Diversity & Inclusion Speakers

Sir Lenny Henry

Lenny’s credits stretch from classical theatre to arena tours, TV dramas, a blues album and Comic Relief. He continues to balance comedy, drama, and entertainment and campaigns for diversity in TV.

Eddie Izzard

From running 43 marathons in 51 days with only six weeks training to learning to perform her standup shows in French and German to combining comedy, drama and political activism, Eddie Izzard’s career defies simple definition, and sometimes belief. She speaks about how she’s achieved all that she has and what lessons can be learned.

Baroness (Tanni) Grey-Thompson

Britain’s best known Paralympian, Tanni amassed eleven gold medals in five consecutive Games. She also won six London Marathons and achieved a total of thirty four world records. Since retiring from competitive sport Tanni has taken an active role in the Lords, particularly on campaigns and legislation around disability. She believes that disabled people still face barriers that need to be removed, and calls for more genuine engagement rather than political rhetoric: “Public perceptions are changing.”

June Sarpong

With a remarkable breadth of presenting credits, from T4 to talk shows, game shows to documentaries, June combines her broadcasting work with social and political causes. A Prince’s Trust ambassador, she is the co-founder of the WIE Network (Women:Inspiration & Enterprise) and was a board member of Stronger IN, the official campaign of the remain side of the UK/EU referendum.

Tim Campbell

Tim is a social enterprise entrepreneur whose work focuses on supporting the unemployed, and disadvantaged to get into business and championing education and apprenticeships. He is also Lord Sugar’s right-hand man on The Apprentice, over a decade after winning the show himself. In presentations, he shares his own journey, what it means to have the mindset of an entrepreneur and the importance of inclusion.

Dame Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock

Maggie has led projects making anything from land mine detectors to satellite sub-systems that measure variables like wind speed to improve our knowledge of climate change. In presentations the Sky At Night expert talks about exploring space with missions like Rosetta, and how we live in a galaxy with 200 billion stars. Maggie believes that with 100 billion galaxies in the universe, there must be life out there – simply as a matter of probability.

Margaret Heffernan

Having run a range of digital and internet businesses in the US, Margaret has turned to analysing where leadership in organisations so often goes wrong. Ignoring potential problems, failing to encourage or develop talent, building a culture of isolation and internal competition; all are commonplace issues that could easily be addressed. As in her bestseller Wilful Blindness and her acclaimed TED speeches, Margaret simply and effectively considers what makes a great leader.

Nicky Moffat

Nicky was the British Army’s highest ranking female officer, stepping down as Brigadier after 30 years in leadership roles. As HR Director she was in charge of promotion, appointment and development. Having led diverse groups within a traditional organisation, Nicky explores how to attract and retain a wealth of talent amid rapid and significant changes of threat, policy, technology and resources. She also sets out the role of leaders in driving inclusive change.

Hannah Fry

Having studied fluid dynamics and working briefly in F1, Hannah returned to academia and now lectures in the mathematics of cities. She’s also a science broadcaster, bringing numbers and data to life on TV and radio in programmes including The Joy of Data, City in the Sky, and The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry. She examines how maths underpins almost everything and the world of data: how it’s gathered, what it can (and can’t) tell us, and when to look more closely at its predictions. Hannah also encouraged the public to download the BBC Pandemic app for her look at how a flu-like disease can spread through day-to-day contact in the prescient BBC programme Contag...

Matt Lindley

After a decade with the RAF Matt moved to commercial aviation as a 747 pilot. He looks at the ‘black box’ culture of airlines that seek to understand mistakes rather than apportion blame, and the leadership culture that engenders. He also speaks about his time with the Air Force, being one of the first openly gay pilots in the military, and what the experience taught him about leaders and how the personal can affect professional performance.

Dame Inga Beale

After working in senior global leadership roles in some of the world’s largest insurance companies, Inga took over the helm of the 330-year-old City financial institution. Taking on many of the traditions that had held the organisation back, Inga expanded their global markets, and introduced strategies including the Lloyd’s Innovation Lab, and the Dive In Festival, an industry-wide, international diversity and inclusion event. She considers the balance struck between history and modernisation when implementing change, the vital importance of inclusion in the workplace, and concepts of trust and ethics in business.

Amar Latif

Amar almost entirely lost his sight by the age of eighteen, but with determination and a desire to prove everyone wrong, he not only went on to explore the world, but start a business to help others do the same. He's also become a documentary filmmaker and presenter and has appeared on shows from The Last Leg, to The One Show, to Celebrity MasterChef.

Caroline Criado Perez

Caroline is behind successful campaigns to see women represented on English bank notes, and the erection of a statue of Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square. In speeches and in her book Invisible Women, she highlights the systematic biases behind the data and assumptions about our everyday lives. From healthcare diagnoses to search algorithms, the over-reliance on men as the default standard has left women, and society as a whole, disadvantaged.

Munroe Bergdorf

A model and an activist, Munroe is a passionate voice for inclusivity and diversity. Appointed by the UN as a Changemaker, she consults with companies, writes for global publications and uses her online presence to educate and empower others to create positive change. She believes in the power of education and the importance of shame-free accountability.

Sonita Alleyne

Before becoming the Master of Jesus College (the first black woman to hold the post at any Oxbridge college), Sonita co-founded the media production Somethin’ Else and sat on boards in both the private and public sector. Passionate about education and equality, she also founded The Yes Programme to help school pupils make insightful career decisions.