SPEAKERS

Ad Davies

Ad Davies is the Head of Talent Development and Internal Communications at Gymshark, a leading UK-based fitness brand renowned for its dynamic culture and rapid growth. With a background in elite sports and a passion for people-centric leadership, Ad has been instrumental in shaping Gymshark's high-performance culture.

Ad has focused on fostering environments where individuals thrive, emphasising the importance of authentic leadership and continuous development. His approach integrates principles from his experience in elite sports, bringing a unique perspective to corporate talent development.

Beyond his role at Gymshark, Ad engages with the broader community through platforms like LinkedIn, where he shares thought leadership content and participates in discussions on performance and culture.

Ad's commitment to developing people and creating a culture of excellence continues to make a significant impact within Gymshark and the wider business community.

Becky Allen

Professor Becky Allen is Chief Analyst and a co-founder of Teacher Tapp, the largest teacher survey and professional development tool in the UK.

She is currently a Visiting Professor at the University of Brighton and is a former Professor of Education at UCL Institute of Education. Over her academic career she has written extensively on school accountability, admissions, assessment, expenditure and teacher careers. An economist by training and former secondary school teacher, she is an expert in the analysis of large datasets. In 2018 she chaired a Government working group to review how data is used in schools.

Her book on teacher careers called ‘The Teacher Gap’ was published in 2018 and her new book ‘The Next Big Thing in School Improvement’ was published in 2021.

Ben Hunt-Davis

Ben Hunt Davis is a renowned keynote speaker, Olympic Gold medallist and performance coach. With 20+ years of experience, Ben specialises in leadership and team development.

Ben is a best-selling co-author of the book ‘Will It Make The Boat Go Faster?’ and Olympic Gold medallist from the Sydney Olympics.

Ben tells the story of the last 24 months leading up to the Sydney Olympics and how the Great Britain Men’s Eights changed as a crew from being a regularly 7th placed boat to a winning one. The story is one of a group of individuals forged into a winning team by following a set of Performance Principles, habitually and consistently, in everything they did. 

The Great Britain Men’s Eights’ collective focus, direction and drive to succeed was captured in the execution of the clear and direct question – ‘Will it make the boat go faster?’.

Chris Packham CBE

Chris Packham has gained recognition as a naturalist, television presenter, writer, photographer, conservationist, campaigner and filmmaker.

Chris presents the BBC’s BAFTA award-winning series Springwatch and Winterwatch for which he is perhaps best known. He recently presented the multi award-winning series Inside our Autistic Minds for BBC Two and Channel 4’s Time to Break the Law.

A leading campaigner, Chris has always been active and vocal about wildlife and conservation issues and injustice. In September 2019 Chris organised the UK’s first march for wildlife – The People’s Walk for Wildlife, London.

Chris has received numerous awards including Conservation Hero of the Year at the Birders’ Choice Awards and was named Britain’s second most influential conservation heroes in The Wildlife Power List featured in BBC Wildlife magazine. Chris was appointed a CBE in the 2019 New Year’s honours list for services to wildlife and nature conservation.

Darren Coxon

Darren Coxon is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Kompass Education, a consultancy specialising in providing schools and colleges the training, support and tools they need to innovate safely and ethically with AI.

An educator for 26 years, Darren has worked in every sector in almost every role, including teacher, Head of Department (mainstream and SEND), Head of Teaching and Learning, Principal (UK and international), Director of Education, and Chief Operating Officer.

Darren now runs Kompass, a new company whose focus in both AI literacy and AI governance, ensuring schools are fully compliant with recent UK government announcements on AI in education, and (for EU Schools) with the EU AI Act.

He is currently working on a pilot project with SEND schools across the UK, helping them to integrate AI in impactful ways.

Naomi Sesay

Head of Creative Equity at Channel 4, International Public Speaker, Broadcast TV Producer/Director, Entrepreneur

Using over 25 years’ experience in television and media, Naomi Sesay has devoted her career to serving as a powerful advocate for diversity and inclusion, becoming a trail-blazer for social enterprise. She is currently Head of Creative Equity at Channel 4, and was previously a senior trainer for FTSE 100 Companies.

As a Diversity & Inclusion expert, Naomi has delivered training for an array of organisations including Google, Microsoft, NBC Universal, Harvard and WPP. Naomi is also leading the build for the very first female-centric, bio designed, sustainable smart city in Sierra Leone.

An inspiring and thought-provoking speaker, Naomi challenges audiences to examine their emotional, cultural and neurological habits with the aim to create a truly diverse workforce.

Nicky Perfect

International hostage and crisis negotiator turned world renowned trainer, speaker and author, Nicky’s career includes 31 years spent as a Metropolitan police officer, the last 10 of which were spent working for the elite New Scotland Yard Hostage and Crisis Negotiation Unit as an international hostage and crisis negotiator.

Author of the best-selling book “Crisis – true stories from my life as a hostage negotiator” and recipient of a British Empire Medal for “meritorious service to the community during the pandemic”, Nicky has travelled the world teaching negotiation.

She was also the first woman to become the Director of UK Training for the National Hostage and Crisis Negotiation Course, a role which required her to design and train UK police officers to deal with life and death situations from suicide intervention to kidnaps.

Nicky’s mission is to share the lessons she learnt as a negotiator to help others improve their communication and negotiation skills, and ultimately their relationships with one another.

Steve Chalke MBE

Steve Chalke is an author, speaker, former UN Special Advisor on Human Trafficking, and Baptist minister. In 1985, he founded the Oasis Charitable Trust, a leading UK charity dedicated to building inclusive local communities. Today, Oasis has grown into a group of charities operating across multiple countries, providing supported housing, youth work, education, healthcare, and various other community-building initiatives. In England, Oasis also runs 54 academies and last year opened Oasis Restore, the UK’s first Secure School – a groundbreaking therapeutic alternative to a youth prison – designed to support high-risk children and young people in the justice system.

Steve continues to play a leading role within Oasis and is a prominent voice on social issues. His latest book is called A Manifesto for Hope.