Podcast

Sydney Elaine Butler is an HR/DEIA consultant, employment coach, and trainer. Sydney founded Accessible Creates in August of 2021 to help companies and individuals with disability inclusion at work. Sydney also assists organisations in making Human Resources more equitable for all including those with disabilities.

Sydney also offers personalised coaching sessions to neurodivergent and disabled individuals. If you need help you understand your goals, advocate for yourself, and secure the accommodations you need? Book a free consultation.

As founder and CEO of Koios, Tom leads the team and set the strategic direction of the business. His goal is for digital communication platforms worldwide to use the Koios models to create deeper, more meaningful relationships.

Minette helps leaders create an inclusive culture where everyone can fully participate and do their best work. She came to this work after spending 30 years in the software industry with 20 years in leadership positions. Minette realized managers and leaders at all levels need help—they want to do the right thing but aren’t sure how to do it. 

Sophie Morris, Team Operations Consultant & Business Psychologist, is helping businesses to build dream teams and boost profits through learning and development. Additionally, she founded STM Consultancy to enable more than the current 2% of females that hit 7+ figures in their business, to scale – all by optimising people operations. With over a decade in the corporate people space, Sophie’s work supports female entrepreneurs who often don’t have the budget or bandwidth to bring in an in-house people function, to still experience the game-changing impact it brings to enable them to grow their business.

Katya Veleva is an Inclusion Consultant, International Public Speaker and Coach, supporting organisations on strategic and practical levels in their inclusion efforts. They also work individually with business leaders who want to develop their inclusive leadership.

Ashanti is not only a visionary business leader but also a renowned expert in diversity and inclusion, currently leading the charge as the CEO of the Competence Centre for Workplace Equity (CCWE). Her journey in the DEI space spans over a decade, marked by an unwavering dedication to using competency based practices and initiating meaningful change across global workplaces. Her leadership at CCWE is characterised by innovative approaches using technology like AI and insightful perspectives, which have significantly contributed to enhancing inclusivity and profitability within numerous organisations.

Meet Disha Solanki, Co-Founder of The TrailblazeHers, an exclusive network for Female CEOs, Founders and Entrepreneurs. Passionate about helping established female business owners, Disha’s business ventures include her role as Chief Growth Strategy and Managing partner at Hill & Co., a leading global management consultant firm, co-director of a thriving health & wellbeing clinic and business mentor.

Shane Michael Hatton is a 2x Author and global expert on Leadership, Communication and Team Culture. Shane has spent the last decade developing remarkable leaders and teams, blending his experience in business and psychology to help them communicate, connect and collaborate more effectively. His perspectives and expertise have been shared in notable publications like the Harvard Business Review, Forbes, The Australian, HRD, CEO World, Smart Company, Kochies Business Builders, The Herald Sun, Foundr, Company Director, and more. Currently, Shane is elevating the conversation about culture across Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and the USA, upholding his reputation as a global thought leader in leadership and culture.

Kylie van Luyn is the Founder of Elevated Coaching & Consulting Global, where they adopt a psychological lens to their work in both coaching and consulting organisations. She is an international speaker, Psychotherapist, Emotional Intelligence Coach, NLP Master Practitioner, Human Rights consultant and DEIAB specialist.

Sara Kedge (she/her) works with corporate leaders to create inclusive, healthy and more productive workplaces that work for everyone. A renowned DEI Design Thinking Strategist, Coach and Trainer, Sara blends curiosity and playfulness with deep cross-functional knowledge. She prides herself on helping teams move out of stressful dysfunction to create human-focused workplace cultures where critical thinking – and people – are encouraged and valued.

• Play can have a profound impact on individuals and organizations in the workplace, leading to increased productivity, reduced stress, and improved creativity and collaboration.
• Laugh Think Play offers various programs and partnerships to help individuals and organizations incorporate play into their work culture.
• Team dynamics and individual strengths are crucial in creating a successful and playful work environment.
• Emphasizing play and embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion can lead to deeper connections, better understanding, and improved work culture.
• Giving oneself permission to play and engage in activities that bring joy can have a positive impact on overall well-being and work performance.

Eliana Bravos is a social impact entrepreneur passionate about neuroinclusion, accessibility, and creating a world where many worlds fit. She’s a co-founder of ND Connect, a intersectional mentorship and peer connections platform for neurodivergent people. Eliana also co-founded a non-profit, Viability, where she led organisational development, community programming, and neurodiversity education initiatives.

Jarell Bempong is a Neurodivergent Advocate, Pioneer in Cultural Conscious Therapy and the author of “White Talking Therapy Can’t Think in Black! – A Journey Through Systemic Biases to Mental Health Empowerment”.

He is the Founder and Lead Therapist at Bempong Talking Therapy, using a framework that integrates cultural consciousness into therapeutic practice. As a Corporate Trainer and Consultant, his focus is on integrating mental health, DEEI, and AI into corporate wellness, reshaping organisational behaviours towards total inclusion and fostering more inclusive, culturally conscious, and mentally healthy workplaces that embrace neurodiversity and diverse communities.

Sandra describes herself as social entrepreneur pur sang and queen of inclusion. In 2007, she made a career shift from banking to social entrepreneurship by starting Ctaste, a dining in the dark restaurant, where “only the true experts of the dark” (blind waiters) provide an unforgettable service. This marked the beginning of her inclusion adventure and learning. She has also established sign language coffee bars, where deaf baristas teach customers how to order in sign language. This experience opened her eyes to the talents and possibilities which she believes other companies can also benefit from, leading to the creation of Ctalents – a talent agency and secondment business that addresses the need for talent in an innovative way. She ensures compliance with regulations such as social return and Dutch participation law/quantum law. Collaborating with corporate and governmental partners, she takes a genuine step forward into inclusion. Her passion lies in changing the world into true inclusion through innovative and entrepreneurial means.

Diagnosed with CMT at four years old, Estela’s professional background in design, marketing, trend forecasting, and creative direction brings an unexpected approach to connecting the disability community to wellness, empowerment, and health. In 2018 she joined the Hereditary Neuropathy Foundation as their Program Development Manager. Estela has testified before the ⁠FDA⁠ on the patient experience and the importance of funding CMT studies and potential therapies. She’s a moderator for the CMT-Connect ⁠webinar series⁠ and co-hosts ⁠EmBrace It Podcast⁠ along with Lainie Isbia. They also provide inclusion workshops focusing on improving advocacy & DEI through communication tools. In 2019, Estela gave her first TEDx talk ⁠“RePurpose Your Pain”⁠ on turning adversity into life’s most beautiful work. She co-teaches inclusive and adaptive design at the Fashion Institute of Technology for their ⁠Design for Social Impact ⁠program. Estela is represented by ⁠Gamut Management,⁠ an all-inclusive talent agency.

Ed Thompson is the founder and CEO of Uptimize, the leading neuroinclusion training company, whose mission is to help organizations embrace and leverage every type of thinker. Born and raised in London and educated at the University of Oxford, Ed founded Uptimize in 2016, recognizing the urgent need for greater understanding and appreciation of neurodiversity within the working world. His role with Uptimize has afforded him unique insights and connections with pioneers in the neurodiversity at work field across the world, and he is now a frequent speaker on the topic. He and Uptimize have been featured by outlets including LinkedIn, the BBC, People Management magazine, ⁠HR.com⁠, and the Financial Times.

Nick Bruno is the VP of People & Culture at Aspiritech, a nonprofit dedicated to providing meaningful employment for adults on the autism spectrum. With a passion for neuroinclusion, Nick brings expertise in cultivating workplace cultures that embrace invisible diversity and redefining inclusive employment practices.

Founder of PeopleGaps and DEI expert, Cheryl Hurst, specialises in gender (in)equality and career development. She applies principles of behavioural science to topics such as making use of professional networks, achieving career goals, and creating inclusive cultures. She’s a Chartered Psychologist with a PhD in organisational behaviour.

Wanda is the founder and principal of Liberty Co–a consultancy focused on increasing the participation of the neurodiverse population in the workforce, with a special emphasis on autism due to Wanda’s own diagnosis at midlife. Her approach is centered on the IDEA (Inclusion-Diversity-Equity-Accessibility) framework and highlights inclusive leadership, entrepreneurial thinking and employee retention. A champion for inclusion, she enjoys speaking and writing under the banner of the Inclusion Revolution, a worldwide movement launched in 2018 to spearhead broader thinking about disability, especially disability employment.

Rebecca Friese is a ‘workplace crusader’, helping organisations transform into future-thinking cultures where their people can thrive. She’s an experienced consultant in the field of organizational transformation, change management and innovation.

Rebecca is the co-founder of FLYN and the author of The Good Culture: The Leader’s Guide to Creating a Workplace That Doesn’t Suck.

From being the little girl who sold shares in her ‘company’ and played HR (even firing her own mother!) to the traveling People Operations entrepreneur and international speaker that she is now, Katherine has had quite a journey! She has multiple physical and neuro diversities, ranging from MCAS and seizures to Bipolar and OCD, and says, “I am successful WITH my diagnosis, not in spite of them.” Wether it is revolutionising HR Tech, innovating DEI, Recruiting, and HR for clients, or being the Board President for the global nonlinear and neurodiversity group, The Octopus Movement, Katherine always brings everything back to her three missions: integrity, inclusion, and innovation.

For the last 15 years, Samantha Amit has been coaching managers in global companies to lead more effectively and thrive at work and in life. She coaches high achievers to build greater resilience, carve out time to think and be strategic. Her clients gain new perspectives that extend beyond themselves to those around them. Through the activation of mindfulness leadership tools, they are able to communicate more effectively with upper management and their teams. 

Samantha offers several modalities including one on one, online and team training.  Samantha co-authored with Professor Passmore, Mindfulness at Work, the practice and science of mindfulness for leaders, coaches and facilitators.  

Based between Amsterdam and Bristol, David O’Coimin is a product and experience designer and social-minded founder with a passion for people, places, and the planet. Operating under the mantra of ‘Design For The Extreme Benefits The Mean’, David helps organisations realise the full potential of their space and the people who use them, with a particular focus on flexibility and neuroinclusivity.