Artificial Intelligence & Generative AI

Why organisations work with Fabian Hemmert He brings a working academic’s depth to a question most strategy teams treat too lightly: what does good human-computer interaction actually look like when AI is in the loop. His “Research Through Design” approach produces tested prototypes, not slideware. The “Data Touch” project, a finger ring that advances presentations by recognising objects, is the kind of artefact that shifts how a leadership team thinks about interface design. He speaks fluently across audiences. A PhD from Berlin University of the Arts, prior commercial work at Nintendo and Marvel, and stage time at SXSW, Lift and the Chaos Communication Congress give him range from board to design floor. He reframes AI as a design problem rather than a deployment problem. For organisations wrestling with adoption, that reframing tends to unlock conversations the technical roadmap cannot. Biography highlights Professor of Interface and User Experience Design, University of Wuppertal, heading the department since 2016. Dr.-Ing. from Berlin University of the Arts, with doctoral research at the Design Research Lab in collaboration with Telekom Innovation Labs. TEDxBerlin speaker; talk “The shape-shifting future of the mobile phone” hosted on TED.com. Conference platforms include SXSW, Lift, Chaos Communication Congress, EuroVision TV Summit, CeBIT, TEDxSalzburg and TEDxInnsbruck. Earlier industry experience at Nintendo of Europe and Marvel Comics during interface design studies. Published academic work on tangible interfaces and design research methodology, including a PhD thesis and book chapter on the Repertory Grid Technique. Biography Most digital products are built for the system, not the human using it. That mismatch is becoming harder to hide as AI moves from the back office into daily work. Fabian Hemmert’s research at the University of Wuppertal is a sustained attempt to close that gap through design rather than user training. He runs the Interface and User Experience Design department at Wuppertal’s industrial design school and earned his Dr.-Ing. at Berlin University of the Arts, working alongside Telekom Innovation Labs. The methodology is “Research Through Design”: build a prototype, put it in front of people, learn what changes. Projects such as “Data Touch”, a finger ring that controls a presentation by recognising the objects in a speaker’s hand, are how the research becomes argument. Earlier in his career he worked for Nintendo of Europe and Marvel Comics, which gives the academic frame a commercial spine. His public platform includes TEDxBerlin, SXSW, Lift, the Chaos Communication Congress, the EuroVision TV Summit and CeBIT. The through-line is consistent across all of them: intuitive technology is a design outcome, not an accident. For senior leaders, the value is a corrective. Strategy decks treat AI and digital tools as capability questions. Hemmert’s work makes the case that adoption, engagement and trust are decided much earlier, at the interface, and that organisations underestimate how much of their digital strategy is being shaped by design defaults they never examined. Key speaking topics Human-computer interaction Designing for AI in everyday use Tangible and embodied interfaces The future of mobile and personal devices Research Through Design methodology Design education and creative capability Play as a method for innovation Ideal for Chief design officers, heads of product and CX leaders rethinking digital interfaces in light of AI. Innovation and R&D teams looking for an academic perspective grounded in built prototypes. Leadership audiences at technology, telecoms, consumer electronics and media organisations. Universities, design schools and conferences focused on the future of human-machine interaction. Audience outcomes A sharper sense of why interface design, not model capability, often decides whether an AI deployment lands. Exposure to working prototypes that reframe assumptions about how digital systems should feel to use. A vocabulary for discussing tangibility, embodiment and intuition as commercial design variables. Confidence to challenge default assumptions about screens, devices and digital workflows in their own organisation.

Why organisations work with Markus Bernhardt He runs a continuous research programme, The Endeavor Report, built on client-led case studies of what is actually working in enterprise AI adoption, so the analysis a board hears is grounded in field evidence rather than vendor positioning. He translates AI capability into operating model decisions: where to redesign workflows, how to govern adoption, which workforce shifts to plan for. The conversation moves from technology curiosity to structural choice. He carries credibility on both sides of the table, having advised technology vendors on go-to-market and Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 leaders on transformation, which lets him read where vendor claims meet enterprise reality. His pragmatic stance is explicit: no silver bullet, no hype framing. Senior buyers get an honest read on adoption maturity, polarisation across the workforce, and the specific points where AI actually changes the cost or quality of work. Forbes Technology Council member and recurring contributor to Training Magazine, the Learning Guild and ATD, with two TD Magazine cover stories, giving the body of published thinking a paper trail leaders can verify. Biography highlights Founder of Endeavor Intelligence, an independent AI strategy research and advisory firm Author of The Endeavor Report, a research programme on applied workforce solutions and enterprise AI adoption Co-creator of the TTE AI Strategy Framework with The Thinking Effect Former Chief Evangelist at Obrizum, a deep-tech adaptive learning company Forbes Technology Council member; contributor to Training Magazine, the Learning Guild, ATD and Coaching Magazine Doctorate in physics; two decades of work with Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 organisations Biography Enterprise AI adoption rarely fails on the technology. It fails on the operating model around it: who owns the workflow change, which capabilities the workforce needs next, what governance has to sit underneath. Markus Bernhardt’s work at Endeavor Intelligence is built around that gap. The Endeavor Report, his flagship research programme, sits on real client case studies rather than vendor surveys. It plots organisations across efficiency accelerators, strategic enablers, capability creators and core process innovators, giving leaders a vocabulary for the adoption choice in front of them. The argument is field-tested, and it lands where boards actually decide. His earlier role as Chief Evangelist at Obrizum, a deep-tech adaptive learning company, gave him an operator’s read on how AI changes capability development inside organisations. That experience now feeds the workforce side of his research, alongside published work in Training Magazine, the Learning Guild and ATD, and a seat on the Forbes Technology Council. A physics doctorate sets the underlying disposition. Bernhardt is sceptical of pattern claims that do not survive the data, blunt about where AI actually shifts cost or quality, and explicit that there is no silver bullet for adoption at scale. For senior leaders weighing capital, structure and workforce moves at the same time, that posture is the point. Key speaking topics Enterprise AI strategy and adoption Applied workforce solutions AI governance and operating model design Workforce transformation and capability development Evidence-based decision support for senior leaders AI in learning and performance Future of work in AI-augmented organisations Ideal for C-suite leaders weighing AI investment, governance and operating model decisions CHROs and chief learning officers planning workforce capability shifts Strategy, transformation and innovation leads designing enterprise AI roadmaps Boards seeking an independent, research-backed read on AI adoption maturity Audience outcomes A clearer map of where their organisation sits across the four adoption archetypes Bernhardt’s research identifies A sharper read on which AI claims to discount and which to act on Specific governance and operating model questions to put to internal teams and vendors A framework for talking about workforce polarisation as adoption deepens Language a senior team can carry into the next board conversation on AI

Why organisations work with Cassie Kozyrkov She built the Decision Intelligence function inside Google from scratch and ran it for five years, which means leaders get advice from someone who has already solved, at scale, the problem they are trying to solve. She named and codified the field itself. When a CEO asks what Decision Intelligence is and why their AI investment should sit inside it, she is the primary source, not an interpreter of someone else’s framework. She personally trained more than 20,000 Googlers across every function in data-driven decision-making and AI, so she knows how to make the material land with non-technical executives as well as engineers. She translates AI and statistics into decision-language that boards and operators can use. Her Making Friends with Machine Learning course, originally built only for Google, is now the reference explainer for thousands of leaders outside the company. She advises at the level the material requires. Her Federal Reserve Bank of New York Innovation Advisory Council seat and her work with Forbes on AI signal that her analysis is taken seriously by policy and media institutions, not only by corporate buyers. Biography highlights Google’s first Chief Decision Scientist (2018 to 2023), leading the firm’s decision intelligence practice inside Research and Machine Intelligence. Founder and CEO of Kozyr, an AI advisory and education business serving senior leaders and their teams. Personally trained more than 20,000 Googlers in data-driven decision-making and AI, and guided over 500 decision intelligence projects inside Google. Creator of Making Friends with Machine Learning, originally an internal Google course, now a free public course on YouTube. Author of the Decision Intelligence Substack and LinkedIn Top Voice for six consecutive years; writing has appeared in Harvard Business Review, Fortune, Fast Company, WIRED, and The Wall Street Journal. Member of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Innovation Advisory Council (2023 to 2024); Duke University Few-Glasson Distinguished Alumna. Biography Most companies do not have a data problem, they have a decision problem. The dashboards, pipelines, and models are in place, and yet senior leaders still cannot say which decisions are demonstrably better because of any of it. That gap is the subject Cassie Kozyrkov has been working on for a decade, first inside Google and now with leaders across industries. At Google, she became the company’s first Chief Decision Scientist in 2018 and held the role until 2023. She built a new function that sat between Research and Machine Intelligence on one side and the operating business on the other, and used it to run AI and data through a discipline she calls Decision Intelligence. By the time she left, she had personally trained more than 20,000 Googlers and influenced over 500 projects against that framework. The reason her work travels beyond Google is that she made the material legible. Her course Making Friends with Machine Learning, built inside Google and later released in full on YouTube, is one of the few genuinely plain-English explainers of how machine learning actually fits into business decisions. Her writing in Harvard Business Review, Fortune, Fast Company, WIRED, and The Wall Street Journal has done the same for non-technical executives, and her Decision Intelligence Substack has become a working reference for practitioners. Today she runs Kozyr, advising leadership teams on AI strategy and decision design, and sits on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Innovation Advisory Council on AI and financial markets. The through-line is consistent. She is the rare AI voice who starts with the decision the organisation is trying to get right, and works backwards to the technology, rather than the other way round. Key speaking topics Decision Intelligence AI strategy and adoption Data-driven decision-making Machine learning for business leaders Responsible and effective use of AI AI literacy for executives Bias and judgement in AI systems Ideal for CEOs, boards, and executive teams setting AI strategy and capital allocation against it Chief Data, Analytics, and AI Officers building a decision-intelligence operating model Transformation and strategy leaders responsible for turning AI pilots into business results Leadership programmes and offsites that need genuine AI literacy, not a vendor pitch Audience outcomes A working definition of Decision Intelligence and where it sits relative to data science, analytics, and AI investment. A sharper diagnostic for why AI projects stall: wrong decision scoped, wrong owner, or wrong question asked of the model. Shared language across technical and non-technical leaders for debating AI initiatives without defaulting to buzzwords. Specific techniques for pressure-testing decisions against common biases, including outcome bias and confirmation bias. A realistic read on what current AI systems can and cannot be trusted to decide without human judgement in the loop.

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 Calum Chace He has built two books and two operating ventures around the same argument: that AI changes capability, then labour, then the structure of the economy. Boards hear a coherent thesis, not a trend update. He coined the term “economic singularity” and wrote the book on it. Leadership teams trying to think clearly about technological unemployment get the original framing, not a recycled version. Through Conscium, the AI safety company he co-founded in 2024, and the linked PRISM research non-profit, he speaks from inside the live debate on machine consciousness and agent evaluation, not from the sidelines. Thirty years across BBC journalism, Financial Times writing, KPMG strategic intelligence and CEO roles mean he frames AI for commercial audiences in language they already use. Biography highlights Co-founder of Conscium (2024), an AI safety company working on neuromorphic computing, AI agent evaluation, and machine consciousness. Co-founder of the Economic Singularity Foundation, a think tank on the future of jobs in an AI economy. Author of Surviving AI and The Economic Singularity, plus the techno-thrillers Pandora’s Brain and Pandora’s Oracle. Co-host of the London Futurist Podcast and the PRISM Podcast on sentient machines. Read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford; trained as a journalist with the BBC; contributed to the Financial Times. Former director of KPMG’s strategic and commercial intelligence media practice and CEO of several businesses before moving to full-time writing and speaking in 2012. Biography Artificial intelligence is two distinct strategic questions for a board, not one. The first is what AI does to the products and services a business sells. The second is what it does to the labour the business buys. Calum Chace has spent a decade arguing that the second question is the one most organisations are underprepared for, and that the gap between AI as a capability story and AI as an economic story is where the strategic risk sits. His two non-fiction books frame that gap. Surviving AI deals with the long-term safety question once machines start to match and then exceed human capability. The Economic Singularity gave a name to the moment when technological unemployment becomes the dominant labour reality, and made the case that this is a question of decades, not centuries. The economic singularity is now a term other writers use; he wrote the book it came from. The work has continued into operating ventures. In 2024 he co-founded Conscium, an AI safety company developing neuromorphic computing, agent evaluation methods and research on machine consciousness. Conscium has since seeded PRISM, a non-profit researching sentient machines, which he co-hosts as a podcast. Earlier, he co-founded the Economic Singularity Foundation, a think tank on the future of jobs. Before any of that, Chace read PPE at Oxford, trained as a BBC journalist, wrote for the Financial Times, ran the media practice at KPMG’s strategic and commercial intelligence group, and held several CEO roles. That commercial background is why his talks for senior audiences sound like strategy conversations rather than technology briefings, and why he can argue both sides of the AI question, capability and consequence, in the same room. Key speaking topics Artificial intelligence and the two singularities The economic singularity and the future of jobs AI safety, alignment and machine consciousness Digital transformation and AI in the enterprise AI in healthcare AI in education The philosophy of AI Ideal for Boards and executive committees building a long-range AI strategy CHROs and people leaders facing workforce redesign around AI capability Conferences for technology, financial services, healthcare and professional services leadership Government, regulator and policy audiences working on AI governance and labour-market policy Audience outcomes A clearer separation between AI as a product question and AI as a labour question, and a sense of which one their organisation is more exposed to. A working definition of the economic singularity and a view on whether the case for serious technological unemployment is credible. A more informed position on AI safety, machine consciousness and agent evaluation as governance issues, not laboratory topics. Language and reference points senior leaders can use in their own board and investor conversations about AI.

Why organisations work with Philipp Kristian He treats trust as an operating variable in digital and AI transformation, not a soft cultural theme, and equips leaders with language to discuss it at board level. His thesis predates the current AI debate. The Trust Economy was published in 2017 and has since been translated into German by Springer Gabler, giving his framework a longer track record than most current AI-trust voices. He brings an Asia-anchored view of technology adoption, drawing on a decade of work with Fortune 500s in Singapore and across JAPAC, which most Western-based speakers in this space cannot offer. He has lectured inside INSEAD Executive Education, CEDEP, Singapore Management University, and Civil Service College Singapore, so executive audiences encounter material that has been pressure-tested with senior cohorts. Biography highlights Author of The Trust Economy (Marshall Cavendish, 2017) and RESET: Rethinking Our World And Creating A Different Future (World Scientific, 2021). German edition of The Trust Economy published by Springer Gabler in 2018. Faculty and lecturer engagements at INSEAD Executive Education, CEDEP, Singapore Management University, and Civil Service College Singapore. World Economic Forum Global Shaper, Kairos Society Fellow, and Leader of Tomorrow at the St Gallen Symposium. TEDx speaker, with keynote audiences including Meta, BCG, EY, Munich Re, Standard Chartered, Salesforce, LVMH, Microsoft, Deloitte, P&G, and Zillow. Based in Singapore, with a decade of innovation work across Asia for Fortune 500 corporations and high-growth scale-ups. Biography Trust is the part of digital transformation that the engineering plan does not solve. AI rollouts stall, data products fail to land, and customer adoption flattens for reasons that sit outside the technology stack. Philipp Kristian has spent more than a decade arguing that this is the real bottleneck, and that organisations need a strategy for it. His 2017 book The Trust Economy, published by Marshall Cavendish and later translated into German by Springer Gabler, set out an early framework for how digital businesses earn and lose trust at scale. RESET, published by World Scientific in 2021, extends the argument into the post-pandemic shift in how people relate to institutions, technology, and each other. The work has been refined inside executive classrooms. He has held faculty and lecturer engagements at INSEAD Executive Education, CEDEP, Singapore Management University, and the Civil Service College in Singapore, where the material is taught to senior public and private sector cohorts. The World Economic Forum named him a Global Shaper; the Kairos Society named him a Fellow; the St Gallen Symposium named him a Leader of Tomorrow. Based in Singapore, he brings a non-Western reading of how trust travels through markets, regulators, and customer bases that most boards no longer treat as peripheral. Keynote audiences include Meta, BCG, EY, Munich Re, Standard Chartered, Salesforce, LVMH, Microsoft, Deloitte, and Zillow. Key speaking topics Trust in AI and data systems Digital transformation and adoption Customer experience in digital businesses Future of work and human-technology collaboration Leadership in the digital economy Brand trust and reputation under technological change Ideal for Boards and executive committees overseeing AI, data, and digital transformation programmes CIO, CTO, CDO, and Chief Trust Officer functions working through adoption and governance questions CMO and customer experience leaders rebuilding brand credibility in digital channels Financial services, professional services, and regulated industries facing trust and reputation pressure from AI deployment Audience outcomes A working vocabulary for discussing trust as an operating asset in digital and AI strategy at board level A reading of why AI and data initiatives lose momentum at the adoption stage, with the levers leaders can use to keep them moving An Asia-anchored perspective on how trust is built and broken across regulators, customers, and employees in fast-digitising markets Specific examples drawn from a decade of innovation work with Fortune 500 corporations and scale-ups in Singapore and across JAPAC

Why organisations work with Nick Ayton Five decades inside computer science and ten founded start-ups give him a working operator’s view of where deep tech actually breaks, not a consultant’s slide on where it might. He translates AI, quantum and longevity science into capital allocation questions a CFO or investment committee can act on, which is rare among futurists who stop at the trend. Cointelegraph’s Blockchain Visionary of the Year (2018) and the founding “Sage of Shoreditch” column make him a named voice in the formative debate over Bitcoin, Web3 and digital assets. His Living to 150 book and ongoing work on AI-assisted healthcare give him a specific, defensible position on longevity, a topic most technology speakers cannot credibly hold. He chairs global summits where deep tech meets investor capital, including the Family Office Summit in Abu Dhabi, so the audience he speaks to most often is the one buyers are trying to reach. Biography highlights Author, Living to 150: A New Era in Personalised AI Healthcare (December 2024). Founder of Crix.io, a regulated crypto-exchange, and Chainstarter Ventures, advising family offices on deep tech investment. Named Blockchain Visionary of the Year by Cointelegraph (2018); founding writer of the “Sage of Shoreditch” column. Named Top Futurist Speaker at the Family Office Summit, Abu Dhabi (2023). Has delivered keynotes and faculty addresses at MIT, Harvard, LSE and Berkeley, alongside more than 100 global summits. Contributor to Cointelegraph, Irish Tech News, Medium and CryptoCoin.news, with a body of writing spanning AI, quantum, blockchain and longevity. Biography Most futurist commentary on AI, quantum and longevity stops at the trend line. Ayton’s work starts where the boardroom question starts: what does this technology mean for the next ten-year capital decision? After five decades in computer science and ten founded companies, he speaks to investors and operators in their own language. His early move into blockchain produced Crix.io, one of the first regulated crypto-exchanges, and the Cointelegraph column that named him Blockchain Visionary of the Year in 2018. The “Sage of Shoreditch” writing remains a reference point in the formative period of digital assets, when most institutions were still deciding whether to take the category seriously. The work has since broadened into quantum computing, synthetic biology and longevity science. His 2024 book Living to 150 sets out a specific argument for personalised AI healthcare as the next investable frontier, and he advises family offices on how to position capital around it. He chairs global summits where this audience gathers, including the Family Office Summit in Abu Dhabi. What separates Ayton from the futurist field is the audience he was built for. Family offices, founders, and the investment committees behind frontier-tech bets do not want a vision deck. They want someone who has built companies in the category, taken the losses, and can name which signals matter. That is the brief he answers. Key speaking topics Artificial intelligence and the next decade of enterprise value Quantum computing and its commercial timeline Blockchain, Web3 and digital asset infrastructure Longevity sciences and personalised AI healthcare Frontier technology investment for family offices Synthetic biology and biological computing Capital raising and venture strategy in deep tech Ideal for Boards and investment committees making long-horizon capital decisions on AI, quantum or biotech Family offices and private capital allocators positioning around frontier technologies Founders and CTOs in deep tech who need a credible external voice on category direction Financial services and fintech leaders mapping the next wave of digital asset infrastructure Audience outcomes A clearer read on which deep tech signals carry commercial weight and which are noise A working vocabulary for AI, quantum and longevity that holds up in front of technical and capital audiences Specific examples of where capital is already moving in frontier tech, drawn from family office and founder networks A sharper sense of which technology bets compound over a decade and which expire within two

Why organisations work with Miloš Maričić He gives investment boards a working diagnostic for distinguishing real machine learning from AI marketing, anchored in his SPEC framework and his CFA Institute Enterprising Investor work on weak quant models. He chairs Executive AI, the network of CEOs of major European institutional investment organisations, and represented that industry in the EU Artificial Intelligence Act standardisation process. Few speakers can describe AI regulation from inside the room where the rules were written. He has co-edited the Routledge Handbook of Artificial Intelligence and Philanthropy with the University of Geneva, the standard reference for AI in the social sector. That gives foundations and philanthropic boards a credible voice on the same subject. He has built and exited two AI companies and ranks in the top five per cent of the Numerai global leaderboard for market prediction models, so the technical claim is matched by personal track record. He is an OECD AI Expert and a World Economic Forum contributor, which means his framing is already calibrated for senior policy and regulatory audiences. Biography highlights Founder of the Altruist League, Geneva, a philanthropy consultancy whose network reports AUM above USD 10 billion. Chair of Executive AI, a network of CEOs of major European institutional investment organisations. AI Expert at the OECD and contributor at the World Economic Forum. Co-editor, The Routledge Handbook of Artificial Intelligence and Philanthropy, Routledge, 2024. Co-author, Fixing Philanthropy: Six Principles for Actually Improving the World When Giving Away Money, 2021. Educated at the London School of Economics, New York University and Harvard Business School. Biography Most institutional investors now have AI somewhere in their portfolio, their managers, or their operations. Very few have a working method for telling genuine machine learning from a factor model dressed up for a board meeting. That is the gap Maričić has spent his career filling, first inside his own AI ventures, now as Chair of Executive AI, the network of CEOs of major European institutional investment organisations. His SPEC framework, developed for capital allocators and published through CFA Institute’s Enterprising Investor, gives investment committees a short diagnostic for evaluating quantitative managers who claim AI capability. It is the kind of practical tool a CIO can take into a manager meeting on Monday morning. He represented the institutional investor industry in the EU Artificial Intelligence Act standardisation process, and serves as an AI Expert at the OECD and a contributor at the World Economic Forum. Maričić founded the Altruist League, a Geneva-based philanthropy consultancy that pioneered the use of AI in sourcing investments, distributing funds and managing portfolios, and whose network now reports AUM above USD 10 billion. With Giuseppe Ugazio at the University of Geneva, he co-edited The Routledge Handbook of Artificial Intelligence and Philanthropy, the 2024 reference work for foundations and social sector boards thinking about AI governance. He is educated at the London School of Economics, NYU and Harvard Business School, ranks in the top five per cent of the Numerai global leaderboard for market prediction models, and writes The Specification, a newsletter that translates frontier AI research into practical tools for institutional allocators. Key speaking topics AI governance for investment boards and fiduciary committees Due diligence on machine learning in quantitative investment strategies AI regulation, the EU AI Act and institutional capital allocation AI in philanthropy and the social sector Causal inference and the limits of factor investing Geopolitics of AI for sovereign wealth funds and central banks Trust-based giving and systemic-change philanthropy Ideal for Chief Investment Officers, investment committees and manager-selection teams at pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, central banks and endowments Boards of foundations and philanthropic organisations setting AI strategy and governance Risk, audit and fiduciary committees taking responsibility for AI-driven strategies they did not build Senior policy and regulatory audiences working on AI in financial services Audience outcomes A clear diagnostic for distinguishing real machine learning from AI marketing inside quantitative managers Specific questions a board or investment committee can put to managers and internal teams about AI claims A current read on the EU AI Act and what it means for institutional allocators in practice A grounded view of where AI is genuinely changing philanthropy and where it is hype A working vocabulary for fiduciary AI oversight that does not require a technical background

Why organisations work with Deborah Nas Her book Design Things That Make Sense sets out a codified methodology: 24 strategies to strengthen what technology offers users and 13 to reduce the resistance that causes adoption to fail. It gives innovation teams a structured diagnostic rather than a set of principles to interpret on their own. She founded the Centre for Quantum and Society at QuantumDelta NL – making her one of very few people who can address quantum technology’s ethical, legal, and organisational implications in terms senior teams can act on before the technology reaches commercial scale. Her position leading multidisciplinary research teams at TU Delft – on mobility futures, quantum societal readiness, and energy transition – means her perspective is shaped by live scientific frontier work, not commentary on published trends. She is on the investment committee of InnovationQuarter Capital, a €143 million deep tech fund, and on the supervisory board of Hardt Hyperloop – direct sight lines into where deep tech investment is moving, not just where it currently stands. Her starting point is the psychology of technology resistance – the reason most implementation initiatives stall – which is the question most organisations have not structured an answer to and the one that most directly explains expensive innovation failures. Biography highlights Professor of Strategic Design for Technology-based Innovation, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, TU Delft Initiative Lead and founder, Centre for Quantum and Society, QuantumDelta NL Author, Design Things That Make Sense (BIS Publishers) – a practitioner framework of 37 named design strategies for technology-based product innovation Visiting professor, Politecnico di Milano Investment committee member, InnovationQuarter Capital (€143 million deep tech fund); supervisory board member, Hardt Hyperloop MSc Industrial Design Engineering with honours, TU Delft; 16 years co-founding and running a strategic innovation agency Biography Technology that works and technology that people will actually use are two different achievements. Deborah Nas, Professor of Strategic Design for Technology-based Innovation at TU Delft’s Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, has spent 25 years studying the gap between them. She began at Philips and KPN, then spent 16 years co-founding and running a strategic innovation agency before anchoring her work in research and teaching at TU Delft. Her core contribution is a codified methodology: 24 design strategies to strengthen what a technology product offers and 13 to reduce the user resistance that causes adoption to fail. Published in Design Things That Make Sense (BIS Publishers), the framework draws on consumer psychology and is structured for direct use by product teams and innovation managers. She also teaches it as a visiting professor at Politecnico di Milano. She has extended this work into the next generation of technology adoption challenges. As founder and Innovation Lead of the Centre for Quantum and Society at QuantumDelta NL, she is developing the ethical, legal, and societal frameworks organisations will need before quantum technology reaches commercial scale. She is also on the supervisory board of Hardt Hyperloop and on the investment committee of InnovationQuarter Capital, a €143 million deep tech fund. Organisations that work with her are not typically looking for enthusiasm about what emerging technology can do. They want a structured answer to why technology investments fail at the point of adoption – and a methodology that gives their teams a way to act on it. Key speaking topics Technology adoption and consumer resistance Human-centred design for technology-based innovation AI strategy and organisational readiness Quantum technology and societal implications Deep tech ecosystem and investment landscape Future of work and intelligent systems Innovation strategy for established organisations Ideal for Chief Innovation Officers, R&D leads, and product strategy teams working with emerging technologies Boards and senior leadership teams making investment decisions on AI, quantum, or deep tech Corporate innovation functions examining why technology projects stall or fail at adoption Government and public sector bodies engaging with the organisational and societal implications of advanced technologies Audience outcomes A clear framework for understanding why technology-based products fail at adoption – and what design decisions change that outcome Working familiarity with the Tech Design Strategies methodology: 24 strategies to strengthen product benefits and 13 to reduce user resistance Practical orientation to how AI and quantum technologies will affect their specific industry or sector Ability to separate technological capability from technology adoption as distinct strategic problems requiring different organisational responses Insight into how organisations and investors at the deep tech frontier are currently making decisions about technology bets

Why organisations work with Brett King He built one of the first mobile-only banks. Bank 4.0 is grounded in operating experience at Moven, not theory borrowed from outside the industry. He has briefed governments and regulators, including advising the Obama administration on fintech policy, and continues to advise central banks and regulators on technology transformation. Two of his books, Augmented and Bank 4.0, became sustained international bestsellers, with Bank 4.0 recognised as Top Book by a Foreign Author in Russia in 2019 under a PwC-audited process. Breaking Banks and The Futurists give him a continuous, current read on what fintech operators, regulators and technologists are actually doing, week by week, in more than 180 countries. His thesis stretches beyond banking. The Rise of Technosocialism, co-authored with Richard Petty, sets out four scenarios for an economy reshaped by AI, automation, inequality and climate, which makes him a useful voice for boards thinking beyond their own sector. Biography highlights Founder of Moven, an early mobile-only banking startup launched in New York in 2011. Author of Bank 4.0, Augmented: Life in the Smart Lane, Bank 2.0, Bank 3.0, Breaking Banks and The Rise of Technosocialism (with Dr. Richard Petty). Inducted into the Fintech Hall of Fame by CB Insights in 2020. Host of Breaking Banks on VoiceAmerica and co-host of The Futurists podcast. Advised the Obama administration on fintech policy; advises bank boards and regulators internationally. Keynote stages include TED, Web Summit, The Economist events, SIBOS, Singularity University, IBM World of Watson and CES. Biography Most large banks were designed around branches, products and quarterly earnings. The industry now competes with software companies, payments networks, embedded-finance providers and increasingly with AI agents that sit between customers and money. The question for boards is no longer whether to digitise. It is what kind of institution they want on the other side of the next decade. Brett King has been close to that question for fifteen years. He founded Moven in New York in 2011, one of the first mobile-only banks, and used the experience as the basis for Bank 4.0: Banking Everywhere, Never at a Bank, which mapped how value, distribution and trust move when the branch is no longer the unit of banking. The book was named Top Book by a Foreign Author in Russia in 2019, under a PwC-audited award process, and remains widely cited inside the industry. His range stretches further than banking. Augmented: Life in the Smart Lane tracked how AI, sensors, biotechnology and smart infrastructure compound into a different operating environment for business and society. The Rise of Technosocialism, co-written with Richard Petty, takes the argument forward, setting out four scenarios for a world in which automation, inequality and climate force political economies to rewire. That body of work is why central banks, regulators and global financial institutions invite him into rooms where the question is structural, not tactical. Two podcasts keep his perspective current. Breaking Banks, which he hosts on VoiceAmerica, has become a reference point for fintech operators worldwide. The Futurists, which he co-hosts, gives him a regular working dialogue with technologists and researchers across AI, space, biotech and energy. His induction into the Fintech Hall of Fame in 2020 reflects the operating record, not the podcast catalogue. Key speaking topics The future of banking and financial services Embedded finance and the platform economics of money Artificial intelligence and the automated economy Fintech, regulation and the role of central banks AI, inequality and climate as forces reshaping political economy Long-range technology foresight for boards and regulators Ideal for Bank, insurer and asset-manager boards and executive committees setting digital and AI strategy Central bankers, financial regulators and policy bodies working on payments, digital assets and AI governance Large enterprises whose business model is exposed to fintech, embedded payments or AI-driven disintermediation Conferences and summits in financial services, technology and futures-of-industry programmes Audience outcomes A sharper read on where banking, payments and customer trust are moving over the next decade. A grounded view, from an operator, of what works and what fails when incumbents try to digitise. Named scenarios for how AI, automation and climate may reshape labour markets, capital and policy. A practical agenda for board-level discussions on AI deployment, fintech partnerships and regulatory exposure.

Why organisations work with will.i.am He builds at the frontier rather than commenting on it. FYI.AI, the AI collaboration platform he founded and runs as CEO, has shipped consumer products including RAiDiO.FYI and an in-car integration with Mercedes-AMG. An operator’s understanding of how technology firms commercialise consumer experiences. He was a founding equity partner in Beats Electronics, sold to Apple for USD 3 billion, and Intel’s Director of Creative Innovation across a multi-year run on devices. A serious counter-argument to AI maximalism, grounded in artistic practice. His core thesis is that AI must be a catalyst for human imagination, not a substitute, a line that lands credibly with leadership teams under board pressure to deploy AI everywhere. Cultural reach few technology speakers command. The Black Eyed Peas have sold over 75 million records, and his keynote work has been picked up by Accenture, IBM, JPMorgan Chase, Salesforce, and the World Economic Forum. A philanthropic record that gives the AI argument substance. The i.am Angel Foundation funds STEAM education for over 12,000 students in Los Angeles, in partnership with the Smithsonian Science Education Center and FIRST Robotics. Biography highlights Founder and CEO of FYI.AI, an AI-powered creative collaboration platform launched in 2023. Founding member of the Black Eyed Peas; nine Grammy Awards, one Latin Grammy, one Emmy, one CLIO. Founding equity partner in Beats Electronics, acquired by Apple in 2014 for USD 3 billion. Director of Creative Innovation at Intel from 2011, working across consumer compute devices. Recipient of the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award and an Honorary Fellowship from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (UK). Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations ITU AI Skills Coalition; Professor of Practice in the GAME School at Arizona State University. Biography Most senior teams are still arguing about whether to treat AI as a tool, a colleague, or a threat. will.i.am has spent the last decade building products that force a decision. FYI.AI, the creative collaboration platform he founded and runs, treats AI as a working partner inside the production workflow rather than a feature bolted onto it. RAiDiO.FYI, its consumer-facing radio product, now ships inside Mercedes-AMG vehicles. The pattern is older than the current AI cycle. He was a founding equity partner in Beats Electronics before Apple acquired it in 2014 for USD 3 billion, and Intel’s Director of Creative Innovation from 2011 across laptops, tablets, and smartphones. In each case the contribution was the same: a working view of how consumer technology actually becomes culture, and what that means for the companies trying to ship it. The Black Eyed Peas, which he co-founded, have sold more than 75 million records and won nine Grammys. That cultural reach gives the AI argument a different kind of credibility with boards. He has been recognised with the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award and an Honorary Fellowship from the Institution of Engineering and Technology in the UK, and serves as a UN ITU Goodwill Ambassador for the AI Skills Coalition. His argument to leadership teams is direct. AI should accelerate human imagination, not replace it, and the organisations that get this wrong will spend the next decade producing work nobody wants to consume. He grounds the point through the i.am Angel Foundation, which funds STEAM education for over 12,000 students in Los Angeles, including a Smithsonian Science Education Center partnership and a FIRST Robotics programme run with founder Dean Kamen. Key speaking topics Artificial intelligence and creativity AI in consumer products and brand The future of music and media in an AI economy Technology, education, and access Innovation at the intersection of culture and engineering Building consumer technology platforms Ideal for Boards and CEOs setting the corporate position on generative AI Chief marketing and brand officers reframing creative production around AI Innovation and R&D leads exploring AI applications in consumer products Conference programmes that need a credible artist-technologist voice on AI Audience outcomes A sharper view of where AI multiplies human creative work and where it erodes it Working examples of AI inside shipped consumer products, from a founder who built them An understanding of how to commercialise technology through culture, not in spite of it A reframing of the AI conversation away from compliance fear and towards creative leverage

Why organisations work with Taryn Southern She produced the first solo-artist pop album composed with AI in 2018, when most organisations were still asking whether generative tools could ship anything usable. The lessons on creative workflow integration are now several years ahead of most enterprise practice. She runs storytelling and external communications at Blackrock Neurotech, an implantable BCI company, which gives her a working view of the next technology layer beyond generative AI. Her documentary work, including «I AM HUMAN» at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival, gives her a rare ability to translate frontier neurotechnology into language a non-technical board can use. She has keynoted SXSW, Web Summit, the World AI Summit, and NY Times Future of Work, and has been booked by Google, Salesforce, Deloitte, and Gartner. Senior tech audiences treat her as a peer, not a populariser. Biography highlights Chief Storytelling Officer at Blackrock Neurotech since 2021, leading story strategy for funding rounds totalling over $230M led by Thiel Capital, Apeiron, and Tether Released «I AM AI» in 2018, the first solo-artist pop album composed and produced with AI tools including Amper, IBM Watson Beat, Google Magenta, and AIVA Directed and produced «I AM HUMAN,» premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival; subsequent awards include Best Director at Oslo Film Fest Three-time Streamy Awards nominee; 2018 Geena Davis Award recipient for innovative female filmmaking Keynote speaker at SXSW, Web Summit, World AI Summit, Google’s AI Summit, VidCon, The Next Web, NY Times Future of Work Featured in Vanity Fair, Billboard, Fast Company, Wired, Forbes, Psychology Today, and Harvard Business Review Biography The first solo-artist pop album composed with AI was released in September 2018, before most enterprises had finished their first ChatGPT briefing note. «I AM AI» used Amper, IBM Watson Beat, Google Magenta, and AIVA, with the lead single «Break Free» reaching the Top 100 radio charts. The interest, for a serious audience, is not the novelty. It is what the project showed about how a working creative integrates these tools into a production workflow that ships. That production credibility is the spine of the work Taryn Southern now does with senior teams. She has produced more than 1,500 videos across more than a decade of digital media, advised early product teams at YouTube, Google VR, and Snapchat, and directed an award-winning Google VR series. The vantage point is unusual: she has built original commercial product with generative tools at every stage of their maturity. Since 2021 she has been Chief Storytelling Officer at Blackrock Neurotech, the implantable brain-computer interface company. She launched what the company describes as the world’s first BCI museum, oversaw a corporate rebrand and the formation of a BCI Ethics Advisory board, and led communications strategy for funding rounds totalling over $230M, with investors including Thiel Capital, Apeiron, and Tether. The role gives her a working view of the technology layer that arrives after generative AI, and the regulatory and ethical questions a board will be asked to take a position on within the next decade. Her directorial debut, «I AM HUMAN,» premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival and followed three of the first patients to receive implantable brain-computer interfaces. The film is the practical bridge in her work with corporate audiences: it shows what the next frontier of human-machine technology looks like in a hospital, in a home, and in the conversations a serious organisation will need to have about it well before the technology becomes commonplace. Key speaking topics Generative AI in creative production AI-augmented workflows and creative practice Brain-computer interfaces and human-machine integration Frontier neurotechnology and ethics Storytelling for emerging technology companies The future of human and artificial intelligence Ideal for Boards and leadership teams setting AI strategy beyond initial pilots Chief Marketing Officers, Chief Communications Officers, and creative leadership integrating generative tools into production Innovation, R&D, and strategy leaders tracking neurotech and the post-AI technology stack Senior leadership conferences in technology, media, healthcare, and life sciences Audience outcomes A working understanding of how generative AI tools function inside a real production workflow, drawn from a practitioner who has shipped commercial product A grounded view of brain-computer interface technology, what it currently does, where it is going, and the questions boards will face A sharper sense of which categories of creative and knowledge work are most exposed to generative AI, and which remain durably human An informed perspective on the ethical and governance terrain emerging at the intersection of AI and neurotechnology