Storytelling & Business Communication speakers

Why organisations work with Fraser Nelson Fifteen years editing The Spectator, the longest-running weekly in the English language, gives him a working memory of Westminster that most commentators do not have. He chairs panels and interviews senior figures for a living, which shows up on a corporate stage as pace, real questions, and genuine pushback rather than a scripted Q and A. He has argued the centre-right case on welfare, tax and growth in print and on Channel 4 Dispatches, so audiences that disagree with him still get a coherent argument rather than a talking-points loop. Sits on the board of the Centre for Policy Studies and the advisory board of the Centre for Social Justice, which keeps him close to the policy process leaders are trying to read. Won the British Press Award for Political Journalist of the Year in 2013 and Columnist of the Year at the 2025 British Journalism Awards, a twelve-year span that speaks to durability rather than a moment. Biography highlights Editor of The Spectator, 2009 to 2024. Columnist for The Times; previously a Daily Telegraph columnist for thirteen years. British Press Award, Political Journalist of the Year, 2013. Columnist of the Year, British Journalism Awards, 2025. BSME Editor of the Year (current affairs) in 2013, 2021 and 2023. Board member, Centre for Policy Studies; advisory board, Centre for Social Justice. Presenter of Channel 4 Dispatches documentaries including How The Rich Get Richer (2014) and a 2024 Wincott-Award-winning investigation into Britain’s sickness-benefits system. Biography British political reporting runs on access, and access runs on trust built over years. Fraser Nelson spent fifteen of those years editing The Spectator, from 2009 to 2024, during which the magazine’s subscriptions roughly doubled while the wider weekly market shrank. That job puts an editor on first-name terms with every Prime Minister, Chancellor and opposition leader of the period. Before The Spectator he covered business at The Times, then ran Scottish politics for The Scotsman. He now writes a weekly column for The Times, after thirteen years at the Daily Telegraph. The awards track records the endurance rather than the moment: Political Journalist of the Year at the 2013 British Press Awards, Editors’ Editor of the Year in the same year, BSME current-affairs editor of the year in 2021 and 2023, and Columnist of the Year at the 2025 British Journalism Awards. His policy work sits on the board of the Centre for Policy Studies, where he delivered the 2009 Keith Joseph Lecture, and on the advisory board of the Centre for Social Justice. That work has produced two Channel 4 Dispatches documentaries, including How The Rich Get Richer in 2014 and a 2024 investigation into Britain’s sickness-benefits system that won a Wincott Award. On stage he is most often used as a moderator and interviewer of senior figures, where the job is to pull something useful out of a Chancellor or a Cabinet minister in thirty minutes in front of a corporate audience. For clients who want the content rather than the craft, he delivers a sharp read on UK politics, economic policy, and the welfare reform debate he has argued from the centre-right for two decades. Key speaking topics UK politics and Westminster decision-making British economic policy and the case for reform Welfare, work and the long-term fiscal picture The state of British journalism and media Brexit and its unfinished consequences Panel moderation and on-stage interviews Ideal for Boards and investment committees making UK-exposed capital and hiring decisions Annual conferences that want a credible moderator for a minister, regulator or CEO panel Partner and client dinners where the brief is a half-hour read of the political year Public affairs and policy teams inside UK-regulated sectors briefing senior leadership Audience outcomes A clearer read on which Westminster signals are durable and which are noise A centre-right argument on tax, welfare and growth that a mixed room can engage with A sense of how Treasury, Number 10 and the opposition actually make decisions For moderated sessions, a sharper interview of the senior guest than the room expected

Why organisations work with Freddy Wexler A working hit-maker, not a commentator. Ten Billboard number ones with Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Post Malone, BLACKPINK and others give him a verifiable claim on how popular taste actually moves. The Billy Joel case study. Coaxing a thirty-year creative silence into a Grammy-stage single, including the full marketing rollout and an AI-directed music video, is a rare example of cultural reactivation that buyers can study end to end. Talent identification with a track record. Wexler scouted and pitched Stefani Germanotta as a future Madonna while she was still unsigned, and signed Rachel Platten before “Fight Song”. Useful for audiences thinking about how to spot signal early. A view on AI and creative work shaped by shipping product. The “Turn the Lights Back On” video was a Webby-winning AI-led production, which gives him a practitioner’s read on where machine generation helps and where it does not. Commercial track record across formats. Founder of The Brain Music with joint ventures involving Disney, Scooter Braun Projects, Warner Chappell and Prescription Songs, plus a first-look television deal with Disney. Biography highlights Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer with ten Billboard number one contributions Co-writer and producer of Billy Joel’s “Turn the Lights Back On” (Columbia Records, 2024), the artist’s first new pop single in roughly thirty years Album of the Year Grammy nomination for Justin Bieber’s Justice (2022); credited contributor on Laufey’s Bewitched, a 2024 Grammy-winning album Co-wrote “Stuck with U” by Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande, a Billboard Hot 100 number one that raised over five million dollars for first responders’ families Founder of The Brain Music, with joint ventures involving Disney, Scooter Braun Projects, Warner Chappell and Prescription Songs; first-look television deal with Disney Webby Award (2024) for direction of the AI-led “Turn the Lights Back On” music video; Golden Globe nomination for “Forbidden Road” from the Robbie Williams biopic Better Man Biography Billy Joel had not released a new pop single for thirty years when “Turn the Lights Back On” arrived in February 2024 on Columbia Records. The song was co-written and produced by Freddy Wexler, who spent more than a year developing the material with Joel from a CD of unfinished sketches. The track debuted at number one on classic hits and classic rock radio, picked up a Grammy-stage performance, and was packaged with an AI-directed music video that later won a Webby. As a worked example of how a dormant creative voice gets reactivated and brought back to market, it is unusually complete. That collaboration sits inside a longer hit-making record. Wexler has ten Billboard number one contributions and Grammy nominations across three consecutive years, including Album of the Year for Justin Bieber’s Justice and contributor credit on Laufey’s Bewitched. He co-wrote “Stuck with U” for Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande, a Hot 100 number one that raised more than five million dollars for first responders’ families during the early pandemic. His writing and production credits span Post Malone, BLACKPINK, Selena Gomez, Halsey, Diana Ross and Celine Dion. He is also a builder of companies. The Brain Music, founded in 2012, runs joint ventures with Disney, Scooter Braun Projects, Warner Chappell and Prescription Songs. The Freddy Wexler Company holds a first-look television deal with Disney and a slate spanning Nickelodeon’s Kid Cowboy, a Broadway production of The Last Five Years, and a Hulu special with Sebastian Maniscalco. The Variety Family Entertainment Impact Report has recognised the operation. For organisations, the relevant point is access to a practitioner who can describe how a cultural moment actually gets made, including the writing room, the artist relationship, the rollout, and the use of AI in production. Few speakers on creativity can point to a specific commercial artefact and walk a senior audience through the craft behind it. Wexler can. Key speaking topics Creativity as a working practice Storytelling across music, film and brand AI in creative production and music video direction Talent identification and early-signal spotting Cultural moments and the commercial rollout behind them Resilience and creative reinvention Philanthropy embedded in creative product Ideal for Marketing, brand and CMO leadership teams thinking about cultural relevance Creative and content function heads inside media, entertainment and consumer companies Innovation and product groups exploring AI-assisted creative production Senior offsites and leadership conferences looking for a practitioner perspective on craft Audience outcomes A working framework for how cultural moments are constructed, drawn from a specific recent case A practitioner’s read on AI in creative production, anchored in a Webby-winning video A more concrete sense of what early signal looks like in talent and ideas, before they are obvious Reference points from a hit-making catalogue that audiences can apply to their own creative briefs

Why organisations work with Fredrik Eklund He has built and scaled one of the highest-grossing residential real estate teams in the United States, with $4.6B in sales in 2022 and $3.77B in 2023, so his advice on client acquisition and closing is grounded in operator-scale results rather than theory. The Sell, his New York Times bestselling book with Penguin’s Avery imprint, gives audiences a named, testable ten-step framework for personal selling and pitching, which turns the keynote into a tool the team can use on Monday. A decade on Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing New York gave him unusual fluency in performing under pressure and building a personal brand in public, a capability most commercial leaders are now being asked to develop themselves. He speaks from a dual-market perspective, having built businesses in both Stockholm and Manhattan and having worked previously at SEB across London, Singapore, and Tokyo, which plays well with global sales audiences who want more than a US-only view. His core argument, that everyone in a client-facing organisation is already in sales whether they realise it or not, lands with audiences beyond the sales team itself, including founders, partners, and professional-services leaders. Biography highlights Co-founder, with John Gomes, of the Eklund Gomes Team at Douglas Elliman, reported as the top-producing residential real estate team in the US in recent years. Author of The Sell: The Secrets of Selling Anything to Anyone (Avery, 2015), a New York Times bestseller also released in Sweden and the UK. Original cast member of Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing New York from its 2012 launch through 2022, across nine seasons of MDLNY and two seasons of Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles. Co-star of Bravo’s Bethenny and Fredrik spin-off with Bethenny Frankel in 2018. Recipient, with John Gomes, of Douglas Elliman’s 2021 ICON Award for cumulative career sales of over $15B. Background in finance at SEB in Stockholm, London, Singapore, and Tokyo, and studies at the Stockholm School of Economics, before relocating to New York to build his real estate career from scratch. Biography The Eklund Gomes Team at Douglas Elliman closed $4.6B in residential real estate in 2022 and $3.77B in 2023, figures that place it near the top of any serious ranking of US real estate teams. Fredrik Eklund co-founded that business with John Gomes. The scale matters because it is the evidence base for everything he says on stage about sales, client trust, and building a personal brand in a market where every competitor looks equally credible on paper. Eklund arrived in Manhattan in his mid-twenties with a finance CV from SEB in Stockholm, London, Singapore, and Tokyo, and no real estate contacts. Within a year he was nominated for Rookie of the Year by the Real Estate Board of New York. The through line from that start to today’s team is a clear operating idea: in commoditised markets, the product is the seller. The Sell, published by Penguin’s Avery imprint in 2015 and a New York Times bestseller, sets out that idea as a ten-step framework covering authenticity, pitch construction, negotiation, and closing. A decade on Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing New York, from its 2012 premiere through his departure in 2022, turned Eklund into one of the most recognisable sales figures in American business media. It also taught him something less obvious that keynote audiences value. Senior people in client-facing roles, founders, partners, and relationship leaders, are now expected to carry a visible public profile. Eklund has been practising that craft, on camera and at scale, longer than most. For corporate audiences, the argument lands most sharply on two questions leaders are already asking. How do we train our best people to behave like owners of the client relationship rather than executors of a process, and how do we build the kind of personal credibility that moves a deal before the pitch starts. Eklund answers both from inside a live commercial operation, not from a classroom. Key speaking topics Personal selling and the close Personal brand for commercial leaders Client acquisition in commoditised markets Sales culture and high-performance teams Entrepreneurship and business building Negotiation and pitch craft Real estate and luxury markets Ideal for Sales kick-offs and revenue leadership offsites, particularly in financial services, real estate, professional services, and luxury sectors Partner, MD, and client-facing leader events where personal brand and relationship ownership are on the agenda Founder, entrepreneur, and growth-stage audiences building a commercial operation from scratch After-dinner and awards-night formats where a high-recognition keynote with commercial substance is wanted Audience outcomes A named ten-step framework from The Sell that teams can map directly onto their own pitch, pipeline, and closing process A sharper sense of what “personal brand” means in practical, revenue-linked terms, rather than as a social media activity Specific tactics for opening, holding, and closing a high-stakes client conversation in a commoditised market A harder view of what separates a top-tier sales operation from an average one, drawn from inside a team that has closed billions in annual volume Energy and confidence that translates into action the following week, not a feel-good moment that fades

Why organisations work with Gabrielle Walker Her perspective on carbon removal comes from inside the market. She co-built CUR8, which sources and vets removal credits for corporate buyers, and Rethinking Removals, which shapes standards alongside the UNFCCC – giving her direct sight of which approaches are credible, durable, and scalable, and which are not. She addresses the most contested part of any corporate net zero strategy: the removal of residual emissions that cannot be cut, and how to handle it without regulatory or reputational exposure. Where most climate speakers argue for urgency, she argues for precision – helping senior teams distinguish between carbon removal approaches that will survive investor and legal scrutiny and those that carry long-term risk. Her four books on climate science include The Hot Topic, co-authored with Sir David King, UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser, described by Al Gore on the TED.com platform as “a beacon of clarity” – a scientific credibility that goes beyond most ESG commentators. She has facilitated sessions at COP26 and COP27 in partnership with the UNFCCC, and delivered keynote addresses to organisations including AstraZeneca, BP, KPMG, and Lazard – giving her an uncommon understanding of where corporate intent meets policy reality. Biography highlights PhD in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University; has taught at Cambridge and Princeton Co-founder of CUR8 (for-profit carbon removal market maker) and Rethinking Removals (non-profit in partnership with UNFCCC Climate Champions) TED speaker; main talk “What You Need to Know About Carbon Removal” (TED.com, 2022) Author of four books including The Hot Topic, co-authored with Sir David King, UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser Former Climate Change Editor at Nature; former Features Editor at New Scientist Contributor to The Economist, Wall Street Journal, and New York Times; BBC radio and television presenter Biography Every credible net zero pathway now requires carbon removal – not as an optional extra, but as a scientific necessity. Most corporate climate strategies have yet to reckon with what that means in practice. The gap between what the science requires and what organisations are actually building is where Gabrielle Walker works. Walker has a PhD from Cambridge University. She spent more than a decade at the editorial centre of climate science – first as Climate Change Editor at Nature, then as Features Editor at New Scientist. Her four books – including The Hot Topic, co-authored with UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser Sir David King – have brought the science of climate to boardroom-level audiences. Her 2022 TED talk on carbon removal extended that reach to a mainstream global audience. She co-founded two organisations that sit inside the carbon removal ecosystem rather than describing it from the outside. Rethinking Removals works in partnership with the UNFCCC Climate Champions to put carbon dioxide removal on the policy agenda. CUR8 helps corporations source vetted removal credits and build portfolios that are scientifically sound and commercially realistic. The combination – active policy work, scientific credibility, and commercial market-building in one practitioner – is unusual in this space. At board level, the questions she addresses are precise: which removal approaches are durable enough to withstand regulatory scrutiny, which carry reputational risk, and how a corporate climate commitment should be structured to remain defensible over time. Her work is not about inspiring broad action on climate. It is about helping organisations close the gap between a pledge and a plan that will hold. Key speaking topics Carbon removal and net zero strategy Corporate climate commitments and credibility ESG strategy and carbon markets Energy transition Climate risk and regulatory scrutiny Science communication for business leaders Ideal for Chief Sustainability Officers and heads of ESG developing or defending net zero commitments CFOs and investment officers evaluating climate-related financial risk and carbon credit exposure Boards and executive leadership teams navigating regulatory change in corporate climate strategy Conference organisers seeking a credible moderator for high-level climate, energy, or sustainability debates Audience outcomes A working understanding of what carbon removal is, why it is necessary for net zero, and which approaches are scientifically credible The ability to distinguish between carbon removal strategies that will hold investor and regulatory scrutiny and those that carry reputational risk A clearer framework for evaluating the strength of corporate climate commitments – their own and those of suppliers, partners, and competitors More precise questions to ask of climate advisers, carbon credit providers, and internal sustainability teams A more accurate view of where the carbon removal market stands today and what organisations need to do to stay ahead of it

Why organisations work with Gamal Fahnbulleh A working news anchor on ITV Granada Reports and ITV National News bulletins, which means the room gets the real calibre of live interviewer, not a retired name lending their profile. Chairs major sector conferences on the record, including the Advertising Association’s LEAD North and the Great Northern Conference at Cutlers’ Hall, Sheffield, which tells a booker he can hold a senior business audience. Comfortable across formats that most speakers are not: panel moderation, awards hosting, after-dinner remarks, keynote conversation, fireside Q and A, and virtual hybrid sessions. Brings a serious journalistic backbone to the hosting role: Manchester politics and international politics graduate, postgraduate broadcast journalism at City, an embed with the British Army in Afghanistan behind him, so the room trusts him on substantive subject matter. Recognised by his own industry for presenting craft: a 2021 Royal Television Society nomination for Best Regional Presenter, and a contributor to ITV Granada’s RTS North West Award for Best Regional Story in 2010. Biography highlights Co-presenter of ITV Granada Reports for North West England and the Isle of Man, anchoring alongside Lucy Meacock since January 2021. Relief presenter on ITV National News bulletins, including News at Ten. Former Sky News anchor across Sky News Breakfast, Sky News Tonight and Sky News at Ten. Chair and host at the Advertising Association’s LEAD North conference and the Great Northern Conference 2021 at Cutlers’ Hall, Sheffield. Nominated for Best Regional Presenter, Royal Television Society, 2021. Postgraduate Diploma in Broadcast Journalism, City, University of London; BA Honours in Politics and History and MA in International Politics, University of Manchester. Biography Most conference agendas collapse at the join between sessions. The keynote lands, the panel files on, and the conversation loses altitude because no one in the chair knows how to translate energy from one format into the next. That translation is the craft a working news anchor brings to a live room, and it is why senior booker teams at the Advertising Association’s LEAD North and the Great Northern Conference in Sheffield have handed Gamal Fahnbulleh the microphone. He is a working journalist first. He co-presents ITV Granada Reports for the North West of England and the Isle of Man with Lucy Meacock, anchors relief shifts on ITV National News bulletins, and previously held anchor positions across Sky News Breakfast, Sky News Tonight and Sky News at Ten. His industry nominated him for Best Regional Presenter at the Royal Television Society Awards in 2021. The journalistic authority is earned. He read Politics and History at the University of Manchester, added an MA in International Politics, and trained in broadcast journalism at City, University of London before winning one of ten places on the ITV News Group Bursary Scheme. He later embedded with the 1st Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment on a tour of Afghanistan, contributing to ITV Granada’s RTS North West Award for Best Regional Story in 2010. For corporate clients, the practical value is simple. He can host an awards night, chair a panel of chief executives, conduct a fireside interview, and moderate a hybrid session without the room feeling a change in gear. He is booked for hosting craft, and he treats every brief as live television. Key speaking topics Conference chairing and panel moderation Awards night and after-dinner hosting Fireside interviews with senior leaders Broadcast journalism and live news craft Reporting from conflict zones and embedded military journalism Regional economic and leadership conversations International affairs and global news context Ideal for Annual conferences requiring a chair who can hold a senior executive audience for a full day. Awards ceremonies and gala dinners that need a host with live-broadcast pacing and on-camera presence. Panel events where CEOs, investors or public-sector leaders expect real questions rather than polite ones. Media, advertising and regional-growth conferences where journalistic credibility matters to the room. Audience outcomes A tightly run agenda that stays on time across keynote, panel and audience-Q-and-A transitions. Sharper panel conversations, because the chair knows when to follow up and when to move on. Senior speakers drawn out on the specific points the audience came to hear, not the ones they rehearsed. A room that leaves feeling the event was serious, not stage-managed.

Why organisations work with Gavin Esler Four decades of frontline political reporting, including twelve years presenting Newsnight and several as BBC Chief North America Correspondent in Washington, give him a working feel for how Westminster and US politics actually behave under stress. His three political books (How Britain Ends, Brexit Without the Bullshit, Britain Is Better Than This) make a coherent argument about constitutional drift, English nationalism and institutional decay that has shaped serious debate about the UK’s direction. A Sony Gold Award and a Royal Television Society award signal that his work meets the standard of named broadcast bodies, not just bureau claims. Ten years as Chancellor of the University of Kent gave him extensive experience chairing formal occasions and speaking to large mixed audiences, which carries through to moderation and awards hosting. He is one of the few broadcasters who can move between a geopolitical keynote, a board Q and A on US politics, and a polished on-stage interview with a chief executive in the same brief. Biography highlights Main presenter of BBC Two’s Newsnight, January 2003 to January 2014. BBC Chief North America Correspondent, Washington DC, covering the Bush and Clinton administrations. Presenter of Dateline London on BBC News and BBC World News until 2017. Sixth Chancellor of the University of Kent, July 2014 to January 2024. Sony Gold Award for the BBC Radio 4 documentary Letters from Guantanamo, and a Royal Television Society award for foreign reporting. Author of Lessons from the Top (Profile Books, 2012), How Britain Ends (2021), Brexit Without the Bullshit and Britain Is Better Than This (2023). Biography Most political analysis on conference stages still treats Westminster and Washington as two separate beats. The interesting question is what happens when they are read as one continuous story about fraying constitutional settlements, contested legitimacy, and the strain these place on business planning. That is the territory Gavin Esler has worked in for four decades. He presented BBC Two’s Newsnight from 2003 to 2014, and before that was BBC Chief North America Correspondent in Washington, shaping the corporation’s US coverage through the first Bush and Clinton administrations. He went on to front Dateline London on BBC News and BBC World News, bringing foreign correspondents into weekly argument about events in their own capitals. His three political books run a consistent thread. How Britain Ends argues that English nationalism, not Scottish independence, is the force most likely to break the British union. Britain Is Better Than This reads the expenses scandal, Brexit, Partygate and the Truss premiership as symptoms of institutional decay rather than isolated failures. Lessons from the Top, written earlier, distils three decades of interviewing figures from Bill Clinton to senior military commanders into a framework for how leaders use story to hold legitimacy. He served ten years as Chancellor of the University of Kent, conferring degrees and chairing formal university occasions through a period of significant change in UK higher education. His Sony Gold Award for Letters from Guantanamo and his Royal Television Society award sit alongside that body of reporting and writing as evidence that his judgement has been tested in public for longer than most commentators now working. Key speaking topics UK politics and constitutional change Brexit and its long tail US politics and the transatlantic relationship Geopolitical risk for boards and investors Trust, disinformation and the media Leadership and storytelling On-stage interviewing and moderation Ideal for Board and executive committee sessions pricing UK and US political risk into three-year strategy. Public affairs, legal and financial services conferences needing a named political analyst rather than a generalist keynote. Awards ceremonies, annual dinners and flagship conferences that need a senior broadcaster as host, interviewer or moderator. Leadership forums examining how institutional trust erodes and how communication holds or loses legitimacy. Audience outcomes A sharper read of where UK constitutional politics is heading and what would have to be true for different outcomes. A working sense of how US political cycles translate into risk for European businesses and investors. A more concrete view of how disinformation and declining institutional trust affect corporate reputation and policy environments. A framework for how leaders use narrative to sustain authority, drawn from his interviews with heads of state and senior executives.

Why organisations work with Geoff Cutmore He has interviewed every president of the European Central Bank and the last three Bank of England governors, which means a central banker on his panel will recognise the questioning standard and answer accordingly. He moderated the Global Economic Outlook panel and other plenaries at the World Economic Forum in Davos for more than twenty years, including a 2022 session with Kristalina Georgieva, Jane Fraser, Francois Villeroy de Galhau, and David Rubenstein. His 2014 panel with Vladimir Putin at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, which Putin closed by calling him a “scary person” who kept the conversation businesslike, is on the record as evidence of his composure with hostile principals. He authored New Market Mavericks (Wiley, 2004), a book of interviews with leading market traders, giving him a working vocabulary for the buy side as well as the policy desk. A decade based in Hong Kong with CNBC Asia before Europe gives him fluency on Boao, China Development Forum, and the Asia leg of any global economic story. Biography highlights Anchor of Squawk Box Europe on CNBC from 1999 to June 2023, after a thirty-year career across CNBC Asia and CNBC Europe. Author of New Market Mavericks, published by Wiley in 2004. Moderator of the Global Economic Outlook and other plenary sessions at the World Economic Forum in Davos for more than twenty years. Conducted on-stage interviews with Vladimir Putin at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, Tony Blair, John Major, Gerhard Schroeder, and George Soros. Regular moderator at IMF and World Bank annual meetings, the Boao Forum, the China Development Forum, and United Nations Climate Change conferences. Contributor to the World Economic Forum Agenda. Biography Squawk Box Europe is where European institutional money starts its day, and from 1999 until June 2023 the person setting that agenda was Geoff Cutmore. Over three decades at CNBC, first in Hong Kong with CNBC Asia and then in Europe, he built the interviewing range that takes a guest from rate expectations to sanctions exposure to a board-level cash question without losing the room. The list of principals he has questioned on air or on stage is the working evidence. Every president of the European Central Bank. The last three governors of the Bank of England. US Treasury secretaries, IMF and World Bank heads, Tony Blair, John Major, Gerhard Schroeder, George Soros. In 2014 he chaired a ninety-minute panel with Vladimir Putin at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, which closed with Putin calling him a “scary person” who had kept the exchange businesslike. That is the kind of credit only earned by holding a difficult line in front of a hostile principal. He has moderated the Global Economic Outlook panel and other plenaries at the World Economic Forum in Davos for more than twenty years, including the 2022 session with Kristalina Georgieva, Jane Fraser, Francois Villeroy de Galhau, and David Rubenstein. He also chairs sessions at the IMF and World Bank annual meetings, the Boao Forum, the China Development Forum, and United Nations climate conferences. His book New Market Mavericks, published by Wiley in 2004, collects interviews with leading traders and gives him a working second language for the buy side. What an organisation gets when it puts him on stage is a chair who has already had the conversation with the person sitting next to him, usually more than once, and who can move the panel through monetary policy, geopolitics, and corporate strategy without giving up the line of argument. Key speaking topics Global economic outlook and central bank policy Geopolitical risk and the world order Financial markets and investor strategy Energy transition and climate policy China and the Asia growth story Conference and panel moderation Senior executive interviews Ideal for Boards and investment committees commissioning a moderated session on the macro and geopolitical outlook CFO, treasury, and capital markets audiences requiring a chair who can question central bankers and policymakers on equal terms Global summits and annual conferences with multi-principal plenary panels on economy, energy, or geopolitics C-suite client events for asset managers, banks, and professional services firms Audience outcomes A clearer read on the current macro, monetary, and geopolitical picture from the principals shaping it, drawn out in real time rather than rehearsed. A session that holds shape across competing speakers, with the chair keeping the argument moving and the audience oriented. Specific named answers from policymakers and CEOs on the questions a senior audience actually has, not the questions a moderator has been briefed to ask. A conversation calibrated to the room, whether that is a Davos plenary, an investor day, or a board offsite.

Why organisations work with George Kohlrieser He turns a literal high-stakes discipline into a leadership method. The negotiation techniques he teaches carry a documented 95% resolution rate in real hostage situations, and he shows leaders how the same bonding and dialogue skills resolve conflict in a boardroom. He gives leaders the “secure base” model: a tested account, grounded in attachment theory and neuroscience, of how a leader can provide both safety and challenge so that teams take risks instead of protecting themselves. He teaches the specific act most leaders avoid: naming a difficult issue out loud. His “put the fish on the table” approach gives executives a repeatable way to surface conflict before it rots a team from the inside. His authority is built on two decades of senior-executive teaching at IMD, where he created and still directs its flagship High Performance Leadership programme, not on a single book or talk. He works on the leader’s internal state first. His doctoral research on physiological recovery after high-stress events underpins practical methods for staying composed when a situation is escalating. Biography highlights Distinguished Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behaviour at IMD, Lausanne, and creator and director of its High Performance Leadership and Advanced High Performance Leadership programmes. Author of the international bestseller Hostage at the Table, winner of Best Business Book in France and Best Management Book in Germany, with a revised second edition published in 2025. Co-author of Care to Dare: Unleashing Astonishing Potential Through Secure Base Leadership, part of the Warren Bennis leadership series and named among Soundview’s best business books of 2013. Organizational and clinical psychologist with a doctorate from Ohio State University; veteran police psychologist and hostage negotiator taken hostage four times in the course of his work. Has trained the FBI, the Los Angeles Police and Sheriff’s Departments, and police academies in France, the Netherlands and Germany in crisis negotiation. Has worked with leaders in over 100 countries for clients including Cisco, Coca-Cola, IBM, Roche, Santander, Toyota and UBS; featured in the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, the Financial Times and Forbes. Biography Most leadership advice about conflict tells people to manage it. Kohlrieser’s career began somewhere far less comfortable: as a police psychologist and hostage negotiator who was himself taken hostage four times, once in a hospital emergency room and three times in homes during domestic violence calls. He came out of each by building a bond with the person holding him. That experience became the foundation of his work. At IMD in Lausanne, where he is Distinguished Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behaviour, he turned it into method. He created and still directs the school’s High Performance Leadership programme, an intensive course for senior executives, and built his teaching on a counterintuitive claim: hostage negotiators succeed roughly 95% of the time not by force but by forming a genuine connection with someone they have every reason to despise. The same capability, he argues, separates leaders who can challenge their teams from those who only pressure them. His books gave the method its structure. Hostage at the Table applies negotiation psychology to ordinary business conflict and won best-book awards in France and Germany. Care to Dare set out the “secure base” idea, drawn from attachment theory and neuroscience: a leader who provides both care and challenge frees people to take risks rather than protect themselves. The practical core is an act most executives dodge, what he calls putting the fish on the table, naming a difficult issue openly so it can be cleaned rather than left to rot. What gives the work its weight is the evidence behind the soft language. His doctoral research measured how law enforcement leaders physically recover after high-stress events, and that grounding in self-mastery runs through everything he teaches. He has trained the FBI and police academies across Europe, and advised leaders at Cisco, IBM, Roche and UBS in more than 100 countries, but the through-line is consistent: the hardest part of leadership is emotional, and it can be learned. Key speaking topics Conflict management and resolution Negotiation and influence under pressure Secure base leadership and trust High performance leadership and teams Self-mastery and composure in high-stress situations Leading through change and uncertainty Dialogue and high-impact communication Ideal for C-suite and senior executives responsible for leading teams through high-stakes or adversarial situations Leadership development and HPL-style executive programmes Boards and senior teams facing entrenched internal conflict or stalled negotiations CHROs and people leaders building trust and psychological safety as a performance lever Audience outcomes A working method for surfacing and resolving conflict instead of avoiding it Negotiation and bonding techniques drawn from real hostage situations, adapted for business relationships A clear model for becoming a “secure base” who combines care and challenge to lift team performance Practical ways to stay composed and make sound decisions when a situation is escalating A sharper read on how trust, emotion and dialogue drive results their teams will not deliver otherwise

Why organisations work with Georgie Barrat Seven years fronting The Gadget Show built a specific skill, making complex technology feel usable to a general audience, and she brings that directly into boardroom and all-hands settings where AI adoption is stalling. She runs The AI Method, her own programme for helping non-technical users integrate AI into their work, so the keynote is informed by what actually lands with finance, HR and operations staff rather than with engineers. She has hosted on-stage for Google, IBM, Sony, Huawei, Mastercard and BAFTA, which means the moderating craft is tested at the level of audience and panellist that senior events require. Her keynote circuit includes Web Summit, Mobile World Congress and Smart City Expo, the venues where the AI and future-of-work conversation is actually being shaped. She is a credible voice on women in technology and STEM inclusion through sustained work with Stemettes, the IET, Girls in ICT and Childnet, which makes her a natural fit for diversity-led tech events rather than a bolt-on. Biography highlights Presenter of Channel 5’s The Gadget Show for seven years from 2017. Regular contributor to BBC Morning Live and stand-in host for Jeremy Vine on 5. Founder of The AI Method, an AI adoption programme for non-technical users and solopreneurs. Keynote speaker at Web Summit, Mobile World Congress and Smart City Expo. Host and moderator for Google, IBM, Sony, Huawei, Mastercard and BAFTA. First-class degree in English Literature from King’s College London. Biography Most organisations have an AI strategy. Far fewer have a workforce that knows what to do with it. That translation problem, between a tool a leadership team has bought and the person on the payroll expected to use it, is the ground Georgie Barrat has worked for more than a decade. Her training is broadcast. Seven years as a presenter of Channel 5’s The Gadget Show taught her to make complex consumer and enterprise technology legible to a general audience without losing the point. That discipline now runs through her keynotes on AI, digital transformation and the future of work, delivered at Web Summit, Mobile World Congress and Smart City Expo, and at corporate audiences for Google, IBM, Sony, Huawei, Mastercard and BAFTA. Barrat founded The AI Method, a programme designed for women and solopreneurs using AI without a technical background. It gives her keynote material an unusual grounding. She is not theorising about adoption; she is testing what actually moves a non-engineer from curiosity to use. That edge matters for any leader whose AI rollout depends on marketing, finance, HR and operations staff, not data scientists. She is also a sustained advocate for women in tech and STEM inclusion, working with Stemettes, the IET, Girls in ICT and Childnet. On stage she hosts, moderates and keynotes. Off stage she still reports, with regular slots on BBC Morning Live and Jeremy Vine on 5, which keeps the material current rather than curated. Key speaking topics Artificial intelligence and workforce adoption Future of work in an AI-powered organisation Digital transformation and culture change Consumer and enterprise technology trends Women in technology and STEM inclusion Event hosting, moderation and on-stage interviewing Ideal for Leadership teams and all-hands audiences grappling with AI rollout across non-technical functions. CHROs, L&D leads and transformation directors planning workforce upskilling around AI. Tech, telecoms and consumer brands needing a broadcast-grade host or moderator for flagship events. Employee networks and diversity councils building credible women-in-tech programmes. Audience outcomes A clearer picture of where AI creates real productivity gains inside the business versus where the hype is running ahead of the use case. Practical language for leaders to use with non-technical staff so adoption feels less threatening and more achievable. A sharper view of which emerging technologies, from generative AI to spatial computing, warrant attention on a three-year horizon. Evidence-backed framing for women-in-tech and STEM inclusion work that goes beyond celebration days.

Why organisations work with Glenn Marsden In his hands, mental health becomes a business conversation that senior leaders take responsibility for, grounded in lived experience of body dysmorphia and the loss of a close friend. He has built and scaled a global advocacy platform from zero, the Imperfectly Perfect Campaign, which gives him direct evidence of what changes when people in positions of influence speak openly about their own pressure. His keynote treats wellbeing as a leadership issue, connecting how senior people hold identity and performance under change to the cultural cost of silence at the top. His content travels: a published book series, the ImperfectlyPerfect Podcast, and hundreds of public-figure interviews give audiences a body of work to carry on with long after the keynote. Biography highlights Founder, Imperfectly Perfect Campaign, launched 2018, a global mental wellbeing advocacy movement. Author of the Imperfectly Perfect Campaign book series, with Volume 3 released January 2026. Host of the ImperfectlyPerfect Podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, interviewing public figures on mental health and wellbeing. Has delivered speaking engagements across Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Dubai, Thailand, and Japan. Biography The cost of mental health pressure inside organisations is now showing up where it used to stay hidden. It sits with the people running them. Glenn Marsden built the Imperfectly Perfect Campaign in 2018 to make that conversation possible, starting with a question senior leaders rarely answer in public: what does it actually cost you to keep up appearances? The campaign was founded after the suicide of a close friend and Marsden’s own struggle with body dysmorphia. What began as a single advocacy project has grown into a content platform with a published book series, the ImperfectlyPerfect Podcast, and a long roster of public-figure interviews. The argument that runs through all of it is simple: when people in positions of visibility speak openly about their own pressure, the social permission for everyone else to do the same expands. What audiences get is a working argument, made by someone who has spent years getting senior people to say in public what they say to each other in private: that perfectionism is expensive, silence at the top sets the tone for the rest of the organisation, and the leaders who name the pressure first are the ones who change the culture. Key speaking topics Mental health and the cost of perfectionism Identity and self-worth through change Resilience under sustained pressure Authentic leadership and lived experience Building advocacy platforms from zero Storytelling and public influence Ideal for CHRO and chief people officer audiences setting the mental health agenda Executive leadership offsites where wellbeing is treated as a strategy issue Senior leadership development programmes addressing perfectionism and burnout in high performers Conferences on workplace wellbeing, culture, and mental health where lived experience adds credibility to the data Audience outcomes A direct, founder-led account of how mental health pressure operates at senior levels and why it stays hidden. Words for naming perfectionism and silence inside organisations, without the wellness clichés. A map of how identity loss works after disruption, and how people find direction again, drawn from what the campaign has surfaced across cultures and industries. Evidence, from the Imperfectly Perfect Campaign and the hundreds of public-figure conversations it has gathered, of what changes when people in positions of influence speak openly.

Why organisations work with Gloria Garcia She has made high-stakes decisions for a living, protecting ultra-high-net-worth families across Chicago, Mexico City, New York, London and Paris. The lessons she brings on presence and judgement come from work where the cost of error is not a missed quarter. Her background is operator-grade, not adjacent: Cook County Sheriff’s Department, Special Operations Response Team training, corrections leadership in the RTU Men’s Division, SIA-licensed close protection. Buyers get someone who has done the job, not someone who has studied it. She is one of a very small number of senior female close protection specialists on the international circuit, which gives her a credible platform for audiences working on women’s progression in operational, security and male-dominated environments. Her acting practice, including a role cast personally by J.J. Abrams in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, gives her a second language for presence, performance and audience reading that translates directly into executive communication. She speaks from a personal story, a survived kidnapping attempt at age 11, without making the story the product. The story sets up the work; the work is what she teaches. Biography highlights Cook County Sheriff’s Department officer, trained under the Special Operations Response Team (S.O.R.T.) and posted to Cook County Prison’s RTU Men’s Division. SIA-licensed close protection operative with over twenty years of experience protecting ultra-high-net-worth clients internationally. Known professionally as “La Mirla” (“The Blackbird”) within the private protection circuit. Actress cast personally by J.J. Abrams as the “Jakku Defender” in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015). Recent screen credits include Dr. Sofia Guijarro in Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue (2025) and Agent Niki Delgado in Malice (2025-26). Represented for speaking by Kruger Cowne; life rights reported in development as a feature film with producer Lucas Foster. Biography Most executives will never work a live protection detail. The people who do will tell you the job is not physical force. It is attention: who is in the room, what has changed in the last thirty seconds, which person is a threat and which is a distraction. Gloria Garcia has spent two decades doing that job at the top of the market, for ultra-high-net-worth principals across Chicago, Mexico City, New York, Los Angeles, London and Paris. Her training is operator-grade. She came through the Cook County Sheriff’s Department under the Special Operations Response Team, ran a post in Cook County Prison’s RTU Men’s Division, then moved into international close protection as an SIA-licensed specialist. Inside the circuit she is known as “La Mirla”, “The Blackbird”. It is not a nickname she uses on stage. It is the one her peers use for her. She is also a working actress. J.J. Abrams cast her personally as the “Jakku Defender” in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. More recent roles include Dr. Sofia Guijarro in Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue and Agent Niki Delgado in the series Malice. The overlap matters: acting and protection both turn on reading people, holding presence, and adapting in real time. When she talks to leadership audiences about composure and communication, both practices are visible in the room. The personal starting point is a survived kidnapping attempt at age 11, in Cicero, Illinois. She tells that story because it explains the choice of career, not because it is the lesson. The lesson is what she built afterwards: a discipline of attention, trust and communication that senior leaders recognise the moment they hear it. Key speaking topics Decision-making under physical and reputational threat Situational awareness and presence in high-stakes rooms Communication tactics in protective and adversarial settings Women in operational and male-dominated roles Trauma, recovery and the choice to protect others Trust and composure in executive teams Ideal for Senior leaders and boards wanting a visceral perspective on judgement under pressure Security, risk and resilience functions looking beyond technical content Women’s leadership programmes in operational, industrial or security-heavy sectors Culture and communication events where presence and credibility are the brief Audience outcomes A sharper mental model for what composure actually looks like, from someone who uses it professionally Practical ways to read a room faster, including who to listen to and who to watch A clearer sense of how to communicate authority without raising volume A human account of turning a formative threat into a working discipline Renewed appetite for putting trusted operators, not only specialists, in front of senior teams

Why organisations work with Gordon Buchanan A working BBC broadcaster, not a retired one. Three decades of presenter-led natural history series mean he holds an audience the moment he steps on stage, before the substantive content begins. A credible male voice on mental health, grounded in In the Hide: How the Natural World Saved My Life, a Sunday Times bestseller. The story is his own, which is why audiences listen. A genuine conservationist with institutional backing: MBE for services to conservation and wildlife film-making, patronages of Trees for Life and The Gorilla Organization, ambassadorship of the Scottish Wildlife Trust. Stories from inside hides in Svalbard, Ellesmere, Mumbai and Mongolia, used to make points about composure, patience and decision-making under sustained physical pressure rather than as travelogue. Range across the brief: keynote, after-dinner, fireside, awards host. The presenter craft is the asset that makes the substantive content land in a corporate room. Biography highlights Scottish wildlife cameraman, filmmaker and presenter; over thirty years with the BBC and other major broadcasters. BBC series include The Bear Family and Me, The Polar Bear Family and Me, Snow Wolf Family and Me, Gorilla Family and Me, Elephant Family and Me, Tribes, Predators and Me, Life in the Snow, Our Changing Planet and Big Cats 24/7. MBE, 2020 New Year Honours, for services to conservation and wildlife film-making. Honorary Doctorate, University of Stirling; Honorary Fellowship, Royal Scottish Geographical Society; Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award (Environment), 2013. Author of In the Hide: How the Natural World Saved My Life (Penguin, 2025), instant Sunday Times bestseller. Patron of Trees for Life and The Gorilla Organization; Ambassador of the Scottish Wildlife Trust. Biography Most conversations about resilience in organisations stall at vocabulary. People know what they are supposed to say. They struggle to say anything useful about how a person actually stays functional through sustained pressure, repeated setback and long stretches of discomfort. A voice that has lived the question, in concrete and unglamorous detail, lands differently in the room. Three decades of BBC natural history work have put Gordon Buchanan inside cramped camera hides in Svalbard, Ellesmere, Mumbai and Mongolia, often for weeks at a time, in extreme cold, sleep deprivation and physical risk. Series including The Bear Family and Me, Snow Wolf Family and Me, Gorilla Family and Me, Tribes, Predators and Me and Big Cats 24/7 have made him one of the most widely watched presenters in British wildlife television. The published work behind the keynote is In the Hide: How the Natural World Saved My Life, an instant Sunday Times bestseller from Penguin in 2025. It is an honest account of a hard childhood in Glasgow and on Mull, the mental-health pressures that followed a public career, and the role of routine, family, exercise and the natural world in staying well. The book is the reason corporate audiences hear him as a credible voice on men’s mental health rather than a wildlife presenter making a side argument. Institutional recognition tracks the conservation half of the same career: an MBE in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to conservation and wildlife film-making, an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Stirling, an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, and active patronages of Trees for Life, The Gorilla Organization and the Scottish Wildlife Trust. Key speaking topics Mental health, resilience and the restorative role of the natural world Men’s mental health and the cost of silence Storytelling as a leadership and engagement tool Patience, composure and decision-making under sustained pressure Wildlife conservation and the climate-nature agenda Connection to nature as a workplace wellbeing input After-dinner storytelling drawn from three decades of BBC filming Ideal for HR, people and wellbeing leads designing mental-health programmes that need a credible male voice Leadership offsites and senior partner retreats where the conversation needs to go beyond resilience language Sustainability, ESG and conservation-linked events anchored by a recognised BBC presenter After-dinner and awards-night programmes where presenter craft matters as much as topic Audience outcomes A more honest internal vocabulary for mental health, particularly among men who do not usually engage with the topic A specific picture of what sustained composure under pressure looks like in practice, drawn from filming conditions in extreme environments A renewed case for nature, routine and physical activity as legitimate wellbeing inputs rather than soft extras A clearer link between the conservation agenda the organisation talks about and the human story behind it Footage and stories that audiences remember long after the session, useful for downstream internal communication