Gillian Tett Keynote Speaker

Dr. Gillian Tett has an unparalleled track record at predicting important trends that impact the world.   She writes a weekly column on Friday, covering a range of economic, financial, political and social issues.

Her journalistic work, to chart and explain the ensuing global financial crisis is well documented and she has received awards for her work.

In addition to her work at the Financial Times, she is also Provost of King’s College Cambridge.

In the last decade, she foresaw the rise of populism, the electoral success of President Trump, and she warned on the emerging risks posed by certain new types of Fintech — products and services that arise from new types of ‘financial innovation’ and the current lag of effective regulation and governance to manage these activities.

Gillian’s best-selling book, Anthro-Vision: A New Way to See in Business and Life, offers a look at how businesses can revolutionize their understanding of human behavior by studying consumers and organizations through an anthropological lens. She is also the author of The Silo Effect: The Peril of Expertise and the Promise of Breaking Down Barriers and the New York Times bestseller Fool’s Gold, the gripping tale of how a team of Wall Street bankers led by J.P. Morgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon created the world of ‘shadow banking,’ and then lost control of their creation.

Fool’s Gold was a vital contribution to our understanding of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. She also wrote Saving the Sun, about Japan’s financial collapse in the 1990s. She was Japan bureau chief for the FT during their ‘lost decade’.

Previously, she chaired the FT editorial board, ran Moral Money, the FT’s sustainability newsletter which she co-founded, and wrote two columns a week. Gillian’s earlier roles included US managing editor for the FT; assistant editor; capital markets editor; deputy editor of the Lex column; Tokyo bureau chief; reporter in Russia and Brussels.Her twice-weekly column earned her recognition as Columnist of the Year at the 2014 Press Awards.

In 2019, she founded ‘Moral Money’, an award winning column that documents and analyzes the new world of socially responsible business, sustainable finance, impact investing, environmental, social and governance (ESG) trends, and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.  Moral Money is a trusted source for comprehensive assessments of developments in ESG and holds the distinction of winning a SABEW Best in Business award twice in a row.

In recognition of her work, Gillian has won several awards, including the 2021 Presidents’ Medal from the American Anthropological Association, the UK Speechwriters’ Guild Business Communicator of the Year 2012, the Journalist of the Year at the British Press Awards 2009, British Business Journalist of the Year in 2008, and the Wincott prize in 2007. Gillian also received The British Academy President’s Medal 2011, which rewards service to the cause of the humanities and social sciences, specifically for her insightful journalism contributing to public understanding. More recently, she was recognized as Columnist of the Year at the 2014 Press Awards.

Gillian has a PhD in Social Anthropology from Cambridge University, based on research conducted in the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s. She speaks French and Russian and has studied Japanese and Tajik.

Speaking Topics Include:

Why Every CEO Need an Anthropologist

Gillian outlines the nature of ‘tribal’ behaviour and how organisations work as distinct societal groups. She gives examples where certain organizations developed ‘tunnel vision; and ways to survive this trap by expanding their thinking across boundaries by embracing diversity, holistic thinking and to design system wide learning.

The dangers of modern political tribalism
Gillian gives an incisive and illuminating view on the current and emerging forces impacting our world today, both in the US and internationally.

Dazed and Confused: Making Sense of an Uncertain Economy
Gillian gives her insights on the economic landscape ahead — she takes a global view and adds her individual focus on what lies ahead.

The Disrupted World
Today’s world is economically and politically unstable, anti-expert, post-truth, uncertain of its financial and physical borders. Gillan will outline why it is so crucial to take a joined up view about what lies ahead for the political economy.

Fintech and Financial Markets — the road ahead ?
Gillian warns on the trend between increasing reliance on complex financial instruments, the risks of relying on excessively expert experts and a world where fast returns are made on capital. We shouldn’t forget the lessons of the last meltdown with Fintech strategies that few truly understood and which led to disastrous outcomes for many.

Silo-busting: a new perspective on why diversity really matters
Diversity has many faces and is an essential part of any healthy organization. She gives prime examples of where this lack of diversity led to catastrophic mistakes and also where it led to improved thinking and decision making. Within this area, Gillian also can talk about he boundary between finance and philanthropy and finance and technology.

Silo-busting;the secret to success in the tech world
Why do some companies succeed brilliantly, but others fail? Why do some executives seem to triumph in business, but others do not? If you ask many tech experts that question, they might point to skills in computer engineering. But as Gillian will explain, citing the examples from well known firms, that this only explains part of the tale. The other key ingredient which technology experts need to ponder is social engineering — or the importance of cultural and social patterns. And one of the most important of these cultural challenges is the problem created by silos — and the need to overcome this.