Diversity, Equity & Inclusion speakers

Why organisations work with Victoria Humphries A lived account of decision-making in life-threatening conditions, including falling through Arctic ice, that translates directly to how senior teams behave when the stakes are real and the recovery margin is thin. An executive track record across teaching, governance, consulting and running an EdTech business, so the resilience material lands as commercial advice, not adventure storytelling. A specific focus on the leadership behaviours that hold workforces together through repeated restructure: small steps, visible composure, recovery from setback. Co-author of Frigid Women, the published account of the 1997 first all-female North Pole expedition, which gives the keynote a documentary anchor rather than a retold anecdote. Repeat use by leadership-development and change programmes at AkzoNobel, Tarmac, Coventry Building Society, COBIS, Pfizer and ServiceNow. Biography highlights Member of the first all-female relay expedition to the North Pole, 1997. Co-author of Frigid Women, published by Eye Books, written with her mother, Sue Riches. Three-time Guinness World Record holder, as cited on her speaker profiles. 25-plus years across education, governance and commercial leadership, including managing director of an EdTech company. Keynote and workshop client list including AkzoNobel, Coventry Building Society, British Telecom, AQA Education, Tarmac Springboard, Pfizer, ServiceNow and COBIS. Biography The 1997 expedition to the North Pole was twenty women in a relay across shifting Arctic ice, in temperatures around minus 40, with rescue dependent on aircraft that could only land in a narrow weather window. Victoria Humphries was one of them. She and her mother Sue went through the ice into the Arctic Ocean at one point and got themselves out. That story sits underneath the rest of her work as a leadership speaker. The expedition is documented in Frigid Women, the book she co-wrote with her mother and published through Eye Books. It is not a motivational text. It is an account of how a non-professional team prepared for, survived and recovered from a sustained ordeal, and what each person had to manage in their own head to keep going. That makes it useful source material for organisations dealing with fatigue and repeated change, rather than a one-off shock. The commercial track record is what allows the polar story to do useful work in a corporate room. Twenty-five years of teaching, governance, consultancy and running an EdTech business gives her the language of leadership development, restructure and team performance. Programmes she has delivered for AkzoNobel, Coventry Building Society, Tarmac, Pfizer, COBIS and ServiceNow are positioned as resilience and change content, not adventure speeches. Her signature talks, Managing Change in a Changing World, One Step at a Time and Be Bold, Be Brave, Be You, take the same idea into different audiences. The argument is consistent: when conditions stay hard for a long time, what holds a team together are small, visible acts of composure from the people leading it. Key speaking topics Resilience and stress management Leading through sustained change Self-leadership under pressure Team leadership in difficult conditions Women in business and leadership Motivation and self-belief Diversity, equity and inclusion Ideal for Leadership development programmes for newly senior managers, including high-potential and emerging-leader cohorts. HR, talent and learning teams are designing resilience or change-readiness content into a wider curriculum. Conferences and town halls during or after a restructure, integration, or sustained period of operational pressure. Women’s leadership networks and inclusion programmes that want a speaker with a substantive professional record alongside the personal story. Audience outcomes A clearer view of how composure under pressure shows up as a leadership behaviour, not a personality trait. A method for breaking long, uncertain change into the next single step a team can act on. A frame for recovering from a setback at work without losing the team’s commitment to the next phase. A more honest read on personal capability, particularly for people who have under-rated their own resilience.

Why organisations work with Vivienne Ming Her «Tax on Being Different» framework quantifies – in economic and productivity terms – the cost organisations pay when marginalised workers must expend extra effort just to be assessed as equivalent. This is a measurement argument with commercial implications, not a values one. As Chief Scientist at Gild, she built machine learning models trained on 122 million professionals, making her one of the few people who has directly operationalised predictive AI for talent assessment at scale, outside a purely academic context. She reframes diversity from a compliance question into an optimisation problem: one that can be modelled, measured, and corrected using the same tools organisations already apply to operational decisions. Her research spans workforce, education, and health, giving her an unusually broad evidence base for what actually predicts long-term human capability, and what doesn’t. Published in Nature and Neural Information Processing Systems, and holding academic appointments at UC Berkeley and UCL, her arguments carry institutional credibility that applied consultants and conference speakers typically cannot match. Biography highlights Author of Robot-Proof: When Machines Have All the Answers, Build Better People (Wiley, 2026), which argues that human capital – not AI capability – determines the outcome of human-machine collaboration PhD in Psychology from Carnegie Mellon University; joint postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University and UC Berkeley’s Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience Former Chief Scientist at Gild, where she built ML models trained on 122 million professionals to assess human capability beyond conventional credentials Founder and Executive Chair of Socos Labs, an independent research institute applying AI and neuroscience to workforce, education, and health challenges Research published in Nature, Neural Information Processing Systems, and Neural Computation Ranked #5 on the Financial Times / OUTstanding list of the world’s top LGBT executives (2017); named BBC 100 Women (2017) and Inc. Magazine’s «10 Women to Watch in Tech» Chair, UC Berkeley Neurotech Collider Hub; Honorary Professor, UCL Global Business School for Health; board member, RFK Human Rights Biography Vivienne Ming built her career on a discomforting empirical observation: the hiring signals organisations treat as reliable – degrees, interview performance, institutional pedigree – do not predict what they claim to predict. She tested this at scale. As Chief Scientist at Gild, she developed machine learning models trained on data from 122 million professionals, looking for what actually distinguishes high performers from credentialled ones. The gap was substantial. Most organisations were optimising for proxies, not capability. That finding runs through everything she has done since. At Socos Labs, the research institute she co-founded with her wife Dr. Norma Ming, she has extended the question into education and health, examining what psychological constructs genuinely predict long-term life outcomes, and publishing that research in Nature and Neural Information Processing Systems. The argument is consistent: measurement systems in organisations are systematically broken, and the cost is borne most heavily by those who don’t fit the template. Her book Robot-Proof: When Machines Have All the Answers, Build Better People (Wiley, 2026) extends that argument into AI, making the case that human capital – not model benchmarks – determines whether human-machine collaboration produces anything beyond substitution. Her «Tax on Being Different» framework gives that cost a number. Drawing on large-scale HR data, it quantifies the additional credential burden that women, people of colour, and LGBTQ+ individuals absorb to be evaluated on equivalent terms. This is not a cultural argument. It is a productivity and innovation argument: one that has been delivered to boards and leadership teams at Google, Deloitte, and Salesforce, and presented at the Royal Society. She holds a PhD in Psychology from Carnegie Mellon University, with joint postdoctoral appointments at Stanford and UC Berkeley. She chairs the UC Berkeley Neurotech Collider Hub, holds an honorary professorship at UCL’s Global Business School for Health, and serves on the board of RFK Human Rights. In 2017, she was ranked #5 on the Financial Times / OUTstanding list of the world’s top LGBT executives. Her research and commentary have been featured in the Financial Times, Business Insider, Fast Company, and CNBC. Key speaking topics AI and predictive modelling of human capability The economics of talent assessment and bias Neuroscience of decision-making in organisations Diversity, inclusion, and the productivity cost of difference Human-machine collective intelligence AI applications in education, health, and workforce development Innovation methodology: solving ill-posed problems Ideal for CHROs and talent acquisition leaders reviewing whether their hiring signals are predictive CEOs and boards integrating AI into people decisions and workforce strategy DEI leaders seeking evidence-based, commercially framed arguments for systemic change Technology and innovation functions examining the limits and applications of AI in human contexts Audience outcomes A quantified, data-grounded understanding of what broken talent systems cost organisations in productivity and innovation A concrete reframe of diversity: not a moral obligation but a measurement and optimisation problem Practical questions to apply to their own hiring, promotion, and development processes Clarity on where AI reliably improves human assessment – and where it perpetuates the biases already embedded in the data A new vocabulary for capability that moves beyond credentials and credentials-adjacent signals

Why organisations work with Wema Hoover She ran global DEI inside four of the most scrutinised employers in the world: Google, Pfizer, Sanofi and Bristol-Myers Squibb. The advice is shaped by what survives in regulated, multinational environments. She separates the politics of DEI from the operating substance, which lets boards keep the practice going without the labels that now invite litigation and activist pressure. Her work covers the full stack: hiring, promotion, belonging, manager capability, and how leadership teams behave under public scrutiny. Not awareness training. She writes for Fast Company on the structural questions, gender investment, leadership double standards, beyond the DEI backlash, which means buyers get a thinker, not a workshop facilitator. Coqual Hidden Brain Drain Task Force membership signals she works alongside the most serious researchers in this field, not adjacent to them. Biography highlights Former Global Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Google Former Chief Diversity Officer / Global Head of DEI at Pfizer, Sanofi and Bristol-Myers Squibb Published contributor at Fast Company, Inc. and Diversity Magazine Member, Coqual Hidden Brain Drain Task Force Board member, Ten By Three MSc Human Resource Management and Master’s Certificate in Organizational Change Management, The New School; BA Psychology, Rutgers; GPHR certified Biography The DEI conversation has fractured. Court rulings, shareholder activism and political pressure have made the language toxic in some markets, while the underlying organisational questions, who gets hired, who gets promoted, who feels they belong, are now more commercially material than they have been in a decade. Wema Hoover spent the last fifteen years running that practice inside large, regulated, global employers. As Global Head of DEI at Google, and in equivalent senior roles at Pfizer, Sanofi and Bristol-Myers Squibb, she designed and operated inclusion programmes in the kinds of environments where the work has to clear legal, board, regulator and workforce scrutiny. That operator background is what makes her useful now. She is not arguing for DEI as a value; she is showing leadership teams how to keep the operating substance, hiring discipline, manager capability, advancement pipelines, belonging metrics, without the rhetorical scaffolding that has become a liability. Her Fast Company writing and her “Beyond the DEI Backlash” work track the same argument in public. She holds an MSc in Human Resource Management and a Master’s-level Certificate in Organizational Change Management from The New School, a BA in Psychology from Rutgers, and a Global Professional in Human Resources certification. She sits on Coqual’s Hidden Brain Drain Task Force, the working group most senior corporate DEI heads consult on talent equity research. Key speaking topics Inclusion strategy after the DEI backlash Belonging and culture inside global, regulated employers Women’s advancement, sponsorship and the leadership double standard Manager capability for inclusive teams Cross-cultural leadership in multinational workforces Executive coaching for senior leaders navigating cultural change Ideal for CHROs and Chief People Officers managing inclusion programmes through political and legal headwinds Boards and ExCos that need to reset their position on DEI without abandoning the substance Global employers with regulated workforces (pharma, tech, financial services) where inclusion is tied to talent risk Senior leadership development programmes for newly promoted women and underrepresented executives Audience outcomes A clear read on what has changed in the DEI landscape, in the US and globally, and what that means for their own programme design A working distinction between inclusion as compliance theatre and inclusion as operating capability Practical decisions on which existing initiatives to keep, which to retire and which to rename Confidence in how to brief their board on DEI in the current environment without overpromising or retreating A sharper view of where sponsorship and advocacy, not training, actually move the dial on women’s advancement

Why organisations work with Will Young His book To Be a Gay Man provides a specific, argued analysis of how internalised shame develops and compounds; giving organisations something more useful than personal testimony: a framework for understanding why policy alone doesn’t change culture As the first Patron of Shout, the UK’s 24/7 crisis text service, he carries the kind of sustained, institutional commitment to mental health that distinguishes an advocate from a performer talking about their own story His JP Morgan Blue Monday Fireside Chat appearance demonstrates he operates credibly in formal corporate environments, not only in entertainment or charity contexts He is one of very few speakers who can hold the intersection of LGBTQ+ experience, clinical mental health literacy, and mass public recognition in a single conversation, without any of the three undermining the others The Sunday Times bestseller status on two consecutive books signals consistent public authority, not a single media moment Biography highlights Winner of the inaugural series of Pop Idol (2002); debut single the second best-selling UK single of the 21st century; four UK #1 albums; two Brit Awards Sunday Times bestselling author: To Be a Gay Man (Penguin/Ebury Press) and Be Yourself and Happier: The A–Z of Wellbeing Olivier Award-nominated actor; stage credits include Cabaret and Strictly Ballroom; screen credits include Mrs Henderson Presents First Patron of Shout, the UK’s 24/7 mental health text crisis support service Honorary degree, University of Exeter (2023); originally studied Politics at Exeter Corporate speaker engagements include JP Morgan Blue Monday Fireside Chats; Leeds International Festival of Ideas Biography Gay shame is not a niche subject. It describes a mechanism, internalised identity conflict producing low self-worth and destructive behaviour, that shapes the working lives of LGBTQ+ employees long after any formal discrimination has ended. Will Young’s To Be a Gay Man, published by Penguin in 2020 and a Sunday Times bestseller, is the most visible attempt by a British public figure to articulate that mechanism in terms that are both personal and intellectually serious. Young won the first series of Pop Idol in 2002 and built one of the most durable careers in British pop, with four UK number one albums, two Brit Awards, and a debut single that remains the second best-selling UK single of the 21st century. That public history matters to organisations not as decoration but as context: Young spent two decades navigating visibility, media scrutiny, and identity in an industry that rarely handled any of those things well. His second book, Be Yourself and Happier: The A–Z of Wellbeing, extended his work beyond LGBTQ+ experience into broader mental health and personal development. As the first Patron of Shout – the UK’s 24/7 text crisis support service – and a speaker at JP Morgan’s Blue Monday Fireside Chats, he has moved steadily from public profile to institutional engagement. The Olivier Award nomination for Cabaret and an honorary degree from the University of Exeter complete a picture of someone who has built genuine plural credibility – in entertainment, publishing, mental health, and now corporate settings – rather than recycling a single story across formats. Key speaking topics Gay shame and internalised identity Mental health and psychological safety at work LGBTQ+ inclusion beyond policy Authenticity and belonging in organisational culture Public visibility and personal resilience Wellbeing and self-acceptance Media, representation, and cultural change Ideal for CHROs and People Directors leading LGBTQ+ inclusion or mental health strategy DEI leads and LGBTQ+ employee network events seeking substance beyond lived-experience storytelling Leadership and culture conferences where psychological safety and authentic belonging are on the agenda Organisations marking awareness moments (Mental Health Awareness Week, Pride, Blue Monday) who want credibility over celebrity Audience outcomes A working understanding of how internalised shame operates, and why policy change without cultural work leaves the core problem intact Language for discussing gay shame and identity conflict that is grounded, specific, and usable in organisational contexts A more nuanced picture of what LGBTQ+ inclusion looks like in practice, beyond representation metrics Reflection on the relationship between personal authenticity and professional performance Awareness of the practical mental health resources and frameworks Young has developed through his books and Wellbeing Lab platform

Why organisations work with William Adoasi He has built, financed and scaled a consumer brand from a £7,000 personal stake into a business shipping to more than 30 countries, with the impact model embedded in the unit economics rather than bolted on as CSR. His Virgin StartUp loan and subsequent mentorship from Richard Branson give him a first-hand, founder-level view of how early-stage capital, investor relationships and brand storytelling actually convert into revenue. The Vitae London model directly funds school uniform, footwear and bags for children in Sub-Saharan Africa per purchase, giving him a concrete case study for purpose-led commercial design that finance and marketing leaders can interrogate. His Forbes listing as one of 25 Leading Black British Business People to Follow lends credibility to inclusion and entrepreneurship programmes without reducing the conversation to identity alone. He speaks from the founder’s chair, not the consultant’s, which is what audiences of aspiring operators and intrapreneurs actually want in the room. Biography highlights Founder and CEO, Vitae London, launched 2016, distributing in 30+ countries. Founder of the wider Vitae Group, including Vitae Digital, Broken Chain Co and Vitae Photography. Named to Forbes “25 Leading Black British Business People to Follow”. 2016 Virgin StartUp ambassador; mentored by Richard Branson after pitching through the Virgin StartUp programme. TEDx speaker, “Finding Purpose Through Pain”. Opinion contributor at CEOWORLD magazine. Biography Vitae London started with £7,000 of personal savings and a Virgin StartUp loan. Within a few years it was selling watches in more than thirty countries and funding school uniform, footwear and a bag for a child in Sub-Saharan Africa with every purchase. The business case and the mission run on the same P&L. That is the through-line of William Adoasi’s work as a founder. He is the British-Ghanaian entrepreneur behind Vitae London and the wider Vitae Group, which spans digital, photography and lifestyle ventures. His pitch to Richard Branson, made through the Virgin StartUp programme, ended with Branson buying a watch on the spot and stepping in as a mentor. The detail matters because it explains why audiences pay attention. Adoasi can describe, from the operator’s seat, how a small consumer brand finances early inventory, how it earns shelf space across 30+ countries, and how purpose can be designed into the unit economics rather than marketed on top of them. Forbes named him one of 25 Leading Black British Business People to Follow on the strength of that record. For finance, marketing and impact teams trying to make a purpose-led commercial story stand up to scrutiny, his case is a useful one to interrogate. He has built the business, written about it as a CEOWORLD contributor, and tested the argument on a TEDx stage with “Finding Purpose Through Pain”. Key speaking topics Founder-led entrepreneurship Purpose-driven consumer brands Business model innovation Personal branding for founders Diversity in entrepreneurship Scaling from idea to international market Mentorship and early-stage capital Ideal for Founder programmes, accelerators and entrepreneur networks Marketing and brand leadership audiences working on purpose-led propositions Diversity, inclusion and emerging-talent forums inside large corporates Youth, education and community organisations connecting business to social mobility Audience outcomes A grounded view of how a purpose model can be designed into a product’s unit economics from the start. A working example of how a first-time founder turns a small loan and a mentor relationship into international distribution. Practical signals on what early investors and mentors are actually looking for in a founder pitch. A more honest reading of what “impact” means once it has to survive a balance sheet.

Why organisations work with Yonah Welker Direct line into the European policy machinery shaping AI rules, through working group contributions to the EU AI Code of Practice, DG CNECT’s digital and critical infrastructure work, and EU ICT and standardisation programmes. Published, citable expertise on how AI systems treat disability, neurodiversity, and other designated groups, with frameworks and a MOOC catalogued by OECD.AI, a specialism few governance advisers can match. Cross-institutional fluency across OECD, UN, UNESCO, and WHO governance processes, useful for organisations whose AI strategy now has to answer to several overlapping frameworks at once. Practical command of how governance applies to AI in physical and public deployment, including robotics and assistive systems, where compliance obligations under the EU AI Act and emerging harmonised standards are least settled. A practitioner-policy bridge rather than a pure academic, with hands-on evaluator and rapporteur roles across EU Horizon and EIT/EIC programmes, which is the lane most boards and compliance leads now need filled. Biography highlights AI expert listed in the OECD.AI community directory; visiting lecturer and evaluator affiliated with MIT collaborative work, and contributor to OECD.AI’s Wonk blog. Contributor to the EU AI Code of Practice (working Groups 2 and 3), DG CNECT digital and critical infrastructure programmes, and EU ICT standardisation work. Contributor of input to OECD (G7 Hiroshima AI Process), UN (ITU and IGF), UNESCO, NIST (Risk Management Framework), and White House PCAST processes. Lead author and coordinator on the forthcoming UNESCO/UN AI Science Report, and co-author of the MIT AI Safety Repository. Evaluator, rapporteur, and quality controller across EU Horizon, StandICT, and EIT Health, Deeptech, and Creativity programmes; member of the EDPB expert pool on embodied AI privacy. Former curator of the Global AI Summit and adviser to a national data and AI authority in the EMEA region; speaker at the AI Action Summit (Paris/Sorbonne), Sciences Po, Technical University of Munich, AI Safety Korea, and the Delphi Economic Forum; jury and peer reviewer for the MIT Global Competition, NeurIPS, and IEEE journals. Biography The EU AI Act, the OECD framework, UNESCO’s ethics recommendation, and the G7 Hiroshima Process now govern the same operating decisions, and they do not line up neatly. The people who work inside several of these processes at once, rather than reading them from outside, are few. Welker is one of them. He has contributed to the EU AI Code of Practice working groups and to DG CNECT’s critical infrastructure work. He sits on the EDPB expert pool examining embodied AI privacy, and is lead author and coordinator on the forthcoming UNESCO/UN AI Science Report. His input has also fed NIST and White House PCAST processes, and he has advised a national data and AI authority in the EMEA region alongside his EU Commission work. His distinctive angle is a lens few governance specialists share. His work centres on how AI systems treat designated groups: people with disabilities, neurodivergent users, and others where an algorithm can quietly grant or deny access. That question is now moving into robotics, assistive systems, and AI that acts in public space, where the frameworks are thinnest. The disability-centred AI MOOC catalogued in the OECD.AI tools repository is one concrete marker of it. For senior leaders, the value is operational. He can set out what an EU AI Act audit will actually examine, and what a defensible accessibility claim looks like in a deployed system. He can also show how the OECD, UN, and EU layers connect to a decision a general counsel or risk committee faces next quarter. Key speaking topics AI governance and the EU AI Act Algorithmic accountability and AI audit Disability-centred and accessibility AI policy Neurodiversity and inclusive AI design Sovereign AI and critical digital infrastructure AI safety and responsible deployment Public sector AI and citizen-facing systems Ideal for General counsel, chief compliance officers and CTOs preparing for EU AI Act enforcement Heads of AI, responsible AI leads and digital ethics committees Public sector and intergovernmental bodies designing AI policy Boards reviewing AI risk exposure across accessibility, bias and public-trust dimensions Audience outcomes A clearer map of how the EU AI Act, OECD framework and UN/UNESCO instruments interlock for their organisation Specific questions to put to vendors, internal teams and audit committees on algorithmic accountability A working definition of what disability-centred and accessibility AI obligations look like operationally Sharper instinct for where reputational and regulatory risk concentrates in current AI deployments A view of where European AI policy is heading next, drawn from inside the working groups shaping it

Why organisations work with Zara Janjua She brings broadcast-grade interviewing into corporate rooms, drawing on more than 500 live hours of television and national news across BBC, ITV and STV. She is the host NatWest chose for its Women in Business podcast, its skills development series, and its internal What’s The Chat? podcast, which makes her a credible anchor for organisations building long-running internal communications platforms, not one-off events. She has chaired the Financial Alliance for Women Summit and the EBRD Conference on Skills Development in Central Asia, and has led onstage conversations with Karren Brady and Steven Bartlett, so she is trusted to handle senior figures and senior delegates at international level. She is an appointed member of NatWest’s Ethnicity Advisory Council, which gives her a working view of how a major institution actually moves on inclusion, not just how it speaks about it. She speaks on portfolio careers and reinvention as someone who has actually built one, from national news to comedy, television writing and documentary film, which reaches audiences facing their own career uncertainty in a way a career theorist cannot. Biography highlights BAFTA, NTA and RTS award-winning broadcaster; presents on BBC Radio Scotland and has fronted national news, daytime and comedy across BBC, ITV and STV. Delivered a keynote to an audience of around 16,000 in Melbourne for Rotary International. Led onstage conversations with Karren Brady and Steven Bartlett at the Women in Business and Tech Expo. Reporter for the New York Times Climate Hub at COP26, interviewing John Kerry and Al Gore. Host of NatWest’s Women in Business podcast and its internal What’s The Chat? podcast, and a member of its Ethnicity Advisory Council. Highly Commended finalist, Women of the Future Awards, sponsored by Oxford University and the Financial Times. Biography One career rarely runs from national news to stand-up comedy, television writing, and documentary film. Zara Janjua’s has, and each strand carries recognition: a BAFTA, NTA and RTS across her television work, a place in the BBC Comedy Writersroom won from more than four thousand applicants, and a Technical Award for her first documentary. That range is what makes her effective on a corporate stage. She interviews senior leaders without flattening them and holds a panel to its actual argument, drawing on more than 500 live hours of television and national news. She reported for the New York Times Climate Hub at COP26, securing interviews with John Kerry and Al Gore, and now presents on BBC Radio Scotland. NatWest shows how that translates inside an organisation. Janjua hosts the bank’s Women in Business podcast and its internal What’s The Chat? podcast, and sits on its Ethnicity Advisory Council. On larger stages she has led onstage conversations with Karren Brady and Steven Bartlett at the Women in Business and Tech Expo, and delivered a keynote to an audience of around 16,000 in Melbourne for Rotary International. Her keynote work has moved with her. The recurring subject is now the shape of a modern working life: portfolio careers, reinvention, resilience, and aligning work with purpose. The Women of the Future Awards, sponsored by Oxford University and the Financial Times, named her a Highly Commended finalist for building exactly that. The documentaries she produces in Nepal, Tanzania, and Guatemala for charitable partners are its clearest expression, and the reason a Rotary International president has publicly credited her fundraising impact. Key speaking topics Event hosting and moderation Panel chairing and interviewing Portfolio and multi-hyphen careers Career reinvention and resilience Future of work and careers Diversity, equity and inclusion Mental health in the workplace Storytelling and business communication Ideal for CHROs, internal communications leads and DEI directors anchoring long-running internal channels. Boards, summit organisers and awards committees commissioning a host for inclusion, women in business or skills conferences. Talent and early-careers leaders programming events on career reinvention, portfolio working and retention. Financial services, professional services and public-sector organisations briefing a moderator on senior international panels. Audience outcomes A panel or summit that lands its argument rather than drifting between speakers. An internal communications moment that employees actually listen to, anchored by a broadcaster they recognise as credible. Senior speakers drawn out on substance, not left to recite prepared lines. Sensitive subject matter on inclusion, mental health or women’s progression handled with editorial care. Audiences leave rethinking what a viable career can look like, prompted by someone who built one across news, comedy and film.

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

Why organisations work with Zing Tsjeng A working journalist’s instinct for what an audience actually wants to hear, sharpened across VICE, the BBC and the i newspaper, brought to corporate stages where most speakers sound rehearsed. A four-volume body of work in Forgotten Women that pulls 190 named historical women into business and cultural conversations, giving inclusion content that is specific rather than slogan-driven. Co-hosting Good Bad Billionaire with BBC Business Editor Simon Jack means she can interrogate wealth, power and ambition with a financial-journalism register, not a generic culture take. A presenter’s hosting craft tested on Question Time, Have I Got News For You and Front Row, useful when the brief is moderation, panel chairing or on-stage interview rather than a solo keynote. An Oxford visiting professorship in Creative Media gives the academic credential to anchor talks on media, narrative and identity for senior internal communications and brand audiences. Biography highlights Former Editor-in-Chief, VICE UK and VICE.com; launched Broadly in 2014. Co-host, Good Bad Billionaire, BBC Sounds, with Simon Jack. Author, Forgotten Women series, Octopus Publishing, anthologised by Brazen in 2022. Visiting Professor of Creative Media, University of Oxford, since 2022. Highly commended, British Journalism Awards 2020. Columnist for the i newspaper; contributor to British Vogue, The Guardian, The Sunday Times, Dazed. Biography Inclusion content inside large organisations has a credibility problem. Most of it is either statement-led or driven by external pressure, and very little of it is grounded in the actual content of the histories it claims to recover. That gap is where Tsjeng’s work begins. The Forgotten Women series is a four-volume project that profiles more than 190 women, scientists, leaders, artists, reformers, who shaped fields that later forgot them. Octopus published the books between 2018 and 2019; Brazen reissued the anthology in 2022. The work is research, not advocacy, and it gives senior audiences a vocabulary for inclusion that does not collapse the moment scrutiny arrives. She runs a parallel journalism career that gives her a working register most cultural speakers do not have. As Editor-in-Chief of VICE UK she managed teams across the US and UK, launched Broadly, and oversaw video work that drew tens of millions of views. With Simon Jack on the BBC’s Good Bad Billionaire she now interrogates wealth, power and ambition for a mainstream business audience, with the show topping UK audio charts in 2024. The credential anchor is real. Oxford appointed her Visiting Professor of Creative Media in 2022; she lectures in journalism at City, University of London; she was highly commended at the British Journalism Awards 2020. Question Time, Have I Got News For You and Front Row have all used her as a contributor, which is why corporate clients including SXSW, Web Summit, Netflix and Sky tend to book her to chair, moderate or interview at the moments where the room expects a working broadcaster, not a motivational voice. Key speaking topics Hidden histories of women in business, science and leadership Wealth, power and the lives of billionaires Media, journalism and the modern news industry Inclusion, identity and cultural narrative LGBTQ+ representation in public life On-stage hosting, moderation and panel chairing Ideal for CHROs, heads of DEI and internal communications leaders briefing audiences on inclusion with substance Brand, marketing and editorial leaders working on culture-led storytelling Conference programmers needing a senior journalist to chair, moderate or interview on the main stage Leadership teams hosting International Women’s Day, Pride or cultural anniversary events that need a credible voice rather than a generic one Audience outcomes Specific historical reference points that make inclusion content land with executive audiences A clearer view of how wealth, power and ambition are reported and judged in mainstream media today Confidence in handling identity and cultural topics from a journalist’s evidence base, not a political register Practical reading on how stories travel in modern media, drawn from VICE, the BBC and national press A sharper sense of what audiences want to hear from leaders speaking about inclusion and culture

Why organisations work with Zoe Fragou She brings a clinical psychologist’s diagnostic discipline into corporate culture work, which most coaches and consultants in this space cannot. Her doctoral research at EU Business School Geneva is specifically on corporate culture psychometrics, giving organisations a measurement frame rather than a values poster. She actively trains public health leaders for the WHO Regional Office for Europe, including in Kazakhstan and Ukraine, so her leadership content is tested in the hardest operating conditions, not only corporate ones. Her work covers burnout, psychological safety, feedback culture and inclusion as connected mechanisms inside the same system, rather than as separate wellness initiatives. Recognised externally as a credible coaching authority, ranked No. 7 globally on Thinkers360 for coaching and named Best Career Coach at the 2021 Global Coaching Conference. Biography highlights Organisational psychologist with a clinical psychology licence and an MSc in Human Resources Management from Athens University of Economics and Business. Doctoral candidate at EU Business School Geneva, researching the psychometrics of corporate culture. Trainer for the WHO Regional Office for Europe on the Public Health Leadership course since September 2023. Ranked No. 7 Global Thought Leader on Coaching by Thinkers360; featured on the Top 50 Coaching rankings for 2024 and 2025. Voted Best Career Coach at the Global Coaching Conference 2021; named Top 15 Coaches in Athens 2023. Founder of Fragoulous Minds, an Athens-based consulting collective working with private and corporate clients globally; mentor with Women On Top, 100mentors and Lean In. Biography Most wellbeing programmes are designed to manage symptoms. They sit alongside the operating model that produced the burnout in the first place. The work of changing the underlying culture sits with people who rarely have a clinical lens to see what is actually happening inside teams under pressure. Zoe Fragou occupies that gap. She is a licensed clinical psychologist who works at the organisational level, holding an MSc in Human Resources Management from Athens University of Economics and Business and pursuing a doctorate at EU Business School Geneva on the psychometrics of corporate culture. Her practice covers culture transformation, executive coaching, feedback culture and psychological safety for private and corporate clients across Europe, Asia and Africa. Since 2023 she has trained public health leaders for the WHO Regional Office for Europe on its Public Health Leadership course, working with cohorts from countries including Kazakhstan and Ukraine. That work places her leadership material in genuinely fragile operating environments, not only in well-resourced corporates, and informs how she frames resilience, decision-making and team dynamics for senior audiences. External recognition reflects the same focus. Thinkers360 ranks her at No. 7 globally on Coaching and lists her on its 2024 and 2025 Top 50 Coaching rosters. She was voted Best Career Coach at the 2021 Global Coaching Conference and named among the Top 15 Coaches in Athens in 2023. Through Fragoulous Minds, the practice she founded, she leads culture and leadership engagements for organisations that want to treat burnout and engagement as a system problem rather than a perks problem. Key speaking topics Corporate culture transformation Burnout and psychological safety at work Feedback culture and growth mindset Leadership development under pressure Diversity, equity and inclusion Mental health in the workplace Women’s leadership Executive coaching and personal development Ideal for CHROs and Chief People Officers rebuilding culture after restructure or rapid growth Boards and executive teams accountable for engagement, attrition and wellbeing metrics Public sector and global health leaders operating in high-pressure or fragile contexts Senior leadership groups in regulated, professional services or post-merger organisations Audience outcomes A clinical reading of how burnout actually develops inside teams, and which organisational levers shift it A working definition of feedback culture that connects to growth mindset rather than performance management ritual A more honest frame for DEI work, anchored in psychological mechanisms of bias and belonging Language for senior leaders to talk about psychological safety without slipping into wellness platitudes A clear view of where wellbeing programmes stop working and culture redesign has to start

Why organisations work with Lissie Mackintosh A live host who can move between the F1 paddock, a brand launch, an awards stage and a corporate panel without dropping register, with the trust of drivers, teams and sponsors built up since 2022. Direct reach into a young, global F1 audience through TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and the Going Purple podcast, useful for brands building presence with under-35 motorsport fans. A genuine working point of view on women in motorsport, grounded in three years of on-the-ground experience, not consultancy framing. Hosting credits at scale-events where the brief is unforgiving: the 2022 Autosport Awards, the 2023 UK premiere of Ferrari and multiple F1 team and car launches. Biography highlights Lead paddock presenter on Formula 1 broadcast and digital content since 2022, interviewing drivers including Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz, George Russell and Jenson Button. Host of Going Purple, an F1 podcast launched in 2022 and distributed via Spotify and Apple Podcasts, with guests including Oscar Piastri, Jamie Chadwick and F1 Academy driver Abbi Pulling. Hosted the 2022 Autosport Awards and the 2023 UK premiere of Ferrari, plus multiple F1 team launches. Face of the 2023 Reiss x McLaren partnership alongside McLaren F1 drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Brand work with Sky Sports, Scuderia Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes AMG Petronas, Aston Martin, McLaren, HSBC, NFL UK, PUMA, Tommy Hilfiger, Michael Kors, Elemis and Elizabeth Arden. Aligned with Females in Motorsport and a regular public voice on gender representation across F1, F1 Academy and the wider racing ecosystem. Biography Formula 1 sells access. For decades that access ran through the same narrow set of broadcast voices, and the audience that grew up on social video was largely left out of the conversation. Mackintosh started filling that gap from a phone in late 2021, with TikTok videos that moved fast and assumed the viewer was new to the sport. By 2022 she was in the paddock as one of F1’s lead presenters, working across the championship’s broadcast and digital output. She has interviewed Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz, George Russell and Jenson Button, and hosted set-pieces including the 2022 Autosport Awards, the 2023 UK premiere of Ferrari and multiple team and car launches. Her podcast Going Purple, launched in 2022, sits alongside the broadcast work. Guests include Oscar Piastri on his first F1 win, F1 Academy driver Abbi Pulling and former W Series champion Jamie Chadwick on the pressure of being a female role model in racing. The podcast is open about being designed for fans who do not see themselves reflected in the existing motorsport media set. That is the throughline. Mackintosh’s working argument, made on stage and in interviews with Sky Sports and Females in Motorsport, is that motorsport’s growth depends on whether the sport is willing to put different people in front of the camera and the microphone. She has built her career inside that argument and is a credible voice for brands and organisations testing the same proposition. Key speaking topics Formula 1 and the future of motorsport media Women in motorsport and representation in sport Building community with Gen-Z sports audiences Content creation and the new sports broadcast model Personal brand and platform in a legacy industry Event hosting and panel moderation across motorsport, brand and awards Ideal for Brand and partner events inside motorsport, automotive and sports sponsorship looking for a credible live host Internal and external events for organisations targeting younger consumer audiences in F1, F1 Academy and adjacent sports Diversity and inclusion conferences and women-in-sport platforms seeking a working voice from inside the paddock Awards nights, premieres and product launches where the host needs to speak fluently to drivers, sponsors and fans in the same room Audience outcomes A first-hand account of how Formula 1 has changed its audience profile since 2022 and what brands inside the sport are doing about it A practical view of how content creators have shifted the sports broadcast model and what that means for sponsors and rights holders Honest perspective on the lived experience of being a young woman in a male-dominated sport, including the cost of public visibility A live host who lifts the energy of the room and keeps a panel of drivers, executives or sponsors on the brief