Lewis Iwu – Keynote Speaker

Lewis Iwu specialises in campaigns, social purpose, advocacy coaching and building coalitions between corporates and NGOs. He is also a global public speaking and debating expert, having participated in or moderated over 1000 debates. He is a former World Debating Champion as has coached England to win the World Championship in 2016. He is the author of an upcoming book about debating social issues called Words that Win.

He was the founding Director of the Fair Education Alliance, a national advocacy coalition of almost 100 non-profits and businesses. Lewis has also worked at a leading global corporate reputation agencies, Finsbury and Brunswick, where he specialised in helping clients to build their reputations through distinctive campaigns relating to issues such as education, human rights, the environment and health. Lewis helped to develop and launch Open for Business, a global coalition of companies gathered to help create more tolerance in markets hostile to LGBT rights. More recently he advised the UN on the launch of their People’s Seat initiative which was fronted by David Attenborough. Lewis also led the national campaign to prevent the government’s expansion of grammar schools.

Lewis Iwu has written/spoken about social purpose, education, diversity, social justice, public discourse and elitism for The Economist, The Guardian, The Times, The Telegraph, The Independent and the New Statesman and has made numerous TV appearances. Lewis has also given a TEDx talk about social mobility.

Educated at New College, Oxford University, Lewis Iwu holds a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics where he was elected President of the Oxford University Student Union and was the first black student to hold that position.