Climate Action and Sustainability speakers

Why organisations work with Stéphane J.G. Girod Co-author of Resetting Management (Kogan Page, 2021), shortlisted for the Business Book Awards 2022 in Change & Sustainability, with diagnostic tools tested against the agility journeys of LEGO, General Electric, LVMH and ING. Co-edited the Summer 2023 California Management Review special issue on business agility with Julian Birkinshaw of London Business School and Christiane Prange, placing him at the academic centre of how agility is studied and taught. Directs IMD’s Luxury 2050 initiative and the Reinventing Luxury Lab, with named C-suite client work at Richemont, La Prairie, Cartier, PUIG, Mazda and Telenor. His Harvard Business Review article “Restructure or Reconfigure?” (with Samina Karim of Northeastern) gives executives the working distinction that one in three reorganisations get wrong: when to change the underlying structure and when only to recombine units within it. Biography highlights Professor of Strategy and Organizational Innovation at IMD Business School, Lausanne. Co-author, Resetting Management: Thrive with Agility in the Age of Uncertainty (Kogan Page, 2021); shortlisted for the Business Book Awards 2022 in Change & Sustainability. Co-editor of the Summer 2023 California Management Review special issue on business agility, with Julian Birkinshaw and Christiane Prange. Forbes columnist on innovation and transformation in luxury industries. Research published in Harvard Business Review, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal and Long Range Planning. DPhil in Strategic Management, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford; MBA, Aalto University; speaks seven languages. Forthcoming with Wiley: Purposeful Luxury, on positive-impact sustainability strategies in luxury industries. Member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Entertainment and Lifestyle Economy, 2025 to 2026. Biography Most large organisations are not built for the speed at which their markets now change. Strategy cycles run on multi-year horizons. Org charts assume stable competitive advantage. Both premises are under sustained strain in consumer goods, banking, retail and luxury. Stéphane Girod has spent his academic career on the diagnostic question this raises: when planning fails, what replaces it? His book Resetting Management, co-authored with Martin Králik and shortlisted for the 2022 Business Book Awards in Change & Sustainability, sets out a framework for business agility tested against case studies of LEGO, General Electric, LVMH and ING. Agility, in his account, lives at three distinct levels: strategic, organisational, and leadership. Most companies confuse one for another. His base is IMD, where he is Professor of Strategy and Organizational Innovation, leads the Luxury 2050 initiative, and directs the Reinventing Luxury Lab. He works directly with executive teams at Richemont, La Prairie, Cartier, PUIG, Mazda and Telenor on strategy and transformation. His sectoral focus on luxury, retail and consumer goods places him close to the industries where the agility question has become most urgent, where consumer behaviour, digital channels and sustainability pressure are now moving faster than strategic planning can absorb. His research has appeared in Harvard Business Review, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal and Long Range Planning. With Samina Karim of Northeastern University, his 2017 HBR article “Restructure or Reconfigure?” gave executives a working distinction between two organisational change strategies that produce very different financial results. He co-edited the Summer 2023 California Management Review special issue on business agility with Julian Birkinshaw of London Business School and Christiane Prange. Girod holds a DPhil from Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, and speaks seven languages. He writes a Forbes column on innovation and transformation in luxury industries. His forthcoming book with Wiley, Purposeful Luxury, addresses how luxury houses move sustainability from brand narrative into operating substance. Key speaking topics Business agility in established organisations Strategy under uncertainty Organisational design and reconfiguration Digital execution in large companies Innovation and disruption in the luxury sector Sustainability strategy in luxury and consumer goods Leading large-scale transformation Ideal for Executive teams in luxury, consumer goods, retail and banking facing structural disruption Chief strategy officers and transformation leads designing the next planning cycle Boards of luxury and premium brands navigating polarisation, sustainability pressure and shifts in the Chinese market C-suites running a major reorganisation who need to choose between restructuring and reconfiguring Audience outcomes A working distinction between strategic, organisational and leadership agility, with a diagnostic for which one their company needs first A test for whether the next reorganisation should be a restructure or a reconfiguration, and what each implies financially Specific examples of how LEGO, ING, LVMH and General Electric have succeeded and failed at agility, with the lessons that travel across sectors A sector-specific read on how luxury and consumer-goods incumbents are responding to digital channels, sustainability pressure and shifts in the Chinese market

Why organisations work with Steve Backshall Two decades of first-hand evidence on climate and biodiversity change, anchored by Our Changing Planet, the BBC’s seven-year longitudinal study of six fragile ecosystems. Credibility across two audiences in one booking: the executive room responsible for climate strategy, and the wider workforce that responds to adventure, resilience, and human performance stories. A scientific spine behind the broadcaster, including an MSc in bioscience and an honorary doctorate from the University of Exeter, which lifts the content above motivational generality. Experience hosting and moderating at scale, including a sold-out UK and Australia theatre tour, which makes him a low-risk choice for plenary, fireside, or interview formats. A working conservationist, not a commentator. President of Buglife and an active patron, which gives his environmental content first-party authority rather than secondary analysis. Biography highlights Two BAFTAs in 2011: Best Children’s Presenter and Best Factual Series, both for Deadly 60. MBE, 2020, for services to wildlife conservation and charity. Honorary PhD, University of Exeter; MSc Bioscience, Canterbury Christ Church University. National Geographic Channel “Adventurer in Residence”, 1998 to 2003. Recent presenting work spans Our Changing Planet (BBC One), the seven-year longitudinal climate study, The Secret Life of Bees (Channel 5), and Whale with Steve Backshall (Sky), alongside the flagship Deadly 60 (BBC). Author of Deep Blue on ocean and environmental science, Wildlings, co-authored with Olympic gold medallist Helen Glover, plus Mountain, Expedition, and The Falcon Chronicles novels. Biography The natural world is no longer a separate file in the corporate risk register. Climate volatility, biodiversity collapse, and ocean health now feed directly into supply chains, insurance pricing, and licence to operate. The leaders who handle this best tend to be the ones who have spent time looking at the physical evidence, not only the disclosure templates. Steve Backshall has spent his career inside that physical evidence. As presenter of the BBC’s Our Changing Planet, he has tracked six of the world’s most fragile ecosystems over a seven-year arc, returning to the same sites to document what has actually changed. More recent films extend the same fieldwork: Whale, following populations across three oceans, and The Secret Life of Bees, which runs pollinator decline into the question of food security. Earlier work for National Geographic, where he served as Adventurer in Residence from 1998, gave him a comparable long view across reefs, jungles, and polar regions. The credentials sit on top of fieldwork, not the other way round. He holds an MSc in bioscience from Canterbury Christ Church University and an honorary PhD from the University of Exeter, and he serves as President of Buglife. His two BAFTAs in 2011, for Deadly 60, and his MBE in 2020 for services to conservation, anchor a public profile that reaches well beyond the specialist audience. The same body of work supplies a second register that organisations use heavily: first-descent kayaking expeditions in New Guinea, first ascents on Venezuelan tepuis, world record paddles, and the operational discipline behind them. That material translates cleanly into sessions on resilience, decision-making under risk, and team performance in environments where failure is not abstract. Key speaking topics Climate and biodiversity change observed in the field Ocean health and marine conservation Expedition leadership and decision-making under risk Resilience and human performance in extreme environments Conservation strategy and corporate environmental responsibility Adventure, exploration, and the science behind both Ideal for Sustainability, ESG, and corporate affairs leaders responsible for climate narrative and substance Senior leadership offsites and all-hands events where one speaker needs to land with the boardroom and the wider workforce Conference hosts and moderators needing a credible plenary anchor across science, exploration, and sustainability tracks Internal leadership programmes on resilience, team performance, and decision-making under pressure Audience outcomes A grounded view of what is actually happening in climate and biodiversity systems, beyond the headline framings A clearer link between environmental change and operational, commercial, and reputational exposure Concrete stories on risk, preparation, and team behaviour drawn from genuine first-descent and first-ascent expeditions Renewed appetite for ambition and long-horizon thinking inside the organisation

Why organisations work with Sue Garrard She has operated inside one of the most scrutinised corporate sustainability programmes in the world – accountable for 72 time-bound targets, managing teams across 180 markets, and delivering the commercial result: Unilever’s sustainable living brands growing 67% faster than the rest of the portfolio. She was part of the four-person leadership team that handled Kraft Heinz’s hostile takeover approach – giving her first-hand experience of the moment ESG strategy is tested by investor pressure in real time. She brings a specific, transferable argument: that sustainability is not a constraint on commercial performance but, if properly embedded, a measurable driver of brand growth. She has the data to demonstrate it. Her advisory work spans financial services (Lloyds Bank, NatWest), consumer goods (Mars, Danone, Heineken), and retail (Primark, O2) – sectors with structurally different ESG pressures – which means she can hold a credible board conversation across industries, not just in one. As Chair of Trustees at Blueprint for Better Business and a Fellow at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, she is positioned at the intersection of corporate practice and governance – not a pure consultant, not a pure academic. Biography highlights Former Executive Vice President, Sustainable Business and Communications, Unilever (2014–2018) – accountable for the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan across 180 markets Founder, Sue Garrard Consulting (2019–present); advisory clients include Mars, ABF/Primark, Lloyds Bank, NatWest Banking Group, Danone, Heineken, Natura, O2, the RHS, and the BBC Chair of Trustees, Blueprint for Better Business (founder trustee) Fellow, Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL); tutors on senior executive education programmes Visiting Fellow, Cranfield School of Management; Fellow of the RSA Ranked 13th in Forbes’ Top 100 Women Sustainability Influencers Worldwide (November 2020) Board member, Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit Former Director General, Customer Strategy and Communications, UK Department for Work and Pensions Biography At Unilever, Sue Garrard held responsibility for the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan – 72 quantified, time-bound targets, teams across 180 markets, and a direct mandate to make sustainability a driver of brand performance. By the time she left in 2018, Unilever’s sustainable living brands were growing 67% faster than the rest of the portfolio and representing 70% of company growth. That is not a communications outcome; it is a commercial one, and it was achieved by connecting ESG commitments to operational accountability across the business. She was also part of the four-person team, led by the CEO, that managed the rebuttal of Kraft Heinz’s hostile takeover bid. That experience – sustainability strategy meeting acute investor pressure – gives her a board-level fluency that most advisers in this space do not have. She understands what it looks like when a company’s long-term purpose is tested by short-term market logic. Since founding Sue Garrard Consulting in 2019, she has advised boards and executive teams at Mars, Danone, Lloyds Bank, NatWest, ABF/Primark, Heineken, O2, and others across consumer goods, financial services, and retail. Both Primark and the Royal Horticultural Society launched public sustainability strategies in 2021 built on her work. She tutors on CISL’s senior executive education programmes at Cambridge, and serves as Chair of Trustees at Blueprint for Better Business. Forbes placed her 13th in its global ranking of the top 100 women sustainability influencers in 2020. Her public argument, consistently made across interviews and platforms, is direct: sustainability is not a moral addition to business strategy – it is business strategy, and the organisations that treat it otherwise are building structural risk into their commercial model. Key speaking topics Corporate sustainability strategy and commercial integration ESG governance and board accountability Sustainable brand growth and marketing Stakeholder and investor scrutiny Net zero strategy and organisational transition Purpose-led business leadership Public–private sector leadership Ideal for Boards and C-suite executives navigating ESG accountability and investor pressure Chief Sustainability Officers and sustainability leadership teams building or overhauling strategy Brand and marketing leadership teams connecting sustainability to growth Organisations in financial services, consumer goods, or retail at a strategic inflection point on sustainability Audience outcomes A clearer framework for connecting sustainability targets to commercial performance metrics, not just reporting obligations Practical understanding of what large-scale ESG integration looks like operationally – including where it fails and why A more credible way to articulate the business case for sustainability to boards, investors, and senior leadership teams Insight into how to navigate investor and stakeholder scrutiny when sustainability commitments are challenged Perspective on the governance structures that sustain long-term sustainability commitment through leadership and market cycles

Why organisations work with Swarzy Macaly A working broadcaster with a current BBC Radio 1Xtra Weekend Breakfast slot, which gives her live editorial reflexes that most corporate moderators do not have. Track record on the largest UK live-TV moments, including the London New Year’s Day Parade in 2022 and 2024, and panel hosting at COP26 and the BBC Climate Creative Forum. A founder credential that supports the editorial content. Too Much Source, her annual exhibition for Black British creatives, has run since 2017 with the Barbican and Roundhouse. Substantive moderation history with Unilever, Ofcom, GroupM, ITV, Nike, TikTok and DAZN, so brand and regulator audiences are familiar territory. Recognition from named bodies: Best Presenter at the UK Entertainment Awards 2021 and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s 2020 Next Generation Trailblazers list. Biography highlights Presenter, BBC Radio 1Xtra Weekend Breakfast, Saturdays 7-10 am. Founder, Too Much Source, an annual exhibition celebrating Black British creatives, established in 2017. Trustee, My Life My Say, the youth-led democratic participation charity. Best Presenter, UK Entertainment Awards 2021. Named to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Next Generation Trailblazers list for Black History Month 2020. Panel host at COP26 and the BBC Climate Creative Forum; live-TV host of the London New Year’s Day Parade in 2022 and 2024. Biography Most corporate inclusion conversations fail on stage long before they fail in policy. The voice in the room is usually too polished, too cautious, or too far from the audience to land. Swarzy Macaly is one of the few broadcasters in the UK who can run that conversation in front of a live brand audience and keep it honest. Her main work is at the BBC. She presents the Weekend Breakfast Show on Radio 1Xtra and contributes across BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds, including the Daily Service and Sunday Worship strands. She came into broadcasting through a national presenter competition at KISS FM in 2016, then moved into the BBC and onto live television, hosting the London New Year’s Day Parade in 2022 and 2024. The editorial spine sits alongside that hosting career. She founded Too Much Source in 2017, an annual exhibition for Black British creatives that has run with the Barbican and Roundhouse. She is a trustee of My Life My Say, the youth-led democratic participation charity, where she has interviewed Sir Keir Starmer, Sadiq Khan and John Podesta on its Question Time series. Her panel work at COP26 and the BBC Climate Creative Forum extends the same instinct into climate. Brands and institutions book her for the same reason. Unilever, Ofcom, GroupM, ITV, Nike, TikTok and DAZN have used her as a moderator on internal and public events where the conversation could easily go wrong. The work earned her Best Presenter at the UK Entertainment Awards in 2021 and a place on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s 2020 Next Generation Trailblazers list. Key speaking topics Inclusion and representation in UK media Social mobility and access to the creative industries Womanhood and intersectional identity Climate communication for general audiences Faith, community and public life Panel moderation and conference hosting Ideal for Brand, marketing and ER leaders running employee, partner or consumer events where inclusion content has to be credible. Communications and policy teams at regulators and broadcasters convening external panels on representation, access or climate. Conference programmers and chairs need a host who can chair contested topics without flattening them. Foundations, charities and youth-focused organisations are running flagship public conversations with senior political guests. Audience outcomes A live conversation that holds editorial weight, with named guests, real disagreements, and no PR varnish. Sharper framing of inclusion and social mobility messaging that audiences under 40 actually believe. Confident chairing across sensitive subjects: race, faith, climate, gender, and generational difference. A high-craft moderator who can shift register between corporate, broadcast and youth audiences in the same event.

Why organisations work with Tanya O’Callaghan She speaks to consumer scepticism from the inside. Fifteen years touring globally in arena rock, paired with lifelong plant-based advocacy, gives her credibility with the audience corporate sustainability teams are trying to reach but rarely understand. Her Highway to Health documentary series with Sepultura’s Derrick Green, distributed through UNCHAINEDTV, has road-tested her arguments with farmers, chefs, scientists and figures including Moby and Kat Von D. The material on stage is sourced, not theoretical. The Leadership Rhapsody keynote, co-built with former Hallmark executive Wayne Strickland, translates band dynamics into a working language for senior teams on cohesion, performance under pressure and creative discipline. As the first woman in Whitesnake, she carries a story senior audiences remember. The hook draws the room; the content keeps them. She is unusual in the speaker market for combining a working stage career with serious advocacy on plant-based business, animal welfare and consumer-led change, which gives her access to audiences and corporate briefs that purely corporate speakers cannot reach. Biography highlights Bassist of Whitesnake, the first woman to hold a permanent member position in the band’s history. Toured and recorded with Bruce Dickinson, Puscifer (Maynard James Keenan), Dee Snider, Steven Adler, Nuno Bettencourt, Orianthi and Sharon Corr. Creator and co-host of Highway to Health, a plant-based travel and sustainability documentary series on UNCHAINEDTV with Sepultura frontman Derrick Green. Co-creator of the Leadership Rhapsody corporate keynote with Wayne Strickland, a 38-year Hallmark executive. Featured on the Rich Roll Podcast and profiled by Bass Magazine, Guitar World, Thrive Global, Sentient Media and Lady Freethinker. Lifelong vegan and public advocate for plant-based living, environmental sustainability and animal welfare. Biography Consumer trust in corporate sustainability claims is thinner than the marketing budget behind them. Brand teams know it, and they know the people they most need to reach are exactly the ones least likely to listen to another ESG report. That gap, between claim and credibility, is where Tanya O’Callaghan’s corporate work lives. She came to it from rock and roll. The first woman to hold a permanent place in Whitesnake, she has toured and recorded with Bruce Dickinson, Puscifer, Dee Snider, Steven Adler, Nuno Bettencourt and Sharon Corr. The stage career is not the message. It is the credibility that lets her tell sustainability stories to audiences who tune out the standard sustainability voice. Highway to Health, the documentary series she created with Sepultura’s Derrick Green and distributes on UNCHAINEDTV, takes that approach further. The show follows the two musicians around the world meeting farmers, chefs, scientists and cultural figures including Moby and Kat Von D, building a working picture of what plant-based living and authentic sustainability look like in practice. The material she brings to corporate stages is field-tested, not theoretical. Her Leadership Rhapsody keynote, co-built with former Hallmark executive Wayne Strickland, takes the same translation approach in the other direction. Forty years of stage discipline, ensemble cohesion and live decision-making become a language senior teams can use to talk about performance, trust and creative work without resorting to the usual corporate vocabulary. It is a rare profile: a working professional musician with a serious second act in business conversation, picked up by sustainability and people teams that want a different kind of voice on greenwashing, consumer power and the social contract between brands and the audiences who buy from them. Key speaking topics Sustainability and authentic ESG communication Consumer power and brand credibility Plant-based business and food systems Corporate social leadership Creative performance and ensemble dynamics Health and wellbeing for travelling and remote workforces Ideal for ESG, sustainability and brand teams briefing for consumer-facing change CHROs and people leaders looking for an outside voice on wellbeing and engagement Senior leadership offsites where a different register is needed to open a difficult conversation Conferences in food, retail, consumer goods and lifestyle sectors Audience outcomes A sharper read on how younger and sustainability-conscious consumers test corporate claims Practical examples of where greenwashing is exposed and where credibility is earned A working framework for translating ensemble performance into corporate team dynamics New language for talking about health and sustainability inside the organisation without the usual jargon A memorable opening that gets a senior room engaged on subjects they would normally resist

Why organisations work with Tara Shine Two decades inside the UN climate negotiation system, including EU negotiating roles within the UNFCCC, give her direct authority on the policy environment shaping corporate net zero obligations. Reviewed the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5C, the scientific reference point most net zero strategies are still benchmarked against. Runs Change by Degrees, a B Corp certified Irish social enterprise, so her advice is grounded in the operating reality of building a sustainable business, not only in policy theory. Communicates climate substance to non-specialist audiences without softening it. The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures and BBC One presenter work demonstrate the rare ability to hold scientific authority and audience accessibility in the same conversation. Adviser to the Mary Robinson Foundation and The Elders, giving her a track record at the level where climate strategy meets serious geopolitical and ethical scrutiny. Biography highlights Co-founder and Director, Change by Degrees (B Corp certified social enterprise) Chair of Trustees, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), 2014 to 2025 Former Special Advisor, Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice; adviser to The Elders UN climate change negotiator for over a decade, including for the EU under the UNFCCC Co-facilitator, Structured Expert Dialogue of the Second Periodic Review under the UNFCCC Reviewer, IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5C Presenter, Royal Institution Christmas Lectures 2020 (Lecture Three: Up in the Air); BBC One contributor Author, “How to Save Your Planet One Object at a Time” (Simon and Schuster, 2020) Biography The Paris Agreement was negotiated in rooms most business audiences never see. Tara Shine spent a decade in those rooms, including in EU negotiating positions, and later co-facilitated the Structured Expert Dialogue assessing whether the Agreement’s goals were actually being met. That history matters now, because the policy assumptions corporates built their net zero plans on are being tested in real time. She is co-founder and director of Change by Degrees, a B Corp certified Irish social enterprise that advises organisations on the operating side of sustainability. Her work as a reviewer of the IPCC Special Report on 1.5C gave her standing in the scientific community; her role as Special Advisor to the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice gave her standing in the political one. Few speakers carry both at once. Public audiences know her from the 2020 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, where she delivered Lecture Three on air pollution and climate, and from BBC One presenting work on heat pumps and electric vehicles. Her 2020 book “How to Save Your Planet One Object at a Time” (Simon and Schuster) translated climate science into household decisions, and was reviewed by The Times as “an unpreachy guide free of jargon and full of often surprising information.” She chaired the Board of Trustees of the International Institute for Environment and Development from 2014 to 2025, a tenure that placed her at the intersection of climate, equity, and development finance for over a decade. That vantage point gives her something most sustainability speakers do not have: a direct view of how climate policy is made, contested, and translated into the rules companies have to operate inside. Key speaking topics Climate policy and the UN negotiation system Corporate net zero and the credibility of climate commitments Energy transition and the gap between policy and capital allocation ESG under scrutiny Climate justice and the geopolitics of climate action Sustainability strategy for B Corps and purpose-led businesses Science communication for non-specialist audiences Ideal for Boards and executive committees setting or revising net zero strategy Chief sustainability officers and ESG leads briefing investors and regulators Corporate communications and investor relations teams under scrutiny on climate claims Sustainability and transformation leads inside energy, finance, manufacturing, and consumer sectors Audience outcomes A clearer read on where global climate policy is heading and what it requires of corporates A sharper distinction between climate commitments that will hold up under scrutiny and those that will not Practical reference points from a B Corp operator, not only a policy adviser A scientific grounding for boardroom climate conversations, free of jargon Confidence to engage seriously with stakeholders on climate without retreating into PR language

Why organisations work with Terry Virts He has held command in an environment where a missed checklist item ends a mission. That experience reframes what risk discipline looks like inside a corporate operating model. His ISS tour was a multinational, multilingual command, including Russian, American, and European crew members during a politically tense period. He speaks credibly to leaders managing cross-border teams under strain. He filmed A Beautiful Planet from orbit and authored View From Above with National Geographic. The visual material is a working asset for keynote audiences, not a slideshow. The 2019 One More Orbit polar circumnavigation is a current, civilian, board-relevant case study in mission planning, contingency design, and small-team execution. He writes and speaks fluently on the practical content of command, not the metaphor of it. His book How to Astronaut is the operating manual version of his keynote material. Beyond the keynote, he runs an experiential exercise built on the Apollo 13 carbon dioxide emergency, where teams split into mission control and flight crew and build a working scrubber from mismatched parts against a countdown. The room lives the coordination problem under time pressure. Biography highlights Retired NASA astronaut, US Air Force colonel, and former F-16 test pilot with over 5,300 flight hours across 40-plus aircraft types. Pilot of STS-130 aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour, 2010. Commander of the International Space Station, Expedition 43, with 200 days in orbit and three spacewalks. Author of View From Above (National Geographic, 2017) and How to Astronaut (Workman Publishing, 2020). Lead astronaut cinematographer on the IMAX feature A Beautiful Planet, narrated by Jennifer Lawrence. Captain of the One More Orbit crew that set the FAI- and Guinness-certified world record for fastest pole-to-pole circumnavigation of Earth in July 2019. Biography A space station does not forgive a poorly briefed handover. Six people from three countries, in a structure travelling at 17,500 miles per hour, run on a checklist culture so disciplined it sounds bureaucratic until it saves a life. Terry Virts commanded that environment for Expedition 43, and the reason serious organisations book him is that the discipline travels. His route into that command is the spine of credibility. US Air Force Academy in Mathematics, F-16 pilot, test pilot, NASA selection in 2000, pilot of Space Shuttle Endeavour on STS-130, then 200 days aboard the ISS with three spacewalks and the command of a multinational crew. A General Management Program at Harvard Business School in 2011 sits in the middle of that arc, which matters: he reads commercial decision-making in the language an executive audience uses. The post-NASA work is where the speaking proposition sharpens. He photographed and filmed the ISS for the IMAX feature A Beautiful Planet, published View From Above with National Geographic, and wrote How to Astronaut for Workman in 2020. In 2019, he led the One More Orbit crew that circled the planet over both poles in 46 hours 40 minutes, setting the FAI- and Guinness-certified world record. It is a civilian mission with a board-room shape: small team, hard constraint, narrow window. What sets Virts apart from the broader astronaut speaker pool is how specific his operational material is. He does not deliver awe. He delivers the structure beneath the awe, which is what senior teams come for. Key speaking topics Crisis leadership and command decision-making Risk discipline in high-consequence operations Cross-cultural team leadership under pressure Mission planning and contingency design Lessons from human spaceflight for executive teams Innovation in extreme environments Earth observation and the climate perspective from orbit Ideal for CEOs, COOs, and operating leaders running businesses with high-consequence decisions Boards and executive committees focused on crisis preparedness and operational resilience Senior teams managing cross-border or multinational workforces under political strain Aerospace, defence, energy, and engineering leadership audiences Audience outcomes A working model of how command-grade decision discipline operates when checklists run out A clearer view of what risk leadership looks like in environments where errors are irreversible Concrete examples of multinational team management under sustained operational stress A perspective on Earth, climate, and human capability that lifts the room without softening the argument

Why organisations work with Jacinda Ardern Ardern made consequential governance decisions – not advisory ones – during a live-streamed act of mass terrorism, a major volcanic eruption, and a global pandemic, all within a single term in office. What she brings to organisations is a practitioner’s account of crisis governance under conditions of maximum accountability. She co-founded the Christchurch Call with French President Macron in 2019 and remains Patron of the Christchurch Call Foundation today. That initiative – a multi-government, multi-platform framework for eliminating terrorist content online – gives her grounded authority on AI governance, platform accountability, and digital regulation that most governance specialists cannot match. Her memoir A Different Kind of Power (Penguin Random House/Pan Macmillan, 2025), a New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller, develops the concept of “pragmatic idealism” – the argument, backed by her own record in office, that empathy and decisive institutional action reinforce each other rather than pull against each other. Her Harvard appointments span three distinct domains: public leadership (Hauser Leader, Center for Public Leadership), AI and platform governance (Knight Tech Governance Leadership Fellow, Berkman Klein Center), and women’s policy (Senior Fellow, Women and Public Policy Program). This breadth reflects genuine multi-domain institutional credibility. As board member of The Earthshot Prize and Arnhold Distinguished Fellow at Conservation International, she engages with climate accountability at the level of institutional design – not as a cause, but as a governance and measurement problem that boards increasingly own. Biography highlights 40th Prime Minister of New Zealand, 2017-2023; the world’s youngest female head of government at the time of her election, aged 37 Led the governmental response to the Christchurch mosque attacks (2019), the Whakaari White Island volcanic eruption, and the COVID-19 pandemic – each requiring real-time governance decisions at national scale Co-founded the Christchurch Call with President Macron (2019); Patron of the Christchurch Call Foundation, the NGO established by New Zealand and France in 2024 to coordinate global action on violent extremist content online Multiple Harvard fellowships across Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Law School’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, including the Angelopoulos Global Public Leaders Fellow, Hauser Leader at the Center for Public Leadership, and Knight Tech Governance Leadership Fellow Author of A Different Kind of Power (Penguin Random House / Pan Macmillan, 2025) – New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller; shortlisted for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards Harvard Kennedy School Gleitsman International Activist Award (2020); Harvard 2022 Commencement speaker; Honorary Doctorate from Harvard University; twice named to Time Magazine’s Most Influential People list Board member, The Earthshot Prize; Arnhold Distinguished Fellow, Conservation International; founder of the Field Fellowship on empathetic leadership (2024) Biography New Zealand was four weeks past the Christchurch mosque attacks when Jacinda Ardern stood with French President Macron in Paris and co-launched the Christchurch Call – a commitment from governments and technology companies to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. It was a governance response to a governance failure, assembled at pace, and it is still operating. That sequence captures what is most useful about Ardern’s perspective: she did not observe the intersection of crisis leadership, platform accountability, and public trust from the outside. She was accountable for it. Her concept of “pragmatic idealism” – developed across her term in office and set out in her memoir A Different Kind of Power (Penguin Random House/Pan Macmillan, 2025, a New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller) – makes the case that empathy is not a soft alternative to decisive leadership but a structural condition of it. Leaders who build genuine trust before a crisis hits have more to draw on when decisions must be made under pressure and incomplete information. Leaders who do not find that the crisis itself destroys the conditions needed to manage it. Since leaving office in early 2023, Ardern has held multiple fellowships at Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Law School’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, where her focus has been AI governance, algorithmic accountability, and platform regulation. She is board member of The Earthshot Prize, Patron of the Christchurch Call Foundation, Arnhold Distinguished Fellow at Conservation International, and founder of the Field Fellowship, a programme supporting political leaders in empathetic leadership practice. For boards navigating crisis preparedness, digital governance, or ESG accountability, Ardern brings a record of decisions taken, at national scale, under conditions that most leadership frameworks were not designed for. Key speaking topics Crisis decision-making and governance under pressure Trust, institutional credibility, and stakeholder communication Digital platform accountability and online safety AI governance and technology regulation Climate accountability and ESG leadership Empathetic leadership and values-based decision-making Women in leadership and inclusive governance Ideal for Board and C-suite audiences responsible for crisis response, reputation management, and stakeholder trust under public scrutiny Technology and digital governance leaders focused on platform accountability, AI regulation, and online safety policy ESG and sustainability officers translating climate commitments into credible, auditable, scrutiny-resistant action Public sector and government-adjacent leaders managing delivery under high institutional pressure Audience outcomes A practical decision-making framework developed through direct, accountable experience of national-scale crisis – not theoretical modelling A sharper understanding of how trust is built, maintained, and lost under crisis conditions – and what communication disciplines make the difference Grounded perspective on digital platform accountability and AI governance from someone who helped design one of the world’s first functioning multi-government frameworks in this space A working account of how “pragmatic idealism” operates as a leadership model: acting from values without sacrificing speed, coherence, or institutional effectiveness Concrete principles for maintaining organisational credibility when multiple stakeholder groups are applying conflicting pressure simultaneously

Why organisations work with Tim Smit He does not make the case for sustainability in principle. Instead, he has built one of Britain’s most visited destinations on the premise that ecological purpose and economic return are the same project. The Eden Project’s contribution to the Cornish economy exceeds £1.9 billion. His KBE was awarded specifically for services to public engagement with science, recognition that his primary skill is making complex environmental challenges legible and motivating to non-specialist audiences, including sceptical ones. Where most ESG speakers work from frameworks or research, Smit works from operations: active international development projects in Colombia, Australia, China, and Northern Ireland, each built on the Eden model of derelict land, public-private partnership, and ecological purpose that also generates revenue. He reframes the internal sustainability conversation from risk mitigation and reporting into a question of commercial imagination, which is a materially different starting point for a leadership team than most ESG speakers offer. The Lost Gardens of Heligan, his account of the first restoration project, was voted Sunday Times Book of the Year in 1997, evidence of an unusual ability to make environmental ambition into a story that reaches well beyond specialist audiences. Biography highlights Co-founder and Executive Vice-Chair, Eden Project, Cornwall: former china clay pit transformed into one of Britain’s most visited destinations, contributing over £1.9 billion to the regional economy Director, Lost Gardens of Heligan: co-led restoration of the neglected Tremayne estate; his account of the project was voted Sunday Times Book of the Year, 1997 KBE (Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire), awarded 2011, substantive 2012, for services to public engagement with science RSA Albert Medal, 2003; Morgan Stanley Great Britons Award (Environment category), 2007; Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year special award, 2011 Speaker at TEDxKingsCross, 2021 – «How We’re Going to Solve Climate Change» (COP26 countdown event) Author of two books: The Lost Gardens of Heligan and Eden (Penguin, updated 15th anniversary edition, 2016) Biography The Eden Project began as a derelict china clay pit in Cornwall. It now attracts over a million visitors a year and has contributed more than £1.9 billion to the regional economy. Sir Tim Smit KBE conceived it in 1995, opened it in 2001, and has spent the intervening years using it as a working proof: that environmental ambition and commercial success are the same project, not a trade-off between them. Smit’s central argument is about courage as much as strategy. Most organisations approach sustainability as a compliance function; obligations to manage, metrics to report. Eden was built to demonstrate something more radical: that a project rooted in ecology, science communication, and community investment could produce a destination business with private financing, a £1.9 billion economic footprint, and a KBE from the Crown for services to public engagement with science. The model is now being replicated globally. Through Eden Project International, formally launched in 2017, Smit has secured partnerships with national governments in Colombia – working with the Humboldt Institute on a biome in one of the world’s most biodiverse regions, alongside active development projects in Australia, China, and Northern Ireland. The ambition is an Eden presence on every inhabited continent. For executives navigating the gap between ESG commitment and meaningful action, Smit’s contribution is specific and uncomfortable in equal measure. He has spent three decades demonstrating that the starting point for a new business model can be a landscape others have written off. The barrier, in his view, is not knowledge or resource; it is a failure of commercial imagination, and he has built institutions to fill it. Key speaking topics Environmental regeneration as a commercial business model ESG strategy and the economics of sustainability Entrepreneurship and large-scale transformational project delivery Science communication and public engagement with environmental issues Multi-stakeholder project leadership across public, private, and community sectors Climate action and biodiversity: the business opportunity framing Place-based and regional economic regeneration Ideal for CEOs and executive teams building or pressure-testing sustainability and ESG strategy Boards facing investor, regulatory, or employee pressure on environmental commitments Transformation and programme directors overseeing large-scale environmental, infrastructure, or regeneration initiatives Public sector and civic leaders working on regional development and post-industrial recovery Audience outcomes A reframe of sustainability from reporting obligation to genuine business model, with specific, quantified evidence from Eden’s own track record Practical understanding of how to structure and sustain multi-stakeholder projects at transformational scale A more ambitious and commercially grounded vocabulary for internal ESG conversations Exposure to a model of science communication that moves non-specialist audiences to change behaviour, not just awareness Confidence that large-scale environmental projects can attract private capital and deliver measurable economic returns alongside ecological impact

Why organisations work with Tom Barton He has the rare combination of operator and supply chain reformer. Honest Burgers is a 39-site casual dining brand that buys whole carcasses directly from regenerative farms, a structural decision most restaurant groups have not been willing to make. His sustainability content carries weight because it is paid for. Honest absorbed the cost of switching to regenerative British beef rather than passing it to customers, a commercial decision a buyer can interrogate, not a marketing claim. He speaks credibly on building a brand from a market stall to a national footprint, with named milestones: the Brixton opening, the Cateys 2021 Restaurateur of the Year (Group) award, and the 2026 National Burger Awards win for “The Honest”. He is a useful voice for boards weighing ESG commitments against margin: the Honest Farming programme is a working example of procurement volume being directed at climate-smart agriculture, not a pledge. Biography highlights Co-founder, Honest Burgers, opened first site in Brixton Market in 2011 Honest Burgers now operates 39+ UK restaurants across London, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Brighton, Manchester, Liverpool and Reading Cateys 2021 Restaurateur of the Year (Group), with Phillip Eeles and Dorian Waite Created “The Honest”, named UK’s Best Burger at the National Burger Awards 2026 Built the first regeneratively farmed British beef supply chain in UK restaurants, in partnership with the Grass Roots Farming Cooperative Founder of the Honest Farming programme, supporting six regenerative farming families through premium pricing and whole-carcass procurement Biography A small marquee with a griddle and fryer at festivals in 2010 became one of the UK’s most respected casual dining brands. Tom Barton and Phillip Eeles ran outdoor catering for a year before raising investment with restaurant operator Dorian Waite and opening a first site in Brixton Market in 2011. The interesting story is what happened after the brand worked. Honest Burgers grew to 39 sites without selling to a private equity roll-up and without losing its product position. The Cateys 2021 award for Restaurateur of the Year (Group) recognised that scale, particularly through the pandemic. In 2026, “The Honest”, a recipe Barton created, was named UK’s Best Burger at the National Burger Awards. The more substantive contribution is a supply-chain one. Honest Burgers became the first UK restaurant group to build a regeneratively farmed British beef supply chain, buying whole carcasses directly from a small group of farming families through the Grass Roots Farming Cooperative. The company absorbed the cost rather than passing it to customers, on the argument that volume procurement is the lever climate-smart agriculture actually responds to. That is the practical content of what Barton brings to a senior audience. Casual dining is a low-margin, high-velocity category. Doing the harder thing on sourcing inside it, at scale, and paying for it out of margin, is a credible operating example for any board that has signed an ESG commitment and is now looking at the bill. Key speaking topics Brand building from start-up to national scale Regenerative agriculture in commercial supply chains Sustainability as an operating decision, not a marketing position Founder leadership through rapid growth Hospitality, food culture and consumer brand Procurement and whole-carcass sourcing Company culture under expansion Ideal for Founders and operating teams scaling consumer brands beyond their first ten sites or stores Boards and CEOs reviewing ESG commitments where supply chain is the largest source of emissions Procurement, sourcing and category leaders in food, retail and hospitality Investor and accelerator audiences interested in entrepreneurship in regulated, low-margin categories Audience outcomes A working example of a regenerative supply chain inside a competitive high-street category, with the commercial trade-offs named A first-hand account of how brand discipline is maintained as a hospitality business moves from one site to forty A clearer sense of where sustainability claims become operating substance, and where they remain marketing Specific decisions about pricing, procurement and farm partnerships that other operators can pressure-test against their own model

Why organisations work with Ugwem Eneyo She has operated, not observed. She built and sold SHYFT Power Solutions, a venture-backed company commercialising IoT-based metering and distributed energy software in Nigeria and East Africa, and now leads product and innovation at the acquirer, Steama Co. She holds patents underpinning advanced metering infrastructure for unreliable-grid environments, the technical layer most climate keynote speakers describe abstractly. She won the MIT Clean Energy Prize and is on Forbes 30 Under 30 in Energy, credentials that signal technical depth rather than commentary. She is one of a small group of Black female founders to raise over 1m USD of venture capital in climate hardware and software, giving her authority on capital formation, founder discipline and operating in markets that institutional capital under-serves. Her perspective on energy transition is grounded in the Niger Delta and Sub-Saharan Africa, the geographies where global emissions and energy demand growth are concentrated and where most Western climate frameworks degrade fastest. Biography highlights Co-founder and former CEO of SHYFT Power Solutions, acquired by Steama Co, where she serves on the Board of Directors and leads Product and Innovation. MIT Clean Energy Prize winner, 2017, for the Shyft smart meter and transfer switch product. Forbes 30 Under 30 in Energy; Women of Renewable Industries and Sustainable Energy honouree. Patent holder in advanced metering infrastructure for distributed energy resources. MS/PhD candidate in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University; BSc in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Speaker at the World Bank State of the African Union Forum, the Global Climate Action Summit, and Ceres. Biography A diesel generator runs in a Lagos backyard most nights. The household paying for it is not waiting for a national grid upgrade or a multilateral climate plan. They are choosing between fuel and electricity bills in real time. That is the market Ugwem Eneyo built a company to serve, and it is the market most net zero strategies still skip over. Eneyo co-founded SHYFT Power Solutions while an MS/PhD student in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford, after earlier work as an environmental and regulatory risk advisor on infrastructure projects across South Asia, Africa and the Americas, and as an engineer at ExxonMobil. The company commercialised IoT-based metering, transfer-switch hardware and distributed energy software for Nigerian and East African customers operating between grid, solar and generator power. It won the MIT Clean Energy Prize in 2017, secured patents in advanced metering infrastructure, and was acquired by Steama Co, where she now leads product and innovation from the board. Her recognition list, Forbes 30 Under 30 in Energy, Women of Renewable Industries and Sustainable Energy, status as one of the early Black female founders to raise over 1m USD in venture capital, signals the rarer underlying point. The vast majority of energy transition speakers describe capital flows, policy and technology from outside the system. Eneyo built the hardware, raised the capital, hired the engineers and managed the regulatory and political risk inside one of the markets that will define whether the transition succeeds at global scale. For boards investing in climate, energy, emerging markets infrastructure or distributed technology, that operator-grade view is the contribution. The capital question is no longer whether the energy transition is real. It is whether it can be financed, engineered and governed in the places where demand is rising fastest, and Eneyo has done the work in one of those places. Key speaking topics Energy transition in emerging markets Distributed energy, microgrids and advanced metering Climate technology and venture-backed hardware Africa’s tech and startup ecosystem Sustainable infrastructure for fast-growing cities Capital formation for under-represented founders IoT and software for energy systems Ideal for Boards and investment committees of energy, utilities, infrastructure and climate funds with emerging-markets exposure CSOs, sustainability leads and ESG officers building credible transition strategies outside mature markets Heads of innovation and corporate venture teams in energy, industrial and technology businesses Convenings on climate finance, African business, and women and underrepresented founders in deep tech Audience outcomes A sharper view of where energy transition strategies break when they leave OECD markets, and what to design instead. A grounded picture of how distributed energy, IoT and metering actually work as a business in unreliable-grid environments. A working understanding of the capital, regulatory and operational realities facing climate hardware founders in Africa. A more honest read on the gap between net zero narrative and the engineering and finance required to deliver it where demand is growing fastest.

Why organisations work with Wayne Hemingway MBE Built one of Britain’s best-known fashion labels from a Camden Market stall and sold it to Pentland in 1999, then converted that experience into a 25-year design consultancy advising developers, local authorities, retailers, and cultural institutions. Operates across categories most speakers do not: fashion, mass-market housing, public-realm regeneration, festival creation, and second-hand retail, all anchored in delivered projects rather than commentary. Founded Festival of Thrift and Charity Super.Mkt, turning sustainability and circular consumption into commercially viable consumer experiences rather than awareness campaigns. Leads town-centre and coastal regeneration that gets delivered: HemingwayDesign’s Andover masterplan won 97% community backing and helped unlock Levelling Up funding, with current place-brand work in Fareham and prior visions for York, Lowestoft, and Kidderminster. Brings an unusually direct view on what makes places, products, and brands resonate, formed by working with Wimpey, TfL, Shelter, the National Trust, Girlguiding, the Southbank Centre, and more than forty local authorities. Biography highlights Co-founder of Red or Dead; won British Fashion Council Streetstyle Designer of the Year three consecutive years, 1996 to 1998; brand sold to Pentland Group in 1999. Co-founder of HemingwayDesign, the multi-disciplinary studio behind the 760-home Staiths South Bank development in Gateshead, awarded Housing Design Awards, Best Housing-Led Regeneration Project by Building Magazine, and Building for Life. Gave evidence to House of Lords select committees on housebuilding standards, and co-designed Transport for London’s staff uniform with 16,000 employees and Girlguiding’s with more than 53,000 girls and women. Co-founder of Festival of Thrift, the UK’s first large-scale festival of sustainable living, launched in 2013 and now a permanent fixture in the North East cultural calendar. Co-founder of Charity Super.Mkt with TRAID’s Maria Chenoweth; pre-loved fashion concept that launched at Brent Cross in January 2023 and has since traded in Westfield, Bond Street, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Oxford, Bluewater, and Bristol. MBE, 2006, for services to the design and fashion industries; Professor of Built Environment at Northumbria University; honorary doctorates from Wolverhampton, Lancaster, and Stafford. Biography Red or Dead started on a Camden Market stall in the early 1980s and ended in 1999 as a Pentland Group acquisition, with three consecutive British Fashion Council Streetstyle Designer of the Year awards along the way. That trajectory, market trader to multi-million-pound exit, is the foundation Wayne Hemingway has been building on for twenty-five years. HemingwayDesign, founded with his wife and business partner Gerardine in 1999, was set up explicitly around affordable and social design. The studio’s signature project, Staiths South Bank in Gateshead, was the practical answer to Hemingway’s “Wimpeyfication and Barrattification” critique of British mass house-building. 760 homes were built with Wimpey on a Homezone model that re-thought streets, parking, and play, and the scheme won Housing Design Awards, Building Magazine’s Best Housing-Led Regeneration Project, and Building for Life. The same instinct, identify a category that has stopped trying and rebuild it with design at the centre, runs through everything that followed. Festival of Thrift, co-founded in 2013, made sustainability a free family weekend rather than a guilt trip. Charity Super.Mkt, launched at Brent Cross in January 2023 with TRAID’s Maria Chenoweth, turned charity-shop fashion into a destination format and reported £3 million in pre-loved sales inside two years. The same approach now drives HemingwayDesign’s town-centre work: the Andover masterplan won 97% community support and helped secure Levelling Up funding, with current place-brand work in Fareham and visions delivered for York, Lowestoft, and Kidderminster. For organisations the value is specific: a designer-entrepreneur with the credentials of a fashion founder and the track record of a public-realm developer, who can talk credibly to boards about brand, to operators about retail, and to leadership teams about why design-led businesses outlast design-decorated ones. He is an MBE, a Professor of Built Environment at Northumbria, and an author, but the argument is the work itself. Key speaking topics Entrepreneurship and design-led business building Brand and creative direction Sustainability and the circular economy Place-making, regeneration, and the future of the high street Affordable housing and mass-market design Retail futures and pre-loved consumer behaviour Festivals, culture, and community-led commercial models Ideal for Founders, CEOs, and creative directors of consumer brands. Property developers, housebuilders, and local authority leadership teams responsible for placemaking and regeneration. Retail and hospitality leaders rebuilding propositions for second-hand, sustainable, and experience-led formats. Cultural organisations, charities, and festival operators looking to commercialise purpose without losing it. Audience outcomes A working view of how Red or Dead and HemingwayDesign turned design instinct into commercial categories that lasted. A clearer sense of where sustainability becomes a viable consumer business rather than a marketing position. Specific lessons from Staiths South Bank, Festival of Thrift, and Charity Super.Mkt on building new categories from a standing start. Direct, plainly spoken provocations on brand, place, and the social value of design that audiences leave talking about.