Past Events

Friday 4 April 2025

Bobby Yerramilli-Rao

Chief Strategy Officer, Microsoft

How businesses can thrive in the era of AI and abundant expertise

Bobby is CSO & CVP, Corporate Strategy at Microsoft. He is responsible for helping the Senior Leadership Team identify and execute on the most important strategic priorities for the company. His mandate spans both existing business areas and new potential areas for Microsoft. Prior to this role, Bobby spent 9 years as co-founder and managing partner of Fusion Global Capital, a growth stage venture capital firm focused on enterprise technology. He serves on the board of Global Foundries and is a board observer at Biomodal. Bobby was previously the Corporate Strategy Director at Vodafone and before that, a partner at McKinsey and Company working in the Palo Alto, New Jersey and London offices on technology related issues. He started his career as an engineer at Marconi.

Thursday 3 April 2025

Robert D. Kaplan

Waste Land: A World in Permanent Crisis

As we enter a new era of global cataclysm; a deadly mix of war, climate change, great-power rivalry, rapid technological advancement, and the end of empire, Robert explains incisively how we got here and where we are going.

Thursday 27 March 2025

Noor Sweid

Founder and Managing Partner of Global Ventures

Coming of Age: How Technology and Entrepreneurship are Changing the Face of MENA

Coming of Age is the story of the entrepreneurial growth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) over the last twenty-five years, spanning industries as diverse as fintech, healthtech and agritech, all of which have emerged from the desert since the new millennium, producing globally-leading transformative ventures and leapfrogging technologies. Featuring stories and reflections of pioneering founders from the region, Coming of Age conveys the MENA region’s remarkable entrepreneurial journey to the point of today, where it is set to challenge the global order and to fully realise the potential of the largest young digital population in the world.

Wednesday 26 March 2025

Harry Stebbings

Founder of 20VC

From media to venture capital - an unorthodox journey

Harry launched his podcast, The Twenty Minute VC, in 2014 when just 18 years old. By combining content creation with genuine curiosity, he has carved a unique path and inspired a new generation of entrepreneurs and investors. Leveraging his podcast relationships he broke into VC, and now manages over $500m in venture capital funds, in addition to his thriving media empire. He joins us to explain this unusual odyssey.

Tuesday 25 March 2025

Michael Calvey

Chairman of Baring Ventures

Odyssey Moscow: An American's Journey from Russia Optimist to Prisoner of the State

Odyssey Moscow is the story not just of Michael Calvey, but of how Russia’s era of hope and aspiration finally died, and of how light can be found in the strangest of places.

Tuesday 18 March 2025

Elisabeth Braw

Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council

Stormy seas: shadow vessels, undersea sabotage, attacks on merchant ships, and why the deteriorating maritime order affects us all.

Wednesday 12 March 2025

Chris Grigg OBE

Chairman, National Wealth Fund
The role of the National Wealth Fund in infrastructure and industrial policy

Chris is Chair of the National Wealth Fund and of Evelyn Partners, the wealth management company. He is a member of the Board of Melrose plc, the aerospace company and will become its Chair early next year. In his executive career Chris was most recently CEO of British Land. Before that, he was CEO of Barclays’ Commercial Bank. Chris’ earlier career was spent at Goldman Sachs, where he was a Partner and at Morgan Grenfell. Chris has a MA in Economics from the University of Cambridge.

Thursday 6 March 2025

Andrew Haldane CBE

Chief Executive of the RSA
The UK’s economic and social challenges

Andy is the Chief Executive of the Royal Society of Arts. He was formerly Chief Economist at the Bank of England and a member of the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee. He was the Permanent Secretary for Levelling Up at the Cabinet Office from September 2021 to March 2022. Andrew is Founder and President of the charity Pro Bono Economics, Vice-Chair of the charity National Numeracy and Chair of the National Numeracy Leadership Council. Andrew chairs the Government’s Levelling Up Advisory Council and the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre’s Industrial Board. He is contributing editor at the Financial Times and Chief Economic Advisor at PwC. Among other positions, he is Honorary Professor at the Universities of Nottingham, Manchester and Exeter, Visiting Professor at King’s College, London and a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Academy of Social Services.

Wednesday 5 March 2025

Gabriel Pogrund and Patrick Maguire

Get In: The Inside Story of Labour Under Starmer

Get In is the definitive behind-the-scenes account of Labour’s brutal reinvention and dramatic return to power under Keir Starmer.

Wednesday 26 February 2025

Alastair King

Lord Mayor of London
Growth Unleashed: Opportunities for the UK financial and professional services industry

Alastair is the 696th Lord Mayor of London having served as Aldermanic Sheriff from 2022-2023. Alastair started his career at leading international law firm Baker & McKenzie in London and in Asia. He later held senior positions at SPARK Ventures (formally NewMedia SPARK PLC) a pioneering technology venture capital company in London, and was Managing Director at Galahad Capital Plc. Alastair is the founder and Chairman of Naisbitt King Asset Management Limited (NKAML), an FCA-authorised asset management company, specialising in managing segregated portfolios of investment grade fixed income securities. In addition, he is Chair of the British Liver Trust and Secretary of the UK Parliament’s All-Party Parliamentary Group on Sovereign Wealth Funds. He is also Chair of the Institute of Directors, London Region.