USD 400,000
TYRA BANKS Entrepreneur, Supermodel, TV Icon, Author, Activist ‘Conquering the Challenge of Change’ Expanding the definition of beauty is something Tyra Banks has always believed in, as a supermodel and as a super-businesswoman. Six modeling agencies rejected her before she was signed at the age of 15 years old. Now, hundreds of magazine covers and thousands of runways later, Tyra grooms the next generation of models to make their dreams come true. For the last decade, she has been the Creator and Executive Producer of America's Next Top Model (ANTM), the first and longest running fashion competition-based reality television series. ANTM currently airs in 186 counties and has 26 international versions that span from Asia's Next Top Model to Africa's Next Top Model. An orginal Victoria's Secret Angel, Tyra was also the first model to grace the cover of GQ and the first African-American model to be featured on the covers of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, which featured her for two consecutive years, and the Victoria's Secret catalogue. She was named one of Hollywood Reporter's "100 Most Powerful Women in Entertainment" and Entertainment Weekly's "25 Smartest in Television". She was honored as one of Glamour Magazine's coveted "Women of the Year", alongside Former U.S. Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton. She won two Emmy Awards for The Tyra Show, the first show ever to receive the award in the new "Informative" category. Her infamous line, "KISS MY FAT ASS!", made TV Guide Magazine's 60 Greatest Talk Show Moments. She was listed twice on Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential People in the World", and she took the #1 spot on Forbes' list of top earning women in primetime for two years in a row. She is the author of a New York Times bestselling book, Modelland, and was named one of Fast Company's "100 Most Creative People".
USD 70,000
PORTER ERISMAN • Former Vice President of Alibaba Group, the world's largest e-commerce company • Director of Award Winning Documentary Film, ‘Crocodile in The Yangtze : The Alibaba Story’
‘Leadership – The Alibaba Way’ Porter first landed in China in 1994 and, after a year of Chinese language study, fell into a six-month stint as host of China Through Foreigners’ Eyes, a travel program on China Central Television. After studying for an MBA in the United States, Porter returned to China and worked at Ogilvy & Mather in Beijing, overseeing an Internet marketing group as China’s Internet began to take off. Lured by the excitement of joining an Internet startup, Porter joined Alibaba.com in 2000, just as the company moved out of a small apartment.From 2000-2008, Porter worked as a Vice-President at Alibaba.com and Alibaba Group, at various times leading the company’s international website operations, international marketing and corporate affairs. In 2002, Porter took a year off from Alibaba to travel around-the-world, during which time he spent two months riding a bicycle across China retracing the southern route of the Long March. After his time at Alibaba, Porter wrote, directed and produced "Crocodile in the Yangtze", an independent documentary memoir film of the nearly 10 years spent at China's Alibaba.com. Drawing on more than 200 hours of footage filmed by 35 sources, the film presents a rare behind-the-scenes look at China's Internet revolution. It was awarded "Best Documentary" at the San Francisco United Film Festival and "Best Film on Innovation and Entrepreneurship" at the Silicon Valley Film Festival.
USD 50,000
PARAG KHANNA
Leading geo-strategic expert and best-selling author ‘How to Run the World : Future Re-Imagined’ Parag Khanna is the leading next generation voice on the future of global affairs. Named one of Esquire magazine's "75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century," Khanna was a foreign policy advisor to President Barack Obama during his historic presidential campaign. He is currently a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, the country's most innovative think-tank, where he directs the Roundtable on the Future of the World Economy. Khanna is the author of the international bestseller The Second World: How Emerging Powers Are Redefining Global Competition in the 21st Century (2009), which has been translated into 15 languages and led to The New York Times Book Review hailing Khanna as a "geopolitical whiz kid". This "dizzyingly informed world tour" (Fortune) "makes the pulse race" (Economist). Nassim Taleb called the book "visionary," and Google Chairman Eric Schmidt declared, "We need to pay attention to Parag's ideas." A noted adventurer, Khanna has traveled to more than 100 countries and speaks English, German, French, Spanish, Hindi, and basic Arabic, earning him recognition as one of the world's most informed sociopolitical experts. He was honored in 2009 as a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, was one of 15 individuals named to WIRED magazine's "Smart List," and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. A graduate of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, Khanna also attained a Master's from Georgetown's Security Studies Program and a PhD at the London School of Economics.
USD 155,000
‘The Future of Money’
NASSIM TALEB Bestselling author and a world leading epistemologist of randomness • Bloomberg's 50 Most Influential People, 2011 • 2009 The Thinkers 50 • Adviser to the International Monetary Fund • Distinguished Professor of Risk Engineering, New York University Polytechnic Institute • Twenty years as a senior derivatives trader with financial institutions, including Credit Suisse, UBS, BNP-Paribas in New York and London, as well as a pit trader in Chicago • MBA, Wharton School, PhD, MS, BS, University of Paris Nassim Nicholas Taleb has devoted his life to immersing himself in problems of luck, randomness, human error, probability, and the philosophy of knowledge. He transformed his interests into three successful careers - as a businessman-trader, a philosophical essayist, and an academic researcher. Although he spends most of his time as a flâneur, meditating in cafés across the planet, he is currently Distinguished Professor at New York University's Polytechnic Institute.
His books, Fooled by Randomness and The Black Swan have been published in 31 languages with more than 3 million copies in print. The Black Swan idea is currently inspiring research papers in philosophy, statistics, psychology, economics, medical research, epidemiology, political science, and engineering. Taleb specializes in uncertainty and errors in human knowledge, teaching us how to deal with, and benefit from, unpredictability. He is one of the few people who can both walk the walk and talk the talk. He both predicted the economic crisis that started in 2008 and made a personal fortune out of it.
USD 60,000
Tomas Sedlácek Leading economist, Author of bestseller ‘Economics of Good & Evil’
‘Economics of Good and Evil’ Tomas Sedlácek is a leading European economist, macroeconomic strategist, and government advisor. Since 2006 he has been the Chief Macroeconomic Strategist of CSOB banking group, the largest Czech bank, specialising in euro adoption, financial crisis, budget, tax and other reforms. He is renowned for authoring ‘Economics of Good and Evil’, an internationally bestselling book on the philosophy of economics. The Yale Economic Review has described him as one of the most promising "five hot minds in economics." Sedlácek is a thought leader, whose unconventional approach promises to change the way we think about economics, and the way we calculate economic value. He places the wisdom of philosophers and poets over strict mathematical models of human behaviour, and asks searching “meta-economic” questions about the essence of economics. He is a sought after lecturer, debater and commentator, renowned for his extraordinary gift for engaging mass audiences in a debate about complex topics. He lectures at Charles University, University of New York Prague, and the Anglo-American University.
His book ‘Economics of Good and Evil, The Quest for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street’ (2009/2011) defies the boundaries and stereotypes of his profession by exposing the roots of the economy in the cultural history of mankind. Sedlácek tackles big economic questions from the perspective of the arts, history and philosophy. Handelsblatt, the leading German business newspaper, listed the book among its' top 50 most influential economic titles in history'. It has been translated into 14 languages, and received the ‘Frankfurt Bookfair prize for the Best Book on Economics in 2012’, one of the most prestigious literary prizes in economics.
USD 55,000
Linda Yueh Global Business Chief Correspondent for the BBC
‘The Next Phase of Growth’ Linda is an economist, author and broadcaster and is widely respected as one of the outstanding economists in the world. She is a particular expert on the global economy, emerging markets and China. She is considered one of the world's foremost experts on the Chinese economy. From April 2013 Linda will be the BBC's Global Chief Business Correspondent. Linda is Fellow in Economics at Oxford University, Adjunct Professor of Economics at the London Business School, and Visiting Professor of Economics at Peking University. Her work examines major economies such as Britain, China, United States, Europe, and her research focuses on economic growth and the rise of emerging economies. Previously, she was an international corporate lawyer and Economics Editor at Bloomberg TV where she hosted the weekly show, "Economic Edge".
Linda has been an advisor and board member for several organisations, including the World Economic Forum in Davos, World Bank, European Commission, Asian Development Bank, London & Partners, British Chambers of Commerce, and Non-Executive Director of JP Morgan Asian Investment Trust plc and Baillie G.
USD 285,000
USD 270,000
James Wolfensohn President of the World Bank (1995 - 2005)
‘The Next 5 Years’ James Wolfensohn served two terms as president of the World Bank between 1995 - 2005, following a long and illustrious career in investment banking in London and New York. With world poverty reduction as his primary focus, he travelled to more than 120 countries in order better to understand the challenges facing the World Bank in regard to poverty and environmental issues. He led successful initiatives on debt reduction, environmental sustainability, anti-corruption programs and AIDS prevention/treatment. In 2005, at the end of his second term, James assumed the post of Special Envoy for Gaza Disengagement for the Quartet on the Middle East, helping to co-ordinate Israel’s planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and spearheading reconstruction efforts as Palestinians assumed sovereignty over the area. James’ experience in investment banking and at the World Bank makes him a heavy-weight speaker on the global economy, the impact of emerging markets on developed economies, debt reduction, international finance and environmental sustainability. James serves on the board of Citibank and a number of charitable and arts institutions. James was a member of the Australian fencing squad at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. He took up cello lessons with Jacqueline du Pré at the age of 41 and played the Carnegie Hall at 50.
USD 45,000
Martin McCourt Former CEO of Dyson ‘The Business of Innovation’ Martin McCourt has spent over 35 years working at the heart of British-based manufacturing, design and marketing for quality brands such as Dyson, Mars, Duracell, Toshiba and Pelikan. Martin was the CEO of Dyson for 15 years, the ideas to market-leading consumer products maker. As CEO, he devised and implemented a strategy that transformed the company from a single product, single market producer into one where 80% of the business comes from 52 markets around the world. In that time he increased UK skilled jobs, grew profits tenfold and enabled James Dyson to keep on inventing. In 2011 Dyson hit £1bn revenue for the first time. Martin was directly responsible for the establishment of Dyson subsidiaries in the USA, Japan, Switzerland, Austria and Germany. In total he took Dyson into over 50 markets, achieving market leadership in the majority including the USA.
In 2012, Martin joined the private equity firm Montagu as a Director. He is currently Chairman of CAP and CliniSys Group (CliniSys). Cap is the market leading automotive intelligence company that provides the automotive sector with data related to used car values, future value projections as well as total cost of ownership for individual vehicles. CliniSys is a pan-European supplier of IT systems to clinical laboratories. It is the market leading supplier in Europe of clinical laboratory information management systems. Martin has also held the Chairmanship role for a leading logistics container shipping company and a global industrial Sales business, both within the Montagu Portfolio. In addition to his Chairmanships Martin advises Montagu’s investment teams on its acquisitions.In his speeches, Martin explores the importance of innovation, the role of leadership, and the differences (and similarities) between large and small businesses in a passionate, humourous and insightful presentation.
USD 150,000
Muhammad Yunus • Nobel Peace Prize winner • Founder of Grameen Bank
‘Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business & the Future of Capitalism’ Professor Muhammad Yunus is the founder and Managing Director of Grameen Bank which provides micro-credit to millions of poor people in Bangladesh. In 2006 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. What if you could harness the power of the free market to solve the problems of poverty, hunger, and inequality To some, it sounds impossible. But Muhammad Yunus is doing exactly that. As founder of Grameen Bank, Yunus pioneered microcredit, the innovative banking program that provides the poor " mainly women " with small loans they use to launch businesses and lift their families out of poverty. Muhammad Yunus's vision is the total eradication of poverty from the world. "Grameen," he says, "is a message of hope, a program for putting homelessness and destitution in a museum so that one day our children will visit it and ask how we could have allowed such a terrible thing to go on for so long." This work is a fundamental rethink on the economic relationship between the rich and the poor, their rights and their obligations. The World Bank recently acknowledged that "this business approach to the alleviation of poverty has allowed millions of individuals to work their way out of poverty with dignity." Credit is the last hope left to those faced with absolute poverty. That is why Muhammad Yunus believes that the right to credit should be recognized as a fundamental human right. It is this struggle and the unique and extraordinary methods he invented to combat human despair that Muhammad Yunus recounts here with humility and conviction. It is also the view of a man familiar with both Eastern and Western cultures on the failures and potential for good of industrial countries. It is an appeal for action: we must concentrate on promoting the will to survive and the courage to build in the first and most essential element of the economic cycle. Professor Muhammad Yunus serves on the boards of many national and international organisations. Besides Grameen Bank he has created a number of companies in Bangladesh to address diverse issues of poverty and development.
Marshall Goldsmith
USD 120,000
World's No. 1 Leadership Coach Hall of Fame Winner of the 2011 Thinkers50 Leadership Award - the world's Most Influential Leadership Thinker Described in The Economist as one of the most credible thought leaders in the new era of business Named by London Times as one of the top 50 most influential living management thinkers Listed in Forbes as one of the five most respected executive coaches - and featured in a Forbes article, where he was described as the rock star in the world of executive coaching
Named in BusinessWeek as one of the most influential practitioners in the history of leadership development & listed as one of America's top 50 thinkers
Ranked as one of the top ten executive educators in The Wall Street Journal
‘Leadership is a Contact Sport’ Dr. Marshall Goldsmith was recently recognised as the #1 leadership thinker in the world and the #7 business thinker in the world at the bi-annual Thinkers 50 ceremony sponsored by the Harvard Business Review. He is the million-selling author or editor of 31 books, including the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers, MOJO and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There – a WSJ #1 business book and winner of the Harold Longman Award for Business Book of the Year. His books have been translated into 28 languages and become bestsellers in eight countries. Marshall’s professional acknowledgments include: Institute for Management Studies – Lifetime Achievement Award (one of only two ever awarded), American Management Association - 50 great thinkers and leaders who have influenced the field of management over the past 80 years, BusinessWeek – 50 great leaders in America, Wall Street Journal – top ten executive educators, Forbes – five most-respected executive coaches, Leadership Excellence – top five thinkers on leadership, Economic Times (India) – top CEO coaches of America, Economist (UK) – most credible executive advisors in the new era of business. His work has been recognized by almost every professional organization in his field. Dr. Goldsmith’s Ph.D. is from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management where (in 2010) he was recognised as one of 100 distinguished graduates in the 75 year history of the School. He teaches executive education at Dartmouth’s Tuck School and frequently speaks at leading business schools. He is one of a select few executive advisors who have been asked to work with over 120 major CEOs and their management teams. He served on the Board of the Peter Drucker Foundation for ten years. He has been a volunteer teacher for US Army Generals, Navy Admirals, Girl Scout executives, International and American Red Cross leaders – where he was a National Volunteer of the Year.