Topic: Geopolitics

Craig Oliver

Sir Craig Oliver was the Director of Politics and Communications for the British Prime Minister, David Cameron for six years. He worked at the heart of No 10 Downing Street and was responsible for the Government’s strategy, messaging and campaigns.

During that time Sir Craig was Director of Communications on a number of political teams, including the 2015 General Election – defying the polls and winning an unexpected overall majority.

Famously, he was the Director of Communications for the campaign to keep Britain in the European Union during the Brexit Referendum. Sir Craig wrote a bestselling book about the experience – “Unleashing Demons” – which was the inspiration behind the Channel 4 drama “Brexit: The Uncivil War” depicting Sir Craig and Dominic Cummings as the main protagonists, with Rory Kinnear and Benedict Cumberbatch playing their respective characters.

His day-to-day work inside No 10 included a radical overhaul of government communications, making them fit for the digital age. Digital transformation, communications strategy and leadership are among the themes Sir Craig explores in his work as a Keynote Speaker, reflecting on the challenges in navigating what he’s coined “a 360 degree media world” at a time of extreme change and volatility. He was at David Cameron’s side as they faced a series of crises and offers sharp insights and fascinating anecdotes reflecting the unique position he held at the heart of government and public affairs.

Before working with Mr Cameron, Sir Craig was a multi-award winning journalist, with jobs ranging from editing the BBC’s flagship television news programmes to Controller of BBC Global, responsible for the corporation’s TV, radio and online content around the world. Sir Craig now often finds himself on the other side of the camera as a broadcaster and commentator and is in demand as a moderator and host for events where his expertise enables him to facilitate and augment panel discussions on the full range of issues and challenges faced in the UK and around the world.

Sir Craig is a Partner and Co-Global Head of Strategy and Reputation at FGS Global, working with some of the biggest businesses in the world. He is also a trustee of the Make a Wish charity.

Tim Willcox

One of the most recognisable and trusted faces in UK and international news, after many years as a BBC Anchor - also, a Moderator, Event MC, Keynote Speaker.

Tim Willcox is best known as a professional TV presenter - versatile and relaxed in even the most challenging and sensitive situations. As a BBC News Anchor for more than 20 years, Tim brought clarity to international audiences during some of the biggest breaking stories in recent history. Now as an independent journalist and broadcaster, his ability to encapsulate and explain the essence of complicated and fast moving events is as relevant as ever.

Tim frequently chairs, moderates and is a keynote speaker at major corporate conferences and festivals in the UK and around the world. He is adept at handling key interviews and panel discussions, and brings organisational skill, fluency, personality and energy to his role .

Beginning his career on London’s Fleet Street in the 1980s, Tim has written for leading UK papers including the Times, Telegraph, Mirror Group, FT and Spectator.

Tim’s TV career started at ITN as a correspondent and presenter, followed by the BBC where he anchored BBC flagship news programmes from London and around the world. Working in the field and the studio he has covered some of the most tumultuous events in modern history.

A born storyteller and communicator, Tim has brought sensitivity and global attention to people’s darkest and also happiest moments. He is equally at home interviewing leaders from the business, cultural, military and political communities.

Tim has produced and presented several highly acclaimed documentaries on a wide range of subjects.

As a practising trumpeter, a published author and Spanish speaker, the fields of music and literature are of particular interest.

Robert Kaplan

He has been a foreign correspondent for The Atlantic for over a quarter-century. In 2011, and again in 2012, Foreign Policy magazine named Kaplan among the world's "100 Top Global Thinkers." Since 2008, he has been a non-resident senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security in Washington, D.C. From 2009 to 2011, he served under Secretary of Defense Robert Gates as a member of the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board. From 2006 to 2008, he was the Class of 1960 Distinguished Visiting Professor in National Security at the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis.

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman calls Kaplan among the four “most widely read” authors defining the post-Cold War (along with Johns Hopkins Prof. Francis Fukuyama, the late Harvard Prof. Samuel Huntington, and Yale Prof. Paul Kennedy).

In the 1980s, Kaplan was the first American writer to warn in print about a future war in the Balkans. Balkan Ghosts was chosen by The New York Times Book Review as one of the “best books” of 1993. The Arabists, The Ends of the Earth, An Empire Wilderness, Eastward to Tartary, and Warrior Politics were all chosen by The New York Times as “notable” books of the year. An Empire Wilderness was chosen by The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times as one of the best books of 1998. The Wall Street Journal named The Arabists as one of the best five books written about America’s historical involvement in the Middle East. Kaplan is a provocative essayist.

His article, “The Coming Anarchy,” in the February, 1994 Atlantic Monthly, about how population rises, urbanization, and resource depletion is undermining governments, was hotly debated in foreign-language translations around the world. So was his December, 1997 Atlantic cover story, “Was Democracy Just A Moment?” That piece argued that the democracy now spreading around the world would not necessarily lead to more stability. According to U. S. News & World Report, “President Clinton was so impressed with Kaplan, he ordered an interagency study of these issues, and it agreed with Kaplan’s conclusions.” Besides The Atlantic Monthly, Kaplan’s essays have appeared on the editorial pages of The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Los Angeles Times, as well as in all the major foreign affairs journals. He has been a consultant to the U. S. Army’s Special Forces Regiment, the U. S. Air Force, and the U. S. Marines. He has lectured at military war colleges, the FBI, the National Security Agency, the Pentagon's Joint Staff, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the CIA, major universities, and global business forums. Kaplan has delivered the Secretary of State’s Open Forum Lecture at the U. S. State Department.

He has reported from over 100 countries. Two earlier books of his, Soldiers of God: With Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Surrender or Starve: Travels in Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea, have been re-issued, so that all his books are in print.

In 2004, Kaplan was given the Distinguished Alumni Award by the University of Connecticut. In 2009, he was given the Benjamin Franklin Public Service Award by the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia. In 2012, he was named by Foreign Policy magazine on its list of top global thinkers
Robert D. Kaplan was born June 23, 1952 in New York City. He graduated in 1973 from the University of Connecticut, where he was the features editor of the Connecticut Daily Campus. In 1973 and 1974 he traveled throughout Communist Eastern Europe and in parts of the Near East. From 1974 to 1975 he was a reporter for the Rutland Daily Herald in Vermont. In 1975, he left the United States to travel throughout the Arab and Mediterranean worlds, beginning a period of 16 years living overseas. He served a year in the Israel Defense Forces and lived for nine years in Greece and Portugal.