Kwasi Kwarteng Keynote Speaker

Kwasi Kwarteng was Chancellor of the Exchequer as well as other ministerial positions during one of the most turbulent periods of a generation.  He is a keynote speaker topics such as UK government and politics, economic policy, climate change, geopolitics of energy, and Brexit, among others.

The son of parents from Ghana who had emigrated to the United Kingdom in the 1960s, Kwasi was an outstanding student, winning scholarships at Eton, Harvard and Cambridge.

After years as a financial analyst, Kwasi was elected as one of the first black Conservative MPs in 2010. He has represented Spelthorne in this capacity since then and, from 2015, he has held a number of positions at the heart of the British Government, particularly regarding Brexit, Energy and the Net Zero economy and, latterly, he held the highest responsibility for economic policy.

Kwasi was made a Minister in the Department for Exiting the EU in 2018. He was responsible for the Withdrawal Agreement, and spent 10 months immersed in the parliamentary detail of the Bill.

When Boris Johnson won the General Election in 2019, Kwasi was appointed to Privy Council attending Cabinet, and he became the first black Conservative MP to attend Cabinet as Minister of State when he was appointed as Minister of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

In his trailblazing career, Kwasi became the first black Conservative MP to serve as a Secretary of State when he was appointed Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in January 2021. In this role, Kwasi was responsible for not only for energy policy, but also for deregulation of business and UK research and development. While serving as Secretary of State, Kwasi instituted annual auctions for offshore wind and helped devise the first UK Innovation Strategy, published in 2021. Kwasi also managed to drive nuclear investment with the signing of the Sizewell C deal.

On 6^th September 2022, Kwasi was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, the first black MP to hold this role. After a turbulent five weeks when the mini-budget was given the thumbs down by the markets, Kwasi was sacked by Liz Truss, who subsequently resigned six days later. The mini budget remains controversial, and represents the attempt of the then government to get growth back on the agenda.

Growth, together with the need to decarbonise economies, is arguably the biggest challenge faced by Western economies today. There are very few people in the world who have had such practical experience in the interface between markets  and government policy as well as the financial challenge governments face in the drive to decarbonise energy.

In addition to his active career in politics, Kwasi is a widely known historian. His books include Ghosts of Empire (2011), War & Gold (2014) and Thatcher’s Trial (2015).