Cultura Organizacional speakers

Why organisations work with Kevin Ahmaad Jenkins He grounds inclusion work in peer-reviewed research on bias and clinical outcomes, not in opinion or training-industry frameworks, which gives senior teams a defensible footing when DEI is contested. The RETINA Framework, his own intervention model, gives healthcare and high-regulation organisations a structured way to address how bias affects decisions, processes and outcomes. His Penn lectureship in Medical Ethics and Health Policy means he can hold a room of clinicians, executives and policy leaders with equal credibility. He has worked across more than 35 hospital associations and health systems, so the material is tested against operational reality, not just conference audiences. His delivery is calibrated for high-stakes rooms where the topic is uncomfortable, which is where most inclusion conversations now sit. Biography highlights Lecturer, Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. Developed the Racism-Focused Trauma Informed Care (RETINA) Framework, used in patient-provider settings. Fellow, Veterans Health Administration Office of Minority Health. Member, National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Roundtable on Health Equity. National Minority Quality Forum 40 Under 40 Leader in Health, 2017. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation New Connections Award recipient. Biography Most inclusion content in circulation is built on values and training language, not on evidence about how bias actually shapes outcomes. That is the gap Jenkins’s work occupies. As a lecturer in Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, he studies how racism functions inside clinical processes, from algorithmic decisions to the quality of patient-provider interactions, and translates the findings into something organisations can act on. The RETINA Framework, which he developed, is a patient-provider intervention that treats racism as a measurable variable in care delivery rather than a cultural sentiment. It has informed equity work across more than 35 hospital associations and health systems. His standing as a Fellow within the Veterans Health Administration’s Office of Minority Health and as a member of the National Academies’ Roundtable on Health Equity puts him inside the institutions that set the national agenda on this question. For non-healthcare audiences, the value is the operating model. Jenkins treats inclusion the way a clinician treats a diagnostic problem: define the mechanism, measure the effect, intervene with something specific. That posture is recognisable to executives in banking, insurance and consumer-facing organisations that need an inclusion conversation grounded in evidence rather than in slogans. The National Minority Quality Forum named him a 40 Under 40 Leader in Health in 2017; the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation backed his early research through its New Connections Award. What organisations get when they put him in front of a senior audience is a researcher who can hold the room on a topic most speakers reduce to platitudes. He is fluent in the politics of the current moment, but his authority is not political. It is built on what the data actually shows about how organisations include or exclude their people and customers. Key speaking topics Inclusion as an operating discipline Bias in decision-making and clinical processes Health equity and the business of healthcare Inclusive management practice Culture change in high-regulation organisations Difficult conversations in the workplace Algorithmic bias and equity in service design Ideal for CHROs and Chief Diversity Officers rebuilding inclusion strategy after political backlash. Healthcare boards, hospital association leadership, and clinical executives addressing equity in care delivery. Banking, insurance and consumer-services leadership teams needing an evidence-based inclusion conversation. Senior-team offsites and leadership development programmes where the brief is to raise the standard of internal dialogue on race and bias. Audience outcomes A working definition of inclusion that can be operationalised inside an existing management system. A view of where bias sits inside specific organisational processes, not as an abstract cultural risk. Language and structure for conducting hard conversations on race without producing defensive responses. A clearer line between equity work that is defensible to a board and work that is performative. For healthcare audiences, exposure to the RETINA Framework and its application to patient-provider interactions.

Why organisations work with Makaziwe Mandela She holds a PhD in anthropology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst alongside two decades of South African corporate experience, which lets her speak to inclusion as an organisational practice, not a slogan. As co-founder and Chairperson of House of Mandela, she has run a company through the actual mechanics of building a brand, hiring, partnership disputes and international expansion, so the leadership content is grounded in operating reality. She offers boards a defensible language for values-led decisions at a moment when DEI commitments are being challenged in public, drawing on a family history that gives her standing to say things others cannot. She has held senior roles at Spoornet, the Development Bank of Southern Africa and Nestle South Africa, which means she can address inclusion from inside the constraints of a real P&L rather than from a consultancy frame. Her 2023 Rizzoli book Mandela: In Honor of an Extraordinary Life gives her a current platform that pulls executive audiences into a conversation about leadership character, not just legacy. Biography highlights PhD in Anthropology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 1993, with prior degrees from the University of Fort Hare and the University of Natal. Chairperson and co-founder of House of Mandela, launched in 2010 with her daughter Tukwini Mandela. Author of Mandela: In Honor of an Extraordinary Life, Rizzoli, 2023, with a foreword by Reverend Al Sharpton. Former Executive Manager of Corporate Services at the Development Bank of Southern Africa and former General Manager of Human Resources at Spoornet. Board service has included Nestle South Africa, Rand Water Services and the Nelson Mandela Foundation. Director of the House of Mandela Family Foundation, established 2017. Recipient of the La Moda Veste la Pace Award, presented in Rome in 2022 for sustained public commitment to her father’s principles of liberty, respect and the fight against discrimination. Biography Inclusion programmes are being cut, defended, rebranded and quietly abandoned across global businesses. The leaders making those calls need someone who can talk about service and inclusion without flinching from the commercial reality, and without flattening the argument into either compliance language or family memoir. Makaziwe Mandela trained as an anthropologist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she completed her doctorate in 1993, after earlier degrees from the University of Fort Hare and the University of Natal. That training shapes how she works with executive audiences. She treats organisations as cultures with their own incentives, hierarchies and stories, and she pushes leaders to ask what their decisions actually signal to the people inside them. The corporate record sits behind the academic one. She has held senior posts at Spoornet, the Development Bank of Southern Africa and Nestle South Africa, and has served on boards including Rand Water Services and the Nelson Mandela Foundation. In 2010 she co-founded House of Mandela with her daughter Tukwini, building a wine label and broader heritage business that now operates internationally. The 2017 House of Mandela Family Foundation extends that work into education and economic empowerment. Her 2023 Rizzoli book, Mandela: In Honor of an Extraordinary Life, places her current platform on her own terms. The book draws on family letters, photographs and her father’s later artwork, and it forms the backdrop for the leadership conversation she now takes into boardrooms: what humility looks like as an operating habit, why service is a strategic question, and how senior leaders defend inclusive choices when the political weather turns against them. Key speaking topics Servant and values-based leadership Inclusion as an organisational discipline Female economic empowerment in emerging markets Building a family business with a public legacy Social justice and reconciliation in business Africa’s role in the global economy Allyship and difference at work Ideal for Boards and executive committees reframing DEI commitments under public and investor pressure CHROs and culture leads designing inclusion work that has to survive a budget cycle Leadership development programmes for senior cohorts in multinational organisations Conferences and offsites focused on values-led leadership, purpose and reconciliation Audience outcomes A clearer language for defending inclusive decisions to investors, employees and external critics. A working definition of servant leadership that ties to specific operating choices, not abstract values. A grounded view of how African businesses build durable brands across generations. Concrete reflections on humility, character and consistency as senior leadership habits. A renewed appetite for the human side of strategy, anchored in named examples from her own corporate and entrepreneurial career.

Why organisations work with Onyeka Nubia Brings primary-source historical research to a conversation that has become dominated by opinion and ideology, giving inclusion content intellectual credibility rather than activist framing. Has spent a decade rewriting how British history teaches diversity, with seminars in roughly half of UK universities that teach history, so the methodology travels into corporate contexts with academic weight. Author of Blackamoores and England’s Other Countrymen, the two reference works most cited in debates on Black presence in pre-modern Britain. Reframes a contested topic on factual ground. Equally comfortable at the Houses of Parliament, the National Portrait Gallery and on BBC and Channel 4 history programming, which means the register adjusts to the room without losing substance. Useful precisely because he does not sound like a DEI consultant. The frame is historical, cultural and intellectual, which is the register many boards now prefer. Biography highlights Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Nottingham Fellow of the Royal Historical Society Advance HE National Teaching Fellow, recognised for embedding diversity in university history curricula Author of Blackamoores: Africans in Tudor England (2013) and England’s Other Countrymen: Black Tudor Society (2019) PhD by publication, University of East Anglia Keynote presenter at the Houses of Parliament, the National Portrait Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery of Scotland Television contributor for BBC’s Digging for Britain and History Cold Case, Channel 5’s Walking Victorian Britain, and Channel 4’s London’s Lost Graveyard and The Queens Who Changed the World Over fifty articles in History Today, BBC History Magazine, European History Quarterly and the Times Literary Supplement Biography For most of the last decade, the inclusion conversation inside large organisations has been carried by HR language and political framing. That register is now strained. Boards want substance, not slogans, and the people leading inclusion work need a deeper well to draw from. Onyeka Nubia offers that well. As Assistant Professor of History at the University of Nottingham and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, his research has rewritten what is known about Black presence in pre-modern Britain. Blackamoores and England’s Other Countrymen are now standard references on Tudor diversity, drawn from parish registers, court records and primary archives rather than secondary commentary. The Advance HE National Teaching Fellowship recognises a parallel achievement: a body of curriculum work, delivered in roughly half of the UK universities that teach history, that has changed how the subject is taught. The methodology, evidence first, identity later, is exactly what corporate audiences are reaching for as the DEI conversation moves out of advocacy and into substance. His broadcasting work, from Digging for Britain to The Queens Who Changed the World, sharpens the public-facing register. The audience he is most useful to is a senior leadership team that wants to keep talking about inclusion seriously, without the language that has stopped working. Key speaking topics Black British history and the Tudor period Cultural intelligence and national identity Diversity, equity and inclusion grounded in historical evidence Decolonising knowledge and curriculum Race, otherness and the British imagination Renaissance and pre-modern multiculturalism Storytelling and historical method Ideal for CHROs and heads of inclusion looking to reset the intellectual frame for their DEI work Boards and executive teams under pressure on the politics of inclusion who want substance over signalling Cultural and educational institutions reviewing how they curate history, identity and audience Leadership development programmes that want a serious treatment of cultural intelligence Audience outcomes A historically grounded language for diversity and identity that holds up to scrutiny A clearer view of how British national identity has been constructed, and what that means for inclusion now Confidence to lead inclusion conversations on evidence rather than ideology Exposure to the primary sources that reshape commonly held assumptions about race in British history A sharper sense of how curriculum and culture change actually happens inside institutions

Why organisations work with Susan Hetrick A working operating model for toxic culture, not a moral framing of it. Her four-stage progression gives a board language to discuss what stage they are in, before deciding what to do. The RESPECT framework as a remediation sequence, used inside her book and consultancy at zuhra. It anchors the conversation in specific leadership behaviours rather than values posters. Practitioner credibility from senior HR roles at the World Bank Group, RBS, HSBC, Aegon and Deloitte, paired with a doctorate from City University Business School. She has run the function she is now critiquing. A published, peer-reviewed thesis (Routledge, 2023; 2024 Business Book Awards finalist) that gives the room a single, citable reference point rather than a deck of opinions. Biography highlights Author, Toxic Organizational Cultures and Leadership: How to Build and Sustain a Healthy Workplace (Routledge, 2023). 2024 Business Book Awards finalist. Co-author with Professor Graeme Martin, Corporate Reputations, Branding and People Management: A Strategic Approach to HR. Doctorate in Organisational Psychology, City University Business School. Senior HR leadership roles inside the World Bank Group, RBS Group, HSBC, Aegon, Arab Banking Corporation and Deloitte. Academic appointments at the Universities of Aberdeen, Glasgow and London, Birkbeck College and Helsinki School of Economics. Founder of zuhra consulting; Chair of the Board, Dundee Rep and Scottish Dance Theatre. Keynote, CIPD Annual Conference 2023, to an audience of 600+ HR professionals. Biography Most organisations describe culture as something they have, not something they do. That language is what allows toxic patterns to harden inside otherwise functional companies, often for years before the board treats them as a strategic risk. Susan Hetrick’s work is built around closing that gap. Her book Toxic Organizational Cultures and Leadership (Routledge, 2023) sets out a four-stage account of how cultures degrade and a remediation sequence she calls the RESPECT framework. The book reached the 2024 Business Book Awards shortlist and is now used by HR leaders looking for a structured way to brief their executive committees. She brings 35 years of senior HR practice to the argument, including roles inside the World Bank Group, RBS, HSBC, Aegon, Arab Banking Corporation and Deloitte. Her doctorate in Organisational Psychology is from City University Business School, with academic appointments at Aberdeen, Glasgow, London, Birkbeck and Helsinki School of Economics. Today she runs zuhra consulting, a specialist culture practice, and chairs the boards of Dundee Rep and Scottish Dance Theatre. The combination matters because it gives senior teams a counterpart who has sat in their seat, written the academic case, and is now operating the remedy with paying clients. Key speaking topics Toxic organisational cultures Healthy workplace culture design Leadership behaviour and culture risk Corporate reputation and HR strategy Culture transformation in regulated industries Board oversight of people risk Organisational psychology in practice Ideal for CHROs and senior HR leaders facing engagement, attrition or conduct concerns Boards and audit/risk committees treating culture as a governance risk Executive teams entering or recovering from restructure, acquisition or scandal Regulated sector leadership groups (financial services, professional services, public bodies) Audience outcomes A four-stage diagnostic that lets a leadership team locate where their culture currently sits The RESPECT sequence as a practical guide to leadership behaviours that repair, rather than mask, cultural damage A clearer board-level language for naming culture risk before it becomes legal or reputational exposure A reading of how HR, legal and executive functions need to operate together to prevent toxicity recurring

Why organisations work with Thom Mayer He has commanded medical operations during three of the defining crises of the modern era: the Pentagon on 9/11, the 2001 US Capitol anthrax attacks, and the early months of the war in Ukraine. The lessons are not theoretical. As NFLPA Medical Director, he authored the concussion protocols now used across professional football, demonstrating how to rebuild a safety system inside an institution that did not want it rebuilt. His book “Leadership Is Worthless…But Leading Is Priceless” is built on eleven principles drawn directly from those crises, including the distinction between holding the title and doing the work. He won the 2018 James D. Mills Award, ACEP’s highest honour, and has been recognised three times with the College’s “Over-the-Top” award. The clinical community considers him a peer, not a celebrity. He runs a working executive role at LogixHealth alongside his speaking calendar, which keeps the case studies current rather than retrospective. Biography highlights Medical Director, NFL Players Association, appointed by Gene Upshaw in 2002 Command Physician, Pentagon Rescue Operation, 11 September 2001 Founder, BestPractices, Inc.; Executive Vice President of Leadership, LogixHealth Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine, George Washington University; Senior Lecturing Fellow, Duke University School of Medicine Author, “Leadership Is Worthless…But Leading Is Priceless” (Berrett-Koehler, 2023); co-author of “Battling Healthcare Burnout” and “Hardwiring Flow” 2018 James D. Mills Outstanding Contribution to Emergency Medicine Award (ACEP’s highest honour); USA Today “100 Most Important People in the NFL”; Pro Football Hall of Fame nominee for sports medicine safety reform Biography The Pentagon was struck at 09:37 on 11 September 2001. By the time the rescue operation was running, Mayer was the command physician on site, coordinating medical assets across federal, military, and civilian teams that had never trained together. Three weeks later, with anthrax-laced letters circulating through the US Capitol, his BestPractices physicians at Inova Fairfax became the first in the country to successfully diagnose and treat inhalational anthrax. The pattern holds across his career. Gene Upshaw appointed him Medical Director of the NFL Players Association on the day Korey Stringer died of heat stroke in 2002, asking him to build a safety function the league did not yet have. Mayer wrote the original NFL Concussion Guidelines, which reshaped diagnosis and management of head injuries in professional football and, through that, across global contact sport. USA Today later named him among the 100 most important people in the NFL. His clinical and academic standing sits behind all of it. He holds the 2018 James D. Mills Award, ACEP’s highest honour for contribution to emergency medicine, alongside Clinical Professor and Senior Lecturing Fellow appointments at George Washington University and Duke University School of Medicine. He has served on Department of Defense Science Board Task Forces covering bioterrorism, homeland security, and weapons of mass destruction. His 2023 book “Leadership Is Worthless…But Leading Is Priceless” frames the argument that runs through the speaking work: eleven principles drawn from the Pentagon, the NFL, the anthrax crisis, and a mobile emergency mission into Ukraine in 2022. The thesis is that titles and frameworks do not survive contact with a real crisis, but a small set of disciplines does. Boards and executive teams hire him because the source material is not borrowed. Key speaking topics Crisis leadership and command decision-making Servant leadership in high-stakes environments Burnout and resilience for clinical and corporate teams Building safety culture inside resistant institutions Operational flow and frontline performance Innovation and trust under pressure Ideal for CEOs, COOs, and executive committees preparing for crisis response, business continuity, or major change Healthcare leadership: CMOs, CNOs, hospital executives, clinical directors Boards reviewing safety, risk, or duty-of-care frameworks Senior leadership development programmes that need a credible voice on decision-making under pressure Audience outcomes A set of leadership principles tested in conditions most executives will never face, made transferable to commercial settings A clearer model of the difference between holding a leadership role and performing the work of leading Specific decision-making heuristics for moments when information is incomplete and the cost of waiting is high A practical view of how safety culture is rebuilt inside organisations that resist the work

Why organisations work with Dumi Senda He runs inclusion inside a 3,000-person operation at BBC England, so his method has been tested against the same scale and politics the audience is wrestling with, not built in a classroom. His LinkedIn Learning course “Make Belonging Real in the Workplace” gives organisations a shared curriculum to anchor manager conversations after the keynote, which most DEI speakers cannot offer. As President of the Oxford Black Alumni Network and ICF-accredited coach, he brings institutional credibility with senior audiences alongside coaching craft that works one-to-one with leaders. His lived arc from a decade of UK factory work to an Oxford MSc is the proof point that disarms the most sceptical rooms, including leadership teams that have sat through several DEI sessions already. He has delivered programmes inside the BBC, the UN, the House of Commons, the Bank of England, Google and Goldman Sachs, so references translate across public sector, finance and technology briefs. Biography highlights Diversity and Inclusion Portfolio Lead, BBC England (six regions, 3,000+ staff). Oxford University MSc graduate; sitting President of the Oxford Black Alumni Network (OxBAN). LinkedIn Learning instructor, “Make Belonging Real in the Workplace”; 2024 LinkedIn Top Voice, Teambuilding. International Coaching Federation (ICF) accredited coach. Founder of Titese, an EDI consultancy working with clients including the UN, House of Commons, Bank of England, Google and Goldman Sachs. Featured in “Everyday Ubuntu” (Mungi Ngomane, Penguin), foreworded by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Biography The gap in most inclusion programmes is not ambition, it is operational credibility. Statements of intent are easy to write. Changing how three thousand managers actually speak to each other on a Tuesday morning is harder, and that is the work Senda does every day inside BBC England, where he leads the Diversity and Inclusion portfolio across six regions. That operational grounding is the reason his keynotes do not sound like generic DEI content. He is running the same programme internally that he is recommending to the audience, with the same budget pressures and the same sceptical middle managers. His LinkedIn Learning course, “Make Belonging Real in the Workplace”, distils that method into a curriculum organisations can deploy after he has left the stage. The personal story is well known and deliberately useful. Ten years as a labourer in the UK, a Master’s from Oxford, and now President of the Oxford Black Alumni Network. Senda uses it not as inspiration, but as evidence: inclusion is decided by the everyday behaviour of people already inside the room, and that behaviour can change. Clients include BBC, the UN, House of Commons, Bank of England, Google and Goldman Sachs. What they book him for is rarely a talk on diversity as a topic. They book him to shift the conversation from what the organisation says about inclusion to what its managers actually do on Monday. Key speaking topics Inclusive leadership and manager behaviour Belonging at work Bias and everyday conduct Culture change inside large organisations Authenticity and bringing your whole self to work Career development and professional identity Transformational change and taking the organisation with you Ideal for CHROs and heads of DEI designing the next phase of an inclusion programme that has stalled at policy level. Executive and senior leadership teams ahead of a culture change, restructure or “digital first” transformation. People managers across regionally dispersed organisations who carry the practical load of inclusion. Employee resource group leads and internal DEI networks looking for an external voice with operational authority. Audience outcomes A sharper read of where their own inclusion programme is losing traction between executive intent and manager behaviour. Specific language for describing belonging, bias and conduct that holds up in difficult day-to-day conversations. A framework for connecting personal values to professional contribution that coaches and managers can reuse. Practical prompts from Senda’s LinkedIn Learning curriculum that can be taken back into team sessions. Renewed confidence among sceptical managers that this work is a leadership skill, not a compliance task.

Why organisations work with Duncan Wardle His Theory of Creativity™ is a named, commercially tested framework – not a philosophy but a practical toolkit developed and stress-tested across Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and Disney Parks before being applied with post-Disney clients including Apple, the NBA, Coca-Cola, and NBCUniversal. He treats creativity as a repeatable operational habit rather than a talent or a culture programme – giving leadership teams a concrete, tool-based answer to the question of how to make innovation everyone’s job, not a department’s. Specific tools within the framework – the “What If” method and the “Rivers of Thinking” model – address the cognitive and structural barriers that prevent established organisations from generating genuinely new ideas. These are actionable instruments audiences can use immediately, not post-event reading lists. He is one of the few speakers in this space who built an innovation function from the inside of a major global brand, rather than studying one from outside – a distinction that matters to senior audiences who have heard the Disney case study told at second hand. Author of The Imagination Emporium: Creative Recipes for Innovation (2024), a practitioner resource designed to be used independently by organisations after an engagement, extending the shelf life of the session beyond the room. Biography highlights VP of Innovation and Creativity at The Walt Disney Company; previous VP roles include VP Global Public Relations and VP International Marketing and Sales, with postings across London, Paris, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Mumbai, and Shanghai Founded Disney’s Creative Catalyst Team, responsible for embedding innovation across Imagineering, Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and Disney Parks Founder and CEO of iD8 & innov8, a design thinking consultancy; clients include Apple, Coca-Cola, NBA, PepsiCo, IBM, NBCUniversal, and Spotify Author of The Imagination Emporium: Creative Recipes for Innovation (Benbella Books, 2024) Contributor to Harvard Business Review, Forbes, and Fast Company; member of the Fast Company Executive Board Multiple TEDx speaker, including “The Theory of Creativity” (TEDxAUK) and “Creating Relationship Magic” (TEDxBocaRaton) Honorary Doctorate in Business Administration, Edinburgh Napier University (2014); White House American Citizen Award (2008); Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award; 2022 Nordic Business Forum Speaker Contest Winner Teaches Innovation Masterclasses at Yale and Harvard Biography Duncan Wardle joined The Walt Disney Company as an intern in the London office in 1987. Over the following 30 years he progressed through VP roles in global public relations, international marketing and sales, and ultimately VP of Innovation and Creativity – the function he built from scratch, founding Disney’s Creative Catalyst Team and deploying it across Imagineering, Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and Disney Parks. His central argument is that creativity is not a talent distributed unevenly across the workforce. It is a capability that corporate structures systematically suppress – and one that can be restored with the right tools. The framework he developed inside Disney, the Theory of Creativity™, includes specific instruments: the “What If” method, used by Walt Disney himself to pivot the company from an animation studio to an entertainment and theme park pioneer, and the “Rivers of Thinking” model, which identifies the expertise-driven habits that stop large organisations from generating genuinely new ideas. Since founding iD8 & innov8, Wardle has applied these methods with clients including Apple, Coca-Cola, the NBA, PepsiCo, and NBCUniversal – demonstrating that a toolkit built for an entertainment brand translates across sectors where creative problem-solving is structurally harder. His 2024 book, The Imagination Emporium: Creative Recipes for Innovation, packages the methodology as a practical resource organisations can use independently. He also contributes to Harvard Business Review, Forbes, and Fast Company, and teaches Innovation Masterclasses at Yale and Harvard. His formal recognition includes a White House American Citizen Award (2008), an Honorary Doctorate in Business Administration from Edinburgh Napier University (2014), a Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award, and the 2022 Nordic Business Forum Speaker Contest. He is a multiple TEDx speaker, with talks including “The Theory of Creativity” and “Creating Relationship Magic.” Key speaking topics Innovation strategy and the Theory of Creativity™ Design thinking and creative problem-solving Organisational barriers to creative thinking Customer experience innovation Human creativity and competitive advantage in the age of AI Building innovation culture at scale Creative leadership and entrepreneurial thinking Ideal for C-suite and senior leadership teams responsible for growth and competitive strategy Chief Innovation Officers, Chief Strategy Officers, and transformation leads Large organisations seeking to embed innovation beyond a dedicated function Conference audiences in technology, consumer, media, and professional services sectors Audience outcomes A named set of practical innovation tools – including the “What If” method and the “Rivers of Thinking” model – that teams can apply immediately A framework for identifying and removing the cognitive and structural barriers that block creative thinking in established organisations Clarity on how to separate the creative process from the operational process, and why the two must be managed differently An understanding of why human creativity is not threatened by AI – and how to build it as a source of commercial competitive advantage Concrete methods for making innovation a daily habit rather than a quarterly initiative

Why organisations work with Dunja Hayali A working anchor on ZDF’s flagship heute-journal and main presenter of ZDF-Morgenmagazin, which means boards and conference organisers are hiring the same journalistic judgement that reaches millions of German viewers every morning. Trained to interview politicians, CEOs and activists on live television without losing the thread, an asset when a panel includes genuinely opposing positions or a keynote speaker the room wants pressed. Carries public recognition for civic engagement, including the Bundesverdienstkreuz and the Goldene Kamera Integration award, which signals to international audiences that the chair on stage has standing beyond the broadcast booth. Works fluently in German and English, useful for DAX-30, EU-level and cross-border corporate forums that need a single moderator across languages. Author of “Haymatland” (Ullstein, 2018), a published argument on belonging, migration and social cohesion that she can draw on directly when a brief calls for substantive contribution as well as stage craft. Biography highlights Main presenter, ZDF-Morgenmagazin (since 2010); joined the heute-journal presenting team in 2023. Former host, “dunja hayali” talk show on ZDF (2017-2020), and co-presenter of das aktuelle sportstudio (2018-2023). Recipient of the Bundesverdienstkreuz (Federal Cross of Merit, 2018) for engagement against racism and online hate. Goldene Kamera 2016, Integration category. Author, “Haymatland: Wie wollen wir zusammenleben?” (Ullstein, 2018); co-author, “Ist’ was, Dog?” (Ullstein, 2014). UNICEF supporter and active with the initiative “Gesicht Zeigen! Fuer ein weltoffenes Deutschland”. Biography Live television is where reputations get made or broken in real time. For most of the last two decades, Dunja Hayali has been one of the German journalists entrusted with that responsibility, first on ZDF’s morning news strand and now also on the evening flagship heute-journal. That role is the anchor of her speaking work. When a corporate conference, political forum or industry gala books her, they are not buying a keynote lecture. They are buying the same interviewer who questions ministers before breakfast and the same composure that keeps a studio conversation on track when a guest tries to pull it elsewhere. Her publishing and civic work give that stage presence a specific edge. “Haymatland” (Ullstein, 2018) sets out her thinking on migration, belonging and social cohesion, drawing on her own Iraqi-German background. The Bundesverdienstkreuz followed in 2018 for her public stand against racism and online abuse, recognition anchored by her long association with Gesicht Zeigen! and UNICEF. The practical case for organisations is narrow and strong. When an event puts senior leaders, politicians or campaigners on the same panel and the room will not settle for bland, Hayali is one of the few moderators in the German market with the journalistic standing, bilingual reach and on-stage authority to run it cleanly. Key speaking topics Live event moderation and panel chairing Political and current affairs interviews Media, journalism and public discourse Social cohesion, integration and belonging Civic engagement and countering online hate Sport and public broadcasting Bilingual (German / English) corporate moderation Ideal for Corporate and industry conferences needing a senior moderator for keynotes, panels and plenaries with politicians, CEOs or regulators in the room. Award ceremonies, galas and anniversary events that require an anchor-grade host rather than an entertainer. CSR, DEI and civic-themed summits where the moderator’s own public record on integration and anti-racism adds credibility. Bilingual German / English forums in DAX-30, EU policy and cross-border corporate settings. Audience outcomes Conversations that stay on the agenda the organiser actually wanted, including the difficult questions. Senior speakers handled with the same level of preparation and follow-up they would expect from a flagship news interview. A neutral, credible chair presence that lets sensitive topics (migration, political polarisation, corporate controversy) be discussed without tipping into spectacle. Clear narrative threading across a multi-speaker programme, so that plenaries, panels and Q and A feel like one event rather than a sequence of slots.

Why organisations work with Eddie Jones Thirty years of head-coach experience at the top of international sport, tested against the sharpest public scrutiny three national rugby unions can apply. A working account, set out in his 2021 book “Leadership: Lessons From My Life in Rugby”, of how to raise standards, rebuild confidence, and hold a team accountable when results are not yet on the board. Authored the single most studied upset in modern rugby: Japan’s 34-32 win over South Africa at the 2015 World Cup, the “Brighton Miracle”, built over three years of culture and conditioning work. World Rugby Coach of the Year 2017, after leading England to a Grand Slam and a record run of consecutive Test wins. A rare speaker who has built and rebuilt teams in three different national cultures (Japanese, Australian, English) and can translate between them for executive audiences. Biography highlights Head coach of England 2015 to 2022: first non-British coach, two Six Nations titles, 2016 Grand Slam, 2019 Rugby World Cup final. World Rugby Coach of the Year, 2017. Head coach of Japan 2012 to 2015, re-appointed December 2023. Head coach of Australia 2001 to 2005, leading the Wallabies to the 2003 Rugby World Cup final. Head coach of the ACT Brumbies, Super Rugby champions 2001. Technical adviser to the Springboks’ 2007 Rugby World Cup-winning squad. Author of “Leadership: Lessons From My Life in Rugby” (Macmillan, 2021) and “My Life and Rugby: The Autobiography” (Macmillan, 2019). Biography Japan beat South Africa 34-32 in Brighton in September 2015. The squad had been together three years, trained to a schedule their opponents would not recognise, and made the late call to turn down a draw for a winning try. The head coach was Eddie Jones. That match is the cleanest single case study in his career, but not the only one. Jones has held senior head-coach roles with Japan, Australia, and England, reached two Rugby World Cup finals, served as technical adviser to a third World Cup-winning team, and won a Super Rugby title with the Brumbies in 2001. The through line is not a single style. It is a method for taking on teams that are underperforming relative to their resources, setting a higher standard than the group thinks it can meet, and holding it. His 2021 book, “Leadership: Lessons From My Life in Rugby”, makes that method explicit. It draws on the 2015 Japan campaign, the 2016 England turnaround, and the failures in between to argue that elite performance is a daily discipline of selection, feedback, and standard-setting, not a product of talent or motivation. Jones was named World Rugby Coach of the Year in 2017 after leading England to a Grand Slam and a run of consecutive Test wins second only to the All Blacks. For a senior audience, the value is in the translation. Three national cultures, three turnarounds, one argument about how leaders behave when the team is not yet winning. That is what he brings into a room. Key speaking topics Leadership under pressure and public scrutiny Building and turning around elite teams Standards, accountability, and high-performance culture Decision-making in compressed time frames Cross-cultural leadership across international organisations Talent development and succession Ideal for Boards and executive committees leading a turnaround or performance reset CEO and C-suite offsites on standards and accountability CHRO and people leaders working on high-performance culture at scale Sales and commercial leadership teams operating in competitive, results-measured environments Audience outcomes A clearer view of what separates elite teams from good ones in day-to-day behaviour Specific examples of how standards are set, reinforced, and recovered when they slip A model for leading through scrutiny without losing the team Practical reference points from three national turnarounds, not one Language for talking to executives about accountability without euphemism

Why organisations work with Elia Gourgouris Eighteen years of private clinical psychology practice behind the keynote. When he talks about mental health and workplace wellbeing, the substance is clinical experience translated for a corporate audience. A named framework in 7 Paths to Lasting Happiness, now published in Mandarin, Cantonese and Greek editions. Audiences leave with a structured model they can put into operational practice the following week. A dedicated crisis playbook in 7 Keys to Navigating a Crisis, co-written with Konstantinos Apostolopoulos for pandemic-era and crisis conditions. Useful when leaders need wellbeing guidance that still works when the ground is moving. Active across the US and Europe, with recent keynotes at KPMG’s 25 HR Symposium and the Hellenic Institute of Customer Service in Greece. A practical option for organisations with European operations that want a speaker fluent in both Anglo-American and Greek corporate cultures. Works with leaders between events, not only from the stage. An active executive coaching practice means the keynote is grounded in current client work, and follow-up coaching is available when an organisation needs more than a one-off session. Biography highlights President of The Happiness Center, a positive psychology practice focused on corporate wellness and personal success. Founding Partner at The Global Institute of Thought Leadership. Author of 7 Paths to Lasting Happiness, Amazon bestseller translated into Mandarin, Cantonese and Greek. Co-author with Konstantinos Apostolopoulos of 7 Keys to Navigating a Crisis: A Practical Guide to Emotionally Dealing with Pandemics and Other Disasters. Keynote engagements include KPMG’s 25 HR Symposium, the Hellenic Institute of Customer Service, and sessions for Bank of America audiences. BA in Psychology from UCLA, followed by MA and PhD in psychology, and eighteen years in private clinical practice before moving into executive coaching and keynote work. Regular contributor to Thrive Global; co-host of The Kindness and Happiness Connection podcast. Biography Workplace wellbeing programmes often fail at the join between clinical insight and operational reality. Clinicians know what changes behaviour under pressure. Boards know what gets funded. Most corporate well-being work lives in the first category without translation to the second. Eighteen years as a clinical psychologist in private practice sit behind Dr. Gourgouris’s current work as an executive coach and keynote speaker. His 7 Paths to Lasting Happiness framework, published in 2015 and now available in Mandarin, Cantonese, and Greek editions, is the practitioner synthesis of that clinical career. The second book, 7 Keys to Navigating a Crisis, co-written with Konstantinos Apostolopoulos, extends the framework to acute conditions. It was written during the pandemic and has since been used across corporate transitions and personal adversity. Recent corporate keynotes include KPMG’s 25 HR Symposium, the Hellenic Institute of Customer Service, and sessions for Bank of America audiences. Outside the corporate practice, Gourgouris was Executive Producer of the reality series Cash Cowboys and is developing a new series, The Kindness Givers. He contributes regularly to Thrive Global and co-hosts The Kindness and Happiness Connection podcast. The media work reaches audiences that the HR briefing rarely does, and carries the same clinical argument across. Key speaking topics Positive leadership Corporate wellbeing and mental health Workplace culture and trust Resilience and agility Crisis navigation and recovery Employee engagement and retention Ideal for CHROs and people leaders are rebuilding culture after a period of change or organisational distress. CEOs and senior leadership teams where burnout and retention have become board-level issues. Wellbeing and mental health function leaders looking to add clinical credibility to in-house programmes. Corporate audiences in Greece and wider Europe, where a speaker fluent in both Anglo-American and Greek corporate cultures adds value. Audience outcomes The 7 Paths to Lasting Happiness model is applied to personal practice and to how a team is run. Language and evidence to argue for wellbeing and mental health as measurable business inputs. Specific techniques for building team resilience and trust that can be used in the next team meeting. A clinical perspective on what actually changes behaviour under pressure, and what tends to fail.

Why organisations work with Elizabeth Day A single, named thesis built over hundreds of long-form interviews on How to Fail, applied to the specific cultural problem of how teams talk about setbacks. Journalistic credibility from a decade at The Observer and a Young Journalist of the Year award, which gives her the interviewing range to draw substance out of senior internal speakers and panel guests. Literary authority confirmed by a Royal Society of Literature fellowship and a Sunday Times No. 1 bestseller, which lifts her above the standard wellbeing-speaker field. A direct corporate track record with Google, Facebook, HSBC, JP Morgan, Netflix and Barclays, so the material has been tested on senior commercial audiences. Equally strong as keynote, fireside interviewer, or awards host, which makes her useful for events that need one trusted voice across multiple formats. Biography highlights Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, elected 2024. Host and creator of How to Fail with Elizabeth Day, with guests including Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Kate Winslet, Malcolm Gladwell and Gloria Steinem. Winner, Rising Star Award, British Podcast Awards 2019. Winner, Young Journalist of the Year, British Press Awards 2004; Highly Commended Feature Writer, 2012. Author of How to Fail, Failosophy, Friendaholic and Magpie, with Friendaholic entering the Sunday Times charts at No. 1. Host of BBC Radio 4’s Open Book since 2021; co-host of Sky Arts Book Club Live. Biography Most workplaces still treat failure as an event to be hidden. Elizabeth Day has spent years arguing, in print and on air, that the more useful question is what setbacks teach the people who admit to them. How to Fail, the podcast she launched in 2018, has built that argument into one of the most listened-to interview shows in the UK. Her credibility for the topic is not motivational. It is journalistic. She trained on the Evening Standard’s Londoner’s Diary, moved to The Sunday Telegraph as a news reporter, and won Young Journalist of the Year at the 2004 British Press Awards. From 2007 to 2016 she was a feature writer at The Observer, picking up a commendation in the Feature Writer category at the 2012 Press Awards. The literary record sits alongside the broadcasting one. Her novel Scissors Paper Stone won the Betty Trask Award; The Party became a Richard and Judy Book Club pick; Friendaholic entered the Sunday Times charts at No. 1. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2024 and hosts BBC Radio 4’s Open Book. For corporate audiences, the value is the translation. Google, Facebook, HSBC, JP Morgan, Netflix and Barclays have booked her to put failure, friendship and candour onto the table as workplace concerns rather than personal anecdotes. The interviews have produced a working vocabulary that senior teams can actually use when something goes wrong. Key speaking topics Failure as a method for learning and recovery Workplace candour and psychological safety Storytelling and interview craft for senior leaders Friendship, connection and the social fabric of teams Vulnerability as a professional capability Resilience after setback Women, work and visibility Ideal for CHROs and people leaders rebuilding engagement and trust after restructure or underperformance. Communications and internal events teams looking for a host who can interview senior leaders on the record without flattening them. Leadership development programmes for high-potential cohorts working on candour, feedback and self-awareness. Awards evenings and flagship conferences that need one credible voice across keynote, panel and host roles. Audience outcomes A working vocabulary for naming and discussing setbacks at work without defensiveness. Specific, repeatable interview and conversation techniques drawn from years of long-form journalism. A clearer view of how candour and vulnerability function as team capabilities, not personality traits. Permission, modelled from named public figures, to treat early-career mistakes as data rather than damage.

Why organisations work with Ella Sy She reads consumer, retail, and technology change as a working strategist rather than a trend curator. She ran global strategy inside Publicis, then built an independent futures practice briefed by retailers and brands to call where behaviour is heading and to defend that call commercially. She pairs a futures lens with delivery discipline. Alongside the strategy work she runs programme at Elevate, so her view of change includes what it takes to operationalise it, not only name it. Her brief is genuinely cross-sector. Named client work spans Google, Microsoft, Jaguar Land Rover, Costa Coffee, Preferred Hotels, and KSL Resorts, which gives her material from both B2B technology and consumer-facing brands. She brings a non-Anglosphere cultural read. French-born, Asian heritage, London based, working in English, French, and Mandarin. Useful for boards with EMEA and APAC exposure who want more than a US-centric view. She is comfortable with soft territory that leadership teams often duck: meaning, purpose, human growth inside commercial strategy. Named bookings in this register rather than retrofitted from a trends talk. Biography highlights Former Business Futures Strategy Director at GDR, a retail and brand futures consultancy. Strategy Director and Head of Programme at Elevate, and Chair of its Youth Board Committee. Former Global Strategy Director at Zenith Worldwide, part of Publicis Groupe. 13+ years of strategy across retail, technology, wellness, banking, luxury, and FMCG. Client engagements include Google across LatAm markets, Microsoft, Jaguar Land Rover, Costa Coffee, Preferred Hotels, and KSL Resorts. MA in International Marketing and Communication. Works in English, French, and Mandarin. Biography Most organisations treat foresight as a slide at the start of strategy offsites. Ella Sy has spent her career selling it as a product: reading consumer and cultural signals for retailers and brands that need to place commercial bets on where behaviour is heading next. That is the discipline she brings into the room. Earlier she was Global Strategy Director at Zenith Worldwide inside Publicis Groupe, running strategy for large advertising clients. The thread running through her work is translation: taking messy, contradictory signals from culture, technology, and consumer behaviour and turning them into positions a leadership team can defend and a business can execute against. She also holds an operational role: Strategy Director and Head of Programme at Elevate, a UK youth mentoring organisation where she chairs the Youth Board Committee. That side of the work keeps her close to delivery rather than only advice, which is unusual for a speaker working in the futures space. Her client record crosses categories that rarely share speakers: Google across Latin American markets, Microsoft, Jaguar Land Rover, Costa Coffee, Preferred Hotels, KSL Resorts. French-born, of Asian heritage, based in the UK, she works in English, French, and Mandarin, and the cultural range shows up in how she frames audiences outside the Anglosphere default. Key speaking topics Strategic foresight and business futures Consumer and cultural signal reading Customer experience and brand strategy in an AI-shaped market Organisational culture under technological disruption Purpose-driven leadership and human growth Cross-cultural strategy across EMEA and APAC Ideal for CSOs, chief strategy officers, and transformation leads deciding where to place medium-term bets. CMOs and customer experience leaders in retail, hospitality, and consumer technology. Boards and executive teams setting a three-to-five year direction under technology and consumer volatility. International leadership groups that need a non-US-default reading of culture and consumer change. Audience outcomes A sharper read on which emerging signals in consumer behaviour and technology actually matter for the business in the room. Working language for talking about culture and customer experience together rather than as separate agendas. Examples from retail, luxury, hospitality, and technology clients that test the ideas against real commercial pressure. A more honest view of the gap between seeing change and executing on it inside a large organisation. Cross-cultural context for leaders whose markets extend beyond the US and UK.