Geopolitics

Why organisations work with Jürgen Stark He sat on the ECB Governing Council during the eurozone sovereign debt crisis and resigned over the bond-buying programme that followed, giving audiences a first-person account of how the institution actually decides Two terms as Vice President of the Bundesbank and a State Secretary role at the German Federal Ministry of Finance put him inside the negotiations that shaped the Maastricht framework and the Stability and Growth Pact He reads ECB communications as a former author of them, useful for treasurers and CIOs trying to distinguish signalling from substance in central bank language His position is consistently hawkish on inflation and fiscal discipline, a stance organisations seek when they want a counterweight to consensus macro views Biography highlights Member of the Executive Board and Chief Economist of the European Central Bank, 2006 to 2011 Vice President of the Deutsche Bundesbank for two consecutive terms, 1998 to 2006 State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry of Finance and G7/G8 sherpa to Chancellor Helmut Kohl, 1995 to 1998 Doctorate in economics, University of Tübingen; honorary professor at Eberhard Karls University Tübingen Member of the Amundi Global Advisory Board and the Bertelsmann Stiftung Board of Trustees Biography The September 2011 resignation from the European Central Bank is the most economical way to understand Jürgen Stark’s intellectual position. He left the Governing Council three years before the end of his term, in disagreement with the bond purchases of Italian and Spanish sovereign debt that the ECB had begun under its Securities Markets Programme. The institution attributed his departure to personal reasons; the substantive reason was a disagreement about what a central bank’s mandate actually permits. That disagreement is the through-line of his career. Two terms as Vice President of the Deutsche Bundesbank, from 1998 to 2006, placed him at the centre of German monetary policy across the introduction of the euro and the first decade of eurozone operation. Earlier, as State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry of Finance, he served as G7 sherpa to Chancellor Helmut Kohl through the period that produced the Stability and Growth Pact. The doctorate from Tübingen and the honorary professorship that followed are the academic anchors of a career that has otherwise been operational. He continues to write and speak on eurozone fiscal architecture, monetary policy, and the institutional credibility of central banks, and sits on the Amundi Global Advisory Board and the Bertelsmann Stiftung Board of Trustees. What he offers a senior audience is not commentary at one remove from the institutions, but the position of someone who held the chief economist’s seat at the ECB during the crisis that defined the modern eurozone, and resigned from it on principle. Key speaking topics European monetary policy and the ECB mandate Eurozone fiscal architecture and the Stability and Growth Pact Inflation, interest rates, and central bank credibility Sovereign debt and the eurozone sovereign debt crisis Macroeconomic outlook for the euro area Central bank communication and market signalling Ideal for Boards, audit committees, and CFOs setting capital allocation policy under eurozone monetary uncertainty Bank treasurers, asset managers, and institutional investors reading ECB and Bundesbank policy direction Public policy and economic forums where a first-person account of ECB Governing Council decisions adds substance to the conversation Audience outcomes A direct reading of how ECB Governing Council decisions are actually arrived at, from someone who sat on it A position on whether current monetary policy is consistent with the institutional mandate set out at Maastricht A clear macro view from a recognised inflation hawk, useful as a counterweight when internal forecasts cluster on consensus The historical context that explains why eurozone fiscal rules exist in the form they do, and where the live tensions sit today

Why organisations work with Ian Goldin He predicted in The Butterfly Defect (2014) that a pandemic would be the most likely cause of the next global financial shock, six years before COVID. Boards looking for genuine foresight on systemic risk treat that record as evidence, not branding. He forecasts growth prospects across regions, including the US, Europe, China, and Asia, and across sectors such as manufacturing, banking, and AI. Asset allocators, central banks, and multinational boards use that view to stress-test capital and operating decisions over a five to fifteen year horizon. Few speakers carry both operating and academic authority on globalisation: Vice President of the World Bank, Chief Executive of the Development Bank of Southern Africa, and Founding Director of the Oxford Martin School. His work translates directly into capital and policy decisions on geoeconomics, supply chains, urbanisation, and the impact of AI on jobs and development. These are the live questions on most international boards heading into the late 2020s. He moderates and facilitates as well as keynotes. Clients including J.P. Morgan and pharmaceutical and legal industry events have used him to open and connect multi-day programmes, shape agendas, and chair leadership conversations on top of delivering the headline keynote. Biography highlights Vice President of the World Bank (2003-2006) and Director of Development Policy (2001-2003). Chief Executive of the Development Bank of Southern Africa (1996-2001), advising President Nelson Mandela. Founding Director of the Oxford Martin School (2006-2016), establishing 45 research programmes and over 500 affiliated academics. Professor of Globalisation and Development, University of Oxford, and Professorial Fellow at Balliol College. Author of 25 books including The Butterfly Defect (Princeton, 2014), Age of the City (Bloomsbury, 2023, FT Best Books of 2023), and The Shortest History of Migration (Old Street, 2024). Writer and presenter of three BBC documentary series, including After the Crash and The Pandemic that Changed the World, and the BBC Analysis The Death of Globalisation (2023). Biography In 2014, The Butterfly Defect argued that the next major global financial shock was most likely to come from a pandemic running through the connective tissue of globalisation. Six years later, COVID proved the case. The book, written with Mike Mariathasan and published by Princeton, was Ian Goldin’s clearest statement of a thesis he had been building for two decades: globalisation has produced extraordinary gains and a new class of systemic risk that institutions are not yet built to manage. That argument carries weight because of where it comes from. Goldin was Vice President of the World Bank and, before that, Chief Executive of the Development Bank of Southern Africa, where he advised President Nelson Mandela through the early post-apartheid years. He was Principal Economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and a Programme Director at the OECD in Paris. The institutions sit behind the books. At Oxford, he founded the Oxford Martin School in 2006 and ran it for a decade, building 45 research programmes across more than 100 disciplines. He now leads three Oxford Martin programmes on technological and economic change, the future of work, and the future of development. His books, 25 in total, run from Exceptional People on migration to Age of the City on urban futures, with The Shortest History of Migration arriving in 2024. What boards and governments use him for is harder than topic coverage. It is the ability to connect migration, AI, climate, and supply chain stress into a coherent picture of where capital, talent, and political risk are moving over a five to fifteen year horizon, with the operational scars to know which policy moves actually land. Key speaking topics Economic growth prospects across countries, regions, and sectors Geopolitics, geoeconomics, and the fracturing rules-based order Systemic risk and globalisation AI, jobs, and the future of work The future of cities and urbanisation Long-horizon scenarios and crisis recovery Migration and demographic change Ideal for Boards and executive committees of multinationals navigating geopolitical exposure, supply chain risk, and growth divergence across regions. Government, central bank, and multilateral audiences setting policy on development, AI, and climate. Investor and asset-allocator forums sizing long-horizon risk across regions and sectors. CSOs, heads of strategy, and CFOs responsible for capital decisions under macro and political uncertainty. Audience outcomes A clearer reading of how today’s shocks connect: pandemics, AI, migration, climate, and political fracture as one system. Specific arguments and evidence boards can use when stress-testing strategy against the next decade of global change. A sharper view of how growth prospects diverge across regions and sectors, and what that means for capital allocation, supply chains, and talent strategy. Confidence to challenge assumptions baked into long-range plans, sourced from someone who has run the institutions setting global policy.

Why organisations work with Hugo Dixon Direct access to the thinking behind the Ukraine Reparations Loan, a $300bn policy proposal he co-authored that has been endorsed at European Commission level. A founder’s view of financial commentary as a business: he built Breakingviews from a 350-word format into a global Reuters franchise and sold it for £13m. Two decades of senior FT and Reuters editorial perspective on European banking, sovereign debt, and macro risk, applied to the questions boards are actually asking now. A track record of converting analysis into political action, through InFacts and the People’s Vote campaign, that few commentators of his standing can match. Biography highlights Founder of Breakingviews; sold to Reuters in 2009 for £13m. Editor-at-Large / Commentator-at-Large, Reuters. Co-author, with Lee Buchheit and Daleep Singh, of the Ukraine Reparations Loan plan, endorsed by Ursula von der Leyen in her 2025 State of the Union. Former Head of Lex, Financial Times, after 13 years on the paper; began career at The Economist. Business Journalist of the Year (British Press Awards), 2000 and 2008; Decade of Excellence Award, 2008. Author, The Penguin Guide to Finance (Penguin). Biography The Ukraine Reparations Loan, the proposal to channel roughly $300bn of frozen Russian sovereign assets into Ukraine’s reconstruction without an outright seizure, was endorsed by Ursula von der Leyen in her 2025 State of the Union. Hugo Dixon is one of its three principal architects, with the sovereign debt lawyer Lee Buchheit and the economist Daleep Singh. That work sits at the seam he has occupied for two decades: where financial structure meets geopolitical decision. After thirteen years at the Financial Times, latterly as Head of Lex, Dixon left in 1999 to co-found Breakingviews, a financial commentary business he sold to Reuters in 2009 for £13m and continued to edit until 2012. He now writes as Reuters’ Commentator-at-Large, with a focus on Europe, Russia, sovereign assets, and the EU’s macro choices. He was twice named Business Journalist of the Year at the British Press Awards and won the Decade of Excellence Award in 2008. He is the author of The Penguin Guide to Finance. Dixon also has a record of translating analysis into political infrastructure. He founded and edited InFacts, the fact-based campaign against Brexit, and was a co-founder and leader of the People’s Vote campaign. For boards weighing geopolitical exposure, EU policy direction, or the financial mechanics of supporting Ukraine, he offers the rare combination of an insider’s grasp of the instruments and an operator’s grasp of what moves in Brussels. Key speaking topics Russia, Ukraine and the frozen sovereign assets question The EU’s macro and policy direction European banking and sovereign debt Brexit and UK-EU relations Financial markets and capital allocation Geopolitical risk for boards Ideal for Boards and audit committees with exposure to Russia, sanctions, or EU policy shifts CFOs and treasurers tracking sovereign debt and frozen-asset developments Senior teams in banking, asset management, and insurance with European footprints Foundations, policy institutions, and corporate affairs leaders working on Ukraine reconstruction Audience outcomes A clear read of where the frozen Russian assets debate is heading and what the realistic European pathways look like. Sharper framing of EU policy direction post the 2024 to 2026 political cycle and what it implies for capital and regulation. An informed view of UK-EU relations beyond the headlines, drawn from the inside of the Brexit fight. Connections between geopolitical decisions and concrete financial mechanisms that most macro talks leave abstract.

Why organisations work with Sir Howard Davies He is the only person to have both designed the UK’s single financial regulatory architecture – merging nine agencies into the FSA between 1997 and 2003 – and then governed a major commercial bank as its chair. That double vantage point is not replicable by any other speaker in this space. His 2022 book The Chancellors (Polity Press), based on direct interviews with UK Chancellors of the Exchequer, provides boards with a forensic account of how fiscal and monetary policy decisions are actually made under political constraint – directly relevant to any organisation calibrating its exposure to policy risk. He maintains current, published views on global regulatory fragmentation, ESG retreat in financial services, and the direction of financial supervision through his Project Syndicate column and Financial Times contributions – his perspective is live, not retrospective. His tenure as Director-General of the Confederation of British Industry gives him a period in his career where he represented the commercial case in dialogue with regulators and government – meaning he understands regulatory negotiation from the business side as well as the supervisory side. As Chair of Inigo Limited at Lloyd’s of London and a member of a Chinese securities regulatory advisory council, he brings active, multi-jurisdictional board-level experience to questions about how regulatory divergence is reshaping global financial markets. Biography highlights Founding Chairman, UK Financial Services Authority (1997-2003) – created the UK’s single financial regulator by merging nine separate agencies Deputy Governor, Bank of England (1995-1997) Chair, NatWest Group (2015-2024) Director, London School of Economics and Political Science (2003-2011) Professor of Practice, Sciences Po, Paris – teaches financial regulation and central banking at master’s level Six published books on finance and economic policy, including Banking on the Future (Princeton University Press, 2010) and The Chancellors (Polity Press, 2022) Regular contributor to Project Syndicate and the Financial Times Director-General, Confederation of British Industry (1992-1995) Chair, UK Airports Commission (2012-2015) Knight Bachelor (2000) Biography Financial regulation is not a technical discipline that sits at the edge of the boardroom. It is a political process that reshapes the commercial options available to every regulated institution – and boards that treat it as a compliance matter, rather than a strategic one, tend to be late to the table when the framework shifts. Sir Howard Davies has operated at the centre of that process for three decades. As founding Chairman of the UK Financial Services Authority, he created the country’s single financial regulator from scratch between 1997 and 2003, merging nine separate agencies into one body. That work – designing supervisory architecture under political instruction, negotiating between commercial interests and public mandates – gives him a form of institutional authority that no amount of academic or advisory work can replicate. His earlier role as Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, and his preceding three years as Director-General of the Confederation of British Industry, adds the monetary policy and business lobby dimensions to a perspective that is genuinely triangulated across the full regulatory relationship. From 2015 to 2024 he served as Chair of NatWest Group, guiding the bank through a nine-year transformation from a state-aided institution to a commercially independent one. Governance under political scrutiny, board accountability in a regulated environment, and reputational risk in real time are not abstractions in his work – they are operational experience. His six published books, among them The Chancellors (Polity Press, 2022), based on direct interviews with UK Chancellors of the Exchequer, bring the same analytical rigour to economic policymaking that his regulatory career brought to financial supervision. He is currently Chair of Inigo Limited at Lloyd’s of London, a member of the International Advisory Council of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, and Professor of Practice at Sciences Po in Paris, where he teaches financial regulation and central banking. For boards in regulated sectors trying to read the direction of travel in financial supervision – across jurisdictions, not just domestically – his vantage point is without direct equivalent. Key speaking topics Financial regulation and regulatory reform Banking governance and board oversight Central banking and monetary policy Economic policy and the role of the Treasury Regulatory risk and political risk in financial services Global financial markets and cross-border regulatory divergence ESG strategy in financial services Ideal for Boards and audit/risk committees in banks, insurers, and asset managers Financial regulators, policymakers, and supervisory bodies CHROs and general counsel in highly regulated sectors navigating governance reform Senior leaders in institutional investment and sovereign wealth management Audience outcomes A clearer understanding of how financial regulatory frameworks are made and how they change under political pressure – not just what the current rules are Practical framing of the governance responsibilities that sit above compliance, drawn from direct board experience at a major UK bank Perspective on the direction of global regulatory divergence, including between US, EU, and UK supervisory approaches A more calibrated view of how monetary policy decisions interact with fiscal policy, and what that means for strategic planning in financial institutions Insight into how the regulator-board relationship works in practice – and where it typically breaks down

Why organisations work with Herman Van Rompuy He chaired the European Council through the sovereign debt crisis and can explain, from the inside, how decisions on the euro, the Fiscal Compact, and the European Stability Mechanism were actually brokered between 27 national capitals. He is a trained economist, not a career politician alone; his National Bank of Belgium background means he reads monetary policy, bank regulation and fiscal governance with technical fluency most former heads of state lack. His 2012 report to the European Council laid the blueprint for Banking Union; leaders get direct authorship perspective on the supervisory and resolution architecture their treasury and risk teams now operate inside. He remains plugged into the current debate as President of the Board of the College of Europe and Honorary President of the European Policy Centre, so the analysis is live, not a memoir. The Charlemagne Prize is awarded for mediation and consensus-building in Europe, which is precisely what he does on stage: he translates a 27-country bargaining dynamic into language a corporate board can act on. Biography highlights First full-time President of the European Council, 2009-2014, re-elected unanimously for a second term in 2012. Prime Minister of Belgium, 2008-2009; Speaker of the House of Representatives, 2007-2008; Vice-Prime Minister and Minister of Budget, 1993-1999. Recipient of the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen, 2014. President of the Administrative Council of the College of Europe (Bruges); Honorary President of the European Policy Centre; visiting fellow at Bruegel. Author of nine books, including “Europe in the Storm: Promise and Prejudice” (Davidsfonds, 2014) on the eurozone crisis years. Holds a Master’s in Applied Economics from KU Leuven; former economist at the National Bank of Belgium. Biography When the euro came close to breaking apart in 2011 and 2012, the meetings that kept it together were chaired by one man. Herman Van Rompuy had taken up the newly created post of permanent President of the European Council in January 2010, and within months the Greek, Irish and Portuguese bailouts were on his desk. Over five years he presided over twenty-eight European Councils and eleven Euro summits, and emerged with the architecture that still governs the single currency. The substance of that period matters more than the title. Under his chairmanship the European Council agreed the European Stability Mechanism, the Fiscal Compact, and the Six-Pack and Two-Pack rules on national budgets. His June 2012 report, prepared with the Presidents of the Commission, the ECB and the Eurogroup, set out the blueprint for Banking Union; the Single Supervisory Mechanism and Single Resolution Mechanism followed. Companies doing business in Europe now operate inside the framework he helped draft. He came to the role as an economist first. A Master’s in Applied Economics from KU Leuven and an early career at the National Bank of Belgium gave him a fluency in monetary and fiscal detail that distinguishes him from most former heads of government. Belgian voters knew him as a technocratic budget minister in the 1990s before he became Prime Minister in the 2008 financial crisis, and he brought the same style to Brussels: quiet, methodical, consensus-driven. That approach has kept him inside the European debate. He is President of the Administrative Council of the College of Europe in Bruges, Honorary President of the European Policy Centre, and a visiting fellow at Bruegel. The International Charlemagne Prize, awarded in 2014, cited him as a mediator and driving force behind European unification, which is the working mode boards encounter when he sits with them on the state of the Union. Key speaking topics European Union governance and institutional reform Eurozone economic policy and monetary cooperation Banking Union and European financial stability Geopolitical risk in the European neighbourhood Crisis decision-making at heads-of-government level EU enlargement and the future of integration Belgium and the politics of coalition government Ideal for Boards and executive committees of firms with material euro-area exposure CFO and treasury leadership working under EU financial regulation Government affairs, strategy and political risk functions in multinationals Banking, insurance and asset management audiences operating inside Banking Union rules Audience outcomes A clearer read of how EU-level decisions are actually made between national capitals, institutions and the ECB A grounded view of where eurozone integration is heading and which political constraints are binding First-hand perspective on crisis leadership at the top of European politics Sharper framing of European political risk for board-level and investment committee discussions

Why organisations work with Harold James A historian’s answer to the question leaders actually ask in a crisis: is this 1973, 2008, or something new? The framework from Seven Crashes gives boards a way to test that judgement rather than guess. Institutional access earned as the IMF’s official historian, with a chair at Princeton since 1986. Few commentators on globalization sit this close to the machinery they write about. A published thesis, not a view of the week: supply-driven crises expand markets, demand-driven crises shrink them. It changes how leaders interpret inflation, tariffs, and capital controls. Track record with serious business readers, including the Financial Times Global Business Book Award for the Deutsche Bank history and an FT Best Politics Books selection for The War of Words. Biography highlights Claude and Lore Kelly Professor in European Studies, Princeton University; Professor of History and International Affairs at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs. Official historian of the International Monetary Fund. Author of Seven Crashes: The Economic Crises That Shaped Globalization (Yale University Press, 2023) and Making the European Monetary Union (Harvard University Press, 2012). Co-author of the authorised history of Deutsche Bank, winner of the Financial Times Global Business Book Award, 1996. Helmut Schmidt Prize for Economic History (2004); Ludwig Erhard Prize for writing about economics (2005); Ellen McArthur Prize for Economic History, Cambridge. Monthly columnist for Project Syndicate; associate of Princeton’s Bendheim Center for Finance. Biography Seven crashes, from the 1840s depression to Covid-19, do not all mean the same thing. In Seven Crashes (Yale, 2023), Harold James splits them into crises of supply, which tend to expand markets, and crises of demand, which tend to contract them. That distinction is the working tool he brings into boardrooms. The intellectual base is Princeton, where James has held the Claude and Lore Kelly Chair in European Studies since joining the faculty in 1986. He is Professor of History and International Affairs at the School of Public and International Affairs and an associate of the Bendheim Center for Finance. Making the European Monetary Union (Harvard, 2012) remains a standard reference on how the euro was built and what it assumed about member-state behaviour. The institutional access is unusual. James is the official historian of the International Monetary Fund, which gives him a documented inside view of how the post-war financial order actually operated through each shock. His authorised history of Deutsche Bank won the Financial Times Global Business Book Award in 1996. The War of Words, his glossary of globalization, was named to the Financial Times Best Politics Books of 2021. For corporate audiences the output is practical. A monthly Project Syndicate column tests his arguments against the news cycle. The Helmut Schmidt Prize (2004), Ludwig Erhard Prize (2005), and Cambridge’s Ellen McArthur Prize sit behind that record. When a risk committee is trying to decide whether tariffs, sanctions, or a monetary regime change is a shock or a structural shift, his Seven Crashes framework is a clean instrument for forcing that choice. Key speaking topics Globalization cycles and deglobalization Financial crises and crisis response European monetary union and the euro History of central banking Germany and the European economy International monetary and financial architecture Inflation, supply shocks, and political economy Ideal for Bank and asset manager boards setting multi-year macro and rate assumptions CROs, CFOs, and treasury leaders testing crisis playbooks against historical precedent Policy, regulatory, and central bank forums on monetary union and international finance Investor conferences and CEO summits addressing tariffs, sanctions, and the future of trade Audience outcomes A working distinction between supply-driven and demand-driven crises, with historical cases for each A sharper reading of current inflation, tariff, and capital-flow debates against the long record Perspective on the euro and European monetary policy from a historian who has written its formal history An IMF-informed view of how global financial institutions actually respond when the system is under stress

Why organisations work with Guy Verhofstadt He was the European Parliament’s Brexit Coordinator – not an observer of the UK withdrawal process but the person responsible for the Parliament’s institutional position throughout the negotiations. No analyst or commentator holds that credential. His argument for a federal “United States of Europe” as the answer to EU structural fragility is a specific, published intellectual framework developed across four books since 2006 – not a commentary position adopted after the fact. Nearly a decade as Belgian Prime Minister gave him direct, operational experience of governing within EU frameworks during periods of genuine political and economic crisis, including the eurozone’s early stress points. He co-founded the Spinelli Group in 2010, the inter-parliamentary initiative specifically designed to push for EU federalisation – giving him an active network inside European institutions that no external adviser can replicate. As President of the European Movement International and a regular contributor to Project Syndicate, he remains engaged in current EU reform debates – his perspective reflects where those debates are now, not where they were when he left office. Biography highlights Prime Minister of Belgium, 1999-2008; Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Budget, 1985-1992 European Parliament’s Brexit Coordinator and Chair of the Brexit Steering Group, 2016-2020 Leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) Group in the European Parliament, 2009-2019 Co-founder of the Spinelli Group (2010), the inter-parliamentary initiative for EU federalisation President of the European Movement International; member of the Club de Madrid Author of four books on European governance, including Europe’s Last Chance (Basic Books, 2017), reviewed in the Wall Street Journal and New York Review of Books; regular contributor to Project Syndicate Biography Europe’s governance architecture was designed for consensus, not speed. Any member state can block legislation, opt out of core commitments, or exit entirely, as the UK demonstrated in 2016. For organisations with material European exposure, that creates a category of political risk that is structural rather than cyclical – the kind that most standard geopolitical analysis does not reach. Guy Verhofstadt spent nearly a decade as Prime Minister of Belgium, governing a federal state at the intersection of Flemish, Walloon, and European politics. He then led the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group in the European Parliament from 2009 to 2019. Those ten years spanned the eurozone debt crisis, the refugee surge, and the early fracturing of European political consensus. When the UK triggered Article 50 in 2016, he was appointed the European Parliament’s Brexit Coordinator and chaired its Brexit Steering Group through the entire withdrawal process until 2020. That role placed him at the institutional centre of the most significant stress test EU governance had faced – not as an analyst, but as the person responsible for the Parliament’s negotiating position at every stage. His published argument, developed across books including The United States of Europe (2006) and Europe’s Last Chance (Basic Books, 2017), holds that EU structural weakness requires a federal solution. Reviewed in the Wall Street Journal and New York Review of Books, it is a practitioner’s diagnosis built on three decades inside the institutions he analyses. He remains active as President of the European Movement International and as a regular contributor to Project Syndicate. Key speaking topics EU institutional reform and governance European geopolitical risk Brexit and EU-UK relations The future of the European project Transatlantic relations and the liberal international order European economic governance and the currency union Political risk for organisations operating in Europe Ideal for CFOs, general counsel, and public affairs leads in multinationals with significant European market exposure Financial services boards and investment committees assessing European regulatory and political risk Policy and public affairs professionals tracking EU institutional reform Conference programmes focused on European geopolitics, global political risk, and the future of the international rules-based order Audience outcomes A clear account of how EU decision-making actually works and where its structural weaknesses lie – from someone who operated inside those structures at the highest level An insider’s reading of the Brexit process, its institutional mechanics, and its continuing implications for EU-UK relations A framework for assessing European political risk that goes beyond headline news and electoral cycles Grounded perspective on EU reform debates – the federal argument, its obstacles, and the realistic trajectories Context for understanding the shift from a rules-based international order to a world of competing power blocs, and what that means for organisations dependent on European stability

Graeme Leach’s Background His audiences have ranged from after-dinner speeches to large conferences, including two thousand people in the Royal Albert Hall. Graeme has built a reputation for delivering complicated economic issues in a clear, powerful and engaging way. He is also a regular commentator on both TV and radio for BBC News, Sky News, the Radio 4 Today Programme and Radio 4 World at One and has completed more than 100 live media interviews. The Chief Executive and Chief Economist of macroonomics, a geopolitics and future research consultancy launched in 2016, Leach is also a visiting professor of economic policy, a member of the IEA Shadow Monetary Policy Committee, a senior fellow of the Legatum Institute and has a weekly column in the City AM newspaper. Before forming macronomics, Graeme was Director of Economics and Prosperity Studies at the Legatum Institute which has a focus on what the drivers of Global prosperity are. During 1997 and 2014, Graeme worked as Chief Economist and Director of Policy at the Institute of Directors (IoD), where he was also a member of the Board. He has represented the IoD in economic policy discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer and 10 Downing Street. In his earlier career, he was Chief UK Economist and Chief International Economist at The Henley Centre for Forecasting. He was also Economic Advisor to the Scottish Provident Investment Group. Graeme has undertaken hundreds of live television and radio interviews including BBC News, Sky News, the Radio 4 Today Programme and Radio 4 World at One. As a speaker, Graeme has presented almost one thousand speeches in the UK in twenty five countries around the world. He has presented to audiences ranging from very large conferences including two thousand people in the Royal Albert Hall to after dinner speeches. He has built a reputation for delivering complicated economic issues to audiences in a clear, powerful and engaging way. Graeme often challenges conventional thinking and helps people to understand the big picture by having a clearer vision of tomorrow, today.

Why organisations work with George Papandreou He ran a G20 economy through the most acute phase of the eurozone crisis. His account of negotiating with the IMF, ECB and European Commission is operational, not theoretical. He has held the two roles that shape Greek and European foreign policy, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, giving him an unusual horizontal view of how European institutions actually decide. As President of the Socialist International for 16 years, he built and maintained relationships with heads of government across more than a hundred parties worldwide, which informs how he reads political risk outside Europe. His current Council of Europe role as General Rapporteur on Democracy puts him inside the live work on democratic backsliding across 46 member states, not commenting on it from outside. He brings a specific, named thesis on the eurozone, that the architecture is unfinished and that the political legitimacy of monetary union is the real binding constraint, and is willing to argue it on the record. Biography highlights Prime Minister of Greece, October 2009 to November 2011, through the first sovereign debt rescue inside the euro area. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece, 1999 to 2004, the period of the Greek-Turkish diplomatic opening. President of the Socialist International, 2006 to 2022; now President Emeritus. General Rapporteur on Democracy, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, with PACE adopting his June 2024 report on participatory and deliberative democracy. Fellow, Harvard University’s Center for International Affairs (1992 to 1993) and Institute of Politics (Fall 2012); led the IOP study group “(Re)designing Europe”. Grand Cross decorations from Germany, Spain, Belgium, Portugal, Finland and Sweden; TED Global 2013 speaker on democratic deficit and trust. Biography Greece reached the edge of default inside the euro in 2010. The government that called the IMF was led by George Papandreou, who took office in October 2009 with a public finance hole that nobody on the European side had priced in. The decisions made in the following 24 months, on austerity, on bondholder participation, on whether the eurozone would let a member state fail, shaped a decade of European economic policy. Papandreou had reached that chair through a long political career. He had been Foreign Minister from 1999 to 2004, the period associated with the Greek-Turkish rapprochement, and President of PASOK from 2004. From 2006 to 2022 he was President of the Socialist International, which gave him direct working relationships with heads of government and party leaders across more than a hundred countries. His current work is at the Council of Europe, where he is General Rapporteur on Democracy for the Parliamentary Assembly. In June 2024 PACE adopted his report calling on member states to strengthen participatory and deliberative processes, a substantive technical agenda rather than rhetorical concern about democratic decline. He has paired this with academic work at Harvard, including the Institute of Politics study group “(Re)designing Europe”, and earlier as a Fellow at the Center for International Affairs. For boards and executive audiences, the value is specificity. He can describe how the Eurogroup made decisions in the early hours of a Monday morning, why the political economy of monetary union remains the binding constraint on European integration, and how participatory democratic reforms now under negotiation will change the regulatory environment that companies face across Europe. Key speaking topics The eurozone, sovereign debt and the unfinished architecture of monetary union European political risk and the future of European integration Democratic backsliding and institutional reform in Europe Greece, Turkey and the eastern Mediterranean Crisis leadership at the level of national government Participatory and deliberative democracy Global governance and multilateral cooperation Ideal for Boards and executive committees with significant European exposure assessing political and sovereign risk Heads of public affairs and government relations working on EU institutional reform Investor audiences and capital allocators with euro area sovereign and equity positions Foreign policy and security forums focused on the eastern Mediterranean and Europe’s neighbourhood Audience outcomes A first-hand account of how a sovereign debt rescue inside the euro area was actually negotiated A reading of the political constraints that still sit underneath the euro and what could reopen them A view of which European democracies are most vulnerable to institutional erosion and why A clearer sense of how Council of Europe and EU-level democratic reforms will shape the operating environment A working framework for thinking about the link between economic shock, political legitimacy and policy

Why organisations work with Gavin Esler Four decades of frontline political reporting, including twelve years presenting Newsnight and several as BBC Chief North America Correspondent in Washington, give him a working feel for how Westminster and US politics actually behave under stress. His three political books (How Britain Ends, Brexit Without the Bullshit, Britain Is Better Than This) make a coherent argument about constitutional drift, English nationalism and institutional decay that has shaped serious debate about the UK’s direction. A Sony Gold Award and a Royal Television Society award signal that his work meets the standard of named broadcast bodies, not just bureau claims. Ten years as Chancellor of the University of Kent gave him extensive experience chairing formal occasions and speaking to large mixed audiences, which carries through to moderation and awards hosting. He is one of the few broadcasters who can move between a geopolitical keynote, a board Q and A on US politics, and a polished on-stage interview with a chief executive in the same brief. Biography highlights Main presenter of BBC Two’s Newsnight, January 2003 to January 2014. BBC Chief North America Correspondent, Washington DC, covering the Bush and Clinton administrations. Presenter of Dateline London on BBC News and BBC World News until 2017. Sixth Chancellor of the University of Kent, July 2014 to January 2024. Sony Gold Award for the BBC Radio 4 documentary Letters from Guantanamo, and a Royal Television Society award for foreign reporting. Author of Lessons from the Top (Profile Books, 2012), How Britain Ends (2021), Brexit Without the Bullshit and Britain Is Better Than This (2023). Biography Most political analysis on conference stages still treats Westminster and Washington as two separate beats. The interesting question is what happens when they are read as one continuous story about fraying constitutional settlements, contested legitimacy, and the strain these place on business planning. That is the territory Gavin Esler has worked in for four decades. He presented BBC Two’s Newsnight from 2003 to 2014, and before that was BBC Chief North America Correspondent in Washington, shaping the corporation’s US coverage through the first Bush and Clinton administrations. He went on to front Dateline London on BBC News and BBC World News, bringing foreign correspondents into weekly argument about events in their own capitals. His three political books run a consistent thread. How Britain Ends argues that English nationalism, not Scottish independence, is the force most likely to break the British union. Britain Is Better Than This reads the expenses scandal, Brexit, Partygate and the Truss premiership as symptoms of institutional decay rather than isolated failures. Lessons from the Top, written earlier, distils three decades of interviewing figures from Bill Clinton to senior military commanders into a framework for how leaders use story to hold legitimacy. He served ten years as Chancellor of the University of Kent, conferring degrees and chairing formal university occasions through a period of significant change in UK higher education. His Sony Gold Award for Letters from Guantanamo and his Royal Television Society award sit alongside that body of reporting and writing as evidence that his judgement has been tested in public for longer than most commentators now working. Key speaking topics UK politics and constitutional change Brexit and its long tail US politics and the transatlantic relationship Geopolitical risk for boards and investors Trust, disinformation and the media Leadership and storytelling On-stage interviewing and moderation Ideal for Board and executive committee sessions pricing UK and US political risk into three-year strategy. Public affairs, legal and financial services conferences needing a named political analyst rather than a generalist keynote. Awards ceremonies, annual dinners and flagship conferences that need a senior broadcaster as host, interviewer or moderator. Leadership forums examining how institutional trust erodes and how communication holds or loses legitimacy. Audience outcomes A sharper read of where UK constitutional politics is heading and what would have to be true for different outcomes. A working sense of how US political cycles translate into risk for European businesses and investors. A more concrete view of how disinformation and declining institutional trust affect corporate reputation and policy environments. A framework for how leaders use narrative to sustain authority, drawn from his interviews with heads of state and senior executives.

Why organisations work with Garry Kasparov He is the person who sat across the board from Deep Blue in 1996 and 1997. When he talks about AI and human judgement, the source material is his own. He turns chess into a working vocabulary for executive decision-making, separating strategy from tactics in a way senior leaders can use the next morning. As a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Martin School and long-time Security Ambassador for Avast, he speaks about AI, cybersecurity and privacy from inside the conversation, not as a commentator on it. His books “How Life Imitates Chess” and “Deep Thinking” give audiences a durable framework and a shared reference point after the session ends. He brings a second register that few speakers in this space can match: a first-hand view of Russia, Putin and the fragility of democratic institutions, grounded in decades of activism and the book “Winter Is Coming.” Biography highlights Youngest undisputed World Chess Champion at 22, in 1985, after defeating Anatoly Karpov. Held the world number one ranking from 1986 until his retirement from professional chess in 2005. Played IBM’s Deep Blue in 1996 and 1997, the first reigning world champion to lose a match to a computer under tournament conditions. Senior Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford, working on human-machine collaboration. Founder and chairman of the Renew Democracy Initiative; former chairman of the Human Rights Foundation. Author of “How Life Imitates Chess,” “Winter Is Coming” and “Deep Thinking: Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins.” Biography In 1997, IBM’s Deep Blue beat the reigning world chess champion under tournament conditions for the first time in history. The champion on the other side of the board was Garry Kasparov. Nearly three decades later, the questions that match raised about human judgement and machine intelligence are now the everyday questions of corporate strategy. Kasparov has spent the years since making those questions usable for leaders. At the Oxford Martin School, where he is a Senior Visiting Fellow, he works on the evolving relationship between humans and technology. As Security Ambassador for Avast, he has spent nearly a decade inside the cybersecurity and AI debate, not commenting from outside it. His book “Deep Thinking,” written with Mig Greengard, argues that machines that think are not the end of human creativity but a forcing function for it. The chess career underwrites all of it. Becoming the youngest undisputed world champion at 22, holding the number one ranking for almost twenty years, and defending the title across multiple cycles against Anatoly Karpov gave him a working vocabulary for strategy, tactics, preparation and competitive psychology. “How Life Imitates Chess” is the book executives quote back to him. The distinction he draws between long-term strategy and short-term tactics is one of the most portable ideas a senior team can bring out of a keynote. There is a second strand to the work, and buyers should know it is there. Kasparov founded the Renew Democracy Initiative in 2017 and chaired the Human Rights Foundation for over a decade. His book “Winter Is Coming” was one of the earliest serious warnings about Vladimir Putin’s intentions, written well before events made that view consensus. For audiences who want a voice on geopolitical risk alongside the AI and strategy material, he delivers it with the same directness. Key speaking topics Artificial intelligence and human-machine collaboration Strategic thinking and decision-making under pressure Cybersecurity, privacy and digital freedom The future of work in an age of intelligent machines Russia, Putin and the defence of democratic institutions Leadership, preparation and competitive performance Ideal for CEOs, boards and executive teams rethinking strategy and decision rights as AI moves deeper into the business. CIOs, CISOs and technology leaders navigating cybersecurity, AI adoption and trust. Leadership and talent events where audiences want a working model for strategy versus tactics, not a motivational talk. Policy, risk and government affairs audiences who want an informed voice on Russia and the state of liberal democracy. Audience outcomes A clear distinction between strategy and tactics that senior teams can apply to their own decisions the week after the session. A realistic view of what AI changes in knowledge work, from a speaker who lived the original turning point. Sharper questions about where human judgement still adds value, and where defending it is a waste of effort. A first-hand perspective on Russia and authoritarian risk that frames geopolitical uncertainty in concrete terms. A shared reference point, drawn from chess, that stays useful in strategy conversations long after the event.

Why organisations work with Gamal Fahnbulleh A working news anchor on ITV Granada Reports and ITV National News bulletins, which means the room gets the real calibre of live interviewer, not a retired name lending their profile. Chairs major sector conferences on the record, including the Advertising Association’s LEAD North and the Great Northern Conference at Cutlers’ Hall, Sheffield, which tells a booker he can hold a senior business audience. Comfortable across formats that most speakers are not: panel moderation, awards hosting, after-dinner remarks, keynote conversation, fireside Q and A, and virtual hybrid sessions. Brings a serious journalistic backbone to the hosting role: Manchester politics and international politics graduate, postgraduate broadcast journalism at City, an embed with the British Army in Afghanistan behind him, so the room trusts him on substantive subject matter. Recognised by his own industry for presenting craft: a 2021 Royal Television Society nomination for Best Regional Presenter, and a contributor to ITV Granada’s RTS North West Award for Best Regional Story in 2010. Biography highlights Co-presenter of ITV Granada Reports for North West England and the Isle of Man, anchoring alongside Lucy Meacock since January 2021. Relief presenter on ITV National News bulletins, including News at Ten. Former Sky News anchor across Sky News Breakfast, Sky News Tonight and Sky News at Ten. Chair and host at the Advertising Association’s LEAD North conference and the Great Northern Conference 2021 at Cutlers’ Hall, Sheffield. Nominated for Best Regional Presenter, Royal Television Society, 2021. Postgraduate Diploma in Broadcast Journalism, City, University of London; BA Honours in Politics and History and MA in International Politics, University of Manchester. Biography Most conference agendas collapse at the join between sessions. The keynote lands, the panel files on, and the conversation loses altitude because no one in the chair knows how to translate energy from one format into the next. That translation is the craft a working news anchor brings to a live room, and it is why senior booker teams at the Advertising Association’s LEAD North and the Great Northern Conference in Sheffield have handed Gamal Fahnbulleh the microphone. He is a working journalist first. He co-presents ITV Granada Reports for the North West of England and the Isle of Man with Lucy Meacock, anchors relief shifts on ITV National News bulletins, and previously held anchor positions across Sky News Breakfast, Sky News Tonight and Sky News at Ten. His industry nominated him for Best Regional Presenter at the Royal Television Society Awards in 2021. The journalistic authority is earned. He read Politics and History at the University of Manchester, added an MA in International Politics, and trained in broadcast journalism at City, University of London before winning one of ten places on the ITV News Group Bursary Scheme. He later embedded with the 1st Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment on a tour of Afghanistan, contributing to ITV Granada’s RTS North West Award for Best Regional Story in 2010. For corporate clients, the practical value is simple. He can host an awards night, chair a panel of chief executives, conduct a fireside interview, and moderate a hybrid session without the room feeling a change in gear. He is booked for hosting craft, and he treats every brief as live television. Key speaking topics Conference chairing and panel moderation Awards night and after-dinner hosting Fireside interviews with senior leaders Broadcast journalism and live news craft Reporting from conflict zones and embedded military journalism Regional economic and leadership conversations International affairs and global news context Ideal for Annual conferences requiring a chair who can hold a senior executive audience for a full day. Awards ceremonies and gala dinners that need a host with live-broadcast pacing and on-camera presence. Panel events where CEOs, investors or public-sector leaders expect real questions rather than polite ones. Media, advertising and regional-growth conferences where journalistic credibility matters to the room. Audience outcomes A tightly run agenda that stays on time across keynote, panel and audience-Q-and-A transitions. Sharper panel conversations, because the chair knows when to follow up and when to move on. Senior speakers drawn out on the specific points the audience came to hear, not the ones they rehearsed. A room that leaves feeling the event was serious, not stage-managed.