Theme: TEDxCheltenham

TEDxCheltenham is an independently organised event, bringing together luminaries, thought leaders, and unique perspectives from Cheltenham and its surrounding areas.

Our exciting speaker line up of inspiring local voices included:

Eve Jardine Young
Ben Goodare
Dr Jane Monckton-Smith
James Hygate
Dr Simon Fryer
Guy Disney MBE

TEDxCheltenham expresses gratitude to its wonderful partners:
Harrison Clark Rickerbys
Squashed Robot
Unit One Films
Highliner Technology

TEDxCheltenham Curator and Host:
Melania Edwards

The Parabola Arts Centre
Parabola Road
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL50 3AA
United Kingdom

Ben Goodare

After studying an undergraduate degree in outdoor and environmental education Ben Goodare moved into the corporate world as a sustainability professional, over the past 15 years he has been part of or leading the sustainability teams at FTSE250 and 100 firms. He is currently the Head of Sustainability at Renishaw PLC. His interest in a low impact lifestyle started out as a small child where he grew up on a smallholding on Anglesey and his interests in low impact lifestyle has stayed with him in his adult life. He is Top 100 Role Model in Manufacturing 2021 Alumni and continues to expand his knowledge as a part time student at Coventry University. First and foremost he is a husband and a father, and it is for his children and their children he has dedicated his career to lowering the environmental and social impact of the corporations he works with.

Dr Jane Monckton-Smith

Dr Jane Monckton-Smith is Professor of Public Protection at the University of Gloucestershire with a specialism in homicide, coercive control and stalking. In addition to her academic work she maintains a diverse portfolio of professional and case work. She works with families bereaved through homicide helping them with criminal justice and other processes; she advises homicide review panels, as well as chairing statutory domestic homicide reviews; she advises police on current and cold investigations, and crisis risk assessments; she trains police and other professionals in assessing threat and risk in cases of domestic violence, and recognising and identifying suspicious deaths. Her most recent book In Control: dangerous relationships and how they end in murder explains her work in creating the ”Homicide Timeline’ that shows how and why homicide risk may be escalating in cases of coercive control and stalking.

Dr Simon Fryer

After graduating with a PhD in physiology from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand in 2014, Simon returned to the UK to take up the position of Senior Lecturer in Sport & Exercise Physiology at the University of Gloucestershire. Here, Simon began to grow his research and teaching career becoming internationally recognised for his work investigating the interactions between lifestyle behaviours and the aetiology of cardiovascular disease. Specifically, Simon is interested in understanding why prolonged sitting increases cardiovascular risk, and how interrupting sitting with brief physical activity negates this risk. With over 80 peer-reviewed journal articles in physiology, Simon is concentrating on using his research to help provide biologically plausible physical activity interruption strategies, which can be used to inform and develop public health policy for sedentary behaviour.

Eve Jardine Young

Eve Jardine-Young has been Principal of Cheltenham Ladies’ College since 2011, having worked in the independent sector for over 25 years, including at Radley College (Oxfordshire), Blundell’s School (Devon) and Epsom College (Surrey). She had held academic and pastoral roles in both co-educational and single sex schools, having originally worked in industry after graduating from Cambridge University in Engineering Science, sponsored by Arup. She has spoken nationally and internationally on themes relating to education, including Washington, London, Prague and Hong Kong, and is deeply committed to environmental initiatives, social enterprise, microfinance and development, having been born and raised in Malawi. She is Chair of the World Leading Schools Association (WLSA) and a Deputy Lord Lieutenant for Gloucestershire, as well as having served as a governor of the Barnwood Trust, whose work supports marginalised and vulnerable adults in leading more independent lives.

Guy Disney MBE DL

Guy Disney served in the British Army for seven years, deploying to Afghanistan on two operational tours. On his first tour, his troop was ambushed by the Taliban. The ambush consisted of small arms fire and a volley of RPGs being launched, one of which hit the vehicle he was commanding. The attack resulted in the death of one of his soldiers and the amputation of his right leg below the knee. On return to the UK, Guy joined an expedition to the Geographic North Pole which was successfully completed in Apr 2011. Upon leaving the military in 2013 Guy worked as the expedition planner and team captain for an expedition to the South Pole, the pole was reached in December 2013. Prior to joining the military, he rode as a jump jockey and had his racing license refused on medical grounds post injury – he eventually regained his racing license in 2015 winning races becoming the first amputee to do so in Great Britain. In 2019 he rode over the Grand National fences. He was appointed MBE in the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours and a Deputy Lieutenant of Gloucestershire in 2021. He sits on the diversity in racing steering group for the British Horseracing Association and is a trustee for Walking with the Wounded. He currently works in central and Southern Africa training anti-poaching units.

James Hygate

In 2003, James could see an emerging biofuels industry developing in the US, so he founded Green Fuels Ltd., with the aim to bring sustainable biodiesel to the UK. Since then, Green Fuels has won numerous awards and in 2013 was granted a Royal Warrant by HRH the Prince of Wales for its ongoing supply of sustainable biofuel to the Royal Family, for which James is the Royal Warrant holder. Today, the company has commercially operating bio-refineries on every continent bar Antarctica, producing more than 1 million litres of sustainable biofuel every day. In 2015, James won Entrepreneur of the Year at the 2015 New Energy & Cleantech Awards in recognition for these achievements. James was invited to be an Unreasonable Impact fellow in 2017 and returned as an Alumni Mentor in 2018. Green Fuels is a pioneer in renewable fuels, with global exposure to the industry. Green Fuels is in the course of a strategic transformation to global sustainable fuel producer in the pivotal sectors of sustainable aviation and marine fuels and in high-growth emerging markets for sustainable road fuel and energy. The multi-award winning company holds a Royal Warrant of Appointment from HRH the Prince of Wales for its long term supply of sustainable, waste derived, fuel. Green Fuels has supplied biofuel equipment with aggregate capacity equating to $4.5bn in fuel sales to customers in more than 85 countries and off-setting over 8 million tonnes of CO2eq to date. Green Fuels is currently establishing advanced biofuel production operations in key markets worldwide building on the company’s deep experience in renewable fuel tech, especially in decentralized refining, and on its IP in sustainable aviation and marine fuels – its aim to save over 100m tonnes of CO2eq by 2050, an ambition that it well within sight.