TALK management recommends Tim Smit as an After Dinner Speaker, Conference Speaker, Keynote Speaker, Leadership Speaker and Motivational Speaker.

Tim Smit was born in Holland on 25 September 1954, and was educated in Britain at Vinehall and Cranbrook Schools. He read Archaeology and Anthropology at Durham University and subsequently worked as an archaeologist for two years in the Northeast of England. Following this Tim worked for ten years in the music industry as composer/producer in both rock music and opera, during which his ventures received 7 platinum and gold discs.

In 1987 Tim Smit moved to Cornwall where he met John Nelson and together they ‘discovered’ and then restored the Lost Gardens of Heligan, which is the most visited private garden in the UK with 400,000 visitors a year, and was recently voted the Nation’s Favourite Garden.

Tim Smit is Chief Executive and co-founder of the Eden Project near St Austell in Cornwall. Eden began as a dream in 1995 and opened its doors to the public in 2000, since when more than 6 million people have come to see what was once a sterile pit turned into a cradle of life containing world-class horticulture and startling architecture symbolic of human endeavour. Greeted by the press as ‘the Eighth Wonder of the World’, Eden is both a pioneering scientific foundation and a trailblazing social enterprise, harnessing the best attributes of public service with the commercial rigour of the private sector.

However Eden is actually most proud of its success in changing people’s perception of the potential for and the application of science, by communicating and interpreting scientific concepts through the use of art, drama and storytelling as well as living up to its mission to take a pivotal role in local regeneration. It demonstrates once and for all that sustainability is not about sandals and nut cutlets, it is about good business practice and the citizenship values of the future.

Tim Smit is on the Board of the Prince’s Trust Business Division, a Patron of The Cornwall Garden Society and a Director of Knee-high Theatre Company. He was recently appointed Patron of the Urban Parks Forum. He chaired The Landscape Heritage Trust’s feasibility study of Urban Parks and Gardens throughout the UK and presented their findings to the Government Select Committee on the Environment. He is also on the Board of Cornwall’s South West Development Group and Patron of Royal Cornwall Hospital’s Sunrise Appeal.

In 2000 Tim Smit received the Outstanding Contribution to Tourism in the UK from the English Tourism Council. In 2001 he received the Alchemist Award, the Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award (Southern Region. In January 2002 Tim was awarded an Honorary CBE in the New Year’s Honours List and received the Institute of Horticulture Award. In 2003 Tim was awarded the Foundation for Science and Technology’s Lord Lloyd of Kilgerran award.

Tim Smit lives in Fowey, Cornwall. Tim Smit is a regular speaker at conferences, dinners and other events, on issues of leadership in business, talent, and motivation.


To book Tim Smit or if you would like further suggestions for an After Dinner Speaker, Motivational Speaker, Keynote Speaker, Conference Speaker, Business Speaker, Celebrity Speaker, Sports Speaker, Conference Facilitator, Awards Host, Comedian or Voice Over. Feel free to contact the TALK management team on 020 8896 2222.