Speakers
Speakers
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Keynote Speaker
Lord Tim Leunig
Economist and Policy Advisor
Thursday 19 November, 09:30 - 10:30
Lord Tim Leunig is a prize-winning economist and policy advisor whose work spans economic history, urban planning, and public policy. A Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics, Tim has advised Chancellors, Cabinet Ministers, and Prime Ministers, shaping major economic and social policies.
After working in academia, Tim joined the policy world, first at the Centre Forum influencing urban policy, infrastructure, and strategies to promote economic growth in cities across, and then in government. He served as Chief Analyst at the Department for Education, devising policies on school funding, performance measurement, and curriculum reforms. He worked on housing policy and the expansion plans for Heathrow Airport. He was also Economic Adviser to Chancellors Sajid Javid and Rishi Sunak. Significantly, and contrary to the existing plans of the Treasury, he conceived the UK’s furlough scheme during the COVID-19 pandemic, protecting millions of jobs.
Having left government, Tim explores the real-world effects of economic policy. He considers how it affects businesses and individuals, and provides insights into decision-making, productivity, and long-term economic growth. He’s a regular commentator to The Financial Times, The Times and The Guardian, and has contributed to programmes on many Radio stations. Tim has also served as Chief Economist at Nesta, the Innovation Agency, as Director of Economics at Public First, and as a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government. He is a Fellow of the Royal Economics Society, Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, the Royal Society of Arts, and the Royal Historical Society, and a Governor of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research.
Tim Leunig was nominated this year to sit in the Lords as a Liberal Democrat peer.
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Keynote Speaker
Dr Stefanie Babst
Former NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General - Strategic Advisor, Author and Speaker
Thursday 19 November, 13:40 - 14:40
A prolific writer, commentator and analyst, Dr Babst is the author of 'Blind Spots - Mustering the courage to alter the strategic course towards Russia' (2023). Her expertise has also been showcased in various reputable articles, podcasts as well as TV and radio interviews such as International Policy, the FAZ, and THE ZEIT. Her sober analyses have been featured in a wide range of media outlets, including BBC World News, CNN, ZDF, Al Jazeera, and Deutsche Welle where she shares her valuable insights on global security challenges and multilateral cooperation.
Dr Babst is regularly asked to advise various international companies and financial institutions. She is also active in various security networks and policy boards, including in the German Council on Foreign Relations, the Danish Center for War Studies and the Norwegian Forum for Nordic Security Policy. Profiting from her large network to policymakers across the transatlantic space, she is Senior Associate Fellow with the London-based European Leadership Network. In recognition of her professional achievements, she received several state awards. In 2022, Stefanie was recognized as one of the Top 100 leading female leaders in Germany. Dr Babst completed her doctoral degree in International Relations from the University of Kiel, Germany, a notable accomplishment that solidified her academic standing in the field of security policy.
As a speaker, she has shared her expertise at several high-profile events, including the Munich Security Conference, the Atlantic Council’s NATO Leaders Summit, and various forums.
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Keynote Speaker
Benedict Allen
Explorer, Author and Broadcaster
Friday 20 November, 09:15 - 10:15
Benedict Allen is one of Britain’s most celebrated explorers, a writer, filmmaker, and adventurer known for his pioneering immersive expeditions without a phone, GPS or backup teams, relying instead on the knowledge and skills of the remote communities he lives among, often for months at a time.
Described by Radio Times as “Britain’s most fearless man,” and hailed by former BBC Director-General Mark Thompson as “part of the history of television,” Benedict has built an extraordinary career by going where few dare to tread. He’s survived weeks lost in the rainforest without food, water, or shelter, trekked 1,000 miles across the desert, was briefly shipwrecked off the coast of Australia, and once stitched up a chest wound with a bootlace in Sumatra. Reputedly having “almost died nine times,” he’s faced deadly malaria, armed gold miners, and even gunfire from Pablo Escobar’s hitmen. It’s quite possible that no-one has lived so long isolated and alone in so many potentially hostile remote environments.
Drawing on decades of experience, he shares powerful insights on resilience, commitment, and the vital ability to adapt in an unpredictable world. Through his talks, Benedict skilfully threads the messages that the extraordinary challenges of the natural world aren’t so different to the challenges we all face day to day in the ‘global jungle’ we inhabit. An accomplished author of 11 books, Benedict's bestsellers offer vivid accounts of his journeys and provide powerful reflections on resilience, leadership, and navigating uncertainty, themes that translate directly into everyday professional and personal life. He is one of only two living people listed in The Daily Telegraph’s ‘Great British Explorers’, alongside Sir Ranulph Fiennes.
Image credit to Martin Hartley
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Workshops
Workshops
Franklin Templeton
Structuring the Future: Innovative Solutions for Private Markets Portfolios
Speakers
As private markets evolve, structured solutions are opening new ways for investors to access diversified exposures efficiently and at scale. Jake Williams and Arthur Thomson will explore how portfolio design can combine capabilities across private equity secondaries, continuation vehicles and private credit, while addressing liquidity, risk management and capital deployment. Drawing on Franklin Templeton’s inaugural collateralised fund obligation, the discussion will examine how innovative structures can provide access to multiple strategies, vintages and underlying companies within a single solution. The session will consider specialist managers, disciplined portfolio construction and structural protections in aligning private-market opportunities with investor objectives. Delegates will gain perspective on the potential, trade-offs and future development of structured private-market solutions for institutional and wealth portfolios today.
Workshop Objectives: By the end of this session, attendees will understand how structured private-market solutions can enhance portfolio construction, evaluate key benefits and risks, and identify practical applications within institutional and wealth portfolios.
Company Profile: At Franklin Templeton, we offer the scale, expertise, resources, and choice that sophisticated investors demand. With $294 billion in private market assets under management and four decades of experience, we understand that private markets are no longer optional for clients seeking to achieve their investing goals. Our platform unites specialist expertise across private equity, private credit and private real assets, each bringing deep domain knowledge and a relentless focus on performance.
We put client needs first, offering investors flexible access to our strategies through a variety of vehicle options that align with their unique objectives and preferences.
Behind our private markets platform stands the full strength of Franklin Templeton: 75+ years in asset management, $1.79 trillion in global assets under management, and a worldwide team of over 9,600 professionals, including 1,500+ investment professionals across 25+ countries. With employees on the ground in 36 countries forging local relationships and deep market insights, we combine global scale with local expertise to deliver superior outcomes for our clients.
All data correct as of June 30, 2026
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Octopus Energy Generation (“OEGen”)
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Orbis Investments
AI from the bottom-up
Speakers
Representatives
AI is often discussed as a monolith. Either service providers, datacentre operators, frontier model developers, and chipmakers all make money and the buildout continues apace, or they don't and the buildout slows. For bottom-up stockpickers, this framing ignores the medley of partnerships and negotiations which define competitive strategy in the space. A customer in one area may be a supplier in another and a rival in a third. Picking stocks within AI is not the same as simply betting on AI. In this presentation, we unpack the dynamics at play within the broader ecosystem, and a range of scenarios that could affect the individual players in different ways. In doing so, we'll discuss where we have found opportunities, whether it be the underappreciated beneficiaries and enablers of AI, or businesses that are largely agnostic to the buildout altogether.
Workshop Objectives: Understand key AI value chain players, assess scenario impacts, and identify underappreciated beneficiaries, overlooked companies, or AI agnostic businesses where market perceptions may create compelling investment opportunities for investors.
Company Profile: Orbis has been creating value for clients for more than 35 years.
We work to find opportunities others miss, but this means investing in unpopular areas of the market, which takes courage and patience. Our long-term approach is at the core of everything we do, from the way we invest, the company structure, and even the way we charge fees.
Our team of 60 investment professionals located around the world does comprehensive research evaluating businesses from the bottom up to identify businesses priced at less than they are worth with long-term prospects. Since it can take time for these companies to realise their true value, our business is structured to avoid pressure for short-term performance with no external shareholders. Our independence allows us to prioritise clients, make bold but considered decisions and to stand by them as long as we need to.
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Premia Partners
Beneficiaries of global AI race in China and Taiwan, and how Chinese government bonds emerge as safe haven
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Representatives
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Of the superlative numbers we hear for global AI capex, much is spent in Asia where many advanced manufacturing leaders are based. Meanwhile AI development between the US and China have taken very different paths. While the US prioritizes frontier foundational models, and cutting edge computing power funded by massive global private sector capital, China focuses on taking AI as next generation productivity driver, and emphasizes diffusion, industrial automation, embodied AI, and low-cost open-weight models to drive economic growth with strong policy influence. In this presentation we shall share more about the leading cohort driving China’s AI and hard tech development, how Taiwan has overtaken Korea in market performance year-to-date, and emerges as the largest market in MSCI Emerging Market Index, and why Chinese government bonds have become a safe haven trade.
Workshop Objectives: Discussions on alpha opportunities from China’s policy supported hard tech sectors, and why TSMC is no longer representative of Taiwan’s opportunities as it becomes the largest market in MSCI EM.
Company profile: Founded in Hong Kong in 2016, Premia Partners has emerged as one of the leading independent, pure-play ETF asset managers in Asia. As an ETF specialist, we are dedicated to building differentiated ETFs for Asia, as best practice, efficient building blocks with relevant use cases for investors. Our goal is to contribute to a better ETF ecosystem for investors to trade Asia in Asia.
As of Sep 2026, Premia Partners manages 12 equity and fixed income ETFs designed as low-cost, efficient allocation tools for Asia. For more information on Premia or Premia ETFs covering China, Taiwan, Emerging ASEAN, Asia Metaverse/ Innovative Technology, Vietnam, China high yield bonds, China Government Bonds, Asia USD investment grade bonds, US Treasury and Saudi Arabia Government Sukuk, please visit www.premia-partners.com
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Wellington Management
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