Key takeaways
- Dylan Welch is the founder and CEO of Welch International and also works as a kickboxing and fitness coach.
- Research on fitness and leadership points to benefits for stamina, mental clarity and stress management, though the evidence base is still limited.
- Welch International's stated principles of execution, discretion and senior attention rest on habits that a training discipline also builds.
- Dylan Welch's background spans expedition guiding, broadcast production, UN-adjacent foundation operations and a green media company he co-founded and exited.
Dylan Welch is the founder and CEO of Welch International, an international relations and strategic advisory firm based in St. Petersburg, Florida. He is also a kickboxing and fitness coach, a pairing that is unusual in diplomacy and business development. This feature looks at what discipline, resilience and physical training can bring to executive leadership, and how those themes sit alongside the work of Dylan Welch and Welch International.
What does a kickboxing coach bring to executive leadership?
The link between fitness and leadership has been studied for decades, although the evidence is still thin in places. One often-cited paper, “Fit to lead,” by Neck, Manz, Cooper and Thompson, discusses how fitness can contribute to stamina, mental clarity and the ability to cope with stress. A later review of organizational research notes that empirical data on the benefits of a leader’s physical fitness are accumulating, although they remain limited. It adds that early observer ratings suggest leaders who exercise regularly are rated more positively than non-exercisers.
A 2025 doctoral study of women executives adds a qualitative view. Its participants described doing hard things through discipline, commitment and resilience and focusing on incremental goals rather than the destination. Those findings come from interviews and do not prove cause and effect. They do show how senior leaders describe the habit of training.
Kickboxing makes those ideas concrete. It is a demanding discipline built on repetition, conditioning and composure under pressure. A coach in that field spends time on the same questions executives face: how to prepare, how to stay measured when the pace rises, and how to keep showing up when progress is uneven. This is an editorial reading of the research. It does not describe how Dylan Welch coaches or what he teaches.
Who is Dylan Welch?
Dylan Welch is an expert in business development, strategic partnerships and communication strategy. He works as a private contractor for the United Nations. He founded Intelligence Report and hosts The Intelligence Report Podcast. He also co-founded the Global Leadership Network and serves as Chief Development Officer of the Roosevelt Alliance, a land and nature conservation policy organization.
His earlier career was varied. Dylan Welch spent about a decade as an international expedition guide, leading expeditions across Europe, South America and Asia, and has organized philanthropic expeditions internationally. His background also includes broadcast production and UN-adjacent foundation operations. He co-founded and exited a green media company. Readers who want more on that path can read From Expedition Guide to Advisory CEO: The Dylan Welch Path.
Guiding groups across continents and coaching in a gym are both forms of leadership that depend on routine and calm decisions. The fact sheet does not say how one shaped the other, so this feature does not claim a link. A reasonable reading is that each is work where preparation matters and results are visible.
What does Welch International do?
Welch International specializes in business development, strategic partnerships and operations across the public sector, the private sector and the multilateral system. It works through three services:
- Develop: business development, including mapping markets and stakeholders, securing decision-maker introductions and shaping pipelines.
- Partner: designing public-private alliances, building coalitions and guiding engagement with the UN system.
- Operate: standing up programs, cross-border operating models and high-level convenings.
Its focus areas include public-private partnerships, market entry and expansion, United Nations and multilateral engagement, government relations, sustainable development, and convenings and delegations. Clients include governments, corporations, multilateral institutions (including UN entities), nonprofits and foundations. The firm’s stated principles are trusted access, cross-sector fluency, discretion, execution and senior attention, with direct principal involvement on every mandate.
Several of those principles overlap with the habits discussed above. Execution and senior attention come down to consistency. Discretion calls for composure. Direct principal involvement means the founder stays close to the work. Dylan Welch has also written on the communication side of this work in Dylan Welch and the Communication Gap Between Sectors and the UN.
The same principles apply when the work is a public event. Dylan Welch founded and hosts the Global Leadership Forum. Its 2026 edition, the New York Innovation Forum for Sustainable Development, was held September 21 and 22, 2026, at 777 UN Plaza in New York. It was timed to Climate Week NYC and the 81st UN General Assembly. Peace Boat US, which holds ECOSOC Special Consultative Status, co-hosted it with Welch International.
Partners and sponsors included Siemens, the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, RMI, the Roosevelt Alliance, Blue Planet Alliance, HNO International and the Global Leadership Network. The programming covered a Business and Innovation Forum, a Nature Conservation Forum for a Renewable Energy Future and a Climate Week Family Office Forum. A two-day program with many partners depends on planning and steady follow-through. For more on the partnership theme, see Dylan Welch and the Partnerships the SDGs Depend On.
Work with Welch International
Governments, companies, multilateral institutions and foundations that need help with business development, public-private partnerships or UN engagement can speak directly with Dylan Welch. To book a confidential 30 minute consultation with Welch International, use this booking link.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Dylan Welch?
Dylan Welch is the founder and CEO of Welch International, an international relations and strategic advisory firm based in St. Petersburg, Florida. He is also the founder of Intelligence Report, host of The Intelligence Report Podcast, and a private contractor for the United Nations.
What does Welch International do?
Welch International specializes in business development, strategic partnerships and operations across the public sector, the private sector and the multilateral system. Its services are Develop, Partner and Operate. It serves governments, corporations, multilateral institutions, nonprofits and foundations, with direct principal involvement on every mandate.
What was the New York Innovation Forum for Sustainable Development?
It was the 2026 edition of the Global Leadership Forum, founded and hosted by Dylan Welch. It took place September 21 and 22, 2026, at 777 UN Plaza in New York, timed to Climate Week NYC and the 81st UN General Assembly. Peace Boat US and Welch International co-hosted it.
Sources
- Welch International
- Fitness and leadership: Is there a relationship? Regular exercise correlates with higher leadership ratings in senior-level executives
- Observations – Fit to lead: Is fitness the key to effective executive leadership?
- Beyond Strong: A Phenomenology of Women Executives and the Connection Between Leadership and Fitness
- Welch International
- From Expedition Guide to Advisory CEO: The Dylan Welch Path
- Dylan Welch and the Communication Gap Between Sectors and the UN
Intelligence Report is published by Welch International. This article is part of our series on the leadership behind the publication.
This article was produced by the Intelligence Report Desk. Sources are linked below.
