Economic Trends & Global Markets speakers

Why organisations work with Simon Jack His position as sitting BBC Business Editor gives direct, current insight into how major financial and corporate stories are selected, framed and brought to national audiences – not historical analysis, but active editorial intelligence A decade in investment banking across London, New York and Bermuda means he interrogates market events and corporate decisions from inside knowledge, not observation; financial audiences notice the difference Uniquely placed to explain the mechanics of media-corporate accountability, how organisations end up on the wrong side of a headline, and what that process actually looks like from within a national broadcaster The Good Bad Billionaire podcast (Best Business Podcast, British Podcast Awards 2024) demonstrates an ability to make wealth, power and business ethics accessible and genuinely engaging for broad audiences – a value signal for any organisation wanting sharp facilitation, not just informed commentary His BBC Panorama film on male suicide brings personal authority to mental health discussions in business contexts that few speakers in this space can match Biography highlights BBC Business Editor since 2016, holding the role previously occupied by Robert Peston, Jeff Randall and Kamal Ahmed Decade in corporate and investment banking across London, New York and Bermuda before joining the BBC PPE, St John’s College, Oxford Lead BBC correspondent for the 2008 financial crisis: Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, AIG bailout, Lloyds TSB/HBOS Co-presenter of Good Bad Billionaire (BBC World Service) – Best Business Podcast, British Podcast Awards 2024 Presented BBC Panorama «A Suicide in the Family» (2015), a personal investigation into male suicide and the death of his father Biography When a major financial institution collapses, a rate decision lands, or a FTSE company comes under scrutiny, the story that reaches boardrooms and living rooms alike passes through a small number of editorial gatekeepers. Understanding how that process works – what gets reported, what gets simplified, what gets missed – is increasingly relevant to any senior leader operating in a complex economic environment. Simon Jack has spent two decades sitting at that interface. Appointed BBC Business Editor in 2016, he leads the corporation’s coverage of business, markets and economic policy across television, radio and digital platforms (a role previously held by Robert Peston). Before entering journalism, he spent a decade in corporate and investment banking in London, New York and Bermuda, building a working understanding of how financial institutions operate, how risk is managed, and how decisions are made under pressure that journalists who came up through newsrooms simply do not have. The dual experience of practitioner then investigator, gives Jack a particular kind of credibility. He has reported from inside major market events, including the 2008 financial crisis across Lehman Brothers, the AIG bailout and the HBOS collapse. He co-presents Good Bad Billionaire for BBC World Service, which won Best Business Podcast at the 2024 British Podcast Awards, demonstrating an ability to make the economics and ethics of extreme wealth engaging for audiences well beyond the specialist. He also presented the BBC Panorama film «A Suicide in the Family» – a personal and investigative piece on male suicide – which established him as a credible voice on mental health in a way that is unusual for a business journalist of his seniority. His value to organisations is not analysis from a distance. It is the perspective of someone who has been inside the financial system, run editorial coverage of it, and understands how the story between those two worlds gets told. Key speaking topics Global financial markets and economic developments Banking, investment banking and institutional risk Media accountability and corporate reputation Business journalism and editorial decision-making Wealth, power and business ethics Male mental health in professional contexts Ideal for Financial services, banking and insurance sector conferences seeking credible external perspective on market dynamics and media coverage Senior leadership and board-level events where understanding the media-corporate interface is strategically relevant Corporate communications, investor relations and policy teams navigating how economic narratives are formed Organisations seeking a facilitator or moderator with genuine financial literacy and broadcast authority Audience outcomes A clearer understanding of how major financial and economic events are selected, shaped and communicated by national media, and what that means for organisational decision-making Insight into the practical gap between financial reality and public narrative, drawn from experience on both sides Greater literacy in reading market events and economic signals, without requiring specialist background A more grounded perspective on how corporate institutions appear under editorial scrutiny, and what factors shape that For events that include the mental health strand: a serious, personally grounded framing of male wellbeing in high-pressure professional environments

Why organisations work with Simon Johnson The Nobel Prize-cited research demonstrates, with causal rigour, that institutions shape economic outcomes more decisively than market forces alone, giving boards a framework for evaluating political and regulatory risk that goes beyond scenario planning or macro-forecasting Power and Progress argues that AI and major technologies historically concentrate gains in the hands of those who direct their development, not those who use them – a counter-argument to standard innovation optimism that risk committees and executive teams are increasingly required to engage with His time as IMF Chief Economist during the 2007–08 financial crisis positions his analysis of systemic risk as empirical rather than theoretical: he was inside the global institutional response as it happened Named a UK Government AI Ambassador in December 2025, Johnson is an active participant in policy formation on AI and productivity – organisations engaging him access thinking that is shaping government strategy in real time, not retrospectively His analytical method – using historical variation in colonial institutions as a natural experiment – gives him an unusually precise way of explaining why structural constraints persist, cutting through ideological framing on both left and right Biography highlights 2024 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, shared with Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, “for studies of how institutions are formed and affect prosperity” – Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Ronald A. Kurtz (1954) Professor of Entrepreneurship, MIT Sloan School of Management; head of the Global Economics and Management group Chief Economist (Economic Counsellor) and Director of Research, International Monetary Fund, 2007–08 Co-author of Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle over Technology and Prosperity (2023, with Acemoglu); 13 Bankers (2010); Jump-Starting America (2019) Named UK Government AI Ambassador, December 2025 Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research; Fellow, Centre for Economic Policy Research; board of directors, Fannie Mae Project Syndicate contributor since 2007; undergraduate PPE, Corpus Christi College, Oxford; PhD Economics, MIT Biography The question of why some economies generate broad prosperity while others stagnate – despite access to similar technologies and capital – occupied Simon Johnson, Daron Acemoglu, and James Robinson for more than two decades. Their answer: institutions. The political and economic rules that determine who can participate in growth are not neutral infrastructure – they are the primary driver of long-term economic outcomes. That conclusion, now validated by the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, has a direct implication for how senior leaders should read structural risk. Johnson’s position as IMF Chief Economist during the 2007–08 global financial crisis adds a dimension that academic credentials alone cannot. He was at the centre of the institutional response to a systemic collapse in real time. 13 Bankers, written in its aftermath, argued that the US financial sector’s political capture had created the conditions for catastrophic failure – a thesis that has since shaped how regulators, boards, and risk professionals think about the relationship between financial power and institutional design. His most recent major work, Power and Progress (co-authored with Acemoglu), extends the institutions framework to technology. The central argument is that technological progress – from the printing press to AI – does not automatically distribute its gains. Who benefits depends on who holds the power to direct how a technology is built and deployed. For organisations navigating AI investment decisions, that argument reframes the question: not “what will AI do?” but “who will AI benefit, and why?” Since December 2025 Johnson has served as a UK Government AI Ambassador, working on initiatives to direct AI development towards productivity gains that are broadly shared. He is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research, and contributes regularly to Project Syndicate. He holds degrees from the University of Oxford, the University of Manchester, and MIT. Key speaking topics Institutions, political economy, and long-term prosperity Systemic financial risk and banking reform AI, technology, and economic inequality Global economic governance and policy design Innovation-led growth and its distributional consequences Geopolitical risk and institutional resilience The political economy of financial crises Ideal for Board directors and executive leadership teams navigating political and regulatory risk Financial services organisations and risk committees Government, central bank, and public policy forums Chief Strategy Officers and scenario planning teams at global organisations Audience outcomes A research-grounded framework for understanding why institutions – not market dynamics alone – determine where economic value concentrates A clearer model for evaluating political and regulatory risk as a structural, not episodic, factor in long-term strategy A more critical lens on AI investment decisions, grounded in the historical pattern of how technologies distribute – or fail to distribute – their gains Direct insight into how systemic financial risk forms, drawn from IMF experience during the 2007–08 crisis Context for the current policy environment on AI and productivity, including where government thinking is heading

Why organisations work with Sławomir Sierakowski His argument that Eastern European populism is rooted in post-communist institutional weakness – not economic grievance – gives organisations a structural framework for market risk that standard political analysis does not provide. As founder of Krytyka Polityczna since 2002, he built and led the largest intellectual and civic network in Central and Eastern Europe; his intelligence on how political and social forces actually operate in the region is embedded, not desk-based. His current Senior Fellow role at the DGAP Europe Center, combined with his monthly Project Syndicate column and contributions to the FT, Foreign Policy, and Le Monde, puts him at the intersection of live policy debate and long-form analytical rigour: an unusual combination for a single voice. As Head of the Program Board of Impact CEE – Central and Eastern Europe’s largest leadership conference, drawing 8,000 participants and 700 speakers – he sits at the organisational intersection of business, policy, and intellectual life in the region. He is one of the few analysts who can position a single election result, a court ruling, or a Kremlin provocation within the deeper sociological argument, making his briefings more durable than a news cycle. Biography highlights Founder and editor-in-chief of Krytyka Polityczna (Political Critique), established 2002: the largest intellectual and civic movement in Central and Eastern Europe, with branches in Ukraine and Germany Senior Fellow, DGAP Europe Center (German Council on Foreign Relations), Berlin: Europe’s equivalent of Chatham House or the Council on Foreign Relations Monthly columnist for Project Syndicate; contributing author to The New York Times (since 2013); regular contributor to the Financial Times, Foreign Policy, The Guardian, Die Zeit, Le Monde, El País, and Haaretz Head of the Program Board, Impact CEE, Central and Eastern Europe’s largest innovation and leadership conference Former Director, Institute for Advanced Studies in Warsaw Fellowships from Yale, Princeton, Harvard, the German Marshall Fund, IWM Vienna, Mercator Stiftung, and the Bosch Academy Contributor to the Journal of Democracy and the New York Review of Books Biography Most Western organisations treat European political risk as a single problem. Sławomir Sierakowski has spent two decades arguing that it is not. Central and Eastern Europe operates under different political logic: weak institutional checks, middle-class populist majorities, and a post-communist legacy that renders standard Western analytical models unreliable. Sierakowski is the founder of Krytyka Polityczna, the intellectual and civic movement he launched in Warsaw in 2002, which grew into the largest network of liberal intellectuals, artists, and activists in the region. The movement was built on the argument that cultural and political analysis had to be integrated, not separated. And it produced a body of public debate that placed Sierakowski at the centre of European civic life for more than two decades. His current work as a Senior Fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations’ Europe Center, combined with his long-running monthly column for Project Syndicate and regular contributions to the Financial Times, Le Monde, and Foreign Policy, keeps that analysis close to the decision-making environments where it matters. As Head of the Program Board of Impact CEE – a conference that brings together 8,000 business leaders, policymakers, and academics annually – he also operates at the precise intersection where political intelligence reaches commercial leadership. The result is a perspective that is neither purely academic nor purely journalistic. Sierakowski reads what is happening in Warsaw, Budapest, or Bucharest not as news, but as evidence for structural arguments about where European democracy is going, and what that means for the organisations that have to operate within it. Key speaking topics Populism and democratic erosion in Europe Central and Eastern European politics and institutions European geopolitical risk EU cohesion, enlargement, and strategic autonomy Russia, Ukraine, and European security Political risk and its implications for business strategy The divergence between Western and Eastern European political cultures Ideal for Strategy, risk, and government affairs teams at multinational organisations with operations or investment exposure in Central and Eastern Europe Boards and C-suite seeking geopolitical context on EU political stability and regulatory environments Policy and investment conferences focused on European markets, democracy, or security Senior leadership forums where geopolitical volatility is the central strategic theme Audience outcomes A structural framework for understanding why Central and Eastern European politics behaves differently from Western Europe, with direct implications for risk assessment Clearer analytical tools for distinguishing durable political trends from short-term electoral noise in European markets An informed basis for evaluating how democratic erosion affects regulatory predictability and institutional reliability in specific markets Context for recent and likely near-term developments – elections, judicial conflicts, security flashpoints – drawn from active policy engagement rather than retrospective commentary

Why organisations work with Sohail Rahman More than 30 years across ITV, Granada, BBC, Channel 4, CNN and Al Jazeera English, which is a breadth of senior broadcast experience most corporate hosts cannot match. He was part of the original on-screen launch line-up for Al Jazeera English in 2005 and has anchored from Doha for two decades, giving him recognised standing across the Middle East, South Asia and Asia-Pacific. His correspondent postings in New Delhi and Kuala Lumpur were not studio work. They included access to places most correspondents do not reach, including North-West Pakistan’s tribal areas, which gives his geopolitical material front-line credibility. The awards record is specific: Royal Television Society Best Television Presenter in 2003 and a USA TV Emmy nomination for the Nepal Earthquake coverage. These are external markers of presentation quality rather than vanity listings. Fluency in five South Asian languages in addition to English makes him unusually useful for events in South Asia, GCC and South-East Asia where a host who understands cultural nuance materially affects how the room receives the content. Biography highlights Main presenter, Al Jazeera English, Doha; part of the 2005 on-screen launch line-up Former Al Jazeera Senior Correspondent for South Asia (New Delhi) and Asia Pacific (Kuala Lumpur) Previous networks include ITV, ITV Granada, BBC, Channel 4 and CNN Royal Television Society Best Television Presenter Award (2003); USA TV Emmy nomination for Nepal Earthquake coverage First British Muslim man to present ITV National News and ITV Granada regional news Fluent in five South Asian languages and English Biography Al Jazeera English went on air in 2005 as one of the most ambitious international news launches in a generation, and Sohail Rahman was part of the original on-screen team. Two decades later he remains a main anchor at the network’s Doha headquarters, having also spent postings as Senior Correspondent for South Asia from New Delhi and for Asia Pacific from Kuala Lumpur. The roles put him directly into the stories that now frame international business risk, from Asian elections and natural disasters to conflict on the Afghan-Pakistan border. His earlier career sits with the UK networks. More than 30 years across ITV, Granada, BBC, Channel 4 and CNN include a period as an ITV national news presenter, where he was the first British Muslim man to hold the role, and earlier Granada regional news anchoring. In 2003 he won the Royal Television Society’s Best Television Presenter Award for his ITV work. He later received a USA TV Emmy nomination for his coverage of the Nepal Earthquake. The correspondent experience is specific rather than general. He was one of the few international reporters granted access to North-West Pakistan’s tribal areas, including Swat, and filed on militancy and governance from those regions at a time when few Western broadcasters could. Fluency in five South Asian languages means his reporting and hosting in the region is not mediated through translators, which in turn gives him a register that regional audiences recognise as genuine. For international conferences, GCC summits, South Asian business events and investor-facing programmes with Asia or Middle East exposure, Rahman brings the combination most organisers actually want: a recognised Al Jazeera anchor, a Royal Television Society award holder, and a correspondent who has filed from the places the audience is otherwise only reading about. He is used for main-stage moderation, awards hosting, MC work and keynote interviews. Key speaking topics Middle East and Gulf geopolitics South Asian and Asia-Pacific current affairs International business, economics and global markets Media, journalism and cross-cultural communication Muslim representation and identity in Western media Hosting, moderating and awards MC craft Ideal for GCC, Middle East and Asia-based conferences, investor days and trade summits International awards and industry events needing a globally recognised anchor as host Corporate off-sites, client events and fireside interviews focused on Middle East and Asia risk Cultural, faith and representation events where a senior British Muslim broadcaster’s voice is relevant Audience outcomes A sharper read on Middle East and Asian geopolitics delivered by a serving Al Jazeera anchor Sessions that move from prepared remarks into genuine interview under a broadcast-grade host Specific front-line reference cases from South Asia, Asia Pacific and the tribal areas of Pakistan A host who can move credibly between English and South Asian languages in mixed international rooms

Why organisations work with Spriha Srivastava She holds a senior editorial role at one of the largest international business news brands, which gives her direct fluency in how leaders are being asked questions in public, not just how they want to answer them. She has moderated on inclusion, AI and workforce equity at the World Economic Forum, VivaTech, the Milken Institute and the Global Women Leaders Summit, with the discipline of someone who interviews CEOs for a living. Her career covers the full arc of recent business stories that audiences remember: the financial crisis aftermath, Brexit, U.S. elections, the Trump presidency and the pandemic economy. She brings a recognised platform on women in leadership, with the Women Economic Forum “Iconic Women” award and an Asian Women of Achievement shortlist behind her. She is one of the few moderators who can sit on a panel about generative AI and a panel about inclusion in the same week, and not flatten either conversation. Biography highlights Vice President and Executive Editor, Digital, CNBC International (appointed February 2025), with editorial responsibility across Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. Former London Bureau Chief and International Executive Editor at Insider, leading UK and Singapore newsrooms. Former Deputy Digital News Editor at CNBC International London, with prior roles at Financial Times Money Management and Thomson Reuters Global Markets Forum. Winner, Women Economic Forum “Iconic Women Creating A Better Tomorrow” (2020); shortlisted, Asian Women of Achievement Award, media (2020); runner-up, Santander Media Awards newcomer (2015). Speaker and moderator at the Milken Institute, Global Women Leaders Summit, and inclusion-focused programmes at World Economic Forum and VivaTech. Over 15 years in international business journalism, with field reporting and coverage across more than 40 countries. Biography The credibility problem in public conversations about inclusion is not a shortage of advocates. It is a shortage of people who can hold a senior business audience in a real conversation about workforce equity without losing the room to either platitudes or defensiveness. That is editorial work as much as it is advocacy. That is the role Spriha Srivastava plays. As Vice President and Executive Editor, Digital at CNBC International, appointed in February 2025, she leads digital news teams across Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. Before CNBC she was London Bureau Chief and International Executive Editor at Insider, running newsrooms in the UK and Singapore. Her reporting career has tracked the stories that have set the operating context for most of today’s senior leaders: the aftermath of the financial crisis, Brexit, two U.S. election cycles, the Trump presidency, and the pandemic economy. That range, plus prior posts at Financial Times Money Management and Thomson Reuters, is what gives her moderation work a different texture from a topical advocate’s. She comes at inclusion and future-of-work questions through the same lens she uses on a CEO interview. The Women Economic Forum “Iconic Women” award and her Asian Women of Achievement shortlisting are the public markers, but the practical value is more specific. Audiences get a moderator who can move from generative AI strategy to workforce equity to global markets within a single programme, with the journalistic instinct for when a panellist has not actually answered the question. Key speaking topics Women in leadership Diversity, equity and inclusion in practice Future of work and future skills Inclusive innovation and AI Global markets and the macro context for business decisions Panel moderation and event hosting on business and policy themes Ideal for CHROs and Chief People Officers commissioning serious conversations on inclusion and workforce equity Boards and ExCos hosting external moderators for global summits, inclusion forums and leadership offsites Conference programme owners needing a moderator who can carry both AI and inclusion strands Internal women-in-leadership networks and ERGs running senior-level programmes Audience outcomes A clearer view of how senior international media is currently framing inclusion, AI and the future of work, and what that means for corporate messaging. A more candid panel conversation than the typical inclusion stage allows, with follow-up questions that surface the practical decisions, not the slogans. A working sense of how global market coverage and people-and-culture stories are converging in the financial press. An understanding of where inclusion claims are being tested in public, and where they are still being accepted at face value.

Why organisations work with Steph McGovern Eight years as BBC Breakfast’s lead business presenter, with a reporting beat that covered more than 500 companies, gives her an interviewing range from FTSE chairs to first-time founders in the same morning. She co-hosts The Rest Is Money with Robert Peston, which means she is in weekly working contact with the macro and political stories shaping a CFO’s agenda, not reading them up the night before an event. Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, with an apprenticeship background at Black and Decker, which lands credibly with industrial, manufacturing and skills-led audiences in a way most business presenters cannot match. Hosting record across Steph’s Packed Lunch, Have I Got News For You and Watchdog gives her the live-on-air composure to handle a room when a CEO goes off script or a Q and A turns combative. She is fluent in small business and consumer economics, useful when a client wants the keynote or the panel pitched at the supplier base, the franchisee network or the customer-facing workforce, not just the executive team. Biography highlights Lead business presenter, BBC Breakfast, 2011 to 2019. Host, Steph’s Packed Lunch, Channel 4, 2020 to 2023, more than 250 episodes. Co-host, The Rest Is Money podcast, with Robert Peston, Goalhanger Podcasts. Honorary Fellow, Royal Academy of Engineering, 2021. Honorary Doctorate, Teesside University, 2013. Debut crime novel Deadline, Pan Macmillan, 2025; judge, Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, since 2019. Recurring host, Have I Got News For You, BBC One, since 2017. Biography Most business communication fails at the same point. The numbers are correct, the strategy is sound, the slides are clean, and the audience that actually has to act on it has tuned out by slide three. Steph McGovern’s career has been built on the opposite move: taking a board-level commercial story and making it audible to the people whose buy-in determines whether it works. She spent eight years as BBC Breakfast’s lead business presenter, interviewing CEOs, regulators and small business owners on consecutive segments and treating them with the same scrutiny. After leaving the BBC in 2019, she launched Steph’s Packed Lunch on Channel 4, a daily live programme that ran for more than 250 episodes between 2020 and 2023, with regular segments on the small business economy and the labour market. Her current platform is The Rest Is Money, the Goalhanger podcast she co-hosts with Robert Peston, which keeps her on the macro and political-economic beat week to week. Alongside that, she is a recurring host of Have I Got News For You and a sought-after conference moderator and awards host. Her debut crime novel, Deadline, was published by Pan Macmillan in 2025; she has judged Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year prize at Harrogate since 2019. The detail that buyers most often miss: she trained as an engineer. She was a young engineer for Britain at 19 on a Black and Decker apprenticeship, where she is credited with a six-figure annual saving on a single product line. The Royal Academy of Engineering elected her an Honorary Fellow in 2021 for her work championing vocational skills. That background is why industrial, manufacturing and skills-led clients book her for events that a generalist broadcaster could not credibly host. Key speaking topics Business and economic journalism Small businesses and the UK economy Consumer markets and personal finance Engineering, apprenticeships and vocational skills Conference hosting and panel moderation Awards hosting Media interview craft for executives Ideal for Annual conferences where the board wants the macro and commercial stories landed for a mixed-seniority audience. Industry awards, supplier conferences and franchisee events that need a host who can hold a live room and interview C-suite guests. Manufacturing, engineering and skills-sector audiences who respond to a presenter with a credible technical background. Internal leadership events where a CEO or CFO wants their strategy questioned in front of the room before it is rolled out. Audience outcomes A clearer read on the current macro and commercial backdrop, in language that connects to the audience’s day job rather than analyst notes. Sharper executive panels and Q&A sessions because the moderator is genuinely fluent in the subject matter. A renewed argument for investment in apprenticeships, vocational pathways and shop-floor capability, grounded in a presenter who lived it. A live event that holds energy through the unscripted moments, not just the keynote slot.

Why organisations work with Stephane Garelli He created the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook in 1989, the reference benchmark used by governments and multinationals for more than three decades. When he interprets a country’s position, he is the source, not a commentator on the source. His 2025 book World Competitiveness: Rewriting the Rules of Global Prosperity (Wiley) is the first sustained reframing of his own thesis for the post-globalisation era, which gives boards a coherent argument for capital allocation under fragmentation rather than a list of risks. Thirteen years running the World Economic Forum and the Davos Annual Meetings, plus twelve years advising the European management of Hewlett-Packard, mean his counsel is informed by how senior executives and heads of state actually decide, not how they describe themselves on stage. His positions at IMD and the University of Lausanne, alongside long board service at Sandoz Financial and Banking Holding and Le Temps, place him at the intersection of academic originality and Swiss-grade institutional discipline, an unusual combination among economic speakers. Biography highlights Founder of the IMD World Competitiveness Center and creator of the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook, the leading annual ranking of national competitiveness since 1989. Professor Emeritus of World Competitiveness at IMD Business School and Professor Emeritus at the University of Lausanne. Former Managing Director of the World Economic Forum and the Davos Annual Meetings for 13 years. Author of Top Class Competitors (Wiley) and World Competitiveness: Rewriting the Rules of Global Prosperity (Wiley, 2025). Former Chairman of FF Sandoz Financial and Banking Holding and long-tenured Chairman of Le Temps, the leading French-language Swiss newspaper. Member of the International Olympic Committee Commission on Sustainability and Legacy, chaired by Prince Albert of Monaco. Biography Most economic commentary on the new global order describes the symptoms. Garelli wrote the underlying framework. In 1989, he founded the IMD World Competitiveness Center and created the World Competitiveness Yearbook, the first systematic annual ranking of how nations build and sustain prosperity. The Yearbook now benchmarks more than sixty economies across hundreds of indicators and remains the reference governments and multinationals reach for when they want to know where a country actually stands. His 2025 book, World Competitiveness: Rewriting the Rules of Global Prosperity, published by Wiley, extends that work into the period after the “golden era of globalization”, the four decades from China’s 1978 opening to the COVID shock. The argument is that the world will remain global but no longer united, and that competitiveness now has to be rebuilt around bloc-level alignment, industrial policy, and resilience rather than open markets. For boards setting capital allocation under sanctions, tariffs, and supply chain rewiring, this is operating guidance, not theory. The institutional spine behind the work is unusual. Thirteen years as Managing Director of the World Economic Forum and the Davos Annual Meetings, twelve years as permanent senior adviser to the European management of Hewlett-Packard, and chairmanship of FF Sandoz Financial and Banking Holding and of Le Temps, the leading French-language Swiss newspaper. He has sat on the IOC Commission on Sustainability and Legacy chaired by Prince Albert of Monaco. He has held faculty positions at IMD and the University of Lausanne, where he is Professor Emeritus at both. The credentials matter because the analysis is informed by how senior leaders actually decide, not how they describe their decisions in retrospect. The earlier Wiley book, Top Class Competitors, defined competitiveness as the ability to manage a set of disparate competencies, including education, security, brand, and individual reinvention, to achieve prosperity. The 2025 work argues that the components have changed but the discipline has not. Key speaking topics World competitiveness in a fragmented global economy The end of the golden era of globalisation National strategy under bloc-level alignment Enterprise competitiveness and value chain reconfiguration Capital allocation and country selection under fragmentation The competitiveness implications of industrial policy Ideal for Boards and executive committees rewriting global strategy under sanctions, tariffs, and bloc-level alignment. CFOs, CSOs, and corporate development leaders making country-level capital allocation decisions. Government, sovereign, and policy audiences benchmarking national competitiveness against credible peers. Senior leadership offsites where the agenda turns on what comes after the open-markets era. Audience outcomes A working frame for what competitiveness now means when blocs, not markets, set the rules. Sharper questions for the board on country exposure, supply chain dependence, and capital allocation under fragmentation. A clearer read on how industrial policy, sanctions, and multi-alignment strategies are reshaping where prosperity now accrues. The vocabulary and evidence base of the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook applied directly to the audience’s strategic situation.

Why organisations work with Stephanie Flanders She has operated inside all three institutions most relevant to corporate economic decision-making – government policymaking (US Treasury under Secretary Lawrence Summers), financial markets (J.P. Morgan Asset Management), and global economic journalism (BBC, Bloomberg) – in senior roles across all three. That convergence is not common at this level. As Head of Economics and Government at Bloomberg, she directs a team of approximately 250 economists and reporters globally, meaning her read on any macro development is backed by institutional-scale, real-time intelligence rather than public data alone. Her Trumponomics podcast – Bloomberg’s weekly tracker of US trade policy, tariffs, and monetary shifts – keeps her analysis immediately current on the exact questions boards and CFOs are most actively navigating. The RSA Inclusive Growth Commission she chaired (2016–2017) produced a policy framework that entered UK government debate – demonstrating an ability to move from macro diagnosis to practical recommendations that organisations and policymakers can act on. The Harold Wincott Foundation and the Political Studies Association each recognised her specifically for making economics decision-relevant to non-specialist audiences – the most direct indicator of her value in a board or senior leadership setting. Biography highlights Head of Economics and Government at Bloomberg News; leads Bloomberg Economics, a team of approximately 250 economists and reporters worldwide Former BBC Economics Editor (2008–2013); creator and host of the BBC Radio 4 programme Stephanomics Former Chief Market Strategist for Europe, J.P. Morgan Asset Management (2013–2017) Speechwriter and senior advisor to US Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers, Clinton Administration (1997–2001) Chair, RSA Inclusive Growth Commission (2016–2017); produced a published policy framework for place-based inclusive growth adopted in UK policy debate Harold Wincott Foundation Award (2010); Wincott Foundation Broadcaster of the Year (2011); Political Studies Association Broadcaster of the Year (2012) Honorary Fellow, Balliol College, Oxford; Fellow, Society of Professional Economists Kennedy Scholar, Harvard Kennedy School (MPA); first-class PPE degree, University of Oxford Biography Economic signals have never been harder to read – or more consequential to misread. Tariff shocks, central bank divergence, and geopolitical realignment are arriving on the desks of boards and CFOs as direct operational challenges, not background conditions. Stephanie Flanders has spent three decades building the analytical toolkit to respond to exactly this. As Head of Economics and Government at Bloomberg News, she leads a global team of approximately 250 economists and reporters whose analysis informs governments, investors, and corporate leaders worldwide. Her authority comes from a career that spans all three domains most relevant to organisational economic decision-making: policy, markets, and media. As speechwriter and senior advisor to US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers under the Clinton administration, she worked inside economic policymaking at its highest level. As Chief Market Strategist for Europe at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, she translated macro signals directly into investment positioning. At the BBC, where she served as Economics Editor for five years, she developed the rare skill of making those dynamics legible to senior non-specialist audiences – work recognised by the Harold Wincott Foundation Award in 2010 and the Political Studies Association’s Broadcaster of the Year award in 2012. At Bloomberg, she hosts Trumponomics, the weekly podcast tracking how US trade policy, tariffs, and monetary decisions are reshaping global markets and corporate strategy. Her chairmanship of the RSA Inclusive Growth Commission (2016–2017) reflects a parallel capacity: taking economic analysis beyond description and into practical frameworks that governments and organisations can use – the commission’s final report directly shaped UK government policy thinking on inclusive economic development. Flanders holds a first-class degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Balliol College, Oxford – of which she is an Honorary Fellow – and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School, where she studied as a Kennedy Scholar. She is a Fellow of the Society of Professional Economists. Key speaking topics Global macroeconomic conditions and market dynamics US trade policy, tariffs, and protectionism Geopolitical risk and the fracturing global economic order Central bank policy and monetary divergence Economic forecasting and scenario planning Inclusive growth and the political economy of inequality Translating economic signals for strategic decision-making Ideal for Boards and C-suite leadership teams making capital allocation, market, or supply chain decisions under macro uncertainty CFOs, treasurers, and chief investment officers assessing policy and geopolitical risk exposure Financial services organisations, institutional investors, and asset managers Public affairs and policy leaders tracking the implications of US trade policy and global regulatory shifts Audience outcomes A working framework for reading macro-economic and geopolitical signals in terms of their direct strategic implications – rather than as headline events Clearer understanding of how current US trade and monetary policy is likely to affect specific sectors, markets, and corporate exposure Greater confidence separating signal from noise in fast-moving economic and geopolitical news cycles Practical language and conceptual tools for board-level conversations about macro risk and economic uncertainty A more grounded sense of where the global economic order is heading and what the realistic scenarios are for business planning

Why organisations work with Stephen Foerster Co-author with MIT Sloan’s Andrew Lo of In Pursuit of the Perfect Portfolio (Princeton University Press), a working intellectual map of modern finance built from direct interviews with ten of its pioneers, including six Nobel laureates. He can take a board through how its current investment frameworks were actually constructed, with the people who built them on the page. Federal Court qualified expert witness on investment management, portfolio management, and corporate finance, with more than fifty papers in outlets including the Journal of Finance and the Journal of Financial Economics. The analysis is the kind that has to hold up to cross-examination. Has built and delivered executive finance programmes for Bank of Montreal, BMO Nesbitt-Burns, the Canadian Securities Institute, and Alcan, specifically for senior leaders without a finance background. A sitting member of Western University’s joint pension board and former chair of Foundation Western’s Investment Committee. The fiduciary discipline he teaches is one he has exercised. Biography highlights Professor of Finance at Ivey Business School, Western University, since 1987 PhD from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania; CFA designation since 1997 Co-author with Andrew Lo (MIT Sloan) of In Pursuit of the Perfect Portfolio (Princeton University Press); featured in The Wall Street Journal Bookshelf column; Axiom Business Awards silver medal in Personal Finance and Investing Author of Trailblazers, Heroes, and Crooks: Stories to Make You a Smarter Investor (Wiley, 2024); Axiom Book Awards bronze medal in Investing More than fifty published articles, including in the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Finance, and the Financial Analysts Journal Federal Court qualified expert witness on investment management, portfolio management, and corporate finance; sitting member of Western University’s joint pension board Biography Most boards and investment committees making consequential capital decisions are not staffed by finance specialists. They sign off on portfolio risk and long-horizon investment choices with frameworks they have not built and a century of market history they have not had time to absorb. In Pursuit of the Perfect Portfolio, co-authored with MIT Sloan’s Andrew Lo and published by Princeton University Press, takes ten of modern finance’s most consequential figures, including six Nobel laureates. The book traces how investors actually came to be taught to think about risk and return. The Wall Street Journal Bookshelf column featured the book; Axiom Business Awards gave it the silver medal in Personal Finance and Investing. The 2024 follow-up, Trailblazers, Heroes, and Crooks (Wiley), uses episodes drawn from a thousand years of market history to make the same lessons stick for senior decision-makers. That historical method runs through Foerster’s work with institutions. He has taught at Ivey Business School, Western University, since 1987. He holds a PhD from Wharton and the CFA designation, and has won Ivey’s Teaching Innovation Award and the Dean Carol Stephenson Excellence in EMBA Teaching Award. He has designed and delivered executive education for Bank of Montreal, BMO Nesbitt-Burns, the Canadian Securities Institute, and other major Canadian institutions. The focus is consistent: translating finance for senior leaders who do not come from a finance background. He has also sat on the other side of the table. He sits on Western University’s joint pension board and previously chaired the Investment Committee of Foundation Western. He is Federal Court qualified as an expert witness on investment management, portfolio management, and corporate finance. His more than fifty published papers appear in the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Finance, and the Financial Analysts Journal. He is currently writing the authorised biography of William F. Sharpe, the 1990 Nobel laureate whose Capital Asset Pricing Model still underpins how most institutions measure investment risk. Key speaking topics Portfolio management and asset allocation Capital markets and long-term investing Investment decision-making and risk management Modern portfolio theory in practice Behavioural traps in investing Lessons from market history Corporate finance for non-financial executives Ideal for Boards and investment committees with fiduciary responsibility for pensions, endowments, or corporate treasury CFOs, treasurers, and finance leaders responsible for portfolio and capital allocation decisions Senior executives without a finance background who oversee investment risk Asset managers and investment professionals interested in the intellectual lineage of their field Audience outcomes Where modern portfolio theory came from, and where its assumptions break down in real markets Sharper questions to put to investment managers and finance teams Which investment lessons from market history are durable, and which are products of their era Enough working knowledge to engage substantively with capital allocation and investment risk without a finance background

Why organisations work with Stephen Roach His false narratives framework, argued across two Yale University Press books and cited by senior Financial Times columnists Martin Wolf, Gillian Tett, and Rana Foroohar, as well as multiple Nobel laureates in economics, gives leaders a forensically grounded alternative to the prevailing decoupling consensus. Three decades as Morgan Stanley’s Chief Economist and then Chairman of its Asia operations means he has spent equal time analysing the US macro economy and operating inside Asian financial markets: a bilateral vantage point that most China analysts or US economists hold separately, not together. His analysis attributes much of the US-China conflict to domestic failures on both sides – America’s savings shortfall, China’s failed economic rebalancing – rather than to strategic malice. This reframes the risk calculus for leaders making long-term decisions about market exposure and technology strategy. As a monthly columnist for Project Syndicate and an active commentator on current US-China developments, he tracks the relationship in real time, not from a static academic framework. He was among the earliest economists identified as having predicted the structural conditions leading to the 2008 financial crisis – a forecasting record that lends credibility to his current warnings about the misread trajectory of US-China conflict escalation. Biography highlights Senior Research Scholar, Paul Tsai China Center, Yale Law School; formerly Senior Fellow, Yale Jackson Institute for Global Affairs (2010–2022) and Senior Lecturer, Yale School of Management Chief Economist, Morgan Stanley (from 1982), heading a global team across New York, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Paris; Chairman, Morgan Stanley Asia (2007–2010), based in Hong Kong Research staff, Federal Reserve Board; Research Fellow, Brookings Institution Author of Accidental Conflict: America, China, and the Clash of False Narratives (Yale University Press, 2022) – Financial Times Best Book of the Year: Economics; endorsed by Nobel laureates Robert Shiller and Robert Engle Author of Unbalanced: The Codependency of America and China (Yale University Press, 2014) and The Next Asia (Wiley, 2009) Monthly columnist, Project Syndicate; Member, Council on Foreign Relations PhD in Economics, New York University Biography The US-China relationship is the most consequential and most misread economic partnership of the 21st century. Most boardroom analysis of the conflict treats it as a zero-sum structural rivalry between two incompatible powers. Stephen Roach’s argument is more uncomfortable: much of the conflict is self-inflicted, driven not by genuine strategic incompatibility but by false narratives that each nation has constructed to deflect accountability for its own economic shortcomings. That argument is made with unusual authority. Roach spent thirty years at Morgan Stanley, first as Chief Economist leading a global team across six major financial centres, then as Chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, where he worked directly with governments, financial institutions, and multinationals operating at the intersection of the two economies. When he joined Yale in 2010, first at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs and subsequently at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center, he brought that bilateral operating experience into academic research and graduate teaching, developing courses including «The Next China» and «The Lessons of Japan.» His two Yale University Press books make a cumulative argument. Unbalanced (2014) identified the structural codependency binding the two economies. Accidental Conflict (2022), named a Financial Times Best Book of the Year in Economics, diagnosed the false narratives on both sides now pushing that codependency toward confrontation. The analysis drew endorsements from Nobel laureates Robert Shiller and Robert Engle, and was reviewed by Financial Times senior columnists Martin Wolf, Gillian Tett, and Rana Foroohar. For boards making consequential decisions about market exposure, supply chain configuration, and technology strategy, the practical question is not which side of the conflict to believe. It is whether the conflict they are planning for is the conflict that actually exists. Key speaking topics US-China economic and geopolitical relations Global macroeconomic risk and policy Trade conflict and the structural limits of decoupling Asian economies and market dynamics False narratives and strategic misperception International trade and globalisation US savings, fiscal imbalance, and structural economic vulnerability Ideal for Boards and executive committees with material exposure to US or China market risk CFOs, Chief Risk Officers, and heads of strategy in global financial services, technology, and industrial manufacturing Government, diplomatic, and policy audiences engaged in trade, investment, or security posture toward China Investment management firms and sovereign wealth funds requiring a rigorous bilateral economic framework for allocation decisions Audience outcomes A structured framework for separating the rhetoric driving US-China conflict from the underlying structural economic forces that actually shape it Sharper clarity on what decoupling, reshoring, and geopolitical hedging strategies address – and what they leave unexamined A more rigorous basis for assessing China-related risk in capital allocation, supply chain design, and technology partnership decisions Exposure to a track record of independent, contrarian macroeconomic forecasting, including early identification of conditions leading to the 2008 financial crisis Greater confidence in framing the US-China trajectory for boards, investors, and senior stakeholders

Why organisations work with Stephen Sackur Access to a perspective built across nearly four decades of frontline reporting, from the Gulf War and the fall of the Berlin Wall to two decades of adversarial interviews with presidents, prime ministers, and heads of international institutions, that cannot be replicated by analysts working from secondary sources. A forensic, barristerial framework for examining how leaders think and deflect under pressure, drawn from nearly 20 years presenting HARDtalk to audiences in over 200 countries, that translates directly into sharper boardroom questioning and more rigorous scenario analysis. Timely relevance: his forthcoming book Hard Truth (Headline Press, 2026) addresses disinformation, authoritarian political power, and the fight to preserve truth-telling institutions, the precise threats organisations are being asked to assess and respond to now. The ability to moderate high-stakes discussions at board or senior leadership level with the structural discipline of a trained interviewer, not merely facilitating, but drawing out what participants actually believe rather than what they intend to say. Credibility built through direct engagement with the figures who shape geopolitical risk, including Hugo Chávez, Alexei Navalny, Emmanuel Macron, Christine Lagarde, and Bill Clinton, giving his analysis a texture that is absent from most expert commentary. Biography highlights Presented BBC HARDtalk for 19 years (2005–2025), conducting in-depth accountability interviews with heads of state and global leaders broadcast across more than 200 countries 15 years as a BBC foreign correspondent, based in Cairo, Jerusalem, Brussels, and Washington DC; covered the Gulf War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, and 9/11 First correspondent to report the mass killing on the Basra road at the end of the Gulf War; author of On the Basra Road (1991), named a Spectator Book of the Year Named International TV Personality of the Year (Television) by the Association for International Broadcasting, 2010; nominated Speech Broadcaster of the Year, Sony Radio Awards, 2013 Honorary Doctorate, University of Warwick (2018); Henry Fellow, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; BA History (Hons), Emmanuel College, Cambridge Contributor to The Observer, London Review of Books, New Statesman, The Guardian, and The Daily Telegraph; currently presenter of The Times at One, Times Radio Under contract with Headline Press for Hard Truth: 10 Investigations That Shook the World – and Why They Matter Now (due September 2026) Biography When organisations need to understand how geopolitical risk is constructed as the product of decisions made by identifiable people operating under specific pressures, they are looking for something that most commentary cannot supply: direct, structured, adversarial engagement with the people who make those decisions. That is the experience Stephen Sackur brings. As the presenter of BBC HARDtalk from 2005 to 2025, Sackur conducted in-depth accountability interviews with figures including Hugo Chávez, Emmanuel Macron, Alexei Navalny, Christine Lagarde, and Bill Clinton that reached audiences across more than 200 countries. The programme’s defining characteristic was not access but interrogation: a forensic, evidence-based questioning method that was designed to surface what leaders believe rather than what they wish to project. Over nearly two decades, this produced an unusually detailed map of how power operates, deflects, and occasionally fractures under scrutiny. Before HARDtalk, Sackur spent 15 years as a BBC foreign correspondent in Cairo, Jerusalem, Brussels, and Washington DC. He reported on the Gulf War, the Velvet Revolution, the collapse of the peace process in the Middle East, and the political crises of the Clinton era. His 1991 book On the Basra Road, which emerged from being the first correspondent to report the mass killing of retreating Iraqi forces at the end of the Gulf War, was named a Spectator Book of the Year and established the analytical seriousness that has characterised his work since. His forthcoming book Hard Truth: 10 Investigations That Shook the World – and Why They Matter Now (Headline Press, September 2026) makes the case for investigative journalism as a democratic safeguard against disinformation, authoritarian capture, and institutional erosion. Educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Sackur now presents The Times at One on Times Radio and works regularly with international forums and senior leadership audiences as a moderator and speaker on geopolitics, accountability, and the anatomy of power. Key speaking topics Geopolitics and global power dynamics Political risk and democratic accountability Leadership under pressure and public scrutiny The media’s role in holding institutions to account Disinformation and the future of truth-telling High-stakes questioning and structured decision-making International affairs: Middle East, US politics, European security Ideal for Boards and C-suite leadership teams seeking structured geopolitical context rather than generic risk briefings Risk, strategy, and government affairs functions in international financial services, energy, and professional services firms Senior leadership conferences where geopolitical volatility, democratic risk, or institutional trust is on the agenda Organisations seeking a high-calibre moderator for multi-stakeholder panels on international affairs or governance Audience outcomes A clearer framework for distinguishing genuine geopolitical signal from media and political noise Insight into how senior political leaders actually think and behave when their positions are challenged, and what that reveals about institutional resilience A more rigorous vocabulary for assessing democratic risk, disinformation threats, and the erosion of accountability structures that underpin stable operating environments Practical understanding of how adversarial questioning works as a leadership and governance tool, applicable to board effectiveness, media engagement, and stakeholder management A grounded, non-sensationalised view of geopolitical risk derived from direct engagement with many of the figures who have shaped it

Why organisations work with Steven Pinker His argument that human cognitive biases – availability, confirmation, narrative distortion – are not random errors but predictable and correctable patterns gives organisations a diagnostic framework that most behavioural science speakers only gesture towards. The Better Angels of Our Nature and Enlightenment Now provide leaders with a rigorously evidenced counterweight to crisis-driven decision-making: a data-grounded case for long-run institutional progress that challenges the assumption that things are categorically worse than before. Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters grew out of a Harvard course on reasoning, and offers organisations a structured, named toolkit – logic, Bayesian probability, causal inference, game theory – applied directly to the kinds of collective judgments institutions face. His work on language and common knowledge (the study of what people know that others know they know) gives communicators and senior leaders rare analytical precision about why messaging fails, why consensus breaks down, and how shared understanding is actually constructed. Recognised by the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award and elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Pinker brings a level of peer-validated scholarly authority that very few public-facing intellectuals in this space can match. Biography highlights Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology, Harvard University; faculty career spanning Harvard, MIT (1982–2003), and Stanford Elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (2016) Author of thirteen books, including The Better Angels of Our Nature, Enlightenment Now, and Rationality BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Humanities and Social Sciences (shared with Peter Singer) William James Book Prize (three times); Los Angeles Times Science Book Prize; Cundill Recognition of Excellence in History Award Ranked by Academic Influence as the second most influential psychologist in the world, 2010–2020 Regular contributor to The New York Times, Time, and The Atlantic; named to Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World and Foreign Policy‘s 100 Global Thinkers Biography Organisations that operate in complex, information-saturated environments face a specific and underappreciated failure mode: not a shortage of data, but a systematic distortion in how that data is processed. Leaders overweight vivid recent events, underweight statistical baselines, and build strategy around narratives that feel coherent rather than evidence that is reliable. The cognitive science underlying these failures is well-documented – but rarely applied with rigour inside institutions. Steven Pinker has spent four decades studying the mechanisms of language, reasoning, and human cognition at Harvard, MIT, and Stanford. His research is not popularised work drawn from others’ findings: it is original experimental scholarship in visual cognition, psycholinguistics, and the psychology of social relations, conducted at the Johnstone Family Chair in Harvard’s Department of Psychology. What distinguishes his public work is the consistent application of that scientific foundation to questions that organisations – and civilisations – actually face. His most argued books form a coherent intellectual project. The Better Angels of Our Nature (2011) used historical data across centuries to make the case that violence and conflict have declined measurably – not as opinion, but as documented empirical fact – and identified the institutional and psychological forces responsible. Enlightenment Now (2018) extended that analysis across all major indicators of human welfare, arguing that reason, science, and Enlightenment institutions remain the engines of progress. Rationality (2021) turned the lens directly onto decision-making: what cognitive tools are required to think clearly, why they are rarely applied, and how organisations and democracies can build structures that reason more reliably. The book emerged from a course Pinker teaches at Harvard and addresses logic, Bayesian probability, causal inference, and game theory as practical instruments for institutional judgment. Recognised by the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Humanities and Social Sciences – for contributions to the understanding of human rationality and progress that have entered the mainstream of public debate – and elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Pinker occupies a rare position: a research scientist whose work is directly legible to senior leaders grappling with the quality of organisational reasoning and the reliability of their own institutions. Key speaking topics Cognitive biases and institutional decision-making Rationality and evidence-based reasoning Language, communication, and common knowledge The psychology and history of violence Enlightenment values and organisational progress Human nature and social behaviour Clarity and effectiveness in professional communication Ideal for C-suite and board audiences wrestling with strategic decision-making under uncertainty Policy, government, and public affairs leadership Strategy, risk, and scenario planning functions Executive development and leadership faculty programmes Audience outcomes A working understanding of how specific cognitive biases – availability, confirmation, narrative distortion – shape organisational decisions, and what structures can correct them A data-grounded framework for assessing long-run institutional and societal progress, reducing reliance on media-driven perception of perpetual crisis Practical reasoning tools from logic, probability, and causal inference, applied to the kinds of collective judgments senior leaders actually face Greater precision about how language shapes shared understanding – and why institutional communication so often fails to build the common knowledge it intends A clearer sense of where human nature helps and where it hinders, grounded in evolutionary psychology rather than management metaphor