Globale Wirtschaft und Märkte

Why organisations work with Andrew Sheng He has sat inside the institutions most leaders only read about. Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, World Bank, and as Chief Adviser to the China Banking Regulatory Commission. He speaks from the regulator’s chair, not the commentator’s. His book From Asian to Global Financial Crisis (Cambridge University Press) is the standard insider account of how the 1997 Asian crisis and the 2008 global crisis share common causes. Boards use his framing to stress-test their own assumptions about financial stability. He is one of a very small group of Western-trained economists with direct, ongoing advisory access to Chinese financial policymakers. For organisations exposed to China, that is a perspective almost impossible to replicate. TIME named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2013 for helping leaders understand the rebalancing of the global economy. His Project Syndicate and South China Morning Post columns remain a reference point for finance ministers and institutional investors. He translates technical finance into strategic language. Boards come away with a clearer view of what Chinese shadow banking, sustainable finance, and US-China capital tensions mean for their own capital allocation. Biography highlights Chairman, Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, 1998 to 2005 Deputy Chief Executive, Hong Kong Monetary Authority Chief Adviser, China Banking Regulatory Commission (later China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission) Distinguished Fellow, Asia Global Institute, University of Hong Kong Author, From Asian to Global Financial Crisis (Cambridge University Press, 2009); co-editor, Shadow Banking in China (Wiley, 2016) Named to the TIME 100 Most Influential People, 2013 Featured interviewee in the Academy Award-winning documentary Inside Job (2010) Pro-Chancellor, University of Bristol; columnist, Project Syndicate and South China Morning Post Biography The 1997 Asian financial crisis and the 2008 global crisis were not separate events. They shared the same causes: loose money, lax supervision, market fundamentalism, and an appetite for financial engineering that outran the regulators watching it. Andrew Sheng made that argument from inside the system, as a regulator who had watched both crises unfold from Asian capitals and Washington. His career is the reason the argument carries weight. He chaired the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission from 1998 to 2005, served as Deputy Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, spent four years at the World Bank, and began his career at Bank Negara Malaysia. Since 2013 he has been Chief Adviser to the China Banking Regulatory Commission, giving him an active seat inside the policy apparatus shaping the world’s second-largest financial system. That access sits alongside a serious body of written work. From Asian to Global Financial Crisis, published by Cambridge University Press in 2009, remains a standard insider account of how unfettered finance produced two systemic shocks in a decade. Shadow Banking in China, co-edited for Wiley in 2016, is one of the few book-length treatments of Chinese off-balance-sheet finance written by authors with direct regulatory knowledge. His Project Syndicate column, running since 2011, is read by finance ministers and institutional investors. For boards exposed to Asia, the value is specific. Sheng does not describe China from the outside or financial regulation in the abstract. He explains how Beijing’s policymakers think about capital, what Western assumptions about Chinese finance tend to miss, and where the global monetary order is most likely to fracture next. TIME named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2013 for doing exactly this work. Key speaking topics Global financial stability and systemic risk China’s financial system and policy direction US-China economic and financial decoupling Asian capital markets and cross-border flows Central banking and financial regulation Sustainable finance and green capital The future of the international monetary order Ideal for Boards and investment committees with material exposure to Asian markets Central banks, financial regulators, and ministries of finance CIOs, CFOs, and treasurers at global financial institutions Policy, strategy, and sovereign wealth audiences evaluating China and the multilateral order Audience outcomes A regulator’s read on where the next systemic shock is most likely to originate A more accurate mental model of how Chinese financial policy is made and what it prioritises Sharper questions to ask about counterparty, currency, and capital-flow risk in Asia A structured way to think about sustainable finance beyond disclosure and taxonomy debates Language for the board on what decoupling, sanctions, and capital-market fragmentation mean for strategy

Why organisations work with Andrew Verity He is the reporter who broke the evidence of central bank involvement in LIBOR rate-rigging on Panorama and in the Radio 4 podcast The Lowball Tapes, and then laid out the full case in his book Rigged. Few speakers in this field can claim that level of original work on a scandal they covered end to end. As BBC Economics Correspondent he explains interest rates, inflation and growth on air to a national audience every week. That training shows up on stage: dense economic material rendered in language a board can use. His investigative track record, from The Truth About Property ahead of the 2008 housing crash to on-the-ground reporting on money laundering in Ukraine, gives him a sharper instinct than most commentators for where institutional risk is actually building. He is a practised live broadcaster, which makes him a natural moderator and interviewer at internal leadership events, client summits and regulated-industry conferences where the stakes of the conversation are high. For financial services, risk and compliance audiences in particular, he offers a perspective that is informed by named regulators, named trials and named evidence, not generic commentary. Biography highlights Economics Correspondent, BBC News, reporting across television, radio and online since 2014. Author of Rigged (The History Press, 2023), a detailed account of the LIBOR scandal serialised in The Times. Presenter of The Lowball Tapes, the 2022 BBC Radio 4 investigative podcast series shortlisted for the British Journalism Awards and the Foreign Press Association Awards. Reporter and presenter for Panorama, including the investigation into the Bank of England’s role in LIBOR rate-rigging, with further contributions to Newsnight and File on Four. Former host of Wake Up to Money on BBC Radio 5 Live for eight years, a daily programme on markets, the economy and personal finance. Previously Personal Finance Correspondent at The Independent, recognised with industry awards for personal finance journalism and broadcasting. Biography The LIBOR scandal was presented to the public as a story about rogue traders. The evidence Andrew Verity assembled, on Panorama, in The Lowball Tapes and then in his book Rigged, tells a different story about the role of central banks and the safety of the convictions that followed. That body of work is why senior financial audiences take him seriously when he speaks about misconduct, regulation and market structure. His day job is to translate macroeconomics for a national audience. As BBC Economics Correspondent since 2014 he has covered Brexit, the pandemic shock and post-pandemic inflation across television, radio and online. The discipline of explaining a rate decision or an inflation print in clear language, live, week after week, is what makes him effective in front of a leadership team. The investigative thread runs through the rest of his career. He presented BBC Two’s The Truth About Property before the 2008 housing crash, hosted Wake Up to Money on BBC Radio 5 Live for eight years, and has reported from Ukraine on suspected money laundering. His book Rigged, published by The History Press in 2023 and serialised in The Times, has since been optioned for television. For boards, risk committees and regulated-industry audiences, the practical value is specific. He can moderate a results conference, interview a chief executive on the record, or deliver a keynote that takes the latest central bank move and shows what it changes for the people in the room. Key speaking topics The LIBOR scandal and financial misconduct Inflation, interest rates and monetary policy UK and global economic outlook Regulation and enforcement in financial services Investigative journalism and corporate accountability Housing, property markets and household finance Economics event moderation and on-stage interviewing Ideal for Financial services, banking and asset management leadership events Risk, compliance and internal audit conferences in regulated industries Board and executive offsites seeking a clear read on the macro environment Corporate and client summits needing a senior broadcast-grade moderator or interviewer Audience outcomes A clearer read on where inflation, interest rates and growth are heading and what actually drives the next move. A grounded view of the LIBOR scandal from the journalist who reported the cover-up, with direct relevance to conduct and culture questions today. A sharper sense of where regulatory and reputational risk tends to build inside large financial institutions. Confidence that the on-stage conversation with their own leaders or guests will be handled with the discipline of a live BBC broadcast.

Why organisations work with Angela Barnes She is a sitting business editor, not a retired one. The Euronews remit means she walks into a room with the same week’s markets, policy and corporate stories already loaded. The Big Question is a CEO-interview franchise she writes and presents every week. Boards hiring her for a fireside or on-stage interview are hiring a format she runs as a day job. Her reporting reach spans Sky News, CNBC (including East Tech West), ITV, Yahoo Finance and The Telegraph, which gives her fluency across markets, technology and energy without a single-sector tell. She has moderated for the IMF and the Paris Finance Forum, so the step up to finance-ministry-level panels does not require coaching. The technology background from Sky Swipe and CNBC East Tech West means a tech-and-AI panel does not need a separate host. Biography highlights Managing Editor of Business, Euronews, Brussels Anchor and interviewer, The Big Question, Euronews Over a decade at Sky News as producer, reporter and presenter, including the Swipe technology show Contributor credits at CNBC (East Tech West), ITV, IG, Yahoo Finance and The Telegraph Moderator credits include the IMF and the Paris Finance Forum Described by Ireland’s Better Business magazine as “one of Europe’s most prominent news figures” Biography The Big Question goes out weekly on Euronews. Angela Barnes writes it, produces the conversation and puts the questions to a rolling cast of chief executives, ministers and investors. That is the core of her working life, and it is why she is in demand on stage. Barnes runs business, markets and economics for Euronews from Brussels, which puts her inside the policy bloodstream of the European Union and within a short flight of the financial centres her audience trades in. Before Euronews she spent more than a decade at Sky News as a producer, reporter and presenter, including on the Swipe technology programme, and has contributed to CNBC’s East Tech West, ITV, IG, Yahoo Finance and The Telegraph. As a moderator she has worked with the IMF and the Paris Finance Forum, which means the vocabulary of sovereign balance sheets, energy transition finance and central-bank communication is already familiar. Ireland’s Better Business magazine called her “one of Europe’s most prominent news figures.” The practical point for a board hiring a host: the person on stage has done the interview that morning, on camera, with someone senior, and will do another one next week. That keeps the questions current and the pace sharp. Key speaking topics Global markets and the macro picture Energy markets and the energy transition European economic and political risk Technology, AI and the platform economy Central bank policy and financial stability Corporate strategy and CEO accountability Business journalism and media strategy Ideal for Annual conferences and investor days needing a moderator who can interview a CEO and a finance minister in the same programme Financial services, energy and technology clients hosting C-suite and board-level forums Public-sector and multilateral convenings on economic policy, trade and transition finance Audience outcomes A panel or fireside that stays on point because the host has read the file and the morning’s news Senior guests stretched on the questions that matter, without hostility, so the audience learns something new A running thread between sessions that ties markets, policy and technology into one narrative for the day A tighter run of show, because a working editor manages time on air for a living

Why organisations work with Angelica Cheung She built Vogue China from zero to the definitive voice in Chinese luxury over 16 years as founding editor-in-chief, which gives her a deeper read on how Chinese taste actually moves than almost any operating executive a board could hire. She now sits on both sides of the table, as Venture Partner at HongShan (formerly Sequoia Capital China) and as strategic adviser to Gildo Zegna for Asia, so her view is priced against real capital and real operating decisions. She holds board seats at Zegna Group, AMI Paris, We11Done and Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, a rare spread across European luxury, emerging Asian design and global hospitality that lets her compare what is working across categories. She is Asia Ambassador for the British Fashion Council and a recurring judge on the LVMH Prize, ANDAM, Woolmark and British Fashion Awards, which means she is reading the next generation of brands before they land. She was inducted into the BoF 500 Hall of Fame in 2019, an editorial recognition by Business of Fashion of long-run influence on the global industry, not a one-year listing. Biography highlights Founding editor-in-chief of Vogue China, 2005 to 2020, launching the title and leading it for 16 years. Venture Partner at HongShan (formerly Sequoia Capital China), covering consumer and lifestyle investments. Strategic Adviser to the CEO of the Ermenegildo Zegna Group for Asia. Board Director at Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, appointed January 2026, representing Cascade Investment. Board positions at Zegna Group (NYSE), AMI Paris and We11Done. Asia Ambassador of the British Fashion Council; BoF 500 Hall of Fame inductee, 2019. International Advisory Board, Durham University Business School. Biography China’s luxury market is one of the most studied and least understood commercial environments in the world. Angelica Cheung has spent more than two decades inside it, first as the editor who defined how Chinese readers saw global fashion, then as an investor and board director shaping how global brands enter the market. She launched Vogue China in September 2005 for Conde Nast and ran the title for 16 years until stepping down in December 2020. The first issue sold out its 300,000 print run and was reprinted twice, and she went on to become the editorial interlocutor most global houses relied on when they had to read Chinese taste, generational shifts and cultural nuance. In 2021 she joined HongShan, formerly Sequoia Capital China, as Venture Partner covering consumer and lifestyle, and was appointed Strategic Adviser for Asia to Gildo Zegna, CEO of the Ermenegildo Zegna Group. She now holds board seats at Zegna Group, AMI Paris, We11Done and Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, the Four Seasons appointment announced in January 2026. Her credentials in the wider industry match the operating work. She is Asia Ambassador of the British Fashion Council, a judge on the LVMH Prize, ANDAM, International Woolmark and British Fashion Awards panels, a member of Durham University Business School’s International Advisory Board, and a BoF 500 Hall of Fame inductee since 2019. Key speaking topics China’s luxury and premium consumer Brand building in the Chinese market Generational shifts among Chinese consumers Culture-led strategy for global consumer brands Consumer and lifestyle investment in Asia Global luxury growth strategy Fashion industry leadership Ideal for CEOs and CMOs of global luxury, premium fashion and beauty groups Consumer brand boards considering entry, expansion or repositioning in China Hospitality and lifestyle leadership teams managing Chinese outbound and domestic demand Investors and corporate development teams allocating to Asian consumer Audience outcomes A clearer read on where Chinese luxury and premium demand is actually moving, from the people and platforms driving it A working view of how global brands are winning or losing with Chinese consumers right now, grounded in named brands and specific moves A sharper question set for their own China strategy, from positioning through to channel and talent A sense of what investors and boards are pricing into Asian consumer bets, told from someone doing both

Why organisations work with Anil Gupta His research on China and India spans thirty years and six books: not a regional specialist’s tour d’horizon, but a body of work that produced frameworks now used by boards and strategy teams at major multinationals The «global mindset» framework distinguishing local depth from global connect gives leadership teams a diagnostic tool for identifying where strategic blind spots sit, not just a description of why diversity matters One of only three professors in the world elected a lifetime fellow of all three premier academic bodies in his field: the Academy of Management, the Strategic Management Society, and the Academy of International Business Organisations that have engaged Gupta have included GE, Walmart, IBM, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, and SAP; his frameworks are tested against the operational complexity of companies with genuinely global footprints, not just emerging market theory He is a member of the Bretton Woods Committee, the body convened by the World Bank and IMF to advise on global economic challenges, giving him line-of-sight into macro-structural debates that rarely reach corporate strategy teams Biography highlights Michael D. Dingman Chair in Strategy and Entrepreneurship, Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland 2024 inductee, Thinkers50 Hall of Fame; ranked continuously in Thinkers50 since 2013; 2023 C.K. Prahalad Award for Scholarly Impact on Practice, Strategic Management Society One of only three professors worldwide holding lifetime fellowship from all three major academic bodies in the field: Academy of Management, Strategic Management Society, and Academy of International Business Co-founder and chairman, China India Institute, Washington DC; visiting professor of strategy, INSEAD Author or co-author of six books (Wiley), including Getting China and India Right (Axiom Book Awards Silver Prize) and The Silk Road Rediscovered; contributor to Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and Bloomberg BusinessWeek PhD, Harvard Business School; MBA, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad; B.Tech, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur Member, World Economic Forum Global Expert Network and Bretton Woods Committee; regular participant at WEF Davos Biography Anil Gupta holds the Michael D. Dingman Chair in Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. Here, he has spent three decades building one of the most specific bodies of research in global strategy: the competitive dynamics of China and India, and what their rise means for organisations competing across the global economy. His 2024 induction into the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame recognised that work, explicitly citing his contribution to understanding globalisation trends over thirty years. Most strategy advice on emerging markets treats China and India as a category. Gupta’s argument, developed across six books and more than seventy academic papers, is that they represent four distinct strategic realities simultaneously: mega-markets, cost platforms, innovation bases, and springboards for fearsome new global competitors. Getting China and India Right, the clearest statement of that argument, received the Axiom Book Awards Silver Prize and was shortlisted for the Asia Society’s Bernard Schwartz Book Award. The Silk Road Rediscovered extended that work into the competitive dynamics between the two economies themselves. What separates Gupta’s perspective from macro-commentary is its institutional background. He is one of only three professors in the world elected a lifetime fellow of the Academy of Management, the Strategic Management Society, and the Academy of International Business simultaneously, a peer recognition that reflects the rigour of the underlying research, not its public profile. He was awarded the Strategic Management Society’s C.K. Prahalad Award for Scholarly Impact on Practice in 2023. He is also chairman of the China India Institute, a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Expert Network, and sits on the Bretton Woods Committee convened by the World Bank and IMF. His work and opinion have appeared in the Harvard Business Review, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and Bloomberg BusinessWeek. He holds a PhD from Harvard Business School, an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, and a B.Tech from IIT Kanpur. Key speaking topics Global strategy and international competitive advantage China and India as strategic priorities Emerging markets and diverging economic trajectories Global mindset and cross-border leadership capability Geopolitical shifts and corporate strategy Global megatrends and scenario planning Globalisation, deglobalisation, and supply chain restructuring Ideal for C-suite and board-level leadership teams with significant international exposure or expansion mandates Chief Strategy Officers and corporate strategy functions navigating market entry or competitive repositioning in Asia Investor and sovereign wealth audiences monitoring emerging market trajectories Executive education cohorts at graduate business schools focused on global strategy Audience outcomes A structured framework – the «global mindset» model – for diagnosing where an organisation’s international strategy assumptions are outdated or misaligned Clearer understanding of why China and India require distinct strategic logics, not a single emerging-markets approach Practical perspective on which emerging markets are better positioned for long-term growth and what that means for investment and competitive positioning Sharper criteria for evaluating when global expansion creates competitive advantage versus merely adding complexity An updated reading of the macro-structural forces – demographic, technological, environmental – reshaping international competition over the next decade

Why organisations work with Anna Rosling Rönnlund Her Factfulness framework – co-developed with Hans and Ola Rosling and verified through Gapminder’s systematic global testing – gives leadership teams a named, testable inventory of the cognitive instincts that distort how they read global trends; knowing which instinct is operating is more actionable than being told to think more carefully about data. Dollar Street, the income-sorted photographic database she founded at Gapminder, organises 30,000+ images from 50+ countries by purchasing power rather than by geography – showing what global consumers actually look like at different spending levels in a way that statistical reports rarely achieve. She brings a combination almost nobody in this space can match: rigorous sociological training (Lund University), professional photography, senior UX design at Google, and twenty years building Gapminder’s data tools for mass, non-specialist audiences. Factfulness has sold over 2.5 million copies in 45+ languages; organisations engaging her work are connecting to a framework already embedded in business schools, executive education programmes, and corporate strategy teams internationally. She leads ESG and SDG literacy workshops using Gapminder’s verified, publicly available global datasets – giving organisations a grounded, non-ideological entry point to sustainability strategy built on measurable global reality rather than advocacy frameworks. Biography highlights Co-founder and VP, Head of Design and User Experience, Gapminder Foundation (est. 2005, Stockholm) Designed Trendalyzer – the animated bubble-chart visualisation tool – acquired by Google in 2007; Senior UX Designer, Google Mountain View (2007-2010) Co-author, Factfulness (Flatiron Books, 2018) – New York Times bestseller; 2.5 million+ copies sold; 45+ language editions Founder of Dollar Street (2016) – 30,000+ income-sorted photographs from 50+ countries, free under Creative Commons licence TED speaker (2017): “See how the rest of the world lives, organized by income” Honorary Doctorate in Informatics, University of Skövde (2018) Fast Company World Changing Ideas Award, Photography and Visualization category (2017) Biography Global strategy conversations are routinely shaped by assumptions that are decades out of date. Gapminder, the foundation Anna Rosling Rönnlund co-founded in 2005, was built to measure this problem precisely. It tests what people believe about the world, identifies where those beliefs are provably wrong, and develops tools to correct them. Her first major contribution was Trendalyzer, an animated visualisation tool she designed with Ola Rosling that made decades of development data readable in seconds. Google acquired it in 2007. When she and Ola returned to Gapminder in 2010, the mission shifted from visualisation to diagnosis: systematically testing what educated, experienced people get wrong about global development – and why. That diagnostic work produced Factfulness, co-authored with Hans Rosling and Ola Rosling and published in 2018. The book names ten cognitive instincts – including the gap instinct and the generalisation instinct – that cause leaders to systematically misread global trends. It became a New York Times bestseller, with over 2.5 million copies sold across 45 languages. Her parallel project, Dollar Street, sent photographers to 50+ countries to document everyday life at every income level – 30,000+ images, organised by purchasing power rather than geography. These images replace national stereotypes with income-level reality, giving organisations a concrete tool for understanding global consumers. Anna holds a Master’s in Sociology from Lund University and a Bachelor’s in Photography from Gothenburg University. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Informatics from the University of Skövde in 2018 and received the Fast Company World Changing Ideas Award in the Photography and Visualization category in 2017. Key speaking topics Fact-based decision-making and the Factfulness framework Global development trends and emerging market realities Data visualisation and communicating complexity to non-specialist audiences Consumer demographics and income-level market analysis Dollar Street and visual approaches to global data ESG and SDG literacy for business Strategic misconceptions and cognitive bias in leadership Ideal for Boards and senior leadership teams making strategic decisions about global markets, risk, or emerging economies Chief Strategy Officers and heads of corporate strategy evaluating long-term assumptions and scenario plans Sustainability and ESG leads working with SDG frameworks and global impact data Leadership development and executive education programmes building data literacy and fact-based reasoning habits Audience outcomes A working understanding of the ten Factfulness instincts and how they distort strategic decision-making Practical methods for identifying and correcting the shared assumptions driving organisational strategy A reframed view of global consumer markets using Dollar Street’s income-level visual data, reducing reliance on outdated country stereotypes Greater confidence in questioning shared assumptions during leadership team discussions and board conversations Awareness of which global trends are measurably improving versus declining, grounded in Gapminder’s verified datasets

Why organisations work with Anthony Hilton Five decades inside the City press, from trainee on The Guardian in 1968 to City Editor of The Times and the Evening Standard, give audiences a working memory of how UK financial crises, regulatory shifts and market cycles actually play out. A named position of record. As Senior Commentator for The Independent and The Standard his arguments on markets, pensions and the economy are already in public circulation, so organisations get a writer whose views are testable. Specific authority on pensions and long-term savings, an area he has covered as a weekly columnist for more than 30 years and on which he has been singled out by UK pensions industry awards. A track record of calling the 2008 crash, recognised by the University of Aberdeen with an honorary degree in 2010 for articles from 2005 to 2007 warning that the financial system was heading for trouble. Deep fluency in corporate and financial communication, drawn from his book How to Communicate Financial Information to Employees and a career running the editorial operation at the Evening Standard as Managing Director. Biography highlights Senior Commentator for The Independent and The London Standard, writing on markets, pensions, investor relations and the economy. Former City Editor of The Times (1981 to 1983) and City Editor of the Evening Standard (1984 to 1989), then Managing Director of the Evening Standard from 1989. Author of City Within a State: A Portrait of Britain’s Financial World, a study of how the City of London really works. Wincott Prize for Business Journalism; Business Journalist of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Financial Journalism at the 2014 ABI Financial Media Awards; Association of British Insurers Commentator of the Year (twice); Decade of Excellence Award, World Press Awards, 2007. Honorary degree from the University of Aberdeen, 2010, for services to journalism, including articles from 2005 to 2007 predicting the financial crash; MA in Economics, University of Aberdeen. Joint founder and past non-executive chairman of Newsdesk Media Group; Visiting Professor in Economics at London Metropolitan University, 2010 to 2012; former Editor of Accountancy Age. Biography The 1970s sterling story, the 1980s Big Bang, the dotcom crash, the 2008 banking collapse and the pensions and inflation shocks since: the same journalist has covered them in real time for a general reader, inside the British national press. That continuity is unusual, and it is the reason senior audiences listen when Anthony Hilton explains what is happening in the City. He joined Fleet Street in 1968 as a trainee on The Guardian, moved to New York in 1978 as Business Correspondent for the Sunday Times, and returned in 1981 to become City Editor of The Times. From 1984 he was City Editor of the Evening Standard, then its Managing Director from 1989, before returning to writing. He is now Senior Commentator for The Independent and The London Standard. The published argument is the other half of the case. City Within a State set out how the City of London actually works as a system of firms, regulators and capital flows. How to Communicate Financial Information to Employees codified what he has observed boards and finance chiefs get wrong when talking about money to their own people. His weekly columns on pensions, investor relations and the economic outlook have run for more than 30 years. The recognition is from bodies that matter in the field. The Wincott Prize for Business Journalism, Business Journalist of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Financial Journalism at the 2014 ABI Financial Media Awards, and Commentator of the Year from the Association of British Insurers, twice. The University of Aberdeen awarded him an honorary degree in 2010 in recognition of columns from 2005 to 2007 that warned the financial system was heading for serious trouble. Key speaking topics UK economic outlook and policy City of London, markets and investor relations Pensions, long-term savings and retirement policy Corporate governance and financial communication Financial journalism and the media view of business Economic history and lessons from past UK financial crises Ideal for Boards and CEOs in financial services, asset management, insurance and pensions needing an informed macro and markets read CFOs, heads of investor relations and corporate communications teams preparing for scrutiny from the City press Pensions trustees, scheme sponsors and providers running strategy or member communication programmes Conferences and industry dinners needing a senior City commentator as host, moderator or after-dinner speaker Audience outcomes A clearer read on how UK economic policy, Bank of England decisions and market conditions intersect with their own sector A working columnist’s view on how the City press is interpreting their industry and their company Named historical reference points for making sense of current market and pensions stress A sharper frame on pensions and long-term savings policy for employers and trustees An argument on where the UK economy is heading and what that implies for strategy and communication

Why organisations work with Arnaud Bonzom He co-authored the INSEAD and 500 Startups study of the Forbes Global 500, which mapped how 262 of the world’s largest public companies actually engage startups. Few corporate-innovation speakers can point to an original dataset of that scale. He has advised more than 200 corporations on corporate-startup engagement, including Accenture, Airbus, Allianz, AWS, BMW, Shell, Standard Chartered and Volkswagen, as well as the European Commission and several national governments. He can distinguish, on the record, between a startup competition, a corporate accelerator, a corporate venture capital arm and a direct M&A play, and tell a board which one fits the problem they are actually trying to solve. His vantage point is Southeast Asia, built over a decade on the ground in Singapore at 500 Startups and INSEAD, which matters for Western corporates trying to understand Asian market entry and innovation sourcing. Biography highlights Co-author with INSEAD Professor Serguei Netessine of “How do the World’s Biggest Companies Deal with the Startup Revolution?”, the INSEAD and 500 Startups study covering the Forbes Global 500. Former Venture Partner at 500 Startups, focused on Southeast Asian founders. Entrepreneur-in-Residence at INSEAD; previously Assistant Director of Corporate Partnership Development at INSEAD. Founder and Managing Director of Black Mangroves; co-founder of Map of the Money, a platform mapping active investors across Southeast Asia. Research and commentary cited by Forbes, Bloomberg TV, Les Echos, Bain, SAP, BNP Paribas and Orange, with coverage in 28 countries. Speaker at Slush, Web Summit, DLD, Tech in Asia, Rise and SuperReturn. Biography Most large companies now run some form of startup engagement programme. The INSEAD and 500 Startups study of the Forbes Global 500, co-authored by Arnaud Bonzom with Professor Serguei Netessine, found that 262 of those 500 companies were already working with startups. The harder question, which the study set out to answer, is which models actually produce returns. That question sits at the centre of his work. As Director of Corporate Innovation at 500 Startups and later as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at INSEAD, he spent years watching corporates set up accelerators, write cheques, sign partnerships and run competitions, often in parallel, often without a clear theory of what each one was meant to deliver. His argument to boards is that these are different instruments with different risk profiles, and treating them as interchangeable is how budgets get burned. He has put the argument to more than 200 corporations, including Accenture, Airbus, Allianz, AWS, BMW, Shell, Standard Chartered and Volkswagen, and to the European Commission and the governments of Estonia, Germany, Singapore and Taiwan. His work has been cited by Forbes, Bloomberg TV, Les Echos, Bain, SAP, BNP Paribas and Orange, with coverage across 28 countries. His current base is Singapore, where he founded Black Mangroves and co-founded Map of the Money, a data platform that maps active investors across Southeast Asia. That gives him a direct line into one of the more complex venture ecosystems in the world, which matters for any multinational trying to understand where Asian growth capital is actually moving. Key speaking topics Corporate-startup engagement models Corporate venture capital Startup ecosystems Southeast Asia innovation and venture capital Corporate innovation strategy Entrepreneurship and fundraising Ideal for CEOs, CSOs and heads of strategy reassessing corporate innovation and venture programmes Corporate venture capital leads, accelerator directors and M&A teams Boards and executive committees of multinationals expanding into or sourcing innovation from Southeast Asia Audience outcomes A clear read on which corporate-startup engagement model fits which strategic objective, with trade-offs named A grounded view of how the Forbes Global 500 are actually engaging startups, based on original research rather than anecdote A practical perspective on Southeast Asia’s venture and innovation landscape for corporates entering or scaling in the region Sharper questions to take back to internal innovation teams about what returns they are actually being asked to produce

Why organisations work with Arturo Bris He is the custodian of the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook – benchmarking 69 economies on 341 criteria annually – which means he brings a proprietary, data-based view of global competitive dynamics that no consultant or generalist economist can replicate. The Right Place (Routledge, 2021) makes a specific, evidence-based argument that national competitiveness explains more of corporate performance than internal strategy or leadership quality – a direct challenge to how most boards set their investment and expansion priorities. His research on 3,692 CEOs across 22 countries and three decades found that conventional analyses significantly overestimate the impact of individual leaders on firm performance – giving boards a more rigorous basis for leadership decisions and executive remuneration. His 2025 book SuperEurope provides a contrarian, data-backed case for Europe as a model of institutional resilience – directly actionable for multinationals reassessing their operating geography in light of US political fragmentation and US-China rivalry. As director of IMD’s Boards and Risks executive programme, he brings a structured, board-tested approach to systemic risk – spanning geopolitical exposure, social evolution, and technological disruption – rather than single-issue commentary. Biography highlights Douglas Geertz IMEDE 1988 Professor in Geopolitics and Business, and Professor of Finance, IMD Lausanne Director of the IMD World Competitiveness Center since 2014; annual rankings cover 69 economies on 341 criteria, including digital competitiveness, talent, and smart cities Former Robert B & Candice J. Haas Associate Professor of Corporate Finance, Yale School of Management Author of The Right Place (Routledge, 2021), SuperEurope (2025), Flex or Fail (2019), and Blockchange! (2018), among other books Academic research published in the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, and Review of Financial Studies; contributor to the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and Handelsblatt Ranked in the top 100 most-read finance academics in the world TEDx speaker; featured at the World Government Summit and the World Knowledge Forum, Seoul PhD in Management, INSEAD; holds a named chair in Geopolitics and Business Biography Most companies explain their performance by pointing inward – to their strategy, their people, their execution. Arturo Bris, Douglas Geertz IMEDE 1988 Professor in Geopolitics and Business at IMD and Director of the IMD World Competitiveness Center, has spent two decades building the empirical case that this view is incomplete. The environment a company operates in – regulatory quality, institutional trust, infrastructure – shapes outcomes in ways that internal decisions cannot fully override. The IMD World Competitiveness Center, which he has led since 2014, is the research institution behind this argument. It produces the most authoritative annual benchmarking of national competitiveness in the world – covering 69 economies across 341 criteria – and under his direction has expanded to include rankings on digital readiness, talent, and smart cities. His book The Right Place (Routledge, 2021) draws on 30 years of country-level data to explain why similar firms succeed in one country and fail in another, irrespective of their strategic choices. His most recent book, SuperEurope (2025), extends this argument into live geopolitical territory – making a data-driven case that Europe’s institutional model is more resilient than its detractors claim, and more relevant to corporate location strategy than most boards currently recognise. His published research in the Journal of Finance and Journal of Financial Economics spans financial regulation, short-selling markets, corporate governance, and the macroeconomic effects of the Euro. Before joining IMD, he was Associate Professor at the Yale School of Management, where he received the Best Teacher Award twice. He holds a PhD from INSEAD and advises boards and governments across Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and Latin America through the Center’s network and IMD’s Boards and Risks executive programme. Key speaking topics National competitiveness and its effects on corporate performance Geopolitics, economic fragmentation, and global trade Financial regulation and corporate governance The future of globalisation and protectionism Digital competitiveness and smart city development Scenario planning and strategic foresight for boards Labour markets, income inequality, and social mobility Ideal for Boards and C-suite executives making geographic expansion, market entry, or investment allocation decisions Government ministers, policy teams, and national development bodies managing economic competitiveness CFOs and strategy directors navigating geopolitical risk and regulatory change across multiple operating environments Investment committees and sovereign wealth funds benchmarking market and country conditions Audience outcomes A data-based framework for assessing how national competitiveness affects corporate strategy, location decisions, and investment risk A more calibrated view of how much macro-environment – versus internal leadership and strategy – drives firm performance, with implications for board priorities Practical insight into the current state of global economic fragmentation and how to model its effects on market access and supply chain resilience A structured approach to board-level systemic risk, integrating geopolitical, technological, and regulatory dimensions A clearer picture of where competitive advantage is shifting globally, grounded in the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook data

Why organisations work with Ashley Armstrong She interviews FTSE 100 chief executives as her day job. The people on the platform are the people she covers in the Financial Times, which means questions land with weight and follow-ups are not generic. Her interview record on the record includes Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey, M&S’s Stuart Machin, Sainsbury’s Simon Roberts, Primark’s Paul Marchant, ITV’s Dame Carolyn McCall, and Sage’s Steve Hare. Senior leaders engage with her because they know she has read the half-year results. She has broken stories that moved the dial on UK corporate life: the implosion of Peter Mandelson’s Global Counsel, the JD Sports chair’s exit after a failed move on the CEO, and Sir Philip Green’s break-up of Arcadia. That level of access translates directly into how she runs a stage. She is the rare British business journalist with credibility across mass-market and Pink-Press readerships, having held senior roles at The Telegraph, The Times, The Sun, and now the FT. She can pitch a conversation to a board, a sales conference, or a public-facing audience with the same confidence. PRCA City Journalist of the Year 2022, recognising the kind of original reporting that distinguishes a chair who knows the territory from one who has been briefed on it. Biography highlights Chief UK Business Correspondent, Financial Times (since June 2025) Former Business Editor, The Sun, where she relaunched the daily business section and ran the cost-of-living desk Former Retail and M&A Editor, The Times; former Retail Editor and M&A Correspondent, The Daily Telegraph PRCA City Journalist of the Year, February 2022 Began career at City AM in 2008, two weeks before the collapse of Lehman Brothers BA, University of Exeter; MA, City, University of London Biography When Peter Mandelson’s lobby business Global Counsel collapsed in 2025, the Financial Times reporter interrogating the ties between the firm and Westminster was Ashley Armstrong, three months into her job as the paper’s Chief UK Business Correspondent. The story was characteristic. So was the byline. Armstrong has held senior business positions at The Telegraph, The Times, The Sun, and now the FT. That range is unusual in British financial journalism. It means she has covered the same companies for FTSE board readers, City professionals, mass-market subscribers, and now the most senior commercial newsroom in Europe, and she has held her own in each. She won PRCA City Journalist of the Year in 2022 for the kind of original reporting that earns sustained access. Her record at The Sun matters for what it reveals about her interviewing range. She invited the chief executives of Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s, Primark, ITV, and Sage to guest-edit her daily business page, and grilled Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey on the record. At the FT she has continued breaking corporate news that moves share prices, including JD Sports chair Andy Higginson’s exit after a failed attempt to oust chief executive Régis Schultz. This is what gives her work as a host and moderator its weight. She does not arrive at the stage carrying a briefing pack written by someone else. She arrives carrying notes from the morning’s reporting, on companies and leaders she covers professionally, and she runs the room accordingly. Key speaking topics UK economy and markets Corporate governance and FTSE leadership Retail and consumer business Cost of living and household finance Business and politics in the UK Mergers and acquisitions Ideal for Sector conferences in retail, consumer goods, and financial services that need a chair credible with FTSE 100 leadership on stage In-house leadership events where senior teams want a journalist’s view on how the company looks from outside Investor days, AGM-adjacent events, and capital-markets days requiring a chair who reads the numbers Business-and-politics events that bring corporate leaders into conversation with policymakers Audience outcomes A clearer read on what is actually happening across the UK corporate landscape, drawn from current reporting rather than secondary sources Sharp on-the-record exchanges with senior executives, the kind that delegates remember and quote Editorial pacing and questioning that keeps high-stakes panels on the substance and off the platitudes A journalist’s framing of how the company in the room is being read by markets, government, and competitors

Why organisations work with Bert Rürup He has held the top advisory seat in German economics. As chairman of the German Council of Economic Experts from 2005 to 2009, he advised the federal government on the macroeconomic questions boards now face in their own planning. His work is embedded in German statute. The “Rürup Commission” he chaired set the path for raising the statutory retirement age to 67, and the Rürup-Rente pension product is named after him. He runs an active research platform. As President of the Handelsblatt Research Institute since 2013 and Chief Economist of Handelsblatt since 2017, he produces a continuous read on European macro conditions that boards can pressure-test against their own assumptions. He connects demographics to the balance sheet. Few speakers translate pension, healthcare, and labour-supply shifts into the fiscal and wage-cost consequences that actually show up in corporate plans. Biography highlights Chairman of the German Council of Economic Experts, 2005-2009. Chairman of the 2002-2003 federal commission on the long-term financing of pension, health and long-term care insurance, known as the Rürup Commission. President of the Handelsblatt Research Institute since 2013; Chief Economist of Handelsblatt since 2017. Former Professor of Economics at Darmstadt University of Technology, with earlier chairs at the University of Essen. Chairman of the Social Advisory Council for Pension Insurance, 2000-2009. Recipient of the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Biography Germany’s pension architecture, labour supply, and fiscal outlook have been reshaped over the last two decades by a small number of expert commissions. Bert Rürup chaired the most consequential of them. The 2002-2003 federal commission he led on pensions, health and long-term care recommended the gradual rise of the statutory retirement age to 67, and gave its name to the Rürup-Rente, the state-subsidised private pension introduced in 2005. From 2005 to 2009 he chaired the German Council of Economic Experts, the country’s senior macroeconomic advisory body to the federal government. Before and after that role he sat on the Social Advisory Council for Pension Insurance, and on the Pension Reform Commission under Federal Minister Walter Riester. For boards trying to read German and European macro signals, the point is simple: he has been inside the rooms where those signals were shaped. Since 2013 he has led the Handelsblatt Research Institute, the research arm of Germany’s leading business daily, and since 2017 has been its Chief Economist. That platform keeps his work in weekly circulation among European senior management and investors, and gives corporate audiences a direct line into the macro debate as it is happening. His academic foundation sits at Darmstadt University of Technology, where he held a chair in economics, and earlier at the University of Essen. He holds an honorary doctorate and has been awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his contribution to German economic policy. Key speaking topics German and European macroeconomic outlook Pension systems and the future of the welfare state Demographic change and its fiscal consequences Labour markets and workforce supply in Europe Public finance and fiscal policy The future of work in an ageing Europe Ideal for Boards and executive committees planning multi-year capital and workforce commitments in Europe CFOs, heads of reward, and pensions trustees reassessing long-term benefit liabilities Senior policy and government relations leaders in financial services, insurance, and industrial groups Investor conferences and strategy offsites that need a credible German macro view Audience outcomes A clearer reading of where German and European macro conditions are heading over the medium term A concrete sense of how demographic and pension policy shifts translate into labour cost and tax exposure Language senior audiences can use internally to talk about fiscal and welfare-state risk A view from inside the policy apparatus, not a commentator’s view of it

Why organisations work with Beth Rigby Direct access to a current Westminster lens. As the sitting Political Editor of Sky News, she reads the UK political environment from inside the lobby, not from archive material. Named recognition from a credible body. Royal Television Society Political Journalist of the Year 2024 and inaugural Women in Journalism Woman of the Year 2024, both for her general election coverage. A track record of interviewing under pressure. She has questioned successive Prime Ministers on the record, including the exchange with Boris Johnson on Downing Street parties that the RTS shortlisted for Network Interview of the Year. On-stage interviewer and moderator craft. She hosts Beth Rigby Interviews and the Electoral Dysfunction podcast with Harriet Harman and Ruth Davidson, formats built on drawing out senior figures from across the political spectrum. Non-partisan reading of UK politics for commercial audiences. Useful in board meetings, leadership offsites and client events where the audience needs analysis, not opinion. Biography highlights Political Editor, Sky News, since April 2019. First woman in the role. Royal Television Society Political Journalist of the Year, 2024. Inaugural Woman of the Year, Women in Journalism Awards, 2024. Co-host, Electoral Dysfunction (Sky News), with Harriet Harman and Ruth Davidson. Presenter, Beth Rigby Interviews (Sky News), since March 2022. Former Deputy Political Editor of the Financial Times; former Media Editor of The Times. Biography Westminster has rarely been more consequential for commercial decision-making, and rarely harder to read. Two elections in five years, a referendum, three Prime Ministers in 2022 alone, and a sustained period in which policy direction and political stability have moved week by week. Beth Rigby has covered all of it from inside the lobby as Political Editor of Sky News, the first woman to hold the role. Her route into the job is unusually commercial for a Westminster journalist. She spent seventeen years at the Financial Times, covering hedge funds, retail and consumer industries before moving to political coverage as chief political correspondent and then deputy political editor. That grounding in business and markets reporting is why corporate audiences find her analysis useful. She reads UK politics through the same lens a board does. In 2024 the Royal Television Society named her Political Journalist of the Year, citing her general election coverage and her interviewing of party leaders. The same year she won the inaugural Women in Journalism Woman of the Year award. She also hosted Sky’s televised town hall events with Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak during the 2024 campaign, a format that depends on holding senior politicians to specific answers in real time. Alongside her on-air role she co-hosts the Sky News podcast Electoral Dysfunction with the former Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman and the former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson, a cross-party format aimed at explaining the mechanics of Westminster decisions rather than scoring them. That same dynamic is what makes her effective as an on-stage interviewer for senior audiences: she pushes for the substance, not the soundbite. Key speaking topics UK politics and Westminster General elections and government formation Political risk and policy environment Geopolitics and UK foreign policy Media, broadcast journalism and political communication On-stage interviews with senior leaders and politicians Conference and event moderation Ideal for Board offsites, leadership conferences and partner events where senior audiences need a current read on UK political risk. Client events that require an experienced interviewer for a politician, regulator or business leader. Industry conferences seeking a non-partisan moderator for political and policy panels. After-dinner or fireside-format events where the value is informed analysis of the current Westminster cycle. Audience outcomes A clearer picture of the current Westminster dynamic and its implications for the next twelve to twenty-four months. A non-partisan read of UK policy direction across the main parties. Specific insight into the people, factions and decisions that shape government output. For interview and moderation briefs, a session that draws genuine substance from the guest rather than a rehearsed line.