Recognized as “the man who fixes businesses” Kevin Gaskell has an impressive track record in building and leading successful companies. As CEO of Porsche, Lamborghini, and BMW, Gaskell led hugely successful turnarounds that are pointed to as examples of how to successfully transform companies and position them for long-term success. His energy and leadership have helped companies to achieve world-class levels of customer service and financial performance, and he speaks with electricity about using inspired leadership to achieve incredible results. "Kevin was extremely engaging and his content resonated perfectly with our audience. His stage presence is amazing… Both speakers were extremely involved throughout the entire pre-event process and were very easy to work with!" Software Company "Kevin was incredible!! Yes – please let everyone at LAI know how happy we are with his presentation. And more than that, he is such a pleasure to work with! He’s kind, makes himself available, takes time to get to know us/our messaging/our branding so that he can work it into his delivery and was so flexible the day-of. He was a dream to work with. I would recommend him to anyone & everyone!" - Financial Company

Steven Van Belleghem is a thought leader on the transformation of customer relations and the future of marketing. In 2012, Steven founded the inspiration company B-Conversational. He gives strategic advice to companies around the globe, helping them better understand the world of conversations, social media and digital marketing. In addition, he also helps clients set up long-term inspirational programs to change the mindset and enrich the knowledge of their teams. Steven started his professional career in 2000 as a research assistant at the Vlerick Business School, where he remains a guest marketing professor to this day. He is an expert in guiding companies through the smart usage of technology in the customer relationship, without forgetting the human side of business. In 2001, Steven became one of the first employees to join InSites Consulting, an innovative start-up in the online research industry. Over the next eleven years, he worked his way up to become one of the company’s managing partners and shareholders. During this period, the company grew from just 8 staff to 130 with branches in 5 countries. Steven is a best-selling author of business books. His latest, titled “When Digital becomes Human” (2014), describes the need to digitise the customer relationship without forgetting the human aspect. He believes that today’s world not only needs a digital transformation; the human side of business is also in need of a makeover. His two previous books, “The Conversation Manager” (2010) and “The Conversation Company” (2012), are award-winning best-sellers with more than 50,000 copies sold.

Kate Ancketill is the brains and driving force behind GDR Creative Intelligence, a globally recognised consultancy focused on innovation and emerging trends in retail, leisure and hospitality around the world. World-renowned, dynamic and commercially successful, Ancketill won the Jennifer d’Abo Memorial Scholarship for female entrepreneurs in 2007 and was selected as one of the UK’s top 100 in the Courvoisier Future 500 in 2009.

Rachel Botsman is a leading expert on trust in the modern world. She is the author of three critically acclaimed books – What’s Mine is Yours, Who Can You Trust? and How To Trust & Be Trusted. Rachel was the first Trust Fellow at Oxford University, Saïd Business School, where she currently teaches leaders and entrepreneurs.In speaking engagements for leading organizations, she is consistently voted the audience’s favourite speaker, and her TED talks have been viewed more than five million times. Rachel writes on trust and profound societal shifts for the Financial Times, The New York Times, Guardian, Harvard Business Review, and Wired. She also engages with over 85,000 subscribers through her weekly Rethink newsletter. She was the host and writer of the BBC Radio4 series The Trust Shift, and her podcast Rethink Moments was nominated as one of the top five Best Business Podcasts of the Year. Always driven by curiosity, Rachel is an artist and storyteller at heart after studying art at the Ruskin School, University of Oxford. She reimagines historical artefacts to question our relationship with work, society and each other. Her work uses transformation, playfulness, and fragility to trigger personal associations and conversations about critical issues of our time, be it trust, power, or humanness. Her Roots of Trust installation will be shown at the London Design Biennale at Somerset House in June 2025. For her groundbreaking ideas and contributions to the importance of trust in society, she has been recognized as one of the world’s top 30 most influential management thinkers, named as one the top 10 most influential voices on LinkedIn, included in Fast Company’s list of “100 Most Creative People in Business,” and honoured as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. She has travelled and worked on every continent, except Antarctica.

Dr Gorkan Ahmetoglu is an Associate Professor of Business Psychology at University College London (UCL) and the co-founder of Meta Profiling Ltd. He is the Director of the Business Psychology programme at UCL and has previously held the positions of Director of Management and Entrepreneurship, Director of Digital Entrepreneurship, and Director of Consumer Behaviour at Goldsmiths, University of London. He has also taught at London’s City University and Heythrop University. Gorkan is the author of Personality 101, the editor of the Wiley Handbook of Entrepreneurship, and has published numerous articles and reviews in leading academic journals as well as authored in Harvard Business Review and Management Today. Dr Ahmetoglu is a leading expert in psychological profiling and assessment and a business adviser and speaker in the areas of entrepreneurship, consumer decision-making, and marketing strategy. He is also an associate to Harvard’s EFL Global. Gorkan consults to global organisations and the UK government, and frequently appears in media as expert adviser. His clients include HSBC, LVMH, ABF, Unilever, Google, Ford, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Mars, McKinsey & Co, BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5, The Edrington Group, the Office of Fair Trading, the Intellectual Property Office, the British Brand Groups, Government Social Research, The Grocer, The Marketing Magazine, and KPMG.

Bill has served as CEO at Wickes, Focus and Iceland. He has now produced The Grimsey Review, looking at what can be done to reinvigorate the high street. He argues that town centres should be reinvented as community hubs, with housing and public services at the centre. Bill talks about changing customer habits and the growth of ‘mall culture.’ These out-of-town arenas will become the showrooms of the future, in which we choose what to order online.

Alex is a technology expert, specialising in the practical application of the latest innovations and tech trends to solve retail’s biggest challenges, from machine learning to post-channel retail. Prior to GDR, he spent seven years at technology firm Red Ant, designing and delivering award-winning applications, innovation and strategy from boardroom to stockroom for some of the UK's largest and most forward-thinking retailers. In his spare time, he enjoys running and an ongoing quest to connect everything in his house to the internet.

Having had over thirty years of experience in board level business, Alan O'Neill shares powerful insights in all aspects of industry, including Financial Services, Hospitality, IT, Retail, Travel. It is this unrivalled business acumen that has seen Alan facilitate conferences in several countries and conduct master-classes with C-level executives.

Joe Studwell is the author of best-selling books about emerging economies. He was a founder of the Asian research firm Dragonomics, now Gavekal Dragonomics and the founding editor of the China Economic Quarterly. He has written for The Economist, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), The Financial Times, the Asian Wall Street Journal and the Far Eastern Economic Review, as well as working on television and radio. Studwell earned his doctorate from the University of Cambridge for research on processes of technology acquisition in manufacturing companies in emerging economies. He is Senior Visiting Fellow at the Overseas Development Institute, the UK’s leading non-government development think-tank. Joe’s next book, published in early 2025, is How Africa Works: dynamism and atrophy on the world’s last developmental frontier, a book that started at the suggestion of Bill Gates and African governments that engaged him to debate development policy choices based on his books on Asia. Joe is an engaging, humorous speaker with a wealth of anecdotes who also has a grip on the latest data. He has long experience as a meeting chair and panelist. • Best-selling author and expert on emerging markets in China, East Asia, South-East Asia, South Asia and Africa • Combines engaging anecdotal delivery with deep knowledge of data • Seasoned interviewer, host and conference/panel chair

Nigel Risner is an award-winning motivational speaker, television presenter, author and business coach, known for his ‘Zoo Theory’ of professional communication. He works with businesses to create more fluid communication processes at every level and creates more dynamic and efficient interactions, for a more productive workforce, who remain on-task and where every individual is on the same page regarding objectives and aims. He has received many awards for his speeches and business-boosting directives. He is the only European motivational speaker to have received awards from The Executive Committee, Footdown, Vistage and The Academy for Chief Executives. In the UK, only six individuals have been awarded The Professional Speaking Award of Excellence from the Professional Speakers Association, Nigel is among this small group. As a popular choice, he travels to over 18 different countries to deliver speeches at over 150 conferences each year and has worked with high performing sports, politics and high-profile organisations including BT, HSBC Bank, Siemens, Pepsi-Cola and BskyB. Nigel’s speaking engagements usually focus on the organisation he is attending. Discovering the areas for improvement, challenging managers and those in charge to broaden their horizons and change the way the organisation interacts, faces challenges and embraces opportunities. His workshops also combat issues such as personal growth, self-development and practical techniques for achieving professional success.

With over 20 years of experience leading world-class hospitality brands, Ryan Minton is a Best Selling Author, Keynote Speaker and an influential voice in creating exceptional customer and employee experiences. As a senior executive representing hospitality giants like Hilton, Marriott, and IHG, Ryan has a proven track record of driving record revenues, profits, and engagement through his keen eye for operational excellence and talent for fostering dynamic teams. Regarded as a top speaker and social media influencer in customer and employee experience, Ryan brings a unique blend of strategic vision and on-the-ground leadership. In addition to an expert panel position with Newsweek, he has been internationally recognized as one of the World's Best Speakers in two separate categories - Hospitality and Customer Experience - by Global Gurus for his ability to inspire audiences through storytelling and actionable insights. Ryan measures success through the growth of his team members and brands entrusted to him. By empowering employees and nurturing talent with care and respect, he has built cultures centered around feeling valued that transcend typical corporate environments. It's this same employee-first mindset that Ryan has deployed to pinpoint inefficiencies and rapidly scale brands to new heights.

Steve Robinson served as the Chief Marketing Officer of Chick-fil-A, the nation’s most profitable food chain, from 1981 to 2015. Responsible for overseeing all of the brand’s traditional marketing support, advertising, brand development innovation, menu innovation, and hospitality strategies, he was integrally involved in the company’s incredible growth trajectory. Robinson helped take the chicken chain from 184 stores and $100 million in annual revenue when he assumed his position, to more than 2,100 stores and $6.8 billion in annual sales upon his retirement. He is credited with identifying and rolling out the company’s “Eat Mor Chikin” branding and campaign, which is now recognized worldwide. He is also the author of the new book, Covert Cows and Chick-fil-A: How Faith, Cows, and Chicken Built an Iconic Brand, due out in Spring 2019. He offers insights on building brand loyalty, creating a unique brand culture that stands out in a crowded global marketplace, and why success and culture are often so tightly linked.