Speakers
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Dawid Konotey-Ahulu Co-founder of mallowstreet
Dawid is Co-founder of Redington, mallowstreet, and 10,000 Black Interns (a charitable foundation arranging internships for undergraduates either of Black heritage or with a disability).
Dawid qualified as a barrister in 1987 and then spent 16 years in investment banking. He was named Black British Business Entrepreneur of the Year in 2018 and is on the Prime Minister’s Business Council 2022. He was awarded a CBE in the 2022 New Year Honours List. Dawid is passionate about mentoring young people and helping them learn to speak confidently in public so that they can tell their story and ‘hold the room spellbound’. He is also on the Boards of Mission 44 and Somerset House.
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Professor Trevor Williams Former Lloyds Chief Economist
Trevor is an economist who previously served as Chief Economist at Lloyds Bank for over a decade. From energy and climate to how companies use data, he analyses the key trends and policies that shape markets and brings clarity and cutting edge thinking to the economic overviews.
Prior to his time at Lloyds, Trevor worked for the civil service before going on to work as an economist in the City for over thirty years. He covered specialities including equity and foreign exchange, forecasting and financial analysis. Since, he rotates as the Chair of the Institute of Economic Affairs’ Shadow Monetary Policy Committee where he keeps a close eye on the Bank of England’s decisions and direction of travel. He considers the impact of interest rates, monetary policy and quantitative easing and translates them into useful intelligence businesses can use to inform strategy. He also reveals how companies can use their own big data sets to reveal insights into their place within the wider economy.
On a broader level, he provides insight into how politics, demographics and trade shape the economy. From earnings and inflation to stock markets and trade deals, Trevor explores the current economic trends and what they mean to organisations and individuals. With a focus on demystifying the information and sharing it how it really is, he considers the effects of Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic and the recovery of the economy in the aftermath. Trevor also looks at the economics of climate change and energy. He examines the risks for investors, insurers and individuals from the cost to businesses and consumers to the potential effects of energy shortages.
Trevor writes regularly on financial and market matters, including a regular column in the personal finance magazine Moneyfacts. He is the co-author of Trading Economics, a clear guide to the statistics and indicators that underpin market economics and is a Professor at St Mary’s University, London and a Visiting Professor at the University of Derby.
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Dr Tim Gregory Planetary Geologist
Dr Tim Gregory works full-time as a nuclear chemist in the heart of the British nuclear industry. He spends his work days in the lab measuring the chemical and isotopic composition of nuclear materials on a variety of different projects. His love for science shines through in his day job, public speaking, and media activities.
Tim’s background is in academia. After completing a PhD at the University of Bristol researching the formation of the Solar System using meteorites, Tim became a postdoctoral researcher at the British Geological Survey in Nottingham. His background on the cutting edge of academic research prepared him perfectly for his sideways career step into the nuclear industry.
In 2020, Tim’s debut book – Meteorite: How Stones from Outer Space Made Our World — was published by John Murray to critical acclaim. In 2017, Tim surpassed thousands of applicants for a place in the six-part BBC2 series Astronauts: Do You Have What It Takes?, where he was put through the full rigours of astronaut selection and reached the final three. Since then, he has gone on to present a segment about meteorites on BBC4’s The Sky at Night and has made live television appearances on BBC Breakfast, BBC Look North, and BBC Points West. He frequently features on local and national radio to talk about events in the world of space, science, and nuclear. Tim loves nothing more than sharing his love of science and the wonders of the natural world. Tim completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Manchester where he achieved a first class with honours in Geology with Planetary Science (MEarthSci).
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Priya Lakhani AI Entrepreneur
After giving up a career in law to pursue a dream of running her own business, Priya built and sold a successful food brand. She then established a social enterprise before starting a tech company that brings together AI and education in order to understand how students learn and provide educators with an insight into how to create personalised education. She tackles themes including what innovation means and how to embed it into a culture, how leaders need to be adaptable especially in times of crisis, and why keeping values at the core of what you do is the best strategy for success. Priya serves as a non-Exec DCMS board member and regularly contributes to BBC News.
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Leo Johnson Head of Disruption & Innovation, PwC
Leo Co-presents Radio 4’s flagship series FutureProofing, exploring the big ideas and innovations reshaping business and society. He explores the cutting edge in exponential technology, probing game changers both short term and long, from autonomous transport and payment by data to radical life extension, quantum computing, and the RFID chipped workforce. What - in the tsunami of exponential technology - is real and what is hype? More importantly, what is the impact going to be on business?
After Oxford and INSEAD, Leo joined the World Bank as a Resource Economist before co-founding the boutique advisory firm Sustainable Finance, since acquired by PwC Group. He is now a Visiting Business Fellow at Oxford University's Smith School of Enterprise & the Environment, a judge on the Financial Times’ Boldness in Business awards, and a regular presenter for BBC World. TV credits include Changing the Rules, Down to Business, One Square Mile and World Challenge.
Leo is an occasional commentator for the Financial Times, New Statesman, Evening Standard and Wall Street Journal. He also co-authored Turnaround Challenge: Business & the City of the Future.
