World class speaker on change and performance

Jim Lawless is an internationally renowned speaker and adviser who has inspired people within some of the world’s leading companies to take astute risks and adapt for change and high performance. Over half a million people on five continents have been entertained and inspired by Jim’s presentations and many more by his bestselling book Taming Tigers.

Taming Tigers lays out the framework for how to achieve what we may have thought was impossible and Jim’s own remarkable story shows how this framework can and does deliver outstanding and unique results. It has enabled him to become a jockey in just 12 months, and step into the record books as the first Briton to dive lower than 100m on a single breath.

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Award-winning actress, theatre director and campaigner

Josette Bushell-Mingo OBE breaks through barriers and smashes glass ceilings and she helps others to do the same.

She is an award winning actress and theatre director, and campaigner on issues of gender, race and disability rights.

Josette’s achievements are many. Born in the UK, and now living in Sweden, she has worked with leading theatres such as the Royal Opera House, Riksteatern and Norbottens Teatern in Sweden and the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre in England.

In 2000, Josette was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role as Rafiki in the London production of The Lion King. In 2001, she founded a black-led arts festival called PUSH at the Young Vic Theatre in London. In 2006 she was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire and in 2007 she directed the first ever theatrical production of Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Josette is currently Head of Acting at Stockholm University, the first woman of African descent to hold the post. She is also the Artistic Director of the National Black Theatre of Sweden. She was previously Artistic Director of Riksteaterns Tyst Teater, the Swedish Sign Lanaguage Theatre, and is the recipient of several awards for her pioneering work with the theatre, including a production of the Odyssey in Swedish Sign Language. She is one of the nine board members of the Swedish Film Institute.

In 2016, Josette wrote and performed he own show "Nina – A Story About Me and Nina Simone," a "deeply personal and often searing show" inspired by the singer and activist Nina Simone.

At ASPIRE 4 ALL, Josette will talk with us about her experiences, the strength she draws from those that have gone before such as Nina Simone, the power of song and expression, and talking from one’s heart, and the very important human quality of resistance in the struggle for better.

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Corporate executive and story teller

Ruchir Verma is a living example of the coming together of contradictions; left and right brain morphing.

Whereas he speaks at corporate seminars on data and automation, he is also found at book fairs and on radio shows speaking about his books and philosophy of life.

An Engineer, MBA and Masters of Law by education, his corporate career comprises setting up and running shared service centres in various countries, and large scale complex transformations.

His creative side has written fiction books and literary articles in leading publications. His debut book ‘The Boy from Allahabad’ tells the story of a mystical city and intertwining tale of an ordinary boy turning into a mafia don while trying to stay true to his calling. His next book ‘Dare Delhi’ will be published this summer

Ruchir is based in Zurich, Switzerland.

Details at www.ruchirverma.com

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Social entrepreneur & mentor to young people

Sam Conniff Allende is a multi-award winning serial social entrepreneur, and co-founder and former CEO of the youth-led creative network, Livity, the marketing agency, Don’t Panic, the genre-defining interactive television series Dubplate Drama, and Live Magazine, all of which aimed to draw on and speak to the creative talents of young people.

Since starting his entrepreneurial career aged 19, Sam has mentored thousands of talented young entrepreneurs and hustlers around the world. He is an acclaimed public speaker, an advocate of ‘business as unusual’ or corporate responsibility and accountability, and a purpose-driven strategy consultant to brands such as Red Bull, Unilever and PlayStation.

His new book Be More Pirate, or How To Take On The World and Win, is a manifesto for each of us to create the sort of Good Trouble the world needs. It’s based on the true and untold strategy and success of the Golden Age of Pirates as agents of change, leadership and social innovation.

Sam has received numerous accolades for his work including EY’s Social Entrepreneur of the Year, Global CSR Leader at the Global CSR Awards.

At ASPIRE 4 ALL Sam will share with us what he discovered about the pirates and the manifesto for change they have inspired, and leave us with 5 rules he says we need to create, manage and survive change, to take on the world and win.

Sam says: “There’s a lot you can learn from the Pirates of the Golden Age. They were the millennials of the 1700s – twenty-somethings who succeeded at rewriting the rules of fairness and social innovation. They were real agents of change.”

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