Here Are Our Day 2 – Keynote Speakers

Hannah Awonuga

Founder & CEO, The Inclusive Foundations Programme | 2025 Top
10 Inclusion Expert | Cultural Transformation & Inclusion Consultant

Hannah Awonuga is the Founder & CEO of The Inclusive Foundations Programme. A pioneering culture consultancy helping high-growth companies fix the cultures their people are surviving in.

After two decades leading cultural transformation across global banking and real estate, Hannah saw first-hand how exclusion silently drains innovation, retention, and revenue.

Today, she’s redefining inclusion as a strategic growth driver turning people challenges into commercial advantage, one foundation at a time.

Hannah Awonuga is an award-winning cultural inclusion leader, named in the 2025 Top 20 DEI Expert in the UK, with over 20 years of corporate experience.

With senior roles held at Knight Frank as Group Head of DEI, NED for Progress Together, a member of the Grants and Impact committee on the board of Land Aid and as Global DEI Director at Barclays, where she held a 17-year-long career, Hannah brings deep expertise in aligning culture and inclusion with leadership and business strategy at scale.

Known for her strategic influence and ability to shift thinking at the top, Hannah has built an extensive global network of over 80,000 professionals on LinkedIn and is frequently called upon to advise leaders navigating complex cultural challenges and leadership development strategies.

A passionate advocate for socioeconomic inclusion, organisational culture and engagement, she draws on her experience to challenge systems and unlock new possibilities for equity and representation.

Hannah has been recognised as one of HR Magazine’s Top 25 Most Influential DEI Practitioners.

With a reputation for authenticity, strategic clarity, and creating safe yet stretching spaces for executive dialogue, Hannah is a sought-after keynote speaker, facilitator, and trusted voice in the future of inclusive leadership

Aggie Yemurai Mutuma, FCIPD

CEO and Founder of Mahogany Inclusion Partners

Aggie Yemurai Mutuma, FCIPD, CEO and Founder of Mahogany Inclusion Partners, is a multi-award-winning Inclusion and Anti-Racism expert, Executive Coach, and globally recognised thought leader.

With over 25 years of progressive leadership spanning FTSE 100, public sector, humanitarian, and growth organisations, Aggie combines governance expertise, executive coaching, and people strategy mastery to architect inclusive, high-performing cultures aligned with organisational mission and values.

Ranked in the top 20 of HR’s Most Influential Thinkers List UK (2022, 2024, 2025) and recognised through multiple industry accolades, including Global 100 Women in Leadership Winner (2024) and Top 100 African Business Leaders in the UK (2023 and 2025), Aggie is trusted by boards and C-suites to provide candid, compassionate challenge on strategic people matters, compliance, succession planning, and cultural transformation.

As Advisory Board Member for The Women’s Institute (UK’s largest women’s organisation with 190,000 members) and a trusted advisor to the CIPD, CBI, and government bodies, Aggie demonstrates sustained commitment to systemic change.

Her unique ability to create judgment-free spaces empowers leaders to align their actions with core values, delivering measurable commercial and cultural outcomes—reducing attrition, enhancing engagement, and building diverse leadership pipelines.

Through executive coaching, strategic consulting, board advisory work, and thought leadership, Aggie continues to catalyse meaningful transformation where authenticity, accountability, and belonging drive sustainable, high-performing cultures.

Fiona Daniel

Founder Archangelica

Fiona Daniel is a leadership, systems, and performance strategist and founder of Archangelica, a practice that helps organisations align the human and systems sides of work to create sustainable business results.

With a background spanning leadership, organisational culture and inclusion within global financial services, Fiona is known for translating complex challenges into clear, practical action.

Her work focuses on the conditions that shape experience and outcomes, from recruitment, progression, and leadership behaviour to trust, belonging, decision-making, customer experience, and performance.

A dynamic and thought-provoking speaker, Fiona brings lived experience, strategic insight and real-world practicality to conversations on modern leadership, inclusion, organisational effectiveness and culture change.

She is particularly recognised for helping leaders move beyond good intentions to create sustainable outcomes through better design, better decisions and better everyday leadership.

She also serves in Non-Executive and Trustee roles, bringing current board-level insight into governance, leadership and organisational decision-making.

Today, Fiona works with private, public and third-sector organisations on leadership effectiveness, inclusion, culture and organisational systems, helping leaders move beyond activity to create meaningful outcomes that people experience and that organisations can sustain.

Lou Chiu

People and Development Consultant, Atkinson HR

Lou is a People and Development Consultant with over seven years of experience in coaching and consultancy and specialises in anti-oppressive and trauma-informed practices at Atkinson HR and in her own practice.

Before that, she predominantly worked in the education and charity sectors, including serving as a Chair of the Board for an education-based membership charity.

Lou holds a Masters in Coaching and Mentoring Practices, which she uses to support those from historically marginalised communities and their allies.

Her expertise lies in fostering safer, purpose-driven environments by equipping individuals and teams with the awareness and skills to have meaningful conversations about identity, relationships, and inclusion.

Her pragmatic yet compassionate approach encourages organisations to build healthier, kinder workplaces that celebrate diversity and promote equality and equity.

Through lived experiences and academic curiosity, Lou has delivered keynotes, facilitated training and published articles on facilitating safer, inclusive spaces for open, honest conversations with people from marginalised communities.

Her coaching practice is built on curiosity, compassion and courage and aims to enable people to unpick some of the complexity in their lives, enabling them to find more joy and purpose.

Playfulness is important part of Lou’s practice and personal life – finding moments of reprieve in those harder times. As such, she is also an unapologetic geek, generalist gamer and collector of hobbies.

Dr Jadvinder Sidhu

Distinguished Enterprise Architect, Senior Director, Oracle Consulting

Having worked for Oracle for the last 30 years Jadvinder has worked closely with Customers deploying Oracle technology to achieve successful business outcomes.

Jadvinder’s emphasis is on using technology as an enabler to improve the wider business, more recently with the use of AI.

During his career in Oracle he has worked on large complex applications and technology implementations. He currently works as lead Enterprise Architect for UK Consulting on complex cloud implementations, presently with Met Police and the UK Government, and more recently with Very Group, Petrofac, Tesco, HSBC and RBS.

Spending the vast majority of his 30 years in Oracle working on Customer site has given great insight into how Customers perceive technology and how to get the best from it.

Working with Customers to drive them to success is the most rewarding and challenging part of his role.

Inside Oracle he was a founder member and now advisor to the Cultural Harmony Network ERG.

Jadvinder holds a Ph.D. in AI.

Rebecca Jeffs

Chief People Officer, UK&I People and Culture

Rebecca is a global People and Culture Leader with over 25 years’ experience across three continents and multiple industries. Starting her career as a Primary School teacher in Australia, she then moved to the Middle East working in HR for 13 years and has worked in the UK since 2020 in a global role, and now CPO of ISS UK and Ireland. 

Rebecca has proven experience driving culture shift, organisational development and enhancing employee experience to deliver business results. In partnership with and executive teams she has defined and delivered P&C Strategy, led large teams, and facilitated transformational change. Through coaching, mentoring, and facilitation her approach is highly collaborative and focuses on supporting individuals, teams, leaders and organisations identify the greatness within.

Rebecca is the proud mother of three teenage girls, grateful wife to an entrepreneurial executive coach husband, and keen netballer and nature walker.

Maje Ayida

Wellness Coach and CEO of Eden Lifestyle

Maje Ayida is a pioneering Nigerian Wellness Coach and the CEO of Eden Lifestyle, an award-winning health and fitness brand. Known for its innovative Corporate Wellness programs, Eden Lifestyle serves various industries across Nigeria.

Maje’s dedication to promoting healthy living extends through his columns in national newspapers, frequent TV and radio appearances, and his influential role as an international speaker.

He hosts the popular lifestyle radio show, The Eden Corner, and is the force behind the annual School Fitness Roadshow, which has made a significant impact on youth wellness education. In recognition of his contributions, Maje was honored by The Guardian as one of the “60 People Making Nigerian Lives Matter” in 2020, and in 2023, he was named among The MIPAD 100 influential Africans globally.

His leadership in wellness was further acknowledged in 2024 when he was appointed the official Wellness Partner for the Lagos State Sports Commission’s Keep Fit Lagos campaign and named the Most Influential Human Resources Practitioner at HRExpo Africa.

Maje has worked with prestigious organizations such as WHO, Unilever, British Airways, and many others to enhance their wellness initiatives.

His journey is marked by a deep commitment to fostering healthy living and creating positive, sustainable change in communities.

Emily Lofting-Kisakye

Global Chief People Officer, formerly at Cognita and the Urban Outfitters Group

Emily Lofting-Kisakye is a board-level Chief People Officer with more than 20 years’ experience leading people, culture and organisational transformation across global education, retail and consumer businesses.

Most recently, Emily served as Global Chief People Officer at Cognita, one of the world’s leading school’s groups, operating more than 100 schools across 21 countries. In this role, she partnered with CEOs, boards and investors to drive organisational performance, leadership capability and workforce strategy, supporting significant international growth, transformation and M&A activity.

She also led major programmes spanning culture, communications, governance and talent, helping to shape the organisation through periods of rapid expansion and change.

Prior to Cognita, Emily spent a decade with Urban Outfitters Group, where she held a number of senior leadership positions, culminating in HR Director for Europe. During this time, she played a key role in the growth of the business across multiple brands and markets, leading large-scale transformation programmes and developing talent strategies that supported both operational performance and long-term growth.

Emily is passionate about creating inclusive cultures in which people from all backgrounds can thrive. Having spent her career championing diversity, equity and belonging, she sees this work as both a professional responsibility and a personal commitment. As the mother of mixed-race children, she believes that organisations have a critical role to play in ensuring that talent is recognised, barriers are removed and career pathways are enhanced for future generations.

Alongside her executive career, Emily is a Trustee of Drapers’ Multi-Academy Trust, where she provides strategic oversight across organisational performance, governance and people strategy. She brings extensive experience of working in complex, international and private equity-backed environments and is a recognised leader in organisational transformation and executive talent strategy.

David Bearfield

Global HR Strategy and Transformation Expert

David Bearfield is a global thought and practice leader in the field of HR Strategy and Transformation with extensive experience in transforming complex, large-scale systems and policies in international organisations. Following a successful career, he recently established Ascent People Consulting, which aims to provide a unique service enabling public and third sector organisations deal with the challenges confronting them and becoming more efficient and effective through excellence in people management.

From 2018-26 he was Director of the Office of Human Resources for the United Nations Development Programme.

In this role he led a transformation of people management in UNDP through a ground breaking and multi-award winning people strategy – People for 2030(OHR).

David previously served as the Director of the European Personnel Selection Office for the EU Institutions, where he was responsible for policy, strategy, and operations for selection and recruitment, as well as providing a range of learning and development services. In this role, he oversaw a successful modernisation of recruitment policy and selection methods.

Prior to this, David held many positions within the European Commission, including as a member of the Private Office of two Vice-Presidents, and Head of Internal Communication and Staff Engagement. He began his career in the UK’s Civil Service Fast Stream programme, serving in the Diplomatic Service with the UK Permanent Representation to the EU and with the UK Department of Transport.

David is British and Swedish, is married with five children and has a first class honours degree in modern languages from the University of Salford in the UK. Areas of expertise include the improvement and modernisation of complex, large-scale systems, processes, and procedures in HR.

He is a global thought leader and advocate of best practice in the area of recruitment and early careers.

David is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of HR Professionals of the City of London.