Former Australian SAS officer and Australian Survivor winner — on decision-making under pressure in high-stakes teams.
Mark Wales is a former Australian Army Special Air Service officer who made ten deployments over 16 years, including four tours of Afghanistan between 2007 and 2010, and who reached the rank of Major. He won Australian Survivor: Blood V Water in 2022, outlasting 23 other competitors, having first appeared on the series in 2017. Special Forces operational experience, an MBA from the Wharton School and a period as a consultant with McKinsey & Company have shaped a grounded perspective on leadership under sustained pressure.
His corporate work translates the operating realities of high-stakes small-team environments into language senior audiences can use — particularly around decision-making with incomplete information, leading through long periods of uncertainty, and the cultural conditions that hold teams together when the stakes are real. He is the author of the memoir Survivor: Life in the SAS, published in 2021, and the novel Outrider, published in 2024, and he founded the fashion label Kill Kapture.
For event organisers, Mark is a strong fit for leadership conferences, sales kickoffs, professional services events and in-house audiences where the brief is a substantive voice on leadership and resilience from a serious operational background. He works in-person and virtually.
Mark Wales is a keynote speaker based in Victoria who speaks on inspiration, leadership and motivation. Book through Executive Speakers Australia.
* Mark believes that leadership can be taught, and the aim of this keynote is to outline the fundamentals of elite leadership.
* Mark draws on his experience at the top levels of business and Special Operations to show you that the basics done well, are the foundations of mission success.
* Any endeavour requires applying the basics of mission focus, a supportive team, and self-care.
* Self-care fundamentals such as rest, nutrition, exercise and growth are the basics needed for elite performance.
* Mark draws from neurobiology and uses personal examples to illustrate a proven approach to prevention, recovery and growth.
* Outlines the importance of simplicity, focus and agility in planning to achieve mission success.
* Lasts for 60 minutes, including 15 minutes discussion / Q&A.
* Mark addresses increasing demands and pressures on team leaders and how self-care is critical to elite performance, mental health and thriving under pressure.
* Mark discusses team mission, team norms and personal boundaries needed for optimal performance.
* Addressing overwhelm and learning how to triage tasks in a high pressure environment.
* ‘Leading in chaos’ tips. Mark uses an example of a failed combat mission in Afghanistan to outline the importance of simplicity, focus and agility in planning.
* The aim of this series is to show the pre-mortem framework for stress testing initiatives to increase chances of mission success.
* Perfect for an annual kick-off, launching a project, or forming a new team.
* This workshop promotes collaboration, candour and removes bias, all while building better plans.
* Focused on skills and mindsets needed to lead teams under extreme uncertainty, in a highly interactive environment.
* Using examples from Special Operations, startups, and McKinsey & Company, Mark focuses on tactical tips you can use from Day 1 to improve your chances of a win in your new project or team.
* Workshop lasts for 90 minutes, with an optional 60-minute follow-up.
* Learn how to review a completed task to after execution with the intent of improving your team processes.
* This session promotes a framework to ‘learn from failure’ that you and your team can adopt for each session.
* Mark helps illustrate the importance on this with combat stories about failure in the field and how to improve from it.
* Great for training new and emerging team leaders with skills they need to gather and action feedback after each initiative.
* This session includes processes and tips to apply from Day 1.
* Workshop lasts for 90 minutes, with an optional 60-minute follow-up.
Mark's story is unique to a few - his ability to hold the room weaving his story so that it resonated with an audience that had no exposure to his story - he was easy to listen to - and his presence powerful.Roundtable Agents
Mark Wales was fantastic, he has a great story and is extremely professional and well spoken.TAL
Mark Wales was an outstanding Guest Speaker at our regional health service AGM. With a mixed audience of over 200 people including staff and community members, Mark’s fabulous presentation and his very powerful messages resonated with all. The feedback from those attending was exceptionally positive. A truly inspirational man. I could not recommend him more highly as an inspirational and motivational guest speaker.Northeast Health Wangaratta
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