Felix Riley is a keynote speaker, facilitator, and Moonshot Strategist who helps organisations unlock brilliant thinking in the age of AI. His sessions are known for being genuinely funny and sharply observed – the kind of talk where the room laughs, then realises it has just been handed a practical... Read more
Felix Riley is a keynote speaker, facilitator, and Moonshot Strategist who helps organisations unlock brilliant thinking in the age of AI. His sessions are known for being genuinely funny and sharply observed – the kind of talk where the room laughs, then realises it has just been handed a practical new operating system for how to think and decide.
Felix studied Mental Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, graduating in 1993 with a head full of logic, critical thinking, and an ambition to write comedy and perform stand-up. He spent the next decade writing for BBC radio and TV, including The Zoë Ball Radio 1 Breakfast Show, The Simon Mayo Show, The News Quiz, Week Ending, The Rory Bremner Show, and The Big Breakfast. He also created and produced Cross Talk for Radio 4, a show about crosswords presented by Colin Dexter (creator of Inspector Morse). Along the way he performed stand-up at The Comedy Store, which proved to be excellent preparation for any future life involving microphones, adrenaline, and sceptical audiences.
In 2003, with the arrival of his first child, Felix moved into finance at Cantor Fitzgerald. Three years later he founded ChoiceOdds, a financial binary betting firm, which he later sold to MF Global, the NYSE-listed American brokerage. He remained with MF Global as Managing Director and served on the firm’s Global Executive Board.
In 2011, Felix stepped away from corporate life and took on a very different challenge: copper mining negotiations in Zambia. As Head Negotiator for Kitwe Mines, he operated in high-stakes, politically sensitive environments, including one-on-one meetings with President Rupiah Banda and his adviser, and negotiations with tribal chiefs. The experience sharpened his view of pressure, persuasion, and decision-making when the stakes are real and the room is not always predictable.
Alongside this, Felix is also an author. Penguin published his financial thrillers The Set Up (2011) and The Inside Job (2012), inspired by the 2008 crash and his experience of markets from the inside. The screen rights were later picked up by La Plante Productions and Fine Line Cinema.
In 2013 – Felix turnaround a struggling UK IT company, ultimately positioning it for sale. The work was demanding and unsentimental – difficult decisions, hard conversations, and a deep education in what it actually takes to shift performance and culture under pressure. That chapter led him into business advisory work, and eventually into speaking and facilitation full-time.
Today Felix works with organisations across law, consultancy, the military, private banking, healthcare, housing, finance, charity sector, and start-ups – helping smart teams think bigger, challenge assumptions, and decide what they will do differently on Monday morning. His flagship keynote, The Flea Jar, is a fast, funny, story-driven talk about invisible limits and learned helplessness – and how to spot the “lid” and smash through it. He also speaks on AI and professional services (Lawyers vs The Machine), the role of failure in success (Failing Upwards), and storytelling as a leadership tool (Once Upon A Business).
Felix has appeared on Bloomberg, MSNBC, and BBC Radio 5 Live as a commentator on markets and business. His work combines entertainment-level storytelling with commercial rigour and practical frameworks leaders can use immediately – leaving audiences energised, challenged, and equipped.
A punchy, practical keynote for legal and professional-services audiences on what AI will commoditise, where human value increases, and how firms stay ahead. Felix translates the tech into clear business implications – pricing, delivery, talent, trust – and focuses on the enduring human edge: judgment, creativity, empathy, and client confidence.
A lively keynote about turning global scale into a competitive advantage rather than a coordination headache. Felix shows how national silos form, why “local optimisation” kills learning, and how leaders can build faster knowledge transfer, stronger collaboration, and repeatable cross-office wins.
A human, uplifting keynote for housing and social-impact audiences about what stable housing unlocks: health, education, employment, and dignity. Felix connects the front-line reality to leadership decisions, celebrating the work while offering a motivating lens on purpose, resilience, and the measurable ripple effects of a safe home.
A highly engaging talk on the leadership skill most strategies forget: narrative. Felix explains how stories create clarity, belief, and action – and shares practical techniques to turn vision into a message people remember, repeat, and act on, whether you’re selling a strategy, leading change, or winning clients.
A high-energy, sharply funny talk that reframes failure as data, not identity. Audiences learn how fear quietly drives caution and overthinking, and leave with practical behaviours for smarter risk, faster recovery, and a culture where people take ownership, experiment, and build momentum.
A fast, funny, story-driven keynote about the invisible limits that hold smart teams back. Felix shows how organisations drift into learned helplessness, status quo bias, and “safe” thinking – then gives leaders practical tools to spot the lid, challenge assumptions, and make imaginative thinking a repeatable habit.