Lord Dr Michael Hastings CBE

Lord Hastings CBE is the former Global Head of Citizenship for KPMG International; he was previously the BBC’s Head of Public Affairs and is the Chancellor of Regents University London and Professor of Leadership at the Stephen R Covey Institute, Utah State University. Lord Hastings was a trustee of the Vodafone Group Foundation for 11 years and served for 9 years on the Board for Responsible and Sustainable Business at British Telecom and as a Commissioner of the Commission for Racial Equality for 9 years. He serves as a Governor of the Vodafone/Safaricom MPESA Academy in Nairobi, Kenya and is Chairman of the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Black Business Association.

Florence Kollie Raja

Founder and Director of ETHICAL ERA - a cross sector sustainability platform. Creator of The 2030 Positive Planet Agenda for Climate & Social Justice . Kollie Raja has worked with UK Parliament, European Parliament and Local Government for a decade plus and within the private sector at leading Asset Managers such as Goldman Sachs also for a decade plus. Outside of corporate work, public policy and academia- Kollie Raja is also a known thought leader in the Arts, Fashion and Culture world.

Sello Hatang

Sello Hatang CEO of Mandela Foundation previously, Head of Information Communications and Spokesperson for the South African Human Rights Commission. Sello participated in the post-1994 transformation of the National Archives, including providing archival support for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and is a former Director of the South African History Archive (SAHA) at Wits University. Sello serves on the boards of SAHA and the Open Democracy Advice Centre and is a founding member and member of the Advisory Council of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (CASAC).

Stephen Frost

Stephen is a globally recognised, award-winning thought leader on diversity and inclusion (D&I). His background is academic and in professional practice. He has led on race equality as an ally, and inclusion issues in general, for over twenty years.

 He initiated the workplace programmes at Stonewall, served as Head of D&I at KPMG and designed and delivered the inclusion programmes for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

 He has written three books, taught at business schools including Harvard, Sciences Po and SMU and leads a team committed to helping clients embed inclusion in decision-making to benefit individuals, organisations and the world at large.

Satjiv S. Chahil

Satjiv S. Chahil Former Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing and Corporate Communication for Apple. He developed the Apple partnership with the American Film Institute, which led to alliances with Paramount Pictures and Tom Cruise for Mission: Impossible (film). As a senior vice president of global marketing, he and his team conceived and implemented HP's game changing 'computer is personal agin' campaign which drove new innovation and reinvigorated the entire PC industry while establishing HP as the market leader. Additionally, he has been a Digital Convergence Advisor to Sony, a merchandising and lifestyle Advisor to BMW/MINI, several entertainment organizations in Hollywood and several start-ups in Silicon Valley.

Charlotte Prendergast

A former Headmistress in Ghana, Charlotte’s experience includes policy making and strategic implementation.

A dynamic educationist with 18 years of experience in teaching and educational leadership, specialising in directing ambitious arts and social education programmes, in UK and international settings. A relational leader, skilled in creating a cohesive, high-performing team culture, with experience of building effective partnerships with a range of organisations. Passionately committed to promoting social mobility, creating opportunities for all young people to fulfil their potential through meaningful and creative education.

Charlotte currently leads on strategy development and activation of First Story, producing creative writing programmes in 60+ schools across England.

Tony Chambers

Tony is a Creative Director, Design Consultant and Editor. 

He is the founder of creative agency TC & Friends and Co-Chair of Brainstorm Design, Fortune magazine’s design & business conference.

Tony is the editor and creative director of the definitive monograph of designer Paul Smith.

He is the former Editor-in-Chief and Creative Director of Wallpaper* magazine, Art Director of British GQ and Art Editor of The Sunday Times Magazine. In 2015 he was the recipient of the Mark Boxer Award – the most prestigious honour in British publishing.

Tony sits on the board of the Barbican Art Centre and the Whitechapel Galleries Ventures board.

Lord Nat Wei

Lord Nat Wei of Shoreditch is the founding partner of the Shaftesbury Partnership, Founder of Maker Life, a member of the founding team of Teach First and a former adviser at Absolute Return For Kids. He is also a former Fellow of the Young Foundation and World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and a committed social reformer. His passion is in developing new sustainable ventures, driving systemic change through technology development, investing, and in training future reformers passionate about cities, migrant issues, and impact.

Solomon Elliott

Solomon is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Student View, a media literacy training teenagers as local news reporters in schools across the UK. He is also an external member of the BBC’s Diversity & Inclusion Group and earlier this year was listed as one of Europe’s brightest entrepreneurs in the 2020 Forbes 30 under 30, Media and Marketing list. Solomon is a former English secondary school teacher and a Fellow at School for Social Entrepreneurs as well as the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.

Tea Colaianni

Tea is the Founder and Chair of WiHTL – Women in Hospitality, Travel and Leisure, an organisation whose mission is to make a positive difference to 5 million women and people of colour across HTL globally by 2025. A keen advocate of diversity, in 2018 she rallied support to conduct the first ever research into female leadership across the HTL sector. She has set up and chairs the Race and Ethnicity in HTL Committee that focuses on the creation of best practices, tools, webinar content as well as raising awareness and improving educational programmes. Tea is the Senior Independent Director on the Board of Watches of Switzerland Plc and serves as non-Executive Director on a number of other Boards. She has held senior HR Executive roles at Merlin Entertainments and Hilton Hotels.

Jean–Pierre Le Calvez

Jean-Pierre has extensive global management, marketing and communications experience. He has held a number of senior key marketing positions for major global companies such as HP, Palm, Apple, start-up ventures and large not for profit organizations such as Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance. He recently founded Novonda, a management consulting and training firm, to bring his real-world expertise to business and human development organisations. Prior, he was Vice-President Marketing for HP’s Printing and Personal Systems Group in EMEA and Global Head for Customer Marketing, Alliances and Partnerships. His passion lies in connecting people and ideas to put our human diversity at the heart of business and social transformation to advance equity and alleviate poverty.

Chris Sheppardson

Chris is the founder of Chess Partnership and Chess Executive, which is one of the Industry's leading executive management recruitment and consultancy concerns for the hospitality industry. Chris was inspired to found Chess by a belief in the importance of individuals and in the principle of cultural fit within organisations. The combination of Chess Executive and Chess Partnership provides a business, which works closely with the hospitality industry, to support the growth and development of both people and organisation.

Kesi Gibson

Kesi Gibson is a Financial Services Professional, Impact Investor, Business Consultant and Entrepreneur. She is the Founder & Creative Director of fashion brand KYU BY KESI, and Founder and CEO of CLUB DEBUT - a platform supporting independent fashion designers and the creative professionals in the fashion value chain. Prior, Kesi had a formal Investment Banking career and worked for Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan Alternative Asset Management, Portland Private Equity and Veronis Suhler Stevenson. She has a BA in International Relations & Economics from Mount Holyoke College, an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and is an alumna of the prestigious SEO (Sponsors For Educational Opportunity) career program, and was an Entrepreneur In Residence for Hult Prize.

Rachel Welch-Phillips

Rachel is an Associate in the Aviation team at Bird & Bird LLP where she founded and chairs the firm’s multi-cultural staff network, Embrace. Rachel is a passionate advocate for racial equality within the legal industry and the wider community and her work in this space has been recognised and awarded by Chambers & Partners, First 100 Years Inspirational Women in Law, Involve – the Inclusion People and the UK Diversity Legal Awards. Rachel is a proud Black British woman of Afro-Caribbean descent who believes that the visibility of black professionals in industry is key to closing the gap in opportunity that exists for minority ethnic communities and she dedicates significant time to mentoring, public speaking and advocacy for this purpose.

Elias Onaolapo

Elias has over 15 years of experience in digital transformation helping businesses to adopt digital technologies to transform their services and business processes.

Elias began his career at Apple and then moved to work in the mechanical engineering world before returning back to the world of technology to work in cloud technologies at Ancoris.

He is a passionate diversity, equity and inclusion advocate for the Black British employee experience and their advancement. Elias has worked with various organisations, as a consultant, and has sat on a number of boards, helping organisations create more inclusive environments for black and ethnic minorities, at junior levels right the way through to the C-suite.

Patrick Hutchinson

Patrick is one of the Co-Founders of United To Change And Inspire (UTCAI) an initiative united in strength to overcome the racial transgressions and inequality in today’s society. Patrick became known for his heroics at a BLM Demonstration.

 UTCAI sees itself as a bridge to advise, consolidate and give a stronger voice to marginalised groups. They aim to change past narratives and bring forth fairness and equal opportunities in education, criminal justice, health/wellbeing and youth development. He is also the author of an amazon education best seller, ‘Everyone versus Racism a letter to my children’ and regularly features on 

BBC, ITV, Channel 4, SKY, CNN and CNBC etc, plus Men’s Health, Vogue and GQ Magazines.

Jane Frost CBE

Jane holds some 150 awards for marketing and advertising, including the iconic “Perfect Day “charity single for the BBC. She is currently CEO of MRS (the research regulator), vice chair of Fairtrade, co-chair of the Tiffany Circle (Red Cross), a trustee of the Lowry Centre and other charities. She believes her senior positions at Shell, the BBC and in government prove that empathy for and understanding the customer is core to success everywhere. She believes that great leaders focus on helping everyone achieve their potential and recognise that the greatest success comes from teams representing an ecosystem of people and skills. 

Dr Nick Basannavar

Nick supports organisations by reframing inclusion and embedding inclusive thinking into their work. In partnership with public sphere, corporate and third sector bodies around the world, he helps to create and capture meaningful, positive and lasting impact. He tells these stories in Frost Included’s ground-breaking annual inclusive Impact Report. 

 Previously a senior manager at global consultancy firm Deloitte, Nick is also a historian and holds a PhD from the University of London. His primary focus is cultural and social change in Britain, and his research explores themes such as the history of medicine, sexual violence, and media representation. His first book is due to be published in 2021.

Alpesh Patel OBE

Alpesh Patel OBE, Dealmaker, Global Entrepreneur Programme, Dept for International Trade. CEO, Asset Manager. Alpesh is a former Visiting Fellow in Business, Corpus Christi College, Oxford, Barrister, and former columnist for the Financial Times and a Bloomberg TV host. He is a BBC paper reviewer and author of 18 books on investing. He was awarded the OBE in 2020 for services to the Economy. In addition, Alpesh co-founded the UK Chapter of the Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE.org) which is the worlds largest entrepreneur mentoring organisation. He also served on the Council of Chatham House, the International Relations think-tank.

Rev Steve Chalke MBE

Rev Steve Chalke MBE founded the Oasis Trust back in 1985 with a vision to build inclusive local communities. Oasis is now one of the largest charities in the UK, as well as working in a host of other countries. It provides housing, education, healthcare, various other community-building initiatives and is now working with the Ministry of Justice to create the UK’s first Secure School.  

Steve is also an author, speaker, former UN Special Advisor on Human Trafficking and a Baptist minister. He holds an MBE and various honorary fellowships, all awarded for his work in social inclusion and justice. He still leads Oasis and is also the senior minister of Oasis Church Waterloo in central London – a place of inclusion where all are welcome.

Riki Bleau

Riki Bleau is a driving force within British music. Alongside long-term collaborator and friend Glyn Aikins, Riki is the co-president of Sony UK record label Since 93. The label boasts a catalogue of impactful releases from the likes of Aitch, Fredo and Loski – and is testament to the key role Riki has played in shaping the current golden age of Black music in Britain. From his days working with legendary youth broadcaster Channel U, to his groundbreaking success as a manager and publisher of contemporary giants Labrinth and Naughty Boy, Emeli Sande & Sam Smith, Riki has been instrumental in delivering the iconic moments and musicians that continue to define British music. 

Rankin

Rankin is a British photographer, publisher and film director. With a portfolio ranging from portraiture to documentary, he has shot The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Kate Moss, Kendall Jenner and The Queen to name only a few.

Rankin co-founded the seminal magazine Dazed & Confused with Jefferson Hack in 1992, and has since published the likes of AnOther and AnOther Man, alongside over 40 books and the biannual fashion, culture and lifestyle print and digital platform, Hunger.

His photography has been published everywhere from his own publications to Elle, Vogue, Esquire, GQ, Rolling Stone, and Wonderland, and exhibited in galleries around the world, including MoMA, New York, and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

As a director, through the eponymous Rankin Film, he has created campaigns for the likes of Nike, L’Oreal, Dove, Pantene, Diageo, Women’s Aid, and Comic Relief alongside music videos for, amongst others, Miley Cyrus, Rita Ora and Kelis. Fearless behind the lens, Rankin’s visuals have become ingrained in contemporary iconography.

Rankin lives in London with his wife Tuuli and their dogs.

Magnus Djaba

Magnus has led the transformation of Saatchi & Saatchi London for the last 8 years, expanding the services offered, growing the agency by 50% and winning numerous awards. New clients included EE, HSBC, Direct Line, BT and Britvic.

Magnus was formerly the MD at the start-up Fallon London, an award winning agency delivering benchmark campaigns for the BBC, Cadbury, Skoda, Sony and FCUK.

In 2017 Magnus was appointed Global President of Saatchi & Saatchi, responsible for new business and brand positioning for the network. In addition he took on the role of UK CEO for the Publicis Groupe Agencies, responsible for 5 creative agencies.

Ruby-Jade Aryiku

Ruby-Jade Aryiku is the Co-founder and Head of PR of VAMP, the biggest black talent, and digital agency in the UK, recognised as the ‘go-to agency’ for films with a diverse cast.

Clients include Warner Bros, Disney, Universal Music, ISAWITFIRST and many more. 

VAMP has conducted publicity campaigns for Black Panther, Just Mercy, Queen & Slim, Noughts & Crosses, Judas and the Black Messiah and many more.

VAMP have developed a strong influencer network, filled with 70 of the biggest black influencers from across the UK.

When not working on VAMP, Ruby provides freelance PR and consultancy services to blackowned businesses on a pro bono basis.

Alessandra Almeida Jones

Alessandra is a seasoned marketing and communications professional, writer and researcher with a track-record in building brands for professional services firms. 

She is a BAME mentor and has led on race equality issues at a number of organisations and public forums. Currently Director of Marketing at Baker McKenzie and a Further Education Governor, Alessandra has held senior positions at Linklaters, KWM and ABN AMRO, among other high profile organisations. 

Natalia Cassel

Senior brand and marcoms specialist and publicist with over two decades' experience in building and communicating brands and profiles within the fashion, luxury goods, watches & jewellery, lifestyle and corporate sectors – and having held lead roles at Karla Otto, Belstaff, The Communications Store, Versace and Ferragamo. Has worked home and abroad, in-house and in agency equally until 2020 before going solo and establishing own consultancy.

Greig Stuart Balfour Scott

Serial Investor and Entrepreneur with a core focus on Creative Design, Print, Fine Art & Publishing.

Currently Founder and Co-Managing Director of The Logical Choice Group

A huge passion for ‘leaving your mark’ and ‘making a difference’.

Maxim

Maxim, also known as MM (Double M) is a contemporary British artist known for his outstanding paintings, sculptures, and ceramics. MM often uses a mixture of sinister and beautiful images, for example, his “Lepidopterror” collection mixed beautiful butterflies with skulls and deadly weapons. 

Maxim is a member of the hard-hitting British band The Prodigy, known for his fierce lyrics and vibrant sense of style, in both their videos and their explosive live shows. 

Maxim has been with the band since its inception in 1990 and has toured all seven of their studio albums extensively around the world, picking up numerous awards along the way including MTV and NME accolades for recognition of their unique style and innovative music, as well as their chart success with countless hits. 

Maxim has more recently become known for his creativity as an artist under the pseudonym of MM. Over several years he has displayed his mixed media artworks in various exhibitions across the world. His artistic images have also been used on fine bone china crockery embellished with 24ct gold.

Since 2012 MM has supported various charities and donated artwork to raise money for research into Breast Cancer, BT ArtBox for ChildLine, and Chain of Hope (cardiac care for children around the world), NHS, Shelter and Young Minds (a mental Health charity). 

www.Maximart.co.uk

Lee Pemberton

Lee Pemberton has been developing his entrepreneur skills, commercial experience and mindset for the past 30 years within the health, retail, hospitality and real estate industries. Lee's approach to being an entrepreneur is simple, keep 100% focused on your vision, plan each day, surround yourself with the best mentors and take care of your health and mind.

Lee is the CEO of Azure Asset Management, which is a hospitality real estate company specialising in providing profitable solutions for hotels, branded residences and serviced accommodation. 

Azure's value proposition for investors and operators is built on a proven formula for harnessing the lucrative returns of hospitality real estate.. We have a fantastic team of joint venture partners, investors and specialists who purchase traditional real estate and existing hotels, methodically repurpose the space and drive innovation through the latest smart technology. We, therefore, deliver our clients a far better ROI than traditional real estate

Lee is always keen to help young entrepreneurs with commercial advice and personal mentoring. 

Ed Loftus

Ed is a hospitality specialist with over 20 years of experience. He’s opened over a hundred restaurants around the globe and currently runs the Jamie Oliver restaurant group, which has restaurants in 22 countries. The world-renowned Jamie Oliver Group is a B-Corp with a progressive and award-winning approach to doing business with a social purpose. Ed was a crucial part of Jamie's Fifteen, a social enterprise taking young disadvantaged people and giving them training and qualifications within a professional kitchen and support to continue their careers. Fifteen had hundreds of graduates and a high success rate, many graduates are now shining stars within the food industry.

Gareth Thomas

Gareth leads Good Corporation’s work in anti-corruption, integrity compliance, ESG and data protection running projects in the pharmaceutical, media & publishing, IT, financial, FMCG and extractives sectors. Gareth began his career at Logica before joining KPMG in the strategy and economics consulting business. He has also worked as Director of Strategy for Global Trade and Banking Services for NatWest