Geopolitics

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

Why organisations work with Udo Lielischkies First-hand interpretation of Putin’s regime from a journalist who reported on it continuously from 1999 to 2018, including six years running ARD’s Moscow studio. A reading of Russia grounded in the provinces, not Moscow press briefings, drawn from years travelling beyond the capital and documented in “Im Schatten des Kreml”, reprinted four times since 2019. Editorial credibility recognised by the Deutscher Fernsehpreis, with a win for Best Reportage in 2004 and a Monte Carlo nomination in 2015 for reporting from eastern Ukraine. A senior journalist’s instinct for separating Kremlin signal from Kremlin noise, useful when boards are deciding what a Putin statement, sanction round, or escalation actually means for exposure and planning. Biography highlights Head of ARD studio Moscow, 2014 to 2018, for Germany’s largest public broadcaster. ARD correspondent in Moscow (1999 to 2006), Washington D.C. (2006 to 2012) and Moscow again (2012 to 2018), with an earlier Brussels and NATO posting from 1994. Author of “Im Schatten des Kreml: Unterwegs in Putins Russland”, Droemer Knaur, 2019, English rights title “In the Shadow of the Kremlin”. Winner of the German Television Award (Deutscher Fernsehpreis) 2004 for Best Reportage, “Kremlin, Prison and Corruption” (ARD/WDR). Further recognitions include the Golden Gong (1999), the Ernst Schneider Prize (1989), a Moscow festival special prize (2005) and a Monte Carlo Television Festival nomination (2015) for reporting on the war in Ukraine. Regular guest on German political programming (NDR, phoenix, ARD talk shows) on Russia, Ukraine and the Kremlin’s foreign policy. Biography The Kremlin is now a fixed entry on most board risk registers, alongside China, energy and supply chains. What boards struggle to source is interpretation of the regime that goes beyond headlines and beyond Western analyst convention. That is the gap Udo Lielischkies fills. For nearly 25 years he reported for ARD, Germany’s largest public broadcaster, across the three capitals that have defined the post-Cold War order: Brussels and NATO from 1994, Moscow from 1999, Washington D.C. from 2006, and Moscow again from 2012, where he ran ARD’s studio from 2014 until his retirement in 2018. He watched Putin’s arrival as an unknown FSB veteran and reported continuously through every phase that followed. His book “Im Schatten des Kreml: Unterwegs in Putins Russland” (Droemer Knaur, 2019) is the durable record of that work. It is now in its fourth edition and is widely read as having anticipated the trajectory that led to the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The English-language edition, “In the Shadow of the Kremlin”, is offered through Droemer Knaur’s rights catalogue. The reporting that underpins the book also produced his 2004 German Television Award for Best Reportage and a 2015 Monte Carlo Television Festival nomination for “The Murderous War in Ukraine – Escape From Ilovajsk”. What this gives a serious audience is rare. Not a geopolitical taxonomy delivered in the abstract, but the texture of a system explained by someone who lived inside it: how Kremlin power actually moves, how Russian provinces read the war, where the regime is brittle and where it is not. For organisations exposed to Russia, Ukraine, sanctions regimes, or the wider authoritarian bloc, that texture matters more than another forecast. Key speaking topics Putin’s Russia and the architecture of the regime The war in Ukraine and Kremlin strategy Geopolitical risk for Western boards Authoritarian regimes and the rules-based order Russia, Europe and the United States: shifting alliances Inside the Kremlin: power, succession, propaganda Ideal for Boards and executive committees with direct or indirect exposure to Russia, Ukraine, the CIS or sanctions regimes CROs, heads of geopolitical risk, and corporate affairs leads briefing senior leadership on Kremlin scenarios Industry conferences in energy, defence, financial services and logistics where Russia exposure remains material Public-sector and policy audiences working on European security, transatlantic relations and the war in Ukraine Audience outcomes A clearer picture of how Kremlin decision-making actually works, beyond Western media framing A grounded sense of where the regime is fragile, where it is not, and what that means for the next phase of the war Sharper questions to put to internal Russia and CIS exposure analysis A view of the Russian provinces, not only Moscow, and why that distinction shapes outcomes Context for reading future Kremlin statements, sanction rounds and escalation signals with less noise

Why organisations work with Linda Yueh A published framework for spotting and mitigating financial crashes, drawn from her book The Great Crashes and applied directly to board-level risk and capital allocation conversations. Sitting non-executive director on three FTSE 100 boards (Rentokil Initial, SEGRO, Standard Chartered), which means she reads the macro picture the way a director has to read it, not the way a commentator does. Direct working experience with the World Bank, European Commission, Asian Development Bank and the UK Treasury review panel, which lets her translate policy direction into commercial implication. A China specialism with academic depth: D.Phil. economics at Oxford, former Visiting Professor of Economics at Peking University, and author of China’s Growth: The Making of an Economic Superpower (Oxford University Press). Broadcaster’s instinct for clarity, sharpened by years as Chief Business Correspondent for BBC News and Economics Editor at Bloomberg Television, so the analysis lands with a non-specialist audience. Biography highlights Fellow in Economics, St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford, and Adjunct Professor of Economics, London Business School. CBE for Services to Economics, King’s New Year’s Honours List 2023. Author/editor of 11 books, including The Great Crashes (Penguin Business), selected by the Financial Times as one of the Best New Books in Economics. Non-Executive Director of Rentokil Initial, SEGRO, and Standard Chartered; Chair of Baillie Gifford’s Schiehallion Fund. Former Chief Business Correspondent, BBC News, presenting Talking Business with Linda Yueh; former Economics Editor, Bloomberg Television. Associate Fellow, Chatham House; columnist for The Times, the Financial Times and The New York Times; advisor to the World Economic Forum, World Bank, European Commission and Asian Development Bank. Biography The financial crashes of the past forty years all rhyme. Currency crises in the 1980s, Japan’s housing bust, the dot-com unwind, 2008 and the pandemic each followed a recognisable arc, and in The Great Crashes: Lessons from Global Meltdowns and How to Prevent Them, Linda Yueh sets out a three-step framework that boards and policymakers can use to read the early signals. Penguin Business published it in 2023 and the Financial Times selected it as one of its Best New Books in Economics. The analysis is grounded in serious academic work. Yueh holds a D.Phil. in economics from the University of Oxford, where she is Fellow in Economics at St Edmund Hall, and she is Adjunct Professor of Economics at London Business School. Her earlier book The Great Economists: How Their Ideas Can Help Us Today was named one of The Times’s Business Books of the Year, and the US edition was a Newsweek Best Book of the Year. China’s Growth: The Making of an Economic Superpower was published by Oxford University Press. What separates her from most academic economists is the directness of her commercial vantage point. She sits as a non-executive director on the boards of Rentokil Initial, SEGRO and Standard Chartered, and chairs Baillie Gifford’s Schiehallion Fund Ltd. She has advised the World Bank, the European Commission, the Asian Development Bank, the World Economic Forum and the UK Treasury review panel, and she is an Associate Fellow of Chatham House. She communicates for a living. As Chief Business Correspondent for BBC News she hosted Talking Business with Linda Yueh, and before that she was Economics Editor at Bloomberg Television. She writes regularly for The Times, the Financial Times and The New York Times. In 2023 she was appointed CBE for Services to Economics. Key speaking topics Global economic outlook and macroeconomic risk Financial crashes and crisis prevention China’s economic rise and US-China-Europe relations Geopolitics, trade and the global rules-based order Currency markets and financial stability Economic ideas and policy innovation Ideal for Board and audit committee sessions on macro risk, capital allocation and crisis preparedness Executive offsites for FTSE 100, FTSE 250 and large privately held firms with material China or emerging-market exposure Investor conferences and asset management forums needing a credible economist on global outlook CFO, treasury and risk leadership audiences working through currency, rate cycle and political risk decisions Audience outcomes A working read on where the global economy is in the cycle and which signals matter for the next twelve to thirty-six months A structured way to think about the early indicators of financial crises, drawn from a published historical framework A clearer view of China’s growth trajectory and the commercial consequences of US, EU and UK policy responses Confidence to take that view back into a board or investment committee and defend it

Why organisations work with Kirsty Wark Thirty-one consecutive years on BBC Newsnight, the highest-pressure interview chair in British current affairs, brings a discipline of questioning that few corporate moderators can match. BAFTA Fellowship (2025) and Royal Television Society lifetime achievement award (2024) signal a level of public recognition that lends weight to an event where the chair is visible alongside the principals. Long-established moderation credit with serious institutions including Deutsche Bank, Investec, Lloyds TSB, Procter and Gamble and the Cambridge MIT Institute, indicating a track record in commercially sensitive rooms. Comfortable holding senior political and business figures on the record without losing room temperature, a specific craft built across decades of live broadcast. Biography highlights Presenter of BBC Newsnight, 1993 to 2024, the programme’s longest-serving anchor. BAFTA Fellowship, 2025 British Academy Television Awards. Royal Television Society lifetime achievement award, RTS Journalism Awards, 2024. Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 2017. Honorary Doctor of Letters, University of St Andrews, 2023. Author of “The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle” (Two Roads, 2014), shortlisted for the Saltire First Book of the Year. Founder of Wark Clements, the production company behind arts and current affairs strands including “Words With Wark” and “Restless Nation”. Biography Newsnight closed its desk on her in 2024 after thirty-one years. Few broadcasters in any market have sat in the same interview chair for that long, across that many political cycles, with that level of consistent editorial weight. The chair itself is the credential. Wark’s commercial value to corporate audiences sits in the same craft. She moderates, chairs and interviews at the level senior boards are used to seeing in flagship current affairs. The discipline of holding a principal on a single question, of moving a panel through a contested topic without losing the room, of taking an audience question and translating it back into something the speaker can usefully address, was built across decades on Newsnight, The Late Show and BBC Two arts programming. The public recognition is unambiguous. The BAFTA Fellowship in 2025 sits alongside the Royal Television Society lifetime achievement honour from 2024, Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of St Andrews. Her corporate moderation roster, Deutsche Bank, Investec, Lloyds TSB, Procter and Gamble, Statoil, the Cambridge MIT Institute and the Rolex Mentor and Protege Arts Initiative among them, indicates clients who book her for rooms where the chair has to carry the same authority as the speakers on stage. She also writes fiction. Her debut novel, “The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle”, was published by Two Roads in 2014 and shortlisted for the Saltire First Book of the Year Award, a side credential that signals range and a working ear for narrative, useful in any room where the format moves between interview, panel and audience exchange. Key speaking topics Conference moderation and panel chairing Interview-format keynotes and fireside conversations Awards hosting and ceremonial presenting Media scrutiny and leadership communication UK political reporting and current affairs analysis Scottish public life, arts and culture Ideal for Annual leadership conferences and investor events requiring a moderator with broadcast-level authority Awards nights, gala dinners and ceremonial events with a principal-speaker line-up Fireside-format keynotes where a senior executive or external figure is interviewed on stage Sensitive panels on regulatory, political or reputational topics needing a chair the room will trust Audience outcomes A panel or interview that lands the substantive content rather than drifting into platitude Senior speakers handled with the same composure they would expect from a flagship broadcast interview Audience questions translated into useful exchanges, not lost to the room A ceremonial event that holds its pace and authority across the full running order

Why organisations work with Kirsty Lang She has interviewed at the highest level for BBC Radio 4 Front Row, BBC World News and Channel 4 News, which means she can pressure-test a CEO, minister or artist on stage without losing the room. Her foreign-correspondent grounding, including covering the 1989 revolutions and the Balkans wars from Budapest for the BBC World Service, gives her real authority on geopolitics, conflict and Europe. She brings governance credibility from the inside of major institutions: Chair of Global Witness, Chair of BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, and two full terms as a Trustee and Non-Executive Director of the British Council. She is fluent across two often-separated worlds, hard news and the arts, which makes her the right chair for philanthropy, soft power and cultural-diplomacy conversations that cross both. She has chaired and moderated for organisations including EY, IBM, the WHO, NICE, the Bosch Foundation and the British Medical Association, so the moderating brief is familiar territory rather than a stretch. Biography highlights Lead presenter, BBC Radio 4 Front Row, for 19 years (2003 to 2022). Host, BBC Radio 4 Round Britain Quiz, from 2022. Chair of the Board, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead. Chair of the Board, Global Witness, from January 2024. Trustee and Non-Executive Director, British Council, 2014 to 2020 (two full terms). Chair of judges, Orange Prize for Fiction, 2008. Visiting professor, Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, 2012. Biography The Berlin Wall came down in November 1989. Kirsty Lang was the BBC World Service’s Central European correspondent in Budapest, reporting the revolutions across the region and, soon after, the wars in the former Yugoslavia. That decade of foreign reporting, including a stint as Paris correspondent for The Sunday Times, sits underneath everything she does on a stage today. She moved into anchor roles at Channel 4 News between 1998 and 2002, then returned to the BBC to launch BBC Four’s evening news. For 19 years, from 2003 to 2022, she was a lead presenter of Front Row on BBC Radio 4, the network’s flagship arts and culture programme, interviewing writers, artists, film-makers and policymakers nightly. Since 2022 she has hosted Round Britain Quiz on the same network. Her governance record gives her an unusual second register. She chairs the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, served two full terms as a Trustee and Non-Executive Director of the British Council between 2014 and 2020, and in January 2024 became Chair of the Global Witness Board, the international NGO investigating environmental and human rights abuses linked to natural-resource exploitation. That mix is what organisations book her for. She moves between hard news, the arts, and institutional governance with equal command, which is why she is asked to chair conferences for clients including EY, IBM, the World Health Organization, NICE, the British Medical Association and the Bosch Foundation. Key speaking topics International affairs and Europe Soft power and cultural relations Philanthropy and the third sector The arts and cultural policy Storytelling and narrative Conference moderation and panel chairing Media interview craft Ideal for Boards and senior leadership convenings on international affairs, soft power or cultural diplomacy. Foundations, NGOs and cultural institutions running flagship donor, trustee or stakeholder events. Multi-stakeholder conferences in healthcare, professional services and policy that need a chair who can hold expert panels to account. Awards ceremonies, literary festivals and high-profile interview formats with named guests. Audience outcomes A conference programme that surfaces the actual argument, because the chair has read the brief and can press the panel. On-stage interviews that reach the difficult questions without alienating the guest. Audience engagement sustained across long-form sessions through pace, follow-up and editorial judgement. Cross-disciplinary conversations, including geopolitics with culture, or policy with philanthropy, kept coherent for a senior audience.

Why organisations work with Kim Campbell She has held the top job. Few speakers can describe cabinet decision-making, defence policy, and the politics of succession from inside the Prime Minister’s office of a G7 country. She was the first woman to serve as Defence Minister of any NATO member state, which gives boards a substantive perspective on gender, authority, and security policy that does not collapse into commentary. She built a working leadership institution from scratch: the Peter Lougheed Leadership College at the University of Alberta, where she served as Founding Principal from 2014 to 2018. She has spent two decades inside the leading global networks for former heads of government and democratic reform, including Club de Madrid, where she was Secretary General, and the World Movement for Democracy, where she chaired the steering committee. She is a Companion of the Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian honour, recognising lifetime contribution rather than a single role. Biography highlights 19th Prime Minister of Canada and the first woman to hold the office. First woman to serve as Defence Minister of any NATO member state. Former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada; passed reforms to gun control and the law of sexual assault. Canadian Consul General in Los Angeles, 1996 to 2000. Taught at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 2001 to 2004. Founding Principal, Peter Lougheed Leadership College, University of Alberta, 2014 to 2018. Secretary General of Club de Madrid, 2004 to 2006; founding member of the organisation. Chair, Council of Women World Leaders, 1999 to 2003. President, International Women’s Forum, 2003 to 2005. Companion of the Order of Canada (2008); Order of British Columbia (2012). Author of Time and Chance: The Political Memoirs of Canada’s First Woman Prime Minister. Biography Most discussions of leadership skip the part that matters most to boards: what happens when authority meets resistance, and the leader is held accountable for the result. Kim Campbell has lived that sequence. She became Canada’s 19th Prime Minister in June 1993, lost the autumn election in one of the heaviest defeats in Canadian political history, and then spent the following three decades doing the harder work of building the institutions that produce the next generation of leaders. Before the premiership she ran two of the most demanding portfolios in any cabinet. As Minister of Justice and Attorney General she carried gun control reform and a substantive overhaul of sexual assault law through Parliament. As Minister of National Defence in 1993 she became the first woman to hold that role in any NATO country, attending the alliance’s defence ministers’ meetings during a period of rapid post-Cold War repositioning. The post-government work is what gives her current perspective its weight. She served as Canadian Consul General in Los Angeles, taught at the Harvard Kennedy School from 2001 to 2004, and chaired the Council of Women World Leaders. As a founding member and later Secretary General of Club de Madrid, she sits inside the world’s principal network of former heads of government working on democratic reform. She chaired the World Movement for Democracy’s steering committee from 2008 to 2015. Her most concrete recent project is institutional. From 2014 to 2018 she was Founding Principal of the Peter Lougheed Leadership College at the University of Alberta, designing and launching an undergraduate leadership programme intended to compete with the best in the world. She is a Companion of the Order of Canada and a recipient of the Order of British Columbia. Key speaking topics Political leadership and executive decision-making Democratic institutions and the conditions for legitimacy Gender, authority, and women in political leadership Defence and security policy Climate change as a governance and stability problem Leadership formation and the design of leadership programmes Canadian and international politics Ideal for Boards and executive committees stress-testing strategy against political risk Government, civil service, and public sector leadership programmes Audiences building or sponsoring leadership development institutions Conferences on women’s leadership where the brief calls for first-hand executive experience Audience outcomes A first-hand account of how cabinets, central government, and party politics actually decide A substantive view on gender and political authority from the first woman to lead a G7 country A working framework for what makes leadership legitimate when institutions are under strain A grounded read on democratic backsliding from someone who has worked inside the leading reform networks for two decades

Why organisations work with Katie Pilbeam She has anchored live financial television, including a weekly business programme she produced herself, which means she can carry a market-facing conversation without an earpiece feeding her the next question. She has interviewed Christine Lagarde, Steve Wozniak, Boris Johnson and Sadiq Khan on camera. The standard for senior-stage moderation is set by that calibre of guest. Twelve editions of the Geneva Forex Events and recurring London Stock Exchange conferences mean buyers are hiring a known quantity in the trading and capital-markets circuit, not a generalist host. NCTJ-trained, with rolling news experience on the Israel-Hamas conflict, the Ukraine-Russia war and the 2023 NATO summit, so a geopolitical brief does not need to be simplified to fit her. Biography highlights Main news anchor in Moscow for four years, producing and presenting her own weekly business programme, Venture Capital. News and business presenter credits at Reuters TV, TRT World, TalkTV, IG Markets, London Live News and Proactive Investors. Earlier business-presenting roles at Dukascopy TV in Geneva and IG Trading Group in London. Feature reporting from the World Economic Forum in Davos, the St Petersburg Economic Forum, the Shanghai Financial Forum and the Sochi Winter Olympics. Anchored rolling coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict, the Ukraine-Russia war, the Wagner rebellion and the 2023 NATO summit in Vilnius. NCTJ-qualified journalist, English Literature graduate of the University of Southampton. Biography A finance summit at the London Stock Exchange or a forex conference in Geneva does not need a celebrity host. It needs someone who can read a Bloomberg ticker on camera, follow a central banker into the detail, and run a panel of traders without losing the audience in the back row. That has been Katie Pilbeam’s working brief for more than a decade. She trained as an NCTJ-qualified print journalist before moving into financial television, first at Dukascopy TV in Geneva and IG Trading Group in London. Four years as a main anchor in Moscow followed, where she produced and presented her own weekly business programme, Venture Capital, alongside long shifts on rolling news. The on-air catalogue since has been heavily geopolitical and market-facing: Reuters TV, TRT World, TalkTV, IG Markets, Proactive Investors, and feature shows from Davos, the St Petersburg Economic Forum and the Shanghai Financial Forum. She has anchored rolling coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict, the Ukraine-Russia war, the Wagner group rebellion and the 2023 NATO summit in Vilnius. The interview list is the cleanest proof point: Christine Lagarde, Steve Wozniak, Boris Johnson, Sadiq Khan, Donald Trump. Conference buyers are hiring the same instinct that produces those exchanges live, applied to their CEO, their regulator, or their keynote guest. Key speaking topics Conference moderation and panel hosting Financial markets and trading Global business news Geopolitics and international affairs Awards and gala hosting Live event anchoring Ideal for Banks, asset managers and exchanges running flagship client conferences Financial services firms hosting trading, forex or capital-markets events Corporate communications teams running CEO interviews, AGMs or investor days Conference organisers in geopolitics, foreign policy and international business Audience outcomes A senior panel that stays on its strongest material instead of drifting into platitudes Live interviews with principals that produce usable broadcast and social clips A host who can absorb a last-minute change of running order, guest or news event without breaking the room A market-fluent moderator who can press a CFO or central banker on substance, not just on tone

Why organisations work with Joanna Gasiorowska A working read on the geopolitics of global sport from someone who has covered the FIFA corruption scandal, Russian doping, and the awarding of the World Cup to Russia and Qatar as live news, not as commentary after the fact. Front-line tournament experience across the Summer and Winter Olympics, European football championships, the Ryder Cup, Diamond League athletics, and FIFA World Cup qualifiers across the Middle East and Africa. A senior anchor’s stage craft, drawn from presenting live bulletins on Al Jazeera English’s Newshour and AJNewsgrid since the channel’s 2006 launch, plus prior on-air work at ITN and Sky Sports. A view of the Gulf’s role in global sport that is informed by being based inside the region’s flagship international broadcaster, useful for clients running events, sponsorships, or partnerships tied to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the wider region. Biography highlights Senior sports presenter, reporter and producer at Al Jazeera English since the channel’s launch in 2006, with on-air roles on Newshour and on the daily social media programme AJNewsgrid. Previously a sports reporter on ITV’s Evening News and a daily sports presenter on the ITV News Channel, with additional reporting experience at Sky Sports. Reported across the Summer and Winter Olympics, the 2012 European football championships in Poland, the Ryder Cup, Diamond League athletics, and FIFA World Cup qualifiers across the Middle East and Africa. Covered the FIFA corruption scandal, Russian doping revelations, and FIFA’s awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar. BA from City, University of London. Biography The corruption scandal that took down a generation of FIFA officials, the Russian doping revelations that pulled state athletes out of two Olympic cycles, and the World Cup awards to Russia and Qatar all broke as live news on the same handful of international channels. Al Jazeera English was one of them, and Gasiorowska was inside its sports operation as those stories landed. She has been with Al Jazeera English since the channel went on air from Doha in 2006, presenting live sports bulletins on Newshour and on the daily social media programme AJNewsgrid. The reporting CV around it is wide: Summer and Winter Olympics, the 2012 European football championships in Poland, the Ryder Cup, Diamond League athletics, FIFA World Cup qualifiers across the Middle East and Africa. Before Doha she came up through UK network news. She reported sport for the UK’s ITN, including on ITV’s Evening News and as a daily sports presenter on the ITV News Channel, with additional reporting work at Sky Sports. She holds a BA from City, University of London. The result for a buyer is a speaker who can read the geopolitics of global sport from the inside of a newsroom that has covered every major case of the last twenty years, and can do it on stage with a senior live anchor’s timing. Key speaking topics The geopolitics of global sport Sports governance, FIFA, and the IOC Doping, corruption, and sports integrity The Gulf as a host market for global sport Olympic and World Cup tournament cycles Sports broadcasting and live news craft Ideal for Heads of partnerships, sponsorship leads, and CMOs underwriting Olympic, FIFA, or Gulf-hosted sports properties Corporate affairs and risk leads scoping reputational exposure on sports governance, doping, and host-nation politics Event organisers running sports industry conferences, after-dinner programmes, and panel sessions on tournament strategy Communications teams briefing executives ahead of major tournaments hosted in the Middle East Audience outcomes A working map of how FIFA, the IOC, and major federations actually award tournaments and police themselves A clearer view of why doping and corruption cases recur, and what changes after each cycle A read on the Gulf’s strategic positioning in global sport from inside a regional broadcaster Front-line colour from the Olympics, the World Cup, the Ryder Cup, and Diamond League athletics that informs sponsorship, partnership, and event decisions

Why organisations work with Jayati Ghosh Sits on the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism and the WHO Council on the Economics of Health for All, so her read on global financial and health governance is drawn from inside the rooms where it is being rewritten. Co-chairs ICRICT, the independent commission pressing for reform of international corporate taxation, which gives her first-hand authority on the OECD-led tax overhaul that is reshaping how multinationals plan their effective rate. Reads emerging-market risk from a development-economist vantage point, not a Wall Street one, which is what buyers booking her tend to want: a sharper picture of sovereign debt, currency stress, and the political economy of the Global South. Thirty-five years at Jawaharlal Nehru University and now at UMass Amherst, author or editor of nineteen books, and winner of the ILO Decent Work Research Prize and the Galbraith Award: credentials that translate into credibility with serious audiences. Writes a monthly column for Project Syndicate, so her current thinking is publicly available and buyers can hear the argument before booking the room. Biography highlights Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst, since January 2021. Member of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism (2022). Member, WHO Council on the Economics of Health for All, chaired by Mariana Mazzucato. Co-chair, Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT). ILO Decent Work Research Prize (2011); John Kenneth Galbraith Award, AAEA (2023). Author or editor of nineteen books, including Women Workers in the Informal Economy and The Making of a Catastrophe: Covid-19 and the Indian Economy; monthly columnist for Project Syndicate. Biography The rules governing cross-border capital, corporate tax, and public health spending are being rewritten at the same time. Boards that track any one of these in isolation tend to miss how they interact. Ghosh works across all three. She is Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, a post she took up in 2021 after nearly 35 years teaching at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. Her research has long focused on globalisation, employment in developing countries, macroeconomic policy, and the gendered structure of informal labour. Nineteen books and roughly two hundred scholarly articles sit behind that work. The institutional footprint is what sets her apart from other macro voices. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres named her in 2022 to the 12-person High-Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism, the body tasked with proposing reforms to global governance ahead of the Summit of the Future. She sits on the WHO Council on the Economics of Health for All, chaired by Mariana Mazzucato, and co-chairs ICRICT, which has driven much of the civil-society case for a global minimum corporate tax. Outside academic journals she writes a monthly Project Syndicate column read by finance ministers and central bankers, and for nearly three decades ran a fortnightly column at Frontline. The ILO awarded her its Decent Work Research Prize in 2011; the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association gave her its Galbraith Award in 2023 for contributions to economics and to humanity. Key speaking topics Global financial architecture and reform International corporate tax and ICRICT’s agenda Inequality, labour, and the informal economy Development and growth in India and the Global South Economics of health and public goods Sovereign debt and emerging-market risk Gender and the economics of care Ideal for Boards and investment committees sizing emerging-market and sovereign-debt exposure. CFOs and tax leaders tracking the OECD minimum tax and the next wave of multinational tax reform. Leadership teams in global health, pharma, and development finance who need a public-goods frame for their strategy. Conferences on globalisation, inequality, and the future of multilateralism where a policy-insider voice is needed. Audience outcomes A clear read on how the UN, WHO and OECD reform agendas translate into corporate risk over the next three to five years. A defensible position on international tax reform and what it means for transfer pricing, effective rates and reputational exposure. A sharper picture of sovereign debt and currency stress in the Global South, drawn from development-economics evidence rather than market commentary. An argument for why care, informal labour, and gender sit inside the macro picture, not alongside it.

Why organisations work with Ingrid Betancourt Lived authority on operating under conditions no executive training can simulate: six and a half years in captivity, then a return to public life, politics, and scholarship. A first-hand account of how identity, values, and decision-making hold up when external structure is stripped away, told without sentimentality. Credibility across two worlds senior audiences rarely hear combined: frontline political leadership in a fragile democracy and sustained reflection on human dignity from inside a research fellowship at Oxford. The Prince of Asturias Award for Concord and the French Legion of Honour signal an argument about freedom and human rights that serious international audiences already recognise. A voice on resilience that does not traffic in motivational language: the material is concrete, specific, and consequential. Biography highlights Former Colombian senator (1998-2002) and two-time presidential candidate, first in 2002 and again in 2022. Held hostage by FARC for more than six years after her abduction on 23 February 2002; released on 2 July 2008 in Operation Jaque. Laureate of the 2008 Prince of Asturias Award for Concord, awarded by the Princess of Asturias Foundation. Appointed to the French Legion of Honour following her release. Author of Even Silence Has an End (2010), a New York Times bestselling memoir, and The Blue Line (Penguin Press, 2016), a novel set during Argentina’s Dirty War. Research Fellow in Theology at Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford; DPhil in Theology awarded by the University of Oxford in 2023. Biography On 23 February 2002, a presidential candidate walked into FARC-controlled territory in southern Colombia and did not come out for six and a half years. That candidate was Ingrid Betancourt, then a sitting Colombian senator who had built her political career on a direct challenge to institutional corruption. Her release in July 2008, through the Colombian military intelligence operation known as Operation Jaque, returned her to a public life she had to rebuild in full view of an international audience. The 2008 Prince of Asturias Award for Concord and her appointment to the French Legion of Honour recognised not the ordeal, but the argument she had begun to make about democracy, dignity, and the conditions under which human freedom survives. What she has produced since is a body of work that takes that argument seriously. Her memoir Even Silence Has an End became a New York Times bestseller. Her novel The Blue Line, published by Penguin Press, examined political violence in Argentina. In 2023 the University of Oxford awarded her a DPhil in Theology for a thesis on the concept of the non-person in the writings of the liberation theologian Gustavo Gutierrez, and she now holds a research fellowship at Harris Manchester College. For senior audiences, the relevance is practical. Leadership in normal conditions rewards competence and pattern recognition. Leadership when the structure breaks, when the information is hostile, when the horizon is no longer yours to set, rewards something else: a clear sense of what will not be traded, and the discipline to hold it. That is the ground Betancourt speaks from, and very few working speakers can speak from it with her authority. Key speaking topics Resilience and decision-making under extreme pressure Leadership when institutions and information fail Human dignity and democratic values Ethical conduct in high-stakes environments Freedom, captivity, and the inner life of leaders Political courage and anti-corruption Reconciliation after violent conflict Ideal for Board, CEO, and executive committee offsites focused on resilience and crisis leadership Leadership development programmes addressing judgement under sustained pressure International affairs, human rights, and public policy forums Values-led leadership summits at universities and foundations Audience outcomes A sharper sense of which commitments a leader needs to name before a crisis, not during one A concrete account of what resilience looks like when it is not a slogan A more honest reading of how authority, dignity, and ethical conduct interact when external structure disappears A frame for thinking about freedom and human rights that senior audiences can take into policy and strategy conversations Material for their own reflection on leadership character that does not rely on motivational abstraction

Why organisations work with Helena Humphrey She is an active senior journalist, not a former one. Her BBC News Washington correspondent role gives her current, direct access to U.S. political decision-making at precisely the moment when those decisions carry the most immediate consequences for global business and investment. Before her broadcast career, she worked inside crises rather than covering them from the outside – serving as IFRC Spokesperson during the West Africa Ebola outbreak and as a UN Risk Communications Officer. That background gives her a practitioner’s understanding of how institutions behave under pressure, which is distinct from what a pure journalist or a geopolitical analyst typically brings. Her career across Deutsche Welle (Washington Correspondent), Euronews (Lead Anchor), NBC News (Global Correspondent), and BBC News gives her a genuinely transatlantic frame on political risk – she understands how events in Washington register in European capitals, and how European political shifts read in Washington. That dual lens is not standard among U.S.-focused political commentators. Fluent in English, French, and German, she can engage with primary sources across multiple political environments without translation – a practical differentiator when the nuances of language and framing carry analytical weight. Her professional specialism is translating fast-moving, multi-country political events into clear, structured narratives for non-specialist audiences. That is not a secondary skill – it is what she does professionally, at broadcast pace, every working day. Biography highlights Anchor and correspondent, BBC News Washington, from 2023 Former Washington Correspondent, Deutsche Welle; former Lead Anchor, Euronews; former Global Correspondent, NBC News IFRC Ebola Response Spokesperson, West Africa, 2014-2015; UN Risk Communications Officer, 2015 BA Joint Honours in French and German, University of Nottingham Moderated international journalism and geopolitics panel at UJANA Annual Conference 2024, alongside author and disinformation analyst Peter Pomerantsev Fluent in English, French, and German; career spanning Europe, Africa, Asia, and the United States Biography A political decision in Washington can reorder global trade relationships within a news cycle. Leadership teams watching the same headlines face the same question: what does this mean for us, and how quickly does it need to drive action? Helena Humphrey works at that intersection daily, as anchor and correspondent for BBC News in Washington D.C. Her broadcast career has taken her through Deutsche Welle as Washington Correspondent, Euronews as Lead Anchor, and NBC News as Global Correspondent, before her current role at BBC News. That trajectory is not simply a list of employers – it has built a frame that moves between American and European perspectives on political risk in a way that neither a purely U.S.-focused analyst nor a European commentator typically achieves. Before her journalism career, Humphrey worked inside major humanitarian crises rather than reporting on them from the outside. She served as IFRC Spokesperson during the West Africa Ebola outbreak and as a UN Risk Communications Officer – managing institutional public information under emergency conditions. That operational experience shapes how she now interprets crisis events for business audiences: she understands how decisions get made inside large institutions when events move faster than plans. Fluent in English, French, and German, and with reporting experience across Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas, she offers senior leaders what most geopolitical commentary does not – current access combined with structural depth, and the professional discipline to make it immediately usable. Key speaking topics U.S. politics and global policy implications Geopolitical risk and political uncertainty Transatlantic relations and European political dynamics Crisis communications and institutional decision-making under pressure Global health emergencies and international coordination The information environment, disinformation, and media credibility Ideal for C-suite and board-level leaders with significant U.S. or European political risk exposure Chief Risk Officers and strategic planning teams navigating periods of political volatility Financial and professional services organisations operating across transatlantic markets Global organisations building geopolitical literacy at senior leadership level Audience outcomes A practical framework for distinguishing durable geopolitical shifts from short-term political noise Clearer understanding of how U.S. policy decisions translate into risk and opportunity for global operations Context on how political instability and crisis events affect information flow, and how to make decisions under that uncertainty A transatlantic perspective on political risk that accounts for both American and European dynamics, rather than treating them as separate problems Greater confidence in engaging with geopolitical complexity as a routine part of strategic decision-making, rather than a specialist function