Background Information

As a presenter, Mark Dawes is a dynamic presence on stage. His energetic keynotes and powerful seminars are his trademark.

Today Mark is one of only two National Coach Tutors on the subject of occupational physical skills training in the UK. He is also an ex-hostage negotiator, a Qualified Stress Consultant, a Licensed Cognitive Hypnotherapist and a Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming. This diverse range of competencies and skills has combined to make him one of the few Expert Witnesses in the UK on the subject of Reasonable Force.

Mark left school at 16 and joined the Royal Navy as an Air Mechanic in the Fleet Air Arm. He soon rose through the ranks becoming one of the youngest Petty Officers for his trade in the Fleet before being commissioned as a Naval Officer. As a result he underwent all of the Royal Navy's management and leadership courses, including the famed 'bluenose' Arctic warfare training course as well as many other temperate and Arctic survival training courses.

On leaving the Royal Navy, and prior to becoming a hostage negotiator, Mark joined a computer company as a sales person (having no previous sales experience or knowledge), and within three years rose to be the second highest earner for his company, personally responsible for generating over 1/3 of the company's turnover.

Mark is now founder and director of NFPS Ltd, one of the most respected conflict risk management training and consultancy organisations in the UK. An organisation he started from scratch with only a vague vision of what he wanted to become. His knowledge and skills in his chosen field are now sought after and used by a number of diverse organisations here in the UK and also abroad.

He is also a published author with two books to his name: Understanding Reasonable Force and Managing the Monkey.

Mark's Philosophy

"If you enjoy it - do it. If you don't enjoy it - don't do it. But if you have to do it - enjoy it!"

His philosophy on life and achievement is relatively simple. He believes that if you want to do something do it, but whatever you do, enjoy it. He also believes that no matter what you do you should do it with integrity and with the best intentions of all at the forefront of our minds.

His belief

"What you focus on you get more of. Therefore there is no problem that doesn't have a solution. If we believe however that there is no solution then we either have a complaint, or we don't like the solutions on offer, or we are too focused on what we don't want that we are unable to focus on what we do!"

Mark believes that all people have all of the resources they need to do whatever it is that they want to do in life.

"The universe didn't give you a brain so that you could be creative in finding ways of not using it," he says.

However, he knows that we at times all become "stuck" in a rut and when that happens it becomes hard to see a way forward and as such he is committed to showing others how to think they way ahead in life so that they can find the tools within themselves to improve the quality of their lives for the better.

"Everything is created twice - once in the mind and second by an action. Therefore, you can't achieve what you can't perceive, but you can achieve that which you can perceive - even those things you think about that you don't want!!"

Mark's presentations therefore, range from the subject of reasonable force and stress through to NLP and positive change management. His knowledge of interpersonal and intra personal communication allows him to communicate to his audience, both large and small, in an effective motivational, entertaining and inspirational manner. His presentations are peppered with true-life anecdotes - some of which you wouldn't believe, but he says: "You don't have to go to a comedy store to see funny things happen. They happen everyday! Yet sadly many people miss the opportunity to see the fun if they are busy looking for something else of less importance."

His life and work experience, therefore, combined with his wide range of unique competencies and qualifications, and his infectious positive attitude allow him to deliver talks that resonate with meaning at differing levels of consciousness within individuals thus allowing his audience to see and feel the experience and gain maximum benefit from the event.

He has spoken at a wide and diverse range of events from seminars to over 300 people, to after dinner engagements through to Motivational, Corporate and Public events for a wide and diverse range of businesses, organisations and private functions. He is well known for his ability to enthuse and inspire your audience with his unique sense of humour, while sharing the tools of his and others successes.

If you would like to book Mark to speak at your event contact us by clicking here.