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Alex Atherton
Transform workplace culture with Alex Atherton, speaker specialising in leadership development and Gen Z engagement. Alex works with senior leaders in education and government to improve work-life balance and build effective intergenerational teams.
Alex Atherton is a speaker and consultant who works with senior leaders in education and local government, helping them manage their demanding roles and achieve a better work-life balance.
Having spent nearly 25 years in the public sector, primarily in senior leadership positions, Alex truly understands the pressures leaders face. Alex began his career as a secondary school headteacher at a young age, where he quickly realised the need for support. With the help of a coach, he learned to navigate the complexities of leadership and transitioned from feeling frantic to fulfilled. This experience inspired him to assist others in similar positions.
As well as being a leadership coach, Alex helps businesses address the challenges of recruiting, retaining, and engaging Gen Z, the youngest generation in the workplace. In his talks, for which he was named Best Newcomer at the 2025 Speaker Awards, Alex shares the solutions to ensure organisations can recruit and retain the best of this generation in any industry. He also uses his experience to teach teams how to overcome the challenges faced by intergenerational teams to help them move their organisation forwards, faster.
Topics, sessions and talks
In today's fast-changing job market, attracting and retaining Generation Z talent is a major challenge for organisations. Born between the mid-1990s and early 2010s, Gen Z represents a significant generational shift, making traditional recruitment methods ineffective. Alex Atherton, a former secondary school headteacher, offers insights into this misunderstood generation. Through engaging talks, he provides practical strategies to bridge generational divides, helping leaders effectively motivate and retain young talent. Attendees will learn key Gen Z characteristics and effective recruitment and retention strategies.
Do age gaps hinder productivity, or do attempts at communication never quite connect? Are age and generation gaps an elephant in your organisation's room? In this talk, Alex examines the issues from a range of angles and demonstrates not only how to overcome them but also how to use them to move the organisation forward faster.
Senior leadership roles in the public sector are unbelievably tough. Our society needs high-quality people to do these jobs well, but there is little interest in their job satisfaction or health. People assume that senior leaders cannot have a problem given their ‘high salaries, big offices, and cushy jobs’. Senior leaders can also be poor at caring for their own development and well-being, too often aiming for survival at the cost of the outcomes they seek. In this talk, Alex describes what public sector leaders can learn from existing research and apply it to the best effect on their professional lives. He does so in the context of his public sector career and those he has worked with since.
Alex Atherton's keynote on managing the multigenerational workplace addresses the unprecedented age diversity in today's organisations, where four or more generations, from Baby Boomers to Gen Z, work side by side. This diversity offers unique opportunities and challenges, particularly in communication, technology, and work-life balance. Alex, passionate about age diversity, provides practical strategies to bridge generational divides. Attendees will learn to create inclusive environments that maximise each team member's potential.
Gen Z is reshaping the workplace with their unique perspectives and values, creating challenges in recruitment and retention for many organisations. Often, there's a disconnect as older generations struggle to understand Gen Z's aspirations, affecting motivation and engagement. Alex Atherton, a former secondary school headteacher, offers insights into this misunderstood generation. His talks provide practical strategies to bridge generational divides, helping leaders effectively motivate and retain young talent. Attendees will learn key Gen Z characteristics and strategies for successful engagement.
Book Alex Atherton to empower your leaders with insights on engaging Gen Z in the workplace. With extensive public sector experience, he understands their challenges and offers practical strategies to thrive amidst chaos. Transform your team's approach to recruitment and retention, ensuring a vibrant, balanced work environment.
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frequently asked questions
Something we've not covered here?
To book Alex Atherton, email alex.atherton@getapeptalk.com or call PepTalk on +44 20 3835 2929 (UK) or +1 737 888 5112 (US), and one of our speaker agents will contact you within hours to confirm Alex's availability and speaking fee. If you can, please include your budget upfront – it helps us fast-track your request. It’s also helpful to know the date, format (virtual or in-person), location, and about your audience.
No. PepTalk adds no booking fee, so you pay the speaker's fee and nothing beyond it. The service, from shortlist through to contracts and event-day logistics, is included. For repeat or multi-event bookings, PepTalk can agree preferential rates with your procurement team.
Share your event date, audience, format, objectives and budget, and PepTalk sends a hand-picked shortlist within 24 hours. Each suggestion comes with a profile, a fee and a recommendation on the strongest fit. Once you choose, PepTalk handles contracts, travel and logistics through to event day.
The typical fee range is the speaker's standard in-person fee in their home market, shown in their local currency. It moves with format, location, date and session length: virtual sessions and shorter slots usually cost less, while international travel and peak dates cost more. Send your brief to PepTalk and the team will confirm the exact fee in your currency.
Not all of them, and it makes no difference to your booking. PepTalk's network of 15,000+ speakers covers talent the team works with directly alongside speakers represented by agents and agencies worldwide. PepTalk approaches the speaker, negotiates the fee and handles contracting either way.
Three to six months ahead is comfortable for most events, and 12 months is better for large conferences, peak-season dates or one specific in-demand speaker. Shorter timelines are workable, and PepTalk regularly fills last-minute and replacement bookings within days. Availability is the constraint, so get in touch as soon as you have a date.
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