Albert Read Keynote Speaker

Author of award-winning The Imagination Muscle
Led Condé Nast UK; launch publisher of Wired (UK)
Senior advisor to Milken Institute; external advisor to Bain

Albert Read's Biography

Albert Read is an award-winning writer and speaker on leadership and creativity in business. His work focuses on the essential role of imagination in leadership and the future of human creativity in the new era of Artificial Intelligence. His book, The Imagination Muscle, was selected as one of Bloomberg’s “Books of the Year” (2024), featured in The Economist’s “Five Essential Books on Creativity,” and included on JP Morgan’s NextList 2025.

Across nearly three decades in international media, he has operated at the intersection of culture, creativity, luxury and commerce. He served as Managing Director of Condé Nast UK, overseeing Vogue, GQ and Condé Nast Traveller during one of the company’s most successful periods, including the Vogue editorship of Edward Enninful.

Read launched Wired in the UK and diversified Condé Nast into new digital products, conferences, awards and education. He also established Condé Nast operations in China, India and the UAE—experience that informs his global perspective and practical approach to growth and innovation.

He is a senior advisor to the Milken Institute and an external advisor to Bain & Company. As a keynote speaker, he has addressed executives at major luxury brands and marketing agencies, as well as audiences at the Royal College of Art, Founders Forum and the Milken Conference in Los Angeles. Albert studied Classics at New College, Oxford, and holds an MBA from INSEAD. He equips leaders with tools to strengthen the “imagination muscle,” connect creativity to commercial outcomes, and navigate AI with confidence.

How to have Ideas - Imagination and Leadership in the age of AI.

‘Has anyone had any good ideas recently?’

If the audience are struggling to raise their hands, they have come to the right place.

This talk is an uplifting journey through the possibilities of the human mind and the tricks you can pick up from others, if you know where to look. What consistent but surprising trait can you find in Nobel Prize winners in science? What’s different about the way Bill Gates reads books? What thought process connects Uber with the hit musical Hamilton?

Albert shares his practical tips for combining technology and human creativity at work: where does AI go from being your strongest research assistant to diminishing your own potential by allowing you to ‘cognitively offload?’ What are the four stages of creativity and how do you incorporate them into the modern office? What are the modern tools and techniques that allow for deep work?

More widely, why is the imagination so fundamental to a flourishing career? How do you instil it in the culture around you? Which companies have done so successfully? How do you create an expectation of ideas from your teams? How do you give junior employees the confidence to share their ideas? How do you keep the drumbeat of innovation alive in your company?

Albert applies lessons from the arts, science and entrepreneurship to the business world. He addresses the very real and pressing questions that leaders face around growth and the need for innovation. He shows how, in the age of AI, human creativity is more important than ever; but it needs to reassert its vitality and, if it is to thrive, adapt to the new tools at its disposal.

Albert’s research into the imagination, from his book The Imagination Muscle, illuminates a talk which is both wise, inspirational and of the moment. It touches on his time running Condé Nast and presents concrete ideas from what he learned about building a confident, zeitgeist-setting, idea-generating culture within an organisation.

He equips leaders to strengthen creativity as a core leadership capability, translating his research on imagination and AI into practical tools that drive growth, innovation and strategic clarity.
He is the author of The Imagination Muscle, recognised by Bloomberg and The Economist, giving organisations a credible framework for protecting and expanding human creativity in the age of artificial intelligence.
He brings rare media and cultural leadership from nearly three decades at Condé Nast, including as Managing Director of Condé Nast UK, showing executives how to build brands that thrive at the intersection of culture, luxury and commerce.
He pioneered digital innovation and global expansion, launching Wired UK and establishing Condé Nast operations across China, India and the UAE, helping audiences understand how to scale ideas across markets and platforms.
He advises senior decision-makers through roles with the Milken Institute and Bain & Company, delivering board-level insight on how imagination, technology and commercial outcomes can be aligned for sustained advantage.