Phillip Khan-Panni

Phillip Khan-Panni had a career in sales and direct marketing before starting a training business in 1994. Along the way he gained numerous distinctions in public speaking, placing second in the World Championship and co-founding the Professional Speaking Association. He is the author of eight business books and one of poetry. Born in Hong Kong during WW II, he was taken into mainland China, where he was almost starved to death. Kidnapped by his estranged mother, he was flown 'over the hump' to...See more

Phillip Khan-Panni had a career in sales and direct marketing before starting a training business in 1994. Along the way he gained numerous distinctions in public speaking, placing second in the World Championship and co-founding the Professional Speaking Association. He is the author of eight business books and one of poetry. Born in Hong Kong during WW II, he was taken into mainland China, where he was almost starved to death. Kidnapped by his estranged mother, he was flown 'over the hump' to India in a US bomber, and placed in a succession of Himalayan boarding schools. His main school was St Joseph's College in Darjeeling, a Jesuit establishment widely known as North Point. The book recounts his time at those hill schools. Aged 18 he won the All India Inter-Collegiate Debate - the first of of his public speaking awards. Soon afterwards he emigrated to London in what he says was "an act of colonial revenge"! During his time in Fleet Street, he achieved the most dramatic spike in classified ad sales in the history of the Daily & Sunday Express newspapers, tripling revenue in less than a year. He published his own weekly newspaper, the London Entertainer, which sadly failed. Switching to Direct Mail, he was Senior Copywriter at Reader's Digest, London, for eight years, and started his own Direct Marketing agency, closing it down when his wife died tragically in 1991. Joining Toastmasters International, he won numerous awards for public speaking, including Anglo-Irish Champion three times, second in the World Championship and Inaugural UK Business Speaker of the Year. He launched a training consultancy, PKP Communicators, later co-founding 4C International, specialising in cross-cultural communication. In 1999, he also co-founded the Professional Speaking Association, of which he is an Honorary Fellow. He lives on the edge of London with his Irish second wife, Evelyn. See less