Entrepreneurship

Why organisations work with Dave Stewart Stewart’s credibility is operational, not academic. He has built multiple businesses across music, media, film, and technology – from Weapons of Mass Entertainment to The Hospital Club to RARE Entity – and can demonstrate from firsthand experience what the structural conditions for creative output actually look like at scale. No case study is borrowed. His book, The Business Playground (Financial Times/Pearson, 2010), co-written with branding expert Mark Simmons and published in eight languages, provides a replicable methodology for applied creative thinking in business contexts. It draws on scientific research, structured exercises, and interviews with figures including Twitter co-founder Evan Williams and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen – with a foreword by Richard Branson. He has worked inside major corporations as a practitioner, not an outside voice: serving as Nokia’s «change agent» and as US creative director at The Law Firm. Clients including Nokia, Visa International, and Credit Suisse have drawn a direct line between exposure to his thinking and changes in how they approached innovation. His current venture, RARE Entity (launched January 2026), is a venture builder that shifts IP ownership and commercial control back to the creators who generate it. He is speaking to one of the most urgent tensions in business today – who owns creative output and who benefits from it – from the position of someone actively building companies to solve it. The credential combination is genuinely unusual: a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and Grammy Award winner who has also built media ventures, co-authored a business book for a major publisher, scored West End and Broadway musicals, and spent four decades proving that the artist’s approach to making things is also the most commercially effective approach. Biography highlights Co-founder of Eurythmics with Annie Lennox; over 100 million album sales across a four-decade career Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee (2022); Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee (2020); UK Music Hall of Fame inductee (2005) Grammy Award winner; Golden Globe Award winner; four Ivor Novello Awards (Best Songwriter); four BRIT Awards (Best Producer), including a Lifetime Achievement Award Author of The Business Playground: Where Creativity and Commerce Collide (Financial Times/Pearson, 2010), co-written with Mark Simmons, foreword by Richard Branson, published in eight languages Founder and chairman, Weapons of Mass Entertainment; co-founder, The Hospital Club, London, with Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen Served as Nokia’s «change agent» and US creative director at The Law Firm; executive producer, NBC series Songland (2019) Co-founder, RARE Entity (2026) – a venture builder dedicated to returning IP ownership and commercial control to creators Biography For most organisations, creativity is somewhere between a priority and a problem. It is cited in strategy documents and killed in planning meetings. The organisations that get it right tend to have someone who understands it not as a mindset but as a structural challenge. Dave Stewart has spent 40 years being that person. As co-founder of Eurythmics with Annie Lennox, Stewart helped build one of the most commercially successful creative partnerships in music history – over 100 million album sales, a Grammy Award, a Golden Globe, and induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022. The creative process that produced those results was not accidental. It was the product of specific conditions, specific constraints, and a specific willingness to go into the unknown. Stewart has spent the decades since making that process legible for organisations that want to replicate it. His book, The Business Playground (Financial Times/Pearson, 2010), co-written with branding expert Mark Simmons, is the clearest articulation of his argument. Organisations that treat creativity as a personality trait will always struggle; those that build the right environment will consistently outperform. Published in eight languages, with a foreword by Richard Branson and interviews featuring Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, it remains a practical reference as much as a business book. His corporate work has included serving as Nokia’s «change agent» and as US creative director at The Law Firm. His most recent venture, RARE Entity (launched January 2026), is a venture builder that shifts IP ownership and commercial control back to the creators who generate it – the same argument he has been making for 40 years, now applied to one of the most contested challenges in the modern creator economy. Key speaking topics Creativity as a commercial capability Applied creative thinking in business Innovation culture and organisational conditions Entrepreneurship and venture building The creator economy and IP ownership Branding and cultural influence Technology, media disruption, and the future of creative industries Ideal for Chief Innovation Officers and innovation leadership teams seeking to move beyond idea generation into repeatable creative output CMOs and marketing leadership working on brand distinctiveness, creative culture, and commercial differentiation Leadership teams at media, entertainment, and technology organisations navigating disruption to existing business models Entrepreneurship and growth strategy conferences; founder, scale-up, and creative industries audiences Audience outcomes A clearer understanding of why creativity fails as a corporate programme – and what structural conditions actually produce it Practical frameworks and exercises drawn from The Business Playground for running better creative processes, from problem framing to idea development A model for thinking about the relationship between creative ambition and commercial discipline – from someone who has built businesses where that relationship was the point A sharper view of the creator economy: who controls IP, what AI and platform concentration are doing to that landscape, and what organisations need to do now The ability to distinguish between organisations that talk about innovation and those that have built the conditions for it

Why organisations work with Daniel Ek Ek’s solution to the music industry’s piracy crisis was structural, not technical: he gave the major labels equity in Spotify, turning potential vetoes into aligned interests. That approach to neutralising incumbent opposition through deal design is directly applicable to any organisation entering a two-sided or multi-sided market. Spotify’s 2018 NYSE listing was conducted as a Direct Public Offering rather than a traditional IPO – a deliberate challenge to standard investment banking practice that gave existing shareholders more direct liquidity and attracted sustained attention from boards and capital markets executives examining alternatives to conventional listing structures. His perspective on scaling is grounded in nearly two decades of building a single global platform from startup to €1.4 billion operating profit – not advisory work, not a theoretical framework, but a continuous operational record in one of the most contested commercial markets of the past twenty years. Via Prima Materia, Neko Health, and Helsing, Ek is an active participant in how AI is being deployed in sectors – preventative health and defense – where error tolerance is low and the design and governance challenges are substantially different from consumer technology. That gives him a perspective on high-stakes AI implementation that most platform founders do not have. He built Spotify from Stockholm into a company that outcompeted Apple, Amazon, and Google in its core market – making him a directly relevant voice for European and non-US organisations arguing that global technology leadership does not require a Silicon Valley address. Biography highlights Co-founded Spotify with Martin Lorentzon in Stockholm in 2006; platform launched October 2008 across eight European markets including the UK, Germany, and France Served as Spotify CEO for nearly two decades; transitioned to Executive Chairman in January 2026 with co-CEOs reporting to him on long-term strategy and capital allocation Oversaw Spotify’s growth to over 600 million monthly active users and its first full year of operating profit (€1.4 billion) in 2024 Led Spotify’s unconventional NYSE listing via Direct Public Offering in April 2018, bypassing traditional IPO underwriting Named most powerful person in the music industry by Billboard in 2017 Co-founded Neko Health (2018), an AI-driven preventative health scanning company with clinics in Stockholm and London; raised $260 million Series B Founder of Prima Materia (2021), pledging €1 billion in European technology; Chairman of Helsing, a defense AI company valued at €12 billion after Prima Materia led a €600 million funding round in 2025 Early career included CTO at Stardoll, senior technology leadership at Tradera (acquired by eBay), and founding of Advertigo (acquired by TradeDoubler); briefly served as CEO of µTorrent Biography The music industry spent the early 2000s in litigation – chasing peer-to-peer platforms through courts as recorded revenues fell. Daniel Ek’s diagnosis was different: piracy persisted because no legal alternative was good enough to justify paying for it. His answer was Spotify, co-founded with Martin Lorentzon in Stockholm in 2006 and launched across European markets in 2008. Building the platform required resolving a structural problem that most technology founders prefer to avoid: persuading the rights-holders whose content made the platform valuable to participate in their own disruption. Ek structured licensing deals that gave the major labels equity in Spotify, turning potential opponents into financially aligned stakeholders. That decision – contested at the time by both sides of the music industry – was central to Spotify’s ability to secure the agreements it needed to grow. By 2024, the platform had reached 600 million monthly active users and recorded its first full year of operating profit at €1.4 billion. Ek’s approach to public markets was equally unconventional. Rather than a traditional IPO, Spotify listed on the NYSE in April 2018 via a Direct Public Offering, giving existing shareholders more direct access to liquidity and bypassing standard underwriting practice. The move drew sustained attention from boards and capital markets practitioners examining what governance and ownership alternatives actually look like in practice. Since transitioning to Executive Chairman of Spotify in January 2026, Ek has directed his investment vehicle Prima Materia toward a €1 billion commitment to European technology companies. His portfolio includes Neko Health, an AI-powered preventative health company operating clinics in Stockholm and London, and Helsing, a defense AI firm valued at €12 billion after Prima Materia led a €600 million funding round in 2025. Across these ventures, his perspective spans platform economics, AI deployment in high-stakes sectors, and the structural argument that building globally competitive technology companies outside Silicon Valley is achievable – and worth investing in deliberately. Key speaking topics Platform business model design and subscription economics Scaling consumer technology companies at global scale Digital disruption and incumbent stakeholder management AI applications in audio, health, and defense technology Unconventional paths to public markets and capital structure European technology ecosystems and tech sovereignty Leadership transitions in founder-led organisations Ideal for CEOs and founders navigating platform entry or subscription model transformation Boards and executive teams examining capital markets strategy and unconventional listing structures Technology and media executives managing rights, licensing, and platform dependency relationships Chief Strategy Officers and investment leads exploring European deep tech and AI deployment in high-stakes sectors Audience outcomes A first-hand account of how to convert incumbent opposition into platform participation through deal structure – applicable to any organisation entering a two-sided market Practical understanding of what subscription model scaling actually requires: licensing logic, pricing architecture, and the sequencing of market entry across international territories Direct insight into Spotify’s Direct Public Offering – what it was designed to achieve, what it required from the board, and what it means for organisations rethinking conventional listing assumptions A cross-sector perspective on AI deployment in sectors where the consequences of failure are material – health diagnostics, defense technology, and audio personalisation at scale Grounded perspective on building technology businesses in Europe: the structural conditions, the competitive realities, and the case for investing in European tech sovereignty as a deliberate strategy rather than a default

Why organisations work with Costas Markides His “Fast Second” argument runs directly counter to first-mover advantage orthodoxy: established firms should let small entrepreneurial companies take the risk of discovering new markets, then move in as consolidators once a market has been validated. That counter-intuitive thesis – developed with Paul Geroski and shortlisted for the FT/Goldman Sachs Management Book of the Year – changes how organisations think about where to place innovation investment. His framework for “playing two business models at the same time” addresses a structural problem that most strategy advice sidesteps: how a firm competes in its existing market while also contesting the model that is disrupting it. He identifies specific conditions under which this works, and the organisational reasons why it usually fails. A UK Research Excellence Framework impact case study credits his work as the first to identify the “business model” as a concept distinct from product innovation – a distinction that gives organisations a more precise lens for analysing competitive threats and deciding which type of response a given disruption actually demands. His ideas on business model innovation have been formally adopted by Nestlé, Roche, and If Insurance as the basis for executive transformation programmes – documented in the REF 2014 public record, not claimed from a speaker circuit. He has appeared on the Thinkers50 list of the world’s top management thinkers every year since 2005, and was ranked 31st in 2011 – a sustained peer recognition that reflects a body of work rather than a single book cycle. Biography highlights Robert P. Bauman Chair of Strategic Leadership; Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, London Business School (since 1990) MBA and DBA, Harvard Business School; BA (Distinction) and MA in Economics, Boston University Thinkers50 listing every year since 2005; ranked 31st in 2011; named in Forbes.com “Most Influential Management Gurus” 2009 Author of six books including Fast Second (shortlisted FT/Goldman Sachs Management Book of the Year 2005) and All the Right Moves (shortlisted Igor Ansoff Strategic Management Award 2000) Published in Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, Strategic Management Journal, and Academy of Management Journal Board of Directors, Strategic Management Society; World Economic Forum participant, Davos Biography The hardest question for an established company facing disruption is not whether to respond – it is which response will not destroy the model that made it successful. Costas Markides has spent three decades at London Business School studying exactly that problem, building a body of research that challenges the accepted wisdom on disruption at almost every point. His most counter-intuitive contribution is the “Fast Second” thesis, developed with Paul Geroski: large established companies are structurally poor at discovering radical new markets and should not try to be first. Their role is to move in once a market has been validated – as consolidators, not pioneers. That argument, shortlisted for the Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Management Book of the Year, reframes how organisations think about where innovation investment belongs. His subsequent research sharpened the strategic question further. Game-Changing Strategies (2008) and Business Model Innovation (2023) identify the conditions under which an established firm can disrupt its own disruptor – and the structural reasons most firms fail when they try. A UK Research Excellence Framework impact assessment credits his work as the first to distinguish “business model innovation” from product innovation as a separate strategic concept – a distinction now embedded in how companies like Nestlé and Roche have approached their own transformation programmes. Markides holds the Robert P. Bauman Chair of Strategic Leadership and has held a faculty position at LBS since 1990. His appearance on the Thinkers50 list every year since 2005 reflects continuity of contribution rather than a single publication; his most recent book, Diversification in the World of Data and AI (2025), extends his long-running framework into the context of AI-driven market change. Key speaking topics Business model innovation for established firms Strategic response to disruption Corporate entrepreneurship and innovation culture Strategic innovation and new market creation Growth strategy for incumbents Managing two business models simultaneously Diversification strategy in the age of AI Ideal for Chief Strategy Officers and strategy leadership teams at large established companies facing competitive disruption Boards and senior executive teams evaluating major decisions about business model change or market entry Executive education cohorts focused on corporate strategy, innovation leadership, and competitive positioning Transformation leads and heads of innovation at organisations initiating enterprise-wide strategic renewal Audience outcomes A framework for categorising the type of disruption the organisation faces and the range of available responses Understanding of why the most commonly reached-for responses to disruption tend to fail, based on documented research rather than case-study selection bias A practical structure for assessing when and how to pursue two business models simultaneously without fracturing the existing one Clearer distinction between business model innovation and product innovation as strategic challenges requiring different organisational approaches A more accurate mental model of when large established firms can realistically pioneer new markets – and when they should not try

Why organisations work with Christer Holloman He built the playbook he now teaches. As founder and CEO of Divido, he scaled a white-label Buy Now Pay Later platform to 10 countries and an exit into NatWest, raising roughly $50 million from American Express and Sony along the way. His book “Transactional to Transformational: How Banks Innovate” is built on named case studies from Bank of America, BBVA, Citi, Deutsche Bank, ING, J.P. Morgan, Lloyds and Santander, not generic frameworks. He has been on the bank side as HSBC’s first Entrepreneur in Residence, so he speaks to incumbents from inside their own constraints, not as an outsider throwing stones. He works at the live edge of fintech: digital assets, open banking as a commercial play rather than a compliance exercise, and the shift from agentic AI into agentic commerce. Swedish by background, London and New York by career, multilingual, and at ease in a boardroom with both a retail CEO and a risk committee. Biography highlights Founder and CEO of Divido (2014-2022); company acquired into NatWest in 2024. Author of “Transactional to Transformational: How Banks Innovate” (Wiley, 2021). Author of “The Social Media MBA” series and “How to Sell Online” (Wiley). Entrepreneur in Residence, HSBC (2022-2023). Co-founder and CEO of sustainable finance platform Credential. MBA, Said Business School, University of Oxford. Forbes contributor on fintech; former tech writer for Sky News. Biography Buy Now Pay Later looked like a retail feature before it looked like an asset class. Divido, the company Christer Holloman founded out of an Oxford MBA thesis in 2014, was one of the first platforms to treat it as infrastructure: a white-label product that banks and lenders could plug into any merchant, in any country, without rebuilding their own stack. By 2022 the business had raised around $50 million from investors including American Express and Sony, operated in 10 markets, and counted Mastercard, BMW and HSBC among its clients. In 2024 it became part of NatWest. That operator experience is the spine of everything he now teaches. After Divido, HSBC made him their first Entrepreneur in Residence, an unusual role that put a founder inside one of the world’s largest banks to challenge how it builds, buys and partners on new technology. It is also the reporting line behind his Wiley book “Transactional to Transformational: How Banks Innovate”, a collection of case studies drawn from named executives at Bank of America, BBVA, Citi, Deutsche Bank, ING, J.P. Morgan, Lloyds, Santander, Standard Chartered and others. The thesis is unsentimental: incumbents can innovate, but only when the operating model, not the PR team, gets redesigned. He has since moved to New York, co-founded the sustainable finance platform Credential, and continued to write for Forbes on fintech. Earlier in his career he launched Glassdoor in Europe for Rich Barton and ran digital product at The Times and The Sunday Times, which gives him a media-trained way of explaining complex regulated products to non-specialist audiences. What senior audiences get is someone who has raised the money, signed the bank partnerships, lived with the compliance questions and then written the book. He is particularly sharp on where AI, digital assets and embedded finance are about to collide inside balance-sheet businesses, and on the specific question of what serious incumbents should do about it. Key speaking topics Fintech and the future of banking Open banking as commercial strategy Digital assets and tokenisation Agentic AI and agentic commerce Buy Now Pay Later and embedded finance Innovation inside regulated industries Scaling a venture from founder to exit Ideal for Bank and insurance executive committees, innovation boards and retail banking leadership CDOs, CIOs and heads of innovation in financial services and large regulated enterprises Fintech, payments and retail finance conferences Corporate venture and M&A teams assessing fintech partnerships or acquisitions Audience outcomes A clear read on how incumbent banks are actually innovating right now, drawn from named case studies rather than consulting templates. Practical judgement on when to build, when to partner with a startup, and when to acquire. A working view of where open banking, digital assets and agentic commerce are converging into the next retail financial product. Founder-level honesty about what it takes to sell into, partner with and exit to a large bank.

Why organisations work with Chris Gledhill He has worked both sides of the fintech competitive line: inside Lloyds Banking Group’s disruptive innovation function, then co-founding the UK challenger bank Secco as its CEO. Audiences get an advisor fluent in incumbent constraints and start-up economics. His Secco thesis, that customer data and reputation can function as forms of banked value, pushed the UK challenger debate past interface and pricing into a harder conversation about what banks actually sell. He is a consistent top-tier voice in credible fintech influencer indices, including Onalytica’s Fintech Top 100, where he has ranked as high as third, and the CityAM Fintech Powerlist. He contributed to The FinTech Book (Wiley, edited by Susanne Chishti), the first crowdsourced reference work in the field. His chapter on the future evolution of money beyond cryptocurrency is part of the core literature. Biography highlights Former innovation technologist and lead mobile architect within Lloyds Banking Group’s Digital Innovation and Payments team, part of the bank’s disruptive innovation function Co-founder and former CEO of Secco, a pre-licence UK challenger bank built around customer ownership of money, data and reputation Contributor to The FinTech Book (Wiley), edited by Susanne Chishti of FINTECH Circle Author of “Consumerization: The Enterprise Guide to BYOD” Ranked #3 in Onalytica’s Top 100 Fintech Influencers and a recurring feature in CityAM’s Fintech Powerlist TEDx speaker and long-running commentator on fintech and digital banking Biography Most retail banks are not structured to reinvent themselves. They are built to run their current model efficiently, which is a different problem. The result is a sector that uses the language of transformation while iterating on the same product shelf. Chris Gledhill has argued the opposite case from both sides of the line. Inside Lloyds Banking Group’s Digital Innovation and Payments team, he worked as a lead mobile architect and innovation technologist within what the bank called its disruptive innovation lab. He then co-founded Secco, a pre-licence UK challenger bank, and became its CEO. Secco’s proposition went further than most. Where other UK challengers matched the incumbents on product and improved the interface, Secco proposed that a bank could hold data and reputation alongside money, with the customer owning and controlling both. Gledhill set out the fuller argument in The FinTech Book (Wiley), edited by Susanne Chishti. His chapter asks what money becomes once value itself can be both social and programmable. He is a consistent feature in credible fintech indices, including Onalytica’s Top 100 Fintech Influencers, where he has ranked as high as third, and the CityAM Fintech Powerlist. For boards and strategy teams, that recognition reflects a decade of specific public arguments carried into industry discourse. Key speaking topics Fintech and the future of financial services Digital banking and challenger bank strategy Emerging technology in banking: AI, blockchain, biometrics Digital identity and customer data ownership Innovation inside incumbent financial institutions Open banking and the API economy Ideal for Banking and financial services leadership teams confronting digital-native competitors Heads of digital and innovation inside incumbent financial institutions Fintech and payments industry conferences and strategy offsites Financial services boards setting strategy through a period of technology-led disintermediation Audience outcomes A sharper strategic map of where digital banking is heading and what that means for incumbent business models First-hand perspective on the full-stack challenger bank thesis, including what Secco actually tried to build and why Better questions to take back to boards about customer data ownership and digital identity Informed judgement on which emerging technologies are genuine strategic levers for banks and which are features chasing problems

Why organisations work with Chris Barton He built a product under conditions that proved his point: no smartphones, no app stores, no viable algorithm, and a consensus view from MIT and Stanford that the problem was unsolvable. Shazam survived six years of near-bankruptcy before the App Store arrived. That timeline is the argument, not a metaphor for it. His two named frameworks – «Start from Zero» and «Creative Persistence» – give innovation leads something to work with after the event: a method for stripping assumptions back to first principles, and a model for distinguishing productive persistence from sunk-cost thinking. His role building Android’s carrier distribution infrastructure at Google, and leading mobile carrier partnerships at Dropbox, means his perspective on how transformative products actually reach scale is drawn from the operational history of three category-defining companies. He holds 12 patents across Shazam, Google, and Dropbox – including one employed in the Google Search algorithm – and testified as a key DOJ witness in the Google antitrust trial on the mobile default deals he personally negotiated. That depth of institutional involvement in the mobile computing era is not a speaker credential; it is a primary source. Guard Inc., his current startup applying AI to drowning detection in swimming pools, is a live demonstration that his frameworks are not retrospective lessons from one successful exit – he is still using them on a problem that experts regard as unsolved. Biography highlights Co-founder and first CEO of Shazam; the company was acquired by Apple in 2018 for a reported $400 million and has been downloaded more than 2 billion times First business development employee at Google focused on mobile partnerships; led the carrier agreements with Verizon and AT&T that established Android’s distribution infrastructure One of the first 100 employees at Dropbox, heading mobile carrier partnerships Holds 12 patents across Shazam, Google, and Dropbox, including one employed in the Google Search algorithm BA Economics and MBA, UC Berkeley; Master in Finance, University of Cambridge; early career at L.E.K. Consulting Key witness for the U.S. Department of Justice in the United States v. Google LLC antitrust trial (2023), testifying on mobile search default agreements he personally negotiated Founder and CEO of Guard Inc., an AI startup building drowning detection technology for swimming pools Biography Most organisations treat innovation as a culture question. Chris Barton treats it as a methods problem. As co-founder and first CEO of Shazam – the music recognition app Apple acquired in 2018 for a reported $400 million – he built a category that did not exist, under conditions that should have made it impossible. When Barton conceived the idea in 1999, there were no smartphones, no app stores, and no algorithm capable of identifying music from ambient audio. Professors at MIT and Stanford told him the pattern recognition problem could not be solved. Shazam launched commercially in 2002 and survived six years of near-bankruptcy before the App Store created its distribution opportunity. It reached 300 million monthly active users before Apple acquired it. The timeline matters: this is not a story about a fast breakthrough. It is a story about sustained method under prolonged failure. His track record inside the companies that built mobile computing adds a different layer of authority. At Google he was the first business development employee focused on mobile, leading the carrier agreements with Verizon and AT&T that established Android’s distribution infrastructure. At Dropbox he was one of the first 100 employees, heading mobile carrier partnerships. He holds 12 patents across all three companies, including one used in the Google Search algorithm, and in 2023 testified as a key DOJ witness in the United States v. Google LLC antitrust trial – speaking to the mobile default deals he personally negotiated. His frameworks – «Start from Zero» and «Creative Persistence» – extract a repeatable method from that experience: how to strip assumptions back to first principles, and how to sustain focus on core insight when resistance is at its strongest. He applies both now as founder and CEO of Guard Inc., an AI startup building drowning detection technology for swimming pools – a problem, again, that multiple experts have called unsolvable. Key speaking topics Entrepreneurship and startup creation Innovation under expert and institutional resistance Consumer AI and the origins of mobile technology Friction elimination and product simplicity Creative Persistence as an organisational method Technology and business model disruption Assumption-stripping and first-principles thinking Ideal for Senior leadership and innovation teams at large organisations launching new products or business units against internal or expert resistance Chief Digital Officers, CTOs, and heads of innovation building internal capability for breakthrough thinking Entrepreneurial organisations and scale-up leadership navigating prolonged uncertainty Conference audiences of founders, technology executives, and business leaders in high-disruption sectors Audience outcomes A working understanding of the «Start from Zero» and «Creative Persistence» frameworks, and how to apply them when pursuing ideas facing expert or institutional opposition A concrete model for distinguishing productive persistence from sunk-cost thinking – drawn from six years of near-bankruptcy at Shazam before the product reached scale Specific techniques for identifying and eliminating friction – the unnecessary effort that prevents otherwise viable ideas from reaching users A revised understanding of how transformative consumer products (Shazam, Android, Dropbox) were built from first principles, not from incremental improvement Greater organisational confidence in pursuing ideas that current consensus dismisses

Why organisations work with Chris Anderson He wrote the book that gave retail, media and platform strategists a working vocabulary for digital assortment. The Long Tail is still the reference point senior teams reach for when they debate hits versus niches. Three separate books, three separate business-model arguments. Few speakers have published a sustained thesis on assortment, pricing and manufacturing in sequence, each rooted in named cases and data. He ran Wired through its most commercially important decade, winning the National Magazine Award for General Excellence three times. That is an operator’s view of how digital economics hit an established media business, not a consultant’s. He built a drone company out of an open-source community and took it to meaningful commercial scale. Leaders get a first-hand account of how distributed, software-led manufacturing actually works, not a slide about it. His framing has been adopted by boards and strategy teams well beyond technology, from publishing and retail to industrial products, because the underlying economics travel. Biography highlights Editor-in-chief of Wired from 2001 to 2012; the magazine won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence in 2005, 2007 and 2009. Author of The Long Tail (2006), Free (2009) and Makers: The New Industrial Revolution (2012); The Long Tail won the 2007 Gerald Loeb Award for Business Book. Named on Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2007. Co-founder and former CEO of 3D Robotics; founder of the DIY Drones community and founding chairman of the Linux Foundation’s Dronecode Project. Seven years at The Economist covering business and technology from London, Hong Kong and New York; earlier editorial roles at Nature and Science. Physics at George Washington University, graduate study in quantum mechanics and science journalism at UC Berkeley, with research time at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Biography The Long Tail began as a Wired article in 2004 and, by 2006, had become the language strategy teams used to argue about assortment. Anderson’s point was simple and consequential. When shelf space is effectively free, the economics of selling a little of a lot start to rival the economics of selling a lot of a little. Retail, media and platform businesses have been adjusting to that argument ever since. Free and Makers extended the same pattern into pricing and production. Free looked at what happens to revenue models when the marginal cost of a digital copy is close to zero. Makers argued that cheap fabrication, open-source design and online distribution would move parts of manufacturing into the hands of smaller, faster firms. Both books sit on the reading lists of serious commercial strategists for the same reason. They name the mechanism, not just the trend. Anderson is not only a writer about these shifts. He ran Wired for eleven years, the period when the magazine won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence three times, while its print model had to adapt to the internet it was covering. He then co-founded 3D Robotics, built out of the DIY Drones open-source community he started in 2007, and chaired the Linux Foundation’s Dronecode Project. That sequence, from The Economist and Wired to an open-source manufacturing business, is why his view of digital economics is operator-grade. For commercial leaders, the value is a single coherent argument applied to three of the levers they still own: what they sell, how they price it, and where it gets made. Time magazine listed him among its 100 most influential people in 2007; The Long Tail won the Gerald Loeb Award the same year. The recognition matters less than the fact that his frameworks are still the ones boards use to test their strategy in digital markets. Key speaking topics The Long Tail and digital assortment strategy Pricing and revenue models in zero-marginal-cost markets Distributed manufacturing and the Makers economy Open-source communities as commercial engines Drones, autonomous systems and the commercial robotics market Media and content business models in digital markets Technology-led entrepreneurship Ideal for Boards, CEOs and chief strategy officers testing assortment, pricing and production choices against digital economics. Chief commercial, marketing and digital officers in retail, media, publishing and platform businesses. Heads of innovation, product and manufacturing in industrial firms exploring distributed production and open-source hardware. Corporate venture, R&D and transformation leaders assessing drones, autonomous systems and community-driven technology markets. Audience outcomes A sharper read on where long-tail economics do and do not apply in a given business, and what that means for range and merchandising decisions. A working framework for pricing when the marginal cost of the digital component is near zero. A clearer picture of how open-source communities, cheap fabrication and distributed production change the shape of a manufacturing strategy. Named cases from retail, media and hardware that leaders can bring directly into their own board and strategy conversations. A realistic operator’s view of how incumbent businesses adjust when digital distribution reorganises their market.

Why organisations work with Carlos Munoz Two airline company builds from scratch, not one. Vueling taken to IPO in 2006, then Volotea launched in 2011 on a deliberately different commercial model. Few entrepreneurship speakers can point to repeat, verifiable company-building at that scale. Operator credibility on a contrarian model that worked. Volotea targets secondary and medium-sized European cities that the major low-cost carriers avoid, and has scaled to c.2,000 employees and EUR 800 million plus in revenue on that thesis. First-hand perspective on founder-board disagreements about strategy. His 2007 Vueling exit came over a merger he opposed, and he went on to build a second business. Useful material for leadership audiences thinking about conviction, governance and when to walk. Fluent in the strategic language of serious buyers. ICADE undergraduate, Harvard MBA, ex-McKinsey; the commercial arguments land with finance, strategy and board audiences without needing translation. Biography highlights Founder of Vueling Airlines; CEO 2002-2007; took the company public on the Spanish stock market in 2006. Co-founder and CEO of Volotea since 2011, the airline connecting secondary and medium-sized European cities. Volotea has carried more than 55 million passengers since operations began in 2012. Former McKinsey and Company management consultant, San Francisco office, 1998-2000. MBA, Harvard Business School; undergraduate degree in Business Administration, ICADE (Universidad Pontificia Comillas), Madrid. Subject of a Harvard Business School teaching case on Vueling Airlines. Biography Most low-cost carriers in Europe compete for the same hub airports and the same passenger flows. Volotea does not. The airline, co-founded by Carlos Munoz in 2011, was built around the cities the majors had written off: medium-sized and secondary European airports, point to point, bypassing the main hubs. The bet worked. Volotea operates from around 20 bases across France, Italy and Spain, employs roughly 2,000 people, and reported revenue in the EUR 800 million plus range in 2024. More than 55 million passengers have flown the airline since it began operations in 2012. It is his second airline, not his first. Munoz founded Vueling in 2002, served as CEO through its IPO in 2006, and left in 2007 after opposing a merger with Clickair that the shareholders backed. Vueling is today part of IAG and one of the largest low-cost carriers in Europe. The career arc gives him a rare vantage point: two distinct commercial models, one exit driven by strategic disagreement, and a second company built on a thesis the first did not address. The earlier credentials explain how the commercial arguments are structured. A business degree from ICADE in Madrid, a Harvard MBA, and two years at McKinsey in San Francisco analysing low-cost carrier economics; Vueling and Volotea are applied versions of that analysis. The Vueling build has since become a Harvard Business School teaching case. Key speaking topics Entrepreneurship and founding companies at scale Business model innovation in commoditised industries Challenger strategy against entrenched incumbents Growth strategy in the airline and travel sector Customer experience as a commercial lever Founder conviction, governance and strategic disagreement Ideal for CEOs and founders of challenger businesses competing against scaled incumbents Strategy and commercial leaders rethinking where the company plays Boards and executive teams of travel, transport and consumer services companies Leadership and management development programmes focused on entrepreneurial decision-making Audience outcomes A clearer view of where incumbents are structurally unable to defend, and what that implies for positioning. A worked example of a contrarian commercial model, from thesis through to operational scale. Honest framing of the founder-board tension points that decide whether a strategy actually gets executed. Practical reference points from two separate company builds, not one, for leaders weighing a second act.

Why organisations work with Bruce Dickinson The “customers into fans” argument is drawn from 40 years of evidence. Iron Maiden has sold over 90 million albums across four decades without a conventional radio or streaming strategy. Dickinson frames this as the product of an operating philosophy – not a marketing achievement – giving commercial leaders a different lens on audience loyalty that few speakers can offer with this level of firsthand verification. His aviation credentials are professional-grade, not supplementary. Dickinson holds an Airline Transport Pilot’s Licence and flew commercial Boeing 757s for Astraeus Airlines. He then founded, lost money on, restructured, and turned around a real aviation MRO business to profitability. His commentary on risk as a managed discipline – rather than a constraint to minimise – comes from the cockpit and the boardroom, not a consulting brief. His memoir is a documented argument, not a celebrity anecdote. What Does This Button Do?, published by HarperCollins and No.1 on the Sunday Times Bestseller list, is a first-person account of running two demanding professional careers simultaneously. It gives audiences and event organisers a readable reference point for the claims he makes on stage. He has lived a business turnaround, not studied one. Caerdav went from pre-tax losses of over £2 million to generating £400,000 net monthly profit after a restructure Dickinson led personally. This gives him direct credibility in conversations about founding companies, operational failure, and the discipline required to reverse course. His Honorary Group Captaincy of 601 Squadron RAF, his ranking as no.7 in Britain at fencing, and his eight-year BBC Radio 6 Music presenting career are all independently verifiable. They give the polymath narrative an evidential foundation that separates him from lifestyle speakers using the same positioning without the credentials to support it. Biography highlights Lead vocalist of Iron Maiden since 1981; the band has sold over 90 million albums and performed more than 2,000 shows worldwide Airline Transport Pilot’s Licence holder; former Boeing 757 captain for Astraeus Airlines; personally piloted Iron Maiden’s Boeing 747-400 Ed Force One on multiple world tours Founder and Chairman of Caerdav (formerly Cardiff Aviation Ltd., founded 2012), a certified aircraft maintenance, repair, overhaul and pilot training company at St Athan, South Wales, operating with EASA, FAA and UK CAA approvals Author of What Does This Button Do? (HarperCollins, 2017) – No.1 Sunday Times Bestselling Autobiography and New York Times Bestseller Honorary Group Captain, 601 (County of London) Squadron, Royal Air Force – appointed January 2020 Ranked no.7 in Great Britain at fencing (foil); named a living polymath by Intelligent Life magazine (2009) BBC Radio 6 Music presenter, 2002–2010 Biography Building a global fanbase and selling over 90 million records across four decades – without conventional radio airplay – looks like a creative achievement. Bruce Dickinson frames it differently: as the outcome of an operating philosophy applied consistently, in which giving an audience something they cannot get elsewhere becomes a structural principle rather than a marketing ambition. Dickinson is Iron Maiden’s lead vocalist, a role he has held since 1981. He is also a qualified commercial airline captain holding an Airline Transport Pilot’s Licence, who flew Boeing 757s for Astraeus Airlines and piloted the band’s Boeing 747-400, Ed Force One, on multiple world tours. When Astraeus collapsed in 2011, he founded Cardiff Aviation – later restructured as Caerdav – a certified aircraft maintenance, repair, overhaul and pilot training company operating from a former RAF base in South Wales. Holding EASA, FAA and UK CAA approvals, the company now generates £400,000 net monthly profit after a turnaround Dickinson led personally following years of losses. His memoir, What Does This Button Do?, published by HarperCollins in 2017, reached No.1 on the Sunday Times Bestseller list and became a New York Times bestseller. It is a first-person account of running two demanding professional careers simultaneously – not a retrospective on fame, but a practical argument for how creative ambition and operational discipline coexist. The specific commercial lesson he draws from that experience – turning customers into fans, not merely buyers – is developed through Iron Maiden’s documented business model and translates directly to organisations trying to build durable audience commitment in any sector. Appointed Honorary Group Captain of 601 (County of London) Squadron RAF in 2020, ranked no.7 in Britain at fencing, and named a living polymath by Intelligent Life magazine in 2009, Dickinson brings to speaking engagements a range of firsthand disciplines that give his arguments about performance, precision and resilience direct evidential weight. Key speaking topics Turning customers into fans Entrepreneurship and business building Risk management and business turnaround Creative discipline in commercial performance Team cohesion under sustained pressure Corporate culture and long-duration performance Aviation and the travel industry Ideal for CEOs, commercial directors, and senior leadership teams working on customer loyalty and brand differentiation Entrepreneur and business founder audiences seeking firsthand perspective on building and restructuring real companies under pressure Marketing and brand strategy events where the relationship between internal culture and customer commitment is the central theme Aviation, travel, and logistics sector conferences Audience outcomes A reframed understanding of customer loyalty as an operating and cultural outcome rather than a marketing result Practical principles from commercial aviation and four decades of global touring enterprise applied directly to business discipline and team performance A firsthand account of business failure, restructuring, and turnaround drawn from Caerdav’s trajectory – directly applicable to leaders navigating operational difficulty Specific language and argument for what it means to build an audience that is genuinely committed rather than merely transactional A concrete case study in how creative ambition and operational rigour function as complementary rather than competing forces in high-performance organisations

Why organisations work with Brent Hoberman He has built and exited two unicorns, lastminute.com and Made.com, and can speak to scaling and to failure with equal credit. Through Founders Factory and firstminute capital, he has first-hand visibility of more than 400 early-stage companies and 12 seed-stage unicorns, giving corporate audiences a live read on where technology is moving. His corporate partner list at Founders Factory, including The Guardian, L’Oreal, easyJet, Aviva and Reckitt Benckiser, means he speaks the language of incumbent strategy as well as founder strategy. As Co-Chair of Enterprise Britain and an adviser to successive UK Prime Ministers, he frames growth inside the real policy and capital conditions leaders operate under. He is candid about what went wrong at Made.com, which gives senior audiences a working case study in IPO timing, governance and post-pandemic demand rather than a highlight reel. Biography highlights Co-founder and former CEO of lastminute.com; sold to Sabre for approximately $1.1bn in 2005. Co-founder of Made.com; founding chairman until shortly before its 2021 IPO. Co-founder and Executive Chairman of Founders Factory, Founders Forum and firstminute capital. Appointed CBE in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to entrepreneurship. Co-Chair of Enterprise Britain; has advised multiple UK Prime Ministers on entrepreneurship policy. Non-executive director roles have included Guardian Media Group, TalkTalk, Shazam, Time Out and The Economist. Biography Lastminute.com went public in March 2000, weeks before the dot-com market broke. The IPO was 43 times oversubscribed and remains one of the fastest company listings in European history. Brent Hoberman was its co-founder and CEO, and he ran the business through the crash and on to a $1.1bn sale to Sabre in 2005. That arc, from frenzy to survival to exit, sits under almost everything he says on stage. Since then he has built three platforms that back other founders. Founders Factory runs corporate-backed accelerators with partners including The Guardian, L’Oreal, easyJet, Aviva, Marks and Spencer and Reckitt Benckiser. firstminute capital is a global seed fund backed by more than 130 unicorn founders. Founders Forum is the community that connects the two. The combined portfolio gives him a working view across several hundred early-stage technology companies at once. He also co-founded Made.com in 2010 and was its founding chairman. He stepped down before the 2021 IPO, having questioned its timing, and the company later entered administration. He uses that outcome directly in corporate sessions on governance, category demand and IPO readiness, which is rare among founders at his level. Outside operating roles, he co-chairs Enterprise Britain with Stephen Fitzpatrick and has advised successive UK Prime Ministers on small business, scale-up and entrepreneurship policy. He was appointed CBE in 2015 for services to entrepreneurship. The policy work matters on the platform because it lets him connect founder behaviour, capital markets and government posture in a way most technology speakers cannot. Key speaking topics Entrepreneurship and founder psychology Scaling consumer internet and marketplace businesses Venture investing and early-stage capital Corporate innovation and startup partnerships AI and consumer technology trends UK and European tech policy Ideal for Boards and executive committees reviewing innovation strategy Corporate venture and M and A teams working with startups CEO and founder gatherings inside private equity and VC portfolios Senior leadership offsites at consumer, retail, media and financial services firms Audience outcomes A clear read on which early-stage technology categories are attracting serious capital and why A practical view of how corporates get useful work out of startup partnerships, from someone who structures them Frank lessons from a founder who has been through a record-breaking IPO, a billion-dollar exit and a public company collapse A sharper sense of how UK and European policy, capital and talent conditions shape what boards can realistically plan for

Why organisations work with Bob Geldof He is one of the few people who has operated on both sides of the Africa debate: as a member of the policy commission whose recommendations shaped the G8 Gleneagles debt and aid package, and as the chairman of a private equity firm that has deployed capital into African agriculture, banking, and consumer goods. That combination is structurally un-replicable. His central argument – that aid and debt relief are necessary but insufficient, and that private investment in African businesses is what creates durable economic capacity – gives boards a concrete and politically coherent rationale for commercial engagement in the continent. Having designed the advocacy campaign that produced the G8 Gleneagles commitments, he offers a working understanding of how coordinated pressure on governments actually functions: useful for any organisation navigating policy engagement, coalition-building, or multi-stakeholder strategy. He engages honestly with the failures of the development consensus – the limits of aid, the contradictions of development finance, the gap between commitments and delivery – which produces more analytically useful content for a board audience than a promotional narrative of Africa’s rise. Biography highlights Co-founder of Band Aid (1984) and co-organiser of Live Aid (1985), which raised over $200 million for famine relief in Ethiopia Member of Blair’s Commission for Africa (2004–2005), whose recommendations on aid, debt cancellation, and trade reform became the basis of the G8 Gleneagles Africa package Chairman of 8 Miles, a private equity firm investing exclusively in Africa, with portfolio companies across agriculture, food processing, financial services, and consumer goods Former member of the Africa Progress Panel, which advocates at the highest levels for equitable and sustainable development in Africa Adviser to the ONE Campaign, the global advocacy organisation co-founded by Bono Awarded an honorary KBE by Queen Elizabeth II in 1986; recipient of the Man of Peace award at the Nobel Peace Summit (2005), presented by Mikhail Gorbachev Author of the bestselling autobiography Is That It? (1986); subject of BBC documentary series Geldof in Africa Biography Band Aid, Live Aid, and Live 8 are the titles on the record. The less-visible work spans Blair’s Commission for Africa, the ONE Campaign, and the chairmanship of 8 Miles – the private equity firm that has deployed capital in African agriculture, banking, and consumer goods. Bob Geldof’s engagement with Africa has always operated on two tracks: advocacy and investment. The Commission for Africa (2004–2005) brought together seventeen commissioners – the majority active African political leaders – to examine the continent’s governance, debt, and trade architecture. Its recommendations became the blueprint for the G8 Gleneagles package on African aid and debt. Live 8, timed to precede the summit by days, was the pressure mechanism. This was sequenced campaign design, not a celebrity gesture. Geldof’s argument has remained consistent: aid and debt relief are necessary, but they are structurally insufficient. Private investment – particularly in agriculture, food processing, and consumer goods – is what builds economic capacity that lasts. 8 Miles was the practical expression of that argument: a fund investing exclusively in African businesses, from an Ethiopian winery to a Ugandan bank, in sectors that build domestic economic structures rather than extract natural resources. For boards navigating Africa – as a commercial geography, a policy context, or an ESG commitment – his perspective is useful because it has absorbed forty years of engagement, including the failures. He is not promoting a destination. He is explaining how the system works. Key speaking topics Africa’s political economy and investment landscape Sovereign debt, trade rules, and development finance Private equity and emerging market investment Large-scale advocacy and coalition-building G8 and multilateral policy architecture The intersection of political risk and commercial strategy Purpose and global accountability in business Ideal for Boards and C-suite leaders of multinationals with operations, investment interests, or ESG commitments in African markets Senior executives leading responsible investment, ESG strategy, or impact investing programmes Government affairs, public policy, and external affairs leaders navigating geopolitical complexity Conferences focused on global development, emerging markets, or the commercial case for sustainable investment Audience outcomes A clearer framework for integrating political risk, development economics, and ESG considerations into Africa-related commercial decisions First-hand insight into how the G8 Gleneagles Africa commitments were designed – and what the gap between political promise and delivery looks like in practice An honest account of where aid, debt relief, and private capital each have structural limits, and where they are complementary Greater confidence in distinguishing commercial opportunity from humanitarian obligation when assessing Africa as a business or investment geography A working understanding of how coordinated advocacy campaigns are designed to move governments – applicable beyond the African context to any multi-stakeholder policy challenge

Why organisations work with Blake Mycoskie He built a consumer brand that sold 50% to Bain Capital at a $625 million valuation in 2014. When he talks about purpose-led growth, he is talking from the operator seat. His 2016 Harvard Business Review piece, “The Founder of TOMS on Reimagining the Company’s Mission,” is one of the few founder accounts of what breaks when purpose meets scale and how to rebuild a mission after its original story stops working. TOMS famously ran on almost no traditional advertising, relying on customers as marketers and the Argentina origin story as the brand’s centre of gravity. For CMOs and brand leaders working on authentic purpose positioning, that is a working case from the person who ran the experiment. He speaks openly about the founder arc after the exit: loss of purpose and the long work of rebuilding. For senior leadership audiences where executive mental health has moved from taboo to agenda item, he is genuinely useful. He is currently building ENOUGH, a nonprofit-owned mental health brand launched in 2026, alongside his $100 million psychedelic research philanthropy anchored at Johns Hopkins. His material stays live. Biography highlights Founder of TOMS Shoes; creator of the One for One business model Sold 50% of TOMS to Bain Capital in 2014 at a reported $625 million valuation Author of the New York Times bestseller “Start Something That Matters” (Spiegel & Grau, 2011) Harvard Business Review contributor: “The Founder of TOMS on Reimagining the Company’s Mission” (January/February 2016 issue) Recipient of the Secretary of State’s 2009 Award of Corporate Excellence from Hillary Clinton; invited by Richard Branson to join The B Team alongside Paul Polman and Muhammad Yunus Anchor donor to the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research; founder of ENOUGH (2026), a nonprofit-owned consumer brand supporting NAMI, Active Minds and other mental health partners Biography TOMS was one of the first consumer brands to make giving the centre of its commercial engine. For every pair of shoes sold, a pair was given away. The model scaled globally on the back of customer advocacy and almost no advertising spend, and TOMS gave more than 100 million pairs over its first decade. Blake Mycoskie built that company from a trip to Argentina in 2006. By 2014, Bain Capital had bought 50% of it at a $625 million valuation. What started as one founder’s shoe business had become a reference case for purpose-driven commerce, studied at Harvard Business School and written up across the business press. He has since been unusually open about what broke. In the January/February 2016 issue of Harvard Business Review, he wrote “The Founder of TOMS on Reimagining the Company’s Mission.” It remains among the most candid founder accounts of what happens when a purpose-led business scales past its origin story. Operations become routine and the brand loses touch with its why. The whole thing has to be rebuilt from the inside, which is not a familiar subject for founders at that scale to publish on. The arc has pushed further since. After leaving TOMS in 2019, Mycoskie went through a serious depression, which he now discusses openly, and has pivoted his philanthropy and new ventures toward mental health. He is an anchor donor to the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research and a member of Richard Branson’s B Team. His newest venture is ENOUGH, a 2026 nonprofit-owned consumer brand that directs 100% of profit to mental health partners including NAMI and Active Minds. For audiences working on purpose-led brand building, or on the long arc of founder leadership, he offers what most case studies stop before: what happens after the exit. Key speaking topics Social entrepreneurship and purpose-driven business One for One and buy-one-give-one business models Conscious capitalism and stakeholder value Purpose-led brand building and customer advocacy Founder journeys from startup to exit and beyond Mental health for senior leaders Catalytic philanthropy and mission investing Ideal for C-suite and founder audiences in consumer and brand-led B2C businesses thinking about purpose as commercial strategy CMO and brand leadership teams working on authentic purpose positioning and customer advocacy Business schools, executive education programmes, and founder/CEO cohorts working on venture creation and scale Leadership offsites where executive mental health and founder identity are on the agenda Audience outcomes An inside view of how One for One worked commercially: the role of customer advocacy in place of advertising spend, and the mechanics of scaling a purpose-led consumer brand An honest assessment of where the model hit its limits, including what Mycoskie published in Harvard Business Review about rebuilding TOMS’ mission after the original story lost its energy Language for talking about executive mental health and founder identity, drawn from a CEO who has put both on record publicly A reference case for putting giving at the commercial core of a consumer brand, from someone who built the category-defining example