Globale Wirtschaft und Märkte

Why organisations work with Dalia Marin Her peer-reviewed research links automation, trade-policy uncertainty, and reshoring in a single empirical model, giving leadership teams a defensible basis for supply-chain decisions rather than a narrative. She translates between the Brussels and Berlin policy worlds and the corporate boardroom, drawing on advisory work with the European Commission, the EBRD, and the IMF. Her Project Syndicate column is a running public reference point on deglobalisation, German deindustrialisation, and the labour-market consequences of AI, read by policy and business readers across Europe. She is one of the few senior economists who has tracked the German industrial model, and the Eastern European production network around it, continuously since the 1990s. That long view matters when companies are re-assessing the same geographies. Biography highlights Chair in International Economics, TUM School of Management, Technical University of Munich. Non-resident Fellow at Bruegel and Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research. Former Professor of International Economics at Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich (1998 to 2017). Co-editor of “The Organization of Firms in a Global Economy” (Harvard University Press, 2008) with Elhanan Helpman and Thierry Verdier. Co-author of “Global Value Chains in a World of Uncertainty and Automation”, Journal of International Economics, 2025. Visiting appointments at Harvard, Stanford, NYU Stern, the IMF, the NBER, and the European University Institute. Project Syndicate columnist on deglobalisation, industrial policy, and the future of the German economic model. Biography The reshoring debate has moved past the slogan stage. Firms are actually pulling production back to high-income economies, and the economic literature is starting to explain why. Trade-policy uncertainty and cheaper industrial robots, working together, are restructuring global supply chains in ways that a decade of offshoring logic did not anticipate. That is the core argument of Marin’s recent work, co-authored in the Journal of International Economics in 2025. Her research shows that exposure to uncertainty in developing-country suppliers pushes production back to high-income countries, but only where robots have made it economically feasible. For a senior operations or strategy audience, this is a usable frame: reshoring is not a political mood, it is a measurable response to two forces that can be modelled. The wider body of work runs through Bruegel, CEPR, and a sustained Project Syndicate column. She has written continuously on the German economic model, the Eastern European production network built around it, and the inflationary and labour-market consequences of a partial retreat from globalisation. Her advisory work with the European Commission, the EBRD, and the IMF sits alongside the academic record rather than replacing it. She was Chair in International Economics at Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich for almost two decades before moving to TUM. Visiting appointments at Harvard, Stanford, NYU Stern, the IMF, and the NBER place her inside the network of economists who set the terms of the trade-policy debate. The value for a corporate audience is that she can connect that technical conversation to the question actually on the table: what does the next decade of supply-chain strategy look like when the old globalisation assumptions no longer hold. Key speaking topics Deglobalisation and the restructuring of global supply chains Automation, robots, and reshoring The German economic model and European competitiveness International trade policy and geopolitical risk Multinational firms and the organisation of global production Industrial policy in Europe and the United States Inflation, labour markets, and the economics of deglobalisation Ideal for Boards and executive committees reassessing supply-chain footprint in light of tariffs, geopolitical risk, and automation CSOs, Heads of Strategy, and COOs responsible for manufacturing and sourcing decisions in industrial and export-led businesses Policy forums, investor conferences, and economic summits focused on Europe, Germany, and the future of global trade Senior leadership in financial institutions and multinational corporates with significant exposure to Eastern Europe and the German industrial base Audience outcomes A clear read of the empirical evidence on reshoring, automation, and trade-policy uncertainty, rather than the headline narrative A sharper view of where the German economic model is strong and where it is exposed, with implications for anyone doing business across the European industrial network A working framework for assessing which parts of a supply chain are candidates for reshoring and which are not A grounded perspective on the macro-economic consequences of deglobalisation, including effects on inflation and labour markets Language and evidence that senior leaders can use in their own board conversations on geopolitical and trade exposure

Why organisations work with Dambisa Moyo Few macroeconomists hold simultaneous directorships at companies of the scale of Chevron, Starbucks, and Condé Nast. From that seat she has spent two decades answering the question now on every board’s table: where the next dollar goes when the old growth assumptions stop working. Her four New York Times bestsellers gave decision-makers a vocabulary for the questions that now dominate board agendas: aid dependency, the West’s structural decline, China’s resource strategy, the failure of democratic capitalism to deliver growth, and how boards themselves should function. As Chair of the Economic Club of New York, she convenes the forum where Fed chairs, heads of state, and Fortune 500 CEOs publicly debate the economy. That puts her at the centre of the conversations her clients are trying to anticipate. She is a serving member of the House of Lords as Baroness Moyo of Knightsbridge, which gives her a working line of sight into how policy, regulation, and geopolitics actually move. Her training is unusually broad for a public macro voice: a DPhil in Economics from Oxford, an MPA from Harvard Kennedy, plus eight years inside Goldman Sachs research. Audiences get a practitioner, not a commentator. Biography highlights DPhil in Economics, St Antony’s College, Oxford; MPA, Harvard Kennedy School Eight years at Goldman Sachs in research; two years at the World Bank Chair of the Economic Club of New York; current board director at Chevron, Condé Nast, and Starbucks; member of the Oxford University Endowment Investment Committee; trustee of the National Geographic Society Prior public-company boards include Barclays, SABMiller, Barrick Gold, 3M, and Seagate Technology Life peer in the United Kingdom House of Lords as Baroness Moyo of Knightsbridge (created 2022) Author of Dead Aid, How the West Was Lost, Winner Take All, Edge of Chaos, and How Boards Work; recipient of the Hayek Lifetime Achievement Award (2013) and TIME 100 (2009) Biography The argument that ran through forty years of cheap goods, cheap money and integrated supply chains has stopped working. Capital allocators now have to price geopolitics into every decision, and most of the management vocabulary they grew up with was built for a different world. Dambisa Moyo’s career has been spent on exactly this fault line. Her first book, Dead Aid, took on the development consensus and argued that aid dependency was choking African growth. How the West Was Lost and Winner Take All extended the argument into the structural decline of advanced economies and China’s strategic accumulation of commodities. Edge of Chaos asked whether liberal democracies can still deliver economic growth at all. The books are not adjacent to her speaking; they are the speaking. The credentials behind the argument are unusual. A DPhil in Economics from Oxford and an MPA from Harvard Kennedy, eight years inside Goldman Sachs research, simultaneous directorships at Chevron, Condé Nast, and Starbucks, a seat in the House of Lords as Baroness Moyo of Knightsbridge, and, since 2026, the chair of the Economic Club of New York. The combination is rare because it spans rooms that usually do not talk to each other: the academy, the trading floor, the boardroom, and the forum where they meet in public. What makes her useful in a leadership setting is that she has had to act on her own analysis. The question of how to allocate capital across China exposure, energy transition timelines and political risk is not a thought experiment for her; it is the agenda of the boards she sits on. How Boards Work, her most recent book, was written from that seat. Key speaking topics Global macroeconomics and capital allocation Geopolitics and the future of globalisation China and the contest for resources Democracy, governance and economic growth Energy transition and the cost of capital Corporate governance and how boards should function Emerging markets and frontier investment Ideal for Boards and investment committees pricing geopolitical and macro risk into capital decisions CEOs, CFOs and Chief Strategy Officers reassessing China exposure, supply chain footprint and growth assumptions Asset managers, family offices and institutional investors setting long-horizon allocation strategy Senior leadership offsites where the economic and geopolitical context for the next plan is the agenda Audience outcomes A clearer reading of how geopolitical fracture, sanctions regimes and energy transition are reshaping the cost of capital A defensible view on China’s resource strategy and what it implies for Western corporates and investors A working framework for how boards should govern in a more politicised, slower-growth global economy Confidence to challenge consensus assumptions about globalisation, growth and aid that no longer hold

Why organisations work with Damon Dunn He has built and run the businesses he talks about. A 38-unit franchise system, a 31-property retail portfolio with tenants such as Walmart and CVS, and three CEO seats give him P&L credibility most leadership speakers do not have. His Hoover Institution work on welfare-to-work, K-14 education and workforce skilling connects boardroom growth questions to the labour and human-capital realities that actually determine whether a scale-up works. His path from severe poverty in Fort Worth to Stanford, the NFL and a multi-company operating career gives audiences a resilience story that is specific and verifiable, not generic. He is fluent in two registers buyers rarely get in one room: operator and policy fellow. That makes him useful for leadership offsites that need both growth substance and a wider economic frame. Biography highlights Hoover Institution Fellow, Stanford University, working on economic mobility, welfare reform and skills-based education. Author of Punting Poverty: Breaking the Chains of Welfare (Pacific Research Institute). Three-time CEO. Current CEO of Sagan Sign Talent. Founder of Lagunita Franchise Operations, scaled to 38 Dunkin locations across six states. Co-founder of Tricor SW Corporation, which developed 31 retail properties. BA, Public Policy, Stanford University. Harvard Business School Executive Education (2005). Former NFL wide receiver: Jacksonville Jaguars, Cleveland Browns, New York Jets, Dallas Cowboys. Republican nominee for California Secretary of State, 2010. Founder of Long Beach College Prep Academy, which has sent 158 students from low-income families to college. Biography Build a 38-unit franchise system from a single location and you learn quickly which growth ideas survive contact with payroll, leases and operators on a Tuesday morning. Damon Dunn has done the work three times as a CEO, in franchising at Lagunita, in retail development at Tricor, and most recently in industrial talent at Sagan Sign Talent. Tricor developed 31 retail properties across the United States, securing tenants including Walmart and CVS. Lagunita scaled to 38 Dunkin locations across six states, with around 500 employees and roughly thirty million dollars in revenue. The throughline is the same: capital deployed against real assets, real customers and real labour markets, with a P&L that has to clear at the end of every period. Alongside the operating work, Dunn is a Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, where he writes on welfare reform, K-14 education and the skills-based pathways that actually move people out of poverty. His book Punting Poverty: Breaking the Chains of Welfare, published with the Pacific Research Institute, sets out a workable agenda for that mobility question. He was the Republican nominee for California Secretary of State in 2010. His own route from severe poverty in Fort Worth to a Stanford scholarship, four NFL teams and a working operator’s career gives the policy argument something most policy arguments lack: an author who has been the subject. Boards and leadership teams get a speaker who can work the labour question from inside the labour market, not from a podium above it. Key speaking topics Entrepreneurship and scaling Growth strategy under capital and labour constraints Economic mobility and workforce skilling Leadership across business, sport and policy Resilience and high-performance under pressure Public policy on welfare-to-work and K-14 education Ideal for CEOs, founders and country managers running scale-up plays in capital-constrained conditions. Boards and executive teams looking for a credible operator’s view alongside macro and policy framing. Industry conferences in franchising, retail, real estate and consumer where unit economics drive growth. Leadership offsites that want substance on resilience without the standard sports-keynote arc. Audience outcomes A working operator’s view of how franchise and retail systems actually scale, with the trade-offs named. A clear link between workforce policy, skills and the practical labour economics inside a growing business. A resilience narrative grounded in named institutions and verifiable career stages, not motivational abstraction. Useable language for leaders trying to communicate ambition without overpromising on capital or timelines.

Why organisations work with Dan Restrepo He sat in the White House Situation Room as the Obama administration’s point person on the Americas, and he explains U.S. policy toward the region with the authority of someone who helped write it. He holds a current corporate board seat at MasTec, a New York Stock Exchange-listed infrastructure group, which gives his risk analysis a boardroom register rather than a think-tank one. His published argument on hemispheric migration, carried in Foreign Affairs and Americas Quarterly, reframes migration as a management problem for governments and investors, not a humanitarian talking point. He works in English and Spanish across U.S., Latin American, and Iberian audiences, with on-air experience on CNN and CNN en Espanol that makes him effective in front of mixed-language rooms. Through Dinamica Americas and Restrepo Strategies he advises firms actively making investment, market-entry, and government-relations decisions across the region, so the analysis lands on live questions rather than historical ones. Biography highlights Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs, National Security Council, March 2009 to July 2012, under President Barack Obama. Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress, focused on U.S. policy in the Americas. Founder and managing director, Restrepo Strategies; Founding Partner, Dinamica Americas. Class II Director, MasTec, Inc. (NYSE: MTZ). On-air contributor, CNN and CNN en Espanol; published in Foreign Affairs and Americas Quarterly. Named one of America’s most influential Latinos three times by Poder magazine; J.D., University of Pennsylvania Law School; former judicial clerk, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Biography The U.S. relationship with Latin America has never mapped neatly onto a single policy frame. Trade, migration, narcotics, Cuba, Venezuela, and the competition for influence with China all run through the same capitals and the same meetings. For nearly six years, Dan Restrepo sat at the centre of that portfolio as President Obama’s principal advisor on the Americas, first as a campaign surrogate and then as Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council. That experience shapes the way he advises boards and executives now. Through Restrepo Strategies and as Founding Partner of Dinamica Americas, he works with U.S. firms operating in Latin America and with Latin and Iberian firms operating in the United States. The brief is usually the same: read the political signal correctly, price it, and decide what to do about it before the market does. Published work in Foreign Affairs and Americas Quarterly has put him on record arguing that migration in the Americas is a management challenge, not a crisis narrative, and that the tools already exist to handle it if governments choose to use them. On CNN and CNN en Espanol he translates U.S. domestic politics and hemispheric policy in both English and Spanish, which is part of why Spanish-speaking boards and U.S. leadership teams hire him for the same conversation. His seat as a Class II Director on the board of MasTec, a listed U.S. infrastructure group, is the detail that distinguishes him from most policy voices. He has used it. The analysis buyers get is not an academic read on the region but a directorial one, tested against the kind of operational decisions boards actually make. Key speaking topics U.S. policy in the Western Hemisphere U.S.-Mexico relations and the border Migration strategy across the Americas Political risk in Latin America U.S. domestic politics and its foreign policy consequences Investment climate and market entry in the Americas Cuba, Venezuela, and U.S. engagement with authoritarian regimes Ideal for Boards and executive committees of firms with operations, supply chains, or expansion plans in Latin America and the Caribbean Chief strategy officers, heads of government affairs, and risk committees pricing Western Hemisphere exposure Latin American and Iberian corporates preparing for U.S. market entry, regulatory engagement, or capital raises Investor conferences, family offices, and financial institutions with dedicated Americas portfolios Audience outcomes A clear read on where U.S. policy toward Latin America is heading and what the administration is likely to do next A practical framework for distinguishing political noise from decisions that will actually move capital, trade, and talent Specific judgment on U.S.-Mexico, migration, Venezuela, Cuba, and Brazil, delivered with the authority of someone who has negotiated in the region The confidence to ask sharper questions of internal country teams, local partners, and government affairs advisers

Why organisations work with Dan Walters Five decades inside the Sacramento Capitol press corps, from Jerry Brown’s first governorship to the current administration, with relationships that predate most of the elected officials he covers. Founding editor of the California Political Almanac and co-author of The Third House, the standard reference on lobbying inside the California legislature. One of the few commentators who reads the state budget, the floor calendar and the ballot initiative pipeline as a single connected system, then explains it in language a board can act on. Over 9,000 columns syndicated across dozens of California papers, with a track record of calling political and fiscal shifts before they reach the national press. Biography highlights Opinion columnist, CalMatters (2017 to present), writing four times weekly on California politics and policy. Daily column previously ran in The Sacramento Bee for 33 years and The Sacramento Union for three. Author, The New California: Facing the 21st Century, used as a college text on California socioeconomic and political trends. Co-author, The Third House: Lobbyists, Money and Power in Sacramento (University of California Press). Founding editor, California Political Almanac. Frequent on-air commentator on California policy for CNN, Fox and PBS SoCal. Biography California’s legislature, governor’s office and ballot system together set policy that reshapes regulation, labour costs and capital allocation across the country. Reading that system from the outside is hard. Reading it from inside the Capitol press corps for fifty years is a different proposition. Walters joined the Sacramento Union’s Capitol bureau in 1975, became its bureau chief, and in 1981 launched the only daily newspaper column dedicated to California state politics. He moved the column to The Sacramento Bee in 1984, where it ran for 33 years, then to CalMatters in 2017, where it continues four times a week. The total now exceeds 9,000 columns syndicated across dozens of California papers. The body of work behind the column matters. The New California: Facing the 21st Century, drawn from a 9,000-mile drive through all 58 counties, became a college text on the state’s socioeconomic direction. The Third House, co-authored and published by the University of California Press, remains a standard reference on how lobbying actually functions inside the California legislature. He is also the founding editor of the California Political Almanac. For an audience trying to anticipate California’s next move, that history is the value. Walters can name which committees decide what, which lobbies are ascendant, which budget assumptions are about to fail and which initiatives have the signatures to reach the ballot. CNN, Fox and PBS SoCal use him as a California policy commentator for the same reason boards do: he has been inside the room while the rules were being written. Key speaking topics California political and policy outlook Sacramento legislative and budget process Lobbying and interest-group power in California California ballot initiatives and direct democracy California’s economic and demographic trajectory Public works planning and finance under polarised politics Election-year political climate Ideal for Boards, general counsel and government-affairs leaders with material California exposure Industry associations, infrastructure and public-works bodies operating in the state Investors and operators tracking California regulatory and fiscal direction Public agencies, joint-powers authorities and policy convenings Audience outcomes A clearer read of where California policy is heading on tax, regulation and spending Specific names and committee dynamics behind the issues most relevant to their sector A working sense of which interest groups are winning and losing inside Sacramento Sharper questions for their own government-affairs and risk teams Distinction between political theatre and the decisions that will actually move

Why organisations work with Dani Rodrik His “political trilemma of the world economy” – the argument that deep globalisation, national sovereignty, and democracy cannot all coexist simultaneously – gives leaders a precise framework for understanding trade conflict, populist backlash, and the limits of multilateral governance. No other speaker in this space originated a framework with comparable analytical reach. He was an early and rigorous critic of hyperglobalisation decades before it became a mainstream concern – his 1997 book Has Globalization Gone Too Far? challenged the economic consensus at a time when that consensus was near-universal. That track record gives his current views on de-globalisation a weight that commentary-based speakers cannot match. His most recent research on industrial policy – including the 2024 Annual Review of Economics paper “The New Economics of Industrial Policy” – provides organisations with an evidence-based lens on why governments are intervening in markets again, and what conditions make those interventions work or fail. His co-directorship of the Reimagining the Economy Program at Harvard Kennedy School, combined with long-standing engagement with the World Bank, IMF, and national governments, grounds his arguments in institutional and policy realities rather than theoretical abstractions. He addresses the specific commercial tension that most economists avoid: that markets require states, but too much globalisation undermines the states that markets depend on – a paradox directly relevant to any organisation managing regulatory risk, supply chain exposure, or international strategy. Biography highlights Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy, Harvard Kennedy School; formerly Albert O. Hirschman Professor, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton Originator of the “political trilemma of the world economy” – one of the most cited frameworks in international economic theory Princess of Asturias Award for Social Sciences, 2020; Albert O. Hirschman Prize (inaugural), Social Science Research Council, 2007; Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought, Tufts University, 2002 President of the International Economic Association, 2021-23 Author of more than twenty books including The Globalization Paradox (2011), Straight Talk on Trade (2017), and Shared Prosperity in a Fractured World (Princeton University Press, 2025) Regular contributor to Project Syndicate since 1998; affiliated with the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Centre for Economic Policy Research, London Member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences; co-director, Reimagining the Economy Program, Harvard Kennedy School Biography Dani Rodrik has spent three decades making a single, uncomfortable argument: that the version of globalisation advanced since the 1990s contained the seeds of its own political destruction. His 2000 paper coining the “political trilemma of the world economy” – the claim that deep globalisation, national sovereignty, and democracy cannot coexist simultaneously – now reads less like a provocation than a forecast. Brexit, the rise of economic nationalism, and the collapse of the trade consensus have all traced the fault lines he identified. His 2011 book The Globalization Paradox gave the trilemma its fullest treatment: markets require functioning states, but aggressive global integration progressively undermines the democratic legitimacy that states need to operate. The book has become a reference point for policymakers and strategists trying to understand why the rules-based international order is under pressure from within its own societies, not only from geopolitical rivals. More recently, Rodrik has turned the argument forward. His work at Harvard’s Reimagining the Economy Program, his 2024 Annual Review of Economics paper on the new economics of industrial policy, and his 2025 book Shared Prosperity in a Fractured World set out the conditions under which governments can use selective intervention to create good jobs, reduce inequality, and manage the green transition without sacrificing the open economy entirely. The argument is neither protectionist nor conventionally liberal – it is a structured case for how managed markets can deliver outcomes that free markets, left alone, will not. At Harvard Kennedy School, where he has held the Ford Foundation Chair in International Political Economy since 1996, Rodrik has advised the World Bank, contributed monthly analysis to Project Syndicate since 1998, and served as President of the International Economic Association. His awards – including the Princess of Asturias Award for Social Sciences and the inaugural Albert O. Hirschman Prize of the Social Science Research Council – recognise a body of work that has demonstrably reshaped how economists and policymakers talk about trade, development, and the relationship between markets and democracy. Key speaking topics The political trilemma of globalisation Trade policy and economic nationalism Industrial policy and the future of manufacturing Economic development and growth strategy Inclusive prosperity and the labour market Geopolitics and the international economic order Post-neoliberal economic policy The relationship between democracy and market integration Ideal for Government ministers, central bank officials, and senior civil servants navigating trade and industrial policy decisions Board-level strategy and risk committees assessing geopolitical and regulatory exposure International economic forums, sovereign wealth funds, and multilateral institutions Chief economists and global research heads at financial institutions Audience outcomes A precise analytical framework – the political trilemma – for diagnosing why trade and globalisation conflicts are structural rather than episodic Clearer understanding of the conditions under which industrial policy and managed trade create value, and when they do not Insight into the relationship between economic inequality, democratic instability, and the pressures on international institutions A sharper vocabulary for board and government conversations about de-globalisation, reshoring, and the limits of multilateral governance Historical and comparative perspective on which economic policy models have produced broad-based growth in developing and advanced economies

Why organisations work with Daniel Gros Direct lineage to the euro’s creation. As Economic Adviser to the Delors Committee, he worked on the blueprint that became Europe’s monetary union, and still publishes on its unfinished architecture. Two decades steering CEPS, Europe’s leading independent economic policy think tank, give him a working map of Brussels, Frankfurt, and national capitals that few outside economists can match. Current director of the Institute for European Policymaking at Bocconi University, with live research output on EU competitiveness, defense financing, and the middle-technology trap. Adviser to the European Parliament and former member of the Advisory Scientific Council to the European Systemic Risk Board, with standing counsel histories to governments in Greece, the UK, and the US. A syndicated Project Syndicate columnist whose positions often move ahead of consensus, useful for boards trying to separate durable shifts from noise. Biography highlights Director, Institute for European Policymaking at Bocconi University. Director of the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), 2000 to 2020. Economic Adviser to the Delors Committee, European Commission, on the design of the euro. Former economist at the International Monetary Fund. Adviser to the European Parliament; former member of the Advisory Scientific Council to the European Systemic Risk Board. Co-author of European Monetary Integration (with Niels Thygesen) and Open Issues in European Central Banking (with Lorenzo Bini Smaghi); syndicated columnist for Project Syndicate. Biography The euro was designed in the late 1980s inside a committee chaired by Jacques Delors. Daniel Gros was the economic adviser on that committee, one of the technical authors of a currency now used by more than 340 million people. That origin shapes how he reads every European crisis since. For twenty years he ran the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels, the think tank most closely wired into EU institutions. Under his direction CEPS became a first reference for finance ministries, central banks, and the European Parliament on questions of monetary union, enlargement, and financial stability. He now directs the Institute for European Policymaking at Bocconi University, where his research agenda has moved to EU competitiveness, defense financing, Chinese industrial policy, and what he calls the middle-technology trap. His authority rests on two things working together. The first is technical depth: a University of Chicago PhD, a career inside the IMF and European Commission, co-authorship of the standard textbook on European monetary integration. The second is access. He advises the European Parliament, has counselled governments in Greece, the UK, and the US, and sat on the Advisory Scientific Council to the European Systemic Risk Board. What he gives a senior audience is the ability to distinguish structural change from cyclical noise in the European economy. His Project Syndicate columns often take positions ahead of the Brussels consensus, which is the useful test of whether a commentator is describing reality or repeating it. Key speaking topics Eurozone economic policy and monetary union EU competitiveness and industrial strategy European defense financing and fiscal capacity Geopolitical economic risk and EU-China relations The international role of the euro European banking, financial stability, and capital markets EU enlargement and the political economy of integration Ideal for Boards and executive committees of European financial institutions, asset managers, and insurers pricing eurozone and sovereign risk. CEOs, CFOs, and strategy leads at multinationals reassessing European market exposure against US and Chinese policy shifts. Government relations, policy, and public affairs leaders tracking Brussels and Frankfurt decisions that affect capital allocation. Investor conferences and economic outlook events briefing senior audiences on EU macro conditions. Audience outcomes A sharper read on where the eurozone’s architecture is still fragile and where it is more resilient than headlines suggest. A working view of the EU competitiveness agenda, including industrial policy, defense spending, and the middle-technology trap. Clarity on how European responses to Chinese industrial policy and US tariff shifts will reshape capital flows and trade. A named set of indicators and policy triggers to watch over the next 12 to 24 months. Answers calibrated to senior decision-makers, drawing on direct experience advising parliaments, central banks, and governments.

Why organisations work with Daniel Lacalle He is one of the few macro voices who has run institutional capital at Citadel and PIMCO, which means his read on central banks, rates and currencies is shaped by position-taking, not commentary. His work on monetary policy, set out in Escape from the Central Bank Trap, gives boards a specific framework for understanding why stimulus produces weaker growth and persistent inflation rather than the recovery policymakers promise. The Energy World Is Flat anticipated the structural shift in oil, gas and commodity markets that now sits at the centre of every industrial capital plan, energy security review and net zero financing decision. He sits across the macro and the energy desk in a way almost no other economist on the speaking circuit does, which matters for any board with significant exposure to commodities, infrastructure or sovereign risk. A regular voice on CNBC, Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal and the World Economic Forum Agenda, so the analysis a room hears in private is the analysis institutional investors are pricing in public. Biography highlights Chief Economist at Tressis SV; former Vice President at PIMCO and portfolio manager at Citadel and Ecofin Limited. Professor of Global Economics at IE Business School and lecturer at the London School of Economics. Author of Life in the Financial Markets (Wiley), The Energy World Is Flat (Wiley), Escape from the Central Bank Trap (Business Expert Press) and Freedom or Equality (Post Hill Press). Ranked among the world’s twenty most influential economists by Richtopia in 2016, 2017 and 2019, and placed fifth in 2020. Voted Top 3 in the Thomson Reuters Extel Survey for five consecutive years across generalist, oil and electricity categories. Regular contributor to CNBC, Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, Fox News and the World Economic Forum Agenda, and weekly columnist for El Español. Biography Central banks have spent fifteen years running the largest monetary experiment in modern history. Boards now have to allocate capital inside the consequences. Daniel Lacalle has spent his career on the side of the trade where being wrong about the macro has a price, first at Citadel, then at Ecofin, then as Vice President at PIMCO. That experience sits underneath the books. Escape from the Central Bank Trap argues that easy money produces fragile balance sheets, asset inflation and weaker real growth, not the recovery policymakers describe. The Energy World Is Flat, written before the shale revolution remade global oil markets, set out why the assumptions priced into long-dated energy contracts no longer held. Both have moved from contrarian reading to mainstream reference inside investment committees. Since 2015 he has been Chief Economist at Tressis SV and a professor of global economics at IE Business School, with lecturing roles at the London School of Economics and IEB. His weekly commentary in El Español, his monthly slots on CNBC and Bloomberg, and his contributions to the World Economic Forum Agenda give boards a continuous read on rates, currencies, sovereign debt and energy that lines up with how institutional capital is actually positioned. The reason serious organisations book him is narrower than the topic list suggests. He is one of a small number of speakers who can sit across monetary policy and energy markets at the same time, with the credibility of having priced both inside a fund. For any board with material exposure to commodities, sovereign risk, or the cost of capital, that is the conversation that matters. Key speaking topics Monetary policy and central bank intervention Inflation, currencies and the cost of capital Global energy markets and security of supply Sovereign debt and fiscal sustainability Macroeconomic risk and capital allocation Geopolitics and global financial markets Ideal for Boards, investment committees and CFOs reviewing capital allocation under rate and currency volatility Energy, utilities and industrial leadership teams managing commodity exposure and the economics of the energy transition Banking, asset management and family office audiences setting macro positioning Sovereign and policy audiences working on fiscal, monetary and energy questions Audience outcomes A direct read on what current central bank policy implies for inflation, rates and the real cost of capital over a multi-year horizon A defensible view of structural conditions in global oil, gas and power markets, and what they mean for industrial investment A sharper sense of where sovereign and currency risk is being mispriced, and what that means for cross-border exposure The macro framing institutional investors are actually using, expressed in language a board can act on

Why organisations work with Daniel Thorniley He has spent more than three decades inside the operational reality of CEEMEA business, first as Senior Vice President at The Economist Group in Vienna for 23 years, now as President of DT-Global Business Consulting. The intelligence is primary, not secondary. Through DT-Global and the CEEMEA Business Group, he convenes a standing network of country managers and regional executives from multinationals across the region, which means briefings are grounded in what operators are actually seeing. He translates political and macroeconomic shifts into commercial decisions: pricing, distribution, partnerships, headcount, capex. Regional MDs can use the output the week they hear it. Oxford-trained in Soviet political economy with a doctorate, and co-author of “Emerging Markets: Lessons for Business Success” (Profile Books, The Economist series), so the regional judgement is backed by published work and academic credentials, not just consultancy experience. Non-executive member of the Global Advisory Board of AECOM, with long-standing advisory relationships across major European and US corporations. He is used to speaking in the idiom of the board. Biography highlights Oxford University: BA, diploma and doctorate in Soviet political economy. Senior Vice President and Senior Consultant, The Economist Group, Vienna office, for 23 years. Founder and President, DT-Global Business Consulting GmbH, Vienna. Co-founder, CEEMEA Business Group, an advisory network for regional executives operating across Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Co-author, “Emerging Markets: Lessons for Business Success and the Outlook for Different Markets” (Profile Books / The Economist, 2004) with Nenad Pacek; author of a Palgrave Macmillan study on Soviet rural political economy. Member, Global Advisory Board, AECOM. Has briefed audiences including NATO, the United Nations, and corporate clients such as Coca-Cola, Procter and Gamble, Ernst and Young, Robert Bosch and Raiffeisen. Biography CEEMEA markets do not reward general-purpose economic commentary. A multinational running operations across Poland, Turkey, the Gulf, South Africa and, until recently, Russia needs someone who can say what the next two quarters look like in each of those environments and what to do about it. That is the gap Thorniley has built his career around. For 23 years he was Senior Vice President and Senior Consultant at The Economist Group in Vienna, covering global corporate trends and emerging markets. When the Vienna office closed in 2008, he founded DT-Global Business Consulting and co-founded the CEEMEA Business Group. Both serve the same buyer: a regional executive or board member who needs primary-source intelligence on CEE, CIS and MEA, not a repackaged macro report. The distinctive asset is the network. DT-Global and CEEMEA Business Group convene country managers and senior executives from multinationals with a regional presence, which means the analysis he delivers is built on what operators are seeing in their own P&Ls. That shows up in how the briefings are pitched, with specific guidance on pricing, distribution, staffing and capital allocation rather than high-altitude commentary. The academic foundation matters because the region rewards it. His Oxford doctorate in Soviet political economy and his Palgrave Macmillan monograph sit behind three decades of reading Russia and its neighbours; his co-authored Profile Books volume on emerging markets, written with Nenad Pacek under The Economist imprint, distilled the operational playbook for multinationals entering frontier economies. Sir John Major has publicly called him the world’s leading business expert on emerging markets. Key speaking topics CEEMEA economic and political outlook Russia, CIS and Central Asia business environment Central and Eastern Europe corporate strategy Middle East and Africa market entry and growth Global emerging markets risk and opportunity Multinational operating models in frontier economies Ideal for Boards and executive committees of multinationals with material CEEMEA exposure Regional presidents, country managers and EMEA leadership teams Corporate strategy, risk intelligence and government affairs functions Annual leadership offsites and investor or partner conferences focused on emerging markets Audience outcomes A clear read on where CEE, CIS and MEA economies are heading in the next two to four quarters A practical view on how political risk is translating into pricing, distribution and hiring decisions on the ground Specific guidance on which markets in the region to lean into, which to hold, and which to reassess A framework for stress-testing corporate assumptions about Russia, Turkey, the Gulf and Sub-Saharan Africa Candid answers on how peer multinationals are adjusting their regional operating models

Why organisations work with David Daokui Li His 2023 research found China’s local government debt to be 50% higher than IMF and World Bank estimates – using a new measurement methodology – making him one of the few analysts whose China numbers organisations have reason to trust over consensus figures He has attended high-level meetings with figures including Xi Jinping, giving him direct, first-person insight into how China’s senior leadership frames decisions – not inference from official statements His book «China’s World View» (W. W. Norton, 2024) frames Western misunderstanding of China as a systemic risk in itself – shifting the question from «what will China do?» to «why do we keep misreading it?» As a Harvard-trained economist who returned to lead China’s most prominent economic research centre, he can translate between two fundamentally different frameworks for economic reasoning – not just describe one to an audience fluent in the other His co-presidency of the Society for the Analysis of Government and Economics alongside Nobel Laureate Eric Maskin signals that his analytical framework for understanding state-driven economies is taken seriously at the highest level of the discipline Biography highlights Mansfield Freeman Chair Professor of Economics and Director of ACCEPT, Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management PhD in Economics, Harvard University; BS from Tsinghua University, 1985, as a member of the first graduating cohort of the School of Economics and Management Member, Monetary Policy Committee, People’s Bank of China (2016-2018); former external adviser to the International Monetary Fund; member, CPPCC (2008-2023) Founding Dean, Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University Co-President, Society for the Analysis of Government and Economics (SAGE), alongside Eric Maskin, 2007 Nobel Laureate in Economics Author, «China’s World View: Demystifying China to Prevent Global Conflict» (W. W. Norton, 2024), endorsed by Lawrence Summers, Jeffrey Sachs, Niall Ferguson, and Mark Leonard Regular contributor to Project Syndicate; cited in the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Bloomberg, and New York Times; appears on CNBC and Bloomberg TV Named one of China’s 10 most influential economists by Wall Street Wire (2006) Biography China’s economy confounds Western observers not because it is opaque, but because it operates on a different logic – one shaped by two thousand years of Confucian governance philosophy, decades of directed industrial policy, and a political system with incentives that bear little resemblance to liberal democratic models. David Daokui Li is the Mansfield Freeman Chair Professor of Economics at Tsinghua University and Director of the Academic Center for Chinese Economic Practice and Thinking (ACCEPT). He holds a PhD from Harvard and was a member of the first graduating cohort from Tsinghua’s School of Economics and Management in 1985. Li’s career has been built at the intersection of academic economics and active policy. He served on the Monetary Policy Committee of the People’s Bank of China from 2016 to 2018, was a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference for fifteen years, and was an external adviser to the IMF. He has attended high-level government meetings with figures including Xi Jinping. The founding dean of Schwarzman College at Tsinghua, he also co-presides over the Society for the Analysis of Government and Economics alongside Nobel Laureate Eric Maskin – a pairing that reflects where his intellectual ambition sits: building a rigorous framework for understanding economies in which the state is a primary actor. His 2023 research, conducted at ACCEPT with co-author Zhang He, concluded that China’s local government debt stood 50% higher than IMF and World Bank estimates – a finding that challenged the methodologies on which most international assessments of China’s fiscal position rely. His 2024 book, «China’s World View: Demystifying China to Prevent Global Conflict,» published by W. W. Norton, makes the case that Western strategic miscalculation on China stems not from a lack of information but from a failure to understand how China’s leadership thinks. The book was endorsed by Lawrence Summers, Jeffrey Sachs, Niall Ferguson, and Mark Leonard. For organisations navigating decisions about China – whether on investment exposure, supply chain design, or geopolitical positioning – Li offers something genuinely rare: the analytical rigour of a Harvard-trained economist, direct access to China’s senior policy deliberations, and the ability to articulate what China’s government actually believes about its own economic model and its place in the world. Key speaking topics China’s economic strategy and the logic of state-directed capitalism US-China economic competition and the risks of strategic misreading China’s local government debt and systemic financial risk The internationalisation of the RMB and China’s role in global finance Geopolitical risk and its economic consequences for multinationals China’s governance model – history, incentives, and decision-making Global economic rebalancing and the future of multilateral institutions Ideal for Boards and C-suites of multinationals with significant China exposure or supply chain dependencies Chief Risk Officers and Chief Strategy Officers navigating US-China decoupling scenarios Investment committees and asset managers with emerging market or Asia-Pacific mandates Senior government and policy audiences working on trade, geopolitical risk, or international economic governance Audience outcomes A clearer model for how China’s senior leadership actually frames economic decisions – not derived from official statements alone A more accurate picture of China’s structural fiscal risks, including the scale and composition of local government debt A framework for distinguishing between China’s stated policy positions and the underlying strategic logic that drives them A calibrated view of where US-China economic tension is most likely to produce disruption, and where convergence remains possible Practical reference points for pressure-testing internal assumptions about China in investment, supply chain, and strategic planning contexts

Why organisations work with David Hughes Hughes reads the whole value chain – from farm inputs and life science companies through manufacturers, retailers and food service – and identifies the commercial implications of change at each stage, giving organisations a perspective they cannot assemble internally. His 1994 book «Breaking with Tradition: Building Partnerships and Alliances in the European Food Industry» established the intellectual case for vertical supply chain collaboration – a thesis that remains central to competitive advantage in the sector today. He does not only analyse food businesses; he built one. As co-founder of a branded fresh produce company that he grew and sold into US supermarkets, and as a 20-year Non-Executive Director of Berry Gardens Ltd – the UK’s largest farmer-owned berry business – his commercial judgement is grounded in direct business experience. Organisations working in any geography get genuine cross-continental intelligence. Hughes works across Africa, Asia, Australasia, North and South America and Europe, making his read on consumer trends and retail dynamics global in scope rather than extrapolated from one market. As Honorary Nuffield Scholar and the inaugural Sainsbury Professor of Food Marketing at what is now Imperial College London, his academic standing gives food and agribusiness organisations a credible, research-grounded voice for external-facing events, policy engagements and board-level discussions. Biography highlights Emeritus Professor of Food Marketing, Imperial College London; inaugural Sainsbury Professor of Food Marketing at Wye College (now Imperial College London) from 1991 Visiting Professor, Royal Agricultural University, UK Ph.D. Food Marketing, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne; M.Sc. Agricultural Marketing; B.Sc. (Hons.) Agricultural Economics Non-Executive Director, Berry Gardens Ltd – UK’s largest farmer-owned berry business – for 20 years; co-founder of a branded fresh produce business sold into US supermarket chains Author/editor: «Breaking with Tradition: Building Partnerships and Alliances in the European Food Industry» (Wye College Press, 1994); published in British Food Journal, Supply Chain Management, and Business Ethics: A European Review Honorary Nuffield Scholar; keynote speaker at major food industry conferences across Africa, Asia, Australasia, the Americas and Europe, with named clients including Nestlé HQ (Switzerland) and William Reed Ltd (The Grocer) Biography Consumer preferences for health, sustainability and convenience are not moving in straight lines – and the food businesses that are best placed to respond are those that see how each shift propagates across the whole value chain, from the genetics company at one end to the food service operator at the other. David Hughes has spent more than fifty years building exactly that whole-chain, whole-world view, working with senior management in food and agribusiness on every continent. Hughes became the inaugural Sainsbury Professor of Food Marketing at Wye College in 1991, later Emeritus Professor at Imperial College London, where he established and directed the Food Industry Management Group. His 1994 edited volume «Breaking with Tradition: Building Partnerships and Alliances in the European Food Industry» set out the commercial logic of vertical supply chain collaboration – an argument that has only become more relevant as retail power has concentrated and sustainability scrutiny has intensified. He is also Visiting Professor at the Royal Agricultural University and an Honorary Nuffield Scholar. What distinguishes Hughes from the academic analyst category is that he has operated commercially inside the industries he studies. He co-founded and sold a branded fresh produce business serving US supermarkets, and served as Non-Executive Director of Berry Gardens Ltd – Britain’s largest farmer-owned berry business – for two decades. That combination of institutional credibility and business experience is what makes his reads on market shifts actionable rather than observational. Known internationally as «Dr. Food,» Hughes speaks to boards, trade associations, producer groups and government bodies across Africa, Asia, Australasia, North and South America and Europe. His work is sector-wide – meat, dairy, fresh produce, packaged foods, food service and the input industries that serve them – and consistently oriented toward the commercial question: given what is shifting, what should an organisation do on Monday morning? Key speaking topics Global consumer food trends and retail dynamics Food and agribusiness commercial strategy Supply chain partnerships and vertical alliance models Sustainability, environment and the food industry Health, nutrition and food market development Fresh produce and grocery retail innovation Food entrepreneurship and business model change Ideal for C-suite and board-level audiences in food manufacturing, grocery retail, food service and agribusiness Trade associations and producer organisations seeking to brief members on market direction Government and policy bodies working on food security, trade and sustainability Financial services and investor audiences with food sector exposure Audience outcomes A clearer distinction between structural shifts in food consumer behaviour and short-term trends – and the commercial implications of each Understanding of how change in one part of the food value chain creates threats and opportunities in adjacent segments A cross-continental frame of reference for food market developments that is difficult to assemble from within a single geography or sector Practical direction on how food businesses can build the supply chain partnerships and consumer connections that underpin competitive advantage Greater confidence in communicating strategic rationale to boards, investors or government stakeholders on food industry direction

Why organisations work with David McWilliams He publicly forecast the 2008 financial crisis, Brexit, and the rise of US trade nationalism – while the institutional consensus pointed elsewhere. That track record changes how boards receive his analysis. Money: A Story of Humanity was named Economics Book of the Year by the Financial Times and Book of the Year by The Economist in the same year. That combination of endorsements is rare and signals intellectual authority, not just popular appeal. He frames monetary and economic forces as historical and civilisational patterns rather than cyclical fluctuations, giving leadership teams a much longer analytical lens than conventional macro forecasting provides. His podcast has passed 40 million downloads across 130 countries – which means his frameworks have already been tested against non-economist audiences, and translate directly into board conversations without requiring prior economic knowledge. His festival Kilkenomics was described by the Financial Times as “simply, the best economics conference in the world” – a peer endorsement that signals the quality of dialogue he convenes and the seriousness with which other economists take his work. Biography highlights Adjunct Professor of Global Economics, Trinity Business School, Trinity College Dublin; Masters in Economics, College of Europe, Bruges Former economist at the Central Bank of Ireland; subsequently Senior European Economist at UBS and Head of Emerging Markets Research at Banque Nationale de Paris Author of six books, including Money: A Story of Humanity – named Economics Book of the Year by the Financial Times, Book of the Year by The Economist and The Observer, Waterstones Non-Fiction Book of the Year, and an international No.1 bestseller (2024) Weekly columnist, The Irish Times; regular contributor, Financial Times; contributor to TIME magazine TED2023 main stage speaker; “The Power of Unconventional Thinking” has exceeded one million views Founder of Kilkenomics; co-founder of the Dalkey Book Festival; World Economic Forum Young Global Leader Biography When organisations need economic foresight, they typically turn to the same institutions – banks, consultancies, research houses – whose consensus forecasts missed the 2008 crash, Brexit, and the rise of trade nationalism. David McWilliams, Adjunct Professor of Global Economics at Trinity College Dublin, was among the very small group who called all three in advance. He trained at Trinity College Dublin and the College of Europe in Bruges, and worked as an economist at the Central Bank of Ireland before moving to UBS and Banque Nationale de Paris, where he held senior roles in European and emerging markets research. His most recent book, Money: A Story of Humanity, argues that money is not a financial instrument but a civilisational technology – the primary force shaping power, politics, and social structure across five millennia of human history. Named Economics Book of the Year by the Financial Times and Book of the Year by The Economist in 2024, it became an international No.1 bestseller translated into 21 languages. Its central argument – that the stability of today’s monetary system is largely illusory, built on mechanisms most decision-makers do not understand – speaks directly to organisations navigating interest rate risk, currency exposure, or fiscal stress. A weekly columnist in The Irish Times and regular contributor to the Financial Times, McWilliams has built one of the broadest non-specialist economics audiences of any working economist. His podcast has passed 40 million downloads across 130 countries. His TED2023 main stage talk has exceeded one million views. The reach matters in leadership settings: his frameworks have been tested against audiences who are not economists, which means they translate directly into board conversations. He founded Kilkenomics on the premise that the best economic thinking happens when it is challenged from outside the discipline – a view the Financial Times endorsed by calling it “simply, the best economics conference in the world.” The same argument runs through his TED talk, “The Power of Unconventional Thinking”: that institutions which reward consensus produce the overconfidence that precedes every major economic failure. For leadership teams navigating the current period of monetary, geopolitical, and structural instability, that is not an abstract point. Key speaking topics Monetary systems and the history of money Global macroeconomic trends and forecasting Geopolitics and the political economy of trade Financial market dynamics and systemic risk The future of currencies and digital money Economic nationalism and the fracturing of global trade Unconventional thinking and institutional groupthink Ideal for Board-level and C-suite leadership conferences focused on strategic risk, long-range planning, or capital allocation in conditions of macro uncertainty Financial services and banking audiences navigating monetary policy, interest rate cycles, and regulatory change Corporate strategy and scenario planning forums requiring grounded macroeconomic and geopolitical context Economic policy and public affairs conferences where eurozone dynamics, EU-UK relations, or global trade architecture are on the agenda Audience outcomes A structured understanding of how monetary systems and debt cycles create predictable patterns of economic stress – and what indicators to watch for A longer historical lens for interpreting current macro conditions, including inflation, currency risk, and fiscal instability Practical context for the geopolitical and structural forces driving trade nationalism, eurozone tensions, and dollar dependency Confidence in interrogating economic consensus rather than deferring to it uncritically A framework for communicating economic complexity to non-specialist boards, investors, or stakeholders