Jake Bailey is an internationally acclaimed educator on resilience, the youngest #1 bestselling author in New Zealand history, and as a Commonwealth Study Conference alumnus has been recognised as one of the most promising emerging leaders across the Commonwealth.

Jake first caused a global sensation aged 18, when he gave a speech from a wheelchair as head boy of Christchurch Boys’ High. Delivered less than a week after Jake had been diagnosed with the most aggressive form of cancer known to man, the speech went on to touch the hearts of tens of millions and drew support from across the globe.

Once in remission, Jake’s experience left him with questions: what exactly enables people to overcome adversity? Are we born with these skills, or are they trainable? And if so, what does it take to create people able to not only recover, but to grow from immense setbacks?

Jake’s search for answers has taken him to Antarctica, made him run ultramarathons, had him interview World Champions and Prime Ministers, and led him to study positive psychology in order to learn from experts and everyday people alike what it is that makes us resilient. He has shared his work with over 100,000 people across the globe, through thousands of presentations across dozens of cities, and developed resilience strategies for corporations, organisations, and schools — educating audiences ranging from elite athletes to children in outback towns, Fortune 500 CEOs to prison inmates, and foreign governments to retirement homes on evidence-based tools to enable us to most effectively overcome the challenges we all face in life. Click here to learn more about Jake’s speaking work.

Jake is driven by having seen the powerful impact that resilience has had on his own life both during and post-cancer, and consequently knowing the potential which these trainable and attainable skills can have on the happiness and success of others.

He is the author of the #1 bestselling book ‘What Cancer Taught Me’, the subject of the documentary ‘The Common Touch’, and an ambassador for two charities: the Maia Health Foundation in New Zealand and Tour de Cure in Australia.