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So, I won!
Winning Best Newcomer 2026 at The Speaker Awards & Summit in London, has made me realise something...
People have been asking how I ended up combining neuroscience, leadership and magic.
I think I’ve been exploring the same question for over 26 years.
It started with my Fine Art degree with installations that caused people to interact and then experience an illusion based on their expectations.
Then later my dissertation: “Illusion, Art and Magic.” I was fascinated by why we perceive the world the way we do. I recently noticed I’d even included sections on the science of vision and how the brain interprets what our eyes see. So maybe the science bit had already started.
One quote from art historian Ernst Gombrich stayed with me:
“There is no better class of person than conjurers to bring about such phantom perceptions. They set up a train of expectations, a semblance of familiar situations that causes our imagination to run ahead and complete itself obligingly without knowing where we’ve been tricked.”
It encompasses everything I do.
Years later, I released my first DVD to the magic community. An underground seller.Its title?Illusion Through Expectation.
The clues were already there.
Around 18 years ago, someone suggested I should become a professional speaker and combine it with my magic.I LOVED the idea… but I didn’t feel I’d earned it.
I hadn’t yet led teams, navigated organisational change, experienced setbacks, coached people, or built the credibility I believed was needed to stand in front of leaders and teams and ask them to think differently.
So I kept learning.
Over the next two decades, I worked in global organisations, spent around a decade in senior leadership, won regional magic competitions, came 2nd in a British national magic competition, and experienced the realities of leading people through change and high-performance.
The idea of speaking was still parked.
Then redundancy happened, which at the time felt like a setback.
But looking back, it became one of the greatest opportunities of my career.
It led me to study with the NeuroLeadership Institute, where I discovered something unexpected. Not only was I strengthening my leadership capabilities for my subsequent role, but, suddenly, everything connected creatively.
A Venn diagram on my skills, passions, and experiences led to leadership, neuroscience and magic.
Today, I combine evidence-based neuroscience with cognitive illusions to create immersive, interactive experiences that transform how people think, lead and adapt - unlocking high performance, embracing change and strengthening human connection.
Looking back now, winning Best Newcomer 2026 doesn’t feel like the beginning of a new chapter.
It feels like finally recognising the thread that has been there all along.
An artist, a leader, a magician, a lifelong student.
A happy combination, creating mind-changing learning experiences by challenging expectations.
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I'm Alex,
If you’re looking for an interactive and highly engaging keynote speaker who combines neuroscience with experiential cognitive illusions to strengthen human connection, high performance or adaptability to change, let’s have a no-obligation chat. Every keynote is relevant, personalised and tailored to your audience.
