10570
Bobby Seagull is best known for his impressive turn on University Challenge in 2016, as well as being a school teacher, television presenter and author.
He is now a popular keynote speaker and conference host where he commands the stage with a natural charisma, talking about his love of numbers and why we shouldn’t be afraid of them. He is informative and entertaining, and helps reignite a passion for education in his audience.
Contact Great British Speakers today to book University Challenge Star Bobby Seagull for your next event.
Before moving into teaching, Bobby Seagull was an investment banking trader at Lehman Brothers & Nomura and qualified as a Chartered Accountant from PwC.
He has since become the go-to man for talking about maths and finance in an easy-to-understand manner. He has contributed articles on personal finance to the Financial Times, and appears regularly on radio shows and podcasts.
He is the main puzzle setter for BBC Four’s Today programme and has appeared on their political panel show Any Questions. Alongside fellow maths teacher Susan Okereke, Bobby created a podcast titled Maths Appeal, which aims to show the fun side of maths for teachers and students alike. It was so popular, that at one point it reached number two in the iTunes education charts.
He has published two popular books, The Monkman and Seagull Quiz Book (2017) which presents over 500 questions on varied topics such as historical and numerical, and The Life-Changing Magic of Numbers (2019) in which Bobby illuminates the world of numbers through anecdotes from his own life. They were both critically acclaimed, with the latter reaching the top 50 on Amazon’s bestsellers list.
Since being on University Challenge, Bobby has appeared on popular television shows as a guest, such as Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two (2020) and Mastermind (2020), as well as co-hosting Answer Trap (2021) for Channel 4 alongside Great British Speaker Anita Rani, and Monkman and Seagull’s Genius Guide (2018-2020) alongside fellow quizzer Eric Monkman. He is also a regular guest on current affairs and news programming including Good Morning Britain (2019-2020), The One Show (2018) and Jeremy Vine (2020-).
Thanks to his experience as a teacher, live TV guest and recorded presenter, Bobby is a confident keynote or after-dinner speaker and event host, and has hosted events at the British Library and the Science Museum. He is also involved as patron or supporter of a number of charities and educational bodies including the Premier League, British Libraries, National Numeracy, Pearson Education and West Ham F.C.
In 2020, Bobby contributed a Tedx talk titled The Magic of Numbers – Why Everyone Should Love Maths! which aimed to rewrite the assumptions many people have about mathematics and numbers. See below:
SPEAKING TOPICS
– Maths/Numbers
– The Future of Teaching
– Quizzing
– Presenting and Broadcasting
– Finance and Banking
Bobby is confident speaking at schools, colleges, festivals, award ceremonies, Q&A sessions and charity events.
A Chat with Bobby Seagull
As part of our ‘Chat with…’ podcast series at Great British Speakers, our director Jane Farnham sat down with Bobby to talk about his life, numbers and what motivates him to inspire a passion for maths within others. Find out more HERE.
Just to feedback on the talk yesterday delivered by Bobby Seagull, he was brilliant! So enthusiastic and engaging, I have had great feedback from colleagues.
Ellie, Marketing & Communications Officer, Swansea University
Bobby was a fantastic addition to the national final of the Senior Teams Maths Challenge where he was entertaining and inspirational in equal measure. Both Bobby’s speech about his own experiences and his maths rap (which was great) lifted the students after a long day of competing. We look forward to working with Bobby in the future.
UKMT