Risk Management

Why organisations work with Nell Watson She works at the technical standards layer. As Vice Chair of IEEE P7001 on Transparency of Autonomous Systems, she helps leaders understand what credible AI governance actually contains, not what it sounds like. She runs the policy interface in Europe. As President of the European Responsible AI Office (EURAIO), she has direct sightlines into how regulation will land on regulated industries. Her book Taming the Machine (Kogan Page) won Choice Reviews Outstanding Academic Title in 2025 and the Goody Business Book Award in 2024, giving boards a credible reference document, not a popular-press summary. She has built original research that names AI failure modes. Her Psychopathia Machinalis taxonomy gives executives a vocabulary for the behavioural risks of agentic AI systems before those risks become incidents. She translates between engineers and the C-suite. Her Singularity University faculty role and prior work founding a venture-backed machine-learning company mean she speaks both sides of the room. Biography highlights Author of Taming the Machine: Ethically Harness the Power of AI (Kogan Page, 2024). Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2025. Goody Business Book Award 2024. President and Chair of the Supervisory Board, European Responsible AI Office (EURAIO). Vice Chair, IEEE P7001 Transparency of Autonomous Systems; Chair, IEEE ECPAIS Transparency Experts Focus Group. Associate Faculty (AI and Robotics) and Fellow for Ethics, Singularity University. Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council. Senior Scientific Advisor, Harvard Kennedy School’s Future Society AI Initiative. Founder of Poikos (now QuantaCorp), a machine-learning body-measurement company. Co-founder of EthicsNet and OpenEth. Biography The substance of AI governance lives in technical standards, not in mission statements. The IEEE 7001 standard on transparency for autonomous systems sets out measurable, testable levels of explainability; Nell Watson sits as Vice Chair of that working group. That is the layer where boards either earn defensible AI decisions or do not. She also runs the policy interface. As President of the European Responsible AI Office (EURAIO), she advises organisations on how to operate AI for outcomes that hold up under EU regulation. Few speakers carry both the standards seat and the policy seat at the same time. Most carry one or the other, or neither. Her 2024 book Taming the Machine (Kogan Page) became a reference text quickly, winning Choice Reviews Outstanding Academic Title in 2025 and the Goody Business Book Award in 2024. Alongside it she developed Psychopathia Machinalis, a diagnostic taxonomy for the behavioural failure modes of agentic AI. The taxonomy gives executive teams something they usually lack: vocabulary for what can go wrong inside an AI system before it goes wrong publicly. She is also an operator. She founded Poikos, a machine-learning body-measurement company now trading as QuantaCorp, and teaches AI and Robotics on the Singularity University faculty. The result for an audience is a speaker who can sit between the engineers writing the code and the directors signing off the risk register, and translate without losing precision. Key speaking topics AI ethics and responsible AI governance Transparency and auditability in autonomous systems EU AI Act and the regulatory operating environment Agentic AI risk and behavioural failure modes AI safety and alignment for executive audiences Machine intelligence and the future of work Standards and policy in emerging technology Ideal for Boards and audit committees taking on AI oversight responsibilities Chief Risk, Compliance, and Legal officers in regulated industries CIO, CTO, and Chief AI Officer functions setting governance frameworks Public sector leaders preparing for EU AI Act enforcement Audience outcomes A clear map of where AI governance is being decided, from IEEE standards work to the EU AI Act, and what each layer requires of the organisation. A working vocabulary for agentic AI failure modes, drawn from her Psychopathia Machinalis taxonomy. A direct view of how regulators and standards bodies are framing transparency, bias, and accountability. A sharper sense of which AI investments will survive external scrutiny and which will not.

Why organisations work with Dee Caffari The westabout solo circumnavigation of 2006, 178 days against prevailing winds and currents and completed by only six men in history, gives Caffari a standing in the territory of sustained solo leadership under real pressure that no training environment can replicate and no other speaker in this space can match. As skipper of Turn the Tide on Plastic in the Volvo Ocean Race 2017/18, she led the first mixed-gender, youth-focused international crew formed in partnership with the UN Environment Programme, delivering competitive performance and a global environmental mandate simultaneously. She has direct, tested experience of building high-performance diverse teams when the stakes are visible and the scrutiny is real. Her autobiography “Against the Flow” (Adlard Coles Nautical), published in 2007 and translated into French, Italian, and German, documents the mental framework she developed across her record-setting voyages, evidence that the leadership disciplines she draws from offshore sailing translate across cultural and organisational contexts. As Vice Chair of World Sailing’s Oceanic and Offshore Committee, and previously inaugural Chair of the World Sailing Trust and a decade-long member of the RNLI Operations Committee, she connects frontline leadership experience in extreme environments to the governance and institutional accountability that senior audiences recognise. She has spoken to executive audiences at organisations including Sky, London Business School, Aviva, Citywire, Oracle, and Barry Callebaut, with client evaluation scores consistently at 9/10 and above across independent post-event surveys. Biography highlights Only woman to sail solo, non-stop around the world westabout, against prevailing winds and currents, completing the voyage in 178 days in 2006 and setting a world record Only woman to complete solo, non-stop circumnavigations in both directions; finished 6th from 30 starters in the Vendée Globe 2008/09, known in sailing as the Everest of the seas Only woman to have sailed non-stop around the world four times; seven circumnavigations in total, most recently as co-skipper of The Famous Project, the first all-female crew to complete a non-stop circumnavigation, in January 2026 Skipper, Turn the Tide on Plastic, Volvo Ocean Race 2017/18, mixed-gender, youth-focused international crew formed in partnership with the UN Environment Programme’s Clean Seas campaign MBE, 2007 Birthday Honours, for services to sailing; Honorary Commander RNR (Royal Naval Reserve), appointed September 2011; inaugural Chair, World Sailing Trust (2018 to 2024); ten-year member of the RNLI Operations Committee; Vice Chair, Oceanic and Offshore Committee, World Sailing Autobiography “Against the Flow” (Adlard Coles Nautical, 2007), translated into French, Italian, and German; shortlisted, World Sailing Rolex World Sailor of the Year, 2006 and 2011 Biography Solo decision-making in genuinely hostile conditions, without consultation and without the option to pause, is the environment in which Dee Caffari MBE built her leadership record. She has circumnavigated the globe seven times, including four solo or co-skippered non-stop voyages. No other woman has done this. Few people in history have. The westabout circumnavigation of 2006, completed in 178 days against prevailing winds and currents, set a world record and earned her an MBE. She returned to solo racing in the Vendée Globe (2008/09), finishing 6th from 30 starters in a race the sailing world calls the Everest of the seas. That finish confirmed that the judgment and resilience she had built were not situational; they held across different modes of pressure, different time horizons, and different conditions. The team dimension of her leadership is equally tested. As skipper of Turn the Tide on Plastic in the Volvo Ocean Race 2017/18, she led a mixed-gender, youth-focused international crew in partnership with the UN Environment Programme. Managing competitive performance alongside a global environmental mandate, under sustained media and competitive scrutiny, required the same disciplines she had practised in isolation: clear decision-making, built trust, and accountability that did not depend on favourable conditions. In January 2026, as co-skipper of The Famous Project, she completed the first all-female non-stop circumnavigation of the globe aboard IDEC Sport. Her autobiography “Against the Flow” (Adlard Coles Nautical), translated into French, Italian, and German, captures the mental framework developed across these voyages. She served as inaugural Chair of the World Sailing Trust from 2018 to 2024 and now sits as Vice Chair of World Sailing’s Oceanic and Offshore Committee. Combined with a decade on the RNLI Operations Committee, those roles extend her experience of leadership from the individual to the institutional. She has addressed senior audiences at Sky, London Business School, Aviva, Citywire, and Barry Callebaut, drawing on experience that executive development programmes rarely put under conditions close to the real thing. Key speaking topics Leadership under extreme and sustained pressure High-performance team-building in hostile environments Resilience and mental endurance Risk assessment and decision-making under uncertainty Diversity, inclusion, and mixed-team performance Ocean sustainability and purpose-driven leadership Goal-setting and long-horizon execution Ideal for Senior leadership teams and C-suite audiences preparing for high-stakes or high-change environments CHROs and people directors focused on resilience, team accountability, and diversity in performance Boards and executive committees where sustainability, governance, and leadership credibility intersect Transformation leads and global teams navigating extended pressure or organisational uncertainty Audience outcomes A concrete framework for maintaining clarity and decision-making quality when conditions deteriorate and information is incomplete Practical understanding of how trust and accountability function in diverse, high-pressure teams – and what breaks them Perspective on the relationship between preparation, mental endurance, and sustained performance over long time horizons Insight into leading teams whose purpose extends beyond competitive performance to a broader organisational or environmental mission A personally compelling reference point for resilience that bypasses generic advice and is grounded in verifiable, extreme-condition experience

Why organisations work with Dambisa Moyo Few macroeconomists hold simultaneous directorships at companies of the scale of Chevron, Starbucks, and Condé Nast. From that seat she has spent two decades answering the question now on every board’s table: where the next dollar goes when the old growth assumptions stop working. Her four New York Times bestsellers gave decision-makers a vocabulary for the questions that now dominate board agendas: aid dependency, the West’s structural decline, China’s resource strategy, the failure of democratic capitalism to deliver growth, and how boards themselves should function. As Chair of the Economic Club of New York, she convenes the forum where Fed chairs, heads of state, and Fortune 500 CEOs publicly debate the economy. That puts her at the centre of the conversations her clients are trying to anticipate. She is a serving member of the House of Lords as Baroness Moyo of Knightsbridge, which gives her a working line of sight into how policy, regulation, and geopolitics actually move. Her training is unusually broad for a public macro voice: a DPhil in Economics from Oxford, an MPA from Harvard Kennedy, plus eight years inside Goldman Sachs research. Audiences get a practitioner, not a commentator. Biography highlights DPhil in Economics, St Antony’s College, Oxford; MPA, Harvard Kennedy School Eight years at Goldman Sachs in research; two years at the World Bank Chair of the Economic Club of New York; current board director at Chevron, Condé Nast, and Starbucks; member of the Oxford University Endowment Investment Committee; trustee of the National Geographic Society Prior public-company boards include Barclays, SABMiller, Barrick Gold, 3M, and Seagate Technology Life peer in the United Kingdom House of Lords as Baroness Moyo of Knightsbridge (created 2022) Author of Dead Aid, How the West Was Lost, Winner Take All, Edge of Chaos, and How Boards Work; recipient of the Hayek Lifetime Achievement Award (2013) and TIME 100 (2009) Biography The argument that ran through forty years of cheap goods, cheap money and integrated supply chains has stopped working. Capital allocators now have to price geopolitics into every decision, and most of the management vocabulary they grew up with was built for a different world. Dambisa Moyo’s career has been spent on exactly this fault line. Her first book, Dead Aid, took on the development consensus and argued that aid dependency was choking African growth. How the West Was Lost and Winner Take All extended the argument into the structural decline of advanced economies and China’s strategic accumulation of commodities. Edge of Chaos asked whether liberal democracies can still deliver economic growth at all. The books are not adjacent to her speaking; they are the speaking. The credentials behind the argument are unusual. A DPhil in Economics from Oxford and an MPA from Harvard Kennedy, eight years inside Goldman Sachs research, simultaneous directorships at Chevron, Condé Nast, and Starbucks, a seat in the House of Lords as Baroness Moyo of Knightsbridge, and, since 2026, the chair of the Economic Club of New York. The combination is rare because it spans rooms that usually do not talk to each other: the academy, the trading floor, the boardroom, and the forum where they meet in public. What makes her useful in a leadership setting is that she has had to act on her own analysis. The question of how to allocate capital across China exposure, energy transition timelines and political risk is not a thought experiment for her; it is the agenda of the boards she sits on. How Boards Work, her most recent book, was written from that seat. Key speaking topics Global macroeconomics and capital allocation Geopolitics and the future of globalisation China and the contest for resources Democracy, governance and economic growth Energy transition and the cost of capital Corporate governance and how boards should function Emerging markets and frontier investment Ideal for Boards and investment committees pricing geopolitical and macro risk into capital decisions CEOs, CFOs and Chief Strategy Officers reassessing China exposure, supply chain footprint and growth assumptions Asset managers, family offices and institutional investors setting long-horizon allocation strategy Senior leadership offsites where the economic and geopolitical context for the next plan is the agenda Audience outcomes A clearer reading of how geopolitical fracture, sanctions regimes and energy transition are reshaping the cost of capital A defensible view on China’s resource strategy and what it implies for Western corporates and investors A working framework for how boards should govern in a more politicised, slower-growth global economy Confidence to challenge consensus assumptions about globalisation, growth and aid that no longer hold

Why organisations work with Daisy McAndrew She has chaired panels, awards and leadership forums for clients including Samsung, HPE and ABTA, and returns to the same rooms because she reads a stage the way a lobby journalist reads a division lobby. Thirty years inside Westminster, first as a Commons researcher and Liberal Democrat press secretary, then as a BBC and ITV News political and economics correspondent, gives her a working map of how UK policy actually gets made. She can interview a chief executive, a cabinet minister or a customer keynote without a script change, which matters when a board-level event pivots on the day. She combines a broadcaster’s discipline about time and tone with the subject authority of a former national Economics Editor, so she can run a technical panel on rates, trade or regulation without deferring to the panellists. NBC News retains her as Royal Commentator, which signals that US networks trust her on camera at short notice under live political conditions. Biography highlights Former Chief Political Correspondent, Economics Editor and Special Correspondent, ITV News (2005 to 2012). Former co-presenter, BBC Daily Politics, alongside Andrew Neil, and presenter of Yesterday in Parliament, BBC Radio 4. Former Press Secretary to Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy. Former Editor of The House Magazine, Westminster’s weekly parliamentary publication. Royal Commentator for NBC News, United States. Former Vice-Chair, Internews Europe, the international media-development charity. Biography Westminster is not a neutral place to report from. Understanding how a tax change, a whip’s decision or a regulatory signal translates into a market move takes years of standing in the same corridors as the people making those calls. That is the ground Daisy McAndrew has covered for three decades. She began in the House of Commons as an MP’s researcher at nineteen, edited The House Magazine in the mid-1990s, and was Press Secretary to Charles Kennedy when he led the Liberal Democrats. Moving to broadcasting, she co-presented BBC’s Daily Politics with Andrew Neil before ITV News hired her as Chief Political Correspondent in 2005, then promoted her to Economics Editor in 2008. She reported the credit crunch and the subsequent recession from across the UK, and filed extended pieces on the French and German economies. She left ITV as its most senior female reporter. Her corporate work sits on the same foundation. She chairs conferences, moderates board-level panels, and hosts awards for clients including Samsung, HPE and ABTA, and is rebooked for the reason senior buyers rebook anyone: she runs the room. An executive chair can hand her a late script change, a difficult CEO, or a technical panel on trade or monetary policy and trust the output. She is NBC News’s Royal Commentator in the United States, was Vice-Chair of the Internews Europe trustee board until June 2023, and edited The Politics Companion for Chrysalis Books. Key speaking topics UK politics and government UK economic policy and the business environment Political risk for corporate and investor audiences Media, political communication and the British press The British Royal Family and soft-power coverage Conference hosting, panel moderation and awards chairing Ideal for Boards, investor conferences and CEO forums wanting a UK political and economic read they can act on CCOs, heads of public affairs and government relations teams briefing leadership on policy exposure Industry trade bodies and regulated-sector conferences needing a chair who can handle ministers, executives and journalists on the same stage Internal leadership summits and awards where the host must carry scripted and unscripted segments with equal authority Audience outcomes A clearer read on which Westminster and Whitehall developments actually change commercial conditions, and which do not. A sharper sense of how political communication works from the inside, from lobby briefings to Downing Street signalling. On-stage interviews, panels and awards segments that land on time, on message and with the right tension held between speakers. Context on UK economic policy drawn from first-hand reporting on the credit crunch, recession recovery and successive fiscal cycles. A senior journalistic presence that steadies a room when the agenda, speaker line-up or news cycle shifts on the day.

Why organisations work with Cathy O’Dowd Her central argument that internal team dynamics, not the external environment, are the primary source of failure in high-performing groups, is drawn from specific, documented expeditions and maps directly onto the decisions senior leadership teams are already wrestling with. The 1996 South African Everest expedition provides one of the most detailed public case studies of a high-performing team collapsing through ego and power-play, then recovering to reach the summit. That arc of breakdown, diagnosis and recommitment is the substance of the work. Her participation in the 2012 Mazeno Ridge expedition on Nanga Parbat (a first ascent of a 10-kilometre ridgeline that had defeated ten previous international expeditions) provides a tested model for executing ambitious objectives when the plan meets an unpredictable environment and must adapt in real time. She makes a specific, counterintuitive claim: that most failures in extreme environments are self-created. This challenges how many organisations locate and manage risk, and gives leaders a different set of questions to ask of their own teams. As a Fellow of the Professional Speaking Association of UK/Ireland and recipient of its highest honour, the Professional Speaking Award of Excellence, she brings the structural rigour of a career speaker to content that has been tested in front of senior corporate audiences across 46+ countries. Biography highlights First woman to summit Everest from both its south (1996) and north (1999) sides – an unmatched record in mountaineering history First South African to summit Everest; member of the First South African Everest Expedition (1996) Fourth woman to climb Lhotse, the world’s fourth-highest mountain (2000) Participant in the 2012 Mazeno Ridge expedition on Nanga Parbat – a first ascent of one of the last major unclimbed lines on an 8,000-metre peak; the summit pair were awarded the 2013 Piolet d’Or Author of Just for the Love of It; co-author of Everest: Free to Decide Fellow of the Professional Speaking Association of UK/Ireland; recipient of the Professional Speaking Award of Excellence, the PSA’s highest honour Master’s degree in Journalism, Rhodes University; former university lecturer Professional speaker for 27+ years; presented to organisations in 46+ countries on six continents Biography Most teams of ambitious, capable people contain the seeds of their own failure. Not because the external environment defeats them, but because the competition between high-performers: the very drive that brought them to the room, erodes the collaboration they need to succeed. Cathy O’Dowd watched this happen in real time, at altitude, with lives in the balance. O’Dowd became the first woman to summit Everest from both its south and north sides, completing the south-side ascent in 1996 and returning for the north in 1999. What formed her thinking was not the summits but the crisis that preceded the first: the in-fighting, power-plays, and near-disintegration of a team that had every credential to succeed. Her analysis of that expedition: what broke, what was rebuilt, and how the team reached the top despite itself, is the foundation of her corporate work. Her second major case study is the 2012 Mazeno Ridge on Nanga Parbat, a 10-kilometre Himalayan ridgeline that had repelled ten previous international expeditions. The six-person team committed to a first ascent with no existing blueprint and had to adapt in real time as the plan met a complex, unforgiving environment. Two teammates completed the ascent and were awarded the 2013 Piolet d’Or, mountaineering’s most prestigious prize. O’Dowd uses this expedition as a model for executing ambitious objectives when certainty is unavailable and the original plan cannot hold. A Fellow of the Professional Speaking Association of UK/Ireland and recipient of its Professional Speaking Award of Excellence, she has presented in 46+ countries over 27 years. She holds a Master’s degree in Journalism from Rhodes University, where she also lectured. Her presentations are built not on inspiration but on diagnosis: specific, transferable analysis of why high-performing groups succeed and fail under pressure. Key speaking topics Decision-making under extreme pressure High-performance team dynamics Leadership in high-stakes environments Executing ambitious plans under uncertainty Resilience, failure, and recovery Risk, responsibility, and the limits of control Adapting strategy when execution meets reality Ideal for C-suite and senior leadership teams navigating high-stakes decisions under uncertainty Organisations running ambitious transformation, innovation, or change programmes Leadership conferences centred on team performance and organisational resilience Boards and executive committees examining risk, accountability, and decision-making frameworks Audience outcomes A specific diagnostic framework for understanding why high-performing teams fail from within, not from outside Practical analysis of how ego, competition, and communication breakdown manifest under pressure, and how to interrupt those patterns A case-study model for adapting ambitious plans when execution meets an unpredictable environment A reframed understanding of organisational risk: internal dynamics as a primary variable, not just external conditions Greater clarity on what leadership under genuine uncertainty looks and feels like, drawn from real decisions with irreversible consequences

Why organisations work with Araceli Segarra A first-hand account of the 1996 Everest disaster from inside the rescue effort, used as a case study in how teams hold together when conditions, command, and information all degrade at once. A career of high-altitude expeditions on K2, Kangchenjunga, Nanga Parbat, and Broad Peak, which gives her authority on prepared decision-making that almost no corporate speaker can claim. The first Spanish woman to summit Everest and to complete the Seven Summits, filmed for the IMAX Everest documentary, which gives the work cultural reach without leaning on celebrity framing. Sessions delivered in English, Spanish, or Catalan, useful for multinational leadership offsites where a single speaker needs to land across language groups. Biography highlights First Spanish woman to summit Mount Everest, 1996, on the expedition filmed for the IMAX documentary Everest by David Breashears. Member of the rescue team during the May 1996 Mount Everest disaster, the deadliest single event on the mountain at the time. Summits include K2, Kangchenjunga, Nanga Parbat, Broad Peak, Shishapangma, and a solo of Ama Dablam. Established new climbing routes in Oman, Iran, and Mali; technical climbs include El Capitan in Yosemite and Pomme d’Or in Canada. Author of Not That High and Not That Difficult, applying mountaineering decision frameworks to business, and the children’s series Los Viajes de Tina. Regular broadcast presenter on Catalan Radio and Barcelona’s Radio 1. Biography The 1996 Everest disaster killed eight climbers in a single afternoon. The IMAX expedition filming on the mountain that season included a climber called Araceli Segarra, who put down her oxygen and went into the rescue. She is credited with marking a helicopter landing zone with an X of red Kool-Aid powder, because at altitude the obvious solutions are usually the ones that work. That episode is the spine of the work she does with leadership teams. The substance is not the summit. It is what teams do when conditions collapse, when the chain of command is fragmented, and when the original plan is no longer a useful instruction set. She returns to the question of how a group of people who depend on each other under load make and revise decisions in real time. The technical record gives the argument weight. Segarra has climbed K2, Kangchenjunga, Nanga Parbat, and Broad Peak, soloed Ama Dablam, and opened new routes in Oman, Iran, and Mali. She is the first Spanish woman to summit Everest and to complete the Seven Summits. The credentials are not framing; they are the source of her position on preparation, role clarity, and the discipline of turning back. She has written Not That High and Not That Difficult, applying climbing decision frameworks to business, and a children’s book series, and she presents on Catalan Radio and Barcelona’s Radio 1. The leadership work draws on a body of named expeditions, a documented disaster, and a track record of technical climbing that almost no business speaker can match. Key speaking topics Decision-making under pressure and incomplete information Team behaviour when plans fail Leadership of small, high-dependency teams Risk assessment and the discipline of turning back Trust and shared responsibility in interdependent teams Resilience and composure under sustained pressure Expedition planning and execution Ideal for Executive leadership teams and boards entering restructure, crisis, or strategic reset Senior and operational leaders responsible for high-stakes, low-margin-for-error environments Leadership offsites focused on team performance and decision-making under pressure Organisations working to strengthen trust and accountability inside interdependent teams International conferences and offsites delivered in English, Spanish, or Catalan Audience outcomes A first-hand account of how a real team made decisions inside the 1996 Everest disaster, usable as a reference case for crisis behaviour Principles for risk assessment and the willingness to abandon a goal that is no longer survivable The behaviours that hold small interdependent teams together under load, and the ones that break them Sharper decision-making when information is incomplete and conditions are changing fast A renewed respect for the unglamorous preparation that decides whether a team holds when conditions degrade

Why organisations work with Amy Webb Webb’s foresight methodology is not scenario-planning by another name – it applies quantitative modelling to emerging signals, giving boards an evidential basis for long-horizon technology decisions that is defensible rather than intuitive. Her annual Tech Trends Report tracks more than 700 emerging technology and science trends and is downloaded more than one million times a year; few advisory practices produce intelligence infrastructure at comparable scale or breadth. The Big Nine named and defined the “G-MAFIA” framework – the six American and three Chinese corporations Webb argues hold structural control over AI’s trajectory. Audiences gain a durable analytical vocabulary for a problem most organisations are still describing in generic terms. Her advisory relationships with the White House, European Union, United Nations, and World Economic Forum are ongoing, not project-based – her understanding of how governments are approaching AI governance and technology risk is primary source, not aggregated. Her latest concept, “living intelligence” – the convergence of artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and advanced sensors into a single technology supercycle – gives senior leaders a framework for thinking beyond current AI strategy before the convergence forces reactive decisions. Biography highlights Founder and CEO, Future Today Strategy Group; ranked #3 most influential management thinker globally by Thinkers50 (2025) Adjunct Professor of Strategic Foresight, NYU Stern School of Business; Visiting Fellow, Oxford University’s Saïd Business School; former Nieman Fellow, Harvard University Author of The Big Nine (2019) – longlisted for the Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year, winner of the 2020 Gold Axiom Medal – and The Signals Are Talking (2016), winner of the Thinkers50 RADAR Award and 2017 Gold Axiom Medal The Genesis Machine (2022, co-authored with Andrew Hessel) named by The New Yorker as one of the year’s best nonfiction works; books translated into 23 languages Life member, Council on Foreign Relations; founding member, WEF Strategic Foresight Advisory Board; member, WEF Global Risks Board; AI Governance Alliance partner Contributor to Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review; TED Talk on algorithmic thinking viewed more than 8 million times, translated into 32 languages Biography The gap between sensing that a technology will reshape a sector and knowing when – and how – to act is where most long-range strategy breaks down. Amy Webb’s work is built around closing that gap. As founder and CEO of the Future Today Strategy Group, she pioneered a quantitative modelling approach to strategic foresight: one that applies the analytical rigour of economic forecasting to the identification of emerging technology signals, rather than relying on narrative scenarios or trend decks. Her books have given organisations specific frameworks for understanding the structural dynamics of technology change. The Big Nine named the six American and three Chinese corporations – the “G-MAFIA” and BAT – that Webb argues hold disproportionate control over AI’s development, and traced the geopolitical and commercial consequences of that concentration. The Genesis Machine, co-authored with biotechnologist Andrew Hessel, examined the organisational and governance implications of synthetic biology before the technology entered mainstream strategy conversations. Both were recognised externally: The Big Nine was longlisted for the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year; The Genesis Machine was named by The New Yorker as one of the year’s best nonfiction works. Her access to the rooms where technology governance is being decided is direct and ongoing. As an advisor to the White House, European Union, and United Nations, and as a founding member of the World Economic Forum’s Strategic Foresight Advisory Board, Webb’s work informs global technology policy – not as periodic input but as sustained engagement. Her annual Tech Trends Report, tracking more than 700 emerging technology and science developments, is downloaded more than one million times a year. Ranked third on Thinkers50’s 2025 list of the world’s most influential management thinkers, Webb teaches strategic foresight at NYU Stern’s MBA programme and holds a visiting fellowship at Oxford’s Saïd Business School. Her current framework, “living intelligence” – the convergence of artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and advanced sensors – maps the technology supercycle she argues is already underway. For organisations whose long-range strategy begins and ends with AI, it is a substantive challenge to the scope of their thinking. Key speaking topics Quantitative strategic foresight Artificial intelligence and the global technology power landscape Living intelligence: AI, biotechnology, and advanced sensors Technology supercycles and long-horizon planning Geopolitics of emerging technology Futures methodology and organisational decision-making Synthetic biology and the next frontier of disruption Ideal for C-suite and boards developing long-range technology and competitive strategy Chief Strategy Officers and innovation leads rethinking their approach to uncertainty and futures planning Government, regulatory, and policy audiences responsible for technology governance Risk, investment, and scenario-planning teams assessing the strategic implications of AI and converging technologies Audience outcomes A clear analytical method for distinguishing which emerging technology signals warrant a strategic response – and which represent noise Understanding of the “living intelligence” framework and why the convergence of AI, biotechnology, and advanced sensors represents a broader challenge than current AI strategy typically accounts for A structural vocabulary for the global AI power landscape – particularly the dynamics between major US and Chinese technology actors – that simplifies a complex geopolitical issue for non-specialist leaders Familiarity with the Tech Trends methodology: how to scan, filter, and prioritise signals across a large and rapidly evolving technology landscape Practical frameworks for building a long-horizon foresight capability internally, rather than depending on periodic external consultancy

Why organisations work with Alice Beer Her investigative background on Watchdog gives organisations a rare outside-in account of how consumer-facing practices look to a sceptical, informed journalist – a perspective no internal audit can replicate. Her reporting on household white goods safety contributed directly to product recalls and raised the issues in parliamentary debate; she can show organisations concretely how consumer issues escalate when companies fail to respond. She works as a consultant with major high street brands on consumer fairness – meaning she understands the brand side of the relationship as well as the investigative side, and can identify where practice diverges from expectation. As Consumer Editor on This Morning since 2014, she explains product safety, household finance, and fair trading to millions of mainstream viewers weekly – a skill directly relevant to organisations that need to communicate clearly on difficult consumer topics in the public domain. She contributes to Good Morning Britain, Sky News, and national newspapers including the Daily Mail, Sunday Express, and Sunday Mirror – giving her a current, working understanding of how consumer stories are selected, framed, and amplified by the media. Biography highlights Co-presenter, BBC One’s Watchdog, alongside Anne Robinson – seven years of undercover consumer investigations, 1992–1999 Consumer Editor, ITV’s This Morning, from 2014 to the present day Regular contributor, ITV’s Good Morning Britain and Sky News Guest columnist, Daily Mail, Sunday Express, and Sunday Mirror Presenter: BBC series Healthcheck, Face Value, Holiday, The Heaven and Earth Show, and financial quiz Show Me the Money; Channel 5’s Hot Property; LBC Breakfast Radio Show Co-author, A Contented House with Twins (with Gina Ford), published by Random House Reporting on household white goods safety prompted product recalls and raised the issues in parliamentary debate Biography When a consumer investigation lands on a brand, the question is rarely whether the organisation broke the law. It is whether it treated customers fairly – and whether it understood the difference. For more than three decades, Alice Beer has investigated that distinction on national television. On BBC One’s Watchdog from 1992 to 1999, Beer co-presented alongside Anne Robinson, taking undercover reporting briefs that exposed major industries for the way they handled consumer complaints. Her investigations into household white goods safety contributed to product recalls and raised the issues in parliamentary debate. That is not commentary; it is consequence. Since 2014, Beer has been Consumer Editor on ITV’s This Morning, regularly explaining product safety, household finance, identity theft, and fair trading to millions of viewers. She contributes to Good Morning Britain and Sky News, and has written for the Daily Mail, Sunday Express, and Sunday Mirror. Her ability to translate regulatory complexity into plain, actionable language is a professional skill built across decades of public-facing journalism. Beyond broadcasting, she works as a consultant with major high street brands – helping them align their consumer-facing practices with what customers actually experience, rather than what boardrooms assume. Organisations that engage her gain a perspective built on three decades of examining the same gap from the other side of the camera. Key speaking topics Consumer rights and fair trading Brand accountability and public trust Product safety and regulatory compliance Household finance and personal financial protection Investigative journalism and how consumer stories are built Consumer communication and media-facing risk The brand–consumer relationship in a transparent marketplace Ideal for Senior marketing, brand, and customer experience leaders at consumer-facing organisations Legal, compliance, and product safety teams in retail, financial services, and utilities Communications and PR directors managing consumer-facing brand reputation Retail, financial services, and consumer goods sector conferences Audience outcomes A clearer understanding of how consumer issues are investigated and why certain organisational behaviours attract journalistic scrutiny Sharper awareness of the gap between a brand’s self-perception and how it is experienced by consumers Practical insight into the product safety and fair trading obligations that most frequently generate complaints and escalate into public attention A working sense of how to communicate with consumers on complex financial and product issues in ways that build rather than erode trust Concrete examples of how the media selects and frames consumer stories – and what organisations can do before a story reaches broadcast

Why organisations work with Alexandra Cousteau Oceans2050, which she co-founded and leads as President, published the first peer-reviewed global assessment of seaweed carbon sequestration in Nature Climate Change (2025) – giving her ocean restoration arguments a scientific grounding most sustainability voices cannot match. She reframes water security as a material business risk rather than a reputational issue, mapping how freshwater and ocean health are embedded in supply chains, food production, and coastal infrastructure in ways that affect operations, procurement, and investor disclosure. She has testified before the U.S. Congress on water policy and maintains direct relationships with heads of state and senior policy makers, giving organisations a credible connection point at the intersection of science, advocacy, and government decision-making. She pioneered real-time expedition storytelling on social media before it was standard practice – in 2010 she led National Geographic’s first interactive expedition, a five-month journey across North America – making her one of few climate voices who has demonstrably mobilised both institutional and popular attention at scale. As architect of the Blue Cities Alliance through Oceans2050, she connects organisations to a growing network of coastal city governments taking measurable action on ocean restoration, relevant to companies seeking credible local partnerships for their nature-based ESG commitments. Biography highlights Co-founder and President, Oceans2050 – lead organisation behind the first peer-reviewed global study of seaweed carbon sequestration, published in Nature Climate Change (2025), with research funding from WWF and the Bezos Earth Fund National Geographic Emerging Explorer (2008); World Economic Forum Young Global Leader (2010) Co-founder, EarthEcho International – youth environmental education organisation reaching more than 2 million people in 146 countries Founder, Blue Legacy International (2008) – produced 100+ award-winning short films on water issues, with expeditions across six continents Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Georgetown University (2016); BA in Political Science (International Relations), Georgetown University Senior Advisor, Oceana; CNN Principle Voices contributor (2008); UN Earth Trustee; U.S. Congress water policy witness Biography The ocean absorbs roughly a quarter of all carbon emitted since industrialisation, yet it remains largely absent from corporate ESG strategy. Alexandra Cousteau, co-founder of Oceans2050 and granddaughter of the legendary oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau, has spent two decades building the scientific infrastructure to address that gap. The Oceans2050 study published in Nature Climate Change in 2025 was the first peer-reviewed global assessment of carbon burial beneath seaweed farms, demonstrating sequestration rates comparable to mangroves and seagrasses and establishing the scientific foundation for a new blue carbon market. Cousteau’s consistent argument, advanced across her work with EarthEcho International, Blue Legacy, and Oceans2050, is that water security is not a separate environmental concern but a material business risk embedded in every supply chain, food system, and coastal community. This is grounded in fieldwork across six continents, peer-reviewed science, and direct engagement with heads of state, NGOs, and senior policy makers. She has testified before the U.S. Congress on water policy and served for years as Senior Advisor to Oceana on ocean conservation and governance campaigns. Her credentials span the academic and the field-based. She holds a degree in International Relations from Georgetown University and received an honorary doctorate from the same institution in 2016. National Geographic named her an Emerging Explorer in 2008; the World Economic Forum recognised her as a Young Global Leader in 2010. She co-founded EarthEcho International, now reaching more than 2 million young people in 146 countries, and established Blue Legacy International in 2008, producing over 100 award-winning films on freshwater and ocean issues. The case she makes to organisations is specific: ocean restoration is market infrastructure. As architect of the Blue Cities Alliance and the Oceans2050 seaweed carbon project, she is building the verified frameworks that enable corporate investment in blue carbon at scale. Boards evaluating ESG commitments increasingly need to distinguish credible ocean science from reputational positioning. Cousteau provides that distinction with the rigour to back it up. Key speaking topics Ocean restoration and blue carbon markets Water security as material business risk ESG strategy and nature-based climate solutions Blue economy and sustainable aquaculture Science-based storytelling and public engagement Long-term environmental thinking and intergenerational leadership Ocean policy and governance Ideal for Chief Sustainability Officers and ESG leadership teams evaluating nature-based and ocean-based climate commitments Corporate boards and senior executives with water or coastal supply chain exposure in their risk frameworks Policy forums, international summits, and governmental bodies focused on ocean governance, climate action, and blue economy development Investment and financial audiences engaging with emerging blue carbon and voluntary carbon market opportunities Audience outcomes A clearer framework for distinguishing science-backed ocean and water climate solutions from greenwashing, directly applicable to ESG due diligence and investor reporting A systems-level understanding of how water security – from freshwater access to ocean health – connects to supply chain risk, food production, and community resilience Awareness of blue carbon markets as an emerging investment and risk management tool, including the peer-reviewed science behind seaweed farming as a carbon sequestration mechanism A reframing of ocean ESG commitments from reputation management to material strategic risk, with evidence-based criteria for evaluating corporate action Practical insight into what responsible, evidence-based corporate engagement with ocean conservation looks like, drawn from Oceans2050’s work with WWF, the Bezos Earth Fund, and global seaweed farming communities

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 Ymir Vigfusson He is a tenured computer scientist at Emory and a practising offensive-security entrepreneur, with three founded companies and two acquisitions. Boards rarely get both registers from the same speaker. His TEDxReykjavik talk on teaching people how to hack has passed 1.8 million views, which means executives often arrive already primed by his argument and ready to engage at depth. Keystrike, his third company, was built specifically for the problem of secure remote access when the user’s machine is already compromised. He has commercial scar tissue on the exact threat model most enterprises now face. He holds an NSF CAREER award for fundamental work on caching and distributed systems, so the technical authority extends well beyond cybersecurity into the infrastructure layer that AI workloads depend on. His guest-researcher role at the CDC, applied to disease-outbreak surveillance, gives him a working analogy for how organisations should model contagion and propagation inside their own networks. Biography highlights PhD in Computer Science, Cornell University; BSc in Mathematics, University of Iceland. Associate Professor at Emory University and director of the SimBioSys lab. NSF CAREER award recipient for the “Rethinking the Cache Abstraction” project. Co-founder of Syndis (acquired by Origo, 2021), Adversary (acquired by Secure Code Warrior, 2020) and Keystrike (current CTO). TEDxReykjavik talk “Why I teach people how to hack” with more than 1.8 million views. Guest researcher at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, applying network science to outbreak surveillance. Biography The cybersecurity industry has a translation problem. Attackers reason in workflows; defenders reason in compliance frameworks. Most senior leaders only hear the second language, which is why most security investment is shaped by audit logic rather than by how an adversary actually moves through a system. Ymir Vigfusson works in both languages. He is Associate Professor of Computer Science at Emory University and director of the SimBioSys lab, where his NSF CAREER-funded research on caching and distributed systems has produced papers at USENIX ATC, VLDB and EuroSys. The same researcher co-founded Syndis, the de facto cybersecurity firm in Iceland (acquired by Origo in 2021), the hacker-training platform Adversary (acquired by Secure Code Warrior in 2020), and Keystrike, where he is now CTO and which won Emory’s Innovation of the Year for a product that secures remote access even when the endpoint is compromised. That dual track shapes how he speaks to leadership audiences. His TEDxReykjavik talk, “Why I teach people how to hack,” has been viewed more than 1.8 million times and lays out the argument that an organisation cannot defend itself against an attacker mindset it refuses to study. He brings the same logic into board conversations: walk through how an adversary would actually compromise this organisation, then decide what to fund. A guest-researcher post at the CDC, where he applies network-science methods to outbreak surveillance, gives him a working model for how threats propagate inside any complex network. The practical result for leadership audiences is a clearer picture of where their actual attack surface sits and which defensive habits change the outcome. Key speaking topics Cybersecurity as a board-level risk The hacker mindset as a defensive capability Secure remote access and the compromised endpoint Distributed systems and the infrastructure layer beneath AI Network science applied to threat propagation Cybersecurity education and the future security workforce Ideal for Boards, audit committees and CISOs commissioning a sharper view of attacker behaviour Chief technology and chief information officers planning resilience investment Banking, healthcare and critical-infrastructure leadership teams with high-value endpoints Innovation and R&D leaders integrating security into AI and cloud roadmaps Audience outcomes A working model for how adversaries actually move through an enterprise network A sharper line between security spend that changes attacker behaviour and spend that satisfies audit A vocabulary for discussing cyber risk with non-technical board members A view of where computational epidemiology and network science inform threat modelling

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