Risk Management

Why organisations work with Caspar Veldkamp Direct working experience as the foreign minister of an EU member state during the 2025 NATO summit year, including hosting the first NATO summit ever held in the Netherlands. A documented record of policy principle: he resigned the foreign ministry over the cabinet’s refusal to advance further measures on Israel, and authored the EU review proposal that bears his name. Constituency-level experience of China at the EBRD board, now extended into the EU’s most senior diplomatic post in Beijing from summer 2026. Frontline diplomatic service through two of Europe’s hardest decades of crisis: ambassador to Israel from 2011 to 2015 and to Greece during the Eurozone and migration emergencies. Comfort moving between the transatlantic and Brussels frames, grounded in early service on Senator Richard Lugar’s staff and political counsellor work in Washington. Biography highlights Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, 2024 to 2025. EU Ambassador to China designate, taking up post in Beijing in summer 2026. Board Director, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, London, 2020 to 2023. Ambassador of the Netherlands to Israel (2011 to 2015) and to Greece (2015 to 2019). Hosted the 2025 NATO Summit in The Hague. Author of “the Caspar proposal” for EU review of the EU to Israel Association Agreement. Biography The cabinet meeting on 22 August 2025 ended with the Dutch foreign minister resigning his post. Caspar Veldkamp had proposed further measures on Israel over the conduct of the war in Gaza, including an import ban on goods from settlements in the occupied territories. The cabinet would not move. He left office the same evening, and the New Social Contract ministers followed him out in solidarity. It was the kind of public exit that explains in one moment what a leader’s working principle is. The career that led there is unusually broad for a sitting politician. Veldkamp ran the Dutch embassies in Israel from 2011 to 2015 and in Greece from 2015 to 2019, the second through the Eurozone and migration crises. Between politics and diplomacy he sat on the EBRD board in London for three years, with constituency responsibility for the Netherlands, China, Mongolia, North Macedonia and Armenia, chairing the Board Steering Group during a period of governance reform and active climate and Ukraine work. As foreign minister he hosted the 2025 NATO summit in The Hague, the first summit held in the Netherlands. He argued publicly that the two-percent NATO defence benchmark was no longer adequate, backed sustained military support for Ukraine, and authored what came to be called the Caspar proposal: a formal EU review of Israel’s compliance with the EU to Israel Association Agreement. The proposal drew broader member state support than expected and reframed the conversation inside the bloc. In summer 2026 he takes up the post of European Union Ambassador to China, the first Dutch national appointed to the role. For organisations sitting on China exposure, transatlantic supply chain decisions, or the next round of EU sanctions logic, the perspective he carries into Beijing is the one boards are now looking to brief against. Key speaking topics European geopolitics and EU foreign policy NATO, transatlantic security and Ukraine EU to China relations and the Brussels view of Beijing Sanctions, ESG and the Middle East Diplomacy under coalition and parliamentary constraint Crisis-period leadership in foreign ministries and embassies Ideal for Boards and executive committees with material China, Israel or Russia exposure CEO and CFO offsites focused on geopolitical scenario planning Banking, insurance and energy leadership teams sizing sanctions and policy risk Public affairs, government relations and risk leadership functions Audience outcomes A clearer read on how EU foreign policy decisions are actually formed across capitals. A working framework for what the next phase of EU to China relations is likely to demand of European businesses. Specific reference points on Ukraine support, NATO posture and the trajectory of sanctions logic into 2026 and beyond. A first-person account of holding a foreign ministry under coalition strain, useful for any leader managing decisions that carry public principle as well as commercial weight.

Why organisations work with Federica Mogherini Five years as the EU’s most senior diplomat, chairing the Foreign Affairs Council and running the European External Action Service across the Crimea sanctions, the Iran deal, Brexit, the Trump transatlantic shift and the early phase of EU-China strategic recalibration. As the EU High Representative, she coordinated and chaired the multilateral negotiations that produced the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Iran’s nuclear programme, then chaired its Joint Commission, the operational reference point for what a complex multilateral agreement looks like in practice. Author of the 2016 EU Global Strategy, Shared Vision, Common Action: A Stronger Europe, the document that frames how the European Union still describes its place in the world and its relationship with the United States, China and its neighbourhood. A former national foreign minister and former NATO Parliamentary Assembly delegate, which means she can speak with equal credibility on EU institutional dynamics and on member-state and alliance politics. Biography highlights High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, 2014 to 2019. Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, 2014, in the Renzi government. Member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, 2008 to 2014, and head of the Italian delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. Coordinator and chair of the E3+3 negotiations that produced the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran, finalised July 2015 and endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution 2231. Co-Chair of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement, 2020 to 2021. Holds honorary doctorates from the University of Tampere, the University of Surrey and the University of Tirana, and has been recognised with the Hessian Peace Prize, the Kaiser Otto Prize for European unity, and Japan’s Order of the Rising Sun, Second Class. Biography For five years from November 2014, every formal EU position on Iran, Russia, Ukraine, the Middle East, the Western Balkans and the transatlantic relationship was coordinated through one office. Federica Mogherini ran it. As High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, she chaired the Foreign Affairs Council, led the European External Action Service and represented the Union at the United Nations, NATO and the G7. The defining file of that tenure was Iran. After twelve years of EU-led negotiation, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was finalised in July 2015 and endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution 2231. Mogherini then chaired its Joint Commission, the body responsible for monitoring implementation, including through the Trump administration’s withdrawal in 2018. Alongside that, she developed and launched the 2016 EU Global Strategy, Shared Vision, Common Action: A Stronger Europe, the framework that still shapes how Brussels describes its strategic interests in a multipolar order. Before the Commission role, she had served as Italian Foreign Minister in 2014 and as a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies from 2008, including as head of the Italian delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. That sequence gives her the unusual range of having sat as a national minister, an EU vice-president, and a transatlantic security parliamentarian inside one career. What she offers serious audiences is the reading you get from someone who chaired the room: how decisions on Russia, Iran, China and the United States are actually made in European capitals and at the Berlaymont, and where the next pressure points sit for organisations operating across those geographies. Key speaking topics European foreign and security policy Transatlantic relations and the future of US-EU cooperation Iran, the Middle East and nuclear diplomacy Multilateralism and the rules-based international order The European Union’s role in a multipolar world Migration, displacement and human rights Women’s leadership in global affairs Ideal for Boards and executive committees scoping geopolitical exposure across Europe, the Middle East and the transatlantic corridor. Government affairs, public policy and sustainability functions tracking EU regulatory and foreign-policy direction. Financial institutions and energy, defence and industrial businesses with sanctions, Iran or Russia exposure. Senior leadership audiences at multilateral institutions, foundations and NGOs operating on conflict, migration or displacement files. Audience outcomes A direct reading of how European foreign and security decisions are taken, from someone who chaired the Foreign Affairs Council. A clearer sense of where the EU, the United States and China are heading on the strategic files that shape international business. An informed view of the Iran file and the wider Middle East from the lead EU negotiator of the JCPOA. A grounded perspective on the limits and uses of multilateral diplomacy in a fracturing order. Confidence that the briefing reflects how the institutions actually operate, not commentary from the outside.

Why organisations work with Kristen Clarke She ran the federal civil rights enforcement apparatus at scale, with direct accountability for prosecutions in the George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Tree of Life, and Club Q cases. Few speakers have led a mandate of that visibility under that level of political and public pressure. She is the first Black woman ever confirmed by the Senate to lead the DOJ Civil Rights Division, a credential that signals both institutional access and personal conviction in a way corporate DEI speakers rarely match. Her career has moved between government, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, giving her a working view of how civil rights principles get translated into operational policy across very different institutions. She brings the perspective of someone who has had to defend a contested mandate, not theorise about it. That voice is useful to boards and executive teams where DEI commitments are being publicly questioned. Biography highlights 19th Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Justice, 2021 to 2025; first Black woman confirmed to the role. General Counsel of the NAACP, appointed March 2026. Former President and Executive Director, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, from 2015. Former Civil Rights Bureau Chief, New York State Attorney General’s Office. Harvard University (BA, 1997) and Columbia Law School (J.D., 2000); 2025 W. Haywood Burns Chair at CUNY School of Law and Distinguished Lecturer at Penn Carey Law. Recipient of Columbia Law School’s Paul Robeson Distinguished Alumni Award and the National Bar Association’s Top 40 Under 40. Biography The federal Civil Rights Division has rarely been more visible, or more contested, than during the period Kristen Clarke led it. Between 2021 and 2025, as the 19th Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, she directed the prosecutions in the killings of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery and federal hate crime cases tied to the Tree of Life synagogue, the El Paso Walmart, and Club Q shootings. The Division operated at the intersection of law, politics, and public attention, and she was the person accountable for it. Her path to that role was not accidental. She began her legal career as a trial attorney in the same Division through the DOJ Honors Program. From there she moved to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, then ran the Civil Rights Bureau in the New York Attorney General’s Office, then led the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law as President and Executive Director from 2015. By the time of her Senate confirmation in 2021, she had spent roughly two decades inside civil rights enforcement at every level of the system. The credential that matters for senior audiences is not the list of cases. It is what those cases say about the discipline of running a values-led mandate when the political environment is hostile, the press cycle is constant, and the cost of getting it wrong is institutional. Clarke’s voice is most useful to organisations that are wrestling with how to hold a position on inclusion, fairness, or governance when external pressure is asking them to back away. She holds degrees from Harvard University and Columbia Law School, currently serves as General Counsel of the NAACP, and teaches federal civil rights law at Penn Carey Law and as the W. Haywood Burns Chair at CUNY School of Law. Key speaking topics Federal civil rights enforcement Values-based leadership under public scrutiny Voting rights and democratic institutions Hate crimes prosecution and prevention Police reform and accountability Inclusion in contested political environments Public-interest leadership at scale Ideal for Boards and executive committees defending DEI or governance positions in a politicised environment. General counsel, chief legal officers, and chief compliance officers responsible for institutional policy on civil rights, equity, and discrimination risk. Leadership development programmes focused on values-based decision-making for senior public-facing leaders. Foundations, professional services firms, and public-sector bodies whose audiences need a credible civil rights voice. Audience outcomes A clearer view of how federal civil rights enforcement actually works, from a leader who ran it. A working sense of what values-based leadership costs in practice when the mandate is contested. Specific case examples (Floyd, Arbery, hate crime prosecutions) used to illustrate institutional decision-making, not for shock value. Direct exposure to a senior public-interest leader who has had to translate principle into operational policy.

Why organisations work with Kim Darroch A first-hand reading of US, EU, and UK political dynamics from someone who has sat opposite the people now setting policy, not a commentator interpreting from the outside. A decade at the operational core of UK national security and European policy, covering Brexit, the Trump administration, Russian aggression in Ukraine, the rise of Daesh, and the Libya collapse. Author of Collateral Damage, the most senior insider account of the UK-US relationship under the first Trump presidency, published by HarperCollins and reviewed in Foreign Affairs. A career-long perspective on the transatlantic alliance at the moment it is under the most pressure since the Cold War, useful for boards exposed to US, European, and China risk in the same quarter. Biography highlights British Ambassador to the United States, 2016 to 2019. National Security Adviser to Prime Minister David Cameron, 2012 to 2015. UK Permanent Representative to the European Union, 2007 to 2011. Head of the Cabinet Office European Secretariat and EU adviser to Prime Minister Tony Blair, 2004 to 2007. Crossbench life peer, House of Lords; Chairperson, Best for Britain. Author, Collateral Damage: Britain, America and Europe in the Age of Trump (HarperCollins, 2020). KCMG (2008). Biography The British Ambassador to Washington is meant to be the cable channel between Downing Street and the White House. In July 2019, Kim Darroch’s frank diplomatic cables about the Trump administration were leaked to the British press, and the post became untenable. He resigned, closing a forty-year career in HM Diplomatic Service from inside the most public diplomatic incident in modern British memory. That career was built at the centre of UK foreign policy. As National Security Adviser to David Cameron from 2012 to 2015, he chaired the brief covering Daesh in Iraq and Syria, Russian operations in Ukraine, and the collapse of state authority in Libya. Before that he was UK Permanent Representative to the European Union, and before that Tony Blair’s senior EU adviser inside the Cabinet Office. Few living British diplomats have held that range of senior posts in sequence. His memoir, Collateral Damage, is the closest thing to a Washington-side account of how the UK read the Trump administration through Brexit and the early trade negotiations. Foreign Affairs reviewed it; HarperCollins published it in the UK and PublicAffairs in the US. He served as a Resident Fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics in spring 2020 and now sits as a crossbench peer in the House of Lords, chairing Best for Britain. What boards get from him is unusual at the senior diplomatic level. He speaks operationally about how Washington, Brussels, and Whitehall actually decide, who holds the file, what moves the principal, where the brittle points are. That is the reading senior executives need when they are asked to price political risk into a five-year plan. Key speaking topics US politics and the Washington decision-making system The transatlantic alliance under strain The war in Ukraine and European security China, the US, and strategic competition UK foreign policy after Brexit Geopolitical risk for boards and investors Ideal for Boards and audit committees pricing political and sanctions exposure into strategy CEOs and CFOs of multinationals with significant US, European, or China revenue General counsel, government affairs, and strategy heads reading regulatory and trade risk Investor and asset management audiences exposed to sovereign and policy risk Audience outcomes A grounded reading of the current US administration’s foreign policy trajectory from someone who has worked with the principals. A clearer view of where the transatlantic alliance is brittle and where it still holds. The questions a senior leadership team should be asking its risk function about geopolitics, not the headlines. A sharper sense of how Washington, Brussels, and London actually negotiate, useful when planning lobbying, market entry, or sanctions response.

Why organisations work with Marcelo Carvalho He has run a global economics function at a major European universal bank, which means his read on rates, currencies and country risk is the same view senior fund managers and corporate treasurers are paying for. He has been Chief Economist for Brazil at three global investment banks (J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America), giving him a depth on Latin America and emerging markets that very few generalist macro speakers can match. He bridges markets and policy: two years at the IMF, two decades on the sell side, now a Senior Research Associate at ODI Global, the London-based development and policy think tank. He briefs CFOs and finance ministers with equal fluency. He has been recognised repeatedly by Institutional Investor and Latin Finance for Brazil macro coverage, signalling that his calls have been judged credible by the buy-side audience that uses his research commercially. He briefs in English, Spanish and Portuguese, which matters for organisations whose leadership team or investor base sits across the Americas and Europe. Biography highlights Senior Research Associate, ODI Global, London Former Global Head of Economics at BNP Paribas, after leading the bank’s Global Emerging Markets Research and Latin America Research desks Former Chief Economist for Brazil at J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Two years as an economist at the International Monetary Fund PhD in Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; MSc and BA in Economics, University of Sao Paulo Multiple Institutional Investor and Latin Finance awards for Brazil macro research; regular contributor to Bloomberg, CNBC, Reuters, Financial Times, The Economist and Wall Street Journal Biography The macro environment that institutional investors and corporate boards built their playbooks around between 1990 and 2020 is no longer the environment they are operating in. Trade is fragmenting, monetary policy is diverging across the major blocs, and emerging markets are once again a source of structural opportunity and structural risk at the same time. Reading that map well is now a board-level skill, not a back-office function. That is the territory Marcelo Carvalho has worked in for three decades, now as Senior Research Associate at ODI Global, the London-based development and policy think tank where he contributes to its macroeconomic research series. He was previously Global Head of Economics at BNP Paribas in London, leading the bank’s economics function across developed and emerging markets, having earlier run its Global Emerging Markets Research and Latin America Research desks from Sao Paulo. His earlier career sits squarely on the trading floor of global investment banking. He was Chief Economist for Brazil at J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, the kind of seat where the call has to be defensible to portfolio managers within the hour. Two years as an economist at the IMF before joining BNP Paribas in 2010 give him a public-sector perspective that most sell-side economists do not have. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Masters and Bachelor degrees from the University of Sao Paulo. His research on Brazil has been recognised in successive Institutional Investor and Latin Finance polls. He briefs boards and investor audiences in English, Spanish and Portuguese, and is a regular voice on Bloomberg, CNBC, Reuters, Financial Times, The Economist and the Wall Street Journal. Key speaking topics Global macroeconomic outlook Geopolitics and global markets Emerging markets strategy Latin America macroeconomics Monetary policy and inflation Trade policy and supply-chain fragmentation Currency dynamics and capital flows Ideal for Boards and investment committees setting medium-term capital allocation against a shifting macro backdrop CFOs, treasurers and CIOs at corporates and asset managers with exposure to emerging markets or currency risk Strategy and risk leaders translating geopolitical fragmentation into corporate planning and decision-making Banking, insurance and financial services leadership teams briefing clients on global outlook Policy forums, sovereign investor conferences and economic summits with a Latin America or emerging-markets agenda Audience outcomes A clearer read on which macro shifts are cyclical noise and which are structural enough to change planning assumptions A working view of where rates, inflation and currencies are likely to diverge across major economies and what that means for cross-border decisions A specific assessment of emerging market risk and opportunity, with Brazil and wider Latin America treated in detail rather than as a sidebar An understanding of how trade policy, supply-chain fragmentation and political risk are being repriced by global investors Macroeconomic content delivered as a narrative a leadership audience can repeat back to its own board, not a research deck

Why organisations work with George King A first-hand account of decision-making at lethal stakes, not borrowed from sport or special forces analogy. King climbed The Shard at 19 without ropes; the consequence of error was death, not a missed target. A specific reframe of ADHD that audiences with neurodivergent colleagues or family members find usable. The argument is that hyperfocus and risk tolerance are trainable assets, not deficits the workplace must tolerate. Public credibility through the Channel 4 documentary “The Boy Who Climbed The Shard” and presenting work for the channel’s extreme sports output, which gives the booking immediate recognition with general audiences. A profile that travels well to younger and external-facing audiences: 1.6 million YouTube views on the documentary, an active public following, and a story that lands in the room before he speaks. Biography highlights First person to free-solo climb The Shard, July 2019, age 19. Subject of the 2020 Channel 4 documentary “The Boy Who Climbed The Shard”. Channel 4 presenter on extreme sports specials. Free-solo ascents of Lotte Tower, Seoul, and Stratosphere Tower, with BASE-jump descents. Featured in Time magazine, the Architects’ Journal, and Times Live. Speaks publicly about ADHD and fear management on platforms including the Minter Dial podcast. Biography In July 2019 a 19 year old climbed The Shard with no ropes, no safety equipment, and no permission. The ascent took 45 minutes. The legal aftermath took longer, ending in a custodial sentence at HMP Pentonville. George King was the climber, and the story is the foundation of every keynote he gives. What makes the talk useful to corporate audiences is not the climb itself but the preparation behind it. King describes fear as a system that can be trained, with named techniques he applies before each ascent: visualisation, breath control, and the specific mental routines that hold composure when the consequence of a mistake is fatal. The frame is recognisable to anyone who has briefed a board on a high-stakes decision, but the stakes are concrete rather than figurative. He also speaks openly about ADHD, which he treats as the cognitive asset that makes the climbs possible. His position is direct: hyperfocus, risk tolerance and pattern attention are not deficits requiring medication, they are trainable capabilities that produce performance when properly channelled. That argument has earned him a following among neurodivergent audiences and the parents and managers around them. King has presented two extreme sports specials for Channel 4 and was the subject of the channel’s 2020 documentary “The Boy Who Climbed The Shard”, which has passed 1.6 million views on YouTube. His climbs since The Shard include Lotte Tower in Seoul and the Stratosphere Tower, both with BASE-jump descents, and both covered in international press. Key speaking topics Fear management under high-consequence conditions ADHD and neurodiversity as performance Mental preparation and visualisation Risk assessment in extreme environments Resilience after public failure Peak performance Ideal for Internal employee events on neurodiversity and inclusion, particularly where the audience includes line managers of neurodivergent staff Sales kick-offs and motivational set-pieces where the brief is composure under pressure Youth-facing, education and apprentice audiences where reach and recognition matter as much as content Wellbeing and mental performance programmes looking for a non-clinical voice Audience outcomes A named set of techniques for managing fear before a high-stakes event, drawn directly from the climber’s own pre-ascent routine A reframe of ADHD that audiences can take back to neurodivergent colleagues, children or themselves A first-hand account of decision-making where the cost of error is final, useful as a reference point for less extreme corporate risk conversations A memorable headline story that gives the wider event a centrepiece audiences will retell

Why organisations work with Jim Sciutto Direct access to senior U.S. and allied national security officials. The reporting in The Return of Great Powers draws on named on-record interviews with cabinet-level figures, intelligence chiefs and frontline commanders that almost no other broadcaster can convene. A view from inside government, not only outside it. Two years as Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to the U.S. Ambassador to China gives him a working understanding of how Washington and Beijing actually negotiate, not how the relationship looks from a studio. Authoritative on the specific files that hit balance sheets: U.S. China decoupling, Russia and Ukraine, Iran, North Korea, and state-sponsored cyber operations against Western companies. A New York Times bestselling author whose books are reviewed in Foreign Affairs, the Wall Street Journal and the Guardian, which means the analysis presented to a client audience has been pressure-tested in the foreign policy community first. Comfortable in both keynote and moderator roles, which suits closed sessions where a senior speaker is being interviewed in front of a leadership audience. Biography highlights CNN Chief National Security Analyst; anchor of The Brief with Jim Sciutto on CNN International and CNN Max. Author of The Return of Great Powers (Dutton, 2024), The Madman Theory (2020), The Shadow War (2019) and Against Us. Former Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke, U.S. Embassy Beijing, 2011 to 2013. Senior Fellow, Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs; member, Council on Foreign Relations. George Polk Award; two Emmy Awards for Iraq reporting; Edward R. Murrow Award; Merriman Smith Memorial Award; Overseas Press Club citation. Yale graduate in Chinese history; Fulbright Fellow, Hong Kong; previously ABC News senior foreign correspondent, reporting from more than 50 countries. Biography Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the steady militarisation of the Taiwan Strait, and the open contest between Washington and Beijing have ended the assumptions most companies built their strategies on. Sciutto’s 2024 book The Return of Great Powers argues that the post Cold War order has already broken, and that boards and governments are still adjusting to a world in which great-power conflict is back as a default condition. He is unusually well placed to make that argument. As CNN’s Chief National Security Analyst he covers the U.S. defence, intelligence and diplomatic agencies as a daily beat, and as anchor of The Brief he interviews the officials shaping policy in real time. The reporting behind his books has been reviewed in Foreign Affairs and the Wall Street Journal, and he sits as a Senior Fellow at the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. His perspective is not only journalistic. From 2011 to 2013 he served as Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke in Beijing, working inside the embassy on national security and trade priorities during a formative period in the U.S. China relationship. That experience gives him a working understanding of how policy is actually made between the two capitals, which is the question most exposed companies are now trying to answer. Earlier in his career he reported from more than 50 countries as ABC News’ senior foreign correspondent, covering Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and Ukraine. His awards include the George Polk Award for undercover reporting inside Myanmar, two Emmys for Iraq coverage, the Edward R. Murrow Award, and the Merriman Smith Memorial Award for presidential coverage. Key speaking topics Great power conflict and the post Cold War order U.S. China strategic competition Russia, Ukraine and European security Iran, North Korea and nuclear proliferation State-sponsored cyber operations and hybrid warfare U.S. foreign policy and the intelligence community Geopolitical risk for boards and investors Ideal for Boards and audit committees pricing political and sanctions risk into capital decisions CEOs and CFOs of multinationals with material China, Russia or Middle East exposure General counsel, government affairs and corporate security leaders Investor and client conferences where geopolitics is the headline frame Audience outcomes A clear read on where U.S. national security thinking sits on China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, sourced from named officials rather than commentary. A working map of which geopolitical files matter most for commercial decisions over the next 12 to 24 months. A sharper sense of how cyber, disinformation and sanctions operate as instruments of state power against Western companies. A direct conversation with one of the senior national security correspondents most trusted by the U.S. policy community, with time for board-level questions.

Why organisations work with Oswald Rodrigo Pereira He has summited five eight-thousand-metre peaks without supplementary oxygen or Sherpa support, a credential held by a small population of climbers worldwide and one that gives his risk material a basis no simulation can replicate. He has been on the active end of two high-altitude rescues, including the 2023 evacuation of 84-year-old Carlos Soria from Dhaulagiri, and uses both as worked examples of crisis decision-making rather than as anecdote. His twelve years as a television journalist before mountaineering give him a working method for information triage under deadline, which he applies directly to how leadership teams handle incomplete data. He directs and shoots his own documentary work in the death zone, including The Silent Escape, which gives his sessions visual evidence at a level most speakers in the resilience category cannot match. Biography highlights Five eight-thousand-metre summits without supplementary oxygen: Broad Peak, Annapurna, Dhaulagiri, Makalu, Kangchenjunga Ten Himalayan and Karakoram expeditions in seven years, including two winter K2 attempts Director of The Silent Escape, awarded Best Mountain Film at the Krakow Mountain Festival 2023 and screened in more than twenty countries Co-led the 2023 high-altitude rescue of climber Carlos Soria on Dhaulagiri Twelve-year prior career as a television journalist in Poland covering politics, economics and sport Law studies at the University of Warsaw and the University of Lisbon Biography The death zone above eight thousand metres is the highest-stakes operating environment a person can voluntarily enter. Judgement degrades, oxygen falls below half of sea-level value, and the consequences of a slow decision are irreversible. Oswald Rodrigo Pereira has worked in that environment for seven years, on ten expeditions, and has summited five of its peaks without supplementary oxygen. His route to the mountain ran through journalism. Twelve years in Polish television covering politics, economics and sport gave him a working discipline around information under deadline. The pivot came on a winter K2 expedition, where he went as a correspondent and stayed as a climber. He now films what he climbs. The documentary The Silent Escape premiered in Seoul in October 2023, won Best Mountain Film at the Krakow Mountain Festival, and has since screened in over twenty countries. Two rescues anchor his crisis material. The 2023 evacuation of 84-year-old Carlos Soria from Dhaulagiri, reported in detail by Explorersweb, required him and climbing partner Bartek Ziemski to return to altitude with stretcher and oxygen after their own summit and ski descent. The decisions in that sequence, who moves, in what order, with what margin, are the substance of his risk and decision-making sessions, not the dressing. What he offers leadership audiences is not motivation. It is a working description of how a small team triages information, allocates physical and cognitive reserve, and decides what to abandon when conditions change faster than the plan. The translation to boardroom risk is left to the audience, deliberately, and that is the strongest test of whether the material lands. Key speaking topics Risk management in extreme conditions Decision-making under sustained pressure Crisis response and rescue operations Resilience and recovery Information triage from journalism to crisis leadership High-altitude filmmaking and storytelling Personal transformation and physical reinvention Ideal for Executive teams and boards running risk, safety, or crisis-response remits Operations and field leaders in industries with consequential physical risk (energy, construction, logistics, defence) Leadership offsites focused on decision-making under pressure Conferences in insurance, security, or resilience adjacent sectors Audience outcomes A concrete picture of how a small team makes consequential decisions when information is partial and time is short Two worked examples of high-altitude crisis response, used to surface the structure of good and bad calls under load A framing of risk that separates the avoidable from the inherent, and treats the inherent as something to be managed rather than removed Footage and first-person material from inside the death zone that gives the abstract content concrete weight

Why organisations work with Margarida Matos Rosa She has run a national competition regulator from the inside. Decisions on banking, telecoms, energy, health, digital services and advertising cartels passed across her desk between 2016 and 2023, giving her a working view of how cases are built, prioritised and defended. She has sat at the policy table that shapes EU and global competition rules, as ICN Vice-Chair for Growth and Recovery and as a Bureau member of the OECD Competition Committee. Few speakers can read the regulatory direction of travel from inside both bodies. Her background bridges competition policy and capital markets. Earlier roles at the Portuguese Securities Market Commission and at BNP Paribas, Santander Investment and UBS Bank mean she speaks credibly on the Savings and Investments Union, financial regulation and the cost of capital, not only antitrust. She translates regulation into board language. Boards leave with a sharper view of how competition enforcement, digital rules and capital markets integration affect their pricing, M&A pipeline and growth assumptions. Biography highlights President of the Portuguese Competition Authority, 2016 to 2023. Vice-Chair, International Competition Network (Growth and Recovery), 2022 to 2023. Bureau member, OECD Competition Committee, elected by peer authorities. Senior Consultant, Compass Lexecon International practice. Former Managing Director, Portuguese Securities Market Commission (CMVM), investment management supervision. Earlier career at BNP Paribas, Santander Investment and UBS Bank in economic research, investment banking and asset management. MPA, Princeton University. Economics degree, Université Catholique de Louvain. Fulbright scholar at MIT. Biography Competition policy used to sit in a corner of corporate strategy: a compliance file, occasionally a deal-breaker, rarely a board-level lens. That has changed. Digital markets rules, merger thresholds and cartel enforcement now move pricing, investment and M&A decisions across whole sectors, and the EU is moving on capital markets integration in parallel. Margarida Matos Rosa led Portugal’s competition regulator through that shift. As President of the Autoridade da Concorrência from 2016 to 2023, she oversaw enforcement decisions across banking, telecoms, energy, health, digital services and advertising, and built up the authority’s technical capability in AI and IT forensics for cartel detection. Her tenure is widely credited with raising the authority’s international standing. That national role sat alongside two international ones. She was elected by peers to the Bureau of the OECD Competition Committee, and was appointed Vice-Chair of the International Competition Network for Growth and Recovery in 2022, a portfolio focused on the interface between antitrust and macro-economic policy after the pandemic. She now advises clients of Compass Lexecon’s International practice as a Senior Consultant. Her earlier career gives her an unusually wide read of the regulatory landscape. Before competition policy, she ran investment management supervision at Portugal’s Securities Market Commission, and held roles at BNP Paribas, Santander Investment and UBS Bank covering economic research, investment banking and asset management. That financial markets grounding is what makes her credible on the Savings and Investments Union and on how capital allocation responds to a tighter EU regulatory perimeter. Key speaking topics Competition policy and antitrust enforcement EU single market and strategic autonomy Digital markets regulation Productivity and AI in regulated markets Savings and Investments Union and capital markets integration Financial regulation and capital markets oversight Institution building in economic regulators Ideal for Boards and executive committees of regulated firms in banking, telecoms, energy, digital and consumer markets General counsels, heads of strategy, heads of M&A and chief economists managing competition and digital regulation exposure CFOs and treasurers reading EU capital markets and Savings and Investments Union signals Policy and government affairs leaders shaping engagement with national and EU competition authorities Audience outcomes A clearer read on how EU and national competition enforcement is moving, and where it is likely to bite next A working understanding of how digital markets rules interact with innovation, pricing and platform strategy A view from inside a regulator on how cases are prioritised, built and resolved A sharper sense of how the Savings and Investments Union and capital markets integration affect cost of capital and cross-border deals A practical framework for engaging credibly with competition authorities, the European Commission and the OECD

Why organisations work with Didem Ün Ateş She has operationalised responsible AI inside three of the world’s largest organisations (Microsoft, Accenture, and Schneider Electric) as an executive with direct accountability, not as an external advisor. That gives her a precise understanding of where enterprise AI governance breaks down in practice. Her role as Advisor and Generative AI Council Member for Goldman Sachs Value Accelerator, working with over 300 portfolio companies, gives boards and investment teams a live investor-grade view of how AI strategy translates, or fails to translate, into commercial value and risk-adjusted returns. LotusAI’s documented methodology, running 60 co-creation workshops across more than 200 SVPs and VPs to identify and prioritise 200 generative AI use cases inside a single Fortune 500 company, is a concrete, tested model for enterprise AI adoption, not a conceptual framework. As an accredited algorithm auditor and former WEF AI Governance Alliance Fellow, she connects organisations to the governance principles emerging at the regulatory and multilateral level, including the responsible-AI debates shaping how the technology is regulated globally. Her dual degree from the University of Pennsylvania (BS in Engineering from the Moore School and BS in Economics from the Wharton School), combined with an MBA from Columbia Business School, means she can engage credibly at both the technical architecture and commercial investment layers of an AI decision, a combination that is genuinely uncommon. Biography highlights Founder and CEO of LotusAI Ltd, advising private equity firms, hedge funds, financial institutions, and Fortune 500 companies on AI strategy, responsible AI governance, and talent transformation Former Vice President, AI Strategy & Innovation at Schneider Electric, where she defined the company’s AI and generative AI strategy, innovation roadmaps, ecosystem partnerships, and responsible AI programme Former Head of Data & AI / General Manager, Data & AI at Microsoft (EMEA) and former Managing Director of Data & AI, Europe at Accenture’s Microsoft Business Group; earlier roles at Capgemini, EY, BT, and Motorola Advisor and Generative AI Council Member for Goldman Sachs Value Accelerator, working with the firm and over 300 portfolio companies Board member of the Edge AI Foundation, the Wharton AI Alumni Studio, the Columbia Business School Women’s Circle, and the Hg Foundation Technology Advisory Board Certified Algorithm Auditor and Executive Coach; former WEF AI Governance Alliance Fellow; Forbes Technology Council member TechWomen100 Champion and Trailblazer 50 honouree; 2025 recognition includes CEO of the Year Awards UK in the AI Advisory category, Responsible AI Innovation & Growth in Business Award, New Technology Consultancy of the Year, Best New Business of the Year, and British Business Excellence Award Alumna of the University of Pennsylvania (Management & Technology dual degree: BS in Engineering from the Moore School and BS in Economics from the Wharton School) and Columbia Business School (MBA) Biography Most enterprise AI strategies stall in the same place: at the gap between approved roadmap and accountable delivery. Didem Ün Ateş has worked on both sides of that gap inside organisations large enough for every failure to matter. As VP, AI Strategy & Innovation at Schneider Electric, she held direct accountability for the company’s generative AI strategy and innovation roadmap, its ecosystem partnerships, its responsible and sustainable AI programme, and the upskilling of its global workforce. Before that, she served as Head of Data & AI and General Manager, Data & AI at Microsoft EMEA, with revenue accountability of over $2.7 billion across more than 70 subsidiaries, and as Managing Director of Data & AI, Europe within Accenture’s Microsoft Business Group. She founded LotusAI Ltd to apply that operational depth where boards and investment teams need it most. Her advisory relationship with Goldman Sachs Value Accelerator, as Advisor and Generative AI Council Member, puts her in direct conversation with over 300 portfolio companies on AI value creation, governance, and risk. LotusAI’s engagements have included guiding a generative AI opportunity scan across more than 200 senior leaders in a Fortune 500 company, delivering a three-year use-case roadmap tied to the organisation’s strategic plan and regulatory requirements. Her work sits at the intersection of commercial strategy and institutional accountability. As an accredited algorithm auditor and former WEF AI Governance Alliance Fellow, where she has co-chaired sessions on AI and sustainability at WEF summits, she connects the boardroom conversation to the multilateral frameworks shaping how responsible AI is defined and regulated globally. She also sits on the Hg Foundation Technology Advisory Board, alongside senior leaders from ING, Google, McKinsey, and Accenture. She holds a dual degree from the University of Pennsylvania, in Engineering from the Moore School and in Economics from the Wharton School, and an MBA from Columbia Business School. Recent recognition includes the CEO of the Year Awards UK 2025 in the AI Advisory category, the Responsible AI Innovation & Growth in Business Award 2025, and the British Business Excellence Award 2025, alongside the earlier TechWomen100 Champion and Trailblazer 50 honours. Key speaking topics Enterprise AI strategy and governance Generative and agentic AI adoption at scale Responsible and sustainable AI AI for private equity, private credit, and financial services AI-driven workforce capability and talent transformation AI risk management and regulatory compliance Edge AI, physical AI, embedded AI, and tinyML AI leadership training and executive workshops Ideal for Boards and C-suite teams (CEO, CTO, CDO, CAIO) building or pressure-testing enterprise AI strategies Chief Data and AI Officers designing governance frameworks for generative AI adoption Private equity and investment leadership teams assessing AI value creation and risk across portfolios Transformation and innovation leaders in financial services, industrial, and consulting sectors navigating responsible AI operationalisation Audience outcomes Practical criteria for identifying, prioritising, and sequencing AI use cases, tools, platforms, and agents within a complex organisation A clearer model of where enterprise AI governance frameworks typically break down, and what structural conditions make them durable A sharper understanding of how responsible AI principles translate into investment-grade governance, not just compliance documentation A working language for talent transformation in the agentic AI era, including the workforce decisions board members need to be ready to make More confident language for board-level conversations on AI risk, sustainability, and value creation Awareness of inclusive AI design as both a reputational risk and a long-term commercial consideration

Why organisations work with Libby Jackson She ran live operations on the European module of the International Space Station as Columbus Flight Director, a seat where decisions are made in minutes with crew lives in the loop. That experience is rare on a corporate stage. She built and led the UK Space Agency education programme for Tim Peake’s Principia mission, an outreach effort that reached more than two million students and around one in three UK schools, evidence of operational leadership at national scale. Her account of decision-making under pressure draws on procedures used in mission control rooms, not metaphor, giving senior teams a working vocabulary for handling ambiguity and failure. An OBE for services to the space sector and the 2023 Leif Erikson Exploration History Award place her credentials inside the small group of British human spaceflight leaders that buyers can name. She translates highly technical environments for non-technical audiences without softening the substance, useful for boards and leadership teams that want rigour without the jargon. Biography highlights Columbus Flight Director, European Space Agency Mission Control for the International Space Station, Munich. Head of Space, Science Museum, London, since March 2025, the first holder of the role. Former Head of Space Exploration, UK Space Agency, with prior responsibility for the Human Exploration Programme. OBE, 2023 New Year Honours, for services to the Space Sector. 2023 Leif Erikson Exploration History Award, Exploration Museum, Iceland. BSc Physics, Imperial College London; MSc Astronautics and Space Engineering, Cranfield. Honorary DSc, University of Kent. Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. Author of A Galaxy of Her Own (2017) and Space Explorers (2020), both Penguin. Regular BBC science contributor including Stargazing Live. Biography A Flight Director on the International Space Station has minutes, not hours, to make calls that involve crew safety, multinational politics, and millions of pounds of hardware. Libby Jackson held that seat at the European Space Agency’s Columbus Control Centre in Munich, the European module of the ISS. Seven years inside mission control gave her a working knowledge of how senior teams hold together when consequences are immediate and irreversible. She moved to the UK Space Agency in 2014, where she ran education and outreach for Tim Peake’s Principia mission, the British astronaut’s flight to the ISS. The programme reached more than two million students and around one in three UK schools, an operational result on a national scale. She later became Head of Space Exploration, coordinating UK investments across human and robotic missions, the ISS, and lunar and Mars activity. In March 2025 she took up a new post as Head of Space at the Science Museum in London, the first person to hold that title. Her two books, A Galaxy of Her Own and Space Explorers, both published by Penguin, sit alongside an OBE for services to the space sector and the 2023 Leif Erikson Exploration History Award from the Exploration Museum in Iceland. For corporate audiences, the value sits in what mission control teaches about composure, sequencing and trust under load. Jackson does not offer the space career as inspiration. She uses it as a working case study in how trained teams make decisions when the data is incomplete, the clock is short, and the cost of error is absolute. Key speaking topics Decision-making under operational pressure Mission control leadership and team coordination Human spaceflight and the future of exploration Risk, failure, and recovery in complex systems The Artemis programme and the return to the Moon Women in science and engineering Translating technical work for non-technical audiences Ideal for Boards and executive teams preparing for crisis decision-making and incident leadership Heads of operations, engineering and safety in high-consequence sectors such as energy, aviation, healthcare and defence Transformation and innovation leaders working through high-stakes technical change Corporate STEM, early careers and women in leadership programmes seeking a credible British voice in space Audience outcomes A working picture of how mission control teams structure decisions when consequences are immediate Specific lessons from the Columbus and Principia missions on coordination across multinational expert teams A clearer view of where corporate decision processes break down compared with operational environments built around failure Renewed confidence in the value of preparation, role clarity and handover discipline as leadership tools A sharper sense of where the next decade of human spaceflight is heading, and what that means for industries adjacent to it

Why organisations work with Rashmi Airan She has lived the failure she now teaches against. A Columbia-trained lawyer who went to federal prison for fraud tied to the housing crisis is a different category of voice on judgement under pressure than a consultant or compliance trainer. Her Clarity Loop gives leadership teams a four-question, sixty-second discipline they can actually run inside a real decision, not a values poster they nod at and forget. She names the specific mechanisms that erode judgement, rationalisation, normalisation, silence, group pressure, and urgency, from the inside, because they are the ones that took down her own career. Her work connects judgement, resilience, and mental health, which makes her relevant to leaders under sustained strain rather than only to the compliance function. Biography highlights Columbia Law School graduate, with honours; undergraduate degree from UNC-Chapel Hill; former Wall Street investment banker. Served six months in federal prison for fraud tied to the US housing crisis, after a conspiracy conviction as a closing attorney. Creator of the Clarity Loop, a four-question decision framework, and the RISE Through It® process for recovering judgement after setback. Author of ALL RISE: A Lawyer’s Evolution from Prison to Purpose, endorsed by Marshall Goldsmith. TEDx speaker, Against the Slippery Slope (TEDxGreenville), on ethical blind spots and decision-making under pressure. Has delivered keynotes for leaders at Deloitte, Coca-Cola, Merck, Comcast, Cardinal Health, and Medtronic. Media appearances on ABC, PBS, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal; board director, Overtown Youth Center and Alonzo Mourning Foundation. Biography Most damaging decisions in business are not made by reckless people. They are made by capable, experienced leaders under pressure, one reasonable-seeming compromise at a time. Rashmi Airan knows the pattern from the inside. A Columbia Law School graduate and former Wall Street investment banker, she built a successful legal career before a conspiracy conviction tied to the housing crisis sent her to federal prison. That collapse became the subject of her work rather than a footnote to it. For more than a decade she has studied how speed, incentives, and the stories leaders tell themselves quietly bend judgement, and how to interrupt that drift before it hardens into damage. Her central idea is that integrity needs infrastructure: strong values are necessary but not sufficient under real pressure. The practical answer she teaches is the Clarity Loop, a four-question pause that takes about sixty seconds and forces a leader to name the pressure, examine their incentives, find the blind spot, and check the decision before acting. Her longer RISE Through It® process, Reframe, Identify, Surrender, Evolve, addresses the harder climb back after a setback. She has brought both to leadership teams at Deloitte, Coca-Cola, Merck, Comcast, Cardinal Health, and Medtronic. She is the author of ALL RISE: A Lawyer’s Evolution from Prison to Purpose, and her story has been covered by ABC, PBS, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. She serves on the board of the Overtown Youth Center and the Alonzo Mourning Foundation and is an ambassador for The Key Clubhouse, work rooted in mental health and second-chance opportunity, the ground she had to rebuild on herself. Key speaking topics Decision-making under pressure Values-based leadership Resilience after professional setback Decision drift and the conditions for ethical lapse Behavioural science and judgement Mental health and senior leadership Risk awareness for boards and executive teams Ideal for Boards, general counsel, and compliance leadership setting the ethical operating standard for the organisation. Partner groups in law, accounting, banking, and professional services where individual judgement carries firm-wide risk. Senior leadership development programmes inside Fortune-scale companies focused on decision quality and resilience. Women’s leadership forums and emerging-leader cohorts where authority, voice, and self-knowledge are central. Audience outcomes A four-question method, the Clarity Loop, they can run inside a real decision before they act. The vocabulary to name decision drift as it happens in their teams, rather than after the damage. A more honest account of how pressure, incentives, and culture combine to bend capable people’s judgement. Permission to treat mental health, fear, and self-doubt as leadership issues rather than private weakness. A first-person reference point that leaders carry back into their own teams when the pressure starts to rise.