Business Strategy & Growth

Why organisations work with Alf Rehn His central argument runs against the grain of the innovation industry: that most of what organisations call innovation is performance, not practice – and that rebuilding the real thing requires dismantling the very frameworks many have paid consultants to install. Innovation for the Fatigued (Kogan Page) provides a named, publishable framework – “deep innovation” – that gives leadership teams a vocabulary to diagnose and address innovation theatre without discarding ambition. His current research at SDU’s Center for Organizational Datafication and its Ethics in Society gives him a credible, peer-reviewed lens on how AI and algorithmic systems are reshaping management and innovation decisions – a perspective grounded in data, not trend commentary. Having held chairs at three universities across Finland, Denmark and Sweden, and served on the board of a billion-dollar corporation, he operates across the researcher-practitioner boundary in a way that is rare in the innovation speaking space. His Thinkers50 Guru Radar inclusion (2016) and coverage in the Financial Times, The Sunday Times and Harvard Business Review give buyers a named, verifiable body of external endorsement to anchor the engagement. Biography highlights Professor of Innovation, Design and Management, University of Southern Denmark Head of the Center for Organizational Datafication and its Ethics in Society, SDU – researching AI’s effects on management, innovation and algorithmic ethics Previously held the Chair of Management and Organisation at Åbo Akademi University, Finland; and a professorship in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden Named to Thinkers50 Guru Radar (2016) – listed among “the 30 management thinkers most likely to shape the future of management” Author of Innovation for the Fatigued (Kogan Page) and Dangerous Ideas – the latter translated into eight languages Featured in the Financial Times, The Sunday Times and Harvard Business Review; over 1,000 keynotes delivered across five continents Biography Alf Rehn has spent much of his academic career making the same uncomfortable argument: that organisations are not suffering from a lack of innovation, but from an excess of innovation theatre. His book Innovation for the Fatigued, published by Kogan Page, names this problem directly – and his concept of “deep innovation” offers a framework for distinguishing creative cultures that produce real output from those that have learned to imitate one. That critique has weight because of where it comes from. Rehn holds a chair in Innovation, Design and Management at the University of Southern Denmark, where he also leads the Center for Organizational Datafication and its Ethics in Society – a research unit examining how AI and algorithmic technologies are changing the way executives, engineers and managers make decisions. He has previously held professorships at Åbo Akademi University in Finland and KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, combining research across critical management studies, creativity and organisational theory. His earlier book Dangerous Ideas – translated into eight languages – argues that the ideas organisations most need are precisely the ones they are instinctively disposed to dismiss. Together, the two books form a coherent intellectual position: that genuine innovation requires not better processes but the courage to engage with what is uncomfortable, inconvenient and structurally difficult. Named to the Thinkers50 Guru Radar in 2016 and covered by the Financial Times, The Sunday Times and Harvard Business Review, Rehn engages boards and executive teams on the strategic gap between innovation ambition and innovation reality – and on how emerging technologies, including AI, are creating new versions of the same problem. Key speaking topics Innovation strategy and organisational creativity Innovation fatigue and deep innovation Creative cultures and their destruction Dangerous and unconventional ideas in business AI, datafication and ethics in management Leadership paradox and contradictory demands on leaders Scenario planning and taboo futures Contrarian and critical thinking in strategy Ideal for Chief Innovation Officers and strategy leads seeking to audit and rebuild innovation culture Executive leadership teams who have invested in innovation programmes with limited return Boards and C-suite audiences examining how AI is reshaping organisational decision-making CHROs and transformation leads working on the cultural conditions for sustained creativity Audience outcomes A clearer diagnostic for distinguishing genuine creative capacity from performative innovation activity Practical language and frameworks from Innovation for the Fatigued to challenge and rebuild internal innovation practice A more rigorous approach to unconventional and uncomfortable ideas, informed by the argument of Dangerous Ideas Familiarity with how AI and algorithmic systems are reshaping management decisions, grounded in current academic research A more honest account of what leadership under contradictory demands actually requires – and how to navigate it without resolving it

Why organisations work with Vicky Pryce She has operated on both sides of the policy-commercial divide: as the senior government official responsible for UK productivity strategy at the Government Economic Service, and as Chief Economist and strategic adviser at KPMG and FTI Consulting. That combination is rare and difficult to replicate from outside it. Her book Women vs Capitalism (Hurst, 2019) makes a specifically economic case (not a social one) that gender inequality is a structural market failure with direct consequences for productivity and growth. It reframes inclusion as a strategic performance issue, supported by empirical evidence rather than advocacy. Her current position at CEBR means her economic analysis is grounded in live forecasting and modelling – not retrospective commentary or academic abstraction. She co-founded GoodCorporation, an advisory firm on corporate social responsibility and business ethics, giving her a rare combination of macro-economic credibility and applied governance insight. As the first woman to serve as Chief Economic Adviser at what is now the Department for Business, she brings direct experience of where the gap between policy intention and commercial impact typically opens: a perspective shaped by being inside the room when the policy was being made. Biography highlights Chief Economic Adviser and board member, Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) Former Joint Head of the UK Government Economic Service and Director General for Economics, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills First woman appointed Chief Economic Adviser at the Department for Trade and Industry (2002) Former Partner and Chief Economist, KPMG; Senior Managing Director, FTI Consulting; earlier career roles at Williams & Glyn’s Bank (RBS) and Exxon Europe Author of seven books including Women vs Capitalism (Hurst Publishers, 2019) and How to be a Successful Economist (Oxford University Press, 2022) Visiting Professor, Birmingham City University and King’s College London; Fellow, UK Academy for Social Sciences; Companion, British Academy of Management Co-founder, GoodCorporation (corporate social responsibility and business ethics advisory) Senior Member, British Chambers of Commerce Economic Advisory Council; Advisory Board member, OMFIF (central banking think-tank) Biography UK productivity has been the central puzzle of British economic policy for three decades. Vicky Pryce worked on it from the inside, first as the first female Chief Economic Adviser at what is now the Department for Business, then as Joint Head of the Government Economic Service, overseeing economic analysis and evidence across Whitehall from 2007 to 2010. That insider perspective shapes how she reads the policy landscape now. At KPMG, where she served as Partner and Chief Economist, and at FTI Consulting as Senior Managing Director, she translated government intent into commercial implication, helping large organisations understand what regulatory and fiscal shifts meant for their strategic position. Her current role as Chief Economic Adviser and board member at the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) keeps that analytical work live, grounded in ongoing economic modelling and forecasting. Her book Women vs Capitalism (Hurst, 2019) makes an argument that separates her from most economics commentators: gender inequality is not a social problem the market will eventually correct, but a structural market failure with direct consequences for productivity and growth. The case is economic and evidential. Greekonomics (Biteback, 2012), which was shortlisted for the Spear’s best business book award, applied the same forensic clarity to the eurozone crisis, and led to her appearing as an expert witness before the House of Lords cross-party subcommittee on economic and financial affairs. Pryce also co-founded GoodCorporation, advising organisations on corporate social responsibility and ethics. She is Visiting Professor at Birmingham City University and King’s College London, a Fellow of the UK Academy for Social Sciences, and a Senior Member of the British Chambers of Commerce Economic Advisory Council. Key speaking topics UK and global economic outlook Economic policy, fiscal strategy, and government reform Productivity, competitiveness, and long-term growth Political and regulatory risk for business Gender economics and labour market policy Corporate ethics and responsible business practice Manufacturing, industrial policy, and economic rebalancing Ideal for CFOs, strategy directors, and board executives navigating policy-driven economic risk Financial services, professional services, and public affairs organisations requiring independent economic analysis HR and talent leaders seeking an evidence-based, economic case for gender inclusion Senior leadership conferences with a UK or European economic policy dimension Audience outcomes A framework for distinguishing short-term economic fluctuation from structural policy shifts that require a strategic response Clearer understanding of how the UK’s persistent productivity challenge affects their sector and what policy instruments are actually in play An economic – not ideological – argument for why gender inclusion is a business performance issue, grounded in market failure analysis and labour market evidence Sharper contextual understanding of the regulatory and fiscal environment shaping their planning horizon Practical basis for scenario planning under conditions of domestic and international economic uncertainty

Why organisations work with Stephanie Akkaoui Hughes She brings the discipline of a long-term investor to the questions boards usually approach as innovation, strategy or M&A. The argument running through her work is that value compounds when capital, attention and design choices are aligned to long time horizons; few speakers can make that case from the operator, founder and investor seats at once. As Co-Founder and CEO of EdenMountain, she has built a marketplace around an entirely new asset class, Enterprise Non-Operating Rights, that lets companies monetise dormant intellectual property without taking on debt or diluting equity. This gives her examples of capital allocation that audiences have not heard from other speakers. Her thesis on innovation, set out in Architecting Interaction (BIS Publishers), translates directly into how she thinks about wealth and value: that lasting outcomes are produced by the contexts and structures you build around them, not by isolated brilliance. She works fluently across institutional and entrepreneurial audiences, from DHL, Guardian Glass, Saint Gobain, the European Commission and Dutch ministries on the corporate side, to the international value investing community at VALUEx and the World of Allocators. She speaks credibly to the behavioural side of long-term decisions: why patience, valuation discipline and time horizon are commercial advantages most organisations are structurally unable to use. Biography highlights Co-Founder and CEO of EdenMountain, the venture pioneering Enterprise Non-Operating Rights (ENORs) as a new asset class for monetising dormant intellectual property. Founder and CEO of AKKA Architects, the Amsterdam studio behind workplace and learning projects for DHL, Guardian Glass, Saint Gobain, the European Commission and several Dutch ministries. Author of Architecting Interaction: How to Innovate through Interactions (BIS Publishers, ISBN 9789463450478). Five years at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) in Rotterdam under Rem Koolhaas before founding AKKA in 2012. Active speaker on the international value investing circuit, including VALUEx Switzerland, VALUEx Middle East and the World of Allocators community. Multiple TEDx talks, including TEDxBelfastWomen, TEDxYouth@HNLBilthoven and TEDxAmsterdamED. Biography Most organisations are structured to optimise the next twelve months. Most investors are structured to optimise the next quarter. The discipline of designing for value that compounds over decades, in capital, in organisations and in the contexts that produce both, is the territory Stephanie Akkaoui Hughes has been working in for over a decade. Her route to it is unusual. Trained at the American University of Beirut and then at Rem Koolhaas’s Office for Metropolitan Architecture in Rotterdam, she spent five years inside one of the most intellectually demanding studios in global architecture before founding her own practice, AKKA Architects, in Amsterdam in 2012. AKKA designs workplaces, public buildings and learning spaces for clients including DHL, Guardian Glass, Saint Gobain, the European Commission and a range of Dutch ministries. Her book, Architecting Interaction: How to Innovate through Interactions, sets out the thesis that runs through everything she has built since. Lasting outcomes are produced by the contexts you design around them, not by isolated talent or one-off effort. The same instinct now drives her work as Co-Founder and CEO of EdenMountain, the venture she co-founded around Enterprise Non-Operating Rights, a new asset class that lets companies monetise dormant intellectual property without debt or dilution. That intersection of operator, founder and investor seats shapes how she speaks to senior audiences today: on long-term capital allocation, on decision-making under uncertainty, and on the behavioural and structural conditions that let value compound across cycles. She is an active voice in the international value investing community, including VALUEx Switzerland, VALUEx Middle East and the World of Allocators. Key speaking topics Long-term value investing and capital allocation Decision-making under uncertainty Building value that endures: designing organisations and portfolios for the long term New asset classes and the monetisation of dormant intellectual property Behaviour, bias and patience in long-term commercial decisions Architecting Interaction: innovation as a designable practice Entrepreneurial leadership across architecture, fintech and capital Ideal for CEOs, founders and boards wrestling with how to allocate capital and attention against decade-long time horizons rather than quarterly cycles. Heads of innovation, strategy and corporate development looking at dormant IP and underused assets as a potential source of growth without dilution. Investor and family office audiences interested in long-term, fundamentals-driven approaches to capital allocation and decision-making. CHROs and heads of workplace responsible for offices and ways of working that have to produce more than seat efficiency. Audience outcomes A direct account of how patience and valuation discipline operate as commercial advantages, drawn from her practice as a private investor and active member of the international value investing community. A working definition of innovation as a property of designed contexts and interactions, not a property of individual talent, with the four-stage method from her book to test against. A concrete example of capital structuring in practice, through EdenMountain and the ENOR asset class, that audiences will not have encountered elsewhere. A vocabulary that lets strategy, innovation, capital and workplace functions argue for the same long-term outcome in the same terms.

Why organisations work with Sarah Willingham She has run the full arc of a hospitality business: founding The London Cocktail Club, taking Nightcap to AIM as its founder-CEO, acquiring four bar groups under it, and steering the group back into private ownership. That gives audiences a working perspective on growth, M&A and capital markets in one voice. Her acquisition record is concrete: London Cocktail Club, Adventure Bar Group, Barrio Familia and The Piano Works rolled into Nightcap inside two years. Buyers booking on M&A integration get a CEO who has done it on a public balance sheet. She brings an operator’s view of consumer demand, not a consultant’s. Bombay Bicycle Club went from six sites to seventeen under her, Cocktail Club from one site to ten, before either was sold or absorbed. She speaks with credibility on building through downturns. Nightcap was floated and grown through pandemic trading and the cost-of-living squeeze, then taken private when the public-market route stopped working. Few founder speakers have lived that decision in real time. Biography highlights Founder and CEO of Nightcap PLC, the bar group behind The Cocktail Club, Adventure Bar Group, Barrio Familia and The Piano Works. Co-founder of The London Cocktail Club (2010), grown to ten sites before acquisition by Nightcap in January 2021. Acquired The Bombay Bicycle Club through The Clapham House Group in 2004, expanded it to seventeen sites, exited in 2007. Investor on BBC Two’s Dragons’ Den, Series 13 and 14, from 2015. Previously a judge on Raymond Blanc’s BBC Two series The Restaurant. MBA, Cranfield School of Management. Honorary doctorates from Staffordshire University, Cranfield University and Oxford Brookes University. Business Leader of the Year, Publican Awards 2023. Biography The London Cocktail Club opened a single site on Goodge Street in 2011. A decade later it sat at the centre of a listed bar group that had also bought Adventure Bar Group, Barrio Familia and The Piano Works. Sarah Willingham co-founded the original chain and, with her husband Michael, founded Nightcap PLC to roll it up. That arc is unusual. Most founders in hospitality build one concept and stop. Willingham has built, sold, listed and acquired across consumer brands for two decades, starting with the purchase of Bombay Bicycle Club through The Clapham House Group in 2004 and a profitable exit three years later. The Cranfield MBA and the honorary doctorates from Staffordshire, Cranfield and Oxford Brookes followed the operating record, not the other way round. Her public profile is anchored in BBC Two’s Dragons’ Den, where she invested through Series 13 and 14, and earlier in The Restaurant alongside Raymond Blanc. Inside the industry the credibility comes from running Nightcap as a listed CEO through pandemic trading, a cost-of-living squeeze, and the eventual decision to take the group private when the AIM listing stopped paying for itself. For audiences in growth, scale-up and consumer strategy, that record translates into specifics: how to evaluate an acquisition target, when to integrate and when to leave a brand alone, what listed life actually demands of a founder, and when to walk a company out of the public market. The 2023 Publican Awards Business Leader of the Year reflects the industry view of how she has handled it. Key speaking topics Founder-led scale-up Mergers, acquisitions and brand integration Hospitality and consumer growth strategy Listing, operating and delisting on AIM Investor decision-making and dealflow Building consumer brands through downturns Female founder leadership in consumer markets Ideal for Founder and CEO audiences in consumer, hospitality, retail and lifestyle Corporate M&A, integration and post-acquisition leadership teams Investor and private-equity events, family-office gatherings, scale-up programmes Women-in-business and female-founder networks at senior level Audience outcomes A working view of how a consumer business moves from one site, to a chain, to a listed group. Specific lessons from four hospitality acquisitions executed inside two years on a public balance sheet. A grounded perspective on what listing changes for a founder, and when to undo it. A direct read on investor decision-making, drawn from years on Dragons’ Den and on her own deals.

Why organisations work with Sallie Krawcheck She has run wealth management at the largest scale in the industry, leading Smith Barney, Citi Private Bank, US Trust and Merrill Lynch, then built a venture-backed fintech from scratch around a gap she watched the incumbents miss. Her thesis on the gender wealth gap is quantified, not rhetorical. Ellevest’s portfolio construction takes gender-specific salary curves, career breaks and longevity into account, which gives her a concrete answer to the “what would you actually change” question that most diversity speakers cannot give. Fortune called her “The Last Honest Analyst” for refusing to soften research calls and for reimbursing retail clients during a downturn. That reputation is what makes her credible to senior boards on questions of conflict of interest and product integrity. Her book “Own It: The Power of Women at Work” (Crown Currency, 2017) is a Wall Street Journal and Washington Post bestseller, and her LinkedIn writing has built one of the largest executive followings on the platform. She arrives with a real audience and a real argument, not a stock keynote. Biography highlights Co-founder and CEO of Ellevest, a digital investment platform for women. Former president of Global Wealth and Investment Management, Bank of America, overseeing Merrill Lynch and US Trust. Former CEO of Citi Global Wealth Management and former chairman and CEO of Sanford C. Bernstein and Co. Author of “Own It: The Power of Women at Work” (Crown Currency, 2017), Wall Street Journal and Washington Post bestseller. Called “The Last Honest Analyst” by Fortune; multiple appearances on the Forbes “100 Most Powerful Women” list; named to Time “Global Influentials”. BA summa cum laude, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; MBA with honors, Columbia Business School. Biography The gender wealth gap is wider than the gender pay gap, and for many cohorts, it is still moving in the wrong direction. Closing it is not a marketing problem for financial services. It is a product, advice and capital allocation problem, and the people best placed to solve it are the people who have run the businesses on the other side of the gap. Krawcheck spent two decades doing exactly that. She rose from equity analyst to chairman and CEO of Sanford C. Bernstein and Co, then ran Smith Barney and Citi Global Wealth Management, then led Bank of America’s combined Merrill Lynch and US Trust wealth business. Fortune called her “The Last Honest Analyst” for protecting research independence and reimbursing retail clients during a downturn, which remains the cleanest single line on her professional integrity. In 2016 she co-founded Ellevest, a digital investment platform built around the financial reality of women’s careers and lifespans. The investing algorithm factors in salary curves that peak earlier, more frequent career breaks and longer retirement horizons. Ellevest is the only modern fintech that uses gender as an input to portfolio construction rather than a marketing layer on top of a generic product. Her book “Own It: The Power of Women at Work” (Crown Currency, 2017) became a Wall Street Journal and Washington Post bestseller. Her LinkedIn following puts her among the most-read business writers on the platform, and Inc. has named her a Top Female Founder. She speaks to financial services boards, leadership teams and consumer brands on what it actually takes to design products and careers around a customer base the industry has historically underserved. Key speaking topics Closing the gender wealth gap Designing financial products for underserved customer segments Women, leadership and career capital Building a fintech inside a regulated industry Trust, conflict of interest and integrity in financial advice Entrepreneurship after a corporate career Capital, investing behaviour and the future of advice Ideal for Financial services CEOs, CMOs and heads of wealth and private banking are rethinking their women-client strategy. Boards and ExCos of consumer-facing businesses where female customer segments are under-monetised. Founders, investors and leadership teams in fintech and consumer finance. Senior women’s leadership programmes, CHRO sponsors and ERG executive sponsors at large enterprises. Audience outcomes A specific read on where the gender wealth gap actually sits in product design, pricing and advice, not in HR policy. A Wall Street insider’s honest account of how integrity, advice quality and conflicts of interest play out at the top of the industry. A practical view of what it takes to build a regulated fintech around an underserved segment, told by an operator who has done it. A direct, unhedged set of arguments on women, money and career capital that senior audiences can act on.

Why organisations work with Sahar Hashemi She has built three commercial ventures from a standing start. Coffee Republic (110 stores, £50 million market cap), Skinny Candy (acquired by Glisten Plc) and Buy Women Built (2,000+ businesses, £2.5 billion combined turnover) give her a working library of how entrepreneurial behaviour actually feels day to day. Her Start Up Forever framework breaks the entrepreneurial mindset down into a small set of repeatable daily behaviours, which is what lets it survive contact with corporate hierarchy. The book was named a Financial Times Business Book of the Month. She translates between two worlds that rarely speak the same language: founders running on instinct and customer obsession, and senior executives running on process and structure. Most speakers can describe one of those worlds; she has lived both. Her credibility on women-led growth is operating credibility, not advocacy. Buy Women Built is a commercial channel built with major retailers, and she co-chaired the UK government’s Scale Up Taskforce on growing SMEs. Biography highlights Co-founder, Coffee Republic; scaled to 110 stores and a £50 million market capitalisation Founder, Skinny Candy (50% acquired by Glisten Plc) and Buy Women Built Author, Anyone Can Do It (Wiley, 2003) and Start Up Forever (Troubador, 2019, Financial Times Business Book of the Month) OBE for services to the UK economy and to charity, 2012 Birthday Honours Co-chair, UK government Scale Up Taskforce; board member, Scale Up Institute Young Global Leader, World Economic Forum Biography Coffee Republic opened on South Molton Street in 1995, the first US-style coffee bar chain in the UK. Within five years it ran 110 stores at a £50 million market capitalisation. Sahar Hashemi co-founded the business with her brother Bobby after leaving a career in law, and the speed of the build became the basis of everything she has worked on since. The question that has occupied her for two decades is why large companies struggle to act on what they already know. Most have the people, the capital and the data to behave entrepreneurially. They rarely behave that way in practice. Her book Start Up Forever, named a Financial Times Business Book of the Month, breaks that gap into a set of daily habits that survive inside corporate structure rather than dying in workshop rooms. The work has weight because it is grounded in three operating businesses she actually built, not consulting case studies. Skinny Candy, the sugar-free confectionery brand, was acquired by Glisten Plc. Buy Women Built, launched in 2020, now represents more than 2,000 women-built businesses with combined turnover above £2.5 billion and has become a working channel inside major UK retailers. She co-chaired the UK government’s Scale Up Taskforce and sits on the board of the Scale Up Institute. Senior teams at Microsoft, L’Oreal, LinkedIn, Procter & Gamble and Sky have brought her in for the same reason: she gives a leadership group a usable answer to the question of what entrepreneurial behaviour looks like on a Tuesday afternoon at a 50,000-person company. She was awarded an OBE in 2012 for services to the UK economy and to charity, and named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. Key speaking topics Entrepreneurial mindset inside large organisations Innovation and creativity as everyday discipline Building start-up culture in established businesses Intrapreneurship and behaviour change at scale Women-led entrepreneurship and scale-up growth Customer obsession as a leadership behaviour Courage, action and the founder’s bias to start Ideal for Executive teams running innovation, transformation or culture-change programmes CHROs and learning leaders who want behaviour change, not awareness Strategy and growth leaders trying to build new businesses inside an existing one Sales, marketing and customer teams rebuilding around customer obsession Audience outcomes A practical model of entrepreneurial behaviour that translates into Monday-morning habits Specific examples of how founder instincts (customer obsession, bias to act, comfort with ambiguity) operate inside corporate structure A clearer view of why innovation programmes stall, and what to remove rather than add Renewed confidence in personal agency: what an individual contributor or senior leader can change without permission Frameworks from Start Up Forever that teams can apply to their own products, customers and decisions

Why organisations work with Rita Clifton A board-level voice on brand, not an agency one. As Deputy Chairman of the John Lewis Partnership and former NED at Nationwide, ASOS, Bupa, and Dixons, she speaks about brand from inside the governance conversation, not across the table from it. Two decades shaping the modern discipline of brand valuation as London CEO then Chairman of Interbrand, the firm that established the methodology most large companies still use to put a number on brand equity. Author of the standard reference text Brands and Branding for The Economist, used as a teaching text on MBA programmes, alongside The Future of Brands and Love Your Imposter. Credible on sustainability and brand purpose as Chair of Forum for the Future, which separates her from brand voices who treat purpose as messaging rather than as a commercial commitment to test. Visiting Fellow at Oxford’s Said Business School on corporate reputation, with media reach across BBC, Sky, and the FT that signals authority to an external audience as well as an internal one. Biography highlights Deputy Chairman, John Lewis Partnership (from February 2021); Chair of the Nominations Committee. Chair, Forum for the Future, the international sustainability non-profit founded by Jonathon Porritt and Sara Parkin. Former London CEO and Chairman of Interbrand (1997 to 2012); previously Vice Chairman and Strategy Director at Saatchi & Saatchi. Visiting Fellow, Said Business School, University of Oxford, specialising in corporate reputation. Author of Brands and Branding (The Economist), The Future of Brands, and Love Your Imposter (Kogan Page, 2020), shortlisted at the Business Book Awards. CBE, 2014 New Year Honours, for services to the creative industries. Biography Brand is still treated, in most boardrooms, as something the marketing function owns. It sits beneath strategy in the agenda, gets the smallest share of capital, and is measured by activity rather than by enterprise value. Rita Clifton’s argument, built across thirty years at Saatchi & Saatchi, Interbrand, and BrandCap, is that this is the wrong organisational logic. Brand is what holds a company’s pricing power, customer trust, and talent magnetism in place, and in most large businesses it is the largest intangible asset on the balance sheet. She has tested the argument from both sides. As London CEO and then Chairman of Interbrand from 1997 to 2012, she helped shape the brand valuation methodology that boards now use to compare brand equity to other forms of intangible capital. As Deputy Chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, alongside earlier non-executive roles at Nationwide Building Society, ASOS, Bupa, Dixons, and Ascential, she has been the person on the other side of the table, asking executive teams what their brand investment is actually buying. Her writing makes the argument durable. Brands and Branding, published by The Economist, is a standard MBA reference. Love Your Imposter, published by Kogan Page in 2020, was shortlisted at the Business Book Awards and reframes the inner experience of senior leadership through the same lens of identity and authenticity she applies to brands. The sustainability work runs in parallel and reinforces the commercial case. As Chair of Forum for the Future and a Trustee at Green Alliance, she sits inside the policy conversation on net zero and corporate purpose. That gives her something most brand voices lack: a defensible position on whether a company’s stated purpose is actually being capitalised, or is just rhetoric on a website. Key speaking topics Brand as enterprise value and board agenda item Corporate reputation under digital and AI disruption Brand purpose, sustainability, and credibility Non-executive leadership and governance Personal brand and authenticity for senior leaders Marketing and brand strategy in consumer-facing businesses Diversity in the boardroom Ideal for Boards, chairs, and NEDs reviewing brand as a strategic asset rather than a marketing budget line CMOs, CCOs, and CSOs aligning brand, sustainability, and corporate reputation CEO and ExCo offsites in consumer, retail, financial services, and partnership-model businesses Senior leadership programmes addressing personal brand, identity, and presence at the top Audience outcomes A sharper definition of what brand is doing inside their own organisation’s P&L and balance sheet A board-level vocabulary for brand investment that connects to capital allocation, not campaign spend A more honest read on whether stated purpose is commercially credible to customers, employees, and investors A practical view of personal authority for senior leaders facing scrutiny they did not have earlier in their careers

Why organisations work with Rain Newton-Smith She makes the affirmative economic case that net-zero and growth are reinforcing – not competing – priorities, with CBI and OBR data showing the cost of failing to decarbonise is five times the cost of acting early. This reframes a question most boards are still treating as a trade-off. Her analysis of UK investment conditions is not retrospective commentary: as head of the CBI she is actively co-designing the UK Industrial Strategy with government, giving organisations access to intelligence that is live and consequential. Her China and emerging markets expertise – built as lead specialist at Oxford Economics – gives her a credible basis for the counter-consensus argument that full decoupling from China is economically untenable and inconsistent with any serious free-trade commitment. She bridges central bank monetary discipline (nine years at the Bank of England, IMF secondment) with the strategic language of the boardroom – a combination that is rare among economists who speak on UK macroeconomic and geopolitical risk. As Policy Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Department of Economics and Non-Executive Director of F&C Investment Trust, she operates simultaneously inside academic economic policy debate and at the institutional investor level. Biography highlights Chief Executive of the Confederation of British Industry – the UK’s principal business advocacy body, representing over 170,000 firms Former Chief Economist at the CBI (2014–2023); led economic analysis, policy teams, and HM Treasury engagement Nine years at the Bank of England, including global forecasting for the Monetary Policy Committee; seconded to the IMF as adviser to the UK Executive Director (2004–2006) Former Head of Emerging Markets at Oxford Economics; lead expert on China and Asia Former Managing Director, Strategy and Policy, Sustainability and ESG at Barclays Policy Fellow, Department of Economics, University of Oxford; Council Member, Royal Economic Society; Member, LSE Centre for Economic Performance Policy Committee Non-Executive Director, F&C Investment Trust WEF Young Global Leader (2012); WEF Global Future Council on Monetary and Fiscal Policy (2020) Management Today 35 Women Under 35 (2010) PPE, University of Oxford; MSc Economics, London School of Economics Biography The question of whether UK business can afford the green transition is being asked backwards. Rain Newton-Smith, Chief Executive of the Confederation of British Industry, has built the evidence to reframe it. OBR projections show the cost of failing to decarbonise is five times the cost of acting early – making this a capital allocation question, not an environmental one. Her analytical foundation spans nine years at the Bank of England preparing forecasts for the Monetary Policy Committee, followed by a secondment to the IMF as adviser to the UK Executive Director. She then led the emerging markets practice at Oxford Economics as its lead expert on China – work that now informs her publicly stated position that full decoupling from China is economically untenable and inconsistent with a commitment to free trade. Before becoming CBI Chief Executive in 2023, she served as CBI Chief Economist for nine years, leading its economic analysis and policy teams and its engagement with HM Treasury, and as Managing Director of Strategy, Policy, Sustainability and ESG at Barclays. The combination – central bank economist, institutional strategist, and now the UK’s leading business advocate – places her above the policy debate rather than within it. She is a Policy Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Department of Economics, a Council Member of the Royal Economic Society, and a Non-Executive Director of F&C Investment Trust. The World Economic Forum named her a Young Global Leader in 2012 and invited her to join its Global Future Council on Monetary and Fiscal Policy in 2020. Key speaking topics UK economic outlook and investment conditions Global trade, protectionism, and the China question Net-zero growth: the economic case for the green transition UK industrial strategy and business-government partnership Geopolitical risk and its consequences for capital allocation Emerging market dynamics and Asia ESG strategy and the business case for sustainability Ideal for Boards and C-suite leadership evaluating UK investment and growth strategy CFOs, CSOs, and heads of strategy in financial services, energy, and manufacturing Government affairs and regulatory teams navigating post-Brexit trade and policy Institutional investors and pension funds assessing UK macroeconomic and ESG risk Audience outcomes A framework for understanding how fiscal pressure, geopolitical risk, and the green transition interact as a single investment decision Clarity on the UK-EU, US tariff, and China dynamics that are directly affecting corporate capital allocation An evidence-based rebuttal to the assumption that net-zero and economic competitiveness are in conflict Better understanding of how UK industrial strategy is being shaped and what it means for investment planning Context on how financial stability risks – sovereign debt, monetary tightening, energy costs – are translating into business conditions in the near term