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Emma Henderson MBE helps leaders and organisations perform under pressure.
Drawing on more than 30 years in aviation, including her career as a commercial airline captain and one of fewer than 500 women worldwide to hold that rank, Emma translates lessons from the flight deck into practical tools for business leaders facing uncertainty, change and increasing complexity.
Throughout her flying career, Emma was trained and assessed in leadership, decision-making, communication and teamwork under pressure. Every six months she entered the simulator to face scenarios specifically designed to test judgement, resilience and performance when things go wrong. Those same principles now form the foundation of her work with organisations around the world.
Emma’s leadership experience extends beyond aviation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, after her final airline flight in March 2020, she founded Project Wingman. What began as a simple idea to provide wellbeing support to NHS staff grew into a national movement of more than 6,500 volunteer aircrew supporting frontline workers in over 100 hospital lounges across the UK. For her services to the NHS during the pandemic, Emma was awarded an MBE in the 2021 New Year Honours List.
Today, Emma works with leadership teams, conferences and organisations navigating uncertainty, disruption and change. Her keynotes help leaders make better decisions, maintain performance, build trust and create clarity when pressure increases.
Audiences leave with practical frameworks they can immediately apply to leadership, communication, teamwork and decision-making. Rather than relying on inspiration alone, Emma combines compelling storytelling with actionable tools that continue to be used long after the event has ended.
Emma has appeared in the ITV documentary Inside the Cockpit, is a recognised aviation commentator, and is the author of Grounded.
Her sessions are known for being insightful, practical, humorous and highly relatable, helping audiences understand how to stay calm, think clearly and lead effectively when it matters most.
Most organisations are waiting for things to calm down.
The problem is that turbulence is no longer a temporary condition. It is the operating environment.
Drawing on lessons from aviation, Emma explores how leaders can maintain clarity, confidence and performance when uncertainty becomes the norm. Through practical examples from the flight deck, Project Wingman and business, she demonstrates how leaders can avoid panic, stay focused on what matters most and help their teams navigate change successfully.
Audience takeaways:
Leaders rarely make decisions with complete information.
The challenge is learning how to make good decisions despite uncertainty, competing priorities and limited time.
Using real examples from aviation, including her own failed command assessment and subsequent success, Emma shares the decision-making principles used by professional pilots when the stakes are high and options are limited.
This keynote provides practical frameworks that help leaders slow their thinking, improve judgement and make better decisions under pressure.
Audience takeaways:
Every flight crew is different.
Different personalities. Different experience levels. Different pressures.
Yet they must become a high-performing team within minutes.
In this engaging keynote, Emma shares the principles that enable aviation teams to build trust quickly, communicate effectively and perform consistently when pressure increases. Audiences discover why communication breaks down under stress, how trust is built and maintained, and what leaders can do to create cultures where people perform at their best.
Audience Takeaways:
Emma is a true professional in every sense. From our first conversation she was a joy to work with; organised, collaborative, and wholly focused on delivering exceptional value to her clients. On stage, she combines warmth with presence & a touch of humour, to create an immediate connection. Off stage, she is just as genuine. I would have no hesitation in recommending her for any audience seeking insight on authenticity & grounded leadership. She brings both lived experience and humanity to every engagement.
I had the pleasure of working with Capt. Emma Henderson who gave the keynote presentation at the South West London Primary Care Educator’s Conference in Oct 2025. What impressed me the most was Emma’s undeniable enthusiasm and energy in engaging the audience of GPs, nurses and pharmacists. Emma’s ability to make her session relatable to the clinical frontline in primary care kept the audience captivated. The feedback from the conference and Emma’s session was thought provoking and inspiring, a highlight of the conference. I would completely recommend Capt. Emma to any organisation looking for a relatable speaker where ‘Grounded Leadership’ is its core principle.
