The Leading Speakers Bureau

INSEAD Chaired Professor of Strategy, INSEAD & Chief Advisor, China India Institute

Prof. Anil K. Gupta is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading experts on strategy and globalisation. He is currently the Professor of Strategy and Organization as well as Research Director at the Center for International Business Education & Research at The University of Maryland. He also serves as chief advisor to The China India Institute, a Washington DC-based research and consulting organization.

“One of the Top 20 North American Superstars for research in strategy and organization” Management International Review

[expand title=”In detail”] Prof. Gupta received a doctorate from Harvard Business School and an M.B.A. from the Indian Institute of Management. He has served as a visiting professor at Stanford University, Dartmouth College, Bocconi Business School (Italy), Helsinki University of Technology (Finland), and IPMI (Indonesia).

The recipient of numerous awards for excellence in research and teaching, Prof. Gupta has been recognized by Business Week as an Outstanding Professor in its Guide to the Best Business Schools and inducted into the Academy of Management Journals’ Hall of Fame. He is frequently quoted by the media in the U.S., China, India and Europe.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]Prof. Gupta outlines how companies can leverage the market and the resource opportunities presented by the China and India phenomenon to achieve global dominance within their particular industries. He also talks about the key questions that business leaders must address in order to develop winning strategies to go global and to transform global presence into global advantage. He offers conceptual frameworks that business leaders can use to answer these questions.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]Anil Gupta’s candid presentations on the global perspective and the realities of China and India are highly captivating, insightful and thought-provoking.[/expand]
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Chair Professor of Communication Technology & Society

Manuel Castells is Professor of Communication and the holder of the Wallis Annenberg Chair in Communication Technology and Society at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California. He is a Research Professor at the Open University of Catalonia in Barcelona and Professor Emeritus of Sociology and of City and Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley. He is currently the co-editor of the International Journal of Communication.

“Governments can no longer govern; they can only negotiate”

[expand title=”In detail”] Between 1967 and 1979 he was associate professor of sociology at the School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences at the University of Paris. In 1979 he was appointed Professor of City and Regional Planning and of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. He has lectured in over 300 academic institutions in 46 countries and is the author of 22 academic books and editor or co-author of 21 additional books, as well as over 100 articles in academic journals. He has been knighted for scientific merit by the Governments of France (Order of Arts and Letters), Finland (Order of the Lion of Finland), Chile (Order of Gabriela Mistral), Portugal (Order of Santiago da Espada), and Catalonia (Cross of Saint George).[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]A pro-bono advisor to the governments of Chile, Portugal, Spain, Mexico, Ecuador, Nicaragua, China, Brazil, Russia, Finland, and South Africa, Manuel Castells is the most influential urban theorist of our time and has revolutionized modern thought on the processes of advanced capitalism and the generation of inequality. His forward thinking views reflect the panoramic breadth of his knowledge, the clarity of his approach, and the scholarly rigor and intellectual depth of his theoretical methods. [/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]Manuel is a brilliant speaker who brings great depth to his immaculately researched presentations in which he skillfully demonstrates his analytical prowess.[/expand]
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Chairman & Former CEO of Xerox Corporation

Anne M. Mulcahy is credited with leading the printer and copier maker out of a deep financial slump earlier in the decade. From 2001 to 2009, she was also CEO and retains the position of chairman. The Wall Street Journal named her one of 50 women to watch in 2005 and Forbes Magazine ranked her at the sixth position among the Most Powerful Women in America in 2005. In 2008, she was selected by U.S. News & World Report as one of America’s Best Leaders. She has been selected as CEO of the Year 2008 by Chief Executive magazine.

“One of America’s Best & Courageous Leaders”

[expand title=”In detail”] Anne M. Mulcahy earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English / Journalism from Marymount College in Tarrytown, N.Y. In addition to the Xerox board, she is a board director of Catalyst, Citigroup Inc., Fuji Xerox Company, Ltd., Target Corporation, The Washington Post Company, and is the chairman of the corporate governance task force of the Business Roundtable. She began her Xerox career as a field sales representative in 1976 and became chief staff officer in 1997 and corporate senior vice president in 1998. Prior to that, she served as vice president and staff officer for Customer Operations, covering South America and Central America, Europe, Asia and Africa, and China.[/expand]

[expand title=”What she offers you”]Anne Mulcahy provides worldwide audiences with her story of how she successfully led a multibillion-dollar turnaround of Xerox and transformed the business into an innovative digital technology and services enterprise. Central to her strategy is the investment in R&D through good times and bad. She is a superb motivator who can push people to step up their game without demoralizing them in the process. [/expand]

[expand title=”How she presents”]Anne Mulcahy is a tremendous communicator and a skilled negotiator having persuaded a full 98 of the 100 top executives to stay during the dark periods of the turnaround, and the bulk of them are still with the company today.[/expand]
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Editor in Chief of MoneyWeek Magazine

Merryn Somerset Webb is the Editor in Chief of the respected weekly financial magazine MoneyWeek. As well as editing Moneyweek she now has regular columns in the Sunday Times, the Spectator and Saga Magazine and has written for a variety of other publications including Harpers and The Week. Merryn is also a frequent radio and television commentator on everything to do with money.

“Make your money and buy your freedom”

[expand title=”In detail”] In 1992 Merryn moved to Japan to continue her Japanese studies and to produce business programmes for NHK, Japan’s public TV station. In 1993 she became an institutional broker for SBC Warburg, where she stayed for 5 years. Returning to the UK in 1998, Merryn became a financial writer for The Week. Two years later, in 2000, MoneyWeek was launched and Merryn took the job of editor. She became Editor-in-chief in November 2008.[/expand]

[expand title=”What she offers you”]Combining years of financial expertise with a healthy dose of scepticism and an easy sense of humour, Merryn provides insights into the UK and current global economic outlook and also the bigger issues which affect financial markets.[/expand]

[expand title=”How she presents”]Merryn’s presentations are delivered in an articulate and relaxed manner. Merryn is an ideal speaker to address a wide range of audiences.

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Professor of Investment Banking at Harvard Business School

Dr. Josh Lerner recently led an international team of scholars in a study of the economic impact of private equity for the World Economic Forum. He founded, raised funding for and organizes two groups at the National Bureau of Economic Research: Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy and the Economy. He is a member of a number of other NBER groups and serves as co-editor of their publication, Innovation Policy and the Economy. At Harvard, his research focuses on the structure and the role of private equity organizations.

“Renowned Harvard Business School professor”

[expand title=”In detail”] Josh Lerner graduated from Yale College with a Special Divisional Major which combined physics with the history of technology. He worked for several years on issues concerning technological innovation and public policy, at the Brookings Institution, for a public-private task force in Chicago, and on Capitol Hill. He then earned a Ph.D. from Harvard’s Economics Department. In the 1993-94 academic year, he introduced an elective MBA course on private equity and venture capital that has consistently been one of the largest elective courses at HBS. [/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]An advisor to a select group of private equity funds and major institutional investors, Josh Lerner helps his global audiences identify and respond to key trends in the private equity industry. He also examines the impact of intellectual property protection, particularly patents, on the competitive strategies of firms in high-technology industries. He presents at conferences and meetings organized by numerous accounting firms, investment banks, intellectual property trade associations, law firms, other intermediaries, private equity groups, publications and national venture capital and private equity associations.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]With a warm and genuine style, Josh Lerner skilfully does away with some of the myths surrounding private equity in his highly informative presentations.[/expand]
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Leading Authority on Business Strategy and Professor of Management

Professor Henry Mintzberg is Professor of Management at McGill University in Montreal, Canada and a Visiting Scholar at INSEAD in Fontainbleau, France. His entire career has focused on understanding how big business make decisions. In 2009 and 2007 Thinkers 50, the global ranking of management gurus, placed him among the list of most influential thinkers.

“Management is where art and craft and science meet”

[expand title=”In detail”] Henry Mintzberg holds a Ph.D. from the Sloan School of Management, M.I.T., where he studied Policy, Organisational Studies, Information and Control Systems and Political Science. During his career Henry Mintzberg has written and published numerous articles (i.e. in Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, California Management Review), monographs, reviews and books.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]Henry Mintzberg’s interests focus on issues of General Management and Organisation, including the process of strategy formation, the design of Organisations as well as the impact of design on Organisations and the roles of intuition, insight and inspiration in a world of “thin” Management. It is not about empowerment; it assumes that you are already empowered and engaged too. It goes beyond, enabling you to improve yourself, your team, and your organization.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]Henry Mintzberg’s presentations provide the opportunity to enhance managerial and leadership skills.[/expand]
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Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development, Harvard Business School

Rakesh Khurana teaches a doctoral seminar on Management and Markets as well as The Board of Directors and Corporate Governance in the Harvard MBA program. Rakesh’s current research grows out of the same interests in the social context of business leadership and the allocation of leadership positions that motivated his research on the CEO labor market.

“Expert in Leadership Development”

[expand title=”In detail”] Rakesh’s research uses a sociological perspective to focus on the processes by which elites and leaders are selected and developed. He has written extensively about the CEO labor market with a particular interest on the factors that lead to vacancies in the CEO position, the factors that affect the choice of successor; the role of market intermediaries such as executive search firms in CEO search and the consequences of CEO succession and selection decisions for subsequent firm performance and strategic choices.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]Rakesh offers businesses his knowledge of how to help improve their CEO succession, governance, and executive development practices. In 2009 Thinkers 50, the global ranking of management gurus, placed him among the list of most influential thinkers. He shares key leadership skills that delegates will be able to take away and put into practice.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]Rakesh Khurana provides fascinating researched insights into leadership and other issues with great clarity and charisma in his tailored presentations.[/expand]
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Professor of Organisational Behaviour at the London Business School

Rob Goffee is Professor of Organisational Behaviour at the London Business School, where he teaches on the world renowned Senior Executive Programme. An internationally respected teacher and facilitator, Rob is also the Faculty Director for Executive Education at London Business School. He has taught executives from some of the world’s leading companies, including Unilever, Nestlé and Sonae. He also consults to the boards of a number of FTSE 100 companies.

“A recognised authority on organizational transformation”

[expand title=”In detail”] Rob is a frequent contributor to newspapers and magazines and has appeared as a guest on many radio and television programs on business issues. In addition, he consults with a number of large corporations on organisational change, corporate culture, board governance, and management development.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]Together with Gareth Jones, Rob founded CMA, a consultancy focused on organisations where creativity is a source of competitive strength. They offer substantive analysis, vivid examples, and pragmatic solutions to managers and executives who wish to explore the company’s ‘character’ and turn that into the foundation for long-term, sustainable success. In 2009 and 2007 Thinkers 50, the global ranking of management gurus, placed him among the list of most influential thinkers.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]Presenting on his own or with Gareth Jones, Rob’s presentations are highly thought provoking and filled with extremely useful advice for any organisations wrestling with a cultural problem.[/expand]
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World’s Leading Historian of the Global Economy

Niall Ferguson is widely acknowledged as the world’s leading historian of the global economy. He is a prolific commentator on contemporary politics and economics and a regular contributor to television and radio on both sides of the Atlantic. He is also a contributing editor for the Financial Times. In 2010 Niall takes up the chair in History and International Affairs at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

“the most talented British historian of his generation”

[expand title=”In detail”] Niall Ferguson is Professor of History at Harvard University and Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. In 2009 the London School of Economics appointed Niall to chair History and International Affairs. For a documentary series based on his book ‘The Ascent of Money’, Niall received the International Emmy for Best Documentary. He is currently researching the life and times of Henry Kissinger for a new book.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]Named as one of the world’s hundred most influential people by Time magazine, Niall believes that money is the cornerstone of human progress but can also be the catalyst for catastrophe for individuals, companies and nations. Through his in-depth analysis and research into historical events as well as current economical and political trends, he offers invaluable advice for leading businesses world wide.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]An experienced television and radio presenter, Niall Ferguson is an accomplished and dynamic speaker. His thought-provoking presentations are delivered with the perfect balance of wit and analytical clarity to challenge conventional thinking.[/expand]
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International Entrepreneur and Businessman

Sir Richard Branson is the eccentric and outspoken chairman of Virgin Atlantic Airways and Chairman of the Virgin Group. An experienced daredevil, Branson has raced powerboats across the ocean and has set distance records in hot air balloons. His unconventional style of living is only a part of his undeniable knack for beating impossible odds in business and in life. In his latest venture Richard Branson announced the signing of a deal under which a new space tourism company, Virgin Galactic, will license the technology behind Spaceship One to take paying passengers into suborbital space. In 2009 Thinkers 50, the global ranking of management gurus, placed him among the top ten most influential thinkers.

“Richard Branson has got the Midas Touch”

[expand title=”In detail”] Richard Branson received his education at Stowe School, where he established a national magazine entitled Student at the age of sixteen. He started a Student Advisory Centre at 17, aiming to help young people. At twenty years old, he founded Virgin as a mail order record retailer and a short while later; he opened a record shop in Oxford Street, London. In 1972, a recording studio was built in Oxfordshire where the first Virgin artist, Mike Oldfield, recorded “Tubular Bells”, later released in 1973.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]In his presentations Richard Branson talks about his business philosophies as a “transformational leader” with his unique business strategies. He stresses that the Virgin Group is an organization driven on informality and information, one that is bottom-heavy rather than strangled by top-level management.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]A charismatic and charming individual, Richard Branson talks candidly about his business ventures and the leadership skills which have made him into a truly global player.[/expand]
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