Speakers

Ben has a real passion and enthusiasm for people topics and has had an interesting seven years at Siemens. After four years in operational roles and being a keen DEI Champion, he then was offered the chance to lead the topic in the UK Siemens Mobility where he was influencing cultural change and transformation.

Prior to Siemens he has always contributed to this incredibly important topic,

Priscilla is a multi-award-winning global Equity Diversity and Inclusion Leader, with a wealth of experience increasing underrepresentation in media. Over the last 15 years she has led several impactful diversity and inclusion initiatives with media companies including BBC, ITV, Media Trust, News International and many more.

Prior to joining Unilever, she was TikTok’s global Head of Diversity and Inclusion and played an instrumental role in driving a robust and authentic strategy across people,

Mark Baker 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,

Jade is a courageous executive leader, trusted advisor, and operational strategist with a deep specialist experience in Culture, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). They’re passionate about people and steadfast about changing the world to elevate the most disadvantaged populations, by leveraging their own spheres of influence in the private and public sectors.

Jade has a unique portfolio of leading global organisations in the design and delivery of Group DEI strategies.

Jai (he/they) is a DE&I practitioner with extensive experience in human resources, having worked in roles ranging from analytics to partnering. They have a broad understanding of the people and culture landscape.

Presently, Jai is working in the DE&I team at Google DeepMind to support trust-building by catalysing change in underlying systems. Their goal is to create a path to equitable opportunity and outcomes at Google DeepMind and in the AI industry.

Niall (he/him) is a proud gay man who has worked in the legal industry for a number of years. Passionate about diversity, equity and inclusion for all, Niall has worked with firms in both Ireland and the UK to help build strategies and implement key programmes to advance DE&I. Niall is the DEI manager for Norton Rose Fulbright where he provides strategic direction,

As the founder of The Unmistakables, an award-winning consultancy specialising in diversity, Asad’s mission is to help organisations to create more inclusion and equality. Asad is a true trailblazer in his profession and has grown a firm reputation for speaking out about how to make diversity everyone’s business. Along with an enviable list of award-winning work for big names including HSBC,

Seliem El-Sayed is a member of the Responsible Development and Innovation Team at Google DeepMind. His main focus is the development of guidelines ensuring that Google DeepMind’s work is always aligned with the AI principles and reflects best practices from industry and academia. Beyond that, he is completing his PhD in Political Science at the University of Vienna focussed on bringing public value into research using digital data and data governance.

Branded by the creative industry’s The Drum magazine as “adland’s activist” Matt is the Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) at Ogilvy UK, the world’s most awarded advertising agency. He is also a DEI thought leader, frequent public speaker, LGBTQ+ campaigner and multicultural specialist. Matt’s career has spanned 18 years as a Healthcare communications expert,

Reema (She/Her) identifies as a queer woman of colour and works as an Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Lead in the NHS. Trans inclusion is a focal point of her work. She has also had strategic and advisory roles in health and wellbeing.

Her academic background is psychology and she has several years of experience in frontline mental health work.

Cheryl is a behavioral scientist with a PhD in organizational behavior and employment relations. Her work focuses on the commercial applications of behavioral science and helping people chase fulfilment over achievement.

She speaks, writes, and creates on the importance of using science-based methods to help people and companies understand equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Des is Vice President of Digital Integration in bp’s Customer & Products division supporting the delivery of bp’s customer-facing digital experiences. Des has been a member of bp’s Pride network for several years and in 2023 became co-chair. Outside work Des is an Ambassador and speaker for FFLAG (a charity supporting parents & carers of LGBTQ+ people) and a volunteer with Diversity Role Models for their work in schools on ending LGBTQ+ bullying.

Jak is an experienced professional in the field of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, serving as the Deputy Co-Chair of the BT Pride Network, an award winning LGBTQIA+ employee network. With an extensive background in HR and programme management within the financial services and telecommunication/technology sectors, Jak advocates for authentic action as the cornerstone of inclusion efforts.

Kate is bp’s VP of DE&I talent global external engagement and talent development. Kate and her team work in partnership with colleagues across the business and HR to embed DE&I into every aspect of the talent lifecycle at bp, and to continually improve how bp shows up in and contributes to the external DE&I landscape.

Laura is a highly accomplished professional bringing experience of operating within challenging and complex regulated organisations. She prides herself in being a creative leader with a collaborative style and an ability to bring diverse groups together. She has an exceptional track record of leading business through critical transformational change and creating an environment of psychological safety,

Helen is Global Head of Diversity, Inclusion & Wellbeing at Freshfields. Since joining in 2017 she has led the global D&I team and is part of the Business Services, Responsible Business, and HR leadership teams. Helen is responsible for the firm’s global D&I and wellbeing strategy including the design and implementation of targets, programming, engagement and diverse talent management initiatives.

Alex is the CMI VP, Global Head of PDC’s, Predictive Analytics, Shopper & CMI Hive at Unilever. He is also the Executive Sponsor of proUd, Unilever’s LGBTQI+ Community.

‘Equality isn’t Equal, Equity is’; This is the cornerstone of Unilever’s ED&I Strategy. While Unilever promotes and celebrates equality for all, it also acknowledges it cannot do so without equity.

As ISS’s Head of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging, Kat Parsons champions gender balance, pride, abilities, generations, culture, race and ethnicity as part of an inclusive and progressive workforce.

As Diva Magazine’s Head of Diversity and Inclusion of the Year Award 2023, one of WIHTL’s Women to Watch 2022, and one of Hive Learning’s Most Influential DEI Leaders in EMEA 2022,

Ella (they/them) is passionate about all things inclusion. In July 2023 they joined Vodafone UK’s D&I team with a focus on LGBTQ+ inclusion and education and awareness for all communities. They started their career at IBM in Talent Attraction and after five years moved into IBM’s Global D&I team as Global LGBTQ+ Leader, a role they held for four years.

Margot is a prominent figure in promoting diversity and inclusion. She directs and implements ISS’s strategies across five global dimensions, advocating for workplace standards and disability inclusion. Margot’s career began as a chef, and she later became CEO of Sodexo Ireland before being appointed Global Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer for Sodexo Group in 2019.

Chuck Stephens, is a proven champion of equality for all and is responsible for creating, implementing/embedding, and leading broad-based Diversity & Inclusion (D&I), wellbeing, and corporate social responsibility practices.

He is a recognized leader in D&I with over 20 years experience guiding some of the world’s most impactful brands in addressing their D&I challenges while increasing their eminence as diversity leaders across professional services,