Energy Transition

Why organisations work with Mike Kaplin Built sustainability under genuine resource constraints. The Center for Creative Ecology at Kibbutz Lotan has spent nearly three decades producing food, energy, and shelter from waste streams and brackish water in the Arava desert. Pioneering work on natural building in Israel led to the legalisation of natural building regulations there, a rare case of grassroots ecological practice changing the regulatory environment. A working demonstration site to point to: around 700 Israeli and international participants have come through the Green Apprenticeship programme since 2000, and the regenerative system can be examined in operation rather than only on paper. Integrated regenerative practice runs as one connected operation, where organic agriculture, alternative energy, natural construction, and waste management feed into each other. Biography highlights Co-founder and Director of the Center for Creative Ecology (CfCE) at Kibbutz Lotan, established in 1997. One of Israel’s first permaculturists; pioneered the country’s first recycling area. Led the natural building work that contributed to the legalisation of natural building regulations in Israel. Initiator and coordinator of the Green Apprenticeship work/study programme. Around 700 Israeli and international participants have completed it since 2000. The Center for Creative Ecology received the Israel Ministry of the Environment’s Shield award in 2000 for environmental education. Kibbutz Lotan received the Global Ecovillage Network’s Ecovillage Excellence prize in 2006. Biography Kibbutz Lotan sits in the southern Arava desert, where the founding settlers had little more than sand and brackish water to work with. The Center for Creative Ecology grew out of that constraint. Established in 1997, the CfCE has become a working centre for training, research, and demonstration in sustainability under arid conditions. Mike Kaplin co-founded it and now directs it. The work spans organic food production from composted municipal and agricultural waste, energy-efficient construction using straw bale and natural materials, water systems built around brackish irrigation, and community waste management. Every part has been built, run, refined, and documented on site. Some of the work has reshaped what Israel allows. Mike’s pioneering of natural building methods contributed to the legalisation of natural building regulations in Israel, and the recycling area he developed at Lotan was the country’s first. The CfCE received the Israel Ministry of the Environment’s Shield award in 2000 for environmental education; Kibbutz Lotan received the Global Ecovillage Network’s Ecovillage Excellence prize in 2006. Around 700 participants from Israel and overseas have come through the Green Apprenticeship programme since 2000, learning permaculture design, natural building, and community-scale sustainability on the kibbutz itself. For organisations rethinking their use of resources, Lotan offers something unusual: a board can examine operations that have run for decades, in conditions harsher than any corporate setting, and ask what transfers. Key speaking topics Permaculture design Sustainable agriculture in arid environments Natural and ecological building Community-scale waste management Organic food production from composted waste Renewable energy in desert conditions Regenerative community design Ideal for Sustainability and ESG leaders are looking for working examples of regenerative practice rather than aspirational frameworks. Boards examining what climate transition demands are at the operational level, including under genuine resource constraints. Real estate, construction, and built-environment teams interested in natural building methods and the regulatory work that legalised them in Israel. Education and learning leaders responsible for designing experiential sustainability programmes. Audience outcomes Direct examples of regenerative practice from a desert site that has run since 1997. The story behind one of Israel’s clearest cases of grassroots practice changing national regulation, via natural building. A working reference point for integrated sustainability across food, water, energy, and waste, designed as a single system. What serious sustainability looks like when supply chains and conventional inputs cannot be assumed, drawn directly from the operations Lotan has run for decades.

Why organisations work with Konstantin von Eggert Three decades of first-hand reporting from inside Russia, including running the BBC Russian Service Moscow bureau as Editor-in-Chief from 1998 to 2009. A rare dual perspective: editor of a major Western newsroom in Moscow and former Vice-President for Public and Government Affairs at ExxonMobil Russia, so he understands both how the Kremlin signals and how Western corporates absorb those signals. Honorary MBE from Queen Elizabeth II and Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of Lithuania, both awarded in 2008, mark a credibility recognised on both sides of the Russia-West divide. Bilingual moderator and host (Russian and English) with on-air experience at BBC, Kommersant FM, and TV Rain, so he can chair sensitive conversations as well as deliver the keynote. Writes weekly for Deutsche Welle from Vilnius, which means his commentary stays current with Russian domestic politics, Baltic security, and the post-2022 risk landscape. Biography highlights Editor-in-Chief, BBC Russian Service Moscow bureau, 1998 to 2009. Vice-President for Public and Government Affairs, ExxonMobil Russia Inc., 2009 to 2010. Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Kommersant FM, Russia’s first 24-hour news station, 2010 to 2015. Program host and political commentator, TV Rain, 2016 to 2018. Columnist and program host, Deutsche Welle, based in Vilnius since 2016. Honorary MBE (2008) and Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of Lithuania (2008); Member of Chatham House. Biography Russia is one of the few country files where the gap between official narrative and operating reality is large enough to wreck a strategy. Reading it well requires sources, language, and a feel for how the Kremlin actually communicates. Konstantin von Eggert has spent more than thirty years inside that gap. He ran the BBC Russian Service Moscow bureau as Editor-in-Chief from 1998 to 2009, after starting as a reporter at the Moscow daily Kuranty in 1990 and serving as Diplomatic Correspondent and Deputy Foreign Editor at Izvestia. In 2008 Queen Elizabeth II appointed him an Honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire for his work at the BBC. The same year he received the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of Lithuania. What makes his perspective unusual is the year he spent on the other side of the table. From 2009 to 2010 he was Vice-President for Public and Government Affairs at ExxonMobil Russia Inc., responsible for relations with the Russian government and political and economic analysis for one of the world’s largest investors in the country. He then returned to Russian media as Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Kommersant FM, and later as a program host at the independent channel TV Rain. Since 2016 he has been based in Vilnius, writing a weekly column on Russian affairs and the Baltic States for Deutsche Welle and consulting on communications, reputation, and political risk for investors in Russia and the post-Soviet space. He is a Member of Chatham House and has served on the editorial boards of Pro et Contra at the Carnegie Moscow Centre and the Security Index quarterly. He holds an honours MA in history and Arabic from the Moscow University Institute of Asian and African Studies and speaks English, French, and Arabic. Key speaking topics Russia under Putin: domestic politics and foreign policy Geopolitics of the post-Soviet space Baltic security and the European frontline Sanctions, energy, and Western corporate exposure to Russia Information, propaganda, and independent media inside Russia Political risk for investors in Russia and the CIS Ideal for Boards and executive teams of multinationals with residual Russia, CIS, or Baltic exposure Energy, commodities, and infrastructure leadership teams reassessing political risk Defence, foreign affairs, and security policy audiences Conferences and private gatherings that need a bilingual (Russian and English) chair or moderator on Russia or geopolitical themes Audience outcomes A clearer read of how decisions are actually taken in the Kremlin and how its signals are designed to be received. A sharper view of the post-2022 risk picture for Russia, Ukraine, and the Baltic States. An informed sense of where Western corporates have historically misread Russia, drawn from inside ExxonMobil’s government affairs operation. Concrete reference points on Russian media, propaganda, and the space that remains for independent reporting.

Why organisations work with Jonathon Porritt Three decades inside the rooms where government, business, and civil society negotiate climate policy, including nine years chairing the UK Sustainable Development Commission for three prime ministers. Co-founder of Forum for the Future, the consultancy that has worked with Marks & Spencer, Unilever, and other FTSE boards on serious sustainability strategy rather than reporting compliance. Author of Capitalism as if the World Matters, a book that argues capitalism is the only viable vehicle for sustainability and sets out what reshaping it actually demands; cited as a foundational text in corporate sustainability curricula. Independence from any single corporate paymaster; willingness to tell senior teams what their own sustainability advisors will not. A long view that connects climate, biodiversity, inequality, and population; useful for boards trying to understand how environmental risks compound across a strategic horizon. Biography highlights Co-founder and Founder Director of Forum for the Future (1996-2023), one of the world’s leading sustainability charities, with offices in the UK, US, India, and Southeast Asia. Chair of the UK Sustainable Development Commission, 2000-2009, advising the Blair and Brown governments on environmental policy. Director of Friends of the Earth (UK), 1984-1990; former Co-Chair of the UK Green Party. Co-founder of The Prince of Wales’s Business and Sustainability Programme, delivered through the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. Author of Hope in Hell (Simon & Schuster, 2020), The World We Made (Phaidon, 2013), and Capitalism as if the World Matters (Earthscan, 2005). CBE for services to environmental protection (2000); Chancellor of Keele University, 2012-2022. Biography The corporate climate agenda has run into its first credibility test. A decade of net-zero pledges, ESG reporting, and sustainability committees has not closed the gap between what boards say and what their capital plans deliver. Porritt has spent his working life inside that gap. He co-founded Forum for the Future in 1996 with Sara Parkin and Paul Ekins, and ran it as Founder Director for nearly thirty years. Forum has worked with Marks & Spencer, Unilever, and other FTSE-100 boards on the harder questions of business model change, not the softer ones of disclosure. Before that, he ran Friends of the Earth (UK) through the late 1980s and co-chaired the Green Party. For nine years he chaired the UK Sustainable Development Commission, advising Tony Blair and Gordon Brown directly. He also co-founded the Prince of Wales’s Business and Sustainability Programme, now part of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, where senior executives go to interrogate their own sustainability strategies. Few people have spent as much time on both sides of that table. His books map the argument. Capitalism as if the World Matters made the case that capitalism is the only viable engine for a sustainable future, and set out the reforms that case requires. The World We Made imagined 2050 as if those reforms had landed. Hope in Hell, written into the climate emergency, is sharper and more impatient. Read together, they explain why he is taken seriously by chief executives and climate activists alike, even when he is telling each of them something they would rather not hear. Key speaking topics Sustainability strategy and ESG governance Climate risk and the energy transition Reforming capitalism for environmental limits Net-zero credibility and corporate accountability Long-term scenario planning and systems change Biodiversity, nature, and business Intergenerational responsibility and the next decade Ideal for Board directors and CEOs reviewing the credibility of their net-zero and ESG commitments Chief Sustainability Officers and ESG leads building serious, board-ready strategy Investor relations and capital allocation teams under increasing scrutiny on transition planning Strategy and risk leaders trying to integrate climate and biodiversity into long-range planning Audience outcomes A clearer reading of where their own organisation’s climate strategy is exposed to investor, regulator, and employee scrutiny A working understanding of what credible, board-level sustainability looks like beyond reporting compliance A sharper sense of how climate, biodiversity, inequality, and capital allocation compound as connected risks Direct, unflattering challenge from someone with no commercial interest in their answer

Why organisations work with John Sitilides He has trained the U.S. diplomats who execute American policy in southern Europe, chairing the State Department Foreign Service Institute’s Advanced Area Studies Program since 2006. That insider vantage point is rare on a corporate stage. He has consulted to the State Department under four U.S. presidential administrations across both parties, which gives boards a reading of Washington that is not tied to one political cycle. His Foreign Policy Research Institute work, including bylined analyses on NATO and the alliance’s posture toward Russia, gives investment committees a defensible framework for European and transatlantic exposure. He translates trade, energy, technology, and security flashpoints into specific commercial implications for capital allocation, supply chains, and regulatory strategy, rather than offering broad commentary. He is a working operator inside Washington as Principal of Trilogy Advisors, so his read on regulatory and political risk is sourced from current client work, not retrospective analysis. Biography highlights Principal, Trilogy Advisors LLC, Washington D.C., advising on U.S. government affairs, regulatory reform, and geopolitical risk. Senior Fellow, National Security Program, Foreign Policy Research Institute. Chair of the U.S. State Department Foreign Service Institute’s Advanced Area Studies Program for Southeast Europe under government contract since 2006. Founder of the Western Policy Center; negotiated its 2004 merger into the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, then chaired the Wilson Center Southeast Europe Project advisory board through 2011. Regular geopolitical commentator on Bloomberg, CNN, CNN International, FOX News, Newsmax, and NewsNation, with commentary cited in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Politico, NPR, and South China Morning Post. Master’s degree, International and Public Affairs, Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs. Biography The U.S. trained the diplomats running its Southern Europe portfolio inside the Foreign Service Institute. The chair of that Advanced Area Studies Program since 2006, under State Department contract, is John Sitilides. That role sits behind almost everything else he does on a public stage. His day job is Principal at Trilogy Advisors LLC in Washington, where he advises on U.S. government affairs, regulatory strategy, and geopolitical risk. He is also a Senior Fellow in the National Security Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, where his recent bylined work has tracked NATO’s posture and the alliance agenda heading into successive summits. Earlier, he founded the Western Policy Center, a Washington research organisation tracking U.S., NATO, and EU interests in southeastern Europe. He negotiated its 2004 merger into the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and chaired the Wilson Center Southeast Europe Project advisory board through 2011. He has testified before Congress, contributed chapters to volumes published by the NATO Science for Peace and Security Committee and the Italian think tank ISPI, and is cited regularly across the major U.S. broadcast networks and the international financial press. For a corporate audience, the value is the synthesis. He sits inside the Washington policy machine, trains the people who run U.S. diplomacy in a critical region, and writes for serious foreign policy outlets. When he speaks to a board, the analysis is sourced from that day’s working environment. Key speaking topics U.S. foreign policy and great power competition Geopolitical and geo-economic risk for global business Trade, technology, and energy security NATO, Europe, and transatlantic relations Washington political risk and U.S. government affairs The Indo-Pacific and U.S.-China strategic competition Ideal for Corporate boards and CEO advisory sessions setting global strategy under geopolitical uncertainty Investment committees, asset managers, and CIO offices pricing political and policy risk Policy, government affairs, and risk leaders briefing executive teams on Washington decisions Industry conferences in financial services, energy, defence, and technology that need a credentialled Washington voice Audience outcomes A working framework for reading U.S. foreign policy signals and translating them into commercial decisions A current view of great power competition between the United States, China, and Russia and what it means for trade, technology, and energy positioning A clearer read on Washington’s regulatory and policy direction across administrations, not tied to one political cycle Specific implications for capital allocation, market entry, and supply chain exposure in Europe, the Indo-Pacific, and the Middle East Confidence that the analysis is sourced from active policy and diplomatic practice, not commentary at a distance

Why organisations work with Jeremy Rifkin He is the architect of an economic framework that the European Parliament adopted by formal declaration in 2007 and that has been translated into multi-hundred-page regional deployment roadmaps in Hauts-de-France, Rotterdam-The Hague, and Luxembourg. He has advised four European Commission presidents in sequence (Prodi, Barroso, Juncker, von der Leyen) and held that advisory line through three political cycles, which is rare for any external economic thinker. His thesis connects energy, communication, and mobility infrastructure into a single capital story, so boards leave with a way to sequence decarbonisation, digital, and supply chain decisions instead of treating them as separate budget lines. His twenty-plus books, including The End of Work, The Third Industrial Revolution, The Zero Marginal Cost Society, The Green New Deal, The Age of Resilience, and Planet Aqua, give him a body of work that named institutional buyers already know, which shortens the credibility conversation inside large organisations. He taught CEOs and senior leadership at Wharton Executive Education from 1995 to 2016, so the register is built for senior corporate audiences, not policy seminars. Biography highlights Principal architect of the Third Industrial Revolution economic plan, formally endorsed by the European Parliament in May 2007. Advisor to the European Commission under presidents Romano Prodi, Jose Manuel Barroso, Jean-Claude Juncker, and Ursula von der Leyen. President of TIR Consulting Group LLC, which has produced full Third Industrial Revolution roadmaps for the Hauts-de-France region, the Metropolitan Region of Rotterdam and The Hague, and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Author of 20+ books translated into more than thirty languages, including The Third Industrial Revolution, The Zero Marginal Cost Society, The Green New Deal, The Age of Resilience, and Planet Aqua. Senior lecturer, Wharton School Executive Education Program, University of Pennsylvania, 1995 to 2016. Recipient of the 13th German Sustainability Award (2020) and honorary doctorates from Hasselt University and the University of Liege (2015). Biography The European Parliament formally endorsed the Third Industrial Revolution as a long-term economic road map in May 2007. Jeremy Rifkin wrote it. Since then, the framework has been the reference document behind successive Commission decisions on energy, digital, and mobility infrastructure, and behind regional deployment plans in Hauts-de-France, Rotterdam and The Hague, and Luxembourg. The argument is that every major economic shift in history is a convergence of three infrastructures: communication, energy, and transport. When those three move together, the productive base of the economy is rebuilt. Rifkin’s contribution is to specify what that convergence looks like now, with a digital communication internet, a renewable energy internet, and an automated mobility internet, and to put numbers, sequencing, and policy choices around it. That is the work he has carried into advisory rooms across four European Commission presidencies, from Prodi to von der Leyen, and into engagements with the Chinese leadership during the run-up to the 13th Five-Year Plan. His TIR Consulting Group brings utilities, ICT firms, and engineering and construction companies into the same room as regional governments to design the roadmaps in detail. The body of work behind the advisory practice is unusually large. Twenty-plus books, translated into more than thirty languages, running from The End of Work through The Third Industrial Revolution, The Zero Marginal Cost Society, The Green New Deal, The Age of Resilience, and Planet Aqua (2024), selected by Nature among its five best science picks of the year. The German Sustainability Award followed in 2020. Few speakers in the energy and economy field can point to a framework that a parliament has formally adopted and that is being built, region by region, on the ground. Key speaking topics The Third Industrial Revolution Energy transition and the renewable energy internet The economics of decarbonisation Smart infrastructure and the Internet of Things economy The future of work in a zero marginal cost economy Climate resilience and the age of rewilding Water, food, and the planetary economy Geopolitics of the green transition Ideal for Boards and executive committees building multi-decade capital plans for the energy transition. CEOs, CSOs, and heads of strategy in energy, utilities, infrastructure, mobility, real estate, and heavy industry. Policy and public affairs leaders working across the EU, national governments, and city regions. Investor audiences allocating to climate, infrastructure, and transition capital. Audience outcomes A common framework for connecting energy, digital, and mobility investment decisions into one capital story. A clearer view of how EU and major regional climate policy is likely to evolve, and what that means for sector-by-sector capital allocation. Specific reference points from the Hauts-de-France, Rotterdam-The Hague, and Luxembourg roadmaps that can be applied to a company’s own transition plan. A sharper sense of where the platform, ownership, and competitive economics of energy and mobility are heading as marginal costs fall. Language and argument that translate well to a board, to investors, and to regulators.

Why organisations work with Javier Solana Very few people alive have run both NATO and the EU’s foreign policy machinery. His read on transatlantic, Russian and Chinese intent is grounded in a decade of handling the actual files, not in commentary. He was the signing hand on the 2003 European Security Strategy, the document that still frames how European governments think about security, neighbourhood and partnership. Leadership teams exposed to European regulation get the logic from the source. His current work at EsadeGeo and Brookings is forward looking, not memoir. Briefings engage with AI governance, supply chain fragmentation, climate diplomacy and the fragility of the rules based order. He is a working columnist at Project Syndicate, publishing into 2026 on US-China competition, European strategic autonomy and the future of multilateralism. Boards get a current thesis, not career recollections. He operates comfortably as a counterpart to a CEO, chair or sovereign, and speaks to leadership teams on that level. The register is peer to peer, not lecture. Biography highlights Secretary General of NATO, 1995 to 1999, including the alliance’s first post-Cold War enlargement and the 1999 Kosovo campaign. European Union High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy and Secretary General of the Council of the EU, 1999 to 2009. Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, 1992 to 1995, and earlier holder of the Culture and Education and Science portfolios under Felipe Gonzalez. President, EsadeGeo – Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics, Barcelona and Madrid. Distinguished Fellow in Foreign Policy, Brookings Institution, and Senior Fellow at the Hertie School, Berlin. Charlemagne Prize 2007 and Carlos V European Award 2011 for services to European integration. Biography The European Security Strategy was signed in Brussels in December 2003. It was the first time the Union had put its name to a single, coherent description of what it was for in the world, what it was willing to defend, and how it intended to act with partners. Solana drafted it. Much of the architecture that European governments, and the companies that operate across them, still live inside was laid down in that document. Before Brussels, there was Kosovo. As Secretary General of NATO from 1995 to 1999, he held together a nineteen-member alliance through the most contested military operation in its history, while also overseeing its first enlargement since the Cold War. Before NATO, he had spent thirteen years in the Spanish cabinet under Felipe Gonzalez, including three years as Foreign Minister. The arc is unusual: national politics, military alliance, civilian foreign policy, all at the top of each. He now runs EsadeGeo, the Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics he founded in Barcelona and Madrid in 2010, and is a Distinguished Fellow at Brookings and Senior Fellow at the Hertie School in Berlin. He chairs Aspen Institute Espana and sits on the boards of Human Rights Watch, the European Council on Foreign Relations, and the International Crisis Group. What he offers a leadership audience is not the memoir of the files he handled. It is a structural read of where the international order is breaking, where it is holding, and what boards and executive teams should be doing with that information before the next shock lands on the balance sheet. Key speaking topics The future of the rules based international order Transatlantic relations and European strategic autonomy US-China competition and the implications for global business Geopolitics of the energy transition and climate diplomacy NATO, European security and the war in Ukraine Multilateralism and global governance reform Ideal for Boards and executive committees of multinationals with material exposure to Europe, the US and China CEOs, chairs and chief strategy officers setting five to ten year strategic plans under geopolitical uncertainty Senior policy, risk and government affairs leads at financial institutions, energy and industrial groups Audience outcomes A working model of which pillars of the international order are cracking, which are holding, and where corporate risk actually sits. A sharper read on European policy intent on China, industrial strategy, energy and sanctions, from the person who helped write the doctrine. Concrete framing on what transatlantic drift and US-China competition mean for supply chains, capital allocation and market access. A sense of how peers at the sovereign and multilateral level are framing the same questions your board is wrestling with.

Why organisations work with James Woudhuysen He treats forecasting as a discipline, not a performance. His work is built on decades of market intelligence at Philips and Seymour Powell, which gives his calls on technology and consumer behaviour a base of operating evidence rather than commentary. He argues against received wisdom on energy, climate and innovation in print, repeatedly. For boards reviewing capital allocation in those areas, that contrarian record is the value, not a stylistic feature. He covers innovation across energy, IT, construction, transport and the office in a single frame. That breadth lets him explain why an emerging technology will or will not change a sector, drawing on adjacent precedents most specialists miss. He writes and lectures with named sources and statistics, not slogans. The work is closer to a serious editorial brief than to a futures keynote, and it stands up to scrutiny in a room of operators. Biography highlights Visiting Professor of Forecasting and Innovation, London South Bank University Co-author, Energise! A Future for Energy Innovation (Beautiful Books, 2009) with Joe Kaplinsky Co-author, Why is Construction so Backward? (Wiley-Academy, 2004) with Ian Abley Co-author, Big Potatoes: The London Manifesto for Innovation (Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press, 2012) Former Chief of Worldwide Market Intelligence, Philips Consumer Electronics; former Director, Seymour Powell Editor of Design magazine (1979 to 1982); co-founder of Blueprint; contributor to The Economist, The Times, The Independent, The Guardian and spiked Biography Most forecasts about technology repeat the dominant narrative back to the buyer. The harder, more useful question is which parts of the consensus are wrong, and where the capital and political assumptions behind it are about to break. That has been the working question across four decades of Woudhuysen’s career, from physics at Sussex to running worldwide market intelligence at Philips Consumer Electronics in the Netherlands. His chair at London South Bank University is in Forecasting and Innovation, and the topics he writes on cover energy systems, construction, IT, infrastructure and consumer technology in a single frame. Energise! A Future for Energy Innovation, co-authored with Joe Kaplinsky in 2009, argued that the response to climate change should be heavy investment in supply-side energy technology, not moralising about consumption. The argument set the template for his later commentary in spiked, The Economist and The Times. The corporate record matters because it grounds the work. Three years as Chief of Worldwide Market Intelligence at Philips, four years as a director at Seymour Powell, decades of consulting reports for clients including Amadeus, Brother UK and UK Trade and Investment. He edited Design magazine in the early 1980s and co-founded Blueprint. That combination of operating intelligence and sustained published commentary is what makes the forecasting calls credible. His co-authored manifesto Big Potatoes: The London Manifesto for Innovation was published in 2010 and republished by Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press in 2012, and his earlier book Why is Construction so Backward? remains a reference point in the industry’s productivity debate. The through-line across the work is a defence of ambitious innovation against what he sees as the cultural reasons organisations and governments hesitate to pursue it. Key speaking topics The future of energy and the limits of net zero policy Forecasting technology and consumer behaviour Innovation in construction, infrastructure and transport The economics and politics of climate policy The future of work and the office Globalisation, China and the geography of R&D Market intelligence and competitive foresight Ideal for Boards and executive committees reviewing long-range capital allocation in energy, infrastructure or industrial technology Chief Strategy Officers and innovation leads briefing on technology cycles and emerging markets Senior teams in construction, manufacturing and consumer technology rethinking their productivity assumptions Investor and analyst forums looking for a contrarian read on energy transition and innovation policy Audience outcomes A clearer sense of which technology and energy forecasts the audience should trust and which it should challenge A working framework for telling structural change from cyclical noise across sectors A concrete account of why innovation slows in mature sectors and what unblocks it Named arguments and data the audience can take into their own strategy and capital decisions

Why organisations work with Heinz-Harald Frentzen Ten seasons in Formula One across Sauber, Williams, Jordan, Prost and Arrows give him a first-hand account of how winning operations differ from losing ones at the same level of talent and budget. He finished second in the 1997 Drivers’ Championship and third in 1999 with Jordan, in both cases against better-resourced rivals. The lesson he carries into a room is about execution, not hierarchy. His HHF hybrid racing project, which completed the first fully electric lap of the Nordschleife at the 2008 Nurburgring 24 Hours, gives him a credible voice on sustainable engineering as a performance problem, not a compliance one. He is comfortable in both motivational and technical registers, which is unusual for an ex-driver. Engineering and R&D audiences get substance; commercial audiences get the human story behind it. Biography highlights Formula One driver from 1994 to 2003 for Sauber, Williams, Jordan, Prost and Arrows. Runner-up in the 1997 Formula One World Drivers’ Championship with Williams. Three Grand Prix wins: San Marino 1997, French 1999 and Italian 1999. Finished third in the 1999 Drivers’ Championship with Jordan on 54 points, with two wins and six podiums. Conceived and built the HHF hybrid race car, which recorded the first electric lap of the Nurburgring Nordschleife during the 2008 24 Hours race. Winner of the ROC Legends Cup at the 2011 Race of Champions; raced in DTM from 2004 to 2006 and competed at the 2008 24 Hours of Le Mans with Aston Martin Racing. Biography The 1997 San Marino Grand Prix was Frentzen’s first Formula One victory. It came in his debut season at Williams, against a teammate, Jacques Villeneuve, who would take the title that year. He finished the season second in the championship. It is the decision-making that sits underneath a result like that, not the result itself, that organisations bring him in to talk about. Across a decade in Formula One with Sauber, Williams, Jordan, Prost and Arrows, Frentzen operated inside five different team cultures. Some produced wins with fewer resources. Some did not. His vantage point is not the champion’s, which is often misread as pure individual brilliance. It is the vantage point of a driver who watched up close what separates a team that executes from one that does not. His most distinctive post-racing work is the HHF hybrid project. Using a Gumpert Apollo chassis and a battery system he developed himself, he completed the first fully electric lap of the Nurburgring Nordschleife at the 2008 24 Hours, co-driving with Dirk Muller. Gearbox failures kept the car out of the classification, but the hybrid powertrain finished the race. It is one of the earlier serious attempts to treat electrification as a performance engineering problem in endurance racing. That combination of cockpit experience and hands-on technical development is what he draws on now. Audiences get a specific account of how sharp teams make sharp decisions under time pressure, and what it takes to keep a programme moving when the technology, the strategy and the people all have to improve at once. Key speaking topics Decision-making under time pressure High-performance team dynamics Leadership lessons from Formula One Sustainable engineering and hybrid technology Resilience and focus in elite performance Risk, trust and communication in high-stakes environments Ideal for Executive leadership offsites and board awaydays focused on performance culture Engineering, R&D and innovation functions in automotive, mobility and advanced manufacturing Sales kick-offs and annual conferences wanting a credible motorsport voice alongside business content After-dinner and gala audiences where racing pedigree adds weight to the evening Audience outcomes A concrete picture of how elite motorsport teams align driver, engineer and strategist in real time A sharper view of what separates teams that execute under pressure from teams that do not Useable lessons on focus, preparation and trust, grounded in named races and named teams A credible perspective on hybrid and electrified engineering as a performance discipline, not a compliance exercise

Why organisations work with Dan Jorgensen Direct line of sight into EU energy and climate decision-making. As the sitting Commissioner with the portfolio, he sets the regulatory weather that most European businesses have to plan against. Track record of turning climate ambition into binding policy, including Denmark’s 70% 2030 emissions target, the decision to end North Sea oil and gas exploration by 2050, and the energy islands programme. Co-founded the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance with Costa Rica at COP26, one of the few multilateral vehicles for a managed phase-out of fossil fuel production. Combines national ministerial experience, EU legislative experience as an MEP, and EU executive experience as a Commissioner. Few speakers on energy policy hold all three. Biography highlights European Commissioner for Energy and Housing, second von der Leyen Commission, since December 2024. Former Danish Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities (2019-2022) and Minister for Development Cooperation and Global Climate Policy (2022-2024). Co-initiator of the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance, launched at COP26 with Costa Rica. Proposed the law for the world’s first offshore wind energy island, passed by the Danish Parliament in 2021. Member of the European Parliament 2004-2013, Vice-Chair of the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee. Author of “Grønt håb – Klimapolitik 2.0”, with interviews including Jens Stoltenberg, Connie Hedegaard and Rajendra Pachauri. Awarded the Ukrainian Order of Merit, first degree, by President Zelenskyy in 2024. Biography The EU’s energy agenda sits at the intersection of three pressures that do not naturally align: affordability for households and industry, security of supply after the shock of 2022, and the decarbonisation trajectory committed to under the European Green Deal. Getting all three right is the central policy problem of this Commission mandate. It is also the portfolio Dan Jorgensen holds. Appointed European Commissioner for Energy and Housing in December 2024, he is responsible for driving down energy prices, scaling clean generation, upgrading grid infrastructure, and helping Member States address housing supply. The brief is unusually wide, and unusually consequential for any business with European exposure. The background is substantive. As Danish Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities from 2019 to 2022, he negotiated the binding 70% emissions reduction target into law during COP25, proposed the legislation for Denmark’s North Sea energy island, and co-founded the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance with Costa Rica at COP26. As Minister for Development Cooperation and Global Climate Policy, he co-facilitated the Global Stocktake at COP28 in Dubai. A decade earlier, as an MEP from 2004 to 2013, he served as Vice-Chair of the Environment Committee and worked inside the EU legislative process that now defines his executive remit. For organisations trying to read the direction of European energy and climate policy, his perspective is closer to the pen than to the commentary. He also writes: his book “Grønt håb – Klimapolitik 2.0” set out an early argument that climate ambition and economic growth are complementary rather than opposed, a framing now visible in the EU’s industrial policy response to the clean energy transition. Key speaking topics European energy policy and market design Climate policy and global climate negotiations Energy transition and security of supply EU regulation and institutional decision-making Managed phase-out of fossil fuel production Offshore wind and grid infrastructure Affordable and sustainable housing policy Ideal for Boards and executive teams at energy utilities, industrials, real estate and infrastructure investors with European market exposure Chief Sustainability Officers, Heads of Regulatory Affairs, and ESG leads tracking EU policy direction Government relations and public affairs leadership preparing for EU legislative cycles Investor conferences and industry forums on energy transition, climate finance and the European Green Deal Audience outcomes A clearer read on where EU energy and climate policy is heading over this Commission mandate, and why Sharper understanding of how affordability, security and decarbonisation trade off in live policy decisions Context on the levers available to accelerate clean energy deployment across Member States Grounded view of the multilateral climate agenda post-COP28 and what to expect from COP cycles ahead

Why organisations work with Chris Goodall His book Possible: Ways to Net Zero provides a sector-by-sector analysis of 16 specific technical challenges – from green hydrogen storage to decarbonising steel and cement – giving executive teams a structured, evidence-based account of what net zero delivery actually requires, not just what it aspires to. He sits on the Advisory Board of the Pictet Clean Energy Fund in Geneva, advising institutional capital on the technologies he researches and writes about – his perspective is shaped by what serious investors are actually backing, not by policy advocacy. Carbon Commentary – his long-running newsletter, part of the Guardian Environment Network – has tracked real-world clean energy deployment data independently for over a decade. Executives and investors treat it as a check on sector claims rather than a source of promotional commentary. Ten Technologies to Fix Energy and Climate was named an FT Books of the Year, establishing a track record of translating complex energy systems into analysis that serious non-specialist audiences can act on. He covers hard-to-abate sectors – aviation, agriculture, heavy industry – where most advisers produce high-level ambition; Goodall engages with specific technologies and deployment realities. Biography highlights Author of seven books on energy and climate published over 17 years, with Possible: Ways to Net Zero (Profile Books, 2024) as the most recent Ten Technologies to Fix Energy and Climate named an FT Books of the Year What We Need to Do Now shortlisted for the 2020 Wainwright Prize for Writing on Global Conservation Member of the Advisory Board, Pictet Clean Energy Fund, Geneva Publisher of Carbon Commentary – long-running energy transition newsletter and website, part of the Guardian Environment Network Contributor to The Guardian, The Independent and The Ecologist Alumnus of the University of Cambridge and Harvard Business School (MBA) Biography Chris Goodall has spent nearly two decades tracking the energy transition – not as a trend to describe, but as a set of specific, solvable technical and economic problems. His most recent book, Possible: Ways to Net Zero (Profile Books, 2024), takes that argument to its logical conclusion: mapping 16 distinct challenges on the path to carbon neutrality, from the decarbonisation of steel and cement to green hydrogen storage and climate-resilient agriculture. That analytical discipline is tested against real capital. Goodall sits on the Advisory Board of the Pictet Clean Energy Fund in Geneva, where institutional investors are deploying money into the technologies he researches. It is a position that keeps his work anchored in what is commercially viable now, rather than what might be viable in a decade. Most energy transition commentary collapses that distinction. His Carbon Commentary platform – part of the Guardian Environment Network – has tracked clean energy deployment data independently for over a decade. It has earned a readership among executives and investors precisely because it does not represent a corporate or consultancy position. Ten Technologies to Fix Energy and Climate was an FT Books of the Year; What We Need to Do Now was shortlisted for the 2020 Wainwright Prize for Writing on Global Conservation. Goodall read at the University of Cambridge and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. He brings to board-level audiences something the energy transition conversation rarely produces: an independent, data-grounded account of what is technically and financially achievable – and what is not. Key speaking topics Net zero pathways and energy system transformation Decarbonisation technologies: hydrogen, storage, renewables deployment Hard-to-abate sectors: steel, cement, aviation, agriculture Clean energy investment and technology readiness Climate policy, regulation and corporate strategy Electric vehicles and charging infrastructure Grid infrastructure and the limits of the energy transition Ideal for Boards and executive teams building credible net zero strategies Energy, infrastructure and sustainability investors Chief Sustainability Officers and ESG leaders in energy-intensive industries Chief Strategy Officers and transformation leads navigating the capital implications of decarbonisation Audience outcomes A clearer picture of which decarbonisation technologies are deployment-ready and which remain speculative A realistic, sector-specific understanding of what net zero delivery actually requires operationally Greater confidence in evaluating clean energy investment claims against independent evidence Insight into the policy and regulatory risks shaping energy transition timelines A framework for moving from corporate climate ambition to credible, technology-grounded action

Why organisations work with Charlie Luxton He runs a working practice, Charlie Luxton Design, whose built work includes the Hook Norton Community Land Trust Passivhaus scheme, so his sustainability argument is grounded in projects he has actually delivered, not a consultancy deck. Two decades of mainstream broadcasting on More4, Channel 5, and BBC platforms have trained him to explain embodied carbon, retrofit, and energy performance to non-specialist audiences without losing technical substance. He speaks credibly across the full stack of a property or ESG conversation: design, materials, regulation, occupant behaviour, and cost, which is unusual for a single speaker. He is a comfortable host and awards presenter as well as a keynote voice, so clients running built-environment or sustainability conferences can use him in more than one role across an event. His perspective is practitioner-first: what works on a real site in the UK climate, at a realistic budget, with real trades and supply chains, which senior buyers in property, construction, and corporate real estate recognise as scarce. Biography highlights Director of Charlie Luxton Design, an Oxfordshire architectural practice focused on energy-efficient residential work. BA in Architecture, Oxford Brookes University; MA, Royal College of Art, London. Lead presenter on More4’s Building the Dream and Homes by the Sea, and presenter on Channel 5’s Build a New Life in the Country. Architect for the Hook Norton Community Land Trust, a twelve-home Passivhaus-standard community-led housing scheme. Co-author with Sally Bevan of Restored to Glory (BBC Books, 2005), the book accompanying the BBC restoration series. Has delivered talks through professional bodies including RIBA Gloucestershire on embodied carbon in buildings. Biography The built environment is responsible for a significant share of global carbon emissions, and the gap between pledges and delivered projects is where most organisations are now stuck. Architects who actually build at that intersection, and who can describe the work in plain language, are rare. That is the space Charlie Luxton occupies. He runs Charlie Luxton Design from North Oxfordshire, a practice dedicated to energy-efficient homes that use local materials and respond to local climate. The studio’s work includes the Hook Norton Community Land Trust scheme, twelve Passivhaus-standard homes developed with a community-led trust in the village where the practice is based. It is a concrete example of the low-energy, community-scale housing model the sustainability conversation often describes in the abstract. Alongside the practice, he has spent more than twenty years on UK television, presenting Building the Dream and Homes by the Sea for More4 and Build a New Life in the Country for Channel 5, with earlier credits including BBC Three’s Dreamspaces. That broadcasting background is why organisations book him: he can take a technical topic like embodied carbon or retrofit and hold a general audience without simplifying the substance. He trained at Oxford Brookes and the Royal College of Art and co-authored Restored to Glory with Sally Bevan for BBC Books. For corporate audiences this produces something specific. Real-estate, construction, and ESG conversations often split between policy speakers who have not built anything and technical specialists who cannot hold a room. Luxton bridges the two, which is useful when a leadership team has committed to a sustainability target and now has to make decisions about what they actually build or lease. Key speaking topics Sustainable architecture and low-carbon buildings Embodied carbon and the built environment Retrofit, energy performance, and the existing UK housing stock Passivhaus and community-led housing Design, materials, and local climate The future of construction Property, homes, and how people live Ideal for Property, construction, and real-estate leadership audiences setting net-zero and retrofit strategy ESG, sustainability, and corporate real-estate teams inside large corporates Housing associations, local authorities, and community trusts working on low-carbon housing delivery Built-environment conferences and awards requiring a credible host with technical authority Audience outcomes A clear read on where embodied and operational carbon actually sit in a building project, and which decisions move the number. A practical sense of what Passivhaus, retrofit, and low-energy design look like once built, drawn from delivered UK projects. Confidence to interrogate sustainability claims made by designers, developers, and suppliers in their own supply chain. A more realistic view of cost, trade-offs, and timescales in low-carbon building, as opposed to the brochure version.

Why organisations work with Carl Bildt He negotiated the Dayton Peace Accords as EU Special Envoy and went on to serve as the first High Representative in Bosnia. Few speakers have personally built a post-war political settlement from the inside. He has run a European country, then run its foreign policy through the Russian invasion of Georgia, the Arab Spring and the launch of the EU’s Eastern Partnership. The view from a head of government and a foreign minister, in the same career, is rare on the geopolitics circuit. He co-chairs the European Council on Foreign Relations, the largest pan-European foreign policy network. Briefings are informed by a continent-wide research operation, not one capital’s perspective. He writes regularly for Project Syndicate and The Washington Post and is widely cited on Ukraine, Russia, China and transatlantic strategy. Audiences get the published thinker, not a generic former politician. He sits on the Board of Trustees of the RAND Corporation and was its first non-US trustee, giving him a working relationship with the US strategic research establishment that most European speakers do not have. Biography highlights Prime Minister of Sweden, 1991 to 1994. Foreign Minister of Sweden, 2006 to 2014. EU Special Envoy to the former Yugoslavia and co-chairman of the Dayton Peace Conference, 1995. First High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1995 to 1997. UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Balkans, 1999 to 2001. Co-Chair, European Council on Foreign Relations. Board of Trustees, RAND Corporation. Senior Adviser to the Wallenberg Foundations. Author, “Peace Journey: The Struggle for Peace in Bosnia” (Weidenfeld & Nicolson). Columnist for Project Syndicate, contributing columnist to The Washington Post. Biography The European security order that boards have priced into their strategy for thirty years is being rewritten in real time. Ukraine, sanctions regimes, US policy swings and renewed Chinese pressure are no longer foreign-affairs reading. They feed directly into capital allocation, country risk and supply chain decisions in Berlin, Paris, London and Stockholm. Carl Bildt has watched this shift from inside the rooms where it has been argued out. As Prime Minister of Sweden in the early 1990s, he led the negotiation of Sweden’s accession to the European Union. As EU Special Envoy to the former Yugoslavia, he co-chaired the Dayton Peace Conference and then served as the first High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, building a peace settlement on the ground. Returning to office as Foreign Minister of Sweden from 2006 to 2014, he was one of the architects of the EU’s Eastern Partnership and a vocal European voice through Russia’s war in Georgia and the early years of the Ukraine crisis. He co-chairs the European Council on Foreign Relations, sits on the Board of Trustees of the RAND Corporation, and writes regularly for Project Syndicate and The Washington Post. His “Peace Journey: The Struggle for Peace in Bosnia” remains one of the few first-person accounts of building a post-war political order in Europe. Audiences book him for what that experience yields now: a direct, unsentimental read on Russia, the transatlantic relationship and the trajectory of the European project under pressure. Key speaking topics European geopolitics and the future of the EU The transatlantic relationship and US foreign policy Russia, Ukraine and the post-1989 security order China and the global rules-based system Sanctions, political risk and country exposure Post-conflict diplomacy and peace negotiation Northern European and Nordic political economy Ideal for Board and executive team off-sites where geopolitical risk has become a strategic variable International banks, asset managers and insurers reviewing country and sanctions exposure Industrial and energy groups with material exposure to Europe, Russia, Ukraine or China Public affairs, policy and government relations leadership in multinationals Audience outcomes A current, named read on Russia, Ukraine and the trajectory of European security from someone who has been in the room. A clearer view of how transatlantic policy shifts under successive US administrations translate into European corporate exposure. A working framework for thinking about sanctions, energy and supply chain risk through a geopolitical, not just regulatory, lens. A sense of where the EU is going as a foreign and security actor, from a head of government who negotiated his country into it.