BIMA Breakfast Briefing | Mental Health and the Tech Industry

Speakers

Nadya Powell, Co Founder at Utopia, Chair of BIMA Diversity & Inclusion Council 

Nadya is Chair of BIMA’s Diversity Council and also Chair of Awards. She is on a mission to deliver business change by harnessing the power of creative thinking. As the co-founder of Utopia she is doing exactly that – Utopia is a culture change consultancy that ‘Re-wires Business for Age of Creativity’. Nadya is also the co-founder of Innovation Social which is an affiliation of innovation leaders from agency, brand and startup worlds who believe that innovation will disrupt UK business for the better. Additionally, she co-founded two Diversity networks and initiatives: https://www.thegreatbritishdiversityexperiment.com/ which seeks to drive diversity in communications; https://thesowhiteproject.com/ which drives global media attention to the lack of diverse imagery in communications. In addition to her seat on BIMA’s central council, Nadya is on the Advisory Council of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and this year was a judge for the Cannes Innovation Lions.

Sean Betts, Managing Director, Annalect UK

Sean is the Managing Director of Annalect in the UK and has worked in the media industry for 16 years. He has lived with depression and anxiety all his life and in 2017 experienced burn out. Since then he has been openly talking about his experiences and in 2019 started a blog (MiHND.co.uk) to help overcome the stigma surrounding mental health and neurodiversity.

Annalect is part of Omnicom Media Group and they are responsible for all technology, data and analytics across the group. Prior to joining Annalect, Sean spent 4 years at Havas Media working as a client director on multiple blue chip clients and prior to that worked as a media planner at MediaCom for 8 years.

Michelle Morgan, Co-Founder, Livity 

Livity- a youth-led creative network bringing brands and young people together, for the better and Founder, Pjoys – PJs with purpose

Michelle is an EY Entrepreneur Of the Year Winner and holds the Queens Award for Enterprise Innovation. She is also a Mental Health Campaigner and MHFA England Instructor. In the last 12 months she has trained over 200 people in Mental Health First Aid training, she also regularly shares her story of burnout, depression and anxiety. Pjoys.co.uk launched on March 7th this year, on International Women’s Day and is a business on a mission to make mental health an everyday conversation using the joy and power of pjs and art.

Emma Mainoo, Brand Consultant & Director of Special Projects

Emma Mainoo is a communications and brand experience specialist with almost 20 years experience of working with lifestyle brands, media and creative entities. In 2018 she created Survivingsundays.com a storytelling platform that shares ‘tales of self love and survival’, through which Emma shares her personal story of recovery from a breakdown and the stories of others who are living with or affected by mental illness. Surviving Sundays exists to normalise conversations around mental health and to let people know that whatever they are going through, they are not alone.

Yulia Kovaleva, Co-Founder of Re:Mind Meditation Studio

The start of 2018 saw the arrival of London’s first eco-wellness destination, Re:Mind Meditation Studio. Co-founded by Yulia Kovaleva, Re:Mind Studio has cemented its reputation as London’s preferred drop-in meditation studio and an environmentally-friendly lifestyle store for the socially conscious consumer. With modern society seeking more than ever to challenge its stress, Re:Mind follows a holistic path and functional approach to wellbeing. Using structured immersive meditation & healing sessions, with the aim of guiding you through a bespoke relaxation experience, the studio’s founder wishes to create time and space for attendees to reconnect with other people, their surroundings and themselves with the aim to find their calm.

Special thanks to Big Radical for hosting us 🙂