Hosanna Hali, Founder of The Tech Cornr, transitioned from business studies to the tech industry over five years ago after learning to code. Her dream role at Microsoft opened her eyes to the tech world’s potential—and its lack of diversity. Determined to change this, Hosanna launched The Tech Cornr in 2020, providing accessible career insights, learning resources, and advice on navigating the corporate world. Through her content, she’s helped multiple women kickstart their careers in tech. Her relatable approach quickly grew a community, leading to collaborations with top brands like Google, IBM, Logitech, Norton, Sony, and Amazon, as well as speaking opportunities at events such as Black Tech Fest, Oxford University, Warwick University, and Clifford Chance. A 2024 and 2025 Diversity Champion Finalist for the Black Tech Achievement Awards, Hosanna continues to support those entering tech through content, speaking partnerships, and events that connect and embolden her community.

Yassmin Abdel-Magied is a Sudanese born writer, broadcaster and award-winning social advocate. A former mechanical engineer, Yassmin has published five books, and her literary novel AT SEA is forthcoming with Canongate in 2026. She is also a core writer on British Continuing Drama, Emmerdale. An award-winning speaker and seasoned broadcaster, Yassmin has delivered workshops and keynotes in 25 countries. Her internationally acclaimed TED talk, “What Does My Headscarf Mean to You” was chosen as one of TED’s top 10 ideas. In all her work, Yassmin advocates for transformative justice and a fairer, safer world for all.

Abi Mohamed leads Community at Diversity VC, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to setting a global benchmark for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in the venture capital industry. With over seven years of experience in startups and venture capital, Abi has supported scaling founders, worked in investing, and led initiatives aimed at building a fairer and more inclusive world.

Currently an Infra Transformation Specialist at Accenture, helping organizations streamline operations and accelerate digital transformation. Recognized for her contributions to diversity in tech, she has previously spoken at the Black Tech Fest and was a finalist for the Inspirational Woman of the Year Award.

Arinze is an experienced software engineer, passionate about building impactful products and leveraging technology to solve complex problems. At Monzo Bank, his focus is on building the systems that shape the search and discovery experience powering everyday use of the app. He also has extensive experience in advertising from his time at Deliveroo, helping to build and scale the in-app advertising platform. He is committed to mentoring aspiring professionals, fostering community, and continually learning along the way.

Arsema Fessehazion is the founder of the Black Recruiters Network, a community driving visibility, opportunity, and impact for Black recruiters and the talent they champion. Back for the third time on the Black Tech Fest stage, Arsema continues to spotlight the power of community in reshaping the future of hiring. Beyond founding the Network, Arsema is a committed advocate for inclusive hiring and workplace equity. Through hire|py, she partners with tech startups and scale-ups to build inclusive teams, supporting companies in accessing Black & Ethnic Minority talent and creating environments where diverse teams can thrive.

BioCaleb Oniwinde is a Cloud and Cybersecurity Engineer, YouTube Creator and TEDx Speaker, dedicated to empowering the next generation of tech talent. He shares real, relatable insights from professionals across the tech industry.

Charlotte Stavrou is a multi-award-winning entrepreneur and the founder of SevenSix Agency. Charlotte Stavrou (née Williams) is the Founder & CEO of Award-winning influencer marketing and talent management agency SevenSix Agency. She has become the go-to person for brands looking for advice on how to make their marketing strategies more inclusive. Charlotte regularly speaks for and works with platforms such as Meta and YouTube, and participates in roundtables and panels with industry bodies such as ISBA and Advertising Association. For the past five years, Charlotte has been helping creators understand their value. Together with her team, Charlotte has created the first-of-their-kind influencer pricing reports that have highlighted the Influencer Pay Gap. Their yearly pricing reports have helped set an industry pricing standard. Charlotte Stavrou is a respected and influential leader in the marketing industry who is dedicated to promoting diversity and inclusion.

Charmaine Hayden is a bold cultural commentator known for teaching business strategy through the lens of popular culture. With sharp wit and a fresh perspective, she breaks down economics, entrepreneurship and current affairs in ways that feel relatable, thought-provoking and impossible to scroll past. Her content sparks the kind of conversations you didn’t know you craved; bridging finance and culture with clarity and confidence. Alongside her standout social presence, Charmaine is an angel investor with two exits, a former VC fund manager, a published author (Empowering Nigeria series), and a presenter across media and live events. She’s also a founding member of the UK-Ghana Investor Group, with accolades from Forbes, Financial Times and 40 Under 40 Africa recognising her influence across tech, policy and business. Whether she’s breaking down a viral headline or presenting on stage, Charmaine brings a fearless voice to the table; making complex ideas feel powerful, relevant and actionable.

Colin Bannon is BT Business’ chief technology officer (CTO), charged with delivering its product technology strategy and designing solutions enabling strategic outcomes for more than one million businesses in the UK and 1,000 multinational enterprises in over 180 countries globally. BT’s customers include world-leading brands, government and financial services organisations, as well as domestic UK small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) and public sector organisations, including defence and health. BT also provides wholesale products and services to other telecommunication companies in the UK and internationally. Colin is the architect of some of the largest customer network transformations in the world, including BT’s own enterprise network. In addition, he’s BT Business’ technology lead for partners including hyperscalers, networking equipment vendors and carrier neutral facility (CNF) providers. His latest project, Global Fabric, is BT’s new, transformative network-as-a-service (NaaS) platform. This is a full re-platforming and digitisation of BT’s entire global network footprint, services and partner integrations for business customers. The industry-disrupting concept was incubated in the CTO team under Colin and is one of the biggest programmes BT has pursued. Global Fabric, a fully digitalised, automated, API-first platform, will offer customers near-instant control to set up, change and scale connectivity services, including Internet, MPLS, Ethernet, Cloud interconnectivity, DC Interconnect, mobile Interconnect, data sovereignty, DDoS, edge compute that supports service insertion such as SD-WAN and SASE, SSE, SIP, load balancing, and firewalls. Colin is active across the telecommunications industry and academia, holding a seat on the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) and lecturing at Warwick University. In addition to his 20 years at BT Group, including roles such as chief architect, Colin has held engineering leadership and consulting engineer positions at IBM, Lucent INS and Unisys.

In 2022 DJ AG walked away from his 9 to 5 to follow a deeper purpose—using music and real conversations to connect with people. Starting with livestreams from home he quickly took his decks to the streets sharing joy face to face with the public. Known for his ability to engage with anyone regardless of background DJ AG blends music with genuine dialogue. Whether speaking to someone facing homelessness or addiction or giving out food and support on camera his approach is rooted in empathy and connection. A standout moment came when Daddy Freddy once the world’s fastest rapper appeared in one of DJ AG’s videos. It went viral with over 3 million views introducing a legend to a new audience and showing DJ AG’s power to bring people together through music and conversation. His platform has grown fast. DJ AG now has over 1.4 million followers on TikTok with more than 100,000 people regularly tuning into his livestreams. His Instagram has reached 585,000 followers and continues to grow. He’s caught the attention of global names including Will Smith Ed Sheeran JME Skepta and even Naomi Campbell. For DJ AG it’s never been about fame. It’s about connection visibility and impact.

David is a technology leader, strategist and architect with over 35 years experience across a range of industries, including banking, insurance, transportation, utilities and media. Prior to joining the Central Digital and Data Office and then the Government Digital Service, David’s most recent roles have been as an Expert Partner at Boston Consulting Group, focusing on Cloud, DevOps and Digital Transformation, as a Digital Transformation Officer at Google, and as Chief Architect at HSBC. (And, a very long time ago, his first technology job was as a COBOL programmer in HM Customs & Excise!) David has designed, constructed and led many large transformation initiatives throughout his career, including the strategy and design for Lloyds Banking Group’s integration of Halifax Bank of Scotland and divestment of TSB, and for HSBC’s strategic move as the first major global financial institution to adopt public Cloud at scale. David believes passionately in the power of new technologies and new ways of working to liberate organisations from the constraints of their legacy technologies, and specialises in building teams, defining strategies and changing culture to achieve this goal. David holds a PhD in Philosophy, specialising in Ethics. In recent years, he has applied this expertise in the fields of AI and data ethics, helping HSBC define its first set of ethical principles for the use of AI and data, and working as part of the Responsible AI teams at HSBC, Google and BCG. Outside work, David kayaks regularly on the sea where he lives, attempts to keep on top of the latest developments in the field of technology ethics, and writes regularly on topics of technology, leadership and innovation in his weekly newsletter.

Donna Otchere is a PhD researcher at Loughborough University and co-founder of SISTEM UK, a platform empowering women in STEM through creative events and community initiatives. Her research explores how relatable role models shape girls’ aspirations to pursue engineering, with a focus on mechanical engineering. Donna is also a speaker and non-executive board member, dedicated to making STEM more inclusive and inspiring for the next generation.

Dr Abigail Otchere holds a BSc in biomedical science (Roehampton university), a MSc in neuroscience (Kings college London) and obtained her PhD in biomedical science from Aston University(2021). Currently she works as a medical writer at Excerpta Medica, a global medical communications agency under the Adelphi group. Abigail is also the co-founder of SiSTEM, an initiative which aims to connect and support women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) particularly black women and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Prior to her PhD, she worked in the clinical trials sector, mainly working on flu, asthma and virology studies and HIV/AIDs trials. Together with her sister (co-founder of SiSTEM) she dedicates her time to improving the retention and the uptake of black women in STEM by inspiring early years to working professionals and changing the narrative on STEM.

Ebele Okobi is the principal of Revolutionary Projects, through which she advises and creates beloved community for radical imagination. She is an advisor, board member, maker of good trouble and see-er around corners, with 25 years of experience leading, advising and building global teams and tech and consumer brands, as well supporting creators and arts institutions. She loves building, advising and launching organizations and projects that push the arc of the moral universe towards joy and justice; dismantling systems of harm and convening and connecting people who are dreaming better worlds. Her current experience, through Revolutionary Projects, includes being Advisor to the CEO at Dr. Martens, Advisor to Goodifferent, (a beauty and well-being start-up), Chair of the Development Board of the Museum of West African Art in Benin City Nigeria and Advisor to a stealth start-up cultural institution. Previously, she was Chief of Staff to the CEO at Dr. Martens, Senior Policy Advisor at OpenAI, the CEO of the non-profit news agency The New Humanitarian, a Venture Partner for Impact and Equity at Ada Ventures, built and led the Africa, Middle East & Turkey public policy teams at Facebook/Meta, built and led the Business and Human Rights Program at Yahoo, worked in the brand/Africa strategy/digital brand businesses at Nike, was a director of advisory services at Catalyst and a policy advisor at Consumers Union, and a corporate lawyer at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York, London and Paris. She has extensive experience in board governance and raising capital for creative projects and art institutions. She is on the Frieze Connect Committee, is a Trustee of the American Friends of the Whitechapel Gallery, and previously chaired the development board of the Young Vic theatre as well as the patrons board of the British Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale for John Akomfrah. She attended the University of Southern California, Columbia University Law School and HEC-Paris. She is married to Richard Harris III, a documentary film director; she is the mother of dragons.

Elijah is an entrepreneur and business leader best known as the driving force behind the Black Apprentice Network. Through BAN, Elijah is dedicated to empowering apprentices from underrepresented backgrounds, creating a platform that fosters connection, mentorship, and career progression across industries. With more than 6,000 community members and 25,000 followers on social media and partners such as BT, Freshfields, Deloitte and more, his leadership has positioned BAN as a key voice in advocating for diversity and inclusion within the UK apprenticeship landscape.

Hanna Naima Mccloskey (she/her) is Algerian British and the Founder & CEO of Fearless Futures. Before founding Fearless Futures she worked for the UN, NGOs and the Royal Bank of Scotland, across communications, research and finance roles; and has lived, studied and worked in Palestine, Italy, USA, Sudan, Syria and the UK. She has a BA in English from the University of Cambridge and an MA in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, with a specialism in Conflict Management. Hanna has worked with leaders in the largest tech companies in the world building their capacity and advising them on how to embed equity into their policies, processes and products. She brings systems thinking, anti-oppression praxis, socio-political analysis and change management expertise to complex problems; among them, responsible AI. Hanna is the Co-Author of Fearless Futures' White Paper - DEI Disrupted: The Blueprint for DEI Worth Doing and a qualified body/breastfeeding peer supporter with the ABM.

Izzy Obeng MBE is a British entrepreneur, leadership coach, and influential voice on inclusive innovation. She is the Founder and CEO of Foundervine, recognised by the Financial Times as one of Europe’s leading startup accelerators for underrepresented founders. Izzy advises Lloyds Banking Group and serves on the Investment Committee of the Growth Impact Fund, a £10m vehicle backing mission-driven ventures. She is a Trustee of Mission 44, the charity founded by Sir Lewis Hamilton, and an active angel investor—investing on behalf of Ada Ventures and Zeal Capital Partners to champion diverse founders across the UK, US, and Africa. Her work has been featured in The Times, BBC, The Guardian, and The Telegraph. She was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 for Social Impact (2022), awarded the Freedom of the City of London (2024), and received an MBE in 2025 for her services to digital growth and inclusive entrepreneurship.