Future Skills

About Oliver Leisse Oliver Leisse is a communications professional through and through. For many years he has been a strategic consultant at top agencies such as DDB, TBWA, BBDO and Springer & Jacoby. Therefore, giving thrilling presentations always has been one of his core competences. From 2000 on, he started to focus on analysing the future. First he founded an online market research company (EARSandEYES) and then in 2008 SEE MORE, the Institute for Trend Research and Innovative Strategies in Hamburg, where trend and future research is created. SEE MORE has employees in 50 capital cities worldwide. What is coming, what do we want now – and what do we need tomorrow? Oliver Leisse focuses on people and their wishes. Trends are created on the basis of customer wishes. His mission is: “Be prepared! If you know what’s coming, you can plan ahead to manage challenges and seize opportunities.” His goal, therefore, to draw the audience into his keynotes – to engage, inspire and empower them to actively and boldly shape the future. As he sees it, a keynote must not only help people understand the future, it must also stir emotions and be entertaining! That’s why his talks provide lively insights and inspiring outlooks.  He has no use for bland and boring slides. Each keynote is a fireworks display of creative thinking, in-depth analysis and insights, vividly presented through powerful images and film clips. This makes the presentations a truly powerful, entertaining and lasting experience. Both off and online. His books: This is how the future works: How you recognize what is coming and know what to do, October 2020 Be prepared, 2. Edition, September 2014 30 trends for the business of tomorrow, 25 June 2012

Why organisations work with Raven Baxter She brings the credibility of a working scientist with a doctorate in the science of learning, which means her communication advice rests on evidence about how people actually absorb technical content, not marketing instinct. She has hosted Pfizer’s flagship podcast Science Will Win across two seasons, giving her demonstrated experience translating drug discovery and oncology research for general audiences inside a regulated commercial environment. Her body of work, including viral hip-hop science videos and TEDx talk “You Don’t Look Like a Scientist,” gives her unusual reach into communities most science communication never touches. She founded Fervae, the first social media management platform built specifically for working scientists, which positions her as a builder of the infrastructure science communication has been missing, not only a practitioner. Her recognitions, Forbes 30 Under 30 in Science, Fortune 40 Under 40 in Health, Ebony Power 100, signal credibility across science, health, and culture audiences in a way few single speakers can claim. Biography highlights Founder and CEO of Fervae, a social media management platform for scientists, announced at Science Talk 2026. President and Executive Director of The Science Haven, a 501(c)(3) advancing STEM equity through programmes including Stellar Dreams, an astronomy education partnership with Celestron, CuriosityStream, and NASA. Host of Pfizer’s Science Will Win podcast (Seasons 5 and 6) and creator-host of The Science of Life with Dr. Raven Baxter. Forbes 30 Under 30 in Science (2022), Fortune 40 Under 40 in Health (2020), Ebony Power 100 (2022), AAUW Woman of Distinction (2022). Director of Development and Partnerships, and Chair of the Ethics Consortium, at the Association of Science Communicators. Ph.D. in Curriculum, Instruction, and the Science of Learning, University at Buffalo, with a dissertation on culturally responsive science communication. Biography Most science communication still treats audiences as a problem to be managed: simplified, talked down to, or routed through a press release. The result is that technical organisations are surprised, repeatedly, by how little of their work is understood outside their own walls. Raven Baxter’s career has been built on closing that gap with method, not charisma alone. Trained as a molecular biologist at Buffalo State College and as a learning scientist at the University at Buffalo, she earned her doctorate with a dissertation on culturally responsive science communication, anchoring her practice in research about how technical content actually lands. She went on to host Pfizer’s Science Will Win across two seasons, taking drug discovery and oncology research to audiences a regulated pharmaceutical company could not reach through conventional channels. She is now Founder and CEO of Fervae, a social media management platform built specifically for working scientists, announced at Science Talk 2026. Alongside Fervae, she leads The Science Haven, a 501(c)(3) advancing STEM equity, and serves as Director of Development and Partnerships and Chair of the Ethics Consortium at the Association of Science Communicators. The recognitions track her dual reach across science and culture: Forbes 30 Under 30 in Science, Fortune 40 Under 40 in Health, the Ebony Power 100, the AAUW Woman of Distinction Award, and the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence. Her TEDx talk “You Don’t Look Like a Scientist” is her clearest single statement of why representation matters to the credibility of science itself. Key speaking topics Science communication strategy Inclusive STEM representation Health and biomedical communication Diversity in scientific research and innovation Public trust in science Culturally responsive communication and education Building infrastructure for science communicators Ideal for Heads of communications, public affairs, and corporate affairs at pharma, biotech, and healthcare organisations Chief diversity officers and CHROs in science-led and technical industries University and research institution leaders responsible for public engagement and outreach Foundations and nonprofits investing in STEM education, equity, and workforce pipeline Audience outcomes A clearer view of why technical credibility and cultural credibility have to live in the same person for science to be trusted across audiences. Specific examples of how working scientists and communicators are using digital platforms to reach communities that traditional outreach has missed. A working sense of what culturally responsive science communication looks like in practice, drawn from her own research and field work. A more honest read of where institutional science communication is falling short, and what infrastructure has been missing.

About Dalia Feldheim Dalia Feldheim, the founder of Flow Leadership Consultancy, draws on her own extensive corporate leadership experience and her passion for championing others, to enable organizations promote a more authentic, happy and psychologically safe working culture. Before founding Flow Leadership Consultancy, Dalia spent over two decades as a C-suite global marketing executive at Procter and Gamble where she led work on some of the world’s most iconic ad campaigns two of them being ‘Tampax Mother Nature’ and ’Always like a girl’ ranked Forbes most influential campaign of the decade. Dalia holds an Executive Masters degree in Consulting and Coaching for Change from INSEAD business school (Organizational Psychology) along with a Happiness Facilitator diploma from the ‘Happiness Studies Academy’ in partnership with Miami university. Dalia is on a mission to share her insights and learning, successes and struggles to help shape the new generation of leaders. She teaches ‘The Science of Happiness and Resilience’ as an Adjunct Professor at the Singapore Management University and works with the top tech companies to bring resilience and joy to work. To complement her training program, she recently founded a small startup “Uppiness – Up your game at work” an online game designed to help employees solve daily challenges through the use of positive psychology interventions in a fun and engaging way building skills, teamwork and growth mindset. She is also an ICF-accredited coach, a qualified psychodynamic group therapist and yoga and meditation trainer – including personal and group coaching and mindfulness practice in her corporate programs. Finally, Dalia is a passionate advocate of women and feminine leadership – encouraging women (and men) to lean into their feminine leadership traits and “Dare to lead (more) like a girl”. Her standing ovation Ted talk speaks to the power of this idea. Her book, “Dare to Lead Like a Girl,” with a foreword by Sheryl Sandberg, is out, with proceeds dedicated to the Lead Like a Girl program for underprivileged women around the world.

About Faye Dicker At age 14 years, Faye Dicker joined HTV Drama Workshop and obtained her Equity Card with a speaking part in the BBC series Casualty, aged 16 years. She loved acting and before she was 18 she had already featured in television Docu-ramas, She had been a junior reporter on Radio 4 Education Matters, plus, had several walk-on roles. It was excellent training and brilliant to be in a professional environment from her young age. It stood her in good stead, before heading to Dartington College of Arts to study a degree in Theatre. Faye spent some time after graduating working in television production on the Channel 4 programme Collectors’ Lot and The Chelsea Flower show. Her heart lay in presenting, but it was an excellent opportunity to learn the ropes both sides of the microphone and camera. She joined The Lido when she was presenting earlies at Radio Bristol as a ‘gift’ to herself for doing 4am starts. Since leaving Radio Bristol, she started Freelance Mum, a child-friendly networking group for mums in business. Born of her own need for juggling motherhood around business. It started as a podcast, to build a community, then became face-to-face networking. It’s practically her third baby and a joy to weave in around voiceover work.

Why organisations work with Huy Nguyen Trieu Two decades inside tier-one banks (Citi, Royal Bank of Scotland, Société Générale) paired with co-founding CFTE, a capability platform that has reached more than 200,000 professionals across 130 countries, gives him a view neither pure bankers nor pure technologists can offer. His work names the specific mechanisms by which AI is reshaping institutions, drawing on frameworks developed at CFTE including the AI Capability Engine, the Performance Hexagon, the CDE Innovation Prism and the SHIME skills model. Boards and policymakers use him to pressure-test AI strategy against what is actually deployable, including a strategy briefing for the senior leadership of a top-five global financial institution and a full-day executive programme for a major central bank with over 100 senior leaders. Author of “The AI-fication of Jobs” (2024) and co-author of “The Fintech Job Report” (2022), both of which set out workforce impact in numbers executives can use for planning. Council Member of the ADI Foundation, Industry Fellow at Imperial College Business School, and former member of the World Economic Forum’s Fintech Advisory Board, so his work holds up in front of regulators and sovereign actors as well as operators. Biography highlights Co-founder, Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship (CFTE), reaching more than 200,000 professionals across 130 countries. Council Member, ADI Foundation, contributing to sovereign blockchain infrastructure including national stablecoins and digital public infrastructure. Former Managing Director at Citi, with earlier roles at Royal Bank of Scotland and Société Générale; founding partner of Supercharger, one of Asia’s largest fintech accelerators; former CEO of Ukibi, a venture-backed US technology start-up. Graduate of MIT and École Polytechnique; first Fintech Resident at Oxford Saïd Business School; Industry Fellow at Imperial College Business School; former member of the World Economic Forum’s Fintech Advisory Board. Author of “The AI-fication of Jobs” (2024); co-author of “The Fintech Job Report: Technology is eating Finance” (2022). Commentary on AI in financial services featured in international business media including the Financial Times, Bloomberg and CNBC. Biography Most banks have been running digital transformation programmes for a decade. The harder question now reaches further than banking. Governments, central banks and financial institutions all face the same problem: translating AI from pilots into operating capability that holds up under regulation and talent constraints. That is the terrain Huy Nguyen Trieu has worked on from both sides. He spent years at Citi, finishing as a Managing Director, with earlier roles at Royal Bank of Scotland and Société Générale. Before banking he was CEO of Ukibi, a venture-backed US technology start-up, and was later a founding partner of Supercharger, one of Asia’s largest fintech accelerators. The mix means he reads an institution’s P&L the way an operator does and reads a technology bet the way an investor does. He co-founded CFTE, the Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship. It now reaches more than 200,000 professionals across 130 countries and works with governments, central banks and financial institutions on AI capability at scale. CFTE’s frameworks, including the AI Capability Engine, the Performance Hexagon, the CDE Innovation Prism and the SHIME skills model, are the spine of that work. He was the first Fintech Resident at Oxford Saïd Business School and is an Industry Fellow at Imperial College Business School. He also serves as a Council Member of the ADI Foundation, contributing to sovereign blockchain infrastructure for emerging markets. Recent engagements illustrate the scope. He delivered a keynote on the third wave of AI in the presence of H.E. the President of the Republic of Cyprus. Other engagements include a strategy briefing for a top-five global financial institution and a full-day executive programme for a major central bank with more than 100 senior leaders. His book “The AI-fication of Jobs” (2024) explains why AI breaks the historical assumption that new technology creates more jobs than it destroys. Key speaking topics Fintech and the future of financial services AI in banking and capital markets Digital business models in regulated industries Platform economics and hyperscalable finance Future of work in financial services Digital assets and tokenisation Venture capital and fintech investment trends Ideal for Governments and central banks building AI capability across regulated sectors Bank and insurer boards setting AI and fintech strategy CEOs, COOs and CIOs of financial institutions running transformation agendas Heads of innovation, strategy and HR grappling with workforce impact of AI Audience outcomes A clearer read on which fintech and AI shifts are structural and which are overstated. Specific examples of business-model change from inside banks, fintechs and big tech, not generic case studies. A workforce view: which roles in finance shrink, which expand, and what skills leaders should build now. A sharper frame for board-level conversations on AI risk, digital assets and platform strategy.

Why organisations work with Stefaan van Hooydonk His Global Curiosity Institute has developed individual and organisational diagnostic tools deployed across 16 multinational companies. This means organisations can baseline their curiosity culture before investing in it – a rigour that most L&D and culture interventions do not offer. His core argument is specific and verifiable: 90% of the leaders in his research say investing in curiosity is important for innovation; 50% simultaneously believe innovation distracts from operational focus. That contradiction is not an attitude problem – it is a structural design problem, and he has a method for resolving it. His six Fortune 200 CLO appointments – including Cognizant, where he led learning for more than 300,000 associates globally – mean his diagnostic model was stress-tested against the same conformity pressures he now advises organisations to overcome. Curiosity: The Secret Ingredient for Success in Personal and Professional Growth (Capstone, 2025) provides a durable, publishable framework that sustains the conversation in organisations well beyond a single event. Having lived and worked in nine countries across Europe and Asia, his account of how cultures differ in their relationship to curiosity and conformity is grounded in direct, cross-cultural professional experience – not comparative research conducted at a distance. Biography highlights Founder, Global Curiosity Institute; developer of individual and organisational curiosity diagnostic tools, applied in 16 multinational companies across a 500-person study Former Chief Learning Officer at Cognizant (L&D responsibility for 300,000+ associates), Royal Philips, Nokia, Saudi Aramco, Agfa Healthcare, and Flipkart Set up and led the executive education arm of the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) in Shanghai Author of The Workplace Curiosity Manifesto (2022) and Curiosity: The Secret Ingredient for Success in Personal and Professional Growth (Capstone, 2025) Executive MBA, Rutgers University; master’s degrees in Economics and Chinese; postgraduate study in Cross-Cultural Management (France); certified executive coach Has lived and worked in nine countries across Europe and Asia Biography The idea that organisations want curious employees rarely survives contact with the way most organisations are actually designed. As companies scale, they reward consistency, structure incentives around delivery, and create management cultures in which asking the wrong question carries professional risk. Stefaan van Hooydonk spent more than two decades inside that structural tension – as Chief Learning Officer at six Fortune 200 companies including Cognizant, Royal Philips, Nokia, Saudi Aramco, Agfa Healthcare, and Flipkart. What distinguishes his perspective is the precision of his diagnosis. Working through the Global Curiosity Institute, van Hooydonk developed two empirical tools: an individual curiosity profile measuring three dimensions of inquisitiveness – toward the world, toward others, and toward oneself – and a nine-dimension organisational diagnostic assessing conditions from psychological safety and manager behaviour to failure acceptance and vision clarity. These instruments have been applied across 16 multinationals and studied across 500 professionals. The research revealed a core tension: 90% of leaders surveyed said investing in curiosity supports innovation, yet 50% simultaneously said innovation distracts from operational efficiency. This is not a values gap. It is a structural contradiction embedded in how most organisations function. His two books – The Workplace Curiosity Manifesto (2022) and Curiosity: The Secret Ingredient for Success in Personal and Professional Growth (Capstone, 2025) – develop the argument in full. The central thesis: curiosity is not a personality trait but a learnable, measurable capability that atrophies in environments that reward conformity. At Cognizant, his final corporate appointment, van Hooydonk oversaw learning and development for more than 300,000 associates across a global workforce. That scale makes the question of how environments either enable or suppress curiosity concrete in a way that purely academic research cannot replicate. Having lived and worked in nine countries across Europe and Asia, van Hooydonk brings an account of curiosity as a culturally shaped organisational condition – one that looks different in a Finnish engineering firm, an Indian e-commerce company, and a Gulf energy business, but is subject to the same structural suppressants in all of them. Key speaking topics Workplace curiosity as an organisational capability Intentional curiosity and learning culture design Curiosity-driven leadership Organisational curiosity diagnostics and measurement Building learning organisations Curiosity and innovation at scale Corporate learning strategy Ideal for CHROs and CLOs driving learning culture or capability transformation Senior HR and L&D leaders designing or evaluating learning ecosystems Leadership teams in large organisations where learning agility and adaptability are strategic priorities Boards and senior executives examining organisational resilience and the cultural conditions that support it Audience outcomes A clear, evidence-based account of why large organisations structurally suppress curiosity – and why standard L&D investment does not resolve it Familiarity with a three-part curiosity model (world, others, self) as a practical design language for leadership and team development Understanding of the nine organisational dimensions that enable or limit curiosity, drawn from research across 16 multinational companies A set of specific, actionable moves – applicable to managers, HR teams, and executives – for building conditions where intentional curiosity is measurable and sustained A framework for distinguishing curiosity as a capability from curiosity as a cultural aspiration – and for making the former real

About Spriha Srivastava Spriha Srivastava regularly speaks at events, moderates panels and is very passionate about topics such as women in leadership, future of work and diversity. Spriha has been a journalist for over a decade and half and has been involved in the coverage of big events such as the after-effects of the global financial crisis, Brexit, U.S. elections and Donald Trump’s presidency, coronavirus pandemic and its impact across the world. Prior to joining Insider, Spriha was the Deputy Digital News Editor for CNBC International in London. She helped manage a team of reporters for CNBC.com and regularly wrote and edited market-moving, fast-paced business news stories. In the past, Spriha has worked at the Financial Times’ Money Management magazine covering personal finance, where she won an award for her work. Prior to that, she was at  Thomson Reuters where she was one of the moderator for Global Markets Forum, a 24×7 live forum for traders and market professionals. Spriha has won a number of awards for her work. In 2015, Spriha won a runner up in newcomer of the year category in Santander media Awards. In July 2020, Spriha won Women Economic Forum’s “Iconic Women Creating A Better Tomorrow” award. In September 2020, Spriha was also shortlisted for the Asian Women of Achievement Award in the media category.  Spriha was recently also included as one of the Top 50 leaders in the UK recognized for kindness in leadership. In her spare time, Spriha loves to travel around the world and has been to over 40 countries.

About Griselda Togobo She is also a multi-faceted entrepreneur, engineer and chartered accountant. She is a commercially focused business consultant at her core, but her experience as a black woman in the corporate world drives her. She now uses her vast international experience to help progressive global companies create inclusive workplaces. She works directly with CEOs and business leaders to close the gender and ethnicity gaps in their organisations. She is a respected and impactful keynote speaker and is known for her high energy and engaging style. Griselda offers a fresh approach leadership. She graduated from Cambridge University, Wolfson College with an MPhil in Industrial Systems, Manufacture and Management. Before becoming an entrepreneur, she was a management consultant at Deloitte LLP. She is a passionate advocate for advancing girls and women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths sectors. Griselda is passionate about supporting female leaders through her work, as Chairwoman of forwardladies.com since 2014, which she has built up into a 20,000-strong (and growing) professional women’s network.

Why organisations work with Anne-Marie Imafidon She has run the experiment at scale. Stemettes has engaged more than 60,000 young women and non-binary young people across the UK, Ireland and Europe since 2013, giving her a live evidence base on what moves technical participation and what does not. Her technical credibility is not borrowed. Master’s in Mathematics and Computer Science from Oxford at 20, Honorary Fellow of Keble College, and guest arithmetician on Channel 4’s Countdown for 60 episodes, so technical audiences engage her as a peer rather than an advocate. She sits inside the UK policy conversation on digital skills. Co-Chair of the Institute for the Future of Work, 2022-2023 President of the British Science Association, and DSIT Women in Tech Envoy, which gives leaders a direct line to how regulation and industrial strategy are likely to land. She has a published thesis. She’s In CTRL (Transworld, 2022) argues that women need to take back tech as users, builders and decision-makers; that frame is portable into strategy conversations about product, customer and workforce. She is comfortable in front of non-technical boards. Her broadcast work and Chancellorship of Glasgow Caledonian University mean she translates between technical reality and senior decision-maker vocabulary without losing either. Biography highlights Co-founder and CEO of Stemettes, social enterprise founded in 2013 that has reached 60,000+ young women and non-binary young people across the UK, Ireland and Europe. Master’s in Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Oxford, aged 20; Honorary Fellow of Keble College, Oxford. Appointed MBE in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to young women and STEM. Chancellor of Glasgow Caledonian University; 2022-2023 President of the British Science Association; Co-Chair of the Institute for the Future of Work. Author of She’s In CTRL: How Women Can Take Back Tech (Transworld, 2022). Guest arithmetician on Channel 4’s Countdown across 60 episodes (2021-2022), first Black woman to take the Countdown board; voted Computer Weekly’s Most Influential Woman in UK Tech (2020); Forbes Top 50 Women in Tech. DSIT Women in Tech Envoy, co-chairing a UK government Taskforce with the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology (2025). Biography Stemettes was set up in 2013 after its co-founder returned from the Grace Hopper Celebration in 2012 and decided the UK needed its own infrastructure for girls in STEM. More than 60,000 young women and non-binary young people have passed through its programmes since, across the UK, Ireland and Europe. That operating record is the spine of Anne-Marie Imafidon’s authority on technology talent. The technical credentials are unusual. Imafidon took her Master’s in Mathematics and Computer Science at Oxford at 20, is an Honorary Fellow of Keble College, and was the guest arithmetician on Channel 4’s Countdown for 60 episodes in 2021 and 2022, the first Black woman to run the Countdown board. She was appointed MBE in 2017 for services to young women and STEM. Her public roles put her inside the UK conversation on digital skills and industrial strategy. She is Chancellor of Glasgow Caledonian University, Co-Chair of the Institute for the Future of Work, served as President of the British Science Association in 2022-2023, and in 2025 was appointed the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s Women in Tech Envoy, co-chairing a Taskforce with the Secretary of State. Her book She’s In CTRL, published by Transworld in 2022, argues that women should treat technology as something to take control of, not just consume or be represented within. For senior leaders it reframes the DEI-in-tech conversation as a product and capability question: who builds the tools, who governs them, and whose problems they get designed to solve. Key speaking topics Women and underrepresented groups in STEM Technology talent pipelines and digital skills Future of work and AI Inclusive product and technology design Social entrepreneurship at scale UK digital policy and industrial strategy Responsible and inclusive AI Ideal for CHROs, CPOs and heads of talent building technology hiring pipelines beyond the usual funnel. CTOs, CDIOs and engineering leaders under pressure to improve retention and representation in technical teams. Boards and ExCos setting policy on AI, digital skills and workforce strategy, particularly in regulated sectors. Corporate foundations, ESG leads and public-sector partners designing STEM and social mobility interventions. Audience outcomes A sharper read on why conventional diversity-in-tech programmes under-deliver and where the real intervention points sit. A working vocabulary for discussing inclusive AI and technology design at board level without defaulting to platitudes. Concrete examples, drawn from Stemettes and UK policy work, of what moves technical participation and retention. A reframe of women-in-tech as a product, governance and capability issue, not only a hiring issue. A sense of how UK digital skills policy and regulation are likely to shape talent strategy over the next cycle.

Herminia Ibarra – Leading Authority on Leadership and Career Reinvention Herminia Ibarra is the Charles Handy Professor of Organizational Behavior at London Business School. Prior to joining LBS, she served as Professor on the INSEAD and Harvard Business School faculties. An authority on leadership and career transition, Thinkers50 ranks Herminia among the top management thinkers in the world. She is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network, a judge for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award, a Fellow of the British Academy, the recipient of the Academy of Management’s Scholar-Practitioner Award for her research’s contribution to management practice, and Governor of the London Business School. Herminia is the author of best-selling books, Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader and Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career (Harvard Business). Her latest book, The Bonus Years: Reinventing our Longer Work Lives launches in 2026. Herminia writes regularly in leading academic journals and business publications including the Harvard Business Review, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and New York Times, is the author of numerous best-selling business case studies, and speaks internationally on leadership and organizational transformation. A native of Cuba, Herminia received her M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University, where she was a National Science Fellow.

Why organisations work with Barbara Oakley Her “focused mode/diffuse mode” framework gives L&D teams a named, neuroscience-backed model for redesigning how training is structured, not just what it covers. It establishes that structured recovery and retrieval practice matter as much as instruction time, a claim with direct implications for how organisations budget and sequence learning investment. “Learning How to Learn,” co-created with Salk Institute neuroscientist Terrence Sejnowski, has been taken by over 4 million people on Coursera. That scale of real-world adoption gives her frameworks empirical grounding that no controlled study can fully replicate. Her personal trajectory from U.S. Army linguist to engineering professor, achieved through deliberate adult retraining, is the primary evidence for her central argument that capability can be built at any career stage. For organisations running reskilling programmes, that is more persuasive than theory from a researcher who has never made the journey themselves. “A Mind for Numbers” (Penguin, 2014), a New York Times bestseller translated into 13 languages with over 1 million copies sold, means her frameworks already have traction well beyond corporate learning circles. Audiences often arrive familiar with her work, reducing the credibility gap that typically slows training adoption. The 2023 Harold W. McGraw Jr. Prize in Education, administered through the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education and widely considered the field’s most prestigious award, recognised Oakley as the inaugural winner in a new Lifelong Learning category – independent confirmation that her contribution to continuous capability development is field-defining. Biography highlights Distinguished Professor of Engineering, Oakland University; Ramón y Cajal Distinguished Scholar of Global Digital Learning, McMaster University Inaugural winner of the 2023 Harold W. McGraw Jr. Prize in Education (Lifelong Learning category), administered through the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education Co-creator (with neuroscientist Terrence Sejnowski, Salk Institute) of “Learning How to Learn” on Coursera – over 4 million enrolled, one of the most widely taken courses in the history of online education Author of “A Mind for Numbers” (Penguin, 2014), a New York Times bestselling science book translated into 13 languages with over 1 million copies sold; subsequent titles include “Mindshift” (2017), “Uncommon Sense Teaching” (2021), and “Learn Like a Pro” (2021) Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal; Michigan Distinguished Professor of the Year (2018) Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering; Coursera’s inaugural “Innovation Instructor” Former U.S. Army Captain; recognised as Distinguished Military Scholar Biography In 2014, a Coursera course called “Learning How to Learn” attracted over 300,000 students in its first three runs. It now has over 4 million enrolled, making it one of the most widely taken courses in the history of online education. That appetite reflects a gap most organisational training does not close: a practical understanding of how capability is actually built. Barbara Oakley created that course with neuroscientist Terrence Sejnowski of the Salk Institute. She came to the research through direct experience: a former U.S. Army Captain trained as a linguist, she retaught herself mathematics and engineering entirely as an adult. Her own career transition is the most direct demonstration of her central argument – that capability is genuinely malleable, and that the brain can acquire new domains of expertise at any career stage. Her “focused mode/diffuse mode” framework, named in “A Mind for Numbers” (Penguin, 2014), gives organisations a practical model for how concentration, structured recovery, and retrieval interact in the learning process. The book reached New York Times bestseller status and has been translated into 13 languages. Subsequent titles including “Mindshift,” “Uncommon Sense Teaching,” and “Learn Like a Pro” extend the framework into career reinvention, teaching design, and AI-era learning. In 2023, she received the Harold W. McGraw Jr. Prize in Education, the most prestigious award in the field, as inaugural winner in a newly created Lifelong Learning category. She is Distinguished Professor of Engineering at Oakland University and holds a concurrent appointment as Ramón y Cajal Distinguished Scholar of Global Digital Learning at McMaster University. Key speaking topics The neuroscience of effective learning and skill retention Workforce reskilling and adult capability development Learning frameworks for the age of AI Building organisational learning culture Career reinvention and professional mindset The science of effective training design Cognitive performance and focus at work Ideal for CHROs and L&D directors designing or auditing workforce capability programmes CEOs and executive teams navigating AI-driven workforce transition and reskilling investment Corporate universities and internal learning academies benchmarking training effectiveness Boards and transformation leads sponsoring large-scale reskilling or career transition initiatives Audience outcomes A named neuroscience framework (focused vs. diffuse mode) for understanding how attention, structured recovery, and retrieval interact in the learning process Evidence-based techniques (retrieval practice, spaced repetition, the Pomodoro method) that individuals and teams can apply immediately to improve learning retention A reframe of learning ability from fixed trait to trainable skill, with direct implications for how organisations identify, develop, and retain talent Clarity on why conventional training approaches consistently underdeliver, and what research-supported alternatives look like in practice A grounded argument for why adult capability development is achievable at any career stage, drawn from both neuroscience and the speaker’s own documented transition

Why organisations work with Richard Sennett A longitudinal sociological lens almost no other living speaker offers. Five decades on the same questions about what work does to people, running from The Hidden Injuries of Class (1972) through The Corrosion of Character (1998) to Building and Dwelling (2018). Reframes employee engagement as a question of craft. The Craftsman (2008) advanced the thesis that “making is thinking” and treats the desire to do a job well for its own sake as a workplace asset organisations either nurture or destroy. A serious framework for cooperation as a workplace skill. Together (2012) argues that cooperation is a craft learned through structured practice, and shows why short-term teams and constant reorganisation erode the conditions that make it possible. Direct involvement in shaping how cities and labour are governed. Sennett wrote the mission statement for UN Habitat III, helped organise COP26 work on cities and climate, and chaired the LSE Cities programme. Credentials at a level few corporate speakers reach: the Hegel Prize, the Spinoza Prize, the Centennial Medal from Harvard, an OBE for services to design and Fellowship of the British Academy. Biography highlights Centennial Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics; former University Professor of the Humanities at New York University. Author of The Hidden Injuries of Class, The Fall of Public Man, The Corrosion of Character, The Craftsman, Together, Building and Dwelling and The Performer. Founding director of the New York Institute for the Humanities (with Susan Sontag and Joseph Brodsky); former President of the American Council on Work; founder and chair of Theatrum Mundi. Senior Advisor to the United Nations Council on Urban Initiatives; wrote the mission statement for UN Habitat III; helped organise COP26 work on cities and climate. OBE for services to design (2018); Fellow of the British Academy; Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature; recipient of the Hegel Prize, the Spinoza Prize and the Centennial Medal from Harvard. Senior Fellow at the Center on Capitalism and Society, Columbia University; Honorary Professor at UCL’s Bartlett School of Architecture and Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. Biography The promise of flexible capitalism was that workers would gain real control of their own time and direction. The Corrosion of Character, published in 1998, showed in granular ethnographic detail what actually happened to dismissed IBM executives, Boston bakers and a barmaid turned advertising executive. The book established a thesis that has only sharpened with time: an economy built around “no long-term” produces people who struggle to sustain identity and craft over a working life. That argument matured over two decades into a trilogy on what Sennett calls Homo Faber, or “man the maker.” The Craftsman (2008) advanced a single thesis: making is thinking. It treated the desire to do a job well for its own sake as a workplace capacity organisations either nurture or destroy. Together (2012) extended the argument into the social. Cooperation is a craft, Sennett argued, learned through structured practice and degraded by short-term teams and constant reorganisation. Building and Dwelling (2018) carried the same lens into urbanism, distinguishing the ville (the built city) from the cité (how people actually live in it). Sennett’s intellectual lineage runs directly through David Riesman, John Rawls and Hannah Arendt at Harvard, where he took his PhD in 1969. Few living sociologists carry that depth of connection to the most serious thought of the twentieth century into corporate and policy conversations of the present. In 2024 he published The Performer: Art, Life, Politics, the opening volume of a new trilogy on performance, narration and image-making. Key speaking topics The future of work in flexible capitalism Craftsmanship and the conditions for good work Cooperation as a workplace skill Character and the personal consequences of “no long-term” employment Urbanism and the ethical city Public culture and authority in modern organisations Ideal for CHROs and senior people leaders moving past trend diagnostics into the deeper drivers of engagement and workforce design. Executive teams contending with the cultural costs of reorganisation, short-term teams and high turnover. Boards, CEOs and strategy leaders commissioning long-horizon work on the human foundations of organisational change. City leaders, urbanists and real-estate strategists working on the ethics and design of public space. Audience outcomes A vocabulary for what short-termism and perpetual reorganisation actually do to character and craft inside organisations. The “making is thinking” framework, which puts employee skill and the conditions for good work at the centre of strategic conversation. Cooperation reframed as a workplace craft, built through specific practices and degraded by structures many organisations now treat as normal. The ville/cité distinction as a tool for thinking about the human and built dimensions of any large environment, from offices to city districts. A historical lens on flexible capitalism that sets present-day workforce challenges in their actual fifty-year arc.