Jeannette Plummer Sires is an intercultural archaeologist whose work bridges the past and present. Raised between Seville and New York, she has conducted fieldwork across the world, from Viking sites in Iceland and Amerindian settlements in Antigua & Barbuda to Neanderthal caves in Spain and human origins research in Kenya.

She served as Curator of Archaeological Assemblages at the British Museum, leading efforts to decolonise and reconceptualise collections, and at London’s Natural History Museum, contributing to osteological research and fieldwork in Morocco through the Centre for Human Evolution Research. An Affiliate Scholar at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge and a trustee of the Council for British Archaeology, she brings innovative perspectives that challenge traditional paradigms in heritage and archaeology.

Jeannette has contributed her expertise to National Geographic and PBS NOVA documentaries. She is committed to making heritage accessible and inclusive, and advocates for cultural intelligence as a guiding lens for empathy, innovation and collective belonging.

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Nicola grew up in the Eden Valley in Cumbria as part of a rural working class family, an experience that has shaped both her worldview and her storytelling.

A writer and TV producer with twenty-five years of experience, she’s made documentaries on everything from poverty, class and farming to puppies, roller coasters and vacuum cleaners, working with brilliant minds and personalities including Hannah Fry, David Attenborough, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawking, Michael Moseley, Clare Balding and The Hairy Bikers.

Her debut book, These Wild English, will be published by Profile in 2026. This searing and fierce but beautiful family memoir follows three generations of rural working-class people as they drift from country to town, lurch from blows and misfortunes to hard-won joys, and navigate the social and economic chaos of modern Britain. With echoes of Amy Liptrot, Helen Macdonald and Tara Westover’s Educated, These Wild English is a story of love, pride, protest and anger, and an ongoing struggle to find belonging from dislocation.

Nicola splits her time between Glasgow and Cumbria with her boyfriend and a whippet called Snippet.

Jeremy Atherton Lin is the author of the bestseller Deep House (UK: Allen Lane, 2025) and the National Book Critics Circle Award winner Gay Bar (UK: Granta, 2021). His essays appear in numerous places including the Paris Review, the Times Literary Supplement, and the Yale Review, from which he was anthologized in The Best American Magazine Writing. His sound programs have been broadcast on NTS Radio.

Anja Shortland is a Professor in Political Economy at King’s College, London. Her undergraduate degree in Engineering at Oxford, a Masters in the Political Economy at LSE and a PhD in International Relations (also at the LSE), followed by appointments as Lecturer and Reader in Economics at Leicester and Brunel Universities make her a truly interdisciplinary scholar.

Anja teaches and studies the economics of crime, specialising in the governance of trades between legal entities and underworld organisations.  She is an expert on piracy, kidnapping, art recovery, cultural property crime, and ransomware. Her novel insights into these opaque markets have been published in top academic journals and were widely covered in podcasts and the press, including articles in the Economist and the New Yorker. Her first book Kidnap: Inside the Ransom Business was published by OUP in 2019 and won the Douglas North Award for the ‘Best Book in Institutional Economics’. Her second book Lost Art, the Art Loss Register’s Case Book (Unicorn, 2021) examines how the art market developed norms and processes for the restitution of stolen and looted art.

Anja lives in Wiltshire, England with her husband, two children, her flute and thousands of bees.

Photo courtesy of Urszula Sołtys

Roman Krznaric is a social philosopher who writes about the power of ideas to create change. His internationally bestselling books, including The Good Ancestor (W H Allen, 2020), Empathy (Rider, 2014) and Carpe Diem Regained (Unbound, 2017), have been published in more than 25 languages. He is Senior Research Fellow at Oxford University’s Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing and founder of the world’s first Empathy Museum. His latest book is History for Tomorrow: How The Past Can Inspire Our Future (W H Allen, 2024).

After growing up in Sydney and Hong Kong, Roman studied at the universities of Oxford, London and Essex, where he gained his PhD in political science. His writings have been widely influential amongst political and ecological campaigners, education reformers, social entrepreneurs and designers. An acclaimed public speaker, his talks and workshops have taken him from a London prison to the TED global stage.

Roman is a member of the Club of Rome and a Research Fellow of the Long Now Foundation. He previously worked as an academic, a gardener and on human rights issues in Guatemala. He is also a top-ranked player of the medieval sport of real tennis.

Photo courtesy of Kate Raworth

Claire Mitchell KC is a Scottish advocate specialising in appellate law, with a particular focus on constitutional issues, human rights, and sentencing. She has been involved in significant cases before the Privy Council and Supreme Court, shaping key aspects of Scottish law. She regularly provides legal training and has received recognition for her contributions to legal thought, including a Special Recognition Award at the 2013 Law Awards of Scotland.

She leads the Witches of Scotland campaign with Zoe Venditozzi, and in 2022, Claire and Zoe were made Doctors of Laws by the University of Dundee in recognition of their work.

Through their tireless campaigning, regular public appearances, and highly entertaining podcast of the same name, this pair of ‘quarrelsome dames’ are currently working to build a lasting memorial to the murdered women, and campaign to draw attention to the continued persecution of women as witches around the world today.

How To Kill A Witch was published by Monoray in the UK in May 2025.

Phuthuma Nhleko was until March 2011 the group CEO of MTN, at the time the sixth largest company on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) by market capitalisation and the largest company with a primary listing in South Africa.

During his 10-year leadership tenure at MTN from 2002 to 2011, he transformed the company, driving its exponential growth through significant expansion covering 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East and serving over 240 million online customers. In May 2013, he returned as MTN Group Chairman and served until December 2019.

Nhleko’s previous directorships include BP Plc, Anglo American Plc, the Nedbank Group, Old Mutual SA, Johnnic Holdings, the Bidvest Group and Alexander Forbes. He holds a BSc in Civil Engineering from Ohio State University and a Master of Business Administration from Atlanta University (renamed Clark Atlanta University). He is a Fellow of University of Oxford, Blavatnik School of Government and Public Policy.

He is the Chairman and co-founder of Phembani Group a South African domiciled resource and energy-focused investment holding company that has a significant interest inter alia in downstream retailer Engen in partnership with Vitol, a Swiss-based Dutch multinational energy and commodity trading company. Phembani Group has JV partnerships with Glencore and Sibanye-Still Water in coal and platinum resources, respectively.

He is also the Chairman of Pembani Remgro Infrastructure Fund (PRIF) that invests in infrastructure projects on the African continent, Chairman of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), Director of IHS Towers and Chairman of Tullow Oil Plc.