Waltham Forest Head Teachers’ Conference & Exhibition 2025

Ashley John-Baptiste

Ashley is a BBC presenter as well as a Speaker, who has a remarkable story of how he overcame his troubled childhood in care to exceed expectations. Taken into care at a young and growing up being shuttled between foster families and children’s homes, Ashley is a strong champion for care experience people. Ashley tells an uplifting, inspirational and often humorous account of his childhood. His story of a disjointed upbringing in foster care where so many of his peers ended up in jail, on drugs or worse is shocking to hear, however it makes his rise to success even more amazing.

Dr Cath Bishop

Dr. Cath Bishop is a former Olympic rower, senior diplomat and thought leader in leadership and organisational culture. Her work bridges elite sport, international diplomacy and business, offering rare insight into how high performance and purpose can coexist. She is known for challenging traditional definitions of success and promoting long-term, sustainable approaches that place learning and human connection at the core. As a three-time Olympian and silver medallist, Cath competed at the highest levels of sport, culminating in a World Championship title and podium finish at Athens 2004. Transitioning from elite sport to international diplomacy, she worked in some of the most complex conflict zones, including Bosnia and Iraq, applying negotiation and leadership skills under extreme pressure. Her years in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office saw her lead stabilisation efforts across global conflict zones. Now an author, educator and trusted advisor, Cath brings academic insight and lived experience to her work with organisations across sectors. She teaches at Cambridge Judge Business School and contributes to leadership programmes and cultural reviews in both sport and business. Her book The Long Win rethinks what it means to succeed, and her podcast further explores the impact of organisational culture. Cath continues to support the development of the next generation through her work with sporting charities and educational institutions. She is a Steward of Henley Royal Regatta, a trustee of Love Rowing, and an Honorary Fellow at both Pembroke College, Cambridge and the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.

Dr Faiza Shaheen

Faiza is the Executive Director of Tax Justice UK, and was previously a Distinguished Policy Fellow at London School of Economic’s International Inequalities Institute. Faiza is an economist, political commentator and activist. Faiza has over 15 years of experience researching the trends and consequences of inequality, as well as designing policies and campaigns to address the causes of inequality and exclusion. She has advised the UN and governments around the world, including Spain and Indonesia, on policies to reduce inequality. Her book, Know your place: How society sets us up to fail and what we can do about it was released in July 2023.

Dr Richard Gerver

Speaker and Author, expert in leadership, change and innovation; prolific author. Richard is one of the world's leading thinkers on human leadership and organisational transformation. A former globally renowned and life changing school principal, Richard offers a ground-breaking look into how society deals with the challenge of unleashing human potential and embracing and leading change in uncertain times. Richard's unique insight into our development from infants to adults helps us to understand the nature of our personal and professional responses to risk, change, creativity, and development. His ability to connect experiences across many, often seemingly different, environments help individuals’ companies and organisations expand their thinking and their own perception of their potential. Named UK Business Speaker of the Year three times, Richard is the author of several books on change, leadership, and innovation, including bestsellers Change and Simple Thinking. He is also one of LinkedIn Learnings’ most popular contributors, with two best-selling courses, Smart Thinking and Mental Toughness.

Nick Zienau

Nick has run an independent organisational consultancy for the past 30 years. His company is called Intelligent Action, and he has specialised in providing development for leaders who wish to create cultural change and improvement in their organisations. He has worked mainly in education and the humanitarian sector, but he also has experience with commercial and governmental organisations. He has trained and coached many leaders and aspiring leaders in education in the UK, Estonia, Finland and the Netherlands. For the past 13 years he has been engaged in training leaders and consulting for Medecin sans Frontieres and has also worked with the United Nations Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals and the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue in Geneva He started working in education as a youth worker in Hackney in the 1970’s – then became Director of a large Unit running programmes for the large number of young people who were not succeeding in the school system. He did this for 10 years and subsequently became an adviser to schools and colleges which was marked the beginning of his subsequent career as a consultant, coach and trainer. Throughout his consulting career he has kept working in London schools supporting schools and school leaders alongside his other projects. Recently he has been involved in running an extensive coaching programme in three London Boroughs for school leaders and leadership teams as they deal with the challenges of the COVID pandemic.