Anna Hemmings MBE

Anna’s journey is a masterclass in resilience. After being told by the British head coach that she wasn’t big enough or strong enough to reach the top, she became a 3 time World Champion and Olympian by age 24. At the peak of her career, Anna was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Medical experts told her she might never race again.  She battled her way to full recovery and to win 3 more world titles and compete at her second Olympic Games in Beijing 2008. She retired with a staggering 11 World and European Championship medals – 9 of them gold, becoming Britain’s most successful female kayaker and earning her an MBE for her services to sport.

Since retiring from sport, Anna has specialized in helping leaders and teams build the mindset, habits and culture needed to thrive and stay at the top of their game.  She’s an accredited Leadership Coach and founded Beyond the Barriers training consultancy, designing and delivering programmes on resilience, leadership and high-performing teams for organisations worldwide.

Her expertise sits at the intersection of elite sports performance and corporate reality. With 15 years of experience working closely with senior leaders she understands the intensity of the corporate environment: stretch targets, constant change, limited resources under relentless pressure. She brings the discipline and mindset of world-class sport together with actionable tools to drive sustained excellence.

With 18 years’ of speaking experience across more than 40 countries and multiple industries, Anna is more than an entertaining storyteller.

She delivers energizing and high impact keynotes that go beyond inspiring insights from elite sport. She connects elite performance principles directly to the challenges her audiences face, providing practical frameworks to navigate constant change and high pressure targets. Clients consistently praise her warmth, authenticity and ability to shift both mindset and capability in the room.

Anna’s collaborative approach ensures a seamless experience for event planners and an unforgettable one for attendees. Beyond thought-provoking keynotes, she offers podcasts and firesides chats as well as breakout sessions, follow up workshops and leadership and team development training to embed learning and maximise impact.

Anna’s most Sought After Speeches:

• The Competitive Edge
  – Developing a winning mindset
  – Strategies for sustaining high performance year after year
  – The power of extraordinary goals and aligning the team
  – The importance of feedback for continuous improvement
  – Non-negotiable attitudes and behaviours that champions adopt
• Resilience in the face of Adversity
  – Developing a resilient mindset
  – Strategies to overcome setback and thrive in adversity
  – Managing perspective and focus of attention
  – Sustaining performance in the face of constant demands and pressure
• Building World Class Teams
  – What is a high performance culture and how to develop it
  – Why trust is at the foundation of a high performing team and how to build it
  – The importance of being aligned and focusing on collective results
  – Embracing accountability for enhanced performance and higher standards
  – The power of healthy conflict and constructive challenge for optimal solutions and better decisions