Parag Khanna

Boards are being asked to commit capital across a world where the rules of trade, alliance and supply have stopped holding. China exposure, sanctions regimes, climate-driven migration and the reordering of supply chains now sit inside investment cases that were once treated as macro background. Leaders need a way to read the new map before they price the next decision.

Parag Khanna helps boards and institutional investors translate geopolitical shifts, demographics and supply chain realignment into specific capital and country decisions, drawing on seven books and the AlphaGeo geospatial analytics platform he founded.

Download Profile
Check Availability
Check availability

Check Parag Khanna's availability for your event

Complete the form below to check Parag Khanna's availability. If you prefer, you can also send an email directly to our head office.

How would Parag Khanna deliver their presentation at your event?
Please provide details of your budget for Parag Khanna's speaking fee, including currency.

Full Profile

Why organisations work with Parag Khanna

  • A trilogy of books on global order, connectivity and the Asian century gives clients a coherent thesis on where capital, people and supply chains are moving, not a topical scan of headlines.
  • Founder of AlphaGeo, which operationalises his frameworks as geospatial risk analytics for institutional investors, so the work in the room connects to a product used inside investment processes.
  • Advised US Special Operations Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and the US National Intelligence Council’s Global Trends programme, which sharpens the briefing for boards weighing political risk and sanctions exposure.
  • Sits inside the Gulf and Asian capital-allocation conversation through the UAE Ministry of Economy’s International Advisory Council and a senior advisory role at Gulf Capital, giving Western audiences access to perspectives they rarely hear directly.
  • Multi-pillar fluency on geopolitics, climate adaptation and demographic mobility means a single keynote can reframe the same investment committee on country risk, supply chain and talent strategy.

Biography highlights

  • Founder and CEO, AlphaGeo, an AI-powered geospatial analytics platform for institutional investors.
  • Author of seven books including Connectography, The Future is Asian and MOVE, published by Random House, Simon and Schuster and W&N.
  • PhD in International Relations, London School of Economics; BSc and MA, Georgetown School of Foreign Service.
  • Senior Geopolitical Adviser to US Special Operations Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan (2007); adviser to the US National Intelligence Council’s Global Trends programme.
  • Named Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and one of Esquire’s “75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century”.
  • Visiting Senior Fellow, LSE Data Science Institute (2025-27); member, UAE Ministry of Economy International Advisory Council.

Biography

The argument that capital follows borders has stopped working. Supply chains, energy flows, migration and digital infrastructure now describe the world more accurately than the political map, and Parag Khanna has spent two decades building the data and the language to read it. His trilogy Connectography, The Future is Asian and MOVE traces that shift from theory through to the operating reality facing investment committees and corporate boards.

The work sits on serious institutional ground. A PhD from the London School of Economics, two degrees from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, and senior research posts at Brookings, the New America Foundation and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore. He has advised US Special Operations Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and the US National Intelligence Council’s Global Trends programme, work that informs how he handles questions on sanctions, China exposure and political risk in front of senior audiences.

What separates the speaking work from the wider geopolitics circuit is that he runs the product. AlphaGeo, the company he founded and leads as CEO, turns the same geospatial and scenario frameworks into analytics used by sovereign wealth funds, pension plans and asset managers. The result is a keynote that connects a global thesis to the country, sector and asset-level decisions a board is already wrestling with.

He also sits inside the conversations Western audiences rarely access directly. A seat on the UAE Ministry of Economy’s International Advisory Council, a senior advisory role at Gulf Capital, and a long working relationship with Asian governments and family offices give him a view of where Gulf and Asian capital is actually being committed, and why.

Key speaking topics

  • Geopolitical risk and the new global macro
  • Asia, the Gulf and shifting capital flows
  • Supply chain restructuring and connectivity
  • Climate-driven migration and demographic mobility
  • Country risk for institutional investors
  • AI-powered geospatial analytics for decision-making
  • Scenario planning and strategic foresight

Ideal for

  • Boards and investment committees of asset managers, pension funds and sovereign wealth funds reweighting country and sector exposure
  • CEOs and CSOs of multinationals revising supply chain, China and Gulf strategy
  • Heads of strategy, risk and policy in financial services, energy and infrastructure
  • Family office principals and private equity partners pricing geopolitical and climate risk into capital decisions

Audience outcomes

  • A working thesis on where capital, people and supply chains are moving over the next decade, anchored to named regions and corridors
  • A clearer read on China exposure, sanctions risk and the Gulf and Asian counter-cycle for committee-level conversations
  • Practical framing for how climate-driven migration and demographic shifts intersect with country risk
  • Exposure to how leading sovereign and institutional investors are using geospatial analytics inside live investment processes

Talks

Winners and Losers in the New Global Macro

A read on the macro and geopolitical forces redrawing the investment map, and which geographies and sectors stand to gain.

Key takeaways:

  • A framework for ranking country and regional exposure under multipolar conditions
  • How supply chain, energy and capital flow shifts feed into sector-level outcomes
  • The investment implications of US, China, India and Gulf realignment

Navigating the Geopolitical Marketplace

A practical guide to multi-alignment strategy for corporations and investors operating across great-power blocs.

Key takeaways:

  • Where US, China and middle-power competition is creating openings and traps
  • How to structure China, Gulf and emerging market exposure under sanctions risk
  • The shift from globalisation to a managed, regionalised global economy

The Global War for Young Talent

A demographic-led view of how migration and mobility are reshaping where workforces, skills and growth actually sit.

Key takeaways:

  • Why ageing and migration are now first-order capital allocation variables
  • The countries and cities winning the competition for skilled talent
  • What this means for workforce strategy, real estate and infrastructure

How to Climate-Proof Your Company

A working approach to building climate resilience into corporate strategy, capital planning and location decisions.

Key takeaways:

  • How geospatial analytics surface climate exposure at asset and supply chain level
  • The geographies emerging as climate-stable destinations for capital and people
  • Where adaptation, not mitigation, is becoming the dominant corporate question

The Future is Asian

A direct argument that Asia, broadly defined, is now the centre of gravity for commerce, capital and consumer demand.

Key takeaways:

  • The economic and demographic case for an Asia-led 21st century
  • How Gulf, South Asian and Southeast Asian capital is reshaping global markets
  • Practical implications for market entry, partnerships and country strategy

Videos

Testimonials

Business speakers have an impossible challenge to advise, inspire and keep their audience at the edge of their seats. In looking for the right speaker, we have the added pressure to ensure our clients walk away with value for the time they set aside to listen. Parag’s presentation was thought provoking and stimulating for our sophisticated clients.
Kevin A. Aussef
Executive Managing Director, CBRE Capital Markets
Parag is a brilliant, energetic, and mesmerizing speaker who carried the opening day at our recent symposium, the largest annual gathering of geospatial intelligence practitioners in the world. Our almost 4,000 attendees bring wide-ranging areas of expertise regarding myriad emerging technologies, including remote sensing, data analytics, and intelligence for national security. They were universally blown away by Parag’s talk, and the concepts he raised were grist for superb conversations and debates during the entirety of our event.
Keith Masback
CEO, US Geospatial Intelligence Foundation
Parag brought a sophisticated and optimistic vision for the future of the world economy to our colleagues.
Goldman Sachs Asset Management
Parag was a highly rated keynote speaker at our recent European conference. During a particularly challenging and volatile time in the markets, his speech focusing on the mega-trends shaping the macro environment offered a thought provoking and cutting edge perspective for our clients.
Kashif Zafar
Co-Head of Global Distribution, Barclays
Parag’s keynote was exactly the macro view we needed to stimulate conversations on the intersection of financial services and emerging digital technologies. Very stimulating for our executives and clients.
SAS
Volatility has returned to global markets, but Dr. Khanna made a very persuasive case for the huge continued long-term opportunities in emerging markets, especially Asia. His presentation on the growing attractiveness of infrastructure as an asset class was first-rate.
Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan
Clyde & Co. is rapidly expanding worldwide in vital industries such as insurance, transport and infrastructure. Parag provided a sharp and rapid-fire perspective on how these crucial sectors are evolving in a volatile world and mapped out pathways that benefited all our partners. Our collective view was: ‘Wow!'
Clyde & Co.
Dr. Khanna’s opening keynote address at our recent foreign direct investment forum was engaging, insightful and stimulating for our diverse audience of senior decision makers from government and international corporations. His thought provoking perspectives set the scene perfectly for the day ahead.
Financial Times Live
Parag’s insight and analysis on the crucial role multi-generational families play in the world economy, and the range of investible assets that present great opportunities for the years ahead, provided Campden Wealth’s community with a stimulating and essential contribution to our North American Family Investment Conference.
Campden Wealth Management
Our partners and clients are seeking to understand and be confident in the face of Asia’s complex dynamics. Parag delivered the keynote address at our recent ASEAN Connections client forum in Singapore. He demonstrated a unique ability to simplify the complex and interlink geopolitical, economic and business concepts into engaging and informative discussion points, complete with the latest data and striking visuals.
Laura Ashton
Asia Pacific Regional Director, Baker & McKenzie
UPS’s clients are looking at logistics and digital solutions on a global scale. Dr. Khanna’s concept of the ‘supply chain world’ and his detailed analysis of the current trends in globalization and obstacles to smoother integration was exactly what we were looking for.
Craig Arnold
UPS
I’m pleased that Parag was able to speak at our Sustainable Financing Forum. We have received exceptional customer feedback. Customers and other attendees made special mention of the quality of the speakers, the depth and breadth of insights shared and relevance of the subject matter. Please extend my thanks to Parag for his valuable contribution and for sharing his insights with such clarity.
HSBC
Dr. Khanna was a ‘home run’ at this year’s ECC Conference. His presentation on his original work in Connectography was a perfect fit for our conference theme of innovation. Parag was an excellent speaker with a unique presentation on taking a different perspective on world geography. His research and theories gave our conference some great insights on where we might best focus our efforts to insure sustainable future growth in global commerce.
Stephen Buras
Albemarle Corporation
Investor AB’s 100th anniversary celebration was a major milestone in one of Europe’s leading family firms. Dr. Khanna’s opening keynote speech was inspirational to our senior management and the heads of our many portfolio companies. His vision of the future is precisely what we believe all investors should focus on.
Investor AB (Sweden)
Parag offered our members a knowledgeable and fascinating perspective on the ways in which an increasingly urban world will renegotiate the historical boundaries of our geopolitical landscape. The various visuals and extensive research he provided made for a fact-packed program that fully engaged everyone in the room.
Economic Club of Chicago

Books

Futurism
Professional Finance
Move: Where People Are Going for a Better Future
In the 60,000 years since people began colonizing the continents, a recurring feature of human civilization has been mobility—t…
Interested in learning more or planning ahead?
Easily check the speaker's latest availability or add this profile to your shortlist for consideration.
Check Availability
Futurism
Professional Finance
The Future Is Asian: Commerce, Conflict and Culture in the 21st Century
In the 19th century, the world was Europeanized. In the 20th century, it was Americanized. Now, in the 21st century, the world is…

Fees

EUR GBP USD
Home Country €40000 to €90000 £35,001 - £75,000 $50000 - $100000
Asia Pacific €40000 to €90000 £35,001 - £75,000 $50000 - $100000
Europe €40000 to €90000 £35,001 - £75,000 $50000 - $100000
Middle East & Africa €40000 to €90000 £35,001 - £75,000 $50000 - $100000
South America €40000 to €90000 £35,001 - £75,000 $50000 - $100000
United Kingdom €40000 to €90000 £35,001 - £75,000 $50000 - $100000
US East Coast €40000 to €90000 £35,001 - £75,000 $50000 - $100000
US West Coast €40000 to €90000 £35,001 - £75,000 $50000 - $100000
Virtual €12000 to €40000 £10,001 - £35,000 $15000 - $50000