Jonathan Ledgard Keynote Speaker

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.