AFB Seminar: Designing for Every Mind – Neurodiversity & Mental Health First Aid in Banking

This seminar, in partnership with EY, Bloomberg, Mental Health First Aid England, and hosted by UniCredit, explores the power of neurodiversity inclusion and mental health awareness as levers for performance, risk management, and building trust in banking.

With insights from leading voices across finance, consulting, and wellbeing, the session aims to go beyond awareness and focus on practical tips to illustrate how inclusive systems can unlock better performance, decision-making, and future talent acquisition.

You will be invited to explore a forward-thinking approach to neurodiversity and mental health in banking. Rather than focusing on regulatory anxiety, the session reframes inclusion as a strategic advantage.

Why attend?

Around 1 in 7 people are neurodiverse, and 1 in 7 live with a mental health condition — often overlapping and often undisclosed.

This session will outline strategies for inclusion in your teams to help raise performance, reduce risk, and build cultures where everyone can thrive.

Speakers will cover:

• How neuroinclusive teams outperform in creativity, adaptability, and problem-solving.
• How inclusivity can reduce operational risk and enhance decision-making.
• How inclusive leadership deepens relationships and drives sustainable success.
• How to support your teams by understanding Mental Health First Aid principles to help managers respond early and effectively to stress and burnout.
• How firms have redesigned meetings, communication, and collaboration to support diverse minds—and achieved measurable gains.
• Actionable takeaways to embed wellbeing and neuroinclusion in everyday leadership.

There will be an opportunity for delegates to ask questions.

Who should attend?

This session is designed for leaders and managers in compliance, risk, and HR, diversity and inclusion champions, culture and transformation leads and senior executives shaping strategy and governance.

Speakers

Nikolina Zečić leads Group Culture and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at UniCredit, where she drives strategic initiatives to embed inclusive leadership and cultural transformation across the organisation. With a background in client experience, marketing, and communications, she brings a cross-functional lens to shaping environments where diverse minds thrive. Nikolina has a deep business background in corporate banking and client relationship management. She is a frequent speaker on inclusive culture, psychological safety, and the role of leadership in building trust and belonging.

Nikolina will moderate a panel discussion with senior leaders from Bloomberg and EY to share how and why they made decisions to embed neurodiversity inclusion by design.

Matt Blaker is a Partner at EY.  With 30 years’ experience in international personal tax and data management, he brings a strategic lens to programme delivery and transformation. Matt sponsors EY UK’s Neurodiversity community and is active as a coach and mentor, championing inclusive leadership and continuous development of people who think differently.

Amanda Gethin is currently an Executive Coach to global leaders in EY and was formerly EY Global Consulting Talent Leader, where she has shaped holistic, integrated talent strategies to drive transformation and sustained performance. With over 25 years of experience, Amanda is a trusted advisor to senior leaders, known for her empathetic style and sharp business acumen. She co-designs human-centric strategies at the C-suite level, fostering cultures that inspire change, psychological safety, and leadership agility. Amanda is co-author of EY’s recently published ‘EY Global Neuroinclusion at Work Study 2025’, exploring how harnessing neurodivergent skills to drive better business value.

Matthew Beckford is EMEA Head of Inclusion at Bloomberg, where he leads strategic initiatives to embed inclusion across the business. A certified executive coach and trusted advisor, he brings deep expertise in organisational development, leadership, and inclusive culture design. Matthew is a passionate advocate for neurodiversity, mental health, and intersectional inclusion.

Tina Copp is an accredited Mental Health First Aid Instructor with MHFA England, specialising in youth and workplace mental health. She delivers training that equips individuals and organisations to recognise early signs of mental health challenges and respond with empathy and practical support. Tina is also a volunteer with Shout, offering crisis text support to individuals in emotional distress. Her work focuses on reducing stigma, fostering psychological safety, and promoting inclusive cultures through education and lived experience.

Tina will lead a session focused on recognizing early signs of mental health struggles, managing conversations with care, and using available resources. Through a real-world appraisal live polls scenario, participants will explore how to spot when performance issues may be linked to mental health and learn practical do’s and don’ts to support without undermining confidence.

Logistics

Please note you will receive a confirmation of your booking via email within 24 hours. Should you not receive a confirmation, please contact AFB to double check if your booking was successful.

For event management purposes, your details will be shared with UniCredit and 22Bishopsgate. Ahead of the event, you will receive an e-mail from notify@22bishopsgate.com, it will contain a QR Code along with all the details and instructions to enter the building.

Fee:        Included in AFB membership

Location:  In-person at UniCredit, Floor 49, 22 Bishopsgate, EC2N 4BQ

Date:        Tuesday 02 December 2025

Time:        15:00 – 17:00 (registration & refreshments from 15:00-15:30, networking drinks from 17:00). 

There will be ample opportunity for questions throughout the session, however, if you would like to submit a question before or have any specific questions or areas that you would like the session to address, please send them to the AFB at secretariat@foreignbanks.org.uk as soon as practicable. You will receive final event details a week before the event.