Our 2025 Speakers
Paul Lewis
Sustainability and business visionary
Paul is a sustainability and business strategy expert with over 20 years of experience helping businesses make a positive impact for people and planet. A true believer in the power of business to create a seismic shift towards a sustainable future, Paul has also contributed locally to Winchester's sustainability efforts through his previous work for Winchester University. He is dedicated to aligning sustainability performance with commercial success and enjoys collaborating with leadership teams to achieve ambitious goals.
He has helped over 500 companies over this time, including Tesco, Vodafone, BT, Patagonia, The Crown Estate and Innocent Drinks. He has led several businesses and co-founded the sustainability agency, Seismic.
Natacha Harding
Crime storytelling myth buster
Natacha Harding currently teaches and researches topics around miscarriages of justice, victim-survivor politics and narratives; and crime fiction.
Having been a lifelong consumer of crime fiction, Natacha has long been an advocate for the role of storytelling in criminal justice (in its many forms), leading to the talk she is giving this year. Myth busting and challenging preconceived notions of experience of criminal harm in true crime and crime fiction stories is at the centre of her most recent projects.
Chris Huskins
Certified soil scientist
Chris is an experienced grower at two Hampshire-based market gardens. As Head Grower and Director of Hampshire Market Garden CiC, he champions soil health as the key to tackling climate change and ensuring food security.
Combining scientific expertise with practical growing experience, Chris promotes regenerative practices that restore soil biodiversity and build resilient food systems.
His vision is to inspire communities and stakeholders to embrace regenerative agriculture, proving that healthy soil is the solution for both productive farming and a sustainable future.
Zahra Afshar
Justice-driven tea changemaker
Trained in criminal defence law and human rights, Zahra channels her passion for safeguarding fundamental freedoms into the family tea business and spearheads initiatives to instil responsible business practices to protect the most vulnerable in the tea supply chain. Her commitment to long term impact and addressing real needs has led to nutrition projects, sanitation programs and widened access to education – benefiting communities, not only within the tea industry, but beyond. Her efforts helped earn Ahmad Tea the King’s Award for Enterprise in Sustainable Development in 2024.
Called to Bar, Masters at London School of Economics, Bristol University LLB. Zahra is currently Head of Legal, Human Rights and Sustainability at Ahmad Tea in Chandler’s Ford.
Matt Pitcher
Wealth whisperer
Matt is the founder of local BCorp, Altor Wealth. In a previous life he worked with the former operator of the National Lottery, Camelot, to prevent their winners from making big money mistakes. This gave him a unique insight into whether money ever makes us truly happy.
Matt passionately believes that life is about connection and supports local community work through his Foundation. In his spare time, he is a father to two promising young adults.
Nick Hodder
Museum futurist
Nick Hodder is an accomplished leader in digital transformation and engagement, bringing over 20 years of experience driving technology innovation across commercial and non-profit sectors. Currently leading a major AI focussed digital transformation in the cultural sector, Nick leads an award-winning team at Imperial War Museums who have grown a digital audience of hundreds of millions people across the globe and has been recognised by Computing as one of the UK's most influential technology leaders in the UK. Nick chaired the Digital Transformation conference in 2023, the AI in Business Conference in 2024 and presented keynotes at both the IT Leaders Summit and Microsoft Global Non-profit Leaders Conference.
Dr Sarah Green
Lifelong design advocate
Sarah is a multi-disciplinary designer and academic. She has lead groundbreaking digital creative projects for brands including Sony, IBM and Disney. Her small business Birdhouse Studio included a design school for 200 children weekly in Winchester.
Sarah believes passionately that design can make a difference to everyone’s quality of life and has dedicated her 32-year career to this. Her personal passion and research area is interior design, and the how spaces around us can support our well-being.
Sarah now teaches media and communications with a specialism in advertising at University of the Arts London.
Chris Rees
Triathlon theorist
Chris is an entrepreneur, event organiser, and founder of ReesLeisure, dedicated to making sport accessible and fun for life.
With a passion for endurance sports, leadership, and personal development, he has organised large-scale sporting events that bring communities together and challenge individuals to push their limits.
Chris explores how resilience, adaptability, and endurance shape success in today’s fast-changing world. He is passionate about helping people navigate challenges with a mindset built for long-term achievement.
Gihan Hyde
ESG business impact expert
Gihan is the award-winning CEO & Founder of one of the UK’s fastest-growing ESG Strategy and Communications Advisory Bcorps.
She is an Equitable Growth Board advisor to BCorp UK and Money 20/20, mentor on Accenture’s Fintech Lab Innovation and is the Chartered Institute of Public Relations Director of ESG Communications Training. Gihan has led some of the largest ESG diversity and employee change communications departments including BP Workplace Sustainability, Barclays Internal audit, HSBC Asset Management, M&S HR, and the Riyadh Metro Project.
Gihan has won numerous awards: UK’s “CEO of the Year”, “The top black leaders in the UK to watch” and one of the most influential “40 over 40” communications professionals in the world according to Campaign Magazine and she is LinkedIn Top ESG Voice 2023.
Dr Lucia Fonseca de la Bella
Space scientist
Lucia holds a PhD in Theoretical Physics and is the Faculty Strategic Project Manager at the University of Surrey, where she leads the development of the Institute for Space. She previously served as an Ambassador for the European Space Agency (ESA) in the UK, helping non-space companies integrate space technology.
At the University of Portsmouth, she led the validation of ESA’s Euclid mission and contributed to space missions on climate change.
Lucia's research includes dark matter studies, and she was honoured with an award of excellence for her work at the University of Sussex.
Lucy Taylor
Play specialist
Lucy Taylor is the Mary Poppins of the working world. As the founder of Make Work Play, she helps groups do hard things in a fun way for great results. Lucy will be brining her firm belief that work doesn’t need to be boring or hard or an endurance test and that life and work go better when we play. Lucy creates playful spaces where you can do your hard things in a way that feels joyful, easeful and life affirming.
