Martin McCourt

Former CEO, Dyson Ltd.

Martin McCourt Keynote Speaker Fee Fee range is for U.S. events, depending on location and organization type
$10,001 - $20,000
Languages Spoken
English
Travels From
United Kingdom (UK)

Martin McCourt Keynote Speaker Fee Fee range is for U.S. events, depending on location and organization type
$10,001 - $20,000
Languages Spoken
English
Travels From
United Kingdom (UK)

Suggested Keynote Speaker Programs

Innovation is a Way of Being

Most businesses will say that they wish to be innovative, and that they wish their people would be more creative. Easy to say, much harder to do. So much gets in the way. Meetings, action points, past experience and prejudice, workloads that exceed ...

Most businesses will say that they wish to be innovative, and that they wish their people would be more creative. Easy to say, much harder to do. So much gets in the way. Meetings, action points, past experience and prejudice, workloads that exceed time available, poor setting of priorities …inept leadership.

Learn More

Ideas

Have the right people, tap into their thinking and instincts, encourage and liberate their idea flow. What we do that achieves this and what we do that can stifle creativity.

Iterative Development

How Dyson aped the age old principles of engineering and product development, employing fundamental techniques such as cardboard modelling combined with cutting edge CGI.

Vertical Growth

Enjoying the journey, deliberate disruption and the consequences. Being ready to meet adversity and to turn it into opportunity. Making your business look good, often at the expense of others. Helping competition score own goals. ...

Enjoying the journey, deliberate disruption and the consequences. Being ready to meet adversity and to turn it into opportunity. Making your business look good, often at the expense of others. Helping competition score own goals.

Learn More

Big Changes

Transferring all manufacturing, UK based, to SEA. The role that technology played in supporting an effective transfer. Doing the right thing even if it is the hardest thing (widespread criticism at Dyson decision).

More Bumps in the Road

Entertaining incidents that resulted in competitors helping Dyson to market leadership in the USA in under two years from launch.

Confronting Failure

The Dyson washing machine was not a commercial success. Airblade, Air Multiplier and Vacuum cleaners were. Importance of how we react when it goes wrong…

Think Big and Stay Small

How hard we need to work to retain our identity. Being David and the advantages over Goliath. How to make sure that scaling up does not bring about a loss of identity.

About Keynote Speaker Martin McCourt

Martin McCourt has spent over 40 years working at the heart of British-based manufacturing, design and marketing for quality brands such as Dyson, Mars, Duracell, Toshiba and Pelikan.

Martin was the CEO of Dyson for 15 years, the ideas to market-leading consumer products maker. As CEO, he devised and implemented a strategy that transformed the company from a single product, single market producer into one where 80% of the business came from over 60 markets around the world. In that time he increased UK skilled jobs, grew profits to over £300m and enabled James Dyson to keep on inventing. In 2011 Dyson hit £1 bn revenue for the first time. Martin was directly responsible for the establishment of Dyson subsidiaries in the USA, Japan, Switzerland, Austria and Germany. In total he took Dyson into over 60 markets, achieving market leadership in the majority including the USA.

Martin’s previous experience was in sales and marketing with successful global companies Mars, Duracell, Toshiba and Pelikan.

In 2010 Martin was named UK Business Leader of the Year.

CURRENT CHAIR AND NON-EXECUTIVE POSITIONS

COMPO

In August 2021 Martin was appointed as Chairman of COMPO which is is a leading European producer and distributer of gardening soil, fertiliser, lawn seed and products for plant protection with a focus on organic ingredients.

Pure Electric
In December 2020 Martin was appointed as Chairman of Putre Electric. The business is focused on the design and development of high performance, zero emission, personal electric transportation.

Tharsus
In November 2020 Martin joined the Board of Tharsus as a Non Executive Director. Tharsus design and manufacture Strategic Machines that solve tough automation problems for Businesses, driving performance and productivity.

Weber
In January 2019 Martin joined the Board of Weber as a Non Executive Director and strategic adviser. Based in Chicago, Weber is the most recognized name in the world for barbecue grills and has the most comprehensive range of products and services in the industry.

FreeFlow Technologies
In October 2018 Martin was appointed as Chairman to FreeFlow Technologies, a dynamic UK start- up, developing a lightweight compact, high performance e-bike drive system that is backed by Williams Advanced Engineering and Foresight PE.

PAST CHAIR AND NON-EXECUTIVE POSITIONS

Lightfoot
Martin was the Chairman of Lightfoot from November 2018 until October 2021. Described as the ‘Fitbit for cars’, Lightfoot cuts fuel emmisions and saves money for drivers every time they drive.

Learning Curve Group
Martin was the Chairman of The Learning Curve Group from January 2016 until its successful exit in February 2020. Learning Curve is an organization that provides vocational education and training programmes to a wide range of learners and employers.

Headbox
From 2014 until 2020 he was a Non-Executive Director and investor for Headbox, a web based platform which enables the sharing of inspiring places for people to have meetings.

Your Life
Martin was on the Board of Your Life. A recently completed, three-year, campaign to ensure young adults in the UK have the maths and science skills needed to succeed in the current competitive global economy. 2015-2017

Glen Dimplex
He was formerly Chairman of Glen Dimplex, a leading international group that is the world’s largest manufacturer of electrical heating as well as holding significant global market positions in domestic appliances, cooling, ventilation and renewable energy solutions. 2016-2019

Dudson
Chairman of Dudson a long established ceramics company. 2017-2019

Venture Founders.
Chairman of Venture Founders. A UK-based equity investment platform designed to make Angel and Venture Capital style investing more accessible, affordable and transparent. 2016-2019

CAP
Chairman of CAP, a market leading provider of vehicle valuation data, new vehicle information and business solutions to the automotive industry. 2012-2014

CliniSys Group (CliniSys)
Chairman of CliniSys, the market leading supplier in Europe of clinical laboratory information management systems (LIMS), 2013-2016

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D.O.R.C (Dutch Ophthalmic Research Centre)
Chairman of D.O.R.C a prominent provider of innovative instruments and equipment for ophthalmic surgery. 2013-2015

Equatex
Chairman of Equatex the foremost supplier of international employee and executive compensation plan services. 2014-2016

Testimonials

“We booked Martin to talk at a Client’s internal marketing conference and he was quite simply brilliant. He has an engaging style that finds the perfect balance between being both relaxed and professional. He had the audience’s attention from the off and used a mix of media throughout his presentation to keep them interested and amused throughout. We would most definitely recommend Martin and would be more than happy to use him at future events.”

Atos

“I think I speak on behalf of all the team here at Deloitte and our guests when I say that Martin was absolutely outstanding – entertaining, inspiring, engaging, humorous – really just everything we were looking for. He made the event special and everyone was talking about him throughout the evening.”

Deloitte

“Martin delivered a great speech followed by a Q&A session on his story of Dyson and engaged our participants from the start to the end. His examples were compelling and disruptive, delivering a great message around idea generation and how to behave in a very competitive market. Our leaders really much enjoyed the session and found him very authentic and charismatic.”

Vodafone Group

In short Martin is one of the best after dinner speakers we have had in 17 years. His storytelling gave our guests the ‘take home’ nuggets of advice and inspiration that any good business speaker must provide. He had us all laughing at his turn of phrase and self-deprecating insights.

The Sunday Times