Supply Chain Resilience speakers

Why organisations work with Abishur Prakash He defined the geopolitics-of-technology field early and keeps naming what comes next. His 2016 book Next Geopolitics set out a scenario framework for state competition over AI and robotics that boards are now living through. His latest, The Great Fracturing, maps the broken order they operate in today. He gives executives a working vocabulary for the new operating environment. Concepts he coined, including Vertical Globalization, Geopolitics of AI and Business Iron Curtain, name dynamics that buyers can otherwise only describe in fragments. His work at the Center for Innovating the Future has been cited by the World Economic Forum, Brookings, the Foreign Policy Research Institute, and the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, signalling that policymakers and corporates draw on the same analysis. He briefs in two registers. He has testified to the Senate of Canada and writes regularly in CNBC, Nikkei Asia, BBC, Politico, Fortune and the WSJ, so he is fluent with both heads of state and operating executives. He runs an advisory firm, The Geopolitical Business, that is built specifically for corporate decision-makers, not academic audiences. The reading frame is always: what does this mean for your next investment, supplier, market or product launch. Biography highlights Founder and CEO of The Geopolitical Business, a Toronto-based advisory firm. Author of six books, including his latest, The Great Fracturing: How Geopolitics Is Breaking the World (2026), The World Is Vertical, and Next Geopolitics Volumes One and Two. Former geopolitical futurist at the Center for Innovating the Future; represented CIF in testimony to the Senate of Canada in 2017. Work cited by the World Economic Forum, Brookings Institution, Foreign Policy Research Institute, and the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Bylines and commentary in CNN, BBC, CNBC, WSJ, Nikkei Asia, Reuters, Politico, Fortune, The Telegraph, Scientific American and SCMP. Coined frameworks now used in corporate strategy discussions: Next Geopolitics, Vertical Globalization, Geopolitics of AI, Business Iron Curtain. Biography The intersection of state power and corporate strategy is where most boardroom assumptions are now breaking. Export controls on chips, sanctions regimes that shift quarterly, severed supply corridors and AI rivalry between Washington and Beijing are no longer macro context. They sit on the operating P&L. Abishur Prakash has been mapping this terrain since 2013, when he first set out the case that geopolitics and technology had become a single field. Six books built that argument in stages. Next Geopolitics Volumes One and Two used scenario-based chapters to show how AI, robotics and biotech would force governments and companies into new postures. Go.AI examined the state-level race for artificial intelligence advantage. The Age of Killer Robots looked at autonomy in defence. The World Is Vertical: How Technology Is Remaking Globalization argued that the flat, integrated world of the 1990s and 2000s is being replaced by a layered, segmented one in which corporates choose blocs rather than markets. His latest book, The Great Fracturing: How Geopolitics Is Breaking the World, widens the lens from technology to the whole order. It traces how trade, ideology, connectivity and alliances are breaking into rival systems, reshaping everything from capital flows to how AI is deployed. His vantage point is built on both policy and corporate exposure. As a futurist at the Center for Innovating the Future, his work was cited by the World Economic Forum, Brookings and the UAE foreign ministry, and he testified to the Senate of Canada in 2017. He now runs The Geopolitical Business, a firm built to convert that analysis into decisions for executives, central banks and investors. His commentary appears regularly in CNBC, BBC, Nikkei Asia, the WSJ, Politico and Fortune. What boards take from him is not a worldview, but a working method. Concepts he coined, Vertical Globalization, Geopolitics of AI, Business Iron Curtain, give leadership teams a vocabulary for things they were already feeling on supply, capital and market access. The output is concrete: which corridors are closing, which blocs are forming, where the next sanction or subsidy is likely to land, and what that means for the next investment cycle. Key speaking topics Geopolitics of technology and AI US-China strategic and technology competition Vertical Globalization and the end of flat-world supply chains Sanctions, export controls and the Business Iron Curtain Scenario planning for boards and investors Long-range geopolitical foresight Bloc formation and the future of trade corridors The fracturing of the global order Ideal for Boards, CEOs and CSOs setting strategy across multiple geopolitical blocs CFOs and treasury leaders running capital allocation under sanctions and currency volatility Heads of supply chain, procurement and manufacturing footprint Investors, central banks and policy leaders responsible for long-horizon risk Audience outcomes A clearer reading of how state-level technology rivalry is reshaping their specific industry Named frameworks for describing geopolitical change inside their own strategy process Sharper questions for the next board, investment committee or supply review A view of which corridors, blocs and choke points to watch over the coming cycle Confidence to act on geopolitical risk before it becomes a balance-sheet event

Why organisations work with Brahma Chellaney He named the concept boards and ministries now use to discuss Chinese lending. Debt-trap diplomacy entered the policy lexicon through his January 2017 Project Syndicate column and is now cited by three successive US administrations. He wrote the canonical book on Asian water security. Water: Asia’s New Battleground won the Asia Society’s Bernard Schwartz Award in 2012, ahead of nearly 90 other titles. For organisations with manufacturing, agricultural or infrastructure exposure across South and Southeast Asia, he treats water as a hard strategic variable, not a sustainability slide. He helped draft India’s nuclear doctrine in 1999 as convener of the National Security Advisory Board’s External Security Group. When directors ask what New Delhi is actually thinking on Pakistan, China or the Quad, they are getting analysis from someone who has sat in the room. His distribution is institutional. Project Syndicate, Nikkei Asia, The Japan Times, The Hill, with op-eds in the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Le Monde and the South China Morning Post. The same readers who set strategy on Asia are reading him in primary sources. Biography highlights Professor of Strategic Studies, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi. Richard von Weizsacker Fellow, Robert Bosch Academy, Berlin; affiliate, International Centre for the Study of Radicalization, King’s College London. Former adviser to India’s National Security Council and convener of the External Security Group of the National Security Advisory Board. Author of nine books on strategic affairs, including Water: Asia’s New Battleground (Georgetown University Press), Asian Juggernaut (HarperCollins) and Water, Peace, and War (Rowman and Littlefield). Winner of the 2012 Asia Society Bernard Schwartz Book Award. Columnist for Project Syndicate, The Hill, Nikkei Asia and The Japan Times; visiting appointments at Harvard, Brookings, the Nobel Institute in Oslo, Johns Hopkins SAIS and the Australian National University. Biography Debt-trap diplomacy entered the language of Western policy in a single Project Syndicate column in January 2017. The author was Brahma Chellaney, writing on China’s Belt and Road lending. Within five years the phrase was being used by three successive US administrations, congressional committees and finance ministries across Asia and Africa. That trajectory is the clue to what he offers. Chellaney works on the structural fault lines of Asia, Chinese statecraft, India’s strategic posture, and the contest over rivers that sustain nearly half the world’s population, and gives them names that policymakers can act on. The work is grounded in primary sources and in years inside India’s own strategic apparatus, where he served as adviser to the National Security Council and convened the External Security Group of the National Security Advisory Board that drafted India’s nuclear doctrine in 1999. His books have set the terms of two distinct debates. Asian Juggernaut, published in the United States by HarperCollins in 2010, became a reference point for how China, India and Japan compete economically and militarily. Water: Asia’s New Battleground, published by Georgetown University Press, won the Asia Society’s Bernard Schwartz Book Award in 2012, beating nearly 90 other titles, and remains the canonical treatment of transboundary water risk in Asia. A follow-up, Water, Peace, and War, broadened the analysis to the global water crisis. His current platform is institutional and global. He holds the Richard von Weizsacker Fellowship at Berlin’s Robert Bosch Academy, is affiliated with King’s College London’s International Centre for the Study of Radicalization, and has held visiting appointments at Harvard, Brookings, the Nobel Institute in Oslo, Johns Hopkins SAIS and the Australian National University. His columns run in Project Syndicate, Nikkei Asia, The Japan Times and The Hill, with op-eds in the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Le Monde and the South China Morning Post. For boards wrestling with China exposure, water-stressed supply chains, or the strategic logic of the Indo-Pacific, he is one of the very few analysts whose framing tends to be cited back to them by their own regulators. Key speaking topics China’s strategic statecraft and debt diplomacy The Indo-Pacific power balance and the rise of Asia India’s foreign and security policy Transboundary water risk and resource geopolitics Asian supply chain and infrastructure exposure Nuclear and security dynamics in South Asia Great-power competition and the fracturing global order Ideal for Boards and executive committees with material exposure to China, India or the wider Indo-Pacific CEOs, CSOs and government affairs leads reassessing political risk and country exposure Infrastructure, utilities, agriculture and manufacturing leaders facing water-related operational risk in Asia Investor and policy forums focused on geopolitical risk and capital allocation Audience outcomes A working vocabulary for Chinese economic statecraft, including the original mechanics of debt-trap diplomacy A sharper read on how Beijing, New Delhi and Tokyo each calculate strategic risk, and where their interests collide A defensible view of where transboundary water disputes are likely to disrupt supply chains, agriculture and infrastructure A clearer sense of what India’s foreign and security policy is, beyond Western reporting of it Frames for board-level conversations on Asia exposure that hold up under scrutiny from policy and regulatory readers

Why organisations work with Carlos Cordon Direct advisory experience with Johnson and Johnson, Nestlé, Coca-Cola, Merck, Mondelez, Unilever, Heineken, Danone, and General Motors, which means the examples on stage come from rooms he has sat in. Reframes the supply chain conversation at board level as a revenue and growth discussion, shifting it away from the familiar cost-defence framing and into competitive territory. Teaching material that other business schools pay to use. His cases have twice placed him on The Case Centre’s Top 50 Bestselling Case Authors globally. Sits on Coca-Cola European Partners’ Digital Advisory Board, which gives him a working view of how a global consumer business is actually pricing digital and AI bets at the top. Writes regularly for TIME on supply chain and geopolitics, so a board gets someone whose argument has already been tested against an international editorial audience. Biography highlights Professor of Strategy and Supply Chain Management at IMD Business School, Lausanne. Director of IMD’s Strategies for Supply Chain Digitalization program. Author of Strategy is Digital (Springer), The Power of Two (Palgrave Macmillan), and Strategic Supply Chain Management (Routledge). Twice listed on The Case Centre’s Top 50 Bestselling Case Authors (#18 in 2020/21, #36 in 2023/24). Winner of the EFMD Case Writing Competition in 2017 and of The Case Centre’s Production and Operations Management Award in 2011 and again in 2026 for Apple’s Supply Chain Transformation. Regular contributor to TIME and to I by IMD; board advisor to Coca-Cola European Partners on digital. Biography Most supply chain conversations in the boardroom are still framed as cost questions. Cordon’s work reframes them as revenue questions. His argument, developed across three books and a case portfolio used in MBA programmes globally, is that how a company sources, makes, moves, and digitises its value chain now decides whether it can grow at all in a fragmenting world. At IMD, where he holds the chair in Strategy and Supply Chain Management, he directs the Strategies for Supply Chain Digitalization program and teaches senior executives from the companies shaping the consumer, pharma, and industrial economy. Johnson and Johnson, Nestlé, Coca-Cola, Merck, Mondelez, Unilever, Heineken, Danone, and General Motors are on his client list. He sits on Coca-Cola European Partners’ Digital Advisory Board, which keeps his perspective grounded in live commercial decisions. His published work tracks the trajectory of the field. The Power of Two (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008) set out how smart customer-supplier partnerships create value that neither party could capture alone. Strategy is Digital (Springer, 2016) argued that big data and digital platforms had become the value chain, not an overlay on it. The current research programme tackles the hardest question leaders now face: how to reconfigure sourcing, manufacturing footprints, and operating models when tariffs, geopolitical risk, and Gen-AI are all moving at once. The case writing is a second form of evidence. He has twice placed in The Case Centre’s Top 50 Bestselling Case Authors globally and won the Production and Operations Management category in 2011 and again in 2026 for Apple’s Supply Chain Transformation. The EFMD Case Writing Competition recognised his Adidas case in 2017. Few supply chain academics are read this widely by other teachers of the subject, which is what gives his perspective on a live boardroom problem the weight it carries. Key speaking topics Supply chain reconfiguration under geopolitical and tariff pressure Reshoring, nearshoring, and manufacturing footprint strategy Digital value chains and the commercial use of Gen-AI in operations Customer-supplier partnership models Supply chain as a driver of revenue and competitive advantage Digital lean and process redesign Operating model resilience in consumer goods, pharma, and industrial sectors Ideal for Board and ExCo sessions where supply chain redesign is on the strategic agenda Chief Supply Chain Officers, COOs, and Chief Procurement Officers managing global footprint decisions Strategy and transformation leads working on reshoring, digitisation, or tariff response Consumer goods, pharma, and industrial leadership teams rethinking how operations create commercial value Audience outcomes A sharper read on how tariff fragmentation and geopolitical risk are reshaping operating model choices in the next three to five years. A working vocabulary for arguing the supply chain case at board level as a growth lever. Worked examples from named multinationals showing how reshoring, digitisation, and Gen-AI are being priced into real operating model decisions. A sharper test for where digital and AI investment in the value chain earns its cost, and where it does not.

Why organisations work with Dalia Marin Her peer-reviewed research links automation, trade-policy uncertainty, and reshoring in a single empirical model, giving leadership teams a defensible basis for supply-chain decisions rather than a narrative. She translates between the Brussels and Berlin policy worlds and the corporate boardroom, drawing on advisory work with the European Commission, the EBRD, and the IMF. Her Project Syndicate column is a running public reference point on deglobalisation, German deindustrialisation, and the labour-market consequences of AI, read by policy and business readers across Europe. She is one of the few senior economists who has tracked the German industrial model, and the Eastern European production network around it, continuously since the 1990s. That long view matters when companies are re-assessing the same geographies. Biography highlights Chair in International Economics, TUM School of Management, Technical University of Munich. Non-resident Fellow at Bruegel and Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research. Former Professor of International Economics at Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich (1998 to 2017). Co-editor of “The Organization of Firms in a Global Economy” (Harvard University Press, 2008) with Elhanan Helpman and Thierry Verdier. Co-author of “Global Value Chains in a World of Uncertainty and Automation”, Journal of International Economics, 2025. Visiting appointments at Harvard, Stanford, NYU Stern, the IMF, the NBER, and the European University Institute. Project Syndicate columnist on deglobalisation, industrial policy, and the future of the German economic model. Biography The reshoring debate has moved past the slogan stage. Firms are actually pulling production back to high-income economies, and the economic literature is starting to explain why. Trade-policy uncertainty and cheaper industrial robots, working together, are restructuring global supply chains in ways that a decade of offshoring logic did not anticipate. That is the core argument of Marin’s recent work, co-authored in the Journal of International Economics in 2025. Her research shows that exposure to uncertainty in developing-country suppliers pushes production back to high-income countries, but only where robots have made it economically feasible. For a senior operations or strategy audience, this is a usable frame: reshoring is not a political mood, it is a measurable response to two forces that can be modelled. The wider body of work runs through Bruegel, CEPR, and a sustained Project Syndicate column. She has written continuously on the German economic model, the Eastern European production network built around it, and the inflationary and labour-market consequences of a partial retreat from globalisation. Her advisory work with the European Commission, the EBRD, and the IMF sits alongside the academic record rather than replacing it. She was Chair in International Economics at Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich for almost two decades before moving to TUM. Visiting appointments at Harvard, Stanford, NYU Stern, the IMF, and the NBER place her inside the network of economists who set the terms of the trade-policy debate. The value for a corporate audience is that she can connect that technical conversation to the question actually on the table: what does the next decade of supply-chain strategy look like when the old globalisation assumptions no longer hold. Key speaking topics Deglobalisation and the restructuring of global supply chains Automation, robots, and reshoring The German economic model and European competitiveness International trade policy and geopolitical risk Multinational firms and the organisation of global production Industrial policy in Europe and the United States Inflation, labour markets, and the economics of deglobalisation Ideal for Boards and executive committees reassessing supply-chain footprint in light of tariffs, geopolitical risk, and automation CSOs, Heads of Strategy, and COOs responsible for manufacturing and sourcing decisions in industrial and export-led businesses Policy forums, investor conferences, and economic summits focused on Europe, Germany, and the future of global trade Senior leadership in financial institutions and multinational corporates with significant exposure to Eastern Europe and the German industrial base Audience outcomes A clear read of the empirical evidence on reshoring, automation, and trade-policy uncertainty, rather than the headline narrative A sharper view of where the German economic model is strong and where it is exposed, with implications for anyone doing business across the European industrial network A working framework for assessing which parts of a supply chain are candidates for reshoring and which are not A grounded perspective on the macro-economic consequences of deglobalisation, including effects on inflation and labour markets Language and evidence that senior leaders can use in their own board conversations on geopolitical and trade exposure

Why organisations work with David Hughes Hughes reads the whole value chain – from farm inputs and life science companies through manufacturers, retailers and food service – and identifies the commercial implications of change at each stage, giving organisations a perspective they cannot assemble internally. His 1994 book «Breaking with Tradition: Building Partnerships and Alliances in the European Food Industry» established the intellectual case for vertical supply chain collaboration – a thesis that remains central to competitive advantage in the sector today. He does not only analyse food businesses; he built one. As co-founder of a branded fresh produce company that he grew and sold into US supermarkets, and as a 20-year Non-Executive Director of Berry Gardens Ltd – the UK’s largest farmer-owned berry business – his commercial judgement is grounded in direct business experience. Organisations working in any geography get genuine cross-continental intelligence. Hughes works across Africa, Asia, Australasia, North and South America and Europe, making his read on consumer trends and retail dynamics global in scope rather than extrapolated from one market. As Honorary Nuffield Scholar and the inaugural Sainsbury Professor of Food Marketing at what is now Imperial College London, his academic standing gives food and agribusiness organisations a credible, research-grounded voice for external-facing events, policy engagements and board-level discussions. Biography highlights Emeritus Professor of Food Marketing, Imperial College London; inaugural Sainsbury Professor of Food Marketing at Wye College (now Imperial College London) from 1991 Visiting Professor, Royal Agricultural University, UK Ph.D. Food Marketing, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne; M.Sc. Agricultural Marketing; B.Sc. (Hons.) Agricultural Economics Non-Executive Director, Berry Gardens Ltd – UK’s largest farmer-owned berry business – for 20 years; co-founder of a branded fresh produce business sold into US supermarket chains Author/editor: «Breaking with Tradition: Building Partnerships and Alliances in the European Food Industry» (Wye College Press, 1994); published in British Food Journal, Supply Chain Management, and Business Ethics: A European Review Honorary Nuffield Scholar; keynote speaker at major food industry conferences across Africa, Asia, Australasia, the Americas and Europe, with named clients including Nestlé HQ (Switzerland) and William Reed Ltd (The Grocer) Biography Consumer preferences for health, sustainability and convenience are not moving in straight lines – and the food businesses that are best placed to respond are those that see how each shift propagates across the whole value chain, from the genetics company at one end to the food service operator at the other. David Hughes has spent more than fifty years building exactly that whole-chain, whole-world view, working with senior management in food and agribusiness on every continent. Hughes became the inaugural Sainsbury Professor of Food Marketing at Wye College in 1991, later Emeritus Professor at Imperial College London, where he established and directed the Food Industry Management Group. His 1994 edited volume «Breaking with Tradition: Building Partnerships and Alliances in the European Food Industry» set out the commercial logic of vertical supply chain collaboration – an argument that has only become more relevant as retail power has concentrated and sustainability scrutiny has intensified. He is also Visiting Professor at the Royal Agricultural University and an Honorary Nuffield Scholar. What distinguishes Hughes from the academic analyst category is that he has operated commercially inside the industries he studies. He co-founded and sold a branded fresh produce business serving US supermarkets, and served as Non-Executive Director of Berry Gardens Ltd – Britain’s largest farmer-owned berry business – for two decades. That combination of institutional credibility and business experience is what makes his reads on market shifts actionable rather than observational. Known internationally as «Dr. Food,» Hughes speaks to boards, trade associations, producer groups and government bodies across Africa, Asia, Australasia, North and South America and Europe. His work is sector-wide – meat, dairy, fresh produce, packaged foods, food service and the input industries that serve them – and consistently oriented toward the commercial question: given what is shifting, what should an organisation do on Monday morning? Key speaking topics Global consumer food trends and retail dynamics Food and agribusiness commercial strategy Supply chain partnerships and vertical alliance models Sustainability, environment and the food industry Health, nutrition and food market development Fresh produce and grocery retail innovation Food entrepreneurship and business model change Ideal for C-suite and board-level audiences in food manufacturing, grocery retail, food service and agribusiness Trade associations and producer organisations seeking to brief members on market direction Government and policy bodies working on food security, trade and sustainability Financial services and investor audiences with food sector exposure Audience outcomes A clearer distinction between structural shifts in food consumer behaviour and short-term trends – and the commercial implications of each Understanding of how change in one part of the food value chain creates threats and opportunities in adjacent segments A cross-continental frame of reference for food market developments that is difficult to assemble from within a single geography or sector Practical direction on how food businesses can build the supply chain partnerships and consumer connections that underpin competitive advantage Greater confidence in communicating strategic rationale to boards, investors or government stakeholders on food industry direction

Why organisations work with David Thomas He lives in Cebu and works on active cross-border deal flow through Mabuhay Capital Corporation, the Philippines M&A advisory firm, so what he says about emerging Asia is being tested in live transactions rather than retrieved from a desk in London. His reading of Hong Kong and Greater China carries family proximity that other Asia speakers cannot match. His father, Michael Thomas QC CMG, was Attorney General of Hong Kong from 1983 to 1988 and contributed to the Sino-British Joint Declaration. His stepmother, Baroness Lydia Dunn, sat on Hong Kong’s Executive and Legislative Councils and went on to sit in the UK House of Lords. He has spent two decades running capital and investment delegations across emerging Asia, including the BRIC+ Program he co-founded (Brazil, Russia, India and China), so when he points at a corridor opening, he is usually already moving founders or capital through it. His North-South Corridor framework maps how capital and supply chains are moving between the Greater Bay Area, Hong Kong, ASEAN, Australia and New Zealand. It is the lane that most of the cross-border activity of the next decade will be priced along, and it is the lane that most Western strategy decks still skip. His Three Cups of Tea framework, drawn from the book of the same name, gives Western leaders a working method for how commercial trust actually builds in Asian markets: Stranger, Friend, Family, in that order. Biography highlights Author of Three Cups of Tea: A 3 Step Guide to Doing Business in China and Year of the Rat, alongside further writing on Asian commerce. Lived and worked in Hong Kong through the 1980s and 1990s; ran his own wealth management firm there from 1988 to 1995. Father Michael Thomas QC CMG, Attorney General of Hong Kong (1983–1988); stepmother Baroness Lydia Dunn, senior unofficial member of Hong Kong’s Executive Council and Legislative Council, and a UK House of Lords cross-bencher. Co-founder of the BRIC+ Program (2005–2010), running five years of Australian investment study tours into Brazil, Russia, India and China. Consultant to Mabuhay Capital Corporation (Philippines) on cross-border M&A and ASEAN capital flows. Founding President of the Australia China SME Association. Founder/CEO of Think Global Consulting. Graduate of the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business CEO Program in Beijing (2019). Has spoken at corporate events for Deloitte, Westpac, Telstra, DHL, BT Financial Group, RMA Australia and others across Asia, Australia, Europe and the UK. Biography Western boards are still reading Asia through a US-China lens. The next two decades of cross-border capital and supply chain activity will move along a different lane: the corridor connecting the Greater Bay Area and Hong Kong, down through the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and broader ASEAN, to Australia and New Zealand. That lane is what David Thomas calls the North-South Corridor, and he has spent three decades inside it. That perspective begins with family. His father, Michael Thomas QC CMG, was Hong Kong’s Attorney General from 1983 to 1988 and contributed to the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration that determined the territory’s future. His stepmother, Baroness Lydia Dunn, was a senior member of Hong Kong’s Executive Council and went on to sit as a cross-bencher in the UK House of Lords from 1990 to 2010. David lived in Hong Kong through the 1980s and 1990s and ran his own wealth management firm there from 1988 to 1995. He made his first trip to Beijing in 1989. What followed was three decades of running capital and trade work across emerging Asia. He co-founded the BRIC+ Program, an Australian investment delegation that ran for five consecutive years into Brazil, Russia, India and China and gave senior financial advisers structured access to all four markets simultaneously. His book Three Cups of Tea introduced a model now used by Western executives entering Asian markets: relationships build through three stages, Stranger, Friend and Family, and the real commercial work begins only at the third. He served as founding President of the Australia China SME Association and founded Think Global Consulting. He works with Mabuhay Capital Corporation on active cross-border M&A and capital flows across the Philippines and ASEAN. He is a graduate of the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business CEO Program in Beijing, and recent client work has included executive briefings for senior freight and logistics teams gathered in Ho Chi Minh City and curated investor introductions for Australian and New Zealand founders raising into Asia-Pacific capital. Key speaking topics Geopolitics and the North-South Corridor ASEAN as the next commercial growth axis Cross-border capital flow between developed markets and emerging Asia Supply chain repositioning under US-China decoupling Cross-cultural negotiation and trust architecture in Asian markets Strategic foresight on Asia for Western boards Ideal for CEOs, CSOs and board directors with current or planned commercial exposure to Hong Kong, Greater China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia or broader ASEAN. Investment committees, family offices and venture firms allocating capital across the Greater Bay Area, ASEAN and Australia/New Zealand. Corporate development, M&A and market entry teams running cross-border transactions or joint ventures in emerging Asia. Industry associations and trade bodies briefing members on supply chain risk and the capital corridor connecting developed markets to ASEAN. Audience outcomes A working map of the North-South Corridor and where capital, supply chains and political risk are actually being repriced. A method for building commercial trust in Asian markets (Stranger, Friend, Family), and a clear view of why transactional Western approaches consistently fail there. A sharper read of US-China-ASEAN dynamics and where they intersect with their own organisation’s market and supplier exposure. An applied frame for market entry, joint venture and capital partner decisions across the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and broader ASEAN.

Why organisations work with Dominic McVey He has operated, not observed: acquired and restructured Hela Clothing in Sri Lanka in 2013 and grew its workforce to over 17,000 across Sri Lanka, Kenya and Ethiopia, supplying M&S, Tesco, John Lewis and Asda. He converts a teenage-millionaire origin story into serious boardroom utility: the founder instinct for spotting asymmetric opportunity, applied to corporate growth, M&A, and emerging market entry. He brings a government-grade network on Africa: MBE for services to private sector development in Africa, Namibian Honorary Consul to Wales, Coalition for Global Prosperity advisory council, Co-Chair of Global Academy Africa. He speaks credibly on ethical supply chains from the operator seat, as founder of the Fair Fashion Pact and Chairman of Computer Aid International. Biography highlights Professor of Practice, University of Wales Trinity Saint David (appointed June 2022). MBE, 2022 Platinum Jubilee Honours, for services to private sector development in Africa. Chairman and trustee of Computer Aid International, which has reached over 14.5 million people with technology access since 1997. Founder, Fair Fashion Pact; former owner and chairman of Hela Clothing, Sri Lanka. Namibian Honorary Consul to Wales; Co-Chair, Global Academy Africa; advisory council, Coalition for Global Prosperity; ambassador, HALO Trust. Keynote speaker at Davos (2020, 2024), Bloomberg’s Modern Affluence Summit (2019) and the Conservative Party Conference main stage (2018). Biography Most expansion plans into frontier markets get built around cost arbitrage and break on everything else. The operators who actually scale in Sri Lanka, Kenya, Ethiopia or Mexico spend less time on the landed-cost model and more on recruitment, training, community standing, political relationships and supplier reliability. McVey has done the second version of that work. He bought Hela Clothing in Sri Lanka in 2013, when the business had around 3,000 staff supplying UK high street retailers. Under his ownership the group expanded into Kenya and Ethiopia, grew to more than 17,000 employees, and supplied Levi’s, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, M&S, John Lewis and Tesco. That track record is the spine of his credibility when he speaks to boards about emerging market growth. The earlier chapter gives him the founder register. At 13 he began importing US-made micro-scooters into the UK. By 15 he was Britain’s youngest self-made millionaire. At 18 the Queen named him a “Pioneer for Britain in Entrepreneurism”. That arc is not a keynote hook; it is why buyers trust him to talk about spotting mispriced opportunity. The third layer is policy and philanthropy. He was awarded an MBE in the 2022 Platinum Jubilee Honours for services to private sector development in Africa, sits on the Coalition for Global Prosperity advisory council, serves as Namibian Honorary Consul to Wales, and chairs Computer Aid International. He founded the Fair Fashion Pact to raise standards in African apparel supply chains. The University of Wales Trinity Saint David appointed him Professor of Practice in 2022. Key speaking topics Entrepreneurship and founder thinking Emerging market growth and private sector development in Africa Ethical supply chains and responsible sourcing Scaling manufacturing across multiple geographies Business model innovation and portfolio diversification Philanthropy, trade and sustainable foreign direct investment Ideal for Boards and executive teams planning expansion into African, South Asian or Latin American markets. CEOs and commercial leaders wrestling with supply chain ethics, ESG credibility and supplier consolidation. Founder-led businesses and family offices looking for a peer voice on portfolio strategy and emerging opportunity. Conferences on trade, development finance, manufacturing and the UK-Africa commercial relationship. Audience outcomes A clearer read on what actually determines whether emerging market operations scale, beyond the cost model. A framework for evaluating supply chain partners that treats labour standards as commercial leverage, not compliance overhead. A sharper view of Africa as an investment destination from someone with working diplomatic and trade relationships there. A founder’s perspective on how to spot and act on asymmetric opportunity inside a corporate setting.

Why organisations work with Eunice Olumide A first-hand authority on what fast fashion looks like inside the industry, with parliamentary testimony that fed into the UK’s first inquiry on its environmental impact. A published voice on exploitation and sustainability in fashion through How To Get Into Fashion (Luath Press, 2018), drawn from a career walking for Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen, Mulberry and Christopher Kane. An MBE-recognised broadcaster across BBC, ITV and Sky, comfortable holding a room of senior leaders without losing the substance of the argument. A curator and gallery founder whose programme links contemporary art with social and environmental causes, useful for organisations whose brand strategy intersects with culture. A V&A Design Champion with credibility in design, production and sustainability conversations that most fashion-adjacent speakers cannot match. Biography highlights MBE, 2017 Birthday Honours, for services to broadcasting, the arts and charity. Honorary Doctor of the University, The Open University, 2024. V&A Design Champion, 2018; permanent display at the National Museum of Scotland. Author, How To Get Into Fashion (Luath Press, 2018); contributor, Loud Black Girls (2020), edited by Bernardine Evaristo. Founder, Olumide Gallery, representing artists including Sokari Douglas Camp CBE, Richard Wilson, The Connor Brothers and Bradley Theodore. Acting credits include BAFTA-winning Trouble Sleeping, BAFTA-nominated Middleman, Star Wars: Rogue One, The Last Jedi and Noughts and Crosses. Biography Fashion is one of the largest polluters on the planet, and the people best placed to say so are the ones who have worked inside it. Eunice Olumide MBE walked for Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen, Mulberry and Christopher Kane before turning her attention to the industry’s harder questions. Her testimony at the Houses of Parliament fed into the UK’s first inquiry on the environmental impact of fast fashion. Her 2018 book How To Get Into Fashion, published by Luath Press, is the long form of that argument. It treats exploitation, sustainability and diversity not as separate brand campaigns but as connected supply chain problems. The book sits alongside her V&A Design Champion role and her work with the Centre for Social Justice as evidence that her sustainability work is operational, not aesthetic. Olumide is also a broadcaster across BBC, ITV and Sky, an MBE recipient for services to broadcasting, the arts and charity, and an honorary Doctor of the University from The Open University. She founded Olumide Gallery in 2016 and represents contemporary artists including Sokari Douglas Camp CBE, Richard Wilson and The Connor Brothers, with a curatorial line that returns regularly to inclusion and environmental responsibility. For organisations, the value is the combination of access and argument. She has lived inside the commercial machinery she critiques, and she has put that critique on record in Parliament, in a published book, and through institutions including the V&A and the National Museum of Scotland. Key speaking topics Sustainability and ethics in fashion Fast fashion and supply chain accountability Diversity and inclusion in creative industries Art, culture and social impact Climate action and the consumer economy Women of colour in media and fashion Brand purpose and authentic advocacy Ideal for Boards and CSOs in fashion, retail and consumer brands working through ESG substance versus narrative. CMOs and brand leaders building sustainability and inclusion into commercial strategy, not communications. Cultural institutions, arts funders and philanthropic boards engaging with diversity in the creative sector. Conferences and leadership events seeking a credible voice on fashion, climate and social justice in one speaker. Audience outcomes A clearer view of how fast fashion actually operates, including the labour and environmental trade-offs that rarely surface in public discourse. A sharper sense of where corporate sustainability narrative diverges from supply chain reality. Practical reference points for inclusion in creative industries from someone who has worked at the top of one. Renewed confidence that ethics and commercial strategy can be argued together rather than traded off.

Why organisations work with Gary Cohen He has demonstrably moved an entire sector. Under his leadership, U.S. medical waste incinerators fell from around 5,600 to fewer than 70, and mercury was effectively removed from U.S. medical devices, contributing to the global Minamata phase-out. He brings a network, not just a perspective. Health Care Without Harm operates with hospitals and health partners in more than 50 countries and convenes ministries of health, group purchasing organisations and major hospital systems. His credibility is recognised by the bodies that matter to senior buyers: MacArthur Fellow (2015), Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship (2006), and White House Champion of Change for Climate Change and Public Health (2013). He talks to executives in their own operating language. Procurement, capital projects, energy contracts, waste contracts, supply chain risk, not abstract sustainability narrative. He has spent nearly four decades inside the toxics and environmental health field, including running the National Toxics Campaign Fund and co-founding the Military Toxics Project, so he understands regulation, litigation and corporate response from multiple sides. Biography highlights Co-founder and president, Health Care Without Harm, since 1996. President, Practice Greenhealth, the U.S. membership organisation for sustainable healthcare. MacArthur Fellow, 2015. Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, 2006; Frank Hatch Award for Enlightened Public Service, 2007. White House Champion of Change for Climate Change and Public Health, 2013. Co-author, “Fighting Toxics” (Island Press, 1990); former executive director, National Toxics Campaign Fund. Biography Hospitals exist to heal, yet the global health sector is responsible for around 4.5 percent of greenhouse gas emissions and remains a significant source of toxic chemical exposure. Reconciling that contradiction has been Gary Cohen’s working life for almost four decades. He co-founded Health Care Without Harm in 1996 after a period running the National Toxics Campaign Fund and co-founding the Military Toxics Project. The organisation began as a response to the use of dioxin-emitting incineration, mercury thermometers and toxic plasticisers in routine medical care. It now works with hospital systems, ministries of health and purchasing organisations in more than 50 countries. The track record is concrete. Mercury has been substantially eliminated from U.S. medical devices, with the work feeding into the Minamata Convention. Medical waste incinerators in the United States fell from roughly 5,600 in the late 1990s to fewer than 70 by 2006. Practice Greenhealth, the U.S. membership arm Cohen leads, gives hospital executives a structured way to act on procurement, energy and waste rather than restate intentions. Recognition has followed the substance: a MacArthur Fellowship in 2015, the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship in 2006, the Frank Hatch Award in 2007, and a White House Champion of Change designation for climate change and public health in 2013. What that record gives a senior audience is unusual: someone who can speak to climate, toxics and supply chain risk as an operator who has already redesigned a regulated sector at scale. Key speaking topics Climate change as a public health issue Decarbonising the healthcare sector Toxic chemicals and supply chain redesign Sustainable procurement in regulated industries Hospital infrastructure, energy and waste Environmental health and community resilience Coalition building across regulators, providers and purchasers Ideal for Boards and executive teams of health systems, hospital networks and pharmaceutical companies setting climate and chemical safety strategy Chief sustainability officers, chief procurement officers and capital planning leads in regulated, asset-heavy sectors Public sector health leaders, ministries of health and group purchasing organisations ESG, impact and philanthropic investors looking at health and climate intersections Audience outcomes A clear view of where healthcare’s environmental footprint actually sits, by procurement category, energy use and waste stream A working model of how a sector moves from commitment to operating change, drawn from a redesign that has already happened Specific reference points on mercury elimination, incineration reduction and supply chain detoxification that translate to other regulated industries A more honest conversation about ESG substance versus ESG narrative, grounded in measurable sector outcomes

Why organisations work with Gary Pisano He gives leaders a framework for diagnosing why innovation investment is not compounding, and a language for fixing it at the level of strategy rather than process. His work on industrial commons, developed with Willy Shih in Producing Prosperity, explains how manufacturing and R and D decisions shape long-term competitive capacity, a lens most strategy advisors do not carry. The thesis of Creative Construction reframes scale as a potential innovation asset, which is directly relevant to incumbents under pressure from smaller, faster rivals. The 1997 Dynamic Capabilities paper he co-authored is foundational reading in corporate strategy; buyers get the person whose ideas their strategy team has already been citing. Board experience at Axcella Health and Celixir, plus advisory work across aerospace, biotech, pharma, medical devices, semiconductors and financial services, grounds the academic argument in operator reality. Biography highlights Harry E. Figgie, Jr. Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School; on faculty since 1988. Former Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Promotion and Tenure at HBS (2018 to 2023). Author of Creative Construction: The DNA of Sustained Innovation (PublicAffairs, 2019) and Science Business (HBS Press, 2006); co-author of Producing Prosperity (HBS Press, 2012). Won the 2009 McKinsey Award for best HBR article for Restoring American Competitiveness with Willy Shih. Co-author of Dynamic Capabilities and Strategic Management (1997), one of the most cited papers in the management literature. PhD from UC Berkeley; BA in Economics from Yale. Biography Innovation spend in large organisations often grows faster than any measurable return on it. The reason is rarely a failure of execution. It is a failure to define what innovation is supposed to do for the business in the first place. This is the problem Gary Pisano has spent three decades unpicking at Harvard Business School. As the Harry E. Figgie, Jr. Professor of Business Administration, Pisano has published over 100 scholarly articles and case studies and written six books. Creative Construction, his 2019 book, argues that large firms are not condemned to be outrun by start-ups. Scale is an asset when strategy, systems, and culture are set up to use it. The argument cuts directly against the disruption orthodoxy that has shaped a generation of boardroom thinking. His earlier work reaches further back into the industrial architecture of competitiveness. Producing Prosperity, co-written with Willy Shih, shows how outsourced manufacturing hollows out the capability to invent. Science Business, his study of biotech, explains why a whole industry built on extraordinary science has struggled to translate it into sustained commercial performance. The 1997 Dynamic Capabilities paper, written with David Teece and Amy Shuen, is one of the most cited in the history of strategic management. That research base is matched by three decades of direct advisory work across aerospace, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, semiconductors, software, and financial services, plus board seats at Axcella Health and Celixir. Leaders come to him when the innovation portfolio looks busy but the competitive position is not improving, and they leave with a sharper account of why. Key speaking topics Innovation strategy Sustained innovation in large organisations Competitive strategy and dynamic capabilities Growth and the limits of scale Manufacturing, industrial commons and national competitiveness Science-based business models R and D and intellectual property strategy Ideal for CEOs, CSOs and heads of strategy in incumbent firms losing ground on innovation Boards overseeing large R and D portfolios that are not compounding into advantage Executive teams in biotech, pharma, medical devices and advanced manufacturing Policy and industry leaders working on national competitiveness and supply chain capability Audience outcomes A sharper diagnosis of why innovation spending is not producing durable advantage A working definition of innovation strategy that ties R and D choices to business strategy An argument for when scale helps innovation and when it quietly kills it A clear view of how manufacturing and process capability feed, or starve, future product innovation Language senior teams can use to challenge an innovation portfolio without defaulting to start-up envy

Why organisations work with Hans Diels Direct operator experience inside EU trade policy. He represented Belgium on the EU Council’s Trade Policy Committee on services and investment, which gives his read on sanctions, tariffs, and industrial policy a practitioner’s weight that pure commentators cannot match. A continental European lens on geopolitical risk, at a moment when Anglo-American analysis dominates the boardroom. For European leadership teams exposed to Russia, China, and US policy swings, his vantage point is scarcer and more relevant. Two published books that form a coherent argument: “Het onzekerheidsvoordeel” (LannooCampus, 2022) sets out the scenario-thinking method; “Markt onder vuur” (LannooCampus, 2024) applies it to the economic consequences of political conflict. He works in the register executives need: translating sanctions regimes, trade wars, and energy shocks into decisions about where to produce, whom to sell to, and which contracts to stress-test. Dutch and English delivery across keynotes and workshops, with a track record in boardrooms, strategy offsites, and risk committees across the Benelux and wider Europe. Biography highlights Futurist and geopolitical expert at ETION, the Belgian entrepreneurial network and think tank. Former Belgian representative on the EU Council’s Trade Policy Committee (services and investment). Former researcher at the University of Antwerp, Department of Political Science. Prior roles at the US Embassy in Belgium, the Belgian Parliament, and EU institutions. Author of “Het onzekerheidsvoordeel” (LannooCampus, 2022) and “Markt onder vuur” (LannooCampus, 2024). Master’s in Political Science (KU Leuven), International Relations postgraduate (UCLouvain), economics via LSE External Programme. Biography Sanctions, export controls, and industrial policy now set the boundary conditions for European business. Assumptions that underpinned strategy for two decades, open markets, cheap Russian gas, reliable Asian supply chains, a stable US security guarantee, are no longer reliable. That is the terrain Hans Diels works on. His perspective is built from inside the machinery. He represented Belgium on the EU Council’s Trade Policy Committee on services and investment, worked at the US Embassy in Belgium, served in the Belgian Parliament, and researched international governance at the University of Antwerp. He now sits at ETION, the Belgian entrepreneurial network, advising boards and executive teams on how political conflict translates into commercial exposure. Two books carry the argument. “Het onzekerheidsvoordeel” (LannooCampus, 2022) sets out a method for strategy under deep uncertainty, built on horizon scanning and scenario testing rather than forecast precision. “Markt onder vuur” (LannooCampus, 2024) turns the lens on geopolitical disruption itself: how sanctions, cyber operations, and economic warfare reshape markets, and what companies can practically do in response. Diels is Dutch-speaking, trained in international relations at KU Leuven and UCLouvain, and read economics through the LSE External Programme. He writes regularly on futures and political disruption on Substack and in Belgian media. What he offers a board is a specific thing: the discipline of keeping strategy open to multiple plausible futures, without paralysing the decision to act in the present. Key speaking topics Geopolitical risk and corporate strategy Economic warfare, sanctions and export controls Scenario thinking and strategic foresight Global megatrends and systemic disruption Europe’s position between the US, China and Russia Supply chain exposure and industrial policy Strategy under deep uncertainty Ideal for Boards and executive committees reassessing exposure to geopolitical shocks Strategy, risk and supply chain leaders at industrial and financial services firms European multinationals with significant US, China or Russia-linked revenue or sourcing Leadership offsites and strategy days where the macro picture needs to become a decision input Audience outcomes A sharper read on which geopolitical shifts genuinely move their P&L and which are noise A working vocabulary for scenario thinking that survives contact with the executive agenda Concrete pressure points to test in supply chains, contracts, and market strategies A realistic view of Europe’s structural position between the US, China and Russia, and what that means for their sector Confidence to make strategic commitments without waiting for the fog to clear

Why organisations work with Harry Broadman He has negotiated services trade for the United States inside NAFTA and the WTO, then operated those same markets from inside the World Bank and the private sector. Few speakers can carry one argument across all three vantage points. He served on CFIUS inside the White House and now advises companies on foreign investment review as a principal at WestExec Advisors, the geopolitical advisory firm. Leaders get a working read on how Washington actually screens cross-border deals. His emerging markets work spans more than 80 countries and includes book-length research on China and India in Africa, on Russia and the former Soviet Union, and on Chinese state ownership. The frameworks he uses on stage are his own. He writes a monthly business leadership column for Forbes and the national security column for the International Financial Law Review, so audiences meet a voice they may already read in named outlets. He chairs corporate boards and audit committees as an SEC-qualified financial expert and is a Board Leadership Fellow at the National Association of Corporate Directors, so he addresses directors as a peer who carries the same fiduciary exposure. Biography highlights Principal at WestExec Advisors and Senior Economist at the RAND Corporation Former U.S. Assistant Trade Representative; led services negotiations for NAFTA and the WTO Former Chief of Staff, President’s Council of Economic Advisers; CFIUS member; OPIC board member Senior World Bank roles covering China, Russia, the Balkans, and Africa Author of Africa’s Silk Road, From Disintegration to Reintegration, and The State as Shareholder SEC-qualified financial expert who chairs corporate boards and audit committees; NACD Board Leadership Fellow; monthly Forbes columnist Biography Few people have negotiated U.S. trade policy, run capital and reform programmes inside the World Bank, and then advised boards on what those same rules mean for live investment decisions. That is the career Harry Broadman has built. As U.S. Assistant Trade Representative, he led the American negotiating position on services in both NAFTA and the WTO, the framework most multinationals still operate under. He served as Chief of Staff to the President’s Council of Economic Advisers during the first Gulf War and the Savings and Loan crisis, sat on CFIUS, and was a board member at OPIC. From there, he moved into senior operational roles at the World Bank, working on the ground in China, Russia, the Balkans, and Africa. The research he produced in that period, including Africa’s Silk Road and The State as Shareholder, is still cited by people trying to understand how Chinese capital and state-owned firms behave abroad. Today he is a principal at WestExec Advisors, the geopolitical advisory firm, and a senior economist at the RAND Corporation. He chairs corporate boards and audit committees as an SEC-qualified financial expert, writes a monthly Forbes column, and serves as national security columnist for the International Financial Law Review. His work concentrates on the boardroom problem behind every geopolitical headline: where to commit capital, how to read foreign investment review, and how to restructure supply chains when cheap globalisation is no longer the operating assumption. For a leadership team trying to make a defensible call on China exposure, on a supply chain shift, or on a CFIUS-sensitive deal, his value is the rare combination of having negotiated the rules, supervised reform programmes that operationalised them, and now advising the corporate directors who live with the consequences. Key speaking topics Geopolitical risk and the rules-based trading order Foreign investment review and CFIUS Emerging markets investment strategy China and India in the global economy Supply chain reconfiguration and trade policy Corporate governance under geopolitical pressure Sanctions, antitrust, and FCPA compliance for global firms Ideal for Boards and investment committees facing China, Russia, or sanctions exposure Chief Strategy Officers and Heads of Corporate Development weighing cross-border deals General Counsel and Compliance leaders working through CFIUS, antitrust, or FCPA matters Institutional investors and private equity partners deploying into emerging markets Audience outcomes A working view of how foreign investment review actually operates inside Washington A clearer read on where China and India are reshaping commercial geography, beyond headline narratives A practical lens for sequencing supply chain shifts under tariff and sanctions risk Direct exposure to a voice that has sat inside trade negotiation, multilateral finance, and corporate boards