Speaker

Iyinoluwa ‘E’ Aboyeji
Founding Partner of Future Africa, Africa’s leading seed stage investor

Iyinoluwa “E” Aboyeji, OON is currently the Founding Partner of Future Africa, Africa’s largest seed stage investor which has invested millions of dollars into over hundred startups across Africa. Prior to that he co-founded two of Africa’s seven unicorns; Andela and Flutterwave. Iyinoluwa has served his country as the youngest member of Nigeria’s Presidential Council on Industrial Policy and Competitiveness and has been recognized as one of the youngest recipients of a national award as the Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON). He has been recognized as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and a Forbes 30 under 30 honoree amongst other awards and fellowships.

Speaker

Asheesh Advani
President and CEO of JA (Junior Achievement) Worldwide

Asheesh is the President and CEO of JA (Junior Achievement) Worldwide, one of the largest youth-serving NGOs in the world focused on entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and work readiness. During his tenure leading JA Worldwide since 2015, the organization has been recognized as one of the ten most impactful NGOs in the world in annual rankings and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Prior to joining JA, Asheesh was a technology entrepreneur and led two businesses successfully from start-up to acquisition. His entrepreneurial endeavors have been profiled in case studies at Harvard Business School and Babson College. Asheesh is actively involved in the World Economic Forum (WEF) and has been an annual speaker in Davos for the last seven years, co-chaired the Civil Society Advisory Council, and served on the Global Agenda Council for the Future of Education, Gender, and Work. He started his career as a consultant at Monitor Company (now Monitor Deloitte) and at the World Bank.

In 2021, Asheesh received The Tony Hsieh Award as recognition for his leadership of JA Worldwide. In 2022, Asheesh was selected as an honoree from the United States for the YPO Global Social Impact Award. Asheesh is the author of Modern Achievement (forthcoming in 2024) with celebrated leadership expert Marshall Goldsmith, a book that reconsiders the definition of achievement for aspiring leaders. He is a sought-after keynote speaker with experience speaking at Fortune 500 corporate gatherings, the Great Hall of the People in China, the United Nations, technology conferences such as Collision and Web Summit, and at major universities including Harvard, MIT, Oxford, Penn, Tufts, and Yale.

Asheesh holds degrees from the Wharton School and Oxford University, where he was a Commonwealth Scholar. He lives in the Boston-area with his wife, Helen Rosenfeld, and twin sons.

Speaker

Alberto Alemanno
Professor of EU Law at HEC Paris, and social entrepreneur

Alberto Alemanno is the Jean Monnet Professor of European Union Law at HEC Paris and permanent visiting professor the University of Tokyo School of Public Policy.

Alberto’s research has been centered on how the law may be used to improve people’s lives, particularly through the adoption of power-shifting reforms countering social, health, economic, and political access disparities within society. He is the founding editor-in-chief of the European Journal of Risk Regulation published by Cambridge University Press.  He’s the author of more than sixty scientific articles and a dozen books. Alberto is a regular contributor to Le Monde, The Guardian, Project Syndicate, Le Grand Continent and a frequent TV commentator on Euronews, BBC World News, France24, and Al-Jazeera. His scholarly analysis and public interest work are often featured in the Financial Times, The New York Times, The Economist and in by-lines across other international media outlets.

Due to his commitment to bridging the gap between academic research and policy action, he was recognised Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, Social Thought Leader by the Schwab Foundation on Social Entrepreneurship, Ashoka fellow, as well as European Young Leader  by Friends of Europe, one of the top 40 influencers in Europe by Politico and featured in Project Syndicate’s inaugural Forward Thinkers list.

He has previously held positions at the European Court of Justice and New York University School of Law. He has received fellowships from Harvard Kennedy School, the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) in Vienna, and the Harvard Center for European Studies. He has also served as a visiting professor at Georgetown University, Amsterdam University, and the University of Tokyo.

Originally from Italy, Alberto graduated from Harvard Law School and the College of Europe and holds a PhD in International Law and Economics from Bocconi University.

Speaker

Alexander Alonso
Chief Data & Analytics Officer at SHRM

Alexander Alonso, Ph.D., SHRM-SCP, is SHRM's Chief Data & Analytics Officer, leading the organization’s intelligence, insights, and innovation divisions. As leader of SHRM’s Thought Leadership & Business Intelligence operations, his total career portfolio has been based upon practical thought leadership designed to make better workplaces and grow revenue across industry.

Alonso’s thought leadership has been featured in numerous media outlets including USA Today, NBC News, BBC, CNN, and more. He has served as a member of several speakers bureaus with more than 400 speaking engagements on human capital topics and driving productivity over the last decade.

His works have been acknowledged for their contributions to real-world human capital issues. This includes being recognized with the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP’s) 2007 M. Scott Myers Award for Applied Research in the Workplace for developing the federal standard for learning and development of healthcare providers; a 2009 Presidential Citation for Innovative Practice by the American Psychological Association for designing performance management systems; and the 2013 SIOP Distinguished Early Career Contributions for Practice Award for extensive applied research on the link between human resource management and organizational sustainability.

Throughout his career, Alonso has published works in peer-reviewed journals, authored several chapters on community-based change initiatives in workforce readiness, and authored books such as The Price of Pettiness, Talking Taboo: Making the Most of Polarizing Topics, and Defining HR Success: A Guide to the SHRM Competency Model in Practice. He has served on several advisory boards including The Secretary of Defense’s Defense Business Board (DBB) and the Zeal Capital Investor Advisory board. He is a Fellow of SIOP, Division 14, of the American Psychological Association.

Speaker

Teresa Amabile
Professor of Business Administration, Emerita at HBS.

Teresa M. Amabile is the Edsel Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration, Emerita, at Harvard Business School. Her most recent book, Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You, presents insights from a decade of research on the psychological, social, and life restructuring challenges of retiring. Before turning her research interests to the retirement transition, Teresa devoted over 40 years to researching creativity and innovation. She was instrumental in establishing the social psychology of creativity – the study of how the social environment can influence creative behavior, primarily by influencing motivation. Her research on creativity appears in her books, Creativity in Context and Growing Up Creative, as well as numerous articles for scholars and practitioners. Extending that research, Teresa next studied how everyday life inside organizations can influence people and their creativity, productivity, commitment, and collegiality, by affecting inner work life – the confluence of motivation, emotions, and perceptions. The findings of that research appear in her book, The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work.

Teresa’s work has appeared in over 100 scholarly journal articles and many other outlets, including Harvard Business Review, as well as several edited books. She has presented her work to audiences in a variety of settings, including Pixar, Genentech, TEDx Atlanta, Apple, Pfizer, and The World Economic Forum in Davos. She has consulted to companies and nonprofits and served on a number of boards. Her honors include the Distinguished Scholar Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Management’s Organizational Behavior Division, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Israel Organizational Behavior Conference, and an honorary doctorate from BI Norwegian Business School. In 2024, she was named to the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame.

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Speaker

Eva Asselmann
Professor of Differential and Personality Psychology at HMU Health and Medical University in Potsdam

Eva Asselmann is a Professor of Differential and Personality Psychology at HMU Health and Medical University in Potsdam and a Visiting Professor at UCLA. Her research explores how personality develops and adapts in response to major life and career transitions, with a special focus on resilience, leadership, and change. She investigates key questions such as: How does personality shape professional success? How do leadership experiences transform who we are? What psychological skills do we need to navigate today’s fast-changing work environment—and how can we strengthen them? As a keynote speaker, she translates cutting-edge science into actionable insights, equipping individuals and organizations with the tools to foster growth, adaptability, and long-term success. Her expertise makes her one of the most sought-after voices in the field.

Chair

Stephan Balzer
CEO Red Onion GmbH, Strategic Advisor, Curator, Futurist

Stephan Balzer is a Berlin-based entrepreneur, curator, and thought leader at the intersection of culture, innovation, and leadership. As CEO of Red Onion GmbH, a strategic creative consultancy, he has spent more than 20 years helping corporations, institutions, and changemakers navigate transformation in times of exponential change.

A trailblazer in bringing global formats like TEDx and the Singularity University Summits to Germany, Stephan has curated and hosted over 80 international conferences and collaborated with more than 750 speakers across the world. His work focuses on activating new leadership paradigms, building innovation-driven ecosystems, and advancing purpose-led business models.

As a keynote speaker and moderator, Stephan inspires leaders with insights on exponential thinking, cultural transformation, and the future of leadership. His approach combines strategic clarity, narrative excellence, and a powerful international network across business, science, and the arts.

“I believe in bold visions rooted in substance, empathy, and systemic impact.”

Speaker

Helen Bevan
Expert on large scale change in health care

Helen Bevan is Professor of Practice in Health and Care Improvement at Warwick Business School, England and Senior Fellow of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, USA. She acts as a strategic advisor to many organisations and systems in the English National Health Service and to leaders and policymakers in health and care systems globally.

She has more than three decades experience as an internal change agent, leading large scale change initiatives in one of the biggest organisations in the world.  Helen has been instrumental in leading numerous improvement initiatives that have significantly impacted patient care and healthcare systems. Early in her career, she led the Leicester Royal Improvement Re-engineering Programme, which won the Hewlett Packard Golden Helix Award for the best healthcare innovation initiative in Europe. She founded NHS Change Day with a group of young clinical and managerial leaders from the NHS. It was the largest day of voluntary collective action to improve healthcare services in the history of the NHS and spread to 21 other countries and territories around the world. NHS Change Day won a global “Leaders Everywhere” award from Gary Hamel’s Management Innovation Exchange.
She also established the School for Change Agents, a virtual school for people in healthcare and beyond to build their skills for change. It is the largest online learning community based within the NHS, with more than 100,000 people from 60 countries having taken part. Helen was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for Services to Healthcare.

Helen is known for her innovative approach to change, blending new ideas with a deep understanding of complex systems. Her work has been featured in various publications, including the Harvard Business Review and best-selling books like "Humanocracy: how to create an organisation as amazing as the people in it" and "New Power." Helen is one of the top social influencers in healthcare leadership globally, with more than a million interactions each month through her thought leadership social media activities, virtual presentations, commentaries and blogs.

Speaker

Eduardo P. Braun
Leadership expert, consultant and author

Eduardo Braun is a leadership expert and consultant, keynote speaker, and author. For more than 15 years Eduardo has traveled the globe and interviewed -both on-stage and before cameras- world-renowned management leaders, heads of state, and top academics and entrepreneurs, including personalities such as Pope Francis, Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Jack Welch, among others. His new book "People First Leadership" is the result of these many conversations, where he shares intimate stories and practical life lessons of successful leaders who use culture and emotion to drive unprecedented results, and introduces a new vision of leadership where The New CEO -Chief Emotions Officer- establishes stronger connections that get better results and create a culture of inspiration and success. Eduardo is an industrial engineer from the University of Buenos Aires, he has an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He worked in the US, Europe and Latin America for more than two decades in companies such as Booz Allen & Hamilton, Etex Group, and The HSM Group -global multimedia management company and organizer of the World Business Forum. Eduardo lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with his 6 children.

Speaker

Curtis R. Carlson
Professor of Practice, Northeastern University; Former CEO, SRI International; Former Chairman, Sarnoff Corporation

Curtis Carlson is a Professor of Practice at Northeastern University in Silicon Valley, California. He is using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to teach value creation using the Innovation for Impact (i4i) methodology he developed that transformed SRI International when he was CEO.

Carlson was SRI International’s CEO from 1998 to 2014. During his time, its revenue tripled, and SRI became a global model for the systematic creation of high-value innovations, such as HDTV, Intuitive Surgical, Siri, and other world-changing advances. He has helped create over 20 new companies. These innovations created many tens of billions of dollars of new economic value. Mayfield Ventures partner David Ladd said, “SRI is now the best enterprise at turning its technology into economic value.”

Before joining SRI, Carlson worked at RCA, GE, and the Sarnoff Corporation. He started and helped lead the high-definition television (HDTV) that won an Emmy Award. Another team started by Carlson won an Emmy for optimizing satellite broadcast image quality.

Carlson was named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in 2012. In 2017, he became a Worcester Polytechnic Institute “Luminary.” At the time, there were only 11 people with this honor in the 150-year history of the university. In 2006, Carlson won the Otto Schade Prize for Display Performance and Image Quality from the Society for Information Display.

He was selected to serve on President Obama’s National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He was also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Singapore National Research Foundation, the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Engineering Board, and the National Science and Technology Board of Taiwan.

Carlson is a passionate evangelist for improving innovation, education, and economic development. He has advised U.S. governors, prime ministers, and economic ministers from countries including the United States, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, and Brazil.

He has received honorary degrees from the Malaysian Technical University, Stevens Institute, Kettering University, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

With co-author William Wilmot, Curtis Carlson wrote Innovation: The Five Disciplines for Creating What Customers Want, selected by BusinessWeek as a Top-10 Business Books.

Carlson received his B.S. degree in physics from WPI as a member of Tau Beta Pi and Skull. His M.S. and Ph.D. degrees were from Rutgers University. Carlson has published or presented numerous business and technical publications and holds fundamental patents in the fields of image quality, image coding, and computer vision. At 15, he was a professional violinist in the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra.

Speaker

Niren Chaudhary
Former CEO of Pandera Brands. Non-profit & Philanthropy Leader

Niren Chaudhary was the Chairman of the Board of Panera Brands 2023-2024, one of the world’s largest fast casual restaurant companies with nearly 4,000 locations in 10 countries. Panera Brands is comprised of Panera Bread, Caribou Coffee and Einstein Bros Bagels.

Prior to becoming Chairman in 2023, Niren served as CEO of Panera Brands and Panera Bread. During his four-year tenure, Panera Brands strengthened its leadership in the fast casual segment by expanding its leading digital capabilities, which as of 2023 account for 51% of total sales at Panera Bread, while increasing its loyalty base to more than 53 million members and launching an innovative loyalty subscription model that resulted in 25% of all Panera transactions coming from Unlimited Sip Club members. Panera also increased its pace of innovation, strengthened franchisee partnerships and led the creation of a strong, people-first culture, resulting in industry-leading retention rates for GMs and associates, earning Black Box Intelligence’s Employer of Choice Award in 2022. Under his leadership Panera was also voted the Most Innovative Company by Fast Company in 2021 and rated as amongst the Top 20 Most purpose driven companies and Top 10 most sustainable companies in 2022.

Previously, Niren served as Chief Operating Officer and President of Krispy Kreme where he implemented a new operating model to elevate consistency across the global brand and created a path for enterprise value growth of 3x over 5 years. Prior to that, he spent 23 years at Yum! Brands serving in global leadership positions including Global President of KFC and President of Yum! India. KFC India and Pizza Hut India were rated as the most trusted brands during his tenure and the company also received the President of India’s award for their work on equal opportunity for hearing and speech impaired employees.

Niren is guided by his deep passion for serving others and building future leaders. He spends his personal time sharing his personal and professional journey with students and professionals, often wielding a guitar to sing about his life or even a new Panera menu item. He was on the Board of DKMS, a leading non-profit with the world’s largest stem cell donor registry form 2023-2024 and also on the Board of Tufts Hospital 2022-2023. He is an Executive in Residence at the Columbia Business school and a frequent guest lecturer at top Ivy league schools. Go forward Nien’s mission is to “to help unlock human potential “as a coach / mentor / academic / book writer and investor. He is now Founder CEO at RA Inspired Leadership LLC , an Executive Coach at ExCo, Executive Fellow at Harvard Business School at the Strategy Unit , Board Member at SIG Group and Advisor to 6th Street , Fireside Ventures and ChrysCapital.

Niren has faced some significant personal challenges with the loss of 2 of his daughters which has shaped him profoundly as a human and as a leader and deepened his commitment to live a life of service. The story of his family has been captured in a movie called “The Sky is Pink” and a documentary called “Black sunshine baby” on Netflix.

As a lifelong learner, Niren focuses on both formal and informal education. Formally, Niren holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from St. Stephen’s College in Delhi, an MBA in marketing from the University of Delhi, Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School and is also a fellow at Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative. Niren is International Coaching Federation Accredited, Certified on Constellation Systemic Coaching and  also Certified by Team Coaching International. Informally, Niren speaks 4 languages – Hindi, English, Dutch, German and is now learning Spanish. He holds a black belt in Shotokan karate and is an avid golfer, tennis player and musician with his own rock band. Niren is also a passionate and powerful keynote speaker at many corporate leadership events across the country.

Speaker

Laurent Choain
Chief Culture & Partnership Officer of Forvis Mazars Group

Laurent currently serves as Chief Culture & Partnership Officer of Forvis Mazars Group, an international, European originating, integrated and independent organisation in professional services. Forvis Mazars Group can rely on the talent of 40,000 professionals, led by 1200+ partners in 100+ countries over 6 continents.  

Laurent has led a career at the crossroads of leadership in large companies (banking sector, luxury hospitality, consulting), executive coaching, entrepreneurship as well as business schools. A professor of leadership at the University of Paris Pantheon Assas, and senior fellow of ESCP Europe, Laurent sits on the board of EFMD, The Peter Drucker Society of Europe, Bologna Business School, Festival de Ramatuelle among others, and has founded and chaired several think tanks on leadership and the future of work.

As part of his expertise in leadership and executive education, Laurent has been serving as an executive coach for the past 30 years.

Laurent holds a post-doctoral qualification for PhD supervision (habilitation), a Phd in Management Science, a MsC in business administration as well as a Master degree in Human Resources Management and OD. He speaks English, French, German and tries his best in Italian.

Moderator

Esther Clark
Contributor to Forbes, America Economia, WEF. Global Head of Communications at Inspired Education Group

Esther Clark is a writer, contributor, moderator and content creator that talks about business transformation, customer journeys, value propositions and creativity. She is a recognized author and bilingual contributor to Forbes, America Economia, and the World Economic Forum, sharing insights on business strategy and leadership and their applications in a globally connected and dynamic world. Esther is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA), a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (FCIM), and a winner of the Global Peter Drucker Challenge in the Entrepreneur/Manager category. Esther was recognized last year as one of Think Global’s top 40 global women.

She works for the leading international schools group, Inspired Education, and co-created the pilot of the world’s first fully online International Baccalaureate® (IB) Diploma Programme. She holds an MBA from York University and a BA in Literature from the University of British Columbia.

Speaker

Veit Dengler
Member of the Austrian Parliament

Veit Dengler is an Austrian executive, social entrepreneur and politician. Since October 2024, he is a Member of Parliament in Austria, for the centrist NEOS party he co-founded in 2012.

Previously, Veit was the Chief Operating Officer of Bauer Media Group from 2018-2021, and the CEO of NZZ Mediengruppe, the media house built around the flagship Swiss brand Neue Zürcher Zeitung (a broadsheet newspaper). Veit holds a Master in Commerce from the Vienna University of Economics, where he won the Chamber of Commerce prize for best graduate, and a Master in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University, where he was a Kennedy Fellow, a Schumpeter Fellow and a Julius Raab Scholar. In 2022, he was a visiting fellow at Oxford University.

Speaker

Amy Edmondson
Professor of Leadership & Management, Harvard Business School

Amy C. Edmondson, PhD is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School, a chair established to support the study of human interactions that lead to the creation of successful enterprises that contribute to the betterment of society.

Edmondson has been ranked by the biannual Thinkers50 global list of top management thinkers since 2011 (most recently #1). She teaches and writes on leadership, teams and organizational learning.  Her most recent book, The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety for Learning, Innovation, and Growth offers practical guidance for leaders who are serious about building a thriving organization in the today’s uncertain environment. Her prior books, Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate and Compete in the Knowledge Economy and Teaming to Innovate (Jossey-Bass, 2012, 2103) and Building the Future: Big Teaming for Audacious Innovation (Berrett-Koehler, 2016) explore teamwork in dynamic, unpredictable work environments.

Before her academic career, she was Director of Research at Pecos River Learning Centers, where she worked on the design and implementation of transformational change in large companies. In the early 1980s, she worked as Chief Engineer for architect/inventor Buckminster Fuller, and her book A Fuller Explanation: The Synergetic Geometry of R. Buckminster Fuller (Birkauser Boston, 1987) clarifies Fuller's mathematical contributions for a non-technical audience. Edmondson received her PhD in organizational behavior, AM in psychology, and AB in engineering and design, all from Harvard University.

She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband, George Daley, a physician-scientist and Dean of Harvard Medical School, with their two college-age sons.

Speaker

Claudio Fernández-Aráoz
Executive Fellow for Executive Education, Harvard Business School

Claudio Fernández-Aráoz is a top global expert on leadership and talent, family businesses, and personal growth. He was ranked by Bloomberg as one of the most influential executive search consultants in the world and selected by Thinkers50 as one of the world’s leading thinkers on talent.

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Speaker

Isabelle Grosmaitre
Founder & CEO of Goodness & Co

Founder & CEO of Goodness & Co, a new kind of change management consultancy to serve CEOs, leaders and organizations on a mission to shift purpose into practice.

She is the Author of "Business as a Force for Good – how courageous leaders shift purpose into practice”.

As Catalyst of Change, Isabelle is at the heart of leadership movements, acting for better futures. Steward of the For Good Leaders movement, Co-founder of the “Board Member Program” of ChangeNOW, Chairwoman of the Advisory Board of the Value Balancing Alliance (VBA), and Co-founder of Generation Glasgow. She has joined the 100 Women @Davos, the global community of impactful women leaders of the World Economic Forum.

Speaker

Gary Hamel
Director, Management Lab; Visiting professor, London Business School;

Gary Hamel is one of the world’s most influential and iconoclastic business thinkers. He has worked with leading companies across the globe and is a dynamic and sought-after management speaker. Hamel has been on the faculty of the London Business School for more than 30 years and is the director of the Management Lab.

Hamel has written 17 articles for the Harvard Business Review and is the most reprinted author in the Review’s history. His landmark books have been translated into more than 25 languages. His most recent bestsellers are The Future of Management and What Matters Now. In these volumes, Hamel presents an impassioned plea for reinventing management and lays out a practical blueprint for building organizations that are “fit for the future.”

Fortune magazine describes Hamel as “the world’s leading expert on business strategy,” and the Financial Times calls him a “management innovator without peer.” Hamel has been ranked by The Wall Street Journal as the world’s most influential business thinker and is a fellow of the Strategic Management Society and of the World Economic Forum.
Hamel’s groundbreaking concepts such as “strategic intent,” “core competence,” “industry revolution,” and “management innovation,” have changed the language and practice of management in organizations around the globe. 

Hamel’s work inside of organizations has been equally pioneering. Highlights include:

• Building one of the world’s first “idea markets” inside a global energy leader.
• Using crowdsourcing to help a European high tech company build a game-changing strategy.
• Orchestrating a comprehensive effort to turn a venerable durable goods manufacturer into one of the world’s most innovative companies.
• Helping a leading Korean company re-engineer its management practices around the principles of openness, community and meritocracy.
• Designing and deploying an online platform that allowed the employees of a top fashion house to share and develop ideas for strengthening their company’s core values.
• Developing innovation tools and platforms that have helped companies around the world de-commoditize mature industries and accelerate growth.
• Running an online “hackathon” in which more than 1,700 senior executives collaborated to reinvent the HR function.

In his work, Hamel has led transformational efforts in some of the world’s most notable companies and has helped to create billions of dollars in shareholder value.

Hamel is one of the world’s most sought-after management speakers on the topics of strategy, leadership, innovation and change.

Speaker

Zabeen Hirji
Executive Advisor; Former Chief Human Resources Officer, RBC; Corporate and Not-for-Profit Director

Zabeen is one of Canada’s most influential HR leaders with expertise in leadership, purpose, the future of work, culture, and inclusive prosperity. A seasoned CHRO, she is a strategic advisor to public and private sector leaders, a board director, speaker, and content creator.  She works at the intersection of thought leadership, strategy, and practical execution.

She pioneered Purposeful Third Act – a call to action for leaders post their full-time careers to make meaningful social and economic impact. Her mission is to scale it, by inspiring and enabling third actors to pursue impact, learning, and joy. She advances her purpose—to unlock human potential and build inclusive prosperity—through advisory, academic, and board roles across all the private and public sectors.

As Chief Human Resources Officer until 2017 at RBC, one of the world’s largest banks, she served on the Group Executive for over a decade and oversaw brand, communications, and social impact. Under her leadership, RBC was consistently recognized as a top employer and corporate citizen.

Based in Toronto, she is Executive Advisor, Future of Work at Deloitte where she convenes a forum of CHROs from leading business and public sector organizations. They focus on workforce transformation, leadership, culture, and AI, work and skills, as well as on building a more skilled, adaptable and inclusive workforce. 

She serves as Special Advisor on public service renewal, and values and ethics to Canada’s Clerk of the Privy Council, and on the Mayor of Toronto’s Economic Advisory Group. She is Executive-in-Residence at Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business, her alma mater, and on the boards of Junior Achievement Worldwide, and Public Policy Forum. 

Her contributions have been recognized with the Human Resources Director Canada Lifetime Achievement Award, the Governor General’s Meritorious Service Medal, the Catalyst Canada Honour, the SFU Outstanding Alumni Award, induction into the Women’s Executive Network Top 100 Most Powerful Women Hall of Fame, Canada's Who's Who citation and LinkedIn Top Voice. 

Speaker

Rasmus Hougaard
Founder, CEO Potential Project

Rasmus is the Founder and CEO of Potential Project. He leads the firm’s pioneering work at the intersection of science-backed research and wisdom traditions to transform the way leaders and organizations operate. Rasmus was nominated by Thinkers 50 as one of the eight most important leadership thinkers in the world today.

Rasmus has partnered with forward-thinking organizations like IKEA, Deutsche Telekom, Unilever, Accenture and Cisco to create a more human world of work by helping individuals, leaders, and teams to unlock the full potential of the mind. Rasmus is an experienced and engaging speaker, having led more than 1,500 keynotes and workshops. He is a sought-after leadership developer who coaches and supports C-suite executives at global organizations. Rasmus is also the co-author of the ground-breaking books by Harvard Business Review Press, Compassionate Leadership – How to Do Hard Things in a Human Way (HBR Press, 2022) and The Mind of the Leader – How to Lead Yourself, Your People and Your Organization for Extraordinary Results (HBR Press, 2018). His new book, More Human: How the Power of AI Can Transform the Way You Lead, will be published in March 2025 by Harvard Business Review Press.

Speaker

Xavier Huillard
Chairman of the Board of Directors of VINCI

Xavier Huillard is a graduate of the École Polytechnique and the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (now known as the École des Ponts ParisTech). He has spent most of his working life in the construction industry in France and abroad. Mr Huillard joined Sogea in December 1996 as Deputy Chief Executive Officer in charge of international activities and specific projects, and then became its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer in 1998. He was appointed Deputy General Manager of VINCI in March 1998 and was Chairman of VINCI Construction from 2000 to 2002.

He was appointed Co-Chief Operating Officer of VINCI and was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of VINCI Energies from 2002 to 2004, then Chairman of VINCI Energies from 2004 to 2005. Mr Huillard became Director and Chief Executive Officer of VINCI in 2006 and was appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of VINCI on 6 May 2010.

He served as Chairman of the Institut de l’Entreprise from January 2011 until January 2017, and Chairman of VINCI Concessions SAS from 2016 to 2024. Mr Huillard became Chairman of the Board of Directors of VINCI on 1st May 2025.

Speaker

Michael Kaschke
Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), President of the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft

Michael Kaschke is a German manager and scientist. He is chairman of the supervisory board of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and president of the Stifterverband, an association of the German industry for the promotion education, science and innovation During his professional career, Michael worked for the ZEISS Group for 30 years. He was a member of the Executive Board of Carl Zeiss AG for more than 20 years and its President and CEO from 2011 - 2020. Under his leadership, ZEISS developed into a successful, future-oriented portfolio company with leading global positions in all hi-tech areas of its businesses. The ZEISS Medizintechnik IPO, which he initiated as the first reverse IPO on the German stock market, resulted in the listing of Carl Zeiss Meditec AG on the German stock exchange MDAX making it one of the world's leading medical technology providers. Michael has sat on several supervisory boards in large, listed companies such as Henkel and Deutsche Telekom. From 2014 to 2020, he was a Member of the Wissenschaftsrat (German Science and Humanities Council), one of Germany's most important scientific-political advisory committees. In 2019, he was elected to the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Following his retirement from ZEISS, Michael has become a member of Robert Bosch Industrietreuhand KG (industrial trust), which carries out the entrepreneurial ownership functions at Robert Bosch GmbH. He is also a member of the supervisory board of Robert Bosch GmbH and a member of the Management Board of Ottobock Management SE.

Michael teaches at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology on optical medical technology and innovation process management. He received an honorary doctorate from Friedrich Schiller University in Jena in 2018. Michael graduated with a degree in physics from the University in Jena in 1983 and obtained a PhD in physics from the same University.

Speaker

John Kay
Founding Dean of Oxford University‘s Said Business School

Sir John Kay is one of Britain’s leading economists with wide practical experience in business and finance. He has served as director of several public companies, founded his own business, and managed investment portfolios. A Fellow of the British Academy and Royal Society of Edinburgh, he was the founding dean of Oxford University’s Saïd Business School and held chairs at London Business School and the London School of Economics.

He is a winner of the Senior Wincott Award for Financial Journalism for his Financial Times columns. Other People’s Money won the Saltire Prize for non-fiction and was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing. His recent books include Obliquity, The Long and Short of It, Greed is Dead (written with Paul Collier) and Radical Uncertainty (with Mervyn King).His lates book, The Corporation in the Twenty-First Century, is published on August 29th.

Speaker

Christoph Kletzer
Professor of Law and Senior Lecturer in Legal Philosophy at King’s College London

Christoph Kletzer is a distinguished legal scholar and thought leader at the intersection of law, philosophy, and public policy. Serving as Professor of Law and Vice Dean International at King's College London, he also holds the position of Global Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame. His academic journey spans esteemed institutions, including prior appointments at the University of Cambridge and the University of Durham. Holding dual MAs in Law and Philosophy from the University of Vienna, along with an LLM and PhD from Cambridge, Professor Kletzer bridges continental and Anglo-American legal traditions. His research bridges classical legal theory and modern technological challenges, focusing the evolving intersections of law and decentralised technologies. Professor Kletzer contributes to global discourse on legal legitimacy, institutional trust, and the philosophical underpinnings of governance in the digital age.

Speaker

Pierre Le Manh
President and CEO, PMI Project Management Institute

Pierre Le Manh has been serving as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Project Management Institute since September 2022. A global executive with a multicultural background and experience in leading companies across multiple knowledge industries, he has a proven track record of delivering results and guiding organizations through complex transformations and globalization. He is passionate about leading teams to innovate with purpose and to create new ways of disseminating specialized knowledge, upskilling, and education.

Before joining PMI, Pierre led the preparation for the expansion into North America of Galileo Global Education, a leading global provider of higher education and education technology platforms, in which he is an investor.

Previously, he served as Chief Executive Officer for North America and as Global Deputy CEO at Ipsos, one of the world’s largest data, analytics, and insights companies. Pierre played a crucial role in transforming Ipsos from a primarily European-focused organization with $700 million in revenue in 2004, to a $2.5 billion global industry leader by 2021, and in growing the company to more than 18,000 employees operating in 90 countries, successively leading various regions and global business lines.

Earlier in his career, Pierre was the CEO of Consodata, a leader in first and third-party consumer data, precision, and digital marketing. He began his career at the consulting giant Accenture, subsequently serving as CFO of the performing arts nonprofit, Adami, CEO of digital publisher, Encyclopaedia Universalis, and CEO of CFL Holding, a family office with various assets in direct-to-consumer marketing services and the real estate industries.

Born and raised in France to a Vietnamese father and a French mother, Pierre has lived in several countries before settling in New York City in 2013. He is fluent in English, French, and Italian. His interests include traveling the world to visit his large family and friends, watching Paris Saint-Germain soccer games, and exploring Manhattan on his electric scooter. He has two sons who reside in Paris and London.

Speaker

Michael Y. Lee
Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD

Michael Y Lee is an Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD, where he teaches and writes on leadership, organisational design, and the future of work. His research explores how organizations can unlock collective potential by designing for collaboration, autonomy, and human dignity.
 
Lee's scholarship challenges conventional assumptions about hierarchy and decentralization. Through field experiments, qualitative case studies, and large-scale survey experiments, he investigates the benefits as well as the implementation challenges and contingencies of radical forms of decentralization. His work appears in leading academic journals and in practitioner outlets like the Harvard Business Review.
 
At INSEAD, Lee directs the Collaborative Leadership Programme, a flagship course for executives seeking to lead and organize for the future. He also works closely with companies experimenting with new models of organizing—including self-managing organizations, dynamic role structures, and participatory governance.
 
Before entering academia, Lee was an engagement leader at a global management consulting firm advising clients across corporate and nonprofit sector clients. He earned his DBA in Management from Harvard Business School, his MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, and his AB in Social Studies from Harvard College.

Speaker

Christian Lüdtke
CEO, Bryck

Christian Lüdtke grew up in the Ruhr area and graduated in Economics. After his first position in the logistics sector, he joined the Media giant Bertelsmann in 2000. In his approximately ten years at Bertelsmann where he held various leading management positions, he acquired comprehensive knowledge and experience in the area of innovation management.

His further professional career led him to the American education Publishing House Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Here he was responsible for the implementation of internal innovation ideas.

He then co-founded the startup incubator and digital service company etventure - based in Munich and Berlin. The focus of his work was the digital transformation of medium sized and large companies as well as the establishment of own startups in the B2B area. After the successful sale of etventure to the BIG4 Advisory Company EY (Ernst and Young), Christian worked as an equity partner at EY for around four years.

In 2022 Christian co-founded the Startup Accelerator BRYCK, based in Essen. BRYCK`s main shareholder is the RAG-Foundation. The aim of BRYCK is to build a leading accelerator in Europe with an Industry focus.

Speaker

Michael Lurie
Chief Catalyst, Bayer

Michael Lurie is Chief Catalyst for Bayer, where he is leading the organization’s extraordinary journey to Dynamic Shared Ownership (DSO). DSO is a fundamental evolution of our global life sciences company into a highly collaborative and continually learning network of thousands of entrepreneurial “micro-businesses”, focused individually and collectively on maximizing value for the millions of farmers, patients, consumers and other stakeholders we serve.

Over the past thirty years, Michael has worked with over 200 organizations across many sectors around the world. Through this work he has led the evolution of a powerful and practical approach to building and leading this new kind of organization, that is enabling hundreds of leadership teams to thrive personally, build thriving organizations, and help shape a thriving world.

Speaker

Christopher Maclay
Mercy Corps‘ Program Director at the Jobtech Alliance, Kenya

Chris leads the Jobtech Alliance, an ecosystem-building initiative bringing together start-ups, support organizations, and investors working on the future of work and the platform economy in Africa. He has spent over a decade working in the youth employment and economic development space in Africa, Asia, and his native UK, working with NGOs, donors, and the private sector. Most recently, he was Chief Operating Officer at Lynk, then Africa's largest gig matching platform for informal workers.

Speaker

Kirstan Marnane
Leadership coach and consultant, Marnane Consulting Limited

Kirstan is an independent leadership coach and consultant who has worked for over 20 years with CEOs, Boards, top management teams, and leaders at all levels in organizations. She is a senior consultant to Mobius Executive Leadership and teaches coaching to senior executives on the faculty of Meyler Campbell’s selective ‘Mastered’ program, and leadership at the British Army Staff College.

Kirstan has led 100s of top team and leadership programs aimed at helping leaders drive change as they grow, using techniques to sustain their energy and realistic optimism. She coaches leaders at transition points in their careers.

Kirstan worked for 16 years at McKinsey & Co. in their Leadership and Organization practice. While there, she led their flagship Remarkable Women Program for groups of senior women leaders in global organizations. She teaches leadership to new British Army Colonels and Generals and is on the Army’s Gender Advisory Council. Kirstan is also a founding member of the Institute of Coaching professional association affiliated with Harvard Medical School.

She has a Masters from Boston University and a BA from Smith College. Kirstan has lived and worked in China, Italy, Germany and France. She is American, British and Italian and today lives between London and West Cork, Ireland.

Speaker

Christian Mohr
Managing Director and CCO at UnternehmerTUM

Christian Mohr is Managing Director and CCO at UnternehmerTUM. He is and expert in corporate entrepreneurship. In 2021 he founded FamilienUnternehmerTUM, a platform strengthening the awareness for family businesses and on accompanying medium-sized and family-run companies in the areas of innovation, technology and start-up collaboration.

Coming from a family business, the 43-year-old gained over ten years of experience in one of the world's leading consulting companies before joining UnternehmerTUM in 2019. He is chairman of the board of the non-profit family foundation founded with his grandparents as well as advisory board member of another family business (Truma Group). He regularly shares his knowledge and point of view as a member of expert committees, author and in lectures eg. at Technical University Munich.

Speaker

Kevin Nolan
President & CEO, GE Appliances, a Haier Company

Kevin Nolan is a seasoned engineer and passionate maker with more than 30 patent awards and a 35-year career at GE and GE Appliances today, including ten years as GE Appliances’ Chief Technology Officer.

He took innovation to a new level when he conceived and co-founded FirstBuild, the first corporate makerspace in the world and a global co-creation community that harnesses the power of the maker movement to change the way home appliances are conceived, designed, and manufactured.

Originally from Stamford, Connecticut, Kevin opened CoCreate in 2023. Part manufacturing facility, makerspace, and design and experience center, CoCreate is an innovative, creative playground for the community, where doors are open for people to make, connect, and be inspired.

Kevin’s leadership and commitment to the communities across the U.S. where GE Appliances does business has been broadly recognized, including being named one of the “Most Admired CEOs” in GE Appliances’ hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. He works directly and through several organizations to attract new businesses to the area, promote STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) programs in public schools and community centers, and mobilize resources to close the digital and educational gap. In 2020, he was recognized by Louisville Business First for exemplary leadership with a focus on employees and the community during the COVID-19 response.

Kevin was inducted into the University of Connecticut Academy of Distinguished Engineers in 2019 and has earned the Kentucky Board of Education’s Kelly Award for outstanding business and public education partnership. In 2022, the University of Louisville presented him with an honorary doctoral Degree of Science.

Kevin is a frequent speaker at international conferences and business schools, where he shares his thoughts and experiences on his passion areas: lean enterprises, entrepreneurship, innovation, and change.

In his spare time, Kevin’s an avid clockmaker, which he builds in his home garage.

Speaker

Parmy Olson
Technology Columnist at Bloomberg LP

Parmy Olson is a technology columnist with Bloomberg focused on artificial intelligence, social media and regulation. Her book “Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT and the Race That Will Change The World” (Macmillan) won the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year award for 2024. She has written about the evolution of AI since 2016, when she covered Silicon Valley for Forbes, before becoming a technology reporter for The Wall Street Journal. She was named by Business Insider as one of the Top 100 People in UK Tech in 2019 and has two honourable mentions for the SABEW Awards for Business Journalism for her reporting on the technology industry. She is also the author of “We Are Anonymous,” a 2012 exposé of the infamous hacker collective.

Speaker

Alexander Osterwalder
Founder & CEO of Strategyzer, Visiting Professor IMD

Dr. Alexander (Alex) Osterwalder, founder & CEO of Strategyzer, is one of the world’s most influential strategy and innovation experts. A leading author, entrepreneur, and in-demand
speaker, his work has changed how established companies do business and how new ventures get started.

Ranked among the top 10 of the leading 50 management thinkers worldwide and a visiting professor at IMD, Osterwalder is known for simplifying the strategy development process and turning complex concepts into digestible visual models. Together with Yves Pigneur, he invented the Business Model Canvas, Value Proposition Canvas, and Business Portfolio Map - practical tools that are trusted by millions of business practitioners from leading global companies.

Strategyzer provides online courses, applications, and technology-enabled services to help organizations manage strategy, growth, and transformation effectively and systematically.

His books include the international bestseller «Business Model Generation», «Value Proposition Design», «Testing Business Ideas», «The Invincible Company,» and «High-Impact Tools for Teams».

Speaker

Stig Kirk Ørskov
CEO of JP/Politiken Media Group

Stig Ørskov is the CEO of JP/Politiken Media Group, and former editor-in-chief of the Danish newspaper, Politiken. JP/Politiken Media Group is the leading private news publishing company in Denmark and publishes three of the leading national news media brands, Ekstra Bladet, Jyllands-Posten and Politiken. In addition to this it operates a portfolio of BTB news media with activities in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany and UK. Furthermore, JP/Politiken Media Group is the owner of one of Denmark’s biggest book publishing houses with activities in Norway and Sweden. The group operates the leading book e-bookstore in Denmark, Saxo.com, and the country’s leading home distribution company, DAO.

Speaker

Natalye Paquin
COO Rockefeller Foundation

Natalye Paquin is the Chief Operating Officer of The Rockefeller Foundation, a global institution with a mission to promote the well-being of humanity around the world. Before joining the Foundation, Paquin served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Points of Light Foundation, a nonpartisan global nonprofit, founded by President George H.W. Bush that inspires and mobilizes people to act through volunteerism and civic engagement. She is highly regarded for her engaging leadership style and is committed to social impact work.

A lawyer by training, Paquin began her career in litigation. She spent more than 15 years in legal and executive leadership roles in the education sector focused on civil rights, school reform, and employment matters. Paquin’s expertise sits at the intersection of the public, nonprofit, and corporate sectors, leveraging experience through professional and governance roles, and as an independent director on three corporate boards.

She earned an undergraduate degree from Florida A&M University and Juris Doctor degree from the DePaul University College of Law.  Paquin maintains her connections to community through volunteerism and civic engagement. She is an avid traveler and is married with two young adult sons.  

Speaker

Deborah Perry Piscione
Silicon Valley Entrepreneur and AI expert

Deborah Perry Piscione is a renowned futurist and expert in business strategy and growth, specializing in the transformation of work and organizations in the era of AI and web3 technologies. As the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Work3 Institute, she leads cutting-edge research and advisory services on the convergence of AI, blockchain, and emerging technologies, providing strategic insights on their profound impact on business models, organizational structures, and the future of work.

A seasoned Silicon Valley entrepreneur, investor, board director, and New York Times bestselling author, Deborah has established herself as a preeminent thought leader in AI ethics, innovation, and strategic risk-taking in the digital age. Her expertise in business strategy and growth has made her a sought-after advisor to Fortune 500 companies navigating the complexities of technological disruption and organizational transformation.

Her latest book, Employment is Dead! How Disruptive Technologies are Revolutionizing the Way We Work (Harvard Business Review Press, January 28, 2025), explores the transformative potential of AI and distributed ledger technologies on traditional employment models and organizational hierarchies.

Deborah is the architect of Improvisational Innovation, a groundbreaking bottom-up innovation process that creates a safe environment for employees to propose new ideas, particularly those leveraging AI and web3 technologies. The process came out from her New York Times bestselling book, Secrets of Silicon Valley.  This process has been adopted by industry leaders such as McKinsey & Co, Accenture, Tata, and Qualcomm, demonstrating its effectiveness in fostering AI-driven innovation within large enterprises and consulting practices.

As co-creator of WAGMAS, web3summit.xyz, Deborah leads a hype-free, web3 community and summit series, working to educate and transition enterprises and governments on the practical applications of AI, blockchain, and web3 technologies. Her work in this space has positioned her as a key figure in bridging the gap between traditional business models and the AI-augmented, decentralized future of work.

Deborah is a globally sought-after speaker on AI ethics, the future of work, and technological disruption. Her insights and expertise have made her the subject of a Stanford University Graduate School of Business case study, "Deborah Perry Piscione: Finding Opportunity in Silicon Valley."

Prior to her move to Silicon Valley in 2006, Deborah spent 18 years in Washington, DC as a staffer in the U.S. Congress (for US Sen. Connie Mack and US Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen) and the White House (for President George H.W. Bush). She has also served as an on-air commentator for CNN and a guest lecturer at Stanford University, where she discusses the intersection of AI, the Silicon Valley ecosystem, and the evolution of enterprise growth through AI-driven innovation and entrepreneurship.

Through her multifaceted career, Deborah continues to shape the discourse on how AI and web3 technologies are reshaping the global business landscape and the very nature of work itself.

Speaker

Lenka Pincot
PMP, PMI-ACP, PfMP, PMI-PBA, CAPM Chief of Staff to the CEO

Lenka is PMI’s Chief of Staff to the CEO, an executive leader, and PMI’s representative on the Agile Alliance Board of Directors. She oversees PMI’s Transformation Management Office, Enterprise Program Management Office, CEO & Board communications, and Thought Leadership teams. Her role is to drive the execution of strategic change initiatives and foster a culture of innovation and excellence across all levels.

In her capacity, she collaborates closely with the CEO, other executive leaders, and the Board of Directors to align strategic goals with operational execution. By leading cross-functional teams and spearheading critical projects, Lenka ensures that transformation efforts are on track and deliver impactful results. Her focus on effective communication and thought leadership helps position PMI at the forefront of project management trends and innovations, reinforcing PMI's commitment to the new purpose: to maximize project success to elevate our world.

Lenka has extensive international experience driving digital and agile transformations, innovation, and business growth across multiple industries. Most recently, Lenka served as the Head of Agile Transformation at a key European bank, where she defined the organization’s transformation vision and strategy, built a high-performing transformation team, and executed the roadmap while onboarding business and IT talent. Lenka promoted customer centricity and contributed to their digital leadership in the market.

Lenka holds a Master's degree in Computer Sciences, Software Engineering from Charles University. She has earned a Digital Excellence Diploma from the IMD Business School of Switzerland and completed the European Women in Boards C-Level Program. She holds international certifications in project management, agile practices, and business analysis, including the following PMI Credentials: PMP, PfMP, PMI-PBA, CAPM, and PMI-ACP.

Speaker

Hans Rusinek
Consultant, Researcher, award-winning Author & Speaker on the Future of Work, Lecturer University St. Gallen, Fellow tt30 Club of Rome, LinkedIn Top Voice ’24, Ex-BCG Brighthouse

Dr. Hans Rusinek researches and teaches on the transformation of work at the University of St. Gallen besides working as an independent management consultant. He is on the supervisory board of a Swiss stock corporation and a Fellow of the Club of Rome Germany. His bestselling book "Work-Survival-Balance" was published by Herder Verlag in 2023 and was shortlisted for the "Das politische Buch" literary prize by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. In 2024, HR magazine named him one of "Germany's Top 10 HR Influencers". In previous years, he helped establish the transformation consultancy Brighthouse, part of the Boston Consulting Group, and led it as Associate Strategy Director. He studied economics, philosophy, and international relations at the London School of Economics and the University of Bayreuth, as well as design thinking at the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam.

Speaker

Thomas Sattelberger
Former Member of the German Bundestag; Angel Investor

Thomas Sattelberger (1949) has served from 2017-2022 as Member of Deutscher Bundestag and was appointed 2021 Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Prior to his political career he has been on the Executive Board of Deutsche Telekom AG as Chief Human Resources Officer from 2007 – 2012. Before, he had held operational as well as HR positions on the Executive Boards of Lufthansa German Airlines (1999 – 2004) and Continental AG (2004 – 2007). He was longtime Vice President of the European Foundation for Management Development (Brussels) and is Fellow of the International Academy of Management.

Thomas has published and authored over ten books as well as numerous articles on corporate transformation, leadership and strategic human resources management. His book on Democratic Organizations has been named Management Book of the Year 2015 in Germany. In 2023 he published his latest book “Radikal Neu -Gegen Mittelmass und Abstieg in Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft”(Radically New – Against Mediocracy and Decline in Economy and Politics”). Thomas is active as investor and business angel. He also is serving on several advisory boards

Speaker

Marcus du Sautoy
Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford

Marcus du Sautoy is the Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He is author of nine books including his most recent book Blueprints: how mathematics shapes creativity (Fourth Estate 2025). He is author of two plays including I is a Strange Loop (Faber 2021) which was performed at the Barbican in London in which he was also lead actor. He has presented numerous radio and TV series including a four part landmark TV series for the BBC called The Story of Maths. He works extensively with a range of arts organisations bringing science alive for the public from The Royal Opera House to the Glastonbury Festival. He received an OBE for services to science in the 2010 New Year’s Honours List.

Speaker

Margot Schumacher
Academic Director for the Supervisory Board Programme & Adjunct Professor of Leadership, TIAS Business School

Margot Schumacher is an Adjunct Professor in leadership development and an experienced executive coach, helping senior leaders to grow professionally and personally in an international environment.

Margot advises multinationals on their leadership development initiatives. She has a strong passion for people, leadership and organisational development and she helps top teams and boards to improve. Clients call her authentic, and her global experience provides her a deep understanding of different cultural backgrounds and cross-cultural challenges.

With many years of experience in the consumer goods industry (Unilever & Kraft Heinz), she has a sound business background. Margot started her career as a consultant and has since then held leadership positions in different multinationals. She worked in senior, regional and global roles as line manager and change management roles, before moving into leadership and executive coaching full time in 2010. She has been based in Shanghai (China), Pittsburgh (USA), London (UK) before returning to the Netherlands in 2014.

Margot teaches and coaches at business schools globally. She is an Adjunct Professor of Leadership Development for Tias Business School, the University, and a senior associate for the Kets de Vries Institute and an executive coach for INSEAD.

She is a member of the Supervisory Board of Thales The Netherlands, a high tech company with Head Quarters in France. 

Speaker

Jean-Dominique Senard
Chairman of the Board, Renault Group

Jean-Dominique Senard, HEC alumnus and holder of a master’s degree in law, began his career with various financial and operational responsibilities within the Total Group from 1979 to 1987, then at Saint Gobain from 1987 to 1996.

He served as Chief Financial Officer and an Executive Committee member of the Pechiney Group from 1996 to 2001, then headed its Primary Aluminium segment until 2005.

Jean-Dominique Senard joined Michelin in March 2005 as Chief Financial Officer and an Executive Committee member.

He became Managing Partner of the Michelin Group in 2007, then Managing General Partner on 13 May 2011. He then took over from Michel Rollier as Chief Executive Officer of Michelin, holding the position until 17 May 2019.
He was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of Renault Group on 24 January 2019, then Chairman of the Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance Operating Board on 1 March of the same year.
In March 2018, he presented the French government with a report he co-wrote with Nicole Notat on the role of “a company as an object of collective interest”.

In April 2023, following a national forum on work, he presented the French government with a report he co-wrote and co-sponsored with Sophie Thiery entitled “Reconsidering work”.
He serves as Chairman of the Supervisory Committee for the FIVES Group and as director of the La Montagne–Centre France press group. He was Lead Independent Director of Saint-Gobain (until 2024).

He is a Commander of the Legion of Honour.

Chair

Stefan Stern
Journalist, author and Visiting Professor in management practice at Bayes Business School

Stefan Stern is a journalist and author. He has been writing and commenting on business and management for over three decades. His career in journalism has included stints at Euromoney, the BBC, Management Today magazine, and the Financial Times, where he was the management columnist between 2006 and 2010. Since 2009 he has been a regular attendee at the Global Peter Drucker Forum.

In October 2010 Stefan was appointed Visiting Professor in management practice at Bayes Business School (formerly Cass), City St.George’s, University of London. He is a Fellow of the RSA, and continues to write for the FT, The Guardian, Prospect and The Conversation, among other titles. Between 2015 and 2018 he was director of the High Pay Centre, a London-based think-tank which looks at the issue of top pay.

He is the author of three books: “Myths of Management – what people get wrong about being the boss” (with Prof Sir Cary Cooper) (Kogan Page, 2017); “How to be a better leader” (Bluebird – Pan Macmillan, 2019); and most recently “Fair or Foul – the Lady Macbeth Guide to Ambition” (Unbound, 2024).

Speaker

Giuseppe Stigliano
Entrepreneur, Manager, Adjunct Professor at international business schools, President of Spring Studios

His career includes key roles at WPP, notably as Executive Director for Europe at AKQA and CEO of J. Walter Thompson Italy.

Holding a Ph.D. in Marketing and Economics, he has co-authored influential business books with international marketing guru Philip Kotler, including Retail 4.0, Onlife Fashion, and the most recent Redefining Retail.

Beyond Academia, he has achieved three successful business exits and invested in a dozen startups and scale-ups. Giuseppe is currently the President — and former Global CEO — of Spring Studios, a leading international agency with professionals based in London, New York, Los Angeles and Milan. His TEDx talk, How to Become a Marketing Superhero, which draws parallels between ancient Greek ideals and modern marketing, has resonated globally, amassing over a million views.

Recognized as a LinkedIn Top Voice, his visionary leadership earned him a place on the Thinkers50 radarnlist in 2024, highlighting the profound impact of his ideas on the future of management. Additionally, he is a regular contributor to Forbes en Español and serves on the Advisory Council of Harvard Business Review.

Speaker

Johnny C. Taylor, Jr.
SHRM-SCP, President & CEO, SHRM

Johnny C. Taylor, Jr. is President and Chief Executive Officer of SHRM. Recently named one of the “Most Influential People Shaping Public Policy” in our nation’s Capital by the Washingtonian Magazine, Mr. Taylor’s career spans more than 20 years as a lawyer and an executive, serving at IAC, Paramount Pictures, Blockbuster Entertainment Group and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, among other organizations. He is a Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees at his alma mater, the University of Miami; a member of the United Way Worldwide Board of Trustees; Independent Director of the Flores & Associates corporate board and a member of the corporate boards of Guild Education, and XPO Logistics (NYSE: XPO). He previously served as chairman of the President's Advisory Board on Historically Black Colleges and Universities and on the White House American Workforce Policy Advisory Board. Mr. Taylor is a weekly contributor to USA Today, a Fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources and a SHRM Certified Professional.

Speaker

Josée Touchette
Executive Director, OECD

Josée Touchette is Executive Director of the OECD, where she leads all corporate functions: finance, HR, IT, cybersecurity, infrastructure, and conference services, in support of more than 4,000 staff. She manages a team of 500 and has spearheaded major internal reforms to modernise and strengthen the Organisation. 

Her 35-year public service career is driven by a deep commitment to good governance, institutional resilience, and the disciplined implementation of complex reforms. Adaptive by nature, her experience is characterized by a multidisciplinary, integrational approach, serving in strategy, operations and corporate functions, notably in Indigenous Affairs, as Assistant Deputy Minister in Defence, Justice, and International Development in the Government of Canada. She also was Chief Operating Officer of the National Energy Board. 

A lawyer, Chartered Professional Accountant, and MBA graduate, Josée is recognised for leading with clarity, courage, and care across diverse and demanding environments. 

Speaker

Tom Tugendhat
Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom; Former UK Minister

biography upcoming soon.

Speaker

Dave Ulrich
Professor of Business at Ross School of Business

Dave Ulrich has been the Rensis Likert Professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan and a partner at the RBL Group (http://www.rbl.net). He has published over 200 articles and book chapters and over 30 books. He edited Human Resource Management for ten years, served on editorial board of four other journals and on the Board of Directors for Herman Miller (16 years), has spoken to large audiences in 90 countries; performed workshops for over half of the Fortune 200; coached successful business leaders, and is a Distinguished Fellow in the National Academy of Human Resources. He posts weekly and comments daily on LinkedIn (over 350,000 followers and 3,300,000 page views in 2024) and has a free weekly newsletter with over 220,000 subscribers (https://lnkd.in/gbRqJHkW). His work creates ideas with impact about how to deliver stakeholder value through human capability (talent + organization + leadership + HR).

Organization. With co-authors, he has influenced thinking about modern organizations (Reinventing the Organization) by empirically showing how organization delivers four times business results over talent (Victory Through Organization), defined organizations as bundles of capabilities (Organization Capability) and worked to delineate capabilities of talent management (Why of Work; Talent Accelerator), culture change (GE Workout), learning (Learning Organization Capability), and collaboration (Boundaryless Organization).

Leadership. With colleagues, he has also articulated the basics of effective leadership (Leadership Code and Results Based Leadership), connected leadership with customers (Leadership Brand), shown how leadership delivers market value (Why the Bottom Line Isn’t), shapes investor expectations with an ability to measure leadership (Leadership Capital Index), and synthesized ways to ensure that leadership aspirations turn into actions (Leadership Sustainability).

Human Resources. He and his colleagues have shaped the HR profession and he has been called the “father of modern HR” and “HR thought leader of the decade” by focusing on HR outcomes, governance, competencies, and practices (HR Champions; HR Value Added; HR Transformation; HR Competencies; HR Outside In). He spearheaded a “gift” book on the future of HR (The Rise of HR) distributed to over 1,500,000 HR professionals, in which 70 thought leaders freely shared their insights.

VITA 2025

Speaker

Daniel Weihs
Distinguished Professor Emeritus Head, Technion Autonomous Systems Program Faculty of Aerospace Engineering Technion, Israel Institute of Technology

He is a Member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities International Member of the US National Academy of Engineering, Fellow of the American Physical Society, the Marine Biological Society On the Board of Trustees of Ben Gurion University and the International Society for Bionic Engineering Member, Scientific Council, Vienna Institute for Management Innovation National Representative, Scientific Committee for Ocean Research, ICSU.

Received Honorary Doctorates from Ben Gurion University, Israel,, and Hong Kong University of Science & Technology Awardee of  Israel Ministry of Defense Creative Thinking Prize  International Society of Bionic Engineering -Outstanding Contribution Israel Aerospace & Mechanical Engineers Special Contribution Award.

Previous positions include Chief Scientist of the Israel Ministry of Science & Technology, Member of the Israel National Committee for Research & Development , Chairman of the Israel National Committee for Space Research and Chairman of the Israel Interuniversity Institute for Marine Science, Eilat.

He has been on the Board of Directors of Israel Aerospace Industries, Bet Shemesh Engines, Teuza-Fairchild Venture Capital, Limnological & Oceanographic co.and the Israel Space Agency. He is presently on the advisory boards of several companies and a member of the Israeli Governmental Directors Pool.

He has consulted for governmental agencies in Israel, the US  ( NASA ,NOAA etc) Great Britain ( MAFF), Canada and Hong Kong and Companies including Atlas Copco, IBM, COMAC, Hyundai Motors, IAI, Rafael , and various smaller & startup companies.  He has published over 170 papers, two books, given over 150 major lectures, has several patents, and one Israeli Postage stamp.

Speaker

Avivah Wittenberg-Cox
Founder and CEO, 20-first

 Avivah is CEO, writer, speaker, coach, consultant, change agent – depending on the call and the context. She is a global expert on 21st century leadership, gender and generational balance, longevity and the future of work and careers, helping individuals and organisations manage the transitions and extensions of the 2nd and 3rd Quarters of 100-year lives. Themes summarised in her graphic book Thriving to 100 – Through Life’s 4 Quarters and regularly featured on her longevity-focused podcast 4-Quarter Lives and weekly substack, elderberries.

Avivah is a Visiting Lecturer at OXFORD Said Business School, runs a Thriving To 100 programme for INSEAD alumni, and is co-Director of Catolica Lisbon’s Longevity Leadership executive education programme. She’s an Adjunct Professor at DePaul University in Chicago and has published several LINKED IN Learning courses. She’s also an Ambassador for the Stanford Center on Longevity, and the Global Peter Drucker Forum, and sits on the Boards of the National Innovation Centre on Ageing (NICA) and the Chartered Management Institute’s ‘Everyone Economy’ Board. A Fellow of Harvard’s 2022 Advanced Leadership Program, in 2023, Avivah was inducted into the  Thinkers50 Hall of Fame.

Born in Canada of European parents, she is a bilingual tri-national (French, Swiss and Canadian), now based in London with her British husband after several decades in Paris, and has two very charming, gender-balanced children (a son and daughter) who occasionally visit from Dakar and New York city.

Speaker

Adrian Wooldridge
Global Business Columnist at Bloomberg Opinion

Adrian Wooldridge is the global business columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. Before taking up that role, he worked for the Economist for 32 years, writing, at various times, the Lexington, Schumpeter and Bagehot columnists. An Oxford graduate, he is the author or co-author of eleven books, most recently The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World.

Speaker

Howard Yu
Professor of Management & Innovation, IMD

Howard Yu, hailing from Hong Kong, is LEGO® Professor of Management and Innovation at IMD. He leads the Center for Future Readiness, founded in 2020 with support from the LEGO Brand Group, to guide companies through strategic transformation.
Recognized globally for his expertise, in 2023 he was honored with the Thinkers50 Strategy Award, recognizing his substantial contributions to management strategy and future readiness. His additional inclusion into the Thinkers50 list places him among the top global management thinkers.

Today, Yu co-directs the Strategy for Future Readiness program and has delivered tailored training to global companies including ABB, Bosch, the LEGO Group, Novo Nordisk, Electrolux, Heineken, Maersk, Booking.com and many others.

His ongoing work has been published in journals such as Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review. His case studies have won several awards from the European Foundation for Management Development and The Case Centre. He regularly appears on media outlets including Bloomberg, CNBC, and the BBC.

His book, LEAP: How to Thrive in a World Where Everything Can Be Copied, published in 2018, has earned multiple awards, including an Axiom Business Book Awards Gold Medal and the strategy+business Best Business Book award. He joined IMD in 2011 after completing a doctoral degree at Harvard Business School. He worked in Hong Kong as a banker at the start of his career.

Speaker

Michele Zanini
Co-founder, Management Lab

Michele Zanini is the cofounder of the Management Lab, a firm dedicated to developing knowledge, technology and tools to support breakthrough management innovation. The goal: to help large organizations become more daring, resilient, creative, and inspiring places to work.  He is co-author of the Wall Street Journal bestselling book, Humanocracy: Creating Organizations as Amazing as the People Inside Them (Harvard Business Review Press, 2020; 2nd edition due out in 2025), and his work frequently appears on the pages of the Harvard Business Review, the Financial Times, the McKinsey Quarterly. Fast Company, and Fortune.

As an advisor, Michele has led change initiatives in many of the world’s most admired companies. He helps clients build break-out strategies and enlarge their entrepreneurial and creative edge.