Dan Lowes has spent two decades making high-stakes, high-pressure decisions in the world's toughest environments as a former RAF Fighter Pilot, Top Gun Graduate, and Executive Officer of the Red Arrows. Building his career on clarity, composure, and accountability, even when the world is moving at 600mph, Dan was once voted by his instructors as the pilot they "would go to war with". Trusted for his technical skill and his character, Dan possesses the rare ability of turning pressure into peak performance, a trait he now teaches others to achieve.
After joining the Royal Air Force as a Fighter Pilot and Commissioned Officer in 2004, Dan gained a reputation for his fast-paced decision-making skills in ambiguous, time-sensitive situations. Selected for the Red Arrows 2016, he went on to become the team's Executive Officer, honing his expertise in high-trust, high-functioning teamwork. Proving his worth as a display pilot, Dan was later selected to assess the flying tests for Red Arrows candidate selection, giving him the unique insight into identifying elite talent, managing performance, and successfully leading under pressure. In 2020, Dan left the RAF to fly the Gulfstream G650 for a former head of state and now pilots the state-of-the-art Boeing 787.
Skilled in performance management and team leadership, he is a leading authority in delivering world-class debriefing cultures. His lived experience shaped his approach, showing teams how to incorporate honest feedback loops, accelerate learning and eradicate errors, all whilst building resilience. With sharp, grounded insights on decision-making, communication, and vulnerability, Dan's talks equip audiences with the tools to reduce stress, understand team insecurities, and elevate performance across multiple sectors. Dan is a seasoned speaker, having spoken for Barclays Regional Managers, Swansea City Youth Academy, and the Premier League Head of Coach Development.
When he is not travelling the world piloting private jets, Dan delivers astounding keynote speeches for the biggest companies and clients. Understanding at the deepest level what it takes to perform when it matters most, Dan brings powerful lessons on adaptability, remote teamwork, and sustaining excellence in constantly changing environments, speaking candidly about success, failure, and the endless pursuit of elite standards.
In 2023, we conducted an exclusive interview with Dan Lowes to hear his insight into leadership.
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Reviews
Dan Lowes received a 4.5 star rating across 14 events in 2023.
AGENT RECOMMENDATION
"Dan Lowes, an exceptional Red Arrows pilot, showcases unparalleled knowledge of resilience and leadership. His remarkable skill and dedication to excellence have earned him many accolades in the aviation community. Dan's expertise and passion for flying make him a distinguished and inspiring figure. I highly recommend him for any event!"
Dan Lowes' official speaker topics are listed below:
Debrief to Win: How the Red Arrows Master Continues Improvement
Explore the Red Arrows’ world-class debriefing process and learn practical methods to strengthen accountability, remove fear from feedback, and accelerate performance improvement across teams.
Character Over Skill: Building Teams That Perform When it Counts
Understand how the most exceptional teams achieve lasting excellence by building deep trust, cultivating resilient mindsets, and prioritising personal character as the foundation for organisational success.
High-Stakes, Clear Minds: Decision-Making Under Pressure
Leveraging insights from years spent in high-pressure military aviation and commercial cockpit environments, Dan introduces actionable models designed to bring clarity to complex situations and support sound decisions under uncertainty.
Optimal Performance Under Pressure
Gain insight into the mechanisms that enable top performers to achieve outstanding results even in the most demanding, high-pressure conditions.
Resilience & Embracing Failure
Learn how to convert adversity into momentum for development, and why building resilience and a constructive approach to failure is fundamental to long-term achievement.
World-Class Debriefing & Continuous Improvement
Uncover the high-impact debriefing practices refined within the Red Arrows and other top-tier aviation teams.
Accountability & Ownership
Explore the ways in which high-performing teams cultivate environments grounded in accountability, genuine ownership, and individual responsibility.
Composure & Decision-Making Under Pressure
Develop the capabilities that enable composed, focused, and decisive action when circumstances become demanding.
Official Feedback from In-Person & Virtual Events
"Dan's ability to deliver key messages on resilience, motivation and life planning was received exceptionally well, especially as many of our young people either suffer or have suffered in these areas in the current climate. I cannot recommend Dan as a speaker enough. The feedback and response that I have received from Dan's guest speaker appearance has been nothing short of phenomenal" - Rachael, Development Officer, Scouts NI
"It was right on message, clear, simple in a good way and engaging. I took plenty of notes personally, and there was much to reflect on for the team and the wider business." - Stephen, Regional Director, Lloyds Bank
"He is a captivating speaker who held the audience's attention, his stories are excellent, and he was able to encapsulate the ethos of our company through them." - Jamil, Founder & CEO, Wakelet
"Dan delivered an inspirational session on team effectiveness that focused on the skills of debriefing used in his extensive career background in the Red Arrows. Our learners took away key insight in the importance of trust, integrity, honesty and respect. These values were role modelled by Dan throughout the planning, delivery and reflection phases of the shared work with us. Dan utilised his knowledge to transfer the similarities and key differences between our respective performance contexts. He skilfully embedded important messages around high challenge and high support environments and gave our learners bitesize takeaways to take back to their personal context." -Scott, Senior Coach Development Management, Premier League
"Through being part of an insurance team that can act as an advisor within the M&A process, the purpose of bringing Leon and Dan in to deliver a ‘performing under pressure’ seminar to our clients, was down to the fact that operating within the M&A environment can bring about its own demands and pressures on a regular basis. As it is general accepted, the ability of the individual and/or team to embrace and function under pressure will go a long way to determining its success levels. Within an M&A context, it was apparent that a large number of parallels that can be drawn from Leon and Dan’s own experience in their careers that can be attributed to M&A professionals. This was demonstrated through the level of engagement throughout the seminar, and the large number of positive responses we received from our clients post event. I would strongly recommend Leon and Dan to any organisation that is looking to continually improve their operational processes and looking to embrace a high performing culture." - Iain, Training Risks Associate Director, Gallagher Insurance
- 2026 - Launched his podcast, 'The World Class Code'
- 2023 - Appointed Senior First Officer with Norse Atlantic Airways
- 2021 - Served as a G650 Pilot for Flexjet
- 2022 - Appointed G650 Senior First Officer
- 2020 - Began flying the Gulfstream 650ER for TAG Aviation
- 2016 - Appointed Executive Officer of the Red Arrows and a Red Arrows Pilot
- 2004 - Joined the Royal Air Force as a Fighter Pilot and Commissioned Officer
How to hire Dan Lowes
Contact the Champions Speakers Agency to provisionally enquire about hiring Dan Lowes for your next event, today. To get in touch, simply call an official booking agent on 0207 1010 553 or email us at [email protected] for more information.
** We do NOT accept requests for autographs, signed merchandise, fan mail, birthday messages or any other non-commercial contact with the speakers or acts. Each speaker on the website may not have necessarily worked with Champions in the past but are known to perform such engagements within the industry.
