Keynotes, workshops and consulting that turn DEI from good intentions into everyday practice. Built on almost a decade of DEI work, inside large companies and as an independent consultant. In English and German.
The topics clients ask for most, and a starting point for yours.
DEI Foundations
Build one shared understanding of DEI across your organization.
The shared basics for everyone: what diversity, equity and inclusion actually mean, how structural discrimination works, and where bias shows up in everyday decisions, and what actually reduces it.
Understand what different groups need, as employees and as customers.
A deep dive into specific dimensions, such as gender, sexual orientation, origin, faith or disability: what inclusion looks like for each of them and at the intersections of identity, and what that means for your employees, customers and products.
ForDEI events · Pride Month · International Women's Day · awareness weeks
Build teams where people share ideas, do their best work and stay.
The everyday behavior that decides whether people share ideas, do their best work and stay: inclusive leadership, psychological safety, allyship and inclusive language, and fair processes in recruiting, promotion and performance reviews.
Give your ERGs a clear mandate that counts for the business.
Setting up ERGs, leading them and making them count for the business: with a clear mandate, executive sponsors and a link to the DEI strategy. Built on my own experience leading and advising ERGs.
How inclusion shapes what you offer and who you reach: accessible products and services, real representation in campaigns, and the customer groups you aren't reaching yet. Built on projects I have led myself.
I build long-term partnerships with my clients, whether they need one targeted session or ongoing support to shape their full DEI strategy. Many book me again after the first one.
The best-rated event of our METRO Diversity Days.
Samet's talk was the best-rated event of our METRO Diversity Days, and it's easy to see why: he captivates an audience with creativity, deep expertise and eloquence.
Nikita BaranovFormer Co-Chair, METRO Pride
Got the content exactly to the point.
We brought Samet in for our ERG Day at Deloitte, and the collaboration was professional and genuinely pleasant from the start. Samet got the content exactly to the point with an open, approachable and likeable manner. The talk truly enriched the day and gave us valuable impulses for our ongoing diversity and inclusion work.
We brought Samet to Jung von Matt several times: for a speaker series on DEI in advertising and for a workshop with our LGBTQI+ network. Samet helped us build our ERG in a meaningful way. Open, practical and full of ideas we could put to work right away.
JanSocial Media Director, LGBTQI+ ERG Founder & Chair, Jung von Matt
I’d recommend Samet to any team.
We brought Samet in for a workshop on microaggressions. I appreciated Samet's expertise, the open space for discussion and the great communication throughout. Our team learned about the nuanced ways discrimination can be experienced, and I'd recommend Samet to any team that wants a more inclusive workplace.
Alvira H RaoGeneral Manager Green Chef UK, HelloFresh
Top league.
Samet’s DEI work was one of the most effective initiatives at Google and changed my understanding of diversity and inclusion like no other. Samet’s finesse in choosing the right media, forum and format to deliver a message is top league.
Samet’s perspective is rare and valuable in the DEI space.
What I really appreciate about Samet is the view of inclusion beyond employee experience. Samet looks just as seriously at customers: who a company isn't reaching, why that might be, and how more inclusive products and marketing can open up entirely new opportunities. This perspective is rare and valuable in the DEI space.
Sarah CordivanoCOO, StartSteps Digital Education
Illuminating, easy to follow and genuinely entertaining.
Samet shaped the topic with us, challenged our goals and delivered a keynote that was illuminating, easy to follow and genuinely entertaining. Samet breaks down barriers, sparks curiosity and wins people over with deep expertise, humanity and humor.
As a DEI lead, I booked Samet at two companies, first at LEO Pharma and then at Lundbeck. Samet quickly understands where an organization stands and makes complex topics like minority stress tangible, with real expertise and a lot of humanity. When I took on DEI at a new company, I knew I wanted to work with Samet again.
Town hall moderationProut At Work · 2025 · YouTube
Staying effective when diversity polarizes
Podcast guestGlobal Inclusion in Practice · 2024 · YouTube
Finding balance in DEI advocacy
Selected work
What organizations book me for.
A few examples from client work and my in-house role.
Adaptive Fashion at Zalando
In-houseZalando
I lead the DEI workstream behind Zalando's Adaptive Fashion initiative, which brings inclusive products to disabled customers. It shows what DEI can do when it is built into the business itself.
A talk for all Employee Resource Groups at Deloitte Germany's ERG Day, at the invitation of the DEI team.
Fair and clear: inclusive performance reviews
WorkshopHelloFresh2025
HelloFresh wanted performance reviews that are fair and still clear. I trained people leaders across Europe to give fair, criteria-based feedback without losing honesty.
Inclusion in advertising
Speaker seriesJung von Matt2024
A speaker series on DEI in advertising at Jung von Matt, one of Germany's most renowned advertising agencies, followed by a workshop for their LGBTQI+ ERG.
A DEI strategy in four months
ConsultingGROPYUS2023
GROPYUS needed a DEI strategy that fits a fast-growing company. In four months, I developed it with the CPO, the VP People and the Employee Resource Groups, and we rolled it out together.
Intersectionality and the curb-cut effect
Company-wide talkPfizer2026
A company-wide talk at Pfizer's German headquarters on DEI, intersectionality and the curb-cut effect.
Pick the format that fits your goals. Any length, remote or on site, in English or German.
Keynote & moderationKeynotes and moderation for all-hands, conferences, panels, town halls, ERG events and other DEI-relevant occasions.All-hands, conferences, panels, town halls.
WorkshopFor leadership teams, ERGs and teams who want to understand and improve how they work together.Leadership teams, ERGs and whole teams.
ConsultingFor DEI and HR teams, ERG leads and executive sponsors building or developing inclusive practices.DEI and HR teams, ERG leads, sponsors.
About
Built for some. Good for all.
Ramps were built for wheelchair users. Today everyone with a stroller or a suitcase uses them. Good DEI work does the same, and that idea runs through everything I do.
For almost a decade I've driven DEI: inside companies like Google, IBM, Coca-Cola and Zalando, and as the founder of AKTIvism, working as a consultant and speaker with 40+ clients in tech, e-commerce, consulting and law.
I know DEI from every angle: as the person inside the organization who has to make it happen with senior leaders, as an ERG lead, and as the external expert who is brought in. That's why I can support both a single session and the strategy behind it.
I'm a German-Turkish, queer Person of Color. That lived experience is part of my expertise: I spot early which customers and colleagues a product or process leaves out, and what that costs the business.
Off stage, you can find me on the badminton court or at the chessboard.
Clients
80+ programs across industries.
Organizations I've delivered keynotes, workshops and consulting for. A selection:
Tech & telecom
Google
YouTube
IBM
Vodafone
Doctolib
Wooga
Consumer & retail
Zalando
Coca-Cola
HelloFresh
METRO
zooplus
Tony's Chocolonely
Consulting & agencies
Accenture
Deloitte
Roland Berger
Jung von Matt
Mobility & real estate
Volkswagen
GROPYUS
Law & finance
Freshfields
Simmons & Simmons
Dentons
Sparkasse
Pharma
Pfizer
LEO Pharma
Lundbeck
MorphoSys
Universities
ESCP Business School
HTW Berlin
Networks & events
Prout At Work
Sticks & Stones
IFA
UHLALA Group
Featured inWerben & Verkaufen · RAHM · the books “Generation Rainbow” and “Diversity Upgrade”
Contact
Let's makeDEI workin your organization.
Planning a keynote, workshop or DEI project? Tell me about your organization, the occasion and your timeline, and I'll get back to you within two working days. In English or German, as you prefer.
