Discover how to build and maintain high-performance teams in sport and business. Gain expert leadership insights from a world-class conference speaker to inspire your organisation.
Denmark
Europe
United Kingdom
Core Intelligence Domain: High Performance
Location: London, United Kingdom | Languages: English, Danish
Representation: Represented globally by PSpeakers Global Intelligence
Rasmus Ankersen is a globally recognised high-performance expert, serial entrepreneur, and sports executive renowned for decoding the DNA of world-class talent and engineering data-driven cultures. As the CEO and Co-Founder of Sport Republic—the sports investment firm commanding Southampton FC, Göztepe SK, and Valenciennes FC—and the former strategic mastermind behind the historic ascents of Brentford FC and FC Midtjylland, Ankersen challenges conventional leadership paradigms. He equips C-suite executives and elite global organisations with proprietary frameworks to eradicate complacency, rethink talent acquisition, and sustain elite performance in notoriously volatile arenas.
Ankersen’s foundational philosophy was forged during a relentless six-month journey around the globe, where he embedded himself within the world’s most prolific talent hotbeds. From the Jamaican sprint factories to the resilient athletic camps of Kenya, and the fiercely competitive South Korean golfing academies, Ankersen sought to understand why massive concentrations of world-class performers emerge from obscure environments. The resulting proprietary framework, detailed in his bestselling book The Gold Mine Effect, dismantles the myth of innate genius, proving that high performance is an engineered consequence of culture, relentless practice, and intelligent coaching.
While many leaders focus on how to achieve success, Ankersen provides strategic foresight on an arguably greater challenge: how to survive it. In his critically acclaimed work Hunger in Paradise, he addresses the paradox of success breeding complacency, arrogance, and an aversion to risk. He advises corporate boards on how to maintain a ‘Day One’ mentality, ensuring that dominant market leaders do not fall victim to their own achievements. By institutionalising an underdog mindset and burning the proverbial boats, Ankersen teaches organisations how to continuously innovate before disruption forces their hand.
Beyond theory, Ankersen is an active practitioner of his own frameworks. As former Chairman of FC Midtjylland and Co-Director of Football at Brentford FC, he pioneered the use of big data and advanced analytics to outsmart significantly wealthier rivals. His implementation of predictive models, empirical talent scouting, and evidence-based decision-making transformed both clubs into international case studies of efficiency and overachievement. Today, through Sport Republic, he scales these methodologies across a multi-club ownership model, proving that cognitive diversity and data-driven strategy consistently outperform traditional financial brute force.
“Rasmus Ankersen truly conquered the audience at our Virtual Conference with people from over 30 countries. Excellent pace, interesting anecdotes, and a superb message delivered in a relaxed style which made everyone feel comfortable. Easy to work with and very professional. Thank you Rasmus!”
"Thanks again for making sure Rasmus was well briefed and online/on time. We had approx. 140 people listening to Rasmus’ speech and I received very positive feedback. Content and form was not only entertaining but also helping people to look at things from a different perspective. Felix Baumgartner, Head Premium Clients, was also very happy with the presentation."
"Rasmus was excellent. He was very engaging and definitely got the group to think differently. It created the exact effect we were looking for which was to challenge our approaches. We had a good follow-up discussion at lunch as well. Overall, very impressed and happy with how things turned out."
"The feedback from Rasmus’s speech was very strong! Everyone was excited about his message and how well it fit with the messages of both Credit Suisse and the Conference. He had a very long Q+A session – participants were very engaged, which was great! I will send through some pictures for you and Rasmus over the next couple of days. Many thanks again for everything and we hope to have Rasmus at future Credit Suisse Events!"
"The speech was great yesterday and everything went well. We received great feedback already and looking forward to have him for future events. Also a big thanks to you for the nice cooperation."
"CCI hosted Rasmus Ankersen in One Team leadership event held in Turkey. Ankersen in his speech ‘Hunger in Paradise’ abolished the correlation between strong performance and great results through ‘Outcome Bias’ concept. Rasmus made audience to think about the ideal condition for success and asked them to leave the comfort zone to reach real improvement. His real life examples on the issue of saving the success from failure made important contribution to the meeting as well as provided valuable insights to CCI’s leadership team."
“WITHOUT DOUBT ONE OF THE BEST KEYNOTES WE HAVE EVER HAD IN THE 12 YEARS THE CONFERENCE HAS BEEN RUNNING."
“RASMUS HAS CONSISTENTLY BEEN RATED AS ONE OF THE BEST SPEAKERS TO TAKE THE STAGE AT GOOGLE EVENTS. IMPORTANTLY, HE WAS ABLE TO DRAW ON WIDE RANGE OF EXPERIENCES AND STORIES THAT RESONATED WITH A PARTICULARLY DIVERSE AUDIENCE, WHICH IS OFTEN ONE OF THE MOST CHALLENGING ASPECTS WHEN SEARCHING FOR INSPIRATIONAL KEY NOTE SPEAKERS."
“RASMUS ANKERSEN TRULY KNOWS HOW TO EVOKE THE INNOVATION SPIRIT IN PEOPLE."
'Rasmus got the best speaker evaluations seen in Management Events ten year history. He received the highest score possible (5 points) from all delegates! (5= very good and 1= poor)'
'Rasmus is a truly fascinating man with a real insight into high performance both for individuals and teams. Rasmus is not just about theory. His lessons are rooted in real hard field research.'
'Rasmus delivered the best presentation ever in a partner and directors meeting.'
'From Rasmus you don't just get theories, you get concrete tools working in the real world. He is the ultimate coach.'
'Rasmus digs deep with insight and experience capturing knowledge that is easily shared and hopefully applied, foolish if it's not!'
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Denmark
