Kamel Hothi Keynote Speaker

Dr Kamel Hothi OBE rewrote the rules of British banking over four decades. Starting as a cashier in 1979, she became the UK’s first Asian Bank Manager and later designed Lloyds Banking Group’s award-winning Asian Strategy, unlocking an underserved market and driving billions in new lending within four years.

Her frontline insight and board-level influence steered major mergers, post-crisis turnarounds and culture shifts that reshaped the sector. She co-founded Lloyds’ Ethnic Minority and Women’s Networks, then chaired a government task-force on supplier diversity, publishing a White Paper that modernised public procurement and strengthened Britain’s bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games.

Amid the 2008 financial crisis, Kamel led Lloyds’ 250th-anniversary campaign, reinvigorating employee pride, rebuilding customer confidence and helping the Group repay its government bailout at the nadir of public trust.

Honoured with an OBE and named among the FT EMpower and UK Top 100 BAME Leaders, she left the bank after 38 years to co-build TLC Lions. Her keynotes and workshops now humanise workplaces in more than 300 FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 companies, and she has coached hundreds of storytellers to lead with empathy and courage.

Today Kamel advises boards on inclusive leadership, culture and purpose-driven growth while serving on Lloyd’s of London’s ESG Committee, championing the Alzheimer’s Society across Asian communities, guiding her family business, and mentoring young change-makers through the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust. Audiences gain a pragmatic blueprint for turning diversity into competitive advantage and building organisations where everyone belongs.