Senior leaders from Google, Siemens, WPP, Royal Mail Group, Nomura, RWE, Serco, Osborne Clarke, RSSB, WSP, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Haleon, Computacentre and more are now confirmed to join the speaker line-up for the Make a Difference Leaders Annual General Meeting and Leadership Forum, taking place on Monday 19 October 2026 at the British Library’s Knowledge Centre in London.
Built around the theme “The clarity and courage to focus on what matters most”, the AGM and Leadership Forum is designed to recreate the collaborative, peer-to-peer knowledge exchange that members value about Make a Difference Leaders’ events – but at a larger scale.
This means bringing together employers from different sectors, organisation sizes and perspectives to share what they are doing, what they are learning and where they are still wrestling with difficult questions.
Learning from employers across sectors
The newly confirmed contributors will join an already exceptional line-up of expert speakers including Andrew Haldane CBE, President of the British Chambers of Commerce and former Chief Economist at the Bank of England; Professor Dame Carol Black GBE; Christian van Stolk, Deputy Chief Executive at RAND Europe; Gethin Nadin, bestselling HR author, psychologist and Chief Advisory Officer at Benifex and Zellis; Kathleen Saxton, author of Sly & Mighty; Clarke Carlisle, Chair of Mind; and Dr Richard Heron, former VP Health at BP.
The breadth of organisations represented is deliberate. Workplace health, wellbeing, culture and risk look very different across sectors – but many of the underlying challenges are shared.
A day built around collective wisdom
The AGM and Leadership Forum will explore some of the biggest questions currently facing employers: how we put people at the heart of sustainable growth; how responsibility for workforce health is shared; how prevention can be better funded and valued; how organisations can respond to increasing psychosocial risk; and how we navigate a rapidly changing employment landscape.
But the emphasis will be firmly on conversation and practical learning, rather than simply listening to a series of presentations.
Alongside keynote addresses and panel discussions, attendees will have opportunities to hear directly from employer peers, take part in informal working-lunch discussions and explore the challenges that matter most to them. A choice of workshops lead by event partners Lockton, SuperWellness, Wysa and Thrivall are designed to help attendees apply the morning’s strategic insights within their own organisation:
Our real-time “Challenge Exchange” will also give attendees the opportunity to put a live question or challenge to the room and be connected with another leader who may have experience, insight or a different perspective to share.
From insight to priorities
The ambition is simple: to create the space for leaders to step away from the day-to-day, make sense of a rapidly changing landscape and learn from others who are navigating many of the same challenges.
The day will culminate in a strategic synthesis session facilitated by Dr Richard Heron, bringing together the most important insights and conversations from across the event.
The objective is not to leave with a longer to-do list, but with greater clarity about what matters most – where to focus, where to challenge conventional thinking and where action could have the greatest impact.
Join us at the British Library
The Make a Difference Leaders Annual General Meeting and Leadership Forum takes place on Monday 19 October 2026 at the British Library Knowledge Centre in London.
The event is for senior leaders responsible for HR, wellbeing, reward, benefits, occupational health, health and safety, employee experience, inclusion and organisational culture.
Places are limited to 150 attendees and more than 50% of these have already been reserved.
Register your interest in attending the Make a Difference Leaders AGM here.
Find out more about membership of Make a Difference Leaders here.
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