Tanni understands the parallels between sport and business, and has invaluable lessons from her sporting background that can be transferred to the boardroom.
A very strong communicator, she is super at motivating and inspiring an audience, be it a small gathering of CEOs or a large room of employees.
Whether entertaining audiences with behind-the-scenes stories from the Olympics or sharing colourful anecdotes of her many meetings with world leaders, Tanni gives real insight into what it is like to represent and win gold for your country. In everything she does her lively personality and down-to-earth sense of humour shine through.
Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson is Britain’s greatest Paralympic athlete. She competed in five Paralympic Games, winning 11 Gold Medals, and is acknowledged as one of the most gifted and courageous sportswomen of her generation. In addition to her outstanding Paralympic achievements, between 1992 and 2002 she won the London Wheelchair Marathon a total of six times.
Now retired, Tanni still plays an active role in the administration of sport. Amongst other positions she is a consultant to the 2012 Organising Committee, a Laureus Sport for Good Foundation Trustee, non-executive director of UK Athletics, on the board of Transport for London and is an International Inspiration Ambassador for UNICEF. In 2005 she was made ‘Dame’ Tanni Grey-Thompson DBE for her services to sport, while in 2010 she was elevated to the House of Lords as a “people’s peer”. With specialist interest in sport, disability, health and youth development she sits on the crossbenches, bringing a wealth of experience and authority to the House.
"Thank you for your excellent speech at the NVCO Annual Conference. In the days since, many of our delegates have told us that they left feeling inspired by your words and that by sharing your knowledge and experience; you have given them strength to face the difficult times ahead." - National Council for Voluntary Organisations, March 2011
"Tanni was amazing! Massive amounts of positive feedback. We have raised almost £70,000 clear profit from the event which is fantastic!" - Yorkhill Children's Foundation, November 2010
"Your session on the importance of support, thinking outside the box and aiming high linked in perfectly with our own messages as well as the conference theme. The feedback we have had from our attendees was amazing and many of them have singled you out as being a huge part of their weekend and have said that they left the event feeling truly inspired to succeed and reach their goals." - Traveller Counsellors, November 2010
"A truly inspiration and excellent key note presentation at the Towards World Class HR in the North West Conference. Thank you for your valuable contribution." - NHS North West Conference
"Dame Tanni’s presentation was outstanding. She delivered a talk that met the aims of the conference. The audience were completely engaged and hung on every word. The feedback was positive. They felt Tanni was an inspiration and felt that her comments about sport were easily transferable to education." - Jewish Schools Conference
"Tanni presented to a room of some 200 Sainsbury’s colleagues. All our colleagues found her stories of her sports career both fascinating and inspiring. Her desire to succeed was obvious and certainly something to think about! Sport Relief and Comic Relief are topics very close to the hearts of our colleagues. Tanni shared with us her experiences of working with Comic and Sport relief and gave examples which helped illustrate the impact of the money that we raise has on people less fortunate than us. Tanni took questions from the audience. Her natural, relaxed style made colleagues feel able to ask many questions across a raft of topics, not least her role on Transport for London." - Sainsbury's, CEO, Justin King
“We’re over the moon. Tanni was absolutely fantastic.” - Welsh Assembly, Motivational/Diversity Keynote
“Just a note to say a big thank you to Dame Tanni for the event yesterday. We were delighted and as ever Dame Tanni was amazing!!!” - Herbert Smith, Women's Networking Event
"Tanni is a lovely warm and engaging person and spent time with our executive getting to know them before she spoke. Her talk was exceptional, perfectly delivered and her message was spot on. She received a standing ovation, which not an easy thing to achieve at an event like this. The feedback from everyone has been fantastic." - Des Duggan, Manager Training, Education and Staffing, IBM Inside Sales Centre Delivery Excellence, 8th February 2012