Speakers

Mark has decades of experience connecting business communities to accelerate change.

Mark founded Sircula Ltd to enable B2B communities to connect, learn and grow. In June 2018 Mark launched d&i Leaders to bring together global diversity, inclusion and HR related professionals. Since then, Mark and the team have established an annual programme of strategic in-person and online summits and conferences,

Jenn is a culture change and EDI specialist and psychologist and UK Lead for ESG and EDI for the fifth largest professional services firm; Grant Thornton UK LLP. She is responsible for designing and leading the firm’s distinctive ESG strategy. Her team are focused on reducing the firm’s environmental impact, creating an inclusive culture that prioritises wellbeing and improves community impact.

David is the Group Director of Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing at Sky.

He joined Sky from Live Nation/Ticketmaster, where as Director of Diversity he worked across 40 international markets.

Previously he was the Head of Equality Strategy at Citizen’s Advice, headed Legal Affairs at the Commission for Racial Equality, and lead National Policy at the Housing Corporation/Homes and Communities Agency (HCA).

Davina is an experienced disability specialist with a history of working across education as a qualified teacher and dyslexia specialist. After leaving education, Davina worked as a Senior Business Disability Partner at Business Disability Forum, providing disability inclusion consultancy for multinationals. Projects involved supporting organisations to develop inclusive recruitment practices and workplace adjustment processes. Davina now works in the group Diversity,

Shani is one of the UK’s most influential disabled people and BBC’s 100 Women laureate of 2020. She helps businesses and brands break barriers and become more inclusive and accessible for their disabled employees and customers.

As a South Asian woman who experiences disability, Shani has taken the change she wants to create in the world into her own hands.

John joined Raytheon UK in November 2020 as Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and works in partnership with the wider Raytheon Technologies as part of the Global Extended DE&I Leadership Team. Throughout his time at Raytheon UK, John has been committed to ensuring that Raytheon UK is a truly accessible business where every employee can thrive and is empowered to deliver the best work of their life.

Mali is the founder of HSBC’s Digital Accessibility programme. He currently occupies the position of Group Head Digital Experience and Accessibility for HSBC and is passionately committed to diversity inclusion and creating an accessible environment for colleagues and customers with disabilities.

In January 2023 Mali was awarded a MBE in the King’s New Year’s Honours list for contributions to Banking and Digital Accessibility.

As CTO, Ryan is responsible for leading and directing Texthelp’s team of engineers to deliver assistive technology and accessibility products that are used by tens of millions of people every day around the world. With a customer base that spans government organizations, educational institutions and corporates alike, he ensures that Texthelp’s products are safe, secure and easy to use.

Maria was a Top 100 Disability Influencer in 2022 and 2019 for the public sector and her work has been recognised for many years from being a disabled entrepreneur, trainer and speaker. She is responsible for delivering equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) management for the workforce and communities along the route of High Speed Two,

Sat is the author of a transformational Accessibility & Inclusive Design Framework at Virgin Media O2, which sets out to break down barriers for customers and employees. Its principles hinge on designing outputs with accessibility and equity in mind, making it everyone’s responsibility to remove barriers for both disabled and vulnerable people.

With a programme delivery background,

Michaela is the Lead for the AMBITION Employee Resource Group at Siemens Plc, a network that gives individuals who have a disability or long-term health condition the confidence to be themselves at work, to normalise the topic, and create an adaptable, supportive work environment. This is alongside her role in Business Excellence, where her experience in driving cultural change and business transformation has enabled Siemens to achieve Disability Confident Employer status.

Diane is CEO of Business Disability Forum, a not-for-profit membership organisation that supports businesses to recruit and retain disabled employees and to serve disabled customers. Business Disability Forum’s 500+ members employ c.20% of the UK workforce and 8 million people worldwide. They range from FTSE 100 companies and central Government departments to technology and construction companies,

Emma is a Talent Director at EY and Mum to two neurodiverse daughters. She has worked in HR, recruitment, DEI and organisational change for over 25 years, working internationally in Financial and professional services. For the last 7 years Emma has been living with an Energy Limiting Condition called Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E.), also called Chronic Fatigue;

Kate is creator & CEO of PurpleSpace. Established in 2015 it is the world’s only leadership development membership hub for disability employee resource groups [ERG] / networks.

PurpleSpace delivers Networkology Academy know-how to organisations that want to accelerate the pace of cultural change for employees with disabilities. The global community now stands at 4,000+ leaders across 200 organisations who together reach 1 million employees with disabilities.

Dawn is a dedicated Healthcare professional with over 20 years’ experience, in Emergency Care and the Ambulance Sector. Dawn is a Fellow of the Society for Education and Training and has a passion for Education, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. She is reading for a Professional Doctorate at Edge Hill University investigating the links between organisational culture and support for employees with disabilities.

Rosa is continuous improvement manager and led the disability business resource group (BRG) in the role of the chair within Boots UK. Rosa has combined her knowledge and expertise in continuous improvement with her role of chair to support the business in driving disability inclusion and accessibility (digital and physical). Rosa commitment and focus stem from personal experience and a strong belief that we should be able to talk about disability in the same way we talk about having a headache ‘accepted and understood by everyone’.

Jamie is registered blind, autistic and ADHD. Having struggled to gain and retain employment for most of his life, Jamie now works on removing the barriers that are imposed on those with disability.

Jamie’s work is centred around supporting AMS, a global recruitment RPO and their clients on creating a more inclusive culture,

George (he/him) is an equality, diversity and inclusion specialist working at disability equality charity, Scope. He has experience working in the charity sector on disability inclusion, co-production, and diversity monitoring. He is particularly interested in how we can embed concepts of intersectionality into inclusion work to centre the most marginalised.