Purpose-Driven Leadership

Why organisations work with Kian Bakhtiari Direct primary-source insight from a live community of 2,000+ Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha contributors across 50+ markets, rather than the lagged trend reports most boards are working from. A published, practitioner argument on purpose-led marketing through Kogan Page’s “Marketing for Social Change”, giving commercial teams a framework for purpose that survives the backlash cycle. Strategic credibility across two registers: the agency boardroom (former Head of Strategy at Dentsu Aegis Network) and the multilateral institution (WEF Agenda Contributor, UNFCCC advisor). Operating experience with consumer-facing brands that have to convert Gen-Z, including Adidas, Unilever, Diesel, L’Oreal, Danone, Innocent Drinks, Pentland Brands and Speedo. A Financial Times Top 50 Future Leaders listing, which gives a buyer external validation that the perspective is taken seriously by the business press. Biography highlights Founder of The People, a Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha cultural intelligence consultancy with contributors across 50+ markets. Author of “Marketing for Social Change: How to Turn Purpose Into Business and Social Impact”, Kogan Page (2024). Named in the Financial Times “Top 50 Future Leaders” for contributions to marketing. Agenda Contributor to the World Economic Forum; Advisor to UN Climate Change (UNFCCC). Forbes contributor on Gen-Z, brand and consumer culture; featured in Campaign, The Drum, Vogue Business and Rolling Stone. Former Head of Strategy at Dentsu Aegis Network; TEDx Brighton speaker on imagination and innovation. Biography Marketing teams have been trying to “reach Gen-Z” with the tools of the previous cycle: panels, focus groups, agency trend decks. The cohort itself has moved on, and most of the commercial signals reaching the boardroom are already a generation late. Kian Bakhtiari built The People to close that gap, running a live network of Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha contributors across 50+ markets that feeds primary cultural intelligence directly into client work. His background is unusually balanced for the field. Former Head of Strategy at Dentsu Aegis Network, he understands what the commercial brief looks like inside a holding company. As Agenda Contributor to the World Economic Forum and Advisor to UN Climate Change, he sees how the same generational questions land in policy and multilateral settings. The Financial Times named him in its Top 50 Future Leaders for marketing, an external read on where his work sits in the discipline. His book, “Marketing for Social Change” (Kogan Page, 2024), is the practitioner argument behind the consultancy. It sets out how brands can embed purpose into the operating substance of the business rather than the campaign layer, and how to avoid the backlash that hits when the two diverge. Clients he has worked with on this terrain include Unilever, L’Oreal, Diesel, Adidas, Danone, Innocent Drinks, Pentland Brands, Speedo and the BBC. What he gives a senior team is a route into a consumer base they cannot read with their existing tools, and a defensible position on purpose that holds up when scrutinised. That sits at the centre of how commercial strategy is now being rewritten for younger consumers and workers. Key speaking topics Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha consumer behaviour Purpose-led marketing and brand activism Cultural intelligence and foresight Marketing for social change The future workforce and generational diversity Brand communities and the creator economy Innovation, imagination and creativity Ideal for CMOs, brand directors and consumer insight leads recalibrating their approach to Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha audiences Chief Strategy Officers and growth leads in consumer-facing categories where younger cohorts decide the next decade of revenue Boards and executive committees stress-testing purpose, ESG and brand positioning against a more sceptical, more political consumer base CHROs and culture leads working on multigenerational workforces where Gen-Z is reshaping engagement and retention Audience outcomes A sharper picture of what Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha actually want from brands, employers and institutions, drawn from a live primary-source network rather than syndicated research. A practical test for whether a brand’s purpose can survive contact with the operating business, and where it most often breaks. A view of the commercial cost of getting generational signals wrong, and the categories where that cost is already showing up. Specific examples of brands that have moved purpose from campaign to product, and what made the difference.

Why organisations work with Pau Gasol Two NBA championships, three Olympic medals and a FIBA World Cup title give him a working definition of high performance grounded in repeated wins across cultures, coaches and rosters, not a single peak. He speaks credibly about the operating reality of elite teams: ego management next to a generational star (Kobe Bryant), role clarity, and the unglamorous habits that hold a group together across an 82-game season. A Basketball Hall of Fame induction in 2023 and a retired Lakers jersey place him among the small group of athletes whose authority on team and leadership is taken seriously inside a boardroom, not only on a stage. His work outside sport (Gasol Foundation on childhood obesity, IOC Athletes’ Commission, Gasol16 Ventures) shows a leader who has built institutions, not only played in them. The J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award is the NBA’s formal recognition of that. He presents fluently in English and Spanish, with direct experience of US, European and global organisations, which suits international leadership audiences without translation overhead. Biography highlights Two NBA Championships with the Los Angeles Lakers (2009, 2010); six-time NBA All-Star; four-time All-NBA selection. 2002 NBA Rookie of the Year, the first non-American player to win the award. Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Class of 2023; jersey No. 16 retired by the Los Angeles Lakers. FIBA World Cup champion and MVP 2006; three EuroBasket golds with Spain (2009, 2011, 2015); two-time EuroBasket MVP. Three Olympic medals with Spain: silver in 2008 and 2012, bronze in 2016. President and co-founder of the Gasol Foundation; UNICEF Global Champion for Nutrition and Zero Childhood Obesity; member of the IOC Athletes’ Commission; 2012 NBA J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award. Biography Two NBA Championships, three Olympic medals and a FIBA World Cup title are not won by the same individual playing in different teams. They are won by leaders who help different groups behave the same way under pressure. Pau Gasol spent two decades inside the highest-stakes team environments in professional sport, with Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles, alongside his brother Marc on the Spanish national team, and across rosters in Memphis, Chicago, San Antonio and Milwaukee. The interest for senior leaders is not the trophy count. It is what it took to sit beside a generational star like Bryant and still deliver, year after year, in the locker room as much as on the court. Role clarity, ego management, honest conversations between named individuals, and a standard that did not move with the score. Gasol’s account of that period is one of the more credible insider readings of elite team performance available from any speaker in the market. His record off the court is unusually substantive for an athlete. He co-founded the Gasol Foundation in 2013 with Marc Gasol, working on childhood obesity and child wellbeing in Spain and the United States. He serves as UNICEF’s Global Champion for Nutrition and Zero Childhood Obesity, sits on the International Olympic Committee Athletes’ Commission, and runs Gasol16 Ventures, an investment platform in sport, health and wellness. The NBA recognised the community work with the 2012 J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award. Inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2023, with his number retired by the Los Angeles Lakers the same year, Gasol now speaks to leadership audiences in English and Spanish on what it actually takes to build a team that wins more than once. Key speaking topics Leadership and team performance under sustained pressure Building trust and role clarity inside elite teams Resilience and self-leadership through injury, transition and setback Sport as a model for organisational culture and standards Purpose-driven leadership and life after a professional career Child health and the leadership case for long-term social investment Ideal for Senior leadership offsites and CEO conferences focused on team performance and culture Sales kick-offs and annual conferences seeking a credible voice on resilience and standards Sports, health and consumer-brand audiences engaging with athlete leadership International audiences requiring delivery in English or Spanish Audience outcomes A working picture of what elite team performance looks like behind the result, told by someone inside it A direct view of how leaders manage ego, role and trust around a dominant individual Specific reference points for resilience and decision-making through injury, transition and public scrutiny A leadership case for long-term investment in people and purpose beyond the immediate quarter

Why organisations work with Mónica Muriel She has built two B Corp certified businesses, Zurita Madrid and NEST Solutions, and speaks from the position of someone who has signed the supplier contracts, not someone advising from outside. Operating experience inside Chinese textile supply chains, including blockchain-enabled traceability, gives her a credible voice on what regulators and auditors will actually accept. She translates circular and regenerative business models into commercial decisions that protect margin, useful for boards under pressure on both ESG and price. A double legal and business background and a Hult Executive MBA mean she briefs equally well to compliance, commercial, and sustainability leaders in the same room. Biography highlights Founder and CEO, Zurita Madrid, B Corp certified sustainable fashion business launched in Shanghai in 2015. Founder and CEO, NEST Solutions, B Corp certified consultancy applying Zurita’s methods to third-party textile and consumer goods companies. Global Executive MBA, Hult International Business School. Double degree in Law and Business Administration, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. Associate, WAS (Women Action Sustainability), the Spanish women-led sustainability network. More than 15 years operating between Shanghai and Madrid across fashion and impact businesses. Biography Most sustainability strategies are written in headquarters and executed thousands of miles away, inside factories the brand does not own. The work that closes that gap, on materials, traceability, audits, and supplier behaviour, is what now decides whether an ESG commitment is operating substance or marketing. Mónica Muriel has built two B Corp certified businesses on the operating side of that question. Zurita Madrid, launched in Shanghai in 2015 with two Hult Executive MBA classmates, is a sustainable fashion label built around traceable supply, ethical production, and circular design. NEST Solutions takes the methods, certifications and supplier relationships developed for Zurita and applies them to third parties in textiles and consumer goods. Her training is unusually well matched to the brief. A double degree in Law and Business Administration from Universidad Autonoma de Madrid gives her a working grasp of the regulatory side. A Global Executive MBA from Hult gives her the commercial discipline. Fifteen years between Shanghai and Madrid gives her something rarer in the speaker market: direct experience of how Asian supply chains actually behave when a brand asks them to change. She is an associate of WAS, the Spanish women-led sustainability network, and a regular voice on circular economy, regenerative business models, and blockchain-enabled traceability. The argument she brings to a boardroom is not that sustainability is morally right. It is that the companies treating it as an operating discipline today are the ones that will still be able to sell into European markets when the next compliance cycle lands. Key speaking topics Sustainable and regenerative business models Circular economy in textiles and consumer goods Supply chain traceability and certification Blockchain in supply chain verification B Corp practice and corporate impact Fashion industry transformation Women, culture and sustainability Ideal for Boards and executive teams committing to ESG targets that must now be evidenced in the supply chain Chief sustainability officers, heads of supply chain, and procurement leaders in consumer goods, fashion, and retail Founders and growth-stage CEOs designing circular or impact-led business models Industry associations and women-in-business networks focused on sustainability leadership Audience outcomes A clearer picture of what regulators and auditors will accept as evidence of supply chain sustainability Working examples of how circular and regenerative models hold up commercially A founder’s account of what changes and what does not when a business pursues B Corp certification A grounded view of Asian, and specifically Chinese, supply chain dynamics from someone who has operated inside them

Why organisations work with Andy Milligan Seven books across Kogan Page and Financial Times imprints, including Bold (CMI Management Book of the Year, e-book category, 2012) and On Purpose with Shaun Smith, give him a documented track record on brand-led growth that consultants without published evidence cannot match. He works the full chain from purpose to promise to operational delivery, which is rare. Most advisors stop at strategy or stop at touchpoint design. He has spent thirty years on the connection between them. Client work spans Nissan, McLaren, Barclays, Unilever, FIFA, IHG, Roche and WWF across Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the USA and Europe. The breadth of categories and geographies means his examples land with audiences in heavily regulated, consumer, and B2B sectors equally. His starting position is that brand lives in employee behaviour before it lives in customer perception. For leaders trying to align a fatigued workforce behind a customer promise, that is the more useful framing. Biography highlights Founding partner of The Caffeine Partnership, the UK brand and growth consultancy he co-founded in 2006. Began his career at Interbrand in London; ran the firm’s Singapore office and later led its Internal Brand Management practice. Co-author of On Purpose (Kogan Page, 2015) and Bold: How to be Brave in Business and Win with Shaun Smith. Bold won the CMI Management Book of the Year award in the e-book category in 2012. Co-author of Myths of Branding with Simon Bailey (Kogan Page, 2017; second edition 2022). Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts; media commentator for BBC, Sky and CNN on brand issues. Biography Brand is an operating discipline, not a marketing one. That has been the thesis of Andy Milligan’s work since his time at Interbrand in the 1990s, where he ran the Singapore office and later led the firm’s Internal Brand Management practice. The argument is now unfashionable enough to be useful again: customers do not experience strategy decks, they experience employees, products and service moments. In 2006 he co-founded The Caffeine Partnership, a brand and growth consultancy that has advised Nissan, McLaren, Barclays, Unilever, FIFA, IHG, Roche, WWF and Thai Airways across Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the USA and Europe. The work moves between purpose definition, customer experience design and employee engagement, treated as one connected problem rather than three departmental ones. The same argument runs through seven books. Uncommon Practice and See, Feel, Think, Do with Shaun Smith examined the link between corporate culture and brand experience. Bold: How to be Brave in Business and Win won the CMI Management Book of the Year in the e-book category in 2012. On Purpose (Kogan Page, 2015) set out a practical framework for translating purpose into a branded customer experience. Myths of Branding with Simon Bailey, now in its second edition with Kogan Page, dismantles the assumption that brand work is a logo problem. Milligan is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and comments regularly for BBC, Sky and CNN. The reason senior teams bring him into commercial growth conversations is straightforward: he has spent thirty years arguing that organisations get the customers their employees deserve, and he can show them where the gap is. Key speaking topics Brand-led business growth Customer experience strategy Employee engagement and brand Purpose and commercial strategy Brand culture and organisational alignment Marketing and brand myths Ideal for CMOs, CCOs and brand directors aligning marketing with operational delivery CHROs and CPOs connecting employee engagement to customer outcomes CEOs and boards repositioning a business around a sharper purpose Customer experience and transformation leads moving from strategy to execution Audience outcomes A clearer view of where brand promise and customer experience are diverging in their own organisation A working definition of purpose that can be tested against employee and customer behaviour, not slogan Named case examples across consumer, financial services, automotive and sport that translate to the audience’s category A short list of brand myths their leadership team is probably still operating under

Why organisations work with Fehinti Balogun He brings a working screen actor’s craft to climate communication, with credits across HBO, Netflix, BBC and Paramount+ that buy attention from audiences who tune out conventional sustainability talks. His one-man show Can I Live?, produced by Complicite with the Barbican, is the rare piece of climate work that has been taken seriously by both theatre critics and climate organisers, giving him a methodology he can adapt for corporate audiences. He has spoken to policy and scientific audiences at UN COP26, the Scottish Parliament and Cambridge University, which means his climate content stands up in rooms beyond entertainment. His TED talk on finding your voice for climate action gives organisations a direct entry point for staff who want to act but do not know how to begin. Biography highlights Graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), 2016. Screen credits include I May Destroy You, Dune, A Gentleman in Moscow, The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself, and Down Cemetery Road. BAFTA nomination for Supporting Actor for Down Cemetery Road. Writer and lead performer of Can I Live?, produced by Complicite with the Barbican, directed by Daniel Bailey and Simon McBurney. TED speaker: “How to find your voice for climate action” (2022). Climate platforms include UN COP26, the Scottish Parliament, Cambridge University and the YouTube Creator Summit. Biography Climate communication inside organisations runs into the same wall again and again. The science is settled, the targets are public, and the workforce still does not have a shared language for any of it. Fehinti Balogun has spent his second career building that language through performance rather than policy. Trained at RADA, Balogun is a working actor with screen credits across HBO, Netflix, BBC and Paramount+, including I May Destroy You, Dune, A Gentleman in Moscow and Down Cemetery Road, the last of which earned him a BAFTA nomination for Supporting Actor. The technical command he brings to a stage or a camera is what gives his climate work its unusual reach. Can I Live?, written and performed by Balogun and produced by the theatre company Complicite with the Barbican, is the centre of that work. It combines spoken word, hip-hop, theatre, animation and scientific fact, and it became one of the few climate pieces taken seriously inside both the UK theatre scene and the climate movement. The same instinct shapes his TED talk, “How to find your voice for climate action.” His climate platforms include UN COP26, the Scottish Parliament, Cambridge University and the YouTube Creator Summit. He is most useful to organisations that have a credible climate position on paper and a workforce that has not yet found a way to talk about it. Key speaking topics Climate communication and storytelling Sustainability and employee engagement Diversity and inclusion in the climate movement Purpose and voice for early-career talent Creative practice as a tool for organisational change Ideal for Sustainability and ESG leads who need internal communications that move staff, not just stakeholders. CHROs and employee engagement leads building purpose-led programmes for early-career and creative talent. Internal D&I and ERG sponsors working at the intersection of climate and inclusion. Communications and brand leads in consumer-facing organisations who need a credible cultural voice on climate. Audience outcomes A clearer sense of why staff disengage from climate messaging that reads as compliance. Language and examples leaders can use to talk about sustainability without sliding into jargon. A working model for how creative practice can carry organisational messages that policy memos cannot. A more honest picture of how race, class and access shape who feels invited into climate conversations at work.

Why organisations work with Ben Keene Twenty years of founding and running purpose-led ventures, from a crowdfunded Fijian island community to a climate startup platform, gives him a practitioner’s view of what actually holds communities together under pressure. A repeatable community-building method, the “5 R’s”, field-tested inside Rebel Book Club across 10 cities and 5,000 members, and translated for corporate audiences. Author of “Tribe Wanted” (Ebury Press, 2008), the book behind the BBC2 series, which gives his community thesis a public, documented origin story that most speakers in this space do not have. Equally comfortable hosting, facilitating, and running workshops, which means the same brief can be delivered as a keynote, a leadership offsite session, or a multi-day internal accelerator. Active founder work in climate and AI through Raaise and Good with AI, so his material on sustainability communication and responsible AI comes from current operating experience, not commentary. Biography highlights Founder, Tribewanted (2006-2016); built a crowdfunded sustainable-tourism community on Vorovoro, Fiji, later extended to Sierra Leone and Umbria. Author, “Tribe Wanted: My Adventure on Paradise or Bust”, Ebury Press, 2008. Subject of a five-part BBC2 series on the Fiji project, broadcast winter 2008. Co-founder, Rebel Book Club, a paid non-fiction reading community operating across 10 cities. Former lead of The Escape School at Escape the City; business advisor and mentor at Virgin StartUp. Founder of Raaise (climate startup fundraising platform) and Good with AI (AI education cohorts). Biography Building a physical community on a remote Fijian island with strangers recruited online is not a business-school case study. It is what Ben Keene did in 2006 when he co-founded Tribewanted, and the project ran for a decade across Fiji, Sierra Leone, and Umbria. It produced a BBC2 series, a book with Ebury Press, and several million dollars of investment into the regions it touched. The interesting part, for organisations, is what he took from it. Communities with paying members do not behave like audiences or customers. They need rhythm, roles, and a reason to return. Keene has spent the years since codifying how that works, most visibly in Rebel Book Club, the non-fiction reading community he co-founded in 2015 and grew to around 5,000 members in 10 cities. He applies the same lens to the commercial problems leaders actually bring him: why sustainability messaging lands with colleagues but not customers, why purpose programmes fade after the launch moment, why AI adoption stalls when it is framed as a tool rather than a practice. His current work through Raaise and Good with AI keeps him inside those problems as a founder, not a commentator. The through-line is specific. He is a founder who has repeatedly built communities that people pay to belong to, and he has turned the method into something organisations can use. Key speaking topics Community building inside organisations Purpose-driven business and impact entrepreneurship Sustainability communication and consumer behaviour Responsible AI and practical adoption Employee engagement through shared rituals and rhythm Founder lessons from climate and impact ventures Ideal for CHROs and internal communications leads designing engagement, belonging, or community programmes. Sustainability and ESG leads who need to translate strategy into language that customers and employees act on. Founders, innovation teams, and corporate venture units looking for a practitioner view of how purpose-led businesses scale. Learning and development leads building cohort-based programmes on AI, climate, or entrepreneurial mindset. Audience outcomes A clear method for building an internal or customer community, drawn from the “5 R’s” framework he has tested at scale. Honest distinctions between communities, audiences, and networks, and what each actually requires from the organisation. Concrete examples of where sustainability messaging fails with consumers and what reframing it around customer value looks like. A founder’s view of responsible AI adoption inside teams, grounded in his current cohort work rather than abstract policy. Renewed conviction that purpose and commercial outcomes reinforce each other when the community layer is built deliberately.

Why organisations work with Cassandra Stavrou She has lived the operational reality of scaling a challenger consumer brand against entrenched incumbents, from cement-mixer experiments in her parents’ garage to listings in every major UK retailer. She made PROPER the first B Corp certified snacks company, then proved the model could withstand a major private equity consolidation deal, completed through Brexit and COVID. She speaks credibly to founders and corporate brand teams about the operational discipline required when purpose stops being a marketing claim and starts being an audited certification. A recognised authority on UK food and drink policy, sitting on the government’s Food & Drink Sector Council, with Veuve Clicquot New Generation and National Business Award recognition behind her. Biography highlights Founder, PROPER Snacks (PROPERCORN and PROPERCHIPS), launched 2011 MBE for services to the food industry, 2020 Veuve Clicquot New Generation Award, 2016 National Business Awards New Business of the Year, 2014 Member, UK Government Food & Drink Sector Council Board member, WARP Snacks, formed in 2021 through the Exponent-backed combination of PROPER and Eat Real Biography PROPER started in a kitchen with a cement mixer and a popcorn recipe. A decade later it was Europe’s largest independent healthier snacking business, with listings in every major UK supermarket and distribution across more than twenty countries. The category it competed in was dominated by global incumbents with budgets that dwarfed anything an independent founder could put behind shelf negotiation, marketing or supply chain. Cassandra Stavrou co-founded PROPER in 2011 and ran it as a challenger brand built on a specific premise: that healthier snacks did not have to compromise on taste, and that the business behind them did not have to compromise on its social and environmental obligations. PROPER became the first B Corp certified snacks company, embedding the standard from the inside rather than retrofitting it later. The Veuve Clicquot New Generation Award in 2016, an MBE in 2020 and a seat on the UK Government’s Food & Drink Sector Council mark a track record that goes beyond brand storytelling. The 2021 consolidation with Eat Real under private equity backer Exponent, forming WARP Snacks, gave the next test: whether the discipline that built the brand could survive the rationalisation that follows institutional capital. She speaks to founders, brand teams and boards on what changes when purpose moves from a positioning line to a binding operating constraint, and on the practical economics of building a category challenger that the incumbents eventually have to take seriously. Key speaking topics Founder-led brand building in consumer categories Scaling challenger brands against incumbents B Corp certification as an operating discipline Purpose and profit in the food and drink sector Female founders and capital UK food and drink policy Ideal for Founders and senior commercial leaders in consumer brands and FMCG Brand, marketing and category leaders in retail Investors and boards backing purpose-led businesses through scale events Conferences on entrepreneurship, sustainability and women in business Audience outcomes A working view of what changes operationally when B Corp standards are written into a consumer business from day one Honest detail on the trade-offs between speed of growth and brand integrity in a price-sensitive category The mechanics of negotiating shelf space, retailer relationships and supply chains as an independent challenger A practitioner’s account of running a founder-led business through a private equity consolidation

Why organisations work with Padma Lakshmi Her seven-year documentary project across immigrant and Indigenous communities in America (the foundation of both Taste the Nation and the 2025 Knopf cookbook Padma’s All American) gives her argument about diversity and belonging an evidential weight that most cultural voices cannot offer. Her DEI perspective is not theoretical: she co-founded an organisation that passed state legislation and helped establish the first interdisciplinary gynepathology research centre in the US, at MIT, demonstrating what sustained, policy-level advocacy actually produces. As UNDP Goodwill Ambassador and ACLU Artist Ambassador, she operates at a level of formal institutional credibility that separates her from celebrity advocates; she has testified, lobbied, and built coalitions, not just spoken. She offers one of the few genuinely non-confrontational pathways into difficult conversations about immigration, identity, and women’s health – using food as the entry point makes these subjects accessible in rooms where they are otherwise contested. Named to TIME’s 100 Most Influential People and recipient of the UNCA Advocate of the Year Award, she brings independent, multi-sector validation that extends well beyond the entertainment industry. Biography highlights Host and executive producer of Bravo’s Top Chef for 19 seasons; four-time Emmy nominee as Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program Creator, host, and executive producer of Hulu’s Taste the Nation; James Beard Foundation Award winner, Visual Media – Long Form (2022) Author of Padma’s All American (Knopf, 2025), named a Best Cookbook of 2025 by the Washington Post and Boston Globe; New York Times bestselling author of memoir Love, Loss, and What We Ate and children’s book Tomatoes for Neela Co-founder, EndoFound; instrumental in establishing the first US interdisciplinary gynepathology research facility (Harvard Medical School and MIT joint project) and passing New York State Senate legislation on teen health education Visiting scholar, MIT Center for Gynepathology research UNDP Goodwill Ambassador; ACLU Artist Ambassador; TIME 100 Most Influential People (2023); UNCA Advocate of the Year (2021) Biography When organisations talk about inclusion, the conversation often stalls at the data. Padma Lakshmi has spent two decades building a different kind of argument; one that begins at the dinner table. As creator and host of Hulu’s Taste the Nation, she spent seven years embedded in immigrant and Indigenous communities across America, documenting how culinary traditions carry identity, history, and a sense of belonging that policy language rarely captures. The 2025 Knopf cookbook Padma’s All American, named a Best Cookbook of the year by the Washington Post and Boston Globe, extends that fieldwork into a mainstream cultural and business conversation: that diversity is not a management challenge to be solved but a generative force that shapes every aspect of how people live and work. Her advocacy has produced verifiable institutional outcomes. In 2009 she co-founded EndoFound, which helped establish the first interdisciplinary gynepathology research facility in the US – a joint Harvard Medical School and MIT project – and successfully drove legislation through the New York State Senate on teenage health education. She holds a visiting scholar appointment at MIT’s Center for Gynepathology Research. As UNDP Goodwill Ambassador and ACLU Artist Ambassador, she operates at the intersection of cultural influence and formal policy rather than occupying the softer territory of celebrity activism. For leadership teams where DEI initiatives have plateaued, or where women’s health and workplace wellbeing require a more credible and personal voice, Lakshmi’s combination of documentary rigour, scientific partnership, policy track record, and media reach offers something genuinely difficult to replicate. Key speaking topics Cultural identity and immigrant experience in America Diversity, equity, and inclusion through lived narrative Women’s health advocacy and public health policy Food, storytelling, and cross-cultural connection Using platform and media for social and civic impact Representation and belonging in public life Ideal for CHROs and people leaders seeking a non-confrontational, narrative-led entry into DEI at company-wide events Boards and executive teams navigating the political and cultural dimensions of workforce diversity Consumer, hospitality, or media brands whose audiences span diverse cultural communities Organisations with active women’s health or workplace wellbeing commitments seeking credible, policy-informed voices Audience outcomes A reframing of diversity from institutional obligation to cultural asset – grounded in specific, documented community experience rather than theory Deeper understanding of how immigrant and Indigenous communities shape the cultural contexts organisations operate in Practical perspective on what sustained advocacy – from grassroots education to legislative success – actually requires Greater awareness of women’s health as a workplace issue with measurable productivity and retention implications A model for using storytelling and platform to make complex social arguments land with mainstream audiences

Why organisations work with Shiza Shahid She has built a global non-profit alongside a Nobel laureate and a viral consumer brand from the ground up, which gives boards a credible voice on what purpose looks like inside a P&L rather than on a slide. Our Place put a specific commercial bet on multicultural cooking and on cookware made without PFAS, PTFE and PFOA. She can speak about how a values position becomes a product specification and a category position. Through NOW Ventures and her AngelList partnership, she has seen hundreds of early-stage decks from mission-led founders. She can tell a corporate audience which purpose-led strategies are creating real growth and which are positioning. Her arc from McKinsey analyst to non-profit CEO to consumer founder to seed investor gives her language that translates across the room, from a CFO to a brand lead to an innovation team. Biography highlights Co-founder and founding CEO of the Malala Fund, established in 2013 with Malala Yousafzai to advance girls’ education in Pakistan and across Africa. Co-founder and Co-CEO of Our Place, the direct-to-consumer kitchenware brand behind the Always Pan, launched in 2019. Founder of NOW Ventures, an early-stage fund launched in 2017 in partnership with AngelList, backing mission-driven technology startups. Author of Dinner at Our Place: Recipes for Gathering, published by HarperCollins in 2025 with eleven chefs and tastemakers. BA, Stanford University, graduated with University Distinction; former business analyst, McKinsey & Company, Dubai. Named to TIME’s 30 Under 30 People Changing the World and Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneurs; honoured as a Tribeca Disruptive Innovator. Biography A teenage activist in Islamabad set up a summer camp for Malala Yousafzai and other Pakistani girls in 2009. Three years later, after Malala was shot, that camp became the foundation for the Malala Fund. Shiza Shahid was the founding CEO, working alongside Malala and her father Ziauddin to build a global organisation focused on girls’ education in Pakistan, Nigeria, Kenya and Sierra Leone. The Malala Fund was a lesson in scaling a mission. The Our Place chapter, which started in 2019 with husband Amir Tehrani and co-founder Zach Rosner, was a lesson in scaling a product. The brand bet that multicultural cooking and toxin-free cookware were a commercial proposition, not a niche, and the Always Pan answered that bet with a 30,000-person waitlist on release. NOW Ventures, launched in 2017 with AngelList, is the third lens. Shahid writes early cheques into mission-led founders in technology, with an explicit emphasis on women and diverse entrepreneurs. The fund gives her a constant view of which purpose-led businesses are converting into commercial substance, and which are still positioning. Her cookbook, Dinner at Our Place, published by HarperCollins in 2025, sits on top of that body of work. The recipes are written with eleven chefs and tastemakers, and the book is structured around hosting as a cultural act. It is the most concrete expression yet of the conviction that drives her companies: that culture, commerce and care are not separate categories. Key speaking topics Mission-driven entrepreneurship and scale Purpose as a commercial proposition Building a consumer brand from launch Women and diverse founders in early-stage tech Girls’ education and social impact Inclusive brand and product design Investing in technology for global challenges Ideal for CEOs and founders building purpose-led consumer brands and DTC businesses Chief marketing, chief brand and chief sustainability officers in consumer goods Corporate venture, innovation and ESG teams designing new mission-led ventures Women in leadership programmes, founder networks and philanthropy boards Audience outcomes A grounded view of how a mission becomes a product specification, a brand position and a category bet, not a marketing line. A clearer read on which purpose-led commercial strategies are creating growth and which are signalling. A working vocabulary for backing women and diverse founders in early-stage technology, from someone who writes cheques. A direct account of how a non-profit at global scale and a consumer brand at viral scale are built from the same founder discipline.

Why organisations work with Marlo Clarke He gives employees a working language for purpose and fulfilment that is concrete enough to use on a Monday morning, built around named frameworks like the Cycle of Success through Intentional Action and the Spectrum of Joy. He treats setbacks as feedback to be evaluated, not motivation to be hyped past, which makes his content usable for teams under real pressure rather than after-dinner inspiration. His range is unusually wide for the format: the same content has landed with corporate audiences in the United States and United Kingdom and with rural community programmes in South Africa, which forces the ideas to be portable rather than context-dependent. Two TEDx talks at the University of Chester and the University of York give a public, watchable proof of how his material plays to a serious audience. Biography highlights Two-time TEDx speaker: TEDxUniversityofChester and TEDxUniversityofYork Former international rugby player for Barbados Has worked as a strategic and programme director across the United States, United Kingdom and South Africa Led U.S. federally funded youth and community development programmes in the American Midwest Conducted a year-long research project across 13 European countries on fulfilment and career meaning Currently runs volunteer development programmes in rural South Africa Biography Most workplace conversations about purpose end up too abstract to act on. Clarke’s work starts in the opposite place. He teaches people to answer one specific question at the end of a working day, then builds outward from that into how individuals define success, evaluate feedback, and decide what to do next. The material is shaped by an unusual working life. Born in Barbados, Clarke played international rugby for the country, then spent years running development programmes in the American Midwest funded by U.S. federal grants, working as a strategic director in the United States and United Kingdom, and leading volunteer programmes in rural South Africa. A year-long research project took him through 13 European countries interviewing people about what made their lives and careers feel worthwhile. Out of that came a small set of named frameworks: Define, Strive, Achieve, Share as the broad arc; the Cycle of Success through Intentional Action for the day-to-day; the Spectrum of Joy for what to do with achievement once it arrives. The frameworks are the spine of two TEDx talks, “What Now? What Next?” at the University of Chester and “How was your day today?” at the University of York. For an organisation, the value is practical. Clarke gives employees and leaders a way to talk about intention, setbacks and fulfilment that sits inside the working day rather than alongside it, and a vocabulary that holds up whether the audience is a corporate summit in the United States or a rural classroom in South Africa. Key speaking topics Self-defined success Intentional action Navigating uncertainty Feedback evaluation Personal fulfilment at work Cultural competency and cross-context storytelling Purpose and engagement Ideal for HR, learning and development leaders designing engagement and purpose programmes Internal conferences and leadership offsites focused on resilience and renewal Early- and mid-career talent populations being invested in by their employer Mission-driven organisations and NGOs working across cultural contexts Audience outcomes A short, repeatable daily checklist for evaluating progress against self-defined goals A working method for treating setbacks as feedback rather than failure Language for distinguishing between bliss, happiness and contentment, and why that matters at work A framework, Define / Strive / Achieve / Share, that maps onto how employees actually move through goals Renewed intent to act, grounded in two equations Clarke teaches: Passion plus Intention equals Purpose; Time plus Energy plus Money equals Purpose

Why organisations work with Leah Williamson She has captained the same team to two consecutive major international titles, a result that puts her in a category of one in English senior football and gives her a direct view of how a leadership group sustains performance across cycles, not just peaks. Her leadership story is built around a specific event with a public outcome: the Euro 2022 final at Wembley and the Euro 2025 final in Switzerland. She can talk about preparation, pressure, and decision-making with reference to moments the audience watched. She has led through serious setback, including a long-term ACL injury that ruled her out of the 2023 World Cup. The recovery and return to captaincy is a credible reference point on resilience that most sports speakers cannot match. Her platform extends beyond the pitch into authorship and advocacy. Her book “You Have the Power” with Pan Macmillan and her public stance on social issues during Euro 2022 give her a broader voice than a standard athlete keynote. She holds an OBE and a CBE for services to football, recognition from a credible national honours body that anchors her credibility outside the sport itself. Biography highlights Captain of the England senior women’s team since 2022, lifting the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 and Euro 2025 trophies. Named in the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 Team of the Tournament, leading the competition for ball recoveries and completed passes. Arsenal Women defender since her senior debut in 2014, with FA Women’s Super League and multiple domestic cup honours. Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), 2023 New Year Honours; Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), 2026 New Year Honours. Author of “You Have the Power: Find Your Strength and Believe You Can,” published by Pan Macmillan with co-writer Suzanne Wrack. Long-term Nike athlete, with brand partnerships that include Gucci and Mastercard. Biography The Euro 2022 final at Wembley was the moment English women’s football changed its commercial and cultural standing. Leah Williamson was the captain who lifted the trophy, and three years later she was the captain who lifted it again in Switzerland at Euro 2025. No other England senior football captain, women’s or men’s, has done that. What sits underneath the result is more useful to a corporate audience than the result itself. Williamson took the armband from Sarina Wiegman in 2022 having spent more than a decade inside Arsenal’s system, from the Centre of Excellence at age nine to the senior squad in 2014. Her leadership is built on a long apprenticeship and a clear professional standard, not on charisma alone. The story is not a clean line. An ACL rupture in 2023 ruled her out of a World Cup that England reached the final of, and the comeback to fitness, form, and captaincy is the reference point she draws on when the topic is resilience under public scrutiny. Her advocacy work, from the rainbow armband at Euro 2022 to her writing for younger readers in “You Have the Power” with Pan Macmillan, places her in a small group of athletes who use the platform deliberately rather than reactively. For a senior audience, the value is specific. Williamson can describe how a captaincy group sets standards, how a team holds its nerve in the back half of a tournament, and how a leader recovers personal authority after a setback that takes them out of the room. Her two OBE and CBE honours sit alongside the trophies as a public marker that the contribution is taken seriously beyond the sport. Key speaking topics Captaincy and team leadership under pressure Building and sustaining a winning team culture Resilience and recovery from setback High-performance preparation Women in sport and the business of women’s football Purpose and platform in elite sport Ideal for Senior leadership offsites and leadership-team development sessions All-hands events tied to a major performance moment, transformation milestone, or annual kick-off Audiences focused on team culture, captaincy, and high-performance habits, including HR, talent and L&D leaders Events centred on women in leadership, sport, or business Audience outcomes A first-hand account of how a captaincy group prepares for, and holds together through, the highest-pressure moments of a tournament. A credible reference point on returning to leadership after a serious setback, drawn from her ACL recovery and return to the England captaincy. A clearer view of what separates a high-performing team culture from a high-talent group that underdelivers. A view of how a public-facing leader uses platform with intent, including the choices behind her advocacy work.

Why organisations work with Lizzie Carr She has built and runs an operating environmental non-profit, not a campaign. Planet Patrol’s app turns volunteer activity into structured pollution and water-quality data, which is a usable model for any organisation thinking about citizen-led evidence gathering. Her record-setting expeditions (England’s waterways solo, the English Channel, the Hudson) gave the work its primary dataset. The endurance story is inseparable from the environmental method, which makes for a sustainability talk that actually contains a method. A cancer diagnosis at 26 sits behind the whole trajectory. That gives audiences a credible voice on personal resilience and reinvention without it being a separate, bolted-on talk. Recognition from the Crown (MBE, 2021) and from the Prime Minister’s Points of Light award gives the profile institutional weight that bureau-built activist profiles often lack. Authored Paddling Britain (2018) and hosts the Earth Shakers podcast, with regular media presence on BBC, Sky News, Channel 4 and national newspapers. The platform is real. Biography highlights Founder and CEO, Planet Patrol; nearly 500,000 pieces of litter recorded by volunteers across 113 countries. MBE, 2021, for services to environmental work and activism. First person to paddleboard England’s connected waterways solo and unsupported (400 miles, 22 days). First woman to solo paddleboard the English Channel; also crossed the Hudson River (170 miles, 8 days). Author, Paddling Britain (Bradt, 2018); host, Earth Shakers podcast. Named in Top 10 Female Climate Activists lists by Stylist, Marie Claire and Glamour; Stylist Inspiration of the Year, 2020. Biography Most environmental campaigners describe a problem. Carr built a tool that measures it. Planet Patrol began as one woman with a paddleboard and a phone, plotting every piece of plastic she could see along England’s 400 miles of inland waterway, and has become a citizen-science platform with volunteers in more than 100 countries logging pollution and water-quality data into a single app. The origin matters because the method does. Carr was diagnosed with cancer at 26 and took up paddleboarding during recovery. Three world firsts followed, each a research expedition as much as an endurance feat. The English waterway crossing produced over 20,000 plastic data points. The English Channel and Hudson River crossings extended the platform internationally. The expeditions gave the non-profit its data, its public profile and its operating logic. That logic is what makes the talk land in a corporate room. The argument is that environmental action becomes credible when it produces evidence, that citizen science is a legitimate route to that evidence at scale, and that personal conviction holds up when it has a measurement framework underneath it. Carr’s MBE in 2021, the Prime Minister’s Points of Light award, and her place in the Stylist, Marie Claire and Glamour lists of leading climate activists are recognitions of an operating contribution, not just a story. She is the author of Paddling Britain (Bradt, 2018), hosts the Earth Shakers podcast, and writes and broadcasts regularly across UK national press and television. Audiences leave with a story they remember and, more usefully for a sustainability or purpose programme, a working example of how community action becomes data and how data becomes accountability. Key speaking topics Citizen science and environmental data Plastic pollution and freshwater health Sustainability leadership and purpose Building and scaling a non-profit Personal resilience and reinvention after illness Adventure, endurance and mental performance Activism without perfectionism Ideal for Sustainability and ESG leads designing employee or community engagement programmes with measurable outcomes. CSR, foundation and purpose teams looking for a credible activist voice with operating substance. Leadership and culture programmes wanting a resilience and reinvention narrative with verifiable proof points. Conferences and offsites where a sustainability or wellbeing keynote needs a memorable lead voice. Audience outcomes A clear example of how citizen-led data collection translates environmental concern into evidence organisations can use. A working model for turning a single expedition or campaign into a long-term operating platform. A vivid case for personal reinvention after a serious health setback, told without sentiment. Language and arguments senior leaders can take back into their own sustainability and purpose conversations.