Emergency Services Speakers on Decision-Making Under Pressure

Emergency services speakers spend their careers making decisions that can't be taken back, often in seconds and with half the information they'd want. That's why their take on decision-making under pressure lands so well with corporate audiences: fire commanders, hostage negotiators, police captains and paramedics have had to build methods that work when stress is at its highest and the facts are still arriving.

Below, we've picked out the PepTalk speakers from fire, police, rescue and emergency medicine who turn that experience into something a leadership team, a project board or a sales floor can use on Monday morning. If you want a wider view, our decision-making speakers and crisis management speakers pages cover the full roster.

What can businesses learn from emergency services decision-making?

The main lesson is that instinct is fast but unreliable under stress, and a few seconds of deliberate checking makes decisions far better. Research on UK fire incident commanders found around 80% of their decisions were made on gut instinct. A short mental check of the goal, the expected outcome and the risk against the benefit changed that, and it now sits in UK emergency services guidance.

That research came from Dr Sabrina Cohen-Hatton, and it's the reason emergency services thinking travels so well into business. Most organisational decisions aren't life or death, but they're made in the same conditions: time pressure, incomplete data, competing priorities and a team watching to see what the leader does. The speakers below have tested their methods where getting it wrong carries a far higher price.

Dr Sabrina Cohen-Hatton

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Research-backed crisis decision-making from a serving Chief Fire Officer and neuroscientist.

Sabrina joined South Wales Fire and Rescue Service in 2001 and has since become one of the most senior female fire officers in the UK. She was appointed Chief Fire Officer of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service in September 2025, having previously led West Sussex. Along the way she commanded the fire service response at the London Bridge and Finsbury Park terror attacks and in the aftermath of Grenfell.

What sets her apart is that she studied the decisions while making them. Working on her PhD in behavioural neuroscience at Cardiff University, she studied incident commanders at live incidents and found that around 80% of their decisions came from gut instinct. Her answer was decision controls, a rapid mental check of goals, anticipated consequences and risk versus benefit. Tested in virtual reality house fires and live burns, commanders trained in the method showed higher situational awareness and shared their goals more clearly with their crews.

The approach was written into the UK's National Operational Guidance for incident command and adopted by JESIP, the joint doctrine used across police, fire and ambulance services, in 2016. Her book The Heat of the Moment (2019) tells the story behind it, and her keynotes translate the same method for leaders who have to call it when the data runs out.

PepTalk Fact: Sabrina was awarded the King's Fire Service Medal in 2024 🔥

Learn more and book Dr Sabrina Cohen-Hatton →

Lord Andy Roe

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Command decisions at scale, and rebuilding an organisation after a crisis.

Andrew (Andy) Roe is the former Commissioner of London Fire Brigade and Chair of the Building Safety Regulator. A former British Army Captain commissioned from Sandhurst, he joined London Fire Brigade in 2002. As incident commander at Grenfell Tower in 2017, he was the officer who revoked the stay-put advice to residents, one of the most scrutinised decisions in modern UK emergency response.

He led the brigade as Commissioner from 2020 to 2025, running a service of 6,300 staff and a £510 million budget. Under his leadership it moved from special measures to become the UK's most improved fire service, and he used an independent review to confront embedded problems in its culture. He was made a life peer, Baron Roe of West Wickham, in January 2026.

His talks cover risk management that keeps human judgement at its core, and what it takes to change culture when lives, reputation and public trust are on the line.

PepTalk Fact: Like Sabrina, Andy was awarded the King's Fire Service Medal in 2024 🚒

Learn more and book Lord Andy Roe →

Nigel Taberner

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Influencing high-stakes conversations when you have no leverage at all.

Nigel served more than 30 years with Greater Manchester Police and Counter-Terrorism Policing North West, rising to Detective Inspector. In a decade as a specialist hostage negotiator he resolved more than 130 high-risk incidents, including armed sieges, kidnappings and suicide interventions, without a single fatality.

For business audiences, his angle on decision-making is about the other person in the room. Negotiators have to decide what to say next while managing their own emotions and reading someone in crisis, with nothing to offer in return. Nigel shows how elite listening and rapid trust-building change the quality of decisions in difficult conversations, stakeholder negotiations and conflict.

Learn more and book Nigel Taberner →

David Atkins

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A practical framework for moving teams from hesitation to decisive action.

David spent 22 years with the New York State Police, retiring as the Captain responsible for all operations in Westchester County, a jurisdiction handling more than 400,000 emergency calls a year. He was a Ground Zero first responder and was named New York State Trooper of the Year in 2003.

His One Decision Away framework comes straight from commanding officers through critical incidents: assess the opportunity, address the obstacle, take action. It works well for sales teams and managers who have the talent but stall under pressure.

Learn more and book David Atkins →

Charlie Swearingen

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Split-second clinical decision-making and the resilience to keep going after mistakes.

Charlie has more than 20 years in emergency medical services, including high-risk medevac missions during Hurricane Katrina. Born with bilateral limb differences, he also represented Team USA in sitting volleyball at the 2016 Paralympic Games and founded MeduPros, which trains critical care clinicians.

He brings the paramedic's view of decision-making: act on what you know, reassess constantly, and don't let the last call cloud the next one. His sessions on reframing failure and building mental toughness suit teams working through change or recovering from a setback.

Learn more and book Charlie Swearingen →

More emergency services speakers to know

These speakers bring police, fire and rescue backgrounds to talks on negotiation, pressure and resilience.

Scott Tillema

Scott is an FBI-trained SWAT hostage negotiator whose TEDx talk has passed a million views. He uses encounters with people in crisis to show how connection and influence shape decisions, in business as much as on a call-out.

Learn more and book Scott Tillema →

Andrea Parker

Andrea is a former police detective turned performance coach. Her Where's the Fun framework tackles the way constant pressure narrows thinking, and gives leaders a simple tool for restoring clarity before they decide.

Learn more and book Andrea Parker →

Michael Coates

Michael served as a soldier and firefighter before building a career in mental health and resilience. His talks on psychological fitness cover what high-pressure roles take out of people and the habits that keep decision-makers well.

Learn more and book Michael Coates →

Chris Jewell

Chris is a cave rescue specialist and one of the British divers on the 2018 Tham Luang rescue. He shares the risk assessment and decision-making that underwater exploration demands, and what it means for teams facing uncertainty.

Interested in booking Chris? Get in touch with the PepTalk team.

Kevin O'Leary

Kevin is a former Scotland Yard senior detective, operational commander and crisis negotiator who now works as a leadership coach. He combines investigative experience with practical advice on collaboration and leading through change.

Interested in booking Kevin? Get in touch with the PepTalk team.

Suzanne Williams

Suzanne is an international hostage and kidnap negotiation expert, a Queen's Police Medal recipient and a visiting lecturer at Harvard. Her sessions show how decisions actually get made in high-stakes negotiations.

Interested in booking Suzanne? Get in touch with the PepTalk team.

How do you choose an emergency services speaker for your event?

Start with the decision problem your audience actually has. For leaders who need a repeatable method, Sabrina Cohen-Hatton's decision controls are the most evidence-based option. For teams that struggle with difficult conversations, a negotiator like Nigel Taberner or Scott Tillema fits better. For groups facing uncertainty with no playbook, a cave rescue specialist such as Chris Jewell speaks directly to that. And for organisations rebuilding after a crisis or driving culture change, Lord Andy Roe has done it at the scale of one of the world's largest fire services.

Format matters too. Most of these speakers offer keynotes and interactive workshops, and a workshop gives people time to practise a method on their own live issues. Pairing an emergency services keynote with a sector expert is a good way to connect the story to your industry. For more speakers who've made calls in extreme conditions, see our round-ups of speakers tested in extremes and aviation and fighter pilot speakers, or our look at high-risk industry experts on patient safety.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is the best speaker on decision-making under pressure?

Dr Sabrina Cohen-Hatton is one of the strongest choices because she combines frontline command with published research. As a Chief Fire Officer and neuroscientist, she developed decision controls, a method now used in UK fire, police and ambulance guidance, and she explains it in terms any leadership team can apply.

What are decision controls?

Decision controls are a short mental checklist developed by Dr Sabrina Cohen-Hatton for incident commanders. Before acting, the commander checks the goal of the action, the outcome they expect, and whether the benefit outweighs the risk. It takes seconds and reduces reliance on gut instinct when stress is high.

Why book an emergency services speaker for a corporate event?

Emergency services speakers have made high-stakes decisions with limited time and information, which is the same problem most leaders face at a smaller scale. Their stories hold attention, and the best of them turn that experience into methods teams can use straight away on negotiation, crisis response and resilience.

Can emergency services speakers run workshops as well as keynotes?

Yes. Several speakers on this list, including Nigel Taberner and Andrea Parker, run interactive sessions where teams practise techniques on realistic scenarios. Workshops suit leadership programmes and away days; keynotes suit conferences and all-hands events. Tell us your format and audience size and we'll match the right speaker.

💡 Looking for an emergency services speaker to help your team make better decisions under pressure? Let us know, and we'll find the perfect PepTalk expert for your organisation. Send us a message via the chat and we'll take it from there. Remember, it's always a good time to get a PepTalk!