The Leading Speakers Bureau

Former Wal-Mart Executive

Michael Bergdahl is a full-time motivational speaker, author and writer. Bergdahl worked in Bentonville, Arkansas for Wal-Mart, as the Director of “People” for the headquarters office, where he worked directly with Sam Walton. It was Sam Walton who gave Bergdahl the nickname, “Bird Dawg”! He has recent experience as a turnaround specialist, successfully working with American Eagle Outfitters & Waste Management & is considered an authority on Wal-Mart.

“A storyteller who weaves entertainment into his motivational business messages”

[expand title=”In detail”] Michael began his career in an entrepreneurial, highly successful, family-owned newspaper publishing business in Houston, Texas. In his next position, he got his hands dirty on the manufacturing side of the petrochemical industry in J. M. Huber Corporation’s, Carbon Black Division in Baytown, Texas. He was later recruited by Frito Lay (a subsidiary of PepsiCo) to assume a position in their sales organization.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]He will enhance the content of your meetings by communicating the sales, service and employee performance expertise to your audience that he gained from his experiences working in Consumer Packaged Goods at Frito-Lays, Discount Retailing at Wal-Mart and Speciality Retailing at American Eagle Outfitters. Michael Bergdahl is the ideal choice for keynotes, breakouts and workshops.[/expand]
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Shipping Analyst

Martin Stopford joined Clarkson’s in 1990 and was previously a Vice President at Chase Manhattan Bank and a Director of British Shipbuilders. He was appointed to the Board of Clarkson’s in September 2004. Clarkson’s, the world’s leading shipping services provider, is a dynamic organisation at the forefront of change within the industry, an industry estimated to be worth in excess of $100 billion p.a.

“The UK’s leading expert on the Shipping Industry”

[expand title=”In detail”] At Clarkson’s Martin is proud of his ship broking heritage and the combination of experience with a high level of energy has spawned a number of new ideas and initiatives which are propelling the group towards broadening its range of shipping services. These new initiatives include both ship owning and ferry operations within a newly formed logistics division.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]Martin offers audiences great insights into industry leading research and consultancy. He talks in great detail about his work partnering core strengths with the innovation of his project and development section resulting in his unrivalled position as an adviser to the Shipping Industry and the first port of call for large corporate entities[/expand]
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Director of Global Logistics for Amazon.com

Girish Lakshman has been a part of the Amazon.com e-logistics strategy since July 1999, he has been instrumental in shaping the logistics strategy of the company and is now a recognised leader in this field. He has thirteen years experience in the manufacturing and automotive industry, and has provided corporate strategy advice in the biotech industry in India.

Through his presentations he explains how to develop prototypical decision support systems to demonstrate the benefits of using IT for creating an optimal level of core inventory. Girish also uses his expertise to enable business leaders to design and implement systems to project production at cost for different manufacturing facilities to level load production and reduce manpower requirements.

[expand title=”In detail”] He has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Osmania University, India, and studied a variety of topics at the Graduate School of the University of Missouri Rolla. He has been an officer of the Young Orators Club for several years, learning and teaching the art of public speaking.

He has led the effort to establish an optimised inventory distribution plan across the network at Amazon.com, including formulating the functional specifications to correlate split shipments with inventory placement and distribution centre capacity, systems evaluation and integration.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]Girish has been an inspirational leader in transforming traditional business culture into an environment ready to compete intelligently in the e-commerce world. His experience has been hands-on and has left a legacy of leadership and forward thinking in all the places he has worked.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]Most recently he has designed several decision support systems, and has implemented a number of training programmes to demonstrate the complexities of IT systems and the benefits that can be reaped by correct system application.

Girish Lakshman is a highly motivating and articulate speaker, his enlightening presentations are always well received. He not only inspires but also presents his clients with actionable solutions that can be implemented immediately.[/expand]
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Founder and Director of the Lean Enterprise Academy

Daniel Jones is Founder and Director of The Lean Enterprise Academy where the main thrust of his work has been to develop and help to implement the ’Lean Business System’. Based on ‘Lean Thinking’ principles learnt from Toyota, this starts by defining customer value, which then leads to the reorganisation of every step required to design, order, build, deliver and maintain this value across all the organisations involved.

Professor Jones has helped to establish a global network of institutes dedicated to researching, educating and publishing action-oriented knowledge on the Lean Business System

[expand title=”In detail”] After a research career at the National Institute for Economic and Social Research in London and the Sussex European Research Centre and Science Policy Research Unit at Sussex University he was appointed Professor of Manufacturing Management at Cardiff University Business School in 1989, where he was the founding Director of the Lean Enterprise Research Centre (LERC) from 1994 to 2001.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]Daniel is dedicated to helping corporations to identify and achieve first-class performance levels throughout the globe. In his enlightening presentations he shows decision makers how, by implementing ‘Lean Thinking’, firms can do more with less, respond more quickly to customer needs, create more rewarding jobs for employees and reduce their impact on the environment.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]An experienced speaker, Professor Jones’ presentations are filled with actionable information and are invaluable for all businesses wishing to apply the innovative approaches in making the transition to ‘Lean Management’.
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British Politician and Renowned Businessman

From 1991 until 2000, Archie Norman was Chief Executive and then Chairman of Asda, the large supermarket chain, and was credited with turning it around and making it the second largest in the UK, before its sale to Walmart in June 1999. He helped form the think tank Policy Exchange. In 2002 he joined Energis as Chairman having led a consortium of banks in the purchase and refinance of the UK arm from the administrators of Energis Plc.

“Archie is without doubt one of the UK’s most respected retail executives”

[expand title=”In detail”] Mr Norman was elected as Conservative Member of Parliament for Tunbridge Wells in the 1997 general election. Whilst in Parliament he served as a shadow minister from 1999 until 2001, when he returned to the backbenches. He stood down as MP at the May 2005 general election. He has also previously been a Member of the HM Government Deregulation Taskforce (1993-1997) and a Member of the Anglo-German Deregulation Taskforce in 1995. [/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]A remarkable and successful businessman, Archie has held a number of prestigious positions for major blue-chip companies. Drawing on his experiences he is able to show decision makers how to design effective business strategies to improve performance, to successfully motivate the workforce and to effectively deal with change.[/expand]
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Editor-at-Large & Principal Economic Commentator of Reuters and The International Herald Tribune

Anatole Kaletsky writes a weekly column on politics, economics and international relations for Reuters and The International Herald Tribune. He is one of the most requested keynote speakers of all times. He is also a founding partner of GaveKal Capital, a Hong Kong-based economic advisory and asset management company, which provides economic analysis and asset allocation advice to 500 financial institutions around the world and also manages US $ 500m of client funds.

What our clients say after booking Anatole Kaletsky:

“Anatole Kaletsky was an excellent speaker. He included the contents that the host organization had asked him to, and his speech reflected his thoughtful consideration on the topic. We look forward to working with him again!”

[expand title=”In detail”] Born in Moscow and educated at Cambridge, Anatole Kaletsky went on to Harvard as a Kennedy Scholar and was awarded a Masters in Economics. He was a full-time journalist for The Times, Financial Times and The Economist from 1976 until 1998, when he expanded his activities to include economic forecasting and financial consulting. During his 30 years as a journalist, he has received many awards and distinctions, including Commentator of the Year, Economic Journalist of the Year and European Journalist of the Year. He is also a Director of several investment companies. In 1998 he was elected by Britain’s economics profession to a five-year term on the governing council of the Royal Economic Society.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you as a keynote speaker”]With his finger firmly on the pulse of UK, European and World economics few are better qualified than Anatole Kaletsky to offer expert analysis of current market trends and precise economic forecasts. [/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents as a keynote speaker”]One of the UK’s leading and unique commentators on economics, his provocative yet articulate and charming style makes him ideal for keynote speeches and he is excellent when participating in panel debates or moderating conferences. He is also part of our Most Popular keynote speakers list[/expand]
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Trend Spotter Extraordinaire and Innovation speaker

Magnus Lindkvist is a future trends speaker who offers insightful and tangible solutions to companies wishing to grow their business in an organic way. He is the founder of the trend agency Pattern Recognition who helps companies to make sense (and money) out of the future. Furthermore, he is the creator of “Trendspotting and Future Thinking”, one of Europe’s first academically accredited courses in the subject.

“Where the day takes you, that’s where you’re going”

[expand title=”In detail”] Previously he worked as a brand strategist at Differ and for the brand strategy agency, Grow. As a member of TED and The Long Now Foundation, Magnus combines a passionate interest in the future with a strong desire to share insights that has made him one of Europe’s most sought-after future trends speakers. He is also a course director at Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship, a collaborative partnership between Stockholm School of Economics, The Royal Institute of Technology, The University College of Arts, Crafts and Design and Medical University Karolinska Institute.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you as a keynote speaker”]Magnus Lindkvist will inspire and provoke you into better future-thinking. He considers what is happening now and in the future and how it affects how we do business. He gives businesses a tangible and simple call to action on how to adapt to these future trends to develop and market their products and services.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents as a keynote speaker”]Magnus is an energetic and exciting future trends speaker who in his fun and fact-filled tailored presentations, uses humour to deliver great insights about the trends that will shape your business.[/expand]
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