DEI (Mångfald, jämlikhet och inkludering) speakers

Why organisations work with Damian Pelliccione They built Revry from a single product gap, no LGBTQ+ app on Apple TV at launch, into a platform with more than five million monthly active viewers across 130+ countries and distribution on Samsung, Roku, Vizio, Comcast Xfinity and Cox Communications. Revry reached cash-flow positive status as a niche-first streamer at a moment when the broader streaming industry was contracting. That is a credible answer to boards asking whether audience-led strategy can actually pay. A Goldman Sachs Black and Latinx accelerator graduate and Goldman Sachs “Top 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs” honouree, with first-hand experience of raising capital as a minority-owned founder against the actual mechanics, not the rhetoric, of inclusive investment. Creator of the GLAAD-recognised series “Drag Latina,” giving them a working understanding of how representation translates into content that audiences and awards bodies treat as serious. Brings a non-binary executive perspective into rooms where most senior speakers do not, useful for leadership teams who want substantive content on identity and inclusion rather than rehearsed talking points. Biography highlights CEO and co-founder of Revry, the LGBTQ+ global streaming network, with distribution on Samsung, Vizio, Roku, Apple, Comcast Xfinity, Cox Communications, Google and TiVo. Goldman Sachs “Top 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs” honouree and graduate of the Goldman Sachs Black and Latinx 2020 accelerator. Named to Business Insider’s “Top 16 Power Player Execs in AD Video Streaming Space.” Featured on the Out 100 list and recipient of the West Hollywood Rainbow Key Award. Creator of “Drag Latina,” recipient of a Special Recognition Award at the 35th GLAAD Media Awards in 2024. Adjunct Professor at Columbia College Chicago, with guest lectures at USC, Los Angeles Film School and BAU University Istanbul. Biography When the new Apple TV launched, there were zero LGBTQ+ apps on the platform. That observation became Revry, now a streaming network with more than five million monthly active viewers across 130+ countries and carriage on Samsung, Vizio, Roku, Apple, Comcast Xfinity and Cox Communications. Revry is a useful case study for any leadership team wrestling with how to build a defensible commercial position. The platform is certified minority-owned and operated, was founded by four intersectional co-founders, and has reached cash-flow positive operations while larger streamers have spent the last two years cutting content and reorganising around losses. Audience-led economics, treated seriously, turn out to scale. Damian Pelliccione has raised capital from Elevate Capital, Backstage Capital, Collab Capital and LOUD Capital, graduated from the Goldman Sachs Black and Latinx 2020 accelerator and was named to Goldman Sachs “Top 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs.” They were named one of Business Insider’s top sixteen ad-supported streaming executives and featured on the Out 100. They are also the creator of “Drag Latina,” which received a Special Recognition Award at the 35th GLAAD Media Awards in 2024. Pelliccione is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia College Chicago and has lectured at USC, Los Angeles Film School and BAU University Istanbul. For senior buyers, the most useful frame is this: a founder who has converted an under-served audience into a profitable global platform, and can speak to commercial, content and inclusion questions with the same first-hand authority. Key speaking topics LGBTQ+ media and the economics of niche-first streaming Building commercially defensible businesses around under-served audiences Fundraising as a minority-owned founder CTV, OTT and FAST platform strategy Inclusion, identity and non-binary executive leadership Gen Z and Millennial audience behaviour in digital media Ideal for Media, entertainment and streaming leadership teams CMOs and brand leadership reviewing audience strategy and inclusive marketing investment Founders, investors and accelerator cohorts focused on minority-owned scale-up DEIB councils and ERG leadership looking for content from a working CEO, not a consultant Audience outcomes A concrete reference case for how an under-served audience can become a defensible platform business A view of CTV, OTT and FAST distribution from a founder who has negotiated carriage with the major operators A grounded read on what minority-owned fundraising actually looks like, beyond the public messaging A working executive’s account of non-binary leadership inside corporate media Examples of how representation translates into content audiences and awards bodies take seriously

Why organisations work with Dan O’Neill He is the first openly LGBTQ+ presenter to front a major-network wildlife series, which gives inclusion programmes a credible external voice from a STEM and field science career, not a corporate one. His material is built from named expeditions with the Snow Leopard Trust, Philippine Eagle Foundation, and Hyderabad Tiger Conservation Society, so the resilience and decision-making content is grounded in specific places and stakes. He carries a working scientific credential, an Honorary Research Associate role and PhD candidacy at Bristol Veterinary School, which lets sustainability and conservation themes land with audiences who are sceptical of branded ESG narrative. He has been recognised by Attitude Magazine as a 101 Trailblazer in STEM in 2025, which gives Pride, ERG, and inclusion programming a current and verifiable name rather than a legacy one. Biography highlights Host of Giants (Curiosity Stream, 2023), Snow Leopards with Dan O’Neill (Love Nature, Sky TV), and Zombie Animals (National Geographic, 2024) Co-presenter, Tiger Island (BBC One, 2026) First Explorer in Residence, Snow Leopard Trust Honorary Research Associate and Lecturer, University of Bristol; PhD candidate, Bristol Veterinary School Wildscreen Panda Award nominee for Snow Leopards with Dan O’Neill Attitude Magazine 101 Trailblazers, STEM category lead, 2025 Biography Most large organisations now have an inclusion policy that reads well on paper. What they often lack is a visible external figure from a technical or scientific career who can hold the room without flattening the topic into a wellness session. That gap is the territory O’Neill works in. He came to public attention as the first openly LGBTQ+ presenter to host a wildlife series for a major network, Giants on Curiosity Stream in 2023. The work since has built out, with Snow Leopards with Dan O’Neill for Love Nature and Sky TV, Zombie Animals for National Geographic, and the BBC One co-presenter role on Tiger Island. Snow Leopards was nominated for a Wildscreen Panda Award. The scientific credential is current, not retired. O’Neill is an Honorary Research Associate and Lecturer at the University of Bristol and a PhD candidate at Bristol Veterinary School, working on secretive carnivores and the field technology used to monitor them. He was the Snow Leopard Trust’s first Explorer in Residence and has run expedition work across Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, India, Mexico, Guyana, and the Yucatan. For corporate audiences this combination matters. Inclusion content delivered by a working field biologist sits differently in the room from inclusion content delivered as a topic in its own right. Attitude Magazine named him a 101 Trailblazer in 2025, leading the STEM category, which is the relevant credential when an organisation is staffing a Pride keynote or an ERG event with someone whose authority is built outside the corporate world. Key speaking topics LGBTQ+ visibility in STEM and field science Resilience and decision-making in remote environments Conservation and biodiversity storytelling Sustainability framed through field reporting, not policy Expedition leadership under physical and logistical pressure Wildlife filmmaking and the craft of translating science to audiences Ideal for Heads of DEI, ERG leads, and Pride event organisers commissioning external speakers with a credential outside the corporate sector CSR and sustainability teams looking for conservation storytelling that does not lean on branded ESG language Internal conference programmes building a culture or values strand around visibility and resilience Audiences in science, technology, and engineering functions where a working scientist lands more credibly than a generalist motivational speaker Audience outcomes A current example of what authentic visibility looks like in a non-corporate STEM career Named field stories from snow leopard, tiger, and jaguar work that anchor abstract inclusion or resilience points in concrete terrain A vocabulary for talking about sustainability that draws on biodiversity fieldwork rather than ESG framework language A clearer view of how external storytelling moves a complex scientific subject inside a general audience

Why organisations work with Dave Steele He turns an abstract inclusion agenda into a room of people who have felt something specific. Poetry, song and personal testimony land with audiences in a way a policy deck cannot. He brings a named platform behind the message: the Stand By Me RP community he founded in 2015 is one of the largest RP groups in the world, and his trilogy topped poetry charts in the US and Australia. Scientific and medical institutions trust him to carry the patient and lived-experience voice, from the National Eye Institute at NIH to a Roche ophthalmology feature and the American Foundation for the Blind. Few speakers on disability reach clinical and research audiences at that level. Brand and product work with Apple, Meta, Audi, Kellogg’s, Navilens and OrCam gives him direct fluency in how large companies are approaching accessibility in practice, not just in principle. He delivers as a performer as well as a speaker, which makes him suited to conference mainstage, awards nights and internal culture events where a standard keynote would not move the room. Biography highlights Author of the “Stand By Me RP” poetry trilogy (2016 to 2018); Volume I reached number one poetic release in the US and Australia in its first week. Founder of the Stand By Me RP online community (2015), one of the largest Retinitis Pigmentosa support groups on social media. Subject of the BBC documentary “The Film I’ll Never See” (BBC Our Lives, 2025). Emcee of the 24th Annual Helen Keller Achievement Awards, American Foundation for the Blind; opened the National Eye Institute Intramural Program retreat at NIH (2024). Gave a Special Presentation at the inaugural Personalized RegenMed Forum, hosted by biotech company Cellino in Cambridge, MA, sharing his experience of sight loss through poetry with an audience of regenerative-medicine developers, clinicians and researchers. Performed a commissioned poem at the Paralympic Heritage Flame Lighting Ceremony at Stoke Mandeville, birthplace of the Paralympic movement, ahead of Paris 2024. Trustee of Henshaws; featured by Roche as a change-maker in ophthalmology; collaborator with Apple, Meta, Audi, Kellogg’s, Navilens and OrCam. Biography Most inclusion work still treats disability as an HR category. A poem, delivered in a room of executives, does something a training module cannot. It gives the audience a few minutes inside someone else’s life, and that is what Dave Steele’s work depends on. Steele was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa in 2014. He had been a singer and a car salesman; the diagnosis ended both careers and left him at home in Manchester with four children and mounting debt. In 2015 he started a Facebook page called “Stand By Me RP,” named after a song he had rewritten for a support group. It became one of the largest RP communities on social media and the seed of everything that followed. The poetry came next. His “Stand By Me RP” trilogy, released annually between 2016 and 2018, reached the top of poetry charts in the United States and Australia, and he has since written more than 700 poems and songs about sight loss. That reach is why leading research and clinical institutions invite him in: he emceed the 24th Helen Keller Achievement Awards for the American Foundation for the Blind, opened the National Eye Institute’s Intramural Program retreat at NIH in April 2024 at the invitation of its scientific director, and has been featured by Roche as a change-maker in ophthalmology. The organisational value is different from a typical DEI speaker. Steele does not offer a framework. He offers a specific voice that leaders can put in front of their people when they want an inclusion conversation to stop feeling procedural, supported by active work with Apple, Meta, Audi, Kellogg’s, Navilens and OrCam on how accessibility actually shows up in product and brand. Key speaking topics Disability inclusion and lived experience Sight loss and visual impairment advocacy Resilience after a life-changing diagnosis Accessibility in product, brand and workplace Poetry and storytelling as communication Mental health and identity through chronic illness Patient voice in medical and research settings Ideal for CHRO, DEI and employee experience leaders running disability inclusion or accessibility programmes Healthcare, life sciences, pharmaceutical and ophthalmology audiences (clinicians, researchers and patient-experience teams) wanting an authentic patient voice Awards nights, conference mainstage slots and internal culture events that need a performer as well as a speaker Consumer, tech and retail brands working on accessibility in product and communications Audience outcomes A first-hand account of what a progressive sight loss diagnosis does to work, family and identity A sharper sense of where stated inclusion policies diverge from daily employee experience Specific references from brand and product work with companies like Apple, Meta and OrCam on accessibility in practice Poetry and spoken-word performance that anchors the message in memory long after the event A reframing of disability as an active contribution to an organisation, not a compliance line

Why organisations work with David Aguilar He holds a Guinness World Record for the first functional LEGO prosthetic arm and has built five iterations, MK-I through MK-V, giving any conversation on inclusion a concrete engineering artefact rather than a general narrative. He translates a congenital condition, Poland syndrome, into a design problem and a product line under the Hand Solo brand, which reframes accessibility as a market and a capability question for R&D, HR, and product teams. He is a UIC Barcelona bioengineering graduate and recipient of the university’s Bioengineering Innovation Prize, so the engineering credibility is not improvised around the story. He carries unusual cultural reach for an inventor: winner of LEGO Masters France, subject of the Filmax documentary Mr. Hand Solo (Boston Sci-Fi Festival, Best Documentary Feature), and a face of LEGO’s #RebuildTheWorld global campaign. He speaks in English and Spanish and pairs well with technology, healthcare, and culture audiences who want an innovation voice that is not another Silicon Valley founder. Biography highlights Guinness World Records title holder, first functional LEGO prosthetic arm (MK-I); Guinness Hall of Fame inductee. Bachelor’s degree in Bioengineering from Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (UIC Barcelona); recipient of the UIC Bioengineering Innovation Prize, 2018. Author of Piece by Piece: How I Built My Life (No Instructions Required), with Ferran Aguilar; Amazon Crossing (English), Penguin Random House (Spanish). Subject of Mr. Hand Solo (Filmax, 2021), Best Documentary Feature, Boston Science Fiction Film Festival. Winner, LEGO Masters France. Featured by Great Big Story (CNN Worldwide), WIPO Magazine, and in LEGO’s #RebuildTheWorld global campaign. Biography Poland syndrome is a rare congenital condition that prevents the full development of muscles on one side of the body. David Aguilar was born with it, and built his first LEGO prosthesis at nine. By eighteen, working from a LEGO Technic Rescue Helicopter set, he had built MK-I, the first functional LEGO prosthetic arm that Guinness has recognised. The work has continued in versions, not anecdotes. MK-I to MK-V move from mechanical grabber to motorised five-finger hand controlled by residual-arm movement. He has since built an arm for an eight-year-old and launched Hand Solo as a brand aimed at accessible, affordable prosthetics. UIC Barcelona awarded him its Bioengineering Innovation Prize and a place to complete the degree. The story travels because it behaves like both engineering and culture. The documentary Mr. Hand Solo won Best Documentary Feature at the Boston Science Fiction Film Festival. His memoir Piece by Piece, co-written with his father Ferran, sits on both trade and children’s lists. LEGO cast him in the global #RebuildTheWorld campaign, and he won LEGO Masters France on primetime television. For serious organisations, the relevance is practical. He gives inclusion teams a product, gives R&D teams a user who is also a builder, and gives leadership audiences a single question to take back to their own operating model: who inside this company is quietly solving a problem we never designed around, and what would it take to give them the bricks? Key speaking topics Inclusive innovation and design Accessibility and assistive technology Bioengineering and prosthetics STEAM education and youth invention Resilience through engineering Purpose-driven entrepreneurship Ideal for CHROs and heads of DEI building an inclusion agenda that produces outputs, not statements. R&D, product, and healthcare leaders working on accessibility as a market rather than a compliance question. STEAM education programmes, universities, and youth-focused foundations. Corporate culture and internal-innovation audiences where the brief calls for a builder rather than a consultant. Audience outcomes A working example of how a constraint becomes a product, not a motivational metaphor. A sharper brief for what accessible design looks like when the user is the engineer. A named set of artefacts (MK-I to MK-V, Hand Solo) that teams can reference back in their own work. A reset on what inclusion programmes should produce, measured in things built rather than campaigns run. A concrete answer to what young engineers inside the organisation might do with permission and materials.

Why organisations work with David Lammy Direct, recent experience of conducting British foreign policy at Cabinet level, including engagement with the Trump administration, the EU, China and the Ukraine response, which is rare in a speaker market dominated by retired diplomats and academic commentators. Authored the Lammy Review, the independent UK government review on race in the criminal justice system that produced 35 recommendations and remains a working reference for government and the Prison Reform Trust years after publication. Wrote «Tribes: A Search for Belonging in a Divided Society», a published argument on identity, polarisation and what holds plural societies together, which gives audiences more than a politician’s stump speech on division. Operates across justice, foreign affairs and domestic equity, so a single conversation can move from US relations to workforce inclusion without losing depth in either. Visiting academic appointments at LSE and SOAS sit alongside the Cabinet role, which signals that the analysis is grounded in legal and policy substance rather than soundbite. Biography highlights Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice of the United Kingdom since September 2025. Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom from July 2024 to September 2025. Member of Parliament for Tottenham since 2000; admitted to the Privy Council in 2008. Author of the 2017 Lammy Review for HM Government on BAME outcomes in the criminal justice system. Author of «Tribes: A Search for Belonging in a Divided Society» and «Out of the Ashes: Britain after the Riots», both published by Hachette UK. First Black Briton to study at Harvard Law School (LLM, 1997); called to the bar at Lincoln’s Inn, 1994. Visiting Professor in Practice, LSE Department of Law; Visiting Lecturer, SOAS. Biography The conduct of British foreign policy in 2024 and 2025 ran through one office. As Foreign Secretary, David Lammy handled the UK response to the war in Ukraine, the war in Gaza, the second Trump administration and a recalibrated relationship with the European Union, before being moved in September 2025 to Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice. Few speakers can describe how governments make those decisions, because few have made them. That seniority sits on a long parliamentary record. Elected for Tottenham in 2000 at the age of 27, Lammy held ministerial roles in higher education, culture and skills under the last Labour government, and was admitted to the Privy Council in 2008. The constituency itself, scene of the 2011 riots, shaped his book «Out of the Ashes: Britain after the Riots» and his work on policing, justice and inequality. In 2017 he authored the Lammy Review, the independent government review of how Black, Asian and minority ethnic people are treated in the criminal justice system. Its 35 recommendations and its costing of disproportionality at over 309 million pounds a year remain a working reference for ministers and reform bodies. «Tribes: A Search for Belonging in a Divided Society», published the following year, sets out a wider thesis on identity, polarisation and what plural societies need to hold together. The credentials are unusually broad for a frontline politician. Harvard Law School (LLM, 1997), called to the bar at Lincoln’s Inn, visiting professor at LSE, visiting lecturer at SOAS. Audiences get a Cabinet minister who can argue the legal and historical substance of what he is describing, not only the politics. Key speaking topics UK foreign policy and the transatlantic relationship Geopolitical risk and political volatility Justice, the rule of law and constitutional reform Race, identity and social cohesion Tribalism and polarisation in plural societies UK domestic politics and public policy Leadership in fractured political environments Ideal for Boards and executive committees stress-testing geopolitical, regulatory and political-risk assumptions. Chief sustainability, public affairs and government relations leaders working at the policy interface. Chief people officers and CHROs working on inclusion, cohesion and the politics of identity at work. General counsel and chief risk officers tracking justice reform, rule of law and sanctions exposure. Audience outcomes A current read of UK and US policy direction from someone who has sat across the table from the principals. A clearer view of how government actually weighs sanctions, alliances and domestic politics in foreign policy decisions. A sharper frame for talking about identity, race and cohesion inside organisations without defaulting to slogans. Specific named reference points (the Lammy Review, «Tribes») that audiences can take back into their own policy and people work.

Why organisations work with David Weir A track record of winning at the highest level across two decades and seven Paralympic Games. Few speakers can draw on that span of sustained elite output when talking to a leadership team about consistency. Four gold medals in nine days at London 2012, on home ground, under the closest possible scrutiny. The story behind that fortnight is a serious case study in preparing for peak moments. Direct, lived authority on inclusion. The Weir Archer Academy, co-founded with coach Jenny Archer, is an operating organisation that gets young disabled athletes into sport, not a cause he lends a name to. A career that includes quitting the sport after Atlanta 1996 and returning. That arc gives the resilience content real texture rather than the usual highlight reel. Biography highlights Six Paralympic gold medals (two at Beijing 2008, four at London 2012) and ten Paralympic medals in total across Games from Atlanta 1996 to Paris 2024. Eight-time winner of the London Marathon men’s wheelchair race. Appointed CBE in the 2013 New Year Honours, MBE in 2009. Author of “Weirwolf: My Story”, published by Constable and Robinson in 2013 with David Bond. Co-founder of the Weir Archer Academy at Kingsmeadow, Kingston, launched April 2013. Inducted into the Stoke Mandeville Hall of Fame in 2014. Biography Four gold medals in nine days at the London 2012 Paralympics, 800m, 1500m, 5000m and marathon, put Weir at the centre of the most watched disability sport event ever staged. He won on home ground in front of a British crowd that had, by the end of those Games, a different frame of reference for what Paralympic sport was. The arc before that is what gives the story weight. Weir made his Paralympic debut at Atlanta in 1996 at seventeen, came away unimpressed, and quit the sport. He came back, built a partnership with coach Jenny Archer that still runs, and compiled six Paralympic golds and eight London Marathon wins across more than two decades at the top of T54 wheelchair racing. The public work beyond racing is substantive. “Weirwolf: My Story”, written with journalist David Bond and published in 2013, is an unvarnished account of racing, disability, and the training regime behind sustained elite output. The Weir Archer Academy, co-founded the same year at Kingsmeadow in Kingston, exists to get the next generation of disabled athletes into sport rather than to decorate a Paralympian’s post-career CV. Weir retired from Paralympic competition after Paris 2024, closing a run of seven Games. He was appointed CBE in 2013 and inducted into the Stoke Mandeville Hall of Fame in 2014. The corporate audience gets a speaker whose material on performance under pressure, coming back from a year that went wrong, and inclusion inside elite sport is drawn from the record, not constructed around it. Key speaking topics Resilience and comeback after setback Peak performance under pressure Sustained excellence across a long career Disability, inclusion and changing public attitudes Coach and athlete partnerships Goal setting over multi-year cycles Ideal for CHROs and inclusion leads building disability and accessibility into workforce strategy Sales and commercial leadership kick-offs framed around performance under pressure Sports industry, governing body and event organiser conferences Employee network and wellbeing programme events, particularly around mental health and sustained performance Audience outcomes A sharper sense of what consistency at the top actually costs, told through two decades of T54 racing A usable frame for recovering from a setback that does not resolve on its own timetable Specific detail on preparing for a single high-visibility moment, drawn from London 2012 A grounded view of disability inclusion from inside elite sport, rather than from policy language Material on coach and athlete trust that transfers to senior manager and team relationships

Why organisations work with Debbie Wosskow Three exits as founding CEO across PR, the sharing economy, and the women’s network category, giving boards a rare interlocutor who has personally taken capital, scaled a team, and sold the business. Co-Chair of the UK government’s Invest in Women Taskforce, which closed over £255m of committed capital for female founders in November 2024, the largest pool of its kind globally. Author of the 2014 government review “Unlocking the Sharing Economy”, the regulatory frame that legitimised platforms including Airbnb and Zipcar in the UK market. Operates inside the institutions that allocate capital and reputation: Senior Advisor at McKinsey, Non-Executive Director of Channel 4, Mayor of London’s Business Advisory Board. Co-author with Anna Jones of “Believe. Build. Become” (Penguin, 2019), the playbook that emerged from the AllBright Academy and continues to anchor her keynote material on women in leadership. Biography highlights Founder and exited CEO of three businesses: Mantra (sold to Loewy Group), Love Home Swap (sold to Wyndham Destination Networks, $53m, 2017) and AllBright (co-founded with Anna Jones, exited 2022). Co-Chair, Invest in Women Taskforce, appointed by Chancellor Rachel Reeves. Non-Executive Director, Channel 4, since January 2024. Senior Advisor, McKinsey & Company. OBE for services to business; Freedom of the City of London. Author of “Believe. Build. Become” (Penguin, 2019) with Anna Jones, and the UK government’s “Unlocking the Sharing Economy” review. Biography The UK economy loses roughly £250bn a year because women start and scale businesses at a fraction of the rate of men. Debbie Wosskow has spent two decades building inside that gap, first as a founder and now as the operator who sits at the table where institutional capital is reassigned. The Invest in Women Taskforce she co-chairs closed over £255m of committed funding for female founders in November 2024, the largest dedicated pool of its kind anywhere. Her authority on the topic is not theoretical. Wosskow founded and sold Mantra in her twenties, built Love Home Swap into a subscription business that Wyndham Destination Networks bought for $53m in 2017, and co-founded AllBright with Anna Jones in 2016, exiting in 2022. Each business was venture-backed and each exit was completed under her as CEO. Government and regulators use her as a translator between policy and operating reality. She wrote the 2014 review “Unlocking the Sharing Economy” for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the document that shaped how the UK regulates platforms including Airbnb and Zipcar. She now sits as Non-Executive Director of Channel 4, Senior Advisor to McKinsey & Company, and Executive Chair of The Better Menopause, with a board seat on the Mayor of London’s Business Advisory Board. For senior audiences, the proposition is specific: an operator who has built and sold three companies, written the rules for one of the largest new market categories of the last decade, and now controls one of the most consequential pools of growth capital aimed at women in the UK. Her co-authored Penguin title “Believe. Build. Become” remains the public expression of that argument. Key speaking topics Female entrepreneurship and access to capital Scaling and exiting venture-backed businesses The sharing economy and platform regulation Women in leadership and the AllBright thesis Investing in women as economic strategy Building and selling businesses at pace Boardroom voice for entrepreneurs Ideal for Boards and ExCos commissioning a serious operator voice on female founders, capital allocation, and the economics of inclusion. CEOs, CFOs and investment committees rethinking how growth capital reaches female-led businesses. Financial services, professional services and corporate venture audiences seeking a credible UK policy and operator perspective. Female leadership networks and executive development programmes within FTSE-listed and global organisations. Audience outcomes A clearer operator account of what scaling and exiting a venture-backed business actually requires, drawn from three completed exits. A working understanding of the £255m Invest in Women Taskforce model and what it signals for corporate capital strategy. The argument and the evidence base behind investing in female founders as a growth lever, not a CSR line. Practical perspectives from “Believe. Build. Become” on building career and leadership capital as a woman in a senior commercial role. A direct read on how Westminster, the City and corporate boards are currently moving on female entrepreneurship.

Why organisations work with Deeyah Khan She has spent years in rooms with jihadis, neo-Nazis, and honour-killing perpetrators and come out with a practical method for dialogue under hostility, which transfers directly to how senior leaders handle conflict inside their own organisations. Her authority on polarisation is earned, not theorised. The films (Jihad, White Right: Meeting the Enemy, America’s War on Abortion) are the primary source, and they sit behind two Emmys, two Peabodys, a BAFTA, and an RTS. She was appointed the first UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Artistic Freedom and Creativity, a signal that her work is taken seriously at the level of global institutions, not just media. She gives leadership teams something rare in DEI and culture content: a repeatable approach to listening across difference that holds up when the stakes are real and the room is hostile. Biography highlights Two Emmy Awards and two Peabody Awards for documentary filmmaking. BAFTA winner (America’s War on Abortion) and BAFTA nominee (Jihad: A Story of the Others; White Right: Meeting the Enemy). First UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Artistic Freedom and Creativity, appointed 2016. Founder of Fuuse, a media and arts company centring women, minorities, and third-culture voices; founder of sister-hood, a platform for women of Muslim heritage. Recipient of the Ossietzky Prize (Norwegian PEN), the University of Oslo Human Rights Award, and the Peer Gynt Prize awarded by the Parliament of Norway. TED speaker on the radicalisation of young Muslims in Europe. Biography Most organisations treat polarisation as a communications problem. Deeyah Khan treats it as a listening problem, and she has the footage to prove the distinction matters. Her documentary work has put her across the table from neo-Nazis, jihadis, and the families of honour-killing victims, and the method she built in those rooms is what senior leaders now ask her to bring into theirs. The body of work is specific. Banaz: A Love Story won her a first Emmy and Peabody for documenting the honour killing of Banaz Mahmod. Jihad: A Story of the Others was BAFTA-nominated and drew on two years of interviews with convicted extremists and former jihadis. White Right: Meeting the Enemy, shot inside the American far right and at the Charlottesville rally, won a second Emmy. America’s War on Abortion won a BAFTA. Muslim in Trump’s America added a second Peabody. That record is why institutions treat her as more than a filmmaker. In 2016 UNESCO appointed her its first Goodwill Ambassador for Artistic Freedom and Creativity. Norwegian PEN awarded her the Ossietzky Prize. The Parliament of Norway awarded her the Peer Gynt Prize. Through Fuuse and sister-hood she has also built platforms for women of Muslim heritage and third-culture voices to tell their own stories rather than be described by others. What she brings to a corporate audience is the translation of that practice into leadership. How do you hold a conversation with someone whose values you reject, long enough to understand what is actually driving them? How do you stay in the room when it would be easier to escalate? How does a senior team model that behaviour downward without looking weak? Khan turns her interview method into a working discipline for leaders who need to hold their organisations together across real difference. Key speaking topics Dialogue across ideological and cultural divides Leadership in polarised environments Empathy as an operating discipline Difficult conversations at senior levels Storytelling and communication under pressure Culture, belonging, and inclusion Countering extremism and radicalisation Ideal for CHROs and heads of culture navigating internal polarisation, identity tension, and DEI backlash. CEOs and executive teams preparing for public-facing crises where values, reputation, and employee trust collide. Leadership development programmes focused on inclusive leadership, difficult conversations, and psychological safety. Public-sector, NGO, and education leaders working on social cohesion, integration, and countering extremism. Audience outcomes A concrete method for staying in conversation with people whose views they find difficult, without performing agreement. Sharper language for naming the tensions inside their own teams and a cleaner read on where polarisation is actually coming from. A more honest standard for what empathy looks like at senior level, distinct from niceness or avoidance. Renewed confidence that leaders can address values-based conflict directly without fracturing the organisation.

Why organisations work with Demi Stokes A first-hand voice from the England squad that won UEFA Women’s Euro 2022, the most commercially significant moment in English women’s football. Nine seasons at the top of the Women’s Super League with Manchester City, including a WSL title, three FA Cups and three League Cups, plus a return to first-team football after the premature birth of her son. A current player and Newcastle United captain, which gives event audiences access to a live insider perspective rather than a retrospective career story. A credible advocate on premature birth and neonatal care through her Pampers UK ambassadorship with Bliss and UNICEF, suited to wellbeing, parental-leave and ERG-focused events. Biography highlights Member of the England squad that won UEFA Women’s Euro 2022; 69 senior caps between 2014 and 2023. Won the FA Women’s Super League, three FA Women’s Cups and three League Cups with Manchester City between 2015 and 2024. Named in the PFA WSL Team of the Year in 2018 and 2019. Captained Team GB to gold at the 2013 Summer Universiade in Kazan and represented Team GB at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Signed for Newcastle United Women in July 2024 and named club captain ahead of the 2025/26 season. Pampers UK ambassador for the #PampersforPreemies campaign with Bliss and UNICEF. Biography Most elite athletes peak inside a single environment. Demi Stokes built her career across four of them. Sunderland gave her a first-team debut at sixteen and an FA Cup final in 2009. A scholarship to the University of South Florida added four years of US college football. A summer at Vancouver Whitecaps in the USL W League followed before Manchester City signed her in January 2015. What she built at City is the substance of the speaking story. Nine seasons, more than 100 first-team appearances, the 2016 FA WSL title, three FA Women’s Cups and three League Cups. Two PFA WSL Team of the Year selections, in 2018 and 2019. A senior England debut in 2014, and a place in the squad that won UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 at Wembley, the most commercially important moment in English women’s football. The personal layer runs alongside the career. Stokes was born ten weeks premature herself, and her son Harlen spent time in a neonatal unit after a difficult pregnancy that included pre-eclampsia. She has spoken openly about that period in interviews with Grazia and Mother & Baby, and works with Pampers UK on the #PampersforPreemies campaign in partnership with Bliss and UNICEF. The throughline that audiences hear is how a senior international footballer sustains performance through events that most workplaces still struggle to talk about. She left Manchester City in May 2024, signed for Newcastle United Women in July, and was named club captain ahead of the 2025/26 season. The story she brings to a room is current, not archived. Key speaking topics Lionesses and UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 Women’s football and the professionalisation of the game Return to elite performance after a difficult pregnancy Premature birth, neonatal care and family advocacy Leadership in a dressing room and team identity Long-career resilience across clubs, countries and codes Ideal for Internal events tied to International Women’s Day, parental-leave policy launches or working-parent ERGs. Wellbeing, EDI and culture programmes looking for a credible voice on resilience and identity rather than a clinical specialist. Sport-sponsorship activations, hospitality nights and awards dinners where a current Lioness presence is the brief. Audience outcomes An inside account of the England squad that won UEFA Women’s Euro 2022, told by a senior squad member. A direct view of how a top-flight athlete returns to performance after a high-risk pregnancy and a premature birth. A useable reference point for managers thinking about how to support employees through major personal events. A current-player perspective on dressing-room leadership and the demands of being a club captain.

Why organisations work with Devon Harris He has lived the exact scenario most leadership talks only describe. Competing at three Olympics after a crash, rebuilds, and a decade of comebacks is not a story, it is a working model for how teams recover from public failure. His credibility carries two rare sources at once: Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and three Olympic Games. Few speakers can frame resilience from both an officer’s training and an athlete’s start line. His Keep On Pushing Foundation, founded 2006, gives the keynote a real institutional spine. Audiences hear from someone who built something durable outside the sport, not a retired athlete trading on a moment. He is a practised corporate keynote with long-standing Fortune 500 clients across pharma, tech, logistics and industrials. Buyers get a speaker who knows how to land a message in a sales kickoff or a leadership offsite, not a sports story recycled on stage. The Jamaican bobsled story is globally recognised shorthand for underdog execution. He uses it as a working case study in team formation under scrutiny, not as a nostalgia piece. Biography highlights Three-time Winter Olympian: Calgary 1988, Albertville 1992, Nagano 1998. Founding member of the Jamaica national bobsled team; captain in 1992 and 1998. Graduate of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst; retired as a Captain in the Jamaica Defence Force. Named WOA Olympian for Life at PyeongChang 2018 by the World Olympians Association. Founder, Keep On Pushing Foundation, a US 501(c)(3) supporting education in disadvantaged communities. Author of “Keep On Pushing: Hot Lessons from Cool Runnings” and the children’s book “Yes, I Can! The Story of the Jamaican Bobsled Team.” Biography The 1988 Jamaican bobsled team crashed on Olympic ice in Calgary with the world watching. Devon Harris was in that sled. Four years later he was back, as captain. Four after that, he was on the ice again. The story that became Cool Runnings is the entry point, but the working material is what happened between the Games. Before the sled, there was Sandhurst. Harris graduated from the Royal Military Academy and took a Queen’s Commission in 1985, serving as an officer in the Jamaica Defence Force until he retired as a Captain. That dual formation, British military training layered on a childhood in Kingston’s Olympic Gardens, is where his view of composure under pressure comes from. It is also why his framing of team performance feels closer to an officer’s debrief than an athlete’s highlight reel. In 2006 he founded the Keep On Pushing Foundation, which funds education for children in disadvantaged communities and started by backing a breakfast program at his own primary school in Kingston. The World Olympians Association named him an Olympian for Life at PyeongChang 2018 for his work beyond sport. He has written two books, including a motivational volume that draws on the Sandhurst-to-Olympics arc and a children’s book on the bobsled story. He now works primarily with leadership and commercial teams at Fortune 500 organisations across pharma, technology, logistics, and industrial sectors. The argument he brings into those rooms is operational. Performance is not a mindset to adopt, it is a set of habits rehearsed under pressure, and the teams that keep pushing when the plan breaks are the ones that built those habits before the crash. Key speaking topics Resilience and performance under pressure Team leadership in high-scrutiny environments Composure and decision-making in volatility Sustained execution after public failure Goal-setting and long-cycle performance Diversity and inclusion in team formation Personal accountability in commercial teams Ideal for Senior leadership teams navigating extended periods of pressure, change, or public setback Sales kickoffs and commercial teams at the start of demanding quarters or transformations Board and executive offsites focused on team composure, resilience, and sustained performance Large culture and engagement events where a credible keynote anchor is required Audience outcomes A working vocabulary for talking about resilience as rehearsed behaviour, not individual grit Specific techniques Harris uses to reset composure after setbacks, drawn from Olympic and military practice A frame for how high-performing teams form quickly under scrutiny and keep performing after failure A renewed sense of personal accountability for the habits that compound into sustained performance

Why organisations work with Divyanshu Ganatra He brings clinical psychology training together with a record of firsts in adventure sport, so the conversation about resilience is grounded in evidence rather than in motivational narrative alone. He runs Adventures Beyond Barriers Foundation, a working inclusion organisation, which means his content on inclusive leadership comes from operating practice with cross-disability teams, not from a deck. He is recognised by the Vice President of India through the National Award for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, which gives senior buyers a defensible credential when positioning the session internally. He speaks credibly to CXO forums and Fortune 500 audiences on attitudinal barriers, the specific tension that stalls most inclusion programmes once policy and quotas have been set. His material translates between personal decision-making under pressure and organisational decision-making under restructure, which makes him a fit for leadership offsites that need both registers. Biography highlights Founder, Adventures Beyond Barriers Foundation (ABBF), 2014, an inclusive adventure-sports organisation working across cross-disabilities. India’s first blind solo paraglider pilot, 29 April 2014. First blind tandem cyclist to complete the Manali to Khardung La route, 2016, the world’s highest motorable road, now ABBF’s flagship M2K expedition. First blind Indian to summit Mount Kilimanjaro, 2018. Master’s in Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Pune, where he was the first blind student to graduate in the field; clinical psychologist by training. National Award for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, presented by the Vice President of India; named among the Ten Outstanding Young Indians by the Junior Chamber International. Biography Most inclusion programmes inside large organisations stall at the same point. Policy is in place, quotas are tracked, and senior leaders still cannot describe what changed in how the organisation actually works. The blockage is rarely structural. It is attitudinal, and it sits with the leadership group itself. That is the tension Divyanshu Ganatra was trained to read. He lost his sight to glaucoma at nineteen and went on to become the first blind student to complete a Master’s in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Pune. He works as a clinical psychologist, and the discipline shapes how he frames inclusion to senior audiences: as a behavioural and decision-making problem, not a values statement. In 2014 he founded Adventures Beyond Barriers Foundation, an inclusive adventure-sports organisation that puts people with and without disabilities into the same physical task. The same year, he became India’s first blind solo paraglider pilot. In 2016 he led the first blind tandem cycling crossing from Manali to Khardung La, the world’s highest motorable road, which now anchors ABBF’s annual M2K expedition. In 2018 he became the first blind Indian to summit Mount Kilimanjaro. The Vice President of India presented him with the National Award for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, and the Junior Chamber International named him among the Ten Outstanding Young Indians. With CXO forums and Fortune 500 audiences he treats those firsts as case material, not biography, working back from each one to the decision sequence that made it possible for a leadership team to use. Key speaking topics Inclusion as a leadership capability Attitudinal barriers and behavioural change Decision-making after personal and organisational shock Resilience grounded in cognitive neuroscience Disability and workplace inclusion Innovation through cross-ability collaboration Ideal for CHROs and DEI leads designing inclusion strategy beyond compliance Executive committees and leadership offsites focused on resilience and composure under pressure CXO forums and Fortune 500 leadership audiences working on culture change Boards and senior teams setting the inclusion agenda for the next reporting cycle Audience outcomes A reframing of inclusion from policy mechanic to leadership behaviour, with named attitudinal barriers to look for in their own organisation. A working model for decision-making in the period that follows acute personal or organisational shock. A clearer view of what cross-ability collaboration produces operationally, drawn from ABBF’s M2K expedition and other inclusive programmes. A direct first-person account of building competence after sight loss, used as case material for senior leaders managing reinvention in their own teams.

Why organisations work with Dona Sarkar She runs the program that lets enterprise developers extend Microsoft Copilot onto their own data, so the practical content of her sessions is what she ships day-to-day at Microsoft, not commentary about it. She brings a track record of building global technical communities at scale, including the Windows Insider Program of around 20 million members, which informs how she advises leaders on adoption inside large workforces. Her work on accessibility and inclusive AI gives organisations a substantive position on responsible AI that goes beyond policy statements into product design and developer practice. She codifies her experience into named frameworks her audiences can use, including the SHENANIGANS approach to solving business problems and a structured method for tackling non-promotable work. She speaks credibly to the human side of AI transformation, from imposter syndrome in technical careers to mental health conversations at work, drawing on her own published books rather than borrowed material. Biography highlights Chief Troublemaker, Microsoft AI and Copilot Extensibility Program. Former Director of Technology for Microsoft Accessibility, leading inclusive design across the company. Led the Windows Insider Program from 2016 to 2019, a global community of around 20 million members. Author of The Imposter Syndrome Banishing Spell, Model 47: A Startup Storybook and You Had Me at Hello World, alongside three young-adult novels published by Harper Collins. Featured in Fast Company’s 100 Most Productive People; profiled in Fast Company and Microsoft’s own publications. Founder of Prima Dona, an ethical fashion line based in Seattle, alongside her engineering career. Biography Microsoft built Copilot, then had to answer the harder question: how do enterprises actually deploy generative AI on their own data, inside their own workflows, without losing the accessibility, governance and developer discipline that make software trustworthy. That is the program Dona Sarkar runs as Chief Troublemaker for Microsoft’s AI and Copilot Extensibility Program, working directly with the developers and IT leaders responsible for moving AI from pilot to production. Before this remit she was Director of Technology for Microsoft Accessibility, a role that shaped her view that inclusive design is engineering, not policy. She led the Windows Insider Program from 2016 to 2019, growing it into a global community of around 20 million members who tested early Windows builds, and she has run developer advocacy across HoloLens and Power Platform. Each of those roles required her to translate engineering decisions for non-technical leaders and to turn vague ambitions into concrete adoption. Outside Microsoft she has published books on imposter syndrome, startup methodology and mentorship, alongside three young-adult novels with Harper Collins. She founded Prima Dona, an ethical fashion line in Seattle, and has coached founders in emerging markets in East and West Africa. Fast Company has named her one of its 100 Most Productive People and profiled her approach to managing complex parallel careers. For senior buyers, her value is operational credibility on the enterprise AI question boards keep asking. She is not describing a market she observes. She runs the platform inside it. Key speaking topics Enterprise generative AI and Copilot deployment Inclusive AI and accessibility in product design Developer community and adoption at scale The future of work alongside AI agents Innovation frameworks for large organisations Career advancement and non-promotable work Mental health and imposter syndrome in technical careers Ideal for CIOs, CTOs and chief data officers planning enterprise AI deployment CHROs and heads of talent designing workforces around AI capability Heads of accessibility, DEI and responsible AI Engineering and developer relations leaders building internal AI fluency Audience outcomes A clearer view of where Copilot and generative AI add operating value on proprietary data, and where they do not A working vocabulary for inclusive AI that connects accessibility decisions to product and engineering practice Named frameworks for innovation and career progression that audiences can apply inside their teams A more honest conversation about imposter syndrome, mental health and burnout in technical organisations A read on Microsoft’s direction of travel on Copilot extensibility from someone responsible for delivering it