@JohnLoughton is a high profile and award winning global youth leader, social entrepreneur, campaigner and leadership speaker. He is Founder CEO of global leadership company Dare2Lead, and has became one of the UK’s most desired motivational speakers.

Since running his first campaign aged 11, he has worked in over 45 countries across five continents, represented the UK internationally and engaged with numerous governments, businesses and world leaders. John has directly reached over 1 million young people and was named Outstanding Youth of the World 2013.

Growing up in a workless single-parent Scottish household in an area of poverty and high social exclusion, John frequently sites the impact of drugs, mental health issues and family breakdown as his motivation. As a teenager he helped found the first ever Youth Forum in his area and was a committed community activist.

In 2007 John was elected the youngest ever Chair of the Scottish Youth Parliament, one of the world’s most innovative and admired youth governance bodies. John is maybe best known for winning the UK’s Big Brother Celebrity Hijack TV show in 2008. This led to a string of media appearances, political commentary roles and high profile media campaigns.

In 2011, he set up leadership training social enterprise Dare2Lead – which has grown to employ numerous staff, take six-figure turnovers and empower over 20,000 clients.

Internationally, he has represented 1.2 billion young people when he addressed 54 Heads of State at the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting in Australia and served as Prime Minister of the Youth Diplomatic Service at the G8 and G20 Summits in Washington DC.

John has served a number of policy roles including Vice Convener of the Scottish Parliament’s Child and Youth Committee (CPG), Britain’s Literacy Commission, Advisory Council of the Scottish Human Rights Committee and co-Chair of the Commonwealth Gender Network. He was also appointed by the UK Prime Minister to a national Policy Commission advising on the Constitution.

John successfully enrolled on the prestigious UNESCO Comparative Human Rights Leadership programme at Connecticut University and was globally voted JCI Outstanding Youth of the World 2013 – joining an elite including John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton and Henry Kissinger.

His public policy career involved running Public Affairs for leading NGOs The Prince’s Trust, Fairbridge and Relate – where latterly he worked for Baroness Tyler of Enfield. He is an Ambassador for The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, Young Charity Trustees and is a Trustee of the Royal Commonwealth Society.

John is also a fan of Game of Thrones, Scottish whisky, snooker and is a proud redhead!