Entrepreneurship

Why organisations work with Nick Ayton More than four decades inside computer science and ten founded start-ups give him a working operator’s view of where deep tech actually breaks, not a consultant’s slide on where it might. He translates AI, quantum, and longevity science into capital allocation questions a CFO or investment committee can act on, which is rare among futurists who stop at the trend. His book The Slow Bleed sets out Cash Conversion Velocity, a diagnostic he uses to show CEOs why a profitable business is draining cash and what to fix first, in days rather than quarters. His Living to 150 book and ongoing work on AI-assisted healthcare give him a specific, defensible position on longevity, a topic most technology speakers cannot credibly hold. He chairs global summits where deep tech meets investor capital, including the Family Office Summit in Abu Dhabi, so the audience he speaks to most often is the one buyers are trying to reach. Biography highlights Author, The Slow Bleed: A CEO Field Guide to Cash Conversion Velocity (Redline Press, 2026), with a foreword by Ian Wright, founder of VirtualNonExecs. Author, Living to 150: A New Era in Personalised AI Healthcare (2024). Founder of Crix.io, a regulated crypto-exchange, and Chainstarter Ventures, advising family offices on deep tech investment. Named Blockchain Visionary of the Year by Cointelegraph (2018); founding writer of the “Sage of Shoreditch” column. Named Top Futurist Speaker at the Family Office Summit, Abu Dhabi (2023). Has delivered keynotes and faculty addresses at MIT, Harvard, LSE, and Berkeley, alongside more than 100 global summits, working between the UK and the UAE. Biography Most futurist commentary on AI, quantum, and longevity stops at the trend line. Ayton’s work starts where the boardroom question starts: what does this technology mean for the next ten-year capital decision? After more than four decades in computer science and ten founded companies, he speaks to investors and operators in their own language. His early move into blockchain produced Crix.io, one of the first regulated crypto-exchanges, and the Cointelegraph column that named him Blockchain Visionary of the Year in 2018. The work has since broadened into quantum computing, synthetic biology, and longevity science. His book Living to 150 argues for personalised AI healthcare as the next investable frontier, and he advises family offices on how to position capital around it. A second strand of his work asks why profitable businesses quietly fail. His 2026 book The Slow Bleed sets out Cash Conversion Velocity, a way to measure the real health of an operating model in days, and a structured programme to fix it in months rather than years. The same instinct runs through his keynotes on why digital transformation so often optimises dysfunction instead of removing it. What separates Ayton from the futurist field is the audience he was built for. Family offices, founders, and the investment committees behind frontier-tech bets do not want a vision deck. They want someone who has built companies in the category, taken the losses, and can name which signals matter and which numbers lie. Key speaking topics Artificial intelligence and the next decade of enterprise value Quantum computing and its commercial timeline Data sovereignty and the post-cloud era Biological computing and synthetic biology Longevity sciences and personalised AI healthcare Frontier technology investment for family offices Cash Conversion Velocity and operating-model diagnosis Why digital transformation fails Ideal for Boards and investment committees making long-horizon capital decisions on AI, quantum, or biotech Family offices and private capital allocators positioning around frontier technologies Founders and CTOs in deep tech who need a credible external voice on category direction CEOs, PE operating partners, and family office principals who suspect a profitable business is quietly losing cash Audience outcomes A clearer read on which deep tech signals carry commercial weight and which are noise A working vocabulary for AI, quantum, and longevity that holds up in front of technical and capital audiences Specific examples of where capital is already moving in frontier tech, drawn from family office and founder networks A way to tell whether a profitable business is actually healthy, using cash conversion rather than the backward-looking metrics on the board pack A sharper sense of which technology bets compound over a decade and which expire within two

Why organisations work with Cornel Amariei Operator credibility on both sides of the innovation question: ran innovation as Head of Innovation at Continental Automotive with patents adopted across European electric vehicles, then built .lumen from research project to a venture-backed company. Built the first Romanian company to receive EIC Accelerator funding, with a €9.7M blended finance package and a €5M January 2025 round led by Catalyst Romania alongside the EIC Fund. The story is a working playbook on European deep-tech capital formation. Working at the intersection of autonomous driving, robotics and assistive technology, with a defensible patent portfolio. Useful to leadership teams thinking about how to convert AI and sensor capability into a product proposition with a real customer. Recognition from credible institutions, not bureau awards: Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe, JCI Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World, Global Business Hall of Fame. A personal stake that travels well into corporate audiences. Grew up in a family where every member had a disability, and built a company that addresses an underserved global market of 40 million blind people. Authority on social impact ventures without the activist framing. Biography highlights Founder and CEO, .lumen. Pedestrian Autonomous Driving technology, first deployed in glasses for blind users. Former Head of Innovation, Continental Automotive. Patents applied in European electric vehicles. First Romanian inductee, Global Business Hall of Fame, 2021. Innovators category, alongside Canva’s Melanie Perkins. Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe; JCI Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World. Author, “Arduino Development Cookbook” (Packt Publishing, 2015). Alumnus, Constructor University (formerly Jacobs University Bremen). Biography A research project inside a Romanian engineering team in 2018 became, by early 2020, a venture called .lumen. By 2025 the company had closed a €5M round led by Catalyst Romania with the European Innovation Council Fund and Tigrim Capital alongside it, the latest tranche in a €9.7M blended finance package that made it the first Romanian startup to take EIC Accelerator capital. The product, Pedestrian Autonomous Driving, was first demonstrated in glasses that replicate and extend the function of a guide dog. The global addressable problem is concrete: roughly 40 million blind people, fewer than 20,000 guide dogs. The biography behind the company matters because it explains the design choice. Cornel Amariei grew up in a family where every member had a disability: parents with locomotor conditions, a sister with cerebral palsy. The motivation is not a brand layer on top of a venture. It is the reason the venture exists. Before .lumen, Amariei was Head of Innovation at Continental Automotive, where his patent work was integrated into European electric vehicles. That experience matters for boards thinking about innovation governance. He has run the discipline inside a multinational tier-one and built it from scratch as a founder, which is rare in a market where most speakers have done only one. The recognition is from named institutions: Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe, JCI’s Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World, and induction into the Global Business Hall of Fame in 2021 as the first Romanian laureate, in the innovators category alongside Canva founder Melanie Perkins. He is also a published technical author with Packt and an alumnus of Constructor University in Bremen. Key speaking topics Deep-tech entrepreneurship and scale-up leadership Innovation management inside multinationals Assistive technology and accessibility ventures Autonomous driving and robotics applied to consumer products Patent strategy and IP-led product development European deep-tech capital and the EIC Accelerator route Social impact through technology commercialisation Ideal for Innovation, R&D and CTO leadership inside industrials, automotive and consumer technology Boards and executive committees reviewing how invention is governed and converted to product ESG, accessibility and inclusion programmes seeking a credible technology voice rather than an activist one Entrepreneurship summits, deep-tech investor events and scale-up programmes across Europe Audience outcomes A working view of how a research prototype becomes a regulated, funded, commercial product A founder’s account of building patent value inside both a multinational and a startup A grounded reference point for what European deep-tech capital, including EIC blended finance, actually requires of a company A clearer sense of where assistive and accessibility technology is going as autonomous driving capabilities scale down to wearables A reset on what social impact looks like when it is a product proposition rather than a corporate programme

Why organisations work with Damon Dunn He has built and run the businesses he talks about. A 38-unit franchise system, a 31-property retail portfolio with tenants such as Walmart and CVS, and three CEO seats give him P&L credibility most leadership speakers do not have. His Hoover Institution work on welfare-to-work, K-14 education and workforce skilling connects boardroom growth questions to the labour and human-capital realities that actually determine whether a scale-up works. His path from severe poverty in Fort Worth to Stanford, the NFL and a multi-company operating career gives audiences a resilience story that is specific and verifiable, not generic. He is fluent in two registers buyers rarely get in one room: operator and policy fellow. That makes him useful for leadership offsites that need both growth substance and a wider economic frame. Biography highlights Hoover Institution Fellow, Stanford University, working on economic mobility, welfare reform and skills-based education. Author of Punting Poverty: Breaking the Chains of Welfare (Pacific Research Institute). Three-time CEO. Current CEO of Sagan Sign Talent. Founder of Lagunita Franchise Operations, scaled to 38 Dunkin locations across six states. Co-founder of Tricor SW Corporation, which developed 31 retail properties. BA, Public Policy, Stanford University. Harvard Business School Executive Education (2005). Former NFL wide receiver: Jacksonville Jaguars, Cleveland Browns, New York Jets, Dallas Cowboys. Republican nominee for California Secretary of State, 2010. Founder of Long Beach College Prep Academy, which has sent 158 students from low-income families to college. Biography Build a 38-unit franchise system from a single location and you learn quickly which growth ideas survive contact with payroll, leases and operators on a Tuesday morning. Damon Dunn has done the work three times as a CEO, in franchising at Lagunita, in retail development at Tricor, and most recently in industrial talent at Sagan Sign Talent. Tricor developed 31 retail properties across the United States, securing tenants including Walmart and CVS. Lagunita scaled to 38 Dunkin locations across six states, with around 500 employees and roughly thirty million dollars in revenue. The throughline is the same: capital deployed against real assets, real customers and real labour markets, with a P&L that has to clear at the end of every period. Alongside the operating work, Dunn is a Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, where he writes on welfare reform, K-14 education and the skills-based pathways that actually move people out of poverty. His book Punting Poverty: Breaking the Chains of Welfare, published with the Pacific Research Institute, sets out a workable agenda for that mobility question. He was the Republican nominee for California Secretary of State in 2010. His own route from severe poverty in Fort Worth to a Stanford scholarship, four NFL teams and a working operator’s career gives the policy argument something most policy arguments lack: an author who has been the subject. Boards and leadership teams get a speaker who can work the labour question from inside the labour market, not from a podium above it. Key speaking topics Entrepreneurship and scaling Growth strategy under capital and labour constraints Economic mobility and workforce skilling Leadership across business, sport and policy Resilience and high-performance under pressure Public policy on welfare-to-work and K-14 education Ideal for CEOs, founders and country managers running scale-up plays in capital-constrained conditions. Boards and executive teams looking for a credible operator’s view alongside macro and policy framing. Industry conferences in franchising, retail, real estate and consumer where unit economics drive growth. Leadership offsites that want substance on resilience without the standard sports-keynote arc. Audience outcomes A working operator’s view of how franchise and retail systems actually scale, with the trade-offs named. A clear link between workforce policy, skills and the practical labour economics inside a growing business. A resilience narrative grounded in named institutions and verifiable career stages, not motivational abstraction. Useable language for leaders trying to communicate ambition without overpromising on capital or timelines.

Why organisations work with Jodie Kidd A recognisable on-camera presenter with two decades of live broadcast experience, including Channel 5’s The Classic Car Show and ITV’s coverage of the Isle of Man TT, equally at home with a live audience and a camera. Genuine credibility in automotive, motorsport and lifestyle briefs: a former Maserati Trofeo Series driver, Mille Miglia competitor, and Top Gear “Star in a Reasonably Priced Car” series leader. An operating entrepreneur, not a name on a brand. Owner since 2017 of The Half Moon in Kirdford, an AA 2-Rosette gastropub featured at Tom Kerridge’s Pub in the Park; co-owner of beauty brand Skin & Tonic. A reinvention story with substance behind it: Vogue covers and the McQueen debut runway, then a Maserati seat, then a working pub through the post-pandemic hospitality squeeze. Useful when a brief calls for a panel voice on backing yourself outside a single career lane. Polished, warm, unflappable on stage. The kind of host clients rebook for the second year because the first one ran on time. Biography highlights International fashion model from age 15. Vogue covers, opened for John Galliano, walked Givenchy and Alexander McQueen’s debut runway show. Maserati Trofeo Series racing driver. Competed in the Mille Miglia for Jaguar. Top Gear “Star in a Reasonably Priced Car”: topped the leader board across an entire series, becoming a long-running Top Gear reference point. Co-presenter, Channel 5’s The Classic Car Show, and ITV’s coverage of the Isle of Man TT. Strictly Come Dancing (BBC One, 2008) and Celebrity MasterChef finalist. Owner since 2017 of The Half Moon, Kirdford, a Grade II listed gastropub holding AA 2 Rosettes four years running and featured at Pub in the Park from 2019 to 2022. Author of Balance Your Life (2019); co-owner of beauty brand Skin & Tonic; host of YouTube automotive channel Kidd in a Sweet Shop. Biography Television careers built on a single specialism are easier to write about than ones built across several. Jodie Kidd has covered fashion, motorsport, lifestyle and food on BBC, ITV and Channel 5 over more than two decades, and the through-line is the live work: a host who can carry an awards room, a paddock interview, a cookery final or a panel on hospitality. The starting point was modelling. Discovered at 15, she was on the cover of British Vogue at 17, opened shows for John Galliano and walked Alexander McQueen’s debut runway. The pivot into broadcast came through cars. She raced in the Maserati Trofeo Series, competed in the Mille Miglia for Jaguar, and topped the Top Gear leader board for an entire series, which translated into long-running automotive presenting on Channel 5’s The Classic Car Show and ITV’s Isle of Man TT coverage. In 2017 she took on The Half Moon in Kirdford with two business partners, learning the gastropub business from the kitchen out. The pub holds AA 2 Rosettes four years running and has appeared at Tom Kerridge’s Pub in the Park. She co-owns the beauty brand Skin & Tonic and wrote Balance Your Life, a six-week diet and exercise book published in 2019. For event organisers, the value is straightforward. A senior buyer hiring Kidd is hiring an experienced live broadcaster with genuine subject footing in automotive, lifestyle and small-business hospitality, and a calm hand on a long evening. She works as host, awards presenter, panel moderator and panellist, and as a speaker on her own reinvention across fashion, motorsport and entrepreneurship. Key speaking topics Awards hosting and event presenting Panel moderation Automotive, motorsport and the classic car world Hospitality and independent pub ownership Entrepreneurship and brand-building outside a primary career Reinvention across industries Health, wellbeing and lifestyle Ideal for Brand and consumer events in automotive, lifestyle, fashion and hospitality Industry awards evenings looking for a recognisable, experienced live host Conference panels on entrepreneurship, small-business hospitality, or career reinvention Internal leadership or sales conferences wanting an after-dinner speaker with a broad public profile Audience outcomes A live event that runs on time, with an audience that stays in the room Panel conversations that draw out senior speakers without drifting A first-hand account of building and running a working hospitality business through a difficult market A frank reinvention story across modelling, motorsport, broadcasting and small business For automotive and motorsport audiences, an interviewer who knows the subject

Why organisations work with Niluka Kavanagh She co-founded KPMG’s Behavioural Science Unit, giving her a practitioner’s understanding of how psychological insight can be embedded in organisational design: not cited in a presentation, but built into real structures inside a global firm. The KPMG FutureThinkers initiative she co-founded, convening speakers from the BBC, HSBC, and others, gives her direct insight into how large organisations signal innovation internally, and where those signals fall short. Through The Modern CEO, her leadership framework for organisations, she takes the multigenerational engagement debate out of HR theory and into the specifics of daily leadership communication, psychological safety, and behavioural design across teams. She has operated inside large organisations and built independent businesses, so she can speak to the intrapreneurship and autonomy conversation from both sides of the corporate boundary. Operating experience across fourteen countries, with a community of more than a thousand independent founders behind her, gives her a working understanding of what trust, engagement, and team performance look like when conventional structures of co-location and hierarchy do not apply. Biography highlights Opened the 2026 Learning Technologies conference programme on the human side of the future of work, at Europe’s largest workplace learning event Co-founded KPMG’s Behavioural Science Unit and the KPMG FutureThinkers initiative during nearly five years as a consultant and project lead at the firm Advised organisations including Mastercard, Tesco, the London Stock Exchange Group, and Lloyds Bank Published in The World Financial Review on the application of behavioural science to customer experience design, and featured in MSN’s “Top 10 Leading Speakers to Follow” (2025) Member of the UN Innovation Network (UNIN) Graduate of the University of Oxford (English, Somerville College) and an Alumni Ambassador for the college; has guest lectured at Trinity College Dublin and the University of Edinburgh Founder of ImagineThat, a global community for entrepreneurs with more than 1,000 members across multiple countries Biography Most organisations still use presence as a proxy for productivity and hierarchy as a proxy for trust. Neither assumption holds for the workforce that is now entering and increasingly leaving corporate life. Niluka Kavanagh’s work sits precisely at that fault line: the widening gap between how organisations are designed and what the people inside them now expect. Her grounding in this is practical. At KPMG, she spent nearly five years consulting for organisations including Mastercard, Tesco, and the London Stock Exchange Group, co-founding both the firm’s Behavioural Science Unit and its FutureThinkers initiative. Both projects were about the same thing: applying psychological and behavioural insight to how organisations lead change, design experiences, and engage the people doing the work. She now takes that thinking to the stage. In 2026 she opened the Learning Technologies conference, Europe’s largest workplace learning event, on the human side of the future of work, and she is a member of the UN Innovation Network. Her writing on behavioural science and customer experience has appeared in The World Financial Review. That work rests on an unusual operating base. Three businesses, fourteen countries of operating experience, and a community of more than a thousand independent founders gave her the empirical foundation for The Modern CEO, a leadership framework focused on engagement, communication, psychological safety, and intrapreneurship across multigenerational teams. She works with senior leaders to move organisations beyond outdated management models towards cultures built on clarity, trust, and sustainable performance. Key speaking topics Future of work and workforce transformation The Modern CEO framework for multigenerational leadership Behavioural science in organisational design Multigenerational leadership and team engagement Intrapreneurship and internal innovation Human-centric leadership and trust structures Leadership communication and psychological safety Ideal for CHROs and people leaders managing generational shifts in workforce expectation and culture CEOs and senior leadership teams seeking to align organisational structure with modern ways of working Transformation leads and change teams working on culture, engagement, and talent retention Professional services and entrepreneurial firms navigating the shift to more autonomous, distributed, or flexible operating models Audience outcomes A working understanding of how generational values are reshaping expectations around autonomy, leadership, and work design, and where the organisational cost is already showing up The Modern CEO framework as a practical model for engagement, intrapreneurship, communication, and psychological safety across multigenerational teams Concrete approaches to unlocking intrapreneurial thinking in teams, drawn from real experience building innovation initiatives inside a global consultancy A clearer sense of how behavioural science applies to culture and leadership challenges beyond the theoretical, grounded in organisational practice Practical questions to apply to their own organisation’s structure, communication norms, and talent strategy

Why organisations work with Ramon Ray He has built and exited three of his own companies and runs two active media platforms, so the advice is operator-tested, not theorised from the outside His Celebrity CEO framework gives founders a step-by-step way to build local and category authority, not generic personal-brand advice He has interviewed every Shark Tank investor and President Obama, and shares platforms with Seth Godin and Simon Sinek, which gives him an unusually wide read on what works across founder archetypes He has been invited to the White House and the US Congress on small-business and personal-branding topics, which gives the work institutional weight beyond the usual marketing-conference circuit He is a high-energy event host as well as a keynote speaker, and is regularly hired by Entrepreneur magazine and similar publishers to anchor their flagship conferences Biography highlights Founder of SmallBizTechnology.com and Smart Hustle Media, two long-running platforms serving small-business owners Author of The Celebrity CEO, Facebook Guide to Small Business Marketing (Wiley), Technology Solutions for Growing Businesses, and two further titles Conducted the first live Google Hangout interview with President Barack Obama Member of the US Delegation to India led by Ivanka Trump for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit Invited expert witness to the US Congress and speaker at the White House on personal branding Contributor to Inc., Entrepreneur, PC World, Small Business Trends, and Allbusiness.com; co-founder of the Small Business Influencer Awards Biography Most small-business owners do not lose to better products. They lose to better-known competitors. The Celebrity CEO thesis takes that observation seriously and treats personal brand as a growth instrument with measurable outputs: leads, referrals, pricing power, retention. The book is the public face of two decades of work with founders trying to compete against larger rivals. The author of that thesis, Ramon Ray, is a five-time entrepreneur who has built and exited three companies, including SmallBizTechnology.com and Smart Hustle Media. He has written five books across technology, marketing, and personal brand, and his journalism appears in Inc., Entrepreneur, PC World, and Small Business Trends. His access to the top of the founder market is unusual. He conducted the first live Google Hangout with President Obama, joined the US Delegation to India for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, and has been invited as an expert witness to Congress and as a speaker at the White House on personal branding. He has interviewed every Shark Tank investor and shared stages with Seth Godin, Simon Sinek, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Deepak Chopra. What makes the work commercially useful is the operator’s eye behind it. Ramon co-founded the Small Business Influencer Awards with Anita Campbell, anchors Entrepreneur magazine’s flagship conferences as host, and runs an active mastermind for founders applying the Celebrity CEO playbook. The advice is not theoretical; it is what he is doing for himself in public, in real time. Key speaking topics Personal brand as a growth engine for founders Small-business marketing and customer acquisition Community building and category authority Social media for entrepreneurs Digital tools and technology for small business Entrepreneurial mindset and resilience Ideal for Founders and CEOs of small and mid-sized businesses Franchise networks, dealer councils, and independent business associations Marketing and growth leaders inside larger organisations who serve SMB customers Diversity-in-business and youth-entrepreneurship programmes Audience outcomes A working definition of what a Celebrity CEO is, and what it takes to become one in their market A simple model for turning customer relationships into a referral and retention engine Specific tactics for showing up consistently on social platforms without burning out Renewed conviction that being visible is part of the job, not a vanity project A short list of next moves they can act on the same week

Why organisations work with Jeffrey Schnapp He has done the rare thing of building both a respected academic institution (metaLAB at Harvard, Stanford Humanities Lab) and a venture-backed hardware business (Piaggio Fast Forward, makers of the gita robot). Most innovation speakers have done one or the other. The gita robot, which he co-conceived, won the 2020 Red Dot Award Best of the Best. He can speak to product design as a senior operator, not as a commentator on other people’s products. His framework treats culture, narrative, and material design as part of the same engineering problem. For consumer brands, mobility companies, and cultural institutions, that is the integration most teams never manage internally. He sits at the centre of the most serious institutional conversations on the future of libraries, museums, archives, and AI-augmented knowledge work, with Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center, the Triennale di Milano, and the Canadian Centre for Architecture among his collaborators. Biography highlights Carl A. Pescosolido Chair in Romance Languages and Literatures and Comparative Literature, Harvard University; Chair of the Department of Comparative Literature. Founder and faculty director of metaLAB (at) Harvard; faculty co-director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. Co-founder and Chief Visionary Officer of Piaggio Fast Forward; former CEO 2015 to 2018. Founding director of the Stanford Humanities Lab, 1999 to 2009. Co-author of Digital_Humanities (MIT Press, 2012); author of FuturPiaggio (2017) and Storia rapida della velocita (2025), winner of the 2025 Premio di saggistica “Citta delle rose.” Speaker at TED, the United Nations, and the Royal Academy of Sweden; gita robot recipient of the 2020 Red Dot Award Best of the Best. Biography The gita robot, a two-wheeled cargo follower built by Piaggio Fast Forward in Boston, won the 2020 Red Dot Award Best of the Best. Its co-founder is a Harvard professor of comparative literature. That sentence is the simplest way to describe what Jeffrey Schnapp does: he runs serious cultural scholarship and serious product engineering as a single practice, and ships from both ends. At Harvard he holds the Carl A. Pescosolido Chair, chairs the Department of Comparative Literature, and founded metaLAB, an experimental research unit at the intersection of design, technology and the humanities. He is also a faculty co-director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. Before Harvard he founded and ran the Stanford Humanities Lab, one of the earliest serious experiments in digital humanities infrastructure. In parallel, he co-founded Piaggio Fast Forward, the robotics arm of the Italian mobility group behind Vespa, and served as its CEO from 2015 to 2018 before moving into the Chief Visionary Officer role. PFF has shipped the gita and gita mini personal cargo robots and, in 2025, the kilo utility robot. His authored work, including FuturPiaggio and the prize-winning Storia rapida della velocita, treats mobility, speed and material culture as questions a serious product company needs to answer. The pattern across his career is a refusal to separate cultural intuition from operational delivery. He has curated exhibitions at the Triennale di Milano and the Canadian Centre for Architecture, redesigned tunnels in Trento into a working history museum, and helped define what the next generation of libraries, archives and AI-augmented knowledge tools will look like. For corporate audiences working on brand, customer experience, mobility, or innovation portfolios, that integrated view is the asset. Key speaking topics Innovation at the intersection of design, culture and technology Mobility and the future of urban life Robotics and human-centred product design The future of libraries, archives and museums AI and the future of knowledge work Cultural history as a strategic asset for brands Design-led entrepreneurship Ideal for Boards and executive teams in mobility, consumer products, and design-led brands Innovation, R&D, and design leaders integrating cultural insight into product development Cultural institutions, libraries, and museum leadership rethinking their operating model Universities and think tanks commissioning on the future of knowledge work and the humanities Audience outcomes A working model for treating cultural history and product design as one discipline rather than two budgets Concrete reference cases from Piaggio Fast Forward, metaLAB, and large-scale curatorial projects A clearer view of how AI is reshaping libraries, archives and knowledge institutions, from someone building inside both the academy and a venture A vocabulary for senior teams who want innovation programmes that produce shipped objects, not slide decks

Why organisations work with Mark Millar He has run the project management seat on BBC One’s DIY SOS since 2006, including the Swansea build of the UK’s first adapted surf school for people with disabilities, completed in eleven days. That is a specific, televised record of delivery under extreme constraint. He brings the trade voice to corporate audiences. Manufacturers, merchants, installers and developers book him because he speaks the language of the site as well as the boardroom. His Channel 5 presenting work, Dream Kitchens and Bathrooms with Mark Millar and Build Your Dream Home in the Country, makes him a recognisable on-camera host for product launches, awards nights and trade conferences. He runs a working building firm in Bristol with UK and international clients, so the operating advice is current rather than retrospective. Biography highlights Project Manager on BBC One’s DIY SOS, on screen and behind the scenes, since 2006. Presenter of Channel 5’s Dream Kitchens and Bathrooms with Mark Millar (2021) and Build Your Dream Home in the Country (2023). Led the September 2020 DIY SOS and Children in Need build in Swansea of an adapted surf school for people with disabilities, completed in eleven days. Owner of a Bristol-based building firm with UK and international project work. Trained as a carpenter in Northern Ireland through a four-year apprenticeship. Recurring host and guest across BBC and Channel 5 entertainment programming, including Pointless Celebrities and radio appearances. Biography The Swansea adapted surf school went up in eleven days. Mark Millar ran the site as Project Manager for BBC One’s DIY SOS, working with Children in Need on a build that became the first surf school in the UK designed for people with disabilities. That kind of work, where the deadline is fixed by a broadcast date and the brief is emotionally non-negotiable, is the discipline he has spent two decades practising on screen. Mark trained as a carpenter in Northern Ireland and has been the project management voice of DIY SOS since 2006. The role has been editorial as well as practical: he has visited every site and shaped which stories made it to air. The show has accumulated audiences and BAFTA recognition over its run, and Mark is the figure most associated with its delivery rhythm. Channel 5 built two series around him. Dream Kitchens and Bathrooms with Mark Millar (2021) follows homeowners through the rooms they cannot afford to get wrong. Build Your Dream Home in the Country (2023) takes him to self-build projects across the UK. He continues to run a Bristol-based building firm with celebrity and international clients, which keeps the on-screen advice anchored in current site economics. The reason corporate audiences in construction, manufacturing, merchanting and home improvement book him is specific. He is one of the few public figures in UK media who can carry a room of contractors, hold a brand stage, and explain the trade view to a board, without losing any of the three audiences. Key speaking topics Project management on complex builds The realities of running a building firm Trades, training and apprenticeship Television presenting and brand hosting Charity builds and community projects Customer experience in home improvement Ideal for Construction, merchant and manufacturer audiences at trade conferences and dealer events Home improvement and KBB sector brand activations and product launches Corporate hospitality and after-dinner audiences looking for a recognisable TV host Charity and community fundraising events with a build or trade dimension Audience outcomes A clear, on-the-tools view of how complex builds get delivered to fixed deadlines A working perspective on customer trust in trades, told from the contractor’s side Recognisable broadcast presence for awards, panels and product reveals Stories from DIY SOS sites that ground discussion of community impact in specific builds

Why organisations work with DJ Target He was inside grime before it was a marketing category. As a founding member of Roll Deep with Wiley, Dizzee Rascal, Skepta and Flowdan, his account of how the genre formed is first-hand, not retrofitted. His book Grime Kids became the definitive insider history of the scene and the source text for a BBC Three drama adaptation written by Theresa Ikoko. Few cultural movements are documented this directly by a participant. The Rap Game UK, which he co-hosts with Krept and Konan, earned a BAFTA nomination for Entertainment Programme, giving him broadcast craft alongside scene credibility. Eden’s Bloom, the freeze-dried baby food brand he co-founded with his wife Eva, gives him a working perspective on building a consumer brand from scratch outside the music industry. He brings the hosting craft of a daily 1Xtra slot to corporate panels, awards and culture-led conversations, where the bar is keeping a senior audience interested without scripting every line. Biography highlights Founding member of Roll Deep alongside Wiley, Dizzee Rascal, Skepta and Flowdan; co-producer of the UK Top 20 single “Champagne Dance”. BBC Radio 1Xtra presenter since 2007, former co-music lead of the station. Co-host of BBC Three’s BAFTA-nominated The Rap Game UK with Krept and Konan. Author of Grime Kids: The Inside Story of the Global Grime Takeover (Trapeze, 2018). Executive producer on the BBC Three drama adaptation of Grime Kids, written by Theresa Ikoko and produced by Mammoth Screen. Co-founder of Eden’s Bloom, a freeze-dried baby food brand built with his wife Eva Joseph. Biography Grime did not arrive fully formed. It was built on pirate radio in East London by teenagers who had no expectation that anyone outside their estates would listen. Roll Deep was one of the collectives at the centre of that, and DJ Target was one of its founding members alongside Wiley, Dizzee Rascal, Skepta and Flowdan. Their 2002 single “Champagne Dance” reached number 13 on the UK Singles Chart and signalled that the scene could cross over without losing what made it. That experience gave him the source material for Grime Kids: The Inside Story of the Global Grime Takeover, published by Trapeze in 2018. The book became the canonical insider account of the genre, later adapted into a BBC Three drama series written by Theresa Ikoko and produced by Mammoth Screen, with DJ Target as executive producer. He is one of the few participants in a cultural movement who has gone on to write its history and shape its dramatisation. His broadcasting career sits alongside this. He has presented on BBC Radio 1Xtra since 2007, served as the station’s co-music lead, and co-hosts BBC Three’s The Rap Game UK with Krept and Konan, a series that earned a BAFTA nomination for Entertainment Programme. The hosting craft is the part senior audiences feel directly: keeping a room engaged, threading a conversation, working without a script. Outside music he co-founded Eden’s Bloom with his wife Eva Joseph, a freeze-dried baby food brand named after their daughter. The venture gives him a working view of consumer brand-building from product to shelf, and a second story to draw on when the brief is entrepreneurship rather than culture. Key speaking topics UK grime, garage and the rise of British Black music Cultural authenticity in brand and youth marketing Building a creative scene from the ground up Broadcasting and panel hosting Founder experience in consumer goods Ideal for CMOs and brand leaders working on youth, music or culture-led campaigns Internal culture and DEI programmes that want substance rather than slogans Awards hosting, panel moderation and after-dinner sets where craft and cultural authority both matter Founder communities and accelerator audiences interested in consumer brand-building Audience outcomes A first-hand account of how grime moved from pirate radio to global recognition, told by someone who was there A clearer read on what makes brand engagement with youth culture credible and what makes it fall flat A working founder’s view of building a consumer product brand alongside a creative career A hosted conversation that lands with audiences who can spot a scripted moderator from the back of the room

Why organisations work with David Gandy He has lived both sides of a licensing deal, as the face of Dolce & Gabbana’s Light Blue for more than a decade and as the founder designing and pricing his own range at M&S. He built Wellwear from a clear commercial insight, that softness and fabric performance were an unworked seam between loungewear and everyday apparel, and translated it into a sellable category. His BoF 500 listing and first-ever male BFC Model of the Year nominations give him standing with fashion, retail, and luxury audiences that few outsiders can match. He speaks from inside the consumer press, as a long-running British GQ car reviewer, British Vogue blog contributor and former Telegraph Men columnist, which shapes how he thinks about voice and media. Biography highlights Face of Dolce & Gabbana from 2006 and the Light Blue fragrance from 2007, shot by Mario Testino. Only male model to appear more than once on the Forbes highest-paid models list; widely cited as the highest-grossing male model in history. First male nominated for British Fashion Council Model of the Year (2010); nominated again in 2012; appointed to the BFC committee launching London Collections: Men. Designer of the David Gandy for Autograph range at Marks & Spencer across underwear, sleepwear, swim and loungewear from 2014. Founder of David Gandy Wellwear (2021), an apparel label built around fabric performance and everyday wellbeing, now stocked at M&S. Listed in Business of Fashion’s BoF 500; regular contributor to British GQ, British Vogue and the Telegraph. Biography Light Blue launched in 2007 with a Mario Testino shoot, an 11-million-view online reel and a fifty-foot billboard in Times Square. The male figure at the centre of the campaign was a 27-year-old British model who had won a daytime television competition six years earlier. That campaign, and the decade-plus of Dolce & Gabbana work that followed, turned David Gandy into the highest-grossing male model on record and the only male to feature on the Forbes list of highest-paid models more than once. What happened after the campaigns is more useful to a business audience. Gandy used the visibility to build a product business. A long-running collaboration with Marks & Spencer produced the David Gandy for Autograph range, moving across underwear, sleepwear, swim and loungewear. In 2021 he launched David Gandy Wellwear, a label built around a specific commercial thesis, that everyday clothing could compete on fabric performance and wellbeing rather than on logo or silhouette. His institutional footprint tracks the same arc. The British Fashion Council made him its first male Model of the Year nominee in 2010, nominated him again in 2012, and placed him on the committee that launched London Collections: Men. Business of Fashion has named him among the BoF 500. He writes for British GQ as its car reviewer, has blogged for British Vogue since 2011, and has held columns at the Telegraph and Evening Standard. For a corporate audience, the specific value is the inside view: what a licensing deal looks like from the talent side, what it takes to move a recognisable name into an owned label, and why most celebrity brands fail the test that Wellwear was built to pass. Key speaking topics Personal brand building in consumer markets Licensing and brand partnerships in luxury and retail Category creation in apparel Founding a consumer label from an established name Menswear design and the premium high street Media voice, column writing and press strategy Ambassadorship and long-form brand alignment Ideal for Consumer brand, luxury and retail leadership teams working on licensing or founder-led ranges Marketing and creative directors briefing long-form brand campaigns Retail and wholesale conferences in fashion, lifestyle and wellbeing Corporate hospitality audiences where a recognisable cultural name adds pull Audience outcomes A founder’s view of how a celebrity licensing deal is negotiated, structured and sustained A concrete read on why the Wellwear category was built the way it was, including fabric, fit and price positioning A working sense of what a twenty-year commercial relationship with a global fashion house actually requires A sharper question set for any team considering a celebrity partnership or an own-label extension

Why organisations work with Scott Galloway A working framework for how platform economics, network effects, and data accumulation concentrate value, drawn from a tenured marketing academic who has also built and sold technology companies inside the same system he analyses. Annual, falsifiable predictions on consumer, technology, and business trends that boards can stress-test against their own capital allocation, rather than abstract futurism. Direct reads on the AI cycle, including where investment is overpriced relative to operating value and where it is not, from a faculty member teaching brand and digital strategy at MBA level. A founder track record across nine companies, including the sale of L2 to Gartner, that grounds the strategic argument in commercial reality rather than commentary. Reach across The Prof G Pod, Pivot with Kara Swisher, and the No Mercy / No Malice newsletter that signals a leader who already shapes how senior audiences think about Big Tech. Biography highlights Professor of Marketing, NYU Stern School of Business; teaches Brand Strategy and Digital Marketing to second-year MBAs. Founder of nine companies including Prophet, RedEnvelope, L2 (sold to Gartner), and Section. New York Times bestselling author of The Four, The Algebra of Happiness, Post Corona, Adrift, and The Algebra of Wealth; books translated into 28 languages. Host of The Prof G Pod and co-host of Pivot with Kara Swisher; publisher of the No Mercy / No Malice newsletter. Board service: The New York Times Company, Urban Outfitters, Panera Bread, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, Ledger. Named one of the world’s best business school professors by Poets & Quants; multiple Webby Award winner. Biography A small number of companies now capture a disproportionate share of consumer attention, transaction data, and equity value. The Four set out the mechanics of how Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Google did it, and the argument has only sharpened as AI consolidates around the same incumbents. Galloway treats this as a question of structural economics, not corporate behaviour, and that is the lens he brings to a boardroom. At NYU Stern, he holds a chair in marketing and teaches Brand Strategy and Digital Marketing to second-year MBAs. Poets & Quants has ranked him among the world’s best business professors. The academic position matters because it disciplines the work, but the operating experience is what makes the analysis useful to executives: nine companies founded, including Prophet, RedEnvelope, and L2, the digital intelligence firm acquired by Gartner in 2017. The published record runs from platform economics in The Four to capital and career frameworks in The Algebra of Wealth, with Post Corona and Adrift sitting between as reads on the post-2020 economy and the structural condition of the United States. Across The Prof G Pod, Pivot with Kara Swisher, and No Mercy / No Malice, he makes annual, data-led predictions on consumer, tech, and macro trends that leadership teams can test against their own planning. What distinguishes him in a room of senior buyers is the combination of categories he occupies at once: faculty member, founder, board director at The New York Times Company and Panera, and a public commentator with reach. That stack means the argument is not theoretical, not detached from operating reality, and not delivered with the hedging that usually accompanies academic input. Key speaking topics Big Tech and platform economics Artificial intelligence and the next concentration of value Brand strategy in a digital, winner-take-most economy Consumer and technology trend forecasting Entrepreneurship and company building Higher education and the future of work Capital, careers, and personal financial strategy Ideal for Boards and executive teams setting strategy in sectors exposed to platform incumbents CMOs, CSOs, and digital leaders rebuilding commercial models for a data-concentrated market Investor and capital allocation audiences seeking a structural read on tech and AI cycles Annual leadership offsites looking for a falsifiable trend forecast rather than generic futurism Audience outcomes A clearer view of where platform economics concentrate value and where they do not, applied to the audience’s own sector. Specific reads on the AI cycle, including which categories are overpriced and which are operationally credible. A set of annual predictions that can be stress-tested against the organisation’s planning assumptions. A sharper sense of what brand and customer strategy now have to do to remain defensible.

Why organisations work with Andy Ayim He works with leadership teams where the brief is not a keynote but a measurable shift in how the team makes decisions, handles conflict and holds each other to account. His track record sits on both sides of the table: senior product roles at WorldFirst and Zilch, then Managing Director at Backstage Capital running accelerators on three continents. He has been the executive being coached and the investor pushing portfolio leaders to grow. His MBE, awarded in 2020 for services to diversity in the technology industry, signals a substantive record on inclusion rather than a stated commitment. Clients booking inclusive-leadership work get an external voice the room cannot dismiss as marketing. Through the Angel Investing School he has trained over a thousand new investors and built the curriculum used by 100 senior Google executives who went on to raise a $70m fund. He brings that operator’s view of capital, ownership and opportunity into corporate rooms that rarely hear it. Biography highlights MBE for services to diversity in the technology industry, awarded 2020 (London Gazette, Issue 63135). Founder of the Angel Investing School, which has trained 1,000+ new angel investors and produced the Open Angel platform. Former Managing Director at Backstage Capital, helping run accelerator programmes in Detroit, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and London. Senior product roles at WorldFirst (acquired by Ant Financial for $700m) and Series C fintech Zilch. Trained 100 senior Black executives at Google who formed the Black Angel Group and raised a $70m fund. Named in the Financial Times Top 10 Most Influential BAME Leaders in Tech; HSBC and UK Black Business Show Top 25 Black Entrepreneurs to Watch. Opened the Venture programme at SXSW London 2026 (Christ Church Spitalfields). Biography Most senior teams are not short of intelligence or ambition. They are short of safety. People hold back the disagreement, the bad news, the half-formed idea that might change the decision. Andy Ayim’s work begins there. He is hired by leaders at Google, Stripe, Uber, Diageo, Novartis and Tesco to do the harder thing: change how a team behaves with each other in the room. His authority is built on doing the job, not describing it. He held senior product roles at WorldFirst before its $700m acquisition by Ant Financial, then at Series C fintech Zilch. In 2018 he joined Arlan Hamilton as Managing Director at Backstage Capital, designing accelerator programmes for underrepresented founders in Detroit, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and London. The pattern is consistent: operator credibility first, advisor work second. The inclusion record is documented. He was appointed MBE in 2020 for services to diversity in the technology industry, gazetted by the Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood. In the same year he founded the Angel Investing School, which has since trained over a thousand new angel investors and built the curriculum that produced the Black Angel Group, 100 senior Google executives who went on to raise a $70m fund. What that means for a client is straightforward. When Ayim walks into a leadership offsite, he is not a consultant translating a theory. He is a former executive and active investor who has seen the same trust and capital problems from inside companies, inside portfolios and inside an honours system that has recognised the work. Key speaking topics Human-centred leadership Inclusive leadership and team performance Psychological safety in senior teams Diversity and inclusion in technology Angel investing and ownership Future of work and hybrid team design Talent and the next generation of leaders Ideal for CHROs and Chief People Officers commissioning inclusive-leadership and culture work for senior populations. ExCo and board offsites where the brief is honest conversation, trust and decision quality, not a standard keynote. Heads of Diversity and Inclusion looking for an external voice with a credentialled record rather than a generic DEI speaker. Investor and founder audiences inside corporate venture, accelerators and innovation functions. Audience outcomes A clearer picture of the specific behaviours that produce psychological safety in senior teams, and the ones that quietly destroy it. Language for naming the inclusion problems leaders are nervous to name, with examples drawn from operator and investor experience. A view of inclusion as a leadership capability tied to performance, not a compliance function bolted onto HR. An informed perspective on angel investing, ownership and wealth creation for audiences that rarely get it from a credible practitioner.