Charlotte Sweeney OBE

As a Chartered Management Consultant, Charlotte Sweeney thrives on empowering business leaders and organisations to create inclusive workplaces. She works, and influences at the C -Suite and Board level in the private sector as well as advised Senior Leaders and Ministers within Governments. She has held several Non-Executive Director roles, including 4 years as a Deputy Chair of an NHS Acute Trust with responsibility of over £500m annual spend. She has also been a board member of the Industry Body ‘Management Consultancies Association (MCA)’.

Charlotte has won multiple sector awards and received recognition for her work from academic institutes such as Harvard and Cambridge University, as well as being one of the first to gain Chartered Management Consultant status by the MCA. She is also a Fellow of the CIPD, RSA, CMI and College of St George’s Society of Leadership Fellows based at Windsor Castle. She is named as one of HR's Most Influential Thinkers as well as being a member of the Forbes HR Council. 2017 New Year’s Honours, she was awarded an OBE for services to Women and Equalities. In 2025, she won the MCA Inclusion Award and Finalist for The Times Management Consultant of the Year Award. Judges commented that she had ‘an amazing record of impact with clients, a laser focus on delivering results and changing the way organisations think’.

Charlotte has authored numerous industry reports and is co-author of the best-selling book Inclusive Leadership – the definitive guide to developing and executing an impactful Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, locally and globally’, published by Pearson/The Financial Times, which was shortlisted for the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) Management Book of the Year in 2018. In 2014, she authored an independent review for the UK Government Secretary of State Sir Vince Cable on Women on Boards and Executive Search Firms, which shaped the ongoing expectations and requirements of Search Firms, and continues to do so to this day. She also created the ‘first of its kind’ City of London’s Diversity Programme, The Power of Diversity on behalf of the then Lord Mayor of London Dame Fiona Woolf and was previously the Vice - Chair of the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Panel.

She writes regularly for professional publications such as Forbes HR Council. chairing conferences internationally, she is regularly invited as an expert contributor for BBC Radio, As well as delivering keynote speeches and TV and the national press.

All of Charlotte Sweeney’s speeches are tailored for each clients requirements. Her most sought after speeches include:

The Nine Traits of EPIC Leaders – EPIC Leaders know that ‘Every Person Influences Culture’. This speech shares the key traits required of leaders to create an inclusive and engaging culture and enabling them to get the best out of their people.

Small Actions, Big Impact – Creating change in organisations doesn’t happen over night and it is rarely one action that makes the shift required. This speech focuses on the small actions that can be taken on a daily basis from the Board Room to the Post Room to create a more diverse and inclusive workplace.

What HR Need to Know but Won’t Ask – HR are seen as the custodians or gatekeepers to both talent and culture in many organisations – but how do they ensure that diverse and inclusive thinking is embedded into all they do? Research by the CIPD suggests more could be done. This speech articulates and shares practical examples of how HR, at all levels and disciplines, can truly make this ‘part of the day job’.

The New Normal – The world is changing at a phenomenal pace – shifting demographics, the advent of new business models and expectations of a new workforce all play their part. Many companies commit to diversity and inclusion strategies at the highest level to respond to this only to fall at the first hurdle – turning words into action! This speech articulates to critical steps required to turn a great vision and aspiration into a reality, sharing on hand experiences along the way.

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