Owen Wyatt is a media executive, commercial growth leader, journalist and speaker on business growth, media, trust, resilience and the UK economy.
He is Chief Growth Officer at DC Thomson, working across the group’s media, energy, B2B and specialist publishing brands.
Owen has worked across live sport, global news, digital media and commercial growth.
He covered live sport at Sky, then moved to Reuters, where he led news and sports video through the 2008 financial crash, the Arab Spring and a period of major change in global news.
He then moved into digital media and played a leading role in the growth and $50m exit of Base79, one of Europe’s earliest YouTube businesses. He later became Director EMEA at CNN International, before joining DC Thomson in 2017.
Today Owen works close to one of the hardest questions facing the UK: how do we get the economy growing?
His work sits where business, media, policy and power meet. Through DC Thomson, Energy Voice, E-FWD and Scotland Inc, he works with business leaders, professional services firms, policymakers and sector specialists.
He focuses on the parts of the economy where the UK has real strengths: energy, media, technology, infrastructure, regional business and trusted information.
His talks deal with the work behind growth: investment, skills, planning, infrastructure, communication and better decisions from business and government.
About Owen
At DC Thomson, Owen has created and scaled media, B2B and communications businesses.
He helped build E-FWD, a senior network for leaders across the UK energy supply chain.
Through his Scotland Inc LinkedIn newsletters, Owen writes about business, investment, technology, AI, energy, regional economies and Scotland’s growth story.
His talks draw on his experience of building businesses, leading teams, working with journalists and staying close to the sectors that need to grow.
Raised on Resilience is Owen’s main keynote.
It is a personal story about family, pressure, work and the decisions people make when life gets difficult.
The story starts with Owen’s grandfather, who survived being torpedoed three times in the mid-Atlantic during the Second World War.
That family story shaped how Owen thinks about pressure.
Owen’s own story includes his newborn son’s stay in intensive care during lockdown, completing his Oxford MBA, and dealing with major post-Grenfell cladding issues in his London home.
The talk is honest, practical and human. It is about what resilience looks like when life, family and work collide.
Speaking topics
- Growth, transformation and resilience in business
- Owenspeaks about what it takes to build and grow businesses.
- He can cover scale-up growth, business transformation, new product development, M&A, digital change, commercial partnerships and executive leadership.
- Economic growth, policy and power
- Owenspeaks about how the UK can build a stronger economy.
His view is rooted in businesses trying to grow, sectors where the UK has strengths, regions that need investment, and policy decisions that can help or hold back growth.
He helps audiences think through enterprise, infrastructure, energy, technology, skills, capital, government and public trust.
Media, trust and communications.
Owen has worked across Sky, Reuters, CNN International and regional and specialist B2B media.
He continues to write and speak through Scotland Inc and his wider work around business, growth, energy and politics.
He helps audiences think about reputation, communication, stakeholder engagement and the role of trusted journalism in economic life.
Scotland, growth and the energy transition
Through Energy Voice, E-FWD and Scotland Inc, Owen speaks about Scotland’s economy and the sectors that can drive growth.
He can speak on or host sessions covering energy, infrastructure, technology, investment, industrial strategy, regional economies, skills and jobs.
Session titles
- Raised on Resilience: How Crisis Can Build Growth
- Three Weeks That Changed Everything
- What Business Resilience Really Looks Like
- From Start-up Growth to Corporate Resilience
- How Britain Gets Growing Again
- Growth Is Not a Slogan
- Where Business, Policy and Power Meet
- Media, Trust and the Future of Business
- How Leaders Communicate Through Change
- Scotland’s Growth Story
- The Energy Transition as a Growth Story
- What Kind of Country Are We Trying to Build?
Formats
Owen can be booked as a keynote speaker, after-dinner speaker, panel chair, conference host, fireside interviewer, roundtable facilitator, or boardroom lunch and dinner speaker.
