Available to book
Cath Bishop
Dr Cath Bishop helps organisations redefine success and build high-performance team cultures. An Olympic medallist, former diplomat and leadership and culture coach, Cath wrote The Long Win, one of the FT's best business books of 2020.
Dr Cath Bishop is an Olympic medallist, former diplomat and leadership and culture coach who helps organisations rethink what success means and build cultures where people and performance both thrive.
Cath competed at three Olympic Games, became World Champion in 2003 and won Olympic silver in 2004. She then spent more than ten years as a Foreign Office diplomat specialising in conflict, working in post-conflict Bosnia and in Basra. Her book The Long Win was named one of the FT's best business books of 2020, and a second edition came out in 2024.
She's an Honorary Fellow at Cambridge Judge Business School, where she teaches team performance and culture on Executive Education programmes. From 2022 to 2025 she was an independent adviser to British Gymnastics, supporting culture change following the Whyte Review, and she's part of a leadership development group in the Harvard Global Flourishing Programme Network. Today she coaches leadership teams, headteachers and head coaches across business, sport and education.
Audiences get a clear way to define success that means something to their teams, a practical understanding of how culture works and the leadership it needs, and lessons on staying effective in high-pressure, high-stakes negotiations. For small groups of leaders, Cath also runs discursive sessions that are part academic, part practical.
Book Cath when you want leaders to rethink success and build cultures where teams can find out what they're capable of.
Topics, sessions and talks
Pressure shows up differently in an Olympic final, a negotiation in post-conflict Bosnia, and a leadership team facing change, but the question underneath is the same: what helps people think clearly and work well together when it counts? Cath draws on her time as an athlete and diplomat to explore how leaders shape the conditions for performance, rather than adding to the strain. Audiences leave with practical ways to steady their teams and lead effectively when stakes are high.
Culture rarely shifts because of what is printed on a wall. Dr Cath Bishop explains how culture actually works day to day, and the leadership it takes to build team cultures focused on performance. She brings examples from sport and diplomacy, two fields where she has seen culture shape results first-hand. Audiences leave able to link their ambition to specific leadership habits that shape how their teams work, and with a clearer view of where their own culture needs attention.
Narrow, short-term, material definitions of success tend to produce underperformance, because they overlook culture, relationships, trust, intrinsic motivation, and teamwork. Drawing on her book The Long Win, one of the Financial Times best business books of 2020, Cath shows how leaders can define success in terms that mean something to their teams. Audiences take away a way to build a culture of constant learning and to strengthen connection through the way they work every day.
Testimonials
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frequently asked questions
Something we've not covered here?
To book Cath Bishop, email cath.bishop@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 Dr Cath'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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