TEDxHabs Elstree Youth

Speakers

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

• Aiden Barretto

  Student

  Student

• Alastair Metcalfe

  Teacher

  Originally from North Yorkshire, I came down south predominantly to play rugby. Thankfully, the game was still just about amateur in those days and I needed another sting to my bow, namely teaching. 30 years later, I remain at the same school at which I started.

• Alex Randle

  Habs Schools Partnerships Programme Manager

  Alex Randle, Habs Schools Partnerships Programme Manager. MSc in Learning and Teaching at Oxford University. Blue Peter badge holder. Mother of 3 children under 6 years old. Friend, Auntie, Sister, Wife. Dog owner. Lover of literature and long walks in nature.

• Arkansh Pandey

  Student

  Student

• Ayan Bajaj

  Student

  Student

• Christopher Joyce

  Head of Classics

  I did my undergraduate degree in Classics at Oxford University and hold an MA from the University of California at Berkeley and a Ph.D. from Durham University. I have since published widely in my field, including a book on the Athenian Amnesty which I published through Edinburgh University Press in 2022. I am a pianist and organist, and I sing with the St Albans Bach Choir. I have been teaching at Habs since 2012 and became Head of Classics in 2018.

• Enora Hauduc

  Student

  Student

• Hamza Mehrali

  Student

  Student

• Hari Das

  Student

• Ish Sachdev

  Student

  Student

• Jackson Ogunyemi

  Action Jackson

  Action Jackson is the founder of Action Life, an education-focused training company partnering with school leaders across the UK to advance student happiness and success. Alongside his team, he designed "The Good V.I.B.E.S. Framework" a practical framework now used across education to address low motivation, disengagement, confidence, and wellbeing challenges facing students today. Action Life delivers powerful, entertaining workshops through a trained specialist team, supporting primary schools, secondary schools, colleges, sixth forms, universities, and Local Education Authorities to embed motivation, wellbeing, and personal development into school culture. V.I.B.E.S - Vision, Identity, Belief, Execution and Support

• Jacob Turner

  Lawyer and Writer

  Jacob Turner is a lawyer and writer. He was one of the first lawyers to develop a practice in AI, and has been described in legal directories as “the leading barrister in the AI space”. Jacob is the author of ‘Robot Rules: Regulating Artificial Intelligence’ (2018) and a joint author of ‘The Law of Artificial Intelligence’ (2024). He has acted in some of the world’s most significant AI disputes, including: a case in the UK Supreme Court where he argued that an invention made by AI should be patented; for a group of former Uber drivers dismissed by an AI algorithm; and representing the UK music industry in a copyright claim against an AI Deepfake company. Jacob also advises the UK Government on its AI regulatory policy. In 2025 Jacob was named in The Lawyer Magazine’s ‘Hot 100’ in recognition of his AI work. Jacob holds law degrees from Oxford and Harvard.

• Kathryn Beevor

  Poet Educator and Trustee for Kids at School in Nepal (KASIN)

  Kathryn Beevor is a UK poet educator and charity trustee. She is a former Deputy Head and English teacher and has raised thousands of pounds for charities. Nowadays, she combines her philanthropy with creativity having published two books (Peak Poetry and Moon in the Morning) to fundraise for disadvantaged youngsters in Nepal, Kenya, Morocco, South Africa, Botswana, USA and the UK. Her work can be found online and in many anthologies. She says her inspiration comes from making moments that matter to help others.

• Moses Braun

  Director of Strategy & Transformation at Adobe

  I work on problems that affect millions of people around the world, how companies communicate, how services work, and how teams make decisions. I help some of the world’s biggest organisations change how they work, use technology properly, and solve complex problems. My job isn’t about coding, it’s about thinking clearly, asking the right questions, and helping people turn big ideas into real change. I’m especially interested in how people think, why change feels hard, and how good decisions get made. A lot of my work is about connecting ideas that don’t seem related and helping teams see things differently.

• Ninder Johal

  CEO of Nachural

  Ninder leads a music, event production and publishing company delivering six major annual corporate events for entrepreneurs across Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Leicester, Manchester and London, including the Signature Awards, Nachural Entrepreneurship Awards, Nachural Summer Business Awards and the Midlands Economic Summit. He has run a record label for 25+ years; it remains the only British Asian label to chart globally. “Munde To Bachke” reached No.5 UK, No.7 US (feat. Jay-Z), No.2 Germany and nine No.1s, selling 11m+ copies. A member of bhangra band Achanak, he also oversees film, video and The Business Influencer magazine and podcast (1,000+ stores incl. WHSmith). He serves on numerous regional boards, is a Deputy Lieutenant of the West Midlands, multi award winner, and Sunday Times NED judge.

• Purnima Sen

  Chief Operating Officer at Sparta Global

  Purnima Sen is Chief Operating Officer at Sparta Global, where she has spent over nine years shaping culture, ESG, and social impact. With a 30 year career across global corporations, she has led UK operations spanning HR, talent, training, compliance, and resourcing, building high performing and inclusive organisations. Since joining Sparta’s leadership team in 2017, she has championed equitable access to digital careers, helping to democratise pathways into technology. Under her leadership, Sparta became the only B Corp certified and King’s Award winning organisation in its sector. A two time finalist for the IoD Director of the Year Award for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, she has also advised at 10 Downing Street on ED&I policy. She is a Freeman and Liveryman of the City of London and a Fellow of the City and Guilds of London Institute.

• Ravjoth Brar

  Student

  Student

• Sir David Lidington

  Distinguished Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute

  David Lidington is a Distinguished Fellow and former Chair of the Royal United Services Institute, the UK’s leading defence and security think tank. He is Honorary President of the Great Britain China Centre and UK Chair of the Konigswinter Conference and the Aurora Forum. He represented Aylesbury in the House of Commons from 1992 to 2019. As Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, he served as deputy to Prime Minister Theresa May from 2018 to 2019, and previously held senior roles including Leader of the House of Commons and Justice Secretary. From 2010 to 2016, he served as Minister for Europe, the longest serving in that role, with responsibility for relations across Europe and Central Asia and representation at the EU, NATO, OSCE, Council of Europe, and the UN Security Council.

• Sita Brahmachari

  Children's Author

  Sita Brahmachari works across youth theatre, community arts, participatory exhibitions, and more than twenty award winning novels, plays, and poems. She has collaborated with organisations including the Royal Court Theatre, the RSC, Talawa, and Tamasha, with a focus on representation and mentoring underrepresented voices. Her debut novel Artichoke Hearts won the Waterstones Children’s Book Award and was named one of the Guardian’s top fifty diverse books since the 1950s. Since then, her books have been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal several times, including When Shadows Fall and Phoenix Brothers, while Tender Earth was honoured by the International Board on Books for Young People. She has been Writer in Residence at the Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants since 2014, is an Amnesty Ambassador, and lectures on the MA in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and in 2025 received the Malorie Blackman Impact Award.

• Stephen Clark

  Teacher of Politics and History

  Mr Clark has been teaching History at HABS since 2000 and Politics since 2009. He lives in Watford with his wife, his two daughters and his dog. In his spare time he likes reading, listening to podcasts and watching movies and sport on television. He enjoys travel and meeting new people.

• Stephen McDonald

  Chief Technology Officer at GiffGaff

  Steve has spent his career helping organisations move from rigid, slow-moving systems to fast, resilient, continuously-improving ones, scaling teams from a handful of deployments a year to thousands, while keeping customers at the heart of Product development. Steve is currently CTO of Giffgaff, a UK based Telecoms company. Known for blending deep technical expertise with plain-spoken leadership, Steve is particularly focused on how AI is reshaping knowledge work—not as a distant future, but as a practical tool available to everyone today. He speaks candidly about fear, failure, and feeling out of depth, drawing on personal experiences of teaching himself to code, leading large-scale transformation, and helping non-technical teams build confidence with new technology. Steve believes progress comes not from being brilliant, but from staying curious when you feel uncomfortable—and creating environments where people are empowered to learn, adapt, and move faster than thought possible.

• Tom Sullam

  Professional Photographer

  Tom has taken a labyrinthine route to professional photography. Following a degree in psychology at university, he found himself in the depths of city life in London. Still a little unclear what he was doing there, 10 years on he took sound advice, fortunately from world renown Landscape photographer Charlie Waite. Trips to Scotland, Dorset and central France followed which introduced Tom to the finer side of landscape photography. A couple of years later, both Charlie and Tom set up regular photography workshops to the US, taking groups of American photographers to different parts of that incredible country. In 2013 Tom and his family moved to Tanzania – where he very quickly developed a deep passion for the conservation of wildlife. This is where he co-founded the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards alongside wildlife photographer Paul Joynson Hicks. The aim? To help focus people’s attention on sustainability and bio diversity in a positive, upbeat and embracing way.

• Vivaan Chhabra

  Student

  Student