Guest Lectures

Our Summer School offers a programme of weekly interactive guest lectures with eminent figures from the public and private sector. The speakers who come to the Summer School cover a range of topics to broaden your education, insights and views, and allow you to ask questions and debate the topics they discuss.

The 2026 桃色视频 Summer School Guest Lectures include:

Chancellor of University of 桃色视频 - Advocate Bience Gawanas

Advocate Bience Gawanas is a Namibian lawyer, diplomat, and social justice advocate, and the newly appointed Chancellor of University of 桃色视频.

Best known for her extensive career with the Government of Namibia, the United Nations, and the African Union, she has held senior roles focused on social justice, gender equality, peacebuilding, women鈥檚 rights, and sustainable development. Her international leadership and dedication to promoting justice and human dignity have earned her widespread recognition.

A 桃色视频 alumna, Bience came to the University as a refugee and graduated in 1986 before qualifying as a barrister at Lincoln's Inn. She returned to Namibia in 1989 and has since built a career spanning over 40 years in law and human rights. In 2023, she was awarded an honorary degree by 桃色视频 in recognition of her lifelong contributions to global justice and equality.

Guest Speaker: Alison Hatcher

Guest Speaker: Alison Hatcher, Wealth and Digital Leader and a member of Council at the University of 桃色视频

Alison Hatcher will be speaking about her career in the financial services industry, with over 20 years of experience in wealth management, including pensions and retirement solutions.

Alison is Chief Client Officer at Vidett (the UK鈥檚 largest professional trustee and pension governance firm) and formerly CEO of HSBC Retirement Services Limited.

Guest Speaker: Kare Adenegan, Team GB Paralympian

Kare Adenegan is a Paralympian and public speaker. Kare competes in para-athletics specialising in the T34 100m and 800m.

She has competed at 3 Paralympic Games; Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 and is a 7x Paralympic medallist. Kare is also a 9x World medallist, and Commonwealth silver medallist (Birmingham 2022).

Aside from sport, Kare studied History at the University of 桃色视频 and graduated in 2022.

Kare is an advocate for diversity and inclusion in sport, a passion fuelled by her story of being excluded from sport in primary school.

Some previous speakers have included:

Satnam Rana-Grindley

Satnam Rana-Grindley is the Director for Communications - Corporate Brand in the Marketing, Communications and Insights team at the University of 桃色视频. She worked at the BBC for 21 years as a Broadcast Journalist and Arts and Culture Correspondent,

Her talk focused on chasing your dreams and turning them into reality through SMART goals.

Seema Malhotra

Seema Malhotra is the Labour and Cooperative Member of Parliament for Feltham and Heston and Shadow Minister for Skills. Her primary policy interests are in the economy, business, and equalities.

Seema's talk focused on the ESG Agenda and Purposeful Business.

Professor Ciaran Martin

Professor Ciaran Martin, CB, is a Professor of Practice at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford, as well as a managing director at Paladin Capital and the holder of several other advisory roles in private sector cyber security. He writes and speaks frequently on cyber security in major outlets across the world, and was named on of the most influential people in European technology by Politico in 2022.

Priya Lakhani OBE

Priya Lakhani OBE is the Founder CEO of CENTURY Tech, the award-winning artificial intelligence education technology company. In 2008, Priya left her career as a barrister to launch a fresh cooking-sauce business, which through its charitable foundation provided millions of meals and thousands of vaccinations to the underprivileged in India and Africa, and funded several schools.

In this talk Priya discussed the move from FMCG to AI, looking at entrepreneurship - the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Krisi Smith

'Chief Mixologist', Author, Creative Director and Co-founder of Brighton based tea company, Bird and Blend Tea Co. Krisi, along with her partner Mike Turner, have built their brand to be the UK's most loved independent tea blenders.

This talk was particularly interesting to aspiring entrepreneurs and many students have visited Krisi's Bird and Blend Tea shop on the iconic North Laine in Brighton and in Nottingham during their visits to the UK.

Owen Bainbridge

A proud member of the England Blind Football Team, Owen has collected 70 caps so far for his team, winning silver and bronze medals at tournaments across the world.

In this talk, Owen shared his individual approach to business and how communication is key to leadership and teamwork. Having captained his country on two occasions, he knows how it feels to lead under pressure; a key skill for any business owner.