Justin Hughes is a former Fighter Pilot and Executive Officer in the world-famous Red Arrows.
After 15 years as a consultant on building high-performance cultures, Justin is uniquely positioned to inspire and offer practical insights into the drivers of excellence.
Justin started his career in the RAF. During officer training, he was awarded the Wilkinson Sword for Outstanding Leadership and graduated as the top cadet of his entry.
Following his flight training, Justin eventually flew the Tornado F3 – a fighter aircraft used for front-line air defence.
During his career, Justin took part in training and operational deployments worldwide, including UN peacekeeping operations in Bosnia. Justin was qualified to lead any Tornado mission.
After that, Hughes was selected to join the world-famous aerobatic display team – The Red Arrows.
Justin was a member of this elite hand-picked team of only nine pilots for three years. He performed in over 250 displays worldwide at took part in three international tours.
As Executive Officer, he was responsible for the day-to-day operational management of the flying team and its 90 support personnel.
In 2003, Justin founded a consultancy working with clients committed to building high-performance environments.
Justin Hughes – Motivational Speaker:
Justin is a leading motivational speaker in both high-performance and high-risk environments.
Speaking topics include:
- Building High-Performance Teams and Organisations
- Leadership
- Strategic Ambiguity and Agility
- Decision-Making and Risk
- Behavioural Safety and Safety Culture
- Culture, Leadership and Priorities
- Psychological Safety: Right Environment, Right Attitudes, Right Processes
As an experienced speaker, Justin has presented at hundreds of management meetings, conferences, academic forums, and dinners worldwide.
Clients range from global corporations (e.g. 3M, Microsoft) to the public sector (e.g. Bank of England, NATO) and world championship-winning sports franchises (e.g. Mercedes F1). He was also a guest presenter on Oxford University’s MSc in Major Programme Management London Business School’s ‘Executing Strategy for Results’.
Justin’s most popular presentation, ‘The Business of Excellence’, based on his book of the same name, explores and examines the drivers of high performance in teams and organisations, drawing on examples from business, sport, the military, and his own personal experience as a fighter pilot and member of the Red Arrows.
Justin’s breadth of operational, speaking, academic and consulting experience allows him to develop tailored content specific to the client audience.
As well as keynote and after-dinner speaking engagements, Justin’s consulting experience includes conference design, hosting and coaching of internal speakers.
He also runs high-impact team-building seminars and workshops for meetings and co-presents with James Woudhuysen (on agility), Stephen Bungay (on executing strategy) and Anna McNuff (on motivation).
Justin has an MBA with Distinction from London Business School and a BSc (Hons) in physics from the University of Bristol.