Neurodiversität speakers

Why organisations work with Adele Bates Her classroom experience covers every major UK school setting: mainstream primary and secondary, pupil referral units, alternative provision, and special schools. School leaders can bring her to a mixed-audience CPD day knowing the examples hold up across every context in the room. Her approach is informed by funded comparative international research. In 2019, she received a full grant to research Finland’s inclusive education system. Research in the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica followed. What she recommends draws on documented practice from functioning systems across three countries. Her book, published by Corwin/SAGE, has been used by headteachers to rewrite whole-school behaviour policies from scratch. It provides a structured, chapter-by-chapter framework that school leaders can put to immediate institutional use. She writes for TES, SecEd, and Headteacher Update, reaching school leaders at scale. Audiences in her sessions often arrive knowing her work, which changes the quality of the conversation. Her TEDx 2020 talk and BBC Radio 4 appearances as the network’s expert on teenagers and behaviour give her name recognition well beyond the education conference circuit. Biography highlights Author, “Miss, I Don’t Give A Sh*t”: Engaging with Challenging Behaviour in Schools (Corwin/SAGE) TEDx 2020 speaker BBC Radio 4 expert on teenagers and behaviour Trainer for the National Education Union and Amnesty International Education WeAreTheCity Rising Star Award, Education category Funded international researcher in behaviour and inclusion: Finland (2019), Dominican Republic, and Costa Rica Biography Behaviour policies give teachers a sequence of steps. They rarely explain what to do when those steps stop working. For more than 20 years, Adele Bates taught in the settings where that gap matters most: mainstream primary and secondary schools, pupil referral units, alternative provision, and special schools. Her book, “Miss, I Don’t Give A Sh*t”: Engaging with Challenging Behaviour in Schools, is published by Corwin/SAGE. It gives school leaders a structured framework for rebuilding behaviour culture from the ground up. Headteachers have used it to rewrite their school’s behaviour policy from scratch. In 2019, she received a full grant to research Finland’s inclusive education system, observing classes and interviewing teachers across several schools. She has since carried out school-based research in the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica. Those visits inform how she frames what is achievable, with reference to systems that have solved problems UK schools are still working through. She is BBC Radio 4’s expert on teenagers and behaviour and gave a TEDx talk in 2020. She writes regularly for TES, SecEd, and Headteacher Update. She trains for the National Education Union and Amnesty International Education. School leaders who book her often know her work before she arrives. Key speaking topics Inclusive behaviour in schools Social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) in education Trauma-informed practice Whole-school behaviour culture and consistency Pupil engagement and relationship-led teaching Equality, bias, and inclusion in education Staff confidence and wellbeing in schools Ideal for Headteachers and senior leadership teams in mainstream and specialist schools Classroom teachers and subject leaders seeking practical behaviour frameworks Multi-academy trust (MAT) CPD and professional development leads National education organisations and education conference organisers Audience outcomes A clearer account of why SEMH-driven behaviour does not respond to sanctions, and what the evidence suggests actually works Practical strategies for rebuilding positive relationships with disengaged pupils, applicable from the next lesson A framework for evaluating whether a school’s behaviour policy is built to support or to separate A sharper understanding of how equality, bias, and inclusion connect to behaviour patterns across a whole school Tools for strengthening staff confidence and consistency in challenging classroom situations

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 Aquayemi-Claude G. Akinsanya He brings first-hand experience of being denied SEN provision in the UK system and has translated that into a named legislative campaign, The Claudes SEN Law, that gives inclusion conversations real political and personal weight. His advocacy is documented through founder roles, not commentary alone: Garnetts Clothing Brand & Range on sustainable fashion and The Claudes SEN Law Campaign on disability rights and inclusive education. He sits inside the awards and rankings ecosystem that boards recognise: Forbes Under 30 nominee, ForbesBLK contributor, and Effie Awards Europe 2026 jury member, giving him credibility with marketing and brand-led audiences. He speaks credibly across young-leader and SDG platforms, including YOUNITE 2024 on SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities), making him relevant to organisations that have signed up to global goals and need authentic voices to back the commitment. Biography highlights Founder and CEO, Garnetts Clothing Brand & Range, a sustainability-focused fashion venture Founder, The Claudes SEN Law Campaign, an advocacy initiative calling on UK Parliament to reform Special Educational Needs legislation Forbes Under 30 (2024) nominee and ForbesBLK member Jury member, Effie Awards Europe 2026 Speaker at YOUNITE 2024 on UN Sustainable Development Goal 10 (Reduced Inequalities) Author of The Truth Behind Self Isolation and this Crazy Climate of Lockdown Biography Inclusion is one of the most contested terms in corporate language. Boards have signed off on statements, training cycles and reporting frameworks. Many still struggle to explain what changes in everyday practice for a neurodivergent or disabled employee. Aquayemi-Claude G. Akinsanya works in exactly that gap. He was denied Special Educational Needs provision as a young person in the UK system, and built The Claudes SEN Law Campaign in response, pushing UK Parliament for a statutory framework that recognises neurodiversity and extends support beyond age 25 for those with Education, Health and Care Plans. The campaign has been documented through Change.org, his own publishing platform, and bureau profiles. He also founded Garnetts Clothing Brand & Range, a sustainability-led fashion venture, and contributes to the marketing and brand world through ForbesBLK and an Effie Awards Europe 2026 jury seat. That second track matters: it places him in front of senior commercial audiences and gives him a vocabulary that connects sustainability and inclusion to brand and consumer strategy, not just to compliance. For organisations under real scrutiny on whether their DEI claims have substance, his value is specific. He carries the experience of the people DEI policy is meant to serve, the founder discipline of running ventures with social objectives, and the platforms (Forbes, YOUNITE, Effie) that make boards take the conversation seriously. Key speaking topics Neurodiversity and Special Educational Needs in education and work Disability inclusion and advocacy Sustainability and social impact in brand strategy Social entrepreneurship and purpose-led ventures Mental health and resilience in young leaders Campaign building and movement leadership Ideal for CHROs and heads of DEI seeking authentic voice rather than process-led inclusion narratives Brand and marketing leaders integrating sustainability and inclusion into commercial strategy Social impact and ESG teams working against SDG-aligned reporting commitments Youth, education and graduate audiences exploring purpose-led careers Audience outcomes A sharper view of how invisible disability and neurodivergence are experienced in education and employment, and why current policy frameworks fail Direct exposure to a founder building inclusion and sustainability into commercial ventures rather than describing them in policy terms A framework for connecting brand, social impact and SDG commitments without falling into surface-level signalling Renewed energy in younger audiences considering social entrepreneurship as a route to both commercial and civic contribution

Why organisations work with Chris Griffiths He brings a named, tested method. GRASP and the Solution Finder process, published across The Creative Thinking Handbook and GRASP The Solution, give teams a four-step route from problem to decision that can be run again without him in the room. He has built the tooling, not just the theory. OpenGenius turned the mind mapping method into Ayoa, a commercial platform used across Pfizer, the NHS, the European Commission and the State Bank of India, which gives his frameworks an operating record outside the keynote. He treats neurodiversity as a creative asset. Through the Inspire Genius Foundation and Ayoa’s neuroinclusive design, he connects creative thinking to the way neurodivergent minds actually work, giving leaders a practical angle on inclusion that is tied to output rather than compliance. He has run the playbook at scale. With Tony Buzan he built a global network of more than 1,000 licensed instructors operating inside Sony, the Ministry of Defence and the NHS, which is unusual evidence that his method transfers beyond the author. His work has been stress-tested in serious rooms. He facilitated a Nobel Laureate brainstorm at the Petra Nobel Conference convened by HM King Abdullah II of Jordan, and has coached senior teams at the European Commission. Biography highlights Founder and CEO of OpenGenius, the company behind the Ayoa mind mapping and productivity platform. Author of The Creative Thinking Handbook (Kogan Page), GRASP The Solution, and Mind Maps for Business (with Tony Buzan), with titles translated across more than 15 countries. Co-creator, with Tony Buzan, of the ThinkBuzan Licensed Instructor Course, a global network of more than 1,000 accredited mind mapping instructors. Founder of start-ups that have ranked in the Deloitte European Fast 50 and The Sunday Times Fast Track 100. Facilitator of a brainstorming session with Nobel Laureates at the Petra Nobel Conference, hosted by HM King Abdullah II of Jordan. Contributor and cited expert in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Fast Company, BBC, The Telegraph and GQ. Biography Creativity inside most organisations is still treated as a talent rather than a process. Chris Griffiths has spent nearly three decades arguing the opposite, and building the books, frameworks and software to prove it. His published work sets out a specific method. The Creative Thinking Handbook, published by Kogan Page and now available in more than ten languages, lays out the Solution Finder model. GRASP The Solution distils a four-step process that teams can run on any live business problem. Mind Maps for Business, co-authored with Tony Buzan, remains a standard text on applied visual thinking. The frameworks have a commercial track record attached. As founder and CEO of OpenGenius, he turned the method into Ayoa, a mind mapping and productivity platform used inside Pfizer, the NHS, the European Commission and the State Bank of India. With Tony Buzan he built the ThinkBuzan Licensed Instructor Course into a network of over 1,000 accredited instructors operating inside Sony, the Ministry of Defence and the NHS, a rare piece of evidence that the method works without the author in the room. His businesses have ranked in the Deloitte European Fast 50 and The Sunday Times Fast Track 100. He has facilitated a Nobel Laureate brainstorm convened by HM King Abdullah II of Jordan at the Petra Nobel Conference, and through the Inspire Genius Foundation he funds young neurodivergent entrepreneurs, the group Ayoa’s neuroinclusive design was built around. Key speaking topics Applied creative thinking in business Systematic innovation and problem solving Mind mapping for leadership and strategy AI as a creative partner for human teams Productivity and focus for knowledge workers Neuroinclusive approaches to innovation Entrepreneurship and venture building Ideal for CEOs, founders and senior leadership teams who want a shared method for problem solving across the executive group. Chief Innovation Officers, Heads of Strategy and transformation leads tasked with making innovation repeatable rather than episodic. L&D and People leaders building creative-thinking capability and neuroinclusive practice across the workforce. R&D, product and commercial teams preparing for a specific planning cycle, offsite or innovation sprint. Audience outcomes A named four-step process (GRASP) that leaders can apply to a live business problem the day after the session. A working grasp of the Solution Finder model from The Creative Thinking Handbook and how to run it with a team. A practical introduction to mind mapping as a decision tool, not a sticky-note exercise. A view of where AI fits alongside human creativity, drawn from the design choices inside Ayoa. A clearer read on how neurodivergent thinkers contribute to creative output and how to design sessions that use that.

Why organisations work with Clare Kenny Her material starts from nervous system science: what sustained activation does to decision quality, and which working norms are producing it. As Global Wellbeing Lead at Burberry she owned a strategy covering 9,000 employees globally, so she argues the business case for wellbeing investment at scale, not only the human one. Her grounding is behavioural science and leadership psychology, from MindGym and from YSC Consulting, now part of Accenture. She has a TEDx talk on addiction and stigma, and lived experience of burnout, anxiety, addiction, and late-diagnosed ADHD, so the material on pressure is not delivered at a distance from it. On neuro-inclusion she starts from the arithmetic: around one in five people are neurodivergent, and most workplaces are designed for one type of brain. Biography highlights Former Global Wellbeing Lead, Burberry: led global wellbeing strategy for a 9,000-person workforce Two decades in leadership and learning and development across Europe and Asia Former Head of Client Operations (Europe) at YSC Consulting, now part of Accenture, and Client Executive at MindGym, the behavioural science consultancy BSc in Psychology, University of Manchester TEDx speaker on addiction and stigma Clients include KPMG, Warner Bros Discovery, Channel 4, Novartis, Fidelity International, the Ministry of Justice, Specsavers, and the Harry Potter Studios Biography The ADHD diagnosis came at 40. The two decades before it involved extreme anxiety, emotional dysregulation, memory problems, addiction and overwhelm. Nobody suggested the obvious explanation, Clare Kenny included. She did not fit the picture most people carry of what ADHD looks like. Living with an unregulated nervous system and no account of why is what pushed her towards the neuroscience of performance. The professional grounding came first. A BSc in Psychology from the University of Manchester, then MindGym, the behavioural science learning consultancy, then senior director roles in leadership consultancy across Europe and Asia. At YSC Consulting, now part of Accenture, she ran client operations for Europe. As Global Wellbeing Lead at Burberry she built and ran the wellbeing strategy for a 9,000-person global workforce. That in-house experience shapes where she puts the intervention: how leaders behave, how work is distributed, and when people are expected to be available. It is the starting point for her work with KPMG, Warner Bros Discovery, Channel 4, Novartis and the Ministry of Justice. Her current material is translation work, taking the science of stress and behaviour and turning it into changes a senior team can make the following Monday. Her TEDx talk, “We Need to Change How We See Addiction”, sits behind the lived experience she brings to it. The keynotes lean on Google’s Project Aristotle, which found psychological safety was the single most important factor in high-performing teams. She also works from a simpler fact: around one in five people are neurodivergent, and most workplaces are designed for one kind of brain. Key speaking topics Neuroscience of stress and performance Nervous system regulation and leadership Psychological safety in high-performing teams Burnout prevention and sustainable performance Neuro-inclusion and diversity of thought Late-diagnosed ADHD in the workplace Ideal for CHROs, people directors, and L&D leads resetting a wellbeing or performance strategy Executive teams and senior leadership offsites where burnout or sustained pressure is the presenting problem Leadership conferences and all-staff events on pressure, performance and workplace culture Culture change programmes, management development programmes, and inclusion events Audience outcomes How to identify the working norms in their own organisation that are keeping people in a stress response What a leader’s own regulation does to a team, and how to change it deliberately How organisations undermine psychological safety without meaning to, and the leader behaviours that rebuild it Why neuro-inclusion is a question of how the environment is designed, and where to start changing it Language for having honest conversations about mental health inside a high-performance culture

Why organisations work with Daniel Chappell A first-hand account of raising significant early-stage capital with no trading history, which is the situation most internal innovation teams quietly find themselves in when pitching new ventures to their own boards. A working operator’s view of UNTIL, a business that pairs physical premises in Soho, Liverpool Street and Marylebone with a digital membership model. Useful for any leadership team thinking about hybrid product-and-place propositions. An unusually honest voice on neurodiversity from a founder who runs a company while managing dyslexia and dyspraxia, rather than a clinical or HR-led perspective. A high-performance sports background that translates the language of marginal gains, recovery, and team standards into the running of a commercial business, without leaning on tired sporting metaphor. Biography highlights Co-founder of UNTIL, a members business for freelance health, wellness and medical practitioners operating from three central London sites. UNTIL counts Steven Bartlett among its investors and co-founders, following a high-profile early funding round. MSc in Strength and Conditioning, Cardiff Metropolitan University. BSc in Sports and Exercise Science, St Mary’s University, Twickenham. Over a decade working inside high-performance sporting environments before launching his own ventures. Speaks publicly about dyslexia and dyspraxia, and treats neurodiversity as part of his founder identity, not a sidebar. Biography Service industries built on individual practitioners tend to share the same problem. The talent is excellent and the business model is fragile. UNTIL, the London business Daniel Chappell co-founded, was built around that gap: a members club and workspace that lets freelance health, wellness and medical professionals operate from premium premises in Soho, Liverpool Street and Marylebone without carrying the cost of their own. The route in matters. More than a decade inside high-performance sport gave Daniel an instinct for how elite practitioners work, what they need around them, and where their time is wasted. An MSc in Strength and Conditioning from Cardiff Metropolitan University and a BSc in Sports and Exercise Science from St Mary’s University, Twickenham sit behind that view. The transition from working with athletes to building a company for the people who work with athletes is the spine of the story. UNTIL has since attracted Steven Bartlett as an investor and co-founder, and has built a community of more than 300 practitioners across more than 40 disciplines. For a buyer, the value of the talk is not the milestone list. It is what the talk reveals about persuading investors with no trading history, building a founding team that can scale, and running a young company in public. Daniel is also open about managing dyslexia and dyspraxia as a founder, and speaks to neurodiversity from the inside of a working business. That perspective is useful in any leadership conversation about how organisations actually get the best out of people whose minds are wired differently from the average hire. Key speaking topics Entrepreneurship and founding-team dynamics Early-stage fundraising and investor relationships Building a business in the health and wellness sector High performance applied to commercial environments Neurodiversity in leadership and at work Team culture in young companies Resilience and personal performance for founders Ideal for Leadership offsites for scale-ups and founder-led businesses Corporate innovation, ventures and intrapreneurship teams HR and people leaders building practical neurodiversity programmes Wellbeing, benefits and employee-experience conferences Audience outcomes A clearer picture of what early-stage investors actually respond to when there is no trading history to point at. A practical framing of how a young founding team divides work, makes decisions, and survives the first eighteen months. A working model for treating neurodiversity as a commercial asset inside a team, with examples from a live business. Language for translating high-performance habits into a corporate or scale-up context without resorting to sports cliché.

Why organisations work with Duena Blomstrom She names a specific, measurable liability most boards do not currently track. Human Debt sits underneath stalled transformations and lets a leadership team see why their roadmap keeps slipping for non-technical reasons. Her argument lands with engineering and product audiences who tune out conventional wellbeing language. Framing safety as a debt that compounds against velocity gives operators a vocabulary they will actually use. She built the diagnostic, not just the theory. PeopleNotTech turns the framework into measurement, which means a keynote can connect to real follow-on team data rather than ending at inspiration. Three books across Palgrave Macmillan, Bloomsbury Business, and Kogan Page give her argument continuity from FinTech culture (Emotional Banking) through team safety (People Before Tech) to enterprise transformation (Tech-Led Culture). She speaks publicly as a neurodivergent founder, which gives substance to inclusion conversations that are otherwise abstract for senior audiences. Biography highlights Author of Emotional Banking (Palgrave Macmillan), People Before Tech (Bloomsbury Business), and Tech-Led Culture (Kogan Page). CEO and co-founder of PeopleNotTech, a psychological safety measurement platform. Originator of the Human Debt concept and the Emotional Banking framework. LinkedIn Top Voice on leadership and psychological safety with a large newsletter readership. Former Forbes contributor; host of the “people AND tech” and “Tales from the FinTech Crypt” podcasts. Background spanning C-level roles in startups and major technology companies before founding PeopleNotTech. Biography Most digital transformation programmes do not fail on the technology. They fail on whether the team running them can disagree, recover from a bad decision, and tell the truth about a slipping deadline. That is the territory Duena Blomstrom has spent the last decade making operational. Her central concept, Human Debt, reframes psychological safety as a balance sheet item. Teams accrue interest every time a candid conversation is avoided, every time a senior leader rewards optics over honesty, every time fatigue is left unaddressed. Tech debt gets the spreadsheet. Human Debt rarely does, and the cost shows up in stalled roadmaps, attrition, and AI rollouts that never reach production. She built three books out of this argument. Emotional Banking (Palgrave Macmillan) treated culture as the missing variable in retail banking transformation. People Before Tech (Bloomsbury Business) made the case for safety as a precondition of high performance. Tech-Led Culture (Kogan Page) extended the work into enterprise change. Alongside the writing, she co-founded PeopleNotTech to turn the diagnosis into measurement, so the conversation about team health does not stop at the keynote. Audiences also get a founder who writes openly about being neurodivergent and what that means for leadership in practice. That makes inclusion a substantive thread in her work rather than a section header. Key speaking topics Psychological safety as a measurable team capability Human Debt and the hidden cost of low-trust teams Culture inside digital and AI transformation FinTech, retail banking, and Emotional Banking Neurodiversity and inclusive leadership Future of work and agile team practice Ideal for CHROs, chief people officers, and heads of organisational development running culture or engagement programmes alongside major technology change. CIOs, CTOs, and transformation leads whose roadmaps depend on team behaviour, not just delivery capacity. Banking, FinTech, and financial services leadership teams working through digital and AI rollouts. Boards and ExCos commissioning a serious conversation about why transformation programmes are underperforming. Audience outcomes A working definition of Human Debt that a leadership team can apply to its own organisation the next morning. A clearer line between team-level psychological safety and the commercial outcomes a board cares about. A vocabulary that lands with technical audiences who normally resist culture conversations. Specific signals to look for in teams where transformation, AI adoption, or restructuring is in flight. A frank account of what gets lost when neurodivergent leaders are managed for compliance rather than contribution.

Why organisations work with Farah Nanji A working framework for high-pressure performance built from a decade inside Formula 1 culture and a decade as the touring artist NINJA, two domains where small lapses are publicly visible. A founder’s view of building a private leadership community, Regents Racing, that uses motorsport psychology as a development tool for executives and members. A rare first-person account of rewiring cognitive function around dyspraxia, delivered as a TEDx keynote at the Luxembourg Philharmonie and translated into practical lessons on neurodivergence at work. A reference network drawn from Mission Makers, the podcast she founded at the World Economic Forum in Davos, which has hosted leaders across music, motorsport and business. Biography highlights Founder and CEO of Regents Racing, a private leadership community using motorsport psychology, with roots at Regent’s University London. CEO of The Formula Mind, Regents Racing’s executive-facing subsidiary exploring Formula 1 as a lens for leadership and peak performance. TEDx speaker at TEDxLuxembourgCity, 2019, delivered at the Luxembourg Philharmonie. Producer and host of Mission Makers, a podcast launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Lecturer at Regent’s University London and Point Blank Music School. Performing artist as NINJA, with sets at Pacha Ibiza, Buddha Bar, Goodwood Festival of Speed, the United Nations in London and the World Economic Forum. Biography Formula 1 teams treat composure as an engineered system. Sleep, nutrition, debrief routines and pre-race protocols are sequenced so that the driver can make sound decisions when the cost of a wrong one is highest. Regents Racing was built to translate that discipline into a leadership setting, taking senior executives and members through experiences that pressure-test how they prepare, recover and decide. The organisation began in 2011 at Regent’s University London as a community of competitive drivers and has grown into a private network with programming around Formula 1 weekends in Monaco, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi, the Goodwood Festival of Speed and factory tours. Its executive-facing subsidiary, The Formula Mind, sits closer to senior leadership development. A second strand of the work comes from a personal record. Diagnosed with dyspraxia at 15, Nanji built a parallel career as the touring artist NINJA, with sets at Pacha Ibiza, Buddha Bar, the United Nations in London and the World Economic Forum. Her TEDx talk at the Luxembourg Philharmonie in 2019 set out how she rewired cognitive function around the condition, and that account is now a core part of her keynote work on neurodivergence and resilience. The third strand is Mission Makers, the podcast she launched during the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2020. The show has interviewed leaders across music, motorsport and business, and it doubles as her research engine: the conversations feed the frameworks she brings into the room when she speaks. Key speaking topics Leadership and decision-making under pressure Formula 1 psychology and peak performance Resilience and self-leadership Neurodivergence and dyspraxia at work High-performance teams Entrepreneurship and founding a community-based business Music, creativity and performance discipline Ideal for Senior leadership offsites and executive development programmes focused on composure and decision-making under pressure Boards and ExCo audiences exploring high-performance culture DEI, talent and HR audiences working on neurodivergence and inclusive performance Conferences seeking a hybrid keynote and live performance from a single artist Audience outcomes A working vocabulary for what high-performance preparation, recovery and debrief actually look like in Formula 1, and where the parallels to executive work hold A first-person account of building cognitive routines around dyspraxia, with direct application for neurodivergent talent in the workforce A clearer sense of how leaders sustain composure when the margin for error is thin A founder’s perspective on building a private community business that crosses motorsport, music and leadership

Why organisations work with Francesca Martinez She fronted the WOW petition that crossed 100,000 signatures and forced a main-chamber debate in the House of Commons in 2014, which is a concrete democratic outcome rather than an inclusion talking point. Her debut play All Of Us opened at the National Theatre’s Dorfman in 2022 under Ian Rickson, putting disability and welfare politics in front of a mainstream theatre audience, with Francesca shortlisted for the George Devine Award. What the **** Is Normal?! (Virgin Books, Penguin Random House) gives the room a single shared reference point on identity and difference that holds up outside the corporate inclusion vocabulary. She speaks from inside the experience, not about it, which removes the discomfort senior audiences often feel when an external consultant lectures them on disability. She works the room as a stand-up first, which means the message lands in audiences that are sceptical of conventional DEI keynotes. Biography highlights First and only female winner of the Open Mic Award at the Edinburgh Festival (2000), and winner of the Edinburgh Fringe Media Network Award (2011). Author of What the **** Is Normal?! (Virgin Books, Penguin Random House, 2014); Bread and Roses Award runner-up and Chortle Best Comedy Book nominee. Wrote and starred in All of Us, National Theatre (Dorfman), 2022, directed by Ian Rickson; shortlisted for the George Devine Award. Her June 2019 Question Time appearance was called the show’s “best ever moment”, reaching 11 million views in its first week. The first disabled woman to perform on BBC Two’s Live at the Apollo, opening Series 11 in 2015; later featured in the BBC’s Access All Areas special. Fronted the WOW petition and secured a House of Commons main-chamber debate, February 2014. TEDxHousesOfParliament speaker (“Being Happy is a Political Act”) and performer at the World Economic Forum in Davos alongside Emma Thompson. Named to the BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour Power List (2014) and awarded two honorary doctorates for work on equality and inclusion. Biography Most inclusion programmes are written in a language that the people they are meant to help do not use. Francesca Martinez calls herself “wobbly”, refuses the medical vocabulary around cerebral palsy, and has spent twenty years showing what happens when someone with a disability narrates their own experience rather than being narrated about. The reframing sounds small. The downstream effect on a room of senior leaders is not. The credentials sit in unusual places for a speaker on this topic. She was the first and only woman to win the Open Mic Award at the Edinburgh Festival, in 2000, and went on to write What the **** Is Normal?!, published by Virgin Books, which was a runner-up for the Bread and Roses Award and a Chortle Best Comedy Book nominee. Her debut play All Of Us, directed by Ian Rickson, opened in the Dorfman at the National Theatre in 2022, and Francesca was shortlisted for the George Devine Award for it. The activism is the part most relevant to senior buyers thinking about substance over messaging. As the public face of the WOW (War on Welfare) campaign, she drove a petition past 100,000 signatures and forced a debate in the main chamber of the House of Commons in 2014, the first time disabled people had secured a main-chamber debate on an agenda of their own choosing. That is a measurable political result, not an inclusion narrative. For an organisation, the value of booking her is specific. Senior audiences hear a writer and performer with mainstream theatrical and broadcast credentials make an argument about identity and belonging that has already been tested in Parliament and at the National Theatre. The conversation that follows tends to be about whether the company’s own inclusion work would survive that kind of scrutiny. Key speaking topics Disability and inclusion at work Identity, difference and self-acceptance Resilience and lived experience Advocacy and the politics of welfare Storytelling as a tool for cultural change Mental health and wellbeing Ideal for CHROs, heads of DEI and ERG sponsors building inclusion programmes that engage sceptical audiences. Leadership offsites and culture events where the goal is to move beyond inclusion language into behaviour change. International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Mental Health Awareness Week and similar moments where credibility of the speaker matters more than topic coverage. Audience outcomes A sharper sense of how disabled and neurodivergent colleagues actually experience the workplace, narrated from the inside. A reference point (the book, the play, the WOW campaign) the audience can carry back into their own inclusion conversations. Permission to question the corporate vocabulary of inclusion without abandoning the work. A break from the standard motivational register; the room laughs first and then commits.

Her «neurosignature diversity» framework, developed in The Brain-Friendly Workplace, gives leadership teams a precise, science-based explanation for why talent attrition persists after conventional DEI investment – and a specific mechanism to address it. She names the «neurogap» – the structural drift toward dopamine- and testosterone-dominant personality profiles at the top of organisations – and provides a testable diagnostic for closing it, rather than a general aspiration toward inclusion. Her background spans neuroscience research at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research and management consulting at McKinsey and Company – a combination that gives her credibility in two domains that most neuroleadership speakers claim from only one. Audiences leave with four mapped neurosignatures linked to specific workplace behaviours, stress responses, and collaboration styles – a concrete tool, not a mindset shift. Her frameworks are published and peer-accessible: a Harvard Business Review article and a Wall Street Journal bestselling book reduce the internal scepticism that evidence-oriented leadership teams typically bring to behavioural science. Biography highlights Neuroscientist trained at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research; alumna of McKinsey and Company Lead author of The Leading Brain: Neuroscience Hacks to Work Smarter, Better, Happier (Random House) – named a Best Management Book by strategy+business Author of The Brain-Friendly Workplace: Why Talented People Quit and How to Get Them to Stay – Wall Street Journal bestseller Harvard Business Review contributor; work featured in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Newsweek, and CNBC Member of the socio-political council of acatech, The German Academy for Technology, advising the German government on technology, digitalisation, and AI Advisory board member, NeuroColor; LinkedIn Top Voice Biography At the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Friederike Fabritius studied what actually happens inside the brain under pressure. At McKinsey and Company, she saw what organisations actually do – and how rarely those two things match. The gap between them is the problem her work is built to close. Her central argument, developed across two books and field-tested with organisations including EY, BCG, and Google, is specific: most leadership teams over-represent dopamine- and testosterone-dominant personality types, selecting for stress tolerance in ways that systematically exclude other cognitive profiles. She calls this the neurogap. It explains why talented people leave not because of poor managers but because of poorly calibrated environments – and why retention problems persist despite sustained DEI investment. In The Brain-Friendly Workplace – a Wall Street Journal bestseller – Fabritius maps four neurosignatures tied to distinct workplace behaviours, stress responses, and communication preferences. The framework gives HR and leadership teams a diagnostic built on brain chemistry rather than demographic proxies. Her Harvard Business Review article on neurosignature diversity brought the argument to a practitioner audience; her earlier book, The Leading Brain (named a Best Management Book by strategy+business), established the scientific credibility underpinning it. She serves on the socio-political council of acatech, The German Academy for Technology, which advises the German government on digitalisation and AI – a role that reflects the applied, policy-facing dimension of her science. For boards and senior teams wrestling with sustained performance, retention, and culture, she offers something distinctive: a testable causal model, not a call for behavioural change without a structural explanation. Key speaking topics Neurosignature diversity and talent retention Brain-based leadership and decision-making Peak performance and the neuroscience of flow Cognitive diversity and inclusion Neuroscience of change, uncertainty, and resilience Trust, collaboration, and the social brain Learning, neuroplasticity, and habit formation at work Ideal for CHROs and people leaders responsible for talent strategy and retention outcomes Senior leadership and executive teams seeking evidence-based frameworks for culture design Learning and development leaders building performance or cognitive diversity programmes Boards and transformation leads navigating hybrid work, workforce change, and sustained engagement Audience outcomes A named framework – neurosignature diversity – for diagnosing why current culture drives attrition, with specific, actionable steps to address the neurogap Practical understanding of how brain chemistry shapes performance, stress tolerance, collaboration style, and communication preference across a team Clearer grasp of how to design environments that support cognitive diversity beyond demographic targets Concrete approaches to managing hybrid and distributed teams in line with how different brain types actually work best under pressure Evidence-based perspective on why DEI initiatives stall at the neurological layer – and how to move past aspiration to structural change

Why organisations work with George King A first-hand account of decision-making at lethal stakes, not borrowed from sport or special forces analogy. King climbed The Shard at 19 without ropes; the consequence of error was death, not a missed target. A specific reframe of ADHD that audiences with neurodivergent colleagues or family members find usable. The argument is that hyperfocus and risk tolerance are trainable assets, not deficits the workplace must tolerate. Public credibility through the Channel 4 documentary “The Boy Who Climbed The Shard” and presenting work for the channel’s extreme sports output, which gives the booking immediate recognition with general audiences. A profile that travels well to younger and external-facing audiences: 1.6 million YouTube views on the documentary, an active public following, and a story that lands in the room before he speaks. Biography highlights First person to free-solo climb The Shard, July 2019, age 19. Subject of the 2020 Channel 4 documentary “The Boy Who Climbed The Shard”. Channel 4 presenter on extreme sports specials. Free-solo ascents of Lotte Tower, Seoul, and Stratosphere Tower, with BASE-jump descents. Featured in Time magazine, the Architects’ Journal, and Times Live. Speaks publicly about ADHD and fear management on platforms including the Minter Dial podcast. Biography In July 2019 a 19 year old climbed The Shard with no ropes, no safety equipment, and no permission. The ascent took 45 minutes. The legal aftermath took longer, ending in a custodial sentence at HMP Pentonville. George King was the climber, and the story is the foundation of every keynote he gives. What makes the talk useful to corporate audiences is not the climb itself but the preparation behind it. King describes fear as a system that can be trained, with named techniques he applies before each ascent: visualisation, breath control, and the specific mental routines that hold composure when the consequence of a mistake is fatal. The frame is recognisable to anyone who has briefed a board on a high-stakes decision, but the stakes are concrete rather than figurative. He also speaks openly about ADHD, which he treats as the cognitive asset that makes the climbs possible. His position is direct: hyperfocus, risk tolerance and pattern attention are not deficits requiring medication, they are trainable capabilities that produce performance when properly channelled. That argument has earned him a following among neurodivergent audiences and the parents and managers around them. King has presented two extreme sports specials for Channel 4 and was the subject of the channel’s 2020 documentary “The Boy Who Climbed The Shard”, which has passed 1.6 million views on YouTube. His climbs since The Shard include Lotte Tower in Seoul and the Stratosphere Tower, both with BASE-jump descents, and both covered in international press. Key speaking topics Fear management under high-consequence conditions ADHD and neurodiversity as performance Mental preparation and visualisation Risk assessment in extreme environments Resilience after public failure Peak performance Ideal for Internal employee events on neurodiversity and inclusion, particularly where the audience includes line managers of neurodivergent staff Sales kick-offs and motivational set-pieces where the brief is composure under pressure Youth-facing, education and apprentice audiences where reach and recognition matter as much as content Wellbeing and mental performance programmes looking for a non-clinical voice Audience outcomes A named set of techniques for managing fear before a high-stakes event, drawn directly from the climber’s own pre-ascent routine A reframe of ADHD that audiences can take back to neurodivergent colleagues, children or themselves A first-hand account of decision-making where the cost of error is final, useful as a reference point for less extreme corporate risk conversations A memorable headline story that gives the wider event a centrepiece audiences will retell

Why organisations work with Helen Lawal Clinical credibility that few wellbeing speakers match: 15 years as an NHS GP, MRCGP, and a postgraduate qualification in nutrition, so the science in the room is hers, not borrowed. A rare specialism in ADHD and AuDHD in women, shaped by a private practice focused on nutrition and sustainable behaviour change for this group. Named ambassador for ADHD UK and trainer on the National Autism Training Programme, so the neurodiversity content is informed by advocacy and training work, not a topic pick-up. Television presenting experience on Channel 4’s Food Unwrapped and How to Lose Weight Well, which translates into a speaker who can hold a large room and explain science without losing it. Lived experience as a late-diagnosed AuDHD woman, which grounds the work in something buyers trust more than a deck. Biography highlights NHS GP with 15 years of clinical experience, MRCGP, MBBS (Hull York Medical School), BSc Sport and Exercise Science (University of Leeds), DFSRH, MNutr. Celebrity Ambassador for ADHD UK (charity number 1188365). Trainer on the National Autism Training Programme. Presenter on Channel 4’s Food Unwrapped; co-presenter of How to Lose Weight Well with Dr Javid Abdelmoneim. Runs a private practice supporting ADHD and AuDHD women with nutrition, eating habits, and sustainable health behaviour change. Media contributor across BBC, ITV’s This Morning, Steph’s Packed Lunch, and BBC Radio Leeds on women’s health, nutrition, and neurodiversity. Biography Most corporate wellbeing content still assumes a neurotypical employee. For the quarter of any workforce that is neurodivergent, and especially for the women diagnosed in their thirties and forties after years of being told they were simply disorganised, the standard advice lands badly. That gap is where Dr Helen Lawal’s work sits. She came to it through clinical practice. Fifteen years as an NHS GP, MRCGP-qualified, with a medical degree from Hull York Medical School and a first degree in sport and exercise science from Leeds, gave her the grounding. A postgraduate qualification in nutrition and a specialism in ADHD turned it into a defined practice area. She now runs a private service for ADHD and AuDHD women focused on eating, energy, and sustainable behaviour change, the areas where standard GP time runs out. The public-facing side has been built in parallel. She presents Channel 4’s Food Unwrapped and co-presents How to Lose Weight Well, work that has trained her to explain food science and weight management to a mainstream audience without losing the evidence base. She is a Celebrity Ambassador for ADHD UK and a trainer on the National Autism Training Programme, which keeps the neurodiversity content anchored in advocacy and training, not marketing. For an organisation, the value is a speaker who can talk credibly to HR, DEI, and wellbeing leads about what actually helps neurodivergent employees, particularly women, and who can do it in a register that works for an all-staff audience as well as a clinical one. Key speaking topics ADHD and AuDHD in women Neurodiversity in the workplace Nutrition and eating behaviour Women’s health and hormones Sustainable weight management Neuroaffirming health and wellbeing Health communication and behaviour change Ideal for HR, DEI, and wellbeing leads designing neuro-inclusive programmes Employee networks and ERGs focused on women’s health, neurodiversity, or both Healthcare, pharma, and insurance organisations briefing clinicians and communicators Conferences and internal events that need a clinician who can present to a non-clinical audience Audience outcomes A clearer picture of how ADHD and AuDHD present in women, and why late diagnosis is common Specific, evidence-based guidance on nutrition and eating behaviour for neurodivergent adults Language and framing for neuroaffirming conversations at work A realistic view of what sustainable behaviour change looks like, separate from diet-industry claims Practical signals managers and HR can use to support neurodivergent colleagues