Energy Transition

Why organisations work with Ludovica Brignola A working anchor on live financial television, not a former practitioner. She reads markets, geopolitics and energy in real time on Thomson Reuters, which gives panels and chair work a current vocabulary. Credible chair for institutional finance audiences. CNBC-led moderation for Banca Intesa, Eurizon and Unicredit Bank, and host of Assogestioni’s Il Salone del Risparmio in 2024, an event of over 21,000 attendees. Genuine EMEA reach in four languages: fluent English and Italian, intermediate Arabic and Turkish. Few finance moderators can chair the same conversation comfortably in Milan, Istanbul and a Gulf capital. Specialist comfort with alternative finance and capital markets, including hedge funds, private equity, real estate, sovereign wealth funds and crypto, drawn from her weekly SectorUpClose programme. Equally credible interviewing a chief executive, an institutional investor, or a policy figure on geopolitics and energy, without sliding into surface commentary. Biography highlights Anchor at Thomson Reuters, covering financial markets, geopolitics and energy in daily bulletins. Host of the weekly Thomson Reuters programme SectorUpClose, examining listed companies, hedge funds, real estate and crypto. Former Business Presenter at TRT World and CNBC anchor in Italy. Moderator for Banca Intesa, Eurizon and Unicredit Bank via CNBC’s events arm. Host of Assogestioni’s Il Salone del Risparmio 2024, with over 21,000 attendees. Educated at City University London; completed the CNBC International business journalism programme, Singapore. Advanced Arabic certificate from Al-Azhar University. Biography Capital markets, geopolitics and energy are now read as a single conversation, and senior audiences expect a chair who can hold all three threads without losing the room. That is the working life of a Thomson Reuters anchor, which is the seat Ludovica Brignola currently occupies, covering daily market bulletins and hosting the weekly SectorUpClose programme on listed companies, hedge funds, real estate and crypto. Her career has moved through the studios that shape European financial coverage. Business presenter at TRT World, anchor work for CNBC in Italy, and CNBC-led moderation for Banca Intesa, Eurizon and Unicredit Bank. In 2024 she hosted Assogestioni’s Il Salone del Risparmio, one of Europe’s largest asset management gatherings. What she brings to a stage is the discipline of live financial broadcasting applied to a moderator’s chair. She interviews chief executives, fund managers and policy figures in the same week, and switches between English, Italian, Arabic and Turkish well enough to chair across EMEA without an interpreter. For organisations running investor days, sector conferences, or market-themed leadership events, she works as a host who is fluent in the content, not a presenter parachuted onto financial material. Her education sits behind that: City University London, the CNBC International business journalism programme in Singapore, and an advanced Arabic certificate from Al-Azhar University. Key speaking topics Capital markets and market volatility Hedge funds, private equity and alternative finance Sovereign wealth funds Geopolitics and energy markets Middle East and European economic dynamics Cryptocurrency and digital assets Cross-border investment in EMEA Ideal for Asset managers, banks and institutional investors running annual conferences or investor days Corporate finance, treasury and capital markets leadership audiences Cross-border events spanning Europe, the Middle East and Türkiye that need a multilingual chair Sector summits on energy, alternatives and digital assets that need an anchor who can read the markets in real time Audience outcomes A panel that stays on point, with specialist follow-ups instead of generic prompts A clearer read on how geopolitics and energy are moving capital across EMEA An informed cross-border framing for institutional audiences in Europe, the Middle East and Türkiye Live commentary on markets, alternatives and sovereign capital that holds up to a technical room

Why organisations work with Narendra Taneja Reads global energy from an Indian and Global South vantage point that Western commentary routinely misses, particularly on the gap between developed-world decarbonisation timelines and emerging-economy growth needs. Holds standing in both academic and policy worlds: Distinguished Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies and Chairman of the Independent Energy Policy Institute in New Delhi. Speaks directly into the operator and investor audience he has worked alongside for over two decades, having served as Founder President of the World Oil & Gas Assembly between 2001 and 2011. Carries advisory weight across multilateral energy forums, with seats on the ONS International Advisory Board in Norway and the Energy Intelligence Group’s Advisory Board in the United States. Tested in the highest-pressure broadcast formats, including BBC HARDtalk and CNN’s Amanpour, where energy claims have to survive cross-examination. Biography highlights Chairman, Independent Energy Policy Institute, New Delhi Distinguished Research Fellow, Oxford Institute for Energy Studies Founder President, World Energy Policy Summit; former Founder President, World Oil & Gas Assembly (2001 to 2011) International Advisory Board member, ONS Foundation (Norway) and Energy Intelligence Group (United States) Former National Convener of the BJP Energy Cell and former National Spokesperson for the BJP Regular contributor to BBC HARDtalk, CNN’s Amanpour and major Indian and international media Biography India is the world’s fifth-largest economy and third-largest electricity producer. It is also among the most climate-exposed major economies, with historical cumulative emissions far below those of the United States or China. The global energy transition will not be solved by Western timelines alone, and the implications run through New Delhi. Narendra Taneja works the seam between rich-world and emerging-economy energy systems. He is Chairman of the Independent Energy Policy Institute in New Delhi and a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. That dual standing puts him inside the academic debate on transition and inside the policy machinery that has to act on it. His operator credibility is older. He was Founder President of the World Oil & Gas Assembly from 2001 to 2011, the decade energy moved from sector concern to the centre of foreign policy. He now leads the World Energy Policy Summit and holds advisory seats on the ONS International Advisory Board in Norway and the Energy Intelligence Group in the United States. His public reach is unusual for a policy specialist. He served as National Convenor of the BJP Energy Cell and as National Spokesperson for India’s governing party, with direct line of sight into one of the world’s largest energy markets. He appears regularly on BBC HARDtalk and CNN’s Amanpour. He is widely cited as a powerful voice on the energy question between rich and developing economies, a position most international commentary still struggles to hold. Key speaking topics Energy geopolitics and global energy systems Energy security and supply dynamics Energy transition policy across Global North and Global South Oil and gas markets in a decarbonising world India’s energy strategy and global role Geopolitics of climate policy Political risk in emerging market energy Ideal for Energy and utilities boards weighing transition strategy and capital allocation Investors and asset managers with cross-border exposure to oil, gas and renewables Government and policy audiences engaging with India and the wider Global South International business forums analysing geopolitical risk in energy markets Audience outcomes How Global North decarbonisation timelines collide with Global South growth imperatives, and what that means for capital allocation Where political risk actually sits inside the energy transition, by region and asset class A working view of India’s energy strategy and its implications for global supply and capital flows Sharper questions to ask before approving long-horizon energy investment or partnership decisions

Why organisations work with Johan Rockstrom He is the originator, not the explainer, of the framework that now sits beneath the TNFD, Science Based Targets and a growing share of corporate climate disclosure. Organisations come to him for the source, not the summary. He connects nine specific Earth systems, from climate to freshwater to biogeochemical flows, to commercial decisions on capital, supply chain and product. Boards leave with a map of which limits actually constrain their business. He carries scientific authority that holds in regulator and investor rooms. The 2024 Tyler Prize, the 2009 Nature paper and the directorship of the Potsdam Institute mean his framing survives external scrutiny. He has spent two decades inside the policy process at Davos, the Club of Rome and UN climate negotiations. He speaks to executives in their language about decisions, trade-offs and time horizons, not in the language of an academic seminar. Biography highlights Director, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), since 2018 Professor of Earth System Science, University of Potsdam Lead author, “A safe operating space for humanity,” Nature, 2009 Co-founder and former Director, Stockholm Resilience Centre (2004 to 2018) 2024 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement; German Environmental Prize (2015); International Cosmos Prize (2015); Hillary Laureate (2017); Knight of the Legion of Honour (2016) Co-author, Earth for All: A Survival Guide for Humanity (2022), the report to the Club of Rome marking 50 years since Limits to Growth Biography In 2009, a paper in Nature titled “A safe operating space for humanity” set out nine biophysical systems that keep the planet in the conditions civilisation grew up in. Johan Rockstrom led the team of 28 international scientists behind it. The framework, planetary boundaries, has since become the scientific foundation for the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, the Science Based Targets Network and a widening set of corporate and regulatory climate frameworks. That work is now the working definition of environmental risk in serious institutions. Boards, central banks and investors increasingly need a defensible answer to the question of where the limits actually lie, and his framework supplies it. The 2024 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, often called the Nobel for the environment, recognised the framework as the field-defining contribution. He directs the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, one of the leading climate science institutions in Europe, and holds the chair in Earth System Science at the University of Potsdam. Before Potsdam, he co-founded and ran the Stockholm Resilience Centre for fourteen years. He is a co-author of Earth for All, the 2022 report to the Club of Rome that revisits Limits to Growth fifty years on with concrete economic and policy turnarounds. The room he tends to be most useful in is the one where strategy meets disclosure: where leadership has to decide which targets to commit to, which trade-offs to accept and how to justify both to investors and regulators. He is unusually direct about the scale of action required and equally direct about what is still possible inside that window. Key speaking topics Planetary boundaries and Earth system risk Climate tipping points and resilience The science behind ESG, TNFD and Science Based Targets Food, land and water systems within planetary limits Net zero and the energy transition Sustainable economic transformation and the Earth for All agenda Ideal for Boards and executive committees setting climate, nature and ESG strategy under tightening disclosure regimes CSOs, Chief Risk Officers and Chief Sustainability Officers building defensible science-based targets Investors, banks and asset managers integrating climate and nature risk into capital allocation Government, multilateral and policy audiences working on energy, food and land system transitions Audience outcomes A working understanding of the nine planetary boundaries and which ones materially affect their sector A clearer view of how regulatory frameworks (TNFD, SBTN, EU disclosure) trace back to the underlying science A direct read on where global climate and nature trajectories sit relative to scientific safe limits Sharper questions for their own strategy and risk teams about which limits the business actually operates inside A grounded sense of what credible action looks like at the scale and pace the science requires

Why organisations work with Luiz Barroso He has held three seats that almost no one else holds together: national energy planner (CEO of Brazil’s EPE), market designer and consultant across 30 countries, and partner in Latin America’s largest investment bank. That gives him a view of energy decisions from the policy desk, the operator’s desk and the capital allocator’s desk simultaneously. His work answers the question most energy speakers avoid: how does decarbonisation actually get financed and priced in markets that do not look like Western Europe? Investors and regulators in Latin America, Asia and Africa book him for that reason. He sits inside the IEA conversation on emerging-economy transition, having been a visiting researcher in Paris on exactly that question. That places him close to where international finance and national policy intersect. IEEE Fellow status, granted for contributions to electricity market design, signals a rare technical depth for an industry speaker. Most transition commentators cannot model what they recommend. Biography highlights CEO of PSR Energy Consulting and Analytics, the BTG Pactual-owned firm Former CEO of Empresa de Pesquisa Energetica (EPE), Brazil’s national energy planning agency Visiting researcher, International Energy Agency, Paris Associate researcher, Institute for Research in Technology, Comillas University, Madrid IEEE Fellow; IEEE PES Outstanding Young Engineer Award recipient Author of one book, three book chapters and more than 70 peer-reviewed papers on electricity and gas market design Biography The energy transition has stopped being a question of ambition and become a question of capital. Boards have set decarbonisation targets; the harder problem is financing them through power markets that work differently in every country an investor touches. Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and Indonesia do not have the same grid, the same regulation or the same risk pricing. Luiz Barroso has spent his career inside that problem. As CEO of PSR Energy Consulting and Analytics, a BTG Pactual-owned firm, he advises private investors, public lenders, governments and regulators in around 30 countries on market design, financing and risk in electricity and gas. Before that, he ran Empresa de Pesquisa Energetica, the Brazilian government body responsible for national energy planning, a role equivalent to deputy minister. His research credentials are unusual for someone operating in industry. He is an IEEE Fellow, recognised specifically for contributions to electricity market regulation and design, and an associate researcher at the Institute for Research in Technology at Comillas University in Madrid. In 2018 he spent a year at the International Energy Agency in Paris, working on the question of how energy transition unfolds in emerging economies. That combination matters because most senior leaders hearing about energy transition are hearing from policy commentators, academic modellers or industry executives. Barroso has held all three roles. His work helps capital allocators, board directors and regulators see where the transition narrative meets the actual structure of power and gas markets, and where the money has to go for it to function. Key speaking topics Energy transition in emerging economies Electricity and gas market design Investment and financing under decarbonisation Regulation and policy in liberalised power markets Risk management in energy infrastructure Power system economics Ideal for Board directors and investment committees with energy exposure outside Western Europe and North America Infrastructure investors, development banks and sovereign wealth funds allocating to the transition Energy regulators, system operators and policy bodies in emerging markets Senior leaders in utilities, oil and gas, and large industrial energy buyers Audience outcomes A clearer picture of how energy transition is actually financed and priced in emerging-economy power and gas markets A working understanding of why decarbonisation pathways diverge across jurisdictions, and what that means for cross-border capital Practical exposure to the trade-offs regulators face when designing markets that must attract investment and deliver reliability simultaneously A grounded view of which transition assumptions hold up when tested against grid reality and which do not

Why organisations work with Rick Kelsey A working broadcaster, not a hired host. Kelsey is currently on air at Times Radio and BBC Business, which means he interviews real cabinet ministers and CEOs in his day job and brings the same posture to a corporate stage. Twelve years inside BBC newsrooms, including World Service and Newsbeat, plus editorial leadership of the Newscast podcast through the pandemic where audience grew by over 30 percent. Genuine subject command in personal finance and energy. He has written hundreds of BBC articles on mortgages, pensions, interest rates and the green-energy transition, so he can host a finance or sustainability brief without notes. Audience-building credibility outside corporate stages. As a presenter on The Running Channel, a YouTube channel of over 700,000 subscribers, he understands how to keep a non-captive audience listening, which translates directly to internal events. A track record across awards formats that punish weak hosts: the LEAF Awards, RFIx Financial Awards and European Hospitality Awards. Biography highlights Presenter at Times Radio, BBC Business and Spotify, covering personal finance, politics and energy. Twelve years at the BBC across television, radio and online, including World Service and Newsbeat. Edited the BBC’s Newscast podcast through the COVID-19 pandemic, with audience growth of over 30 percent. Co-host of The Running Channel on YouTube, with more than 700,000 subscribers. Author of hundreds of BBC personal-finance articles on mortgages, savings, pensions and energy bills. Hosted the LEAF Awards, RFIx Financial Awards and Gala Dinner, and the European Hospitality Awards. Biography Most corporate stages fail in the same way. The host is too cautious to push, the panel runs to the brief, and the audience leaves with a cleaner version of what they already believed. The fix is rarely a more polished MC. It is someone who interviews for a living and treats the stage as a newsroom. Rick Kelsey is that profile. He presents at Times Radio, BBC Business and Spotify, and spent twelve years on BBC staff across World Service and Newsbeat before leaving in 2022. Through the pandemic he edited Newscast, the BBC’s flagship politics podcast, and is credited with audience growth of more than 30 percent during that period. His specialist territory is personal finance and energy. He has written hundreds of BBC articles on mortgages, savings, pensions, interest rates and the green transition, and has interviewed UK prime ministers across multiple cycles. That base means a financial-services or utilities brief does not need scripting; he can take the room into the substance and out again. Outside the BBC he co-hosts The Running Channel, a YouTube property of more than 700,000 subscribers. Combined with awards-night work for the LEAF Awards, the RFIx Financial Awards and the European Hospitality Awards, the result is a host who can carry a 90-minute live show, keep an executive panel honest, and read when the room needs the next question rather than a longer answer. Key speaking topics Event hosting and panel moderation Awards-night presenting Personal finance and cost of living Mortgages, savings and interest rates Energy transition and renewable energy UK politics and policy Broadcast journalism and media Ideal for Internal communications and brand teams running town halls, leadership offsites and customer events. Financial services and consumer-finance audiences where a host needs to speak the subject fluently. Energy, utilities and sustainability conferences requiring a moderator across solar, wind and hydrogen briefs. Industry awards nights where the host carries the room from open to close. Audience outcomes A live event that holds executive attention from open to close, with crisp transitions and on-time running. Panels that produce something the audience did not already know, because the moderator pushes past the prepared answer. A finance or energy session translated into language a mixed corporate audience can act on. A presenter the audience associates with the BBC and Times brands, lifting the perceived production value of the event.

Why organisations work with Graham Weale Nine years as Chief Economist of RWE AG, Germany’s largest power producer, through the sharpest phase of the Energiewende. Few speakers have read the transition from inside a utility of that scale. Active academic output on the questions boards are asking now, including a 2023 Energy Policy paper on whether energy-only markets can remunerate investment and a 2024 EnWZ piece on hydrogen supply contract design. Cross-border fluency in European energy policy through the CEEM chair at Universite Paris-Dauphine, the German-French Office for Energy Transition, and advisory work for the Energy Transitions Commission. Used as an expert witness in natural gas and power arbitration, which sharpens the precision he brings to contract structure, price review, and regulatory risk. Comfortable translating between the energy-intensive industry lens (through VIK) and the utility and investor lens. Useful when a room contains both sides of the decarbonisation cost argument. Biography highlights Honorary Professor of Energy Economics and Politics, Ruhr University Bochum (Centre for Environmental Management, Resources and Energy). Chief Economist, RWE AG, 2007 to 2016. Senior Advisor, Energy Transitions Commission, 2017 to 2018. Former Director of European Energy Services, Global Insight (now S&P Global), 2000 to 2007. Steering Committee member, Chaire European Electricity Markets, Universite Paris-Dauphine. Published in Energy Policy, Intereconomics, Oxford Energy Forum, EnWZ, and the Journal of Energy and Natural Resources Law. Biography European power markets were designed in a world of predictable demand and marginal-cost dispatch. That world has gone. The question now is how to remunerate the flexible capacity a decarbonised system needs, and whether the current market design can fund it without another round of state intervention. This is the terrain Graham Weale has worked in for four decades, first as a practitioner and now as an academic. The operator credentials are specific. Weale was Chief Economist at RWE AG, Germany’s largest power producer, from 2007 to 2016, the years in which the Energiewende reshaped the economics of thermal generation. Before that he ran European Energy Services at Global Insight, and earlier worked at ExxonMobil in supply and refining. His training spans physics at Oxford, an MSc in Systems Engineering, and an MBA. The academic record sits alongside the operator one. As Honorary Professor at Ruhr University Bochum, he has published on power market remuneration in Energy Policy, on hydrogen contract design in EnWZ, and on European power market reform in Intereconomics. He advised the Energy Transitions Commission under Adair Turner between 2017 and 2018, and sits on the Steering Committee of the CEEM chair at Universite Paris-Dauphine. That combination is useful in specific rooms. Boards deciding whether to sign a long-term hydrogen offtake, investors pricing capacity market risk, or policymakers weighing the next iteration of electricity market design get someone who has sat on both sides of the problem and still writes about it for a living. Key speaking topics Power market design and capacity remuneration Industrial decarbonisation and the economics of electrification Hydrogen contracts, supply chains, and the European hydrogen ramp-up German Energiewende and EU Green Deal implementation Natural gas markets and price review arbitration Energy geopolitics after the Ukraine invasion Nuclear, renewables, and the zero-carbon generation mix Ideal for Utility, grid, and generation boards setting capital allocation under decarbonisation targets. Infrastructure funds and institutional investors pricing European power and hydrogen assets. Energy-intensive industrial leaders (steel, chemicals, cement) planning decarbonisation roadmaps. Policymakers and regulators working on market design, capacity mechanisms, and hydrogen frameworks. Audience outcomes A clear view of where European power market design is heading and what that means for long-term generation investment. A realistic read on hydrogen: which use cases will scale, which contracts are bankable, and what the European ramp-up actually requires. Sharper framing of the political-economic risk attached to Energiewende-style transitions, drawn from inside a major utility. Specific vocabulary for talking to boards and investors about carbon pricing, capacity mechanisms, and industrial decarbonisation. A defensible basis for stress-testing internal energy transition plans against the economics, not only the targets.

Why organisations work with Christian Berg A Club of Rome author whose report mapped the structural barriers blocking sustainability across economy, politics, law, and technology, giving boards a diagnostic rather than a slogan. Direct experience translating sustainability strategy into corporate practice as Chief Sustainability Architect at SAP, not commentary from outside the firm. Advisory standing at federal government level through the Sustainable Economic Activity and Growth taskforce within Chancellor Merkel’s Future Dialogue. Live exposure to capital-allocation decisions as an investment committee member at GLS Bank, Germany’s first social and ecological bank. Academic authority across two German universities and a transdisciplinary base in physics, philosophy, theology, and engineering, which lets him connect technical and ethical questions in the same conversation. Biography highlights Author of Sustainable Action: Overcoming the Barriers (Routledge), published as a report to the Club of Rome. Former Chief Sustainability Architect at SAP, responsible for the sustainability consulting function. Honorary Professor of Sustainability and Global Change at Clausthal University of Technology. Visiting Professor for Corporate Sustainability at Saarland University. Co-founder and board member of Think Tank 30 within the German Chapter of the Club of Rome. Investment committee member at GLS Bank. Biography The 2030 Agenda set the targets. It offered little guidance on which structural barriers stop organisations from meeting them. Christian Berg’s Club of Rome report, Sustainable Action: Overcoming the Barriers, was written to answer that question across economy, politics, law, and technology in a single integrated frame. That frame is not theoretical. He spent more than a decade as Chief Sustainability Architect at SAP, leading the sustainability consulting function inside one of the largest enterprise software firms in the world. He has also led the Sustainable Economic Activity and Growth taskforce within Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Future Dialogue, putting him in the room where federal sustainability policy was negotiated. His academic base sits at Clausthal University of Technology and Saarland University, where he holds professorships in sustainability and corporate sustainability. The transdisciplinary training behind the work, in physics, philosophy, theology, and mechanical engineering, is what allows him to move between the technical, ethical, and economic registers a board conversation actually requires. The capital allocation question is live for him too. As an investment committee member at GLS Bank, Germany’s first social and ecological bank, Berg sits inside the decisions that test whether sustainability claims survive contact with credit and risk. Key speaking topics Corporate sustainability strategy Sustainable finance and capital allocation Barriers to sustainability transformation ESG operating substance Climate action and resilience Innovation under sustainability constraints Ideal for Boards and executive teams setting or reviewing ESG and net zero strategy Chief sustainability officers, CFOs, and treasury leads navigating capital allocation under transition Investor and banking audiences working at the intersection of finance and sustainability Innovation and strategy leaders translating sustainability commitments into product and operating decisions Audience outcomes A clearer map of the structural barriers blocking their sustainability commitments, from incentives to regulation Sharper criteria for which sustainability investments are likely to compound and which will stall A working vocabulary for connecting net zero ambition to capital allocation decisions Reference points from corporate practice at SAP, federal policy, and the GLS Bank investment committee

Why organisations work with Helen Czerski She is an active research physicist inside the climate system, not a commentator on it. Her UCL work on bubbles at the ocean surface sits at the heart of how the atmosphere and ocean exchange heat and carbon, which gives her climate framing a physical basis that reads differently to a board than general sustainability narrative. Blue Machine gives her a defensible thesis audiences can hold onto: the ocean as a single connected engine that drives weather, food, trade and energy. That framing turns abstract climate discussion into something leaders can map to their own exposure. The Institute of Physics awarded her the 2018 Kelvin Medal specifically for translating physics to a mass audience. Few speakers pair that level of academic recognition with a track record on primetime BBC science. She has reached general business and policy audiences as the Wall Street Journal’s “Everyday Physics” columnist and as co-host of BBC Radio 4’s Rare Earth, which means she is used to explaining physics to readers and listeners who did not choose the subject. She treats curiosity as a leadership input. Her Storm in a Teacup thesis, that the rules governing the universe are visible in ordinary objects, lands as a practical argument for how technical organisations should see, question and investigate. Biography highlights Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University College London, leading research on oceanic bubble physics, air-sea gas transfer and bubble acoustics. Natural Sciences (Physics) at Churchill College, Cambridge, followed by a PhD in experimental explosives physics; postdoctoral work at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography. Author of Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life and Blue Machine: How the Ocean Shapes Our World (Penguin / W.W. Norton). 2024 Wainwright Prize for Writing on Conservation for Blue Machine. 2018 William Thomson, Lord Kelvin Medal and Prize from the Institute of Physics for public communication of physics. BBC science presenter across Orbit, Operation Iceberg, Super Senses, Colour: The Spectrum of Science and Sound Waves; co-host of Rare Earth on BBC Radio 4; former “Everyday Physics” columnist at The Wall Street Journal. Biography The ocean is a physical engine that routes most of the planet’s heat, carbon and weather, and it is almost entirely absent from the way boards discuss climate. Helen Czerski’s work at University College London, where she leads research on breaking waves and bubbles at the ocean surface, sits precisely at the interface where that engine does its work. The research is technical. The implications are strategic. Blue Machine, her 2024 Wainwright Prize-winning book, is the public form of that argument. It treats the ocean as one connected system that moves nutrients, ships, storms and carbon, and explains why every industry with a coastline, a fleet or a climate commitment is already inside it. For leaders wrestling with transition plans, physical risk disclosures or supply chain exposure, Czerski offers a vocabulary that is physical rather than political. Her earlier book, Storm in a Teacup, established the method: start with something visible, coffee stains, popcorn, a magnet on a fridge, and work outward to the physics that governs how the world operates. That method earned her the 2018 Kelvin Medal from the Institute of Physics for public communication, and it carried through ten years of primetime BBC science including Orbit, Operation Iceberg and Super Senses, alongside her “Everyday Physics” column at The Wall Street Journal and co-hosting Rare Earth on BBC Radio 4. What she brings into a room is the rare combination of a working research scientist and a public explainer who has spent a decade translating physics for audiences that did not sign up to hear it. For an organisation trying to move from sustainability language to physical reality, that translation is the point. Key speaking topics Ocean physics and the climate system The ocean economy and physical risk Science of the energy transition Everyday physics for decision-makers Curiosity and scientific thinking in organisations Communicating technical complexity to non-technical audiences Ideal for Boards and executive teams setting climate, sustainability or transition strategy Energy, shipping, insurance and infrastructure leaders exposed to ocean and weather systems CTOs, heads of R&D and engineering leaders investing in technical capability Conferences where a serious science keynote needs to land with a mixed commercial audience Audience outcomes A working mental model of the ocean as a single physical system that connects weather, carbon, food and trade A sharper read on where climate and transition narratives rest on solid physics and where they do not Language for talking about physical risk and scientific uncertainty without defaulting to jargon or slogans A renewed case for curiosity as a disciplined practice inside technical and commercial teams

Why organisations work with Christiana Figueres She ran the Paris Agreement negotiation directly – not as a consultant or commentator, but as the UN official accountable for the outcome. The political dynamics, the pressure points, and the coalition mechanics she describes are firsthand. Her “Stubborn Optimism” framework, introduced in The Future We Choose (Penguin Random House, 2020), gives leadership teams a named, deployable posture for climate action – one that moves beyond paralysis without slipping into greenwashing. She holds board positions at ACCIONA and ACCIONA Energía, placing her at the intersection of executive decision-making and large-scale energy transition – not just policy theory. The Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation awarded her the Great Negotiator Award in 2022 – the same honour previously given to figures who shaped international law and treaty architecture. For leadership teams navigating multi-stakeholder climate commitments, that credential is directly relevant. Her network spans 195 national governments, financial institutions, and private sector actors – the precise ecosystem any organisation must understand when building a serious climate governance position. Biography highlights Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 2010-2016 Principal architect of the 2015 Paris Agreement – unanimous adoption by 195 sovereign nations 2022 Great Negotiator Award, Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School Co-author, The Future We Choose: The Stubborn Optimists’ Guide to the Climate Crisis (Penguin Random House, 2020) Honorary DBE (Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire), 2022; Legion of Honor of France, 2015 Fortune #7, World’s 50 Greatest Leaders, 2016; Time Top 100 Most Influential Leaders, 2016; Nature Journal Top 10, 2015 (ranked first) Chair, The Earthshot Prize Foundation, 2021-2026; Board member, ACCIONA and ACCIONA Energía Graduate of Swarthmore College and the London School of Economics; honorary doctorates from Yale, Georgetown, University of Edinburgh, and University of Massachusetts; named to BBC 100 Women list, 2023 Biography In December 2015, 195 nations unanimously adopted the Paris Agreement on climate change. The UN official responsible for making that outcome possible was Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC from 2010 to 2016 – appointed six months after the catastrophic collapse of the Copenhagen summit, when the prospect of a global accord looked remote. The process she built over those six years is now documented in a Harvard Law School case study. What distinguished it was a systematic approach to coalition-building: drawing together governments, financial institutions, faith communities, scientists, and private sector actors through a model of collaborative diplomacy that broke the political deadlock that had stalled climate negotiations for a decade. The Harvard Program on Negotiation recognised this with the Great Negotiator Award in 2022 – placing her alongside figures who have shaped international law and treaty architecture. Her published work extends the argument beyond diplomacy. The Future We Choose (Penguin Random House, 2020), co-authored with Tom Rivett-Carnac, introduces “Stubborn Optimism” as a named framework for climate leadership – a gritty, reality-grounded mindset that allows executives and institutions to act decisively without being paralysed by the scale of the problem. Her TED talk on the concept has reached a wide professional audience, and the three-part structure of the book – mindsets, choices, actions – has become a practical reference point for organisations setting net-zero strategy. Figueres co-founded Global Optimism, co-hosts the Outrage + Optimism podcast, and serves on the boards of ACCIONA and ACCIONA Energía. She holds honorary doctorates from Yale, Georgetown, the University of Edinburgh, and the University of Massachusetts, and was named an Honorary DBE in 2022. Key speaking topics Global climate governance and the Paris Agreement Corporate net-zero strategy and climate risk Collaborative diplomacy and multi-stakeholder negotiation ESG strategy and climate-related regulatory exposure Energy transition policy and renewable energy investment Stubborn Optimism as a leadership framework Climate science communication and public persuasion Ideal for Boards and C-suite executives setting or stress-testing net-zero commitments Chief Sustainability Officers and ESG leadership teams navigating disclosure requirements Government affairs and public policy functions tracking international climate regulation Financial institutions building climate-aligned investment frameworks Audience outcomes A working model of how global climate policy is made – and where corporate strategy intersects with it Direct insight into the negotiation architecture behind the Paris Agreement and its implications for current climate commitments A named, practical framework – Stubborn Optimism – for sustaining organisational climate action without paralysis or performance Clearer understanding of where international climate governance is heading and what that means for regulation, capital allocation, and competitive positioning Greater confidence in engaging regulators, investors, and international institutions on climate strategy

Why organisations work with Angela Barnes She is a sitting business editor, not a retired one. The Euronews remit means she walks into a room with the same week’s markets, policy and corporate stories already loaded. The Big Question is a CEO-interview franchise she writes and presents every week. Boards hiring her for a fireside or on-stage interview are hiring a format she runs as a day job. Her reporting reach spans Sky News, CNBC (including East Tech West), ITV, Yahoo Finance and The Telegraph, which gives her fluency across markets, technology and energy without a single-sector tell. She has moderated for the IMF and the Paris Finance Forum, so the step up to finance-ministry-level panels does not require coaching. The technology background from Sky Swipe and CNBC East Tech West means a tech-and-AI panel does not need a separate host. Biography highlights Managing Editor of Business, Euronews, Brussels Anchor and interviewer, The Big Question, Euronews Over a decade at Sky News as producer, reporter and presenter, including the Swipe technology show Contributor credits at CNBC (East Tech West), ITV, IG, Yahoo Finance and The Telegraph Moderator credits include the IMF and the Paris Finance Forum Described by Ireland’s Better Business magazine as “one of Europe’s most prominent news figures” Biography The Big Question goes out weekly on Euronews. Angela Barnes writes it, produces the conversation and puts the questions to a rolling cast of chief executives, ministers and investors. That is the core of her working life, and it is why she is in demand on stage. Barnes runs business, markets and economics for Euronews from Brussels, which puts her inside the policy bloodstream of the European Union and within a short flight of the financial centres her audience trades in. Before Euronews she spent more than a decade at Sky News as a producer, reporter and presenter, including on the Swipe technology programme, and has contributed to CNBC’s East Tech West, ITV, IG, Yahoo Finance and The Telegraph. As a moderator she has worked with the IMF and the Paris Finance Forum, which means the vocabulary of sovereign balance sheets, energy transition finance and central-bank communication is already familiar. Ireland’s Better Business magazine called her “one of Europe’s most prominent news figures.” The practical point for a board hiring a host: the person on stage has done the interview that morning, on camera, with someone senior, and will do another one next week. That keeps the questions current and the pace sharp. Key speaking topics Global markets and the macro picture Energy markets and the energy transition European economic and political risk Technology, AI and the platform economy Central bank policy and financial stability Corporate strategy and CEO accountability Business journalism and media strategy Ideal for Annual conferences and investor days needing a moderator who can interview a CEO and a finance minister in the same programme Financial services, energy and technology clients hosting C-suite and board-level forums Public-sector and multilateral convenings on economic policy, trade and transition finance Audience outcomes A panel or fireside that stays on point because the host has read the file and the morning’s news Senior guests stretched on the questions that matter, without hostility, so the audience learns something new A running thread between sessions that ties markets, policy and technology into one narrative for the day A tighter run of show, because a working editor manages time on air for a living

Why organisations work with Ana Palacio She has held executive authority inside three of the systems organisations most need to understand – the EU’s legislative and treaty-making bodies, the World Bank Group, and the energy infrastructure sector – not as an adviser, but as a principal. That changes the character of the analysis. Her standing argument is specific: energy security cannot be separated from geopolitical alignment. As a board director of Enagás (IBEX 35), where she chairs the Sustainability Committee, she is applying that argument under fiduciary conditions – not as commentary. Her monthly column in Project Syndicate and weekly column in El Mundo give her a verifiable track record of public positions on live geopolitical events. Audiences can test her analysis against what she has actually said, not just what she claims to believe. She participated directly in drafting the European Constitution as a member of the Presidium of the Convention for the Future of Europe. Her understanding of how EU institutions are built – and how they fail – is first-hand, not textbook. Her Georgetown course, “Global Powers Institutions and Governance,” signals a structured analytical framework behind her commentary on geopolitics – not anecdote, but architecture. Biography highlights First woman to serve as Spain’s Foreign Minister (2002-2004); at the time, the most senior governmental role held by a woman in the Spanish government Member of the Presidium of the Convention for the Future of Europe; Head of the Spanish Delegation to the EU’s Intergovernmental Conference – participated directly in drafting the European Constitution Senior VP and General Counsel, World Bank Group; Secretary-General, ICSID (2006-2008) Independent Leading Director, Enagás (IBEX 35), Chair of its Sustainability Committee; Director, Ecoener; board member, PharmaMar Visiting Professor, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University; course: “Global Powers Institutions and Governance” Monthly columnist, Project Syndicate; weekly columnist, El Mundo (Spain’s second-largest national daily) Sandra Day O’Connor Justice Prize (2016); Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, Georgetown University; Officier de la Légion d’Honneur, France (2016) Biography Most organisations encounter geopolitics through external briefings. Decisions, however, are made by people who have never been inside the institutions being analysed. Ana Palacio has been inside three of them – and not as a visitor. As a Member of the European Parliament, Palacio chaired the Legal Affairs and Internal Market Committee and the Conference of Committee Chairs, the Parliament’s most senior legislative coordination body. As Head of the Spanish Delegation to the EU’s Intergovernmental Conference and a member of the Presidium of the Convention for the Future of Europe, she participated directly in drafting the European Constitution. As Senior VP and General Counsel of the World Bank Group and Secretary-General of ICSID, she oversaw the legal and institutional architecture through which international investment disputes are resolved. These are not entries on a CV. They are the systems that shape the operating environment for global business. Her most specific intellectual contribution sits at the intersection of energy and geopolitics. Across a monthly column in Project Syndicate and a weekly column in El Mundo, Palacio has made a consistent and testable argument: that energy security is a geopolitical question, not a transition management one – and that the EU’s failure to build a genuine energy union represents a structural vulnerability, one that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine made impossible to ignore. She makes this argument as the Independent Leading Director of Enagás, Spain’s IBEX 35-listed gas infrastructure operator, where she chairs the Sustainability Committee. The position is not academic. At Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, she teaches “Global Powers Institutions and Governance.” For organisations trying to move from geopolitical awareness to strategic decision-making, that is precisely the capability gap her work addresses. Key speaking topics Geopolitics and the fracturing international order Energy security as strategic risk European Union policy and strategic sovereignty International institutions and global governance Transatlantic relations and regulatory divergence Political risk and long-horizon investment decisions ESG strategy through a geopolitical lens Ideal for Board directors and C-suite leaders making investment and capital allocation decisions in politically exposed markets Government affairs, regulatory strategy, and public policy functions in multinational organisations Energy, infrastructure, and financial services organisations navigating geopolitical and regulatory exposure Senior leadership forums focused on EU policy, transatlantic dynamics, or geopolitical risk Audience outcomes A working framework for distinguishing structural shifts in the international order from short-term political noise – applicable to investment and strategy decisions A clearer understanding of how international institutions (EU, World Bank, multilateral bodies) actually function – and how their decisions create or foreclose market and regulatory conditions A geopolitically grounded perspective on energy security: why supply chain, infrastructure, and transition decisions cannot be separated from strategic alignment Sharper context for evaluating transatlantic dynamics, including EU-US regulatory divergence, trade frameworks, and the political pressures reshaping multilateral cooperation A more rigorous basis for incorporating political risk into board-level decision-making – with the same analytical discipline applied to financial and operational risk

Why organisations work with Ricardo Hausmann He built the frameworks. Economic Complexity and Growth Diagnostics, now used by the IMF, the World Bank, and governments from South Africa to Sri Lanka, are his work. Audiences hear them from the person who originated them. Fifty country engagements deep. The Harvard Growth Lab has run more than 50 research initiatives across nearly 30 countries since 2006, under his direction. He brings what those projects revealed about why standard reform packages fail and where productive capability actually compounds. He has held the brief. Former Minister of Planning of Venezuela and the first Chief Economist of the Inter-American Development Bank, where he founded the Research Department. He speaks to ministers, central bank governors, and global CFOs as someone who has been on their side of the table. Powershoring is his framing. The argument that energy-intensive production will migrate to countries with abundant green electricity, and that this rewires comparative advantage, originated in his Growth Lab work. Boards working out where to put the next decarbonised plant get the underlying logic from him. The vocabulary traces back to him. Original Sin, Dark Matter, Self-Discovery, and Powershoring are his coinages, now standard in IMF and central bank discourse on sovereign risk and the energy transition. Biography highlights Founder and Director of Harvard’s Growth Lab; Rafik Hariri Professor of the Practice of International Political Economy at Harvard Kennedy School. Originator with César Hidalgo of the Economic Complexity methodology, published as The Atlas of Economic Complexity: Mapping Paths to Prosperity (MIT Press, 2014). Originator with Dani Rodrik and Andrés Velasco of the Growth Diagnostics framework, adopted by the World Bank as a long-running executive education course. First Chief Economist of the Inter-American Development Bank (1994-2000), where he founded the Research Department. Former Minister of Planning of Venezuela; former Chair of the IMF-World Bank Development Committee. Monthly columnist for Project Syndicate; research cited more than 60,000 times and covered by The New York Times, the Financial Times, The Economist, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. Biography Most standard development indicators fail to predict which economies will actually grow. They measure outputs and surface conditions, not the underlying productive capabilities that generate them. That gap is what Economic Complexity, the framework Ricardo Hausmann built with César Hidalgo at Harvard’s Growth Lab, set out to close. Hausmann founded the Growth Lab at Harvard Kennedy School in 2006. It has since run more than 50 country engagements across nearly 30 countries, identifying the binding constraints on growth and the industries that existing capabilities make possible. The Growth Diagnostics methodology, developed with Dani Rodrik and Andrés Velasco, is now taught at the World Bank and used by governments worldwide. Before Harvard he was on the other side of the brief. He served as Minister of Planning of Venezuela in the early 1990s, then became the first Chief Economist of the Inter-American Development Bank, where he founded the Research Department. He has seen which policy frameworks survive contact with fiscal and political reality, and which collapse on first contact. His more recent work has moved into the geography of decarbonisation. Powershoring, a concept developed in the Growth Lab, argues that energy-intensive production will migrate to countries with abundant green electricity, rewiring global supply chains in the process. He writes a monthly column for Project Syndicate; the Growth Lab’s recent client roster runs from Bolivia and the UAE to Wyoming and Western Australia. Key speaking topics Economic complexity and country diversification Growth diagnostics Powershoring and the energy transition Sovereign risk, original sin, and dark matter Industrial policy in a decarbonising economy Latin American political economy Global supply chain reconfiguration Ideal for Boards and CEOs setting country exposure and supply chain strategy. CFOs and treasurers managing sovereign and currency risk in emerging markets. Heads of corporate strategy planning industrial investment under the energy transition. Multilateral institutions, finance ministries, and central bank leadership. Audience outcomes A working diagnostic for why some economies grow and others stall, built on the Economic Complexity framework. A sharper read on where productive capability is compounding and where it is decaying, with implications for supply chain placement and country exposure. The case for powershoring and the structural logic that will move energy-intensive production toward countries with abundant green electricity. What 50+ Growth Lab country engagements have revealed about why standard reform packages fail. The vocabulary that finance ministries and central banks now use to discuss sovereign risk: original sin, dark matter, self-discovery.