Geopolitics

Why organisations work with Nik Gowing A research base built from hundreds of confidential interviews with corporate, political and military leaders, distilled in the book Thinking the Unthinkable, which gives boards a vocabulary for the failures of imagination they recognise but rarely name. Forty years of front-line international reporting, from martial law in Poland to 9/11, that lets him press senior audiences on geopolitical and operational risk without flinching or flattering. A moderator’s authority earned at BBC World News and across hundreds of senior international forums, used to host board offsites, ministerial roundtables and CEO summits where the conversation has to go somewhere uncomfortable. Standing inside the institutions buyers trust: Distinguished Fellow at RUSI, Visiting Professor at Kings College London, former council member at Chatham House and ODI. A track record of making leaders engage with what they have been avoiding, rather than rehearsing the slide they came to deliver. Biography highlights Main news presenter, BBC World News, 1996 to 2014. Diplomatic Editor, Channel 4 News, 1989 to 1996; bureau chief in Rome and Warsaw with ITN. BAFTA, 1981, for coverage of martial law in Poland. Co-author, Thinking the Unthinkable: A new imperative for leadership in the digital age (John Catt, 2018), and founder of the Thinking the Unthinkable project. Author, Skyful of Lies and Black Swans, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford. Visiting Professor, Kings College London; Distinguished Fellow, Royal United Services Institute; Honorary Doctorates from the universities of Exeter and Bristol. Biography The leaders Nik Gowing has spent four decades interviewing, in studios, at summits and behind closed doors, share a pattern. They saw the signal. They had the data. They did not act. Thinking the Unthinkable, the project he founded in 2014 and the book he co-authored with Chris Langdon in 2018, is built on hundreds of confidential conversations with senior figures in business, government and the military about why that keeps happening, and what could change it. The credibility for that conversation comes from the years before. Gowing was a main news presenter on BBC World News from 1996 to 2014, on air for the announcement of Princess Diana’s death and through the live coverage of 9/11. Before the BBC he spent 18 years at ITN, as bureau chief in Rome and Warsaw and as Diplomatic Editor of Channel 4 News. A BAFTA followed his coverage of martial law in Poland in 1981. That broadcast career left him with a particular skill that boards now buy: the ability to chair a difficult conversation in front of senior people, on the record, without losing control of the room or the argument. He moderates regularly for institutions including the World Economic Forum, RUSI and Chatham House. The academic and institutional scaffolding is genuine, not decorative. He is a Visiting Professor at Kings College London’s School of Social Science and Public Policy, a Distinguished Fellow at RUSI, and a former council member at Chatham House and the Overseas Development Institute. The Reuters Institute at Oxford published his earlier study, Skyful of Lies and Black Swans, on institutional vulnerability in the modern information environment. Few moderators bring that depth into the room with them. Key speaking topics Leadership under disruption Anticipating the unthinkable in board strategy Geopolitical risk and the rules-based order Crisis communication and decision-making under pressure Institutional resilience in the digital information environment Senior conference moderation and panel chairing Ideal for Boards, CEOs and executive committees confronting strategic shocks they suspect they are under-rehearsing. Risk, strategy and corporate affairs leaders working on scenario planning, geopolitical exposure and institutional resilience. Convenors of senior international forums, ministerial roundtables and CEO summits who need a moderator who can hold the room. Audience outcomes A direct account of why senior teams systematically miss disruptive signals, drawn from confidential interviews with leaders who lived through it. A sharper read on geopolitical and information-environment risks, from someone who has reported them at first hand. The questions a board should be asking itself before the next unthinkable lands, not after. A working sense of what conformity costs at the top of organisations, and what it takes to break it.

Why organisations work with Nick Watt Three decades of frontline political journalism that spans Belfast through the peace process, Brussels through EU enlargement and Westminster through Brexit and five prime ministers. Few UK political journalists combine all three settings at senior level. Sourcing inside government that produces the story before the press release. Politico‘s London Playbook columnist Jack Blanchard has called his reports “always immaculately sourced and well worth a listen”, and his Brexit coverage repeatedly broke cabinet positions ahead of the formal announcement. A working understanding of both UK and EU institutional politics. Boards with European exposure or cross-border operations get analysis from someone who has reported from both sides. Broadcast discipline as a chair and moderator. He runs a panel the way he runs an interview: tight on time and sharp on the question. He explains what Westminster decisions will mean for regulation, capital allocation and operating risk, in language a boardroom can act on. Biography highlights Political Editor, BBC Newsnight (since 2016) Presenter, The Westminster Hour, BBC Radio 4 (since 2022) Former Chief Political Correspondent and European Editor, The Guardian (Brussels and London) Former Ireland Correspondent and Political Correspondent, The Times (Belfast and London) Listed at number 14 on Press Gazette‘s Top 50 Political Reporters (2012) Coverage spanning seven UK general elections, two Scottish independence referendums and the UK’s EU membership referendum Biography The UK political environment is structurally less stable than for most of the last two decades. Five prime ministers since 2016, two referendums that redrew the country’s constitutional and trading framework, and a regulatory baseline that shifts with each new government. Boards with material UK exposure now have to read political signal as part of strategic planning. As Political Editor of BBC Newsnight, Nick Watt reports from inside that environment. His nightly analysis follows Westminster decisions and cabinet dynamics, and translates what they mean for policy. Politico‘s Jack Blanchard has called his reports immaculately sourced. T-shirts were printed in Germany after Watt relayed on air an unnamed cabinet minister’s verdict on Theresa May’s Brexit strategy: “F*** knows, I’m past caring.” The Times appointed him Ireland Correspondent in Belfast in 1993, just as the peace process began. The Guardian later made him European Editor in Brussels through EU enlargement, and then Chief Political Correspondent in Westminster. Few UK political journalists have held senior roles in all three settings. For organisations with UK exposure, that combination matters. Watt explains what a vote or fiscal event will mean for businesses planning capital allocation, hiring and M&A. He has covered seven UK general elections, two Scottish independence referendums and the Brexit referendum. His Brexit reporting included extended profiles of Michel Barnier, David Davis and Olly Robbins, drawn from sources inside the negotiation. Key speaking topics UK politics and Westminster The UK policy and regulatory environment UK general elections and electoral cycles UK-EU relations and post-Brexit politics Political risk for boards and businesses operating in the UK European political affairs Ideal for Boards and executive committees with material UK exposure Public affairs, government relations and corporate affairs leads Financial and professional services firms monitoring UK political risk Conferences and member events covering UK politics, policy or political economy Audience outcomes The names, factions and pressures inside the current UK government likely to shape its decisions The way parliamentary arithmetic and the electoral cycle will affect tax, regulation and major policy bills The direction of the UK-EU political relationship and what changes it can realistically absorb Which Westminster developments matter for business and which are noise A practitioner’s read on UK political risk for the next 12 to 24 months

Why organisations work with Mustafa Suleyman Few people in AI both ship the product and frame the public debate. As CEO of Microsoft AI he runs Copilot, Bing and Edge for hundreds of millions of users, while The Coming Wave was shortlisted for the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year and called Bill Gates’s favourite book on AI. His “containment problem” framework gives boards a working language for asking governance questions about AI without lapsing into either hype or fatalism. He has been inside the founding team of three of the most consequential AI organisations of the past fifteen years: DeepMind in 2010, Inflection AI in 2022 and Microsoft AI in 2024. That operating vantage point on how AI strategy actually gets built is uncommon in the speaker market. A Senior Fellowship at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School and a board seat at The Economist Group give him sustained credibility on policy and governance, not only on product. Biography highlights CEO of Microsoft AI since March 2024, with responsibility for Copilot, Bing, Edge, MSN and GroupMe. Co-founder of DeepMind (2010), former head of Applied AI; the company was acquired by Google in 2014 in its largest European deal at the time. Co-founder and former CEO of Inflection AI, where he built the Pi assistant with Reid Hoffman and Karen Simonyan. Author of The Coming Wave (Crown, 2023) with Michael Bhaskar: New York Times bestseller; shortlisted for the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year; book of the year at the Financial Times, the Economist, Bloomberg and the Guardian. Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School; board member of The Economist Group. CBE in the 2019 New Year Honours; named to TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in AI in 2023 and 2024; TED main-stage speaker, “What is an AI anyway?” (April 2024). Biography DeepMind, Inflection AI and Microsoft AI are three of the most consequential AI organisations of the past fifteen years. Mustafa Suleyman co-founded two and now runs the third. He co-founded DeepMind in 2010, where he led the applied AI work and the DeepMind Ethics and Society research unit. He went on to co-found Inflection AI in 2022 with Reid Hoffman and Karen Simonyan, building Pi, an assistant designed for emotionally responsive conversation. In March 2024 Microsoft brought him in as CEO of Microsoft AI, with responsibility for Copilot, Bing, Edge and the company’s MAI frontier model team. His public argument turns on the containment problem. It is the task of keeping powerful technologies inside the control of the institutions meant to govern them, even as those technologies become cheaper and more accessible. He developed that argument in The Coming Wave, the book he wrote with Michael Bhaskar. It became a New York Times bestseller and was named a book of the year by the Economist, the Financial Times, Bloomberg and the Guardian. Outside Microsoft, he sits on the board of The Economist and is a Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School. Key speaking topics The future of artificial intelligence AI governance and the containment problem Frontier AI development and consumer deployment AI strategy for boards and senior leaders Technology, power and the nation-state The next wave of general-purpose technologies AI safety and alignment Ideal for CEOs and boards setting AI strategy and capital allocation Chief technology officers and chief product officers responsible for AI deployment Government leaders, regulators and policy advisors working on AI rules Senior leaders in financial services, healthcare, media and consumer technology Audience outcomes A working language for talking about AI risk and AI opportunity in the same conversation, anchored in the containment problem A clearer view of what frontier AI labs are actually building, from someone who runs one A sense of where consumer AI is heading over the next two to three years, beyond the current news cycle An honest read on which AI claims are worth taking seriously and which to discount

Why organisations work with Misha Glenny He treats cybersecurity as a geopolitical and criminal-economy problem, not an IT one, which is the framing senior boards now need. McMafia and DarkMarket are built on direct fieldwork with traffickers, money launderers and hackers. The case material is his own, not borrowed from analyst desks. As former Rector of the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna and incoming host of BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time, he brings institutional weight that few commercial speakers in this category carry. He can move between a finance board on sanctions exposure, a security committee on ransomware, and a leadership audience on Russia, China and the fracturing global order, without changing voice. Biography highlights Former BBC Central Europe Correspondent. Reported the 1989 revolutions and the Yugoslav wars. Rector, Institute for Human Sciences (IWM), Vienna, May 2022 to March 2026. Incoming presenter of BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time, succeeding Melvyn Bragg from January 2026. Author of McMafia, DarkMarket, The Balkans 1804 to 2012 and Nemesis: One Man and the Battle for Rio. Executive producer of the BBC One and AMC drama series McMafia. Sony Radio Academy Award for outstanding contribution to broadcasting. BT Information Security Journalist of the Year. Visiting Professor at Columbia University’s Harriman Institute, teaching Crime in Transition. Biography International organised crime is no longer a vice problem on the edge of the economy. It is woven into legitimate supply chains, banking flows and the cyber infrastructure that companies depend on. The argument that organised crime could account for a significant share of global GDP, first set out in McMafia in 2008, has aged into a description that finance, security and policy audiences now treat as a working assumption. Misha Glenny built that argument on direct reporting. As the BBC’s Central Europe Correspondent through the 1989 revolutions and the Yugoslav wars, he reported the collapse of the old order from inside it. McMafia and the follow-up book DarkMarket took the same method into the criminal economy itself, with sustained fieldwork among traffickers, money launderers and the hackers running early carding forums. The BBC One and AMC drama series of McMafia, which he executive produced, gave the analysis a second life with a much wider audience. The institutional record matches the reporting. Glenny served as Rector of the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna from 2022 to 2026, one of central Europe’s serious advanced research institutions, and held a visiting professorship at Columbia’s Harriman Institute teaching crime in transition. In December 2025 the BBC announced him as the next host of In Our Time, succeeding Melvyn Bragg. For a leadership audience, the combination is unusual. Few speakers can talk about Russian power, Balkan history, Chinese strategy, ransomware economics and sanctions exposure as a single connected system. Glenny can, because he has spent thirty years reporting it as one. Key speaking topics Geopolitics and global disorder Cybersecurity as a board and national risk Global organised crime and illicit finance Russia, the Balkans and post-Soviet power Cryptocurrency, dark markets and the criminal internet Critical minerals and the new resource competition China, the United States and the contested world order Ideal for Boards and executive committees confronting sanctions, cyber and geopolitical exposure together CISOs, CROs and general counsel framing cyber and crime risk to the wider business Financial services, energy and industrial leadership teams exposed to sanctions, illicit flows and supply chain risk Policy, defence and intelligence audiences working at the seam of geopolitics and organised crime Audience outcomes A working model of how organised crime, cybercrime and state power now operate as one system A clearer view of where their own sector sits inside that system, from finance to energy to technology Specific case material from McMafia and DarkMarket that translates to live risk conversations Sharper questions to put to their security, legal and strategy functions on geopolitical exposure

Why organisations work with Michael Portillo He has held three Cabinet posts, including the Treasury and Defence briefs, and can describe how spending decisions, security policy, and party-political pressure intersect from inside the room. He brings 25 years of close observation of Westminster as a broadcaster on The Moral Maze, This Week with Andrew Neil, and his GB News weekend programme, which keeps his political reading current rather than historical. He carries one of the most recognisable names and voices in British public life through Great British Railway Journeys and its international spin-offs, which gives a corporate event genuine cultural weight. He has served on the BAE Systems board and the International Commission on Missing Persons, so he can speak to defence industry dynamics and post-conflict governance with first-hand reference points. He chairs panels and prize juries from the Man Booker to UK arts endowments, which makes him an effective moderator and after-dinner host as well as a keynote voice. Biography highlights Cabinet Minister under John Major: Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Secretary of State for Employment, Secretary of State for Defence. MP for Enfield Southgate (1984-1997) and Kensington and Chelsea (1999-2005); Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer (2000-2001). Presenter of Great British Railway Journeys and its Continental, American, Indian, Asian, Australian, Alaskan and Canadian, and Coastal series for the BBC since 2010. Long-running panellist on BBC Radio 4’s The Moral Maze; Conservative voice on BBC’s This Week with Andrew Neil from 2003 to 2019. Non-executive director of BAE Systems (2002-2006); Commissioner of the International Commission on Missing Persons since 1998; President of DEBRA. First-class degree in history from Peterhouse, Cambridge; author of Portillo’s Hidden History of Britain and the Railway Journeys books with Michael O’Mara. Biography The 1997 general election produced the most quoted result in modern British political history. Stephen Twigg unseated Michael Portillo in Enfield Southgate with a 17.4% swing, and the “Portillo moment” entered the language. What is less remembered is that Portillo had, by that point, already run the Treasury’s spending side, the Employment department, and the Ministry of Defence, all before turning forty-five. That CV gives him an unusual vantage on how British government actually works. As Chief Secretary to the Treasury he ran the public spending negotiations that set Whitehall priorities. As Defence Secretary in the mid-1990s he handled procurement, NATO posture, and the Bosnia and Northern Ireland files. As Shadow Chancellor under William Hague he saw the modern Conservative Party’s internal debates from the inside. A broadcaster’s career followed Parliament rather than a corporate one. He has been a regular on BBC Radio 4’s The Moral Maze for over two decades, was the Conservative seat on This Week with Andrew Neil for its full 16-year run, and now hosts a weekend politics show on GB News. The Great British Railway Journeys franchise, in eight country variants since 2010, made him one of the BBC’s most recognisable presenters. The combination matters for a corporate audience. Portillo can talk about UK fiscal pressure with reference to the spending review process he once ran, about defence and procurement with reference to a Cabinet brief and a BAE Systems boardroom, and about how political risk feels day to day from inside a 25-year broadcasting beat. He chaired the 2008 Man Booker Prize, sits as President of the DEBRA charity, and served as a Commissioner of the International Commission on Missing Persons. He is, in practice, a senior public figure with a working knowledge of how British and European institutions hold together under stress. Key speaking topics UK politics and Westminster decision-making Public spending, the Treasury, and fiscal pressure Defence policy and the UK’s security posture Party leadership and political risk European and Anglo-Spanish relations British media, broadcasting, and public life After-dinner political commentary Ideal for Boards and executive teams looking for an informed read on UK political and fiscal risk Financial services, defence, and public-affairs audiences planning against shifting government priorities Senior client and partner dinners where a recognisable broadcaster as host or speaker adds weight Conferences requiring a political moderator or panel chair with Cabinet-level reference points Audience outcomes A clearer view of how decisions inside the UK Treasury and Cabinet actually get made A current reading of the political pressures shaping spending, regulation, and defence priorities Frank, on-the-record perspective on party leadership and the state of British public life A memorable, well-paced session from a presenter used to live broadcasting and large audiences

Why organisations work with Sir Michael Arthur He has sat on both sides of the table that boards now worry about: thirty-eight years inside the British Foreign Office at the most senior level, then eight years inside Boeing as a vice president and council member. He led the Maastricht Treaty negotiating team and the EU Single Market legislation team. When he speaks about how European policy is actually made, he is describing rooms he was in. As President of Boeing International he was the first non-American on the Executive Council, with operational responsibility for Boeing in 65 countries. That is rare ground for a former diplomat to occupy. His four years as High Commissioner in New Delhi give boards a Europe specialist who is also fluent on India, at a moment when very few people credibly cover both. He speaks German and French and held the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. On Berlin, he is read inside Berlin. Biography highlights British Ambassador to Germany, 2007 to 2010. British High Commissioner to India, 2003 to 2007. Director General for Europe and Economic Affairs, Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Led the Maastricht Treaty negotiating team and the EU Single Market legislation team. Senior Vice President of Boeing and President of Boeing International, 2019 to 2023; first non-American member of the Boeing Executive Council. Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG); recipient of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Board of Directors, Stimson Center; Non-Executive Director of a Tata Consultancy Services UK subsidiary; co-founder of The Ambassador Partnership LLP. Biography Most boards are now exposed to political decisions they cannot price. Tariffs, sanctions, industrial policy, export controls, the next German coalition, the next Indian budget. The standard inputs (bank research, consultant briefings, the FT) tell you what happened. They rarely tell you what the people who made the decision were trying to achieve, and what they will do next. Sir Michael Arthur has spent his career on the inside of those rooms. As British Ambassador to Germany from 2007 to 2010 and High Commissioner to India from 2003 to 2007, he ran two of the UK’s most consequential bilateral relationships at a moment when both countries were redefining their place in the global economy. Earlier he led the Maastricht Treaty negotiating team and the team that wrote the EU Single Market legislation. The European architecture that companies now operate inside is partly his handiwork. What sets him apart from the diplomatic-speaker norm is what came next. In 2014 he joined Boeing as President of Boeing UK and Ireland; in 2019 he became Senior Vice President of Boeing and President of Boeing International, the first non-American on the Boeing Executive Council. For four years he carried operational responsibility for the company in 65 countries and 18 regional offices. He left the diplomatic register and learned the executive one. The result is a speaker who can move between a board’s geopolitical question and its commercial answer without losing precision in either direction. He sits on the Board of Directors of the Stimson Center, on the board of a Tata Consultancy Services UK subsidiary, and co-founded The Ambassador Partnership LLP. He is a fluent German and French speaker and holds the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Key speaking topics Germany, the Eurozone and the European political economy UK and EU relations after Brexit India as a strategic partner for Western business Transatlantic relations and the US-Europe-China triangle International negotiation and corporate diplomacy Political risk inside global supply chains Ideal for Boards and executive committees with material exposure to Europe, India, or transatlantic policy. Heads of strategy, government affairs, and corporate affairs at multinationals. Industrial, aerospace, defence, and financial services leadership teams managing political risk. Investor and partner gatherings where senior decision makers want a credible read on Berlin, Brussels, New Delhi, and Washington in the same room. Audience outcomes A grounded read on what Berlin and Brussels are likely to do next, from someone who has been on both sides of those negotiations. A clearer view of India as a commercial partner, drawn from four years running the UK’s mission in New Delhi. A useful frame for thinking about political risk as an operational variable, not a footnote in the strategy deck. A sharper sense of how diplomatic and commercial logic interact inside large international firms.

Why organisations work with Maurice Obstfeld He has sat at the top of the global policy table. As IMF Chief Economist from 2015 to 2018 and a member of the US Council of Economic Advisers from 2014 to 2015, he has been inside the rooms where currency, trade and crisis decisions were made. His scholarship is the textbook on his subject. International Economics: Theory and Policy, co-authored with Paul Krugman and Marc Melitz, is the standard text in the field; Foundations of International Macroeconomics, with Kenneth Rogoff, is the doctoral reference. Audiences are hearing from the person who wrote the book. He links the three dossiers most boards keep separate. Tariffs, the dollar and fiscal deficits are usually discussed in isolation. Obstfeld treats them as one operating system and shows how a move on one alters the others. The American Economic Association named him a Distinguished Fellow in 2023, a recognition reserved for the discipline’s most consequential contributors. The credential signals serious intellectual standing in a room where that matters. He is currently writing on the dollar’s standing. His 2025 work for Project Syndicate, Brookings and CEPR examines how trade policy and fiscal choices are stress-testing the dollar’s reserve role. Audiences get a current, not a retrospective, reading. Biography highlights C. Fred Bergsten Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics, since 2019; named to the chair in 2023. Chief Economist (Economic Counsellor) and Director of Research at the International Monetary Fund, 2015 to 2018. Member, US President’s Council of Economic Advisers, 2014 to 2015. Class of 1958 Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley. Co-author, International Economics: Theory and Policy (Pearson, with Krugman and Melitz) and Foundations of International Macroeconomics (MIT Press, with Rogoff). AEA Distinguished Fellow (2023); Fellow of the Econometric Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; recipient of the Tjalling Koopmans Asset Award, the John von Neumann Award, and the Bernhard Harms Prize. Biography The dollar’s reserve role, the global tariff regime and the independence of central banks were treated for three decades as settled architecture. They are now contested, and boards making capital allocation decisions need to understand the system, not just the cycle. Few economists are better placed to read it than Maurice Obstfeld. Obstfeld served as Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund from 2015 to 2018, directing the institution’s Research Department through a period of trade tension, capital flow volatility and rising fiscal pressure across advanced economies. He joined the IMF directly from the US Council of Economic Advisers, where he served as a member under President Obama. Before that he held the Class of 1958 Chair in Economics at UC Berkeley, where he taught from 1989 to 2023 and is now emeritus. His scholarly contribution sits behind much of how the discipline now teaches and practises open economy macroeconomics. International Economics: Theory and Policy, co-authored with Paul Krugman and Marc Melitz, is the standard textbook in the field. Foundations of International Macroeconomics, with Kenneth Rogoff, has been the doctoral reference since 1996. The American Economic Association recognised this body of work in 2023 with the Distinguished Fellow honour. Today he is C. Fred Bergsten Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, writing actively on how tariffs, fiscal deficits and pressure on central bank independence are reshaping the international monetary system. His 2025 essay “King Dollar’s Shaky Crown” for Project Syndicate, his Brookings paper on the US trade deficit, and CEPR Discussion Paper 20104 set out the case directly. The argument is that trust in the system can be destroyed quickly and rebuilt only slowly, and that capital allocators should be reading these signals now. Key speaking topics The international monetary system and the future of dollar dominance Tariffs, trade policy and the global economy Exchange rates, capital flows and currency risk Fiscal deficits, public debt and macroeconomic policy Central bank independence and monetary policy Financial crises and global financial stability China, the euro area and the architecture of the global economy Ideal for Boards, CIOs and treasury teams setting capital allocation policy under currency and trade uncertainty CFOs and investment committees in financial services, asset management and multinational corporates Senior policy audiences in central banks, finance ministries and sovereign wealth funds Economic and strategy briefings for executive committees with material cross-border exposure Audience outcomes A current reading of how tariffs, fiscal policy and currency dynamics are connected as one operating system A clear view of the specific risks to the dollar’s reserve role and what would have to change for them to materialise A framework for thinking about capital allocation when the rules of the international monetary system are under political pressure Reference points from inside the IMF and the US Council of Economic Advisers on how policy actually moves Citable language and named arguments senior leaders can carry back into their own board discussions

Why organisations work with Matthew Amroliwala A working chair, not a celebrity name on the agenda. He runs panels the way he runs a live news hour, with structure, pace and a clean line of questioning. Three decades of BBC reporting across Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Westminster, Washington and New York gives him an instinct for how to land questions on senior political and corporate figures without the room going flat. Anchors Global on BBC World News, the BBC’s flagship international news programme, daily since 2014. He brings the same register to conference stages. Equally comfortable on a black-tie awards stage, a CEO fireside, and a multi-stakeholder policy panel. The audience reads him as the BBC, which sets a useful tone of seriousness from the first minute. Biography highlights Chief presenter on the BBC News Channel since April 2023. Presenter of Global on BBC World News, the BBC’s international news flagship, since 8 September 2014. Presenter of World News Today across BBC World News and BBC Four since 27 June 2016. Co-presented Crimewatch with Kirsty Young, January 2008 to March 2015. Eight years as a BBC news, political and foreign correspondent reporting from Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Westminster, Washington and New York. Read Law and Politics at Durham University; joined the BBC in 1989. Biography The chair is the variable that decides whether a panel earns the room or wastes it. Matthew Amroliwala has spent more than three decades inside the BBC operating on exactly that variable, first as a correspondent, then as a presenter on UK rolling news for sixteen years, and since 2014 as the anchor of Global on BBC World News. The reporting years are the foundation. He covered the run-up to the Northern Ireland ceasefires, reported from Bosnia during the Balkans conflict, and worked Westminster, Washington and New York on political and foreign assignments. Live news at that level teaches a specific discipline: how to keep a senior figure honest in real time, how to shape a conversation on the clock, how to read a room without losing the line of questioning. That discipline is what conference and event organisers commission. Amroliwala chairs panels and hosts awards where the brief calls for a credible BBC voice on international affairs and a presenter who can hold the structure when a session over-runs or a speaker drifts. He has co-presented Crimewatch with Kirsty Young, presents World News Today across BBC World News and BBC Four, and was promoted to chief presenter on the BBC News Channel in April 2023. For senior audiences, the value is unambiguous. He is the BBC in the room, which sets the tone. He has interviewed the kind of figures the audience expects to hear pressed. And he treats the chair as a working role rather than a ceremonial one. Key speaking topics Conference chairing and moderation Panel facilitation on geopolitics and global affairs Awards hosting and emceeing Fireside interviews with senior leaders International news and current affairs Live broadcast hosting for corporate events Ideal for Conferences and summits on global affairs, geopolitics or international business needing a credible chair Corporate awards ceremonies and gala dinners CEO and leadership fireside conversations where the interviewer needs to press without antagonising Multi-stakeholder policy panels with senior political, regulatory or corporate figures Audience outcomes A panel that surfaces the questions the audience actually came for, not the ones the speakers came prepared to answer. A coherent agenda held to time, with transitions that read as editorial judgement rather than logistics. Senior speakers handled with the register and discipline of live BBC interviewing. An evening or session that lands with the seriousness of a BBC broadcast, not a hosted entertainment slot.

Why organisations work with Matteo Renzi His grasp of European political risk comes from having run a G7 government, chaired the EU Council Presidency, and participated in three G7 and three G20 summits – not from studying these institutions but from operating inside them at the highest level. His current role as Strategic Counsellor at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change connects his analysis to live government reform agendas across more than 40 countries, making his perspective current rather than retrospective. The Renzi government’s Jobs Act labour market overhaul, Madia Reform of public administration, and gender-equal cabinet were each delivered against significant institutional resistance – giving him specific, hard-won insight into what it actually takes to move reform through complex political systems. His co-authorship of the 2025 Tony Blair Institute paper “Europe in the Age of AI” – alongside Tony Blair and former Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin – positions him as a substantive current voice on technology governance and European competitiveness, not only on political history. For boards assessing exposure in Italy or the broader Southern European bloc, he provides a counterweight to the Germany-and-France framing that tends to dominate European political risk analysis in international advisory markets. Biography highlights Prime Minister of Italy, 2014 to 2016 – youngest ever Italian PM and youngest G7 leader at appointment Mayor of Florence 2009-2014; President of the Province of Florence 2004-2009; Senator for Florence since 2018 Founder and leader of Italia Viva (since 2019); previously Secretary of the Democratic Party, 2013-2018 Ranked #3 on Fortune’s 40 Under 40 (2014); included in Foreign Policy’s 100 Global Thinkers Strategic Counsellor, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (since 2024); co-author of “Europe in the Age of AI” (2025) with Tony Blair and Sanna Marin Author of 15+ published books on Italian politics and governance; teaches “The Challenges of Europe” at Stanford University’s Florence programme Biography EU Council negotiations, coalition formation, and regulatory direction are shaped by decisions made under intense political pressure by a small number of insiders. Matteo Renzi was one of them. He served as Prime Minister of Italy from 2014 to 2016, becoming at 39 the youngest person ever to hold that office and the youngest leader in the G7. His government moved fast. The Jobs Act overhauled Italy’s labour market. The Madia Reform digitised public administration and introduced digital ID as a central pillar of state infrastructure. His cabinet became the first in Italian history to achieve gender equality between women and men. He chaired the EU Council Presidency in the second half of 2014 and represented Italy at three G20 and three G7 summits. Italy’s signature on the Paris Agreement on climate change was made under his government. Since leaving government, Renzi has stayed operationally active. He serves in the Italian Senate and leads the centrist party Italia Viva. Since 2024, he has been a Strategic Counsellor at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, advising political leaders on reform strategy across more than 40 countries. His course “The Challenges of Europe” at Stanford University’s Florence programme brings that accumulated experience directly into academic debate. For organisations that need to understand how European coalitions form, how reform agendas succeed or fail under institutional pressure, and where geopolitical risk translates into policy, Renzi provides the granular, first-hand intelligence that covers the full range – from city government to the G7 table. Key speaking topics European political risk and governance EU institutional mechanics and reform Coalition politics and government formation Italian and Southern European political economy G7 and multilateral decision-making Digital transformation in government and public administration Political leadership under institutional pressure Ideal for Boards and C-suite executives with significant EU or Italian market exposure Government affairs and public policy functions within multinational organisations International business forums focused on European geopolitical and regulatory risk Senior leadership programmes and policy institutes requiring first-hand governmental perspective Audience outcomes A clearer working model of how EU institutions make decisions and where the real pressure points are – moving beyond election-watching to structural analysis Specific insight into how reform agendas succeed or collapse inside complex political systems, drawn from the Renzi government’s own record A realistic account of what political risk in Italy and the Southern European bloc means for organisations with exposure in those markets Context on how European governments are approaching digital transformation, labour market flexibility, and AI governance A framework for separating structural political change from short-term electoral noise in European markets

Why organisations work with Mark Greeven He brings a working model of ecosystem competition built on close study of Alibaba, Tencent, Xiaomi and other Asian firms, not a Silicon Valley template. He has spent two decades inside Chinese innovation, which lets him translate what is happening in Asia into specific implications for European and North American boards. His “dual transformation” frame gives leadership teams a way to fund and govern the next growth engine without starving the current business. He has built what he advises others to build. He founded IMD China in Shenzhen, scaled it into a multi-million-dollar executive education business in three years, and co-directs IMD’s Future-Ready Enterprise programme with MIT Sloan. Thinkers50 has ranked him in 2023 and 2025 and described him as their “oracle for innovation in China,” and his recent HBR co-authored piece on Chinese AI was a finalist for the 2025 HBR Prize. Both give buyers a defensible third-party signal. Biography highlights Professor of Management Innovation at IMD; founder of the IMD China Initiative and of IMD China in Shenzhen. Co-director of three IMD programmes: Building Digital Ecosystems, Strategy for Future Readiness, and Future-Ready Enterprise (the last delivered jointly with MIT Sloan School of Management). Author of Pioneers, Hidden Champions, Changemakers, and Underdogs (MIT Press, 2019), The Future of Global Retail (Routledge, 2021), and Business Ecosystems in China (Routledge, 2018). Co-author of “How Savvy Companies Are Using Chinese AI” (HBR, 2025), named a finalist for the 2025 HBR Prize. An earlier HBR piece was selected for HBR’s 10 Must Reads 2023. Ranked on the Thinkers50 list in 2023 and 2025; Thinkers50 Radar Class of 2017. Founder of cross-border programmes earlier in his career, including the Chinese Economy and Business Programme at Erasmus University Rotterdam and the Global Entrepreneurship Programme at Zhejiang University. PhD in Innovation Management from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. Biography Most established companies are organised to defend a position they already hold. The harder problem is running that business at full performance while building a different one beside it, in markets where competitors do not play by the same rules. Mark Greeven’s work sits squarely on that problem. He is Professor of Management Innovation at IMD and Director of the IMD China Initiative, with earlier faculty positions at Zhejiang University and Rotterdam School of Management, where he also took his PhD in Innovation Management. Two decades of fieldwork in China give his arguments an empirical base that most innovation speakers do not have. His three books, Business Ecosystems in China (Routledge, 2018), Pioneers, Hidden Champions, Changemakers, and Underdogs (MIT Press, 2019), and The Future of Global Retail (Routledge, 2021), trace how named Asian firms, including Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaomi, organise around platforms, partners, and continuous reinvention. He writes regularly for Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review. One of his HBR pieces was selected for HBR’s 10 Must Reads 2023; a more recent HBR co-authored piece on how companies are using Chinese AI was named a finalist for the 2025 HBR Prize. His current ecosystem research at IMD is supported by a three-year corporate sponsorship from AVEVA, Schneider Electric’s industrial software business. He also publishes Red Thread, a bi-weekly LinkedIn newsletter on China and global strategy. Greeven has also built what he writes about. He founded the IMD China Initiative in 2019 and established IMD China in Shenzhen, growing it into a multi-million-dollar executive education business within three years. He has launched cross-border programmes at four institutions, from the Chinese Economy and Business Programme at Erasmus and the Global Entrepreneurship Programme at Zhejiang to IMD’s Future-Ready Enterprise Programme with MIT Sloan. In parallel, he has founded private companies in cross-border e-commerce, technology scouting, and management innovation advisory. Thinkers50 has ranked him in 2023 and 2025, calling him their “oracle for innovation in China.” That mix of research, programme-building, venture creation, and direct access to Chinese firms is what gives his counsel weight for boards trying to read what Asian competition means for their next five years, and for executives trying to build a credible second growth engine without breaking the first. Key speaking topics Business ecosystems and platform competition Innovation in China and Asia Dual transformation and second growth engines Future of retail and digital business models Strategy under sustained uncertainty Organising for innovation in large incumbents US-China commercial and technology dynamics Ideal for CEOs and strategy leaders setting a multi-year growth agenda in the face of Asian competition. Boards and executive committees deciding how to fund and govern a second growth engine alongside the core. CSOs, CIOs, and innovation leads designing partner ecosystems rather than standalone product roadmaps. Multinationals with material exposure to China who want a clear read on competitive moves and policy direction. Audience outcomes A clear read on how Chinese and Asian incumbents are competing, with named firms and specific moves. A working language for ecosystem strategy that boards can use without retreating to platform jargon. A practical view of how to run today’s business and build the next one in parallel, with the trade-offs named. Sharper questions for the next strategy cycle on innovation governance, partner choice, and capital allocation.

Why organisations work with Mark Esposito He brings a named foresight framework, DRIVE, that gives leadership teams a shared vocabulary for the five megatrends shaping their markets, rather than a generic “future of” briefing. His positions sit on both sides of the AI conversation. He advises the World Economic Forum’s Global AI Alliance on policy while working as Chief Economist at micro1, a Silicon Valley AI lab, so the board hears how regulation and deployment actually meet. He has built the institutional access most academic speakers cannot. Harvard Kennedy School, Northeastern, Cambridge Judge, Georgetown, and government advisory roles across the GCC and Eurasia. The work is current and published. Fourteen books, two Amazon bestsellers, The Great Remobilization with MIT Press, and forthcoming titles with Routledge and Penguin Random House give a senior buyer a reading list to brief their team from. Biography highlights Professor of Strategy and Technology Policy at Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business, with Harvard affiliations at the Kennedy School’s Center for International Development, the Institute for Quantitative Social Science, and Harvard Law School’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society Chief Economist at micro1, a Silicon Valley AI lab, and co-founder of Nexus FrontierTech, the AI Native Foundation, the Circular Economy Alliance, and The Chart ThinkTank Co-developer of the DRIVE megatrends framework with Terence Tse Author or co-author of 14 books and over 150 publications, including two Amazon bestsellers, plus The Great Remobilization (MIT Press, 2023) and Digitizing the Emerging Economies (Cambridge University Press, 2024) Named to the Thinkers50 Radar of 30 thinkers most likely to shape the future; recognised by MIT Technology Review and Thinkers360 for AI influence Member of the World Economic Forum’s Global AI Alliance and policy advisor to governments across the GCC and Eurasia Biography The hard part of governing AI is not writing the principles. It is keeping a strategy coherent while the technology, the regulation, and the workforce implications all change inside the same planning cycle. That is the gap Mark Esposito’s work has occupied for the past decade, first through strategic foresight, now through applied AI policy and deployment. The intellectual anchor is DRIVE, the megatrends framework he developed with Terence Tse and laid out in Understanding How the Future Unfolds. DRIVE gives leadership teams five named forces, from demographic change through enterprising dynamics, that organise the noise of long-range planning into something a board can actually use. The framework underpins his teaching as Professor of Strategy and Technology Policy at Northeastern University, and his research affiliations at Harvard Kennedy School, the Institute for Quantitative Social Science, and the Berkman Klein Center. He pairs that academic base with an operator’s vantage point. As Chief Economist at micro1, a Silicon Valley AI lab, he works inside the commercial reality of building and deploying AI at scale. The AI Native Foundation, which he co-founded, extends that into capability building for institutions trying to become genuinely AI-native rather than AI-curious. His seat on the World Economic Forum’s Global AI Alliance connects both sides to the policy conversation. The body of work is now substantial. Fourteen books and over 150 publications, two Amazon bestsellers, The Great Remobilization with MIT Press, and forthcoming titles with Routledge and Penguin Random House. Thinkers50 named him to its Radar of thinkers most likely to shape the future; MIT Technology Review and Thinkers360 have recognised his AI influence. For boards trying to make defensible decisions on AI while the ground moves under them, that combination of foresight discipline, policy access, and a frontier-AI operating role is rare in a single voice. Key speaking topics AI strategy and AI-native organisations Strategic foresight and megatrends The DRIVE framework AI policy and governance Fourth Industrial Revolution and emerging economies Circular economy and resource strategy Geopolitics of technology Ideal for Boards and executive committees setting AI strategy and governance posture CSOs, transformation leads, and chief strategy officers running long-range planning under technological uncertainty Government and public sector leaders shaping AI policy and industrial strategy Senior leadership teams in emerging markets navigating the Fourth Industrial Revolution Audience outcomes A shared, named vocabulary (DRIVE) for the five megatrends reshaping their sector A clearer view of where their AI agenda is running ahead of, or behind, their operating model Specific examples of how governments and large enterprises are translating AI policy into deployment A reading map across his published work for follow-up briefing inside the organisation

Why organisations work with Mark Barton The instinct to know when a speaker is avoiding the question comes from 10,000+ live interviews with central bankers, finance ministers, and CEOs. That is not something a professional facilitator acquires through facilitation training. A moderator who anchored Bloomberg Television’s coverage of six US elections, six UK general elections, the global financial crisis, and Brexit can challenge an economist or minister with authority rather than deference. For executives facing media scrutiny, Barton is among a very small group of coaches who can genuinely recreate the pressure of a live news anchor interrogation: because he spent 23 years on that side of the camera. He has chaired forums for Amundi, Societe Generale, TIME, the Doha Forum, and The FII Institute; organisations that expect substantive interrogation of the room’s most senior participants, not event management. As one of the five journalists who built Bloomberg Television’s European operations from the ground up in 1995, he brings an institutional relationship with the world of global finance and markets that most conference professionals simply do not have. Biography highlights One of five founding journalists, Bloomberg Television’s European operations, London, 1995 23-year Bloomberg TV anchor; hosted Countdown, First Word On Money, European Market Report, Bloomberg Markets, and The European Close Covered six UK general elections, six US elections, the global financial crisis, and Brexit across Bloomberg’s flagship prime-time programming Radio broadcaster: Daybreak Europe (Bloomberg Radio); financial bulletins on NPR, LBC Radio, Jazz FM, and Riviera Radio Conference host at the World Media Awards and The AIBs; moderator at the Horasis Global Meeting and Zurich Global Risk Management Summit Post-Bloomberg clients include Amundi, Societe Generale, TIME, the Doha Forum, and The FII Institute University of London, history Biography Bloomberg Television launched its European operations in London in 1995 with five journalists. Mark Barton was one of them. Over the next 23 years, he anchored the channel’s flagship programming: Countdown, European Market Report, Bloomberg Markets, The European Close. Those two decades built the editorial instincts and financial market depth that define his work today. His coverage record is specific. Six UK general elections. Six US elections. The global financial crisis. Brexit. More than 10,000 live interviews with world leaders, finance ministers, central bankers, and chief executives, including Bill Gates, Jean-Claude Trichet, and Shimon Peres. The experience of managing live, unscripted conversations with the world’s most guarded public figures is not one that transfers through conventional facilitation training. Beyond television, Barton presented Daybreak Europe on Bloomberg Radio and delivered financial market bulletins on NPR, LBC Radio, Jazz FM, and Riviera Radio. He also trained dozens of Bloomberg journalists in on-air communication: work that forms the basis of the media coaching he now delivers to business leaders preparing for public scrutiny. Since leaving Bloomberg in 2018, he has moderated for organisations including Amundi, Societe Generale, TIME, the Doha Forum, and The FII Institute. At the 2019 Horasis Global Meeting, he chaired a plenary on global governance featuring the former Prime Ministers of Romania and Belgium and the former President of Slovenia. The consistent thread: rooms that require a moderator with the credibility to hold their most senior participants to account. Key speaking topics Global financial markets and economic trends Geopolitical risk and international affairs Conference hosting and high-stakes panel moderation Executive media and communications coaching Live broadcast journalism and interviewing Business and financial crisis coverage Presentation skills under pressure Ideal for Boards and senior leadership teams commissioning high-profile forums on global economic risk, geopolitics, or financial markets Conference producers and event directors requiring a moderator with genuine domain authority, not just facilitation skills Chief Communications Officers and communications teams preparing executives for live media exposure C-suite leaders undergoing media training ahead of investor events, public testimony, or broadcast interviews Audience outcomes A moderated panel or forum with the editorial discipline and intellectual challenge of a live news broadcast Executives with a clearer understanding of how to communicate complex positions under real media pressure – not simulated conditions A more productive leadership dialogue: one that surfaces genuine disagreement rather than managing it toward pre-approved consensus Practical techniques for live interview performance, grounded in the experience of 10,000+ actual broadcast interviews Increased confidence in high-stakes public settings, drawn from observing how the world’s most scrutinised figures handle live questioning