Entrepreneur Speakers

Lavinia D. Osbourne

A Blockchain, Web 3.0 & NFT specialist, Lavinia is a consultant and thought leader sharing her knowledge to help break down barriers within these emerging technologies. She founded Women in Blockchain Talks and Crypto Kweens to help provide resources to those underrepresented.

Alex Depledge

Leaving her job at Accenture for the uncertainty of a startup, Alex and her friend Jules started helping.com (formerly hassle.com). The pair got through the challenges, the mistakes, and the lack of investment to build a company that sold for over £20million. They’ve repeated the process with Resi, a disruptive architecture and planning business that is now a market-leader. Alex looks at the lessons she's learned, from startup mindsets to the future of the workplace, the pressures on leaders to balancing culture and growth (including a dramatic increase in Resi's...

Makala Green

Makala is a successful financial expert, author, businesswoman, financial speaker, and wealth coach, and is prestigiously recognised as the first black female chartered financial expert in the UK.

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.

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.

Dr Daniel Hulme

Working in academia, the public and private sectors, Daniel is a leading expert in artificial intelligence and emerging technologies as well as its applications and the social, commercial, economic and ethical implications. In a world where many believe access to more and more data will lead to ever better decision-making, he looks at what AI really is, what it can achieve, and the potential pitfalls. He also asks how organisations need to change their structure and why people feel addicted to technology.

Ateh Jewel

Ateh is a multi-award-winning beauty journalist, influencer, broadcaster, and diversity advocate. She’s a regular presenter and social commentator on This Morning, Good Morning Britain, and CNN. She has been in the industry for over twenty years specialising in beauty, social commentary, and campaigning for more diversity in the beauty industry. Ateh was awarded the CEW Achiever Award to honour her diversity work in the beauty industry.

Lord (Digby) Jones

After heading the CBI, Digby entered government and circled the globe, lobbying on behalf of British business. He remains both an ardent supporter and insightful critic of business and business leaders, challenging them to better embrace change and innovation, to empower their people to take risks and explore new ideas, and to look globally for inspiration, competition and opportunities.

Marcel Khan

Following a career working with some of the most rapidly-growing brands in one of the most competitive of sectors, Marcel is the CEO of The Fulham Shore and is responsible for the development and expansion of their Franco Manca and The Real Greek brands. Marcel looks at how leading from the front, identifying a culture and brand message, and delivering the best for customers can create a clear advantage for any business.

Jonas Kjellberg

The founders of Skype had a simple idea that went on to revolutionise the entire telecoms sector. Since the company was sold Jonas has taught at Stanford, launched an early stage fund to back scaleable new business models, and co-authored books on growth strategy and ways to test the enterprise’s durability. He speaks about spearheading an idea, standing out from the crowd, creating a winning sales culture and bringing the whole organisation together.

Priya Lakhani

Priya is the founder and CEO of CENTURY Tech, the award-winning education company that aids the implementation of AI and machine learning in classrooms. She is part of the AIDecoded team on the flagship BBC programme The Context, sharing her insights into tech and business. 

Tamara Lohan

After publishers rejected the idea of a new hotel guide, Tamara and her husband decided to print it themselves. They sold 100,000 copies in year one. There’s now an online booking service, employees from LA to Sydney and the Smith & Family brand. Tamara sets out the challenge of building a digital brand and disrupting an established market: “Stick to your beliefs, ensure everything is consistent with the brand and create an environment of trust.”

Mitch Lowe

Joining Netflix in its very early days, Mitch was responsible for the company’s business development strategy and witnessed the startling growth of one of the internet’s first industry disruptors. He considers how consumers react to being offered a vast array of choices and the opportunities for businesses that this presents. He also urges those seeking to innovate or differentiate themselves to simplify and focus on their core aims.

Martin McCourt

As Chief Executive of Dyson, Martin transformed it from a niche manufacturer to a £1bn global brand, moving production to Asia. Even after the onset of recession, he doubled turnover and trebled profits - increasing sales in 70 markets. Now in private equity Martin argues we must use our inventiveness rather than try to compete with China on their terms. But with 40,000 unfilled skilled jobs, UK industry needs to work much more closely with educators.

Marc Randolph

When Marc’s marketing company was taken over, he met Reed Hasting in the new company. The pair car-pooled and chatted over new business ideas. At the same time, the DVD was coming to market and they realised the potential for a mail-order business. Netflix grew rapidly, and with the advent of broadband and the move to streaming changed into one of the most admired, pioneering businesses in the world. Marc, Nexflix’s first CEO, recounts the story.

Steve Ridgway

CEO of Virgin Atlantic for over a decade, Steve oversaw the huge expansion of what has become one of the world’s biggest and most respected airlines. Widely admired for their service culture, marketing and innovation, Steve offers an insight into the Virgin brand and strategy. After dinner, Steve reveals the boardroom secrets of Richard Branson and what it was like taking charge of the Virgin Challenger Blue Riband yacht team.

Frank Salzgeber

Frank leads the European Space Agency's Innovation and Ventures Office (formerly the Technology Transfer and Business Incubation Office) – created to share research and development gains with industry. Their space tech is already being used to purify the air in intensive care, to survey rock for tunneling, in the manufacture of running shoes and to transfer space technology to the Vatican Library. Frank’s team has also incubated or facilitated over 550 start-ups and 150 spin-offs. His speech tells conference audiences how they might foster a space agency culture of creati...

Tim Spector

Tim Spector is a Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at King’s College London, director of the Twins UK study,  Scientific co-founder at ZOE, and one of the world’s leading researchers. He appears regularly on TV, radio, and podcasts, and is one of the top 100 most cited scientists in the world.

Yancey Strickler

Kickstarter has become synonymous with crowdfunding; enabling ordinary people to fund creative projects they care about. As well as disrupting a range of industries, Kickstarter is also a model of how to combine business with social responsibility. Yancey speaks about lessons from taking Kickstarter from idea to a global, game-changing company. He explains his four lessons for leading an innovative, disruptive organisation, and takes a determinedly optimistic view of the the commercial, social and political effects of the tech sector and business more broadly.

Ben Towers

Starting his web design business aged just eleven, Ben was running a company by the time he was studying for his GCSEs. Before he was eighteen he was leading a fully fledged branding and social media consultancy and was feted as the future of British business. Having exited his first business and started his next, he provide insights into the social media landscape and the future of business. Ben considers what’s new and what challenges businesses are going to have to face from disruptive competition to employee wellbeing to consumer insights.

Holly Tucker

With notonthehighstreet.com Holly and Sophie Cornish helped reinvent how small businesses operate online, offering them a platform as well as marketing and business support. Holly has gone on to be the government’s Ambassador for Creative Small Businesses and to found a new company helping startups. She considers both the world of online retail and entrepreneurship, but also the new workplace where companies foster personal as well as professional priorities.