Leadership - Performance - Resilience

GEMMA MORGAN is an inspiring keynote speaker, author and leadership consultant who has more than 25 years experience across business, elite sport and the military. She is often called upon for expert advice on a range of subjects including women in leadership, resilience and what it takes to build a high performing team.

Gemma began her career as an Army Officer and was the first woman to be awarded the Carmen Sword for outstanding leadership from HRH Princess Royal. She is a former International Athlete and Welsh Captain, gaining 85 Caps and ranked the ‘Most Valuable player in Europe’ at the 1997 Games. Today, she is the Founder of Morgan Eight Ltd, Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management (FInstLM) and Master Coach of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (MPNLP).

Gemma has featured on our TV screens, starring in the BBC Documentary ‘Gareth Malone and the Invictus Games Choir’. She also appeared alongside HRH Prince Harry and Warner Brothers in the promotion of ‘Dunkirk’, the movie. She is an Ambassador for the charity ‘Help for Heroes’, supporting wounded, injured and sick British Armed Forces Veterans. Having suffered post-traumatic stress as a result of her military service, Gemma campaigns to promote mental health awareness in organisations today.

Leadership Consultant

Gemma specialises in building leadership capability, partnering with organisations to bring their strategy to life. She is an expert in the design and delivery of experiential programs that identify leadership potential, develop leadership excellence, and ignite high performing teams.

Gemma has more than 17 years of global consulting experience, working at every level from first time leaders to C-Suite. She has experience across multiple industry sectors from Telecommunications, the NHS, Pharmaceuticals and the England and Wales Cricket Board.

Gemma understands that technical brilliance is never enough. Resilient leaders inspire a deeper sense of meaning, trust and inter-connection between people. Some see this as the ‘soft stuff’, but for Gemma it is the essential foundation upon which the practical tools of leadership can then be built.

Put simply, leadership has a human heartbeat – it is the human connection that keeps us alive.

"Gemma, the way you have influenced my journey so far has been profound, and I say that not just from a performance point of view, but as a human being. The support you have given me in the toughest of times on and off the pitch has been immense, and to be completely honest I’m not sure I would have survived without it."

HIGH PERFORMANCE COACH | CLIENT

Pink Camouflage

Her husband found her by the roadside, delirious and choking on her own vomit.

Gemma Morgan was 33, happily married with two young children, an outstanding army service record and a first-class international sporting career. But underneath she was a wreck, surviving on a cocktail of vodka, valium and sleeping pills.

Misogyny, sexual abuse and toxic masculinity had been the daily realities of her Army career long before being deployed unarmed and unsupported to the blood and mayhem of a war zone.

When Gemma gave birth to a baby girl, motherhood left her lost and alienated, a soldier who had deliberately suppressed her femininity with no idea how to cope.

152 Pages | Published 01/03/24 | Luath Press LDT

Together, these experiences triggered a mental crisis that left her suicidal, battling PTSD, betrayed and abandoned by the institution to which she had devoted seven years of her life. With the support of her family Gemma has since been on a long, hard and bumpy road to recovery.

This is her shocking story in her own words. She has told it to inspire a fierce and urgent call for change.

Available to buy online via Waterstones, Amazon & Luath Press LDT

"Brutal and difficult to stomach. Gemma demonstrates the very best of what it means to serve and protect the freedom of others."

MANDY BOSTWICK | TRAUMA PYSCHOTHERAPIST

"It's a great read, it's not an easy read but that's okay...sometimes we need that. I do think it will help so many people."

LORRAINE KELLY | TV PRESENTER & AUTHOR

Testimonials

"Gemma made a pivotal impact to our record-breaking medal haul at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. She models a unique mix of thought-provoking honesty, empathy and robust humility. We are indebted to her wealth of experience and practical insight."

Geraint Richards | Performance Director | GB Wheelchair Tennis

Articles

The Times Magazine: I wasn't cared for, but cast out
"I read what was happening to women in the armed forces today and I felt a duty to speak out."

BBC International Women's Day: Being a woman and a soldier
"You didn't want to be the girl in the Army that looks weak, because they already think that you are weak."

National Army Museum: The Road To Recovery Exhibition

"Gemma was a 24-year-old Captain in the Royal Logistic Corps when she was deployed to Kosovo in 1998 to observe and verify instances of ethnic cleansing."

DAILY MAIL YOU MAGAZINE: I could be a good army officer...or a woman

"My greatest hope for those women who have come after me is that they have been able to find that same sense of pride without losing who they truly are."