Richard Walker, Managing director of the British Iceland supermarket chain
Tuesday 13 December 2022

In this interactive discussion Richard Walker, the Managing director of the British Iceland supermarket chain, talked to Lutfey Siddiqi, Visiting Professor in Practice at LSE IDEAS. Richard Walker graduated in geography, qualified as a chartered surveyor and developed his own property businesses, Bywater Properties, in Poland and the UK. In 2012 he joined Iceland Foods (the company founded by his parents Malcolm and Rhianydd in 1970). He spent a year as a shelf-stacker and cashier before becoming an Iceland store manager and then moving to head office, where he took up his current role in 2018. 

David Craig, Co-chair of the Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) 
Thursday 30 June 2022

David Craig is Co-chair of the Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), Co-chair of the India UK Financial Partnership, Executive Fellow at London Business School and member of the City of London Competitiveness advisory board. He was the former CEO of Refinitiv, one of the world’s largest providers of data, analytics and technology to financial markets. David has 30 years of experience in financial markets data and technology and is seen as a world expert in the data and market infrastructure required to drive future sustainability. David was also one of the driving forces behind the buyout from Thomson Reuters with a private equity consortium led by Blackstone to form Refinitiv.

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Michele Wucker, strategic advisor and best-selling author of The Gray Rhino: How to Recognize and Act on the Obvious Dangers We Ignore
Thursday 31 March 2022

Co-hosted with LSE IDEAS' China Foresight project, Michele Wucker speaks with Lutfey Siddiqi as part of the Meet the Leader series. Michele Wucker is a strategic advisor and best-selling author who coined the term “grey rhino” as a call to take a fresh look at obvious, probable, impactful risks that give us a choice to act or not. Her insights help to explain why some people step up to head off danger yet others let themselves and those around them get trampled. Michele introduced the grey rhino at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2013. 

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Leslie Maasdorp, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the New Development Bank
Monday 11 October 2021

Leslie Maasdorp is Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the New Development Bank. In this role he is responsible for the treasury, portfolio management, finance and accounting functions of the Bank.

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Dr Ailish Campbell, Canada's Ambassador Designate to the European Union
Wednesday 5 May 2021

Dr Ailish Campbell was appointed Canada's Ambassador Designate to the European Union in October 2020. In this role she leads diplomatic representation to the EU and strategic engagement of Canada's second largest trade and investment partner.

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Naheed Nenshi, Mayor of Calgary
Thursday 5 November 2020

Naheed Nenshi, A’paistootsiipsii, was sworn in as Calgary’s 36th mayor on October 25, 2010 and was re-elected in 2013 and 2017. Prior to being elected, Mayor Nenshi was with McKinsey and Company, later forming his own business to help public, private and non-profit organizations grow. He designed policy for the Government of Alberta, helped create a Canadian strategy for The Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy, and worked with the United Nations to determine how business can help the poorest people on the planet. He then entered academia, where he was Canada’s first tenured professor in the field of non-profit management, at Mount Royal University’s Bissett School of Business. For his work, Mayor Nenshi was named a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, was awarded the President’s Award from the Canadian Institute of Planners, and received the Humanitarian Award from the Canadian Psychological Association for his contributions to community mental health.

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Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia
Wednesday 3 June 2020

Internet and technology entrepreneur Jimmy Wales is founder of the online non-profit encyclopaedia Wikipedia and co-founder of the privately owned Wikia, Inc. including its entertainment media brand, Fandom powered by Wikia. Wales serves on the board of trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit charitable organisation he established to operate Wikipedia. In 2019, Jimmy launched WT Social, a news focused social network. In 2006, Jimmy was named in Time magazine’s ‘100 Most Influential People in the World’ for his role in creating Wikipedia.

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Jitesh Gadhia
Thursday 30 January 2020

Jitesh Gadhia is an investment banker and businessman and Member of the House of Lords since September 2016. Jitesh was previously Senior Managing Director at Blackstone based in London and has over 25 years’ investment banking experience, having also held senior positions at Barclays Capital, ABN AMRO and Baring Brothers. He has advised on a wide range of high profile M&A transactions across developed and emerging markets. Jitesh is currently a Board Member of UK Government Investments, the centre of excellence for corporate finance and corporate governance for the UK Government, managing major assets including the Royal Bank of Scotland. He also serves on the Boards of BGL Holdings (owner of comparethemarket.com, the UK’s leading digital price comparison website for financial products and household services) and Accord Healthcare (a leading global supplier of generic pharmaceuticals). Jitesh graduated with a degree in Economics from Cambridge University and attended the London Business School, where he was a Sloan Fellow. He has served as a Trustee of Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity and of Nesta. He was selected as Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

Jules Chappell, OBE
Thursday 14 November 2019

Jules Chappell is Managing Director for Business at London & Partners, the official promotional agency for London. In this role, she is responsible for the teams that attract and retain foreign direct investment; that bring major business events to London and capital into regeneration projects; and that support London’s scaling business to expand internationally. Previously, she spent 15 years with the Foreign Office, based in Jordan, Iraq, the US, Ethiopia and Guatemala, where she was UK Ambassador. She supported the National Security Council’s work to strengthen UK relations with countries such as India and China and helped to expand the GREAT Britain Campaign to 250 cities around the world, promoting the UK as a place to study, visit and do business.