Climate Action and Sustainability speakers

Why organisations work with Ann Daniels She holds a Guinness World Record that has not been repeated: first women’s team, with Caroline Hamilton, to ski to both the North and South Poles, a credential that sits behind every claim she makes about decision-making under pressure. She led ice operations for all three Catlin Arctic Survey expeditions with Pen Hadow, a rare example of an explorer whose field leadership has been trusted by peer-reviewed science programmes working with NASA and the European Space Agency. Her career arc, from NatWest assistant bank manager and mother of triplets to polar team leader, gives her credibility with audiences who are sceptical of exploration narratives delivered by lifelong adventurers. She speaks with operational specificity: route-finding on moving ice, calling a team member off the ice with frostbite, swimming open leads in survival suits. Senior audiences recognise these as decisions, not anecdotes. She is listed by The Daily Telegraph among the Top 20 Great British Adventurers of all time, which shortens the credibility conversation with boards and external audiences. Biography highlights Guinness World Record holder: first women’s team, with Caroline Hamilton, to ski to both the North and South Poles (1 June 2002). Head of ice operations and navigator for all three Catlin Arctic Survey expeditions (2009, 2010, 2011), led by Pen Hadow. Arctic scientific collaborations with NASA, the European Space Agency, NOAA and the University of Washington. Honorary DUniv, Staffordshire University (2007). Castaway on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs (January 2007). Named in The Daily Telegraph’s Top 20 Great British Adventurers of all time. Biography Route-finding on the Arctic Ocean is decision-making in its purest form. The ice moves under you, the weather closes without warning, and the team’s survival depends on whether the person in front is reading the ground correctly. Ann Daniels has done that job for more than two decades, including three consecutive Catlin Arctic Survey expeditions with Pen Hadow, where she was head of ice operations for scientists working with NASA and the European Space Agency. She came to it from an unlikely starting point. Daniels was an assistant bank manager at NatWest and a mother of triplets when she was selected, from more than two hundred applicants, for the 1997 McVities Penguin Polar Relay. She had no prior outdoor experience. Five years later, on 1 June 2002, she and Caroline Hamilton became the first women to reach both the North and South Poles as part of all-women teams, a Guinness record that has not been repeated. The Catlin work reframed her practice. Between 2009 and 2011 she led teams of scientists across hundreds of miles of drifting sea ice to manually measure its thickness, feeding data into the climate record. Later expeditions extended that into collaborations with the European Space Agency, NOAA and the University of Washington. She is the rare field leader whose decisions have been trusted inside a peer-reviewed research programme. What she offers senior audiences is the texture of that work. She can describe calling a team-mate off the ice with frostbite, swimming an open lead in a survival suit, and choosing a route across fracturing ice when the satellite image is already twelve hours old. The Daily Telegraph has named her among the Top 20 Great British Adventurers of all time; Staffordshire University awarded her an honorary DUniv in 2007. Key speaking topics Decision-making under uncertainty Team leadership in extreme environments Resilience and recovery after setback Women in leadership and exploration Climate change and the Arctic Career reinvention Ideal for Executive teams running strategic change programmes where the plan will keep adjusting Operational and transformation leaders responsible for decisions on partial information Leadership development cohorts and senior high-potential groups Conferences focused on resilience, climate, or women in leadership Audience outcomes A clearer language for making decisions when the data is incomplete and the cost of waiting is rising Specific, transferable lessons on holding a team together when conditions deteriorate A harder test for what resilience actually looks like in practice, drawn from named events on the ice Renewed confidence that significant career reinvention is possible without a conventional starting point

Why organisations work with Anna Bance First-mover operator in luxury fashion rental. She built the category in 2009, before “circular” was a retail strategy term, and has spent over a decade running the unglamorous infrastructure behind it. Direct line of sight on what rental does to a balance sheet. Inventory turns, dry-cleaning economics, customer acquisition costs and breakage rates are answered from experience, not from a McKinsey deck. Credibility on both sides of the luxury question. Former Head of UK PR at Hermès, then founder of a platform that puts luxury brands into a rental model many of them initially resisted. Backed by Global Founders Capital, the Rocket Internet associated fund of Oliver Samwer, with Girl Meets Dress one of its maiden investments. A useful proof point on commercial substance, not just narrative. Articulate on the consumer shift behind the model: experience economy, sustainability pressure, and the limits of “buy something new every season” as a retail proposition. Biography highlights Co-founder and CEO, Girl Meets Dress, since 2009 Former Head of UK PR, Hermès, and PR for Temperley London BA (Hons) Fashion Promotion, London College of Fashion Early-career editorial roles at The Telegraph, Harper’s Bazaar and InStyle First institutional funding from Global Founders Capital, the Oliver Samwer fund Recognition includes Drapers Etail Innovation Award, NatWest Fashion Entrepreneur of the Year, Specsavers Everywoman in Retail, and a Management Today 35 Under 35 cover Biography Girl Meets Dress launched in 2009, before “circular fashion” was a retail board agenda item. The proposition was simple, the operations were not: rent designer dresses online, return them, repeat. Anna Bance built the company from inside the luxury PR world, where she had been Head of UK PR for Hermès, and where she had watched designer wardrobes sit unworn for most of their useful life. The harder part of the story is what comes after the idea. Rental at scale is a logistics business dressed as a fashion brand: dry cleaning, inventory rotation, repair, sizing accuracy, customer acquisition against a category most consumers had to be taught existed. Global Founders Capital, Oliver Samwer’s fund, named Girl Meets Dress as one of its maiden investments, and the business spent the next decade proving the unit economics of rental in a category designed for ownership. That operator vantage point is what makes her useful to retail and consumer leadership teams. The argument for circular commerce is well understood at this point. The argument that needs sharper voices is the operational one: where rental margins actually come from, why some categories work and others do not, what the brand consequences are when a luxury house lets its product enter a secondary access model, and how consumer behaviour around occasion-wear is shifting under experience economy pressure. Recognition has followed the build, not the pitch. Drapers Etail Innovation Award, NatWest Fashion Entrepreneur of the Year, Specsavers Everywoman in Retail, a Management Today 35 Under 35 cover. The work that earned them is still running. Key speaking topics Circular fashion and rental as a retail model The operational economics of access over ownership Luxury brand strategy in a secondary-use market Female founders and scaling a category-defining business Consumer behaviour in the experience economy Sustainability as commercial strategy, not marketing Ideal for Retail, fashion and consumer goods leadership teams reassessing wholesale and DTC models Brand owners and CMOs in luxury weighing entry into rental, resale or subscription Sustainability and strategy leads who need the commercial case for circular, not the ethical one Female founder networks, VC-backed scale-up audiences and entrepreneurship programmes Audience outcomes A sharper read on which retail categories rental works in and which it does not Honest numbers on what circular fashion does to inventory, margin and customer acquisition A clearer view of where luxury brands stand to gain or lose by entering rental A founder-level account of building a category before its time, and the operational cost of doing so

Why organisations work with Anna Gumbau She arrives at the room already inside the file. Her day job is reporting on EU climate and energy policy for outlets including Euractiv, Energy Monitor, and FORESIGHT Climate and Energy, so panel guidance is editorial rather than scripted. She moves comfortably between Brussels institutions, industry associations, and consumer-side stakeholders, with named-client work for the European Commission, Eurelectric, SolarPower Europe, BEUC, and the European Committee of the Regions. She works in five languages, English, Spanish, Catalan, French, and Italian, which makes her a single hire across pan-European events that would otherwise need swapped chairs. Her former role as Brussels correspondent for Carbon Pulse, covering the EU ETS and the Fit for 55 package, means she can chair sessions on carbon markets and Green Deal implementation without needing a translator into policy language. She runs The Green Light, a coaching initiative for women in climate and energy, which gives her a credible second register for women-in-leadership and inclusion sessions at energy-sector events. Biography highlights Brussels-based energy and climate journalist, with published work in Euractiv, Deutsche Welle, El Pais, Energy Monitor, FORESIGHT Climate and Energy, and Carbon Pulse. Former Brussels correspondent for Carbon Pulse on the EU ETS and Fit for 55, and former energy reporter at Interfax Global Energy Services in London. Member of the Moderating.EU roster and a listed moderator on Parliament Events for the 2024 and 2026 Circular Economy Forums. Moderation clients include the European Commission, European Committee of the Regions, EPP Group, Eurelectric, SolarPower Europe, BEUC, Volvo Cars, Booking.com, and EIT Raw Materials. Founder of The Green Light, a coaching initiative supporting women working in climate and energy. Working languages: English, Spanish, Catalan, French, Italian. Biography EU climate and energy policy now sets the operating envelope for entire industries, from power generation to mobility to consumer goods, and the events built around it have become harder to chair well. The room is mixed: Commission officials, industry associations, NGOs, and corporate sustainability leads, each with their own vocabulary and their own red lines. Holding that conversation requires a chair who can read the politics of the file in real time. That is the working surface Anna Gumbau has spent her journalism career on. As a freelance reporter she has written for Euractiv, Deutsche Welle, El Pais, Energy Monitor, FORESIGHT Climate and Energy, and Carbon Pulse, where she was Brussels correspondent covering the EU Emissions Trading System and the Fit for 55 package. Before that she reported on energy from London with Interfax Global Energy Services. The reporting is the source material she moderates from, not a credential separate from it. Her client list reflects that positioning. Sessions for the European Commission, the European Committee of the Regions, the EPP Group, Eurelectric, SolarPower Europe, BEUC, Volvo Cars, Booking.com, and EIT Raw Materials cover the full institutional and industry span of the EU energy and circular economy debate. The Parliament Magazine has used her as moderator for its Circular Economy Forum in both 2024 and 2026. A second strand sits alongside the policy work. Through The Green Light, an initiative she founded for women in climate and energy, she coaches and mentors women working in those sectors, and that lens carries into chair work on women’s leadership and inclusion in industry events. She works in English, Spanish, Catalan, French, and Italian, which is what allows a single chair across the pan-European programme rather than a different name on each language track. Key speaking topics Energy transition and EU climate policy Circular economy and resource policy European Green Deal implementation Carbon markets and the EU Emissions Trading System Sustainability in industry and consumer sectors Women in climate and energy leadership Ideal for Corporate sustainability, public affairs, and regulatory affairs teams hosting EU-facing events Industry associations and trade bodies in power, mobility, and raw materials running policy conferences EU institutions, agencies, and political groups commissioning panels, forums, and award ceremonies Multilingual pan-European corporate events that need a single chair across English, Spanish, French, and Italian Audience outcomes A panel where the contested points in the file are surfaced and pressure-tested, not deferred Clearer separation between policy direction, industry positioning, and unresolved political risk on the topic Time held, speakers balanced, and questions from the floor handled inside a defined run order A read on how the Brussels conversation on the session topic is moving, from someone reporting on it day to day

Why organisations work with Anne Hoyer She has built IoT and digital innovation functions inside SAP, CGI France and Danfoss. Boards get a practitioner’s view of why these programmes stall before ROI arrives. Her Copenhagen Goodwill Ambassador position gives her privileged access to one of the world’s most studied Smart City programmes, which she translates into concrete lessons for corporate and municipal leaders. She works natively in the partnership economics of modern technology: when to build capability in-house versus when to co-create with hyperscalers and scale-ups. Leadership teams leave with a sharper model of how their own tech ecosystem should be structured. A former radio and podcast host before moving into tech, she brings communications discipline to the stage that IoT speakers often lack. Complex material reaches commercial audiences cleanly. Biography highlights Head of Partnerships in Digital Services at Danfoss, leading partnership strategy as the group operates as a Microsoft-managed ISV. Previously headhunted to CGI Business Consulting France in 2018 to launch the firm’s SAP Advanced Technology practice. Began her technology career at SAP, reaching a global IoT role in Barcelona within the Leonardo IoT and Predictive Maintenance portfolio. Copenhagen Goodwill Ambassador since 2019 with Copenhagen Capacity, representing the city globally on technology and urban sustainability. Named one of the 30 Inspirational Women to Watch in Tech by Inc.com (2017), shortlisted as Future CIO of the Year by Information Age (2018), and selected as a Global Rising Star by SAP. Chairs the Advisory Board at Smart IoT London and founded Group Saint Honoré, a consultancy supporting tech scale-ups on commercial go-to-market. Biography IoT promised an operational revolution. The industry is still learning to deliver one. Most projects are orphaned between IT and the business, starved of the partner ecosystem that actually makes them scale. This is the terrain Anne Hoyer works in. Her career has tracked that problem from three different angles. At SAP, she progressed to a global IoT role in Barcelona covering Leonardo IoT and Predictive Maintenance Services. In 2018 she was headhunted to CGI Business Consulting in France to launch the firm’s SAP Advanced Technology practice. She now leads partnerships inside Danfoss’s Digital Services function, brokering alliances between big tech, system integrators and scale-ups while the group operates as a Microsoft-managed ISV. The Copenhagen connection runs deeper than geography. Since 2019 she has served as an official Copenhagen Goodwill Ambassador with Copenhagen Capacity, representing the city internationally on technology and urban sustainability. Copenhagen has been named among the world’s smartest cities, and she carries its case study material directly into her corporate keynotes. The stagecraft has history. Before joining SAP in 2015, Anne hosted a weekly show on Danish commercial radio and co-created Trendpodding, the first fashion podcast in Denmark. The communications discipline of those years still shows on stage. Board audiences hear the strategic case without getting lost in the architecture. Her external recognition tracks the work: Inc.com’s 30 Inspirational Women to Watch in Tech (2017), Information Age’s Future CIO of the Year shortlist (2018), and SAP’s Global Rising Star. She also chairs the Advisory Board at Smart IoT London and founded Group Saint Honoré, a consultancy supporting tech scale-ups on commercial go-to-market. Key speaking topics IoT and data-driven innovation Smart cities and urban sustainability Digital transformation in industrial sectors Partnership and ecosystem strategy Women in technology Innovation leadership Ideal for CDOs, CTOs and Chief Innovation Officers running IoT or digital transformation programmes Industrial, energy and manufacturing leadership teams moving from product to software and service models Smart city and municipal leadership teams responsible for urban technology strategy Women-in-tech networks and early-career technology talent programmes Audience outcomes A clearer read on why IoT and digital innovation programmes lose momentum inside large organisations, and where the interventions actually sit Working lessons from one of the world’s most studied Smart City programmes, with direct transfer value into corporate transformation agendas A sharper view of how a leadership team should structure partnerships with hyperscalers, scale-ups and research institutions Confidence that IoT and innovation investments can be sequenced for commercial return when the business case leads the technology choice For younger technology audiences, a credible path from non-technical backgrounds into senior IoT and innovation roles

Why organisations work with Anne Lise Kjaer The Trend Management Toolkit is a published, step-by-step methodology – not a proprietary black box – giving leadership teams a repeatable, teachable system for reading and prioritising complex signals before they become obvious to competitors. The 4P framework (People, Planet, Purpose, Profit) gives boards a practical lens for evaluating long-range decisions against societal value as well as financial return – a model that predates mainstream ESG adoption and has been tested across sectors from automotive to humanitarian. Government advisory appointments – to the UK’s DEFRA and Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority IPE – mean her foresight work is calibrated against real policy and long-horizon planning environments, not only corporate strategy rooms. Kjaer Global has operated continuously since 1988; the methodology behind her speaking work has been applied and revised across multiple economic cycles, not developed for the conference circuit. Her design background gives trend analysis a granular, sensory dimension: she reads cultural and behavioural shifts in material culture and consumer behaviour before they appear in quantitative data. Biography highlights Founder of Kjaer Global, London-based trend management and futures consultancy, established 1988 Author of The Trend Management Toolkit: A Practical Guide to the Future (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) – a step-by-step methodology for strategic trend analysis and scenario planning Developer of the 4P framework (People, Planet, Purpose, Profit), applied with clients including BMW, McKinsey, IKEA, EY, UNICEF, Amazon, and Volvo Appointed adviser to the UK government’s DEFRA (2022); former member of Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority International Panel of Experts (2018–2022) Listed among Forbes’ 50 Leading Female Futurists (2020); featured in MIT Technology Review’s profile of professional forecasters Profiled by the Financial Times; regular media contributor across BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Fast Company, and The Times Copenhagen Goodwill Ambassador (honorary title, since 2004); BA in Design, TEKO Design and Business School Biography Most organisations treat trends as incoming intelligence to be monitored. Anne Lise Kjaer’s argument – developed over more than three decades running Kjaer Global – is that monitoring is not enough. Trends require a system for evaluation, prioritisation, and integration into decisions. Without that system, even well-informed leadership teams are reacting, not preparing. The Trend Management Toolkit, published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2014, is the codification of that system. It moves through the practical mechanics of trend mapping: how to distinguish structural drivers from surface noise, how to scenario-plan across people, planet, purpose, and profit dimensions, and how to apply foresight to brand, innovation, and leadership decisions. The 4P framework at its core is not a values statement – it is a decision architecture, and it predates the mainstream ESG vocabulary by several years. The client range is deliberate evidence. BMW, McKinsey, EY, IKEA, and UNICEF are not natural strategic neighbours, but each has used Kjaer’s methodology for different planning challenges. Her formal advisory roles extend the same logic into government: as an appointed adviser to the UK’s DEFRA and a member of Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority’s International Panel of Experts – advising on urban planning to 2060 – her foresight work has been tested against policy timelines, not only commercial ones. The Financial Times described her perspective as one that creates social prototypes based on nascent trends. Forbes included her among its 50 Leading Female Futurists; MIT Technology Review featured her in its 2020 profile of professional forecasters. She has contributed commentary across BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Fast Company, and The Times, and holds the honorary title of Copenhagen Goodwill Ambassador. Key speaking topics Strategic foresight and trend management methodology The 4P framework: People, Planet, Purpose, Profit Sustainable and responsible innovation Long-range consumer and societal trends Scenario planning for leadership and strategy Glocalisation and regional economic ecosystems Futures thinking for business model development Ideal for Executive and leadership teams building or pressure-testing long-range strategy Chief Strategy Officers and innovation leads with responsibility for horizon-scanning and scenario planning Boards integrating ESG and societal value into long-term business decision-making Strategy, futures, and sustainability conferences requiring rigorous methodology rather than trend commentary Audience outcomes Practical understanding of the Trend Management Toolkit methodology and how to apply it to their organisation’s planning cycles A working model for distinguishing high-signal trends from background noise in a saturated information environment Familiarity with the 4P framework as an operational decision lens – not an abstract value statement – applicable to board-level strategic choices Concrete examples of how organisations across sectors have translated structured foresight into competitive advantage Greater confidence in making long-term strategic commitments under conditions of genuine uncertainty

Why organisations work with Aquayemi-Claude G. Akinsanya He brings first-hand experience of being denied SEN provision in the UK system and has translated that into a named legislative campaign, The Claudes SEN Law, that gives inclusion conversations real political and personal weight. His advocacy is documented through founder roles, not commentary alone: Garnetts Clothing Brand & Range on sustainable fashion and The Claudes SEN Law Campaign on disability rights and inclusive education. He sits inside the awards and rankings ecosystem that boards recognise: Forbes Under 30 nominee, ForbesBLK contributor, and Effie Awards Europe 2026 jury member, giving him credibility with marketing and brand-led audiences. He speaks credibly across young-leader and SDG platforms, including YOUNITE 2024 on SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities), making him relevant to organisations that have signed up to global goals and need authentic voices to back the commitment. Biography highlights Founder and CEO, Garnetts Clothing Brand & Range, a sustainability-focused fashion venture Founder, The Claudes SEN Law Campaign, an advocacy initiative calling on UK Parliament to reform Special Educational Needs legislation Forbes Under 30 (2024) nominee and ForbesBLK member Jury member, Effie Awards Europe 2026 Speaker at YOUNITE 2024 on UN Sustainable Development Goal 10 (Reduced Inequalities) Author of The Truth Behind Self Isolation and this Crazy Climate of Lockdown Biography Inclusion is one of the most contested terms in corporate language. Boards have signed off on statements, training cycles and reporting frameworks. Many still struggle to explain what changes in everyday practice for a neurodivergent or disabled employee. Aquayemi-Claude G. Akinsanya works in exactly that gap. He was denied Special Educational Needs provision as a young person in the UK system, and built The Claudes SEN Law Campaign in response, pushing UK Parliament for a statutory framework that recognises neurodiversity and extends support beyond age 25 for those with Education, Health and Care Plans. The campaign has been documented through Change.org, his own publishing platform, and bureau profiles. He also founded Garnetts Clothing Brand & Range, a sustainability-led fashion venture, and contributes to the marketing and brand world through ForbesBLK and an Effie Awards Europe 2026 jury seat. That second track matters: it places him in front of senior commercial audiences and gives him a vocabulary that connects sustainability and inclusion to brand and consumer strategy, not just to compliance. For organisations under real scrutiny on whether their DEI claims have substance, his value is specific. He carries the experience of the people DEI policy is meant to serve, the founder discipline of running ventures with social objectives, and the platforms (Forbes, YOUNITE, Effie) that make boards take the conversation seriously. Key speaking topics Neurodiversity and Special Educational Needs in education and work Disability inclusion and advocacy Sustainability and social impact in brand strategy Social entrepreneurship and purpose-led ventures Mental health and resilience in young leaders Campaign building and movement leadership Ideal for CHROs and heads of DEI seeking authentic voice rather than process-led inclusion narratives Brand and marketing leaders integrating sustainability and inclusion into commercial strategy Social impact and ESG teams working against SDG-aligned reporting commitments Youth, education and graduate audiences exploring purpose-led careers Audience outcomes A sharper view of how invisible disability and neurodivergence are experienced in education and employment, and why current policy frameworks fail Direct exposure to a founder building inclusion and sustainability into commercial ventures rather than describing them in policy terms A framework for connecting brand, social impact and SDG commitments without falling into surface-level signalling Renewed energy in younger audiences considering social entrepreneurship as a route to both commercial and civic contribution

Why organisations work with Arthur Kay He has done the work he speaks about. Bio-bean turned London’s waste coffee grounds into biofuel that powered London buses through a Shell and Argent Energy partnership. Skyroom is building key-worker homes in the airspace above existing London buildings, backed by a £100m fund he raised. He sits where urban climate policy is set. Board roles at Transport for London and the Royal Academy of Engineering, plus chairing the Academy’s Sustainability and Climate Roundtable, give him an inside view of how UK infrastructure and engineering capital is being directed. His book Roadkill, co-authored with Professor Dame Henrietta Moore and published by Wiley in 2025, was named a Financial Times Best Environment, Science and Technology Book of the year. It gives boards a defensible reference point on car dependency, urban land use and the real cost of mobility decisions. He translates between three audiences that most speakers can only address one of: investors evaluating climate-linked capital allocation, public-sector clients commissioning infrastructure, and operators running businesses that depend on both. Biography highlights The founder of Bio-bean, the clean technology company that recycled waste coffee grounds into biofuels and biomass pellets, acquired the company in 2023. Founder and CEO of Skyroom and founder of the £100m Key Worker Homes Fund, building affordable homes for key workers in the airspace above existing London buildings. Honorary Associate Professor at UCL Institute for Global Prosperity; architecture degree from UCL Bartlett School of Architecture and entrepreneurship study at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Co-author with Professor Dame Henrietta Moore of Roadkill: Unveiling the True Cost of Our Toxic Relationship with Cars (Wiley, 2025), named a Financial Times Best Environment, Science and Technology Book of 2025. Board Member of Transport for London, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Museum of the Home and Fast Forward 2030; Chair of the Royal Academy of Engineering Sustainability and Climate Roundtable. Recognised as a UN Sustainable Development Goals Pioneer, The Guardian Sustainable Business Leader of the Year, MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 and Forbes 30 Under 30. Biography London’s buses spent part of 2017 running on a fuel made from used coffee grounds. The company behind it, Bio-bean, industrialised what had been a student thesis at UCL: every spent coffee puck in the city contains usable energy, and a clean technology business could collect, process and sell it back to fleets through partners like Shell and Argent Energy. Arthur Kay founded that company. It was later acquired in 2023. The follow-on venture, Skyroom, takes the same posture toward another stuck problem. Cities cannot build enough homes for the key workers who run them, and ground-level land is exhausted. Skyroom builds in the airspace above existing buildings and finances the work through a £100m fund Kay raised. Both ventures share an instinct: treat the unused output of a city as inventory, then engineer a route to market. That track record sits alongside formal positions inside the institutions that direct UK urban policy. Kay is a Board Member of Transport for London, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Museum of the Home and Fast Forward 2030, and chairs the Academy’s Sustainability and Climate Roundtable. He is an Honorary Associate Professor at UCL Institute for Global Prosperity, with a degree in architecture from UCL Bartlett and an entrepreneurship study at Stanford. His 2025 book with Professor Dame Henrietta Moore, Roadkill, published by Wiley and named a Financial Times Best Environment, Science and Technology Book of the year, makes the operating argument plain. Car dependency is not a cultural quirk; it is a recurring transfer of money, land and health out of cities, paid in instalments by the people who live in them. The book is the clearest expression of how Kay thinks about climate: as a question of where capital, infrastructure and policy actually land, not where they are stated to be heading. Key speaking topics Sustainable cities and the built environment The economics of car dependency and urban mobility Climate-aligned capital allocation and infrastructure The circular economy in practice Housing, key workers and affordability in major cities Founding and scaling clean technology ventures The transition from net zero commitment to operating delivery Ideal for Boards and executive committees setting climate, ESG and infrastructure strategy CFOs, Chief Sustainability Officers and Heads of Real Estate are evaluating capital allocation against decarbonisation goals Property, mobility, energy and city-government audiences responsible for built-environment decisions Investors and corporate venture teams assessing climate-tech founders and ventures Audience outcomes A clearer view of where the gap between net zero commitment and capital plan is widest, and which decisions close it A working vocabulary for evaluating sustainability claims by what is built and financed, not what is announced Concrete examples from Bio-bean, Skyroom and the Roadkill thesis that translate climate ambition into operating reality A practical sense of which sustainability ventures and partnerships are worth backing, told by someone who has been on both sides of the table

Why organisations work with Barjis Chohan A founder’s view of brand discipline built over more than 25 years. She has run a designer label long enough to have seen the failure modes of growth, dilution, and trend-chasing, and to speak credibly about the cost of each. Hard-won sustainability substance. Seven years rebuilding supply chains, materials, and product lifecycles inside a working business, not a sustainability practice attached to a marketing function. A bicultural commercial perspective most boards do not have access to. She has financed and sold into the GCC, manufactured in the UK, and served Muslim, Western, and luxury hospitality clients inside one operating model. Verifiable entrepreneurial credentials, including Designer in International Trade from the Financial Mail on Sunday, Entrepreneur of the Year (London, Shell LiveWIRE), and the Global MSME Champion Award from the Global Council for the Promotion of International Trade. Inclusion content with a practitioner’s edge. Her work on identity and cultural difference is shaped by running a multicultural business, not by a corporate DEI mandate. Biography highlights Founder and CEO of BARJIS London, established 1999, with bespoke luxury rugs preceding the womenswear line launched in 2011. Luxury hospitality clients include Marriott Hotels, IHG [CONFIRM], The Montcalm (Autograph Collection), Emirates Towers Dubai, Japan Airlines, and K+K Hotels. Studied fashion design at London College of Fashion and Central Saint Martins; interned with Vivienne Westwood before founding her label. Award record includes Designer in International Trade (Financial Mail on Sunday), Entrepreneur of the Year (London), Business of the Year (Islam Channel, 2019), and the Global MSME Champion Award from the Global Council for the Promotion of International Trade. Featured in Vogue and profiled by The Guardian; subject of a London Film Academy documentary. Work exhibited at Fashion Weeks in London, Paris, and Dubai, and in museums in New York, Frankfurt, and San Francisco. Biography Most fashion businesses that survive their first decade do not survive their second with the same ethos intact. BARJIS London is an exception. Founded in 1999 with bespoke luxury rugs, the brand extended into womenswear in 2011 and has operated continuously across UK manufacturing, GCC investment, and hospitality clients including Marriott and Emirates Towers Dubai, with a sustainability programme rebuilt inside the business rather than added to its marketing. Chohan trained at London College of Fashion and studied at Central Saint Martins. She interned with Vivienne Westwood and worked with a French fashion house in Monte Carlo before founding her own label. The Guardian described her as a Westwood prodigy. Her early commercial decisions, including writing to oil companies for investment at seventeen and travelling to the Middle East with a young family, set the bicultural pattern her business has followed since. Recognition has come from credible bodies. She holds the Financial Mail on Sunday Designer in International Trade award, Entrepreneur of the Year (London), Business of the Year from the Islam Channel, and the Global MSME Champion Award from the Global Council for the Promotion of International Trade. The Barjis Initiative, launched in 2018, supports creative entrepreneurs and enterprise education in schools. Boards and leadership audiences book her for the operator’s lens, not the celebrity-founder presentation. Her talks examine brand erosion under growth pressure, creativity as a managed discipline rather than a slogan, and the specific commercial value of cultural fluency in markets where most British brands struggle to operate. Audiences at JP Morgan, the London School of Economics, Fonterra, and the Ministry of Culture of Colombia have heard versions of the same argument: ethos is a commercial asset, but only if it is defended structurally as the business scales. Key speaking topics Brand integrity and ethos at scale Reinvention and resilience in founder-led businesses Failure and risk in team culture Creativity as a growth discipline Sustainability in product, supply chain, and operations Cultural identity as commercial strength Modest fashion and bicultural consumer markets Ideal for Founders, CEOs, and senior brand leaders in consumer-facing businesses L&D and talent leaders running leadership-development days, graduate schemes, and high-potential cohorts CMOs and creative directors managing brand dilution risk under growth Heads of sustainability and product development in fashion, retail, and luxury DEI and people leaders looking for practitioner-led content on cultural inclusion and belonging Audience outcomes A healthier relationship with failure and risk that changes how people decide under pressure A working definition of brand ethos that holds up under commercial pressure A founder’s view of where sustainability programmes succeed and where they stall A reframing of cultural identity as commercial capability rather than compliance Reference points for entering GCC and modest-fashion markets without misreading them

Why organisations work with Ben Garrod Two decades of frontline conservation work across Africa, Asia, South America, the Caribbean and the Arctic, including several years running a chimpanzee field site for the Jane Goodall Institute, give him direct evidence of ecosystem collapse that most ESG briefings lack. A tenured Chair at a Russell-adjacent research university (Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Science Engagement at UEA) places him inside the scientific community rather than adjacent to it, which matters for boards scrutinising sustainability claims. A long BBC broadcast record alongside David Attenborough, plus his own series Secrets of Bones and Secrets of Skin, means he can carry a main-stage room without the usual trade-off between scientific credibility and audience access. Trustee of the Jane Goodall Institute UK and Vice President of Norfolk Wildlife Trust, so the conservation positions in his talks are backed by governance roles in the organisations doing the work. Can also chair and moderate science, sustainability and innovation programmes where the host needs genuine subject fluency rather than generic presenter polish. Biography highlights Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Science Engagement, University of East Anglia PhD from UCL and the Zoological Society of London on island-primate evolution in the Lesser Antilles Presenter of BBC documentaries including Attenborough and the Giant Dinosaur, Attenborough and the Mammoth Graveyard, Secrets of Bones and Secrets of Skin Trustee of the Jane Goodall Institute UK; Vice President of Norfolk Wildlife Trust; Fellow of the Linnean Society Author of the Extinct series and the Ultimate Dinosaurs series for Head of Zeus; author of The Chimpanzee and Me Regular contributor to BBC Radio 4’s The Infinite Monkey Cage and Inside Science; columnist for The Guardian and The Conversation Biography The chimpanzee population in the forest where Ben Garrod once ran a Jane Goodall Institute field site has fallen within a single professional lifetime. That kind of data point, drawn from direct fieldwork rather than a secondary report, is what a conversation with him tends to start from. It is also why leadership teams working through ESG and climate exposure increasingly want him in the room. His academic base is the University of East Anglia, where he holds the Chair of Evolutionary Biology and Science Engagement. The PhD, completed at UCL and the Zoological Society of London, looked at how primate species diverge on Caribbean islands, a question about the mechanics of evolution that connects directly to how ecosystems respond under pressure today. The published work, including the Extinct series and the Ultimate Dinosaurs series for Head of Zeus, extends that lens across deep time. The broadcast profile matters for the room he can command. He has presented alongside David Attenborough on Attenborough and the Giant Dinosaur and Attenborough and the Mammoth Graveyard, and carried his own BBC Four series Secrets of Bones and Secrets of Skin. On radio he is a familiar voice on The Infinite Monkey Cage and Inside Science, and he writes regularly for The Guardian and The Conversation. The governance roles are worth reading closely. He is a Trustee of the Jane Goodall Institute UK, Vice President of Norfolk Wildlife Trust, a Fellow of the Linnean Society and a Patron of the Natural Sciences Collections Association. For buyers assessing the difference between a broadcaster with an environmental hobby and a scientist with genuine standing in the field, those are the signals that settle the question. Key speaking topics Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse Climate risk through an evolutionary lens Extinction science and what deep time tells us about current pressures Great ape conservation and the economics of protecting megafauna Sustainability and ESG reporting grounded in field evidence Science communication for non-specialist audiences Ideal for Sustainability, ESG and CSR leads briefing boards on biodiversity and nature-related risk Corporate offsites and industry conferences where the climate session needs to land with scientific weight Financial services, insurance and asset management teams assessing nature and biodiversity exposure Science, innovation and R&D events needing a chair or keynote with genuine subject fluency Audience outcomes A clearer line between biodiversity loss in the field and the risk categories that now appear in ESG and TNFD reporting Specific evidence from African, Asian and Caribbean fieldwork rather than the familiar stock of climate statistics A sharper sense of how extinction and ecosystem science inform current corporate sustainability decisions For mixed audiences, a scientific voice that holds the room without retreating into jargon or headline generalities

Why organisations work with Ben Keene Twenty years of founding and running purpose-led ventures, from a crowdfunded Fijian island community to a climate startup platform, gives him a practitioner’s view of what actually holds communities together under pressure. A repeatable community-building method, the “5 R’s”, field-tested inside Rebel Book Club across 10 cities and 5,000 members, and translated for corporate audiences. Author of “Tribe Wanted” (Ebury Press, 2008), the book behind the BBC2 series, which gives his community thesis a public, documented origin story that most speakers in this space do not have. Equally comfortable hosting, facilitating, and running workshops, which means the same brief can be delivered as a keynote, a leadership offsite session, or a multi-day internal accelerator. Active founder work in climate and AI through Raaise and Good with AI, so his material on sustainability communication and responsible AI comes from current operating experience, not commentary. Biography highlights Founder, Tribewanted (2006-2016); built a crowdfunded sustainable-tourism community on Vorovoro, Fiji, later extended to Sierra Leone and Umbria. Author, “Tribe Wanted: My Adventure on Paradise or Bust”, Ebury Press, 2008. Subject of a five-part BBC2 series on the Fiji project, broadcast winter 2008. Co-founder, Rebel Book Club, a paid non-fiction reading community operating across 10 cities. Former lead of The Escape School at Escape the City; business advisor and mentor at Virgin StartUp. Founder of Raaise (climate startup fundraising platform) and Good with AI (AI education cohorts). Biography Building a physical community on a remote Fijian island with strangers recruited online is not a business-school case study. It is what Ben Keene did in 2006 when he co-founded Tribewanted, and the project ran for a decade across Fiji, Sierra Leone, and Umbria. It produced a BBC2 series, a book with Ebury Press, and several million dollars of investment into the regions it touched. The interesting part, for organisations, is what he took from it. Communities with paying members do not behave like audiences or customers. They need rhythm, roles, and a reason to return. Keene has spent the years since codifying how that works, most visibly in Rebel Book Club, the non-fiction reading community he co-founded in 2015 and grew to around 5,000 members in 10 cities. He applies the same lens to the commercial problems leaders actually bring him: why sustainability messaging lands with colleagues but not customers, why purpose programmes fade after the launch moment, why AI adoption stalls when it is framed as a tool rather than a practice. His current work through Raaise and Good with AI keeps him inside those problems as a founder, not a commentator. The through-line is specific. He is a founder who has repeatedly built communities that people pay to belong to, and he has turned the method into something organisations can use. Key speaking topics Community building inside organisations Purpose-driven business and impact entrepreneurship Sustainability communication and consumer behaviour Responsible AI and practical adoption Employee engagement through shared rituals and rhythm Founder lessons from climate and impact ventures Ideal for CHROs and internal communications leads designing engagement, belonging, or community programmes. Sustainability and ESG leads who need to translate strategy into language that customers and employees act on. Founders, innovation teams, and corporate venture units looking for a practitioner view of how purpose-led businesses scale. Learning and development leads building cohort-based programmes on AI, climate, or entrepreneurial mindset. Audience outcomes A clear method for building an internal or customer community, drawn from the “5 R’s” framework he has tested at scale. Honest distinctions between communities, audiences, and networks, and what each actually requires from the organisation. Concrete examples of where sustainability messaging fails with consumers and what reframing it around customer value looks like. A founder’s view of responsible AI adoption inside teams, grounded in his current cohort work rather than abstract policy. Renewed conviction that purpose and commercial outcomes reinforce each other when the community layer is built deliberately.

Why organisations work with Ben Saunders He holds the record for the longest human-powered polar journey in history, a 108-day, 1,795-mile round trip to the South Pole that gives every lesson he draws a specific factual anchor. His three TED main-stage talks have been viewed more than five million times, and TED describes him as a master storyteller; senior audiences leave with arguments they can repeat, not motivational impressions. His material on composure, energy management and team honesty comes from completing expeditions that defeated Scott and Shackleton, not from secondary reading or coaching frameworks. He pairs the expedition record with a working life in climate-tech investment, including Sequoia Scout status and the founding of Kintanna Ventures, so the parallels he draws to business are not theoretical. Biography highlights Led The Scott Expedition (2013 to 2014), the longest human-powered polar journey on record at 1,795 miles, completing the route that defeated both Captain Scott and Sir Ernest Shackleton. Youngest person to ski solo to the geographic North Pole, spending 72 days alone on the Arctic Ocean (2004). Three TED main-stage talks (2005, 2012, 2014) with over five million combined views. Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society; Honorary Fellow, University of Northampton; Patron of British Exploring; Ambassador for the Scouts and The Prince’s Trust. Author of Shackleton in the Ladybird Expert series (Penguin Random House, 2017); contributor to TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking by Chris Anderson. Founder of Kintanna Ventures, a climate-technology investment vehicle, and a Sequoia Scout angel investor. Biography The Scott Expedition set out from Ross Island on 26 October 2013 and finished 108 days later, on 7 February 2014, after 1,795 miles on foot to the South Pole and back. It is the longest human-powered polar journey on record, and the first completion of the route attempted by Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton more than a century earlier. Ben Saunders led it. Saunders skied solo to the geographic North Pole in 2004 at the age of 26, the youngest person ever to do so, spending 72 days alone on the Arctic Ocean. Across two decades he has led 14 expeditions in the polar regions and covered more than 4,500 miles on foot in conditions that strip away every soft variable in performance. The material he brings to senior audiences is built from that record, not from theory. His three TED main-stage talks have been viewed over five million times and earned the unusual designation of master storyteller from TED itself. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Honorary Fellow of the University of Northampton, Patron of British Exploring and an Ambassador for the Scouts and The Prince’s Trust. His Ladybird Expert volume on Shackleton was published by Penguin Random House in 2017. The commercial life sits alongside the expedition record. Saunders raised more than $10m in sponsorship across his career, brokering multi-year partnerships with Intel, Land Rover, Canada Goose and Bremont, and now founds and runs Kintanna Ventures, a climate-technology investment vehicle, alongside angel investing as a Sequoia Scout. That working knowledge of capital allocation and venture-stage operations is what stops the polar material reading as parable when he places it in front of a board. Key speaking topics Decision-making under sustained physical and psychological pressure Composure and energy management at the limits of human capacity Team honesty and trust in small, high-stakes groups Adaptation to volatile and unforgiving operating environments Recovery and persistence after setback Climate-technology investment and the commercial reality of decarbonisation Ideal for Boards and executive committees facing prolonged operational stress or restructure CEOs, COOs and transformation leads commissioning leadership offsites on resilience and decision quality Senior teams in regulated, safety-critical or capital-intensive industries Sales kick-offs and partner conferences where the brief calls for substance over spectacle Audience outcomes A specific account of what composure looks like as a working discipline, not a personality trait A frame for separating controllable inputs from external noise when conditions deteriorate Practical examples of how small teams maintain honesty and trust through extended pressure A more credible vocabulary for talking about failure, recovery and the gap between plan and execution A fresh reference point for board-level conversations on risk, endurance and the limits of preparation

Why organisations work with Bertrand Piccard The Solar Impulse Foundation’s portfolio of more than 1,000 independently certified, profitable environmental solutions gives organisations a verified, searchable evidence base – not an aspiration but a commercially assessed library of technologies available today, spanning energy, construction, mobility, agriculture, and industry. His “qualitative growth” framework – articulated in his book RÉALISTE – gives leaders a specific language for presenting sustainability to boards, investors, and governments as a source of economic development rather than a compliance cost. Few speakers can point to a named framework, a published thesis, and twenty years of testing it with heads of state and global executives. As a trained psychiatrist, Piccard applies behavioural insight to the structural reason sustainability arguments fail at decision-making level: not a lack of belief, but the absence of a financial narrative that aligns with existing incentive structures. His diagnosis is precise – and so is the alternative he offers. His advisory roles – Special Advisor to the European Commission and member of the European Investment Bank’s Climate and Environment Advisory Council – provide direct intelligence on the regulatory and financial frameworks that will shape corporate energy transition decisions this decade. The Solar Impulse round-the-world flight covered 43,000 km on commercially available solar technology alone. Organisations working through assumptions about what clean energy can realistically deliver hear this not as a metaphor but as an audit: the gap between what these technologies can do and what most boards believe they can do is not a future problem. Biography highlights Completed the first non-stop round-the-world balloon flight, Breitling Orbiter 3, with Brian Jones (1999) – the longest flight in aviation history by both distance and duration at that time Co-initiated and piloted Solar Impulse: the first solar-powered aircraft to circumnavigate the globe (2016, 43,000 km, zero fuel), with André Borschberg Founder and Chairman, Solar Impulse Foundation – has certified more than 1,000 clean and profitable environmental solutions via the Solar Impulse Efficient Solution Label UN Champions of the Earth Award (2012, UNEP); UN Goodwill Ambassador for the Environment; Special Advisor to the European Commission; member, European Investment Bank Climate and Environment Advisory Council Mungo Park Medal, Royal Scottish Geographical Society (2018); Harmon Trophy; FAI Gold Air Medal; holds 22 FAI world records in solar and electric aviation categories Author of RÉALISTE, The Greatest Adventure, and Changer d’Altitude; keynote speaker at the United Nations, World Economic Forum, TED, and major UN Climate Change Conferences Biography The argument Bertrand Piccard has advanced for two decades is specific: ecology and economy are not opposites. Clean technology is where the next generation of industrial value is being created. His Solar Impulse Foundation has certified more than 1,000 profitable environmental solutions – available today – to demonstrate that the energy transition is already a market, not a future aspiration. The Solar Impulse round-the-world flight – 43,000 km with zero fuel, completed with André Borschberg in 2016 – was designed to carry a message as much as a pilot. When Piccard landed in Abu Dhabi, the point was not the distance but the technology: every solar system and electric motor that had just circled the planet was commercially available. Most organisations had simply not been shown a coherent financial case for using it. That case is the work of the Solar Impulse Foundation, which Piccard founded and chairs. The Foundation’s Efficient Solution Label certifies technologies, products, and processes across energy, construction, mobility, agriculture, and industry – providing governments, corporations, and investors with a vetted evidence base for capital and policy decisions. His advisory roles extend this work directly into policy: he is Special Advisor to the European Commission and a member of the European Investment Bank’s Climate and Environment Advisory Council, positions that give him current intelligence on the regulatory environment shaping energy transition this decade. Trained as a psychiatrist, Piccard applies behavioural insight to the precise reason sustainability strategies fail at board level: the financial argument is missing. His book RÉALISTE sets out the case for his named framework – “qualitative growth” – as a practical alternative to both degrowth and unlimited consumption. The Climate Impulse project, a hydrogen-powered aircraft designed for a non-stop round-the-world flight, is his current proof-of-concept: another first, built to demonstrate what the next generation of clean technology can already do. Key speaking topics Clean technology and the commercial case for energy transition Qualitative growth: sustainability as an economic strategy The Solar Impulse Efficient Solution Label and cleantech certification Climate policy, regulation, and the role of business Mission-driven leadership and the explorer’s mindset The psychology of organisational change and resistance to transition Hydrogen and the future of sustainable aviation Ideal for Boards and C-suites working through the commercial and investment case for energy transition Chief Sustainability Officers and ESG leads under pressure to translate environmental commitments into language investors and boards will act on Government and policy audiences involved in clean energy planning, regulatory design, or climate target-setting Global executive leadership summits where the intersection of sustainability, growth strategy, and industrial policy is on the agenda Audience outcomes A reframed understanding of the sustainability-profitability relationship – with a specific named framework, “qualitative growth,” that can be used internally to move the conversation forward Awareness of a verified portfolio of more than 1,000 commercially available clean technologies, and how the Solar Impulse Efficient Solution Label works as a practical decision-making tool A clear diagnosis of why sustainability arguments typically fail at board and investment level – and what to substitute for the standard cost-and-compliance framing Insight into the European and global regulatory and financial architecture that will shape energy transition investment decisions over the next decade A more precise distinction between sustainability as an organisational cost and sustainability as a source of new industrial markets – presented with the proof points to make that argument to investors, regulators, and governments