TEDxOxford is all about sparking a discussion between world-famous thinkers and bright young people, about letting them inspire each other. Oxford, with its natural abundance of innovative ideas and intelligent minds, is truly the perfect place for such an enlightened exchange of ideas.

You can view the talks given by our speakers by clicking on the YouTube link on the left hand side of this page under additional links.

New Theatre
New Theatre
George Street
Oxford, Oxfordshire, OX1 2AG
United Kingdom

Alan Watkins

Alan Watkins is CEO and founder of leadership consultancy, Complete Coherence. He is recognized as an international expert on leadership and human performance. Dr Watkins has a broad mix of commercial, academic, scientific and technological abilities. Over the past 18 years he has been a coach to many of Europe’s top business leaders and has helped companies treble share price, enter the FTSE 100, salvage difficult turnarounds and establish market leadership in their industry. He has written five books and numerous peer reviewed scientific articles. He advised the GB Olympic squad prior to London 2012 and is working with them leading up to Rio in 2016. He has three degrees and is a neuroscientist by background.

Fred Branson

Fred Branson is the co-director of Amantani UK, established in 2007, as a charity, which works to improve the lives of Peruvian children. Since 2008, the charity has been working to bridge the gap between home and school for children living in Ccorca; a small Quechua district nestled high in the Andes of Southern Peru. They have established three Boarding Houses, which help over sixty children who used to walk up to four hours to get to school; this is time that they can now spend on improving their prospects for the future.

Grace Young

Admitted to MIT as a high school junior, Grace C. Young studied mechanical and ocean engineering with a focus on marine robotics, winning as a sophomore MIT’s Wallace Prize as its top ocean engineering undergraduate. In 2014 she was the youngest aquanaut on Mission 31, living underwater for 15 days. Currently she’s a Marshall Scholar and PhD candidate at Oxford University developing technology to help restore coral reefs degraded by climate change, acidification, overfishing, and pollution. She’s dedicated to developing technologies to explore and manage our oceans’ resources sustainably while preserving their fragile ecosystems.

Kristina Murrin

Kristina Murrin CBE- is a global leader in the fields of Innovation and Implementation. She is a fellow at the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University. She started her career in the corporate world and helped to found the world's largest independent innovation consultancy. For the last 15 years she has worked at the heart of British politics. Firstly as an associate in the Prime Ministers Delivery Unit under Tony Blair and latterly as Prime Minister David Camerons Director for Implementation at No10.

Nat Ware

Nat Ware is an entrepreneur, economist, and international development specialist. He is the Founder and CEO of 180 Degrees Consulting, the world's largest consultancy for non-profits and social enterprises, with branches in 28 countries and over 4000 consultants worldwide. Each year 180 Degrees works with hundreds of socially-conscious organizations to help them to operate more effectively and have a greater social impact (www.180dc.org). Nat is a Rhodes Scholar, Goldman Sachs Global Leader, St Gallen Leader of Tomorrow, and World Economic Forum Global Shaper. He was the Top MBA Student at Oxford, received the Convocation Medal for Best All-Rounder at Sydney University, was the Top Economics and Business Student at Sydney University (1/4000 students), and at the age of just 21 taught the postgraduate course 'Innovation, Strategy and Global Business'.

Sama Dizayee

Sama Dizayee is an Iraqi-Kurdish journalist based in Washington D.C. At the young age of 16, she published her first article for The Kurdish Globe, an English national newspaper, on the cultural differences of the youth in the Middle East and the West. She has long been a part of the Global TEDx community that has encouraged and changed young lives in Iraq. After the war between US and Iraq in 2003, violence has spread throughout the country and resulted in a continuing sectarian war. Sama herself has witnessed the violence and separation that occurred in the country. She is passionate about reporting the communities that came together during these times,even while media outlets covered other contexts.

Simone Barillari

Creator of the Global Hamlet Project. This worldwide project is working to translate Shakespeare’s Hamlet into several languages. This unique project began in 2014 to mark 450 years from Shakespeare’s birth and will be completed in 2016 to coincide with the 400th anniversary of his death.

Steve Simon

Professor Steve Simon is a world renowned theoretical physicist who has worked at Harvard, MIT, and Oxford. He blends an exceptional knowledge for the field with an infectious enthusiasm that will excite, entertain, and educate.

William Latham

Professor William Latham is a computer artist. He is most well known for his Organic Art project where he uses genetic algorithms to produce beautiful, computer generated, organic life forms. Recently, Professor Latham has worked in games development and has been involved in a number of high profile projects.

Zelda La Grange

Former PA and ‘honorary granddaughter’ to the late Nelson Mandela during his administration.