Economic Trends & Global Markets speakers

Key speaking topics UK politics and government Global political developments Election campaigns and political strategy Media and political broadcasting US politics and transatlantic relations The role of journalism in modern democracy Political leadership and decision-making Ideal for Corporate leadership teams seeking political and geopolitical context Financial services and global businesses monitoring political risk Conferences focused on public affairs, media or government relations Organisations hosting moderated discussions with political leaders or policymakers Audience outcomes Clearer understanding of the UK political landscape and decision-making environment Insight into global political developments and their implications for organisations Perspective on election campaigns, political strategy and leadership Understanding of how political narratives are shaped in modern media Context for interpreting government policy and political risk Why organisations work with Adam Boulton Extensive experience covering UK and international politics across broadcast media. Ability to explain complex political developments in clear, structured terms for business audiences. Credibility built through decades of political reporting, interviews with national leaders and major election coverage. Skilled moderator and conference host able to guide informed discussions on politics, policy and public affairs. Biography Adam Boulton is one of the most experienced figures in British political broadcasting, with a career spanning more than four decades reporting on UK and international politics. As the founding Political Editor of Sky News, he played a central role in shaping the channel’s political coverage and became a prominent voice in live political journalism and election reporting. During his time at Sky News he hosted several of the network’s flagship political programmes, including All Out Politics, Boulton and Co, Sunday Live and Week in Review. He has fronted major live political and election coverage and conducted interviews with every UK Prime Minister from Sir Alec Douglas-Home onwards, alongside extensive reporting on US politics since the Reagan era. Earlier in his career he served as Political Editor at TV-am before joining Sky News, and he was elected chairman of the Parliamentary Lobby. His contribution to political journalism has been recognised with the Royal Television Society’s supreme judges’ award. Alongside his broadcasting career, Adam is an established political commentator and presenter. He hosts Sunday Morning with Adam Boulton on Times Radio, contributes commentary for Sky News, and has written political analysis for publications including Reaction. Adam is also an author. His books include Tony’s Ten Years: Memories of the Blair Administration and Hung Together: The 2010 Election and the Coalition Government, written with Joey Jones. Beyond broadcasting and writing, Adam is a sought-after moderator and speaker for corporate and public affairs events. He brings decades of experience covering government, elections and global political developments, helping organisations understand the forces shaping political decision-making and international affairs. He has also served as a governor of Sevenoaks School and received an honorary Doctor of Business from the University of Plymouth.

Why organisations work with Adjiedj Bakas His analytical framework tracks six categories of structural change simultaneously – economic, technological, demographic, environmental, spiritual and security – giving leadership teams a coherent map rather than a trend list. No single category is read in isolation; the interactions between them are where the real strategic insight lives. His “#Forwardism” thesis reframes megatrend analysis as a source of opportunity rather than a catalogue of threat. This is a deliberate intellectual stance, not a motivational gloss – it changes how an organisation positions itself in response to disruption. His biography is genuinely differentiating in a field dominated by Western vantage points. Of Indian descent, raised in Suriname and based in the Netherlands for three decades, Bakas brings a Global South perspective to questions about the shifting balance of economic and cultural power that most European or American futurists cannot replicate. His material has been tested against the most demanding institutional audiences on the circuit: the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, the parliaments of Hungary, Shell’s major futures conferences, and central banking and financial institutions across Africa and Asia. A Shell audience of senior executives elected him one of the top two speakers from a field of fifty. His books – including World Megatrends and Beyond the Crisis – have been used as course material at CEIBS in Shanghai, and the intellectual rigour of his framework has earned consistent media recognition from CNN, the BBC, The Guardian and China Daily. Biography highlights Founder of Trend Office Bakas, Amsterdam – a trendwatching practice serving multinationals, financial institutions and governments internationally Author of more than ten books on global megatrends, distributed across 40+ countries; titles include World Megatrends, Beyond the Crisis, Megatrends Europe and #Forwardism Elected Trendwatcher of the Year 2009 and Immigrant Entrepreneur of the Year 2008 in the Netherlands Covered as a leading voice on global futures by CNN, BBC, The Guardian, Times of India and China Daily Keynote engagements include Shell, Deloitte, Google, Microsoft, ABN AMRO, KPMG, Rabobank, Credit Suisse and the NATO Parliamentary Assembly Course material at CEIBS (China Europe International Business School, Shanghai) and Emory University, Atlanta Biography Most organisations run their long-term strategy on a three-to-five year horizon. The megatrends that actually reshape industries – demographic reordering, geopolitical power shifts, energy transitions, technological discontinuities – operate on timescales of twenty years or more. Adjiedj Bakas, founder of Trend Office Bakas in Amsterdam, has spent his career helping senior leaders read those slower, more consequential signals before they arrive as operational emergencies. His body of work – more than ten books published across 40 countries, including World Megatrends, Beyond the Crisis and Megatrends Europe – develops a consistent analytical lens across six categories of structural change: economic, technological, demographic, environmental, spiritual and security. His most recent work, #Forwardism, introduces the concept of “Happynomy” – the argument that the most powerful megatrends are better interpreted as sources of strategic opportunity than as threats to be mitigated. The perspective he brings is shaped by biography as much as by research. Of Indian descent, raised in Suriname and based in the Netherlands for three decades, Bakas has a genuinely non-Western vantage point on shifts in global economic and cultural power that most European futurists cannot replicate. His engagements span Shell, Deloitte, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, the parliaments of Hungary, and financial institutions across Africa, Asia and Europe – audiences for whom a view of the future that goes beyond the Western horizon is not optional. Elected Trendwatcher of the Year in the Netherlands in 2009, his work has been covered by CNN, the BBC, The Guardian and China Daily. His books have been used as course material at CEIBS in Shanghai and Emory University in Atlanta. Key speaking topics Global megatrends and structural futures Geopolitical power shifts and the rise of the Global South Demographic change and its economic consequences Long-cycle economic forecasting and scenario planning Energy and environmental transitions Technology and innovation futures Opportunity-centred strategic foresight (#Forwardism / Happynomy) Ideal for C-suite and board leaders developing long-range organisational strategy Strategy and foresight teams in multinationals requiring a structured macro-trend framework Financial institutions and investment firms assessing long-term geopolitical and economic risk Government and public-sector organisations navigating demographic and geopolitical change Audience outcomes A structured, six-category framework for mapping structural megatrends across economic, technological, demographic, environmental and geopolitical dimensions Greater confidence in distinguishing long-cycle structural shifts from short-term cyclical noise Exposure to the Global South’s increasing influence on economic and cultural direction – a perspective absent from most standard futures briefings A reframed strategic posture: tools for reading disruption as a source of opportunity rather than purely a risk management challenge A renewed and evidence-based basis for organisational optimism in conditions of uncertainty

Why organisations work with Alec Ross He has advised both a US Secretary of State and a global venture capital firm on the same question: where power is moving as technology, capital and national interest collide. Boards get a single read across all three. The Industries of the Future sold into 24 languages and remains a reference text for executive teams framing long-range technology strategy. That gives him a shared vocabulary with global leadership audiences before he opens his mouth. The Raging 2020s offers a specific thesis, not a survey: the social contract between government, business and citizens is broken, and companies that misread the rebalancing will lose licence to operate. Leaders leave with a framework for where regulatory and political risk is actually heading. He built and sat inside the first serious technology policy function at the State Department, then moved to the investor side at Amplo. He speaks to both the regulator’s logic and the cap table’s logic, which most commentators cannot. Named to Foreign Policy’s Top 100 Global Thinkers and awarded the State Department’s Distinguished Honor Award. Credentials buyers can cite when justifying the booking internally. Biography highlights Senior Advisor for Innovation to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 2009 to 2013, in a role created specifically to modernise the practice of diplomacy. Author of two New York Times bestsellers: The Industries of the Future (Simon and Schuster, 2016) and The Raging 2020s (Henry Holt, 2021). Distinguished Professor at the Business School of the University of Bologna; previously Distinguished Senior Fellow at Johns Hopkins University and Senior Fellow at Columbia SIPA. Board Partner at Amplo, a global venture capital firm, with director roles across technology, finance, manufacturing, human capital and cybersecurity companies. Co-founder of One Economy, a nonprofit that expanded broadband access for low-income households before broadband policy was a political issue. Named to Foreign Policy magazine’s Top 100 Global Thinkers and holder of the US Department of State Distinguished Honor Award. Biography The Senior Advisor for Innovation job at the State Department did not exist before 2009. It was built for Alec Ross, who spent four years travelling to forty-one countries turning emerging technology into an instrument of US foreign policy under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. That mandate, sitting at the join between diplomacy, national security and the technology industry, is the lens he has brought to every role since. The Industries of the Future, published in 2016, mapped the sectors he believed would reorganise the global economy over the following decade: robotics, genomics, the commercialisation of data, the weaponisation of code. It sold into 24 languages and became a fixture on executive reading lists. The Raging 2020s, published in 2021, moved the argument on. The question is no longer which technologies win. The question is whether the contract between governments, companies and citizens holds, and what companies do when it does not. Ross now teaches at the University of Bologna Business School and sits as a Board Partner at the venture capital firm Amplo, with director seats across technology, finance, manufacturing and cybersecurity. He reads a regulatory brief the way a former diplomat does and a growth plan the way an investor does, and has held both jobs in earnest. What that produces for a leadership audience is judgement on questions that sit above the CTO and below the board: where the geopolitical weather is turning, which regulatory frames are about to land, which technology bets will still make sense when the politics catches up. Foreign Policy named him to its Top 100 Global Thinkers for a reason specific to this moment. Very few commentators have worked the diplomatic side, the commercial side and the academic side of the same argument. Key speaking topics Geopolitics of technology and the US to China contest The social contract between governments, companies and citizens Artificial intelligence, data and national competitiveness Cybersecurity as a board-level risk Regulation, antitrust and the future licence to operate Long-range industry disruption and capital allocation Innovation policy and the future of work Ideal for Boards and executive committees setting multi-year technology and geopolitical strategy CEOs, CSOs and heads of government affairs briefing for regulatory inflection points Financial services, technology and industrial leadership teams exposed to US, EU and China policy divergence Conferences convening CEOs, policymakers and investors on the intersection of technology and state power Audience outcomes A sharper read on where regulation, capital and public sentiment are pushing the next decade of technology strategy. A working framework for pricing political and geopolitical risk inside commercial decisions. Named examples of how governments, companies and citizens are renegotiating the social contract, and the implications for licence to operate. A clearer view of which technology sectors are concentrating power, and where corporate strategy has to adjust. An investor and policymaker’s dual perspective on the same question, translated for operators.

Why organisations work with Alex Brummer Five decades of front-line financial reporting, from the 1976 sterling crisis to the 2008 banking collapse to the post-Brexit settlement, give audiences a working memory of how financial crises actually unfold. A named position of record. As City Editor of the Daily Mail he writes the paper’s daily view on business, markets and the economy, which means organisations get an author whose arguments are already in public circulation. Book-length theses backed by serious publishers. Bad Banks on financial system fragility and The Great British Reboot (Yale University Press, 2020) on UK economic strategy give audiences a coherent argument, not a survey. Specific expertise on pensions and long-term savings, the subject of The Great Pensions Robbery, which matters to any organisation running a material defined benefit liability or rethinking retirement provision. Award weight from credible bodies: Wincott Senior Financial Journalist of the Year, British Press Awards Financial Journalist of the Year, Overseas Press Club of New York for US coverage. Biography highlights City Editor of the Daily Mail since May 2000, writing the paper’s daily commentary on business, markets and the economy. 26 years at The Guardian in senior roles including US Financial and Washington Correspondent, Financial Editor, Foreign Editor and Associate Editor. Author of seven books including The Great British Reboot (Yale University Press, 2020), Bad Banks (2014), Britain for Sale (2012) and The Great Pensions Robbery (2011). Wincott Prize for Senior Financial Journalist of the Year (2001); British Press Awards Financial Journalist of the Year (1999); Overseas Press Club of New York (1989). Honorary Doctor of the University, University of Bradford (2014). Columnist for New Statesman; contributor to The Spectator and Jewish Chronicle; chair of the Jewish News editorial board. Biography The 1976 sterling crisis, the 2008 banking collapse and the post-Brexit argument over UK industrial strategy have one thing in common. The same journalist covered them from inside a working newsroom, in real time, for a general reader. Since May 2000, that newsroom has been the Daily Mail, where Alex Brummer is City Editor. The role means writing the paper’s daily view on business, markets and the economy, turning movement in the FTSE, the Bank of England and global capital markets into a clear argument rather than a data dump. Before that he spent 26 years at The Guardian, including ten years as US Financial and Washington Correspondent covering three presidential elections, then Financial Editor, Foreign Editor and Associate Editor. The books map the territory he speaks from. Bad Banks (2014) traced the post-2008 banking system’s unresolved fragility. Britain for Sale (2012) set out the costs of foreign ownership of British industrial assets. The Great Pensions Robbery (2011) examined the unwinding of UK retirement provision. The Great British Reboot, published by Yale University Press in 2020, argues how the UK can rebuild economic strength through research, technology and industrial reform. The recognition is from bodies that matter in the field: the Wincott Prize for Senior Financial Journalist of the Year, the British Press Awards for Financial Journalist of the Year, and the Overseas Press Club of New York for best foreign correspondent in the United States. Bradford awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2014. Key speaking topics UK economic outlook and industrial policy Banking stability and systemic financial risk Pensions, savings and long-term capital Foreign ownership of UK assets and national economic security Global markets and macroeconomic trends Post-Brexit economic strategy Ideal for Boards and CEOs in financial services, asset management and banking needing an informed macro read alongside strategic decisions CFOs and treasury leaders exposed to rate, currency and pensions risk Policy forums, regulators and industry bodies across financial services, infrastructure and pensions Conferences needing a City Editor-grade host or moderator across business, economics and markets Audience outcomes A clearer read on how UK economic policy, banking regulation and market conditions intersect with their own sector Named historical reference points, from the 1976 sterling crisis to 2008 and beyond, for interpreting current financial stress A sharper frame on the pensions and long-term savings question facing UK employers A working journalist’s view on what is actually driving coverage and sentiment around their industry An argument, not a survey, on where the UK economy is heading and what that implies for strategy

Why organisations work with Alok Sharma He chaired the negotiation that produced the Glasgow Climate Pact, working with nearly 200 governments. Few advisors can read multilateral climate dynamics from inside the chair. As Chair of the UK Transition Finance Council, he is actively shaping how private capital is mobilised for transition, not commenting on it from a distance. His vantage spans Cabinet, COP, the Rockefeller Foundation Climate Advisory Council, Conservation International and Oxford Martin School, giving boards a single voice across policy, philanthropy, science and finance. TIME named him in the 2025 TIME 100 Climate list for his work mobilising transition finance, a credible external benchmark of current relevance. A 16-year investment banking career in London, Stockholm and Frankfurt gives him the financial fluency to discuss transition with CFOs and treasurers in their own language. Biography highlights President of COP26, Glasgow 2021, the conference that produced the Glasgow Climate Pact Former UK Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and previously Secretary of State for International Development Chair of the UK Transition Finance Council, appointed by HM Treasury and the City of London Corporation in 2025 Visiting Fellow, Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford Co-Chair, Rockefeller Foundation Climate Advisory Council; Distinguished Fellow, Conservation International KCMG, 2023 New Year Honours, for services to tackling climate change; created Baron Sharma of Reading, 2024; named to TIME 100 Climate, 2025 Biography The Glasgow Climate Pact was negotiated in a room with delegations from nearly 200 countries. Alok Sharma chaired that room as President of COP26. The pact, agreed in November 2021, kept the 1.5 degree goal in formal reach and pulled coal and fossil fuel subsidies into a UN climate text for the first time. Before COP, he was Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and earlier Secretary of State for International Development. The route there was unusual for a climate principal: chartered accountant at Coopers and Lybrand Deloitte, then sixteen years in investment banking with Nikko Securities and Enskilda Securities across London, Stockholm and Frankfurt. That financial background sits behind his current work on capital flows. He now chairs the UK Transition Finance Council, set up by HM Treasury and the City of London Corporation to make the UK a leading market for high integrity transition finance. He is also a Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Martin School, Co-Chair of the Rockefeller Foundation Climate Advisory Council, and a Distinguished Fellow at Conservation International. TIME named him to its 2025 TIME 100 Climate list for that body of work. For boards, the value is the through-line. He has held the pen on a multilateral climate text, sat in a UK Cabinet making industrial policy, and now sits in the room where transition finance rules are being written. He was made KCMG in the 2023 New Year Honours and elevated to the House of Lords as Baron Sharma of Reading in 2024. Key speaking topics Transition finance and capital allocation under net zero Climate diplomacy and the post-Paris multilateral system Energy transition and industrial strategy COP outcomes and what they mean for corporate strategy Geopolitics of climate, including US, EU and emerging market dynamics ESG under regulatory and political pressure Ideal for Boards, CEOs and CFOs reconciling net zero commitments with capital plans Chief Sustainability Officers, Heads of ESG and transition leads inside financial institutions Investor and asset owner audiences working on transition portfolios Government, multilateral and policy audiences working on climate and industrial strategy Audience outcomes A clear read of where multilateral climate policy stands after COP26 to today, from someone who chaired the room A grounded view of how transition finance is actually being structured in the UK and globally A senior-level perspective on how climate intersects with geopolitics, industrial policy and capital markets Specific signals to track for boards making transition-linked decisions over the next planning cycle

Why organisations work with Álvaro Vargas Llosa His “Five Principles of Oppression” framework – developed in Liberty for Latin America and recognised with the Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award – gives risk and strategy teams a structural model for diagnosing why reform fails in emerging markets, beyond surface political cycle analysis. His critique of statism and populism is applied equally to left and right administrations, making his assessments more defensible in polarised environments and more useful for boards that must operate above partisan interpretation. He brings first-hand political engagement – as press spokesman for one Peruvian presidential campaign and international relations adviser for another – to strategic conversations that frequently lack any understanding of how political institutions function from the inside. His parallel work on development entrepreneurship (the Templeton Freedom Award-winning Lessons from the Poor) and immigration economics (Global Crossings) extends his analytical scope into talent, trade, and demographic strategy – giving organisations a unified frame for markets that most advisers treat in isolation. Named by Foreign Policy as one of the top 50 public intellectuals in the Spanish-speaking world (2012), he carries credibility with government, regulatory, and C-suite audiences across Latin America, Spain, and the United States simultaneously. Biography highlights Senior Fellow, Center on Global Prosperity, Independent Institute, Washington DC; President, Fundación Internacional para la Libertad (FIL) and Cátedra Vargas Llosa B.Sc. International History, London School of Economics; M.A. Value Investing and Theory of the Economic Cycle, OMMA (Spain) Author of Liberty for Latin America (Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award, 2005); editor of Lessons from the Poor (Templeton Freedom Award, 2010); author of Global Crossings: Immigration, Civilization, and America Nationally syndicated columnist, Washington Post Writers Group; former op-ed editor and columnist, Miami Herald; contributor to Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, BBC World Service, and Time Named Young Global Leader, World Economic Forum, 2007; named one of the top 50 public intellectuals in the Spanish-speaking world, Foreign Policy, 2012; Thomas Jefferson Award, Association of Private Enterprise Education, 2021 Writer and presenter, four-part National Geographic Channel documentary series “Consecuencias” on contemporary Latin American history, broadcast in more than 100 countries Member, Global Commission for Post-Pandemic Policy; press and political advisory roles in two Peruvian presidential campaigns Biography For five hundred years, Latin American economies have cycled through liberalisation and state capture. In Liberty for Latin America, Álvaro Vargas Llosa offers a structural explanation for why – identifying five persistent institutional conditions he calls the “Principles of Oppression”: corporatism, state mercantilism, privilege, bottom-up wealth redistribution, and political law. It is one of the few analytical frameworks that diagnoses a pattern rather than merely describing events, and it won the Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award in 2005. Based at the Independent Institute in Washington DC, Vargas Llosa has spent his career at the intersection of political economy, journalism, and policy advisory work. He spent five years as a nationally syndicated columnist for the Washington Post Writers Group and has contributed to the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the BBC World Service, and Time. His four-part National Geographic Channel documentary series “Consecuencias,” which aired in more than 100 countries, brought the same analytical frame to a mainstream global audience. His work extends beyond Latin American political history. As editor of Lessons from the Poor – recipient of the Templeton Freedom Award – he examined bottom-up entrepreneurship in Africa and Latin America, making the case that development is driven by individual agency, not state intervention. His book Global Crossings: Immigration, Civilization, and America applies a comparable structural lens to immigration, separating economic evidence from political narrative. Named one of the top 50 public intellectuals in the Spanish-speaking world by Foreign Policy (2012), Vargas Llosa carries credibility across Latin America, Europe, and Washington DC. The World Economic Forum named him a Young Global Leader in 2007; he also serves as President of the Fundación Internacional para la Libertad and sat on the Global Commission for Post-Pandemic Policy. For organisations exposed to politically complex markets, his work offers something uncommon: a tested structural model for understanding risk, not simply informed commentary. Key speaking topics Geopolitical risk and political economy in emerging markets Populism and institutional fragility across the left-right divide Latin American politics and the conditions for durable market reform Immigration economics, cultural assimilation, and demographic change Development entrepreneurship and the structural limits of foreign aid Rule of law, state capture, and the business cost of institutional weakness US foreign policy and Western hemisphere strategy Ideal for Boards and senior executive teams of companies with material Latin American exposure, assessing political and institutional risk alongside commercial strategy Chief Risk Officers and geopolitical risk functions navigating political cycle uncertainty in emerging markets Investors and asset allocators active in Latin American, Ibero-American, or broader developing-economy markets Government affairs teams, policy-facing organisations, and trade bodies operating across the Americas, Spain, and Washington DC Audience outcomes A structural model – grounded in the “Five Principles of Oppression” framework – for explaining why market reform in emerging economies reverses, independent of which party holds power A clearer understanding of how populism operates across the ideological spectrum, and what this means for business exposure and investment sequencing Practical tools for distinguishing between political risk that is cyclical and risk that is structural – and the different responses each requires A contextualised, evidence-based account of immigration and demographic change as economic and strategic forces, separated from political rhetoric A sharper analytical basis for assessing the stability of institutional environments when entering, operating in, or exiting politically complex markets

Why organisations work with Anatole Kaletsky He runs the macro research that institutional investors act on. As chairman and chief economist of Gavekal, his work is priced in by hundreds of banks, asset managers and corporates, not written for a general audience. He wrote the book on post-crisis capitalism. Capitalism 4.0 set out a named thesis for how the system reorganised itself after 2008, and the argument has aged into the framework through which many boards now read central bank behaviour. He sits inside the reform of economics itself. As founding chairman of the Institute for New Economic Thinking, set up with George Soros to rebuild the discipline after 2008, he has direct access to the researchers redefining how policymakers think. Thirty years as Economics Editor and Editor-at-Large of The Times, and as a columnist for Reuters, the International New York Times and Project Syndicate, give him a rare ability to translate macro complexity into arguments a management team can act on. Biography highlights Co-founder, chairman and chief economist of Gavekal, an independent research and investment firm serving more than 800 financial institutions. Founding chairman of the Institute for New Economic Thinking, established with George Soros in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Author of Capitalism 4.0: The Birth of a New Economy in the Aftermath of Crisis, nominated for the Samuel Johnson Prize. Columnist for Reuters, the International New York Times, Project Syndicate and Prospect, after a thirty-year career at The Economist, the Financial Times and The Times, where he was Economics Editor and Editor-at-Large. Twice named Specialist Writer of the Year at the British Press Awards, and named Newspaper Commentator of the Year, Economic Journalist of the Year and European Journalist of the Year. First Class Honours in Mathematics from King’s College, Cambridge, and a Kennedy Memorial Scholar at Harvard, where he took a Master’s in Economics. Biography The global economy has not returned to a normal cycle since 2008. Successive shocks, from the financial crisis to the pandemic to the rewiring of trade blocs, have left boards and investors trying to plan inside a macro regime whose rules they did not agree to. Kaletsky’s work is an attempt to name that regime. In Capitalism 4.0, he argued that the post-crisis system is a new stage in the evolution of market economies, one in which governments and central banks play a larger and more explicit role, and that treating the period since 2008 as a set of anomalies is what keeps leaders wrong-footed. The thesis gave boards and policymakers a vocabulary for what they were already seeing. That argument is backed by an unusual combination. Through Gavekal, the research and investment firm he co-founded, his analysis is priced in by more than 800 banks, asset managers and corporates. Through the Institute for New Economic Thinking, which he chaired from its founding with George Soros, he works with the economists rebuilding the discipline’s foundations. Through three decades at The Times, the Financial Times and The Economist, and ongoing columns for Reuters, the International New York Times and Project Syndicate, he has learned how to explain monetary policy and geopolitics without losing either the numbers or the reader. For a board trying to decide what to assume about inflation, Chinese growth, the dollar or the direction of American policy, his value is that he has already had to answer the same question for institutional clients who are putting real capital behind it. Key speaking topics Global macro-economics and financial markets Central bank policy and the future of monetary regimes Capitalism 4.0 and the evolution of market economies after 2008 Geopolitics, trade blocs and the global economic order China, the United States and the shape of the next decade Political risk and the interaction of policy with markets Ideal for Boards and executive committees setting medium-term capital allocation and geographic strategy Chief investment officers, CFOs and treasurers calibrating exposure to policy and macro risk Institutional investor conferences and client events that need a named macro thesis, not a market update Audience outcomes A clearer reading of why the post-2008 macro regime behaves differently, and what that means for planning assumptions A framework for interpreting central bank decisions as part of a longer structural shift, not one-off interventions A sharper view of how US-China rivalry, European policy and emerging market dynamics interact in capital flows Specific, argued positions on inflation, interest rates and asset prices, rather than a survey of consensus forecasts

Why organisations work with Andrés Oppenheimer His sector-by-sector analysis of automation’s job impact – developed through the same investigative methodology that produced a Pulitzer Prize – gives leadership teams a specific, evidence-built picture of workforce risk rather than a generalist technology forecast. “The Oppenheimer Report” column runs twice weekly across 60+ newspapers in the US and Latin America, meaning his read on political and economic shifts is drawn from live, primary reporting – not filtered retrospective analysis. He can address geopolitical risk and AI-driven workforce disruption in a single conversation, from a single credible position – organisations operating across the Americas do not need separate voices to cover both agendas. His television programme “Oppenheimer Presenta” on CNN en Español gives him direct, ongoing access to heads of state, finance ministers, and regional business leaders – a source network that shapes the quality and specificity of his intelligence. Nine books across four decades of reporting on Latin American competitiveness means his arguments carry empirical ballast: when he makes a forecast, he can point to the precedents it rests on. Biography highlights Latin America editor and syndicated foreign affairs columnist, The Miami Herald; “The Oppenheimer Report” appears twice weekly in 60+ US and international newspapers Anchor, “Oppenheimer Presenta,” CNN en Español – broadcast across 19+ countries in the US, Latin America and the Caribbean Co-winner, 1987 Pulitzer Prize, as part of the Miami Herald team that broke the Iran-Contra scandal Author of nine books, including The Robots Are Coming! (Vintage/Random House, 2019) and Innovate or Die! (2014), translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese Awards include: Ortega y Gasset Award (El País, 1993), Maria Moors Cabot Award (Columbia University, 1998), King of Spain Award (2001), Overseas Press Club Award (2002) Master’s degree in Journalism, Columbia University; freelance contributor to The New York Times, The Washington Post, BBC, and CBS’ 60 Minutes Biography The Americas produce a particular kind of strategic risk – one where political instability, trade volatility, and currency pressure arrive together and faster than most organisations expect. Andrés Oppenheimer has spent four decades reporting from inside that complexity, as Latin America editor and syndicated foreign affairs columnist for The Miami Herald, with “The Oppenheimer Report” appearing twice weekly in more than 60 newspapers across the US and internationally. His investigative credentials are substantive. He was part of the Miami Herald team awarded the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for uncovering the Iran-Contra affair – a grounding in primary-source journalism that has shaped every argument he has made since. His awards from El País (Ortega y Gasset, 1993), Columbia University (Maria Moors Cabot, 1998), and the Spanish news agency EFE (King of Spain Award, 2001) confirm a standing in the Spanish-speaking world that extends well beyond the conference circuit. His book The Robots Are Coming! (Vintage/Random House, 2019) applied that same investigative rigour to the future-of-work debate. Oppenheimer interviewed Oxford economists, Silicon Valley engineers, and sector specialists across Japan, South Korea, Israel, and Europe to build a profession-by-profession account of what automation is actually doing to legal work, banking, medicine, and manufacturing – and what the evidence says about whether new industries will replace what is being lost. The earlier Innovate or Die! (2014) set out his argument that innovation capacity is the defining variable in national competitiveness in the knowledge economy. As anchor of “Oppenheimer Presenta” on CNN en Español, he interviews heads of state, policymakers, and business leaders across a region that remains both strategically critical and consistently misread by organisations operating from outside it. That combination – live political intelligence, investigative depth, and a published analytical framework on automation and competitiveness – is what distinguishes his contribution in a board conversation on international risk. Key speaking topics Geopolitics and political risk across the Americas AI, automation, and the future of work Latin American economic trends and competitiveness Innovation strategy in the knowledge economy The impact of automation on professional sectors Global economic forecasting and scenario analysis Ideal for C-suite and board-level leaders in organisations with commercial exposure or operations across Latin America and the Americas Risk, strategy, and policy leads navigating geopolitical uncertainty in international markets Senior leadership teams examining the intersection of AI-driven workforce disruption and macroeconomic risk Global business conferences and economic forums seeking analytical depth on hemispheric political and technological change Audience outcomes A clearer framework for understanding how geopolitical risk and automation interact as compounding – not separate – forces on competitive strategy Sector-specific insight into which professional roles and industries face the earliest automation pressure, grounded in published research rather than prediction A more accurate and current picture of Latin American political and economic dynamics, drawn from active reporting rather than retrospective analysis A working understanding of why innovation capacity determines national and organisational competitiveness in the knowledge economy Confidence to brief boards and senior colleagues on the forces reshaping international markets – with the evidence and context to withstand scrutiny

Why organisations work with Andrés Velasco He ran Chile’s fiscal policy through a commodity supercycle and a global financial crisis – banking windfall reserves against political opposition, then deploying them as counter-cyclical stimulus. This is not a case study; it is his direct personal record, and it has no equivalent among academic economists in the speaker market. His analysis of fiscal and monetary decisions is shaped by actual exposure to the institutional mechanics: as a minister, as a member of the G20 Eminent Persons Group on Global Financial Governance, and as a current member of the Group of Thirty – a grouping that includes sitting and former central bank governors and finance ministers. He provides the connection between macro numbers and political reality that standard economic commentary does not: why governments make the fiscal choices they do, what constrains them, and what that means for the investment and operating environments businesses face. His Project Syndicate column, running since 2001, covers geopolitics, populism, and macroeconomic policy – offering audiences a track record of real-time, named analysis they can assess rather than a credentials summary alone. As Dean of the LSE School of Public Policy, he sits at the centre of the global debate on institutional reform, multilateral development finance, and the future of international economic governance – giving organisations access to the live intellectual agenda, not yesterday’s consensus. Biography highlights Inaugural Dean of the School of Public Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science (since 2018) Minister of Finance, Republic of Chile, 2006–2010; named Latin American Finance Minister of the Year by Emerging Markets (Euromoney) and América Economía Member of the Group of Thirty – the selective forum of current and former central bank governors, finance ministers, and senior economists Member, G20 Eminent Persons Group on Global Financial Governance; World Bank–IMF High-Level Advisory Group on Sustainable and Inclusive Recovery and Growth Previously Sumitomo-FASID Professor of International Finance and Development, Harvard Kennedy School; Professor of Professional Practice, Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs Award for Excellence in Research, Inter-American Development Bank (2006); author of nearly 100 academic articles and several books; regular contributor to Project Syndicate since 2001 CEPR Research Fellow; Co-chair, Global Panel on the Future of the Multilateral Lending Institutions Biography Fiscal policy looks technical until a government has to choose between spending a commodity windfall and saving it. When Chile’s copper revenues surged in 2006, Andrés Velasco – then Finance Minister – held the reserves despite intense domestic political pressure, building buffers equivalent to roughly 30% of GDP. When the 2008 financial crisis hit, he deployed them. The FT, The Economist, the Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg all covered the story. It remains the most concrete demonstration of counter-cyclical fiscal discipline under real political constraints in the modern emerging-market record. That combination – academic rigour in macroeconomics and direct exposure to the decisions that actually get made – shapes everything Velasco now does at LSE, where he is the inaugural Dean of the School of Public Policy. His research has always been about the political economy of reform: not what good policy looks like in theory, but why it succeeds or fails in practice, and what institutional conditions make credible commitments possible. These are the questions that boards and executive teams face when they try to read fiscal environments, assess sovereign risk, or understand why the same policy recommendation produces different outcomes in different countries. Velasco’s engagement with global economic governance has been sustained and specific. He served on the G20 Eminent Persons Group on Global Financial Governance, co-chaired the Global Panel on the Future of the Multilateral Lending Institutions, and contributed to the World Bank–IMF High-Level Advisory Group on Sustainable and Inclusive Recovery and Growth. He is now a member of the Group of Thirty – one of the most selective forums in international economic policy, comprising current and former central bank governors and finance ministers. His Project Syndicate column, published continuously since 2001, provides a public record of his analytical positions on populism, fiscal discipline, multilateralism, and democratic governance. For organisations navigating a period in which fiscal policy has become explicitly political and multilateral institutions are under visible strain, Velasco offers something precise: the perspective of someone who has held the levers, studied the mechanisms, and continued to influence the debate at the highest institutional levels. Key speaking topics Political economy of fiscal policy and economic reform Global economic governance and multilateral institutions Counter-cyclical fiscal policy and sovereign risk Macroeconomics of emerging markets Populism, democracy, and economic policymaking International financial institutions and development finance Geopolitical risk and global market conditions Ideal for C-suite and board-level audiences in financial services, investment, and multinational corporations requiring strategic context on global fiscal and political risk Chief Strategy Officers and Chief Risk Officers navigating geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty Government affairs, public policy, and regulatory strategy teams International economic forums, sovereign wealth funds, and development finance institutions Audience outcomes A clearer framework for reading fiscal and monetary policy decisions as political acts with structural constraints – not just technical outputs Specific insight into how multilateral institutions form, reform, and fail – and what that means for the economic environments businesses depend on Context for understanding the gap between policy intent and policy outcome in emerging and developed markets A more precise vocabulary for discussing sovereign risk, counter-cyclical strategy, and institutional credibility at board level Exposure to the live intellectual debate on global economic governance from someone actively shaping it

Why organisations work with Andrew Marr Direct line of sight into Westminster and Whitehall built across forty years of political reporting, including five years as BBC Political Editor and sixteen years presenting the BBC One Sunday political programme. Historical context most political commentators cannot offer. His BBC One series and accompanying books on modern Britain, the making of modern Britain and the Elizabethan era are the standard popular references for how the British state and economy got to where they are. Non-partisan, on-the-record reading of UK politics that can be quoted in front of clients, regulators and international visitors. Marr has interviewed every recent UK prime minister and most senior cabinet figures. Working journalist, not a retired one. Political Editor of the New Statesman and presenter of Tonight with Andrew Marr on LBC, so the analysis is current to the week of the event. Equally effective as keynote speaker, interviewer and moderator. The same craft that drove fifteen years of Sunday political interviews carries into corporate fireside formats and on-stage conversation with senior leaders. Biography highlights BBC Political Editor, 2000 to 2005. Editor of The Independent, 1996 to 1998. Political Editor of The Independent before that. Presented The Andrew Marr Show on BBC One from 2005 to December 2021. Political Editor and columnist at the New Statesman, since February 2022. Presents Tonight with Andrew Marr on LBC and a current affairs show on Classic FM. Author of A History of Modern Britain, The Making of Modern Britain, A History of the World, The Diamond Queen, and Elizabethans. Companion BBC documentary series accompanied most of them. BAFTA Richard Dimbleby Award (2004), British Press Awards Columnist of the Year (1995), Royal Television Society Best Presenter (2008), RTS Scotland Current Affairs Award (2017). Read English at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, first class honours. Biography British politics has rarely moved at a pace this difficult for boards and senior leaders to track. Election cycles, fiscal reversals, the state’s relationship with business, and Britain’s position in the world are all in motion at once. Reading the signal underneath the noise is now part of corporate planning, not an adjacent interest. That is the contribution Andrew Marr brings to a corporate audience. As BBC Political Editor from 2000 to 2005, and then as presenter of the BBC One Sunday political programme for sixteen years, he interviewed every recent UK prime minister and most senior cabinet figures across two decades of British government. Few broadcasters have that continuity of access. The historical work is what separates him from other political commentators. A History of Modern Britain, The Making of Modern Britain, and Elizabethans, each a Sunday Times bestseller with a major BBC television series alongside it, gave a generation of British readers their working picture of how the country got from 1945 to now. The BBC series for A History of Modern Britain won a BAFTA. He left the BBC at the end of 2021 and now writes as Political Editor of the New Statesman, presents Tonight with Andrew Marr on LBC, and a current affairs programme on Classic FM. The journalism is current to the week. Awards include the BAFTA Richard Dimbleby (2004), British Press Awards Columnist of the Year (1995), and Royal Television Society Best Presenter (2008). He read English at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, with first class honours. Key speaking topics UK politics and Westminster British government and policy Modern British history and national identity UK economic policy and the state Elections and the political cycle Media and public life Scotland and the union Ideal for Boards and executive committees of UK and international businesses with material UK exposure Senior partner and client events for professional services firms hosting clients on UK affairs Annual conferences and leadership offsites seeking a credible on-the-record political read Event organisers needing a senior moderator or interviewer for political and economic sessions Audience outcomes A clear, non-partisan read on where UK politics is heading in the next political cycle Historical context for current political and economic shifts, traced back to identifiable turning points in post-war Britain An informed sense of how Westminster, Whitehall and the Treasury actually interact on the issues that matter to business A sharper picture of the UK’s standing internationally and what that means for British operations and investment

Why organisations work with Andrew McAfee His Geek Way framework – four named cultural norms (science, ownership, speed, openness) derived from evolutionary biology and management research – gives leadership teams a specific, testable diagnostic for why their organisations underperform digitally, not another instruction to move faster or fail more His research at MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy produces evidence-based findings on how AI and automation are actually affecting productivity and competitive structure – drawn from organisations that have already made the transition, not from modelled projections He holds simultaneous positions as MIT Principal Research Scientist, inaugural Visiting Fellow at Google’s Technology and Society group, and co-founder of Workhelix, an AI workforce optimisation startup – a combination that grounds his analysis in research, platform-scale practice, and operating reality at once The Second Machine Age and Machine, Platform, Crowd – both New York Times bestsellers co-authored with Erik Brynjolfsson – established the intellectual framework through which most serious organisations now think about automation, labour displacement, and platform competition; many executives in the room will be updating assumptions formed by those books He and Brynjolfsson are the only individuals named to both the Thinkers50 ranking of the world’s top management thinkers and the Politico 50 group of people transforming American politics – a dual recognition that reflects the reach of his work into the policy questions, not just the business questions, that will define the digital economy’s next decade Biography highlights Principal Research Scientist, MIT Sloan School of Management; co-founder and co-director, MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy Inaugural Visiting Fellow, Technology and Society, Google Co-founder, Workhelix (AI workforce optimisation startup) Six-time Thinkers50 honoree; Thinkers50 Digital Thinking Award 2015 with Erik Brynjolfsson; one of only two individuals named to both the Thinkers50 and the Politico 50 Author of The Geek Way (Economist Best Books 2023; Forbes Top 10 Business Books 2023) and More from Less; co-author of The Second Machine Age and Machine, Platform, Crowd (New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers) Contributor to Foreign Affairs, Harvard Business Review, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times; featured on CNN, 60 Minutes, TED, and the World Economic Forum Biography The gap between digital investment and digital performance is one of the most consequential – and least clearly explained – problems in business strategy. Andrew McAfee, Principal Research Scientist at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and co-founder of MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy, has spent three decades building the research base to explain it precisely. His 2023 book The Geek Way – named a best book of the year by both The Economist and Forbes – makes a specific argument: the companies consistently outperforming their sectors share four cultural norms (science, ownership, speed, openness), and those norms are not accidents of Silicon Valley geography but replicable patterns grounded in evolutionary science. Organisations that treat digital transformation as an infrastructure challenge, McAfee argues, are misidentifying the problem. The bottleneck is almost always managerial culture, not technology capability. That argument carries weight from multiple directions. McAfee is the inaugural Visiting Fellow at Google’s Technology and Society group and co-founder of Workhelix, an AI startup focused on workforce optimisation – positions that situate his MIT research in both platform-scale and operating practice. His earlier books with Erik Brynjolfsson – The Second Machine Age and Machine, Platform, Crowd, both New York Times bestsellers – established the frameworks that shaped how most serious organisations now think about automation, platform competition, and the economics of digital productivity. He and Brynjolfsson are the only individuals named to both the Thinkers50 ranking of the world’s top management thinkers and the Politico 50 group of people transforming American politics – a pairing that reflects how far McAfee’s work extends beyond corporate boardrooms into the policy questions about AI, labour, and economic growth that will define the decade ahead. Key speaking topics AI and digital business performance The Geek Way: cultural norms for the digital organisation Platform competition and digital business models Technology, productivity, and economic growth Machine intelligence and the future of work Dematerialisation and sustainable growth Organisational culture in the technology-driven enterprise Ideal for C-suite and board audiences evaluating digital strategy and competitive positioning against digital-native rivals Strategy and transformation leads in established industries under sustained digital disruption Innovation and R&D leaders benchmarking organisational culture against technology-sector performance models Executive education programmes on digital leadership, AI adoption, and future-of-work strategy Audience outcomes A clear account of why digital-native organisations outperform incumbents structurally – not through superior technology budgets but through specific, replicable management norms A practical diagnostic framework (The Geek Way: science, ownership, speed, openness) for identifying where organisational culture is constraining digital performance Evidence-based perspective on how AI and automation are actually affecting productivity and workforce structure, grounded in MIT research rather than market projections A more disciplined vocabulary for separating genuine digital transformation from technology investment that changes operating performance little Sharper thinking on platform competition and the long-term viability of traditional business models against digital-native challengers

Why organisations work with Andrew Scott His published distinction between an “ageing society” and a “longevity society”, developed in The Lancet Healthy Longevity and across his books, gives leadership teams a concrete alternative to deficit-focused demographic thinking, with direct implications for workforce design, business model adaptation, and long-term investment. His two books, The 100-Year Life (over one million copies sold) and The Longevity Imperative (2024, shortlisted for the FT–Schroders Business Book of the Year), translate macroeconomic and health research into specific decisions organisations face: how to structure careers, what skills to invest in, how to redesign pension and benefits frameworks. His academic research, including a paper in Nature Aging co-authored with David Sinclair and Martin Ellison, connects macro-economic strategy to the science of ageing itself, giving organisations a basis for anticipating how advances in health and geroscience will affect labour supply and workforce composition over the next two decades. As leader of the CEPR Research Policy Network on the Economics of Longevity and Ageing, he has an overall view of policy, academic research, and applied economic intelligence: not a commentator on the trend, but one of the people who defines the research agenda. His advisory roles at the UK Office for Budget Responsibility, and his prior work with HM Treasury and the Bank of England, mean he can brief boards on the regulatory and fiscal changes that longevity economics will drive – before those changes arrive on the agenda. Biography highlights Professor of Economics at London Business School; Principal Scientist (Economics) at the Ellison Institute of Technology, Oxford CBE, 2026 New Year’s Honours – for services to economics, research and public discourse Co-author of The 100-Year Life (with Lynda Gratton) – over one million copies sold; runner-up for the FT/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award Author of The Longevity Imperative (2024) – shortlisted for the FT–Schroders Business Book of the Year; named one of the FT’s best summer economics reads Research Fellow, Centre for Economic Policy Research; leads the CEPR Research Policy Network on the Economics of Longevity and Ageing; member of the WEF Global Future Council on Healthy Ageing and Longevity Former Non-Executive Director, UK Financial Services Authority; former Managing Editor, Royal Economic Society’s Economic Journal; advisory board member, UK Office for Budget Responsibility; adviser to HM Treasury and the Bank of England Biography The 100-Year Life, co-authored by Andrew Scott and Lynda Gratton, has sold over a million copies. What made it resonate was not the data on life expectancy; it was the argument that longer lives require a fundamentally different structure for careers, organisations, and economic systems. That argument sits at the centre of Scott’s research at London Business School and the Ellison Institute of Technology in Oxford. Scott’s central distinction – between an “ageing society” and a “longevity society” – reframes longevity from a background risk into a strategic imperative. An ageing society focuses on supporting rising numbers of older people. The longevity society, as Scott defines it in The Lancet Healthy Longevity, demands that organisations prepare for fifty-year careers, not just older employees. The implication for workforce strategy, benefits design, and long-term investment is structural, not cosmetic. The Longevity Imperative (2024, shortlisted for the FT–Schroders Business Book of the Year) extends the analysis from individual careers into system-level change: health systems, fiscal policy, financial markets. Academic research published in Nature Aging with David Sinclair and Martin Ellison grounds this macro-economic framing in the science of ageing itself – connecting what medical advances mean for labour supply to decisions boards face today. Scott advises the UK Office for Budget Responsibility and has previously advised HM Treasury and the Bank of England. He co-founded The Longevity Forum and serves on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Healthy Ageing and Longevity. In 2026, he was appointed CBE for services to economics, research and public discourse. Key speaking topics Economics of longevity Demographic change and long-term economic growth Multigenerational workforce design Career reinvention and the 50-year working life Health, ageing, and the economics of prevention Fiscal sustainability and pension system reform AI, technology, and demographic change Business strategy and long-run demographic risk Ideal for CHROs and heads of people strategy at large, multigenerational organisations navigating career architecture and workforce planning for longer working lives Boards and senior leadership teams integrating demographic risk into long-term strategy alongside AI and geopolitical disruption Financial services leaders – asset managers, pension funds, insurers – whose business models are directly shaped by the structural economics of ageing populations Policymakers and public sector leaders with responsibility for labour market, health, or fiscal policy Audience outcomes A concrete framework – the ageing society vs longevity society distinction – for identifying where current workforce and business strategies are misaligned with demographic reality Clarity on the three-dimensional longevity dividend: what it means in practice to build for lives that are longer, healthier, and economically productive Specific implications for pension design, benefit frameworks, talent investment, and career architecture – not trend-watching, but decision-relevant analysis An evidence-based view of how advances in geroscience and health technology are likely to affect labour supply and workforce composition over the next two decades A new strategic vocabulary for the board conversation on longevity – one that moves from “ageing burden” to a concrete set of opportunities and organisational decisions