Speaker: Dr. Stewart Desson, Lumina Learning Ltd: “Unpacking some award winning case studies on inclusivity” including:
• Facilitating successful ‘deep diversity’ dialogues with the explicit purpose of supporting the World Food Programme’s (WFP) Kenyan geographically and tribally diverse staff to build a culture of mutual respect. Workshops, followed by world café discussion, sought to equip staff with the knowledge, skills, and mindset to build a working culture of respect. A Big Five personality tool was used to enable staff to see the strength of the diversity in the personalities of their teams. Practical techniques were shared that empowered staff to engage in peer coaching and ‘deep diversity’ conversations on an ongoing basis.

• Working with Inemmo who run successful ‘levelling up’ coaching programmes wit the explicit purpose of supporting young people in inner London, who face inequalities, discrimination of all types, poverty and high levels of crime/unhelpful role-models in their local neighbourhood. Short coaching experiences are provided, with an ongoing mentoring programme for individuals who want to benefit from significant long-term interventions to support social mobility and the attainment of career and life goals.

Dr Stewart Dessons background
Dr Stewart Desson is an experienced Business Psychologist and the CEO and founder of Lumina Learning. He is the author of the innovative Lumina Spark psychometric. His research at the University of Westminster has shown that adaptive and ‘maladaptive’ traits can be measured at both ends of the Big Five’s polarities

Stewart travels internationally as an inspirational speaker and sought after business psychologist. He has trained over 1,000 consultants in the use of Lumina Spark to support the valuing of diversity in many large organisations globally. Stewart has supported many clients in customising their use of learning and assessment resources. Stewart has pioneered a psychological approach to employee engagement and individual transformational using the innovative Spark colour model.

In his role on the board of the Association for Business Psychology (ABP) Stewart has special responsibility for professional development events for business psychologists throughout the UK – and has sourced many evidence based thought leaders to speak in the last few years. Before setting up Lumina Learning, Stewart had a 15 year career with British Airways as a consultant and working as a senior manager in Marketing, Operations Research and Customer Services. His passion is creativity, leadership development and the use of psychometrics to support change processes.

Stewart is also a Chartered Fellow with the CIPD and has two Masters degrees, the first in ‘Operational Research’ that he used extensively at British Airways. Stewart’s second Masters degree is in ‘Change Agent Skills and Strategies’ and he is skilled in the application of humanistic psychology to support organisational change. He earned his PhD in the practical application of psychometrics to selection and development solutions in organisations.

Joy Maitland MGP FIoD FCMI FInstLM and Atiya Sheikh MCMI MGP MIoD MMRS will join Dr Stewart Desson

Joy is a multi-award-winning a Business Psychologist, Executive Coach and Author of ‘From Alpha to Zen’- Leadership for a brave new world. She is firm believer in continuous learning and improvement. Her motto, “Be the Difference. Make the Difference,” has served as her North Star in everything she does, whether in the workplace or wider society.

Joy has a wealth of senior-level corporate management experience, and continued involvement with various organisations at Board level. She holds fellowships with the Institute of Directors (IoD), the Institute of Leadership and Management (TILM), and the Chartered Management Institute (CMI). She is a member of Member of the Association of Corporate Governance Practitioners and has been a member of the Association for Business Psychology (ABP) since 2014.

Joy has worked with world-leading brands, including Vodafone, 3M, Sony, RBS and Credit Lyonnais. Inemmo Leadership Development Solutions was launched in 2005 following Joy’s role as Group Director Operations within the FTSE 250 firm Taylor Nelson Sofres. Joy is co-creator of the award-winning Progression Programme for Schools – Students learn new behavioural strategies for greater self-leadership; self-awareness, building resilience, self-confidence, self-esteem, valuing others, leading others.

As coach, Joy supports current and future leaders in adopting modern leadership techniques as well as innovative ways of working, to achieve leadership excellence.

Atiya is an exceptional Leadership Development Consultant who works with managers on a wide range of solutions to help them achieve critical change through their people. As Business Psychologist, and Director of the multi-award winning Inemmo Leadership Development Solutions, she strategically supports clients to drive the improvement of both management and leadership capability, ensuring the development of solutions that are aligned to deliver the strategic goals of the organisation.
Atiya’s current role followed successful careers in Accountancy and Market Research. In Market Research, she brought Professional and Financial Services industry perspective to studies ensuring that research was designed and delivered to produce actionable insights that address clients’ underlying business challenges. She delivered brand focussed insight consultancy to industry leading clients including The London Stock Exchange, Barclays, Ernst & Young, KPMG, Morgan Stanley, UBS, Credit Suisse and RBS. In addition to her role as Director at Inemmo Leadership Development Solutions, Atiya also supports several charities as trustee and mentor.
Supporting young adults and helping them develop the skills and mindset that will allow them to flourish and succeed at university, in business and in life is an area of particular interest for Atiya. She works extensively with students, in the UK and overseas, on a series of mentoring and leadership development programmes. Atiya has received awards for her mentoring and volunteering work with children’s charity Mosaic (The Prince’s Trust) and youth charity Amos Bursary. Inemmo also partners with and is a sponsor of the Afro-Caribbean Society at Imperial College London and University College London.
Atiya is a Member of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), the Institute of Directors (IoD) and Chartered Quality Institute (CQI), Market Research Society (MRS), Association of Corporate Governance Practitioners (ACGP) and the ACCA.

We look forward to meeting with you!