Priya Bates is an award-winning professional communicator with a passion for driving strong performance from the inside out. As President and owner of Inner Strength Communication, Priya builds strategic internal communication, engagement, branding and transformational change plans that enable, engage and empower employees to deliver business results. Her clients include organizations and leaders across technology, retail, financial, healthcare, mining and manufacturing sectors looking to build strategic internal communication expertise.

As co-founder for A Leader Like Me, Priya creates an empowered community for women of colour to help them build skills, define strategies, and find support to grow in their careers.

Simone Roche MBE has developed a specialist network of impactful women and men and curated a portfolio of campaigns, events and award winning podcasts which reach globally. Simone is proud of her Liverpool roots and lives by paying it forward. Simone is passionate about Liverpool and the North, paying it forward by championing talent and believes in the ‘art of the possible’. Simone was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2018 for services to gender equality and appointed Honorary Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Navy in June 2020. She has also been recognised on the Yahoo Finance Heroes List 2018, 19, 20 and awarded the IOD NW Chairs award for excellence in 2020. 

Simone has grown Northern Power Women and Northern Power Futures into a community in excess of 60,000 across all sectors, genders and socio-economic groups and in 2020 created the Power Platform to better connect people with opportunities. Founded on the principals of paying it forward, being generous and making a difference the platform helps individuals to expand their network meaningfully and signpost opportunities. A hub of trailblazers, go-getters and role models, the Power Platform will continue to innovate and adapt to ensure impactful positive change. 

Gemma is a proud working mum of 2 and the CEO of Culture Shift, a tech-for-good business which she co-founded in 2018. We exist to lead a positive change in organisational culture and our products empower organisations to tackle harassment and bullying. Early in 2020 Gemma successfully led a £1.3 million fundraise for Culture Shift, and since then has tripled the size of her team.

Ben Reynolds leads the specialist employee communication practice at Gallagher, with a 150-strong global team of communications consultants, creatives, data analysts and digital experts.

During a career spanning more than 20 years, Ben’s passion for using internal communication as a platform to transform organisational performance has enabled brands across multiple sectors to engage their employees across a broad agenda including financial wellbeing, employee value proposition and organisational strategy. Shaped by Ben’s leadership and direction, Gallagher is on a mission to change the way people feel about work by elevating all aspects of the employee experience.

Adena J. White, APR is an accredited public relations professional with more than a decade of experience leading communications efforts for nonprofits. She founded Blackbelt Media LLC in 2017 to help purpose-driven organizations advance progressive social change throughout the South through strategic communication and storytelling. Blackbelt Media produces the Blackbelt Voices podcast, which propagates the richness of Black Southern culture by telling stories from and about Black folks down South. Since it launched in September 2019, the podcast has been ranked among the Top 100 on Apple Podcasts and has been featured in O, The Oprah Magazine and Vanity Fair.

A lifelong Southerner, Adena was raised in the small town of Center Ridge, Arkansas, and attended Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in speech communication and journalism with an emphasis in public relations. She later completed a master’s degree in applied communication studies from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. In 2013, she achieved her Accreditation in Public Relations (APR) through the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). She served on the board of directors for the Arkansas Chapter of PRSA for nine years and was elected president of the 100-member chapter in 2019, making history as the first Black person to hold this office.

Dr. Madiha Jafri received a BSc in Computer Engineering, MSc in Electrical Engineering and a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Old Dominion University in 2003, 2004 and 2007, respectively. Fully funded by the NASA headquarters, her accelerated PhD studies became the first pioneering work that used artificial intelligence to predict electromagnetic interference patterns on commercial aircraft.  While pursuing her doctorate, Dr. Jafri also completed post doctoral research in Biomedical Engineering at the Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center in Hartford, CT in 2007.  There, she studied fMRI data and brain behavior and generated models for classification of Schizophrenia using artificial intelligence. 

Outside of work, Dr. Jafri is a proud mom of two children (9 and 11 yrs old) and a STEM advocate, volunteering, mentoring and giving motivational talks on overcoming adversity and embracing diversity in STEM careers.

Mark has held senior roles in PR at Disneyland Paris (as part of the launch team), David Lloyd Leisure, Dixons Retail and Dixons Carphone.

It was during his time at Dixons that he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. As his condition progressed, he moved to a part-time role and focused on social media.

He is now Head of Comms for charity and social network Shift.ms and blogs at onemanandhiscatheters.com In his spare time he plays Wheelchair Rugby, badly.

Shani Dhanda is a multi-award-winning disability specialist and social entrepreneur listed as one of the UK’s most influential disabled people and BBC’s 100 Women 2020 List.

As a keynote speaker and practitioner for inclusion across business, government, non-profit and wider society, Shani helps organisations break barriers and integrate inclusion into their business frameworks.

With her determination for creating everyday equality, Shani founded and leads three disruptive platforms all united by the common purpose of empowering underrepresented communities, Diversability, Asian Woman Festival, and Asian Disability Network

Jonathan is one of the world’s top digital usability & accessibility thought leaders. He has over 18 years’ experience in identifying new directions and challenges in digital accessibility, finding best practice process and technology solutions, authoring international standards and presenting best practices to conference audiences across the world.

He is passionate about digital accessibility and has just delivered the new International accessibility Standard ISO 30071-1, which is based on the British Accessibility Standards BS 8878 that he led in 2010. He leads Hassell Inclusion’s team of accessibility experts providing strategic accessibility transformation services to organisations worldwide.

Kamna is an internal communications consultant and coach. She combines her skills and passion in these two areas to offer customized services through her practice, CK Consulting and acts as a thought partner for companies or individuals who want to think differently in order to make transformative changes leading to progress and improvement.

As a part of her coaching practice, Kamna works with individuals going through health transitions (permanent or temporary) and guides them on making adjustments to their personal and professional life in order to accommodate their health. Using her own life experience and a coping model she has created, Kamna also facilitates 8-week transition groups – privately and for organizations – called MyLife, MyChoice.

Jade Pichette (they/them) is an inclusion, and diversity professional based in Tkaranto/Toronto. Currently Jade serves as the Manager of Programs at Pride at Work Canada where they work with over 150 large employers across Canada around sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression inclusion. Previously Jade served as the Volunteer and Community Outreach Coordinator at the ArQuives, the Education Programs Coordinator at Kind Space, and they continue to run an independent inclusion and diversity consulting business. They were one of the authors of the Transitioning Employers: A survey of policies and practices for trans inclusive workplaces. Jade is also a Ásatrú Gythia (priestess) of Vindisir Kindred. They have been involved in many interfaith, and anti-discrimination initiatives including being the first  trans-feminine person to present at the Parliament of World Religions in 2018.

A sociologist, Dr. Leeno Karumanchery is recognized as one of North America’s preeminent Diversity and Inclusion practitioners. Widely published in the field, Leeno is co-author of Removing the Margins (CSP, 2000), Playing the Race Card (Peter Lang, 2004), both critically acclaimed texts in the field of diversity & inclusion. As the Chief Diversity Officer of MESH Diversity, Leeno is focused on supporting organizations interested in bringing Emotional Intelligence and Diversity into the mainstream of their culture and approach. Leeno is sought out as much for his expertise as he is for his style as a communicator and his ability to enable people to reach their potential as effective leaders in their diversifying workplaces and communities.

Leeno combines his extensive experience in training, research and management strategy to help organizational leaders, staff and stakeholders work towards the development of meaningful, pragmatic and profitable D&I plans.