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Chris Lyons

Most leadership teams are reacting to AI and Web3 from outside the rooms where capital is being deployed. They cannot tell which companies, products, and behaviours will define the next cycle, and they cannot tell which are noise. Without a credible view of where venture money is going, and why, strategic decisions on partnerships, acquisitions, and product bets are guesses dressed as strategy.

Why organisations work with Chris Lyons Direct line into a16z’s deal flow across AI, Web3, and consumer technology, the same intelligence the firm uses to commit capital to companies like OpenAI, Airbnb, and Lyft. A named thesis on culture as a distribution channel for technology, built into the Cultural Leadership Fund, which moved this idea from observation to a fund structure with institutional limited partners. Operator credibility on Web3 specifically, in his role as President, Web3 Media at a16z crypto, at a moment when most boards still treat crypto and AI as separate strategic questions. A perspective on consumer adoption shaped by deep relationships with founders and cultural leaders, useful for brand, media, and consumer-facing organisations trying to understand what the next decade looks like. Biography highlights General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz; President, Web3 Media at a16z crypto. Founder of the a16z Cultural Leadership Fund, Silicon Valley’s first venture fund with 100% African American Limited Partners. Helped launch a16z’s first $400M Seed Fund in 2021. Board director at Yuga Labs, The James Beard Foundation, The Black Economic Alliance, and New Story Charity. Kauffman Fellow, Class of 2019. Closing keynote, Harvard Business School Black Investment Club Conference, on “Culture as an Asset Class.” Biography Most boards now have AI and Web3 on the agenda. Far fewer have a credible read on which companies and behaviours inside those categories will actually scale. That read is the working asset of a senior venture partner at Andreessen Horowitz, and it is what Chris Lyons brings into a room. Lyons joined a16z in 2013 as Chief of Staff to co-founder Ben Horowitz, with an internal mandate to build deep relationships with founders regardless of investment status. That work became the architecture for the firm’s later positions in companies including OpenAI, Airbnb, and Lyft. He was promoted to General Partner in 2021 and helped launch a16z’s first $400M Seed Fund the same year. In 2018 he founded the Cultural Leadership Fund, a vehicle built on the thesis that cultural leaders, athletes, entertainers, and executives, drive how new technology gets adopted. CLF was structured with 100% African American Limited Partners, with fees and carry directed to organisations advancing Black participation in technology. The fund made the cultural distribution argument institutional. He now leads Web3 Media at a16z crypto and sits on the boards of Yuga Labs, The James Beard Foundation, The Black Economic Alliance, and New Story Charity. The combination of operator inside the firm and connector across culture, capital, and consumer technology is rare at his level of venture seniority. Key speaking topics Artificial intelligence and generative AI Web3 and digital ownership Venture capital and emerging technology Consumer technology adoption Culture as a driver of technology distribution Entrepreneurship and scale Diversity in technology and capital Ideal for Chief executives, boards, and corporate development leaders setting strategy on AI, Web3, and consumer technology CMOs and brand leaders rethinking how cultural relevance translates into commercial advantage Investment committees and family office principals reading the next venture cycle Innovation, partnerships, and ventures teams scouting categories and founders Audience outcomes A clearer view of which AI and Web3 categories are attracting serious capital and why A working framework for thinking about cultural influence as a real distribution mechanism, not a marketing layer Specific examples from inside a16z’s portfolio that illustrate how consumer technology actually scales A more grounded read on where venture conviction sits today, set against media noise

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Christian Jessen

Mental health budgets have grown, but the gap between policy and lived experience inside organisations has not closed. Employees still hesitate to disclose, managers still default to signposting, and senior leaders still treat wellbeing as a wellness programme rather than a clinical and cultural question. The work is shifting from awareness to substance, and that needs voices who can speak as clinicians, not as motivational acts.

Why organisations work with Christian Jessen Clinical authority paired with a household-name broadcast platform. GMC-registered, UCL-trained, and the public face of Channel 4’s Embarrassing Bodies for eight years, which gives him a rare ability to hold a corporate audience on subjects most staff avoid. Substantive expertise in sexual health, HIV and LGBT+ health equity, including work in Kenya and Uganda and an appointment as National HIV Testing Week Ambassador in 2015. Useful when inclusion and health intersect with real clinical content. First-person testimony on depression, bulimia and muscle dysmorphia, delivered without performance. Audiences hear from a clinician who has been the patient, which moves the conversation past awareness scripts. A communication style built over two decades of primetime television: plain language, comfort with discomfort, no euphemism. The right register for a room where leaders have been told mental health matters but do not know what to say next. Biography highlights MBBS, University College London (2001). MSc in sexual health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Co-presenter, Embarrassing Bodies, Channel 4 (2007 to 2015), alongside Pixie McKenna and Dawn Harper. Co-presenter, Supersize vs Superskinny, Channel 4 (2008 to 2014). National HIV Testing Week Ambassador, 2015. Author of Can I Just Ask? (2010) and a three-book Scholastic series for adolescents covering growing up, sensitive subjects and the self. Patron of Humanists UK. Biography Stigma is the reason health conversations stall inside organisations. People know what they should disclose, and they know what their employer says it supports, and they still do not speak. Christian Jessen has spent two decades working at the point where that silence breaks, first as a clinician in sexual health and infectious disease, then as the face of Channel 4’s most successful health franchise. The medical training is substantive. UCL for the MBBS in 2001, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine for an MSc in sexual health, with field experience on HIV and malaria in Kenya and Uganda. That clinical grounding ran through eight years co-presenting Embarrassing Bodies and six years on Supersize vs Superskinny, where the production worked because the doctor on screen was a doctor, not a presenter playing one. His written work for younger readers, the Scholastic trilogy on growing up and the everyday questions adolescents will not ask aloud, shows the same instinct. Take subjects coded as awkward, name them in plain language, treat the audience as intelligent. The 2015 appointment as National HIV Testing Week Ambassador reflected the same trust in his communication: clinical accuracy without moralising. In corporate rooms the relevance is specific. He has spoken openly about his own experience of depression, bulimia and muscle dysmorphia, which lets him hold a discussion on workplace mental health that does not collapse into either policy summary or personal anecdote. For organisations moving beyond awareness campaigns into harder questions about disclosure, manager capability and clinical literacy, that combination of credentials and lived experience is the value. Key speaking topics Mental health in the workplace Body image and eating disorders Sexual health and LGBT+ health equity Stigma and disclosure in organisational settings Men’s health Health communication and behaviour change Ideal for CHROs, wellbeing leads and chief people officers building substantive mental health programmes DEI and ERG leaders running health-equity sessions, particularly around LGBT+ inclusion Employee Assistance Programme partners and benefits leaders looking for clinical credibility on stage All-staff wellbeing weeks and Mental Health Awareness events that need a clinician, not a motivational act Audience outcomes A clearer line between what wellbeing programmes can do and what clinical support is for Confidence to talk about eating disorders, body dysmorphia and men’s mental health in plain terms at work A working understanding of why stigma persists even where policy support exists A sharper sense of what good disclosure conversations sound like between staff and managers

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Claire Rafferty

Senior performers are asked to recover from setbacks, hold two demanding identities in parallel, and keep delivering through long cycles where the visible reward is rare. Most leadership training does not address what that actually costs, or what holds a person together when the recovery is physical, public, and uncertain. Organisations need voices who have lived that pressure inside elite competition, not described it from the outside.

Why organisations work with Claire Rafferty Lived experience of operating at the top of two unrelated industries simultaneously, elite international football and investment banking at Deutsche Bank, where most speakers offer one or the other. A specific, named recovery story. Two anterior cruciate ligament injuries during her career, including a second in 2011, followed by a return to international football and a starting place at a World Cup semi-final. A current operating role in the football industry through TransferRoom, where she works on global transfer activity, plus a board seat at Lewes FC, the only professional club paying its men’s and women’s teams equally. Audiences hear someone still inside the commercial mechanics of the sport, not retired from it. Practised broadcast presence across BBC, BT Sport, Sky Sports News, talkSPORT and ITV News, which translates into clean delivery on stage and confidence under live questioning. Biography highlights 18 senior caps for England between 2010 and 2017, including starting left-back at the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup where England finished third. 2012 Team GB Olympian at the London Games. 101 senior appearances for Chelsea FC across eleven seasons; FA WSL champion in 2015 and 2017 to 18, FA Women’s Cup winner in 2014 to 15 and 2017 to 18. Economics degree, Loughborough University, 2011; analyst at Deutsche Bank from 2012, held in parallel with her playing career. Senior Customer Success Manager, TransferRoom; Non-Executive Director, Lewes FC. Regular pundit and contributor across BBC, BT Sport, Sky Sports News, talkSPORT, BBC 5 Live and ITV News. Biography Two anterior cruciate ligament injuries can end a career. Claire Rafferty came back from one as a teenager at Millwall Lionesses, then from a second in 2011 to win starting selection for England’s run to third place at the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. The story sits at the centre of her speaking content because she has not stylised it. Recovery is presented as long, dull, repeatable work, not a redemption arc. Her career also broke a common pattern in elite sport. Through most of her playing years at Chelsea, where she made 101 appearances and finished as the club’s longest-serving player, Rafferty worked as an analyst at Deutsche Bank. The dual track was not a sponsored side project; it was a deliberate choice to keep a professional identity outside football, made before women’s full-time contracts were standard in the English game. Since retiring from West Ham at the end of the 2018 to 19 season, she has stayed inside the commercial machinery of the sport. At TransferRoom she works on global transfer activity across men’s and women’s football. At Lewes FC, on the board since January 2020, she sits inside the only professional club paying its men’s and women’s first teams from a single equal budget. Both roles give her current material, not retrospective material. The broadcasting work runs alongside this. Rafferty contributes to BBC, BT Sport, Sky Sports News, talkSPORT and ITV News, and covered the 2019 Women’s World Cup on multiple platforms. The cumulative effect for an audience is a speaker who can speak about pressure, recovery and parallel careers from the inside of two industries that rarely overlap. Key speaking topics Resilience after physical and professional setback Parallel careers in elite sport and the City Performing under sustained competitive pressure Women in football and equal pay in professional sport Career transition after a defined competitive peak Team performance and high-trust environments Ideal for Leadership offsites and conferences seeking a voice on resilience grounded in elite competition rather than executive theory. Financial services audiences, where the Deutsche Bank parallel career is directly recognisable. Sports business, federation and broadcast audiences working on women’s football, commercialisation and equal-pay structures. ERG and Women in Leadership programmes, particularly those addressing dual-career pressure and recovery from setback. Audience outcomes A concrete account of recovery from career-threatening injury, told in operational rather than motivational terms. A working model for sustaining two professional identities at the same time, drawn from football and investment banking. A current view of the commercial and structural state of women’s football from inside the industry, not from the press box. Renewed credibility for the claim that competitive performance and equal investment can coexist, evidenced by the Lewes FC model.

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Claire Williams

Senior leaders now run their organisations under constant, public scrutiny. Every operational choice is visible in real time and judged before the outcome is known. The work is holding commercial results and culture change together when there is nowhere to hide.

Why organisations work with Claire Williams A rare first-hand credential: one of only two women to have ever led a Formula 1 team, with seven years of operational accountability across a 1,800-person organisation. She negotiated the 2020 sale of Williams Racing to Dorilton Capital, securing the team’s future at a point when commercial terms and the pandemic were squeezing independent teams out of the sport. A commercial track record with specific deals attached, including a reported £65M sponsorship with Unilever and the growth of what became WAE Technologies, later acquired by Fortescue. A demonstrable record on representation: during her tenure, the proportion of women at Williams reached 17.6%, the highest in the F1 paddock, and she gave Susie Wolff her first F1 race weekend drive by a woman since 1992. Currently a recurring expert analyst on Netflix’s Drive to Survive, which keeps her commentary connected to the races and decisions audiences already follow. Biography highlights Deputy Team Principal of Williams Racing, 2013 to 2020, with day-to-day operational control of the Formula 1 team. Led Williams to consecutive third-place finishes in the Constructors’ Championship in 2014 and 2015, the team’s best results since 2003. Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to Formula 1, awarded in the 2016 Birthday Honours. Brand Ambassador for Fortescue WAE (formerly Williams Advanced Engineering), the green-technologies business she helped grow during her tenure. Vice President of the Spinal Injuries Association; founded the Sir Frank Williams Academy for spinal cord injury care in April 2023. Recurring expert analyst on Netflix’s Drive to Survive, including the 2024 and 2025 editions. Biography The Formula 1 paddock runs on non-negotiable deadlines and live public scrutiny. Every operational decision lands against a fixed calendar of race weekends, with 1,800 staff to align and investors watching results on Sunday. Claire Williams ran Williams Racing in this environment for seven seasons as Deputy Team Principal, from 2013 to 2020. She took over day-to-day operation from her father, Sir Frank Williams, in 2013. The team had just come through some of the weakest years in its history. She replaced the race drivers, restructured the engineering department, switched to Mercedes engines, and secured the sponsorship deals that funded the rebuild. Williams finished third in the Constructors’ Championship in 2014 and again in 2015, its best results since 2003. Fortescue WAE grew under her watch from an internal sustainability unit into a commercial R&D business later acquired by Fortescue. The proportion of women at Williams reached 17.6%, the highest in the paddock. In 2014, Susie Wolff drove a Williams in a practice session, the first F1 race weekend drive by a woman since 1992. The OBE followed in 2016, for services to the sport. The final chapter was the hardest to execute. Faced with commercial terms that favoured the top teams and the financial impact of the pandemic, she negotiated the sale of Williams Racing to Dorilton Capital in August 2020. She stepped down after the Italian Grand Prix the following month. The sale secured the team’s future under new ownership after more than four decades of Williams family leadership in the sport. Key speaking topics Leadership in high-pressure, high-scrutiny environments High-performance team culture at scale Elite decision-making and operational accountability Commercial turnaround and succession Women in leadership in traditionally closed sectors Safety, risk, and learning cultures Ideal for CEOs, executive committees, and boards running organisations under sustained public scrutiny Senior leadership teams in high-stakes or heavily regulated sectors (financial services, sport, energy, aerospace) CHROs and heads of talent building high-performance cultures or advancing gender representation in traditionally closed sectors Transformation leaders and programme sponsors running commercial rebuilds or succession-stage handovers Audience outcomes A first-hand view of leadership inside a Formula 1 team under constant competitive and commercial pressure Reference points from elite-sport operations on accountability and how high-performing teams handle failure at scale A sharper read on what a commercial rebuild followed by a distressed exit requires from the person at the top A credible account of how representation is built in a closed sector, told through named decisions and measurable results

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Clarence Seedorf

High performance usually has a context. Move the team into a new market or operating culture, and most of what made them good quietly stops working. Leaders who hold excellence steady through that kind of change know what travels and what has to be rebuilt from scratch.

Why organisations work with Clarence Seedorf The only footballer to have won the UEFA Champions League with three different clubs (Ajax, Real Madrid, and AC Milan twice), meaning he has had to make elite performance work inside three very different institutional cultures. Senior leadership experience on both sides of the performance equation: former head coach of AC Milan, with subsequent head-coaching roles at Shenzhen FC, Deportivo La Coruña and the Cameroon national team. Commercial and institutional credibility beyond the pitch: Bocconi-educated in economics and management, builder of a business portfolio including On International and SK Sports Holding in Dubai (co-founded with Khabib Nurmagomedov), and Advisor to the UEFA President for Social Affairs. Cross-cultural bandwidth that is hard to match: played, led or coached on four continents, and works fluently in six languages (Dutch, English, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Sranan Tongo). A substantive public record on inclusion and institutional impact as UEFA Global Ambassador for Diversity and Change, trustee of the UEFA Foundation for Children, founder of the Champions for Children Foundation and the Black Impact Foundation, and a Nelson Mandela Foundation Legacy Champion. Biography highlights Only player in football history to win the UEFA Champions League with three different clubs: Ajax (1995), Real Madrid (1998), AC Milan (2003 and 2007). Domestic league winner in the Netherlands, Spain and Italy; UEFA Club Midfielder of the Year 2006-07; included in the FIFA 100 list of greatest living players selected by Pelé. Former head coach of AC Milan, with additional head-coaching roles at Shenzhen FC, Deportivo La Coruña and the Cameroon national team. Studied economics and management at Bocconi University in Milan; speaks six languages (Dutch, English, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Sranan Tongo). UEFA Global Ambassador for Diversity and Change, Advisor to the UEFA President for Social Affairs, trustee of the UEFA Foundation for Children, and a Nelson Mandela Foundation Legacy Champion. Founder of the Champions for Children Foundation (2004) and the Black Impact Foundation; FOX Sports studio analyst for the FIFA World Cup 2026 and lead soccer analyst for Amazon Prime in the UK and Italy. Biography Ajax beat AC Milan in the 1995 Champions League final. Clarence Seedorf, then 19, was in the Ajax midfield. Over the next twelve years, he lifted the trophy three more times, with Real Madrid in 1998 and AC Milan itself in 2003 and 2007. A four-time winner with three different clubs, a record no other footballer has matched. The record matters to organisations because of what it implies about sustained performance at the top. Ajax under Louis van Gaal, Real Madrid through its Galáctico years, and Milan under Carlo Ancelotti were three very different operating environments. Different tactical systems, different languages, different dressing-room cultures, different definitions of how an elite team should behave. Staying at the top of each, across more than a decade, required a specific discipline around what transfers between contexts and what has to be rebuilt from scratch. After retiring, Seedorf moved to the other side of the performance equation as head coach of AC Milan. He subsequently coached at Shenzhen FC, Deportivo La Coruña and the Cameroon national team, extending his professional experience across three more countries. He had already studied economics and management at Bocconi University in Milan during his playing years, which earned him the dressing-room nickname “Il Professore”. He now runs a commercial portfolio that includes the sport management firm On International, the Fingers restaurant group, and SK Sports Holding in Dubai, co-founded with UFC champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. His public role extends into inclusion and institutional impact. He serves as UEFA Global Ambassador for Diversity and Change, Advisor to the UEFA President for Social Affairs, and trustee of the UEFA Foundation for Children. He founded the Champions for Children Foundation in 2004 and the Black Impact Foundation, and is a Nelson Mandela Foundation Legacy Champion chosen to carry Mandela’s message worldwide. Alongside the boardrooms, he has spoken at Oxford, Harvard and the Council of Europe, and in 2026 returns to FOX Sports as a studio analyst for the FIFA World Cup. Key speaking topics High-performance team culture in elite environments Sustained performance across changing organisations and cultures Leadership at the top of global, high-pressure institutions The transition from elite performer to senior leader Cross-cultural leadership across languages and geographies Diversity, inclusion and institutional legacy Ideal for Senior leadership teams working through major strategic or cultural transitions CHROs, talent directors and heads of L&D designing leadership development or high-performance culture programmes Sales organisations and performance-driven functions looking to push established teams to a new level Global and multinational organisations operating across languages and geographies Audience outcomes A sharper view of what actually transfers when a team or organisation moves into a new culture or a new operating structure A vocabulary for talking about elite performance as a repeatable discipline that organisations can teach Specific examples from dressing rooms at Ajax, Real Madrid and AC Milan of how elite teams respond to pressure and setback Renewed confidence that sustained excellence can be built and rebuilt, team after team

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Colette Carlson

Automation is closing the distance on the technical work, and the differentiating capability inside organisations is becoming relational: trust, candour, and the quality of conversations under stress. Most cultures have starved those skills for a decade. Leaders inherit teams that collaborate by default, not by intention, and the cost shows up in attrition, stalled change, and customer relationships that never deepen past the transaction.

Why organisations work with Colette Carlson A Master’s in Human Behavior anchors the content in behavioural science rather than speaker anecdote, which holds up in front of senior, sceptical audiences. The Human Edge framework organises five distinct programmes against specific buyer briefs: leadership, sales, team performance, burnout and resilience, and women’s leadership. CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame membership signals platform reliability for high-stakes conferences and executive offsites where delivery risk is itself a procurement criterion. A career arc that begins on straight commission and ends in front of Microsoft, PepsiCo, and Boeing audiences makes the trust and connection content land with sales and revenue teams, not only with HR. Biography highlights Master’s Degree in Human Behavior. Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), a credential held by fewer than 10% of International Federation for Professional Speakers members. Inducted into the CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame in 2017. Founder of Speak Your Truth, Inc. and author of Stop Playing Fictionary: Speak Your Truth to Stress Less and Connect More. Keynote work for Microsoft, PepsiCo, FedEx, ExxonMobil, Procter & Gamble, Fidelity, Costco, Domino’s, Boeing, PwC, and Accenture. Contributor to Success, Business Management Daily, and Working Mother; co-authored Conversations on Success Vol. 4 alongside Deepak Chopra and Mark Victor Hansen. Biography The relational fabric of most organisations has thinned. Hybrid schedules, lean middle layers, and rapid restructures have left teams collaborating by habit rather than by design, and the result shows up in disengagement scores, deal cycles that stall, and change programmes that miss the people piece. Colette Carlson works on that exact problem. Her content draws on a Master’s in Human Behavior and two decades on commission-based sales floors, then translates the behavioural science into communication moves senior leaders, salespeople, and team managers can use the next morning. The Human Edge framework organises this into five keynote programmes spanning leadership, sales, team performance, resilience, and women’s leadership. The credential trail is unusually concentrated. She holds the CSP designation held by under 10% of IFPS members and was inducted into the CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame in 2017, an NSA lifetime award. Her client list, including Microsoft, PepsiCo, FedEx, ExxonMobil, Procter & Gamble, Boeing, and Accenture, indicates a track record across both regulated and consumer-facing environments. What separates her in the workplace-culture pillar is the bridge between scientific framing and revenue-floor experience. Buyers booking a culture or engagement keynote often get one or the other. Carlson is fluent with HR audiences and with sales kick-offs, which is why her work travels across the org chart rather than sitting only in the people function. Key speaking topics Trust and connection in hybrid organisations Psychological safety and team performance Communication under pressure Resilience and burnout prevention Sales relationships and influence Women’s leadership and executive presence Human skills in an AI-augmented workplace Ideal for CHROs and people leaders rebuilding engagement after restructure or hybrid transition Sales leaders running national kick-offs that need a behavioural, relationship-led keynote Executive teams introducing psychological safety and trust as operating principles Women’s leadership networks and ERG flagship events Audience outcomes A working vocabulary for trust and psychological safety that leaders can use in their next team meeting Specific communication moves for difficult conversations, candour, and feedback Behavioural tools to protect focus and energy through sustained organisational pressure A relationship-first sales mindset that closes the gap between rapport and revenue Practical confidence cues for women navigating senior rooms and negotiation moments

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Collin Croome

Most leadership teams now have an AI policy, a metaverse deck and a digital roadmap, and still cannot tell which of these will move revenue inside twelve months. The gap is rarely technical. It sits between the C-suite and the teams running marketing, product and customer experience, where theory has to become a shipped campaign, a working interface, a measurable result.

Why organisations work with Collin Croome Thirty years of operator experience spanning the first websites in 1994 through generative AI and Apple Vision Pro rollouts, which lets him pressure test a digital strategy against what actually ships. Direct Apple lineage: over a decade as multimedia evangelist and trainer for Apple Germany, including co-developing the first German multimedia seminar for Apple in 1992. Founder and long-time owner of coma2 e-branding, where he delivered digital projects for premium international brands including Audi, Hugo Boss, Microsoft, Deutsche Telekom, Nespresso and Triumph. Author of two GABAL Verlag titles on the metaverse (Praxisbuch Metaverse, 30 Minuten Metaverse) and a regular on-air digital expert for ProSiebenSat.1 and RTL. Bilingual delivery in English and German with deep DACH market fluency, useful for organisations briefing European leadership audiences. Biography highlights Co-founder and long-time owner of coma2 e-branding, Munich, delivering 800 plus digital projects for international brands over 22 plus years. Multimedia evangelist and trainer for Apple Germany from 1991, co-developer of the first German Apple multimedia seminar in 1992. Author of Praxisbuch Metaverse (GABAL Verlag, 2023) and 30 Minuten Metaverse (GABAL Verlag, 2022). Certified Professional Speaker and Professional Member of the German Speakers Association (GSA). Recurring digital expert on ProSiebenSat.1 and RTL covering AI, metaverse and platform economics. Client list includes Audi, Hugo Boss, Microsoft, Siemens, Deutsche Telekom, TUI, Nespresso, KPMG and Triumph. Biography The first wave of corporate digital work in Germany ran through a small group of practitioners who knew both the technology and the brands that had to use it. Collin Croome was one of them. From 1991 he worked inside Apple Germany as multimedia evangelist and trainer, co-developing the country’s first Apple multimedia seminar in 1992 and spending more than a decade translating new hardware into tools that marketing and communications teams could actually run. In 1997 he co-founded coma2 e-branding in Munich and built it into a long-running digital agency for premium international brands. Over 22 plus years the agency delivered work for Audi, Hugo Boss, Microsoft, Deutsche Telekom, Nespresso, Triumph and TUI, covering the full arc from early websites to social platforms, e-commerce and immersive formats. That operator history is the spine of his credibility on stage. Since 2021 his keynote work has concentrated on generative AI, the metaverse and Apple Vision Pro as commercial tools, not as futurology. He has written two GABAL Verlag books on the metaverse, appears regularly as a digital expert on ProSiebenSat.1 and RTL, and holds Certified Professional Speaker status with the German Speakers Association. The consistent thread across three decades is the same question he puts to boards now: which of the digital tools on the table will move revenue, customer experience or brand equity inside the next year, and what has to change in the organisation to make that happen. Key speaking topics Generative AI and ChatGPT in the enterprise Apple Vision Pro and immersive business applications Metaverse and Web3 strategy Digital transformation and megatrends Platform economics and the power of the internet giants Digital marketing and brand in an AI world Ideal for C-suite and board audiences making capital allocation decisions on AI, immersive and digital platform bets. CMOs, brand and customer experience leads translating AI and immersive tools into campaigns and products. DACH-market leadership groups that need a bilingual keynote in English or German. Premium consumer and lifestyle brands looking at AR, VR and platform-native commerce. Audience outcomes A clearer read on which AI and metaverse initiatives are ready for commercial use and which are still hype. A practical view of Apple Vision Pro and adjacent immersive tools as enterprise assets, grounded in early-adopter use. Reference points from named brand work (Audi, Hugo Boss, Microsoft, Deutsche Telekom) that leaders can map to their own organisation. Sharper questions to put to internal teams and external agencies on digital and AI roadmaps.

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Confidence Staveley

Cybersecurity has moved from a technical function to a board-level exposure, but most organisations still talk about it in language only the security team understands. The result is decisions made on incomplete information, regulators losing patience, and digital trust eroding faster than it can be rebuilt. Closing that gap requires translators who can hold technical authority and commercial clarity in the same room.

Why organisations work with Confidence Staveley A practitioner voice on cybersecurity rooted in build-side delivery: founder of a foundation that trains thousands of women across 22-plus African countries, not a commentator describing the field from outside it. Author of API Security for White Hat Hackers (Packt, 2024), a technical book serious enough to be used inside security teams, written with co-author Christopher Romeo. Sits on the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Cybersecurity, giving boards a direct line to how global policy and operational practice are converging. Brings a developing-economy lens most bureau cyber speakers do not: digital trust, payment threat landscapes and capacity-building in markets where the cost of a breach lands differently. Operational credibility on the workforce question: her CyberGirls Fellowship has become a model programme cited in the World Bank 2023 practitioner note on closing the cyber skills gap. Biography highlights Founder and Executive Director, CyberSafe Foundation (Nigeria) Author, API Security for White Hat Hackers, Packt Publishing Member, World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Cybersecurity Member, Forbes Technology Council 2023 Cybersecurity Woman of the World Award; ISC2 Global Achievement Award Obama Foundation Leaders Africa, 2022 cohort SANS Institute Difference Maker Award, People’s Champion of the Year, 2024 Biography Most cybersecurity conversations at the board level still depend on the security team simplifying for everyone else. The translation rarely survives the journey. Confidence Staveley built her career on closing that gap, in technical depth and in commercial clarity. She is the founder of the CyberSafe Foundation, a Nigerian non-profit that has trained women across more than twenty African countries through its CyberGirls Fellowship. The programme is a working answer to the cyber skills shortage, recognised in a 2023 World Bank practitioner note as a model worth scaling. Alongside the foundation, she co-authored API Security for White Hat Hackers, published by Packt, a working manual for security engineers rather than a thought-leadership book. Her platform reflects that hybrid of practice and policy. She sits on the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Cybersecurity, is a member of the Forbes Technology Council, and was selected for the Obama Foundation Leaders Africa cohort in 2022. The recognitions matter because of where they cluster: technical authority, governance, and inclusion of underserved talent into the global cyber workforce. What organisations book her for is the rare combination of board-credible framing and ground-floor delivery, with a perspective shaped by markets where the cost of digital failure shows up faster. The 2023 Cybersecurity Woman of the World Award placed her against roughly 160 nominees from women-in-cyber networks worldwide; she came out on top. That kind of recognition, from inside the industry rather than from a bureau, is what separates a working practitioner from a circuit speaker. Key speaking topics Cybersecurity as board-level risk Digital trust and the payment threat landscape API security and application risk The cybersecurity workforce gap Women and inclusion in cyber Cyber capacity-building in emerging markets Data protection in the digital economy Ideal for Boards and audit committees treating cyber as a governance question CISOs, CIOs and CTOs are briefing executive teams on workforce and risk Financial services, fintech and payments leadership confronting fraud and digital trust Global organisations with African operations or talent strategy in the region Audience outcomes A clearer board-level vocabulary for cyber risk, separated from technical jargon A sharper read on where the cybersecurity workforce gap is widening, and what is actually working to close it A practitioner’s view of API and application security risk in commercial terms A more honest framing of inclusion in cyber as a talent-supply question, not a values statement

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Cornel Amariei

Most organisations talk about innovation and ship incremental product. The gap shows up in how invention is governed: which problems get resourced, how patents become products, and how a founder or intrapreneur converts a research prototype into a funded, regulated, commercial business. Boards want operators who have done both sides, scaled invention inside a multinational and built a venture from nothing.

Why organisations work with Cornel Amariei Operator credibility on both sides of the innovation question: ran innovation as Head of Innovation at Continental Automotive with patents adopted across European electric vehicles, then built .lumen from research project to a venture-backed company. Built the first Romanian company to receive EIC Accelerator funding, with a €9.7M blended finance package and a €5M January 2025 round led by Catalyst Romania alongside the EIC Fund. The story is a working playbook on European deep-tech capital formation. Working at the intersection of autonomous driving, robotics and assistive technology, with a defensible patent portfolio. Useful to leadership teams thinking about how to convert AI and sensor capability into a product proposition with a real customer. Recognition from credible institutions, not bureau awards: Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe, JCI Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World, Global Business Hall of Fame. A personal stake that travels well into corporate audiences. Grew up in a family where every member had a disability, and built a company that addresses an underserved global market of 40 million blind people. Authority on social impact ventures without the activist framing. Biography highlights Founder and CEO, .lumen. Pedestrian Autonomous Driving technology, first deployed in glasses for blind users. Former Head of Innovation, Continental Automotive. Patents applied in European electric vehicles. First Romanian inductee, Global Business Hall of Fame, 2021. Innovators category, alongside Canva’s Melanie Perkins. Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe; JCI Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World. Author, “Arduino Development Cookbook” (Packt Publishing, 2015). Alumnus, Constructor University (formerly Jacobs University Bremen). Biography A research project inside a Romanian engineering team in 2018 became, by early 2020, a venture called .lumen. By 2025 the company had closed a €5M round led by Catalyst Romania with the European Innovation Council Fund and Tigrim Capital alongside it, the latest tranche in a €9.7M blended finance package that made it the first Romanian startup to take EIC Accelerator capital. The product, Pedestrian Autonomous Driving, was first demonstrated in glasses that replicate and extend the function of a guide dog. The global addressable problem is concrete: roughly 40 million blind people, fewer than 20,000 guide dogs. The biography behind the company matters because it explains the design choice. Cornel Amariei grew up in a family where every member had a disability: parents with locomotor conditions, a sister with cerebral palsy. The motivation is not a brand layer on top of a venture. It is the reason the venture exists. Before .lumen, Amariei was Head of Innovation at Continental Automotive, where his patent work was integrated into European electric vehicles. That experience matters for boards thinking about innovation governance. He has run the discipline inside a multinational tier-one and built it from scratch as a founder, which is rare in a market where most speakers have done only one. The recognition is from named institutions: Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe, JCI’s Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World, and induction into the Global Business Hall of Fame in 2021 as the first Romanian laureate, in the innovators category alongside Canva founder Melanie Perkins. He is also a published technical author with Packt and an alumnus of Constructor University in Bremen. Key speaking topics Deep-tech entrepreneurship and scale-up leadership Innovation management inside multinationals Assistive technology and accessibility ventures Autonomous driving and robotics applied to consumer products Patent strategy and IP-led product development European deep-tech capital and the EIC Accelerator route Social impact through technology commercialisation Ideal for Innovation, R&D and CTO leadership inside industrials, automotive and consumer technology Boards and executive committees reviewing how invention is governed and converted to product ESG, accessibility and inclusion programmes seeking a credible technology voice rather than an activist one Entrepreneurship summits, deep-tech investor events and scale-up programmes across Europe Audience outcomes A working view of how a research prototype becomes a regulated, funded, commercial product A founder’s account of building patent value inside both a multinational and a startup A grounded reference point for what European deep-tech capital, including EIC blended finance, actually requires of a company A clearer sense of where assistive and accessibility technology is going as autonomous driving capabilities scale down to wearables A reset on what social impact looks like when it is a product proposition rather than a corporate programme

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Courtney Caldwell

Building a marketplace from zero is a different discipline from running marketing inside a mature business. Leaders who have only operated inside the enterprise tend to under-invest in supply-side acquisition and over-invest in demand-side spend. The question is how to apply enterprise marketing rigour to early-stage growth without losing the founder economics that make scale-up possible.

Why organisations work with Courtney Caldwell She has run demand generation at both ends of the company lifecycle: inside Oracle’s worldwide digital marketing group and at RightNow Technologies before its $1.45B sale, and again from zero at ShearShare. Few speakers can argue commercial strategy with that lived range. She built and exited a two-sided marketplace in a $500B services category that most enterprise marketers never touch. Beauty and barbering is not adjacent to enterprise SaaS, and her cross-vertical fluency makes her useful to leaders whose growth playbook is too narrow. She is a credible voice on founder economics from the inside, including raising venture capital as a Black woman, scaling through Google Demo Day, YC Fellowship and 500 Startups, and selling under financial pressure. The exit was not a clean Silicon Valley story. One of a small number of speakers who can move a room from enterprise SaaS marketing to gig-economy workforce dynamics in the same talk, because she has operated in both. Biography highlights Cofounder and former CEO of ShearShare, acquired in November 2024 after scaling to over 1,000 cities. Former global director of Oracle’s Worldwide Digital Marketing Strategy & Innovations Group. Former head of digital demand generation and JAPAC field marketing at RightNow Technologies, acquired by Oracle for $1.45B. Inc. magazine 2019 Female Founders 100 honoree; 2019 Ada Lovelace Female Tech Founder of the Year; 2017 L’Oreal USA Women in Digital NEXT Generation Award finalist. 2024 EY Entrepreneurs Access Network cohort member. BBA, SMU Cox School of Business; MBA in Marketing, UT Dallas. Biography Most enterprise marketers have never had to build supply. Inside a mature SaaS business, the funnel exists, the segments are mapped, and the work is to compound what is already there. Building a two-sided marketplace from zero asks for a different skill: acquiring two customers at once, in different verticals, with different motivations, before either side trusts the platform. Courtney Caldwell has done both. At Oracle she was global director of the Worldwide Digital Marketing Strategy and Innovations Group. Before that, she ran digital demand generation and JAPAC field marketing at RightNow Technologies in the run-up to its $1.45B acquisition by Oracle. The discipline she carried out of enterprise software was demand-gen rigour at scale: segmentation, attribution, funnel ownership. She then applied that discipline to a $500B services category that enterprise marketing usually ignores. ShearShare, the salon and barbershop booth rental marketplace she cofounded with Dr. Tye Caldwell, reached more than 1,000 cities and over 70,000 small businesses before being acquired in November 2024. The platform was a Google Demo Day winner, a YC Fellowship and 500 Startups alum, and a 2022 Fast Company World-Changing Ideas honoree. The exit was not the textbook version. ShearShare was sold to a strategic buyer under financial pressure during a dispute with M&T Bank. Caldwell speaks publicly about both halves of the journey, the recognition lists (Inc. Female Founders 100, Ada Lovelace Founder of the Year, L’Oreal Women in Digital, EY Entrepreneurs Access Network) and the harder economics underneath. That candour, paired with a Fortune 500 marketing pedigree, is the unusual combination she brings to a room. Key speaking topics Marketplace growth and two-sided customer acquisition Demand generation and digital marketing at scale Founder economics and venture-backed scale-up Future of work in the experience and gig economy Black women in technology and founder mental health Local startup ecosystems outside Silicon Valley Partnership, parenthood and entrepreneurship Ideal for CMOs and heads of growth at SaaS and consumer platforms reassessing demand-generation discipline. Founders, CEOs and operating partners building or backing two-sided marketplaces and scale-ups. Corporate innovation leads exploring services-vertical platform opportunities outside core tech. Diversity, leadership and ERG programmes commissioning substantive Black-women-in-tech content rather than generic representation talks. Audience outcomes A clearer view of where enterprise demand-gen discipline applies to early-stage marketplace growth, and where it does not. Specific tactics from inside Google Demo Day, YC Fellowship and 500 Startups that translate to corporate venture and intrapreneurship programmes. A frank account of what scaling and exiting a marketplace looks like when the cap table and operating economics are under pressure. A sharper read on the gig and experience economy from someone who operated a platform inside it, not just analysed it.

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Cristiana Pace

Sport and motorsport organisations face hard sustainability questions from regulators, sponsors, and broadcasters, but most still treat ESG as a communications exercise. The gap between net zero pledges, FIA accreditation requirements, and real operating change is widening. Boards now need someone who can take a sustainability strategy and convert it into engineering decisions, supplier choices, and disclosed numbers.

Why organisations work with Cristiana Pace She has translated FIA environmental accreditation, ISO 14001, ISO 20121, and carbon footprint methodologies into delivery work for Williams Racing, Haas, Scuderia AlphaTauri, Silverstone Circuit, and AS Roma. Her Sustainable Motorsport Index is the first independent benchmark of motorsport stakeholders against UN SDGs and ESG criteria, which gives buyers a defensible reference point when their own disclosures are scrutinised. She built a doctoral research base at Coventry University on low-carbon socio-technical transitions in motorsport, so her advice to boards is grounded in evidence, not sector folklore. Enovation Consulting won the 2025 King’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade, the first sports sustainability agency to receive it, an indicator of operational scale across more than 60 organisations worldwide. She speaks credibly to engineers, commercial leadership, and federation governance in the same room, which matters when sustainability decisions cut across all three. Biography highlights Founder and CEO, Enovation Consulting, B Corp certified and FIA environmentally accredited sustainability agency for sport. PhD in Sustainability and Strategic Management, Coventry University; Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Business in Society. First woman to work trackside with the FIA’s technical departments in Formula 1. Former Business Development Manager at Williams Advanced Engineering, where she led work on Formula E battery supply. Member of the FIA Environment and Sustainability Commission and Chair of the eSC Sustainability Commission. Board member of BASIS, the British Association for Sustainable Sport, and Visiting Professor at Bologna Business School. Recognised by The Guardian and the Women’s Engineering Society among the UK’s Top 50 Women in Engineering, 2021. 2025 King’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade, awarded to Enovation Consulting. Biography The motorsport industry has spent two decades building safety as an engineering discipline. Sustainability is the next system to build, and the methods are not yet settled. Cristiana Pace has spent her career inside that transition, first trackside with the FIA, then on battery technology at Williams Advanced Engineering, then in doctoral research on how the sector decarbonises. Enovation Consulting, which she founded in 2018, is the operating expression of that work. The agency advises Formula 1 teams, federations, and circuits on FIA environmental accreditation, ISO 14001 and ISO 20121 certification, carbon footprint calculation, and ESG reporting. Clients include Williams Racing, Haas, Scuderia AlphaTauri, Silverstone Circuit, Motorsport UK, and AS Roma, with services now spanning football, tennis, sailing, and athletics. Her Sustainable Motorsport Index sits behind a lot of that work. It benchmarks motorsport stakeholders against UN SDGs and ESG criteria, using only public disclosures, which puts disclosure pressure on the sector itself. In 2025, Enovation Consulting won the King’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade, the first sports sustainability agency to do so, recognising scale across more than 60 organisations. She holds a PhD from Coventry University on low-carbon socio-technical transitions in motorsport, sits on the FIA Environment and Sustainability Commission, chairs the eSC Sustainability Commission, and serves on the BASIS board. The technical depth means she can sit in front of an engineering team or a federation board and be useful in both rooms. Key speaking topics Sustainability strategy for sport and motorsport ESG reporting and disclosure in sport The decarbonisation of motorsport and the energy transition Technology transfer from motorsport to industry Diversity and STEM in engineering Purpose-driven leadership in high-performance environments Innovation under regulatory and competitive pressure Ideal for Boards and CEOs of sports rightsholders, federations, and clubs facing ESG and net zero scrutiny Heads of sustainability, ESG, and corporate affairs in consumer brands, mobility, and energy companies Senior engineering and operations leaders responsible for translating sustainability commitments into delivery Sponsorship and partnership leadership teams at brands aligning marketing spend with credible sustainability narratives Audience outcomes A clearer view of what credible sustainability looks like once you remove the marketing layer A framework for moving from net zero pledges to disclosed operating data Direct examples of how Formula 1 teams, federations, and circuits are turning ESG into engineering and procurement decisions A sharper sense of where sport sits inside the wider energy transition and what stakeholders will demand next A practical reference point for benchmarking sustainability performance using the Sustainable Motorsport Index

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Csaba Toth

Most teams now mix nationalities, generations, professional backgrounds, and personalities in one room and expect cohesion to follow. It rarely does. Communication breaks down, psychological safety erodes, and leaders are left with diversity on paper but friction in practice.

Why organisations work with Csaba Toth He runs ICQ Global, a people development business with more than 200 licensed partners across 45-plus countries, which means his methods have been pressure-tested in genuinely multicultural settings rather than theorised in one market. The Global DISC model is ICF and CPD-accredited and gives leaders one common language for personality, generation, profession, and nationality differences inside the same team. He measures and benchmarks psychological safety, motivational drivers, and cognitive diversity, so the conversation moves from cultural awareness slogans to specific data leaders can act on. His credential stack is unusually substantive: John Mattone Intelligent Leadership coach, Hofstede Insights Associate Partner, Richard Lewis-certified behavioural consultant, three Master’s degrees and an Executive MBA. He co-authored Uncommon Sense in Unusual Times with contributions from Marshall Goldsmith and John Mattone, a credibility marker for senior HR and L&D buyers familiar with that lineage. Biography highlights Founder of ICQ Global, a people development organisation with over 200 licensed partners across more than 45 countries. Developer of the Global DISC model, an ICF and CPD Standards-accredited intercultural behavioural framework. Author of Uncommon Sense in Unusual Times, with contributions from Marshall Goldsmith and John Mattone. Forbes Coaches Council member and Harvard Business Review Advisory Council member. Hofstede Insights Associate Partner and Richard Lewis Communications-certified cross-cultural trainer. Holds three Master’s degrees (Italy, UK, Hungary) and an Executive MBA from Quantic School of Business and Technology. Biography Diversity strategies fail at the level of daily team interaction. People with different nationalities, professions, generations, and personalities sit in the same meeting, draw different conclusions from the same words, and lose trust in each other long before anyone names the problem. That is the gap Csaba Toth set out to close. He founded ICQ Global to make cognitive and cultural diversity measurable. The company now operates with more than 200 licensed partners across 45-plus countries, and its core asset is the Global DISC model, an ICF and CPD-accredited framework that extends the most widely used behavioural model in business with a layer for cultural intelligence. Leaders get a single language for the differences that actually slow teams down. The credentials behind the work are unusually deep. Toth is certified through John Mattone’s Intelligent Leadership programme, holds Human Synergistics accreditation, is a Hofstede Insights Associate Partner and a Richard Lewis Communications-certified behavioural consultant, with further certification in CBT, NLP, and Positive Intelligence. He sits on the Forbes Coaches Council and the Harvard Business Review Advisory Council, holds three Master’s degrees from Italy, the UK and Hungary, and an Executive MBA from Quantic School of Business and Technology. His book, Uncommon Sense in Unusual Times, published with contributions from Marshall Goldsmith and John Mattone, sets out how leaders stay relevant when the people around them increasingly do not think, decide, or communicate the same way they do. That is the practical question he answers in a room. Key speaking topics Cultural intelligence and the Global DISC model Psychological safety in multicultural teams Cognitive diversity and team performance Inclusive leadership across generations and nationalities Communication breakdown in global organisations Motivational drivers and behavioural difference Coaching and people development at scale Ideal for CHROs, Heads of L&D, and Heads of Talent leading global or multicultural workforces. DEI and Inclusion leads moving past awareness work into measurable team outcomes. Leadership development and coaching faculties inside multinational businesses. Senior leaders of cross-border teams where communication and trust have stalled. Audience outcomes A common vocabulary for cultural, generational, and personality differences that a team can use the next day. A clearer read on where psychological safety is breaking down inside their own teams and why. The Global DISC lens applied to a real internal dynamic the audience already recognises. Specific behavioural shifts leaders can make when working across cultures, professions, and generations. A more honest assessment of how cognitive diversity is helping or hurting performance in their organisation.