Theme: Behind the Mask

An extraordinary lineup of speakers will give us a unique insight into what lies behind the masks that we wear every day.

Following last year event, we are happy to present a new TEDx event to gather the Bedford community together.
In the past two years, masks have become increasingly prevalent in our lives. We all wear them, whether physically or metaphorically. Each of us has a story to tell and a voice to use. Join us as we explore and uncover what lies behind the mask, listening to extraordinary speakers from Bedford, and not only, on the stage of the Bedford Modern School auditorium.

Bedford Modern School
Manton Lane
Bedford, Bedford, MK41 7NT
United Kingdom

Alina Timofeeva

Principal, Oliver Wyman

Alina is a first-generation immigrant from Russia who went through the eye of a needle to move to the UK and fulfil her dreams. She was born and raised in one of the most dangerous areas in Russia, growing up at a time when women were seen as future housewives, not as someone to have education and career. Today, Alina is a multi-award-winning specialist in Data, Technology & Innovation. She works with Oliver Wyman and previously with KPMG and Accenture, consulting the top Financial Services firms like HSBC, J.P. Morgan & Aviva, and helping them make this world safe, customer centric and fair, which is particularly important in the new reality. Outside work Alina actively gives back to the community, through supporting migrants and females of diverse cultural and social backgrounds.

Arya Taware

Founder & CEO at FutureBricks

Arya spends her days re-inventing the place technology has in traditional fields. A firm believer in communities finding their place in technology, Arya Taware reworks the meaning attributed to finance and to property, innovatively infusing them with their tech counterpart. Founder & CEO of FutureBricks, a fintech firm, Arya boldly stepped into entrepreneurship at 22 years young, straight out of UCL’s The Bartlett School of Planning. Merging property with investment, she tackled the lack of financing for UK’s SME housebuilders by onboarding investors seeking asset-backed opportunities. With a portfolio to date totalling £5 million across 19 different projects as of September 2021, her platform is available on desktop and as an app on both iOS and Android. With a sense of community leading her in all undertakings, Arya is now focused on catering to the end to end needs of a typical small housebuilder, steering her Company to expand as a proptech–Brickway.

Gina Buckney

Global Transformation Director of Workplace Wellbeing Motivational & Educational Speaker

An Empowered female leader with expertise in large scale corporate transformation with two decades proven delivery, budgets of £500m+, and teams across the globe. A Global Transformation Director, passionate about MAKING LIFE BETTER AT WORK by helping people live happier, healthier lives. Gina is a thought-provoking speaker and the Author and Creator of JOURNALS FOR LIFE; a selection of self-help journals that help people achieve the 4 P’s (positivity, peace, productivity and prosperity). These are now available on Amazon all across the World.

Jasmine Mbye

Speaker, Trainer & Coach

Jasmine was born in Luton but grew up in London, returning to Bedfordshire in 2015. Jasmine has overcome many struggles in her life from a dysfunctional and abusive childhood to a toxic and abusive marriage. Yet, she has found her faith and inner work, personal development, has helped her recover from situations that would otherwise have been soul destroying, becoming better, stronger and freer. It’s this determination that leads Jasmine to empower teen girls and women to rise up from feeling like their not enough and develop the confidence, courage and celebration to show up and shine meaningfully and authentically in life and work through inspirational speaking, training, events and soon to be magazines.

Jessy Gomes

Occupational Health and Safety Consultant

Jessy is a creative thinker, PhD researcher, a Global Health and Safety Leader in the construction and Engineering sector and a change maker. Her PhD research is looking at the broken business model and drives improvement of the occupational health and wellbeing data in that male-dominated industry. Jessy serves as an Occupational Safety and Health Strategist and women’s advocate in the profession. As a keynote speaker, she often shares her latest research on the Health and Safety strategies that are overcoming the plateaued statistics in the UK and promoting women career advancement. Her motto is “Speak Up” for the 10-13% Women working in the construction and Engineering sector.

Joseph Housley

Co-founder and Filmmaker | Narce Media

The content currency of today is video, and Joseph’s obsession is the pursuit of creating outstanding, compelling and emotive video content. Six years ago, whilst studying for a Business and Politics degree he fell into a period or depression and uncertainty, as lot of people do through their twenties he became more and confused about what he wanted to do with his life. After being flat out broke and starting a podcast, Joseph quickly realised he loved the process of media production. Fast forward four years, three offices, eight staff and a dog later, he now leads a team that create impactful videos with internationally recognised brands across the world.

Kayleigh Greenacre

Founder and CEO of ‘Actually, I Can!’ and separately an Assistant Headteacher

Kayleigh is the founder and CEO of Actually, I Can!, a certified Mindset and Success Coach and an Assistant Headteacher. She coaches, mentors and teaches females how to work towards their goals through the 'Roadmap to Success' framework which is proven to support females with building their confidence and self belief; developing a growth mindset; and adapting and aligning action towards achieving their goals. She is driven by growth mindset and believes that anyone can achieve their goals providing they apply the right mindset and develop the knowledge and skills in order to do so.

Rio Penn-Grice

Rio Penn-Grice is a freelance action sports and travel videographer.

Youssof Altoukhi

Entrepreneur

Youssof Altoukhi is a teenage entrepreneur that uses his knowledge of technology to create solutions to problems that have been overlooked. As a young child he was an out of the box thinker. He started up and created many businesses that would have an impact one way or the other. Currently he is working on his brand new cryptocurrency project that aims to help disparity in governance voting. Currently in cryptocurrency your voting power is dictated by the amount of coins you own, Youssof is trying to change this by implementing his own new Democratic Governance system.

Zack Ahmed

Entrepreneur

A 22-year-old internet raised child who was born in Somalia, multiple countries in the world who up in care and managed to become an example of social mobility and build a bright future despite the adversity of life during his early-stage childhood. Now travels the world and has built some of the largest media entities around the world alongside helping global companies connect with their relevant audiences and build meaningful communities and eco-systems. Clients include Google, Sony, Universal and more.