Naomi Sesay
Inclusion programmes have multiplied. Trust in them has not. Boards now face a sharper question: how do you produce measurable inclusion outcomes inside commissioning, hiring and team behaviour, without slipping back into compliance theatre or political signalling that alienates the people you need on side.
Naomi Sesay is a former Head of Creative Diversity at Channel 4 who helps organisations turn inclusion from a policy commitment into an operating practice that holds up under scrutiny.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Naomi Sesay
- She has run inclusion from inside the commissioning machine of a major UK broadcaster, not as an external consultant, so her advice carries the weight of decisions she has actually had to make and defend.
- Her training portfolio inside FTSE 100 clients and at Google, YouTube, NBC Universal, Deloitte and Lloyds Bank means she has tested her approach against the realities of regulated, scaled corporate environments.
- She frames inclusion as a leadership capability tied to commercial output, drawing on a 30-year broadcasting career where audience, talent and brand decisions were never separable.
- She brings a builder’s perspective on equity through her Sierra Leone smart-city project, which gives keynotes a concrete reference point beyond the standard DEI canon.
Biography highlights
- Head of Creative Diversity, Channel 4, 2022 to 2025; previously On Screen Diversity Executive and Interim Head of Diversity & Inclusion at the broadcaster.
- Earlier television career as Producer, Director and Presenter at MTV News, and among the early producers on Channel 4’s Big Brother.
- Former Head of Innovation and Diversity, Media Trust.
- Senior Lead Trainer in Race Fluency and Inclusive Leadership with APS Intelligence, delivering programmes inside FTSE 100 organisations.
- Training and keynote work for Google, YouTube, NBC Universal, Amazon, Deloitte, Lloyds Bank, Warner Bros, Viacom, UN Women, Harvard Medical School and the Met Police.
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts; author of The Human Upgrade: The Power to Create Your Future; leads a female-centric sustainable smart-city project in Sierra Leone.
Biography
Most diversity work in large organisations is built by people who have never had to make a commissioning decision, hire a senior leader, or sign off a brand campaign. The view from inside those rooms is different. It is harder to be theoretical when the choice is in front of you and the budget is real.
Naomi Sesay spent three years as Head of Creative Diversity at Channel 4, with two earlier spells at the broadcaster as On Screen Diversity Executive and Interim Head of Diversity & Inclusion. Her remit covered commissioning, training, talent and the broadcaster’s relationships with culturally and ethnically diverse creative communities across the UK. Before Channel 4 she ran innovation and diversity at Media Trust, and worked at APS Intelligence as a senior trainer in race fluency and inclusive leadership for FTSE 100 clients.
Her television career started at MTV News during the channel’s European peak as a producer, director and presenter, and continued through one of the original production teams on Channel 4’s Big Brother. That broadcasting grounding shapes the way she talks to corporate audiences. Inclusion is not framed as a values statement; it is framed as an editorial, hiring and commercial discipline that decides which work gets made and which people get heard.
Outside the broadcaster she is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, author of The Human Upgrade: The Power to Create Your Future, and leads a network of architects and investors developing a female-centric sustainable smart city in Sierra Leone. The combination gives her keynotes for Google, Deloitte, UN Women, Harvard Medical School and others a practical edge: she has built things, not only advised on them.
Key speaking topics
- Inclusive leadership
- Diversity, equity and inclusion in practice
- Cultural intelligence
- Creative industries and representation
- Emotional intelligence for senior teams
- Storytelling and human connection
- Social enterprise and equitable city design
Ideal for
- CHROs, chief people officers and heads of DEI under pressure to show operating impact, not statements.
- Boards and ExCos reassessing inclusion strategy after political shifts and ESG scrutiny.
- Commissioning, editorial and creative leaders in media, entertainment, publishing and advertising.
- Senior leadership programmes inside FTSE 100 and equivalent corporates rebuilding inclusive leadership capability.
Audience outcomes
- A clearer test for distinguishing inclusion that changes decisions from inclusion that performs them.
- Specific language for talking to senior leaders about race, identity and culture without retreating into either jargon or platitude.
- Working examples from broadcasting, FTSE 100 corporates and global brand environments that translate into the audience’s own commissioning, hiring and team practices.
- A way to connect inclusive leadership to commercial output, audience reach and talent retention rather than to compliance reporting.
Talks
A keynote on the unconscious patterns that block real change inside organisations, drawing on emotional, cultural and neurological habits that shape decisions.
Key takeaways:
- Why diversity programmes stall once the visible work is done
- How everyday decision habits quietly reinforce homogeneity
- Practical interrogation routines leaders can apply to their own teams
A leadership keynote on the specific behaviours, language and decisions that make inclusive leadership operationally real.
Key takeaways:
- What inclusive leadership looks like inside live commercial pressure
- How to lead diverse teams without flattening difference
- The leadership behaviours that distinguish performance from posture
A keynote on storytelling as the connective tissue of inclusion, drawn from a broadcasting career in news, entertainment and commissioning.
Key takeaways:
- How narrative shapes who is seen and heard inside organisations
- What broadcasting can teach corporate leaders about audience and voice
- Using story to make inclusion legible to senior decision-makers