Binna Kandola Keynote Speaker

Professor Binna Kandola MBE is a diversity, assessment and development specialist. In the last twenty five years, he has worked on a wide variety of projects for public and private sector clients both in the UK and overseas.

Binna is a business psychologist, senior partner and co-founder of Pearn Kandola. He is particularly interested in understanding bias and finding ways to reduce it – the topic of his  acclaimed book “The Value of Difference: Eliminating bias in Organisations” (2012). As well as leading the practice, Binna is the co-author of other books, one of which, “Managing the Mosaic” won a Special Commendation at the 1994 Management Book of the Year Awards.   His most recent book is ‘ Racism at Work’ (2018) – this book looks in detail at the way bias has become more oblique, subtle and as a result more difficult to detect. He examines how race affects decisions at work from recruitment to perceptions of leaders. Integrated throughout the book are the complex ways in which gender and race intersect.

Based on thorough research, direct observations and decades of professional practice, his work is profound, provocative and highly practical

Binna was the first Chair of the Standing Committee for the Promotion of Equal Opportunities of the British Psychological Society (BPS) and a member of Sir Robin Butler’s Panel of Enquiry into Equal Opportunities in the Senior Civil Service. He has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the BPS, and in 2002 was elected as Chair of the Division of Occupational Psychology.

In 2004, Binna was invited to join the UK Government’s National Employment Panel and appointed Chair of the Minority Ethnic Group.  He is currently a visiting Professor at Leeds University Business School and at Aston University Business School. In 2012 the University of Aston awarded him an Honorary DSc – Doctor of Science. He is a consulting editor for the Journal of Occupational and Organisational Psychology and an editorial board member of Development and Learning in Organisations.a Fellow of the Sunningdale Institute at the National School of Government and a Fellow of the RSA.

He is a regular contributor to the media and has appeared on Sky News, BBC Breakfast, Channel 4 News and the Radio 4 Today Show.

A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), he was recognised in 2004 by The Independent on Sunday as one of the UK’s Top Ten Business Psychologists. Professor Binna Kandola was awarded an OBE in 2008 for his services to Disadvantaged People and Diversity.