Digital Transformation

Why organisations work with Joe Toscano He left Google over the data practices he saw inside it, then wrote the book on what those practices look like from within. That insider account is hard to replicate at the keynote level. His work translates AI and privacy debates into specific operating decisions: what data to keep, what to delete, what to disclose, and where consent breaks under regulatory scrutiny. As founder of DataGrade and BEACON, he speaks from the position of someone running a privacy-first business, not commenting on one from outside. His public visibility through The Social Dilemma, Fox News, and Forbes means he can hold a non-technical audience on a technical subject without dropping the substance. Biography highlights Featured expert in Netflix’s The Social Dilemma. Author of Automating Humanity (powerHouse Books / Simon & Schuster). Founder and CEO of DataGrade. Founder of the Better Ethics and Consumer Outcomes Network (BEACON). Former Experience Design consultant for Google. TEDx speaker; Forbes contributor; recurring Fox News technology commentator. Biography The companies setting the rules for how consumer data trains AI systems are also the companies whose products most depend on that data. That conflict sits at the centre of Joe Toscano’s work. He came out of Silicon Valley with a designer’s view of how those products are built, then turned that knowledge outward. Toscano was an Experience Design consultant for Google before stepping away in 2017 over what he saw of the industry’s data practices. Automating Humanity, his book with powerHouse Books, set out the argument in detail: how attention is engineered, how disinformation pays, and how automation is being trained on data the public never knowingly handed over. He went on to found DataGrade, a privacy-first data company, and BEACON, a network focused on technology literacy and ethical innovation. The Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma brought that work to a mass audience, and he has since become a regular technology commentator on Fox News and a contributor to Forbes. What makes him useful to boards is the combination of inside knowledge and operating responsibility. He is not theorising about AI governance from a lectern. He is building a company that has to make those decisions every day, and translating that into language a non-technical executive team can act on. Key speaking topics AI ethics and governance Data privacy and consumer trust The business case for privacy-first design Technology literacy for non-technical leaders The future of work under AI and automation Disinformation and platform accountability Regulation and the post-GDPR landscape Ideal for Boards and executive committees setting AI and data governance standards Chief Privacy Officers, CISOs, and Chief Data Officers CMOs and customer experience leaders weighing personalisation against privacy HR and transformation leads planning workforce change driven by AI Audience outcomes A clearer line between defensible and indefensible uses of customer data in AI systems Specific questions a board should be asking about model training data and consent A working view of how privacy can be a commercial advantage, not just a compliance cost Sharper judgement about what to believe and discount in vendor pitches on AI capability

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 Miguel Luengo-Oroz He held the inaugural Chief Data Scientist role at the United Nations for six years, applying AI to conflict prevention, refugee response, epidemics and human rights. That is a vantage point no consultant or academic alone can replicate. He runs Spotlab, an operating AI company in clinical diagnostics. His commentary on AI risk is grounded in shipping production systems, not theoretical governance. He has published more than 100 articles in venues including Nature and MIT Technology Review, and has briefed governments in Europe and the United States, including the Global Partnership on AI. He invented MalariaSpot, a crowdsourced game that turned thousands of citizens into diagnostic contributors. He is fluent in both AI ethics doctrine and what it looks like when humans and AI actually share work. Biography highlights First Chief Data Scientist of the United Nations, UN Global Pulse, Executive Office of the Secretary-General, 2016 to 2022. Founder and CEO of Spotlab, an AI platform for clinical research and universal diagnosis. Professor at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid; PhD (special prize) from the same institution; additional MSc from EHESS and École Normale Supérieure, Paris. Obama Foundation Leader (Europe 2023), Ashoka Fellow, MIT Technology Review TR35, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, EU Responsible Research and Innovation Award. More than 100 scientific articles, policy briefs and op-eds; featured in Nature, MIT Technology Review, The Guardian and The New York Times. Inventor of MalariaSpot.org, a crowdsourcing video game for malaria diagnosis. Biography The United Nations created its first Chief Data Scientist post in 2016, and Miguel Luengo-Oroz held it for six years. The brief was to put AI and data science to work on problems that do not forgive errors: epidemic response, refugee movements, hate speech detection, conflict prevention, climate. That experience shaped a working philosophy that responsible AI is not a values statement, it is an operating discipline. Today he runs Spotlab, an AI platform for clinical research and diagnostics, built around smartphones, AI models and 3D printing to bring quality diagnostics to diseases largely absent from the digital health economy. He is also a professor at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, where his research spans generative AI, collective intelligence and systems biology. His commentary draws on more than 100 publications across Nature, MIT Technology Review, The Guardian and The New York Times, and on advisory work with governments in Europe and the United States and the Global Partnership on AI. Recognitions include the Obama Foundation Leaders programme, an Ashoka fellowship, MIT TR35, the EU Responsible Research and Innovation Award, and a fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts. For senior leaders, the value is the combination: someone who has set AI policy inside the most scrutinised public institution in the world, and who currently ships AI products into regulated medical environments. He speaks about AI risk and opportunity with the specifics of someone doing the work. Key speaking topics Responsible and ethical AI AI governance and public-interest technology AI in healthcare and diagnostics AI for sustainable development and humanitarian response Generative AI: applications, risks and limits The future of AI policy and regulation Data science inside multilateral institutions Ideal for Boards and executive committees setting AI governance and risk posture CTOs, Chief Data Officers and Chief AI Officers operationalising responsible AI Healthcare, life sciences and pharma leaders deploying clinical AI Public sector, multilateral and NGO leadership teams using AI in policy and operations Audience outcomes A clear view of where AI risk actually sits in deployment, beyond policy statements Specific examples of AI applied to high-stakes problems inside the UN and in clinical settings A working framework for distinguishing responsible AI as discipline from responsible AI as branding Sharper questions to put to internal AI programmes, vendors and regulators Realistic perspective on what generative AI changes for organisations over the next two to three years

Why organisations work with Aric Dromi Nine years as an in-house Futurologist at Volvo Cars gives him an operator’s view of how a global manufacturer actually absorbs autonomous, electric and connected technology, not a consultant’s slide on it. He works across the same problem from three angles, corporate strategy, government policy and civic infrastructure, which is unusual in technology foresight and useful when a brief touches more than one of them. Founder of TEMPUS.MOTU and advisory board member at NTT Innovation Institute and UNLEASH, with a network that spans telecoms, mobility, energy and the UN Sustainable Development Goals agenda. Pushes against deck-driven strategy. His stated rule, that any strategy worth executing should fit on a napkin, lands well with executives tired of frameworks that do not survive contact with the operating business. Comfortable in uncomfortable territory. He frames himself as a “professional troublemaker” and is booked for sessions where leadership wants their assumptions stress-tested, not validated. Biography highlights Nine-year tenure as in-house Futurologist at Volvo Cars, advising on autonomous, electric and connected vehicle strategy. Founder of TEMPUS.MOTU, a strategic advisory and think tank serving corporate and public-sector clients. Advisory board, NTT Innovation Institute, the corporate research arm of NTT Group. Innovation Advisory Board, UNLEASH, the global innovation lab built around the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Earlier roles at Ericsson, Microsoft and Cellcom, where he was Chief Knowledge Officer. Author of The Intellectual Rage and The Prophet, plus further titles published under the pen name D.B. Solomon. Biography Volvo did not hire a futurologist for nine years to predict the next car. It hired one to help the leadership team work out what a car company even is once mobility becomes autonomous, electric and connected. That brief, sustained over almost a decade inside one of Europe’s most identifiable industrial brands, is the foundation of how Aric Dromi thinks. He now runs TEMPUS.MOTU, a strategic advisory and think tank that takes the same posture into other sectors. The work spans corporate strategy, government policy and city-scale infrastructure, with engagements that have included clients such as Mastercard, Siemens, Volkswagen, Telefonica, the World Bank and the IFC, alongside government work in Kazakhstan and Moscow city. His public positions reflect the same range. He sits on the advisory board of NTT Innovation Institute, the research arm of one of the world’s largest telecoms groups, and on the Innovation Advisory Board of UNLEASH, the global lab built around the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The point of those affiliations is not credentialing. It is access to the actual conversations where technology, capital and policy are being negotiated. Dromi is direct about what he is for and what he is against. He calls himself a professional troublemaker, writes books that read more like critiques than playbooks, and tells executive audiences that any strategy worth doing should fit on a napkin. Leaders book him when they want their assumptions broken in a room where it still costs less than breaking them in the market. Key speaking topics AI, automation and the future of work Autonomous and connected mobility Smart cities and urban infrastructure Data, privacy and digital governance Strategic foresight under exponential change Innovation strategy and corporate transformation Geopolitics of technology Ideal for Boards and CEOs of industrial, mobility and energy businesses are confronting AI and automation as a strategy question, not an IT one. CSOs, CIOs and heads of innovation are responsible for translating foresight into operating decisions. Government and city leaders are working on smart-city, mobility and digital infrastructure programmes. Executive offsites and leadership summits where the brief is to break orthodoxies, not confirm them. Audience outcomes A clearer view of how AI, automation and connected systems will reshape the audience’s specific industry, not technology in general. Sharper questions for the next strategy cycle, framed around capability, governance and societal licence to operate. A working sense of where corporate, policy and civic decisions intersect, and where leaders are exposed when they assume they do not. Confidence to retire foresight tools that no longer survive contact with the operating business. A direct, sometimes uncomfortable challenge to assumptions the leadership team has stopped questioning.

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.

Why organisations work with Carme Artigas Access to the EU AI Act from the inside: as the Council Presidency’s chief negotiator when the Act was concluded in December 2023, she knows which provisions were contested, how they were resolved, and where enforcement questions remain open – clarity that no commentator or academic can replicate. A UN-level governance map built from the source: as Co-Chair of the UN High-Level Advisory Body on AI, she coordinated 39 experts across 33 countries to produce Governing AI for Humanity – the blueprint for global AI oversight that national strategies and multilateral institutions are now implementing. She co-chaired the body alongside Google Senior Vice President James Manyika. A regulatory perspective grounded in commercial reality: she co-founded Synergic Partners and built it to 150 data scientists before Telefónica acquired it in 2015. Her understanding of AI governance is not abstract – it is shaped by how data and AI deployments actually function inside commercial organisations. The only person to have designed a national AI governance system from the ground up: as Spain’s inaugural Secretary of State for Digitalisation and AI, she built the National AI Strategy, data economy strategy, digital rights charter, and the first AI supervision agency on the European continent – giving her unusually concrete insight into what governance implementation demands of organisations. An active research presence at the frontier: as a Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center, she continues to work on current AI governance and technology policy questions alongside leading security and policy scholars – not recounting past decisions. Biography highlights Spain’s first Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence (2020–2023); simultaneously president of the National Cybersecurity Institute and the Spanish Agency for the Supervision of AI Chief Council negotiator for the EU AI Act, concluded under Spain’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union in December 2023 – the world’s first comprehensive legal framework for artificial intelligence Co-Chair, UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence (2023–2024); co-produced Governing AI for Humanity with James Manyika (Google Senior Vice President) and 37 other experts from 33 countries Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School; first Spanish woman to hold the position Co-founder and CEO, Synergic Partners – built to 150 data scientists, acquired by Telefónica in 2015; previously CEO of Ericsson Innova (Ericsson Group’s European venture capital fund) Women in Tech Global Awards 2025, Lifetime Achievement; Stanford University Ambassador for Women in Data Science; member of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) Biography The EU AI Act is the world’s first comprehensive legal framework for artificial intelligence. Its provisions determine which AI applications organisations can legally deploy, which require conformity assessments, and which are prohibited. Most executives know the regulation exists. Few understand its architecture. Carme Artigas did not comment on these negotiations – she led them. As Spain’s first Secretary of State for Digitalisation and AI, she was the Council Presidency’s chief negotiator when the EU AI Act was concluded in December 2023. She had already built the foundations from scratch: Spain’s National AI Strategy, digital rights charter, data economy strategy, and the first AI supervision agency on the European continent. In parallel, she co-chaired the United Nations High-Level Advisory Body on AI – a 39-member group spanning 33 countries, convened by Secretary-General Guterres in October 2023. The body’s final report, Governing AI for Humanity, published in September 2024, proposed the first architecture for inclusive global AI oversight. She co-chaired it alongside Google Senior Vice President James Manyika. Before government, she co-founded Synergic Partners – a big data consultancy she built to 150 data scientists before Telefónica acquired it in 2015, remaining as CEO through full integration into the Group. As a Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center since 2023, she continues to engage with governance questions at the intersection of technology, security, and public policy. Key speaking topics EU AI Act implementation and strategic compliance Global AI governance frameworks AI governance and responsible AI deployment Data strategy and big data Digital transformation and national digital policy International technology cooperation and geopolitics of AI Women in technology and digital leadership Ideal for Boards and C-suites with active AI strategies navigating EU AI Act obligations and global regulatory exposure Chief Legal, Risk, and Compliance Officers mapping their organisation’s AI regulatory position Chief Digital and Technology Officers operating in or supplying to European markets Government and public sector leaders developing or stress-testing national AI governance frameworks Audience outcomes A clear understanding of what the EU AI Act actually requires – which AI applications are prohibited, which are designated high-risk, and what conformity assessment obligations apply Insight into how the global governance architecture is developing at UN level and how it intersects with European regulation A framework for elevating AI governance from a compliance function to a board-level strategic priority Understanding of where the regulatory fault lines remain open and where future enforcement is likely to concentrate Practical language and reference points to brief boards, regulators, and partners on AI governance obligations

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

Why organisations work with Louise Laing She has run the operating model she now sells advice on. As CEO of Shrimps she grew revenue by 240% and brought the business into positive EBITDA within three years, with senior prior roles at Burberry and Reiss in sourcing, development and supply chain. PhygitalTwin and Phygen give her a working technical view of how AI compresses pattern engineering and digital-to-physical production, not a consultant’s overview of the field. She translates between creative directors, production heads and technology teams. Heritage fashion businesses lose months because those three functions speak different languages; she has worked inside all three. Recode the Curriculum, the foundation she leads, gives her a credible voice on closing the technology confidence gap among young women, which connects her commercial work to a wider workforce question senior buyers care about. Biography highlights Founder, PhygitalTwin (2022), an AI platform converting 3D designs into game-ready digital assets and production-ready physical files. Founder, Phygen, AI-native pattern engineering platform. Former CEO, Shrimps (London fashion brand). Drove 240% revenue growth and positive EBITDA within three years. Senior leadership roles previously held at Burberry and Reiss, in sourcing, product development and supply chain. Founder, Recode the Curriculum, a foundation supporting girls into technology and entrepreneurship. Speaker at the World Economic Forum, Davos (January 2024, Phygital Wednesday with CV Labs and Phygicode). Contributor to The Interline. Biography Pattern engineering is the part of the fashion supply chain almost no one outside the industry sees. It is also where six to eight weeks of every new garment is spent. Louise Laing has built her last decade of work around the question of what happens when that cycle collapses to hours. PhygitalTwin, the company she founded in 2022, is an AI SaaS platform that converts a single 3D design into two commercial outputs: a rigged, game-ready digital skin and a print-ready file for physical merchandise. Phygen, a parallel venture, automates the pattern, grading and tech-pack work that traditionally sits between designer and factory. Both are built on a thesis she has lived inside: fashion’s waste problem is structural, and the solution sits in the production model rather than the marketing one. Before founding either company, she ran a fashion business. As CEO of Shrimps she grew revenue by 240% and took the company into positive EBITDA within three years, while protecting the brand’s creative identity. Earlier senior roles at Burberry and Reiss gave her direct operational experience of sourcing, product development and supply chain at scale, which is the operating context most heritage brands now have to redesign. Her wider work includes Recode the Curriculum, a foundation introducing girls to technology as a creative and entrepreneurial pathway. She has spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos and writes for The Interline on fashion, gaming and brand strategy in virtual environments. Key speaking topics AI in fashion design and product development 3D and on-demand production Phygital fashion and the digital-to-physical product chain Supply chain optimisation in heritage and emerging brands Sustainability through production model redesign Entrepreneurship and scaling a fashion business Women and girls in technology Ideal for Boards and executive teams in fashion, retail and consumer brands considering operational redesign around AI. Heads of product, sourcing and supply chain looking for a working view of digital-to-physical workflows. Innovation, transformation and digital leaders in adjacent industries (consumer goods, luxury, sportswear) studying fashion as a sector ahead on phygital. Programme leads building gender-balanced technology talent pipelines. Audience outcomes A clearer operating picture of where AI compresses real cost and time in product development. Specific examples of how 3D, on-demand and digital twin technology change unit economics in a brand business. A view of phygital fashion as a commercial category, with the brand and IP questions it raises. An entrepreneur’s perspective on running a creative business through an operational reinvention.

Why organisations work with Elemi Atigolo He has put a generative AI product through UK financial regulation. Finley AI worked with the FCA Advice Unit on guidance models before evolving into an agentic financial AI agent that institutions integrate by API, which gives him a reference point on supervision and compliance that few AI speakers hold. He has handled the work he now advises on. A wealth manager at HSBC and a partner at St. James’s Place before he co-founded City Wharf Private Wealth, he has dealt with client suitability and adviser workflow first-hand. His thinking is on the record. His 2026 paper on the Agentic Profit Paradox sets out how agentic AI can improve client outcomes while weakening the human-bounded revenue that funds a firm’s margins, which reframes AI from an efficiency question into a question about the business model itself. He works at executive level, not only with technology teams. At Consult Venture Partners he advises boards on where generative and agentic AI changes the operating model and the economics, a conversation that needs someone who has carried both commercial and regulatory responsibility. Biography highlights Managing Partner and co-founder of Consult Venture Partners, advising boards on generative and agentic AI adoption. Founder of the Autonomy Economics framework and author of the 2026 paper “The Agentic Profit Paradox and the Reorganisation of Value Capture”. Co-founder of INATIGO (WealthTech100 2024, selected by FinTech Global from 1,300 companies) and lead developer of Finley AI, now an agentic financial AI agent delivered by API, which engaged the FCA Advice Unit on guidance models. Former HSBC Wealth Manager and former partner at St. James’s Place; co-founder of City Wharf Private Wealth, Highly Commended for Most Innovative Wealth Management Model at the 2021 WealthBriefing European Awards. Member of the Forbes Advisor Advisory Board (since October 2024) and the MIT Technology Review Global Insights Panel; named in the Powerlist Top 30 Tech Titans 2021 for Fintech and Data (Refinitiv/LSEG) and a UK FinTech Awards “Innovator of the Year” finalist. Contributor to FT Adviser and The Banker; featured by The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, BBC, CNBC Africa, IBM, and Wealth Adviser; speaker at an Economist Impact summit (2023). Holds a BSc in Computer Science and Distributed Information Systems and an MA in Accounting and Finance. Biography Finley AI went through the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s Advice Unit before most banks had written an AI policy. Built by INATIGO, the company Atigolo co-founded, it began in 2019 as a conversational assistant. It now runs as an agentic financial AI agent that institutions integrate by API. That history anchors his work, at the point where AI in finance meets supervision and the realities of client suitability. His route into AI is unusual. He managed client portfolios at HSBC, became a partner at St. James’s Place, and co-founded City Wharf Private Wealth, a digital wealth firm recognised at the 2021 WealthBriefing European Awards. He has sat on both sides of the client relationship and the technology that now reshapes it. His current research turns that experience into an argument. In a 2026 paper he set out the Agentic Profit Paradox: firms adopt agentic AI to stay competitive, and in doing so erode the human-bounded revenue that produced their margins. He calls the wider field Autonomy Economics, the study of how value capture and commercial defensibility shift once work no longer needs continuous human direction. For a board, the question is rarely what AI can do, and almost always what to build, what to buy, what to govern, and what it does to the business model. Through Consult Venture Partners, where he is Managing Partner, Atigolo answers it as someone who has both written the models and signed the client suitability forms. Key speaking topics Generative AI in financial services AI agents and conversational interfaces in wealth management AI, regulation, and the FCA AI product strategy for regulated firms Client experience and adviser workflow in an AI-enabled firm Fintech innovation and WealthTech AI adoption for finance leaders Ideal for CEOs, COOs, and boards in banking, wealth, asset management, insurance, and private capital setting AI strategy Chief Technology, Data, and AI Officers scoping generative and agentic AI deployment in regulated environments Heads of Advice, Distribution, and Client Experience reworking the adviser-client model Compliance, risk, and regulatory leads assessing AI governance, and executives weighing what autonomous systems do to margins and operating models Audience outcomes A clear view of where generative and agentic AI is already viable in regulated financial services, and where it is not A working vocabulary for AI agents, conversational interfaces, and the governance questions behind them A sharper read on what the FCA and comparable regulators expect when AI touches client guidance A realistic picture of what changes for advisers, clients, and operating models when AI moves from pilot to live A view of how agentic AI can strengthen client outcomes while undermining the revenue that historically funded them, and what that means for strategy