Program

Multi-award-winning inspirational speaker and one of the top female motivational speakers in the UK, Jaz Ampaw-Farr is a force of nature who galvanizes people to take action. This world-class re-framer has a unique ability to help people reframe their stories and situations, bringing transformation in their work, life, and communities. This is Jaz's alchemy.

Jaz combines lessons learned from a challenging and often brutal childhood with those from her rise to TV presenter, TEDx Speaker, stand-up comedian, and Z-list reality TV star. Her authentic honesty and humor consistently empower people to think differently about leading themselves and others.

Jaz is co-founder of the leadership development consultancy Be Human First Limited. Together, she helps leaders who want to influence, inspire, and motivate their teams with greater engagement in order to grow their businesses and leave a lifelong legacy.

In her TEDx Talk, she re-storied her life as a broken child, highlighting the transformative power we have to make a difference. Her talk has been viewed in over 120 countries, and Jaz was awarded Speaker Of The Year and Best Live Gig at The Speaker Awards 2022 (UK).

As a speaker, Jaz has a disarming ability to captivate her audience and share her story with humor and humility and without anger or bitterness. She invites people into a more authentic narrative around choice and agency, leaving individuals and organizations reporting an increase in determination and productivity. Jaz speaks internationally and works with industry leaders such as Skillsoft, The Marketing Society, Gucci, RED, The Festival Of Media, and the BBC.

Jaz's ability to reframe and overcome adversity means she sees the world in a unique way, which challenges and ignites those around her, lifting them out of what she calls ‘mindset poverty' into previously unachievable outcomes.

Kelly Leonard is the Vice President of Creative Strategy, Innovation, and Business Development at The Second City. His book, Yes, And: Lessons from The Second City, was released to critical acclaim in 2015 by HarperCollins and was praised by Michael Lewis in Vanity Fair, who called it "...an excellent guide to the lessons that have bubbled up in Second City's improv workshops."

Kelly is a popular speaker on the power of improvisation to transform people's lives. He has presented at The Aspen Ideas Festival, The Code Conference, TEDx Broadway, Chicago Ideas Festival, The Stanford Graduate School of Business, and for companies such as Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Twitter, Memorial Sloan Kettering, and DDB Worldwide. Kelly co-created an initiative with the Center for Decision Research at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago, The Second Science Project, that looks at behavioral science through the lens of improvisation. He also hosts the podcast, Getting to Yes, And, for Second City Works and WGN radio that features interviews with academics, authors, and leaders such as Brene Brown, Adam Grant, Michael Lewis, Lindy West, Dan Pink, and Amy Edmondson.

For over twenty years, Kelly oversaw Second City's live theatrical divisions, where he helped generate original productions with such talent as Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert, Amy Poehler, Seth Meyers, Steve Carell, Keegan-Michael Key, Amy Sedaris, Adam McKay, and others. In 2019, Arts Alliance Illinois awarded Kelly and his wife, Anne Libera, with their Creative Voice Award.