ANNA HEMMINGS MBE Motivational Speaker and High Performance Coach

Description

6x World Champion. 2x Olympian. Told she'd never make it, Anna Hemmings MBE defied the odds to become Britain's most successful female kayaker, retiring with 11 World & European medals.

Winning once is hard. Winning six times – especially after a health diagnosis meant she was told she’d never race again – requires something far rarer: the ability to sustain elite performance over time. Diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome at her peak, Anna refused to accept her story was over and fought back to win 3 consecutive World titles.

Anna doesn't just teach leaders and teams how to reach the top; she equips them with strategies & team dynamics needed to stay there. As a leading authority on high performance and resilience, she helps senior leaders achieve excellence, navigate change, and sustain success under pressure.

An award-winning speaker, leadership and team coach, Anna fuses elite sport strategies with a deep understanding of human performance to deliver practical tools for high-pressure corporate environments.

The result? Shifted mindsets, new capabilities, and actionable strategies that drive lasting change.

Since retiring from sport, Anna has spent the last 16 years leading Beyond the Barriers – a high performance training consultancy. As an executive coach she has worked alongside senior leaders, giving her a profound understanding of the challenges that leaders and teams face and how to overcome them to deliver outstanding results.

Her most sought-after keynotes include:
• Sustaining Success: the high performance mindset
• Resilience: Strategies for success in the face of adversity.
• Building World-Class Teams: Cultivating a culture of sustained excellence.

Every presentation is bespoke. Anna ensures she has a deep understanding of your industry and goals and uses powerful anecdotes to bring key insights to life with honesty and humour. With 18 years on the international speaker circuit, having presented impactful keynotes speeches across 50 countries, she delivers an entertaining and thought-provoking experience that empowers audiences to deliver outstanding results.

These global brands have trusted Anna to inspire their people to achieve more: Red Bull, Unilever, Amazon, Vodafone, Rolls Royce, Roche Pharma, IBM, Deloitte LLP, RBS and many more.

Client feedback:
“Anna’s speech was the highlight of the conference and really helped to elevate the mood and boost energy after a full day of content. Her storytelling was compelling and her authenticity really drew the audience in. Her material is something that we are using to help build on post conference with some very clear and tangible actions leaders can take for themselves and their teams to enable high performance.” Samantha Evan, Senior People Partner, Civil Aerospace Rolls-Royce

“I’ve had the privilege of working with many speakers throughout my career, and Anna was one of the best! Her compelling story was enthralling, engaging, funny, and, most importantly, relatable to our entire audience across 90 countries. The way she connected the winning mindset to both our culture and performance was seamless.” Garrett Dibon-Smith, Global Training and Development Manager, Novartis

“One of the best motivational talks translating high performance in sports into the business world that I’ve heard!” – Emma Whitaker, Communications Director, Hitachi ABB Power Grids