Rory Underwood MBE DL
Rory is probably best known for his international rugby career.
Not only for scoring a record 49 tries for England (85 caps, 1984-1996) but also for winning 7 caps for the British Lions touring Australia (1989) and New Zealand (1993). Rory played first class rugby at Leicester Tigers for an unbelievable 14 years and was awarded the MBE in 1992 for his services to rugby. Rory spent 13 years (2007-2020) as a non-executive Director on the Board of Leicester Tigers.
Throughout this record-breaking rugby career Rory amassed 3000hrs flying as a pilot in his 18 years in the Royal Air Force. During his Air Force career he flew the Jet Provost TMk5A, Hawk TMk1A, Tornado GR1, Canberra T17 and the Dominie. He was responsible for introducing Crew Resources Management (CRM) training into the RAF, encompassing a wide range of knowledge, skills and attitudes including communications, situational awareness, problem-solving, decision-making and teamwork.
Rory’s stellar rugby and RAF career has allowed him to bring a different perspective into the performance of business teams. With his extensive background, Rory has a specific interest and expertise in the areas of effective communication and high-performance leadership within teams. With his critical strategic thinking, he has continually strived to create processes for individuals, teams and organisations to inspire high performance.
He is an experienced facilitator, psychometric profiler and performance coach.
Rory founded Wingman Ltd in 2009, a strategy consultancy that utilises his experiences from his time within high-performance organisations and teams, and applies them to the challenges faced by CEO’s, MD’s and Business Owners as they try to grow their businesses.
Rory understands implicitly the dynamics at play in successful high-performance environments and what it takes to deliver on a strategy effectively. With over 20 years working with businesses across various sectors, Rory’s experiences have accumulated in the creation of Wingman’s proprietary LIFT model, centred on People, Purpose, and Process. Employing this model, Rory enables businesses to foster a high-performance environment, empowering individuals and teams to contribute to organisational success.
Working with senior leadership and management teams by innovatively challenging their strategic intent, identifying ‘DRAG’ and creating ‘LIFT’, Rory offers niche expertise into the world of strategy consultancy. He incorporates his wealth of inspirational experiences, extreme human achievement and invaluable insights and translates them into practical, pragmatic tools for business strategy implementation.
Rory has presented as a thought leader on business strategy at the University of Surrey and the University of Leicester Business School. In addition, he was honoured with a Doctorate of Science from the University of Teesside in July 2022.
Rory is a captivating keynote speaker, sharing insights on leadership, resilience, and strategic thinking drawn from his experiences in elite sport, the military, and business.
Rory’s 3 mindset messages:
- The only mistake you’ll ever make is one you never learn from
- Don’t think about the opposition, think about yourself. Be the best you can be and let the opposition worry about you
- Seek to understand before being understood.
Food
Rory didn’t specify a particular dish, but shared a list of his vegetable preferences. While this presented a challenge, I conducted thorough research and decided on Vietnamese Shaking Beef.
He absolutely loved this dish!!! 🙂
When Rory arrived, I walked him through the menu and made some thoughtful adjustments. I replaced the cucumber with peas and red peppers—two of his favourite vegetables. As they say, a true chef adapts in the moment, and the dish turned out beautifully. I also prepared one of my personal favourites, tuna sashimi on crispy rice, which he was delighted to try.
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