Speakers
Browse through our catalogue of distinguished academic speakers who have influenced and advised governments, public and private sector organisations, c-suite executives, and curious minds from all walks of life.
All Academic Speakers
Nick Couldry
Nick Couldry is a sociologist of media and culture whose research has increasingly focused on the implications of Big Data, AI and digital platforms for the sorts of societies in which we can live. He has led funded empirical research into media consumption and public engagement (the ESRC-funded ‘Public Connection’ project (2003-2006), digital storytelling (the EPSRC funded Storycircle project, 2020-2013) and ‘the price of connection’ (Chicago University/Templeton Foundation, 2016-17).
In the past decade his work has principally turned to social theory, and he has been called ‘probably the world’s preeminent social theorist of the media’ [from a publisher review]. Professor Couldry’s earlier work focussed on media audiences, citizens’ possibilities of political engagement, and their possibilities for voice. Over the past decade, he has turned to the implications of data extraction on power relations and the organisation of social life, being particularly associated with the framework of data colonialism, developed since 2016 with the Mexican/US writer Ulises Mejias.
His latest book is Data Grab: The New Colonialism of Big Tech and How to Fight Back, co-authored with Ulises Mejias (Penguin/W. H. Allen February 2024, published in the US with Chicago University Press, whose German publication was published in May by Fischer). His next solo book will be The Space of the World: Can Human Solidarity Survive Social Media and What if it Can’t? (Polity, October 2024). Future writing will focus on the impacts of AI on human beings’ conception of their own rationality. The Space of the World and two future books will form a trilogy under the name Humanising the Future for Polity Press.
Professor Couldry has been awarded honorary doctorates by Sodertorn University (Sweden) and Tampere University (Finland), and has been a Visiting Professor at MIT, Roskilde University, University of Technology Sydney, Stockholm University and Sodertorn University. Since 2017 he has been a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University.
Professor Couldry has given over 70 keynotes and major public lectures (in 25 countries), and over 200 other talks and lectures. He was elected a Fellow of the International Communication Association in 2017. He is the author or editor of 16 books and over 75 journal articles.
Credit background photo: By republic GmbH
- Big data
- AI
- Platform power
- Polarisation
- Social media
- Voice
- Media and data ethics
- Sociology of culture
Ayça Çubukçu
Ayça Çubukçu is an author, academic, and editor based in London. In her scholarship, she has explored the themes of humanity, violence, internationalism, racism, and solidarity, and has written on legal and political theory. After leaving Turkey at the age of 17, she was educated in the United States and began teaching at Columbia and Harvard universities. Ayça currently co-directs the human rights programme at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology.
Ayça’s writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Guardian, Al Jazeera, Jadaliyya, Thesis 11, Law & Critique, London Review of International Law and other academic publications. Some of her work has been translated into Portuguese, Italian, and Turkish.
Ayca has lectured widely in North America and Europe, and has appeared in BBC’s Newsnight programme and other BBC productions. She has also served as an editor for a number of publications, including The Cobbler, Jadaliyya, Humanity Journal, and the LSE International Studies Series at Cambridge University Press.
- Human rights
- Internationalism
- Political violence
- Social movements
- Solidarity
Fawaz Gerges
Professor Fawaz A. Gerges is a Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science where he also holds the Chair in Contemporary Middle Eastern Studies. He was the LSE’s inaugural Director of the Middle East Centre from 2010 until 2013. He earned a doctorate from Oxford University and M.Sc. from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has taught at Oxford, Harvard, and Columbia, and was a research scholar at Princeton and chairholder at Sarah Lawrence College, New York. He has been the recipient of a MacArthur, Fullbright and Carnegie Fellowships and his books have been translated into a number of foreign languages.
His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Christian Science Monitor, International Herald Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, The Guardian, The Independent, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Newsweek, Middle East Journal, Survival, and many others.
Gerges has given hundreds of TV and radio interviews for top talk and news shows and programmes on various media outlets throughout the world, including BBC, Sky, CNN, ABC, PBS, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, NPR, CBC, and Aljazeera. He speaks on topics relating to the international relations of the Middle East, the political economy of the Middle East, oil, religion and political authoritarianism, risk analysis, Islam and the political process, mainstream Islamist movements and jihadist groups (like the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda, and ISIS); Arab politics and Muslim politics in the 20th century, state and society in the region, the Arab-Israeli conflict, American foreign policy towards the Muslim world, the modern history of the Middle East, history of conflict, diplomacy and foreign policy, and historical sociology.
- Islam and the political process
- Islamist movements and jihadist groups
- The Arab-Israeli conflict
- State and society in the Middle East
- Political risk in the Middle East
- Foreign policies of Middle Eastern States
- America and the Muslim world
- Oil, religion and politics
Elizabeth Robinson
Professor Elizabeth Robinson is Director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at LSE. She is an environmental economist with over twenty-five years’ experience addressing the design of policies and institutions to reduce climate change emissions, protect the environment, and improve the livelihoods of resource-dependent communities, particularly in lower-income countries, including six while living in Tanzania and Ghana. Her recent focus includes climate change and systemic risk; and tracking the co-benefits of climate change mitigation and health, oriented particularly around food security and food systems. From 2004-09 she was coordinating lead author for the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development, sub-Saharan Africa; and a Member of the global and sub-Saharan Africa design teams. She was on the UK Defra Economic Advisory Panel for five years; and in 2019-20, Specialist Advisor to the UK House of Lords Select Committee on Food, Poverty, Health, and Environment. She is Working Group 1 lead for the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, that addresses climate change impacts, exposures, and vulnerability.
Before joining the Grantham Research Institute, Elizabeth worked at the University of Reading for ten years, and prior to that she has variously worked at the Boston Consulting Group, the World Bank, Rockefeller Foundation, Natural Resources Institute, and as a tutorial fellow in economics at the University of Oxford. In 1990 she was awarded the top first-class degree in Engineering, Economics, and Management, from Oxford University, during which time she was also a varsity athlete (track and field), varsity lightweight rower, and captain of the gymnastics varsity team. She has a PhD in Applied Economics from Stanford University, and received the Outstanding PhD Dissertation Honorable Mention from the American Agricultural Economics Association for the second best agricultural economics dissertation in the US, 1997.
Professor Robinson is a highly sought-after speaker. Within academic circles she has, for example, been invited keynote speaker at the 2022 Australasian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society annual conference; the 2021 African Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (AFAERE) Inaugural Conference; keynote speaker at the 2020 and 2021 Malaysia Launches of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, and the Norway 2019 launch; delivered the 2019 University of Reading Public Lecture, titled Turning up the heat on climate change; keynote speaker at the 2018 Deforestation and Energy Access conference, Essen, Germany; invited panellist at the first "Ocean Risk Summit" Bermuda, in 2018; invited Plenary Speaker for the 2011 Environment for Development Policy Day, Arusha, Tanzania. She has spoken at broad range of other events, including multiple school visits; the annual Legal Geek conference; addressing the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Nutrition for Growth, annual general meeting; CSER Sustainable Finance Global Systemic Risks and Universal Ownership Summit; amongst many others. In the media she has been widely quoted in the New Scientist, the Guardian, the Independent, the Daily Mail, and many other news outlets. She has appeared on BBC News at Six, BBC News at Ten, BBC News 24, Sky News, Al Jazeera Inside Story, and has been heard many times on, for example, BBC Radio 4 including Farming Today and The World Tonight, Times Radio, and BBC regional radio stations around the country.
- Climate change
- Health
- Food security
Daniel Ferreira
Daniel Ferreira is Professor of Finance at LSE and a European Corporate Governance Institute Fellow. He is known for his work on corporate governance, especially on the workings of corporate boards, having written several influential articles on the topic. He is also an expert on the economics of blockchain, crypto, and decentralised finance.
His academic work is relevant to policy and has had a significant media impact, being covered by The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, and The Economist, amongst others. He has also offered expert advice to businesses, governments, and organisations, including the UK House of Commons, HM Treasury, the European Commission, the Bank of England, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and Norges Bank Investment Management.
He is an experienced executive educator, having taught courses for executives at LSE and London Business School. Daniel is an expert in diversity issues in business and finance. He co-authored one of the most influential articles on women on corporate boards. He was an expert witness for the UK Treasury Select Committee inquiry on Women in the City.
Daniel has been at LSE since 2006, initially in the Department of Management and then in the Department of Finance, where he served as Head in 2020 – 2023. His previous academic positions were at Nova SBE (Lisbon), Stockholm School of Economics, and EPGE-FGV (Rio de Janeiro). He has a PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago.
- Blockchain
- Cryptocurrencies
- Decentralised finance
- Web3
- Corporate boards
- Corporate governance
- Women on boards
- Diversity in business and finance
Lauren Sukin
Dr Lauren Sukin is an Assistant Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Her research examines issues of international security, focusing particularly on nuclear weapons and US alliances. Her broader research agenda also explores the dynamics of crisis politics, cyber security, and competition in the Indo-Pacific region.
Dr Sukin is a Centre Affiliate at LSE's United States Centre, an Affiliate at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, a Faculty Fellow at Charles University’s Peace Research Center Prague, a Nonresident Scholar in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and an International Strategy Forum Fellowat Schmidt Futures.
Dr Sukin’s research has been published in top academic journals, such as Journal of Conflict Resolution, International Interactions, and Security Studies, among others. She has published commentary in outlets such as Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Washington Post, and War on the Rocks, among others.
She regularly provides talks and briefings for international organisations, militaries, government agencies, think-tanks, universities, and more.
- Foreign Policy
- Emerging Technology
- Nuclear Weapons
- Alliances
- International Security
- Public Opinion
- War
- Nuclear Energy
- Cybersecurity
- Energy Security
- East Asia
- International Law
- Europe
- US-China Relations
Alex Voorhoeve
Alex Voorhoeve is Professor and Head of Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method at LSE. He studied economics and philosophy at Erasmus University, Cambridge University, and UCL. He joined the LSE in 2004 and has worked here ever since, while holding visiting positions at Harvard (2008-09), Princeton (2012-13), the National Institutes of Health, U.S. (2016-17) and Erasmus University Rotterdam (2017-21). He has also taught guest courses at Addis Ababa University and Tsinghua University. He works on the theory and practice of distributive justice (especially as it relates to health), on decision theory, moral psychology and the Ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus' view of the good life. His current teaching is in philosophy and public policy and PPE (philosophy, politics and economics).
His work is published in the best journals in moral and political philosophy (including Ethics; Philosophy & Public Affairs; and the Journal of Political Philosophy), in decision theory (including the Journal of Risk and Uncertainty; and Theory and Decision); and health policy (including the Lancet and Nature Medicine).
Professor Voorhoeve has substantial practical experience, serving as a non-executive Director (member of Council) of the LSE 2018-2021 and as a consultant for the World Health Organization. He has contributed to several influential policy reports for the World Health Organization, the World Bank, and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and has been an invited speaker to high profile non-academic conferences and events, including the European Commission, the Netherlands' Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization, the Pan-American Health Organization, and the World Bank.
- Distributive justice
- Ethics
- Priority setting in health
- Public participation
- Fairness
- Epicureanism
Tony Travers
Tony Travers is Associate Dean of the School of Public Policy at the London School of Economics. He is also a professor in the LSE’s Department of Government.
In 2012-13 and again in 2016-17, he chaired the London Finance Commission and was a member of the City Growth Commission and also the Independent Commission on Local Government Finance in Wales. He co-chaired the King’s Commission on London. He is an advisor to the House of Commons Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee.
He has published books and book chapters on local government, devolution, cities and London.
- Cities
- British government
- Politics
- Elections
- London
- Devolution
Thomas Curran
Dr Thomas Curran is the world's leading expert on perfectionism, author of the best-selling book The Perfection Trap, and acclaimed Associate Professor of Psychology at The London School of Economics and Political Science.
His TED Talk on perfectionism received over three million views, he has written for major international publications such as TIME magazine and the Harvard Business Review, and his work has been featured in the BBC, New Scientist, New York Times, CNN, and Wall Street Journal.
Through extensive research, public speaking, consulting services, and academic instruction, Dr. Curran is not just participating in but leading the global conversation on perfectionism. His mission is clear: to uncover the root of perfectionism, its effects on us, the reasons for its rise, and most importantly, what we can do to stop it.
As a self-proclaimed perfectionist, Dr Thomas Curran challenges the modern-day imperative to do more and have more and instead offers realism, teaching us that the unrelenting treadmill of perfectionism is exhausting, compromising our mental health, impacting our relationships, and blocking progress toward our goals.
- Perfectionism
- Burnout
- Performance
- Productivity
- Mental health
- Social psychology
Podcast: Escaping Perfectionism with Thomas Curran | Everyday Better with Leah Smart (June 2024)
Podcast: Escaping Perfectionism | Hidden Brain (October 2023)
Article: Perfectionists Need to Embrace Failure | TIME (August 2023)
Podcast: Breaking Up with Perfectionism | WorkLife with Adam Grant (May 2022)
Sir Tim Besley
Tim Besley is School Professor of Economics and Political Science and Sir W. Arthur Lewis Professor of Development Economics at LSE. From September 2006 to August 2009, he served as an external member of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee and is currently a member of the UK National Infrastructure Commission and the UK Government’s Levelling Up Advisory Council. He currently also serves on the IMF-World Bank High Level Advisory Group on Sustainable and Inclusive Development. He is a past chair of the LSE Growth Commission which explored how the UK economy could respond to to the Financial Crisis and Brexit. He was also the co-found and joint academic Director of the Oxford-LSE Fragile States Commission chaired by David Cameron.
Besley is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and the British Academy as well as a foreign honorary member of the American Economic Association and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is past President of the Royal Economic Society, European Economic Association, International Economic Association and the Econometric Society.
His main research interests are in the understanding of how institutions shape how the economy works with a particular interest in political economy. His research has stressed the importance of building state capacities as a means of improving economic policy making. The work cuts across traditional debates about the size of government and stresses what government can do well and the means of ensuring that this happens. He puts these academic ideas to work in his policy engagement roles. His current interests include drawing lessons from the pandemic response and considering how policy making can be made more effective to fight climate change.
- Economic policy
- Political science
- Development economics
- Political economy
- Climate change
- Public economics
Sara Evans-Lacko
Sara’s research has focused on key issues of importance in mental health using interdisciplinary methods integrating insights from public health, psychiatry and economics. Her research aims to improve access to care and support for young people with mental illness and to reduce the stigma associated with these conditions to positively impact their long-term mental health and socio-economic outcomes.
Her current research address this issue in a variety of ways. She uses longitudinal data to estimate the social and economic consequences of mental health problems over the life course. These findings can help identify key time points for intervention and investment. She uses this evidence to inform how public policy can be better shaped to address the many personal, social and economic challenges posed by mental illnesses, across the life-course and throughout a range of contexts and high-, medium- and low-income settings. Sara also develops and evaluates interventions to improve access to care and support. She is interested in leading new and diverse ways to deliver and implement tailored evidence-based interventions which improve the mental health of low-income youth and to disrupt the dynamic between mental health and poverty which generates and reproduces inequalities over the lifespan.
The issue of translating research findings so that the evidence produced is useful to governments, practitioners, people with mental health conditions and their families is of great importance. Sara works together closely with relevant stakeholders throughout her research to promote knowledge exchange and to consider potential facilitators and barriers to implementation. The findings from her work have made impacts from the individual and local to the global level. At the global level, she has advised on national and state mental health plans and her work has been cited in key government reports in Brazil, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Mexico and the UK and by international organizations such as the World Health Organization. She is regularly invited to give keynote talks at international meetings including for example, the European Psychiatric Association, World Psychiatric Association, Royal College of Psychiatry. She has also been invited to deliver talks at high level policy meetings such as the US National Academy of Sciences / Institute of Medicine and Commonwealth Fund. She has also participated in public debates and roundtables. Sara has a PhD in Health Policy and Management, from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
- Mental health
- Stigma
- Young people
- Global
- Poverty
- Social and economic impacts
- Public health
- Mental health services
Hilary Cottam
Dr Hilary Cottam OBE is a social entrepreneur, thinker and international policy advisor. Her work uniquely combines new thinking with practice: she has created new services to support ageing, family life and health. Her acclaimed book Radical Help (published in 2018) was hailed as ‘mind-shifting’ by David Brooks in the New York Times and referenced by Andrew Marr in The New Statesman. It has been translated internationally and is widely credited with shifting national narratives and practice around welfare systems.
Her current research and practice centres on the future of work and on new care economies. Hilary is an Honorary Professor at the Institute of Innovation and Public Purpose at UCL. She was named UK Designer of the Year in 2005 for pioneering the field of social design. She has also been given the 'most creative person' status by Fast Company in recognition of the global impact of her work and was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
Her previous speaking engagements include TED, regular appearances at the World Economic Forum in Davos and international literature festivals. Regular engagements also include mainstream media appearances, academic conferences, lectures and corporate events.
- Ageing and family support
- Care
- Future of work
- Health
- Public policy
- Radical care
- Social care
- Social design
- Social entrepreneurship
- Social innovation
- Social systems
- Social welfare systems
- Welfare state
- Welfare systems
- Work organisation
Simon Dietz
Simon Dietz is an environmental economist with particular interests in climate change and sustainability. He has published research on a wide range of issues, including decision-making under uncertainty, equity within and between generations, the links between economic growth and the environment, and corporate sustainability. He also works with governments, businesses and NGOs on topics of shared interest, such as carbon pricing, institutional investment, and insurance.
Simon is based at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He was appointed to the faculty in 2006, as a Lecturer (nowadays called an Assistant Professor) in the Department of Geography and Environment. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in 2011, and full Professor in 2015. He is also Research Director of the Transition Pathway Initiative Global Climate Transition Centre, co-editor of the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, a member of the Council of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (and former Vice President), a CESifo Research Network Fellow, a Food Systems Economics Commissioner, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. In 2018 he became the first recipient of the new European Award for Researchers in Environmental Economics under the Age of Forty, “a recognition given every year to the environmental economist under the age of forty who is judged to have made the most significant contribution to environmental economic thought and knowledge.”
- Climate change
- Sustainability
- Corporate sustainability
- Climate finance
- Insurance
- Environmental economics
- Economic modelling
Iain Begg
Iain Begg is a Professorial Research Fellow at the European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science. He is an economist and his main research work is on the political economy of European integration and EU economic governance. He has directed and participated in a series of projects on different facets of EU policy, including work on EU and national fiscal frameworks and the EU budget.
He has undertaken a number of advisory roles, and has acted as an expert witness or specialist adviser on EU issues for the House of Commons Treasury Committee, the House of Lords European Communities Committee, and the European Parliament. He is currently a member of the Research Review Group of the International Labour Office (Geneva).
Iain Begg has broad experience as a speaker to a wide range of audiences, including business groups, visiting delegations, public institutions and academic conferences, and has given many keynote talks. Most of his speaking engagements have been to English speaking audiences, but he is fluent in French and has given occasional talks in that language. He is frequently solicited by international media, both broadcast and print, and is interviewed several times a month.
- Economic policy in Europe
- The governance of the euro
- Consequences of Brexit
- UK-EU economic relations
- EU budget and finances
- Challenges facing monetary policy in Europe
- Fiscal frameworks
- The development of 'social Europe'
Philipp Rode
Dr Philipp Rode is Executive Director of LSE Cities and Associate Professorial Lecturer at the School of Public Policy. He is Co-Director of the LSE Executive MSc in Cities and Visiting Professor at University of St Gallen’s Institute for Mobility. Dr Rode has been leading interdisciplinary programmes in urban development and transport, sustainable urbanism and climate change, and city policy and governance at LSE since 2003. Across his work, he is interested in multi-dimensional aspects of global urbanisation, sustainability and urban change.
The focus of Dr Rode’s current research is on government systems, integrated policy-making and emergency governance in cities, and on sustainable urban development, transport transitions and new urban mobility. Dr Rode is co-founder of the Urban Age Programme and LSE lead for the Emergency Governance Initiative for Cities and Regions. Between 2016 and 2021, he served as Steering Committee Member of the Coalition for Urban Transitions led by the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group and the World Resources Institute. He co-led the UN Habitat III Policy Unit on Urban Governance which informed the UN’s New Urban Agenda (2016) and co-directed the cities workstream of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate in the run-up to the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference in Paris.
His current and past work with public, private and third sector organisations further includes OECD, UNDP, UNEP, ICLEI, UCLG, Metropolis, GIZ, European Environment Agency, National Ministries in the UK, Germany, India, Ethiopia, Colombia, Chile, Peru, France and the Netherlands alongside over 50 city and metropolitan governments from across the world. Rode is a Member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) and a Member of the Science of Cities Knowledge Council of the World Cities Summit.
- Cities
- Urbanism
- Climate Change
- Sustainability
- Urban Mobility
- Technology
- Urban Governance and Policy
Michael Muthukrishna
Michael Muthukrishna is Associate Professor of Economic Psychology, STICERD Developmental Economics Group Affiliate, Data Science Institute Affiliate, and founder of Culturalytik at the London School of Economics. Dr Muthukrishna has won several awards for his research, which integrates a variety of topics, including innovation, corruption, and navigating diversity and cultural differences. He has been invited to speak to companies large and small around the world, governments and NGOs, and at world-leading centres of academic excellence, including Harvard, MIT, Stanford and Oxford. Audiences have included judges, policy-makers, members of the military, government officials, and key industry figures across a variety of industries.
Dr Muthukrishna makes the science of human and cultural evolution more accessible through animations, videos, documentaries, and other popular media. His research and interviews have appeared in a variety of international and national news outlets including CNN, BBC, Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Scientific American, PBS, Vice, Newsweek, New York Magazine, Nature News, and Science News, and in the UK in the Times, Telegraph, Mirror, Sun, and Guardian.
Dr Muthukrishna's research is informed by his educational background in engineering and psychology, with graduate training in evolutionary biology, economics, and statistics, and his personal background living in Sri Lanka, Botswana, Papua New Guinea, Australia, Canada, United States, and United Kingdom. His latest book A Theory of Everyone, published by MIT Press and Penguin Random House, will be released September 2023.
- Culture
- Diversity
- Innovation
- Behavioural science
- Cultural evolution
- Corruption
- Intelligence
- Cooperation
- Human performance
Connson Locke
Connson Locke joined The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 2008 where she teaches Leadership, Organisational Behaviour, and Negotiation and Decision Making.
She has over 30 years’ experience as an educator, coach, and consultant working in Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, and Australia. Prior to entering academia, she served as Regional Training and Development Manager for the Boston Consulting Group where she was responsible for the learning and development of consulting staff in 10 offices across Asia Pacific.
Connson is an experienced and engaging speaker who combines her industry background with academic training to provide practical tips that are grounded in research and evidence. She speaks on a range of topics related to leadership, culture, and gender. Examples include How to Make Your Voice Heard and Be More Influential, Cultural Dimensions of Leadership, How to Access Your Inner Power, and Navigating Turbulent Times (how to build personal resilience and agility).
Connson holds a PhD and MSc in Business Administration (Organizational Behaviour) from the University of California, Berkeley and a BA in Sociology from Harvard University where she graduated with honours. Her book, Making Your Voice Heard, uses the research on power and influence to help people speak up to those who have more power than they do.
View her personal website here.
- Leadership
- Culture
- Gender
- Resilience
- Agility
- Influence
- Power
- Voice
- Diversity
- Inclusion
Nick Robins
Nick Robins is Professor in Practice for Sustainable Finance at LSE’s Grantham Research Institute and has 30 years experience in climate and sustainability issues. At the Institute, he leads the sustainable finance research theme, focusing on mobilising investment for net zero and nature recovery through a just transition, as well as the role of central banks and supervisors in sustainable development. He is co-founder of the Financing the Just Transition Alliance and chair of the International Network for Sustainable Finance Policy Insights, Research and Exchange (INSPIRE).
Before joining LSE, Nick was co-director of UN Environment’s Inquiry into a Sustainable Finance System from 2014-2018. As part of this, Nick established the Sustainable Insurance Forum of regulators and the Financial Centres for Sustainability network. Prior to working with the UN, he was Head of the Climate Change Centre of Excellence at HSBC (2007-2014) and head of Sustainable and Responsible Investment (SRI) funds at Henderson Global Investors (2000-2007). Nick has also worked at the International Institute for Environment and Development, the European Commission and the Business Council for Sustainable Development. He is a co-founder of Carbon Tracker and Planet Tracker.
Nick speaks regularly on sustainable finance topics (including long presentations as well as chairing events). As well as speaking at many LSE events, Nick’s engagements during 2022 have included Aviva Investors, the Bank of England, Building Bridges (Geneva), Environmental Finance, the Central Bank of Chile, the Institute for International Finance, OMFIF and Schroders. Nick is also author of The Corporation that Changed the World: How the East India Company Shaped the Modern Multinational, and also gives illustrated talks on the global legacy of the East India Company.
- Climate
- Net zero
- Sustainability
- Sustainable finance
- Biodiversity
- Central banks
- Just transition
- Corporate responsibility
Stephanie Rickard
Professor Rickard is a Professor of Political Science at the London School of Economics. Her expertise lies at the intersection of politics and international economics. For over 15 years, she has researched issues related to the international political economy, including trade agreements, industrial policy and international financial rescues.
In her award-winning, Cambridge University Press book, Spending to Win, she investigates countries' economic policies and international economic relations, focusing specific attention on subsidies and industrial policy. She examines the incentives governments have to provide subsidies to business. Based on interviews with government ministers and public officials, as well as parliamentary records, and new quantitative data, she demonstrates how economic geography in combination with political institutions shapes representation and economic policy.
In addition to academic research, Professor Rickard has been engaged in policy debates, for example, in collaboration with the European Central Bank. She has also appeared in front of the House of Commons Public Bill Committee scrutinizing the UK Governments’ Subsidy Control Bill. Drawing on evidence from her book Spending to Win, she offered examples of best practice for the management of government-funded subsidies.
She also comments in the media on current events in the global economy including tariffs, industrial policy, Brexit, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization. She has been interviewed by various outlets including the BBC and Bloomberg and have appeared on BBC’s flagship Radio 4 Today program.
- Trade
- Subsidies
- State aid
- Industrial policy
- Economic geography
- WTO
- IMF
- Public procurement
- US politics
Costas Markides
Costas Markides is Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship and holds the Robert P. Bauman Chair of Strategic Leadership at the London Business School (LBS). He has been a professor at LBS since 1990 where he has served as Chairman of the Strategy Department for six years and as member of the Academic Board of Executive Education at the school for four years. He also serves on the Editorial Boards of several academic journals and served on the Board of Directors of the Strategic Management Society (SMS) for six years in 2013-2019.
A native of Cyprus, he received his BA (Distinction, 1983) and MA (1984) in Economics from Boston University, and his MBA (1985) and Doctorate (1990) from the Harvard Business School. He has published his research in top academic journals as well as top managerial journals. He has also published several books on the topics of strategy and innovation, including the best-selling books:
• All the Right Moves: A guide to Crafting Breakthrough Strategy (1999) that was shortlisted for the Igor Ansoff strategy book of the year award in 2000;
• Fast Second: How smart companies bypass radical innovation to enter and dominate new markets (2004) that was shortlisted for the 2005 Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Management book of the year award;
• Game-Changing Strategies: How to create new market space in established industries by breaking the rules (2008);
• Organizing for the New Normal: Prepare your company for the journey of continuous disruption (2021); and
• Business Model Innovation: Strategic and Organizational issues for established firms (2023).
He is currently studying how we can use the technologies of the social era as well as new and disruptive business models to solve big societal problems, such as poverty, malnutrition, inner-city crime and climate change.
- Business strategy development
- Executing Strategy
- Responding to disruption
- Developing an innovative culture
- Business model innovation
- Technological disruption
- Mobilizing the organization
Sam Friedman
Sam Friedman is Professor of Sociology at The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He is a sociologist of class and inequality, and his research focuses in particular on the cultural dimensions of contemporary class division.
Sam is an experienced speaker and has given keynotes in a diverse array of settings, including The UK Civil Service, The Bank of England, The RSA, The BBC, The FCA, KPMG, Baker McKenzie, Channel 4, Ofcom, Greenpeace, Morgan Stanley and The Edinburgh International Television Festival. He asks and answers powerful questions on social classes, divisions in society, and people’s perspectives on elitism. Outside of academia, Sam was a Commissioner at the UK Government's Social Mobility Commission between 2018-2021 and since 2021 has sat on ITV's Cultural Advisory Council.
He has published widely on social class, social mobility and elites, and is the author of The Class Ceiling: Why it Pays to be Privileged, Comedy and Distinction: The Cultural Currency of a ‘Good’ Sense of Humour, and co-author of Social Class in the 21st Century. His new book (with Professor Aaron Reeves) entitled Born to Rule: The Making and Remaking of the British Elite will be published in September 2024 with Harvard University Press. The book examines the British elite from the Victorian era to today: who gets in, how they get there, what they like and look like, where they go to school, and what politics they perpetuate.
- Social mobility
- Social class
- Elites
- Taste
- Culture
- Creative industries
- Professions
- Cultural distinction
News Feature: Vandalism of opera maybe only first shock | The Times (June 2023)
Radio Feature: The Class Ceiling | BBC Radio (April 2020)
Book: The Class Ceiling: Why it Pays to be Privileged (co-author) | Policy Press (January 2020)
Article: The class pay gap: why it pays to be privileged (co-author) | The Guardian (February 2019)
Alex Connock
Dr Alex Connock is an Oxford academic in the media business and author of the books Media Management and Artificial Intelligence: Understanding Media Business Models in the Digital Age (Routledge, 2022) and Media Management and Live Experience: Sports, Culture, Entertainment & Events (Routledge, early 2024).
Academically, Alex is Senior Fellow at Oxford University, teaching Marketing, Media Business and AI courses. He co-launched and ran Oxford postgraduate diploma in Artificial Intelligence for Business from 2021-3. and is Lecturer at St Hugh’s College, Oxford in Management. Alex is also Professor in Practice in Media and Artificial Intelligence at Exeter University. He has a PhD in video optimisation for e-commerce and degrees from Oxford (PPE) Columbia (Journalism) and INSEAD (MBA).
Entrepreneurially, Alex has created and grown multiple media companies. In late 2023, he launched AI/Media consultancy Librairie. From 2012-17, he was Managing Director of TV and digital production business Endemol Shine North (now Workerbee) through a period of substantial growth. Between 1998 and 2011, he co-founded, and ran as CEO, the media group Ten Alps (now Zinc Media) with Bob Geldof - producing hundreds of programmes for UK and international broadcasters, as well as substantial digital and branded content output, including the UK government's Teachers TV project. He has worked directly for BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and PEOPLE Magazine. He has been shortlisted as Entrepreneur of the Year six times. In the charity sector Alex is Vice Chair at UNICEF UK and a director at the The Halle Orchestra.
- Artificial Intelligence
- AI
- Generative AI
- AI & Media
- Media business
- Live media
Article: "Using AI to talk to the dead" | The New York Times (December 2023)
Article: "5 Leadership Lessons From OpenAI's Week of Drama | Forbes (December 2023)
Interview: "AI and Ethics: The Defining Point of Content Creation | IBC (November 2023)
Article: "Kritik an Fallstudien in der Managerausbildung" | Handelsblatt (November 2023)
Article: "How Apple TV+ Became the Antidote to Netflix Fatigue | Esquire (November 2023)
Article: "AI Safety Summit could provide answers on new technology" | Business Leader (October 2023)
Article: "Analysis: How the sector is making use of AI" | Broadcast (June 2023)
Article: "Microsoft’s Cloud Gaming Dreams Are Falling Apart" | WIRED (April 2023)
Article: "How AI 'revolution' is shaking up journalism" | France24 (March 2023)
Edgar Whitley
Dr Edgar Whitley is a Professor of Information Systems at The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), the co-editor of Information Technology and People, and Senior Editor for the Journal of Information Technology and the AIS Transactions of Replication Research.
Edgar's expertise lies in digital identity and privacy and data governance. He is a senior voice on the legal and ethical side of data governance and the regulation of data, having served as research co-chair for the European Conference on Information Systems in 1993, 2009 and 2021, and track co-chair for the International Conference on Information Systems in 2003 and 2011. He is currently co-chair of the Privacy and Consumer Advisory Group (PCAG) to the Government Digital Service and GOV.UK, a member of the Cabinet Office Digital Economy Act 2017 Debt and Fraud Information Sharing Review Board, the Cabinet Office Digital Economy Act 2017 Public Service Delivery Review Board, and the DCMS National Data Strategy Forum. He is also a member of the Scottish Government Digital Identity Scotland Expert Group and the Open Banking Expert Group.
Further, Edgar has advised governments in Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, India, Jamaica, Japan and Mexico about the political, technological and social challenges of effective identity policies. He has contributed to reports for the World Bank, Omidyar Network and Centre for Global Development.
Edgar was the research coordinator of the influential LSE Identity Project on the UK’s proposals to introduce biometric identity cards; proposals that were scrapped following the 2010 General Election.
His book with Gus Hosein, Global Challenges for Identity Policies, was published by Palgrave in 2010 and has provided the academic grounding for subsequent research on digital identity systems around the world.
- Digital identity
- Privacy
- Data governance
- Tech
- AI
- Global outsourcing
Carsten Sorensen
Dr Carsten Sørensen is Reader (Associate Professor) in Information Systems and Innovation within Department of Management at The London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom (http://www.carstensorensen.com/). September 11th 2001 Dr Sørensen initiated the mobility@lse research network (http://mobility.lse.ac.uk/), which aims at drawing together academics with an interest in the profound changes to society, organisations and individuals from radical mobilisation of work and interaction through mobile-, pervasive- and ubiquitous- information technology. This work has in 2011 resulted in the monograph “Enterprise Mobility: Tiny Technology with Global Impact on Work” (http://enterprisemobilitybook.com). His research is published widely, for example in MIS Quarterly, ISR, ISJ, JIT, Information & Organization, The Information Society, CSCW Journal, Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems. In 2008 he established a separate research unit studying digital infrastructure and –platform innovation (http://digitalinfrastructures.org).
Dr Sørensen holds a BSc. in mathematics, an MSc in computer science and a Ph.D. in information systems from Aalborg University, Denmark. Dr. Sørensen has the past 30 years been affiliated with a number of Danish, Swedish and British institutions as both lecturer and researcher. Dr Sørensen has extensive EU research project experience from 1992 and international project experience from 1990. He was 1997-2006 Research Director of Laboratorium for Interaction Technology at University West, Sweden, which is actively engaged in large regional development projects funded by the European Union, Swedish funding agencies and local industries and public organisations with a combined research portfolio of over £4 million. Dr Sørensen also played an essential role in the founding of the Viktoria Institute, Gothenburg, Sweden in the Mid-90s (viktoria.se), where he was a co-founder of The Internet Project (1995-2000) resulting in the book Planet Internet. He has served as Senior Editor of the Information Systems Journal, Associate Editor for Journal of the AIS and the e-Service Journal. Dr Sørensen is on the editorial and advisory boards for several journals. He has served as organiser, chair, associate editor, track chair, track co-coordinator etc for a number of international conferences. Dr Sørensen is a member of the EPSRC Peer Review College. He is representing the LSE in the Hedera council and is there also a member of the treasury committee.
Carsten served as a member of the Board of Directors of LSE Enterprise, and he is a Non-Executive Co-Founder and Board Advisor for RedGirraffe.com and MyTaskBar.com. He also in the past served as a member of the Advisory Board for the iSociety project at The Work Foundation and Academic Advisor for The Institute for Innovation & Information Productivity. Dr Sørensen has since the late 80s been actively engaged as consultant and executive educator with a range of organisations, for example; AXA, Carphone Warehouse, China Telecom, ClickSoftware, Corporate Research Forum, CSC, Customer Contact Association, Danish Ministry of Science, EDS, Gartner, GEMS, Google, Henkel, Huawei, Intel, International Monetary Fund, KMD, LloydsGroup, LSE Enterprise, Mahindra Satyam, MAPFRE, Mastercard, Microsoft, National School of Government UK, Orange, PA Consulting, Polycom, Prudential, RedGirraffe, Skype, Steria, SurveyMonkey, Telenor, UBS, and Vodafone.
- Digital transformation
- Blockchain
- Crypto currencies
- Future of work
- Digital innovation
Mukulika Banerjee
Dr Banerjee was educated at the universities of Delhi and Oxford. She was a Junior Research fellow at Oxford and Lecturer/Reader at UCL from 1996-2009. She joined LSE in 2009 as Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology and was the inaugural Director of the LSE South Asia Centre from 2015-2020.
She is the author of five books: Cultivating Democracy (2021), Why India Votes (2014), Muslim Portraits (ed) 2008, The Sari (co-author 2003) and The Pathan Unarmed (2001).
Dr Banerjee has been invited to speak at the Universities of Ahmedabad, Berne, Berkeley, Bonn, Bristol, Cambridge, Chicago, Columbia, Delhi, Duke, Edinburgh, Geneva, Georgetown (Doha), Gottingen, Heidelberg, Hull, Illinois, Indiana, Istanbul, Johannesburg, JNU, Kolkata, Kyoto, North Carolina, Lahore, London, Madison, Manchester, Melbourne, Munich, New York, Oxford, Oslo, Pavia, Paris, Pennsylvania, Sussex, Vienna, Yale, and Zurich. In addition to her speaking engagements, Dr Banerjee's chairing skills have also drawn particular praise from audiences worldwide.
Her lectures and media include:
• Published articles in Financial Times, Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Hindu, The Hindustan Times, Indian Express, The Telegraph, Wire, Scroll, Print
• Regular appearances at public talks and discussions held at Chatham House, Foreign Office, Asia House, London; South Bank, British Museum, British Library, Jaipur Literature Festival (London and Jaipur), High Commission of India, Bagri Foundation.
• Regular commentator on Indian elections and politics on BBC World, BBC Radio, Channel 4 and several European media bodies
• Created and presented a 40 min documentary entitled ‘Sacred Election’ on the 2009 National Elections in India for BBC Radio 4, produced by Culture Wise.
• Member of leading cast in feature film Life Goes On (2009) Dir. Sangeeta Datta SD Films.
• Interviewed as expert for BBC2 series ‘Who do you think you are?’ December 2004
• Interviews on ‘Woman’s Hour’, ‘Thinking Allowed’ (Radio4), ‘Everywoman’, ‘Outlook’ (World Service) and BBC Asian Network
• Invited to be expert ‘talking head’ anthropologist for TV series on National Geographic Channel on 13 episode series on ‘Taboo’.
• Interviewed on BBC, Channel 4, CBS, France 24, New Statesman, and Indian TV channels NDTV, Star and Doordarshan
- Democracy
- Elections
- India
- Politics
- Politics of South Asians in Britain
- Current Affairs
- Anthropology
- Islam
- South Asia
- Fashion and Sari
- Pashtuns
Podcast: The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee (The Seen and the Unseen, May 2022)
Book launch: Cultivating Democracy (LSE Anthropology, February 2022)
Event: The Future of Democracy (LSE, January 2022)
"Why the Indian farmers’ movement is a lesson in democracy" (Financial Times, December 2021)
"What led to the success of the farmers’ movement" (The Indian Express, December 2021)
Podcast: The Rural Roots of Citizenship and Democracy in India (Grand Tamasha, November 2021)
CDSD seminar: Mukulika Banerjee on ‘Cultivating Democracy: Politics and Citizen" (CSDS)
Grace Lordan
Dr Grace Lordan is the author of Think Big: Take Small Steps and Build the Future You Want, the Founding Director of The Inclusion Initiative and an Associate Professor at The London School of Economics and Political Science.
Grace is an expert on inclusive leadership, labour market skills, the causes of success, the future of work, productivity through diversity and women’s progress in the labour market.
An outstanding motivational speaker, economist and career success expert, Grace has worked with some of the world's largest organisations in delivering thought-provoking keynote speeches, fireside chats and discussion panels.
Grace has served as an expert advisor to the UK government sitting on their skills and productivity board. She is the principal investigator for the £2 million ESRC funded Diversity and Productivity from Education to Work (DAPEW) project, a member of the UK government’s BEIS social mobility taskforce, and on the Women in Finance Charter’s advisory board.
Her academic writings are regularly published in top international journals and media houses including the Financial Times, Fortune, Fast Company, MIT Sloan Management Review, Reuters and Harvard Business Review.
What clients say about Grace Lordan:
"A massive THANK YOU for a provocative, inspiring, and insightful session. The energy in the room, and the variety of questions asked, was testament to a really energised and engaged audience. Once again, many thanks for a fantastic session.”
- Debbie Miller, DE&I Partner, NatWest Group
"The "Think Big: Embracing New Career Paths" session was truly insightful. Grace’s guidance and innovative approach to career development was inspiring. And her talent in presenting intricate concepts with clarity and enthusiasm made the session highly engaging. We are thankful for her sharing her expertise and motivating our staff to think creatively about their career paths"
- World Bank Finance and Accounting team
- Inclusive leadership
- Success
- Effective decision making
- Future of work
- Behavioural science
- Bias
- Skills
- Resilience
- Groupthink
- Diversity and inclusion
- Women’s progress in the labour market
Article: How to be a better leader in the new workplace | Financial Times (April 2023)
Video: "Can the ‘back-to-work’ budget boost economic growth in the UK?" | Aljazeera (March 2023)
Article: 7 small ways to be a more inclusive colleague | Harvard Business Review (February 2023)
Article: What to do if you hate your job | Financial Times (January 2023)
Podcast: "How to get pay rise in 2023" | Yahoo!, The Leader (December 2022)
Podcast: "How 'at risk' is my money?" | Evening Standard, The leader (December 2022)
Podcast: "In Conversation With Grace Lordan" | Future of Work Hub (September 2022)
Podcast: "Energy Management - Mind & Body" | Psychological Fitness: What it Takes (October 2022)
Event: "Stuck in the middle: How to go from manager to leader" | FT Live (June 2022)
Book: Think Big: Take Small Steps and Build the Future You Want | Penguin Books (March 2021)
Michael Bruter
Professor Michael Bruter is a specialist of the study of election, public opinion, and the political psychology of citizens. He directs the Electoral Psychology Observatory at LSE. His research has received numerous awards including Best International Research from the Market Research Society, Finalist for Oustanding International Impact for UK Research and Innovation, and for the Stein Rokkan Award for Best Comparative Book. In 2022, he won the ESRC Award for "Outstanding International Impact" for his project on optimising citizen's electoral experience.
Professor Bruter has received over 30 externally funded grants totalling €5 million, published 8 books, and articles in leading journals, he has advised multiple Electoral Commissions, All Party Parliamentary Groups, Governments, European and International organisations. He has served as expert witness in cases tried by the Irish High Court and Irish Supreme Court, had his research cited in Parliamentary debates and been interviewed on countless media sources. He has chaired or served on research panes for the European Research Council, the Economic and Social Research Council and multiple national Science Foundations, and he has been a nomimnator for some of the most prestigious awards around the world.
Professor Bruter has been a guest Professor at some of the most prestigious universities around the world including Columbia University, McGill University, the Australian National University, Sciences Po Bordeaux, etc. He has given multiple keynote speeches including to the EU-Canada Summit on Youth policy, at the Te Papa Museum of New Zealand, at the European Youth Forum in the European Parliament, etc.
- Elections
- Citizens
- Public opinion
- Hostility
- Psychology
- Behaviour
- Trust
- Protest
- Extremism
- Youth
Nicola Lacey
Nicola Lacey is School Professor of Law, Gender and Social Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. From 2010 until September 2013 she was Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College, and Professor of Criminal Law and Legal Theory at the University of Oxford. She has held a number of visiting appointments, most recently at Harvard Law School, at New York University Law School and at the Australian National University. She is an Honorary Fellow of New College Oxford and of University College Oxford. She is a Fellow of the British Academy, served as a member of the British Academy’s Policy Group on Prisons, which reported in 2014, and was from 2014-2019 the Academy’s nominee on the Board of the British Museum.
In 2017 she was awarded a CBE for services to Law, Justice and Gender Politics; and she holds Honorary Doctorates from the Universities of Edinburgh and Oslo. In 2011 she was awarded the Hans Sigrist Prize by the University of Bern, for scholarship on the rule of law in modern societies; and in 2022 she won the Law and Society Association’s International Prize.
In addition to her work in criminal justice, Nicola has been working in recent years with philosopher Hanna Pickard (Johns Hopkins) on the application of philosophical ideas of responsibility to criminal justice practices; and with political scientist David Soskice on the comparative political economy of crime, punishment and inequality.
- Criminal law and justice
- Feminist legal theory
- Biography, law and literature
Nicholas Barr
Nicholas Barr is Professor of Public Economics at LSE and author of numerous articles and books, including The Economics of the Welfare State (6th edn 2020), Financing Higher Education: Answers from the UK (with Iain Crawford) (2005), and Pension Reform: A Short Guide (with Peter Diamond) (2010, also in Chinese and Spanish).
His policy work includes spells of leave at the World Bank and IMF. Since the mid 1980s he has been active in the debate on higher education finance. He and his colleague Iain Crawford have been described as the architects of the 2006 reforms in England, and he led the team that designed the student loan system in Hungary. He is also involved in pensions policy, including membership of a small group invited to advise the government of China, presenting their findings to the Premier in 2004. More recently, he was a member of a Presidential Commission on Reform of the Pension System in Chile.
He has spoken at 400 conferences and policy hearings, including evidence to Parliamentary Select Committees, has wide-ranging experience of television and radio and, in recent years, an increasing number of blogs and videos. A range of academic and policy writing can be found here.
- Welfare state
- Social insurance
- Pensions
- Medical insurance
- Social care
- Higher education finance
Marie Oldfield
Dr Marie Oldfield, CStat, CSci, APAI, SFHEA, FIScT, is the CEO of Oldfield Consultancy and Senior Lecturer at LSE. Marie is a recognised, published AI and Ethics Expert with a background in Mathematics and Philosophy. Marie is a trusted advisor to Government, Defence, and the Legal Sector amongst others. Marie works at the forefront of Ethical AI, driving improvement and development. Marie is the creator of the new AI Professional Accreditation that benchmarks practice in AI and interdisciplinary modelling. Marie is Founder of the IST Interdisciplinary Artificial Intelligence Group and Founder of the IST Women in Tech group.
Marie was invited to the Executive Board of the Institute of Science & Technology to be an Expert Fellow for Sprite+ and a member of the College of Peer Reviewers for Rephrain. Marie is frequently invited to speak on popular podcasts, panels and at conferences about her experience and research on the development of Ethics in AI. Marie was recently invited to speak at Chatham House on AI and Ethics issues. Marie is passionate about giving back to the global community through extensive pro bono work, with a focus on ethical AI, education, poverty, children and mental health.
- Ethics
- AI
- Machine Learning
- Data Science
- Statistics
- Modelling
- Analytics
- Philosophy
- Anthropomorphism
- Dehumanisation
- Future Skills
- Education
- Soft Skills
- Leadership
- Negotiation
Camille Landais
Camille Landais is a Professor of Economics at The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and Director of the Public Economics Programme of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). In addition to his academic position, he is also the President-Delegue at the French Council of Economic Advisers (CAE). He maintains affiliations with the Institut des politiques publiques, Institute for Fiscal Studies, STICERD, IZA Institute of Labour Economics, and the European Economic Association, on whose council he sits. Additionally, he is performing or has performed editorial duties for the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, Journal of Public Economics, Review of Economic Studies, Fiscal Studies and Economic Policy.
Camille Landais holds a PhD from the Paris School of Economics. His research focuses on public finance and labour economics and his articles have appeared in various leading journals such as the American Economic Review, or the Quarterly Journal of Economics.
- Public finance
- Labour economics
- Applied microeconomics
- Microeconometrics
Robyn Klingler-Vidra
Dr Robyn Klingler-Vidra is Reader in Entrepreneurship and Sustainability at King’s Business School. She is the author of The Venture Capital State: The Silicon Valley Model in East Asia (Cornell University Press, 2018) and Inclusive Innovation (with Alex Glennie and Courtney Savie Lawrence, Routledge, 2022).
Her research focuses on entrepreneurship, innovation, and venture capital and has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals, including International Affairs, New Political Economy and Regulation & Governance. She has delivered executive education for The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Tel Aviv University and the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and led international studies for the UN Development Programme.
Robyn obtained her BA in Political Science at the University of Michigan and her MSc and PhD in International Political Economy from The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
- Innovation
- Entrepreneurship
- Entrepreneurial finance
- Venture capital
- Inclusive innovation
- Corporate social responsibility
- ESG
- Sustainability
- Public policy
Sir Christopher Pissarides
Sir Christopher Pissarides holds the Regius Chair of Economics at the London School of Economics, the Chair of European Studies at the University of Cyprus and he co-chairs the Institute for the Future of Work, based in London. He specialises in the economics of labour markets, economic growth and structural change, especially as they relate to market imperfections, where his work has been especially influential. In the last decade he has worked extensively on the employment implications of automation and artificial intelligence and on the implications of covid-19 for the future of work. He has written extensively in professional journals, magazines and the press and his book Equilibrium Unemployment Theory is an influential reference in the economics of unemployment that has been translated into many languages.
In 2010, Sir Christopher was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work on the labour market, sharing it with Dale Mortensen of Northwestern University and Peter Diamond of MIT, and in 2005 he became the first European economist to win the IZA Prize in Labor Economics, sharing it again with his collaborator Dale Mortensen. He has since been honoured with several other awards, Prizes and Society fellowships, including lifetime fellowships of the American Economic Association, the British Academy, the European Academy and the Academy of Athens. He served as President of the European Economic Association in 2011 and will be President of the Royal Economic Society in 2024. In 2011 he received the Grand Cross of the Republic of Cyprus, the highest honour of the Republic, becoming also an honorary citizen of his birthplace Nicosia. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2013.
He is a frequent keynote speaker or panellist on current global economic developments, automation at the workplace, robotics and artificial intelligence, the future of work and other issues related to employment, unemployment and structural change.
- Jobs
- Employment
- Unemployment
- Automation
- Artificial Intelligence
- Structural change
- Future of work
- Global economic trends
Pragya Agarwal
Professor Pragya Agarwal is a distinguished behavioural and data scientist, currently serving as the Visiting Professor of Social Inequities and Injustice at Loughborough University in the UK and a Visiting Fellow at University of Oxford. Renowned for ground-breaking books like SWAY: Unravelling Unconscious Bias (which was Guardian Book of the Week), (M)otherhood: On the Choices of Being a Woman and Wish We Knew What To Say: Talking with Children about Race, she challenges societal norms and is a sought-after consultant addressing bias, anti-racism, and social inclusion. Her most recent book is Hysterical: Exploding the myth of gendered emotions which has been nominated as one of the best smart thinking non-fiction science books in 2022.
She has been recognised for her impactful advocacy and writing, and in 2023-24 awarded the Fulbright Fellowship to University of California, a British Library Fellowship, a Churchill Fellowship and a Transmission Prize for ‘making complex scientific ideas accessible’. In 2024-25, she has been awarded a Sassoon Fellowship in South Asian and Black History at University of Oxford, a Royal Literary Fund Fellowship at Newnham College, University of Cambridge and a Royal Society of Literature award. She contributes thought-provoking pieces to major publications, including The Guardian, Prospect, Forbes, Scientific American, Wired and New Scientist, and has established herself as a significant voice in contemporary discussions on women's rights.
Pragya Agarwal has worked as a consultant and speaker across the world for the United Nations, UNESCO, Environment Agency, Royal Society, National Health Service, UK Police Commissioners and International Trade Commission, Springer Publishing, British Academy, and various international universities as Oxford, Cambridge, Columbia, Melbourne, Imperial College and so on. She has delivered keynotes around the world, most recently at the Museum of Science in Boston, and at The King Center for Non-violent Social Change in Atlanta, Georgia. She is a two-time TEDx speaker, a TEDx Woman organiser, and has made expert appearances on many shows such as NPR Short Wave, ABC Q&A, BBC Women’s Hour, BBC Radio 4 The Spark amongst many others. She has been invited to speak at many international literary festivals including the Hay Festival, Cheltenham Book Festival, Edinburgh International Book Festival, Northern Ireland Science Festival, Bradford Literary Festival and Emirates Literature Festival. In 2023, she was invited to headline the M/OTHER festival at The Wheeler Centre (Melbourne) and speak at the All About Women festival at the Sydney Opera House.
- Behavioural science
- Data science
- Inclusive leadership
- Unconscious bias
- Health inequalities
- Inclusive workplaces
- Science of bias
- Science of emotions
- Gendered emotions
- AI and bias
- Emotional AI
- Gender inequality
- Racial inequality
- Reproductive justice
Articles: Pragya Agarwal Profile | The Guardian
Radio episode: Money Box Live: Financial Resolutions | BBC Radio 4 (January 2024)
Article: History repeats itself as Australia’s dark past is given a whitewash | Crikey (May 2023)
Video: Words That Offend and Referendums | ABC (March 2023)
Podcast: Woman and Gendered Emotions: Pragya Agarwal, Hysterical | The Story of Women (October 2022)
Radio episode: Overview – Unconscious bias with Pragya Agarwal | The RIBA (November 2021)
Podcast: (M)otherhood and Choice, with Pragya Agarwal | Audible (October 2021)
Radio episode: Grazia Life Advice – Pragya Agarwal | Bauer Planet Radio (August 2021)
Podcast: Pragya Agarwal | Conversations (June 2020)
Article: 10 of the best popular science books as chosen by authors and writers | NewScientist (April 2021)
Article: We all have hidden prejudices – here’s how to override them | NewScientist (August 2020)
Article: What do unconscious bias tests really reveal about racism? | NewScientist (August 2020)
Nicole Abi-Esber
Dr Nicole Abi-Esber has a doctoral degree in Organizational Behaviour from the Harvard Business School, and is an Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour in the Management Department at The London School of Economics and Political Science. Whilst at Harvard, she taught Organisational and Consumer Behaviour and has published widely around the psychology of failure, feedback and criticism.
Her research examines how leaders can empower employees to feel psychologically safe and speak up at work, exploring how the failure to recognise the “qualified quiet” can result in a loss of good ideas and strategies within organisations. Dr Abi-Esber runs workshops and trainings to teach companies and teams how to optimise their meetings and teaches executives how to create environments where everyone feels able to participate, even if they have opposing views or dissenting opinions.
She uses experiments and computational social science methods, including natural language processing. In 2022, her work on constructive criticism was featured in the New York Times and the Washington Times.
Dr Abi-Esber previously worked as a product manager for mobile products in tech startups in emerging markets, as a researcher with the Government of Dubai, and as a research associate at the Behavioural Lab at Stanford's Graduate School of Business.
- Communications
- Leadership
- Managing Teams
- Managing Meetings
- Optimising Meetings
Peter Trubowitz
Peter Trubowitz is Professor of International Relations and Director of the Phelan US Centre at The London School of Economics and Political Science and Associate Fellow at Chatham House. His main teaching and research interests are in the areas of US foreign policy and international security. He also writes and comments frequently on US politics and elections and how they are impacting America's role in the world.
Trubowitz’s scholarly publications include Geopolitics and Democracy: The Western Liberal Order from Foundation to Fracture (Oxford University Press, forthcoming, 2023), Politics and Strategy: Partisan Ambition and American Statecraft (Princeton University Press, 2011) and the award-winning Defining the National Interest: Conflict and Change in American Foreign Policy (University of Chicago Press, 1998), as well as articles in leading academic journals such as International Security, International Studies Quarterly, and Political Science Quarterly and more popular venues like Foreign Affairs, The International New York Times, and The National Interest. He has lectured at major universities around the world and comments frequently on international affairs for major media outlets.
Before joining the LSE, Trubowitz was Professor of Government at the University of Texas at Austin. He has also held visiting positions at Harvard, Princeton, University of California at San Diego, Universidad de Chile, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE) in Mexico City, and the Beijing Foreign Studies University, where he was the J. William Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer in American Foreign Policy. His research has been supported by grants and fellowships from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the John M. Olin Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Social Science Research Council, among others.
- Geopolitics
- Foreign policy
- US-China relations
- American politics
- World affairs
Sir Julian Le Grand
Professor Sir Julian Le Grand is a member of the Marshall Institute at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
He was awarded a knighthood in 2015 for services to social sciences and public service. He is an economist by training, and the author, co-author or editor of over twenty books, and more than one hundred articles and book chapters on economics, philosophy and public policy.
He is a Fellow of the British Academy, a Founding Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences, and an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine. In 2006 he was awarded an honorary doctorate (D.Litt) by the University of Sussex. In 2012 he was awarded the Eupolis prize for Public Policy by the Eupolis Institute, Milan, and his submission for the Wolfson Economics Prize received a ‘special category' prize. In 2018, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Birmingham.
From 2003 to 2005 he was seconded to No 10 Downing St to serve as Senior Policy Adviser to the Prime Minister. In 2007 he was Chairman of the Social Work Practices Working Group for the UK Department for Children, Families and Schools. From 2007 to 2009 he was Chair of Health England: the National Reference Group for Health and Well Being for the UK Department of Health. From 2011 to 2013, he was Chair of the UK Cabinet Office's Mutuals TaskForce. In 2013 and 2014, he was the Chair of the Panels reviewing Doncaster's and Birmingham's Children's Services for the Department for Education and wrote the Panels' reports. As well as these positions, he has acted as an adviser to the President of the European Commission, the World Bank, the World Health Organisation, the OECD, HM Treasury, the UK Department of Work and Pensions and the BBC.
He has been listed as one of the Guardian's and Prospect’s top British public intellectuals, the ESRC’s Heroes of Dissemination, the Evening Standard's most influential people in London, the Local Government Chronicle's most influential people in local government, and, in 2021, Apolitical’s 100 Most Influential Academics in Government.
He writes regularly for the national and international press. He also appears frequently on television and radio, including the Today Programme, The World at One, The World Tonight and The Politics Show. He has been several times a member of Radio 4’s Any Questions panel and has presented editions of Radio 4’s Analysis and BBC 2’s The Big Idea.
- Universal basic capital
- Economics
- Social entrepreneurship
- Social policy
- Altruism
- Hybrid economy
Emma Soane
Dr Emma Soane MSc PhD CPsych CSci AFBPsS is a Chartered Psychologist and an Associate Professor of Management at The London School of Economics and Political Science. Emma has held numerous positions within the Department of Management, including Programme Director MSc Management, Programme Director CEMS Global Alliance in Management Education MSc International Management and Director MBA Exchanges. She teaches organisational behaviour, risk and leadership to postgraduate and executive students.
Her research examines how personality, leadership, and organisational environments influence decisions, performance and risks. Emma has worked with a wide range of public and private sector organisations, including government departments, hospitals, IT, television production and investment banks. She has published numerous academic and practitioner journals. Her research has won several awards. She has also co-authored two books.
An insightful and impactful professional, Emma is a regular speaker on leadership, risk and organisational behaviour. She has delivered keynote speeches, presentations, workshops and small group discussions for a range of organisations including Netflix, Banco Santander, Hasbro, the Public Services Institute Nigeria, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, the International Institute for Risk and Safety Management, the UK government, Birmingham City Council, ArcelorMittal, Imperial Healthcare NHS Trust, Nampak Plastics, the European Society of Cardiology and Goldman Sachs.
- Personality
- Leadership
- Organisational Risk
- Safety
- Innovative Thinking
Graham Zellick KC
Professor Graham Zellick read law at Cambridge (MA, PhD) and was then a fellow at Stanford Law School in California. For the first 20 years of his career, he was an academic lawyer at Queen Mary College (now Queen Mary University of London) where he became Professor of Public Law, Drapers' Professor of Law, Head of Department and Dean of Laws. He was also Editor of Public Law and the founding editor of European Human Rights Reports. He was then appointed Principal of what by then had become Queen Mary & Westfield College and after 8 years was appointed Vice-Chancellor & President of the University of London. He has been a visiting scholar in Oxford, a visiting professor in Toronto, an honorary professor in Birmingham, and was NZ Law Foundation Distinguishing Visiting Fellow. During his time as a university head, he held a number of part-time public and judicial appointments, notably as one of the first group of Electoral Commissioners. On leaving the University of London, he served for 5 years as Chairman of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (the body that deals with possible miscarriages of justice) and then began a judicial career as the first President of the Valuation Tribunal for England and then for 10 years as a judge of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (which hears cases concerning the use of covert powers by public bodies and the police and human rights actions against the security services).
Graham is a barrister, senior master of the bench and former Reader of the Middle Temple and an Honorary Fellow of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge. He has numerous honorary degrees and fellowships, including an LLD from Birmingham, a DLit from London and an LHD from NYU. He is a Past Master of the Drapers' Company, one of the Great XII Livery Companies of the City of London. Graham has extensive public speaking, lecturing and media experience.
- Law
- Human rights
- Criminal justice
- Justice system
- Public law
- Miscarriages of justice
- Constitutional law
- Regulation of the security services
Alexander Evans
Alexander Evans is Professor of Practice in Public Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is a former Henry Kissinger Chair at the Library of Congress, Senior Fellow at Yale, and Gwilym Gibbon Fellow at Nuffield College Oxford. He has a Ph.D. in politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He is a specialist on geopolitics, technology and decision-making.
As career diplomat, he has worked in 10 Downing Street as an adviser to the Prime Minister, as Strategy Director in the Cabinet Office, and as Director Cyber in the Foreign Office. His diplomatic experience includes serving as Deputy and Acting High Commissioner to India and (briefly) Pakistan, leading the United Nations Security Council expert group on Daesh, Al Qaida and the Taliban, and being a senior advisor to the late Ambassador Richard Holbrooke in the U.S. Department of State during the first Obama Administration. He was awarded an OBE for his service in Pakistan where he led the UK's work on the Tribal Areas from 2007 to 2009.
He has extensive speaking and chairing experience including at commercial, think-tank and specialist conferences. He has commented for a wide range of media including BBC World TV, Channel 4 News, CNN, NBC and NPR.
- Geopolitics
- Technology
- Cyber
- Decision-making
- Strategy
- Asia
Liam Delaney
Liam Delaney is Professor and Head of the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics. His career has been focused at the intersection of economics, psychology, and public policy applications and he has developed a number of programmes in this area.
From 2017 to 2020 he was Professor of Economics at University College Dublin, where he led the development of MSc in Behavioural Economics and Geary Institute Experimental Lab. Prior to this, he led the development of the Stirling Behavioural Science centre and developed one of Europe’s first dedicated graduate programmes in this area. He was a Fulbright Fellow at Princeton University, and visiting fellow at the University of Sydney, and has also been an MSCA fellow.
He has published several papers on the connection between mental health and economic outcomes, measuring economic preferences, and ethical aspects of behavioural policy in journals such as Social Science and Medicine, Demography, Health Psychology, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Health Economics, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Economic Journal, Journal of European Economics Association, and Psychological Science. He is developing research projects across three areas: the ethical foundations and trustworthiness of behavioural public policy, mental health and economic policy, and the measurement foundations of behavioural welfare economics.
Along with Leonhard Lades he developed the FORGOOD ethical framework which helps organisations build behavioural science capacities into their functioning in an ethically robust and publicly acceptable way. He has delivered executive education and provided advice on behavioural science topics to dozens of organisations across the public and private sector.
He has delivered talks and training at many government agencies and corporations including the United Nations Innovation Group, UNICEF, Alltech, Novartis, Prudential, and many others.
- Behavioural science
- Ethics
- Mental health
- Nudge
- Public policy
Jonathan Trevor
Jonathan Trevor is a noted management researcher, author, advisor, speaker and teacher on strategy and organizational alignment. Jonathan is Associate Dean of Practice and Affiliates at the University of Oxford’s Said Business School and teaches on the Oxford MBA, Executive MBA and international executive education programmes. Previously, he was a University Lecturer at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School.
He is the author of Align: A Leadership Blueprint for Aligning Purpose, Strategy and Organisation (2019) and Re:Align: A Leadership Blueprint to Overcome Disruption and Improve Performance (2022), nominated as one of Bloomberg’s Best Books, business and management, in 2022.
Jonathan consults extensively with executive leadership teams in all sectors and internationally to apply his research to transform their organizations to be fit for purpose. He publishes in leading journals, including Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review. His research is also featured regularly in the media, and he has provided expert comment for the Financial Times, BBC, Wall Street Journal, CNN and Forbes.
Before his academic career, Jonathan worked as a management consultant in London for a major international consultancy firm and has served in a variety of non-executive director roles. He holds a doctorate in management studies from the University of Cambridge under a full scholarship and was a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management.
- Strategic alignment and realignment
- Strategy and organisation
- Future of work
- Systems leadership
- Business performance
Article: Managing the New Tensions of Hybrid Work | MIT Sloan Management Review (December 2022)
Article: Why Purpose Matters | Centre for Historical Analysis and Conflict Research (June 2022)
Article: How To Design an Ambidextrous Organisation | Harvard Business Review (April 2019)
Article: Why Reward for Performance Fails to Deliver | European Business Review (September 2017)
Chapter: How Aligned Is Your Organization? | Harvard Business Review (February 2017)
Article: Leading the Aligned Enterprise | Developing Leaders (January 2017)
Jonathan Birch
Dr Jonathan Birch is a Professor of Philosophy at LSE and Principal Investigator (PI) on the Foundations of Animal Sentience project. He mainly works on animal sentience, cognition and welfare and the evolution of altruism and social behaviour.
He joined LSE in 2014. Before moving to London, he was a Junior Research Fellow at Christ’s College, Cambridge. He completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2013, with a dissertation entitled Kin Selection: A Philosophical Analysis.
In 2014, he was one of four UK philosophers honoured with a Philip Leverhulme Prize, which recognize “the achievement of outstanding researchers whose work has already attracted international recognition and whose future career is exceptionally promising”.
He has published widely on various topics in major philosophical and scientific journals, including Nature Medicine, Current Biology, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, The American Naturalist, Biological Reviews, Nous, Philosophical Studies, Philosophical Quarterly, Philosophy of Science, and The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. His first book, The Philosophy of Social Evolution, was published by Oxford University Press in 2017.
In 2021, he led a "Review of the Evidence of Sentience in Cephalopod Molluscs and Decapod Crustaceans" that led to invertebrate animals including octopuses, crabs and lobsters being included in the UK government's Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022.
- Animal sentience
- Animal welfare
- Animal ethics
- Evolution
- Altruism
- Cooperation
Sonia Livingstone
Sonia Livingstone DPhil (Oxon), OBE, FBA, FBPS, FAcSS, FRSA, is a professor in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She has published 20 books on media audiences, especially children and young people’s risks and opportunities, media literacy and rights in the digital environment. Her new book is “Parenting for a Digital Future: How hopes and fears about technology shape children’s lives” (Oxford University Press, with Alicia Blum-Ross).
Sonia chaired LSE’s Truth, Trust and Technology Commission, and has served as Expert Advisor to the Council of Europe, Special Advisor to the House of Lords’ Select Committee on Communications, President of the International Communication Association, and Executive Board member of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety. She has received five honorary doctorates and several international prizes.
Since founding the EC-funded 33 country “EU Kids Online” research network, she has advised the UK government, European Commission, European Parliament, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, OECD, ITU and UNICEF and others on children’s internet safety and rights in the digital environment. She has extensive speaking experience in policy and expert forums, large and small.
Sonia currently directs the Digital Futures Commission (with the 5Rights Foundation) and the “Global Kids Online” project (with UNICEF). Other projects include the UKRI-funded “Nurture Network” and two European H2020 projects: “ySKILLS” (Youth Skills) and “CO:RE” (Children Online: Research and Evidence. She blogs at www.parenting.digital and tweets @Livingstone_S. See www.sonialivingstone.net.
What clients say about Sonia Livingstone:
"Sonia was wonderfully personable and knowledgeable. We asked for a conversation on the current media landscape and appreciate how she systematically addresses the issue and highlights areas not obvious to those in the know."
- Corporate client
- Media
- Childhood
- Child rights
- Online risks and opportunities
- Mediation
- Internet and family life
Alex Edmans
Alex Edmans is Professor of Finance at the London Business School. Alex has a PhD from MIT as a Fulbright Scholar, and was previously a tenured professor at Wharton and an investment banker at Morgan Stanley.
Alex has a unique combination of deep academic rigour and practical business experience. He is particularly noted for his ability to present complex concepts in non-technical language and an engaging, dynamic manner. Alex has spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos, testified in the UK Parliament, and given the TED talk “What to Trust in a Post-Truth World” and the TEDx talks “The Pie-Growing Mindset” and “The Social Responsibility of Business” with a combined 2.8 million views.
He serves as non-executive director of the Investor Forum, on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Responsible Investing, and on Royal London Asset Management’s Responsible Investment Advisory Committee. Alex’s book, Grow the Pie: How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit, was a Financial Times Book of the Year for 2020, and he is a co-author of Principles of Corporate Finance (with Brealey, Myers, and Allen). His most recent book, May Contain Lies: How Stories, Statistics and Studies Exploit Our Biases - And What We Can Do About It was published in April 2024 by Penguin and hailed as 'A powerful and punchy explanation of why misinformation is a problem that affects us all. Timely and very provocative!' by Gillian Tett of the Financial Times.
He has won 25 teaching awards at Wharton and LBS and was named Professor of the Year by Poets & Quants in 2021.
- Corporate finance
- Corporate social responsibility,
- Responsible business
- Sustainable finance
- Behavioural economics
- Time management
- Investment strategies
Scott Young
Scott Young is an independent advisor and educator, whose expertise and passion lies in helping business and organizational leaders to apply Behavioural Science ethically and effectively.
Scott was recently Head of Private Sector at Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) Americas. Earlier, he was Senior VP at BVA Nudge Consulting and spent over 20 years leading Perception Research Services, a global consumer insights agency.
Scott is the author of three books and over 50 published articles on Behavioural Science & Consumer Insights. He is a Senior Visiting Fellow at The London School of Economics and Political science (LSE) and a consistent guest lecturer/speaker at the University of Pennsylvania's MBDS program and the University of Chicago Booth’s Executive Education program in Behavioural Economics.
He speaks regularly at industry events, webinars and podcasts, spanning multiple sectors (including financial services, insurance, consumer goods and transport) and business functions (including insights, marketing, human resources and compliance). Scott is a board member of BeScy, a non-profit dedicated to promoting applied behavioural science.
- Applied behavioural science
- Training/Capacity building
- Executive coaching
- Consumer and shopper insights
- Marketing & market research
- Employee engagement, wellness & retention
Leslie Willcocks
Leslie has a global reputation for his work in robotic process automation, AI, cognitive automation and the future of work, digital innovation, outsourcing, global management strategy, organizational transformation, IT management, and managing digital business. He is professor emeritus at the LSE, and associate Fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford.
He is co-author of 71 books on these subjects, and has published over 240 refereed papers in journals such as Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, California Management Review, MIS Quarterly, Journal of Management Studies. His work appears in major media outlets such as Forbes magazine, HBR Online. He keynotes regularly at international conferences, has delivered executive programmes globally for some 25 years and has been retained as adviser and expert witness by major corporations and government institutions in the UK, USA, Europe and Australia.
Recent books include Becoming Strategic With Robotic Process Automation (2019), Global Business: Strategy in Context (2021) Global Business: Management (2021) (all available from www.sbpublishing.org). Also Advancing Information Systems Theories (2021, Palgrave Macmillan). Forthcoming are: Globalization Automation and Work : Controversies and Dilemmas (Palgrave, 2023) and Optimizing The Value of Automation (Palgrave, 2023).
- Managing digital technologies
- Digital transformation
- Automation and the future of work
- Global business management
- Global sourcing of business and IT services
- Global sourcing of business and IT services
Ilka Gleibs
Ilka Gleibs is an academic based in London. She was educated in Germany and received degrees from the Freie Universität, Berlin and Friedrich-Schiller-University in Jena. Ilka has held positions at the University of Exeter, University of Surrey and a Visiting Position at Royal Holloway University of London. Ilka currently co-directs the MSc degree in Organisational and Social Psychology at The London School of Economics and Political Science, where she is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science. She has been Deputy Head of Department and the Deputy Head of the LSE Research Ethics Committee. In addition, she currently is an Associate Editor at the British Journal of Social Psychology.
In her scholarship, she has explored the themes of social identity dynamics, leadership, wellbeing and change. In her most recent work, she explores how effective leadership must look like in crisis. For example, she examined how President Zelenskyy modulates his leadership rhetoric to garner international support. She further asked: What is effective governmental leadership during crisis? How can we co-create better leadership when dealing with climate change? In addition, she is also interested in understanding how structural issues, rather than individual responsibilization, can be used to increase well-being, especially for women, or religious minorities, in the workplace. She’s also interested in questions around Ethics, especially around Online Ethics, and has served on the Ethics board of What Works for Children’s Social Work.
Her academic writings have been published in top international journals and Ilka has lectured widely in Europe, the USA and Australia. Ilka has spoken at the House of Parliament, the Luxemburg Institute for Socio Economics Research, Waterloo Research Institute for Ageing (Canada), and North London Collegiate School and NHS Employer. She was invited to speak to the Royal Air Force, Facebook and Unilever. She has been on advisory boards of several startups and taught members of the Ministry of Defence and worked with the London Fire Brigade. She has appeared for example, in BBC’s World News, Sky News, The Science of the Young One’s (BBC documentary). Her research has been reported in many media outlets including the Time Magazine/Aspen Institute of Best Ideas of the Day, USA Today, O Globo (Brazil). She has been a guest on several podcasts.
- Organisational psychology
- Leadership
- Change/Crisis
- Social identity
- Wellbeing
- Diversity and inclusion
- Ethics
- Behavioural science
Podcast: Psychology of Diversity | Central Banking (July 2018)
Podcast: Is Crowdsourcing the Answer to our Data Diversity Problem? | Consequential (Autumn 2020)
Article: Five Best Ideas of the Day: March 25 | Time Magazine and Aspen Institute (March 2015)
Article: Social media research raises privacy and ethics issues | USA Today (March 2014)
Films and Podcasts: LSE Player: Ilka Gleibs
Richard Saldanha
Dr Richard Saldanha has taught machine learning in finance at postgraduate level in the School of Economics and Finance at Queen Mary University of London since 2018. He also supervises MSc students for their Operations Research & Analytics industrial projects in the Mathematics Department at The London School of Economics and Political Science; and has been a guest lecturer in machine learning and finance on the MBA and Executive Diploma in AI for Business programmes at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.
Richard has worked in quantitative finance for over two decades and been successful in senior roles in both asset management and investment banking at major institutions in the City of London. His experience includes risk management at the most senior levels of the firm and the direct management of investments.
He now gives advice to companies about the practical and effective use of methods in artificial intelligence, machine learning and data science. Richard's speaking engagements have been numerous, everything from developing trading strategies to machine learning and fintech and, more recently, elucidating the nature of large language models.
Richard is a Fellow and Chartered Statistician of the Royal Statistical Society; a Science Council Chartered Scientist; and a Fellow and Advanced Practitioner in Artificial Intelligence of the Institute of Science and Technology. He attended Oriel College, University of Oxford, and holds a doctorate (DPhil) in statistics.
- Artificial Intelligence
- Machine learning
- Data science
- Mathematics
- Fintech
- Legaltech
- Investment management
- Risk management
Article: AI forecaster can predict the future better than humans | New Scientist (March 2024)
Seminar: Large language models: A Statistician’s perspective | University of Oxford (December 2023)
Article: RangL: A reinforcement learning competition platform | arXiv:2208.00003 (July 2022)
Article: Creatures of the FCA Sandbox | Fintech Circle (December 2019)
Michael Storper
Michael Storper (PhD, Economic Geography, University of California, Berkeley), is an economic geographer who holds concurrent appointments at UCLA and LSE, and is emeritus at Sciences Po/Paris.
Storper is the author of more than 100 peer-reviewed academic articles and 13 books, including the widely-cited "The Regional World: Territory, Technology and Economic Development" (Guilford), "Worlds of Production" (Harvard), and "Keys to the City" (Princeton University Press, 2013). His most recent book (2015) is entitled The Rise and Fall of Urban Economies: Lessons from Los Angeles and San Francisco (Stanford University Press). Storper publishes in journals in geography, sociology, urban studies, economics, and development studies.
He received a Doctorate Honoris Causa from the University of Utrecht In 2008, the Sir Peter Hall Award from the Regional Studies Association in 2012, the Founder’s Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 2016, the Distinguished Scholarship Honors from the American Associaton of Geography in 2017. In 2022, he received the Vautrin Lud Prize (known as the ”Nobel” in Geography).
Storper is FBA (a member of the British Academy), and the Academy of Social Sciences. Thompson-Reuters named him “one of the world’s most influential scientific minds” in 2013. Storper is a frequent contributor to regional and urban policymaking for the European Union, the French government, and other international agencies. He holds dual French-American citizenship and is a fluent speaker of English, French and Portuguese.
- Cities
- Regions
- Globalization
- Technological innovation
- Inter-regional inequality
- Interpersonal inequality
- Economic development
- Europe
- USA
- Brazil
Sara Hobolt
Professor Sara B. Hobolt holds the Sutherland Chair in European Institutions at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She specialises in elections, public opinion, populism political parties with a focus on the UK and Europe.
She has published numerous prize-winning articles and books on these topics, including most recently Political Entrepreneurs. The Rise of Challenge Parties in Europe (Princeton University Press, 2020). She is currently working on a book on Tribal Politics in the UK in the aftermath of the 2016 Brexit referendum.
Professor Hobolt regularly provides commentary in the media on elections, Brexit, public attitudes and European and EU politics, and she was the election expert for the BBC and Sky News on the past three European Parliament election nights. She also advises governments, parliaments and non-governmental organizations on matters relating to democracy, elections, referendums and public opinion.
- Brexit
- Elections
- Public opinion
- Populism
- Political parties
- Referendums
- European politics
- European Union
Jon Danielsson
Dr Jon Danielsson is director of the ESRC funded Systemic Risk Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He holds a PhD in economics, where his dissertation focussed on stochastic volatility.
His current research interests include systemic risk, financial risk forecasting and financial regulations.
Dr Danielsson has written three books: The Illusion of Control, Financial Risk Forecasting and Global Financial Systems: Stability and Risk. He published a number of articles in leading academic journals.
He has frequently spoken at large events and both public and private institutions, such at the RiskMinds conference, JP Morgan, European Central Bank and the Bank of England.
- Finance
- Economics
- Risk
- Crises
- Regulations
- Artificial intelligence
- Crypto currencies
- Risk measurement
- Policy
Robert Falkner
Robert Falkner is Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He serves as the LSE’s Academic Director of the TRIUM Global Executive MBA, an alliance between LSE, NYU Stern School of Business and HEC Paris and one of the world’s leading global EMBA programmes. In 2017-22, he served as the Research Director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at LSE. Before joining LSE, he held academic positions at the universities of Oxford, Kent and Essex. He was a visiting scholar at Harvard University in 2006-07 and is currently a Distinguished Fellow of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. In 2023, he will be Simone Veil Fellow at Project House Europe, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. Born in Germany, he read for a double-degree in politics (MA Politikwissenschaft) and economics (Diplom-Volkswirt) at LMU Munich. After moving to the UK, he gained a doctorate in international relations from the University of Oxford (Nuffield College).
Robert’s research focuses on global environmental politics, global political economy, and the role of business in international relations. He has published widely in these areas, including Great Powers, Climate Change and Global Environmental Responsibilities (co-edited with Barry Buzan) (Oxford University Press, 2022), Environmentalism and Global International Society (Cambridge University Press,2021), The Handbook of Global Climate and Environment Policy (edited, Wiley-Blackwell, 2013) and Business Power and Conflict in International Environmental Politics (Palgrave, 2008). Robert’s research has been supported by grants from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), European Commission, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Rockefeller Foundation and Stiftung Mercator, among others. Robert was a member of the LSE Economic Diplomacy Commission at LSE IDEAS, which published its final report in February 2021, laying out the principles that should underpin Britain’s future trade and investment policies and making ten recommendations for future action. He was an associate fellow of Chatham House from 1999 to 2020 and an associate editor of the European Journal of International Relations (2004-08).
Robert has extensive experience of executive-level speaking, consultancy and advisory work, for private and public sector organisations, including the Department for International Development (UK), Duke Corporate Education, the European Commission, the European Environment Agency, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Germany), HEC Paris, Oxford Analytica, TRIUM Global EMBA and the World Economic Forum.
- International climate policy
- Climate risks for business
- Global business in international relations
- Global environmental politics
- Global governance
- Globalisation/deglobalisation
John Sidel
Professor John Sidel is the Sir Patrick Gillam Professor of International and Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Born in New York City, he received his BA (Summa Cum Laude) and MA at Yale University and his PhD from Cornell University. He taught at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) from 1994 to 2004 before taking up his current post at the LSE.
Professor Sidel is a specialist on the politics of Southeast Asia, with special research expertise and experience in Indonesia, the Philippines, and, to a lesser extent, Thailand and Vietnam. His research interests have included local politics, religious violence, revolutions, and reform advocacy campaigns. He has undertaken extensive research and written expert reports for the Asia Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the UK's Department for International Development, Oxfam, and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.
Professor Sidel is the author of Capital, Coercion, and Crime: Bossism in the Philippines (Stanford University Press, 1999); (with Eva-Lotta Hedman) Philippine Politics and Society in the Twentieth Century: Colonial Legacies, Postcolonial Trajectories (Routledge, 2000); Riots, Pogroms, Jihad: Religious Violence in the Philippines (Cornell University Press, 2006); The Islamist Threat in Southeast Asia: A Reassessment (East-West Centre, 2007); (with Jaime Faustino) Thinking and Working Politically in Development: Coalitions for Change in the Philippines (The Asia Foundation, 2019); and Republicanism, Communism, Islam: Cosmopolitan Origins of Revolution in Southeast Asia (Cornell University Press, 2021). He is currently working on two book manuscripts, titled "The Rise and Fall of Islam in World Politics" and "Hubs of Power, Avenues of Profit: The Political Economy of Transport and Infrastructure Development in the Philippines."
- Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia and the Philippines
- Local politics
- Religious violence
- Islam
- Transport and infrastructure
Laura Giurge
Professor Laura Giurge combines science and curiosity to enable people and organizations to thrive. Currently an Assistant Professor at The London School of Economics and Political Science and a faculty affiliate at London Business School, Laura is on a mission to understand how we can transform the way we work and motivate ourselves and others to achieve professional success without compromising our well-being. Professor Giurge earned a PhD in Management from Rotterdam School of Management within 4 years and before joining LSE, she was a postdoctoral research fellow at Cornell University and a visiting fellow at Harvard Business School.
Her research on time and boundaries in organisations, workplace well-being, and the future of work has been published in top academic journals and popular media outlets like Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, and Forbes. In 2020, her research on subjective time was recognized as a Best Paper at the Academy of Management, and in 2023 she received an Outstanding Reviewer Award from the Academy of Management Review. Her article on “3 Tips to Avoid WFH Burnout” was reprinted in two Harvard Business Review Guidebooks (on remote work and on beating burnout). Professor Giurge has consulted and presented at numerous organizations, including Microsoft, McKinsey, and Novartis, and her findings are often featured internationally, including in The New York Times, Financial Times, and The Economist.
Find out more on Professor Giurge's LinkedIn or personal website.
- Organisational behaviour
- Employee motivation
- Workplace well-being
- Future of work
- Burnout
- Time management
Article: The best bosses know how to subtract work | The Economist (August 2023)
Article: Your email does not constitute my emergency | NY Times (April 2023)
Article: How to get flexible working right | The Economist (March 2023)
Research: Flexible Work Can Dampen Motivation | Harvard Business Review (April 2022)
Article: Be Intentional About How You Spend Your Time Off | Harvard Business Review (December 2021)
Article: The Curse of Off-Hours Email | The Wall Street Journal (October 2021)
Article: 3 Tips to Avoid WFH Burnout | Harvard Business Review (April 2020)
Conor Gearty
Conor Gearty is professor of human rights law at LSE, and a KC (hon). He is a barrister and member of Matrix Chambers from where he continues to practice. Conor is a bencher at both Middle Temple and the Honourable Society of the King’s Inn in Dublin. His cases are mainly concerned with human rights issues and he has appeared in the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the (old) House of Lords.
Conor has four honorary degrees, from Brunel and Roehampton universities in England, UCD in Ireland and Sacred Hearty university in the USA. Since 2020, Conor has also been Vice-President for Social Sciences at the British Academy.
Conor’s academic scholarship is concerned with issues related to human rights, civil liberties and terrorism law. In 2021, he published a study on the role of the judges in relation to the use by British authorities of torture: ‘British Judges Then and Now: the Role of the Judges’. His most recent book is On Fantasy Island: Britain, Europe and Human Rights (Oxford, 2016). His most recent book is Homeland Insecurity: The Rise and Rise of Global Anti-Terrorism Law, published by Polity in May 2024.
As a student, Conor Gearty was undefeated in university debate, winning the Observer Mace on two occasions, the Irish Times competition (twice) and completed a two-month debating tour of the US as a representative of the English Speaking Union of the Commonwealth. His record in university debate has never been matched.
- Human rights
- Civil liberties
- Terrorism
- Law
- The rule of law
- Democracy
- Freedom
Article: The ICC and the nature of legal power | Prospect (May 2024)
Book: Homeland Insecurity: The Rise and Rise of Global Anti-Terrorism Law | Wiley (May 2024)
Book Review: Versions of Denial (January 2024)
Article: British Torture, Then and Now: the Role of the Judges | Modern Law Review (January 2020)
Article: The Overseas Operations Bill: a licence for atrocity | Prospect (September 2020)
Chris Anderson
Chris Anderson is the Ralf Dahrendorf Professor of European Politics and Society.
A student of political behaviour, Anderson’s research has centred on the micro-foundations of markets and democracy. Past research projects have investigated the popularity of governments, the dynamics of public opinion about European integration, and people’s satisfaction with democracy. In other streams of research, he has investigated the connection between welfare states and citizen behaviour and the political attitudes and behaviours of immigrants in Europe.
Anderson is the recipient of several scientific prizes, including the American Political Science Association’s Heinz Eulau Award for the best article published in the American Political Science Review and the Best Article Award from the Journal of Politics. He also has served as President of the American Political Science Association’s Sections on European Politics & Society and Elections, Public Opinion, and Voting Behavior, and on the editorial boards of a number of leading academic journals.
Anderson also has an interest in the political economy of sports. His book on football analytics, co-authored with David Sally, is titled The Numbers Game: Why Everything You Know About Football Is Wrong (Penguin) and combines social scientific insights with football data to understand player and team performance. He has extensive experience in the football industry and is a regular speaker at analytics and sports industry events, including the prestigious Sports Analytics Conference held annually in Boston by MIT’s Sloan School of Management.
Previously, Anderson held permanent or visiting appointments at Rice University, Northwestern University, the State University of New York, Syracuse University, the University of Oxford, Cornell University, and the University of Warwick. A native of Germany, he was educated at the University of Cologne, Virginia Tech, and Washington University in St. Louis, where he received his PhD.
He serves on the Board of Trustees for the American School in London.
He has spoken at a number of conferences, industry events, and company events across industries, including technology, sports, and finance, most commonly around or about football, professional sports, and the use of data analytics in sports.
- Elections
- Public opinion
- EU public support
- COVID rules compliance
- Data analytics
- Sports business and management
- Football
Jet Sanders
Dr Jet Sanders is Assistant Professor in Behavioural Science at The London School of Economics and Political Science.
Jet conducts psychological and behavioural experiments in the lab and field to improve health and wellbeing on a population level. Having graduated from United World College Costa Rica and University of Glasgow, Jet holds an MRes and PhD in Psychology from the University of York, and has conducted research at Kyoto University, Public Health England’s Behavioural Insights Team and the Center for Advanced Hindsight at Duke University. She currently holds a dual position as Senior Behavioural Scientist with the Corona Behavioural Unit of the National institute for Public Health and the Environment of the Netherlands.
Jet focuses on making behavioural science more inclusive, generalisable and replicable. She does this by advancing aspects of heterogeneous practice. This may include answering questions like: Who are today’s behavioural scientists? Do they have the theoretical and methodological understanding as intended? And what is needed to bridge possible gaps? How can behavioural science be embedded structurally in the policy making process? Which trade-off of methods is reliable yet efficient in real-world decision contexts? And how can scientific integrity be preserved in a fast-paced decision process? How can the reproducibility of behavioural findings be advanced? Most of this research is conducted in the context of preventative healthcare: reducing lifestyle disease, the spread infectious disease, air pollution or antimicrobial resistance. One key solution that Jet focuses on results from temporal fluctuations in decision making and behaviour. Her research shows that the weekly cycle influences our risk-taking behaviour, with serious consequences for health care, crime, economic and political settings. In her research, Jet maps these consequences and looks to see how we can use this knowledge to make changes to the decision context.
Previously, Jet also researched faces. Her PhD focused on understanding embodied cognition, first impressions and attribution errors using hyper-realistic face masks, and the dangers of hyper-realistic masks in international security.
- Behavioural science
- Experimental psychology
- Cognitive psychology
- Real-world implementation
- Health
- Wellbeing
- Time
- Risk
- Weekday effects
Will Venters
Dr Venters speaks, and is regularly keynote, at IT and business conferences on various digital business issues, particularly around digital ecosystems, digital transformation, digital innovation, API strategy, AI, and cloud computing. He has briefed European governments and company executives; and undertakes wide ranging consultancy in IT strategy and digital transformation.
His research interests include Digital Transformation, Digital Platforms and Ecosystems , AI, and Agile innovation approaches. He holds a first-class degree in computer science and a PhD in information systems. His research work has been published in major journals including MIS Quarterly, Journal of Information Technology, the Journal of Management Studies, and the Information Systems Journal. He co-authored the Palgrave book “Moving to the Cloud Corporation” and is the author of a blog on digital technology www.binaryblurring.com and is an associate editor of the Journal Information Technology and People.
- Digital transformation
- Digital strategy
- Digital innovation
- AI
- Cloud computing
- Cloud strategy
- API economy
- API strategy
Karise Hutchinson
Professor Karise Hutchinson is an award-winning researcher, author, educator, speaker, and strategic advisor to leaders in public, private and third sector organisations. Specialising in uncovering and spreading the very latest leadership thinking, Karise helps leaders take a deeper look at how they think and practice leadership today, for the sake of tomorrow. She frequently speaks at global conferences and events. Her TEDx talk “Time for a Leadershift” premiered during the COVID-19 pandemic explores why it is time to forget leadership stereotypes and debates and shift how we think and practice leadership.
Karise is author of Leadership and Small Business - the Power of Stories, a book that exemplifies the significance of academic research in the real and challenging world of small business. Her research has been published in leading journals such as International Review of Entrepreneurship, Journal of Marketing Management, Journal of Small Business Strategy, European Business Review, International Marketing Review, and Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development.
Karise is Professor of Leadership at Ulster University where she teaches leading change, developing leadership, and collective leadership. She has a strong track record of managing global research projects in areas such as crisis leadership, organisational growth, leadership and peace building. In 2016, she received the British Academy of Management’s global Education Practice Award, and in 2019 she was awarded Ulster University’s prestigious PhD Research Supervisor of the Year accolade. Karise holds a PhD from Ulster University, as well as Senior Fellowship from the Higher Education Academy, and Diploma from the Institute of Directors.
Karise continues to work in consulting with UK and global organisations – in various contexts including corporate and private sector business, peace building, the creative industries, and higher education, as well as serving as a director on the board of a range of third sector organisations. She works with LSE Consulting on prestigious funded research projects such as the British Council review of High Education in Northern Ireland in 2022.
- Leadership
- Leadership wisdom
- Crisis leadership
- Collective leadership
- Leadership and peace building
- Emotionally intelligent leaders
- Leading change
- Developing leadership talent
Kevin Featherstone
Professor Kevin Featherstone joined LSE in 2002 and is a Professorial Research Fellow in the European Institute and Director of the Hellenic Observatory at LSE. He has held visiting posts at Harvard; the European University Institute; New York University; and, University of Minnesota. He is a recipient of various awards for his research: e.g. the Order of the Phoenix (twice) from the Hellenic Republic; the European Parliament judged his book, 'The Road to Maastricht...', one of the best books in the EU.
He is author/co-author of some 15 monographs on EU politics and on contemporary Greece, as well as numerous journal articles. He is a regular contributor to international media on European affairs and on contemporary Greece.
- EU politics
- BREXIT
- Contemporary Greece and Cyprus
- European public policy
David Madden
David Madden is an academic, researcher and writer who is currently Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Cities Programme at The London School of Economics and Political Science. He works on cities, housing, urban politics, urban design and urban theory, exploring the factors that shape city life and housing systems as well as their potential for change.
As convenor of the City Design and Social Science masters degree at LSE, his teaching and research bridges sociology, geography, urban design, urban planning and other fields. A former resident of New York City, David completed his PhD at Columbia University and has also taught at New York University and Bard College.
David is the author, with the late Peter Marcuse, of In Defense of Housing, a critical analysis of the housing crisis in contemporary cities. He serves on the editorial board of the journal CITY: Analysis of urban change, theory, action. In addition to academic outlets, his work has also appeared in The Guardian, the Washington Post, Jacobin, The Big Issue, and other publications.
A frequent speaker on urbanism, housing, and architecture, David has been interviewed on the radio and television in the UK, Canada, Australia, Spain and elsewhere. His work has been translated into ten languages and he has given lectures to audiences in twelve countries.
- Cities
- Housing
- Urbanism
- Urban planning
- Public space
- Social housing
- Architecture
- Urban social movement
Charlie Beckett
Charlie Beckett is a professor in the Department of Media and Communications and founding director of Polis, the LSE's international journalism think-tank. He is currently director of the LSE Journalism and AI project working with newsrooms around the world on applying new technologies.
Professor Beckett is a specialist in how media change affects the journalism industry but also its impact on politics and society. Before joining the LSE he was an award-winning film-maker and editor at news organisations such as the BBC and ITN's Channel 4 News. He is the author of 'SuperMedia' that describes the digital revolution in journalism.
He is a regular speaker at conferences and in the news media on journalism, politics and social media.
- Journalism
- Artificial Intelligence
- Politics
- Social Media
- Terrorism
- Regulation
- Democracy
- Emotions
- Literacy
- Digital
- Future of News
Ricky Burdett
Professor Burdett is a London-based urban specialist with a wide portfolio of academic and consultancy activities at an international scale. Trained as an architect, Burdett is a recognised world authority in urban development and design, contemporary architecture, and the social and spatial dynamics of contemporary cities. He leads LSE Cities, a global centre of research and teaching at the London School of Economics and Political Science and established its pioneering Urban Age programme. He is co-chair of the Council on Urban Initiatives, a collaboration with UN Habitat and UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. In his advisory role to the Mayor of London, he was Chief Advisor on Architecture and Urbanism for the London 2012 Olympics and its legacy and was a Cultural Ambassador as a member of the Mayor’s Cultural Leadership Board. Burdett was Director of the Venice International Architecture Biennale and Curator of the Global Cities Exhibition in the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern in London. He was a member of the UK Government Urban Task Force, the Airport Commission and Council member of the Royal College of Art and is a Trustee of the Norman Foster Foundation. He co-edited several books including Shaping Cities in an Urban Age and and Living in the Endless City and is a regular speaker at the World Urban Forum, the World Economic Forum and other international conferences and public events. Professor Burdett was appointed a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for services to urban planning and design in the 2017 New Year’s Honours List and was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the Royal College of Art in 2019. He is the 2022 Distinguished Fellow and Visiting Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities in Singapore.
Professor Burdett has given keynote addresses at major world conferences (World Economic Forum, World Urban Forum, UN Habitat, Regional Plan Association, Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland, Mayors’ Innovation Studio, CityLab conferences, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the World Bank, Mori Foundation, etc) and academic/research institutions (Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Columbia University, Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities, Brookings Institution, University of Naples, Bocconi University, University College London, Centre for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona, Social Science Research Council and Ford Foundation, etc)
- Future of cities
- Environmental sustainability
- Urban governance
- Contemporary architecture
- Social inclusion
- Urban governance
Alex Gillespie
Alex Gillespie is a Professor of Psychological and Behavioural Science at LSE, Professor II at the Oslo New University, and an Editor of Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour. Previously he held positions at the University of Stirling and the University of Cambridge.
The focus of Alex’s research is on communication problems, especially speaking-up, defensiveness, misunderstandings, distrust, and problems of listening to and learning from challenging feedback. He is particularly interested in moments of rupture and crisis. He asks: Why do people and organizations often fail to learn from early warning signs? How do people try to speak up? What tactics are used to silence people raising challenging issues? How can we be better at listening to concerns raised through dialogue? How is technology changing these processes of voicing and learning from concerns?
Alex Gillespie has given numerous keynote lectures and guest talks, including: BBC World-Changing Ideas Summit, UK Cross-Department Complaints Forum, the National Lottery, Learning from Excellence, Asset & Liability Management Association, Bank of England, iCasework, Resolver, UK Valuation Office Agency, Health Services Executive, the Barbican, and various Policy Exchange Forums. He has been interviewed on various podcasts: Amplified, Ay Up AI, FutureProof, Care Opinion, and Stuff to Blow Your Mind. And, he has given advice to government ministers in the UK and Canada, the UK Behavioural Insights Team, the Cabinet Office, and hospital administrators across the world. Finally, his research has been reported in many media outlets, including: the Financial Times, the Guardian, Scientific American, Intelligent Investor, BBC Futures, BBC News, BBC Breakfast, BBC Crossing Divides, Discovery Magazine, Huffington Post, Ars Technica, Slate, National Geographic, the Smithsonian Magazine, and WIRED Magazine.
- Dialogue
- Complaints
- Voice
- Speaking-up
- Defensiveness
- Technology
Christian Busch
Dr Christian Busch is the bestselling author of Connect the Dots: The Art & Science of Creating Good Luck, which has been highlighted as a "wise, exciting, and life-changing book" (Arianna Huffington) that offers "excellent practical guidance for all" (Paul Polman, former CEO, Unilever).
He is a Visiting Fellow at LSE, and the Director of the CGA Global Economy Program at New York University, where he teaches on purpose-driven leadership, entrepreneurship, emerging markets, and (social) innovation.
Previously, he served as Inaugural Deputy Director at the LSE's Innovation Center. He is the co-founder of Sandbox Network, a global community of young innovators, as well as of Leaders on Purpose, an organization convening leading CEOs. His research has been published in leading journals such as the Strategic Management Journal and Journal of Business Venturing, and was among others featured by Harvard Business Review, The Guardian, Fast Company, BBC, and Forbes. In 2016, he received the 'Best Paper Award' (Entrepreneurship) of Emerald Publishing, and the 'Best Social Entrepreneurship Paper Award' of the Academy of Management.
Christian is among Diplomatic Courier’s 'Top 99 Influencers', JCI's 'Ten Outstanding Persons', and on the Thinkers50 Radar list of 30 management thinkers “most likely to shape the future of how organizations are led." He is a member of the World Economic Forum's Expert Forum and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He frequently speaks at conferences such as the World Economic Forum, TED/TEDx, and Financial Times Sustainability Summit. In 2015, Christian gave the LSE Commencement Address.
Christian previously worked in business and consulting in Mexico, Germany, the UK, and the US. He has served as Senior Advisor at multinational companies and the National Entrepreneurs Association, on Ashoka's Selection Panel, on the Global Shapers Steering Committee, and on the Jury of the African Entrepreneurship Award. He has guest-lectured at Stanford Business School, Peking University, IMD, and Strathmore, and in 2017, he received the LSE's "Outstanding Teacher" Award. Christian holds a PhD and Msc from the LSE.
- Serendipity
- Innovation
- Mindset
- Entrepreneurship
- Purpose-driven leadership
- Social innovation
- Social entrepreneurship
- Networks and communities
Elizabeth Stokoe
Elizabeth Stokoe PhD CPsychol HonFBPsS is a professor in the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She conducts conversation analytic research to understand how talk works - from first dates to medical communication and from sales encounters to hostage negotiation. She has published over 150 scientific papers and books, including a popular science book about conversation analysis (Talk: The Science of Conversation). Her latest book is “Crisis Talk” (Routledge, with Dr Rein Ove Sikveland, NTNU and DrHeidi Kevoe-Feldman, Northeastern).
In 2011, Elizabeth pioneered a new method for turning her research findings about (in)effective communication into a training approach CARM – the Conversation Analytic Role-play Method, for which she won a Wired Innovation Fellowship. She has run hundreds of CARM workshops, lectures, and interventions, and shaped communication practice across public, private, and third sector organizations. She has also worked directly as an Industry Fellow in ‘software as a service’ technology companies Typeform and at Deployed. Elizabeth’s next book will be an academic/industry partnership project on conversation analysis and conversation design (with Cathy Pearl, Google, and Dr Saul Albert, Loughborough).
Elizabeth is passionate about science communication and busting the many myths of human communication. She has given numerous public science talks including at TEDx, The Royal Institution of Great Britain, Google, Microsoft, Latitude, Cheltenham Science Festival, and New Scientist Live. Her research and biography were featured on BBC Radio 4’s The Life Scientific. During the Covid-19 pandemic, she participated a behavioural science sub-group of the UK Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE); acted as a consultant for the Scottish Parliament, and is a member of Independent SAGE behaviour group. She is also a patron of Articulacy. In 2021 was awarded Honorary Fellowship of the British Psychological Society.
- Social interaction
- Human communication
- Conversation analysis
- Crisis communication
- Speaking up and out
- Sales encounters
- Customer service
- Conversational AI
- Mediation
- Police interviews
- Emergency service calls
- Persuasive talk
Juanita Gonzalez-Uribe
Dr Juanita Gonzalez-Uribe is an associate professor of finance and co-director Financing the Real Economy at the Financial Markets Group (LSE). Her research focuses on entrepreneurship, innovation, and private equity. Her work has been published in top academic journals, and won several prizes including the Jaime Fernandez de Araoz Prize for Best Paper in Corporate Finance.
Juanita earned a PhD in Finance and Economics from Columbia University. Prior to her PhD studies, she earned her Economics and Mathematics Master and bachelor’s degrees at Universidad de los Andes. Juanita worked at the Central Bank of Colombia.
Juanita is a frequently invited speaker at academic and industry seminars and conferences.
- Entrepreneurship
- Private Equity
- Venture Capital
- Venture Debt
- Innovation
- Business Angels
- Corporate Finance
- Entrepreneurial Finance
- Social Entrepreneurship
- Impact
- Policy
Riccardo Crescenzi
Riccardo Crescenzi is a Professor of Economic Geography at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), UK. He has been a European Research Council (ERC) grant holder, leading a major five-year research project on foreign direct investment (FDI), global value chains (GVCs) and their territorial impacts across the globe. He is currently the LSE Principal Investigator of a large collaborative research project funded by Horizon Europe and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) on inequalities in the era of global megatrends.
Riccardo has been a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute (EUI), a Visiting Scholar at the Taubman Centre at Harvard University, and at the University of California—Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as an Associate at the Centre for International Development (CID) at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He has provided academic advice to numerous international organisations (European Commission, OECD and World Bank among others). Riccardo has also served as the Rapporteur of the High-Level Expert Group on Innovative Cities established by the European Commissioner for Research and Innovation and has been part of the National Commission for Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility of the Italian Government.
Riccardo is currently a Member of the High-Level Reflection Group on the ‘Future of Cohesion Policy’ established by the European Commission to offer advice and knowledge on maximising the impact of Cohesion Policy. He has a long track-record of teaching and research in regional economic development, innovation, FDI and GVCs, and in the analysis and evaluation of public policies. This research is published in top peer-reviewed journals in economic geography, international economics and international business and management and widely cited in academic and policy circles.
His most recent book “Harnessing Global Value Chains for Regional Development” (2023, Routledge) explores how regions, cities and clusters can build, embed and reshape global value chains for local enhancement
- Regional Development
- Innovation
- Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
- Investment Promotion
- Global Value Chains (GVC)
- Public Policy
- European Union (EU)
- Levelling up
- Cohesion
- Globalisation
- Work-from-home
Shani Orgad
Shani Orgad is Professor of Media and Communications at LSE. She is a sociologist and cultural analyst and her research focuses on gender, feminism and the media, inequality and contemporary culture, media representations of suffering and migration and globalisation. While her groundbreaking work runs across a range of spheres and contexts, it is unified by asking how cultural and media narratives shape public imagination, lived experiences, and workplace cultures and practices.
Shani is the author of numerous academic articles, op-eds, blogs, and five books including: Confidence Culture (with Rosalind Gill, 2022, Duke University Press), Heading Home: Motherhood, Work, and the Failed Promise of Equality (2019, Columbia University Press), Caring in Crisis? Humanitarianism, the Public and NGOs (with Bruna Seu, 2017, Palgrave), Media Representation and the Global Imagination (2012, Polity) and Storytelling Online: Talking Breast Cancer on the Internet (2005, Peter Lang). She has written for The Atlantic, Al Jazeera, The Hill, and The Conversation, and her research has been widely covered by international outlets including New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian, El Pais, Zeit Online, Financial Times, Times, Forbes, Vox, Refinery29, and Dazed. She has also discussed her research in various podcasts, such as WAMC 51%, LSEIQ and Top ranks.
Shani is a regular speaker on gender equality in the workplace, motherhood, and media and migration. An engaging and dynamic speaker, Shani has delivered keynote addresses, workshops, and discussion panels to a wide range of organisations including Financial Times, General Medical Council (GMC), JP Morgan, Bloomberg, UK Cabinet Office, Chief (a NY-based women private membership network) and Women in Games.
- Gender equality
- Narrative
- Media
- Culture
- Feminism
- Migration
- Motherhood
- Workplace
- Representations
Neil Lee
Neil Lee is Professor of Economic Geography at the LSE. He also holds positions as Professor II at the Inland University of Norway, as an Associate Member of Nuffield College, University of Oxford, and as an Associate of the University of St Andrews. Before joining academia he was Head of a Research Centre at a think-tank. He has held visiting positions at Columbia University, Science Po Toulouse, and the University of Oxford. He runs the Cities, Jobs, and Economic Change network at the LSE's International Inequalities Institute.
His work considers innovation, inequality, and the geography of economic development. He has studied economic development in countries as diverse as the UK, Switzerland, Kuwait, Singapore, and China. He is currently leading international projects on the changing geography of regional inequality across the advanced world, the development of Singaporean tech, and equity finance for the tech sector. He has also written on political change, and the problems of populism in the context of high regional inequality.
His research has been funded by international and private sector organisations including the World Bank, OECD, the EIB, and Barclays Bank, and cited in key government documents such as the UK Levelling Up White Paper. He has won prizes for his teaching and for his research, including the 2020 Regional Studies prize for his work on inclusive growth. His book on innovation and inclusive growth is out late 2023 with University of California Press.
He has given keynote lectures and presentations at international organisations including the OECD, the European Commission, conferences including the Geography of Innovation 2020 and the Vigo Innovation Summit, at various UK government departments, and banks including Barclays and Society Generale.
- Innovation
- Technological change
- Globalisation
- Tech
- Inclusive growth
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