Josh Lewsey is a unique man. He has won the Rugby World Cup, graduated from Sandhurst, served as an officer in the Royal Artillery and took on the challenge to climb Everest.

This is man with drive, focus who understands how to achieve success. University educated Lewsey has a rare insight into a combination of elite performance environments. Not only does he know about winning and losing from his immensely successful period as a professional rugby player, but he has the knowledge from the military and climbing that if you don’t work as a team, don’t prepare, don’t listen, don’t adapt to changes going on around you, death is a reality.

Born in Kent, Lewsey went to school in Watford close to Saracens rugby club, but it was London Wasps where he was to make his name after player junior rugby at Amersham & Chiltern RFC. He joined Wasps aged 18 playing in the colts before going on to captain the Under 18 side.

Whilst a University in Bristol, he played Bristol RFC before re-joining Wasps at 21, the club that come the end of his career he played for 262 times in 11 years. He departed at the end of the 2008/09 season having helped the club to four Premiership titles, two Heineken Cups and a European Challenge Cup success.

Although he could have played for Wales as his mum his Welsh and his dad half Welsh, it was in an England shirt that Lewsey dazzled on the international stage. He was first capped at the age of 21 on England's 'Tour from Hell' in Australia 1998. He also appeared in all three tests in the summer 2001 tour to North America.

After deciding on going through the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, he graduated in 2001 and combined his rugby and Army careers with great success, before throwing himself completely into his rugby.

In 2003 he has a key player in England’s world cup campaign that saw Clive Woodard’s team hoist the trophy. Still in great form in 2005, Lewsey toured with the legendary British & Irish Lions to New Zealand scoring two tries in 5 minutes against the Bay of Plenty.

Lewsey was featured heavily in England's campaign to retain the Rugby World Cup in 2007 and scored the only try against France in the 14-9 victory which put England into the final. In 2008 Lewsey retired from international rugby.

An avid climber, Lewsey took on the challenge to climb Mount Everest via the difficult North Col route in May 2010. He got to within 500 feet of the summit when his breathing apparatus failed meaning he had to abandon the ascent.

Working in the City a Management Consultant with PwC, Lewsey led a range of projects from strategy through to cultural change across different industries and was approached by the UK board to deliver a new Organisational Performance competency. He later moved to Citigroup working in their Global Markets division having two years on the trading floor. Observing significant inefficiencies, he embarked on a global review of the Equities asset class, providing astute insight and recommendations for systematic change. On the back of this, he was awarded the position EMEA Head of Business Advisory Services, which was to lead consulting services predominantly to the Hedge Fund and Institutional Investor community.

Recognised for this knowledge, his ability to drive change and understanding Lewsey’s passion for making a difference to society through sport, he was approached to take the role of Head of Rugby of Wales in 2013. At the WRU he implemented strategic and structural change from the grass roots through to the national team on behalf of the WRU’s executive board. Such changes have already had a significant impact, and have been described by senior individuals as “the most significant change in a generation”.

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