Political Risk & Policy

Why organisations work with John Kampfner Three and a half decades of first-hand reporting on the events that now define geopolitical risk: the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Soviet collapse from Moscow, the Blair government’s wars, Merkel-era Germany, and Putin’s Russia from Reuters and Telegraph postings through to FT and BBC platforms. A genuinely granular reading of Germany, the EU’s largest economy and a country most UK and US commentators treat as a footnote. Why The Germans Do It Better sold over 150,000 copies and was Book of the Year in the Guardian, Economist and New Statesman. Institutional weight inside the UK foreign policy establishment: founding Executive Director of Chatham House’s UK in the World programme and Senior Associate Fellow at RUSI, the country’s oldest defence and security think tank. A practitioner’s eye for how political risk lands inside organisations, sharpened by running Index on Censorship as Chief Executive and founding the Creative Industries Federation, not just from the press gallery. A broadcaster’s command of a room. Kampfner is regularly booked to moderate, host awards, and chair board-level discussions where the brief demands a serious geopolitical mind on stage rather than a generalist host. Biography highlights Foreign correspondent for Reuters in Moscow and Bonn, then Daily Telegraph in East Berlin during the fall of the Wall and Moscow Bureau Chief during the Soviet collapse. Chief Political Correspondent, Financial Times (1995 to 1998); political journalist for BBC Today and Newsnight (1998 to 2000). Editor, The New Statesman (2005 to 2008); British Society of Magazine Editors Current Affairs Editor of the Year, 2006. Chief Executive, Index on Censorship (2008 to 2012); founder Chair of Turner Contemporary, Margate (2008 to 2016); founding CEO of the Creative Industries Federation (2014 to 2018). Author of eight books with Atlantic and others, including Why The Germans Do It Better (Sunday Times bestseller, 2020), In Search of Berlin (RSL Ondaatje Prize longlist, 2024), and Braver New World (April 2026). Senior Associate Fellow, RUSI (since 2019); founding Executive Director of Chatham House’s UK in the World programme (2021 to 2023); Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin (2024 to 2025). Biography Most Anglophone reporting on Germany stops at clichés about engineering, debt brakes, and lederhosen. Kampfner spent the decisive thirty years inside the country and the region instead: East Berlin as the Wall came down for the Daily Telegraph, Moscow as the Soviet Union dissolved, then Bonn and Berlin again as the Federal Republic absorbed the East and built the economy that now anchors the European Union. That reporting trajectory continued through Westminster. As Chief Political Correspondent at the Financial Times in the late 1990s and a political journalist on BBC Newsnight and Today, he covered the Blair government from the inside. Blair’s Wars, published in 2003, became one of the first authoritative accounts of the Iraq decision and was cited in subsequent Whitehall enquiries. The books since have built a coherent body of work on power, freedom and statecraft. Freedom For Sale was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize. Why The Germans Do It Better sold over 150,000 copies and ran through several editions. In Search of Berlin was longlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize, and Braver New World, out in April 2026, examines ten countries solving hard problems other governments are failing to address. The institutional credentials follow the reporting. Kampfner was the founding Executive Director of Chatham House’s UK in the World programme, set up in 2021 to critically examine Britain’s foreign policy posture after Brexit. He has been a Senior Associate Fellow at RUSI since 2019 and was a Fellow at Berlin’s Institute for Advanced Study in 2024 to 2025. He chairs Young Königswinter and deputy-chairs the Deutsch-Britische Gesellschaft, the bilateral institutions that quietly shape UK-German policy traffic. Key speaking topics Germany, the EU and the European economy Russia, Ukraine and the post-Soviet order UK foreign policy after Brexit The transatlantic alliance and the future of NATO Political risk for global business Elections and political volatility in Europe and the US Media, freedom of expression and democratic resilience Ideal for Board and executive sessions briefing on geopolitical exposure across Europe, Russia and the transatlantic alliance CFOs, Chief Strategy Officers and Heads of Risk pricing political variables into capital allocation Annual conferences for financial services, defence, energy and industrial groups with material German or Central European exposure Awards ceremonies and senior moderation briefs requiring a broadcast-credible chair with substantive policy command Audience outcomes A sharper, named read of where Germany, Russia and the EU are heading, grounded in primary reporting rather than headline summary A clearer view of how political risk is actually priced inside Whitehall, Brussels and Berlin policy circles A working sense of the durability, or fragility, of the institutions audiences assume are constants: NATO, the EU single market, the WTO order Specific reference points and named sources audiences can take back into their own briefings and board papers

Why organisations work with Jeroen Dijsselbloem He chaired the Eurogroup through the Cyprus bail-in, the third Greek programme, and the build-out of the banking union, so the explanation of how the euro area actually behaves under stress is first-hand, not analytical. As current Mayor of Eindhoven and President of Brainport Eindhoven, he sits at the centre of Europe’s most concentrated semiconductor and high-tech manufacturing cluster, with direct line of sight on industrial policy and chip supply. He led the Dutch Safety Board’s public investigation into the Netherlands’ COVID-19 crisis response, giving him a working framework for how governments and institutions actually decide under shock. His book “The Euro Crisis: The inside story” is one of very few first-person accounts of eurozone crisis management written by a sitting chair of the Eurogroup, used as a reference text by financial sector audiences. He speaks credibly to two audiences most macro speakers cannot bridge at once, finance ministers and central bank counterparts on one side, and industrial and technology leaders on the other. Biography highlights President of the Eurogroup, 2013 to 2018, serving two consecutive terms elected by euro area finance ministers. Minister of Finance of the Netherlands, 2012 to 2017, in the second Rutte cabinet. President of the Board of Governors of the European Stability Mechanism, 2013 to 2018. Author of “The Euro Crisis: The inside story,” Prometheus, 2018, with editions in Dutch and English. Chairman of the Dutch Safety Board, 2019 to 2022, leading the official investigation into the Dutch COVID-19 response. Mayor of Eindhoven since 2022 and President of the Brainport Eindhoven Region, home to ASML and the Dutch semiconductor cluster. Biography The Cyprus bail-in in March 2013 was the first time a eurozone rescue forced losses onto uninsured bank depositors. Jeroen Dijsselbloem chaired the Eurogroup meeting where that decision was taken. Two years later he chaired the room again when Greece’s third programme was negotiated against a referendum, a missed IMF payment, and an expiring bailout. Those two episodes did more to define how the euro area would behave under stress than any treaty change. Before Brussels, he served as Minister of Finance of the Netherlands from 2012 to 2017 in the second Rutte cabinet, and before that as a long-serving Labour member of the House of Representatives. As President of the Eurogroup from 2013 to 2018 he also chaired the Board of Governors of the European Stability Mechanism. His own account of that period, “The Euro Crisis: The inside story,” is one of the few first-person records of those negotiations written by the person who chaired them. Since leaving Brussels he has done two unusual things for a former finance minister. He chaired the Dutch Safety Board from 2019 to 2022, leading the official public investigation into how the Netherlands handled COVID-19, including its decision-making structure and crisis governance. Then in 2022 he became Mayor of Eindhoven and President of the Brainport Eindhoven Region, which means he now has political responsibility for the area that hosts ASML and a large share of Europe’s advanced chip manufacturing capability. That sequence, eurozone crisis manager, then crisis-response investigator, then operating leader of a strategic European tech cluster, gives him a working view of where European competitiveness, capital and security policy now intersect. He speaks regularly on European competitiveness, the proposed Savings and Investment Union, and the future of the EU’s industrial base. Key speaking topics Eurozone crisis management and sovereign debt European banking union and financial stability European competitiveness and industrial policy Semiconductor supply chains and the Brainport ecosystem The Savings and Investment Union and capital markets in Europe Government decision-making under shock Future of the European Union Ideal for Boards and investment committees with material euro area exposure CFOs and treasurers managing European sovereign and bank risk Technology and industrial leaders tracking EU chip policy and Brainport Public-affairs, policy and government-relations leads working on Brussels Audience outcomes A clearer reading of how eurozone decisions are actually taken when a member state is in crisis A working sense of what the banking union does and does not yet cover A grounded view of European industrial policy and the chip supply question through the Brainport lens A first-person account of leading a national crisis investigation, useful for risk and resilience audiences

Why organisations work with Javier Solana Very few people alive have run both NATO and the EU’s foreign policy machinery. His read on transatlantic, Russian and Chinese intent is grounded in a decade of handling the actual files, not in commentary. He was the signing hand on the 2003 European Security Strategy, the document that still frames how European governments think about security, neighbourhood and partnership. Leadership teams exposed to European regulation get the logic from the source. His current work at EsadeGeo and Brookings is forward looking, not memoir. Briefings engage with AI governance, supply chain fragmentation, climate diplomacy and the fragility of the rules based order. He is a working columnist at Project Syndicate, publishing into 2026 on US-China competition, European strategic autonomy and the future of multilateralism. Boards get a current thesis, not career recollections. He operates comfortably as a counterpart to a CEO, chair or sovereign, and speaks to leadership teams on that level. The register is peer to peer, not lecture. Biography highlights Secretary General of NATO, 1995 to 1999, including the alliance’s first post-Cold War enlargement and the 1999 Kosovo campaign. European Union High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy and Secretary General of the Council of the EU, 1999 to 2009. Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, 1992 to 1995, and earlier holder of the Culture and Education and Science portfolios under Felipe Gonzalez. President, EsadeGeo – Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics, Barcelona and Madrid. Distinguished Fellow in Foreign Policy, Brookings Institution, and Senior Fellow at the Hertie School, Berlin. Charlemagne Prize 2007 and Carlos V European Award 2011 for services to European integration. Biography The European Security Strategy was signed in Brussels in December 2003. It was the first time the Union had put its name to a single, coherent description of what it was for in the world, what it was willing to defend, and how it intended to act with partners. Solana drafted it. Much of the architecture that European governments, and the companies that operate across them, still live inside was laid down in that document. Before Brussels, there was Kosovo. As Secretary General of NATO from 1995 to 1999, he held together a nineteen-member alliance through the most contested military operation in its history, while also overseeing its first enlargement since the Cold War. Before NATO, he had spent thirteen years in the Spanish cabinet under Felipe Gonzalez, including three years as Foreign Minister. The arc is unusual: national politics, military alliance, civilian foreign policy, all at the top of each. He now runs EsadeGeo, the Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics he founded in Barcelona and Madrid in 2010, and is a Distinguished Fellow at Brookings and Senior Fellow at the Hertie School in Berlin. He chairs Aspen Institute Espana and sits on the boards of Human Rights Watch, the European Council on Foreign Relations, and the International Crisis Group. What he offers a leadership audience is not the memoir of the files he handled. It is a structural read of where the international order is breaking, where it is holding, and what boards and executive teams should be doing with that information before the next shock lands on the balance sheet. Key speaking topics The future of the rules based international order Transatlantic relations and European strategic autonomy US-China competition and the implications for global business Geopolitics of the energy transition and climate diplomacy NATO, European security and the war in Ukraine Multilateralism and global governance reform Ideal for Boards and executive committees of multinationals with material exposure to Europe, the US and China CEOs, chairs and chief strategy officers setting five to ten year strategic plans under geopolitical uncertainty Senior policy, risk and government affairs leads at financial institutions, energy and industrial groups Audience outcomes A working model of which pillars of the international order are cracking, which are holding, and where corporate risk actually sits. A sharper read on European policy intent on China, industrial strategy, energy and sanctions, from the person who helped write the doctrine. Concrete framing on what transatlantic drift and US-China competition mean for supply chains, capital allocation and market access. A sense of how peers at the sovereign and multilateral level are framing the same questions your board is wrestling with.

Why organisations work with Jamie Bartlett He has spent more than a decade inside the parts of the internet that boards now worry about: dark net markets, crypto fraud, online radicalisation, generative AI manipulation. The reporting is first-hand, not desk-based. He built and ran the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at Demos, giving him a rare combination of investigative journalism and large-scale data work on online behaviour. The People Vs Tech won the 2019 Transmission Prize and set out a specific argument about how digital systems destabilise democratic institutions, an argument that now reads as a forecast of the AI-and-elections debate. The Missing Cryptoqueen is one of the most successful financial-crime podcasts ever made; he can talk about crypto fraud and influence operations from inside the case file, not from a slide deck. He is comfortable in front of regulators, insurers and corporate boards, having spoken at the ABI Annual Conference and worked with governments on online harms and disinformation policy. Biography highlights Founder and former Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at the think tank Demos. Author of The Dark Net, Radicals Chasing Utopia, The People Vs Tech and The Missing Cryptoqueen, published by Penguin Random House and Hachette. Winner of the 2019 Transmission Prize and longlisted for the 2019 Orwell Prize for Political Writing for The People Vs Tech. Presenter of the BBC Two documentary The Secrets of Silicon Valley and the BBC podcast series The Missing Cryptoqueen and Believe in Magic. TED speaker; “How the mysterious dark net is going mainstream” has been viewed several million times. Technology contributor to The Telegraph, The Spectator, the New York Times, The Times, the Guardian, Foreign Policy and Prospect; writes the Substack newsletter How to Survive the Internet. Biography The OneCoin fraud took roughly four billion dollars from ordinary investors before its founder, Ruja Ignatova, vanished. Jamie Bartlett spent two years inside that story for the BBC, and the podcast he co-wrote and presented, The Missing Cryptoqueen, became one of the most-downloaded financial-crime investigations the BBC has ever produced. It is the clearest example of his method: long, embedded reporting inside the parts of the digital economy that institutions struggle to see clearly. That method runs through four books. The Dark Net mapped the subcultures, markets and ideologies operating below the public internet. Radicals Chasing Utopia tracked fringe political movements that have since shaped mainstream politics. The People Vs Tech, which won the 2019 Transmission Prize, argued that digital platforms were quietly hollowing out the conditions democracy needs to function. Boards reading it in 2018 found it provocative. Boards reading it now read it as a forecast. The analytical foundation came earlier, at Demos. Bartlett founded and led the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media for around a decade, combining investigative reporting with large-scale data work on online extremism, political movements and information operations. That work fed into BBC Two’s The Secrets of Silicon Valley and into regular contributions to the New York Times, The Times, the Guardian, Foreign Policy and Prospect. His current focus is the generative AI cycle and what it does to fraud, trust and democratic infrastructure. He writes the Substack How to Survive the Internet, speaks to insurers, regulators and corporates on digital risk, and has appeared at venues including the Association of British Insurers Annual Conference. The brief he answers most cleanly: help senior leaders see what is actually happening online, not what their dashboards say is happening. Key speaking topics Generative AI, democracy and corporate trust Online fraud, crypto scams and financial crime Disinformation, influence operations and information integrity Dark net markets and digital underworld economies Technology, regulation and the future of online harms Political radicalisation and digital subcultures Ideal for Boards, audit committees and risk committees grappling with AI, fraud and digital trust as governance issues Insurers, banks and financial services firms exposed to crypto fraud, identity risk and information operations CISOs, Chief Risk Officers and Heads of Compliance briefing executive teams on the changing online threat landscape Government, regulatory and policy audiences shaping rules on AI, online harms and platform accountability Audience outcomes A clearer picture of how generative AI is changing fraud, influence and information integrity in practice, beyond the headline narrative. Specific case material on OneCoin, dark net markets and online radicalisation that leaders can use to brief their own teams. A sharper sense of where digital risk now sits inside corporate governance, not only inside IT. Confidence in talking about technology, democracy and trust without leaning on consultancy abstractions. A reading of where the next two years of regulatory and reputational pressure on technology are likely to land.

Why organisations work with James Rubin He has been the public face of U.S. foreign policy in two administrations, from the Kosovo war under Clinton to the Ukraine war under Biden, and can speak to how the machinery of American power actually operates when pressure is on. From November 2022 to December 2024 he ran the U.S. Global Engagement Center, coordinating the federal response to Russian and Chinese disinformation, including the intelligence-led exposure of Kremlin operations in Latin America and Africa. He was senior adviser and spokesman to Madeleine Albright at both the United Nations and the State Department, giving him a rare continuous view of how Washington handles allies, adversaries and crisis communications. He has reported the same terrain from the other side of the camera as anchor of Sky News’ World News Tonight and as a Sunday Times foreign affairs columnist, which lets him translate Washington for non-U.S. audiences without jargon. As Commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and Chair of International Policy and Strategy at Ballard Partners, he has worked on the business side of geopolitical risk, not only the policy side. Biography highlights U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and State Department Spokesman, 1997 to 2000, under Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Special Envoy and Coordinator, U.S. State Department Global Engagement Center, November 2022 to December 2024, leading U.S. efforts against Russian and Chinese information warfare. Recipient of the State Department’s Distinguished Service Award, 2000. Anchor, Sky News World News Tonight, 2005 to 2006; weekly foreign affairs columnist, The Sunday Times of London. Visiting Professor of International Relations, London School of Economics; adjunct professor, Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs; Scholar in Residence, Oxford University Rothermere American Institute. Senior national security adviser to John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign and chief foreign policy spokesman for General Wesley Clark’s 2004 campaign. Biography U.S. foreign policy is rarely decided in the rooms people assume. It is shaped in briefings, in coalition calls, in the narrow space between what a Secretary of State can say in public and what the intelligence picture actually shows. Rubin has worked that space for three decades, first as spokesman and senior adviser to Madeleine Albright at the United Nations and the State Department, and most recently as the Biden administration’s point person on Russian and Chinese information warfare. The Clinton-era role is the one he is best known for. As Assistant Secretary of State and State Department Spokesman from 1997 to 2000, he was the daily voice of U.S. policy during the Kosovo war and served as a special negotiator on the demobilisation of the Kosovo Liberation Army. The State Department gave him its Distinguished Service Award in 2000. Between 2022 and 2024 he ran the Global Engagement Center, coordinating the U.S. government’s response to Kremlin and Chinese propaganda. Under his watch, the Center worked with the intelligence community to publicly expose Russian disinformation operations in Latin America and Africa, a different register of foreign policy work from the podium briefings of the 1990s and closer to the information battlefields that now sit on corporate risk registers. Outside government he has anchored Sky News’ World News Tonight, written a weekly foreign affairs column for The Sunday Times of London, taught at the London School of Economics and Columbia, and held a scholar in residence post at Oxford’s Rothermere American Institute. He has also served as a Commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and now chairs international policy and strategy at Ballard Partners in Washington, working directly on how policy reaches business. Key speaking topics U.S. foreign policy and presidential decision-making Great-power competition with Russia and China Information warfare and state-backed disinformation Transatlantic relations and the war in Ukraine Diplomacy, national security and crisis communications Middle East policy and the post-October 7 landscape Ideal for Boards and executive committees pricing geopolitical risk into strategy, capital allocation or expansion decisions Chief Communications Officers, Chief Risk Officers and General Counsel preparing for disinformation, sanctions exposure or state-linked information operations Investor, client and leadership summits where a senior U.S. foreign policy principal is required Government affairs, policy and ESG teams navigating U.S.-Europe-China alignment Audience outcomes A sharper read on how Washington is likely to act on Russia, China, the Middle East and Europe over the next phase of U.S. policy A working mental model for how state-backed disinformation is produced, amplified and exposed, drawn from the person who most recently ran the U.S. counter-effort A clearer view of where corporate exposure to political risk is concentrated and what early indicators to watch A direct, on-the-record sense of how senior U.S. policymakers weigh allies, adversaries and public opinion in real time

Why organisations work with James K. Galbraith A measurement record that competitors cannot match: the University of Texas Inequality Project produces global pay inequality datasets used by researchers and institutions where conventional household surveys and tax data fall short. Hands-on policy experience that maps directly to corporate strategy questions on China, Europe and US industrial policy, including a four-year stint as chief technical adviser on macroeconomic reform to China’s State Planning Commission. Co-winner of the 2014 Leontief Prize alongside Angus Deaton, an award that signals first-rank standing in the economics of inequality and welfare measurement. A clear, unhedged position on where mainstream macroeconomics fails, set out in books published by Oxford University Press, Simon and Schuster, Yale University Press, and University of Chicago Press, which gives audiences something to engage with rather than a survey of consensus views. Direct line of sight into US economic policy debates through regular columns at Project Syndicate, The Nation, and American Affairs, and former service as Executive Director of the Joint Economic Committee of Congress. Biography highlights Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair in Government/Business Relations, LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin. Director, University of Texas Inequality Project; Senior Scholar, Levy Economics Institute of Bard College. Co-winner, 2014 Leontief Prize (with Angus Deaton); Veblen-Commons Award, 2020. Elected to the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Lisbon Academy of Sciences. Former Executive Director, Joint Economic Committee of the US Congress; chief technical adviser, macroeconomic reform, China State Planning Commission, 1993 to 1997. Author of Inequality and Instability (Oxford), The End of Normal (Simon and Schuster), Welcome to the Poisoned Chalice (Yale), and Entropy Economics with Jing Chen (Chicago, 2025); The Power to Destroy forthcoming from Chicago in 2026. Biography Most macroeconomic commentary still treats inequality as a side effect of growth. The University of Texas Inequality Project, which Galbraith has directed for over two decades, treats it as a measurable feature of the system itself. Using UNIDO industrial payroll data and Theil decomposition, the project produces a global picture of pay inequality that often diverges from headline tax and survey data, and that has shaped how serious analysts read crises in Europe, the US and China. Galbraith holds the Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair at the LBJ School of Public Affairs in Austin and is a Senior Scholar at the Levy Economics Institute. The 2014 Leontief Prize, shared with Angus Deaton, and the 2020 Veblen-Commons Award place him in the small group of economists whose work on distribution is recognised across both mainstream and heterodox traditions. Election to the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Lisbon Academy of Sciences confirms the international weight of the research. The credentials sit on top of policy experience that few academic economists can claim. Galbraith ran the Joint Economic Committee of the US Congress in the early 1980s and served as chief technical adviser on macroeconomic reform to China’s State Planning Commission from 1993 to 1997. He has written closely on the eurozone crisis, including Welcome to the Poisoned Chalice from Yale University Press, and on the structural drivers of slower US growth in The End of Normal. Recent work pushes harder against the foundations of the discipline. Entropy Economics, co-authored with Jing Chen and published by the University of Chicago Press in 2025, rebuilds value and production theory on physical and biological grounds rather than on equilibrium. The Power to Destroy, due from Chicago in 2026, argues that obsolete economic ideas have shaped a generation of US policy, and that what comes next depends on which ideas governments choose to operate by. Key speaking topics Global inequality and the measurement of distributional change Macroeconomic policy after the end of cheap money US industrial policy and the political economy of decline The eurozone, austerity, and the future of European integration China’s growth model and macroeconomic adjustment Financial instability and the limits of mainstream macroeconomics Post-equilibrium economics and the foundations of value Ideal for Boards and investment committees making capital allocation decisions under macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty CFOs, chief economists, and heads of strategy at financial institutions, asset managers, and multinationals with material US, Chinese, or European exposure Policy-facing audiences in central banks, finance ministries, multilateral institutions, and think tanks Senior leadership programmes seeking a substantive economist rather than a forecaster Audience outcomes A clearer view of how inequality and financial instability now shape macroeconomic outcomes, not just social ones A working frame for reading US, European and Chinese policy moves as parts of a single shifting system An informed scepticism toward conventional growth and inflation narratives, grounded in the data Galbraith’s team produces A direct argument about where mainstream economics is failing capital allocators and what alternative frameworks offer Sharper questions to bring back to internal economists, strategy teams and risk committees

Why organisations work with James Chau He runs the room when the speakers are Angela Merkel, Justin Trudeau, Jack Ma or Bill Gates. Very few moderators on the circuit have repeated reps at that level of principal. As President of the China-United States Exchange Foundation, he sits inside the working architecture of US-China dialogue rather than commenting on it from the sidelines. His credential stack on global health is institutional, not rhetorical: WHO Goodwill Ambassador for the SDGs, and China’s first UNAIDS National Goodwill Ambassador. The China Current gives him a live interview record with Kofi Annan, Muhammad Yunus, Jimmy Carter, Christine Lagarde, Ban Ki-moon and Jane Goodall. The editorial muscle is current, not historic. He reads a room built from heads of state, Nobel laureates and corporate chiefs the way a senior editor reads copy. The diplomatic temperature of a session is managed in real time. Biography highlights President, China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF), Hong Kong. World Health Organization Goodwill Ambassador for Sustainable Development Goals and Health (appointed 2016). First UNAIDS National Goodwill Ambassador for China (appointed 2009). Host of The China Current, a global-affairs interview and storytelling platform. Former main English-language news anchor at China Central Television; guest presenter, BBC World News. World Economic Forum Young Global Leader; U.S. National Press Foundation Fellow; Harvard Kennedy School executive education. Biography The room was Angela Merkel, Justin Trudeau, Jack Ma, Laura Bush. James Chau was chairing. That is the kind of session he has been asked to run for more than a decade, and the reason organisations book him is not broadcast gloss. It is the ability to keep a hard conversation productive when the participants are principals with careful positions. Chau is President of the China-United States Exchange Foundation, a Hong Kong-based NGO that convenes official-track and track-two dialogue between the two countries. The role places him inside the working machinery of one of the most consequential bilateral relationships in the world, not adjacent to it. That access shapes how he chairs: he knows where the lines are, and when to press. Before CUSEF, he spent years as the main English-language news anchor at China Central Television and a guest presenter on BBC World News. The interview record from The China Current, his own platform, runs through Kofi Annan, Muhammad Yunus, Jimmy Carter, Bill Gates, Christine Lagarde, Jane Goodall and Ban Ki-moon. His work on global health is formal: WHO Goodwill Ambassador for the Sustainable Development Goals and Health since 2016, and China’s first UNAIDS National Goodwill Ambassador from 2009. He was educated at Cambridge, King’s College London and the Royal Academy of Music, with executive education at Harvard Kennedy School. For a corporate summit, a multilateral plenary, an awards evening or a closed-room dialogue where the speakers are sensitive and the questions matter, Chau is a moderator whose standing is set by the company he keeps on stage. Key speaking topics US-China relations Global health and the Sustainable Development Goals China and the global economy International development and multilateralism Media, storytelling and public diplomacy High-level event hosting and moderation Ideal for Global summits and multilateral convenings where the principals on stage are heads of state, Nobel laureates or Fortune 100 chief executives CEO and board dialogues on China strategy, US-China risk and global health policy Awards ceremonies and flagship corporate events where a broadcast-grade host is required Foundations, NGOs and policy institutes working on the SDGs, HIV/AIDS and global public health Audience outcomes A sharper read of where the US-China relationship actually sits, from someone inside the dialogue A working framing of how global health policy, the SDGs and corporate strategy intersect A session that keeps pace and holds weight when the speakers are senior and the brief is sensitive A clearer view of how China is reported, mis-reported, and understood in international media

Why organisations work with Jacques Attali He built one of the institutions that defined the post-Cold War economic settlement. As founding president of the EBRD, he carries direct experience of structuring capital flows into a continent in political transition, the kind of frame few living economists can offer. A decade as special adviser to President Mitterrand and Sherpa for two G7 summits gives him an inside view of how heads of state actually make decisions under pressure, useful to any board navigating government exposure. His futures work, particularly A Brief History of the Future, sets out a coherent scenario framework (hyperempire, hyperconflict, hyperdemocracy) that boards can use as a long-range planning lens rather than as a single forecast. He has chaired two French government commissions on growth, one for Sarkozy and a positive economy report for Hollande, with proposals that fed directly into national reform agendas. The work is operational, not theoretical. Founder of Action Against Hunger, the EUREKA technology programme and Positive Planet. He has built and run institutions, not only written about them. Biography highlights Founding President, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, 1991 to 1993. Special adviser to President Francois Mitterrand, 1981 to 1991; G7 Sherpa for the Paris (1982) and Arche de la Defense (1989) summits. Chair, Commission for the Liberation of French Growth (Sarkozy, 2007 to 2008); author of the Positive Economy report (Hollande, 2013). Author of more than 80 books, including Noise: The Political Economy of Music, A Brief History of the Future and Verbatim, in 22 languages. Founder of Action Against Hunger (1979), the EUREKA European technology programme (1984) and Positive Planet (1998). Named one of Foreign Policy magazine’s Top 100 Global Thinkers (2009); graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique, Sciences Po, the Ecole des Mines and ENA; doctorate in economics. Biography The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development opened its doors in London in April 1991 with a mandate no institution had attempted before: channel Western capital into countries leaving state socialism without recreating the conditions that had broken them. Jacques Attali designed it and ran it for its first two years. The institution is still operating, with more than seventy countries of operations and shareholders today, which is the most useful evidence of the architecture he chose. Before the EBRD, ten years inside the Elysee under Francois Mitterrand. Attali was special adviser to the president from 1981 to 1991, sat in the cabinet meetings and the bilateral meetings with foreign heads of state, and served as France’s Sherpa at the G7 summits in Paris in 1982 and at the Arche de la Defense in 1989. The work he has done since, two growth commissions for two French presidents and consulting with governments and large companies through Attali & Associates, is built on that operating exposure to how state and economy actually intersect. The intellectual output runs alongside. Eighty-plus books, translated into twenty-two languages, with Noise: The Political Economy of Music (1977) and A Brief History of the Future (2006) the most widely cited. The futures work matters commercially because it gives boards a framework. The hyperempire, hyperconflict and hyperdemocracy scenarios in A Brief History of the Future are now nearly twenty years old, which is the right test of long-range writing. The frame still holds against the geopolitics of the present decade. He has also built things outside government. Action Against Hunger (1979), still one of the major humanitarian organisations operating in famine zones. The EUREKA technology programme (1984), the European R&D collaboration that, among other outputs, produced the standards work behind the MP3 format. Positive Planet (1998), the microfinance non-profit now active across more than 80 countries. Foreign Policy magazine named him among its Top 100 Global Thinkers in 2009. Key speaking topics Geopolitical risk and the next world order The future of Europe and European competitiveness Long-range scenarios and strategic foresight Global economic transformation The future of finance and microfinance Positive economy and intergenerational responsibility Globalisation and its commercial consequences Ideal for Boards and executive committees of multinationals with material exposure to European and emerging-market policy shifts Chief strategy officers and corporate development teams working on long-range scenario planning Bank and asset management leadership groups exposed to sovereign and geopolitical risk Government and intergovernmental audiences working on growth, innovation and reform agendas Audience outcomes A longer historical frame for the current geopolitical realignment, anchored in firsthand experience of the post-1989 settlement. A working scenario lens, hyperempire, hyperconflict and hyperdemocracy, that senior teams can apply to their own strategy review. A sharper read on Europe’s commercial position relative to the US and China, from someone who has helped design European institutions. A serious account of how heads of state actually reach decisions, useful for executives operating across government interfaces.

Why organisations work with Jaap de Hoop Scheffer Five years running NATO through Afghanistan, the 2008 Bucharest summit, Russia-Georgia, and the alliance’s 60th-anniversary reset. Few living speakers can describe transatlantic decision-making from the chair. Direct line of sight into the machinery that shapes risk for multinationals: defence spending, sanctions architecture, Article 5, enlargement politics, EU-US friction. Dutch Foreign Minister during the Iraq War and OSCE Chair in 2003. He has operated at the national capital level and the multilateral level on the same files. Chaired the Netherlands’ Advisory Council on International Affairs for seven years, meaning his read on policy is current, not retrospective. Holds the Pieter Kooijmans Chair at Leiden and sits with the Trilateral Commission, Friends of Europe, and the European Leadership Network. The analysis is anchored in live institutional conversation, not memoir. Biography highlights 11th Secretary General of NATO, 2004 to 2009, and Chair of the North Atlantic Council. Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, 2002 to 2003, and OSCE Chairman-in-Office during the Dutch chairmanship. Leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal, 1997 to 2001; Member of the House of Representatives, 1986 to 2002. Pieter Kooijmans Chair for Peace, Law and Security, Leiden University, from 2009; Distinguished Fellow, Leiden University College The Hague. Chair of the Advisory Council on International Affairs (AIV), 2014 to 2021; Minister of State of the Netherlands from 2018. Non-executive Director, Air France-KLM, 2011 to 2020; Trustee, Friends of Europe; European Group of the Trilateral Commission. Biography NATO took on the lead security role in Afghanistan in October 2006 under a Secretary General who had started the job two years earlier with a fractured alliance and a disputed war in Iraq still on the table. That was de Hoop Scheffer’s first decisive test at the head of the North Atlantic Council, and it set the pattern for how he ran the alliance through Bucharest, the Russia-Georgia war, and the 60th-anniversary summit. Before NATO he was Dutch Foreign Minister under Jan Peter Balkenende and Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE in the Netherlands’ 2003 chairmanship. That sequence, national capital to multilateral chair to alliance lead, is what gives his reading of geopolitics its weight: he has operated at each level on the same files, and made calls at each level that had consequences for the others. The post-NATO work has kept him inside the policy conversation rather than above it. He holds the Pieter Kooijmans Chair for Peace, Law and Security at Leiden University, chaired the Advisory Council on International Affairs for the Dutch government from 2014 to 2021, and sits with the Trilateral Commission’s European Group, Friends of Europe, and the European Leadership Network. He served as a non-executive director at Air France-KLM for nearly a decade, which is where the geopolitical view meets the board agenda in practice. What boards get is a former alliance chief who can map a specific decision, a specific summit, a specific red line, onto the risk exposure a company is carrying today. In 2018 he was granted the honorary title of Minister of State, a recognition reserved in the Netherlands for senior former officials whose judgement the state continues to draw on. Key speaking topics Transatlantic security and the future of NATO European defence, enlargement, and the Russia question Geopolitical risk for multinational business Afghanistan, intervention, and the lessons for alliances Multilateral diplomacy and the G7/OSCE system EU-US relations and the Indo-Pacific pivot Ideal for Boards and audit committees pricing geopolitical and sanctions exposure into strategy CEOs and executive teams in defence, aerospace, energy, and critical infrastructure Government affairs, political risk, and corporate security leaders Investor and shareholder forums needing a senior read on alliance and policy direction Audience outcomes A sharper map of where transatlantic security policy is heading and what moves it A direct account of how NATO decisions are made, from someone who made them Concrete read on Russia, Ukraine, enlargement, and the European defence build-out Named risks and inflection points a board can carry into its next strategy review Confidence in distinguishing signal from noise in a daily news cycle dominated by geopolitics

Why organisations work with Jürgen Stark He sat on the ECB Governing Council during the eurozone sovereign debt crisis and resigned over the bond-buying programme that followed, giving audiences a first-person account of how the institution actually decides Two terms as Vice President of the Bundesbank and a State Secretary role at the German Federal Ministry of Finance put him inside the negotiations that shaped the Maastricht framework and the Stability and Growth Pact He reads ECB communications as a former author of them, useful for treasurers and CIOs trying to distinguish signalling from substance in central bank language His position is consistently hawkish on inflation and fiscal discipline, a stance organisations seek when they want a counterweight to consensus macro views Biography highlights Member of the Executive Board and Chief Economist of the European Central Bank, 2006 to 2011 Vice President of the Deutsche Bundesbank for two consecutive terms, 1998 to 2006 State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry of Finance and G7/G8 sherpa to Chancellor Helmut Kohl, 1995 to 1998 Doctorate in economics, University of Tübingen; honorary professor at Eberhard Karls University Tübingen Member of the Amundi Global Advisory Board and the Bertelsmann Stiftung Board of Trustees Biography The September 2011 resignation from the European Central Bank is the most economical way to understand Jürgen Stark’s intellectual position. He left the Governing Council three years before the end of his term, in disagreement with the bond purchases of Italian and Spanish sovereign debt that the ECB had begun under its Securities Markets Programme. The institution attributed his departure to personal reasons; the substantive reason was a disagreement about what a central bank’s mandate actually permits. That disagreement is the through-line of his career. Two terms as Vice President of the Deutsche Bundesbank, from 1998 to 2006, placed him at the centre of German monetary policy across the introduction of the euro and the first decade of eurozone operation. Earlier, as State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry of Finance, he served as G7 sherpa to Chancellor Helmut Kohl through the period that produced the Stability and Growth Pact. The doctorate from Tübingen and the honorary professorship that followed are the academic anchors of a career that has otherwise been operational. He continues to write and speak on eurozone fiscal architecture, monetary policy, and the institutional credibility of central banks, and sits on the Amundi Global Advisory Board and the Bertelsmann Stiftung Board of Trustees. What he offers a senior audience is not commentary at one remove from the institutions, but the position of someone who held the chief economist’s seat at the ECB during the crisis that defined the modern eurozone, and resigned from it on principle. Key speaking topics European monetary policy and the ECB mandate Eurozone fiscal architecture and the Stability and Growth Pact Inflation, interest rates, and central bank credibility Sovereign debt and the eurozone sovereign debt crisis Macroeconomic outlook for the euro area Central bank communication and market signalling Ideal for Boards, audit committees, and CFOs setting capital allocation policy under eurozone monetary uncertainty Bank treasurers, asset managers, and institutional investors reading ECB and Bundesbank policy direction Public policy and economic forums where a first-person account of ECB Governing Council decisions adds substance to the conversation Audience outcomes A direct reading of how ECB Governing Council decisions are actually arrived at, from someone who sat on it A position on whether current monetary policy is consistent with the institutional mandate set out at Maastricht A clear macro view from a recognised inflation hawk, useful as a counterweight when internal forecasts cluster on consensus The historical context that explains why eurozone fiscal rules exist in the form they do, and where the live tensions sit today

Why organisations work with J Bradford DeLong His “long twentieth century” thesis – the argument that humanity’s technological leap from 1870 produced unprecedented wealth but not stability, and that this tension is still unresolved – gives boards and strategy teams a historically grounded framework for understanding current inequality, political volatility, and stalling growth, rather than treating them as separate problems. As Deputy Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury under Clinton, he was directly involved in NAFTA, the Uruguay Round, and the 1993 federal budget – trade and fiscal decisions whose consequences are still shaping today’s policy environment. Few economic historians have that level of direct institutional access. Concrete Economics (co-authored with Stephen Cohen) makes a specific, evidence-based case that every major US growth episode was driven by deliberate government direction of investment, not free-market spontaneity – a framework that directly challenges assumptions many organisations have about industrial policy and the role of the state. Slouching Towards Utopia was named a Best Book of 2022 by the Financial Times, The Economist, and Fast Company, and endorsed by Paul Krugman, Martin Wolf, and the former Chief Economist of the Bank of England – giving his arguments a cross-disciplinary credibility that translates directly into senior executive and board conversations. His dual role as academic economist and active public commentator – via Project Syndicate and the “Grasping Reality” Substack – means his frameworks are continuously applied to live events, not confined to historical analysis. Biography highlights Professor of Economics, University of California, Berkeley – faculty since 1993, full professor 1997 Author of Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century (Basic Books, 2022) – instant New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller; Best Book of 2022, Financial Times, The Economist, Fast Company Deputy Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury for Economic Policy, Clinton Administration, 1993–1995 Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Fellow, Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) Co-author, Concrete Economics: The Hamilton Approach to Economic Growth and Policy (2016); co-editor, After Piketty: The Agenda for Economics and Inequality (Harvard University Press, 2017) Regular contributor, Project Syndicate; author, “Grasping Reality” Substack; BA and PhD, Harvard University Biography Brad DeLong spent twenty years working on a question that most economists consider settled: why did the most sustained period of technological and material progress in human history end in political dysfunction, rising inequality, and widespread loss of confidence in the institutions that produced it? His answer, developed in Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century, is that the period from 1870 to 2010 – what he calls the “long twentieth century” – delivered more economic progress than all previous human eras combined, yet consistently failed to convert that progress into stable, broadly shared prosperity. The book was an instant New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, named a Best Book of 2022 by the Financial Times, The Economist, and Fast Company. That argument matters to organisations because it reframes current instability. The political volatility, slowing productivity growth, and distributional conflict that leaders are navigating are not surprises or aberrations – they are the unresolved inheritance of the same forces that created modern economic life. DeLong’s contribution is to show how this happened, which forces were decisive, and which policy choices made outcomes better or worse than they needed to be. His policy experience is direct. As Deputy Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury under the Clinton Administration, DeLong worked on the 1993 federal budget, NAFTA, the Uruguay Round, and macroeconomic policy. That institutional experience underpins Concrete Economics (2016), co-authored with Stephen Cohen, which argues that the United States has achieved its most significant growth periods through deliberate, pragmatic direction of investment – not ideological commitment to free markets. For executive audiences, the implication is concrete: industrial policy, trade architecture, and fiscal choices are not background noise; they are the environment in which long-term strategy either succeeds or fails. DeLong holds a PhD from Harvard and has been Professor of Economics at UC Berkeley since 1993. He writes regularly for Project Syndicate and his “Grasping Reality” Substack, where his analysis engages with current events directly and accessibly. He is also a Fellow of the Institute for New Economic Thinking and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Key speaking topics Long-run economic growth and structural inequality Macroeconomic policy and fiscal strategy Trade, globalisation, and industrial policy The political economy of the liberal economic order Economic history as a strategic framework Government, markets, and the future of growth Scenario planning under structural uncertainty Ideal for Chief Strategy Officers and boards navigating sustained political and economic volatility CFOs and finance leaders seeking a macro-level historical framework for long-term capital allocation and planning Government affairs, public policy, and regulatory teams in large organisations Executive education programmes requiring rigorous economic context for senior leadership cohorts Audience outcomes A historically grounded framework for understanding current economic volatility as a structural pattern – not a temporary disruption – enabling more durable strategic responses A clearer account of how trade policy, industrial policy, and fiscal choices are actually made, based on direct government experience at a senior level A practical corrective to standard free-market assumptions about growth, including a well-evidenced alternative drawn from Concrete Economics Sharper questions for stress-testing long-term strategy against macro scenarios – particularly around inequality, political instability, and the changing role of the state Familiarity with the “long twentieth century” thesis as a shared analytical reference point for ongoing internal strategic discussion

Why organisations work with Hugo Dixon Direct access to the thinking behind the Ukraine Reparations Loan, a $300bn policy proposal he co-authored that has been endorsed at European Commission level. A founder’s view of financial commentary as a business: he built Breakingviews from a 350-word format into a global Reuters franchise and sold it for £13m. Two decades of senior FT and Reuters editorial perspective on European banking, sovereign debt, and macro risk, applied to the questions boards are actually asking now. A track record of converting analysis into political action, through InFacts and the People’s Vote campaign, that few commentators of his standing can match. Biography highlights Founder of Breakingviews; sold to Reuters in 2009 for £13m. Editor-at-Large / Commentator-at-Large, Reuters. Co-author, with Lee Buchheit and Daleep Singh, of the Ukraine Reparations Loan plan, endorsed by Ursula von der Leyen in her 2025 State of the Union. Former Head of Lex, Financial Times, after 13 years on the paper; began career at The Economist. Business Journalist of the Year (British Press Awards), 2000 and 2008; Decade of Excellence Award, 2008. Author, The Penguin Guide to Finance (Penguin). Biography The Ukraine Reparations Loan, the proposal to channel roughly $300bn of frozen Russian sovereign assets into Ukraine’s reconstruction without an outright seizure, was endorsed by Ursula von der Leyen in her 2025 State of the Union. Hugo Dixon is one of its three principal architects, with the sovereign debt lawyer Lee Buchheit and the economist Daleep Singh. That work sits at the seam he has occupied for two decades: where financial structure meets geopolitical decision. After thirteen years at the Financial Times, latterly as Head of Lex, Dixon left in 1999 to co-found Breakingviews, a financial commentary business he sold to Reuters in 2009 for £13m and continued to edit until 2012. He now writes as Reuters’ Commentator-at-Large, with a focus on Europe, Russia, sovereign assets, and the EU’s macro choices. He was twice named Business Journalist of the Year at the British Press Awards and won the Decade of Excellence Award in 2008. He is the author of The Penguin Guide to Finance. Dixon also has a record of translating analysis into political infrastructure. He founded and edited InFacts, the fact-based campaign against Brexit, and was a co-founder and leader of the People’s Vote campaign. For boards weighing geopolitical exposure, EU policy direction, or the financial mechanics of supporting Ukraine, he offers the rare combination of an insider’s grasp of the instruments and an operator’s grasp of what moves in Brussels. Key speaking topics Russia, Ukraine and the frozen sovereign assets question The EU’s macro and policy direction European banking and sovereign debt Brexit and UK-EU relations Financial markets and capital allocation Geopolitical risk for boards Ideal for Boards and audit committees with exposure to Russia, sanctions, or EU policy shifts CFOs and treasurers tracking sovereign debt and frozen-asset developments Senior teams in banking, asset management, and insurance with European footprints Foundations, policy institutions, and corporate affairs leaders working on Ukraine reconstruction Audience outcomes A clear read of where the frozen Russian assets debate is heading and what the realistic European pathways look like. Sharper framing of EU policy direction post the 2024 to 2026 political cycle and what it implies for capital and regulation. An informed view of UK-EU relations beyond the headlines, drawn from the inside of the Brexit fight. Connections between geopolitical decisions and concrete financial mechanisms that most macro talks leave abstract.