Charles Hecker Keynote Speaker

Author of 'Zero Sum: The Arc of International Business in Russia'
Expert on the interaction between business and geopolitics, with a special focus on Russia
Former Partner at Control Risks, an international specialist risk consultancy

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Charles Hecker's Biography

Charles Hecker is an expert on the interaction between business and geopolitics, with a special focus on Russia. He is the author of Zero Sum: The Arc of International Business in Russia, published in the UK & Europe by Hurst Publishers and in the US by Oxford University Press.

Zero Sum tells the story of the rollercoaster generation of Western business in Russia, from the gold-rush mindset that attracted thousands of companies in the 1990s, to the stampede toward the exits following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The book has been the subject of favourable reviews in the Financial Times and The Times, among others.

Prior to writing Zero Sum, Charles was a partner at Control Risks, the international, specialist risk consultancy. Charles was the managing partner of firm’s Moscow office and later the co-head of the Global Issues Team within the firm’s geopolitical risk division. He was for years a driving force behind Control Risks’ annual publication RiskMap, and has spoken at public and client-facing conferences from São Paulo to Tokyo.

Charles is a regular contributor to print, online and broadcast media. He has written recently for The Spectator, The New European, Board Agenda, and The CEO Magazine, among others. He is a regular contributor to Monocle Radio, and has appeared on CBC, CNN, the BBC, and Bloomberg TV and radio.

Charles is a fluent Russian speaker. He has a BA in Russian and Soviet Studies from the University of Pennsylvania and an MA in Soviet Regional Studies from the Russian Research Center (now the Davis Center) at Harvard University.

Russia:

How does Russia under Vladimir Putin relate to the rest of the world and what might change in a post-Putin Russia? What do companies have to think about when understanding Russia and its geopolitics? How does Russia’s geopolitical position impact other countries, including superpowers like the US, China and the EU?

Geopolitics and geopolitical risk:

How can companies better understand geopolitics and identify geopolitical risk? What is the best way to understand how countries and companies interact? How can companies best predict and adjust their practices?

Global security:

What are the greatest threats to global security, in a world that seems to be in a constant state of disruption? If the security framework dominated by the United States over the past seven decades is fracturing and showing signs of stress, what comes next? Is the global geopolitical architecture in a period of transition to a new status quo, or are we now in a permanent state of disruption with no particular destination in mind? How can individuals and organisations make sense of a world that now seems to be not just multi-polar, but completely de-magnetised?