Biography
Lance Hilary Kenyon Secretan, was born in Beaconsfield (Amersham), Buckinghamshire, UK. His father was Kenyon Secretan, a prominent scientist, inventor and engineer who headed the BBC's foreign monitoring service and was part of William Stephenson's network (A Man Called Intrepid) during WWII; and Marie-Therese (née Haffenden) Secretan, a concert pianist. Apart from his handful of film credits, he appeared in numerous TV programs and series, radio shows and West End theater productions in London. At the height of his career, he was named the number one child actor in the English-speaking world. Towards the end of his decade-long acting career, he was starring in plays written specially for him by playwright Roger McDougall ("The Man in the White Suit" for which he received a 1952 Academy Award nomination) and "The Mouse That Roared").These plays included "Escapade", "The Facts of Life" (Jonathan) and "Simon and Laura". Lance also played Miles in Henry James' play, "The Turn of the Screw". He attended The Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts (formerly The Italia Conti Stage School). Following his acting career, Lance became a business executive, working on the floor of the Toronto Stock Exchange, becoming the Sales Manager for Office Overload (now Drake International), then the CEO of Manpower Limited, and a business school professor at McMaster University and York University. The books he wrote while an academic became best sellers, and he was soon in demand as a business adviser and this caused him to give up his academic career and found The Secretan Center, Inc., where he has since devoted his life to advising, coaching and mentoring leaders. Lance is widely acknowledged as one of the most insightful and provocative leadership teachers of our time. He is the former CEO of a Fortune 100 company, university professor, award-winning columnist and author of 21 books about leadership emphasizing the connection between high performance and the heart, the mind and the soul, and inspiration and leadership. In 2016 he wrote a memoir, "A Love Story" and in 2018 he published, "The Bellwether Effect". His teachings and writings on conscious leadership, are courageous, radical and ingenious and have been hailed as being among the most original, authentic and effective contributions to leadership thinking available. Individuals, entire organizations, cities and states have experienced remarkable transformations through his unique mentoring, wisdom and approach. Thirty of Fortune's Most Admired Companies, and 15 of Fortune's Best Companies to Work for in America, are his clients. Leadership Excellence ranked him among the top 100 Most Influential Thinkers on Leadership in the World, Global Gurus ranks him as the 4th leading executive coach in the world and Speakers in America ranks him among the Top Five Leadership speakers globally. He was the Chairman of the Advisory Board of the 1997 Special Olympics World Winter Games and former Ambassador to the United Nations Environment Program. He is currently the Chair of the Pay it Forward Foundation. His work has been recognized by many institutions, including the prestigious International Caring Award (often referred to as the US equivalent of the Nobel Prize), whose other recipients include Mother Teresa, The Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter and Jane Goodall. He earned a Master's Degree in International Relations from the University of Southern California (magna cum laude), and a Ph. D. from the London School of Economics. He has taught strategy, entrepreneurship and leadership at two leading universities. Lance is a dynamic, thought-provoking and much sought-after keynote speaker, using technology with enormous flair, and igniting audiences with his passion. His work results in reinvigorated work environments all over the world and his presentations result invariably result in standing ovations. An expert skier, mountain-biker and kayaker, Lance and divides his time between his homes in Ontario, Canada and Colorado, USA.
