AI Ethics & Responsible Technology speakers

Why organisations work with Danilo McGarry He has run AI inside two of the largest regulated enterprises on the planet. Buyers get an operator who has defended budgets, cleared risk committees and shipped at scale, not a consultant describing other people’s work. His track record is tied to outcomes in the numbers. His work at Alter Domus is associated with a period of significant valuation growth, and his engagements are framed around measurable cost, revenue and risk impact rather than adoption metrics. He sits at the board-level interface of AI. He teaches on the Financial Times Board Directors Programme and advises the CIPD on AI, which means the language he uses lands with directors, not just technologists. He explains complex AI choices in terms non-technical leaders can act on. That is what earns him repeat invitations from banks, insurers, health systems and consultancies where the decision rests with a chief executive or a chair. Biography highlights Former Head of AI at Citigroup, leading enterprise AI and automation inside one of the world’s largest banks. Former Head of AI at UnitedHealth Group, operator of one of the largest software-robot estates in any healthcare business. Former Global Head of AI and Automation at Alter Domus, the fund services group, from December 2019. Strategic adviser on artificial intelligence to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). Faculty contributor to the Financial Times Board Directors Programme. Host of the “It’s All About AI” podcast; TEDx speaker; ranked on Thinkers360 and Onalytica lists of leading AI voices. Biography The hard part of enterprise AI is not the model. It is the decision to commit, the governance to contain the risk, and the operational grip to turn a working pilot into a line on the P&L. Danilo McGarry has spent his career on the inside of that problem. At Citigroup he led artificial intelligence and machine learning, launching automation and AI initiatives across capital markets operations. He then became a senior AI leader at UnitedHealth Group, where his remit included a programme of roughly 3,500 software “digital workers” embedded in one of the largest healthcare businesses in the United States. As Global Head of AI and Automation at Alter Domus from 2019, he built an AI and automation function inside a fund services firm through a period of significant growth. Earlier roles at JPMorgan and Royal Bank of Canada gave him the grounding in regulated operations that now sits under everything he says on stage. That operator track record is why boards listen. He is a faculty contributor to the Financial Times Board Directors Programme and strategic adviser on AI to the CIPD, which puts him in front of chairs, chief executives and people leaders making the governance calls. He is cited and quoted in outlets including the Financial Times, The Times, Bloomberg, Forbes and WIRED, and ranks on Thinkers360 and Onalytica lists of leading voices in AI and intelligent automation. His argument on stage is practical. Treat AI as an operating-model question, not a tooling question. Pick the handful of processes where the economics are real, industrialise them, and build the governance that lets the next wave scale without fresh permission every time. It is a message that lands with leadership teams who are tired of pilot decks and want to know what to do on Monday. Key speaking topics Enterprise AI strategy AI operating models and governance Intelligent automation at scale AI in financial services and healthcare Board-level AI literacy Digital workers and the future of operations Responsible AI adoption Ideal for Boards and chief executives setting enterprise AI policy and investment envelopes. CIOs, CDOs and heads of transformation running AI and automation portfolios. CHROs and people leaders rethinking workforce design around AI and digital workers. Regulated-sector leadership teams in banking, insurance, asset servicing and healthcare. Audience outcomes A clearer view of where AI actually moves the numbers inside their own operating model. A working vocabulary for the governance, risk and workforce questions AI creates at board level. Concrete reference points from AI deployments inside Citigroup, UnitedHealth Group and Alter Domus. A sharper read on which AI investments industrialise and which stay trapped as pilots. Confidence to set the next twelve months of AI priorities with fewer, better bets.

Why organisations work with David Hanson He built Sophia. Few speakers on AI can point to a single, globally recognised artefact of their work that has been granted citizenship by a nation state and appointed the UN Development Programme’s first Innovation Champion. His perspective combines sculpture, materials science and AI in a way almost no other robotics founder can credibly claim. RISD-trained, Disney Imagineering-trained, PhD from UT Dallas, peer-reviewed in IEEE and SPIE. He has built and run a robotics company through the commercial reality of hardware, not just the AI software conversation. That grounds his view of where human-facing AI actually works and where it does not. The 2005 AAAI first-place prize for open AI system interaction, Tech Titans Innovator of the Year, and Sophia’s 2018 Edison Award give the innovation claim a named, credible track record rather than a marketing line. He is one of the small group of AI voices who can hold a serious conversation about ethics, emotional design and commercial deployment in the same session. That is what executive audiences increasingly want from the topic. Biography highlights Founder and CEO of Hanson Robotics, Hong Kong Creator of Sophia, the first robot granted honorary citizenship (Saudi Arabia, 2017) and UN Development Programme’s first Innovation Champion Sophia awarded a 2018 Edison Award in robotics Co-recipient of the 2005 AAAI first-place prize for open interaction of an AI system PhD, Interactive Arts and Technology, University of Texas at Dallas; BFA, Rhode Island School of Design Co-author, “The Coming Robot Revolution” (Springer, 2009); author, “Humanizing Robots” Former Walt Disney Imagineer; earlier design and robotics roles at Universal Studios and MTV Featured in the New York Times, WIRED, Scientific American, Popular Science, BBC and CNN Biography Sophia was activated in February 2016 and made her first public appearance weeks later at SXSW. Within eighteen months she had honorary Saudi Arabian citizenship and a UN title, and David Hanson’s company, Hanson Robotics, had become the reference point for what a human-facing robot could look like. The artefact was the argument. The background behind that artefact is unusual. Hanson trained at the Rhode Island School of Design in film, animation and video, then spent years as a sculptor and material researcher inside Disney Imagineering before taking a PhD in Interactive Arts and Technology at the University of Texas at Dallas. The skin materials, the expression mechanisms and the facial architecture on his robots come from that rare combination of arts practice and engineering. The research record sits alongside it. Papers in IEEE, SPIE, IROS, AAAI and AI Magazine. A Springer-published co-authored book, “The Coming Robot Revolution”. A 2005 AAAI first-place prize for open AI system interaction. NASA and NSF awards. Tech Titans Innovator of the Year. His own company, founded in 2013 and scaled out of Hong Kong, building robots now deployed in research, therapy and education. For executive audiences, the value is a founder who can speak with authority about where human-facing AI is heading, how ethical and emotional design choices get made inside a real robotics programme, and what changes for industries from healthcare to customer experience when the machine has a face. Sophia is the headline. The argument behind her is why leadership teams book him. Key speaking topics Humanoid robotics and social AI Human-robot coexistence in work and everyday life AI ethics and responsible development The design and engineering behind Sophia Science fiction, storytelling and the shaping of real-world robotics The future of AI in healthcare, education and customer-facing industries Ideal for Executive teams and boards setting strategy for AI-mediated customer, patient or citizen interaction Innovation, R&D and technology leadership in healthcare, education, hospitality and customer experience Corporate conferences, industry summits and innovation festivals seeking a founder-level voice on human-facing AI Audiences exploring AI ethics, emotional design and the societal consequences of humanoid machines Audience outcomes A grounded view of where humanoid AI is today, told by the person who built the most visible example of it A clear read on the commercial sectors most likely to be reshaped by social robotics over the next decade The ethical questions serious robotics programmes are actually wrestling with, not the media version of them A sense of how arts, materials science and engineering combine to produce AI that people trust and engage with Direct exposure to Sophia when the format permits, and an informed discussion of what that interaction implies for their own organisation

Why organisations work with Dex Hunter-Torricke He has been inside the rooms where the current AI systems were built and launched. He led global communications for Google DeepMind and the go-to-market for Gemini, which gives him a working view of what frontier model deployment actually looks like, not a commentator’s view. He sits on the board of HM Treasury, appointed by the Chancellor in 2025. This is a working policymaker’s seat, not an honorific, and gives him a sovereign-level read on how governments are now thinking about AI, capital and competition. His communications track record is rare in scope: speechwriter to Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Eric Schmidt and Ban Ki-moon, and head of communications at SpaceX through a hypergrowth period. Few advisors have written the words a board’s CEO now wants to write. He has publicly broken from the position he was paid to promote, founding the Center for Tomorrow in 2026 to argue for AI taxation, displacement support and tighter controls. That credibility is hard to manufacture and audiences notice it. Biography highlights Head of Global Communications and Marketing, Google DeepMind, 2023 to 2025; led go-to-market for Gemini. Non-Executive Board Member, HM Treasury, appointed by Chancellor Rachel Reeves, October 2025. Former Head of Communications, Oversight Board for Meta. Former Head of Communications, SpaceX; Head of Executive Communications, Facebook, 2012 to 2016, as personal speechwriter to Mark Zuckerberg. Google’s first executive speechwriter, supporting Larry Page and Eric Schmidt. Speechwriter and spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, from 2008. Founder, Center for Tomorrow, a non-profit on AI governance and societal resilience, launched February 2026. BA Politics, University College London; MPhil Russian and East European Studies, University of Oxford. Biography The people who built the current generation of AI systems are now the ones publicly warning about them. That shift, from inside-the-tent advocacy to public reform argument, is one of the most consequential repositioning moves in the technology industry. Hunter-Torricke is one of its more visible practitioners. He led global communications and marketing at Google DeepMind from 2023 to 2025, including the go-to-market for Gemini. Before that he ran communications at SpaceX, led executive communications at Facebook through its mid-2010s expansion as Mark Zuckerberg’s speechwriter, and was Google’s first executive speechwriter to Larry Page and Eric Schmidt. His career began at the United Nations, writing for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. In October 2025 he was appointed by Chancellor Rachel Reeves to the board of HM Treasury, giving him an active seat at the centre of British economic and AI policy. In February 2026 he launched the Center for Tomorrow, a non-profit pushing for AI taxation, displacement support and stronger international coordination as compute concentrates in a small number of firms. For boards, the value is unusual. Most AI commentators have either operated frontier systems or shaped policy. Hunter-Torricke has done both, in named institutions, and is now arguing publicly that the trajectory needs correcting. That gives senior audiences a working view of how the AI race actually looks from the inside, and what the institutional response is starting to demand. Key speaking topics Frontier AI deployment and competitive strategy AI governance, regulation and the post-2025 policy environment Communications and narrative strategy for senior leaders Workforce displacement and the social contract under AI Big Tech concentration and the future of digital power Reputation and public trust in technology firms Ideal for Boards and executive committees setting AI strategy and risk appetite CEOs, chief communications officers and chief strategy officers exposed to AI public-trust risk Policy leaders, regulators and sovereign investors assessing AI exposure Senior leadership offsites where AI competitive pressure and governance need to be discussed in the same conversation Audience outcomes A working read on how frontier AI labs actually make deployment decisions, from someone who was in those decisions. A clearer picture of where AI governance is heading in the UK, EU and US, and what that means for corporate exposure. A sharper view of the AI workforce question: which displacement effects matter, on what timeline, and which corporate responses are credible. A stronger framework for senior communications when public trust in technology is contested.

Why organisations work with Didem Ün Ateş She has operationalised responsible AI inside three of the world’s largest organisations (Microsoft, Accenture, and Schneider Electric) as an executive with direct accountability, not as an external advisor. That gives her a precise understanding of where enterprise AI governance breaks down in practice. Her role as Advisor and Generative AI Council Member for Goldman Sachs Value Accelerator, working with over 300 portfolio companies, gives boards and investment teams a live investor-grade view of how AI strategy translates, or fails to translate, into commercial value and risk-adjusted returns. LotusAI’s documented methodology, running 60 co-creation workshops across more than 200 SVPs and VPs to identify and prioritise 200 generative AI use cases inside a single Fortune 500 company, is a concrete, tested model for enterprise AI adoption, not a conceptual framework. As an accredited algorithm auditor and former WEF AI Governance Alliance Fellow, she connects organisations to the governance principles emerging at the regulatory and multilateral level, including the responsible-AI debates shaping how the technology is regulated globally. Her dual degree from the University of Pennsylvania (BS in Engineering from the Moore School and BS in Economics from the Wharton School), combined with an MBA from Columbia Business School, means she can engage credibly at both the technical architecture and commercial investment layers of an AI decision, a combination that is genuinely uncommon. Biography highlights Founder and CEO of LotusAI Ltd, advising private equity firms, hedge funds, financial institutions, and Fortune 500 companies on AI strategy, responsible AI governance, and talent transformation Former Vice President, AI Strategy & Innovation at Schneider Electric, where she defined the company’s AI and generative AI strategy, innovation roadmaps, ecosystem partnerships, and responsible AI programme Former Head of Data & AI / General Manager, Data & AI at Microsoft (EMEA) and former Managing Director of Data & AI, Europe at Accenture’s Microsoft Business Group; earlier roles at Capgemini, EY, BT, and Motorola Advisor and Generative AI Council Member for Goldman Sachs Value Accelerator, working with the firm and over 300 portfolio companies Board member of the Edge AI Foundation, the Wharton AI Alumni Studio, the Columbia Business School Women’s Circle, and the Hg Foundation Technology Advisory Board Certified Algorithm Auditor and Executive Coach; former WEF AI Governance Alliance Fellow; Forbes Technology Council member TechWomen100 Champion and Trailblazer 50 honouree; 2025 recognition includes CEO of the Year Awards UK in the AI Advisory category, Responsible AI Innovation & Growth in Business Award, New Technology Consultancy of the Year, Best New Business of the Year, and British Business Excellence Award Alumna of the University of Pennsylvania (Management & Technology dual degree: BS in Engineering from the Moore School and BS in Economics from the Wharton School) and Columbia Business School (MBA) Biography Most enterprise AI strategies stall in the same place: at the gap between approved roadmap and accountable delivery. Didem Ün Ateş has worked on both sides of that gap inside organisations large enough for every failure to matter. As VP, AI Strategy & Innovation at Schneider Electric, she held direct accountability for the company’s generative AI strategy and innovation roadmap, its ecosystem partnerships, its responsible and sustainable AI programme, and the upskilling of its global workforce. Before that, she served as Head of Data & AI and General Manager, Data & AI at Microsoft EMEA, with revenue accountability of over $2.7 billion across more than 70 subsidiaries, and as Managing Director of Data & AI, Europe within Accenture’s Microsoft Business Group. She founded LotusAI Ltd to apply that operational depth where boards and investment teams need it most. Her advisory relationship with Goldman Sachs Value Accelerator, as Advisor and Generative AI Council Member, puts her in direct conversation with over 300 portfolio companies on AI value creation, governance, and risk. LotusAI’s engagements have included guiding a generative AI opportunity scan across more than 200 senior leaders in a Fortune 500 company, delivering a three-year use-case roadmap tied to the organisation’s strategic plan and regulatory requirements. Her work sits at the intersection of commercial strategy and institutional accountability. As an accredited algorithm auditor and former WEF AI Governance Alliance Fellow, where she has co-chaired sessions on AI and sustainability at WEF summits, she connects the boardroom conversation to the multilateral frameworks shaping how responsible AI is defined and regulated globally. She also sits on the Hg Foundation Technology Advisory Board, alongside senior leaders from ING, Google, McKinsey, and Accenture. She holds a dual degree from the University of Pennsylvania, in Engineering from the Moore School and in Economics from the Wharton School, and an MBA from Columbia Business School. Recent recognition includes the CEO of the Year Awards UK 2025 in the AI Advisory category, the Responsible AI Innovation & Growth in Business Award 2025, and the British Business Excellence Award 2025, alongside the earlier TechWomen100 Champion and Trailblazer 50 honours. Key speaking topics Enterprise AI strategy and governance Generative and agentic AI adoption at scale Responsible and sustainable AI AI for private equity, private credit, and financial services AI-driven workforce capability and talent transformation AI risk management and regulatory compliance Edge AI, physical AI, embedded AI, and tinyML AI leadership training and executive workshops Ideal for Boards and C-suite teams (CEO, CTO, CDO, CAIO) building or pressure-testing enterprise AI strategies Chief Data and AI Officers designing governance frameworks for generative AI adoption Private equity and investment leadership teams assessing AI value creation and risk across portfolios Transformation and innovation leaders in financial services, industrial, and consulting sectors navigating responsible AI operationalisation Audience outcomes Practical criteria for identifying, prioritising, and sequencing AI use cases, tools, platforms, and agents within a complex organisation A clearer model of where enterprise AI governance frameworks typically break down, and what structural conditions make them durable A sharper understanding of how responsible AI principles translate into investment-grade governance, not just compliance documentation A working language for talent transformation in the agentic AI era, including the workforce decisions board members need to be ready to make More confident language for board-level conversations on AI risk, sustainability, and value creation Awareness of inclusive AI design as both a reputational risk and a long-term commercial consideration

Why organisations work with Dominik Boesl Operating credibility from two of the most consequential robotics manufacturers in Europe: KUKA, where he co-managed the market launch of the LBR iiwa, the first industrially certified collaborative robot, and Festo, where he ran a robotics division spanning five international R&D centres. A governance perspective rooted in formal institutional work, not commentary: VP roles in the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, Global Chair of the IEEE TechEthics Initiative, and founder of the Robotics & AI Governance Foundation. A named intellectual contribution. The “4 Robotic Revolutions” model, co-developed with Bernd Liepert and presented at IEEE IROS, gives audiences a working frame for where robotics sits today and what comes next. Policy-level reach into the UN system through the UN DESA expert group on AI and robotics for the Sustainable Development Goals, useful for boards weighing the regulatory direction of travel. Research that informs strategy rather than describing it: he leads the Robotics 2050+ Global Delphi Study, a long-range scenario programme supported by IEEE. Biography highlights Professor of Digital Sciences, Automation & Leadership, HDBW Munich; Adjunct Professor, TUM Institute for LifeLong Learning Founder, Robotics & AI Governance Foundation; founder and CEO, Innomancer Thinktank Former VP and Head of Robotics, Festo AG; former Principal Corporate Innovation Manager and VP Consumer Driven Robotics, KUKA AG Past VP for Industrial Activities, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society; past Global Chair, IEEE TechEthics Initiative Member of the UN DESA expert group on AI and robotics for the Sustainable Development Goals Co-author of the “4 Robotic Revolutions” framework (IEEE IROS 2016) and lead of the Robotics 2050+ Delphi Study Biography The collaborative robotics market did not exist as a commercial category until a small group of teams, including the one Boesl worked in at KUKA, navigated the LBR iiwa through the safety standards that made human-machine co-working legally and operationally viable. That kind of work, sitting at the join between engineering, regulation, and commercial deployment, is what informs the way he now advises boards. After KUKA he ran the robotics division at Festo, overseeing five international R&D centres and the development of the Festo BionicCobot, the first pneumatic collaborative robot. The combination of two senior operating roles at two of the most credible robotics businesses in Europe is unusual on its own. It becomes more so when paired with chair-level institutional work: VP for Industrial Activities at the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, and Global Chair of the IEEE TechEthics Initiative for five years. His academic and policy work extends the same agenda. As Professor of Digital Sciences at HDBW Munich and an adjunct at the TUM Institute for LifeLong Learning, he leads the Robotics 2050+ Global Delphi Study, a long-range scenario programme on the future of robotics and AI. Through the Robotics & AI Governance Foundation and a seat on the UN DESA expert group, he contributes to how governments and standards bodies think about autonomous systems and the Sustainable Development Goals. What this means for buyers is straightforward. When a board asks where the line should sit between human and machine decision-making, or how to make AI deployment defensible to a regulator, Boesl is one of the few voices in Europe who can answer from the engineering side, the standards side, and the policy side at once. Key speaking topics Robotics and human-machine collaboration AI governance and technology ethics Industry 4.0 and operational deployment of automation Strategic foresight and long-range scenario planning Responsible innovation in regulated industries The future of work in robotic and AI-enabled organisations Ideal for Boards and executive committees setting AI and automation strategy in industrial, manufacturing, and engineering-led organisations Chief technology, chief digital, and chief AI officers responsible for moving from pilots to deployment Heads of innovation, R&D leadership, and corporate strategy teams in industrial groups and Mittelstand manufacturers Policy, public affairs, and ESG leaders tracking the regulatory direction of AI and robotics Audience outcomes A clearer map of where robotics and AI sit today against the “4 Robotic Revolutions” frame, and what the next phase actually demands of an operating business A working vocabulary for AI governance that a board can use with regulators, auditors, and internal risk functions Specific reference points from KUKA and Festo on what it takes to deploy collaborative robotics inside an industrial operation A perspective on long-range scenarios drawn from the Robotics 2050+ Delphi research, rather than commentary A sharper sense of where the human-machine boundary should sit for the organisation’s own workforce design

Why organisations work with Dona Sarkar She runs the program that lets enterprise developers extend Microsoft Copilot onto their own data, so the practical content of her sessions is what she ships day-to-day at Microsoft, not commentary about it. She brings a track record of building global technical communities at scale, including the Windows Insider Program of around 20 million members, which informs how she advises leaders on adoption inside large workforces. Her work on accessibility and inclusive AI gives organisations a substantive position on responsible AI that goes beyond policy statements into product design and developer practice. She codifies her experience into named frameworks her audiences can use, including the SHENANIGANS approach to solving business problems and a structured method for tackling non-promotable work. She speaks credibly to the human side of AI transformation, from imposter syndrome in technical careers to mental health conversations at work, drawing on her own published books rather than borrowed material. Biography highlights Chief Troublemaker, Microsoft AI and Copilot Extensibility Program. Former Director of Technology for Microsoft Accessibility, leading inclusive design across the company. Led the Windows Insider Program from 2016 to 2019, a global community of around 20 million members. Author of The Imposter Syndrome Banishing Spell, Model 47: A Startup Storybook and You Had Me at Hello World, alongside three young-adult novels published by Harper Collins. Featured in Fast Company’s 100 Most Productive People; profiled in Fast Company and Microsoft’s own publications. Founder of Prima Dona, an ethical fashion line based in Seattle, alongside her engineering career. Biography Microsoft built Copilot, then had to answer the harder question: how do enterprises actually deploy generative AI on their own data, inside their own workflows, without losing the accessibility, governance and developer discipline that make software trustworthy. That is the program Dona Sarkar runs as Chief Troublemaker for Microsoft’s AI and Copilot Extensibility Program, working directly with the developers and IT leaders responsible for moving AI from pilot to production. Before this remit she was Director of Technology for Microsoft Accessibility, a role that shaped her view that inclusive design is engineering, not policy. She led the Windows Insider Program from 2016 to 2019, growing it into a global community of around 20 million members who tested early Windows builds, and she has run developer advocacy across HoloLens and Power Platform. Each of those roles required her to translate engineering decisions for non-technical leaders and to turn vague ambitions into concrete adoption. Outside Microsoft she has published books on imposter syndrome, startup methodology and mentorship, alongside three young-adult novels with Harper Collins. She founded Prima Dona, an ethical fashion line in Seattle, and has coached founders in emerging markets in East and West Africa. Fast Company has named her one of its 100 Most Productive People and profiled her approach to managing complex parallel careers. For senior buyers, her value is operational credibility on the enterprise AI question boards keep asking. She is not describing a market she observes. She runs the platform inside it. Key speaking topics Enterprise generative AI and Copilot deployment Inclusive AI and accessibility in product design Developer community and adoption at scale The future of work alongside AI agents Innovation frameworks for large organisations Career advancement and non-promotable work Mental health and imposter syndrome in technical careers Ideal for CIOs, CTOs and chief data officers planning enterprise AI deployment CHROs and heads of talent designing workforces around AI capability Heads of accessibility, DEI and responsible AI Engineering and developer relations leaders building internal AI fluency Audience outcomes A clearer view of where Copilot and generative AI add operating value on proprietary data, and where they do not A working vocabulary for inclusive AI that connects accessibility decisions to product and engineering practice Named frameworks for innovation and career progression that audiences can apply inside their teams A more honest conversation about imposter syndrome, mental health and burnout in technical organisations A read on Microsoft’s direction of travel on Copilot extensibility from someone responsible for delivering it

Why organisations work with Andrew Ng His AI Transformation Playbook – a named, five-step framework derived directly from building AI teams at Google and Baidu – gives organisations a structured implementation path, not principles. It is the difference between a direction and a plan. He has operated on both sides of the AI adoption challenge: as the person responsible for making two of the world’s largest technology companies into AI-first organisations, and as the founder of platforms that have trained more than 8 million people in AI skills. The failure modes at both ends are not theoretical to him. His “AI is the new electricity” thesis reframes AI as general-purpose infrastructure rather than a feature or a product – a distinction that changes how boards allocate capital and how leadership teams structure accountability. Named to Time’s inaugural Time100 AI list (2023) – recognising active, current influence in the field – and to Amazon’s board of directors. The former signals peer standing; the latter signals boardroom credibility. Through AI Aspire, developed in partnership with Bain & Company, he advises enterprises moving from AI experimentation to scalable transformation – giving organisations access to a perspective tested across venture building, hyperscale operations, and mass education. Biography highlights Co-founded Google Brain – the research team credited with reshaping Google’s approach to artificial intelligence VP and Chief Scientist at Baidu, leading a 1,300-person AI team responsible for the company’s global AI strategy Co-founder and Chairman of Coursera (NYSE: COUR), now serving 150 million+ registered learners globally Founder of DeepLearning.AI – over 8 million people have completed AI courses through his programmes Named to Time100 Most Influential People (2012), Fast Company’s Most Creative People (2014), and Time100 AI (2023) Member of Amazon’s board of directors (appointed April 2024) Author of the AI Transformation Playbook and Machine Learning Yearning, both in wide circulation Holds a BSc from Carnegie Mellon, MSc from MIT, and PhD from UC Berkeley; co-authored over 200 research papers Biography Most AI pilot projects never become AI companies. Andrew Ng has spent years examining why – first as the founding lead of Google Brain and then as VP and Chief Scientist at Baidu, where he built a 1,300-person AI team. The gap between isolated AI experimentation and enterprise-wide capability is the problem he has studied from the inside. His AI Transformation Playbook – drawn directly from that experience – sets out a five-step framework for taking AI adoption from initial momentum to company-wide infrastructure. It circulates widely because it treats AI transformation as an operational challenge, not a technology question. His thesis that AI is infrastructure the way electricity was infrastructure gives boards a strategic frame that holds across industries and business models. Ng co-founded Coursera, which now serves over 150 million registered learners, and founded DeepLearning.AI, through which more than 8 million people have trained in AI skills. Building AI literacy at that scale – and measuring what works – gives him a concrete, tested perspective on what workforce transformation in practice actually requires. Few speakers can point to comparable operational evidence. He holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon, MIT, and UC Berkeley, has co-authored over 200 research papers, and sits on Amazon’s board of directors. Named to Time’s inaugural Time100 AI list in 2023 – recognising current influence rather than historical contribution – he continues to co-found AI companies through AI Fund and advise enterprises on AI strategy through AI Aspire, a firm he built in partnership with Bain & Company. Key speaking topics Enterprise AI adoption and transformation AI strategy for boards and C-suite leaders Agentic AI and the next phase of AI systems AI workforce development and capability building Responsible AI development and regulation Machine learning fundamentals and applied AI The economics of AI as general-purpose infrastructure Ideal for C-suite executives and boards setting AI strategy and capital allocation Chief Technology Officers and Chief Digital Officers leading enterprise AI programmes CHROs and people leaders responsible for AI upskilling and workforce transformation Transformation leads and innovation teams moving from AI pilots to scaled deployment Audience outcomes A structured framework for diagnosing where enterprise AI adoption is stalling and what to do next Clarity on how to build internal AI capability – teams, workflows, and governance – rather than relying on isolated project-by-project approaches A board-level frame for AI as infrastructure, with implications for investment, talent, and competitive positioning Practical understanding of what large-scale AI workforce development requires, drawn from programmes that have trained millions A more grounded view of responsible AI development – distinguishing credible risk from speculative concern – from a practitioner who has argued these positions in public and in policy

Why organisations work with Christina Yan Zhang She co-writes the UN ITU standards her clients will eventually be measured against. Her CitiVerse evaluation framework spans 130 indicators across 14 domains, with input from more than 30 global authorities. She has converted that standards work into operational strategy for cities, including Tampere’s Metaverse Vision 2040, the first people-centred metaverse strategy adopted as a UN resource for governments. Her China innovation insight is grounded in direct operating experience, not commentary. As QS China Director from 2013 to 2020, she sat across hundreds of Chinese universities, national labs and science parks during the 13th Five-Year Plan. She holds advisory positions across the International Science Council’s Centre for Science Futures, The Economist Impact’s AI economy board, and TechUK’s Digital Twins Board, giving her unusually direct line of sight into where AI policy is heading. She was named in the 100 Global Women in AI 2025 list at Davos and chaired the jury of the 2024 Metaverse Entertainment World Awards under the patronage of Prince Albert II of Monaco. Biography highlights CEO, The Metaverse Institute Vice Chair, UN ITU Metaverse Working Group on Sustainability, Accessibility and Inclusion Co-Chair, UN ITU Task Group on Pre-standardisation for the CitiVerse Author of the UN’s first approved technical report on People-Centred CitiVerse China Director, QS World University Rankings, 2013 to 2020 100 Global Women in AI 2025 (announced at Davos) Biography The rules for AI in cities, public services and immersive environments are being written right now, mostly inside the UN ITU. Christina Yan Zhang is one of the people writing them. As Co-Chair of the UN ITU Task Group on Pre-standardisation for the CitiVerse, she leads the evaluation framework that 30 plus global authorities have shaped and that hundreds of cities are expected to align to before 2030. That standards work feeds directly into operational strategy. Her team at The Metaverse Institute produced Tampere Metaverse Vision 2040, the first people-centred metaverse strategy commissioned by a city government and subsequently published by the UN as a resource for other administrations. She is also the author of the UN’s first approved technical report on People-Centred CitiVerse, which set out an 8-level entry framework for governments and operators moving into virtual environments. She arrived at this work through an unusual route. Her PhD in 2012 was on digital twin applications for the construction industry, well before the term entered mainstream board conversations. Between 2013 and 2020 she was China Director for QS World University Rankings, building the firm’s China operation from scratch and sitting close to the universities, science parks and national labs that drove the country’s 13th Five-Year Plan in research and innovation. She now advises across the International Science Council’s Centre for Science Futures, The Economist Impact’s AI economy board, and TechUK’s Digital Twins Board. The throughline is consistent: where AI, digital twins and virtual environments meet public infrastructure, she has been writing the standards before most boards have read them. Key speaking topics AI governance and the UN CitiVerse standards Digital twins for cities and critical infrastructure Responsible deployment of virtual environments People-centred AI strategy for governments and operators China’s innovation system and research capacity Future of work in AI-enabled cities Ideal for Boards and C-suites setting AI, digital and immersive technology strategy Government and city leadership teams designing smart city or CitiVerse roadmaps Heads of innovation, digital and infrastructure inside regulated industries Investors and operators positioning capital around AI-powered urban and built-environment plays Audience outcomes A working map of where UN ITU standards on AI and the CitiVerse are heading, and what that means for their own roadmap A clearer view of how digital twins move from technical pilot to citywide operating system Direct insight into China’s innovation engine from someone who operated inside it for seven years A framework for testing whether their current AI and virtual-environment plans will hold up against emerging international standards

Why organisations work with Elaine Kasket She is one of the few cyberpsychologists in Europe who is also a clinically trained, HCPC-registered counselling psychologist, which means her advice on digital wellbeing is grounded in clinical practice, not commentary. Her work covers technology across the full lifespan, from “sharenting” to digital afterlife, which gives leaders a coherent framework for thinking about the employee, the customer, and the citizen as the same person. She wrote the definitive trade book on digital death and digital legacy, All the Ghosts in the Machine, and now leads on the psychology of AI companions and grief bots, an area few executive audiences have heard explained well. She has consulted to organisations including Netflix, Santander, Deloitte, the NHS and Hill & Knowlton Strategies, so the work translates from research into board-level conversations about AI, attention and surveillance. Her newest book, Reset, gives leadership teams a practical vocabulary for agency over technology rather than the usual digital detox framing, which most senior buyers find too thin for adult professional audiences. Biography highlights BPS-Chartered Psychologist and HCPC-Registered Counselling Psychologist; Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society Visiting Professor at the Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath; formerly Honorary Professor of Psychology at the University of Wolverhampton Author of Reset: Rethinking Your Digital World for a Happier Life (Elliott & Thompson, 2024) and All the Ghosts in the Machine (Robinson, 2019) TEDx Oxford speaker; featured expert in the Netflix documentary The Future Of: Life After Death Regular contributor to BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour, CNN, BBC Ideas, The Guardian, New Scientist, Psychology Today and Stylist Keynote engagements include Santander, Deloitte, the NHS, Royal Society of Medicine, Congreso Futuro, re:publica and the International Baccalaureate global conference Biography Most organisations talk about digital wellbeing in the language of the wellness industry: detoxes, screen-time apps, mindful breathing. The actual psychological problem is structural. Attention is being extracted, identity is being recorded, and the costs are showing up in engagement, retention and clinical mental health caseloads. That gap between the corporate vocabulary and the clinical reality is the space Elaine Kasket works in. She trained as a counselling psychologist before cyberpsychology was a discipline, and is registered with the HCPC alongside her chartered psychologist status with the British Psychological Society. That clinical grounding is what separates her commentary from the commentary economy around technology. She led the Doctorate in Counselling Psychology at Regent’s University London, was Honorary Professor of Psychology at the University of Wolverhampton for five years, and is now Visiting Professor at the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath. Her first trade book, All the Ghosts in the Machine (Robinson, 2019), opened a serious public conversation about digital legacy: what happens to your data, your accounts and your image when you die, and what that means for the people who outlive you. Reset: Rethinking Your Digital World for a Happier Life (Elliott & Thompson, 2024) extends the argument across the full lifespan, from “digital gestation” and sharenting to surveillance, AI relationships and the digital afterlife. For leadership audiences, she connects four conversations executives often run as separate problems: employee mental health, AI adoption, brand trust and data governance. Her recent keynotes for Santander, Deloitte, the NHS, the Royal Society of Medicine and Congreso Futuro have moved leaders away from “digital detox” framing and toward agency, the design question of how a workforce uses AI without losing the cognitive and relational ground organisations actually run on. Key speaking topics Cyberpsychology and digital wellbeing Psychology of AI adoption at work AI companions, grief bots and the future of human connection Digital legacy, data privacy and digital afterlife Attention, surveillance and the extractive attention economy Technology across the lifespan, from sharenting to digital afterlives Ideal for CHROs and Chief People Officers designing wellbeing, engagement and AI-readiness programmes Chief AI Officers and transformation leads embedding AI into employee experience and customer-facing tools Brand, marketing and communications leadership teams working on trust, privacy and AI narratives Boards and risk committees considering the human and reputational dimensions of data, surveillance and AI Audience outcomes A clinically grounded read on what technology is actually doing to attention, identity and relationships at work A vocabulary for talking about digital wellbeing that holds up in front of clinicians, regulators and senior employees A clearer view of where AI companions, grief bots and synthetic relationships intersect with workforce mental health and brand risk A practical sense of what individual and organisational agency look like in an extractive attention economy A framework that connects digital legacy, data governance and employee trust as one coherent leadership question

Why organisations work with Julia Ebner Direct field intelligence on extremist movements. She has gone undercover inside a dozen networks across the ideological spectrum, which gives her a granular read on how these groups recruit, organise and migrate between platforms. Institutional authority on both sides of the policy conversation. She leads the Violent Extremism Lab at Oxford’s Centre for the Study of Social Cohesion and is Co-Executive Director at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, the reference NGO in this field. A working brief with the organisations setting the rules. She has advised NATO, Europol, the World Bank, Google, Meta and the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism, which means she can speak to how platform governance and counter-extremism policy are actually being written. A track record of calling movements early. Going Mainstream (2023) traced how fringe conspiracy and extremist narratives were entering mainstream politics, an argument the subsequent two years of elections has substantively borne out. Two book awards from credible bodies. The Rage won the Bruno Kreisky Award for Political Book of the Year 2018; Going Dark won Wissenschaftsbuch des Jahres 2020 and was long-listed for the Gold Dagger Award. Biography highlights Co-Executive Director, Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD). Leads the Violent Extremism Lab at the University of Oxford’s Centre for the Study of Social Cohesion. Postdoctoral Researcher at the Calleva Centre for Evolution and Human Sciences, Magdalen College, Oxford. Former Special Advisor on Terrorism Prevention to the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism. Author of Going Mainstream (2023), Going Dark (2019) and The Rage (2017); winner of the Bruno Kreisky Prize and Wissenschaftsbuch des Jahres. Regular contributor to The Guardian, Financial Times, Sunday Times, Washington Post and Sueddeutsche Zeitung. Biography Most extremist movements look marginal until the moment they are not. By the time a conspiracy theory reaches a regulator, an election or a consumer boycott, the network behind it has been organising for years. Julia Ebner studies that interval. Her work explains how fringe ideas move from encrypted channels into mainstream politics, and what that movement means for governments, platforms and large employers. For Going Dark, her 2019 book, she spent two years undercover inside a dozen extremist groups, adopting five different identities to access neo-Nazi networks, jihadist recruiters, trad-wife communities and the alt-right channels that planned the Charlottesville rally. The book won Wissenschaftsbuch des Jahres 2020 and the Dr Caspar Einem prize, and was long-listed for the Gold Dagger Award. Her follow-up, Going Mainstream (Ithaka Press, 2023), traced how those same networks were already shaping electoral and policy outcomes. That field work is anchored in serious institutional positions. She leads the Violent Extremism Lab at the University of Oxford’s Centre for the Study of Social Cohesion, sits as a postdoctoral researcher at Magdalen College’s Calleva Centre, and is Co-Executive Director at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue in London. She has advised NATO, Europol, the World Bank, Google and Meta, and served as Special Advisor on Terrorism Prevention to the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism. For corporate audiences, the value of that combination is concrete. She can tell a board which narratives are about to hit them, why the networks behind those narratives behave the way they do, and what platform governance, employee safety and political-risk teams should actually be doing about it. Key speaking topics Online radicalisation and extremist networks Disinformation, conspiracy movements and democratic risk AI-enabled influence operations Platform governance and trust and safety Polarisation as a political and corporate risk Counter-extremism policy and terrorism prevention Ideal for Boards and risk committees assessing political-violence and reputational exposure Chief Trust and Safety, Policy and Public Affairs leads at technology platforms Government, defence and intelligence audiences working on counter-extremism and election integrity CHRO and Communications leadership teams facing polarisation inside the workforce or the customer base Audience outcomes A working picture of how extremist and conspiracy networks recruit, organise and migrate across platforms The early-warning signals that distinguish a fringe movement from one about to enter the mainstream A clearer view of how AI-generated content is changing the economics of disinformation A frame for translating online radicalisation into board-level political, regulatory and reputational risk Reference points from her undercover work and from ISD and Oxford research that audiences can take into their own planning

Why organisations work with Lisa Feldman Barrett She has reshaped the scientific consensus on emotion. Her theory of constructed emotion is now taught in psychology, neuroscience and affective computing curricula, and it directly contradicts the assumptions baked into most corporate EQ training and emotion-detection AI. She translates first-tier neuroscience for boardrooms without diluting it. Her two trade books, How Emotions Are Made and Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain, are written for general readers but cite the same primary research she publishes in Science and Nature Neuroscience. Her work has been adopted by audiences that need it to be right, including FBI behavioural analysts, the legal community through her role as Chief Science Officer at the Center for Law, Brain & Behavior, and senior medical faculties at Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital. A leader who books her gets a researcher with NIH Pioneer Award and Guggenheim credentials, not a popular-science communicator working from secondary sources. Biography highlights University Distinguished Professor of Psychology, Northeastern University, with appointments at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. Chief Science Officer, Center for Law, Brain & Behavior at Massachusetts General Hospital. Author of How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain and Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain. TED speaker, with the talk “You Aren’t at the Mercy of Your Emotions” passing 6.5 million views. NIH Director’s Pioneer Award; Guggenheim Fellowship; APA Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award; APS William James Fellow Award. Past President of the Association for Psychological Science; co-founder of the Society for Affective Science; over 275 peer-reviewed publications. Biography The textbook view of emotion, that anger, fear and joy are hard-wired circuits with universal facial signatures, dominated psychology, psychiatry and product design for most of the last century. It is also wrong. Lisa Feldman Barrett’s laboratory at Northeastern has spent twenty-five years showing that the brain constructs emotion in the moment, drawing on past experience, bodily state and cultural learning. Her theory of constructed emotion has reshaped affective science and is now reaching the institutions that depend on getting emotion right. She advises the FBI on behavioural analysis, serves as Chief Science Officer at the Center for Law, Brain & Behavior, and her work is cited in debates over emotion-detection AI and courtroom evidence. Barrett holds a University Distinguished Professorship at Northeastern, with appointments at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. She has published more than 275 peer-reviewed papers, sits among the top 0.1 percent most-cited scientists in the world, and has received the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the APA Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award. For senior leaders, the practical payoff is a sharper model of how their own brains, and their people’s, actually work under uncertainty. That model contradicts a great deal of what corporate wellbeing, EQ training and emotion-aware technology currently sell. Key speaking topics The science of emotion in the workplace Brain, prediction and decision-making under uncertainty Stress, allostasis and the body budget The neuroscience of self-regulation for senior leaders Emotion-detection AI and the limits of affective computing Mental health and the construction of experience Communication and influence grounded in brain science Ideal for CEOs, CHROs and senior leadership teams reassessing wellbeing, EQ training and performance management Boards and risk committees evaluating emotion-recognition AI, behavioural surveillance, or affective computing investments Healthcare, legal and security organisations whose decisions hinge on interpreting human behaviour Senior leaders wanting a substantive, science-led perspective on stress, resilience and decision quality Audience outcomes A working understanding of how the brain predicts and constructs emotion, replacing the “universal emotions” model that underpins most corporate EQ content. A clearer view of what emotion-detection technology can and cannot reliably do, useful for evaluating vendors and policy. Practical implications for stress, recovery and senior decision-making, grounded in the brain’s energy regulation rather than pop-psychology. Sharper questions about how performance reviews, hiring assessments and customer research read emotional signals.

Why organisations work with Dr. Mark T. Hofmann He has conducted anonymous, scientific interviews with active hackers and uncaught criminals on the darknet, so the attacker psychology in his keynotes is field-sourced, not theorised from headlines. His doctoral research at the University of Tubingen on psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism in hackers gives security and risk leaders a behavioural model for who is targeting them and why. He translates profiling and interrogation methods, the same toolkit used in serious crime work, into practical reading-people skills for negotiation, fraud detection, and executive due diligence. He has been certified as a Crime and Intelligence Analyst by the California Department of Justice and is regularly briefed on by international media including CNN, CBS, Forbes, and 60 Minutes Australia, which gives a buyer confidence the substance survives outside a stage. He covers the dark side of AI, deepfakes, voice cloning, and AI-assisted social engineering, with material that has been pressure-tested against actual perpetrator behaviour rather than vendor marketing. Biography highlights Master of Arts in Industrial and Organizational Psychology, University of Wuppertal. Doctoral candidate at the University of Tubingen, researching dark personality traits among hackers. Certified Crime and Intelligence Analyst, California Department of Justice, 2019. TED speaker, “Profiling Hackers: The Psychology of Cybercrime”. Featured on CNN, CBS, ARD, RTL, Forbes, Business Insider, and 60 Minutes Australia. Lecturer in Behavioral and Cyber Psychology and consultant for Management Circle AG. Biography Most cyberattacks do not begin with code. They begin with a person, a moment of trust, and a message that looked legitimate. The attacker’s craft is psychological before it is technical, and that is the layer most security programmes underinvest in. Dr. Mark T. Hofmann works on that layer for a living. A business psychologist trained at the University of Wuppertal and a Certified Crime and Intelligence Analyst credentialed by the California Department of Justice, he conducts anonymous, scientific interviews with active hackers and uncaught criminals to understand motive, method, and the soft signals that make a target. His doctoral work at the University of Tubingen examines psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism among hackers, which gives his stage material a research backbone rather than a headline one. That fieldwork translates directly into the questions a CISO, a CEO, or a head of fraud is wrestling with. How do attackers select targets inside a finance team? What does a deepfake voice request actually exploit in the listener? Why do executives keep authorising wires they should have queried? Hofmann answers those questions with case material drawn from people who do this for a living and were willing to talk. His reach extends beyond security. He teaches profiling and interrogation methods as a practical skillset for negotiation, fraud interviewing, and high-stakes meetings, the same techniques applied to commercial situations. He has been featured on CNN, CBS, Forbes, ARD, RTL, Business Insider, and 60 Minutes Australia, and has delivered a TED talk on profiling hackers. The combination is unusual: a keynote speaker whose primary research subject is the person on the other side of the attack. Key speaking topics Cyber profiling and the psychology of cybercrime Social engineering and the human firewall The dark side of AI, deepfakes, and synthetic identity Profiling in negotiation and high-stakes meetings Reading people, body language, and behavioural signals White-collar crime, psychopathy, and narcissism in organisations Ideal for CISOs, heads of information security, and cyber risk leaders rebuilding the human layer of their defence. CFOs, heads of treasury, and fraud teams exposed to deepfake-driven payment and impersonation attacks. Boards and executive committees that need a non-technical briefing on AI-enabled threat actors. Negotiation, M&A, and procurement leaders who want a practical toolkit for reading counterparties. Audience outcomes A working mental model of who is attacking the organisation, what motivates them, and how they choose targets. Specific behavioural cues that distinguish a manipulative request from a legitimate one in email, voice, and video. A clear view of where deepfakes and AI-generated content are already changing fraud and impersonation risk. Practical profiling and questioning techniques that can be applied in negotiation and internal investigation. A sharper read on dark-personality traits inside leadership pipelines and counterparties.