RORY UNDERWOOD
Rory combines the wealth of experience from international sport, the military, extreme human achievement, and the tried and tested formula of personal and team development to create processes for individuals, teams, and organisations to inspire performance.
BIO
Rory is probably best known for his international rugby career. Not only for scoring a record 49 tries for England (85 caps, 1984-1996) but also for winning 7 caps for the British Lions touring Australia (1989) and New Zealand (1993). Rory played first class rugby at Leicester Tigers for an unbelievable 14 years and was awarded the MBE in 1992 for his services to rugby. Rory joined the Board of Leicester Tigers as a non-executive Director in Nov 2007.
Throughout this record-breaking rugby career Rory amassed 3000hrs flying as a pilot in his 18 years in the Royal Air Force. During his Air Force career he flew the Jet Provost TMk5A, Hawk TMk1A, Tornado GR1, Canberra T17 and the Dominie. He was responsible for introducing Crew Resources Management (CRM) training into the RAF, thereby developing a culture where personnel look at how teamwork and decision making is effected in time limited stressful situations.
Rory has a specific interest and expertise in the areas of effective communication and high-performance leadership within teams. His experience and insight gained through his stellar rugby and RAF career has allowed him to bring a different perspective to the performance of business teams. He is an experienced facilitator, psychometric profiler, and performance coach.
Rory incorporates his inspirational experiences with practical performance activities creating an environment for delegates to explore and challenge their view of teams and how they can make an impact within the business. He will explore and challenge the delegates about their understanding of teams, high performance, and how to measure it.
Rory uses his experiences from his time within high-performance organisations and teams that are able to bring a different perspective than the normal ‘team building workshop. He explores the relationship between values and motivation that is bound together by the trust to enable you to create and sustain a high-performance team ethos within the organisation.
Rory combines the wealth of experience from international sport, the military, extreme human achievement, and the tried and tested formula of personal and team development to create processes for individuals, teams, and organisations to inspire performance.
TESTIMONIALS
"Rory is an inspirational speaker both to large audiences and in more intimate settings. We invited Rory to speak at a large networking event and at much smaller exclusive dinners and on each occasion guests were captivated by Rory’s experiences, on and off the pitch, irrespective of their interest in rugby. It was a pleasure to host events with Rory as a guest speaker and our guests have told us that they remember these exceptional events above others.”
Colin Farmer
Consultant, Alliotts LLP
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"Rory spoke on High Performing Teams at Spinnaker’s annual Maritime People and Culture Conference, which attracts a senior global audience. It’s always hugely pleasing for an event organiser to see the delegates fully engaged, smiling, laughing, and participating. Rory achieved that and then some. His style and content combined to produce an entertaining and educated talk. We were delighted and the feedback from the audience was extremely positive.”
Phil Parry
Chairman, Spinnaker Global Ltd