Rajesh Agrawal is the Deputy Mayor of London for Business. Born in India, Rajesh moved to London in 2001. As an entrepreneur he founded RationalFX in 2005, and Xendpay in 2014, both companies utilising technology to reduce the cost of international money transfer for businesses and individuals.

Rajesh is passionate about promoting entrepreneurship and creating opportunities for young people. He was appointed Chair of Oxfam’s Enterprise Development Programme in 2015 and has been a Patron of the Prince’s Trust for many years.

As Deputy Mayor Rajesh aims to be a strong voice for London’s business community, protecting jobs and growth, and ensuring that the capital remains the most open and attractive place to do business in the world.

Hélène Barnekow has more than 25 years of experience from the IT and Telecom industry. Prior to joining Microsoft in December 2018, Hélène worked as the CEO of the Telco company, Telia Sweden. Earlier in her career she was Head of Field & Partner Marketing at EMC in Boston, USA, where she was awarded several grants for her excellent leadership and marketing achievements. She has also been assigned several leadership roles at Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications. Hélène is part of the Board of Directors of GN Store Nord A/S and Kindred Group plc. In August 2019, Hélène launched her first book, Re:start, about valued-based leadership in a ever changing world.

Since June 2017 Andrew has represented the people of West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine as their Member of Parliament in Westminster. In March 2018 he became the first new Scottish MP and the first of the 2017 intake, to be promoted when he was appointed as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. In January 2019 Andrew was promoted to Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister. In August 2019 Andrew was appointed Vice Chair of the Conservative Party, his remit covers The Union and Youth within the party.

Jason “Timbuktu” Diakité, a rapper from Skåne, established himself as a Swedish House Hold name thanks to his discovery in Street Level Records, Stockholm, which specialises in the import of Indie Hip Hop relseases. One of Timbuktus first tracks was “The Conspiracy” from which he has continued to produce an influx of legendary tracks in both Swedish and English, fuelled by rhymes, metaphors and puns. Timbuktu boomed when he started rapping in Skånska, and he has now earned the reputation as Swedens most influential political hip-hop and rap crossover artist. His artistry balances a mix of civil rights activism, childhood experiences, relationships, ambivalent feelings towards the country of his birth and curiosity towards other places. All of which have played a key role in solving the puzzle that is to be a black Swede, grown up in between cultures and to have roots both in slavery and the Swedish welfare state. Timbuktus multi-ethnic and multinational upbringing has allowed him to be blessed by and bless so many different musical contexts, from prog rock to folk to reggae.

After leaving school at 16, Jamie returned to education as a mature student to gain an engineering degree at Northumbria University.  He worked as an engineer making breathing apparatus and in the electronics and IT sector, later setting up his own software development firm.  Before being elected to the Office of Mayor, North of Tyne, Jamie was a Labour and Cooperative Councillor in the Monument Ward in Newcastle City Centre.  A passionate socialist, Jamie is committed to driving forward his manifesto pledges around community wealth building, addressing the climate emergency, revitalising life in local communities, building affordable homes and delivering lifelong learning for the people North of Tyne.  Originally born on Teesside, Jamie now lives in Gosforth with his wife and sons.

Carl Benedikt Frey is Oxford Martin Citi Fellow at Oxford University where he directs the programme which he also founded on the Future of Work at the Oxford Martin School. 

Frey has served as an advisor and consultant to international organisations, think tanks, government and business, including the G20, the OECD, the European Commission, the United Nations, and several Fortune 500 companies. He is also an op-ed contributor to the Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Scientific American, and the Wall Street Journal, where he has written on the economics of artificial intelligence, the history of technology, and the future of work.  

His academic work has featured in over 100 media outlets, including The Economist, Bloomberg, The Guardian, New York Times, Time Magazine, Le Monde, and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. In addition, he has frequently appeared international broadcast media such as CNN, BBC, PBS News Hour, Al Jazeera, and Sky News.

His most recent book, The Technology Trap, was selected a Financial Times Best Books of the Year in 2019.

Nik Gowing was the main news presenter for BBC World News (1996-2014), and he has 35 years of analytical experience in diplomacy, defence and international security. In 2018 Nik Gowing, along with Chris Langdon, released the book Thinking the Unthinkable: A new imperative for leadership in the digital age.

Gerard Grech is the Chief Executive of Tech Nation, the growth platform for tech companies and leaders. Tech Nation’s mission is to unlock the growth potential of 1000 scaling tech leadership teams across the UK by 2022, contributing over $1Bn to the UK economy.

He is also a Board member of the Barbican, Europe’s largest arts centre. Gerard has over 20 years’ experience in the world of digital media, web, mobile, venture capital and startup development. His international experience in London, Paris and New York, building digital products and rolling them out across 5 continents, has given him global vision and local expertise, spanning product development, business strategy and venture capital in technology businesses. Before that he was a new media journalist and started his career in the music business.

Dan Hill is Director of Strategic Design at Vinnova, the Swedish government’s innovation agency. A designer and urbanist, Dan’s previous leadership positions have produced innovative, influential projects and organisations, ranging across built environment (Arup in Australia and UK, Future Cities Catapult in UK), education and research (Fabrica in Italy), government and social innovation (SITRA in Finland), and media (BBC and Monocle in UK), each one transformed positively via digital technology and a holistic approach to design.

Jan-Olof Jacke is, since October 2018, the Director General of Confederation of Swedish Enterprise. He holds an MBA from the Gothenburg School Of Economics. After graduation, he was a management consultant from 1995 to 1999. He has worked at AstraZeneca since 1999 as Chief Financial Officer for various units and was between 2013 and 2018 CEO of AstraZeneca Sweden.

Peter began his IKEA career as a part-time self-serve co-worker in the Gothenburg store. Since then he has worked all over the IKEA world, in Trading and Purchasing in Russia followed by a move to Vietnam, joining the IKEA Asia-Pacific team. In 2000, he joined IKEA UK and Ireland and held several positions including Store Manger IKEA Lakeside, Marketing Manager, Sales and Communications Manager and Deputy Retail Manager. Prior, Peter spent nine years at Clas Ohlson AB, where he held various roles including acting CEO, Executive Vice President/COO as well as Director of Operations

Mr Leif Johansson is the Chairman of the Board of the global, science-led biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca (since April 2012).

Mr Johansson holds Board positions at Autoliv, Inc and Ecolean AB. He is a member of the European Round Table of Industrialists (Chairman 2009 to 2014), a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (Chairman 2012 to 2017) and a member of the Council of Advisors, Boao Forum for Asia.

Mr Johansson was the Chairman of the Board of the global telecommunications company LM Ericsson 2011-2018, a Member of the Board of Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget, SCA 2006-2016 and a Non-Executive Director of Bristol Myers Squibb 1998-2011.
He was the Chief Executive Officer of AB Volvo 1997-2011.  Prior to that, Mr Johansson held different executive positions within the Electrolux group, latterly as the group Chief Executive Officer 1994-1997. Mr Johansson holds an MSc in engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg.

Anna König Jerlmyr was elected as Mayor of Stockholm in 2018. The green-blue political coalition led by König Jerlmyr focuses on innovation and sustainability when futureproofing the city and creating opportunities for growth and quality of life for its citizens. Mayor König Jerlmyr is currently Co-Chair of C40’s Steering Committee and lead on business collaboration, a member of Friends of Europe’s Board of Trustees and a member of World Economic Forum’s Supervisory Board of the net zero cities initiative. During König Jerlmyr´s leadership, Stockholm has been awarded for its Smart City Strategy and Stockholm was subsequently selected as the “smartest city in the world” by the Smart City World Expo Congress in 2019. Anna König Jerlmyr was born in Uppsala, Sweden, in 1978 and has a background in economics and communications. König Jerlmyr was a member of the Swedish Parliament 2006 -2010 and was previously Vice Mayor for Social Affairs and Chair of Stockholm’s Police Authority. In 2014 - 2018 König Jerlmyr acted as the Opposition vice Mayor, representing the Moderate Party.

Mario is the Vice President Financial Services & Sales, as well as General Manager UK. His team is responsible for setting up the strategy, articulating and distributing the relevant solutions, and driving accelerated growth for our Financial Services business. He has over 20 years of experience in change management and business development worldwide. He has been focusing on the global payments industry for the last 15 years, first with American Express and now with Trustly.

Leading the Swedish defence and security giant, Magnus Lewis-Olsson is the President of Saab UK, Chairman of Saab Technologies UK, and board member of Saab Grintek Defence. Magnus started his career at Saab as a Gripen test pilot in 1999, after having spent more than a decade in the Swedish Air Force. He has since then held numerous country and regional managerial roles, including leading several international Gripen campaigns. In 2012, Magnus was appointed CEO of Saab South Africa and Saab Grintek Defence, and has since 2015 been the President of Saab for multiple international market areas. Magnus is also council member of the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in London.

Lisa is the co-founder of the design firm Doberman. Under her leadership, Doberman has been appointed Sweden’s best firm in the industry, Sweden’s best workplace, and one of Sweden’s most innovative companies. Known for unorthodox innovation methodologies and unique perspectives on both employee empowerment and customer experience, Lisa has become one of Sweden’s strongest voices for the power of innovative business and leadership to impact society. 

Cecilia Malmström has been European Commissioner for Trade 2014-2019 and commissioner for home affairs between 2010-2014. Prior to that she served as Sweden’s minister of European affairs. She has also been a member of the European Parliament 1999-2006. Cecilia holds a PhD in political science from the University of Gothenburg, and for several years she lectured in European affairs, terrorism, migration etc. She now holds the Assar Gabrielsson visiting professorship at the school of business, Economics and Law at Gothenburg University.

Sean McGuire is Europe Director for the CBI. Based in the CBI’s Brussels Office, Sean is responsible for overseeing the CBI’s post-Brexit European strategy focussing on the implementation of the Trade and Co-operation Agreement and ensuring that business interests and concerns are communicated to policymakers within the EU Institutions and UK Government Departments. As the EU’s third largest trading partner, Sean also leads several EU policy campaigns of strategic importance for UK business, including trade, climate change, services and digital and is responsible for bilateral relations with key EU trading partners. As part of the CBI’s UK Global Competitiveness Strategy, Sean co-ordinates the CBI’s B7 and B20 activities with sister federations from the G7 and G20 nations and is a member of BusinessEurope’s International Relations Committee. Sean has been with the CBI since 2001 during which time he held a number of positions. Prior to joining the CBI, Sean was European Affairs Adviser for the Engineering Employers’ Federation (EEF) in the UK.

Simon Nixon is the Chief Lead Writer for The Times. Previously, he was the Chief European Commentator for The Wall Street Journal. He has also held the position of Executive Editor for Reuters Breakingviews.

Jan joined Deutsche Bank in 1988 and has held several positions within M&A, Structured Finance and Corporate Finance. He holds a BA from Pomona College, an MBA from Wharton, an MA from University of Pennsylvania, and a Graduate Diploma in Business Studies from the London School of Economics.

Peter Sandberg is Chief Executive at the Swedish Chamber of Commerce since 2018. He holds an MSc in Political Science and Economics from Lund University and has previously worked in press and communications roles at the Swedish Embassy and Chamber of Commerce in London respectively. He has worked at the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce in New York City as Director of Program and VP, and when returning to London, joined the British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association where he was part of the management team in his role as Director of Commercial Development & Membership.

Åsa Tamsons is Senior Vice President and Head of Business Area Technologies and New Businesses and member of Ericsson’s Executive Team. With focus on technology and innovation, Tamsons team is responsible to drive growth in new areas for Ericsson. They do this by identifying, developing and scaling new businesses that support Ericsson’s customers to capture the full potential of 5G, IoT and future technologies.

Tamsons team drives the Ericsson IPR and licensing, Cradlepoint – the US-based market leader in Wireless WAN Edge 4G and 5G solutions for the enterprise market, Ericsson´s global IoT platform business, Global Dedicated Networks business and Small- Medium Business Solutions (SMB Solutions), and a number of other emerging businesses in incubation stage through the innovation hub Ericsson ONE.

Long before he was appointed CEO in 2010, Henrik Tjärnström was part of the Kindred Group (then Unibet Group). He joined the Board of Directors in 2003 and was part of the board until when he stepped into the role as Chief Financial Officer in 2008. Henrik holds an MSc in Industrial Engineering and Management from the Institute of Technology, Linköping University, Sweden. Before joining the Kindred Group, he was employed as Senior Financial Manager at Skanska Infrastructure Development AB from 2001 to 2008.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist and president of the Social Policy Association. She was formerly BBC social affairs editor, columnist and associate editor of the Independent, co-editor of the Washington Monthly and a reporter and feature writer for the Observer.

Ed Vaizey (Lord Vaizey of Didcot) is a member of the House of Lords, appointed in 2020, and sits on the Communications and Media Committee. Ed was the Member of Parliament for Wantage between 2005 and 2019. He served as the UK Government Culture and Digital Minister from 2010-16, and is the longest-serving Minister in that role. He was appointed a privy councilor in 2016.

In his role as digital minister, Ed was responsible for the rollout of the successful rural broadband programme to more than 4 million homes, the introduction of 4G, and tax credits for film, television, animation and video games, which have helped make the creative industries the fastest-growing part of the UK economy.

In the private sector, Ed is an executive-in-residence at LionTree, the leading global M&A advisory firm specialising in TMT with offices in New York, San Francisco, London and Paris. Ed also sits on the Technology Media and Telecoms advisory board of FTI consulting. In addition, Ed is an adviser to several companies such as Edge, Common Sense Media, Digital Theatre, Salary Finance, Perlego, and NewsGuard.

João Vale de Almeida is the Head of Delegation of the European Union to the United Kingdom. He took office on February 1st, 2020. He is a senior European Union diplomat whose last postings as Ambassador included the United Nations (from 2015 to 2019) and the United States (2010 to 2014).
Prior to his appointment in Washington as the European Union’s Ambassador, he served as the Director General for External Relations at the European Commission, the European Union’s executive body. As the most senior official under the authority of the High Representative/Vice-President , he helped formulate and execute the EU’s foreign policy and played a key role in preparing for the new European External Action Service (EEAS) introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon and the EU Sherpa for G8 and G20 summits.