Damian Riley’s impressive career path demonstrates his commitment to leadership across the public and private sectors and it demonstrates his sense of duty and compassion.

I have heard him speak many times and have had the great pleasure of getting to know him for a while. But you have to absorb the entirety of his background to get a measure of the man.

In September 2021 he secured the role of Chief Executive of the Army Recruiting Group and is responsible for recruiting up to 12,000 regular and reserve soldiers and officers each year to serve in the British Army. It is an uncomfortable truth that in the UK, like many nations, we need to be war ready. And that is what he helps to do. He ensures that we attract the talent that potentially could be called on to protect our nation and all of us, as people.

Aside from that huge responsibility, like every other person who wants to preserve and protect their financial independence, his world was rocked when he experienced a life-changing road traffic accident in June 2019.Our conversation will in turn, rock you. We talk about the challenges that come with the dramatic and traumatic onset of a life experience that we would prefer not to have had, as well as the gifts that come with disability.

We talk about those moments when our planned-for life-trajectory is de-railed and replaced with an ambiguous future and we talk about the things that we learn about ourselves as a consequence and how they can be as life-enhancing as they are challenging.

The key confidence fundamental in our Confident Conversation series that Damian talks to is the need to assimilate and make sense of our new identities that can often come from the experience of disability and the need to get comfortable with that before we can expect others to do the same.

These interviews are brought to you with thanks to remarkable people choosing to share their learning about developing inner confidence so that others can learn faster.

The first tranche of six films is brought to you with thanks to LSEG who are working to build a culture of belonging for everybody and accessibility is a key part of that.

Once you have listened, we ask one thing from you: send the link to the film to five others who you think might be able to pass on the messages to five others.

We are on a mission at PurpleSpace to cascade a universal definition of inner confidence as a strong expectation of a positive outcome and to share the practical things we can do to navigate our working worlds while managing disability.

Enjoy this film.

For PurpleSpace members wanting further information about how to build inner confidence of their ERG/Network members, visit our resource hub.

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