Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Why organisations work with Liz Jackson She has been on both sides of the table: founder of a B2B marketing firm she ran for 17 years, and now Sales & Marketing Director at M&A advisor BCMS, where she works with owner-managers through valuation, growth-to-sale, and the transition into life after exit. She runs The Fellows Group, a network of more than 200 entrepreneurs who have already sold their companies through BCMS. Few speakers can draw on a live, operational community of post-exit founders for their material. Her credibility on resilience is earned, not borrowed. She lost her sight at 25, the same year she founded Great Guns Marketing, and built the business into a multi-site national operation while blind. The MBE in 2007 was for services to business, not for personal story. She turns the conversation about disability and inclusion into a problem-solving conversation. Her framing, that disabled people develop unusually strong problem-solving instincts because they have had to, gives leadership teams a sharper lens on adversity and capability than the standard inclusion talk. Biography highlights MBE, 2007, for services to business Honorary doctorate, Staffordshire University, 2012 Founder, Great Guns Marketing, a national B2B telemarketing business she led for 17 years Sales & Marketing Director, BCMS (Initium Corporate Finance), advising owner-managers on sale and transition Host of The Fellows Group, a network of 200+ entrepreneurs who have exited their businesses through BCMS Featured on Channel 4’s Secret Millionaire Author of StartUp!, published by Pearson Prentice Hall Biography Great Guns Marketing was launched in 1998 by a 25-year-old with no degree, a £1,000 grant and a £4,000 loan from The Prince’s Trust. The same year, its founder lost her sight. Over the next 17 years the business grew into one of the UK’s leading B2B telemarketing firms, with offices across England, Scotland and Ireland. That arc is the foundation of Liz Jackson’s commercial credibility, but it is no longer her main subject. As Sales & Marketing Director at BCMS, the M&A advisor for owner-managed businesses, she now sits inside the transactions she once would have been on the other side of, coaching founders through valuation, growth-to-sale and the life that begins the day the cheque clears. She also hosts The Fellows Group, a network of more than 200 entrepreneurs who have exited their companies through BCMS. It gives her a working evidence base on what actually changes for founders after a sale, the parts that are well rehearsed and the parts that are not. That material sits behind her work on entrepreneurship, growth strategy and exit planning, and it is what distinguishes her from speakers whose entrepreneurial story stopped at the founding moment. Jackson’s MBE, awarded in 2007 for services to business, and her honorary doctorate from Staffordshire University in 2012 are the public markers of that record. The Channel 4 Secret Millionaire appearance and her book StartUp!, published by Pearson Prentice Hall, are the points where her story has reached a broader audience. Inside a leadership room, her sharpest material is on how owner-managers can run a business now with the discipline of a business that will one day be sold. Key speaking topics Entrepreneurship and scale-up leadership Growth strategy for owner-managed businesses Sale readiness and post-exit transition Sales and B2B customer acquisition Resilience and adversity in business building Disability, problem-solving and inclusion Networking and founder community Ideal for Owner-managers, founders and shareholder-directors of mid-market businesses M&A advisors, private equity portfolio companies and corporate finance audiences Sales and commercial leadership teams in B2B businesses DEI and leadership audiences seeking a substantive voice on disability and capability Audience outcomes A clearer picture of what running a business “to be sold” actually looks like operationally, not just financially Specific insight from a network of 200+ post-exit founders on what makes the transition succeed or fail A sharper framing of disability and adversity as a source of commercial problem-solving capability A direct account of how a national B2B business was built, and sustained, by a founder operating without sight

Why organisations work with Naomi Schiff She has performed at the level she talks about. Schiff drove in the inaugural W Series in 2019, won the 2014 Clio Cup China Series with seven victories in ten races, and finished second in class at the 2018 24 Hours of Nürburgring. Lived authority is uncommon in the inclusion speaking circuit. The Sky Sports F1 analyst role is current. She is in the F1 paddock during race weekends, conducting on-grid interviews and post-session analysis. The examples she uses with corporate audiences come from this season. The W Series Diversity and Inclusion Ambassador title is a structured external credential. The W Series itself was designed to give female drivers a competitive route toward Formula 1, so the inclusion conversation she leads is rooted in operational reality. Bilingual in English and French, with broadcast credits across Sky Sports and Canal+. Useful for European corporate audiences and for events that need a host-fluent presence in both languages. Biography highlights Sky Sports F1 analyst and presenter; full-time on the channel since 2023 W Series Diversity and Inclusion Ambassador, appointed 2020 Inaugural W Series competitor, 2019 2014 Clio Cup China Series champion with seven wins from ten races Second in class at the 2018 24 Hours of Nürburgring Co-presented the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 W13 launch with Natalie Pinkham, 2022 Biography Few performance environments are as exposed as elite motorsport. At Le Mans or the Nürburgring, the car either makes the lap or it does not, and the data is in the public record by the next morning. There is no committee, no PR layer between driver and result. When the W Series launched in 2019 as the first single-seater championship structured exclusively for female drivers, places on the grid were tightly contested. Schiff was selected for the inaugural season and appointed the championship’s Diversity and Inclusion Ambassador the following year. Her racing record runs across continents. The 2014 Clio Cup China Series, won with seven victories in ten races, brought a five-year contract with a German team. They raced the KTM X-Bow GT across the European GT4 series and 24-hour endurance events. At the 2018 24 Hours of Nürburgring, considered alongside Le Mans the most punishing endurance race in the world, she finished second in class. From 2022 she joined Sky Sports F1 as analyst and presenter, co-presenting the Mercedes-AMG Petronas W13 launch with Natalie Pinkham. She went full-time on the channel in 2023. When online abuse questioned her racing credentials in 2022, Lewis Hamilton publicly defended her place on the Sky team, and the broader F1 paddock followed his lead. Key speaking topics Diversity, equity and inclusion in male-dominated industries Performance under pressure Mental resilience and recovery Women in sport and motorsport High-performance team culture Broadcast hosting and event moderation Ideal for CHROs, DEI leads, and women’s leadership networks in male-dominated sectors such as engineering, automotive, energy and financial services Sponsor activation events and brand-led keynotes connected to motorsport or premium sport Conference programmes that need a host or moderator with current F1 access and bilingual capability Audience outcomes A direct view of how the W Series was structured to create a competitive pathway for female drivers, and what that suggests for pathway design inside corporate organisations Specific examples from the F1 paddock of how teams handle pressure and make decisions at speed A sharper sense of what it costs to be the only woman in a high-performance professional environment, drawn from working experience A current take on the F1 ecosystem and how it manages performance and representation

Why organisations work with Lee McKenzie A live-television hosting standard. Two decades anchoring Formula 1, Olympic, Paralympic, Wimbledon and Six Nations coverage translates directly into conference and awards rooms where the brief is tight scripts, live interviews and zero margin for error. Genuine motorsport access. She has interviewed Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher, Max Verstappen and other Formula 1 World Champions on the record, repeatedly, over fifteen years. That access is the basis of Inside F1, her 2022 book with Black and White Publishing. A first-mover credential that still differentiates. First woman to anchor Formula 1 on British television, first female recipient of the Jim Clark Memorial Award. The story of how she got there is the spine of her keynote material. A trusted hand for sponsor-sensitive rooms. Repeat hosting work for JP Morgan, UBS, Investec, Mercedes-Benz, McLaren Automotive and Castrol indicates a presenter who can read a corporate brief and stay on it. Biography highlights Reporter and presenter, Channel 4 Formula 1, 2016 to present. BBC Formula 1 pit lane reporter, 2009 to 2015; first woman to present Formula 1 as main anchor on British television, 2012. Author, Inside F1: Life Alongside Legends, Black and White Publishing, 2022. Jim Clark Memorial Award, 2007, first female recipient. Broadcast credits include Wimbledon, Six Nations, Commonwealth Games, Olympic and Paralympic Games, Channel 4 Rugby and BBC Radio 5 Live. Patron of World Horse Welfare; former World Rally Championship co-driver, class winner at Wales Rally GB 2004. Biography Formula 1 is a useful laboratory for how senior people behave under pressure. The decisions are made in seconds, the consequences are public, and the recovery cycle from a bad result is measured in days. Lee McKenzie has been inside that environment, with a microphone, for the better part of two decades. She joined the BBC Formula 1 team as pit lane reporter in 2009 and stayed through to 2015, covering every grand prix and stepping into the main anchor chair in 2012, the first woman to do so on British television. When the rights moved to Channel 4 in 2016 she moved with them, and now serves as reporter and presenter, including the long-form F1 Meets interview series. Her broadcast range extends well beyond motorsport, taking in Wimbledon, the Six Nations, Channel 4 Rugby, and successive Olympic and Paralympic Games. Her 2022 book Inside F1: Life Alongside Legends, published by Black and White Publishing, draws on sustained on-the-record access to seven Formula 1 World Champions, including Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. It is the basis of her speaking material on composure, preparation and what elite performers do differently when results are binary. Outside the studio she is a patron of World Horse Welfare and a former World Rally Championship co-driver, class winner at Wales Rally GB in 2004. The Jim Clark Memorial Award, which she received in 2007 as the first woman to do so, recognised her contribution to motorsport in a year when she was still establishing herself in front of the camera. Key speaking topics Lessons from elite Formula 1 performers Composure and preparation under public pressure Career-building as a woman in male-dominated industries Sport, sponsorship and the corporate stage Live interviewing and storytelling under deadline Ideal for Corporate conferences and annual kick-offs that need a senior on-stage host or moderator Awards ceremonies and gala dinners with motorsport, automotive or sponsorship audiences Leadership offsites looking for a sport-led keynote on performance under pressure Panels and fireside discussions with athletes, executives or sponsors Audience outcomes A clearer read on how elite performers prepare, recover and stay composed when results are public Specific stories from Formula 1, Olympic and Paralympic environments that map onto corporate decision-making Stronger framing for women navigating early-career moves in male-dominated industries Conference flow held together by a presenter who has done it live on television

Why organisations work with Gina Miller She has personally tested the limits of UK executive power in court, twice, and can speak about constitutional risk with first-hand authority rather than as a commentator. Her financial services work through SCM Direct and the True and Fair Campaign gives her a working operator’s view of regulation, fees, disclosure, and ESG claims, not a policy abstraction. She brings a credible read on the political conditions that shape regulation in the UK, including how parties form, how reform agendas are built, and where the system is fragile. She speaks from sustained personal exposure to public hostility and threat, which gives her a serious frame on resilience and on the personal cost of institutional accountability. Biography highlights Lead claimant in R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union [2017] UKSC 5, the case that required parliamentary authorisation to trigger Article 50. Lead claimant in R (Miller) v The Prime Minister [2019] UKSC 41, the prorogation case decided unanimously by eleven Supreme Court justices. Co-founder of SCM Direct, an investment management firm launched in 2009, and co-founder of the True and Fair Campaign in 2012. Founder and leader of the True and Fair Party, launched January 2022. Author of Rise: Life Lessons in Speaking Out, Standing Tall and Leading the Way (Canongate, 2018), co-written with Elizabeth Day. Global Ambassador for Peace, The Tutu Foundation UK; recipient of the Harper’s Bazaar Campaigner of the Year 2018 and Vanity Fair Challenger Award 2021. Biography The two Miller cases sit at the centre of modern UK constitutional law. The first, decided by the Supreme Court in 2017, required parliamentary authorisation before the government could trigger Article 50. The second, decided unanimously by eleven justices in 2019, found the prorogation of Parliament unlawful. Both cases were brought by Gina Miller as lead claimant. That record gives her an unusual vantage point on political risk. She has watched executive power, parliamentary sovereignty and judicial review meet under live conditions, and she has been on the receiving end of the political and personal consequences. For boards thinking about regulatory exposure, lobbying conduct, and the durability of the institutions they rely on, her perspective is operational rather than theoretical. Her commercial career runs in parallel. With Alan Miller, she co-founded SCM Direct in 2009 and the True and Fair Campaign in 2012, pressing the investment industry on hidden fees, closet index tracking and, more recently, greenwashing in ESG products. In January 2022 she launched the True and Fair Party, built around a written constitution, parliamentary accountability and reform of how public money is spent. She is the author of Rise, published by Canongate in 2018 and co-written with Elizabeth Day, and serves as Global Ambassador for Peace with The Tutu Foundation UK. Awards include Harper’s Bazaar Campaigner of the Year 2018, PSA Political Campaigner of the Year 2017, and the Vanity Fair Challenger Award 2021. Key speaking topics UK constitutional law and parliamentary sovereignty Political and regulatory risk for boards Financial services reform and investor protection Transparency in fees, fund disclosure and ESG claims Trust, accountability and the conduct of public office Resilience under sustained public hostility Women, leadership and visibility in public life Ideal for Boards and risk committees stress-testing exposure to political, regulatory and constitutional change Asset managers, pension trustees and financial services leaders facing disclosure and ESG scrutiny General counsel and public affairs leads tracking the boundary between executive action and parliamentary process Leadership and women’s network audiences interested in serious accounts of public exposure and recovery Audience outcomes A clearer read on how UK constitutional rules actually constrain executive decisions, and where they do not A working sense of how transparency, fees and ESG claims are being tested by regulators and campaigners A direct account of what it costs personally to challenge institutional power, and what it teaches about resilience A sharper view of how reform agendas form, gain traction or fail in UK political life

Why organisations work with Gabriela Hersham Ten years of operating data on what actually draws people back into shared space, drawn from running Huckletree hubs across London, Manchester and Dublin rather than theory. A working view on curating communities by sector, including Web3, fintech, AI and govtech, tested inside the UK’s first Web3-themed co-working hub at Oxford Street. A concrete record of inclusive entrepreneurship practice through Fairer Funding Now and the Huckletree Alpha accelerator, running pro-bono for under-represented founders since 2017. A founder’s view on scaling a physical network to roughly 300,000 sq ft while holding cultural standards, useful for any leader reconciling real-estate spend with employee experience. Speaking experience that spans TEDx stages, industry podcasts and corporate conferences, with a style that senior audiences read as operator rather than consultant. Biography highlights Founder and CEO of Huckletree, launched in 2014 and grown to eight hubs across London, Manchester and Dublin. Operates roughly 300,000 sq ft of curated workspace serving around 4,000 members across Web3, fintech, AI, govtech and sustainable innovation. Launched Huckletree Oxford Street, positioned as the UK’s first Web3 and metaverse-themed co-working hub. Founded Fairer Funding Now, a campaign for greater inclusivity in startup investment, and runs Huckletree Alpha, a pro-bono accelerator for under-represented founders since 2017. TEDx speaker on the Future of Work; named one of Tide Bank’s Top 20 female entrepreneurs to watch in 2020. Contributor bylines at The Next Web and Creative Review; interviewed by HuffPost Trailblazing Women, Culture Trip and the Propertyshe podcast. Biography Huckletree opened its first space in Clerkenwell in 2014 after Gabriela Hersham returned to London convinced the city was missing the community model she had seen take hold in New York. Ten years on, the business runs eight hubs across London, Manchester and Dublin, about 300,000 sq ft of space, and a membership base of roughly 4,000 founders and operators. What distinguishes the company from a generic flexible-office provider is the curation. Each hub is built around a sector thesis: Web3 and the metaverse at Oxford Street, fintech and AI elsewhere in the portfolio, with members recruited against that thesis rather than sold desks on a first-come basis. That choice turns the workspace into a distribution channel for deals, hires and partnerships, which is why corporate partners buy into specific hubs rather than generic square footage. Inclusive entrepreneurship sits alongside the commercial model rather than running as a side project. Fairer Funding Now campaigns for change in how capital reaches under-represented founders. Huckletree Alpha, the pro-bono accelerator running since 2017, is the practical counterpart, giving cohort members space, mentoring and access without taking equity. For corporate audiences the value is the operating detail behind those choices. A TEDx talk on the future of work, repeat podcast appearances on property and founder platforms, and contributor bylines at The Next Web and Creative Review have made Hersham a recognisable voice on what brings people back into shared space. The argument she makes to boards and HR leaders is concrete: offices only earn their cost when they are designed as communities with a specific purpose, and diversity in hiring and funding is part of how that purpose holds together. Key speaking topics Future of work and the hybrid workplace Workplace design and community curation Women in entrepreneurship Inclusive funding and diverse founder pipelines Scaling a founder-led business Web3, fintech and emerging-sector ecosystems Ideal for CHROs and people leaders rebuilding office strategy and employee experience Real-estate and workplace directors balancing cost with culture Corporate innovation and venture teams engaging with early-stage ecosystems Networks and events on women in business and diverse entrepreneurship Audience outcomes A sharper read on why employees return to some offices and avoid others, grounded in operating data from a curated network. Concrete examples of how sector-themed workplace communities produce commercial value rather than just reduce cost. A practical view on embedding inclusive funding and hiring practices into the way a company runs, not as a separate programme. An operator’s perspective on scaling a physical and cultural network without losing what made it work in the first place.

Why organisations work with Eunice Olumide A first-hand authority on what fast fashion looks like inside the industry, with parliamentary testimony that fed into the UK’s first inquiry on its environmental impact. A published voice on exploitation and sustainability in fashion through How To Get Into Fashion (Luath Press, 2018), drawn from a career walking for Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen, Mulberry and Christopher Kane. An MBE-recognised broadcaster across BBC, ITV and Sky, comfortable holding a room of senior leaders without losing the substance of the argument. A curator and gallery founder whose programme links contemporary art with social and environmental causes, useful for organisations whose brand strategy intersects with culture. A V&A Design Champion with credibility in design, production and sustainability conversations that most fashion-adjacent speakers cannot match. Biography highlights MBE, 2017 Birthday Honours, for services to broadcasting, the arts and charity. Honorary Doctor of the University, The Open University, 2024. V&A Design Champion, 2018; permanent display at the National Museum of Scotland. Author, How To Get Into Fashion (Luath Press, 2018); contributor, Loud Black Girls (2020), edited by Bernardine Evaristo. Founder, Olumide Gallery, representing artists including Sokari Douglas Camp CBE, Richard Wilson, The Connor Brothers and Bradley Theodore. Acting credits include BAFTA-winning Trouble Sleeping, BAFTA-nominated Middleman, Star Wars: Rogue One, The Last Jedi and Noughts and Crosses. Biography Fashion is one of the largest polluters on the planet, and the people best placed to say so are the ones who have worked inside it. Eunice Olumide MBE walked for Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen, Mulberry and Christopher Kane before turning her attention to the industry’s harder questions. Her testimony at the Houses of Parliament fed into the UK’s first inquiry on the environmental impact of fast fashion. Her 2018 book How To Get Into Fashion, published by Luath Press, is the long form of that argument. It treats exploitation, sustainability and diversity not as separate brand campaigns but as connected supply chain problems. The book sits alongside her V&A Design Champion role and her work with the Centre for Social Justice as evidence that her sustainability work is operational, not aesthetic. Olumide is also a broadcaster across BBC, ITV and Sky, an MBE recipient for services to broadcasting, the arts and charity, and an honorary Doctor of the University from The Open University. She founded Olumide Gallery in 2016 and represents contemporary artists including Sokari Douglas Camp CBE, Richard Wilson and The Connor Brothers, with a curatorial line that returns regularly to inclusion and environmental responsibility. For organisations, the value is the combination of access and argument. She has lived inside the commercial machinery she critiques, and she has put that critique on record in Parliament, in a published book, and through institutions including the V&A and the National Museum of Scotland. Key speaking topics Sustainability and ethics in fashion Fast fashion and supply chain accountability Diversity and inclusion in creative industries Art, culture and social impact Climate action and the consumer economy Women of colour in media and fashion Brand purpose and authentic advocacy Ideal for Boards and CSOs in fashion, retail and consumer brands working through ESG substance versus narrative. CMOs and brand leaders building sustainability and inclusion into commercial strategy, not communications. Cultural institutions, arts funders and philanthropic boards engaging with diversity in the creative sector. Conferences and leadership events seeking a credible voice on fashion, climate and social justice in one speaker. Audience outcomes A clearer view of how fast fashion actually operates, including the labour and environmental trade-offs that rarely surface in public discourse. A sharper sense of where corporate sustainability narrative diverges from supply chain reality. Practical reference points for inclusion in creative industries from someone who has worked at the top of one. Renewed confidence that ethics and commercial strategy can be argued together rather than traded off.

Why organisations work with Emilie Bellet She has built one of the UK’s largest women-focused financial education communities from scratch, which gives her a live read on what employees actually ask, avoid and misunderstand about money. She pairs a Lehman Brothers and Trilantic private equity background with a mass-market book and weekly podcast, so she can move between a CFO audience and a shop-floor audience without shifting register. Her work gives employers a concrete way to connect financial wellbeing, pay equity and retention of senior women, three agendas that are usually owned by different teams and rarely joined up. She is a named voice in the UK financial media (Financial Times, The i Paper, Vogue, BBC), which makes her credible to finance services clients where brand risk around money content is high. Biography highlights Founder and CEO of Vestpod, a financial education platform and community for women. Author of “You’re Not Broke, You’re Pre-Rich” (Octopus / Little, Brown) and contributor to “The WealthTech Book” (Wiley). Host of “The Wallet”, a weekly personal finance podcast. Columnist for the Financial Times and The i Paper; featured in Vogue, Forbes, BBC, The Guardian, Stylist and Courier. Former private equity professional at Lehman Brothers Merchant Banking and Trilantic Capital Partners, London. Named in the Women in FinTech Powerlist (Rising Stars) and shortlisted for Disruptor of the Year at the Women in Finance Awards. Biography Most financial education inside large employers stops at pensions and payroll. It rarely answers the questions people actually carry into Monday morning: how to invest a first bonus, whether to buy, how to talk about money with a partner, what to do with a redundancy package. Vestpod was built to close that gap, and it has become one of the UK’s most engaged communities on women and money. The founder’s route in is unusual. Emilie spent seven years in private equity at Lehman Brothers Merchant Banking and Trilantic Capital Partners in London before leaving the buy-side to build a platform she felt the market was not serving. That background matters for corporate audiences because she is not a lifestyle commentator, she is a former investor who now translates institutional finance into language a general workforce can use. The work has two sides that employers buy together. “You’re Not Broke, You’re Pre-Rich”, published by Octopus, codified the personal finance curriculum; the weekly newsletter, The Wallet podcast and Money Matters festival keep it current. Inside companies, that content becomes workshops on investing basics, the gender wealth gap and financial confidence, delivered for names including Amazon, BCG, Coutts, NatWest and Palo Alto Networks. Her media footprint is the credibility backstop. Regular columns in the Financial Times and The i Paper, plus coverage in Vogue, Forbes, BBC and The Guardian, put her in front of the audience senior HR and DEI teams are trying to reach, and give risk-sensitive financial services clients a known name they can put on a programme. Key speaking topics Women and wealth Financial wellbeing in the workplace The gender wealth and investment gap Personal finance and investing fundamentals Financial confidence and money mindset WealthTech and financial inclusion Entrepreneurship and building a consumer brand Ideal for CHROs and heads of reward designing financial wellbeing into benefits strategy DEI and women’s network leads who need content beyond mentoring and panels Financial services and WealthTech firms running client-facing events for women investors Internal International Women’s Day, Financial Wellness Month and employee festival programmes Audience outcomes A clear picture of where the gender wealth gap comes from and which levers an employer can actually pull Specific language and frameworks employees can use to take the next step on saving, investing or debt Renewed confidence to engage with pension, share scheme and investment decisions that many defer by default A sharper internal case for treating financial wellbeing as part of retention and inclusion strategy, not a standalone perk

Why organisations work with Ashley Edwards She has built, funded, and scaled a care model specifically for the populations most wellbeing strategies fail to reach, and can translate that design logic into enterprise benefits and DEI programmes. MindRight is one of the few mental health platforms to make a non-clinical, text-based coaching service Medicaid-reimbursable, a proof point leaders can use to argue for culturally responsive care inside their own benefits stack. She is the first Black woman founder in New Jersey to raise over $1M in venture capital, which gives her an unusually credible voice on what it takes to back and build underrepresented leaders. As the inaugural Visiting Social Entrepreneur at Stanford GSB’s Center for Social Innovation, she brings a practitioner view sharpened by coaching the next wave of founders, not a consulting framework. She speaks from inside the problem: an operator running payroll, payer contracts, and clinical safety decisions, not a commentator. Biography highlights Founder and CEO of MindRight Health, a venture-backed mental health startup delivering text-message coaching for underserved youth, with Medicaid-reimbursable pathways. First Black woman founder in New Jersey to raise over $1M in venture capital. Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneur; named by Forbes among “Healers” shaping the next century. Inaugural Visiting Social Entrepreneur, Center for Social Innovation, Stanford Graduate School of Business. MBA and MA in Education, Stanford University (Miller Social Change Leadership Award); BA in Economics, Yale University. Previous platforms include Aspen Ideas, US Chamber of Commerce, Google, the WNBA, Harvard Business School, Stanford, and Yale; work covered in ELLE, Business Insider, and Inc. Biography Most young people in underserved communities never touch the clinical mental health system. They text. MindRight Health was built around that fact. Founded by Ashley Edwards in 2019 after she watched her students in Newark carry untreated trauma into school every day, the company delivers non-clinical mental health coaching by text, meets users where they already are, and has engineered its service to be reimbursed by Medicaid and commercial payers. That design choice is where the organisational lesson sits. Benefits and wellbeing programmes built for a narrow group of users rarely work for everyone else. MindRight’s published retention and usage data with BIPOC youth, which exceed industry benchmarks, make a concrete argument for culturally responsive, preventative care as the first line of support, not the fallback. Edwards brings the credentials to be heard by serious buyers. An MBA and MA in Education from Stanford, where she received the Miller Social Change Leadership Award, and a BA in Economics from Yale. She is the first Black woman founder in New Jersey to raise over $1M in venture capital, one of a small group to have done so in the United States, and serves as the inaugural Visiting Social Entrepreneur at Stanford GSB’s Center for Social Innovation, coaching a new cohort of social impact founders. For leaders responsible for employee wellbeing, DEI, and benefits strategy, her value is practical. She has made the trade-offs between clinical rigour, cultural fit, affordability, and scale, and she can explain, with numbers, what it takes to reach the workforce a wellbeing policy is supposed to serve. Key speaking topics Mental health in the workplace Employee wellbeing and benefits design Health equity and access to care Inclusive leadership and DEI strategy Social entrepreneurship and venture-backed impact Digital health and care delivery innovation Building and funding underrepresented founders Ideal for CHROs, Heads of Benefits, and Chief Wellbeing Officers redesigning mental health support for a multigenerational, multicultural workforce. Chief Diversity Officers and DEI leads connecting wellbeing strategy to equity outcomes. Healthcare payers, providers, and employer coalitions evaluating non-clinical, preventative, culturally responsive care models. Foundations, investors, and corporate venture teams backing social impact and health equity founders. Audience outcomes A sharper picture of why current mental health benefits fail the employees who most need them, and what design choices close that gap. A working understanding of how non-clinical, digital, culturally responsive care models fit alongside clinical pathways inside a benefits strategy. Specific evidence from MindRight’s payer partnerships and retention data that leaders can use to pressure-test their own wellbeing and DEI investments. A direct view from an operator-founder on what it takes to fund, build, and scale services for underrepresented populations.

Why organisations work with Zara Rutherford A named, verifiable Guinness World Record (youngest woman to fly solo around the world, first microlight circumnavigation) that gives an event a single, citable anchor moment for a STEM or women’s network audience. Direct credibility with the 16 to 25 audience that internal pipeline campaigns most struggle to reach, including school partnerships, early careers events, and graduate intake programmes. A clear, repeatable advocacy thesis on female participation in aviation (5%) and computer science (15%) that gives a commercial sponsor or internal D&I event a substantive content backbone, not just a celebrity booking. International recognition from named aviation bodies (Royal Automobile Club Segrave Trophy, Honourable Company of Air Pilots Master’s Medal, Living Legends of Aviation Baron Hilton Award), which gives partners in aerospace, engineering and defence a culturally specific credential set. Biography highlights Guinness World Record holder: youngest woman to fly solo around the world, completed 20 January 2022 at age 19. First person to circumnavigate the globe solo in a microlight aircraft (Shark UL), covering 41 countries and five continents. 2023 Segrave Trophy from the Royal Automobile Club, shared with brother Mack Rutherford. 2022 Master’s Medal from the Honourable Company of Air Pilots; Baron Hilton Award from the Living Legends of Aviation; Nicolaus August Otto Award from Deutz AG. Undergraduate at Stanford University from September 2022, studying computer science and aeronautics and astronautics. Author, I Flew Around the World (DK Publishing); keynote speaker at the ZeroAvia Hydrogen Aviation Summit, Festival de las Ideas (Puebla), and Misk “Generation Transformation” (Riyadh). Biography The Shark UL microlight that touched down at Kortrijk on 20 January 2022 had been in the air, on and off, for 155 days. Zara Rutherford had flown it across 41 countries and five continents, alone, at 19. The flight produced a Guinness World Record for the youngest woman to fly solo around the world and the first solo microlight circumnavigation. The record matters because of the audience it reaches. Women still make up roughly 5% of commercial pilots and 15% of computer science specialists. Pipeline programmes have moved those numbers slowly. A single, specific, verifiable feat by a teenager, told in her own voice, reaches school audiences, early careers cohorts and women’s networks that internal D&I campaigns rarely touch. The credentials around the flight are substantive. The Royal Automobile Club awarded her the 2023 Segrave Trophy with her brother Mack, joining a list that has included only four other women. The Honourable Company of Air Pilots granted the Master’s Medal in September 2022. The Living Legends of Aviation presented the Baron Hilton Award the same year. Deutz AG presented the Nicolaus August Otto Award. She is now at Stanford reading computer science and aeronautics and astronautics, which keeps the advocacy honest. The thesis is not retrospective. Rutherford is still inside the technical pipeline she is asking other young women to enter. Key speaking topics Women in aviation and the female pilot pipeline Women in STEM and computer science participation Goal-setting and long-horizon ambition for young people Resilience and decision-making under sustained pressure Motivation and inspiration for early careers and graduate audiences Ideal for Early careers, graduate intake and school outreach programmes in aerospace, engineering and technology Women’s networks, employee resource groups and International Women’s Day events Aviation, aerospace and defence industry conferences seeking a credible young voice on female participation Brand-led STEM campaigns and education partnerships targeting 16 to 25 audiences Audience outcomes A concrete reference point for what sustained, high-stakes goal pursuit actually looks like at a young age Specific, current data on female participation in aviation and computer science, with an articulated thesis on what is keeping it low A direct view of the operational and decision-making demands of a five-month solo flight across 41 countries An anchor moment that early careers, school and women’s network audiences will talk about after the event

Why organisations work with Samuel Kasumu He led the cross-government vaccine confidence programme during COVID-19. As Special Adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, he worked with vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi to take uptake in some communities from under 30% to around 75%. A working understanding of how board composition actually changes. Through Inclusive Boards, the executive search firm he co-founded, he has placed non-executive directors across more than 150 sports governing bodies and led culture change work with organisations including the Royal Horticultural Society and the Rugby Football League. A serious editorial thesis on the strategic value of outsider perspective, set out in The Power of the Outsider (Hodder & Stoughton, 2023). The book gives boards a usable frame for treating difference as a commercial asset, drawn from his own experience inside Downing Street. Direct exposure to the political and reputational risks senior leaders face when public trust fractures. Few speakers have served at the centre of UK government during a comparable period of institutional pressure. Biography highlights Special Adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson with the Civil Society and Communities brief, 2019 to 2021. The most senior Black adviser in the Prime Minister’s Office during this period. Co-founder of Inclusive Boards, an executive search firm specialising in non-executive and board appointments. Named Third Sector and Public Sector Recruiter of the Year at the 2023 National Recruiter Awards. Author of The Power of the Outsider: A Journey of Discovery (Hodder & Stoughton, 2023), with cover endorsement from ITV political editor Robert Peston, and Winning the Race (RoperPenberthy, 2012). Member of the Race Disparity Audit Advisory Board under Prime Minister Theresa May, chaired by Lord Simon Woolley. Recognised on the MIPAD Top 100 list (Most Influential People of African Descent), a UN-aligned global initiative. Regular UK political commentator on programmes including Question Time and Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. Publishes Future-proof Politics on Substack. Biography In early 2021, vaccine uptake in some UK communities sat below 30 per cent. By the time Samuel Kasumu left Downing Street in May that year, it had climbed to around 75 per cent. The cross-government confidence programme he led, working alongside vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi, had reached audiences the rest of government could not. That campaign captures the practical question Samuel works on. As Special Adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson with the Civil Society and Communities brief, he was the most senior Black adviser in the Prime Minister’s Office. The role required both political instinct and credibility with communities Whitehall does not naturally reach. His commercial work runs in parallel. Inclusive Boards, the executive search firm he co-founded, has placed non-executive directors across more than 150 sports governing bodies. The firm has worked with organisations including the Royal Horticultural Society and the Rugby Football League on culture change. It was named Third Sector and Public Sector Recruiter of the Year at the 2023 National Recruiter Awards. His 2023 book The Power of the Outsider (Hodder & Stoughton) makes the case underpinning the rest of his work. Outsiders, he argues, see what insiders miss, and organisations that learn to value that perspective gain a strategic edge. The book carries a cover endorsement from ITV political editor Robert Peston. Key speaking topics Inclusive leadership and board diversity Trust between institutions and communities Civil society and government relations Outsider perspective as a strategic asset Cultural intelligence in policy and corporate communication Race and identity in the modern workplace Crisis communication with hard-to-reach audiences Ideal for Chief People Officers and DEI leads responsible for board composition and culture change at scale Chairs and CEOs working through institutional trust challenges with employees and external stakeholders Public sector and government audiences engaged in community engagement and behaviour change Corporate leadership teams seeking a sharper frame on how to treat difference as a strategic asset Audience outcomes A clearer view of why institutional trust collapses with specific communities, and what kinds of leadership and engagement actually rebuild it Inside lessons on how government and large organisations make decisions when public confidence is fragile A sharper editorial frame for treating difference as a commercial asset across boards and executive teams Direct insight into what changes board composition in practice, drawn from work with hundreds of organisations through Inclusive Boards

Why organisations work with Sharmadean Reid She has built three businesses from scratch, WAH Nails, Beautystack and The Stack World, and raised venture capital as one of a small number of Black women globally to close a seven-figure seed round. Her work on the gender wealth gap is operational, not rhetorical: The Stack World is a paid community and financial education platform with over 20,000 members, not a campaign or content brand. Penguin Life published her first book, New Methods for Women, in June 2024, giving her a coherent and citable thesis on independence and economic agency that buyers can hand to their teams. She speaks from inside the founder experience that most corporate diversity programmes are trying to influence, with credibility on capital access, community building and brand creation that few other speakers in this category carry. UAL conferred an Honorary Fellowship at Central Saint Martins in 2024, recognising her contribution to creative entrepreneurship and community. Biography highlights Founder, The Stack World, a community and financial education platform with a global membership focused on women’s wealth building. Founder of Beautystack (2017), an image-based booking platform for beauty professionals that raised over £1m in seed funding in 2018. Founder of WAH Nails (2009), the Dalston-born salon that built a global cultural brand and a product line distributed through Boots. MBE for services to the nail and beauty industry, 2015 Queen’s Birthday Honours. Author of New Methods for Women: A Manifesto for Independence, Penguin Life, 2024. Honorary Fellow, University of the Arts London, 2024; graduate of Central Saint Martins, BA Fashion Communication and Promotion. Biography Few women raise seven-figure seed rounds in the UK. Fewer Black women do. Sharmadean Reid did it in 2018 for Beautystack, the image-based booking platform she founded after a decade running WAH Nails, the Dalston salon that turned a youth-culture zine into a cult retail brand and a product line in Boots. That trajectory matters because it gives her something most speakers on women’s leadership do not have: lived experience of the operating constraints, from access to capital to brand building to customer acquisition, that determine whether women actually end up running and owning businesses at scale. Her work is rooted in commercial reality, not advocacy. The Stack World, which she founded in 2021, is the logical next step. It is a paid community and financial education platform with more than 20,000 members, designed to close the gender wealth gap through literacy, networks and collective investment rather than corporate sponsorship. The thesis is published: Penguin Life released her book, New Methods for Women: A Manifesto for Independence, in June 2024. Her credentials sit behind the argument, not in front of it. MBE in 2015 for services to the nail and beauty industry. Honorary Fellowship from University of the Arts London in 2024, conferred at her alma mater Central Saint Martins. For organisations serious about moving gender equity from policy into commercial outcome, she is the rare voice who can speak to founders, executives and policy audiences from the same body of work. Key speaking topics The gender wealth gap and women’s economic empowerment Entrepreneurship, founder journeys and raising venture capital Community as a commercial strategy Building and scaling consumer brands Closing the gender leadership gap Creative entrepreneurship and the creator economy Ideal for CHROs, DEI leads and chief sustainability officers translating gender commitments into measurable outcomes Founders, investors and venture teams focused on backing women-led businesses Marketing, brand and customer leaders building community-led growth models Boards and executive committees setting policy on women’s progression and supplier diversity Audience outcomes A clear-eyed account of what it takes to fund, build and scale a venture-backed business as a woman founder A working definition of the gender wealth gap, and the levers organisations can pull on it Concrete examples of community as a commercial mechanism, not a marketing layer A more honest internal language for discussing gender equity beyond pipeline metrics

Why organisations work with Spriha Srivastava She holds a senior editorial role at one of the largest international business news brands, which gives her direct fluency in how leaders are being asked questions in public, not just how they want to answer them. She has moderated on inclusion, AI and workforce equity at the World Economic Forum, VivaTech, the Milken Institute and the Global Women Leaders Summit, with the discipline of someone who interviews CEOs for a living. Her career covers the full arc of recent business stories that audiences remember: the financial crisis aftermath, Brexit, U.S. elections, the Trump presidency and the pandemic economy. She brings a recognised platform on women in leadership, with the Women Economic Forum “Iconic Women” award and an Asian Women of Achievement shortlist behind her. She is one of the few moderators who can sit on a panel about generative AI and a panel about inclusion in the same week, and not flatten either conversation. Biography highlights Vice President and Executive Editor, Digital, CNBC International (appointed February 2025), with editorial responsibility across Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. Former London Bureau Chief and International Executive Editor at Insider, leading UK and Singapore newsrooms. Former Deputy Digital News Editor at CNBC International London, with prior roles at Financial Times Money Management and Thomson Reuters Global Markets Forum. Winner, Women Economic Forum “Iconic Women Creating A Better Tomorrow” (2020); shortlisted, Asian Women of Achievement Award, media (2020); runner-up, Santander Media Awards newcomer (2015). Speaker and moderator at the Milken Institute, Global Women Leaders Summit, and inclusion-focused programmes at World Economic Forum and VivaTech. Over 15 years in international business journalism, with field reporting and coverage across more than 40 countries. Biography The credibility problem in public conversations about inclusion is not a shortage of advocates. It is a shortage of people who can hold a senior business audience in a real conversation about workforce equity without losing the room to either platitudes or defensiveness. That is editorial work as much as it is advocacy. That is the role Spriha Srivastava plays. As Vice President and Executive Editor, Digital at CNBC International, appointed in February 2025, she leads digital news teams across Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. Before CNBC she was London Bureau Chief and International Executive Editor at Insider, running newsrooms in the UK and Singapore. Her reporting career has tracked the stories that have set the operating context for most of today’s senior leaders: the aftermath of the financial crisis, Brexit, two U.S. election cycles, the Trump presidency, and the pandemic economy. That range, plus prior posts at Financial Times Money Management and Thomson Reuters, is what gives her moderation work a different texture from a topical advocate’s. She comes at inclusion and future-of-work questions through the same lens she uses on a CEO interview. The Women Economic Forum “Iconic Women” award and her Asian Women of Achievement shortlisting are the public markers, but the practical value is more specific. Audiences get a moderator who can move from generative AI strategy to workforce equity to global markets within a single programme, with the journalistic instinct for when a panellist has not actually answered the question. Key speaking topics Women in leadership Diversity, equity and inclusion in practice Future of work and future skills Inclusive innovation and AI Global markets and the macro context for business decisions Panel moderation and event hosting on business and policy themes Ideal for CHROs and Chief People Officers commissioning serious conversations on inclusion and workforce equity Boards and ExCos hosting external moderators for global summits, inclusion forums and leadership offsites Conference programme owners needing a moderator who can carry both AI and inclusion strands Internal women-in-leadership networks and ERGs running senior-level programmes Audience outcomes A clearer view of how senior international media is currently framing inclusion, AI and the future of work, and what that means for corporate messaging. A more candid panel conversation than the typical inclusion stage allows, with follow-up questions that surface the practical decisions, not the slogans. A working sense of how global market coverage and people-and-culture stories are converging in the financial press. An understanding of where inclusion claims are being tested in public, and where they are still being accepted at face value.