Before setting her sights on entrepreneurship, Winnie Awa graduated with a 1st class degree in Management and Computing, going on to forge a highly successful career as a technology consultant and product strategist at world class companies. She started her career at IBM, then Ernst & Young, and later on NET-A-PORTER, ASOS, and LVMH where she led the launch of innovative consumer technology platforms.

She has built and launched award-winning tech products from scratch, steered multimillion-pound digital transformations for luxury brands, and led cross-functional teams to deliver complex AI, personalisation, and e-commerce innovations that shift markets. Her latest venture – Carra Labs – is a multicultural intelligence platform that melds consumer behaviour with real-world data, powering global beauty brands with culturally relevant insights to transform innovation.

Winnie is a recognised authority on inclusive innovation, she is a Women in Innovation UK award recipient, and Sunday Times Style Disruptor shortlistee. Her insights have been featured by BBC, Vogue Business, Harper’s Bazaar, Sunday Times Style, WWD, Stylist Magazine, and more.

Her upcoming book, Global Hair Cultures (2027), published by a leading international publisher, explores the social, political, and aesthetic histories of global beauty practices and draws on her lived experience across Nigeria, UK, France, Colombia, and UAE.

For global beauty brands and cultural institutions, Winnie plays both a strategic and creative role both as a multicultural consumer expert and strategist, dedicated to sparking original thinking and helping brands create culturally relevant products and solutions.

Winnie is an expert in inclusive innovation and multicultural beauty. She has held several advisory positions across the beauty ecosystem as co-chair of the British Beauty Council diversity committee, Glamour Power List honouree, and Pure Beauty Awards Judge, and Stylus 2024 Changemakers.

Winnie thrives in bringing together human centred approaches with her unique artistic gaze.

Winnie Awa | Corporate Speaking

If you want a speaker who blends cultural intelligence, strategic imagination, and humour and who will leave your audience thinking differently about innovation, technology, beauty, and themselves — Winnie’s the one. She has spoken internationally, from London, to Amsterdam, to New York and given talks at the Royal College of Art, Apple, Unilever, and global audiences of over 1,000.

Lighting up global stages —with a rare combo of strategic clarity, cultural insight, and charismatic storytelling – Winnie’s superpower lies in her extraordinary range: she builds AI platforms and digital ecosystems with the same adaptable fluency that she analyses global beauty cultures.

Charismatic, compelling, and intellectually mischievous, she speaks with the curiosity of an artist, conviction of an entrepreneur, and the clarity of a strategist. Her network call her “bankable”. Audiences call her unforgettable.

No boring talks. Winnie helps people think differently.

Winnie Awa | Keynote Talks

Cultivating Taste In An AI-Saturated World: Why Your Taste Matters: In a world where everyone has access to the same tools, your aesthetic judgment, cultural intuition, and ability to trust what you find compelling becomes the deciding factor. This talk explores why creativity, intuition, and taste are the next frontier of competitive advantage.

Beauty Futures and Trends: When Beauty Met Algorithms: Beauty isn’t just personal—it’s political, cultural, inherited. This talk reveals why the most successful beauty innovations keep humans in the loop, how to build culturally intelligent products (not just “diverse” ones). This talk gives a whole different context to beauty trends, from ingredients to technology.

Below: Winnie talks at the Loreal Professional conference about her company and journey

Inclusive Innovation: Designing Products People Want: This talk is a compelling spin on consumer insight, exploring the new rules of product development, community-led growth, and inclusive innovation. Learn how to listen deeper, build with (not for) your community, and treat consumers as co-creators.

Building Resilience and Positive Mental Health: Rituals > Routines: We dismiss beauty rituals as vanity. From my research across global hair cultures, I’ve discovered that rituals create meaning, signal identity, and offer moments of control in chaotic lives. How global beauty practices shape identity, culture, politics and why they matter for brands today.

Clients include the Royal College of Arts, Unilever, Cosmetic Executive Women, Apple, Multi-Ethnic Hair & Scalp Care Symposium, Glamour magazine, and Frasers Group.

Winnie Awa | Takeaway Benefits

Overall, Winnie Awa’s speaking engagements can have a significant impact on listeners by providing inspiration, knowledge, guidance, and motivation to pursue their goals and make positive changes in their lives and communities. Benefits of booking Winnie as a speaker includes:

Inspirational and Motivational: Winnie’s story of entrepreneurship and success is inspiring and will motivate listeners to pursue their own dreams and make a positive impact.

Expert Insights: With her extensive experience across both corporates and start-ups, Winnie brings unique insight on what it takes to innovate within large organisations as well as how to disrupt the status quo in start-ups.

Diversity and Inclusion: Winnie’s fierce advocacy for diversity and inclusion can help listeners to understand the importance of creating a more equitable and just society, and provide proactive guidance on how to do so.

Sustainability: Winnie’s urgent call for personalising the haircare industry is aligned with UN’s sustainable development goals. Her passion for sustainability can encourage listeners to consider the environmental impact of their actions and make necessary changes for our planet.

A winning mindset: Winnie’s authentic experience can encourage listeners to take a proactive approach to managing their own mental health, whilst fostering a winning mindset.

Call +44 1753 439 289 or email Great British Speakers now to book female entrepreneur and motivational public speaker Winnie Awa for your corporate event.

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