Geopolitisk indvirkning speakers

Why organisations work with Luke Jones He brings the live-broadcast discipline of BBC Radio 4’s PM, The World at One, and The World Tonight to corporate stages, where the brief is to keep a panel of senior leaders specific and on the clock. He is a working political and current-affairs interviewer. He has put questions to Foreign Secretaries, Shadow Cabinet ministers, and Health Ministers on air, and that experience translates directly to chairing fireside conversations with senior executives. As host of The Times’ daily podcast The Story, he reads a story, finds the line that matters, and lands it with an audience. That is the same job a conference chair does for a leadership offsite. He writes The Pitcairn Trials, an investigative podcast nominated for Best Host at the British Podcast Awards. Long-form investigative work is what makes a moderator credible when the on-stage subject becomes uncomfortable. Biography highlights Host of The Story, The Times’ daily news podcast. BBC Radio 4 presenter: PM, The World at One, The World Tonight, Saturday Live, Profile, Front Row, Broadcasting House, Any Questions. BBC World Service presenter: OS, Newsday, Weekend, The Newsroom. Former Times Radio Breakfast presenter (Fridays and weekends, two years). Writer and host of The Pitcairn Trials (2025), nominated for Best Host at the British Podcast Awards; The Times five stars. 2017 ARIAS nomination for Best New Presenter; theatre critic for the Daily Mail; contributor to The Times and Sunday Times. Biography A live two-way on Radio 4’s PM gives a presenter about 90 seconds to set up the issue, ask the sharp question, and get the answer the audience needs before the next item. That is the discipline Luke Jones works in every week, across PM, The World at One, The World Tonight, and Times Radio Breakfast. It is also why organisations book him to chair their stages. He hosts The Story, The Times’ daily news podcast, and presents OS, Newsday, and Weekend on BBC World Service. He has interviewed Foreign Secretaries, Shadow Cabinet ministers, Health Ministers, and the scientists who shaped the UK’s COVID response. The interviewing register he uses on air, polite, persistent, briefed, is what conference organisers want when a CEO sits down for a fireside or a panel needs a chair who will press past the prepared answer. His recent investigative work, The Pitcairn Trials, was rated five stars by The Times and earned a Best Host nomination at the British Podcast Awards. The series is the work of a journalist who can hold a long, difficult story together. That long-form muscle is what separates a competent moderator from one a board will trust with a sensitive on-stage conversation. He is the kind of presenter senior audiences listen to without being told to. The 2017 ARIAS Best New Presenter nomination came early in his career; the body of work since, daily news, podcasting, theatre criticism in the Daily Mail, has been built on the Radio 4 standard. Key speaking topics Conference chairing and on-stage moderation Fireside interviews with senior executives Panel chairing on politics and current affairs UK and US politics Economics and current affairs Investigative journalism and storytelling Media, broadcasting, and the news cycle Ideal for CEO conferences, leadership offsites, and town halls needing an experienced on-stage interviewer CHRO and communications leadership events on internal storytelling and message discipline Industry conferences requiring a panel chair who can press senior figures on policy, economics, or geopolitics After-dinner interview formats where the brief is a credible name and a steady hand Audience outcomes A panel that stays on the question, with senior speakers pressed past their prepared lines A fireside conversation that gets to the substantive answer rather than the corporate one An on-stage interview shaped to the audience in the room, not the speaker’s preferred script A conference programme that holds together because the chair has read the brief and the room

Why organisations work with Macer Gifford He has built two functioning units from nothing, a Combat Medical Unit with Kurdish forces in Syria and Operation Golden Hour in Ukraine, both still saving lives. That is a rare proof point on creating capability under pressure. He has fought alongside Kurdish and Syriac forces against Islamic State and now serves as a reconnaissance infantryman and medic in the Ukrainian Foreign Legion’s 131st Battalion. The material is firsthand, not interpreted. His talks translate combat decision-making into language a board, a transformation team or a frontline manager can actually use, without the bravado that typically comes with the genre. He brings credible standing on two of the defining conflicts of the era, with published work in The Spectator and The Telegraph and regular appearances on BBC, CNN, MSNBC and Channel 4. He is the author of “Fighting Evil” (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, foreword by Andy McNab), a sustained piece of writing about why an ordinary person chooses to act when most do not. Biography highlights Volunteer fighter with the Kurdish YPG and a Syriac Christian unit in Syria, mid-2015 to 2017, including the Manbij offensive and the siege of Raqqa. Founder of a Combat Medical Unit with Kurdish forces in Syria, still operational, and of Operation Golden Hour, a battlefield first-aid training programme for Ukrainian and international volunteers. Reconnaissance infantryman and medic with the Ukrainian Foreign Legion’s 131st Battalion and the International Cossacks Expeditionary Force; awarded a medal by the Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Author of “Fighting Evil: The Ordinary Man who went to War Against ISIS”, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, with a foreword by Andy McNab. Contributor to The Spectator and The Telegraph; regular interviewee on BBC, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, Channel 4, ITV, Sky News and LBC. Reading for a Master’s in Security, Peace-building and Diplomacy at Loughborough University London. Biography A foreign exchange trader from Cambridge with no military background flew to northern Syria in 2015 and joined the Kurdish YPG. Over the next three years, that decision became one of the longest tours by any British international volunteer in the war against Islamic State, ending at the siege of Raqqa. The interesting question is not why he went, it is what he learned about command, fear and group cohesion when the people around him were untrained, frightened and being killed. Out of that experience came a Combat Medical Unit, built from nothing with Kurdish forces, that still operates in north-east Syria. He repeated the pattern in 2022. Ten days before Russia’s full-scale invasion he was on the ground in Ukraine, and within weeks he had launched Operation Golden Hour, a battlefield first-aid programme that has trained domestic and international volunteers across the conflict. He now serves as a reconnaissance infantryman and medic with the 131st Battalion, was decorated in connection with the liberation of Kherson, and writes about the war for outlets including The Spectator and The Telegraph. His memoir, “Fighting Evil”, carries a foreword by Andy McNab and sits alongside regular appearances on BBC, CNN, MSNBC and Channel 4. For an organisation thinking seriously about leadership when the systems break, the practical question is simple: who actually has done it, and can explain it. Gifford can. Key speaking topics Leadership and decision-making under extreme uncertainty Building teams and capability from scratch in hostile conditions Courage, fear and individual moral choice Frontline lessons from Syria and Ukraine Humanitarian action and combat medicine in conflict zones The fight against Islamic State and the war in Ukraine Ideal for Senior leadership offsites and CEO forums focused on resilience and crisis decision-making Transformation, change and operations leaders dealing with high ambiguity and human risk Defence, security, NGO and public-sector audiences working in unstable environments Conferences and dinners that need a serious, firsthand voice on the conflicts shaping the decade Audience outcomes A direct account of how trust, command and morale actually function when conditions deteriorate A practical view of how small groups build capability quickly when no system supports them A frame for thinking about courage and individual responsibility that does not collapse into cliche A clear-eyed sense of what is happening on the ground in Syria and Ukraine, from someone still serving there

Why organisations work with Manfred Weber He sits at the centre of the institution that writes European law. As Chair of the EPP Group since 2014 and President of the EPP since 2022, he has been part of every major legislative bargain in Brussels for over a decade. He explains EU politics the way an operator does, not the way a commentator does. He has negotiated directives, including the EU Returns Directive on migration, and can talk about how a file actually moves through the Parliament, the Council, and the Commission. He gives boards a realistic read on European political risk: migration, the centre-right and far-right relationship, transatlantic tensions, Ukraine, and the EU’s competitiveness agenda. He is rare on the speaking circuit. Few sitting heads of a major European political family take corporate engagements; access to that vantage point is the offer. He speaks fluent German and English and is comfortable with senior international audiences in either language. Biography highlights President of the European People’s Party since 2022, re-elected for a second term in 2025. Chair of the EPP Group in the European Parliament since 2014, re-elected after the 2024 European elections for a fourth term. Member of the European Parliament for Bavaria since 2004, currently in his fifth parliamentary term. EPP Spitzenkandidat for President of the European Commission in 2019, nominated with 79 percent of the EPP congress vote. Vice-President of the CSU since 2015 and member of the CSU Party Presidency since 2009. Trained as a physical engineer at Munich University of Applied Sciences before entering politics, with prior experience running two companies. Biography The largest political family in Europe is the European People’s Party. Its group in the European Parliament holds more seats than any other, its national affiliates lead governments across the continent, and its members include the President of the European Commission. Manfred Weber leads both the party and the group, a combination of roles few politicians in Brussels have held simultaneously. He has been Chair of the EPP Group in the Parliament since 2014, when he became the youngest group leader in the institution’s history. He was re-elected after the 2024 European elections for his fourth term. In 2022 he was elected President of the EPP, succeeding Donald Tusk, and was re-elected for a second term in 2025. That arc gives him a continuous view of the legislative engine of the EU across more than a decade of crises: the eurozone, migration in 2015 and again now, Brexit, the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the energy shock, and the competitiveness debate. Before Brussels he trained as a physical engineer at Munich University of Applied Sciences and ran two companies, then entered politics through the Junge Union and the CSU. He became the youngest member of the Bavarian State Parliament in 2002 at the age of 29, and was elected to the European Parliament two years later. He has represented Bavaria continuously since, sitting on the committees that shape constitutional affairs, civil liberties, and home affairs. He negotiated the EU Returns Directive, the first Home Affairs directive adopted under the ordinary legislative procedure. For a corporate audience, the relevant point is not the biography but the vantage point. He is in the room when European policy is decided, and he can explain to a board, in plain terms, what is changing in Brussels, where the political centre is moving, and what that means for the rules companies will be operating under for the next five years. Key speaking topics European political direction and the EU policy agenda EU competitiveness and the regulatory environment Migration policy and border security Transatlantic relations and the war in Ukraine The future of the EU after enlargement Centre-right politics in Europe and the rise of the far right Germany, the CSU, and Berlin’s role in the EU Ideal for CEOs, boards, and government affairs leaders setting Europe strategy Strategy and policy leaders at financial institutions, energy, defence, and industrial firms with material EU exposure Senior leadership teams at multinationals navigating EU regulation on AI, competition, sustainability, and trade Conference programmes and closed-door briefings on European political risk Audience outcomes A clearer read on where the EU is heading on competitiveness, migration, defence, and the green transition A sense of the political map across European capitals and how it constrains or enables the Commission’s agenda A realistic view of the centre-right and far-right dynamic and what it means for stability of EU policy An inside account of how legislation actually moves through Brussels, from someone who has done the deals Sharper questions to put to in-house government affairs and European strategy teams

Why organisations work with Manuel Muñiz Government office at the level where geopolitical strategy is actually written. As Spain’s Secretary of State for Global Spain, he coordinated the country’s foreign action strategy and its first national strategy on technology and global order. A scholarly frame for the technology and geopolitics intersection. His Oxford doctoral work and Brookings fellowship give boards a structured way to think about the US-China technology competition, AI, and the political economy of disruption. Institutional vantage point. As Provost of IE University and former Dean of IE’s School of Politics, Economics and Global Affairs, he sits at the centre of one of Europe’s most connected platforms on global affairs. A specific argument about the social contract. His writing on populism, inequality, and the consequences of technological change gives leaders language for the political risks now landing inside their markets and workforces. Biography highlights Provost of IE University and Dean of IE School of Politics, Economics and Global Affairs (SPEGA) Former Secretary of State for Global Spain at the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution President of APSIA, the global association of professional schools of international affairs, 2023 to 2025 DPhil, International Relations, University of Oxford; MPA, Harvard Kennedy School Grand Cross of the Order of Civil Merit, Spain (2024); David Rockefeller and Eisenhower Fellow Biography Spain’s first National Strategy on Technology and Global Order was coordinated by a vice minister at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs whose doctoral work at Oxford had already mapped the same terrain. Manuel Muñiz held that office from 2020 to 2021, and the strategy reflected a view he had been developing for a decade: technological change, inequality, and geopolitical fragmentation are one connected problem, not three. He now leads IE University as Provost, having previously built its School of Politics, Economics and Global Affairs from a small programme into one of Europe’s most international platforms for public policy and international relations, with around 1,900 students and a faculty connected to government, multilateral institutions, and global firms. His scholarship and writing sit where most board agendas now sit: the US-China technology competition, the regulation of AI, the fracturing of the rules-based order, and the political consequences of an economy in which growth no longer reliably produces shared prosperity. Essays appear in Project Syndicate, El Pais, The Washington Post, and Le Monde. He is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at Brookings. In 2023 he was elected President of APSIA, the international association of professional schools of international affairs, the first Spaniard to hold the role. In 2024 he received the Grand Cross of the Order of Civil Merit, one of Spain’s senior civilian honours. Key speaking topics Geopolitics and the new global order Technology, AI and great-power competition Strategic foresight for boards and governments The political economy of disruption and inequality Transatlantic relations and European security Economic diplomacy and the future of multilateralism Ideal for Boards and executive committees with material exposure to US-China competition, sanctions, or technology controls Government, foreign ministry, and multilateral audiences working on technology and global order Senior leaders in finance, energy, defence, and technology managing geopolitical risk Foundation, university, and policy convenings on democracy, populism, and the social contract Audience outcomes A clearer reading of where great-power competition is heading and what it means for capital allocation A framework for connecting technological change, inequality, and political instability inside one strategic picture A sharper sense of the policy and regulatory direction on AI, data, and critical technologies Vocabulary senior leaders can use with their own boards and governments on geopolitics and technology

Why organisations work with Marcelo Carvalho He has run a global economics function at a major European universal bank, which means his read on rates, currencies and country risk is the same view senior fund managers and corporate treasurers are paying for. He has been Chief Economist for Brazil at three global investment banks (J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America), giving him a depth on Latin America and emerging markets that very few generalist macro speakers can match. He bridges markets and policy: two years at the IMF, two decades on the sell side, now a Senior Research Associate at ODI Global, the London-based development and policy think tank. He briefs CFOs and finance ministers with equal fluency. He has been recognised repeatedly by Institutional Investor and Latin Finance for Brazil macro coverage, signalling that his calls have been judged credible by the buy-side audience that uses his research commercially. He briefs in English, Spanish and Portuguese, which matters for organisations whose leadership team or investor base sits across the Americas and Europe. Biography highlights Senior Research Associate, ODI Global, London Former Global Head of Economics at BNP Paribas, after leading the bank’s Global Emerging Markets Research and Latin America Research desks Former Chief Economist for Brazil at J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Two years as an economist at the International Monetary Fund PhD in Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; MSc and BA in Economics, University of Sao Paulo Multiple Institutional Investor and Latin Finance awards for Brazil macro research; regular contributor to Bloomberg, CNBC, Reuters, Financial Times, The Economist and Wall Street Journal Biography The macro environment that institutional investors and corporate boards built their playbooks around between 1990 and 2020 is no longer the environment they are operating in. Trade is fragmenting, monetary policy is diverging across the major blocs, and emerging markets are once again a source of structural opportunity and structural risk at the same time. Reading that map well is now a board-level skill, not a back-office function. That is the territory Marcelo Carvalho has worked in for three decades, now as Senior Research Associate at ODI Global, the London-based development and policy think tank where he contributes to its macroeconomic research series. He was previously Global Head of Economics at BNP Paribas in London, leading the bank’s economics function across developed and emerging markets, having earlier run its Global Emerging Markets Research and Latin America Research desks from Sao Paulo. His earlier career sits squarely on the trading floor of global investment banking. He was Chief Economist for Brazil at J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, the kind of seat where the call has to be defensible to portfolio managers within the hour. Two years as an economist at the IMF before joining BNP Paribas in 2010 give him a public-sector perspective that most sell-side economists do not have. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Masters and Bachelor degrees from the University of Sao Paulo. His research on Brazil has been recognised in successive Institutional Investor and Latin Finance polls. He briefs boards and investor audiences in English, Spanish and Portuguese, and is a regular voice on Bloomberg, CNBC, Reuters, Financial Times, The Economist and the Wall Street Journal. Key speaking topics Global macroeconomic outlook Geopolitics and global markets Emerging markets strategy Latin America macroeconomics Monetary policy and inflation Trade policy and supply-chain fragmentation Currency dynamics and capital flows Ideal for Boards and investment committees setting medium-term capital allocation against a shifting macro backdrop CFOs, treasurers and CIOs at corporates and asset managers with exposure to emerging markets or currency risk Strategy and risk leaders translating geopolitical fragmentation into corporate planning and decision-making Banking, insurance and financial services leadership teams briefing clients on global outlook Policy forums, sovereign investor conferences and economic summits with a Latin America or emerging-markets agenda Audience outcomes A clearer read on which macro shifts are cyclical noise and which are structural enough to change planning assumptions A working view of where rates, inflation and currencies are likely to diverge across major economies and what that means for cross-border decisions A specific assessment of emerging market risk and opportunity, with Brazil and wider Latin America treated in detail rather than as a sidebar An understanding of how trade policy, supply-chain fragmentation and political risk are being repriced by global investors Macroeconomic content delivered as a narrative a leadership audience can repeat back to its own board, not a research deck

Why organisations work with Marek Marian Belka He has actually held the levers. Decisions on interest rates, sovereign borrowing, banking supervision and crisis response were his to sign, not to commentate on, across Polish government and the National Bank of Poland. He ran the IMF’s European Department through the early eurozone crisis, giving him a working view of how Brussels, Frankfurt and national capitals negotiate when the system is under pressure. He rebuilt a currency and a banking system from zero in post-invasion Iraq, which translates directly when leaders ask what happens to economies under shock conditions. He sits inside current EU economic legislation as an MEP on the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, including as rapporteur on the revision of EU payment-services rules. His read on Brussels is not historical. He moves comfortably between academic economics and operational policy, which is rare in this pillar and is what makes his sessions useful to CFOs and investment committees rather than only to public-affairs teams. Biography highlights Prime Minister of Poland, 2004-2005. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Poland, 1997 and 2001-2002. President of the National Bank of Poland, 2010-2016. Director of the European Department, International Monetary Fund, 2008-2010. Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (Geneva), 2006-2008. Director of Economic Policy, Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, 2003-2004. Member of the European Parliament, 2019-2024, Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. Professor of Economics; long-running affiliation with the Institute of Economics at the Polish Academy of Sciences; visiting periods at Columbia, Chicago and the London School of Economics. Biography The eurozone crisis ran through the desk of the IMF’s European Department, and from 2008 to 2010 that desk belonged to Marek Belka. The job was not to predict the crisis. It was to negotiate with finance ministries, central banks and political leaders while the system was visibly stressed and to keep capital and credibility moving across borders. That role only made sense because of what came before it. He had already been Poland’s Minister of Finance, Deputy Prime Minister and, from 2004 to 2005, Prime Minister. He had also rebuilt a currency and a banking system in post-invasion Iraq as Director of Economic Policy at the Coalition Provisional Authority. By the time he reached the IMF, he had operated economic policy in a stable European democracy, in a transition economy and in a war zone. In 2010 he returned to Warsaw as President of the National Bank of Poland, a six-year term that covered the eurozone aftermath, the Russian annexation of Crimea and the early phase of populist pressure on European central-bank independence. Before and after that, he held the Executive Secretary post at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe in Geneva and built a long academic record at the Polish Academy of Sciences and as a visiting scholar at Columbia, the University of Chicago and the London School of Economics. Today he sits in the European Parliament on the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, where he was rapporteur on the revision of EU payment-services rules adopted in February 2024. For boards and investors, that combination matters in a specific way. He can speak to monetary policy, fiscal stress and EU economic legislation as someone who has signed the decisions, not just modelled them. Key speaking topics European monetary policy and the role of central banks Eurozone stability, sovereign debt and banking supervision EU economic legislation and the political economy of Brussels Geopolitical risk in Central and Eastern Europe Inflation, currency and post-crisis economic policy Economic transition and reconstruction in fragile economies The future of the euro and European economic integration Ideal for Boards, CFOs and investment committees making allocation decisions exposed to European monetary and fiscal risk. Banks, asset managers and insurers needing a senior read on ECB direction, sovereign credit and EU financial regulation. Leadership teams of multinationals with significant Central and Eastern European exposure. Public-policy, government-affairs and economic-research functions briefing executives on EU institutions. Audience outcomes A clearer read on how ECB, European Commission and national-capital decisions interact under stress. A working sense of where European political risk is most likely to translate into market and regulatory consequence. Specific examples of how policymakers actually decide during crises, drawn from inside the IMF, NBP and Polish government. A sharper view of EU financial-services and payments regulation as it moves through the legislative process. Confidence to challenge consensus assumptions about eurozone stability, inflation and Central European growth.

Why organisations work with Maria Bartiromo Three decades of access to the people who run global capital markets, central banks, and listed companies, used in the room to produce conversation a panel chair without that history cannot. A live-markets reflex. She has anchored daily business television since 1993 and asks the question the audience wants asked, in the language of the trading floor and the boardroom at once. Editorial credibility that travels. Two News and Documentary Emmys, induction into the Cable Hall of Fame as the first female journalist, and a place in the Library of American Broadcasting Giants of Broadcasting class of 2016. A through-line on the intersection of policy and capital. Her FOX Business and FOX News programmes have built a sustained record of interviews with US administration figures, foreign leaders, and Fortune 100 chief executives on trade, energy, and monetary policy. Institutional standing beyond broadcast. Trustee of New York University, member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and 2026 Horatio Alger Award recipient. Biography highlights Anchor, Mornings with Maria, FOX Business Network, and Sunday Morning Futures, FOX News Channel. First journalist to broadcast live daily from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, beginning 1995. 20 years on-air at CNBC; host of Closing Bell with Maria Bartiromo and On the Money with Maria Bartiromo. Two News and Documentary Emmy Awards: 2008 financial-crisis coverage and 2009 documentary on Google. Cable Hall of Fame, Class of 2011, the first female journalist inducted; Giants of Broadcasting, 2016. Author of The Weekend That Changed Wall Street, The 10 Laws of Enduring Success, and Use The News; trustee of New York University; member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Biography The morning the financial system seized in September 2008, the calls that mattered were going to a small list of journalists with the standing to take them. Maria Bartiromo was on that list. She had spent thirteen years anchoring live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, the first reporter to do so daily, and her Emmy-winning coverage of the crisis became one of the defining records of the period. That access was not accidental. Bartiromo studied journalism and economics at New York University, learned business news at CNN, and joined CNBC in 1993, where she anchored Closing Bell and On the Money for two decades. The throughline is unusual for a broadcaster: an editorial sensibility built on the trading floor, then refined across a thousand interviews with chief executives, finance ministers, and central bankers. In 2014 she moved to FOX as Global Markets Editor. Mornings with Maria became the highest-rated pre-market business news programme on cable, and Sunday Morning Futures has consistently topped Sunday cable news. The work earned her induction into the Cable Hall of Fame as the first female journalist in its class, a place among the Library of American Broadcasting Giants of Broadcasting, and in 2026 the Horatio Alger Award. Three books extend the same beat off-camera. The Weekend That Changed Wall Street is an eyewitness account of the 2008 collapse. The 10 Laws of Enduring Success draws on her interviews with chief executives. Use The News is a working manual for separating signal from noise in financial markets. She serves as a trustee of New York University and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Key speaking topics Global markets and economic outlook Geopolitics and capital flows Leadership lessons from chief executive interviews Monetary policy and the macro environment Energy, trade, and US-China relations The future of media and financial journalism Moderation and on-stage interviews with senior leaders Ideal for Annual leadership and investor conferences seeking a credible interviewer for CEO, finance-minister, or policymaker keynotes. CFO, treasurer, and investment-committee audiences working through macro and geopolitical scenarios. Boards and executive offsites that want a working journalist to interrogate strategy in front of the room. Financial services, asset management, and corporate banking client events. Audience outcomes A clear read on the macro forces, policy moves, and geopolitical signals shaping the next planning cycle. First-hand perspective drawn from recent on-record interviews with sitting CEOs, central bankers, and government officials. A working sense of how markets are pricing the current political and economic moment, and what that means for capital allocation. For interview and moderation formats, a sharper public conversation with the speaker on stage than a non-journalist chair will produce.

Why organisations work with Maria Ressa She has tested platform governance arguments against actual prosecution, exile threats and a coordinated state-backed disinformation campaign, which gives her a clarity on digital risk that academic experts rarely match. As co-founder of the Real Facebook Oversight Board and co-leader of Columbia’s Technology and Democracy Initiative, she sits at the centre of the policy conversation shaping how governments will regulate platforms and AI. Her Nobel citation specifically named the defence of free expression as a precondition for democracy, giving leadership and ESG audiences a credible voice on information integrity as a governance issue, not a communications one. She runs a working newsroom that has documented platform manipulation in real time, so her arguments come with primary evidence rather than secondary commentary. How to Stand Up to a Dictator gives her a published thesis on the architecture of digital authoritarianism that boards and policy teams can engage with in advance of a session. Biography highlights 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, jointly with Dmitry Muratov, for work safeguarding freedom of expression. Co-founder and CEO of Rappler, the Manila-based investigative news organisation she launched in 2012. Professor of Professional Practice, Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs; Distinguished Fellow and co-leader of the Technology and Democracy Initiative at SIPA’s Institute of Global Politics. Author of How to Stand Up to a Dictator (Harper, 2022), a New York Times bestseller, and Seeds of Terror (2003). 2021 UNESCO Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize; 2018 Golden Pen of Freedom from the World Association of News Publishers. Time Person of the Year 2018; Time 100 Most Influential People; BBC 100 Women. Nearly two decades as CNN bureau chief in Manila and Jakarta; former SVP for News and Current Affairs at ABS-CBN. Biography The 2021 Nobel Peace Prize citation named freedom of expression as a precondition for democracy. It was the first time since 1935 that the prize had been given to working journalists, and the choice was not symbolic. Ressa shared it with Dmitry Muratov for a body of work that treats disinformation, platform power and the erosion of shared reality as the defining governance problem of the decade. Her vantage point is unusual. She co-founded Rappler in Manila in 2012, then ran it through years of state-backed harassment, criminal charges and an online campaign that the company itself documented in forensic detail. That experience produced a working theory of how engagement-driven platforms, weaponised by political actors, dismantle public trust and institutional legitimacy from below. The argument is laid out in How to Stand Up to a Dictator, the Harper book that became a New York Times bestseller and Princeton’s Class of 2027 Pre-read. She now sits at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs as a Professor of Professional Practice and co-leads the Technology and Democracy Initiative at the Institute of Global Politics. The role pairs naturally with her work on the Real Facebook Oversight Board, an independent body of journalists, academics and activists holding Meta to account on content governance. Earlier in her career she opened CNN’s Manila bureau, ran its Jakarta bureau through the post-9/11 years, and led news at ABS-CBN; her 2003 book Seeds of Terror remains a reference on Jemaah Islamiyah. For corporate audiences, the value sits in the bridge she builds between platform mechanics and executive decision-making. AI accelerates everything she has been documenting for a decade, and the regulatory response, in Brussels, Washington and Manila, is now arriving in the operating environment of any business with a public-facing reputation. Key speaking topics Disinformation and the integrity of the information ecosystem Platform governance and Big Tech accountability AI ethics and the future of public trust Press freedom as institutional infrastructure Democratic resilience under digital authoritarianism Leadership and moral courage in contested environments Ideal for Boards and C-suite teams reassessing reputational and regulatory risk in an AI-mediated information environment Chief Communications Officers, Chief Risk Officers and General Counsel responsible for platform exposure and disinformation response Public-sector and policy audiences working on technology regulation, democratic resilience and ESG frameworks Leadership programmes seeking a serious voice on values, courage and institutional integrity Audience outcomes A working model of how engagement-driven platforms shape public perception of organisations, leaders and policy. Direct evidence, drawn from Rappler’s own reporting, of how coordinated disinformation campaigns are designed and executed. A clear read on where AI regulation and platform accountability are heading across major jurisdictions. A sharper sense of what leadership looks like when institutional norms are under pressure, told through a Nobel-recognised case. Language and frameworks for treating information integrity as a governance issue at board level, not a communications problem.

Why organisations work with Mark Barton The instinct to know when a speaker is avoiding the question comes from 10,000+ live interviews with central bankers, finance ministers, and CEOs. That is not something a professional facilitator acquires through facilitation training. A moderator who anchored Bloomberg Television’s coverage of six US elections, six UK general elections, the global financial crisis, and Brexit can challenge an economist or minister with authority rather than deference. For executives facing media scrutiny, Barton is among a very small group of coaches who can genuinely recreate the pressure of a live news anchor interrogation: because he spent 23 years on that side of the camera. He has chaired forums for Amundi, Societe Generale, TIME, the Doha Forum, and The FII Institute; organisations that expect substantive interrogation of the room’s most senior participants, not event management. As one of the five journalists who built Bloomberg Television’s European operations from the ground up in 1995, he brings an institutional relationship with the world of global finance and markets that most conference professionals simply do not have. Biography highlights One of five founding journalists, Bloomberg Television’s European operations, London, 1995 23-year Bloomberg TV anchor; hosted Countdown, First Word On Money, European Market Report, Bloomberg Markets, and The European Close Covered six UK general elections, six US elections, the global financial crisis, and Brexit across Bloomberg’s flagship prime-time programming Radio broadcaster: Daybreak Europe (Bloomberg Radio); financial bulletins on NPR, LBC Radio, Jazz FM, and Riviera Radio Conference host at the World Media Awards and The AIBs; moderator at the Horasis Global Meeting and Zurich Global Risk Management Summit Post-Bloomberg clients include Amundi, Societe Generale, TIME, the Doha Forum, and The FII Institute University of London, history Biography Bloomberg Television launched its European operations in London in 1995 with five journalists. Mark Barton was one of them. Over the next 23 years, he anchored the channel’s flagship programming: Countdown, European Market Report, Bloomberg Markets, The European Close. Those two decades built the editorial instincts and financial market depth that define his work today. His coverage record is specific. Six UK general elections. Six US elections. The global financial crisis. Brexit. More than 10,000 live interviews with world leaders, finance ministers, central bankers, and chief executives, including Bill Gates, Jean-Claude Trichet, and Shimon Peres. The experience of managing live, unscripted conversations with the world’s most guarded public figures is not one that transfers through conventional facilitation training. Beyond television, Barton presented Daybreak Europe on Bloomberg Radio and delivered financial market bulletins on NPR, LBC Radio, Jazz FM, and Riviera Radio. He also trained dozens of Bloomberg journalists in on-air communication: work that forms the basis of the media coaching he now delivers to business leaders preparing for public scrutiny. Since leaving Bloomberg in 2018, he has moderated for organisations including Amundi, Societe Generale, TIME, the Doha Forum, and The FII Institute. At the 2019 Horasis Global Meeting, he chaired a plenary on global governance featuring the former Prime Ministers of Romania and Belgium and the former President of Slovenia. The consistent thread: rooms that require a moderator with the credibility to hold their most senior participants to account. Key speaking topics Global financial markets and economic trends Geopolitical risk and international affairs Conference hosting and high-stakes panel moderation Executive media and communications coaching Live broadcast journalism and interviewing Business and financial crisis coverage Presentation skills under pressure Ideal for Boards and senior leadership teams commissioning high-profile forums on global economic risk, geopolitics, or financial markets Conference producers and event directors requiring a moderator with genuine domain authority, not just facilitation skills Chief Communications Officers and communications teams preparing executives for live media exposure C-suite leaders undergoing media training ahead of investor events, public testimony, or broadcast interviews Audience outcomes A moderated panel or forum with the editorial discipline and intellectual challenge of a live news broadcast Executives with a clearer understanding of how to communicate complex positions under real media pressure – not simulated conditions A more productive leadership dialogue: one that surfaces genuine disagreement rather than managing it toward pre-approved consensus Practical techniques for live interview performance, grounded in the experience of 10,000+ actual broadcast interviews Increased confidence in high-stakes public settings, drawn from observing how the world’s most scrutinised figures handle live questioning

Why organisations work with Mark Esposito He brings a named foresight framework, DRIVE, that gives leadership teams a shared vocabulary for the five megatrends shaping their markets, rather than a generic “future of” briefing. His positions sit on both sides of the AI conversation. He advises the World Economic Forum’s Global AI Alliance on policy while working as Chief Economist at micro1, a Silicon Valley AI lab, so the board hears how regulation and deployment actually meet. He has built the institutional access most academic speakers cannot. Harvard Kennedy School, Northeastern, Cambridge Judge, Georgetown, and government advisory roles across the GCC and Eurasia. The work is current and published. Fourteen books, two Amazon bestsellers, The Great Remobilization with MIT Press, and forthcoming titles with Routledge and Penguin Random House give a senior buyer a reading list to brief their team from. Biography highlights Professor of Strategy and Technology Policy at Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business, with Harvard affiliations at the Kennedy School’s Center for International Development, the Institute for Quantitative Social Science, and Harvard Law School’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society Chief Economist at micro1, a Silicon Valley AI lab, and co-founder of Nexus FrontierTech, the AI Native Foundation, the Circular Economy Alliance, and The Chart ThinkTank Co-developer of the DRIVE megatrends framework with Terence Tse Author or co-author of 14 books and over 150 publications, including two Amazon bestsellers, plus The Great Remobilization (MIT Press, 2023) and Digitizing the Emerging Economies (Cambridge University Press, 2024) Named to the Thinkers50 Radar of 30 thinkers most likely to shape the future; recognised by MIT Technology Review and Thinkers360 for AI influence Member of the World Economic Forum’s Global AI Alliance and policy advisor to governments across the GCC and Eurasia Biography The hard part of governing AI is not writing the principles. It is keeping a strategy coherent while the technology, the regulation, and the workforce implications all change inside the same planning cycle. That is the gap Mark Esposito’s work has occupied for the past decade, first through strategic foresight, now through applied AI policy and deployment. The intellectual anchor is DRIVE, the megatrends framework he developed with Terence Tse and laid out in Understanding How the Future Unfolds. DRIVE gives leadership teams five named forces, from demographic change through enterprising dynamics, that organise the noise of long-range planning into something a board can actually use. The framework underpins his teaching as Professor of Strategy and Technology Policy at Northeastern University, and his research affiliations at Harvard Kennedy School, the Institute for Quantitative Social Science, and the Berkman Klein Center. He pairs that academic base with an operator’s vantage point. As Chief Economist at micro1, a Silicon Valley AI lab, he works inside the commercial reality of building and deploying AI at scale. The AI Native Foundation, which he co-founded, extends that into capability building for institutions trying to become genuinely AI-native rather than AI-curious. His seat on the World Economic Forum’s Global AI Alliance connects both sides to the policy conversation. The body of work is now substantial. Fourteen books and over 150 publications, two Amazon bestsellers, The Great Remobilization with MIT Press, and forthcoming titles with Routledge and Penguin Random House. Thinkers50 named him to its Radar of thinkers most likely to shape the future; MIT Technology Review and Thinkers360 have recognised his AI influence. For boards trying to make defensible decisions on AI while the ground moves under them, that combination of foresight discipline, policy access, and a frontier-AI operating role is rare in a single voice. Key speaking topics AI strategy and AI-native organisations Strategic foresight and megatrends The DRIVE framework AI policy and governance Fourth Industrial Revolution and emerging economies Circular economy and resource strategy Geopolitics of technology Ideal for Boards and executive committees setting AI strategy and governance posture CSOs, transformation leads, and chief strategy officers running long-range planning under technological uncertainty Government and public sector leaders shaping AI policy and industrial strategy Senior leadership teams in emerging markets navigating the Fourth Industrial Revolution Audience outcomes A shared, named vocabulary (DRIVE) for the five megatrends reshaping their sector A clearer view of where their AI agenda is running ahead of, or behind, their operating model Specific examples of how governments and large enterprises are translating AI policy into deployment A reading map across his published work for follow-up briefing inside the organisation

Why organisations work with Mark Greeven He brings a working model of ecosystem competition built on close study of Alibaba, Tencent, Xiaomi and other Asian firms, not a Silicon Valley template. He has spent two decades inside Chinese innovation, which lets him translate what is happening in Asia into specific implications for European and North American boards. His “dual transformation” frame gives leadership teams a way to fund and govern the next growth engine without starving the current business. He has built what he advises others to build. He founded IMD China in Shenzhen, scaled it into a multi-million-dollar executive education business in three years, and co-directs IMD’s Future-Ready Enterprise programme with MIT Sloan. Thinkers50 has ranked him in 2023 and 2025 and described him as their “oracle for innovation in China,” and his recent HBR co-authored piece on Chinese AI was a finalist for the 2025 HBR Prize. Both give buyers a defensible third-party signal. Biography highlights Professor of Management Innovation at IMD; founder of the IMD China Initiative and of IMD China in Shenzhen. Co-director of three IMD programmes: Building Digital Ecosystems, Strategy for Future Readiness, and Future-Ready Enterprise (the last delivered jointly with MIT Sloan School of Management). Author of Pioneers, Hidden Champions, Changemakers, and Underdogs (MIT Press, 2019), The Future of Global Retail (Routledge, 2021), and Business Ecosystems in China (Routledge, 2018). Co-author of “How Savvy Companies Are Using Chinese AI” (HBR, 2025), named a finalist for the 2025 HBR Prize. An earlier HBR piece was selected for HBR’s 10 Must Reads 2023. Ranked on the Thinkers50 list in 2023 and 2025; Thinkers50 Radar Class of 2017. Founder of cross-border programmes earlier in his career, including the Chinese Economy and Business Programme at Erasmus University Rotterdam and the Global Entrepreneurship Programme at Zhejiang University. PhD in Innovation Management from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. Biography Most established companies are organised to defend a position they already hold. The harder problem is running that business at full performance while building a different one beside it, in markets where competitors do not play by the same rules. Mark Greeven’s work sits squarely on that problem. He is Professor of Management Innovation at IMD and Director of the IMD China Initiative, with earlier faculty positions at Zhejiang University and Rotterdam School of Management, where he also took his PhD in Innovation Management. Two decades of fieldwork in China give his arguments an empirical base that most innovation speakers do not have. His three books, Business Ecosystems in China (Routledge, 2018), Pioneers, Hidden Champions, Changemakers, and Underdogs (MIT Press, 2019), and The Future of Global Retail (Routledge, 2021), trace how named Asian firms, including Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaomi, organise around platforms, partners, and continuous reinvention. He writes regularly for Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review. One of his HBR pieces was selected for HBR’s 10 Must Reads 2023; a more recent HBR co-authored piece on how companies are using Chinese AI was named a finalist for the 2025 HBR Prize. His current ecosystem research at IMD is supported by a three-year corporate sponsorship from AVEVA, Schneider Electric’s industrial software business. He also publishes Red Thread, a bi-weekly LinkedIn newsletter on China and global strategy. Greeven has also built what he writes about. He founded the IMD China Initiative in 2019 and established IMD China in Shenzhen, growing it into a multi-million-dollar executive education business within three years. He has launched cross-border programmes at four institutions, from the Chinese Economy and Business Programme at Erasmus and the Global Entrepreneurship Programme at Zhejiang to IMD’s Future-Ready Enterprise Programme with MIT Sloan. In parallel, he has founded private companies in cross-border e-commerce, technology scouting, and management innovation advisory. Thinkers50 has ranked him in 2023 and 2025, calling him their “oracle for innovation in China.” That mix of research, programme-building, venture creation, and direct access to Chinese firms is what gives his counsel weight for boards trying to read what Asian competition means for their next five years, and for executives trying to build a credible second growth engine without breaking the first. Key speaking topics Business ecosystems and platform competition Innovation in China and Asia Dual transformation and second growth engines Future of retail and digital business models Strategy under sustained uncertainty Organising for innovation in large incumbents US-China commercial and technology dynamics Ideal for CEOs and strategy leaders setting a multi-year growth agenda in the face of Asian competition. Boards and executive committees deciding how to fund and govern a second growth engine alongside the core. CSOs, CIOs, and innovation leads designing partner ecosystems rather than standalone product roadmaps. Multinationals with material exposure to China who want a clear read on competitive moves and policy direction. Audience outcomes A clear read on how Chinese and Asian incumbents are competing, with named firms and specific moves. A working language for ecosystem strategy that boards can use without retreating to platform jargon. A practical view of how to run today’s business and build the next one in parallel, with the trade-offs named. Sharper questions for the next strategy cycle on innovation governance, partner choice, and capital allocation.

Why organisations work with Maryam Moshiri She runs a room the way she runs a live bulletin: tight cues, sharp follow-ups, and the composure to absorb a technical fault or an off-script answer without the audience noticing. Sixteen years on BBC business programmes means she can hold her own with a CFO, a regulator or an aviation chief, and ask the second question that other moderators miss. As anchor of The World Today, she works daily across geopolitics, markets and policy, so she arrives briefed on the macro context a board audience already has in mind. She is interview-trained on senior business figures including Jeff Bezos, Reed Hastings and Willie Walsh, which translates directly into chairing fireside sessions with the C-suite. Her register sits between BBC news authority and conversational warmth, which travels well across investor audiences, ministerial panels and internal leadership events. Biography highlights Chief Presenter, BBC News channel; one of five Chief Presenters appointed in 2023 to anchor the merged UK and international service. Lead presenter, The World Today with Maryam Moshiri, the BBC’s flagship international news programme since February 2024. Sixteen years as Lead Business Presenter on BBC News across World Business Report, Talking Business and Business Briefing. Royal Television Society nominee, Best News Presenter, 2017. BA Italian, University College London; postgraduate diploma in Broadcast Journalism, London College of Communication. Has interviewed Jeff Bezos, Reed Hastings and Willie Walsh, and reported live across the 2008 financial crisis, Brexit and the pandemic. Biography The hardest moment in any corporate event is the unscripted one: a guest goes off message, a feed cuts, a minister gives a non-answer. Maryam Moshiri spends her working life in that moment. As a Chief Presenter on the BBC News channel, she anchors live international news for hours at a time, and the discipline she brings on stage is the same discipline a live gallery demands. Moshiri spent sixteen years as Lead Business Presenter on BBC News, fronting World Business Report, Talking Business and Business Briefing. She covered the economic aftermath of 9/11, the 2008 financial crisis and the pandemic, and interviewed business figures including Jeff Bezos, Reed Hastings and Willie Walsh. That track record is what gives her credibility with finance, aviation and policy audiences. In February 2023 she was named one of five BBC Chief Presenters chosen to launch the corporation’s merged UK and international news channel. A year later she became the lead anchor of The World Today, the BBC’s flagship international evening programme, working daily across geopolitics, markets and culture. For corporate clients, the value is practical. She has chaired ministerial panels, C-suite summits and awards stages. She prepares like a journalist, not a host: research the brief, find the second question, give the audience a reason to stay in the room. Key speaking topics Conference and event hosting Panel moderation Awards nights and gala hosting Fireside interviews with senior leaders Internal leadership and town hall facilitation Business and economics commentary Geopolitics and international affairs Media training and on-camera coaching Ideal for Annual conferences, investor days and customer summits that need a chair who can hold a senior business audience. Awards ceremonies and gala dinners that want a recognised broadcaster on the main stage. Ministerial or policy panels that benefit from a journalist who can press, time and balance the room. Internal leadership events, town halls and CEO fireside formats. Audience outcomes A live event paced and controlled to the standard of a BBC bulletin. Senior guests interviewed past their talking points, with the room learning something new. Panels that move, with airtime distributed across speakers rather than dominated by one voice. Awards stages held together cleanly across hours of running order. A house-style of credibility that travels across business, policy and culture audiences.