Politisches Risiko und Politik

Why organisations work with Carrie Gracie Two decades reporting from inside China, including the role of BBC News’ first China Editor based in Beijing, give her a read on Party politics and economic policy that few Western commentators can match. She translates Chinese political signals into the questions a board actually needs to answer: market access, supply chain exposure, regulatory direction, and the real shape of the US-China contest. Her Peabody-winning “White Horse Village” reporting, a decade-long series tracking one community through China’s modernisation, is evidence of the long-horizon judgement she brings to shorter-cycle corporate questions. On a separate brief, her public resignation from the BBC over unequal pay, and the £361,000 settlement she donated to the Fawcett Society and Equal Pay Advice Service, make her one of the few speakers who has forced structural change at a named employer and can talk about it first-hand. She is a working broadcaster, not an academic: she handles live Q&A with senior audiences, difficult journalists, and hostile questions with the composure of someone who has presented BBC News on air for over a decade. Biography highlights Former BBC News China Editor (2013 to 2018), based in Beijing, and the first person to hold that role 33-year career at the BBC as correspondent, presenter, and editor, including Beijing bureau chief and presenter of BBC News Channel and the BBC World Service programme “The Interview” Peabody Award for the “White Horse Village” documentary series following a Chinese village through a decade of modernisation Author of “Equal: A Story of Women, Men and Money” (Virago, Little Brown) Resigned as BBC China Editor in January 2018 over unequal pay; the BBC issued a public apology and back pay settlement, which she donated in full (£361,000) to the Fawcett Society and the Equal Pay Advice Service Educated at Hertford College, Oxford (PPE) and the University of Westminster (BA Chinese); honorary graduate of the University of Exeter (2022) Biography The BBC’s first China Editor was appointed in 2013 and based in Beijing. The job was created because Western news organisations had concluded that China could no longer be covered as a regional story. Carrie Gracie held that role until January 2018, and she had already been reporting from China, on and off, for more than twenty years before it was given to her. Her reporting record in the country is unusually long for a Western journalist. She taught English and economics in Yantai and Chongqing in the mid-1980s, before joining the BBC. She covered the death of Deng Xiaoping, the 1997 Hong Kong handover, and the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Her “White Horse Village” series, which tracked a single village in Chongqing through a decade of displacement and rebuilding, won a Peabody Award for the way it read national policy through one community. That long-horizon approach is what senior audiences draw on now. She reads Chinese political and economic signals with the eye of a reporter who has watched Party congresses, five-year plans, and leadership transitions over multiple cycles. For boards exposed to Chinese markets or supply chains, this is closer to intelligence than commentary. She has a second, distinct body of work. In January 2018 she resigned as China Editor after learning that male international editors were paid substantially more for equivalent jobs. The BBC apologised publicly, backdated her pay, and Gracie donated the full £361,000 to the Fawcett Society and the Equal Pay Advice Service. Her book “Equal: A Story of Women, Men and Money” (Virago) is the account of that case and what it took to force an institution to move. Key speaking topics China’s political direction under Xi Jinping US-China strategic competition Geopolitical risk for boards and supply chains Chinese economy and market access Media, free speech, and authoritarian states Gender pay equality and institutional accountability Equal pay as a governance issue Ideal for Boards and executive committees with significant exposure to China or Asia-Pacific markets CROs, general counsel, and strategy leads pressure-testing geopolitical scenarios CHROs and reward committees reviewing pay equity, transparency, and disclosure practice Leadership audiences at financial services, industrial, technology, and consumer firms navigating the US-China contest Audience outcomes A clearer read on how Beijing makes decisions and what that means for the next three to five years of market access and regulatory risk A sharper set of questions to take into the next board or strategy review on China exposure An unvarnished account of how pay inequality survives inside a high-profile, regulated employer, and what actually shifted the institution A working journalist’s framework for distinguishing signal from noise in Chinese state communications Confidence to brief non-specialist colleagues on the commercial stakes of the US-China relationship

Why organisations work with Caspar Veldkamp Direct working experience as the foreign minister of an EU member state during the 2025 NATO summit year, including hosting the first NATO summit ever held in the Netherlands. A documented record of policy principle: he resigned the foreign ministry over the cabinet’s refusal to advance further measures on Israel, and authored the EU review proposal that bears his name. Constituency-level experience of China at the EBRD board, now extended into the EU’s most senior diplomatic post in Beijing from summer 2026. Frontline diplomatic service through two of Europe’s hardest decades of crisis: ambassador to Israel from 2011 to 2015 and to Greece during the Eurozone and migration emergencies. Comfort moving between the transatlantic and Brussels frames, grounded in early service on Senator Richard Lugar’s staff and political counsellor work in Washington. Biography highlights Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, 2024 to 2025. EU Ambassador to China designate, taking up post in Beijing in summer 2026. Board Director, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, London, 2020 to 2023. Ambassador of the Netherlands to Israel (2011 to 2015) and to Greece (2015 to 2019). Hosted the 2025 NATO Summit in The Hague. Author of “the Caspar proposal” for EU review of the EU to Israel Association Agreement. Biography The cabinet meeting on 22 August 2025 ended with the Dutch foreign minister resigning his post. Caspar Veldkamp had proposed further measures on Israel over the conduct of the war in Gaza, including an import ban on goods from settlements in the occupied territories. The cabinet would not move. He left office the same evening, and the New Social Contract ministers followed him out in solidarity. It was the kind of public exit that explains in one moment what a leader’s working principle is. The career that led there is unusually broad for a sitting politician. Veldkamp ran the Dutch embassies in Israel from 2011 to 2015 and in Greece from 2015 to 2019, the second through the Eurozone and migration crises. Between politics and diplomacy he sat on the EBRD board in London for three years, with constituency responsibility for the Netherlands, China, Mongolia, North Macedonia and Armenia, chairing the Board Steering Group during a period of governance reform and active climate and Ukraine work. As foreign minister he hosted the 2025 NATO summit in The Hague, the first summit held in the Netherlands. He argued publicly that the two-percent NATO defence benchmark was no longer adequate, backed sustained military support for Ukraine, and authored what came to be called the Caspar proposal: a formal EU review of Israel’s compliance with the EU to Israel Association Agreement. The proposal drew broader member state support than expected and reframed the conversation inside the bloc. In summer 2026 he takes up the post of European Union Ambassador to China, the first Dutch national appointed to the role. For organisations sitting on China exposure, transatlantic supply chain decisions, or the next round of EU sanctions logic, the perspective he carries into Beijing is the one boards are now looking to brief against. Key speaking topics European geopolitics and EU foreign policy NATO, transatlantic security and Ukraine EU to China relations and the Brussels view of Beijing Sanctions, ESG and the Middle East Diplomacy under coalition and parliamentary constraint Crisis-period leadership in foreign ministries and embassies Ideal for Boards and executive committees with material China, Israel or Russia exposure CEO and CFO offsites focused on geopolitical scenario planning Banking, insurance and energy leadership teams sizing sanctions and policy risk Public affairs, government relations and risk leadership functions Audience outcomes A clearer read on how EU foreign policy decisions are actually formed across capitals. A working framework for what the next phase of EU to China relations is likely to demand of European businesses. Specific reference points on Ukraine support, NATO posture and the trajectory of sanctions logic into 2026 and beyond. A first-person account of holding a foreign ministry under coalition strain, useful for any leader managing decisions that carry public principle as well as commercial weight.

Why organisations work with Chile Eboe-Osuji Led the International Criminal Court through its most politically contested period, including the 2020 US sanctions imposed on the Court’s senior officials. He speaks from direct experience of how international institutions hold together under political pressure. Wrote End of Immunity (2024), published by Prometheus, a study of accountability for heads of state. The book traces the legal history from Article 227 of the Treaty of Versailles through Nuremberg to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It gives boards and policy teams a grounded read on where prosecutions of sitting leaders are heading. Has judged at the appellate level and prosecuted at the trial level, across the ICC, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Holds academic appointments at Stanford Law School, Harvard’s Carr Center, and UCLA. Very few voices in the field speak from both the bench and the prosecution table. First ICC official, current or former, to receive the Goler T. Butcher Medal from the American Society of International Law. It is the field’s most recognised honour for contributions to international human rights law. Serves as a sitting judge of the Caribbean Court of Justice since April 2025. His commentary on international law reflects active judicial practice. Biography highlights 4th President of the International Criminal Court, 2018 to 2021; ICC judge from 2012 to 2021 Judge of the Caribbean Court of Justice, sworn in April 2025 Former Legal Advisor to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights under Navi Pillay (2010-2012); earlier senior prosecution counsel at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the Special Court for Sierra Leone, including the Charles Taylor appeals Author of End of Immunity (2024) and International Law and Sexual Violence in Armed Conflicts (2012); editor of Protecting Humanity (2010) Goler T. Butcher Medal, American Society of International Law (2022); first ICC official, current or former, to receive the honour Herman Phleger Visiting Professor at Stanford Law School; Senior Fellow at the Carr Center, Harvard Kennedy School; Paul Martin Senior Professor at the University of Windsor Biography In 2020, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on the most senior officials of the International Criminal Court, including the Court’s Prosecutor. The Court’s President at the time was Chile Eboe-Osuji. His answer was to hold the Court’s course and defend its mandate publicly, including on BBC HARDtalk with Stephen Sackur and at the Council on Foreign Relations. He came to the presidency as a career international lawyer. Earlier he had been senior prosecution counsel at the UN tribunals for Rwanda and Sierra Leone, including the Charles Taylor appeal. He then served as Legal Advisor to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva under Navi Pillay. Elected to the ICC bench in 2011, he presided over the Kenya cases and the Gbagbo and Blé Goudé appeals before becoming President in 2018. His 2024 book End of Immunity, published by Prometheus, is the work he has been building toward across his career. It traces the legal history of head-of-state accountability from Article 227 of the Treaty of Versailles through Nuremberg to Russia’s war on Ukraine. Rules making leaders answerable for aggression and crimes against humanity rest on foundations far older than contemporary politics. Those rules matter to anyone whose organisation operates across borders. Since leaving the ICC he has taught at Stanford, UCLA, and Harvard’s Carr Center, and held the Paul Martin Senior Professorship at the University of Windsor. He was appointed to the bench of the Caribbean Court of Justice in January 2025 and sworn in that April. For leadership teams trying to understand how international law is actually read by the people who decide it, few voices carry more weight. Key speaking topics International law and the rules-based global order Accountability for heads of state and political leaders Geopolitical risk and armed conflict Sanctions, sovereignty, and state immunity Prevention of genocide and crimes against humanity The International Criminal Court and the future of international justice Ideal for Boards and executive teams at organisations operating across multiple jurisdictions Chief Risk Officers, General Counsel, and heads of political-risk functions with exposure to sanctions regimes and cross-border conflict Policy leaders and public-affairs executives at firms whose business is shaped by state action and international law Institutional investors and capital allocators pricing geopolitical risk into cross-border decisions Audience outcomes An authoritative read on where international criminal law is heading, from someone who has written both the rulings and the books A grounded sense of why state accountability, sanctions, and head-of-state prosecution are relevant to commercial decisions The vocabulary to discuss live geopolitical situations (Ukraine, the Middle East, Africa) with legal precision A direct answer to the question most boards are now asking: is the rules-based international order actually holding?

Why organisations work with Chloe Colliver She has run live detection work across the German, European Parliamentary, UK, Swedish and US elections, which means she can speak to election interference and coordinated inauthentic behaviour from operational experience rather than commentary. She has sat on both sides of the table, as a lead investigator at ISD naming tactics used against platforms, and in senior online safety policy at Ofcom shaping how UK regulation will actually be enforced. Her testimony to the UK Home Affairs Select Committee, the International Grand Committee on Disinformation and the Swedish, Canadian, French, German and New Zealand governments gives boards a direct line into how legislators are thinking about tech regulation. She co-authored the ISD reports that set the methodological vocabulary for this field, including Hoodwinked, Spin Cycle and Click Here For Outrage, cited by journalists, regulators and platform policy teams. She is fluent on camera, with sustained appearances on CNN, BBC Newsnight, Sky News and Channel 4, which translates into a keynote register that works for mixed executive and technical audiences. Biography highlights Head of Digital Research and Policy at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, leading a global team of analysts on disinformation and online extremism. Now in senior online safety policy at Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, building the evidence base behind the Online Safety Act. Co-author of ISD reports including Hoodwinked, Spin Cycle, The 101 of Disinformation Detection and Click Here For Outrage. Expert witness to the UK Home Affairs Select Committee and the International Grand Committee on Disinformation, and to the Swedish, New Zealand, Canadian, French and German governments. Contributor to the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism alongside Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and Google. BA History, Clare College, Cambridge; MA History, Yale, as a Mellon Fellow. Biography Coordinated manipulation online is no longer a fringe concern for communications teams. It is an operating risk that touches elections, public health, brand safety and regulatory exposure all at once. The field that studies it seriously is small, and Chloe Colliver has been at the centre of it for most of the last decade. At the Institute for Strategic Dialogue she led a global team mapping disinformation, hate speech and extremist content across major platforms. Her team ran live analysis during the German, European Parliamentary, UK, Swedish and US election cycles, and co-authored the research reports that shaped how journalists, regulators and platform policy staff now talk about coordinated inauthentic behaviour, including Hoodwinked, Spin Cycle and Click Here For Outrage. She has given expert evidence to the UK Home Affairs Select Committee and the International Grand Committee on Disinformation, and advised the Swedish, New Zealand, Canadian, French and German governments on tech regulation. She also contributed to the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, the cross-platform body that includes Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and Google. She now holds a senior online safety role at Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, where she leads work on the evidence base for the Online Safety Act. That shift from platform-level investigator to regulator-side policy lead is what makes her rare on a stage: she has named the tactics, tested the interventions, and now sits inside the body writing the rules. Key speaking topics Disinformation and information integrity Online safety regulation and the Online Safety Act Election interference and coordinated inauthentic behaviour Platform governance and content moderation Digital policy and tech regulation Extremism and online radicalisation Crisis communications in a manipulated information environment Ideal for Boards, CEOs and comms leaders preparing for regulatory, reputational or election-year information risk. Chief Risk Officers, General Counsel and Heads of Trust and Safety navigating the Online Safety Act and wider platform regulation. Policy, public affairs and government relations teams tracking how UK, EU and G7 legislators are moving on disinformation and online harms. Security, intelligence and threat teams integrating platform-level signals into enterprise risk reporting. Audience outcomes A clearer picture of how coordinated disinformation is actually built, distributed and monetised, with named examples from recent election cycles. A grounded read on where UK and EU online safety regulation is heading and what it will require from platforms, advertisers and large employers. A working vocabulary for discussing information integrity at board level, separating genuine risk from noise. A sense of which interventions have been tested and which have not, drawn from ISD research and regulator-side evidence work.

Why organisations work with Chris Goodall His book Possible: Ways to Net Zero provides a sector-by-sector analysis of 16 specific technical challenges – from green hydrogen storage to decarbonising steel and cement – giving executive teams a structured, evidence-based account of what net zero delivery actually requires, not just what it aspires to. He sits on the Advisory Board of the Pictet Clean Energy Fund in Geneva, advising institutional capital on the technologies he researches and writes about – his perspective is shaped by what serious investors are actually backing, not by policy advocacy. Carbon Commentary – his long-running newsletter, part of the Guardian Environment Network – has tracked real-world clean energy deployment data independently for over a decade. Executives and investors treat it as a check on sector claims rather than a source of promotional commentary. Ten Technologies to Fix Energy and Climate was named an FT Books of the Year, establishing a track record of translating complex energy systems into analysis that serious non-specialist audiences can act on. He covers hard-to-abate sectors – aviation, agriculture, heavy industry – where most advisers produce high-level ambition; Goodall engages with specific technologies and deployment realities. Biography highlights Author of seven books on energy and climate published over 17 years, with Possible: Ways to Net Zero (Profile Books, 2024) as the most recent Ten Technologies to Fix Energy and Climate named an FT Books of the Year What We Need to Do Now shortlisted for the 2020 Wainwright Prize for Writing on Global Conservation Member of the Advisory Board, Pictet Clean Energy Fund, Geneva Publisher of Carbon Commentary – long-running energy transition newsletter and website, part of the Guardian Environment Network Contributor to The Guardian, The Independent and The Ecologist Alumnus of the University of Cambridge and Harvard Business School (MBA) Biography Chris Goodall has spent nearly two decades tracking the energy transition – not as a trend to describe, but as a set of specific, solvable technical and economic problems. His most recent book, Possible: Ways to Net Zero (Profile Books, 2024), takes that argument to its logical conclusion: mapping 16 distinct challenges on the path to carbon neutrality, from the decarbonisation of steel and cement to green hydrogen storage and climate-resilient agriculture. That analytical discipline is tested against real capital. Goodall sits on the Advisory Board of the Pictet Clean Energy Fund in Geneva, where institutional investors are deploying money into the technologies he researches. It is a position that keeps his work anchored in what is commercially viable now, rather than what might be viable in a decade. Most energy transition commentary collapses that distinction. His Carbon Commentary platform – part of the Guardian Environment Network – has tracked clean energy deployment data independently for over a decade. It has earned a readership among executives and investors precisely because it does not represent a corporate or consultancy position. Ten Technologies to Fix Energy and Climate was an FT Books of the Year; What We Need to Do Now was shortlisted for the 2020 Wainwright Prize for Writing on Global Conservation. Goodall read at the University of Cambridge and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. He brings to board-level audiences something the energy transition conversation rarely produces: an independent, data-grounded account of what is technically and financially achievable – and what is not. Key speaking topics Net zero pathways and energy system transformation Decarbonisation technologies: hydrogen, storage, renewables deployment Hard-to-abate sectors: steel, cement, aviation, agriculture Clean energy investment and technology readiness Climate policy, regulation and corporate strategy Electric vehicles and charging infrastructure Grid infrastructure and the limits of the energy transition Ideal for Boards and executive teams building credible net zero strategies Energy, infrastructure and sustainability investors Chief Sustainability Officers and ESG leaders in energy-intensive industries Chief Strategy Officers and transformation leads navigating the capital implications of decarbonisation Audience outcomes A clearer picture of which decarbonisation technologies are deployment-ready and which remain speculative A realistic, sector-specific understanding of what net zero delivery actually requires operationally Greater confidence in evaluating clean energy investment claims against independent evidence Insight into the policy and regulatory risks shaping energy transition timelines A framework for moving from corporate climate ambition to credible, technology-grounded action

Why organisations work with Lord Chris Holmes He is the peer behind the Artificial Intelligence (Regulation) Bill, giving boards a direct read on the likely shape of UK AI legislation rather than a second-hand interpretation of it. He co-chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Groups on Fintech, AI, Blockchain, Assistive Technology and the Fourth Industrial Revolution, so he sees the full policy stack in one view. His authored Cabinet Office review and his 2017 DLT for Public Good report give him a track record of turning parliamentary inquiry into usable policy recommendations, not just speeches. He ran Paralympic Integration for London 2012, a programme delivered on a fixed date with global scrutiny, which grounds his technology arguments in large-scale operational delivery. Inclusion sits inside his technology argument, not beside it, so a single session covers AI governance and the workforce implications without stitching two speakers together. Biography highlights Life peer in the House of Lords since 2013, sitting as Baron Holmes of Richmond. Sponsor of the Artificial Intelligence (Regulation) Bill [HL], which had its second reading in March 2024 with cross-party support from over 20 peers. Member of the House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee; previously served on the AI, Democracy and Digital Technologies, Financial Exclusion, Social Mobility and Digital Skills committees. Co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Groups on Fintech, AI, Blockchain, Assistive Technology and the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Director of Paralympic Integration for London 2012; Britain’s most successful Paralympic swimmer with nine golds, five silvers and one bronze across four Games. MBE (1993); honorary Doctor of Laws, University of Bath (2012); inducted into the Paralympic Hall of Fame. Biography The UK has been trying to decide what kind of AI regulator it wants to be. Lord Chris Holmes has been writing a specific answer to that question inside the House of Lords, most visibly through his Artificial Intelligence (Regulation) Bill, which received its second reading in March 2024 with support from more than twenty peers across party lines. He sits on the House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee and has previously served on the committees for Artificial Intelligence, Democracy and Digital Technologies, Financial Exclusion, Social Mobility and Digital Skills. That run of committee work, alongside co-chairing parliamentary groups on Fintech, Blockchain, Assistive Technology and the Fourth Industrial Revolution, gives him an unusually wide view of how technology policy is being written across Westminster. Before the Lords, he was Director of Paralympic Integration for London 2012, responsible for making the Paralympics work at the scale of the Olympic Games. The programme hit a fixed date with worldwide visibility, and it informs how he talks about delivering complex technology and inclusion agendas under pressure. His authored work includes the Cabinet Office review on opening public appointments to disabled people and the 2017 report on distributed ledger technologies for public good. For a board trying to understand what AI governance, digital assets and inclusive design will mean in practice, he offers a view formed by drafting the law itself. Key speaking topics AI regulation and governance Fintech and the future of financial services The Fourth Industrial Revolution Distributed ledger technology and digital assets Inclusive technology and accessibility by design Diversity and inclusion in the workforce Leadership lessons from elite sport Delivering large-scale public programmes Ideal for Board and executive committee sessions on AI strategy, governance and regulatory exposure. CTOs, CIOs and heads of policy in banking, insurance and payments navigating fintech and digital asset rules. CHROs and inclusion leads connecting workforce strategy to accessible technology design. Public sector and regulated-industry leadership teams preparing for UK AI legislation. Audience outcomes A clearer view of how UK AI regulation is likely to evolve and what that means for current technology investment decisions. A specific sense of where fintech, digital assets and assistive technology policy are converging. Practical reference points for building inclusion into product and workforce decisions, rather than treating it as a separate workstream. A memorable throughline from elite performance to policy design that leadership teams can use internally.

Why organisations work with Chris Kelly He built the privacy, safety and public policy functions at Facebook from employee 25 onward, across the period the platform moved from college network to global infrastructure. He has negotiated directly with Attorneys General in all 50 US states on child safety and platform accountability, which is a register of regulator engagement almost no other operator can match. He combines Harvard Law training with live commercial stakes: Netscape in the Microsoft antitrust case, Diamond Multimedia in the first MP3 player litigation, then the defining privacy debates of the social web. He has translated operating experience into public policy, co-authoring California Proposition 35 on human trafficking, which passed with around 81 percent support. He sits on the investor side of technology and sport, as Sacramento Kings co-owner and former board chair at Fandor and MoviePass, so boards get a peer voice rather than an outside adviser. Biography highlights Chief Privacy Officer, first General Counsel and Head of Global Public Policy at Facebook, 2005 to 2009. Employee 25 at Facebook, introduced to the company by Sean Parker. Harvard Law School JD; prior degrees from Georgetown and Yale. Represented Netscape in the Microsoft antitrust case and Diamond Multimedia in the landmark MP3 player suit while in private practice at Wilson Sonsini and Baker and McKenzie. Co-author of California Proposition 35 on human trafficking, approved by roughly 81 percent of voters in 2012. Co-owner of the Sacramento Kings since 2013; former board chair of Fandor and MoviePass. Biography Facebook was a college network with a few million users when Chris Kelly became employee 25 in September 2005. By the time he left in 2009, the platform had hundreds of millions of users and was the subject of sustained scrutiny from regulators, attorneys general and the press. Kelly was the person inside the company holding the pen on how it answered them. As Chief Privacy Officer, first General Counsel and Head of Global Public Policy, he built the functions that most technology companies only assemble after a crisis. That included real-identity and safety policies, enforcement staffing, and a direct working relationship with Attorneys General in all 50 US states on child protection. The model he shaped is now standard practice across the industry. His path into that seat matters. A Harvard Law JD with earlier degrees from Georgetown and Yale, he came out of Wilson Sonsini and Baker and McKenzie, where he represented Netscape against Microsoft and Diamond Multimedia in the suit that opened the MP3 era. Each fight turned on how new technology collides with existing law, which is the exact question boards now face on AI, data and platform liability. He has since extended that work beyond Facebook. He co-authored California Proposition 35, a human trafficking measure that passed with roughly 81 percent of the vote, ran in the 2010 Democratic primary for California Attorney General, and moved into investing as a co-owner of the Sacramento Kings and former board chair at Fandor and MoviePass. The through line is practical: how technology organisations and the public institutions around them build rules that hold when growth and scrutiny arrive together. Key speaking topics Data privacy and platform governance Technology regulation and policy Online safety and child protection Scaling a hyperscale technology business Legal and regulatory risk for digital platforms Silicon Valley operating lessons Public policy and technology investment Ideal for Boards and general counsel at technology, platform and data-intensive businesses preparing for regulatory scrutiny. CEOs and founders scaling products into markets with live privacy, safety or content-liability exposure. Chief Privacy Officers, CISOs and policy heads designing governance across multiple jurisdictions. Investors and non-executive directors evaluating technology holdings where policy risk affects valuation. Audience outcomes A clearer read on how regulators and attorneys general are thinking about platform accountability, from someone who has sat across the table from them. Operating detail on how Facebook built privacy, safety and policy functions during hypergrowth, and what held up against scrutiny. A framework for deciding which governance decisions belong in product, which in legal, and which in public policy. Insight into how technology companies and public institutions negotiate the rules around new categories, drawing on the Microsoft antitrust and MP3 cases as well as the social-media era. A candid view of the trade-offs between scale, user trust and regulatory exposure.

Why organisations work with Christiana Figueres She ran the Paris Agreement negotiation directly – not as a consultant or commentator, but as the UN official accountable for the outcome. The political dynamics, the pressure points, and the coalition mechanics she describes are firsthand. Her “Stubborn Optimism” framework, introduced in The Future We Choose (Penguin Random House, 2020), gives leadership teams a named, deployable posture for climate action – one that moves beyond paralysis without slipping into greenwashing. She holds board positions at ACCIONA and ACCIONA Energía, placing her at the intersection of executive decision-making and large-scale energy transition – not just policy theory. The Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation awarded her the Great Negotiator Award in 2022 – the same honour previously given to figures who shaped international law and treaty architecture. For leadership teams navigating multi-stakeholder climate commitments, that credential is directly relevant. Her network spans 195 national governments, financial institutions, and private sector actors – the precise ecosystem any organisation must understand when building a serious climate governance position. Biography highlights Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 2010-2016 Principal architect of the 2015 Paris Agreement – unanimous adoption by 195 sovereign nations 2022 Great Negotiator Award, Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School Co-author, The Future We Choose: The Stubborn Optimists’ Guide to the Climate Crisis (Penguin Random House, 2020) Honorary DBE (Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire), 2022; Legion of Honor of France, 2015 Fortune #7, World’s 50 Greatest Leaders, 2016; Time Top 100 Most Influential Leaders, 2016; Nature Journal Top 10, 2015 (ranked first) Chair, The Earthshot Prize Foundation, 2021-2026; Board member, ACCIONA and ACCIONA Energía Graduate of Swarthmore College and the London School of Economics; honorary doctorates from Yale, Georgetown, University of Edinburgh, and University of Massachusetts; named to BBC 100 Women list, 2023 Biography In December 2015, 195 nations unanimously adopted the Paris Agreement on climate change. The UN official responsible for making that outcome possible was Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC from 2010 to 2016 – appointed six months after the catastrophic collapse of the Copenhagen summit, when the prospect of a global accord looked remote. The process she built over those six years is now documented in a Harvard Law School case study. What distinguished it was a systematic approach to coalition-building: drawing together governments, financial institutions, faith communities, scientists, and private sector actors through a model of collaborative diplomacy that broke the political deadlock that had stalled climate negotiations for a decade. The Harvard Program on Negotiation recognised this with the Great Negotiator Award in 2022 – placing her alongside figures who have shaped international law and treaty architecture. Her published work extends the argument beyond diplomacy. The Future We Choose (Penguin Random House, 2020), co-authored with Tom Rivett-Carnac, introduces “Stubborn Optimism” as a named framework for climate leadership – a gritty, reality-grounded mindset that allows executives and institutions to act decisively without being paralysed by the scale of the problem. Her TED talk on the concept has reached a wide professional audience, and the three-part structure of the book – mindsets, choices, actions – has become a practical reference point for organisations setting net-zero strategy. Figueres co-founded Global Optimism, co-hosts the Outrage + Optimism podcast, and serves on the boards of ACCIONA and ACCIONA Energía. She holds honorary doctorates from Yale, Georgetown, the University of Edinburgh, and the University of Massachusetts, and was named an Honorary DBE in 2022. Key speaking topics Global climate governance and the Paris Agreement Corporate net-zero strategy and climate risk Collaborative diplomacy and multi-stakeholder negotiation ESG strategy and climate-related regulatory exposure Energy transition policy and renewable energy investment Stubborn Optimism as a leadership framework Climate science communication and public persuasion Ideal for Boards and C-suite executives setting or stress-testing net-zero commitments Chief Sustainability Officers and ESG leadership teams navigating disclosure requirements Government affairs and public policy functions tracking international climate regulation Financial institutions building climate-aligned investment frameworks Audience outcomes A working model of how global climate policy is made – and where corporate strategy intersects with it Direct insight into the negotiation architecture behind the Paris Agreement and its implications for current climate commitments A named, practical framework – Stubborn Optimism – for sustaining organisational climate action without paralysis or performance Clearer understanding of where international climate governance is heading and what that means for regulation, capital allocation, and competitive positioning Greater confidence in engaging regulators, investors, and international institutions on climate strategy

Why organisations work with Christoph M. Schmidt Seven years chairing the German Council of Economic Experts, the body that formally advises the federal government, gives him a working command of how policy is actually made in Berlin and Brussels. As co-chair of the Franco-German Council of Economic Experts, he reads the Paris-Berlin axis from inside the room, useful for any business whose European strategy depends on it. His research sits where most boardroom questions now live: energy transition economics, CO2 pricing design, labour market structure, and inequality. He has published on all of them. Project Syndicate columnist and contributor to the World Economic Forum Agenda and Brookings, which means audiences are getting a voice already trusted by the serious business press. Recipient of the Gustav Stolper Award (2016), given by the Verein fuer Socialpolitik for economists who shape public debate with empirical work, not rhetoric. Biography highlights President of RWI – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research in Essen since 2002. Chair for Economic Policy and Applied Econometrics, Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum. Chairman of the German Council of Economic Experts, 2013 to 2020. Co-chairman of the Franco-German Council of Economic Experts since 2020. Gustav Stolper Award (2016); honorary doctorate, Leibniz Universitaet Hannover (2019). Ph.D. in Economics, Princeton University; CEPR Fellow; IZA Research Fellow. Biography The German Council of Economic Experts exists to tell the federal government what the data actually says, in writing, every year. Christoph M. Schmidt chaired that body from 2013 to 2020, which means he authored or co-authored seven annual reports that shaped how Berlin framed growth, fiscal policy, labour reform, and the energy transition. He has been President of RWI – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research in Essen since 2002, while holding the Chair for Economic Policy and Applied Econometrics at Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum. The combination is unusual. RWI is one of Germany’s largest economic research institutes; Bochum keeps him teaching and publishing the empirical work that gives the policy voice its weight. Since 2020 he has served as co-chairman of the Franco-German Council of Economic Experts, a body set up to surface where the two largest eurozone economies can cooperate and where they cannot. For any executive team with European exposure, that bilateral view is rarely available from a single speaker. His training is Princeton applied econometrics, with a Ph.D. supervised in the Alfred P. Sloan tradition. The research output covers energy and CO2 pricing, labour markets, health, and inequality. He writes regularly for Project Syndicate, the World Economic Forum Agenda, and Brookings. The Gustav Stolper Award, given in 2016 by the Verein fuer Socialpolitik, recognises economists who translate serious empirical work into public debate. Schmidt is one of the few German economists to have done both at the scale the award implies. Key speaking topics European economic policy and the Franco-German axis Energy transition economics and CO2 pricing German and European labour market reform Income and wealth inequality Fiscal policy and debt sustainability in the eurozone The role of evidence-based economic advice in democracies Productivity and structural change in advanced economies Ideal for Boards and executive teams with European operations weighing the fiscal, energy, and labour policy outlook CFOs, strategy leads, and government affairs teams briefing on eurozone direction Investor audiences and policy forums examining the Franco-German economic relationship Industrial and energy sector leadership assessing the real cost trajectory of the transition Audience outcomes A sharper read on where German and European economic policy is heading and why A working framework for thinking about CO2 pricing, energy cost pass-through, and competitiveness A clearer view of the Franco-German policy interface and what it means for European business decisions A sense of which reform debates carry durable weight and which are political theatre Direct engagement with an economist who has sat inside the machinery of federal advice

Why organisations work with Sir Christopher Pissarides The Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides model – the standard tool used by central banks and governments to analyse unemployment and wage formation – means his analysis carries a precision and institutional grounding that macroeconomic commentary cannot match. His Pissarides Review into the Future of Work and Wellbeing, a Nuffield Foundation-funded programme conducted with Imperial College London and Warwick Business School, converts macroeconomic research into concrete, evidence-based frameworks for managing workforce disruption from automation. Forty years of advisory work for the World Bank, European Commission, OECD, and Bank of England means audiences receive analysis that has already shaped the policy environment they operate in – not analysis that describes it from the outside. His position as co-developer of the most cited model in labour economics, and former chair of a national economy council during a financial crisis, enables board-level conversations that translate structural theory directly into strategic workforce decisions. His analysis of AI and automation extends the search-frictions framework behind his Nobel Prize – it is not speculative commentary, but a rigorous continuation of four decades of original research applied to a new generation of technological disruption. Biography highlights Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences 2010, jointly with Peter Diamond and Dale Mortensen, for “analysis of markets with search frictions” Regius Professor of Economics, London School of Economics – faculty member since 1976; former Head of the Economics Department Co-developer of the Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides (DMP) model – the standard global tool for analysing unemployment, wage formation, and labour market policy Author of Equilibrium Unemployment Theory (MIT Press) – the standard reference in labour economics Co-Founder and Co-Chair, Institute for the Future of Work (2018); led the Pissarides Review into the Future of Work and Wellbeing, a £1.8m Nuffield Foundation-funded programme with Imperial College London and Warwick Business School Knighted 2013 for services to economics; IZA Prize in Labor Economics 2005; Fellow of the British Academy, Econometric Society, and American Economic Association; adviser to the World Bank, European Commission, OECD, and Bank of England Biography The Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides model is the standard analytical framework for understanding unemployment. Sir Christopher Pissarides co-built it at the London School of Economics, where he has been on the faculty since 1976. He received the 2010 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for the work, jointly with Peter Diamond and Dale Mortensen. The model’s core claim is that labour markets are governed by frictions. Workers and vacancies do not find each other efficiently. Search costs, information gaps, and institutional design create persistent mismatches that no increase in job openings can resolve on its own. This structural view of unemployment is the one that central banks, the World Bank, and the European Commission reach for when they need precision rather than commentary. Pissarides co-founded the Institute for the Future of Work in 2018 and led the Pissarides Review into the Future of Work and Wellbeing, a Nuffield Foundation-funded programme conducted with Imperial College London and Warwick Business School. The Review applies his frictions framework to automation and AI, producing evidence on how technological disruption creates new mismatches and what organisations and governments must do to manage them. His advisory record spans the World Bank, the European Commission, the OECD, and the Bank of England. He chaired the National Economy Council of the Republic of Cyprus during its financial crisis. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, the Econometric Society, and the American Economic Association. For boards and leadership teams working through structural workforce questions, his analysis carries a weight that secondary interpretation of the same data cannot replicate. Key speaking topics Labour market economics and unemployment theory Search frictions and job matching Automation, AI, and the future of work Workforce disruption and structural economic change Employment policy and institutional design Economic growth and structural transformation Worker wellbeing and productivity Ideal for Boards and C-suite leadership navigating long-term workforce and employment strategy Policymakers, finance ministries, and government economic advisers Chief Human Resources Officers and HR leadership teams grappling with automation and structural workforce change Economic and business conferences addressing labour markets, growth, or the workforce consequences of technology Audience outcomes A structural model for why labour markets underperform that goes beyond cyclical explanations Analytical tools for assessing how automation and AI will affect workforce composition in specific sectors or regions A framework for distinguishing cyclical workforce disruption from structural change that requires institutional response Policy context for decisions on hiring, reskilling, and workforce investment Clarity on how technological change distributes economic gains and losses – and what factors determine which outcome prevails

Why organisations work with Sir Craig Oliver He has run communications at the top of a G7 government through a general election, a referendum campaign, and the daily crisis tempo of Number 10. Few advisers carry that operating experience into corporate rooms. His Brexit account, Unleashing Demons, is the basis for a serialised national newspaper extract and a Channel 4 drama. The book gives a serious, named case study of how a high-stakes campaign was actually run, win or lose. As Co-Global Head of Strategy and Reputation at FGS Global, he advises listed companies and boards on reputation strategy. His commentary is grounded in current corporate work, not retired political memory. He brings senior broadcast craft to live events. Editing the BBC Ten and Six O’Clock News and running BBC Global English output is a different discipline from political spokesmanship, and it shows in his moderation. Biography highlights Director of Politics and Communications, 10 Downing Street, under Prime Minister David Cameron (2011 to 2016) Knighted in the 2016 Resignation Honours Partner and Co-Global Head of Strategy and Reputation, FGS Global Author of Unleashing Demons: The Inside Story of Brexit (Hodder & Stoughton), the basis for Channel 4’s Brexit: The Uncivil War Former editor of BBC Ten O’Clock News and Six O’Clock News; former Controller of English, BBC Global News Trustee, Make A Wish UK Biography The Brexit referendum was lost by the side that controlled the machinery of government. Sir Craig Oliver was inside that machinery, running communications and politics for David Cameron from Number 10. His book Unleashing Demons documents the campaign from the rooms where it was decided, and gave Channel 4 the basis for Brexit: The Uncivil War. He spent six years as Director of Politics and Communications at Downing Street, from 2011 to 2016, across a coalition government, a majority general election win, and the referendum that ended the Cameron premiership. He was knighted in the 2016 Resignation Honours. Before politics, he ran some of the most-watched news programmes in British broadcasting. He edited the BBC Ten O’Clock News and Six O’Clock News, then took on multiplatform commissioning across BBC Global News English output. The training is editorial, not press office. It shows in how he handles a stage and a panel. He now advises listed companies and chief executives as Partner and Co-Global Head of Strategy and Reputation at FGS Global. The work is current. The case studies he draws on are not all twelve years old, and senior buyers feel that quickly when he is in the room. Key speaking topics Reputation strategy under political and media pressure Crisis communications and decision-making at the top The communications interface between the boards and the government Political risk and public affairs for corporate leaders Campaign strategy and message discipline Broadcast media and the modern news cycle Ideal for Boards, CEOs and chairs preparing for high-stakes public communication CCOs, heads of corporate affairs and government affairs teams Conferences and private gatherings are looking for an experienced senior moderator or event host Leadership teams briefing on political risk, election cycles, or referendum dynamics Audience outcomes A clearer reading of how political and media pressure actually moves around a senior leader, drawn from inside Number 10 Sharper instincts on what to say, what to hold, and what to release in a crisis A senior view of the reputation function and how chief executives should use it Practical sense of how broadcast and digital media interact in a live story A working frame for the public-affairs interface, from someone who has sat on both sides

Why organisations work with Daisy McAndrew She has chaired panels, awards and leadership forums for clients including Samsung, HPE and ABTA, and returns to the same rooms because she reads a stage the way a lobby journalist reads a division lobby. Thirty years inside Westminster, first as a Commons researcher and Liberal Democrat press secretary, then as a BBC and ITV News political and economics correspondent, gives her a working map of how UK policy actually gets made. She can interview a chief executive, a cabinet minister or a customer keynote without a script change, which matters when a board-level event pivots on the day. She combines a broadcaster’s discipline about time and tone with the subject authority of a former national Economics Editor, so she can run a technical panel on rates, trade or regulation without deferring to the panellists. NBC News retains her as Royal Commentator, which signals that US networks trust her on camera at short notice under live political conditions. Biography highlights Former Chief Political Correspondent, Economics Editor and Special Correspondent, ITV News (2005 to 2012). Former co-presenter, BBC Daily Politics, alongside Andrew Neil, and presenter of Yesterday in Parliament, BBC Radio 4. Former Press Secretary to Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy. Former Editor of The House Magazine, Westminster’s weekly parliamentary publication. Royal Commentator for NBC News, United States. Former Vice-Chair, Internews Europe, the international media-development charity. Biography Westminster is not a neutral place to report from. Understanding how a tax change, a whip’s decision or a regulatory signal translates into a market move takes years of standing in the same corridors as the people making those calls. That is the ground Daisy McAndrew has covered for three decades. She began in the House of Commons as an MP’s researcher at nineteen, edited The House Magazine in the mid-1990s, and was Press Secretary to Charles Kennedy when he led the Liberal Democrats. Moving to broadcasting, she co-presented BBC’s Daily Politics with Andrew Neil before ITV News hired her as Chief Political Correspondent in 2005, then promoted her to Economics Editor in 2008. She reported the credit crunch and the subsequent recession from across the UK, and filed extended pieces on the French and German economies. She left ITV as its most senior female reporter. Her corporate work sits on the same foundation. She chairs conferences, moderates board-level panels, and hosts awards for clients including Samsung, HPE and ABTA, and is rebooked for the reason senior buyers rebook anyone: she runs the room. An executive chair can hand her a late script change, a difficult CEO, or a technical panel on trade or monetary policy and trust the output. She is NBC News’s Royal Commentator in the United States, was Vice-Chair of the Internews Europe trustee board until June 2023, and edited The Politics Companion for Chrysalis Books. Key speaking topics UK politics and government UK economic policy and the business environment Political risk for corporate and investor audiences Media, political communication and the British press The British Royal Family and soft-power coverage Conference hosting, panel moderation and awards chairing Ideal for Boards, investor conferences and CEO forums wanting a UK political and economic read they can act on CCOs, heads of public affairs and government relations teams briefing leadership on policy exposure Industry trade bodies and regulated-sector conferences needing a chair who can handle ministers, executives and journalists on the same stage Internal leadership summits and awards where the host must carry scripted and unscripted segments with equal authority Audience outcomes A clearer read on which Westminster and Whitehall developments actually change commercial conditions, and which do not. A sharper sense of how political communication works from the inside, from lobby briefings to Downing Street signalling. On-stage interviews, panels and awards segments that land on time, on message and with the right tension held between speakers. Context on UK economic policy drawn from first-hand reporting on the credit crunch, recession recovery and successive fiscal cycles. A senior journalistic presence that steadies a room when the agenda, speaker line-up or news cycle shifts on the day.