Dr. James Hewitt

Dr. James Hewitt is a performance scientist, bestselling author of Regenerative Performance, and founder of the Knowledge Work Lab, a human high-performance consulting firm serving top-performing companies. A former racing cyclist, he has spent two decades studying what separates people who thrive under pressure from those who struggle.

As former Chief Innovation Officer for the performance coaching company behind 19 F1 World Championships, James developed methods to support clarity and execution when time is tight and stakes are high. Today, he brings that research and experience to Fortune 500 companies and organizations across consulting, finance, tech, pharma, automotive, and aerospace. His keynotes address performance under pressure, leadership, attention, sustainable performance, and collaboration between AI and humans.

Dr. James Hewitt is available to be booked for corporate and private events. Contact the Mollie Plotkin Group today to inquire about Dr. James Hewitt’s fees.

Want to book Dr. James Hewitt for an event?

Contact the Mollie Plotkin Group at (215) 995-0905 to book Dr. James Hewitt for corporate or private events, keynote speeches, workshops, fireside chats, motivational speaking, or virtual appearances. Our agency will work directly with your organization and our keynote speakers to create an unforgettable event.

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Performance Science Under Pressure

Dr. James Hewitt has spent two decades studying how people think, perform, and execute when pressure rises. His work began as a full-time racing cyclist and developed into a career in human performance science. He holds a PhD in Human Performance Science and remains an active researcher.

That work took him to Formula 1, where he served as Chief Innovation Officer for the performance coaching company behind 19 F1 World Championships. In that role, James helped develop methods designed to support clarity and execution when time is tight and consequences are high. He continues to work with F1 teams and elite performers today.

James brings those insights into the pressures of everyday business, including rapid change, ambiguity, difficult decisions, constant demands, and high-visibility moments. Through the Knowledge Work Lab, he has worked with organizations including PwC, McKinsey, BCG, HSBC, UBS, and Mercedes-Benz.

His understanding of pressure is also personal. After fighting back from cancer, James experienced firsthand what high-stakes moments can do to the mind and body. His work is grounded in a central message: pressure is inevitable, but performance is trainable.

Author and Global Keynote Speaker

James is the bestselling author of Regenerative Performance, which introduced a framework used by global organizations and elite teams. His work focuses on helping people sustain performance, recover effectively, protect attention, and respond more effectively when demands rise.

He has spoken in more than 35 countries to audiences of more than 8,000 people, including appearances at three World Economic Forum Annual Meetings in Davos, Nordic Business Forum, the Global Leadership Summit, and the global technology conference Slush.

James is regularly booked for annual meetings, leadership summits, sales kick-offs, and executive retreats. His keynotes combine performance science, stories from high-pressure environments, humor, practical frameworks, and live neurotechnology demonstrations that show audiences how pressure affects performance in real time.

Across his work, James gives leaders and teams tools to recognize what is happening as pressure rises, reset quickly, protect focus, improve communication, and sustain high performance without burning out.

To hire Dr. James Hewitt for an event, contact the Mollie Plotkin Group with the proposed event date, location, audience size, event format and program goals. Dr. James Hewitt is available for corporate events, conferences, leadership meetings, private events, workshops, fireside chats and virtual programs.

After receiving your request, a Mollie Plotkin Group booking agent will review Dr. James Hewitt’s availability, discuss the event details and get back to you within 48 hours with next steps for securing Dr. James Hewitt for your program.

The cost to book Dr. James Hewitt depends on the event date, location, format, audience size and scope of the appearance. Dr. James Hewitt’s speaking fee ranges from $20,000 to $30,000. Speaking fees may vary for keynote speeches, workshops, fireside chats, private events, corporate meetings and virtual programs.

For the most accurate Dr. James Hewitt booking fee, contact the Mollie Plotkin Group with your event details. Our team will help confirm availability, pricing and the best format for your event.

Transcend the Leadership Paradox

For Leaders Who Need to Sustain High Performance, Without Burning Themselves Out in the Process

The demands of leadership are eroding the very capabilities leaders need most.

Here’s the paradox no one talks about: the higher you rise, the more your calendar fills with other people’s priorities, and the less time you have for the thinking that made you valuable in the first place. You’re expected to be strategic, but you’re buried in the operational. Inspirational, but running on empty. Present for your team, but stretched so thin you’re not fully present anywhere.

This keynote shows leaders how to protect their most valuable capabilities under pressure, not by working harder, but by leading smarter, recovering better, and building habits that sustain performance over the long haul.

This Keynote Is Perfect for Leaders and Teams:

• Sustaining performance under relentless demands: Senior leaders trying to maintain high standards while navigating rapid change and escalating pressure, and starting to feel the cost.
• Stuck in reactive mode: Leaders who want to think strategically and innovate, but keep getting pulled back into the urgent, day after day, week after week.
• Modelling more than they intend: Leaders who suspect their own pace and habits might be setting a tone they don’t actually want their team to follow.
• Prioritising sustainable performance: Organizations recognising that leader wellbeing isn’t a perk, it’s the foundation for everything else working.

Audience Outcomes:

• A Framework for Leading Under Pressure Without Losing Yourself: A framework for leading under pressure without losing yourself: Practical methods for maintaining performance, fostering psychological safety, and inspiring your team, even when demands keep rising, and the finish line keeps moving.
• Time and Headspace for the Thinking That Matters: Time and headspace for the thinking that matters: Techniques to carve out capacity for strategic work and innovation, despite a relentless flow of immediate tasks, so you’re leading, not just reacting.
• A Sustainable Approach That Actually Works: A sustainable approach that actually works: Actionable tools for balancing leadership demands with personal recovery, so you can perform at your best without quietly burning out, and model the kind of leadership you want to see in your organization.

Built for Breakthrough

For Leaders and Teams Who Need to Perform at Their Best When the Pressure Is On, Not Just Endure the Pace

Pressure isn’t the problem. How you respond to it is.

You know the feeling. The deal is on the line, the room is watching, the decision can’t wait, and suddenly your thinking narrows, your composure slips, or the team starts pulling in different directions. It’s not a talent problem. It’s what happens when pressure changes how people think and communicate, and most of us were never trained for that moment.

This keynote shows leaders and teams how to recognise what’s happening under pressure and respond with clarity instead of reactivity, using a simple, powerful framework and practical tools that keep focus sharp, decisions sound, and execution steady when the stakes are highest.

This Keynote Is Perfect for Leaders and Teams:

• Leading through uncertainty: Teams facing rapid change, market volatility, or transformation, and needing to stay sharp when the path forward isn’t clear.
• Ready to raise the bar: Wanting to shift from working harder to working smarter when pressure hits and not just surviving, but thriving and performing.
• Facing relentless demands: Navigating tight deadlines, difficult clients, and ambitious targets, where slipping in the moment isn’t an option.
• Building a culture that thrives under pressure: Creating an environment where people perform at their best, not just endure the pace.

Audience Outcomes:

• Clearer Decisions Under Pressure: Leaders and teams learn how pressure distorts attention and judgment, and how to regain clarity fast, so they make better calls when information is incomplete.
• Repeatable Execution (Not Heroic Performance): The audience leaves with practical, field-tested frameworks (e.g., the 5B Pressure Map and PREPARE → EXECUTE → RESET) to recognize what’s happening under load and respond consistently in real time.
• High Performance Without Burnout: Discover a shared language and simple reset/recovery tools that raise performance and protect people, so urgency doesn’t become exhaustion or culture damage.

Peak Performance in the Age of Distraction

For Leaders and Teams Who Need to Think Clearly When Everything Is Competing for Their Attention

We don’t have a time problem. We have an attention problem.

If you’ve ever finished a full day and thought, “I was busy the whole time… so why do I feel like I didn’t make any progress?” you’re not alone. Modern work pulls our focus into tiny pieces: messages, meetings, quick replies, constant context-switching. And when attention breaks, decisions get worse, patience gets shorter, and the work you actually care about keeps sliding to tomorrow.

This keynote shows leaders and teams how to protect the focus that drives their best work, using simple habits and team norms that make deep thinking possible again, so decisions sharpen, priorities stick, and the work that matters gets done.

This Keynote Is Perfect for Leaders and Teams Who Are:

• Constantly interrupted, struggling to sustain deep work amid messages, meetings, and notifications.
• Working harder but feeling behind, overloaded by speed, ambiguity, and growing demands.
• Ready to redesign how they work, not just add another productivity hack to an already full plate.

Audience Outcomes:

• Cut Digital Debt and False Urgency: Reduce email-driven overwhelm, trim unnecessary meetings with simple team norms, and use AI where it genuinely saves time, freeing up hundreds of hours a year.
• Reclaim Deep Work (And the Satisfaction That Comes With It): Identify your best focus windows, protect sustained attention, and make meaningful progress on high-priority work, not just more activity.
• Re-Energise With Smarter Breaks and Better Sleep: Practical daytime breaks and sleep habits that improve cognitive performance, so teams feel sharper, not just busier, and actually have energy left at the end of the day.

The Future of Performance in the Age of AI

For Leaders Navigating AI Transformation, Without Losing What Makes Their People Valuable

The question isn’t whether AI will transform our work. It’s whether we’ll use it to amplify human potential, or accidentally erode it.

Teams are caught in a strange tension. Half worry AI will make them irrelevant. The other half would happily hand over as much work as possible. Meanwhile, you’re under pressure to adopt fast, show ROI, and not break anything important. Meanwhile, we overlook the fact that AI can analyse, predict, and recommend, but it can’t step into the room when tensions rise, make the call when information is incomplete, or hold the team steady when everything is uncertain.

This keynote shows leaders how to build AI-human partnerships that strengthen the capabilities AI can’t replace: judgment, creativity, connection, and performance under pressure.

This Keynote Is Perfect for Leaders and Teams:

• Adopting AI but managing risk: Excited about the potential of generative AI and automation, but aware that moving too fast, or too carelessly, could cost them something they can’t easily rebuild.
• Integrating AI without losing the human edge: Trying to improve productivity and efficiency while preserving the judgment, creativity, and connection that drive real results, and keep people engaged.
• Leading through uncertainty: Guiding their organization through digital transformation while protecting employee wellbeing, sustaining performance, and being honest about what they don’t yet know.
• Preparing their people for what’s next: Wanting to equip their teams for an AI-augmented future, not just reassure them everything will be fine.

Audience Outcomes:

• A Clear-Eyed Vision for AI-Human Collaboration: Move beyond fear and hype to a practical understanding of how AI can enhance, not replace, your team’s most valuable capabilities. Know where to automate, where to augment, and where to protect human judgment.
• Practical Steps for Integration That Keeps Humans in the Loop: Discover how to leverage AI to free your people for more complex, creative, and strategic work, the work humans do best, without accidentally deskilling them in the process.
• A Framework for Leading Through Technological Uncertainty: Build a culture that embraces AI as a partner while staying grounded in what makes your people irreplaceable, so your team can deliver value, adapt to change, and thrive rather than just survive the transition.