Stephen established Beyond Education in 2019 as an initiative to help his peers struggling to secure job opportunities after graduation. Today Beyond Education is a talent and employer branding agency with an online community of over 120,000 followers, helping underrepresented talent access career opportunities with inclusive employers. Beyond Education has helped employers save £131,000 in recruitment related cost to date, reached over 16 million candidates online through content and has worked with organisations across various industries: LinkedIn, HSBC, BBC, Octopus Energy, BNY Mellon, St James Wealth Management, IQ-EQ, Federated Hermes, Octopus Investments, Octopus Money, 10,000 Black Interns Foundation, Wasserman, Uswitch, JumpStart Careers, CISI, EY Foundation, Samsung. Stephen graduated with first-class honours in Banking and Finance from the University of Northampton. Despite attending a ‘non-target’ university, he has worked in competitive industries such as FinTech, Consulting, Private Equity, and Asset Management before progressing into the CEO position at Beyond Education full-time. He is a passionate advocate for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, spearheading Beyond Education’s growth efforts through marketing, sales, and strategy development.

Imani Artwell is an award-winning author, leader, visionary, and change-maker making waves in the fields of tech, access, and education. She leads with quiet confidence, transforms institutions, mentors FTSE CEOs, and is known for her servant-hearted leadership. A first-class graduate of the University of Cambridge, winner of The Sunday Times Rising Star Award (Women in Academia) (2018), and the Top 100 Powerful Media Future Leader Award (2017), Imani serves as a Senior User Experience Researcher at some of the UK’s best-loved brands. Over the last 6 years, she’s showcased a stellar track-record of seeding new propositions for those brands from discovery to delivery and sustained success, delighting businesses and their customers. Having led UX research as part of the team at Waitrose & Partners for 4 years, most recently seeding the Business’s flagship proposition of the year to success, Imani will now carry her notable insight, acumen, and expertise into the exciting world of FinTech and Banking, as she joins the team at J.P. Morgan Chase in November to lead research for the global finance firm’s newest ventures. With a spotless academic record, Imani is a passionate advocate of education and access. In 2020, she founded The ISLA Gift to tackle underrepresentation at Oxbridge and beyond. When only 15 Black men had been admitted to Cambridge out of 2,600 freshers in her year (2015), she created the Gift to support underrepresented students of Black heritage with a cash gift towards their study resources and/or a personal academic mentor, with the help of 50 friends who signed up to mentor and/or donate. The Gift is now entirely run by Churchill College, Cambridge University, and has offered nearly £10K in financial cash gifts, as well as personal mentorship support, to over 70 black students. The black student population at Churchill increased by 45% from 3.1% in 2020 to 4.5% by 2024, helped by the Gift towards a goal of 5% (representative of the national population aged 16-24). Imani transforms institutions and leads leaders with her quiet, unwavering, servant-hearted confidence. Whether she’s authoring books to empower others to excel, reverse-mentoring FTSE 100 CEOs such as Steve Rowe (M&S) directly leading to the creation of a Group Head of D&I role on the M&S C-Suite team, or leading a 50-strong team of mentors and donors for The ISLA Gift and partnering with leaders of renowned institutions like Cambridge University to bring about positive change for black students -- Imani is a trailblazer who embodies empathy, kindness, and a commitment to impact and excellence, without any need to be in the limelight.

BioCaleb Oniwinde is a Cloud and Cybersecurity Engineer, YouTube Creator and TEDx Speaker, dedicated to empowering the next generation of tech talent. He shares real, relatable insights from professionals across the tech industry.

Elijah is an entrepreneur and business leader best known as the driving force behind the Black Apprentice Network. Through BAN, Elijah is dedicated to empowering apprentices from underrepresented backgrounds, creating a platform that fosters connection, mentorship, and career progression across industries. With more than 6,000 community members and 25,000 followers on social media and partners such as BT, Freshfields, Deloitte and more, his leadership has positioned BAN as a key voice in advocating for diversity and inclusion within the UK apprenticeship landscape.

Arinze is an experienced software engineer, passionate about building impactful products and leveraging technology to solve complex problems. At Monzo Bank, his focus is on building the systems that shape the search and discovery experience powering everyday use of the app. He also has extensive experience in advertising from his time at Deliveroo, helping to build and scale the in-app advertising platform. He is committed to mentoring aspiring professionals, fostering community, and continually learning along the way.

Shore Delano is a British-Nigerian cultural advocate and founder of The Rendition. Her heart lies in community building, serving the collective and making theatre accessible to all, especially Black communities. In 2019, drawing on over a decade of experience in production and project management within corporate and agency environments-and combining this with her expertise in connecting audiences to theatre shows at scale -Shore launched The Rendition.

Leo Olebe is widely recognized as a leader in the global games industry and is a frequent speaker and thought leader on the future of games and technology. He has launched multiple billion-dollar annual-revenue businesses for major technology companies and has marketed and released more than 100 games generating over $1B in combined revenue. With more than 25 years of experience, he has held leadership roles at Microsoft, YouTube, Google, Meta, Disney, and Electronic Arts.

Leading an awesome team of people around the world helping developers and publishers to have more success and strategic partnerships with Xbox.

Dr Abigail Otchere holds a BSc in biomedical science (Roehampton university), a MSc in neuroscience (Kings college London) and obtained her PhD in biomedical science from Aston University(2021). Currently she works as a medical writer at Excerpta Medica, a global medical communications agency under the Adelphi group. Abigail is also the co-founder of SiSTEM, an initiative which aims to connect and support women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) particularly black women and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Prior to her PhD, she worked in the clinical trials sector, mainly working on flu, asthma and virology studies and HIV/AIDs trials. Together with her sister (co-founder of SiSTEM) she dedicates her time to improving the retention and the uptake of black women in STEM by inspiring early years to working professionals and changing the narrative on STEM.

Currently an Infra Transformation Specialist at Accenture, helping organizations streamline operations and accelerate digital transformation. Recognized for her contributions to diversity in tech, she has previously spoken at the Black Tech Fest and was a finalist for the Inspirational Woman of the Year Award.

Donna Otchere is a PhD researcher at Loughborough University and co-founder of SISTEM UK, a platform empowering women in STEM through creative events and community initiatives. Her research explores how relatable role models shape girls’ aspirations to pursue engineering, with a focus on mechanical engineering. Donna is also a speaker and non-executive board member, dedicated to making STEM more inclusive and inspiring for the next generation.

Hosanna Hali, Founder of The Tech Cornr, transitioned from business studies to the tech industry over five years ago after learning to code. Her dream role at Microsoft opened her eyes to the tech world’s potential—and its lack of diversity. Determined to change this, Hosanna launched The Tech Cornr in 2020, providing accessible career insights, learning resources, and advice on navigating the corporate world. Through her content, she’s helped multiple women kickstart their careers in tech. Her relatable approach quickly grew a community, leading to collaborations with top brands like Google, IBM, Logitech, Norton, Sony, and Amazon, as well as speaking opportunities at events such as Black Tech Fest, Oxford University, Warwick University, and Clifford Chance. A 2024 and 2025 Diversity Champion Finalist for the Black Tech Achievement Awards, Hosanna continues to support those entering tech through content, speaking partnerships, and events that connect and embolden her community.

Akama is General Manager, Client Services at The Trade Desk, the world’s largest independent media buying platform, where he leads the trading and account management teams across agency holding companies, independent agencies, and brand-direct clients. For over a decade, Akama Davies has been a driving force behind diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives across the workplace and broader community. He has led multiple global Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and Diversity Councils, building programs that drive lasting, meaningful change. As Co-Founder of We Are Stripes, Akama champions career progression for ethnically diverse talent, supporting thousands of professionals and reshaping DEI practices at major organisations including Google, Ofgem, and Disney. His commitment also extends to mentoring emerging leaders from underrepresented groups and contributing to thought leadership on the progression of ethnic minorities, including the book "Black and Great: The Essential Workplace Toolkit” and the National Portrait Gallery exhibit “Black Is the New Black.”

Sophia joined Sage in April 2020 as the Chief of Staff/Business Executive to the Chief Information Security Officer. Following this, Sophia transitioned to the role of Director of Cyber Security Awareness and Engagement, overseeing Sage's insider risk and security awareness and training programmes. After this, Sophia’s worked for the Sage’s Chief Technology Officer Aaron Harris and then moved into the Product Function Product Performance and Execution Director and since May, has led the Office of the Chief Product Officer for Walid Abu-Hadba, discharging the operational and strategic accountabilities for Walid as an Executive Leader at Sage, a FTSE100. Prior to her tenure at Sage, Sophia spent over a decade in central government in the House of Commons and the Cabinet Office across a range of teams in security, parliamentary policy and transformation. A long-term advocate of diversity, equity and inclusion, Sophia has created and run networks, events and initiatives aimed at supporting women and underrepresented groups into careers in security and technology across both the public and private sectors.

Starting as a software engineer, I have been building software across a number of industries over the last 15 years. I am part of the Telematics team at Samsara, building our connected operations platform. Prior to this, I was at AWS, where I was part of the MSK team.

Arsema is an experienced technical recruiter and the founder of her own independent python-specialist recruitment agency, hire|py. As an avid champion for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion across the tech industry, this passion then extended into the recruitment industry and so launched the Black Recruiters Network.The Black Recruiters Network was launched with the mission of championing black excellence within Recruitment & Talent Acquisition. At our core, we support our community members by providing a safe space aswell as championing careers within recruitment. We partner with recruitment agencies and internal talent teams to support with hiring efforts, reviewing hiring processes and ensuring that talent teams are inclusive. We also partner with underrepresented communities and host numerous career-related workshops to ensure that we are sharing our expertise to help black talent navigate hiring processes and excel in their careers.

Senior Technical Recruiter at DigitalOcean, specialising in hiring leadership and senior AI, software, infrastructure, and cloud engineering talent.

Payal Jain is the Global Head of Application Engineering & Platforms for Citi, she also runs the GenAI engineering team that builds the core AI machinery and platforms for the bank. Prior to joining Citi, Payal has been a hands-on engineering leader building planet scale software at Google and Salesforce - she has a passion for building innovative software. Her current focus includes engineering the core GenAI building blocks that will enable Citi to make the most of generative AI. She is also a Citi Tech Fellow.

Mark is an accomplished and people-focussed recruiter working with the Talent Acquisition team in Citi, with over 10 years of experience in recruitment, people management, and leadership. He currently supports the technology and operations recruitment strategy and execution across the UK and Europe. With a passion for the arts, Mark has held NED board positions for local and grassroots opera companies, advising on technology adoption, people management, and outreach.

Charmaine Hayden is a bold cultural commentator known for teaching business strategy through the lens of popular culture. With sharp wit and a fresh perspective, she breaks down economics, entrepreneurship and current affairs in ways that feel relatable, thought-provoking and impossible to scroll past. Her content sparks the kind of conversations you didn’t know you craved; bridging finance and culture with clarity and confidence. Alongside her standout social presence, Charmaine is an angel investor with two exits, a former VC fund manager, a published author (Empowering Nigeria series), and a presenter across media and live events. She’s also a founding member of the UK-Ghana Investor Group, with accolades from Forbes, Financial Times and 40 Under 40 Africa recognising her influence across tech, policy and business. Whether she’s breaking down a viral headline or presenting on stage, Charmaine brings a fearless voice to the table; making complex ideas feel powerful, relevant and actionable.

I am a Lead Business Analyst with over 18 years of experience, qualified life coach and Master Practitioner of NLP. This winning combination allows me to build rapport with individuals at all levels, taking the time to find out what makes them tick, which achieves great results. I am an excellent team manager, coaching and developing people to be the best version of themselves. Outside of business analysis, I run workshops for women on empowerment, getting them out of their own way and showing how to be a trailblazer for themselves, their children and their peers.

Rumbi Mtsambiwa is a global post-sales leader driving SaaS growth and enterprise transformation across various global regions including EMEA. With 10+ years of experience leading customer success and retention strategies, she specialises in turning complex challenges into scalable results. At OpenText, she leads global post-sales strategy for cloud cybersecurity solutions, managing a multi-million-dollar enterprise portfolio and shaping how value is delivered across the customer lifecycle. Her leadership is anchored in a personal growth philosophy—rooted in competence, passion, determination, and empathy—values she weaves into hiring, coaching, and team-building. She also serves on the Advisory Board of Daya Ventures East Africa and mentors future leaders through the Black Economists Network. Known for turning strategy into impact, Rumbi creates environments where people thrive and businesses unlock the full value of both their customers and their teams.

Nicole Ayesu Nelson is a consultant, Tech leader and Chair of Growing Hope Brockley. As the founder of Ayesu Consulting, she helps organisations foster inclusive, high-performing teams. A passionate speaker and facilitator, Nicole equips diverse talent with the skills to thrive, transforming leadership across finance, tech, and social impact.

An ambitious, conscientious, innovative, and entrepreneurial individual who is passionate about making a positive impact on the world through bringing people together.

Throughout her career, Catherine has achieved a lot from running two businesses (GLOW and Social) to making the career change into community management using her automation and communications expertise.

In her four years of automation and communications experience, she has achieved impressive statistics and achievements for the communities she's grown, including:

🌟 Automated seven businesses from enquiry to nurture and renewal - in fact one of them saw 9.37% of lost clients convert later on;

🌟 Trained and supported her teams to automate aspects of their roles to save them time;

🌟 Increased open rates and click rates of communities like Circl's where Catherine increased the open rate from 53.21% in Mar 22 to 71.87% in Sep 22 and Colorintech's where the average open rate is 75% and the click rate is 7.1%;

🌟 Has been awarded for managing one of the most engaged groups on LinkedIn and has maintained an 'Active Group' badge for the Colorintech community group.

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If you're interested in hearing more about her community building and communications expertise, then do drop a connection request! In addition, she has six years of speaking experience, including but not limited to:

🌟 Running workshops and training sessions on a variety of topics; 🌟 Hosting in-person and virtual events for audiences for small and large scale audiences;  🌟 Participated on multiple panels surrounding Diversity, Equity and Inclusion;

🌟 MC'd panel discussions both in-person and virtually;

🌟 Co-Hosted a Podcast and Social Media series on Business and the Impact of COVID on Students.

Lee Rudolph is the VP of Platform Engineering, Quality & Productivity Engineering at Uber Technologies, overseeing global teams that deliver systems and processes to improve the reliability of Uber's offerings and enhance the productivity across Uber. He brings deep technical expertise and leadership in scaling complex technology platforms.

David is a technology leader, strategist and architect with over 35 years experience across a range of industries, including banking, insurance, transportation, utilities and media. Prior to joining the Central Digital and Data Office and then the Government Digital Service, David’s most recent roles have been as an Expert Partner at Boston Consulting Group, focusing on Cloud, DevOps and Digital Transformation, as a Digital Transformation Officer at Google, and as Chief Architect at HSBC. (And, a very long time ago, his first technology job was as a COBOL programmer in HM Customs & Excise!) David has designed, constructed and led many large transformation initiatives throughout his career, including the strategy and design for Lloyds Banking Group’s integration of Halifax Bank of Scotland and divestment of TSB, and for HSBC’s strategic move as the first major global financial institution to adopt public Cloud at scale. David believes passionately in the power of new technologies and new ways of working to liberate organisations from the constraints of their legacy technologies, and specialises in building teams, defining strategies and changing culture to achieve this goal. David holds a PhD in Philosophy, specialising in Ethics. In recent years, he has applied this expertise in the fields of AI and data ethics, helping HSBC define its first set of ethical principles for the use of AI and data, and working as part of the Responsible AI teams at HSBC, Google and BCG. Outside work, David kayaks regularly on the sea where he lives, attempts to keep on top of the latest developments in the field of technology ethics, and writes regularly on topics of technology, leadership and innovation in his weekly newsletter.

Colin Bannon is BT Business’ chief technology officer (CTO), charged with delivering its product technology strategy and designing solutions enabling strategic outcomes for more than one million businesses in the UK and 1,000 multinational enterprises in over 180 countries globally. BT’s customers include world-leading brands, government and financial services organisations, as well as domestic UK small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) and public sector organisations, including defence and health. BT also provides wholesale products and services to other telecommunication companies in the UK and internationally. Colin is the architect of some of the largest customer network transformations in the world, including BT’s own enterprise network. In addition, he’s BT Business’ technology lead for partners including hyperscalers, networking equipment vendors and carrier neutral facility (CNF) providers. His latest project, Global Fabric, is BT’s new, transformative network-as-a-service (NaaS) platform. This is a full re-platforming and digitisation of BT’s entire global network footprint, services and partner integrations for business customers. The industry-disrupting concept was incubated in the CTO team under Colin and is one of the biggest programmes BT has pursued. Global Fabric, a fully digitalised, automated, API-first platform, will offer customers near-instant control to set up, change and scale connectivity services, including Internet, MPLS, Ethernet, Cloud interconnectivity, DC Interconnect, mobile Interconnect, data sovereignty, DDoS, edge compute that supports service insertion such as SD-WAN and SASE, SSE, SIP, load balancing, and firewalls. Colin is active across the telecommunications industry and academia, holding a seat on the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) and lecturing at Warwick University. In addition to his 20 years at BT Group, including roles such as chief architect, Colin has held engineering leadership and consulting engineer positions at IBM, Lucent INS and Unisys.

Insightful, passionate and engaging business leader with talent for delivering technology innovations to accelerate business growth. As a dynamic team player skilled at collaborating across business functions, I thrive in working with others to drive shared accountability for results and improve outcomes. As a leader, I excel at growing diverse teams and their capabilities through coaching and empathy. As a diverse leader who has a passion for customer success, I’m constantly looking for new ways to drive progression and growth.

Michaela is a leader who leads with empathy and a dash of spice! She has had a 20 year career as a tech-adjacent who's passions lie at the intersection of technology, culture and process. The last three years of her career have spent at Microsoft as a Customer Success Account Director for strategic enterprise customers.

Sherry Dzinoreva is the Director of Public Policy – Programs and Product for Africa, Middle East, and Türkiye (AMET) at Meta. In this role, she leads teams driving regional programs, community partnerships, and product strategy for Meta's Family of Apps and AI. During her tenure at Meta, Sherry has been instrumental in launching transformative initiatives such as NG_Hub, an innovation and skills development center in Lagos; MyDigital World, a digital literacy program empowering youth, educators, and parents; and a suite of grants, mentorship, and training programs that support creators and developers throughout the AMET region. Her leadership is defined by a commitment to building inclusive digital ecosystems and fostering local talent. Beyond her work at Meta, Sherry serves on the Board of Advisors for the Roundhouse, where she helps shape the organization’s youth-focused initiatives and digital presence. Previously, as Program Director at Digify Africa, she led efforts to train over 70,000 young people in digital skills across Sub-Saharan Africa. She is also the co-founder of Social Media Week Johannesburg, a pioneering city-wide conference that democratized access to digital innovation through free workshops and events. Before entering the world of tech, Sherry spent over a decade in communications and marketing for organizations such as Complex Media, TRACE magazine, and Black Girls Rock! With over 20 years of experience across media and technology, Sherry is deeply committed to harnessing the power of innovation, creativity, and storytelling to bridge cultural and opportunity gaps. Her work is driven by a passion for empowering the next generation of leaders, fostering inclusive growth, and building community.

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Nakita Austin is the global lead for Bloomberg Data's Communications, Events and Media Production. Based out of London, she began her career at Bloomberg at the start of 2022. Prior to joining Bloomberg, Nakita has spent most of her career in the Ad-tech industry working for a variety of companies from seed to post-sale and IPO stages. Her roles have ranged from Sales, Customer Success, to Learning and Development. She is a proud co-lead of the Black in Data community at Bloomberg.

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Somto Lily Nwobodo is a Data Management Professional at Bloomberg, where she works on the Company Financials Metadata Management and Analysis team to drive data quality and ensure information is fit for purpose for end users. With experience building user-focused, AI-driven solutions, she brings a blend of technical expertise and a passion for reliable, impactful data.

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Samuel is Data Engineering and Analytics Lead, leading a global team that develops analytics solutions and insights to support strategic decision-making. Over a decade of experience, he has focused on strengthening data foundations, improving analytics capabilities, and enabling data-driven decisions across organizations.

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Femi Poopola is a engineering manager with over 20 years of experience as software engineer. He has ...

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Ope Fajemirokun is a software engineering team lead at Bloomberg . She started her career at Bloomberg in 2018 after graduating from University College London with Masters in Computer Science.

Charlotte Stavrou is a multi-award-winning entrepreneur and the founder of SevenSix Agency. Charlotte Stavrou (née Williams) is the Founder & CEO of Award-winning influencer marketing and talent management agency SevenSix Agency. She has become the go-to person for brands looking for advice on how to make their marketing strategies more inclusive. Charlotte regularly speaks for and works with platforms such as Meta and YouTube, and participates in roundtables and panels with industry bodies such as ISBA and Advertising Association. For the past five years, Charlotte has been helping creators understand their value. Together with her team, Charlotte has created the first-of-their-kind influencer pricing reports that have highlighted the Influencer Pay Gap. Their yearly pricing reports have helped set an industry pricing standard. Charlotte Stavrou is a respected and influential leader in the marketing industry who is dedicated to promoting diversity and inclusion.

I specialise in end-to-end account management, producing creative campaigns for some of the world's largest brands. Maintaining relationships with stakeholders, strategy and creative, content management, social media analysis, and reporting. I have amassed a growing portfolio of viral social media campaigns that have reached people worldwide.

Today’s a full circle moment. I’m back in social media agency land, but this time, it’s mine! I’m building a social-first social media marketing agency from scratch. I hired a team. I did the thing, bricking it, but moving forward anyway.So how did I get here? I cheated! (kinda)I went from 9-5 marketer in agency to full-time monetised content creator in just 6 months. By using everything I’ve learnt, and now I’m sharing it all here with you!Here’s the journey so far:2025 → Launched Social People Agency, built from 20 years of marketing obsession and creator growth experience.2024 → Built The Creator Project, a membership app and events for people building online.2021 → Quit my job after 8 years in agency life. Started YouTube. It changed everything.2015 → First marketing role. Loved it, but knew it could be done differently.2009 → Studied marketing. No backup plan, just cereal brand pitch decks and big dreams.2005 → Age 12, watching TV ads while everyone else watched MTV. Didn’t want to be famous, wanted to sell things.This moment feels like day one all over again.(but with a lot more receipts!)If you follow me, you’ll learn how to:Turn content into cash (without the guesswork)Grow your audience into a loyal communityCreator economy juicy insightsBuild systems that make social media work for you (not the other way around)And of course, I’ll be spilling all the BTS agency tea!This is just the start of my LinkedIn journey. If you got this far, welcome!For more free social media education, find me on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. Subscribe to my newsletter.

Yassmin Abdel-Magied is a Sudanese born writer, broadcaster and award-winning social advocate. A former mechanical engineer, Yassmin has published five books, and her literary novel AT SEA is forthcoming with Canongate in 2026. She is also a core writer on British Continuing Drama, Emmerdale. An award-winning speaker and seasoned broadcaster, Yassmin has delivered workshops and keynotes in 25 countries. Her internationally acclaimed TED talk, “What Does My Headscarf Mean to You” was chosen as one of TED’s top 10 ideas. In all her work, Yassmin advocates for transformative justice and a fairer, safer world for all.

Hanna Naima Mccloskey (she/her) is Algerian British and the Founder & CEO of Fearless Futures. Before founding Fearless Futures she worked for the UN, NGOs and the Royal Bank of Scotland, across communications, research and finance roles; and has lived, studied and worked in Palestine, Italy, USA, Sudan, Syria and the UK. She has a BA in English from the University of Cambridge and an MA in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, with a specialism in Conflict Management. Hanna has worked with leaders in the largest tech companies in the world building their capacity and advising them on how to embed equity into their policies, processes and products. She brings systems thinking, anti-oppression praxis, socio-political analysis and change management expertise to complex problems; among them, responsible AI. Hanna is the Co-Author of Fearless Futures' White Paper - DEI Disrupted: The Blueprint for DEI Worth Doing and a qualified body/breastfeeding peer supporter with the ABM.

Ebele Okobi is the principal of Revolutionary Projects, through which she advises and creates beloved community for radical imagination. She is an advisor, board member, maker of good trouble and see-er around corners, with 25 years of experience leading, advising and building global teams and tech and consumer brands, as well supporting creators and arts institutions. She loves building, advising and launching organizations and projects that push the arc of the moral universe towards joy and justice; dismantling systems of harm and convening and connecting people who are dreaming better worlds. Her current experience, through Revolutionary Projects, includes being Advisor to the CEO at Dr. Martens, Advisor to Goodifferent, (a beauty and well-being start-up), Chair of the Development Board of the Museum of West African Art in Benin City Nigeria and Advisor to a stealth start-up cultural institution. Previously, she was Chief of Staff to the CEO at Dr. Martens, Senior Policy Advisor at OpenAI, the CEO of the non-profit news agency The New Humanitarian, a Venture Partner for Impact and Equity at Ada Ventures, built and led the Africa, Middle East & Turkey public policy teams at Facebook/Meta, built and led the Business and Human Rights Program at Yahoo, worked in the brand/Africa strategy/digital brand businesses at Nike, was a director of advisory services at Catalyst and a policy advisor at Consumers Union, and a corporate lawyer at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York, London and Paris. She has extensive experience in board governance and raising capital for creative projects and art institutions. She is on the Frieze Connect Committee, is a Trustee of the American Friends of the Whitechapel Gallery, and previously chaired the development board of the Young Vic theatre as well as the patrons board of the British Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale for John Akomfrah. She attended the University of Southern California, Columbia University Law School and HEC-Paris. She is married to Richard Harris III, a documentary film director; she is the mother of dragons.

Amber Shand is an award winning Software Engineer at Skyscanner, keynote speaker, DEI consultant, and creator of the Own Your Wins newsletter with 1,800+ subscribers. Coming from an Economics background, she learned how to code over the pandemic and has since made it her mission to empower women in tech to take up space in the industry.

Khalifa is a Senior Software Engineer at Apolitical with experience building AI-powered solutions, including creating an AI course assistant and implementing semantic search systems. Throughout his career, he has led major technical migrations and infrastructure overhauls. With his practical experience in both traditional software development and cutting-edge AI integration, Khalifa brings valuable insights into how development practices are evolving in the age of AI-assisted coding.

Senior Software Engineer with a Cybersecurity background, building secure, scalable, and user-focused web applications with React, TypeScript, JavaScript, and Java.

Dave Lynam has a background spanning 20 years in event ticketing and has been responsible for delivering digital products to the industry since 2010. In that time, Dave has managed products used during major sports tournaments such as the Olympic & Paralympic Games, UEFA European Championships and Commonwealth Games. Currently, Dave is the founder of Kaizen, a company that provides product and operational advice to organisations in the sports and entertainment sector. They also supply ticketing software. He is a former GA student, taking both Front End Web Development and User Experience Design part time courses. Having enjoyed the GA experience so much, he joined the instructional team on the Product Management course in 2015. In recognition of his exemplary service in the classroom, Dave has been selected as a member of General Assembly's Distinguished Faculty program.

Rodney Appiah is the Founder and Managing Partner of Cornerstone VC, a black led, $25m early stage fund focused on a ‘people first’ investment approach. Investing at pre-seed and seed, Cornerstone VC is focused on outlier UK tech companies led by diverse teams that seek to change the way we Live ("People + Planet"), Work ("Future of Work") and Play ("New Consumer"). Prior to founding Cornerstone VC, Rodney held roles at BGF, Foresight Group and Merrill Lynch and has more than 15 years of financial services, TMT and Consumer experience across UK and Europe. An experienced board director, Rodney serves as an NED for the UK Business Angels Association (UKBAA), the largest UK trade body for angel and early stage investing and is a committee member of Innovate UK (Innovation Loans).

Jefferson Osei, also known as Papa Ghana, is originally from Ghana and is now based in the Netherlands. As a co-founder of the Dutch fashion brand Daily Paper, Jefferson Osei has contributed to crafting a brand that merges contemporary streetwear aesthetics with African heritage, achieving global success and creating a dedicated community around the brand. With roots deeply embedded in Ghanaian culture, he has become a prominent name in both the creative and entrepreneurial world. Through projects where he functions as an art director, creative consultant, or sound director, Jefferson inspires and organically attracts a tribe of multidisciplinary creatives and cultivates and shares his talent and knowledge with various fields.

Dave Lynam has a background spanning 20 years in event ticketing and has been responsible for delivering digital products to the industry since 2010. In that time, Dave has managed products used during major sports tournaments such as the Olympic & Paralympic Games, UEFA European Championships and Commonwealth Games. Currently, Dave is the founder of Kaizen, a company that provides product and operational advice to organisations in the sports and entertainment sector. They also supply ticketing software. He is a former GA student, taking both Front End Web Development and User Experience Design part time courses. Having enjoyed the GA experience so much, he joined the instructional team on the Product Management course in 2015. In recognition of his exemplary service in the classroom, Dave has been selected as a member of General Assembly's Distinguished Faculty program.

Izzy Obeng MBE is a British entrepreneur, leadership coach, and influential voice on inclusive innovation. She is the Founder and CEO of Foundervine, recognised by the Financial Times as one of Europe’s leading startup accelerators for underrepresented founders. Izzy advises Lloyds Banking Group and serves on the Investment Committee of the Growth Impact Fund, a £10m vehicle backing mission-driven ventures. She is a Trustee of Mission 44, the charity founded by Sir Lewis Hamilton, and an active angel investor—investing on behalf of Ada Ventures and Zeal Capital Partners to champion diverse founders across the UK, US, and Africa. Her work has been featured in The Times, BBC, The Guardian, and The Telegraph. She was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 for Social Impact (2022), awarded the Freedom of the City of London (2024), and received an MBE in 2025 for her services to digital growth and inclusive entrepreneurship.

Abi Mohamed leads Community at Diversity VC, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to setting a global benchmark for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in the venture capital industry. With over seven years of experience in startups and venture capital, Abi has supported scaling founders, worked in investing, and led initiatives aimed at building a fairer and more inclusive world.

Gilles is a Director in Technology, Data & Analytics Business Unit at PwC and has over sixteen years’ experience of delivering complex Technology-led business transformation programmes for Blue Chip organisations.He specialises in understanding business application of technologies and focuses on helping clients transform and change their organisation in an innovative way.Gilles has a track record of delivery in a wide range of disciplines and sectors, his experience spans the entire lifecycle of the business transformation; from the definition of digital transformation roadmap to the realisation of benefits.Gilles has played an active role at PwC to promote equality at work, including seating at the Inclusion & Diversity council.

In 2022 DJ AG walked away from his 9 to 5 to follow a deeper purpose—using music and real conversations to connect with people. Starting with livestreams from home he quickly took his decks to the streets sharing joy face to face with the public. Known for his ability to engage with anyone regardless of background DJ AG blends music with genuine dialogue. Whether speaking to someone facing homelessness or addiction or giving out food and support on camera his approach is rooted in empathy and connection. A standout moment came when Daddy Freddy once the world’s fastest rapper appeared in one of DJ AG’s videos. It went viral with over 3 million views introducing a legend to a new audience and showing DJ AG’s power to bring people together through music and conversation. His platform has grown fast. DJ AG now has over 1.4 million followers on TikTok with more than 100,000 people regularly tuning into his livestreams. His Instagram has reached 585,000 followers and continues to grow. He’s caught the attention of global names including Will Smith Ed Sheeran JME Skepta and even Naomi Campbell. For DJ AG it’s never been about fame. It’s about connection visibility and impact.