Champions Speakers has announced that Katy Leeson, the woman credited by Steven Bartlett as having “changed everything”, will appear exclusively as a keynote speaker.
Katy spent over five years working alongside the Dragons’ Den personality, advancing to managing director of his Social Chain company.
Steven has called her “exceptional”, praising her leadership as she scaled the business from 30 to more than 750 employees across 24 offices worldwide.
She went on to become CEO of Relentless Media, Gary Neville’s media firm, where she took charge of Salford City FC’s media team and developed the club’s digital platforms.
Her accomplishments also include directing the marketing strategy for Stick to Football and contributing to the launch of The Overlap, now one of the UK’s biggest sports shows on YouTube and a live touring success.
These achievements underline Katy’s reputation as one of the UK’s leading women in business.
She has twice been named a LinkedIn Top Voice, was honoured as a Campaign Female Frontier in 2020, shortlisted as an IPA Women of Tomorrow Finalist in 2016, and grown a professional network of 70,000 followers on LinkedIn.
Now, in an exciting new collaboration with Champions Speakers, the UK’s leading keynote agency, Katy will share the story of her career so far, and explain why she felt able to walk away from her dream job.
Katy said: “I’m hugely excited to be working with Champions Speakers, and starting to write a brand new chapter in my career. If I help just one person by sharing my experiences then I’ve achieved my mission.
“I hope people leave my talks feeling inspired, but also equipped with practical takeaways they can apply in their own roles. I want the message to stay with them long after the event.”
Reflecting on her time working with Steven and Gary she said: “The biggest lesson I learned from Steven and from Gary was the power of visionary leadership combined with a willingness to challenge.
“They taught me to trust my instincts, push boundaries, and always put people first. The main thing that both of them have though, is an incredible way to envisage what is next, before anyone else has a clue and I’ve tried to absorb a bit of that from both of them in how I think now. Steven has been hugely supportive, and said how interesting my career arc will be to a lot of people I will be speaking to.”
Explaining how she initiated the change which Steven so famously credited her for bringing about, Katy said: “To hear that was an incredible compliment from Steven. I’m a very good reader of people, they key for me was to hire people who fitted the values of the company. For me you can have the strongest CV but if you are going to disrupt the rest of the established team by the way you approach things I don’t want to hire you. I also focussed on building a strong, values-led culture; implementing clear communication, especially around company performance, and empowering teams to take ownership and innovate.”
Jack Hayes, the Director of Champions Speakers, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Katy into the family at Champions Speakers. She’s already one of the country’s best and most inspirational speakers and we’re looking forward to supporting her in this exciting new stage of her life and career.”
