As a chartered engineer and product leader with a decade of experience in manufacturing, engineering and tech, Christina Brugger has navigated the unique challenges women face in STEM industries. Her career spans senior roles including Venture Development Director at a tech scaleup and Head of Digital & Insights at a manufacturing company. Today, she runs a product and market insights consultancy advising similar businesses.
Drawing from her own experiences, Christina founded Keys to Impact Academy, delivering coaching and workshops to help women build authentic influence and progress. Her clients include women at organisations like Arup, AWS and GoCardless. Her work was recognised through inclusion in the Top 50 Women in Engineering 2025.
Christina is a founding member of Chief UK and cluster lead at the Women’s Engineering Society. She regularly facilitates workshops for engineering and tech corporations and writes a weekly newsletter for women in STEM to amplify their impact.
Jeremy Nicholls has spent his career addressing inequality, arguing that one of the fundamental causes is how the accounting system calculates profit/
He became an accountant to support the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, training with PwC. He spent four years as a house parent before starting a regeneration consultancy in Liverpool and then co-founding and becoming CEO of Social Value International (SVI), a global community of social accountants with a mission to change the way the world accounts for value. He left to spend time as the assurance framework lead for the UNDP’s SDG Impact Standards, designed to support organizations seeking to maximise their contribution to sustainability before returning as an advisor.
He is an Ashoka fellow, a honorary research fellow at the University of Liverpool, a member of Accounting for Sustainability’s expert panel and ICAEWs non financial assurance committee and an ambassador for the Capitals Coalition.
He has researched and written widely in the field of impact accounting, including regular contributions to Pioneers Post.
Neil Bentley has been helping organizations to improve their front-line operating performance since the late 1980s. Originally qualified in Psychology, he started work at Lucas Industries in the 1980s, gaining experience in manufacturing production management and learning about Systems Engineering and the Toyota Production System. Neil went on to work at PA Consulting Group focusing on culture and organizational change in financial services and the public sector.
As an experienced presenter, trainer, facilitator and coach Steve knows a thing or two about making presentations! He’s been well trained, learned from making loads of mistakes and sees so many conference speakers and presentations go badly wrong that he’s worked out what works and he knows what he’s talking about. He brings over 30 years experience in public speaking: making sales presentations and pitches, talking in public and training as well as conference speaking in a very wide range of public and private sector organizations. He has unique business experience gained within the finance, banking and motor industries and an invaluable understanding of personal and business dynamics, with a talent for business writing that is pragmatic, memorable, effective, inspiring and most of all fun. His Presentation Skills workshops have won high praise and are very much in demand.
Jane Kenyon is a serial entrepreneur, speaker, coach, blogger, social leader, game changer and female champion. She is passionate about potential and raising the aspirations of the next generation and she does this via her social enterprise www.girlsoutloud.org.uk.
Since 2007 she has been working exclusively with women via www.wellheeleddivas.com. She is an inspirational speaker and resected writer in the personal development field.
Nathan Whitbread is founder of The Neurodivergent Coach, a UK‑based coaching and training business dedicated to supporting neurodivergent individuals and neurodiverse teams to thrive in the workplace. Diagnosed at 35, Nathan’s personal journey was marked by challenges such as forgetting. His struggles with organisation were transformed through his experiences with coaching. Drawing on this lived experience, he now guides others to turn their traits into strengths, reducing stress, improving effectiveness, and creating greater workplace fulfilment .
Nathan works across commercial, public, and non‑profit sectors, offering one‑to‑one strategy coaching, assistive‑technology mentoring, and leadership training to build inclusive, accessible workplaces. A skilled speaker and coach, he’s featured in podcasts and events dismantling myths around neurodiversity. Passionate about lasting impact, Nathan empowers people to foster environments where neurodiversity isn’t just accommodated but celebrated.
Dorothy Martin is a coach, speaker and retreat leader with a background in psychology and a life-long study of the human mind, heart and spirit. She specializes in stress, burnout and personal renewal—guiding individuals and teams to turn pressure into presence and create lives rooted in clarity, vitality and success.
Katie Lewis grew up in New Zealand and moved to the UK after studying International Business (BCom) and Psychology (BA) at the University of Otago.
She soon realised London provided her a fantastic opportunity to work within a buzzing and emerging start-up ecosystem (in 2010). She spent several years at an early-stage VC, then running an Accelerator company through which she has supported 1000s of companies to raise investment in the UK and abroad.
She is currently COO at a high growth scaleup, ThisIsAspire.com working with the world’s largest organisations to upskill their talent to launch new products/services to drive growth through new business models & routes to market (including partnering with and buying from startups).
In 2011 she cofounded 9others, bringing people together in a supportive, trusting environment to give those going through the trials and tribulations of building a business a sense of community and belonging.
Katie lives with her husband Nigel, in Kingston Upon Thames, UK where she enjoys Olympic Weight Lifting, reading and gardening.
Over the last twelve years Matthew has worked with startups, venture capital and angel investors, governments, NGOs and large corporations to create and capture value.
Matthew is a Co-founder of 9others, a global entrepreneurs’ network, and an active angel investor.
9others was established in 2011 and is now a global network of 5,000 entrepreneurs in 45+ cities who meet over dinner to help each other solve the challenges of business and life.
To date Matthew has invested in 23 startups, most of which have been sourced from the 9others network, and has achieved 2 exits. He has invested in and negotiated investment transactions from £15k to £50m.
He studied Computer Science at Durham University and has an MBA from Imperial College Business School. Matthew lives with his wife, daughter and son in Hertfordshire, UK, where he enjoys reading biographies, watching Formula 1 and training for ultra-marathons.
