The Leading Speakers Bureau

Leading Business Advisor, Author and Leadership speaker

Ram Charan is an acclaimed business advisor, consultant and a well-known author. He is famous among senior executives for his ability to solve difficult business problems. For more than thirty-five years, Dr. Charan has worked behind the scenes with top executives at some of the world’s most successful companies advising them on their business strategies. In 2009 Thinkers 50, the global ranking of management gurus, placed him among the list of most influential thinkers.

“…even more than his dedication, it’s his insights that have won him the ear of hundreds of top managers…” Fast Company

Ram Charan has been ranked among the top 50 most influential business thinkers. In 2009 Thinkers 50, the global ranking of management gurus, placed him among the list of most influential thinkers

[expand title=”In detail”] Dr. Charan’s started his business career as a teenager working in a family shoe shop in India. He received an engineering degree, an MBA and doctorate degree from Harvard Business School. After his doctorate degree, he served on the Harvard Business School faculty. He has taught for 30 years at the General Electrics (GE) Leadership Centre at Crotonville and is the recipient of their Bell Ringer Award (Best Teacher). He also won Best Teacher Award at Wharton and Northwestern and was among Business Week’s top ten resources for in-house executive development programmes.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]Dr. Charan is well known for providing advice that is down to earth and relevant and that takes into account the real-world complexities of business. Drawing from his extensive knowledge he gained from working with hundreds of organizations, Ram Charan not only advises businesses on their strategies but also provides them with the tools that are necessary to drive success and achieve profitable growth.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]Ram Charan’s energetic and interactive sessions are filled with a host of highly useful information, yet are delivered in an easily digestible format and offer invaluable advice to top business leaders around the world. He is also part of our Top Leadership speakers.[/expand]
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Head of Research and Networks at IJ Partners & Former Head of Global Risk – World Economic Forum

Thierry Malleret is an economics and strategy expert. He is a senior partner at IJ Partners, an investment company founded for entrepreneurs and families. Until 2009, he was managing partner at Rainbow Insight, an advisory boutique which he founded, providing tailor-made intelligence to investors. Previously Thierry headed the Global Risk Network at the World Economic Forum, a network that brings together top opinion and policymakers.

“A highly respected Head of the Global Risk Network of the World Economic Forum”

[expand title=”In detail”] For a number of years in succession, Thierry has conceived and put in place the programme for Davos and spoken at global, industry and regional events. His previous experience was in investment banking, as a Chief Economist and Strategist of a major Russian investment bank, think tanks and academia, both in New York and Oxford and in government, with a three-year spell in the Prime Minister’s office in Paris. He has appeared on numerous network television programs, including CNN and CNBC.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]He demonstrates how strategies can be developed to seize opportunities from risks and to uphold sustainability. He also is an accomplished speaker whose addresses have covered a wide range of economical subjects.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]In an easy and relaxed way, he conveys complex issues with great transparency.[/expand]
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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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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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Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at Harvard Business School

Prof. Tarun Khanna is the Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor and a Novartis Fellow at Harvard Business School. Currently, he teaches in Harvard’s comprehensive general management executive education programs. His current research focuses on understanding the drivers of entrepreneurship worldwide.

In 2007, he was nominated to be a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum

[expand title=”In detail”] Prof. Khanna has served as course head of the strategy course in the Harvard MBA program, and chaired the executive education program on Strategy, Leadership and Governance. He is actively involved in mentoring startups in Asia. His scholarly work has been published in a range of journals over the past fifteen years, he is also serving as a co-editor of several prestigious economics and management journals. His first book, ‘Foundations of Neural Networks’, has been translated into Italian and Japanese, and is widely used as a reference text in engineering and applied science departments.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]Serving on the advisory boards of several multinational and emerging market companies in the financial services, automotive, life sciences and agribusiness sectors, Tarun Khanna has experience in a wide variety of industries. Providing valuable insights into emerging markets, strategy and leadership and business in China and India, Professor Khanna is in great demand with audiences worldwide.[/expand]
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Business Writer & Commentator, Former Financial Times Editor

Andrew Gowers has a lifetime’s experience in newspapers and on the front-line of corporate crises in Britain, Europe and the US. A financial journalist for 25 years, most of them at the Financial Times, as Editor, and Foreign, and Middle East Editor, he went onto work in corporate communications, first at the global investment bank Lehman Brothers and then at BP – closely involved in the two most high-profile corporate crises of recent decades. He was Head of Corporate Communications and Brand at Lehman Brothers when the bank spectacularly collapsed in 2008, triggering the global financial crisis. After a stint at London Business School, he joined the oil giant BP as Head of Group Media, and was part of the company’s communications response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

“A brilliant financial journalist”

[expand title=”In detail”] A graduate of Cambridge Uni., Andrew worked first with Reuters, then with the FT. He reported from Brussels, Zurich and the Middle East and covered subjects ranging from commodities markets to international politics. He travelled widely and became personally acquainted with many of the world’s most senior political and corporate leaders. He was appointed founding Editor of FT Deutschland until becoming Editor of the English-language FT in 2001. In 2006 he led an independent review for HM Government of the UK’s intellectual property regime and in 2008-9 he served on the advisory board for the Government’s Digital Britain review.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]Andrew offers the inside track on an unusual range of subjects. As a senior communicator for leading companies, he has a truly unique perspective on the world of business and its relationship with society, the media and public opinion. He offers a broad and expert perspective on a gamut of subjects from the UK’s rapidly changing political scene, the future of the euro, European politics, the prospects for the world economy, the Middle East, to the global financial crisis and how companies manage their reputations. With many years’ experience of commenting on international affairs, he regularly reported from the Middle East during his journalistic career, and met many of the region’s leaders. He can talk with authority and insight about the current political upheavals in the Arab world and their geostrategic and economic implications.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]Andrew has an informal speaking style and he leavens his talks with entertaining personal anecdotes and humour, while always leaving audiences with intelligent food for thought. He is equally at home speaking at conferences and dinners, small corporate seminars and large public events.[/expand]
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Director at Cambridge Energy Research Associates in Paris

Jean-Marie Chevalier is currently professor of Economics at the University of Paris-Dauphine, Director of the ‘Centre de Géopolitique de l’Energie et des Matières Premières’. He is also a Director at CERA. He has worked, as an economist for Elf Aquitaine and the energy department of the World Bank. For several years, he was a member of the board of directors of the Banque Nationale de Paris.

The world’s leading expert on current global energy trends
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Former CEO of Burger King

Barry Gibbons earned the title of ‘Turnaround Champ’ from Fortune Magazine thanks to his phenomenal success in boosting Burger King’s fortunes. Within a year of taking on the role, Burger King was opening two new restaurants a day around the world. Having retired from big business, he is now a successful author, speaker and is co-founder of the UK publishing business Infinite Ideas.

Believing that managing isn’t enough he debates what it really takes to be distinct in your leadership, product development, service delivery and customer relationships

[expand title=”In detail”] During Barry’s 5 years as the US-based Chairman/CEO of Burger King he received international acclaim. He has since co-founded and invested in a variety of ventures including a branded food service business, a magazine-CD publishing company, speciality coffee bars and a Latin theme restaurant that opened in Disneyland. He was also Executive in Residence at the University of Miami School of Business and is a regular on the BBC’s Bottom Line business broadcast.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]Barry has made over 250 speeches to blue-chip corporate audiences on four continents. His aim is to show audiences – internal and external – how to stay ahead in fast changing and unpredictable markets.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]With his Anglo-Irish charm he shows how to lead (not manage), and how to energize people who work for you, with you and above you. He illustrates how, in a world of virtually unsatisfiable customers, to develop a connection with them that is beyond satisfaction, exploring ‘intuitive marketing’. Above all, he offers ideas on how to bring it all together to get distinction and excellence in all that you do. Wit and energy are in plentiful supply from this refreshingly alternative thinker and business leader.[/expand]
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Professor of Strategic and International Management at LBS

Costas Markides is Professor of Strategic and International Management at London Business School. A native of Cyprus, he received his BA (Distinction) and MA in Economics from Boston University and his MBA and DBA from the Harvard Business School. Prior to joining London Business School he has worked as an Associate with the Cyprus Development Bank and as a Research Associate at the Harvard Business School. In 2009 and 2007 Thinkers 50, the global ranking of management gurus, placed him among the list of most influential thinkers.

“Costas Markides is an expert on creating breakthrough strategies with proven results”

Costas Markides has been ranked among the top 50 most influential business thinkers. In 2009 Thinkers 50, the global ranking of management gurus, placed him among the list of most influential thinkers.

[expand title=”In detail”] His work has been has published in a wide range of journals such as the Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, Directors & Boards, Long Range Planning, British Journal of Management, Journal of International Business Studies, Strategic Management Journal and the Academy of Management Journal.[/expand]

[expand title=”What he offers you”]Having taught on many in-company programmes Prof. Markides is without a doubt one of Europe’s most experienced and respected business strategists. His presentations are ideal for decision makers keen to sustain and develop superior competitive performance by implementing and understanding new business strategies.[/expand]

[expand title=”How he presents”]Costas Markides is a captivating and engaging speaker and he has designed his lectures with just the right blend of humour and useful actionable information. His appearances are consistently well-received making him one of the most sought-after and prized speakers currently available.[/expand]
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