Society

I remember taking my daughter to a speech I gave when she was just 5 years old, I wanted her to see mummy on stage as a way of showing her that she could be whatever she wanted to be.

Founder and former CEO of Ann Summers lingerie and party plan business

We need to give women the freedom and confidence to believe and be whatever they want to. This isn't just about business, but about social conditioning in all cultures. Even now I experience inequality- I see it when I go to external meetings and I see two solicitors, both equal, and a female pouring the tea.

Founder and former CEO of Ann Summers lingerie and party plan business

I'm extremely proud of the fact that we have driven social and cultural change. I have always wanted women to be empowered, and we've given them that opportunity. At the beginning, we said our events were going to be for women only, it enabled women to talk to each other about their sex lives in private, in a safe and unintimidating environment, and that was part of women's sexual empowerment as a movement.

Founder and former CEO of Ann Summers lingerie and party plan business

When you first go to war as a young guy, it's almost like you want to get into combat. Quickly though, you realise that these are real people! You have to bring the human element to the fore. At first it was let's go to war… then it was let's do the right thing… and then it was why are we even doing this?

Former Navy SEAL who shot Osama bin Laden in 2011

I was a semi-chubby white kid from Montana who couldn't swim. I became a Navy SEAL who ended-up in Osama bin Laden's bedroom on a Tier 1 Mission to take down the #1 terrorist in the world. My life is proof that if you put your mind to it, you can do anything you want.

Former Navy SEAL who shot Osama bin Laden in 2011

I became a venture capitalist because I wanted to help society by creating jobs at a time of high unemployment in the UK. As the years went by, I realised that while we were indeed helping people who came from nothing to make money, improve the lives of people around them, create jobs, financial value and wealth- the gap between rich and poor was getting bigger, not smaller.

Founder of Social Venture Network & Pioneer of Social Impact Investing

I can see from people I've lost in my life that the thing you leave behind is love, so I hope I've created a bit of that too… I know I've been lucky to receive a lot.

British Pop Singer & "Murder on the Dancefloor" Artist

It may be an overused phrase, but the only way social media can work is if you are incredibly authentic. If you try and cultivate and curate too much it can be very obvious and transparent.

British Pop Singer & "Murder on the Dancefloor" Artist

Too often when we find someone disagreeing with us, our question is about why. Why do you believe this ridiculous thing? What tends to work better is a how question… This kind of approach helps to view the real complexity of a situation and reveals gaps in knowledge.

Organizational psychologist & bestselling author on work culture and human potential

GDP only catches a slice of the value that we value. It captures what goes on in the market, the financial value of goods and services sold in an economy over a year. In the boxing match between free market laissez-faire capitalists and state loving socialists the economic debate ignored the household – which is expected to provide the food, do the cooking, washing, cleaning, sweeping, education, look after the sick and elderly, yet is completely missing from GDP.

Creator of the Doughnut Economics framework for sustainable development

In the 21st century, there are cameras everywhere except for where our food and energy come from, and where our waste goes. We are the most powerful species in the world, but we remain blind to the fundamentals that allow us to survive. How are we blind to our life support system?

Canadian science broadcaster and host of Discovery Channel's Daily Planet

The rest of the world sees us as the country who had the biggest empire in the world, we don't. That creates a gap in understanding.

British journalist and author, wrote "The Boy with the Topknot

White people have nothing to fear from understanding their history- they're not responsible for it. It's like having therapy… it's understanding our past behaviours so that we don't repeat them. I think we need to face up to our imperial history for the same reasons.

British journalist and author, wrote "The Boy with the Topknot

We have a very strange relationship with empire, a combination of selective amnesia and nostalgia. The amnesia comes from the fact we mostly identify as the nation that won World War 2 not as the nation which had the greatest empire in human history. That helps us forget that there was at least a century where we were quite massively white supremacist and sometimes genocidal.

British journalist and author, wrote "The Boy with the Topknot

There's so much data that's been collected around fitness, but a lot of this has been based on male subjects and isn't always right to apply to women. Having been through the journey myself, I want to help more women become body-literate and motivated to enjoy exercise.

British Olympic heptathlon champion and gold medalist

There are so many times we see women offered fitness opportunities to look good. It's the bikini guides and all those other things… In reality, there's so much more to understanding how women exercise, what helps them train effectively, and why exercise matters during key stages in life such as pregnancy.

British Olympic heptathlon champion and gold medalist