Risk Management

Why organisations work with Luke Johnson He has built, bought and sold more well-known British consumer brands than almost any other operator of his generation, including PizzaExpress, Strada, The Ivy, Giraffe, Patisserie Valerie and Gail’s, which gives any commercial audience an unusually direct reference point. He runs his own private equity firm, Risk Capital Partners, and continues to chair operating businesses, so the perspective is current investor and chairman, not retired founder. He has written a weekly national-press column on entrepreneurship for more than twenty years across the Financial Times, The Sunday Times and the Sunday Telegraph, which means audiences get arguments that have been tested in print, not improvised on stage. He is willing to talk publicly about the collapse of Patisserie Valerie, the fraud that triggered it, and what a chairman missed, which is rare candour from a figure still active in private equity. His chairmanship of Channel 4, the Royal Society of Arts and the Institute of Cancer Research gives him a board-level vocabulary that translates well for non-executives, charity trustees and public sector audiences. Biography highlights Chairman of PizzaExpress from 1993 to 1999, growing the chain from 12 to over 150 restaurants and the share price from 40p to over 900p. Founder and chairman of Risk Capital Partners, a London private equity firm operating since 2001. Chairman of Channel 4 Television Corporation, 2004 to 2010. Founder of Signature Restaurants (The Ivy, Le Caprice, J. Sheekey, Belgo) and the Strada chain; investor in Giraffe, Gail’s, Brighton Pier Group and Patisserie Holdings. Author of “Start It Up: Why Running Your Own Business Is Easier Than You Think” (Penguin, 2011) and weekly columnist for the Financial Times (2007 to 2015) and The Sunday Times (2015 to 2021). Co-founder and chairman of the Centre for Entrepreneurs; former chairman of the Royal Society of Arts, StartUp Britain and the Institute of Cancer Research; honorary degrees from Heriot-Watt, Bath, UWE and the University of West London. Biography PizzaExpress had twelve restaurants and a 40p share price when Luke Johnson and Hugh Osmond took control in 1993. By the time Johnson left as chairman in 1999, the chain had passed 150 sites and the share price had cleared 900p. That single deal still anchors his commercial reputation, but it sits inside a longer pattern. He founded Signature Restaurants, which owned The Ivy, J. Sheekey, Le Caprice and Belgo. He built Strada from scratch to thirty sites. Risk Capital Partners, the private equity firm he has run since 2001, has backed Giraffe, Gail’s, Brighton Pier Group, Patisserie Holdings and a long list of mid-market operators. The picture is not uniformly positive, and that is part of why senior audiences listen. Patisserie Holdings, where he was chairman and largest shareholder, collapsed in October 2018 after the discovery of significant accounting fraud. He has written and spoken about the experience in detail, including what a non-executive chair can and cannot see from the board. Alongside the deals, Johnson has built an unusually durable second career as a writer. He wrote weekly for the Sunday Telegraph from 1998, for the Financial Times from 2007, and for The Sunday Times until 2021. The work covers founders, capital, markets, management and failure, and it is consistently specific. His 2011 book “Start It Up”, published by Penguin, sets out the operator’s view of starting and running a small business without the usual founder mythology. Public roles round out the picture. He chaired Channel 4 Television for six years, the Royal Society of Arts for three, the Institute of Cancer Research for eight, and co-founded the Centre for Entrepreneurs to make the case for British founders in public policy. Four British universities, Heriot-Watt, Bath, the University of the West of England and the University of West London, have awarded him honorary degrees on the strength of that combined record. Key speaking topics Entrepreneurship and the realities of starting a business Private equity and growth-stage investment Consumer, hospitality and retail strategy Scale-up leadership and board governance Lessons from corporate failure and fraud The economics of small and medium-sized business Chairmanship of listed and charitable organisations Ideal for Founders, CEOs and senior teams in consumer, hospitality, retail and service businesses Private equity, venture and growth-stage investor audiences Boards and non-executive directors of listed and private companies Industry conferences and member organisations focused on entrepreneurship and SME growth Audience outcomes A franker view of why scale-ups stall than most growth literature offers, drawn from named deals on both sides of the outcome. A working understanding of how private equity actually evaluates and backs consumer businesses, from a practitioner who still writes the cheques. A clearer sense of what a board chair owes a company under stress, informed by the Patisserie Valerie collapse and other live cases. Concrete prompts for founders on capital, hiring, controls and exit, anchored in three decades of operator experience.

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

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

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

Why organisations work with Justin Hughes His BETTUR (Better Understanding of Reality) model gives teams a structured, named framework for planning, executing, and adapting under conditions of ambiguity and pressure – one tested in military aviation and refined across corporate and public sector organisations on multiple continents. The Business of Excellence (Bloomsbury, 2016) advances a specific argument – that consistent high performance is a systems problem, built around people, capability, and delivery – giving his advisory work an intellectual foundation that separates it from standard high-performance keynote content. His advisory work spans genuinely diverse high-stakes environments: BP’s global safety operations programme, Mercedes Formula 1, the United Nations, and Microsoft – meaning the principles he applies have been stress-tested well beyond the military analogy. As current CEO of a biotech startup operating under real commercial pressure, he holds practitioner credibility that most speakers with a military or aviation background left behind long ago. His diagnostic starting point – that cognitive and motivational biases distort individual and team judgement under pressure in predictable, addressable ways – gives organisations a more honest and specific entry point than generic resilience or leadership development typically provides. Biography highlights Former RAF fighter pilot; served as Executive Officer of the Red Arrows, flying more than 250 displays across three international tours Founder of Mission Excellence, an organisational performance consultancy; strategic adviser to Microsoft, the United Nations, and Mercedes Formula 1 Regular contributor to BP’s global Leading in Operations programme Author of The Business of Excellence (Bloomsbury, 2016), a performance framework built around people, capability, and delivery; endorsed by Paddy Lowe, Executive Director of Mercedes Grand Prix Profiled in the Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Director Magazine, and the London Evening Standard; interviewed on BBC World Talking Business, BBC Breakfast, and GB News MBA with Distinction, London Business School; MSt with Distinction in International Relations, University of Cambridge Biography The Business of Excellence, published by Bloomsbury in 2016, makes a specific claim: consistent high performance is not a talent question. It is a question of systems, behaviours, and the decision-making habits that hold up when conditions deteriorate. Justin Hughes wrote that book after twelve years as an RAF fighter pilot and three as Executive Officer of the Red Arrows. Since leaving the RAF, Hughes has operated in the environments his book describes. As founder of Mission Excellence, he has advised Microsoft, the United Nations, and Mercedes Formula 1 on organisational effectiveness. He is also a regular contributor to BP’s global Leading in Operations programme – a safety-critical context where the gap between intended and actual decision-making carries serious consequences. The practical instrument of that advisory work is the BETTUR model – an acronym for Better Understanding of Reality. It gives organisations a structured approach to planning, executing, and adapting under ambiguity and pressure. The model addresses a specific failure mode: the cognitive and motivational biases that cause individual and team judgement to degrade when information is incomplete and stakes are high. Hughes holds an MBA with Distinction from London Business School and an MSt with Distinction in International Relations from the University of Cambridge. As CEO of NetZeroNitrogen, a biotech company developing alternatives to synthetic nitrogen fertiliser, he retains active operating responsibility alongside his advisory and speaking work. He has been profiled in the Daily Telegraph, The Independent, and Director Magazine, and interviewed on BBC World Talking Business and BBC Breakfast. Key speaking topics Leadership under pressure Decision-making in high-stakes environments High-performance team design Organisational effectiveness and execution Risk and cognitive bias in judgement Performance culture Strategic resilience Ideal for Senior leadership and executive teams building high-performance cultures in complex, high-reliability, or fast-changing organisations Operations, safety, and transformation leaders in sectors where the cost of poor judgement is high – energy, aerospace, financial services, and healthcare CHROs and L&D directors commissioning leadership development that goes beyond standard competency frameworks C-suite and board audiences addressing the gap between strategic intent and operational execution Audience outcomes A named framework – the BETTUR model – for planning, executing, and adapting under conditions of ambiguity, incomplete information, and time pressure A clearer diagnosis of why high-performance intentions break down under operational stress, and what structural factors – not individual failings – drive that gap Practical principles for building teams that maintain standards and accountability without relying on close supervision or ideal conditions A more rigorous understanding of how cognitive and motivational biases affect individual and team judgement, and what processes reduce their impact Directly applicable approaches to debrief discipline, decision protocols, and leadership behaviour in their own organisations

Why organisations work with Jonathon Porritt Three decades inside the rooms where government, business, and civil society negotiate climate policy, including nine years chairing the UK Sustainable Development Commission for three prime ministers. Co-founder of Forum for the Future, the consultancy that has worked with Marks & Spencer, Unilever, and other FTSE boards on serious sustainability strategy rather than reporting compliance. Author of Capitalism as if the World Matters, a book that argues capitalism is the only viable vehicle for sustainability and sets out what reshaping it actually demands; cited as a foundational text in corporate sustainability curricula. Independence from any single corporate paymaster; willingness to tell senior teams what their own sustainability advisors will not. A long view that connects climate, biodiversity, inequality, and population; useful for boards trying to understand how environmental risks compound across a strategic horizon. Biography highlights Co-founder and Founder Director of Forum for the Future (1996-2023), one of the world’s leading sustainability charities, with offices in the UK, US, India, and Southeast Asia. Chair of the UK Sustainable Development Commission, 2000-2009, advising the Blair and Brown governments on environmental policy. Director of Friends of the Earth (UK), 1984-1990; former Co-Chair of the UK Green Party. Co-founder of The Prince of Wales’s Business and Sustainability Programme, delivered through the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. Author of Hope in Hell (Simon & Schuster, 2020), The World We Made (Phaidon, 2013), and Capitalism as if the World Matters (Earthscan, 2005). CBE for services to environmental protection (2000); Chancellor of Keele University, 2012-2022. Biography The corporate climate agenda has run into its first credibility test. A decade of net-zero pledges, ESG reporting, and sustainability committees has not closed the gap between what boards say and what their capital plans deliver. Porritt has spent his working life inside that gap. He co-founded Forum for the Future in 1996 with Sara Parkin and Paul Ekins, and ran it as Founder Director for nearly thirty years. Forum has worked with Marks & Spencer, Unilever, and other FTSE-100 boards on the harder questions of business model change, not the softer ones of disclosure. Before that, he ran Friends of the Earth (UK) through the late 1980s and co-chaired the Green Party. For nine years he chaired the UK Sustainable Development Commission, advising Tony Blair and Gordon Brown directly. He also co-founded the Prince of Wales’s Business and Sustainability Programme, now part of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, where senior executives go to interrogate their own sustainability strategies. Few people have spent as much time on both sides of that table. His books map the argument. Capitalism as if the World Matters made the case that capitalism is the only viable engine for a sustainable future, and set out the reforms that case requires. The World We Made imagined 2050 as if those reforms had landed. Hope in Hell, written into the climate emergency, is sharper and more impatient. Read together, they explain why he is taken seriously by chief executives and climate activists alike, even when he is telling each of them something they would rather not hear. Key speaking topics Sustainability strategy and ESG governance Climate risk and the energy transition Reforming capitalism for environmental limits Net-zero credibility and corporate accountability Long-term scenario planning and systems change Biodiversity, nature, and business Intergenerational responsibility and the next decade Ideal for Board directors and CEOs reviewing the credibility of their net-zero and ESG commitments Chief Sustainability Officers and ESG leads building serious, board-ready strategy Investor relations and capital allocation teams under increasing scrutiny on transition planning Strategy and risk leaders trying to integrate climate and biodiversity into long-range planning Audience outcomes A clearer reading of where their own organisation’s climate strategy is exposed to investor, regulator, and employee scrutiny A working understanding of what credible, board-level sustainability looks like beyond reporting compliance A sharper sense of how climate, biodiversity, inequality, and capital allocation compound as connected risks Direct, unflattering challenge from someone with no commercial interest in their answer

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

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

Why organisations work with John McCarthy First-hand authority on sustained psychological endurance, not borrowed from research but from 1,943 days in captivity in Lebanon as Britain’s longest-held hostage. A journalist’s craft applied to his own story: he can articulate what most people who survive extreme experience cannot put into words for an audience. A specific lesson rooted in cellmate friendship with Brian Keenan: how two people sustain each other’s morale, humour, and reason when the institutions around them have failed. A bestselling memoir, “Some Other Rainbow”, and a follow-up travel book with Keenan, “Between Extremes”, that gave him a long public platform beyond the captivity story itself. Honoured with a CBE in 1992 and an honorary D.Litt from the University of Hull, with subsequent BBC television and radio work that demonstrates broadcast-grade clarity in front of an audience. Biography highlights Kidnapped in Beirut on 17 April 1986 while working for United Press International Television News; released on 8 August 1991 after more than five years in captivity. Britain’s longest-held hostage in Lebanon, sharing a cell for much of that period with the Irish writer Brian Keenan. Appointed CBE in the 1992 New Year Honours List. Co-author of the bestselling memoir “Some Other Rainbow” (1993, with Jill Morrell), and of “Between Extremes” (1999, with Brian Keenan). Author of “A Ghost Upon Your Path” (2010) and “You Can’t Hide the Sun: A Journey Through Palestine” (2013), both published by Transworld. BBC television and radio credits include “Island Race” with Sandi Toksvig (1995) and BBC Radio 4’s “Excess Baggage”. Patron of Freedom from Torture. Biography On 17 April 1986, a young television journalist on his first foreign posting was driving to Beirut airport when his car was stopped by gunmen. John McCarthy, working for United Press International Television News, would not be free again until 8 August 1991. He became Britain’s longest-held hostage in Lebanon. For most of those years he was held alongside the Irish writer Brian Keenan. The two men kept each other functional through humour, argument, invented routines, and a stubborn refusal to give the captors their interior lives. When McCarthy speaks to senior audiences, this is the material that lands hardest: not the abduction or the release, but the daily mechanics of how two people hold a mind together when nothing outside the cell is in their control. After release he wrote, with Jill Morrell, the bestselling memoir “Some Other Rainbow” (Bantam Press, 1993). With Keenan he later co-wrote “Between Extremes” (1999), the account of a journey through Patagonia and Chile that the two men had imagined while in captivity. Two further books followed, “A Ghost Upon Your Path” and “You Can’t Hide the Sun: A Journey Through Palestine”. He sailed around the British coastline with Sandi Toksvig for the BBC series “Island Race” and co-presented BBC Radio 4’s “Excess Baggage”. He was appointed CBE in 1992 and holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Hull. The work he is most often asked to do for organisations is not motivational in the soft sense; it is precise testimony about endurance, hope, and the difference between giving up and continuing, delivered by someone who has earned every word. Key speaking topics Resilience under prolonged pressure Hope and morale in extended uncertainty Decision-making in extreme circumstances Recovery and reintegration after crisis Friendship, humour, and survival Leadership lessons from captivity Ideal for Senior leadership audiences facing sustained, multi-year disruption rather than acute one-off crises Risk, security, and crisis management functions that need a human counterpart to their procedural training Organisations marking a milestone, anniversary, or after-dinner moment that calls for substance over showmanship Audience outcomes A clearer sense of what sustains morale and judgement when a situation will not resolve quickly A first-hand account of how relationships, humour, and small routines become survival tools under pressure Specific, memorable detail from a captivity experience that audiences will repeat to colleagues afterwards Reflection on what hope is, and what it is not, when the timeline is unknown

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

Why organisations work with Jim Rogers He co-founded the Quantum Fund with George Soros in 1973 and helped run one of the most successful early hedge funds in history, which gives institutional audiences a primary source on how a global macro book is actually built. He created the Rogers International Commodity Index, still used as a benchmark for broad commodity exposure, so his views on energy, agriculture, and metals carry a structural weight that pure commentators do not have. He has driven and ridden through more than 100 countries on documented multi-year journeys, including a Guinness-recognised car trip across six continents, which means his country views are informed by direct contact rather than desk research. He has been calling the shift of capital toward Asia since relocating to Singapore in 2007, and audiences get a long-running, internally consistent thesis rather than a quarter-by-quarter pivot. His books, from Investment Biker to Hot Commodities to Street Smarts, give boards and investment committees a pre-read that frames the conversation before he is even in the room. Biography highlights Co-founder of the Quantum Fund with George Soros, 1973 Creator of the Rogers International Commodity Index (RICI), 1998 Former guest professor of finance, Columbia Business School Author of Investment Biker, Adventure Capitalist, Hot Commodities, A Bull in China, A Gift to My Children, and Street Smarts Guinness World Record holder for most countries visited in a continuous journey by car, with Paige Parker, 1999 to 2002 Yale (BA, history, cum laude, 1964) and Balliol College, Oxford (BA, PPE, 1966); chairman of Beeland Interests; based in Singapore Biography The Quantum Fund returned roughly 4,200% in its first decade while the S&P moved about 47%. Jim Rogers co-founded that fund with George Soros in 1973, and the partnership remains one of the reference points for how a global macro book can compound when the manager is willing to look beyond the home market. He retired from active fund management at 37 and turned to teaching, writing, and travelling. A guest professorship at Columbia Business School followed, alongside two long-form journeys: a motorcycle trip across six continents in the early 1990s, and a Guinness-recognised car trip with Paige Parker from 1999 to 2002 covering 111 countries and three territories. The travel is not decoration. It is how he tests his macro thesis against border posts, fuel stations, and local exchange rates. In 1998 he built the Rogers International Commodity Index, a broad-basket benchmark still referenced by commodity-tracking products. The index is the structural expression of a view he has held for decades: that real assets, food, energy, metals, and the countries that produce them, are systematically underweight in most portfolios. Since moving from New York to Singapore in 2007, his argument has sharpened around the eastward shift of capital and growth. His books, from Investment Biker to Hot Commodities and Street Smarts, set out the same case in detail. For an investment committee, a board, or a treasury team, the value is access to a thesis that has been held, traded, and revised over fifty years on three continents. Key speaking topics Global macro investing Commodity cycles and the case for real assets Asia, China, and the eastward shift of capital Long-term economic and currency outlook Emerging and frontier markets Investing through political and policy risk Ideal for Institutional investors, asset managers, family offices, and sovereign funds setting long-horizon allocation Banks, treasury teams, and CFO communities exposed to commodity, currency, and rate cycles Boards and executive committees of multinationals with significant Asia or emerging-market exposure Wealth management and private bank client events where the audience expects a contrarian macro voice Audience outcomes A clear, fifty-year-tested thesis on how capital is shifting between West and East and what that means for portfolio construction A working framework for thinking about commodity cycles and where real assets sit in a long-only book Specific country and sector views on China, the broader Asia region, and frontier markets, drawn from direct travel and current allocation Sharper questions to bring back to investment committees and boards about consensus assumptions on the dollar, US equities, and global growth A reading list, anchored on Hot Commodities, Investment Biker, and Street Smarts, that lets attendees keep working with the argument afterwards

Why organisations work with Jim McNeill He has led teams through more than 40 years of expedition work in the polar regions, including two attempts on the Northern Pole of Inaccessibility, one of the few significant places on Earth never reached on foot. That is a depth of operational pressure most leadership speakers cannot draw from. His career runs across four high-stakes domains: environmental science, the British Army, fire and rescue, where he specialised in road traffic collisions and spent ten years as fire officer to the Royal Household, and professional exploration. Each contributes a distinct lens on how teams hold up when stakes rise. Through the Ice Warrior Project he has trained more than 500 people from non-expedition backgrounds to become polar-competent. That methodology travels directly into corporate teams facing unfamiliar terrain. He is the BBC’s go-to safety consultant and expedition leader on flagship productions including Frozen Planet, Human Planet and The Last Explorers. The credibility cuts through with senior audiences. Climate change is not a topic he has read into; it is four decades of continuous observation from inside the Arctic, which gives the climate-frontline conversation a different weight. Biography highlights Founder of the Ice Warrior Project (2001) and the expanded Global Warrior Project (2022), covering ocean, desert, mountain and jungle environments alongside the polar work. Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society since 1992; Member of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. Fifteen years in fire and rescue, specialising in road traffic collisions, including ten years as fire officer to the Royal Household. Two expeditions targeting the Northern Pole of Inaccessibility (2003, 2006), both ending in extreme circumstances that he uses directly in his leadership material. Safety consultant and expedition leader for BBC Frozen Planet, BBC Human Planet, BBC Natural World, Channel 4 Predators in Paradise, and Marvel’s Captain America. Hosted the Icons Interviewed series in conversation with Sir David Attenborough, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Sir Chris Bonington, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, and Tracy Edwards MBE, at venues including the Royal Geographical Society and the Natural History Museum. Biography The Northern Pole of Inaccessibility is the point in the Arctic Ocean furthest from any coastline. It has never been reached on foot. McNeill has tried twice, in 2003 and 2006, and on both occasions the expedition ended in conditions that test what leadership actually means when there is no fallback. The 2003 attempt was stopped by necrotising fasciitis. The 2006 attempt ended when the sea ice degraded past the point of safe progress. Most of his keynote material starts in places like this. His route into exploration is unusual. He trained as an environmental scientist at the Grassland Research Institute, served in the British Army, worked in marketing communications, and then spent fifteen years in fire and rescue, specialising in road traffic collisions and including ten years as fire officer to the Royal Household. Each of those careers ran on a different model of risk and command, and he draws on all four when working with senior teams. In 2001 he founded the Ice Warrior Project, built around the idea that ordinary people, properly trained, can perform in environments that almost no professional has access to. From bases in Resolute Bay and later Longyearbyen, he has trained over 500 people and led seven flagship expeditions, gathering citizen-science data on Arctic conditions. In 2022 the model expanded into the Global Warrior Project, taking the same methodology into ocean, desert, mountain and jungle work, with a ten-year ocean programme launched in 2023. The BBC, Channel 4 and Marvel have used him as safety consultant and expedition leader on productions including Frozen Planet, Human Planet and Captain America, and he led BBC Scotland’s The Last Explorers across the Drake Passage with Neil Oliver. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and has hosted in-conversation events at the RGS and the Natural History Museum with Attenborough, Fiennes and Bonington. The point is not the credentials. The point is that almost nobody else can speak about leadership under pressure with four decades of continuous evidence to draw on. Key speaking topics Leadership under pressure Risk and decision-making in critical incidents Team performance in extreme environments Climate change from the Arctic frontline Citizen science and purpose-led teams Resilience and survival Expedition leadership Ideal for Boards, executive committees and CEOs working on how their leadership behaves under genuine pressure rather than in workshop conditions. Operations, safety and risk leaders in industries where decision-making degrades when information thins. Senior teams running large change programmes who need a sharper conversation about trust and command in unfamiliar terrain. Leadership development and offsite audiences who have heard the standard speaker line-up and want a different register. Audience outcomes A clearer picture of how command, communication and trust actually behave when conditions move outside the plan. A sharper sense of how risk is read in real time, drawn from incidents where the cost of misreading was severe. A different way to think about preparation: what is rehearsed, what is delegated, what is held by the leader. A direct, evidence-based account of climate change from inside the Arctic, useful for ESG conversations that have grown abstract. A reset on what a team is capable of when it is selected and trained against a real objective rather than a corporate one.