Dr. Helen Turnbull Speaker Biography
CEO of Human Facets and Thought Leader on
Global Inclusion & Diversity
Dr. Turnbull is a world recognized Thought Leader in global inclusion and diversity. She has a deep knowledge and understanding of what it takes to create an inclusive environment. Her PhD dissertation research was on stereotype threat, assimilation and internalized oppression across cultures and has unparalleled knowledge on the complexity of inclusion.
Inclusion
She is the author of three online psycho-metric assessment tools on Unconscious Bias and Inclusion – namely, Cognizant, the ISM profile and The Gender Gap Assessment. She also has an E-Learning program on Unconscious Bias and Inclusion. In May 2013 she spoke at TEDx on “The Illusion of Inclusion”. She keynotes on these topics globally and has spoken to senior executives in Australia, Asia, Europe, UK, Canada, Latin America and the USA.
Clients
Her client list includes Texas Instruments, Raytheon, J.P. Morgan Chase, Motorola, Hewlett Packard, AT & T, Microsoft, Xerox, Miller Coors Brewing, Altria, Spotify,Lockheed Martin International, Wells Fargo and Citigroup. She has also worked in Australia with multiple corporations, including Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, Ernst & Young, Reserve Bank of Australia, Price Waterhouse Cooper, Westpac, Grain Corp, QBE Insurance, Australian Department of Defense, and many others on Unconscious Bias and its impact on diversity and inclusion.
Awards
Dr. Turnbull has five Award winning clients. She has made major contributions in assisting Texas Instruments to win the Catalyst Award and was instrumental in developing programs for both JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup Europe to win the prestigious “Opportunity Now” Award and “Business in the Community” Awards. Commonwealth Bank of Australia also won the 2012 Catalyst Award attributing the win in part to Cognizant, an Unconscious Bias tool developed by Dr. Turnbull and QBE Insurance Australia has been named Australian Employer of Choice in 2015 attributing their win in large part to Human Facets work on Unconscious Bias and Inclusion with 450 of their top leaders.
Education
In addition to her PhD, Dr. Turnbull has two Masters Degrees in Organizational Behavior and Mental Health Counselling and an Under-Graduate Degree in Psychology and Sociology from the Open University. She was also President of the Open University Students Association and in that role has had lunch with the Queen and Prince Phillip, attended The Garden Party at Buckingham Palace and met Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Baroness Jenny Lee.
Affiliations
She is a member of a number of professional societies, including the Academy of Management, American Psychological Association, American Sociological Association and American Society for Phenomenology.
Publications
In 2009 she won the “Distinguished Research Award” for a journal article – “Diversity & Inclusion: Developing an Instrument for the identification of Skills deficiencies” published in the Academy of Strategic Management Journal and is also published in the Organizational Culture, Communications and Conflict Journal and the Reflective Practitioner Journal.
Book
Her latest book is The Illusion of Inclusion which is her seminal work on this topic. She is also a CSP (Certified Speaking Professional) member of the National Speakers Association; a Global Speaking Fellow and an accomplished keynote speaker.
Dr. Helen Turnbull Speaking Topics
Adjusting Your Mirrors and Managing Your Blind Spots
Blind Spots – Leveraging Unconscious Bias to Create an Inclusive Environment
Global Inclusion: Embedding Valuable New Behaviors into the Fabric of Your Organization
Becoming an Ally (Virtual Presentation)
Dr. Helen Turnbull Books
Unconscious Bias – Blind Spots: An Interview on Unconscious Bias
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The Illusion of Inclusion: Global Inclusion, Unconscious Bias, and the Bottom Line
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Dr. Helen Turnbull Speaker Testimonials
"Dr Helen Turnbull is a professional speaker and recognised expert in the field of global inclusion and unconscious bias. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has engaged her as a keynote speaker on a number of occasions, where she has delivered outstanding presentations to senior leaders and high performing talent. She has also facilitated unconscious bias workshops to over 1,500 of our top executives, which were very positively received. The content of her presentations is always of a very high standard, content-rich and delivered in an engaging way, considering the needs of different learners in the forums. Dr Turnbull’s communication style is very professional and she is able to adapt to the meet the needs of the audience, holding their attention. I am very happy to recommend Dr Turnbull to other organisations and conference managers as an exemplary presenter, keynote speaker and facilitator."
- | Commonwealth Bank of Australia
“Helen Turnbull manages the rare feat of engaging audiences with good humor and energy on the highly serious subject of unconscious bias in the workplace. Her global experience, outstanding results, and great empathy with people at all levels create not merely awareness, but an urgency to improve and progress. Her enthusiasm is infectious and she creates immediate focus, action, and behavior change.”
- | Million Dollar Consulting
"Helen was a known expert in the field of diversity and organisational development in the US, but it is to her great credit that she managed to translate and sell the concepts to a wholly sceptical and initially unreceptive multi-national audience in the London office. The Leading Diversity 1-day training programme that she delivered over a two year period to in excess of 1500 officers and staff of the bank was the most ambitious and successful training intervention ever introduced in Europe. Helen’s skills as a facilitator are second to none. She is intuitive, fluid, articulate and natural, spotting and heading off potential “hot spots” and providing an environment where people feel safe to express their views and know they will be heard. Her antenna is always up, yet she appears at complete ease with her audience and never radiates anything but calm and control. But Helen has much more to offer than just stand up training and facilitation. Her OD skills are fabulous and her holistic approach to culture change is practical and realistic yet inspirational. Whatever she does, she takes people with her and makes the journey seem immensely worthwhile. As a business partner, Helen is an exceedingly reliable and diligent colleague, working seamlessly to ensure that goals are delivered and targets are met. You feel reassured when working with Helen that everything is possible and will be done to the highest standard. I recommend her to you most highly."
- | JP Morgan Chase
"Dr Helen Turnbull partnered with QBE Insurance, Australia New Zealand Operations throughout 2013 and 2014. Helen delivered Board and senior leader presentations and rolled out Unconscious Bias training to 411 of our leaders. The key elements of the Unconscious Bias training were leader briefings, online assessment, result analysis and debriefing of results. Helen partnered with our Executive team both in an individual and group capacity to ensure our results were understood from the top down. We have since gone on to win the best diversity & inclusion workplace award at the National HR Awards in 2015 and credit Helen’s work in helping the HR team move the conversation internally from one of diversity to one of inclusion and respect."
- | QBE Insurance