Bankole Akinlade serves on the pastoral team at The Liberty Church, a thriving Church in East London. He has served in a pastoral capacity for almost ten years. He also pastors Open House, an outreach of The Liberty Church, which he started almost 7 years ago to reach a totally different culture and generation of young men and women.  Pastor Banks has a passion for being able to serve people in this way. He spends a lot of time outside of that indulging his love of buildings and architecture through the property renovation and development works he takes on through his businesses, Tentmakers Property Solutions Limited and Rocktower Homes.

Pastor Bankole Akinlade loves to read and write.  He has published two books. The first is titled, Leading the Right Side Up – How to lead when you are not the Boss and  The Power of 1 – Living a Life that Counts. He is currently  working on a  third book in which explores the nature of manhood. He also loves to travel, alone or with a group. But derives the most fun and delight from spending time with his wife, Funmi  and two children, Daniel and Bethel.

Dr Kofi Osei-Kusi is a life coach, a speaker and a consultant. He is deeply passionate about the youth. He serves as Executive President of the Osei-Kusi Foundation, which is a development and resource organisation providing mentoring, coaching, scholarships, leadership and rural outreaches to support the youth population. He has a spontaneous gift and flair with young people, which together always create an unforgettable experience for his young audience, whom he encourages to rise to their full potential.

For two decades, he has been involved in training and raising hundreds of young leaders through leadership seminars, training programmes and one-on-one coaching, as well as through his personal development books. Many of his mentees are now business owners, middle- to senior-level managers, leading thinkers and church leaders. Dr Osei-Kusi brings his experience from leading international firms to strengthen the performance of corporate bodies, groups and churches in areas such as Wisdom, Leadership, Teamwork, Human Resource Development, Money and Finances. His proprietary team-building technique, which has been used by a number of local firms, is fast becoming the tool of choice for corporate bodies who want to gel their teams for peak performance.

Dr Osei-Kusi has authored 14 books. He is a weekly columnist for the Business & Financial Times newspaper in Ghana and a regular guest on television talk shows, including ‘WISDOM FILLA’, which is a weekly TV broadcast produced by the Osei-Kusi Foundation for the youth. Until December 2011, he worked with the Australian High Commission as Consular, Passports & Administrative Manager. Dr Osei-Kusi serves on the Boards of a number of organisations. He is happily married to Jackie, and they are blessed with two lively children.

Joe Aldred is a full time member of staff with responsibility for Pentecostal and Multicultural Relations. Joe is a Bishop in the Church of God of Prophecy from the Pentecostal tradition.

Joe is a broadcaster as well as ecumenist, providing Pause for Thought for BBC and hosting his own radio programe for BBC WM 95.6. Joe has written a number of books, including Respect, about understanding Caribbean British Christianity, and Thinking Outside the Box. Joe was born and grew up in the countryside of  Jamaica where he lived a simple and humble life before moving to the UK and building a hugely successful career and status. By his own admission, Joe is a workaholic who believes the key to success is simply hard work. He works long hours on a wide range of projects.

Joe just celebrated 41st wedding anniversary with his wife, he has 3 daughters and 4 grandchildren.

Samuel Leeds is a Christian entrepreneur and trainer. He runs a property business that enabled him to be financially free by aged 21. He also spent three years in Bible college training for ministry.

Samuel's passion is to be as effective and successful as possible in order to use money, time and resources to serve others. He leads people to become financially independent, allowing them to work on the things they enjoy the most.

His business, Training Kings, breeds people helping one another and expanding their businesses. Everyday Samuel gets to watch people grow personally and in business. His business has been a huge success, it is the largest Christian Business network of it's kind in England, with various branches now open.

Samuel's inspiration is his family, friends and church. He also has a huge passion for music
and is currently in the process of making an album!

Sheila is a Founder of Triad Consulting Group and has been on the Harvard Law School faculty since 1995. Sheila’s corporate clients include MetLife, BAE Systems, Pixar, Tatweer of Dubai, Unilever, the Federal Reserve Bank, Standard Bank of South Africa, Novartis, and numerous family businesses. She often works with executive teams, helping them to work through conflict, repair working relationships, and make sound decisions together. In the public sector she has also provided training for the New England Organ Bank, the Singapore Supreme Court, the Obama White House, and theologians struggling with disagreement over the nature of truth and God.

Sheila has spent more than twenty years with the Harvard Negotiation Project, developing negotiation theory and practice. She specializes in particularly difficult negotiations – where emotions run high and relationships become strained. Sheila is co-author of the New York Times Business Bestseller, Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most (Penguin 2000), and the recently released Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well (Even When It’s Off Base, Unfair, Poorly Delivered, and Frankly, You’re Not in the Mood) (Penguin 2014). She has written for the Harvard Business Review and the New York Times as a guest expert, and as a Modern Love writer.

One of the side benefits of writing Difficult Conversations has been the chance to appear on shows as diverse as Oprah and the G. Gordon Liddy show, NPR, Fox News, and CNBC’s Power Lunch. Sheila is a graduate of Occidental College in Los Angeles, and Harvard Law School. She is schooled in negotiation daily by her three children.

Phil Pye is the Teaching Pastor of Arena Church and serves as the central area leader for the Assemblies of God in Great Britain. Phil is a great preacher and encourager and uses his experience gained over 30 years to help and inspire others. He has a real passion to help the next generation! He has previously been involved in leading churches in Skegness, Oxford and Jacksdale.