With more than a decade working at the heart of the technology industry, Dex Hunter-Torricke has managed communications for some of the most-influential and admired Silicon Valley leaders and corporations of our day. In his daily work, Dex plays a critical role in writing the next chapter on science, tech, the economy, and society across the globe, and spearheads efforts to bring the stories of how the world is being moved forward to light. From 2012-2016, he led the executive communications team at Facebook and served as personal speechwriter for Mark Zuckerberg. He then went on to join SpaceX as senior director of communications. He later served as the VP Global Communications & Public Engagement for the Oversight Board for Meta, the independent body that makes decisions on Facebook and Instagram’s most challenging content issues. Dex takes audiences into Facebook’s boardroom, Musk’s open-concept cubicle, the famed Googleplex, and finally to the UN itself to share lessons on what it takes in today’s environment to build highly effective internal teams, how to use storytelling in modern communications, and what to make of the steady transition from local to global that’s unfolded over the past decade.

Trevor Williams served as Chief Economist at Lloyds Bank for over a decade. Now an author, academic and consultant, he analyses the key trends and policies that shape the economy and markets. From energy and climate to how companies use their data to understand the wider economy, he brings clarity and relevance to an often complex and abstract field.

Recognised as “the man who fixes businesses” Kevin Gaskell has an impressive track record in building and leading successful companies. As CEO of Porsche, Lamborghini, and BMW, Gaskell led hugely successful turnarounds that are pointed to as examples of how to successfully transform companies and position them for long-term success. His energy and leadership have helped companies to achieve world-class levels of customer service and financial performance, and he speaks with electricity about using inspired leadership to achieve incredible results.

Kate Ancketill is the brains and driving force behind GDR Creative Intelligence, a globally recognised consultancy focused on innovation and emerging trends in retail, leisure and hospitality around the world. World-renowned, dynamic and commercially successful, Ancketill won the Jennifer d’Abo Memorial Scholarship for female entrepreneurs in 2007 and was selected as one of the UK’s top 100 in the Courvoisier Future 500 in 2009.

When organisations and individuals want to better their understanding of the latest technology trends and their impact on business and society, Greg Williams is among the first names they seek out for thought leadership. As the deputy global editor for WIRED magazine and a widely respected strategic forecaster, Williams has exclusive lines of communication to the innovators, thinkers, scientists, entrepreneurs, and creatives who are changing the world and draws upon his conversations with them to publish insightful and influential pieces on innovation, technology, and the ideas that are reshaping our world in real time.

Steven Van Belleghem is a thought leader on the transformation of customer relations and the future of marketing. In 2012, Steven founded the inspiration company B-Conversational. He gives strategic advice to companies around the globe, helping them better understand the world of conversations, social media and digital marketing. In addition, he also helps clients set up long-term inspirational programs to change the mindset and enrich the knowledge of their teams. Steven started his professional career in 2000 as a research assistant at the Vlerick Business School, where he remains a guest marketing professor to this day. He is an expert in guiding companies through the smart usage of technology in the customer relationship, without forgetting the human side of business. In 2001, Steven became one of the first employees to join InSites Consulting, an innovative start-up in the online research industry. Over the next eleven years, he worked his way up to become one of the company’s managing partners and shareholders. During this period, the company grew from just 8 staff to 130 with branches in 5 countries. Steven is a best-selling author of business books. His latest, titled “When Digital becomes Human” (2014), describes the need to digitise the customer relationship without forgetting the human aspect. He believes that today’s world not only needs a digital transformation; the human side of business is also in need of a makeover. His two previous books, “The Conversation Manager” (2010) and “The Conversation Company” (2012), are award-winning best-sellers with more than 50,000 copies sold.

Albert Read has launched and led businesses for Condé Nast in the UK, and across Europe and Asia, overseeing titles such as Vogue, GQ, Wired, Condé Nast Traveller and Vanity Fair. A former journalist, he has written for The Spectator, the TLS, the Times and the Telegraph.  He studied Classics at New College, Oxford and has an MBA from INSEAD.  He lives in West London with his wife and three children.

Marga Hoek is a member of Thinkers50, she is that rare combination: a true visionary on sustainable business and capital and a successful, innovative business leader who understands and applies the commercial realities of business. Operating at the highest level with ministers and presidents, Marga is a global voice for G20, G7 Climate Change and Cop 23 and a regular contributor for prestigious, global media like Forbes Magazine, Fortune and The Huffington Post. Her latest book The Trillion Dollar Shift, on the business opportunities of the Sustainable Development Goals, received an international, gold medal.

Alongside Sunday Times responsibilities and columns in Professional Investor and Industrial Review, David is a prolific book-writer. In speeches David likens low oil prices to a major tax cut, and distinguishes between good (UK) and possibly bad (Eurozone) deflation. He might also reveal the latest findings of his own Skip Index, a reliable indicator of the state of the domestic economy.

Rachel Botsman is an author and a visiting academic at the University of Oxford, Saïd Business School. She studies and teaches how technology is transforming trust between people and what that means for business and society. She defined the theory of “collaborative consumption” with her acclaimed book, What’s Mine is Yours (HarperCollins, 2010). The concept was subsequently named by TIME as one of the “Ten Ideas That Will Change the World” and by Thinkers50 as the 2015 Breakthrough Idea. Her TED talks on the subject have been viewed almost three million times. Rachel is a regular writer and commentator in leading international publications including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, Wired and more. She is recognized as one of the world’s top 20 speakers to keynote your conference by Monocle, one of the Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company and a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. Recently, she joined the NRMA board as a specialist non-executive Director. She is currently writing a new book on a new era of trust to be published by Portfolio Penguin, October 2017.

Dr Gorkan Ahmetoglu is an Associate Professor of Business Psychology at University College London (UCL) and the co-founder of Meta Profiling Ltd. He is the Director of the Business Psychology programme at UCL and has previously held the positions of Director of Management and Entrepreneurship, Director of Digital Entrepreneurship, and Director of Consumer Behaviour at Goldsmiths, University of London. He has also taught at London’s City University and Heythrop University. Gorkan is the author of Personality 101, the editor of the Wiley Handbook of Entrepreneurship, and has published numerous articles and reviews in leading academic journals as well as authored in Harvard Business Review and Management Today. Dr Ahmetoglu is a leading expert in psychological profiling and assessment and a business adviser and speaker in the areas of entrepreneurship, consumer decision-making, and marketing strategy. He is also an associate to Harvard’s EFL Global. Gorkan consults to global organisations and the UK government, and frequently appears in media as expert adviser. His clients include HSBC, LVMH, ABF, Unilever, Google, Ford, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Mars, McKinsey & Co, BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5, The Edrington Group, the Office of Fair Trading, the Intellectual Property Office, the British Brand Groups, Government Social Research, The Grocer, The Marketing Magazine, and KPMG.

Paul has been director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the UK’s leading economic research institute, since January 2011. The IFS became the first organization to win the Prospect “Think Tank of the Year” award two years in a row in 2014 and 2015 and has won “economic and financial” think tank of the year four years in succession. Paul is also a visiting professor in the economics department at UCL. He is a columnist for The Times. He is a board member of the Climate Change Committee, of the Office of Tax Simplification, and of the Banking Standards Board. Paul has been awarded an honorary doctorate by Exeter University, has been named in the Public Finance Top 50, in the Higher Education top 50 “power list”, and in the International Tax Review global top 50.