Neurodiversity

Why organisations work with Lisa Ventura An MBE-recognised and Chartered Fellow (FCIIS) authority on the cultural and behavioural side of cyber security, the area boards now name as their largest residual exposure once tooling is in place. Chief Executive and Founder of the AI and Cyber Security Association, the first global trade association for the convergence of AI and cyber security, which gives her a current read on how AI is changing both attacker behaviour and defensive practice. Founder of Cyber Security Unity, a global community of practitioners, which gives her live cross-industry visibility into what is actually working against social engineering, phishing, and insider risk. A practical voice on neurodiversity and inclusion in cyber security hiring, useful for organisations trying to widen a tight talent pool without diluting capability. Author of Artificial Intelligence in Cybersecurity (Kogan Page) and Human Factors in Cybersecurity (BPB), two trade-published books that map onto the two problems she is booked to address. Biography highlights MBE, King Charles III Birthday Honours 2023, for services to cyber security and to diversity and inclusion. Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Information Security (FCIIS), 2025. Chief Executive and Founder of the AI and Cyber Security Association (AICSA), the first global trade association for the convergence of AI and cyber security. Chief Executive and Founder of Unity Group Solutions Limited, and Founder of Cyber Security Unity (formerly the UK Cyber Security Association). Author of Artificial Intelligence in Cybersecurity (Kogan Page) and Human Factors in Cybersecurity (BPB), alongside The Rise of the Cyber Women series. Recent recognition includes a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Security and Safety Entrepreneur Awards (2026) and a place in the Independent Impact 50, the UK listing of leading independent PR and communications practitioners (2026). Listed on IT Security Guru’s Most Inspiring Women in Cyber Security, We Are Tech Women Top 100, and IFSEC Global Influencers. Biography The cyber security industry sells controls. What it has been slower to sell is culture. Most organisations now have endpoint protection, SIEM platforms, and incident response retainers. The breaches that still happen are almost always human: a click, a credential, a process gap, an exhausted analyst missing a signal at 3am. That is the territory Lisa Ventura works in. She founded Cyber Security Unity, a global community for cyber security practitioners, out of the view that the industry stays fragmented and works in silos. More recently she founded the AI and Cyber Security Association, the first global trade association built around the convergence of AI and cyber security, giving practitioners and organisations a place to work through what AI changes for both attack and defence. As Chief Executive and Founder of Unity Group Solutions Limited, a cyber security awareness and strategic communications consultancy, she works across concurrent client engagements, which keeps her practice grounded in live delivery. Two trade-published books track the two problems she works on: Artificial Intelligence in Cybersecurity (Kogan Page) on where the field is heading, and Human Factors in Cybersecurity (BPB) on why people, not tools, decide most outcomes. An MBE in 2023 and a Fellowship of the Chartered Institute of Information Security in 2025 recognise that body of work. Cyber security has a hiring problem, and one of the cheapest ways to widen the pipeline is to treat neurodiversity and non-linear career paths as an advantage. Ventura is openly autistic and ADHD, diagnosed later in life, and uses that experience to make the business case to CISOs and HR teams who are losing talent they could keep. Key speaking topics Cyber security awareness and culture change The human layer of cyber risk Neurodiversity in cyber security hiring and retention Social engineering and phishing defence Burnout, stress, and mental health in security teams Cloud security collaboration Women and underrepresented groups in cyber security careers Ideal for CISOs and security leadership teams running awareness programmes that have stalled CHROs and talent leads trying to widen the cyber security hiring pipeline Boards and audit committees treating cyber as a culture and conduct issue, not only a control issue Industry conferences and corporate events on cyber security, technology workforce, and inclusion Audience outcomes A clearer view of where human factors sit inside the organisation’s actual cyber risk picture Specific, applicable approaches to awareness training that move behaviour, not just completion rates A practical case for treating neurodiversity as a hiring advantage in security teams Recognition of the burnout patterns that quietly damage incident response capability Cross-sector reference points from a practitioner community rather than a vendor stack

Why organisations work with Robin Ince Sixteen years co-hosting The Infinite Monkey Cage with Brian Cox gave him a working method for translating serious ideas into language a general audience can act on. Few speakers have practised that craft at that scale. His account of late-diagnosed ADHD in Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal is one of the most widely read first-person treatments of adult neurodiversity from a recognisably high-functioning public figure. That makes him useful to leadership audiences who do not see themselves in standard neurodiversity training. He brings genuine comedy timing to material that is usually delivered flat. Boards and senior leadership offsites can absorb difficult content from him that they would resist from a clinical speaker. He carries credentials that survive scrutiny in any room: Honorary Fellow at UCL, honorary doctorate from Royal Holloway, Fellow of the British Science Association, Booksellers Association Author of the Year. Biography highlights Co-host of BBC Radio 4’s The Infinite Monkey Cage with Professor Brian Cox, 2009 to 2025; the show won the 2011 Sony Gold Award for Best Speech Programme. Honorary Fellow of University College London and honorary Doctor of Science of Royal Holloway, University of London. Author of I’m a Joke and So Are You, The Importance of Being Interested, Bibliomaniac, and Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal: My Adventures in Neurodiversity; co-author with Brian Cox of How to Build a Universe. Booksellers Association Author of the Year, 2022; Time Out Outstanding Contribution to Comedy, 2006; multiple Chortle Awards including Best Compere. Co-founder of the Cosmic Shambles Network and creator of Nine Lessons and Carols for Curious People, the annual science variety show that has run since 2008. Public advocate on adult ADHD and neurodiversity following his own late diagnosis, anchoring his current touring show The Universe and the Neurodiverse. Biography The Infinite Monkey Cage ran on BBC Radio 4 for sixteen years and won the Sony Gold Award for Best Speech Programme along the way. Robin Ince co-presented it with the physicist Brian Cox throughout, and the working method he developed there sits at the centre of what he now offers organisations: serious science, philosophy and literature delivered in language a general audience will actually use. That method has produced four solo books and one co-authored with Cox. The Importance of Being Interested and Bibliomaniac established him as a writer on curiosity and reading culture. Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal, published by Macmillan in 2025, did something different. Following his own late ADHD diagnosis, he wrote a first-person account of adult neurodiversity that has been unusually well received by readers who do not see themselves in standard workplace material on the subject. The credentials behind the work are real. He is an Honorary Fellow of University College London and an Honorary Doctor of Science of Royal Holloway. He is a Fellow of the British Science Association and was Booksellers Association Author of the Year in 2022. He co-founded the Cosmic Shambles Network and has curated the Nine Lessons and Carols for Curious People science variety show every December since 2008. For corporate audiences the proposition is specific. He is useful when a leadership team wants to talk seriously about neurodiversity and curiosity without flattening either into HR language, and he is one of very few speakers who can take a room from a research finding to a usable insight to a genuine laugh in the same minute. Key speaking topics Adult neurodiversity and late ADHD diagnosis Scientific curiosity as a habit of mind Communicating complex ideas to non-specialist audiences Humour and humanity Reading culture and the value of attention Science, music and comedy as a single conversation Ideal for Leadership teams and HR directors building neurodiversity work that goes beyond policy Boards and senior offsites looking for substantive content delivered with comedy timing Innovation, R&D and learning functions who want to reset what curiosity looks like in practice Conference organisers programming a science, culture or curiosity strand Audience outcomes A working vocabulary for talking about adult ADHD and neurodiversity in senior settings A clearer sense of why attention, not information, is the scarce resource in their organisation Specific examples from sixteen years of putting scientists in front of general audiences, with the lessons that translate Permission to be more interested in their own work, which most leaders need more than they admit

Why organisations work with Rory Cowlam His 2020 book The Secret Life of a Vet (Hodder & Stoughton) makes a specific structural argument: that mental health breakdown in demanding professions is driven by systemic design – appointment length, absence of emotional processing time, cultural silence – not individual weakness. This gives audiences a framework, not just a story. As Clinical Director and co-founder of Pickles Vets, he has built a wellbeing-first practice model from the ground up, which means his arguments about workplace culture come with operational proof, not just principles. His own experience of dyslexia – sustained across a high-stakes clinical career – gives him a credibility on neurodiversity that is qualitatively different from speakers who come to the topic from coaching or consultancy. His platform as Blue Peter’s resident vet and regular contributor to BBC Breakfast and ITV’s Lorraine demonstrates an unusual ability to translate clinical complexity into plain, accessible language – directly relevant for organisations communicating sensitive topics to broad internal audiences. As a co-founder of VidiVet, a digital platform designed to extend veterinary access and reduce pressure on overstretched clinical teams, he brings a practical, innovation-oriented lens to workforce sustainability. Biography highlights Clinical Director and co-founder, Pickles Vets, Fulham, London – an RCVS-registered, wellbeing-first membership veterinary practice Graduate of the Royal Veterinary College, London (BVetMed PgCert MRCVS), qualified 2015 Author of The Secret Life of a Vet (Hodder & Stoughton, 2020) – Amazon bestseller addressing mental health in clinical professions Lead talent and presenter, The Pets Factor, CBBC; resident vet, Blue Peter (BBC, since 2019); regular contributor to BBC Breakfast and ITV’s Lorraine Ambassador, British Dyslexia Association and StreetVet; RSPCA ambassador Co-founder, VidiVet – a digital veterinary advice platform designed to improve access and reduce workload pressure on clinical teams Nominated, Vet of the Year, Animal Star Awards (2018 and 2019) Biography The veterinary profession has one of the highest rates of burnout and mental health difficulty of any skilled workforce in the UK. Rory Cowlam has been arguing, publicly and with clinical authority, that this is not a coincidence – and not a personal failing. It is what happens when a system is designed around throughput rather than people. His 2020 book The Secret Life of a Vet, published by Hodder & Stoughton and an Amazon bestseller, made that argument in direct, first-person terms. It did not frame mental health as a welfare footnote; it placed it at the centre of what makes or breaks professional culture in high-pressure environments. As Clinical Director and co-founder of Pickles Vets in London, Cowlam has since built a practice model that tests those arguments in practice – longer appointments, staffed-to-capacity teams, and transparency on pricing as foundations for a working environment that retains talented clinicians rather than burning them out. His own dyslexia, navigated through a demanding clinical training and a broadcast career spanning The Pets Factor (CBBC), Blue Peter, BBC Breakfast, and ITV’s Lorraine, gives him a lived, professionally grounded perspective on neurodiversity that organisations rarely encounter from a speaker. He does not speak about dyslexia as a historical obstacle overcome; he speaks about it as a continuing factor in how he works, leads, and communicates. A graduate of the Royal Veterinary College and co-founder of VidiVet, a digital platform extending veterinary access, Cowlam sits at a distinctive intersection: practising clinician, published author, broadcast communicator, and operational founder. For organisations wrestling with retention, neurodiversity inclusion, and the gap between wellbeing policy and workplace reality, he offers something specific – a structural diagnosis, not a motivational remedy. Key speaking topics Mental health and burnout in high-pressure professions Neurodiversity and dyslexia in professional environments Wellbeing by design – structural approaches to workforce sustainability Veterinary practice and the realities of clinical leadership Communicating complex expertise to public audiences Animal welfare, charity engagement, and purpose at work Ideal for CHROs and people directors in healthcare, clinical, and high-pressure professional services organisations Wellbeing leads and occupational health teams Early careers and graduate development audiences in clinical and technical professions Diversity and inclusion leads focused on neurodiversity strategy Audience outcomes A reframing of mental health from individual issue to structural design question – with practical implications for how teams are built and managed Clearer language for discussing neurodiversity in professional settings, grounded in lived clinical experience rather than theory An understanding of what a wellbeing-first workplace model looks like operationally, drawn from Cowlam’s own practice at Pickles Vets Greater confidence in communicating specialist expertise to non-specialist audiences – a skill Cowlam models directly in his broadcast work Honest perspective on what high-pressure career paths actually demand, useful for early careers programmes and talent retention conversations

Why organisations work with Rose Eskafi Combines an MSc in Mindfulness and Compassion with a BSc in Psychology, so the work is grounded in clinical evidence, not generic wellness language Brings trauma-informed practice into corporate settings, which most workplace wellbeing providers are not trained to do Has built and run wellbeing for a working organisation as Head of People and Wellbeing at gal-dem, so understands the operational reality of HR teams, not just the content Track record delivering for consumer brands including LUSH, Snapchat, and Nike, where workforce demographics, creative pressure, and identity questions all sit on the table at once Biography highlights Founder, Still Chill, a workplace wellbeing consultancy focused on mindfulness, compassion, and trauma-informed culture Former Head of People and Wellbeing, gal-dem MSc in Mindfulness and Compassion; BSc in Psychology Delivered programmes for LUSH, Snapchat, and Nike Teaches in line with the UK Network for Mindfulness-Based Teachers’ good practice guidelines Listed expert with Canvas8 Biography Most workplace wellbeing offers are pitched at the wrong layer. They sit between perk and content and rarely touch the conditions that produce burnout, disengagement, or attrition. Rose Eskafi’s work starts at that deeper layer, where stress regulation, identity, and culture meet. She is the founder of Still Chill, a consultancy that designs mindfulness, compassion, and trauma-informed programmes for corporate teams. Clients have included LUSH, Snapchat, and Nike. The approach pairs an MSc in Mindfulness and Compassion with a BSc in Psychology, so the practical tools are anchored in clinical evidence rather than wellness language. Before Still Chill, she was Head of People and Wellbeing at gal-dem, where she ran the people function for a working organisation rather than consulting from the outside. That operating background shapes the work. Programmes are designed to fit how HR and people teams actually deliver, not as set-piece talks that leave the room when the speaker does. She teaches in line with the UK Network for Mindfulness-Based Teachers’ good practice guidelines and is trained in self-compassion and racial trauma, which gives her a clearer line on the questions corporate wellbeing usually avoids: how identity, pressure, and belonging interact for the people sitting in the room. Key speaking topics Workplace mindfulness and stress regulation Self-compassion and emotional regulation Trauma-informed approaches to corporate wellbeing Authentic and mindful leadership Neuroinclusion and neurodiversity at work Imposter syndrome and the inner critic Culture, identity, and belonging in organisations Ideal for CHROs and Heads of People building or re-platforming a wellbeing programme that has lost credibility DEI and ERG leads where identity, belonging, and mental health intersect Founders and creative leadership teams in consumer, media, and design organisations Learning and development leads commissioning content for high-pressure or high-attrition functions Audience outcomes A clearer working definition of wellbeing that goes beyond perks and resilience training Practical mindfulness and self-compassion tools usable inside the working day A frame for how trauma-informed practice changes the way managers run conversations Language for talking about identity, belonging, and pressure without defaulting to compliance scripts A sharper view of where the organisation’s current wellbeing offer is doing real work and where it is not

Why organisations work with Sarah Ann Macklin Her book Healthy Shouldn’t Be This Hard, an instant Sunday Times bestseller with Penguin, argues from eight years of research that how people speak to themselves changes their stress hormones and digestion. That puts hard science under a wellbeing agenda that usually runs on good intentions. Across more than 500 episodes of Live Well Be Well, ranked among Spotify’s most-shared shows of 2025, she has questioned the world’s leading health scientists directly. Audiences get current science from someone who interrogates it for a living. Scouted as a model at 16 and hospitalised with burnout at 23, she speaks about the human cost of optimisation culture from direct experience, which carries unusual weight with high-pressure workforces. Her credibility is institutional, built through a Harley Street clinic advising C-suite clients, a mental health CIC she founded, and findings on type 2 diabetes she presented to the European Parliament. Biography highlights Author of Healthy Shouldn’t Be This Hard (Penguin / Bantam Press, 2026), an instant Sunday Times bestseller with a foreword by Dr Stacy Sims. Host of the Live Well Be Well podcast: 500+ episodes, a YouTube channel past 100,000 subscribers, and one of Spotify’s most-shared shows of 2025. Registered Associate Nutritionist with the Association for Nutrition, holding a First-Class BSc in Human Nutrition from London Metropolitan University. Founder and CEO of Be Well Collective, a mental health Community Interest Company focused on prevention. Presented findings on dietary guidelines and type 2 diabetes to the European Parliament (2018); TEDx speaker, Are Models Role Models? Nutrition and wellness contributor to Harper’s Bazaar, Women’s Health, Esquire, and the Evening Standard; named “the Jamie Oliver of nutrition” by Marie Claire. Biography The global wellness industry is worth $8.5 trillion, and by most measures people are getting less healthy, not more. Sarah Ann Macklin spent years inside that industry before she could explain why. Scouted as a model at 16, she worked across London and New York for brands including Burberry and Dolce & Gabbana. She pursued the ideal body until burnout put her in hospital at 23. That reckoning sent her back to study. She earned a first-class degree in Human Nutrition from London Metropolitan University, having nearly dropped out when dyslexia was identified mid-course. A decade of clinical work followed, including a Harley Street practice whose clients ranged from magazine editors to C-suite executives. The pattern she saw in the clinic became her argument. Her clients were informed and motivated, yet defeated by the pressure to optimise every meal and metric. In Healthy Shouldn’t Be This Hard, her Penguin debut and an instant Sunday Times bestseller, she makes an unusual case. Self-compassion changes physiology, altering stress hormones and even how the body absorbs nutrients. For organisations, this reframes the wellbeing budget. Macklin’s case is that resilience training layered onto a culture of relentless optimisation adds to the very load it is meant to lift. Her platform gives the argument reach: the Live Well Be Well podcast has passed 500 episodes with leading health scientists and ranked among Spotify’s most-shared shows in 2025. Key speaking topics Self-compassion and sustainable health The psychology of optimisation culture and burnout Nutrition and the mind-body connection Employee wellbeing and workplace mental health Preventive mental health Neurodiversity and dyslexia at work Women’s health and role models in high-pressure industries Ideal for CHROs and people leaders rebuilding wellbeing strategy after high spend and low impact Organisations in high-pressure sectors such as finance, law, media, and fashion with rising burnout Employee wellbeing, DEI, and mental health leads planning awareness events with genuine substance Conferences and leadership offsites seeking a science-grounded health voice with clinical credibility Audience outcomes Why rising wellbeing budgets often fail to reduce burnout, and what actually shifts it How chronic stress and self-criticism affect the body, from digestion to sleep A way to frame employee wellbeing that lowers pressure on people instead of adding targets A credible case, backed by research, that rest and self-compassion belong inside a high-performance culture

Why organisations work with Yonah Welker Direct line into the European policy machinery shaping AI rules, through working group contributions to the EU AI Code of Practice, DG CNECT’s digital and critical infrastructure work, and EU ICT and standardisation programmes. Published, citable expertise on how AI systems treat disability, neurodiversity, and other designated groups, with frameworks and a MOOC catalogued by OECD.AI, a specialism few governance advisers can match. Cross-institutional fluency across OECD, UN, UNESCO, and WHO governance processes, useful for organisations whose AI strategy now has to answer to several overlapping frameworks at once. Practical command of how governance applies to AI in physical and public deployment, including robotics and assistive systems, where compliance obligations under the EU AI Act and emerging harmonised standards are least settled. A practitioner-policy bridge rather than a pure academic, with hands-on evaluator and rapporteur roles across EU Horizon and EIT/EIC programmes, which is the lane most boards and compliance leads now need filled. Biography highlights AI expert listed in the OECD.AI community directory; visiting lecturer and evaluator affiliated with MIT collaborative work, and contributor to OECD.AI’s Wonk blog. Contributor to the EU AI Code of Practice (working Groups 2 and 3), DG CNECT digital and critical infrastructure programmes, and EU ICT standardisation work. Contributor of input to OECD (G7 Hiroshima AI Process), UN (ITU and IGF), UNESCO, NIST (Risk Management Framework), and White House PCAST processes. Lead author and coordinator on the forthcoming UNESCO/UN AI Science Report, and co-author of the MIT AI Safety Repository. Evaluator, rapporteur, and quality controller across EU Horizon, StandICT, and EIT Health, Deeptech, and Creativity programmes; member of the EDPB expert pool on embodied AI privacy. Former curator of the Global AI Summit and adviser to a national data and AI authority in the EMEA region; speaker at the AI Action Summit (Paris/Sorbonne), Sciences Po, Technical University of Munich, AI Safety Korea, and the Delphi Economic Forum; jury and peer reviewer for the MIT Global Competition, NeurIPS, and IEEE journals. Biography The EU AI Act, the OECD framework, UNESCO’s ethics recommendation, and the G7 Hiroshima Process now govern the same operating decisions, and they do not line up neatly. The people who work inside several of these processes at once, rather than reading them from outside, are few. Welker is one of them. He has contributed to the EU AI Code of Practice working groups and to DG CNECT’s critical infrastructure work. He sits on the EDPB expert pool examining embodied AI privacy, and is lead author and coordinator on the forthcoming UNESCO/UN AI Science Report. His input has also fed NIST and White House PCAST processes, and he has advised a national data and AI authority in the EMEA region alongside his EU Commission work. His distinctive angle is a lens few governance specialists share. His work centres on how AI systems treat designated groups: people with disabilities, neurodivergent users, and others where an algorithm can quietly grant or deny access. That question is now moving into robotics, assistive systems, and AI that acts in public space, where the frameworks are thinnest. The disability-centred AI MOOC catalogued in the OECD.AI tools repository is one concrete marker of it. For senior leaders, the value is operational. He can set out what an EU AI Act audit will actually examine, and what a defensible accessibility claim looks like in a deployed system. He can also show how the OECD, UN, and EU layers connect to a decision a general counsel or risk committee faces next quarter. Key speaking topics AI governance and the EU AI Act Algorithmic accountability and AI audit Disability-centred and accessibility AI policy Neurodiversity and inclusive AI design Sovereign AI and critical digital infrastructure AI safety and responsible deployment Public sector AI and citizen-facing systems Ideal for General counsel, chief compliance officers and CTOs preparing for EU AI Act enforcement Heads of AI, responsible AI leads and digital ethics committees Public sector and intergovernmental bodies designing AI policy Boards reviewing AI risk exposure across accessibility, bias and public-trust dimensions Audience outcomes A clearer map of how the EU AI Act, OECD framework and UN/UNESCO instruments interlock for their organisation Specific questions to put to vendors, internal teams and audit committees on algorithmic accountability A working definition of what disability-centred and accessibility AI obligations look like operationally Sharper instinct for where reputational and regulatory risk concentrates in current AI deployments A view of where European AI policy is heading next, drawn from inside the working groups shaping it