Geopolitisk indvirkning speakers

Why organisations work with Matt Frei A working journalist who covers the stories shaping board agendas in real time, from the Russo-Ukrainian war and US elections to European political instability, not a retired commentator looking back Two International Emmys, two Royal Television Society Journalist of the Year awards, a Peabody and a duPont-Columbia, awarded by named industry bodies for the specific reporting he is asked to talk about Native fluency in three of the political systems senior audiences need to understand: Washington, Brussels and Berlin, built across thirty years as Bonn, Washington and Europe correspondent A broadcaster’s command of a room that translates directly into chairing, moderating and interviewing principals at executive forums, not only keynote delivery The 2022 Charles Wheeler Award for Outstanding Contributions to Broadcast Journalism, given by the British Journalism Review, recognises a body of work, not a single moment Biography highlights Channel 4 News presenter and Europe Editor; previously Washington Correspondent for Channel 4 from 2011 BBC Washington Correspondent 2002 to 2011 and presenter of BBC World News America 2007 to 2011 Earlier BBC postings as Bonn Correspondent through German reunification, Southern Europe Correspondent through the Balkan wars, and Asia correspondent based in Hong Kong and Singapore Two International Emmys for News, Royal Television Society Journalist of the Year in 2015 and 2017, Peabody Award 2010, duPont-Columbia Award 2011, Prix Bayeux Calvados 2000 Charles Wheeler Award for Outstanding Contributions to Broadcast Journalism, British Journalism Review, 2022 Author of Getting the Boot: Italy’s Unfinished Revolution (1995) and Only in America (2008) Saturday morning host on LBC since 2016 Educated at Westminster School and St Peter’s College, Oxford Biography The frontline of the Russo-Ukrainian war, the West Wing during a Trump presidency, and the European chancelleries that hold the alliance together are three rooms that look very different from a boardroom in London or Frankfurt. Frei has reported from all of them, often in the same year, and explains them in terms a senior audience can act on. His career covers the political shifts that now define corporate risk. As BBC Bonn Correspondent he covered German reunification. As Southern Europe Correspondent he reported through Bosnia and Kosovo. From 2002 to 2011 he was BBC Washington Correspondent and presented BBC World News America, anchoring coverage through the Iraq war, the financial crisis and the Obama transition. He moved to Channel 4 in 2011 as Washington Correspondent and is now the network’s Europe Editor. The substance of his work has been recognised by the bodies that judge it most carefully. Two International Emmys, two Royal Television Society Journalist of the Year awards, a Peabody, a duPont-Columbia and the Prix Bayeux Calvados sit alongside the British Journalism Review’s 2022 Charles Wheeler Award for Outstanding Contributions to Broadcast Journalism. He is also the author of Only in America, a book-length argument about the United States written from inside the Washington press corps. For corporate audiences he operates in two registers. He delivers keynote analysis on geopolitics, US politics, Europe and the war in Ukraine, drawn from current reporting. He also chairs and moderates panels and interviews principals on stage, the same craft he applies on Channel 4 News and on LBC every Saturday morning. Key speaking topics Geopolitics US politics and the transatlantic relationship The Russo-Ukrainian war European political risk Economic Trends & Global Markets Conference moderation and on-stage interviews Ideal for Boards and executive committees commissioning a geopolitical and US-politics briefing for an offsite or strategy day CEOs and CCOs needing an experienced broadcaster to chair an external-facing forum or moderate a principal interview CHROs and internal communications leaders running a leadership conference where a recognised on-air presence sets the tone Investor and client events that need a sharp interpreter of macro-political risk on stage Audience outcomes A current read of the political dynamics in Washington, Kyiv, Berlin and Brussels from a journalist actively reporting them A clearer sense of which geopolitical headlines materially affect strategy and which are background noise Specific anecdote and detail from inside the rooms most senior audiences only see filtered through wires A professionally moderated session where the speaker, panel or interview lands as intended

Why organisations work with Matteo Renzi His grasp of European political risk comes from having run a G7 government, chaired the EU Council Presidency, and participated in three G7 and three G20 summits – not from studying these institutions but from operating inside them at the highest level. His current role as Strategic Counsellor at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change connects his analysis to live government reform agendas across more than 40 countries, making his perspective current rather than retrospective. The Renzi government’s Jobs Act labour market overhaul, Madia Reform of public administration, and gender-equal cabinet were each delivered against significant institutional resistance – giving him specific, hard-won insight into what it actually takes to move reform through complex political systems. His co-authorship of the 2025 Tony Blair Institute paper “Europe in the Age of AI” – alongside Tony Blair and former Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin – positions him as a substantive current voice on technology governance and European competitiveness, not only on political history. For boards assessing exposure in Italy or the broader Southern European bloc, he provides a counterweight to the Germany-and-France framing that tends to dominate European political risk analysis in international advisory markets. Biography highlights Prime Minister of Italy, 2014 to 2016 – youngest ever Italian PM and youngest G7 leader at appointment Mayor of Florence 2009-2014; President of the Province of Florence 2004-2009; Senator for Florence since 2018 Founder and leader of Italia Viva (since 2019); previously Secretary of the Democratic Party, 2013-2018 Ranked #3 on Fortune’s 40 Under 40 (2014); included in Foreign Policy’s 100 Global Thinkers Strategic Counsellor, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (since 2024); co-author of “Europe in the Age of AI” (2025) with Tony Blair and Sanna Marin Author of 15+ published books on Italian politics and governance; teaches “The Challenges of Europe” at Stanford University’s Florence programme Biography EU Council negotiations, coalition formation, and regulatory direction are shaped by decisions made under intense political pressure by a small number of insiders. Matteo Renzi was one of them. He served as Prime Minister of Italy from 2014 to 2016, becoming at 39 the youngest person ever to hold that office and the youngest leader in the G7. His government moved fast. The Jobs Act overhauled Italy’s labour market. The Madia Reform digitised public administration and introduced digital ID as a central pillar of state infrastructure. His cabinet became the first in Italian history to achieve gender equality between women and men. He chaired the EU Council Presidency in the second half of 2014 and represented Italy at three G20 and three G7 summits. Italy’s signature on the Paris Agreement on climate change was made under his government. Since leaving government, Renzi has stayed operationally active. He serves in the Italian Senate and leads the centrist party Italia Viva. Since 2024, he has been a Strategic Counsellor at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, advising political leaders on reform strategy across more than 40 countries. His course “The Challenges of Europe” at Stanford University’s Florence programme brings that accumulated experience directly into academic debate. For organisations that need to understand how European coalitions form, how reform agendas succeed or fail under institutional pressure, and where geopolitical risk translates into policy, Renzi provides the granular, first-hand intelligence that covers the full range – from city government to the G7 table. Key speaking topics European political risk and governance EU institutional mechanics and reform Coalition politics and government formation Italian and Southern European political economy G7 and multilateral decision-making Digital transformation in government and public administration Political leadership under institutional pressure Ideal for Boards and C-suite executives with significant EU or Italian market exposure Government affairs and public policy functions within multinational organisations International business forums focused on European geopolitical and regulatory risk Senior leadership programmes and policy institutes requiring first-hand governmental perspective Audience outcomes A clearer working model of how EU institutions make decisions and where the real pressure points are – moving beyond election-watching to structural analysis Specific insight into how reform agendas succeed or collapse inside complex political systems, drawn from the Renzi government’s own record A realistic account of what political risk in Italy and the Southern European bloc means for organisations with exposure in those markets Context on how European governments are approaching digital transformation, labour market flexibility, and AI governance A framework for separating structural political change from short-term electoral noise in European markets

Why organisations work with Matthew Amroliwala A working chair, not a celebrity name on the agenda. He runs panels the way he runs a live news hour, with structure, pace and a clean line of questioning. Three decades of BBC reporting across Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Westminster, Washington and New York gives him an instinct for how to land questions on senior political and corporate figures without the room going flat. Anchors Global on BBC World News, the BBC’s flagship international news programme, daily since 2014. He brings the same register to conference stages. Equally comfortable on a black-tie awards stage, a CEO fireside, and a multi-stakeholder policy panel. The audience reads him as the BBC, which sets a useful tone of seriousness from the first minute. Biography highlights Chief presenter on the BBC News Channel since April 2023. Presenter of Global on BBC World News, the BBC’s international news flagship, since 8 September 2014. Presenter of World News Today across BBC World News and BBC Four since 27 June 2016. Co-presented Crimewatch with Kirsty Young, January 2008 to March 2015. Eight years as a BBC news, political and foreign correspondent reporting from Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Westminster, Washington and New York. Read Law and Politics at Durham University; joined the BBC in 1989. Biography The chair is the variable that decides whether a panel earns the room or wastes it. Matthew Amroliwala has spent more than three decades inside the BBC operating on exactly that variable, first as a correspondent, then as a presenter on UK rolling news for sixteen years, and since 2014 as the anchor of Global on BBC World News. The reporting years are the foundation. He covered the run-up to the Northern Ireland ceasefires, reported from Bosnia during the Balkans conflict, and worked Westminster, Washington and New York on political and foreign assignments. Live news at that level teaches a specific discipline: how to keep a senior figure honest in real time, how to shape a conversation on the clock, how to read a room without losing the line of questioning. That discipline is what conference and event organisers commission. Amroliwala chairs panels and hosts awards where the brief calls for a credible BBC voice on international affairs and a presenter who can hold the structure when a session over-runs or a speaker drifts. He has co-presented Crimewatch with Kirsty Young, presents World News Today across BBC World News and BBC Four, and was promoted to chief presenter on the BBC News Channel in April 2023. For senior audiences, the value is unambiguous. He is the BBC in the room, which sets the tone. He has interviewed the kind of figures the audience expects to hear pressed. And he treats the chair as a working role rather than a ceremonial one. Key speaking topics Conference chairing and moderation Panel facilitation on geopolitics and global affairs Awards hosting and emceeing Fireside interviews with senior leaders International news and current affairs Live broadcast hosting for corporate events Ideal for Conferences and summits on global affairs, geopolitics or international business needing a credible chair Corporate awards ceremonies and gala dinners CEO and leadership fireside conversations where the interviewer needs to press without antagonising Multi-stakeholder policy panels with senior political, regulatory or corporate figures Audience outcomes A panel that surfaces the questions the audience actually came for, not the ones the speakers came prepared to answer. A coherent agenda held to time, with transitions that read as editorial judgement rather than logistics. Senior speakers handled with the register and discipline of live BBC interviewing. An evening or session that lands with the seriousness of a BBC broadcast, not a hosted entertainment slot.

Why organisations work with Maurice Obstfeld He has sat at the top of the global policy table. As IMF Chief Economist from 2015 to 2018 and a member of the US Council of Economic Advisers from 2014 to 2015, he has been inside the rooms where currency, trade and crisis decisions were made. His scholarship is the textbook on his subject. International Economics: Theory and Policy, co-authored with Paul Krugman and Marc Melitz, is the standard text in the field; Foundations of International Macroeconomics, with Kenneth Rogoff, is the doctoral reference. Audiences are hearing from the person who wrote the book. He links the three dossiers most boards keep separate. Tariffs, the dollar and fiscal deficits are usually discussed in isolation. Obstfeld treats them as one operating system and shows how a move on one alters the others. The American Economic Association named him a Distinguished Fellow in 2023, a recognition reserved for the discipline’s most consequential contributors. The credential signals serious intellectual standing in a room where that matters. He is currently writing on the dollar’s standing. His 2025 work for Project Syndicate, Brookings and CEPR examines how trade policy and fiscal choices are stress-testing the dollar’s reserve role. Audiences get a current, not a retrospective, reading. Biography highlights C. Fred Bergsten Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics, since 2019; named to the chair in 2023. Chief Economist (Economic Counsellor) and Director of Research at the International Monetary Fund, 2015 to 2018. Member, US President’s Council of Economic Advisers, 2014 to 2015. Class of 1958 Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley. Co-author, International Economics: Theory and Policy (Pearson, with Krugman and Melitz) and Foundations of International Macroeconomics (MIT Press, with Rogoff). AEA Distinguished Fellow (2023); Fellow of the Econometric Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; recipient of the Tjalling Koopmans Asset Award, the John von Neumann Award, and the Bernhard Harms Prize. Biography The dollar’s reserve role, the global tariff regime and the independence of central banks were treated for three decades as settled architecture. They are now contested, and boards making capital allocation decisions need to understand the system, not just the cycle. Few economists are better placed to read it than Maurice Obstfeld. Obstfeld served as Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund from 2015 to 2018, directing the institution’s Research Department through a period of trade tension, capital flow volatility and rising fiscal pressure across advanced economies. He joined the IMF directly from the US Council of Economic Advisers, where he served as a member under President Obama. Before that he held the Class of 1958 Chair in Economics at UC Berkeley, where he taught from 1989 to 2023 and is now emeritus. His scholarly contribution sits behind much of how the discipline now teaches and practises open economy macroeconomics. International Economics: Theory and Policy, co-authored with Paul Krugman and Marc Melitz, is the standard textbook in the field. Foundations of International Macroeconomics, with Kenneth Rogoff, has been the doctoral reference since 1996. The American Economic Association recognised this body of work in 2023 with the Distinguished Fellow honour. Today he is C. Fred Bergsten Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, writing actively on how tariffs, fiscal deficits and pressure on central bank independence are reshaping the international monetary system. His 2025 essay “King Dollar’s Shaky Crown” for Project Syndicate, his Brookings paper on the US trade deficit, and CEPR Discussion Paper 20104 set out the case directly. The argument is that trust in the system can be destroyed quickly and rebuilt only slowly, and that capital allocators should be reading these signals now. Key speaking topics The international monetary system and the future of dollar dominance Tariffs, trade policy and the global economy Exchange rates, capital flows and currency risk Fiscal deficits, public debt and macroeconomic policy Central bank independence and monetary policy Financial crises and global financial stability China, the euro area and the architecture of the global economy Ideal for Boards, CIOs and treasury teams setting capital allocation policy under currency and trade uncertainty CFOs and investment committees in financial services, asset management and multinational corporates Senior policy audiences in central banks, finance ministries and sovereign wealth funds Economic and strategy briefings for executive committees with material cross-border exposure Audience outcomes A current reading of how tariffs, fiscal policy and currency dynamics are connected as one operating system A clear view of the specific risks to the dollar’s reserve role and what would have to change for them to materialise A framework for thinking about capital allocation when the rules of the international monetary system are under political pressure Reference points from inside the IMF and the US Council of Economic Advisers on how policy actually moves Citable language and named arguments senior leaders can carry back into their own board discussions

Why organisations work with Sir Michael Arthur He has sat on both sides of the table that boards now worry about: thirty-eight years inside the British Foreign Office at the most senior level, then eight years inside Boeing as a vice president and council member. He led the Maastricht Treaty negotiating team and the EU Single Market legislation team. When he speaks about how European policy is actually made, he is describing rooms he was in. As President of Boeing International he was the first non-American on the Executive Council, with operational responsibility for Boeing in 65 countries. That is rare ground for a former diplomat to occupy. His four years as High Commissioner in New Delhi give boards a Europe specialist who is also fluent on India, at a moment when very few people credibly cover both. He speaks German and French and held the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. On Berlin, he is read inside Berlin. Biography highlights British Ambassador to Germany, 2007 to 2010. British High Commissioner to India, 2003 to 2007. Director General for Europe and Economic Affairs, Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Led the Maastricht Treaty negotiating team and the EU Single Market legislation team. Senior Vice President of Boeing and President of Boeing International, 2019 to 2023; first non-American member of the Boeing Executive Council. Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG); recipient of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Board of Directors, Stimson Center; Non-Executive Director of a Tata Consultancy Services UK subsidiary; co-founder of The Ambassador Partnership LLP. Biography Most boards are now exposed to political decisions they cannot price. Tariffs, sanctions, industrial policy, export controls, the next German coalition, the next Indian budget. The standard inputs (bank research, consultant briefings, the FT) tell you what happened. They rarely tell you what the people who made the decision were trying to achieve, and what they will do next. Sir Michael Arthur has spent his career on the inside of those rooms. As British Ambassador to Germany from 2007 to 2010 and High Commissioner to India from 2003 to 2007, he ran two of the UK’s most consequential bilateral relationships at a moment when both countries were redefining their place in the global economy. Earlier he led the Maastricht Treaty negotiating team and the team that wrote the EU Single Market legislation. The European architecture that companies now operate inside is partly his handiwork. What sets him apart from the diplomatic-speaker norm is what came next. In 2014 he joined Boeing as President of Boeing UK and Ireland; in 2019 he became Senior Vice President of Boeing and President of Boeing International, the first non-American on the Boeing Executive Council. For four years he carried operational responsibility for the company in 65 countries and 18 regional offices. He left the diplomatic register and learned the executive one. The result is a speaker who can move between a board’s geopolitical question and its commercial answer without losing precision in either direction. He sits on the Board of Directors of the Stimson Center, on the board of a Tata Consultancy Services UK subsidiary, and co-founded The Ambassador Partnership LLP. He is a fluent German and French speaker and holds the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Key speaking topics Germany, the Eurozone and the European political economy UK and EU relations after Brexit India as a strategic partner for Western business Transatlantic relations and the US-Europe-China triangle International negotiation and corporate diplomacy Political risk inside global supply chains Ideal for Boards and executive committees with material exposure to Europe, India, or transatlantic policy. Heads of strategy, government affairs, and corporate affairs at multinationals. Industrial, aerospace, defence, and financial services leadership teams managing political risk. Investor and partner gatherings where senior decision makers want a credible read on Berlin, Brussels, New Delhi, and Washington in the same room. Audience outcomes A grounded read on what Berlin and Brussels are likely to do next, from someone who has been on both sides of those negotiations. A clearer view of India as a commercial partner, drawn from four years running the UK’s mission in New Delhi. A useful frame for thinking about political risk as an operational variable, not a footnote in the strategy deck. A sharper sense of how diplomatic and commercial logic interact inside large international firms.

Why organisations work with Michael Portillo He has held three Cabinet posts, including the Treasury and Defence briefs, and can describe how spending decisions, security policy, and party-political pressure intersect from inside the room. He brings 25 years of close observation of Westminster as a broadcaster on The Moral Maze, This Week with Andrew Neil, and his GB News weekend programme, which keeps his political reading current rather than historical. He carries one of the most recognisable names and voices in British public life through Great British Railway Journeys and its international spin-offs, which gives a corporate event genuine cultural weight. He has served on the BAE Systems board and the International Commission on Missing Persons, so he can speak to defence industry dynamics and post-conflict governance with first-hand reference points. He chairs panels and prize juries from the Man Booker to UK arts endowments, which makes him an effective moderator and after-dinner host as well as a keynote voice. Biography highlights Cabinet Minister under John Major: Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Secretary of State for Employment, Secretary of State for Defence. MP for Enfield Southgate (1984-1997) and Kensington and Chelsea (1999-2005); Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer (2000-2001). Presenter of Great British Railway Journeys and its Continental, American, Indian, Asian, Australian, Alaskan and Canadian, and Coastal series for the BBC since 2010. Long-running panellist on BBC Radio 4’s The Moral Maze; Conservative voice on BBC’s This Week with Andrew Neil from 2003 to 2019. Non-executive director of BAE Systems (2002-2006); Commissioner of the International Commission on Missing Persons since 1998; President of DEBRA. First-class degree in history from Peterhouse, Cambridge; author of Portillo’s Hidden History of Britain and the Railway Journeys books with Michael O’Mara. Biography The 1997 general election produced the most quoted result in modern British political history. Stephen Twigg unseated Michael Portillo in Enfield Southgate with a 17.4% swing, and the “Portillo moment” entered the language. What is less remembered is that Portillo had, by that point, already run the Treasury’s spending side, the Employment department, and the Ministry of Defence, all before turning forty-five. That CV gives him an unusual vantage on how British government actually works. As Chief Secretary to the Treasury he ran the public spending negotiations that set Whitehall priorities. As Defence Secretary in the mid-1990s he handled procurement, NATO posture, and the Bosnia and Northern Ireland files. As Shadow Chancellor under William Hague he saw the modern Conservative Party’s internal debates from the inside. A broadcaster’s career followed Parliament rather than a corporate one. He has been a regular on BBC Radio 4’s The Moral Maze for over two decades, was the Conservative seat on This Week with Andrew Neil for its full 16-year run, and now hosts a weekend politics show on GB News. The Great British Railway Journeys franchise, in eight country variants since 2010, made him one of the BBC’s most recognisable presenters. The combination matters for a corporate audience. Portillo can talk about UK fiscal pressure with reference to the spending review process he once ran, about defence and procurement with reference to a Cabinet brief and a BAE Systems boardroom, and about how political risk feels day to day from inside a 25-year broadcasting beat. He chaired the 2008 Man Booker Prize, sits as President of the DEBRA charity, and served as a Commissioner of the International Commission on Missing Persons. He is, in practice, a senior public figure with a working knowledge of how British and European institutions hold together under stress. Key speaking topics UK politics and Westminster decision-making Public spending, the Treasury, and fiscal pressure Defence policy and the UK’s security posture Party leadership and political risk European and Anglo-Spanish relations British media, broadcasting, and public life After-dinner political commentary Ideal for Boards and executive teams looking for an informed read on UK political and fiscal risk Financial services, defence, and public-affairs audiences planning against shifting government priorities Senior client and partner dinners where a recognisable broadcaster as host or speaker adds weight Conferences requiring a political moderator or panel chair with Cabinet-level reference points Audience outcomes A clearer view of how decisions inside the UK Treasury and Cabinet actually get made A current reading of the political pressures shaping spending, regulation, and defence priorities Frank, on-the-record perspective on party leadership and the state of British public life A memorable, well-paced session from a presenter used to live broadcasting and large audiences

Why organisations work with Michelle Bachelet Has personally led major institutional reform inside a G20 economy, including pension overhaul, tax reform, and the creation of Chile’s Ministry of Women and Gender Equality. Held the UN’s senior human rights office at the moment human rights frameworks became binding inputs into corporate due diligence and sanctions risk. Built UN Women from the founding stage as its first Executive Director, which gives her a credible voice on gender equality as an institutional discipline. Brings personal moral authority to questions of democratic resilience: imprisoned and tortured under the Pinochet dictatorship, she returned from exile to become the first woman elected President of the country that had jailed her. Currently nominated as a candidate for the next UN Secretary-General, which keeps her active at the centre of debates on multilateralism and global governance. Biography highlights Twice elected President of Chile (2006-2010 and 2014-2018), the country’s first and only woman in the role. Former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2018 to 2022. First Executive Director of UN Women, established 2010. First woman Defense Minister of Chile and of Latin America. Previously Chile’s Minister of Health. Recipient of the 2024 Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development. Distinguished Fellow at Columbia University’s Institute of Global Politics. Biography Human rights frameworks have moved from political commentary into the substance of investor due diligence and regulatory scrutiny. Bachelet has been at the centre of that shift. She served two terms as President of Chile, then four years as the seventh United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Her two presidencies delivered structural reform of a kind few G20 leaders attempt. Pension overhaul, tax reform, equal pay legislation, and Chile’s Civil Union Act for same-sex couples were each politically expensive inside a centre-right legislative environment. Her administrations also established the Ministry of Women and Gender Equality, the National Institute for Human Rights, and the Museum of Memory and Human Rights. Between her presidential terms she served as the first Executive Director of UN Women, building the agency’s mandate from the founding stage. She returned to the United Nations in 2018 as High Commissioner for Human Rights under António Guterres, leading global human rights monitoring across country situations from Myanmar to Venezuela. Earlier in her career she had been the first woman to serve as Defense Minister of Chile and of Latin America, and Minister of Health before that. In 2018 she founded Horizonte Ciudadano, a civic foundation working on territorial democracy and climate adaptation in Chile. She is a Distinguished Fellow at Columbia University’s Institute of Global Politics and the recipient of the 2024 Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development. In February 2026 she was nominated by Brazil and Mexico as a candidate to succeed António Guterres as Secretary-General of the United Nations. Key speaking topics Geopolitics and political risk Democratic governance and institutional resilience Global human rights frameworks in business and policy Multilateralism and the future of the United Nations Gender equality and women’s leadership Social protection and public-sector reform Civil-military relations Ideal for Boards and CEOs facing political risk and democratic instability in their operating markets CHROs and ESG leaders integrating human rights and gender frameworks into corporate practice Governments, multilateral institutions, and development finance leaders working on social policy reform Sovereign and institutional investors with long-dated political and governance exposure Audience outcomes A first-hand reading of how political risk plays out inside a country’s executive The mechanics of how human rights frameworks now shape corporate due diligence and sanctions exposure A frank assessment of where multilateral institutions are working and where they are failing A perspective on gender equality as institutional discipline, drawn from building UN Women from the founding stage The case for democratic resilience, made by someone who returned from exile to be elected president of the country that had imprisoned her

Why organisations work with Misha Glenny He treats cybersecurity as a geopolitical and criminal-economy problem, not an IT one, which is the framing senior boards now need. McMafia and DarkMarket are built on direct fieldwork with traffickers, money launderers and hackers. The case material is his own, not borrowed from analyst desks. As former Rector of the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna and incoming host of BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time, he brings institutional weight that few commercial speakers in this category carry. He can move between a finance board on sanctions exposure, a security committee on ransomware, and a leadership audience on Russia, China and the fracturing global order, without changing voice. Biography highlights Former BBC Central Europe Correspondent. Reported the 1989 revolutions and the Yugoslav wars. Rector, Institute for Human Sciences (IWM), Vienna, May 2022 to March 2026. Incoming presenter of BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time, succeeding Melvyn Bragg from January 2026. Author of McMafia, DarkMarket, The Balkans 1804 to 2012 and Nemesis: One Man and the Battle for Rio. Executive producer of the BBC One and AMC drama series McMafia. Sony Radio Academy Award for outstanding contribution to broadcasting. BT Information Security Journalist of the Year. Visiting Professor at Columbia University’s Harriman Institute, teaching Crime in Transition. Biography International organised crime is no longer a vice problem on the edge of the economy. It is woven into legitimate supply chains, banking flows and the cyber infrastructure that companies depend on. The argument that organised crime could account for a significant share of global GDP, first set out in McMafia in 2008, has aged into a description that finance, security and policy audiences now treat as a working assumption. Misha Glenny built that argument on direct reporting. As the BBC’s Central Europe Correspondent through the 1989 revolutions and the Yugoslav wars, he reported the collapse of the old order from inside it. McMafia and the follow-up book DarkMarket took the same method into the criminal economy itself, with sustained fieldwork among traffickers, money launderers and the hackers running early carding forums. The BBC One and AMC drama series of McMafia, which he executive produced, gave the analysis a second life with a much wider audience. The institutional record matches the reporting. Glenny served as Rector of the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna from 2022 to 2026, one of central Europe’s serious advanced research institutions, and held a visiting professorship at Columbia’s Harriman Institute teaching crime in transition. In December 2025 the BBC announced him as the next host of In Our Time, succeeding Melvyn Bragg. For a leadership audience, the combination is unusual. Few speakers can talk about Russian power, Balkan history, Chinese strategy, ransomware economics and sanctions exposure as a single connected system. Glenny can, because he has spent thirty years reporting it as one. Key speaking topics Geopolitics and global disorder Cybersecurity as a board and national risk Global organised crime and illicit finance Russia, the Balkans and post-Soviet power Cryptocurrency, dark markets and the criminal internet Critical minerals and the new resource competition China, the United States and the contested world order Ideal for Boards and executive committees confronting sanctions, cyber and geopolitical exposure together CISOs, CROs and general counsel framing cyber and crime risk to the wider business Financial services, energy and industrial leadership teams exposed to sanctions, illicit flows and supply chain risk Policy, defence and intelligence audiences working at the seam of geopolitics and organised crime Audience outcomes A working model of how organised crime, cybercrime and state power now operate as one system A clearer view of where their own sector sits inside that system, from finance to energy to technology Specific case material from McMafia and DarkMarket that translates to live risk conversations Sharper questions to put to their security, legal and strategy functions on geopolitical exposure

Why organisations work with Mustafa Suleyman Few people in AI both ship the product and frame the public debate. As CEO of Microsoft AI he runs Copilot, Bing and Edge for hundreds of millions of users, while The Coming Wave was shortlisted for the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year and called Bill Gates’s favourite book on AI. His “containment problem” framework gives boards a working language for asking governance questions about AI without lapsing into either hype or fatalism. He has been inside the founding team of three of the most consequential AI organisations of the past fifteen years: DeepMind in 2010, Inflection AI in 2022 and Microsoft AI in 2024. That operating vantage point on how AI strategy actually gets built is uncommon in the speaker market. A Senior Fellowship at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School and a board seat at The Economist Group give him sustained credibility on policy and governance, not only on product. Biography highlights CEO of Microsoft AI since March 2024, with responsibility for Copilot, Bing, Edge, MSN and GroupMe. Co-founder of DeepMind (2010), former head of Applied AI; the company was acquired by Google in 2014 in its largest European deal at the time. Co-founder and former CEO of Inflection AI, where he built the Pi assistant with Reid Hoffman and Karen Simonyan. Author of The Coming Wave (Crown, 2023) with Michael Bhaskar: New York Times bestseller; shortlisted for the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year; book of the year at the Financial Times, the Economist, Bloomberg and the Guardian. Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School; board member of The Economist Group. CBE in the 2019 New Year Honours; named to TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in AI in 2023 and 2024; TED main-stage speaker, “What is an AI anyway?” (April 2024). Biography DeepMind, Inflection AI and Microsoft AI are three of the most consequential AI organisations of the past fifteen years. Mustafa Suleyman co-founded two and now runs the third. He co-founded DeepMind in 2010, where he led the applied AI work and the DeepMind Ethics and Society research unit. He went on to co-found Inflection AI in 2022 with Reid Hoffman and Karen Simonyan, building Pi, an assistant designed for emotionally responsive conversation. In March 2024 Microsoft brought him in as CEO of Microsoft AI, with responsibility for Copilot, Bing, Edge and the company’s MAI frontier model team. His public argument turns on the containment problem. It is the task of keeping powerful technologies inside the control of the institutions meant to govern them, even as those technologies become cheaper and more accessible. He developed that argument in The Coming Wave, the book he wrote with Michael Bhaskar. It became a New York Times bestseller and was named a book of the year by the Economist, the Financial Times, Bloomberg and the Guardian. Outside Microsoft, he sits on the board of The Economist and is a Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School. Key speaking topics The future of artificial intelligence AI governance and the containment problem Frontier AI development and consumer deployment AI strategy for boards and senior leaders Technology, power and the nation-state The next wave of general-purpose technologies AI safety and alignment Ideal for CEOs and boards setting AI strategy and capital allocation Chief technology officers and chief product officers responsible for AI deployment Government leaders, regulators and policy advisors working on AI rules Senior leaders in financial services, healthcare, media and consumer technology Audience outcomes A working language for talking about AI risk and AI opportunity in the same conversation, anchored in the containment problem A clearer view of what frontier AI labs are actually building, from someone who runs one A sense of where consumer AI is heading over the next two to three years, beyond the current news cycle An honest read on which AI claims are worth taking seriously and which to discount

Why organisations work with Narendra Taneja Reads global energy from an Indian and Global South vantage point that Western commentary routinely misses, particularly on the gap between developed-world decarbonisation timelines and emerging-economy growth needs. Holds standing in both academic and policy worlds: Distinguished Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies and Chairman of the Independent Energy Policy Institute in New Delhi. Speaks directly into the operator and investor audience he has worked alongside for over two decades, having served as Founder President of the World Oil & Gas Assembly between 2001 and 2011. Carries advisory weight across multilateral energy forums, with seats on the ONS International Advisory Board in Norway and the Energy Intelligence Group’s Advisory Board in the United States. Tested in the highest-pressure broadcast formats, including BBC HARDtalk and CNN’s Amanpour, where energy claims have to survive cross-examination. Biography highlights Chairman, Independent Energy Policy Institute, New Delhi Distinguished Research Fellow, Oxford Institute for Energy Studies Founder President, World Energy Policy Summit; former Founder President, World Oil & Gas Assembly (2001 to 2011) International Advisory Board member, ONS Foundation (Norway) and Energy Intelligence Group (United States) Former National Convener of the BJP Energy Cell and former National Spokesperson for the BJP Regular contributor to BBC HARDtalk, CNN’s Amanpour and major Indian and international media Biography India is the world’s fifth-largest economy and third-largest electricity producer. It is also among the most climate-exposed major economies, with historical cumulative emissions far below those of the United States or China. The global energy transition will not be solved by Western timelines alone, and the implications run through New Delhi. Narendra Taneja works the seam between rich-world and emerging-economy energy systems. He is Chairman of the Independent Energy Policy Institute in New Delhi and a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. That dual standing puts him inside the academic debate on transition and inside the policy machinery that has to act on it. His operator credibility is older. He was Founder President of the World Oil & Gas Assembly from 2001 to 2011, the decade energy moved from sector concern to the centre of foreign policy. He now leads the World Energy Policy Summit and holds advisory seats on the ONS International Advisory Board in Norway and the Energy Intelligence Group in the United States. His public reach is unusual for a policy specialist. He served as National Convenor of the BJP Energy Cell and as National Spokesperson for India’s governing party, with direct line of sight into one of the world’s largest energy markets. He appears regularly on BBC HARDtalk and CNN’s Amanpour. He is widely cited as a powerful voice on the energy question between rich and developing economies, a position most international commentary still struggles to hold. Key speaking topics Energy geopolitics and global energy systems Energy security and supply dynamics Energy transition policy across Global North and Global South Oil and gas markets in a decarbonising world India’s energy strategy and global role Geopolitics of climate policy Political risk in emerging market energy Ideal for Energy and utilities boards weighing transition strategy and capital allocation Investors and asset managers with cross-border exposure to oil, gas and renewables Government and policy audiences engaging with India and the wider Global South International business forums analysing geopolitical risk in energy markets Audience outcomes How Global North decarbonisation timelines collide with Global South growth imperatives, and what that means for capital allocation Where political risk actually sits inside the energy transition, by region and asset class A working view of India’s energy strategy and its implications for global supply and capital flows Sharper questions to ask before approving long-horizon energy investment or partnership decisions

Why organisations work with Ngaire Woods Her 2006 book “The Globalizers” set out a specific, named argument – that IMF and World Bank lending conditions are shaped by the geopolitical interests of dominant states as much as by economic theory. Organisations that have read it do not approach multilateral institutions the same way again. She has worked inside the institutions she analyses, not just around them: advisor to the IMF board, member of the G20 High Level Independent Panel on pandemic financing alongside Lawrence Summers and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and member of the Lancet Commission on COVID-19. As founding Dean of the Blavatnik School since 2011, she has trained a generation of ministers, central bankers and senior officials from across the world. That means she knows where public policy is heading before it becomes a headline. Her analysis stays current and policy-facing: monthly contributor to Project Syndicate, regular quoted source in the Financial Times, and current Co-Chair of the WEF Global Future Council on Good Governance. As an Independent Non-Executive Director at Rio Tinto, she applies the same analytical framework she brings to lecture halls and policy rooms directly to boardroom-level governance – which means the distance between her intellectual work and live organisational decisions is shorter than it is for most academics. Biography highlights Founding Dean of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government since its inception in 2011 – one of the world’s leading schools of public policy and government Professor of Global Economic Governance, University of Oxford; founder of Oxford’s Global Economic Governance Programme Author of “The Globalizers: The IMF, the World Bank, and Their Borrowers” (Cornell University Press, 2006) and “The Politics of Global Regulation” (with Walter Mattli, Princeton University Press, 2009) Member of the G20 High Level Independent Panel on Financing the Global Commons for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, co-chaired by Lawrence Summers and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; member of the Lancet Commission on COVID-19 CBE (2018) for services to Higher Education and Public Policy; Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences; International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Monthly contributor to Project Syndicate since 2013; quoted in the Financial Times; former regular presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Analysis programme Independent Non-Executive Director at Rio Tinto; Co-Chair of the WEF Global Future Council on Good Governance; Rhodes Trustee Biography The IMF and the World Bank were not built to be neutral. They were built to reflect the interests of their most powerful members – and understanding how those interests are encoded in loan conditions, governance structures and regulatory frameworks is what separates informed global strategy from exposed global strategy. Ngaire Woods has spent three decades studying exactly this: how international institutions work, who shapes them, and who is left out. Her 2006 book “The Globalizers“, published by Cornell University Press, made a specific and consequential argument – that the conditions attached to IMF and World Bank lending were shaped as much by the geopolitical priorities of dominant states as by economic theory. Her subsequent work, including “The Politics of Global Regulation” (Princeton University Press, 2009, co-authored with Walter Mattli), extended the analysis to how regulatory systems are constructed, contested and fragmented across global markets. These are not abstract frameworks; they are the tools that senior officials and corporate strategists use to understand conditions that resist simpler explanations. In 2011, Woods became the founding Dean of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government – an institution she built from proposal to one of the world’s foremost schools of public policy. The school trains ministers, senior officials and public leaders from across the world; its alumni hold government positions on multiple continents. In 2021, the G20 appointed her to its High Level Independent Panel on pandemic financing, alongside Lawrence Summers and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to propose how global commons could be financed in an era of systemic and cross-border risk. For organisations navigating a period in which the rules governing global trade, investment and regulation are being openly contested, Woods offers something specific: a structural account of where power sits, which institutions are losing coherence, and which are quietly accumulating it. She currently serves as Independent Non-Executive Director at Rio Tinto and Co-Chair of the WEF Global Future Council on Good Governance – roles that keep her analysis grounded in live institutional reality rather than historical retrospect. Key speaking topics Global economic governance and international institutions Geopolitics and the fracturing of the multilateral order Political risk and the regulatory environment for global business The IMF, World Bank and the politics of conditionality Global development and institutional reform Pandemic preparedness and the financing of global commons Democracy, governance and the erosion of public trust Ideal for Boards and senior executive teams operating across multiple jurisdictions and regulatory regimes Chief Strategy Officers and Chief Risk Officers in global businesses navigating geopolitical uncertainty Government and public sector leaders, and executives within multilateral institutions Conferences focused on global economics, institutional risk and geopolitical strategy Audience outcomes A working framework for understanding how international institutions shape the conditions that corporate and government strategy depends on Sharper analysis of where power is shifting in the global economic order – and what this means for investment, regulation and market access decisions Clearer sight of the political and governance risks embedded in global operations that conventional risk tools typically miss Insight into how policy is made, and how conditions are set, inside multilateral institutions – from someone who has advised them directly A more realistic account of which elements of the post-war international order remain durable, and which are already being renegotiated

Why organisations work with Nicholas Hopton A serving British Ambassador to four of the region’s most sensitive postings inside a decade: Yemen, Qatar, Iran and Libya. That working contact list is not replicable from outside government. Reopened the British Embassy in Tehran as the first UK Ambassador to Iran since 2011, giving a first-hand reading of how Iranian decision-making actually functions under sanctions and confrontation. Runs Belmont Advisory, a private geopolitical consultancy, alongside the Middle East Association: advice is shaped by what clients have actually done with it, not by think-tank distance from the deal. Chairs the Middle East and Mediterranean Advisory Board at Cambridge’s Centre for Geopolitics, alongside fellowships at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative and RUSI, so the analysis stays tested against serious peer scrutiny. A regular broadcast and print commentator on Middle East affairs, appearing on BBC News, Bloomberg, the New Statesman, and The Spectator, with a column in The i Paper. A board briefing lands without needing translation from policy register. Biography highlights British Ambassador to Libya, 2019 to 2021; Iran, 2015 to 2018; Qatar, 2013 to 2015; Yemen, 2012 to 2013. First British Ambassador to Iran after the embassy’s reopening, following the 2011 closure. Director General of the Middle East Association and founder of the geopolitical consultancy Belmont Advisory. Chair of the Middle East and Mediterranean Advisory Board, Centre for Geopolitics, University of Cambridge. Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative, Distinguished Fellow at RUSI, and Honorary Professor at St Mary’s University, London. Led the drafting team for the UK’s first National Security Strategy in 2008; Private Secretary to four UK Ministers for Europe, 1998 to 2000. Ambassador for the HALO Trust, the landmine and unexploded ordnance clearance charity. Biography The reopening of the British Embassy in Tehran in 2015 closed a four-year diplomatic break with Iran. Nicholas Hopton was the ambassador who walked back in. Running a mission in a country that had just expelled the previous one is a particular kind of education in how power, sanctions and personal access actually interact. That posting sits inside a 35-year career in the British Diplomatic Service that ran from junior roles in Paris, Rome, Morocco and Mauritania to four ambassadorships in under a decade. Yemen during the early collapse, Qatar at the moment Gulf finance reshaped global asset flows, Iran through the nuclear deal years, then Libya. Each post was the kind of brief in which the embassy is the analytical asset, not a passive observer. In Whitehall he led the team that drafted the UK’s first National Security Strategy in 2008 and served as senior UK official at the 2011 Perth Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. He spent 1998 to 2000 as Private Secretary to four successive Ministers for Europe. The London grounding matters for clients: he understands how the British system actually decides, not just how it appears to. He now runs the Middle East Association as Director General and founded the geopolitical consultancy Belmont Advisory. He chairs the Middle East and Mediterranean Advisory Board at Cambridge’s Centre for Geopolitics and holds fellowships at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative and RUSI. The combination gives boards something most political-risk providers cannot: a practitioner who can still place the phone calls, whose reading has been tested in real negotiating rooms. Key speaking topics Iran: politics, sanctions and the post-Khamenei trajectory The Gulf states and the geopolitics of capital Libya, North Africa and Mediterranean security UK and European policy towards the Middle East Political risk and market access in conflict-adjacent economies The mechanics of British and European decision-making on foreign policy Ideal for Board and executive committee briefings on Middle East exposure Chief risk officers and heads of government relations in firms with regional operations Investor and family-office audiences weighing Gulf capital allocation Foreign-policy and defence audiences in think tanks, universities and policy fora Audience outcomes A working map of where power actually sits in Tehran, Doha, Riyadh and Tripoli, separated from media shorthand A clearer view of how sanctions regimes affect commercial decision-making in practice An informed read on the UK and European policy posture toward the region, and where it is likely to move Direct answers to the questions a senior team would otherwise be unable to ask in the open