Ollie Thorn

Ollie’s life changed abruptly when he was involved in a serious accident. It resulted in the end of his career in the Army and he had to completely rebuild his life, learning to live with a disability. After a long a gruelling rehabilitation, he has since competed in professional sport, and worked in leadership positions across people, culture and sales. He now applies his experiences across leadership, accountability, change and culture in the business world. 
 
Lying in a hospital bed after being told he would never walk again, it was the power of dreaming big that strengthened his will to carry on. After 6 months bedrest and years of rehabilitation he made that dream a reality again – sitting at the top of a downhill ski race representing his country again. His experience of becoming disabled and rebuilding from ground zero taught him the importance of mindset and building the right team around you. 
 
Ollie’s story is one of unparalleled resilience and adaptability in the face of trauma. He learnt how to embrace change, build a resilient mindset and manage fear. He has since been able to translate these lessons across multiple environments. He continues to test himself by dreaming big and setting himself exciting and challenging adventures to push the boundaries of what people believe is possible with a spinal cord injury with a world first on the horizon. 
 
His experience of becoming disabled, rebuilding his life and working in a high-performance sports environment, created a passion to support others to develop a resilient mindset, manage change and perform under pressure. Alongside how these individual human factors translate successfully into team environments through the power of psychological safety. 
 
Ollie has also developed a passion for Disability Inclusion; working globally to create a more inclusive world in both the charity sector and business. These experiences range from facilitating a world leading disability leadership development programme for the leading Valuable 500 and their clients, advising and working alongside internal teams to develop and deliver disability strategies, and advocating for improved disability inclusion in the humanitarian space as a board member on a large international charity. 
 
A natural storyteller, instilled with a positive energy, Ollie is able to connect with people across different backgrounds to create that galvanising moment of connection and change.

Popular Keynotes:

• Shaping mindsets for change
• Living courageously and the importance of resilience
• The power of inclusive leadership
• De-mystifying disability