Gary Shaw
Gary Shaw was the only Birmingham-born player in Villa’s title-winning side of 1981. In the same year, he won the PFA Young Player of the Year award. Shaw hit 18 league goals as Villa lifted the title, including a crucial strike against Middlesbrough that as good as clinched the title. The following season, he scored 14 goals, nine in the league and a memorable strike against Dynamo Kiev in the quarter-finals of the European Cup.
Seventeen league goals arrived in 1982/83 in a season which saw him net 24 in all competitions. After 18 appearances and six goals in 1983/84 he was injured. Six knee operations in four years could not save his Villa career, before joining KFC Copenhagen in 1988. A move to Klagenfurt in Austria followed before heading back to England where he played for Walsall and Shrewsbury Town.
Rory Underwood
Rory Underwood MBE is best known for his time as an international rugby player for England. During his time playing for his country, he scored a record 49 tries and won a total of 85 caps between 1984 and 1996. He also won 6 caps for the British Lions, touring Australia in 1989 and New Zealand in 1993.
Underwood played domestically at Leicester for a total of 14 years and in 1992, was was awarded an MBE for his services to rugby.
Rory played during the era before Rugby Union turned professional and balanced playing with a career as a pilot, flying in the Royal Air Force.
During in his time with the RAF Rory was responsible for introducing the successful Crew Resources Management training programme. The result of this CRM was a culture where personnel look at the importance of teamwork and decision making in time restricted and stressful situations.
Rory has both a passion and great expertise in the areas of communication and high level performance leadership in teams – gained through his rugby career and time in the RAF. This has allowed him to bring a different perspective into the performance of business teams and one in which he can provide useful insights as a guest speaker.
Rory is also a Licensed Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming an experienced facilitator as well as a psychometric profiler and performance coach.
