Economic Trends & Global Markets

Why organisations work with Dominic McVey He has operated, not observed: acquired and restructured Hela Clothing in Sri Lanka in 2013 and grew its workforce to over 17,000 across Sri Lanka, Kenya and Ethiopia, supplying M&S, Tesco, John Lewis and Asda. He converts a teenage-millionaire origin story into serious boardroom utility: the founder instinct for spotting asymmetric opportunity, applied to corporate growth, M&A, and emerging market entry. He brings a government-grade network on Africa: MBE for services to private sector development in Africa, Namibian Honorary Consul to Wales, Coalition for Global Prosperity advisory council, Co-Chair of Global Academy Africa. He speaks credibly on ethical supply chains from the operator seat, as founder of the Fair Fashion Pact and Chairman of Computer Aid International. Biography highlights Professor of Practice, University of Wales Trinity Saint David (appointed June 2022). MBE, 2022 Platinum Jubilee Honours, for services to private sector development in Africa. Chairman and trustee of Computer Aid International, which has reached over 14.5 million people with technology access since 1997. Founder, Fair Fashion Pact; former owner and chairman of Hela Clothing, Sri Lanka. Namibian Honorary Consul to Wales; Co-Chair, Global Academy Africa; advisory council, Coalition for Global Prosperity; ambassador, HALO Trust. Keynote speaker at Davos (2020, 2024), Bloomberg’s Modern Affluence Summit (2019) and the Conservative Party Conference main stage (2018). Biography Most expansion plans into frontier markets get built around cost arbitrage and break on everything else. The operators who actually scale in Sri Lanka, Kenya, Ethiopia or Mexico spend less time on the landed-cost model and more on recruitment, training, community standing, political relationships and supplier reliability. McVey has done the second version of that work. He bought Hela Clothing in Sri Lanka in 2013, when the business had around 3,000 staff supplying UK high street retailers. Under his ownership the group expanded into Kenya and Ethiopia, grew to more than 17,000 employees, and supplied Levi’s, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, M&S, John Lewis and Tesco. That track record is the spine of his credibility when he speaks to boards about emerging market growth. The earlier chapter gives him the founder register. At 13 he began importing US-made micro-scooters into the UK. By 15 he was Britain’s youngest self-made millionaire. At 18 the Queen named him a “Pioneer for Britain in Entrepreneurism”. That arc is not a keynote hook; it is why buyers trust him to talk about spotting mispriced opportunity. The third layer is policy and philanthropy. He was awarded an MBE in the 2022 Platinum Jubilee Honours for services to private sector development in Africa, sits on the Coalition for Global Prosperity advisory council, serves as Namibian Honorary Consul to Wales, and chairs Computer Aid International. He founded the Fair Fashion Pact to raise standards in African apparel supply chains. The University of Wales Trinity Saint David appointed him Professor of Practice in 2022. Key speaking topics Entrepreneurship and founder thinking Emerging market growth and private sector development in Africa Ethical supply chains and responsible sourcing Scaling manufacturing across multiple geographies Business model innovation and portfolio diversification Philanthropy, trade and sustainable foreign direct investment Ideal for Boards and executive teams planning expansion into African, South Asian or Latin American markets. CEOs and commercial leaders wrestling with supply chain ethics, ESG credibility and supplier consolidation. Founder-led businesses and family offices looking for a peer voice on portfolio strategy and emerging opportunity. Conferences on trade, development finance, manufacturing and the UK-Africa commercial relationship. Audience outcomes A clearer read on what actually determines whether emerging market operations scale, beyond the cost model. A framework for evaluating supply chain partners that treats labour standards as commercial leverage, not compliance overhead. A sharper view of Africa as an investment destination from someone with working diplomatic and trade relationships there. A founder’s perspective on how to spot and act on asymmetric opportunity inside a corporate setting.

Why organisations work with Henry Bonsu Thirty years of live broadcast experience, from BBC Radio 4’s Today to Times Radio, produce a chair who can steer a twelve-person panel in real time without losing either the agenda or the audience. He is the annual host of the African Banker Awards since 2008 and a repeat moderator for the UNDP, WHO Africa Region, UNHCR, and the African Union. When an institution has a reputational stake in the room, it books him back. He has introduced UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and World Bank President Jim Kim on the same stage at the Financing for Development conference in Addis Ababa, and chaired sessions at COP21 in Paris. He handles heads-of-state protocol without friction. Oxford-trained in German and French, fluent across African political economy, Westminster politics, and US affairs, which matters when a panel crosses jurisdictions and language registers in the same hour. Corporate conveners including Maersk, KPMG, and Cartier International use him for sustainability, diversity, and development briefs where a sharp, well-briefed chair is more valuable than a keynote. Biography highlights Magdalen College, Oxford graduate in German and French (1986 to 1990). Former producer on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme and Black Britain on BBC Two. Co-founder and presenter at Colourful Radio, London, from 2006. Current Times Radio presenter, Thursday and Friday 10pm to 1am slots since 2022. Host of the African Banker Awards every year since 2008. Regular moderator for UNDP, WHO Africa Region, UNHCR, and the African Union; chaired sessions at COP21 Paris, the UN General Assembly in New York, and the Financing for Development conference in Addis Ababa. Biography Some conference chairs open a panel, read the bios, and hand the microphone around. Others run the room. Henry Bonsu is in the second group, and the reason is thirty years of live broadcasting behind the craft. He came to moderation through journalism. After reading Modern Languages at Magdalen College, Oxford, he produced BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, fronted Black Britain on BBC Two, and presented the Drivetime show on BBC London 94.9. In 2006 he co-founded Colourful Radio, one of the first London stations built for a Black audience. He is now a regular evening presenter on Times Radio, where he covers UK and US politics, education, and mental health. That broadcast discipline translates directly into how he chairs. He has hosted the African Banker Awards every year since 2008, moderated at COP21 in Paris, and chaired eight sessions at the Financing for Development conference in Addis Ababa, where he introduced UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and World Bank President Jim Kim. The UNDP, WHO Africa Region, UNHCR, and the African Union use him repeatedly. Corporate conveners including Maersk, KPMG, AfrAsia Bank, and Cartier International bring him in for sustainability, diversity, and development briefs. What the buyer gets is a chair fluent in the policy terrain, calm under heads-of-state protocol, and willing to ask the question a nervous room is avoiding. On a stage where the brief is serious and the speakers are senior, that is what holds the discussion together. Key speaking topics Moderation and chairing for international summits African finance and economic development Climate policy and sustainable development goals UK and US political affairs Race, culture, and public debate Media training and executive broadcast coaching Ideal for Heads of communications and event directors at UN agencies, multilateral institutions, and development banks convening ministerial or heads-of-state panels. Corporate sustainability and ESG leads at multinationals hosting external stakeholder summits on Africa, climate, or development finance. Awards programme organisers in the African business, finance, and diaspora space. Executive teams preparing for high-stakes broadcast interviews or crisis media scenarios. Audience outcomes Panels that reach a defined position within the allocated time, rather than drifting into generalities. Senior speakers drawn out with sharper follow-up questions than a generalist host would ask. A chair who can hold protocol for heads of state and principals without dropping the editorial pace. For media training clients, executives who sound clearer and steadier under hostile questioning.

Why organisations work with Tadhg Enright Two decades of live broadcast experience at Sky News, BBC News and RTE, which means he runs a stage on the timing standards of rolling news, not the looser pace of a corporate AGM. Specialist depth in business and economics: he led Sky’s coverage of the Eurozone debt crisis and covered Brexit from London for Euronews, so finance, treasury and policy audiences hear questions framed by someone who reported the story. Hosting work for clients including Chartered Accountants Ireland, the Embassy of Ireland in London and the Irish Exporters Awards, alongside corporate messaging work for Facebook, Tesco and Coca-Cola, signals comfort across regulated, professional and consumer brand contexts. Editorial range across breaking news, business, consumer and culture means he can host an awards dinner, chair a board panel and moderate a press-facing fireside session without changing register awkwardly between them. Biography highlights Presenter of business bulletins on the BBC News Channel and of Business Live on BBC World. Eight-year career at Sky News, including the role of regular presenter of hourly business updates and lead on the Eurozone debt crisis coverage. UK correspondent for Euronews, with extensive London-based reporting on Brexit. Long-running presenter of The Globalist on Monocle 24 Radio, a morning hour on world affairs, business and culture. Helped develop RTE’s first dedicated television business news segment; presenter and reporter on The Consumer Show on RTE One. Journalism training at Dublin City University; corporate messaging work for Facebook, Tesco and Coca-Cola. Biography Live business news rewards a presenter who can do two things at once: read a balance sheet quickly and translate it for a general audience in real time. That is the discipline Tadhg Enright built across eight years at Sky News, where he led coverage of the Eurozone debt crisis from Dublin and London, and where he became a regular face on the channel’s hourly business updates. He now presents business bulletins on the BBC News Channel and Business Live on BBC World. As UK correspondent for Euronews, he covered Brexit from London across the full arc of the negotiations. For eight years he hosted The Globalist on Monocle 24 Radio, an early-morning hour on world affairs, business and culture, which gave him a wider editorial vocabulary than most business presenters carry. The earlier work matters too. At RTE he helped build the broadcaster’s first dedicated television business news segment, then moved into consumer journalism on The Consumer Show, where his investigation into potentially dangerous Bosch dishwashers prompted a nationwide repair action. The same instinct sits behind his corporate messaging work for Facebook, Tesco and Coca-Cola, and behind his event hosting for Chartered Accountants Ireland, the Embassy of Ireland in London and the Irish Exporters Awards. What clients buy, in practice, is editorial command of a room. He runs a stage on the timing standards of rolling news, asks the question the audience came to hear, and keeps senior panellists honest without making the conversation hostile. Key speaking topics Conference and summit hosting Awards and gala dinner hosting Panel moderation and fireside chats Hybrid and virtual event facilitation Business and economics commentary Media training and corporate messaging European political and economic affairs Ideal for CFOs, finance directors and treasury teams convening flagship industry conferences. Professional services firms (accounting, legal, consulting) hosting client summits, partner conferences and awards. Corporate affairs and communications leaders running investor or media-facing events. Trade bodies, chambers and embassies running policy-facing forums and awards. Audience outcomes A panel session that lands its central question rather than rotating through prepared remarks. An audience that follows the financial and economic substance because the chair has translated it without flattening it. Senior speakers held to their own positions, with follow-up questions that pull out the strategic point. A run-of-show that finishes on time and on tone, from opening remarks through Q and A to closing thanks.

Why organisations work with Kevin O’Leary He has run the full founder cycle once, from boot-strapped start-up through hostile acquisitions to a multi-billion-dollar exit, and he speaks about growth from inside that experience rather than around it. His Shark Tank track record gives him one of the largest public corpora of investor-versus-founder negotiations on record, which translates directly into how he teaches deal discipline. O’Leary Ventures has invested across more than 30 private companies, so the commentary on emerging sectors is grounded in current capital allocation, not retrospective storytelling. The Cold Hard Truth book series with Penguin Random House Canada has built a financial literacy framework that travels well from boardroom audiences to all-employee events. His CNBC, Fox Business, and CNN presence means audiences arrive already familiar with the voice, which compresses the time it takes to land a serious argument. Biography highlights Founder of SoftKey Software Products, which acquired The Learning Company in 1995 and was sold to Mattel in 1999 for $4.2 billion. Investor on ABC’s Shark Tank since the 2009 launch, where he is known on screen as “Mr. Wonderful”. Chairman of O’Leary Ventures, the venture platform he founded in 2000, and of Beanstox, the automated investing service. Host of CNBC’s Money Court, the primetime business series adjudicating financial disputes. Author of the Cold Hard Truth series published by Penguin Random House Canada. MBA from the Ivey Business School at the University of Western Ontario; honours bachelor’s degree from the University of Waterloo. Biography The Learning Company was bankrupt-adjacent in the early 1990s when SoftKey, Kevin O’Leary’s small Toronto software business, bought it through a hostile bid and adopted its name. Four years later, Mattel paid $4.2 billion for the combined company. That transaction sits at the centre of his commercial credibility, both the win and the post-deal collapse that followed at Mattel, and it shapes how he talks about capital. Since 2009 he has sat on ABC’s Shark Tank as a working investor evaluating live pitches. The show has accumulated multiple Primetime Emmy wins for Outstanding Structured Reality Program. For audiences, the relevance is not the entertainment, it is the public archive: hundreds of negotiations on the record, with the founder’s pitch, the investor’s questions, and the post-deal outcome all visible. Few business voices carry that volume of documented decision-making. Off camera he runs O’Leary Ventures, the platform he founded in 2000, and chairs Beanstox. He hosts CNBC’s Money Court and contributes regularly to CNBC, Fox Business, and CNN on markets and policy. The Cold Hard Truth book series with Penguin Random House Canada extends the same operating philosophy into personal finance, family business, and money behaviour. What organisations buy with him is the cold-eyed view of their own pitch. He treats a business the way a professional allocator does, judging it by cash, defensibility, and the quality of the operator, and he applies that lens with the bluntness that built the on-screen persona and the off-screen track record. Key speaking topics Entrepreneurship and founder discipline Investment decision-making and capital allocation Venture investing and start-up evaluation Personal finance and financial literacy Economic and market commentary Business media and brand building Ideal for CEOs and founders preparing for fundraising, M&A, or a strategic capital event Boards and senior investment teams looking at portfolio discipline and venture exposure Sales conferences and channel events where the audience is operating against revenue and unit-economics targets Banking, wealth management, and financial services audiences working with entrepreneur clients Audience outcomes A working sense of how a professional investor reads a pitch in the first three minutes. Sharper questions about cash conversion, defensibility, and operator quality inside their own portfolio or business unit. A direct, sometimes contrarian view of where capital is moving across sectors. Practical financial literacy points that hold up across a mixed audience of executives and front-line staff.

Why organisations work with Felix Oberholzer-Gee His Value Stick reduces competitive strategy to two quantifiable variables – customer willingness-to-pay and employee willingness-to-sell – giving leadership teams a data-driven basis for ranking strategic priorities rather than accumulating them. His central argument – that consistent outperformers do fewer things, not more things – gives boards and strategy teams a principled case for simplification that does not read as retreat or reduced ambition. The framework is designed to be cascaded across an organisation, not held at the strategy function level; it has been used in HBS executive programmes including the Harvard General Management Program and validated by senior practitioners including the CEOs of Michelin and Google X. His research base spans top-tier peer-reviewed economics journals (American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy) and two decades of HBS executive teaching, so the framework holds under board-level scrutiny and works in a workshop setting. As co-host of After Hours on the TED Audio Collective with Youngme Moon and Mihir Desai, he brings the same analytical rigour to live, public business questions – signalling a communicator as well as a researcher. Biography highlights Andreas Andresen Professor of Business Administration, Strategy Unit, Harvard Business School – member of faculty since 2003 Author: Better, Simpler Strategy: A Value-Based Guide to Exceptional Performance (Harvard Business Review Press, 2021) Creator of the Value Stick framework, taught in HBS MBA and executive programmes including the Harvard General Management Program Faculty Chair: Driving Digital Strategy; Senior Executive Leadership Program for China; Managing Turbulence – Harvard Business School HBS Class of 2006 Faculty Teaching Award (best teacher in core curriculum); 2002 Helen Kardon Moss Anvil Award, Wharton School Research published in American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Financial Economics, and Journal of Law and Economics Co-host of After Hours, TED Audio Collective, alongside HBS professors Youngme Moon and Mihir Desai Former faculty member, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania; former Managing Director, Symo Electronics (Switzerland) Biography Felix Oberholzer-Gee has spent more than two decades at Harvard Business School making a counterintuitive argument: the organisations that consistently outperform their rivals are doing fewer things than their competitors, not more. His work is less a critique of strategic planning than a dismantling of the assumption that better strategy means broader strategy. The tool at the centre of his approach is the Value Stick, a framework he developed through research and refined through HBS executive programmes. It measures competitive performance through two variables: customer willingness-to-pay at one end, and employee and supplier willingness-to-sell at the other. The gap between them is the value a firm creates. Any initiative that does not widen that gap, his research shows, is a drain on competitive advantage rather than a contribution to it. That argument is the basis of Better, Simpler Strategy (Harvard Business Review Press, 2021), endorsed in practice by the CEOs of Michelin and Google X. The framework is data-driven and designed to work at every level of an organisation – from board-level portfolio decisions to operational choices about talent and supplier relationships. Oberholzer-Gee holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Zurich and has served in senior leadership roles at HBS, including chair of the MBA programme and Senior Associate Dean for the school’s global research centers. His research has been published in the American Economic Review and the Journal of Political Economy, and covered by the Financial Times, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal. As co-host of After Hours on the TED Audio Collective, he applies the same analytical approach to business and culture questions with a wide public audience – extending the reach of his strategic thinking well beyond the executive classroom. Key speaking topics Value-based competitive strategy The Value Stick framework and willingness-to-pay analysis Strategic focus and initiative prioritisation Digital transformation and value creation Non-market strategy and competitive positioning Business performance in digital and disrupted markets Global competition and the Chinese economy Ideal for Chief Strategy Officers and corporate strategy teams choosing between competing strategic priorities Boards and senior leadership teams evaluating competitive positioning Executive education cohorts focused on general management and commercial strategy Leadership teams in digitally disrupted sectors reassessing the value they create for customers and talent Audience outcomes A single, quantifiable framework for assessing whether a strategic initiative creates or destroys competitive value Clarity on how to reduce strategic complexity without reducing strategic ambition A practical method for mapping competitive advantage through willingness-to-pay and willingness-to-sell Sharper criteria for deciding which initiatives to pursue and which to cut A common language for strategy discussions that can be applied consistently across business units and leadership levels

Why organisations work with Pascal Coppens Twenty years building tech businesses in Shanghai. Coppens founded Letsface, co-founded Polycore Software, and built Sinnolabs as a growth accelerator for European scale-ups entering China. Three books with a developing argument on modern China. China’s New Normal (2019), Can We Trust China? (2022), and China’s Next Miracle (2025) give buyers a thinker with sustained intellectual commitment to one country. A track record of predictions that landed. The 2019 forecast that China would set the innovation standard across multiple sectors by 2025 was borne out by Huawei, BYD, DJI, TikTok, TEMU, BGI, and Ant Financial. A nuanced reading in a debate dominated by extremes. The eight circles of trust framework in Can We Trust China? gives Western leaders analytical ground that neither cheerleads China nor reduces it to threat. Biography highlights Author of three books on modern China: China’s New Normal (2019), Can We Trust China? (2022), and China’s Next Miracle (2025). Master’s in Eastern Languages and Cultures from Ghent University and Business Engineering degree from Solvay Business School (Free University of Brussels). Twenty years living and working in Shanghai and Silicon Valley; founder of Letsface, co-founder of Polycore Software, co-creator of Sinnolabs. Partner at nexxworks; delivers close to 100 keynotes a year, with clients including Mastercard, Microsoft, Salesforce, Huawei, Walmart, P&G, S.W.I.F.T., Rabobank, EY, PWC, London Business School, and CEDEP. YouTube channel Pascal’s China Lens with 65,000+ subscribers and 4 million views; regular guest on Belgian public broadcaster VRT; co-host of the Radar podcast with Peter Hinssen and Steven Van Belleghem. Biography Chinese companies now lead in electric vehicles, mobile payments, social commerce, drone manufacturing, and consumer AI. The country has moved past the cheap-factory phase that defined Western mental models for thirty years. Western executives are now competing against or partnering with companies whose innovation logic they were not trained to read. Coppens has spent two decades operating on both sides of that gap. He began at Alcatel in Shanghai and moved to Silicon Valley for Wind River Systems before co-founding Polycore Software. He then returned to China and founded Letsface, an offline community platform for premium global brands. His primary sources became the Chinese innovators he hired and competed against. Three books trace a developing argument. China’s New Normal (2019) mapped the sectors where Chinese companies would set the innovation standard, with predictions on Huawei, BYD, DJI, TikTok, and Ant largely borne out. Can We Trust China? (2022) tackled the trust deficit fuelling Western fear, building an eight circles of trust framework as an analytical handle on a polarising question. China’s Next Miracle (2025) describes the next phase. It tracks the shift from market innovation to intellectual property creation, with implications for capital, supply chain, and competitive strategy. His operating position now is unusually broad for a country specialist. Coppens delivers close to 100 keynotes a year for Fortune 500 audiences and advises boards on de-risking and supply chain. He runs the Pascal’s China Lens YouTube channel for 65,000 subscribers and co-hosts the Radar podcast with Peter Hinssen and Steven Van Belleghem. The argument he is making now: the rules of global business are being rewritten in Chinese, and Western companies have less time to adjust than they think. Key speaking topics China’s innovation model Geopolitical risk and US-China-EU dynamics China’s economic transition Chinese business ecosystems Supply chain de-risking and “China plus one” Generative AI in China Cross-cultural business with Chinese partners The multipolar world order Ideal for Boards and executive committees facing strategic decisions on China exposure CSOs, transformation leads, and innovation heads benchmarking against Chinese competitors COOs and procurement leaders rethinking supply chain after the end of cheap globalisation Senior leadership teams in industries where Chinese companies are moving from supplier to direct competitor (automotive, consumer electronics, retail, pharmaceuticals) Audience outcomes A clearer reading of China’s current strategic intent, separated from both the threat narrative and the market opportunity narrative Working knowledge of how Chinese innovation ecosystems generate speed and scale, drawn from named cases (WeChat, Alibaba, Haier’s micro-enterprise model, the EV supply chain) A view of which Chinese competitors and partners are most relevant to their sector, and which are noise Sharper questions for their China strategy: whether to de-risk, where to compete, where to partner, where to learn from A current map of China’s AI position relative to the US and Europe, including the policy and infrastructure context

Why organisations work with Sung Won Sohn His forecasting record is one of the few in the economics profession that has been publicly audited. The Wall Street Journal has repeatedly ranked him the most accurate forecaster in the country, including first place in 2006 and a top-three ranking in 2012 as the only academic in the top ten. Analysis built from inside three institutions most economists only write about. Dr. Sohn served as a Senior Economist on the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, as Chief Economist at Wells Fargo, and as President and CEO of Hanmi Financial Corporation in Los Angeles. A Pacific-rim lens that US-focused commentators rarely offer. Korean-born and long specialised in trans-Pacific trade, he reads US-China and US-Korea exposure the way someone who has tracked those flows for four decades does. Constant presence in live financial coverage. Reuters, CNN, CNBC, NBC, and Bloomberg cite him regularly on Fed decisions, inflation prints, and tariff announcements. Audiences hear what is shaping markets this week, in the language of the data that week. Biography highlights Professor of Finance and Economics, College of Business Administration, Loyola Marymount University Former Senior Economist on the President’s Council of Economic Advisers at The White House Former Executive Vice President and Chief Economist at Wells Fargo Bank; former President and CEO of Hanmi Financial Corporation in Los Angeles Named the most accurate economic forecaster in the United States by the Wall Street Journal in 2006, with top-five rankings from the same publication in 2010 and 2012 Named to Time Magazine’s Board of Economists; one of the five most accurate US forecasters by Bloomberg News; most accurate forecaster for the Western States by Blue Chip Publications Author of Global Financial Crisis and Exit Strategy and The New Economy; Chair of the Investment Committee at LACERS, overseeing a multi-billion-dollar public pension fund; Director, Western Alliance Bancorporation Biography In 2006, the Wall Street Journal named its most accurate economic forecaster in the United States. The winner was running what he himself described as a one-man operation against forecasting teams at Goldman Sachs, Citibank, and Bank of America. His name was Sung Won Sohn. The Journal has returned to him in the years since, at one point ranking him the only academic in the country’s top ten forecasters. The forecasting record is built from a career that has sat on three different sides of the economic question. Dr. Sohn served as a Senior Economist on President Nixon’s Council of Economic Advisers, with a brief covering the Federal Reserve and financial markets. He then spent three decades inside Northwest National Bank as it became Wells Fargo, rising to Executive Vice President and Chief Economist. In 2005 he crossed the table entirely, becoming President and CEO of Hanmi Financial Corporation in Los Angeles. Today Dr. Sohn is Professor of Finance and Economics at Loyola Marymount University’s College of Business Administration and president of SS Economics, his own consulting firm. Reuters, CNN, CNBC, NBC, and Bloomberg cite him routinely on Fed decisions, jobs data, and tariffs. His books Global Financial Crisis and Exit Strategy and The New Economy address the questions that still sit on most board agendas. What sets the commentary apart from other US-based macro voices is a Pacific-rim lens. Korean-born and formerly chief executive of a Korean-American bank in Los Angeles, Dr. Sohn has tracked trans-Pacific trade flows for four decades. He reads US-China and US-Korea exposure the way someone who has lived on both ends of those flows reads them. He also sits on the Board of Directors at Western Alliance Bancorporation and chairs the Investment Committee at LACERS, the Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement System. Key speaking topics US economic forecasting and the Federal Reserve Inflation, interest rates, and monetary policy International trade, tariffs, and non-tariff barriers The Pacific-rim economy and US-China relations AI and the future of business and productivity Digital currencies and the future of payments Competitive strategy in a volatile economy Ideal for CFOs, treasurers, and finance leadership teams needing a clear read on Federal Reserve policy and interest rate direction Board directors and investment committees making decisions sensitive to inflation, tariffs, and global trade flows CEOs and strategy leaders in manufacturing, retail, banking, and logistics with material exposure to US-China and Pacific-rim trade Asset managers, pension trustees, and financial advisers who need a macro voice with a publicly verified forecasting record Audience outcomes A forecast of where US growth, inflation, and interest rates are likely to move over the next two to four quarters, and the indicators that matter most A reading of US-China and US-Korea trade dynamics that goes beyond the headlines, including the non-tariff barriers that often matter more than the tariffs themselves A sharper sense of how AI is actually reshaping pricing, productivity, and labour markets, grounded in specific company examples A way to pressure-test their own planning assumptions against someone who has sat inside both the Council of Economic Advisers and a major bank’s forecasting team

Why organisations work with Debarati Guha Sits at the editorial centre of one of the largest non-Asian international broadcasters covering Asia, with operational responsibility across nine language services and bureaus in Taipei, Delhi, and Jakarta. Two decades of front-line reporting on South Asian politics, including direct interviews with Sheikh Hasina, Shashi Tharoor, and Amartya Sen, gives her a working network few moderators in the region can match. Recognised as one of Germany’s top ten women leaders by Global Woman Leader in 2023, with a track record of leading multi-country, multi-language editorial teams through digital transition. Comfortable chairing complex media and policy panels for organisations like WAN-IFRA, where the room mixes editors, regulators, and platform leaders. Bilingual cultural register: equally readable to a Berlin or Brussels audience and a Delhi, Dhaka, or Jakarta one, which matters when the conversation crosses both. Biography highlights Director Programs for Asia, Deutsche Welle, leading nine Asian language departments plus Asia Desk (English and German). MA and MPhil in Political Science, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Career interviews include Sheikh Hasina, Shashi Tharoor, and Amartya Sen. Top 10 “Women Leader in Germany” 2023, Global Woman Leader. “Most Influential Business Leader” 2024, Business Frontier. Executive Management Programme, EBU Academy (2022); BAKS course on Southeast Asian politics and Germany (2023). Panel chair at WAN-IFRA Indian Media Leaders eSummit and similar industry forums. Biography Asia is no longer a single story for international organisations. India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Taiwan, and the Mekong economies each move on different political clocks, and the editorial signal reaching Western capitals is increasingly mediated by national platforms with their own agendas. Reading Asia from a London or Frankfurt boardroom is harder than it was ten years ago. That is the operational world Debarati Guha works inside every day. As Director Programs for Asia at Deutsche Welle, she runs nine Asian language services plus the Asia Desk in English and German, with editorial bureaus in Taipei, Delhi, and Jakarta. The job involves judgement calls on what crosses the line between regional reporting and global business interest, made several times a day across very different political environments. Her background is unusual for that seat. She trained in political science at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, started in journalism as the New Delhi assistant to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung’s Asia correspondent in 2003, and joined DW in 2007. By 2013 she was running DW’s Bengali service; by 2018, the whole Asia operation. Along the way she has interviewed Sheikh Hasina, Shashi Tharoor, and Amartya Sen, and built relationships across South and Southeast Asian political and intellectual life. For Speakers Associates, this means a moderator and panellist who can hold a room of senior leaders on Asia, media, and the politics of digital information without resorting to high-level summary. She was named one of Germany’s top ten women leaders by Global Woman Leader in 2023, and chairs panels at WAN-IFRA’s Indian Media Leaders eSummit, where the audience is exactly the working editors and platform leaders she manages every day. Key speaking topics Geopolitics of South and Southeast Asia The future of international broadcasting and public-service media Digital transformation in newsrooms Women in media leadership Disinformation and political reporting in Asia Cross-cultural editorial leadership Ideal for Boards and executive teams shaping Asia strategy or expansion plans Conferences on international media, journalism, and digital news Leadership programmes on cross-cultural management and women in senior media roles Panels and summits requiring an informed chair on Asia, geopolitics, or the information ecosystem Audience outcomes A clearer read on the political and media dynamics shaping South and Southeast Asia Direct insight into how a major international broadcaster makes editorial calls across nine languages and three Asian bureaus Practical perspective on running multilingual, multicultural teams through digital change A sharper sense of where disinformation, platform power, and politics intersect in Asia A panel or session moderated with senior-room composure, where the questions land and the speakers are pushed

Why organisations work with Adjiedj Bakas His analytical framework tracks six categories of structural change simultaneously – economic, technological, demographic, environmental, spiritual and security – giving leadership teams a coherent map rather than a trend list. No single category is read in isolation; the interactions between them are where the real strategic insight lives. His “#Forwardism” thesis reframes megatrend analysis as a source of opportunity rather than a catalogue of threat. This is a deliberate intellectual stance, not a motivational gloss – it changes how an organisation positions itself in response to disruption. His biography is genuinely differentiating in a field dominated by Western vantage points. Of Indian descent, raised in Suriname and based in the Netherlands for three decades, Bakas brings a Global South perspective to questions about the shifting balance of economic and cultural power that most European or American futurists cannot replicate. His material has been tested against the most demanding institutional audiences on the circuit: the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, the parliaments of Hungary, Shell’s major futures conferences, and central banking and financial institutions across Africa and Asia. A Shell audience of senior executives elected him one of the top two speakers from a field of fifty. His books – including World Megatrends and Beyond the Crisis – have been used as course material at CEIBS in Shanghai, and the intellectual rigour of his framework has earned consistent media recognition from CNN, the BBC, The Guardian and China Daily. Biography highlights Founder of Trend Office Bakas, Amsterdam – a trendwatching practice serving multinationals, financial institutions and governments internationally Author of more than ten books on global megatrends, distributed across 40+ countries; titles include World Megatrends, Beyond the Crisis, Megatrends Europe and #Forwardism Elected Trendwatcher of the Year 2009 and Immigrant Entrepreneur of the Year 2008 in the Netherlands Covered as a leading voice on global futures by CNN, BBC, The Guardian, Times of India and China Daily Keynote engagements include Shell, Deloitte, Google, Microsoft, ABN AMRO, KPMG, Rabobank, Credit Suisse and the NATO Parliamentary Assembly Course material at CEIBS (China Europe International Business School, Shanghai) and Emory University, Atlanta Biography Most organisations run their long-term strategy on a three-to-five year horizon. The megatrends that actually reshape industries – demographic reordering, geopolitical power shifts, energy transitions, technological discontinuities – operate on timescales of twenty years or more. Adjiedj Bakas, founder of Trend Office Bakas in Amsterdam, has spent his career helping senior leaders read those slower, more consequential signals before they arrive as operational emergencies. His body of work – more than ten books published across 40 countries, including World Megatrends, Beyond the Crisis and Megatrends Europe – develops a consistent analytical lens across six categories of structural change: economic, technological, demographic, environmental, spiritual and security. His most recent work, #Forwardism, introduces the concept of “Happynomy” – the argument that the most powerful megatrends are better interpreted as sources of strategic opportunity than as threats to be mitigated. The perspective he brings is shaped by biography as much as by research. Of Indian descent, raised in Suriname and based in the Netherlands for three decades, Bakas has a genuinely non-Western vantage point on shifts in global economic and cultural power that most European futurists cannot replicate. His engagements span Shell, Deloitte, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, the parliaments of Hungary, and financial institutions across Africa, Asia and Europe – audiences for whom a view of the future that goes beyond the Western horizon is not optional. Elected Trendwatcher of the Year in the Netherlands in 2009, his work has been covered by CNN, the BBC, The Guardian and China Daily. His books have been used as course material at CEIBS in Shanghai and Emory University in Atlanta. Key speaking topics Global megatrends and structural futures Geopolitical power shifts and the rise of the Global South Demographic change and its economic consequences Long-cycle economic forecasting and scenario planning Energy and environmental transitions Technology and innovation futures Opportunity-centred strategic foresight (#Forwardism / Happynomy) Ideal for C-suite and board leaders developing long-range organisational strategy Strategy and foresight teams in multinationals requiring a structured macro-trend framework Financial institutions and investment firms assessing long-term geopolitical and economic risk Government and public-sector organisations navigating demographic and geopolitical change Audience outcomes A structured, six-category framework for mapping structural megatrends across economic, technological, demographic, environmental and geopolitical dimensions Greater confidence in distinguishing long-cycle structural shifts from short-term cyclical noise Exposure to the Global South’s increasing influence on economic and cultural direction – a perspective absent from most standard futures briefings A reframed strategic posture: tools for reading disruption as a source of opportunity rather than purely a risk management challenge A renewed and evidence-based basis for organisational optimism in conditions of uncertainty

Why organisations work with Ivan Rogers He was in the room. As UK Ambassador to the EU from 2013 to 2017 and Cameron’s Chief EU Adviser before that, he led the UK side of the pre-referendum renegotiation and the opening phase of Brexit. He has worked every side of the Brussels-London axis: HM Treasury, Chef de Cabinet inside the European Commission, Principal Private Secretary to Tony Blair, and senior public sector roles at Citigroup and Barclays Capital. His analysis has shaped the serious public record on Brexit, including the book 9 Lessons in Brexit and set-piece lectures at UCL, Cambridge and Glasgow that are now standard reading for political economists. He briefs on what actually happens in negotiations, not on slogans. Boards leave with a clearer view of timelines, trade-offs and the realistic range of outcomes on regulation, trade and political alignment. KCMG in the 2016 Honours for services to British, European and International Policy, and a seat on the Council of the European Council on Foreign Relations, give his reading of the field independent credibility. Biography highlights UK Permanent Representative to the European Union, 2013 to 2017. Prime Minister’s Adviser on Europe and Global Issues, and UK Sherpa to the G8 and G20, 2011 to 2013. Principal Private Secretary to Prime Minister Tony Blair, 2003 to 2006. Chef de Cabinet to European Commission Vice-President Sir Leon Brittan; Director of European Strategy and Policy at HM Treasury. Head of UK Public Sector Group, Citigroup; Head of Public Sector Industry Group UK and Ireland, Barclays Capital. Author of 9 Lessons in Brexit (Short Books, 2019); KCMG, 2016; Council member, European Council on Foreign Relations. Biography Few people alive have seen the UK-EU relationship from as many vantage points. Ivan Rogers has served inside HM Treasury, inside the European Commission as Chef de Cabinet to Sir Leon Brittan, inside Number 10 as Principal Private Secretary to Tony Blair, and in Brussels as Britain’s Permanent Representative to the EU from 2013 until his resignation in January 2017. That sequence matters for a reason. Most commentary on Europe is written by people who have read the treaties. Rogers drafted the cables. He ran the UK side of Cameron’s pre-referendum renegotiation, prepared three Prime Ministers for summits as the UK’s G8 and G20 Sherpa, and was the senior British official in the first phase of the Article 50 machinery before he stepped down. Since leaving government he has become one of the most cited independent voices on Brexit and UK-EU relations. His book 9 Lessons in Brexit, set-piece lectures at UCL, Cambridge, Glasgow and the Institute of International and European Affairs, and podcast work with the European Council on Foreign Relations are built on the same discipline: strip out the politics, map the institutional machinery, tell the reader what is actually going to happen. For boards, that means usable judgement on trade terms, regulatory divergence, the Northern Ireland settlement, the Labour government’s posture toward Brussels, and the wider geopolitical setting in which all of this now sits. He was knighted KCMG in 2016 for services to British, European and International Policy. Key speaking topics UK-EU relations and the post-Brexit settlement Geopolitical and political risk for boards European regulation, trade and market access Government-business interface and Whitehall decision-making Negotiation inside complex multilateral institutions Scenario planning for UK and European political risk Ideal for Board and executive audiences in regulated industries exposed to UK-EU divergence, especially financial services, energy, pharma and manufacturing. Strategy, public affairs and government relations leaders calibrating political risk over a three to ten year horizon. Investors, law firms and advisory houses whose clients need a senior, independent read on UK and European policy direction. Audience outcomes A sharper read on where UK-EU relations are actually heading, stripped of political signalling. A practical sense of how Brussels, Whitehall and Number 10 make decisions under pressure, and where the leverage sits. A clearer view of the regulatory and trade fault lines that matter most to the audience’s sector. Questions answered by someone who has sat at the table with Commission Presidents, Prime Ministers and Chancellors.

Why organisations work with Shang-Jin Wei He has sat in the seat where these questions are actually answered, as Chief Economist of the Asian Development Bank and a senior research economist at the IMF, not just analysed them from a faculty office. His chair at Columbia Business School is specifically the N.T. Wang Professorship of Chinese Business and Economy, giving boards a single, named source on US-China economic integration with academic standing behind it. He publishes in the journals that regulators and central banks read, including American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy and Quarterly Journal of Economics, so his views on capital flows and currency carry weight in policy rooms as well as boardrooms. His Project Syndicate columns track the live arguments around the renminbi, Chinese trade surpluses, Ant Group, Trump-era tariffs and India, which means clients get a current macro read, not a recycled lecture. Biography highlights N.T. Wang Professor of Chinese Business and Economy and Professor of Finance and Economics, Columbia Business School and Columbia SIPA. Chief Economist of the Asian Development Bank and Director General, Economic Research and Regional Cooperation Department, 2014 to 2016. Former Assistant Director and Chief of the Trade and Investment Division at the IMF Research Department; IMF Chief of Mission to Myanmar in 2004. Former New Century Chair in Trade and International Economics at the Brookings Institution; former Associate Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. Research Associate at NBER and Research Fellow at CEPR; published in American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics and Journal of Finance. Regular Project Syndicate columnist on China, the renminbi, trade and emerging markets; co-author of China’s Growing Role in World Trade (NBER, with Robert Feenstra). Biography The hard question on China is no longer whether it matters. It is which numbers to trust, which signals to read, and where the operating reality is diverging from the official line. That gap is where capital is mispriced. Shang-Jin Wei has worked on both sides of that gap. As Chief Economist of the Asian Development Bank from 2014 to 2016, he led the analytical work behind regional fora such as ASEAN+3 and APEC, and advised the ADB President on growth diagnostics across developing Asia. Before that, he was Assistant Director and Chief of the Trade and Investment Division at the IMF Research Department, and the Fund’s Chief of Mission to Myanmar. At Columbia, he holds the N.T. Wang Chair in Chinese Business and Economy, with a joint appointment between the Business School and the School of International and Public Affairs. His research, published in the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy and Journal of Finance, sits at the meeting point of trade, international finance and the institutional architecture of the Chinese economy. He is a Research Associate at NBER, a Research Fellow at CEPR, and a frequent Project Syndicate contributor on the renminbi, Chinese trade surpluses, Ant Group and the structural reforms China still has to make. For boards and investors, the value is concrete. He reads China the way someone who has had to sign off on a regional growth forecast reads it. He treats trade and currency as live operating variables, not slogans. Buyers leave a session with a clearer view of where the real risk in their China exposure sits, and what to watch over the next two cycles. Key speaking topics US-China economic integration Chinese growth, structural reform and policy outlook The renminbi, capital flows and currency risk Trade, tariffs and the future of globalisation Emerging-market macro and developing Asia International finance and cross-border investment Geopolitical risk for global investors Ideal for Boards and investment committees with material China or wider Asia exposure CFOs, treasurers and CIOs setting capital allocation under tariff and currency uncertainty Strategy and corporate development leaders reviewing supply chain and market exposure to China Financial services and asset management firms briefing institutional clients on emerging-market risk Audience outcomes A clearer read on which Chinese economic indicators are meaningful and which are not. A working view on where US-China trade and tariff dynamics are heading and what that does to operating models. A grounded position on the renminbi, capital controls and the limits of RMB internationalisation. A sharper sense of where emerging-market risk concentrates beyond the headline narrative.

Why organisations work with Nina Khrushcheva A primary read on Russian political culture from a scholar who has travelled and reported across the country’s eleven time zones, not a Moscow-watcher working from secondary sources. Author or co-author of three books on Russian power, including In Putin’s Footsteps (St. Martin’s Press, 2019) with Atlantic contributing editor Jeffrey Tayler, and The Lost Khrushchev, both grounded in original interviews and field research. A standing column at Project Syndicate, where she edits the Russia series, and a publication record across the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and Newsweek that boards and investment committees already read. Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and former director of the Russia Project at the World Policy Institute, with the institutional standing expected for closed-room conversations on sanctions, geopolitical exposure, and political risk. A family inheritance, as the great-granddaughter of Nikita Khrushchev, that she uses as a lens on Soviet and post-Soviet authoritarianism rather than a biographical talking point. Biography highlights Professor of International Affairs at The New School, New York. Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, Princeton University; former research fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. Author of Imagining Nabokov (Yale University Press) and The Lost Khrushchev (Tate); co-author of In Putin’s Footsteps (St. Martin’s Press) with Jeffrey Tayler. Contributing Editor at Project Syndicate; bylines in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and Newsweek. Member of the Council on Foreign Relations; former director of the Russia Project at the World Policy Institute. Recipient of the Carnegie Corporation’s Great Immigrants Award and the Trinity College Dublin Gold Medal of Honorary Patronage. Biography The Kremlin is not best understood through Western political vocabulary. It runs on a logic shaped by Russian literature, Soviet bureaucratic instinct, and a long memory of empire. Reading it from the outside, on quarterly briefings alone, has cost organisations real money over the past decade. Nina Khrushcheva works that gap. A professor of international affairs at The New School, with a Princeton doctorate in comparative literature, she teaches courses on comparative propaganda, international media, and Russian contemporary politics. Her academic register is unusual: she reads the Kremlin the way a literary scholar reads a text, while also reporting from inside it. That dual method runs through her books. In Putin’s Footsteps, written with Jeffrey Tayler of The Atlantic, is the product of travel across all eleven of Russia’s time zones. The Lost Khrushchev draws on her family inheritance as the great-granddaughter of Nikita Khrushchev to read the Soviet project from inside its own argument. Imagining Nabokov preceded both, with Yale University Press. She edits the Russia series at Project Syndicate and writes regularly for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and Newsweek. She sits on the Council on Foreign Relations and previously directed the Russia Project at the World Policy Institute. The Carnegie Corporation named her among its Great Immigrants in 2013, and Trinity College Dublin awarded her its Gold Medal of Honorary Patronage in 2019. Key speaking topics Russia under Putin Authoritarian governance and propaganda Post-Soviet political culture Geopolitical risk and sanctions exposure US-Russia relations Russia, China and the contested global order Soviet history and its modern uses Ideal for Boards and investment committees with direct or indirect Russia exposure, including energy, commodities, and dual-use technology Chief risk officers, general counsel, and government affairs leads weighing sanctions and political risk Policy audiences, foundations, and academic institutions briefing on the post-Soviet space Senior diplomatic, defence and foreign-policy convenings on Russia, Ukraine, and the wider rules-based order Audience outcomes A read of current Kremlin behaviour rooted in Russian political and literary tradition, not Western projection A clearer sense of where Putin’s regime is brittle and where it is durable, with implications for sanctions and exposure Context on how Soviet history is being repurposed in present-day propaganda and policy A sharper map of where Russia, China, and the United States actually intersect, beyond headline framings Specific reference points for how to test the assumptions in any internal Russia or geopolitics brief