Political Risk & Policy

Why organisations work with Narendra Taneja Reads global energy from an Indian and Global South vantage point that Western commentary routinely misses, particularly on the gap between developed-world decarbonisation timelines and emerging-economy growth needs. Holds standing in both academic and policy worlds: Distinguished Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies and Chairman of the Independent Energy Policy Institute in New Delhi. Speaks directly into the operator and investor audience he has worked alongside for over two decades, having served as Founder President of the World Oil & Gas Assembly between 2001 and 2011. Carries advisory weight across multilateral energy forums, with seats on the ONS International Advisory Board in Norway and the Energy Intelligence Group’s Advisory Board in the United States. Tested in the highest-pressure broadcast formats, including BBC HARDtalk and CNN’s Amanpour, where energy claims have to survive cross-examination. Biography highlights Chairman, Independent Energy Policy Institute, New Delhi Distinguished Research Fellow, Oxford Institute for Energy Studies Founder President, World Energy Policy Summit; former Founder President, World Oil & Gas Assembly (2001 to 2011) International Advisory Board member, ONS Foundation (Norway) and Energy Intelligence Group (United States) Former National Convener of the BJP Energy Cell and former National Spokesperson for the BJP Regular contributor to BBC HARDtalk, CNN’s Amanpour and major Indian and international media Biography India is the world’s fifth-largest economy and third-largest electricity producer. It is also among the most climate-exposed major economies, with historical cumulative emissions far below those of the United States or China. The global energy transition will not be solved by Western timelines alone, and the implications run through New Delhi. Narendra Taneja works the seam between rich-world and emerging-economy energy systems. He is Chairman of the Independent Energy Policy Institute in New Delhi and a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. That dual standing puts him inside the academic debate on transition and inside the policy machinery that has to act on it. His operator credibility is older. He was Founder President of the World Oil & Gas Assembly from 2001 to 2011, the decade energy moved from sector concern to the centre of foreign policy. He now leads the World Energy Policy Summit and holds advisory seats on the ONS International Advisory Board in Norway and the Energy Intelligence Group in the United States. His public reach is unusual for a policy specialist. He served as National Convenor of the BJP Energy Cell and as National Spokesperson for India’s governing party, with direct line of sight into one of the world’s largest energy markets. He appears regularly on BBC HARDtalk and CNN’s Amanpour. He is widely cited as a powerful voice on the energy question between rich and developing economies, a position most international commentary still struggles to hold. Key speaking topics Energy geopolitics and global energy systems Energy security and supply dynamics Energy transition policy across Global North and Global South Oil and gas markets in a decarbonising world India’s energy strategy and global role Geopolitics of climate policy Political risk in emerging market energy Ideal for Energy and utilities boards weighing transition strategy and capital allocation Investors and asset managers with cross-border exposure to oil, gas and renewables Government and policy audiences engaging with India and the wider Global South International business forums analysing geopolitical risk in energy markets Audience outcomes How Global North decarbonisation timelines collide with Global South growth imperatives, and what that means for capital allocation Where political risk actually sits inside the energy transition, by region and asset class A working view of India’s energy strategy and its implications for global supply and capital flows Sharper questions to ask before approving long-horizon energy investment or partnership decisions

Why organisations work with Luiz Barroso He has held three seats that almost no one else holds together: national energy planner (CEO of Brazil’s EPE), market designer and consultant across 30 countries, and partner in Latin America’s largest investment bank. That gives him a view of energy decisions from the policy desk, the operator’s desk and the capital allocator’s desk simultaneously. His work answers the question most energy speakers avoid: how does decarbonisation actually get financed and priced in markets that do not look like Western Europe? Investors and regulators in Latin America, Asia and Africa book him for that reason. He sits inside the IEA conversation on emerging-economy transition, having been a visiting researcher in Paris on exactly that question. That places him close to where international finance and national policy intersect. IEEE Fellow status, granted for contributions to electricity market design, signals a rare technical depth for an industry speaker. Most transition commentators cannot model what they recommend. Biography highlights CEO of PSR Energy Consulting and Analytics, the BTG Pactual-owned firm Former CEO of Empresa de Pesquisa Energetica (EPE), Brazil’s national energy planning agency Visiting researcher, International Energy Agency, Paris Associate researcher, Institute for Research in Technology, Comillas University, Madrid IEEE Fellow; IEEE PES Outstanding Young Engineer Award recipient Author of one book, three book chapters and more than 70 peer-reviewed papers on electricity and gas market design Biography The energy transition has stopped being a question of ambition and become a question of capital. Boards have set decarbonisation targets; the harder problem is financing them through power markets that work differently in every country an investor touches. Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and Indonesia do not have the same grid, the same regulation or the same risk pricing. Luiz Barroso has spent his career inside that problem. As CEO of PSR Energy Consulting and Analytics, a BTG Pactual-owned firm, he advises private investors, public lenders, governments and regulators in around 30 countries on market design, financing and risk in electricity and gas. Before that, he ran Empresa de Pesquisa Energetica, the Brazilian government body responsible for national energy planning, a role equivalent to deputy minister. His research credentials are unusual for someone operating in industry. He is an IEEE Fellow, recognised specifically for contributions to electricity market regulation and design, and an associate researcher at the Institute for Research in Technology at Comillas University in Madrid. In 2018 he spent a year at the International Energy Agency in Paris, working on the question of how energy transition unfolds in emerging economies. That combination matters because most senior leaders hearing about energy transition are hearing from policy commentators, academic modellers or industry executives. Barroso has held all three roles. His work helps capital allocators, board directors and regulators see where the transition narrative meets the actual structure of power and gas markets, and where the money has to go for it to function. Key speaking topics Energy transition in emerging economies Electricity and gas market design Investment and financing under decarbonisation Regulation and policy in liberalised power markets Risk management in energy infrastructure Power system economics Ideal for Board directors and investment committees with energy exposure outside Western Europe and North America Infrastructure investors, development banks and sovereign wealth funds allocating to the transition Energy regulators, system operators and policy bodies in emerging markets Senior leaders in utilities, oil and gas, and large industrial energy buyers Audience outcomes A clearer picture of how energy transition is actually financed and priced in emerging-economy power and gas markets A working understanding of why decarbonisation pathways diverge across jurisdictions, and what that means for cross-border capital Practical exposure to the trade-offs regulators face when designing markets that must attract investment and deliver reliability simultaneously A grounded view of which transition assumptions hold up when tested against grid reality and which do not

Why organisations work with Rick Kelsey A working broadcaster, not a hired host. Kelsey is currently on air at Times Radio and BBC Business, which means he interviews real cabinet ministers and CEOs in his day job and brings the same posture to a corporate stage. Twelve years inside BBC newsrooms, including World Service and Newsbeat, plus editorial leadership of the Newscast podcast through the pandemic where audience grew by over 30 percent. Genuine subject command in personal finance and energy. He has written hundreds of BBC articles on mortgages, pensions, interest rates and the green-energy transition, so he can host a finance or sustainability brief without notes. Audience-building credibility outside corporate stages. As a presenter on The Running Channel, a YouTube channel of over 700,000 subscribers, he understands how to keep a non-captive audience listening, which translates directly to internal events. A track record across awards formats that punish weak hosts: the LEAF Awards, RFIx Financial Awards and European Hospitality Awards. Biography highlights Presenter at Times Radio, BBC Business and Spotify, covering personal finance, politics and energy. Twelve years at the BBC across television, radio and online, including World Service and Newsbeat. Edited the BBC’s Newscast podcast through the COVID-19 pandemic, with audience growth of over 30 percent. Co-host of The Running Channel on YouTube, with more than 700,000 subscribers. Author of hundreds of BBC personal-finance articles on mortgages, savings, pensions and energy bills. Hosted the LEAF Awards, RFIx Financial Awards and Gala Dinner, and the European Hospitality Awards. Biography Most corporate stages fail in the same way. The host is too cautious to push, the panel runs to the brief, and the audience leaves with a cleaner version of what they already believed. The fix is rarely a more polished MC. It is someone who interviews for a living and treats the stage as a newsroom. Rick Kelsey is that profile. He presents at Times Radio, BBC Business and Spotify, and spent twelve years on BBC staff across World Service and Newsbeat before leaving in 2022. Through the pandemic he edited Newscast, the BBC’s flagship politics podcast, and is credited with audience growth of more than 30 percent during that period. His specialist territory is personal finance and energy. He has written hundreds of BBC articles on mortgages, savings, pensions, interest rates and the green transition, and has interviewed UK prime ministers across multiple cycles. That base means a financial-services or utilities brief does not need scripting; he can take the room into the substance and out again. Outside the BBC he co-hosts The Running Channel, a YouTube property of more than 700,000 subscribers. Combined with awards-night work for the LEAF Awards, the RFIx Financial Awards and the European Hospitality Awards, the result is a host who can carry a 90-minute live show, keep an executive panel honest, and read when the room needs the next question rather than a longer answer. Key speaking topics Event hosting and panel moderation Awards-night presenting Personal finance and cost of living Mortgages, savings and interest rates Energy transition and renewable energy UK politics and policy Broadcast journalism and media Ideal for Internal communications and brand teams running town halls, leadership offsites and customer events. Financial services and consumer-finance audiences where a host needs to speak the subject fluently. Energy, utilities and sustainability conferences requiring a moderator across solar, wind and hydrogen briefs. Industry awards nights where the host carries the room from open to close. Audience outcomes A live event that holds executive attention from open to close, with crisp transitions and on-time running. Panels that produce something the audience did not already know, because the moderator pushes past the prepared answer. A finance or energy session translated into language a mixed corporate audience can act on. A presenter the audience associates with the BBC and Times brands, lifting the perceived production value of the event.

Why organisations work with Peter Altmaier Direct cabinet-level authorship of the Energiewende, with first-hand accountability for grid build-out, nuclear exit, and renewables expansion under Merkel-era Germany. Two ministerial portfolios at the centre of European crisis response: economic affairs and energy through the COVID industrial intervention period, and the Chancellery during the 2015 refugee coordination. Insider read on Berlin, Brussels, and Paris political mechanics, sharpened by 27 years in the Bundestag and senior CDU leadership roles. Substantive position on European technological sovereignty and platform regulation, formed while economics minister and visible in his work with the IEA and the Migration Policy Institute’s Transatlantic Council. Speaks German, English, French, and Dutch, which makes him operable across European boardrooms without translation drag. Biography highlights Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy of Germany, 2018 to 2021 Head of the Federal Chancellery and Federal Minister for Special Tasks, 2013 to 2018; Acting Federal Minister of Finance, 2017 to 2018 Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, 2012 to 2013 Member of the German Bundestag, 1994 to 2021 Knight of the French Legion of Honour (2004); Honorary President, Europa-Union Deutschland Featured speaker, PETRONAS International Energy Speaker Series, Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary (2022) Biography Germany’s energy transition was redrawn while Peter Altmaier was in the room. As Federal Minister for the Environment in 2012 and later as Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy from 2018 to 2021, he held direct departmental responsibility for the Energiewende, the nuclear exit, and the integration of renewables into Europe’s largest industrial economy. Between those portfolios he ran the Federal Chancellery for five years under Angela Merkel. That post placed him at the centre of cabinet coordination during the 2015 refugee response, the eurozone debt sequence, and the early industrial-policy calls that would later define Germany’s posture on technological sovereignty and platform regulation. He served as Acting Federal Minister of Finance through the 2017 to 2018 transition. His parliamentary career ran for 27 years, representing Saarlouis from 1994 and serving as Chief Whip of the CDU/CSU group from 2009 to 2012. He chaired the Parliamentary Oversight Panel for Germany’s intelligence services. Earlier work as a European Commission official and rapporteur on the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights gave him a working command of the institutional machinery in Brussels. Since leaving office in 2021 he has continued through Europa-Union Deutschland as Honorary President, the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, and the Migration Policy Institute’s Transatlantic Council. France made him a Knight of the Legion of Honour in 2004, a recognition of his role in Franco-German policy coordination that has remained central to his work on European energy and industrial strategy. Key speaking topics European energy transition and security German and EU industrial strategy Geopolitics and the transatlantic relationship Climate and decarbonisation policy European technological sovereignty Macroeconomic outlook for Europe Franco-German political economy Ideal for Boards and executive committees with significant European exposure on energy, industrial, or supply chain decisions CSOs, heads of public affairs, and government relations leads briefing on EU and German policy direction Energy, utilities, automotive, and heavy industry leadership teams setting capital allocation against the Energiewende Investor and asset manager forums covering European macro and geopolitical risk Audience outcomes A working read on how Berlin and Brussels actually decide on energy and industrial policy A clearer view of where the Energiewende is binding capital and where it is creating openings Sharper anticipation of European responses to US, China, and Russia policy moves Insight into the political economy of technological sovereignty and platform regulation in Europe Anecdote-grounded perspective on Merkel-era cabinet decision-making, useful for boards working alongside German counterparties

Why organisations work with Leszek Balcerowicz He authored a national reform programme, the Balcerowicz Plan, that economists still teach as the canonical case of rapid stabilisation and price liberalisation under hyperinflation. He has held the rare combination of finance minister and central bank governor in the same country, giving him direct command of how fiscal credibility and monetary policy reinforce or undermine each other. He brings a working analytical frame for understanding emerging market risk and reform reversal, drawn from running a transition economy and from his academic work on comparative systems. The Civic Development Forum, which he founded in 2007, gives him an active institutional platform for current commentary on European fiscal policy, the euro area, and the economics of populism. Biography highlights Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Poland, 1989-1991 and 1997-2000. President of the National Bank of Poland, 2001-2007; ex officio member of the European Central Bank General Council during that period. Professor at the Warsaw School of Economics, heading the Department of International Comparative Studies. Founder and Chairman of the Civic Development Forum (FOR); Chairman of the supervisory board of Bruegel, the Brussels-based economic policy think tank. 2014 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty (Cato Institute); Euromoney Finance Minister of the Year 1998; Order of the White Eagle, 2005. Author of Socialism, Capitalism, Transformation (Central European University Press, 1995) and more than one hundred publications on transition economics and reform. Biography Poland in 1989 was running an annual inflation rate above 600 percent, a state-owned economy starved of price signals, and a currency no one trusted. The reform programme that ended hyperinflation within three years and converted the zloty into a usable currency carries one name. It was designed by the country’s then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Leszek Balcerowicz. That programme, now widely known as the Balcerowicz Plan, became a reference case for stabilisation under extreme conditions. It is taught at policy schools and quoted in central bank papers because it shows what fiscal restraint, price liberalisation, and currency convertibility can do when sequenced together rather than negotiated piecemeal. The trade-offs were severe and remain politically contested in Poland. The macroeconomic outcome is not. Balcerowicz returned as Deputy Prime Minister between 1997 and 2000, then served as President of the National Bank of Poland from 2001 to 2007, sitting on the General Council of the European Central Bank. Few practitioners hold the finance ministry and the central bank in succession. That sequence shapes how he thinks about credibility: as a discipline that runs across institutions, not within them. His current platform is academic and institutional. He chairs the Civic Development Forum in Warsaw, sits on the supervisory board of Bruegel in Brussels, and remains Professor at the Warsaw School of Economics. He has been awarded the Milton Friedman Prize, the Friedrich August von Hayek Prize, and roughly twenty honorary doctorates. The work he is doing now centres on the political economy of populism, the fiscal architecture of the euro area, and the conditions under which reform survives political turnover. Key speaking topics Economic transition and reform design Monetary policy and central bank credibility Fiscal policy and stabilisation under inflation Political economy of populism European Union and euro area economics Comparative economic systems Emerging markets and country risk Ideal for Boards and investment committees with material exposure to emerging-market or peripheral European economies Central banks, finance ministries, and multilateral institutions Asset managers and CIOs assessing sovereign and currency risk Senior policy and public affairs leaders in financial services and energy Audience outcomes A working frame for reading macroeconomic stabilisation programmes, drawn from someone who has run one A clearer view of how fiscal and monetary credibility actually compound, beyond the textbook account A sharper read on populist economic policy and where it tends to break An informed perspective on euro area architecture and the limits of monetary union without fiscal coordination

Why organisations work with Marek Marian Belka He has actually held the levers. Decisions on interest rates, sovereign borrowing, banking supervision and crisis response were his to sign, not to commentate on, across Polish government and the National Bank of Poland. He ran the IMF’s European Department through the early eurozone crisis, giving him a working view of how Brussels, Frankfurt and national capitals negotiate when the system is under pressure. He rebuilt a currency and a banking system from zero in post-invasion Iraq, which translates directly when leaders ask what happens to economies under shock conditions. He sits inside current EU economic legislation as an MEP on the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, including as rapporteur on the revision of EU payment-services rules. His read on Brussels is not historical. He moves comfortably between academic economics and operational policy, which is rare in this pillar and is what makes his sessions useful to CFOs and investment committees rather than only to public-affairs teams. Biography highlights Prime Minister of Poland, 2004-2005. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Poland, 1997 and 2001-2002. President of the National Bank of Poland, 2010-2016. Director of the European Department, International Monetary Fund, 2008-2010. Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (Geneva), 2006-2008. Director of Economic Policy, Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, 2003-2004. Member of the European Parliament, 2019-2024, Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. Professor of Economics; long-running affiliation with the Institute of Economics at the Polish Academy of Sciences; visiting periods at Columbia, Chicago and the London School of Economics. Biography The eurozone crisis ran through the desk of the IMF’s European Department, and from 2008 to 2010 that desk belonged to Marek Belka. The job was not to predict the crisis. It was to negotiate with finance ministries, central banks and political leaders while the system was visibly stressed and to keep capital and credibility moving across borders. That role only made sense because of what came before it. He had already been Poland’s Minister of Finance, Deputy Prime Minister and, from 2004 to 2005, Prime Minister. He had also rebuilt a currency and a banking system in post-invasion Iraq as Director of Economic Policy at the Coalition Provisional Authority. By the time he reached the IMF, he had operated economic policy in a stable European democracy, in a transition economy and in a war zone. In 2010 he returned to Warsaw as President of the National Bank of Poland, a six-year term that covered the eurozone aftermath, the Russian annexation of Crimea and the early phase of populist pressure on European central-bank independence. Before and after that, he held the Executive Secretary post at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe in Geneva and built a long academic record at the Polish Academy of Sciences and as a visiting scholar at Columbia, the University of Chicago and the London School of Economics. Today he sits in the European Parliament on the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, where he was rapporteur on the revision of EU payment-services rules adopted in February 2024. For boards and investors, that combination matters in a specific way. He can speak to monetary policy, fiscal stress and EU economic legislation as someone who has signed the decisions, not just modelled them. Key speaking topics European monetary policy and the role of central banks Eurozone stability, sovereign debt and banking supervision EU economic legislation and the political economy of Brussels Geopolitical risk in Central and Eastern Europe Inflation, currency and post-crisis economic policy Economic transition and reconstruction in fragile economies The future of the euro and European economic integration Ideal for Boards, CFOs and investment committees making allocation decisions exposed to European monetary and fiscal risk. Banks, asset managers and insurers needing a senior read on ECB direction, sovereign credit and EU financial regulation. Leadership teams of multinationals with significant Central and Eastern European exposure. Public-policy, government-affairs and economic-research functions briefing executives on EU institutions. Audience outcomes A clearer read on how ECB, European Commission and national-capital decisions interact under stress. A working sense of where European political risk is most likely to translate into market and regulatory consequence. Specific examples of how policymakers actually decide during crises, drawn from inside the IMF, NBP and Polish government. A sharper view of EU financial-services and payments regulation as it moves through the legislative process. Confidence to challenge consensus assumptions about eurozone stability, inflation and Central European growth.

Why organisations work with Janusz Antoni Lewandowski Direct first-person insight into how the EU’s multiannual budget is built, negotiated, and defended. He led that process for the 2014 to 2020 framework. One of the few European speakers who designed a national privatisation programme, the Polish Program Powszechnej Prywatyzacji, and co-founded the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Useful for boards reading Central and Eastern European exposure. A Solidarity-era economic adviser turned cabinet minister turned Commissioner. The arc gives him standing on how political will translates into economic structure, and where it fails. Active commentary in Rzeczpospolita, Gazeta Wyborcza, Polityka, and Newsweek Polska. He is a working public voice on EU and Polish policy, not a retired official. Biography highlights European Commissioner for Financial Programming and the Budget, 2010 to 2014, under President José Manuel Barroso. Chair of the European Parliament Committee on Budgets from 2004; later First Vice-Chair (2019 to 2024). Member of the European Parliament across the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th terms. Minister of Ownership Transformations in two Polish governments (1991; 1992 to 1993); co-founder of the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Co-founder and Chair of the Liberal Democratic Congress (KLD), 1988. Economic adviser to Solidarity, 1980 to 1989. Chairman of the Economic Council under Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz, 2015. Doctorate in economics, University of Gdańsk. Founder of the Institute for Market Economy Research, Gdańsk. Biography Poland’s transition from a state-planned economy to a market economy was not an academic exercise. It was designed and run, in real time, by a small group of economists who had been advising Solidarity through the 1980s. Janusz Lewandowski was one of them. As Minister of Ownership Transformations in the Bielecki and Suchocka governments, he co-founded the Warsaw Stock Exchange and built the Program Powszechnej Prywatyzacji, the mass privatisation programme that reshaped Polish corporate ownership. That experience travelled with him into Brussels. He served as a Member of the European Parliament from 2004, chaired the Committee on Budgets, and was appointed European Commissioner for Financial Programming and the Budget under José Manuel Barroso between 2010 and 2014. The Commissioner role placed him at the centre of negotiations for the 2014 to 2020 Multiannual Financial Framework, the trillion-euro budget settlement that defined EU fiscal priorities through the post-crisis decade. He returned to the European Parliament in 2014, served as First Vice-Chair of the Budgets Committee in the 2019 to 2024 term, and has continued as a working voice on European economic policy. In 2015 Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz appointed him Chairman of the Economic Council. He writes regularly for Rzeczpospolita, Gazeta Wyborcza, Polityka, Parkiet, Wprost, and Newsweek Polska. The combined record gives him a vantage point that few European speakers can match. He has built market institutions from a standing start, written a national privatisation programme, and held senior fiscal responsibility for the entire Union. When he reads EU budget politics, Central European exposure, or the durability of the European project, he is reading instruments he has helped to build. Key speaking topics EU budget architecture and the Multiannual Financial Framework The political economy of European integration Post-communist economic transition and privatisation Central and Eastern Europe in the EU Polish economic and political outlook Geopolitical risk for European capital The future of EU fiscal policy Ideal for Boards and executive committees with material exposure to Central and Eastern Europe CFOs, treasury, and policy teams tracking EU regulatory and fiscal direction Investor and banking audiences reading European political risk Senior public-sector and institutional audiences on EU policy and enlargement Audience outcomes A clear read of how EU budget priorities are set and where they are heading Direct insight into the political economy of Central and Eastern Europe from someone who shaped it Sharper interpretation of European policy signals affecting capital allocation A working framework for thinking about EU enlargement, sanctions, and the durability of the European project

Why organisations work with Bronisław Komorowski He sat in the two chairs that defined Poland’s security posture: Minister of National Defence during NATO integration and President during the Russian annexation of Crimea. Very few speakers have carried both briefs. He reads Warsaw, Kyiv, Vilnius, and Berlin as a participant, not an analyst. That matters when European political risk is being priced around a boardroom table. As founder of the Bronisław Komorowski Institute and member of the InterAction Council, he remains inside the network of former heads of state shaping conversations on European security and the global order. He brings the authority of a head of state who led Poland through the post-2010 period, with the historian’s grounding of a University of Warsaw history graduate and former Solidarity-era dissident. Biography highlights President of the Republic of Poland, 2010 to 2015. Minister of National Defence of Poland, 2000 to 2001, and Deputy Minister of National Defence, 1990 to 1993. Marshal (Speaker) of the Sejm from 2007, and member of the Sejm from 1991 to 2010. Pre-1989 opposition activist with the Workers’ Defense Committee (KOR) and the Movement for Defense of Human and Civil Rights (ROPCiO), interned during martial law. Member of the InterAction Council of former heads of state and government. Honorary doctorates from Mykolas Romeris University (2008) and Vytautas Magnus University (2015). Biography Poland sits on the seam between the European Union and a Russia that has redrawn borders by force. Bronisław Komorowski has served in nearly every senior role that seam produces. He was Deputy Minister of National Defence in the first post-communist governments, ran the defence ministry under Jerzy Buzek during the final stages of NATO integration, led the Sejm as its Marshal from 2007, and served as President of the Republic from 2010 to 2015. The arc matters because the questions he dealt with are the questions European boards are now asking again. How does a country on NATO’s eastern flank hold deterrence credible without triggering escalation. How do democratic institutions stay intact under sustained pressure. How does a government in Warsaw keep Washington, Berlin, and Kyiv aligned at the same time. He was making those calls during the 2014 Crimea period and the early months of Russia’s intervention in eastern Ukraine. His authority also comes from the other end of his career. He was arrested in 1971 while working with the Workers’ Defense Committee, co-operated on the underground monthly Głos through the late 1970s, and was interned under martial law. The constitutional leader of 2010 to 2015 is the same person who helped build the civic opposition that produced 1989. That grounding shapes how he talks about resilience, institutions, and the fragility of democratic settlements. Since leaving office he has continued that work through the Bronisław Komorowski Institute, founded on the day his presidential term ended, and through his seat on the InterAction Council alongside other former heads of state. He is a University of Warsaw historian by training, and it shows in how he connects the current moment to the longer European story. Key speaking topics Central and Eastern European political risk NATO’s eastern flank and European security Poland-Ukraine relations and the war in Ukraine Transatlantic relations and the future of the EU Democratic transition and the defence of institutions National defence policy and civil-military relations Leadership under constitutional crisis Ideal for Boards and executive committees with operations, supply chains, or capital exposure in Central and Eastern Europe Defence, security, and foreign-policy forums convening government, military, and industry leaders CEO and chair-level summits addressing European political risk and the transatlantic alliance Investor and asset-manager gatherings pricing geopolitical risk into European portfolios Audience outcomes A sharper read of how Warsaw, Kyiv, and the Baltic capitals actually view the security and economic picture Direct insight into the decisions a head of state weighs during a regional crisis A grounded view of how democratic institutions hold, or fail to hold, under sustained political pressure A framework for interpreting European political risk that is anchored in thirty years of Polish statecraft

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 Jens Weidmann A decade inside the ECB Governing Council during the sovereign debt crisis, the Draghi “whatever it takes” period, and the pandemic response. Few speakers can describe those decisions from inside the room. The hawkish dissent on the ECB council was not branding. It was a substantive position on bond purchases, fiscal dominance, and the limits of central bank independence, and it informs how he reads today’s inflation and debt dynamics. Active commercial bank chairman (Commerzbank) and reinsurance supervisor (Munich Re). His view on rates, regulation, and risk is grounded in current board exposure, not a retired official’s recollections. Chief G8 and G20 sherpa for Germany under Chancellor Merkel. He brings a working knowledge of how monetary, fiscal, and geopolitical decisions are negotiated between major economies. Chaired the BIS board and led the IMF’s 2022 panel on institutional safeguards. The credentials matter because they signal access to the small group of people who set the rules of cross-border finance. Biography highlights President of the Deutsche Bundesbank, 2011 to 2021 Member of the ECB Governing Council and Chairman of the Board of the Bank for International Settlements during his Bundesbank presidency Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Commerzbank since 2023 Member of the Supervisory Board of Munich Re Professor of Practice in Central Banking and Co-Director of the Centre for Central Banking, Frankfurt School of Finance and Management Former Head of Division IV (Economic and Financial Policy) at the German Federal Chancellery and chief German sherpa for G8 and G20 summits Chair of the IMF External and Independent Panel of High-Level Experts on Institutional Safeguards, 2022 Biography The Bundesbank seat on the ECB Governing Council carries a particular weight. It represents the largest economy in the eurozone and a tradition of monetary discipline that predates the single currency. For a decade, that seat was occupied by Jens Weidmann, and during the Draghi era he was the Council’s most consistent dissenter on sovereign bond purchases and on the boundary between monetary and fiscal policy. Before the Bundesbank, Weidmann was the German Chancellery’s chief economic adviser and the country’s sherpa at the G8 and G20. The negotiations after Lehman, the Greek programme, and the early architecture of European banking union all crossed his desk. Earlier still he served the German Council of Economic Experts, where his work fed into the Agenda 2010 reforms that reshaped the German labour market. Since stepping down from the Bundesbank in 2021, his focus has shifted from rule-setting to rule-applying. As Chairman of Commerzbank’s Supervisory Board he oversees one of Germany’s two large commercial banks through a higher-rate environment and a renewed debate over European banking consolidation. At Munich Re he sits inside the supervisory governance of a major reinsurer, where climate and geopolitical risk meet capital adequacy. He teaches and writes from the Frankfurt School Centre for Central Banking, which he co-directs. The IMF’s 2022 decision to appoint him chair of its independent panel on institutional safeguards, after the data scandal involving its managing director, signalled that his judgement on institutional integrity carries weight beyond Germany. Key speaking topics Monetary policy and central bank independence Eurozone economic and financial stability Inflation, public debt, and fiscal dominance Banking supervision and financial regulation G7, G20, and international policy coordination Geopolitical risk and the global financial system Ideal for Bank, asset manager, and insurer boards setting strategy under shifting rate and regulatory regimes CEOs, CFOs, and CROs of multinationals exposed to euro-area policy and currency risk Government, regulator, and policy audiences working on financial stability and reform Audience outcomes A grounded reading of where eurozone monetary policy is heading and what would shift it A clearer sense of how political and fiscal pressure now interacts with central bank decisions A working view of the constraints and choices facing European banks and insurers An informed perspective on G20-level coordination, sanctions, and the financial architecture around geopolitical risk

Why organisations work with Gina Miller She has personally tested the limits of UK executive power in court, twice, and can speak about constitutional risk with first-hand authority rather than as a commentator. Her financial services work through SCM Direct and the True and Fair Campaign gives her a working operator’s view of regulation, fees, disclosure, and ESG claims, not a policy abstraction. She brings a credible read on the political conditions that shape regulation in the UK, including how parties form, how reform agendas are built, and where the system is fragile. She speaks from sustained personal exposure to public hostility and threat, which gives her a serious frame on resilience and on the personal cost of institutional accountability. Biography highlights Lead claimant in R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union [2017] UKSC 5, the case that required parliamentary authorisation to trigger Article 50. Lead claimant in R (Miller) v The Prime Minister [2019] UKSC 41, the prorogation case decided unanimously by eleven Supreme Court justices. Co-founder of SCM Direct, an investment management firm launched in 2009, and co-founder of the True and Fair Campaign in 2012. Founder and leader of the True and Fair Party, launched January 2022. Author of Rise: Life Lessons in Speaking Out, Standing Tall and Leading the Way (Canongate, 2018), co-written with Elizabeth Day. Global Ambassador for Peace, The Tutu Foundation UK; recipient of the Harper’s Bazaar Campaigner of the Year 2018 and Vanity Fair Challenger Award 2021. Biography The two Miller cases sit at the centre of modern UK constitutional law. The first, decided by the Supreme Court in 2017, required parliamentary authorisation before the government could trigger Article 50. The second, decided unanimously by eleven justices in 2019, found the prorogation of Parliament unlawful. Both cases were brought by Gina Miller as lead claimant. That record gives her an unusual vantage point on political risk. She has watched executive power, parliamentary sovereignty and judicial review meet under live conditions, and she has been on the receiving end of the political and personal consequences. For boards thinking about regulatory exposure, lobbying conduct, and the durability of the institutions they rely on, her perspective is operational rather than theoretical. Her commercial career runs in parallel. With Alan Miller, she co-founded SCM Direct in 2009 and the True and Fair Campaign in 2012, pressing the investment industry on hidden fees, closet index tracking and, more recently, greenwashing in ESG products. In January 2022 she launched the True and Fair Party, built around a written constitution, parliamentary accountability and reform of how public money is spent. She is the author of Rise, published by Canongate in 2018 and co-written with Elizabeth Day, and serves as Global Ambassador for Peace with The Tutu Foundation UK. Awards include Harper’s Bazaar Campaigner of the Year 2018, PSA Political Campaigner of the Year 2017, and the Vanity Fair Challenger Award 2021. Key speaking topics UK constitutional law and parliamentary sovereignty Political and regulatory risk for boards Financial services reform and investor protection Transparency in fees, fund disclosure and ESG claims Trust, accountability and the conduct of public office Resilience under sustained public hostility Women, leadership and visibility in public life Ideal for Boards and risk committees stress-testing exposure to political, regulatory and constitutional change Asset managers, pension trustees and financial services leaders facing disclosure and ESG scrutiny General counsel and public affairs leads tracking the boundary between executive action and parliamentary process Leadership and women’s network audiences interested in serious accounts of public exposure and recovery Audience outcomes A clearer read on how UK constitutional rules actually constrain executive decisions, and where they do not A working sense of how transparency, fees and ESG claims are being tested by regulators and campaigners A direct account of what it costs personally to challenge institutional power, and what it teaches about resilience A sharper view of how reform agendas form, gain traction or fail in UK political life

Why organisations work with Barbara Serra She holds the room when senior figures are practiced at controlling the conversation. Two decades anchoring live news at Al Jazeera English and Sky News mean she does not defer when a CEO or sitting minister tries to bridge back to talking points. She is credible on the European populism story in a way most broadcast hosts are not. The 2020 documentary “Fascism in the Family” and the 2025 book of the same name are her own work on her own family’s history, which means a panel on the populist current in Europe gets a chair who knows the material from the inside. She works comfortably across Italian, English, Danish and French audiences. For organisations whose flagship events are cross-border or whose European operation matters, this removes the awkward Anglo-defaulting that limits a lot of corporate event hosts. She owns a specific content lane on second-language English in international business. The argument is that what most companies call “global communication” is really English-language communication, with all the cultural narrowing that implies. For multilingual leadership teams operating in an English company language, this lands as a real internal issue with bite. Biography highlights Sky News presenter since 2023, anchoring News at 10 and the Press Preview Anchored Al Jazeera English’s flagship NewsHour from London 2006 to 2022; founding launch-team member First non-native English speaker to anchor a primetime news programme on British terrestrial television (Channel 5 News, 2005) Awarded the Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia (Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy) by the Italian President in 2019 for international journalism “Fascism in the Family” (Al Jazeera, 2020) won gold in both the Current Affairs and History categories at the New York Festivals TV & Film Awards; companion book “Fascismo in Famiglia” published in Italy in 2025 Hosting and moderation client roster includes KPMG, Baker Hughes, Technogym, the Interactive Advertising Bureau, Poste Italiane and ENEL; presented the Royal Television Society’s TV Journalism Awards in 2017 Biography Al Jazeera English launched in 2006 with a London evening news strand built to challenge the Anglo-American framing of international stories. The anchor it picked for primetime was Italian-born and working in her second language. Barbara Serra held the seat for sixteen years. That tenure followed an earlier first. In 2005 at Channel 5 News, she became the first non-native English speaker to anchor a primetime news bulletin on British terrestrial television. She has since moved to Sky News, anchoring News at 10 and the Press Preview. Outside the studio, the most distinctive piece of work is the 2020 documentary “Fascism in the Family”, which she co-produced, wrote and presented. The film traces the role of her own grandfather, the regime-appointed mayor of Carbonia, against the rise of the contemporary far right in Italy. It won gold in both the Current Affairs and History categories at the New York Festivals TV & Film Awards. A companion book, “Fascismo in Famiglia”, was published in Italy in 2025. The corporate hosting work is the other half of her commercial profile. She has chaired and moderated for KPMG, Baker Hughes, Technogym, the Interactive Advertising Bureau, Poste Italiane and ENEL, alongside presenting the Royal Television Society’s TV Journalism Awards. The discipline transfers directly from live news: holding senior figures on the question, and reading the room fast enough to fix it when something is going wrong on stage. Key speaking topics Conference hosting and live moderation Industry awards ceremonies and set-piece corporate events European political affairs and contemporary populism The legacy of fascism in modern Italian politics Second-language English in international business Cross-cultural communication in multilingual leadership International current affairs and live news analysis Ideal for Heads of corporate affairs and investor relations planning flagship convenings where the chair carries the event Multinational corporates with Italian or wider European leadership, where senior conversations move regularly between English and Italian Industry awards and high-stakes set-piece events where the host needs to handle live ad-libbing and recover quickly when something goes wrong on stage Boards and leadership teams hosting external speakers on European political risk and contemporary populism Audience outcomes A sharper read of contemporary European political affairs, particularly the populist current, from a serving prime-time news anchor A specific account of how Italy’s fascist past keeps shaping its present politics, drawn from her documentary and book An honest analysis of how the dominance of English in international business narrows whose perspectives get heard, and what that means for multilingual leadership teams