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Why organisations work with John Mattone His Intelligent Leadership framework draws a structural distinction between the “Inner Core” of character, values and emotional maturity and the “Outer Core” of skills and competencies. Most leadership development programmes work only on the outer layer. Mattone’s argument is that this is why they underdeliver. The Mattone Leadership Enneagram Inventory, in use since 1996 and administered to more than 10,000 leaders worldwide, quantifies the internal drivers of leadership behaviour. It gives organisations a measurable starting point for executive development rather than a qualitative one. John Mattone Global is recognised among the world’s top ten executive coaching and leadership development firms by Worldwide Research Reports, STATS N DATA, and Infinity Business Insights. Its ICF-accredited Intelligent Leadership certification has produced more than 800 certified coaches across 55+ countries, so the methodology can be deployed at scale rather than through a single practitioner. Named #1 Executive Coach in the World by Global Gurus six times between 2019 and 2026, and inducted into the Corps d’Elite (Hall of Fame) in 2025 for lifetime achievement. Both are credentialled external rankings, not self-conferred titles, which gives procurement teams an independently verified benchmark when selecting executive development partners. His critique of the leadership development industry is pointed and specific: he argues that the sector systematically overinvests in outer competencies and underinvests in the inner character work that determines how leaders actually behave when stakes are high. That position gives boards and CHROs a framework for re-evaluating their existing development spend. Biography highlights Creator of the Intelligent Leadership framework and the Mattone Leadership Enneagram Inventory; the MLEI has been administered to more than 10,000 leaders globally since 1996 Named #1 Executive Coach in the World by Global Gurus six times between 2019 and 2026; inducted into the Corps d’Elite (Hall of Fame) in 2025 for lifetime achievement Author of 11 books, five of them bestsellers: Talent Leadership (AMACOM, 2012), Intelligent Leadership (AMACOM, 2013), Cultural Transformations (Wiley, 2016), The Intelligent Leader (Wiley, 2020), The Executive Coach’s Handbook (2022). Marshall Goldsmith wrote the forewords for Intelligent Leadership and The Intelligent Leader. The Intelligent Leader was named a Forbes #1 Holiday Book and a Soundview Best Book of 2020. Most recent contribution: Pinnacle of Influence (Global Gurus, 2024), a multi-author anthology with Marshall Goldsmith and other Global Gurus-ranked leaders Founder of John Mattone Global; the firm is recognised by Worldwide Research Reports, STATS N DATA, and Infinity Insights Research among the world’s top ten executive coaching and leadership development firms. Its ICF-accredited Intelligent Leadership certification programme has produced more than 800 coaches across 55+ countries Industrial/organisational psychologist by training (MS, University of Central Florida); coaching engagements with C-suite leaders across global organisations, including the publicly documented coaching of Steve Jobs Featured in Forbes, Chief Executive, HR Magazine, and Training magazine; the John Mattone Global leadership blog has been ranked #1 in its category by Feedspot from 2017 through 2025 Biography Leadership development has a measurement problem. Organisations can assess whether a leader has the right skills; they struggle to assess whether that leader has the inner constitution to deploy those skills when conditions deteriorate. John Mattone’s work is built around that gap. His Intelligent Leadership framework distinguishes the Inner Core, a leader’s character, values, emotional maturity and self-awareness, from the Outer Core of visible competencies and behaviours. His argument, made across 11 books and four decades of executive coaching practice, is that outer performance is only as reliable as the inner foundation beneath it. Competency training without inner-core development produces leaders who look good in stable conditions and struggle in everything else. The Mattone Leadership Enneagram Inventory, in use since 1996 and administered to more than 10,000 leaders globally, translates that argument into a quantified diagnostic; organisations get a baseline measure of leadership character, not just leadership style. The published work is more methodology than motivation. Intelligent Leadership (AMACOM, 2013) and The Intelligent Leader (Wiley, 2020), both with forewords by Marshall Goldsmith, set out the structural argument and the implementation path. Cultural Transformations (Wiley, 2016) extends it into how senior leadership character shapes organisational culture. Global Gurus has named Mattone the #1 Executive Coach in the World six times between 2019 and 2026, and inducted him into the Corps d’Elite in 2025 for lifetime achievement. Mattone is the founder of John Mattone Global, recognised by Worldwide Research Reports, STATS N DATA, and Infinity Insights Research as a top-ten executive coaching and leadership development firm. Its ICF-accredited Intelligent Leadership certification programme has produced more than 800 coaches across 55+ countries, so the IL methodology can be deployed at organisational scale rather than through a single practitioner. An industrial/organisational psychologist by training (University of Central Florida), Mattone has consulted with more than 250 organisations and directly coached over 200 senior executives, including the late Steve Jobs and former PepsiCo CEO Roger Enrico. For CHROs and boards reviewing leadership development strategy, Mattone offers a diagnosis of why current programmes underperform, a named alternative framework, the diagnostic instrumentation to apply it, and the certified coaching infrastructure to implement it at the individual executive level. Key speaking topics Intelligent Leadership and the Inner Core / Outer Core model Executive character and leadership sustainability Leadership development programme design Executive coaching methodology and practice Culture transformation and leadership alignment CEO and C-suite succession readiness The Mattone Leadership Enneagram Inventory (MLEI) and leadership diagnostics Internal coaching capability and certified networks Ideal for CHROs and chief people officers reviewing or redesigning executive development programmes Boards and nomination committees focused on CEO succession and senior leadership pipeline Transformation leads overseeing culture change initiatives where leadership behaviour is a critical variable Executive development teams in large organisations seeking a diagnostic-led rather than programme-led approach to leadership capability Audience outcomes A working understanding of the Inner Core / Outer Core distinction and why it reframes how organisations should design senior leadership development Familiarity with the MLEI as a diagnostic instrument and how it creates a measurable starting point for executive coaching engagements A framework for identifying which leaders in a pipeline carry the inner character foundations to perform under high-pressure conditions – and which do not Practical criteria for evaluating whether existing leadership development spend is addressing the right layer of leadership A replicable methodology, drawn from Mattone’s published books, that leadership teams can apply without ongoing dependency on external consultants

Why organisations work with Joy Poole Joy addresses a gap most leadership development programmes leave entirely open: not what leaders should do under pressure, but how they actually operate internally when clarity is scarce, the stakes are high, and the team is watching. Her background at Meta, in large-scale consulting environments, and across high-growth technology companies gives her a working knowledge of the specific pressures that senior audiences are navigating. As a credentialed executive coach with a practice built around leaders under sustained load, she brings a level of depth and practical tool-transfer that most leadership keynote speakers cannot replicate from the stage. The sailing narrative, crewing an ocean circumnavigation as part of a team, is not an adventure story bolted onto a leadership talk. It provides an environment in which the same principles about self-leadership under pressure have been tested and proven. Joy customises her engagements as a matter of principle. A leadership team at a fintech navigating rapid growth is not the same audience as a professional services firm managing restructuring, and she treats them accordingly. Biography highlights 20 years in senior sales, consulting and leadership roles across Google, Facebook/Meta, Capgemini, and Arthur Andersen Certified Professional Coach, Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC); Master Practitioner of the Energy Leadership Index; Transitions Dynamics Specialist Executive Programme certificates from the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics Speaker at internal leadership forums for Meta and at industry conferences across technology, media, and financial services Completed a round-the-world sailing circumnavigation – her second parallel environment for testing how leaders perform when conditions are extreme Biography Senior leadership in fast-moving technology and consulting organisations teaches you a great deal about performance under pressure. It teaches you rather less about what is actually happening inside a leader while all of that performance is required. Joy Poole spent two decades at the centre of that tension in senior roles at Meta, Capgemini, and Arthur Andersen, before building a practice around the gap she identified. Her core argument is precise: when organisations face uncertainty, change, or sustained pressure, the variable that most determines leadership quality is not expertise or experience alone. It is how clearly and calmly a leader can operate within themselves; how they think when the picture is incomplete, how they make decisions when there is no clean answer, and how they show up for their teams while also carrying their own uncertainty. This is self-leadership, and she treats it as a practical capability, not a motivational concept. Joy holds executive credentials from the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics alongside certification from the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching. She brings to the stage what most leadership speakers cannot: a decade of operational experience at genuine scale, combined with years of coaching senior executives through exactly the internal dynamics she speaks about. An unusual secondary proof point sits alongside her professional record. Joy is currently completing a round-the-world sailing circumnavigation; an environment that applies the same conditions her leadership audiences face, stripped to their essentials. The lessons from both settings reinforce the same argument: what determines performance under pressure is not position or preparation. It is the quality of self-leadership. Key speaking topics Self-leadership under pressure and uncertainty Decision-making in ambiguous conditions Composure and credibility under sustained organisational load Leadership during restructuring and change Confidence and presence for senior leaders Trust as a leadership capability Ideal for HR and L&D directors commissioning leadership development sessions for offsites, internal forums, or away-days during periods of significant organisational change: restructuring, reorganisation, or high-growth phases Executive and senior leadership programme managers looking for a session that is grounded and practical rather than motivational Senior leadership teams in technology, financial services, professional services, and consulting where pace and pressure are structural features of the environment Audience outcomes A clearer, more honest account of how they actually operate under pressure, not how they think they should operate Practical tools for improving self-leadership composure in high-stakes situations that can be applied immediately A reframe of uncertainty and incomplete information as conditions to be navigated rather than problems to be solved Greater understanding of how their own internal state affects team performance and organisational credibility A shared vocabulary for a leadership conversation that most organisations do not currently have language for

Why organisations work with Karl Burrows He turns abstract values into a physical, shared act. Teams leave having done something together, not just heard about it. His framing of authenticity as ego-aware self-leadership cuts through the usual corporate language and gives senior leaders a more honest vocabulary for how they show up. The cultural source material is genuine. Burrows is of Maori and European descent, learned haka and te reo through his Taranaki tribal connection, and treats the practice with the seriousness that distinguishes it from team-building theatre. His commercial track record speaks to a range. Hakaworks has worked with IBM, Vodafone, BP, Shell, Philips, BT, Deloitte, GSK and American Express across keynote, workshop and after-dinner formats. He brings a corporate operator’s lens. An MBA from Cranfield and years as a commercial lawyer for Procter and Gamble, DHL and Equifax mean he speaks the language of the room he is working with. Biography highlights Founder and Managing Director of Hakaworks, London. Co-founder of Manaia, the performance and education company established in London in 2004. MBA, Cranfield University. Former commercial lawyer and negotiator for Procter and Gamble, DHL and Equifax. Corporate engagements include IBM, Vodafone, BP, Shell, Philips, BT, Deloitte, GSK and American Express. Host of the Haka Works Talks podcast; podcast guest on The New P&L Principles and Leadership and TeamBonding. Biography Most corporate culture work happens in slides and surveys. Hakaworks works in the body. The London-based company Karl Burrows founded uses Maori cultural practice, including haka, to make team identity something a group does together rather than describes to itself. The methodology has taken Hakaworks into IBM, Vodafone, BP, Shell, Deloitte, GSK and American Express. The grounding is genuine. Burrows is of Maori and European descent, learned te reo and the haka of his Taranaki tribal area, and co-founded Manaia in London in 2004 as a way for haka performers to share the practice. Hakaworks grew from that, and the seriousness of the cultural source is what separates the work from generic team-building. The intellectual frame underneath the practice is authentic leadership. Burrows argues that authenticity demands self-awareness about ego and the discipline to set it aside, so leaders respond from values rather than identity defence. The argument lands harder because it is paired with a physical act that asks a room to commit visibly to a shared intent. He brings a corporate operator’s vocabulary to the work. An MBA from Cranfield and years as a commercial lawyer for Procter and Gamble, DHL and Equifax mean he understands the rooms he is invited into, and reads what a leadership team actually needs from a session rather than delivering a fixed set piece. Key speaking topics Authentic leadership and ego Team unity and trust Organisational culture and values in practice Purpose and collective performance Ritual as a leadership tool Maori cultural practice in business contexts Ideal for CHROs and culture leads running team-bonding offsites or culture interventions Senior leadership teams working through trust and unity issues Sales kickoffs, all-hands moments and conferences that need a shared experience rather than another panel Executive development programmes focused on authentic leadership Audience outcomes A shared physical experience the team can refer back to long after the room empties A more direct vocabulary for talking about ego, authenticity and how leaders show up under pressure A practical sense of how ritual and ceremony can be used to mark commitment to a strategy or change A felt understanding of what collective intent looks like, beyond a values poster

Why organisations work with Kemba Smith Pradia She brings a story that has been independently verified by Congress, the United Nations, two presidents and a feature film, which gives DEI and values conversations a level of moral authority that internal speakers cannot replicate. She has worked inside the system she critiques. Service on the Virginia Parole Board and Virginia Criminal Sentencing Commission gives her policy fluency that pure advocacy speakers lack. Her memoir Poster Child and the BET+ film KEMBA give audiences a shared cultural reference point before she walks on stage, which compresses the time needed to land a serious message about fairness and institutional accountability. She speaks to domestic violence, coercive relationships and self-esteem with the same first-person credibility she brings to incarceration, which makes her useful to organisations running employee resource groups and wellbeing programmes that need substance rather than awareness theatre. A presidential pardon from Joe Biden in January 2025 closes a loop that has been open in public for thirty years. Few speakers carry that arc of personal and institutional resolution into a room. Biography highlights Founder, The Kemba Smith Foundation, 501(c)(3) focused on criminal justice education and youth advocacy. Author, Poster Child: The Kemba Smith Story. Executive producer, KEMBA (2024), feature film on BET+. Appointed to the Virginia Parole Board by Governor Ralph Northam in 2019; former member of the Virginia Criminal Sentencing Commission. Former State Advocacy Campaigns Director, ACLU of Virginia. Bachelor of Social Work, Virginia Union University. Testified before the United States Congress and the United Nations; featured in The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN, Court TV, Nightline, Essence, Glamour, People, Emerge and Jet. Sentence commuted by President Bill Clinton in December 2000; full pardon granted by President Joe Biden in January 2025. Biography In 1994 a twenty-three-year-old college student with no prior criminal record was sentenced to 24.5 years in federal prison for a non-violent drug conspiracy tied to a former boyfriend. The case became one of the most cited examples of the human cost of mandatory minimum sentencing in the United States, covered in Emerge, The Washington Post and on Nightline, and used by the Drug Policy Alliance and the ACLU as a reference point for federal sentencing reform. President Bill Clinton commuted that sentence in December 2000 after six and a half years inside. Kemba Smith Pradia then completed a Bachelor of Social Work at Virginia Union University and began a decades-long second career in advocacy, founding The Kemba Smith Foundation, working as State Advocacy Campaigns Director for the ACLU of Virginia, and testifying before Congress and the United Nations on incarceration, drug policy and the treatment of women in the criminal legal system. In 2019 Governor Ralph Northam appointed her to the Virginia Parole Board, and she also served on the Virginia Criminal Sentencing Commission. That inside-the-system service is what separates her from most lived-experience speakers in this space: she has read the case files, voted on parole decisions, and sat on the commission that sets sentencing policy. Her memoir Poster Child and the 2024 BET+ feature film KEMBA, on which she served as executive producer, give organisations a substantive cultural and documentary record to work from. On 19 January 2025 President Joe Biden issued her a full pardon, closing a public arc that began with the 1996 Emerge cover story “Kemba’s Nightmare.” Organisations book her when they need a serious, named voice on resilience, domestic abuse, inclusion and the practical content of values-based leadership, delivered by someone who has lived every part of the argument and helped change the policy that produced it. Key speaking topics Criminal justice reform and mandatory sentencing policy Resilience and recovery after institutional failure Values-based and inclusive leadership Domestic violence, coercive control and self-worth Women, race and the United States criminal legal system Personal responsibility and consequence Youth advocacy and civic engagement Ideal for Chief diversity officers, employee resource group leads and culture leaders running inclusion programmes that need substance over signalling. Heads of wellbeing and employee support designing serious conversations on domestic abuse and resilience. Universities, law schools, and public-policy audiences working on criminal justice, sentencing and policy reform. Leadership development programmes building values-based leadership content beyond business case studies. Audience outcomes A named, verifiable example of how mandatory minimum sentencing reshapes individual lives and the policy choices that follow. Language for talking about inclusion, dignity and fairness at work that survives political contestation. A direct account of coercive relationships and self-worth that audiences can use in employee resource group and wellbeing settings. A clearer sense of what personal responsibility, institutional accountability and second chances look like in practice rather than as abstractions.

Why organisations work with Kerry Washington A globally recognised cultural voice on representation, civic participation and women’s rights, with a platform built over a decade of headline activism rather than borrowed celebrity Founder and principal of Simpson Street, a production company whose work, Confirmation, American Son, Little Fires Everywhere, treats race, justice and family as serious subjects for mainstream audiences Two-time Tony-nominated Broadway producer and a working creative executive, which means she speaks about storytelling, audience and influence from inside the industry, not as a commentator Author of Thicker than Water, a New York Times bestselling memoir, which gives her a personal narrative on identity and disclosure that lands with audiences far beyond fan culture Co-chair of Michelle Obama’s When We All Vote and a long-standing partner to grassroots civic organisations, which gives her a credible point of view on how institutions engage with democratic participation Biography highlights Star of ABC’s Scandal (2013-2020), the first Black woman to lead a network drama since 1974, with two Primetime Emmy nominations, a Golden Globe nomination, a SAG nomination and two NAACP Image Awards for the role Founder of Simpson Street (2016), the production company behind Confirmation (HBO), American Son (Broadway and Netflix), Little Fires Everywhere (Hulu) and the Gypsy Broadway revival Author of Thicker than Water: A Memoir (Little, Brown, 2023), a New York Times bestseller Co-chair of When We All Vote; former member of President Obama’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities Recipient of the NAACP President’s Award (2013), the GLAAD Vanguard Award (2015) and the ACLU Bill of Rights Award (2016); named to the Time 100 in 2014 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of George Washington University Biography The role of Olivia Pope on Scandal was the first time in nearly forty years that an American network drama had been led by a Black woman. Kerry Washington carried that show for seven seasons, while building a parallel career as a producer, author and civic organiser. The combination is what makes her interesting as a public voice, the platform is large, but the work behind it is specific. Simpson Street, the production company she founded in 2016, sits at the centre of that work. Its projects, Confirmation on HBO, American Son on Broadway and Netflix, Little Fires Everywhere on Hulu, are commercial properties that take seriously the politics of race, family and justice. As a producer, she is now a two-time Tony nominee, with credits including the recent Broadway revival of Gypsy. The company also runs a venture arm and an impact arm that funds grassroots civic organisations through the Movement Voter Project’s Vision Into Power Cohort. Her activism is similarly substantive. She co-chairs Michelle Obama’s When We All Vote, served on President Obama’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, and has campaigned on voter access in Georgia, women’s health and violence against women. Her memoir, Thicker than Water, a New York Times bestseller, added a personal layer to that public profile, telling the story of learning in adulthood that the man who raised her was not her biological father. For a corporate audience, what she offers is a credible voice on representation, civic participation and the conditions under which institutions are expected to speak. She is most powerful in conversation formats and keynotes that address voice, values and storytelling, where her experience as a producer and activist gives her something specific to say, rather than as a content expert on a defined management discipline. Key speaking topics Activism, civic voice and public participation Representation in media and storytelling Women’s health and women’s rights Identity, family and personal disclosure Building purpose-driven creative businesses Voting access and democratic engagement Ideal for CEO and board events where the brief is values, voice and the conditions for taking a public position DEI, ERG and women’s leadership programmes seeking a recognised cultural figure with substantive activist credentials Investor, philanthropic or impact-led convenings on civic participation and democracy Fireside conversations or in-conversation formats with senior moderators, the format where her authority is strongest Audience outcomes A clearer view of how representation in media and culture shapes the expectations placed on institutions A grounded reading of what credible civic engagement looks like for a public figure or organisation, drawn from over a decade of activist practice A personal account of identity and disclosure that gives audiences a vocabulary for difficult conversations An inside view of how purpose and commercial production can sit inside the same business

Why organisations work with Kristen Clarke She ran the federal civil rights enforcement apparatus at scale, with direct accountability for prosecutions in the George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Tree of Life, and Club Q cases. Few speakers have led a mandate of that visibility under that level of political and public pressure. She is the first Black woman ever confirmed by the Senate to lead the DOJ Civil Rights Division, a credential that signals both institutional access and personal conviction in a way corporate DEI speakers rarely match. Her career has moved between government, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, giving her a working view of how civil rights principles get translated into operational policy across very different institutions. She brings the perspective of someone who has had to defend a contested mandate, not theorise about it. That voice is useful to boards and executive teams where DEI commitments are being publicly questioned. Biography highlights 19th Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Justice, 2021 to 2025; first Black woman confirmed to the role. General Counsel of the NAACP, appointed March 2026. Former President and Executive Director, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, from 2015. Former Civil Rights Bureau Chief, New York State Attorney General’s Office. Harvard University (BA, 1997) and Columbia Law School (J.D., 2000); 2025 W. Haywood Burns Chair at CUNY School of Law and Distinguished Lecturer at Penn Carey Law. Recipient of Columbia Law School’s Paul Robeson Distinguished Alumni Award and the National Bar Association’s Top 40 Under 40. Biography The federal Civil Rights Division has rarely been more visible, or more contested, than during the period Kristen Clarke led it. Between 2021 and 2025, as the 19th Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, she directed the prosecutions in the killings of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery and federal hate crime cases tied to the Tree of Life synagogue, the El Paso Walmart, and Club Q shootings. The Division operated at the intersection of law, politics, and public attention, and she was the person accountable for it. Her path to that role was not accidental. She began her legal career as a trial attorney in the same Division through the DOJ Honors Program. From there she moved to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, then ran the Civil Rights Bureau in the New York Attorney General’s Office, then led the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law as President and Executive Director from 2015. By the time of her Senate confirmation in 2021, she had spent roughly two decades inside civil rights enforcement at every level of the system. The credential that matters for senior audiences is not the list of cases. It is what those cases say about the discipline of running a values-led mandate when the political environment is hostile, the press cycle is constant, and the cost of getting it wrong is institutional. Clarke’s voice is most useful to organisations that are wrestling with how to hold a position on inclusion, fairness, or governance when external pressure is asking them to back away. She holds degrees from Harvard University and Columbia Law School, currently serves as General Counsel of the NAACP, and teaches federal civil rights law at Penn Carey Law and as the W. Haywood Burns Chair at CUNY School of Law. Key speaking topics Federal civil rights enforcement Values-based leadership under public scrutiny Voting rights and democratic institutions Hate crimes prosecution and prevention Police reform and accountability Inclusion in contested political environments Public-interest leadership at scale Ideal for Boards and executive committees defending DEI or governance positions in a politicised environment. General counsel, chief legal officers, and chief compliance officers responsible for institutional policy on civil rights, equity, and discrimination risk. Leadership development programmes focused on values-based decision-making for senior public-facing leaders. Foundations, professional services firms, and public-sector bodies whose audiences need a credible civil rights voice. Audience outcomes A clearer view of how federal civil rights enforcement actually works, from a leader who ran it. A working sense of what values-based leadership costs in practice when the mandate is contested. Specific case examples (Floyd, Arbery, hate crime prosecutions) used to illustrate institutional decision-making, not for shock value. Direct exposure to a senior public-interest leader who has had to translate principle into operational policy.

Why organisations work with Kumi Naidoo He is the only person to have led both Greenpeace International and Amnesty International – giving him an institutional authority on climate accountability and human rights that no commentator or academic can match. His argument that climate justice and human rights are operationally inseparable – not just rhetorically linked – gives ESG and sustainability leaders a more defensible intellectual framework under stakeholder and regulatory scrutiny. He led Greenpeace’s shift from a single-issue environmental organisation toward a broader justice and equity platform, a strategic reorientation directly relevant to organisations navigating the social dimensions of net-zero transition. His current presidency of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative means he speaks from inside active diplomatic and civil society negotiations – not from the sidelines of the energy transition debate. His memoir Letters to My Mother (2022), which won the HSS 2023 Non-Fiction Award from South Africa’s National Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, demonstrates a capacity to make complex moral and political arguments compelling to general audiences – a quality that translates directly to boardroom and conference settings. Biography highlights Rhodes Scholar; DPhil in Political Sociology, Magdalen College, University of Oxford First person from the Global South to lead Greenpeace International, serving as International Executive Director (2009-2015) Secretary-General, Amnesty International (2018-2019) Secretary-General and CEO, CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation (1998-2008) President, Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative (appointed 2024) Professor of Practice, Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State University; Payne Distinguished Lecturer, Stanford University; Visiting Fellow and Honorary Fellow, Magdalen College, Oxford Letters to My Mother: The Making of a Troublemaker (Jacana Media, 2022) – winner, HSS 2023 Non-Fiction Award, National Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences Five honorary doctorates, including from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the University of Adelaide Biography Kumi Naidoo has led Greenpeace International and Amnesty International, consecutively, and at their most consequential periods. That combination of institutional authority, across the two domains most directly challenging corporate environmental and human rights claims, is what makes him a different kind of voice in board and executive conversations on accountability. His argument is a structural one. Climate change is not an environmental problem with equity implications. It is a justice problem with environmental consequences – and the organisations most exposed are those that have separated their sustainability commitments from their human rights responsibilities. He made this case from inside two of the world’s largest civil society institutions before it became the language of regulators and investors. The trajectory behind that argument runs from anti-apartheid organising in Durban at age fifteen, through a Rhodes Scholarship and doctorate in political sociology at Oxford’s Magdalen College, to a decade building civil society infrastructure at CIVICUS across more than a hundred countries. Each stage added a different kind of institutional credibility – as a practitioner of civil disobedience, as a builder of global coalitions, and as a senior executive managing large, politically exposed organisations in contested environments. Today, as President of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative – a live diplomatic campaign to create binding international commitments on fossil fuel phase-out – Naidoo brings organisations not a retrospective perspective but an active one. His work sits at the point where corporate strategy, geopolitical risk, and civil society pressure intersect. His memoir Letters to My Mother (2022), winner of the HSS Non-Fiction Award, adds a further dimension: the capacity to communicate urgent, uncomfortable arguments with clarity and human force. Key speaking topics Climate justice and the geopolitics of energy transition Human rights accountability in corporate strategy ESG beyond compliance – from commitment to consequence Civil society, civic space, and the future of advocacy Ethical leadership under political and institutional pressure The Global South and the terms of a just transition Activism, storytelling, and the power of “artivism.” Ideal for Chief Sustainability Officers, ESG leads, and boards navigating net-zero commitments under stakeholder scrutiny Senior executives in energy, extractives, finance, and supply chains are facing civil society and regulatory pressure CHROs and governance leaders working at the intersection of human rights due diligence and business operations Conferences focused on responsible business, global risk, or the political economy of climate transition Audience outcomes A clearer framework for understanding why climate and human rights accountability are operationally connected, not just rhetorically linked Concrete perspective on how civil society assesses and challenges corporate climate commitments – from someone who has led those challenges at the highest level Greater awareness of how the energy transition is being experienced and contested in the Global South, and what that means for organisations with global exposure A more grounded understanding of what “accountability” means when it moves from annual reports into legal, diplomatic, and activist arenas Insight into how to communicate complex moral and political arguments in ways that move people to action – drawing on Naidoo’s experience leading large institutions through contested public debates

Why organisations work with Lene Gammelgaard A first-person account of one of the most studied leadership failures in modern climbing, told by someone who summited and returned alive. This is primary-source material on what happens to teams when a plan meets a real crisis. A defined methodology, The Everest Way, that she has refined over more than two decades of corporate work into a structured framework for risk willingness, decision-making and team conduct under uncertainty. A published memoir, Climbing High, translated into thirteen languages, that gives her credibility a body of work behind it rather than a single anecdote. Working languages of English, Danish and German, which makes her practical for Nordic and DACH leadership programmes where the cultural register matters as much as the content. Biography highlights First Scandinavian woman to summit Mount Everest, 10 May 1996, on Scott Fischer’s Mountain Madness expedition. 35th woman in history to reach the Everest summit. Author of Climbing High: A Woman’s Account of Surviving the Everest Tragedy, translated into 13 languages. Portrayed by Charlotte Boving in the 2015 feature film Everest. Founder of Lene Gammelgaard Consult, a leadership and human-innovation practice based in Copenhagen. Speaks English, Danish and German for keynotes and workshops. Biography The 1996 Everest season is now a standard reference in business school case discussions of decision-making under pressure. Eight climbers died in the storm of 10 May. Lene Gammelgaard summited that day and came down alive, and she has spent the years since translating what happened on the mountain into language that senior leaders can use. She was the first Scandinavian woman to reach the summit, and the 35th woman in history. The expedition was Scott Fischer’s Mountain Madness team, which lost Fischer himself in the storm. Her memoir Climbing High, published in 1999 and translated into thirteen languages, is one of the few first-person survivor accounts in print. What turns the story into corporate work is her practice. From Copenhagen she runs a leadership consultancy built around a method she calls The Everest Way: a structured way of thinking about risk willingness, mental discipline and conduct toward team-mates when conditions are deteriorating. The reference points are mountaineering, but the application is boards and executive teams who recognise the dynamics in their own environments. She works in English, Danish and German, and is a regular contributor to Danish and German press on leadership and resilience. The 2015 feature film Everest, in which she is portrayed by Charlotte Boving, has kept the underlying story in front of new audiences and given her keynote work an unusually long shelf life. Key speaking topics Leadership and decision-making under extreme pressure Crisis survival and post-crisis recovery Resilience and mental discipline Risk willingness as a condition for innovation Values-based leadership Team conduct in high-stakes environments Ideal for CEOs, executive committees and boards preparing for crisis conditions Leadership development programmes for senior and high-potential leaders Sales kick-offs, partner conferences and offsites where the brief calls for substance behind the inspiration Nordic and DACH audiences where a native-language register is preferred Audience outcomes A first-person frame of reference for what leadership actually looks like when a plan fails. A clearer view of the link between individual composure and team survival under pressure. A working vocabulary for talking about risk willingness inside their own organisation. A sharper read on the difference between bravado and considered courage in senior decision-making.

Why organisations work with Maria Belon A first-person account of catastrophic crisis delivered with the clinical precision of a physician, not the drama of a motivational speaker. The audience leaves with vocabulary, not adrenaline. Clinical and psychotherapy training that gives her a working language for fear, dissociation, and recovery that translates directly into leadership conversations about teams under pressure. A reference point that senior audiences already know. The story behind The Impossible carries instant recognition; Belon uses that recognition as a way in, then takes the conversation somewhere serious. Credibility on both sides of the room. An ESADE MBA and a teaching record in Human Resources at ESADE Business School mean she speaks the language of executive audiences before she ever turns to her own experience. A clear point of view on values and human connection as the operating system that holds organisations together when systems fail, drawn from what she observed in herself, her family, and the strangers around them. Biography highlights Survivor of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Khao Lak, Thailand, with her husband and three sons; sustained life-threatening injuries and underwent a two-year recovery. Spanish physician with additional training as a Humanistic Gestalt psychotherapist. MBA from ESADE; former Human Resources instructor at ESADE Business School. Story formed the basis of The Impossible (2012), directed by J.A. Bayona, with Naomi Watts nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal. Author of the illustrated children’s book Kokoro y el Mar, published by Editorial Libre Albedrio as the first title in her “Yo soy” collection. Speaker at international platforms including the World Business Forum and the Share Iuvare Business Convention. Biography The wave that struck Khao Lak on 26 December 2004 separated a family of five and gave one of them, a Spanish physician on holiday with her husband and three sons, two years of surgery and recovery before something like a normal life returned. Maria Belon now works with senior leaders on what that experience taught her about people under maximum pressure. Her professional background matters here. Belon trained as a physician and as a Humanistic Gestalt psychotherapist, and she holds an MBA from ESADE, where she later taught Human Resources. The combination is unusual. She can speak about the body’s response to trauma with clinical accuracy, and she can speak about organisations with the vocabulary executive audiences already use. What she offers a leadership team is not a survival story performed for effect. It is a precise account of what stayed intact when planning, control, and competence were all stripped away, and what that suggests for the way leaders prepare their people for the unplannable. She has tested the material across international audiences, including the World Business Forum and the Share Iuvare Business Convention. The work has continued in print. Her illustrated children’s book Kokoro y el Mar, published by Editorial Libre Albedrio, distils for a younger reader the same question that director J.A. Bayona once asked her, and that her keynotes return to: what do you bring back from the experiences that life forces on you. Key speaking topics Resilience under extreme adversity Crisis response and recovery Values and human connection in organisations Leadership in moments of breakdown Post-traumatic growth Wellbeing and the human side of performance Ideal for Executive teams and boards preparing for, or reckoning with, organisational crisis CHROs and people leaders building resilience and wellbeing into how their organisation operates Closing keynotes at senior leadership conferences where the brief is to leave the room changed, not informed Healthcare, emergency services and public sector leadership audiences whose work runs close to crisis Audience outcomes A working vocabulary for fear, loss, and recovery that leaders can use with their own teams. A sharper sense of which values actually carry weight when the systems of an organisation fail. An honest reference point for the difference between performance and presence in a crisis. Permission, often missing in senior rooms, to talk about the human cost of pressure without flinching.

Why organisations work with Maria Ressa She has tested platform governance arguments against actual prosecution, exile threats and a coordinated state-backed disinformation campaign, which gives her a clarity on digital risk that academic experts rarely match. As co-founder of the Real Facebook Oversight Board and co-leader of Columbia’s Technology and Democracy Initiative, she sits at the centre of the policy conversation shaping how governments will regulate platforms and AI. Her Nobel citation specifically named the defence of free expression as a precondition for democracy, giving leadership and ESG audiences a credible voice on information integrity as a governance issue, not a communications one. She runs a working newsroom that has documented platform manipulation in real time, so her arguments come with primary evidence rather than secondary commentary. How to Stand Up to a Dictator gives her a published thesis on the architecture of digital authoritarianism that boards and policy teams can engage with in advance of a session. Biography highlights 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, jointly with Dmitry Muratov, for work safeguarding freedom of expression. Co-founder and CEO of Rappler, the Manila-based investigative news organisation she launched in 2012. Professor of Professional Practice, Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs; Distinguished Fellow and co-leader of the Technology and Democracy Initiative at SIPA’s Institute of Global Politics. Author of How to Stand Up to a Dictator (Harper, 2022), a New York Times bestseller, and Seeds of Terror (2003). 2021 UNESCO Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize; 2018 Golden Pen of Freedom from the World Association of News Publishers. Time Person of the Year 2018; Time 100 Most Influential People; BBC 100 Women. Nearly two decades as CNN bureau chief in Manila and Jakarta; former SVP for News and Current Affairs at ABS-CBN. Biography The 2021 Nobel Peace Prize citation named freedom of expression as a precondition for democracy. It was the first time since 1935 that the prize had been given to working journalists, and the choice was not symbolic. Ressa shared it with Dmitry Muratov for a body of work that treats disinformation, platform power and the erosion of shared reality as the defining governance problem of the decade. Her vantage point is unusual. She co-founded Rappler in Manila in 2012, then ran it through years of state-backed harassment, criminal charges and an online campaign that the company itself documented in forensic detail. That experience produced a working theory of how engagement-driven platforms, weaponised by political actors, dismantle public trust and institutional legitimacy from below. The argument is laid out in How to Stand Up to a Dictator, the Harper book that became a New York Times bestseller and Princeton’s Class of 2027 Pre-read. She now sits at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs as a Professor of Professional Practice and co-leads the Technology and Democracy Initiative at the Institute of Global Politics. The role pairs naturally with her work on the Real Facebook Oversight Board, an independent body of journalists, academics and activists holding Meta to account on content governance. Earlier in her career she opened CNN’s Manila bureau, ran its Jakarta bureau through the post-9/11 years, and led news at ABS-CBN; her 2003 book Seeds of Terror remains a reference on Jemaah Islamiyah. For corporate audiences, the value sits in the bridge she builds between platform mechanics and executive decision-making. AI accelerates everything she has been documenting for a decade, and the regulatory response, in Brussels, Washington and Manila, is now arriving in the operating environment of any business with a public-facing reputation. Key speaking topics Disinformation and the integrity of the information ecosystem Platform governance and Big Tech accountability AI ethics and the future of public trust Press freedom as institutional infrastructure Democratic resilience under digital authoritarianism Leadership and moral courage in contested environments Ideal for Boards and C-suite teams reassessing reputational and regulatory risk in an AI-mediated information environment Chief Communications Officers, Chief Risk Officers and General Counsel responsible for platform exposure and disinformation response Public-sector and policy audiences working on technology regulation, democratic resilience and ESG frameworks Leadership programmes seeking a serious voice on values, courage and institutional integrity Audience outcomes A working model of how engagement-driven platforms shape public perception of organisations, leaders and policy. Direct evidence, drawn from Rappler’s own reporting, of how coordinated disinformation campaigns are designed and executed. A clear read on where AI regulation and platform accountability are heading across major jurisdictions. A sharper sense of what leadership looks like when institutional norms are under pressure, told through a Nobel-recognised case. Language and frameworks for treating information integrity as a governance issue at board level, not a communications problem.

Why organisations work with Mariana Atencio Field-tested authority on trust. Her reporting from family separations at the US border, cartel territory, and the Syrian border gives her arguments about authentic leadership a weight that pure motivational content cannot match. A bilingual broadcaster who has crossed from Univision to NBC News and back to independent media, which makes her credible to audiences and leadership teams operating across the Americas in both English and Spanish. Perfectly You, published by HarperCollins in English and Spanish, gives buyers a published, citable thesis on authenticity at work rather than a talk built from generic insights. A working journalist’s instinct on stage. She has moderated heads of state, Fortune 100 CEOs and panels at Microsoft, Nasdaq and the UN General Assembly, which is the same skill set buyers want when the brief is high-stakes interviewing rather than a standard keynote. Biography highlights Peabody Award winner for the Univision investigative documentary Rapido y Furioso on US-Mexico weapons trafficking. Three Emmy nominations, a Hillman Prize, and the NAHJ Presidential Award for reporting on cartel violence, migrant family separation and women’s rights. Former NBC News and MSNBC correspondent; prior bilingual correspondent at Univision. Author of Perfectly You: Embracing the Power of Being Real (HarperCollins, 2019), published in English and Spanish. 2021 Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute. Founder of GoLike Media and creator of the 2022 true crime podcast Lost in Panama, which reached Apple Podcasts’ top 10. Biography The hardest assignments in network news are the ones where the people on camera have every reason not to trust the person holding the microphone. Atencio spent a decade in those rooms, reporting on family separations at the US border, cartel violence in Mexico, and women’s rights along the Syrian border for Univision and then NBC News. The Peabody Award came from that work, alongside a Hillman Prize, three Emmy nominations and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Presidential Award. That experience is the foundation for the second half of her career. Perfectly You: Embracing the Power of Being Real, published by HarperCollins in 2019 in English and Spanish, sets out a thesis on authenticity drawn directly from the field: that the leaders, families and communities who hold together under pressure are the ones who tell the truth about themselves and their circumstances. The book reads as reporting on trust, not self-help. She founded GoLike Media in 2020 and created Lost in Panama in 2022, a true crime podcast on the disappearance of two young Dutch hikers that became a top-10 Apple Podcasts release and was used as a platform to surface the wider issue of missing women in the region. She is a 2021 Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute. For corporate audiences, the combined record matters more than either half alone. A Peabody-winning correspondent who has interviewed heads of state and translated live on-air for NBC speaks about credibility, belonging and culture from a different place than a speaker who has only worked the keynote circuit. That is what buyers are paying for when they put her in front of a leadership team. Key speaking topics Authentic leadership and trust Belonging and culture in cross-border organisations Communication and storytelling for senior leaders Resilience and reinvention under pressure Latino market and the Americas Bilingual moderation, hosting and high-stakes interviewing Ideal for Leadership teams rebuilding internal trust after restructure, contested change or public scandal. CHROs and culture leads designing belonging and inclusion programmes with substance rather than signalling. CMOs, communications leaders and Latin America country heads briefing on bilingual audiences across the Americas. Conference hosts who need a moderator credible with heads of state, Fortune 100 CEOs and a sceptical room. Audience outcomes A sharper view of what authenticity actually costs senior leaders, and where the line sits between candour and overshare. A working framework for how trust is rebuilt with employees and external audiences who have stopped listening to corporate communications. Concrete examples of credibility under pressure, drawn from her on-the-ground reporting in conflict zones, migrant camps and political crises. A clearer read on the US Hispanic and broader Latin American audience for organisations operating across the region.

Why organisations work with Michelle Moore Her conscious leadership course on LinkedIn Learning has reached more than 25,000 learners, giving her a teaching method that has been tested at scale before it reaches a client’s leadership team. She has sat on a national regulatory commission (the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket) whose findings forced the ECB into a public reckoning, which means she speaks about inclusion from the inside of governance, not from the outside. Her book Real Wins, published by Hachette and shortlisted for the CMI Management Book of the Year, gives leaders a vocabulary for connecting identity, resilience, and performance without reducing any of the three to a slogan. She works across business, sport, government, and education, with named clients including the Premier League, UNICEF, the University of Cambridge, and BAFTA, so her examples translate across sectors instead of staying locked inside one. Biography highlights Author of Real Wins: Race, Leadership and How to Redefine Success (Nicholas Brealey, Hachette UK), shortlisted for the Chartered Management Institute Book of the Year and the Business Book Awards. LinkedIn Learning instructor on Conscious Leadership, 25,000+ learners. Former commissioner, Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket, whose 2023 report led to the ECB’s public apology. Trustee, SportsAid; member, Sport England Talent Inclusion Advisory Board; advisor, Women’s Sport Trust. Senior honorary associate lecturer, University of Worcester; former instructor, The Guardian Masterclasses. Winner of the 2016 PRECIOUS Award for Outstanding Woman in Sport and a national Changemaker award. Biography Conscious leadership is often misread as a softer register of the same management language. In Moore’s hands it is a working discipline: how leaders relate to themselves, how they hold values under pressure, and how they make decisions that survive scrutiny. Her LinkedIn Learning course on the subject has reached more than 25,000 learners, which is a rare evidence base for any one speaker’s framework. The credibility behind the framework comes from where Moore has used it. She served as a commissioner on the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket, the body whose 2023 report compelled the England and Wales Cricket Board to issue an unreserved apology over racism, sexism, and class exclusion in the English game. She holds board roles with SportsAid, Sport England’s Talent Inclusion Advisory Board, and the Women’s Sport Trust. Real Wins, published by Nicholas Brealey at Hachette UK, was shortlisted for the Chartered Management Institute Book of the Year and the Business Book Awards. The book argues that resilience, identity, and performance are linked, and that leaders who try to separate them tend to manage all three badly. The same argument shapes her keynotes for the Premier League, UNICEF, the University of Cambridge, and BAFTA. What makes her useful to a boardroom is the combination of governance-grade experience and a teaching practice that has been pressure-tested at scale. She talks about inclusion as something senior leaders do under cost, not something they declare without one. Key speaking topics Conscious leadership Values-based and inclusive leadership Executive presence and credibility Resilience under sustained pressure Identity, performance, and self-leadership Inclusion as a leadership capability Changemaking in regulated and high-scrutiny environments Ideal for CEOs, CHROs, and senior leadership teams navigating inclusion as a governance question rather than a communications one Boards and executive committees in sport, media, and regulated industries facing public scrutiny on culture and equity Leadership development programmes for newly senior leaders building presence, values clarity, and resilience ERG sponsors, transformation leads, and inclusion councils that want a speaker with governance credibility, not bureau polish Audience outcomes A working definition of conscious leadership that leaders can apply to their own decisions, not an abstract model Language for connecting identity, resilience, and performance in ways that hold up in performance reviews and board conversations A clearer view of where inclusion becomes a leadership behaviour and where it stops being one Reference points drawn from elite sport governance, regulatory work, and corporate leadership development that tr