Geopolitics speakers

Why organisations work with Pankaj Mishra His Age of Anger thesis ties populist nationalism in the US, Britain, India, Russia and Turkey to the same 19th-century intellectual origins, giving boards a single coherent frame for what most analysts treat as separate national stories. He brings the perspective of the world’s majority, drawn from original archival work across India, China, Iran and Turkey, into rooms where geopolitical analysis is still calibrated to a Western-led order. He works at the level of cause. Most commentary explains what just happened; his books explain why this kind of thing keeps happening across very different countries. Yale’s Windham-Campbell Literature Prize, the Weston International Award and a Royal Society of Literature fellowship sit behind two decades of essays in the New York Review of Books, the New Yorker, Foreign Policy and the Guardian. The name carries weight in senior rooms. His 2025 book, The World After Gaza, is one of the most discussed treatments of the moral rupture in the global order since October 7, useful for any leadership team weighing reputational and political risk in a polarised market. Biography highlights Author of From the Ruins of Empire: The Revolt Against the West and the Remaking of Asia (2012), winner of Germany’s Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding in 2014, the first non-Western writer to take the prize. Author of Age of Anger: A History of the Present (2017), Bland Fanatics: Liberals, Race and Empire (2020) and The World After Gaza: A History (Penguin Press, 2025). Recipient of Yale University’s Windham-Campbell Literature Prize for nonfiction (2014) and the Weston International Award for career achievement in nonfiction (2024). Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Long-form contributor to the New York Review of Books, the New Yorker, the Guardian, the London Review of Books, the New York Times, Foreign Policy and Harper’s. Previously a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. Past visiting fellowships at the Cullman Center for Writers and Scholars at the New York Public Library and the Department of English at University College London. Biography The populist nationalism remaking democracies from Washington to Delhi to Ankara to Moscow is usually told as four separate stories. The argument running through Pankaj Mishra’s books is that they share a single 18th-century origin. A slow global civil war over the meaning of progress has been underway ever since. In Age of Anger (2017), he traced the rage and resentment of the present to Rousseau’s quarrel with Voltaire and the disappointed promises of European modernity. From the Ruins of Empire (2012), which won Germany’s Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding, ran the same exercise in reverse. It followed the Asian intellectuals (Tagore, Liang Qichao, Jamal al-Din al-Afghani) who watched their civilisations being subordinated by the West. The intellectual apparatus they built shapes everything today, from Chinese state strategy to political Islam. His latest book, The World After Gaza (Penguin Press, 2025), reads the post-1945 moral order through the present war and the global response to it. It has placed him at the centre of one of the most consequential intellectual debates of the moment. The book builds on the body of nonfiction that won Yale’s Windham-Campbell Literature Prize and the 2024 Weston International Award for career achievement. For senior audiences, the value is not commentary on the news. Mishra works the level beneath it: the long-running shifts in power and legitimacy that determine where capital and credibility actually go. The Weston jury described him as “a writer for and of this difficult and complex world we are creating.” That captures why his analysis is in demand whenever the meaning of the present moment is genuinely in question. Key speaking topics The roots of populism and political anger Geopolitical risk and the post-1945 global order The view from the global majority Nationalism, identity and the politics of resentment India under Modi and the geopolitics of South Asia The intellectual history of modernity Decolonisation and its long aftermath Ideal for Boards and CEOs setting strategy in markets where political risk and the shifting balance between Western and non-Western centres of power materially affect long-horizon decisions Investment committees, sovereign wealth funds and family offices with significant exposure across emerging markets and the wider Global South Senior leadership off-sites where the geopolitical context of capital allocation and major strategic decisions is on the agenda Audiences in financial services, energy, media, foreign policy and academia who buy serious intellectual content over motivational commentary Audience outcomes A unified intellectual frame for the populism and political anger reshaping major democracies. Most coverage offers separate national stories; Mishra shows them as one connected phenomenon. A clearer sense of how the rest of the world reads the same shift in the global order, and what that means for organisations operating across the West and non-West. Historical context for the present moment that goes well beyond the news cycle, with arguments built from original archival research. Sharper questions to take into long-horizon strategic discussions, particularly on political risk and on operating in markets aligned to non-Western centres of power.

Why organisations work with Paolo Petrocelli He runs a flagship cultural institution and can speak to the operating discipline behind cultural ambition, not the slogan version. His work in cultural diplomacy is recognised by named bodies that buyers respect: the World Economic Forum, the Italian Republic, the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, UNESCO. He bridges Europe and the Gulf at a moment when both regions are rewriting their cultural and economic positioning, and he has executive experience inside that bridge. He is a credible voice on how youth, talent, and creative capital flow internationally, with a track record of building institutions that move those flows in practice. Biography highlights Head of Dubai Opera since 2023. Young Global Leader, World Economic Forum, Class of 2023. Knight of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. Founder and President of EMMA for Peace; co-founder of Opera for Peace. PhD, IULM Milan; Executive MBA, SDA Bocconi; Oxford Executive Leadership Programme, Said Business School. Author of The Evolution of Opera Theatre in the Middle East and North Africa, Cambridge Scholars Publishing; research affiliate at metaLAB at Harvard; Forbes contributor and TEDx speaker. Biography Dubai Opera is the kind of asset a city builds when it wants to be taken seriously on the international stage. Running it is closer to running an embassy than running a theatre. The person commissioning a season is making decisions about national positioning, talent attraction, and the symbolic capital of a place. Petrocelli took over the institution in 2023, after building EMMA for Peace into one of the better-known music-diplomacy platforms operating between Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. The World Economic Forum named him a Young Global Leader the same year. His earlier book on the evolution of opera theatres in the MENA region, published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, is one of the few serious surveys of cultural infrastructure across a region now investing heavily in it. The credential set is unusual. A PhD in cultural economics from IULM Milan and an Executive MBA from SDA Bocconi sit alongside an Oxford Executive Leadership certificate from Said Business School and a research affiliation at metaLAB at Harvard. He has held cultural diplomacy roles for the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates and within UNESCO-aligned youth structures. The Italian state has knighted him in the Order of Merit. What makes him commercially distinctive is the combination of operating responsibility and diplomatic standing. Most cultural strategists write about soft power from outside it. He runs one of its more visible instruments while sitting on the platforms that shape policy around it. Key speaking topics Cultural diplomacy and soft power Leadership of mission-driven cultural institutions Culture, creative industries and global development The Gulf, Europe and the new geography of cultural capital Music and the arts in international relations Youth, talent and the future of cultural leadership Cultural strategy for nations, cities and corporates Ideal for Government and city leaders working on cultural positioning, place branding, or soft-power strategy Boards and CEOs of foundations, sponsors, and corporates with serious cultural portfolios Heads of public affairs, communications, and brand who treat culture as strategy rather than sponsorship Senior leaders in international organisations and diplomatic services working on cultural cooperation Audience outcomes A clearer view of why culture has become a strategic asset for nations, cities and major brands A working sense of how cultural institutions actually run, and where ambition fails in execution Specific examples of soft power and music diplomacy as instruments of international standing A read on where the centre of gravity in global culture is shifting, and what it means for talent, capital, and policy

Why organisations work with Paolo Scaroni He has run two of Europe’s largest energy companies, Enel from 2002 to 2005 and Eni from 2005 to 2014, through privatisation, restructuring and the early phase of the energy transition. He brings a working view of natural gas as a transition fuel from inside the boardrooms that bought, sold and shipped it, not from the outside as an analyst. His current chairmanship of Enel and nine years as Deputy Chairman of Rothschild & Co give him an unusually current read on capital allocation, M&A and governance in the European energy sector. He has sat on the boards of Veolia, BAE Systems, ABN AMRO, Alstom, Assicurazioni Generali and the London Stock Exchange, which gives him cross-sector reference points few energy speakers can offer. Discussions are pragmatic rather than ideological, useful for boards trying to reconcile net zero commitments with capital, supply and political reality. Biography highlights CEO of Enel from May 2002 to May 2005 and CEO of Eni from 2005 to 2014. Chairman of Enel since May 2023; Chairman of A.C. Milan since July 2018. Deputy Chairman of Rothschild & Co Group from May 2014 to May 2023. CEO of Pilkington plc in London from 1997 to 2002, leading the turnaround of one of the world’s largest flat glass manufacturers; earlier CEO of Techint from 1985 to 1996. Past non-executive director at Veolia Environment, BAE Systems, ABN AMRO, Alstom and Assicurazioni Generali; former Vice Chairman of the London Stock Exchange. Cavaliere del Lavoro (2004) and member of the Légion d’honneur (2007); Bocconi graduate and Columbia Business School MBA. Biography European energy is being asked to do three things at once: decarbonise, stay secure and remain affordable. Few executives have made those trade-offs at the scale Paolo Scaroni has. As CEO of Enel from 2002 and then of Eni from 2005 to 2014, he ran Italy’s two largest energy companies through privatisation, restructuring and the first wave of the climate agenda. At Enel he abandoned the multi-utility model and pushed the group back into core energy, set up a dedicated wind business, and brought the company into the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. At Eni he tilted the portfolio away from oil toward natural gas, framing gas as a transition fuel, and the group’s net worth rose from EUR 39 billion to EUR 61 billion over his tenure. Eni was added to the Carbon Performance Leadership Index in 2012. After Eni he spent nine years as Deputy Chairman of Rothschild & Co, advising on European deals across the energy and industrial sectors, before being appointed Chairman of Enel in May 2023. He has chaired A.C. Milan since 2018, including through the club’s 2022 Scudetto and the change of ownership to RedBird Capital. Past non-executive seats at Veolia, BAE Systems, ABN AMRO, Alstom, Assicurazioni Generali and the London Stock Exchange give him a working view of governance across regulated industries. His public position on the energy transition is unusually direct: renewables alone will not get Europe to its CO2 targets, energy efficiency and nuclear have to be part of the answer, and gas is the realistic bridge. That argument carries weight because he had to allocate capital against it, not just write about it. Key speaking topics Energy transition and energy security Geopolitical and regulatory risk in energy markets Natural gas, nuclear and the realistic path to net zero Large-scale transformation in legacy industries Board governance and stakeholder management in regulated sectors Capital allocation in capital-intensive industries European industrial competitiveness Ideal for Boards and executive committees in energy, utilities, industrials and infrastructure CFOs, heads of strategy and corporate development weighing transition capex Investor and lender audiences focused on European energy and industrial credit Senior leadership teams reframing decarbonisation strategy against geopolitical risk Audience outcomes A grounded read on where European energy security and the transition timetable actually meet. A sharper view of how natural gas, nuclear and renewables fit together in a credible decarbonisation plan. Boardroom-tested judgement on geopolitical and regulatory risk in capital-intensive industries. A reference frame from someone who has chaired and run companies on both sides of the energy table.

Why organisations work with Paolo Surico He has shown, using household and firm micro-data, that most of the consumption response to interest rates comes from mortgaged households, which is the single most useful framing for any business modelling consumer demand under a rate cycle. His American Economic Review paper on the long-run effects of government spending was cited in the UK Chancellor’s Spring Statement, which is rare evidence that academic work has moved actual fiscal policy. His advisory portfolio with the Bank of England, European Central Bank, European Commission, and Financial Conduct Authority means he reads central bank communications from the inside, not as a commentator. His ESRC GBP 1 million grant and ERC Starting Grant put him in the top tier of European macroeconomists by independent funder validation. He translates technical macro into language a non-economist board can use, which is the reason financial services and professional services firms book him repeatedly. Biography highlights Professor of Economics, London Business School Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research; Research Associate, LSE Centre for Macroeconomics Co-author, “The Long-Run Effects of Government Spending,” American Economic Review (2025), cited in the UK Chancellor’s Spring Statement Awarded a GBP 1 million ESRC grant for “Long-Run Consequences of Business-Cycle Fluctuations”; recipient of an ERC Starting Grant Former Adviser to the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee; consultant to the European Central Bank, European Commission, and Financial Conduct Authority Regular contributor and commentator in the Financial Times, The Economist, Il Sole 24 Ore, and Corriere della Sera Biography Most macroeconomic commentary stops at the aggregate. Surico’s work begins where it usually ends: with the household and the firm. Using micro-data from the US and UK, he has shown that mortgaged households drive most of the consumption response to interest rate changes, while outright owners barely move at all. That finding has reframed how central banks think about transmission, and it gives commercial leaders something more useful than a forecast. His 2025 American Economic Review paper with Juan Antolin-Diaz, “The Long-Run Effects of Government Spending,” used 125 years of US data to show that military and public R&D spending produce large, persistent growth effects through their composition, not their size. The paper was cited in the UK Chancellor’s Spring Statement, which is an unusually direct line between academic research and fiscal policy. The credentials are substantial. Fellow of CEPR, Research Associate at the LSE Centre for Macroeconomics, former Adviser to the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, current consultant to the European Central Bank and European Commission. A GBP 1 million ESRC grant and an ERC Starting Grant sit behind the academic record. He writes regularly for the Financial Times, The Economist, and the major Italian financial press. What sets him apart for boardroom audiences is the bridge he builds between empirical macro and decisions a leadership team has to make this quarter. When he talks about household debt, demographic change, or the redistributive effects of monetary policy, the argument lands in concrete terms that a CFO, a head of strategy, or a wealth-management chief can act on. Key speaking topics Monetary policy transmission and household debt Public debt sustainability and fiscal outlook Government spending, innovation, and long-run growth Inequality and the macroeconomy Housing, credit, and financial markets Demographic change and macroeconomic policy Ideal for CFO, treasury, and finance leadership teams in financial services, asset management, and insurance Boards and executive committees stress-testing strategy against rate, fiscal, and policy scenarios Wealth and private banking client events where senior clients want substantive macro analysis Strategy and economic-policy functions in industrials, real estate, and consumer-facing sectors Audience outcomes A clearer view of how rate decisions actually move through mortgaged households, renters, and balance sheets, rather than aggregate models A framework for reading central bank communications from the inside of the policy process Specific implications of public debt and government spending trajectories for medium-term growth and capital allocation A grounded read on inequality as a macroeconomic amplifier, not a social commentary point

Why organisations work with Parag Khanna A trilogy of books on global order, connectivity and the Asian century gives clients a coherent thesis on where capital, people and supply chains are moving, not a topical scan of headlines. Founder of AlphaGeo, which operationalises his frameworks as geospatial risk analytics for institutional investors, so the work in the room connects to a product used inside investment processes. Advised US Special Operations Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and the US National Intelligence Council’s Global Trends programme, which sharpens the briefing for boards weighing political risk and sanctions exposure. Sits inside the Gulf and Asian capital-allocation conversation through the UAE Ministry of Economy’s International Advisory Council and a senior advisory role at Gulf Capital, giving Western audiences access to perspectives they rarely hear directly. Multi-pillar fluency on geopolitics, climate adaptation and demographic mobility means a single keynote can reframe the same investment committee on country risk, supply chain and talent strategy. Biography highlights Founder and CEO, AlphaGeo, an AI-powered geospatial analytics platform for institutional investors. Author of seven books including Connectography, The Future is Asian and MOVE, published by Random House, Simon and Schuster and W&N. PhD in International Relations, London School of Economics; BSc and MA, Georgetown School of Foreign Service. Senior Geopolitical Adviser to US Special Operations Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan (2007); adviser to the US National Intelligence Council’s Global Trends programme. Named Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and one of Esquire’s “75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century”. Visiting Senior Fellow, LSE Data Science Institute (2025-27); member, UAE Ministry of Economy International Advisory Council. Biography The argument that capital follows borders has stopped working. Supply chains, energy flows, migration and digital infrastructure now describe the world more accurately than the political map, and Parag Khanna has spent two decades building the data and the language to read it. His trilogy Connectography, The Future is Asian and MOVE traces that shift from theory through to the operating reality facing investment committees and corporate boards. The work sits on serious institutional ground. A PhD from the London School of Economics, two degrees from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, and senior research posts at Brookings, the New America Foundation and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore. He has advised US Special Operations Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and the US National Intelligence Council’s Global Trends programme, work that informs how he handles questions on sanctions, China exposure and political risk in front of senior audiences. What separates the speaking work from the wider geopolitics circuit is that he runs the product. AlphaGeo, the company he founded and leads as CEO, turns the same geospatial and scenario frameworks into analytics used by sovereign wealth funds, pension plans and asset managers. The result is a keynote that connects a global thesis to the country, sector and asset-level decisions a board is already wrestling with. He also sits inside the conversations Western audiences rarely access directly. A seat on the UAE Ministry of Economy’s International Advisory Council, a senior advisory role at Gulf Capital, and a long working relationship with Asian governments and family offices give him a view of where Gulf and Asian capital is actually being committed, and why. Key speaking topics Geopolitical risk and the new global macro Asia, the Gulf and shifting capital flows Supply chain restructuring and connectivity Climate-driven migration and demographic mobility Country risk for institutional investors AI-powered geospatial analytics for decision-making Scenario planning and strategic foresight Ideal for Boards and investment committees of asset managers, pension funds and sovereign wealth funds reweighting country and sector exposure CEOs and CSOs of multinationals revising supply chain, China and Gulf strategy Heads of strategy, risk and policy in financial services, energy and infrastructure Family office principals and private equity partners pricing geopolitical and climate risk into capital decisions Audience outcomes A working thesis on where capital, people and supply chains are moving over the next decade, anchored to named regions and corridors A clearer read on China exposure, sanctions risk and the Gulf and Asian counter-cycle for committee-level conversations Practical framing for how climate-driven migration and demographic shifts intersect with country risk Exposure to how leading sovereign and institutional investors are using geospatial analytics inside live investment processes

Why organisations work with Pascal Coppens Twenty years living and working in China, eleven of them building his own companies in Shanghai. Coppens co-founded Polycore Software in Silicon Valley, founded Letsface in Shanghai, and created Sinnolabs, a growth accelerator preparing Belgian companies for China entry. Three books, one continuous argument: China’s New Normal (2019), Can We Trust China? (2022) and China’s Next Miracle (2026) follow China from copycat to standard-setter to intellectual property creator. In 2019 he named ten sectors where China would set the global innovation standard by 2025. Huawei, TikTok, TEMU, Ant, BYD, DJI, and BGI have since made the case for him. The eight circles of trust framework in Can We Trust China? gives Western leaders analytical ground on a polarised question, neither cheerleading China nor reducing it to threat. Biography highlights Author of three books on modern China: China’s New Normal (2019), Can We Trust China? (2022), and China’s Next Miracle (2026). Master’s in Eastern Languages and Cultures from Ghent University and Business Engineering degree from Solvay Business School (Free University of Brussels). Twenty years living and working in Shanghai and Beijing, with several years in San Francisco; founder of Letsface, co-founder of Polycore Software, creator of Sinnolabs. Partner at nexxworks; delivers close to 100 keynotes a year for clients including Mastercard, Microsoft, Salesforce, Huawei, Walmart, P&G, S.W.I.F.T., Rabobank, EY, and PWC, and teaches at CEDEP (INSEAD) and London Business School. YouTube channel Pascal’s China Lens with 65,000+ subscribers and 4 million views; regular guest on Belgian public broadcaster VRT; co-host of the Radar podcast with Peter Hinssen and Steven Van Belleghem. Biography Chinese companies now lead in electric vehicles, mobile payments, social commerce, drone manufacturing, and consumer AI. The country has moved past the cheap-factory phase that shaped Western mental models. Western executives are now competing against or partnering with companies whose innovation logic they were not trained to read. Coppens has spent two decades operating on both sides of that gap. He began at the Alcatel joint venture Shanghai Bell in 2000, moved to San Francisco with Wind River Systems, and co-founded Polycore Software in Silicon Valley in 2004. He returned to Shanghai in 2005 and later founded Letsface, an offline community platform for premium global brands. His primary sources were the hundreds of Chinese innovators he employed and competed against. Three books trace a developing argument. China’s New Normal (2019) mapped ten sectors where Chinese companies would set the innovation standard by 2025, with predictions on Huawei, BYD, DJI, TikTok, and Ant largely borne out. Can We Trust China? (2022) tackled the trust deficit fuelling Western fear, building an eight circles of trust framework as an analytical handle on a polarising question. China’s Next Miracle (2026) tracks the shift from market innovation to intellectual property creation, and China’s geostrategic alignment with the Global South. Coppens delivers close to 100 keynotes a year for Fortune 500 audiences and advises boards and management teams on China. He runs the Pascal’s China Lens YouTube channel for 65,000 subscribers and co-hosts the Radar podcast with Peter Hinssen and Steven Van Belleghem. Beijing has set 2030 as its target for global innovation leadership, which on his reading leaves Western companies about five years to prepare. Key speaking topics China’s innovation model Geopolitical risk and US-China-EU dynamics China’s economic transition Chinese business ecosystems Supply chain de-risking Generative AI in China Cross-cultural business with Chinese partners The multipolar world order Ideal for Boards and executive committees facing strategic decisions on China exposure CSOs, transformation leads, and innovation heads benchmarking against Chinese competitors COOs and procurement leaders rethinking supply chain after the end of cheap globalisation Senior leadership teams in industries where Chinese companies are moving from supplier to direct competitor (automotive, consumer electronics, retail, pharmaceuticals) Audience outcomes A clearer reading of China’s current strategic intent, separated from both the threat narrative and the market opportunity narrative The specific mechanics behind Chinese ecosystem speed and scale, drawn from the WeChat superapp, Alibaba’s platforms, Haier’s micro-enterprises, and the state-built EV supply chain A view of which Chinese competitors and partners are most relevant to their sector, and which are noise Sharper questions for their China strategy: whether to de-risk, where to compete, where to partner, where to learn from A current map of China’s AI position relative to the US and Europe, including the policy and infrastructure context

Why organisations work with Pascal Lamy He spent eight years running the WTO and five years as the EU’s Trade Commissioner. Few people alive have personally negotiated as much of the architecture that boards now watch breaking down. He works at the level of operating substance, not commentary. Doha, EU enlargement trade chapters, the China accession follow-through, the transatlantic disputes: he was in the room. He frames geoeconomics and geopolitics as a single system, an argument set out with Nicole Gnesotto in Strange New World, which gives leaders a working language for decisions they used to treat as separate. He is a credible bridge into European institutional thinking. Chef de cabinet to Jacques Delors for nine years, now President of the Paris Peace Forum and President emeritus of the Jacques Delors Institute. Biography highlights Director-General of the World Trade Organization, 2005 to 2013, re-elected unanimously for a second term. European Commissioner for Trade, 1999 to 2004, under Commission President Romano Prodi. Chef de cabinet to Jacques Delors at the European Commission, 1985 to 1994. CEO of Credit Lyonnais through its restructuring and privatisation, 1994 to 1999. Author of The Geneva Consensus (Cambridge University Press, 2013) and co-author of Strange New World: Geoeconomics vs Geopolitics (Odile Jacob, 2020). President of the Paris Peace Forum; CEPR Distinguished Fellow; affiliate professor at HEC Paris and CEIBS Shanghai. Biography The system of rules that governed cross-border trade for three decades is no longer the system companies are operating in. Tariffs, export controls, sanctions regimes and industrial subsidies have become first-order strategic variables, and the institutions designed to arbitrate them have lost most of their authority. Pascal Lamy spent two decades inside that machinery and is one of the few public figures who can describe, from the inside, what is breaking and what is taking its place. As Director-General of the World Trade Organization from 2005 to 2013, re-elected unanimously for a second term, he led the institution through the Doha Round and through China’s full integration into the global trading system. Before that, as European Commissioner for Trade from 1999 to 2004, he handled the EU’s most consequential trade files of the period, including its position on WTO accession negotiations and transatlantic disputes. His earlier career sits at the heart of the European project. For nine years he was chef de cabinet to Jacques Delors at the European Commission, working on the single market, the run-up to monetary union and successive enlargement. He then ran Credit Lyonnais through its restructuring and privatisation, a reminder that his read on policy is paired with operating experience inside a balance sheet under pressure. He now writes and convenes from a small set of platforms: President of the Paris Peace Forum, President emeritus of the Jacques Delors Institute, CEPR Distinguished Fellow, affiliate professor at HEC Paris and CEIBS Shanghai. With Nicole Gnesotto he co-authored Strange New World, the argument that geoeconomics and geopolitics now have to be read as one system. For boards trying to set capital allocation under that framing, he is among the most credible voices available. Key speaking topics Global trade and the future of the WTO Geoeconomics and geopolitics EU-US-China relations European integration and the EU policy agenda Sanctions, export controls and industrial policy Globalisation and supply chain restructuring Multilateral governance under strain Ideal for Boards and executive committees of multinationals with material exposure to US, EU and China trade policy CSOs, heads of public affairs and chief economists setting macro and political risk frameworks Investor and asset manager forums focused on capital allocation under geopolitical stress Senior policy and government affairs leaders working on EU institutional questions Audience outcomes A working map of how the trade and geoeconomics system is actually being rewired, from someone who helped write the previous version A grounded read on the EU-US-China triangle that goes beyond headline risk Sharper questions for the board on sanctions exposure, supply chain restructuring and industrial policy alignment A vocabulary for treating geoeconomics and geopolitics as one decision frame, not two

Why organisations work with Patrick Chappatte He has spent thirty years drawing on deadline for serious newspapers, including a two-decade run for The New York Times International Edition. That gives audiences a reading of global affairs that almost no other speaker can offer: not commentary about journalism, but the work itself, performed live. He is the only non-American to win the Overseas Press Club of America’s Thomas Nast Award, and he has won it three times. That is the senior credential in his field and it is verifiable from a named external body. He chairs the Freedom Cartoonists Foundation, founded with Kofi Annan and Jean Plantu. That places him at the centre of the international press freedom conversation in a way few keynote speakers can match. His live-drawing format gives a room something it rarely has: an unrepeatable visual record of the conversation, produced in real time. It works as keynote, as conference closer, and as graphic facilitation of a leadership meeting. He brings firsthand graphic reportage from Gaza, Nairobi, Central America, death row in the United States, and Silicon Valley. The material is specific, not generic, and gives a corporate audience an honest view of issues it normally only reads about. Biography highlights In-house editorial cartoonist for The New York Times International Edition, 2001 to 2019. Three-time winner of the Overseas Press Club of America Thomas Nast Award (2011, 2015, 2018); the only non-American to have done so. Current publications include The Boston Globe, Le Canard enchaine, La Tribune Dimanche, Le Temps and NZZ am Sonntag. Honorary Doctorate from EPFL (the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne), awarded 2022. Named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2006. Chairs the Geneva-based Freedom Cartoonists Foundation, which awards the Kofi Annan Courage in Cartooning Award. Two TED talks: “The power of cartoons” (2010) and “A free world needs satire” (2019). Biography The New York Times stopped running political cartoons in its international edition in 2019. Patrick Chappatte had drawn there twice a week since 2001. He used the moment to argue, in a TED talk that has since been viewed millions of times, that a free press needs satire, and that the retreat from cartooning is one of the quieter signals of where public discourse is heading. That argument is grounded in three decades of work on serious deadlines. Chappatte’s drawings appear in The Boston Globe, Le Canard enchaine, La Tribune Dimanche, Le Temps, and NZZ am Sonntag. He has won the Overseas Press Club of America’s Thomas Nast Award three times, in 2011, 2015 and 2018, the only non-American to have done so. EPFL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2022. He is also a pioneer of graphic journalism. Since 1995 he has produced long-form comics reportage from Gaza, the Nairobi slums, Central American gang territory, death row in the United States, and Silicon Valley. His 2009 work on cluster munitions in southern Lebanon became an animated documentary that aired on Swiss and French television. The Inside Death Row series, produced with the journalist Anne-Frederique Widmann for the Times in 2016, remains one of the most cited examples of the form. Chappatte chairs the Freedom Cartoonists Foundation in Geneva, founded with Kofi Annan and the French cartoonist Jean Plantu. The foundation awards the Kofi Annan Courage in Cartooning Award. For senior audiences, he draws live, in real time, against the conversation in the room, and uses that work as the basis for an argument about why visual thinking, satire, and free expression matter to organisations that operate in contested public space. Key speaking topics Press freedom and the corporate stake in free expression Visual thinking and graphic journalism Satire as a method for engaging contested issues Live-drawing keynotes and conference closers Global affairs through the lens of a working editorial cartoonist Democracy, polarisation and the limits of public discourse Ideal for Annual conferences and leadership offsites looking for a closing keynote that produces a visible record of the day Editorial, communications and brand leadership teams working through reputational risk on contested public issues Boards and senior groups examining geopolitics, democratic backsliding, and the limits of corporate speech Media, publishing and creative organisations engaging with the future of journalism Audience outcomes A clearer view of why satire and visual journalism still matter inside serious organisations, drawn from a working practitioner A live visual record of the session that can be used afterwards as a communication asset A sharper feel for how global affairs read from outside an American or Anglo-Saxon frame A grounded argument for why free expression is now a corporate risk question, not only a civic one

Why organisations work with Pedro Duque Two flown space missions, STS-95 aboard Space Shuttle Discovery and the Cervantes mission to the International Space Station, give him first-hand experience of mission-critical decision-making in high-risk multinational technical environments. Three years running Spain’s national innovation system as Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities. He saw what happens when research and innovation policy meet the real economy, and where the translation breaks down. Chair of Hispasat, one of three European operators inside SpaceRISE, the consortium awarded the IRIS² concession. He is inside the construction of European technological sovereignty, not commenting on it from the outside. He has approached the same questions about technology, risk, and capability from three operationally distinct positions: as an astronaut at ESA, as a CEO at Deimos Imaging, and as a minister in the Spanish government. Biography highlights ESA astronaut who flew STS-95 aboard NASA’s Space Shuttle Discovery in 1998 and the 10-day Cervantes mission to the International Space Station aboard Soyuz TMA in 2003. Spain’s Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities from 2018 to 2021, and Minister of Science and Innovation from 2020 to 2021. Member of Spain’s Congress of Deputies for Alicante, 2019 to 2020. Chair of Hispasat since December 2023; the company is one of three European satellite operators in the SpaceRISE consortium awarded the EU’s IRIS² satellite constellation contract. Former Managing Director and Executive President of Deimos Imaging during the launch of Deimos-1, Spain’s first Earth observation satellite. Member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Engineering; recipient of Russia’s Order of Friendship, Spain’s Grand Cross of Aeronautical Merit, and the Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation. Biography On 29 October 1998, Spain watched its first astronaut launch from Cape Canaveral aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. Pedro Duque has stayed close to space ever since, but rarely from orbit. After a second flight in 2003, this time on a Soyuz to the International Space Station for the Cervantes mission, Duque moved between roles that few people combine. He led Deimos Imaging during the launch of Deimos-1, Spain’s first Earth observation satellite. He returned to ESA to head its Flight Operations Office, which oversees European activities on the ISS from the Columbus Control Centre near Munich. In 2018, Pedro Sánchez named him Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities. He held the post through 2021, including a period as Minister of Science and Innovation, and represented Spain on the European Space Agency’s Ministerial Council. During his tenure he committed an additional €701 million to Spain’s ESA contribution between 2020 and 2026. Since December 2023 he has chaired Hispasat. The company is now one of three European satellite operators inside SpaceRISE, the consortium awarded the IRIS² concession in late 2024. IRIS² is the EU’s third flagship space programme, a 290-satellite constellation built for European sovereignty in secure connectivity. Few speakers can describe what that means from the inside. Key speaking topics Space technology and the modern economy Satellite infrastructure and European sovereignty Innovation policy and national competitiveness International cooperation in complex technical programmes Decision-making in high-risk operational environments Earth observation and applied satellite data The space industry and geopolitical risk Ideal for Boards and executive teams setting strategy under technological and geopolitical uncertainty Government, policy, and public sector leadership forums on innovation, science and industrial strategy Aerospace, defence, telecommunications, and infrastructure leadership Corporate audiences shaping long-horizon technology and capability decisions Audience outcomes A reframing of satellite and space infrastructure as a strategic layer of the modern economy A view from inside the IRIS² consortium of what European secure connectivity actually requires How mission-critical decisions get made when failure is unacceptable and teams cross nationalities A grounded read on where national innovation policy translates into commercial outcomes and where it stalls

Why organisations work with Peggy Liu She has operated inside China’s sustainability apparatus at the point of policy formation – not as an observer or consultant, but as the person who introduced Smart Grid to China, trained over a thousand mayors on sustainable urban development, and helped birth the framing that became the national “China Dream” slogan. No other speaker in this space holds that depth of direct institutional access. Her “Tornado Leadership” framework – derived from running multi-sector, government-backed change campaigns across China – gives organisations a transferable methodology for scaling environmental commitments through complex stakeholder systems, rather than a theory of change. As a board member of Project Drawdown and a member of the WEF Global Agenda Councils on Sustainable Consumption and New Energy Architecture, she brings current, peer-level intelligence on global climate frameworks alongside her China-specific depth. For organisations with China supply chain, manufacturing, or investment exposure, she closes a specific and consequential knowledge gap: understanding what Chinese sustainability policy means in practice, at speed, at city and provincial level – intelligence that determines both risk exposure and commercial opportunity. Her background spans MIT-trained engineering, McKinsey consulting, Silicon Valley venture capital, and fifteen years of NGO leadership in China – a combination that allows her to address the same challenge simultaneously in technical, strategic, financial, and political registers. Biography highlights Chairperson and co-founder of JUCCCE (Joint US-China Collaboration on Clean Energy), founded 2007 Named “Hero of the Environment” by TIME Magazine (2008); World Economic Forum Young Global Leader Hillary Laureate (2010) and Hillary Step Prize winner (2012) for the China Dream sustainable consumption programme Board member, Project Drawdown; Governor, Hillary Institute; advisor to FTSE Environmental Markets Committee and EAT Forum Distinguished Professor, China Academy of Governance; lecturer at China Executive Leadership Academy of Pudong and National Academy for Mayors of China – has trained over 1,000 Chinese mayors and central government officials in sustainable city development MIT graduate in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; former McKinsey consultant and early-stage venture capitalist in Shanghai Regular speaker at the World Economic Forum and TED; featured on BBC, Discovery Channel, and Voice of America Biography Most organisations engaging on energy transition are working with an incomplete picture of China – the world’s largest renewable energy investor and the country whose government decisions on sustainable urbanisation, consumption, and grid infrastructure will define the trajectory of global climate outcomes. Filling that gap requires more than analysis from the outside; it requires someone who has worked inside Chinese policy systems long enough to understand how change actually moves through them. Peggy Liu built JUCCCE from a 2007 MIT forum into an organisation that introduced Smart Grid technology to China, triggering an initial $7.2 billion investment in electrical grid transformation, trained over a thousand mayors and central government officials in sustainable urban development, and created the China Dream initiative – a programme designed to reframe prosperity for China’s growing middle class that was subsequently adopted as the country’s national slogan. These are not advisory contributions. They are documented, policy-level interventions at national scale, carried out through direct collaboration with China’s Ministry of Housing, the National Development and Reform Commission, and senior government academies. From this experience she has developed “Tornado Leadership” – a named framework for catalysing societal-scale change across complex, multi-stakeholder systems. The framework is grounded in the practical challenge of aligning government, industry, civil society, and media around a common direction, and has been applied in contexts ranging from sustainable consumption campaigns to food education policy. It is the kind of methodology that emerges from doing, not from theorising. Her institutional affiliations place her at the intersection of policy, capital markets, and civil society: board member of Project Drawdown, Governor of the Hillary Institute, advisor to the FTSE Environmental Markets Committee and WEF Global Agenda Councils. For boards and executive teams navigating ESG commitments, supply chain exposure in China, or energy transition strategy with a China dimension, Liu offers something that cannot be replicated from secondary sources – an operational understanding of how green China works, built over nearly two decades at its centre. Key speaking topics China’s green economy and clean energy transition Cross-border sustainability strategy and US-China collaboration Sustainable urbanisation and government policy alignment Sustainable consumption and behaviour change at scale Tornado Leadership and societal-scale change methodology Energy transition and smart grid innovation Food systems, diet transition, and global health Ideal for Chief Sustainability Officers and ESG strategy leads at multinationals with China exposure Boards and executive committees assessing energy transition risk and opportunity Government affairs and public policy teams operating across US-China or EU-China markets Heads of strategy at energy, utilities, infrastructure, and consumer goods organisations Audience outcomes A grounded, operationally specific understanding of how China’s sustainability commitments translate into policy, investment, and market behaviour at city and provincial level A framework (Tornado Leadership) for accelerating internal sustainability commitments through complex multi-stakeholder systems Clarity on the practical distinction between China’s stated environmental targets and the mechanisms through which they are implemented – directly applicable to supply chain, investment, and ESG risk assessment Insight into how sustainable consumption shifts are being shaped in China’s middle class, and what this means for global demand patterns and brand strategy A more textured model for cross-border collaboration: what works, what is misread, and where the genuine points of alignment between Chinese institutions and international organisations lie

Why organisations work with Penny Mordaunt A former Cabinet minister with direct authority on three of the topics now sitting on most board agendas: defence, trade policy, and international development. Front-line experience of UK trade reorientation, including the country’s accession to CPTPP and bilateral economic agreements with US states, useful to companies modelling supply chain and market access decisions. Built and led the cross-government defensive cyber function in its early form, and rebuilt UK civil contingencies and resilience as Paymaster General. Practical credibility on national resilience, not commentary. Read by US and Commonwealth audiences as a serious British voice on the transatlantic relationship; now Chair of the Coalition for Global Prosperity, where her case is that aid and defence are part of national resilience, not philanthropy. A genuine speaker, not a politician reading remarks. Parliamentary Wit of the Year and Spectator Speech of the Year, with a global audience earned at the 2023 Coronation. Biography highlights Former Secretary of State for Defence; first woman to hold the role. Former Secretary of State for International Development and UK Governor at the World Bank. Former Minister of State for Trade Policy; oversaw UK accession to CPTPP and bilateral economic agreements with US states. Former Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons; carried the Sword of State at the Coronation of King Charles III in 2023. Co-author of Greater: Britain After the Storm, winner of the 2021 Parliamentary Book Award. Appointed Chair of the Coalition for Global Prosperity in January 2025; made a Dame in the King’s Birthday Honours 2025. Honorary Captain, MCM2 Squadron, Royal Naval Reserve. Biography Trade, defence and development used to be three separate conversations inside government. They are now a single conversation, and most boards are catching up to it. The leaders who understand this best tend to be the ones who have held responsibility for all three. Penny Mordaunt is one of a small group who has. She served fourteen years as MP for Portsmouth North, holding nine ministerial roles across four Cabinet posts. She was the first woman to serve as Secretary of State for Defence, ran the Department for International Development, and as Minister of State for Trade Policy oversaw the UK’s accession to the CPTPP and a series of economic agreements at US state level. As Paymaster General she rebuilt the UK’s civil contingencies and resilience capability, and built the first cross-government defensive cyber lead. Her public profile is wider than Westminster. She carried the 17th-century Sword of State at the Coronation of King Charles III in 2023, the first woman to do so, and the role gave her a global audience that few former Cabinet ministers ever acquire. Her book Greater: Britain After the Storm, co-authored with Chris Lewis, won the 2021 Parliamentary Book Award and reached bestseller lists in the UK and US. Since leaving Parliament in 2024 she has chaired the Coalition for Global Prosperity, where she argues the case for the transatlantic partnership and for treating development and defence as components of national resilience rather than discretionary spend. For corporate audiences, the value is the access to a former insider’s view of how trade policy, sanctions architecture and security commitments are actually made, and what changes when an election cycle turns over. Key speaking topics UK trade policy, CPTPP and US state-level economic agreements Defence, security and the transatlantic relationship International development as national resilience Geopolitical risk and the future of the rules-based order Civil contingencies, cyber and national resilience Women in public leadership Ideal for Board and C-suite audiences modelling geopolitical and trade exposure CFOs and strategy teams reassessing market access and supply chain decisions post-Brexit and post-CPTPP CISOs and risk officers working at the intersection of cyber, national security and corporate resilience Public affairs, government affairs and ESG leaders briefing on UK policy direction Audience outcomes A clearer view of how UK and transatlantic policy choices translate into commercial and operational risk. A more accurate read of the post-Brexit trade architecture, including CPTPP and bilateral US engagement. A practical framing of national resilience that connects defence, cyber, supply chain and civil contingencies. An informed sense of where the UK government sees its own room for manoeuvre in a contested global order.

Why organisations work with Peter Altmaier Direct cabinet-level authorship of the Energiewende, with first-hand accountability for grid build-out, nuclear exit, and renewables expansion under Merkel-era Germany. Two ministerial portfolios at the centre of European crisis response: economic affairs and energy through the COVID industrial intervention period, and the Chancellery during the 2015 refugee coordination. Insider read on Berlin, Brussels, and Paris political mechanics, sharpened by 27 years in the Bundestag and senior CDU leadership roles. Substantive position on European technological sovereignty and platform regulation, formed while economics minister and visible in his work with the IEA and the Migration Policy Institute’s Transatlantic Council. Speaks German, English, French, and Dutch, which makes him operable across European boardrooms without translation drag. Biography highlights Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy of Germany, 2018 to 2021 Head of the Federal Chancellery and Federal Minister for Special Tasks, 2013 to 2018; Acting Federal Minister of Finance, 2017 to 2018 Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, 2012 to 2013 Member of the German Bundestag, 1994 to 2021 Knight of the French Legion of Honour (2004); Honorary President, Europa-Union Deutschland Featured speaker, PETRONAS International Energy Speaker Series, Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary (2022) Biography Germany’s energy transition was redrawn while Peter Altmaier was in the room. As Federal Minister for the Environment in 2012 and later as Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy from 2018 to 2021, he held direct departmental responsibility for the Energiewende, the nuclear exit, and the integration of renewables into Europe’s largest industrial economy. Between those portfolios he ran the Federal Chancellery for five years under Angela Merkel. That post placed him at the centre of cabinet coordination during the 2015 refugee response, the eurozone debt sequence, and the early industrial-policy calls that would later define Germany’s posture on technological sovereignty and platform regulation. He served as Acting Federal Minister of Finance through the 2017 to 2018 transition. His parliamentary career ran for 27 years, representing Saarlouis from 1994 and serving as Chief Whip of the CDU/CSU group from 2009 to 2012. He chaired the Parliamentary Oversight Panel for Germany’s intelligence services. Earlier work as a European Commission official and rapporteur on the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights gave him a working command of the institutional machinery in Brussels. Since leaving office in 2021 he has continued through Europa-Union Deutschland as Honorary President, the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, and the Migration Policy Institute’s Transatlantic Council. France made him a Knight of the Legion of Honour in 2004, a recognition of his role in Franco-German policy coordination that has remained central to his work on European energy and industrial strategy. Key speaking topics European energy transition and security German and EU industrial strategy Geopolitics and the transatlantic relationship Climate and decarbonisation policy European technological sovereignty Macroeconomic outlook for Europe Franco-German political economy Ideal for Boards and executive committees with significant European exposure on energy, industrial, or supply chain decisions CSOs, heads of public affairs, and government relations leads briefing on EU and German policy direction Energy, utilities, automotive, and heavy industry leadership teams setting capital allocation against the Energiewende Investor and asset manager forums covering European macro and geopolitical risk Audience outcomes A working read on how Berlin and Brussels actually decide on energy and industrial policy A clearer view of where the Energiewende is binding capital and where it is creating openings Sharper anticipation of European responses to US, China, and Russia policy moves Insight into the political economy of technological sovereignty and platform regulation in Europe Anecdote-grounded perspective on Merkel-era cabinet decision-making, useful for boards working alongside German counterparties