Storytelling & Business Communication

Why organisations work with Maria Ressa She has tested platform governance arguments against actual prosecution, exile threats and a coordinated state-backed disinformation campaign, which gives her a clarity on digital risk that academic experts rarely match. As co-founder of the Real Facebook Oversight Board and co-leader of Columbia’s Technology and Democracy Initiative, she sits at the centre of the policy conversation shaping how governments will regulate platforms and AI. Her Nobel citation specifically named the defence of free expression as a precondition for democracy, giving leadership and ESG audiences a credible voice on information integrity as a governance issue, not a communications one. She runs a working newsroom that has documented platform manipulation in real time, so her arguments come with primary evidence rather than secondary commentary. How to Stand Up to a Dictator gives her a published thesis on the architecture of digital authoritarianism that boards and policy teams can engage with in advance of a session. Biography highlights 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, jointly with Dmitry Muratov, for work safeguarding freedom of expression. Co-founder and CEO of Rappler, the Manila-based investigative news organisation she launched in 2012. Professor of Professional Practice, Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs; Distinguished Fellow and co-leader of the Technology and Democracy Initiative at SIPA’s Institute of Global Politics. Author of How to Stand Up to a Dictator (Harper, 2022), a New York Times bestseller, and Seeds of Terror (2003). 2021 UNESCO Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize; 2018 Golden Pen of Freedom from the World Association of News Publishers. Time Person of the Year 2018; Time 100 Most Influential People; BBC 100 Women. Nearly two decades as CNN bureau chief in Manila and Jakarta; former SVP for News and Current Affairs at ABS-CBN. Biography The 2021 Nobel Peace Prize citation named freedom of expression as a precondition for democracy. It was the first time since 1935 that the prize had been given to working journalists, and the choice was not symbolic. Ressa shared it with Dmitry Muratov for a body of work that treats disinformation, platform power and the erosion of shared reality as the defining governance problem of the decade. Her vantage point is unusual. She co-founded Rappler in Manila in 2012, then ran it through years of state-backed harassment, criminal charges and an online campaign that the company itself documented in forensic detail. That experience produced a working theory of how engagement-driven platforms, weaponised by political actors, dismantle public trust and institutional legitimacy from below. The argument is laid out in How to Stand Up to a Dictator, the Harper book that became a New York Times bestseller and Princeton’s Class of 2027 Pre-read. She now sits at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs as a Professor of Professional Practice and co-leads the Technology and Democracy Initiative at the Institute of Global Politics. The role pairs naturally with her work on the Real Facebook Oversight Board, an independent body of journalists, academics and activists holding Meta to account on content governance. Earlier in her career she opened CNN’s Manila bureau, ran its Jakarta bureau through the post-9/11 years, and led news at ABS-CBN; her 2003 book Seeds of Terror remains a reference on Jemaah Islamiyah. For corporate audiences, the value sits in the bridge she builds between platform mechanics and executive decision-making. AI accelerates everything she has been documenting for a decade, and the regulatory response, in Brussels, Washington and Manila, is now arriving in the operating environment of any business with a public-facing reputation. Key speaking topics Disinformation and the integrity of the information ecosystem Platform governance and Big Tech accountability AI ethics and the future of public trust Press freedom as institutional infrastructure Democratic resilience under digital authoritarianism Leadership and moral courage in contested environments Ideal for Boards and C-suite teams reassessing reputational and regulatory risk in an AI-mediated information environment Chief Communications Officers, Chief Risk Officers and General Counsel responsible for platform exposure and disinformation response Public-sector and policy audiences working on technology regulation, democratic resilience and ESG frameworks Leadership programmes seeking a serious voice on values, courage and institutional integrity Audience outcomes A working model of how engagement-driven platforms shape public perception of organisations, leaders and policy. Direct evidence, drawn from Rappler’s own reporting, of how coordinated disinformation campaigns are designed and executed. A clear read on where AI regulation and platform accountability are heading across major jurisdictions. A sharper sense of what leadership looks like when institutional norms are under pressure, told through a Nobel-recognised case. Language and frameworks for treating information integrity as a governance issue at board level, not a communications problem.

Why organisations work with Sam McAlister She is the negotiator who landed the 2019 Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew on the Epstein scandal, after almost a year of patient access work with Buckingham Palace. Few speakers can teach reputational negotiation from inside a case at that altitude. She teaches negotiation as a Visiting Senior Fellow in Practice at the LSE Law School, which gives the methodology academic structure, not just war stories. Her book Scoops, published by Oneworld in 2022, was adapted as the Netflix film Scoop in 2024 with Billie Piper. The material has been stress-tested by film, television and law school audiences. Two careers, criminal defence at 25 Bedford Row and a decade as a Newsnight booker, mean her toolkit covers cross-examination, hostile interview preparation, and the negotiation tactics that actually work when the counterparty has every reason to walk away. Biography highlights Visiting Senior Fellow in Practice, London School of Economics Law School, teaching negotiation. Former BBC Newsnight interviews producer for approximately ten years; left in 2021 after voluntary redundancy. Trained criminal defence barrister, 25 Bedford Row chambers, London. Author of Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews (Oneworld Publications, 2022). Subject of the 2024 Netflix film Scoop, portrayed by Billie Piper. Secured the 2019 BBC Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew on the Epstein scandal; the programme received a 2020 BAFTA Television Award nomination for News Coverage. Biography The BBC Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew aired in November 2019 and ended his public life. The booker who spent close to a year negotiating that access was Sam McAlister, then a producer on the programme and previously a criminal defence barrister at 25 Bedford Row. That career sequence matters. Cross-examination teaches a particular discipline: prepare the question for the answer you actually want, do not flinch when the room shifts, do not concede the frame. Booker work at a national news programme adds a second discipline, the patient, repeated conversation with a reluctant counterparty who can leave the table at any moment. McAlister now teaches that craft formally. She is a Visiting Senior Fellow in Practice at the LSE Law School, where her remit is negotiation. Her 2022 memoir Scoops, published by Oneworld, became the source material for the 2024 Netflix film Scoop, with Billie Piper in the lead. The Newsnight programme that anchors both was nominated at the 2020 BAFTA Television Awards in the News Coverage category. What this gives a corporate audience is rare: a working method for the conversations leaders most often delegate or duck. How to keep a reluctant counterparty in dialogue. How to prepare for an interview where every answer is reputationally live. How a calm, prepared, well-briefed presence wins access that money and seniority cannot. Key speaking topics High-stakes negotiation Crisis communication and reputational risk Persuasion and influence Media interviews and executive preparation Composure under public scrutiny Access and relationship-building with reluctant counterparties Ideal for CEOs, board chairs and general counsel facing reputational scrutiny or media exposure Heads of corporate affairs, communications and investor relations Senior leaders preparing for hostile interviews, regulatory hearings or contested negotiations Women’s leadership programmes and executive development cohorts focused on persuasion under pressure Audience outcomes A working frame for negotiating access and agreement when the counterparty has every reason to refuse. A practical method for preparing executives for high-pressure interviews, including the questions they hope no one asks. A read on what reputational risk looks like from the journalist’s side of the table, before it lands on yours. Tools for staying composed and on-message when the room turns adversarial.

Why organisations work with Nick Hendrix A recognisable face from one of ITV’s longest-running primetime dramas, which gives award ceremonies, gala dinners and brand events an immediate sense of occasion. Live theatre training at RADA and on West End stages, which translates directly into clean autocue delivery, audience reading and recovery when an agenda slips. Comfort across formats: scripted keynote interview, awards script, panel moderation and after-dinner. The same person can run the evening end to end without a second host. A second professional life as an automotive journalist for the Financial Times’ How To Spend It, Square Mile and SPEARS, with brand work for Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, McLaren and Mercedes. Useful for luxury, automotive and lifestyle audiences. A substantive talk on confidence, rejection and sustaining performance through career volatility, available when the brief calls for content beyond hosting. Biography highlights RADA-trained actor, BA in acting, 2010, following a BA in drama from the University of Exeter. Plays DS Jamie Winter in ITV’s Midsomer Murders, his ongoing role since 2016. Stage credits include male lead Prince Digby in The Light Princess at the Royal National Theatre, plus work at The Old Vic and West End productions including What The Butler Saw at the Vaudeville. Film credits include Captain America: The First Avenger, Suffragette, Legend and Red Tails. Television credits include The Crown, Black Mirror, Call the Midwife, Foyle’s War, Silk and Marcella. Co-founder of DRIVEN, an automotive journalism company, with bylines in the Financial Times’ How To Spend It, Square Mile and SPEARS, and commercial work with Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, McLaren and Mercedes. Biography A working actor’s career is built on repeated rejection. For every part won there are dozens lost, and the craft of staying available, composed and credible across that volatility is closer to a corporate audience’s daily reality than it first appears. Hendrix has spent thirteen years inside that discipline, on a primetime ITV set, on West End stages, and in front of live audiences who give no second chances. Trained at RADA after a drama degree at Exeter, he has played DS Jamie Winter in ITV’s Midsomer Murders since 2016, alongside stage work at the National, The Old Vic and the West End. Screen credits include Captain America: The First Avenger, Suffragette, Legend, The Crown and Black Mirror. The body of work is broad enough to give an event audience an immediate point of recognition. A second career runs in parallel. Hendrix co-founded DRIVEN, an automotive journalism venture, and writes for the Financial Times’ How To Spend It, Square Mile and SPEARS. That work has produced commercial relationships with Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, McLaren and Mercedes, which gives him a working fluency with luxury, automotive and lifestyle brand audiences that few hosts can match. On stage at an event he leans on the obvious tools of his trade: a trained voice, accurate scripted delivery, a feel for pace and a willingness to improvise when an agenda moves. When the brief is content rather than hosting, his subject is the practical economy of confidence and resilience inside a career that has no fixed salary or guaranteed next job. Key speaking topics Awards hosting and event mastering of ceremonies Panel moderation and on-stage interviewing Confidence and performance under pressure Mental health and wellbeing in volatile careers Resilience through repeated rejection Luxury automotive and lifestyle brand engagement Ideal for Awards ceremonies, gala dinners and brand events that need a recognisable on-camera host Marketing, communications and brand teams in luxury, automotive and lifestyle sectors Conference programmes that need a polished panel moderator across the day Employee experience and wellbeing programmes looking for a recognisable, non-clinical voice on confidence and pressure Audience outcomes A clearly run evening or conference day, with an autocue-fluent host who keeps time and recovers cleanly when things move A concrete account of how performers manage live-performance pressure, told without self-help framing A working perspective on confidence as a trained habit, not a personality trait A relevant cultural reference point for luxury, automotive and lifestyle brand audiences

Why organisations work with Karl Dickson He has refereed at the level where every call is reviewed in slow motion by millions, including the 2023 Rugby World Cup final on the touchline, and translates that into how leaders hold a decision when it is being second-guessed in real time. He brings a rare dual perspective: a Premiership winner with Harlequins and a current PGMOT international official, so he can speak credibly to both the player under instruction and the official making the call. His material on communication is grounded in a discipline where being unclear costs you the room within seconds, useful for executives whose audiences increasingly behave the same way. He addresses public mistakes head-on. Refereeing offers no place to hide a wrong decision, and the recovery skill he teaches is directly applicable to leadership populations who fear visible error. Biography highlights 169 appearances for Harlequins as a scrum-half between 2009 and 2017 Replacement in the 2011 to 2012 Premiership final, won by Harlequins against Leicester Tigers Called into the senior England squad during the 2012 Six Nations and South Africa tour Member of the RFU Professional Game Match Officials Team since 2017 Quarter-final referee at Rugby World Cup 2023 (Wales v Argentina) and assistant referee for the final (South Africa v New Zealand) Six Nations referee, including the opening fixture of the 2024 Championship (France v Ireland) Biography Most leadership content treats decision-making under pressure as a mindset. In elite refereeing it is a practised skill, made under load, on camera, with no opportunity to consult, and with the entire stadium reacting before the decision has finished being made. Karl Dickson works at exactly that level. He refereed a Rugby World Cup quarter-final in 2023 and stood as assistant referee in the final between South Africa and New Zealand. He arrived at officiating from inside the game. Eight seasons at Harlequins, 169 appearances as a scrum-half, and a Premiership title in 2012 give him a player’s reading of the moment. England squad call-ups in 2012 and a near-cap mark the upper edge of that career. Few officials at his level have lived the other side of the decision so recently. His speaking work draws directly from that dual experience. He talks about the discipline of being decisive when the right answer is not yet obvious, the communication craft of holding a room of thirty professional athletes to a call they disagree with, and the recovery skill required when the replay shows you were wrong. Those are not metaphors for leadership. They are the same problems senior teams face when a market moves, a stakeholder pushes back, or a strategy turns out to have been mistimed. What he gives a corporate audience is a working operator’s view of public judgement. Premiership and Six Nations seasons run year-round; the 2024 Six Nations opener, France v Ireland in Marseille, was his. He is not retired. He is mid-career at the top of his sport, and the material is current. Key speaking topics Decision-making under pressure Communication in high-stakes environments Composure and confidence in public roles Resilience after visible mistakes High-performance team dynamics Leadership lessons from elite sport Ideal for Senior leadership teams preparing for high-scrutiny moments: results announcements, regulatory hearings, restructure communications Sales, customer-facing, and front-line management populations whose decisions are visible and contested Executive development programmes focused on judgement, communication, and presence Annual conferences where the audience benefits from a credible voice on pressure and recovery Audience outcomes A clearer picture of what trained composure looks like, drawn from a domain where it is a job requirement Practical communication discipline for moments when an audience is sceptical, hostile, or impatient A more honest framework for handling visible mistakes, separating the error from the recovery Renewed confidence that decisiveness can be developed, not just born into

Why organisations work with Rachel Scott A direct line into the reporting that defines how the world reads Washington, from a correspondent who has covered the Trump campaign, the Biden White House, Capitol Hill and the 2024 election from the front row. The same interviewer who pressed Vladimir Putin on jailed opponents at the 2021 Geneva summit and questioned Donald Trump on the NABJ stage in Chicago. Senior leaders get a moderator who can hold any panellist to the substance. A correspondent whose Peabody-winning Nightline reporting on the Roe v. Wade aftermath and Murrow-winning coverage of the George Floyd protests show range beyond electoral politics into the social pressures shaping the US operating environment. A clear, plain-language read of US political risk for boards and executive committees that have to plan against it, calibrated for an audience that does not live inside Washington. A natural fit for events that need an authoritative American journalist on stage: keynote interviews with executives or political guests, election-period briefings, and conference moderation of complex panels. Biography highlights Senior Political Correspondent, ABC News, reporting across Good Morning America, World News Tonight with David Muir, Nightline, This Week with George Stephanopoulos, 20/20, ABC News Live and ABC Audio. Lead ABC News campaign correspondent for the 2024 US presidential election; previously Senior Congressional Correspondent and White House correspondent. Peabody Award winner (Nightline: The Appointment, 2021) and Peabody finalist (IMPACT x Nightline: On the Brink, 2023) for reporting on the Roe v. Wade decision and its aftermath. Inaugural News and Documentary Emmy for Outstanding Emerging Journalist (2022); multiple Edward R. Murrow Awards including coverage of the George Floyd protests and the Accountable podcast. Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award; NABJ Emerging Journalist of the Year (2020); Forbes 30 Under 30 (2020); Washingtonian Outstanding Journalist in Broadcast Television (2024); RTDNA First Amendment Award honoree (2025). Graduate of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Biography Washington is harder to read from the outside than it has ever been. The institutions that international businesses have priced as stable, regulators, courts, Congress and the conventions around the presidency, are now contested in public daily. Executive teams making US capital, hiring and supply commitments need a working interpretation of what is actually happening, not the broadcast version. That is the territory Rachel Scott reports from for ABC News. As Senior Political Correspondent she covers the Trump second term, Capitol Hill and the administration across the network’s full output, from World News Tonight with David Muir to Nightline and This Week with George Stephanopoulos. She served as ABC’s lead campaign correspondent through the 2024 election and was previously the network’s Senior Congressional Correspondent and White House correspondent. Her reporting has been recognised across the highest honours in American journalism. She is a Peabody winner for Nightline’s reporting on the Roe v. Wade decision, holder of the inaugural Emmy for Outstanding Emerging Journalist, and a multiple Edward R. Murrow Award winner for coverage of the George Floyd protests and the Accountable podcast with Mary Bruce. She has been named NABJ Emerging Journalist of the Year, a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and Washingtonian’s Outstanding Journalist in Broadcast Television. What corporate audiences book her for sits on top of that record. She is a working political interviewer who has pressed Vladimir Putin in Geneva and Donald Trump on the NABJ stage. For boards, executive offsites and conference programmes during a US election cycle, that produces a specific value: a moderator and on-stage interpreter who can take the day’s American political news, however unstable, and convert it into something senior business audiences can actually use. Key speaking topics US political risk and the second Trump administration The 2024 election cycle and its consequences for global business Washington reporting and the American media environment The state of US democratic institutions Capitol Hill, the courts and US regulatory direction Race, gender and the social pressures shaping US politics Keynote interviewing and conference moderation Ideal for International boards and executive committees with US capital, customer or supply chain exposure during an election cycle Public affairs, government relations and corporate communications leadership teams Annual conferences and CEO summits needing an authoritative on-stage interviewer or moderator Investor and partner events that want a sharp Washington read alongside their own programming Audience outcomes A grounded read of where US politics is actually going, separated from cable-news framing A working sense of the political risks worth pricing into US strategy over the next twelve to twenty-four months Direct, in-room exchange with a correspondent who interviews the principals her audience reads about A higher standard of moderation: panels that stay on substance and produce something a senior audience can use afterwards

Why organisations work with Jack McMullen A working actor on a major Apple TV+ and BBC One drama slate, speaking from a career that has run continuously since age ten on the practical mechanics of performing under pressure. Two British Soap Awards as a teenager, including Best Newcomer for Brookside, give him a specific story about early-career exposure, public scrutiny, and recovering from the dip that follows. Mental health and wellbeing content rooted in lived experience of the acting industry, where rejection, instability, and visibility are constant. Reaches audiences that resist clinical or corporate framings. Comfortable as host as well as keynote speaker, useful for awards evenings, leadership retreats, and internal events that need a credible presenter rather than an MC for hire. Biography highlights Two British Soap Awards for Brookside (Channel 4): Best Newcomer and Best On-Screen Partnership with Sarah White. Long-running BBC roles as Tigger Johnson in Grange Hill and Finn Sharkey in Waterloo Road. Feature film Ford v Ferrari / Le Mans ’66 with Matt Damon and Christian Bale. BBC One’s prison drama Time alongside Sean Bean and Stephen Graham. Apple TV+ thriller Hijack opposite Idris Elba. Lead role as Jamie Phelan in BBC One’s This City Is Ours. Biography A career that begins on screen at ten and continues through a person’s mid-thirties is unusual in any industry. Jack McMullen made his television debut on Channel 4’s Brookside in 2002 and won two British Soap Awards before he had left school, including Best Newcomer and Best On-Screen Partnership. The years that followed are the material most working actors talk about least: long stretches of auditions, regional theatre, day-player roles on Casualty, Doctors, and The Bill, alongside a long-running BBC contract as Tigger Johnson in Grange Hill and Finn Sharkey in Waterloo Road. The work was constant. The visibility was not. The latter part of his career has been a steady move into prestige drama. Ford v Ferrari with Matt Damon and Christian Bale; BBC One’s Time opposite Sean Bean and Stephen Graham; Apple TV+’s Hijack with Idris Elba; the lead role of Jamie Phelan in BBC One’s This City Is Ours. His speaking work draws on the operating discipline that sits behind that arc, the mechanics of preparation, the management of nerves and rejection, and the practical experience of staying useful in a profession where most people do not. Where his content is most useful to organisations is in audiences that have stopped responding to standard wellbeing language. He is a working performer, not a coach with a model, and the credibility of what he says comes from the fact that he is still doing the work. Key speaking topics Performance under pressure Confidence in high-visibility roles Mental health and wellbeing in performance careers Resilience after early success Motivation and personal discipline Storytelling and business communication Ideal for Internal conferences and away days where audiences have grown tired of corporate wellbeing framings Awards evenings and leadership retreats needing a credible host as well as a speaker Sales, trading, and client-facing teams operating in high-pressure, high-visibility environments Early-career and graduate audiences navigating exposure and rejection Audience outcomes A specific account of how working performers manage nerves, rejection, and exposure across a long career Language for talking about pressure and mental health that audiences who resist clinical framings will engage with A clearer view of confidence as a practised behaviour, not a personality trait An honest perspective on what sustained career performance actually requires when the visibility is uneven

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 Elliot Barnes-Worrell A first-hand account of how inclusion plays out inside institutions known for being difficult to enter: the RSC, the National Theatre, the Almeida, and the BBC. Academic standing alongside the performance career. Guest lecturer at Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, Brown and Howard, with a published interest in race and representation in Shakespeare. A writer-director’s view of how creative cultures actually commission and back new voices, drawn from his own films The Works (BBC) and DIGGING (Film4). Range across keynote, masterclass and panel formats, with a tone that works for senior corporate audiences and for early-career and graduate populations inside the same organisation. Biography highlights Royal Shakespeare Company company member, 2013 to 2014, with roles in Henry IV, Richard II and The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Horatio in Hamlet at the Almeida Theatre; Henry Straker in Man and Superman at the National Theatre. Screen credits include ITV’s Jericho and Van der Valk, Soon Gone: A Windrush Chronicle, Dolittle, and Black Mirror: Hotel Reverie. Writer and director of The Works (BBC, 2016) with Ralph Fiennes, and DIGGING for Film4, premiered at the London Film Festival. Guest lecturer at Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, Brown and Howard universities. Alan Bates Award (Actors Centre); Sir John Gielgud Award (Royal Central School of Speech and Drama). Biography Most institutional inclusion work fails on the same question. Once a new voice is in the room, does the institution actually let it shape the work, or does it ask the voice to fit in quietly? Barnes-Worrell has spent his career inside the institutions where that question is hardest to dodge: the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, the Almeida and the BBC. He trained at the BRIT School and at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, where he graduated with the Sir John Gielgud Award, and went on to win the Alan Bates Award at the Actors Centre. As an actor his stage work includes Horatio in Hamlet at the Almeida and Henry Straker in Man and Superman at the National Theatre, alongside an RSC company year covering Henry IV, Richard II and The Two Gentlemen of Verona. On screen he has appeared in ITV’s Jericho and Van der Valk, in Soon Gone: A Windrush Chronicle, in Dolittle, and in Black Mirror: Hotel Reverie. In 2016 he moved into writing and directing with The Works for the BBC, featuring Ralph Fiennes, and later wrote and directed DIGGING for Film4, which premiered at the London Film Festival. That second body of work gives him a working view of how creative organisations decide which voices to back, and on what terms. He also lectures inside the universities most associated with the canon he interrogates: Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, Brown and Howard, with a particular line of work on race and representation in Shakespeare. For corporate audiences, that combination of practitioner credibility and academic standing lets him discuss inclusion as a question of craft and culture, not slogans, in front of senior leaders who have become wary of both. Key speaking topics Inclusion as a cultural and creative discipline Race and representation in Shakespeare Storytelling and business communication Confidence and composure in high-scrutiny settings Talent development and emerging voices Mental health and wellbeing for performers and creative teams Ideal for Chief People Officers and Heads of DEI rebuilding inclusion programmes after a period of fatigue or political pressure Early-careers, graduate and apprenticeship leads designing development programmes for new entrants Internal communications and leadership development teams using storytelling as a working skill Universities, business schools and arts institutions running cross-disciplinary events on culture and representation Audience outcomes A clearer view of where institutional inclusion efforts stall, drawn from someone who has worked inside the institutions most cited as case studies. Specific language for talking about race and representation without resorting to either compliance script or political signalling. A practitioner’s account of how creative confidence is built, tested and sustained under public scrutiny. A storytelling vocabulary that internal communicators and leaders can use in their own work.

Why organisations work with Charlotte Storey She trains leaders in the craft of presence using the same technical toolkit she used on stage: voice, physicality, and mindset under observation. Most executive coaching talks about presence. Hers drills it. She has coached the Royal Marines Band through two of the most scrutinised live performances in recent British history: the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II and the coronation of King Charles III. The stakes reference is not theoretical. Her work on disability inclusion is grounded in her own route into a commercial pilot’s seat with one arm, which gives her a specific, operational view on how hiring and development systems overlook non-standard candidates. Her method is concrete and demonstrable in the room: accent work, physical embodiment, vocal control, and anxiety regulation. Audiences leave with techniques they can rehearse, not concepts they have to translate. She bridges two audiences that rarely share a speaker: performance-anxious specialists (musicians, surgeons, pilots, public-facing executives) and HR and inclusion leaders working on disability at senior levels. Biography highlights Former West End actor and professional saxophonist, now working as a performance and communication coach to senior leaders. Gained a UK pilot’s licence in 2021 and flies a light aircraft as pilot in command, having lost the use of her right arm in 2008. Coached HM Royal Marines Band through the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II and the coronation of King Charles III. Delivered a 2023 keynote at the Lockheed Martin UK Leader Conference, described by CEO Paul Livingston as the most impactful presentation seen at the annual conference. Client roster includes the BBC, Disney, Nickelodeon, the Bank of England, NatWest, the European Business Aviation Association, Warburtons, and Homebase. Lives with Ehlers-Danlos Hypermobility Syndrome and speaks from direct experience on the practical mechanics of disability in high-performance careers. Biography The Royal Marines Band rehearsed for months before the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II and the coronation of King Charles III. Charlotte Storey was the performance coach they brought in to handle the part of the job that does not show up in a music score: staying composed when the eyes of the world are on the ensemble and there is no room for a wrong note. That commission captures the work. Storey started in the West End as an actor and professional saxophonist, then moved into elite voice and acting coaching in UK conservatoires before her current career as a speaker and executive coach. Her specialism is what happens to people technically and physically when the pressure rises: voice tightens, breath shortens, attention collapses inward. She trains it out of them. The second strand of her work comes from lived experience. In 2008 she lost the use of her right arm following complications of Ehlers-Danlos Hypermobility Syndrome. In 2021, afraid of heights and working with a disability that grounds most pilots, she gained her licence and now flies as pilot in command. That route into the cockpit informs her work on disability inclusion, which she treats as an operational question about how organisations find and promote non-standard talent, not a values statement. Her keynote list runs from Lockheed Martin UK’s Leader Conference to the BBC, Disney, Nickelodeon, the Bank of England, NatWest, and the European Business Aviation Association. The through-line is the same: a practitioner teaching senior people how to perform, in the craft sense of the word, when it matters most. Key speaking topics Executive presence and the craft of performing under pressure Performance anxiety in high-stakes professional settings Non-verbal communication and vocal authority for senior leaders Disability inclusion in senior hiring and promotion Self-mastery and composure for client-facing and public-facing roles Audacious leadership and risk tolerance in technical careers Team dynamics in elite ensembles and high-performance units Ideal for CHROs, heads of leadership development, and DEI leaders working on presence, progression, and disability inclusion at senior levels. Executive teams preparing for high-stakes external appearances: investor days, regulatory hearings, media, large-scale town halls. Specialist professional communities where composure under scrutiny is part of the job: aviation, defence, surgery, financial services, broadcasting. Conferences seeking an inspirational keynote that has craft content underneath, not only a personal story. Audience outcomes A working vocabulary for what presence is made of, with specific techniques for voice, breath, and physical positioning. Practical tools for regulating performance anxiety before high-stakes appearances. A sharper view of how hiring and promotion systems filter out disabled and non-standard candidates, and what changes that. A reset on the role of rehearsal and craft in senior leadership, drawn from performing arts practice. A direct experience of the techniques in the room, delivered by a speaker trained to hold the space.

Why organisations work with June Sarpong She has run inclusion at scale inside one of the world’s largest media organisations. As the BBC’s first Director of Creative Diversity, she sat on the Executive Committee and oversaw a £100m commissioning commitment, which gives boards a credible peer voice rather than an outside consultant. Her three HarperCollins books (Diversify, The Power of Women, The Power of Privilege) build an economic argument for inclusion, drawing on Nuffield College, Oxford research that put the cost of UK discrimination at £127bn a year. Buyers get a speaker who can frame the case in commercial terms. Through Diversify International, she has worked with Burberry, Barclays, Nike, Google, Unilever, EY and the NHS, so the room can ask practical questions about what works in regulated, consumer-facing and public-sector contexts. She moves naturally between keynote and host or moderator, which makes her usable across formats: a leadership offsite opener, an internal town hall, an awards stage, or a chaired board conversation on diversity. Biography highlights First Director of Creative Diversity at the BBC and first Black woman on the BBC Executive Committee. Oversaw a £100m commitment to diverse and inclusive content commissioning at the BBC. Author of three HarperCollins titles on inclusion: Diversify, The Power of Women, The Power of Privilege. Founder of Diversify International, with corporate clients including Burberry, Barclays, Google, Nike, Unilever, EY, Facebook and the NHS. MBE (2007) and OBE (2020) for services to broadcasting and to broadcasting respectively. Non-Executive Trustee of Tate, appointed by the Prime Minister. Biography Inclusion is now a board-level question because the audiences, workforces and customer bases of most large organisations have changed faster than the people running them. June Sarpong’s work sits exactly in that gap. She argues, in commercial language, that closing it is an operating decision, not a values statement. She made that case from inside one of the world’s most scrutinised institutions. As the BBC’s first Director of Creative Diversity, she sat on the Executive Committee and oversaw a £100m commissioning commitment to diverse and inclusive content. It was the first time a UK public broadcaster of that scale tied inclusion to a budget line and reported against it. The argument is also published. Her three HarperCollins books, Diversify, The Power of Women and The Power of Privilege, draw on Nuffield College, Oxford research that put the annual cost of discrimination in the UK at £127bn. The books are used as a frame in her keynote work, which is how she became useful to companies trying to move beyond statements: Burberry, Barclays, Google, Nike, Unilever, EY and the NHS have all engaged Diversify International, the consultancy she founded after leaving the BBC. Her career began in broadcasting, and that range still matters commercially. She presented Channel 4’s T4 for nine years, interviewed Tony Blair for the strand, and is a regular panel and broadcast voice. The same craft that lets her host a leadership offsite or chair a board conversation also lets her bring difficult inclusion content into a room without it landing as a lecture. She is a Trustee of Tate, appointed by the Prime Minister, and holds an OBE for services to broadcasting. Key speaking topics Inclusion as an operating commitment Diverse audiences and consumer reach Workforce composition and talent The economic case for inclusion Allyship and privilege Women in leadership Culture change inside large organisations Ideal for CHROs, Chief People Officers and DEI leads under pressure to show measurable inclusion outcomes Boards and executive committees revisiting inclusion strategy after the post-2020 reset Marketing and brand leaders rethinking how products and content connect with diverse audiences Leadership offsites, internal town halls and conferences that need a credible host as well as a speaker Audience outcomes A clearer picture of what inclusion looks like as a budget and operating decision, drawn from a real public-sector example The commercial argument for inclusion in language a CFO or board chair will accept A practical reading of what worked and what failed across consumer, financial and public-sector deployments A sharper view of the difference between inclusion programmes and inclusion communications

Why organisations work with Anna Rosling Rönnlund Her Factfulness framework – co-developed with Hans and Ola Rosling and verified through Gapminder’s systematic global testing – gives leadership teams a named, testable inventory of the cognitive instincts that distort how they read global trends; knowing which instinct is operating is more actionable than being told to think more carefully about data. Dollar Street, the income-sorted photographic database she founded at Gapminder, organises 30,000+ images from 50+ countries by purchasing power rather than by geography – showing what global consumers actually look like at different spending levels in a way that statistical reports rarely achieve. She brings a combination almost nobody in this space can match: rigorous sociological training (Lund University), professional photography, senior UX design at Google, and twenty years building Gapminder’s data tools for mass, non-specialist audiences. Factfulness has sold over 2.5 million copies in 45+ languages; organisations engaging her work are connecting to a framework already embedded in business schools, executive education programmes, and corporate strategy teams internationally. She leads ESG and SDG literacy workshops using Gapminder’s verified, publicly available global datasets – giving organisations a grounded, non-ideological entry point to sustainability strategy built on measurable global reality rather than advocacy frameworks. Biography highlights Co-founder and VP, Head of Design and User Experience, Gapminder Foundation (est. 2005, Stockholm) Designed Trendalyzer – the animated bubble-chart visualisation tool – acquired by Google in 2007; Senior UX Designer, Google Mountain View (2007-2010) Co-author, Factfulness (Flatiron Books, 2018) – New York Times bestseller; 2.5 million+ copies sold; 45+ language editions Founder of Dollar Street (2016) – 30,000+ income-sorted photographs from 50+ countries, free under Creative Commons licence TED speaker (2017): “See how the rest of the world lives, organized by income” Honorary Doctorate in Informatics, University of Skövde (2018) Fast Company World Changing Ideas Award, Photography and Visualization category (2017) Biography Global strategy conversations are routinely shaped by assumptions that are decades out of date. Gapminder, the foundation Anna Rosling Rönnlund co-founded in 2005, was built to measure this problem precisely. It tests what people believe about the world, identifies where those beliefs are provably wrong, and develops tools to correct them. Her first major contribution was Trendalyzer, an animated visualisation tool she designed with Ola Rosling that made decades of development data readable in seconds. Google acquired it in 2007. When she and Ola returned to Gapminder in 2010, the mission shifted from visualisation to diagnosis: systematically testing what educated, experienced people get wrong about global development – and why. That diagnostic work produced Factfulness, co-authored with Hans Rosling and Ola Rosling and published in 2018. The book names ten cognitive instincts – including the gap instinct and the generalisation instinct – that cause leaders to systematically misread global trends. It became a New York Times bestseller, with over 2.5 million copies sold across 45 languages. Her parallel project, Dollar Street, sent photographers to 50+ countries to document everyday life at every income level – 30,000+ images, organised by purchasing power rather than geography. These images replace national stereotypes with income-level reality, giving organisations a concrete tool for understanding global consumers. Anna holds a Master’s in Sociology from Lund University and a Bachelor’s in Photography from Gothenburg University. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Informatics from the University of Skövde in 2018 and received the Fast Company World Changing Ideas Award in the Photography and Visualization category in 2017. Key speaking topics Fact-based decision-making and the Factfulness framework Global development trends and emerging market realities Data visualisation and communicating complexity to non-specialist audiences Consumer demographics and income-level market analysis Dollar Street and visual approaches to global data ESG and SDG literacy for business Strategic misconceptions and cognitive bias in leadership Ideal for Boards and senior leadership teams making strategic decisions about global markets, risk, or emerging economies Chief Strategy Officers and heads of corporate strategy evaluating long-term assumptions and scenario plans Sustainability and ESG leads working with SDG frameworks and global impact data Leadership development and executive education programmes building data literacy and fact-based reasoning habits Audience outcomes A working understanding of the ten Factfulness instincts and how they distort strategic decision-making Practical methods for identifying and correcting the shared assumptions driving organisational strategy A reframed view of global consumer markets using Dollar Street’s income-level visual data, reducing reliance on outdated country stereotypes Greater confidence in questioning shared assumptions during leadership team discussions and board conversations Awareness of which global trends are measurably improving versus declining, grounded in Gapminder’s verified datasets

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