Leap and SHINE Conference 2020

Vaneese Johnson - The Boldness Coach™, is an Award-Winning Global Speaker and Leadership Coach, Author, Certified Career Management Coach, Business and Personal Brand Strategist. She is also the Founder of the Global Movement, No Permission Needed™ where she invites women to take up residence in the realm of self-trust, self-acceptance and self-direction to own and live the life you were born to live.

As a powerhouse possibility creator and transformation instigator, Vaneese teaches and empowers today’s women leaders through her proprietary success fundamentals of Branding Out Loud Daily (BOLD), Building in Your Gifts (BIG), and being Branded and Distinctive (BAD) to accentuate their professional presence with authenticity and authority while making a purposeful impact in the world. Her strategic approach allows clients to better connect their talents, skills and values across diverse groups and industries resulting in relevant, high-impact engagement.

Sameer Somal is the CEO & Co-Founder of Blue Ocean Global Technology. He is a frequent speaker at conferences on online reputation management, search engine optimization, relationship capital, and ethics. Fundamental to his work at Blue Ocean Global Technology, Sameer leads collaboration with an exclusive group of PR, Law, Digital Marketing, and Web-Development agency partners. He helps clients build, monitor and repair their digital presence. Sameer is a published writer and Internet Defamation subject matter expert witness. In collaboration with the Philadelphia Bar Foundation, he authors continuing legal education (CLE) programs. Sameer proudly serves on the board of the CFA Institute Seminar for Global Investors, College Possible and the R.J. Leonard Foundation, an organization dedicated to educating, initiating careers and personally mentoring young adults who are aging out of the foster care system. Sameer was named an Iconic Leader Creating a Better World for All by the All Ladies League & Women Economic Forum.

Dr. Corey Hicks is a two-time NCAA All-American Athlete, Author, Coach Motivational Speaker who has presented for several National & International Organisations including the Caribbean Sports Ministry, as well as other major corporations within the United States. He currently serves as a Successful Corporate Marketing Executive within the Biotech Industry, and as Founder & CEO of the Three V’s Foundation. - a truly inspirational humanitarian, brought up from humble beginnings and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Instead of crumbling under life’s challenges, Corey transformed his circumstances into an opportunity for growth and has used adversity as an invitation to motivate, encourage, and inspire others.

The secret in his book "Values, Vision, and Versatility" has played a significant role in the guidance and transformation of who he is today. With a BA in Early Childhood Education, a Masters Degree in Health Science and a Ph.D. in Health and Human Performance, Coach Corey’s life is based on the concept that "All things are possible".

Maura Sweeney is an Author, Podcaster, and International Speaker, Maura Sweeney has transformed her own mantra of “Living Happy – Inside Out” to become a global influencer. A former corporate manager and HuffPost columnist who has travelled to 60 countries, Maura was first called the Ambassador of Happiness by the UNESCO Center for Peace when invited to speak at the inaugural Nelson Mandela Day celebration. Since then, she’s trademarked her title and become a popular media guest featured on hundreds of media outlets in the U.S., Europe, Africa, and Australia. Maura has lectured on Influence and Leadership at universities, leadership conferences, women’s organizations, Model UN’s and several American Embassy outposts. In 2018, she was named Women of the Decade at the Women Economic Forum (WEF) held in The Hague. Maura Sweeney's genuine and first-hand approach empowers others of every background to become their finest version of self and helps us see what’s best in us all.

Alex Okoroji is an Actress, Writer, TV Personality, Talk Radio Host, Speaker, Author, Global Influencer, Reinvention Strategist and Communication Consultant who helps experts around the world create bigger impact with their brands, message, content, product or service. Referred to as the "Queen of Expression" for using different mediums of art to empower people with the freedom to express their truth, talent, and personal greatness. Ranked as one of the Top 250 Most Influential Women in the World by Richtopia and Nominated for Her Network 2018 "Woman of The Year" in Entertainment. She was honored with a Nigeria Goodwill Ambassador Award, a 2017 Peace Achievers Award - as "Media Personality of the Year", a 2017 WEF Iconic Woman Award and a 2019 Exceptional Woman of Excellence Award at the Annual Global Women Economic Forum. She has been featured in over 250 Media Platforms around the World like Huffington Post, CNN, The Guardian, The Telegraph, Mogul, The Sun, The New York Journal, Fox, ABC, NBC and many more. She is CEO at The BRAG Media Company and Creator of Self Development Hub - The NAKED Philosophy™.

Deji DJ Sobanjo is a leading personal and leadership development expert, author, speaker, coach, and consultant. He has been engaging, inspiring and developing people across the world for over 18 years. He is driven by a divinely inspired mission to teach, train, inspire and motivate everyone who comes in touch with him to live more productive and effective lives.
His core message is ‘Maximised Living’ which is about being the best person, business or organisation you could possibly be and he delivers result-oriented programs in the areas of tactical people skills, leadership skills, sales and marketing skills and strategic personal and business growth. His clients include large multinational corporate organisations as well as small and medium-sized businesses. He started his first business in 2002 and over since 2014 he has been running profit From Coaching, a company that is helping thousands of coaches and consultants around the world build a profitable, money-making business around their passion for helping others.

Suki Laniado-Smith is a passionate advocate for the integration of culture as a strategic asset in business. She aligns the human dynamics and business mechanics, and she does so to great effect. A very experienced coach and now also a qualified mediator, Suki brings a balance of candour and warmth to her coaching which earns the loyalty and respect of Clients. After 13 years at Shirlaws, Suki is now a partner at Imaginal Ventures, where she currently channels her talents into the marketplace. She works in partnership with leaders who have a mandate for transformational change. Leaders who “have the authority, commitment and desire to bring about lasting evolutionary change. They understand the value of building a trust-based organisation. This is not just talking about change, it's designing, implementing and living the change.” Her focus is supporting leaders to align & integrate the human dynamics in their organisation with the business mechanics, and approach she believes provides businesses with the resilience, speed, and agility required for growth and dictates the pace at which growth can be achieved.

Stella Fubara is a Director of International operations with the Dubai Department of Tourism & Commerce Marketing; the principal authority for the planning, supervision, development, and marketing of Dubai’s tourism sector. She is also the 2017 recipient of the West Africa Travel Personality of the Year award. An accomplished leader in business and finance management, Stella has over two decades of impressive executive management. Stella began her Professional career in 1999 as Financial Portfolio Manager at a global company, Owens Corning USA. And became the Senior Project Controller at Deloitte & Touche, where she set a remarkable standard for usage of tools and project management techniques for Deloitte projects on the East coast. Stella demonstrates effective management capabilities in areas of finance, forecasting, marketing strategy, product/business development, and policy formulation. Stella has won many awards in recent years, including 2017 & 2018 Balafon West Africa Travel Personality of the Year, Top 100 Women in Tourism, 2018 Best Travel Destination, 2018 SpiceTV Lifestyle Honoree for Best Destination amongst others.

Kemi Oyesola aka CoachKemi is a Prolific, Bold and Fearless Speaker of the Truth, Coach, Author, Mentor and CEO of How2Think Global Consulting Empire. She is the ‘creator’ of How2Think and Dominate Mastermind, Idea to Income 6-Week Intensive and How2Think Thinking School. She has studied and taught leaders in every field from top executives to business owners; church members to young people groups; spoken to audiences of over 100,000 and at Christian retreats and conferences, the fine art of How2Think in various countries like Nigeria, USA, UK, Spain, Kenya, etc. Through her books, over 300 videos and digital courses, CoachKemi has helped thousands in various countries realise their God-given ability to have Dominion and EXCEL. CoachKemi holds 2 Bachelor degrees in the Sciences and the Arts and is a Certified Gold Coach & NLP Practitioner. She volunteers as a Mentor with the Cherie Blair Foundation, Women in Banking & Finance (WIBF), 3 Young People’s Organisations: Black Training Enterprise Group and Kingsgen Foundation as well as seats on the Board of Young People Matter.

Dr Jackie Gilbert-Grant is the Senior Pastor and Founder of Sanctuary of Praise Christian Assembly, Inc. in Savannah, Georgia. She is Author of the newly released book "When The Water Breaks" and a sought after Motivational Speaker. She is the Creator of the Queens For Life LLC which includes The Sophisticated Ladies Collection and LADIES INC. International, a movement, teaching and encouraging women to be (L)adies (A)cting (D)ignified (I)n (E)very (S)ituation. Dr. Grant is a Board member of the Build A Bridge Foundation of Georgia, and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Gamma Sigma Omega Chapter, where she currently serves as Chaplin. In 2015, Dr. Grant was consecrated a "Bishop" in the Lord’s Church by the Impact Fellowship International and The Promise Land Ministries, based in Washington DC, and holds a membership with the Perfecting Covenant Prevailing Connection. She is also the author of three other books, “Developing Your Spiritual Gifts,” “For The Working of The Ministry,” “Bossed Up For Purpose.” Bishop Grant has won many awards and citations through the years, all of which she has been honored to receive.

Titi Horsfall is a novelist, poet, and public speaker. Professionally, she has built a career as a corporate communicator in the Liquefied Natural Gas industry. As Head of Business Relations in NLNG, she manages communication and stakeholder engagement for corporate business growth, economic diplomacy, and fostering positive business environment through regulatory compliance. She has a bachelor’s degree in Marketing, masters in Banking and Finance, and an MBA in Oil and Gas Management from Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen. She is a member of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC). She founded the Prisenda Writers Residency Initiative to promote literacy, creative writing, and intellectual expression. In 2018, she was a speaker at the 8th Edition of the African Achievers Awards, hosted at the UK Westminster Parliament in London. She is the 2017 PR Times Africa Magazine Woman of the Year, the 2016 African Achievers Award Recipient for Literature, recipient of the Deep River Books Merit Award, and 2015 Garden City Advancement Award.

Sanchia Alasia is the former mayor of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. An award-winning specialist in equality diversity and Human Resource who was first elected to the Council in 2010. She has held a number of positions - and was one of the Labour Party candidates for the European elections in 2014 in the London region and is a candidate again in the 2019 European elections. She is also the gender equality representative for the Party of European Socialists. With a BSc in politics and sociology and an MSc in politics, policy, and government, Sanchia is a well sought after speaker and has spoken at the World Diversity leadership summit and the European Diversity Business Congress, as well as conferences and forums across Europe. Sanchia has won numerous awards including, local government personality of the year at the Dods Women in public life awards in 2013, the Grassroots Diplomats awards in the policy driver category for her work in equality and diversity in 2014 and Christian woman in politics at the Wise Women Awards in 2018 and Mayor of the year in 2018.

Mark Stephen Pooler is a Creative entrepreneur who has overcome the kind of adversity that most people cannot even comprehend. He has taken the resilience from his past trauma and turned that into an inspirational determination to help others. After years of being severely bullied, Mark turned to drug addiction and started down a dark road of self-destruction that nearly ended his life. After having the strength to overcome his addictions, he rebuilt his life stronger than ever. Mark is now a professional speaker, bestselling author, a speaker coach and a radio host. Mark helps struggling entrepreneurs create a mindset and belief system that makes their success a reality. Mark inspires entrepreneurs to find and use their courage and strength to empower and lead themselves to success. He helps speakers, coaches and influencers to move forwards gain credibility and authority and get results using PR.

Cresta Durojaiye is one of Africa's leading Productivity Experts, a Professional Organizer, Author, Podcaster and Life Strategist who teaches and empowers people with practical tools and strategies to live fuller and perform optimally. She serves as the Founding Chairperson of the Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals in Nigeria (APON). She is also President & Co-Founder of PineTreeGroup of companies (currently comprising PineTree Organizers; Inspire! By PineTree; and PineTree Container Store). Cresta hosts a weekly podcast called Life Lessons where she dishes productivity tips and strategies that enable people to live their best lives possible. She is the author of eBook "Principles for a More Productive YOU" and co-author of the global anthology - 40 Pearls of Wisdom. She is passionate about creating systems and structures for organized workflow and personal transformation. She also places a major premium on family life, as a wife and hands-on Mum to two amazing girls.

Brandy M. Miller is a Globally recognized author, entrepreneur, writing coach, and business leadership strategist, who is also the founder of the Writing Problems Into Profits movement where she helps aspiring authors claim their power as thought leaders and innovators while building successful businesses, and the Turning Problems Into Profits campaign where she helps low-income earners find and monetize the unique value they offer the world and connects them to wealthy investors looking to gain both financial and emotional ROI by using their money to transform lives, empower families, and liberate communities trapped by economic hardships using free enterprise principles. Her signature program, Magnetic Leadership Training, helps organizations and individuals whose profitability and productivity is being negatively impacted by infighting and departmental divisions to use their common problems as tools to build bridges that turn adversaries into allies, end the infighting, and restore both productivity and profitability.

Leon Streete is an International Number 1 Amazon Best-Selling Author for the book “More Leads More Clients”, International Speaker, and he is known as “The Visionary Marketing Coach” and Founder of Business Owner Elevation. A company dedicated to helping coaches, consultants and service-based businesses to create 6-7 figure marketing campaigns. Are you stuck with the often miss-understood subject of “Marketing?” You’re not alone. He removes the hype around the big social media platforms and shows you the simple visionary strategic approach so you can simplify your message, create great marketing materials and grow your business.” Leon’s passion is marketing, born out of his ability to see a person's vision come to life in their marketing message, he regularly creates content for his community, runs various workshops, coaching programmes and interview top entrepreneurs on his Award-Winning Podcast.

Dr Yewande Okuleye is a transdisciplinary scholar and trained Adizes facilitator. Yewande guides leaders and teams to develop collaborative thinking, consensus building and compassionate leadership. Creating intention-based connectivity, allows us to cultivate honest and engaged dialogues, an intrinsic building block for quality interrelatedness. Yewande sees her role as a connectivity guide, as an important catalyst for change. Yewande is the CEO/Founder, of The Power of Nine: Creating Connectivity and Purpose. The Power of Nine experiential workshops, creates a space for participants to question, feel, and re-imagine what it means, to connect to self and others and how this shapes our perceptions and values. The idea of the power of the collective also informs Yewande's academic research, which highlights issues of social justice, social corporate responsibility and cannabis drug reform.

Tracey West is an environmentalist and a passionate advocate for simple, green living. She's CEO and Co-founder of an environmental charity, The Word Forest Organisation; they plant trees, build classrooms and facilitate education in Kenya. Tracey also started a women's empowerment group there, called Mothers of the Forest, the concept of which is about to be rolled out internationally. Back in 2010, she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts for her work promoting simple, green living; The Ecologist named her as one of the Top 100 Positive Influencers. She's an author and broadcaster on sustainable living, which includes The Book of Rubbish Ideas on ways to reduce your rubbish and keep more money in your pocket. Tracey served as a Trustee of the National Association for Children of Alcoholics for a decade.