Geopolitics

Why organisations work with Graham Weale Nine years as Chief Economist of RWE AG, Germany’s largest power producer, through the sharpest phase of the Energiewende. Few speakers have read the transition from inside a utility of that scale. Active academic output on the questions boards are asking now, including a 2023 Energy Policy paper on whether energy-only markets can remunerate investment and a 2024 EnWZ piece on hydrogen supply contract design. Cross-border fluency in European energy policy through the CEEM chair at Universite Paris-Dauphine, the German-French Office for Energy Transition, and advisory work for the Energy Transitions Commission. Used as an expert witness in natural gas and power arbitration, which sharpens the precision he brings to contract structure, price review, and regulatory risk. Comfortable translating between the energy-intensive industry lens (through VIK) and the utility and investor lens. Useful when a room contains both sides of the decarbonisation cost argument. Biography highlights Honorary Professor of Energy Economics and Politics, Ruhr University Bochum (Centre for Environmental Management, Resources and Energy). Chief Economist, RWE AG, 2007 to 2016. Senior Advisor, Energy Transitions Commission, 2017 to 2018. Former Director of European Energy Services, Global Insight (now S&P Global), 2000 to 2007. Steering Committee member, Chaire European Electricity Markets, Universite Paris-Dauphine. Published in Energy Policy, Intereconomics, Oxford Energy Forum, EnWZ, and the Journal of Energy and Natural Resources Law. Biography European power markets were designed in a world of predictable demand and marginal-cost dispatch. That world has gone. The question now is how to remunerate the flexible capacity a decarbonised system needs, and whether the current market design can fund it without another round of state intervention. This is the terrain Graham Weale has worked in for four decades, first as a practitioner and now as an academic. The operator credentials are specific. Weale was Chief Economist at RWE AG, Germany’s largest power producer, from 2007 to 2016, the years in which the Energiewende reshaped the economics of thermal generation. Before that he ran European Energy Services at Global Insight, and earlier worked at ExxonMobil in supply and refining. His training spans physics at Oxford, an MSc in Systems Engineering, and an MBA. The academic record sits alongside the operator one. As Honorary Professor at Ruhr University Bochum, he has published on power market remuneration in Energy Policy, on hydrogen contract design in EnWZ, and on European power market reform in Intereconomics. He advised the Energy Transitions Commission under Adair Turner between 2017 and 2018, and sits on the Steering Committee of the CEEM chair at Universite Paris-Dauphine. That combination is useful in specific rooms. Boards deciding whether to sign a long-term hydrogen offtake, investors pricing capacity market risk, or policymakers weighing the next iteration of electricity market design get someone who has sat on both sides of the problem and still writes about it for a living. Key speaking topics Power market design and capacity remuneration Industrial decarbonisation and the economics of electrification Hydrogen contracts, supply chains, and the European hydrogen ramp-up German Energiewende and EU Green Deal implementation Natural gas markets and price review arbitration Energy geopolitics after the Ukraine invasion Nuclear, renewables, and the zero-carbon generation mix Ideal for Utility, grid, and generation boards setting capital allocation under decarbonisation targets. Infrastructure funds and institutional investors pricing European power and hydrogen assets. Energy-intensive industrial leaders (steel, chemicals, cement) planning decarbonisation roadmaps. Policymakers and regulators working on market design, capacity mechanisms, and hydrogen frameworks. Audience outcomes A clear view of where European power market design is heading and what that means for long-term generation investment. A realistic read on hydrogen: which use cases will scale, which contracts are bankable, and what the European ramp-up actually requires. Sharper framing of the political-economic risk attached to Energiewende-style transitions, drawn from inside a major utility. Specific vocabulary for talking to boards and investors about carbon pricing, capacity mechanisms, and industrial decarbonisation. A defensible basis for stress-testing internal energy transition plans against the economics, not only the targets.

Why organisations work with Aljan de Boer A structured research model, not trend commentary. TrendsActive’s trend model draws on two decades of social science research – psychology, sociology, anthropology – to convert cultural signals into strategic implications. Audiences receive a framework, not a list of observations. Direct access to what 400+ CMOs are actually doing. As Community Director at the Institute for Real Growth, de Boer works inside a practitioner network of senior marketing leaders navigating the same pressures he describes. His insight is tested against real decisions, not desk research. The IRG Growth and Impact Studies as evidence base. His talk on humanized growth draws on two large-scale global studies produced by IRG in partnership with the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford – giving commercial teams a peer-reviewed foundation for strategies that go beyond shareholder primacy. Translation from complexity to commercial action. Where other trend speakers describe what is happening, de Boer’s focus is on what organisations should do about it – specifically for brand strategy, customer understanding, and growth planning at C-suite level. Named-brand consulting experience behind the research. TrendsActive’s client list includes Disney, Vodafone, and Hugo Boss – organisations where the same analytical approach has been stress-tested against real strategic choices. Biography highlights Head of Inspiration, TrendsActive – Netherlands-based trend consultancy applying social science to brand and business strategy Community Director, Institute for Real Growth – leads CMO leadership programme and connects a global community of 400+ senior marketing leaders IRG Impact Study, produced in partnership with Saïd Business School, University of Oxford – foundational research underpinning his humanized growth framework Board member, Dutch Platform of Innovative Marketing, for close to a decade Regular speaker and moderator, Dutch Marketing Awards; three-time winner, Best of MIE Senior Lecturer (Hoofddocent), Iris Academy; advisory and teaching roles in marketing and trends Biography Brands lose relevance not because their products deteriorate, but because the people they serve quietly change around them. Aljan de Boer has spent the past two decades helping commercial leaders see that shift before it becomes a crisis – using social science, not sentiment analysis, as the primary instrument. As Head of Inspiration at TrendsActive, de Boer works with a methodology that draws on psychology, sociology, and anthropology to decode fundamental changes in how people think, trust, and make decisions. The consultancy’s client list runs to major international brands across consumer, financial services, and technology sectors. Its trend model is designed not to describe what is fashionable but to identify what is structurally different about the human context organisations are operating in. Alongside his work at TrendsActive, de Boer serves as Community Director at the Institute for Real Growth, where he leads a global CMO leadership programme and connects a practitioner network of more than 400 senior marketing leaders. The IRG’s work – including its Growth and Impact Studies, developed in partnership with the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford – provides the empirical backbone for his argument that durable commercial growth requires creating value for colleagues, customers, communities, and capital markets simultaneously. He calls this humanized growth; the research quantifies why it outperforms narrower models. The result is a speaker who brings an evidence base to questions that typically attract only opinion: what is actually changing in consumer behaviour, why geopolitical and generational pressure shifts brand expectations at a structural level, and what a marketing or commercial leadership team should concretely do next. Key speaking topics Sociocultural trends and brand strategy Humanized growth and multi-stakeholder value creation Consumer behaviour under economic and geopolitical pressure Generation Z and generational change Future-proofing organisations through social science ESG and sustainability as commercial strategy The polycrisis and its implications for business Ideal for CMOs and senior marketing leadership teams Chief Commercial Officers and growth strategy leaders Executive committees preparing for medium-term strategic planning Corporate conference programmes focused on brand relevance, customer strategy, or commercial resilience Audience outcomes A structured framework for identifying which sociocultural shifts are commercially significant, and which are noise Clearer understanding of the specific psychological, sociological, and generational forces reshaping customer and employee expectations Language and evidence for making the case internally for human-centred growth strategies, grounded in the IRG research base Sharper perspective on what Generation Z’s formative context – climate anxiety, political polarisation, pandemic – means for brand and product strategy A practical lens for translating societal complexity into near-term decisions on brand positioning, customer engagement, and organisational priorities

Why organisations work with Marek Marian Belka He has actually held the levers. Decisions on interest rates, sovereign borrowing, banking supervision and crisis response were his to sign, not to commentate on, across Polish government and the National Bank of Poland. He ran the IMF’s European Department through the early eurozone crisis, giving him a working view of how Brussels, Frankfurt and national capitals negotiate when the system is under pressure. He rebuilt a currency and a banking system from zero in post-invasion Iraq, which translates directly when leaders ask what happens to economies under shock conditions. He sits inside current EU economic legislation as an MEP on the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, including as rapporteur on the revision of EU payment-services rules. His read on Brussels is not historical. He moves comfortably between academic economics and operational policy, which is rare in this pillar and is what makes his sessions useful to CFOs and investment committees rather than only to public-affairs teams. Biography highlights Prime Minister of Poland, 2004-2005. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Poland, 1997 and 2001-2002. President of the National Bank of Poland, 2010-2016. Director of the European Department, International Monetary Fund, 2008-2010. Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (Geneva), 2006-2008. Director of Economic Policy, Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, 2003-2004. Member of the European Parliament, 2019-2024, Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. Professor of Economics; long-running affiliation with the Institute of Economics at the Polish Academy of Sciences; visiting periods at Columbia, Chicago and the London School of Economics. Biography The eurozone crisis ran through the desk of the IMF’s European Department, and from 2008 to 2010 that desk belonged to Marek Belka. The job was not to predict the crisis. It was to negotiate with finance ministries, central banks and political leaders while the system was visibly stressed and to keep capital and credibility moving across borders. That role only made sense because of what came before it. He had already been Poland’s Minister of Finance, Deputy Prime Minister and, from 2004 to 2005, Prime Minister. He had also rebuilt a currency and a banking system in post-invasion Iraq as Director of Economic Policy at the Coalition Provisional Authority. By the time he reached the IMF, he had operated economic policy in a stable European democracy, in a transition economy and in a war zone. In 2010 he returned to Warsaw as President of the National Bank of Poland, a six-year term that covered the eurozone aftermath, the Russian annexation of Crimea and the early phase of populist pressure on European central-bank independence. Before and after that, he held the Executive Secretary post at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe in Geneva and built a long academic record at the Polish Academy of Sciences and as a visiting scholar at Columbia, the University of Chicago and the London School of Economics. Today he sits in the European Parliament on the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, where he was rapporteur on the revision of EU payment-services rules adopted in February 2024. For boards and investors, that combination matters in a specific way. He can speak to monetary policy, fiscal stress and EU economic legislation as someone who has signed the decisions, not just modelled them. Key speaking topics European monetary policy and the role of central banks Eurozone stability, sovereign debt and banking supervision EU economic legislation and the political economy of Brussels Geopolitical risk in Central and Eastern Europe Inflation, currency and post-crisis economic policy Economic transition and reconstruction in fragile economies The future of the euro and European economic integration Ideal for Boards, CFOs and investment committees making allocation decisions exposed to European monetary and fiscal risk. Banks, asset managers and insurers needing a senior read on ECB direction, sovereign credit and EU financial regulation. Leadership teams of multinationals with significant Central and Eastern European exposure. Public-policy, government-affairs and economic-research functions briefing executives on EU institutions. Audience outcomes A clearer read on how ECB, European Commission and national-capital decisions interact under stress. A working sense of where European political risk is most likely to translate into market and regulatory consequence. Specific examples of how policymakers actually decide during crises, drawn from inside the IMF, NBP and Polish government. A sharper view of EU financial-services and payments regulation as it moves through the legislative process. Confidence to challenge consensus assumptions about eurozone stability, inflation and Central European growth.

Why organisations work with Janusz Antoni Lewandowski Direct first-person insight into how the EU’s multiannual budget is built, negotiated, and defended. He led that process for the 2014 to 2020 framework. One of the few European speakers who designed a national privatisation programme, the Polish Program Powszechnej Prywatyzacji, and co-founded the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Useful for boards reading Central and Eastern European exposure. A Solidarity-era economic adviser turned cabinet minister turned Commissioner. The arc gives him standing on how political will translates into economic structure, and where it fails. Active commentary in Rzeczpospolita, Gazeta Wyborcza, Polityka, and Newsweek Polska. He is a working public voice on EU and Polish policy, not a retired official. Biography highlights European Commissioner for Financial Programming and the Budget, 2010 to 2014, under President José Manuel Barroso. Chair of the European Parliament Committee on Budgets from 2004; later First Vice-Chair (2019 to 2024). Member of the European Parliament across the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th terms. Minister of Ownership Transformations in two Polish governments (1991; 1992 to 1993); co-founder of the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Co-founder and Chair of the Liberal Democratic Congress (KLD), 1988. Economic adviser to Solidarity, 1980 to 1989. Chairman of the Economic Council under Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz, 2015. Doctorate in economics, University of Gdańsk. Founder of the Institute for Market Economy Research, Gdańsk. Biography Poland’s transition from a state-planned economy to a market economy was not an academic exercise. It was designed and run, in real time, by a small group of economists who had been advising Solidarity through the 1980s. Janusz Lewandowski was one of them. As Minister of Ownership Transformations in the Bielecki and Suchocka governments, he co-founded the Warsaw Stock Exchange and built the Program Powszechnej Prywatyzacji, the mass privatisation programme that reshaped Polish corporate ownership. That experience travelled with him into Brussels. He served as a Member of the European Parliament from 2004, chaired the Committee on Budgets, and was appointed European Commissioner for Financial Programming and the Budget under José Manuel Barroso between 2010 and 2014. The Commissioner role placed him at the centre of negotiations for the 2014 to 2020 Multiannual Financial Framework, the trillion-euro budget settlement that defined EU fiscal priorities through the post-crisis decade. He returned to the European Parliament in 2014, served as First Vice-Chair of the Budgets Committee in the 2019 to 2024 term, and has continued as a working voice on European economic policy. In 2015 Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz appointed him Chairman of the Economic Council. He writes regularly for Rzeczpospolita, Gazeta Wyborcza, Polityka, Parkiet, Wprost, and Newsweek Polska. The combined record gives him a vantage point that few European speakers can match. He has built market institutions from a standing start, written a national privatisation programme, and held senior fiscal responsibility for the entire Union. When he reads EU budget politics, Central European exposure, or the durability of the European project, he is reading instruments he has helped to build. Key speaking topics EU budget architecture and the Multiannual Financial Framework The political economy of European integration Post-communist economic transition and privatisation Central and Eastern Europe in the EU Polish economic and political outlook Geopolitical risk for European capital The future of EU fiscal policy Ideal for Boards and executive committees with material exposure to Central and Eastern Europe CFOs, treasury, and policy teams tracking EU regulatory and fiscal direction Investor and banking audiences reading European political risk Senior public-sector and institutional audiences on EU policy and enlargement Audience outcomes A clear read of how EU budget priorities are set and where they are heading Direct insight into the political economy of Central and Eastern Europe from someone who shaped it Sharper interpretation of European policy signals affecting capital allocation A working framework for thinking about EU enlargement, sanctions, and the durability of the European project

Why organisations work with Bronisław Komorowski He sat in the two chairs that defined Poland’s security posture: Minister of National Defence during NATO integration and President during the Russian annexation of Crimea. Very few speakers have carried both briefs. He reads Warsaw, Kyiv, Vilnius, and Berlin as a participant, not an analyst. That matters when European political risk is being priced around a boardroom table. As founder of the Bronisław Komorowski Institute and member of the InterAction Council, he remains inside the network of former heads of state shaping conversations on European security and the global order. He brings the authority of a head of state who led Poland through the post-2010 period, with the historian’s grounding of a University of Warsaw history graduate and former Solidarity-era dissident. Biography highlights President of the Republic of Poland, 2010 to 2015. Minister of National Defence of Poland, 2000 to 2001, and Deputy Minister of National Defence, 1990 to 1993. Marshal (Speaker) of the Sejm from 2007, and member of the Sejm from 1991 to 2010. Pre-1989 opposition activist with the Workers’ Defense Committee (KOR) and the Movement for Defense of Human and Civil Rights (ROPCiO), interned during martial law. Member of the InterAction Council of former heads of state and government. Honorary doctorates from Mykolas Romeris University (2008) and Vytautas Magnus University (2015). Biography Poland sits on the seam between the European Union and a Russia that has redrawn borders by force. Bronisław Komorowski has served in nearly every senior role that seam produces. He was Deputy Minister of National Defence in the first post-communist governments, ran the defence ministry under Jerzy Buzek during the final stages of NATO integration, led the Sejm as its Marshal from 2007, and served as President of the Republic from 2010 to 2015. The arc matters because the questions he dealt with are the questions European boards are now asking again. How does a country on NATO’s eastern flank hold deterrence credible without triggering escalation. How do democratic institutions stay intact under sustained pressure. How does a government in Warsaw keep Washington, Berlin, and Kyiv aligned at the same time. He was making those calls during the 2014 Crimea period and the early months of Russia’s intervention in eastern Ukraine. His authority also comes from the other end of his career. He was arrested in 1971 while working with the Workers’ Defense Committee, co-operated on the underground monthly Głos through the late 1970s, and was interned under martial law. The constitutional leader of 2010 to 2015 is the same person who helped build the civic opposition that produced 1989. That grounding shapes how he talks about resilience, institutions, and the fragility of democratic settlements. Since leaving office he has continued that work through the Bronisław Komorowski Institute, founded on the day his presidential term ended, and through his seat on the InterAction Council alongside other former heads of state. He is a University of Warsaw historian by training, and it shows in how he connects the current moment to the longer European story. Key speaking topics Central and Eastern European political risk NATO’s eastern flank and European security Poland-Ukraine relations and the war in Ukraine Transatlantic relations and the future of the EU Democratic transition and the defence of institutions National defence policy and civil-military relations Leadership under constitutional crisis Ideal for Boards and executive committees with operations, supply chains, or capital exposure in Central and Eastern Europe Defence, security, and foreign-policy forums convening government, military, and industry leaders CEO and chair-level summits addressing European political risk and the transatlantic alliance Investor and asset-manager gatherings pricing geopolitical risk into European portfolios Audience outcomes A sharper read of how Warsaw, Kyiv, and the Baltic capitals actually view the security and economic picture Direct insight into the decisions a head of state weighs during a regional crisis A grounded view of how democratic institutions hold, or fail to hold, under sustained political pressure A framework for interpreting European political risk that is anchored in thirty years of Polish statecraft

Why organisations work with Wesley K. Clark Operational command at the highest level of NATO, including the Kosovo air campaign, gives him a direct read on how modern conflict, escalation, and alliance decision-making actually work. Two decades of advisory work across oil, gas, power, batteries, and finance through Wesley K. Clark and Associates and Energy Security Partners, so the geopolitics connects to capital and supply. A book-length argument, Don’t Wait for the Next War, on linking U.S. energy strength, fiscal capacity, and security strategy, which gives boards a coherent framework rather than a news commentary. Standing as a Senior Fellow at UCLA’s Burkle Center and a director of the Atlantic Council, both of which signal a serious institutional reading of foreign policy rather than punditry. Track record in front of senior audiences as a CNN military analyst and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, so the room treats him as a principal, not a presenter. Biography highlights Supreme Allied Commander Europe, NATO, 1997 to 2000; commanded Operation Allied Force in Kosovo. Valedictorian of the West Point class of 1966; Rhodes Scholar in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford. Author of four books, including Waging Modern War, Winning Modern War, A Time to Lead, and Don’t Wait for the Next War. Presidential Medal of Freedom; Defense Distinguished Service Medal (five awards); Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart; Commander of the French Legion of Honor. Senior Fellow at UCLA’s Burkle Center for International Relations; director, Atlantic Council. Chairman of Wesley K. Clark and Associates and Energy Security Partners; advisor or board member to more than 90 companies across energy, finance, and security. Biography The Kosovo air campaign in 1999 was the first sustained combat operation NATO had ever fought as an alliance. The commander running it was Wesley Clark, then the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, and the experience of holding nineteen governments together through 78 days of war became the spine of his subsequent thinking on conflict, alliance management, and political risk. His training was not narrowly military. Clark graduated as valedictorian of the West Point class of 1966, took a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford for Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and went on to a 38-year career that included Vietnam combat, U.S. Southern Command, and authorship of the U.S. National Military Strategy. He retired as a four-star general with the Presidential Medal of Freedom and honorary knighthoods from Britain and the Netherlands. The work since uniform has been almost entirely about how strategy, capital, and security fit together. Through Wesley K. Clark and Associates and Energy Security Partners, he has advised more than 90 companies across oil, gas, power, batteries, and finance. His book Don’t Wait for the Next War argues that American energy capacity, fiscal discipline, and global posture have to be planned as a single system, not three separate debates. That is the perspective he brings into a boardroom. Not running commentary on the day’s headlines, but a coherent reading of how energy supply, alliance behaviour, and great-power competition translate into decisions a senior leadership team has to make about exposure, capital, and timing. Key speaking topics Geopolitical risk and great-power competition NATO, alliance dynamics, and the rules-based order Energy security and the strategic role of energy supply U.S. foreign policy and national security strategy Leadership and decision-making under operational pressure Conflict, escalation, and modern warfare Ideal for Boards and executive committees pricing geopolitical and sanctions exposure CSOs, heads of strategy, and corporate development teams reassessing global footprint Energy, defence, financial services, and infrastructure leadership audiences Government affairs and risk leaders briefing boards on alliance and policy shifts Audience outcomes A clearer view of how NATO, U.S., and allied decision-making actually moves in a crisis A working read on how energy supply and capital allocation interact with security policy A sharper sense of which geopolitical risks are durable and which are noise Direct exposure to what command-level decision-making under pressure looks like

Why organisations work with Jens Weidmann A decade inside the ECB Governing Council during the sovereign debt crisis, the Draghi “whatever it takes” period, and the pandemic response. Few speakers can describe those decisions from inside the room. The hawkish dissent on the ECB council was not branding. It was a substantive position on bond purchases, fiscal dominance, and the limits of central bank independence, and it informs how he reads today’s inflation and debt dynamics. Active commercial bank chairman (Commerzbank) and reinsurance supervisor (Munich Re). His view on rates, regulation, and risk is grounded in current board exposure, not a retired official’s recollections. Chief G8 and G20 sherpa for Germany under Chancellor Merkel. He brings a working knowledge of how monetary, fiscal, and geopolitical decisions are negotiated between major economies. Chaired the BIS board and led the IMF’s 2022 panel on institutional safeguards. The credentials matter because they signal access to the small group of people who set the rules of cross-border finance. Biography highlights President of the Deutsche Bundesbank, 2011 to 2021 Member of the ECB Governing Council and Chairman of the Board of the Bank for International Settlements during his Bundesbank presidency Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Commerzbank since 2023 Member of the Supervisory Board of Munich Re Professor of Practice in Central Banking and Co-Director of the Centre for Central Banking, Frankfurt School of Finance and Management Former Head of Division IV (Economic and Financial Policy) at the German Federal Chancellery and chief German sherpa for G8 and G20 summits Chair of the IMF External and Independent Panel of High-Level Experts on Institutional Safeguards, 2022 Biography The Bundesbank seat on the ECB Governing Council carries a particular weight. It represents the largest economy in the eurozone and a tradition of monetary discipline that predates the single currency. For a decade, that seat was occupied by Jens Weidmann, and during the Draghi era he was the Council’s most consistent dissenter on sovereign bond purchases and on the boundary between monetary and fiscal policy. Before the Bundesbank, Weidmann was the German Chancellery’s chief economic adviser and the country’s sherpa at the G8 and G20. The negotiations after Lehman, the Greek programme, and the early architecture of European banking union all crossed his desk. Earlier still he served the German Council of Economic Experts, where his work fed into the Agenda 2010 reforms that reshaped the German labour market. Since stepping down from the Bundesbank in 2021, his focus has shifted from rule-setting to rule-applying. As Chairman of Commerzbank’s Supervisory Board he oversees one of Germany’s two large commercial banks through a higher-rate environment and a renewed debate over European banking consolidation. At Munich Re he sits inside the supervisory governance of a major reinsurer, where climate and geopolitical risk meet capital adequacy. He teaches and writes from the Frankfurt School Centre for Central Banking, which he co-directs. The IMF’s 2022 decision to appoint him chair of its independent panel on institutional safeguards, after the data scandal involving its managing director, signalled that his judgement on institutional integrity carries weight beyond Germany. Key speaking topics Monetary policy and central bank independence Eurozone economic and financial stability Inflation, public debt, and fiscal dominance Banking supervision and financial regulation G7, G20, and international policy coordination Geopolitical risk and the global financial system Ideal for Bank, asset manager, and insurer boards setting strategy under shifting rate and regulatory regimes CEOs, CFOs, and CROs of multinationals exposed to euro-area policy and currency risk Government, regulator, and policy audiences working on financial stability and reform Audience outcomes A grounded reading of where eurozone monetary policy is heading and what would shift it A clearer sense of how political and fiscal pressure now interacts with central bank decisions A working view of the constraints and choices facing European banks and insurers An informed perspective on G20-level coordination, sanctions, and the financial architecture around geopolitical risk

Why organisations work with Barbara Serra She holds the room when senior figures are practiced at controlling the conversation. Two decades anchoring live news at Al Jazeera English and Sky News mean she does not defer when a CEO or sitting minister tries to bridge back to talking points. She is credible on the European populism story in a way most broadcast hosts are not. The 2020 documentary “Fascism in the Family” and the 2025 book of the same name are her own work on her own family’s history, which means a panel on the populist current in Europe gets a chair who knows the material from the inside. She works comfortably across Italian, English, Danish and French audiences. For organisations whose flagship events are cross-border or whose European operation matters, this removes the awkward Anglo-defaulting that limits a lot of corporate event hosts. She owns a specific content lane on second-language English in international business. The argument is that what most companies call “global communication” is really English-language communication, with all the cultural narrowing that implies. For multilingual leadership teams operating in an English company language, this lands as a real internal issue with bite. Biography highlights Sky News presenter since 2023, anchoring News at 10 and the Press Preview Anchored Al Jazeera English’s flagship NewsHour from London 2006 to 2022; founding launch-team member First non-native English speaker to anchor a primetime news programme on British terrestrial television (Channel 5 News, 2005) Awarded the Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia (Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy) by the Italian President in 2019 for international journalism “Fascism in the Family” (Al Jazeera, 2020) won gold in both the Current Affairs and History categories at the New York Festivals TV & Film Awards; companion book “Fascismo in Famiglia” published in Italy in 2025 Hosting and moderation client roster includes KPMG, Baker Hughes, Technogym, the Interactive Advertising Bureau, Poste Italiane and ENEL; presented the Royal Television Society’s TV Journalism Awards in 2017 Biography Al Jazeera English launched in 2006 with a London evening news strand built to challenge the Anglo-American framing of international stories. The anchor it picked for primetime was Italian-born and working in her second language. Barbara Serra held the seat for sixteen years. That tenure followed an earlier first. In 2005 at Channel 5 News, she became the first non-native English speaker to anchor a primetime news bulletin on British terrestrial television. She has since moved to Sky News, anchoring News at 10 and the Press Preview. Outside the studio, the most distinctive piece of work is the 2020 documentary “Fascism in the Family”, which she co-produced, wrote and presented. The film traces the role of her own grandfather, the regime-appointed mayor of Carbonia, against the rise of the contemporary far right in Italy. It won gold in both the Current Affairs and History categories at the New York Festivals TV & Film Awards. A companion book, “Fascismo in Famiglia”, was published in Italy in 2025. The corporate hosting work is the other half of her commercial profile. She has chaired and moderated for KPMG, Baker Hughes, Technogym, the Interactive Advertising Bureau, Poste Italiane and ENEL, alongside presenting the Royal Television Society’s TV Journalism Awards. The discipline transfers directly from live news: holding senior figures on the question, and reading the room fast enough to fix it when something is going wrong on stage. Key speaking topics Conference hosting and live moderation Industry awards ceremonies and set-piece corporate events European political affairs and contemporary populism The legacy of fascism in modern Italian politics Second-language English in international business Cross-cultural communication in multilingual leadership International current affairs and live news analysis Ideal for Heads of corporate affairs and investor relations planning flagship convenings where the chair carries the event Multinational corporates with Italian or wider European leadership, where senior conversations move regularly between English and Italian Industry awards and high-stakes set-piece events where the host needs to handle live ad-libbing and recover quickly when something goes wrong on stage Boards and leadership teams hosting external speakers on European political risk and contemporary populism Audience outcomes A sharper read of contemporary European political affairs, particularly the populist current, from a serving prime-time news anchor A specific account of how Italy’s fascist past keeps shaping its present politics, drawn from her documentary and book An honest analysis of how the dominance of English in international business narrows whose perspectives get heard, and what that means for multilingual leadership teams

Why organisations work with Alec Ross He has advised both a US Secretary of State and a global venture capital firm on the same question: where power is moving as technology, capital and national interest collide. Boards get a single read across all three. The Industries of the Future sold into 24 languages and remains a reference text for executive teams framing long-range technology strategy. That gives him a shared vocabulary with global leadership audiences before he opens his mouth. The Raging 2020s offers a specific thesis, not a survey: the social contract between government, business and citizens is broken, and companies that misread the rebalancing will lose licence to operate. Leaders leave with a framework for where regulatory and political risk is actually heading. He built and sat inside the first serious technology policy function at the State Department, then moved to the investor side at Amplo. He speaks to both the regulator’s logic and the cap table’s logic, which most commentators cannot. Named to Foreign Policy’s Top 100 Global Thinkers and awarded the State Department’s Distinguished Honor Award. Credentials buyers can cite when justifying the booking internally. Biography highlights Senior Advisor for Innovation to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 2009 to 2013, in a role created specifically to modernise the practice of diplomacy. Author of two New York Times bestsellers: The Industries of the Future (Simon and Schuster, 2016) and The Raging 2020s (Henry Holt, 2021). Distinguished Professor at the Business School of the University of Bologna; previously Distinguished Senior Fellow at Johns Hopkins University and Senior Fellow at Columbia SIPA. Board Partner at Amplo, a global venture capital firm, with director roles across technology, finance, manufacturing, human capital and cybersecurity companies. Co-founder of One Economy, a nonprofit that expanded broadband access for low-income households before broadband policy was a political issue. Named to Foreign Policy magazine’s Top 100 Global Thinkers and holder of the US Department of State Distinguished Honor Award. Biography The Senior Advisor for Innovation job at the State Department did not exist before 2009. It was built for Alec Ross, who spent four years travelling to forty-one countries turning emerging technology into an instrument of US foreign policy under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. That mandate, sitting at the join between diplomacy, national security and the technology industry, is the lens he has brought to every role since. The Industries of the Future, published in 2016, mapped the sectors he believed would reorganise the global economy over the following decade: robotics, genomics, the commercialisation of data, the weaponisation of code. It sold into 24 languages and became a fixture on executive reading lists. The Raging 2020s, published in 2021, moved the argument on. The question is no longer which technologies win. The question is whether the contract between governments, companies and citizens holds, and what companies do when it does not. Ross now teaches at the University of Bologna Business School and sits as a Board Partner at the venture capital firm Amplo, with director seats across technology, finance, manufacturing and cybersecurity. He reads a regulatory brief the way a former diplomat does and a growth plan the way an investor does, and has held both jobs in earnest. What that produces for a leadership audience is judgement on questions that sit above the CTO and below the board: where the geopolitical weather is turning, which regulatory frames are about to land, which technology bets will still make sense when the politics catches up. Foreign Policy named him to its Top 100 Global Thinkers for a reason specific to this moment. Very few commentators have worked the diplomatic side, the commercial side and the academic side of the same argument. Key speaking topics Geopolitics of technology and the US to China contest The social contract between governments, companies and citizens Artificial intelligence, data and national competitiveness Cybersecurity as a board-level risk Regulation, antitrust and the future licence to operate Long-range industry disruption and capital allocation Innovation policy and the future of work Ideal for Boards and executive committees setting multi-year technology and geopolitical strategy CEOs, CSOs and heads of government affairs briefing for regulatory inflection points Financial services, technology and industrial leadership teams exposed to US, EU and China policy divergence Conferences convening CEOs, policymakers and investors on the intersection of technology and state power Audience outcomes A sharper read on where regulation, capital and public sentiment are pushing the next decade of technology strategy. A working framework for pricing political and geopolitical risk inside commercial decisions. Named examples of how governments, companies and citizens are renegotiating the social contract, and the implications for licence to operate. A clearer view of which technology sectors are concentrating power, and where corporate strategy has to adjust. An investor and policymaker’s dual perspective on the same question, translated for operators.

Why organisations work with Fabrice Pothier He helped architect NATO policy from the inside – including the Readiness Action Plan and Smart Defence – which means he reads alliance decisions not as headlines but as the output of processes he built and operated within. As current pro-bono advisor to President Zelenskyy on Ukraine’s long-term security guarantees, he brings live, first-hand insight into the most consequential European security negotiation of the past decade. Through Rasmussen Global, he advises multinational businesses and sovereign governments in parallel – giving him an unusually precise map of where geopolitical risk meets commercial and operational exposure. He co-founded the Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity – working alongside Joe Biden, Michael Chertoff, and Anders Fogh Rasmussen – giving him demonstrable authority on the intersection of democratic stability, technology, and political risk. He publishes strategic analysis through the IISS and is regularly featured in the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and Politico Europe – his public work is tested against the institutions that sophisticated senior audiences use as benchmarks. Biography highlights CEO of Rasmussen Global, the political consultancy founded by former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen; advises multinational businesses and sovereign governments on geopolitics, European policy, and strategic risk Former NATO Director of Policy Planning (2010-2016) under two successive Secretary Generals; credited with the Readiness Action Plan, the Defence Capacity Building Initiative, and Smart Defence, and with drafting Secretary General speeches for the Munich Security Conference and articles for Foreign Affairs Founding Director of Carnegie Europe, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Brussels centre, which became one of Europe’s leading foreign policy think-tanks Consulting Senior Fellow for Defence Policy and Strategy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS); regular contributor to the IISS journal Survival Co-founded the Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity alongside Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Michael Chertoff, and Joe Biden Pro-bono advisor to President Zelenskyy on Ukraine’s security guarantees and Euro-Atlantic integration; central to the Kyiv Security Compact, endorsed by G7 and formalised as the Ukraine Compact at the 2024 NATO Summit in Washington Testified before the UK Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee; featured in Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Politico Europe, and Washington Post; advisory board member, LSE Ideas Transatlantic Programme Biography Fabrice Pothier spent six years at the centre of NATO’s policy architecture as Director of Policy Planning, serving under both Anders Fogh Rasmussen and Jens Stoltenberg. The Readiness Action Plan, the Defence Capacity Building Initiative, and Smart Defence all bear his influence. He also drafted landmark speeches and articles for the Secretary General at the Munich Security Conference and in Foreign Affairs – a role that placed him at the intersection of alliance strategy and its public communication. That operational depth sets him apart from analysts who study alliance dynamics from the outside. He worked on the policy levers directly – advising successive Secretary Generals through NATO’s response to the Libya crisis, the 2014 Ukraine crisis, and a period of fundamental re-evaluation of European security. When he discusses how NATO makes decisions, he is describing a process he ran. Since 2015, he has led Rasmussen Global – the advisory firm founded by Anders Fogh Rasmussen – becoming CEO in 2022. He currently serves as pro-bono advisor to President Zelenskyy on Ukraine’s long-term security guarantees and Euro-Atlantic integration. That role made him central to the Kyiv Security Compact, which became the foundation of a G7 joint declaration at the 2023 Vilnius Summit and was formalised as the Ukraine Compact at the 2024 NATO Summit in Washington. He also co-founded the Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity alongside Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Michael Chertoff, and Joe Biden. Before NATO, he founded Carnegie Europe, establishing it as one of Europe’s leading foreign policy think-tanks. He holds a Consulting Senior Fellowship at the IISS, publishes in Survival, and is regularly featured in the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and Politico Europe. He has testified before the UK Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee and holds an advisory board position at the LSE Ideas Transatlantic Programme. Key speaking topics European security and defence architecture NATO strategy and transatlantic relations Geopolitical risk and corporate strategy The Russia-Ukraine war and Euro-Atlantic integration Election integrity, disinformation, and democratic resilience Scenario planning for geopolitical disruption EU politics and the reshaping of the European order Ideal for Boards and C-suites of multinationals with European or transatlantic market exposure Chief Risk Officers, Chief Strategy Officers, and public affairs leaders in global organisations Government, defence, and public policy conferences on European security and alliance strategy Financial and professional services firms with exposure to geopolitical risk Audience outcomes A working understanding of NATO’s decision-making architecture and how alliance dynamics translate into business and political risk Clarity on the trajectory of the Russia-Ukraine war and its medium-term implications for European security and market conditions A framework for distinguishing high-signal geopolitical risk from noise when making strategic investment or operational decisions Context on the structural state of transatlantic relations and how shifts in US-European alignment affect organisations operating across both Practical insight into the threat landscape around election interference and disinformation, and what democratic resilience means for organisations operating in politically volatile environments

Why organisations work with Carrie Gracie Two decades reporting from inside China, including the role of BBC News’ first China Editor based in Beijing, give her a read on Party politics and economic policy that few Western commentators can match. She translates Chinese political signals into the questions a board actually needs to answer: market access, supply chain exposure, regulatory direction, and the real shape of the US-China contest. Her Peabody-winning “White Horse Village” reporting, a decade-long series tracking one community through China’s modernisation, is evidence of the long-horizon judgement she brings to shorter-cycle corporate questions. On a separate brief, her public resignation from the BBC over unequal pay, and the £361,000 settlement she donated to the Fawcett Society and Equal Pay Advice Service, make her one of the few speakers who has forced structural change at a named employer and can talk about it first-hand. She is a working broadcaster, not an academic: she handles live Q&A with senior audiences, difficult journalists, and hostile questions with the composure of someone who has presented BBC News on air for over a decade. Biography highlights Former BBC News China Editor (2013 to 2018), based in Beijing, and the first person to hold that role 33-year career at the BBC as correspondent, presenter, and editor, including Beijing bureau chief and presenter of BBC News Channel and the BBC World Service programme “The Interview” Peabody Award for the “White Horse Village” documentary series following a Chinese village through a decade of modernisation Author of “Equal: A Story of Women, Men and Money” (Virago, Little Brown) Resigned as BBC China Editor in January 2018 over unequal pay; the BBC issued a public apology and back pay settlement, which she donated in full (£361,000) to the Fawcett Society and the Equal Pay Advice Service Educated at Hertford College, Oxford (PPE) and the University of Westminster (BA Chinese); honorary graduate of the University of Exeter (2022) Biography The BBC’s first China Editor was appointed in 2013 and based in Beijing. The job was created because Western news organisations had concluded that China could no longer be covered as a regional story. Carrie Gracie held that role until January 2018, and she had already been reporting from China, on and off, for more than twenty years before it was given to her. Her reporting record in the country is unusually long for a Western journalist. She taught English and economics in Yantai and Chongqing in the mid-1980s, before joining the BBC. She covered the death of Deng Xiaoping, the 1997 Hong Kong handover, and the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Her “White Horse Village” series, which tracked a single village in Chongqing through a decade of displacement and rebuilding, won a Peabody Award for the way it read national policy through one community. That long-horizon approach is what senior audiences draw on now. She reads Chinese political and economic signals with the eye of a reporter who has watched Party congresses, five-year plans, and leadership transitions over multiple cycles. For boards exposed to Chinese markets or supply chains, this is closer to intelligence than commentary. She has a second, distinct body of work. In January 2018 she resigned as China Editor after learning that male international editors were paid substantially more for equivalent jobs. The BBC apologised publicly, backdated her pay, and Gracie donated the full £361,000 to the Fawcett Society and the Equal Pay Advice Service. Her book “Equal: A Story of Women, Men and Money” (Virago) is the account of that case and what it took to force an institution to move. Key speaking topics China’s political direction under Xi Jinping US-China strategic competition Geopolitical risk for boards and supply chains Chinese economy and market access Media, free speech, and authoritarian states Gender pay equality and institutional accountability Equal pay as a governance issue Ideal for Boards and executive committees with significant exposure to China or Asia-Pacific markets CROs, general counsel, and strategy leads pressure-testing geopolitical scenarios CHROs and reward committees reviewing pay equity, transparency, and disclosure practice Leadership audiences at financial services, industrial, technology, and consumer firms navigating the US-China contest Audience outcomes A clearer read on how Beijing makes decisions and what that means for the next three to five years of market access and regulatory risk A sharper set of questions to take into the next board or strategy review on China exposure An unvarnished account of how pay inequality survives inside a high-profile, regulated employer, and what actually shifted the institution A working journalist’s framework for distinguishing signal from noise in Chinese state communications Confidence to brief non-specialist colleagues on the commercial stakes of the US-China relationship

Dr Linda Yueh CBE: Economist, Author, Broadcaster and Board Advisor​ Dr Linda Yueh CBE FREcon FRSA is a leading UK economist, writer, and broadcaster known for her expert insights on global economic growth, financial crises, and policy innovation. She is Fellow in Economics at Oxford University’s St Edmund Hall and Adjunct Professor of Economics at London Business School. As an Associate Fellow at Chatham House and member of the UK Soft Power Council, Dr Yueh contributes to shaping economic strategy and global policy discussions at the highest levels. Her work bridges academia, media, and government, making her a sought-after keynote speaker on international economics and global finance. Linda sits on the boards of FTSE 100 companies Rentokil Initial, SEGRO, and Standard Chartered, where she champions culture, sustainability, and governance. She chairs Baillie Gifford’s Schiehallion Fund Ltd, helping shape investment strategies for innovative growth companies. Her thought leadership is sought by LSE IDEAS, the Centre for Economic Performance, Greene King, and The Bretton Woods Committee, reflecting her global influence. An acclaimed author, Linda Yueh has published and edited 11 books, including The Great Crashes: Lessons from Global Meltdowns and How to Prevent Them, which was selected by the Financial Times as one of the Best New Books in Economics and by i newspaper in May 2023, and The Great Economists: How Their Ideas Can Help Us Today, which was named one of The Times’ Business Books of the Year. Her work bridges historical economic thinking and today’s global challenges, earning wide-ranging critical recognition and international readership. With a distinguished media profile, Linda has presented business and economics programmes for BBC Radio 4, BBC World TV, and Bloomberg, and was Chief Business Correspondent for BBC News. She is a regular judge for the Nine Dot Prize and edits the Routledge Economic Growth and Development series. In her advisory work, Linda Yueh has supported organisations such as the World Bank, European Commission and the Asian Development Bank, and has advised the UK government — including a UK Treasury review panel — on economic policy. She contributes actively to philanthropic and thought-leadership boards, including the Fidelity UK Foundations, Malaria No More UK, the Magna Carta Trust, and the British Science Association. Dr Linda Yueh continues to shape national and international conversations through her research, board leadership, and media expertise, making her a sought-after speaker for forward-thinking organizations.