Keynote Speaker
Sumaira “Sam” Latif
Senior Director, Company Accessibility Leader, Global People with Disabilities Leader
Procter & Gamble
Sam Latif is P&G’s first Company Accessibility Leader – a role within which she is responsible for driving forward innovation to make the company’s 65+ brands inclusive and accessible for the 15% of people around the globe who experience some form of disability. Sam’s passion for her work stems from her personal experiences. She was born with a rare genetic condition known as retinitis pigmentosa, meaning that by the age of 16 she had lost 97% of her sight. Unwilling to let anything stop her from achieving her dreams, Sam went on to have a hugely successful IT career within P&G, joining the company in 2000.
In 2015, Sam switched from running IT businesses to focusing on embedding accessibility into P&G, and in 2019 she was promoted to Senior Director, taking on the formal title of Company Accessibility Leader.
In recent years she has inspired international audiences with her story: overcoming blindness, dealing with rejection, learning to be interdependent, forging a successful career and life in a world that wasn’t designed with her in mind, being true to herself and her values and finding compromises that work. She has developed an approach to making the world that is more inclusive for all. She has got there by living in a way that is patiently persistent and finds practical solutions that transform ways of working.
Sam loves to share her story with people who have a genuine interest in building more accessible and inclusive communities that make people feel that they belong. Although her story is unique, she finds that people resonate with her challenges and are left feeling inspired to make the differences that are within their power.