Chris Roebuck

Chris Roebuck

• A leader in business, military and government
• Leading-edge insights in his role as Honorary Visiting Professor of Transformational Leadership
• 9 times HR Most Influential Thinker award nominee
• Author of the acclaimed business book ‘Lead to Succeed’

Professor Chris Roebuck started developing his leadership skills while still in the British Army where he was an officer in the Royal Engineers. The economist and leadership expert’s subsequent working career has seen him become a leader in both the corporate and public sectors, with the visiting professor fulfilling the roles of both CEO mentor and advisor.

Chris has already shown over 21,000 leaders in over 1500 organisations globally via over 250 keynotes how they can discover their secrets of success in a way that meets and beats their organisations specific challenges. That’s via his theme of “Explosive Leadership” – unleashing the full potential explosive energy of self and others when truly inspired.

“The coronavirus pandemic has changed the way in which we used to work.  Previously every day we go to work it’s in the hope that everything runs perfectly. But that rarely ever happens. Events blow us off track or distract us creating challenges we need to beat.”

Chris, calls these orgmines, organisational landmines. If ignored, they build into disasters. Recall the Financial Crisis, Kodaks decline, Enrons scandal and tragedy of the Gulf of Mexico? Started small, got ignored, blew up.

To beat these challenges Chris delivers inspiring and interactive keynotes, both remote and face to face, which enable audiences to realise and then unleash their own hidden potential to start to make a difference and succeed as soon as they leave the room. All powered by “Explosive Energy”.

He has done this across sector, culture and geography – UBS, HSBC, KPMG & London Underground, legal firms to construction, tech and IT, to retail, facilities to scientific research, the police, to not for profit, pharmaceutical to SMEs. From the UK National Health Service of 1.4m staff and UK Government to the Red Cross in Myanmar, from Investment banks in London to Middle East Telecoms, from the Chinese Space Programme leaders to HR Directors in India and global retail CEOs in Rome.

While he was the Global Head of Leadership at UBS, 70,000 employees in 100 countries,  Chris and his team helped the bank transform its organisational performance, boosting profitability and market capitalization. This initiative is presently a Harvard School Business Case Study.

Chris Roebuck’s “Explosive Leadership” approach is the result of research he conducted that indicates that up to 80% of all organisational initiatives fail, implying that current approaches to leadership do not work. Instead, he advocates for a more ‘human’ approach regarding leadership style, in other words, one that inspires and unleashes the hidden potential in employees.

Chris has been regarded a leadership expert globally and been quoted or interviewed by the likes of the Harvard Business Review China, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and a host of other financial publications. He has also been interviewed on television over 250 times and appeared on BBC channel, Bloomberg, ITV, CNBC, CNN, and the Voice of America, to name but a few.

His book ‘Lead to Succeed’ has received wide acclaim and is described as insightful, superb, and a masterful guidebook. According to Chris,

“The book is really aimed at the most basic level of helping leaders get their people to care about the organisation.”

Chris Roebuck – Conference & Virtual Speaker

As a speaker, Chris does not focus on theory. Instead, he incorporates a simple, practical leadership approach that is engaging, ethical, and effective. It is aimed at what works for real leaders to achieve success.

Chris also delivers remote keynotes from his dedicated studio and the feedback has been great. The CIO of SWIFT the global payments network said of Chris multi-continent keynote “Thanks for a very inspiring talk. What I really like about it is that it’s about day to day things that we can do now, everyone is involved not just leaders. If we all keep these ideas in mind then our leadership is on a good path.”

Everything Chris does is focused on giving his best for audiences, delivering insight, understanding and inspiration for action, so they can give their best and inspire others to do the same.

Speaking Keynotes by Chris Robuck by audience type:

Leadership
Audience: All leaders at all levels – can be tailored to a board-level presentation.
“Unleash your potential for success”
“Beating the competition in just 2 steps”
“Inspirational leadership – key to success”

Innovation
Audience: All leaders/groups wanting to be more innovative
“Creating success through innovative thinking”
“Enabling breakthrough innovation via breakthrough leadership”
“How effective leadership drives significantly better innovation in organisations”

Change 
Audience: anyone engaged in change
“Successful change – 2 steps to making it work then stick – I CARE”
80% of change or initiatives never reach potential this helps leaders dramatically improve this

Financial
Audience: finance directors/ financial professionals
“Boosting bottom line by 10% for no cost – in just 2 steps”.
“Finance Director as a strategic leader.” – finance directors
“Leadership success as a driver of investment performance” – investment/ asset managers

Customer Focus
Audience: leaders of customer-facing staff
“Maximising customer service – in just 2 steps”
“inspiring your people to deliver best customer service”
It is a fact that customer service is more effective when employees have effective leaders

Brand and Marketing
Audience: branding and marketing professionals
“Every employee as a Brand ambassador – your route to success”.
“Marketings greatest secret asset – your employees – unleash the power”
Creating an environment where every employee is a proactive brand ambassador.

M&A and integration
Audience: those working on mergers, acquisitions or integration
“Successful mergers and integration through inspirational leadership – being the best of both”.
The majority of M&A don’t reach full potential due to leadership failure

Human Resources
Audience: HR professionals
“Human Resources as a catalyst for success”

Risk management / legal
Audience risk professionals and possibly in house legal.
The ultimate operational risk and legal solution
Effective risk management via culture not process

CEOs, Boards and Non Executives
Audience: CEOs Boards and Non Executives
“Being a successful strategic leader as well as an operational one”
“Leveraging the drivers of success most organisations miss”
“The NEDs guide to critical human capital issues”
Helping CEOs, Boards and Non Executives understand better their strategic roles and the critical elements of human capital which drive success

Reference Links & Media

March 2018, The Royal Gazette: ‘Chris Roebuck To Chair Bermuda Entrepreneurial Leadership Summit’

May 2018, APED Conference Lisbon, Portugal: Chris Roebuck to give ‘Leadership in a new working ecosystem’ keynote to the Portuguese Retail Association’