Scenario Planning & Strategic Foresight

Why organisations work with Magnus Lindkvist He built the academic discipline he speaks from. In 2008 he created the world’s first accredited course in trendspotting and future thinking at the Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship, which gives the work an unusually serious intellectual base for the futurist category. His books are a connected argument, not a back catalogue. Everything We Know Is Wrong, The Attack of the Unexpected, and When the Future Begins together form a thesis on why most forecasting fails and how leaders can think about long horizons more honestly. He treats unexpected events as a strategic category, not a footnote. Boards used to thinking in trends get a sharper framework for the shocks that trends cannot predict. He has spent three decades inside the meeting rooms of Fortune 500 boards, ministries, and global institutions, which means the material is calibrated for senior audiences rather than conference floors. The delivery is a deliberate performance. He calls it intellectual acupuncture, and senior buyers consistently book him for sessions where the brief is to change how a leadership team thinks, not to brief them on a topic. Biography highlights Founder of Pattern Recognition, a Stockholm-based trendspotting consultancy established in 2005. Created the world’s first academically accredited course in trendspotting and future thinking at the Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship in 2008. Author of Everything We Know Is Wrong! The Trendspotter’s Handbook, The Attack of the Unexpected, and When the Future Begins: A Guide to Long-Term Thinking, published by LID Publishing. Author of Minifesto (2016), Creative Friction (2021, with Jan Gradvall), and The Reset Book: How to Bounce Back from a Crisis (2023). MSc in Business and Economics, Stockholm School of Economics; degree in film production, UCLA. Over 1,000 keynotes delivered to corporate, institutional, and government audiences across roughly three decades. Biography Most forecasting fails for the same reason. It extrapolates the present and underweights everything that arrives from outside the model. Magnus Lindkvist has spent three decades building a more honest discipline around that problem, and a body of work that takes long-term thinking seriously as a leadership skill. The intellectual base is unusual for the futurist category. In 2008 he created the world’s first accredited course in trendspotting and future thinking, at the Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship, after founding his consultancy Pattern Recognition in 2005. The trio of books that anchors his speaking work, Everything We Know Is Wrong, The Attack of the Unexpected, and When the Future Begins, runs as a connected argument: trends matter, the events that break them matter more, and organisations need a different mental architecture for the long horizon. His later books extend the same instinct in new directions. Minifesto argues for the strategic power of small ideas inside organisations dominated by grand narratives. Creative Friction, written with Swedish music journalist Jan Gradvall, draws on popular culture to examine what actually produces creative work. The Reset Book, published in 2023, addresses how individuals and organisations recover from crisis with more rigour than the resilience genre usually allows. The delivery is the second reason senior buyers commission him. He treats a keynote as a performance designed to shift a room’s assumptions, which is why boards, ministries, and global firms tend to use him at moments when the leadership team needs to think differently, not simply hear an update on the future. Key speaking topics Long-term thinking and strategic foresight Trendspotting and turning points in industries The strategic role of unexpected events Creativity and the conditions for original work Reset and recovery after crisis Innovation under uncertainty The future of technology and society Ideal for Boards and executive teams setting multi-year strategy under high uncertainty CSOs, heads of strategy, and corporate development leaders responsible for long-range planning Innovation, R&D, and foresight leads inside large incumbents Leadership offsites where the brief is to change how the team thinks, not to deliver an update Audience outcomes A sharper sense of where current forecasting habits are likely to mislead a leadership team A practical vocabulary for distinguishing trends, turning points, and genuinely unexpected events A more honest framework for long-term thinking, drawn from his book When the Future Begins A renewed view of creativity and small ideas as strategic assets, not cultural ornaments Renewed appetite inside the room for thinking about the next decade, not the next quarter

Why organisations work with Lucas Papademos A direct, first-hand account of ECB Governing Council decision-making through the 2007–2008 financial crisis and the pre-crisis debates over the Stability and Growth Pact – insight not available from any published report, and accessible only through testimony from those who were in the room. Co-originator of the NAIRU framework (Modigliani & Papademos, 1975, 1978), which remains embedded in how central banks approach the inflation–unemployment trade-off – giving him standing to explain that framework from the inside, not as an interpreter of others’ work. Managed Greece’s euro transition as central bank governor, then led the country’s sovereign debt restructuring negotiations as its prime minister – a full-cycle perspective on monetary union fragility, institutional failure, and crisis resolution that no commentator or external analyst holds. As a member of the G20 Financial Stability Board, the EU Economic and Financial Committee, and the BIS Central Bank Governance Group, he can illuminate how global financial governance actually operates under systemic stress – not as it is documented, but as it is practised. Biography highlights ECB Vice President, 2002–2010, serving under both Wim Duisenberg and Jean-Claude Trichet; member of the ECB Executive Board and Governing Council Governor, Bank of Greece, 1994–2002; architected Greece’s monetary transition from the drachma to the euro Prime Minister of Greece, November 2011–May 2012; led national unity government through the sovereign debt crisis and the largest debt restructuring in EU and OECD history at that time PhD in Economics, MIT, 1978; doctoral supervisor Franco Modigliani (Nobel laureate); co-authored the Modigliani-Papademos NAIRU papers (1975, 1978), foundational to modern monetary policy Faculty positions at Columbia University, University of Athens, and Harvard Kennedy School; Senior Fellow, Center for Financial Studies, Goethe University Frankfurt Member: Academy of Athens (President 2017–2018); G20 Financial Stability Board and Steering Committee; BIS Central Bank Governance Group; EU Economic and Financial Committee Biography Greece’s entry into the eurozone was not a ceremonial event. It required a decade of monetary tightening, institutional credibility-building, and disciplined policy execution. As Governor of the Bank of Greece from 1994 to 2002, Lucas Papademos was the architect of that process, managing the currency transition and imposing the monetary discipline that euro membership demanded. His academic work reaches to the foundations of modern monetary theory. A PhD from MIT under Nobel laureate Franco Modigliani produced the Modigliani-Papademos papers of 1975 and 1978, which introduced the NAIRU concept: the unemployment rate consistent with stable, non-accelerating inflation. The framework shaped how central banks think about price stability trade-offs and continues to be cited in current monetary policy literature. At the ECB, where Papademos served as Vice President from 2002 to 2010, he sat at the centre of European monetary decision-making through the global financial crisis. He was a consistent advocate for the integrity of the Stability and Growth Pact, arguing (before the crisis) that weakening fiscal rules would generate the sovereign debt imbalances that later threatened the currency union’s existence. In 2011, those warnings proved prescient. Papademos returned to Athens as Prime Minister – appointed without parliamentary affiliation to lead a national unity government – and negotiated directly with the IMF, European Commission, and ECB on what became, at the time, the EU and OECD’s largest sovereign debt restructuring. The combination of original macroeconomic theory, eight years inside the ECB’s governing architecture, and crisis governance under extreme political pressure defines a perspective with no close equivalent. Key speaking topics Eurozone sovereign debt and crisis management Monetary policy architecture and central bank strategy European financial stability and macroprudential frameworks Fiscal discipline and European economic governance The political economy of monetary union Sovereign debt restructuring and creditor negotiations Global financial risk and institutional design Ideal for CFOs, chief risk officers, and sovereign debt investors assessing European financial and monetary risk Central bank and treasury audiences engaging with monetary policy frameworks and eurozone governance Board members and senior executives in financial services with exposure to European sovereign or systemic risk Conference conveners and senior programme curators framing high-level discussions on global financial governance or geopolitical economic risk Audience outcomes A grounded understanding of how ECB decision-making operates in practice – including the tensions between fiscal rules, monetary mandates, and political reality that standard accounts do not capture First-hand perspective on the sequence of decisions and institutional failures that produced the 2011 eurozone sovereign debt crisis, and what the resolution process actually involved A framework for distinguishing between sovereign debt fragility, monetary transmission risk, and structural economic weakness – distinctions that matter for investment positioning and policy planning Practical context for evaluating European economic governance reform proposals against the precedents of the most recent crisis – including what was agreed, what was deferred, and why Insight into how technocratic governance functions under democratic pressure, and the institutional limits it encounters

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

Why organisations work with Klisman Murati The Global Power Index, a proprietary quantitative model assessing 194 countries across multiple dimensions of national power and built on more than 30 years of longitudinal data. Clients drawing on it include NATO, the European Commission, Shell, JP Morgan, and HSBC. A documented forecasting record. The GPI signalled Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Germany’s 2024 recession before consensus, and surfaced the structural drivers of the US-Israel-Iran conflict for shipping and energy leadership ahead of the market. A direct challenge to the categories institutions still allocate against. He shows asset managers and corporate boards why “emerging markets” no longer maps to where capability is actually accumulating, and gives them a more accurate way to read country trajectories. A multidisciplinary lens that single-discipline analysts cannot replicate. His training spans anthropology, political economy, energy policy, security studies, and financial crime, which is what allows him to read AI, protectionism, capital flows, and demographic change as one connected system. Biography highlights Founder and CEO of Pareto Economics, the London-based strategic intelligence firm behind the Global Power Index Creator of the Global Power Index, a proprietary quantitative framework covering 194 countries and three decades of longitudinal data Visiting Professor at the Helsinki Geoeconomics Institute Forecasts arriving ahead of consensus include Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Germany’s 2024 recession Clients include NATO, the European Commission, Shell, JP Morgan, HSBC, Vanguard, Telia, and Stena Bulk Quoted and broadcast across BBC, Al Jazeera, CGTN, the Financial Times, and Investment Week; author of more than 250 published articles Biography Pareto Economics called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Germany’s 2024 recession ahead of consensus. Behind those calls sits the Global Power Index, a proprietary quantitative model of 194 countries built on more than 30 years of longitudinal data. Klisman Murati founded Pareto Economics in 2017 to address a specific gap in country-risk analysis. Conventional models rank economies by income thresholds and credit ratings. The GPI instead maps which economies are actually accumulating capability across consumer markets, military balance, technological leadership, commodities exposure, geostrategic position, and financial strength. That work has placed him in the room with the people allocating capital under geopolitical exposure. Clients include NATO, the European Commission, Shell, JP Morgan, HSBC, Vanguard, Stena Bulk, and Telia. He has helped asset managers reposition ahead of the Russia-Ukraine shock and advised shipping and energy leadership on the structural drivers of the US-Israel-Iran conflict. Murati’s training spans social anthropology, security studies, energy policy, and financial crime. As Visiting Professor at the Helsinki Geoeconomics Institute, he sits at the intersection of frontier academic research and live institutional practice. His commentary appears across BBC, Al Jazeera, CGTN, the Financial Times, and Investment Week, and he has published more than 250 articles. Key speaking topics Geoeconomic strategy and country risk The Global Power Index and quantitative country forecasting Geopolitical risk and capital allocation Fragmentation of the global trade and investment order AI, protectionism, and the redistribution of global power Long-horizon strategic foresight Emerging market reassessment Ideal for Boards, investment committees, and CIOs setting country and exposure strategy in a fracturing global order Asset managers and family offices repositioning capital ahead of geopolitical shocks Corporate strategy leadership in energy, shipping, financial services, and technology with material cross-border exposure Policymakers and government officials shaping long-horizon economic and security strategy Audience outcomes A clearer view of which forces will actually shape the next five to ten years, separated from headline noise A working framework for pricing geopolitical risk into specific capital allocation, market entry, and exposure decisions Specific signals to track in their own industry, sector, or geography, drawn directly from the GPI’s underlying data Replacement of outdated categories like “emerging markets” with a sharper, data-driven read of country capability

Why organisations work with Kjell A. Nordstrom The «Karaoke Capitalism» framework names a specific competitive failure – the institutional imitation produced by benchmarking and best practice – that most strategy teams recognise but lack precise language to challenge or dismantle. His «multi-urban corporation» thesis, developed in Urban Express, gives multinationals a practical alternative to national market segmentation: a model for deciding where to compete based on urban density, talent pools, and city-level economic power rather than country borders. His argument that urbanisation and the feminisation of skilled workforces are structural economic forces – not social policy questions – translates demographic change into a direct input for strategic planning and talent decisions. Three decades of advisory work with large multinationals and the UK government, grounded in academic research into the internationalisation of firms, means his structural arguments have been pressure-tested against real strategic decisions at board level. Funky Business, translated into 33 languages and ranked among the greatest business books ever published, demonstrates that his frameworks have been tested and adopted in every major market – giving leadership teams confidence the thinking travels beyond any single regional or cultural context. Biography highlights PhD in International Business, Stockholm School of Economics (1991); former Assistant Professor at the Institute of International Business (IIB), same institution Co-author of Funky Business: Talent Makes Capital Dance, translated into 33 languages and ranked 16th greatest business book of all time; co-author of Karaoke Capitalism and Funky Business Forever with Jonas Ridderstrale Co-author of Urban Express and Momentum with Per Schlingmann; sole author of The Monkey and the Money: A History of Capitalism (Bokförlaget Stolpe, 2023) Ranked #9 in the Thinkers50 global ranking of management thinkers (2005); featured in multiple subsequent editions of the ranking Advisory and consulting work with large multinational corporations and the UK government Media appearances across CNN, CNBC, Fortune, Fast Company, Time Magazine, and the Financial Times; keynote presentations delivered in over 100 countries Biography The rules of competitive strategy seemed settled for most of the twentieth century. Identify a national market. Deploy capital and scale. Benchmark against rivals. Kjell A. Nordstrom, a Swedish economist with a PhD from the Stockholm School of Economics, has spent three decades building the case that those rules are losing their purchase – and that the structural forces displacing them are more powerful than most boards have yet absorbed. His 2000 book Funky Business, co-authored with Jonas Ridderstrale, argued that talent, not capital, had become the decisive competitive input. The book became an international bestseller in 33 languages and was ranked among the 16 greatest business books ever published. The follow-up, Karaoke Capitalism (2003), named a specific organisational failure: benchmarking and best practice had trained entire industries to imitate rather than differentiate, producing what the authors called a karaoke economy of second-rate cover versions. Both books remain in active circulation in serious management conversations. His subsequent work extended the analytical frame outward. Urban Express (2014), co-authored with Per Schlingmann, argued that multinationals are becoming multi-urban corporations. Cities, not nations, are the primary economic units of the coming decades, and an educated, urban, female workforce is the dominant skilled labour pool of the near future. Momentum (2023) examined how pandemic, geopolitical rupture, and climate pressure are accelerating this structural shift and what it demands from the next generation of leaders. Ranked #9 in the Thinkers50 global ranking of management thinkers (2005), and a regular presence in Fortune, the Financial Times, and on CNN, Nordstrom has advised large multinationals and the UK government on strategy and globalisation. His value in a boardroom conversation is specific: not scenario planning or trend forecasting, but structural argument about which forces are deterministic, and which are merely plausible. Key speaking topics Globalisation and competitive strategy Urbanisation and the rise of the multi-urban corporation The karaoke economy: imitation as competitive liability Talent as the primary driver of competitive advantage Demographic change as structural economic force The long-run trajectory of capitalism Crisis, geopolitical rupture, and strategic response Ideal for Executive and board-level strategy sessions at multinational organisations Government and public policy leaders navigating structural economic transformation Strategy, corporate development, and planning functions reviewing long-term competitive positioning International leadership forums and global business summits Audience outcomes A structural framework for identifying which macro forces are actually reshaping competition in their sector Language for naming and challenging institutional imitation within their own organisation A working understanding of the multi-urban corporation thesis and its implications for market entry and talent strategy Clearer thinking on how urbanisation and demographic change translate into actionable strategic planning inputs A longer-range perspective on the current moment in capitalism’s evolution and what it demands from senior leadership

Why organisations work with Kishore Mahbubani His analysis comes from Singapore’s structural position: a small, open economy that has always had to navigate between great powers without the luxury of strategic illusion. That vantage point produces insight unavailable from inside either Washington or Beijing. His ten books – including Has China Won?, Has the West Lost It?, and The Great Convergence, selected by the Financial Times as one of the best books of 2013 – give audiences a proven intellectual framework, not commentary. Leaders leave with a model for thinking, not just a briefing. He operated inside the machinery of global governance at its highest level – UN Security Council President in 2001 and 2002, Singapore’s Permanent Representative to the UN across two postings spanning two decades – during some of the most consequential shifts in the post-Cold War order. His argument that Western strategic errors, not Chinese aggression, are the primary driver of geopolitical instability gives boards and executive teams a more analytically useful starting point for risk decisions than the standard Western-media frame. Named by Foreign Policy magazine as a Top Global Thinker in both 2010 and 2011, and elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019, his standing as a public intellectual is verifiable and specific – not attributed to unnamed rankings. Biography highlights Two-time Singapore Permanent Representative to the United Nations (1984-1989 and 1998-2004); President of the UN Security Council, January 2001 and May 2002 Former Permanent Secretary, Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with earlier posting to Cambodia during the 1973-74 war Founding Dean, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore (2004-2017) Author of ten books including Has China Won? (2020), Has the West Lost It? (2018), and The Great Convergence (2013, selected by the Financial Times as one of its best books of the year) Elected honorary international member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2019); Foreign Policy Top Global Thinker (2010 and 2011); Prospect Top 50 World Thinkers (2014) Regular contributor to Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the Financial Times, the New York Times, and the Washington Post; described by Foreign Policy as “the muse of the Asian century” Biography The geopolitical assumptions that shaped corporate strategy for two decades are fragmenting. China’s economic weight, the contested legitimacy of multilateral institutions, and the competing logics of Washington and Beijing are forcing organisations to rethink how they read the world. Very few people have been inside the machinery of that world – at the UN Security Council table, in bilateral diplomacy, and in sustained academic output across three decades – long enough to explain what the structural shift actually means. Kishore Mahbubani spent 33 years in Singapore’s foreign service, culminating in two terms as Singapore’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and as President of the UN Security Council in 2001 and 2002. He also served as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Singapore’s position – an open, trade-dependent city-state that cannot align itself exclusively with either Washington or Beijing – shaped an analytical disposition that is genuinely non-aligned. That is not a diplomatic posture; it is an intellectual asset. From 2004 to 2017 he built the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore into a leading institution, then turned to full-time writing and research. His ten books – from Can Asians Think? in 1998 to Has China Won? in 2020 and the memoir Living the Asian Century in 2024 – constitute a sustained intellectual project: arguing that the West’s two-century dominance was a historical anomaly, and that the world needs new frameworks for a genuinely multipolar order. The Great Convergence was selected by the Financial Times as one of the best books of 2013. He has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was described by Foreign Policy magazine as “the muse of the Asian century.” What distinguishes his value to senior audiences is not simply that he has held senior positions – many speakers have – but that he has argued a consistent, testable thesis about global power across four decades, in public, against the prevailing consensus. For boards and leadership teams navigating the US-China contest, that track record is the credential that matters. Key speaking topics US-China strategic competition Asia’s return to global economic centrality The future of multilateral institutions and global governance Geopolitical risk and corporate strategy Non-Western perspectives on the international order Singapore and Southeast Asia as strategic bellwethers Ideal for Corporate boards and C-suite teams with significant Asia-Pacific exposure or market decisions pending Financial services, investment, and asset management organisations pricing geopolitical risk Government and public sector leaders navigating multilateral relationships Strategy and scenario planning teams stress-testing assumptions about the global order Audience outcomes A working analytical model for the US-China contest – beyond news-cycle commentary Clearer understanding of how Asia’s rise is reshaping trade, technology standards, and institutional allegiances A non-Western frame for interpreting geopolitical signals that most Western analysis misreads Specific historical parallels and precedents for managing great-power transitions A more calibrated vocabulary for internal strategic conversations about geopolitical exposure

Why organisations work with Kaihan Krippendorff He runs Outthinker, a working peer network of chief strategy, innovation and growth officers from Fortune 500 companies. The research that feeds his keynotes is drawn from sitting CSOs, not desk study. His IDEAS process, Outthinker Playbook, and 9Ps business model framework give strategy teams a structured way to surface non-obvious options. These are taught inside Wharton Executive Education, NYU, and FIU. Proximity, co-authored with Robert Wolcott of Kellogg, is the most developed business-side thesis on what just-in-time production, AI, and on-demand services mean for where value is created. It earned Thinkers50 recognition and a Next Big Idea Club endorsement. He bridges strategy and internal entrepreneurship. Driving Innovation from Within (Columbia Business School Publishing) addresses the operational problem of getting new ideas through a corporate immune system, the issue most CSOs actually wrestle with. Biography highlights Founder of Outthinker, a peer network of chief strategy, innovation, growth and transformation officers from Fortune 500 and large private organisations. Former McKinsey consultant; senior fellow at Wharton; teaching roles at NYU School of Professional Studies and Florida International University. Author of six books including Outthink the Competition, Driving Innovation from Within, and Proximity (co-authored with Robert Wolcott, 2024). Thinkers50 Radar Class of 2019; shortlisted for the Thinkers50 Innovation Award (2019) and Strategy Award (2023). Host of three podcasts: Outthinkers, The Chief Strategy Officer Podcast, and Strategy at Scale Podcast. Contributor to Harvard Business Review and Fast Company. Biography Competitive advantage in most large companies is built on assumptions that quietly stop holding. The Outthinker network was set up to surface those assumptions early. It is a working group of chief strategy, innovation, growth and transformation officers from Fortune 500 and large private companies, convened by Kaihan Krippendorff to pressure-test where their industries are actually moving. Krippendorff trained at McKinsey before founding Outthinker. His doctorate is in economics and business; his engineering degree comes from the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering, with further study at Wharton, Columbia Business School, and London Business School. He is a senior fellow at Wharton Executive Education and teaches at NYU School of Professional Studies and Florida International University. His published work has the same emphasis. Outthink the Competition sets out the strategic patterns disruptors use that incumbents rarely consider. Driving Innovation from Within, published by Columbia Business School Publishing, addresses the harder operational problem of moving an idea through a corporate immune system. Proximity, co-authored with Robert Wolcott of Kellogg, argues that AI, on-demand production, and digital infrastructure are collapsing the distance between supply and demand, and that this shift, rather than any single technology, is what redraws competitive position. He hosts three podcasts aimed at the same audience: Outthinkers, The Chief Strategy Officer Podcast, and Strategy at Scale Podcast. Thinkers50 has ranked him on its Radar list and shortlisted him for both its Innovation and Strategy awards. Key speaking topics Strategy under accelerating disruption Business model innovation Corporate innovation and internal entrepreneurship AI and the proximity economy Outside-in strategic foresight Chief strategy officer practice Growth strategy for Fortune 500 organisations Ideal for CSOs, chief innovation officers, and chief growth officers running strategy refresh cycles Boards and executive teams reassessing competitive position in an industry under structural change Corporate transformation leads building internal innovation pipelines Audience outcomes A clearer view of which assumptions underpinning the current strategy have already expired A working vocabulary, drawn from the Outthinker Playbook and 9Ps, for generating non-obvious strategic options A framework for thinking about AI and on-demand technology as a shift in where value is created, not a productivity tool Sharper questions for the next strategy offsite, informed by what sitting CSOs in the Outthinker network are actually working on

Why organisations work with Joseph Stiglitz His Nobel Prize work demonstrated that markets systematically mis-price when participants have unequal access to information – a finding that maps directly onto corporate governance failures, credit risk models, and regulatory blind spots that boards encounter in practice. He is among the very few economists to have held operational control over both US domestic economic policy (Council of Economic Advisers) and global financial architecture (World Bank Chief Economist) – his critique of institutions carries authority because it comes from inside them. The commission he chaired for President Sarkozy in 2008 produced the framework now being advanced by the OECD as a formal alternative to GDP. Organisations engaged in ESG reporting, long-term value creation, and sustainability governance are already operating within the measurement landscape he helped design. The Price of Inequality (2012) and The Road to Freedom (2024) make the specific, evidence-based case that inequality is a structural drag on growth, market stability, and democratic governance – giving senior leaders a rigorous foundation for treating social outcomes as financial risk, not reputational noise. His analysis of globalisation – grounded in direct experience of how the IMF and World Bank made their most consequential decisions – gives organisations operating across emerging markets a more accurate model of where global financial governance fails and why. Biography highlights Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2001), shared with Akerlof and Spence, for the theory of markets with asymmetric information – a finding that reshaped economics and became standard in policy analysis University Professor at Columbia University, the institution’s highest academic rank, with appointments in Economics, SIPA, and Columbia Business School Chair of the US Council of Economic Advisers (1995-97) under President Clinton; Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank (1997-2000) Chaired the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress (2008-09) at President Sarkozy’s request; published as Mismeasuring Our Lives; continues to chair the successor High-Level Expert Group at the OECD John Bates Clark Medal (1979); more than 40 honorary doctorates, including from Cambridge and Oxford; named by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world (2011) Author of more than 10 books for general audiences, including Globalization and Its Discontents (2002), The Price of Inequality (2012), and The Road to Freedom (2024) Lead author of the 1995 IPCC Report, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize; regular contributor to Project Syndicate; regular coverage in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Guardian Biography The strategic blind spot in most boardrooms is not a lack of data – it is a set of inherited economic assumptions that have been treated as fact. Markets clear. Prices reflect value. Deregulation improves outcomes. Joseph Stiglitz has spent five decades building the evidence against each of these claims, from the insurance market to the credit system to the global financial architecture. His Nobel Prize in 2001 recognised the foundational work. In markets where some participants know more than others, the outcomes that standard models predict do not materialise. Credit gets rationed below efficient levels. Insurance markets produce worse aggregate outcomes than pooling would allow. Labour markets generate unemployment that wage adjustments alone cannot resolve. These are not edge cases – they are the structural features of every market senior leaders navigate. Beyond the academy, Stiglitz has held the positions where those theories met consequences. He served as Chair of the US Council of Economic Advisers under Clinton and as Chief Economist of the World Bank. His subsequent criticism of those institutions – in Globalization and Its Discontents (2002) and The Price of Inequality (2012) – carries weight precisely because it was written by someone who watched the decisions being made. His more recent work extends the argument into measurement and institutional design. The commission he chaired for President Sarkozy produced Mismeasuring Our Lives (2009), a formal challenge to GDP as a reliable indicator of economic and social progress. That work now underpins the OECD’s ongoing effort to develop performance metrics beyond output. His 2024 book, The Road to Freedom, argues that the economic assumptions embedded in most policy and business planning are deliberate choices – with identifiable costs. For organisations navigating inequality risk, regulatory exposure, and ESG pressure, the distinction matters. Key speaking topics Information economics and market failure Economic inequality and structural risk Globalisation and its institutional consequences Beyond-GDP measurement and performance metrics Progressive capitalism and regulatory design Global financial architecture and reform Political economy of growth and distribution Ideal for Boards, CFOs, and chief economists assessing macroeconomic risk and long-term structural exposure Policy-facing organisations, government affairs functions, and institutions engaged in regulatory strategy Organisations navigating ESG, sustainability reporting, and long-term value measurement Financial services and investment institutions operating across global and emerging markets Audience outcomes A clearer understanding of why standard economic metrics – GDP, market efficiency assumptions, deregulation as growth driver – systematically obscure real performance and risk Insight into how information failures produce predictable market outcomes that corporate governance frameworks routinely miss A framework for interpreting the structural forces – inequality, regulatory shift, political backlash against globalisation – now reshaping the operating environment for large organisations Familiarity with the alternative performance metrics emerging from the OECD and the international standards community, and how they apply to strategic decision-making A more accurate model of where global financial governance fails and why – grounded in direct institutional experience at the World Bank and within the US government

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

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

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

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