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Biography

William Ayot

Poet, Presenter and Coach

William Ayot is a poet, presenter, and workshop leader. William works regularly with business educators such as Columbia University Business School (US), INSEAD (France), and DIEU (Denmark). Over the years William has worked with numerous blue chip companies in the UK, including banks, accountants, insurance companies; telecoms, IT, manufacturing and engineering giants. Abroad he has worked with global corporations in Southern Africa, The Gulf, the Far East and America. Public sector clients include The United Nations, The International Atomic Energy Agency, numerous UK ministries, agencies and unitary authorities. For more information about William's organisational work and Olivier Mythodrama, click here.

Born and educated in rural Hertfordshire, he worked in London's gaming industry for over twenty-five years while developing as a playwright and poet. In the early nineties he underwent a personal transformation and since that time has devoted himself to working with others as a poet, storyteller, facilitator, coach and mentor, moving into the corporate world.

William worked closely with Richard Olivier and Mark Rylance on the development of Mythodrama, a new form of experiential learning, which combines great stories and poems with psychological and organisational insights, and creative exercises. As Chairman of Olivier Mythodrama he now delivers programmes on leadership issues and dynamic communication across four continents, using story, poetry and theatre/rehearsal techniques to effect change by indirect learning. As his poetry has entered the business and public service communities it increasingly features in the work of other educators and facilitators. William also coaches senior executives in presentation, personal impact and character development. He gives a tithe of his time to working with recovering addicts and is a spokesman for the National Association for the Children of Alcoholics.

William's writing includes: Drama: Bengal Lancer (Haymarket Leicester & Lyric Hammersmith), Division and Conquest (Royal Court, public reading), TV, Radio & Film Commissions. Poetry: Small Things that Matter (OMA), The Portable Oasis (CD) (OMA), The Water Cage (chapbook, Sleeping Mountain Press). Magazine publications include: Poetry London Newsletter, Acumen, Still, Spokes, Haiku Quarterly, Psychopoetica, Achilles Heel, etc., etc. William's poems have been published on the web and featured in various books and anthologies including: The X & Y of Leadership (Spiro), Peak Performance Presentations (Spiro), Writing for Self-Discovery (Element), Trust Matters (Jossey Bass), and Discovery (Cyan Marshall Cavendish). He is currently editing an anthology with Richard Olivier of poetry for the workplace entitled E-Mail for the Soul, which is due to be published in early 2008. Other Writing includes acceptance speeches award winners, set pieces for politicians, and keynotes for organisational leaders. He has also written articles and reviews for newspapers such and periodicals. For some years William was the Director of London's Poetry on the Buses programme.

William has a passionate interest in poetry as a spoken medium. His readings are powerful and enjoyable events. He is a past winner of the Piccadilly Poets Competition for spoken poetry and was commissioned to write and read a poem for the 400th anniversary of the first performance of Julius Caesar at Shakespeare's Globe. He has read his poetry at venues as varied as the Bank of England, Goodwood House, Conwy Castle, The Torriano Meeting House, the Poetry Café, the Albert Hall, and the United Nations (New York and Geneva). He is currently organising a series of Poetry events in Chepstow known as On the Border.

William believes the poet's function to be broader than writing and reading poems. Apart from working in organisations, he has worked in prisons and rehabilitation centres using poetry and ritual as an initiatory tool for personal development and healing. For some years he was committed to working in what was then called the mythopoetic men's movement. He was a member/leader, of Wild Dance Events, which organised men's events led by such teachers as James Hillman, Michael Meade and the american poet Robert Bly, author of Iron John. Working with Bly and indigenous medicine teachers (shamans) like Malidoma and Sobonfu Somé (Dagara - Burkina Faso), and Martín Prechtel (Mayan - Guatamala), William developed a wide appreciation of the effects and potential uses of ritual in contemporary society. In the nineteen nineties he co-led Rites of Passage workshops for men at Cae Mabon, near Llanberis in North Wales, developing individual rituals for men (and women) at different initiatory thresholds.

Out of this work, William has evolved a way of working with ritual that is inspirational, powerful and effective. He has acted as celebrant for numerous, private and public ceremonies, including weddings, funerals, and separations. He also conducts individual healing and atonement rituals.

William is available for lectures, seminars, workshops and one to one coaching using theatrical techniques, primarily aimed at senior managers and leaders. His particular interest is topics such as Making An Impact, Bringing the Soul into the Workplace, The Power of Words, Passion and Compassion in the Workplace, and Presenting: Presence and Authenticity. He also offers poetry readings for the corporate world, and workshops at poetry venues, festivals and charitable events.