Dr. James Hewitt is a human performance scientist and keynote speaker who equips leaders and teams to stay calm, think clearly, and execute under pressure when the stakes are highest. When Fortune 500 leaders and F1 teams face pressure: big decisions, tight deadlines, competing demands, many find they haven't been trained for that moment. Dr. James Hewitt equips them to perform at their best, without burning out.
James developed his methods as Chief Innovation Officer for the coaching company behind 19 Formula 1 World Championships, where teams have seconds to make calls that win or lose everything. He continues to work with F1 teams and elite performers today, so his insights come from the cutting edge, not the archive. James holds a PhD in Human Performance Science from Loughborough University (ranked #1 in the world for Sport, Exercise, and Health Science) and is the bestselling author of Regenerative Performance, introducing a framework now used by global organisations and elite teams worldwide. James also holds a United States O-1A visa for individuals with extraordinary ability in the sciences.
James has delivered keynotes in 35+ countries to audiences of 8,000+, including three World Economic Forum Annual Meetings in Davos, the Nordic Business Forum (alongside Barack Obama), and the Global Leadership Summit. His sessions blend sharp science, stories, humour, and (optionally) live brain-monitoring demonstrations that show audiences what pressure actually does to performance in real time. Audiences don't just feel motivated. They leave equipped. James's obsession with performance began with a question: what separates people who perform at their best in high-stakes moments from those who struggle? He's chased the answer for two decades, first as a full-time racing cyclist (not the most talented, but relentlessly curious), then through a PhD studying how elite performers think and execute.
He brings those tools to Fortune 500 firms and businesses across consulting, finance, tech, pharma, automotive, and aerospace, including PwC, McKinsey, BCG, HSBC, UBS, and Mercedes-Benz. He's booked for annual meetings, leadership summits, sales kick-offs, and executive retreats: events where substance matters as much as energy. James's understanding of pressure isn't just professional. After being diagnosed with cancer, he applied his own methods to fight back, proof that what he teaches works when it matters most.
Social Media
Books
Regenerative Performance: How to Thrive in an Always-On World Without Sacrificing Your Well-Being
Exponential: Better Life, Better Performance, from F1 to Fortune 500
Dr James Hewitt’s official speaker topics are listed below:
Build for Break Through: Perform at Your Best, Without Burning Out
Pressure isn't the problem. How you respond to it is. You know the feeling. The deal is on the line, the room is watching, the decision can't wait, and suddenly your thinking narrows, your composure slips, or the team starts pulling in different directions. It's not a talent problem. It's what happens when pressure changes how people think and communicate, and most of us were never trained for that moment. This keynote shows leaders and teams how to recognise what's happening under pressure and respond with clarity instead of reactivity, using a simple framework and practical reset tools that keep focus sharp, decisions sound, and execution steady when the stakes are highest.
Peak Performance in the Age of Distraction: Think Clearly When Everything Is Competing For Your Attention
We don’t have a time problem. We have an attention problem. If you’ve ever finished a full day and thought, “I was busy the whole time… so why do I feel like nothing important moved?” you’re not alone. Modern work pulls our focus into tiny pieces: messages, meetings, quick replies, constant context-switching. And when attention breaks, decisions get worse, patience gets shorter, and the work you actually care about keeps sliding to tomorrow. This keynote shows leaders and teams how to protect the focus that drives their best work, using simple habits and team norms that make deep thinking possible again, so decisions sharpen, priorities stick, and the work that matters actually gets finished.
Transcend The Leadership Paradox: Sustain High Performance, Without Burning Yourself Out in the Process
The demands of leadership are eroding the very capabilities leaders need most. Here's the paradox no one talks about: the higher you rise, the more your calendar fills with other people's priorities, and the less time you have for the thinking that made you valuable in the first place. You're expected to be strategic, but you're buried in the operational. Inspirational, but running on empty. Present for your team, but stretched so thin you're not fully present anywhere. And the worst part? When leaders struggle, everything downstream struggles with them. This keynote shows leaders how to protect their most valuable capabilities under pressure, not by working harder, but by leading smarter, recovering better, and building habits that sustain performance over the long haul. Because your team can only be as resilient as you are.
The Future of Performance in the Age of AI: Navigate AI Transformation, Without Losing What Makes Your People Valuable
The question isn't whether AI will transform your work. It's whether you'll use it to amplify human potential, or accidentally erode it. Your team is caught in a strange tension. Half of them worry AI will make them irrelevant. The other half would happily hand over as much work as possible. Meanwhile, you're under pressure to adopt fast, show ROI, and not break anything important in the process. But here's what gets lost in the rush: AI can analyse, predict, and recommend, but it can't step into the room when tensions rise, make the call when information is incomplete, or hold the team steady when everything is uncertain. The more AI handles the routine, the more human value concentrates in exactly those moments. This keynote shows leaders how to build AI-human partnerships that make both the technology and the people more effective, protecting and strengthening the capabilities AI can't replace: judgment, creativity, connection, and performance under pressure.
The Regenerative Workplace: For Leaders Who Want Their People to Perform at Their Best, Sustainably
Organisations spend $60 billion a year on wellbeing initiatives. The results are inconclusive at best. It's time for a new model. You've probably seen it: the meditation app nobody uses, the wellness webinar that felt like one more thing to attend, the resilience training that landed while everyone was already exhausted. Traditional approaches treat wellbeing as a perk, something separate from real work, bolted on at the edges. But your people don't need more programmes. They need an environment where performing well and feeling well aren't in competition. Where the work itself builds capacity instead of just depleting it. This keynote introduces a different approach: regenerative performance, where wellbeing and high performance reinforce each other instead of trading off. Leaders learn how to create the conditions where people don't just bounce back from pressure, but grow stronger through it. The result isn't wellness theatre. It's a genuine competitive advantage.
Official Feedback from In-Person & Virtual Events:
"We were looking for an inspiring speaker who could share new insights and a new perspective. What we didn’t expect was a total experience. From the moment James stepped onto the stage to his closing remarks, the audience was gripped. James is able to combine elements of his work in sports, science, and the corporate world to provide an engaging presentation.” - Katherine, Global Head of Marketing & Communications, QuantumBlack, a McKinsey company
"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, CEO, Youth Sport Trust
"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, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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, Digital Marketing Manager at UBS
- 2025 - Published ‘Regenerative Performance’
- 2022 - Founded The Knowledge Work Lab
- 2020 - Appointed Chief Innovation Officer at OPTIVIO
- 2018 - Became Chief Innovation Officer at Hintsa Performance
- 2016 - Appointed Head of Science & Innovation at Hintsa Performance
- 2014 - Completed PhD in Performance Science at Loughborough University
How to hire Dr James Hewitt
Contact the Champions Speakers Agency to provisionally enquire about hiring Dr James Hewitt 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.
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