Motivation and Inspiration

Why organisations work with Liz Jackson She has been on both sides of the table: founder of a B2B marketing firm she ran for 17 years, and now Sales & Marketing Director at M&A advisor BCMS, where she works with owner-managers through valuation, growth-to-sale, and the transition into life after exit. She runs The Fellows Group, a network of more than 200 entrepreneurs who have already sold their companies through BCMS. Few speakers can draw on a live, operational community of post-exit founders for their material. Her credibility on resilience is earned, not borrowed. She lost her sight at 25, the same year she founded Great Guns Marketing, and built the business into a multi-site national operation while blind. The MBE in 2007 was for services to business, not for personal story. She turns the conversation about disability and inclusion into a problem-solving conversation. Her framing, that disabled people develop unusually strong problem-solving instincts because they have had to, gives leadership teams a sharper lens on adversity and capability than the standard inclusion talk. Biography highlights MBE, 2007, for services to business Honorary doctorate, Staffordshire University, 2012 Founder, Great Guns Marketing, a national B2B telemarketing business she led for 17 years Sales & Marketing Director, BCMS (Initium Corporate Finance), advising owner-managers on sale and transition Host of The Fellows Group, a network of 200+ entrepreneurs who have exited their businesses through BCMS Featured on Channel 4’s Secret Millionaire Author of StartUp!, published by Pearson Prentice Hall Biography Great Guns Marketing was launched in 1998 by a 25-year-old with no degree, a £1,000 grant and a £4,000 loan from The Prince’s Trust. The same year, its founder lost her sight. Over the next 17 years the business grew into one of the UK’s leading B2B telemarketing firms, with offices across England, Scotland and Ireland. That arc is the foundation of Liz Jackson’s commercial credibility, but it is no longer her main subject. As Sales & Marketing Director at BCMS, the M&A advisor for owner-managed businesses, she now sits inside the transactions she once would have been on the other side of, coaching founders through valuation, growth-to-sale and the life that begins the day the cheque clears. She also hosts The Fellows Group, a network of more than 200 entrepreneurs who have exited their companies through BCMS. It gives her a working evidence base on what actually changes for founders after a sale, the parts that are well rehearsed and the parts that are not. That material sits behind her work on entrepreneurship, growth strategy and exit planning, and it is what distinguishes her from speakers whose entrepreneurial story stopped at the founding moment. Jackson’s MBE, awarded in 2007 for services to business, and her honorary doctorate from Staffordshire University in 2012 are the public markers of that record. The Channel 4 Secret Millionaire appearance and her book StartUp!, published by Pearson Prentice Hall, are the points where her story has reached a broader audience. Inside a leadership room, her sharpest material is on how owner-managers can run a business now with the discipline of a business that will one day be sold. Key speaking topics Entrepreneurship and scale-up leadership Growth strategy for owner-managed businesses Sale readiness and post-exit transition Sales and B2B customer acquisition Resilience and adversity in business building Disability, problem-solving and inclusion Networking and founder community Ideal for Owner-managers, founders and shareholder-directors of mid-market businesses M&A advisors, private equity portfolio companies and corporate finance audiences Sales and commercial leadership teams in B2B businesses DEI and leadership audiences seeking a substantive voice on disability and capability Audience outcomes A clearer picture of what running a business “to be sold” actually looks like operationally, not just financially Specific insight from a network of 200+ post-exit founders on what makes the transition succeed or fail A sharper framing of disability and adversity as a source of commercial problem-solving capability A direct account of how a national B2B business was built, and sustained, by a founder operating without sight

Why organisations work with Caitriona Ellis She connects employee financial wellness directly to retention, giving HR and reward leaders a way to frame money support as a workforce outcome rather than a soft benefit. Her credentials as a qualified financial adviser mean the content stands up to scrutiny, which matters when an employer is putting financial guidance in front of staff. She speaks from a first-person recovery from serious financial difficulty, so audiences who feel quietly ashamed about money see someone credible who has been where they are. Her programmes are CPD-accredited, giving an employer external assurance that the material has been independently quality-checked before it reaches employees. Biography highlights Qualified financial adviser with an honours Commerce degree and a career background in the banking sector. Founder of the Financial Wellness Academy, running structured financial wellbeing programmes for individuals and organisations. Buy-to-let property investor who acquired six properties remotely in the North East of England within a single 12-month period. Fellow of the National Estate Agents Association, with a Level 4 qualification in Residential Estate Agency. Programmes are CPD-accredited, independently quality-assured for content. Regular speaker and podcast guest on financial wellness, including Institute of Directors International Women’s Day events and International Women Connected. Biography Money is the wellbeing problem most employers leave out. Mental health and physical health have a place in the corporate programme; financial anxiety, which sits underneath both, usually does not. Caitriona Ellis built her work in that gap, founding the Financial Wellness Academy to bring structured financial education to people who carry money stress quietly. Her authority rests on two things that rarely sit together. She is a qualified financial adviser with an honours Commerce degree and a banking background, so the technical content is sound. She has also worked her own way out of serious financial difficulty, which is why audiences who feel exposed about money tend to trust her rather than tune out. That credibility extends into practice. She is an active buy-to-let property investor who acquired six properties remotely in the North East of England inside a year, and a Fellow of the National Estate Agents Association. Her programmes are CPD-accredited, giving employers external assurance that what reaches their staff has been independently checked. For an organisation, the argument she makes is concrete: employees who feel in control of their money are easier to keep. She frames financial wellbeing as a retention lever, the part of the employee relationship that engagement surveys miss and exit interviews reveal too late. Key speaking topics Employee financial wellbeing Financial literacy and money confidence Financial wellbeing and staff retention Women and money Personal resilience and financial recovery Property investment and income diversification Ideal for CHROs, reward, and benefits leaders building or reviewing an employee wellbeing programme. Employee resource groups and women’s networks running financial confidence sessions. Organisations whose staff are visibly affected by cost-of-living pressure and financial stress. Audience outcomes Audiences leave able to name the first practical steps to take control of their own finances, regardless of starting point. Employees who felt isolated about money see that the problem is common and addressable, lowering the shame that keeps it hidden. HR and reward attendees leave with a clearer case for treating financial wellbeing as a retention issue, not a perk. Audiences gain a basic working understanding of income diversification and longer-term financial planning.

Why organisations work with Naomi Schiff She has performed at the level she talks about. Schiff drove in the inaugural W Series in 2019, won the 2014 Clio Cup China Series with seven victories in ten races, and finished second in class at the 2018 24 Hours of Nürburgring. Lived authority is uncommon in the inclusion speaking circuit. The Sky Sports F1 analyst role is current. She is in the F1 paddock during race weekends, conducting on-grid interviews and post-session analysis. The examples she uses with corporate audiences come from this season. The W Series Diversity and Inclusion Ambassador title is a structured external credential. The W Series itself was designed to give female drivers a competitive route toward Formula 1, so the inclusion conversation she leads is rooted in operational reality. Bilingual in English and French, with broadcast credits across Sky Sports and Canal+. Useful for European corporate audiences and for events that need a host-fluent presence in both languages. Biography highlights Sky Sports F1 analyst and presenter; full-time on the channel since 2023 W Series Diversity and Inclusion Ambassador, appointed 2020 Inaugural W Series competitor, 2019 2014 Clio Cup China Series champion with seven wins from ten races Second in class at the 2018 24 Hours of Nürburgring Co-presented the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 W13 launch with Natalie Pinkham, 2022 Biography Few performance environments are as exposed as elite motorsport. At Le Mans or the Nürburgring, the car either makes the lap or it does not, and the data is in the public record by the next morning. There is no committee, no PR layer between driver and result. When the W Series launched in 2019 as the first single-seater championship structured exclusively for female drivers, places on the grid were tightly contested. Schiff was selected for the inaugural season and appointed the championship’s Diversity and Inclusion Ambassador the following year. Her racing record runs across continents. The 2014 Clio Cup China Series, won with seven victories in ten races, brought a five-year contract with a German team. They raced the KTM X-Bow GT across the European GT4 series and 24-hour endurance events. At the 2018 24 Hours of Nürburgring, considered alongside Le Mans the most punishing endurance race in the world, she finished second in class. From 2022 she joined Sky Sports F1 as analyst and presenter, co-presenting the Mercedes-AMG Petronas W13 launch with Natalie Pinkham. She went full-time on the channel in 2023. When online abuse questioned her racing credentials in 2022, Lewis Hamilton publicly defended her place on the Sky team, and the broader F1 paddock followed his lead. Key speaking topics Diversity, equity and inclusion in male-dominated industries Performance under pressure Mental resilience and recovery Women in sport and motorsport High-performance team culture Broadcast hosting and event moderation Ideal for CHROs, DEI leads, and women’s leadership networks in male-dominated sectors such as engineering, automotive, energy and financial services Sponsor activation events and brand-led keynotes connected to motorsport or premium sport Conference programmes that need a host or moderator with current F1 access and bilingual capability Audience outcomes A direct view of how the W Series was structured to create a competitive pathway for female drivers, and what that suggests for pathway design inside corporate organisations Specific examples from the F1 paddock of how teams handle pressure and make decisions at speed A sharper sense of what it costs to be the only woman in a high-performance professional environment, drawn from working experience A current take on the F1 ecosystem and how it manages performance and representation

Why organisations work with Lee McKenzie A live-television hosting standard. Two decades anchoring Formula 1, Olympic, Paralympic, Wimbledon and Six Nations coverage translates directly into conference and awards rooms where the brief is tight scripts, live interviews and zero margin for error. Genuine motorsport access. She has interviewed Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher, Max Verstappen and other Formula 1 World Champions on the record, repeatedly, over fifteen years. That access is the basis of Inside F1, her 2022 book with Black and White Publishing. A first-mover credential that still differentiates. First woman to anchor Formula 1 on British television, first female recipient of the Jim Clark Memorial Award. The story of how she got there is the spine of her keynote material. A trusted hand for sponsor-sensitive rooms. Repeat hosting work for JP Morgan, UBS, Investec, Mercedes-Benz, McLaren Automotive and Castrol indicates a presenter who can read a corporate brief and stay on it. Biography highlights Reporter and presenter, Channel 4 Formula 1, 2016 to present. BBC Formula 1 pit lane reporter, 2009 to 2015; first woman to present Formula 1 as main anchor on British television, 2012. Author, Inside F1: Life Alongside Legends, Black and White Publishing, 2022. Jim Clark Memorial Award, 2007, first female recipient. Broadcast credits include Wimbledon, Six Nations, Commonwealth Games, Olympic and Paralympic Games, Channel 4 Rugby and BBC Radio 5 Live. Patron of World Horse Welfare; former World Rally Championship co-driver, class winner at Wales Rally GB 2004. Biography Formula 1 is a useful laboratory for how senior people behave under pressure. The decisions are made in seconds, the consequences are public, and the recovery cycle from a bad result is measured in days. Lee McKenzie has been inside that environment, with a microphone, for the better part of two decades. She joined the BBC Formula 1 team as pit lane reporter in 2009 and stayed through to 2015, covering every grand prix and stepping into the main anchor chair in 2012, the first woman to do so on British television. When the rights moved to Channel 4 in 2016 she moved with them, and now serves as reporter and presenter, including the long-form F1 Meets interview series. Her broadcast range extends well beyond motorsport, taking in Wimbledon, the Six Nations, Channel 4 Rugby, and successive Olympic and Paralympic Games. Her 2022 book Inside F1: Life Alongside Legends, published by Black and White Publishing, draws on sustained on-the-record access to seven Formula 1 World Champions, including Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. It is the basis of her speaking material on composure, preparation and what elite performers do differently when results are binary. Outside the studio she is a patron of World Horse Welfare and a former World Rally Championship co-driver, class winner at Wales Rally GB in 2004. The Jim Clark Memorial Award, which she received in 2007 as the first woman to do so, recognised her contribution to motorsport in a year when she was still establishing herself in front of the camera. Key speaking topics Lessons from elite Formula 1 performers Composure and preparation under public pressure Career-building as a woman in male-dominated industries Sport, sponsorship and the corporate stage Live interviewing and storytelling under deadline Ideal for Corporate conferences and annual kick-offs that need a senior on-stage host or moderator Awards ceremonies and gala dinners with motorsport, automotive or sponsorship audiences Leadership offsites looking for a sport-led keynote on performance under pressure Panels and fireside discussions with athletes, executives or sponsors Audience outcomes A clearer read on how elite performers prepare, recover and stay composed when results are public Specific stories from Formula 1, Olympic and Paralympic environments that map onto corporate decision-making Stronger framing for women navigating early-career moves in male-dominated industries Conference flow held together by a presenter who has done it live on television

Why organisations work with Toby Moody Eighteen years as the voice of MotoGP on Eurosport, now leading the international TV feed and BT Sport’s 4K coverage, gives him a vocabulary for high-stakes live performance most speakers only describe second-hand. Eight Dakar Rally campaigns as lead international feed commentator, on site across three continents, mean his material on operating under fatigue, equipment failure and shifting conditions comes from inside the bivouac. Hands-on team experience as Media Manager for Prodrive’s Bahrain Raid Xtreme World Rally Raid team and consultant to KTM’s board for the Red Bull KTM MotoGP programme, not just an outside view of motorsport. Cross-code authority across MotoGP, the British Touring Car Championship, FIA World Endurance, the X Games and Red Bull Global RallyCross lets him tailor the same themes for engineering, logistics and sponsorship audiences. A trusted hospitality host for Audi Sport at Le Mans, Porsche Motorsport press conferences and Goodwood Festival of Speed, with the moderation and emcee craft to carry a corporate room as well as a paddock. Biography highlights Lead commentator on MotoGP for the international TV feed and on BT Sport’s MotoGP 4K coverage. Eighteen years as Eurosport’s MotoGP voice, with Julian Ryder as commentary partner for fourteen of those years. Eight-time lead international feed commentator on the Dakar Rally, on site. Lead ITV4 commentator for the British Touring Car Championship and British Superbike Championship. FIA World Endurance Championship and Le Mans 24 Hours commentary; X Games motorsports commentator for ESPN; Red Bull Global RallyCross lead commentator for NBC and Red Bull TV. Trackside commentator at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and Revival; Audi Sport presenter at the Le Mans 24-hour arena; Media Manager for Prodrive’s Bahrain Raid Xtreme Dakar team, 2022-2024. Biography The MotoGP race weekend runs to a brutal schedule. Free practice, qualifying, warm-up, race, with riders, engineers and broadcasters all working off the same timing screens. Someone has to make sense of it live, in English, for a global audience that will notice every mistake. For most of the modern MotoGP era, that voice has been Toby Moody’s. Moody began commentating at Shelsley Walsh hill climb at 18, after working as a mechanic at Benetton F1 and Prodrive in school holidays. A contact at Prodrive led to a MotoGP commentary slot in Spain that became eighteen years as the lead voice for Eurosport, with Julian Ryder as partner for fourteen of them. He now leads commentary on the MotoGP international TV feed and on BT Sport’s 4K coverage. The breadth around that core matters. Eight Dakar Rally campaigns as lead international feed commentator, on site across Africa, South America and Saudi Arabia. FIA World Endurance Championship and Le Mans commentary. ITV4 lead on the British Touring Car and British Superbike championships. X Games motorsports commentary for ESPN, and Red Bull Global RallyCross for NBC. Trackside roles at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and Revival. The point for corporate audiences is range: live performance pressure tested across very different sports, formats and cultures. He has also worked inside the teams, not only the broadcast booth. Canon Williams F1 PR in the early 1990s. Two British Rally titles with Nissan as PR. Media Manager for Prodrive’s Bahrain Raid Xtreme team in the World Rally Raid Championship from 2022 to 2024, working with Sebastien Loeb. Consultant to KTM’s board for the Red Bull KTM MotoGP team. That dual track, broadcast and team operations, is what gives his corporate material specificity that pure presenters do not have. Key speaking topics Live broadcasting and composure under pressure MotoGP, Dakar Rally and Le Mans paddock storytelling Team performance and decision-making in elite motorsport Motorsport sponsorship, hospitality and brand activation Conference moderation, emcee and after-dinner hosting Cross-code motorsport: bikes, cars, endurance and rally raid Ideal for Corporate hospitality and client events at MotoGP rounds, Le Mans, the Dakar Rally and Goodwood Sales kick-offs and annual conferences looking for a named motorsport voice to host or headline Engineering, operations and supply chain leadership audiences drawn to precision-under-pressure themes Automotive, motorcycle and motorsport sponsor activations needing an industry-trusted moderator Audience outcomes A practitioner’s view of how factory race teams prepare for events they cannot fully predict. Stories from inside the MotoGP paddock and the Dakar bivouac that make performance under pressure tangible. A clearer sense of how a single voice and a clear running order hold a long, volatile live event together. Material that lands with motorsport enthusiasts in the room and colleagues who have never watched a race.

Why organisations work with Robin Horsfall Inside account of Operation Nimrod, the 1980 Iranian Embassy hostage rescue, from a member of the assault team. Few speakers can describe high-stakes coordinated action with this level of first-hand authority. Permission to talk about fear at senior level. Horsfall’s book Fighting Scared is built around the argument that competence and fear coexist, which lands differently in a room of executives than standard resilience material. A career arc that puts setback at the centre rather than the margin. Boy soldier, SAS operator, bodyguard, karate school founder, broken neck, cancer survivor, mature undergraduate at Surrey. Useful for audiences in restructure, post-shock recovery or repeated reinvention. Live military analysis credibility. His ongoing commentary on the Russia-Ukraine war has built a substantial public following and is grounded in operational experience, not punditry. A direct, unsentimental voice. He is not a corporate keynote in uniform. He pushes back, takes questions hard, and gives a room something to argue about on the way home. Biography highlights Joined the British Army at 15; full member of the Parachute Regiment from 1974, with three operational tours of Northern Ireland. Badged to B Squadron, 22 SAS in May 1979; part of the assault team on the Iranian Embassy in London on 5 May 1980 that rescued 19 hostages. Author of Fighting Scared: My Life in the SAS (Cassell Military, 2002) and the trilogy The Words of the Wise Old Paratrooper. Author of Slava Ukraini. Who Dares Shares! (2023), an observational diary of the first 18 months of the Russia-Ukraine war. Featured in the BAFTA-winning documentary SAS Embassy Siege. BA (Hons) English Literature and Creative Writing, University of Surrey, 2:1, as a mature undergraduate. 6th Dan Shukokai karate; founder of London Shukokai Karate (1994) and London Karate Limited (1999). Biography The Iranian Embassy in Princes Gate was held for six days in 1980 before the SAS went in. Robin Horsfall was 23, badged to B Squadron the year before, and part of the assault team that ended the siege in roughly seventeen minutes and freed 19 hostages. That single operation is one of the most studied hostage rescues in modern policing and special forces history, and it gives his work with leadership audiences an evidence base most speakers in the resilience category do not have. Before Princes Gate he had already done three tours of Northern Ireland with the Parachute Regiment, having joined the army at 15. After it he served further tours, qualified as an emergency medical technician and as a sniper, and left the regular army in 1984. The next decade put him through territory most corporate audiences only hear about: close protection work in the Middle East, contract soldiering, building and running a medical reception centre in Guyana, founding a karate school in London that he ran for almost two decades. His book Fighting Scared (Cassell Military, 2002) is the spine of the keynote. The thesis is not that elite soldiers are unafraid. It is that fear, properly handled, is part of the discipline. He brings the same argument to senior teams facing restructure, public scrutiny, or decisions they cannot delay. Audiences hear how operators are actually trained to absorb shock, recover and act, and what that means for the way executives prepare themselves and the people around them. The later chapters of his story are also part of why he resonates with serious leadership audiences. He broke his neck in 2012, took a 2:1 in English Literature at Surrey as a mature undergraduate, survived bladder cancer in 2018, and built a large public following through his daily analysis of the Russia-Ukraine war. The career is unusual. The throughline, composure under pressure and a refusal to let setback define the next decision, is what executive audiences end up taking with them. Key speaking topics Decision-making under pressure Composure and self-leadership in crisis Resilience after physical and personal setback Lessons from elite military teams for high-performance cultures Fear, courage and the realities of operational performance Recovery, reinvention and lifelong learning Russia-Ukraine war and the lived experience of conflict Ideal for Senior leadership offsites focused on composure, crisis decision-making and team performance Executive development programmes for newly senior leaders being tested under live pressure Sales, operations and frontline leadership conferences where performance under stress is the theme Veterans, public service and security sector audiences engaging with leadership and recovery Audience outcomes A working vocabulary for fear, preparation and recovery that senior leaders can use with their own teams A clearer view of how elite teams actually train for the first minutes of a crisis, and what transfers into corporate decision-making A reset on what resilience means when separated from wellness industry framing Specific reference points from Operation Nimrod and post-military reinvention that audiences can carry into their own context

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

Why organisations work with Nicky Abdinor Clinical credibility behind the message: trained in Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy at the Albert Ellis Institute and in Schema Therapy, with twenty years in practice, so the resilience content is therapy-grade rather than motivational. A live demonstration of inclusion that reframes how teams talk about disability: born without arms and with shortened legs, she founded Nicky’s Drive to fund vehicle adaptations across South Africa, and the lived case sharpens every claim she makes about ability and adjustment. Recognised authority on the speaking circuit: 2022 Speakers Hall of Fame recipient from PSASA and a TEDxTableMountain speaker whose “Driving Dreams” talk drew international engagements across Europe, the USA, the Middle East and Australia. Eight years lecturing psychology at Varsity College, which means the frameworks she teaches travel from keynote stage into workshop and masterclass formats without losing rigour. Biography highlights Registered Clinical Psychologist, HPCSA PS0087157, in independent practice for two decades. TEDxTableMountain speaker, “Driving Dreams,” November 2013. 2022 Speakers Hall of Fame Award, Professional Speakers Association of Southern Africa. Founder and chairperson of Nicky’s Drive, a registered South African non-profit funding adapted vehicles for people with disabilities. Trained at the Albert Ellis Institute (REBT, Primary and Advanced Practicums) and the South African Institute of Schema Therapy. Eight years lecturing undergraduate and postgraduate psychology at Varsity College, Cape Town. Biography Resilience has become one of the most over-claimed words in corporate language. Most of what passes for resilience training is mood management dressed up as psychology. The clinical version is something else. It is a set of techniques, drawn from cognitive-behavioural therapy, rational emotive behaviour therapy and schema therapy, that change how a person interprets pressure and adversity. That is the territory Nicky Abdinor works in. Two decades of clinical practice, training accredited by the Albert Ellis Institute in New York, a Diploma in Schema Therapy, and eight years lecturing psychology at Varsity College in Cape Town give her the technical foundation. The keynote work translates that material for non-clinical audiences without softening it. Her own story sharpens the case. Born without arms and with shortened legs, she has built a private practice, founded the non-profit Nicky’s Drive to fund adapted vehicles for people with disabilities across South Africa, and become one of the most decorated speakers in the region, recognised with the 2022 Speakers Hall of Fame Award by PSASA. Her TEDxTableMountain talk “Driving Dreams” carried that perspective onto international stages. For organisations, the value is direct. Wellbeing programmes that lean on generic motivation tend to wear off. Abdinor brings the clinical mechanics, the language of cognitive reframe, schema work, and self-compassion, alongside a lived case that makes inclusion feel less like compliance and more like capability. The room leaves with vocabulary it can use the next day. Key speaking topics Resilience and adversity Cognitive-behavioural therapy in everyday life Optimism and mindset Disability inclusion and the abilities of people with disabilities Self-compassion and emotional wellbeing Mental health in the workplace Tolerating uncertainty Ideal for CHROs and wellbeing leads building substantive mental health programmes DEI and inclusion teams looking for a credible voice on disability Leadership audiences facing prolonged pressure or change fatigue Conference programmes seeking a closing keynote that combines clinical content with personal narrative Audience outcomes Plain-language tools from CBT and schema therapy that audiences can apply to their own thinking A reframed view of disability and ability that reaches beyond compliance language Specific cognitive techniques for tolerating uncertainty and recovering from setback Vocabulary for self-compassion that managers can carry into team conversations A more demanding standard for what wellbeing content should deliver

Why organisations work with Leee John He carries the weight of a verifiable cultural archive. The Flashback documentary alone represents over a decade of original interviews with figures including Labi Siffre, Billy Ocean and Pauline Black, giving inclusion conversations a body of named, recorded testimony rather than slogans. His authority on Black British contribution is built on lived participation. He fronted one of the defining British soul acts of the 1980s, which lets him talk about representation, visibility and creative gatekeeping from inside the room rather than the academy. He moves an audience emotionally. A career built on falsetto vocal performance and stage presence translates into keynote energy that DEI sessions, gala dinners and cultural-anniversary moments often lack. His humanitarian work is concrete, not decorative. As an ambassador for SOS Children’s Villages he has campaigned annually for World Orphan Week and was recognised with a Humanitarian award in France, which gives credibility on purpose-led brand and CSR programmes. He brings a reinvention story senior audiences recognise. Singer to producer to documentary director to charity ambassador is a useful proof point for any room thinking about second-act careers, creative longevity or staying commercially relevant across generational shifts in taste. Biography highlights Founding member and lead singer of Imagination, the British soul/funk trio with three UK top 10 singles, including “Just an Illusion” (UK No. 2, 1982). Imagination earned four platinum discs, nine gold discs and over a dozen silver discs between 1981 and 1983. Director of Flashback: The History of UK Black Music, an independent documentary featuring 80+ interviews across jazz, soul, funk, reggae, ska and 2-tone. Ambassador for SOS Children’s Villages and recipient of a Humanitarian award in France for charity work; also holds a UK Lifetime Achievement award. Released the jazz album Feel My Soul on Candid Records in 2005; later solo album Retropia reached No. 1 on UK Soul and UK Reggae charts. Trained at the Anna Scher Theatre School; appeared in the 1983 Doctor Who serial Enlightenment, and went on to host and produce television including ITV’s Night Network strand Leee’s Place. Biography The history of British Black music is mostly told in fragments. Leee John has spent more than a decade pulling those fragments into a single record, with over 80 filmed interviews across jazz, soul, funk, reggae, ska and 2-tone now sitting inside Flashback: The History of UK Black Music. Subjects include Labi Siffre, Billy Ocean, Jaki Graham, Pauline Black and Neville Staple. Before that work, he was the front of Imagination, the British soul/funk trio whose 1982 single “Just an Illusion” reached No. 2 in the UK and No. 1 in Spain. Imagination earned four platinum discs and nine gold discs in a two-year run between 1981 and 1983, which places him inside the small group of Black British artists who broke into mainstream European pop charts in that era. That career is the substance behind his keynote work on inclusion, identity and creative reinvention. He talks about gatekeeping, visibility and longevity from someone who has been on both sides of them, and he extends the same argument into philanthropy as an ambassador for SOS Children’s Villages, where his campaigning was recognised with a Humanitarian award in France. The reinvention thread runs through everything: lead singer, jazz recording artist on Candid Records, film and television producer, documentary director, charity ambassador. Flashback is the current centre of gravity, and it is the body of work that gives a contemporary inclusion conversation a name, a face and a primary source. Key speaking topics Diversity, equity and inclusion Cultural identity and Black British heritage Creative resilience and career reinvention Storytelling and oral history Music, media and representation Purpose, philanthropy and brand Motivation and inspiration Ideal for DEI and ERG leadership programmes seeking a culturally substantive keynote presence rather than a policy-led speaker. CSR, purpose and brand teams marking heritage moments such as Black History Month, World Orphan Week or cultural-anniversary launches. Senior audiences in media, music, entertainment and creative industries debating representation, longevity and the economics of Black British creative output. Conference organisers wanting a closing keynote that combines testimony, performance presence and emotional lift. Audience outcomes A clearer mental map of British Black music history and why it underwrites contemporary conversations about representation. A worked example of creative reinvention across four decades, useful for anyone thinking about second-act careers and staying relevant. A felt understanding of why inclusion is a question of belonging and visibility, not compliance language. Direct exposure to a cultural archive most rooms have never heard, drawn from the Flashback documentary interviews. An emotional close, often involving live vocal performance, that lifts the room rather than ending on a slide.

About Jennifer Medhurst Jennifer believes that our individual backgrounds, preferences and needs mean that everyone will have their own imperfectly perfect way of eating. She also argues that these needs can change on a daily basis, meaning there is no one size fits all when it comes to nutrition – it’s personal and unique to everyone. Her accessible yet evidence-based approach empowers people through education to confidently make the right decisions for their own unique body and ultimately afford them as long and healthy a life as possible. Keen to promote a positive and inclusive health message Jennifer combines ‘science-based nutritious with delicious’ in all of her work, encouraging people to embrace the joy of cooking from scratch and eating seriously tasty food. Jennifer’s career in nutrition started almost accidentally while looking for solutions to health issues that had developed while completing her Law degree. After visiting a nutritionist, she was shocked at how quickly her symptoms eased. Many hours in the kitchen and some failed experiments later a new passion was discovered, and she set up a successful health food catering business and a food blog to share her recipes. Yet, an increasing volume of conflicting information around diet in the public domain, and a desire to help others, compelled Jennifer to pursue her knowledge further and formally train at the College for Naturopathic Medicine, where she completed a three-year Nutrition diploma with distinction and eventually set up her clinic. Now Jennifer’s recipe creations live on her TikTok and Instagram accounts as well as her website, reaching more than 1.5 million people to date. She provides resources to help people live healthier lives with inspiring, quick, healthy and delicious recipes using common ingredients. Jennifer doesn’t want anyone else to lose precious time to poor health simply because of a lack of information and believes eating well is the simplest way to improve overall health, prevent illness and increase the quality and length of all of our lives.

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

About Harvey Goldsmith Harvey Goldsmith’s career began as a promoter in the 1960s. By the end of that decade, he’d created a number of high profile events, including the Crystal Palace Garden Parties and the 14 Hour Technicolor Dream. In the next ten years, Wembley Stadium became a major destination for the world’s leading artists, and London became the top city for pop concerts. As his career progressed, so did his projects. In 1978 he promoted the first major global TV event – Concerts for Kampuchea – which raised over $2 million from global sales. Perhaps one of the biggest events of his career, the ‘Global Juke Box’ Live Aid, raised £140 million in 1985, and included 17 hours of live television broadcast in 60 countries. In 2005 the feat was repeated, with ten Live 8 concerts running on the same day being broadcast worldwide. A huge number of bands and artists were involved, and it confirmed Goldsmith’s belief that popular music could be a massively successful means of fundraising. During his career, he has been instrumental in organising and promoting concerts in aid of human rights, and thanks to this success, his company was brought in as Executive Producers of the 1990 performance of ‘The Wall’ in Berlin. In 1992, he organised the Tribute to Freddie Mercury to increase AIDs awareness, and became chairman of the first National Music Day, during which 1500 musical events took place around the UK. In 1993, he was made Vice Chairman of the Prince’s Trust Management Board, and has since become synonymous with the organisation. Harvey is internationally recognised as an authority on music, communications, humanitarian issues, philanthropy, poverty, human rights and Africa. He speaks on leadership, motivation, music and media. In addition he is a business entrepreneur and covers a number of business related topics. Harvey is a great corporate and after dinner speaker, and continues to delight and inspire audiences all over the world.