Dr. Deirdre Hughes OBE Dr. Deirdre Hughes OBE is Associate Professor at the University of Warwick’s Institute for Employment Research (IER) and founder of dmh associates (established 2008), an independent careers policy, research and practice organisation working with public, private and third sector partners across the UK and internationally to develop evidence-based approaches to careers service design and delivery. She is also Co-Founding Director of CareerChatUK Ltd, developer of the AI-powered careers tools CiCi and FutureTrack. A Vice-President of IAEVG and Legacy Fellow of the UK Career Development Institute, she was awarded an OBE in 2012 for services to European lifelong guidance. She has chaired England’s National Careers Council, advised the OECD, ILO and governments globally, and published over 100 academic and professional works. She is co-editor of Art that Tells the Truth: Creative Methods in Guidance and Counselling (Routledge, 2024) and co-author of the Building Brighter Futures toolkit and its underpinning peer-reviewed research (Percy et al., 2023). Nikki Lawrence Nikki Lawrence is Chief Executive of Careers Wales, the all-age national careers service for Wales. A qualified accountant (ACMA), she joined Careers Wales in 2004 following senior roles in the NHS and private sector, and was permanently appointed Chief Executive in 2019. She leads the organisation’s Brighter Futures vision, committed to providing free, high-quality and impartial careers support to every person in Wales. Nikki is a co-author of the Building Brighter Futures toolkit and the peer-reviewed research trialling its ten-stage guidance conversation structure in Wales (Percy et al., 2023). Sareena Hopkins Sareena Hopkins is Co-CEO of the Canadian Career Development Foundation (CCDF), based in Ottawa, Ontario, where she provides strategic leadership nationally and internationally across research, policy and capacity building. Since joining CCDF in 1993, she has played a defining role in strengthening professional standards and advancing evidence-based practice, drawing on an earlier decade of leadership in mental health, housing and integrated service models. She is Co-Director of the Canadian Council for Career Development (3CD), co-leads the In Motion & Momentum+ pre-employability programme, and in January 2026 was awarded the prestigious Etta St. John Wileman Award for Outstanding Achievement in Career Development by CERIC.