Risk Management

Why organisations work with Dan Walters Five decades inside the Sacramento Capitol press corps, from Jerry Brown’s first governorship to the current administration, with relationships that predate most of the elected officials he covers. Founding editor of the California Political Almanac and co-author of The Third House, the standard reference on lobbying inside the California legislature. One of the few commentators who reads the state budget, the floor calendar and the ballot initiative pipeline as a single connected system, then explains it in language a board can act on. Over 9,000 columns syndicated across dozens of California papers, with a track record of calling political and fiscal shifts before they reach the national press. Biography highlights Opinion columnist, CalMatters (2017 to present), writing four times weekly on California politics and policy. Daily column previously ran in The Sacramento Bee for 33 years and The Sacramento Union for three. Author, The New California: Facing the 21st Century, used as a college text on California socioeconomic and political trends. Co-author, The Third House: Lobbyists, Money and Power in Sacramento (University of California Press). Founding editor, California Political Almanac. Frequent on-air commentator on California policy for CNN, Fox and PBS SoCal. Biography California’s legislature, governor’s office and ballot system together set policy that reshapes regulation, labour costs and capital allocation across the country. Reading that system from the outside is hard. Reading it from inside the Capitol press corps for fifty years is a different proposition. Walters joined the Sacramento Union’s Capitol bureau in 1975, became its bureau chief, and in 1981 launched the only daily newspaper column dedicated to California state politics. He moved the column to The Sacramento Bee in 1984, where it ran for 33 years, then to CalMatters in 2017, where it continues four times a week. The total now exceeds 9,000 columns syndicated across dozens of California papers. The body of work behind the column matters. The New California: Facing the 21st Century, drawn from a 9,000-mile drive through all 58 counties, became a college text on the state’s socioeconomic direction. The Third House, co-authored and published by the University of California Press, remains a standard reference on how lobbying actually functions inside the California legislature. He is also the founding editor of the California Political Almanac. For an audience trying to anticipate California’s next move, that history is the value. Walters can name which committees decide what, which lobbies are ascendant, which budget assumptions are about to fail and which initiatives have the signatures to reach the ballot. CNN, Fox and PBS SoCal use him as a California policy commentator for the same reason boards do: he has been inside the room while the rules were being written. Key speaking topics California political and policy outlook Sacramento legislative and budget process Lobbying and interest-group power in California California ballot initiatives and direct democracy California’s economic and demographic trajectory Public works planning and finance under polarised politics Election-year political climate Ideal for Boards, general counsel and government-affairs leaders with material California exposure Industry associations, infrastructure and public-works bodies operating in the state Investors and operators tracking California regulatory and fiscal direction Public agencies, joint-powers authorities and policy convenings Audience outcomes A clearer read of where California policy is heading on tax, regulation and spending Specific names and committee dynamics behind the issues most relevant to their sector A working sense of which interest groups are winning and losing inside Sacramento Sharper questions for their own government-affairs and risk teams Distinction between political theatre and the decisions that will actually move

Why organisations work with Nora AlMatrooshi She graduated from NASA’s 2021 astronaut candidate programme alongside ten American candidates chosen from more than 12,000 applicants, as the only non-NASA astronaut in her class and the first Arab woman in the programme’s history. That credential is not replicable. Her career connects two sectors that rarely share a vantage point: hydrocarbon infrastructure (projects for ADNOC and Saudi Aramco) and advanced space operations. Audiences in GCC energy, government, and technology sectors get a perspective that spans the full range of UAE industrial ambition. The UAE Astronaut Programme went from concept to operational in under a decade. AlMatrooshi went through the entire process, from open national selection through two years at Johnson Space Center, and can describe what selection rigour and institutional commitment actually produced. Selected from 4,305 applicants through a multi-phase evaluation built to international standards, she speaks from direct experience of what elite technical preparation demands of individuals and the organisations that develop them. Biography highlights First Arab woman to complete NASA’s astronaut candidate programme; graduated March 2024 at Johnson Space Center Selected from 4,305 applicants, UAE Astronaut Programme second batch (2021) Mechanical engineering graduate, UAE University; member, American Society of Mechanical Engineers Former piping engineer, National Petroleum Construction Company – projects for ADNOC and Saudi Aramco; later Technical Specialist at ADNOC First place in the UAE, 2011 International Mathematical Olympiad Gulf Business 100 Most Powerful Arabs, 2022, 2024, and 2025; Arabian Business 100 Most Inspiring Leaders 2024 (ranked sixth) Biography The UAE had no domestic astronauts in 2009. Ten years later, Hazzaa AlMansoori spent eight days aboard the International Space Station. In 2024, Nora AlMatrooshi became the first Arab woman to complete NASA’s full astronaut candidate programme, graduating alongside ten candidates selected from more than 12,000 American applicants. AlMatrooshi was chosen from 4,305 applicants in 2021. Over two years at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, her training spanned ISS operations, spacewalk preparation at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, robotics, T-38 jet proficiency, and Russian language. Survival training at Fort Novosel, Alabama was also required. In March 2024, she received her astronaut pin and qualified for future space mission assignments. Before the astronaut programme, she worked as a piping engineer at the National Petroleum Construction Company on projects for ADNOC and Saudi Aramco, and later as a Technical Specialist at ADNOC. She served as Vice President of NPCC’s Youth Council for three consecutive terms. Her academic record includes placing first in the UAE in the 2011 International Mathematical Olympiad. Gulf Business has included her in its 100 Most Powerful Arabs in 2022, 2024, and 2025. Arabian Business ranked her sixth in its 100 Most Inspiring Leaders in 2024. Her stated ambition is to land on the Moon aboard an Emirati spacecraft. Key speaking topics Human spaceflight preparation and operations National space programmes and strategic capability-building Engineering excellence in high-stakes environments STEM talent development and technical career pathways International collaboration in advanced science and technology Selection and readiness in elite technical environments Ideal for STEM, engineering, and advanced technology conferences Government and public sector leadership events focused on national innovation programmes Energy sector organisations, particularly those with ADNOC and Saudi Aramco connections or GCC operating context Youth, education, and talent development forums where firsthand accounts of competitive entry carry weight Audience outcomes A specific account of what elite technical selection actually looks like, from open national application to NASA programme graduation Understanding of how the UAE built operational space capability from scratch in under a decade Insight into the standards, preparation, and team discipline required in environments where errors are not recoverable A reference point for what STEM pipeline development produces at its most rigorous Perspective on the relationship between national ambition, institutional investment, and individual readiness

Why organisations work with Ralf Schumacher Six Grand Prix victories with Williams between 2001 and 2003, including the team’s most recent 1-2 finish at the 2003 French Grand Prix with Juan Pablo Montoya. Performance at the front of one of the most publicly measured competitions in international sport. Still inside the sport every race weekend as Sky Deutschland’s Formula 1 co-commentator since 2019. His read on team strategy and driver dynamics reflects the current grid, not the one he raced on. Active operational role in motorsport beyond broadcasting: shareholder at Mücke Motorsport since 2013, where he mentors young Mercedes-Benz drivers, and co-team manager at US Racing since 2015 with Gerhard Ungar. Insider perspective on the data-driven culture that defines modern F1, where 1,800-person organisations align around fortnightly race deadlines and pit crews execute roughly 36 tasks in under two seconds. Biography highlights Six Formula 1 Grand Prix wins, 27 podiums, and 180 race starts across 11 seasons (1997 to 2007). Drove for Jordan, Williams, and Toyota in Formula 1; raced in DTM with Mercedes-Benz from 2008 to 2012. Won the 1995 Macau Grand Prix in Formula 3 and the 1996 Japanese Formula Nippon championship in his debut season. Co-commentator and pundit for Sky Deutschland’s Formula 1 coverage since 2019, alongside Timo Glock. Shareholder and mentor at Mücke Motorsport since 2013; co-team manager at US Racing since 2015. With brother Michael Schumacher, the only siblings to have each won Formula 1 Grands Prix. Biography Williams’ most recent 1-2 finish in Formula 1 came at the 2003 French Grand Prix. Ralf Schumacher led, Juan Pablo Montoya followed. It was the fifth of six Grand Prix victories Schumacher recorded across an eleven-season Formula 1 career with Jordan, Williams, and Toyota. The competitive ground that produced those results is unusual. A top Formula 1 team employs around 1,800 people, only a small fraction of whom ever attend a race. Performance depends on aligning that population around a calendar of two dozen race weekends where the deadlines are non-negotiable and the result is broadcast live. Drivers occupy one corner of that operation, with measurable output every fortnight. Since 2019, Schumacher has been a co-commentator for Sky Deutschland’s Formula 1 coverage, alongside Timo Glock. The role keeps his analysis current rather than archival. Each race weekend places him back inside the same strategy calls and driver dynamics he speaks about on stage, which is a meaningful gap between him and former drivers who left the sport a decade ago. Off the broadcast he runs an operational role in motorsport. Since 2013 he has been a shareholder and mentor at Mücke Motorsport, supporting young Mercedes-Benz drivers, and since 2015 he has been co-team manager at US Racing. In August 2024 he returned to racing at the Nürburgring, sharing a Ligier JS P320 LMP3 car with his son David in the Prototype Cup Germany. Seventeen years after his last Formula 1 start, he still occupies a working seat in the sport on both sides of the camera. Key speaking topics Team performance in Formula 1 Data-driven decision-making and marginal gains Risk management and safety culture in elite competition Talent development and mentoring Leadership through technological and regulatory change The business and economics of Formula 1 Ideal for Sales and commercial leadership teams in markets that grade performance every quarter Operations and engineering leaders accountable for repeatable execution against fixed deadlines High-potential and emerging-leader programmes inside multinationals DACH-region corporate audiences and German-speaking conferences Audience outcomes A vocabulary for performance under continuous pressure, drawn from one of the most publicly measured competitive environments in the world. Specific examples of how Formula 1 teams align around fortnightly race deadlines, and where that translates to corporate operating rhythm. An honest account of what F1’s data-driven culture actually produces, beyond the slogan of “marginal gains”. The view of talent development from inside the system that mentors Mercedes-Benz drivers.

Why organisations work with Nicholas Hopton A serving British Ambassador to four of the region’s most sensitive postings inside a decade: Yemen, Qatar, Iran and Libya. That working contact list is not replicable from outside government. Reopened the British Embassy in Tehran as the first UK Ambassador to Iran since 2011, giving a first-hand reading of how Iranian decision-making actually functions under sanctions and confrontation. Runs Belmont Advisory, a private geopolitical consultancy, alongside the Middle East Association: advice is shaped by what clients have actually done with it, not by think-tank distance from the deal. Current platforms at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative and as a RUSI Distinguished Fellow keep the analysis tested against serious peer scrutiny. Comfortable with senior business audiences and broadcast media in equal measure, including Bloomberg, the New Statesman and The Spectator, which means a board briefing lands without needing translation from policy register. Biography highlights British Ambassador to Libya, 2019 to 2021; Iran, 2015 to 2018; Qatar, 2013 to 2015; Yemen, 2012 to 2013. First British Ambassador to Iran after the embassy’s reopening, following the 2011 closure. Director General of the Middle East Association. Founder and Managing Director of Belmont Advisory, a geopolitical consultancy. Nonresident Senior Fellow, Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative, Atlantic Council; Distinguished Fellow, Royal United Services Institute. Led the drafting team for the UK’s first National Security Strategy in 2008; Private Secretary to four UK Ministers for Europe, 1998 to 2000. Biography The reopening of the British Embassy in Tehran in 2015 closed a four-year diplomatic break with Iran. Nicholas Hopton was the ambassador who walked back in. Running a mission in a country that had just expelled the previous one is a particular kind of education in how power, sanctions and personal access actually interact. That posting sits inside a 35-year career in the British Diplomatic Service that ran from junior roles in Paris, Rome, Morocco and Mauritania to four ambassadorships in under a decade. Yemen during the early collapse, Qatar at the moment Gulf finance reshaped global asset flows, Iran through the nuclear deal years, then Libya. Each post was the kind of brief in which the embassy is the analytical asset, not a passive observer. In Whitehall he led the team that drafted the UK’s first National Security Strategy in 2008 and served as senior UK official at the 2011 Perth Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. He spent 1998 to 2000 as Private Secretary to four successive Ministers for Europe. The London grounding matters for clients: he understands how the British system actually decides, not just how it appears to. He now runs the Middle East Association as Director General, founded the geopolitical consultancy Belmont Advisory, and holds research positions at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative and at RUSI. The combination gives boards something most political-risk providers cannot: a practitioner who can still place the phone calls, and whose interpretation has been tested in real negotiating rooms. Key speaking topics Iran: politics, sanctions and the post-Khamenei trajectory The Gulf states and the geopolitics of capital Libya, North Africa and Mediterranean security UK and European policy towards the Middle East Political risk and market access in conflict-adjacent economies The mechanics of British and European decision-making on foreign policy Ideal for Board and executive committee briefings on Middle East exposure Chief risk officers and heads of government relations in firms with regional operations Investor and family-office audiences weighing Gulf capital allocation Foreign-policy and defence audiences in think tanks, universities and policy fora Audience outcomes A working map of where power actually sits in Tehran, Doha, Riyadh and Tripoli, separated from media shorthand A clearer view of how sanctions regimes affect commercial decision-making in practice An informed read on the UK and European policy posture toward the region, and where it is likely to move Direct answers to the questions a senior team would otherwise be unable to ask in the open

Why organisations work with I. Stephanie Boyce She led a 200-year-old national professional body through regulatory change, constitutional debate, and sector-wide reform. Her argument for accountable governance is drawn from operational experience, not advisory distance. Her AI ethics position is governance-first: as Law Society President, she led the development of a published set of principles for the ethical use of AI in legal practice, connecting AI adoption directly to legal accountability, bias mitigation, and public trust, among the earliest profession-led frameworks to do so. On inclusion, she does not argue from the outside. She held the most senior elected role in a major regulated institution as its first Black president and first person of colour, which gives her a precise read on the structural distance between a diversity commitment and a genuinely diverse institution. She connects topics most organisations treat separately, AI accountability, DEI governance, reputational integrity, crisis leadership, through the single governance question boards most often defer: when an institutional decision causes harm, who is responsible? The PUSH framework (Persevere Until Something Happens) gives leadership teams a named, teachable approach to resilience grounded in her own documented professional journey through institutional exclusion and resistance at every level of a major profession. Biography highlights 177th President of the Law Society of England and Wales (2021-2022); sixth woman, first Black office-holder and first person of colour to hold the role in the institution’s 200-year history LLM in Public Law and Global Governance, King’s College London; King’s Alumna of the Year 2022 CBE (2026 New Year Honours) for services to the Legal Profession, Diversity, and Access to Justice Commissioner, National Preparedness Commission; Commissioner, Shinkwin Commission; member, HM Treasury and BEIS independent taskforce on socio-economic diversity in UK financial and professional services Named in the Power List 100 Most Influential Black People in the UK in 2021, 2022, and 2023; Governance Hot 100 Board Influencer (2020) Paris Bar Medal from the Ordre des avocats de Paris (2024), awarded for contributions to human rights and the rule of law Fellow of the Chartered Governance Institute; Fellow of King’s College London; Fellow of the RSA Biography It took the Law Society of England and Wales two centuries to elect its first Black president. I. Stephanie Boyce became the 177th in March 2021, with 20 years of practising solicitor experience and an LLM in Public Law and Global Governance from King’s College London, qualifications that gave her both the legal standing and the governance framework for what the role required. Her presidency ran through the pandemic, sharp parliamentary attacks on the legal profession, and the most significant solicitor qualification reform in 30 years. During that time, she led the development of the Law Society’s published lawtech principles, a governance framework for the ethical use of AI in legal practice. The framework connected AI adoption to legal accountability and bias governance at a time when most profession-led work in this area had not advanced beyond aspiration. Boyce’s governance argument rests on an experience most governance advisers do not hold. As the first Black president of a 200-year-old institution, she has encountered the structural gap between stated values and leadership composition from inside the institution itself. That shapes her work on DEI accountability: framing inclusion not as a moral commitment but as a governance question: who decides, and who is responsible when structural inequality persists? She holds a CBE and the Paris Bar Medal from the Ordre des avocats de Paris, awarded for contributions to human rights and the rule of law. She is a commissioner of the National Preparedness Commission and was named in the Power List 100 Most Influential Black People in the UK in 2021, 2022, and 2023. She now works with boards and executive teams across regulated industries through Stephanie Boyce Consulting. Key speaking topics Governance and institutional accountability Ethical AI and responsible technology adoption Inclusion, representation, and belonging at leadership level Rule of law and public trust in regulated environments Social mobility and access to professional careers Resilience and leadership under scrutiny Crisis leadership and institutional change Ideal for Boards, governance committees, and general counsel in regulated industries Executive teams in financial services, legal, and public sector organisations CHROs and DEI leadership navigating the gap between policy and structural change Professional services firms managing reputational risk and stakeholder accountability Audience outcomes A clearer framework for assessing whether governance structures are built for ethical accountability rather than regulatory compliance alone Board-level questions to test whether AI adoption decisions have genuine accountability assigned, not just policy language A more precise read of the structural distance between a DEI commitment and a measurably inclusive institution Practical thinking on what institutional trust requires from those at the top, particularly during crisis and reputational pressure The PUSH framework as a named, teachable approach to institutional resilience for leaders navigating complex or high-scrutiny environments

Why organisations work with Ulrich Walter He brings the credibility of a flown astronaut and a sitting university chair to AI and robotics conversations that usually rely on consultants or vendor analysts. He works on AI from both ends a board cares about: national policy, through the Bavarian Ethics Council, and live corporate implementation, as a supervisory board member responsible for AI and transformation at the Die Bayerische insurance group. Disruptive-innovation content drawn from NASA mission cases and his own IBM project-management work, not from secondhand business literature. A working researcher in geriatronics and service robotics, which gives him a concrete view of what AI-assisted hardware can and cannot do today, beyond the generative-AI conversation. Comfortable in technical depth and broad audience formats. Eleven books, a weekly TV programme on Welt TV, and a Spiegel bestseller indicate a speaker who can carry a non-specialist room without softening the science. Biography highlights Payload Specialist, NASA Space Shuttle Columbia, Spacelab D-2 mission (STS-55), 1993. Chair of the Institute of Astronautics, Technical University of Munich, 2003 to 2023, now emeritus. Member, Bavarian Ethics Council on robotics and artificial intelligence. Member of three supervisory boards within the Die Bayerische insurance group, responsible for the group’s AI implementation and transformation programme. Senior Executive Advisor, Deloitte Space, Germany. German Professor of the Year 2008 in engineering sciences and informatics. Author of eleven books including the Spiegel bestseller Im Schwarzen Loch ist der Teufel los, and host of the weekly Welt TV documentary Spacetimes. Biography Most leadership teams are asked to make decisions about AI and robotics without a working understanding of how the underlying systems behave. That gap is where Ulrich Walter does his most useful work. Trained as a physicist at the University of Cologne, with postdoctoral years at Argonne National Laboratory and UC Berkeley, he combines an active scientific career with a policy seat that few keynote speakers can match. In 1993 he flew Spacelab D-2 aboard Space Shuttle Columbia as Payload Specialist, running 89 experiments across materials science, life sciences and robotics in just under ten days in orbit. After the mission he managed satellite imaging programmes at the German Aerospace Center, then ran development projects at IBM, before being appointed to the Chair of Astronautics at TU Munich in 2003. At TUM he led research on service robotics, geriatronics, and the systems engineering behind human spaceflight. He also sits on the Bavarian Ethics Council on robotics and AI, advising on where the operational and moral limits of these technologies should fall. The work is technical, and it is current. For corporate audiences, the most useful translation is the one between high-risk technical environments and ordinary business decision-making. How does NASA assess disruptive change? How does a project manager at IBM apply mission-grade discipline? What does a working scientist on Germany’s AI ethics body actually think a board should worry about? Walter is unusually direct on all three. Key speaking topics Artificial intelligence and ethics Disruptive innovation Space technology and the NewSpace economy Robotics and geriatronics Systems engineering and project management The future of human spaceflight Science communication for non-specialist audiences Ideal for Boards and executive teams setting governance on AI and emerging technology Engineering, R&D and innovation leadership at industrial and aerospace firms Senior project and programme managers in complex, high-risk environments Conferences and offsites looking for a substantive technology keynote that can also carry a non-technical room Audience outcomes A working view of where AI and robotics genuinely change the operating picture, and where the hype runs ahead of the science. A practical translation of NASA-style risk management and project discipline into commercial settings. A clearer sense of how European regulators and ethicists are framing the limits of AI deployment. Exposure to the NewSpace economy and what it signals about the next generation of commercial technology. A reset of perspective on long-horizon strategic thinking from someone who has spent ten days looking at the planet from orbit.

Why organisations work with Josef Joffe Four decades inside the engine room of European opinion-shaping as publisher-editor of Die Zeit and columnist for Suddeutsche Zeitung, giving boards a primary source on how Berlin, Paris and Brussels actually think. A contrarian intellectual record on American power. The Myth of America’s Decline (Liveright, 2013) dismantled the standard declinist consensus and predicted China’s strategic limits years before they became conventional wisdom. Co-founder of The American Interest with Brzezinski, Cohen and Fukuyama, and of its successor American Purpose. He has shaped the most serious post-Cold War conversation on the West’s strategic future. Stanford Hoover and Freeman Spogli affiliations alongside teaching at Harvard, Johns Hopkins SAIS and Stanford. Boards get an academic seriousness uncommon among geopolitical commentators. Bilingual fluency in the German and American political mind. He is one of the few public intellectuals who can address a transatlantic audience without translating awkwardly between the two political cultures. Biography highlights Publisher-editor of Die Zeit, 2000 to 2023, after fifteen years as editorial page editor of Suddeutsche Zeitung. Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution and courtesy professor of political science at Stanford; Senior Fellow of Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. PhD in Government from Harvard; MA from Johns Hopkins SAIS; BA from Swarthmore. Author of The Myth of America’s Decline (2013), Uberpower: The Imperial Temptation of America (2007) and The Limited Partnership (1987). Co-founder of The American Interest (2005) and American Purpose (2020), with Brzezinski, Cohen and Fukuyama. Recipient of the Theodor Wolff Prize, the Ludwig Borne Prize and Germany’s Federal Order of Merit. Biography The post-1945 international order is being rewritten in real time. War has returned to Europe, the China-US contest has hardened, and Germany has begun a defence and energy reorientation that would have been unthinkable a decade ago. Reading these shifts is now part of board-level strategic work, not foreign policy commentary. Josef Joffe has been working this territory for forty years. As publisher-editor of Die Zeit from 2000 to 2023, and before that as editorial page editor of Suddeutsche Zeitung, he shaped how the German political class understood its place in the Atlantic alliance. His books, including The Myth of America’s Decline (Liveright, 2013) and Uberpower: The Imperial Temptation of America (W.W. Norton, 2007), argue against the prevailing declinist reading of US power, drawing on demographic, economic and military fundamentals that he was naming well before they became consensus. At Stanford he is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, courtesy professor of political science, and Senior Fellow of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. He took his PhD in Government from Harvard and has taught at Harvard, Johns Hopkins SAIS and Stanford. In 2005 he co-founded The American Interest with Zbigniew Brzezinski, Eliot Cohen and Francis Fukuyama; in 2020 the successor publication American Purpose. What Joffe offers leadership teams is rare. A working bilingual command of the German and American political minds, an analytical record that has been right on the durability of American power, and the willingness to make a contrarian argument in front of a room that expects the conventional one. Key speaking topics US foreign policy and the future of American power Transatlantic relations and the Atlantic alliance Germany and the European political order China, Russia and the great-power contest The Middle East and Israel The fracturing post-1945 international order Ideal for Boards and executive committees with material exposure to US-China decoupling, Russia sanctions or European political risk CEOs and strategy leaders of transatlantic firms briefing their leadership on geopolitical scenarios CFOs and treasurers making capital allocation decisions against macro-political volatility Investor and partner forums where senior audiences expect serious foreign-policy analysis rather than commentary Audience outcomes A clearer reading of where US power, the China contest and European politics are actually heading, against the prevailing headlines A frame for distinguishing structural shifts from cyclical noise in transatlantic politics Direct insight into how Berlin, Paris and Brussels are recalibrating after the war in Ukraine A contrarian’s stress test of the assumptions their organisation is currently working from on geopolitics

Why organisations work with Roger Steare His Ethicability framework was adopted by BP into its 2011 Code of Conduct after Deepwater Horizon, and the programme was later recognised by the US Department of Justice in BP’s US$20.8 billion Consent Agreement. Few decision frameworks have been stress-tested at that scale. The MoralDNA psychometric, co-designed with psychologist Pavlos Stamboulides, has profiled more than 200,000 people across 200 countries. It gives boards a measurable language for ethical culture rather than a values poster. He has built ethical leadership programmes for Barclays, BP, Citigroup, HSBC, and Nationwide, and advised the Financial Conduct Authority, the Financial Reporting Council, and the Serious Fraud Office. His client list is the regulator and the regulated, which is rare. He writes for the Financial Times and Director magazine, and reported for the Chartered Management Institute on the link between moral character and organisational performance. The argument is empirical, not aspirational. He brings the same ethical reasoning to AI governance that he applied to banking and energy. Boards confronting AI deployment get a method, not a moral panic. Biography highlights Designer of BP’s global ethical leadership programme for 4,000 leaders following Deepwater Horizon; framework cited in BP’s US Department of Justice Consent Agreement Co-designer of MoralDNA, the moral-values psychometric used by more than 200,000 people in over 200 countries Author of Ethicability, now in a new edition, and of The MoralDNA of Performance for the Chartered Management Institute Associate Professor of ethical decisions at Headspring, the Financial Times and IE Business School executive development venture in Madrid; formerly Corporate Philosopher in Residence at Bayes (formerly Cass) Business School, City, University of London Commissioner on the Institute of Directors Commission, “Business, a Force for Good?” Columnist for the Financial Times and Director magazine; Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts Biography Most ethics work in large organisations is theatre. Codes of conduct sit on intranets, e-learning modules are completed quickly, and the actual decisions get made the same way they always were. The MoralDNA work, built with psychologist Pavlos Stamboulides and now profiling over 200,000 people across 200 countries, was designed to interrupt that pattern. It measures how people actually reason about right and wrong, not what they say they value. The Ethicability framework took the same logic into operational decision-making. After Deepwater Horizon, BP incorporated it into the 2011 Code of Conduct and rolled an associated programme out to 4,000 leaders. In 2016 the US Department of Justice cited that programme as part of BP’s US$20.8 billion Consent Agreement. It is one of very few ethical decision tools stress-tested under genuine regulatory and reputational fire. The wider client list spans Barclays, BP, Citigroup, HSBC, and Nationwide, and he has advised the regulators as well: the Financial Conduct Authority, the Financial Reporting Council, and the Serious Fraud Office. As Associate Professor of ethical decisions at Headspring, the Financial Times and IE Business School venture, he teaches the same material to senior leaders, and he sat as a Commissioner on the Institute of Directors inquiry into whether business is a force for good. His columns for the Financial Times and Director magazine, and his Chartered Management Institute report The MoralDNA of Performance, argue that moral character correlates with measurable organisational outcomes. That argument now extends to AI. The questions a board faces about model deployment, accountability, and bias are not new ethical questions, they are old ones in faster machinery. The work he brings to AI governance is the same reasoning he brought to banking after 2008 and to oil after 2010: a tested method for deciding what is right when commercial, legal, and moral answers diverge. Key speaking topics Values-based leadership and ethical decision-making AI ethics and responsible technology governance Organisational culture and integrity Trust and the social contract of business Moral reasoning at board level Ethics in financial services and regulated industries Ideal for Boards and executive committees facing ethical or reputational exposure Chief Risk Officers, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officers shaping culture beyond compliance Senior leaders in regulated sectors: financial services, energy, healthcare, defence Heads of AI, Chief Data Officers and technology leaders setting deployment standards Audience outcomes A tested method (the Ethicability framework) for making decisions when commercial, legal, and ethical pressures conflict A common language for ethical culture grounded in the MoralDNA evidence base A clearer account of why values-based leadership is correlated with organisational performance A practical framing for AI governance questions that boards can act on

Why organisations work with Alessandra Dabul A board chair and M&A lawyer who has spent three decades inside cross-border deals, so her ESG perspective lands as governance and diligence content, not as advocacy. President of the Board at Gavea Angels and board member at AmCham Brasil, giving her a working line of sight into how investors and corporates in Latin America are actually pricing ESG into capital decisions. Brings the rare combination of IBGC corporate governance certification with executive education in Sustainable Capitalism at UC Berkeley Law and Sustainable Business Strategy at Harvard Business School, applied to live private and public company boards. Speaks fluently in English and French to international audiences, with deep specificity on the Brazil and broader Latin American context that most global ESG speakers cover only thinly. Founding partner of two Brazilian firms focused on M&A and family business governance, which gives her credibility on succession, owner transitions, and the ESG questions that surface during ownership change. Biography highlights Founding partner of Pereira, Dabul Advogados and of RCA Governanca e Sucessoes, both Brazil-based firms. President of the Board at Gavea Angels, one of Brazil’s longest-standing angel investor networks. Board member at AmCham Brasil and member of Women Corporate Directors Brazil Chapter. Former director at Deloitte and senior manager at KPMG, with prior leadership at EY in southern Brazil. Masters and PhD in Economic Law and Social and Environmental Law; IBGC corporate governance certification. Executive education in Sustainable Capitalism and ESG at UC Berkeley Law, and in Sustainable Business Strategy at Harvard Business School. Biography Most boards in emerging markets are still treating ESG as a reporting exercise. The directors who have lived through cross-border M&A know the cost of that posture. Diligence opens up environmental liabilities, governance gaps, and labour exposures that were invisible in the management deck, and the deal repricing happens in the room. Alessandra Dabul has spent close to thirty years inside that room. She built her career advising European, North American, and Canadian corporates entering Brazil through acquisition, first as a director at Deloitte and senior manager at KPMG, with earlier leadership at EY, and now as founding partner of Pereira, Dabul Advogados and of RCA Governanca e Sucessoes. The second firm reflects the part of her practice focused on family business succession, where ownership transitions surface governance and ESG questions that cannot be deferred. Her board work runs in parallel. She is President of the Board at Gavea Angels, one of Brazil’s longest-standing angel investor networks, and a board member at AmCham Brasil. She holds IBGC corporate governance certification and has completed executive education in Sustainable Capitalism at UC Berkeley Law and Sustainable Business Strategy at Harvard Business School. The combination matters because the substance of ESG governance, as she frames it, is whether the board can defend a capital allocation, a deal, or a succession decision when it is questioned by an acquirer, a regulator, or a limited partner. That is the conversation she brings into the room: ESG as a discipline of decision, tested against the realities of M&A, board accountability, and investor capital in a Latin American market that does not yet have the regulatory scaffolding of Europe, but increasingly has the scrutiny. Key speaking topics ESG governance for boards and investment committees Sustainable business strategy in emerging markets Corporate governance and board effectiveness Cross-border M&A and post-acquisition integration in Latin America Family business succession and ownership transitions Angel investment and early-stage capital in Brazil Ideal for Boards and audit committees of multinationals with Brazilian or Latin American operations Chief sustainability officers and general counsel managing ESG diligence and reporting Private equity, venture capital, and angel investor networks pricing ESG into deal flow Family business owners and family office leadership facing succession or governance reform Audience outcomes A clearer view of the specific ESG questions that surface in cross-border M&A diligence, and how to answer them at board level. A working framework for distinguishing ESG narrative from ESG governance, with examples from Brazilian and Latin American board practice. Practical reference points on how angel investor networks and corporate boards are integrating ESG into capital decisions today. A grounded perspective on family business succession, including where ownership transitions create governance risk.

Why organisations work with Miloš Maričić He gives investment boards a working diagnostic for distinguishing real machine learning from AI marketing, anchored in his SPEC framework and his CFA Institute Enterprising Investor work on weak quant models. He chairs Executive AI, the network of CEOs of major European institutional investment organisations, and represented that industry in the EU Artificial Intelligence Act standardisation process. Few speakers can describe AI regulation from inside the room where the rules were written. He has co-edited the Routledge Handbook of Artificial Intelligence and Philanthropy with the University of Geneva, the standard reference for AI in the social sector. That gives foundations and philanthropic boards a credible voice on the same subject. He has built and exited two AI companies and ranks in the top five per cent of the Numerai global leaderboard for market prediction models, so the technical claim is matched by personal track record. He is an OECD AI Expert and a World Economic Forum contributor, which means his framing is already calibrated for senior policy and regulatory audiences. Biography highlights Founder of the Altruist League, Geneva, a philanthropy consultancy whose network reports AUM above USD 10 billion. Chair of Executive AI, a network of CEOs of major European institutional investment organisations. AI Expert at the OECD and contributor at the World Economic Forum. Co-editor, The Routledge Handbook of Artificial Intelligence and Philanthropy, Routledge, 2024. Co-author, Fixing Philanthropy: Six Principles for Actually Improving the World When Giving Away Money, 2021. Educated at the London School of Economics, New York University and Harvard Business School. Biography Most institutional investors now have AI somewhere in their portfolio, their managers, or their operations. Very few have a working method for telling genuine machine learning from a factor model dressed up for a board meeting. That is the gap Maričić has spent his career filling, first inside his own AI ventures, now as Chair of Executive AI, the network of CEOs of major European institutional investment organisations. His SPEC framework, developed for capital allocators and published through CFA Institute’s Enterprising Investor, gives investment committees a short diagnostic for evaluating quantitative managers who claim AI capability. It is the kind of practical tool a CIO can take into a manager meeting on Monday morning. He represented the institutional investor industry in the EU Artificial Intelligence Act standardisation process, and serves as an AI Expert at the OECD and a contributor at the World Economic Forum. Maričić founded the Altruist League, a Geneva-based philanthropy consultancy that pioneered the use of AI in sourcing investments, distributing funds and managing portfolios, and whose network now reports AUM above USD 10 billion. With Giuseppe Ugazio at the University of Geneva, he co-edited The Routledge Handbook of Artificial Intelligence and Philanthropy, the 2024 reference work for foundations and social sector boards thinking about AI governance. He is educated at the London School of Economics, NYU and Harvard Business School, ranks in the top five per cent of the Numerai global leaderboard for market prediction models, and writes The Specification, a newsletter that translates frontier AI research into practical tools for institutional allocators. Key speaking topics AI governance for investment boards and fiduciary committees Due diligence on machine learning in quantitative investment strategies AI regulation, the EU AI Act and institutional capital allocation AI in philanthropy and the social sector Causal inference and the limits of factor investing Geopolitics of AI for sovereign wealth funds and central banks Trust-based giving and systemic-change philanthropy Ideal for Chief Investment Officers, investment committees and manager-selection teams at pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, central banks and endowments Boards of foundations and philanthropic organisations setting AI strategy and governance Risk, audit and fiduciary committees taking responsibility for AI-driven strategies they did not build Senior policy and regulatory audiences working on AI in financial services Audience outcomes A clear diagnostic for distinguishing real machine learning from AI marketing inside quantitative managers Specific questions a board or investment committee can put to managers and internal teams about AI claims A current read on the EU AI Act and what it means for institutional allocators in practice A grounded view of where AI is genuinely changing philanthropy and where it is hype A working vocabulary for fiduciary AI oversight that does not require a technical background

Why organisations work with Rory Cormac He brings archival-grade authority on how states actually conduct covert action, drawn from declassified British and allied intelligence records, not commentary or speculation. His work on the grey zone gives boards a structured way to read sabotage, subversion and information operations as connected forms of state pressure, not isolated incidents. He translates the playbooks of Russian and Chinese covert activity into specific implications for industries exposed to critical infrastructure, supply chains and intellectual property. How to Stage a Coup (Atlantic, 2022) is one of the few mainstream studies of secret statecraft to be taken seriously by both academic intelligence scholars and practitioners. Fakers (Oxford University Press, 2026) reads the British Cold War forgery operations as a working playbook for present-day state disinformation, giving leaders a historical pattern they can apply to current incidents. He has given oral evidence on foreign interference to parliamentary inquiries in both the UK and Australia, and has fronted three Channel 4 documentaries with Richard Aldrich on intelligence and the British state, making him equally credible in front of policy committees, expert rooms and public audiences. Biography highlights Professor of International Relations and lead for security and resilience research at the University of Nottingham, specialising in secret intelligence and covert action. Fellow of the Royal Historical Society; previous Leverhulme and AHRC Fellowships. Author of Fakers (Oxford University Press, 2026) on state disinformation, How to Stage a Coup (Atlantic, 2022), Disrupt and Deny (Oxford University Press, 2018) and Confronting the Colonies (Hurst, 2014). Co-author with Richard J. Aldrich of The Black Door and The Secret Royals: Spying and the Crown from Victoria to Diana (Atlantic, 2021). Co-presenter of three Channel 4 documentaries: Spying on the Royals, D-Day: The King who Fooled Hitler, The Queen and the Coup. Has given oral evidence on foreign interference to parliamentary inquiries in the UK and Australia, with regular appearances across national press, radio and television on intelligence matters. Biography Most boards still treat espionage as a film genre. The pipeline interruption, the leaked tender, the social media campaign that crashes a launch, the supplier suddenly entangled in a sanctions investigation: these are read as separate operational problems, not as connected acts of state pressure. The work of Rory Cormac, Professor of International Relations at the University of Nottingham, is to give senior leaders the language and the historical pattern recognition to see them as one problem. Cormac is Professor of International Relations and lead for security and resilience research at the University of Nottingham, specialising in covert action and secret statecraft. His authority is built on archival research into declassified British and allied records, the basis of Disrupt and Deny (Oxford University Press, 2018) and Confronting the Colonies (Hurst, 2014). With Richard J. Aldrich he co-authored The Black Door and The Secret Royals, broadening that material into a wider reading of how states use the hidden hand. How to Stage a Coup (Atlantic, 2022) brought the argument into the present. Eleven lessons drawn from a century of secret statecraft, applied to a world of sabotage, ambiguous warfare and adversaries operating just below the threshold of open conflict. Fakers (Oxford University Press, 2026) extends the work into disinformation directly, using the declassified history of Britain’s Cold War forgery operations to read the mechanics of present-day state influence campaigns. Both books sit at the centre of current debates on the grey zone among scholars and practitioners alike. Beyond the academy he is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a former Leverhulme and AHRC Fellow, and a co-presenter with Aldrich of three Channel 4 documentaries on intelligence and the British state. He has also given oral evidence to parliamentary inquiries on foreign interference in both the UK and Australia. The result is a speaker who can hold a room of historians, a corporate security committee, and a Hay Festival audience using the same material. Key speaking topics Covert action and secret statecraft Grey-zone conflict and hybrid threats Russian and Chinese subversion Disinformation and information warfare Intelligence history and the modern state Political risk for critical infrastructure and IP-heavy sectors Resilience against sabotage and infiltration Ideal for Boards and risk committees in defence, energy, telecoms and critical infrastructure Chief security officers, heads of corporate intelligence and political risk leads Government, military and policy audiences working on national resilience Industry associations and conferences focused on geopolitical exposure Audience outcomes A clearer reading of how state adversaries combine sabotage, subversion and disinformation against commercial targets A working vocabulary for the grey zone that makes specific incidents legible as part of a larger pattern A historically grounded view of Russian and Chinese covert practice, rather than headline impressions Sharper questions for security, communications and supply-chain teams about where the organisation is exposed A sense of where the boundary sits between state interference and ordinary commercial risk

Why organisations work with Tim Gregory He works inside the industry he speaks about. Day to day, he measures the chemistry and radioactivity of nuclear materials at Sellafield, which gives his policy arguments a footing most energy commentators do not have. His book Going Nuclear, published by Bodley Head and Pegasus in 2025, is a structured commercial case for atomic energy in the transition, not a general science book. Audiences leave with the argument, not impressions of it. He translates technical content for non-technical rooms. A decade of BBC science broadcasting, including The Sky at Night and BBC Breakfast, has trained him to take a board-level audience through reactor design, waste, and medical isotopes without losing them. He covers the adjacent commercial opportunities, not only generation: nuclear medicine, isotope supply chains, and nuclear power for space missions. This matters to boards in pharma, advanced manufacturing and aerospace, not just utilities. He is one of the few public-facing voices on nuclear who is a working scientist rather than a former regulator or executive, which gives him independence on contested questions about waste, safety and cost. Biography highlights Senior nuclear chemist at the UK National Nuclear Laboratory, Sellafield. Author of Going Nuclear: How the Atom Will Save the World (Bodley Head/Pegasus, 2025). Author of Meteorite: How Stones from Outer Space Made Our World (John Murray, 2020). PhD in cosmochemistry, University of Bristol; MEarthSci First Class, University of Manchester. BBC science presenter and contributor: The Sky at Night, BBC Bitesize, BBC Breakfast, Channel 4 News, Sky News Australia. Final three on BBC2’s Astronauts: Do You Have What It Takes?, the astronaut selection series with Chris Hadfield. NASA Johnson Space Center intern, working on water-rich asteroids. Biography The UK plans to meet net zero with a grid that does not yet exist. Wind and solar capacity is rising, but firm low-carbon power is not. Gregory works at Sellafield, where the operational reality of nuclear, its fuel cycle, its waste, its economics, is closer than it is for most commentators on energy policy. Going Nuclear, published in 2025 by Bodley Head in the UK and Pegasus in the US, sets out his argument in detail. It is not a defence of the existing nuclear estate. It is a case that atomic energy is the most environmentally responsible way to generate firm power, and that the wider applications of the atom, in medicine, forensics, agriculture and space, are systematically underweighted in public debate. His credibility on the subject is anchored in primary research. He holds a PhD in cosmochemistry from the University of Bristol, completed a NASA internship at Johnson Space Center on water-rich asteroids, and wrote Meteorite (John Murray, 2020) about how the chemistry of meteorites maps the formation of the Solar System. That training in isotope chemistry is the same toolkit he applies at Sellafield. He is also a working broadcaster. BBC Sky at Night, BBC Breakfast, BBC Bitesize and Channel 4 News have used him as a science contributor, and he reached the final three on BBC2’s Astronauts: Do You Have What It Takes? under Chris Hadfield. For boards working through the gap between net zero policy and capital allocation, he is rare in being both a practitioner and a public communicator on the same subject. Key speaking topics Nuclear power and net zero Energy transition and capital allocation Nuclear waste, recycling and advanced reactors Nuclear medicine and isotope-based cancer treatment Nuclear power for space exploration Cosmochemistry and the formation of the Solar System Curiosity-driven research and commercial innovation Ideal for Boards and executive teams in energy, utilities and infrastructure setting decarbonisation strategy. Investor and capital allocation audiences weighing nuclear exposure against renewables and gas. Pharmaceutical, advanced manufacturing and aerospace leadership teams interested in isotopes, nuclear medicine and space-grade power. Policy, regulatory and public-affairs audiences working on the UK and EU energy transition. Audience outcomes A clearer view of where nuclear fits in a credible net zero pathway, and where the renewables-only argument runs out of road. Working knowledge of the economics and physics of waste, including why “waste” is increasingly a misnomer for current fuel cycles. A grounded read on nuclear medicine and isotope supply, and what it implies for pharma and healthcare strategy. A frame for thinking about nuclear-powered space missions and lunar or Martian infrastructure. The ability to push back, with data, on the most common public objections to nuclear power.