Azadeh Akbari , London, United Kingdom

Azadeh is currently working as a marketing and media consultant and the Global Marketing & Development Director for OMID Foundation, a group of four non-political, and non-religious legal entities (in Canada, Iran, UK, and US) that collaborate in order to strengthen the social, emotional, and economic competencies of disadvantaged young women (aged 15-25) in Iran, through self-empowerment, education and training.

Prior to this, in 2016, Azadeh founded Diversity in Marketing & Advertising Summit, with a mission to make the media and marketing industry more inclusive because she believes that media has the power to change the world for the better and she wants to contribute to that change.

She graduated in 2006 with a bachelors degree in Nuclear Medicine Technology from University of Sydney. Her pursuit for her ideal career somehow led her into the media and advertising industry and she has been working in the industry now for over seven years, starting at Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA) in Sydney Australia before moving to London in 2013. She has held various roles in content, programming, conference production, product management, marketing, management, training and mentoring in London. Alongside working on DIMA, she writes and works with different charities to amplify their message through speaking, campaigning and writing.