Inclusive Leadership

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 Fee Mak She holds a live room across formats that very few hosts move between credibly: BBC daytime radio, the MOBO Awards mainstage, in-game presenting for London Spirit at The Hundred, and literary festival chairing at Hay and Cheltenham. Her BBC 1Xtra Sunday Breakfast residency means she is in front of a national, multi-generational, culturally diverse audience every week. That muscle transfers directly to award shows and internal events trying to land with the same audience. She chairs interview content as a working craft, not as decoration. The Business Book Awards, Ditto X Meet the Music Industry, and book festival panels are formats that expose hosts who cannot follow a guest’s argument in real time. Her event roster includes inclusion-led briefs that organisations frequently get wrong: the Diana Award Anti-Racist Bullying showcase, Inclusive Books for Children Awards, BBC Bitesize Tour. She is a credible voice for clients who need a host who can carry that tone without performing it. Biography highlights Host, BBC Radio 1Xtra Sunday Breakfast Show, since July 2022. Selected through the BBC Radio 1 Presenter Search 2019; presenter credits include Christmas Drivetime, Early Breakfast, and daytime cover on Radio 1. Awards host credits: MOBO Awards, AIM Awards, Business Book Awards, Diana Award Anti-Racist Bullying showcase, Inclusive Books for Children Awards. Live event host credits: Red Bull BC One UK Cypher, Move It, Breakin’ Convention, U.Dance National Showcase, BBC Bitesize Tour, Ditto X Meet the Music Industry, Earl’s Court International Film Festival. In-game host for London Spirit at The Hundred (Lord’s). Chair at Hay Festival, Cheltenham Festival, Chiswick Book Festival, and Brighton Festival. BA (Hons) French and Business Administration, University of Kent. Former junior associate, The Royal Ballet School; West End child cast of Billy Elliot the Musical. Biography The hardest job at a live event is the one people only notice when it goes wrong. Holding a 90-minute awards ceremony together, moving between sponsors, winners and a writers’ room of jokes that may or may not land, takes a craft that broadcast hosts spend years building. Fee Mak has built it across an unusually wide range of stages. Her weekly residency is the Sunday Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 1Xtra, where she has hosted since July 2022. The route in was the BBC Radio 1 Presenter Search in 2019, followed by Christmas Drivetime, Early Breakfast and daytime cover on Radio 1 before moving across to 1Xtra. That is a competitive route into BBC daytime broadcasting and gives her a working relationship with a national, multi-generational, culturally diverse audience that organisations pay agencies a great deal of money to reach. The event work runs alongside the broadcast role and is the reason most corporate buyers commission her. Awards: MOBO, AIM, Business Book Awards, Inclusive Books for Children, the Diana Award Anti-Racist Bullying showcase. Live events: Red Bull BC One UK Cypher, Move It, Breakin’ Convention, U.Dance National Showcase, BBC Bitesize Tour, Ditto X Meet the Music Industry, Earl’s Court International Film Festival. Sport: in-game host for London Spirit at The Hundred. Literary festivals: chair at Hay, Cheltenham, Chiswick, and Brighton. The thread across those rooms is one specific capability: she can read an audience that does not share a single demographic and find a register that works for all of it. That is why she lands in inclusion-led briefs, youth audiences, music industry rooms, and corporate award stages with the same composure. Key speaking topics Awards and ceremony hosting Conference and summit MC work Panel chairing and interview moderation Literary festival and book event chairing Live sport and entertainment presenting Inclusion-led event hosting Broadcast voiceover Ideal for Brand and marketing leads commissioning a national awards ceremony, brand launch, or industry gala Internal communications and culture leads running town halls, recognition events, or all-hands moments that need a credible external voice Organisations running inclusion, education, or youth-audience programmes that need a host who can carry the tone authentically Conference programmers needing a moderator who can chair interviews and panels live without losing the thread Audience outcomes A live event that runs on time, with energy held from open to close Sponsor, winner and guest moments that land cleanly without dead air between them Interview segments where the guest is drawn out rather than walked over A host presence that connects with audiences across generations, cultures and seniority in the same room

Why organisations work with Hamda Al Qubaisi She is a working case study, not a retired one. She is still competing at the front of an international single-seater field, which gives her perspective on inclusion the credibility of present tense rather than retrospect. The credential is specific and verifiable: first woman to podium in Italian F4, third in the inaugural F1 Academy championship with MP Motorsport, Red Bull Academy programme driver. Audiences can place her without an introduction. She speaks from inside the Gulf, not about it. For organisations operating in the Middle East, or building gender strategies that have to work in the region, that vantage point is unusual on the international circuit. Her message is operational, not motivational. She addresses what funding, family backing, and team-level decisions actually made the difference, which is closer to what HR and DEI leads need than a generic empowerment talk. Biography highlights Member of the Red Bull Academy Programme, representing Red Bull Racing in the 2024 F1 Academy season. Drove for MP Motorsport in the inaugural 2023 F1 Academy season, finishing third in the championship with four wins and seven podiums. First woman to score a podium in Italian F4, at Misano in 2021. First Emirati driver invited to the FIA CIK-FIA Karting Academy Trophy, in 2016. Featured by Nasdaq, Formula 1, Arab News, Goodwood, and Entrepreneur Middle East on women in motorsport and STEM. Ambassador for Abu Dhabi-based Yas Heat Racing; signed with AKCEL GP x PHM Racing for the 2025 F4 Middle East Championship. Biography Single-seater motorsport is one of the most consistently male environments in elite sport. The path through karting, regional Formula 4, and feeder series rewards drivers who have been visible to teams from childhood, which historically has not included girls from the Gulf. The arrival of a competitive Emirati woman in that pipeline is not a soft story about representation. It is a structural anomaly worth understanding. Hamda Al Qubaisi entered Italian F4 in 2019 and in 2021 became the first woman to podium in the championship’s history, at Misano. She won three races on home soil in the F4 UAE series and built the record that earned her a seat with MP Motorsport for the inaugural F1 Academy season in 2023, where she finished third overall with four race wins and seven podiums. The Red Bull Academy Programme signed her for 2024, putting her on the Red Bull Racing development pathway and giving her a commercial platform that few drivers, male or female, reach in their early twenties. She closed her two-year F1 Academy stint with two podiums in the final three races at Yas Marina, in front of a home crowd. What makes her useful in a corporate setting is the specificity of her account. She has spoken publicly, including at Nasdaq MarketSite, about how partnerships, family backing, and access to machinery decide who actually makes it through, rather than the abstract language of empowerment. For audiences in the Gulf, or for organisations whose inclusion work has to function in that region, she offers a first-person view from inside the pipeline that is still being built. Key speaking topics Women in male-coded high-performance environments Diversity and inclusion in motorsport and STEM Emirati and Gulf perspectives on women in sport Resilience and pressure management in elite competition Sponsorship, partnerships, and access in early careers Sustainable technology and the future of motorsport Ideal for CHROs and DEI leads designing inclusion programmes for technical, engineering, or operational workforces Organisations with a Gulf footprint building gender strategies that have to function regionally Corporate sponsorship, partnership, and brand teams in motorsport, automotive, and STEM Women’s leadership networks and graduate audiences in engineering and high-performance disciplines Audience outcomes A first-person view of what it takes for a woman to enter and hold a place in a male-coded technical field A clearer read on the Gulf context for women in sport, STEM, and competitive performance Specific examples of how sponsorship, family backing, and team decisions shape who progresses A working case for inclusion grounded in present-tense competition, not retrospective career story Honest framing of the pressure, scrutiny, and trade-offs that come with being the first or only in a room

Why organisations work with Harry Ife He speaks from the operational floor of UK construction, a sector where DEI and employability conversations are usually held about site managers rather than by one. Twice awarded the NHBC Pride in the Job quality benchmark, in 2021 and 2022, giving him credibility with operational leadership that a pure training specialist rarely has. Runs The I.F.E Foundation, a registered UK entity sponsoring schooling at Uwani Secondary School in Enugu, Nigeria and direct-support schemes in London, so his DEI argument is backed by his own delivery record. Works regularly with the University of Westminster, University of East London, City University London and University of Greenwich, which gives him a direct read on how students from underrepresented backgrounds experience the transition into professional life. Useful for internal audiences who tune out generic DEI training: his material is built around self-advocacy, mentorship and career mechanics rather than awareness. Biography highlights Senior construction professional working in build management and the delivery of mixed-use developments. NHBC Pride in the Job Award winner, 2021 and 2022. Founder of The I.F.E (Independence For Everyone) Foundation, UK company number 15038338. Guest speaker and lecturer at the University of Westminster, University of East London, City University London and University of Greenwich. Corporate speaking clients include Mimecast, where he has presented for the global DEI function. Holds a BA in Business Management, an MSc in International Management, and an NVQ Level 7 in Senior Construction Management. Biography Construction is one of the clearest tests of whether an organisation’s DEI commitments survive contact with an operational environment. The policies are written centrally. The behaviour that decides whether a twenty-five-year-old from an underrepresented background stays or leaves is set on site, in offices, and in the first few conversations with a line manager. That is the ground Harry Ife works on. A senior construction professional specialising in build management and mixed-use developments, he has been recognised with the NHBC Pride in the Job Award in both 2021 and 2022, the industry’s main quality benchmark for site managers. He speaks to corporate and educational audiences from that vantage point rather than from a consulting or academic one. His public work is built around self-advocacy, mentorship and employability for early-career professionals, with particular focus on the experience of ethnic minority entrants into industries where they remain underrepresented. He has taken this into corporate DEI functions, including Mimecast, and into university audiences at Westminster, East London, City University London and Greenwich. Alongside his construction career he founded The I.F.E (Independence For Everyone) Foundation, which sponsors education at Uwani Secondary School in Enugu, Nigeria, and runs the Christmas in a Card initiative for low-income households in London. For a buyer, the useful point is that his speaking content and his delivery record are the same argument. Key speaking topics Self-advocacy in the workplace Early-career progression in underrepresented industries Mentorship and career mechanics Diversity, equity and inclusion in construction and engineering Employability and future skills Rehabilitation and second-chance employment pathways Ideal for CHROs, DEI leads and early-careers teams in construction, engineering, property and other trade-heavy sectors University careers services and student-experience teams running employability programmes Corporate ERG and employee-network events where the audience has heard the standard DEI talk before Foundations, CSR teams and charity partners working on youth employability Audience outcomes A sharper picture of where DEI intent actually breaks down for early-career talent on site and in the office. Concrete language for self-advocacy that junior professionals can use in real situations rather than in a training setting. A working view of what effective mentorship looks like from both sides of the relationship. An operational rather than theoretical frame on DEI in construction, engineering and similar industries.

Why organisations work with Flex He has built United View from a personal channel into a 130,000-plus subscriber football media brand without a broadcaster behind him, and can describe what actually retains an audience week to week. He sits inside English football’s broadcast ecosystem (Sky Sports, talkSPORT, DR Sports Media) while running an independent platform, which gives him a working view of where legacy media and creator media now compete and overlap. His perspective on inclusion is grounded in lived experience as a Black broadcaster, including a publicly reported racist-abuse incident outside Old Trafford that he chose to confront on the record rather than absorb privately. His career, from SEN teacher to elite-game broadcaster, gives him concrete material on reinvention and on speaking to young audiences, rather than abstract claims about purpose. One of YouTube’s UK Black Voices Class of 2022, a curated cohort selected and developed by the platform itself. Biography highlights Founder and presenter of United View, an independent Manchester United-focused YouTube channel with more than 130,000 subscribers. Presenter and broadcaster for Sky Sports (including Good Morning Transfers), talkSPORT and DR Sports Media. Selected for the YouTube UK Black Voices Creator Class of 2022. Host of the BTEC Awards and of UK Black Business Week; BTEC Ambassador. Former Special Educational Needs teacher; basketball player formerly contracted to the London Lions (previously MK Lions). Working R&B and Garage DJ alongside his broadcast and creator work. Biography Independent fan media has moved from a hobby tier to a structural part of how football is consumed. United View, the channel Flex founded in 2021 and grew past 130,000 subscribers, sits inside that shift. It runs without a broadcaster’s infrastructure and earns its audience by being closer to the matchday experience than legacy outlets can be. That operator vantage point is what makes him useful to a business audience. He can talk concretely about what holds an online community together, how trust is built when there is no studio behind you, and where independent creators and traditional broadcasters now compete for the same attention. His parallel work with Sky Sports, talkSPORT and DR Sports Media gives him a view from both sides of that line. Inclusion is the other live thread. As a Black broadcaster in English football he has had to address racism in his work directly, including a publicly reported incident outside Old Trafford in November 2024 that he chose to put on the record rather than carry quietly. His selection for YouTube’s UK Black Voices Creator Class of 2022 and his hosting roles at UK Black Business Week and the BTEC Awards place him inside the institutional side of that conversation as well. He came to broadcasting via a Special Educational Needs teaching career, basketball at the London Lions, and a continuing life as an R&B and Garage DJ. That track gives him substantive material for audiences thinking about reinvention, young talent and the route into creator-led careers, beyond the football frame. Key speaking topics Audience and community building in the creator economy Independent media and the future of sports broadcasting Diversity and inclusion in sport, media and the workplace Confronting racism in public-facing work Reinvention and non-linear careers Engaging young and digital-native audiences Hosting, panel facilitation and event presenting in sport and culture Ideal for CHROs, DEI leads and internal culture teams looking for a credible voice on inclusion that is grounded in lived experience rather than slideware. Marketing, brand and audience leaders working through the shift from broadcast to creator-led media. Employee network and ERG events, particularly around Black History Month, anti-racism programming and early-careers outreach. Sports, media and entertainment organisations briefing teams on how independent creators are changing fan and consumer behaviour. Audience outcomes A clearer working picture of how independent creators earn and keep audience trust, and what that means for in-house content and brand teams. A more honest framing of inclusion at work, from someone who has had to handle racism in public rather than discuss it in abstract. Material on building careers and platforms outside conventional broadcast and corporate routes, usable in early-careers and emerging-talent programmes. Sharper questions about where legacy media authority sits now that fans and employees increasingly trust people, not institutions.

Why organisations work with Jason Roberts He is the named architect of the 2012 player boycott of the Kick It Out campaign, which produced the PFA’s six-point plan and a UK Rooney Rule for coaching appointments. He can speak to inclusion as institutional reform, not as awareness work. He runs football development across CONCACAF’s forty-one member associations, including the Coaching Convention and the Pro Licence, which gives him a working operator’s view of talent pathways and governance at scale. He built and still leads the Jason Roberts Foundation, active since 2007 across the UK and Grenada, with a documented record of programme delivery rather than badge philanthropy. His MBE was awarded for services to sport in both Grenada and London, recognition of cross-jurisdiction social impact, not single-country celebrity endorsement. He has a long broadcast track record (BBC 5 Live 606, Match of the Day 2, Sky Sports), so he handles audience and conversation with the fluency of a working presenter. Biography highlights Chief Football Development Officer, CONCACAF, leading coaching education and grassroots infrastructure across forty-one member associations. MBE, 2010 New Year Honours, for services to sport in Grenada and London. Founder and chair, Jason Roberts Foundation, established 2007, operating in the UK and Grenada. Premier League career across West Bromwich Albion, Wigan Athletic, Blackburn Rovers and Reading; full Grenada international. Director, West Bromwich Albion Football Club Limited (board appointment, April 2026). Broadcaster for BBC Radio 5 Live (606), Match of the Day 2 and Sky Sports. Biography In October 2012, a group of Premier League players refused to wear the Kick It Out t-shirt at the weekend’s fixtures. The protest had a named leader. Roberts, then at Reading, had written publicly that the campaign was under-resourced and that the league’s anti-racism work was failing the players it was meant to protect. The fallout produced concrete reform. The PFA published a six-point plan that included tougher sanctions for racial abuse and an English version of the NFL’s Rooney Rule for coaching interview opportunities. Inclusion in English football moved, however briefly, from communications campaign to procedural change. That is the through-line of his career: refusing the symbolic version of an institutional problem and pushing for the operating version. That instinct now runs at confederation scale. As Chief Football Development Officer at CONCACAF, he leads coaching education, the Pro Licence, and grassroots infrastructure across forty-one member associations from Canada to Caribbean micro-states. The work is structural. It is about who gets coached, by whom, to what standard, in which country. The credentials on paper, MBE for services to sport in Grenada and London, a Premier League career of nearly five hundred appearances, broadcast roles at BBC 5 Live and Sky, and the foundation running since 2007, are real. They matter most as evidence that the inclusion argument and the development work are not separate tracks. They are the same job done from different positions. Key speaking topics Inclusive leadership and institutional reform Race equality in elite sport and corporate parallels Talent pathways and development systems Governance and culture change in high-performance organisations Social impact through sport Leadership and resilience in competitive environments Ideal for CHROs, DEI leads and culture transformation executives examining the gap between inclusion narrative and operating change. Board and executive committees responsible for governance reform in legacy institutions. Talent and learning leaders rebuilding development pathways and progression systems. Sport, broadcast and entertainment organisations facing reputational and structural inclusion pressure. Audience outcomes A clearer picture of what it takes to convert an inclusion problem into a procedural reform with measurable obligations. A working view of how confederation-scale development systems are structured, useful by analogy for any federated organisation. Honest assessment of the personal and reputational cost of leading reform from inside a powerful institution. A grounded perspective on social impact programmes that survive past the initial press cycle.

Why organisations work with Rachel Brown-Finnis A first-person account of a workforce professionalising in real time. She joined the England set-up before central contracts existed and was still playing when the FA introduced them in 2009; few speakers can describe an industry rebuilding itself from inside the dressing room. Lead-level broadcast craft. She co-commentated the BBC’s Euro 2025 final between England and Spain alongside Robyn Cowen, on top of long-standing punditry on Football Focus, The Women’s Football Show, BBC 5 Live and BT Sport, which transfers directly to corporate hosting, panels and fireside interviews. The goalkeeper’s perspective on team pressure. The position carries a particular discipline around isolation, recovery from visible error, and the cost of a single mistake; that is useful content for high-stakes corporate teams, not a metaphor. A practitioner voice on women entering male-coded industries, drawn from a 17-year senior international career, two World Cups, three European Championships, and an Olympic Games, not from secondary research. Biography highlights 82 senior England caps from a debut at 16 against Germany in 1997 through to international retirement in 2014. First-choice England goalkeeper at the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup and UEFA Women’s Euro 2009; Team GB squad member at the London 2012 Olympics. FA Women’s Cup winner with Everton in 2010; FA Women’s Cup finalist with Liverpool in 1996 at the age of 15. One of the first female players awarded a central contract by The Football Association in 2009. Co-commentator on the BBC’s Euro 2025 final coverage and long-standing pundit across BBC Sport, BT Sport and BBC 5 Live. Sports Science degree, University of Pittsburgh, where she held the Panthers’ single-season record for fewest goals conceded; subsequent PE teaching qualification at Liverpool John Moores University. Biography Women’s football was an amateur sport when Rachel Brown-Finnis made her senior England debut at 16 against Germany in 1997. It was a professional, broadcast-funded industry by the time she retired from international football in 2014. She played through every stage of that transition: 82 caps, two World Cups, three European Championships, the 2012 Olympics, and the introduction of the first FA central contracts for women in 2009, which she was part of. The playing career was built on a goalkeeping discipline familiar to anyone who has worked in a high-visibility role. The position rewards composure, an honest read of risk, and recovery from public error. She held the first-choice England jersey through the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup and UEFA Women’s Euro 2009. At club level she won the FA Women’s Cup with Everton in 2010 after reaching her first final at 15 with Liverpool. The broadcast career has tracked the commercial expansion of the women’s game. She is a fixture on BBC Football Focus, The Women’s Football Show, BBC 5 Live and BT Sport, wrote a weekly Guardian column through the 2019/20 WSL season, and co-commentated the BBC’s coverage of the Euro 2025 final between England and Spain. The skill set is live broadcast craft: read the room, structure the conversation, manage the interview, hold the line under pressure. When she speaks from the stage, the material is grounded in that experience rather than imported from a framework. Team culture inside elite environments. The texture of being one of very few women in a high-performance system that was not designed for her. The economics and identity of a workforce that has had to build itself in public. The story is specific, recent, and difficult to outsource. Key speaking topics Team culture and trust in high-performance environments Women in male-coded industries Resilience and composure under public pressure The economics and evolution of women’s professional sport Live broadcast hosting, interview craft and on-stage moderation Lessons from a goalkeeping career: isolation, error recovery, and the cost of a single moment Ideal for Leadership teams in financial services, engineering, energy and other historically male-coded sectors running inclusion or women-in-leadership programmes. Sponsors and partners of the Premier League, The FA, WSL and the wider football ecosystem programming hospitality, conferences and awards. Corporate event organisers commissioning a broadcast-trained host or panel moderator rather than a celebrity name. High-performance organisations using sport as a credible reference point for team culture, recovery from error, and pressure management. Audience outcomes A first-person account of a workforce professionalising in real time, with the structural and cultural detail intact. Working language for women in male-coded industries that resists slogan and connects to operational reality. A goalkeeper’s mental model for high-visibility error: how teams should treat the person who carries the moment. Live interview and hosting craft when she takes the stage rather than the keynote slot, applied to panels, fireside conversations and awards.

Why organisations work with Hugh Woozencroft Daily live broadcasting on talkSPORT and The Times’ The Game podcast keeps his interview muscle in regular use, so executives, athletes and panellists get a host who can move a conversation without losing the room. ITV’s EFL Show, Women’s Football coverage and Rugby World Cup work give him the kind of cross-sport credibility that suits sponsor events, sports business gatherings and brand activations around major tournaments. BBC News reporting from Wimbledon, Champions League finals, the Ashes and the Boat Race built a habit of distilling complex live events for general audiences. The same instinct works for plenary moderation. A real specialism in diversity in sports media, anchored in his time on the BCOMS board and a 2018 BBC piece on representation, gives him a defensible angle when the brief touches inclusion, talent pipelines or culture inside sport. Biography highlights Host of talkSPORT’s Kick Off show, Tuesday to Thursday primetime. Host of The Game, The Times’ football podcast. Presenter for ITV’s EFL Show, ITV Women’s Football, and ITV’s Rugby World Cup coverage. Former BBC Radio 5Live and BBC News presenter, including Sportsweek, Test Match Special and the 2012 London Olympics. Former presenter on BBC Two’s Victoria Derbyshire Show. Former board member, The Black Collective of Media in Sport (BCOMS); MA Sports Journalism, St Mary’s University. Biography Live sport on radio is one of the harder briefs in broadcasting. The picture is invisible, the action is fast, and the audience will leave the moment the presenter loses the thread. Hugh Woozencroft anchors talkSPORT’s Kick Off, three weeknights a week, across Champions League, Europa League, Premier League, Carabao Cup and FA Cup coverage. The same discipline carries into corporate hosting work. His route in was unfussy. A master’s in Sports Journalism at St Mary’s, a broadcast assistant role at BBC Radio 5Live, and on-air work from 2013 onwards. From there: Sportsweek, Test Match Special, the 2012 London Olympics, BBC News reporting from Wimbledon, the Ashes, Champions League finals and the Boat Race, and presenting shifts on BBC Two’s Victoria Derbyshire Show. Now he combines talkSPORT with hosting The Times’ The Game podcast and ITV’s EFL Show, Women’s Football and Rugby World Cup coverage. The second strand is diversity in sports media. In 2018, Woozencroft wrote a BBC piece on the absence of Black and minority ethnic journalists in senior sports newsrooms. He joined the board of The Black Collective of Media in Sport that year, chaired sessions at the D Word 2 conference, and stepped off the board in 2023. That work gives him a specific, evidenced position on representation inside an industry he reports on daily, useful when a brief touches inclusion in sport, talent pipelines or media culture. For corporate audiences, the offer is honest. A working broadcaster who hosts elite live sport every week, with a credible secondary line on inclusion in his industry, available for moderation, panel chairing, awards hosting and after-dinner conversation. Key speaking topics Event hosting and moderation Panel chairing Awards and after-dinner hosting Sports business and sponsorship events Diversity in sports media Media training and presentation craft Ideal for Sponsor activations and hospitality programmes around major football and rugby tournaments Sports business conferences, governing body events and federation gatherings Corporate awards evenings, annual gatherings and internal town halls needing a confident host DEI events in media or sport where the brief calls for a credible insider voice Audience outcomes A panel that stays on time and on point, with senior speakers drawn into specifics rather than left to read prepared lines A room that feels held, particularly across long-form programmes mixing keynote, panel and audience Q&A For diversity briefs in sport or media, a first-hand account of where progress has been real and where it has stalled A measured, journalistic interview style suited to executive guests, athletes and public figures

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.

Why organisations work with Kelly Somers A live host who has worked the biggest moments in English football, including becoming the sixth woman to present Match of the Day, and brings that calibre of broadcast craft to a corporate stage. A trusted facilitator for the sport ecosystem itself. The Premier League, The FA, EFL, LMA and Barclays use her on their own conferences, awards and leadership events, which is the strongest possible reference for any sponsor or partner of those bodies. A practitioner voice on gender inclusion in industries coded male for generations, drawn from her own working life across football broadcasting, not from secondary research. Interview range across elite athletes, managers and executives, with the discipline of live broadcast applied to panels, fireside chats and on-stage Q and A. Biography highlights Sports presenter and reporter across BBC Sport, including Final Score, Football Focus, The Women’s Football Show and BBC 5Live. Sixth woman to present Match of the Day, covering the 2020 FA Community Shield. Match reporter and presenter at UEFA Euro 2020, the 2022 FIFA World Cup, UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 and UEFA Euro 2024. Presenter for Amazon Prime’s Premier League coverage and Channel 4’s UEFA Nations League output. Corporate event host for the Premier League, Barclays, The FA, EFL and LMA. Postgraduate in broadcast journalism, Nottingham Trent University, following undergraduate studies at Loughborough University. Biography Live football broadcasting is a discipline most corporate stages underestimate. The presenter has to absorb a fast-moving situation, keep multiple guests coherent, manage time to the second, and make the whole thing feel calm. Kelly Somers has done that across the BBC, Amazon Prime and Channel 4 for more than a decade. Her CV inside the BBC includes Final Score, Football Focus, The Women’s Football Show and BBC 5Live, and reporting from England’s campaigns at UEFA Euro 2020, the 2022 FIFA World Cup, UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 and UEFA Euro 2024. In August 2020 she became the sixth woman in the programme’s history to present Match of the Day, covering the FA Community Shield. That broadcast track record is what brings her into corporate work. The Premier League, Barclays, The FA, EFL and the League Managers Association use her to host their own conferences, awards and leadership events, which is the highest reference any sport-adjacent client could ask for. The same discipline travels to keynote stages outside sport, where boards and leadership teams need a host who can keep a complex programme moving without losing the audience. When Somers speaks from the stage rather than hosting it, her subject is the one she has lived: how women earn credibility, hold a room, and change the everyday texture of a male-coded industry. She trained in broadcast journalism at Nottingham Trent University after Loughborough, started in the media department at AFC Bournemouth as the club rose into the Premier League, and built the broadcast career from there. The story is specific, not theoretical, and that is what makes it useful inside organisations trying to do the same work. Key speaking topics Football broadcasting and live event hosting Gender inclusion in male-dominated industries Building a career in sports media Interviewing elite performers under pressure Communicating with multi-generational audiences in digital media Sport, sponsorship and brand storytelling Ideal for Sponsors and partners of the Premier League, EFL, FA and LMA convening their own conferences, awards or hospitality programmes. Leadership teams in male-coded industries (financial services, engineering, construction, energy) running inclusion or women-in-leadership programming. Corporate awards, fireside chats and panels that need a broadcast-trained host rather than a celebrity name. Sport, media and broadcast businesses programming internal leadership and culture events. Audience outcomes A live event that runs to broadcast standard, with a host who keeps the room with her and the programme to time. A first-person account of building credibility as a woman inside elite football broadcasting, with the practical detail intact. Useable language for talking about gender inclusion that does not collapse into policy or slogan. Interview craft transferred to internal stages: how to prepare a guest, structure a conversation, and read a room in real time.

Why organisations work with Ade Oladipo He brings live broadcast craft to corporate events: DAZN Boxing, talkSPORT and Amazon Prime Premier League coverage are all built on holding a live audience under pressure, which is exactly what large internal conferences and award nights demand. His career is a documented case of breaking a colour barrier in UK sports media, becoming the first Black presenter of a live Premier League match in December 2023. That is concrete material, not abstract DEI commentary. His speaking themes (adversity, mental health, working in media) are grounded in his own route through fostering, East London, sports trials and a non-traditional path into journalism, which gives the content specificity rather than slogans. He is equally credible as keynote speaker, panel moderator and awards host, which makes him useful for clients who need one booking to cover the whole evening. Biography highlights Lead presenter for DAZN Boxing and host of “The DAZN Boxing Show”, covering Anthony Joshua, Canelo Alvarez, Gervonta Davis and KSI fights. First Black presenter of a live Premier League match in the UK, anchoring Amazon Prime’s coverage of Crystal Palace v Bournemouth in December 2023. Presenter across the talkSPORT network, including “The Social” on talkSPORT 2 and pundit work on “Kick Off Added Time”. Winner of the 2021 Audio Production Awards “Best New Voice”. Co-host of the 2023 ARIAS-nominated podcast “The Men’s Room”. Prior credits include Sky Sports News (Premier League and EFL transfer reporting), ESPN, Fox Sports and Arise News. Biography Live boxing on DAZN, Premier League football on Amazon Prime, weekly radio on talkSPORT. Three different audiences, three different production cultures, one presenter holding the room when the broadcast is live and the script has gone. That is the working life Ade Oladipo has built, and it is the material he brings into the corporate room. In December 2023 he became the first Black presenter of a live Premier League match in the UK, leading Amazon Prime’s coverage of Crystal Palace against Bournemouth. The story behind that night runs through Brighton foster care, East London, Essex football and athletics, a Tottenham Hotspur Academy trial, and an entry into sports journalism in 2015 at Arise News. None of it was the standard route. His speaking work draws on that route directly. The themes are adversity, mental health, and what it takes to keep doing the work when you are the only person in the room who looks like you. Awards include the 2021 Audio Production Awards “Best New Voice” and a 2023 ARIAS nomination as co-host of “The Men’s Room” podcast, evidence that the craft holds up alongside the story. For corporate clients his most direct value is hosting craft: keynote, Q&A, awards, panel moderation, all delivered with the calm of someone who presents live boxing for a living. The keynote on adversity and mental health is the additional offer when the brief calls for it. Key speaking topics Mental health and resilience in high-pressure work Adversity and non-linear career paths Race and representation in UK media Sports broadcasting and live presenting Event hosting and panel moderation Awards night MC Ideal for Corporate event organisers needing a host who can carry a full evening: keynote, panel, awards. Internal CHRO and DEI leads commissioning content on lived experience rather than policy. Sports, media and entertainment industry conferences. Employee Resource Group events, particularly those focused on Black professionals in white-majority industries. Audience outcomes A clear sense of what sustained mental health practice looks like for someone working under public scrutiny. A specific story of breaking into and breaking through a closed industry, used as material for their own career conversations. A sharper view of what genuine inclusion feels like from inside, beyond the slide deck. An event held together by a presenter trained on live broadcast, not a corporate stage.

Why organisations work with Nicklas Pyrdol He brings a working sport psychology background, including consulting to Olympians and world champions, into the language of corporate hiring and team performance, which most HR-stage speakers cannot. His operator track record is unusual for a speaker in this space: Executive HR Manager inside a tech company and partner in a tech startup, so the recommendations land for line leaders, not just HR. The client list is a credibility anchor on its own. LEGO Group, Maersk, Novo Nordisk, Orsted, Lundbeck, HubSpot, Dynatrace, SimCorp and Vivino have used him for the same recurring problem: serious hiring that holds up under scale. Through Beyond Talents and “The Recruitment Equation” podcast with Pil Byriel, he is in continuous dialogue with senior talent acquisition leaders, including Lundbeck’s Head of Global Talent Acquisition, which keeps the material current rather than recycled. He treats inclusion as a hiring quality issue, not a politics issue, which is the framing senior buyers want when DEI has become contested ground inside their own organisations. Biography highlights Founder of Beyond Talents, a Copenhagen-based talent acquisition advisory and speaking practice. Former sport psychology consultant to Olympians and world champions before moving into corporate HR leadership. Co-host of “The Recruitment Equation” podcast with Pil Byriel, featuring senior talent acquisition leaders from companies including Lundbeck. Co-author of a Danish book on motivation, “Motivation. Naa i maal med din traening”. Published academic work on talent development environments, including the Ajax Amsterdam academy, using the holistic ecological approach. Engaged as a keynote speaker by HubSpot, Dynatrace, SimCorp, Vivino, Maersk, LEGO Group, Lundbeck, Novo Nordisk and Orsted across Europe, Asia and the United States. Biography Hiring is where most organisations leak their strategy. Pipelines are narrow, interview panels reward familiarity, and the people who arrive cannot deliver what the plan assumed. Pyrdol’s career has been a long argument that this is fixable, and that the fix is mostly process and psychology rather than budget. His starting point was elite sport. Before moving into business, he worked as a sport psychology consultant with Olympians and world champions, and published research on talent development environments using the holistic ecological approach, including work on the Ajax Amsterdam academy. The premise from that period stayed with him: talent is a function of environment, not a fixed property of the individual. He then moved inside companies, first as an Executive HR Manager in a tech firm and then as a partner in a tech startup, before founding Beyond Talents in Copenhagen. From that base, he advises senior leaders at HubSpot, Dynatrace, SimCorp, Vivino, Maersk, LEGO Group, Lundbeck, Novo Nordisk and Orsted on recruitment, retention, inclusion and the everyday psychological safety that lets teams actually use the talent they hire. The current output runs across formats. He co-hosts “The Recruitment Equation” with Pil Byriel, where guests include Lundbeck’s Head of Global Talent Acquisition, Cassie Wu and Fairec’s Morten Gerner on AI and bias; he co-authored a Danish book on motivation; he writes regularly for HR audiences. The through-line is consistent. Recruitment, inclusion and engagement are operational disciplines, and senior leaders should hold them to operational standards. Key speaking topics Talent acquisition and inclusive recruitment Employee engagement and retention Psychological safety in teams Diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging Performance psychology in business Mindset during organisational transformation HR leadership capability Ideal for CHROs, talent acquisition leaders and heads of people are rebuilding hiring under pressure. Executive teams whose strategy depends on attracting and keeping scarce specialist talent. HR and recruitment functions reworking inclusion programmes for substance over signalling. Leadership audiences in scale-up tech and large enterprises managing distributed, multigenerational teams. Audience outcomes A sharper diagnosis of where their current hiring process is filtering out the talent they say they want. Concrete moves to widen the funnel and reduce bias without weakening the hiring bar. A working definition of psychological safety that distinguishes it from comfort, agreement or low standards. A view of engagement and retention as a continuous design problem owned by leaders, not a survey owned by HR. Language for talking to executives about inclusion in commercial terms when the political conversation has stalled.