About Alastair Greener: generational communication expert

Alastair Greener is a generational communication expert who helps organisations bridge the generation gap at work. He is a keynote speaker, consultant, author of the award-shortlisted book Generationally Speaking, host of the podcast of the same name, and President of the Professional Speaking Association UK and Ireland for 2026. His work is built on his own UK research and 30 years of leading and interviewing people from every generation.

Who is Alastair Greener?

Alastair Greener is a UK generational communication expert, keynote speaker, consultant and author. He helps organisations understand how the generations in their workforce think, work and communicate, so that people of every age feel understood and teams get more done. He is a Fellow of the Professional Speaking Association and its National President for 2026.

His approach rests on one idea, quoted in Psychology Today and People Management: we are framed by our generation, not defined by it. The year you were born shapes the world you grew up in, the technology you learned on and the assumptions you carry to work. It does not decide who you are. Generational insight is a lens for curiosity, not a label for judgement.

That is why his keynotes and consultancy rely on data rather than anecdote. Alastair has commissioned two pieces of original UK research: the Generations in the Workplace Study 2023, which asked British HR managers what four generations at work actually look like, and Communication Habits and Preferences 2024, a survey of 4,067 people aged from eight to over 78 on how they communicate. Both are published in full and free to cite.

Thirty years of being paid to communicate

Alastair grew up on his parents' farm in north Cornwall and trained in hotel management before finding his way to the stage. He became a full member of Equity within three years of training, with theatre credits that ranged from Shakespeare to pantomime, television appearances in The Bill and the BBC's House of Cards, and a role in Warner Bros' Black Beauty.

In 1995 he went to sea. Over the next 16 years he rose from the entertainment team on Sun Cruises to Cruise Director with Princess Cruises and then Cunard, heading departments of 90 to 100 people on ships including the QE2, Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria and the new Queen Elizabeth. He was on the inaugural teams of several ships and sat on their executive committees.

A cruise ship is a laboratory for generational communication. The guests span every age from toddlers to centenarians. The crew comes from dozens of countries and every generation, works together around the clock and lives in the same steel box for months at a time. Getting a Silent Generation regular, a Gen X family and a 20 year old dancer from the show team to have a good week was Alastair's job, every week, for 16 years. He also became the cruise industry's spokesperson on American television and radio for the Cruise Lines International Association, and the face of the Cunard blog when it launched in 2008.

Back on land, he spent more than a decade as a television presenter and business journalist. As a senior presenter for Business Reporter, distributed with The Daily Telegraph, he interviewed more than 500 business leaders. He has presented health, travel and election coverage, hosted a weekly radio show, and fronted corporate and training films for companies including Shell, HP, Allianz, IKEA, Novotel and HMRC. Those years are the subject of his presenter and MC site, alastairgreener.com.

He also founded Present Yourself, a London communication training company that teaches presentation, media and on-camera skills, with access to professional television and radio studios. Present Yourself is the partner company behind Generationally Speaking and its research.

Why the generations?

The generations became Alastair's specialism because they were the thread through everything he had done. Every team he ran at sea, every leader he interviewed and every executive he coached had the same recurring problem: perfectly capable people who could not quite hear each other across an age gap. The 22 year old thought the 55 year old was rigid. The 55 year old thought the 22 year old was flaky. Both were wrong, and both were losing something.

So he went looking for evidence. The 2023 HR study found that 66% of HR managers saw intergenerational communication as a challenge to business efficiency, yet only 6% rated friction between age groups as a major problem. The gap between those two numbers, a communication problem that nobody experiences as a conflict, became the heart of his work. The 2024 survey then mapped, for the first time in the UK at this scale, how each generation from Gen Alpha to the Silent Generation actually prefers to communicate.

The results run through his book, his keynotes and his podcast. The guides on this site to each generation are built on the same data.

The book, the podcast and the Foundation

Generationally Speaking: How to Bridge the Generation Gap and Communicate with Confidence was published by Right Book Press on 3 November 2025 and shortlisted for the Business Book Awards 2026 from more than 340 entries. It introduces each of the eight living generations, tests the stereotypes against the research and sets out how to communicate with confidence across all of them.

The Alastair Greener Generationally Speaking podcast launched in January 2025 and has run every fortnight since. Rather than talk about a generation, Alastair talks to it: guests have ranged from a 15 year old political party founder and a 19 year old councillor to the Chair of the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales, a B Corp chief executive and a 90 year old inventor. Nearly every episode is published with its full transcript.

£1 from the sale of every physical copy of the book goes to the Generationally Speaking Foundation, which supports charities helping disadvantaged children and young people to thrive.

Professional Speaking Association

Alastair is a Fellow of the Professional Speaking Association (FPSA) and became National President of the PSA UK and Ireland for 2026, taking over at the Speaking Business Summit in October 2025 with a presidential theme of "The Art of Connection". He opened the PSA's IMPACT! conference in Leeds in April 2026 and represented the UK at the Global Speakers Summit in Australia.

Where he works

Generationally Speaking is based on the Wiltshire and Berkshire border, and Alastair divides his time between Wiltshire and London. He speaks across the UK and internationally, in person and online, and has delivered keynotes for organisations including Brother, Carnival Corporation, Nationwide Building Society, Mediterranean Shipping Company and Lawtech.

In brief

• Generational communication keynote speaker, consultant and author, UK based
• President, Professional Speaking Association UK and Ireland, 2026; Fellow of the PSA
• Author of Generationally Speaking (Right Book Press, 2025), Business Book Awards 2026 finalist
• Host of the Alastair Greener Generationally Speaking podcast, fortnightly since January 2025
• Commissioned two UK studies: HR managers on four generations at work (2023) and 4,067 people on how they communicate (2024)
• Former Cruise Director, Cunard and Princess Cruises, leading teams of 90 to 100 across 16 years at sea
• Former television presenter and business journalist, 500+ business leader interviews
• Founder, Present Yourself communication training, London
• Quoted in People Management, Psychology Today, SME Today and The Business Exchange

Journalists and event organisers will find bios, headshots and a booker's kit on the media resources page.

Frequently asked questions

What does a generational communication expert do?

A generational communication expert helps organisations understand how people of different ages prefer to communicate, where those preferences clash and how to bridge the gap. Alastair does it through keynote talks, consultancy, workshops, original research and a podcast, always with the aim of replacing stereotypes with curiosity.

Which generations does Alastair Greener cover?

All of them. His 2024 survey covered six living generations from Generation Alpha (aged up to 12) to the Silent Generation (over 78), and his book introduces eight, including Generation Beta, born from 2025. Most client work concentrates on the four or five generations sharing a workplace: Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials and Generation Z, with Generation Alpha on the horizon.

Is Alastair Greener available to speak at events outside the UK?

Yes. Alastair speaks in person across the UK and internationally, and online for organisations anywhere. He has represented the UK at the Global Speakers Summit and has spent much of his career working with international teams. Contact him with your dates and location.

How can I contact Alastair Greener?

Email info@generationallyspeaking.co.uk, call +44 (0) 203 633 1790, or use the contact page. For press enquiries, his PR partner Scott Media is listed on the media resources page.