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Mandy Hickson is a pioneering female pilot, best known for her empowering career throughout the Royal Air Force. Translating her valuable knowledge into workplace tools, she showcases her vast understanding of leadership, high performance, and risk management. Now the proud Founder of Inspiring Women for Work, Mandy has gained success in a variety of industries and by combining her fast-paced stories from flying with her corporate experience, she is known to deliver truly remarkable talks as a motivational speaker.
Passionate to succeed from a young age, Mandy showed early promise for flying and secured the RAF scholarship at age 17 having previously been part of the Air Training Corps. Entering the industry with praise from the University Air Squadron, she was later faced with the difficult realisation of failing her RAF flying aptitude test. Setting her back from her initial aviation goals, Mandy developed a driven mindset and persevered until she was selected as a test case by the RAF.
As the second female to fly a Tornado GR4, Mandy has developed an illustrious career pioneering the movement of women into the RAF. As most of her career was spent as the only female aircrew, she showcased her mental resilience throughout all tasks she undertook. As the Combat Survival and Rescue Officer, Mandy organised a cross-continent mission at the height of risk management. After her exit from the Royal Air Force, she continues to inspire audiences across the UK as a Volunteer Reserve on the Air Experience Flight with Air Cadets.
A transformative speaker, Mandy Hickson is now highly sought-after to share her expertise on a variety of peak performance speaking topics at speaking engagements internationally. As the proud author of ‘An Officer, Not a Gentleman: The inspirational journey of a pioneering female fighter pilot’, Mandy is determined to share her high performance knowledge with audiences around the world. Passionate to implement a strong-willed mindset into the next generation of leaders, Mandy is the ideal speaker to hire for a wide range of events.
Mandy Hickson is regularly booked to engage audiences at events, read their latest feedback below:
“I just wanted to let you know that Mandy was truly amazing yesterday. The feedback we have had was incredible and everyone agreed how inspiring she was and in awe of what she achieved. I didn’t get to say goodbye to Mandy, but please pass on my thanks to her and it was a pleasure to meet her. I know we will all really enjoy reading her book.”
“Mandy is a fantastic public speaker. She is both inspirational and extremely well prepared. Her ability to relate her own experience working under extreme pressure and in highly performing teams to everyday situations is most impressive. She tops it all with a wonderful sense of humour and great modesty. Listening to her talking about the many challenges that she has successfully overcome should be compulsory for all girls!”
“Mandy, great to meet you. Your session was particularly will received. I am delighted I was able to stay to hear you talk. Your story is very inspirational and I recognised many of the challenges you faced as a wpman in a predominantly male world as these issues are industry agnostic. I am sure we could spend hours sharing our war stories (literal and metaphorical). I do all I can to help the next generation navigate these challenges and not experience the same difficulties as those who have gone before. You are clearly doing the same.”
The High-Performance Speakers Agency is the UK’s leading bureau for teamwork, leadership, and marginal gains speakers. We hire speakers for corporate conferences and events across the world and cater to both in-person occasions and online webinars. Our roster includes sportspeople, business leaders, adventurers and more, to ensure audiences of all industries receive tailored, impactful advice on optimised performance.
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