Toni Kent

Toni Kent is a professional speaker, compere and writer who has the rare combination of 25+ years IT sector experience and the ability to entertain audiences with honest, humorous insights into social mobility, life as a working parent and corporate culture. She specializes in providing keynote speaking, panel hosting and event MC duties to organizations across the technology, professional services and education sectors where she is valued for her high-energy, highly-relatable style. When combined with her skills as a stand-up, audiences frequently remark on her refreshing and memorable delivery. Keynote clients have included the likes of Amazon Web Services, KPMG, Microsoft, PWC and Enterprise Group. She has also been the proud host of the UK Social Mobility Awards 2021 and 2023, the PRIME Commitment 10th Anniversary Conference and the Zen Partner Conference.

Alongside speaking, hosting and stand up, Kent is the author of four books and a writer of editorial on the topic of social mobility and women in tech. She is also a respected podcast host, co-host and sought-after guest. As well as using her own voice, Kent has been a trusted ghost-writer to senior leaders in the technology industry who want to project a more humorous, human, voice both online and on-stage.

Kent has worked in, and alongside the technology industry for 25 years – a time during which she went from assisting in early wireless networking infrastructure deals through to managing some of the UK’s largest partner relationships at Microsoft where she spent 10 years learning the intricacies of how one of the world’s largest corporates operates.

Following this, she went on to spend a further 10 years creating content for senior leaders at organizations including IBM, TD Synnex, Brightcove, VMware and Progress Software. From ghost-writing thought-leadership articles through to hosting partner conferences and webinars on sustainability in computing, Kent maintains a keen understanding of the commercial and cultural landscape of this exciting industry.

Kent was born into a working class family in Basingstoke. The eldest of four children, she and her family lived on a large council estate and she can vividly recollect the impact of redundancy and right-to-buy on the lives of those around her during the ‘70s and ‘80s. When Kent was 14, her father died – an event that left the family reliant on benefits. In the four years that followed, Kent scraped her GCSEs and was a birthing partner to her mother, twice. Living in an environment that social services described as “chaotic and neglectful”, Kent decided that she wanted a different life than what was predicted for her.

Today, thanks to a second chance at education, positive female role models and a career in IT, Kent finds herself in what could be described as a “middle-class bubble” and it’s not always comfortable. Using her writer’s eye and comic timing, Kent helps bring to life the challenges and opportunities that exist for organizations to advance an important and highly topical conversation.