Political Risk & Policy speakers

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

Why organisations work with Xiao Geng Sustained insider access to Chinese policy and regulatory thinking, built across roles at the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong, HSBC Bank China, and senior positions at Brookings, Fung Global Institute, and Columbia Global Centers East Asia. A live, monthly published view on the US-China economic relationship through more than a decade of Project Syndicate commentary co-authored with Andrew Sheng. Founding leadership of the Brookings-Tsinghua Center for Public Policy, one of the few institutional bridges between Western policy research and Chinese government economic thinking. Research depth across the technical questions that drive China exposure for foreign capital: exchange rate policy, capital market reform, enterprise productivity, and urbanisation. A working position inside the Greater Bay Area policy network through CUHK Shenzhen and the Shenzhen Finance Institute, giving leaders a sightline into where China’s innovation and finance corridors are heading. Biography highlights President of the Hong Kong Institution for International Finance. Professor of Practice at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Director of the Institute of Policy and Practice at the Shenzhen Finance Institute. Director of the Research Institute of Maritime Silk-Road at Peking University HSBC Business School. Founding Director of the Brookings-Tsinghua Center for Public Policy and former Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Former Vice President for China at the Fung Global Institute and Director of Columbia Global Centers East Asia. Project Syndicate columnist since 2012, with more than 140 published commentaries on China and the global economy. Biography Most foreign boards still treat China as a single risk vector. The economy is more fragmented than that, and the policy logic shaping it does not move on the cycles Western investors are used to reading. A serious view of capital allocation in Asia depends on understanding how monetary policy, financial reform, and political economy interact inside Beijing’s system, not just what is announced. Xiao Geng has spent his career sitting inside that system. He is President of the Hong Kong Institution for International Finance and Professor of Practice at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, where he directs the Institute of Policy and Practice at the Shenzhen Finance Institute. He also leads the Research Institute of Maritime Silk-Road at Peking University HSBC Business School. His earlier roles built the institutional reach. He was Founding Director of the Brookings-Tsinghua Center for Public Policy, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, Vice President for China at the Fung Global Institute, and Director of Columbia Global Centers East Asia. Inside the Hong Kong system he served as Head of Research at the Securities and Futures Commission. He has advised HSBC Bank China, the World Bank, and the United Nations Development Programme. Since 2012 he has written a monthly Project Syndicate column with Andrew Sheng, covering Chinese monetary policy, technology competition, energy transition, and the financial architecture of the US-China relationship. The column is one of the few sustained English-language readings of Chinese economic policy written from inside it. Key speaking topics China’s macroeconomic outlook US-China economic and financial relations Chinese financial sector reform and regulation Capital markets and exchange rate policy in Asia Urbanisation, enterprise productivity, and the Greater Bay Area Geopolitical risk for foreign investors in China Ideal for Boards and investment committees with material China or Asia exposure CFOs, treasurers, and heads of corporate strategy reviewing supply chain or capital allocation in Asia Financial services leadership briefings on regulatory and macro direction Government, multilateral, and policy audiences working on US-China economic questions Audience outcomes A clearer read of where Chinese monetary, fiscal, and financial reform is actually heading, not what headlines suggest A working framework for the structural drivers of US-China economic tension and where they sit on the cycle Specific signals to watch on capital flows, exchange rate policy, and Chinese capital market opening A more accurate map of the policy actors and institutions that shape China’s economic decisions An informed basis for stress-testing investment, supply chain, and partnership decisions tied to Greater China

Why organisations work with Yonah Welker Direct line into the European policy machinery shaping AI rules, through working group contributions to the EU AI Code of Practice, DG CNECT’s digital and critical infrastructure work, and EU ICT and standardisation programmes. Published, citable expertise on how AI systems treat disability, neurodiversity, and other designated groups, with frameworks and a MOOC catalogued by OECD.AI, a specialism few governance advisers can match. Cross-institutional fluency across OECD, UN, UNESCO, and WHO governance processes, useful for organisations whose AI strategy now has to answer to several overlapping frameworks at once. Practical command of how governance applies to AI in physical and public deployment, including robotics and assistive systems, where compliance obligations under the EU AI Act and emerging harmonised standards are least settled. A practitioner-policy bridge rather than a pure academic, with hands-on evaluator and rapporteur roles across EU Horizon and EIT/EIC programmes, which is the lane most boards and compliance leads now need filled. Biography highlights AI expert listed in the OECD.AI community directory; visiting lecturer and evaluator affiliated with MIT collaborative work, and contributor to OECD.AI’s Wonk blog. Contributor to the EU AI Code of Practice (working Groups 2 and 3), DG CNECT digital and critical infrastructure programmes, and EU ICT standardisation work. Contributor of input to OECD (G7 Hiroshima AI Process), UN (ITU and IGF), UNESCO, NIST (Risk Management Framework), and White House PCAST processes. Lead author and coordinator on the forthcoming UNESCO/UN AI Science Report, and co-author of the MIT AI Safety Repository. Evaluator, rapporteur, and quality controller across EU Horizon, StandICT, and EIT Health, Deeptech, and Creativity programmes; member of the EDPB expert pool on embodied AI privacy. Former curator of the Global AI Summit and adviser to a national data and AI authority in the EMEA region; speaker at the AI Action Summit (Paris/Sorbonne), Sciences Po, Technical University of Munich, AI Safety Korea, and the Delphi Economic Forum; jury and peer reviewer for the MIT Global Competition, NeurIPS, and IEEE journals. Biography The EU AI Act, the OECD framework, UNESCO’s ethics recommendation, and the G7 Hiroshima Process now govern the same operating decisions, and they do not line up neatly. The people who work inside several of these processes at once, rather than reading them from outside, are few. Welker is one of them. He has contributed to the EU AI Code of Practice working groups and to DG CNECT’s critical infrastructure work. He sits on the EDPB expert pool examining embodied AI privacy, and is lead author and coordinator on the forthcoming UNESCO/UN AI Science Report. His input has also fed NIST and White House PCAST processes, and he has advised a national data and AI authority in the EMEA region alongside his EU Commission work. His distinctive angle is a lens few governance specialists share. His work centres on how AI systems treat designated groups: people with disabilities, neurodivergent users, and others where an algorithm can quietly grant or deny access. That question is now moving into robotics, assistive systems, and AI that acts in public space, where the frameworks are thinnest. The disability-centred AI MOOC catalogued in the OECD.AI tools repository is one concrete marker of it. For senior leaders, the value is operational. He can set out what an EU AI Act audit will actually examine, and what a defensible accessibility claim looks like in a deployed system. He can also show how the OECD, UN, and EU layers connect to a decision a general counsel or risk committee faces next quarter. Key speaking topics AI governance and the EU AI Act Algorithmic accountability and AI audit Disability-centred and accessibility AI policy Neurodiversity and inclusive AI design Sovereign AI and critical digital infrastructure AI safety and responsible deployment Public sector AI and citizen-facing systems Ideal for General counsel, chief compliance officers and CTOs preparing for EU AI Act enforcement Heads of AI, responsible AI leads and digital ethics committees Public sector and intergovernmental bodies designing AI policy Boards reviewing AI risk exposure across accessibility, bias and public-trust dimensions Audience outcomes A clearer map of how the EU AI Act, OECD framework and UN/UNESCO instruments interlock for their organisation Specific questions to put to vendors, internal teams and audit committees on algorithmic accountability A working definition of what disability-centred and accessibility AI obligations look like operationally Sharper instinct for where reputational and regulatory risk concentrates in current AI deployments A view of where European AI policy is heading next, drawn from inside the working groups shaping it

Why organisations work with Yu Yongding He sat inside China’s central bank monetary policy deliberations (2004–2006) and inside the post-crisis UN commission that attempted to redesign the global financial architecture – a combination no Western-based economist on China can replicate His publicly argued position that China’s US Treasury holdings generate negative real returns and constitute a geopolitical liability gives boards and investment committees a named, verified analytical framework – not commentary, but a specific thesis with a public record His analysis consistently diverges from both official Chinese positions and from prevailing Western narratives, which is precisely what makes it useful for stress-testing institutional assumptions about China’s trajectory He has published alongside Barry Eichengreen, Raghuram Rajan, and Jean Pisani-Ferry at Bruegel, and contributes regularly to Project Syndicate, meaning his arguments are already in circulation in the rooms where senior policy and investment decisions are made As editor-in-chief of China and World Economy and former Director-General of IWEP, he has shaped the research agenda that feeds into Chinese policymaking: he knows not just the conclusions but the institutional reasoning behind them Biography highlights Academician, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; D.Phil. in economics, University of Oxford (1994) Director-General, Institute of World Economics and Politics (IWEP), CASS – China’s leading international economics research institution – for over a decade, 1998–2009 Member, Monetary Policy Committee, People’s Bank of China, 2004–2006 President, China Society of World Economy, 2003–2011 Member, UN Commission of Experts on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System (Stiglitz Commission), convened in response to the 2008 global financial crisis Member, UN High-Level Panel on Financial Accountability, Transparency, and Integrity (FACTI Panel) Regular contributor to Project Syndicate, South China Morning Post, Wire China, and Bruegel; published alongside Eichengreen, Rajan, and Pisani-Ferry Editor-in-chief, China and World Economy (Wiley); also editor-in-chief of World Economy and International Review of Economics Biography The global reserve currency system has a structural problem that most institutional risk frameworks are not built to assess. The US dollar’s dominant position rests on arrangements; surplus-country accumulation of US Treasuries, capital account conventions, and geopolitical assumptions that are under visible strain. The economists who advise China’s central bank and finance ministries have been debating this openly for two decades. Their conclusions rarely reach Western boardrooms with the precision or independence that makes them actionable. Yu Yongding’s career has placed him at the centre of that debate, on both sides of it. As Director-General of the Institute of World Economics and Politics at CASS from 1998 to 2009, he led the institution that shapes China’s engagement with international economic policy. As a member of the People’s Bank of China Monetary Policy Committee from 2004 to 2006, he participated directly in the monetary decisions of one of the world’s most consequential central banks. Few economists working on China have held both roles. His analytical contribution is specific and verifiable. He has argued publicly that China’s accumulation of US Treasuries constitutes a structural misallocation, producing negative real returns while creating the kind of geopolitical vulnerability that became concrete when US sanctions froze Russian central bank assets. He has written on the Mundell-Fleming trilemma as it applies to China’s exchange rate constraints, on the conditions for sustainable Chinese growth, and on the reform of the international monetary architecture. These arguments are his own; they sometimes diverge from official Chinese positions, which is what gives them credibility for external audiences. He contributed to the Stiglitz Commission’s post-2008 work on reforming the international monetary and financial system, and served on the UN FACTI Panel on financial accountability for sustainable development. His published work appears in Project Syndicate, the South China Morning Post, East Asia Forum, and Bruegel, where he has co-authored with Barry Eichengreen, Raghuram Rajan, and Jean Pisani-Ferry. He holds a D.Phil. in economics from Oxford and is editor-in-chief of the Wiley journal China and World Economy. Key speaking topics China’s macroeconomic framework and growth trajectory Global reserve currency system and dollar dependency RMB internationalisation and capital account reform Exchange rate policy and the Mundell-Fleming trilemma Reform of the international monetary and financial system China’s foreign exchange reserves: composition, risk, and strategy Financial stability and systemic risk in the global economy Post-crisis international economic governance Ideal for Senior investment committees and sovereign wealth fund leadership assessing China exposure or dollar-denominated reserve strategy Central bank governors, finance ministry officials, and financial regulators engaged in monetary policy or international monetary reform Global risk forums and geopolitical strategy sessions where China’s macroeconomic trajectory is a first-order variable International financial institutions and policy bodies working on the architecture of the global financial system Audience outcomes A specific, independently argued framework for assessing the structural vulnerabilities in China’s monetary position, not a summary of official positions Clearer analytical language around the dollar’s reserve status and the conditions under which it is likely to erode A more precise understanding of the policy tensions inside China’s macroeconomic framework: exchange rate, demand management, fiscal space, and reserve composition Context for interpreting China’s monetary and fiscal policy signals that goes beyond what circulates in Western financial media Familiarity with the arguments shaping China’s policy debates, including the positions that diverge from official government framing

Why organisations work with Yuriko Koike She runs the world’s largest metropolitan economy. Few speakers can describe the operating reality of climate, security and fiscal trade-offs at megacity scale from the seat where the decisions are made. She authored the Zero Emission Tokyo Strategy, with mandated solar panels on new detached homes from April 2025 and a target of halved emissions by 2030. Audiences hear how a major capital city is converting net zero language into capital allocation and regulation. As Environment Minister she designed Cool Biz, a behavioural and policy intervention that the Japanese Ministry of the Environment estimated cut 460,000 tons of CO2 in its first year. It is a rare example of a low-cost public policy producing measurable emissions reduction. She brings cabinet-level perspective on Japan’s geopolitical position. Former Minister of Defense, former National Security adviser, fluent Arabic speaker, Project Syndicate columnist on Asia, fiscal policy and the rules-based order since 2010. She is the first woman to govern Tokyo and the first to seek the LDP leadership. Her perspective on women in senior public and corporate roles is grounded in an actual executive career, not advocacy alone. Biography highlights Governor of Tokyo since 2016, re-elected in 2020 and 2024. Minister of the Environment of Japan (2003-2006); Minister of Defense (2007); Special Adviser to the Prime Minister for National Security. Architect of the Cool Biz campaign and the Zero Emission Tokyo Strategy. Asia Society Asia Game Changer Award, 2019. Chair, OECD Champion Mayors for Inclusive Growth Initiative. Project Syndicate columnist since 2010; World Economic Forum Agenda contributor. Biography Tokyo, with a metropolitan population near 14 million and a GDP larger than most G20 economies, is one of the few cities where climate policy, fiscal stress and geopolitical exposure all run through the same office. Yuriko Koike has held that office since 2016, re-elected in 2020 and again in 2024. The decisions she has made there are the substance of her platform. Her policy track record predates the governorship. As Minister of the Environment under Junichiro Koizumi between 2003 and 2006, she launched Cool Biz, a behavioural and dress-code intervention that the Japanese Ministry of the Environment estimated reduced CO2 emissions by 460,000 tons in its first year. As Governor she authored the Zero Emission Tokyo Strategy in December 2019, setting a 2050 net zero target with halved emissions by 2030, and pushed through a mandate that new detached homes in Tokyo install solar panels from April 2025. Few city leaders globally have moved climate ambition into binding metropolitan regulation at this scale. She also brings cabinet-level perspective on geopolitics. She was Japan’s Minister of Defense, served as Special Adviser to the Prime Minister for National Security, ran for the LDP presidency in 2008 as the first woman to seek the leadership of a major Japanese party, and has written for Project Syndicate on Asian security, fiscal policy and the rules-based order since 2010. Before politics she was a Nippon TV anchor and Arabic-speaking foreign correspondent, with a sociology degree from Cairo University. She chairs the OECD Champion Mayors for Inclusive Growth Initiative and was awarded the Asia Society Asia Game Changer Award in 2019. Audiences who book her are typically working on the same problem she works on every day: how to govern an exposed, dense, ageing, ambitious economy when energy, geopolitics and capital are all moving at once. Key speaking topics Climate policy and city-scale decarbonisation Megacity resilience and inclusive urban growth Japan, China and the geopolitics of East Asia Energy transition and capital allocation Women in senior public and corporate leadership Public sector reform and fiscal discipline Ideal for Boards and executive teams setting climate, energy and ESG strategy in Asia or with Asia exposure CFOs, CSOs and policy leads working on long-term capital allocation under climate and geopolitical risk Public-private convenings on urban resilience, infrastructure and inclusive growth Conferences on Japan, the Indo-Pacific and the global rules-based order Audience outcomes A first-hand view of how the world’s largest metropolitan economy is converting net zero policy into binding regulation and capital plans A sharper read on Japan’s economic and security position, and what it implies for organisations operating across East Asia A working example of behavioural climate policy that produced measurable emissions reduction at low fiscal cost A senior practitioner’s perspective on running large public institutions through fiscal pressure, demographic change and geopolitical realignment A direct account of breaking into senior leadership in a country and party where the path was not designed for women

Why organisations work with Yuval Noah Harari The NEXUS framework – which distinguishes self-correcting from self-reinforcing information networks – gives boards and governance teams a precise conceptual tool for evaluating AI strategy and regulatory exposure, grounded in historical evidence rather than prediction. Sapiens introduced the argument that large-scale human cooperation is built on shared fictions. For leadership teams, this reframes how institutions, legal systems, and monetary frameworks actually hold power – and what causes them to fail. Direct conversations with heads of state including Macron, Merkel, and Rutte put his arguments at the level of active geopolitical decision-making, not commentary. Audiences engage with someone whose thinking is tested at the highest levels of governance. His Distinguished Research Fellowship at Cambridge’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk anchors his arguments on AI in active institutional research on civilisational-scale risk – not opinion or futurism. The 100,000-year historical lens is genuinely rare in this space. It gives senior audiences a method for distinguishing structurally permanent change from cyclical volatility – applicable immediately to strategy, regulation, and organisational design. Biography highlights Professor of History, Department of History, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; PhD from the University of Oxford, 2002 Author of Sapiens, Homo Deus, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, and NEXUS – published in more than 65 languages; Sapiens held the Sunday Times bestseller top three for 96 consecutive weeks and ranked #10 in the NYT’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century (2024) Distinguished Research Fellow, Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, University of Cambridge Two-time Polonsky Prize for Creativity and Originality (2009, 2012); Moncado Award, Society for Military History (2011); Handelsblatt German Economic Book Award for Homo Deus (2017) WEF Davos keynote speaker in 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2026; CBS 60 Minutes profile (2021) Regular contributor to the Financial Times, The Guardian, The Economist, New York Times, and Nature Biography Organisations making decisions about AI governance are operating without historical context. The scale of information networks has changed before – with writing, printing, and broadcasting – and power has reorganised around each transition. What makes AI structurally different is not its speed or scale, but the fact that, for the first time, the network itself can generate and act on information without human instruction. Yuval Noah Harari is a Professor of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a Distinguished Research Fellow at Cambridge’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk. His four major works – Sapiens, Homo Deus, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, and NEXUS – form a sustained argument about the relationship between information, power, and human agency, tracing it from the deep past to the governance decisions of the AI era. NEXUS, published in 2024, made that argument most directly relevant to organisations. Harari’s central distinction – between information systems that are self-correcting and those that reinforce existing power – gives leaders a practical framework for evaluating AI governance, regulatory exposure, and institutional design. The book argues that how organisations and governments navigate this distinction is the defining question of the current period. NEXUS reached number two on both the New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller lists within a week of publication. Harari has held public conversations with heads of state including Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel, and Mark Rutte on the future of AI and information. He has delivered keynote addresses at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2026, and contributes regularly to the Financial Times, The Guardian, The Economist, and Nature. His books have been translated into more than 65 languages. Key speaking topics Artificial intelligence and information governance The history and future of information networks Geopolitical risk and global power Long-term civilisational change and strategic foresight Human agency and technological disruption Shared fictions, institutions, and how societies hold together AI regulation and democratic resilience Ideal for Boards and C-suite leadership teams navigating AI governance, information strategy, or long-term geopolitical risk Policy, government affairs, and strategic foresight functions at senior level Global conference and forum audiences at CEO, minister, or board director level Technology strategy and corporate affairs teams working on the societal and regulatory implications of AI Audience outcomes A macro-historical framework for reading which changes are structurally significant vs cyclical – applicable to strategy, governance, and regulatory positioning Practical understanding of the NEXUS distinction between self-correcting and self-reinforcing information systems, and its implications for AI governance design Clearer thinking about where power resides in information networks, and what that means for institutional and organisational decisions Historical context for positioning AI decisions within the longer pattern of how information technologies have redistributed political and economic power Sharper questions to bring back to leadership, board, and regulatory conversations already underway

Why organisations work with Zanny Minton Beddoes She edits the publication that shapes how the world’s finance ministers, central bankers, and institutional investors read the global economy: her vantage point is not advisory, it is editorial, which means she sees patterns across geographies, sectors, and governments simultaneously rather than from within any single industry or country. Her pre-journalism career – macroeconomic adjustment programmes at the IMF and economic reform work in post-communist Poland as part of the Jeffrey Sachs team – gives her an understanding of what policy looks like under institutional stress, not just in theory. She has written and overseen major special reports on the world economy, European stagnation, Latin American finance, Central Asian development, and U.S. fiscal sustainability. Her depth on structural economic themes goes well beyond the commentary that most media-figure speakers provide. Two Gerald Loeb Awards (2012 and 2017, the latter for breaking the Saudi Aramco story) signal editorial credibility of a different order from standard speaker-bureau economics commentary. For financial services, institutional investors, and multinational boards, she offers a rare combination: the institutional authority of The Economist brand with the direct analytical access of someone who has run the publication for a decade. Biography highlights Editor-in-Chief of The Economist since February 2015 – the first woman to lead the publication in its 180-year history; also serves on the board of directors of The Economist Group Held successive senior roles at The Economist over 30 years: emerging markets correspondent, US Economics Editor, Economics Editor (Washington DC), Business Affairs Editor Economist at the IMF (1992-1994), working on macroeconomic adjustment programmes in Africa Economic reform adviser to Poland’s Minister of Finance under Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Harvard University Oxford PPE (St Hilda’s College); master’s degree, Harvard Kennedy School (Kennedy Scholar) Gerald Loeb Award winner in 2012 (economic journalism) and 2017 (Breaking News, Saudi Aramco scoop) Trustee, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; member, Research Advisory Board, Committee for Economic Development Named among Forbes’ «Most Powerful Women in the World»; featured in Debrett’s 500 as «one of the most influential voices in financial journalism» Biography The challenge that keeps most boards and strategy teams off-balance is not a lack of information about the global economy. It is the absence of a coherent framework for integrating macroeconomic dynamics, geopolitical risk, and policy shifts into decisions that were never designed to carry that weight. Very few people are positioned to provide that framework with both practitioner rigour and editorial breadth. Zanny Minton Beddoes is one of them. As Editor-in-Chief of The Economist – the first woman to hold that position in the publication’s 180-year history – she oversees the analytical infrastructure that shapes how central bankers, finance ministers, and institutional investors read the global economy. Her perspective is not that of an adviser operating within a single sector or region; it is the perspective of someone who has spent three decades at the editorial centre of the world’s most closely watched economics publication, watching structural forces play out across geographies and cycles. Before journalism, she was inside the machinery of policy under pressure. At the IMF she worked on macroeconomic adjustment programmes in Africa. In Poland, as part of the Jeffrey Sachs team, she was present during one of the most consequential economic transitions of the post-Cold War period. That experience of watching institutions, incentives, and political constraints interact in real time, is audible in the way she talks about markets and policy today: not as abstractions, but as systems with observable failure modes. Her special reports for The Economist – covering the world economy, European stagnation, Latin American finance, Central Asian development, and U.S. fiscal sustainability – reflect a career-long engagement with structural economic questions, not topical commentary. Combined with two Gerald Loeb Awards and a decade leading the publication, that record gives her a credibility in a board or leadership setting that no amount of media presence alone can substitute for. Key speaking topics Global macroeconomic outlook and structural economic change Geopolitics and the fracturing of the multilateral economic order U.S. fiscal sustainability and dollar dynamics European economic stagnation and structural reform Emerging market resilience and vulnerability The intersection of energy transition and economic growth Trade, protectionism, and the rewiring of global supply chains Democracy, governance, and economic performance Ideal for Corporate boards and C-suite leadership teams navigating macro-level strategic uncertainty Financial services, asset management, and institutional investment audiences Government, policy, and international institutions requiring independent editorial-grade analysis Global leadership summits and senior forums where geopolitical and economic context is the primary agenda Audience outcomes A structured framework for reading the interaction between political, macroeconomic, and institutional forces – rather than treating each as a separate news event Calibrated perspective on where structural economic risk is concentrated, versus where conventional wisdom is overstating or understating it Clearer language for discussing macro uncertainty internally – specifically, the difference between cyclical disruption and structural shift An updated analytical map of the major economies and how their trajectories affect sector-level and investment decisions Context for evaluating specific strategic choices – expansion, capital allocation, supply chain configuration – against a coherent view of the global environment

Why organisations work with Zhang Jun He reads China’s economy from inside its policy apparatus, sitting on the Shanghai Municipal Government’s Special Advisory Committee and having briefed Premier Li Keqiang directly in 2015. His thesis in End of Hyper Growth in China? (Palgrave, 2016) is a specific, defensible counter-position on Chinese consumption data and structural imbalance, not a directional take. He won the 2018 Bergson Prize from the Association for Comparative Economic Studies, the field’s recognised award for serious comparative work on transition economies. He has held visiting positions at LSE, Harvard, Yale, SOAS and UNU-WIDER, so he writes and speaks for Western analytic audiences without losing the China interior view. He has written 70 commentaries for Project Syndicate since 2005 and contributes regularly to the South China Morning Post and the World Economic Forum agenda, which means his framing is already legible to senior international readers. Biography highlights Dean, School of Economics, Fudan University; Cheung-Jiang Professor of Economics. Founding Director, China Center for Economic Studies (CCES), Fudan. Member, Special Advisory Committee to the Shanghai Municipal Government. Bergson Prize (2018), Association for Comparative Economic Studies; China Economics Innovation Prize (2015) with Justin Yifu Lin and Fan Gang. Author of End of Hyper Growth in China? (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) and Unfinished Reforms of the Chinese Economy (World Scientific, 2013). Project Syndicate columnist since 2005; contributor to SCMP and the World Economic Forum. Biography Most foreign reads of the Chinese economy are constructed from data releases, export figures, and a handful of much-quoted Western analysts. Zhang Jun’s view is constructed from inside the room. He sits on the Shanghai Municipal Government’s Special Advisory Committee and was one of three economists chosen in 2015 for a direct dialogue with Premier Li Keqiang on macroeconomic policy. As Dean of the School of Economics at Fudan University and founding Director of the China Center for Economic Studies, he runs one of mainland China’s most serious institutional platforms for analysing the country’s growth model. His 2016 Palgrave book End of Hyper Growth in China? made a specific counter-argument against the consensus that China’s reliance on investment and low consumption made its growth unsustainable. The 2018 Bergson Prize from the Association for Comparative Economic Studies recognised his comparative work in the same field. Zhang publishes for international readers as well as Chinese ones. He has been a Project Syndicate columnist since 2005, with more than 70 commentaries, and writes for the South China Morning Post and the World Economic Forum. Visiting positions at LSE, Harvard, Yale, SOAS and UNU-WIDER over the past two decades mean he speaks the analytic language of Western investment committees while reading Beijing’s policy moves at source. What this gives a boardroom is rare: a voice on China who is neither cheerleading nor catastrophising, who has skin in the policy debate, and who can tell a foreign audience which structural reform signals from Beijing are real and which are rhetorical. Key speaking topics China’s growth model and the post-hyper-growth economy Structural reform and the policy direction of Beijing Chinese consumption, savings, and household demand Supply-side reform and industrial competitiveness China and the global economy: trade, capital, supply chains Shanghai and the role of regional governance in Chinese reform Ideal for Boards and investment committees weighing China exposure or repositioning regional strategy CFOs and Chief Strategy Officers in firms with significant China-linked supply chains or revenue Banks, asset managers and sovereign investors with active China allocations Senior policy and government audiences engaging with Chinese counterparts Audience outcomes A specific read on what Beijing’s current reform signals actually mean for capital allocation in China A sharper sense of which Western narratives about Chinese consumption, debt and growth are overstated and which hold up Direct context on how Shanghai’s policy apparatus thinks about reform priorities and foreign investment Better questions to take into the next China-strategy conversation at executive committee or board level