Hayley Barnard
Diversity, inclusion and unconscious bias expert and thought leader
With a specialism in strategy development, communication planning and execution, Hayley’s passion is to help improve inclusiveness, reduce inequality and bring competitive advantage to organisations through the progression and delivery of innovative Diversity & Inclusion strategies.
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Hayley Barnard's 2025 biography
Meet Hayley Barnard
One of the most prolific and sought-after DEI speakers in Europe, Hayley Barnard is a thought leader and practitioner specialising in topics including gender balanced workplaces, inclusive leadership, and unconscious bias. Hayley has delivered keynotes to over 320 companies across the globe, inspiring audiences to DEI transformation at Mercedes-Benz, Capital One, Deloitte, Essity, HSBC, Altrad, and many more.
Hayley’s speaking style is charismatic, warm, humorous and down-to-earth. Whether discussing the macro-economics of DEI and its impact on business growth, affinity bias and how to stop it in its tracks, or when ‘workplace banter’ goes too far, she addresses complex DEI topics using real-life examples and quantified research. Employees, managers and leadership teams are left with a clear understanding of the importance of embracing inclusive practices and also – most importantly – the tools to implement them.
As a practising consultant and CEO of one of the most respected DEI consultancies in the world, Hayley is uniquely placed to speak on up-to-the-minute DEI issues. She regularly advises on DEI best practice across multiple industries – from global banking brands to household-name retailers – with recent clients including Specsavers, HSBC, Matalan, Center Parcs and Lidl. Whatever the topic or audience, Hayley will precisely tailor her speech to meet your organisation’s needs, ensuring a relatable and lasting impact.
Having co-led a team of women on an Arctic Circle expedition, swum 46 km around Manhattan Island and completed ‘the Everest of marathon swimming’ – the English channel – Hayley knows a thing or two about inspiring audiences and is also a sought-after motivational speaker. She brings this personal experience to every keynote speech and, combined with her extensive DEI and business expertise, the result is powerful speeches which ignite positive change and instil the principle: diversity isn’t about difference, it’s about excellence.
Hayley Barnard's 2025 talks & topics
Future Proofing Leadership Skills
Developing leaders to be more inclusive in their leadership and management style is essential for any organisation that wants to see significant progress in diversity and inclusion (D&I). Yet many leaders have D&I fatigue, they either see it as not their problem or that it is simply concerned with positive discrimination, specifically around gender and ethnicity. They don’t have a good understanding of why inclusion is good for them and good for business or what they should do about it.
This session aims to address that. Using inspiring ‘best practice’ stories combined with the latest research including:
- How D&I can help drive innovation and business results;
- Why megatrends in a diversity of markets, talent, customers, risk and ideas require a collaborative and inclusive response.
- How inclusion and collaboration can be a fundamental driver of one’s leadership style;
- What does inclusive leadership look like? How to future-proof your leadership.
- What the barriers to inclusion are (such as unconscious bias) and what you as a leader can do to mitigate their impact.
- How you can shape, take ownership of, and be a role model for your organisation’s D&I strategy.
Practical Inclusive Leadership
Suitable for senior executives and people managers, this session helps leaders appreciate the solid business case for a more collaborative and inclusive style of leadership. Leaders explore ‘what’s it like to be on the other side of you?’ Traits of an inclusive leader are shared and used to inform what actions or small changes need to be made in a leadership style that could have a significant impact on inclusion and drive diversity.
- Diversity is a reality but inclusion is a choice and therefore requires action.
- An updated model of leadership – leading from the centre tapping into the wisdom of the crowd.
- Traits of an inclusive leader: Collaboration/Cognizant of Bias/Curious.
- Various exercises to help delegates to explore current leadership style in relation to inclusion.
- Small changes, big impact to build inclusion via delegates’ communication style / recruitment practices / how meetings are run / mentoring / sponsorship / innovation / customer & supplier interaction.
Biased, Who me?
A light-hearted introduction to unconscious bias which works well for general sessions in a full company conference as it appeals to all levels of employees.
- What is unconscious bias?
- Why and how we all have them.
- How they can conflict with who we are and how we want to be.
- How we can catch ourselves being unconsciously biased.
- Actions we can take to outsmart bias.
ESG: how D&I is part of the ESG agenda
Unconscious Bias / Implicit Bias (US)
Leading Culturally Diverse Teams
Inclusive Recruitment (v. popular)
What is Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Overcoming Imposter Syndrome
The Business Case for DE&I
Inspirational female speaker for Women’s Networks and events
DE&I and Governance
Gender Equality at work
Neuro-diversity in the workplace