Scott Walker Keynote Speaker

Kidnap for Ransom & Crisis Negotiator
Sunday Times Bestselling Author
Author of 'Order Out of Chaos: How To Become A World-Class Communicator and Win Every Negotiation' (2023)

Scott Walker's Biography

Scott Walker is the founder of Red Centre Global, a trusted adviser to senior business leaders and one of the world’s most experienced former kidnap-for-ransom negotiators. Today, he helps leaders and their teams build trust quickly, navigate objections, resolve conflict and handle difficult conversations with calm confidence when the stakes are high.

He has helped resolve more than 300 crises around the world involving kidnap-for-ransom, corporate blackmail, piracy attacks on shipping and cyber extortion. He has also served as a military intelligence operator and senior counter-terrorism adviser to the United Nations in the Middle East and North Africa.

This experience has given him a rare, real-world understanding of how people think, communicate and make decisions under extreme pressure. His current focus is translating the principles of life-or-death negotiation into practical tools that leaders and teams can apply through his interactive workshops, keynotes and discreet advisory work.

Scott has advised start-ups, SMEs and global organisations. Previous clients include Amazon, Apple, Zoom, McKinsey, Flippa, Canva, Hermes, Aviva, BNP Paribas, Unilever, Cisco, Sky, Accenture, Deutsche Bank, Salesforce and Citadel Securities.

He is a regular commentator on negotiation and crisis situations for CNN, BBC, Sky News, Times Radio and MSNBC. His work and insights have also been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Business Insider, Fast Company, The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian. He is also an advisor to the movie and TV industry.

Scott is a visiting lecturer in negotiation and behavioural science at the London School of Economics, London Business School and Canterbury Christ Church University.

His first book, the Sunday Times bestseller Order Out of Chaos: A Kidnap Negotiator’s Guide to Influence and Persuasion, explores how to succeed in negotiations where failure is not an option. It has been nominated for numerous awards and translated into multiple languages. His second book, Eye of the Storm: How to Make Good Decisions in Bad Situations, examines how to remain calm, think clearly and make effective decisions under pressure.

Negotiation and sales

Resilience and wellbeing

Emotional intelligence

Effective communication

Leadership and decision-making

Creating high-performing teams

Conflict resolution

Crisis management

He brings first-hand experience from resolving over 300 life-critical kidnap-for-ransom and crisis negotiations, giving leaders rare insight into how decisions are really made under extreme pressure.
He translates proven negotiation and crisis response techniques into practical frameworks that help executives build trust, handle objections and lead difficult conversations with confidence.
He draws on senior advisory work with governments, global organisations and the United Nations to help leaders navigate high-stakes risk, uncertainty and conflict in complex environments.
His briefings equip teams to stay calm, think clearly and act decisively when the consequences are real, reputations are on the line and failure is not an option.