Diversity, Equity & Inclusion speakers

Why organisations work with Sandi Toksvig She did not simply comment on gender equity: in 2015 she resigned one of the most prominent chairs in British broadcasting to co-found a political party around it. That choice gives her a credibility in the room that no consultant or commentator can acquire. Forty years in live, contested broadcast formats, chairing political satire, hosting mass-audience television, moderating fast-moving intellectual debate, represent a specific and rare capability: keeping a complex, high-stakes conversation moving with precision and warmth. Her TED Talk on structural gender representation and her play Bully Boy (Nuffield Theatre; West End, 2012), which examines moral ambiguity and institutional culture, demonstrate that her engagement with social complexity goes well beyond commentary. As President of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain and a Cambridge-educated author of 20-plus books across fiction, non-fiction, and drama, she brings genuine intellectual depth to conversations about communication, culture, and representation, not just platform authority. She has held the room at every level, from broadcast audiences of millions to TED stages, making serious arguments about inclusion, accountability, and change both rigorous and accessible to a leadership audience. Biography highlights First-class degree in archaeology and anthropology, Girton College, Cambridge; received two academic prizes; performed in the first all-woman Cambridge Footlights show, alongside Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, and Emma Thompson Co-founder, Women’s Equality Party (2015), with journalist Catherine Mayer; left BBC Radio 4’s The News Quiz – a role she held for ten years – specifically to do so; covered by the New York Times; TED Talk on gender representation and political mobilisation Host, BBC Two’s QI (from 2016, succeeding Stephen Fry); co-presenter, Channel 4’s The Great British Bake Off (2017-2020); chair, BBC Radio 4’s The News Quiz (2006-2015) Playwright: Bully Boy premiered at Nuffield Theatre, Southampton (2011); transferred to launch the debut West End season of St James Theatre, London (2012) – the first new West End theatre in 30 years OBE for services to broadcasting (2014 New Year Honours); Chancellor, University of Portsmouth; Honorary Fellow, Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge President, Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (from 2019); author of more than twenty books for adults and children Biography The gap between organisations that declare commitment to gender equity and those that actually change their leadership pipelines is well documented. Sandi Toksvig entered this conversation at measurable personal cost – resigning as chair of BBC Radio 4’s The News Quiz in 2015 to co-found the Women’s Equality Party with journalist Catherine Mayer. A TED Talk on gender representation and political mobilisation followed. The decision established Toksvig’s standing not as a commentator on inclusion but as someone who had tested her convictions against institutional consequence. Her broadcast career provides a different order of evidence. Four decades in live, contested formats – hosting BBC Two’s QI, co-presenting Channel 4’s The Great British Bake Off, chairing political satire on Radio 4 – demonstrate a specific capability: keeping complex, high-stakes conversation moving with precision, wit, and authority. She holds a first-class degree from Girton College, Cambridge, where she also performed in the first all-woman Cambridge Footlights show. Her range extends beyond broadcasting. As a playwright, her Bully Boy – a work on moral ambiguity, institutional authority, and the human cost of political decision-making – premiered at the Nuffield Theatre and transferred to launch St James Theatre’s debut West End season. She has served as President of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain and Chancellor of the University of Portsmouth, and has published more than twenty books across fiction, non-fiction, and children’s literature. For organisations working to close the distance between stated values and visible change on inclusion and representation, Toksvig brings something precise: four decades of live broadcast authority, the civic credibility of having acted on her convictions, and the capacity to hold a difficult room without losing it. Key speaking topics Gender equity and leadership representation Storytelling and political communication Cultural intelligence and cross-cultural perspective Civic activism and democratic accountability Satire, comedy, and public discourse Inclusive organisational culture Writing, publishing, and creative practice Ideal for CHROs and People & Culture leaders hosting executive summits or leadership conferences on inclusion, representation, and cultural change Boards and senior leadership teams working to move DEI commitments from policy to practice Awards ceremonies, after-dinner engagements, and conference programmes requiring an anchor voice combining intellectual authority with wit Professional associations in media, publishing, law, or higher education seeking a credible voice on representation, communication, and civic responsibility Audience outcomes A clear frame for why gender equity stalls despite broad agreement – and what it takes to make the argument land in a room Understanding of how communication style and conviction, not data alone, drive cultural change in organisations Perspective on the relationship between satire, public discourse, and institutional accountability A model of what sustained, costly commitment to inclusion looks like – beyond declarations and frameworks Confidence in approaching contested conversations about representation with authority and without defensiveness

Why organisations work with Sarah Begum First-hand experience of the climate impact on indigenous communities. Her Cannes-premiered film Amazon Souls came out of two weeks living with the Huaorani people in Yasuní National Park, where oil exploitation and rainforest loss are present conditions, not projections. Most corporate audiences get this material from researchers. She was there. Brings a broadcast journalist’s discipline to sustainability talks. Before climate became her primary topic, she was presenting news in Caracas during the Venezuelan crisis and reporting features for GHOne TV in Ghana. That training shapes how she handles a corporate room, with concrete stories and the pacing of a working journalist. Connects indigenous climate stories to practical sustainability strategy. As a STEM Ambassador and host of Spaced Out!, where she interviews NASA scientists and space entrepreneurs, she brings the technology side of ESG, from satellite data to climate monitoring, into corporate conversations about climate action. Credibility that holds up on both sides of the room. Fellowship of the Royal Geographical Society and the Captain Scott Society’s Spirit of Adventure Award (2014) place her inside the exploration establishment. The Guardian’s San Miguel Rich List 2016 named her one of the world’s top 17 trailblazers, alongside her BAFTA-recognised short for Nespresso Talents 2018. Biography highlights Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society Director of Amazon Souls (2013), premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and distributed worldwide Broadcast journalist: presented news from Caracas during the Venezuelan crisis and reported features for GHOne TV in Ghana Host of Spaced Out!, a podcast and TV series on the space industry featured on Space Channel Winner of the Captain Scott Society’s Spirit of Adventure Award (2014); finalist for the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship 2014 Named one of The Guardian’s top 17 trailblazers in the San Miguel Rich List 2016 Biography Yasuní National Park, in the Ecuadorian Amazon, is one of the most biodiverse places on Earth. It also sits above some of South America’s largest untapped oil reserves. The Huaorani people, who have lived in Yasuní for generations, have been the ones negotiating that collision. Sarah Begum spent two weeks living with the Huaorani in 2010. She was 21, studying television and film, and funded the expedition herself. The documentary she brought back, Amazon Souls, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013 and was distributed worldwide, endorsed by rainforest organisations including Rainforest Alliance, Sky Rainforest Rescue and Rainforest Foundation. Her work since has followed the same method: travel to places most people will never go, and report back in terms corporate and general audiences can use. A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, she has presented news from Caracas during the Venezuelan crisis, reported features for GHOne TV in Ghana, interviewed Jane Goodall for BBC Focus magazine, and directed the BAFTA-recognised short Who Would Have Thought… for Nespresso Talents 2018. The Captain Scott Society awarded her its Spirit of Adventure Award in 2014 for the Darien Gap expedition. Her talks carry this method into boardrooms. A STEM Ambassador and host of the space-industry series Spaced Out!, she reports on how satellite data and space-based research now underpin corporate sustainability strategy, drawing on interviews with NASA scientists and space entrepreneurs. Key speaking topics Climate justice and indigenous communities ESG strategy and corporate sustainability Women in STEM and exploration The space sector and Earth sustainability Immersive journalism and cultural storytelling Climate action and frontline impact Ideal for Chief Sustainability Officers, Heads of ESG, and Corporate Responsibility teams looking to move past reporting frameworks International Women’s Day, DEI, and employee resource group events where frontline storytelling anchors the conversation Conferences on sustainability, climate action, and the space sector where a primary-source perspective adds weight Leadership programmes and awaydays seeking to reconnect senior teams to the human stakes of their climate commitments Audience outcomes What oil exploitation and rainforest loss actually look like for the communities on the frontline, told by someone who has spent time with them A human frame for ESG reporting, drawn from indigenous advocacy, international journalism, and space-sector research A model for how first-hand reporting can be translated into storytelling that changes internal conversations about sustainability Named examples of how the space sector contributes to climate data and corporate sustainability strategy

Why organisations work with Sarah Moshman Her documentary Nevertheless is in active use as a sexual harassment prevention tool by employers and educators through distributor Indieflix, giving HR and DEI leads a piece of external content that has survived independent review. The Empowerment Project has been screened more than 700 times for corporate and education audiences and has been picked up as programming by Nordstrom, American Girl, Microsoft and Charles Schwab, which is a working track record for women’s leadership events rather than a speculative pitch. She brings a regional Emmy in the Human Interest category and a NASA CineSpace first-place win for UNBOUND, which gives her credibility as a maker, not only as a speaker telling stories about her own life. She has been booked into difficult rooms, including a US Air Force women’s symposium at Hill Air Force Base and the opening keynote at the PEI Women Conference, where the audience is not the converted. Her commercial film work for SPANX, Samsung, AT&T and Mattel means she understands the brief from a marketing buyer’s side and can speak credibly to internal communications and brand teams about storytelling that performs. Biography highlights Emmy Award winner, NATAS Chicago/Midwest Chapter, 2013, for Growing up Strong: Girls on the Run. Director of three feature documentaries: The Empowerment Project (2014), Losing Sight of Shore (Netflix, 2017) and Nevertheless (2020). UNBOUND won First Place at NASA’s CineSpace Global Short Film Competition. Author of Empowered Filmmaking: How To Make a Documentary On Your Own Terms (2020). Branded content work for SPANX, Samsung, AT&T and Mattel. Featured on CNN, Good Morning America, Marie Claire, Upworthy and PBS; TEDx speaker; adjunct professor in documentary film. Biography Compliance-led harassment training is the work environment most employees have come to mistrust. The films Sarah Moshman has made for the same audience take the opposite route. Nevertheless, her 2020 feature documentary, follows seven survivors across industries from a tech CEO to a 911 dispatcher, and is now distributed by Indieflix as part of structured prevention education in workplaces and schools. That outsider craft is what organisations are actually booking. The Empowerment Project, her 2014 feature on women in leadership across the US, has been screened more than 700 times for audiences from corporates to schools, and has carried sponsorship from Nordstrom, American Girl, Microsoft and Charles Schwab. Losing Sight of Shore (Netflix, 2017) follows four women rowing more than 8,000 miles across the Pacific and gives her a second register: endurance and team performance under conditions where every easy out has been removed. The credentials behind the work are specific. A regional Emmy in 2013 for Growing up Strong: Girls on the Run. First place at NASA’s CineSpace competition for the short UNBOUND. A book, Empowered Filmmaking, that documents how the films were funded, made and licensed to Netflix. Branded content commissions from SPANX, Samsung, AT&T and Mattel that confirm she can produce inside a marketing brief, not only on her own terms. In a room, she works from her own footage. The PEI Women Conference opened with her in 2019, the US Air Force hosted her at the Hill women’s symposium, and her TEDx delivery is on public record. The result is the rare speaker on these topics whose primary asset is film that an organisation can keep using long after the keynote ends. Key speaking topics Workplace sexual harassment prevention Women’s leadership and the next generation pipeline Storytelling for brand and internal communications Inclusion and allyship after #MeToo Courage and risk-taking in early careers Documentary craft and the business of independent film Ideal for CHROs, DEI leads and ER teams running harassment prevention or culture programmes Internal communications and employer brand leaders looking for narrative content Women’s leadership networks and ERG anchor events CMOs and brand teams interested in long-form storytelling as a commercial asset Audience outcomes A documentary screening or curated clips package that gives employees a shared piece of content to discuss, rather than a slide-led training A clear account of how the Nevertheless survivors describe what allyship looked like in practice, including from peers and managers Specific examples of how women profiled in The Empowerment Project moved into senior roles, useful as case material for internal mentoring conversations A working method for using story to make uncomfortable workplace conversations possible without defensiveness

Why organisations work with Sarah Storey The only person who can speak about sustaining elite performance across nine consecutive Paralympic Games, across two distinct sports, and against both disabled and able-bodied competition – making her case study in resilience and adaptation genuinely without parallel in British sport. Her career switch from swimming to cycling was not a choice but a forced pivot under serious illness. What she delivers to audiences is not an account of athletic triumph, but a dissection of the decisions that turn disruption into a new performance peak. As Active Travel Commissioner for Greater Manchester, a Non-Executive Director at the Department for Transport, and Visiting Professor of Sport at Manchester Metropolitan University, she operates inside institutions where outputs are scrutinised against governance standards – giving her a credibility in policy and leadership conversations that most athlete speakers cannot match. Two-time Sunday Times Disability Sportswoman of the Year (2020 and 2024), confirmed by a judging panel that includes some of the most respected names in British sport governance – recognition anchored in results, not profile. Client feedback consistently identifies her ability to adapt substantive content to the specific leadership context, rather than delivering a fixed biographical keynote – a distinction that matters for senior audiences expecting ideas, not inspiration alone. Biography highlights 19 Paralympic gold medals across nine Games (1992–2024) – the most by any British Paralympian in history, in either swimming or cycling 29-time World Champion across two sports; holder of 75 world records DBE (2013, for services to para-cycling); OBE (2009); MBE (1998) Active Travel Commissioner, Greater Manchester Combined Authority; former Non-Executive Director, Department for Transport Visiting Professor of Sport, Manchester Metropolitan University Institute of Sport President, Lancashire County Cricket Club (elected 2024) Sunday Times Disability Sportswoman of the Year: 2020 and 2024 Six-time British national track cycling champion, competing against able-bodied athletes; first disabled cyclist to represent England at a Commonwealth Games (Delhi, 2010) Biography Sustained performance across 32 years and two elite sports is not a product of talent alone. It requires specific disciplines: adapting when conditions shift, rebuilding when illness interrupts a career, setting standards before they are urgently needed. Dame Sarah Storey DBE holds 19 Paralympic gold medals – a British record across any sport – because she built those habits, not because she avoided the hard moments. Storey’s transition from swimming to cycling was not planned. A serious ear infection in 2005, following a diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome, ended her pool career. She entered a new sport, competed at Beijing 2008, and has since added 14 cycling gold medals to the five she won in the pool. The lesson she draws from that transition is not about optimism. It is about the practical decisions that make reinvention under real pressure productive rather than merely survivable. Her credibility extends well beyond athletics. She is Active Travel Commissioner for Greater Manchester Combined Authority, a former Non-Executive Director at the Department for Transport, and Visiting Professor of Sport at Manchester Metropolitan University. She has won British national track cycling titles competing against non-disabled athletes – a distinction very few Paralympic athletes can claim – and was the first disabled cyclist to represent England at a Commonwealth Games. In presentations, she connects the disciplines of elite sport directly to conditions leaders actually face: imperfect preparation, shifting targets, and pressure that outlasts the initial motivation. A two-time Sunday Times Disability Sportswoman of the Year (2020 and 2024), she brings to a senior leadership audience something rare – an athlete whose record is a matter of public fact, and whose post-competition work gives her the context to make that record relevant to the people running institutions, not just competing in them. Key speaking topics Sustained high performance and long-cycle excellence Resilience and adaptive performance under pressure Reinvention and career pivoting under constraint Marginal gains and performance culture Disability, inclusion, and elite sport Goal-setting across extended performance cycles Leadership lessons from elite sporting careers Ideal for C-suite and senior leadership teams seeking a credible, evidence-based perspective on sustained performance culture HR leaders and talent directors building resilience frameworks and high-performance environments Corporate conferences where disability inclusion, diversity of experience, and elite achievement intersect Public sector and policy audiences where sport leadership, active travel, and governance are on the agenda Audience outcomes A concrete framework for distinguishing resilience as a proactive discipline from resilience as a reactive recovery skill Understanding of the specific decisions that allow reinvention under pressure – drawn from a career that required a complete sport change mid-career Practical insight into how marginal gains and long-cycle goal-setting compound into sustained competitive advantage A reframed relationship with imperfect conditions: how elite performance is built in environments that are rarely ideal, rather than waiting for them to improve Renewed clarity on personal and team standard-setting: how the disciplines behind 32 years of elite performance apply to organisations that need to sustain output across strategic cycles, not just sprints

Why organisations work with Sarah-Jane Mee Live broadcast credibility. She anchors The UK Tonight on Sky News and previously fronted Sunrise as its first female lead anchor, so she handles unscripted moments, tight cues and difficult interviews on stage the way she does on air. A working journalist’s instinct for the room. She can move from a CEO Q&A to an awards run-of-show to a charity appeal without the register slipping, and without the energy dropping. Genuine fluency across business and sport. A career spanning Sky News political and current-affairs programming and Sky Sports flagship coverage means she is a credible host for events that blend commercial, sporting and women-in-sport themes. A track record with serious clients. Named hosting work for Google, Amnesty International, the League Managers’ Association, Chance to Shine, the Inspirational Women Awards and the Boodles Tennis Tournament. A named platform for women’s sport. She presents the Sunday Times and Sky Sportswomen of the Year Awards, which gives her a specific public position on women in sport that few hosts can claim. Biography highlights Anchor, The UK Tonight with Sarah-Jane Mee, Sky News (from October 2023). First female lead anchor of Sky News Sunrise (2016 to 2019). Host, The Sarah-Jane Mee Show, Sky News (2019 to 2023). Long-running Sky Sports presenter across UEFA Champions League, Cricket AM, Saturday Night Football and Sky Sports News. Presenter, Sunday Times and Sky Sportswomen of the Year Awards. Corporate and awards host for Google, Amnesty International, the League Managers’ Association, Chance to Shine, the Inspirational Women Awards and the Boodles Tennis Tournament. Biography The UK Tonight launched on Sky News in October 2023 as the channel’s primetime evening hour for interviews, original journalism and live debate. Sarah-Jane Mee is its anchor. Before that she was the first female lead anchor of Sunrise, Sky News’ flagship breakfast programme, from 2016 to 2019, and then fronted her own weekday afternoon show until 2023. Her career sits across two specialisms that rarely combine in one presenter. On the news side, she has covered general elections, breaking stories and major terror events live. On sport, she has anchored Sky Sports flagship Premier League and Champions League programming, fronted Cricket AM, and presents the Sunday Times and Sky Sportswomen of the Year Awards live on Sky Sports. That is a useful pairing for any client whose event mixes commercial content with sport, sponsorship, or women’s sport in particular. Off-air, she is one of the UK’s busier corporate hosts. Named hosting and moderating work includes Google, Amnesty International, the League Managers’ Association and Chance to Shine, alongside the Inspirational Women Awards and the Boodles Tennis Tournament. Clients book her for awards nights, charity dinners, Q&A formats, panel chairing and conference facilitation. The proposition is straightforward. Where an event needs a host who can read a room, hold a serious interview on stage, and keep an audience with her through a packed agenda, she is a safe pair of hands with a current Sky News platform behind her. Key speaking topics Live event hosting and conference facilitation Awards presenting and ceremony hosting Panel moderation and on-stage interviews Current affairs and broadcast journalism Women in sport and women in business Sport, broadcasting and the media industry Ideal for Awards ceremonies and recognition events, particularly those involving women in sport, women in business or charity partners. Corporate conferences and town halls requiring a host who can chair CEO interviews and panel discussions on commercial and current-affairs topics. Charity dinners, fundraising events and Q&A formats where a recognisable, trusted broadcaster is needed to carry the evening. Sports industry dinners, sponsor activations and league events where credibility with players, managers and rights-holders matters. Audience outcomes A live event that runs to time, holds its energy and stays in control of its on-stage moments. Interviews and panels with sharper questions, better follow-ups and more usable content for post-event communications. A credible host voice for women-in-sport and women-in-business themes that does not feel performative. A serious broadcast journalist’s framing for business, current affairs and policy conversations, suitable for senior internal and external audiences.

Why organisations work with Sasha De Sola Two decades of live, unedited high-stakes performance at one of the world’s top ballet companies, with the recovery patterns and pre-performance discipline that go with it. A perspective on creative work as a managed practice, not an inspiration: rehearsal, mentorship and craft repetition as the actual mechanism behind so-called artistry. Credibility on resilience earned through specific recoveries, including injury and the prolonged shutdown of live performance during the pandemic, not abstract theory. An inaugural fellow of San Francisco Ballet’s Raising Leaders programme, currently being developed as a future arts leader through executive coaching and an international placement at the Royal Swedish Ballet. A bilingual Venezuelan American voice on belonging, mentorship and the long arc from selective mutism in childhood to lead casting on a global stage. Biography highlights Principal Dancer, San Francisco Ballet (2017 to present); named Diane B. Wilsey Principal Dancer in 2020. Trained at the Kirov Academy of Ballet, Washington D.C., on full merit scholarship, and at the Paris Opera Ballet School. BA in Performing Arts, Summa Cum Laude, Saint Mary’s College of California; completed Harvard Business School’s Crossover Into Business programme. Inaugural fellow, San Francisco Ballet’s Raising Leaders artist-development programme (2024 to 2026), with a placement at the Royal Swedish Ballet under Nicolas Le Riche. Medallist at Varna, World and USA International Ballet Competitions. Co-founder of The Ascendant, a charitable initiative supporting Dancin Power and San Francisco Ballet; board member, Dancin Power; advisory board, Pointe Magazine. Biography A dancer who has carried lead roles in Swan Lake, Giselle and The Sleeping Beauty does not get there on talent. She gets there on the discipline of repeating small corrections until the body holds them under stage lights, with an audience watching, on a night when the knee is not quite right. That is the territory Sasha De Sola speaks from. She was named an apprentice at San Francisco Ballet in 2006, joined the corps in 2007, was promoted to soloist in 2012 and to Principal Dancer in 2017. In 2020 she was appointed the Diane B. Wilsey Principal Dancer, one of the company’s named principal positions. Her training is classical: the Kirov Academy in Washington D.C. on full merit scholarship, with a 2004 scholarship to the Paris Opera Ballet School and medals at Varna, World and USA International Ballet Competitions. The intellectual frame she brings to leadership audiences was built deliberately. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Saint Mary’s College of California with a BA in Performing Arts and completed Harvard Business School’s Crossover Into Business programme in 2022. In 2024 she was named one of two inaugural fellows of San Francisco Ballet’s Raising Leaders programme, a two-year curriculum that pairs executive coaching with an international placement shadowing Nicolas Le Riche at the Royal Swedish Ballet. What she gives a room is the practical content of staying composed when the conditions move. Recovery from injury. Performing through the prolonged closure of live theatre. The long mentorship work that, away from the stage, sits behind every confident debut. A Venezuelan American who was diagnosed with selective mutism as a child, she also speaks credibly on belonging and on the slow craft of building a voice in a setting that initially feels foreign. Key speaking topics Composure and recovery under sustained performance pressure Creative discipline as a managed practice Mentorship and craft development across long careers Resilience after injury and prolonged disruption Cross-cultural identity and belonging in high-performance settings Leadership lessons from elite artistic environments Ideal for Leadership offsites and senior-team retreats focused on performance under pressure CHRO and people-leader conferences on talent development, mentorship and craft Women’s leadership programmes and ERG events on resilience and belonging Cultural, arts and philanthropic audiences seeking a credible artist-leader voice Audience outcomes A working vocabulary for what composure looks like in practice, not as a trait Specific examples of how recovery from setback is structured, not improvised A more honest read on what mentorship costs and what it produces in elite environments A counterweight to the language of “talent” with the language of repeated craft

Why organisations work with Sebastian Wachter He arrives in a wheelchair with a Master’s in business mathematics, a career as a stock analyst, and a Bundesliga rugby record. The audience cannot file his argument under inspirational story and move on. His thesis, set out in Change Mindset (BoD, 2020) and excerpted in WirtschaftsWoche, treats change resistance as a managerial problem with named mechanisms, not a motivational gap. He won the European Speaker Award 2019 in front of a jury drawn from Daimler, Lufthansa and Siemens, which is the buyer profile that commissions him. He works fluently in German and English, which matters for DACH-region corporates running cross-border transformation programmes. Biography highlights Master of Science in Business Mathematics, with an exchange semester at the University of Texas at Austin. Former stock analyst in a private bank before founding Barrierefrei im Kopf UG. Bundesliga wheelchair rugby player with German national team experience. Author of Change Mindset: Veranderungsprozesse ins Rollen bringen! (BoD, 2020), with a chapter excerpt carried by WirtschaftsWoche’s Management-Blog. Winner of the European Speaker Award 2019. Television and radio appearances on ARD, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Radio Gong and SWR’s Nachtcafe. Biography Most change programmes do not fail at the design stage. They fail at the moment when the people inside the organisation decide, often quietly, that the new direction is something happening to them rather than something they own. This is the gap Sebastian Wachter writes about and the gap his keynotes are designed to close. His own credibility on the subject is mathematical before it is motivational. He holds a Master of Science in Business Mathematics, spent an exchange semester at the University of Texas at Austin, and worked as a stock analyst in a private bank. The accident that left him with roughly 95% muscle paralysis came at 24, after the analytical training, not before it. He treats change as a managerial problem with mechanisms, not a feel-good lesson drawn from biography. That argument is set out in Change Mindset: Veranderungsprozesse ins Rollen bringen!, published in 2020 and excerpted in WirtschaftsWoche’s Management-Blog. The book reframes change resistance as a question of accountability, role clarity and the willingness of senior managers to keep asking for help once the plan is signed off. The European Speaker Award 2019, judged by representatives from Daimler, Lufthansa and Siemens, recognised the same content in keynote form. He works in German and English, founded the Wurzburg-based firm Barrierefrei im Kopf UG, and continues to play Bundesliga wheelchair rugby. The work he is booked for sits at the point where a transformation programme has stalled and the executive team needs the workforce to re-engage on its own terms. Key speaking topics Change mindset and stalled transformation programmes Growth mindset and managerial resilience Diversity and inclusion in the workforce Team accountability and role clarity Resilience after personal and organisational setback Communication and collaboration across functions Ideal for Executive teams and transformation leads running multi-year change programmes that have lost momentum DACH-region corporates with mixed German- and English-speaking audiences HR directors and culture leads addressing inclusion and engagement together Leadership offsites where the brief is to reset accountability across senior managers Audience outcomes A working definition of why change programmes stall at the point of behavioural commitment, not strategic design. A vocabulary for separating constraint from excuse inside a leadership team. A concrete account of how role clarity, accountability and asking for help operate together in change execution. A different reference point for what resilience looks like in practice, drawn from a verifiable biographical record rather than abstraction.

Why organisations work with Serena Guthrie She has the rare credential of captaining a national team in the cycle immediately after its biggest win, with the specific leadership problem of defending a standard rather than chasing one. Her playing record is decided in the strongest leagues in the sport: Team Bath in England, Northern Mystics in New Zealand, Giants Netball in Australia, where she was named club MVP for the 2017 season. She speaks credibly about the captain’s role inside a high-performance system, including how a senior player holds a dressing room when the head coach is making selection calls that hurt teammates. An MBE for services to netball and a continuing role as Performance Lead at Jersey Netball mean her authority sits in current practice, not retired commentary. Biography highlights 110 senior caps for England; captain of the Vitality Roses from November 2018 to retirement in March 2022. Gold medal, 2018 Commonwealth Games, with the England Roses. Bronze, 2019 Netball World Cup, as captain. Three Netball World Cups (2011, 2015, 2019) and two Commonwealth Games (2014, 2018). Club career across the three strongest leagues in the sport: Team Bath, Northern Mystics, Giants Netball. Giants club MVP, 2017. MBE, 2020 New Year Honours, for services to netball. Performance Lead, Jersey Netball; founder of Legacy Netball; accredited executive coach; business coaching work with Humanise Solutions. Biography England had never won a major netball title before April 2018. When the Roses came home with Commonwealth gold, the team that had spent forty years finishing behind Australia and New Zealand was suddenly the one being chased. Seven months later, Serena Guthrie was named captain. The captaincy she took on was the difficult one. The first World Cup cycle after a defining win is the cycle in which a team has to prove the result was not a peak. Guthrie led the Roses to bronze at the 2019 World Cup in Liverpool under head coach Tracey Neville’s final campaign, and stayed in the role through the next three years of restructure, coaching change, and a pandemic that interrupted the international calendar. She retired in March 2022 with 110 caps and 28 as captain. Her club career sits alongside that international record. She played at Team Bath in the Vitality Netball Superleague, moved to Northern Mystics in New Zealand’s ANZ Premiership, and then to Giants Netball in Australia’s Suncorp Super Netball, the strongest domestic league in the sport, where she was named club MVP in her first season. That is a player who tested her standards in the environments her opponents came from. What she offers corporate audiences now is the substance of the captain’s role inside a high-performance system. She is direct about the gap between leading on the court and managing the room around selection decisions made by someone else; about how senior players hold standards when results turn; and about what defending a benchmark feels like compared with chasing one. Her current work as Performance Lead at Jersey Netball, founder of Legacy Netball, and an accredited executive coach with Humanise Solutions keeps that material in active practice. Key speaking topics Captaincy and senior leadership inside high-performance teams Holding standards after a defining win Team culture under public pressure and scrutiny Selection, accountability, and the senior player’s role Resilience and composure in decisive moments Talent development and the long arc of an elite career Ideal for Executive teams operating under the pressure to repeat or defend a recent result HR and talent leaders working on captaincy, succession, and senior player roles inside teams Women’s leadership programmes and senior development cohorts Sales and commercial leaders running through a defined competitive cycle Audience outcomes A concrete account of what a senior captain does inside a high-performance system when selection calls are not theirs to make A working reference point for holding team standards after a result everyone now expects you to repeat Honest perspective on the personal weight of leading peers, including senior teammates, through public results A usable model of long-career resilience across three of the most competitive leagues in a global sport

Why organisations work with Seyi Akiwowo She built Glitch from a personal campaign in 2017 into a working UK charity on online gender-based violence, which gives her a different register from consultants who study the issue from outside. Her Penguin Life book How to Stay Safe Online is one of the few mainstream titles that treats online harm as a serious workplace and leadership concern, not a parenting issue, and gives executive audiences a reference text. She served as an elected councillor in Newham at 23 and addressed the 38th session of the UN Human Rights Council, which means she is comfortable in regulated, scrutinised, formal rooms, not just activist spaces. She has held trust and safety advisory roles with major platforms including TikTok, which gives her direct read on how the largest platforms handle abuse, moderation, and policy. She declined an MBE publicly in 2022. That decision and the way she framed it gives her unusual credibility with audiences who are sceptical of inclusion as institutional theatre. Biography highlights Founder of Glitch, the UK charity addressing online abuse and online gender-based violence, established out of the 2017 #FixTheGlitch campaign. Author, How to Stay Safe Online, Penguin Life, 2022. Elected councillor for Newham, East London, at the age of 23, the youngest Black woman councillor in the UK at the time. Speaker at the 38th session of the UN Human Rights Council on online gender-based violence; Amnesty International Human Rights Defender (2018). Digital Leader of the Year (2019); Marie Claire Future Shaper (2019); WIRED Changemaker cover (2021); TEDxLondon speaker (2019). Trust and safety advisory roles with platforms including TikTok; bachelor’s degree in social policy, London School of Economics. Biography In 2017, a recording of a speech delivered at the European Parliament went viral. The reaction was a flood of racist and misogynistic abuse, more than seventy reports filed with the platforms, and almost no response from them. The campaign that emerged from that experience, #FixTheGlitch, became the charity Glitch. Glitch is now a recognised voice on online abuse and online gender-based violence in the UK. It works with women, marginalised communities, parliamentarians, and platforms, and its evidence has been part of the policy conversation around the UK Online Safety Act. The work is operational, not theoretical: training, casework, lobbying, partnerships with platforms including TikTok where Akiwowo has held trust and safety advisory roles. Her credibility predates Glitch. At 23 she was elected a Labour councillor for Newham, the youngest Black woman councillor in the UK. She holds a bachelor’s degree in social policy from the London School of Economics. She has addressed the 38th session of the UN Human Rights Council on online gender-based violence and was named an Amnesty International Human Rights Defender in 2018. Penguin Life published How to Stay Safe Online in 2022. It is the rare mainstream book that treats online harm as a serious leadership and workplace concern. In the same year she was offered an MBE and chose not to accept it, a decision she explained publicly. For corporate audiences thinking about inclusion, employee safety, and values-based leadership, that combination, an elected politician’s record, an operating charity, a Penguin book, and a refused honour, is the substance she brings into the room. Key speaking topics Online safety as a workplace duty of care Online gender-based violence and digital harm Values-based and inclusive leadership Digital self-care and resilience for senior leaders Platform accountability and trust and safety Inclusion in a contested political climate Ideal for CHROs, Chief People Officers and Heads of DEI rebuilding the inclusion case for sceptical executive audiences Heads of internal communications, employee experience, and risk responsible for staff wellbeing in public-facing roles Trust and safety, policy, and product leaders inside platforms and regulated technology businesses Senior women’s networks, employee resource groups, and leadership development programmes Audience outcomes A working definition of online harm as a workplace and leadership issue, not a personal coping problem A direct read on how platforms actually respond to abuse, drawn from advisory work with companies including TikTok Practical content from the Penguin Life book How to Stay Safe Online that audiences can use the next day A confident position on inclusion and values-based leadership that holds up in the current political climate A senior voice that has chosen difficult institutional decisions, including declining an MBE, and can speak credibly about leadership under public scrutiny

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 Sheena Allen She built and ran a venture-backed US digital bank to closure and is willing to talk in detail about what the regulatory environment, capital cycle, and category timing did to it. Practitioner perspective, not commentary. She bootstrapped a five-app mobile studio to millions of downloads before raising a dollar, so her view of fundraising versus self-funding comes from having done both. She is a credible voice on financial inclusion grounded in market reality, not advocacy posture, having designed product for banking-desert communities and seen what compliance and unit economics impose. She speaks to the non-technical founder problem with authority because she has built tech companies as a psychology and film major, including her current AI-product work through MindFull AI. Biography highlights Founder and CEO of CapWay, a Y Combinator Summer 2020 fintech and digital bank backed by Backstage Capital, Fearless Fund, and Khosla Ventures. Founder of Sheena Allen Apps, a bootstrapped mobile studio with five apps and millions of downloads. Currently leads CREAM Factory, a fintech venture studio and research organisation, and builds AI-native products through MindFull AI. Co-host of the Rich Lessons podcast with Sevetri Wilson Taylor. Forbes 30 Under 30 honouree. Featured in Google’s Webby Award-winning documentary series Black Women in Tech and in the film She Started It; author of The Starting Guide. Biography CapWay was a venture-backed US digital bank built to serve customers in banking deserts. It raised from Backstage Capital, Fearless Fund, and Khosla Ventures, went through Y Combinator’s Summer 2020 cohort, and closed in 2024 after the wider fintech regulatory environment turned against companies that depended on partner banks. Sheena Allen ran it from founding to wind-down. That arc is the spine of her work as a speaker. She talks about fintech not as a category to admire but as a category that punishes founders who underestimate compliance cost, capital cycles, and the dependency on infrastructure they do not own. After the Synapse collapse and the Evolve Bank breach, she was direct in the press about why the business could not raise another round. Before CapWay, she bootstrapped Sheena Allen Apps from her dorm room at the University of Southern Mississippi into a five-app mobile studio with millions of downloads. She studied psychology and film, not computer science, and she has built every venture since by assembling technical teams around her rather than coding herself. That is the perspective behind her current work at CREAM Factory, a fintech venture studio, and at MindFull AI, where she ships AI-native products as a non-technical founder. She is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honouree, co-hosts the Rich Lessons podcast with Sevetri Wilson Taylor, and was featured in Google’s Black Women in Tech series and the film She Started It. Her book, The Starting Guide, walks first-time founders through the operational decisions she made early and would now make differently. Key speaking topics Building venture-backed companies in regulated categories Financial inclusion and the economics of banking deserts Bootstrapping versus venture capital as founder strategies Non-technical founders and how they actually ship product AI tools for small teams and solo operators Mobile product strategy and pre-development planning Women and underrepresented founders in fintech Ideal for Founder programmes, accelerators, and venture studios looking for an operator who has built and closed a regulated business. Financial services, fintech, and banking conferences seeking a practitioner voice on financial inclusion and partner-bank risk. Diversity and inclusion programmes inside banks, payment networks, and large tech companies that want substance over symbolism. Innovation and product audiences inside non-technical industries that want to hear how non-technical founders ship. Audience outcomes A clearer view of how capital cycles and regulatory shifts decide which fintechs survive. Specific lessons from inside a Y Combinator-backed digital bank that closed, including what she would do differently. A grounded read on financial inclusion as a market problem, not a campaign theme. Concrete examples of how a non-technical founder builds and runs product teams, including with AI tooling. A useable mental model for choosing between bootstrapping and venture capital at different stages.

Why organisations work with Shiza Shahid She has built a global non-profit alongside a Nobel laureate and a viral consumer brand from the ground up, which gives boards a credible voice on what purpose looks like inside a P&L rather than on a slide. Our Place put a specific commercial bet on multicultural cooking and on cookware made without PFAS, PTFE and PFOA. She can speak about how a values position becomes a product specification and a category position. Through NOW Ventures and her AngelList partnership, she has seen hundreds of early-stage decks from mission-led founders. She can tell a corporate audience which purpose-led strategies are creating real growth and which are positioning. Her arc from McKinsey analyst to non-profit CEO to consumer founder to seed investor gives her language that translates across the room, from a CFO to a brand lead to an innovation team. Biography highlights Co-founder and founding CEO of the Malala Fund, established in 2013 with Malala Yousafzai to advance girls’ education in Pakistan and across Africa. Co-founder and Co-CEO of Our Place, the direct-to-consumer kitchenware brand behind the Always Pan, launched in 2019. Founder of NOW Ventures, an early-stage fund launched in 2017 in partnership with AngelList, backing mission-driven technology startups. Author of Dinner at Our Place: Recipes for Gathering, published by HarperCollins in 2025 with eleven chefs and tastemakers. BA, Stanford University, graduated with University Distinction; former business analyst, McKinsey & Company, Dubai. Named to TIME’s 30 Under 30 People Changing the World and Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneurs; honoured as a Tribeca Disruptive Innovator. Biography A teenage activist in Islamabad set up a summer camp for Malala Yousafzai and other Pakistani girls in 2009. Three years later, after Malala was shot, that camp became the foundation for the Malala Fund. Shiza Shahid was the founding CEO, working alongside Malala and her father Ziauddin to build a global organisation focused on girls’ education in Pakistan, Nigeria, Kenya and Sierra Leone. The Malala Fund was a lesson in scaling a mission. The Our Place chapter, which started in 2019 with husband Amir Tehrani and co-founder Zach Rosner, was a lesson in scaling a product. The brand bet that multicultural cooking and toxin-free cookware were a commercial proposition, not a niche, and the Always Pan answered that bet with a 30,000-person waitlist on release. NOW Ventures, launched in 2017 with AngelList, is the third lens. Shahid writes early cheques into mission-led founders in technology, with an explicit emphasis on women and diverse entrepreneurs. The fund gives her a constant view of which purpose-led businesses are converting into commercial substance, and which are still positioning. Her cookbook, Dinner at Our Place, published by HarperCollins in 2025, sits on top of that body of work. The recipes are written with eleven chefs and tastemakers, and the book is structured around hosting as a cultural act. It is the most concrete expression yet of the conviction that drives her companies: that culture, commerce and care are not separate categories. Key speaking topics Mission-driven entrepreneurship and scale Purpose as a commercial proposition Building a consumer brand from launch Women and diverse founders in early-stage tech Girls’ education and social impact Inclusive brand and product design Investing in technology for global challenges Ideal for CEOs and founders building purpose-led consumer brands and DTC businesses Chief marketing, chief brand and chief sustainability officers in consumer goods Corporate venture, innovation and ESG teams designing new mission-led ventures Women in leadership programmes, founder networks and philanthropy boards Audience outcomes A grounded view of how a mission becomes a product specification, a brand position and a category bet, not a marketing line. A clearer read on which purpose-led commercial strategies are creating growth and which are signalling. A working vocabulary for backing women and diverse founders in early-stage technology, from someone who writes cheques. A direct account of how a non-profit at global scale and a consumer brand at viral scale are built from the same founder discipline.