Speaker

Alex Adamopoulos
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Emergn

Alex, a seasoned executive with over 30 years of experience, is a proven leader in driving organizational transformation through innovative business practices and technology adoption.

Throughout his career, Alex has navigated diverse landscapes, including high-growth startups, private equity, venture capital, and established enterprises. This multifaceted experience has equipped him with a unique blend of entrepreneurial spirit and deep industry knowledge.

His leadership journey includes senior executive roles at prominent organizations such as EMC and ISC (an Accenture joint venture). In 2009, he founded Emergn, a global digital business firm that has successfully guided hundreds of Fortune and FTSE companies on their transformative journeys.

Under Alex's leadership, Emergn has established itself as a trusted partner, empowering organizations to accelerate change, enhance their capabilities, and achieve sustainable business outcomes.

A recognized thought leader, Alex actively contributes to industry discourse through his writing for Forbes and his role as a Board member of the Drucker Society. He is a sought-after speaker, author, and mentor, inspiring and guiding the next generation of business leaders.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aadamopoulos/

https://www.emergn.com

Speaker

Bill Anderson
CEO, Bayer AG

Biography upcoming soon.

Speaker

Josef Aschbacher
Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA)

biography upcoming soon.

Speaker

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

Eva Asselmann is Professor of Personality Psychology at HMU Health and Medical University in Potsdam. Her research explores how people develop the psychological capabilities needed to thrive in an increasingly complex and unpredictable world. She leads international research on personality development, self-efficacy, stress, and prevention and was most recently a visiting researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Eva is the author of numerous scientific publications and several bestselling books, including the SPIEGEL bestseller Too Much, in which she argues that resilience, innovation, and sustainable performance depend less on increasing control than on strengthening human agency.

Speaker

Maud Bailly
CEO Sofitel Legend, Sofitel, MGallery & Emblems – Accor Luxury & Lifestyle

After graduating successively from the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Sciences Po Paris and the ENA, Maud Bailly began her career at the Inspection Générale des Finances and joinedthe SNCF in 2011 to become Director of the Gare Montparnasse, before joining the cabinet of Prime Minister Manuel Valls, to become Head of the economic and digital pole. In April 2017, she joined Accor where she was appointed Chief Digital Officer, member of the Executive Committee, in charge of Digital, Data, Information Systems, Distribution, Sales and Customer Experience. In October 2020, Maud became CEO of the Southern Europe Hub, with the mission of operating and developing the Group’s business in France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Malta and Israel. As a member of the Executive Committee, she was responsible for both operational performance and the quality of customer and partner relations in this strategic area of nearly 1,900 hotels. Finally, in January 2023, she is appointed CEO of Sofitel Legend, Sofitel, MGallery & Emblems with almost 250 hotels and member of Accor’s Luxury & Lifestyle Executive Committee.

Speaker

Bastian Bergmann
Founder and Author

Bastian Bergmann is the author of Press Play - Why Every Company Needs a Gaming Strategy and the cofounder and COO of Solsten, a technology startup that provides foundational human intelligence using psychological data so companies, agents, and AI models can provide truly personalized experiences. He is also the founder of media strategy firm Technically Entertaining. Previously a strategy consultant at Boston Consulting Group, Bergmann has spent his entire career at the intersection of digital strategy, media, and AI and frequently advises startups, scale-ups, as well as public sector organizations.

Speaker

Lily Bi
President and CEO of AACSB International

Lily Bi is President and CEO of AACSB International, the world’s largest business school association. At AACSB, she is leading a bold transformation of standards, accreditation, research impact and the organization’s governance to reposition AACSB and redefine the role of business schools. 

Prior to AACSB, Lily held senior global executive roles across the U.S., Japan, Singapore, and China, where she led large-scale growth, transformation, and market expansion initiatives across multiple industries. She is widely recognized for her leadership in global standard-setting, institutional transformation, and the advancement of professional credentialing worldwide. 

Lily holds a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA), an MBA, and Master in Computer Science. 

Speaker

Doris Birkhofer
President of Siemens France; CEO of Siemens Smart Infrastructure

Doris Birkhofer, a committed FrancoGerman and European business leader, has been President of Siemens France since October 1, 2021, and Managing Director of Siemens Smart Infrastructure France. The geographical scope of both her roles also includes BeLux and the Maghreb.

After graduating from ESB Business School in Reutlingen and NEOMA Business School in Reims, she has built her career in technology companies in Germany, the United States, and then in France, where she has lived since 2009. She has held key operational and strategic roles — including executive positions — at Saint Gobain, Alcoa/Arconic, and Siemens, and has consistently advocated for industrial and infrastructure competitiveness through technological innovation, digitalization, and the energy transition.

Doris is committed to Gimelec as member of its Board of Directors.

Committed to strengthening Franco-German economic ties, she has been a member of the Supervisory Board of the Franco-German bank Oddo BHF (since 2017), President of the Franco-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (2025), and a member of the Strategic Advisory Board of DEKRA e.V (2024).

Convinced that diversity is a source of strength and a performance driver, Doris Birkhofer has long been involved in promoting diversity in scientific and industrial professions. She chairs the Siemens France Foundation and supports associations such as Elles Bougent and Femmes Ingénieurs. She is also a member of the Strategic Council of Paris Université Cité (2025) and joined the Board of Directors of NEOMA Business School as an independent board member (2025).

Doris Birkhofer is a Knight of the French Legion of Honour.

Speaker

Mathis Bitton
Doctor of Philosophy, Harvard University

Mathis Bitton is a Ph.D. candidate in Harvard’s Government Department and a head researcher at NYU’s Emerging Technologies Collaborative. His research focuses on the politics of technology, liberalism and its critics, and democratic theory. His current work focuses on digital platforms and their effect on our social order. Before graduate school, Mathis co-founded and sold a cybersecurity start-up. His writing has appeared in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The New Statesman, National Review, and American Affairs. He received a B.A. in Political Science from Yale College.

Chair

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

Thomas Bubendorfer
Solo climber and author

When he was only 16, Thomas became the youngest climber in history to solo climb the hardest rock faces of his time. At 20 he revolutionized extreme mountaineering by solo climbing without ropes the highest and hardest mountain faces in in the Alps in unprecedented, breath-taking speed. Many of his solo climbs stand unparalleled to this day.

While climbing remains the most important and influential activity in his life, Thomas, now 56, is not just a climber. He has always sought to balance his intense physical activities - training up to 400 hours per year, and climbing 120 days per year - by training his mind. He speaks four languages and has written seven books. Presently he is working on his first book in English. He keeps studying subjects as varied as chaos science, neurobiology, brain science, philosophy and history.

An international keynote speaker since 1985, Thomas has shared his views on performance, self-responsibility, goal-setting, quality, crisis, teamwork and many more related topics with audiences of many of the leading companies in the world.

Thomas is a father of three children and travels around the world giving a maximum of 30 keynote speeches in Asia, the US and Europe. He coaches and consults business leaders in the art of „intelligent performance" and is brand ambassador to Porsche.

Speaker

George Q. Daley
Dean Harvard Medical School

George Q. Daley, MD, PhD is Caroline Shields Walker Professor of Medicine, Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, and dean of Harvard Medical School. His research laboratory at Boston Children’s Hospital investigates stem cell and cancer biology, with a focus on hematopoietic development and diseases of the bone marrow, blood and immune system.

Daley earned his AB and MD degrees from Harvard and a PhD in biology from MIT. Prior to becoming Dean at HMS, he was an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Director of the Pediatric Stem Cell Transplantation Program of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children’s Hospital.

He is an elected member of the US National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine and the American Association of Arts and Sciences.

Speaker

Florence Dupré
Global Healthcare Officer, La Poste Santé & Autonomie, founder of Women for CEO

Florence Dupré is leading companies and has dedicated her career to ensure medical, pharmaceutical, and/or technological innovations improving healthcare efficiency get quicker access to the patients for whom they are indicated.

Florence Dupré holds a master's degree in biology and biochemistry from the École Normale Supérieure ULM and a master's degree in marketing management from ESSEC. After contributing to numerous launches in international pharmaceutical companies, she embarked on more entrepreneurial roles by creating the French subsidiaries of BioAlliance Pharma (now Onxeo) and Vifor Pharma, before joining Abbvie in an international commercial and transformation leader role. She then joined the French subsidiary of Medtronic, a world leader in healthcare technologies, where as president of the affiliate she changed the governance and trajectory of the company to   get back to growth in a sustainable way.

In 2023, she joined Dominique Pon at La Poste to implement the healthcare strategy, manage a portfolio of companies, and develop international healthcare activities as Global Healthcare Officer.

La Poste Santé & Autonomie is a trusted third party gathering 7 different business model companies in digital health, hospital information systems, remote patient monitoring, home care, data & AI.

It reflects the desire to provide a comprehensive, sustainable, and responsible response to the growing needs of citizens and healthcare stakeholders, in a context of demographic aging and increased chronic pathology pressure on the healthcare system, based on a philosophy of trust, proximity, and public interest, which is at the heart of La Poste Group's DNA.

In 2024 she founded Women for CEO : a parity by design  movement gathering 600 cross industry leaders personally committed to develop themselves toward a more inclusive and efficient leadership and reach parity at the top of our organizations by 2035.

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

Arne Gast
Senior Partner and global leader of Culture and Change Leadership serviceline, McKinsey and Company; co-founder, Aberkyn

Arne leads our global offering on “Change by McKinsey”, our team of >1,000 change experts who support culture shifts in performance transformations, new operating models, mergers and green fields. Moreover, he is one of the co-founders and current Chair of Aberkyn.

As one of our most experienced functional experts, he has works across industries, including airlines, retail platforms, oil and gas, chemicals, banking, insurance and telco’s. They include leading multinationals, emerging unicorns and rising global champions – with ownership varying from state-owned entities, publicly-owned enterprises, PE-owned companies, family-owned conglomerates and government institutions.

Arne is a global citizen. He previously led all our Organization work across Asia-Pacific from his base in Kuala Lumpur. He is now based in Amsterdam, and serves clients across Europe, Asia and Middle East. 

Selected examples of his work in Leadership Development

• Design and facilitation of top team/top25 culture leadership program of national airline in Europe, to deliver change in turbulent times
• Developing the leadership model, leadership program for top50, capability programs for top500 of leading Asian insurance company
• Drive integrated transformation, including culture shifts and leadership development of a leading internet platform in Europe
• Shaping the new culture (and purpose and strategy) for Asian startup in real estate, part of broader family conglomerate
• Developing the culture model, top100 leadership program and young talent program for multi-merger agrichem company
• Shaping the culture change of Asian telcom player, through top100 approach and supporting mechanisms
• Shaping the culture change of leading Asian bank through team-by-team approach and supporting mechanisms
• Driving the culture change in global maintenance operations for leading airline
• Shaping the culture program and delivering the top50 leadership program of leading global medtech player
• New top100 leadership development program to deliver the leading global dairy merger

Arne has written multiple McKinsey Quarterly articles, most recently on “The Agentic Organization”, “The Power of Organizational Health”, “Organizational Health in Public Organizations” , “New Leadership in an era of thriving organizations” and “Personal Operating Models”. He was part of the teams writing the books Reorg, Blue Ocean Strategy, Beyond Performance, and Leadership at Scale. He is currently working on his book called “Schokland”, capturing his experience on transformations at scale.

FULL BIOGRAPHY

Speaker

Gerd Gigerenzer
Director of the Harding Center for Risk Literacy, University of Potsdam

Gerd Gigerenzer is Director of the Harding Center for Risk Literacy at the University of Potsdam, Faculty of Health Sciences Brandenburg and partner of Simply Rational - The Institute for Decisions. He is former Director of the Adaptive Behavior and Cognition (ABC) Center at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and at the Max Planck Institute for Psychological Research in Munich, Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago and John M. Olin Distinguished Visiting Professor, School of Law at the University of Virginia. In addition, he is Member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, the German Academy of Sciences and Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. He was awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Basel and the Open University of the Netherlands, and is Batten Fellow at the Darden Business School, University of Virginia. Awards for his work include the AAAS Prize for the best article in the behavioral sciences, the Association of American Publishers Prize for the best book in the social and behavioral sciences, the German Psychology Award, and the Communicator Award of the German Research Foundation. His award-winning popular books Calculated Risks, Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious, and Risk Savvy: How to make good decisions have been translated into 21 languages. His academic books include Simple Heuristics That Make Us Smart, Rationality for Mortals, Simply Rational, and Bounded Rationality (with Reinhard Selten, a Nobel Laureate in economics). In Better Doctors, Better Patients, Better Decisions (with Sir Muir Gray) he shows how better informed doctors and patients can improve healthcare while reducing costs. Together with the Bank of England, he is working on the project “Simple heuristics for a safer world.” Gigerenzer has trained U.S. federal judges, German physicians, and top managers in decision making and understanding risks and uncertainties. The Swiss Duttweiler Institute has distinguished Gigerenzer as one of the top-100 Global Thought Leaders worldwide.

Chair

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

Patrick Guggenberger
Partner, McKinsey and Company

Patrick Guggenberger is a Partner in McKinsey’s Vienna Office and a leader in our European Consumer Goods Sector and Organization Practice. He leads our People and Organizational Performance Service Line in Europe, helping consumer-facing companies in unleashing organizational potential. 

Since joining the firm in 2012, Patrick has drawn on his expertise to reimagine organizations and has focused his advisory work on helping leading companies improve their organization design and pursue end-to-end operating model transformations. 

DOWNLOAD CV

Speaker

Mehran Gul
Author

Mehran Gul is the author of The New Geography of Innovation (William Collins / Simon & Schuster), recipient of the Financial Times/McKinsey Bracken Bower Prize, and an FT Best Book of the Year selection. He was previously at the World Economic Forum and attended Yale where he was a Fulbright Scholar, Fox International Fellow, and Teaching Fellow.

www.mehrangul.com

Speaker

Valerie Hackl
Managing Director of Gas Connect Austria

Valerie Hackl is Managing Director of Gas Connect Austria, bringing extensive leadership experience in infrastructure, energy and other regulated industries.

She began her career as a management consultant with Bain & Company and subsequently held senior executive roles as Executive Board Member of ÖBB Passenger Transport,
where she developed the Nightjet as a new international rail product, and as Managing Director of Austro Control, before briefly serving as Austria’s Federal Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Innovation. She holds degrees from the Vienna University of Economics and Business and the University of St. Gallen, where she completed her
PhD. Earlier in her career, she was a multiple Austrian national champion in rhythmic gymnastics.

Speaker

Linda A. Hill
Professor of Business Administration, Chair of the Leadership Initiative, Harvard Business School

Linda A. Hill is the Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and chair of the Leadership Initiative.  Hill is regarded as one of the top experts on leadership. Hill is the co-author of Collective Genius: The Art and Practice of Leading Innovation, co-founder of Paradox Strategies, and co-creator of the Innovation Quotient.  She was named by Thinkers50 as one of the top ten management thinkers in the world in 2013 and received the Thinkers50 Innovation Award in 2015. 

Hill’s research focuses on implementing global strategies and leading innovation; building innovative organizations and ecosystems; developing leaders for innovation; and the role of the board in governing innovation.  She is the author of highly-regarded books and articles on leadership, including her latest book Collective Genius: The Art and Practice of Leading Innovation (Harvard Business Review Press 2014).  Collective Genius was named by Business Insider as one of “The 20 Best Business Books” in 2014 and received the Gold Medal for Leadership, Axiom Business Book Award.  In 2015, Hill, along with her co-authors, received the first Warren Bennis Prize for the Harvard Business Review article “Collective Genius,” based on the book.  Hill is also the co-author of Being the Boss: The 3 Imperatives of Becoming a Great Leader, noted by the Wall Street Journal as one of the “Five Business Books to Read for your Career in 2011” and author of Becoming a Manager: How New Mangers Master the Challenges of Leadership (2^nd edition).  Her books are available in multiple languages.  Hill has authored or co-authored numerous Harvard Business Review articles, including “Where Will We Find Tomorrow’s Leaders,” “Winning the Race for Talent in Emerging Markets,” and “Are You a High Potential?”  She is a contributor to the HBS Press Pocket Mentor series Managing Up, Hiring, Becoming a New Manager, and Negotiating Outcomes. 

Hill has chaired numerous HBS Executive Education programs, including the Young Presidents' Organization Presidents' Seminar and the High Potentials Leadership Program, and Leading and Building a Culture of Innovation.  She was course-head during the development of the new Leadership and Organizational Behavior MBA required course. 

Hill has been at the forefront of developing various innovative learning programs for managers, including Breakthrough Leadership, the winner of the 2013 Brandon Hall Group Award for Best Advance in Unique Learning Technology, and the award-winning multimedia management development programs such as High Performance Management.

Speaker

Mark Kennedy
Partner, Chief Client & Markets Officer, Forvis Mazars Group

Mark Kennedy is a member of the Group Executive, and Governing Board of Forvis Mazars Group, where he is responsible for the development of the global Clients and Markets portfolio.

In that role Mark leads a team of international partners who are responsible for the management of growth strategies and client experience in international business sectors and in all global markets other than the United States.

Mark became a partner at Forvis Mazars in 2004. He is a career auditor, specialising in working with clients in the Financial Services sector.  He was Managing Partner of Forvis Mazars in Ireland from 2014 to 2021.  He joined the Executive Board of Forvis Mazars UK in 2021. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland.

Chair

Guila Clara Kessous
UNESCO Peace Ambassador, Executive coach

Dr. Guila Clara Kessous is a UNESCO Peace Ambassador and an executive coach using theatrical techniques to enhance corporate communication and help heal those who have suffered from prior trauma. She became Paul Ekman International Partner in 2021 and is using Ekman’s profiling and emotional intelligence techniques dedicated to coaching in leadership, negotiation, and humanitarian causes.

As a recipient of an Executive MBA from ESSEC Business School, a Ph.D. from Boston University under Nobel Prize Elie Wiesel’s direction, and a Post-Doc from Harvard University, she was invited to develop the communication course of the new certificate on « Situational Intelligence » at the Political Science Institute in Paris in 2021.

She has combined her artistic experience together with coaching methods such as positive psychology (Tal Ben Shahar), Leadership and Negotiation (William L. Ury), Executive Communication Skills (Marjorie North), and Emotional Intelligence (Associate Paul Ekman’s EIA). She is a certified coach ICC trainer (EMCC) and expert in assessment tools such as Leadership Effectiveness Analysis (MRG) and Hogan (Authentic Talent). As a certified coach, she has helped hundreds of senior executives (private sector: CAC 40, Nasdaq 500…) dealing with positive leadership. As a certified negotiator, she has been involved in peace negotiation working alongside her Ph.D. advisor, Nobel Prize Elie Wiesel, and Harvard Professor William L. Ury. She is the recipient of the Women Empowerment Award 2020 by Eva Longoria from the Global Gift Foundation for her work to help access education in Pakistan and in Burundi and has been knighted by the French government. In 2021, she became "Rising Talent" of the Women's Forum for the Economy and Society for her work to help women empowerment with her coaching skills notably with women refugees in Bangladesh.

Speaker

Peter G. Kirchschlaeger
Director of the Institute of Social Ethics ISE University of Lucerne

Peter G. Kirchschlaeger is a professor of ethics and director of the Institute of Social Ethics ISE at the University of Lucerne. He is a visiting professor at the Chair for Neuronal Learning and Intelligent Systems at ETH Zurich and at the ETH AI Center. He is also a visiting fellow at the University of Tuebingen and a research fellow at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein in South Africa. He is a consultant in ethics to international institutions, organizations, companies and N.G.O.s and currently serves as president of the Swiss Federal Ethics Committee.

After his Ph.D. at the University of Zurich, which included a one-year research stay at the University of Chicago with a Swiss National Science Foundation scholarship and his habilitation at the University of Fribourg, he was a fellow at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at Lund University, a visiting scholar at the University of Technology Sydney, a guest professor at KU Leuven, a guest lecturer at the Leuphana University of Lueneburg, and a visiting fellow at Yale University.

His research focuses on the ethics of A.I., ethics of science and technology, ethics of human rights, ethics of children’s rights, political ethics, and business ethics.

His most recent books are “Ethics and the Digital Transformation of Human Work: The Society-, Entrepreneurship-, Research-Time (SERT) Model” (2025); “Human Rights and Religions: Non-State Actors and Their Correlation With Human Rights” (2025); “Ethical Decision-Making” (2023); and “Digital Transformation and Ethics: Ethical Considerations on the Robotization and Automation of Society and the Economy and the Use of Artificial Intelligence” (2021).

Peter G. Kirchschlaeger gets a lot of media attention, among others, by BBC News, GloboNews, and “The New York Times”.

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

Mathilde Lemoine
Group Chief Economist Edmond de Rothschild & Member of the Global Investment Committee

Mathilde Lemoine (Ph.D) is Group Chief Economist at Edmond de Rothschild and a member of its Global Investment Committee. An international macroeconomist and experienced executive, she combines high-level public policy experience with board-level governance and operational leadership in global companies.

She has worked in London, Geneva, Paris and Singapore, and advised governments as Globalization and Macroeconomic Advisor to the French Ministers of Finance and Prime Minister. She has participated to the negotiation of international agreements, led economic strategy in the private sector, and sat on the boards of major listed companies in Europe and Asia, including Carrefour, Dassault Aviation, and NOL.

Currently Independent Director of CMA CGM and Eurazeo, she brings expertise in geoeconomy, financial markets and transformation. She is also the co-author of a textbook on International Economics and a regular contributor to international conferences and media.

She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Sciences Po Paris and taught international macroeconomics there for over 20 years.

Speaker

Dana Maor
Senior Partner, McKinsey and Company

Dana is a leader in McKinsey’s People and Organizational Performance practice (including McKinsey Academy and Aberkyn). She was our Global Practice Leader for the past 5 years, and before that, the Managing Partner in McKinsey’s Israel office. Dana is the co-author of the recently published best-seller “The Journey of Leadership, how CEOs learn to lead from the inside out”

Dana also previously led our Global Talent Service Line, Transformational Change Service Line, and McKinsey Academy. She is passionate transformation to unlock value and sustained impact through talent, succession planning, and operating model (including culture). She has done so across industries including GEM, High Tech, Consumer, Telecom, A&D, Public Sector, Chemicals, Real Estate, Financial Services, Retail, as well as Life Sciences. 

Speaker

Roger L. Martin
Professor Emeritus & Former Dean, Rotman School; Strategy advisor

In 2017, Roger was named the world’s #1 management thinker by Thinkers50, a biannual ranking of the most influential global business thinkers.

Roger is a trusted strategy advisor to the CEOs of companies worldwide including Procter & Gamble, Lego, Ford, BHP and Verizon.

Roger Martin is a Professor Emeritus at the Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto where he served as Dean from 1998-2013, Academic Director of the Michael Lee-Chin Family Institute for Corporate Citizenship from 2004-2019 and Institute Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute from 2013-2019. In 2013, he was named global Dean of the Year by the leading business school website, Poets & Quants.

His newest book is A New Way to Think: Your Guide to Superior Managerial Effectiveness (Harvard Business Review Press, 2022). His previous twelve books include When More is Not Better (HBRP, 2020), Creating Great Choices written with Jennifer Riel (HBRP, 2017) Getting Beyond Better written with Sally Osberg (HBRP, 2015) and Playing to Win written with A.G. Lafley (HBRP, 2013), which won the award for Best Book of 2012-13 by the Thinkers50. He has written 33 Harvard Business Review articles.

Roger received his BA from Harvard College, with a concentration in Economics, in 1979 and his MBA from the Harvard Business School in 1981. He lives in South Florida with his wife, Marie-Louise Skafte.

Speaker

Rita McGrath
Professor of strategy, Columbia Business School

Rita McGrath, one of the world’s top experts on strategy and innovation, is consistently ranked among the top 10 management thinkers in the world by the prestigious Thinkers50 and won their #1 award in strategy. She is a trusted partner and strategic advisor in the C-suites of many of the country’s biggest and most well-known companies - especially as they work to grow, evolve, reinvent themselves and see around corners.

She is considered one of the world’s foremost experts on strategic inflection points, the topic of her most recent book -  Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019). She is the author of 4 other books on leadership, business and organizational management including the best-selling The End of Competitive Advantage (Harvard Business Review Press, 2013). Her work on discovery-driven growth was praised by the late legendary management thinker Clayton Christensen as offering “some of the most important ideas of management and strategy that have ever been developed.” She is currently working on a book full of humor and insight for business leaders aimed at helping organizations become ‘2% less stupid’ by adopting permissionless structures.

Rita regularly sits down for in-depth conversations with high level authors and leaders in business for her popular podcastThought Sparks. She also writes a regular Thought Sparks newsletter and shares insights across social media platforms, including LinkedIn, where she has more than 45,000 followers. 

Rita is known for her energy, positivity, storytelling, and ability to connect with audiences. She is also a sought-after corporate speaker, a long-time educator at Columbia Business School, the author and host of the popular podcast and newsletter Thought Sparks, available on Youtube.

Connect with her on LinkedIn. Learn more at RitaMcGrath.com and Valize.com. 

Speaker

Mark Mortensen
Associate Dean, INSEAD Middle East Campus; Author, Associate Professor of Organizational Behaviour at INSEAD

Mark Mortensen the Associate Dean for the Middle East Campus and Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD Mark is an expert in organizational collaboration and design, with a focus on hybrid, virtual, and globally distributed work. Recently he has focused on the changing nature of the employee value proposition and its impact on employee attraction, retention, and engagement. 

Mark uses data-driven scientific research to help executives and organizations understand the complex dynamics of organizations as social systems. He uses scientific methods to distil that complexity into concrete actionable insights and tools that create value. He applies this approach by consulting globally on the changing nature of work, organizational culture, team dynamics, global collaboration, power and social networks, and organizational change. 

Mark publishes regularly in practitioner outlets like Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, and IESE Insights as well as popular press outlets both in print and online. His scholarly work has been published in top-tier academic publications, and his contributions have been recognized through academic awards as well as leadership and editorial board positions.

Prior to joining INSEAD, Professor Mortensen was on the faculty of the MIT-Sloan School of Management, and before that, the Desautels School of Management at McGill University. Professor Mortensen holds a PhD in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University, and an MS from Stanford University and a BA from Colby College, both in Computer Science.

Speaker

Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez
Visiting Professor at Duke CE, Instituto de Empresa, Solvay, Vlerick, Ecole de Ponts
Former Global Chair of PMI, Founder of Brightline Initiative; Author

Author of the Harvard Business Review Project Management Handbook, the featured HBR article The Project Economy Has Arrived, and five other books, Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez is the creator of concepts such as the Project Economy. He is the most published author of project management articles in HBR. His research and global impact on modern management has been recognized by Thinkers50. Fellow and Former Chairman of the Project Management Institute, he is the creator of the Brightline Initiative and founder of Projects&Co and the Strategy Implementation Institute. Born in Madrid, Spain, and educated in Germany, Mexico, Italy, and the United States, Antonio is fluent in five languages. He has an MBA from London Business School. He is a member of Marshall Goldsmith 100 coaches. You can follow Antonio through his LinkedIn Newsletter - Lead Projects Successfully, his popular online course Project Management Reinvented for Non-Project Managers, and his website

Speaker

Gianpiero Petriglieri
INSEAD Alumni Professor in Leadership & Development

Gianpiero is an expert on leadership and learning in the workplace. His award-winning research, speaking, and development work focus on the human dimensions of leading and learning. His work brings together a decade of training as a medical doctor and psychiatrist, and two decades of expertise supporting the development of leaders at all levels in organizations around the world. Gianpiero currently holds the INSEAD Alumni Professorship in Leadership and Development and is listed among the 50 most influential management thinkers in the world.

Speaker

Andrea Petrone
Global Executive Coach & Advisor

Andrea Petrone coaches CEOs and senior leadership teams through the high-stakes moments that define careers — transitions, crises, reinventions and the personal demands of leading under pressure. Known as The CEO Whisperer, he focuses on how leaders think, decide, and perform when the stakes are highest. Over the past two decades, he has worked internationally across Europe, the Middle East and Asia with leaders from organisations including Shell, Unilever, Takeda, EssilorLuxottica, ENI and Snam. He is the author of Reinvention at the Top (Wiley, October 2026), a Fortune contributor, and the host of The World-Class Leaders Show, a leadership podcast ranked among the top 5% globally. Originally from Italy, Andrea is based in London, UK.

Speaker

Anna Pietikäinen
Head of the Regulatory Policy Division, Public Governance, OECD

Anna Pietikäinen has advised governments with the OECD and the United Nations for over 20 years. As Head of the Regulatory Policy Division, she leads the Organisation’s work supporting member countries’ regulatory reform and better regulation agendas through the Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC). In this position, most recently she has launched the Simplifying for Success (S4S) Initiative and overseen the publication of the OECD Regulatory Policy Outlook. 

Previously she managed the secretariat of the OECD Network of Economic Regulators (NER). At the OECD she also held positions at the Development Centre and the Sahel West Africa Club. Prior to joining the OECD, she worked at the United Nations - International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Anna is a political scientist with degrees from the London School of Economics and Sciences-Po Paris. She speaks Finnish, English, French and Spanish.

Speaker

Reinhard Pruegl
Head of Institute for Family Business, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business

Biography upcoming soon.

Speaker

Juergen Reiner
Co-Head of Europe, Managing Partner, Uvance Wayfinders, Fujitsu

Dr. Juergen Reiner co-heads Uvance Wayfinders in Europe. He has over two decades of experience leading digital transformation for customers across industry sectors and regions.

Prior to joining Fujitsu, he held leadership roles at McKinsey & Company, Oliver Wyman, and in the Professional Services units of AWS and Siemens. Across these roles, he built global advisory practices and drove innovation in the industrial and manufacturing sectors. His work has spanned professional services, digital strategy, and sector leadership, with a focus on innovation and ecosystem collaboration.

In his current role, Juergen focuses on expanding the customer network in Europe, building and implementing the business model strategy, as well as developing innovative, scalable service offerings with and for clients.

He holds a Ph.D. in Information Economics from WU Vienna and an engineering diploma from ETH Zürich.

Speaker

Helmut Reisinger
CEO for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Palo Alto Networks

As CEO for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Helmut is responsible for all go-to-market functions across EMEA. Prior to joining Palo Alto Networks in 2022, Helmut was CEO of Orange Business Services (OBS), leading its global organization of 28,000 employees and supporting the digital transformation of enterprise customers around the world. Prior to OBS, Helmut held leadership positions across Europe at Avaya Inc., NextiraOne Germany and Alcatel Austria.

Helmut holds a Ph.D. from Vienna University for Economics and Business (WU), and speaks English, French, German and Spanish.

Speaker

Markus Reitzig
Professor for Strategic Management, University of Vienna

Markus Reitzig is the University Endowed Chaired Professor for Strategic Management at the University of Vienna/Austria, where he runs a research group focused on behavioral organization design. Originally trained as a natural scientist, he earned his doctorate in business economics and later focused on strategy and organization studies.

His work explains how organizations can become flatter, more agile, and more human – with and despite AI. Widely recognized for his scholarly work, he is one of the few academics to have spoken multiple times at TEDx events. In addition to publishing in the leading scientific outlets, he has repeatedly translated his works for magazines such Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, and McKinsey Quarterly. With his book Get Better at Flatter and through numerous collaborations with companies, he takes research directly to where it has impact – into the C-suite.

Markus was trained in Germany (Constance/Kiel/Munich), Italy (LUISS Rome), and the US (UC San Diego/UC Berkeley) and has worked and taught at leading institutions such as London Business School, Copenhagen Business School, and INSEAD.

Moderator

Katarina Roder
Head of People Development & Culture, OEBB-Infrastruktur AG

Katarina Roder is Head of People Development & Culture at OEBB-Infrastruktur AG, where she is responsible for strategic people development and culture initiatives serving approximately 19,000 employees. She brings extensive experience in learning and development, organisational and leadership development, talent acquisition, and HR transformation, gained across organisations including WU Executive Academy, BRZ, and Danube University Krems.

Katarina holds degrees in Business Education and Psychology and has further deepened her expertise in digital transformation, including formal training in Data Science. Her areas of focus include sustainable HR, leadership and organisational culture, diversity and inclusion, and work and organisational psychology. She is currently expanding her profile in labour and employment law through an LL.M. programme.

Committed to advancing the HR profession and strengthening modern leadership cultures, Katarina serves as Chair of BPM Austria, the Austrian chapter of the Federal Association of Personnel Managers. She is also a board member of the Women Leadership Alliance, where she contributes to initiatives promoting diversity, innovation, and equal participation in leadership.

Speaker

Johan Roos
Senior Advisor to the Global Peter Drucker Forum

Johan Roos is a Swedish strategist and management thinker helping leaders stay deeply human in an AI‑rich world. He works at the intersection of human wisdom and artificial intelligence, asking whether advanced algorithms will quietly erode what makes professionals valuable or be harnessed to amplify it.

A practiced leader‑scholar, Johan has led several international business schools and major change initiatives, experience that informs his research and advisory work. He serves as Professor in Strategy and Executive Advisor at Hult International Business School and as Senior Advisor to the Global Peter Drucker Forum, where he helped initiate the multi‑year Next Management initiative on leadership. Alongside his advisory roles, he regularly speaks with executive teams and at international conferences on “Human Magic” in an age of algorithms, AI‑ready leadership, and the renewal of management.

His interest in imagination and learning led him to co‑invent the LEGO® Serious Play® method and co‑found the Imagination Lab Foundation, bringing playfulness and creativity into strategy work around the world. His latest book, Human Magic: Leading with Wisdom in an Era of Algorithms (Routledge, 2026), offers a practical guide for professionals who want to preserve human agency and distinctively human capabilities in an age of intelligent machines.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drjohanroos/
Human Magic book: https://humanmagic.one/

Moderator

Monika Rosen
Vice President Austro-American-Society

Over 30 years of experience in financial markets, formerly Head of Research, now Vice President of the Austro-American Society; degrees from the University of Vienna and Georgia State, Atlanta, GA, USA.

Speaker

Tami Rosen
Member of Pagaya's Board of Directors and advisor

Tami Rosen is a globally recognized executive, four-time Chief Human Resources Officer, corporate board director, and thought leader who has spent more than 25 years helping organizations unlock the full potential of their people as a competitive advantage. From Apple and Goldman Sachs to Atlassian, Luminar Technologies, and Pagaya, her career has been dedicated to building organizations where leadership, culture, and business strategy work together to fuel long-term growth and innovation.

Formerly Chief Human Resources Officer and Chief Development Officer at Pagaya, Tami was the company’s first C-suite executive and helped transform the organization from a high-growth startup into a publicly traded global fintech leader. Today, she continues to support the company’s next chapter as both a member of Pagaya’s Board of Directors and an advisor, helping shape its long-term growth, leadership, and governance. Across every stage of her career, she has partnered with CEOs and boards to develop leaders, build high-performing cultures, navigate transformation, and help organizations unlock human capability as a driver of lasting business performance.

Celebrated for her ability to unite business strategy with cultural innovation, Tami’s career achievements include leading Apple’s $3 billion acquisition of Beats by Dre, pioneering Atlassian’s “Team Anywhere” global remote work strategy, launching Wall Street’s first LGBTQ+ Ally Program at Goldman Sachs, and introducing Pagaya’s Continuous Learning Cycle to strengthen and motivate organizational performance.

Today, Tami is expanding her work through her forthcoming book, Super Human Companies, which explores why people strategy is business strategy and why organizations that intentionally invest in human capability will outperform those that focus on technology alone. Her leadership has earned numerous accolades, including recognition among The Financial Technology Report’s Top 50 Women Leaders in Fintech, Profiles in Diversity Journal’s Women Worth Watching, the Inspiring Leaders Award from Inspiring Workplaces, and Inspiring FinTech Female by NYC Fintech Women. She also serves on the Board of Directors of The Elie Wiesel Foundation and Sarah Creal Beauty and is a member and Ambassador of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women community.

Speaker

Sebastian Schütze
Rector, University of Vienna

Sebastian Schütze has been Rector of the University of Vienna since 2022. Following important academic positions at the Freie Universität Berlin, the Bibliotheca Hertziana (Max Planck Institute for Art History) in Rome and the Queen’s University in Kingston/Canada, Sebastian Schütze has been Professor of Modern Art History at the University of Vienna since 2009, as well as Dean of the Faculty of Historical and Culture Studies since 2018. He is a full member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. His research focusses on Italy’s art history and cultural history, the history of collections in Vienna and Central Europe as well as the productive interactions between literature and visual arts. A matter of particular concern is making his research findings accessible for a larger audience, also in international exhibitions.

Speaker

Adam Sewell-Jones
CEO, East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust

Adam has worked in the NHS since 1992, initially as a trainee accountant, and subsequently in roles including finance, operational management, Director of Finance and Continuous Improvement, Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive in trusts in London and Essex.

He then went on to hold national leadership roles as Director of Provider Sustainability, Director of Improvement and Regional Director for the south west of England where he led on many development and improvement programmes.

Adam joined Newham Hospital in East London as Chief Executive and then moved onto East and North Hertfordshire Teaching NHS Trust before joining Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust.

In 2025 he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science by the University of Hertfordshire in recognition of his services to the NHS.

Speaker

Shin Shuda
Global CEO, Uvance Wayfinders, Fujitsu

Shin leads Fujitsu’s global consulting capability, Uvance Wayfinders, across Japan, North America, Europe, and Oceania. He leads a highly specialized team that helps organizations adopt emerging technologies and transform how work is performed and value is delivered. He is responsible for delivering consulting and integrated solutions that leverage Fujitsu’s technology portfolio—including AI, Sovereign Technologies, Physical AI, Quantum, Computing, and Networks—to create differentiated outcomes and measurable value for customers. Central to this role is driving a new consulting model that enables clients to realize their strategic value faster and with greater confidence.

Prior to joining Fujitsu, Shin spent more than two decades at Accenture across North America and Japan. He began his career in sales and marketing and worked across multiple industries in leadership and client-facing roles. He holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from Brown University.

Speaker

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

Giuseppe Stigliano is a global keynote speaker, strategic marketing professor, and executive advisor recognized by Thinkers50 as one of the most inspiring management thinkers of his time.

He has co-authored three business books with Philip Kotler and has advised more than 300 companies across four continents on corporate innovation, leadership, marketing, and sales.

A former CEO of several international marketing firms, Giuseppe has led teams across EMEA and the US. What sets Giuseppe apart is a rare combination of academic rigour and hands-on executive experience, brought to every room, every stage, every boardroom he enters.

Speaker

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

Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., SHRM-SCP, is President and Chief Executive Officer of SHRM. With nearly 340,000 members in 180 countries, SHRM impacts the lives of more than 362 million workers and their families globally.

As a global leader on the future of employment, culture, and leadership, Mr. Taylor is a sought-after voice on all matters affecting work, workers, and the workplace. Recognized as one of the “300 Most Influential Executives in Corporate America” for 2024 by Savoy Magazine, on the “Virginia 500: Power List” by Virginia Business, and as one of the “Most Influential People Shaping Public Policy” in our nation’s capital by Washingtonian Magazine, Mr. Taylor is frequently asked to testify before Congress on critical workforce issues and authors the weekly USA Today column, "Ask HR."

Mr. Taylor's career spans more than 20 years as a lawyer, human resources executive, and CEO in both the not-for-profit and for-profit spaces. He has held senior and chief executive roles at IAC/InteractiveCorp, Viacom's Paramount Pictures, Blockbuster Entertainment Group, the McGuireWoods law firm, and Compass Group USA. Most recently, Mr. Taylor was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

He is the author of the national bestseller, RESET: A Leader’s Guide to Work in an Age of Upheaval, which immediately upon its release in September 2021, was in the top three of The Wall Street Journal’s list of best-selling hardcover business books.

Mr. Taylor serves on the corporate boards of XPO, Inc.; Flores HR; and Guild Education. He previously served on the White House American Workforce Policy Advisory Board and as chairman of the President's Advisory Board on Historically Black Colleges and Universities during the Trump Administration.

In 2020, he received the Distinguished Executive of the Year Award from the Academy of Management, and he was named 2021 ALA Professional Society CEO of the Year by CEO Update.

He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources and is licensed to practice law in Florida, Illinois, and Washington, D.C.

Chair

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

Tom Tugendhat has served the United Kingdom for over 25 years—in the Army, Parliament, and Government. He saw active service in Iraq in 2003 and Afghanistan from 2005, was elected MP for Tonbridge in 2015, chaired Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee in 2017 and was appointed Security Minister in 2022.

Tom modernised laws, oversaw intelligence agencies, and spearheaded initiatives against online child exploitation, fraud, and cybercrime. His work has strengthened Britain’s resilience against Islamist radicalisation, Iranian state-sponsored violence, and hostile activities from Russia and China. Among the first to warn of threats posed by foreign corruption and authoritarian interference, Tom has been sanctioned by Beijing, Moscow, and Tehran.

Before Parliament, Tom served as an intelligence officer and worked for the Foreign Office. He helped establish Afghanistan’s National Security Council and government in Helmand Province. He has also been a journalist, is regularly consulted for geopolitical analysis, and been a successful angel investor.

Speaker

John van Rossen
Global Strategy and Execution Leader, EY Parthenon

John van Rossen is the EY-Parthenon Global Strategy and Execution Leader and has more than 25 years experience providing advice to clients in Western Europe, the UK and the US. He has worked with several Private Equity and Corporate clients driving value from Strategic Transformation and Transactions. In addition John serves as Coordinating Partner on some of EY‘s key Client Relationships. Before his current role, John was the Strategy and Transactions Leader of the EMEIA Western Europe & Maghreb Region, and has previously held numerous senior roles including EMEIA Private Equity Leader.

John holds a Masters degree in Economics from the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, is a Dutch chartered accountant and has earned an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Speaker

Julien Villalongue
Managing Director at Leonard, Prospective et innovation, Vinci

Julien Villalongue is the Managing Director of Leonard, VINCI's global innovation and foresight platform, reporting to the Group's Chief Executive Officer. He oversees the platform's foresight work on cities and infrastructure, the development of new offers related to VINCI's businesses in construction, infrastructure, mobility and energy, and its innovation programmes supporting intrapreneurship, start-ups and investment. He also directs Leonard:Paris, a 5,000 sqm innovation hub.

Part of the team that founded Leonard, Julien joined in 2017 and was appointed Managing Director in 2018. He previously held roles at VINCI Autoroutes, the French Embassy in Vietnam and the French Telecommunications Federation. He is a graduate of Centrale Nantes and Sciences Po Paris, and has served on Centrale Nantes's board since 2023.

Moderator

Stefan Wagner
Chair for Technology and Innovation, University of Vienna

He is a Chaired Professor at the University of Vienna. His work examines how new technologies emerge, how firms and institutions shape their development, and how ideas move from science into markets.

Much of his research is situated at the intersection of strategy, innovation, industrial organization, and law. He is particularly interested in how institutions and organizational choices affect the direction of inventive activity, the diffusion of knowledge, and firms’ ability to capture value from technological change. His work is primarily empirical and employs econometric and, increasingly, AI-based methods.

He is also one of the principal investigators of SUSTECH, a project focused on accelerating sustainable technological trajectories. The project investigates why hazardous chemicals often reach the market faster than safer alternatives, and how artificial intelligence, computation, and chemistry can help identify and promote more sustainable technological options. Awarded approximately €10 million through an ERC Synergy Grant, the project has the potential to generate significant impact beyond academia.

Currently, he serves as an Associate Editor at Management Science and as a member of the editorial review boards of Strategic Management Journal and Strategy Science. He previously served on the boards of the European Policy for Intellectual Property Association and the Berlin School of Economics Doctoral Program. He has taught numerous courses on strategy and innovation in M.Sc., (E)MBA, and executive education programs at leading business schools.

Speaker

Jana Werner
Executive in Residence, Amazon Web Services

Jana Werner is an Executive in Residence at Amazon Web Services, where she guides the executive teams of Fortune 500 companies in building adaptive resilient organizations. Her insights are forged from a career at the intersection of business strategy and technology: leading major digital transformations in financial services, guiding and scaling tech startups to growth and acquisition, and advising on complex global change at DHL. Her academic background in uncertainty dynamics grounds her practical advice for leaders navigating complex environments. She is a sought-after speaker and lecturer for executive and student education at institutions like Oxford and the London School of Economics, and a published author with Harvard Business Review.

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

Nadya Zhexembayeva
Founder & Chief Reinvention Officer Reinvention Academy

Called ‘The Reinvention Guru’ (InVentures magazine) & ‘The Queen of Reinvention’ (TEDx Navasink), Dr. Nadya Zhexembayeva is a business owner, educator, speaker & author - specializing on thriving in turbulence through reinvention.

As a consultant, Nadya has helped such organizations as The Coca-Cola Company, ERG, Kohler, L'Oreal, IBM, CISCO, Erste Bank, Henkel, Knauf Insulation & many others to reinvent their products, processes, & leadership practices to meet the requirements of today's volatile, uncertain, and fast-changing world.

As an educator, Nadya taught courses in leadership, strategy & sustainability at IEDC-Bled School of Management, an executive education center based in the Slovene Alps, where she also served as the Coca-Cola Chaired Professor of Sustainable Development. In addition to IEDC, Nadya has been teaching in business schools around the world, including Case's Weatherhead School of Management (USA), IPADE Business School (Mexico), and CEDEP (France), where she also contributes to the Academic Committee of the school.

As a speaker, Nadya has shared her insights with audiences worldwide through keynotes, panel presentations, & workshops. She has delivered four TEDx talks in Austria, Slovenia, Romania & the US.

As an author, Nadya has written three books and contributed to six others. In an effort to reinvent corporate approaches to sustainability strategy, Nadya and her co-author Chris Laszlo coined the concept ‘embedded sustainability’, which was virtually non-existent when they started in 2009. Today, it produces 186 million Google search results & has become a staple for global sustainability efforts.

Nadya’s fourth and latest book, “The Chief Reinvention Officer Handbook: How to Thrive in Chaos” is the a finalist in the American Book Fest Awards, the winner of the 2021 Axiom Business Books Awards, and the winner of the Kirkus Star, "one of the most coveted designations in the book industry, which marks books of exceptional merit."