Peter Sheahan

Peter Sheahan: Profile

Before even reaching thirty years of age, he built a multi-million dollar consulting practice, attracting top-caliber clients such as News Corporation, Google, Coca-Cola, L’Oreal, Harley Davidson and Ernst & Young. These global brands, among others, have engaged Peter to bring their organizations up to speed on issues of generational change, workplace trends, and rapidly changing employee and consumer expectations.

Peter’s presentations shift leaders out of the world as it used to exist and into the world as it exists today. He has delivered more than 2,000 presentations to a combined audience of more than 300,000 people in eight different countries. His clients describe his entertaining presentations as "thought provoking", "insightful" and "inspiring".

Peter’s new book, FL!P: How To Turn Everything You Know on Its Head – and Succeed Beyond Your Wildest Imaginings (William Morrow, April 2008), focuses on the four forces of change which are transforming the business landscape. Building on his extensive work on Generation Y, in this book Peter explains the dramatic impacts that changes in technology, consumer market trends, demographics, and social attitudes (the very same changes that made Gen Y what they are) are having on business. Examining the key ‘flips’ leaders need to adopt for the future, this book is both a compelling account of changes that have occurred, and a toolkit for future-proofing your operation against changes to come.

Sheahan’s success is driven by his ability to identify areas of untapped potential within organizations, develop the right thought processes and skills required to convert that potential into performance, then engage with key individuals at all levels, motivating them to make it a reality.

Peter graduated in the top one-percent of students before starting his career in a large international accounting firm. Finding the environment uninspiring, he left his corporate post after only eight days to clean toilets in an Irish pub. Within 18 months, at only 19 years of age, Peter was General Manager of a multi-million dollar Sydney Hotel employing over 30 staff. It was during this time that Peter discovered that many young employees were struggling to make a successful transition from the classroom to work. Peter saw an opportunity to educate young people to apply their skills and talents in a way that was profitable for business, while providing the next generation with a skill-set to sell themselves to prospective employers.

Since then, Peter has worked with over 100,000 Gen Y-ers in more than 1,500 workshops, seminars and focus groups sessions. While Peter continues to work with this Generation in an educational setting, his focus has since shifted to helping companies understand the markedly different needs and expectations of Generation Y in the workplace. It is his real world experience, coupled with the fact that he is a Gen Y-er himself that makes Peter one of the most sought after keynote speakers in the world on the topics of Generation Y and counter-intuitive thinking.

Sheahan is a unique and inspiring consultant and corporate speaker whose ideas and experiences are changing the face of the business world.