2025 Honorary Award recipients announced

Jaz Ampaw-Farr

Multi-award-winning inspirational speaker and one of the top female motivational speakers in the UK, Jaz is a force of nature who galvanises people to take action. She combines lessons learned from a challenging and often brutal childhood with those from her rise to TV presenter, TEDx Speaker, stand-up comedian and Z-list reality TV star.

Having started her journey at the formally named Bishop Grosseteste College, where she trained to be a teacher, Jaz is now highly recognised for her impact on the education and health sectors, inspiring positive change. She has led national and international projects unlocking potential in leaders and teams and is now a sought after headline keynote speaker by business leaders, corporations and governments wanting the same results.

Along with her husband Ed, Jaz is co-founder of the leadership development consultancy Be Human First Limited. Together, they help leaders who want to influence, inspire and motivate their teams with greater engagement in order to grow their businesses and leave a lifelong legacy.

In her TEDx Talk she re-storied her life as a broken child, highlighting the transformative power we have to make a difference. Jaz’s determination drove her from appalling abuse at the hands of her own parents to running away from foster care and life as a teen on the streets, to advising countries on education policy and living as the resilience influencer she is today.

As a speaker, Jaz has a disarming ability to captivate her audience and share her story with humour and humility and without anger or bitterness. She invites people into a more authentic narrative around choice and agency, leaving individuals and organisations reporting an increase in determination and productivity.

Jaz speaks internationally and works with industry leaders such as Skillsoft, The Marketing Society, Gucci, RED, The Festival of Media and the BBC. During her career she has impacted over 1 million people, globally, with 150K TEDx views, 30 years wowing audiences, a 25K+ social media following and 3000+ keynotes delivered.

Neil Leitch OBE

He has also given evidence to multiple government enquiries and advised on early education policy around the world, most notably in Asia, and was key in developing the two-year-old early childcare and education entitlement offer.

Neil has received several sector awards, is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce and was recognised in the 2022 New Year Honours list, when he was awarded an OBE.

Born into a home environment of domestic abuse and having experienced some time in care, Neil left school at the age of 14 and began working in a factory repairing ‘ice pop’ equipment. At the age of 18, he decided to pursue education through evening classes, studying electronic communication and then accountancy.

His career diverted into finance, which culminated in him chairing the Finance Industry Standards Association. Neil originally volunteered to support the Early Years Alliance before joining full-time and in 2008, became its Chief Executive Officer, after finding that its ethos and dedication to the lives of young children chimed deeply with his values.

Under Neil’s leadership, the Early Years Alliance has become one of the largest voluntary sector early years care and education providers in the UK, and represents 14,000 nurseries, pre-schools, and childminders, who support over 800,000 families.

Neil has been an unwavering leader of the Alliance, and his notable achievements and contributions include campaigning for fairer early years funding, raising awareness around the mental health and well-being of the early years workforce and his ongoing work championing the early years sector in the national news media.

Caroline Killeavy

Caroline has enjoyed a highly impactful leadership career in the not for profit, charity and public sectors. Moving to Lincolnshire over 30 years ago, Caroline credits her achievements to the tenacity, generosity and selfless determination of her Irish born parents, who moved to the UK in the 1950’s to seek work.

She began her career in the NHS, moving to British Waterways, which later became the Canal & River Trust. As a senior leader, Caroline was instrumental in helping this newly established charity transform itself, establishing a culture that embraced volunteer involvement and community social action.

Caroline accepted the post of Chief Executive Officer at YMCA Lincolnshire 7 years ago. Here, she led the development of award-winning new accommodation for those experiencing homelessness, new services and facilities for young people and families, and protected the future of three Lincolnshire based charities, by facilitating successful mergers. The Institute of Directors chose Caroline as the East Midlands Third Sector Director of the Year in 2019.

In addition to her professional commitments Caroline has enjoyed gifting her time in a variety of Governance roles including, former Trustee of Lincoln City Foundation, Board Member of Lincoln and Connected Coast Town Deal Boards and is a member of the Lincoln Cathedral Finance Committee.

She recently Chaired the Lincolnshire Police Crime Commissioner’s Violence Against Women & Girls Assurance Panel and co-founded the Greater Lincolnshire’s Outstanding Women’s network (GLOW), to support and inspire female leaders driving social and commercial change in Lincolnshire.

Caroline has recently taken up a new role at The National Trust, as the charity begins a new inspiring strategic journey to end unequal access to nature, beauty and history.