Previous Bristol Distinguished Address events

Find podcasts, video interviews and event recordings from past Bristol Distinguished Address Series events.

2024 events

Poku Osei

Poku Osei, founder and CEO of award-winning social enterprise Babbasa, joined us as part of the spring 2024 Bristol Distinguished Address Series.

2023 events

Jenny Garrett

Jenny Garrett, renowned TEDx speaker, joins us to talk about her work on race equality, anti racism and owning your cultural capitals and identity.

Aisha Thomas

Aisha, founder of Representation Matters Ltd, joined us in conversation with Dr Craig Johnston as part of the Spring 2023 Bristol Distinguished Address Series.

Grant Mansfield

Join Grant Mansfield and Lynn Barlow in conversation, as they discuss The Plimsoll Story.

Great Western Air Ambulance helicopter on helipad.

Great Western Air Ambulance Charity

Join a panel of guests from the Great Western Air Ambulance Charity including Advanced Clinical Practitioner Vicki Brown.

2022 events

I.Stephanie Boyce - 2 March 2022

Stephanie delivered a lecture as part of the Bristol Distinguished Address Series titled "Dare to Dream".

Margaret Casely-Hayford - 2 February 2022

Margaret Casely-Hayford, Chair, Shakespeare's Globe, delivered a lecture titled "Trust and Governance: where to now?"

2021 events

Anne Jessopp - 3 November 2021

Anne Jessopp, Chief Executive, The Royal Mint, delivered a lecture titled "Reinventing The Royal Mint".

Mike Haigh - 20 October 2021

Mike Haigh, Executive Chair, Mott MacDonald, delivered a lecture titled "Recovery from the global pandemic; the impact of accelerated megatrends".

Dr Darren Henley OBE - 6 October 2021

Dr Darren Henley OBE, Chief Executive, Arts Council England, delivered a lecture titled "What is the role of arts and culture in a post-pandemic world?"

Theresa Wise – 22 September 2021

Theresa Wise, CEO, The Royal Television Society, delivered a lecture titled "The Future of Television".

Ben Osborn, UK Country Manager and Managing Director, Pfizer UK delivered a lecture titled "The power of the mission: how we can apply the lessons of the pandemic to make the UK a global life sciences superpower"

Professor Lyndsay Duthie, CEO, The Production Guild of Great Britain

Professor Lyndsay Duthie - 10 March 2021

Professor Lyndsay Duthie, CEO of The Production Guild of Great Britain delivered a lecture titled "Pushing past the pandemic, what's next for film and television?"

Jacqueline de Rojas CBE, President, techUK, President, Digital Leaders, Co-Chair IoC

Jacqueline de Rojas - 10 February 2021

Jacqueline de Rojas CBE, President of techUK and Digital Leaders, and Co-Chair of IoC, delivered a lecture titled “Diversity and inclusion - why it's never been more important.”

Peter Lord – 27 January 2021

Peter Lord, Co-founder and Creative Director of Aardman Animations, delivered a lecture titled “A life in animation: getting going to letting go”.

2020 events

Perminder Mann – 11 November 2020

Perminder Mann, CEO of Bonnier Books, delivered a lecture as part of the Bristol Distinguished Address Series titled “Be Your Authentic Self”.

Doug and Dame Mary Perkins – 4 November 2020

Co-founders of Specsavers, Doug and Dame Mary Perkins, delivered a lecture titled "Building the World's Largest High Street Optics and Audiology Brand."

Panel Discussion: NHS Nightingale Hospital Bristol

For the first of the virtual Bristol Distinguished Address Series, also the Annual Bolland Lecture, we were delighted to host a panel discussion on Bristol’s Nightingale Hospital.

Lisa Opie – 11 March 2020

Lisa Opie, Managing Director of BBC Studios UK Production, delivered a lecture as part of the Bristol Distinguished Address Series titled "TV as a force for good.”

Xavier Brice – 26 February 2020

Xavier Brice, Chief Executive, Sustrans, delivered a lecture as part of the Bristol Distinguished Address Series titled "Living and moving well together”.

Katherine Bennett – 12 February 2020

Katherine Bennett CBE, Senior Vice President, Airbus & Chair, Western Gateway, delivered a lecture as part of the Bristol Distinguished Address Series entitled "What does internationalisation mean in C21st for global corporations?".

Bevis Watts – 29 January 2020

Dr Bevis Watts, Chief Executive of Triodos Bank UK delivered a lecture as part of the Bristol Distinguished Address Series entitled "Bankers must become eco-warriors".

2019 events

Bruce Carnegie-Brown – 13 November 2019

Bruce Carnegie-Brown, President of CMI and Chairman of Lloyds delivered a lecture as part of the Bristol Distinguished Address Series entitled "21st century management”.

Arabel Bailey – 6 November 2019

Arabel Bailey, Managing Director of Innovation and Consulting Services at Accenture, delivered a lecture as part of the Bristol Distinguished Address Series titled "Surviving and thriving in a disrupted world".

Andrew Jennings – 23 October 2019

Andrew Jennings, Chairman, Board Member and Senior Advisor, delivered a lecture as part of the Bristol Distinguished Address Series entitled "The changing retail landscape and how to succeed."

Deanna Oppenheimer – 9 October 2019

Deanna Oppenheimer, Founder of Cameoworks and Chair of Hargreaves Lansdown, delivered the University's prestigious Annual Bolland Lecture as part of the Bristol Distinguished Address Series with her talk titled "A tale of tech in two cities".

Laura Wade-Gery – 6 March 2019

Laura Wade-Gery, Non-Executive Director of John Lewis, British Land and NHS Improvement, delivered a lecture as part of the Bristol Distinguished Address Series titled "Human and digital - the challenges and power of harnessing both."

Joe Garner – 27 February 2019

Joe Garner, Chief Executive Officer of Nationwide Building Society delivered a lecture titled 'Leading for mutual good'.

Ruth Hunt – 13 February 2019

Ruth Hunt, Chief Executive of Stonewall delivered a lecture as part of the Bristol Distinguished Address Series entitled "Achieving social change".

Warren East CBE – 30 January 2019

Warren East CBE, Chief Executive Officer of Rolls-Royce delivered a lecture as part of the Bristol Distinguished Address Series entitled "How can the UK be a natural home for global engineering and technology champions?"

John Allan CBE – 16 January 2019

John Allan CBE, President of the CBI and Chair of Tesco plc and Barratt Developments plc delivered a lecture as part of the Bristol Distinguished Address Series entitled "Britain – what does the future hold?"

2018 events

Kevin Ellis – 17 October 2018

Kevin Ellis, Chair and Senior Partner, PwC UK, delivered a lecture as part of the Bristol Distinguished Address Series entitled "The role of business in a disrupted world, Why business needs to work harder to show its positive contribution to society.”

Ashok Vaswani – 3 October 2018

Ashok Vaswani, CEO of Barclays, delivered the University's prestigious Annual Bolland Lecture as part of the Bristol Distinguished Address Series with his talk entitled "Digital transformation of banking".

Tim Parker – 11 April 2018

Tim Parker, Chair of the Post Office, delivered a lecture as part of the Bristol Distinguished Address Series entitled "What makes a good Chair?".

Nick Wheeler – 21 March 2018

Nick Wheeler, Founder and Chairman, Charles Tyrwhitt, delivered a lecture entitled "A shirty tale - from Bristol to London in 31 years".

Susanna Dinnage – 7 March 2018

Susanna Dinnage, Global President of Animal Planet, delivered a lecture entitled "The power of purpose-driven brands in a world of infinite choice".

Andrew Langdon – 28 February 2018

Andrew Langdon QC, Barrister, Guildhall Chambers delivered a lecture entitled "The Bar: independent advocacy operating in the public interest".

Inga Beale DBE – 21 February 2018

Inga Beale DBE, CEO of Lloyds delivered a lecture entitled "Enabling human progress in a digital world".

Simon Fox – 7 February 2018

Simon Fox, Chief Executive of Trinity Mirror delivered a lecture entitled "The importance of professional journalism in a post-truth world".

2017 events

Karen Blackett OBE – 6 December 2017

Karen Blackett OBE, Chairwoman of MediaCom UK, delivered a lecture entitled "Unlocking and understanding the UK consumer".

George Weston – 22 November 2017

George Weston, Chief Executive of Associated British Foods plc delivered a lecture entitled “Value of the industrial food system”.

Richard Gleave – 15 November 2017

Richard Gleave, Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Operating Officer of Public Health England delivered a lecture entitled “Evidence informed leadership – how does evidence influence the leadership of health organisations?”.

Tony Hayward – 8 November 2017

Tony Hayward, Chairman of Glencore delivered a lecture entitled “The great energy revolution - fact or fiction”.

Juliet Davenport OBE – 25 October 2017

Juliet Davenport OBE, CEO and Founder of Good Energy delivered a lecture entitled “Science, climate and politics: the perilous path to decarbonisation”.

Sacha Romanovitch – 11 October 2017

Sacha Romanovitch, CEO of Grant Thornton UK LLP, provided the address at the Annual Bolland lecture entitled “Shaping a vibrant economy where no one is left behind – how we create a new normal”.

Rob Law MBE – 27 September 2017

Rob Law MBE, Chief Executive of Trunki, delivered a lecture entitled "Building a global brand".

Dame Helen Ghosh – 5 April 2017

Dame Helen Ghosh, Director-General of the National Trust, delivered a lecture entitled "Why should anyone be led by you?".

Fred Jones – 22 March 2017

Fred Jones, Head of Cities at Uber, delivered a lecture entitled "More people in fewer cars".

Baroness Shriti Vadera – 8 March 2017

Baroness Shriti Vadera, Chair of Santander UK, delivered a lecture entitled "Post-Globalism".

John Pullinger – 22 February 2017

John Pullinger, Chief Executive, UK Statistics Authority, delivered a lecture entitled "Mobilising the power of data to help Britain (and the world) make better decisions".

Paul Geddes – 8 February 2017

Paul Geddes, Chief Executive of Direct Line Group, delivered a lecture entitled "The future of brands in a post-truth world".

Peter Cheese – 1 February 2017

Peter Cheese, Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), delivered a lecture entitled "Future of work and organisations".