Great Minds Series: Change Activism – An inclusive, connected and compelling approach to change

How can we find inspiration as change leaders?  One idea is to look at the lives of social activists, people like Mandela, Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr – individuals who were passionate about a better world.

Inspired by social activism, this mindset helped Carmel set up and lead Magic Breakfast which now provides a healthy school breakfast to over 200,000 vulnerable children every day. As a City based technologist, without any education or food background, Carmel built a new model for change, to help people find their passion, purpose and plan. It starts with the heart.

Join us for breakfast at Prosperity’s headquarters from 08:30 on Wednesday 5 June 2024 to find out more about Carmel’s lessons learned from the many mistakes along the way.

Followed by Carmel’s keynote speech, the panel will discuss the need for an inclusive, connected and compelling approach to change, ensuring changes happens through a purposeful lens and for the better.

About Carmel McConnell MBE

Carmel’s MBA (Baynes, London) is in change leadership and broadband technology. She has worked at senior levels in BT, UBS and 20th Century Fox and ran a successful tech leadership development firm based in London, starting with a role as IT project manager in BT. She has lived and worked in the US, India and the UK and is a dual Irish/UK citizen.

Author, Change Activist, Make Big Things Happen Fast.

This title was published by the Financial Times showing how social activists are great role models for a new generation of global business leaders wanting to create profit with principles. The book became a best seller in its second edition in 2002. The 3rd edition published in 2022.

Charity Founder and CEO

While working as senior technology manager in UBS, Carmel found out about the problem of children arriving at school too hungry to learn. She began delivering breakfasts to a small group of schools and, seeing the big difference it made to child concentration and behaviour, Carmel re-mortgaged her home to take a sabbatical, leaving her City role to make sure our poorest children wouldn’t face educational disadvantage. She set up a new national charity, Magic Breakfast, and has raised over £70 million for school food deliveries.

After 20 years as founder & CEO, Carmel stepped back from Magic Breakfast in 2020 to support great socially focused leaders from Govt and business, finding solutions to the biggest climate and social justice issues.

Awards and Honours

Carmel was awarded an MBE by the then Prince Charles for her services to school food in 2016. She received an Honorary Doctorate from the Open University for improving access to education. She was named Barclays Woman of the Year in 2018 and was voted No 4 on the Radio 4 Women’s Hour list of 100 most powerful women in the UK in 2014