The Leading Speakers Bureau

Director, screenwriter, composer and actor,

Pedro Almodovar is the most celebrated Spanish diretor since Luis Bunuel and Carlos Saura. He was born in La Mancha, Spain in 1951.

At the age of 16, he moved to Madrid, alone without either his family or any money in his pocket. He had decided to study and make films. It was impossible to enter the Official film School as Franco had recently closed it. He worked in multiple and sporadic jobs but he couldn’t afford to buy his first Super-8 camera until he took a “serious” job with the National Telephone Company where he worked for 12 years as an administrative assistant. These years were in a sense, his real education. He was in touch with a social class which he would probably not have mixed with in other circumstances; the middle class Spanish family at the beginning of the age consumerism. He joined the independent theatre group “Loss Gollardos” and made Super 8 movies. He wrote for several underground magazines and also short stories, some of which were published. His luck was that the opening of his first feature film coinicided with the birth of Spanish democracy in Spain.

[expand title=”In detail”] In 1980 he launched his first feature “Pepi, Lunci, Bom … “. Since then, the world of film has become second nature to him. He writes, directs and invents stories which are alive – his films are shown all over the world.

His films include “Labyrinth of Passion”, “Dark Habits”, “What Have I Done to Deserve This?”, “Matador”, “Law of Desire” , “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” (which was nominated for an Academy Award as best Foreign Language Film), “Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!”

Pedro Almodovar is the recipient of numerous awards including the Glauber Rocha Award for Best Director, Rio Film Festival and LA Film Critics Association “New Generation” Award. However, this year he has taken the industry by storm with the Goya winning movie “All About My Mother”. The film also took two awards at the European Film Awards in 1999 – best European Film of the Year and best European Director in addition to best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival.[/expand]
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Founder of Wikipedia.org

Jimmy “Jimbo” Wales is the founder of Wikipedia.org, the free encyclopedia project, and Wikia.com, which extends the social concepts of Wikipedia into new areas. Jimmy was formerly a futures and options trader in Chicago, and currently travels the world evangelizing the success of Wikipedia and the importance of free culture

“Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That’s what we’re doing.”

[expand title=”In detail”] In mid-2003, James set up the Wikimedia Foundation, a St. Petersburg, Florida-based non-profit organization, to support Wikipedia and its younger sibling projects. Wales has become increasingly involved with promoting and speaking about its projects, and to this end, he travels to conferences and Wikimedia functions, such as “Wikimeets” and Wikimania.
Inspired by the success of Wikipedia, Wales has founded the for-profit company Wikia, Inc. (separate from Wikimedia), which hosts various wikis and manages the Wikia project[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]In his presentations Jimmy discusses the philosophical underpinnings of Wikipedia, his support for the Free Culture movement, and the difficulties the Wikimedia Foundation may confront as it grows in size.[/expand]
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The World Renowned Interviewer

Sir David Frost is probably the world’s most prominent television interviewer.

In addition to hosting and creating television programmes, he is a publisher, lecturer, impresario and chief executive officer to numerous companies.

Landmark interviews have always featured in his remarkable career. Perhaps the most infamous being the Nixon Interviews, broadcast in virtually every television nation around the world.

“One-man conglomerate.”

[expand title=”In detail”] His honours include two Emmy Awards in the United States, the Richard Dimbleby Award in the UK and the Golden Rose of Montreux.

Host and co-creator of That Was The Week That Was, Breakfast with Frost, Frost on Sunday and Through the Keyhole, Sir David has also produced countless television series, written more than ten books, produced seven films, and is joint founder of both London Weekend Television and TV-am. [/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]The unparalleled pairing of his experience of worldwide affairs with his incisive but relaxed manner brings an undisputed edge to any occasion. [/expand]
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Former Formula 1 World Champion

Damon Hill is a British former racing driver from England. He was the 1996 Formula One World Champion and is the son of the late double Formula One world champion Graham Hill, and is the only son of a world champion to win the title. He retired from the sport at the end of the 1999 season, after 122 race starts. In 2006, Damon Hill became president of the British Racing Drivers’ Club, succeeding Jackie Stewart.

“A living F1 legend”

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Co-author, Blue Ocean Strategy, Distinguished Fellow and Professor, INSEAD

Renée Mauborgne is a leading authority on value innovation and wealth creation. She is professor of strategy and management at INSEAD and is also codirector of the INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute. Blue Ocean Strategy argues that tomorrow’s leading companies will succeed not by battling competitors, but by creating “blue oceans” of uncontested market space ripe for growth. Such strategic moves, termed value innovation, create powerful leaps in value for both the firm and its buyers, rendering rivals obsolete and unleashing new demand. Renée co-founded the Blue Ocean Strategy Network, a global community of practice on the Blue Ocean Strategy family of concepts that they created.

She stimulates creative thinking at an intellectual level with great ease.

Renée Mauborgne has been ranked among the top 50 most influential business thinkers. In 2009 Thinkers 50, the global ranking of management gurus, placed her among the list of most influential thinkers.

[expand title=”In detail”] Renée received the Nobels Colloquia Prize for Leadership on Business and Economic Thinking 2008 and is the winner of the Eldridge Haynes Prize, awarded by the Academy of International Business and the Eldridge Haynes Memorial Trust of Business International. She is the winner of Prix des Dirigeants Commerciaux de France 2009 in the category of Stratégie d?entreprise. Thinkers 50, the global ranking of management gurus, places Renee among the top five most influential thinkers in 2009. She was also selected as the highest placed woman ever on Thinkers 50. [/expand]

[expand title=”What she offers you”]Renée Mauborgne is a preeminent thought leader on business strategy, innovation and wealth creation in the knowledge economy. With Blue Ocean Strategy, Renée brings business audiences a genuinely important breakthrough in strategic business thinking, which is changing the business lexicon across the globe. Taking the ever-changing global picture, she conveys the impact that it is having, and will have, on your organisation. As competition is redefined by technology and economic factors she looks at the implications for cost and sustainability. [/expand]

[expand title=”How she presents”]Renée is a very impressive presenter-engaging, energetic and intelligent, with substantive material that can significantly impact your organisation’s performance. Candid and affable, she delivers her message with great clarity and relevance to your own situation. [/expand]
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Global Energy Economist

Philip K. Verleger Jr. is the President of PKVerleger LLC and senior advisor to The Brattle Group. He has been associated with the Fred Bergsten Institute since 1986 and is a senior fellow. He has held positions at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, the U.S. Treasury, the Institute for International Economics, Yale University, the University of California, and various firms in the private sector. He is a member of the National Petroleum Council and the Council of Foreign Relations.

“The leading specialist in the study of energy commodity markets.”

[expand title=”In detail”] The author of over 100 articles and books on energy economics, Dr. Verleger has testified frequently as an expert witness for parties in private disputes and as an independent authority to the U.S. Congress. His testimony before Congress has addressed regulation, taxation, the behaviour of markets, and most recently, mergers. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1971.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]Adept at both the podium and with the pen, Philip, the author of numerous studies on international energy and petroleum issues, brings his experience and analytical prowess to bear on the conventional economic wisdom, reaching insightful conclusion others simply can’t.[/expand]
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Director at Cambridge Energy Research Associates in Paris

Jean-Marie Chevalier is currently professor of Economics at the University of Paris-Dauphine, Director of the ‘Centre de Géopolitique de l’Energie et des Matières Premières’. He is also a Director at CERA. He has worked, as an economist for Elf Aquitaine and the energy department of the World Bank. For several years, he was a member of the board of directors of the Banque Nationale de Paris.

The world’s leading expert on current global energy trends
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Expert on Energy and the Environment

Claudia Kemfert is Head of the department Energy, Transportation, Environment at the German Institute of Economic Research (DIW Berlin) and Professor of Energy Economics at Humboldt University, Berlin. She advises EU president José Manuel Barroso as a member of the High Level Group on Energy and she is an external advisor for the World Bank, the United Nations and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

“Germany’s leading exponent of green economic policies”

[expand title=”In detail”] Prof. Kemfert was awarded from DAAD and was honoured in 2006 as top German Scientist from the German research foundation (“Elf der Wissenschaft 2006”). She is a member of renowned expert commissions, sustainability advisory councils and is a member of the editorial board of Energy Economics, Gaia and Energy Efficiency. Her research activities concentrate on the evaluation of climate and energy policy strategies.[/expand]

[expand title=”What she offers you”]With a wealth of unparalleled expertise in the social and economic effects of climate change, Claudia Kemfert offers organisations the necessary tools to expand without adversely affecting the environment. She shows decision makers how it is possible to achieve sustained growth and profits whilst simultaneously implementing “greener” business policies[/expand]
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