Brief History – Mr. Philip Khan-Panni is an alumnus of St. Joseph’s College in Darjeeling, graduating in 1947. He was a distinguished alumnus, having received the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2007. He also holds a B.Com in Economics from St. Xavier’s College. Mr. Khan-Panni is co-founder of the Professional Speaking Association and has a successful career as a speaker, writer, and public speaker.

Phillip Khan-Panni was born in Hong Kong, taken into mainland China, and kidnapped by his mother when his parents split up. Taken to India, he was placed in a Himalayan boarding school at the age of 3. After completing his 3-year university course in just over 2 years, he set sail for England. Working in sales, he set a number of records, then took up public speaking, going on to represent Britain and Ireland in the World Championships three times, and ranking No.2 in the world. He has published seven business books and one of poetry, and works as a copywriter and trainer in communication skills.

Phillip Khan-Panni FPSA is a polished wordsmith, Honorary Fellow and co-Founder of the Professional Speaking Association with a business background in advertising, sales management, newspaper publishing and direct marketing. Senior Copywriter at Readers’ Digest for eight years, he is the CV Consultant at CV-Masterclass.com and expert in getting Your Point Across.

He established a reputation for outstanding sales management as the most successful Classified Advertisement Manager of the Daily Express and Sunday Express, where he tripled revenue in his first year. With Montague Kent (management consultants) he held the company record for new business conversions (83 percent).

A proven master of succinct communication, with eight published books on communication skills, he has been:

Managing Director of Employment Publications Ltd, publishers of free distribution magazines

Owner of The London Entertainer, a weekly newspaper for tourists in London

CEO of PKP Communications Ltd, a Direct Marketing agency

Branch Chairman of the Chartered Institute of Marketing

Founder of the Professional Speaking Association (PSA)

As PKP Communicators he has coached business leaders, diplomats and sales teams in verbal communication skills since 1994, and in 20 countries. Initially he concentrated on helping advertising and PR agencies improve their presentations, but added Public Speaking and related topics when he started winning speech contests.

With his own East-West heritage, he found opportunities to work abroad on cross cultural issues, and co-wrote a book called Communicating across Cultures. That was also added to the portfolio, along with Managing Media, which arose out of his own extensive experience in newspapers, magazines and occasionally in broadcasting as well.

In public speaking he has won numerous titles including 8 UK “golds”, four international “golds”, four international “silvers”, two international “bronzes”, and is the UK’s only World Silver Medalist.

Life Time Achievement Award 2025

Phillip Khan-Panni was awarded the Life Time

Achievement Award 2025 in the London

Reunion 2025 which was held on Saturday,

June 28 2025 at Bombay Palace by Fr. Stanley

Varghese SJ (Rector) in recognition of his

unwavering support, inspiring leadership of

the London Alumni Chapter, and distinguished

association with the International

Toastmasters Club. A true son of North Point,

uniting and uplifting our global community,

with grace and sincerity.