Loretta Napoleoni Keynote Speaker

Loretta Napoleoni is an Italian economist, journalist, political analyst and author of several internationally best-selling books. She is an expert on the financing of terrorism, and is credited with having calculated the size of the terror economy. Her recent work has focused on the global economy, the recent financial crises, and critiques of Western, Islamic and Chinese economies.

Loretta’s best-selling books Maonomics: “Why Chinese Communists Make Better Capitalists Than We Do” (2012), “Rogue Economics” (2011), and “Terror Incorporated” (2005) have been published in 12 languages. Her book, “Il Contagio”, was on the best-seller list in Italy for a month in the autumn of 2011. “Maonomics” won the Premio dell’Associazione per il Progresso Economico award in Italy, and the Singapore National Critics Choice Best Non-fiction Award.

As an economist Loretta has worked for both banks and international organisations in Europe and the United States. In the early 1980s she worked at the National Bank of Hungary on the convertibility of the Hungarian forint, which became the blueprint for the convertibility of the ruble a decade later.

As well as lecturing regularly on the financing of terrorism, Loretta advises several governments on counter-terrorism and international groups on global economic issues. As chairman of the counter-terrorism financing group for the Club de Madrid, she brought heads of state from around the world together to create a new strategy for combating the financing of terror networks.