Geopolitics

Why organisations work with Yuriko Koike She runs the world’s largest metropolitan economy. Few speakers can describe the operating reality of climate, security and fiscal trade-offs at megacity scale from the seat where the decisions are made. She authored the Zero Emission Tokyo Strategy, with mandated solar panels on new detached homes from April 2025 and a target of halved emissions by 2030. Audiences hear how a major capital city is converting net zero language into capital allocation and regulation. As Environment Minister she designed Cool Biz, a behavioural and policy intervention that the Japanese Ministry of the Environment estimated cut 460,000 tons of CO2 in its first year. It is a rare example of a low-cost public policy producing measurable emissions reduction. She brings cabinet-level perspective on Japan’s geopolitical position. Former Minister of Defense, former National Security adviser, fluent Arabic speaker, Project Syndicate columnist on Asia, fiscal policy and the rules-based order since 2010. She is the first woman to govern Tokyo and the first to seek the LDP leadership. Her perspective on women in senior public and corporate roles is grounded in an actual executive career, not advocacy alone. Biography highlights Governor of Tokyo since 2016, re-elected in 2020 and 2024. Minister of the Environment of Japan (2003-2006); Minister of Defense (2007); Special Adviser to the Prime Minister for National Security. Architect of the Cool Biz campaign and the Zero Emission Tokyo Strategy. Asia Society Asia Game Changer Award, 2019. Chair, OECD Champion Mayors for Inclusive Growth Initiative. Project Syndicate columnist since 2010; World Economic Forum Agenda contributor. Biography Tokyo, with a metropolitan population near 14 million and a GDP larger than most G20 economies, is one of the few cities where climate policy, fiscal stress and geopolitical exposure all run through the same office. Yuriko Koike has held that office since 2016, re-elected in 2020 and again in 2024. The decisions she has made there are the substance of her platform. Her policy track record predates the governorship. As Minister of the Environment under Junichiro Koizumi between 2003 and 2006, she launched Cool Biz, a behavioural and dress-code intervention that the Japanese Ministry of the Environment estimated reduced CO2 emissions by 460,000 tons in its first year. As Governor she authored the Zero Emission Tokyo Strategy in December 2019, setting a 2050 net zero target with halved emissions by 2030, and pushed through a mandate that new detached homes in Tokyo install solar panels from April 2025. Few city leaders globally have moved climate ambition into binding metropolitan regulation at this scale. She also brings cabinet-level perspective on geopolitics. She was Japan’s Minister of Defense, served as Special Adviser to the Prime Minister for National Security, ran for the LDP presidency in 2008 as the first woman to seek the leadership of a major Japanese party, and has written for Project Syndicate on Asian security, fiscal policy and the rules-based order since 2010. Before politics she was a Nippon TV anchor and Arabic-speaking foreign correspondent, with a sociology degree from Cairo University. She chairs the OECD Champion Mayors for Inclusive Growth Initiative and was awarded the Asia Society Asia Game Changer Award in 2019. Audiences who book her are typically working on the same problem she works on every day: how to govern an exposed, dense, ageing, ambitious economy when energy, geopolitics and capital are all moving at once. Key speaking topics Climate policy and city-scale decarbonisation Megacity resilience and inclusive urban growth Japan, China and the geopolitics of East Asia Energy transition and capital allocation Women in senior public and corporate leadership Public sector reform and fiscal discipline Ideal for Boards and executive teams setting climate, energy and ESG strategy in Asia or with Asia exposure CFOs, CSOs and policy leads working on long-term capital allocation under climate and geopolitical risk Public-private convenings on urban resilience, infrastructure and inclusive growth Conferences on Japan, the Indo-Pacific and the global rules-based order Audience outcomes A first-hand view of how the world’s largest metropolitan economy is converting net zero policy into binding regulation and capital plans A sharper read on Japan’s economic and security position, and what it implies for organisations operating across East Asia A working example of behavioural climate policy that produced measurable emissions reduction at low fiscal cost A senior practitioner’s perspective on running large public institutions through fiscal pressure, demographic change and geopolitical realignment A direct account of breaking into senior leadership in a country and party where the path was not designed for women

Why organisations work with Tanya Beckett Her banking career at Citibank and Commerzbank means she reads financial and economic data with the fluency of a practitioner, not just a reporter: and audiences notice the difference. Thirty years of front-line international broadcasting with BBC, CNN, Sky News, and CNBC has produced a presenter with genuine command of geopolitical complexity rather than surface-level confidence in it. Her advisory work with the World Bank, EBRD, EIB, ADB, Chatham House, and the British Foreign Office gives her direct insight into how trade and policy decisions are actually made, not just reported. She makes complex global dynamics legible for senior audiences without simplifying them, a skill that comes from structuring coverage for BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service audiences with a high tolerance for nuance. As a facilitator and panel chair, she brings the interrogative discipline of a seasoned broadcast journalist to conference formats, which produces sharper discussions than a conventional MC approach. Biography highlights BBC broadcaster since 1998, with presenter credits on World Business Report, Working Lunch, Newsnight, Today, Our World, The Inquiry, and Talking Business across BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Radio 4, BBC World News, and the BBC World Service Three-year posting to New York as BBC World US Business Anchor, reporting from Times Square and Washington DC Earlier broadcast career at CNBC Europe, Sky News, and CNN International (1993–1998) Career began in journalism at the Financial Times Former investment banker at Citibank (London, Credit Analysis) and Commerzbank (Frankfurt, Capital Markets Division) Advisory and facilitation work for the World Bank, EBRD, EIB, ADB, Chatham House, and the British Foreign Office, among other multilateral and government bodies Degree in Metallurgy and Materials Science, Pembroke College, Oxford; fluent German and French Biography Tanya Beckett started her career not in a newsroom but on a trading floor. Her years in investment banking at Citibank in London and Commerzbank in Frankfurt gave her a working understanding of capital markets, credit risk, and cross-border financial transactions before she ever picked up a microphone. When she moved into journalism, starting at the Financial Times and then building her broadcast career at CNBC Europe, Sky News, and CNN International, that foundation travelled with her. At the BBC, where she has worked since 1998, she has presented across the full range of the corporation’s business and economics output: World Business Report, Newsnight, Today on Radio 4, Our World, Working Lunch, and The Inquiry, the BBC World Service’s weekly current affairs documentary. Her three-year posting to New York as BBC World US Business Anchor placed her at the centre of transatlantic financial and political coverage during a period of sustained global market volatility. What distinguishes her from most journalists who move into the conference circuit is the institutional depth behind the broadcast profile. She has worked with the World Bank, the EBRD, the EIB, the ADB, Chatham House, and the British Foreign Office on matters of trade and communication, giving her direct exposure to how policy is shaped and where geopolitical risk is actually concentrated, not just how it is narrated. For organisations hosting high-stakes leadership events, that combination – thirty years of international broadcast experience, a banking foundation, and access to the institutions that shape global economic policy – produces a facilitator and keynote voice whose grasp of the material is substantive rather than performative. Key speaking topics Global economic trends and financial markets Geopolitical risk and international trade International institutions and multilateral policy Business communication and economic literacy for leaders Transatlantic business and US–Europe dynamics Current affairs in context: interpreting global risk Ideal for C-suite and board-level leadership conferences requiring substantive economic and geopolitical framing Financial services organisations hosting client, leadership, or regulatory briefings International trade and policy forums needing a credible facilitator with institutional fluency Global corporates running town halls or leadership summits with a geopolitical or macro-economic agenda Audience outcomes A clearer framework for interpreting current global economic and geopolitical developments, anchored in how those events are shaped by international institutions Confidence engaging with financial and trade data without requiring an economics background Practical context for how major macroeconomic shifts – in trade policy, financial markets, or geopolitical realignment – translate into business risk and opportunity Greater precision in the questions leadership teams ask when briefed by economists or policy advisers

Why organisations work with Stephanie Flanders She has operated inside all three institutions most relevant to corporate economic decision-making – government policymaking (US Treasury under Secretary Lawrence Summers), financial markets (J.P. Morgan Asset Management), and global economic journalism (BBC, Bloomberg) – in senior roles across all three. That convergence is not common at this level. As Head of Economics and Government at Bloomberg, she directs a team of approximately 250 economists and reporters globally, meaning her read on any macro development is backed by institutional-scale, real-time intelligence rather than public data alone. Her Trumponomics podcast – Bloomberg’s weekly tracker of US trade policy, tariffs, and monetary shifts – keeps her analysis immediately current on the exact questions boards and CFOs are most actively navigating. The RSA Inclusive Growth Commission she chaired (2016–2017) produced a policy framework that entered UK government debate – demonstrating an ability to move from macro diagnosis to practical recommendations that organisations and policymakers can act on. The Harold Wincott Foundation and the Political Studies Association each recognised her specifically for making economics decision-relevant to non-specialist audiences – the most direct indicator of her value in a board or senior leadership setting. Biography highlights Head of Economics and Government at Bloomberg News; leads Bloomberg Economics, a team of approximately 250 economists and reporters worldwide Former BBC Economics Editor (2008–2013); creator and host of the BBC Radio 4 programme Stephanomics Former Chief Market Strategist for Europe, J.P. Morgan Asset Management (2013–2017) Speechwriter and senior advisor to US Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers, Clinton Administration (1997–2001) Chair, RSA Inclusive Growth Commission (2016–2017); produced a published policy framework for place-based inclusive growth adopted in UK policy debate Harold Wincott Foundation Award (2010); Wincott Foundation Broadcaster of the Year (2011); Political Studies Association Broadcaster of the Year (2012) Honorary Fellow, Balliol College, Oxford; Fellow, Society of Professional Economists Kennedy Scholar, Harvard Kennedy School (MPA); first-class PPE degree, University of Oxford Biography Economic signals have never been harder to read – or more consequential to misread. Tariff shocks, central bank divergence, and geopolitical realignment are arriving on the desks of boards and CFOs as direct operational challenges, not background conditions. Stephanie Flanders has spent three decades building the analytical toolkit to respond to exactly this. As Head of Economics and Government at Bloomberg News, she leads a global team of approximately 250 economists and reporters whose analysis informs governments, investors, and corporate leaders worldwide. Her authority comes from a career that spans all three domains most relevant to organisational economic decision-making: policy, markets, and media. As speechwriter and senior advisor to US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers under the Clinton administration, she worked inside economic policymaking at its highest level. As Chief Market Strategist for Europe at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, she translated macro signals directly into investment positioning. At the BBC, where she served as Economics Editor for five years, she developed the rare skill of making those dynamics legible to senior non-specialist audiences – work recognised by the Harold Wincott Foundation Award in 2010 and the Political Studies Association’s Broadcaster of the Year award in 2012. At Bloomberg, she hosts Trumponomics, the weekly podcast tracking how US trade policy, tariffs, and monetary decisions are reshaping global markets and corporate strategy. Her chairmanship of the RSA Inclusive Growth Commission (2016–2017) reflects a parallel capacity: taking economic analysis beyond description and into practical frameworks that governments and organisations can use – the commission’s final report directly shaped UK government policy thinking on inclusive economic development. Flanders holds a first-class degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Balliol College, Oxford – of which she is an Honorary Fellow – and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School, where she studied as a Kennedy Scholar. She is a Fellow of the Society of Professional Economists. Key speaking topics Global macroeconomic conditions and market dynamics US trade policy, tariffs, and protectionism Geopolitical risk and the fracturing global economic order Central bank policy and monetary divergence Economic forecasting and scenario planning Inclusive growth and the political economy of inequality Translating economic signals for strategic decision-making Ideal for Boards and C-suite leadership teams making capital allocation, market, or supply chain decisions under macro uncertainty CFOs, treasurers, and chief investment officers assessing policy and geopolitical risk exposure Financial services organisations, institutional investors, and asset managers Public affairs and policy leaders tracking the implications of US trade policy and global regulatory shifts Audience outcomes A working framework for reading macro-economic and geopolitical signals in terms of their direct strategic implications – rather than as headline events Clearer understanding of how current US trade and monetary policy is likely to affect specific sectors, markets, and corporate exposure Greater confidence separating signal from noise in fast-moving economic and geopolitical news cycles Practical language and conceptual tools for board-level conversations about macro risk and economic uncertainty A more grounded sense of where the global economic order is heading and what the realistic scenarios are for business planning

Why organisations work with Sarah Montague She has spent three decades interviewing heads of state, finance ministers, and central bankers on live broadcast – the preparation and precision that requires does not disappear when the venue is a conference room rather than a radio studio. Her early career as a Eurobond dealer and stockbroker at NatWest Capital Markets gives her a genuine fluency in financial and economic discussions that most broadcast journalists cannot credibly claim. She has chaired high-profile forums for Savills, ABTA, NHS Confederation, Nominet, and Jardine Lloyd Thompson, demonstrating the ability to absorb technical subject matter across sectors without losing journalistic rigour. As a sitting BBC Radio 4 anchor – not a former presenter – she brings active institutional authority to a leadership event, which changes the dynamic of the room before the first question is asked. Biography highlights Lead presenter, BBC Radio 4’s The World at One; regular presenter of the Today programme for 18 years (2002–2018) Presenter, HARDtalk, BBC World; hosted Nobel Minds, BBC World’s roundtable discussion with Nobel Laureates Broadcast career spanning BBC Newsnight, BBC News 24 (one of its original anchors), and Breakfast with Frost Pre-BBC roles at Reuters Television and Sky News as business correspondent; early career as stockbroker and Eurobond dealer at NatWest Capital Markets Honorary Doctor of Letters, University of Sussex; Honorary Doctor of Laws, University of Bristol Named conference chair for Savills, ABTA, NHS Confederation, and Nominet, among others Biography Getting economics, geopolitics, and public policy right in a leadership forum takes preparation, authority, and the ability to challenge without breaking the room. Sarah Montague has been doing exactly that on BBC Radio 4 for three decades. As lead presenter of The World at One – and for 18 years before that, a regular anchor on the Today programme – she has interrogated heads of state, finance ministers, and central bankers at moments when precision really mattered. Her work on HARDtalk for BBC World extended that to the full range of global leadership: political, corporate, and institutional. She also hosted Nobel Minds, BBC World’s roundtable with Nobel Laureates – a format that rewards exactly the kind of structured, high-pressure intellectual facilitation that senior leadership events demand. Before journalism, she worked in financial markets – first as a stockbroker at County NatWest, then as a Eurobond dealer at NatWest Capital Markets. That background shows up in the conference room. She moves between financial services, geopolitical risk, and public policy without needing a briefing to catch up. She has chaired and moderated for organisations across property, trade, technology, and healthcare – Savills, ABTA, NHS Confederation, Nominet, and others. A senior audience, a tight agenda, a contested topic: the combination that tests most moderators is where Montague is most at home. Key speaking topics Geopolitics and global political risk Economic trends and financial markets UK and international current affairs Public policy and regulatory change Conference moderation and high-stakes facilitation Media, journalism, and editorial integrity Gender equity in the workplace Ideal for C-suite and board forums where geopolitical or economic uncertainty is a standing strategic concern Financial services and professional services organisations hosting annual leadership or strategy conferences Public sector, government, and regulatory bodies requiring impartial, authoritative facilitation FTSE 350 and multinational organisations running senior panel discussions that require a credible external chair Audience outcomes A clearer picture of how political and economic developments connect to strategic decisions facing their organisation Structured insight extracted from senior panellists through rigorous facilitation, rather than left to emerge by chance Confidence that contested or technically complex topics will be handled with precision and impartiality Exposure to a questioning methodology developed over 30 years of frontline political and economic broadcast journalism A well-managed discussion that stays on time, covers the ground, and leaves the room with something to act on

Why organisations work with Reged Ahmad Two decades of live international news at the BBC and Guardian Australia, which means a panel chair who can run a difficult conversation on geopolitics or US politics without losing the room. Active editorial role as Host and Senior Producer of Guardian Australia’s Full Story podcast, so the questions she asks come from the same daily news cycle the audience is reading that morning. Experience anchoring BBC World News TV and BBC World Service Radio, including The Newsroom and the Global News Podcast, which translates directly into composure on a live stage with a corporate audience. Bilateral perspective on Australia, the UK and the United States, useful for events with leadership audiences spanning APAC, EMEA and North America. Voice over and event hosting practice that means scripted segments, sponsor reads and award announcements are handled to broadcast standard. Biography highlights Host and Senior Producer, Full Story, Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast, with co-host Nour Haydar. Co-host, Decoding America, Guardian Australia’s US politics podcast, with Jonathan Yerushalmy. Former international news anchor, BBC World News TV. Former presenter, BBC World Service Radio, including The Newsroom and the Global News Podcast. Former presenter and senior producer, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Sydney. Bachelor of Media, Macquarie University, Sydney. Biography International news has rarely been harder to chair. A single panel on the global economy now has to take in US political volatility, sanctions exposure, supply chain decoupling and a media environment where every claim is contested. The skill that the room needs is editorial: the ability to keep a conversation moving while keeping it accurate. That is the working day of a senior broadcast journalist. Reged Ahmad has spent twenty years inside it, first in Australian community radio, then at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Sydney, and then in London at the BBC, where she anchored BBC World News TV and presented BBC World Service Radio programmes including The Newsroom and the Global News Podcast. She now sits at Guardian Australia, where she is Host and Senior Producer of Full Story, the masthead’s daily news podcast, with co-host Nour Haydar. She also co-hosts Decoding America with Guardian Australia’s US site editor Jonathan Yerushalmy, a brief that keeps her close to US politics, polling and policy as they move. For a corporate audience, the value is the chair, not the keynote. She is booked to host conferences, moderate executive panels and run Q and A on stage. The benefit is a conversation that holds together under live conditions: a journalist’s instinct for the next question, a presenter’s discipline on time, and a working knowledge of the global news cycle the audience cares about. Key speaking topics International news and current affairs Geopolitics and world affairs US politics and policy Global economic trends and markets Conference hosting and event moderation Panel chairing and on-stage interviews Media, journalism and the public sphere Ideal for Corporate conferences and leadership summits requiring a senior moderator across geopolitics, economics and US politics. Boards, executive committees and investor events running closed-door panels on global risk. Industry awards, gala dinners and brand events that need a broadcast-standard host. Communications, public affairs and ESG functions running stakeholder events with mixed media and policy audiences. Audience outcomes A panel that stays on time, on topic and on the record, with sharper answers from senior speakers. A clean editorial through-line that an audience can recall and repeat after the session. Difficult or sensitive questions handled in a way that protects the speaker, the brand and the agenda. A live event that reads at broadcast standard for film crews, sponsors and internal communications teams.

Why organisations work with Rebecca Harding A working command of the machinery of trade finance and trade data, built through founding Coriolis Technologies and serving as Chief Economist at UK Finance, that few geopolitics speakers can match. The author of The World at Economic War, selected by Martin Wolf in his Financial Times best economics books of 2025, with a defined argument about how the market system itself has become a tool of great-power conflict. A current operating role: CEO of the Centre for Economic Security and Chief Economic Adviser to the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank Development Group, which puts her inside the institutions building the new trade and security architecture. Equally credible in a C-suite keynote, a regulator-level workshop, or a wargaming session, having designed formats for finance, defence and policy audiences. A specific point of view on sustainable trade and digitalisation, grounded in advisory work with banks, corporates and parliamentary committees rather than in commentary alone. Biography highlights CEO, Centre for Economic Security, leading research on economic threats, supply chain resilience and the weaponisation of trade. Chief Economic Adviser, Defence, Security and Resilience Bank Development Group. Founder and former CEO of Coriolis Technologies, a trade data and analytics business serving the trade finance sector, acquired by TradeSun. Author of The World at Economic War (2025) and co-author of The Weaponization of Trade (2017), published by London Publishing Partnership. Former Chief Economist at UK Finance, Chief Economist at the Work Foundation, Head of Corporate Research at Deloitte, and Senior Fellow at London Business School. Regular contributor to BBC, Bloomberg, Sky News, CNBC, BBC Radio 4 and Times Radio on trade and economic security. Biography Trade is now a security question. Sanctions regimes, export controls, the digitalisation of payments and the contest over critical minerals have collapsed the old boundary between commercial trade policy and national security. Boards and finance ministries are trying to make capital, supplier and counterparty decisions inside a system whose rules are being rewritten in real time. Rebecca Harding’s career has been built on this seam. She is CEO of the Centre for Economic Security and Chief Economic Adviser to the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank Development Group, two institutions designed for exactly this terrain. Earlier she founded Coriolis Technologies, a trade data and analytics business that gave the trade finance sector a clearer view of risk in cross-border flows, and served as Chief Economist at UK Finance, Chief Economist at the Work Foundation, Head of Corporate Research at Deloitte, and Senior Fellow at London Business School. Her argument is set out in The World at Economic War: How to Rebuild Security in a Weaponized Global Economy, published in 2025 and selected by Martin Wolf in the Financial Times among his best economics books of the year. The thesis, developed from her earlier book The Weaponization of Trade with Jack Harding, is that the market system itself has become a means of great-power competition, and that defence, finance and trade can no longer be governed as separate domains. For senior audiences this matters because the operational consequences are concrete. They show up in supplier dependencies, in sanctions exposure, in the cost and direction of trade finance, and in where capital can credibly be deployed for the next decade. Harding works through those questions with banks, corporates, regulators and parliamentary committees, and her keynotes, panels and wargaming sessions are designed to leave decision-makers with a clearer read of what economic security requires of them. Key speaking topics Economic security and the weaponisation of trade Geopolitics and geoeconomics Trade finance and supply chain finance Supply chain resilience and reshoring Digital and sustainable trade Defence and security finance Macroeconomic outlook and global markets Ideal for Boards and executive committees of banks, insurers and large corporates with cross-border exposure Heads of trade finance, treasury, supply chain and procurement Policy, regulatory and public affairs leaders working on sanctions, export controls and economic security Defence, security and resilience investors and the institutions financing them Audience outcomes A clearer working definition of economic security and what it asks of capital allocation, supplier strategy and trade finance A read on how sanctions, export controls and reshoring are reshaping cross-border risk for specific sectors A framework for separating geopolitical noise from the structural shifts that change long-range plans A view of where digital and sustainable trade infrastructure is heading, and the implications for banks and corporates Questions and pressure tests that a leadership team can take straight into its strategy and risk discussions

Why organisations work with Rain Newton-Smith She makes the affirmative economic case that net-zero and growth are reinforcing – not competing – priorities, with CBI and OBR data showing the cost of failing to decarbonise is five times the cost of acting early. This reframes a question most boards are still treating as a trade-off. Her analysis of UK investment conditions is not retrospective commentary: as head of the CBI she is actively co-designing the UK Industrial Strategy with government, giving organisations access to intelligence that is live and consequential. Her China and emerging markets expertise – built as lead specialist at Oxford Economics – gives her a credible basis for the counter-consensus argument that full decoupling from China is economically untenable and inconsistent with any serious free-trade commitment. She bridges central bank monetary discipline (nine years at the Bank of England, IMF secondment) with the strategic language of the boardroom – a combination that is rare among economists who speak on UK macroeconomic and geopolitical risk. As Policy Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Department of Economics and Non-Executive Director of F&C Investment Trust, she operates simultaneously inside academic economic policy debate and at the institutional investor level. Biography highlights Chief Executive of the Confederation of British Industry – the UK’s principal business advocacy body, representing over 170,000 firms Former Chief Economist at the CBI (2014–2023); led economic analysis, policy teams, and HM Treasury engagement Nine years at the Bank of England, including global forecasting for the Monetary Policy Committee; seconded to the IMF as adviser to the UK Executive Director (2004–2006) Former Head of Emerging Markets at Oxford Economics; lead expert on China and Asia Former Managing Director, Strategy and Policy, Sustainability and ESG at Barclays Policy Fellow, Department of Economics, University of Oxford; Council Member, Royal Economic Society; Member, LSE Centre for Economic Performance Policy Committee Non-Executive Director, F&C Investment Trust WEF Young Global Leader (2012); WEF Global Future Council on Monetary and Fiscal Policy (2020) Management Today 35 Women Under 35 (2010) PPE, University of Oxford; MSc Economics, London School of Economics Biography The question of whether UK business can afford the green transition is being asked backwards. Rain Newton-Smith, Chief Executive of the Confederation of British Industry, has built the evidence to reframe it. OBR projections show the cost of failing to decarbonise is five times the cost of acting early – making this a capital allocation question, not an environmental one. Her analytical foundation spans nine years at the Bank of England preparing forecasts for the Monetary Policy Committee, followed by a secondment to the IMF as adviser to the UK Executive Director. She then led the emerging markets practice at Oxford Economics as its lead expert on China – work that now informs her publicly stated position that full decoupling from China is economically untenable and inconsistent with a commitment to free trade. Before becoming CBI Chief Executive in 2023, she served as CBI Chief Economist for nine years, leading its economic analysis and policy teams and its engagement with HM Treasury, and as Managing Director of Strategy, Policy, Sustainability and ESG at Barclays. The combination – central bank economist, institutional strategist, and now the UK’s leading business advocate – places her above the policy debate rather than within it. She is a Policy Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Department of Economics, a Council Member of the Royal Economic Society, and a Non-Executive Director of F&C Investment Trust. The World Economic Forum named her a Young Global Leader in 2012 and invited her to join its Global Future Council on Monetary and Fiscal Policy in 2020. Key speaking topics UK economic outlook and investment conditions Global trade, protectionism, and the China question Net-zero growth: the economic case for the green transition UK industrial strategy and business-government partnership Geopolitical risk and its consequences for capital allocation Emerging market dynamics and Asia ESG strategy and the business case for sustainability Ideal for Boards and C-suite leadership evaluating UK investment and growth strategy CFOs, CSOs, and heads of strategy in financial services, energy, and manufacturing Government affairs and regulatory teams navigating post-Brexit trade and policy Institutional investors and pension funds assessing UK macroeconomic and ESG risk Audience outcomes A framework for understanding how fiscal pressure, geopolitical risk, and the green transition interact as a single investment decision Clarity on the UK-EU, US tariff, and China dynamics that are directly affecting corporate capital allocation An evidence-based rebuttal to the assumption that net-zero and economic competitiveness are in conflict Better understanding of how UK industrial strategy is being shaped and what it means for investment planning Context on how financial stability risks – sovereign debt, monetary tightening, energy costs – are translating into business conditions in the near term

Why organisations work with Pippa Malmgren She has sat inside the room where US economic policy is set. As Special Assistant to President George W. Bush on the National Economic Council, she advised on the response to 9/11 from a financial markets and Pentagon technology procurement standpoint, which is a different vantage point from any academic economist. She bridges currency markets and geopolitics in a way few speakers can. She ran Bankers Trust Asset Management in Asia and was Deputy Head of Global Strategy at UBS, which means her geopolitical reads land with FX, fixed income and treasury audiences. She is a working operator, not just a commentator. Co-founding H Robotics, a CogX and National Technology Award winning industrial drone business, gives her a real seat at the table on industrial AI, autonomous systems and the defence-tech investment cycle. Her book The Leadership Lab won UK Business Book of the Year 2019 and her follow-up The Infinite Leader won the International Press Award for Best Book on Leadership 2021, which means leadership-track briefs are met with credentialed material rather than improvisation. She holds a Senior Associate Fellowship at RUSI, the UK defence and security institute, and judges the King’s Awards for Enterprise. Boards using her for geopolitics get an analyst whose reads are taken seriously inside the UK security and industrial establishment. Biography highlights Special Assistant to President George W. Bush on the National Economic Council and member of the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets. Former Deputy Head of Global Strategy at UBS and head of Bankers Trust Asset Management in Asia. Author of Signals (Weidenfeld and Nicolson), Geopolitics for Investors, The Leadership Lab and The Infinite Leader. Co-founder of H Robotics, winner of the CogX Award for Autonomy and the 2020 National Technology Award. Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) and a Fellow of the Bertelsmann Stiftung Foundation 2022 to 2024. PhD and MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics. Biography The job of reading geopolitics for boards used to belong to a small circle of former diplomats and bank chief economists. That circle is no longer wide enough. Currency moves now sit downstream of sanctions decisions, supply chain costs sit downstream of industrial policy, and AI capex sits downstream of export controls. Reading those linkages is a working discipline, not a generalist’s hobby. Malmgren was inside that linkage early. She advised President George W. Bush on the National Economic Council and served on the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, including the post-9/11 work on terrorism risk to the economy and Pentagon technology procurement. Before the White House, she ran Bankers Trust Asset Management in Asia and was Deputy Head of Global Strategy at UBS. The combination of policy seat and trading-floor seat is rare, and it shapes how she briefs. The published work makes the argument visible. Signals reads consumer behaviour, magazine covers and shop fronts as evidence about inflation, social pressure and political risk. The Leadership Lab, co-written with Chris Lewis, won UK Business Book of the Year 2019. The Infinite Leader followed it with the 2021 International Press Award for Best Book on Leadership. None of these are commentator books. They argue specific theses about how decisions get made under volatile conditions. She also runs an operating business in the territory she briefs on. H Robotics, the industrial drone company she co-founded, won the CogX Award for Autonomy and the 2020 National Technology Award. She holds a Senior Associate Fellowship at RUSI, sits on the judging panel of the King’s Awards for Enterprise and was a Fellow of the Bertelsmann Stiftung from 2022 to 2024. When she briefs a board on industrial AI, defence-tech, the new space economy or the strategic-minerals fight, she is briefing as a participant, not a watcher. Key speaking topics Geopolitics and the global economy Macroeconomic volatility and capital allocation Industrial AI, autonomous systems and defence technology Currency markets and inflation signals The new space economy and strategic infrastructure Leadership under conditions of disruption Political risk and sovereign decision-making Ideal for Boards, CEOs and CFOs setting capital allocation policy under sanctions, currency and supply chain pressure. Treasury, FX and asset management leadership teams whose mandates now hinge on geopolitical reads. Strategy and corporate development teams in defence, energy, industrials, semiconductors and infrastructure. Investment committees of pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and family offices reassessing global exposure. Audience outcomes A working framework for translating geopolitical events into specific capital, currency and operating consequences. A clearer reading of where US, Chinese and European industrial policy is forcing reallocation of supply chains and capital. Specific signals to track in commodities, currencies and consumer behaviour as leading indicators of macro stress. A grounded view of where AI, autonomous systems and the space economy intersect with national security and corporate strategy. Confidence at board level that geopolitical scenarios have been pressure-tested by someone who has briefed at presidential level.

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 Noreena Hertz Sits on two Nasdaq-listed boards, Mattel and Warner Music Group, which means her counsel is shaped by live boardroom debates on governance, ESG and consumer strategy rather than from the outside. Has spent two decades arguing, in print and to governments, that political and economic risk are inseparable from corporate strategy; The Silent Takeover and IOU named structural risks that later became central to board agendas. Authored original research on a 13 to 20 year-old cohort she labels Generation K, giving consumer brands and employers a specific read on the workforce and customer base now entering organisations. Frames AI for senior audiences as a question of governance, labour and societal trust, not feature adoption, which is what most boards now need from the conversation. Writes for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times and The Guardian, which means she works in the same register and discipline as the publications a senior buyer reads on a Sunday. Biography highlights PhD in Economics and Business, King’s College, Cambridge; MBA, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Honorary Professor, UCL Institute for Global Prosperity, University College London. Director, Mattel (Nasdaq) and Warner Music Group (Nasdaq); also serves on the board of Workhuman. Author of five books including The Silent Takeover, IOU: The Debt Threat, Eyes Wide Open, Generation K and The Lonely Century, which was named Book of the Year by The Daily Telegraph, Wired and El Mundo. Opinion contributor to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Financial Times and The Guardian. Hosted MegaHertz: London Calling on SiriusXM Insight as the network’s first foreign-based news and talk host. Biography The Silent Takeover, published in 2001, argued that global corporations were displacing the state as the primary political actor in citizens’ lives. Two decades later, that thesis reads less like provocation and more like the standing brief for any board navigating ESG, regulation and political pressure. Noreena Hertz wrote it as a Cambridge economist; the questions it raised have followed her into the boardrooms she now sits inside. Her work has consistently anticipated structural risks before they hit corporate agendas. IOU: The Debt Threat made the case for sovereign debt as a destabilising force years before the financial crisis. Generation K, based on her own survey research with thousands of 13 to 20 year-olds in the UK and US, identified anxiety, loneliness and institutional distrust as defining cohort traits, well before those words became standard in workforce and consumer strategy decks. The Lonely Century, published in 2020, treated loneliness as an economic and political variable, not a wellbeing issue. The credentials sit behind the argument rather than in front of it. A PhD from Cambridge and an MBA from Wharton. An Honorary Professorship at the UCL Institute for Global Prosperity. Directorships at Mattel and Warner Music Group, both Nasdaq-listed, and at Workhuman. Opinion pieces in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times. The work has been recognised by The Daily Telegraph, Wired and El Mundo, which each named The Lonely Century a Book of the Year. What makes the perspective unusual is the combination of seats. Few economists who write at this register also vote on remuneration, audit and governance matters at major listed companies. That is why the boards and leadership teams who book her tend to be working on the same questions she is: how to govern through geopolitical fracture, how to integrate AI without losing institutional trust, and how to lead a workforce and customer base that has stopped giving incumbents the benefit of the doubt. Key speaking topics Geopolitical and political risk for business AI, governance and societal trust Generation K and the post-millennial workforce and consumer Loneliness as an economic and political variable Global capitalism, debt and the state ESG and corporate governance in contested terrain Decision-making under uncertainty Ideal for Board directors and chairs working on governance, ESG and political risk CEOs and executive committees setting strategy under geopolitical and AI uncertainty CHROs and CMOs whose workforce and customer base is now defined by Gen Z and post-millennial behaviour Investor and asset-management leadership audiences focused on macro and policy risk Audience outcomes A sharper read on where geopolitical and policy risk meets corporate strategy A specific picture of how a younger workforce and consumer base behaves, and why incumbent assumptions are failing A framework for treating AI as a governance and trust question, not only a technology one Argument-ready material for board-level debate on ESG, capitalism and the state A clearer view of loneliness and disconnection as commercial and political forces, not soft issues

Why organisations work with Maryam Moshiri She runs a room the way she runs a live bulletin: tight cues, sharp follow-ups, and the composure to absorb a technical fault or an off-script answer without the audience noticing. Sixteen years on BBC business programmes means she can hold her own with a CFO, a regulator or an aviation chief, and ask the second question that other moderators miss. As anchor of The World Today, she works daily across geopolitics, markets and policy, so she arrives briefed on the macro context a board audience already has in mind. She is interview-trained on senior business figures including Jeff Bezos, Reed Hastings and Willie Walsh, which translates directly into chairing fireside sessions with the C-suite. Her register sits between BBC news authority and conversational warmth, which travels well across investor audiences, ministerial panels and internal leadership events. Biography highlights Chief Presenter, BBC News channel; one of five Chief Presenters appointed in 2023 to anchor the merged UK and international service. Lead presenter, The World Today with Maryam Moshiri, the BBC’s flagship international news programme since February 2024. Sixteen years as Lead Business Presenter on BBC News across World Business Report, Talking Business and Business Briefing. Royal Television Society nominee, Best News Presenter, 2017. BA Italian, University College London; postgraduate diploma in Broadcast Journalism, London College of Communication. Has interviewed Jeff Bezos, Reed Hastings and Willie Walsh, and reported live across the 2008 financial crisis, Brexit and the pandemic. Biography The hardest moment in any corporate event is the unscripted one: a guest goes off message, a feed cuts, a minister gives a non-answer. Maryam Moshiri spends her working life in that moment. As a Chief Presenter on the BBC News channel, she anchors live international news for hours at a time, and the discipline she brings on stage is the same discipline a live gallery demands. Moshiri spent sixteen years as Lead Business Presenter on BBC News, fronting World Business Report, Talking Business and Business Briefing. She covered the economic aftermath of 9/11, the 2008 financial crisis and the pandemic, and interviewed business figures including Jeff Bezos, Reed Hastings and Willie Walsh. That track record is what gives her credibility with finance, aviation and policy audiences. In February 2023 she was named one of five BBC Chief Presenters chosen to launch the corporation’s merged UK and international news channel. A year later she became the lead anchor of The World Today, the BBC’s flagship international evening programme, working daily across geopolitics, markets and culture. For corporate clients, the value is practical. She has chaired ministerial panels, C-suite summits and awards stages. She prepares like a journalist, not a host: research the brief, find the second question, give the audience a reason to stay in the room. Key speaking topics Conference and event hosting Panel moderation Awards nights and gala hosting Fireside interviews with senior leaders Internal leadership and town hall facilitation Business and economics commentary Geopolitics and international affairs Media training and on-camera coaching Ideal for Annual conferences, investor days and customer summits that need a chair who can hold a senior business audience. Awards ceremonies and gala dinners that want a recognised broadcaster on the main stage. Ministerial or policy panels that benefit from a journalist who can press, time and balance the room. Internal leadership events, town halls and CEO fireside formats. Audience outcomes A live event paced and controlled to the standard of a BBC bulletin. Senior guests interviewed past their talking points, with the room learning something new. Panels that move, with airtime distributed across speakers rather than dominated by one voice. Awards stages held together cleanly across hours of running order. A house-style of credibility that travels across business, policy and culture audiences.

Why organisations work with Maria Bartiromo Three decades of access to the people who run global capital markets, central banks, and listed companies, used in the room to produce conversation a panel chair without that history cannot. A live-markets reflex. She has anchored daily business television since 1993 and asks the question the audience wants asked, in the language of the trading floor and the boardroom at once. Editorial credibility that travels. Two News and Documentary Emmys, induction into the Cable Hall of Fame as the first female journalist, and a place in the Library of American Broadcasting Giants of Broadcasting class of 2016. A through-line on the intersection of policy and capital. Her FOX Business and FOX News programmes have built a sustained record of interviews with US administration figures, foreign leaders, and Fortune 100 chief executives on trade, energy, and monetary policy. Institutional standing beyond broadcast. Trustee of New York University, member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and 2026 Horatio Alger Award recipient. Biography highlights Anchor, Mornings with Maria, FOX Business Network, and Sunday Morning Futures, FOX News Channel. First journalist to broadcast live daily from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, beginning 1995. 20 years on-air at CNBC; host of Closing Bell with Maria Bartiromo and On the Money with Maria Bartiromo. Two News and Documentary Emmy Awards: 2008 financial-crisis coverage and 2009 documentary on Google. Cable Hall of Fame, Class of 2011, the first female journalist inducted; Giants of Broadcasting, 2016. Author of The Weekend That Changed Wall Street, The 10 Laws of Enduring Success, and Use The News; trustee of New York University; member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Biography The morning the financial system seized in September 2008, the calls that mattered were going to a small list of journalists with the standing to take them. Maria Bartiromo was on that list. She had spent thirteen years anchoring live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, the first reporter to do so daily, and her Emmy-winning coverage of the crisis became one of the defining records of the period. That access was not accidental. Bartiromo studied journalism and economics at New York University, learned business news at CNN, and joined CNBC in 1993, where she anchored Closing Bell and On the Money for two decades. The throughline is unusual for a broadcaster: an editorial sensibility built on the trading floor, then refined across a thousand interviews with chief executives, finance ministers, and central bankers. In 2014 she moved to FOX as Global Markets Editor. Mornings with Maria became the highest-rated pre-market business news programme on cable, and Sunday Morning Futures has consistently topped Sunday cable news. The work earned her induction into the Cable Hall of Fame as the first female journalist in its class, a place among the Library of American Broadcasting Giants of Broadcasting, and in 2026 the Horatio Alger Award. Three books extend the same beat off-camera. The Weekend That Changed Wall Street is an eyewitness account of the 2008 collapse. The 10 Laws of Enduring Success draws on her interviews with chief executives. Use The News is a working manual for separating signal from noise in financial markets. She serves as a trustee of New York University and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Key speaking topics Global markets and economic outlook Geopolitics and capital flows Leadership lessons from chief executive interviews Monetary policy and the macro environment Energy, trade, and US-China relations The future of media and financial journalism Moderation and on-stage interviews with senior leaders Ideal for Annual leadership and investor conferences seeking a credible interviewer for CEO, finance-minister, or policymaker keynotes. CFO, treasurer, and investment-committee audiences working through macro and geopolitical scenarios. Boards and executive offsites that want a working journalist to interrogate strategy in front of the room. Financial services, asset management, and corporate banking client events. Audience outcomes A clear read on the macro forces, policy moves, and geopolitical signals shaping the next planning cycle. First-hand perspective drawn from recent on-record interviews with sitting CEOs, central bankers, and government officials. A working sense of how markets are pricing the current political and economic moment, and what that means for capital allocation. For interview and moderation formats, a sharper public conversation with the speaker on stage than a non-journalist chair will produce.