Meet the Speakers

Mind Ctrl brings together leading thinkers, researchers and lived experience from across psychology, technology, culture and strategy each offering a distinct perspective on how influence works and where its boundaries lie.

Andy Lambert

Andy Lambert is a strategist and author of Spheres of Influence, a framework exploring how ideas spread through networks of trust, credibility and social connection. His work focuses on the mechanics of everyday influence from why certain voices carry weight to how social dynamics shape what gains traction in culture and organisations.

At Mind Ctrl, Andy sets the foundation for the day by unpacking the forces that make influence work and why trust remains its most powerful currency.

Stephen Herron

Stephen Herron is an expert in social anthropology and human behaviour and a Director of Wildhawk, helping brands and organisations connect with their audience.

His research examines influence at its most strategic edge and reveals how many of the tactics used by radical extremist groups mirror familiar marketing principles from audience segmentation and narrative framing to community-building and identity signalling.

Petra Velzeboer

Raised in a notorious cult, Petra brings a powerful lived perspective to the psychology of influence.

Having rebuilt her life from rock bottom to become a global thought leader, she offers a deeply personal insight into what it feels like to grow up inside a system of belief, belonging and control.

Her story illuminates the internal experience of influence grounding the day’s themes in real human impact.

Carl Miller

Carl Miller is a technologist, journalist and writer. He is a member of RUSI’s States Threats Task Force, the High-Level Taskforce on AI and Society at Chatham House and the Expert Group of the European Digital Media Observatory.

He researches the relationship between technology, society and power, focusing on how digital networks shape behaviour and public discourse. His work examines the role of algorithms, online communities and misinformation in amplifying influence at scale.

Closing the programme, Carl brings you into the dark net to show you how influence is used when nobody thinks you're watching

Your host

Andi Jarvis

Andi is the Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Eximo Marketing, a marketing strategy consultancy based in Belfast and Liverpool.

Andi hosts the Strategy Sessions podcast, a show that interviews some of the best marketers in the world, including Seth Godin, Rory Sutherland and April Dunford.

He holds an MSc in Marketing and the Marketing Week Mini MBA in Marketing. He teaches marketing at Liverpool John Moores University and Uni Vaasa in Finland. He also runs a fundraising project, Eximo & Friends with Barnardo’s, where marketers volunteer to provide consultations to small businesses in return for a donation to support refugees.

Contact Treena with any questions treena@bmmubelfast.com