About
Founder, CEO & Chief Storysmith
I help leaders, experts, and commercial teams communicate with more clarity, confidence, and influence. My work sits at the intersection of strategic storytelling, behavioural science, persuasion, and practical business communication.
Tim Wilkes is a Sydney-based keynote speaker, communication coach and author who uses behavioural science and storytelling to help leaders and commercial teams make important messages land. He is Founder, CEO and Chief Storysmith of Pathos Services, was Chief Storytelling Officer and Head of Behavioural Economics at SAP Asia Pacific Japan, and later Head of Leadership Development APJ at Workday. He is the author of The Behaviourally Armed Leader (Amazon Australia #1 Best Seller in Business Management, September 2026) and The Cleopatra Effect.
Tim has been a professional presenter, communicator and educator for more than 25 years, with senior roles at SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft and Workday. At SAP he was Chief Storytelling Officer and Head of Behavioural Economics for Asia Pacific Japan from 2018 to 2023. At Workday he was Head of Leadership Development for Asia Pacific Japan. He founded Pathos Services to bring the same methods to leaders and commercial teams who need their ideas to be understood, remembered and acted on.
His training includes Applied Behavioural Science and Behavioural Economics with Ogilvy Consulting, Communicating Persuasively and Building Trust at Stanford Graduate School of Business, AI-Driven Leadership at Stanford Online, and Creative Leadership and Copywriting at the Cannes Lions School.
What I help with
Executive coaching for communication and presence
Strategic messaging and value stories
Workshops on storytelling, behavioural science, and influence
Keynote shaping and presentation coaching
Leadership communication and development
Customer-facing pitches, demos, and board-level presentations
Event facilitation and MC
Copywriting and speech writing
Point of view
Most business communication is technically correct but emotionally flat. The strategy makes sense on paper but fails to inspire action. The pitch is logical but forgettable. The presentation is informative but dull.
Tim cares about helping people make complex ideas easier to understand and harder to ignore. Behavioural science helps explain what audiences actually respond to. Strategic storytelling gives you the structure to make it happen. Practical coaching makes it stick.
The goal is always the same: help people communicate in a way that moves others to think, feel, or do something different.
Why clients bring Tim in
When the stakes are high, Tim helps people find the clearest, strongest version of what they need to say.
Tim brings evidence-based thinking about how people listen, decide, and act into practical business communication.
Every engagement is tailored. Tim works with the real context, the real audience, and the real challenge.
More than 25 years across financial services, technology, government, professional services, and high-growth businesses.
Credibility
More than 25 years presenting, coaching and teaching, including 12 years at SAP
Chief Storytelling Officer and Head of Behavioural Economics, SAP Asia Pacific Japan, 2018 to 2023
Head of Leadership Development APJ, Workday
Author of The Behaviourally Armed Leader and The Cleopatra Effect
Speaker, SAP Australian User Group National Summit 2026; IPAA NSW Skills for Success series 2026
Intellectual influences
Tim is a reader. His work is shaped by behavioural science, rhetoric, narrative psychology, persuasion theory, and the practical wisdom that comes from watching thousands of presentations, pitches, and conversations.
That is why Tim's Bookshelf exists: a curated reading list of the books that have genuinely influenced how he thinks about communication, persuasion, leadership, and human behaviour.
Browse the bookshelfBooks
Amazon Australia #1 Best Seller in Business Management, September 2026.
"As one would expect from a master storyteller, a crackingly good read."
Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman, Ogilvy
Paperback ISBN 978-1-7648882-0-2. Also orderable through bookshops via Ingram.
How status and authority are signalled in the room, and how women leaders can use that to lead with calm confidence rather than borrowed force.
Philosophy
In Aristotle's framework, pathos is the appeal to emotion: the human element that makes communication move people, not just inform them.
Too much business communication is all logos (logic) and ethos (credibility) with no pathos. The result? Messages that are technically correct but emotionally flat. Pathos Services exists to restore that balance.
Tim is based in Sydney, Australia, and works with clients across Australia, Asia Pacific and beyond, in person and online. Recent sessions include IPAA NSW and the SAP Australian User Group national summit.
Whether you need a keynote speaker, executive coach, or strategic communication partner, let's start with a conversation.
Get in touch