TEDxSwansea

Speakers

Speakers may not be confirmed. Check the event website for the latest lineup.

• Dean Harrison

  Entrepreneur

  Dean is a father of two sons and a man of Christian faith whose life reflects resilience and restoration. An entrepreneur with strong business acumen, he founded the ERP recruitment company Gorilla ERP, leading it to national recognition and winning Best Business in Wales 2020/2021. Despite external success, unresolved childhood trauma began to shape his life more deeply in his early thirties, affecting relationships, leadership, and self-worth. For a time, he turned to alcohol to cope with growing pressures. Between 2023 and 2025, Dean faced his most difficult season, which became the catalyst for breakthrough. Through counselling, deep personal work, and diagnoses of ADHD and PTSD, he gained new understanding of lifelong challenges. Grounded in faith and guided by hope, Dean rebuilt his life from the inside out. Today, he is passionate about helping others confront their past, find healing, and discover that transformation and a renewed life are possible.

• Derek Nelson

  Hemophillia Community Clinical Educator

  Derek is on a quest to become the best version of himself while helping others do the same. A former pediatric bedside nurse and Ironman triathlon finisher, he has spent over 20 years as a professional sales executive and entrepreneur. He holds a Bachelor of Nursing and an MBA from the University of Utah, credentials that reflect his unique blend of heart-led service and strategic leadership. Today, as the owner of Best Self Systems, LLC, Derek focuses on the valuable lessons found in life’s most challenging transitions. Living in Kaysville, Utah, he is most at home hiking or cycling in the nearby mountains. Above all, he treasures his roles as a husband, friend, and dad. Derek believes that by acknowledging the beauty in our past, we can bring more honour and presence to our "right now."

• Dr. Carlton Brown

  Author, academic, and thought leader

  Dr Carlton Brown is a visionary author, academic, and thought leader challenging leaders to confront the unseen forces shaping race, culture, and organisational performance. Holding an MBA and PhD in Business Performance Management, he blends rigorous research with practical insight to reveal why institutions with the best intentions often fail on equity — and what courageous leadership must do differently to achieve lasting change. With over two decades of senior leadership experience, Dr Brown has led transformation across FTSE100 organisations, startups, and complex systems. His work has helped turn underperforming teams into high-impact cultures where accountability, inclusion, and results coexist. As CEO of Aspire Consultancy, he advises executives and boards on strategy, leadership effectiveness, and cultural transformation in an era of disruption and uncertainty. Dr Brown inspires global audiences with bold ideas at the intersection of leadership, identity, and innovation.

• Dr. Mariner Hauer

  Dr Marina Hauer is a humanist, strategist, and lifelong student of identity. Having lived and worked in four countries, speaking four languages, and holding three degrees - including a PhD - her career has zig-zagged across design, social science, and strategy. What has remained constant is her fascination with how individuals, cultures, and organisations make sense of who they are, and how that invisible logic shapes behaviour, belonging, and power. Her work sits at the intersection of brand, leadership, and organisational behaviour, focusing not on how companies look, but on how they make sense of themselves, how that shapes decisions, and how identity can be deliberately leveraged as a strategic asset. Outside her work, Marina channels that same curiosity into motorcycle travel - always chasing the stories (and street food) that reveal what a place truly values.

• Dr. Tom Tatchell

  Education Consultant

  Tom Tatchell is an education consultant, and former higher education leader with over 15 years’ experience supporting institutional change across the UK and internationally. His work focuses on curriculum design, student experience, operational improvement, and embedding sustainability and wellbeing frameworks, including the UN Sustainable Development Goals, into education systems. Tom works with universities, public bodies, and sector organisations to help leaders navigate complexity, align strategy with delivery, and translate policy ambition into practical action. He is the CEO and Founder of Better Generation Solutions, partnering with institutions on curriculum transformation, governance reviews, timetabling and planning improvement, and leadership development. Tom holds BSc and PhD degrees in Chemistry, an Executive MBA, and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

• Gitanjali Trevorrow-Seymour

  In a world filled with uncertainty, award-winning entrepreneur Gitanjali Trevorrow-Seymour is on a mission to fill it with Possiblists™. From acting on stage and screen to leading teams through the Global Financial Crisis to nearly losing her life to studying neuroscience, her unconventional path has fuelled a quest to discover what is truly possible when we are more curious than afraid. With over two decades of real world leadership and global consulting with organisations like Nasdaq, Bloomberg, Unilever and HSBC, unlocking their Possiblist Intelligence™: the capacity to lead, live and grow from what's possible not what's familiar. Known for creating dynamic, thought-provoking experiences that leave audiences fundamentally shifted in how they see themselves and how they create change. Her pioneering approach reflects her Indian and Australian heritage, grounded in modern neuroscience and ancient wisdom to challenge the conditioned thinking that keeps brilliant people stuck. No confidence required.

• Helen Joy

  Middle Management Expert

  Helen Joy founded People Spark after spending over a decade leading teams and watching good managers burn out under impossible expectations. She helps overstretched leaders build confident, capable teams, without the micromanaging or the meltdowns. Her work is practical and human. No corporate jargon, no quick fixes, just honest conversations about what actually works when you're leading people in the real world. But her focus has expanded beyond leadership. Through Human: By Habit Helen is working to bring intentional connection back into a world that's become increasingly transactional. Human connection is being quietly engineered out of our lives, and it is up to us to create small, meaningful habits that remind us what it means to be human. Because technology might be shaping how we work, but it's humanity that will determine whether that work is worth doing.

• James Phillips

  Mental performance practitioner

  James has spent over 20 years supporting individuals through challenges and uncertainty, including more than 13 years as a Social Worker. His professional training in emotional regulation and leadership development is matched by lived experience. Life has not always unfolded gently. Loss, failure, bankruptcy, divorce, and prolonged self-doubt have all shaped James’s journey. Like many, he formed internal stories about who he was and what was possible, stories that once constrained rather than supported him. This curiosity now sits at the centre of his work. James explores how personal stories are formed, how they quietly influence behaviour and identity, and how unexamined meanings can hold people back. Through reflective dialogue and purposeful questioning, he helps individuals develop confidence, resilience, and the ability to choose more empowering narratives, personally and professionally.

• Kathryn Harris

  Corporate Director L&D PCH Hotels and resorts

  Kathryn Harris has spent nearly three decades shaping how people learn, lead, and connect across the hospitality industry. Her career has taken her through every corner of the field—from fine dining and fast casual to casinos and national/international organizations—revealing a powerful truth: no matter the setting, the human connection is what drives exceptional experiences. With a Master’s degree in Instructional Design and Technology, Kathryn has led learning and development at every organizational level. She is also the creator of HeartSkills, a framework built by studying what top performers do differently—and translating those behaviors into five essential human skills that elevate culture, service, and leadership. Originally from Arizona,her work sits at the intersection of performance and humanity—proving that while systems matter, it is the heart that ultimately moves people to excellence.

• Mike Bates

  Mike Bates combines elite military expertise with extraordinary personal achievement to deliver transformative insights for organisations navigating complex challenges. As a former covert counter-terrorism operations leader and the first officer in MOD history to qualify for frontline counter-terror response, Mike brings unparalleled credibility to his presentations. His remarkable credentials include becoming the fastest British solo rower to complete the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge (3,000 miles in just over 46 days), raising £175,000 for charity, and founding one of Europe's most successful Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academies with over 500 students. Mike also co-founded UNIFY, which supports men of all ages through mental health challenges using world-class events and resources."

• Professor Terry Stevens

  International Tourism Consultant

  Professor Terry Stevens is a multi-award-winning international tourism consultant and author who has worked on destination development in over fifty-five countries. His clients include major global development agencies such as the UN Tourism, World Bank, and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, alongside numerous national and regional tourism boards and destination management organisations. Professor Stevens is a trustee of two heritage charities in England and contributes pro bono to several community initiatives. He previously served as Vice Chair (Strategy) of the Wales Tourist Board and is a sought-after keynote speaker at global tourism conferences, frequently chairing ministerial summits. With more than 350 published works, he has produced influential research on destination management. In the past five years alone, he has published three major books exploring new thinking on the future of tourism.

• Susan Houston- Kienitz

  Podcast host, Author

  Susan Houston is the foremost voice on the force quietly shaping every decision, relationship, and culture: judgment. She exposes how it erodes self-trust, silences potential, and traps individuals and teams in performative survival mode. Susan doesn’t talk about bias from afar—she calls it out, dismantles it, and shows what’s possible when people stop pretending and start telling the truth. Susan challenges audiences to confront the silent jury inside their own minds—and replace it with clarity, courage, and compassion. Her work doesn’t soothe or placate. It liberates. She doesn’t teach people to “be better.” She creates the conditions where they finally trust themselves—and build cultures where everyone feels seen, heard, and fully human. When you’re ready to move past judgment, surface-level inclusion, and quiet self-betrayal—and into cultures where people feel seen, heard, and fully human—Susan Houston doesn’t just start the conversation. She changes the narrative.