way’ around the world. But these are not crewed by hardy professionals from the rarefied world of elite sport. Rather 100% amateurs, male and female, of different ages, backgrounds and nationalities, 70 % having never sailed before!

It’s the toughest Leadership and Team challenge in the book, and the ultimate laboratory to discover what culture really allows a disparate group of people to achieve the extraordinary when facing constant adversity, change and competition. And the results were surprising, in many ways rewriting the rules of how Leaders and Teams need to be to thrive in a brave new world.

And so it’s been Mark’s mission since to share the learning, recognising that the parallels for business were remarkable. And his audiences from many of the world’s greatest Organisations agree, captivating them in over 31 countries to date, and with consistent 5 star reviews.

See keynotes with Mark Denton
Keynote by speaker Mark Denton

‘BRAVING UNCERTAINTY’ - rewriting the rules for a brave new world

‘BRAVING UNCERTAINTY’ is Mark Denton’s signature Leadership Keynote, taking audiences on a roller-coaster of a journey through the twists, turns, triumphs and tears of leading an amateur team to success in the world’s toughest around-the-world yacht race.  This gripping multi-media account, challenges many of the existing outdated beliefs of how a Leader should be, rewriting these with new and proven frameworks that deliver sustained performance for a brave new world.

Mark will inspire and equip your leaders to:

  • Blur the lines between Individual, Team and Organisation Purpose.
  • Let go of control in favour of collaboration.
  • Value being vulnerable rather than being invincible.
  • Overcome obstacles with questions not answers.
  • Set bold goals and achieve more than you ever thought possible

And it’s all summarised neatly in his 3C’s model of how leaders need to be to deliver sustained performance in these turbulent times: Compassionate, Collaborative and Courageous.

Great for: Challenging mindsets of Leaders & Managers at every level, and for educating those looking to step up

Keynote by speaker Mark Denton

‘TOGETHER WE TRIUMPH’ - making the impossible possible

‘TOGETHER WE TRIUMPH’ is Mark Denton’s signature Teamwork Keynote, an ‘edge of your seat’ multi-media journey through the ups, downs, twists and turns of an amateur team taking part in the ‘world’s toughest’ around-the-world yacht race.

This gripping account also reveals what allowed this team to thrive when facing constant adversity, change and competition. Mark summarises these into the 3 cultural factors that teams must embrace in order to achieve the seemingly impossible, no matter how choppy the waters:

  • Safe: Create an environment of psychological safety that supercharges collaboration and unlocks high performance.
  • Happy: Prioritise Team, Customer & Stakeholder happiness to achieve sustained success.
  • Fast: Embrace experimentation and reframe failure as the catalyst for learning, innovation and agility.

Great for: All staff conferences and department events with a mix of Leaders and Team Members

Keynote by speaker Mark Denton

‘NAVIGATE THE STORM’ - 8 steps to unstoppable

‘NAVIGATE THE STORM’ is Mark Denton’s signature ‘Resilience’ keynote, a roller-coaster multi- media journey through the ups, downs, twists and turns of an amateur team taking part in the ‘world’s toughest’ around-the-world yacht race.

And as the gripping account unfolds, Mark shares his unique perspective on what kept him and the team resilient, including top-tips on how to nurture the 8 key factors summarised in the ‘Navig-8 Compass Model’; Purposeful Direction, Collaboration, Emotion Regulation, Optimism, Creativity, Anticipation, Courage and Persistence.

This simple but comprehensive framework that’s shared with attendees post event, equips them to:

  • Recognise that resilience is multifaceted and accessible to all.
  • Understand the different factors, and why each are key.
  • Learn practical ways of  accessing these, to get back on track.
  • Navigate any storm in their personal or professional lives.

Great for: Leadership/Management conferences and All-Staff conferences, especially where Organisations are facing turbulent times.

Watch speaker Mark Denton in action!

Mark Denton Showreel 2024

Watch speaker Mark Denton in action!

From Zero’s to Hero’s

Watch speaker Mark Denton in action!

Mark Denton ‘Bookers Choice’ Speaker Awards 2024 acceptance

See keynotes with Mark Denton

References

An inspirational and enthralling session which was utterly captivating and resonated so well with our audience.

Rob Miatt

Chief Communications Officer, Balfour Beatty PLC

The highlight of the conference and very well received by all participants who felt it was just so relevant.

Johanna Schmidt

Programme Director, Mckinsey & Co

I’ve seen hundreds of speakers over the years, Mark stands head and shoulders above them all. Relevant, captivating, Insightful.

Rachel Wakeley

Head of Sales, Chiesi Pharmaceuticals PLC

Outstanding! We were hanging off every word and we also really enjoyed the psychological safety session. Some brilliant points to take back to the business and incredibly inspiring!

Sara Hetherington

HEAD OF L&D, Dreams PLC

We couldn’t have hoped for more from the 1 day Virtual Masterclass sessions we ran. 100% attention, 5 star feedback and our leaders visibly moved afterwards by what they’d experienced and heard. It was everything we were hoping for!

Sunny Lin

Human Resources Director, Geodis China

A hardworking and conscientious leader and a very capable speaker who prides himself on striving for excellence in all that he does whether in business or sport – I can, without hesitation, recommend him!

Richard Olver

Chairman, British Aerospace
Non-binding request for Mark Denton

Send a simple request. You’ll get a quick reply with fees and availability

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Mark Denton
Mark Denton

5 out of 5 stars

A hardworking and conscientious leader and a very capable speaker who prides himself on striving for excellence in all that he does whether in business or sport – I can, without hesitation, recommend him!

Richard Olver, Chairman, British Aerospace See all references

Keynote topics with Mark Denton