ESG Strategy

Why organisations work with Miranda Brawn She brings the perspective of a sitting non-executive director across an NHS Foundation Trust, FTSE 100 sustainability funds and AI start-ups, so her recommendations land as practitioner advice rather than commentary from outside the boardroom. The Brawn Review, launched at the House of Lords in October 2025, gives clients access to a named, evidenced governance framework with 50 specific recommendations, not a general lecture on why diversity matters. She is a barrister called to the Bar of England and Wales with an MBA and academic appointments at Roehampton and previously Oxford, which gives her credibility with general counsel, audit committees and regulators in equal measure. Her foundation has run the UK’s first diversity leadership lecture and scholarship programme since 2016, giving her a decade of evidence on what actually shifts representation, useful for clients tired of pledges that do not move numbers. She covers ESG, AI ethics and inclusive leadership from the same vantage point, which suits boards that no longer want three different speakers for three governance topics that have collapsed into one. Biography highlights Author of The Brawn Review: Boardroom Sustainability, Inclusion and Corporate Governance, launched at the UK House of Lords in October 2025. Honorary Professor in Business and Law, University of Roehampton; former Senior Visiting Fellow, University of Oxford. Barrister, Bar of England and Wales; MBA; Honorary Doctor of Letters (Brighton); Honorary Doctor of Laws (University of Law). Non-executive director, chair, trustee and advisor across an NHS Foundation Trust, FTSE 100 sustainability funds with over GBP 2 billion AUM, VC funds and AI start-ups including X0PA AI. Former Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan; founder and CEO of The Miranda Brawn Diversity Leadership Foundation (2016). Financial Times Top 30 Ethnic Minority Leaders; Prime Minister’s Point of Light; Woman of the Year, Women in Finance Awards. Biography The Brawn Review landed at the House of Lords in October 2025 with 50 recommendations on boardroom sustainability, inclusion and governance, drawn from contributions by 1,000 global board members and endorsed by Lord Davies of the 2011 Davies Review. It is the work of an author who sits on the boards she is writing about, not a researcher describing them from outside. Miranda Brawn is a barrister, MBA, honorary professor at the University of Roehampton and former Senior Visiting Fellow at Oxford, where the review began. Her board portfolio runs across the UK’s largest NHS Foundation Trust, FTSE 100 sustainability funds with more than GBP 2 billion in assets under management, venture capital funds and AI start-ups. Before the boardroom she traded for Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan. Most inclusion speakers offer advocacy. Her contribution is governance design: what a sustainability committee should actually do, how directors should oversee AI deployment, how inclusion outcomes should be measured against legal and fiduciary tests. The Miranda Brawn Diversity Leadership Foundation, which she founded in 2016, has run a decade of scholarship and mentoring programmes that give her a longitudinal view of what shifts representation in finance, law and technology. Her recognition reflects the breadth of that practice rather than a single domain: Financial Times Top 30 Ethnic Minority Leaders, Prime Minister’s Point of Light, Woman of the Year at the Women in Finance Awards, and Top 50 Afro-Caribbean Leadership Award presented at the House of Lords. Key speaking topics Boardroom governance of sustainability, inclusion and AI Inclusive and values-based leadership ESG strategy and board oversight AI ethics and responsible technology Non-executive director practice Diversity, equity and inclusion in regulated industries The Brawn Review recommendations Ideal for Boards, chairs and non-executive directors reviewing committee structure on ESG, AI and inclusion General counsel, company secretaries and heads of governance preparing for investor and regulator scrutiny CHROs and chief sustainability officers translating board commitments into operating practice Financial services, healthcare and professional services firms with concentrated DEI and governance exposure Audience outcomes A named governance framework, The Brawn Review, with specific recommendations on board composition, committee remits and oversight of AI and sustainability. A clearer view of where DEI commitments sit in fiduciary and regulatory terms, not only reputational ones. A practitioner reading of what NEDs are actually being asked to evidence on inclusion and ESG by investors and regulators. Evidence from a decade of scholarship and mentoring programmes on which interventions move representation in finance, law and technology.

Why organisations work with Cassandra Stavrou She has lived the operational reality of scaling a challenger consumer brand against entrenched incumbents, from cement-mixer experiments in her parents’ garage to listings in every major UK retailer. She made PROPER the first B Corp certified snacks company, then proved the model could withstand a major private equity consolidation deal, completed through Brexit and COVID. She speaks credibly to founders and corporate brand teams about the operational discipline required when purpose stops being a marketing claim and starts being an audited certification. A recognised authority on UK food and drink policy, sitting on the government’s Food & Drink Sector Council, with Veuve Clicquot New Generation and National Business Award recognition behind her. Biography highlights Founder, PROPER Snacks (PROPERCORN and PROPERCHIPS), launched 2011 MBE for services to the food industry, 2020 Veuve Clicquot New Generation Award, 2016 National Business Awards New Business of the Year, 2014 Member, UK Government Food & Drink Sector Council Board member, WARP Snacks, formed in 2021 through the Exponent-backed combination of PROPER and Eat Real Biography PROPER started in a kitchen with a cement mixer and a popcorn recipe. A decade later it was Europe’s largest independent healthier snacking business, with listings in every major UK supermarket and distribution across more than twenty countries. The category it competed in was dominated by global incumbents with budgets that dwarfed anything an independent founder could put behind shelf negotiation, marketing or supply chain. Cassandra Stavrou co-founded PROPER in 2011 and ran it as a challenger brand built on a specific premise: that healthier snacks did not have to compromise on taste, and that the business behind them did not have to compromise on its social and environmental obligations. PROPER became the first B Corp certified snacks company, embedding the standard from the inside rather than retrofitting it later. The Veuve Clicquot New Generation Award in 2016, an MBE in 2020 and a seat on the UK Government’s Food & Drink Sector Council mark a track record that goes beyond brand storytelling. The 2021 consolidation with Eat Real under private equity backer Exponent, forming WARP Snacks, gave the next test: whether the discipline that built the brand could survive the rationalisation that follows institutional capital. She speaks to founders, brand teams and boards on what changes when purpose moves from a positioning line to a binding operating constraint, and on the practical economics of building a category challenger that the incumbents eventually have to take seriously. Key speaking topics Founder-led brand building in consumer categories Scaling challenger brands against incumbents B Corp certification as an operating discipline Purpose and profit in the food and drink sector Female founders and capital UK food and drink policy Ideal for Founders and senior commercial leaders in consumer brands and FMCG Brand, marketing and category leaders in retail Investors and boards backing purpose-led businesses through scale events Conferences on entrepreneurship, sustainability and women in business Audience outcomes A working view of what changes operationally when B Corp standards are written into a consumer business from day one Honest detail on the trade-offs between speed of growth and brand integrity in a price-sensitive category The mechanics of negotiating shelf space, retailer relationships and supply chains as an independent challenger A practitioner’s account of running a founder-led business through a private equity consolidation

Why organisations work with Manisha Tank Five years hosting the Singapore Fintech Festival, the largest fintech gathering in Asia, gives her live editorial command of a 7,000-seat stage and a working knowledge of the sector’s senior players. A 25-year anchoring career across Reuters Television, BBC News and CNN International means she interviews from a position of subject fluency, not a script. She has put questions to CEOs, founders, policymakers and heads of state on live broadcast television. She moderates the Milken Institute Asia Summit and hosted Earthshot+ during The Earthshot Prize week in Singapore in 2023. Both events demand a host who can move between climate finance, technology and policy in the same panel without losing the room. She produces and hosts long-form branded podcast series for Standard Chartered CCIB and Accenture, so corporate communications teams are buying a known editorial product, not an unknown. Based in Singapore. A buyer running a regional summit in Asia gets a host who understands the regulatory, political and capital context their senior speakers actually operate in. Biography highlights 25-plus years as an international broadcast journalist for Reuters Television, BBC News and CNN International. Former anchor of CNN’s News Stream from Hong Kong (Asian TV Awards, Best TV News Programme) and Talk Asia. Host of the Singapore Fintech Festival for five consecutive years. Moderator at the Milken Institute Asia Summit and host of Earthshot+ at The Earthshot Prize Singapore 2023. Host of the podcast Tank Talks Asia, and producer of corporate podcast series for Standard Chartered CCIB and Accenture. Winner, Summerson Goodacre and Daily Telegraph Wealth Management Award for Best Industry Commentator, 2007. Read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. Biography Running a senior conference stage is a different craft from delivering a keynote on it. The host sets the editorial pace, frames the question the panel is actually there to answer, and decides when to press a CEO and when to move on. Get it wrong and a marquee event reads as flat. Get it right and the room produces the material that gets quoted for the rest of the year. That is the work Manisha Tank has done for two and a half decades. She spent the formative part of her career as a financial news reporter for Reuters Television, posted to New York to cover the Nasdaq and the NYSE in the late 1990s, then anchored business and main news bulletins for BBC News in London. She joined CNN International in the mid 2000s and fronted News Stream from Hong Kong, which won Best TV News Programme at the Asian TV Awards, and the long-form interview series Talk Asia. Now based in Singapore, she has built a second career as the editorial host of the region’s most senior business stages. Five consecutive years at the Singapore Fintech Festival. Recurring moderation work at the Milken Institute Asia Summit. Host of Earthshot+ at The Earthshot Prize week in Singapore in November 2023, the investor-facing day of Prince William’s climate prize. She produces and hosts long-form branded podcast series for Standard Chartered CCIB and Accenture, and her own podcast, Tank Talks Asia, interviews senior figures from across the region. Her subject anchors are fintech, financial inclusion, sustainability and digital transformation. Her award for Best Industry Commentator from the Daily Telegraph and Summerson Goodacre dates back to 2007. The continuity is the craft itself: she remains one of the few hosts in Asia who can hold a CEO panel, a head-of-state interview and a climate finance session in the same programme without losing the room. Key speaking topics Conference hosting and main-stage moderation Panel moderation for senior leadership audiences Fintech and financial inclusion in Asia Net zero transition finance and sustainability Digital transformation and emerging technologies Corporate podcast hosting and branded audio Ideal for Senior business and finance summits in Asia that need an experienced editorial host on the main stage. CEO-level panel sessions on fintech, sustainability or digital transformation where the moderator needs to push without breaking the room. Corporate communications and marketing leads commissioning long-form branded podcast series with a recognisable broadcaster. Investor days, awards nights and after-dinner programmes that require an emcee with broadcast pedigree. Audience outcomes A programme that runs to time, with sessions that end on the question the audience came to hear answered. Panels that get past prepared talking points, because the moderator knows the subject and the speakers. A senior audience that stays in the room for the second half of the day. A set of session clips and quotes the marketing team can use long after the event.

Why organisations work with Helen Clark Eight years running a 17,000-staff UN agency across 170 countries gives her a working view of how multilateral institutions actually function under pressure, not a commentator’s view from outside. She co-chaired the WHO Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the most authoritative post-mortem of the COVID response, presented directly to the World Health Assembly. As President of Chatham House and incoming Chair of the Gavi Board, she sits inside the live debates on global governance, vaccine financing and rules-based order that boards are now exposed to. She brings a head-of-government perspective on climate, gender equality and sustainable development that translates into how governments will actually behave on those files, not how they say they will. Biography highlights Prime Minister of New Zealand, 1999 to 2008, three successive terms; first woman elected to the office. Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and Chair of the UN Development Group, 2009 to 2017. Co-Chair, WHO Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, 2020 to 2021. President, Chatham House (Royal Institute of International Affairs), since 2021. Chair of the Gavi Board, the Vaccine Alliance, from January 2026. Member of The Elders and the Global Commission on Drug Policy; author of “Women, Equality, Power” (2018). Biography The institutions that govern the global system, the UN, the WHO, the WTO, the climate negotiations, the development banks, were built for a different world. They are now under pressure from great-power competition, populist politics, and constrained public finances at the same time. Helen Clark has run two of them from the inside. She served three terms as Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008, the first woman elected to the office, then eight years as Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, where she also chaired the UN Development Group. UNDP under her leadership operated in around 170 countries with a budget of roughly five billion dollars and was repeatedly assessed as one of the better-performing parts of the UN system on transparency and reform. In 2020 the WHO Director-General asked her to co-chair the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. The panel’s report, “COVID-19: Make it the Last Pandemic”, went to the World Health Assembly in May 2021 and remains the central reference document on what the global health system got wrong and what would need to change. She is now President of Chatham House and, from January 2026, Chair of the Gavi Board. Her current portfolio of roles, Chatham House, Gavi, The Elders, the Global Commission on Drug Policy, sits at the operational core of the rules-based order that boards now treat as a risk variable. That is what she brings into a leadership room: not a commentary on geopolitics, but a working sense of how the institutions inside it actually move. Key speaking topics Geopolitical risk and the multilateral system Sustainable Development Goals and the post-2015 agenda Pandemic preparedness and global health governance Climate action and the politics of energy transition Women, equality and leadership in public life Open government and anti-corruption The Asia-Pacific in a contested global order Ideal for Boards and executive committees pricing geopolitical and multilateral risk into strategy CEOs and CSOs leading on climate, ESG and sustainable development commitments Heads of public affairs, government relations and global policy Leadership programmes for senior women and emerging public-interest leaders Audience outcomes A grounded read on where the multilateral system retains authority and where it has lost it A clearer view of how pandemic preparedness, climate and development files will move at the UN, WHO and G20 levels A working sense of what executive leadership inside a UN agency or a national government actually requires A serious frame for the politics of gender, equality and inclusion in senior leadership

Why organisations work with Ruggero Schleicher-Tappeser He reads the technology stack underneath the energy transition with a physicist’s precision: why photovoltaics keeps falling in cost, where power electronics and battery chemistry are going next, and what this implies for capital plans that assume a slower curve. He has run the policy machinery, not just commented on it. As Acting Secretary General of the Alpine Convention he negotiated across eight national governments on a treaty that links climate, transport and spatial planning. He led the European xGWp effort to rebuild gigawatt-scale photovoltaic manufacturing, which gives him an operating view of why European clean-tech capacity collapsed and what it would take to rebuild any of it. He combines this with thirty years of regional and EU policy work through the EURES Institute he founded in Freiburg, so the analysis lands at the level boards actually act on: investment, location, regulation, time horizon. Biography highlights Founder and director of the EURES Institute for Regional Studies in Europe, Freiburg, for fifteen years from 1989. Acting Secretary General of the Alpine Convention, 2004 to 2007. Consultant to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in its formative period. Coordinator of the European xGWp / European Gigawatt Fab initiative to rebuild European PV manufacturing, 2013 to 2015. Co-author of “European Transport Policy and Sustainable Mobility” (Routledge, 2000) and “Nachhaltigkeit trotz Globalisierung” (1998, with Christian Hey). Trained physicist (Diplom Physiker, Switzerland); writes and consults from Berlin in German, English, Italian and French. Biography The energy transition is being treated by many leadership teams as a communications and reporting problem. It is in fact an industrial, technological and capital allocation problem, and the gap between the two framings is widening. That gap is the territory Ruggero Schleicher-Tappeser has worked in for four decades. His starting point is unusual. He trained as a physicist in Switzerland, then spent fifteen years building and running the EURES Institute for Regional Studies in Europe, a Freiburg think tank that worked through how energy, transport and spatial policy actually combine at regional level. From there he moved into multilateral practice as Acting Secretary General of the Alpine Convention from 2004 to 2007, the international treaty body covering sustainable development across the Alpine states. The industrial chapter of the work followed. Between 2013 and 2015 he coordinated xGWp, a European initiative that brought together the main European solar research institutes and the world’s largest PV equipment manufacturer to attempt to rebuild gigawatt-scale photovoltaic manufacturing in Europe. He has also advised the International Renewable Energy Agency in its development phase. The published work, including “European Transport Policy and Sustainable Mobility” (Routledge, 2000) and “Nachhaltigkeit trotz Globalisierung” (1998, with Christian Hey), runs along the same line. What this gives a board room is rare. Most speakers on energy and climate either describe the policy or sell the technology. Schleicher-Tappeser explains why the cost curve of photovoltaics is structural rather than accidental, why the next decade of the transition will be decided by power electronics and battery chemistry as much as by any climate summit, and what European industrial exposure looks like once those facts are taken seriously. Key speaking topics Energy transition and decarbonisation strategy The economics and physics of photovoltaics European industrial policy and clean-tech manufacturing Climate policy and capital allocation Sustainable transport and mobility Regional and multilateral sustainability governance Ideal for Boards and executive committees of energy, utility and industrial companies setting capital allocation against transition scenarios Policy and regulatory leaders in European institutions, national ministries and regional authorities Investors and asset owners with material exposure to clean-tech supply chains and energy infrastructure Sustainability and strategy leaders translating climate commitments into operating and procurement decisions Audience outcomes A clearer reading of why photovoltaic costs continue to fall and what that means for adjacent technologies A working view of the four technology pillars (photovoltaics, power electronics, batteries, semiconductors) shaping the next phase of the transition A sharper sense of European industrial exposure in clean-tech and what credible responses look like A grounded policy-and-capital frame for setting net zero ambition against actual delivery constraints A line of sight from regional policy mechanics to multilateral treaty practice, useful to leaders working across both

Why organisations work with Gary Foote He is a current F1 Chief Information Officer, now at GM Performance Power Units, building the technology function for the Cadillac F1 power unit programme from the ground up. He ran the IT and digital operation at Haas F1 for a decade, taking the team from a start-up entry in 2016 to a competitive, data-driven constructor with global infrastructure. His remit at Haas covered IT, digital, facilities, operations, ESG and business continuity, which gives boards a realistic view of how sustainability and technology intersect inside a performance business. He has been named in the UK CIO 100 for five consecutive years and is a Fellow of the British Computer Society, so the credibility holds up in a room of sitting CIOs. His track record spans Cosworth, Honda Racing F1, Brawn GP and Mercedes Grand Prix, covering six motorsport world championships, which lets him speak to high-performance culture without leaning on abstract frameworks. Biography highlights Chief Information Officer, GM Performance Power Units, the General Motors and TWG Global company delivering the Cadillac F1 power unit. Former CIO and Director of Sustainability at MoneyGram Haas F1 Team, a role held for approximately ten years. Earlier senior technology roles at Mercedes Grand Prix, Brawn GP, Honda Racing F1 and Cosworth Technology. Fellow of the British Computer Society. Named in the UK CIO 100 five years running, 2021 to 2025. Trustee at Tove Learning Trust and active advocate for STEM education. Biography Haas F1 arrived on the grid in 2016 with two cars, a lean headcount and a blank technology estate. Gary Foote built the IT and digital backbone that made that entry possible, then spent a decade scaling it into the stack of a competitive constructor. His brief at Haas eventually covered IT, digital, facilities, ESG and business continuity, which is a wider surface than most corporate CIO roles carry. That is the frame he brings to boards: technology strategy shaped by the realities of logistics, carbon reporting, risk and culture inside one business. Today he is CIO at GM Performance Power Units, the General Motors and TWG Global company set up to build the Cadillac F1 power unit. He is doing again what most CIOs never get the chance to do once, which is stand up an elite-sport technology function from a clean sheet while the competitive clock is already running. The credentials back the story. He is a Fellow of the British Computer Society and has been listed in the UK CIO 100 five years in a row. He writes and speaks in named industry outlets including Computer Weekly, Infosecurity Magazine and Celonis, and he sits on the board of Tove Learning Trust. Key speaking topics Technology leadership in high-performance sport Artificial intelligence and data strategy in Formula 1 Cybersecurity in time-critical operations Digital transformation inside elite teams Sustainability and ESG in motorsport Scaling an IT function from start-up to championship contender High-performance culture and cross-functional operations Ideal for CIO, CTO and CDO audiences looking at AI, data and infrastructure investment decisions Boards and executive teams benchmarking their operating model against high-tempo performance businesses Sustainability and ESG leaders in industrial and logistics-heavy sectors Audience outcomes A working picture of how a Formula 1 team uses data, AI and cloud infrastructure to compete race by race. A sharper view of how technology, facilities and ESG sit inside one leadership remit rather than separate silos. Practical reference points for scaling an IT function quickly without accruing legacy risk. A candid read on cybersecurity and business continuity in an environment where downtime is visible to the world.

Why organisations work with Lizzie Carr She has built and runs an operating environmental non-profit, not a campaign. Planet Patrol’s app turns volunteer activity into structured pollution and water-quality data, which is a usable model for any organisation thinking about citizen-led evidence gathering. Her record-setting expeditions (England’s waterways solo, the English Channel, the Hudson) gave the work its primary dataset. The endurance story is inseparable from the environmental method, which makes for a sustainability talk that actually contains a method. A cancer diagnosis at 26 sits behind the whole trajectory. That gives audiences a credible voice on personal resilience and reinvention without it being a separate, bolted-on talk. Recognition from the Crown (MBE, 2021) and from the Prime Minister’s Points of Light award gives the profile institutional weight that bureau-built activist profiles often lack. Authored Paddling Britain (2018) and hosts the Earth Shakers podcast, with regular media presence on BBC, Sky News, Channel 4 and national newspapers. The platform is real. Biography highlights Founder and CEO, Planet Patrol; nearly 500,000 pieces of litter recorded by volunteers across 113 countries. MBE, 2021, for services to environmental work and activism. First person to paddleboard England’s connected waterways solo and unsupported (400 miles, 22 days). First woman to solo paddleboard the English Channel; also crossed the Hudson River (170 miles, 8 days). Author, Paddling Britain (Bradt, 2018); host, Earth Shakers podcast. Named in Top 10 Female Climate Activists lists by Stylist, Marie Claire and Glamour; Stylist Inspiration of the Year, 2020. Biography Most environmental campaigners describe a problem. Carr built a tool that measures it. Planet Patrol began as one woman with a paddleboard and a phone, plotting every piece of plastic she could see along England’s 400 miles of inland waterway, and has become a citizen-science platform with volunteers in more than 100 countries logging pollution and water-quality data into a single app. The origin matters because the method does. Carr was diagnosed with cancer at 26 and took up paddleboarding during recovery. Three world firsts followed, each a research expedition as much as an endurance feat. The English waterway crossing produced over 20,000 plastic data points. The English Channel and Hudson River crossings extended the platform internationally. The expeditions gave the non-profit its data, its public profile and its operating logic. That logic is what makes the talk land in a corporate room. The argument is that environmental action becomes credible when it produces evidence, that citizen science is a legitimate route to that evidence at scale, and that personal conviction holds up when it has a measurement framework underneath it. Carr’s MBE in 2021, the Prime Minister’s Points of Light award, and her place in the Stylist, Marie Claire and Glamour lists of leading climate activists are recognitions of an operating contribution, not just a story. She is the author of Paddling Britain (Bradt, 2018), hosts the Earth Shakers podcast, and writes and broadcasts regularly across UK national press and television. Audiences leave with a story they remember and, more usefully for a sustainability or purpose programme, a working example of how community action becomes data and how data becomes accountability. Key speaking topics Citizen science and environmental data Plastic pollution and freshwater health Sustainability leadership and purpose Building and scaling a non-profit Personal resilience and reinvention after illness Adventure, endurance and mental performance Activism without perfectionism Ideal for Sustainability and ESG leads designing employee or community engagement programmes with measurable outcomes. CSR, foundation and purpose teams looking for a credible activist voice with operating substance. Leadership and culture programmes wanting a resilience and reinvention narrative with verifiable proof points. Conferences and offsites where a sustainability or wellbeing keynote needs a memorable lead voice. Audience outcomes A clear example of how citizen-led data collection translates environmental concern into evidence organisations can use. A working model for turning a single expedition or campaign into a long-term operating platform. A vivid case for personal reinvention after a serious health setback, told without sentiment. Language and arguments senior leaders can take back into their own sustainability and purpose conversations.

Why organisations work with Clover Hogan She turns climate anxiety from a cultural backdrop into a measurable pressure point on recruitment, retention, and stakeholder trust, with specific evidence from Force of Nature’s work with young people in more than fifty countries. She has moved between youth movements and Fortune 50 boardrooms, including PepsiCo and Unilever, which means she can translate Gen Z expectations into language a sustainability committee can act on. Her TED talk “What to do when climate change feels unstoppable” has been viewed close to two million times, giving her a rare ability to hold a mixed audience, including sceptics, on a subject most speakers polarise. She founded Force of Nature at nineteen and built it into an internationally recognised organisation before handing over leadership, which gives her direct operating experience of building a climate programme rather than only commenting on one. Forbes 30 Under 30 listing and features in the Financial Times, The Guardian, BBC, The New York Times, National Geographic, and Vogue place her in the small group of climate voices that board-level audiences already know by name. Biography highlights Founder of Force of Nature, a youth non-profit mobilising mindsets for climate action, founded at age nineteen. Former Executive Director of Force of Nature; now advisor and chair of the board after a formal leadership handover in 2024. TED speaker, “What to do when climate change feels unstoppable,” with close to two million views. Recognised on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list at age twenty-two. Host of the Force of Nature podcast, in conversation with figures including lawyers behind landmark climate agreements and Nobel Peace Prize nominees. Has advised Fortune 50 companies including PepsiCo and Unilever on Gen Z climate expectations; interviewed the 14th Dalai Lama and shared platforms with Jane Goodall and Vandana Shiva. Featured in the Financial Times, The Guardian, BBC, The New York Times, National Geographic, and Vogue. Biography The climate conversation inside most large organisations has quietly shifted. It used to be a reporting question. It is now a hiring question, a customer question, and a boardroom legitimacy question. Force of Nature, the non-profit Clover Hogan founded at nineteen, has spent the last several years mapping that shift from the other side of the table, working with young people in more than fifty countries on what they actually expect from the companies they join, buy from, and vote with. Hogan treats eco-anxiety as a serious operating variable, not a feeling. Her TED talk, “What to do when climate change feels unstoppable,” has reached close to two million viewers by refusing both doom and false optimism, and by naming what people are actually experiencing. Inside Fortune 50 boardrooms, including PepsiCo and Unilever, she translates that same research into a direct question for leadership teams: what are you asking your people to defend, and can you defend it yourself. Her authority comes from operating experience. She built Force of Nature into an internationally recognised youth organisation, managed a formal handover to new leadership in 2024, and now sits as chair of the board while advising organisations and speaking internationally. The Force of Nature podcast has put her in extended conversation with figures ranging from Nobel Peace Prize nominees to the lawyers behind landmark climate agreements, and with Jane Goodall, Vandana Shiva, and the 14th Dalai Lama. The effect in a room of senior leaders is specific. She will not make the climate crisis smaller than it is, and she will not let it become an abstraction. She returns the conversation to the concrete group of people, inside and outside the organisation, whose trust the next decade of climate strategy has to earn. Key speaking topics Climate leadership and corporate accountability Eco-anxiety and climate psychology Gen Z expectations of employers and brands Youth engagement and movement building ESG credibility and the gap between commitments and delivery Storytelling and public communication on the climate crisis Purpose and values in modern organisations Ideal for Chief Sustainability Officers and ESG leads defending or rebuilding climate strategy against tougher stakeholder scrutiny. CHROs and talent leaders whose recruitment and retention now runs through how credible the organisation looks on climate. Boards and executive committees setting the next phase of sustainability commitments and the communications around them. Brand, marketing, and corporate affairs leaders whose audiences are increasingly Gen Z and increasingly unforgiving of gaps between claim and practice. Audience outcomes A sharper read on what younger employees and consumers are actually asking of organisations on climate, beyond the survey headlines. Language for discussing eco-anxiety as a workforce and stakeholder factor rather than a private sentiment. A more honest internal test for where the organisation’s climate commitments are holding up and where they are exposed. Confidence to lead climate conversations with staff, customers, and boards without retreating into either doom or marketing gloss. A clearer sense of how youth movements, media scrutiny, and investor pressure are converging into a single reputational frontier.

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

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

Why organisations work with Juan Verde Holds first-hand US trade policy experience across three administrations (Clinton, Obama, Biden), including as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Europe and Eurasia with commercial responsibility for 52 countries. Operates fluently on both sides of the Atlantic, giving executives a practical read on how US and European policy environments shape the same investment decision differently. Frames sustainability as a commercial question, showing boards how climate strategy connects to capital access, pricing power, regulatory positioning, and export competitiveness. Brings live board-level context from HISPASAT and the Airbus Foundation Board of Advisors, alongside advisory work with Google, Cisco, Banco Santander, and the Inter-American Development Bank. Currently serves on the President’s Export Council under President Biden, the White House advisory body whose members include the chief executives of Ford, Disney, Citibank, and Starbucks. Biography highlights Member of the President’s Export Council, the White House’s principal advisory committee on international trade and US competitiveness. Former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Europe and Eurasia at the US Department of Commerce, with commercial policy responsibility across 52 countries. Earlier international trade roles at the US Department of Commerce during the Clinton Administration. Founder and President of the Advanced Leadership Foundation, which has trained over 10,000 emerging green leaders across more than 10 countries. Board of Directors at HISPASAT, the satellite communications operator for Spain, Portugal, and Latin America; member of the Airbus Foundation Board of Advisors. Master’s in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School; BA in Political Science and International Relations, Boston University. Biography Trade policy used to move slowly enough that executives could treat it as weather. That no longer holds. Tariff regimes, export controls, and climate-linked regulation now reshape commercial plans in quarters, not decades, and the decisions are made in rooms Juan Verde has spent three decades working in. Appointed by President Obama in 2009, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Europe and Eurasia at the US Department of Commerce, with commercial policy responsibility across 52 countries. Under the Clinton Administration he held earlier international trade roles at Commerce. In 2023 President Biden appointed him to the President’s Export Council, the White House’s principal advisory committee on trade competitiveness, alongside the chief executives of companies including Ford, Disney, Citibank, and Starbucks. The through-line in his commercial work is a specific argument about sustainability. He treats climate action as a commercial question, which is the organising idea of his Profit Meets Planet keynote series on corporate climate, geopolitical arbitrage, and leading through disruption. That thesis draws on co-founding Climate Reality Project chapters with Al Gore in Spain and Argentina, and on advisory engagements through Alamo Solutions with Google, Cisco, Banco Santander, and the Inter-American Development Bank. His doctoral research at Universidad Camilo José Cela, on green economy strategies for small island nations, gives the argument academic grounding. For senior leaders, this translates into a speaker who can move between a boardroom question about European market entry and a policy question about US trade posture without losing commercial specificity. He sits on the Board of Directors of HISPASAT, the satellite communications operator for Spain, Portugal and Latin America, and on the Airbus Foundation Board of Advisors. His keynote platforms include the World Economic Forum, Harvard Kennedy School, the World Bank, and successive UN Climate Conferences, most recently COP25 and COP26. Key speaking topics International trade policy and market access Transatlantic economic relations Sustainability as commercial advantage Foreign direct investment and green export strategy Geopolitical risk for global businesses Public-private collaboration in international markets Ideal for Boards and CEOs planning international expansion or transatlantic market entry Chief Sustainability Officers and ESG leads connecting climate commitments to growth strategy Investment attraction agencies, trade bodies, and government ministers Corporate delegations at policy summits, sustainability events, and international conferences Audience outcomes How Washington and Brussels are reshaping what corporate sustainability commitments actually cost in commercial terms Why climate strategy should be treated as an export competitiveness question, with examples drawn from specific national markets Where the next flows of green foreign direct investment are likely to move, and what that means for growth planning Language that links trade policy shifts to board-level decisions on capital allocation and market entry

Why organisations work with Jan Peter Balkenende Eight years leading a G20 economy through financial crisis, EU enlargement and the 2004 Dutch Presidency of the Council of the European Union gives him a view from inside the machine that almost no executive adviser can match. His book with Govert Buijs, “Capitalism Reconnected” (Amsterdam University Press, 2024), sets out a specific European alternative to both Chinese state capitalism and American shareholder capitalism, which boards can use as a reference point for their own strategy. As chair of the Dutch Sustainable Growth Coalition he convenes AkzoNobel, dsm-firmenich, FrieslandCampina, Heineken, KLM, Philips, Shell and Unilever around common sustainability positions, so he speaks with current standing, not archive authority. Minister of State status in the Netherlands and membership of Club de Madrid keep him close to working heads of government, which gives audiences a read on political risk that goes beyond press coverage. He pairs the institutional authority of a former PM with the working vocabulary of a senior adviser at EY and Hague Corporate Affairs, so corporate audiences get policy insight translated into commercial language. Biography highlights Prime Minister of the Netherlands 2002 to 2010, across four cabinets. Held the Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2004. Professor Emeritus of Governance, Institutions and Internationalisation, Erasmus University Rotterdam. Minister of State, Kingdom of the Netherlands, since October 2022. Chair of the Dutch Sustainable Growth Coalition; Chair of the Noaber Foundation; Executive Board member, Global Center on Adaptation; Member, Club de Madrid. External Senior Advisor to EY; Associate Partner at Hague Corporate Affairs. Co-author, “Capitalism Reconnected: Toward a Sustainable, Inclusive and Innovative Market Economy in Europe” (Amsterdam University Press, 2024). Biography European economies are being asked to reinvent themselves at the same time as they govern themselves. Jan Peter Balkenende has spent more than two decades inside that tension, first as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 2002 to 2010 and then as an adviser, academic and convenor of corporate leaders. Four successive cabinets and the 2004 Dutch Presidency of the Council of the European Union gave him direct experience of how EU decisions are actually made, from enlargement to financial crisis response. That institutional memory now sits alongside a current role as Minister of State and as a member of Club de Madrid, the association of former heads of government. His intellectual contribution is set out in “Capitalism Reconnected,” co-written with political philosopher Govert Buijs and published by Amsterdam University Press in 2024. The book argues that Europe should stop defending its model defensively and instead frame a sustainable, inclusive and innovative market economy as a distinct offer, positioned between Chinese state capitalism and American shareholder capitalism. The argument is not theoretical for him. As chair of the Dutch Sustainable Growth Coalition he works with the CEOs of AkzoNobel, dsm-firmenich, FrieslandCampina, Heineken, KLM, Philips, Shell and Unilever on shared positions around climate, circularity and social equality, supported by VNO-NCW and facilitated by Accenture. Erasmus University Rotterdam, EY and Hague Corporate Affairs provide the academic and advisory base. The through-line, across government, campus and corporate rooms, is the same: Europe can only lead on sustainability if its companies and its institutions work from the same playbook. Key speaking topics European market-economy reform Sustainable and inclusive growth strategy Governance and public-private collaboration ESG and corporate responsibility in European context Geopolitical and policy risk for business Institutional leadership and long-term decision making Climate adaptation and the role of business Ideal for Boards and executive committees setting European sustainability and ESG strategy CEOs and CFOs navigating EU regulation, climate policy and geopolitical risk Public-sector and multilateral audiences working on public-private cooperation Leadership and strategy summits with a European or transatlantic agenda Audience outcomes A concrete reference framework, drawn from “Capitalism Reconnected,” for positioning a European business between state-led and shareholder-led models. A clearer read on how EU-level decisions are made, and where corporate influence actually lands. Live examples of how eight Dutch multinationals translate sustainable growth commitments into joint positions. A sharper sense of which political risks matter for strategy, and which are noise. Direct perspective from a former head of government on leading through crisis with contested public trust.