2025 Happy Workplaces Conference

Dr. Srikumar Rao: Elite Coach and Author

How to achieve great success while remaining serene as a zen monk

Dr. Srikumar Rao is an elite coach who works with a select group of entrepreneurs, professionals and senior executives who are already successful and are now ready to make a dent in the universe. They recognise that life is a spiritual journey and wish to imbue that understanding into every facet of their lives.

Dr. Rao holds a PhD from Columbia Business School, and his courses have been among the most popular and highest rated at many of the world's top business schools. He is the author of several books: Are You Ready to Succeed? Unconventional Strategies for Achieving Personal Mastery in Business and Life and Happiness at Work: Be Resilient, Motivated and Successful - No Matter What. His latest book is Modern Wisdom, Ancient Roots: The Movers and Shakers' Guide to Unstoppable Success.

Learn more about Dr. Rao's work at The Rao Institute, or listen to his TED Talk: Plug into your hard-wired happiness.

Sophie Bryan: Founder of Ordinarily Different

The Power of Sexual Energy in the Workplace: a new paradigm for happiness and success at work

Sophie Bryan is a HR, Leadership and Workplace Culture Specialist, with a twist! She’s also trained in Human Sexuality, Sexology and Relationship Psychology. Sophie is going where no other HR professional has dared to! To talk about sexual dynamics in the workplace. How understanding human nature (such as things like power, dominance, and shame) is the source to eradicating Sexual Harassment in the workplace - not more policies and tick box training! And how, when we harness our sexual energy in positive and appropriate ways, it can create collaboration, connection and creativity at work.

In Sophie's podcast, The Rebel Work, she talks about how we should all have happier, healthier, more productive and purposeful experiences of work.

Leanne Davies: Facilitator, Coach and Learning Adventurer at LiveLearn, and Sonali Kumarakulasinghe: Facilitator, Coach and Mentor at SK Consulting

How emotions enable our success at work

Emotions are always present at work, and they can be helpful, or unhelpful, in our behaviours, decision making, working relationships and performance. In this experiential session we will use a card deck - the Emotional Culture Deck - to take a practical and intentional approach to identify how our emotions can enable our success at work. Participants will leave the session with increased awareness of how emotions at work matter, with some actionable next steps.

You can learn more by visiting Leanne's website LiveLearn here, and Sonali's LinkedIn here.

Ben Clarkson, Chief Finance & Operating Officer at Parkinson's UK

Turning errors into assets: building a culture of trust by celebrating mistakes

Ben decided a long time ago that if he was going to spend most of his life working, he better make sure he enjoys it. Then he came across The Happy Manifesto and it all made sense! Ben has used the principles from the book across his 12+ years in the charity sector, most notably at Asthma + Lung UK where he introduced a values, behaviours, and enablers framework that implemented some of the ideas from the book. In particular, he's a big fan of Celebrating Mistakes, Freedom within boundaries, and Recruit for attitude, train for skill.

Ben is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, and is currently Chief Finance & Operating Officer at Parkinson's UK. He is also a trustee of the charity Contact, which supports families with disabled children. In his spare time he can be found running, either along the streets of Bromley borough, or after his three young children.

You can find Ben on LinkedIn and BlueSky.