Geopolitics

Why organisations work with Kwasi Kwarteng A first-person account of running HM Treasury during the September 2022 sterling and gilts crisis, with the candour of someone who has since written and spoken openly about what the markets did and why. Three years inside UK energy policy as Secretary of State at BEIS, including offshore wind auction reform and the Sizewell C nuclear decision, useful for any board pricing the gap between net zero ambition and capital reality. A Cambridge PhD in economic history with four published books on empire, debt and Thatcherism, giving long-cycle context to the inflation, sovereign debt and currency questions now back on board agendas. A vantage point shared by very few speakers in the market: cabinet-level decision making and post-government reflection on what political and market forces actually constrain a Chancellor. Biography highlights Chancellor of the Exchequer, September to October 2022. Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, 2021 to 2022. Member of Parliament for Spelthorne, 2010 to 2024; first Black Conservative MP and first Black Conservative to attend Cabinet. PhD in economic history, Trinity College, Cambridge; Kennedy Scholar at Harvard; Newcastle Scholar at Eton. Author of Ghosts of Empire (Bloomsbury, 2011), War and Gold (2014), Thatcher’s Trial (2015); co-author of Britannia Unchained (2012). Biography The September 2022 mini-budget is one of the cleanest case studies of political risk hitting a balance sheet that any boardroom will see this decade. Sterling fell to a record low against the dollar within days. Gilt yields spiked, the Bank of England intervened in the long-dated market, and a sitting government reversed almost every line of its own fiscal statement inside a month. Kwasi Kwarteng was the Chancellor who delivered it. He has since written and spoken openly about the episode, the orthodoxy he was challenging, and the market mechanics that overran the politics. That post-government candour, paired with the seat he occupied, is rare. Most former finance ministers either defend the record or disappear. He does neither. The credentials behind the role matter for serious audiences. Trinity College, Cambridge, a PhD in economic history on the 1690s recoinage crisis, a Kennedy Scholarship at Harvard, and four published books on empire, debt and Thatcher’s economic statecraft. Ghosts of Empire (Bloomsbury, 2011) reads imperial collapse as a story of individual improvisation rather than coherent design. War and Gold traces five hundred years of money, debt and speculation. The historian’s frame is what gives his account of 2022 weight beyond political memoir. His earlier ministerial brief at BEIS sits directly inside the energy transition conversation that now dominates capital allocation discussions. Annual offshore wind auction rounds, the UK’s first Innovation Strategy, and the Sizewell C nuclear funding decision were taken on his watch. For a board working through the gap between stated net zero policy and the cost of capital required to deliver it, that operational experience is unusually concrete. Key speaking topics UK and global macroeconomic policy Sovereign debt, currency and central bank credibility Energy transition and net zero policy UK politics and Whitehall decision-making Geopolitics, trade and post-Brexit positioning Empire, money and the long history of capital Ideal for Board and CFO audiences pricing political and fiscal risk into capital decisions. Energy, utilities and infrastructure leaders working through the policy-to-capital gap on net zero. Asset managers, banks and corporate treasury functions reading sovereign and currency risk. Senior public affairs and government relations teams operating across UK and EU policy. Audience outcomes A first-person read of how the September 2022 fiscal statement moved through markets and what it says about sovereign credibility today. A historian’s longer view of debt, currency and empire applied to current macro questions. Specific UK policy detail on offshore wind, nuclear and industrial strategy from inside the relevant department. A clearer mental model of how political decisions translate into balance sheet outcomes, and how quickly.

Why organisations work with John Bercow He held the Speaker’s Chair through Brexit and the most contested parliamentary period since the Second World War, and can explain why specific rulings landed the way they did. He worked alongside four prime ministers, from Blair-era Labour through Cameron, May, and Johnson, and reads cross-party Westminster dynamics with insider fluency. He authored The Bercow Report on speech, language and communication needs, a government-commissioned review that produced 40 recommendations and triggered £52 million in committed funding, evidence of policy weight beyond the Speaker’s role. He is Professor of Politics at Royal Holloway and a Fellow at Birkbeck, which gives the analysis academic discipline rather than memoir colour. He brings a confident platform voice, willing to take questions head-on, suited to senior internal audiences who want sharp answers, not diplomatic fog. Biography highlights 157th Speaker of the House of Commons, 2009 to 2019, longest-serving Speaker since Edward FitzRoy. Member of Parliament for Buckingham, 1997 to 2019, elected Speaker at the opening of three consecutive Parliaments. Author of Unspeakable: The Autobiography (Sunday Times bestseller) and Tennis Maestros (Biteback Publishing). Author of The Bercow Report on speech, language and communication needs, commissioned by the UK government. Professor of Politics, Royal Holloway, University of London; Fellow, Birkbeck, University of London. Chaired UK Youth Parliament sittings in the Commons Chamber for a decade. Biography The Speaker’s Chair in the House of Commons is one of the most exposed seats in British public life. Between 2009 and 2019, John Bercow occupied it through the financial crisis aftermath, the coalition years, the EU referendum, and the parliamentary deadlock that followed. He served alongside four prime ministers and was elected Speaker at the start of three consecutive Parliaments, a post-war first. His Brexit-era rulings reshaped the relationship between Parliament and government. In March 2019 he invoked a 1604 convention to block a third vote on the same Withdrawal Agreement, ruling the motion could not return unchanged. That September he called the proposed prorogation of Parliament a “constitutional outrage”. Constitutional scholars at Queen Mary and the Constitution Unit have since framed this period as the most significant power shift between executive and legislature since 1642. Before the Chair, Bercow was the MP for Buckingham from 1997. In 2008 he produced The Bercow Report for the Department for Children, Schools and Families and the Department of Health, a 40-recommendation review of speech, language and communication services that prompted £52 million in committed funding and a National Year of Communication. He chaired UK Youth Parliament sittings in the Commons Chamber annually throughout his Speakership. He is now Professor of Politics at Royal Holloway, University of London, and a Fellow of Birkbeck, University of London. His memoir Unspeakable was a Sunday Times bestseller; Tennis Maestros, drawing on a parallel career as a coach and competitive junior, was published by Biteback. Key speaking topics UK parliamentary process and constitutional convention Westminster political risk and policy direction Brexit and its institutional aftermath The Speaker’s role and parliamentary scrutiny Public policy reform and legislative accountability Leadership and decision-making in contested arenas Ideal for Boards and executive teams with material UK regulatory or policy exposure General counsel, public affairs, and government relations leadership Financial services, professional services, and infrastructure sector leadership tracking Westminster Conferences on governance, democracy, and institutional change Audience outcomes A clearer read of how parliamentary procedure shapes UK policy outcomes that hit corporate plans. A first-hand account of the Brexit rulings and what they revealed about institutional power in Britain. Insight into how four prime ministers handled the Commons differently, and what that says about political leadership under pressure. Sharper questions to ask of in-house political risk and public affairs functions. A perspective on managing dissent, conflict, and high-stakes decisions in formal institutional settings.

Why organisations work with Richard Nugee He wrote the climate strategy that a national defence ministry now operates against. That is a different order of evidence from advocacy work; he has done the institutional translation himself. He links climate to the things boards actually argue about: supply chain exposure, energy security, geopolitical instability, capital allocation under long horizons. He carries the credibility of a Lieutenant General with operational service in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans, which lands with audiences that tune out conventional sustainability messaging. He sits inside the policy machinery as the MoD’s Non-Executive Director for Climate Change and Sustainability, and advises the International Military Council on Climate and Security and the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies, so his framing reflects current government and alliance thinking. Biography highlights Lieutenant General (Retd), British Army, 36-year career in the Royal Artillery Chief of Defence People, Ministry of Defence, 2016 to 2020 Author, Ministry of Defence Climate Change and Sustainability Strategic Approach, published March 2021 Non-Executive Director for Climate Change and Sustainability, Ministry of Defence Chief Executive, The Scar Free Foundation; Chair, Royal NAAFI Board Senior advisor, International Military Council on Climate and Security; advisor to the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies and the University of Oxford Climate Change & (In)Security Project CB, CVO, CBE; US Legion of Merit (2014) Biography The Ministry of Defence published its first formal climate strategy in March 2021. The author was a serving Lieutenant General who had spent the previous year inside the department turning climate from an environmental concern into a defence planning question. That strategy now shapes how UK Defence approaches emissions, estate, capability and resilience over a thirty-year horizon. Richard Nugee’s military career ran for thirty-six years in the Royal Artillery, with operational tours in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, Cyprus and Afghanistan. As Chief of Defence People from 2016 to 2020 he was responsible for personnel policy across the armed forces, the civil service side of Defence, and the veteran community. His honours include the CB, CVO and CBE, and the US Legion of Merit for service in Afghanistan. The climate review changed his second career. Since 2021 he has held the Non-Executive Director seat for Climate Change and Sustainability at the Ministry of Defence, and advises the International Military Council on Climate and Security, the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies and the University of Oxford Climate Change & (In)Security Project. He is also Chief Executive of The Scar Free Foundation, the medical research charity, and Chair of the Royal NAAFI Board. What he offers commercial audiences is the discipline of a defence planner applied to climate. He talks about resource competition, supply chain fragility, infrastructure exposure and the cost of inaction in language that boards used to hearing risk papers, not green narratives. The argument lands because it comes from someone who has had to make it stick inside a department that does not tolerate vague claims. Key speaking topics Climate change as a national security risk Defence and sustainability strategy Geopolitical implications of climate Supply chain and resource resilience Net zero and capital allocation Leadership in large, change-resistant institutions Veterans, personnel and people strategy Ideal for Boards and executive teams setting climate, ESG and net zero strategy with real capital at stake CSOs, sustainability leads and risk officers wanting to reframe climate as security and operating risk Defence, aerospace, energy and critical infrastructure organisations with exposure to geopolitical and resource volatility Leadership audiences in large, regulated or change-resistant institutions Audience outcomes A working definition of climate as a security and supply chain risk, not a compliance or PR issue Specific examples of how a national defence ministry has translated climate into planning, capability and capital decisions A sharper view of the geopolitical second-order effects of climate, from resource competition to migration to alliance pressure Language for talking about climate to audiences that are sceptical of standard sustainability framing

Why organisations work with H. R. McMaster A National Security Advisor’s view of how the United States, China, Russia, Iran and North Korea actually behave, drawn from the seat where the options are written, not from outside the room. A historian’s discipline applied to current events. His PhD-grade work on Vietnam decision-making in Dereliction of Duty is the same lens he turns on present-day strategic mistakes. Direct argument over diplomatic hedge. McMaster takes positions, names countries and policies, and explains the reasoning, which is what boards under sanctions and supply-chain pressure actually need. Thirty-four years of command experience translated into language executives use. He speaks about decision-making under contact with the enemy, not as metaphor, but as a method that maps onto leadership in volatile markets. A working policy interlocutor. Through Battlegrounds with H.R. McMaster at the Hoover Institution he is in regular conversation with serving and former heads of state, defence ministers and intelligence chiefs, which keeps his read of the system current. Biography highlights 25th National Security Advisor of the United States, 2017 to 2018. Retired US Army lieutenant general after a 34-year career; awarded the Silver Star for action at the Battle of 73 Easting in the Gulf War. Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University; lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Author of three bestsellers: Dereliction of Duty, Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World, and At War with Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House. Named to TIME’s 100 Most Influential People and Fortune’s World’s Greatest Leaders. Host of Battlegrounds with H.R. McMaster, the Hoover Institution’s policy interview series with serving and former heads of state and senior officials. Biography The seats where US strategy is actually written are small. McMaster has occupied two of them: command of an armoured cavalry troop in combat, and the office of National Security Advisor in the White House. That combination is what makes his read of geopolitical risk practical for boards rather than ornamental. His Gulf War record is part of the public file. As a captain in February 1991, his Eagle Troop destroyed 28 Iraqi tanks, 16 personnel carriers and 30 trucks at the Battle of 73 Easting in 23 minutes, without losing a soldier. He was awarded the Silver Star. He went on to command the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment in Tal Afar in 2005 and 2006, work that informed the US shift in counterinsurgency doctrine under General Petraeus. The intellectual record runs in parallel. Dereliction of Duty, drawn from his University of North Carolina PhD, dissected how the Joint Chiefs of Staff failed to challenge the political logic that produced the Vietnam War, and is still on US military reading lists. Battlegrounds, published in 2020, sets out how the United States misread China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, the Middle East, South Asia and the cyber domain over two decades. At War with Ourselves, the 2024 New York Times bestseller, is his account of running the National Security Council under the Trump administration. Today he is the Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution and lectures at the Graduate School of Business. Through the Battlegrounds interview series he keeps a working line into serving heads of state, defence ministers and intelligence chiefs, which is the substantive update boards want when they ask what is actually happening between Washington, Beijing, Moscow and Tehran. Key speaking topics Geopolitical competition with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea US foreign policy and national security strategy Decision-making under uncertainty and contact Leadership in high-stakes, ambiguous environments Risk to global commerce from state-level conflict Cyber, technology and the future of national power History as a discipline for present strategic choice Ideal for Boards and executive committees stress-testing China exposure, sanctions risk, and country strategy CEOs, CFOs and chief strategy officers setting capital allocation against geopolitical scenarios General counsel, chief risk officers and heads of government affairs Defence, aerospace, energy, financial services and technology leadership audiences with direct geopolitical exposure Audience outcomes A clearer read of how the United States and its rivals actually make strategic decisions, and where that points next. A working framework for thinking about competition with China and Russia that goes beyond headlines. Sharper questions for the company’s own scenario planning, sanctions exposure and supply-chain assumptions. A historian’s perspective on why strategic mistakes repeat, applied to decisions the audience is currently making. Confidence to take a position on geopolitical risk inside the company, rather than outsourcing it to consultants.

Why organisations work with Maria Ressa She has tested platform governance arguments against actual prosecution, exile threats and a coordinated state-backed disinformation campaign, which gives her a clarity on digital risk that academic experts rarely match. As co-founder of the Real Facebook Oversight Board and co-leader of Columbia’s Technology and Democracy Initiative, she sits at the centre of the policy conversation shaping how governments will regulate platforms and AI. Her Nobel citation specifically named the defence of free expression as a precondition for democracy, giving leadership and ESG audiences a credible voice on information integrity as a governance issue, not a communications one. She runs a working newsroom that has documented platform manipulation in real time, so her arguments come with primary evidence rather than secondary commentary. How to Stand Up to a Dictator gives her a published thesis on the architecture of digital authoritarianism that boards and policy teams can engage with in advance of a session. Biography highlights 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, jointly with Dmitry Muratov, for work safeguarding freedom of expression. Co-founder and CEO of Rappler, the Manila-based investigative news organisation she launched in 2012. Professor of Professional Practice, Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs; Distinguished Fellow and co-leader of the Technology and Democracy Initiative at SIPA’s Institute of Global Politics. Author of How to Stand Up to a Dictator (Harper, 2022), a New York Times bestseller, and Seeds of Terror (2003). 2021 UNESCO Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize; 2018 Golden Pen of Freedom from the World Association of News Publishers. Time Person of the Year 2018; Time 100 Most Influential People; BBC 100 Women. Nearly two decades as CNN bureau chief in Manila and Jakarta; former SVP for News and Current Affairs at ABS-CBN. Biography The 2021 Nobel Peace Prize citation named freedom of expression as a precondition for democracy. It was the first time since 1935 that the prize had been given to working journalists, and the choice was not symbolic. Ressa shared it with Dmitry Muratov for a body of work that treats disinformation, platform power and the erosion of shared reality as the defining governance problem of the decade. Her vantage point is unusual. She co-founded Rappler in Manila in 2012, then ran it through years of state-backed harassment, criminal charges and an online campaign that the company itself documented in forensic detail. That experience produced a working theory of how engagement-driven platforms, weaponised by political actors, dismantle public trust and institutional legitimacy from below. The argument is laid out in How to Stand Up to a Dictator, the Harper book that became a New York Times bestseller and Princeton’s Class of 2027 Pre-read. She now sits at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs as a Professor of Professional Practice and co-leads the Technology and Democracy Initiative at the Institute of Global Politics. The role pairs naturally with her work on the Real Facebook Oversight Board, an independent body of journalists, academics and activists holding Meta to account on content governance. Earlier in her career she opened CNN’s Manila bureau, ran its Jakarta bureau through the post-9/11 years, and led news at ABS-CBN; her 2003 book Seeds of Terror remains a reference on Jemaah Islamiyah. For corporate audiences, the value sits in the bridge she builds between platform mechanics and executive decision-making. AI accelerates everything she has been documenting for a decade, and the regulatory response, in Brussels, Washington and Manila, is now arriving in the operating environment of any business with a public-facing reputation. Key speaking topics Disinformation and the integrity of the information ecosystem Platform governance and Big Tech accountability AI ethics and the future of public trust Press freedom as institutional infrastructure Democratic resilience under digital authoritarianism Leadership and moral courage in contested environments Ideal for Boards and C-suite teams reassessing reputational and regulatory risk in an AI-mediated information environment Chief Communications Officers, Chief Risk Officers and General Counsel responsible for platform exposure and disinformation response Public-sector and policy audiences working on technology regulation, democratic resilience and ESG frameworks Leadership programmes seeking a serious voice on values, courage and institutional integrity Audience outcomes A working model of how engagement-driven platforms shape public perception of organisations, leaders and policy. Direct evidence, drawn from Rappler’s own reporting, of how coordinated disinformation campaigns are designed and executed. A clear read on where AI regulation and platform accountability are heading across major jurisdictions. A sharper sense of what leadership looks like when institutional norms are under pressure, told through a Nobel-recognised case. Language and frameworks for treating information integrity as a governance issue at board level, not a communications problem.

Why organisations work with Daniel Lacalle He is one of the few macro voices who has run institutional capital at Citadel and PIMCO, which means his read on central banks, rates and currencies is shaped by position-taking, not commentary. His work on monetary policy, set out in Escape from the Central Bank Trap, gives boards a specific framework for understanding why stimulus produces weaker growth and persistent inflation rather than the recovery policymakers promise. The Energy World Is Flat anticipated the structural shift in oil, gas and commodity markets that now sits at the centre of every industrial capital plan, energy security review and net zero financing decision. He sits across the macro and the energy desk in a way almost no other economist on the speaking circuit does, which matters for any board with significant exposure to commodities, infrastructure or sovereign risk. A regular voice on CNBC, Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal and the World Economic Forum Agenda, so the analysis a room hears in private is the analysis institutional investors are pricing in public. Biography highlights Chief Economist at Tressis SV; former Vice President at PIMCO and portfolio manager at Citadel and Ecofin Limited. Professor of Global Economics at IE Business School and lecturer at the London School of Economics. Author of Life in the Financial Markets (Wiley), The Energy World Is Flat (Wiley), Escape from the Central Bank Trap (Business Expert Press) and Freedom or Equality (Post Hill Press). Ranked among the world’s twenty most influential economists by Richtopia in 2016, 2017 and 2019, and placed fifth in 2020. Voted Top 3 in the Thomson Reuters Extel Survey for five consecutive years across generalist, oil and electricity categories. Regular contributor to CNBC, Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, Fox News and the World Economic Forum Agenda, and weekly columnist for El Español. Biography Central banks have spent fifteen years running the largest monetary experiment in modern history. Boards now have to allocate capital inside the consequences. Daniel Lacalle has spent his career on the side of the trade where being wrong about the macro has a price, first at Citadel, then at Ecofin, then as Vice President at PIMCO. That experience sits underneath the books. Escape from the Central Bank Trap argues that easy money produces fragile balance sheets, asset inflation and weaker real growth, not the recovery policymakers describe. The Energy World Is Flat, written before the shale revolution remade global oil markets, set out why the assumptions priced into long-dated energy contracts no longer held. Both have moved from contrarian reading to mainstream reference inside investment committees. Since 2015 he has been Chief Economist at Tressis SV and a professor of global economics at IE Business School, with lecturing roles at the London School of Economics and IEB. His weekly commentary in El Español, his monthly slots on CNBC and Bloomberg, and his contributions to the World Economic Forum Agenda give boards a continuous read on rates, currencies, sovereign debt and energy that lines up with how institutional capital is actually positioned. The reason serious organisations book him is narrower than the topic list suggests. He is one of a small number of speakers who can sit across monetary policy and energy markets at the same time, with the credibility of having priced both inside a fund. For any board with material exposure to commodities, sovereign risk, or the cost of capital, that is the conversation that matters. Key speaking topics Monetary policy and central bank intervention Inflation, currencies and the cost of capital Global energy markets and security of supply Sovereign debt and fiscal sustainability Macroeconomic risk and capital allocation Geopolitics and global financial markets Ideal for Boards, investment committees and CFOs reviewing capital allocation under rate and currency volatility Energy, utilities and industrial leadership teams managing commodity exposure and the economics of the energy transition Banking, asset management and family office audiences setting macro positioning Sovereign and policy audiences working on fiscal, monetary and energy questions Audience outcomes A direct read on what current central bank policy implies for inflation, rates and the real cost of capital over a multi-year horizon A defensible view of structural conditions in global oil, gas and power markets, and what they mean for industrial investment A sharper sense of where sovereign and currency risk is being mispriced, and what that means for cross-border exposure The macro framing institutional investors are actually using, expressed in language a board can act on

Why organisations work with Blanca Moreno-Dodson Direct line of sight into how the World Bank, UNOPS and European institutions actually think about fiscal stability, tax cooperation and development finance, from someone who held senior operating roles in all three. Published authority on the rewriting of international tax rules, co-author of Winning the Tax Wars (Wolters Kluwer, 2017), which sits at the centre of how governments and multinationals are reorganising around BEPS and global minimum tax. A working interpreter of Mediterranean and MENA integration, with operational experience of regional dialogue on trade, climate and migration as Manager of the Center for Mediterranean Integration. Field-tested across more than four regions, with policy assignments in the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and East Asia, which lets her speak credibly to boards with exposure across emerging markets. Bilingual fluency across English, Spanish, French and Portuguese, which makes her unusually effective in mixed-language executive rooms in Europe, Latin America and Francophone Africa. Biography highlights Lead Economist, World Bank Group, with senior roles on the Global Tax Team, West Africa Region, the Investment Climate Department and the Office of the Vice-President for Poverty Reduction and Economic Management. Manager, Center for Mediterranean Integration (CMI), the World Bank and UNOPS-hosted partnership based in Marseille. Director, United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), 2021 to 2023. Co-author, Winning the Tax Wars: Tax Competition and Cooperation (Wolters Kluwer, 2017); author/co-author of four other books on fiscal policy and public finance published by the World Bank and CMI. Ph.D. in International Economics and Finance, Aix-Marseille University; executive education at Harvard Kennedy School. Affiliated economist with the Economic Research Forum, the Policy Center for the New South and the Navarra Center for International Development. Biography The architecture of international taxation is being rewritten while most boards are still operating on the version that preceded BEPS. Trade rules, fiscal transfers and regional integration agreements are moving with it. Leadership teams that treat these shifts as background noise are routinely the ones surprised by them. Winning the Tax Wars, co-authored with Brigitte Alepin and Louise Otis and published by Wolters Kluwer in 2017, sits inside that argument. It maps how globalisation of trade, digitisation of the economy and tax competition between states have exposed the limits of legacy tax systems, and what governments are now constructing in their place. Earlier work, including Is Fiscal Policy the Answer? (World Bank, 2013) and Public Finance for Poverty Reduction (World Bank, 2006), gives the policy spine that runs through her thinking. The credibility comes from inside the system. Twenty-six years at the World Bank Group, including Lead Economist positions on the Global Tax Team, the West Africa Region and the Office of the Vice-President for Poverty Reduction and Economic Management. Then Manager of the Center for Mediterranean Integration in Marseille, the partnership hosted by UNOPS that convenes governments, financial institutions and civil society across the Mediterranean basin. From 2021 to 2023, Director at UNOPS itself. For senior audiences this matters in a specific way. She does not theorise about how multilateral institutions and tax authorities behave; she has run programmes inside them. That makes her unusually effective with boards in extractives, infrastructure, financial services and any business whose tax exposure or regional footprint is being reshaped by the new fiscal order. Key speaking topics International taxation and the post-BEPS order Fiscal policy and inclusive growth Mediterranean and MENA regional integration Public-private sector dynamics in development finance Poverty reduction and macroeconomic policy Climate, migration and regional dialogue Globalisation, inequality and the development trajectory Ideal for Boards and executive teams with material tax, trade or regulatory exposure across MENA, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America CFOs and Heads of Tax navigating the global minimum tax and shifting international tax cooperation Government, development finance and multilateral audiences working on fiscal reform, regional integration and public finance Investor and policy forums where macroeconomic, fiscal and geo-economic context shapes capital decisions Audience outcomes A clear read of where international tax cooperation is heading and what that means for cross-border business A more accurate map of fiscal policy as a driver of growth, stability and political risk in emerging economies A working understanding of how Mediterranean and MENA integration shapes trade, migration and climate exposure An informed view of how multilateral institutions actually operate, and where their decisions land on corporate strategy Sharper questions to ask of internal tax, treasury and public affairs teams about exposure to the new fiscal order

Why organisations work with Rachel Scott A direct line into the reporting that defines how the world reads Washington, from a correspondent who has covered the Trump campaign, the Biden White House, Capitol Hill and the 2024 election from the front row. The same interviewer who pressed Vladimir Putin on jailed opponents at the 2021 Geneva summit and questioned Donald Trump on the NABJ stage in Chicago. Senior leaders get a moderator who can hold any panellist to the substance. A correspondent whose Peabody-winning Nightline reporting on the Roe v. Wade aftermath and Murrow-winning coverage of the George Floyd protests show range beyond electoral politics into the social pressures shaping the US operating environment. A clear, plain-language read of US political risk for boards and executive committees that have to plan against it, calibrated for an audience that does not live inside Washington. A natural fit for events that need an authoritative American journalist on stage: keynote interviews with executives or political guests, election-period briefings, and conference moderation of complex panels. Biography highlights Senior Political Correspondent, ABC News, reporting across Good Morning America, World News Tonight with David Muir, Nightline, This Week with George Stephanopoulos, 20/20, ABC News Live and ABC Audio. Lead ABC News campaign correspondent for the 2024 US presidential election; previously Senior Congressional Correspondent and White House correspondent. Peabody Award winner (Nightline: The Appointment, 2021) and Peabody finalist (IMPACT x Nightline: On the Brink, 2023) for reporting on the Roe v. Wade decision and its aftermath. Inaugural News and Documentary Emmy for Outstanding Emerging Journalist (2022); multiple Edward R. Murrow Awards including coverage of the George Floyd protests and the Accountable podcast. Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award; NABJ Emerging Journalist of the Year (2020); Forbes 30 Under 30 (2020); Washingtonian Outstanding Journalist in Broadcast Television (2024); RTDNA First Amendment Award honoree (2025). Graduate of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Biography Washington is harder to read from the outside than it has ever been. The institutions that international businesses have priced as stable, regulators, courts, Congress and the conventions around the presidency, are now contested in public daily. Executive teams making US capital, hiring and supply commitments need a working interpretation of what is actually happening, not the broadcast version. That is the territory Rachel Scott reports from for ABC News. As Senior Political Correspondent she covers the Trump second term, Capitol Hill and the administration across the network’s full output, from World News Tonight with David Muir to Nightline and This Week with George Stephanopoulos. She served as ABC’s lead campaign correspondent through the 2024 election and was previously the network’s Senior Congressional Correspondent and White House correspondent. Her reporting has been recognised across the highest honours in American journalism. She is a Peabody winner for Nightline’s reporting on the Roe v. Wade decision, holder of the inaugural Emmy for Outstanding Emerging Journalist, and a multiple Edward R. Murrow Award winner for coverage of the George Floyd protests and the Accountable podcast with Mary Bruce. She has been named NABJ Emerging Journalist of the Year, a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and Washingtonian’s Outstanding Journalist in Broadcast Television. What corporate audiences book her for sits on top of that record. She is a working political interviewer who has pressed Vladimir Putin in Geneva and Donald Trump on the NABJ stage. For boards, executive offsites and conference programmes during a US election cycle, that produces a specific value: a moderator and on-stage interpreter who can take the day’s American political news, however unstable, and convert it into something senior business audiences can actually use. Key speaking topics US political risk and the second Trump administration The 2024 election cycle and its consequences for global business Washington reporting and the American media environment The state of US democratic institutions Capitol Hill, the courts and US regulatory direction Race, gender and the social pressures shaping US politics Keynote interviewing and conference moderation Ideal for International boards and executive committees with US capital, customer or supply chain exposure during an election cycle Public affairs, government relations and corporate communications leadership teams Annual conferences and CEO summits needing an authoritative on-stage interviewer or moderator Investor and partner events that want a sharp Washington read alongside their own programming Audience outcomes A grounded read of where US politics is actually going, separated from cable-news framing A working sense of the political risks worth pricing into US strategy over the next twelve to twenty-four months Direct, in-room exchange with a correspondent who interviews the principals her audience reads about A higher standard of moderation: panels that stay on substance and produce something a senior audience can use afterwards

Why organisations work with Levison Wood He has tested leadership and team principles under conditions where failure has a real cost, including a 4,250-mile walk along the Nile and a circumnavigation of the Arabian Peninsula through Iraq, Yemen and Saudi Arabia. His military background as a Parachute Regiment captain in Afghanistan gives him a working framework for decision-making under pressure that translates cleanly into commercial settings. “The Art of Exploration” sets out a usable structure on curiosity, resilience and team behaviour that boards and senior teams can apply, rather than a set of war stories. He brings a credible outside perspective on geopolitics and operating in unfamiliar environments, drawn from on-the-ground work in regions most leaders only read about. Bureau-listed clients including Bosch, Nokia, Diageo, Bank of America and Virgin indicate a track record with senior commercial audiences rather than only event circuits. Biography highlights Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Fellow of the Explorers Club, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Chancellor of Staffordshire University, installed May 2024. Honorary doctorates from Staffordshire University and the University of Nottingham. Author of bestselling titles including “Walking the Nile”, “Walking the Himalayas”, “Arabia”, “The Last Giants” and “The Art of Exploration”. “Walking the Himalayas” named Adventure Travel Book of the Year at the 2016 Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards. Producer and presenter of major documentary series for Channel 4, including “Walking the Nile”, “Walking the Himalayas”, “Walking the Americas” and “Arabia with Levison Wood”. Biography The first ever expedition to walk the length of the Nile began in December 2013, in the Nyungwe Forest in Rwanda, and finished nine months and 4,250 miles later in the Mediterranean. The walker was Levison Wood, a former Parachute Regiment captain who had served in Helmand, Kandahar and Zabul, and who had decided that exploration was a more honest test of the same disciplines. What separates his work from adventure storytelling is the operating logic underneath it. Walking through Iraq, Yemen, Syria, the Empty Quarter and the Darien Gap forces specific decisions about risk, team composition, local intelligence and when to abandon a plan. Those decisions are recognisable to anyone running a complex programme in a volatile environment. He has put the framework on paper. “The Art of Exploration”, published in 2021, sets out how curiosity, resilience and small-team discipline operate when the route is unknown, and is the basis of his keynote of the same name. His other books, including “Walking the Himalayas”, which won the Edward Stanford Adventure Travel Book of the Year in 2016, and “Arabia”, treat the expeditions as case material rather than autobiography. The institutions have followed. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a Fellow of the Explorers Club, holds honorary doctorates from Staffordshire University and the University of Nottingham, and was installed as Chancellor of Staffordshire University in May 2024. Senior corporate audiences at Bosch, Nokia, Diageo, Bank of America and Virgin have booked the same body of work. Key speaking topics Leadership under uncertainty Decision-making in complex environments Team performance and small-team discipline Resilience and recovery from setback Risk assessment and mitigation Curiosity as a leadership practice Geopolitics and operating in unfamiliar regions Ideal for CEOs and executive teams setting strategy in volatile or unfamiliar markets. Operations, transformation and programme leaders responsible for delivery under shifting conditions. Leadership development audiences in financial services, industrials and consumer businesses. Boards and senior offsites looking for an outside perspective on risk and decision-making. Audience outcomes A working sense of how experienced operators make decisions when information is incomplete and the environment keeps moving. Specific examples of how small teams hold together under sustained pressure, drawn from named expeditions across the Nile, the Himalayas and the Arabian Peninsula. A sharper view of how to identify, weigh and live with material risk rather than try to remove it. A reframed sense of curiosity and adaptability as operational disciplines, not personality traits. A vocabulary for talking about resilience that does not collapse into motivational language.

Why organisations work with Lizzy Burden She anchors Bloomberg’s Daybreak Europe across television and radio, which means she walks into a room already briefed on the morning’s market-moving stories rather than the previous week’s headlines. She has interviewed the UK Chancellor, Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary, Shadow Chancellor, FTSE 100 chief executives, Nobel laureate economists and Bank of England policymakers, so she is comfortable pressing senior figures without losing the room. She has hosted at the CBI annual conference, Chatham House, Founders Forum, the Tbilisi Silk Road Forum, and the Conservative and Labour Party conferences, which is the working ground of corporate and policy audiences. As a non-executive director of Creative Access, she brings genuine governance experience on diversity in the creative industries, not a topic talk borrowed for the occasion. She also writes the Readout newsletter and hosts the Bloomberg UK Politics Podcast, so the same voice clients book on stage is already in their feed. Biography highlights UK Correspondent, Bloomberg TV; anchor of Daybreak Europe on Bloomberg TV and Bloomberg Radio. Host of the daily Bloomberg UK Politics Podcast and author of the Readout newsletter. Named one of MHP’s 30 Journalists to Watch. Non-executive director, Creative Access, appointed November 2023. Previously economics writer at The Telegraph and Bloomberg News; earlier graduate trainee at The Times. History graduate, University of Cambridge. Biography Bloomberg’s Daybreak Europe goes on air before most of the City has reached its desk, and the job of the anchor is to set the day’s agenda for European investors in the hour the markets need it most. That is the platform Lizzy Burden runs. She is Bloomberg TV’s UK Correspondent, the host of the television and radio editions of Daybreak Europe, the host of the daily Bloomberg UK Politics Podcast, and the writer of the Readout newsletter. The reporting record is what gives her the authority to host senior corporate and political audiences. She has interviewed the UK Chancellor, Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary and Shadow Chancellor, FTSE 100 chief executives, Nobel laureate economists and Bank of England policymakers, and has filed from Downing Street, Buckingham Palace, the Bank of England and the Elysee Palace on monetary policy decisions, multiple prime ministerial transitions, the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, Brexit, the US-China trade war and the war in Ukraine. Her event work sits squarely inside that beat. She has hosted at the CBI annual conference, Chatham House, Founders Forum, the Tbilisi Silk Road Forum and the Conservative and Labour Party conferences, the venues where senior business and policy audiences gather. She came to Bloomberg via The Times graduate scheme and economics writing roles at The Telegraph and Bloomberg News, after reading history at the University of Cambridge. Outside the studio, she serves as a non-executive director at Creative Access, the organisation that works to widen representation in the creative industries. MHP has named her one of its 30 Journalists to Watch. Key speaking topics UK politics and Westminster Monetary policy and the Bank of England Global economic outlook Geopolitics and political risk Conference hosting and on-stage interviews Diversity in the creative industries Media and journalism Ideal for Corporate conferences and AGMs that need a credible host across politics, markets and macro-economics. Boards, leadership offsites and investor events that want a Bloomberg-grade interviewer for sessions with senior policymakers or chief executives. Industry summits and policy forums seeking a moderator who can run plenary panels and one-to-one stage interviews. DEI-focused convenings looking for a working journalist with board-level governance experience on representation. Audience outcomes A clear read of the UK political and economic stories most likely to shape the next twelve months, drawn from Bloomberg’s daily output. Sharper sessions on stage, because she briefs hard and presses guests on the questions the audience came to hear answered. A working sense of how monetary policy, Westminster decisions and global political risk connect to corporate strategy. A rare combination of macro-economic fluency and lived experience of widening representation in a creative industry.

Why organisations work with Nicholas Jeffery Four ISP CEO and COO seats across Hostmark, Worldport, PSINet Europe and Uniserve Communications, giving him a working view of what actually happens inside a telecoms or managed service business when the model shifts. A second career on the investor side as Head of Investment Planning and Strategy for the TMT Group at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, where capital allocation decisions in technology and media were made across EMEA. Direct operating experience of digital transformation as a SaaS COO at VIMtrek and Vizerra, in Building Information Management and 3D virtualisation, and as the executive behind Digital Realty’s EMEA sales and marketing strategy. Co-creator of Buzzmetrics, the social media intelligence business acquired by Reed, with a forty-year line of sight across branding from 1980s corporate identity work to the current AI reset. A geopolitical voice on Central Europe through his “Danube Dispatches” column at WBN News, which gives boards with Hungary, EU or CEE exposure a senior commercial reader of the political terrain. Biography highlights CEO of Uniserve Communications Corporation from March 2017; led the listed share price from CND$0.04 to CND$0.67 within nine months of joining. European MD/COO and CEO of internet service providers including Hostmark, Worldport, PSINet Europe and Uniserve. Head of Investment Planning and Strategy, TMT Group, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). COO of VIMtrek and Vizerra, SaaS firms in architectural 3D virtualisation and Building Information Management software. Co-creator of Buzzmetrics, the social media measurement business acquired by Reed. Founding and Managing Partner of Impresario Partners International; Chairman of Ventree Innovations Inc.; author of the Danube Dispatches column at WBN News. Biography PSINet Europe was in administration when its European operations had to be rebuilt as a managed services business. Nicholas Jeffery was one of the executives who ran that kind of work across four internet service providers, including Hostmark, Worldport and, later, Uniserve Communications, where as CEO from March 2017 the listed share price moved from CND$0.04 to CND$0.67 within nine months. The unusual part of his career is that the operating CEO work sits alongside an investor seat. As Head of Investment Planning and Strategy for the TMT Group at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, he was inside the capital allocation conversations on telecoms, media and technology investments across EMEA. Boards rarely meet a single adviser who has been both buyer and operator on the same kinds of assets. The second strand of his work is brand and customer. He co-created Buzzmetrics, the social media intelligence business later acquired by Reed, ran sales and marketing strategy for Digital Realty across EMEA, and has now turned his forty-year branding line into a commentary on how AI is reshaping the discipline. The talk “Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks: A 40-Year Branding Veteran Embraces AI,” delivered at WINK 2025, sits in this strand. He works between Vancouver, Budapest, London and Kampala as Founding and Managing Partner of Impresario Partners International and Chairman of Ventree Innovations Inc. From Budapest he writes the Danube Dispatches column at WBN News, a serious commercial reader’s account of Hungarian politics and Central European risk in the run-up to the 2026 Hungarian election. He was nominated for the Global Business and Authors’ Award UK 2024. Key speaking topics Digital transformation in telecoms, media and technology businesses Branding strategy under AI Scaling, restructuring and turning around technology companies Investment strategy in TMT Building Information Management and SaaS commercialisation Central European political and commercial risk Ideal for TMT, telecoms and media company boards and executive teams running through transformation or restructuring Private equity, venture and infrastructure investors with TMT or CEE exposure CMOs and brand leaders rethinking marketing operations under generative AI Boards with Hungary, EU accession state or wider Central European commercial exposure Audience outcomes A working operator’s account of what changes inside a telecoms or SaaS business when a transformation plan meets the P&L An investor-side perspective on how TMT capital allocation decisions get made and where they fail A practical view on how the branding discipline is being reorganised by AI, drawn from four decades inside the function A senior commercial reading of Central European political risk for boards exposed to Hungary and the wider region

Why organisations work with Chile Eboe-Osuji Led the International Criminal Court through its most politically contested period, including the 2020 US sanctions imposed on the Court’s senior officials. He speaks from direct experience of how international institutions hold together under political pressure. Wrote End of Immunity (2024), published by Prometheus, a study of accountability for heads of state. The book traces the legal history from Article 227 of the Treaty of Versailles through Nuremberg to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It gives boards and policy teams a grounded read on where prosecutions of sitting leaders are heading. Has judged at the appellate level and prosecuted at the trial level, across the ICC, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Holds academic appointments at Stanford Law School, Harvard’s Carr Center, and UCLA. Very few voices in the field speak from both the bench and the prosecution table. First ICC official, current or former, to receive the Goler T. Butcher Medal from the American Society of International Law. It is the field’s most recognised honour for contributions to international human rights law. Serves as a sitting judge of the Caribbean Court of Justice since April 2025. His commentary on international law reflects active judicial practice. Biography highlights 4th President of the International Criminal Court, 2018 to 2021; ICC judge from 2012 to 2021 Judge of the Caribbean Court of Justice, sworn in April 2025 Former Legal Advisor to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights under Navi Pillay (2010-2012); earlier senior prosecution counsel at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the Special Court for Sierra Leone, including the Charles Taylor appeals Author of End of Immunity (2024) and International Law and Sexual Violence in Armed Conflicts (2012); editor of Protecting Humanity (2010) Goler T. Butcher Medal, American Society of International Law (2022); first ICC official, current or former, to receive the honour Herman Phleger Visiting Professor at Stanford Law School; Senior Fellow at the Carr Center, Harvard Kennedy School; Paul Martin Senior Professor at the University of Windsor Biography In 2020, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on the most senior officials of the International Criminal Court, including the Court’s Prosecutor. The Court’s President at the time was Chile Eboe-Osuji. His answer was to hold the Court’s course and defend its mandate publicly, including on BBC HARDtalk with Stephen Sackur and at the Council on Foreign Relations. He came to the presidency as a career international lawyer. Earlier he had been senior prosecution counsel at the UN tribunals for Rwanda and Sierra Leone, including the Charles Taylor appeal. He then served as Legal Advisor to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva under Navi Pillay. Elected to the ICC bench in 2011, he presided over the Kenya cases and the Gbagbo and Blé Goudé appeals before becoming President in 2018. His 2024 book End of Immunity, published by Prometheus, is the work he has been building toward across his career. It traces the legal history of head-of-state accountability from Article 227 of the Treaty of Versailles through Nuremberg to Russia’s war on Ukraine. Rules making leaders answerable for aggression and crimes against humanity rest on foundations far older than contemporary politics. Those rules matter to anyone whose organisation operates across borders. Since leaving the ICC he has taught at Stanford, UCLA, and Harvard’s Carr Center, and held the Paul Martin Senior Professorship at the University of Windsor. He was appointed to the bench of the Caribbean Court of Justice in January 2025 and sworn in that April. For leadership teams trying to understand how international law is actually read by the people who decide it, few voices carry more weight. Key speaking topics International law and the rules-based global order Accountability for heads of state and political leaders Geopolitical risk and armed conflict Sanctions, sovereignty, and state immunity Prevention of genocide and crimes against humanity The International Criminal Court and the future of international justice Ideal for Boards and executive teams at organisations operating across multiple jurisdictions Chief Risk Officers, General Counsel, and heads of political-risk functions with exposure to sanctions regimes and cross-border conflict Policy leaders and public-affairs executives at firms whose business is shaped by state action and international law Institutional investors and capital allocators pricing geopolitical risk into cross-border decisions Audience outcomes An authoritative read on where international criminal law is heading, from someone who has written both the rulings and the books A grounded sense of why state accountability, sanctions, and head-of-state prosecution are relevant to commercial decisions The vocabulary to discuss live geopolitical situations (Ukraine, the Middle East, Africa) with legal precision A direct answer to the question most boards are now asking: is the rules-based international order actually holding?