Chris Lemons

Chris Lemons is a motivational leadership and crisis management speaker with a gripping story to tell.

An experienced commercial diver for over 18 years, specializes in deep-sea saturation diving primarily within the oil and gas industry. This highly specialised form of diving involves living in a decompression chamber for up to 28 days at a time. Each day, he commutes to the sea-bed in a diving bell and works at depths of up to 900 feet for six hours at a stretch. But in September 2012, Chris faced a life-threatening situation when the dynamic positioning system of the vessel he was working under failed, causing his breathing gas, light, and heat supply to be severed completely. Stranded 300 feet below the surface in complete darkness, with only 5 minutes of emergency breathing gas, he faced freezing temperatures.

Chris’ miraculous survival, thanks to the heroic efforts of his rescuers, left experts astonished and changed the course of Chris’ live as he knew it.

His remarkable story was documented in the popular Netflix/BBC documentary ‘Last Breath.’

A Hollywood movie based on his experiences, starring Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu, and Finn Cole, is also in development as of 2023.

To hire Crisis Management Leadership Speaker Chris Lemons Contact Us at Great British Speakers

Type Of Speaker

After Dinner Business & Finance Exploration & Military High Performance Keynote Leadership & Teamwork Motivational Resilience Speaker

More About Chris Lemons

Chris Lemons | Speaker

Chris Lemons is an experienced keynote speaker available for public speaking engagements. He customizes his speeches to suit specific themes, such as safety lessons from his accident, the emotional aspects of his experiences, or providing an overview of the offshore and saturation diving world.

He offers valuable insights into the relatively unknown world of Saturation Diving, where divers spend extended periods confined to compression chambers and dive to great depths daily for their work.

Chris Lemons – ‘Last Breath’

Chris also shares a personal account of the events leading up to the critical day in 2012 when he was left stranded 300 feet underwater, highlighting the challenges he faced with no light, heat, and limited breathing gas.

With honesty and emotion, Chris Lemons describes the thoughts and responses that go through one’s mind when facing a life-threatening situation and how such experiences can transform perspectives on life’s finite nature.

He emphasises the role of teamwork, preparation, training, procedures, drills, and practice in his recovery and survival, showing how these aspects can benefit various spheres of work and life.

Chris Lemons – Past Speaking Assignments

Chris has spoken at various prestigious events and for prominent organisations such as HSBC, Shell UK, BioMarin, The Royal Geographical Society, BP, and more.

He is open to doing Q&A sessions on the topics he covers in his speeches.

Chris Lemons Deep Sea Diver Survivor leadership risk resilience speaker book at agent Great British Speakers

Chris Lemons | Speaking Topics

1. Leadership and Maintaining the Chain of Command: Highlighting the importance of strong leadership and clear-cut governance in hazardous offshore subsea operations, drawing from personal experiences.

2. Crisis Management and Emergency Response: Discussing the detailed preparation, effective leadership, and training that allowed his team to handle the crisis and conduct a successful rescue.

3. Procedures and the Power of Drills and Practice: Emphasizing the crucial role of procedures, training, and drills in ensuring the safety and success of deep-sea diving operations.

4. Risk Management: Explaining how calculated risk management contributes to making dangerous jobs like saturation diving safer.

5. Incident Investigation: Recounting the comprehensive investigation that followed his accident and how it was managed with sensitivity and transparency.

6. Resilience and Overcoming Adversity: Sharing insights on developing resilience in the face of challenges and how it played a crucial role in his survival and recovery.

7. Teamwork and Workforce Diversity: Discussing the significance of cohesive teamwork in the diving industry and how diverse teams can work effectively together.

8. Contemplating Death: Reflecting on his personal experience facing death and how it influenced his perspective on life’s priorities.

To hire Crisis Management Leadership Speaker Chris Lemons email Great British Speakers at bookings@greatbritishtalent.com or call +44 1753 439 289

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Testimonials

“Chris Lemons is a remarkably powerful speaker with a tremendously valuable story. He also happens to be a genuine gentleman. Highly recommend.”

Robin Sharma #1 Bestselling Author of the 5am Club

“The most gripping and unique story I have ever heard, our audience was gobsmacked”

Grant Rawlinson – Royal Geographical Society Singapore and founder of Powerful Humans

“I’ve had the honour of hearing Chris’ story on several occasions now, each time with a fresh angle or nuance. Articulate, knowledgeable and surprisingly dispassionate (given his subject matter), he is able to spin a riveting yarn which will have the audience gripped. It’s an incredible story of survival, told with genuine flair by its humble protagonist in true edge-of-your-seat style.
Hear him if you dare!”

Dr. Oliver Firth MBBS, Bsc, MRCGP

“Chris Lemons has a gripping and emotional story that will hold your audience captive! He makes it clear his team saved his life and this was a really powerful message for our staff”

Reuben Brown, Marketing, Halco

“Thank you so much for speaking to the Shell Energy network this week – it was a great presentation and we’ve had so many comments about it being the ‘event of the year’!”

Rebecca Watson – Finance Advisor at Shell

“I just wanted to a say a huge thanks for your time in the SOA conference. It was a fantastic session, I’ve had so much good feedback and only wish it could have gone on longer.”

Dr Matt Morgan, Intensive Care Society

Chris Lemons is a very friendly, down to earth and engaging speaker whose story is hard to believe. He took the audience of ~160 through the story of that fateful night in a clear manner, using clips from the Netflix documentary to emphasise the story at certain points. Prior to the event, we had discussed with Chris the themes we wanted him to focus on in his talk and he was very accommodating with this request. We received great feedback from the audience who found the talk incredibly interesting – many went on to watch the Netflix documentary after.”

Reinsurance Group of America

“Chris joined us in Kuala Lumpur for our annual conference designed to bring together OPITO’s global network of training centres, industry partners and colleagues. We received overwhelmingly positive feedback on Chris’ presentation and ability to translate the importance of safety training into the real-life emergency situation he experienced while diving in the North Sea back in 2012. His humble delivery, sense of humour and lived experience of the challenges of working in a remote and hazardous environment really resonated with our audience and we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend him.”

Alex Spencer – Director at OPITO

“In a challenging time period during the COVID-19 pandemic, DeepOcean wanted to bring in a key note speaker from our industry that had a fascinating story to tell, could draw parallels between their own experiences and the global pandemic lock-down and who could connect and resonate with our onshore and offshore communities.

Boy did Chris deliver! His presentation was funny, engaging and deeply touching.”

Erik Bergh – HSEQS Director at DeepOcean