Keith Spiers

Keith is passionate about leading and inspiring people. His extraordinary journey has taken him from a Nottingham council estate to a Lt Col in the British Army, commanding soldiers in Iraq. He has also been an advisor to the European Military Service (EUMS). Having climbed the ladder from the first rung in the army and civilian employment, he challenges ideas of what it takes to be a leader and manager, crucially how to inspire staff, putting them at the centre of everything to grow amazing teams. Finding inspiration from the most unlikely people, he overcomes bias based on his background and education.  Keith’s success came as he made values-based leadership a life choice, not something left in the office at the end of the day. An accomplished speaker he brings to life four decades of experience and knowledge with humour and humility.

Keith was born in Nottingham, the youngest of three growing up on a council estate on the city boundaries, he experienced a tough school life leaving with basic qualifications, stumbling into his first career and becoming a qualified horticulturalist.  An unusual profession to discover his ability to lead others, he rose rapidly to management, learning on the job winning contracts, rescuing failing business teams and developed a flair for IT. Never one to let the ‘grass grow’ he used his flair and became an IT professional, with qualifications from Microsoft and Cisco, including the hard to achieve ITIL Managers Certificate, combining this with a flair for project management he consistently delivered projects on time and under budget.  His ability to improve process and gain maximum effect with minimum resource became his trademark.  Sharing his civilian life with the Army developing the core values for leadership and provided a valuable training ground, this was never truer than his deployment to Iraq as a Major in command of 130 infantry soldiers, being challenged and growing every day with the weight of those lives on his shoulders.

With itchy feet, he spent a short time training potential Officer Cadets for the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst before embarking on a more permanent challenge committing to serve for a short period (now a decade on) living the values and standards he holds dear and key to leadership.  The last decade has brought promotion to Lt Col working in the Permanent Joint HQ, advising Brussels on Military use of British soldiers, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of European policy on using nominated soldiers, with the challenge of developing and rewriting European Military Service processes for using military forces. He has gone on to command a Reserve infantry unit of 550 soldiers based over nine counties.  Responsible for connecting the army with society across the East of England he has been awarded an OBE in recognition of his passion and drive to help young people better understand the Army and to bust persistent negative myths.  He pioneered new innovative ways to engage with tens of thousands of young people in the most cost-effective way, designing a method now in use across the country.