Topic - Diversity & Inclusion

DEI Keynote Speakers

46 keynote speakers, curated by Speaker Ideas
World-Class Diversity & Inclusion Speakers

Meet our Curated Diversity & Inclusion Speakers

Bring a diversity, equity and inclusion speaker to your event. Tell us your goals and budget. We will shortlist the right speakers, confirm availability and handle logistics.

Gillian Tett

An institutional anthropologist, author, and Cambridge college provost, analysing how cognitive diversity, cross-cultural empathy, and structural communication frameworks eliminate corporate silos, dismantle workplace groupthink, and optimize inclusive enterprise decision-making.

Martha Lane Fox

Representation in technology leadership, boardrooms and public decision-making, informed by experience co-founding a major e-commerce business and has since worked on boards and digital public services.

René Carayol

Inclusion through leadership behaviour, culture and how senior leaders shape the way people are treated inside organisations, informed by an executive coach and former board member who works on inclusive leadership.

Monte Königs

A sociologist, organizational consultant, and future trends researcher, analysing how changing generational values, digital disruptions, and corporate ethics frameworks intersect to help corporate leadership teams design highly collaborative, inclusive, and trust-centered workplace environments.

Mark Pollock

Disability, lived experience and advocacy around research and participation, informed by a blind and paralysed athlete who campaigns and raises funds for spinal cord research.

Jeff Furman

Foundation president at a company that built social justice into its commercial model, focusing on corporate activism, social justice and the way values are embedded into company governance and public positions.

Eleni Gabre-Madhin

Economic access, market participation and the systems that enable smaller producers to reach buyers, drawing on experience founding a commodity exchange that connected millions of smallholder farmers to markets.

Shanthi Flynn

The broader people remit, including workforce leadership and organisational responsibilities around employees, from a career chief HR officer across retail and staffing businesses in Asia and Europe.

Dr. Ayesha Khanna

Works on AI and smart cities, and has built initiatives to bring more women into technology across Asia, examining women's participation in technology and the pipeline into technical careers.

Dee Caffari MBE

Sailor who has circumnavigated the globe repeatedly and skippered mixed crews in a male-dominated sport, bringing first-hand experience of leadership and participation as a woman in elite sailing.

KEYNOTE THEMES

Key Topics Covered by Diversity & Inclusion Speakers

The speakers on this page bring experience across disability, neurodiversity, cognitive diversity, gender, generational diversity, human rights, mental health and inclusive workplace culture. The brief should be specific about the part of inclusion the event needs to address.

  • Disability and accessibility
  • Neurodiversity
  • Cognitive diversity
  • Gender and women's leadership
  • Generational diversity
  • Human rights and equality
  • Mental health and stigma
  • Inclusive workplace culture

Lived experience, research, leadership or policy?

Different events may call for a speaker with lived experience, an organisational or research background, experience leading inclusion initiatives, or a policy and human-rights perspective. Being clear about the audience and purpose helps avoid treating diversity and inclusion as a single interchangeable category.

Frequently Asked Questions

A diversity and inclusion keynote can explore inclusive leadership, belonging, workplace culture, bias, accessibility, disability, neurodiversity, gender, race, cultural difference and other aspects of inclusion. The brief should identify which areas are relevant rather than expecting one speaker to cover the entire field.
Speakers may come from leadership, research, psychology, HR, advocacy, organisational change, accessibility, inclusion strategy or direct professional and lived experience related to a particular area. The most appropriate fit depends on whether the event needs a broad organisational perspective or deeper expertise in one dimension of inclusion.
For leaders, a diversity and inclusion keynote can place more emphasis on decision-making, culture, accountability and inclusive leadership. For a wider employee audience, the focus may shift towards awareness, behaviour, belonging and everyday workplace experience. The speaker should be briefed on the audience and purpose of the event.
A specialist is usually the better fit when the event is centred on a particular subject such as disability, neurodiversity, gender or cultural inclusion. A broader diversity and inclusion speaker may be more appropriate when the audience needs to explore how several dimensions of inclusion connect within leadership and workplace culture.

Ready to shortlist?

Tell us about your event. We’ll come back with three to five Diversity & Inclusion speakers matched to your audience, format and event goals.
Call us, e-mail us or use the form below for a free (non-binding) consultation and we will respond within one working day.