Claire Kennedy

Biography

After a law degree I spent a year as a UK delegate to the European Youth Parliament focussing on the then crisis in Nicaragua. My subsequent LLM at LSE focussed on human rights law. I became a refugee lawyer, leading a specialist team representing survivors of torture and unaccompanied children seeking asylum in the UK. I was part of the team to set up the Refugee Legal Centre, and also chaired the board of a therapy centre for refugees.

Life intervened and I moved to Devon. Ten years ago I co-founded TEDxExeter and have since built and led a team to establish Exeter’s Festival of Ideas. Those early strands - justice, hope, interconnection - are at its heart.

We’re licensed by TED and organised by volunteers who are passionate about sharing great ideas and building community. Our events have a strong focus on social justice, migration and refugees, mental health, climate justice, human rights, extremisms and radicalisation as well as AI, data and the arts.

We bring together a community of speakers, volunteers and partners with an actively engaged audience. Half of our tickets are low cost, hundreds of young people attend. Alongside the talks we invite activists to inspire positive action. We facilitate meetings between speakers and policy makers, decision makers and thought leaders to make a lasting difference. Tickets sell out in minutes so we livestream widely around the world. With over 25 million views of our talks online the ripple effects are endless.

With Bandi Mbubi I co-founded Congo Calling, a campaign for fair trade technology which uses ethically-sourced, conflict-free minerals from the DRC.

In 2018 I worked with UNHCR to support refugees preparing for TEDxKakumaCamp, the first TEDx in a refugee camp.

I’m also a Director of Egremont Group, an international change management consultancy.