Storytelling & Business Communication speakers

Why organisations work with Mickey Wilson She runs a working brand consultancy, not a speaking practice with an agency name attached. The frameworks she presents are the same ones Firestarter applies inside Tesco, Samsung, CIMA and Ocado engagements. The DARE Formula gives leadership teams a shared vocabulary for brand decisions: Differentiation, Authenticity, Resonance, Expression. It replaces the design-led conversation most boards default to with a commercial one. She works the B2B scale-up problem specifically. The advice is calibrated to founders who have product-market fit and need brand to do the next stage of commercial lifting, not to consumer giants polishing an existing position. Paired with co-founder Dr Chris Endersby, a business psychologist, she brings behavioural insight into brand decisions where most agencies bring only aesthetic judgement. Biography highlights CEO and founder, Firestarter (est. 2015), a London-headquartered brand consultancy with a studio in Cape Town 30+ years in brand strategy and creative leadership; launched her first agency at twenty-one Client engagements include Tesco, Samsung, CIMA and Ocado Creator of the DARE Formula and Firestarter’s Brand Maturity Model Co-author of forthcoming book BRANDFIRE with Dr Chris Endersby Featured in Authority Magazine, Startups Magazine, BMmagazine, WeAreTheCity and Talented Ladies Club Biography Most B2B scale-ups treat brand as a downstream problem. They build the product, win early customers, then commission a logo refresh when sales plateau. Mickey Wilson’s argument is that the plateau is the brand problem, and that treating it cosmetically is what causes it to harden. Firestarter, the consultancy she founded in 2015, sells against that pattern. Working with clients including Tesco, Samsung, CIMA and Ocado, the firm built a proprietary framework, the DARE Formula, around four ingredients its analysts argue brand-led growth depends on: Differentiation, Authenticity, Resonance and Expression. It is the spine of how the firm diagnoses why a B2B business is not converting at the rate its product would predict. What separates her work from generic brand consultancy is the partnership with co-founder Dr Chris Endersby, a business psychologist whose background sits in behavioural change rather than design. Together they pair brand strategy with cognitive insight into why buyers respond, hesitate, or commit. That joint authorship runs through Firestarter’s BrandSight:360 assessment and through BRANDFIRE, the book the two are preparing for publication. Wilson started her first agency at twenty-one and has spent more than three decades in brand strategy and creative leadership. The corporate client list is the credential most senior buyers will check first. The more telling proof is that scale-up founders, who tend to be sceptical of agency theatre, hire her to turn brand from a marketing line item into a commercial growth lever. Key speaking topics B2B brand strategy Differentiation in saturated markets Brand-led growth for scale-ups The DARE Formula Behavioural psychology in branding Brand resonance and emotional connection Founder-led brand building Ideal for Founders and CEOs of B2B scale-ups in series A through C CMOs and brand directors at mid-market businesses Sales and marketing leadership teams aligning on positioning Industry conferences in B2B technology, professional services and SaaS Audience outcomes A diagnostic for where their brand is losing commercial ground to competitors The DARE Formula as a working vocabulary for cross-functional brand decisions A clearer view of how psychology shapes B2B buyer commitment Practical pointers on translating founder conviction into a brand position buyers remember A challenge to the assumption that brand is a marketing function rather than a commercial one

Why organisations work with Mike Bushell Twenty years of live national television experience on BBC Breakfast, which translates directly into the composure conferences and awards need from the person holding the room. A recognisable face from one of the UK’s largest morning audiences and a 2019 Strictly Come Dancing series, which adds warmth and recognition to internal events and client-facing nights. A genuine interactive format, Sport or Spoof, that he runs with corporate audiences using sports drawn from his on-air library, giving organisations a built-in entertainment slot rather than a generic keynote. An on-record body of work on activity, participation and trying-the-untried that lends a credible voice to wellbeing, engagement and active-lifestyle programmes inside organisations. Reporting experience from Olympics, Paralympics and multiple World Cups, which gives him native fluency on stage with athletes, sports federations and sponsorship audiences. Biography highlights Longest-serving sports presenter in BBC Breakfast history, joined the programme in 2006. Has personally tried and profiled more than 550 sports on BBC One, from Quidditch and shin-kicking to Kabaddi with the Indian national team at the Asian Games in Doha. Held a Guinness World Record for travelling across water in an inflatable ball, set for Sport Relief in 2012. Contestant on Strictly Come Dancing series 17 in 2019, partnered with Katya Jones. Has reported on the Olympics, Paralympics, Commonwealth Games and football, rugby and cricket World Cups. Author of Bushell’s Best Bits (2013), drawn from his sports-discovery slot. Career began at BBC Radio Solent in 1990, with earlier reporting roles at the Derby Evening Telegraph and the Windsor and Slough Observer. Biography Live sports presentation on BBC Breakfast is one of the more exposed jobs in UK broadcasting. The presenter takes the chair every Saturday morning, on national television, with no second take. Mike Bushell has held that chair longer than anyone in the programme’s history, joining BBC Breakfast in 2006 after starting his career at BBC Radio Solent in 1990. The on-air work is built around a simple proposition: every week, try a sport. The list now runs past 550 and includes shin-kicking, worm charming, Quidditch, swamp soccer, Rush hockey and Kabaddi with the Indian team at the Asian Games in Doha. The book that came out of it, Bushell’s Best Bits, was published in 2013. The format is the source of the interactive Sport or Spoof game he runs with corporate audiences. The wider reporting CV covers Olympics, Paralympics, Commonwealth Games and football, rugby and cricket World Cups. In 2019 he was a contestant on series 17 of Strictly Come Dancing with Katya Jones, which is the credit most internal-event audiences recognise on sight. For organisations, the offer is straightforward. Bushell hosts conferences, moderates panels, runs awards nights and gives after-dinner talks. When the brief calls for it, he also speaks on activity, participation and getting people off the sofa, drawn directly from the on-air body of work. Key speaking topics Event hosting and conference moderation Awards night presenting Active lifestyles and sports participation Workplace wellbeing through movement Resilience and trying the unfamiliar Sports broadcasting and the Olympic and World Cup beat Interactive audience formats including Sport or Spoof Ideal for Internal conferences, sales kick-offs and all-hands looking for a recognisable host Awards nights and sponsor evenings in sport, media and consumer sectors Wellbeing, HR and people-team programmes built around activity and participation Charity galas, fundraising dinners and sports federation events Audience outcomes A programme run cleanly from the front of the room, with live moments handled without losing the audience A shared moment of entertainment through the Sport or Spoof format, tuned to the audience in the room A direct, lived case for getting more active and the corporate-wellbeing argument that follows Behind-the-scenes anecdotes from Strictly, the Olympics, World Cups and 550 sports on national television

Why organisations work with Monty Criswell Five number-one country singles across three decades, including “I Saw God Today” for George Strait, “Five More Minutes” for Scotty McCreery and “Hell of a View” for Eric Church, give him a body of work most after-dinner speakers cannot match. His material is built around real songs played live, not slides. The performance element makes the resilience message land with senior audiences in a way a conventional keynote cannot. A stage 3 colon cancer recovery, tied to active support of Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, gives the health and recovery thread substance rather than sentiment. Thirty years in a commercial creative industry, with named hits for George Strait, Eric Church, Trace Adkins, Scotty McCreery and Parker McCollum, makes him credible on the realities of sustained creative output under commercial pressure. Biography highlights Co-writer, “I Saw God Today” (George Strait, 2008), CMA Single of the Year; Grammy and Dove nominations. Number-one country singles include “Just Fishin'” (Trace Adkins), “Five More Minutes” (Scotty McCreery, triple platinum), “Hell of a View” (Eric Church, double platinum) and “Handle on You” (Parker McCollum). Two Grammy nominations for Country Song of the Year; multiple BMI and NSAI songwriting awards. Songwriter Session presenter at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Nashville. Publishing history with Hamstein Music Group, Sony/ATV/Tree and currently Spirit Music Group. B.A. American Studies, cum laude, University of Alabama. Biography Country music is one of the few commercial creative industries where the same writer can sustain hits across thirty years. It is also one of the most unforgiving. Hit songs decide careers, and most writers never get one. Monty Criswell has written or co-written five number-one country singles in four different decades, including “I Saw God Today” for George Strait, which won CMA Single of the Year in 2008 and was nominated for a Grammy. The catalogue runs from Trace Adkins to Eric Church to Parker McCollum. “Five More Minutes” for Scotty McCreery went triple platinum. “Hell of a View” for Eric Church went double platinum. The longevity matters more than any single credit. It is what gives him a working theory of how a person keeps producing under commercial pressure when the room around them changes. Halfway through that run he was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer. He recovered, returned to writing, and continued to land number ones. He now supports Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center and sits with his wife on Vanderbilt’s Canby Robinson Society. The cancer story is not a frame for the talk; it is the second source of evidence behind it. “An Evening with Monty Criswell” is a live performance, not a conference session. He plays the songs, tells the stories behind them, and draws lessons on persistence, craft and recovery from a working life that produced both. For organisations looking for an inspirational close to a conference, an awards dinner or a leadership offsite, the offering is unusual: a credible commercial creative who can hold a room with songs the audience already knows. Key speaking topics Resilience and recovery after serious illness Sustaining creative output over a long career Storytelling as a leadership tool Persistence in commercially unforgiving industries Country music songwriting craft Faith and personal values in working life Ideal for Conference closing keynotes and gala dinners where an inspirational live performance is required Sales kick-offs and leadership offsites in need of a resilience and persistence anchor Cancer charities, healthcare audiences and corporate wellness events Audiences in the United States with country music affinity, including Nashville-based events Audience outcomes A live experience of how a hit country song is built, told by its writer A first-hand account of stage 3 cancer recovery and the return to high-output work Stories drawn from a thirty-year Nashville career, with named artists and named songs A close that lands emotionally without leaning on a slide deck

Why organisations work with Nadia Jae She hosts a daily national breakfast show on BBC 1Xtra and won a Gold ARIA for it in 2023, so the live-microphone craft is tested every morning in front of a UK audience, not assembled for the occasion. She is one of the small group of UK presenters who moves fluently between the BAFTA TV Awards, the MOBO Awards, Disney and Marvel red carpets and corporate stages, which matters when an event sits between entertainment and business. Her interview reel includes Stormzy, John Legend, Usher, Daniel Kaluuya and Little Simz. Senior on-stage guests are handled without the script becoming the safety net. Raise Your Voice, her 2022 book with DK and the BBC, gives her a credible secondary offer on confidence, communication and self-presentation for younger workforces and early-career audiences. She brings cultural reach into rooms that often lack it: a DJ background at the BRITs, Lovebox, indigO2 and Fabric, and a brand history with ASOS, Adidas, John Lewis, Netflix and Beats By Dre. Biography highlights Host, BBC Radio 1Xtra Breakfast Show, since December 2020. Gold ARIA, Best Music Breakfast Show, 2023. Author, Raise Your Voice: Make Yourself Heard in a Noisy World (DK, 2022), produced in partnership with the BBC. Presenting credits across the BAFTA TV Awards, MOBO Awards, Wireless Festival, Disney and Marvel events. DJ sets at the BRIT Awards, Lovebox, indigO2 and Fabric. Brand and commercial work with ASOS, Adidas, John Lewis, Netflix and Beats By Dre. Biography The BBC 1Xtra Breakfast Show is one of the most exposed live slots in UK radio: a daily national programme, a young audience, a music-industry guest list and no second takes. Nadia Jae has held it since December 2020 and won a Gold ARIA for it in 2023. Outside the studio, she has built a parallel career as a live events host. She has presented on stage and on red carpets for the BAFTA TV Awards, the MOBO Awards, Wireless Festival, Disney and Marvel, with a DJ track record at the BRITs, Lovebox, indigO2 and Fabric. The blend matters for corporate clients: she can hold an awards night, a brand launch or an internal conference without the cultural register feeling forced. Raise Your Voice, published by DK with the BBC in 2022 as part of the corporation’s centenary Share Your Story programme, sits alongside the broadcast work. The book is a practical guide to confidence, self-presentation and storytelling for young audiences, with contributions from George the Poet, Ade Adepitan and Nancy Kacungira. It gives her a credible secondary keynote on voice and communication for early-career and Gen Z workforce audiences. Her interview history on 1Xtra, from Stormzy and Little Simz to John Legend, Usher and Daniel Kaluuya, is the clearest signal of the on-stage craft: senior names, live mics, no second pass. Key speaking topics Awards and event hosting Conference and keynote moderation Brand activation and launch hosting Panel facilitation and on-stage interviews Voice, confidence and communication for young audiences Storytelling and personal narrative Media and broadcast presence Culture, music and youth audiences Ideal for Internal awards nights, recognition events and end-of-year conferences that need a confident MC. Brand launches, product reveals and consumer-facing activations aimed at younger audiences. Panel sessions and on-stage interviews where the host needs to interview senior or high-profile guests live. Early-career, apprentice and Gen Z workforce sessions on voice, confidence and self-presentation. Audience outcomes A clearly structured event with consistent pace, set pieces landed and senior contributors handled with confidence. On-stage interviews and panels that move rather than stall. A cultural register that resonates with younger and more diverse audiences without feeling tokenistic. For Raise Your Voice sessions: a practical sense of how to speak up, present a clear personal narrative and use voice deliberately at work.

Why organisations work with Nadine Chammas A working background in theatre direction, stage performance and hypnotherapy, applied to the workplace behaviours that leadership programmes usually skip: voice, presence, composure on the floor. Creator of the trademarked TLD Method, delivered as a book, certified course and retreat, which gives clients a defined system rather than a one-off keynote. Two decades operating across the GCC, with audiences in Arabic and English, and a track record of running corporate sessions on emotional intelligence, conflict resolution and executive presence. Author of The Stage is Yours, an Amazon bestseller that frames professional and personal communication through a theatre-director lens. A profile that travels in regional media: weekly counselling sessions on Al Arabiya, and a music output that gives her unusual cultural reach for a corporate trainer. Biography highlights Founder of The Life Director consultancy and creator of the TLD Method, delivered through book, certification course and retreat. BA in Fine Arts and Theatre Studies, Lebanese University. Master Practitioner of NLP and Timeline Therapy; certified by the American Board of Hypnotherapy; certified stage hypnotist trained in Las Vegas. Founded Scenez Group Production Company (Dubai, 2000) and Scenez Drama and Arts Academy. Author of The Stage is Yours (Amazon bestseller); subsequent title The Life Director: Presence over Performance. Weekly counselling segments on Al Arabiya; 11 released songs, with two pandemic-era Arabic releases passing 1.2 million YouTube views combined. Biography Presence is a workplace skill, and most professionals are never taught it. Senior leaders are expected to hold a room, settle a difficult conversation, and stay composed under scrutiny, but the training they receive treats those behaviours as personality, not craft. Theatre treats them as craft, and that is where Nadine Chammas comes from. Trained at Lebanese University in Fine Arts and Theatre Studies, she built her early career in Dubai through Scenez Group Production Company and Scenez Drama and Arts Academy, running productions across the region and teaching performance to children and adults. Alongside the theatre work she trained as a Master Practitioner of NLP and Timeline Therapy, completed certification with the American Board of Hypnotherapy, and qualified as a stage hypnotist in Las Vegas. The combination is unusual: stagecraft and behavioural method, applied to how people show up at work. The Life Director is the consultancy that consolidates that work. Her TLD Method is delivered as a book, a certified practitioner course and a retreat, and is positioned for individuals, corporate audiences and educational institutions. The corporate framing is direct: communication and leadership, emotional intelligence and resilience, conflict resolution and team behaviour, executive presence, decision-making under pressure. The Stage is Yours, her Amazon bestseller, sets out the underlying argument that a working life can be approached the same way a director approaches a production. She operates across the GCC and the US, in Arabic and English, with regional media reach through weekly Al Arabiya counselling segments and a music career that runs in parallel to the corporate work. The composite makes her suited to audiences where personal credibility, communication and cultural fluency are part of the brief, not separate from it. Key speaking topics Executive presence and personal branding Communication and influence Emotional intelligence and resilience Conflict resolution and team behaviour Storytelling for leaders Women in leadership Workplace culture and engagement Ideal for HR and L&D leaders commissioning communication, presence and behavioural skills programmes. Corporate audiences across the GCC where Arabic-English fluency and regional cultural read are part of the brief. Women’s leadership networks and conferences. Professional services and client-facing teams whose work depends on how they show up in the room. Audience outcomes A working vocabulary for executive presence drawn from theatre and behavioural method, not personality traits. Specific techniques for voice, composure and physical presence under pressure. A clearer sense of how to use storytelling to make a message land with a corporate audience. An honest read on the behaviours that cost senior professionals credibility, and what to do about them.

Why organisations work with Nadine Hani A moderator with genuine financial substance: an MBA from the American University of Beirut and a prior career as a private banking consultant at ABN AMRO and BNP Paribas, before two decades anchoring business news at Al Arabiya. Few hosts on regional stages carry that depth. Interview experience that translates directly to live moderation. She has questioned Henry Paulson, Timothy Geithner, Jamie Dimon, David Rubenstein and Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud on Al Arabiya, and has reported from Davos every year since 2008. Working fluency in Arabic and English with native command of the Arab business landscape, well suited to GCC and pan-regional events where audiences switch between languages and references shift between Wall Street and Riyadh. A track record on the stages where serious money meets policy: confirmed moderator at Future Investment Initiative programmes in Riyadh and at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos. Biography highlights Senior Business News Presenter at Al Arabiya News Channel; presenter and co-producer of Al Aswaq Al Arabiya. Former business news anchor at CNBC Arabiya, Dubai, and former private banking consultant at ABN AMRO and BNP Paribas in Lebanon. Has interviewed Henry Paulson, Timothy Geithner, Jamie Dimon, David Rubenstein, Robert Zoellick, Michael Eisner and Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud. Moderator at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting and at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh; reporting from Davos annually since 2008. Weekly columnist on financial and economic affairs for An Nahar, Lebanon. MBA, American University of Beirut; Procter & Gamble scholarship recipient. Biography On the stages where finance ministers and global fund managers take questions, the host is often the weakest link. Most are journalists with an introductory grasp of markets, or industry figures who cannot run a room. Hani is one of the few who can do both. She has presented and co-produced Al Aswaq Al Arabiya on Al Arabiya News Channel since 2005, after joining from CNBC Arabiya in Dubai. She also writes a weekly column on financial and economic affairs for An Nahar in Beirut. The work has put her in the chair opposite Henry Paulson, Timothy Geithner, Jamie Dimon, David Rubenstein, Robert Zoellick and Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud. Her financial fluency was earned before broadcasting. She worked as a private banking consultant at ABN AMRO and BNP Paribas in Lebanon, advising high-net-worth clients on investment alternatives. She holds an MBA from the American University of Beirut, where she was a Procter & Gamble scholarship recipient. On the international circuit, she has reported from Davos every year since 2008. She regularly moderates at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting and at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh, the annual gathering convened by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. Both events draw the senior investors and policy figures she has spent two decades interviewing. She works fluently in Arabic and English, and is comfortable on either side of the switch when audiences are mixed. Key speaking topics Global markets and economic outlooks Middle East and GCC economic developments Monetary policy and central banks Financial sector and banking Capital flows and sovereign wealth Geopolitics affecting markets Business journalism and financial media Ideal for Investor conferences and capital markets events that need a chair with the financial fluency to question CIOs, fund managers and finance ministers Pan-Arab and GCC corporate gatherings where bilingual moderation in Arabic and English is required Sovereign-fund and policy-led investment forums, including events run on the Future Investment Initiative or Davos model Awards hosting, after-dinner engagements and televised panels where on-camera poise matters as much as command of the subject Audience outcomes Sharper questions for senior leaders, drawn out by a chair who knows where the financial substance lies Programme flow that makes complex economic content accessible without diluting the detail for specialist attendees Bilingual delivery where audiences move between Arabic and English mid-conversation without the room losing thread Discussion that gets past rehearsed talking points and into the issues senior decision-makers actually want addressed

Why organisations work with Nadira Tudor She moderates at the level of the World Economic Forum at Davos, IBC Amsterdam, GITEX Global Dubai and the Future Investment Initiative, which means clients commissioning her are buying the same on-stage standard those programmes demand. She runs Euronews’ Baku Bureau, anchoring and producing the network’s news output from the region, so her interviewing instincts are tested daily on live international news, not refreshed once a year on the speaker circuit. Her on-camera presenting for branded content is recognised at industry award level, including a Silver Telly Award for the Shell “Decarbonisation: From What to How” interview series with ReutersPlus and a Bronze Award for IDA Ireland’s film on the country’s semiconductors cluster, with regular further work for the Financial Times, ITN Business and Business Reporter. She trains military and government communicators, including NATO, UK MOD and the Royal Navy, which sharpens her judgement on stage when conversations turn to security, geopolitics or regulated industries. Her academic seat at Cardiff JOMEC and her master’s in intercultural communication from Birkbeck give her a working theory of cross-cultural audience response, which matters for global summits where the audience is not a single market. Biography highlights Bureau Chief, Baku, for Euronews, running the bureau and its sponsored programmes hub with editorial responsibility for the full news output. Broadcast career across BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra, BBC 5 Live, BBC News, BBC Wales and BBC Asian Network, with a further spell at BBC News and Programmes (2023 to 2025), launch-team roles at News UK across Times Radio and TalkTV (2020 to 2023), and international experience at ITN, Channel 5 and Al Arabiya English. Award-winning ReutersPlus branded-content presenter: Silver Telly Award (Shell “Decarbonisation: From What to How” interview series) and Bronze Award (IDA Ireland semiconductors film). Regular further branded-content work for the Financial Times, ITN Business and Business Reporter. Visiting Lecturer at Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Culture (JOMEC); master’s in Intercultural Communication for Business and Professions, Birkbeck, University of London. Moderation credits include the World Economic Forum (Davos 2023 and 2024), GITEX Global Dubai, GITEX Africa, IBC Amsterdam, Future Investment Initiative, GMIS and T20. Communications training for NATO, UK MOD, the Royal Navy and the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps; 2015 Asian Professional Award for Media and BBC Innovation Award. Biography Most leadership content fails on stage long before the strategy fails in the market. The interview misfires, the panel drifts, the senior voice in the room sounds defensive, and the audience remembers the discomfort, not the message. The person holding the microphone decides whether that happens. Her current post is Bureau Chief in Baku for Euronews, where she runs the bureau and its sponsored programmes hub, anchors and produces key programmes for the region, and is responsible for the full news output. She came up through the BBC across Radio 4, Radio 1 and 1Xtra, 5 Live, News, Wales and the Asian Network, with a further spell at BBC News and Programmes from 2023 to 2025, and was part of the launch teams for both Times Radio and TalkTV at News UK between 2020 and 2023. International newsroom experience runs through ITN, Channel 5 and Al Arabiya English. She moderates at the most senior end of the global conference circuit, including the World Economic Forum at Davos in 2023 and 2024, IBC Amsterdam, GITEX Global, the Future Investment Initiative, the Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit and the T20. The same craft underpins her communications training for NATO, the UK MOD, the Royal Navy and the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, where leadership communication is a security issue, not a presentation skill. The intellectual underpinning is her master’s in Intercultural Communication for Business and Professions from Birkbeck, University of London, and a Visiting Lecturer seat at the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Culture. She also fronts award-winning branded content for ReutersPlus, the Financial Times, ITN Business and Business Reporter, with a Silver Telly Award for the Shell “Decarbonisation: From What to How” interview series and a Bronze Award for IDA Ireland’s film on the country’s semiconductors cluster. The 2015 Asian Professional Award for Media and an earlier BBC Innovation Award round out a record that rests on disciplined interviewing more than on stage presence. Key speaking topics Conference moderation and on-stage interviewing Executive communication for senior leaders Crisis and reputation communication Media and on-camera training Intercultural communication in global organisations Awards and gala hosting Panel and debate facilitation Ideal for Chief Communications Officers and Heads of Corporate Affairs commissioning a senior moderator for global summits, leadership offsites or investor days. Heads of Internal Communications running CEO town halls, all-hands and quarterly leadership broadcasts. Event directors at industry conferences who need an interviewer who can carry a multi-track programme across sectors in a single day. Public sector and defence communications leads briefing senior teams on media engagement under scrutiny. Audience outcomes A live demonstration of how a sharp interviewer turns a panel from a sequence of statements into a substantive conversation. Practical handles for senior leaders on how to answer hard questions on stage without retreating into corporate language. A clearer view of how cultural and audience context changes what counts as a strong answer, drawn from her global moderation work. For internal communications teams, a working sense of what good looks like when the CEO is in front of the room.

Why organisations work with Naomi Sesay She has run inclusion from inside the commissioning machine of a major UK broadcaster, not as an external consultant, so her advice carries the weight of decisions she has actually had to make and defend. Her training portfolio inside FTSE 100 clients and at Google, YouTube, NBC Universal, Deloitte and Lloyds Bank means she has tested her approach against the realities of regulated, scaled corporate environments. She frames inclusion as a leadership capability tied to commercial output, drawing on a 30-year broadcasting career where audience, talent and brand decisions were never separable. She brings a builder’s perspective on equity through her Sierra Leone smart-city project, which gives keynotes a concrete reference point beyond the standard DEI canon. Biography highlights Head of Creative Diversity, Channel 4, 2022 to 2025; previously On Screen Diversity Executive and Interim Head of Diversity & Inclusion at the broadcaster. Earlier television career as Producer, Director and Presenter at MTV News, and among the early producers on Channel 4’s Big Brother. Former Head of Innovation and Diversity, Media Trust. Senior Lead Trainer in Race Fluency and Inclusive Leadership with APS Intelligence, delivering programmes inside FTSE 100 organisations. Training and keynote work for Google, YouTube, NBC Universal, Amazon, Deloitte, Lloyds Bank, Warner Bros, Viacom, UN Women, Harvard Medical School and the Met Police. Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts; author of The Human Upgrade: The Power to Create Your Future; leads a female-centric sustainable smart-city project in Sierra Leone. Biography Most diversity work in large organisations is built by people who have never had to make a commissioning decision, hire a senior leader, or sign off a brand campaign. The view from inside those rooms is different. It is harder to be theoretical when the choice is in front of you and the budget is real. Naomi Sesay spent three years as Head of Creative Diversity at Channel 4, with two earlier spells at the broadcaster as On Screen Diversity Executive and Interim Head of Diversity & Inclusion. Her remit covered commissioning, training, talent and the broadcaster’s relationships with culturally and ethnically diverse creative communities across the UK. Before Channel 4 she ran innovation and diversity at Media Trust, and worked at APS Intelligence as a senior trainer in race fluency and inclusive leadership for FTSE 100 clients. Her television career started at MTV News during the channel’s European peak as a producer, director and presenter, and continued through one of the original production teams on Channel 4’s Big Brother. That broadcasting grounding shapes the way she talks to corporate audiences. Inclusion is not framed as a values statement; it is framed as an editorial, hiring and commercial discipline that decides which work gets made and which people get heard. Outside the broadcaster she is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, author of The Human Upgrade: The Power to Create Your Future, and leads a network of architects and investors developing a female-centric sustainable smart city in Sierra Leone. The combination gives her keynotes for Google, Deloitte, UN Women, Harvard Medical School and others a practical edge: she has built things, not only advised on them. Key speaking topics Inclusive leadership Diversity, equity and inclusion in practice Cultural intelligence Creative industries and representation Emotional intelligence for senior teams Storytelling and human connection Social enterprise and equitable city design Ideal for CHROs, chief people officers and heads of DEI under pressure to show operating impact, not statements. Boards and ExCos reassessing inclusion strategy after political shifts and ESG scrutiny. Commissioning, editorial and creative leaders in media, entertainment, publishing and advertising. Senior leadership programmes inside FTSE 100 and equivalent corporates rebuilding inclusive leadership capability. Audience outcomes A clearer test for distinguishing inclusion that changes decisions from inclusion that performs them. Specific language for talking to senior leaders about race, identity and culture without retreating into either jargon or platitude. Working examples from broadcasting, FTSE 100 corporates and global brand environments that translate into the audience’s own commissioning, hiring and team practices. A way to connect inclusive leadership to commercial output, audience reach and talent retention rather than to compliance reporting.

Why organisations work with Natalie Turner A trained journalist’s foundation behind the broadcast work. First-class honours degree in journalism, freelance bylines in Men’s Health and Oxford Mail, and on-camera presenting credits with Disruptive Live and TRT World. Subject-matter comfort in tech and corporate environments. Disruptive Live is a London production studio whose clients include Lenovo, NetApp, TD SYNNEX and SnapLogic. Her presenting work there means an MC who can handle enterprise software and cybersecurity content without freezing when a CTO drifts off-script. The rare mix of presence and graft. Gloucestershire Media School hired her to interview actor and writer Jessica Hynes for their flagship event. The producer praised her as “a confident presenter with presence and charm” who was also willing to “put in the graft as a researcher and fixer.” Hosts who lift a programme tend to look like that. Earned authority in fitness and wellbeing content. British Military Fitness instructor, qualified personal trainer, competitive strongwoman, and former bodybuilder. When the brief turns to physical performance and resilience, the material comes from competitions she has actually entered, which audiences notice. Biography highlights Live event host and TV presenter with credits at Disruptive Live, the London-based video production and live streaming studio for technology brands Regular guest contributor on TRT World current affairs programming First-class honours degree in journalism Freelance journalism for Men’s Health and Oxford Mail British Military Fitness instructor and qualified personal trainer Competitive strongwoman, former bodybuilder, and organiser of a Help for Heroes charity strongwoman and strongman event at DW Fitness Cheltenham Biography Live events fail in predictable ways. The moderator loses tempo somewhere in the second half, and a room that started warm never quite comes back. Hosting is its own discipline, and a weak host can sink an otherwise strong programme. This is the work Natalie Turner has spent her career learning. A first-class honours graduate in journalism, she trained as a reporter before moving into live presenting. Her work for Disruptive Live, the London production studio whose technology-sector clients include Lenovo, NetApp, TD SYNNEX and SnapLogic, has put her in front of cybersecurity panels and channel-partner summits where the host has to hold technical content under live conditions. Freelance bylines for Men’s Health and Oxford Mail give the broadcast work a reporter’s foundation. On-camera contributions to TRT World add live news experience. When Gloucestershire Media School hired her to interview actor and writer Jessica Hynes for their flagship “An Audience With” programme, the producer described her as “the real deal” and praised her willingness to “put in the graft as a researcher and fixer.” Outside the studio she keeps a parallel professional life that informs her motivational work. She is a qualified personal trainer, a British Military Fitness instructor, a competitive strongwoman, and a former bodybuilder, and has organised a charity strongwoman event at DW Fitness Cheltenham in aid of Help for Heroes. When the brief calls for content on training and physical performance, the material is built from events she has personally walked through. Her primary booking categories are moderating, emcee work, and after-dinner hosting. Key speaking topics Live event hosting and moderation Panel facilitation in technology and corporate environments After-dinner speaking Health, fitness and wellbeing Resilience and physical performance Broadcast interviewing Ideal for Conference organisers and event programmers in the technology, business and channel-partner sectors who need a credentialed live host or moderator Internal communications and HR teams running employee wellbeing days where motivational fitness content needs delivery from someone with operator-level credentials Award ceremonies, gala dinners and after-dinner audiences who want a presenter rather than a comedian or a celebrity name Audience outcomes An audience that stays engaged through the full programme and can recall the specifics from each session, not a blurred afternoon Motivational content built from personal competitive experience (strongwoman events, bodybuilding, military fitness instruction) which does not need to dress itself up as inspiration Panels and fireside sessions where guests are actually drawn out, with the audience hearing material it could not have got from reading the speakers’ books A take on resilience and physical performance free of the borrowed-metaphor problem common in motivational speaking

Why organisations work with Natasha Kaplinsky Twenty-plus years anchoring national news for the BBC, Sky, ITV and Channel 5 means a host who can absorb a script change five minutes before going live and still hold the room. The 112 Holocaust testimony interviews she conducted pro bono for the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation are evidence of an interviewer who can hold material most professionals would not attempt; that capacity transfers directly into sensitive Q&As and reputational moments where missteps are expensive. Concurrent senior governance roles at the British Board of Film Classification, the Royal Ballet School and Barnardo’s mean she meets executives as a peer. Stage conversations tend to land at a higher level as a result. Recognisable to most British audiences from two decades of national bulletins, which makes her presence at the front of an event an immediate signal that the moment is serious. Biography highlights President of the British Board of Film Classification since October 2022; chairs the Board of Classification and the Advisory Council on Children’s Viewing Chair of The Royal Ballet School since October 2024; President of Barnardo’s since 2019; Global Ambassador for Save the Children Awarded an OBE in the 2017 Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to Holocaust Commemoration, following 112 testimony interviews conducted pro bono for the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation Lead news anchor across BBC News, Sky News, Channel 5 and ITV News, with credits including BBC Breakfast, the BBC Six O’Clock News and Five News with Natasha Kaplinsky Author of Letters From Lockdown (Hachette, 2021); contributors include Paul McCartney, Bill Gates, Malala Yousafzai and Sir Mo Farah, with all publisher profits donated to Barnardo’s Newscaster of the Year at the TRIC Awards (2004); inaugural winner of BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing (2004) Biography David Cameron’s Holocaust Commission was set up in 2014 to consider how Britain should mark the Holocaust for future generations. Its findings flagged that the testimonies of surviving British witnesses had not been recorded. Over the fifteen months that followed, Natasha Kaplinsky conducted 112 interviews on a pro bono basis. They covered camp survivors, children of the Kindertransport and the British soldiers who liberated Bergen Belsen; the OBE followed in 2017. This capacity for handling difficult material now sits behind her senior roles across British public life. She is President of the British Board of Film Classification, chairing both the Board of Classification and the Advisory Council on Children’s Viewing. Since October 2024 she has been Chair of The Royal Ballet School; she has been President of Barnardo’s since 2019. Each of these institutions is in the middle of a significant generational transition, and each has put her at the head of its board. Two decades of live national news anchoring sit behind these roles. She co-presented BBC Breakfast with Dermot Murnaghan, hosted the BBC Six O’Clock News and anchored Five News between 2008 and 2010. Her Channel 5 contract was reported to be the highest newsreader fee in UK television. Sky News won a BAFTA for Best News Channel during her tenure, and she was named TRIC Newscaster of the Year in 2004. Awards ceremonies, conferences and high-stakes panels live or die on the host. The ability to absorb a last-minute script change or steer a difficult Q&A decides whether the moment is remembered. Audiences read two decades of national broadcasting on sight. Repeat clients including the Royal Society for Public Health and the Vodafone Foundation rebook for the same reason. Key speaking topics Awards Hosting and Event Compering Conference Moderation and Panel Facilitation Broadcast Communication and Live Storytelling Holocaust Commemoration and Testimony Leadership of Public and Cultural Institutions Children’s Welfare and Online Safety Ideal for Major industry awards ceremonies and corporate gala dinners requiring a host with national profile and broadcast composure Leadership summits and conference plenaries where the chair must hold a senior panel and steer Q&A in real time Charity and cultural sector events where a recognisable senior public figure adds visible weight Internal town halls, AGMs and investor days where reputational risk on the platform is high Audience outcomes What 112 Holocaust survivor interviews taught her about drawing testimony out of people nobody else could reach Where children’s online safety regulation is heading, viewed from the BBFC The working principles behind live national broadcasting, including the cases where silence does more work than the next question The case for bearing witness, in journalism and in cultural institutions, made by someone who has spent two decades doing it

Why organisations work with Nayla Al Khaja She is the first woman to direct a feature film in the UAE, which means her observations on inclusion in restrictive professional cultures come from lived practice, not commentary. She built and runs her own production company, Nayla Al Khaja Films, and founded The Scene Club, the UAE’s first independent film club, giving her a track record of standing up creative institutions where none existed. Her debut feature Three premiered at the Red Sea International Film Festival and released theatrically across the GCC and MENA, evidence of commercial credibility alongside cultural pioneering. Variety named her one of the 50 Most Powerful Personalities in Arab Cinema, a useful external marker for buyers who want a credentialled voice on the Gulf creative economy. She works in Arabic and English at native level, which makes her usable for regional events in the UAE and Saudi Arabia as well as international audiences. Biography highlights First female film director in the United Arab Emirates and CEO of Nayla Al Khaja Films since 2005. BA in film studies, Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University), Canada, on a UAE government scholarship. Founder of The Scene Club, the UAE’s first independent film club, established 2007. Director of Three (2024), her debut feature, which premiered at the Red Sea International Film Festival and released theatrically across the GCC and MENA. Director of BAAB, scored by two-time Academy Award winner A.R. Rahman, with cinematography by Rogier Stoffers ASC. Named to Variety’s 50 Most Powerful Personalities in Arab Cinema (2020); Visionary of the Year, Arabian Business Awards (2011); TEDx speaker on women in Arab cinema. Biography The UAE had no female film director before Nayla Al Khaja. She became the first, then built the production company, the film club and the audience that the country needed for a domestic film industry to be possible at all. That is the work she draws on when she speaks. Al Khaja studied mass communication at Dubai Women’s College, then took a UAE government scholarship to Ryerson University in Toronto for a degree in film studies. She returned and founded what is now Nayla Al Khaja Films in 2005, and in 2007 opened The Scene Club, the country’s first independent film society. Both still operate. Her debut feature Three premiered at the Red Sea International Film Festival in December 2023 and released across the GCC and wider MENA region in early 2024. Her second feature, BAAB, was scored by A.R. Rahman and shot by Rogier Stoffers ASC, two collaborators with serious international standing. Variety placed her in its 50 Most Powerful Personalities in Arab Cinema. For corporate audiences, her usefulness is direct. She is asked how a woman builds a career inside an industry that has no women in it, how a creative business gets capitalised in a market that does not yet exist, and how cultural representation actually shifts when someone takes the job rather than waits for the policy. Her answers come from doing it. Key speaking topics Women in male-dominated industries Creative entrepreneurship in the Gulf Cultural representation in film and media Building a career under restrictive cultural conditions The UAE and Saudi creative economy Storytelling and brand communication Resilience and the long arc of a creative career Ideal for Conferences on women in leadership and inclusion, particularly in the GCC and Levant Corporate diversity, talent and ERG events for organisations operating across the Middle East Creative industry summits, brand and marketing leadership audiences Regional government, tourism and cultural authority programmes on the Gulf creative economy Audience outcomes A first-hand account of how women break through in industries where there is no precedent for them. A clearer view of how the Gulf creative economy actually functions, from someone who built inside it. Specific stories about getting a feature film made in a market that did not previously support one. Practical observations on cultural representation that are usable for brand, marketing and communications teams. A keynote presence that audiences in the region recognise and respond to.

Why organisations work with Neelu Kaur She treats workplace silence as a structural problem. Most speakers in this space coach individuals to be more confident; her intervention sits in meeting design and the conversational rules that decide who gets to challenge a senior idea. The Self-Trust Recession is her named diagnosis of the moment: capable leaders, surrounded by AI and competing opinion, are second-guessing themselves and outsourcing decision authority. Her Self-Trust Reset framework is the way back. Her cross-cultural lens, the collective “we” she was raised in meeting the individualistic “I” of American corporate life, makes her credible to global and AAPI audiences who have lived that gap themselves. Her tools combine cognitive and body-based techniques. The pairing of organisational psychology training (Columbia, NYU Stern) and sixteen years of yoga and Ayurveda teaching produces practical methods her audiences can apply in the next meeting they walk into. Be Your Own Cheerleader, published by Post Hill Press in January 2023, gives her work a published thesis a senior buyer can read before commissioning. Biography highlights Author of Be Your Own Cheerleader (Post Hill Press, 2023), a guide to self-advocacy that addresses the cultural gap between collective and individualistic workplace norms. MA in Social and Organizational Psychology, Columbia University, and BS from NYU Stern School of Business. Certified NLP Master Practitioner and Coach, NLP Center of New York. Client list includes Google, Bloomberg, Sony Music, RBC, Ernst & Young, and Jefferies. Featured on Morning Brew’s Good Work and TV Asia / SEEMA Network’s Sundays with Seema. Chief Guide at Chief (NYC), with over sixteen years as a yoga teacher and Ayurveda practitioner. Biography Most organisations have more talent than they have contribution. Capable people stay quiet at exactly the moments their judgement is most needed, and what looks like alignment is often silence. This is the tension Neelu Kaur takes on. Trained as an organisational psychologist at Columbia and with an undergraduate degree from NYU Stern, she has spent over fifteen years inside Fortune 500 organisations. The question her work returns to is why capable people stay quiet in the moments that matter. Her client list, which includes Google, Bloomberg, Sony Music, RBC, Ernst & Young, and Jefferies, gives her a view across financial services, consulting, and tech. Her current diagnosis is what she calls the Self-Trust Recession. Leaders are surrounded by AI tools and competing opinion, and the quiet effect is that capable people are outsourcing their own judgement. The Self-Trust Reset framework she has built around this idea is a way to recognise when fear is shaping a decision and rebuild internal authority before acting on it. The earlier strand of her work runs through Be Your Own Cheerleader (Post Hill Press, January 2023). She wrote the book out of her own experience growing up between two cultures: Indian at home, American at work. It examines why people raised in collective ‘we’ cultures struggle to advocate for themselves in workplaces built around the individualistic ‘I’. That cultural lens still shapes her work and is part of what makes her credible to global teams and AAPI audiences who have lived the same code-switch. Key speaking topics Self-trust and decision-making in high-pressure environments Self-advocacy in the workplace Cross-cultural communication in global teams The cost of consensus and over-collaboration AAPI and underrepresented voices in corporate life Burnout and sustainable leadership Ideal for Leadership teams in Fortune 500 environments where decision speed and contribution quality are the bottleneck CHROs, Chief Learning Officers, and L&D leaders building cultures of voice and accountability DEI, AAPI, and Employee Resource Group programmes looking for content that goes beyond representation language High-potential talent and mid-career professionals working across cultures in global organisations Audience outcomes A clear way to recognise when fear, perfectionism, or comparison is shaping a decision instead of judgement Behavioural tools to speak up in high-stakes moments without overshooting or shutting down A vocabulary for the cultural gap between collective and individualistic workplace norms, useful for global team conversations A diagnostic for where consensus and over-discussion are slowing the team’s decisions