Mariana Mazzucato Keynote Speaker

Dr. Mariana Mazzucato CBE is one of the best known, most influential and dynamic economists in the world today.    She is the Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London, where she is Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose (IIPP).

Mariana’s research and advisory work is of immense value to the private sector as well as to state and public organisations.  Mariana’s work looks at the relationship between financial markets, innovation and economic growth: how different types of finance produce different kinds of innovation at both organisational and international level. Her research finds that, across the globe, it is often the public sector that’s most willing to fund high risk capital-intensive innovations, from the internet to clean technology

She advises policy makers around the world on innovation-led inclusive and sustainable growth. Her roles have included for example Co-Chair of the Group of Experts for the G20 Taskforce on a Global Mobilization against Climate Change, Chair of the World Health Organization’s Council on the Economics of Health for All, Co-Chair of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, Co-Chair on the Council on Urban Initiatives, Commissioner for the Jubilee Report on Addressing the Debt and Development Crises in Countries from the South, and member of the South African President’s Economic Advisory Council..

Mariana is the author of eleven books including – The Entrepreneurial State: debunking public vs. private sector myths (2013), The Value of Everything: making and taking in the global economy (2018), Mission Economy: a moonshot guide to changing capitalism (2021) and The Big Con: How the Consulting Industry Weakens our Businesses, Infantilizes our Governments and Warps our Economies (2023).

Her new book ‘The Common Good Economy’ was published by Penguin in June 2026. Building on her acclaimed ‘mission-oriented’ approach, and her influential rethinking of the role and nature of the ‘entrepreneurial state’, this book provides a compelling analysis, and a call to action, to ensure the welfare of people and the planet.   The essence of the book is that economies should be deliberately structured around shared societal goals, with governments, businesses, and citizens co-creating value—not just chasing short term margins.

Mariana is the winner of international prizes the 2024 Public Value Award, the 2020 John von Neumann Award, the 2019 All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values, and the 2018 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought.She has been listed as one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business; GQ’s Top 50 most influential people in Britain; Wired’s 25 leaders shaping the future of capitalism and by the New Republic as one of the 3 most important thinkers about innovation.   In June 2025, she was honoured in the King’s birthday honours as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to economics.

Previous posts include the RM Phillips Professorial Chair at the Science Policy Research Unit at Sussex University. She is a member of the UK Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS), the Italian Academy of Sciences Lincei, and the US Council on Foreign Relations. She holds honorary doctorates from 9 top rated global universities. In 2021 she received from the Italian government the title of Grande Ufficiale Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana, Italy’s highest civilian honour. Most recently, Pope Francis appointed her to the Pontifical Academy for Life for bringing ‘more humanity’ to the world.

In her her role as Special Advisor for the EC Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation (2017-2019), she authored the high-impact report on Mission-Oriented Research and Innovation in the European Union, turning “missions” into a crucial new instrument in the European Commission’s Horizon innovation programme, and more recently, authored a report with the UN’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) on Transformational Change in Latin America and the Caribbean: A mission-oriented approach.

She features regularly in print and broadcast media including BBC Newsnight, Channel 4 News, BBC World News, Bloomberg, The New York Times, Financial Times, The Guardian, The Observer, New Statesman, La Repubblica, The Economist, Project Syndicate and Foreign Affairs.