TAGGED UNDER: Keynote
Speakers in the news 27th October
Chartwell Speakers have been featuring in the news this week. See our ‘Top Five’’ picks below. If you are interested in booking a speaker please contact us here.
1) DIDO HARDING
- Dido Harding spent seven years as Chief Executive of TalkTalk PLC, Britain’s challenger telecoms company. She oversaw the transformation of the company’s customer service following the demerger from Carphone Warehouse, turning Britain’s most complained about telecoms operator into an award winning provider. She led the regulatory, political and media campaign for greater competition in the sector, leading to the eventual break-up of BT in 2017. She also led TalkTalk through one Britain’s most high-profile cyber attacks, being praised by a Parliamentary Committee for her transparent and strong crisis leadership.
- Dido is set to embark on her next great challenge as chair of NHS improvement. Dido will be responsible for overseeing NHS foundation trusts, NHS trusts and independent providers, with the aim of helping them give patients consistently safe, high quality, compassionate care within local health systems that are financially sustainable. Dido’s previous experience dealing with cyber security make her a great fit for the job.
2) ADAIR TURNER
- Lord Adair Turner is a world-renowned expert on global economic trends, global finance, macro prudential regulation and the Chinese financial system. Adair is also passionate about protecting the planet, and chairs the Energy Transitions Commissions (ETC), which advises policymakers on concrete actions that could help the world meet the 2015 Paris agreement ambitions.
- Adair told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Wake Up to Money programme on 25th October that Capitalism is not delivering on its promise to raise living standards. His comments were made ahead of the release of third quarter growth figures for the UK this week, “Everybody knows that capitalism is not egalitarian, but the broad promise has been that, over a ten-year period, you can be pretty confident that a rising tide raises all boats and everybody feels somewhat better off, and that’s gone wrong”.
- Speaking on climate change, this week, Adair urged government and business decision-makers to support the development of technologies like carbon capture storage (CCS) and alternative energy sources like hydrogen and biofuels, because they could offer cost-effective ways to achieve further reductions in emissions.
3) BOB KERSLAKE
- Lord Kerslake is president of the Local Government Association and former head of the civil service and permanent secretary at the Department for Communities and Local Government.
- Bob was interviewed by The Telegraph this week on Jeremy Corbyn’s manifesto. He said Corbyn’s left wing ideas are “not unusual” and are common on the Continent. He said “of course” Mr Corbyn could become Prime Minister. “Why wouldn’t you see it as a possibility if they have received that level of votes and support?”. Even throwing his weight behind a change to the political system, he added: “The two main political parties are actually coming to the same conclusion – that we need a break with the past, a revisiting of how the economy works.”
4) JOSEPH STIGLITZ
- Joseph Stiglitz is widely regarded as one of the world’s finest economic thinkers. He has made major contributions to macroeconomics and monetary theory, development economics and trade theory, public and corporate finance, the theories of industrial organisation and rural organisation, and the theories of welfare economics and income and wealth distribution.
- Joseph argued this week, that an independent Scotland in the EU would “resolve a lot of the uncertainties” of Brexit. Speaking in an interview on the BBC’s Sunday Politics Scotland, Stiglitz – who endorsed Scottish independence during the 2014 referendum and has also served as an advisor to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn – said that he was still “sympathetic” to the arguments for independence in light of Brexit, saying that the UK’s negotiations for leaving the EU were heading for a “disaster”. He continued: “When you had a referendum a couple of years ago it seemed to me at that time it was very clear that the values and policies of Scotland were moving in a markedly different direction from those in England”.
5) GERD LEONHARD
- Gerd Leonhard is a widely-known and top-rated futurist, with over 1500 engagements in the past 15 years and a combined audience of over 1 million people. Gerd focuses on near- future, ‘nowist’ observations and actionable foresights in the sectors of humanity, society, business, media, technology and communications.
- Gerd delivered the 2017 Rewoldt Lecture Oct. 26 at Mayo Clinic. The topic was “The Future of Technology and Its Impact on Direct Democracy.” During his keynote Gerd predicted that ”humanity will change more in the next 20 years than in the previous 300 years”.