Available to book
Chris Arnold
Dr Chris Arnold helps organisations and leaders think differently, drawing on neurodiversity, cognitive diversity, and social impact strategy. A former Saatchi and Saatchi director and founder of Dyversity Lab, Chris has addressed over 200 events worldwide.
Dr Chris Arnold is a creative strategist, Dr of Business, and social impact specialist who helps organisations rethink how people, brands, and communities create value.
A former Creative Director and board director of Saatchi and Saatchi, Chris later chaired the DMA's Agencies Council and Creative Council. He founded Dyversity Lab, a global collective of high-achieving diverse thinkers, and is the author of Ethical Marketing and the New Consumer, with FLIP: Unthink Everything You Know due for publication.
Drawing on decades in brand strategy and creative leadership, Chris shows organisations how cognitive diversity translates into sharper problem-solving and innovation, particularly as AI reshapes how teams need to think. As someone who is dyslexic and ADHD, Chris brings personal experience to workplace neurodiversity, alongside decades spent developing strategies for major brands including P&G, Sony, Toyota, Ford, Coca-Cola, Disney, Intel, Starbucks, Ikea, Visa, and Sky.
Audiences leave with a clearer understanding of how their own and others' minds work, practical tools for applying dimensional and critical thinking to real problems, and a framework for building social impact strategy that goes beyond tick-box reporting.
Book Chris to challenge how your organisation thinks, works, and measures what actually matters.
Topics, sessions and talks
It is estimated that 15–20% of the population is neurodivergent, yet just 23% of HR professionals have had specific training on it. Dr Chris Arnold, who is both dyslexic and ADHD, combines personal experience with research and psychology to reframe neurodiversity as a business asset rather than a difficulty to accommodate. Drawing on his time as a Saatchi and Saatchi director and founder of Dyversity Lab, he shows teams how to recognise different thinking styles, work with them, and build a genuinely inclusive culture.
People do not all think, process, or see the world the same way, and Dr Chris Arnold argues that this variation, not uniformity, is what makes teams effective. Building on his neurodiversity work, he broadens the lens to cognitive diversity more widely, showing audiences how different minds working together consistently outperform like-minded ones. The talk gives teams a shared language for recognising each other's thinking styles and turning that variety into a working advantage.
Too many organisations treat the S in ESG as a tick-box exercise or a proxy score, disconnected from customers and the business itself. Dr Chris Arnold, co-founder of My Social Impact and founder of London Community Arts, sets out what a genuine social impact strategy looks like, from the difference between social value and social impact to the "ripple effect" of an organisation's activity on people, communities, and society. Audiences come away with a framework for turning social purpose into measurable business value rather than a compliance exercise.
As AI levels the playing field between competitors, Dr Chris Arnold argues the real edge comes from how well people think, not what tools they use. He walks through analytical, critical, creative, and systems thinking as skills organisations can deliberately build rather than leave to chance, drawing on psychometrics and research with a US university into how different mindsets interact with AI. The result is a workforce better equipped to think alongside AI instead of being flattened by it.
Dr Chris Arnold challenges the idea that good leadership means following convention. Drawing on his forthcoming book of the same name, he argues that the leaders who make the biggest difference are the ones willing to question what "normal" even means, rather than defaulting to it. A former Saatchi and Saatchi board director, Chris draws on decades spent challenging conventional thinking in business to help leaders rewrite the rules they've inherited and build teams that think for themselves rather than follow the script.
A former Saatchi and Saatchi board director and founder of Dyversity Lab, Chris combines two decades of brand strategy leadership with active advisory work in social impact measurement. For organisations seeking fresh thinking with commercial grounding, Chris brings creative strategy, business experience, and a practical focus on change.
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frequently asked questions
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To book Chris Arnold, email dr.chris.arnold@getapeptalk.com or call PepTalk on +44 20 3835 2929 (UK) or +1 737 888 5112 (US), and one of our speaker agents will contact you within hours to confirm Dr Chris' availability and speaking fee. If you can, please include your budget upfront – it helps us fast-track your request. It’s also helpful to know the date, format (virtual or in-person), location, and about your audience.
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Three to six months ahead is comfortable for most events, and 12 months is better for large conferences, peak-season dates or one specific in-demand speaker. Shorter timelines are workable, and PepTalk regularly fills last-minute and replacement bookings within days. Availability is the constraint, so get in touch as soon as you have a date.
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