Thought Leadership Forum 2008

This year, the Thought Leadership Forum brings together outstanding international personalities from government, academia and business giving business leaders the opportunity to explore some of the pressing issues facing them.

The forum which is targeted exclusively to senior executives will focus on Growth, Competitiveness and the Environment. It is designed to give participants fresh insight into the challenges they face based on the speakers' experience and state of the art research into hot business issues and best practices worldwide.

PROGRAMME

09.00 - 10.00  Welcome Coffee & Registrations

10.00 - 10.10  Salutation
Thanassis Avramopoulos, General Manager, Hay Group

10.10 - 10.20  Conference Opening
Stavros Kalafatis, Vice Minister, Ministry of Development

10.20 - 10.45  Achieving Peak Performance: Lessons Learned from Leading Companies Greece 2007
Harry Meintassis, Manager, Hay Group, Romania

10.45 - 11.45  The Politics of Growth
Jacques Attali, Head of the Commission to promote French Growth           

11.45 - 12.15  Coffee Break & Networking Opportunities

12.15 - 13.15  The Competitiveness of Enterprises
Stephane Garelli, Leading Authority on Competitiveness of Nations and Enterprises

13.15 - 14.15  Buffet Lunch

14.15 - 15.15  The Skeptical Environmentalist
Bjorn Lomborg, One of the 100 globally most influential people by Time magazine

15.15 - 16.00  Conclusions

CONFERENCE SPEAKERS

Jacques Attali

In 2007 French President Nicolas Sarkozy has nominated Attali the head of the Commission to promote French Growth.

An eminent economic thinker, professor, writer, special adviser to Francois Mitterand from 1981 to 1990, and founder and first president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development 1991 to 1993, Jacques Attali is now chairman of A&A, an investment bank and private equity vehicle specializing in the development of European IT start-ups, from software to genomics. He is also founder and president of PlaNet Finance, an international non-profit organization that uses the Internet to fight poverty, while focusing on structuring the microfinance sector.

In 1989, Attali launched an international action program against massive floods in Bangladesh. He is a man of action and reflection. An economic theorist with degrees from the elite French "grandes ecoles," he has taught economics at several leading French universities.

He is the author of over thirty books on topics ranging from mathematical economy to music to novels, songs, short stories and theater plays, translated into more than twenty languages. His main work in economics and sociology has been on the main trends in human history and their use to forecast the future, in areas such as music, measure of time, medicine, property and other dimensions of human activities.

Stephane Garelli

Stephane's new book TOP CLASS COMPETITORS! - How Nations and Firms Succeed in the New World of Competitiveness has been published to world-wide acclaim in 2006.

Stephane Garelli is Professor at IMD International Business School in Lausanne, where he is also Director of the annual World Competitiveness series of reports since 1987. The most renowned annual analysis of the competitiveness of nations and a reference for government and business leaders around the world. In addition he is Professor of International Business Policy at the University of Lausanne, where he is also a member of the management committee of the Master in International Management and a member of the management committee of the Graduate Institute for International Management.

In his talks he describes what competitiveness is all about in today's international markets, what the key trends are and which ones will have a real impact on companies. He develops the concept of the three levels of company competitiveness: product leadership, process excellence, and structure efficiency. He then focuses on the consequences of these strategies on work, motivation of employees and the credibility of management. Professor Garelli concludes by highlighting the skills which will be needed to succeed in such a new environment.

With a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Lausanne, Professor Garelli was Managing Director of the World Economic Forum from 1974 to 1987 and Director of the Davos Symposium, from 1980 to 1987. He was Senior Adviser to the European Management of Hewlett Packard from 1988 to 2000 and a member of the Constitutional Assembly of his local state - Vaud, Switzerlandfrom 1999 to 2002.

Bjorn Lomborg

Lomborg was named one of the 100 globally most influential people by Time magazine in April 2004. Foreign Policy and Prospect Magazine had him listed as the world's 14th most influential intellectual in October 2005.

He is adjunct professor at the Copenhagen Business School, and author of the best-selling "The Skeptical Environmentalist", where he challenges our understanding of the environment, and points out how we need to focus our attention on the most important problems first.

His first book has been published in the major languages around the world and he is a frequent participant in the current debate, with commentaries in such places as New York Times, Wall St. Journal, Globe & Mail, The Guardian, The Daily and Sunday Telegraph, The Times, The Australian, the Economist. He has also appeared on TV, such places as Politically Incorrect, ABC 60 minutes, CNN, BBC, CNBC, and PBS.

In May 2004 he organized the "Copenhagen Consensus" which brought together some of the world's top economists. Here they prioritized the best opportunities to the world's big challenges, essentially answering the question: If we want to do good, where should we start?

In June 2006 he assembled a number of top UN ambassadors, including representatives from China, India and the UN, representing about half the world's population. They also answered the question, and came out with a similar ranking, the first of its kind for the UN. The conferences and their results have resulted in two books: "Global Crises, Global Solutions" and "How to Spend $50 Billion to Make the World a Better Place"

In November 2001, Lomborg was selected Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum. From February 2002 to July 2004 Lomborg was director of Denmark's national Environmental Assessment Institute. n June 2002, Lomborg was named one of the "50 stars of Europe" (as one of the 9 "agenda setters" in Europe) in Business Week (June 17). In April 2004, Lomborg was named one of the world's 100 most influential people by Time Magazine. In June 2005 named Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. In October 2005 listed as the world's 14th most influential intellectual by Foreign Policy and Prospect Magazine.

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