Diversity, Equity & Inclusion speakers

Why organisations work with Tim Campbell A founder’s view of what early-stage capital, mentoring and access actually do for people who do not start with networks, drawn from supporting more than 750 start-ups through the Bright Ideas Trust A senior commercial perspective on inclusion that connects diversity to talent acquisition and business outcomes, informed by his strategic adviser work in global recruitment Public recognition that opens doors at executive and audience level: MBE for Services to Enterprise Culture, two decades of broadcast presence on The Apprentice, and a seat on the Windrush Commemoration Committee A practitioner’s read on what makes a small business survive its first three years, codified in his co-authored book with Paul Humphries published by Headline Biography highlights Winner of the first series of BBC’s The Apprentice in 2005, hired by Sir Alan Sugar as Project Director of Amstrad’s Health and Beauty division Co-founder of the Bright Ideas Trust, which raised over GBP 3m and supported more than 750 start-ups from disadvantaged backgrounds Appointed MBE in 2012 for Services to Enterprise Culture Co-author of “What’s Your Bright Idea? The Journey to Starting Your Own Business” (Headline, 2010) Member of the UK Government’s Windrush Commemoration Committee Returned to The Apprentice as Lord Sugar’s permanent advisor from Series 18 onwards Biography The Apprentice in 2005 was the first time most British viewers had watched a hiring decision broadcast as entertainment. Tim Campbell, a senior planner at London Underground, won the series and took the GBP 100,000 job at Amstrad as Project Director of a new Health and Beauty division. The interesting work began two years later. In 2007 Campbell co-founded the Bright Ideas Trust with Paul Humphries and Richard Morris. The model was specific: equity-style early-stage capital and structured mentoring for 16 to 30 year olds who could not raise money through conventional networks. By the time the trust had matured, it had raised more than GBP 3m and supported over 750 start-ups. The work earned an MBE in 2012 for Services to Enterprise Culture and a co-authored book with Humphries, “What’s Your Bright Idea?”, published by Headline. The second arc of his career moved that founder perspective into large organisations. Campbell has held senior roles in talent acquisition and inclusion strategy, advising on diversity, equity and social mobility inside global recruitment, and sits on the UK Government’s Windrush Commemoration Committee. He returned to The Apprentice as Lord Sugar’s aide and now holds the role permanently from Series 18. The throughline is the gap between organisational claims about entrepreneurial culture and inclusion, and what actually happens to people inside the business and outside it. Campbell has worked both sides of that gap, as a founder building a vehicle for capital flow into underrepresented entrepreneurs, and as a senior adviser inside companies that have to decide whether their inclusion language is reflected in who gets hired, funded and promoted. Key speaking topics Entrepreneurship and early-stage business Inclusive talent acquisition and social mobility Resilience in a founder’s career Diversity and inclusion as commercial strategy Leadership through change Personal and organisational reinvention Ideal for Boards and executive teams reviewing the commercial logic of their inclusion strategy CHROs and talent leaders rethinking pipelines into underrepresented communities Founders, scale-up leaders and intrapreneurs inside corporate environments Audiences at staff conferences and ERG events seeking a credible voice on enterprise and inclusion Audience outcomes A clearer view of what early-stage entrepreneurial support looks like when it is built around access, not just funding A practical sense of how diversity commitments translate into hiring, promotion and supplier decisions A founder’s perspective on resilience, drawn from a public career and a charity built and run for over a decade A reframing of inclusion as a commercial discipline tied to talent and growth, not a separate values conversation

Why organisations work with Tima Deryan A first-person account of summiting Everest in one of the deadliest seasons on the mountain, used as concrete material for how leaders prepare for, recover from, and execute under conditions where mistakes cost lives. A track record of physical first-ever achievements, including Everest, the Seven Summits, the South Pole, and Ojos del Salado, that gives weight to her arguments on goal-setting and persistence beyond the usual motivational register. A working coaching practice, not a one-off speaking circuit; she runs Mountain Gipsy as an ongoing platform, which means content is sharpened by repeated client work rather than rehearsed from a single book. A founder track record alongside the mountaineering, including the sustainable fashion brand Feministiya and earlier ventures, which gives her credibility on women’s leadership and entrepreneurship topics where bureaus often field speakers with only one of those two profiles. Biography highlights First Lebanese woman and youngest Arab to summit Mount Everest, 22 May 2019, age 26. First Lebanese woman to ski the last degree to the South Pole, December 2022. Completed the Seven Summits; first Arab woman to summit Ojos del Salado, the world’s highest active volcano. Founder and CEO of Mountain Gipsy; founder of Feministiya, a sustainability-focused fashion brand. Author of Curly Adventures: Mount Everest, a children’s book on her ascent. Certified mindset coach with a corporate keynote client list spanning multinationals across consumer goods, energy, and pharmaceuticals. Biography The 2019 Everest season was one of the deadliest on record. On 22 May, Tima Deryan reached the summit at 7:21 am, becoming the first Lebanese woman and the youngest Arab to do so. The technical and psychological work that produced that morning is what she now teaches. Deryan has since added the South Pole, the Seven Summits, and Ojos del Salado to a sustained record of high-altitude objectives. She is pursuing the Explorer Grand Slam, a list completed by fewer than 75 people globally and by only 15 women. The achievements matter for the keynote because the lessons are drawn from environments where decisions cannot be undone, not from a metaphor. Outside the mountains, she runs Mountain Gipsy as a coaching and speaking platform and founded Feministiya, a sustainable fashion brand focused on women’s rights and gender equality. That second track gives her substantive material on entrepreneurship and women’s leadership rather than the borrowed credibility some adventure speakers rely on. She is also a best-selling author of Curly Adventures: Mount Everest, a children’s book recounting her climb. Her corporate work includes keynotes and workshops for Procter & Gamble, Merck, Ford, Adidas, Henkel, Swarovski, Shell, and ADNOC. The repeated booking pattern across consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, and energy reflects what she is most often commissioned for: a high-stakes story used as working material on goal-setting, team dynamics, and composure under pressure. Key speaking topics Goal-setting in low-margin environments Mindset and self-leadership under pressure Decision-making in high-stakes uncertainty Team dynamics on extended expeditions Women’s leadership and breaking first-ever barriers Entrepreneurship and sustainability Resilience and recovery from setback Ideal for CHROs and L&D leaders commissioning a high-stakes keynote on resilience and goal-setting Sales and commercial leadership teams working through stretch targets Women’s leadership networks and ERGs inside large multinationals Off-site events for senior teams that need a working narrative on composure under pressure, not a generic motivational session Audience outcomes A working framework for setting and pursuing objectives where failure has real cost A first-person account of how preparation, composure, and team trust hold up in extreme conditions A clearer view of what self-leadership looks like in environments without external validation A direct argument for persistence in goals that look unreasonable from the starting line

Why organisations work with Tina Stowell She has run a national regulator from the inside. As Chair of the Charity Commission for three years, she rebuilt how a public body holds an entire sector to account, and can speak to regulatory pressure with the authority of someone who has applied it. She is one of the few practitioners who has led a legislative chamber through politically contested change, including the passage of equal marriage law through the House of Lords. Her current chairmanship of the Lords Communications and Digital Committee places her at the centre of UK scrutiny on generative AI, large language models and the future of news, with published committee reports cited by government and industry. She offers a working insight into how organisations earn or lose public trust, drawn from BBC corporate affairs, No. 10, the Cabinet table and a non-executive seat at Impellam Group plc. She speaks without political performance. Buyers commission her when the room contains regulators, ministers, journalists and executives who would all detect spin instantly. Biography highlights Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal, 2014 to 2016, full Cabinet member from 2015. Chair, Charity Commission for England and Wales, 2018 to 2021. Chair, House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee, with reports on generative AI, media literacy and the future of news. Nearly a decade at the BBC, including Head of Corporate Affairs and Head of Communications for the BBC Trust. MBE in the 1996 Birthday Honours for service in the No. 10 Press Office under Prime Minister John Major. Spectator Peer of the Year, 2013 and 2024; Stonewall Politician of the Year, 2013. Non-executive director, Impellam Group plc; board member, ABTA; Social Mobility Commissioner since 2023. Biography The Charity Commission was a regulator that few outside the sector took seriously when Tina Stowell took the chair in 2018. Three years later it was setting the public conversation about how charities behave. That arc, from background body to active regulator, captures the kind of work she has built a career around: institutions under pressure, and the leadership choices that decide whether they recover authority or lose it. She came to that chairmanship through a route few in the Lords have taken. Five years in the No. 10 Press Office under John Major, recognised with an MBE in 1996. Nearly a decade at the BBC, including Head of Corporate Affairs during a period of intense scrutiny of the Corporation. Deputy chief of staff to William Hague at Conservative Party headquarters. The pattern is consistent: senior communications and governance roles inside organisations whose legitimacy was being publicly tested. In 2014 she was appointed Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal, becoming a full member of the Cabinet after the 2015 election. The previous year she had taken the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill through the Lords, work that drew Politician of the Year recognition from Stonewall and PinkNews and a first Spectator Peer of the Year award. Her current chairmanship of the Lords Communications and Digital Committee has produced some of the more substantive UK parliamentary work on large language models, generative AI and the future of news, with the 2024 report on LLMs widely cited in the policy debate on AI safety and opportunity. She also brings the texture that comes from having grown up in Beeston, Nottinghamshire, the daughter of a painter-decorator and a factory worker, with five O-levels and no university degree. That biography matters in the room. She has held cabinet rank, regulated a sector, and chaired the parliamentary committee scrutinising AI, without the credentialism that often accompanies those roles. Her Spectator Peer of the Year award was repeated in 2024 for parliamentary work on the ownership of UK newspapers. Key speaking topics Leadership and trust under public scrutiny AI governance and the UK regulatory environment Regulation as a leadership tool, not a compliance burden Decision-making in politically contested terrain Media, communications and reputational risk Public sector and charity sector governance Bridging divides across political, generational and institutional lines Ideal for Boards and executive committees facing regulatory or political exposure Senior leaders in regulated industries, charities, media and the public sector Communications, public affairs and corporate affairs leadership Policy and government relations teams in technology, financial services and consumer-facing businesses Audience outcomes A clearer view of what earns institutional trust in front of regulators, media and elected officials A practical reading of how UK and parliamentary scrutiny of AI is actually evolving Sharper instincts for spotting where leadership communication is hardening or losing the room A more honest sense of what the public sector expects of senior corporate leaders, from someone who has sat on both sides

Why organisations work with Toby Makoyawo A current elite athlete competing at the front edge of NCAA Division I sprinting, not a retired professional reflecting on a finished career. The pressure he describes is the pressure he is still operating inside. A European U20 100m title and a Boston University school record at 10.12 seconds give him a specific credibility on the question of preparation, execution, and recovery in events decided by hundredths of a second. Combines elite competition with a full undergraduate degree at Boston University, which lets him speak credibly to early-career and graduate audiences about workload, discipline, and time as a finite resource. A diaspora background, born in Florida to Nigerian parents and raised in West London, that lets him speak naturally on inclusion and identity without the topic feeling bolted on. Biography highlights European U20 Champion, 100m, 2021, in a personal-best 10.25 seconds Boston University 100m and 60m school record holder, fastest sprinter in BU programme history NCAA Division I Second Team All-American British Olympic Trials 200m finalist at age 19 UK National Champion, U20 age category, 2021 Reading for an undergraduate degree at Boston University while competing at NCAA Division I level Biography Most sprint finals are decided in the first thirty metres and a leader’s first thirty seconds of a hard meeting are not that different. The capacity to be composed under public scrutiny is a trained capacity, and Toby Makoyawo trains it for a living. He is the fastest sprinter in Boston University’s history and a European U20 100m champion who is still in the middle of the work, not at the end of it. The substance of his story is preparation rather than highlights. A 10.25 second European junior title in 2021, a 10.12 second school record at the Texas Relays in 2022, and an All-American placing in NCAA Division I sit on top of a daily routine that includes coursework, training cycles, and the management of expectation that any 23-year-old at the front of a sport has to learn quickly. The route through is also distinctive. Born in Florida to Nigerian parents, raised in West London, and recruited into the American collegiate athletics system, he has had to learn how to perform inside three different cultural contexts. The relevance to a corporate audience is direct: graduate intake, early-career talent, and inclusion programmes all benefit from a speaker who can describe identity and high performance as the same conversation, not two separate ones. What he offers a room is not a finished career narrative. It is a current account of how an elite competitor manages the gap between training intent and competition reality, week after week, in a discipline where the margin of error is measured in hundredths of a second. Key speaking topics Performance under public pressure Goal-setting and long-horizon planning Identity, inclusion, and elite performance Discipline and time management Mental health in competitive environments Resilience after setback Ideal for Graduate intake and early-career talent programmes Diversity, inclusion, and belonging audiences inside large employers Sales and high-performance teams operating to public targets Sports, education, and youth-facing organisations Audience outcomes A working sense of how elite athletes prepare for moments measured in hundredths of a second Practical language for goal-setting, time discipline, and recovery from setback A first-person account of identity and high performance as a single conversation, not a parallel one Renewed engagement from younger and early-career audiences who recognise the speaker’s age, register, and trajectory

Why organisations work with Toju Duke Ten years inside Google, including three running Responsible AI programmes across product and research teams on large-scale models. The framework she teaches is the one she ran. A published, structured Responsible AI framework covering fairness, transparency, safety, privacy and robustness across the full ML lifecycle, available to leadership teams as a shared reference point. Operator credibility on the question boards actually ask: how do we deploy AI at pace without inviting regulatory, reputational or human-rights exposure. Independent of any platform or model vendor. With no product to sell, her advice on governance and deployment answers only to the organisation buying it. Biography highlights Author of Building Responsible AI Algorithms (Apress, 2023), a structured framework for fairness, transparency, safety, privacy and robustness across the machine learning lifecycle. Co-author with Prof Paolo Giudici of Responsible AI in Practice (Apress/Springer Nature). Ten years at Google. Final three years as Responsible AI Programme Manager working across product and research teams on large-scale models. Founder and CEO of Diverse AI, a community interest organisation running education and research programmes for groups underrepresented in AI, including a project to build a dataset documenting the cultures of communities without internet access. Media contributor including BBC One Sunday Morning Live, Sky News, Al Jazeera, CGTN America, El Pais, La Vanguardia and Sifted. Biography Most organisations now have an AI policy. Very few have the operating mechanisms to make it real. Toju Duke spent the final three years of a ten-year career at Google building exactly those mechanisms, as a Responsible AI Programme Manager working across product and research teams on large-scale models. That work became Building Responsible AI Algorithms, published by Apress in 2023. The book takes Responsible AI out of principles documents and into the machine learning lifecycle: how to define a problem, audit data, evaluate fairness, document a model, and decide whether to ship. A second volume, Responsible AI in Practice, co-authored with Prof Paolo Giudici, extends the framework into regulation, risk taxonomies and assessment. She advises boards and executive teams on governance, AI readiness, and deployment, and sits on the programme committee for the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics and Society. Through Diverse AI, the community interest organisation she founded, she runs education and research programmes for groups underrepresented in the field, including a project to build a dataset documenting the cultures of communities the internet has left out. Governance and inclusion are the same question seen from two sides of the model. She speaks and writes for serious outlets, including BBC One Sunday Morning Live, Sky News, Al Jazeera, CGTN America, El Pais, La Vanguardia and Sifted. For a board weighing how to govern an AI programme it does not fully understand, she brings the rare combination of operator experience inside a frontier-model team and a published framework to organise the conversation around. Key speaking topics Responsible AI frameworks and governance AI ethics and accountability Generative AI risk and oversight AI regulation and policy Fairness, bias and inclusion in AI systems Diversity in AI talent and design Implementing AI principles across the machine learning lifecycle Ideal for Boards and executive committees commissioning or governing AI programmes Chief AI officers, CTOs, CIOs and chief data officers building Responsible AI operating models Risk, audit, legal and compliance leaders translating AI regulation into controls DEI and people leaders working on inclusion in technical organisations Audience outcomes A working vocabulary for Responsible AI grounded in a published framework rather than vendor marketing. A view of where AI risk actually sits in the machine learning lifecycle, from problem definition through deployment. A reference model for translating AI principles into review processes, documentation and accountability structures. A sharper read on how regulation, fairness and human-rights considerations intersect for organisations deploying large-scale models.

Why organisations work with Tom Flatau He brings formal NeuroLeadership Institute accreditation into client rooms, so the brain science behind his coaching is grounded in a recognised body of research rather than self-styled commentary. His firm’s programmes are quality-assured by the Institute of Leadership and Management, which gives L and D buyers a credentialed delivery standard alongside the keynote. Two decades of repeat work with HSBC, Unilever, Siemens, Louis Vuitton, Emirates and the BBC means the material has been pressure-tested across regulated finance, consumer goods, engineering, luxury retail and broadcast. He translates neuroplasticity, threat response and bias research into specific leadership practice on negotiation, change communication and team collaboration, so audiences leave with mechanism, not metaphor. Biography highlights CEO and founder of Teamworking International, with custom leadership programmes quality-assured by the Institute of Leadership and Management. Accredited brain and behaviour specialist trained by the NeuroLeadership Institute. Master’s in Business Analysis and Systems Design; Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management. Long-standing client roster including HSBC, Unilever, Siemens, Louis Vuitton, Emirates, American Express, Qatar Airways, British American Tobacco and the BBC. Conference speaker for bodies including the Chartered Institute of Building and the Institute of Directors. Signature keynote portfolio covering the inner game of leadership, the neuroscience of unconscious bias, leading through change, team collaboration, sales mastery and black belt negotiation. Biography Most behaviour change in organisations fails because it stops at the conscious mind. Leaders are taught new frameworks and new vocabulary, then return to the same threat responses, biases and habits the moment a quarter goes sideways. Tom Flatau built Teamworking International around a different premise: that leadership behaviour shifts when the brain underneath it shifts. The credentials matter here. Flatau is an accredited brain and behaviour specialist trained by the NeuroLeadership Institute, holds a Master’s in Business Analysis and Systems Design, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management. His firm’s programmes are quality-assured by the ILM, which is unusual in a market crowded with self-styled neuroscience commentators. For more than two decades, the work has been delivered into HSBC, Unilever, Siemens, Louis Vuitton, Emirates, American Express, Qatar Airways, British American Tobacco and the BBC. Across regulated banking, consumer goods, engineering, luxury and broadcast, the same patterns surface: leaders making decisions under threat, teams misreading each other’s intent, salespeople reverting to scripts. His material translates the relevant brain research into practice for each. His keynote portfolio sits along that line. “The inner game of leadership” examines the subconscious behaviours that erode senior credibility. “The neuroscience of unconscious bias” treats bias as a wiring problem with intervention points, not a values lecture. “Black belt negotiation” and “Sales mastery: hello science, goodbye myths” apply the same lens to deal-making. The throughline is mechanism: what is happening in the brain, and what to do about it. Key speaking topics Applied neuroscience for leadership Neuroscience of unconscious bias Leading through change Executive coaching and the inner game of leadership Mindset and team collaboration Negotiation and influence Sales behaviour and buyer psychology Ideal for CEOs, executive committees and senior leadership teams are responsible for behaviour change at the top of the organisation CHROs, L and D directors and heads of leadership development, designing accredited leadership pipelines Sales and commercial leadership teams looking to upgrade negotiation and buyer engagement Diversity and inclusion leads who want a brain-science framing of bias rather than a values framing Audience outcomes A working understanding of how stress, threat and reward responses shape leadership decisions in real time Specific mechanisms for interrupting unconscious bias in hiring, promotion and day-to-day team interactions Practical communication moves for leading people through change without losing trust Sharper read on the neuroscience of negotiation and how buyer brains actually respond to influence attempts

Why organisations work with Toni Kent She makes social mobility a concrete operating question rather than a values statement, drawing on a decade running major UK partner relationships at Microsoft and a personal history that maps directly onto the barriers her audience is trying to remove. She is one of a small number of UK speakers who can carry both the hosting craft of a large awards night and the substantive keynote inside it, evidenced by twice hosting the UK Social Mobility Awards. Audiences get an unusual combination of stand-up comic timing and corporate fluency, which makes uncomfortable conversations about class, education and access land without defensiveness. The Common Good Network gives her keynote a follow-through mechanism: a directory of UK organisations that the audience can actually route their employee resource groups, CSR teams and emerging-talent programmes towards. Biography highlights Ten years at Microsoft UK, managing several of the company’s largest partner relationships. Founder of The Common Good Network, an interactive directory of UK social mobility organisations. Twice host of the UK Social Mobility Awards (2021, 2023). Author of four books, including Reasons to be Cheerful, Part One. Host of the Challenging University podcast; co-host of KAYBE Talks and The Partnership Path Podcast. Keynote and hosting clients include AWS, KPMG, PwC, Direct Line Group, Baker Hughes, ForHousing, Smart Works Reading and the University of East London. Biography Most large UK employers now have a social mobility position. Far fewer can show what it has changed inside their recruitment funnel, their early-careers programme, or their promotion patterns. The work of turning a stated commitment into an operating change is where Toni Kent has spent the last decade. She came to the question through a decade at Microsoft UK, where she ran several of the company’s largest partner relationships. Before that, a council-estate upbringing in Basingstoke, a father who died when she was fourteen, a family on state benefits, no university route. The combination matters commercially because she can speak with equal fluency to the chief people officer and to the apprentice in the second row. The Common Good Network is the operating layer underneath the keynote: an interactive directory of UK organisations working on socioeconomic barriers, designed to give corporate audiences a route from intention to partnership. Her hosting of the UK Social Mobility Awards in 2021 and 2023 sits in the same body of work, as do her four published books and her podcasts Challenging University, KAYBE Talks and The Partnership Path. The reason organisations book her for the room and not only for the content is that she is also a working stand-up comedian. The craft shows in how she handles a difficult brief: she can name class, access and education without making the audience flinch, and she can host an awards night for two thousand people without losing the thread of why it matters. Key speaking topics Social mobility in the workplace Inclusive hiring and early-careers access Storytelling and authentic personal narrative Imposter syndrome and confidence in corporate environments Mindset and decision-making under change Event hosting and panel moderation Women in technology Ideal for CHROs, heads of DEI and emerging-talent leads who need a credible voice on social mobility as an operating discipline. Employee resource group chairs and ERG sponsors briefing senior leadership on socioeconomic inclusion. Awards programmes, internal recognition events and large all-hands meetings requiring a confident, comic-timed host. Technology, professional services and financial services audiences engaging with inclusion content for the first time. Audience outcomes A working definition of social mobility that distinguishes class-based access from broader DEI categories. A clear sense of where the typical corporate social mobility commitment breaks down between policy and practice. Specific organisational entry points: ERG design, early careers, mentoring, supplier diversity and procurement. A directory of UK partner organisations, via The Common Good Network, to route follow-through activity through. Permission to discuss class openly inside the organisation without defensiveness.

Why organisations work with Tracey Neville She has the rare credential of turning a chronically second-tier national team into a major-tournament winner inside one Games cycle, against opponents with deeper systems and bigger budgets. She speaks credibly about selection, the hardest part of senior leadership, because she made the call to drop senior England players whose form had slipped, and held the room through it. Her coaching record holds up to scrutiny: Superleague titles at Manchester Thunder, three Netball Europe Open Championships, World Cup medals at both ends of her England tenure, and gold at the Commonwealth Games. An MBE for services to netball and a continuing senior coaching role in Australia’s Super Netball mean her authority is current, not retrospective. Biography highlights Head Coach, England Netball, 2015 to 2019. Gold medal, 2018 Commonwealth Games. Bronze medals, 2015 and 2019 Netball World Cups, as Head Coach. Head Coach, Manchester Thunder; Netball Superleague champions, 2012 and 2014. MBE, 2016, for services to netball. 81 senior caps for England as a player; bronze at the 1998 Commonwealth Games and 1999 World Championships. Sky Sports netball pundit; Vitality ambassador; current senior coaching role in Australia’s Super Netball. Biography England had never beaten Australia or New Zealand to win a major netball title. In April 2018, on the Gold Coast, the team Tracey Neville had taken over three years earlier as an interim appointment beat Australia in the final by a single goal. That result reset the order of a sport that two countries had owned for forty years. The job she walked into in 2015 was a programme that had earned bronzes and lost finals. Neville had a Superleague pedigree from Manchester Thunder, where she had won the domestic title twice, and 81 England caps as a player, but no senior international head coaching record. She made the appointment permanent inside six months by taking England to bronze at the 2015 World Cup, then spent the next two years rebuilding selection, fitness standards, and the squad’s tolerance for being told it was not yet good enough. What she offers corporate audiences is the substance of how that rebuild was done. The recognisable parts of high-performance coaching, marginal gains and culture work, sit underneath harder questions about who plays, who is dropped, who is told the truth about their form, and how a head coach holds the room when those decisions are unpopular. She is direct about the cost of those calls, including her own, which gives senior leaders a usable account of selection and accountability rather than a motivational set piece. Her authority is also current. After leaving England in 2019 she moved into senior coaching roles in Australia’s Super Netball, the strongest domestic league in the sport, which is the same competitive environment she beat at the Commonwealth Games. She holds an MBE for services to netball and continues as a Sky Sports pundit on the international game. Key speaking topics High-performance team building under competitive pressure Selection and accountability in senior leadership Leading through transition and interim mandates Resilience and composure in decisive moments Inclusive team culture in elite environments Succession and bench strength Ideal for Executive teams rebuilding standards after a period of underperformance HR and talent leaders working on selection, succession, and bench depth Sales and commercial leaders running through a major competitive cycle Women’s leadership programmes and senior development cohorts Audience outcomes A concrete account of how a head coach makes and communicates hard selection decisions A working model of building winning culture without abandoning standards under pressure Honest perspective on the personal cost of accountability at the top of a programme Practical reference points for leading a team through a defined competitive cycle

Why organisations work with Tracy Edwards A first-hand account of leading a crew that the sailing establishment, the press, and most sponsors had publicly written off, and bringing them home with two leg wins and a second in class. Specific decision-making material from a multi-month operation where every choice carried a real risk, useful for leadership audiences who normally talk about pressure in the abstract. A founder’s perspective on building The Maiden Factor Foundation, a working girls’ education charity with an active global tour, not a one-off cause attached to a speaking career. The subject of the Sony Pictures Classics documentary Maiden, which gives audiences shared visual reference points before the talk begins and lifts the room’s engagement from the first minute. A lived view of what gender exclusion does to a team’s operating conditions, drawn from inside a male-dominated sport in the late 1980s rather than from policy commentary. Biography highlights Skipper of Maiden, the first all-female entry in the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race, 1989-90, second in class with two leg wins. First woman to win the Yachtsman of the Year Trophy in its 34-year history. Appointed MBE in 1990. Founder of The Maiden Factor Foundation, supporting community education programmes for girls globally. Subject of Maiden, the 2018 Alex Holmes documentary distributed by Sony Pictures Classics, 98 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Author of Living Every Second, autobiography published by Hodder and Stoughton. Biography The 1989 Whitbread Round the World Race was supposed to settle a long-running argument in offshore sailing: whether women could complete one of the hardest endurance races in any sport. The Maiden crew, twelve women on a second-hand 58-foot yacht, finished second in class and won two of the six legs. The skipper, who had mortgaged her house to put the campaign together, was 26. The interest for senior leadership audiences is not the romance of that achievement but its operating reality. Sponsors had refused the project for two years. Sailing media openly predicted the crew would not finish the first leg. Tracy Edwards led a team that had to perform under the assumption it would fail, with finance, equipment, and reputation all running against it. The lessons translate cleanly to leaders running underdog projects inside large organisations. After the race, Edwards was appointed MBE and became the first woman in a 34-year history to receive the Yachtsman of the Year Trophy. She published the autobiography Living Every Second in 2001 and later founded The Maiden Factor Foundation, which uses the restored yacht as a working platform for girls’ education campaigns, with a focus on STEM access in developing countries. The 2018 documentary Maiden, directed by Alex Holmes and released by Sony Pictures Classics, brought the story back into the public conversation and gave a new generation of corporate audiences a shared reference point. The talk works because the underlying material is concrete: a crew, a boat, a race, a set of decisions taken under conditions most boardrooms will never see. Key speaking topics Leadership under pressure and resource constraint Building and holding a team that the market has written off Decision-making with limited information and irreversible consequences Inclusion and access in environments structurally hostile to outsiders Endurance and recovery across long-cycle projects Founding and running a mission-led organisation Risk and accountability in operational leadership Ideal for CEO and senior leadership offsites focused on resilience and team performance under sustained pressure Conferences for women in leadership, particularly in male-dominated sectors Organisations running underdog or turnaround projects that need a credible outside voice on holding morale through public scepticism After-dinner and main-stage slots where the brief is leadership content with narrative weight Audience outcomes A specific, non-corporate reference case for leadership decisions taken under genuine consequence Sharper questions about how a team holds together when external belief in the project is low A clearer view of what inclusion means as an operating condition, not a policy statement Renewed conviction that ambitious goals can be reached without conventional resources or backing

Why organisations work with Troy Deeney He speaks from a verifiable record of collapse and recovery: prison in 2012, back in the Watford team within weeks of release, club captain inside two years, and the side’s all-time leading Premier League scorer by the end of his Watford career. His material on mental health is not theoretical. He has written publicly about counselling, grief and identity in Redemption: My Story, and brings that into the room without the polish that usually sands the substance off. He has run a real campaign, not just commented on one. Where’s My History? involved a YouGov teacher survey, a 50,000-signature petition, a Channel 4 documentary and direct engagement with the Department for Education. He is a working broadcaster, which means the room gets a confident communicator. Sky Sports EFL, TalkSport, BBC Sounds and the Deeney Talks podcast are part of his weekly diet. He works well in fireside and Q&A formats, which suits clients who want a real conversation with a senior audience rather than a scripted keynote. Biography highlights Made 500+ professional appearances and scored 160+ career goals across Watford, Birmingham City and Forest Green Rovers. Captain of Watford for the second half of his career there; club record Premier League scorer; FA Cup finalist and promotion winner. Author of Troy Deeney: Redemption: My Story (Hachette / Octopus), reviewed widely and named “Footie book of the year” by The Sun. Fronted Troy Deeney: Where’s My History? on Channel 4 (2022), a 60-minute documentary on the lack of Black, Asian and minority ethnic content in the UK school curriculum. Pundit on Sky Sports EFL, regular on TalkSport, co-host of BBC Sounds’ Football Firsts with Jermain Defoe, and host of the Deeney Talks podcast. Served as head coach of Forest Green Rovers after a player-coach role, holding a UEFA A coaching licence. Biography Watford were 2-1 down to Leicester in the 2013 Championship play-off semi-final when Troy Deeney scored in the 97th minute to put them in the final. The goal is still played on highlight reels. Eighteen months earlier he had been in HMP Birmingham, serving time for affray, and had assumed his career was finished. That gap, between prison cell and one of the most famous goals in modern English football, is what gives his speaking material weight. Redemption: My Story, published by Hachette in 2021, is his own account of the road between the two: a childhood on one of Europe’s largest council estates, a father who dealt drugs and went in and out of prison, three months inside, counselling, and the discipline of rebuilding. The Sun named it football book of the year. It is unusually candid about mental health, grief and the specific work of recovery. Since retiring from playing, Deeney has built a parallel career as a broadcaster and campaigner. He is a Sky Sports EFL pundit, a regular voice on TalkSport, and co-hosts BBC Sounds’ Football Firsts with Jermain Defoe. He fronted Where’s My History?, a Channel 4 documentary on the absence of Black, Asian and minority ethnic content in the national curriculum, supported by a YouGov teacher survey, a public petition and an open letter to the Secretary of State for Education. He spent a season as player-coach and then head coach at Forest Green Rovers in 2023 to 2024. For senior audiences the value is specific. He talks about what actually changed in counselling, how he handled a dressing room, why public failure is survivable, and what the inside of a serious personal reset looks like. The register is plain, unsanitised and grown-up, which is rare in the speaker market for this kind of material. Key speaking topics Resilience and recovery after public failure Self-leadership under pressure Mental health, identity and life after sport Captaincy and leading a dressing room Race, education and social change in the UK Storytelling and authentic communication Ideal for Leadership offsites and senior team away days where a candid personal-story session is more useful than another expert lecture Employee engagement, DEI and mental health programmes that need a credible male voice on vulnerability and recovery Sales kick-offs, customer events and after-dinner formats wanting a sports-world figure with substance, not just anecdotes Sport, media, education and youth-focused organisations working on race, opportunity and curriculum Audience outcomes A clearer view of what recovery from public failure actually requires, beyond motivational language. Practical insight into how a captain holds a dressing room together through pressure, scrutiny and bad results. A more honest framework for talking about mental health with senior male audiences who tend to discount the subject. A specific case study in turning personal experience into an evidenced public campaign, useful for organisations thinking about advocacy and voice.

Why organisations work with Vicky Piria She is the first woman to have raced in the GP3 Series and the only Italian woman in the W Series, two facts that make her a credible voice on what it actually takes to enter and survive a closed industry at the top level. She speaks from a current operating reality, not a retired career. She is racing in the 2025 Italian GT Sprint Championship in a Ferrari 296 Challenge while presenting Sky Sport Italia’s Formula 1 coverage. Her perspective on team performance is grounded in the specific mechanics of a motorsport team, where pit-crew coordination, driver feedback, and engineering decisions all run on tight feedback loops under time pressure. She works in two languages and across two cultures (Italian and British), useful for European audiences who want a speaker who reads the room beyond an Anglophone default. For automotive, motorsport, broadcasting, and brand-sponsorship audiences, she brings credibility from inside the sport rather than commentary from outside it. Biography highlights First female driver in the GP3 Series, debuting with Trident Racing in 2012. Only Italian driver in the inaugural 2019 W Series, the Formula 1 feeder championship for women. Sky Sport Italia Formula 1 presenter from 2024, succeeding Federica Masolin. Italian GT Championship competitor; second in GT Cup in 2023 and three pole-to-win victories in the 2024 Endurance GT Cup Pro-Am Division 2. Confirmed driver for the 2025 Italian GT Sprint Championship with Scuderia Ghermandi by Zanasi Racing in a Ferrari 296 Challenge. Former Formula E commentator for Mediaset and presenter on Italia 1’s Drive Up automotive programme. Biography Motorsport is one of the most closed industries in professional sport. The cost of entry is high, the technical knowledge required is unforgiving, and for most of its history the cockpits and the commentary boxes have been occupied by men. Vicky Piria moved through both. She arrived in the GP3 Series in 2012 as the first female driver in its history, racing for Trident. Seven years later she became the only Italian driver in the inaugural W Series, the Formula 1 feeder championship created to give female drivers a serious competitive pathway. Those two facts position her uniquely in European motorsport. The current chapter is what makes her useful to organisations now. She races in the Italian GT Championship, taking three pole-to-win results in the 2024 Endurance GT Cup Pro-Am Division 2 and stepping into a Ferrari 296 Challenge with Scuderia Ghermandi by Zanasi Racing for the 2025 Sprint season. At the same time she fronts Formula 1 coverage on Sky Sport Italia, having replaced Federica Masolin in 2024. She works comfortably in Italian and English, in front of a camera and inside a race team. For audiences in automotive, broadcasting, brand sponsorship, and any sector trying to widen its talent pipeline beyond the obvious candidates, that combination of operating credibility and broadcast craft is genuinely uncommon. Key speaking topics Women in motorsport and male-dominated industries High-performance teamwork under time pressure Resilience in elite competitive environments Brand and sponsorship in motorsport Broadcasting, hosting, and panel moderation Career reinvention from athlete to broadcaster Ideal for Automotive, motorsport, and mobility sector audiences (manufacturers, sponsors, dealer networks). Brand and marketing leadership at organisations sponsoring sport or building presence around motorsport. Diversity, inclusion, and talent leads in technical or engineering-led organisations. Event hosts seeking a bilingual (Italian and English) moderator with motorsport authority. Audience outcomes A first-person account of what it took to enter and compete in the most male-dominated tier of professional sport. A working view of team performance inside a motorsport operation, from driver and crew dynamics to engineering feedback loops. A perspective on the W Series experiment, why it mattered, what it achieved, and what its absence now means for the pipeline. A motorsport-literate voice for sponsorship, brand activation, and event audiences who want substance behind the storytelling.

Why organisations work with Vicky Pryce She has operated on both sides of the policy-commercial divide: as the senior government official responsible for UK productivity strategy at the Government Economic Service, and as Chief Economist and strategic adviser at KPMG and FTI Consulting. That combination is rare and difficult to replicate from outside it. Her book Women vs Capitalism (Hurst, 2019) makes a specifically economic case (not a social one) that gender inequality is a structural market failure with direct consequences for productivity and growth. It reframes inclusion as a strategic performance issue, supported by empirical evidence rather than advocacy. Her current position at CEBR means her economic analysis is grounded in live forecasting and modelling – not retrospective commentary or academic abstraction. She co-founded GoodCorporation, an advisory firm on corporate social responsibility and business ethics, giving her a rare combination of macro-economic credibility and applied governance insight. As the first woman to serve as Chief Economic Adviser at what is now the Department for Business, she brings direct experience of where the gap between policy intention and commercial impact typically opens: a perspective shaped by being inside the room when the policy was being made. Biography highlights Chief Economic Adviser and board member, Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) Former Joint Head of the UK Government Economic Service and Director General for Economics, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills First woman appointed Chief Economic Adviser at the Department for Trade and Industry (2002) Former Partner and Chief Economist, KPMG; Senior Managing Director, FTI Consulting; earlier career roles at Williams & Glyn’s Bank (RBS) and Exxon Europe Author of seven books including Women vs Capitalism (Hurst Publishers, 2019) and How to be a Successful Economist (Oxford University Press, 2022) Visiting Professor, Birmingham City University and King’s College London; Fellow, UK Academy for Social Sciences; Companion, British Academy of Management Co-founder, GoodCorporation (corporate social responsibility and business ethics advisory) Senior Member, British Chambers of Commerce Economic Advisory Council; Advisory Board member, OMFIF (central banking think-tank) Biography UK productivity has been the central puzzle of British economic policy for three decades. Vicky Pryce worked on it from the inside, first as the first female Chief Economic Adviser at what is now the Department for Business, then as Joint Head of the Government Economic Service, overseeing economic analysis and evidence across Whitehall from 2007 to 2010. That insider perspective shapes how she reads the policy landscape now. At KPMG, where she served as Partner and Chief Economist, and at FTI Consulting as Senior Managing Director, she translated government intent into commercial implication, helping large organisations understand what regulatory and fiscal shifts meant for their strategic position. Her current role as Chief Economic Adviser and board member at the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) keeps that analytical work live, grounded in ongoing economic modelling and forecasting. Her book Women vs Capitalism (Hurst, 2019) makes an argument that separates her from most economics commentators: gender inequality is not a social problem the market will eventually correct, but a structural market failure with direct consequences for productivity and growth. The case is economic and evidential. Greekonomics (Biteback, 2012), which was shortlisted for the Spear’s best business book award, applied the same forensic clarity to the eurozone crisis, and led to her appearing as an expert witness before the House of Lords cross-party subcommittee on economic and financial affairs. Pryce also co-founded GoodCorporation, advising organisations on corporate social responsibility and ethics. She is Visiting Professor at Birmingham City University and King’s College London, a Fellow of the UK Academy for Social Sciences, and a Senior Member of the British Chambers of Commerce Economic Advisory Council. Key speaking topics UK and global economic outlook Economic policy, fiscal strategy, and government reform Productivity, competitiveness, and long-term growth Political and regulatory risk for business Gender economics and labour market policy Corporate ethics and responsible business practice Manufacturing, industrial policy, and economic rebalancing Ideal for CFOs, strategy directors, and board executives navigating policy-driven economic risk Financial services, professional services, and public affairs organisations requiring independent economic analysis HR and talent leaders seeking an evidence-based, economic case for gender inclusion Senior leadership conferences with a UK or European economic policy dimension Audience outcomes A framework for distinguishing short-term economic fluctuation from structural policy shifts that require a strategic response Clearer understanding of how the UK’s persistent productivity challenge affects their sector and what policy instruments are actually in play An economic – not ideological – argument for why gender inclusion is a business performance issue, grounded in market failure analysis and labour market evidence Sharper contextual understanding of the regulatory and fiscal environment shaping their planning horizon Practical basis for scenario planning under conditions of domestic and international economic uncertainty