International and England rugby player announced as guest speaker at launch of the Royal International Air Tattoo Business Club

Rory Underwood MBE has been announced as the latest guest speaker at the first Royal International Air Tattoo Business networking event on Friday 19 July at Fairford.

Rory is best known for his international rugby career which included scoring a record 49 tries for England (85 caps, 1984-1996) and also for winning six caps for the British Lions touring Australia (1989) and New Zealand (1993). Rory started his career aged 14, his first club being Leicester Tigers. In 1992 he was recognised for his services to rugby and was awarded the MBE.  

His talk, The Dynamic Lift, will inspire business owners around his own experience as an elite athlete as well as his 18-year career as a pilot in the Royal Air Force. He will be one of a small number of high-profile speakers at theAir Tattoo Business Club where companies can network in one of the Air Tattoo’s premier hospitality suites.

In addition to his successful rugby career, Rory was an accomplished RAF pilot where he amassed 3000 flying hours. During his service career, Rory introduced Crew Resources Management (CRM) training. This looked at how teamwork and decision making is affected in time limited, stressful situations. 

Since leaving both his rugby and military careers Rory has become an experienced facilitator, psychometric profiler and performance coach.

He will be combining his wealth of experience and knowledge from international sport, the military, extreme human achievement with the businesses attending the event. He will be challenging them about their understanding of their own team’s performance and how to measure it. 

Helen Webb, Head of Marketing at the Air Tattoo said: “We are delighted to have Rory as one of the speakers at our new Business Club. His wealth of experience as a pilot, elite athlete and in the corporate sector will provide those attending with a wealth of information that they can apply to their own personnel development and businesses.”

Guests to the business club will spend the day with like-minded organisations, enjoy business round-table discussions with speakers, pilots and aircrew who will drop in throughout the day for photo opportunities.