Geopolitics

Why organisations work with Rory Cormac He brings archival-grade authority on how states actually conduct covert action, drawn from declassified British and allied intelligence records, not commentary or speculation. His work on the grey zone gives boards a structured way to read sabotage, subversion and information operations as connected forms of state pressure, not isolated incidents. He translates the playbooks of Russian and Chinese covert activity into specific implications for industries exposed to critical infrastructure, supply chains and intellectual property. How to Stage a Coup (Atlantic, 2022) is one of the few mainstream studies of secret statecraft to be taken seriously by both academic intelligence scholars and practitioners. Fakers (Oxford University Press, 2026) reads the British Cold War forgery operations as a working playbook for present-day state disinformation, giving leaders a historical pattern they can apply to current incidents. He has given oral evidence on foreign interference to parliamentary inquiries in both the UK and Australia, and has fronted three Channel 4 documentaries with Richard Aldrich on intelligence and the British state, making him equally credible in front of policy committees, expert rooms and public audiences. Biography highlights Professor of International Relations and lead for security and resilience research at the University of Nottingham, specialising in secret intelligence and covert action. Fellow of the Royal Historical Society; previous Leverhulme and AHRC Fellowships. Author of Fakers (Oxford University Press, 2026) on state disinformation, How to Stage a Coup (Atlantic, 2022), Disrupt and Deny (Oxford University Press, 2018) and Confronting the Colonies (Hurst, 2014). Co-author with Richard J. Aldrich of The Black Door and The Secret Royals: Spying and the Crown from Victoria to Diana (Atlantic, 2021). Co-presenter of three Channel 4 documentaries: Spying on the Royals, D-Day: The King who Fooled Hitler, The Queen and the Coup. Has given oral evidence on foreign interference to parliamentary inquiries in the UK and Australia, with regular appearances across national press, radio and television on intelligence matters. Biography Most boards still treat espionage as a film genre. The pipeline interruption, the leaked tender, the social media campaign that crashes a launch, the supplier suddenly entangled in a sanctions investigation: these are read as separate operational problems, not as connected acts of state pressure. The work of Rory Cormac, Professor of International Relations at the University of Nottingham, is to give senior leaders the language and the historical pattern recognition to see them as one problem. Cormac is Professor of International Relations and lead for security and resilience research at the University of Nottingham, specialising in covert action and secret statecraft. His authority is built on archival research into declassified British and allied records, the basis of Disrupt and Deny (Oxford University Press, 2018) and Confronting the Colonies (Hurst, 2014). With Richard J. Aldrich he co-authored The Black Door and The Secret Royals, broadening that material into a wider reading of how states use the hidden hand. How to Stage a Coup (Atlantic, 2022) brought the argument into the present. Eleven lessons drawn from a century of secret statecraft, applied to a world of sabotage, ambiguous warfare and adversaries operating just below the threshold of open conflict. Fakers (Oxford University Press, 2026) extends the work into disinformation directly, using the declassified history of Britain’s Cold War forgery operations to read the mechanics of present-day state influence campaigns. Both books sit at the centre of current debates on the grey zone among scholars and practitioners alike. Beyond the academy he is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a former Leverhulme and AHRC Fellow, and a co-presenter with Aldrich of three Channel 4 documentaries on intelligence and the British state. He has also given oral evidence to parliamentary inquiries on foreign interference in both the UK and Australia. The result is a speaker who can hold a room of historians, a corporate security committee, and a Hay Festival audience using the same material. Key speaking topics Covert action and secret statecraft Grey-zone conflict and hybrid threats Russian and Chinese subversion Disinformation and information warfare Intelligence history and the modern state Political risk for critical infrastructure and IP-heavy sectors Resilience against sabotage and infiltration Ideal for Boards and risk committees in defence, energy, telecoms and critical infrastructure Chief security officers, heads of corporate intelligence and political risk leads Government, military and policy audiences working on national resilience Industry associations and conferences focused on geopolitical exposure Audience outcomes A clearer reading of how state adversaries combine sabotage, subversion and disinformation against commercial targets A working vocabulary for the grey zone that makes specific incidents legible as part of a larger pattern A historically grounded view of Russian and Chinese covert practice, rather than headline impressions Sharper questions for security, communications and supply-chain teams about where the organisation is exposed A sense of where the boundary sits between state interference and ordinary commercial risk

Why organisations work with Geoff Cutmore He has interviewed every president of the European Central Bank and the last three Bank of England governors, which means a central banker on his panel will recognise the questioning standard and answer accordingly. He moderated the Global Economic Outlook panel and other plenaries at the World Economic Forum in Davos for more than twenty years, including a 2022 session with Kristalina Georgieva, Jane Fraser, Francois Villeroy de Galhau, and David Rubenstein. His 2014 panel with Vladimir Putin at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, which Putin closed by calling him a “scary person” who kept the conversation businesslike, is on the record as evidence of his composure with hostile principals. He authored New Market Mavericks (Wiley, 2004), a book of interviews with leading market traders, giving him a working vocabulary for the buy side as well as the policy desk. A decade based in Hong Kong with CNBC Asia before Europe gives him fluency on Boao, China Development Forum, and the Asia leg of any global economic story. Biography highlights Anchor of Squawk Box Europe on CNBC from 1999 to June 2023, after a thirty-year career across CNBC Asia and CNBC Europe. Author of New Market Mavericks, published by Wiley in 2004. Moderator of the Global Economic Outlook and other plenary sessions at the World Economic Forum in Davos for more than twenty years. Conducted on-stage interviews with Vladimir Putin at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, Tony Blair, John Major, Gerhard Schroeder, and George Soros. Regular moderator at IMF and World Bank annual meetings, the Boao Forum, the China Development Forum, and United Nations Climate Change conferences. Contributor to the World Economic Forum Agenda. Biography Squawk Box Europe is where European institutional money starts its day, and from 1999 until June 2023 the person setting that agenda was Geoff Cutmore. Over three decades at CNBC, first in Hong Kong with CNBC Asia and then in Europe, he built the interviewing range that takes a guest from rate expectations to sanctions exposure to a board-level cash question without losing the room. The list of principals he has questioned on air or on stage is the working evidence. Every president of the European Central Bank. The last three governors of the Bank of England. US Treasury secretaries, IMF and World Bank heads, Tony Blair, John Major, Gerhard Schroeder, George Soros. In 2014 he chaired a ninety-minute panel with Vladimir Putin at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, which closed with Putin calling him a “scary person” who had kept the exchange businesslike. That is the kind of credit only earned by holding a difficult line in front of a hostile principal. He has moderated the Global Economic Outlook panel and other plenaries at the World Economic Forum in Davos for more than twenty years, including the 2022 session with Kristalina Georgieva, Jane Fraser, Francois Villeroy de Galhau, and David Rubenstein. He also chairs sessions at the IMF and World Bank annual meetings, the Boao Forum, the China Development Forum, and United Nations climate conferences. His book New Market Mavericks, published by Wiley in 2004, collects interviews with leading traders and gives him a working second language for the buy side. What an organisation gets when it puts him on stage is a chair who has already had the conversation with the person sitting next to him, usually more than once, and who can move the panel through monetary policy, geopolitics, and corporate strategy without giving up the line of argument. Key speaking topics Global economic outlook and central bank policy Geopolitical risk and the world order Financial markets and investor strategy Energy transition and climate policy China and the Asia growth story Conference and panel moderation Senior executive interviews Ideal for Boards and investment committees commissioning a moderated session on the macro and geopolitical outlook CFO, treasury, and capital markets audiences requiring a chair who can question central bankers and policymakers on equal terms Global summits and annual conferences with multi-principal plenary panels on economy, energy, or geopolitics C-suite client events for asset managers, banks, and professional services firms Audience outcomes A clearer read on the current macro, monetary, and geopolitical picture from the principals shaping it, drawn out in real time rather than rehearsed. A session that holds shape across competing speakers, with the chair keeping the argument moving and the audience oriented. Specific named answers from policymakers and CEOs on the questions a senior audience actually has, not the questions a moderator has been briefed to ask. A conversation calibrated to the room, whether that is a Davos plenary, an investor day, or a board offsite.

Why organisations work with Guntram Wolff His book The Macroeconomics of Decarbonisation (Cambridge University Press) is one of the few analyses that maps how the green transition reshapes fiscal policy, labour markets, public finances, and central banking together – giving leaders a framework, not just commentary. He has briefed EU finance ministers at informal ECOFIN and testified to the European Parliament and the Bundestag since 2013 – his analysis informs European policy before it becomes the operating environment for business. His concurrent research on European defence economics and rearmament – generating coverage in the Financial Times, Bloomberg, and Le Monde – makes him one of the few economists who can connect climate, security, and fiscal risk in a single board conversation. As inaugural holder of the Euroclear Chair in Sustainable Finance at the Solvay Brussels School, he works at the direct intersection of academic research and European financial market infrastructure – relevant to any bank or asset manager assessing ESG transition risk. He has served on the IMF External Advisory Group on Surveillance, France’s Conseil d’Analyse Economique, and the G20 High Level Independent Panel on Pandemic Preparedness Financing – a verifiable international policy footprint that most European economic commentators cannot match. Biography highlights Professor of Economics and inaugural holder of the Euroclear Chair in Sustainable Finance, Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Université libre de Bruxelles Former Director of Bruegel (2013-2022) and former Director and CEO of the German Council on Foreign Relations/DGAP (2022-2024); senior fellow at Bruegel and the Kiel Institute for the World Economy Co-author of The Macroeconomics of Decarbonisation (Cambridge University Press, 2024) Research published in Nature, Science, Nature Communications, Energy Policy, and Foreign Affairs; policy commentary in the Financial Times and the New York Times Advisory roles include the IMF External Advisory Group on Surveillance, the G20 High Level Independent Panel on Pandemic Preparedness Financing, and France’s Conseil d’Analyse Economique (2012-2016) Regular advisor to informal ECOFIN, the European Parliament, and the Bundestag since 2013; PhD in Economics, University of Bonn; fluent in German, English, and French Biography European finance ministers have been briefed by Guntram Wolff at informal ECOFIN since 2013 – a run of advisory engagement that tracks the continent’s most consequential economic crises, from euro area governance reform to energy security to the financing of rearmament. That record of access is not incidental. It reflects the specific value of economic analysis that connects academic rigour to the political and institutional constraints that policymakers actually face. During his nine years directing Bruegel, Wolff built the Brussels-based think tank into one of Europe’s most influential global research institutions. The body of work he developed there spans euro area governance, climate economics, economic statecraft, and European security – with research appearing in Nature, Science, and Foreign Affairs, an unusual range for a European economist. His 2024 book with Cambridge University Press, The Macroeconomics of Decarbonisation, makes the specific case that the green transition is above all a macroeconomic and fiscal policy challenge – a position that distinguishes it from most climate literature. Since taking the inaugural Euroclear Chair in Sustainable Finance at the Solvay Brussels School, Wolff has extended his research into European defence economics and rearmament, contributing analysis covered by the Financial Times, Bloomberg, and Le Monde. He now works across sustainable finance, security economics, and European governance – giving financial institutions and corporate boards access to analysis that treats these as connected, not parallel, problems. His advisory and institutional record includes the IMF External Advisory Group on Surveillance, appointed by then-Managing Director Christine Lagarde, and the G20 High Level Independent Panel on Pandemic Preparedness Financing. He is a council member of the European Council on Foreign Relations, has testified to the European Parliament and the Bundestag, and holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Bonn. Key speaking topics European macroeconomics and euro area governance Macroeconomics of decarbonisation and the green transition Sustainable finance and ESG transition risk Geoeconomics and European defence economics European energy security and geopolitical risk Fiscal policy and the financing of structural transitions Euro area reform and European strategic autonomy Ideal for Boards and executive leadership teams with significant European market exposure Financial institutions, asset managers, and investors navigating ESG and transition risk Government, central bank, and public policy audiences International organisations and multilateral forums focused on European or global economic governance Audience outcomes A clearer analytical framework for understanding how decarbonisation, European rearmament, and fiscal reform interact as strategic risks Informed perspective on the macroeconomic implications of the green transition – beyond policy advocacy to economic mechanics Greater ability to distinguish durable structural shifts in European policy from political noise Understanding of how European governance reform and the euro area’s fiscal architecture create risk and opportunity for financial institutions Context on geoeconomic dynamics – trade, sanctions, energy, defence spending – that directly affects European business strategy

Why organisations work with Horst Köhler Direct experience at the top of the IMF during the Brazil and Turkey debt crises, with operational responsibility for the response and for expanding debt relief to the poorest countries. Negotiator of the Maastricht Treaty on Economic and Monetary Union, giving boards a primary-source perspective on how the architecture of the eurozone was built and where its stress points lie. Sustained authority on Africa-Europe relations through the AU-EU High-Level Panel and the Partnership with Africa initiative he convened as Federal President. Rare combination of central-bank-adjacent technical credibility (EBRD presidency, IMF) with elected political legitimacy at head-of-state level. Biography highlights President of Germany, 2004 to 2010. Managing Director and Chairman of the Executive Board, International Monetary Fund, 2000 to 2004. President, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, 1998 to 2000. State Secretary, German Federal Ministry of Finance, and Germany’s chief negotiator of the Maastricht Treaty on Economic and Monetary Union. UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy for Western Sahara, 2017 to 2019. Co-founder, Eva Luise and Horst Köhler Foundation for rare disease research, established 2006. Recipient of the Global Economy Prize, Kiel Institute, 2017. Biography The institutions that defined the post-1990 economic order were built in a specific moment. The Maastricht Treaty, the IMF’s debt-relief frameworks, the G7’s coordination architecture were all designed for a world that assumed open trade, declining inflation, and the gradual integration of emerging economies. Köhler spent his career inside those institutions at the moments they were being built and stress-tested. As State Secretary in the German Federal Ministry of Finance he was Germany’s chief negotiator on the Maastricht Treaty and on the German-German monetary union, before moving to the presidency of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in 1998. From 2000 to 2004 he led the IMF through the Brazilian and Turkish debt crises and expanded debt relief for the world’s poorest economies. The technical brief and the political brief were the same brief. His presidency of Germany, 2004 to 2010, made the Africa-Europe relationship the centre of his public agenda. He convened the Partnership with Africa initiative as a sustained dialogue between heads of state, entrepreneurs, and intellectuals from both continents, and after leaving office co-chaired the African Union High-Level Panel on Africa-Europe relations and served as UN Personal Envoy for Western Sahara. The intellectual position underneath the work is that Europe still does not treat Africa as an independent political subject with its own agency and options. That argument, developed across two decades of speeches, is what made him a distinctive voice rather than a former office-holder on a circuit. Key speaking topics International monetary system and sovereign debt The Africa-Europe partnership The eurozone, Maastricht, and the architecture of EMU Global poverty reduction and development finance Multilateralism and the reform of international institutions Sustainability and climate finance Ideal for Boards and executive committees in financial services, multinational industrials, and infrastructure with material exposure to emerging markets, especially African economies. Government, multilateral, and development-finance audiences working on debt, climate finance, or institutional reform. Foundations, family offices, and impact-investment platforms with an Africa or Global South thesis. Audience outcomes A primary-source account of how the IMF actually handles a sovereign debt crisis at executive-board level. An informed view on what the AU-EU relationship looks like from inside the panels that have shaped it. A grounded reading of where the post-1990 multilateral order is brittle and where it still functions. Direct exposure to the strategic case for treating Africa as a peer political and economic counterpart, not an aid recipient.

Why organisations work with Raekwon Chung The Low Carbon Green Growth Roadmap, a UN publication Chung directed at ESCAP provides a named, five-track policy architecture for pursuing growth while reducing carbon intensity; organisations that understand this framework can make the economic case for climate investment, not just the compliance case. Very few speakers have shaped the rules of international climate governance from inside the room; Chung has participated in UN climate negotiations since 1991, advised a UN Secretary-General directly, and co-authored the IPCC’s foundational report on technology transfer. His specific IPCC contribution; the Technology Transfer Report addresses one of the least resolved tensions in corporate climate strategy: how emerging-market operations can access and deploy clean technologies at scale. The Green Growth argument Chung developed is an economic one, not a moral one; he shows how resource efficiency and low-carbon investment can generate a double dividend; higher growth with lower environmental impact, a position grounded in a verifiable UN policy architecture rather than consulting opinion. As Board Director for Climate and Energy at the Ban Ki-moon Foundation for a Better Future, he remains an active participant in the international climate architecture rather than a commentator on it. Biography highlights Korea’s first Climate Change Ambassador; engaged in UN climate negotiations since 1991 Principal Climate Change Advisor to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Director, Environment and Development Division, UN ESCAP; led development of the Low Carbon Green Growth Roadmap for Asia and the Pacific (2012) IPCC Lead Author, Technology Transfer Report; received personal copy of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the IPCC Chairman, International Award Committee, Global Energy Prize Board Director for Climate and Energy, Ban Ki-moon Foundation for a Better Future; Professor Emeritus, Incheon National University, Korea Biography Whether climate action and economic growth can be pursued simultaneously is no longer a theoretical question: it is the defining tension in development strategy. Raekwon Chung has spent three decades not analysing that question but helping to answer it, from South Korea’s first climate ambassador to the UN official who directed the Low Carbon Green Growth Roadmap. The Roadmap, published in 2012 under Chung’s leadership at the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, set out a five-track policy architecture for governments pursuing growth while reducing carbon intensity. It became a reference document for Asia-Pacific policymakers and shaped how international institutions framed the relationship between development economics and climate obligations. The core argument is economic: resource efficiency and low-carbon investment generate a double dividend: higher growth alongside lower environmental impact. His direct involvement in the institutions that set climate rules is unusual. He served as Principal Climate Change Advisor to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and was Lead Author on the IPCC’s Technology Transfer Report. The IPCC was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007; Chung received a personal copy in recognition of his contribution. He also proposed the concept of unilateral CDM, enabling developing countries to initiate emissions reduction projects independently, without waiting for partner-country involvement. He now chairs the International Award Committee of the Global Energy Prize and serves as Board Director for Climate and Energy at the Ban Ki-moon Foundation for a Better Future. His perspective is that of a practitioner inside the international climate architecture, not an observer of it. Key speaking topics Low-carbon development policy Green Growth as economic strategy International climate governance Climate diplomacy and multilateral negotiation Energy transition in emerging economies Technology transfer and clean energy access ESG strategy and climate-aligned investment Ideal for Government ministers, senior civil servants, and diplomats engaged in climate policy or international negotiations Chief Sustainability Officers and ESG leads at multinationals with Asia-Pacific exposure or supply chain decarbonisation mandates Boards and executive committees making the economic case for net-zero commitments International organisations and multilateral institutions working on development finance or energy transition Audience outcomes A clearer understanding of how international climate frameworks are designed, and how organisations can position themselves within them rather than simply react to them The economic logic of Green Growth as a lens for reframing climate investment as a development opportunity rather than a compliance cost Insight into the real dynamics of multilateral climate negotiation and what drives national ambition levels Practical perspectives on technology transfer and clean energy access, particularly relevant for emerging-market operations and supply chain decarbonisation Context for the convergence of climate policy, development economics, and energy transition across the Asia-Pacific region

Why organisations work with Ritula Shah Fifteen years anchoring BBC Radio 4’s The World Tonight gives her the editorial reflexes to keep a senior panel honest under time pressure, on the record, without losing the audience. A working seat on the RUSI Advisory Board means she walks into defence, security and geopolitics briefings already inside the conversation, not learning it from a brief. Reporting experience from Guantanamo Bay, China, India, Brazil and Jordan gives her first-hand reference points when a panel drifts into abstraction on foreign policy or human rights. She is one of a small number of UK broadcasters trusted by ministers, regulators and dissenting voices to chair a discussion that needs to be both serious and broadcast-quality. Her ambassadorial work with the British Asian Trust and trusteeship of INIVA make her a credible host for organisations who want representation handled without performance. Biography highlights Lead presenter, The World Tonight, BBC Radio 4 (15 years, to 2023). Former presenter, The Real Story (BBC World Service), Woman’s Hour, The World Today, One to One. Current weekday-evening presenter, Calm Classics, Classic FM. Advisory Board member, Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). Ambassador, British Asian Trust; trustee, INIVA. Honorary Doctor of Letters, University of Warwick (2019). Biography The World Tonight is the BBC Radio 4 programme senior leaders, diplomats and ministers tend to listen to on the drive home. Ritula Shah presented it for fifteen years. That fact alone places her in a small group of UK broadcasters who have spent a working career interrogating finance ministers, foreign secretaries, sanctioned oligarchs, generals and dissidents on the record, in real time, with no second take. The geographical footprint matters here. She has reported from Guantanamo Bay, China, India, Brazil, Jordan, Finland and Germany, and covered the Soviet collapse, 9/11 from New York, multiple US and UK elections and the slow grind of Brexit. When a panel on supply chains, sanctions or political risk drifts into theory, she pulls it back to a place she has actually been. The think-tank work is not decorative. Shah sits on the Advisory Board of RUSI, the world’s oldest defence and security institute, which means she chairs geopolitics and security sessions already inside the institutional conversation rather than reading in. She is also an ambassador for the British Asian Trust, a trustee of INIVA, and an honorary Doctor of Letters of the University of Warwick. For organisations, the practical offer is rarer than a keynote. She is a broadcaster who can take a sensitive board conversation, a regulator panel, a closed-room briefing on China exposure or a high-profile awards ceremony, and run it at the standard of a Radio 4 broadcast. The room hears something true, the recording is usable, and the senior speakers do not feel ambushed. Key speaking topics Geopolitics and the multipolar world International affairs and foreign policy Defence and national security News literacy and trust in media Inclusion, identity and belonging in public life Conference, panel and awards moderation Board-level event chairing Ideal for Boards and executive committees commissioning a geopolitical, sanctions or China-exposure session Defence, security, foreign policy and policy-research convenings Awards ceremonies and flagship annual conferences requiring a broadcast-grade host Regulators, professional bodies and universities running on-the-record panels with public figures Audience outcomes A clearer mental map of where the multipolar world is actually moving, beyond headline framing Better-quality contributions from senior panellists, because the questions are sharper and the chairing is firmer A working sense of how to read news critically in an environment of declining trust and rising misinformation Confidence that a difficult conversation, on geopolitics, identity or institutional reform, can be held in public without becoming theatre

Why organisations work with Julia Ebner Direct field intelligence on extremist movements. She has gone undercover inside a dozen networks across the ideological spectrum, which gives her a granular read on how these groups recruit, organise and migrate between platforms. Institutional authority on both sides of the policy conversation. She leads the Violent Extremism Lab at Oxford’s Centre for the Study of Social Cohesion and is Co-Executive Director at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, the reference NGO in this field. A working brief with the organisations setting the rules. She has advised NATO, Europol, the World Bank, Google, Meta and the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism, which means she can speak to how platform governance and counter-extremism policy are actually being written. A track record of calling movements early. Going Mainstream (2023) traced how fringe conspiracy and extremist narratives were entering mainstream politics, an argument the subsequent two years of elections has substantively borne out. Two book awards from credible bodies. The Rage won the Bruno Kreisky Award for Political Book of the Year 2018; Going Dark won Wissenschaftsbuch des Jahres 2020 and was long-listed for the Gold Dagger Award. Biography highlights Co-Executive Director, Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD). Leads the Violent Extremism Lab at the University of Oxford’s Centre for the Study of Social Cohesion. Postdoctoral Researcher at the Calleva Centre for Evolution and Human Sciences, Magdalen College, Oxford. Former Special Advisor on Terrorism Prevention to the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism. Author of Going Mainstream (2023), Going Dark (2019) and The Rage (2017); winner of the Bruno Kreisky Prize and Wissenschaftsbuch des Jahres. Regular contributor to The Guardian, Financial Times, Sunday Times, Washington Post and Sueddeutsche Zeitung. Biography Most extremist movements look marginal until the moment they are not. By the time a conspiracy theory reaches a regulator, an election or a consumer boycott, the network behind it has been organising for years. Julia Ebner studies that interval. Her work explains how fringe ideas move from encrypted channels into mainstream politics, and what that movement means for governments, platforms and large employers. For Going Dark, her 2019 book, she spent two years undercover inside a dozen extremist groups, adopting five different identities to access neo-Nazi networks, jihadist recruiters, trad-wife communities and the alt-right channels that planned the Charlottesville rally. The book won Wissenschaftsbuch des Jahres 2020 and the Dr Caspar Einem prize, and was long-listed for the Gold Dagger Award. Her follow-up, Going Mainstream (Ithaka Press, 2023), traced how those same networks were already shaping electoral and policy outcomes. That field work is anchored in serious institutional positions. She leads the Violent Extremism Lab at the University of Oxford’s Centre for the Study of Social Cohesion, sits as a postdoctoral researcher at Magdalen College’s Calleva Centre, and is Co-Executive Director at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue in London. She has advised NATO, Europol, the World Bank, Google and Meta, and served as Special Advisor on Terrorism Prevention to the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism. For corporate audiences, the value of that combination is concrete. She can tell a board which narratives are about to hit them, why the networks behind those narratives behave the way they do, and what platform governance, employee safety and political-risk teams should actually be doing about it. Key speaking topics Online radicalisation and extremist networks Disinformation, conspiracy movements and democratic risk AI-enabled influence operations Platform governance and trust and safety Polarisation as a political and corporate risk Counter-extremism policy and terrorism prevention Ideal for Boards and risk committees assessing political-violence and reputational exposure Chief Trust and Safety, Policy and Public Affairs leads at technology platforms Government, defence and intelligence audiences working on counter-extremism and election integrity CHRO and Communications leadership teams facing polarisation inside the workforce or the customer base Audience outcomes A working picture of how extremist and conspiracy networks recruit, organise and migrate across platforms The early-warning signals that distinguish a fringe movement from one about to enter the mainstream A clearer view of how AI-generated content is changing the economics of disinformation A frame for translating online radicalisation into board-level political, regulatory and reputational risk Reference points from her undercover work and from ISD and Oxford research that audiences can take into their own planning

Why organisations work with Tim Hames He has run the trade body for British private equity and venture capital, so he speaks to investors, allocators and operators in their own language, not as an outside commentator. His China analysis is built on close study of the Chinese Communist Party’s internal operations, which is the level boards need when sanctions, supply chain and market access decisions are on the table. He spent a decade as chief leader writer and assistant editor at The Times, which means he can frame a complex political argument tightly enough for a board paper or an investor letter. He served as the first Special Adviser to the Speaker of the House of Commons, giving him direct experience of how Westminster machinery actually moves. He co-wrote The Long Shot with Dame Kate Bingham, the definitive insider account of the UK Vaccine Taskforce, and a Financial Times science book of the year. Biography highlights Director General of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA), 2013 to 2019. Co-founder of Acuti Associates, a UK, US and China political and geopolitical risk advisory. Co-author with Dame Kate Bingham of The Long Shot: The Inside Story of the Race to Vaccinate Britain (Oneworld, 2022); Sunday Times business bestseller, FT science book of the year, Money Week politics book of the year. Former Assistant Editor, chief leader writer and weekly political columnist at The Times. First Special Adviser to the Speaker of the House of Commons, with a brief on parliamentary reform. Former Lecturer in Politics at Oxford University, 1989 to 1996, specialising in American and British government. Biography Most political risk advice on offer to boards is written by people who have only ever observed politics from outside. Hames has worked inside three of the systems that matter, Westminster, the British press, and the City, and the value comes from how he connects them. His BVCA years gave him an investor’s reflex for capital flows; his Times years taught him to write a sharp, defensible argument; his Speaker’s Office year showed him how Parliament actually decides. That combination shapes the way he reads the UK, US and China triangle through Acuti Associates, the advisory firm he co-founded. The focus is practical: what does a Trump second term mean for trans-Atlantic deal flow, how should a board think about China exposure when the signals from Beijing are deliberately opaque, what does the UK regulatory direction look like after a change of government. The answers are not generic. His co-authored book with Dame Kate Bingham, The Long Shot, is the inside record of the UK Vaccine Taskforce, the rare British state-led project of the last decade that actually worked. It was a Financial Times science book of the year and a Sunday Times business bestseller, and it doubles as a study in how political and commercial decision-making interact under pressure. He continues to advise financial institutions, professional services firms and technology companies, and serves as a Senior Adviser to FTI Consulting’s strategic communications practice. The work he is asked to do is consistent: translate political signal into commercial decision, before the headlines force the issue. Key speaking topics UK, US and China political risk Geopolitical risk for boards and investors US politics and the Trump factor Chinese Communist Party decision-making UK government, regulation and the post-election landscape Private equity and venture capital policy environment Lessons from the UK Vaccine Taskforce Ideal for Boards and investment committees with material China, US or UK regulatory exposure Private equity and venture capital firms briefing LPs on political risk Financial services and professional services leadership teams CEO and CFO offsites where geopolitics is a standing agenda item Audience outcomes A clearer read on what to take seriously and what to discount in current US, UK and China political coverage. Sharper questions to put to in-house government affairs, public policy and risk teams. A practical sense of how Westminster, Washington and Beijing actually decide, not how they are reported. A more disciplined frame for board discussions on China exposure, sanctions risk and regulatory direction.

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 Sir Graham Brady He held the formal mechanism by which four UK Prime Ministers came to office and, in several cases, by which they left it. Few speakers can describe leadership transition from inside the room rather than from press coverage of it. He spent fourteen years as the trusted channel between a parliamentary party and its leader, the longest tenure in the role’s history. That is a working case study in managing upward confidence and discretion at the top of a fractious organisation. His memoir “Kingmaker” was a Sunday Times bestseller and a Times Book of the Year, giving audiences a published, on-the-record reference point for the arguments he makes from the platform. He is one of a small group of public figures who can speak credibly about how political risk, party fragility and government instability translate into the operating environment that boards and executive teams now have to plan against. Biography highlights Member of Parliament for Altrincham and Sale West, 1997 to 2024 Chairman of the 1922 Committee, 2010 to 2024, the longest-serving in that role Created Baron Brady of Altrincham; sits in the House of Lords from August 2024 Knight Bachelor (2018); Privy Counsellor (2023); Freedom of the City of London (2023) Author of “Kingmaker: Secrets, Lies, and the Truth about Five Prime Ministers” (Bonnier Books, 2024), Sunday Times bestseller Deputy Chairman, Centre for Policy Studies Biography The 1922 Committee is the body inside the Conservative Party through which backbench MPs hold their leader to account, and through which leadership contests are run. For fourteen years its chair was Graham Brady. Four prime ministers, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, came into office through processes he oversaw. Several left the same way. That is an unusual vantage point. Most political memoirs are written by the principals; Brady’s account is written by the person who counted the letters, took the calls, and decided when a leader’s position had become untenable. “Kingmaker”, published by Bonnier Books in September 2024, was a Sunday Times bestseller and a Times Book of the Year, and it sets out in detail what those moments looked like from inside. For corporate audiences the value is not the political gossip. It is the structure of how confidence at the top of an organisation actually operates. When does a leader lose authority before they lose the title. How does a senior cohort below the leader signal that the line has been crossed. What does discretion cost, and what does it buy. Brady spent fourteen years in the practical mechanics of those questions, longer than anyone else has held the role. He sits in the House of Lords as Baron Brady of Altrincham, having been knighted in 2018 and appointed to the Privy Council in 2023. He is Deputy Chairman of the Centre for Policy Studies. He read law at Durham and entered the Commons in 1997 at the age of 29. The political career is the credential. The substantive offer to a serious audience is the mechanism behind it. Key speaking topics Leadership transitions and the loss of authority The mechanics of political risk in the UK Trust, discretion and confidence at the top of an organisation Westminster, Whitehall and the operating environment for business Conservative Party history and the post-2010 leadership cycle The role of intermediaries between leaders and the led Ideal for Boards and chairs navigating CEO succession or contested leadership change Executive committees and senior partner groups that need a frank account of how authority is won and lost Corporate affairs and public policy audiences working on UK political risk Membership organisations, associations and professional firms with a senior audience drawn from regulated industries Audience outcomes A clearer mental model of how leadership confidence is actually measured and signalled inside an organisation A first-hand account of four UK Prime Ministerial transitions and what each one reveals about leadership under pressure A working sense of how UK political instability is likely to affect the operating environment over the next parliament The texture of how discretion, loyalty and dissent are managed at the top of a fractious institution

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 Alok Sharma He chaired the negotiation that produced the Glasgow Climate Pact, working with nearly 200 governments. Few advisors can read multilateral climate dynamics from inside the chair. As Chair of the UK Transition Finance Council, he is actively shaping how private capital is mobilised for transition, not commenting on it from a distance. His vantage spans Cabinet, COP, the Rockefeller Foundation Climate Advisory Council, Conservation International and Oxford Martin School, giving boards a single voice across policy, philanthropy, science and finance. TIME named him in the 2025 TIME 100 Climate list for his work mobilising transition finance, a credible external benchmark of current relevance. A 16-year investment banking career in London, Stockholm and Frankfurt gives him the financial fluency to discuss transition with CFOs and treasurers in their own language. Biography highlights President of COP26, Glasgow 2021, the conference that produced the Glasgow Climate Pact Former UK Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and previously Secretary of State for International Development Chair of the UK Transition Finance Council, appointed by HM Treasury and the City of London Corporation in 2025 Visiting Fellow, Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford Co-Chair, Rockefeller Foundation Climate Advisory Council; Distinguished Fellow, Conservation International KCMG, 2023 New Year Honours, for services to tackling climate change; created Baron Sharma of Reading, 2024; named to TIME 100 Climate, 2025 Biography The Glasgow Climate Pact was negotiated in a room with delegations from nearly 200 countries. Alok Sharma chaired that room as President of COP26. The pact, agreed in November 2021, kept the 1.5 degree goal in formal reach and pulled coal and fossil fuel subsidies into a UN climate text for the first time. Before COP, he was Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and earlier Secretary of State for International Development. The route there was unusual for a climate principal: chartered accountant at Coopers and Lybrand Deloitte, then sixteen years in investment banking with Nikko Securities and Enskilda Securities across London, Stockholm and Frankfurt. That financial background sits behind his current work on capital flows. He now chairs the UK Transition Finance Council, set up by HM Treasury and the City of London Corporation to make the UK a leading market for high integrity transition finance. He is also a Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Martin School, Co-Chair of the Rockefeller Foundation Climate Advisory Council, and a Distinguished Fellow at Conservation International. TIME named him to its 2025 TIME 100 Climate list for that body of work. For boards, the value is the through-line. He has held the pen on a multilateral climate text, sat in a UK Cabinet making industrial policy, and now sits in the room where transition finance rules are being written. He was made KCMG in the 2023 New Year Honours and elevated to the House of Lords as Baron Sharma of Reading in 2024. Key speaking topics Transition finance and capital allocation under net zero Climate diplomacy and the post-Paris multilateral system Energy transition and industrial strategy COP outcomes and what they mean for corporate strategy Geopolitics of climate, including US, EU and emerging market dynamics ESG under regulatory and political pressure Ideal for Boards, CEOs and CFOs reconciling net zero commitments with capital plans Chief Sustainability Officers, Heads of ESG and transition leads inside financial institutions Investor and asset owner audiences working on transition portfolios Government, multilateral and policy audiences working on climate and industrial strategy Audience outcomes A clear read of where multilateral climate policy stands after COP26 to today, from someone who chaired the room A grounded view of how transition finance is actually being structured in the UK and globally A senior-level perspective on how climate intersects with geopolitics, industrial policy and capital markets Specific signals to track for boards making transition-linked decisions over the next planning cycle