Cultural Intelligence

Why organisations work with Adrian Hayes A senior commercial career running in parallel with the expedition record. Six years as Airbus Middle East sales director is the kind of credential adventure-only speakers cannot produce, and it changes how executive audiences engage with the material. ICF-accredited executive coaching behind every session. Audiences leave with frameworks they can apply to decision-making and team performance back in the business, beyond the story they will remember. Direct experience of serious failure and life-threatening decisions. The 2013 K2 attempt ended in a fatal avalanche for his teammates. The 2025 Kanchenjunga summit ended in a near-fatal descent and a Sherpa-assisted rescue. His position on risk comes from having made those calls himself. Arabic and Nepalese fluency, with residence in eight countries and operational work in more than a hundred. The cross-cultural perspective comes from years inside those cultures at the working level. Biography highlights Former British Army Gurkha officer, commissioned through the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, with eight years in the Brigade of Gurkhas and postings in Hong Kong, Brunei, and Oman. Two Guinness World Records: fastest male completion of the Three Poles Challenge (Everest, North Pole, South Pole) in 1 year 217 days, and the longest unsupported Arctic kite-ski expedition for a 67-day crossing of Greenland in 2009. Summited the world’s three highest mountains: Everest (2006), K2 (2014), and Kanchenjunga (2025). Former Airbus Middle East sales director for six years, followed by over fifteen years as an ICF-accredited executive coach and keynote speaker. Author of Footsteps of Thesiger (2013) and One Man’s Climb: A Journey of Trauma, Tragedy and Triumph on K2 (Pen and Sword, 2019). Presenter or featured subject in broadcast documentaries for National Geographic Channel (The Greenland Quest) and Discovery Channel (Footsteps of Thesiger; In Inner Mongolia); Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Biography An avalanche at Camp 3 on K2 killed New Zealand climbers Marty and Denali Schmidt on 27 July 2013. Adrian Hayes was due to begin his own summit push the next day. The expedition stopped. He returned a year later and reached the top. That sequence, the halted attempt followed by the return and summit on 26 July 2014, says something about how Hayes approaches his work with senior leaders. He teaches what decision-making looks like when the cost of mistakes is absolute and the ordinary conditions for clear judgment have gone. The experience behind that work is unusually broad. Eight years in the Brigade of Gurkhas, including training and operational roles across Hong Kong, Brunei, and Oman. Six years as Airbus Middle East sales director, running a major commercial portfolio in one of the world’s more complex regions. Two Guinness World Records: the fastest male Three Poles Challenge in 1 year 217 days, and the longest unsupported Arctic kite-ski expedition for his 2009 crossing of Greenland. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and an ICF-accredited executive coach. His two books, Footsteps of Thesiger and One Man’s Climb: A Journey of Trauma, Tragedy and Triumph on K2, sit alongside documentary work for National Geographic and Discovery. In May 2025, he summited Kanchenjunga, the world’s third-highest mountain, completing the three highest peaks on earth. He was injured on the descent and rescued from Camp IV by Sherpa climbers. Key speaking topics Leadership decision-making under uncertainty Team performance under sustained pressure Cross-cultural leadership in complex markets Resilience and mental endurance Risk management and recovery from setback Responsible leadership and sustainability Ideal for CEOs and executive teams facing major strategic change or commercial pressure Boards navigating crisis, setback, or leadership transition Sales and commercial leadership in complex international markets Senior leadership development programmes, particularly cohorts preparing for cross-cultural or high-stakes assignments Audience outcomes A method for making decisions when information is limited and the cost of error is high A view of what resilience looks like in practice, distinct from its motivational framing Leadership lessons drawn from senior roles in the Gurkhas, at Airbus, and on major expeditions A clearer picture of what separates teams that hold under sustained pressure from those that fracture

Why organisations work with Laura Winterling Her reference point for high-stakes team performance is not a business school case study. She trained more than 80 international astronauts at ESA’s European Astronaut Centre in conditions where errors carry mission-critical consequences. A master’s in Physics and a second in Organisational Psychology (UCL) let her diagnose both the structural and human causes of team failure simultaneously. Most leadership consultants address one or the other. She is a certified Crew Resource Management instructor. CRM is the human-factors methodology aviation uses to systematically reduce error in complex operations, and it is mandatory recurrent training for working pilots. Organisations working with her receive a framework tested in environments far more demanding than their own. She authored the on-console handbook for Mission Control Europe: her understanding of how multinational teams coordinate under live operational pressure comes from having written the procedures that govern it. She is an active commercial helicopter pilot and helicopter flight instructor. The CRM principles she teaches in leadership rooms are her own working discipline in the air. Biography highlights Astronaut Instructor, European Space Agency (European Astronaut Centre, Cologne); trained more than 80 international astronauts – including crews from NASA, ESA, and Roscosmos – on spacecraft systems for ISS modules Authored the on-console handbook for Mission Control Europe Commercial helicopter pilot and helicopter flight instructor Certified Crew Resource Management (CRM) instructor and licensed MBTI practitioner MSc in Physics, University of Bayreuth; MSc in Organisational Psychology, University College London Three TEDx talks, including «From Perfection to Excellence» (TEDxUniMannheim), published on TED.com Founder and CEO, Space Time Concepts GmbH; clients include Mercedes-Benz, SAP, and Boston Consulting Group Biography Laura Winterling spent nearly a decade as an Astronaut Instructor at the European Space Agency’s European Astronaut Centre in Cologne. She trained more than 80 international astronauts from NASA, ESA, and Roscosmos on the spacecraft systems they would rely on during missions to the International Space Station. In that environment, how a team communicates, decides, and recovers from error determines whether a mission succeeds. Her responsibilities extended beyond the classroom at EAC. She worked across mission control centres in Toulouse, Houston, and Moscow, sat console during live ISS operations, and observed three Soyuz launch campaigns in Kazakhstan. She also authored the on-console handbook for Mission Control Europe, which specifies how multinational teams coordinate under live operational pressure. She holds master’s degrees in Physics (University of Bayreuth) and Organisational Psychology (University College London), and is also a commercial helicopter pilot, helicopter flight instructor, and certified Crew Resource Management instructor. CRM is the human-factors methodology aviation uses to systematically reduce error in complex operations, and it is mandatory training for working pilots. Her teaching of these principles in leadership rooms is grounded in her own active practice of them in flight. Since founding Space Time Concepts GmbH in 2016, she has taken these frameworks into leadership sessions at organisations including Mercedes-Benz, SAP, and Boston Consulting Group. Three TEDx talks make her central argument publicly available – that excellence under pressure can be designed and trained. «From Perfection to Excellence» (TEDxUniMannheim) and «Why Astronauts Don’t Need Telepathy» (TEDxHHL) are available on TED.com and YouTube. Key speaking topics Leadership and decision-making under operational pressure Crew Resource Management and human factors in organisations Team communication and structured debriefing High-reliability operations and organisational resilience Cross-cultural team performance in international programmes Excellence vs. perfection in professional and team development Leadership and followership as interdependent disciplines Ideal for Senior leadership teams and C-suite executives building capability for decision-making under uncertainty CHROs and people development leads designing resilience and high-performance team programmes Engineering, operations, and technology organisations where system failure carries real consequences Organisations managing international, cross-cultural, or mission-critical teams Audience outcomes A clear framework for distinguishing team performance in stable conditions from performance under genuine pressure Practical understanding of Crew Resource Management principles and how they apply in non-aviation organisational settings Specific protocols for communication clarity, structured debriefing, and error recovery drawn from ISS mission operations A reframe of mistakes as diagnosable, recoverable data – not indicators of individual inadequacy Concrete tools for moving teams from competent to reliably high-performing in complex, multinational environments

Why organisations work with Christian Havrehed He has operated inside the Sino-Western seam at every level: management consulting at L.E.K., MD roles in Hong Kong and Shanghai with KPMG, Allianz and VIKING, and a two-person expedition partnership that lasted 70 days at sea. Mandarin fluency lets him work directly with Chinese stakeholders in the room, not through a translator, which materially changes the quality of preparation and post-meeting reading. The Atlantic row with Sun Haibin is a documented case study in trust-building under pressure, published in three languages and over 20,000 copies, that he uses to make cross-cultural failure modes concrete. He is qualified to challenge the comforting Western assumption that cultural difference can be managed with a framework imported from headquarters. For boards weighing China exposure, he brings a credible inside-and-outside view that few Western speakers can match without a state affiliation that constrains them. Biography highlights 20 years working in China, including managing director roles with KPMG, Allianz, and VIKING Life-Saving Equipment in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Former consultant at L.E.K. Consulting, London. BA Joint Hons. in Chinese Language and Western Management Studies, Durham University, with study at Renmin University, Beijing. Author of “Beijing to Barbados in a Rowboat”, published in English, Chinese, and Danish; over 20,000 copies sold. First Dane to row an ocean: 3,000-mile Atlantic crossing in 2001 with Chinese ex-soldier Sun Haibin. Founder of the Yantu Project; Adventure Ambassador for Engage with China and Eyesea; member of The Explorers Club. Biography China is no longer a question of market entry. It is a question of whether senior teams can lead partnerships, joint ventures, and supply relationships where the other side does not share their assumptions about risk, hierarchy, or time. That is the ground Christian Havrehed has worked for two decades. After reading Chinese at Durham University and studying at Renmin University in Beijing, he moved into management consulting at L.E.K. in London, then ran businesses inside China and Hong Kong as managing director with KPMG, Allianz, and VIKING Life-Saving Equipment. He speaks Mandarin in commercial settings, which changes the texture of every conversation he is part of. In 2001 he rowed 3,000 miles across the Atlantic with Sun Haibin, a former Chinese PLA soldier and Communist Party member, becoming the first Dane and the first Chinese citizen respectively to row an ocean. The story, told in “Beijing to Barbados in a Rowboat”, is published in three languages and used by Havrehed as a working case study in what trust actually requires when the contract runs out and the weather turns. For senior leaders, the value is practical. He challenges the soft-skills framing of cross-cultural work and treats it as a leadership problem with real commercial consequences: deal terms misread, partners disengaged, talent lost. His Yantu Project, founded in 2000, has been the spine of this work since long before China became a board-level agenda item in the West. Key speaking topics Sino-Western leadership and partnership Cross-cultural collaboration in joint ventures Trust-building under operational pressure China market strategy and stakeholder engagement Risk-taking and decision-making in unfamiliar conditions Sustainability and citizen science through expedition Ideal for Boards and executive committees with material China exposure Country leaders, regional MDs, and joint-venture sponsors operating in or with Greater China Heads of strategy, M&A, and partnerships evaluating Asia-Pacific deals Senior teams running multinational cross-border programmes where cultural fluency is operationally load-bearing Audience outcomes A clearer view of where Sino-Western partnerships actually fail, drawn from inside both sides of the seam. Specific, named examples of trust-building behaviours that hold up when conditions deteriorate. A direct challenge to standard cultural-intelligence frameworks imported from Western HQ. Practical reframing of risk-taking as an organisational capability, not a personality trait. A more grounded basis for boardroom conversations about China exposure, partnership terms, and joint-venture governance.

Why organisations work with Nihal Arthanayake A daily-broadcast interviewer’s instinct for live conversation. Over eight years presenting the BBC Radio 5 Live afternoon show, plus the Headliners interview series, mean panel craft built across thousands of hours of unscripted live radio. A named winner at the 2019 BBC Radio & Music Awards for Interview of the Year. The room can feel the difference when an interviewer can actually draw out a senior guest, not just read questions in order. The author of a serious trade book on conversation. Let’s Talk (Hachette, 2022) is built on interviews with figures from Mary McAleese to hostage negotiators, which gives Nihal a content keynote that other hosts simply cannot offer. Twenty-five years of cultural fluency across BBC, MTV, Channel 4 and BBC Two. Comfortable on a Hugo Boss or Mercedes stage and equally credible chairing a panel on race, identity or media. Few hosts cover both rooms. Public-trust credentials that travel well into sponsor-sensitive briefs. Appointed to the BBC’s Independent Diversity Advisory Board alongside Sir Lenny Henry and Dame Floella Benjamin; trustee at HOME Manchester; ambassador for the British Asian Trust. Biography highlights BBC Radio 5 Live presenter; eight-plus years on the afternoon show; current host of the Headliners interview series. Winner of Interview of the Year, 2019 BBC Radio & Music Awards. Author of Let’s Talk: How to Have Better Conversations (Hachette, 2022). BBC Radio 1 alumnus; co-host of Asian Beats (Sony Radio Award winner) and host of Review with Nihal. Appointed to the BBC’s Independent Diversity Advisory Board in 2014 by the BBC Director General. Trustee, HOME Manchester. Former trustee, Southbank Centre and British Council. Ambassador, British Asian Trust. Biography Live conversation is harder than it looks on a run sheet. A guarded executive answers in talking points. A four-person panel splinters. An awards stage drifts by the third category. The job of the host is to recover all of that without the audience noticing. That is the craft Nihal Arthanayake has spent twenty-five years building. Eight years presenting the afternoon show on BBC Radio 5 Live, plus the Sunday interview series Headliners, mean a live-radio interviewer who reads a room in real time. The 2019 BBC Radio & Music Award for Interview of the Year recognised the same skill in a different setting: a candid, on-the-record conversation that other interviewers could not have got. That craft is the subject of his 2022 Hachette book, Let’s Talk: How to Have Better Conversations. The book draws on conversations with former Irish president Mary McAleese, Professor Tanya Byron, Lorraine Kelly and Johann Hari, plus hostage negotiators and clinicians, to ask what actually changes when two people listen to each other properly. It gives organisations a content keynote on dialogue, listening and disagreement that most hosts cannot offer. The broader public-trust footprint is what makes the work travel into sponsor-sensitive briefs. Appointed to the BBC’s Independent Diversity Advisory Board in 2014 by the Director General, alongside Sir Lenny Henry, George the Poet and Dame Floella Benjamin. Trustee at HOME Manchester. Ambassador for the British Asian Trust. Corporate hosting clients include Adobe, Google, X, GQ, Hugo Boss, Mercedes-Benz, Tottenham Hotspur and Boots. Key speaking topics Conference and awards hosting Panel moderation and on-stage interviewing The craft of conversation and dialogue Communication and listening as leadership skills Diversity, representation and identity in media Cultural commentary and the public conversation Ideal for Senior corporate awards, summits and gala dinners that need a host who can carry a long-form running order Town halls, leadership conferences and offsites where a CEO or chair will be interviewed live on stage Panel sessions on culture, identity or representation that need an experienced moderator on contested ground Internal communication, L&D and people-team events on listening, dialogue and conversation skills Audience outcomes A live event that holds energy from welcome to close, with senior guests drawn out rather than read at A clearer practical sense of what makes a conversation actually work, drawn from Let’s Talk and twenty-five years of interviewing A panel that moves, with a moderator who reads the room and lets the strongest contributions land A host who is credible on both commercial and culture-and-identity briefs, without switching register awkwardly between them

Why organisations work with Kari Nixon She brings the historical pattern recognition of a literary scholar trained in 19th-century epidemic narratives to live problems of misinformation, vaccine hesitancy, and corporate trust collapse. Her published work, including “Quarantine Life from Cholera to COVID-19” with Simon and Schuster, gives her a public platform that translates academic rigour into language a board can act on. She has worked the actual mechanics of disinformation as a Norway-based fact-checker for Logically Facts, not just commented on it from the outside. Fluency in Norwegian and English, plus a decade living between the United States and Scandinavia, makes her unusually credible on cross-cultural risk messaging for organisations operating across both markets. She trains scientists, executives, and communicators on the specific point most playbooks miss: framing decides whether data lands or rebounds. Biography highlights Author of “Quarantine Life from Cholera to COVID-19” (Tiller Press, Simon and Schuster, 2021), a public-facing book drawing thirty lessons from past pandemics. Author of the academic monograph “Kept from All Contagion” (SUNY Press) on germ theory and Victorian narrative. Co-editor of “Endemic: Essays in Contagion Theory” and “Theorizing Syphilis and Subjectivity,” both Palgrave Macmillan. PhD, English, Southern Methodist University, 2015. Former Assistant Professor of English at Whitworth University, specialising in medical humanities and Victorian literature. Norway-based fact-checker at Logically Facts; bylines at CNN, HuffPost, and YES! Magazine. Biography The way an institution names a risk shapes whether the public obeys, ignores, or revolts against it. Kari Nixon spent her academic career inside that question, reading how Victorian Britain talked itself through cholera, syphilis, and tuberculosis, then watched the same patterns repeat in real time during COVID-19. That double vantage, historical scholar and live observer, produced “Quarantine Life from Cholera to COVID-19” with Simon and Schuster’s Tiller Press, a book that translates two centuries of epidemic communication failures into operating lessons for the present. Her academic monograph “Kept from All Contagion” with SUNY Press sits behind it, alongside two co-edited Palgrave Macmillan volumes on contagion theory and the cultural history of disease. She left a faculty role at Whitworth University to work in Norway, including as a fact-checker at Logically Facts, monitoring how disinformation moves on social platforms. The shift from English department to fact desk is the point. Her argument is that risk communication is not a science problem with a comms wrapper. It is a narrative problem with a science core, and the people best placed to fix it are the ones who can read both registers. Her writing has appeared in CNN, HuffPost, and YES! Magazine. She works with science labs on graduate communication training, with corporate teams on crisis framing, and with cross-Atlantic organisations on how a message built for an American audience tends to misfire in a Nordic one, and the reverse. Key speaking topics Risk and crisis communication Misinformation and disinformation in public discourse Public trust in institutions Health communication and vaccine hesitancy Cross-cultural communication between the United States and Europe Narrative framing of contagion and contagion-adjacent risks Media literacy training for organisations Ideal for Communications, public affairs, and corporate affairs leads preparing for reputational or regulatory shocks Health, life sciences, and public sector organisations facing trust deficits with the public they serve Cross-border leadership teams operating between North America and the Nordics Science and research institutions whose technical experts need to speak to non-technical audiences Audience outcomes A working diagnosis of where their current crisis playbook will break under speed, scale, or scepticism Specific historical analogues showing what worked and what backfired when institutions tried to correct misinformation A framework for assessing whether a given message will travel, mutate, or be rejected by its intended audience A clearer sense of how Nordic and Anglo-American audiences read trust signals differently Language they can use the next morning to reframe a contested fact for a sceptical public

Why organisations work with Rohit Bassi Three decades of cross-cultural coaching across 21 countries, with named engagements at Oracle, Honeywell, Canon, the World Bank, HSBC and KPMG. A communication method built around four operating disciplines, courage, clarity, conviction and compassion, that gives leaders a usable structure for difficult conversations rather than a generic communication framework. A Gulf-based perspective on executive presence that translates between Western corporate norms and Middle Eastern, South Asian and Southeast Asian leadership cultures, useful for organisations with distributed senior teams. A combined practitioner record as keynote speaker, sales communication coach and author of Living Through Self Compassion, allowing him to work credibly with both commercial leaders and people leaders in the same organisation. Biography highlights Founder of ROI Talks, the coaching and training practice he established in Dubai. Author of Living Through Self Compassion (2019) and contributing author of Success Mastery alongside Jack Canfield (2018). TEDx speaker and Senior Level Executive Contributor at Brainz Magazine. Member of the National Academy of Best-Selling Authors. Three decades of speaking, coaching and training experience across more than 21 countries. Named client engagements include Oracle, Honeywell, the World Bank, Canon, HSBC, KPMG, Harley-Davidson and Armani Hotels & Resorts. Biography Most leaders are not promoted for how they communicate. They are promoted in spite of it, and only at the senior level does the cost become obvious. Boards lose patience. Sales teams stop closing. Talent quietly leaves. ROI Talks, the practice Rohit Bassi founded in Dubai, was built to address that specific gap. His method is structured around four operating disciplines, courage, clarity, conviction and compassion, drawn from a long study of mindfulness and applied to the conversations leaders actually have. The work covers executive presence, persuasion under pressure, conflict that has become organisational, and the daily communication habits that either build or erode trust over time. He has worked across more than 21 countries with named clients including Oracle, Honeywell, the World Bank, Canon, HSBC and KPMG. His book Living Through Self Compassion sets out the personal story behind the method, a return from depression and self-sabotage to a working philosophy of communication. He is also a contributing author of Success Mastery alongside Jack Canfield and a TEDx speaker. What sets the offer apart is the geography and the register. He coaches senior leaders fluently across Western, Middle Eastern, South Asian and Southeast Asian cultures, and writes regularly as an Executive Contributor for Brainz Magazine. For organisations with distributed leadership teams, that cross-cultural read on executive presence is not common in the category. Key speaking topics Leadership communication and executive presence Persuasion and influence in high-stakes conversations Mindful communication and emotional intelligence Sales communication for senior leaders Conflict, difficult conversations and trust repair Resilience and self-leadership under pressure Public speaking for executives Ideal for CEOs, business unit heads and senior leaders preparing for board, investor or all-hands communication Sales leadership and commercial teams in high-stakes B2B environments Heads of L&D, talent and executive development commissioning leadership communication programmes Senior leadership teams in multinational and Gulf-based organisations with cross-cultural workforces Audience outcomes A clearer language for the four disciplines that drive credibility, courage, clarity, conviction and compassion Specific tools for high-stakes conversations: persuasion, conflict, trust repair and assertive listening A more honest read on where their own communication erodes trust, and what to change first A working approach to composure under pressure that they can apply the next working day

Why organisations work with Csaba Toth He runs ICQ Global, a people development business with more than 200 licensed partners across 45-plus countries, which means his methods have been pressure-tested in genuinely multicultural settings rather than theorised in one market. The Global DISC model is ICF and CPD-accredited and gives leaders one common language for personality, generation, profession, and nationality differences inside the same team. He measures and benchmarks psychological safety, motivational drivers, and cognitive diversity, so the conversation moves from cultural awareness slogans to specific data leaders can act on. His credential stack is unusually substantive: John Mattone Intelligent Leadership coach, Hofstede Insights Associate Partner, Richard Lewis-certified behavioural consultant, three Master’s degrees and an Executive MBA. He co-authored Uncommon Sense in Unusual Times with contributions from Marshall Goldsmith and John Mattone, a credibility marker for senior HR and L&D buyers familiar with that lineage. Biography highlights Founder of ICQ Global, a people development organisation with over 200 licensed partners across more than 45 countries. Developer of the Global DISC model, an ICF and CPD Standards-accredited intercultural behavioural framework. Author of Uncommon Sense in Unusual Times, with contributions from Marshall Goldsmith and John Mattone. Forbes Coaches Council member and Harvard Business Review Advisory Council member. Hofstede Insights Associate Partner and Richard Lewis Communications-certified cross-cultural trainer. Holds three Master’s degrees (Italy, UK, Hungary) and an Executive MBA from Quantic School of Business and Technology. Biography Diversity strategies fail at the level of daily team interaction. People with different nationalities, professions, generations, and personalities sit in the same meeting, draw different conclusions from the same words, and lose trust in each other long before anyone names the problem. That is the gap Csaba Toth set out to close. He founded ICQ Global to make cognitive and cultural diversity measurable. The company now operates with more than 200 licensed partners across 45-plus countries, and its core asset is the Global DISC model, an ICF and CPD-accredited framework that extends the most widely used behavioural model in business with a layer for cultural intelligence. Leaders get a single language for the differences that actually slow teams down. The credentials behind the work are unusually deep. Toth is certified through John Mattone’s Intelligent Leadership programme, holds Human Synergistics accreditation, is a Hofstede Insights Associate Partner and a Richard Lewis Communications-certified behavioural consultant, with further certification in CBT, NLP, and Positive Intelligence. He sits on the Forbes Coaches Council and the Harvard Business Review Advisory Council, holds three Master’s degrees from Italy, the UK and Hungary, and an Executive MBA from Quantic School of Business and Technology. His book, Uncommon Sense in Unusual Times, published with contributions from Marshall Goldsmith and John Mattone, sets out how leaders stay relevant when the people around them increasingly do not think, decide, or communicate the same way they do. That is the practical question he answers in a room. Key speaking topics Cultural intelligence and the Global DISC model Psychological safety in multicultural teams Cognitive diversity and team performance Inclusive leadership across generations and nationalities Communication breakdown in global organisations Motivational drivers and behavioural difference Coaching and people development at scale Ideal for CHROs, Heads of L&D, and Heads of Talent leading global or multicultural workforces. DEI and Inclusion leads moving past awareness work into measurable team outcomes. Leadership development and coaching faculties inside multinational businesses. Senior leaders of cross-border teams where communication and trust have stalled. Audience outcomes A common vocabulary for cultural, generational, and personality differences that a team can use the next day. A clearer read on where psychological safety is breaking down inside their own teams and why. The Global DISC lens applied to a real internal dynamic the audience already recognises. Specific behavioural shifts leaders can make when working across cultures, professions, and generations. A more honest assessment of how cognitive diversity is helping or hurting performance in their organisation.

Why organisations work with Nina Moghaddam Two decades of live broadcast and corporate event hosting across Super RTL, RTL, RTLZWEI, ProSieben, VOX, Sat.1 and WDR, including current presentation of Lokalzeit OWL and the consumer affairs programme Servicezeit on WDR. Fluent in six languages (German, English, French, Spanish, Farsi and Mandarin), which means she can hold a multilingual room without flipping to translation. Particularly useful for international audiences and for German-Persian programmes. A corporate moderation portfolio across automotive, FMCG, foundation and public-sector clients. Includes Audi, Porsche, MAN, FERRERO, the Liz Mohn Stiftung at Bertelsmann (Zeitenwende on tour) and the City of Cologne (Viva la Green). A personal sustainability practice running back to 2014 (her HappyAndFitDIY YouTube channel, focused on homemade sustainable beauty products), which gives her honest footing on climate-themed agendas without playing the substantive expert. Works as a Moderationstrainerin, coaching others in presentation and moderation craft. For internal events, this means she can prep speakers and panel chairs ahead of the day, not only host the room. Biography highlights Current presenter of Lokalzeit OWL on WDR (since February 2024) and Servicezeit on WDR (since 2025). Two-decade run as a presenter on Super RTL, RTL and RTLZWEI, including Toggo TV, WOW Die Entdeckerzone, Kiddy Contest, Deutschland sucht den Superstar Das Magazin, Das Supertalent Backstage, and Wohnen nach Wunsch Das Haus on VOX. Adolf-Grimme-Preis nominee in 2005 (Spezial category) for her work on Super RTL’s youth programming. Studied Regional Studies East Asia (China focus) at the University of Cologne. Speaks German, English, French, Spanish, Farsi and Mandarin. Corporate event portfolio includes Audi, Porsche, MAN, REWE Group, FERRERO, Vodafone, UNESCO, the Liz Mohn Stiftung at Bertelsmann (Zeitenwende on tour) and the City of Cologne (Viva la Green). Operates the HappyAndFitDIY YouTube channel since 2014, focused on homemade and sustainable beauty products. Also coaches presenters as a Moderationstrainerin. Biography Most corporate sustainability programmes share the same failure mode: a celebrity host who introduces but cannot moderate, and a panel that reverts to talking points by question two. The organisations doing this work seriously want a different kind of room, one where a host knows the territory well enough to ask the right second question. Moghaddam has spent more than twenty years on German live television. She presented Toggo TV, WOW and Kiddy Contest on Super RTL in the early 2000s, work that earned her a Grimme-Preis nomination in 2005. From there she moved to RTL, anchoring the backstage magazines for Deutschland sucht den Superstar and Das Supertalent. She now presents Lokalzeit OWL and Servicezeit on WDR. That broadcast spine carries into a corporate setting. Live television teaches four habits: hold a drifting panel, keep an executive answer crisp, recover from a missed cue, and never let the room feel the strain. Her client list reflects where this lands: Audi, Porsche, MAN, FERRERO, REWE Group, UNESCO and the City of Cologne (Viva la Green). Foundation work includes Zeitenwende on tour for the Liz Mohn Stiftung at Bertelsmann. Her sustainability footing comes from personal practice. She has run the HappyAndFitDIY YouTube channel since 2014, focused on homemade sustainable beauty products, which gives her honest credibility on climate-themed agendas. The booking is for moderation craft. Senior corporate audiences on values-led programmes get a host who has run live television for two decades and works in six languages including Farsi and Mandarin. Key speaking topics Corporate event moderation and hosting Awards ceremonies and gala moderation Sustainability and conscious consumption Climate-themed corporate programmes Multilingual and cross-cultural events Presentation and moderation coaching Ideal for Sustainability summits, ESG awards programmes, climate-themed corporate forums and foundation-led panels needing a moderator with broadcast credibility and topical fluency International or multilingual corporate gatherings with German, English, French, Spanish, Farsi or Mandarin audiences CHRO, Head of Communications, and CSR/Foundation leads commissioning senior-audience programmes where the moderator has to do real work Awards ceremonies, gala dinners and after-dinner programmes for German-speaking corporate audiences Audience outcomes A programme that finishes on time, with senior speakers having said what they came to say Honest panel exchanges that do not drift into talking points, because the moderator pushes when a question gets dodged Broadcast-quality opening and closing that hold the room without feeling like corporate set-piece Content delivered cleanly across language groups, including mixed German-English audiences and wider international rooms

Why organisations work with Jana Azizi Her live broadcast range covers hard news, live morning television, entertainment magazines, and lifestyle formats, so she can shift register inside a single event without the audience registering the adjustment. She presents professionally in German, English, French, Spanish, and Russian at television standard, which is unusually rare in a single moderator and genuinely useful for events with multiple language markets in the room. Her Sky Sport News role included editorial team work, not only on-screen presenting. She arrives as a journalist who has already researched the guests and anticipated the angles. Thousands of hours of daily live broadcasting, including live sport, guest drop-outs, and technical failures, mean she has already encountered most of what can go wrong in a live room. A business administration degree from Mainz University of Applied Sciences lets her absorb a corporate brief quickly and translate dense business content for mixed audiences. Biography highlights Presenter at Sky Sport News from 2017 to 2020, working on the editorial team as well as on-screen Presenter across RTL flagship formats including RTL aktuell, Punkt 12, Guten Morgen Deutschland, Extra, Explosiv, and Explosiv Stories Presenter of Deluxe, the n-tv lifestyle and luxury format, from October 2020 Business administration degree from Mainz University of Applied Sciences (Hochschule Mainz) Marketing communications training at Grey Worldwide, Dusseldorf; presenter training at Logo Institut, Frankfurt Works professionally in five languages: German, English, French, Spanish, and Russian Biography Seven years of daily live television at Sky Sport News, RTL, and n-tv shape a specific kind of professional. Jana Azizi reads a room mid-conversation, absorbs the unexpected, and keeps an audience with her through shifts the room never sees. Her Sky Sport News role ran from 2017 to 2020 and included editorial team work alongside on-screen presenting. That side of the job built a journalist’s instinct for interview structure and story preparation, rather than only camera presence. At RTL she presented across the broadcaster’s flagship formats including RTL aktuell, Punkt 12, Guten Morgen Deutschland, Extra, and Explosiv. From October 2020 she also fronted Deluxe, the n-tv lifestyle and luxury programme. Sport, hard news, morning television, entertainment, and lifestyle each demand a different register. A moderator who has worked across all five reads what a corporate audience actually needs in the moment. Azizi works professionally in German, English, French, Spanish, and Russian. The five-language range matters most for events that are genuinely multi-market in the room, not simply bilingual on paper. She holds a business administration degree from Mainz University of Applied Sciences, which gives her the vocabulary to move confidently through a corporate brief and carry dense content for a mixed audience. Key speaking topics Live event moderation and conference hosting Broadcast communication and on-camera presence Interview craft and panel facilitation Storytelling in a business context Multilingual event hosting Women in media and male-dominated industries Ideal for Corporate conferences and leadership summits requiring a professional moderator or host International events where facilitation in multiple languages is needed at broadcast standard Award ceremonies, galas, and high-profile company anniversaries Media, sport, and communications sector organisations that need a credible, broadcast-trained panel moderator Audience outcomes Events that run with broadcast-level control, professionally paced and clearly structured Panels and interviews driven by focused, well-prepared questions rather than generic facilitation Live sessions handled cleanly when guests go off-script, formats slip, or tech fails Multi-language audiences held by a moderator who moves between languages without losing authority

Why organisations work with Ingo Zamperoni His understanding of US political polarisation is not academic. His American wife’s family includes Trump supporters – a dynamic he documented in the 2020 ARD film “Trump, meine amerikanische Familie und ich.” He has experienced the internal fault lines of American society from within a family, not as an observer from a distance. As an active anchor of Tagesthemen – Germany’s most-watched evening news programme – he offers current, institutionally grounded analysis. Organisations are not engaging a former journalist reflecting on what he once covered; they are engaging someone who continues to frame global events for a mass audience every week. His two Ullstein Verlag books on the US advance a specific, citable argument – that Europe systematically misreads America, and that correcting this misreading is a strategic necessity. That argument gives his presentations intellectual backbone that panel commentary rarely achieves. His Honorary Professorship at the Hochschule der Medien Stuttgart, where he teaches critical interviewing and political broadcast journalism, signals analytical rigour and a commitment to standards – a differentiator from media personalities who speak about journalism without continuing to practise it at the highest level. Biography highlights Main anchor of ARD’s Tagesthemen, Germany’s most-watched evening news programme, since October 2016 ARD Washington D.C. correspondent 2014-2016, covering US politics, the 2016 presidential campaign, and transatlantic affairs Author of “Fremdes Land Amerika” (Ullstein Verlag, 2016, bestseller) and “Anderland – Die USA unter Trump, ein Schadensbericht” (Ullstein Verlag, 2018) Honorary Professor at the Hochschule der Medien (HdM) Stuttgart, appointed January 2022 by unanimous senate vote Fulbright scholarship alumnus; Master’s degree from Boston University; studied American studies, law, and history at the University of Konstanz and in Berlin Anchor of ARD Nachtmagazin (2007-2013); host of ARD programme “Die 100 – Was Deutschland bewegt” ARD documentary “Trump, meine amerikanische Familie und ich” (2020), examining US political polarisation through direct family experience Biography ARD’s Tagesthemen is the evening news programme that Germany’s senior decision-makers rely on to interpret global affairs. Ingo Zamperoni has been one of its anchors since 2016, returning from two years as the network’s Washington correspondent at the moment US politics turned in a direction that European observers were not equipped to understand. He came back with a specific position: that Europe’s assumptions about America had stopped being accurate, and that the consequences of this misreading were serious. That position runs through both his books. “Fremdes Land Amerika” (Ullstein Verlag, 2016), which became a bestseller, made the case that the transatlantic relationship rests on European projections rather than American realities. “Anderland” (Ullstein Verlag, 2018) argued that Trump was not a cause of American division but a symptom of structural fractures that predated him and would outlast him. These are not dispatches from the road. They are attempts to replace a failing European frame with something more accurate. His authority is personal as well as analytical. His American wife’s family includes Trump supporters – a dynamic he documented in the 2020 ARD film “Trump, meine amerikanische Familie und ich.” Where most European commentators analyse the US political divide from the outside, Zamperoni has navigated it inside a family. That gives his analysis a texture that briefings and geopolitical reports rarely achieve. Appointed Honorary Professor at the Hochschule der Medien Stuttgart in 2022, he teaches critical interviewing and political broadcast journalism to the next generation of German journalists. He is a practitioner who has been asked to codify the standards of his practice – a distinction that matters when boards and leadership teams need geopolitical analysis they can actually use. Key speaking topics US politics and political polarisation Transatlantic relations and the US-Europe strategic partnership Geopolitics and the shifting global order Political communication and narrative in democracies Media credibility, public trust, and information quality Democracy under pressure: institutional resilience and the populist challenge Ideal for Senior leadership teams and boards with significant US or transatlantic business exposure Corporate strategy and political risk functions navigating US policy uncertainty Institutional, financial, or public-sector audiences requiring credible geopolitical framing Conference programmes focused on global affairs, political risk, or the future of the transatlantic relationship Audience outcomes A clearer framework for understanding what is structurally driving US politics, beyond the daily news cycle Concrete context for the fault lines in American society and what they mean for the transatlantic relationship over the medium term A more calibrated understanding of how political narratives are constructed in the US and why European coverage of America often misses the underlying dynamics Sharper awareness of the assumptions about the US that European organisations bring to their strategic decisions – and where those assumptions are no longer reliable

Why organisations work with Jennifer Sarah Boone Native bilingual fluency in German and English – thinking simultaneously in both, not translating between them – means international technology events get equivalent quality of moderation across both audience groups. Her MSc in Business Psychology, completed in 2024 with a focus on digital coaching and consulting, means she can interrogate a panel on AI ethics or data governance with the vocabulary that makes technical experts take the conversation seriously. A broadcast career built across three countries – news editing at Wack Radio in Trinidad and Tobago, TV presenting at Reelkandi in Hamburg, morning show hosting in the UAE – gives her a level of live composure under pressure that is professional in the deepest sense. She has moderated at Deutsche Telekom’s stage at Mobile World Congress 2023 in Barcelona and at events connected to the German government’s Digitalgipfel – two of the most scrutinised technology forums in Europe. A cross-sector client portfolio spanning enterprise software (SAP, Google), semiconductor and automotive technology (Infineon, TWAICE Technologies, Nexperia), and climate innovation (Greentech Festival) means she can move between technical depth and commercial context within a single event day. Biography highlights Bilingual presenter and event moderator with over 20 years of professional on-stage and on-camera experience MSc in Business Psychology (focus: digital coaching and consulting), DIPLOMA Nordhessen, completed 2024 BA in Media Management and Media Journalism, DIPLOMA Nordhessen Host at Deutsche Telekom’s stage, Mobile World Congress 2023, Barcelona Client portfolio includes SAP, Google, Infineon, TWAICE Technologies, Nexperia, and Greentech Festival Confirmed panel moderation topics include AI ethics, autonomous mobility, cybersecurity, data governance, digital sovereignty, and sustainable aviation Broadcast background: Wack Radio (Trinidad and Tobago), Reelkandi TV (Hamburg), morning show host (UAE) Performing arts training at Stage School of Music, Dance and Drama, Hamburg Biography The moment a technology panel drifts – experts talking past each other, the room disengaging – organisations discover that event facilitation is a specialism, not an afterthought. Jennifer Sarah Boone has spent over 20 years preventing that failure, moderating across AI, digital transformation, autonomous mobility, and sustainability for some of the most demanding technology forums in Europe. Her academic formation is unusual for a professional host. An MSc in Business Psychology – completed in 2024, focused on digital coaching and consulting – sits alongside a BA in Media Journalism. That combination produces content literacy, not just stage craft. She can interrogate a panel on data governance, AI safety, or software-defined vehicles with the vocabulary and curiosity that makes subject-matter experts raise their game. Her broadcast roots run deep. News editing at Wack Radio in Trinidad and Tobago, TV presenting at Reelkandi in Hamburg, morning show hosting in the UAE built a live composure that a conference facilitator cannot replicate. She was a working journalist before she was a technology moderator, and that shows in how she manages complexity at speed. Deutsche Telekom trusted her to front their stage at Mobile World Congress 2023 in Barcelona. What makes her specifically valuable to international technology events is native-level bilingual fluency in German and English – a combination exceptionally rare at this professional level in Europe. Clients spanning SAP, Google, Infineon, TWAICE Technologies, and the German government’s Digitalgipfel represent the full spectrum of environments where moderation quality is commercially and reputationally visible. Key speaking topics Technology and AI event moderation Digitalisation and digital transformation Artificial intelligence and human communication Autonomous mobility and future technologies Sustainability and climate innovation Cross-cultural and multilingual communication Ideal for Technology conference programme directors and corporate event leads managing flagship international forums CTOs and CDOs hosting multilingual summits or cross-border innovation events Government and public sector digital policy bodies running German-language or bilingual events Corporate communications leads managing hybrid or large-format live technology productions Audience outcomes Panels that remain structured and substantive without losing energy or audience accessibility Complex AI and digital transformation content rendered in language that non-specialist senior leaders can engage with and act on Multilingual events where German and English audiences receive the same quality of facilitation Coherent through-lines connecting multiple speakers, disciplines, and sessions across a full event day A stage environment where technical experts and strategic executives communicate with each other rather than alongside each other

Why organisations work with Samantha Johnson Few presenters have actually conducted the FIFA World Cup Final Draw. Samantha has done it twice, including the 2026 ceremony at the Kennedy Center alongside Rio Ferdinand. She holds dual credibility across two registers organisations rarely find in one person: marquee sports broadcasting and substantive global current affairs. The same week she fronts a federation event, she can moderate a policy discussion at the United Nations. As the creator and presenter of Al Jazeera English’s Game Theory, Now You Know and Centre Stage, she runs her own editorial. She does her own research and writes her own questions. A British-Jamaican woman fronting the FIFA World Cup draw signals to a global audience that the organisation has actually changed who occupies authority on its biggest stage. That representation is part of what an organisation buying global visibility is actually paying for. Biography highlights Conductor of the Final Draw for the FIFA World Cup 2026 alongside Rio Ferdinand, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington DC. Member of the conducting team for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Final Draw in Doha, and presenter at The Best FIFA Football Awards 2022 in Paris. Presenter and producer at Al Jazeera Media Network, where she created and hosts Game Theory, Now You Know and Centre Stage. Former Sports Anchor at TRT World in Istanbul, fronting flagship programme Beyond the Game across seven years. Past on-air roles with Sky Sports News, beIN Sports, Eurosport and Chelsea TV. Moderator for United Nations policy discussions, including the launch of UN Women’s ‘Awake Not Sleeping’ initiative. Biography The Final Draw for the FIFA World Cup 2026 was conducted at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington DC, in front of heads of state and a global broadcast audience. Samantha Johnson was the broadcaster on stage with Rio Ferdinand, leading the procedure that revealed the group-stage matchups for the first 48-team tournament. Few presenters have ever been trusted with that role. Even fewer have done it twice. The 2026 ceremony followed her work on the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Final Draw in Doha and The Best FIFA Football Awards in Paris. Outside FIFA, she moderates UEFA conferences, anchors policy discussions at the United Nations, and hosted the launch of UN Women’s ‘Awake Not Sleeping’ initiative. The pattern is consistent. Federations and institutions that need a live moment to land at the level their audience expects come back to her. At Al Jazeera English she has built a body of work that runs deeper than presenting. Game Theory examines the politics, power and economics shaping world sport, from betting scandals in the NBA to Africa’s investment in football infrastructure. Now You Know is the network’s vodcast amplifying women’s voices across health, sport and technology. Centre Stage carries her long-form interviews with global change makers, including a recent conversation with Mozambique’s President Daniel Chapo. Born in Birmingham to a British-Jamaican family, she has built her career across London, Istanbul and Doha, where she now lives. Before Al Jazeera, she spent seven years anchoring TRT World’s flagship Beyond the Game programme, after starting out at Chelsea TV and moving through on-air roles with Sky Sports News, beIN Sports and Eurosport. The composure that comes from doing live television in three languages and three time zones is what makes her a natural choice for a federation board, an awards stage or a United Nations convening. Key speaking topics Live event hosting and moderation Diversity, representation and women’s voices Sport, politics and power Global storytelling and communication Cultural intelligence in international media Women in sport and broadcasting Ideal for Federations, awards bodies and global brands seeking a credible host for high-profile live moments DEI and Women’s Network leads commissioning conversations on representation and visibility International conferences requiring a moderator who can hold senior speakers and multilingual audiences Media, sport and policy organisations staging events where substance and signal both matter Audience outcomes A view from inside the highest-stakes moments in live global broadcasting, told by someone who has had to deliver them. A perspective on representation in sport and media built from doing the job on stage in front of millions. An honest account of working as a journalist across cultures, from London to Istanbul to Doha. Specific material on how senior figures get interviewed for global broadcast: the editorial preparation, the question design, the on-air control.