DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) speakers

Why organisations work with Amelia Rose Earhart Her “Aviate, Navigate, Communicate” protocol, drawn directly from aviation’s standard emergency sequence, gives organisations a practical, step-ordered model for distributing responsibility and maintaining forward momentum when conditions destabilise. The 2014 circumnavigation she planned and executed required close to $2 million in corporate partnerships across 28 organisations, custom FAA engineering approval for an aircraft modification, and 17-stop coordination across 14 countries, making her case study in mission execution verifiable and specific, not metaphorical. A genealogy investigation, published by a colleague just before her departure, revealed no traceable connection to her famous namesake and triggered public accusations of fraud; the fact that she proceeded and completed the flight gives her resilience argument a dimension most speakers cannot replicate. Learn to Love the Turbulence (2023) extends her “pilot in command” framework into a structured leadership methodology – passengers react while pilots decide – providing a reference architecture that client teams can apply long after the event. Audiences include Boeing, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, United Healthcare, Lockheed Martin, Capital One, and the United States Air Force Academy, giving her both commercial credibility and access to high-stakes operational contexts. Biography highlights Youngest woman to circumnavigate the globe in a single-engine aircraft (Pilatus PC-12 NG, 2014); first to do so in that aircraft type Self-funded and managed the 24,300-nautical-mile, 17-stop global flight, raising close to $2 million across 28 corporate partnerships and securing custom FAA engineering approval Holds private, instrument, and commercial pilot certificates Approximately 15 years as a broadcast news anchor and reporter: KUSA-TV (9NEWS, NBC affiliate, Denver) and Los Angeles television Author of Learn to Love the Turbulence (2023, with Kristin Clark Taylor); keynote clients include Boeing, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, United Healthcare, and the United States Air Force Academy Amelia Earhart Pioneering Achievement Award (2013, Atchison, Kansas Chamber of Commerce); Jaycees Top Ten Young Americans (2014) Biography Aviation has a decision protocol for moments when a flight goes wrong: aviate first, navigate second, communicate third. Amelia Rose Earhart spent two years designing a circumnavigation that would test that protocol under real conditions. Closed borders, a custom FAA-engineered fuel system, and a public genealogy scandal nearly derailed the flight before it left California. In June 2014, she departed Oakland in a single-engine Pilatus PC-12 NG. Across 17 stops and 24,300 nautical miles through 14 countries, she landed back in California on July 11. The mission required close to $2 million in corporate partnerships across 28 organisations, custom FAA engineering approval, and open-water survival training. She became the youngest woman to circumnavigate the globe in a single-engine aircraft, and the first to do it in a PC-12 NG. Her 2023 book, Learn to Love the Turbulence, codifies what that flight revealed about organisational decision-making. Preparedness, not optimism, is what keeps teams airborne when conditions deteriorate. The “pilot in command” framework – passengers react, pilots decide – is now the architecture of her work with Fortune 500 clients and the United States Air Force Academy. Before the circumnavigation, she spent approximately 15 years as a news anchor and reporter, at KUSA-TV (NBC’s Denver affiliate) and in Los Angeles. That background sharpens her communication under pressure and her ability to hold a senior audience, which are not the same skill. Key speaking topics High-stakes decision-making and mission execution Resilience and adaptive leadership Strategic planning under uncertainty Risk assessment and contingency thinking Goal setting and organisational accountability Women in aviation and STEM leadership pathways Team performance under pressure Ideal for C-suite and senior leadership teams navigating high-stakes execution challenges or strategic pivots Sales and commercial teams preparing for stretch targets or significant market disruption Women’s leadership programmes and DEI-focused executive conferences Annual leadership conferences and kick-offs requiring both narrative coherence and audience energy Audience outcomes A practical decision sequence – aviate, navigate, communicate – for maintaining clarity and distributing responsibility when a plan breaks down in real time A clearer distinction between reactive and decisive leadership, with a specific framework for building the latter as a team habit Concrete tools for forecasting risk and planning contingencies, drawn directly from aviation mission-planning discipline A reframing of disruption as a navigable condition rather than an exceptional one – and the mindset shift required to operate accordingly A reference framework from Learn to Love the Turbulence that extends the conversation beyond the event itself

Why organisations work with Amna Al Qubaisi A first-of-kind credential that is current, not historical. Active seat in F1 Academy with MP Motorsport, Red Bull Academy Programme driver representing Visa Cash App RB, and the first Arab female driver inside the Porsche AG Talent Pool Asia. A concrete Gulf-region story for DEI programmes that usually default to Western examples. Useful for EMEA, Asia-Pacific and global HQs with Middle East operations. Insider experience of two manufacturer-backed talent systems, Red Bull and Porsche, which gives her specific material on how elite performance cultures identify, develop and retain outliers. Works in English and Arabic, which makes her directly usable for Gulf corporate, public-sector and sponsor-activation programming around regional race weekends. Biography highlights First Emirati woman to compete in international single-seater racing. Italian F4 Championship with Prema Powerteam, 2018. First Arab woman to win a Formula 4 race. F4 UAE Trophy Round, Yas Marina Circuit, 2019. Two seasons in F1 Academy with MP Motorsport. Sixth overall in 2023 with race wins at Spielberg and Barcelona. Red Bull Academy Programme driver from 2024, representing Visa Cash App RB. First Arab and first Arab female driver in the Porsche AG Talent Pool Asia. Pro class seat with Team Jebsen, Porsche Carrera Cup Asia, 2026. Rookie test with Envision Virgin Racing in Formula E at Diriyah. Biography Single-seater racing is one of the most closed performance cultures in professional sport. Entry depends on manufacturer backing, sponsor networks and a family record, and the pathway has historically routed through a small set of European karting circuits. The Italian F4 grid at Prema Powerteam in 2018 included the first Emirati woman ever to compete internationally in the format, Amna Al Qubaisi. What followed has not been a career of ceremonial firsts. Two seasons in F1 Academy with MP Motorsport. Sixth overall in the inaugural 2023 season with wins at Spielberg and Barcelona. Selection in 2024 by the Red Bull Academy Programme, representing Visa Cash App RB, with access to the team’s UK simulator and performance staff. A Formula E rookie test at Diriyah with Envision Virgin Racing. The 2026 seat in the Pro class of Porsche Carrera Cup Asia with Team Jebsen, as the first Arab female driver inside the Porsche AG Talent Pool Asia, puts her inside a factory development structure with defined routes into GT and prototype racing. That is the point worth noticing for a corporate audience. Her record is a sequence of places earned inside working manufacturer systems, on the criteria applied to every other driver in the pool. For organisations working on representation in performance-led functions, trading, engineering, surgery, investment, the useful content is not that she made it. It is what the system around her did, and did not do, to let her compete on equal terms. Key speaking topics Women in elite motorsport Representation inside closed performance cultures High-pressure execution and race-weekend preparation Manufacturer and team development pathways Gulf-region leadership and role-model narratives Careers for young women in STEM and engineering Ideal for DEI, talent and employee resource group programmes looking for a non-Western role-model case study Leadership offsites in performance-led functions: trading, engineering, medicine, investment Corporate partner and sponsor events in automotive, sports and luxury brand portfolios Women-in-STEM summits and graduate programmes across EMEA and Asia-Pacific Audience outcomes A direct account of how a closed talent system admits an outsider, and what the outsider has to do to stay admitted A Gulf-region reference point for representation conversations that usually default to Europe or North America An inside view of how Red Bull and Porsche identify and develop young performers A sense of what role-modelling looks like when the person doing it is still competing, not looking back

Why organisations work with Amy Cappellanti-Wolf She has held the CHRO seat at Dayforce, Cohesity, Symantec and Silver Spring Networks, including taking Silver Spring Networks public on the NYSE in 2013. Her HR career runs from Frito-Lay and The Walt Disney Company through Sun Microsystems and Cisco, so she can speak credibly to consumer, entertainment and enterprise tech leadership teams in their own language. At Dayforce she runs people strategy at an HR technology vendor and acts as “Customer Zero” for the company’s AI-powered HR releases, which gives her an unusually concrete view of where AI lands in real HR operations. She works at board and committee level on talent and rewards, currently as Compensation Committee Chair at Softchoice and as a director or advisor at D-Wave Quantum, Betterworks and Wellist. Recognised externally on people and tech leadership: National Diversity Council Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology, Silicon Valley Business Journal Women of Influence, and the Forbes Human Resources Council. Biography highlights EVP and Chief People Officer, Dayforce, since April 2024. Former CHRO at Cohesity, Symantec and Silver Spring Networks; led people strategy through Silver Spring Networks’ 2013 IPO. Earlier senior HR roles at Cisco Systems (2001 to 2009), Sun Microsystems, The Walt Disney Company and Frito-Lay (PepsiCo). Compensation Committee Chair at Softchoice (TSX: SFTC); board and advisory roles at D-Wave Quantum, Betterworks and Wellist. Forbes Human Resources Council member since 2018; National Diversity Council Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology. Inducted into the Roll of Distinguished Alumni, WVU’s John Chambers College of Business and Economics, in 2019. Biography Few CHROs have stood in the room for a Cisco-era leadership build, a Disney creative organisation, a Symantec security business and a Silver Spring Networks IPO. Amy Cappellanti-Wolf has. That cross-section is what gives her practical authority on what culture and talent actually take when a company changes shape. Her current seat sharpens the point. As EVP and Chief People Officer at Dayforce, she runs people strategy inside an HR technology vendor and uses Dayforce’s own platform as “Customer Zero” for AI-powered HR releases. That gives her a working view of where AI lands in payroll, performance and workforce planning, not as a forecast but as a live deployment. Boards use her where rewards, governance and people risk meet. She chairs the Compensation Committee at Softchoice, sits on the board at D-Wave Quantum, and advises Betterworks and Wellist. Her recognition track record, Forbes HR Council, the National Diversity Council Top 50 in Technology, Silicon Valley Business Journal Women of Influence, sits alongside the operating record, not in place of it. For senior buyers, the practical value is specific. She can talk credibly to a CHRO planning an IPO, a CEO integrating an acquisition, an HR team rebuilding engagement after a restructure, or a board asking what AI in HR really changes. The answers come from having done it, not from observing it. Key speaking topics People strategy through IPO, M&A and divestiture AI in HR and the future of the people function High-performance culture in scaling tech companies Diversity, equity and inclusion as an operating discipline Leadership and talent for enterprise transformation The CHRO as a board-level voice on people risk Ideal for CHROs and senior HR leaders preparing for IPO, M&A or large-scale restructure CEOs and boards weighing the people implications of AI deployment in core operations Compensation and talent committees considering rewards, succession and culture risk Technology, consumer and entertainment leadership teams running concurrent transformations Audience outcomes A clear sense of how to sequence people priorities through IPO, integration and restructure A practical view of where AI changes HR operations now, drawn from a live enterprise deployment Sharper questions for boards and executive teams on culture, rewards and talent risk Concrete language for inclusion outcomes that survive a politically contested environment

Why organisations work with Amy Purdy She offers a first-hand account of performance under permanent constraint that senior leaders recognise as substantive, not motivational filler. She has changed the rules of her own sport: co-founded Adaptive Action Sports in 2005 and was central to adding Para snowboarding to the 2014 Paralympic programme, a concrete example of building a category where none existed. Her book “On My Own Two Feet” (William Morrow, 2014) sits on New York Times bestseller shelves and gives her argument a durable reference point buyers can hand to executives before or after a session. She holds audiences that include mainstream corporate, healthcare, and sport: Dancing with the Stars finalist, TED speaker, Toyota Super Bowl commercial subject, which means she is legible to wide leadership groups. Her content translates directly to questions boards are actually asking: how to keep teams performing through sustained uncertainty, and how to lead when the original plan is no longer available. Biography highlights Three-time Paralympic medallist in Para snowboarding: bronze, Sochi 2014; silver and bronze, PyeongChang 2018. Co-founder, Adaptive Action Sports (2005), a 501(c)(3) based at Copper Mountain, Colorado. Author, “On My Own Two Feet: From Losing My Legs to Learning the Dance of Life” (William Morrow, 2014), New York Times bestseller. TED speaker, “Living Beyond Limits” (TEDxOrangeCoast, published on TED.com). Finalist, ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, Season 18 (2014); contestant, CBS’s The Amazing Race (2012). Featured in a Toyota Super Bowl commercial and on Oprah Winfrey’s The Life You Want Tour. Biography At nineteen, a case of bacterial meningitis took Amy Purdy’s legs below the knee, her spleen, and the function of both kidneys. A transplanted kidney from her father kept her alive. Within two years she was back on a snowboard. Within a decade she was on the Paralympic podium. The athletic record is specific. Three Paralympic medals across two Games: bronze at Sochi in 2014 and silver and bronze at PyeongChang in 2018, all in snowboard disciplines she helped argue into existence. In 2005, with Daniel Gale, she co-founded Adaptive Action Sports, the organisation that did much of the quiet work to get Para snowboarding onto the 2014 Paralympic programme. Changing the rules of a sport is a rarer credential than winning inside them. The communication record sits alongside the athletic one. “On My Own Two Feet,” published by William Morrow in 2014 and co-written with Michelle Burford, became a New York Times bestseller and remains her primary reference text. The TEDxOrangeCoast talk “Living Beyond Limits” travelled from conference room to the main TED library. A finalist run on Dancing with the Stars, a Toyota Super Bowl commercial and a place on Oprah Winfrey’s The Life You Want Tour followed, each adding a different audience to her reach. What she offers a corporate room is narrower and more useful than the biography suggests. Her argument is about operating when the original plan has been cancelled: recovering quickly, finding the next move, keeping a team moving while the ground is still shifting. It is a working account of constraint. For leaders building organisations that have to hold together through uncertainty, that is a reference worth hearing directly. Key speaking topics Resilience as a working practice Leading through setback and reinvention Performance under constraint Purpose and reinvention after disruption Category creation and changing the rules of a system High performance in endurance and sport Ideal for Senior leadership offsites and CEO forums focused on resilience, reinvention, and leading through sustained uncertainty. Healthcare, life sciences and patient-facing organisations where the lived-experience dimension carries commercial and cultural weight. Sales kick-offs and all-hands moments that need a serious anchor point rather than generic motivation. Diversity, inclusion and talent events where disability, advocacy, and category creation are part of the conversation. Audience outcomes A sharper working definition of resilience that leaders can apply to their own teams, not just admire in others. A concrete model for operating when the original plan has been removed and a new one has to be built under time pressure. A reference example of building a category (a sport, a product, a business line) where none previously existed. Renewed clarity about the relationship between personal setback and professional performance, useful for high-stakes leadership transitions. Language and framing senior leaders can reuse with their own people after the session ends.

Why organisations work with Amy Thomson A founder who has actually built and sold in consumer markets twice, once in brand communications with Nike, Microsoft and Instagram as clients, and once in femtech with a venture-backed app and a Penguin-published book underneath it. Specific operating knowledge of category creation in stigmatised territory: how to position, fundraise, and market around hormonal health without the wellness-industry shortcuts that erode trust. A published Penguin title grounded in research from gynaecologists, endocrinologists and nutritionists, which means consumer health and pharma teams get a speaker with editorial credibility, not just a founder pitch. A first-person account of hormonal burnout as a CEO that resonates with leadership audiences, then connects to a commercial argument about why workforce health is being misread by employers. Biography highlights Founder and CEO, Moody Month, awarded “Top Female Health App” by Apple Author, Moody: A 21st Century Hormone Guide, Penguin Founder, SEEN brand agency, clients including Nike, Microsoft, RBS, Instagram and Diageo; sold to Captivate Group Co-founder, Future Girl Corp, with Sharmadean Reid, partnered with Google and Diageo Sociology, Goldsmiths, University of London Keynote engagements include Apple HQ and Vogue Biography Most consumer health products built for women have been designed without a serious commercial thesis attached to female physiology. Thomson started Moody Month to close that gap, building a venture-backed app that tracks hormonal and mental health across the menstrual cycle. Apple named it “Top Female Health App” and featured it on the App Store Today Tab. Her route to femtech was operational. She founded SEEN at 23, a brand and content agency working with Nike, Microsoft, RBS, Instagram and Diageo, before selling the company to Captivate Group. A hormonal burnout, driven by years of high-intensity client work, forced her to stop. The decision to study what had happened to her body became the foundation for Moody and for her Penguin book, Moody: A 21st Century Hormone Guide, which draws on gynaecologists, endocrinologists and nutritionists rather than wellness orthodoxy. That dual track, agency exit then femtech category creation, gives her a particular usefulness to consumer health, FMCG and pharma teams trying to build credibly in physiology markets. She has co-founded Future Girl Corp with Sharmadean Reid, partnered Google and Diageo into that programme, and raised institutional capital around a product category most investors still find awkward to underwrite. The commercial argument she makes is concrete: hormonal health is a consumer market that has been mispriced by incumbents and underserved by wellness branding. For leadership audiences, the burnout story carries a sharper edge than the wellness circuit typically allows. It is told by a founder who walked away from a profitable agency, rebuilt around a physiological problem her own body forced her to take seriously, and then commercialised the answer. Key speaking topics Femtech and women’s health as a commercial category Consumer brand building in stigmatised markets Founder-led category creation Hormonal health, data and machine learning Raising venture capital as a female founder Burnout, physiology and executive performance Ideal for CMOs, brand directors and consumer innovation teams in FMCG, pharma and health Investor audiences in femtech, digital health and consumer technology Founder programmes and scale-up leadership networks Boards and leadership teams reviewing workforce health beyond standard wellbeing programming Audience outcomes A working commercial frame for women’s health as a consumer category, not a CSR line A founder’s account of fundraising in stigmatised markets, with the patterns that move investors A first-person view of hormonal burnout at CEO level and what it changed about her operating model A clearer read on why hormonal data is becoming a serious input for consumer product and workforce health

Why organisations work with Anastasia Graham-Yooll She has reported conflict from the inside, as part of the CNN team that won the 2022 Emmy for Outstanding Breaking News Coverage of the war in Ukraine, and more recently on the Iran war. Few moderators on a geopolitics panel have stood that close to the story. She has produced for outlets at opposite ends of the political spectrum, from CNN and Al Jazeera English to Fox News and News Nation. For a board-level panel on a divisive issue, that means a chair who can hold a partisan room without being read as taking a side. Two decades of editorial work across CNN International, Bloomberg TV, and Al Jazeera English means she can shape a programme arc, brief speakers in advance, and keep a session on the record without drift. As a Ukrainian journalist based in London, she brings primary-source authority on the fracturing rules-based order that few UK-based moderators can match. She brings a working position on press freedom, journalist mental health, and neurodiversity in newsrooms to media, culture, and people-focused programmes. Biography highlights Co-recipient of the 2022 Emmy for Outstanding Breaking News Coverage of the war in Ukraine, as part of the CNN team. Over two decades of broadcast and production experience across CNN International, CNN en Español, Bloomberg TV, and Al Jazeera English. Recent reporting spans the political spectrum, including production work on the Iran war for the US networks Fox News and News Nation. Founder and Executive Director of HGY Media Ltd, a London-based documentary production and media consultancy firm. Former media consultant to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, advising on communications for its agribusiness and food-security strategy. Public advocate for press freedom, ethical storytelling, journalist mental health, and neurodiversity in newsrooms. Biography A geopolitics panel is only as good as the person in the chair. Put partisan voices in the same room and most moderators either pick a side or let the session drift into headlines. The discipline of holding that room, pressing each speaker on substance while staying neutral, is what Graham-Yooll has built over two decades of broadcast journalism. She was part of the CNN team that won the 2022 Emmy for Outstanding Breaking News Coverage of the war in Ukraine, reporting in the earliest days of the Russian invasion. Her career runs across CNN International, CNN en Español, Bloomberg TV, and Al Jazeera English. More recently she has produced coverage of the Iran war for the US networks Fox News and News Nation, and royal coverage with the Associated Press’s AP 360. Reporting for outlets at opposite ends of the political spectrum is itself the credential. It is why she can chair a divided room without being read as partisan. Away from live coverage, she founded HGY Media Ltd, a London production and consultancy firm working on documentary projects and purpose-driven campaigns on human rights, conflict communication, and freedom of expression. Her earlier advisory work for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, on communications around agribusiness and food security, gives her technical footing on the sustainability and supply-chain questions that increasingly sit inside the geopolitical brief. She also speaks on the working conditions inside modern newsrooms, from the mental health toll of conflict coverage to the case for neurodiversity in editorial teams. For media, culture, and people programmes that want substance over presenter polish, that track is the draw. Key speaking topics Geopolitics and conflict reporting Editorial impartiality across the political spectrum Press freedom and ethical storytelling Editorial leadership and narrative strategy Neurodiversity in the newsroom Mental health in journalism The geopolitics of food security Ideal for Conference organisers seeking a panel chair for geopolitics, defence policy, or Ukraine and Middle East programmes Boards and policy forums that need a neutral chair for politically divided or high-stakes sessions Corporate communications and policy forums on press freedom, disinformation, and crisis communications Media, HR, and culture programmes on newsroom mental health and neurodiversity Audience outcomes A panel that stays editorially controlled, on record, and on time, with each speaker challenged on substance Geopolitical context on Ukraine, the Middle East, and the wider European security picture from a journalist with frontline reporting credit A read on how the same story is framed differently across the political spectrum, from US partisan media to international broadcasters A direct view of what ethical storytelling and press freedom mean for organisations operating in politically volatile markets The practical case for neurodiversity and mental health support in high-pressure editorial and communications teams

Why organisations work with Andrea McLean Thirteen years anchoring Loose Women gives her a craft of audience handling that few corporate keynote speakers can match, useful for events that need a host who can hold a room as well as deliver content. She speaks publicly about her own surgical menopause, breakdown and career exit, which lets internal audiences raise menopause and midlife anxiety as workplace issues without the conversation feeling clinical or performative. As co-founder and CEO of This Girl Is On Fire, she brings the perspective of someone who has built a women’s personal growth business from scratch, not just a presenter reading a script on the topic. Confessions of a Menopausal Woman and This Girl Is on Fire gave her a defined, recognisable position in the UK menopause and midlife conversation, useful for employer events targeting women in their forties and fifties. She can move between keynote, panel chair, awards host and after-dinner storyteller in the same engagement, which suits women’s networks, internal D&I events and customer-facing brand evenings. Biography highlights Longest-serving anchor of ITV’s Loose Women, on the panel from 2007 to 2020. Began her television career as a GMTV weather presenter in 1997, building a 24-year run across UK daytime broadcasting. Author of four books published with Hodder & Stoughton and others, including Confessions of a Menopausal Woman (2018) and the Sunday Times bestseller This Girl Is on Fire (2020). Co-founder and CEO of This Girl Is On Fire, a women’s personal growth platform launched in 2018 with masterclasses, podcast, app and live events. Has interviewed Oprah Winfrey, Beyoncé, Drew Barrymore and Michael Bublé across her broadcasting career. Runs a CPD-accredited media coaching course used by founders, authors and executives preparing for high-stakes broadcast appearances. Biography Most organisations still treat menopause, anxiety and midlife reinvention as private events that happen to women alongside their work, rather than as workplace issues. The result is a steady, quiet loss of senior women at exactly the point they should be moving into their most influential roles. Andrea McLean has spent the past decade turning that private territory into public conversation. For thirteen years she anchored ITV’s Loose Women, the longest-serving lead on a panel show built around women talking honestly about their lives. The role gave her a particular kind of authority: the craft of holding a room of strangers, and the experience of doing it while navigating a surgical menopause, anxiety, two divorces and, in 2019, a public breakdown that became the trigger for leaving television. In 2018 she co-founded This Girl Is On Fire with her husband Nick Feeney, a personal growth platform for women that now runs masterclasses, a podcast, an app and live events. Confessions of a Menopausal Woman and This Girl Is on Fire established her as a recognisable UK voice on midlife women’s health and reinvention, with the second book reaching the Sunday Times bestseller list. She is most useful to organisations that need someone who can host an event, deliver a keynote and answer questions about midlife transition without flinching. The audience is usually a women’s network, a D&I forum, or a customer event aimed at women in their forties and fifties. The substance is personal, the room is her craft, and the topic is one she has built a company around. Key speaking topics Menopause in the workplace Midlife reinvention for senior women Anxiety and personal recovery Women’s networks and inclusion events Storytelling for high-stakes communication Confidence and career pivots Building a business in midlife Ideal for Women’s networks and ERGs at large employers D&I and wellbeing events focused on women aged 40 to 55 Customer-facing brand evenings and awards nights needing a host with on-air craft Internal leadership events seeking a candid voice on midlife transition and resilience Audience outcomes A frank, named account of menopause, anxiety and recovery delivered without clinical distance. Permission for senior women in the room to raise midlife and health issues as workplace topics. A story of leaving a high-profile career and building a business in midlife, useful for audiences considering their own pivot. A room held with the pace and warmth of a broadcaster, not the rhythm of a corporate presenter.

Why organisations work with Andrew Brodsky He gives leadership teams a named, research-backed framework, PING (Perspective-taking, Initiative, Non-verbal cues, Goals), that turns ad hoc virtual habits into a deliberate operating practice. His evidence is original, not aggregated: peer-reviewed studies in the Journal of Applied Psychology and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin on how channel choice changes what gets said, heard and believed. He answers a question most consultants avoid: when is audio better than video, when does email outperform a meeting, and what does that mean for managers who default to whatever is easiest. His client roster includes Dell Technologies, PwC, Amazon and Novo Nordisk, which means the work has been pressure-tested inside organisations running global hybrid operations. The book Ping, published by Simon & Schuster and Penguin, has been endorsed by Adam Grant and Katy Milkman, placing his work alongside the leading voices in applied behavioural science. Biography highlights Management professor, McCombs School of Business, The University of Texas at Austin PhD in Organizational Behavior, Harvard Business School; BS, The Wharton School Author, Ping: The Secrets of Successful Virtual Communication (Simon & Schuster, Penguin, 2025) CEO and founder, Ping Group Named one of the world’s Best 40-Under-40 MBA Professors by Poets&Quants Research published in the Journal of Applied Psychology and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin; commentary in The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, The Economist, CNBC, The New York Times and TIME Biography Hybrid work settled the location question and left a harder one open. Inside most companies, the decision about which channel to use for which conversation is still made by habit. The cost is measurable: slower decisions, weaker trust, meetings that exist to compensate for messages that should never have been sent. Brodsky has built a research programme around that gap. His peer-reviewed work in the Journal of Applied Psychology and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin examines the operating consequences of specific channel choices, from how email shapes emotional authenticity to why audio-only calls often outperform video. The findings are precise enough to act on, which is unusual in a field crowded with generalities about remote work. The book Ping, published by Simon & Schuster and Penguin in 2025, consolidates that research into a four-part framework used inside teams at Dell Technologies, PwC, Amazon and Novo Nordisk. Adam Grant and Katy Milkman have endorsed the work, and HBR IdeaCast featured the argument as a guide for leaders auditing their own virtual practices. His credibility rests on a clear point: virtual communication is now an executive skill, not a logistics question. Boards and senior teams that treat it as the latter pay the cost in performance. Key speaking topics Virtual and hybrid communication strategy Channel choice and operating performance Leadership in distributed teams Trust and authenticity in digital workplaces Conflict reduction across asynchronous communication AI in workplace communication Inclusion in remote and hybrid settings Ideal for CHROs and heads of people redesigning hybrid operating models Executive teams auditing the performance cost of their meeting and communication habits Transformation and digital workplace leads setting team-level communication norms Senior leadership offsites focused on trust, decision speed and team effectiveness Audience outcomes A working framework for matching communication channel to task, with named criteria Specific research findings on when email, audio, video and instant message each outperform the alternatives A clear view of how leadership behaviour in virtual channels shapes trust and response patterns across teams Practical guidance on reducing conflict and misinterpretation in asynchronous communication A defensible position on AI-assisted interpersonal communication and the trust consequences of getting it wrong

Why organisations work with Andy Ayim He works with leadership teams where the brief is not a keynote but a measurable shift in how the team makes decisions, handles conflict and holds each other to account. His track record sits on both sides of the table: senior product roles at WorldFirst and Zilch, then Managing Director at Backstage Capital running accelerators on three continents. He has been the executive being coached and the investor pushing portfolio leaders to grow. His MBE, awarded in 2020 for services to diversity in the technology industry, signals a substantive record on inclusion rather than a stated commitment. Clients booking inclusive-leadership work get an external voice the room cannot dismiss as marketing. Through the Angel Investing School he has trained over a thousand new investors and built the curriculum used by 100 senior Google executives who went on to raise a $70m fund. He brings that operator’s view of capital, ownership and opportunity into corporate rooms that rarely hear it. Biography highlights MBE for services to diversity in the technology industry, awarded 2020 (London Gazette, Issue 63135). Founder of the Angel Investing School, which has trained 1,000+ new angel investors and produced the Open Angel platform. Former Managing Director at Backstage Capital, helping run accelerator programmes in Detroit, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and London. Senior product roles at WorldFirst (acquired by Ant Financial for $700m) and Series C fintech Zilch. Trained 100 senior Black executives at Google who formed the Black Angel Group and raised a $70m fund. Named in the Financial Times Top 10 Most Influential BAME Leaders in Tech; HSBC and UK Black Business Show Top 25 Black Entrepreneurs to Watch. Opened the Venture programme at SXSW London 2026 (Christ Church Spitalfields). Biography Most senior teams are not short of intelligence or ambition. They are short of safety. People hold back the disagreement, the bad news, the half-formed idea that might change the decision. Andy Ayim’s work begins there. He is hired by leaders at Google, Stripe, Uber, Diageo, Novartis and Tesco to do the harder thing: change how a team behaves with each other in the room. His authority is built on doing the job, not describing it. He held senior product roles at WorldFirst before its $700m acquisition by Ant Financial, then at Series C fintech Zilch. In 2018 he joined Arlan Hamilton as Managing Director at Backstage Capital, designing accelerator programmes for underrepresented founders in Detroit, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and London. The pattern is consistent: operator credibility first, advisor work second. The inclusion record is documented. He was appointed MBE in 2020 for services to diversity in the technology industry, gazetted by the Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood. In the same year he founded the Angel Investing School, which has since trained over a thousand new angel investors and built the curriculum that produced the Black Angel Group, 100 senior Google executives who went on to raise a $70m fund. What that means for a client is straightforward. When Ayim walks into a leadership offsite, he is not a consultant translating a theory. He is a former executive and active investor who has seen the same trust and capital problems from inside companies, inside portfolios and inside an honours system that has recognised the work. Key speaking topics Human-centred leadership Inclusive leadership and team performance Psychological safety in senior teams Diversity and inclusion in technology Angel investing and ownership Future of work and hybrid team design Talent and the next generation of leaders Ideal for CHROs and Chief People Officers commissioning inclusive-leadership and culture work for senior populations. ExCo and board offsites where the brief is honest conversation, trust and decision quality, not a standard keynote. Heads of Diversity and Inclusion looking for an external voice with a credentialled record rather than a generic DEI speaker. Investor and founder audiences inside corporate venture, accelerators and innovation functions. Audience outcomes A clearer picture of the specific behaviours that produce psychological safety in senior teams, and the ones that quietly destroy it. Language for naming the inclusion problems leaders are nervous to name, with examples drawn from operator and investor experience. A view of inclusion as a leadership capability tied to performance, not a compliance function bolted onto HR. An informed perspective on angel investing, ownership and wealth creation for audiences that rarely get it from a credible practitioner.

Why organisations work with Anita Jones A live-broadcast presenter who hosts boardroom and large-audience corporate events with the pacing and composure of a Champions League studio. Bilingual English and Spanish presenting capability for international events, conferences and panel sessions, including interviews at the level of Lionel Messi and Jude Bellingham. A named, parliamentary-level voice on endometriosis as an Endometriosis UK ambassador, giving women’s health an editorial weight beyond a wellness slot. A British-Nigerian broadcaster credible on representation in sport and media without retreating into generic DEI framing. Biography highlights Presenter, CBS Champions League and CBS Golazo. Reporter, Premier League Productions, reporting weekly from clubs across England. Sky Sports broadcaster; earlier roles with BBC, Channel 4, and Arsenal Nation Live. First-class degree in European Studies, King’s College London; fluent in Spanish and English. Has covered the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, the Women’s World Cup, and the Women’s Champions League. Ambassador for Endometriosis UK; has spoken in Parliament on endometriosis, including for Endometriosis Action Month. Biography Live football broadcasting is unforgiving. A presenter has to carry a Champions League studio, hold the line in a noisy stadium tunnel, and translate a Messi or Bellingham answer on the fly. That is the working environment behind Anita Jones’s day job at CBS Champions League, CBS Golazo, Sky Sports and Premier League Productions. The route in was journalistic rather than celebrity. A first-class degree in European Studies from King’s College London, then early reporting and presenting roles at the BBC, Channel 4 and Arsenal Nation Live, before the move into Premier League Productions and CBS. Bilingual English and Spanish broadcasting has been a consistent edge across the work, particularly around major tournaments including the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, the Women’s World Cup and the Women’s Champions League. The hosting craft transfers cleanly to corporate stages. Jones works as an event host, moderator and panel chair, with the pace and authority of a live broadcast rather than the cadence of a guest speaker. Briefs that require multilingual delivery, sports tie-ins, or a presenter who can carry a high-profile interview in front of a senior internal audience all sit naturally inside her week. The second strand of her public work is women’s health. Diagnosed with endometriosis in 2018 after a laparoscopy, Jones became an ambassador for Endometriosis UK and has used her broadcast profile to put the condition on the record, including in Parliament during Endometriosis Action Month. For employers looking to treat women’s health as an operating issue rather than a wellness panel, that lived and named platform is what she adds. Key speaking topics Event hosting and live moderation Panel chairing for international and bilingual audiences Sports broadcasting and media Women in sports media Endometriosis and women’s workplace health Representation and diversity in sport Ideal for Corporate conferences and annual events looking for a host or MC with live-broadcast pacing International and bilingual English and Spanish audiences, particularly in sport, sponsorship and brand activation Employee network and ERG events on women’s health, with a focus on endometriosis Sports industry, sponsor and federation events requiring an experienced football moderator Audience outcomes A professionally paced event with clear handovers, sharp interviewing and confident audience handling. A concrete picture of how endometriosis presents in working life and what better workplace support actually looks like. A first-hand view of how representation in sports media has shifted, and what it took to move from a regional reporter role to a Champions League studio. For bilingual audiences, an event delivered with equal fluency in English and Spanish rather than translated through a second voice.

Why organisations work with Aniyia Williams She has built on both sides of the table. She founded and patented hardware at Tinsel, then moved into ecosystem leadership and capital strategy at Omidyar Network. Few responsible-tech voices have done both. Her work on Zebras Unite gave a vocabulary to a generation of founders who reject the unicorn default. That argument now shows up in boardrooms making real capital allocation decisions. Through Black & Brown Founders and the Black Innovation Alliance, she has spent years inside the operational detail of how 170+ organisations support entrepreneurs the standard system overlooks. The data is concrete. At Omidyar Network’s The Tech We Want, she shapes how a major philanthropic investor thinks about the next layer of technology infrastructure. Senior audiences hear primary-source thinking, not commentary. Biography highlights Director / Principal, Responsible Technology, Omidyar Network. Leads The Tech We Want initiative. Founder and board chair, Black & Brown Founders. Co-founder, Zebras Unite. Co-founder, Firefly Alliance. Convener, Black Innovation Alliance (170+ partner organisations). Founder and inventor, Tinsel. Patent holder for the world’s first audio necklace. 2019 Penn State Alumni Achievement Award (alumni aged 35 and under). Biography The venture model has produced an extraordinary generation of companies. It has also defined what a “real” company looks like in ways that exclude most of the operators who could build the next one. Aniyia Williams has spent the past decade arguing, in operating detail, that the model is one option, not the only one. She began as a fashion-tech founder. At Tinsel she designed, built and patented the world’s first audio necklace. The experience of raising hardware capital as a Black woman founder in Silicon Valley led to the work that followed: Black & Brown Founders, which she founded in 2017 to give Black and Latinx entrepreneurs the financial and community infrastructure that the standard system does not provide, and Zebras Unite, the co-founded movement that gave purpose-aligned founders a clear alternative to unicorn-chasing. That ecosystem work scaled. As convener of the Black Innovation Alliance, she now sits at the centre of a 170-organisation coalition working on the wealth gap for tech entrepreneurs of colour. At Omidyar Network, where she is a director on the Responsible Technology team, she leads The Tech We Want, an incubated initiative shaping how a major philanthropic investor backs the next layer of technology. For boards and executive teams, the value is concrete. She brings the founder’s view of capital, the funder’s view of portfolio strategy, and a working knowledge of governance for technology that has not yet been built. Penn State recognised the trajectory in 2019 with its Alumni Achievement Award. The substance behind the award is what makes her useful in a serious strategy conversation. Key speaking topics Responsible technology and the future of the innovation economy Alternatives to the venture capital model (the “zebra” thesis) Entrepreneurship and scale-up under different rules Inclusive innovation and access to capital Purpose-aligned business strategy Building and governing technology for the long term Ideal for Boards and investment committees rethinking how they back early-stage technology Innovation leaders, CSOs and corporate venture teams designing new operator models Heads of DEI, talent and ecosystem partnerships working on access to capital and supplier diversity Founder communities, accelerators and philanthropic funders Audience outcomes A sharper view of which startup orthodoxies are commercially load-bearing and which are not Working language for purpose-aligned business models that boards and investors can use A clearer map of the responsible-technology agenda and where it intersects with growth strategy Concrete examples of capital, governance and ecosystem design from operators outside the standard pattern A renewed argument for why inclusive innovation is a commercial question, not only a values question

Why organisations work with Anj Handa She brings governance-level credibility into inclusion conversations that usually stop at HR, holding positions as Independent Governor of Leeds Arts University, Chair of Freedom Studios, and Fellow of the RSA. Her campaign craft is verifiable, not rhetorical. She built the legal team, petition, and media strategy on the Afusat Saliu FGM-asylum case, gathering 126,500 signatures and pushing FGM higher on the UK political agenda. She names the parts of inclusive leadership most speakers avoid: emotional correctness, healthy boundaries, psychological safety, and what allyship has to do that employee networks cannot. She offers a working alternative to the glass ceiling, the labyrinth, which describes the actual sequence of barriers women, and particularly Black and brown women, encounter inside large organisations. Forbes named her in its 10 Diversity & Inclusion Trailblazers list, and Grant Thornton UK featured her among its 100 Faces of a Vibrant Economy. The recognition tracks substantive work, not commentary. Biography highlights Founder of Inspiring Women Changemakers, an inclusive community and consultancy advising on equity, governance, and systems change. Independent Governor of Leeds Arts University and Chair of the Board of Freedom Studios. Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Named in Forbes “10 Diversity & Inclusion Trailblazers” and Grant Thornton UK’s 100 Faces of a Vibrant Economy (2018). Featured in Charity Times 2023 International Women’s Day list. Contributor to “Generation Share”, “Eradicating FGM in the UK” (Hilary Burrage), and “Refugee Tales” (Comma Press). Biography Most organisations have a diversity statement. Far fewer have governance and leadership practices that match it. The gap is where talent gets lost, complaints get managed, and senior leaders quietly accept attrition that the policy was meant to prevent. Closing that gap requires someone fluent in both the structural and the human side of the work. Anj Handa has spent more than two decades operating in that space. She is Founder of Inspiring Women Changemakers, an inclusive community and consultancy that advises senior leaders on inclusive governance, equity, and systems change. She is an Independent Governor of Leeds Arts University, Chair of Freedom Studios, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts; positions she has often noted are held by fewer than one percent of Black and brown women in the UK. Her authority is not theoretical. In 2014 she led the high-profile asylum campaign for Afusat Saliu and her daughters, assembling the legal team, running a Change.org petition that drew 126,500 signatures, and bringing MPs and national media into the story. The work was later included in Hilary Burrage’s “Eradicating FGM in the UK” and the Comma Press anthology “Refugee Tales”. Forbes named her in its 10 Diversity & Inclusion Trailblazers list; Grant Thornton featured her among its 100 Faces of a Vibrant Economy. What separates her work for senior teams is the territory she is willing to name. Psychological safety, emotional correctness, healthy boundaries, allyship that is more than a network. She challenges the glass ceiling as a useful frame and offers the labyrinth in its place, a more accurate description of the sequence of barriers women encounter inside complex organisations. That precision is what boards and executive teams hire her for. Key speaking topics Inclusive leadership and governance Equity, diversity, and structural change The labyrinth: rethinking the glass ceiling Allyship beyond employee networks Psychological safety and emotional correctness Self-care and resilience for changemakers Campaign craft and policy influence Ideal for Boards, governance committees, and executive teams setting inclusion strategy CHROs, Heads of DEI, and senior people leaders rebuilding programmes under scrutiny Public sector, charity, and arts leaders working on equity and safeguarding Women’s leadership and changemaker networks inside large organisations Audience outcomes A sharper vocabulary for the structural barriers women face beyond the glass ceiling A clear distinction between allyship as practice and employee networks as forum Specific governance-level questions to put to their own inclusion programmes Permission and language to address emotional correctness and boundaries in senior teams A view of inclusion that connects policy, governance, and lived experience without losing rigour