Leadership under pressure: tested where the consequences are real.
Most leadership teams are confident in their ability to handle pressure. Few have ever actually been tested.
See Dave in Action
Dave’s Keynotes
Every one of Dave’s keynotes draws on more than 25 years of experience on the Westpac Rescue Helicopter, national-level crisis leadership during COVID‑19, and executive crisis simulations across government and industry.
LEADERSHIP UNDER PRESSURE
Brace for Impact: From Crisis to Control
For leaders who must make sound decisions when pressure rises and information is incomplete.
OPERATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY
One Bump Away
For crews in construction, roading, mining and other high-risk environments who cannot afford to let distraction, familiarity or routine drift narrow their safety margins.
HIGH-PERFORMANCE TEAMS
Creating High-Performance Teams
For any team, from multi-agency crews to the team down the hall, that needs to trust each other to perform as one.
SUSTAINED PRESSURE
Resilience Under Pressure
For leaders who must carry sound decisions through prolonged scrutiny, uncertainty and blame.
CRISIS LEADERSHIP · FLAGSHIP KEYNOTE
Brace for Impact: From Crisis to Control
A keynote on leadership performance under pressure
Every organisation will eventually face a moment where information is incomplete, pressure escalates, and consequences become visible very quickly. In those moments, plans alone are not enough.
THE MOMENT
A sailor we had just rescued fell from the helicopter’s rescue harness and vanished into a raging sea.
The crisis was real. Panic would have turned it into chaos and cost him his life.
We stayed calm, worked the problems and spotted him just before we had to abandon the search due to low fuel.
Moments later I was in the water, battling 10‑metre swells, helping rescue him for the second time that day.
Audience Takeaways:
- Distinguish business as usual from an incident or a crisis, and know which response each one needs.
- Spot where performance starts to break down under pressure, using the Crocodile River Model, a shared language your team can use.
- Keep the right people activated and executive oversight where it belongs, using the five-move BRACE framework.
- Balance executive oversight with the authority frontline leaders need to act.
Available in 20, 30, 45 or 60‑minute formats.
Tailored to your audience and sector.
HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAMS
Creating High-Performance Teams
A keynote on trust, team performance, multi-agency collaboration and operational culture
Bringing people together does not make them a team, whether they’re pulled from different organisations for a single mission or sit in the same office every day. Most groups don’t hold under pressure. A high-performing team is not an accident. It is built, on purpose, before it is needed. This keynote introduces TRUSTED: what a team must trust to perform under pressure, and what everyone on it must do to be trusted in return.
THE MOMENT
On a normal day, we wouldn’t enter the ravine in these weather conditions, but this was not a normal day.
On Anzac Day 2010, Harry, my pilot, and I were already on a mission when we were retasked to search for a missing RNZAF helicopter.
Their emergency locator signal was coming from a cloud-covered ravine. We entered the ravine in conditions well below the legal minimums but kept going.
A short time later, we located the crashed helicopter and rescued the sole survivor. None of this would have been possible without Harry’s piloting skill and the trust we had in our training and in each other.
Audience Takeaways:
- Know what your team needs to trust before it can perform under pressure, and what every person on it must do to earn that trust, using the TRUSTED framework.
- Bring people with different but complementary skills, often from separate teams or organisations, together to function as one team toward a common goal.
- Build high performance deliberately, in business as usual and in a crisis, instead of leaving it to chance.
- Keep technical skills and trust current through regular training and exercising, instead of assuming they’ll hold.
Available in 20, 30, 45 or 60‑minute formats.
Tailored to your audience and sector.
OPERATIONAL SAFETY
Safety in High‑Risk Environments
A safety keynote for crews working in construction, roading, mining and other high-risk environments.
In high‑risk environments, serious incidents rarely begin with one catastrophic mistake. More often, they develop through small decisions, missed signals, normalised risk and communication failures that gradually narrow safety margins.
THE MOMENT
One moment of distraction left me one bump away from falling off a helicopter in flight.
It was a beautiful night for standing on the skid of the helicopter, winching Santa Claus in front of a crowd of thousands.
A phone call just before take‑off broke my routine.
When we landed back at base, I discovered my safety harness wasn’t attached to the helicopter.
Crew Takeaways:
- Know what you need to trust, and what you must do to be trusted, using the TRUSTED framework.
- Recognise when distraction, familiarity, and routine drift start narrowing your safety margins.
- Know exactly what to do the moment physical danger shows up, using the four SAFE steps I relied on.
- Speak up early, in a shared language the whole crew understands, when something doesn’t feel right. We haven’t done
Available in 20, 30, 45 or 60‑minute formats.
Tailored to your audience and sector.
SUSTAINED PRESSURE
Resilience Under Pressure
A keynote on sustained pressure when an event lasts months, not hours
A short, sharp crisis tests your instincts in the moment. A prolonged one tests something else: whether a reasonable decision can survive being replayed, judged and second‑guessed for months after the event itself is over.
THE MOMENT
The media did not know the response manager’s name. I knew it was me.
During New Zealand’s COVID‑19 response, robust procedures meant that a report involving a potentially infected cargo ship did not initially raise major alarm.
By the time the ship arrived, rumours had triggered public anxiety, parliamentary pressure and intense scrutiny. Weeks later, the media accused an unnamed response manager of nearly letting Delta into the country before we were ready.
I took the accusations very personally, but managed my way through it, thanks to my team and my personal resilience.
Audience Takeaways:
- Stay personally resilient when scrutiny and blame land directly on you.
- Make decisions with confidence even when the outcome won’t be judged until much later.
- Help protect your organisation from how fast rumour and public perception can turn after a decision is made.
- Build organisational resilience through sound policies and procedures that help your organisation withstand public scrutiny before it ever arrives.
Available in 20, 30, 45 or 60‑minute formats.
Tailored to your audience and sector.
AUDIENCE RESPONSE
What attendees experienced
Feedback collected following Dave’s keynote on 18 July 2026.
ATTENDEE RESPONSES
552
Responses collected from audience members.
SESSION VALUE
100%
Found the session valuable
539 responses
WOULD HEAR DAVE AGAIN
98%
Would hear Dave speak again
497 responses
100% informative • 94% engaging • 94% relevant • 93% practical
FROM EVENT LEADERS
What organisers say
Feedback from event leaders who have seen Dave engage audiences, adapt to the room and deliver practical value.
Dave is an amazing speaker and we would recommend him to any other conference organiser who is looking for a focused and insightful presenter.
Feedback from our attendees noted that he kept them engaged, shared powerful real‑world stories and provided clear, practical insights they could actually take away.
Guy Pascoe
CEO, Independent Schools of New Zealand
Dave was the keynote speaker for our ServiceIQ Business Briefings, which involved 14 events across the country.
His sessions were engaging and well received, with consistently strong feedback from attendees.
Dave took the time to understand the purpose of each event and adapted his approach to suit different venues, audiences and contexts.
Even when last‑minute issues arose, he remained calm and focused. Highly recommended.
Gary Bowering
Marketing and Communications Manager, ServiceIQ
PLANNING AN EVENT?
Let’s confirm fit, outcomes and expectations
A short conversation is the simplest way to identify the right keynote for your audience.