Digital Transformation

Why organisations work with Aaron Frank As one of only two lead facilitators of Singularity University’s flagship five-day Executive Program, he translates emerging technology trajectories into specific decisions a senior team can make this quarter, not abstract futures. He has taught the same material to the United States Marine Corps, the Central Bank of Denmark, Ernst & Young, FC Barcelona, GE, and The Economist Group, which means his frame is tested across regulators, militaries, sports bodies, and Fortune 500 operators. He guest lectures inside Oxford’s Saïd Business School Digital Transformation course, evidence that his content survives peer scrutiny in a serious executive-education environment. He writes a steady stream of analysis for Singularity Hub, Wired, Forbes, Vice, and VentureBeat, and authored Singularity’s 2026 executive briefing on Physical AI, so audiences get a speaker whose arguments are already pressure-tested in print. His current research focus is the convergence of generative AI, spatial computing, 3D simulation, and physical AI, a frame that gives him a concrete read on where the next wave of enterprise infrastructure is heading. Biography highlights Principal Faculty, Singularity University, and one of only two lead facilitators of its flagship five-day Executive Program. MBA, University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, where he also guest lectures on the Digital Transformation course. Bylines in Vice, Wired, Forbes, VentureBeat, and Singularity Hub. Author of A Business Leader’s Introduction to Physical AI (Singularity, 2026). Has spoken to or advised the United States Marine Corps, the CIA, the Department of Defense, the Central Bank of Denmark, Ernst & Young, GE, The Economist Group, Coca-Cola, Under Armour, FC Barcelona, the NBA, Sony, and Honeywell. Board member, Saint Francis Living Room, a community kitchen in San Francisco’s Tenderloin. Biography Generative AI is now familiar territory for most senior leaders. What comes after is the harder question: which emerging shifts genuinely reshape an industry, and where capital should actually move. That interpretive read is what Aaron Frank does for a living. He is one of only two lead facilitators of Singularity University’s flagship Executive Program. The five-day intensive puts him in a room with around a hundred senior leaders, working through emerging technology trajectories as a structured curriculum. Few speakers test their arguments against a senior audience that often. His range covers rapid technological change, spatial computing and 3D simulation, digital twins as enterprise infrastructure, and the move toward physical AI. He has taught that material to the United States Marine Corps, the Central Bank of Denmark, Ernst & Young, FC Barcelona, and GE. His bylines appear in Wired, Forbes, Vice, VentureBeat, and Singularity Hub. Outside Singularity, he holds an MBA from Oxford’s Saïd Business School and guest lectures on its Digital Transformation course. He also sits on the board of Saint Francis Living Room, a community kitchen in San Francisco’s Tenderloin. His current research focus is the rise of physical AI, set out for Singularity in a 2026 executive briefing on the convergence of robotics, simulation, and spatial intelligence. Key speaking topics Exponential technology trajectories and leadership decisions Innovation strategy under technology acceleration Spatial computing, 3D simulation, and digital twins Physical AI and robotics Ideal for Boards and executive teams setting AI and emerging technology investment direction CTO, CIO and head of digital transformation audiences Industrial, manufacturing, defence and supply chain leadership planning around physical AI and digital twins Strategy and innovation leads in financial services, sport, media and government Audience outcomes A clearer read on which emerging technology shifts actually reshape their industry, and which are noise. A working vocabulary for generative AI, spatial computing, digital twins, and physical AI that a senior team can use in the same conversation. Specific examples of how regulators, militaries, sports bodies, and Fortune 500 operators are deploying these technologies today. A view on the next two to five years of enterprise AI infrastructure beyond the chatbot, drawn from operating deployments.

Why organisations work with Julie Holmes She has built and sold technology, not just studied it. Two innovation companies under her belt and products in over 60 countries give her keynotes the texture of an operator, not an analyst. The UPGRADE Framework gives audiences a seven-step structure they can apply on Monday morning, rather than a high-level provocation about AI’s importance. The AI Strategy Playbook, co-authored with Mary Kelly, addresses the gap most leadership teams admit privately: they do not yet have a written organisational AI strategy. PSA-UKI Hall of Fame status puts her among 33 speakers recognised for sustained craft on stage, useful when the brief is a high-stakes leadership audience. She lectures on innovation and AI at Yale, Birkbeck, and the American University of Beirut, which keeps the material tested against students and faculty as well as paying clients. Biography highlights Hall of Fame Speaker, PSA-UKI, one of 33 to hold the honour Author of Little Big Bangs for Leaders and co-author of The AI Strategy Playbook with Mary Kelly, PhD Founder of two innovation companies with products distributed in over 60 countries Clients include Oracle, Expedia, American Express, JetBlue, Nestle, EY, VMware, US Bank, and LinkedIn Guest lecturer at Yale, Birkbeck (University of London), and the American University of Beirut Creator of the UPGRADE Framework for AI adoption inside teams Biography Less than one in five companies has a written AI policy, let alone a strategy. That gap is what Julie Holmes works inside. She helps boards and leadership teams move from scattered AI pilots to a documented playbook the rest of the organisation can actually use. Her credibility comes from building, not commenting. Holmes founded two innovation companies and shipped products into more than 60 countries before the current AI cycle. That operator history shapes how she talks to senior audiences. The diagnosis is practical, the language is plain, and the deliverable is a structure leaders can apply. The UPGRADE Framework, her seven-step approach to embedding AI in team workflows, anchors most of her keynotes. The AI Strategy Playbook, co-authored with Mary Kelly, extends the same logic to the strategy layer. Earlier work, Little Big Bangs for Leaders, set out her broader thesis on incremental innovation as a leadership discipline. Holmes is a Hall of Fame Speaker with PSA-UKI, one of 33 to hold the honour, and a guest lecturer at Yale, Birkbeck, and the American University of Beirut. Brands including Oracle, Expedia, JetBlue, Nestle, EY, and LinkedIn have brought her in to do the same job: take AI off the slide deck and into the operating model. Key speaking topics AI strategy and adoption Enterprise AI playbooks AI-empowered teams and workflows Innovation as a leadership discipline Sales and customer experience under AI Future of work and AI capability building Ideal for CEOs, COOs, and CTOs setting an enterprise AI direction Heads of transformation and innovation responsible for AI deployment Sales and customer-experience leaders integrating AI into commercial workflows Boards seeking a credible operator perspective on AI strategy Audience outcomes A working seven-step structure (UPGRADE) for embedding AI into team operations A clearer view of what an AI strategy playbook contains and how to draft one Concrete examples of where AI changes sales and customer experience, with named tools Language for talking to non-technical employees about AI capability without inducing fear A sharper sense of which AI use cases are worth piloting and which are noise

Why organisations work with Dorothée Töreki She has run digital transformation from the inside. Eleven years at IBM Germany and a Director of Digitalisation role at the Boysen Group give her a working understanding of how AI and digital tools actually land in industrial and corporate environments. She teaches the same material she presents on stage. Her part-time lectureship at Duale Hochschule Heidenheim covers blockchain and generative AI, which keeps the content close to the underlying mechanics rather than the marketing layer. She is one of the few German-language voices who can move an audience from technology scepticism to active engagement, in both English and German, without simplifying the substance. Her work spans the connected stack: generative AI, blockchain, Web 3.0, the Internet of Things and human-machine collaboration. That breadth lets her show executives where today’s pilots are pointing. Biography highlights Eleven years at IBM Germany in roles spanning Digital Advisor, Competitive Leader and Digital Workplace Consultant. Former Director of Digitalisation at the Boysen Group, leading cultural transformation. Founder of Denkräume im Digitalen, established 2019. Part-time lecturer in blockchain and generative AI at Duale Hochschule Heidenheim. LinkedIn Top Voice DACH 2018 and Best of IBM 2016. Co-author for Springer Gabler on generative AI and digitalisation themes. Biography Most German industrial firms can describe what generative AI is. Far fewer can describe what it changes inside their operating model. That gap, between technical literacy and operating capability, is the territory Dorothée Töreki has worked in for two decades. Her route into the subject is unusual. She trained as a civil engineer and worked on infrastructure projects including the ICE rail link between Frankfurt and Cologne, before moving into information technology. Eleven years at IBM Germany followed, in roles that ran from digital workplace consulting to competitive analysis on cloud and AI. As Director of Digitalisation at the Boysen Group, she carried that perspective into an industrial automotive supplier, designing the cultural side of digital change. In 2019 she founded Denkräume im Digitalen to focus on executive education and keynotes. The body of work spans generative AI, blockchain, Web 3.0 and human-machine collaboration. She teaches the same material at Duale Hochschule Heidenheim, which gives the content a level of technical detail most keynote speakers cannot match. Springer Gabler publishes her as a contributing author on generative AI and digital business. She is recognised as a LinkedIn Top Voice DACH and was named Best of IBM in 2016. Her delivery, in German or English, is built on turning abstract technology into specific operational consequence: what changes for marketing, for service operations, for the workplace, for the way decisions get made. Key speaking topics Generative AI in business Digital transformation in industrial organisations Blockchain and Web 3.0 Human-machine collaboration Future of work and digital workplace Internet of Things and Economy of Things Cultural change in technology adoption Ideal for CIOs, CDOs and heads of digital transformation in industrial and B2B firms. Executive committees and boards setting AI strategy. Marketing, sales and customer experience leadership teams. German-speaking corporate audiences seeking technical depth without losing accessibility. Audience outcomes A working picture of where generative AI changes specific business functions, not a generic technology overview. Clear language for the cultural and organisational shifts that decide whether digital pilots scale. A more precise read on adjacent technologies such as blockchain, Web 3.0 and IoT, and how they connect to AI strategy. The confidence to engage rather than retreat from the next wave of technology decisions.

Why organisations work with Ramy Nassar He brings a published, structured method for AI product design from idea to launch, set out in the AI Product Design Handbook and used by enterprise teams who need a repeatable process rather than another inspiration deck. He has run innovation inside Mattel and led design and strategy at Architech for Apple, Air Canada, CIBC, Facebook and Rogers, so the operational reality of shipping new products inside large organisations is in the room. His work separates “AI Now, Next and Never,” giving boards a defensible position on what to deploy, what to wait on, and where to draw governance lines. He teaches design thinking and innovation at McMaster University and Toronto Metropolitan University, and executive programmes at Schulich ExecEd, which keeps the frameworks tested against working leaders. Client engagements span Apple, TD Bank, TELUS, Verizon, New Balance and the Government of Canada, covering both regulated and consumer environments. Biography highlights Author, AI Product Design Handbook Former Head of Innovation, Mattel, where he launched the company’s first innovation lab Former Managing Director, Design and Strategy, Architech Founder, 1000 Days Out, advisory practice on AI and emerging technology Faculty: McMaster University, Toronto Metropolitan University, Schulich ExecEd at York University Featured by CPA Canada at The ONE national conference; speaker at FITC, IxDA, FWD50 and World Usability Congress Biography Most AI projects inside large organisations have the same shape. A pilot ships, attention moves on, and the operating model does not change. Boards then have to decide whether the next round of spend should go into more experiments or into the harder work of getting AI into the product and into the workflow. That is the decision Ramy Nassar is built to inform. The AI Product Design Handbook sets out a repeatable process for taking AI products from idea to launch, with explicit attention to user trust, transparency and governance. It is used by product and design leaders who need a method, not a manifesto. The argument is grounded in his time as Head of Innovation at Mattel, where he launched the company’s first innovation lab and led emerging-technology work for Barbie and Hot Wheels, and earlier as Managing Director of Design and Strategy at Architech, where he ran client work for Apple, Air Canada, CIBC, Facebook and Rogers. Through 1000 Days Out he advises senior teams at Apple, TD Bank, TELUS, Verizon, New Balance and the Government of Canada on AI adoption, strategic foresight and product strategy. His framing of “AI Now, Next and Never” is designed for boards that need to commit capital and set governance lines at the same time, and his strategic foresight work gives leaders a structured way to test decisions against multiple long-range scenarios. Faculty roles at McMaster University, Toronto Metropolitan University and Schulich ExecEd at York University keep the frameworks tested against working executives. CPA Canada featured him at The ONE national conference on turning insights into measurable impact, and his international speaking includes FITC, IxDA, FWD50 and the World Usability Congress. Key speaking topics Artificial intelligence adoption and product design Responsible AI and governance Strategic foresight and scenario planning Innovation strategy Emerging technology and exponential change Digital product and customer experience design Ideal for Boards and C-suite teams setting AI investment and governance policy Chief Product Officers, Chief Design Officers and Chief Innovation Officers moving from pilots to deployed AI Heads of Strategy and corporate development running scenario planning under technology uncertainty Public-sector leaders shaping responsible AI policy and procurement Audience outcomes A defensible “now, next, never” view of where to deploy AI, where to wait, and where to refuse A structured method for taking AI features from concept to launch with governance built in Sharper foresight tools for testing strategy against multiple long-range scenarios Concrete language for communicating AI risk, ethics and product trade-offs to non-technical executives and customers

Why organisations work with Guillem Graell He ran brand, digital and direct-to-fan at FC Barcelona between 2017 and 2021, a period in which the club’s digital products generated over one billion euros. Few speakers have operated a P and L of that size in this category. He built Barça Studios and BarçaTV+ from scratch into a direct-to-consumer business valued at more than 250 million euros, giving him a working blueprint for content as a revenue line, not a marketing cost. He took the club’s social footprint past 400 million followers and made it the first football club with 10 million YouTube subscribers, with engagement that consistently led the global sports rankings. He is now building, not retired. As co-founder of D2F Partners he designs, operates and funds direct-to-fan brands, so the case material in any keynote is current rather than archival. He teaches brand strategy at UPF Barcelona School of Management and marketing management at ESADE, which forces him to translate operating experience into frameworks that other leaders can use. Biography highlights Chief Marketing Officer, FC Barcelona, 2017 to 2021. Co-founder and Managing Partner, D2F Partners, building direct-to-fan businesses in sport and entertainment. Founder of Barça Studios and BarçaTV+, a direct-to-consumer venture valued at over 250 million euros. Earlier brand and marketing roles at Procter and Gamble, Reckitt Benckiser, Chupa Chups, Codorniu Group and Accenture. Faculty at UPF Barcelona School of Management (Master in Brand Strategy, since 2014) and ESADE Business School (Master in Marketing Management). Industrial Engineering, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, and General Management Programme (PDG), IESE Business School. Biography Sports clubs were among the first consumer brands to discover that their audience was bigger than their stadium and worth more than their broadcast deal. Between 2017 and 2021, FC Barcelona had to act on that fact, and the person running brand, digital and direct-to-fan inside the club was Guillem Graell. As Chief Marketing Officer, he rebuilt the club’s commercial relationship with its supporters around a direct-to-consumer model. He founded Barça Studios and launched BarçaTV+, a venture later valued at more than 250 million euros, alongside subscription, content and product lines that pushed digital revenue past one billion euros. The social audience grew past 400 million followers, and the club became the first in football to cross 10 million YouTube subscribers. His route into that role was unusual for sport. Industrial engineering at the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, the General Management Programme at IESE, and brand and commercial roles at Procter and Gamble, Reckitt Benckiser, Chupa Chups, Codorniu and Accenture. The FMCG discipline of building emotional brands at scale travelled with him into one of the most-watched sporting institutions in the world. He now co-runs D2F Partners with Enric Llopart, the club’s former digital director, designing and funding direct-to-fan businesses for other sports and entertainment brands. He teaches brand strategy at UPF Barcelona School of Management and ESADE, which is where the operating playbook from Barça gets pressure-tested against other categories trying to own their audience. Key speaking topics Direct-to-consumer strategy in sport and entertainment Building and monetising LoveBrands Digital business models and content as revenue Brand transformation in legacy organisations Audience, community and fan engagement at scale Innovation in marketing and commercial models Ideal for CMOs, Chief Brand Officers and Chief Digital Officers in consumer-facing categories CEOs and boards of sports, entertainment, media and lifestyle businesses Heads of direct-to-consumer, content and digital product Marketing and growth leadership teams reframing how they own customer relationships Audience outcomes A working view of how a billion-euro digital and direct-to-fan business actually gets built and run Practical reference points for moving from audience metrics to commercial outcomes A clearer line between brand strategy, content investment and direct revenue Useful comparisons between sport, entertainment and other consumer categories trying to own the customer A confident perspective on where digital products, subscriptions and community fit inside a brand P and L

Why organisations work with Adolfo Fernandez Operator perspective from inside the two platforms reshaping global retail. He has led commercialisation strategy for Google Shopping’s mid-market segment and now Global Product Strategy and Operations for TikTok’s eCommerce advertising suite. A working framework for cross-border growth, drawn from running Google’s internationalization advisory practice for the mid-market. It addresses the question most growth-stage companies misjudge: when domestic plateau means it is time to enter a new market, and on what terms. Recognised by the World Economic Forum, which invited him into its Expert Network on Retail, Consumer Goods and Lifestyle, and Digital Communications. That credential signals depth that bureau platforms alone cannot. Comfort across three buyer registers: regulators and policy bodies (UN, WTO), executive education audiences (IE Business School, MIT), and corporate boards. Leaders get a speaker who can move between policy frame and operating frame without losing either. Delivery in English, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, which makes him useful for European and Latin American leadership audiences that other Silicon Valley operators cannot reach without translation. Biography highlights Global Director of Product Strategy and Operations for eCommerce advertising at TikTok, based in San Francisco Former Google leader: Business Development Manager for Spain and Portugal, Global Program Manager for Internationalization advisory, and Google Shopping commercialisation strategy lead for the SMB segment World Economic Forum Expert Network member since 2019 in Retail, Consumer Goods and Lifestyle, and Digital Communications Speaker at more than 200 international conferences, including United Nations and World Trade Organization platforms Guest lecturer at IE Business School and MIT MA in International Management, IE Business School; BA in Business Administration, University of Santiago de Compostela Biography Most companies still treat international expansion as a sequencing problem: which market next, in what order, on what timeline. The harder question is platform-shaped. Discovery, conversion and brand association now run through a small number of global commerce environments, and the rules of entry differ across them. That is the terrain Adolfo Fernandez works in. He is currently Global Director of Product Strategy and Operations for eCommerce advertising at TikTok, where he leads product strategy, product marketing and go-to-market for the platform’s commerce advertising suite. The role sits at the centre of one of the most consequential shifts in consumer attention of the last five years. Before TikTok, he spent close to a decade at Google. He started as Business Development Manager for Spain and Portugal in 2015, then took over Google’s Internationalization advisory services for the mid-market in 2018, before moving to San Francisco to lead Google Shopping commercialisation strategy for the SMB segment. The arc gave him an unusual vantage on how mid-sized firms actually win, and lose, in cross-border digital commerce. His public-facing work has reached the UN and the World Trade Organization, executive audiences at IE Business School and MIT, and the World Economic Forum, which invited him into its Expert Network on retail, consumer goods and digital communications in 2019. He works in English, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, which extends his reach into European and Latin American audiences that most Silicon Valley operators cannot serve directly. Key speaking topics Digital commerce and platform strategy International growth and market entry Retail technology and consumer behaviour Brand building in digital-first markets Innovation and product strategy Future of work in technology-led organisations Ideal for Boards and executive teams of mid-market and large companies planning international growth CMOs, commercial directors and digital leaders rethinking discovery, paid media and conversion economics Retail, consumer goods and lifestyle leadership teams reassessing platform dependency Executive education and leadership development audiences in Europe and Latin America Audience outcomes A clearer read on how Google and TikTok are changing the economics of consumer attention and commerce A practical lens for deciding when and how to enter new international markets A working distinction between innovation and creativity inside large organisations Specific examples of how digital-native brands have built relevance and speed without losing core values

Why organisations work with Hamilton Mann He runs digital and AI transformation at Thales across 68 countries in defence, aerospace, cybersecurity and digital identity, so the advice he gives boards is the advice he himself has to act on inside one of the most regulated operating environments in the world. Artificial Integrity is a published, named framework with a Wiley imprint behind it and a Thinkers50 Distinguished Achievement Award in Digital Thinking. Buyers get a defensible reference point, not a personal opinion. He teaches AI strategy at INSEAD, HEC Paris and EDHEC Business School, which means the content travels at executive education register without being either academic or vendor-coloured. He bridges the two AI conversations boards are stuck between: the engineering question of what the system can do, and the governance question of what the organisation can defend. Most speakers credibly cover one side. Biography highlights Group Vice President, Digital Marketing and Digital Transformation, Thales (defence, aerospace, cybersecurity, digital identity, 68 countries). Author, Artificial Integrity: The Paths to Leading AI Toward a Human-Centered Future (Wiley, October 2024). Thinkers50 Radar 2024 (top 30 emerging business thinkers globally); Thinkers50 Distinguished Achievement Award in Digital Thinking, 2025. Senior Lecturer at INSEAD, HEC Paris and EDHEC Business School; Mentor, MIT Priscilla King Gray Public Service Center. Forbes US contributor on AI; published in Stanford Social Innovation Review, California Management Review, Rotman Management, Knowledge@Wharton, INSEAD Knowledge, I by IMD, Harvard Business Review France. Host of The Hamilton Mann Conversation, a podcast on Digital for Good. Biography The harder problem in enterprise AI is no longer model performance. It is the gap between what a system can do and what an organisation can defend in front of a regulator, a court, a journalist or a customer. Hamilton Mann named that gap and gave it a discipline. His book Artificial Integrity, published by Wiley in October 2024, argues that AI design has spent a decade optimising for intelligence and almost no time on integrity, by which he means systems that demonstrate ethical, moral and social reasoning and remain continuously assessable in that capacity. The argument earned the Thinkers50 Distinguished Achievement Award in Digital Thinking in 2025 and a place on the Thinkers50 Top 10 New Management Books list the same year. The credibility comes from operating reality as much as from publishing record. As Group Vice President for Digital Marketing and Digital Transformation at Thales, Mann runs digital and AI initiatives across 68 countries inside a defence, aerospace, cybersecurity and digital identity business, the kind of environment where a poorly governed AI decision has consequences beyond reputational damage. He carries that lens into his teaching at INSEAD, HEC Paris and EDHEC, his mentoring at MIT’s Priscilla King Gray Public Service Center, and his Forbes US column on AI and society. For a board or executive committee debating AI deployment, the value is concrete. Mann sits at the intersection of three conversations most organisations try to hold separately: the technical, the governance and the strategic. He has a published framework, an operator’s track record and the standing to challenge a leadership team without retreating into either ethics theory or vendor pitch. Key speaking topics Artificial Integrity as an AI design discipline Responsible AI deployment in regulated industries Digital and AI transformation at enterprise scale AI governance for boards and executive committees Digital for Good and the paradoxes of technology Human-centred AI strategy Leadership in the age of AI Ideal for Boards and executive committees setting AI policy and risk appetite Chief AI Officers, CIOs, CTOs and Chief Digital Officers responsible for enterprise deployment Regulated industry leadership in defence, financial services, healthcare, energy and public sector Senior leadership programmes and executive education on AI strategy Audience outcomes A working definition of Artificial Integrity that a leadership team can use to evaluate its own AI portfolio A clearer view of where current AI deployments create defensibility risk and where they create operating advantage The vocabulary and framework to challenge vendors, internal AI proposals and governance gaps with the same standard A reference point grounded in both a published Wiley title and an active operating role at one of Europe’s largest technology groups

Why organisations work with Neil West First-hand operator perspective from inside Apple Music, the App Store, Apple TV+ and iTunes during the period the company shifted a billion-dollar services business across Europe. A specific thesis on simplicity as competitive advantage, set out in It Just Works (Macmillan Business, 2026) and structured as nine rules leaders can apply to their own products and teams. Useful for the meeting after the strategy offsite: he speaks to the practical work of cutting features, killing projects, and protecting customer experience from internal politics. Co-founded the iTunes Festival and curated Apple’s relationship with artists from Beyonce to Bono, which gives the talks the texture of a content business, not a generic technology keynote. Translates Steve Jobs era principles into language that lands with commercial and product leaders who have to ship, not theorise. Biography highlights Head of Services, Apple Southern Europe, with responsibility for App Store, Apple Music, Apple TV+, iCloud, Books, Podcasts, Arcade and Fitness+ across the region. Head of Music, Apple UK and Europe, for ten years, including the period iTunes became the world’s largest music retailer. Co-founder and curator of the iTunes Festival. Author of It Just Works: The Nine Simple Rules of Apple’s Success, Macmillan Business, September 2026. TEDx speaker on The Beatles, Steve Jobs, and Team Management. Earlier career: European Editor-in-Chief at Rhapsody, the first music streaming subscription service, Creative Director at Garageband.com (founded with Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads and Sir George Martin), and Editor-in-Chief of NEXT Generation magazine. Biography iTunes was a record store before it was a streaming service, and the App Store was a developer experiment before it was a platform. The hard part of running those businesses across Europe was not adding features. It was deciding what not to build, what to pull, and which artist or partner relationship was worth defending against internal pressure to standardise. West did that work for sixteen years. As Head of Music for Apple in the UK and Europe, he led the team through the period iTunes became the world’s biggest music retailer, and co-founded the iTunes Festival as a way of binding the catalogue to a live cultural moment. He then ran Services for Apple Southern Europe, a billion-dollar portfolio covering App Store, Apple Music, TV+, iCloud, Books, Podcasts, Arcade and Fitness+, through the shift from downloads to subscription. His argument now, set out in It Just Works (Macmillan Business, 2026), is that Apple’s edge has always been a discipline for removing complexity rather than a talent for adding features. The book offers nine rules drawn from inside the business, on simplifying products, reducing friction in customer journeys, and protecting focus when an organisation grows. His TEDx talk on The Beatles and Steve Jobs makes the team-design version of the same case. For audiences in product, marketing, services and digital businesses, the value is the operator detail. He talks about specific decisions, named launches, and the politics of holding a line on customer experience when commercial pressure points the other way. Key speaking topics Simplicity as commercial operating discipline Customer experience in subscription and platform businesses The shift from downloads to streaming and what it taught the wider content economy Product and service launches at scale Building and managing creative teams Lessons from inside Apple’s services business Ideal for Product, services and platform leaders running multi-product portfolios CMOs and customer experience leaders in subscription, media and consumer businesses Innovation and transformation directors looking for an operator voice rather than a consultant frame Leadership teams resetting after a period of feature accumulation or proposition drift Audience outcomes A working definition of simplicity that can be applied to a roadmap, not just a brand line. Specific tests for deciding what to cut from a product, service or process. A view of Apple’s services business from inside the European operation, including how artist and partner relationships were handled. Language for protecting customer experience against internal pressure to add complexity. A team-design lens drawn from how Apple, and before it The Beatles, structured small creative groups for output.

Key speaking topics Artificial intelligence governance Digital policy and regulation Data strategy and Big Data European AI regulation International technology cooperation Cybersecurity and digital transformation Ideal for Government and public sector leaders Boards and senior executives shaping AI strategy Technology and digital transformation leaders Policy and regulatory audiences Audience outcomes Clear understanding of AI governance frameworks and global policy dynamics Insight into the regulatory landscape shaping artificial intelligence in Europe Practical perspective on aligning AI strategy with public policy requirements Strategic context for navigating digital transformation at national and organisational level Why organisations work with Carme Artigas Direct experience shaping national and European AI policy. Senior leadership background across both public administration and technology ventures. International perspective through United Nations and European institutional roles. Commercial understanding of data and AI from founding and scaling a technology consultancy. Biography Carme Artigas brings rare, first-hand experience of shaping artificial intelligence policy at national, European and international level. As Spain’s Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence, she led the country’s digital and AI agenda and represented Spain in key European and global technology forums. During Spain’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union, she coordinated work connected to negotiations on European AI regulation, positioning her at the centre of discussions on responsible AI, governance frameworks and regulatory design. She also serves as Co-Chair of the United Nations High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence, contributing to international dialogue on the future of AI governance. Her expertise is grounded in substantial private-sector leadership. She co-founded Synergic Partners, a data analytics and Big Data consultancy that was later integrated into Telefónica, and previously served as CEO of Ericsson Innova, the Ericsson Group’s European venture capital fund. These roles give her a practical understanding of how data strategy, innovation and regulation intersect in real organisations. In addition to her public and corporate leadership, she is affiliated as a Senior Fellow with Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center and is recognised in Spain as an ambassador for Stanford University’s Women in Data Science initiative. For organisations navigating AI adoption, digital transformation and regulatory change, Carme Artigas offers strategic insight drawn from direct experience at the highest levels of technology policy and data-driven business.

Why organisations work with Pavel Verbnyak Practical instruction in goal-setting and execution discipline drawn from direct training under Jack Canfield and Robbins Research International, two of the most established lineages in the personal-development field. Bilingual delivery in English and Russian, with a client list that spans Russian and CIS corporates including Sberbank, Lukoil, MTS, Russian Railways and Rostelecom. Founder and CEO of Successful Thinking, a coaching practice he has run since 2012, focused on personal effectiveness for entrepreneurs and managers. Vice President of JCI Russia, which gives him access to a working network of younger entrepreneurs across the federation’s chapters. Sessions are built for individuals rather than the room: time management, energy management, habit formation, and how leaders sustain output through long cycles. Biography highlights Founder and CEO of Successful Thinking, established 2012. Vice President of JCI Russia (Junior Chamber International). Graduate of Jack Canfield’s Train the Trainer Live programme, 2014. Certified by Robbins Research International. Client work with Sberbank, MTS, Russian Railways, Lukoil, Rostelecom, Renault and Volkswagen. Delivers in English and Russian. Biography The leaders who hold up under sustained pressure tend not to be the ones with the cleverest strategy. They are the ones with the most disciplined personal operating system: how they set goals, protect their attention, manage energy, and recover. That is the territory Pavel Verbnyak has worked in for more than a decade. He founded Successful Thinking in 2012 as a coaching and training practice for entrepreneurs, executives and managers across Russia and the CIS. The work centres on the practical mechanics of personal effectiveness: goal-setting, time and energy management, habit formation, and the daily disciplines that separate consistent performers from intermittent ones. His training lineage sits inside two of the best-known traditions in the field. He completed Jack Canfield’s Train the Trainer Live programme in 2014 and is certified through Robbins Research International. He also serves as Vice President of JCI Russia, the national chapter of Junior Chamber International, which connects him to a working network of young entrepreneurs across the federation. Client engagements include Sberbank, MTS, Russian Railways, Lukoil, Rostelecom, Renault and Volkswagen. He delivers in English and Russian, which makes him a credible choice for organisations running development programmes across Russian-speaking markets where the supply of senior bilingual personal-development practitioners is thin. Key speaking topics Goal-setting and execution discipline Time and energy management Habits of high performers Personal leadership and self-management Mindset and motivation Communication and influence Stress and resilience Ideal for Sales and commercial teams running long-cycle individual targets. Entrepreneur and founder programmes, particularly in Russian-speaking markets. Talent and leadership development functions seeking a personal-effectiveness module. Internal kick-off and motivational sessions for mid-management cohorts. Audience outcomes A working method for setting goals and reviewing progress against them. Concrete techniques for managing time and protecting focus during the working day. A clearer sense of which daily habits drive results and which absorb energy without return. Practical tools for building motivation and discipline through longer execution cycles.

Why organisations work with Ashlea Atigolo She has co-built a generative AI product, Finley AI, that has been recognised on the WealthTech100 2024 list, so the advice she offers boards is grounded in shipped technology rather than commentary. She brings a regulated-industry lens. Her work spans wealth management, private equity and fintech, where the question is not whether to deploy AI but how to do it without breaking trust, compliance, or customer relationships. She is a credible voice on women in AI without leaning on the topic alone. The named recognition (TechRound Top 64 Women in Tech, Great British Businesswoman finalist, Fintech Powerlist) sits alongside the technical and commercial credentials. She is equally fluent as a keynote speaker, panel host and workshop facilitator, which makes her a flexible fit for AI summits, leadership offsites and investor-facing events. Biography highlights Co-founder of INATIGO, a generative AI venture builder. Co-founder of Finley AI, listed on the WealthTech100 2024. Managing Partner at Consult Venture Partners, advising executives on generative and agentic AI adoption. Former Co-Founder and Co-Managing Director of City Wharf Private Wealth, awarded Europe’s Most Innovative Wealth Management Model at the 2021 WealthBriefing European Awards. Listed on TechRound’s Top 64 Influential Women in UK Technology (2022) and named on the Fintech Powerlist. Speaker and host at Fintech Week London, Fintech Connect and Chatbot Africa AI Summit. Biography Most organisations have an AI strategy. A much smaller number have AI in production, talking to customers, sitting inside regulated workflows and answering to a compliance function. Ashlea Atigolo works at that second layer. As co-founder of INATIGO and its flagship product Finley AI, listed on the WealthTech100 2024, she has built generative AI systems for personal finance rather than written about them. Her route into AI was operational, not academic. Before INATIGO she co-founded City Wharf Private Wealth, where her co-leadership won Europe’s Most Innovative Wealth Management Model at the 2021 WealthBriefing European Awards. That background gives her advisory work a distinctive cast. She understands wealth, private equity and fintech as live operating environments, not case studies, and her current role as Managing Partner at Consult Venture Partners is built on that. Her independent recognition is dense and recent. She has been named on TechRound’s Top 64 Influential Women in UK Technology, included on the Fintech Powerlist, and shortlisted as a finalist for the Great British Businesswoman Awards in technology. She has advised Adobe directly and has been engaged through GLG, AlphaSense and GuidePoint by executives in fintech, private equity and financial services. On stage she is most useful to organisations that need a builder’s view of generative and agentic AI: what to deploy, what to delay, how to govern it, and where the human still has to sit inside the workflow. She hosts and keynotes at Fintech Week London, Fintech Connect and Chatbot Africa AI Summit, and is equally credible in a board workshop as on a main-stage panel. Key speaking topics Generative and agentic AI in financial services AI product strategy and deployment in regulated industries Conversational and empathetic AI design Responsible AI, trust and governance Fintech and wealth management innovation Women in AI and inclusive technology teams Leadership through technological disruption Ideal for Boards and executive committees in financial services, wealth management, private equity and fintech sizing up generative or agentic AI investments. CIO, CTO, CDO and Head of Innovation audiences moving from AI pilots into operating deployment. Fintech, AI and wealth-management conferences looking for an operator-speaker rather than a commentator. Internal AI summits, leadership offsites and women-in-tech programmes inside large enterprises. Audience outcomes A clearer picture of where generative and agentic AI is genuinely production-ready in regulated industries, and where it is not. A working vocabulary for governance conversations: agents, guardrails, oversight, human-in-the-loop. A view of how a builder, not a vendor, sequences AI adoption inside a regulated business. Named examples of fintech and wealth-management deployments that buyers can take into their own strategy conversations.

Why organisations work with Dhiraj Mukherjee He has done the thing most innovation speakers describe. Shazam was a category invention before mobile internet was mainstream, and it ended with a reported $400 million sale to Apple. A 250-company investment portfolio across AI, climate tech and frontier software gives him a working map of which emerging technologies are moving from pilot to operating substance and which are stalling. Direct line of sight into capital flows alongside Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management, which is rare for a keynote speaker working on climate and AI together. Operator credibility inside large incumbents as well as start-ups, including Head of Banking Innovation at Virgin Money and senior roles at Bauer Media, Infosys and Reuters. Named to the Financial Times’ Top 50 European technology entrepreneurs, The Digital Banking Club’s Power 50 and Smith & Williamson’s Power 100, which positions him as a credible voice on UK and European innovation policy as well as commercial strategy. Biography highlights Co-founder of Shazam Entertainment, acquired by Apple in 2017 for a reported $400 million Named to the Financial Times’ Top 50 European technology entrepreneurs (2015) Elected to The Digital Banking Club’s Power 50 (2016) and Smith & Williamson’s Power 100 (2017) Angel investor in over 250 technology companies across AI, climate tech and “Tech for Good” Former Head of Banking Innovation, Virgin Money; previous roles at Bauer Media, Infosys, Reuters and Save the Children Mathematical Economics degree, Dartmouth College; MBA, Stanford Graduate School of Business Biography Shazam was launched in 2000, before smartphones, before app stores, before mobile data was reliable enough to stream a song. The team built a service that recognised music by sound from a feature phone over a voice call. Eighteen years later, Apple bought the company for a reported $400 million. Dhiraj Mukherjee co-founded it. That history matters because it is the practical version of what most boards are now trying to do with AI. Identify a capability that the technology curve will eventually make obvious, build it before the market is ready, survive long enough to be right. Shazam went through the dot-com crash and the 2008 financial crisis on the way to Apple, which is why his perspective on category-building is closer to operating experience than to theory. Since exiting Shazam, Mukherjee has invested in more than 250 technology companies, with a declared focus on AI, climate tech and “Tech for Good.” He has co-invested into Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the climate vehicle backed by Bill Gates, and into Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management, which gives him an unusual vantage point on where institutional capital is actually moving across the AI and energy transition curves. His earlier career sits inside large incumbents, including Head of Banking Innovation at Virgin Money and senior roles at Bauer Media, Infosys and Reuters. The Financial Times named him to its Top 50 European technology entrepreneurs in 2015, and he holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a Mathematical Economics degree from Dartmouth. Key speaking topics Emerging technology and AI strategy Innovation and category creation Climate tech and the energy transition investment case Digital transformation inside large incumbents Resilience and the long arc of building a technology company Tech for Good and impact investing The future of work in the age of AI Ideal for CEOs, CSOs and innovation leads setting AI and emerging-technology strategy Boards and investment committees pressure-testing capital allocation across AI and climate Senior leadership teams inside banks, media and consumer businesses navigating digital transformation Founder and scale-up audiences inside corporate venturing and accelerator programmes Audience outcomes A sharper read on which emerging technologies are moving from pilot to operating advantage and which are stalling A working framework, drawn from Shazam, for how categories actually get built through downturns An investor’s view of where AI and climate-tech capital is concentrating, and what that signals for corporate strategy A more honest sense of the time, capital and persistence required to compound a technology bet into commercial outcome