Leader Award: Iain Wilkie, Founder and Chair, 50 Million Voices

WINNER: Iain Wilkie, Founder and Chair, 50 Million Voices

Iain Wilkie (Founder and Chair of 50 Million Voices)

Iain Wilkie is a senior leader who stammers and has spent over 15 years driving global change in disability inclusion. He began by advocating for stammering inclusion at a time when disability was still considered a “distant priority” in many organisations, often overshadowed by other diversity strands and viewed primarily as a business risk rather than an opportunity. Stammering was not part of the agenda though through his work, it became one.

His approach is rooted in what he describes as “Head and Heart” leadership, combining commercial credibility with lived experience. Early on, he recognised the absence of lived experience at board level and made it his mission to change that narrative, first for stammering, and then more broadly for disability inclusion.

What he did

At EY, where he was a Senior Partner, Iain became the first senior leader to openly share his lived experience of disability. This helped shift disability into executive-level conversations and led to the rebranding of the “Disability Working Group” into “Ability EY”, reframing disability through a strengths-based lens. He also founded the EY Stammering Network (EYSN), the first employer-led stammering network of its kind globally.

He later co-founded the Employers Stammering Network (ESN) with the British Stammering Association (now STAMMA), bringing together 15 major organisations including HSBC, RBS, DHL, KPMG, the UK Civil Service, and EY. This created a world-first cross-employer collaboration focused specifically on stammering inclusion.

When the ESN later ended following STAMMA’s withdrawal, Iain responded by establishing 50 Million Voices, a global charity and campaign now reaching people in over 40 countries across six continents. The organisation focuses on transforming workplace experiences for people who stammer and building global momentum for change.

Alongside his corporate and charity leadership, Iain has contributed to national and policy-level work. He served on the UK Government’s Work and Health Task Force (2016–2018), focused on closing the disability employment gap, and authored EY’s formal response. He has also served as a Trustee of Business Disability Forum, including on its Policy Committee, and is a partner in Heard AI, a US government-backed research initiative on stuttering and AI led by Michigan State University.

Iain’s perspective is shaped not only by his own experience but also by his wider life context, including caring responsibilities for a close family member with a physical disability and early exposure to severe mental illness within his family. This broader lens informs his ability to build coalitions across disability communities rather than focusing on a single condition.

Through this work, he has co-created disability mentoring programmes with organisations such as Barclays and EY, as well as targeted stammering initiatives with Action for Stammering Children. His leadership is defined by coalition-building, system change, and sustained advocacy, positioning him as a cross-disability ally and global changemaker.

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