Political Risk & Policy

Why organisations work with Oliver Hart Hart’s theory of incomplete contracts and the Grossman-Hart-Moore property rights theory underpin most modern thinking on corporate governance and the boundaries of the firm. Boards working through M&A, integration, outsourcing, or governance redesign get a framework grounded in four decades of foundational research. The Hart-Zingales shareholder welfare framework gives boards a substantive third position between Friedman-style shareholder primacy and stakeholder capitalism rhetoric. It is published in peer-reviewed journals and directly applicable to live ESG and shareholder voting decisions. Hart has served as a government expert witness in major US legal cases, including Black & Decker v. USA and Wells Fargo v. USA. The framework has been tested under adversarial legal scrutiny, with high-stakes commercial outcomes turning on the economic argument. Hart’s body of work has shaped four decades of research on ownership and incentive design. The 2016 Nobel Prize and 2023 Knight Bachelor are the formal recognition of a framework that now underpins how regulators and corporate boards approach governance questions. Biography highlights Co-recipient of the 2016 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, awarded with Bengt Holmström for contributions to contract theory. Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor at Harvard, the institution’s highest faculty rank. Author of Firms, Contracts, and Financial Structure (Oxford University Press), the standard reference text on the economic theory of the firm. Knight Bachelor in the 2023 King’s Birthday Honours for services to economic theory. Past president of the American Law and Economics Association and past vice president of the American Economic Association. Fellow of the British Academy, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Econometric Society, and member of the National Academy of Sciences. Biography What is a firm, and where should its boundaries lie? The question sits underneath most of the contested decisions facing modern boards, from M&A integration to ESG governance. The framework that lets boards answer it rigorously was largely built by Sir Oliver Hart. Hart’s contributions to contract theory, recognised with the 2016 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, centre on a foundational insight. Real contracts are incomplete: they cannot specify every contingency, and whoever holds the right to decide on the unspecified elements holds the real power. The Grossman-Hart-Moore property rights theory built on this to formalise when activities should sit inside firms and when they should sit in markets. More recently, his work with Luigi Zingales of Chicago Booth has redrawn the corporate purpose debate. The Hart-Zingales shareholder welfare framework reframes corporate objectives around the actual preferences of investors, including their non-financial concerns, and proposes shareholder voting as the mechanism for expressing them. The framework speaks directly to live disputes about ESG votes and shareholder activism on social issues. At Harvard since 1993, Hart holds the Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professorship and chaired the Economics department from 2000 to 2003. Past president of the American Law and Economics Association and fellow of the British Academy, he was made a Knight Bachelor in 2023 for services to economic theory. The 1986 paper with Sandy Grossman, “The Costs and Benefits of Ownership,” remains the standard reference for how firm boundaries are analysed in modern economics. Key speaking topics Contract theory and incomplete contracts The theory of the firm Corporate governance and ownership Shareholder welfare and corporate purpose ESG governance and shareholder activism Incentive design Ideal for Boards of directors and chairs General counsel, CFOs, and corporate governance leaders Investors and asset managers grappling with ESG mandates Policymakers, regulators, and antitrust authorities Audience outcomes A working theory of where firm boundaries should lie and why, applicable to live decisions on M&A and outsourcing. A defensible position on corporate purpose that goes beyond Friedman versus stakeholder capitalism slogans. The economic logic underneath shareholder activism and ESG governance, including when shareholder voting matters and when it doesn’t. The intellectual vocabulary for thinking about ownership and incentive design with the seriousness these topics require.

Why organisations work with Nouriel Roubini His 2006 address to the International Monetary Fund, which outlined the specific structural conditions – overleveraged housing markets, fragile credit instruments, unsustainable household debt – that caused the 2008 financial crisis before they were widely recognised, gives his risk scenarios a credibility that peer analysis rarely carries. The MegaThreats framework – the argument that ten overlapping structural forces, including sovereign debt, geopolitical rivalry, AI-driven labour displacement, and climate stress, reinforce one another – equips leadership teams to analyse compound risk rather than managing individual threats in isolation. As both an academic and an active strategist at Hudson Bay Capital and Atlas Capital Team, he connects macro-risk analysis to live capital allocation decisions, not retrospective commentary. His public-sector career spans the White House Council of Economic Advisers and the U.S. Treasury Department under Timothy Geithner, giving him a direct, lived understanding of how policymakers reason under pressure – and where their responses typically fall short. His forecasting runs in both directions. The economist who warned the IMF in 2006 has since argued, against consensus, that a technology-led productivity surge will sustain US growth towards 4% by the end of the decade, a case made in the Financial Times and Bloomberg. Boards get a weighed reading of upside and downside scenarios. Biography highlights Professor Emeritus of Economics and International Business, NYU Stern School of Business; previously on faculty at Yale University Author of MegaThreats: Ten Dangerous Trends That Imperil Our Future, And How to Survive Them (Little, Brown, 2022) and Crisis Economics: A Crash Course in the Future of Finance (Penguin Press, 2010) 2006 address to the International Monetary Fund accurately identified the structural vulnerabilities that precipitated the 2008 global financial crisis Ranked #4 on Foreign Policy’s “Top 100 Global Thinkers” (2009); named among Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World (2009); multiple further appearances on Foreign Policy’s annual list Senior Economist for International Affairs, White House Council of Economic Advisers (1998–1999); Senior Adviser to the Undersecretary for International Affairs and Director of the Office of Policy Development and Review, U.S. Treasury Department (1999–2000) Chairman and CEO of Roubini Macro Associates; Senior Economic Strategist at Hudson Bay Capital; Chief Economist and Portfolio Manager, Atlas Capital Team Monthly columnist for Project Syndicate; profiled by the Financial Times, New York Times Magazine, and Bloomberg; PhD in Economics, Harvard University; BA, Bocconi University Biography Nouriel Roubini’s most consequential professional moment came at a 2006 address to the International Monetary Fund, where he outlined the structural conditions – overleveraged housing markets, fragile credit instruments, unsustainable household debt – that would produce the 2008 global financial crisis. The IMF’s own economists were, by contemporaneous accounts, sceptical. Within two years, the scenario had materialised almost exactly as described. That track record is the foundation of his authority. Roubini is a Professor Emeritus at NYU’s Stern School of Business and Chairman and CEO of Roubini Macro Associates, with a career spanning the White House Council of Economic Advisers, the U.S. Treasury Department under Timothy Geithner, and advisory roles at the IMF, the World Bank, and the Federal Reserve. His academic foundation rests on a PhD in Economics from Harvard and more than 70 published papers on sovereign debt, financial crises, and international capital flows. His 2022 book, MegaThreats (Little, Brown), advances a named framework for compound systemic risk. The thesis is precise: ten structural forces – sovereign debt at historic highs, geopolitical fragmentation, demographic pressure, AI-driven labour displacement, and climate stress among them – are not independent variables but mutually reinforcing ones. For organisations still using single-factor risk frameworks, the argument is a direct challenge to how they model exposure. Alongside his academic and research work, Roubini serves as Senior Economic Strategist at Hudson Bay Capital and as Chief Economist and Portfolio Manager at Atlas Capital Team, roles that keep his analysis connected to live capital allocation decisions. The crisis-prediction reputation understates the range of his judgment: he has recently argued in the Financial Times that a technology-led productivity boom will sustain US exceptionalism despite tariffs and fiscal strain. He is a monthly contributor to Project Syndicate and has been ranked #4 on Foreign Policy’s “Top 100 Global Thinkers.” Key speaking topics Global macroeconomic outlook and downside risk scenarios Sovereign debt, fiscal dominance, and currency risk Geopolitical fragmentation and its economic consequences US-China strategic rivalry and the restructuring of global trade Financial crises: structural causes, policy responses, and systemic aftermath Inflation, monetary policy, and central bank independence AI, automation, and structural shifts in labour markets Compound systemic risk: the MegaThreats framework Ideal for Boards and executive leadership teams stress-testing strategy against macro-economic disruption CFOs, CROs, and treasury functions making capital allocation and risk management decisions in volatile conditions Investment and financial services leadership – asset managers, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds – requiring rigorous macro-risk briefings Government, public policy, and multilateral forums addressing fiscal strategy, monetary policy, and geopolitical-economic interdependence Audience outcomes A structured understanding of how macro forces – debt, geopolitics, monetary policy – interact and compound rather than operating in isolation Specific frameworks, drawn from the MegaThreats thesis, for anticipating systemic stress before it becomes visible in headline economic indicators Clarity on the geopolitical dynamics – particularly US-China rivalry, fiscal dominance risk, and the conditions for de-dollarisation – most likely to affect long-range strategic planning A more calibrated reading of central bank and government policy responses, and the structural conditions under which those responses typically fail or arrive too late Practical language and conceptual tools for articulating compound systemic risk to boards, investors, and regulators, beyond standard scenario planning conventions

Why organisations work with Nick Watt Three decades of frontline political journalism that spans Belfast through the peace process, Brussels through EU enlargement and Westminster through Brexit and five prime ministers. Few UK political journalists combine all three settings at senior level. Sourcing inside government that produces the story before the press release. Politico‘s London Playbook columnist Jack Blanchard has called his reports “always immaculately sourced and well worth a listen”, and his Brexit coverage repeatedly broke cabinet positions ahead of the formal announcement. A working understanding of both UK and EU institutional politics. Boards with European exposure or cross-border operations get analysis from someone who has reported from both sides. Broadcast discipline as a chair and moderator. He runs a panel the way he runs an interview: tight on time and sharp on the question. He explains what Westminster decisions will mean for regulation, capital allocation and operating risk, in language a boardroom can act on. Biography highlights Political Editor, BBC Newsnight (since 2016) Presenter, The Westminster Hour, BBC Radio 4 (since 2022) Former Chief Political Correspondent and European Editor, The Guardian (Brussels and London) Former Ireland Correspondent and Political Correspondent, The Times (Belfast and London) Listed at number 14 on Press Gazette‘s Top 50 Political Reporters (2012) Coverage spanning seven UK general elections, two Scottish independence referendums and the UK’s EU membership referendum Biography The UK political environment is structurally less stable than for most of the last two decades. Five prime ministers since 2016, two referendums that redrew the country’s constitutional and trading framework, and a regulatory baseline that shifts with each new government. Boards with material UK exposure now have to read political signal as part of strategic planning. As Political Editor of BBC Newsnight, Nick Watt reports from inside that environment. His nightly analysis follows Westminster decisions and cabinet dynamics, and translates what they mean for policy. Politico‘s Jack Blanchard has called his reports immaculately sourced. T-shirts were printed in Germany after Watt relayed on air an unnamed cabinet minister’s verdict on Theresa May’s Brexit strategy: “F*** knows, I’m past caring.” The Times appointed him Ireland Correspondent in Belfast in 1993, just as the peace process began. The Guardian later made him European Editor in Brussels through EU enlargement, and then Chief Political Correspondent in Westminster. Few UK political journalists have held senior roles in all three settings. For organisations with UK exposure, that combination matters. Watt explains what a vote or fiscal event will mean for businesses planning capital allocation, hiring and M&A. He has covered seven UK general elections, two Scottish independence referendums and the Brexit referendum. His Brexit reporting included extended profiles of Michel Barnier, David Davis and Olly Robbins, drawn from sources inside the negotiation. Key speaking topics UK politics and Westminster The UK policy and regulatory environment UK general elections and electoral cycles UK-EU relations and post-Brexit politics Political risk for boards and businesses operating in the UK European political affairs Ideal for Boards and executive committees with material UK exposure Public affairs, government relations and corporate affairs leads Financial and professional services firms monitoring UK political risk Conferences and member events covering UK politics, policy or political economy Audience outcomes The names, factions and pressures inside the current UK government likely to shape its decisions The way parliamentary arithmetic and the electoral cycle will affect tax, regulation and major policy bills The direction of the UK-EU political relationship and what changes it can realistically absorb Which Westminster developments matter for business and which are noise A practitioner’s read on UK political risk for the next 12 to 24 months

Why organisations work with Nicholas Stern He authored the most influential economic study of climate change ever commissioned by a government. The Stern Review (2006) put the cost of inaction at 5 to 20 percent of global GDP and reframed climate as the largest market failure in economic history. Boards and treasuries still cite it as the standard reference. He is a former Chief Economist of both the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and a former Second Permanent Secretary at HM Treasury. The institutional authority means he speaks to investment committees and finance ministries from inside their own decision frameworks. He chairs the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at LSE, the centre that produces the analytical work most quoted in serious climate finance and net-zero policy debate. His talks draw on its current research. He co-chaired the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate and the High-Level Commission on Carbon Prices, the bodies that shaped how governments and central banks now approach carbon pricing and transition finance. He is a crossbench life peer in the UK House of Lords and a Companion of Honour. His arguments are taken seriously across political administrations and inside major financial institutions because they sit outside any party or commercial alignment. Biography highlights IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government at LSE and Chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment Lead author of The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change (HM Treasury, 2006) Author of The Growth Story of the 21st Century (LSE Press, 2025), updating the Review’s economic case for climate action two decades on Former Chief Economist of the World Bank and of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development; former Second Permanent Secretary at HM Treasury and Head of the UK Government Economic Service Crossbench life peer in the UK House of Lords as Baron Stern of Brentford; Companion of Honour; Fellow of the Royal Society; former President of the British Academy Recipient of the Blue Planet Prize, the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award, the Leontief Prize and the Schumpeter Award Biography For two decades, the question of whether climate action makes economic sense has shaped how governments and large financial institutions make capital decisions. The Stern Review, published by HM Treasury in 2006, is the document that gave that question its first authoritative answer. It put the cost of inaction at 5 to 20 percent of global GDP and framed climate change as the largest market failure in economic history. The case it made for early action is still cited by policymakers and finance ministries today. Stern’s authority on this rests on an unusually broad institutional base. He was Chief Economist of the World Bank from 2000 to 2003, having previously held the same role at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He was also Second Permanent Secretary at HM Treasury and Head of the UK Government Economic Service during the period when the Review was conducted. He now chairs the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at LSE. Its analysis is the reference most often cited in serious debate over climate finance and net-zero costs. He also co-chaired the High-Level Commission on Carbon Prices and the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, the latter with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Paul Polman. He sits in the UK House of Lords as a crossbench peer and was made a Companion of Honour in 2017. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a former President of the British Academy. His most recent book, The Growth Story of the 21st Century (LSE Press, 2025), revisits the Review two decades on and frames climate action as the central growth opportunity of the next two decades. Key speaking topics Economics of climate change Climate risk and capital allocation Net-zero policy and the energy transition Climate finance for emerging economies Sustainable growth and economic development Policy design for the climate transition Ideal for Boards of financial institutions and large industrial firms with material climate exposure Finance ministries, central banks and senior government policymakers working on transition policy Chief sustainability officers and chief climate officers at multinational organisations Asset owners and fund managers with net-zero or transition mandates Audience outcomes An economic argument for climate action that holds up against board-level scepticism A clearer view of where capital is and is not flowing in the energy transition, and what that means for investment and policy decisions A working understanding of how carbon pricing now sits inside government and central bank thinking A defensible position on the economics of net zero that can be referenced and revisited inside the organisation

Why organisations work with Misha Glenny He treats cybersecurity as a geopolitical and criminal-economy problem, not an IT one, which is the framing senior boards now need. McMafia and DarkMarket are built on direct fieldwork with traffickers, money launderers and hackers. The case material is his own, not borrowed from analyst desks. As former Rector of the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna and incoming host of BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time, he brings institutional weight that few commercial speakers in this category carry. He can move between a finance board on sanctions exposure, a security committee on ransomware, and a leadership audience on Russia, China and the fracturing global order, without changing voice. Biography highlights Former BBC Central Europe Correspondent. Reported the 1989 revolutions and the Yugoslav wars. Rector, Institute for Human Sciences (IWM), Vienna, May 2022 to March 2026. Incoming presenter of BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time, succeeding Melvyn Bragg from January 2026. Author of McMafia, DarkMarket, The Balkans 1804 to 2012 and Nemesis: One Man and the Battle for Rio. Executive producer of the BBC One and AMC drama series McMafia. Sony Radio Academy Award for outstanding contribution to broadcasting. BT Information Security Journalist of the Year. Visiting Professor at Columbia University’s Harriman Institute, teaching Crime in Transition. Biography International organised crime is no longer a vice problem on the edge of the economy. It is woven into legitimate supply chains, banking flows and the cyber infrastructure that companies depend on. The argument that organised crime could account for a significant share of global GDP, first set out in McMafia in 2008, has aged into a description that finance, security and policy audiences now treat as a working assumption. Misha Glenny built that argument on direct reporting. As the BBC’s Central Europe Correspondent through the 1989 revolutions and the Yugoslav wars, he reported the collapse of the old order from inside it. McMafia and the follow-up book DarkMarket took the same method into the criminal economy itself, with sustained fieldwork among traffickers, money launderers and the hackers running early carding forums. The BBC One and AMC drama series of McMafia, which he executive produced, gave the analysis a second life with a much wider audience. The institutional record matches the reporting. Glenny served as Rector of the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna from 2022 to 2026, one of central Europe’s serious advanced research institutions, and held a visiting professorship at Columbia’s Harriman Institute teaching crime in transition. In December 2025 the BBC announced him as the next host of In Our Time, succeeding Melvyn Bragg. For a leadership audience, the combination is unusual. Few speakers can talk about Russian power, Balkan history, Chinese strategy, ransomware economics and sanctions exposure as a single connected system. Glenny can, because he has spent thirty years reporting it as one. Key speaking topics Geopolitics and global disorder Cybersecurity as a board and national risk Global organised crime and illicit finance Russia, the Balkans and post-Soviet power Cryptocurrency, dark markets and the criminal internet Critical minerals and the new resource competition China, the United States and the contested world order Ideal for Boards and executive committees confronting sanctions, cyber and geopolitical exposure together CISOs, CROs and general counsel framing cyber and crime risk to the wider business Financial services, energy and industrial leadership teams exposed to sanctions, illicit flows and supply chain risk Policy, defence and intelligence audiences working at the seam of geopolitics and organised crime Audience outcomes A working model of how organised crime, cybercrime and state power now operate as one system A clearer view of where their own sector sits inside that system, from finance to energy to technology Specific case material from McMafia and DarkMarket that translates to live risk conversations Sharper questions to put to their security, legal and strategy functions on geopolitical exposure

Why organisations work with Michael Spence Few people in the world can translate frontier economic theory into language a board can act on. His 1973 paper on signalling is foundational to information economics; he brings the same rigour to current questions about growth and capital allocation. He chaired the Commission on Growth and Development from 2006 to 2010. Its Growth Report directly shaped how the World Bank and major development institutions approach long-term growth strategy. That policy depth is in the room when he speaks. As Chairman of the GA Global Growth Institute at General Atlantic, he is one of very few academic economists actively engaged in live capital allocation decisions. Boards get a perspective that has been pressure-tested against real investment choices. His analysis of China, India, and the developing world draws on direct engagement, including a co-chair role at the Asia Global Institute in Hong Kong. His 2023 book Permacrisis, written with Gordon Brown and Mohamed El-Erian, gives organisations a current, public-facing argument about cascading global risks and the policy choices that could break the cycle. Biography highlights 2001 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, shared with George Akerlof and Joseph Stiglitz, for work on markets with asymmetric information. John Bates Clark Medal (1981) from the American Economic Association. William R. Berkley Professor in Economics and Business at NYU Stern; Dean Emeritus of Stanford Graduate School of Business; former Dean of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Chaired the Commission on Growth and Development (2006 to 2010), the independent international body whose Growth Report shaped how the World Bank and IMF approach development strategy. Senior Advisor to General Atlantic and Chairman of the GA Global Growth Institute; Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution; Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Co-author of Permacrisis (Simon & Schuster, 2023, with Gordon Brown and Mohamed El-Erian) and author of The Next Convergence (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011); long-standing Project Syndicate columnist. Biography In 2001 the Nobel committee recognised a 1973 paper. Michael Spence’s work on signalling reshaped how economists think about markets where buyers and sellers do not have the same information. That is most of the markets corporate strategists care about. From 2006 to 2010, Spence chaired the Commission on Growth and Development. The Growth Report it produced is still cited inside the World Bank, the IMF, and finance ministries across the developing world. It remains a touchstone for how senior policymakers approach long-term growth strategy in developing economies. His current focus sits at the meeting point of macroeconomics and capital allocation. As Chairman of the GA Global Growth Institute at General Atlantic, he sits inside one of the world’s largest growth equity firms. He helps the firm think through how technology and geopolitics now shape where capital can productively flow. His 2023 book Permacrisis, written with Gordon Brown and Mohamed El-Erian, took the same argument to a wider audience. His Project Syndicate column, running since 2008, lands on the desks of senior policymakers and institutional investors. Recent essays have covered single points of failure in global supply chains, AI adoption in emerging markets, and why open markets often fail to produce homegrown tech champions outside the US and China. Key speaking topics Global economic growth and structural change Information economics and decision-making under uncertainty Emerging markets and the rise of Asia Capital allocation in a fragmented global economy Trade, supply chains, and geopolitical risk Technology, AI, and the future of productivity Climate, energy transition, and sustainable growth Ideal for CEOs, Group Strategy Officers, and CFOs setting capital allocation across global markets Boards and non-executive directors with multi-region exposure Ministers of finance and economy, central bankers, and senior policymakers in international institutions Institutional investors, asset managers, and growth equity teams setting long-horizon allocations Audience outcomes A sharper internal articulation of what has actually changed about growth, inflation, and trade since 2008. A working sense of how emerging markets and Asia are actually growing, drawing on direct engagement with policymakers and capital markets in those regions. A grounded view of where AI and the green transition will and will not reshape productivity at country and sector level. A current reading of the cascading risks set out in Permacrisis, including the policy choices that could break the cycle.

Why organisations work with Michael Portillo He has held three Cabinet posts, including the Treasury and Defence briefs, and can describe how spending decisions, security policy, and party-political pressure intersect from inside the room. He brings 25 years of close observation of Westminster as a broadcaster on The Moral Maze, This Week with Andrew Neil, and his GB News weekend programme, which keeps his political reading current rather than historical. He carries one of the most recognisable names and voices in British public life through Great British Railway Journeys and its international spin-offs, which gives a corporate event genuine cultural weight. He has served on the BAE Systems board and the International Commission on Missing Persons, so he can speak to defence industry dynamics and post-conflict governance with first-hand reference points. He chairs panels and prize juries from the Man Booker to UK arts endowments, which makes him an effective moderator and after-dinner host as well as a keynote voice. Biography highlights Cabinet Minister under John Major: Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Secretary of State for Employment, Secretary of State for Defence. MP for Enfield Southgate (1984-1997) and Kensington and Chelsea (1999-2005); Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer (2000-2001). Presenter of Great British Railway Journeys and its Continental, American, Indian, Asian, Australian, Alaskan and Canadian, and Coastal series for the BBC since 2010. Long-running panellist on BBC Radio 4’s The Moral Maze; Conservative voice on BBC’s This Week with Andrew Neil from 2003 to 2019. Non-executive director of BAE Systems (2002-2006); Commissioner of the International Commission on Missing Persons since 1998; President of DEBRA. First-class degree in history from Peterhouse, Cambridge; author of Portillo’s Hidden History of Britain and the Railway Journeys books with Michael O’Mara. Biography The 1997 general election produced the most quoted result in modern British political history. Stephen Twigg unseated Michael Portillo in Enfield Southgate with a 17.4% swing, and the “Portillo moment” entered the language. What is less remembered is that Portillo had, by that point, already run the Treasury’s spending side, the Employment department, and the Ministry of Defence, all before turning forty-five. That CV gives him an unusual vantage on how British government actually works. As Chief Secretary to the Treasury he ran the public spending negotiations that set Whitehall priorities. As Defence Secretary in the mid-1990s he handled procurement, NATO posture, and the Bosnia and Northern Ireland files. As Shadow Chancellor under William Hague he saw the modern Conservative Party’s internal debates from the inside. A broadcaster’s career followed Parliament rather than a corporate one. He has been a regular on BBC Radio 4’s The Moral Maze for over two decades, was the Conservative seat on This Week with Andrew Neil for its full 16-year run, and now hosts a weekend politics show on GB News. The Great British Railway Journeys franchise, in eight country variants since 2010, made him one of the BBC’s most recognisable presenters. The combination matters for a corporate audience. Portillo can talk about UK fiscal pressure with reference to the spending review process he once ran, about defence and procurement with reference to a Cabinet brief and a BAE Systems boardroom, and about how political risk feels day to day from inside a 25-year broadcasting beat. He chaired the 2008 Man Booker Prize, sits as President of the DEBRA charity, and served as a Commissioner of the International Commission on Missing Persons. He is, in practice, a senior public figure with a working knowledge of how British and European institutions hold together under stress. Key speaking topics UK politics and Westminster decision-making Public spending, the Treasury, and fiscal pressure Defence policy and the UK’s security posture Party leadership and political risk European and Anglo-Spanish relations British media, broadcasting, and public life After-dinner political commentary Ideal for Boards and executive teams looking for an informed read on UK political and fiscal risk Financial services, defence, and public-affairs audiences planning against shifting government priorities Senior client and partner dinners where a recognisable broadcaster as host or speaker adds weight Conferences requiring a political moderator or panel chair with Cabinet-level reference points Audience outcomes A clearer view of how decisions inside the UK Treasury and Cabinet actually get made A current reading of the political pressures shaping spending, regulation, and defence priorities Frank, on-the-record perspective on party leadership and the state of British public life A memorable, well-paced session from a presenter used to live broadcasting and large audiences

Why organisations work with Sir Michael Arthur He has sat on both sides of the table that boards now worry about: thirty-eight years inside the British Foreign Office at the most senior level, then eight years inside Boeing as a vice president and council member. He led the Maastricht Treaty negotiating team and the EU Single Market legislation team. When he speaks about how European policy is actually made, he is describing rooms he was in. As President of Boeing International he was the first non-American on the Executive Council, with operational responsibility for Boeing in 65 countries. That is rare ground for a former diplomat to occupy. His four years as High Commissioner in New Delhi give boards a Europe specialist who is also fluent on India, at a moment when very few people credibly cover both. He speaks German and French and held the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. On Berlin, he is read inside Berlin. Biography highlights British Ambassador to Germany, 2007 to 2010. British High Commissioner to India, 2003 to 2007. Director General for Europe and Economic Affairs, Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Led the Maastricht Treaty negotiating team and the EU Single Market legislation team. Senior Vice President of Boeing and President of Boeing International, 2019 to 2023; first non-American member of the Boeing Executive Council. Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG); recipient of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Board of Directors, Stimson Center; Non-Executive Director of a Tata Consultancy Services UK subsidiary; co-founder of The Ambassador Partnership LLP. Biography Most boards are now exposed to political decisions they cannot price. Tariffs, sanctions, industrial policy, export controls, the next German coalition, the next Indian budget. The standard inputs (bank research, consultant briefings, the FT) tell you what happened. They rarely tell you what the people who made the decision were trying to achieve, and what they will do next. Sir Michael Arthur has spent his career on the inside of those rooms. As British Ambassador to Germany from 2007 to 2010 and High Commissioner to India from 2003 to 2007, he ran two of the UK’s most consequential bilateral relationships at a moment when both countries were redefining their place in the global economy. Earlier he led the Maastricht Treaty negotiating team and the team that wrote the EU Single Market legislation. The European architecture that companies now operate inside is partly his handiwork. What sets him apart from the diplomatic-speaker norm is what came next. In 2014 he joined Boeing as President of Boeing UK and Ireland; in 2019 he became Senior Vice President of Boeing and President of Boeing International, the first non-American on the Boeing Executive Council. For four years he carried operational responsibility for the company in 65 countries and 18 regional offices. He left the diplomatic register and learned the executive one. The result is a speaker who can move between a board’s geopolitical question and its commercial answer without losing precision in either direction. He sits on the Board of Directors of the Stimson Center, on the board of a Tata Consultancy Services UK subsidiary, and co-founded The Ambassador Partnership LLP. He is a fluent German and French speaker and holds the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Key speaking topics Germany, the Eurozone and the European political economy UK and EU relations after Brexit India as a strategic partner for Western business Transatlantic relations and the US-Europe-China triangle International negotiation and corporate diplomacy Political risk inside global supply chains Ideal for Boards and executive committees with material exposure to Europe, India, or transatlantic policy. Heads of strategy, government affairs, and corporate affairs at multinationals. Industrial, aerospace, defence, and financial services leadership teams managing political risk. Investor and partner gatherings where senior decision makers want a credible read on Berlin, Brussels, New Delhi, and Washington in the same room. Audience outcomes A grounded read on what Berlin and Brussels are likely to do next, from someone who has been on both sides of those negotiations. A clearer view of India as a commercial partner, drawn from four years running the UK’s mission in New Delhi. A useful frame for thinking about political risk as an operational variable, not a footnote in the strategy deck. A sharper sense of how diplomatic and commercial logic interact inside large international firms.

Why organisations work with Maurice Obstfeld He has sat at the top of the global policy table. As IMF Chief Economist from 2015 to 2018 and a member of the US Council of Economic Advisers from 2014 to 2015, he has been inside the rooms where currency, trade and crisis decisions were made. His scholarship is the textbook on his subject. International Economics: Theory and Policy, co-authored with Paul Krugman and Marc Melitz, is the standard text in the field; Foundations of International Macroeconomics, with Kenneth Rogoff, is the doctoral reference. Audiences are hearing from the person who wrote the book. He links the three dossiers most boards keep separate. Tariffs, the dollar and fiscal deficits are usually discussed in isolation. Obstfeld treats them as one operating system and shows how a move on one alters the others. The American Economic Association named him a Distinguished Fellow in 2023, a recognition reserved for the discipline’s most consequential contributors. The credential signals serious intellectual standing in a room where that matters. He is currently writing on the dollar’s standing. His 2025 work for Project Syndicate, Brookings and CEPR examines how trade policy and fiscal choices are stress-testing the dollar’s reserve role. Audiences get a current, not a retrospective, reading. Biography highlights C. Fred Bergsten Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics, since 2019; named to the chair in 2023. Chief Economist (Economic Counsellor) and Director of Research at the International Monetary Fund, 2015 to 2018. Member, US President’s Council of Economic Advisers, 2014 to 2015. Class of 1958 Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley. Co-author, International Economics: Theory and Policy (Pearson, with Krugman and Melitz) and Foundations of International Macroeconomics (MIT Press, with Rogoff). AEA Distinguished Fellow (2023); Fellow of the Econometric Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; recipient of the Tjalling Koopmans Asset Award, the John von Neumann Award, and the Bernhard Harms Prize. Biography The dollar’s reserve role, the global tariff regime and the independence of central banks were treated for three decades as settled architecture. They are now contested, and boards making capital allocation decisions need to understand the system, not just the cycle. Few economists are better placed to read it than Maurice Obstfeld. Obstfeld served as Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund from 2015 to 2018, directing the institution’s Research Department through a period of trade tension, capital flow volatility and rising fiscal pressure across advanced economies. He joined the IMF directly from the US Council of Economic Advisers, where he served as a member under President Obama. Before that he held the Class of 1958 Chair in Economics at UC Berkeley, where he taught from 1989 to 2023 and is now emeritus. His scholarly contribution sits behind much of how the discipline now teaches and practises open economy macroeconomics. International Economics: Theory and Policy, co-authored with Paul Krugman and Marc Melitz, is the standard textbook in the field. Foundations of International Macroeconomics, with Kenneth Rogoff, has been the doctoral reference since 1996. The American Economic Association recognised this body of work in 2023 with the Distinguished Fellow honour. Today he is C. Fred Bergsten Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, writing actively on how tariffs, fiscal deficits and pressure on central bank independence are reshaping the international monetary system. His 2025 essay “King Dollar’s Shaky Crown” for Project Syndicate, his Brookings paper on the US trade deficit, and CEPR Discussion Paper 20104 set out the case directly. The argument is that trust in the system can be destroyed quickly and rebuilt only slowly, and that capital allocators should be reading these signals now. Key speaking topics The international monetary system and the future of dollar dominance Tariffs, trade policy and the global economy Exchange rates, capital flows and currency risk Fiscal deficits, public debt and macroeconomic policy Central bank independence and monetary policy Financial crises and global financial stability China, the euro area and the architecture of the global economy Ideal for Boards, CIOs and treasury teams setting capital allocation policy under currency and trade uncertainty CFOs and investment committees in financial services, asset management and multinational corporates Senior policy audiences in central banks, finance ministries and sovereign wealth funds Economic and strategy briefings for executive committees with material cross-border exposure Audience outcomes A current reading of how tariffs, fiscal policy and currency dynamics are connected as one operating system A clear view of the specific risks to the dollar’s reserve role and what would have to change for them to materialise A framework for thinking about capital allocation when the rules of the international monetary system are under political pressure Reference points from inside the IMF and the US Council of Economic Advisers on how policy actually moves Citable language and named arguments senior leaders can carry back into their own board discussions

Why organisations work with Matteo Renzi His grasp of European political risk comes from having run a G7 government, chaired the EU Council Presidency, and participated in three G7 and three G20 summits – not from studying these institutions but from operating inside them at the highest level. His current role as Strategic Counsellor at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change connects his analysis to live government reform agendas across more than 40 countries, making his perspective current rather than retrospective. The Renzi government’s Jobs Act labour market overhaul, Madia Reform of public administration, and gender-equal cabinet were each delivered against significant institutional resistance – giving him specific, hard-won insight into what it actually takes to move reform through complex political systems. His co-authorship of the 2025 Tony Blair Institute paper “Europe in the Age of AI” – alongside Tony Blair and former Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin – positions him as a substantive current voice on technology governance and European competitiveness, not only on political history. For boards assessing exposure in Italy or the broader Southern European bloc, he provides a counterweight to the Germany-and-France framing that tends to dominate European political risk analysis in international advisory markets. Biography highlights Prime Minister of Italy, 2014 to 2016 – youngest ever Italian PM and youngest G7 leader at appointment Mayor of Florence 2009-2014; President of the Province of Florence 2004-2009; Senator for Florence since 2018 Founder and leader of Italia Viva (since 2019); previously Secretary of the Democratic Party, 2013-2018 Ranked #3 on Fortune’s 40 Under 40 (2014); included in Foreign Policy’s 100 Global Thinkers Strategic Counsellor, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (since 2024); co-author of “Europe in the Age of AI” (2025) with Tony Blair and Sanna Marin Author of 15+ published books on Italian politics and governance; teaches “The Challenges of Europe” at Stanford University’s Florence programme Biography EU Council negotiations, coalition formation, and regulatory direction are shaped by decisions made under intense political pressure by a small number of insiders. Matteo Renzi was one of them. He served as Prime Minister of Italy from 2014 to 2016, becoming at 39 the youngest person ever to hold that office and the youngest leader in the G7. His government moved fast. The Jobs Act overhauled Italy’s labour market. The Madia Reform digitised public administration and introduced digital ID as a central pillar of state infrastructure. His cabinet became the first in Italian history to achieve gender equality between women and men. He chaired the EU Council Presidency in the second half of 2014 and represented Italy at three G20 and three G7 summits. Italy’s signature on the Paris Agreement on climate change was made under his government. Since leaving government, Renzi has stayed operationally active. He serves in the Italian Senate and leads the centrist party Italia Viva. Since 2024, he has been a Strategic Counsellor at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, advising political leaders on reform strategy across more than 40 countries. His course “The Challenges of Europe” at Stanford University’s Florence programme brings that accumulated experience directly into academic debate. For organisations that need to understand how European coalitions form, how reform agendas succeed or fail under institutional pressure, and where geopolitical risk translates into policy, Renzi provides the granular, first-hand intelligence that covers the full range – from city government to the G7 table. Key speaking topics European political risk and governance EU institutional mechanics and reform Coalition politics and government formation Italian and Southern European political economy G7 and multilateral decision-making Digital transformation in government and public administration Political leadership under institutional pressure Ideal for Boards and C-suite executives with significant EU or Italian market exposure Government affairs and public policy functions within multinational organisations International business forums focused on European geopolitical and regulatory risk Senior leadership programmes and policy institutes requiring first-hand governmental perspective Audience outcomes A clearer working model of how EU institutions make decisions and where the real pressure points are – moving beyond election-watching to structural analysis Specific insight into how reform agendas succeed or collapse inside complex political systems, drawn from the Renzi government’s own record A realistic account of what political risk in Italy and the Southern European bloc means for organisations with exposure in those markets Context on how European governments are approaching digital transformation, labour market flexibility, and AI governance A framework for separating structural political change from short-term electoral noise in European markets

Why organisations work with Mark Barton The instinct to know when a speaker is avoiding the question comes from 10,000+ live interviews with central bankers, finance ministers, and CEOs. That is not something a professional facilitator acquires through facilitation training. A moderator who anchored Bloomberg Television’s coverage of six US elections, six UK general elections, the global financial crisis, and Brexit can challenge an economist or minister with authority rather than deference. For executives facing media scrutiny, Barton is among a very small group of coaches who can genuinely recreate the pressure of a live news anchor interrogation: because he spent 23 years on that side of the camera. He has chaired forums for Amundi, Societe Generale, TIME, the Doha Forum, and The FII Institute; organisations that expect substantive interrogation of the room’s most senior participants, not event management. As one of the five journalists who built Bloomberg Television’s European operations from the ground up in 1995, he brings an institutional relationship with the world of global finance and markets that most conference professionals simply do not have. Biography highlights One of five founding journalists, Bloomberg Television’s European operations, London, 1995 23-year Bloomberg TV anchor; hosted Countdown, First Word On Money, European Market Report, Bloomberg Markets, and The European Close Covered six UK general elections, six US elections, the global financial crisis, and Brexit across Bloomberg’s flagship prime-time programming Radio broadcaster: Daybreak Europe (Bloomberg Radio); financial bulletins on NPR, LBC Radio, Jazz FM, and Riviera Radio Conference host at the World Media Awards and The AIBs; moderator at the Horasis Global Meeting and Zurich Global Risk Management Summit Post-Bloomberg clients include Amundi, Societe Generale, TIME, the Doha Forum, and The FII Institute University of London, history Biography Bloomberg Television launched its European operations in London in 1995 with five journalists. Mark Barton was one of them. Over the next 23 years, he anchored the channel’s flagship programming: Countdown, European Market Report, Bloomberg Markets, The European Close. Those two decades built the editorial instincts and financial market depth that define his work today. His coverage record is specific. Six UK general elections. Six US elections. The global financial crisis. Brexit. More than 10,000 live interviews with world leaders, finance ministers, central bankers, and chief executives, including Bill Gates, Jean-Claude Trichet, and Shimon Peres. The experience of managing live, unscripted conversations with the world’s most guarded public figures is not one that transfers through conventional facilitation training. Beyond television, Barton presented Daybreak Europe on Bloomberg Radio and delivered financial market bulletins on NPR, LBC Radio, Jazz FM, and Riviera Radio. He also trained dozens of Bloomberg journalists in on-air communication: work that forms the basis of the media coaching he now delivers to business leaders preparing for public scrutiny. Since leaving Bloomberg in 2018, he has moderated for organisations including Amundi, Societe Generale, TIME, the Doha Forum, and The FII Institute. At the 2019 Horasis Global Meeting, he chaired a plenary on global governance featuring the former Prime Ministers of Romania and Belgium and the former President of Slovenia. The consistent thread: rooms that require a moderator with the credibility to hold their most senior participants to account. Key speaking topics Global financial markets and economic trends Geopolitical risk and international affairs Conference hosting and high-stakes panel moderation Executive media and communications coaching Live broadcast journalism and interviewing Business and financial crisis coverage Presentation skills under pressure Ideal for Boards and senior leadership teams commissioning high-profile forums on global economic risk, geopolitics, or financial markets Conference producers and event directors requiring a moderator with genuine domain authority, not just facilitation skills Chief Communications Officers and communications teams preparing executives for live media exposure C-suite leaders undergoing media training ahead of investor events, public testimony, or broadcast interviews Audience outcomes A moderated panel or forum with the editorial discipline and intellectual challenge of a live news broadcast Executives with a clearer understanding of how to communicate complex positions under real media pressure – not simulated conditions A more productive leadership dialogue: one that surfaces genuine disagreement rather than managing it toward pre-approved consensus Practical techniques for live interview performance, grounded in the experience of 10,000+ actual broadcast interviews Increased confidence in high-stakes public settings, drawn from observing how the world’s most scrutinised figures handle live questioning

Why organisations work with Marc Koska He built the commercial case for a life-saving innovation from first principles; price parity, existing tooling, no retraining required, so that institutional resistance had no rational hiding place. Few innovators have that level of strategic discipline documented at scale. His 2008 India campaign reached 508 million people and triggered a government mandate within months. That is a documented playbook for moving from public awareness to policy change at national scale, directly applicable to any organisation trying to shift entrenched behaviour. He holds The Economist Innovation Award for Social and Economic Innovation, a Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year designation, and an OBE; the kind of external validation that makes a business case credible in front of conservative institutional and government audiences. His ApiJect work, backed by US Department of Defense and HHS funding for pandemic response infrastructure, demonstrates how the same innovation principles apply to supply chain resilience and emergency preparedness. Unlike most entrepreneurship narratives, his story has a documented endpoint: a 2015 WHO global policy mandate requiring auto-disable syringes across the therapeutic sector, 30 years after the K1 was first conceived. Biography highlights Inventor of the K1 auto-disable syringe: locks after a single use, licensed to 14 global manufacturers, credited with saving over 10 million lives OBE awarded 2006 for contribution to global healthcare The Economist Innovation Award for Social and Economic Innovation; Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2015, World Economic Forum network Ashoka Fellow 2017; honorary doctorates from the University of Sussex and Brighton University Founder of Star Syringe (1996) and The SafePoint Trust, the UK registered charity whose advocacy helped drive the 2015 WHO global injection safety mandate Speaker at TED, Google Zeitgeist, Intelligence Squared, and the World Economic Forum Biography The K1 syringe was engineered to be as cheap as the one it replaced, to run on the same factory tooling, and to lock after a single use. Marc Koska designed it that way deliberately, because he understood that a safer product priced as a premium would never reach the patients who needed it most. Koska founded Star Syringe in 1996 to license the technology, and The SafePoint Trust as a registered UK charity to run commercial and advocacy strategies in parallel. His 2008 India campaign, press conferences in 14 cities, television, radio, and cinema, reached 508 million people and led the Indian Health Ministry to mandate auto-disable syringes across government hospitals. The WHO followed with a global injection safety mandate in 2015. The Economist recognised his work with its Innovation Award for Social and Economic Innovation. The Schwab Foundation named him Social Entrepreneur of the Year in 2015, integrating him into the World Economic Forum network. An OBE for services to global healthcare, an Ashoka Fellowship, and honorary doctorates from the University of Sussex and Brighton University reflect the breadth of institutions that have validated his contribution. His TED talks and appearances at Google Zeitgeist have brought the commercial logic of his approach to audiences well beyond the health sector. His more recent work through ApiJect, a blow-fill-seal prefilled injector developed with US Department of Defense and HHS backing for pandemic response, applies the same principle to national supply chain resilience: remove the systemic barriers that allow an inferior standard to persist. For leadership teams thinking about scaling innovation through complex regulatory environments, his three-decade arc from design brief to global standard is among the most instructive available. Key speaking topics Scaling innovation from invention to global adoption Navigating policy, procurement, and regulatory barriers Social entrepreneurship and mission-driven commercial design Stakeholder mobilisation and behaviour change at scale Public health risk and injection safety Pandemic preparedness and supply chain resilience Ideal for Senior leadership teams and boards navigating innovation adoption in regulated or institutionally resistant industries CEOs and commercial directors seeking a case study in displacing entrenched incumbents with a commercially competitive alternative Public health, pharmaceutical, and medical device executives responsible for global supply chain and safety standards Conference audiences focused on social entrepreneurship, purpose-driven business, and systemic change Audience outcomes A framework for identifying where institutional inertia – rather than product quality – is blocking innovation adoption Practical understanding of how to design innovations for price parity and manufacturing compatibility from the outset Insight into how multi-stakeholder campaigns can translate public awareness into government policy change A case study in running commercial and advocacy strategies in parallel without mission drift A concrete example of what it takes to move a proven innovation from proof of concept to a WHO-mandated global standard