Digital Transformation

Why organisations work with Eric Ries He authored the operating method most used by modern product teams. When a CFO asks how an innovation portfolio should be measured and governed, the answer most large companies reach for is his. He has tested the method inside GE, IBM, Intuit, and the US federal government, not just early-stage startups, so the case studies he draws on are at enterprise scale. He founded the Long-Term Stock Exchange, a SEC-approved national securities exchange. That gives him a working perspective on how ownership structure and reporting cadence shape executive behaviour, well beyond a consultant’s view. His new book Incorruptible reframes corporate governance as a strategic act, addressing why successful companies drift from the principles that built them. Useful for boards under pressure on mission, accountability, and long-term value. Biography highlights Author of The Lean Startup, The Startup Way, and Incorruptible (Authors Equity, distributed by Simon & Schuster, 2026). Founder and Executive Chairman of the Long-Term Stock Exchange, approved by the SEC in 2019. Architect of GE’s FastWorks program under CEO Jeff Immelt, applied across thousands of GE executives. Former Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Harvard Business School and IDEO Fellow; advisor to Pivotal. Ranked #12 on the Thinkers50 list (2019); The Lean Startup on the Thinkers50 Management Classics Booklist (2023). Biography Most large companies are excellent at running the business they already have and unreliable at building the next one. The systems that govern the core business, budgets, milestones, quarterly review, were not designed for ventures whose value is mostly unknown at the point of funding. Eric Ries spent two decades turning that mismatch into a working method. The Lean Startup, published in 2011, codified validated learning, the minimum viable product, and innovation accounting as a portable management discipline. The book has been translated into more than thirty languages and now sits on the Thinkers50 Management Classics Booklist. Its follow-up, The Startup Way, captured what happens when those ideas are pushed into established companies. The case studies are drawn from inside GE, where Ries worked with CEO Jeff Immelt on the FastWorks program, alongside engagements with IBM, Intuit, and the US federal government. The governance question runs through all of his work. In 2015 he proposed the Long-Term Stock Exchange in The Lean Startup; the SEC approved LTSE as a national securities exchange in 2019, and Ries serves as Executive Chairman. His 2026 book Incorruptible, published by Authors Equity and distributed by Simon & Schuster, argues that good companies fail predictably because ownership, incentives, and accountability quietly reshape behaviour as they scale. The book was selected for the Thinkers50 Best New Management Booklist. What separates Ries from other innovation speakers is range. He has authored the methodology, run the corporate transformations that test it, and built a regulated capital-markets venue to address the structural problem his books diagnose. For senior teams that want innovation handled as a portfolio discipline, not a culture programme, he is the source. Key speaking topics Lean Startup methodology Innovation accounting and the management of internal ventures Entrepreneurial management inside established companies Corporate governance and long-term value AI applied to product validation and customer acquisition The Long-Term Stock Exchange and capital-markets reform Ideal for CEOs and boards of public companies wrestling with quarterly pressure versus long-horizon investment. Chief innovation, strategy, and transformation officers responsible for portfolios of new ventures inside large organisations. Founders and senior leaders of scale-up companies preparing for institutional ownership. Corporate development and venture teams looking to apply validated-learning discipline to internal investment decisions. Audience outcomes A working vocabulary for measuring new ventures separately from the core business, drawn directly from innovation accounting. A clear diagnosis of why most corporate innovation programmes fail at the governance layer rather than the creativity layer. A view of how ownership structure, board cadence, and reporting rules quietly shape executive behaviour over time. Specific case material from GE, IBM, Intuit, and US federal agencies that audiences can map onto their own structures.

Why organisations work with Lara Lewington Fourteen years inside BBC Click gives her a first-hand catalogue of which AI and health-tech claims held up and which collapsed, useful for boards trying to triage vendor pitches. Hacking Humanity (Penguin, 2025) is a structured, sourced argument on the technologies extending healthspan, not a survey article, so audiences leave with a thesis rather than a topic tour. Formal study in the Ethics of AI at the London School of Economics, layered onto her broadcast work, makes her a credible voice in governance and risk conversations, not only product showcases. She is regularly trusted to host the main stage at AI Summit London, Founders Forum, London Tech Week and the Royal Academy of Engineering, which means she moves comfortably between keynote and high-stakes moderation in the same event. Long-form access to the people building this technology, from Silicon Valley founders to NHS clinicians, lets her describe what is actually being deployed rather than what is being announced. Biography highlights Co-presenter of BBC Click, the corporation’s flagship technology programme, for seven years until the show ended in March 2025; reporter on the programme from 2011. Author of Hacking Humanity: How technology can save your health and your life (Penguin, WH Allen, July 2025). Fronted BBC Panorama’s “Beyond Human: Artificial Intelligence and Us” and BBC One documentary “Forever Young?” on biological age reversal. AI Agony Aunt on ITV’s Lorraine since 2023; recurring technology commentator on Good Morning Britain, Woman’s Hour and BBC Radio 5 Live. Studied Ethics of AI at the London School of Economics; Senior Fellow at the John Schofield Trust mentoring early-career journalists. Host and moderator at AI Summit London, Founders Forum Global, LEAP Tech Arena, London Tech Week and the Royal Academy of Engineering. Biography Most boardroom conversations about artificial intelligence and health technology run aground on the same problem. The pace of announcement outstrips the pace of verification. Lara Lewington has spent 14 years inside the programme that, more than any other in British broadcasting, exists to do that verification on the public’s behalf: BBC Click. She reported for the show from 2011, co-presented from 2018 with Spencer Kelly, and stayed until the programme ended in March 2025. Hacking Humanity (Penguin, July 2025) takes the same instinct into book form. It examines the AI, gene editing and robotics now reshaping medicine, with a clear thesis: the meaningful prize is healthspan, the years lived in good health, not raw lifespan. Endorsed by Lorraine Kelly, Davina McCall and Dr Amir Khan, it draws on access from Silicon Valley founders to NHS clinicians, and frames where the science is real, where it is premature, and where the ethical exposure sits. The AI ethics work is anchored by formal study at the London School of Economics and a steady stream of fronted documentaries: Panorama’s “Beyond Human: Artificial Intelligence and Us”, BBC One’s “Forever Young?”, ITV’s “Tonight: Healthy Ageing”, and BBC Radio 4’s “A Documentary: By ChatGPT”. She is the AI Agony Aunt on ITV’s Lorraine, a regular voice on Good Morning Britain and Woman’s Hour, and a Senior Fellow at the John Schofield Trust. Event organisers book her for two distinct jobs. She delivers keynotes on AI ethics, the human impact of automation and the healthspan revolution. She also hosts and moderates the main stage at AI Summit London, Founders Forum Global, LEAP Tech Arena, London Tech Week and the Royal Academy of Engineering, where the brief is to interview a chief executive or scientist and keep the conversation honest in real time. Key speaking topics Artificial intelligence and its human impact AI ethics and responsible deployment Health technology and the healthspan economy Longevity science and biological age Wearables, diagnostics and consumer health data The role of robotics in care and clinical settings Technology hype versus evidence Ideal for Boards and executive teams setting AI policy and digital health strategy CHROs, chief medical officers and benefits leaders shaping workforce health programmes Health, life sciences and pharma leadership audiences tracking the AI inflection in their sector Conference organisers needing a credible host or moderator for AI, health-tech and innovation main-stage sessions Audience outcomes A clear read on which AI and health-tech claims are evidence-backed and which are still vendor narrative A working vocabulary for healthspan, longevity science and the technologies driving them Sharper questions to put to internal teams and external suppliers on AI ethics and data governance A grounded view of how rapidly diagnostic and preventive technology is moving from research into mainstream use

Why organisations work with Riaz Shah He has run reskilling at a scale almost no academic or consultant has matched: more than 400,000 employees and 24 million hours of learning a year inside EY. He built the EY Tech MBA, one of the first corporate degree programmes to put technology fluency at the centre of professional services training, and can speak about what it took to make it work. His authority on the future of work rests on operating responsibility, not research alone. He has been the executive on the hook for the budget, the platform choices and the outcomes. He chairs One Degree Academy, a free school for children in an underserved part of London now ranked among the world’s top ten in the Overcoming Adversity category of the World’s Best School Prizes. His argument that learning design matters at scale is supported by results, not theory. His OBE for Services to Education, awarded by HM King Charles III in 2023, signals that the credibility is recognised beyond the corporate audience. Biography highlights Professor of Practice for Innovation & Leadership, Hult International Business School. 27 years as a partner at EY, including Global Learning Leader, Managing Partner of London Assurance and Chief Operations Officer for EMEIA Markets. Architect of the EY Tech MBA, deployed across a workforce of more than 400,000 professionals. OBE for Services to Education, 2023. Founder and Chair of One Degree Academy, a Top 10 finalist for the World’s Best School Prize in the Overcoming Adversity category. Non-executive director, Genius Group (appointed July 2024). Biography Most large organisations have an AI strategy. Very few have a learning strategy capable of delivering it. That gap, between what a workforce is being asked to do next year and what it knows how to do today, is the specific problem Riaz Shah has spent the last decade inside. At EY, as Global Learning Leader, he carried operating responsibility for how more than 400,000 professionals were equipped for a market reshaped by automation, AI and digital platforms. His team delivered more than 24 million hours of learning a year and built the EY Tech MBA, a full corporate degree programme that put technology fluency at the centre of a professional services career. He had previously been Managing Partner of London Assurance and Chief Operations Officer for EMEIA Markets, so the work was anchored in commercial reality, not in the learning department’s preferences. He now teaches at Hult International Business School as Professor of Practice for Innovation & Leadership, where his sessions with senior executives concentrate on global megatrends, digital disruption and how organisations rebuild capability fast enough to keep up. He also chairs One Degree Academy, a state-funded free school for children aged 4 to 18 in an underserved part of London. The school is a Top 10 finalist in the Overcoming Adversity category of the World’s Best School Prizes, and is the practical expression of his argument that learning design, done seriously, scales. In 2023, King Charles III awarded him the OBE for Services to Education. He sits on the board of Genius Group, a Nasdaq-listed education business, and is a member of YPO. Key speaking topics AI and the future of work Reskilling and workforce transformation at scale Corporate learning as a strategic capability Innovation and growth mindset inside large organisations Generational shifts in the workplace Demographics and changing consumer attitudes Leadership in conditions of digital disruption Ideal for CHROs and Chief Learning Officers commissioning a workforce transformation tied to AI and automation. CEOs and executive committees of large services and knowledge businesses where the talent base is the product. Boards reviewing the capability assumptions inside a digital or AI strategy. Senior leadership conferences where the brief is to make the case for serious, not cosmetic, reskilling. Audience outcomes A sharper view of where the gap between AI ambition and workforce capability is biggest, and which gaps matter most commercially. A clearer picture of what corporate learning has to look like to keep pace with technology, drawn from running it at EY scale. An honest read on what worked and what did not in building the EY Tech MBA, with the operational detail intact. A more confident sense of how to talk to a workforce about AI without losing trust.

Why organisations work with Sol Rashidi She has personally led AI and data deployments inside Estee Lauder, Merck, Sony Music, Royal Caribbean, and Amazon Web Services, so the advice is field-tested rather than theoretical. She wrote Your AI Survival Guide (Wiley, 2024), the practical deployment playbook that boards and CIOs have started to use as a reference text for moving past pilots. As Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center, she is shaping AI policy thinking at the level boards now have to engage with. She talks credibly to two audiences in the same room: technical leaders who need the architecture to be right, and executive teams who need the commercial and workforce implications spelled out. Her current role as Chief Strategy Officer for Data and AI at Cyera keeps her live inside the AI security and governance conversation that boards are being asked to own. Biography highlights Chief Strategy Officer for Data and AI at Cyera since April 2025. Senior Fellow 2025 to 2026 at Harvard Kennedy School’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government. Author of Your AI Survival Guide (Wiley, 2024), a Top 100 AI book of 2024. Former four-time Fortune 100 C-suite executive: Estee Lauder, Merck, Sony Music, Royal Caribbean. Division Head of Technology, Startups, North America at Amazon Web Services. Holds 10 patents in data and AI; named Forbes “AI Maverick of the 21st Century” and to multiple Top 100 AI Leaders and Top 50 Women in Tech lists. Biography Most enterprise AI programmes look identical from the outside and fail in different ways on the inside. The strategy decks are confident. The pilots run. Then the operating model, the data foundation, or the workforce conversation breaks the deployment before it scales. Sol Rashidi has spent a career on the operator side of that problem, and now advises the boards and executive teams who own it. She helped launch IBM Watson in 2011, then became the first Chief Data and AI Officer in a Fortune 500 company. Across the next decade she ran data, analytics, and AI organisations as a four-time C-suite executive at Estee Lauder, Merck, Sony Music, and Royal Caribbean, and led the Startups technology division for Amazon Web Services in North America. The result is a practitioner record measured in 30 to 200+ AI deployments inside large enterprises, not in conference panels. That record is now packaged in two formats. Your AI Survival Guide (Wiley, 2024) is the playbook for non-technical leaders running real deployments, structured around strategy, use case selection, design, implementation, and long-term operations. As Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, she is developing an ontological framework for AI policy aimed at aligning government and business on what the technology actually is and how it should be governed. Her current operating role as Chief Strategy Officer for Data and AI at Cyera keeps her inside the AI security and governance debate that boards are now expected to lead. She holds 10 patents, has been named Forbes “AI Maverick of the 21st Century,” and has been recognised across multiple Top 100 AI and Top 50 Women in Tech rankings. The reason senior buyers keep coming back is simpler than the credentials: she has shipped this work, and she will tell a room what actually happens when you try. Key speaking topics Enterprise AI deployment and operating model AI governance, security, and responsible deployment Workforce redesign in the age of AI Data strategy and enterprise data readiness AI for boards and executive teams Post-AI organisational design Innovation discipline inside large enterprises Ideal for Boards and executive committees deciding how to own AI strategy and risk CDOs, CIOs, CTOs, and Chief AI Officers moving from pilots to enterprise deployment CHROs and transformation leads redesigning the workforce around AI capability CISOs and risk leaders building AI governance and security frameworks Audience outcomes A clearer view of where their AI programme actually sits on the path from pilot to enterprise deployment. A workable mental model for AI governance and security at board level, not a compliance checklist. A direct read on what the workforce conversation looks like once AI starts to land in operations. Specific deployment lessons drawn from named Fortune 100 environments, not abstract case studies. Confidence in deciding what to build, what to buy, and what to leave alone.

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

Why organisations work with Omar Christidis He has spent a decade mapping the MENA digital economy at a depth no global consultancy replicates: 30+ Arabnet conferences, 15+ original research reports and direct visibility into more than 650 regional startups. He sits inside the deal flow as Partner and Board Member at Flat6Labs Beirut, so his read on what is actually getting funded in the region is operational, not commentary. His advisory work with the Middle East Institute’s Strategic Foresights Program and the Aspen Institute UK gives him a policy-grade frame on technology that translates well to boards weighing geopolitical exposure alongside digital strategy. He is one of the few speakers who can hold a serious technology conversation in both English and Arabic for a regional C-suite audience, with the Yale and Booz analytical pedigree to back it up. Biography highlights Founder and CEO of Arabnet, the MENA-focused digital events, media and research company, founded in Beirut in 2009. Partner and Board Member, Flat6Labs Beirut, a $20m accelerator with 33 investments in Lebanese startups. Advisory Board Member, Strategic Foresights Program, Middle East Institute, Washington DC. Faculty Member and Moderator, Aspen Institute UK. BA and MBA, Yale University; former consultant at Booz & Co. MENA. Named Global Finance Magazine Top Innovator for the Middle East (2018); featured in Forbes, CNN, CNBC Arabia and Sky News Arabia. Biography The MENA digital economy is no longer an emerging-market footnote. Over the past decade it has produced unicorns, regulatory frameworks for fintech and e-commerce, and a regional venture industry that now writes cheques large enough to keep founders at home. Few people have shaped that shift more practically than the founder of Arabnet. Arabnet was launched in Beirut in 2009, after Omar Christidis left a role in private wealth management in New York during the financial crisis and a stint at Booz & Co. in the MENA. The company has since organised more than thirty regional tech conferences, published over fifteen original research reports on the Arab digital ecosystem, and supported 650+ startups, becoming the standing forum where founders, corporates and investors meet. His credibility is built on access, not opinion. As Partner and Board Member at Flat6Labs Beirut, a $20m accelerator with 33 Lebanese investments, he sees what is being funded. As an Advisory Board Member of the Middle East Institute’s Strategic Foresights Program in Washington and a Faculty Member at Aspen Institute UK, he sees how regional technology decisions are being read in policy circles. The result is a speaker who can tell a Gulf board what the next wave of digital challengers actually looks like, where capital is moving, and which corporate innovation playbooks travel and which do not. Global Finance Magazine named him Top Innovator for the Middle East in 2018; the World Economic Forum named Arabnet a Top 100 Arab World Startup the year before. Key speaking topics MENA digital economy and startup ecosystem Corporate innovation strategy Digital disruption and emerging business models Tech investment and venture capital in the Arab world Future of media and advertising Fourth industrial revolution Banking and fintech in the Middle East Ideal for Boards and C-suites of regional incumbents in banking, telco, media and retail facing digital challengers Global corporates entering or scaling in MENA who need a regional read on customer behaviour and competitive risk Investors, family offices and sovereign funds allocating to MENA technology and venture Government and policy audiences shaping digital, fintech and innovation regulation in the region Audience outcomes A current, named view of where MENA digital capital is flowing and which sub-sectors are concentrating A working frame for distinguishing genuine regional disruptors from imported business models that will not survive local conditions Specific examples of how incumbents in banking, retail and media have responded to digital challengers in MENA, and what worked A sharper read on how Gulf and Levant regulators are shaping the operating environment for technology businesses

Why organisations work with Neil Sahota He was an operator inside the IBM Watson Group when cognitive computing first met enterprise budgets, which gives him a deployment vocabulary most AI speakers lack. As co-founder of the UN’s AI for Good Initiative, he has helped scope and govern AI projects across the Sustainable Development Goals, giving boards a credible reference point on responsible deployment. His book “Own the A.I. Revolution,” named a Soundview Best Business Book of 2019 and published by McGraw Hill, sets out a buyer-side framework for AI investment that holds up in front of a commercial executive committee. He sits at the intersection of enterprise AI and capital allocation through Tech Coast Angels and advisory roles with Miramar and CerraCap, so he reads AI strategy through an investor lens as well as an engineer’s. As Chief Innovation Officer at UC Irvine’s Samueli School of Engineering, he keeps a continuous line into university research, which means his keynote content moves with the field, not behind it. Biography highlights IBM Master Inventor and former World Wide Business Development Leader, IBM Watson Group United Nations Artificial Intelligence Advisor and co-founder of the UN’s AI for Good Initiative Chief Innovation Officer, Samueli School of Engineering, UC Irvine Author of “Own the A.I. Revolution” (McGraw Hill), Soundview Best Business Book of 2019 Forbes contributor; featured in the Wall Street Journal, BBC, Wired, Fast Company and Business Insider CEO of ACSI Labs; member of Tech Coast Angels; advisor to Miramar Ventures and CerraCap Ventures Co-host of the “AI for All” podcast Biography Inside the IBM Watson Group, in the years between the Jeopardy! Grand Challenge and Watson’s first commercial healthcare deployments, a small group of business development leaders had to teach Fortune 500 buyers what cognitive computing was actually for. Neil Sahota was one of them. That experience, building enterprise AI cases when the category did not yet exist, is the foundation of everything he now offers a senior audience. He carried that operator perspective into the United Nations as an AI Advisor and co-founder of the AI for Good Initiative, where the work shifted from selling AI capability to governing it. The Initiative now coordinates AI projects against the Sustainable Development Goals, and Sahota’s role gives him a working view of how AI behaves at scale, across jurisdictions, and under public scrutiny. Few keynote speakers in the AI category hold both an enterprise deployment credential and a multilateral governance seat. His book “Own the A.I. Revolution,” published by McGraw Hill and named a Soundview Best Business Book of 2019, sets out an investment logic for AI that a commercial executive committee can actually use: where to play, how to assemble the team, how to evaluate vendors and partners. As Chief Innovation Officer at UC Irvine’s Samueli School of Engineering, and as a contributor to Forbes and a regular voice in the Wall Street Journal, BBC and Wired, he keeps that argument current as the technology and the regulatory perimeter both move. The buyer test is simple. A leadership team that wants a serious conversation about turning AI ambition into operating advantage, with someone who has built it, governed it, and written the framework, gets one in the room. Key speaking topics Enterprise AI strategy and deployment Responsible AI and governance Generative AI and the future of business AI for social impact and the UN Sustainable Development Goals Innovation, entrepreneurship and emerging technology The future of work in the age of AI Ideal for Boards and executive committees setting AI investment priorities CIOs, CTOs and Chief AI Officers moving from pilot to production Heads of innovation and corporate venture leads scoping AI partnerships Public sector and multilateral audiences working on AI governance and public-good applications Audience outcomes A clearer read on where AI investment produces commercial advantage and where it produces sunk cost A practical view of AI governance from someone who has helped shape it at the United Nations Specific reference cases drawn from IBM Watson-era enterprise deployments and current UN AI for Good projects A sharper internal language for AI strategy that a board, a finance committee and an engineering function can all use

Why organisations work with Max Lenderman He wrote the founding text of experiential marketing. Experience the Message (2005) put the category on the map. Twenty years on, his thinking is the underlying logic most brand-experience practice still draws from. He has run the experiential function at the agencies that shape global brand work: founder of the global experiential practice at Crispin Porter + Bogusky, former CEO of School, current Chief Experience Officer at Omnicom’s GMR Marketing. He moves brands from broadcasting purpose to operating on it. His “invertising” approach starts inside the organisation, with employees, and makes brand purpose a commercial driver rather than a campaign line. He has been working on web3, NFTs, and the digital-physical convergence since 2021, before most CMOs had a position on any of it. His Adweek “Into the Metaverse” column is one of the longer-running serious treatments of the territory. He has built campaigns for Tommy Hilfiger, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Absolut, and DaimlerChrysler. The case material in the room is from inside the work, not observed from outside it. Biography highlights Author of Experience the Message: How Experiential Marketing Is Changing the Brand World and Brand New World: How to Reach Billions, Not Millions Chief Experience Officer at Omnicom’s GMR Marketing, the world’s largest experiential marketing agency Founder of the global experiential practice at Crispin Porter + Bogusky; former CEO of School (Project Worldwide) Founding member of the International Experiential Marketing Association (IXMA) Columnist for Adweek and Campaign magazines, including the “Into the Metaverse” column Speaker at SXSW, Consensus, Forbes CMO Summit, Advertising Week, and X-Prize Biography Experience the Message was published in 2005. It is the book that put the phrase “experiential marketing” into the advertising vocabulary, and the thesis behind it, that the brand is what the customer experiences, not what the brand says about itself, is now treated as common sense by most serious CMOs. The author wrote it from inside the work, not as a theorist looking on. Max Lenderman has spent the last two decades building the function he named. He launched the global experiential practice at Crispin Porter + Bogusky, served as CEO of School, the purpose-led consultancy inside Project Worldwide, and now holds the first Chief Experience Officer post at Omnicom’s GMR Marketing. The client list, Tommy Hilfiger, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Absolut, DaimlerChrysler, NASCAR Canada, gives him operating ground in categories where brand experience moves revenue. Two ideas anchor his current work with senior marketers. The first is “invertising,” the argument that brand purpose has to be operationalised through employees before it can be sold to customers, and that the financial return on purpose is measurable when treated this way. The second is the “phygital” frontier, where digital and physical experiences are designed as a single product rather than as a campaign with a digital extension. His Adweek column “Into the Metaverse” has tracked this territory since 2021. What he gives a senior marketing audience is the founding logic of the category and twenty years of inside work applying it. He cites a PwC finding that 86% of US buyers will pay more for a better brand experience, then shows what that figure actually requires of a brand operating model. Key speaking topics Customer experience and brand operating reality Experiential and “phygital” marketing Brand purpose as commercial driver Web3, NFTs, and the metaverse for marketers AI as creative amplifier in marketing Sports marketing and live brand experience Marketing innovation and emerging consumer behaviour Ideal for CMOs, CBOs, and brand directors rethinking the role of marketing in commercial strategy Customer experience and brand experience leads inside large consumer businesses Agency leaders and creative directors briefing on web3, AI, and digital-physical integration Sports, entertainment, and live-event sponsors building brand experience programmes Audience outcomes A working definition of brand experience that separates it from communications and advertising A view of brand purpose as an internal operating commitment, not a campaign theme A sharper read on where web3, NFTs, and the metaverse have commercial traction for marketers, and where they do not A direct argument for treating AI as a creative amplifier inside marketing teams Case material from Crispin Porter + Bogusky, School, and GMR Marketing applied to the audience’s own brand questions

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

Why organisations work with Courtney Caldwell She has run demand generation at both ends of the company lifecycle: inside Oracle’s worldwide digital marketing group and at RightNow Technologies before its $1.45B sale, and again from zero at ShearShare. Few speakers can argue commercial strategy with that lived range. She built and exited a two-sided marketplace in a $500B services category that most enterprise marketers never touch. Beauty and barbering is not adjacent to enterprise SaaS, and her cross-vertical fluency makes her useful to leaders whose growth playbook is too narrow. She is a credible voice on founder economics from the inside, including raising venture capital as a Black woman, scaling through Google Demo Day, YC Fellowship and 500 Startups, and selling under financial pressure. The exit was not a clean Silicon Valley story. One of a small number of speakers who can move a room from enterprise SaaS marketing to gig-economy workforce dynamics in the same talk, because she has operated in both. Biography highlights Cofounder and former CEO of ShearShare, acquired in November 2024 after scaling to over 1,000 cities. Former global director of Oracle’s Worldwide Digital Marketing Strategy & Innovations Group. Former head of digital demand generation and JAPAC field marketing at RightNow Technologies, acquired by Oracle for $1.45B. Inc. magazine 2019 Female Founders 100 honoree; 2019 Ada Lovelace Female Tech Founder of the Year; 2017 L’Oreal USA Women in Digital NEXT Generation Award finalist. 2024 EY Entrepreneurs Access Network cohort member. BBA, SMU Cox School of Business; MBA in Marketing, UT Dallas. Biography Most enterprise marketers have never had to build supply. Inside a mature SaaS business, the funnel exists, the segments are mapped, and the work is to compound what is already there. Building a two-sided marketplace from zero asks for a different skill: acquiring two customers at once, in different verticals, with different motivations, before either side trusts the platform. Courtney Caldwell has done both. At Oracle she was global director of the Worldwide Digital Marketing Strategy and Innovations Group. Before that, she ran digital demand generation and JAPAC field marketing at RightNow Technologies in the run-up to its $1.45B acquisition by Oracle. The discipline she carried out of enterprise software was demand-gen rigour at scale: segmentation, attribution, funnel ownership. She then applied that discipline to a $500B services category that enterprise marketing usually ignores. ShearShare, the salon and barbershop booth rental marketplace she cofounded with Dr. Tye Caldwell, reached more than 1,000 cities and over 70,000 small businesses before being acquired in November 2024. The platform was a Google Demo Day winner, a YC Fellowship and 500 Startups alum, and a 2022 Fast Company World-Changing Ideas honoree. The exit was not the textbook version. ShearShare was sold to a strategic buyer under financial pressure during a dispute with M&T Bank. Caldwell speaks publicly about both halves of the journey, the recognition lists (Inc. Female Founders 100, Ada Lovelace Founder of the Year, L’Oreal Women in Digital, EY Entrepreneurs Access Network) and the harder economics underneath. That candour, paired with a Fortune 500 marketing pedigree, is the unusual combination she brings to a room. Key speaking topics Marketplace growth and two-sided customer acquisition Demand generation and digital marketing at scale Founder economics and venture-backed scale-up Future of work in the experience and gig economy Black women in technology and founder mental health Local startup ecosystems outside Silicon Valley Partnership, parenthood and entrepreneurship Ideal for CMOs and heads of growth at SaaS and consumer platforms reassessing demand-generation discipline. Founders, CEOs and operating partners building or backing two-sided marketplaces and scale-ups. Corporate innovation leads exploring services-vertical platform opportunities outside core tech. Diversity, leadership and ERG programmes commissioning substantive Black-women-in-tech content rather than generic representation talks. Audience outcomes A clearer view of where enterprise demand-gen discipline applies to early-stage marketplace growth, and where it does not. Specific tactics from inside Google Demo Day, YC Fellowship and 500 Startups that translate to corporate venture and intrapreneurship programmes. A frank account of what scaling and exiting a marketplace looks like when the cap table and operating economics are under pressure. A sharper read on the gig and experience economy from someone who operated a platform inside it, not just analysed it.

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

Why organisations work with Harmeen Mehta She has run digital and AI transformation as an operator inside three of the world’s largest technology and telecoms incumbents (Equinix, BT Group, Bharti Airtel), not as an external advisor. She has built and scaled new digital businesses, including Airtel Payments Bank and Airtel’s cloud and security units, giving her credibility on revenue creation, not only cost out. Her board work at Lloyds Banking Group, including the IT and Cyber Advisory Forum, gives her direct line of sight on how non-executive directors expect technology risk and AI governance to be discussed. Recipient of the 2018 MIT Sloan CIO Leadership Award and the TM Forum Global CIO of the Year, both peer-judged on execution. Biography highlights Executive Vice President and Chief Digital and Innovation Officer, Equinix (from April 2025). Former Chief Digital and Innovation Officer, BT Group (March 2021 to September 2024). Former Global CIO and CEO of Cloud and Security Business, Bharti Airtel (seven years). Earlier CIO positions at BBVA, HSBC, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Independent Non-Executive Director, Lloyds Banking Group; Vice-Chair and Board member, TM Forum. 2018 MIT Sloan CIO Leadership Award; TM Forum Global CIO of the Year; Women Economic Forum “Woman of the Decade in Innovation and Leadership.” Biography The gap between AI pilot and AI in production is where most enterprise value is currently lost. Boards want commercial outcomes; CIOs are still cleaning up legacy estate. Mehta has spent the last decade operating exactly in that gap, and her career arc is unusual because she has done it across three sectors. At Bharti Airtel, as Global CIO and head of the cloud and security business, she launched Airtel Payments Bank and built standalone cloud and security units serving hundreds of millions of customers. This is operating P&L experience, not advisory work. At BT Group, as the first Chief Digital and Innovation Officer, she ran a Group-wide programme that simplified a complex IT estate, scaled digital channels, and put AI into production across customer operations. Earlier CIO roles at BBVA, HSBC, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch gave her grounding in regulated environments, where governance, cyber risk, and resilience are not afterthoughts. That perspective now feeds her board work at Lloyds Banking Group, where she sits on the IT and Cyber Advisory Forum, and at TM Forum, where she is Vice-Chair and chairs the Appointments and Governance Committee. In April 2025 she joined Equinix as Executive Vice President and Chief Digital and Innovation Officer, reporting to CEO Adaire Fox-Martin. The 2018 MIT Sloan CIO Leadership Award and the TM Forum Global CIO of the Year recognise the same thing the boards she serves on do: she is judged on what she ships, not what she proposes. Key speaking topics Artificial intelligence and operational deployment Digital transformation in complex incumbents Cybersecurity and technology risk at board level Data strategy and the commercial value of data Cloud, platforms, and modern engineering operating models Women in technology and senior STEM leadership Building new digital businesses inside large groups Ideal for Boards and audit, risk, and technology committees commissioning conversations on AI governance and cyber resilience. CEOs, CIOs, CDOs, and transformation leads moving AI from pilot to production. Telecoms, financial services, and digital infrastructure leadership teams confronting legacy estate and platform redesign. Audience outcomes A clearer view of where AI investment converts to commercial value and where it stalls. An operator’s perspective on what good AI governance looks like inside a regulated, board-supervised business. A practical read on how digital channels and platforms produce revenue, not only cost reduction. Sharper questions to ask the executive team about AI, cyber, and data risk.