Jonathan Ledgard Keynote Speaker

20+ years reporting conflict & geopolitics for The Economist
Pioneered cargo drones & droneports for medical logistics in Africa
Author of Submergence—NYT Book of the Year; Wim Wenders film

Jonathan Ledgard's Biography

Jonathan Ledgard is a leading thinker on the near future of security, technology, and systemic risk in Africa and other emerging economies. A longtime foreign and war correspondent with The Economist and a former director at EPFL in Switzerland, he brings ground-truth context to strategic and technological decision-making in contested environments.

He advises boards and sovereign institutions and leads pioneering work in AI and robotics in high-risk, high-return settings. A frequent lecturer to financial institutions, technology companies, and research bodies, he speaks on emerging technologies and decision-making under uncertainty.

Separately, as J.M. Ledgard, he is an acclaimed novelist, best known for Submergence, with a new novel, Sol, forthcoming.

Emerging technology and security in Africa and frontier markets

AI, robotics, and innovation in high-risk environments

Systemic risk, resilience, and strategic foresight

Decision-making under uncertainty in contested environments

Geopolitics, technology, and the future of security

He draws on more than two decades as a foreign and war correspondent for The Economist, reporting from 60 countries including a decade in Africa, to give leaders ground-truth insight on security and systemic risk in emerging markets.
He has been a fellow and director at EPFL since 2012, leading Afrotech work on robotics and scalable frontier technologies, helping organisations translate innovation into decisions that hold up in contested environments.
He initiated the Red Line droneport and cargo drone concept for medical and emergency logistics in Africa, showing audiences what it takes to move from breakthrough prototypes to resilient infrastructure and workable regulation.
He invented Interspecies Money, connecting AI, digital identity and biodiversity finance, giving executives a practical lens on how the next economy will value nature and manage ecological risk.
As J.M. Ledgard, the author of Submergence, a New York Times Book of the Year, he combines analytical rigour with storytelling that makes complex futures memorable and actionable for senior audiences.