Future Skills speakers

Why organisations work with Spriha Srivastava She holds a senior editorial role at one of the largest international business news brands, which gives her direct fluency in how leaders are being asked questions in public, not just how they want to answer them. She has moderated on inclusion, AI and workforce equity at the World Economic Forum, VivaTech, the Milken Institute and the Global Women Leaders Summit, with the discipline of someone who interviews CEOs for a living. Her career covers the full arc of recent business stories that audiences remember: the financial crisis aftermath, Brexit, U.S. elections, the Trump presidency and the pandemic economy. She brings a recognised platform on women in leadership, with the Women Economic Forum “Iconic Women” award and an Asian Women of Achievement shortlist behind her. She is one of the few moderators who can sit on a panel about generative AI and a panel about inclusion in the same week, and not flatten either conversation. Biography highlights Vice President and Executive Editor, Digital, CNBC International (appointed February 2025), with editorial responsibility across Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. Former London Bureau Chief and International Executive Editor at Insider, leading UK and Singapore newsrooms. Former Deputy Digital News Editor at CNBC International London, with prior roles at Financial Times Money Management and Thomson Reuters Global Markets Forum. Winner, Women Economic Forum “Iconic Women Creating A Better Tomorrow” (2020); shortlisted, Asian Women of Achievement Award, media (2020); runner-up, Santander Media Awards newcomer (2015). Speaker and moderator at the Milken Institute, Global Women Leaders Summit, and inclusion-focused programmes at World Economic Forum and VivaTech. Over 15 years in international business journalism, with field reporting and coverage across more than 40 countries. Biography The credibility problem in public conversations about inclusion is not a shortage of advocates. It is a shortage of people who can hold a senior business audience in a real conversation about workforce equity without losing the room to either platitudes or defensiveness. That is editorial work as much as it is advocacy. That is the role Spriha Srivastava plays. As Vice President and Executive Editor, Digital at CNBC International, appointed in February 2025, she leads digital news teams across Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. Before CNBC she was London Bureau Chief and International Executive Editor at Insider, running newsrooms in the UK and Singapore. Her reporting career has tracked the stories that have set the operating context for most of today’s senior leaders: the aftermath of the financial crisis, Brexit, two U.S. election cycles, the Trump presidency, and the pandemic economy. That range, plus prior posts at Financial Times Money Management and Thomson Reuters, is what gives her moderation work a different texture from a topical advocate’s. She comes at inclusion and future-of-work questions through the same lens she uses on a CEO interview. The Women Economic Forum “Iconic Women” award and her Asian Women of Achievement shortlisting are the public markers, but the practical value is more specific. Audiences get a moderator who can move from generative AI strategy to workforce equity to global markets within a single programme, with the journalistic instinct for when a panellist has not actually answered the question. Key speaking topics Women in leadership Diversity, equity and inclusion in practice Future of work and future skills Inclusive innovation and AI Global markets and the macro context for business decisions Panel moderation and event hosting on business and policy themes Ideal for CHROs and Chief People Officers commissioning serious conversations on inclusion and workforce equity Boards and ExCos hosting external moderators for global summits, inclusion forums and leadership offsites Conference programme owners needing a moderator who can carry both AI and inclusion strands Internal women-in-leadership networks and ERGs running senior-level programmes Audience outcomes A clearer view of how senior international media is currently framing inclusion, AI and the future of work, and what that means for corporate messaging. A more candid panel conversation than the typical inclusion stage allows, with follow-up questions that surface the practical decisions, not the slogans. A working sense of how global market coverage and people-and-culture stories are converging in the financial press. An understanding of where inclusion claims are being tested in public, and where they are still being accepted at face value.

Why organisations work with Stef Sword-Williams She gives quiet, high-performing employees a working method for being seen, which directly affects retention and promotion equity rather than abstract confidence. Her material is built from eight years inside advertising, so self-promotion is taught as a brand and storytelling discipline, not a motivational frame. F*ck Being Humble has trained workforces at Apple, Google, Unilever, Nike, Adidas, Microsoft, the BBC, NatWest, L’Oreal, Aviva, and Amazon, giving her a wide read on where internal visibility fails. The book F*ck Being Humble: Why Self-Promotion Isn’t a Dirty Word has sold over 10,000 copies and gives her a defined point of view that audiences can follow into workshops and team practice. Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, useful as signal for senior buyers screening a younger speaker against a leadership-level audience. Biography highlights Founder of F*ck Being Humble, a global training consultancy working with Apple, Google, Unilever, Nike, Adidas, Microsoft, the BBC, NatWest, L’Oreal, Aviva, and Amazon. Author of F*ck Being Humble: Why Self-Promotion Isn’t a Dirty Word, published by Quadrille and reported to have sold over 10,000 copies. TEDx speaker, with a talk titled “F*ck being humble!” delivered at TEDxAreni. Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe honouree. Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA), recognising the social impact of her work. Featured in Vogue, BBC World News, the Financial Times, and The Times, and a regular speaker at industry events including Advertising Week. Biography The people who get promoted are not always the people doing the best work. Inside large organisations, visibility shapes who progresses and who plateaus, and most employees have never been taught how to make their contribution legible to the people deciding their next role. Stef Sword-Williams spent close to eight years in advertising telling stories for global brands before noticing how rarely the same craft was applied to individual careers. She founded F*ck Being Humble in 2018 to close that gap, and in 2020 published the book of the same name with Quadrille, setting out a method for self-promotion that treats it as professional skill rather than personality trait. The work has scaled into a training practice used by Apple, Google, Unilever, Nike, Adidas, Microsoft, the BBC, NatWest, L’Oreal, Aviva, and Amazon. She has been recognised as a Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe honouree and elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, with media coverage across Vogue, BBC World News, the Financial Times, and The Times. Her TEDxAreni talk, “F*ck being humble!”, is the short form of the same argument. Organisations that want to keep their best people, close promotion gaps, and grow a stronger internal pipeline cannot rely on quiet competence to surface itself. Sword-Williams gives them a vocabulary and a practice for fixing that. Key speaking topics Self-promotion as a workplace skill Personal branding inside organisations Imposter syndrome and confidence at work Pitching, presenting, and making ideas heard Negotiation and asking for more Networking and internal visibility Feedback culture Storytelling for individuals in a brand-driven world Ideal for CHROs, CPOs, and L&D leaders working on retention, promotion equity, and internal mobility. DEI and ERG leads designing programming for women, early-career talent, and underrepresented groups in promotion pipelines. Heads of Talent and managers running high-potential and emerging-leader cohorts. Conference programmers building tracks on workplace confidence, personal brand, or future skills. Audience outcomes A practical method for talking about their own work without sounding self-serving or scripted. A clear view of where internal visibility breaks down and which behaviours close that gap. Language for handling feedback, negotiation, and self-advocacy conversations with managers. Permission and pattern for ambitious self-presentation in cultures that default to humility. Tools managers can use to surface quieter talent and rebalance who gets seen.

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

Why organisations work with Steph McGovern Eight years as BBC Breakfast’s lead business presenter, with a reporting beat that covered more than 500 companies, gives her an interviewing range from FTSE chairs to first-time founders in the same morning. She co-hosts The Rest Is Money with Robert Peston, which means she is in weekly working contact with the macro and political stories shaping a CFO’s agenda, not reading them up the night before an event. Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, with an apprenticeship background at Black and Decker, which lands credibly with industrial, manufacturing and skills-led audiences in a way most business presenters cannot match. Hosting record across Steph’s Packed Lunch, Have I Got News For You and Watchdog gives her the live-on-air composure to handle a room when a CEO goes off script or a Q and A turns combative. She is fluent in small business and consumer economics, useful when a client wants the keynote or the panel pitched at the supplier base, the franchisee network or the customer-facing workforce, not just the executive team. Biography highlights Lead business presenter, BBC Breakfast, 2011 to 2019. Host, Steph’s Packed Lunch, Channel 4, 2020 to 2023, more than 250 episodes. Co-host, The Rest Is Money podcast, with Robert Peston, Goalhanger Podcasts. Honorary Fellow, Royal Academy of Engineering, 2021. Honorary Doctorate, Teesside University, 2013. Debut crime novel Deadline, Pan Macmillan, 2025; judge, Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, since 2019. Recurring host, Have I Got News For You, BBC One, since 2017. Biography Most business communication fails at the same point. The numbers are correct, the strategy is sound, the slides are clean, and the audience that actually has to act on it has tuned out by slide three. Steph McGovern’s career has been built on the opposite move: taking a board-level commercial story and making it audible to the people whose buy-in determines whether it works. She spent eight years as BBC Breakfast’s lead business presenter, interviewing CEOs, regulators and small business owners on consecutive segments and treating them with the same scrutiny. After leaving the BBC in 2019, she launched Steph’s Packed Lunch on Channel 4, a daily live programme that ran for more than 250 episodes between 2020 and 2023, with regular segments on the small business economy and the labour market. Her current platform is The Rest Is Money, the Goalhanger podcast she co-hosts with Robert Peston, which keeps her on the macro and political-economic beat week to week. Alongside that, she is a recurring host of Have I Got News For You and a sought-after conference moderator and awards host. Her debut crime novel, Deadline, was published by Pan Macmillan in 2025; she has judged Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year prize at Harrogate since 2019. The detail that buyers most often miss: she trained as an engineer. She was a young engineer for Britain at 19 on a Black and Decker apprenticeship, where she is credited with a six-figure annual saving on a single product line. The Royal Academy of Engineering elected her an Honorary Fellow in 2021 for her work championing vocational skills. That background is why industrial, manufacturing and skills-led clients book her for events that a generalist broadcaster could not credibly host. Key speaking topics Business and economic journalism Small businesses and the UK economy Consumer markets and personal finance Engineering, apprenticeships and vocational skills Conference hosting and panel moderation Awards hosting Media interview craft for executives Ideal for Annual conferences where the board wants the macro and commercial stories landed for a mixed-seniority audience. Industry awards, supplier conferences and franchisee events that need a host who can hold a live room and interview C-suite guests. Manufacturing, engineering and skills-sector audiences who respond to a presenter with a credible technical background. Internal leadership events where a CEO or CFO wants their strategy questioned in front of the room before it is rolled out. Audience outcomes A clearer read on the current macro and commercial backdrop, in language that connects to the audience’s day job rather than analyst notes. Sharper executive panels and Q&A sessions because the moderator is genuinely fluent in the subject matter. A renewed argument for investment in apprenticeships, vocational pathways and shop-floor capability, grounded in a presenter who lived it. A live event that holds energy through the unscripted moments, not just the keynote slot.

Why organisations work with Sue Black A sitting computer science professor who has also run a social enterprise that retrains women into tech roles at scale, so the talent argument is grounded in operational evidence, not advocacy. Author of the Saving Bletchley Park campaign and book, a working case study in using social media to mobilise public, political and corporate support around a single goal. Founded BCSWomen in 2001 and TechUPWomen in 2019, giving her two decades of named programmes to draw on when discussing pipeline, retention, and reskilling. OBE for services to technology, FBCS CITP, FRSA; the credentials boards expect when commissioning a technology keynote, without the corporate-speaker generic register. Bridges technical authority and lived experience. Left school at 16, returned through adult education to a PhD in software engineering, which gives the talent and inclusion argument personal weight that lands with mixed audiences. Biography highlights Professor of Computer Science and Technology Evangelist, Durham University. OBE for services to technology, 2016 New Year Honours. Founder, BCSWomen (2001), the UK’s first online network for women in technology. Founder, #techmums (2013) and TechUPWomen (2019), retraining women into tech careers. Author, Saving Bletchley Park (Unbound, 2015), Amazon UK bestseller and record-setting Unbound crowdfund. First recipient of the BCS John Ivinson medal; Lovie Awards Lifetime Achievement winner, 2018. Biography The technology talent gap is not principally a recruitment problem. It is a pipeline problem, an inclusion problem and a retraining problem, and most organisations are not structured to address any of the three. Sue Black has spent twenty-five years building the practical answers in public, on national platforms, and inside the British computer science establishment. She is Professor of Computer Science and Technology Evangelist at Durham University, where her academic work sits alongside the operational delivery of TechUPWomen, the retraining programme she founded in 2019. TechUPWomen reports nearly 600 women retrained into technology careers with an average salary uplift of around GBP 6,000, a rare instance of a tech-inclusion initiative reporting measurable economic outcomes for participants. Her track record on mobilisation is equally specific. Between 2008 and 2011 she led the Saving Bletchley Park campaign, which used early social media to recruit politicians, journalists and corporate sponsors behind the restoration of the WWII codebreaking site. Her account of the campaign, Saving Bletchley Park, became the fastest-funded title on Unbound and an Amazon UK bestseller. She founded BCSWomen in 2001, served as its chair until 2008, and was the first recipient of the BCS John Ivinson medal. She holds an OBE for services to technology, is a Fellow of the British Computer Society and Chartered IT Professional, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. The 2018 Lovie Awards recognised her career with a Lifetime Achievement award, and she has been invited to address the United Nations on women’s rights twice. The credentials are unusual in combination: a sitting academic chair, a national campaigning record, and two operational social enterprises with named outputs. Key speaking topics Women in technology and the future tech workforce Digital skills and reskilling at scale Diversity and inclusion in computer science Social media as a tool for organisational and public campaigns The history and legacy of Bletchley Park Future of technology and digital transformation Personal reinvention and adult learning into tech careers Ideal for CHROs and heads of talent rebuilding the technology pipeline beyond traditional graduate channels Technology and digital transformation leaders accountable for diversity, retention and reskilling targets DEI and ERG sponsors who need an evidenced voice on women in tech rather than a motivational one Conferences in technology, financial services and public sector seeking a senior keynote with academic and operational credibility Audience outcomes A clearer view of what works in retraining women into technology roles, drawn from named programmes with reported outcomes A grounded picture of the UK technology pipeline and where corporate intervention has measurable effect A working example, Bletchley Park, of how a small team can mobilise public and corporate support around a single objective using digital channels Personal credibility for the reskilling case: an academic who reached a chair through adult education herself Confidence to challenge the standard “women in tech” narrative with evidence rather than aspiration

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

Why organisations work with Whitney Johnson A field-tested model, the S Curve of Learning, that gives executives a shared language for placing every team member on a developmental trajectory rather than an annual performance grid. A track record of applying disruptive innovation theory to capital allocation, including co-founding the Disruptive Innovation Fund with Clayton Christensen and leading the seed investment in Coupang. A No. 8 Thinkers50 ranking in 2021 and consecutive listings since 2015, signalling sustained credibility with the same boards her audiences sit on. Direct relevance to succession planning, post-merger integration, and the talent risk inside transformation programmes, drawn from Fortune 500 advisory work with Kraft Heinz, Intermountain Health, Morgan Stanley, and Amazon. A Wall Street equity-analyst background that lets her speak to commercial leaders in their own language about return on people, not just culture. Biography highlights CEO and co-founder of Disruption Advisors, advising Fortune 500 companies, private equity portfolios, and scale-ups on leadership and team development. Co-founder with Clayton Christensen of the Disruptive Innovation Fund at Rose Park Advisors; led the seed round in Coupang. Ranked No. 8 on Thinkers50 in 2021, with continuous listings since 2015. Author of Smart Growth (Harvard Business Press, 2022), a Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestseller and a Thinkers50 Best New Management Book. Author of Disrupt Yourself, Build an A-Team, and Dare, Dream, Do. LinkedIn Top Voice and host of the Disrupt Yourself podcast, with guests including Brene Brown, Adam Grant, Susan Cain, and Stanley McChrystal. Biography Most companies treat leadership development as a calendar of programmes. The harder question is where each senior leader sits on a learning curve, and what the organisation does when too many of them are stalled at the top of the same one. That is the question Whitney Johnson built a career around. Before founding Disruption Advisors, Johnson spent eight consecutive years as an Institutional Investor-ranked equity analyst on Wall Street. She then partnered with Harvard Business School’s Clayton Christensen to co-found the Disruptive Innovation Fund at Rose Park Advisors, where she served as President from 2007 to 2012 and led the seed round in what is now Coupang. Her shift from capital allocation to people allocation is the through line of her work. The S Curve of Learning, adapted from Everett Rogers and applied through her January-February 2022 Harvard Business Review article and the book Smart Growth, gives executives a way to manage their organisations as a portfolio of learning curves. It reframes engagement, retention, and succession as the same problem looked at from three angles. That argument has earned her a No. 8 Thinkers50 ranking in 2021 and a consistent place on the list since 2015. Her client roster includes Kraft Heinz, Intermountain Health, Morgan Stanley, and Amazon, and her Disrupt Yourself podcast features sustained conversations with figures including Brene Brown, Adam Grant, Susan Cain, and Stanley McChrystal. Key speaking topics Disruptive innovation applied to people and teams The S Curve of Learning as a development framework Succession planning and talent portfolio management Building and leading high-performing teams Personal disruption and reinvention for senior leaders Smart growth and organisational scaling Coaching cultures inside Fortune 500 companies Ideal for CEOs and executive committees rebuilding the bench beneath them CHROs and chief talent officers redesigning succession and development Private equity operating partners pressure-testing portfolio leadership Boards reviewing CEO succession and senior team capability Audience outcomes A working vocabulary for placing every senior leader on a learning curve, with implications for retention and succession A clearer view of when high performers are about to plateau and what to move them toward A practical link between team composition and commercial performance, drawn from her investment-fund experience Specific moves to disrupt their own roles before circumstances disrupt them Examples from named Fortune 500 engagements they can stress-test against their own organisation

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

Why organisations work with Zavier Coyne He is the rare generational expert who belongs to the generation in question. Most authorities on Gen Z are older researchers studying it from the outside; Zavier started his first business at 15 and works the subject as a digital native, so he can translate in both directions between senior leaders and the employees they struggle to read. His Generational Intelligence framework gives leaders something to fix instead of someone to blame. He treats young-employee friction as a structural mismatch in how digitally native people handle feedback and authority, not as an attitude or entitlement problem. The work is tied to numbers leaders already own. Gen Z Coach engages on retention and engagement with clients from tech start-ups to FTSE 100 and NYSE-listed companies, so sessions are built around measurable outcomes, not sentiment. One engagement can reach both sides of the divide. He speaks to senior leadership on leading digitally native talent and to early-career employees on working across generations without lowering standards, addressing the friction from both directions at once. Biography highlights Co-Founder of Gen Z Coach, a multigenerational performance consultancy whose clients range from tech start-ups and universities to FTSE 100 and NYSE-listed companies Originator of the Generational Intelligence (GQ) framework, a behavioural skillset for leading and working across digitally native generations TEDx speaker and guest contributor to the University of Bath School of Management Skills Series Accredited Coach at the highest level of the Association for Coaching and a Master Intuitive Psychology Coach Fellow of beVisioneers: The Mercedes-Benz Fellowship, taking part in the fellowship’s youth-entrepreneurship session at Davos during the 2026 World Economic Forum Featured guest on generational-leadership podcasts including TomorrowToday Global’s Elephants in the Boardroom, and founder of a self-development podcast that topped the Apple charts Biography Gen Z is the first generation shaped entirely by digital systems from birth, and it is now entering workplaces built for an earlier era. The result is friction that most leaders misread. Falling retention and flat engagement get blamed on attitude, when the real gap is in how digitally native employees handle feedback and authority. Zavier Coyne built his work around closing that gap. Through Gen Z Coach, the consultancy he co-founded, he reframes the issue as a structural mismatch rather than a values problem. He gives it a name: Generational Intelligence, a behavioural skillset that both leaders and young employees can be trained in. His clients run from tech start-ups and universities to FTSE 100 and NYSE-listed companies, and the work is measured on retention and engagement. What separates him from most voices on the subject is position. The established authorities on Gen Z tend to be older researchers describing it from the outside. Zavier is a digital native who started his first business at 15 and works the subject from inside the generation. That lets him translate in both directions, which is why senior leaders use him as a bridge to employees they find hard to read. The credentials are concrete. Zavier is a TEDx speaker and an Association for Coaching accredited coach at the highest level. As a fellow of beVisioneers: The Mercedes-Benz Fellowship, he joined the programme’s youth-entrepreneurship session at Davos during the 2026 World Economic Forum. Key speaking topics Generational intelligence in the workplace The digitally native workforce Gen Z retention and engagement Multigenerational team dynamics The future of work Early-career talent development Ideal for CHROs and Heads of Talent facing falling retention or engagement among early-career employees HR and L&D leaders, including Heads of Learning & Development, designing programmes for a five-generation workforce Senior leaders and people managers who run digitally native teams and want to reduce generational friction Organisations whose growth depends on recruiting and keeping Gen Z talent, from tech start-ups to large listed firms Audience outcomes A shared language for naming generational friction, so teams stop putting it down to attitude or entitlement Specific changes managers can make to feedback and expectations with digitally native employees A clearer read on what actually makes Gen Z different at work, separated from what is simply misunderstood For younger employees, practical ways to work across age groups without lowering their own standards