Values-Based Leadership

Why organisations work with Tom Turcich His credibility is not analogical: it is verifiable. The world walk is ranked in a finite historical list of ten people, documented in a published memoir, and covered by CNN, BBC, Good Morning America, The Guardian, and The Today Show. Seven continuous years of forward motion without a salary, fixed team, or guaranteed outcome offers a model of value-driven decision-making that is directly applicable to organisations sustaining long-term transformation. His Circle of Possibility framework reframes constraints as inputs to problem-solving rather than barriers to progress, making his content directly usable by teams operating under resource pressure or strategic uncertainty. The journey was values-led from day one: Turcich navigated every decision – including years of solitude, a global pandemic, and active conflict zones – by a clear internal compass. That makes his framework credible for organisations focused on purpose-driven culture rather than performance management alone. Biography highlights Tenth person in recorded history to complete a circumnavigation of the globe on foot Seven-year, 28,000-mile journey across six continents and 38 countries, beginning April 2015 His rescue dog Savannah became the first dog ever to walk around the world Author of The World Walk (Skyhorse Publishing, 2024), a full-length memoir of the expedition Featured by CNN, BBC, Good Morning America, The Guardian, and The Today Show Author of the Savannah’s World of Adventure children’s book series Biography Most people’s resilience is tested in months. Tom Turcich spent seven years walking 28,000 miles across six continents and 38 countries; a journey that placed him in the historically small group of ten people ever recorded to have circled the globe on foot. That context is not incidental to his work with organisations. It is the evidence. The walk began the day before his 26th birthday, prompted by the death of a close friend that forced a reckoning with how a life should be spent. It ended in May 2022. Along the way, Turcich navigated deserts, conflict zones, a global pandemic, and sustained solitude; guided not by a fixed itinerary but by a set of core values he had articulated before he left. His memoir, The World Walk (Skyhorse Publishing, 2024), documents both the physical journey and the decision-making architecture that sustained it. For organisations, the relevance lies not in the spectacle of the achievement but in its mechanics. His talks, built around the Circle of Possibility framework, address the specific tension between ambitious long-term goals and the daily reality of setback, discomfort, and unclear progress. The same principles that kept him moving across the Andes and through Central Asia translate directly to teams operating under sustained strategic pressure. His story has been covered by CNN, BBC, Good Morning America, The Guardian, and The Today Show. The World Walk received endorsements from two New York Times bestselling authors. A second non-fiction book, applying the lessons of the walk to organisational and professional life, is in progress. Key speaking topics Long-term resilience and sustained commitment Values-driven decision-making Goal-setting under uncertainty Reframing constraints as catalysts Purpose and personal accountability Endurance mindset in professional contexts Ideal for Leadership and executive teams navigating multi-year change programmes Sales and commercial conferences requiring a credible performance and resilience narrative Employee engagement and offsite events where purpose and motivation are central themes HR and people leaders building resilience culture within the workforce Audience outcomes A practical framework (Circle of Possibility) for sustaining commitment when progress is slow or unclear A more granular understanding of what resilience looks like in practice over an extended timeframe: not as a trait but as a set of daily decisions Sharper thinking about how personal values can function as a decision-making tool under pressure Perspective on the relationship between constraints and creative problem-solving A reframe of long-term ambition: from an abstract goal to a sequence of deliberate, manageable steps

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 Seyi Akiwowo She built Glitch from a personal campaign in 2017 into a working UK charity on online gender-based violence, which gives her a different register from consultants who study the issue from outside. Her Penguin Life book How to Stay Safe Online is one of the few mainstream titles that treats online harm as a serious workplace and leadership concern, not a parenting issue, and gives executive audiences a reference text. She served as an elected councillor in Newham at 23 and addressed the 38th session of the UN Human Rights Council, which means she is comfortable in regulated, scrutinised, formal rooms, not just activist spaces. She has held trust and safety advisory roles with major platforms including TikTok, which gives her direct read on how the largest platforms handle abuse, moderation, and policy. She declined an MBE publicly in 2022. That decision and the way she framed it gives her unusual credibility with audiences who are sceptical of inclusion as institutional theatre. Biography highlights Founder of Glitch, the UK charity addressing online abuse and online gender-based violence, established out of the 2017 #FixTheGlitch campaign. Author, How to Stay Safe Online, Penguin Life, 2022. Elected councillor for Newham, East London, at the age of 23, the youngest Black woman councillor in the UK at the time. Speaker at the 38th session of the UN Human Rights Council on online gender-based violence; Amnesty International Human Rights Defender (2018). Digital Leader of the Year (2019); Marie Claire Future Shaper (2019); WIRED Changemaker cover (2021); TEDxLondon speaker (2019). Trust and safety advisory roles with platforms including TikTok; bachelor’s degree in social policy, London School of Economics. Biography In 2017, a recording of a speech delivered at the European Parliament went viral. The reaction was a flood of racist and misogynistic abuse, more than seventy reports filed with the platforms, and almost no response from them. The campaign that emerged from that experience, #FixTheGlitch, became the charity Glitch. Glitch is now a recognised voice on online abuse and online gender-based violence in the UK. It works with women, marginalised communities, parliamentarians, and platforms, and its evidence has been part of the policy conversation around the UK Online Safety Act. The work is operational, not theoretical: training, casework, lobbying, partnerships with platforms including TikTok where Akiwowo has held trust and safety advisory roles. Her credibility predates Glitch. At 23 she was elected a Labour councillor for Newham, the youngest Black woman councillor in the UK. She holds a bachelor’s degree in social policy from the London School of Economics. She has addressed the 38th session of the UN Human Rights Council on online gender-based violence and was named an Amnesty International Human Rights Defender in 2018. Penguin Life published How to Stay Safe Online in 2022. It is the rare mainstream book that treats online harm as a serious leadership and workplace concern. In the same year she was offered an MBE and chose not to accept it, a decision she explained publicly. For corporate audiences thinking about inclusion, employee safety, and values-based leadership, that combination, an elected politician’s record, an operating charity, a Penguin book, and a refused honour, is the substance she brings into the room. Key speaking topics Online safety as a workplace duty of care Online gender-based violence and digital harm Values-based and inclusive leadership Digital self-care and resilience for senior leaders Platform accountability and trust and safety Inclusion in a contested political climate Ideal for CHROs, Chief People Officers and Heads of DEI rebuilding the inclusion case for sceptical executive audiences Heads of internal communications, employee experience, and risk responsible for staff wellbeing in public-facing roles Trust and safety, policy, and product leaders inside platforms and regulated technology businesses Senior women’s networks, employee resource groups, and leadership development programmes Audience outcomes A working definition of online harm as a workplace and leadership issue, not a personal coping problem A direct read on how platforms actually respond to abuse, drawn from advisory work with companies including TikTok Practical content from the Penguin Life book How to Stay Safe Online that audiences can use the next day A confident position on inclusion and values-based leadership that holds up in the current political climate A senior voice that has chosen difficult institutional decisions, including declining an MBE, and can speak credibly about leadership under public scrutiny

Why organisations work with Maria Belon A first-person account of catastrophic crisis delivered with the clinical precision of a physician, not the drama of a motivational speaker. The audience leaves with vocabulary, not adrenaline. Clinical and psychotherapy training that gives her a working language for fear, dissociation, and recovery that translates directly into leadership conversations about teams under pressure. A reference point that senior audiences already know. The story behind The Impossible carries instant recognition; Belon uses that recognition as a way in, then takes the conversation somewhere serious. Credibility on both sides of the room. An ESADE MBA and a teaching record in Human Resources at ESADE Business School mean she speaks the language of executive audiences before she ever turns to her own experience. A clear point of view on values and human connection as the operating system that holds organisations together when systems fail, drawn from what she observed in herself, her family, and the strangers around them. Biography highlights Survivor of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Khao Lak, Thailand, with her husband and three sons; sustained life-threatening injuries and underwent a two-year recovery. Spanish physician with additional training as a Humanistic Gestalt psychotherapist. MBA from ESADE; former Human Resources instructor at ESADE Business School. Story formed the basis of The Impossible (2012), directed by J.A. Bayona, with Naomi Watts nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal. Author of the illustrated children’s book Kokoro y el Mar, published by Editorial Libre Albedrio as the first title in her “Yo soy” collection. Speaker at international platforms including the World Business Forum and the Share Iuvare Business Convention. Biography The wave that struck Khao Lak on 26 December 2004 separated a family of five and gave one of them, a Spanish physician on holiday with her husband and three sons, two years of surgery and recovery before something like a normal life returned. Maria Belon now works with senior leaders on what that experience taught her about people under maximum pressure. Her professional background matters here. Belon trained as a physician and as a Humanistic Gestalt psychotherapist, and she holds an MBA from ESADE, where she later taught Human Resources. The combination is unusual. She can speak about the body’s response to trauma with clinical accuracy, and she can speak about organisations with the vocabulary executive audiences already use. What she offers a leadership team is not a survival story performed for effect. It is a precise account of what stayed intact when planning, control, and competence were all stripped away, and what that suggests for the way leaders prepare their people for the unplannable. She has tested the material across international audiences, including the World Business Forum and the Share Iuvare Business Convention. The work has continued in print. Her illustrated children’s book Kokoro y el Mar, published by Editorial Libre Albedrio, distils for a younger reader the same question that director J.A. Bayona once asked her, and that her keynotes return to: what do you bring back from the experiences that life forces on you. Key speaking topics Resilience under extreme adversity Crisis response and recovery Values and human connection in organisations Leadership in moments of breakdown Post-traumatic growth Wellbeing and the human side of performance Ideal for Executive teams and boards preparing for, or reckoning with, organisational crisis CHROs and people leaders building resilience and wellbeing into how their organisation operates Closing keynotes at senior leadership conferences where the brief is to leave the room changed, not informed Healthcare, emergency services and public sector leadership audiences whose work runs close to crisis Audience outcomes A working vocabulary for fear, loss, and recovery that leaders can use with their own teams. A sharper sense of which values actually carry weight when the systems of an organisation fail. An honest reference point for the difference between performance and presence in a crisis. Permission, often missing in senior rooms, to talk about the human cost of pressure without flinching.

Why organisations work with Brant Menswar A defined methodology, Black Sheep Values, that gives leaders a shared language for the five values their organisation will not trade away under pressure. Behavioural-science grounding through an eCornell Psychology of Leadership certification, applied to the everyday mechanics of trust, vulnerability and team performance. Author of two trade-published books on the same thesis: Black Sheep (Page Two, 2020) and Designing Momentum (Wiley, 2025), giving the work a documented intellectual spine rather than a slide deck. A 20-year career as a recording artist before the speaking work, which means a keynote that lands as a live performance, not a talk read off a screen. Track record inside large, brand-sensitive organisations including Netflix, Verizon, Microsoft, ESPN and Hilton, where the culture stakes are high and the audience is sceptical of motivational content. Biography highlights Author, Black Sheep: Unleash the Extraordinary, Awe-Inspiring, Undiscovered You (Page Two, 2020). Author, Designing Momentum: A Big Goal Blueprint for Transforming Everyday Moments into Massive Success (Wiley, 2025). Certified in Psychology of Leadership, eCornell, Cornell University. Founder and CEO of Black Sheep Foundry; previously founder of Rock Star Impact and partner at Banding People Together. Host of Just a Moment, a podcast distributed by SURROUND Podcast Network. Keynote work delivered for organisations including Netflix, Verizon, Microsoft, ESPN, Hilton, Anthem, Sony Pictures and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Biography Most companies can recite their stated values. Far fewer can name the values their teams actually use when a project slips, a leader leaves or a quarter goes sideways. That gap is the working territory of Brant Menswar’s keynote practice and the through-line of his two books. The methodology has a name and a structure. Black Sheep Values are the five non-negotiable values that, in Menswar’s framing, sit underneath every meaningful decision a person or a team makes. The argument is that culture only holds when those values are explicit, shared, and used as a decision filter, rather than printed on a wall poster. Black Sheep (Page Two, 2020) introduced the framework. Designing Momentum (Wiley, 2025) applies it to how teams convert ordinary moments into compounding progress. The credentials behind the work are concrete. Menswar holds a Psychology of Leadership certification from eCornell at Cornell University, and built the consulting practice through Banding People Together and Rock Star Impact before founding Black Sheep Foundry in 2023. The client list, including Netflix, Verizon, Microsoft, ESPN, Hilton, Anthem, Sony Pictures and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, sits inside industries where culture programmes are routinely cynical, and where a generic motivational keynote does not survive the room. What separates the delivery from a standard culture talk is the craft of the room itself. Menswar spent twenty years as a recording artist before the keynote work, and the live performance discipline shows: pacing, music, structure, and a refusal to default to slide-driven exposition. The result is a session leadership teams can recall in detail months later, which is the only useful test of a culture keynote. Key speaking topics Values-based culture and the Black Sheep Values methodology Connection, trust and team vulnerability Employee engagement and retention through values alignment Leading change without losing the workforce Personal and team resilience under pressure Authenticity and identity in professional life Ideal for CHROs and chief people officers rebuilding culture after restructure, merger or rapid growth Sales, customer and client-facing leadership teams whose performance depends on trust All-employee or all-leader gatherings where the brief is engagement and connection, not strategy content Organisations using offsites to reset team norms after a period of fatigue or turnover Audience outcomes A method for naming the five non-negotiable values a team will not trade away A clearer read on why specific cultural commitments are failing in the organisation today Language and a shared frame leaders can use back at work, not just in the room A more honest conversation about trust, vulnerability and what teams owe each other

Why organisations work with Jan Peter Balkenende Eight years leading a G20 economy through financial crisis, EU enlargement and the 2004 Dutch Presidency of the Council of the European Union gives him a view from inside the machine that almost no executive adviser can match. His book with Govert Buijs, “Capitalism Reconnected” (Amsterdam University Press, 2024), sets out a specific European alternative to both Chinese state capitalism and American shareholder capitalism, which boards can use as a reference point for their own strategy. As chair of the Dutch Sustainable Growth Coalition he convenes AkzoNobel, dsm-firmenich, FrieslandCampina, Heineken, KLM, Philips, Shell and Unilever around common sustainability positions, so he speaks with current standing, not archive authority. Minister of State status in the Netherlands and membership of Club de Madrid keep him close to working heads of government, which gives audiences a read on political risk that goes beyond press coverage. He pairs the institutional authority of a former PM with the working vocabulary of a senior adviser at EY and Hague Corporate Affairs, so corporate audiences get policy insight translated into commercial language. Biography highlights Prime Minister of the Netherlands 2002 to 2010, across four cabinets. Held the Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2004. Professor Emeritus of Governance, Institutions and Internationalisation, Erasmus University Rotterdam. Minister of State, Kingdom of the Netherlands, since October 2022. Chair of the Dutch Sustainable Growth Coalition; Chair of the Noaber Foundation; Executive Board member, Global Center on Adaptation; Member, Club de Madrid. External Senior Advisor to EY; Associate Partner at Hague Corporate Affairs. Co-author, “Capitalism Reconnected: Toward a Sustainable, Inclusive and Innovative Market Economy in Europe” (Amsterdam University Press, 2024). Biography European economies are being asked to reinvent themselves at the same time as they govern themselves. Jan Peter Balkenende has spent more than two decades inside that tension, first as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 2002 to 2010 and then as an adviser, academic and convenor of corporate leaders. Four successive cabinets and the 2004 Dutch Presidency of the Council of the European Union gave him direct experience of how EU decisions are actually made, from enlargement to financial crisis response. That institutional memory now sits alongside a current role as Minister of State and as a member of Club de Madrid, the association of former heads of government. His intellectual contribution is set out in “Capitalism Reconnected,” co-written with political philosopher Govert Buijs and published by Amsterdam University Press in 2024. The book argues that Europe should stop defending its model defensively and instead frame a sustainable, inclusive and innovative market economy as a distinct offer, positioned between Chinese state capitalism and American shareholder capitalism. The argument is not theoretical for him. As chair of the Dutch Sustainable Growth Coalition he works with the CEOs of AkzoNobel, dsm-firmenich, FrieslandCampina, Heineken, KLM, Philips, Shell and Unilever on shared positions around climate, circularity and social equality, supported by VNO-NCW and facilitated by Accenture. Erasmus University Rotterdam, EY and Hague Corporate Affairs provide the academic and advisory base. The through-line, across government, campus and corporate rooms, is the same: Europe can only lead on sustainability if its companies and its institutions work from the same playbook. Key speaking topics European market-economy reform Sustainable and inclusive growth strategy Governance and public-private collaboration ESG and corporate responsibility in European context Geopolitical and policy risk for business Institutional leadership and long-term decision making Climate adaptation and the role of business Ideal for Boards and executive committees setting European sustainability and ESG strategy CEOs and CFOs navigating EU regulation, climate policy and geopolitical risk Public-sector and multilateral audiences working on public-private cooperation Leadership and strategy summits with a European or transatlantic agenda Audience outcomes A concrete reference framework, drawn from “Capitalism Reconnected,” for positioning a European business between state-led and shareholder-led models. A clearer read on how EU-level decisions are made, and where corporate influence actually lands. Live examples of how eight Dutch multinationals translate sustainable growth commitments into joint positions. A sharper sense of which political risks matter for strategy, and which are noise. Direct perspective from a former head of government on leading through crisis with contested public trust.

Why organisations work with Bronisław Komorowski He sat in the two chairs that defined Poland’s security posture: Minister of National Defence during NATO integration and President during the Russian annexation of Crimea. Very few speakers have carried both briefs. He reads Warsaw, Kyiv, Vilnius, and Berlin as a participant, not an analyst. That matters when European political risk is being priced around a boardroom table. As founder of the Bronisław Komorowski Institute and member of the InterAction Council, he remains inside the network of former heads of state shaping conversations on European security and the global order. He brings the authority of a head of state who led Poland through the post-2010 period, with the historian’s grounding of a University of Warsaw history graduate and former Solidarity-era dissident. Biography highlights President of the Republic of Poland, 2010 to 2015. Minister of National Defence of Poland, 2000 to 2001, and Deputy Minister of National Defence, 1990 to 1993. Marshal (Speaker) of the Sejm from 2007, and member of the Sejm from 1991 to 2010. Pre-1989 opposition activist with the Workers’ Defense Committee (KOR) and the Movement for Defense of Human and Civil Rights (ROPCiO), interned during martial law. Member of the InterAction Council of former heads of state and government. Honorary doctorates from Mykolas Romeris University (2008) and Vytautas Magnus University (2015). Biography Poland sits on the seam between the European Union and a Russia that has redrawn borders by force. Bronisław Komorowski has served in nearly every senior role that seam produces. He was Deputy Minister of National Defence in the first post-communist governments, ran the defence ministry under Jerzy Buzek during the final stages of NATO integration, led the Sejm as its Marshal from 2007, and served as President of the Republic from 2010 to 2015. The arc matters because the questions he dealt with are the questions European boards are now asking again. How does a country on NATO’s eastern flank hold deterrence credible without triggering escalation. How do democratic institutions stay intact under sustained pressure. How does a government in Warsaw keep Washington, Berlin, and Kyiv aligned at the same time. He was making those calls during the 2014 Crimea period and the early months of Russia’s intervention in eastern Ukraine. His authority also comes from the other end of his career. He was arrested in 1971 while working with the Workers’ Defense Committee, co-operated on the underground monthly Głos through the late 1970s, and was interned under martial law. The constitutional leader of 2010 to 2015 is the same person who helped build the civic opposition that produced 1989. That grounding shapes how he talks about resilience, institutions, and the fragility of democratic settlements. Since leaving office he has continued that work through the Bronisław Komorowski Institute, founded on the day his presidential term ended, and through his seat on the InterAction Council alongside other former heads of state. He is a University of Warsaw historian by training, and it shows in how he connects the current moment to the longer European story. Key speaking topics Central and Eastern European political risk NATO’s eastern flank and European security Poland-Ukraine relations and the war in Ukraine Transatlantic relations and the future of the EU Democratic transition and the defence of institutions National defence policy and civil-military relations Leadership under constitutional crisis Ideal for Boards and executive committees with operations, supply chains, or capital exposure in Central and Eastern Europe Defence, security, and foreign-policy forums convening government, military, and industry leaders CEO and chair-level summits addressing European political risk and the transatlantic alliance Investor and asset-manager gatherings pricing geopolitical risk into European portfolios Audience outcomes A sharper read of how Warsaw, Kyiv, and the Baltic capitals actually view the security and economic picture Direct insight into the decisions a head of state weighs during a regional crisis A grounded view of how democratic institutions hold, or fail to hold, under sustained political pressure A framework for interpreting European political risk that is anchored in thirty years of Polish statecraft

Key speaking topics Civil society and community engagement Inclusive leadership and board diversity Public policy and government advisory experience Social entrepreneurship Race disparity and social mobility Cross-sector collaboration Ideal for Corporate leadership teams and boards Public sector and government audiences Diversity and inclusion conferences Organisations engaging with communities and stakeholders Audience outcomes Clear insight into how government and civil society intersect Practical perspectives on board diversity and inclusive governance Understanding of community engagement in complex environments First-hand insight into operating at senior advisory level in government Why organisations work with Samuel Kasumu Direct experience advising at the centre of UK government on civil society and communities Credibility across public, private and third sector environments Board-level perspective through executive search and governance work Lived experience and professional insight into race disparity and social mobility issues Biography Samuel Kasumu brings direct experience from the centre of UK government to conversations about civil society, community engagement and inclusive leadership. As a Special Adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson with responsibility for Civil Society and Communities, he operated at senior advisory level on issues affecting cross-sector collaboration and public trust. During his time in Downing Street, he worked on cross-government initiatives linked to COVID-19 vaccination, with a focus on community engagement and confidence. This experience gives organisations practical insight into how government, communities and institutions intersect under pressure. Beyond government, Samuel is the co-founder of Inclusive Boards, an executive search firm specialising in non-executive and board appointments. His work in board-level recruitment and governance informs his perspective on diversity, representation and effective oversight at the highest levels of organisations. He has also served as an elected local councillor in Hertfordshire, providing on-the-ground experience of local government and community leadership. This combination of national advisory and local governance experience enables him to speak credibly to both strategic and operational audiences. Samuel is the author of The Power of the Outsider: A Journey of Discovery and Winning the Race, and has received recognised entrepreneurship awards including the CBI Young Star of Enterprise Award and recognition in the Great British Entrepreneur Awards. His background positions him to engage senior leaders, HR and culture professionals, entrepreneurs and public sector audiences seeking informed perspectives on inclusion, governance and social mobility.

Why organisations work with Carrie Gracie Two decades reporting from inside China, including the role of BBC News’ first China Editor based in Beijing, give her a read on Party politics and economic policy that few Western commentators can match. She translates Chinese political signals into the questions a board actually needs to answer: market access, supply chain exposure, regulatory direction, and the real shape of the US-China contest. Her Peabody-winning “White Horse Village” reporting, a decade-long series tracking one community through China’s modernisation, is evidence of the long-horizon judgement she brings to shorter-cycle corporate questions. On a separate brief, her public resignation from the BBC over unequal pay, and the £361,000 settlement she donated to the Fawcett Society and Equal Pay Advice Service, make her one of the few speakers who has forced structural change at a named employer and can talk about it first-hand. She is a working broadcaster, not an academic: she handles live Q&A with senior audiences, difficult journalists, and hostile questions with the composure of someone who has presented BBC News on air for over a decade. Biography highlights Former BBC News China Editor (2013 to 2018), based in Beijing, and the first person to hold that role 33-year career at the BBC as correspondent, presenter, and editor, including Beijing bureau chief and presenter of BBC News Channel and the BBC World Service programme “The Interview” Peabody Award for the “White Horse Village” documentary series following a Chinese village through a decade of modernisation Author of “Equal: A Story of Women, Men and Money” (Virago, Little Brown) Resigned as BBC China Editor in January 2018 over unequal pay; the BBC issued a public apology and back pay settlement, which she donated in full (£361,000) to the Fawcett Society and the Equal Pay Advice Service Educated at Hertford College, Oxford (PPE) and the University of Westminster (BA Chinese); honorary graduate of the University of Exeter (2022) Biography The BBC’s first China Editor was appointed in 2013 and based in Beijing. The job was created because Western news organisations had concluded that China could no longer be covered as a regional story. Carrie Gracie held that role until January 2018, and she had already been reporting from China, on and off, for more than twenty years before it was given to her. Her reporting record in the country is unusually long for a Western journalist. She taught English and economics in Yantai and Chongqing in the mid-1980s, before joining the BBC. She covered the death of Deng Xiaoping, the 1997 Hong Kong handover, and the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Her “White Horse Village” series, which tracked a single village in Chongqing through a decade of displacement and rebuilding, won a Peabody Award for the way it read national policy through one community. That long-horizon approach is what senior audiences draw on now. She reads Chinese political and economic signals with the eye of a reporter who has watched Party congresses, five-year plans, and leadership transitions over multiple cycles. For boards exposed to Chinese markets or supply chains, this is closer to intelligence than commentary. She has a second, distinct body of work. In January 2018 she resigned as China Editor after learning that male international editors were paid substantially more for equivalent jobs. The BBC apologised publicly, backdated her pay, and Gracie donated the full £361,000 to the Fawcett Society and the Equal Pay Advice Service. Her book “Equal: A Story of Women, Men and Money” (Virago) is the account of that case and what it took to force an institution to move. Key speaking topics China’s political direction under Xi Jinping US-China strategic competition Geopolitical risk for boards and supply chains Chinese economy and market access Media, free speech, and authoritarian states Gender pay equality and institutional accountability Equal pay as a governance issue Ideal for Boards and executive committees with significant exposure to China or Asia-Pacific markets CROs, general counsel, and strategy leads pressure-testing geopolitical scenarios CHROs and reward committees reviewing pay equity, transparency, and disclosure practice Leadership audiences at financial services, industrial, technology, and consumer firms navigating the US-China contest Audience outcomes A clearer read on how Beijing makes decisions and what that means for the next three to five years of market access and regulatory risk A sharper set of questions to take into the next board or strategy review on China exposure An unvarnished account of how pay inequality survives inside a high-profile, regulated employer, and what actually shifted the institution A working journalist’s framework for distinguishing signal from noise in Chinese state communications Confidence to brief non-specialist colleagues on the commercial stakes of the US-China relationship

Why organisations work with Belinda Parmar She created the Global Empathy Index, a quantitative framework published in the Harvard Business Review, that links corporate empathy directly to earnings, productivity, and retention. Most culture-change work lacks a measurement baseline; her work provides one. Her “Empathy-In-Residence” model, embedded at Barclays, Lloyds, and Centrica over extended engagements, means her frameworks have been tested at operational scale inside major institutions, not only delivered from a keynote stage. Work with AGL produced a 20.9% reduction in customer complaints and $1.7 million in cost savings, giving finance and operations leaders a commercial language for empathy that sits alongside a P&L, not just a people strategy. She has developed an AI-powered Empathy Index combining large language models with sentiment analysis, positioning organisations to measure their human culture in real time as AI transformation programmes change the surrounding landscape. As a Non-Executive Director at the UK Ministry of Defence, she brings board-level governance experience in a complex institutional environment, giving her work a credibility context that most leadership and culture speakers do not hold. Biography highlights Founder and CEO of The Empathy Business (formerly Lady Geek), a consultancy specialising in embedding empathy into organisational leadership, culture, and operations Creator of the Global Empathy Index, published in the Harvard Business Review: the first index to establish a quantitative correlation between corporate empathy and commercial performance Appointed OBE in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to Women in Technology World Economic Forum Young Global Leader; keynote speaker at Davos (2019) Empathy-In-Residence at Barclays, Lloyds, and Centrica; established the first Empathy Hub in Europe’s largest bank Non-Executive Director, UK Ministry of Defence (appointed 2023) Author of Little Miss Geek and The Empathy Era: Women, Business and the New Pathway to Profit Featured in the Financial Times (2025); has written for The Guardian and the World Economic Forum Biography Organisations have spent a decade investing in AI while underinvesting in the human layer that AI cannot replace. Belinda Parmar’s work starts from a specific and uncomfortable question: if empathy is genuinely valuable to business performance, why can almost no organisation measure it? The Global Empathy Index, published in the Harvard Business Review, was built to answer that question. It ranks companies by empathy and connects those rankings directly to earnings, productivity, and retention. What makes her approach distinct is its operational depth. Through Empathy-In-Residence engagements at Barclays, Lloyds, and Centrica, she has deployed hundreds of evidence-based behavioural nudges: targeted interventions designed to shift culture from the inside rather than impose it from above. Work with AGL produced a 20.9% reduction in customer complaints, establishing empathy-led transformation as a driver of cost reduction, not only a people programme. AI has sharpened the question she has always asked. As generative AI absorbs more cognitive tasks, organisations face a practical leadership problem: how to identify, build, and retain the distinctly human capabilities that remain. Parmar has developed an AI-powered version of the Empathy Index, combining large language models with sentiment analysis, giving organisations a live measure of empathy in their culture as the technology landscape shifts around them. As a Non-Executive Director at the UK Ministry of Defence, she brings governance experience at an institutional level that most culture and leadership specialists do not access. She was appointed OBE for services to Women in Technology and named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. Her books – Little Miss Geek and The Empathy Era – sit alongside her HBR contributions as a published body of argument for the commercial case for empathy. Key speaking topics Human leadership in an AI world Empathy as a measurable leadership capability Behavioural science and organisational culture change Responsible AI and human-centred technology Customer experience transformation Inclusive cultures and belonging at scale Diversity and inclusion in technology Ideal for C-suite and senior leadership teams navigating AI transformation who need a human leadership framework alongside their technology strategy CHROs and People Directors seeking to connect culture change to measurable commercial outcomes Customer Experience and Operations leaders in consumer-facing industries where complaint reduction and loyalty are live performance metrics Board and governance audiences where responsible AI and organisational values are on the agenda Audience outcomes A practical understanding of the Global Empathy Index methodology and how empathy can be measured and tracked within their own organisation A working toolkit of “empathy nudges” – evidence-based behavioural interventions that can be deployed without a large-scale transformation programme A commercial language for empathy: specific case references linking culture change to cost reduction and measurable operational improvement Clarity on where AI enhances human connection rather than replaces it – and what that distinction requires of leaders A working definition of human leadership applicable to their own AI deployment context

Why organisations work with Deborah Meaden Twenty years of unscripted investment judgement on Dragons’ Den, where she has personally backed dozens of businesses, given audiences a working language for evaluating risk, founders and growth. Operator credibility built on a £33 million sale of Weststar Holidays to Phoenix Equity Partners in 2005, after a management buyout she led from inside the family business. A consistent, public position on sustainability as a commercial question: through The Big Green Money Show on BBC Radio 5 Live she has interrogated CEOs of major UK and global businesses on what climate strategy actually costs and earns. Author credibility across audiences from senior operators (Common Sense Rules) to financial literacy for children (HarperCollins Little Experts series, including a Financial Times Book of the Year 2023 Critics’ Choice). A direct, plain-language style that translates entrepreneurial decisions into something a leadership team can argue with, not just admire. Biography highlights Investor on BBC’s Dragons’ Den since 2006. Led the 1999 management buyout of Weststar Holidays and sold the majority to Phoenix Equity Partners in 2005 for £33 million. Author of Common Sense Rules (Random House Business, 2009) and the HarperCollins Little Experts financial literacy series. Why Money Matters named a Financial Times Book of the Year 2023 Critics’ Choice; silver at the Made For Mums Toy Awards. Co-host of The Big Green Money Show on BBC Radio 5 Live with Felicity Hannah. Trustee of Tusk Trust, Fellow of WWF, Ambassador for the RSPB, Marine Conservation Society and World Horse Welfare, Compassion Visionary at CIWF. Honorary degrees from the University of Exeter Business School, Staffordshire University, Keele University and Bath Spa University. Biography Weststar Holidays was a single-site family business when Deborah Meaden joined its arcade operations in 1988. By 2005 it was a five-park operator hosting around 150,000 holidaymakers a year, sold to Phoenix Equity Partners for £33 million after the management buyout she had led six years earlier. The arc, from operator to owner to seller, is the spine of how she reads other people’s businesses. Two decades on Dragons’ Den have widened that lens. Since 2006 she has sat through several thousand pitches and put her own capital behind a long list of UK ventures, from artisan manufacturer Fox Brothers to consumer brands across food, retail and clean technology. The pattern audiences see, the questions about unit economics, founder discipline and market truth, is the same pattern she applies to her own portfolio. Her published work extends the argument into financial literacy and commercial sustainability. Common Sense Rules (Random House Business, 2009) sets out the operating principles she uses on the Den. The Little Experts series with HarperCollins takes the same plain-language approach to children: Why Money Matters was named a Financial Times Book of the Year 2023 Critics’ Choice. On The Big Green Money Show with Felicity Hannah, she presses senior corporate leaders on whether climate commitments survive contact with a profit-and-loss account. Trustee at Tusk Trust, Fellow of WWF, Ambassador to the RSPB, Marine Conservation Society and World Horse Welfare, and Compassion Visionary at CIWF: the environmental work is a working part of how she frames commercial choices. Honorary doctorates from Exeter, Staffordshire, Keele and Bath Spa recognise the same combination of operating record and public argument. Key speaking topics Entrepreneurship and scale-up leadership Investment judgement and growth strategy Building and selling a business Sustainability as a commercial discipline Brand, customer and consumer trust Resilience and decision-making in private companies Women in business and leadership Ideal for Founders, CEOs and senior operators of growth-stage and family-owned businesses Boards setting strategy on sustainability and long-term capital allocation Sales, partner and customer-facing leadership teams Annual conferences and leadership offsites for operating businesses Audience outcomes A practical view of how an experienced investor reads pitches, plans and people. Concrete reference points from twenty years of UK private investment, including her own deals. A clear-eyed framing of sustainability as a commercial choice, with named examples from major UK and global businesses. Confidence to ask harder questions of their own numbers, founders and customers. A memorable, direct keynote voice that audiences quote back inside their organisations.

Why organisations work with Christiana Figueres She ran the Paris Agreement negotiation directly – not as a consultant or commentator, but as the UN official accountable for the outcome. The political dynamics, the pressure points, and the coalition mechanics she describes are firsthand. Her “Stubborn Optimism” framework, introduced in The Future We Choose (Penguin Random House, 2020), gives leadership teams a named, deployable posture for climate action – one that moves beyond paralysis without slipping into greenwashing. She holds board positions at ACCIONA and ACCIONA Energía, placing her at the intersection of executive decision-making and large-scale energy transition – not just policy theory. The Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation awarded her the Great Negotiator Award in 2022 – the same honour previously given to figures who shaped international law and treaty architecture. For leadership teams navigating multi-stakeholder climate commitments, that credential is directly relevant. Her network spans 195 national governments, financial institutions, and private sector actors – the precise ecosystem any organisation must understand when building a serious climate governance position. Biography highlights Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 2010-2016 Principal architect of the 2015 Paris Agreement – unanimous adoption by 195 sovereign nations 2022 Great Negotiator Award, Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School Co-author, The Future We Choose: The Stubborn Optimists’ Guide to the Climate Crisis (Penguin Random House, 2020) Honorary DBE (Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire), 2022; Legion of Honor of France, 2015 Fortune #7, World’s 50 Greatest Leaders, 2016; Time Top 100 Most Influential Leaders, 2016; Nature Journal Top 10, 2015 (ranked first) Chair, The Earthshot Prize Foundation, 2021-2026; Board member, ACCIONA and ACCIONA Energía Graduate of Swarthmore College and the London School of Economics; honorary doctorates from Yale, Georgetown, University of Edinburgh, and University of Massachusetts; named to BBC 100 Women list, 2023 Biography In December 2015, 195 nations unanimously adopted the Paris Agreement on climate change. The UN official responsible for making that outcome possible was Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC from 2010 to 2016 – appointed six months after the catastrophic collapse of the Copenhagen summit, when the prospect of a global accord looked remote. The process she built over those six years is now documented in a Harvard Law School case study. What distinguished it was a systematic approach to coalition-building: drawing together governments, financial institutions, faith communities, scientists, and private sector actors through a model of collaborative diplomacy that broke the political deadlock that had stalled climate negotiations for a decade. The Harvard Program on Negotiation recognised this with the Great Negotiator Award in 2022 – placing her alongside figures who have shaped international law and treaty architecture. Her published work extends the argument beyond diplomacy. The Future We Choose (Penguin Random House, 2020), co-authored with Tom Rivett-Carnac, introduces “Stubborn Optimism” as a named framework for climate leadership – a gritty, reality-grounded mindset that allows executives and institutions to act decisively without being paralysed by the scale of the problem. Her TED talk on the concept has reached a wide professional audience, and the three-part structure of the book – mindsets, choices, actions – has become a practical reference point for organisations setting net-zero strategy. Figueres co-founded Global Optimism, co-hosts the Outrage + Optimism podcast, and serves on the boards of ACCIONA and ACCIONA Energía. She holds honorary doctorates from Yale, Georgetown, the University of Edinburgh, and the University of Massachusetts, and was named an Honorary DBE in 2022. Key speaking topics Global climate governance and the Paris Agreement Corporate net-zero strategy and climate risk Collaborative diplomacy and multi-stakeholder negotiation ESG strategy and climate-related regulatory exposure Energy transition policy and renewable energy investment Stubborn Optimism as a leadership framework Climate science communication and public persuasion Ideal for Boards and C-suite executives setting or stress-testing net-zero commitments Chief Sustainability Officers and ESG leadership teams navigating disclosure requirements Government affairs and public policy functions tracking international climate regulation Financial institutions building climate-aligned investment frameworks Audience outcomes A working model of how global climate policy is made – and where corporate strategy intersects with it Direct insight into the negotiation architecture behind the Paris Agreement and its implications for current climate commitments A named, practical framework – Stubborn Optimism – for sustaining organisational climate action without paralysis or performance Clearer understanding of where international climate governance is heading and what that means for regulation, capital allocation, and competitive positioning Greater confidence in engaging regulators, investors, and international institutions on climate strategy