REG Connect 2025: The Future of Racial Equity in Business

Emile Heskey is a former England international footballer with a career spanning two decades at top clubs including Leicester City, Liverpool, and Aston Villa. Known for his teamwork, resilience, and leadership on and off the pitch, Heskey brings a unique perspective to conversations around racial equity. Drawing from his lived experience in elite sport, he explores the parallels between sport and business—highlighting the importance of inclusion, allyship, and opportunity.

Since retiring, Heskey has become a vocal advocate for diversity in football and beyond, using his platform to challenge inequality and inspire change across industries and communities.

Tash Pennant is a dynamic strategic advisor, connector and speaker with many years of cross-sector experience, known for her infectious energy and transformational insight. Dubbed “The Connector,” she blends credibility with charisma, offering practical strategies on leadership, networking, and navigating systems for real change. A trusted advisor to business leaders, Tash has delivered keynotes for National Grid, NatWest, and the British Embassy, leaving audiences informed, inspired, and always reaching for their notebooks to capture her insights.

Zahoor Ahmad is Group Head of Social Mobility, Inclusion and Belonging for the Co-op group with over two decades of experience in equality, diversity and inclusion practice garnered across and range of industries, including the public, private and charitable sectors. He currently serves as a member of the Co-op Group’s Exec Board.

As a graduate of psychology, he fosters a behavioural approach, and has been instrumental in pioneering approaches to tackling non-inclusive behaviours and structural inequalities. He has led D&I teams in the MoD, the finance sector, the emergency services and the charitable sector. He has worked in a wide range of multi-agency environments collaborating and leading programmes across education, health and early careers. He is a specialist inclusive coach and mentor, and frequent keynote speaker on topics ranging from socio-economic inequality to re-imagining inclusive leadership.

Professor Monder Ram OBE is the Director of the Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship (CREME). He is a leading authority on small business and ethnic minority entrepreneurship research and has published widely on the subject, and has extensive experience of working in and acting as a consultant to small and ethnic minority businesses. Monder is a regular keynote speaker at international conferences, and advises the government on the importance and value of ethnic minority businesses through his position on the APPG for BAME Business Owners. He also holds visiting positions at Warwick University and the University of Turku.

Reshma, Managing Director of Minority Supplier Development UK (MSDUK), leads in promoting inclusive procurement, working with global corporates, public sector organisations and entrepreneurs. Her leadership at MSDUK embodies her deep commitment to equitable and inclusive procurement.

As a former Corporate Lawyer and Business Leader, Reshma’s expertise in business growth/procurement is matched by her deep understanding of the challenges faced by diverse businesses. She is passionate about developing strategies that empower these businesses to thrive in competitive markets.

Reshma has extensive experience in and regularly speaks about Entrepreneurship, Business Growth, and Inclusive Procurement globally. Her work has been featured on mainstream television and in major tabloids.

Recognised as an award winning business leader and the ‘Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech’, Reshma Sheikh is a powerful advocate for inclusion, blending business acumen with a commitment to social responsibility on both the UK and global stages.

Ngozi Weller is a wellbeing and productivity consultant and an ICF accredited coach who helps build resilience into your business by creating psychologically safe workplaces that enable employees to thrive. Her programmes increase employee engagement, drive productivity, and promote lasting behavioural change.

Having worked for over 15 years in the world of Big Oil, Ngozi has experienced first-hand how challenging the corporate world can be. Following her own battle with work-related depression and anxiety, she set up Aurora with her psychologist cousin Obehi to normalise the conversation around workplace mental health and to provide strategic wellbeing support designed to strengthen your employees’ mental resilience and improve workplace productivity. She is also the co-host of the award-winning podcast ‘The Wellbeing Rebellion’.

Wayne Bennett is a Founder and Director of Made4Tech Global, a technology recruitment consultancy specialising in recruiting professionals within the Technology, Business Change & Transformation markets. Worked in recruitment for nearly 30 years, his experience in the industry encompasses, Marketing, Finance and Technology (23 years) discipline.

Recruiting within the Technology space, Wayne has witnessed the change within the industry, encouraging him to advocate for female and diverse leadership and advise businesses on effective inclusion strategies in his role. Wayne has worked with organisations ranging from major corporates, SMEs, and technology-led start-ups, giving him exposure to placing professionals in positions ranging from senior management to “hands on” technical roles.

As COO, Nicola runs the business on a day to day basis, looks after the team and plays a key role in the creation of commercial strategy alongside Sam Booth.   Nicola & Sam run the organisation together as equal partners with shared responsibility.  She’s a strong believer that their differing skillsets and experiences complement each other’s strengths and perspectives, thus building a culture of creativity and innovation.

Nicola is passionate about the development of the organisation, helping evolve marketing, sponsorship, product development and customer service.

Nicola oversees the delivery of pro-manchester’s extensive events and conference programme.  This includes over 150 events per year from business lunches and breakfasts to the Trailblazing Tech conference and Made in Manchester Awards.

Nicola has worked in the events industry for  over 20 years.  She joined pro-manchester with a wealth of knowledge in 2010 as Events & Conference Manager and was made a Director in 2017.

Prior to working for pro-manchester, Nicola was the International Event Manager for Travel Counsellors. Before this, she worked her way up from Events Assistant to Head of Events at Manchester agency, Gilds Events, with regular clients including N Brown Group, Bupa and Siemens to name but a few.

Sam has been at pro-manchester for 17 years and has been an integral part of its growth from a small, effective membership network to a sophisticated business development organisation. A firm part of the Manchester business community, Sam is a familiar face to most, constantly and efficiently working to bring businesses together in the city region.

As chief executive, Sam is responsible for the organisation’s corporate engagement as well managing all existing key partnerships and member relationships. Sam manages the day-to-day running and strategic direction of the business alongside Nicola McCormick – COO. They run the organisation together as equal partners with shared responsibility.

Sam also sits on the board of trustees for Forever Manchester, a charity that supports community activity across Greater Manchester. As well as this, Sam also sits on the Greater Manchester Economic Resilience Board, the Greater Manchester Organisational Representatives Group, the Manchester Business Sounding Board, the Bee Net Zero Advisory Board and the Manchester tech hub Board.

In 2019 Sam also became the Regional Deputy Chair of TheCityUK, where she helps to engage the national body on a regional level on behalf of individuals in the financial and professional services industries. In 2022 Sam was featured in the inaugural Top 50 North West tech Transformers list complied by BusinessCloud