Inclusive Leadership

Why organisations work with Paula Stone Williams A first-person comparative account of professional life as a senior man and a senior woman, drawing on lived experience that almost no other speaker can offer at the executive level. A memoir published by Simon & Schuster (As a Woman, 2021), four TED talks with combined viewership over nine million, and sustained coverage in the New York Times, Washington Post, NPR and CNN. Substantive content on the mechanics of allyship for male leaders, framed as a practical capability rather than a values statement. A speaker who can address gender equity and LGBTQ+ inclusion in the same keynote without flattening either, useful to organisations where these conversations are usually held in separate rooms. Biography highlights Author of As a Woman: What I Learned About Power, Sex, and the Patriarchy After I Transitioned (Simon & Schuster, 2021), optioned by Cannonball Productions for a limited series. Co-author of She’s My Dad with her son Jonathan Williams. TED, TEDWomen, TEDSummit and TEDxMileHigh speaker; four talks with combined viewership over nine million. Featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, CNN, ABC Primetime News, Good Morning America, People Magazine and Red Table Talk. Pastor of preaching and worship at Left Hand Church, Longmont, Colorado. Pastoral counselor with RLT Pathways; doctorate in counseling. Biography Most workplace gender equity programmes are designed by people who have only ever held authority inside one set of expectations. Paula Stone Williams has held senior roles as both a man and a woman, and her keynote work is built on the comparative material that produced. The argument is empirical rather than rhetorical: the same person, the same competence, two markedly different professional experiences. Her memoir As a Woman: What I Learned About Power, Sex, and the Patriarchy After I Transitioned was published by Simon & Schuster in 2021 and has been optioned by Cannonball Productions. Her TED, TEDWomen, TEDSummit and TEDxMileHigh talks have together passed nine million views. The New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, CNN, Good Morning America and People Magazine have covered her work. Alongside the keynote practice she is a pastoral counselor with RLT Pathways and pastor of preaching and worship at Left Hand Church in Longmont, Colorado. The counseling background shapes how she handles the room, which matters in this subject area; audiences leave with material they can act on rather than only feelings they have processed. The most useful thing she gives a corporate audience is a precise account of how allyship behaves in practice. Male leaders who want to support women and LGBTQ+ colleagues are often unsure what the substantive ask actually is. Williams names it directly, with examples, and treats it as a capability that can be learned. Key speaking topics Workplace gender equity LGBTQ+ inclusion in corporate environments Allyship as a practical capability for senior leaders Authority, voice and credibility across gender Storytelling and narrative communication Resilience through identity and career change Bridging cultural and religious divides Ideal for CHROs and DEI leads designing substantive inclusion work after initial awareness programmes. Senior leadership offsites where male executives are the intended audience for an allyship conversation. Women’s leadership networks and ERGs commissioning an external voice on workplace parity. Universities, professional services firms and faith-adjacent institutions navigating LGBTQ+ inclusion under public scrutiny. Audience outcomes A first-person frame of reference for how authority is extended differently to men and women in the same senior role. A concrete vocabulary for what allyship looks like inside a meeting, a hiring decision and a promotion conversation. A view of LGBTQ+ inclusion grounded in lived experience rather than abstract policy language. Material that male leaders, in particular, can repeat back to their teams without feeling they are reciting a script.

Why organisations work with Anna Baréz-Brown A track record at scale: the Shine programme has reached thousands of women across four continents and more than 75 nationalities, with named corporate clients including WPP, Channel 4, TikTok, Rothschild & Co, and Google. Her work is built around retention and progression metrics, not engagement scores. Clients commission her when the gender balance of their senior roster needs to change, not when they need an inspirational keynote. She frames inclusion as a commercial discipline. Her core argument, that diversity fails in most companies because it sits with people who lack decision rights and budget, lands credibly with COOs and CEOs as well as CHROs. A corporate operator before a coach: a former European Sales Director responsible for 12 countries and 85 employees, with credentials as a CTI Leadership Coach, NLP Master Practitioner, and qualified Organisational Relationship Systems Coach. She talks to men as well as women. The programme deliberately addresses allyship, micro-aggressions, and the part male leaders play in changing the system, which makes her workable for organisations nervous about polarised DEI framing. Biography highlights Co-founder of Shine (now We Are Shine), launched 2013 with Caroline Whaley. Former European Sales Director with responsibility for 12 countries and 85 employees. Earlier roles at Axel Springer Verlag and Bertelsmann. Programme has worked with thousands of women across more than 75 nationalities and four continents. Named clients include WPP, Rothschild & Co, TikTok, Channel 4, Google, Channel 4, ITV, and EasyJet. Credentialled as a CTI Leadership Coach, Neuro-Linguistic Master Practitioner, and qualified Organisational Relationship Systems Coach. Biography Most diversity work fails on the same fault line. Programmes sit inside HR, measured by sign-up rates and sentiment, while the senior roster keeps reproducing itself. Promotion patterns do not move. Mid-career women leave. The gap between stated values and lived experience widens. Shine, the organisation Anna Baréz-Brown co-founded with Caroline Whaley in 2013, was built to attack that fault line directly. The programme is delivered into companies including WPP, Channel 4, TikTok, Rothschild & Co, and Google, and is measured against retention, promotion, and the gender balance of senior teams. It has worked with thousands of women across more than 75 nationalities and four continents. The credibility behind that work is corporate, not activist. Before launching Shine, Baréz-Brown ran a sales business as European Director with twelve countries and eighty-five staff reporting in, after earlier roles at Axel Springer Verlag and Bertelsmann. She is a CTI Leadership Coach, an NLP Master Practitioner, and a qualified Organisational Relationship Systems Coach. Her argument to senior teams is commercial. Diversity stalls because the responsibility is delegated downward, the investment is underestimated, and the conversation polarises before any system actually changes. Her work treats inclusion as a leadership discipline that involves men and women, allies and sceptics, and the operating decisions of the business itself. Key speaking topics Gender balance in senior leadership Inclusive leadership and allyship Building corporate leadership pipelines Coaching cultures and feedback Personal energy and performance at work Influence, impact, and executive presence Courageous conversations and managing micro-aggressions Ideal for CHROs, Chief People Officers, and Heads of D&I designing senior pipeline programmes. CEOs and ExCo sponsors who want gender balance treated as a commercial outcome, not a comms initiative. Leadership development teams running cohort programmes for high-potential women and their managers. Male executives and line managers being asked to act as allies and sponsors in practice. Audience outcomes A clearer view of why most diversity programmes do not move the senior roster, and what does. Language and tools for courageous conversations across difference, including on micro-aggressions. Specific practices for women navigating senior career transitions: stakeholder management, brand, energy, narrative. A framing of inclusion that male leaders can act on, not just endorse. A diagnostic for where their own organisation’s pipeline is leaking and who needs to own the fix.

Why organisations work with Emma Ross She brings the operating knowledge of the person who ran physiology for Team GB across Olympic and Paralympic cycles, applied directly to corporate workforces rather than borrowed as metaphor. She co-founded The Well HQ, the consultancy that has delivered women’s health programmes inside Sport England, England Netball, the Lawn Tennis Association, Vitality, News UK and Barclays; her frameworks are already in production in serious organisations. The Female Body Bible gave her a mainstream platform and a Sunday Times bestseller, which means her language is already familiar to employees and journalists before she walks into the room. She closes the knowing-doing gap leaders struggle with most: turning evidence on menstrual health, menopause, pelvic health and breast health into specific policy, benefits and manager scripts. Her authority is independent and scientific. The Cardiff Metropolitan honorary doctorate and her Fellowship of the British Association of Sport and Exercise Science signal that the content is peer-respected, not opinion. Biography highlights Head of Physiology, English Institute of Sport, 2013 to 2021, across Rio and Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic cycles. Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, The Well HQ. Co-author, The Female Body Bible, Sunday Times bestseller, 2023. Changemaker, The Sunday Times Sportswomen of the Year Awards, 2021. Honorary Doctorate, Cardiff Metropolitan University, 2025. Honorary Research Fellow, University of Brighton; Honorary Lecturer, University of Kent; Fellow of the British Association of Sport and Exercise Science. Biography Women make up roughly half of most workforces and a larger share of many consumer markets. Until recently, almost no corporate policy, product design or leadership development programme was built on evidence about how female bodies actually work. Emma Ross is one of the people rewriting that. As Head of Physiology at the English Institute of Sport from 2013, she supported Team GB athletes and coaches across the Rio and Tokyo cycles. Inside that system she saw how much of the playbook for elite performance had been written for men, and what happened when women were given training, recovery, nutrition and medical support designed around their physiology instead. In 2021 she co-founded The Well HQ with Baz Moffat and Dr Bella Smith. The consultancy has built education and policy programmes for Sport England, England Netball, the Lawn Tennis Association and the Open University, and has moved into corporate workforces with Vitality, News UK and Barclays. The Female Body Bible, co-authored in 2023, landed as an instant Sunday Times bestseller and took the argument into the mainstream. Her credibility is underwritten by a PhD from Brunel, more than thirty peer-reviewed publications, a Fellowship of the British Association of Sport and Exercise Science, and an Honorary Doctorate from Cardiff Metropolitan University awarded in 2025. The practical value for a boardroom is simpler: she can tell a CHRO, in specific terms, what to change on Monday about benefits, line-manager training, menopause policy, return-to-work protocols and the data the organisation is not yet collecting. Key speaking topics Women’s health in the workplace Female physiology and high performance Menstrual health, menopause and pelvic health at work Policy and manager capability for women’s health Culture change in male-default organisations Lessons from elite sport for corporate performance systems Evidence-based wellbeing for women Ideal for CHROs, Chief People Officers and Heads of Reward designing benefits, menopause and family-health policy. DEI and ERG leads moving from awareness events to operational change. Executive teams in organisations with large female workforces or female consumer bases. Leadership programmes for senior women and their managers. Audience outcomes A clear read on where your current policies and manager behaviours fail women, and what to change first. Specific, evidence-based actions on menstrual health, menopause, pelvic and breast health that can be taken into HR and benefits. Language that line managers and male leaders can use without fear of saying the wrong thing. A framework for translating women’s health from a wellbeing initiative into an organisational performance lever. Confidence that the content is backed by elite sport science and peer-reviewed evidence, not opinion.

Why organisations work with Baz Moffat She runs the consultancy that adidas, The Gym Group and England Netball use to redesign female-health training and policy. Buyers get an operator with live commercial programmes, not a speaker reading the literature. Co-author of The Female Body Bible, the Sunday Times bestseller now published in five languages, written with an NHS GP and a former Head of Physiology at the UK Sports Institute. The credentialled trio is what gives her positions weight inside HR, medical and performance functions. Translates female physiology into manager behaviour, line manager conversations, training plans and return-to-work protocols. Audiences leave with language and decisions, not slogans. Speaks from inside the system she is critiquing. Former GB rower, 20 years in coaching and high performance, World Championship medallist, mother of two. The lived ground makes the policy argument harder to dismiss. Biography highlights Co-founder and CEO of The Well HQ, female-health consultancy to brands, governing bodies and corporates including adidas, The Gym Group, England Netball and The Fitness Group. Co-author, The Female Body Bible (Yellow Kite, Hachette, 2023), Sunday Times bestseller, published in five languages. GB Rowing Team member 2005 to 2008; raced in the women’s eight at the 2007 World Rowing Championships, Munich. BSc Sports Science, First Class, University of Birmingham; MSc Health Related Behaviour Change, University of Bristol. Spoke at the Council of Europe International Women’s Day roundtable on female health in sport. Twenty years’ experience as a coach, personal trainer and Holistic Core Restore practitioner. Biography Most workplace wellbeing programmes are still calibrated to a male default. Female-specific health sits inside a thin band of policy and a generic resilience strand, with little connection to performance, retention or management practice. The Well HQ, the consultancy Baz Moffat co-founded in 2021 with Dr Emma Ross and Dr Bella Smith, exists to close that gap by treating female health as part of the operating system, not the wellness budget. The consultancy now works with adidas on the Breaking Barriers Academy, with The Gym Group and The Fitness Group on training personal trainers in female-health literacy, and with national governing bodies including England Netball and English Football on changing how the sport supports women from grassroots through to elite. The same logic applies to corporates. Policy, manager training and protocols for menstruation, fertility, pregnancy, return to work and menopause are rebuilt on the science rather than on assumption. Baz brings the operator side of that argument. She rowed for Great Britain from 2005 to 2008, raced in the women’s eight at the 2007 World Rowing Championships, and spent two decades coaching women through pelvic, core and perinatal health. Her academic credentials sit in behaviour change, an MSc from Bristol on top of a First in Sports Science from Birmingham, which is why her work translates into adoption rather than slide decks. Her co-authored book, The Female Body Bible, written with an NHS GP and a former Head of Physiology at the UK Sports Institute, became an instant Sunday Times bestseller and now appears in five languages. It functions as the public version of the consultancy’s argument: that the failure to design for half the workforce is no longer defensible on cost, evidence or talent grounds. Key speaking topics Female health as an operating system inside organisations Menopause, perimenopause and the workplace Pelvic, core and perinatal health Return to work after pregnancy and postnatal recovery Female-specific high performance in sport and corporate environments Designing wellbeing policy beyond the male default Building and scaling a mission-led consultancy Ideal for CHROs, heads of DEI and wellbeing leads rebuilding female-health policy beyond a generic wellness offer. Boards and executive teams of sports governing bodies, federations and clubs reviewing female participation and performance pathways. Senior leaders in health, fitness and consumer brands targeting the female market. Founders and operators seeking a live case study in building a mission-led commercial business. Audience outcomes A working model for treating female health as a workforce capability, not a benefits line item. Clear language for line managers and HR on menstruation, pregnancy, postnatal return and menopause. A grounded picture of what changes when policy, manager training and protocols are redesigned on female physiology. A first-hand account of the cultural and commercial barriers to female health in sport and corporate life, and what shifts them.

Why organisations work with Annie Emmerson A live event host who can carry a main-stage running order with the timing of a BBC Olympic broadcaster, then close the day with a personal keynote from elite sport. First-hand authority on managing anxiety and self-doubt during selection and qualification cycles, drawn from competing at the top of triathlon and duathlon under Brett Sutton. A credible voice for women’s leadership sessions, having built an elite career and a broadcast career in two male-dominated industries without making that the only story she tells. Practical, unshowy fluency in mental health conversations earned through years co-hosting Her Spirit with Louise Minchin and The Be Braver podcast. Biography highlights Retired in 2006 as the world’s number one ranked duathlete. Represented Great Britain in triathlon, duathlon, cross-country, track, and half marathon. BBC commentator across three Olympic Games, most recently Paris 2024, and Commonwealth Games coverage. Lead reporter and commentator for Super League Triathlon since 2018. Co-host of the Her Spirit podcast (2019 to 2021) with Louise Minchin and co-host of The Be Braver podcast. MC and host for Le Blanq cycling tours since 2020 and Channel 4 sports reporter. Biography Most people who reach the top of an endurance sport start young. Annie Emmerson did not. She came into triathlon late, trained under Brett Sutton, and retired in 2006 as the world’s number one duathlete after representing Great Britain across triathlon, duathlon, cross-country, track, and half marathon. That route shapes the content she now brings to corporate audiences. The pressure of late-career qualification, the management of injury, and the experience of being one of the only women in a coaching environment dominated by men became the working material for her speaking on resilience, mental health, and women in high-performance settings. Broadcasting is where she now spends most of her professional life. She has commentated on three Olympic Games for the BBC, including Paris 2024, covered Commonwealth Games, and been a lead voice on Super League Triathlon since 2018. She reports for Channel 4 and hosts Le Blanq cycling tours. Two podcasts sit alongside the broadcast work. Her Spirit, co-hosted with Louise Minchin from 2019 to 2021, focused on women’s mental health and physical activity. The Be Braver podcast continues that thread. The combined effect is a speaker and host who can hold a main-stage room with broadcast pacing, then talk about anxiety, scrutiny, and recovery with the credibility of someone who has lived through them. Key speaking topics Resilience under sustained pressure Mental health and anxiety in high-performance environments Women in male-dominated industries Motivation and late-career reinvention Event hosting and moderation Sport, performance, and recovery Ideal for Leadership conferences and women’s networks looking for a keynote anchored in lived performance, not theory Wellbeing and mental health summits seeking a speaker who can talk about anxiety credibly without clinical framing Annual conferences and awards evenings needing an MC who can host the day and deliver a personal keynote in the same brief Sports, endurance, and cycling brand events seeking a recognised BBC broadcast voice Audience outcomes A clearer sense of what resilience looks like as a daily working practice rather than a slogan Permission to talk about anxiety and self-doubt in performance settings without treating them as weakness A concrete account of how a woman built authority inside two male-dominated industries Sharper appreciation of the link between physical practice, recovery, and sustained mental performance

Why organisations work with Hayley Mulenda She has been booked into the rooms where retention strategy is set, including Microsoft HQ in Redmond, Unilever’s C-suite under Leena Nair, and Meta MENA’s leadership. Her TEDxLSE talk «The Danger of Being a Role Model» frames a specific argument about authenticity that translates directly into how organisations think about leadership visibility and reverse mentoring. She holds an active operating seat as Brand Board Member at Wagamama, so the inclusion and culture content is informed by board-level decision-making, not consultancy at arm’s length. Her work on the gap between C-suite intent and Gen Z lived experience addresses a problem most leadership teams can name but few can resolve. Her book «The ABCs to Student Success» and her TEDx platform give her a public body of work that buyers can read before booking. Biography highlights TEDxLSE speaker, «The Danger of Being a Role Model» Author, «The ABCs to Student Success» Brand Board Member, Wagamama Keynote and consulting work with Microsoft, Unilever, JP Morgan, Google, Meta MENA, Chanel, Bloomberg Media, Harrods, Clifford Chance, Cabinet Office UK Spoken at Wembley Arena, Oslo Spektrum, and the UK Houses of Parliament Named one of 25 Black entrepreneurs to watch in 2024, The Black Business Show x HSBC Biography The cost of failing to engage a younger workforce is now measured at executive committee level. Retention has become a leadership question rather than an HR one. Hayley Mulenda’s work sits at the point where mental health, inclusion, and generational change converge inside that question. She came to the work through her own experience. After a suicide attempt at 18, she rebuilt her life around the practical mechanics of mental health and self-worth, and turned that into a public body of work. Her TEDxLSE talk, «The Danger of Being a Role Model», argues that organisations and leaders default to curated personas when employees actually need authenticity, and that the difference is what determines trust. Her client list reflects how that argument lands inside large organisations. Microsoft brought her to Redmond. Unilever’s then Chief HR Officer Leena Nair, now CEO of Chanel, has worked with her. Meta MENA, JP Morgan, Bloomberg Media, Clifford Chance, Google, the Cabinet Office, and Teach First have all booked her on briefs covering wellbeing, inclusion, and reverse mentoring. Wagamama appointed her to its brand board. The «ABCs to Student Success» gives her a published framework. The board seat keeps the work close to operating decisions. Together, they explain why she is booked less as a wellbeing speaker and more as a translator between senior leaders and the workforce now reporting to them. Key speaking topics Mental health and wellbeing in the workplace Reverse mentoring and generational engagement Diversity, equity and inclusion Employee retention and the social contract of work Authentic leadership and personal branding Workplace culture across the MENA region Ideal for CHROs and people directors managing retention of Gen Z and millennial talent Inclusion and culture leads building reverse mentoring or ERG programmes Executive teams reviewing employee engagement and wellbeing strategy Conferences and offsites where leadership wants a credible voice on mental health rather than a generic one Audience outcomes A working language for the difference between leader visibility and leader authenticity, and why one drives engagement and the other does not A direct view of what younger employees actually want from senior leaders A reframing of mental health from a wellbeing programme into a retention lever Practical reference points for designing reverse mentoring that produces decisions, not optics

Why organisations work with Charlotte Richardson She works live on national radio and television every week, including TalkSport, BBC Final Score, Times Radio Breakfast and Charlton TV, which is the same craft that internal conferences and awards evenings need on stage. She is TalkSport’s first female commentator and the first woman to commentate for TalkSport at a Women’s World Cup, which gives a content keynote on inclusion in male-dominated industries genuine first-person material rather than a borrowed argument. She moves between formats inside a single booking: opening host, panel moderator, on-stage interviewer of a senior leader, awards announcer, after-dinner host. For organisations programming a women in sport or inclusion strand alongside an event, she can host the day and deliver the keynote, which removes a second booking and keeps tone consistent. Biography highlights TalkSport’s first female commentator, covering the men’s football pyramid, the Women’s Super League and the Women’s Championship across TalkSport and TalkSport 2. Reporter on BBC Final Score, the BBC’s prime-time Saturday afternoon football results programme. Sports analyst and contributor on Times Radio Breakfast. Co-host of In The Box, the England Football podcast produced with the FA’s grassroots football team. Pitch-side presenter and live broadcast host for Charlton Athletic’s Charlton TV at The Valley. Began her career on the operator side of the industry in sports marketing and communications before moving into broadcasting via BBC local radio. Biography Live football radio is unforgiving. The match does not pause for a missed cue, the crowd noise does not let a commentator catch a breath, and the audience can tell within thirty seconds whether the voice on air knows the game. Charlotte Richardson commentates on it weekly for TalkSport, the UK’s largest commercial sports network, and was the first woman the station put in that chair. Her broadcasting career started in BBC local radio and progressed to Final Score, the BBC’s Saturday afternoon football programme, before TalkSport. She now covers the full men’s pyramid, the Women’s Super League and the Women’s Championship across TalkSport and TalkSport 2, reports on Times Radio Breakfast, and hosts pitch-side and live coverage for Charlton Athletic’s Charlton TV. With Tom Lee she co-presents In The Box, the FA’s England Football podcast on grassroots football. That mix of live commentary, pitch-side presenting and studio analysis is the relevant credential for corporate work. Awards evenings, customer conferences and internal events run on the same skills: pace, recovery, the right question to a senior leader on stage, the ability to cover a gap in the running order without showing it. Richardson does that work in front of national audiences every week. She also has a content keynote that most hosts do not. Becoming the first woman to commentate for TalkSport at a Women’s World Cup, and on the men’s football pyramid more broadly, gives her a first-person account of inclusion in a male-dominated industry that an organisation programming a women’s network event, an International Women’s Day moment, or a sports-themed internal day can build a session around. Key speaking topics Conference and awards hosting Panel moderation and on-stage interviewing Women in sport Inclusion in male-dominated industries Sports broadcasting and live event craft Ideal for Internal women’s network events and International Women’s Day programmes Annual customer and partner conferences requiring a host and moderator Internal awards and recognition evenings Sponsor and hospitality events around football and major sporting fixtures Audience outcomes A live event that holds pace, recovers cleanly when something slips, and lands its recognition moments. Panels and senior leader interviews that produce direct answers rather than rehearsed lines. A first-person account of breaking into a male-dominated industry that an inclusion strand can be built around.

Why organisations work with Miranda Brawn She brings the perspective of a sitting non-executive director across an NHS Foundation Trust, FTSE 100 sustainability funds and AI start-ups, so her recommendations land as practitioner advice rather than commentary from outside the boardroom. The Brawn Review, launched at the House of Lords in October 2025, gives clients access to a named, evidenced governance framework with 50 specific recommendations, not a general lecture on why diversity matters. She is a barrister called to the Bar of England and Wales with an MBA and academic appointments at Roehampton and previously Oxford, which gives her credibility with general counsel, audit committees and regulators in equal measure. Her foundation has run the UK’s first diversity leadership lecture and scholarship programme since 2016, giving her a decade of evidence on what actually shifts representation, useful for clients tired of pledges that do not move numbers. She covers ESG, AI ethics and inclusive leadership from the same vantage point, which suits boards that no longer want three different speakers for three governance topics that have collapsed into one. Biography highlights Author of The Brawn Review: Boardroom Sustainability, Inclusion and Corporate Governance, launched at the UK House of Lords in October 2025. Honorary Professor in Business and Law, University of Roehampton; former Senior Visiting Fellow, University of Oxford. Barrister, Bar of England and Wales; MBA; Honorary Doctor of Letters (Brighton); Honorary Doctor of Laws (University of Law). Non-executive director, chair, trustee and advisor across an NHS Foundation Trust, FTSE 100 sustainability funds with over GBP 2 billion AUM, VC funds and AI start-ups including X0PA AI. Former Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan; founder and CEO of The Miranda Brawn Diversity Leadership Foundation (2016). Financial Times Top 30 Ethnic Minority Leaders; Prime Minister’s Point of Light; Woman of the Year, Women in Finance Awards. Biography The Brawn Review landed at the House of Lords in October 2025 with 50 recommendations on boardroom sustainability, inclusion and governance, drawn from contributions by 1,000 global board members and endorsed by Lord Davies of the 2011 Davies Review. It is the work of an author who sits on the boards she is writing about, not a researcher describing them from outside. Miranda Brawn is a barrister, MBA, honorary professor at the University of Roehampton and former Senior Visiting Fellow at Oxford, where the review began. Her board portfolio runs across the UK’s largest NHS Foundation Trust, FTSE 100 sustainability funds with more than GBP 2 billion in assets under management, venture capital funds and AI start-ups. Before the boardroom she traded for Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan. Most inclusion speakers offer advocacy. Her contribution is governance design: what a sustainability committee should actually do, how directors should oversee AI deployment, how inclusion outcomes should be measured against legal and fiduciary tests. The Miranda Brawn Diversity Leadership Foundation, which she founded in 2016, has run a decade of scholarship and mentoring programmes that give her a longitudinal view of what shifts representation in finance, law and technology. Her recognition reflects the breadth of that practice rather than a single domain: Financial Times Top 30 Ethnic Minority Leaders, Prime Minister’s Point of Light, Woman of the Year at the Women in Finance Awards, and Top 50 Afro-Caribbean Leadership Award presented at the House of Lords. Key speaking topics Boardroom governance of sustainability, inclusion and AI Inclusive and values-based leadership ESG strategy and board oversight AI ethics and responsible technology Non-executive director practice Diversity, equity and inclusion in regulated industries The Brawn Review recommendations Ideal for Boards, chairs and non-executive directors reviewing committee structure on ESG, AI and inclusion General counsel, company secretaries and heads of governance preparing for investor and regulator scrutiny CHROs and chief sustainability officers translating board commitments into operating practice Financial services, healthcare and professional services firms with concentrated DEI and governance exposure Audience outcomes A named governance framework, The Brawn Review, with specific recommendations on board composition, committee remits and oversight of AI and sustainability. A clearer view of where DEI commitments sit in fiduciary and regulatory terms, not only reputational ones. A practitioner reading of what NEDs are actually being asked to evidence on inclusion and ESG by investors and regulators. Evidence from a decade of scholarship and mentoring programmes on which interventions move representation in finance, law and technology.

Why organisations work with Candice Brathwaite Two Sunday Times bestsellers built on different theses. I Am Not Your Baby Mother (2020) reshaped national conversations on Black British motherhood. Manifest(o) (2024) became an instant bestseller on intention and self-belief, and took her on a sold-out international tour across the UK, US and Canada. Lived authority on inclusion and representation in a moment when most DEI speakers have either lost the room or become politically performative. Her debut was the first book by a Black British woman about Black British motherhood to enter the British Library. A speaker who can hold uncomfortable conversations and keep audiences listening. Liberty London described her keynote as “the best we have ever put on in 150 years of the store.” Cross-sector keynote track record across financial services, professional services, retail and tech: NatWest, Barclays, Clifford Chance, Linklaters, Ralph Lauren, Sainsbury’s, Deliveroo, Liberty London and the Cambridge Union. The timing and craft of a working broadcaster, drawn from regular appearances on ITV’s Lorraine and Steph’s Packed Lunch, her role as Contributing Editor at Grazia, and writing across the Guardian, Harper’s Bazaar and Stylist. Biography highlights Two-time Sunday Times bestselling author: I Am Not Your Baby Mother (Quercus, 2020) and Manifest(o) (Quercus, 2024) First book by a Black British woman about Black British motherhood to enter the British Library Founder of Make Motherhood Diverse, the campaign challenging stereotyped representations of parenthood in British media Contributing Editor at Grazia and regular UK television presenter on ITV’s Lorraine and Steph’s Packed Lunch Host of Conversations with Candice (Acast, 2026), following the multi-million-download Closet Confessions Keynote clients include NatWest, Barclays, Clifford Chance, Linklaters, Ralph Lauren, Sainsbury’s, Deliveroo, Liberty London, the Royal College of Midwives and the Cambridge Union Biography Most corporate conversations about inclusion have stopped landing. The language is familiar, the speakers cautious, and the audiences switched off. The substance still matters; the form has stopped working. In 2016 a blog post asked where the Black mothers were in British parenting media, and started building an answer. The blog became Make Motherhood Diverse. The platform became a book. I Am Not Your Baby Mother (2020) was a Sunday Times bestseller and the first book written by a Black British woman about Black British motherhood to enter the British Library. A second Sunday Times bestseller followed in Manifest(o) (2024), with a sold-out international tour across the UK, US and Canada. Alongside the books came regular presenting work on ITV’s Lorraine and Steph’s Packed Lunch, a Contributing Editor role at Grazia, and two podcasts. The corporate keynote diary expanded with it: NatWest, Barclays, Clifford Chance, Linklaters, Ralph Lauren, Sainsbury’s, Deliveroo, Liberty London and the Cambridge Union. Buyers tend to book her for the same reason. Inclusion, ambition and the lived reality of working parents are subjects where most speakers either over-perform or under-deliver. Liberty London described her keynote as “the best we have ever put on in 150 years of the store.” That is the response organisations come back for. Key speaking topics Diversity, equity and inclusion Personal brand building and visibility Modern motherhood and the working parent Motivation and self-belief Manifestation and intentional living Storytelling and cultural commentary Ideal for CHROs, CPOs and DEI leads designing inclusion programming that audiences will actually engage with rather than tolerate Internal communications, ERG sponsors and culture teams running events on representation, belonging and the experience of working parents Leadership development and event teams looking for a closing keynote that drives genuine post-event conversation Brand, marketing and creative leadership teams thinking about voice, visibility and cultural authenticity Audience outcomes A direct, honest perspective on inclusion that audiences will repeat back to their colleagues A sharper sense of what genuine representation looks like in the everyday operation of a business, beyond statements and campaigns Language and permission to talk about visibility, ambition and working parenthood as serious organisational concerns The energy and confidence to act on something they have been postponing in their own careers

Why organisations work with Ashley Rhodes-Courter A clinical credential behind the personal story. She is an LCSW running a mental health agency, the Foundation for Sustainable Families, which means her work on resilience and wellbeing is grounded in clinical practice, not motivational framing. A specific account of what trauma-informed care looks like in real institutions. Nine years across 14 foster placements gives her a rare credibility on systems that fail vulnerable people, and on what it takes to redesign them. Authority on schools, social services, and helping professions. Her talks for educators and frontline workers address abuse identification, burnout, and self-care with the precision of a practitioner, not a guest speaker. A New York Times bestselling memoir used in college curricula nationally, plus a published children’s book on a transgender sibling listed on the 2022 ALA Rainbow Book List. The body of work is taught, not just sold. Biography highlights New York Times bestselling author of Three Little Words (Simon & Schuster, 2008), with sequel Three More Words and the picture book Sam Is My Sister (Albert Whitman & Company, 2021). Licensed Clinical Social Worker. MSW from the University of Southern California; undergraduate degree from Eckerd College. Founder of the Foundation for Sustainable Families, a non-profit mental health agency providing trauma-informed care. Featured on CNN, Good Morning America, Today, The New York Times, USA Today, and Glamour, including selection as one of Glamour’s Top Ten College Women and to USA Today’s All-USA Academic Team. Profiled on NBC’s Women of Worth (December 2021). Sam Is My Sister included on the American Library Association’s 2022 Rainbow Book List. Biography Most public conversations about resilience treat it as a personal trait. In organisations that depend on people doing emotionally demanding work, teachers, social workers, healthcare staff, HR leaders, that framing breaks down. Resilience is built or eroded by systems, supervision, and the quality of care that workers themselves receive. Ashley Rhodes-Courter’s work begins from that point. She is unusual among speakers on this subject in holding the credential that matches the content. As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with a Master’s from the University of Southern California, she runs the Foundation for Sustainable Families, a mental health agency providing trauma-informed care. The clinical work informs the talks, and the talks track current practice rather than stories from a decade ago. Her authority on the subject is also biographical. Three Little Words, published by Simon & Schuster in 2008, traces nine years across 14 foster placements in Florida. The book began as an essay in The New York Times Magazine, became a New York Times bestseller, and is now used in collegiate social work and education programs. Three More Words extends the account into adulthood and adoptive parenting. Sam Is My Sister, her 2021 picture book with Albert Whitman, was placed on the American Library Association’s 2022 Rainbow Book List. The combination matters for serious buyers. A leadership team that wants a substantive session on burnout, on what schools and social services actually need from staff, or on inclusion as a duty of care, gets a speaker who has lived inside failing systems and now treats people inside the current ones. The argument is not that adversity creates strength. It is that institutions decide whether the people inside them recover or break. Key speaking topics Trauma-informed leadership and organisational practice Burnout and self-care in helping professions Resilience after adverse experience Foster care, child welfare, and adoption Mental health in the workplace Inclusion and family diversity Educator and frontline-worker wellbeing Ideal for CHROs, heads of wellbeing, and people leaders designing trauma-informed support Education sector leaders, district superintendents, and school principals Healthcare, social care, and non-profit boards DEI and inclusion leads working on family diversity and lived-experience inclusion Audience outcomes A clearer working definition of trauma-informed practice and what it asks of managers Specific signals of burnout and abuse that frontline staff and leaders can act on A frame for resilience that holds institutions, not only individuals, accountable A more confident vocabulary for inclusion conversations involving family identity and lived experience

Why organisations work with Joe Gerstandt He reframes inclusion as organisational design work, with named practices leaders can actually run, rather than a values campaign that depends on goodwill. His “From Anti to Ally” narrative gives sceptical audiences a credible personal entry point, useful in rooms where DEI language has lost its purchase. Co-author of Social Gravity, a published thesis on how relationship dynamics shape collective performance, which gives the work an intellectual spine beyond bureau talking points. Sits on Twitter’s Intersectional Culture and Diversity Advisory Council and the ISO US Technical Advisory Group on Diversity and Inclusion, meaning his frameworks have been tested inside platform governance and global standards. Marine Corps veteran turned culture practitioner, with a delivery register that lands credibly in industrial, defence, and engineering-led organisations where conventional DEI speakers often do not. Biography highlights Co-author, Social Gravity: Harnessing the Natural Laws of Relationships. Intersectional Culture and Diversity Advisory Council, Twitter. US Technical Advisory Group’s Diversity and Inclusion Working Group, International Organization for Standardization. Board director, Tri-Faith Initiative, Nebraska. Featured contributor, Workforce Diversity Network Expert Forum. Clients include Boeing, Toyota, Nestle, Target, Eli Lilly, Marathon Oil, Cornell University, University of Michigan, the CIA and the FAA. Biography Inclusion work has hit a credibility ceiling inside many large organisations. Twenty years of programmes, statements and training have not translated into the operating changes leaders were promised, and the political pressure on DEI has stripped away the cover that older approaches relied on. The result is a leadership population that knows the work matters but no longer trusts the standard playbook. Joe Gerstandt has spent the past two decades rebuilding the work on different ground. His starting point is that inclusion is a design problem, not a sentiment problem. Behaviour, norms, decision rights, conflict practices and conversational habits are the actual machinery. His sessions teach leaders to operate that machinery, with concrete practices around brave conversations, authenticity, and team design. Two strands give the work its weight. Social Gravity, which he co-authored, sets out the relational dynamics that determine whether collective performance compounds or decays. His “From Anti to Ally” narrative draws on his own move from rural Iowa and the Marine Corps into culture work, giving sceptical audiences a credible bridge into the material without asking them to start from agreement. The institutional record matters. He sits on Twitter’s Intersectional Culture and Diversity Advisory Council and on the ISO US Technical Advisory Group’s Diversity and Inclusion Working Group, advises Fortune 100 employers and federal agencies including the CIA and FAA, and has published in Diversity Best Practices, Diversity Executive and HR Executive. That positions him as a practitioner whose frameworks have been pressure-tested against platform governance, global standards and operating reality. Key speaking topics Inclusion as organisational design Inclusive leadership practice Authenticity and psychological safety at work Team performance and relational dynamics Behaviour change and culture change Allyship and personal transformation Bias, identity and decision-making Ideal for CHROs, Chief Diversity Officers and culture leads rebuilding inclusion programmes that have lost internal credibility. Executive teams running culture change inside engineering, defence, industrial and regulated environments where conventional DEI delivery falls flat. Boards and leadership cohorts treating inclusion as a leadership capability rather than a compliance line. Employee resource group leaders and allies seeking practical practice, not slogans. Audience outcomes A working definition of inclusion as a designed practice, separable from political language. Named behaviours and conversational practices leaders can use the next working day. A clearer read on where their organisation’s inclusion work has stalled and why. Language for engaging sceptics and ambivalent middle managers without forcing ideological agreement. A frame for treating relational dynamics as a performance variable, drawn from Social Gravity.

Why organisations work with Chloe Morgan She has lived the dual-career argument that organisations now ask of high performers: practising as a personal injury solicitor at Irwin Mitchell while playing in goal for Tottenham, Arsenal, and Crystal Palace. Her inclusion content carries weight that policy slides do not: she is a Football Black List honouree, DIVA Sports Star of the Year, and a Pride Power List entrant, recognised by the named bodies in those communities. She speaks to LGBTQ and BAME representation from inside elite sport, not as a commentator on it, which gives senior teams a credible voice for inclusion work that has lost traction since 2020. She runs She’s a Baller, the UK’s largest independent women’s football publisher and creative agency, and brings a working operator’s view of where brand and inclusion narratives still come apart. Biography highlights Former goalkeeper for Tottenham Hotspur Women, Arsenal Women, and Crystal Palace Women across an eight-year elite career. Qualified solicitor (University of Leeds law graduate); civil litigation lawyer at Irwin Mitchell during her playing career. Cyrille Regis Players Award winner, Football Black List 2020. DIVA Sports Star of the Year, 2021; Pride Power List, 2021. Co-host of “Upfront”, the women’s football podcast on the Football Ramble network. Head of She’s a Baller, the UK’s largest independent women’s football publisher and creative agency. Biography Most inclusion programmes were built for an audience that has now moved on. The reputational risk has shifted, the public mood is harder to read, and the people inside the organisation can tell the difference between a values statement and a working environment. The question senior teams now ask is narrower and more practical: what does inclusion look like once the press release has gone out. This is the territory Chloe Morgan speaks from. She played eight seasons at the top of the women’s game, in goal for Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, and Crystal Palace, including Tottenham’s promotion campaign into the Women’s Super League. She did it while qualifying as a solicitor and working as a civil litigation lawyer at Irwin Mitchell, a dual career that is unusual at any level of professional sport and almost unheard of at the elite end. Her inclusion work is recognised by the bodies that matter in the relevant communities. She received the Cyrille Regis Players Award on the Football Black List in 2020, was named DIVA Sports Star of the Year in 2021, and entered the Pride Power List the same year. She speaks as an openly gay Black athlete who has been inside the dressing rooms, boardrooms, and law firms in question, not as a commentator standing outside them. Since retiring in 2022 she has moved into media and operating roles. She co-hosts “Upfront” on the Football Ramble network and now leads She’s a Baller, the UK’s largest independent women’s football publisher and creative agency, where she works with brands on the gap between women’s football marketing and the actual culture of the women’s game. Key speaking topics Inclusion in elite performance environments LGBTQ representation in sport and professional services Race and representation in women’s football Dual-career discipline and high performance Resilience in male-dominated workplaces Women’s sport as a brand and commercial category Leadership lessons from the goalkeeping position Ideal for CHROs and DEI leads rebuilding inclusion programmes after the post-2020 retreat Brand and marketing teams investing in women’s sport sponsorships and partnerships Employee resource groups, particularly LGBTQ and Black professional networks Leadership audiences interested in dual-career performance and resilience Audience outcomes A clearer view of what inclusion looks like in environments with measurable performance pressure, not only in policy. Specific reference points from elite women’s football and a UK law firm, drawn from one career rather than secondhand. A more honest read on where brand activity in women’s sport lands well with players and fans, and where it misfires. Confidence that resilience and dual-career performance can be discussed with substance, not slogans.