A neuroscientist by training, Dr Laura Watkins has been researching and working in the field of personal and organisational performance for 25 years. Her early neuroscience research looked at how the brain performs complex decisions and manages change. She then spent six years at McKinsey as a strategy and organisation consultant, and co-founded McKinsey’s leadership practice in Europe. Laura now runs two leadership firms – The Cognitas Group and Jumpstart Development – which together enable her to support CEOs, senior executives and emerging leaders to thrive and perform, individually and collectively.

Laura is a sought-after keynote speaker and leadership programme director. Her areas of speciality are: harnessing mindsets to get results; using neuroscience to optimise brain performance; and building performance curve cultures (organisations in which people support each other to develop deeply, daily). With a colleague, Vanessa Dietzel, she has recently brought together all these ideas in a book called The Performance Curve, due for publication by Bloomsbury in Autumn 2021.

Laura has worked all over the world with dozens of multi-national teams and organisations. Her clients are sector leaders across most industries, including financial services, government, law, media, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, private equity, professional services, retail, telecoms, transportation and utilities. 

Laura has a PhD from Cambridge and an MA from Oxford. In her spare time, you’ll find her spending time with her young family, running, hiking, ski trekking, or keeping her brain stretched with learning Italian or chess. She is a passionate believer in the importance of education for breaking the cycle of disadvantage and has worked closely with several organisations that support young people in this way.