Economic Trends & Global Markets

Why organisations work with Lewis Goodall He covers UK politics daily from inside the story, not from the academic perimeter, which means his read on Westminster, Whitehall, and the parties is current rather than retrospective. His investigative work on the 2020 A-level algorithm helped force a national policy reversal and earned an Orwell Prize nomination, which is a specific, verifiable proof of judgment under pressure. He co-hosts The News Agents, the British Podcast Awards 2023 Best Daily Podcast, giving him a working command of how political narrative is set, contested, and consumed. He has reported across Brexit, four general elections, and successive prime ministers, and can translate that pattern recognition into clear implications for regulated and public-facing sectors. His book Left for Dead? on the modern Labour Party is a serious piece of political analysis, not a media memoir, which gives boards confidence that the on-air voice is backed by genuine intellectual work. Biography highlights Analysis and Investigations Editor at Global, the parent company of LBC and Classic FM. Co-host of The News Agents with Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel, winner of Best Daily Podcast at the British Podcast Awards 2023. Presenter of Sunday with Lewis Goodall, LBC’s flagship Sunday political programme. Former Policy Editor of BBC Newsnight and former political correspondent at Sky News. Author of Left for Dead?: The Strange Death and Rebirth of the Labour Party (William Collins, 2018). Orwell Prize nominee in 2021 for investigative reporting on the A-level grading scandal. Biography The 2020 A-level grading scandal began as a technical story about an algorithm. It became, in part because of sustained reporting by Lewis Goodall at BBC Newsnight, a national policy reversal and a case study in how data systems fail in public administration. That work was nominated for an Orwell Prize in 2021 and remains the clearest illustration of what he does on a working day. His route to that story is unusual for British political journalism. He read History and Politics at St John’s College, Oxford, worked as a policy researcher at the Institute for Public Policy Research, and moved into broadcasting via Sky News and then Newsnight. The policy training is visible in how he frames questions, which is closer to a regulatory analyst than a Westminster reporter. In 2022 he left the BBC to help launch The News Agents, the daily news podcast he co-hosts with Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel. It won Best Daily Podcast at the 2023 British Podcast Awards. He also presents Sunday with Lewis Goodall, LBC’s flagship Sunday politics programme, and serves as Analysis and Investigations Editor at Global. His book Left for Dead?: The Strange Death and Rebirth of the Labour Party (William Collins, 2018) traces the collapse of New Labour and the rise and fall of the Corbyn project. For boards exposed to UK political risk, the value of his perspective is concrete: he reads the parties, the policy machine, and the press as a single connected system, and he reports on it every day. Key speaking topics UK political risk and regulatory direction The state of the Labour and Conservative parties Elections, polling, and electoral realignment Brexit’s continuing economic and policy aftermath Public policy formation in Whitehall Investigative journalism and algorithmic accountability The UK media landscape and political narrative Ideal for Boards and executive teams in regulated sectors needing a current read on UK political risk. Public affairs, policy, and corporate affairs leaders briefing C-suites on electoral and regulatory direction. Financial services, energy, and infrastructure firms with material exposure to UK government policy. Annual conferences in politics, economics, and current affairs that need a serious working journalist on stage. Audience outcomes A working read on the current state of UK politics from someone inside the daily news cycle. A clearer view of how regulation and policy are forming inside Whitehall, not just announced. Pattern recognition on elections, party direction, and the signals worth tracking. A more critical read of the media stories shaping public and political opinion. Better questions to take back to internal political risk and public affairs functions.

Why organisations work with Beth Rigby Direct access to a current Westminster lens. As the sitting Political Editor of Sky News, she reads the UK political environment from inside the lobby, not from archive material. Named recognition from a credible body. Royal Television Society Political Journalist of the Year 2024 and inaugural Women in Journalism Woman of the Year 2024, both for her general election coverage. A track record of interviewing under pressure. She has questioned successive Prime Ministers on the record, including the exchange with Boris Johnson on Downing Street parties that the RTS shortlisted for Network Interview of the Year. On-stage interviewer and moderator craft. She hosts Beth Rigby Interviews and the Electoral Dysfunction podcast with Harriet Harman and Ruth Davidson, formats built on drawing out senior figures from across the political spectrum. Non-partisan reading of UK politics for commercial audiences. Useful in board meetings, leadership offsites and client events where the audience needs analysis, not opinion. Biography highlights Political Editor, Sky News, since April 2019. First woman in the role. Royal Television Society Political Journalist of the Year, 2024. Inaugural Woman of the Year, Women in Journalism Awards, 2024. Co-host, Electoral Dysfunction (Sky News), with Harriet Harman and Ruth Davidson. Presenter, Beth Rigby Interviews (Sky News), since March 2022. Former Deputy Political Editor of the Financial Times; former Media Editor of The Times. Biography Westminster has rarely been more consequential for commercial decision-making, and rarely harder to read. Two elections in five years, a referendum, three Prime Ministers in 2022 alone, and a sustained period in which policy direction and political stability have moved week by week. Beth Rigby has covered all of it from inside the lobby as Political Editor of Sky News, the first woman to hold the role. Her route into the job is unusually commercial for a Westminster journalist. She spent seventeen years at the Financial Times, covering hedge funds, retail and consumer industries before moving to political coverage as chief political correspondent and then deputy political editor. That grounding in business and markets reporting is why corporate audiences find her analysis useful. She reads UK politics through the same lens a board does. In 2024 the Royal Television Society named her Political Journalist of the Year, citing her general election coverage and her interviewing of party leaders. The same year she won the inaugural Women in Journalism Woman of the Year award. She also hosted Sky’s televised town hall events with Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak during the 2024 campaign, a format that depends on holding senior politicians to specific answers in real time. Alongside her on-air role she co-hosts the Sky News podcast Electoral Dysfunction with the former Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman and the former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson, a cross-party format aimed at explaining the mechanics of Westminster decisions rather than scoring them. That same dynamic is what makes her effective as an on-stage interviewer for senior audiences: she pushes for the substance, not the soundbite. Key speaking topics UK politics and Westminster General elections and government formation Political risk and policy environment Geopolitics and UK foreign policy Media, broadcast journalism and political communication On-stage interviews with senior leaders and politicians Conference and event moderation Ideal for Board offsites, leadership conferences and partner events where senior audiences need a current read on UK political risk. Client events that require an experienced interviewer for a politician, regulator or business leader. Industry conferences seeking a non-partisan moderator for political and policy panels. After-dinner or fireside-format events where the value is informed analysis of the current Westminster cycle. Audience outcomes A clearer picture of the current Westminster dynamic and its implications for the next twelve to twenty-four months. A non-partisan read of UK policy direction across the main parties. Specific insight into the people, factions and decisions that shape government output. For interview and moderation briefs, a session that draws genuine substance from the guest rather than a rehearsed line.

Why organisations work with Luke Jones He brings the live-broadcast discipline of BBC Radio 4’s PM, The World at One, and The World Tonight to corporate stages, where the brief is to keep a panel of senior leaders specific and on the clock. He is a working political and current-affairs interviewer. He has put questions to Foreign Secretaries, Shadow Cabinet ministers, and Health Ministers on air, and that experience translates directly to chairing fireside conversations with senior executives. As host of The Times’ daily podcast The Story, he reads a story, finds the line that matters, and lands it with an audience. That is the same job a conference chair does for a leadership offsite. He writes The Pitcairn Trials, an investigative podcast nominated for Best Host at the British Podcast Awards. Long-form investigative work is what makes a moderator credible when the on-stage subject becomes uncomfortable. Biography highlights Host of The Story, The Times’ daily news podcast. BBC Radio 4 presenter: PM, The World at One, The World Tonight, Saturday Live, Profile, Front Row, Broadcasting House, Any Questions. BBC World Service presenter: OS, Newsday, Weekend, The Newsroom. Former Times Radio Breakfast presenter (Fridays and weekends, two years). Writer and host of The Pitcairn Trials (2025), nominated for Best Host at the British Podcast Awards; The Times five stars. 2017 ARIAS nomination for Best New Presenter; theatre critic for the Daily Mail; contributor to The Times and Sunday Times. Biography A live two-way on Radio 4’s PM gives a presenter about 90 seconds to set up the issue, ask the sharp question, and get the answer the audience needs before the next item. That is the discipline Luke Jones works in every week, across PM, The World at One, The World Tonight, and Times Radio Breakfast. It is also why organisations book him to chair their stages. He hosts The Story, The Times’ daily news podcast, and presents OS, Newsday, and Weekend on BBC World Service. He has interviewed Foreign Secretaries, Shadow Cabinet ministers, Health Ministers, and the scientists who shaped the UK’s COVID response. The interviewing register he uses on air, polite, persistent, briefed, is what conference organisers want when a CEO sits down for a fireside or a panel needs a chair who will press past the prepared answer. His recent investigative work, The Pitcairn Trials, was rated five stars by The Times and earned a Best Host nomination at the British Podcast Awards. The series is the work of a journalist who can hold a long, difficult story together. That long-form muscle is what separates a competent moderator from one a board will trust with a sensitive on-stage conversation. He is the kind of presenter senior audiences listen to without being told to. The 2017 ARIAS Best New Presenter nomination came early in his career; the body of work since, daily news, podcasting, theatre criticism in the Daily Mail, has been built on the Radio 4 standard. Key speaking topics Conference chairing and on-stage moderation Fireside interviews with senior executives Panel chairing on politics and current affairs UK and US politics Economics and current affairs Investigative journalism and storytelling Media, broadcasting, and the news cycle Ideal for CEO conferences, leadership offsites, and town halls needing an experienced on-stage interviewer CHRO and communications leadership events on internal storytelling and message discipline Industry conferences requiring a panel chair who can press senior figures on policy, economics, or geopolitics After-dinner interview formats where the brief is a credible name and a steady hand Audience outcomes A panel that stays on the question, with senior speakers pressed past their prepared lines A fireside conversation that gets to the substantive answer rather than the corporate one An on-stage interview shaped to the audience in the room, not the speaker’s preferred script A conference programme that holds together because the chair has read the brief and the room

Why organisations work with Ruchir Sharma He runs live capital at Rockefeller International and Breakout Capital. The frameworks he presents are tested against the same allocation decisions his audience is making. His Breakout Nations and Rise and Fall of Nations theses give boards a structured set of rules for ranking countries on growth durability, not a country-of-the-month view. What Went Wrong with Capitalism, named a 2024 Book of the Year by both the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times, gives him a current, contested argument on debt, state expansion and inequality that lands directly on capital allocation decisions in developed markets. Two decades of on-the-ground reporting across Indian and emerging-market elections give him a political-risk read that desk-bound macro speakers cannot match. A working FT column and prior NYT column mean his arguments are already road-tested against serious editorial scrutiny. Biography highlights Chairman of Rockefeller International; founder and CIO of Breakout Capital. 25 years at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, latterly as Head of Emerging Markets and Chief Global Strategist. Author of five books, including Breakout Nations, The Rise and Fall of Nations and What Went Wrong with Capitalism, named a 2024 Book of the Year by the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times. Contributing editor and columnist at the Financial Times; former New York Times opinion columnist. Recognised as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader (2007), a Foreign Policy top global thinker (2012) and one of Bloomberg’s 50 Most Influential People (2015). Has covered every Indian national election since 1998, and travels widely across emerging economies meeting policymakers, CEOs and local leaders. Biography Most countries that look like the next economic miracle do not become one. The work that made Sharma’s reputation, Breakout Nations and The Rise and Fall of Nations, is built on that observation. Both books set out a structured, rule-based way of judging which economies are likely to sustain growth and which are running on borrowed time. He brings that lens to the room as a working investor, not a commentator. As Chairman of Rockefeller International and CIO of Breakout Capital, he is allocating capital across the same emerging and developed markets he writes about. Before that he spent 25 years at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, ending as Head of Emerging Markets and Chief Global Strategist. His most recent book, What Went Wrong with Capitalism, was named a 2024 Book of the Year by the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times. It argues that a century of expanding government, bailouts, entitlements and financial rescues, has distorted Western markets and entrenched inequality. The thesis travels directly into capital allocation conversations about debt, valuation and the limits of policy support. The reporting work underneath all of this is unusual. Sharma has covered every Indian national election since 1998 and travels regularly through emerging economies meeting politicians, CEOs and local operators. That fieldwork is what gives his macro calls their texture, and what separates a Sharma keynote from a desk-research presentation. Key speaking topics Emerging markets and the rules of national economic success Macro-economic and capital allocation outlook The long-cycle critique of state-led capitalism India’s economic and political trajectory Geopolitics, populism and political risk Globalisation and the post-crisis world economy Ideal for Boards and investment committees setting country and currency exposure CEOs and CFOs of multinationals reassessing emerging-market footprint Asset managers, pension funds and family offices on capital allocation Senior policy and strategy audiences in financial services Audience outcomes A structured set of indicators for ranking countries on growth durability A read on which emerging markets are likely to break out and which are likely to stall A specific, contestable argument on how state expansion is shaping returns in developed markets A political-risk perspective on India and the wider EM landscape grounded in on-the-ground reporting A clearer view of the macro-economic regime shift facing capital allocators

Why organisations work with Ewald Nowotny A first-hand account of ECB Governing Council decision-making across the sovereign debt crisis, the negative-rate era, and the start of unconventional policy unwind, by someone who voted in the room. Cross-institutional perspective most central bankers cannot match: ECB Governing Council, Vice President of the European Investment Bank, CEO of BAWAG P.S.K., and a chair of the Austrian Parliament’s Finance Committee. An economist’s framework, not a commentator’s view. Three decades as a full professor at Vienna University of Economics and Business, with nine books and a standard public finance textbook in its fifth edition. A direct read on European political economy and the durability of the euro, from a participant who was inside the German-Austrian bloc on the Council during its most contested years. Biography highlights Governor, Oesterreichische Nationalbank, and member of the ECB Governing Council, 2008 to 2019. Vice President, European Investment Bank, 1999 to 2003. CEO, BAWAG P.S.K. Group, 2006 to 2008. Full Professor of Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business, 1981 to 2008; Vice Rector for Finance, 2003 to 2005. Member of the Austrian National Council, 1978 to 1999; Chair of the Finance Committee, 1985 to 1999. Chevalier of the French Legion d’Honneur (2017); Honorary Member, SUERF. Biography The eurozone has spent fifteen years inside policy regimes most boards were not built to read. Sovereign debt crisis, negative rates, asset purchase programmes, and the start of policy normalisation each redrew the cost of capital and the political settlement around it. Ewald Nowotny was inside the room where those decisions were taken. As Governor of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank from 2008 to 2019, he sat on the ECB Governing Council through every one of those phases. He voted on the response to the Greek crisis, on the launch of large-scale asset purchases, and on the policy stance that defined European credit conditions for a decade. His public commentary, captured across BIS speech archives and central banking media, tracked the substantive arguments inside the Council rather than the headlines outside it. Before the central bank, his career covered the institutions that shape European capital flows from different angles. He served as Vice President of the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg from 1999 to 2003, then as CEO of BAWAG P.S.K. Group during a period of acute restructuring at the Austrian bank. Earlier, he chaired the Finance Committee of the Austrian Parliament for fourteen years. The academic standing is the second axis. He held a full professorship at Vienna University of Economics and Business for almost three decades and co-authored the standard German-language textbook on public sector finance, now in its fifth edition. He was made Chevalier of the French Legion d’Honneur in 2017 and is an honorary member of SUERF, the European Money and Finance Forum. Key speaking topics Eurozone monetary policy and the future of the euro ECB decision-making and central bank independence European banking regulation after the financial crisis Sovereign debt and fiscal policy in the EU Macroeconomic outlook and global capital markets Public sector finance Ideal for Boards and audit committees stress-testing capital and treasury assumptions against European monetary policy CFOs, group treasurers, and CIOs in banking, insurance, and asset management Public-sector and supranational audiences working on EU economic governance Senior policy and corporate-affairs leaders engaging with European institutions Audience outcomes A working account of how the ECB Governing Council weighs price stability against financial stability, from someone who voted on those trade-offs. A clearer view of what is structural versus cyclical in eurozone politics, including the German-Austrian fiscal stance and its likely persistence. Specific reference points for reading future ECB decisions: which arguments tend to win on the Council, and which signals matter. Context on the European Investment Bank and the EU’s supranational lending architecture as a tool of policy and capital allocation.

Why organisations work with Peter Altmaier Direct cabinet-level authorship of the Energiewende, with first-hand accountability for grid build-out, nuclear exit, and renewables expansion under Merkel-era Germany. Two ministerial portfolios at the centre of European crisis response: economic affairs and energy through the COVID industrial intervention period, and the Chancellery during the 2015 refugee coordination. Insider read on Berlin, Brussels, and Paris political mechanics, sharpened by 27 years in the Bundestag and senior CDU leadership roles. Substantive position on European technological sovereignty and platform regulation, formed while economics minister and visible in his work with the IEA and the Migration Policy Institute’s Transatlantic Council. Speaks German, English, French, and Dutch, which makes him operable across European boardrooms without translation drag. Biography highlights Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy of Germany, 2018 to 2021 Head of the Federal Chancellery and Federal Minister for Special Tasks, 2013 to 2018; Acting Federal Minister of Finance, 2017 to 2018 Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, 2012 to 2013 Member of the German Bundestag, 1994 to 2021 Knight of the French Legion of Honour (2004); Honorary President, Europa-Union Deutschland Featured speaker, PETRONAS International Energy Speaker Series, Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary (2022) Biography Germany’s energy transition was redrawn while Peter Altmaier was in the room. As Federal Minister for the Environment in 2012 and later as Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy from 2018 to 2021, he held direct departmental responsibility for the Energiewende, the nuclear exit, and the integration of renewables into Europe’s largest industrial economy. Between those portfolios he ran the Federal Chancellery for five years under Angela Merkel. That post placed him at the centre of cabinet coordination during the 2015 refugee response, the eurozone debt sequence, and the early industrial-policy calls that would later define Germany’s posture on technological sovereignty and platform regulation. He served as Acting Federal Minister of Finance through the 2017 to 2018 transition. His parliamentary career ran for 27 years, representing Saarlouis from 1994 and serving as Chief Whip of the CDU/CSU group from 2009 to 2012. He chaired the Parliamentary Oversight Panel for Germany’s intelligence services. Earlier work as a European Commission official and rapporteur on the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights gave him a working command of the institutional machinery in Brussels. Since leaving office in 2021 he has continued through Europa-Union Deutschland as Honorary President, the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, and the Migration Policy Institute’s Transatlantic Council. France made him a Knight of the Legion of Honour in 2004, a recognition of his role in Franco-German policy coordination that has remained central to his work on European energy and industrial strategy. Key speaking topics European energy transition and security German and EU industrial strategy Geopolitics and the transatlantic relationship Climate and decarbonisation policy European technological sovereignty Macroeconomic outlook for Europe Franco-German political economy Ideal for Boards and executive committees with significant European exposure on energy, industrial, or supply chain decisions CSOs, heads of public affairs, and government relations leads briefing on EU and German policy direction Energy, utilities, automotive, and heavy industry leadership teams setting capital allocation against the Energiewende Investor and asset manager forums covering European macro and geopolitical risk Audience outcomes A working read on how Berlin and Brussels actually decide on energy and industrial policy A clearer view of where the Energiewende is binding capital and where it is creating openings Sharper anticipation of European responses to US, China, and Russia policy moves Insight into the political economy of technological sovereignty and platform regulation in Europe Anecdote-grounded perspective on Merkel-era cabinet decision-making, useful for boards working alongside German counterparties

Why organisations work with Rosanna Lockwood She has anchored live business news for CNBC International, MSNBC, NBC and Bloomberg TV, so she can chair a CFO, a central bank governor and a sanctions analyst in the same hour without losing the thread. Her brief is built where the audience expects it to be tested: Downing Street, the Singapore Strait, Istanbul, Dubai. That field record carries weight with senior delegates who can spot a host briefed only from a deck. She has moderated for COP, the World Economic Forum and LEAP, formats where the chair has to manage geopolitical sensitivity and named-company exposure in real time. She holds her own opposite Nobel laureates, central bank governors and CEOs without ceding the room, which is the actual job when the panel includes a sitting minister and a sceptical buy-side audience. Biography highlights Anchor on CNBC International, presenting Squawk Box and Street Signs from London and Singapore, with European markets reporting for CNBC US, MSNBC and NBC. Host of Prime Time with Rosanna Lockwood on TalkTV, and Piers Morgan’s stand-in on Piers Morgan Uncensored. Earlier broadcasting roles with Bloomberg TV, Reuters in Dubai, the BBC, LBC and ITN. Moderator at COP, the World Economic Forum and LEAP, plus conferences and summits in London, Paris, New York, Cairo, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Singapore. BJTC-accredited Postgraduate Diploma in Broadcast Journalism, London College of Communication; BA English Literature and Drama, Royal Holloway, University of London. Senior Fellow of the John Schofield Trust, mentoring early-career journalists. Biography Live business news is unforgiving territory. The anchor has minutes, sometimes seconds, to read a central bank statement, frame the implication for markets and put the right question to the next guest. Lockwood spent over a decade in that seat, anchoring Squawk Box and Street Signs for CNBC International in London and Singapore and reporting European markets for CNBC US, MSNBC and NBC. That work shaped a specific kind of moderator. She is fluent in the vocabulary of monetary policy, corporate strategy and geopolitical risk because she has had to translate it on air, in real time, with a Nobel laureate, a CEO or a finance minister opposite her. Earlier roles at Bloomberg TV, Reuters in Dubai, the BBC, LBC and ITN extended that range across foreign policy, defence, sustainability and energy. The conference work follows the same logic. Lockwood has chaired and moderated for COP, the World Economic Forum and LEAP, and across summits in London, Paris, New York, Cairo, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Singapore. The brief in those rooms is concrete: keep a senior panel honest, surface the disagreement that matters, and leave the buy-side or board audience with a signal they can act on. She qualified through a BJTC-accredited Postgraduate Diploma in Broadcast Journalism at London College of Communication, after a BA in English Literature and Drama at Royal Holloway. As a Senior Fellow of the John Schofield Trust, she mentors early-career journalists in the UK. Key speaking topics Conference moderation and panel chairing Investor day and AGM hosting Business and finance interviewing Geopolitics and foreign policy Sustainability and energy transition Macroeconomics and central bank policy Defence and security Ideal for Boards, IR teams and CFO offices commissioning chairs for capital markets days, AGMs and investor summits Sustainability, public affairs and ESG leads convening regulator-facing or COP-adjacent conversations Heads of communications and event leads at banks, asset managers and energy companies running flagship summits Government and multilateral programme leads at WEF, COP and LEAP-tier convenings Audience outcomes Senior speakers handled with the discipline of a live news desk, including the unscripted moments Sharper questions in the room, including the ones panellists would prefer to skip A chair who can connect a macro print, a corporate decision and a policy shift inside a single panel Confidence that sensitive geopolitical territory will be navigated without diplomatic damage A through-line for the audience, so the day reads as one argument rather than a sequence of sessions

Why organisations work with Leszek Balcerowicz He authored a national reform programme, the Balcerowicz Plan, that economists still teach as the canonical case of rapid stabilisation and price liberalisation under hyperinflation. He has held the rare combination of finance minister and central bank governor in the same country, giving him direct command of how fiscal credibility and monetary policy reinforce or undermine each other. He brings a working analytical frame for understanding emerging market risk and reform reversal, drawn from running a transition economy and from his academic work on comparative systems. The Civic Development Forum, which he founded in 2007, gives him an active institutional platform for current commentary on European fiscal policy, the euro area, and the economics of populism. Biography highlights Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Poland, 1989-1991 and 1997-2000. President of the National Bank of Poland, 2001-2007; ex officio member of the European Central Bank General Council during that period. Professor at the Warsaw School of Economics, heading the Department of International Comparative Studies. Founder and Chairman of the Civic Development Forum (FOR); Chairman of the supervisory board of Bruegel, the Brussels-based economic policy think tank. 2014 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty (Cato Institute); Euromoney Finance Minister of the Year 1998; Order of the White Eagle, 2005. Author of Socialism, Capitalism, Transformation (Central European University Press, 1995) and more than one hundred publications on transition economics and reform. Biography Poland in 1989 was running an annual inflation rate above 600 percent, a state-owned economy starved of price signals, and a currency no one trusted. The reform programme that ended hyperinflation within three years and converted the zloty into a usable currency carries one name. It was designed by the country’s then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Leszek Balcerowicz. That programme, now widely known as the Balcerowicz Plan, became a reference case for stabilisation under extreme conditions. It is taught at policy schools and quoted in central bank papers because it shows what fiscal restraint, price liberalisation, and currency convertibility can do when sequenced together rather than negotiated piecemeal. The trade-offs were severe and remain politically contested in Poland. The macroeconomic outcome is not. Balcerowicz returned as Deputy Prime Minister between 1997 and 2000, then served as President of the National Bank of Poland from 2001 to 2007, sitting on the General Council of the European Central Bank. Few practitioners hold the finance ministry and the central bank in succession. That sequence shapes how he thinks about credibility: as a discipline that runs across institutions, not within them. His current platform is academic and institutional. He chairs the Civic Development Forum in Warsaw, sits on the supervisory board of Bruegel in Brussels, and remains Professor at the Warsaw School of Economics. He has been awarded the Milton Friedman Prize, the Friedrich August von Hayek Prize, and roughly twenty honorary doctorates. The work he is doing now centres on the political economy of populism, the fiscal architecture of the euro area, and the conditions under which reform survives political turnover. Key speaking topics Economic transition and reform design Monetary policy and central bank credibility Fiscal policy and stabilisation under inflation Political economy of populism European Union and euro area economics Comparative economic systems Emerging markets and country risk Ideal for Boards and investment committees with material exposure to emerging-market or peripheral European economies Central banks, finance ministries, and multilateral institutions Asset managers and CIOs assessing sovereign and currency risk Senior policy and public affairs leaders in financial services and energy Audience outcomes A working frame for reading macroeconomic stabilisation programmes, drawn from someone who has run one A clearer view of how fiscal and monetary credibility actually compound, beyond the textbook account A sharper read on populist economic policy and where it tends to break An informed perspective on euro area architecture and the limits of monetary union without fiscal coordination

Why organisations work with Marek Marian Belka He has actually held the levers. Decisions on interest rates, sovereign borrowing, banking supervision and crisis response were his to sign, not to commentate on, across Polish government and the National Bank of Poland. He ran the IMF’s European Department through the early eurozone crisis, giving him a working view of how Brussels, Frankfurt and national capitals negotiate when the system is under pressure. He rebuilt a currency and a banking system from zero in post-invasion Iraq, which translates directly when leaders ask what happens to economies under shock conditions. He sits inside current EU economic legislation as an MEP on the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, including as rapporteur on the revision of EU payment-services rules. His read on Brussels is not historical. He moves comfortably between academic economics and operational policy, which is rare in this pillar and is what makes his sessions useful to CFOs and investment committees rather than only to public-affairs teams. Biography highlights Prime Minister of Poland, 2004-2005. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Poland, 1997 and 2001-2002. President of the National Bank of Poland, 2010-2016. Director of the European Department, International Monetary Fund, 2008-2010. Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (Geneva), 2006-2008. Director of Economic Policy, Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, 2003-2004. Member of the European Parliament, 2019-2024, Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. Professor of Economics; long-running affiliation with the Institute of Economics at the Polish Academy of Sciences; visiting periods at Columbia, Chicago and the London School of Economics. Biography The eurozone crisis ran through the desk of the IMF’s European Department, and from 2008 to 2010 that desk belonged to Marek Belka. The job was not to predict the crisis. It was to negotiate with finance ministries, central banks and political leaders while the system was visibly stressed and to keep capital and credibility moving across borders. That role only made sense because of what came before it. He had already been Poland’s Minister of Finance, Deputy Prime Minister and, from 2004 to 2005, Prime Minister. He had also rebuilt a currency and a banking system in post-invasion Iraq as Director of Economic Policy at the Coalition Provisional Authority. By the time he reached the IMF, he had operated economic policy in a stable European democracy, in a transition economy and in a war zone. In 2010 he returned to Warsaw as President of the National Bank of Poland, a six-year term that covered the eurozone aftermath, the Russian annexation of Crimea and the early phase of populist pressure on European central-bank independence. Before and after that, he held the Executive Secretary post at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe in Geneva and built a long academic record at the Polish Academy of Sciences and as a visiting scholar at Columbia, the University of Chicago and the London School of Economics. Today he sits in the European Parliament on the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, where he was rapporteur on the revision of EU payment-services rules adopted in February 2024. For boards and investors, that combination matters in a specific way. He can speak to monetary policy, fiscal stress and EU economic legislation as someone who has signed the decisions, not just modelled them. Key speaking topics European monetary policy and the role of central banks Eurozone stability, sovereign debt and banking supervision EU economic legislation and the political economy of Brussels Geopolitical risk in Central and Eastern Europe Inflation, currency and post-crisis economic policy Economic transition and reconstruction in fragile economies The future of the euro and European economic integration Ideal for Boards, CFOs and investment committees making allocation decisions exposed to European monetary and fiscal risk. Banks, asset managers and insurers needing a senior read on ECB direction, sovereign credit and EU financial regulation. Leadership teams of multinationals with significant Central and Eastern European exposure. Public-policy, government-affairs and economic-research functions briefing executives on EU institutions. Audience outcomes A clearer read on how ECB, European Commission and national-capital decisions interact under stress. A working sense of where European political risk is most likely to translate into market and regulatory consequence. Specific examples of how policymakers actually decide during crises, drawn from inside the IMF, NBP and Polish government. A sharper view of EU financial-services and payments regulation as it moves through the legislative process. Confidence to challenge consensus assumptions about eurozone stability, inflation and Central European growth.

Why organisations work with Janusz Antoni Lewandowski Direct first-person insight into how the EU’s multiannual budget is built, negotiated, and defended. He led that process for the 2014 to 2020 framework. One of the few European speakers who designed a national privatisation programme, the Polish Program Powszechnej Prywatyzacji, and co-founded the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Useful for boards reading Central and Eastern European exposure. A Solidarity-era economic adviser turned cabinet minister turned Commissioner. The arc gives him standing on how political will translates into economic structure, and where it fails. Active commentary in Rzeczpospolita, Gazeta Wyborcza, Polityka, and Newsweek Polska. He is a working public voice on EU and Polish policy, not a retired official. Biography highlights European Commissioner for Financial Programming and the Budget, 2010 to 2014, under President José Manuel Barroso. Chair of the European Parliament Committee on Budgets from 2004; later First Vice-Chair (2019 to 2024). Member of the European Parliament across the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th terms. Minister of Ownership Transformations in two Polish governments (1991; 1992 to 1993); co-founder of the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Co-founder and Chair of the Liberal Democratic Congress (KLD), 1988. Economic adviser to Solidarity, 1980 to 1989. Chairman of the Economic Council under Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz, 2015. Doctorate in economics, University of Gdańsk. Founder of the Institute for Market Economy Research, Gdańsk. Biography Poland’s transition from a state-planned economy to a market economy was not an academic exercise. It was designed and run, in real time, by a small group of economists who had been advising Solidarity through the 1980s. Janusz Lewandowski was one of them. As Minister of Ownership Transformations in the Bielecki and Suchocka governments, he co-founded the Warsaw Stock Exchange and built the Program Powszechnej Prywatyzacji, the mass privatisation programme that reshaped Polish corporate ownership. That experience travelled with him into Brussels. He served as a Member of the European Parliament from 2004, chaired the Committee on Budgets, and was appointed European Commissioner for Financial Programming and the Budget under José Manuel Barroso between 2010 and 2014. The Commissioner role placed him at the centre of negotiations for the 2014 to 2020 Multiannual Financial Framework, the trillion-euro budget settlement that defined EU fiscal priorities through the post-crisis decade. He returned to the European Parliament in 2014, served as First Vice-Chair of the Budgets Committee in the 2019 to 2024 term, and has continued as a working voice on European economic policy. In 2015 Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz appointed him Chairman of the Economic Council. He writes regularly for Rzeczpospolita, Gazeta Wyborcza, Polityka, Parkiet, Wprost, and Newsweek Polska. The combined record gives him a vantage point that few European speakers can match. He has built market institutions from a standing start, written a national privatisation programme, and held senior fiscal responsibility for the entire Union. When he reads EU budget politics, Central European exposure, or the durability of the European project, he is reading instruments he has helped to build. Key speaking topics EU budget architecture and the Multiannual Financial Framework The political economy of European integration Post-communist economic transition and privatisation Central and Eastern Europe in the EU Polish economic and political outlook Geopolitical risk for European capital The future of EU fiscal policy Ideal for Boards and executive committees with material exposure to Central and Eastern Europe CFOs, treasury, and policy teams tracking EU regulatory and fiscal direction Investor and banking audiences reading European political risk Senior public-sector and institutional audiences on EU policy and enlargement Audience outcomes A clear read of how EU budget priorities are set and where they are heading Direct insight into the political economy of Central and Eastern Europe from someone who shaped it Sharper interpretation of European policy signals affecting capital allocation A working framework for thinking about EU enlargement, sanctions, and the durability of the European project

Why organisations work with Jens Weidmann A decade inside the ECB Governing Council during the sovereign debt crisis, the Draghi “whatever it takes” period, and the pandemic response. Few speakers can describe those decisions from inside the room. The hawkish dissent on the ECB council was not branding. It was a substantive position on bond purchases, fiscal dominance, and the limits of central bank independence, and it informs how he reads today’s inflation and debt dynamics. Active commercial bank chairman (Commerzbank) and reinsurance supervisor (Munich Re). His view on rates, regulation, and risk is grounded in current board exposure, not a retired official’s recollections. Chief G8 and G20 sherpa for Germany under Chancellor Merkel. He brings a working knowledge of how monetary, fiscal, and geopolitical decisions are negotiated between major economies. Chaired the BIS board and led the IMF’s 2022 panel on institutional safeguards. The credentials matter because they signal access to the small group of people who set the rules of cross-border finance. Biography highlights President of the Deutsche Bundesbank, 2011 to 2021 Member of the ECB Governing Council and Chairman of the Board of the Bank for International Settlements during his Bundesbank presidency Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Commerzbank since 2023 Member of the Supervisory Board of Munich Re Professor of Practice in Central Banking and Co-Director of the Centre for Central Banking, Frankfurt School of Finance and Management Former Head of Division IV (Economic and Financial Policy) at the German Federal Chancellery and chief German sherpa for G8 and G20 summits Chair of the IMF External and Independent Panel of High-Level Experts on Institutional Safeguards, 2022 Biography The Bundesbank seat on the ECB Governing Council carries a particular weight. It represents the largest economy in the eurozone and a tradition of monetary discipline that predates the single currency. For a decade, that seat was occupied by Jens Weidmann, and during the Draghi era he was the Council’s most consistent dissenter on sovereign bond purchases and on the boundary between monetary and fiscal policy. Before the Bundesbank, Weidmann was the German Chancellery’s chief economic adviser and the country’s sherpa at the G8 and G20. The negotiations after Lehman, the Greek programme, and the early architecture of European banking union all crossed his desk. Earlier still he served the German Council of Economic Experts, where his work fed into the Agenda 2010 reforms that reshaped the German labour market. Since stepping down from the Bundesbank in 2021, his focus has shifted from rule-setting to rule-applying. As Chairman of Commerzbank’s Supervisory Board he oversees one of Germany’s two large commercial banks through a higher-rate environment and a renewed debate over European banking consolidation. At Munich Re he sits inside the supervisory governance of a major reinsurer, where climate and geopolitical risk meet capital adequacy. He teaches and writes from the Frankfurt School Centre for Central Banking, which he co-directs. The IMF’s 2022 decision to appoint him chair of its independent panel on institutional safeguards, after the data scandal involving its managing director, signalled that his judgement on institutional integrity carries weight beyond Germany. Key speaking topics Monetary policy and central bank independence Eurozone economic and financial stability Inflation, public debt, and fiscal dominance Banking supervision and financial regulation G7, G20, and international policy coordination Geopolitical risk and the global financial system Ideal for Bank, asset manager, and insurer boards setting strategy under shifting rate and regulatory regimes CEOs, CFOs, and CROs of multinationals exposed to euro-area policy and currency risk Government, regulator, and policy audiences working on financial stability and reform Audience outcomes A grounded reading of where eurozone monetary policy is heading and what would shift it A clearer sense of how political and fiscal pressure now interacts with central bank decisions A working view of the constraints and choices facing European banks and insurers An informed perspective on G20-level coordination, sanctions, and the financial architecture around geopolitical risk

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.