Energy Transition

Why organisations work with Paul Johnson He led the Institute for Fiscal Studies through fourteen years of fiscal events, Budgets and Spending Reviews, and is the economist most often cited when journalists need the numbers explained. He has been inside the machinery: Director of Public Spending at HM Treasury and Chief Economist at the Department for Education, so he speaks to how decisions are actually made, not how they are reported. His book Follow the Money is the clearest public account of how Britain raises and spends roughly £1 trillion a year, and it gives a board a shared vocabulary for fiscal risk. Eleven years on the UK Climate Change Committee mean he can connect net zero policy to the capital allocation choices it forces on boards, not just the headline target. As Provost of The Queen’s College, Oxford, he now sits at the intersection of economic policy, higher education funding and long-term institutional strategy. Biography highlights Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, 2011 to 2025. Provost of The Queen’s College, Oxford, from August 2025. Author of Follow the Money: How Much Does Britain Cost? (2023), Sunday Times bestseller. Weekly columnist for The Times; presenter of Austerity Audit on BBC Radio 4. CBE, 2018, for services to social sciences and economics. Honorary doctorates from UCL, York, Sussex and Exeter; member of the UK Climate Change Committee for eleven years. Biography The state raises and spends roughly £1 trillion a year in the UK. Most boards treat that figure as background. It is not. Tax policy, departmental budgets and the demographics behind them shape the cost of capital, the cost of labour and the regulatory weather every business operates in. For fourteen years as Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Paul Johnson was the public translator of those numbers. The IFS Budget briefings he led became the reference point for journalists, civil servants and parliamentary committees on fiscal events. Follow the Money, his 2023 book, is the most readable account of UK public finances in print, and it became a Sunday Times bestseller. His credibility is built on direct experience inside the system. He was Director of Public Spending at HM Treasury, Chief Economist at the Department for Education, and Deputy Head of the Government Economic Service. He served eleven years on the UK Climate Change Committee, where the policy gap between net zero ambition and capital allocation is most visible. He sat on the councils of the ESRC and the Royal Economic Society. In August 2025 he became Provost of The Queen’s College, Oxford. He continues to write a weekly column for The Times and to advise organisations whose strategic decisions are shaped by UK and global fiscal policy. He was appointed CBE in 2018 for services to social sciences and economics. Key speaking topics UK public finances and fiscal policy Tax, welfare and pensions reform Macroeconomic outlook and capital allocation Income inequality and the distributional effects of policy Climate change economics and net zero financing Government spending priorities and trade-offs Ideal for Boards and executive committees of UK and internationally exposed companies CFOs, treasurers and heads of strategy planning under fiscal and tax uncertainty Investor and asset-management audiences focused on macro and policy risk Public-sector leadership and regulated-industry executives Audience outcomes A clear read of how the next Budget, Spending Review or fiscal event is likely to land A shared vocabulary for fiscal risk that connects Treasury decisions to operating choices A grounded view of how net zero policy will translate into capital and tax pressure A sharper sense of where UK macroeconomic constraints will most affect their sector Direct answers to the questions a CFO or chair actually wants to ask an economist

Why organisations work with Trevor Williams He spent over a decade as Chief Economist at Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking advising corporates, financial institutions, and SMEs, so he reads central-bank data the way a treasurer or CFO needs it read. As rotating Chair of the Institute of Economic Affairs Shadow Monetary Policy Committee, he sits inside the small group of UK economists publicly second-guessing the Bank of England, which gives boards a forecast view that is independent of sell-side consensus. He co-authored Trading Economics (Wiley, 2014), the practitioner reference on how to interpret economic statistics, so he can teach a leadership team to read the indicators rather than only react to headlines. As co-founder of FXGuard, he has built and run an FX risk product for SMEs, which means his commentary on currency and rates is grounded in operating exposure, not abstract modelling. Biography highlights Former Chief Economist, Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking, leading the bank’s economics team for more than ten years. Rotating Chair, Institute of Economic Affairs Shadow Monetary Policy Committee. Co-author, Trading Economics: A Guide to Economic Statistics for Practitioners and Students, Wiley Finance Series. Visiting Professor, University of Derby; lecturer at Bayes Business School and Cardiff University. Co-founder, FXGuard, an FX risk management platform for SMEs. Former member of the UK Government Economic Service; editorial board member, Journal of Corporate Treasury Management; regular columnist, Moneyfacts. Biography The Bank of England’s rate decisions, the Treasury’s fiscal stance, and sterling’s path are no longer background music for boardrooms. They are direct inputs into pricing, hedging, hiring, and the cost of capital. Trevor Williams spent over a decade as Chief Economist at Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking translating exactly that data for corporate clients and financial institutions. That position made him one of the City economists most often quoted on UK growth, inflation, and monetary policy. He now chairs, on rotation, the Institute of Economic Affairs Shadow Monetary Policy Committee, the long-standing independent group that publishes a monthly counter-vote to the Bank of England’s MPC. His co-authored book Trading Economics, in the Wiley Finance Series, is built for practitioners: how to read GDP releases, inflation prints, surveys, and labour market data without being misled by them. The same instinct shapes his work as co-founder of FXGuard, an FX risk tool for SMEs, and his teaching at the University of Derby, Bayes Business School, and Cardiff University. For a board, the value is specific. Williams will not deliver a generic macro tour. He will tell a leadership team where he disagrees with current consensus on rates and inflation, why, and what that means for the next twelve to twenty-four months of capital and currency decisions. Key speaking topics UK and global macroeconomic outlook Monetary policy and central bank decision-making Inflation, interest rates, and capital allocation Foreign exchange and currency risk Economic statistics and how to read them Brexit, trade, and post-shock recovery ESG, climate, and the economics of the energy transition Ideal for Boards, CFOs, and corporate treasurers planning capital and FX strategy under rate and currency uncertainty. Banking, asset management, and insurance leadership teams pressure-testing house views on inflation and growth. Trade associations and industry forums commissioning a credible UK macro voice for annual outlook events. Finance and risk functions inside corporates exposed to FX, commodity, or sovereign-rate cycles. Audience outcomes A clear view of where current Bank of England and consensus forecasts may be wrong, and why. A working grasp of how to read inflation, GDP, and labour market releases for decision-relevant signals. Specific implications for pricing, hedging, and capital allocation under the rate and currency cycle ahead. A sharper sense of how monetary and fiscal policy interact with trade, energy, and political risk.

Why organisations work with Javier Verdura He has shipped category-defining hardware, not slide decks. The Supercharger form, the Powerwall housing and the Solar Roof tile are his team’s work, manufactured globally. He is named inventor on more than 130 patents across surgical equipment, consumer products, packaging and energy hardware. The range is the point: the discipline travels across sectors. He operates inside one of the most demanding product environments in the world, reporting into a company that asks its teams to “fail fast” and still hit volume. Leaders hear how that actually runs day to day. He can speak to the handoff between design, engineering and manufacturing, which is where most product organisations lose time and money. His philosophy is explicit: if you can’t manufacture what you create, it is not worth designing. He brings a credible Latin American voice into rooms that rarely hear one at this level of product leadership, which matters for organisations building global teams. Biography highlights Global Director of Product Design at Tesla since 2012. Product design lead on the Tesla Supercharger network, Powerwall home battery and Solar Roof. Named inventor on more than 130 patents. Graduate of ArtCenter College of Design, Pasadena (BS Product Design, 1991). Former VP of Industrial Design and Development at Product Ventures (Connecticut), where he spent roughly 15 years before Tesla. Has taught industrial design at Georgia Tech School of Design and Architecture and at Universidad de Monterrey (UDEM). Biography The Supercharger stall, the Powerwall on the garage wall, the Solar Roof tile that reads as a roof before it reads as a panel. All three had to look inevitable and be manufacturable at volume. Javier Verdura leads the team inside Tesla that does that work, and has since 2012. His route in was unusual. Tesla’s chief designer, Franz von Holzhausen, an ArtCenter classmate, called in 2012 and asked him to run product design. By then, Verdura had already spent a full career in industrial design consultancy: senior designer at Group 4 Design in Connecticut, design manager at Inno Design in Atlanta, then fifteen years as VP of design and development at Product Ventures, shipping surgical instruments, consumer goods and packaging for clients including Ingersoll-Rand, Kodak and Panasonic. The through-line is manufacturability. Verdura states his philosophy plainly: if you can’t make what you design, it isn’t worth designing. That discipline is what Tesla bought when it hired him, and it is the lens he brings to audiences wrestling with why their own product pipelines stall between concept and line. He holds more than 130 patents, a BS in Product Design from ArtCenter (1991), and teaching posts at Georgia Tech and Universidad de Monterrey. He is one of the most senior Mexican-born product leaders in the global technology sector, a fact that gives his accounts of working inside Tesla an additional resonance for organisations thinking about where their next generation of design and engineering talent comes from. Key speaking topics Product design leadership at scale Design-to-manufacture discipline Innovation inside Tesla: Supercharger, Powerwall, Solar Roof Electric vehicles and the energy transition Patent-driven product development Building global design and engineering teams Latin American talent in global technology Ideal for CEOs, CPOs and heads of R&D running product organisations where design, engineering and manufacturing have to meet on the same timeline. Boards and leadership teams in automotive, energy, consumer hardware and industrials benchmarking their innovation pipeline against Tesla’s. Design and engineering leadership summits that want an operator, not a theorist. Corporate events building Latino and Hispanic executive networks at a senior technical level. Audience outcomes A clear, first-hand account of how Tesla turns a pencil sketch into manufactured hardware at a global scale. The operating logic behind “fail fast” when the failures cost real capital, not slideware. A practical view of where most product organisations break between design, engineering and manufacturing, and where Tesla’s handoff is structured differently. Specific examples from the Supercharger, Powerwall and Solar Roof programmes, not generic innovation theory. A sharper sense of what a modern product leadership function has to look like to ship category-defining hardware.

Why organisations work with Garry Golden He is a credentialled futurist, M.S. in Futures Studies from the University of Houston and former board member of the Association of Professional Futurists, not a trend commentator. The discipline behind the talk is the product. He has applied foresight inside Microsoft, Accenture, American Express, Disney, CVS Aetna, Fidelity, and Boston Scientific, which means executives hear method tested against their own scale of complexity. His work concentrates on the two infrastructure shifts most likely to reset competitive position this decade, energy and transportation, paired with the demographic and AI dynamics that pull on them. He teaches the future of energy and environment at the University of Houston, so his framing of the energy transition carries technical detail rather than generic sustainability framing. Clients use him to install foresight as an internal capability, not as a one-off keynote: he leaves teams with a process for thinking about long-range change after he leaves the room. Biography highlights M.S. in Futures Studies, University of Houston Foresight programme. Adjunct Lecturer on the Future of Energy and Environment, University of Houston. Past Board of Directors, Association of Professional Futurists. Foresight and strategy work delivered for Microsoft (Bing/Cortana), Accenture, American Express, Disney, CVS Aetna, Fidelity, Dell, Boston Scientific, Verizon Wireless. Civic and cultural foresight engagements with AARP, the Kennedy Center, Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Walker Arts Center, and the American Alliance of Museums. Recurring focus on energy system decarbonisation, fuel cells, AI-driven software disruption, and global demographic transitions. Biography Most strategy decks treat the next decade as a longer version of the last one. The discipline of futures studies exists because that assumption has stopped holding, particularly in industries where AI, energy systems, and demographic structure are all shifting at the same time. Golden was trained inside that discipline. He holds an M.S. in Futures Studies from the University of Houston, one of the few graduate programmes in the field, and served on the Board of Directors of the Association of Professional Futurists. He now teaches the Future of Energy and Environment at Houston as an Adjunct Lecturer, which keeps his work close to the technical detail of the energy transition rather than the marketing version of it. The client list reflects the breadth of where structured foresight earns its place. Microsoft has used him inside the Bing and Cortana groups; Accenture, American Express, CVS Aetna, Disney, Fidelity, Dell, and Boston Scientific have brought him in to stretch leadership horizons on AI, infrastructure, financial services, and talent. He works the civic side as well, with AARP, the Kennedy Center, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the American Alliance of Museums commissioning work on demographic and cultural shifts. The pattern across those engagements is consistent. Leaders arrive with a planning process built for incremental change and leave with a method, drivers, signals, scenarios, decisions, that lets them treat exponential change as something to plan around rather than react to. Key speaking topics Strategic foresight and long-range scenario planning The future of energy systems and decarbonisation AI and software-driven industry transitions The future of transportation and mobility infrastructure Demographic change and its strategic implications Future of work, learning, and talent development The future of civic and cultural institutions Ideal for CEO and executive teams running long-range strategy reviews in energy, financial services, healthcare, and technology. Chief Strategy Officers and corporate development leads building scenario capability inside the planning function. Boards and investment committees pressure-testing capital allocation against ten and twenty year horizons. Innovation, R&D, and learning leaders responsible for connecting talent and capability plans to coming infrastructure shifts. Audience outcomes A working vocabulary for distinguishing trend, driver, and signal, and using each appropriately in strategic conversation. A clearer view of which shifts in AI, energy, and demographics are likely to reshape their specific industry within the planning horizon. A repeatable scenario method the team can run again without external facilitation. Sharper questions for the next strategy cycle, in particular where current assumptions are most likely to fail.

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 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 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