Political Risk & Policy

Why organisations work with Manfred Weber He sits at the centre of the institution that writes European law. As Chair of the EPP Group since 2014 and President of the EPP since 2022, he has been part of every major legislative bargain in Brussels for over a decade. He explains EU politics the way an operator does, not the way a commentator does. He has negotiated directives, including the EU Returns Directive on migration, and can talk about how a file actually moves through the Parliament, the Council, and the Commission. He gives boards a realistic read on European political risk: migration, the centre-right and far-right relationship, transatlantic tensions, Ukraine, and the EU’s competitiveness agenda. He is rare on the speaking circuit. Few sitting heads of a major European political family take corporate engagements; access to that vantage point is the offer. He speaks fluent German and English and is comfortable with senior international audiences in either language. Biography highlights President of the European People’s Party since 2022, re-elected for a second term in 2025. Chair of the EPP Group in the European Parliament since 2014, re-elected after the 2024 European elections for a fourth term. Member of the European Parliament for Bavaria since 2004, currently in his fifth parliamentary term. EPP Spitzenkandidat for President of the European Commission in 2019, nominated with 79 percent of the EPP congress vote. Vice-President of the CSU since 2015 and member of the CSU Party Presidency since 2009. Trained as a physical engineer at Munich University of Applied Sciences before entering politics, with prior experience running two companies. Biography The largest political family in Europe is the European People’s Party. Its group in the European Parliament holds more seats than any other, its national affiliates lead governments across the continent, and its members include the President of the European Commission. Manfred Weber leads both the party and the group, a combination of roles few politicians in Brussels have held simultaneously. He has been Chair of the EPP Group in the Parliament since 2014, when he became the youngest group leader in the institution’s history. He was re-elected after the 2024 European elections for his fourth term. In 2022 he was elected President of the EPP, succeeding Donald Tusk, and was re-elected for a second term in 2025. That arc gives him a continuous view of the legislative engine of the EU across more than a decade of crises: the eurozone, migration in 2015 and again now, Brexit, the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the energy shock, and the competitiveness debate. Before Brussels he trained as a physical engineer at Munich University of Applied Sciences and ran two companies, then entered politics through the Junge Union and the CSU. He became the youngest member of the Bavarian State Parliament in 2002 at the age of 29, and was elected to the European Parliament two years later. He has represented Bavaria continuously since, sitting on the committees that shape constitutional affairs, civil liberties, and home affairs. He negotiated the EU Returns Directive, the first Home Affairs directive adopted under the ordinary legislative procedure. For a corporate audience, the relevant point is not the biography but the vantage point. He is in the room when European policy is decided, and he can explain to a board, in plain terms, what is changing in Brussels, where the political centre is moving, and what that means for the rules companies will be operating under for the next five years. Key speaking topics European political direction and the EU policy agenda EU competitiveness and the regulatory environment Migration policy and border security Transatlantic relations and the war in Ukraine The future of the EU after enlargement Centre-right politics in Europe and the rise of the far right Germany, the CSU, and Berlin’s role in the EU Ideal for CEOs, boards, and government affairs leaders setting Europe strategy Strategy and policy leaders at financial institutions, energy, defence, and industrial firms with material EU exposure Senior leadership teams at multinationals navigating EU regulation on AI, competition, sustainability, and trade Conference programmes and closed-door briefings on European political risk Audience outcomes A clearer read on where the EU is heading on competitiveness, migration, defence, and the green transition A sense of the political map across European capitals and how it constrains or enables the Commission’s agenda A realistic view of the centre-right and far-right dynamic and what it means for stability of EU policy An inside account of how legislation actually moves through Brussels, from someone who has done the deals Sharper questions to put to in-house government affairs and European strategy teams

Why organisations work with Lucas Papademos A direct, first-hand account of ECB Governing Council decision-making through the 2007–2008 financial crisis and the pre-crisis debates over the Stability and Growth Pact – insight not available from any published report, and accessible only through testimony from those who were in the room. Co-originator of the NAIRU framework (Modigliani & Papademos, 1975, 1978), which remains embedded in how central banks approach the inflation–unemployment trade-off – giving him standing to explain that framework from the inside, not as an interpreter of others’ work. Managed Greece’s euro transition as central bank governor, then led the country’s sovereign debt restructuring negotiations as its prime minister – a full-cycle perspective on monetary union fragility, institutional failure, and crisis resolution that no commentator or external analyst holds. As a member of the G20 Financial Stability Board, the EU Economic and Financial Committee, and the BIS Central Bank Governance Group, he can illuminate how global financial governance actually operates under systemic stress – not as it is documented, but as it is practised. Biography highlights ECB Vice President, 2002–2010, serving under both Wim Duisenberg and Jean-Claude Trichet; member of the ECB Executive Board and Governing Council Governor, Bank of Greece, 1994–2002; architected Greece’s monetary transition from the drachma to the euro Prime Minister of Greece, November 2011–May 2012; led national unity government through the sovereign debt crisis and the largest debt restructuring in EU and OECD history at that time PhD in Economics, MIT, 1978; doctoral supervisor Franco Modigliani (Nobel laureate); co-authored the Modigliani-Papademos NAIRU papers (1975, 1978), foundational to modern monetary policy Faculty positions at Columbia University, University of Athens, and Harvard Kennedy School; Senior Fellow, Center for Financial Studies, Goethe University Frankfurt Member: Academy of Athens (President 2017–2018); G20 Financial Stability Board and Steering Committee; BIS Central Bank Governance Group; EU Economic and Financial Committee Biography Greece’s entry into the eurozone was not a ceremonial event. It required a decade of monetary tightening, institutional credibility-building, and disciplined policy execution. As Governor of the Bank of Greece from 1994 to 2002, Lucas Papademos was the architect of that process, managing the currency transition and imposing the monetary discipline that euro membership demanded. His academic work reaches to the foundations of modern monetary theory. A PhD from MIT under Nobel laureate Franco Modigliani produced the Modigliani-Papademos papers of 1975 and 1978, which introduced the NAIRU concept: the unemployment rate consistent with stable, non-accelerating inflation. The framework shaped how central banks think about price stability trade-offs and continues to be cited in current monetary policy literature. At the ECB, where Papademos served as Vice President from 2002 to 2010, he sat at the centre of European monetary decision-making through the global financial crisis. He was a consistent advocate for the integrity of the Stability and Growth Pact, arguing (before the crisis) that weakening fiscal rules would generate the sovereign debt imbalances that later threatened the currency union’s existence. In 2011, those warnings proved prescient. Papademos returned to Athens as Prime Minister – appointed without parliamentary affiliation to lead a national unity government – and negotiated directly with the IMF, European Commission, and ECB on what became, at the time, the EU and OECD’s largest sovereign debt restructuring. The combination of original macroeconomic theory, eight years inside the ECB’s governing architecture, and crisis governance under extreme political pressure defines a perspective with no close equivalent. Key speaking topics Eurozone sovereign debt and crisis management Monetary policy architecture and central bank strategy European financial stability and macroprudential frameworks Fiscal discipline and European economic governance The political economy of monetary union Sovereign debt restructuring and creditor negotiations Global financial risk and institutional design Ideal for CFOs, chief risk officers, and sovereign debt investors assessing European financial and monetary risk Central bank and treasury audiences engaging with monetary policy frameworks and eurozone governance Board members and senior executives in financial services with exposure to European sovereign or systemic risk Conference conveners and senior programme curators framing high-level discussions on global financial governance or geopolitical economic risk Audience outcomes A grounded understanding of how ECB decision-making operates in practice – including the tensions between fiscal rules, monetary mandates, and political reality that standard accounts do not capture First-hand perspective on the sequence of decisions and institutional failures that produced the 2011 eurozone sovereign debt crisis, and what the resolution process actually involved A framework for distinguishing between sovereign debt fragility, monetary transmission risk, and structural economic weakness – distinctions that matter for investment positioning and policy planning Practical context for evaluating European economic governance reform proposals against the precedents of the most recent crisis – including what was agreed, what was deferred, and why Insight into how technocratic governance functions under democratic pressure, and the institutional limits it encounters

Why organisations work with Lars P Feld He helped design the constitutional framework leaders are now operating under. As an expert to Federalism Commission II in 2007, he contributed directly to the architecture of Germany’s debt brake, and his subsequent empirical work is the standard reference on its effects. He sat at the centre of German economic policymaking for a decade. Ten years on the German Council of Economic Experts, ending as chairman, and then three years as personal advisor to Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner, give him a working knowledge of how German fiscal decisions actually get made. He brings ordoliberal economics to questions where most macro commentary is purely Keynesian or markets-driven. His co-authored work on ordoliberalism and the eurozone crisis is the reference text for understanding why Berlin negotiates the way it does. His authority is institutional, not media-built. Gustav-Stolper-Prize, Leopoldina membership, Kronberger Kreis, an honorary doctorate from Lucerne and the Friedrich-List-Medal place him in a small group of economists whose published positions move German policy debate. Biography highlights Chair for Economic Policy and Constitutional Economics, Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg, since 2010. President of the Walter Eucken Institute, Freiburg. Member of the German Council of Economic Experts, 2011 to 2021, and chairman in 2020 to 2021. Personal economic policy advisor to Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner, February 2022 to November 2024. Scientific Advisory Board, Federal Ministry of Finance, since 2003; Minimum Wage Commission member since 2020. Gustav-Stolper-Prize (2021); honorary doctorate, University of Lucerne (2017); Friedrich-List-Medal (2023); member of Leopoldina, Kronberger Kreis and Mont Pelerin Society. Biography Germany rewrote its constitution in 2009 to limit federal borrowing. Feld was one of the academic experts who fed that reform, sitting on Federalism Commission II and arguing the case for a binding fiscal rule. His later empirical work, including a synthetic-control evaluation co-authored with researchers at the Walter Eucken Institute, is now the reference analysis of what the debt brake actually did to German public finances in the decade that followed. That mix of constitutional design and quantitative evaluation runs through his career. From the Chair for Economic Policy and Constitutional Economics in Freiburg, and as President of the Walter Eucken Institute, he works inside the ordoliberal tradition that has shaped how Berlin negotiates inside the eurozone. His co-authored paper on ordoliberalism, pragmatism and the eurozone crisis is one of the more cited explanations of why German positions on Greek debt, Italian deficits and ECB intervention took the shape they did. He has spent a decade in the centre of German policymaking. Ten years on the German Council of Economic Experts, ending as chairman in 2020 to 2021, gave him a direct hand in the Council’s annual reports to the federal government. From February 2022 to November 2024, he served as personal economic policy advisor to Finance Minister Christian Lindner, a role that sits at the intersection of the ministry, the coalition and the Bundesbank. The institutional recognition has followed. The Gustav-Stolper-Prize in 2021, regarded inside the Verein fuer Socialpolitik as the most prestigious German economics award, sits alongside Leopoldina membership, the Kronberger Kreis, the Friedrich-List-Medal and an honorary doctorate from the University of Lucerne. For a boardroom audience trying to understand where German and European fiscal policy is going, he is one of the small number of economists whose published positions still move the debate. Key speaking topics The German debt brake and European fiscal rules Sovereign debt sustainability in the eurozone Ordoliberalism and German economic policy Macroeconomic outlook for Germany and the EU Public finance and federalism Minimum wage policy and labour market regulation The political economy of EU reform Ideal for CFOs, group treasurers and chief economists making capital allocation decisions exposed to eurozone sovereign risk. Bank and asset manager boards with material German or EU government bond exposure. CEOs and strategy leads of industrial groups whose investment cases turn on German fiscal trajectory and energy and infrastructure spending. Policy and government relations leads tracking the German coalition, the EU Stability and Growth Pact, and ECB policy. Audience outcomes A clear read on where the German debt brake debate is heading and what changes are politically feasible. A working model of how Berlin will negotiate inside the EU on fiscal rules, common debt and ECB policy. A sharper view of which sovereign and quasi-sovereign exposures are most sensitive to the next phase of European fiscal reform. An informed account of the ordoliberal tradition behind German policy positions, useful for anyone modelling counterparty or political risk in the eurozone.

Why organisations work with Konstantin von Eggert Three decades of first-hand reporting from inside Russia, including running the BBC Russian Service Moscow bureau as Editor-in-Chief from 1998 to 2009. A rare dual perspective: editor of a major Western newsroom in Moscow and former Vice-President for Public and Government Affairs at ExxonMobil Russia, so he understands both how the Kremlin signals and how Western corporates absorb those signals. Honorary MBE from Queen Elizabeth II and Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of Lithuania, both awarded in 2008, mark a credibility recognised on both sides of the Russia-West divide. Bilingual moderator and host (Russian and English) with on-air experience at BBC, Kommersant FM, and TV Rain, so he can chair sensitive conversations as well as deliver the keynote. Writes weekly for Deutsche Welle from Vilnius, which means his commentary stays current with Russian domestic politics, Baltic security, and the post-2022 risk landscape. Biography highlights Editor-in-Chief, BBC Russian Service Moscow bureau, 1998 to 2009. Vice-President for Public and Government Affairs, ExxonMobil Russia Inc., 2009 to 2010. Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Kommersant FM, Russia’s first 24-hour news station, 2010 to 2015. Program host and political commentator, TV Rain, 2016 to 2018. Columnist and program host, Deutsche Welle, based in Vilnius since 2016. Honorary MBE (2008) and Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of Lithuania (2008); Member of Chatham House. Biography Russia is one of the few country files where the gap between official narrative and operating reality is large enough to wreck a strategy. Reading it well requires sources, language, and a feel for how the Kremlin actually communicates. Konstantin von Eggert has spent more than thirty years inside that gap. He ran the BBC Russian Service Moscow bureau as Editor-in-Chief from 1998 to 2009, after starting as a reporter at the Moscow daily Kuranty in 1990 and serving as Diplomatic Correspondent and Deputy Foreign Editor at Izvestia. In 2008 Queen Elizabeth II appointed him an Honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire for his work at the BBC. The same year he received the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of Lithuania. What makes his perspective unusual is the year he spent on the other side of the table. From 2009 to 2010 he was Vice-President for Public and Government Affairs at ExxonMobil Russia Inc., responsible for relations with the Russian government and political and economic analysis for one of the world’s largest investors in the country. He then returned to Russian media as Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Kommersant FM, and later as a program host at the independent channel TV Rain. Since 2016 he has been based in Vilnius, writing a weekly column on Russian affairs and the Baltic States for Deutsche Welle and consulting on communications, reputation, and political risk for investors in Russia and the post-Soviet space. He is a Member of Chatham House and has served on the editorial boards of Pro et Contra at the Carnegie Moscow Centre and the Security Index quarterly. He holds an honours MA in history and Arabic from the Moscow University Institute of Asian and African Studies and speaks English, French, and Arabic. Key speaking topics Russia under Putin: domestic politics and foreign policy Geopolitics of the post-Soviet space Baltic security and the European frontline Sanctions, energy, and Western corporate exposure to Russia Information, propaganda, and independent media inside Russia Political risk for investors in Russia and the CIS Ideal for Boards and executive teams of multinationals with residual Russia, CIS, or Baltic exposure Energy, commodities, and infrastructure leadership teams reassessing political risk Defence, foreign affairs, and security policy audiences Conferences and private gatherings that need a bilingual (Russian and English) chair or moderator on Russia or geopolitical themes Audience outcomes A clearer read of how decisions are actually taken in the Kremlin and how its signals are designed to be received. A sharper view of the post-2022 risk picture for Russia, Ukraine, and the Baltic States. An informed sense of where Western corporates have historically misread Russia, drawn from inside ExxonMobil’s government affairs operation. Concrete reference points on Russian media, propaganda, and the space that remains for independent reporting.

Why organisations work with Kishore Mahbubani His analysis comes from Singapore’s structural position: a small, open economy that has always had to navigate between great powers without the luxury of strategic illusion. That vantage point produces insight unavailable from inside either Washington or Beijing. His ten books – including Has China Won?, Has the West Lost It?, and The Great Convergence, selected by the Financial Times as one of the best books of 2013 – give audiences a proven intellectual framework, not commentary. Leaders leave with a model for thinking, not just a briefing. He operated inside the machinery of global governance at its highest level – UN Security Council President in 2001 and 2002, Singapore’s Permanent Representative to the UN across two postings spanning two decades – during some of the most consequential shifts in the post-Cold War order. His argument that Western strategic errors, not Chinese aggression, are the primary driver of geopolitical instability gives boards and executive teams a more analytically useful starting point for risk decisions than the standard Western-media frame. Named by Foreign Policy magazine as a Top Global Thinker in both 2010 and 2011, and elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019, his standing as a public intellectual is verifiable and specific – not attributed to unnamed rankings. Biography highlights Two-time Singapore Permanent Representative to the United Nations (1984-1989 and 1998-2004); President of the UN Security Council, January 2001 and May 2002 Former Permanent Secretary, Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with earlier posting to Cambodia during the 1973-74 war Founding Dean, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore (2004-2017) Author of ten books including Has China Won? (2020), Has the West Lost It? (2018), and The Great Convergence (2013, selected by the Financial Times as one of its best books of the year) Elected honorary international member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2019); Foreign Policy Top Global Thinker (2010 and 2011); Prospect Top 50 World Thinkers (2014) Regular contributor to Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the Financial Times, the New York Times, and the Washington Post; described by Foreign Policy as “the muse of the Asian century” Biography The geopolitical assumptions that shaped corporate strategy for two decades are fragmenting. China’s economic weight, the contested legitimacy of multilateral institutions, and the competing logics of Washington and Beijing are forcing organisations to rethink how they read the world. Very few people have been inside the machinery of that world – at the UN Security Council table, in bilateral diplomacy, and in sustained academic output across three decades – long enough to explain what the structural shift actually means. Kishore Mahbubani spent 33 years in Singapore’s foreign service, culminating in two terms as Singapore’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and as President of the UN Security Council in 2001 and 2002. He also served as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Singapore’s position – an open, trade-dependent city-state that cannot align itself exclusively with either Washington or Beijing – shaped an analytical disposition that is genuinely non-aligned. That is not a diplomatic posture; it is an intellectual asset. From 2004 to 2017 he built the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore into a leading institution, then turned to full-time writing and research. His ten books – from Can Asians Think? in 1998 to Has China Won? in 2020 and the memoir Living the Asian Century in 2024 – constitute a sustained intellectual project: arguing that the West’s two-century dominance was a historical anomaly, and that the world needs new frameworks for a genuinely multipolar order. The Great Convergence was selected by the Financial Times as one of the best books of 2013. He has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was described by Foreign Policy magazine as “the muse of the Asian century.” What distinguishes his value to senior audiences is not simply that he has held senior positions – many speakers have – but that he has argued a consistent, testable thesis about global power across four decades, in public, against the prevailing consensus. For boards and leadership teams navigating the US-China contest, that track record is the credential that matters. Key speaking topics US-China strategic competition Asia’s return to global economic centrality The future of multilateral institutions and global governance Geopolitical risk and corporate strategy Non-Western perspectives on the international order Singapore and Southeast Asia as strategic bellwethers Ideal for Corporate boards and C-suite teams with significant Asia-Pacific exposure or market decisions pending Financial services, investment, and asset management organisations pricing geopolitical risk Government and public sector leaders navigating multilateral relationships Strategy and scenario planning teams stress-testing assumptions about the global order Audience outcomes A working analytical model for the US-China contest – beyond news-cycle commentary Clearer understanding of how Asia’s rise is reshaping trade, technology standards, and institutional allegiances A non-Western frame for interpreting geopolitical signals that most Western analysis misreads Specific historical parallels and precedents for managing great-power transitions A more calibrated vocabulary for internal strategic conversations about geopolitical exposure

Why organisations work with Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg He has held two of the most consequential portfolios in a G7 cabinet, Economics and Technology then Defence, and can speak to how policy is actually made inside those rooms rather than how it is reported. He led the largest structural reform of the Bundeswehr since 1955, including the suspension of conscription, which gives him a working view of how political decisions translate into institutional change at scale. His advisory firm Spitzberg Partners places him in continuous dialogue with European and US corporates, investors and policymakers, so the read he brings to a board is current rather than historical. His CSIS affiliation in Washington and his German political base give him a genuinely transatlantic vantage point, which matters for companies whose risk now sits across both jurisdictions. He addresses his 2011 resignation and the plagiarism scandal openly when relevant, which removes a question buyers would otherwise have and lets the commercial conversation proceed without ambiguity. Biography highlights Federal Minister of Defence of Germany, 2009 to 2011, under Chancellor Angela Merkel. Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Technology, 2009. Member of the Bundestag for Kulmbach, 2002 to 2011, re-elected in 2009 with 68.1 percent, the highest national share that cycle. Chairman and Founder of Spitzberg Partners LLC, a New York advisory and investment firm. Distinguished Statesman at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington. Author of “Vorerst gescheitert” (2011), “3 Sekunden” (2023), “3 Worte” (2025), and co-host of the “Gysi gegen Guttenberg” podcast with Gregor Gysi since 2023. Biography Two cabinet posts in one year is unusual in any G7 government. Guttenberg took Economic Affairs and Technology in February 2009 and Defence in October 2009, becoming the youngest German Defence Minister of the post-war era at 37. The Defence role placed him at the centre of Germany’s most contested security questions, from the Afghanistan deployment to the long-delayed restructuring of the Bundeswehr. The reform he led suspended conscription and moved Germany toward a smaller professional force of around 165,000 active personnel, the most significant structural change to the armed forces since their founding in 1955. He also broke a long-standing political convention by describing the Afghanistan operation as a war rather than a stabilisation mission, and established the Combat Action Medal of the Bundeswehr in November 2010. He resigned all political offices on 1 March 2011 after the University of Bayreuth revoked his 2007 doctorate over extensive plagiarism in his dissertation on European constitutional law. He addressed the episode in book-length form with Die Zeit editor-in-chief Giovanni di Lorenzo later that year. In 2019 he completed a PhD at the University of Southampton on correspondent banking, supervised by the economist Richard Werner. The second career is built on transatlantic policy and capital. Spitzberg Partners, which he founded in 2013, advises corporates and investors on European and international political, economic, technology and security issues. He has been a Distinguished Statesman at CSIS in Washington since 2011, and holds advisory positions including Barrick Gold and Ripple Labs. In Germany his public voice now travels through Focus columns, n-tv documentaries, and the weekly Gysi gegen Guttenberg podcast with the veteran left-wing politician Gregor Gysi, launched in 2023. Key speaking topics Transatlantic relations and the US-Europe policy agenda Geopolitical risk for boards and investors Defence, security and the future of NATO Technology policy, cybersecurity and digital sovereignty European economic and political outlook Political risk in financial services and fintech Ideal for Boards and investment committees pricing geopolitical and policy risk into capital allocation CEOs and corporate strategy leads with material exposure across the US, Germany and the wider EU Defence, security and aerospace industry leadership groups Financial services and fintech executives navigating regulation, sanctions and digital asset policy Audience outcomes A clearer read on how Washington, Berlin and Brussels are likely to move on the security, trade and technology files that affect their business A working framework for assessing political risk alongside commercial risk, drawn from inside ministerial decision-making A sharper view of the transatlantic relationship and where it is likely to fracture or hold A direct, on-the-record response to the questions boards usually ask privately about his 2011 resignation, when relevant to the brief

Why organisations work with Joseph Stiglitz His Nobel Prize work demonstrated that markets systematically mis-price when participants have unequal access to information – a finding that maps directly onto corporate governance failures, credit risk models, and regulatory blind spots that boards encounter in practice. He is among the very few economists to have held operational control over both US domestic economic policy (Council of Economic Advisers) and global financial architecture (World Bank Chief Economist) – his critique of institutions carries authority because it comes from inside them. The commission he chaired for President Sarkozy in 2008 produced the framework now being advanced by the OECD as a formal alternative to GDP. Organisations engaged in ESG reporting, long-term value creation, and sustainability governance are already operating within the measurement landscape he helped design. The Price of Inequality (2012) and The Road to Freedom (2024) make the specific, evidence-based case that inequality is a structural drag on growth, market stability, and democratic governance – giving senior leaders a rigorous foundation for treating social outcomes as financial risk, not reputational noise. His analysis of globalisation – grounded in direct experience of how the IMF and World Bank made their most consequential decisions – gives organisations operating across emerging markets a more accurate model of where global financial governance fails and why. Biography highlights Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2001), shared with Akerlof and Spence, for the theory of markets with asymmetric information – a finding that reshaped economics and became standard in policy analysis University Professor at Columbia University, the institution’s highest academic rank, with appointments in Economics, SIPA, and Columbia Business School Chair of the US Council of Economic Advisers (1995-97) under President Clinton; Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank (1997-2000) Chaired the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress (2008-09) at President Sarkozy’s request; published as Mismeasuring Our Lives; continues to chair the successor High-Level Expert Group at the OECD John Bates Clark Medal (1979); more than 40 honorary doctorates, including from Cambridge and Oxford; named by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world (2011) Author of more than 10 books for general audiences, including Globalization and Its Discontents (2002), The Price of Inequality (2012), and The Road to Freedom (2024) Lead author of the 1995 IPCC Report, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize; regular contributor to Project Syndicate; regular coverage in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Guardian Biography The strategic blind spot in most boardrooms is not a lack of data – it is a set of inherited economic assumptions that have been treated as fact. Markets clear. Prices reflect value. Deregulation improves outcomes. Joseph Stiglitz has spent five decades building the evidence against each of these claims, from the insurance market to the credit system to the global financial architecture. His Nobel Prize in 2001 recognised the foundational work. In markets where some participants know more than others, the outcomes that standard models predict do not materialise. Credit gets rationed below efficient levels. Insurance markets produce worse aggregate outcomes than pooling would allow. Labour markets generate unemployment that wage adjustments alone cannot resolve. These are not edge cases – they are the structural features of every market senior leaders navigate. Beyond the academy, Stiglitz has held the positions where those theories met consequences. He served as Chair of the US Council of Economic Advisers under Clinton and as Chief Economist of the World Bank. His subsequent criticism of those institutions – in Globalization and Its Discontents (2002) and The Price of Inequality (2012) – carries weight precisely because it was written by someone who watched the decisions being made. His more recent work extends the argument into measurement and institutional design. The commission he chaired for President Sarkozy produced Mismeasuring Our Lives (2009), a formal challenge to GDP as a reliable indicator of economic and social progress. That work now underpins the OECD’s ongoing effort to develop performance metrics beyond output. His 2024 book, The Road to Freedom, argues that the economic assumptions embedded in most policy and business planning are deliberate choices – with identifiable costs. For organisations navigating inequality risk, regulatory exposure, and ESG pressure, the distinction matters. Key speaking topics Information economics and market failure Economic inequality and structural risk Globalisation and its institutional consequences Beyond-GDP measurement and performance metrics Progressive capitalism and regulatory design Global financial architecture and reform Political economy of growth and distribution Ideal for Boards, CFOs, and chief economists assessing macroeconomic risk and long-term structural exposure Policy-facing organisations, government affairs functions, and institutions engaged in regulatory strategy Organisations navigating ESG, sustainability reporting, and long-term value measurement Financial services and investment institutions operating across global and emerging markets Audience outcomes A clearer understanding of why standard economic metrics – GDP, market efficiency assumptions, deregulation as growth driver – systematically obscure real performance and risk Insight into how information failures produce predictable market outcomes that corporate governance frameworks routinely miss A framework for interpreting the structural forces – inequality, regulatory shift, political backlash against globalisation – now reshaping the operating environment for large organisations Familiarity with the alternative performance metrics emerging from the OECD and the international standards community, and how they apply to strategic decision-making A more accurate model of where global financial governance fails and why – grounded in direct institutional experience at the World Bank and within the US government

Why organisations work with Jonathan Charles A working understanding of multilateral finance from twelve years inside the EBRD’s Executive Committee, where the Bank invests around twelve billion euros a year across three continents, not commentary from the outside BBC foreign correspondent experience covering the Iraq wars, Afghanistan, the Balkans and Chechnya, which gives a board-level briefing the texture of someone who has been in the rooms and on the ground Specialist depth on Russia, the EU and the single currency built across his BBC postings in Brussels and Frankfurt, the two cities where he established BBC television operations An experienced broadcaster’s command of the stage, used to chair principal interviews, moderate panels and host awards as well as deliver keynote analysis Oxford PPE training, fluent French and German, and current advisory work for governments and private sector clients on geopolitical communications Biography highlights Managing Director, Communications and Executive Committee member at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, 2011 to 2022 Former BBC Foreign and War Correspondent and BBC News presenter on BBC1, BBC World News and BBC News Channel Established BBC television operations in Brussels and Frankfurt; specialist areas economics, Russia, the EU and international diplomacy Reported from conflicts including the 1991 and 2003 Iraq wars, Afghanistan, the Balkans, Chechnya and Northern Ireland Member of the ODI Europe Board of Directors and current strategic communications and geopolitics adviser to governments and corporates MA (Oxon) and BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, Oriel College, Oxford; fluent in French and German Biography The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development invests around twelve billion euros a year across Europe, Central Asia and the southern and eastern Mediterranean, in countries where capital flows track political risk in real time. For more than a decade, Charles sat on its Executive Committee as Managing Director of Communications, alongside the President, Vice Presidents and Chief Economist who set that capital to work. He arrived at the EBRD in 2011 from the BBC, where he had spent most of his career as a foreign and war correspondent and, latterly, a news presenter. The reporting covered the wars that defined the post-Cold War period, including the 1991 and 2003 Iraq conflicts, Afghanistan, the Balkans and Chechnya, alongside the slower-moving stories of European integration and the launch of the single currency, reported from BBC bureaux he established in Brussels and Frankfurt. That combination, frontline geopolitical reporting and senior multilateral experience, is what audiences hear in his keynote work. He reads Russia and the EU not as a commentator but as someone who has interviewed the principals and helped negotiate the institutional response. Since leaving the EBRD in 2022, he has advised governments and private sector clients on strategic communications and sits on the ODI Europe Board of Directors. For corporate audiences, he works in two registers. He delivers keynote analysis on geopolitics, Russia, the EU and the global economic system, drawn from his reporting and his time at the EBRD. He also chairs principal interviews, moderates panels and hosts awards, applying broadcasting craft built across thirty years on the BBC. Key speaking topics Geopolitics and international diplomacy Russia and the EU The single currency and European economic integration Multilateral finance and the EBRD region Global economic trends and markets Conference moderation and principal interviews Ideal for Boards and executive committees commissioning a geopolitical and macro briefing for a strategy offsite, particularly with Russia, EU or emerging market exposure CEOs and CCOs needing an experienced broadcaster to chair a flagship external forum or moderate a principal interview Investor and client events that need a sharp reader of European political and economic risk on stage Awards dinners and leadership conferences, where a recognised broadcaster sets the tone for the room Audience outcomes A current read of the political and economic dynamics across Russia, the EU and the EBRD’s wider operating region from someone who has worked inside the institutions A clearer view of which geopolitical and macro signals materially affect strategy in cross-border businesses Specific details from inside the rooms where multilateral finance and foreign policy are decided A professionally chaired session where the panel, interview or awards programme lands as intended

Why organisations work with Jonah Goldberg A primary-source read on the modern American right from the journalist who spent two decades inside National Review and now runs his own conservative newsroom. Author of Liberal Fascism, a No. 1 New York Times bestseller, and Suicide of the West, which argues that liberal democracy is sustained only by deliberate effort and is the through-line of his policy work. Holds the Asness Chair in Applied Liberty at the American Enterprise Institute, giving briefings rooted in scholarship rather than punditry. Built and runs The Dispatch as a subscription business, so he speaks about the media economy and political information markets from inside the operating chair, not as an observer. A reliable read for audiences that want intellectual honesty over partisan reassurance, including rooms that disagree with him. Biography highlights Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Dispatch, the center-right subscription publication launched in October 2019 with Stephen F. Hayes and Toby Stock. Asness Chair in Applied Liberty and Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Author of Liberal Fascism (No. 1 New York Times bestseller), The Tyranny of Cliches, and Suicide of the West (New York Times bestseller). Weekly opinion columnist for the Los Angeles Times and nationally syndicated columnist. Host of The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg, one of the most listened-to conservative-leaning interview podcasts. Twenty-one years at National Review, where he was a senior editor and founding editor of National Review Online; political commentator for CNN. Biography The American right has fractured into camps that no longer share a definition of conservatism, and most analysis of it gets the factions wrong. Goldberg has spent thirty years inside the argument, first at National Review and now at The Dispatch, and writes about it with the access of an insider and the distance of someone who has lost friends in the fight. Suicide of the West sets out the through-line of his work. Liberal democracy and free markets are recent and unnatural achievements, sustained only by institutions and habits that are easy to lose and hard to rebuild. Liberal Fascism, his No. 1 New York Times bestseller, traced how progressive politics borrowed from European movements that were anything but liberal in the classical sense. The Tyranny of Cliches went after the lazy phrases that pass for political thought. The Asness Chair at the American Enterprise Institute gives that work an institutional base. The Dispatch gives it a newsroom. Co-founded with Stephen F. Hayes after the closure of The Weekly Standard, it now runs on subscriptions, which means Goldberg is also the operator of a media business and can speak credibly about how information markets shape American politics. For corporate audiences his usefulness is specific: a candid, non-partisan read on Washington from a conservative who broke with his own side over Trump, resigned from Fox News on principle in 2021, and still speaks fluently to readers across the spectrum. Key speaking topics US political risk and the 2025 to 2028 cycle The realignment of American conservatism Liberal democracy and the defence of liberal institutions Populism, nationalism and identity politics The future of the American media economy Free markets and applied liberty Constitutional government and the administrative state Ideal for Boards, investment committees and CIO offices stress-testing US political assumptions. Public affairs, policy and government relations leaders briefing executives on Washington. Financial services and asset management forums sizing political and regulatory risk. Conferences focused on media, democracy and the health of civic institutions. Audience outcomes A clearer map of the factions inside the American right and what each one wants. A sharper sense of which Washington signals matter for business and which are noise. A working argument for why liberal democratic institutions are worth defending in commercial terms, not only moral ones. An understanding of how the subscription media economy is reshaping political information. The intellectual ammunition to push back on lazy framings from the left and the right inside their own organisations.

Why organisations work with John Sitilides He has trained the U.S. diplomats who execute American policy in southern Europe, chairing the State Department Foreign Service Institute’s Advanced Area Studies Program since 2006. That insider vantage point is rare on a corporate stage. He has consulted to the State Department under four U.S. presidential administrations across both parties, which gives boards a reading of Washington that is not tied to one political cycle. His Foreign Policy Research Institute work, including bylined analyses on NATO and the alliance’s posture toward Russia, gives investment committees a defensible framework for European and transatlantic exposure. He translates trade, energy, technology, and security flashpoints into specific commercial implications for capital allocation, supply chains, and regulatory strategy, rather than offering broad commentary. He is a working operator inside Washington as Principal of Trilogy Advisors, so his read on regulatory and political risk is sourced from current client work, not retrospective analysis. Biography highlights Principal, Trilogy Advisors LLC, Washington D.C., advising on U.S. government affairs, regulatory reform, and geopolitical risk. Senior Fellow, National Security Program, Foreign Policy Research Institute. Chair of the U.S. State Department Foreign Service Institute’s Advanced Area Studies Program for Southeast Europe under government contract since 2006. Founder of the Western Policy Center; negotiated its 2004 merger into the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, then chaired the Wilson Center Southeast Europe Project advisory board through 2011. Regular geopolitical commentator on Bloomberg, CNN, CNN International, FOX News, Newsmax, and NewsNation, with commentary cited in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Politico, NPR, and South China Morning Post. Master’s degree, International and Public Affairs, Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs. Biography The U.S. trained the diplomats running its Southern Europe portfolio inside the Foreign Service Institute. The chair of that Advanced Area Studies Program since 2006, under State Department contract, is John Sitilides. That role sits behind almost everything else he does on a public stage. His day job is Principal at Trilogy Advisors LLC in Washington, where he advises on U.S. government affairs, regulatory strategy, and geopolitical risk. He is also a Senior Fellow in the National Security Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, where his recent bylined work has tracked NATO’s posture and the alliance agenda heading into successive summits. Earlier, he founded the Western Policy Center, a Washington research organisation tracking U.S., NATO, and EU interests in southeastern Europe. He negotiated its 2004 merger into the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and chaired the Wilson Center Southeast Europe Project advisory board through 2011. He has testified before Congress, contributed chapters to volumes published by the NATO Science for Peace and Security Committee and the Italian think tank ISPI, and is cited regularly across the major U.S. broadcast networks and the international financial press. For a corporate audience, the value is the synthesis. He sits inside the Washington policy machine, trains the people who run U.S. diplomacy in a critical region, and writes for serious foreign policy outlets. When he speaks to a board, the analysis is sourced from that day’s working environment. Key speaking topics U.S. foreign policy and great power competition Geopolitical and geo-economic risk for global business Trade, technology, and energy security NATO, Europe, and transatlantic relations Washington political risk and U.S. government affairs The Indo-Pacific and U.S.-China strategic competition Ideal for Corporate boards and CEO advisory sessions setting global strategy under geopolitical uncertainty Investment committees, asset managers, and CIO offices pricing political and policy risk Policy, government affairs, and risk leaders briefing executive teams on Washington decisions Industry conferences in financial services, energy, defence, and technology that need a credentialled Washington voice Audience outcomes A working framework for reading U.S. foreign policy signals and translating them into commercial decisions A current view of great power competition between the United States, China, and Russia and what it means for trade, technology, and energy positioning A clearer read on Washington’s regulatory and policy direction across administrations, not tied to one political cycle Specific implications for capital allocation, market entry, and supply chain exposure in Europe, the Indo-Pacific, and the Middle East Confidence that the analysis is sourced from active policy and diplomatic practice, not commentary at a distance

Why organisations work with John Simpson He has been the BBC’s World Affairs Editor since 1988, which means leaders are getting analysis from the person whose job is to interpret these events for the BBC’s global audience, not a retired correspondent recounting old assignments. He has reported on the ground from the Iranian Revolution, Tiananmen Square, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Rwanda, both Gulf Wars and the Taliban’s collapse in Kabul, which gives audiences a long view that no recent commentator can match. He brings working access to current sources. Unspun World, his weekly BBC2 programme, is built on direct conversations with BBC correspondents in the regions in question, and that material informs the way he frames live events for a corporate room. His credentials are verifiable and independently weighty: CBE, three BAFTAs, an International Emmy, a Peabody Award and RTS Journalist of the Year twice. A buyer can stand behind the booking without caveat. He is comfortable in formats beyond the keynote, including after-dinner, moderation and interview, which makes him useful where a leadership audience wants conversation rather than a set-piece lecture. Biography highlights BBC World Affairs Editor since 1988 Reported from more than 120 countries and over 30 war zones across a 55-year BBC career CBE (1991), three BAFTAs, International Emmy, Peabody Award, RTS Journalist of the Year (twice), Golden Nymph (Cannes) Presenter, Unspun World with John Simpson, BBC2, weekly since 2022 Author of A Mad World, My Masters (memoir, Sunday Times bestseller), Moscow, Midnight and Our Friends in Beijing Honorary Fellow, Magdalene College, Cambridge Biography The fall of Kabul in 2001 was reported live by a man in a burqa. John Simpson had walked into the city ahead of the advancing Northern Alliance, and his BBC dispatch from that morning won an International Emmy. It is one moment in a career that has put him on the ground for most of the events that shape current geopolitical thinking. He has been the BBC’s World Affairs Editor since 1988. Before that he was political editor, then diplomatic editor, having joined the BBC as a reporter in 1970. The role has not been ceremonial. He covered the Iranian Revolution alongside Ayatollah Khomeini’s return, was in Tiananmen Square in 1989, in Berlin as the Wall came down, in Rwanda during the genocide, and in northern Iraq in 2003 when a US bombing left him deaf in one ear. What this gives a senior audience is range. He can speak about Russia, China, Iran, Afghanistan and the Gulf with a continuity of personal observation that few working journalists possess. Since 2022 he has presented Unspun World on BBC2, a weekly programme that filters current stories through BBC correspondents in the relevant countries, which keeps his analysis grounded in present reporting. The recognition is independently weighty. A CBE in 1991, three BAFTAs, a Peabody, RTS Journalist of the Year twice, and an Honorary Fellowship at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he read English. He is also a working author of three books that travel beyond memoir into geopolitical fiction set in Moscow and Beijing. Key speaking topics Geopolitical risk and global flashpoints Russia, China and the new authoritarianism The Middle East and the long shadow of the Iranian Revolution US foreign policy and its global consequences The state of public broadcasting and the news business Leadership lessons from interviews with 200 world leaders Ideal for Boards and executive committees making investment, supply-chain or talent decisions exposed to geopolitical shock CEO conferences, partner events and after-dinner programmes for professional services and financial firms Strategy offsites and scenario-planning sessions where a long historical view sharpens current debate Audience outcomes A clearer read on which current geopolitical headlines carry strategic weight and which are noise First-hand context on the leaders, regimes and movements shaping today’s risk environment A working sense of how authoritarian states behave under pressure, drawn from direct reporting in Russia, China and Iran A sharper question set for executives reviewing country exposure and political risk

Why organisations work with John Pienaar Reads UK politics with lobby-level judgement built across nearly three decades at the BBC and a continuing daily Times Radio platform. Brings the seniority of a former BBC Deputy Political Editor and host of Pienaar’s Politics on Radio 5 Live into the room with leadership teams and clients. Operates as an interviewer first, which makes him a strong moderator for boards, panels and high-stakes Q and A formats where the audience expects pressure and clarity in equal measure. Sits on the judging panel for the Orwell Prize for Journalism, a peer signal that his analysis carries weight with the field he covers. Biography highlights Deputy Political Editor of BBC News, 2015 to 2020. Chief Political Correspondent at BBC Radio 5 Live from 2002, and presenter of the weekly Westminster round-up Pienaar’s Politics. Drive-time presenter on Times Radio since the station’s launch in June 2020, and host of Pienaar and Friends. Co-host of Question Time Extra Time with Stephen Nolan and stand-in presenter on BBC Two’s Daily Politics. Earlier political reporting at The Independent and the Press Association, with court reporting at the South London Press and the Old Bailey. Judge for the Orwell Prize for Journalism, awarded by the Orwell Foundation. Biography UK politics has stopped being a side-room topic for senior leadership. Tax, trade, regulation, energy and labour now move on the timetable of the Commons and the lobby. Pienaar has reported that lobby for the BBC and Times Radio for more than thirty years. He joined the BBC as a political reporter in 1992, became Chief Political Correspondent at Radio 5 Live in 2002, and served as Deputy Political Editor of BBC News from 2015 to 2020. Pienaar’s Politics, his weekly Westminster round-up on Radio 5 Live, became one of the recognisable fixtures of the political week. Since June 2020 he has presented Times Radio’s drivetime programme, the slot the station built at launch, alongside Pienaar and Friends. He earlier reported for The Independent, the Press Association and the South London Press, including a stint as Old Bailey correspondent. The Orwell Foundation has appointed him a judge of the Orwell Prize for Journalism. What an audience gets is not commentary at one remove. It is a read of the people, the rooms, the timetable and the next move from someone the political class talks to, and from someone whose primary craft is the live interview. Key speaking topics UK politics and Westminster Government, Whitehall and the lobby Political risk and policy Election analysis Media and political communication Live political interviewing and moderation Current affairs Ideal for Boards and executive teams briefing on UK political risk Public affairs, government relations and corporate communications leads Conference organisers seeking a senior moderator or interviewer for political and policy sessions After-dinner audiences in financial, professional services and membership-body settings Audience outcomes A clearer read of the live state of UK politics from someone with current daily access to it. A sense of which Westminster signals matter for business decisions and which do not. Sharper questions for their own public affairs, regulatory and government relations work. An interview, panel or Q and A handled with the discipline of a senior broadcaster.