Ben Legg Keynote Speaker
- Founder & CEO, Digital People - adviser to CEOs and Wall Street investors on AI (2018–present)
- Former COO, Google Europe (2007–2009)
- Author of "Marketing for CEOs" (2016); Nonfiction Book Awards (Silver)
Ben Legg's Biography
Ben Legg is a high-energy, pragmatic business leader, engineer and author working at the intersection of AI, talent and capital. As former COO of Google Europe, he wrote the blueprint for monetising the modern internet – Search, YouTube and Mobile – that the hyperscalers still run on today. Today, through his firm Digital People, he helps CEOs build agentic businesses and advises Wall Street investors and governments on where AI is creating and destroying value.
Ben is no retired executive trading on an old title. He advises five to ten senior leaders every week, from FTSE 100 boards to private equity and the tech hyperscalers, and tracks $1.2bn of annual digital ad spend across more than 300 companies. He has a documented record of calling big shifts before consensus, from the GDPR non-event to the rise of AI-powered micro-businesses, and, in his own words, doesn’t just talk about AI; he builds with it daily.
His career is defined by high-stakes leadership. From serving as a British Army officer during the relief of the Siege of Sarajevo, through a strategy career at McKinsey and a turnaround of Coca-Cola India, to hyperscaling at Google, he brings a rare “warrior-to-boardroom” perspective. A three-time private equity-backed CEO and author of the award-winning “Marketing for CEOs: Death or Glory in the Digital Age”, Ben also founded The Portfolio Collective, a global community reshaping the future of work. His keynotes cut through the hype to give leaders a practical, data-driven blueprint for what to do on Monday morning.
Ben Legg's Speaking Topics
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Beyond the Hype: How to Build an Agentic Business
AI is the biggest shift since the internet, but most leaders are stuck in analysis paralysis. Drawing on his experience as Google COO and an active AI operator, Ben demystifies the technology and shows where to deploy it first, how to redesign the work around it, and what to do on Monday morning.
Takeaway: A clear, actionable strategy to implement AI for measurable ROI.
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The Liquid Organisation: Configuring Your Business for Human + AI Collaboration
What does the org chart look like when bots start to outnumber humans? Ben shows how leaders reconfigure their organisations for human + AI collaboration, shifting their people from doers to designers of the machine, while keeping teams engaged through rapid change.
Takeaway: How to redesign your organisation and workforce to thrive as AI scales.
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Investing in an AI-Enabled World: Picking the Winners and Losers
As AI becomes ubiquitous, where does value accrue - and who is riding the wave on borrowed time? Ben brings an operator's lens and a proprietary read on digital spend to help investors and boards separate the durable winners from the losers.
Takeaway: An operator-grade framework for spotting where value is created and destroyed as AI becomes ubiquitous.
Why Book Ben Legg as a speaker?
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He is still live at the frontier, not a retired executive: through Digital People he advises five to ten senior leaders every week, from FTSE 100 boards to private equity and the tech hyperscalers, so audiences get current, operator-grade judgement rather than commentary.
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He brings platform growth and monetisation expertise from Google, where as COO of Google Europe he wrote the monetisation blueprint for Search, YouTube and Mobile that rivals still use, so leaders understand how digital products become durable revenue.
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He has a documented record of calling big shifts before consensus – from GDPR’s non-impact on Meta to the rise of AI-powered micro-businesses – backed by tracking $1.2bn of annual ad spend across 300+ companies, giving boards a credible read on what happens next.
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He grounds transformation in high-stakes leadership, from serving as a British Army Royal Engineers officer linked to relieving the Siege of Sarajevo in 1995 to a turnaround of Coca-Cola India, so audiences take away practical resilience and execution under pressure.
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He is the author of the award-winning “Marketing for CEOs: Death or Glory in the Digital Age” (2016 Nonfiction Book Awards Silver; 2017 CEO World Awards Gold), giving executives clear frameworks they can apply immediately.
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