News from our speakers

Donald Trump spoke by satellite link at the YES 09 conference in Kuala Lumpur. He encouraged the audience to pursue their dreams and ideas, no matter how many setbacks and disappointments they may face, giving examples from his own business life.

Linda Yueh has been appointed Director of the newly launched China Growth Centre at Oxford University. It will focus on researching economic issues of relevance to China and the global economy.

Archie Norman has been appointed non-executive Chairman of ITV, the UK commercial broadcaster.

The Kaspersky Commonwealth Women's Expedition got underway on November 23rd. The expedition sees 8 women from the Commonwealth countries of Cyprus, Ghana, India, Singapore, Brunei, New Zealand, Jamaica and the United Kingdom brave blizzards, crevasses and temperatures below -30C as they ski over 900 kilometres across Antarctica to the Geographic South Pole. To follow their progress Click Here

David Clutterbuck recently held a breakfast seminar in the impressive surroundings of Cliveden. He demonstrated how corporations running coaching and mentoring programmes to improve leadership skills can measure and demonstrate the efficacy of these programmes, and how they impact the bottom line.

Mike Moore was Prime Minister of New Zealand in 1990 and Director-General of the World Trade Organisation from 1999 to 2002. He has published his latest book Saving Globalization

New speakers

As Vice-Chairman of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Professor Mohan Munasinghe shared the 2007 Nobel Prize for Peace, for work on global warming and sustainable development. The United Nations Climate Change Conference takes place in Copenhagen on December 7 to 18, and Mohan comments, This is a unique opportunity to progress on all fronts, but if it is squandered, the multiple dangers could lead to a multiple catastrophe. If they are confronted together, we have the bright promise of a multiple dividend sustained over many years. To make this happen, governments worldwide need to collaborate more closely with each other, and with business and civil society. More than ever, the well being of future generations depends on our choices today.

Parag Khanna is Director of the Global Governance Initiative and Senior Research Fellow in the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation. He is author of The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order

Branding and marketing expert Peter York is an author, broadcaster and journalist. He is a social commentator dealing with trends and tribes, and he is the co-author of The Sloane Ranger Handbook.

Recent events

Anil Gupta spoke at the CEO2CEO Leadership Summit in New York. Together with Haiyan Wang he participated in a roundtable discussion on How the Globalization Game Is Changing: Assessing Growth and Risk.

Lee Kuan Yew, the former Prime Minister of Singapore spoke recently for a major international bank in Singapore. He spoke on global recovery and Asia's role and impact.

Andrew Marr, the presenter of Sunday AM on BBC TV, hosted an event run by Lloyds of London. The theme was Managing Risk in 21st Century and topics covered included piracy, cyber risk and impact of climate change.