Gareth Tennant 

Gareth Tennant is a former head of operational intelligence for the Royal Marines, who over an extensive career specialised in Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance operations. Having learnt and honed his trade in some of the worlds toughest and most complex environments from combat in Afghanistan to tracking pirates in Somalia, he became a global leader in the art of ‘Information Exploitation’. He now supports business leaders, governments and security services in the art of decision making in complex environments. He ensures they can adapt as the threats change; he has worked extensively in the developing world of cybersecurity and the use of social media as an intelligence tool. He is used to integrating new paradigms into established institutions.

Specifically, in the business arena, Gareth coaches’ senior executives with adapting their leadership and management styles to achieve greater results from the use of information and data. He has delivered speeches, workshops and lectures at a number of renowned universities, think tanks and conferences. He uses thought-provoking correlations between global security challenges and those faced by business in a highly de-centralised, complex and connected environment. Gareth’s use of visceral examples, from the world of human conflict and espionage, captivates audiences. He has a unique ability to ground often ethereal ideas into a real-world context; his message is both fascinating and inspiring; it has also never been more prescient and provides fundamentally practical and applicable solutions.

Speaking topics:

• Sensemaking – Decision making in volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environments.
• Strategy vs Tactics – Linking a long-term vision to tangible day to day activity.
• Why data is not the new oil.
• Exploiting data technologies – To truly understand what is going on around us, we must understand the capabilities and limits of the sensors we rely on to construct our models.
• The ethics of surveillance – balancing the triumvirate of, privacy, security and convenience when it comes to our data.
• The future of information technology – emerging trends, capabilities and threats in our ability to truly understand the world around us.
• Leadership in uncertainty and why the military might not have the answer.
• Influence – Lessons in behavioural change from military PsyOps