Gideon Rachman was appointed chief foreign affairs columnist and an associate editor of the Financial Times in July 2006. Based in London, he writes a weekly column in the newspaper and for The World blog on FT.com. His particular interests include American foreign policy, the European Union and globalisation.

Rachman joined the FT after a 15-year career at The Economist where he held several senior positions including deputy US editor, Asia editor, Britain editor, and business editor. He also wrote the Charlemagne column from Brussels in his role as EU correspondent.

Rachman’s new book, Easternisation: War and Peace in the Asian Century concentrates on how the growing wealth of Asia nations is transforming the international balance of power. His previous book Zero-Sum World, about the future of international relations was published in the UK in late 2010, has been translated into eight languages, including Chinese and Arabic. He is a regular public speaker and has lectured or appeared on panels at the London School of Economics, the Oxford University School of Government, the Council on Foreign Relations and the World Economic Forum in Davos.

He has won several awards, including the 2016 Orwell Prize for Journalism, Commentator of the Year at the European Press Prize 2016, Best Foreign Commentator at the 2010 Editorial Intelligence Comment Awards, and appears regularly on national and international radio and TV programmes.

Follow Gideon Rachman on Twitter: @gideonrachman

Gideon Rachman was appointed chief foreign affairs columnist and an associate editor of the Financial Times in July 2006. Based in London, he writes a weekly column in the newspaper and for The World blog on FT.com. His particular interests include American foreign policy, the European Union and globalisation.

Rachman joined the FT after a 15-year career at The Economist where he held several senior positions including deputy US editor, Asia editor, Britain editor, and business editor. He also wrote the Charlemagne column from Brussels in his role as EU correspondent.

Rachman’s new book, Easternisation: War and Peace in the Asian Century concentrates on how the growing wealth of Asia nations is transforming the international balance of power. His previous book Zero-Sum World, about the future of international relations was published in the UK in late 2010, has been translated into eight languages, including Chinese and Arabic. He is a regular public speaker and has lectured or appeared on panels at the London School of Economics, the Oxford University School of Government, the Council on Foreign Relations and the World Economic Forum in Davos.

He has won several awards, including the 2016 Orwell Prize for Journalism, Commentator of the Year at the European Press Prize 2016, Best Foreign Commentator at the 2010 Editorial Intelligence Comment Awards, and appears regularly on national and international radio and TV programmes.

Follow Gideon Rachman on Twitter: @gideonrachman

Charles Grant CMG is director of the Centre for European Reform (CER). He works on EU foreign and defence policy, Russia, China, the euro and Britain’s relationship with the EU. His biography of Commission President Jacques Delors (“Delors: Inside the House that Jacques Built”) was published by Nicolas Brealey in 1994, and he is the author of many CER publications.

Charles is a member of the international advisory boards of the Moscow School of Civic Education, the Turkish think-tank EDAM and the French think-tank Terra Nova. He is also a member of the council of the Ditchley Foundation, and chairman of the foundation's programme committee.

In 2004 he became a chevalier of France’s Ordre Nationale du Mérite, and in 2013 a Companion of St Michael and St George (CMG) "for services to European and wider international policy-making". In 2015 he was awarded the Bene Merito medal by the Polish government and the Star of Italy medal by the Italian government.

Charles is a regular contributor to the Financial Times, The Guardian, The New York Times International Edition and many other publications. He can be followed on twitter at @CER_Grant.

Robin Niblett became the Director of Chatham House (the Royal Institute of International Affairs) in January 2007. Before joining Chatham House, from 2001 to 2006, Dr Niblett was the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). During his last two years at CSIS, he also served as Director of the CSIS Europe Programme and its Initiative for a Renewed Transatlantic Partnership.

Dr Niblett’s commentary and analysis have appeared in the Financial Times, Washington Post, Daily Telegraph, Guardian and Reuters. He is the author of Britain, the EU and the Sovereignty Myth (Chatham House 2016), Britain, Europe and the World: Rethinking the UK’s Circles of Influence (Chatham House, 2015), and Playing to its Strengths: Rethinking the UK’s Role in a Changing World (Chatham House, 2010). He is also editor and contributing author to America and a Changed World: A Question of Leadership (Chatham House/Wiley-Blackwell, 2010); a contributor to Influencing Tomorrow: Future Challenges for British Foreign Policy (Guardian Books, 2013) by Douglas Alexander MP and Dr Ian Kearns; author and contributor to a number of CSIS reports on transatlantic relations, and contributing author and co-editor with William Wallace of Rethinking European Order (Palgrave, 2001).

Dr Niblett is a frequent panellist at conferences on Europe and transatlantic relations. He has testified on a number of occasions to the House of Commons Defence and Treasury Select Committees and Foreign Affairs Committee, as well as the US Senate and House Committees on European Affairs.

He is a Non-Executive Director of Fidelity European Values Investment Trust and a member of the World Economic Forum Europe Policy Group. He was a Special Adviser to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee (2015-16) and a member of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on International Security (2016). He was Chairman of the Experts Group for the 2014 NATO Summit; Chairman of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Europe (2012-13) and Chair of the British Academy Steering Committee of Languages for Security Project (2013). In 2012 he was awarded the Bene Merito medal by the Polish government. He became a Companion of St Michael and St George (CMG) in 2015.

He received his BA in Modern Languages and MPhil and DPhil from New College, Oxford.

Ngaire Woods is the founding Dean of the Blavatnik School of Government and Professor of Global Economic Governance at Oxford University. Her research focuses on how to enhance the governance of organisations, the challenges of globalisation, global development, and the role of international institutions and global economic governance. Previously, she founded the Global Economic Governance Programme at Oxford University and co-founded (with Robert O. Keohane) the Oxford-Princeton Global Leaders Fellowship programme. She led the creation of the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University.

Professor Woods serves as a member of the International Advisory Panel of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, on the Board of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, and as a Rhodes Trustee. She is co-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Values, Technology and Governance. She serves on the Advisory Group of the Center for Global Development (Washington DC). Previously, she served as a Non-Executive Director on the Arup Global Group Board and on the Board of the Center for International Governance Innovation in Canada. She has also served as a member of the IMF European Regional Advisory Group, and as an Advisor to the IMF Board, the African Development Bank, the UNDP’s Human Development Report, and the Commonwealth Heads of Government. She has presented numerous documentaries for BBC Radio 4 and BBC 2 television.

Her books include: The Politics of Global Regulation (with Walter Mattli, Oxford University Press, 2009), Networks of Influence? Developing Countries in a Networked Global Order (with Leonardo Martinez-Diaz, Oxford University Press, 2009), The Globalizers: the IMF, the World Bank and their Borrowers (Cornell University Press, 2006), Exporting Good Governance: Temptations and Challenges in Canada’s Aid Program (with Jennifer Welsh, Laurier University Press, 2007), and Making Self-Regulation Effective in Developing Countries (with Dana Brown, Oxford University Press, 2007). She has previously published The Political Economy of Globalization (Macmillan, 2000),Inequality, Globalization and World Politics (with Andrew Hurrell: Oxford University Press, 1999), Explaining International Relations since 1945 (Oxford University Press, 1986), and numerous articles on international institutions, globalization, and governance.

She was educated at Auckland University (BA in economics, LLB Hons in law). She studied at Balliol College, Oxford as a New Zealand Rhodes Scholar, completing an MPhil (with Distinction) and then DPhil in International Relations. She won a Junior Research Fellowship at New College, Oxford and subsequently taught at Harvard University (Government Department) before taking up her Fellowship at University College, Oxford and academic roles at Oxford University.

Ravi Mattu is Technology Editor of the Financial Times. He is also the FT’s Telecoms, Media and Technology News Editor. Since joining the FT 15 years ago, he has spoken to CEOs, entrepreneurs, prime ministers and some of the world’s leading management thinkers. From the founders of Uber and Nest, to the CEOs of Microsoft and Vodafone, to the man who came up with virtual reality and Lady Gaga’s manager, Mr Mattu has interviewed some of the most creative people in business today. Through working with thought leaders in a variety of fields, he has developed unique observations on the topics of technology, innovation, entrepreneurship, global trends in business and the changing nature of the workplace. Mr Mattu joined the Financial Times in 2000 and has held a number of senior positions at the newspaper, including Business Life Editor, overseeing the management section of the paper, and Acting Deputy Editor of the FT Weekend Magazine. He is a former editor of Special Reports. He was also launch editor of FT Wealth. He took up his most recent position after being the Editorial Director for FT2, , the FT’s content marketing unit. Before joining the FT, Mr Mattu worked as assistant editor, acting deputy editor and senior editor at Prospect Magazine from 1997 to 2000.

As Chief Innovation Officer at PA Consulting Group, Frazer Bennett's passion lies in supporting organisations to successfully navigate the journey from idea to profit. He helps organisations to establish the right innovation strategy and then implement the steps for creating first-to-world products, services and processes. Underlining how innovation is now a critical business issue across all sectors, he has recently supported the successful development of new ideas in areas ranging from connected healthcare, system and service provision and novel connected technologies for the pharmaceutical sector. With experience that spans R&D, product development, and consulting, Mr Bennett is the founder of three companies including two semiconductor companies.

Luciano Floridi is Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Information at the University of Oxford, where he directs the Digital Ethics Lab (DELab) of the Oxford Internet Institute. He is also Faculty Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute and Chair of its Data Ethics research Group, and Chairman of the Ethics Advisory Board of the European Medical Information Framework. He sits on the EU's Ethics Advisory Group on Ethical Dimensions of Data Protection, on the Royal Society and British Academy Working Group on Data Governance, and on Google Advisory Board on “the right to be forgotten”. His areas of expertise include the philosophy of information, digital ethics, and the philosophy of technology. Among his recent books, all published by Oxford University Press: The Fourth Revolution - How the infosphere is reshaping human reality (2014), The Ethics of Information (2013), The Philosophy of Information (2011).

Lynda is a Professor of Management Practice at London Business School where she directs ‘Human Resource Strategy in Transforming Companies’ – considered the world’s leading programme on human resources.

Lynda is the founder of Hot Spots Movement and since 2008 she has led the Future of Work Research Consortium which has brought together executives from more than 100 companies.

Over the last 20 years Lynda has written extensively about the interface between people and organisations. Her eight books cover the link between business and HR strategy (Living Strategy), the new ways of working (The Democratic Enterprise), the rise of complex collaboration (Hot Spots and Glow) and the impact of a changing world on employment and work (The Shift). In 2012 The Shift received the business book of the year award in Japan and has been translated into more than 15 languages. In 2015 The Key won the CMI Management Book of the Year. This book looks at the impact of the changing world on corporate practices and processes and on leadership. In 2016, Lynda Gratton and co-author Professor Andrew Scott, published The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity, which, translated into many languages, continues to generate significant interest across the world, also in Japan, where it quickly became a bestseller. It was shortlisted for the FT Business Book of the Year award.

Lynda’s work has been acknowledged globally – she has won the Tata prize in India; in the US she has been named as the annual Fellow of NAHR and won the CCL prize; whilst in Australia she has won the HR prize. Lynda is a Fellow of the World Economic Forum and has chaired the WEF Council of Leadership. She has served as a judge on the FT Business Book of the Year panel, chairs the Drucker Prize panel and is on the governing body of London Business School. In 2017, Lynda became an Advisor for @GoogleOrg’s initiative to help people prepare for the changing nature of work and was also, as the only foreigner, invited by Prime Minister Abe of Japan to join a new advisory council “Council for designing the 100-year-life society”.

Nicola Millard heads up Customer Insight & Futures in BT's Innovation Team. Despite working for a technology company, Nicola isn't a technologist and combines psychology with futurology to try and anticipate what might be lying around the corner for both customers and organisations (sadly, her crystal ball is broken).

Nicola has been at BT for 27 years. She has done a number of jobs around the BT business, including user interface design, customer service and business consulting. She was involved with a number of BT "firsts", including the first application of intelligent systems into BT's call centres and BT's initial experimentation with home working.

Nicola got her PhD from Lancaster University in 2005 on motivational technologies in contact centres, published her first book in 2009 and now spends most of her time doing research, writing blogs, articles and white papers.

Nicola regularly pops up on radio and TV around the world, including appearances on 'Woman's Hour', 'Tech Tent', 'The Genius of Invention' and 'Back in Time for the Weekend' for the BBC. She has done a TED talk about why people accept or reject technologies and is also a judge on a number of award panels, including the Institute of Customer Service, the CCMA and the Association of Business Psychology awards. In 2014, she was the recipient of the 'Outstanding Industry Contribution' award from the UK Contact Centre Forum.

When she's not doing all that, Nicola travels around the world presenting at conferences and running workshops with an assortment of BT's large multinational corporate clients including banks, government, airlines and retailers, to name but a few.