Fletcher Political Risk Conference
Registration
Details
Welcome Address
Thursday, February 25, 8.00-9.00 am EST
Dean Rachel Kyte hosts Larry Cristini, Global Head of Crisis Management at Facebook, discussing resilience and responding to crises.
Panel 1: Digital Transformation and Cybersecurity in the Political Risk Landscape
Thursday, February 25, 9.15 am-10:15 am EST
Panelists --
Harish Natarajan - Head of Economic Risk, Ake International
Rama Sridhar - Executive Vice President, Digital & Emerging Partnerships and New Payment Flows, Mastercard
Dante A. Disparte - Executive Vice President, Diem Association; Founder & Chairman, Risk Cooperative
DJ Peterson - President, Longview Global Advisors
Moderated by Bhaskar Chakravorti
Dean of Global Business, The Fletcher School
Founding Executive Director, The Institute for Business in The Global Context
Panel 2: Tackling Climate Change Risk in the Long-Term
Friday, February 26, 8.00-9.00 am EST
Panelists --
Adrian Anderson - Senior Director, Renewable Energy Group, Microsoft
Will Pearson - Founder & Director, Triskel Global
Anna Ebers Broughel - Ecological Statistician, Tetra Tech
Mary Cline - Senior Advisor, Geostrategic Business Group, Ey
Moderated By Amy Myers Jaffe
Research Professor, The Fletcher School
Managing Director, The Climate Policy Lab
Keynote Address
Friday, February 26, 9.15-10.15 am EST
Dr. Ibrahim Warde hosts Dr. Parag Khanna discussing the lessons of resilience and corporate agility in the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Where
Zoom
Tufts University, 160 Packard Ave, Medford, MA 02155, United States
Speakers
Parag Khanna
Founder & Managing Partner
FutureMap
https://www.linkedin.com/in/drparagkhanna/?originalSubdomain=sg
Parag Khanna is a leading global strategy advisor, world traveler, and best-selling author. He is Founder & Managing Partner of FutureMap, a data and scenario based strategic advisory firm. Parag's newest book is The Future is Asian: Commerce, Conflict & Culture in the 21st Century (2019). He is author of a trilogy of books on the future of world order beginning with The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order (2008), followed by How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance (2011), and concluding with Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization (2016). He is also the author of Technocracy in America: Rise of the Info-State (2017) and co-author of Hybrid Reality: Thriving in the Emerging Human-Technology Civilization (2012).
Parag was named one of Esquire’s “75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century,” and featured in WIRED magazine’s “Smart List.” He holds a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics, and Bachelors and Masters degrees from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He has traveled to nearly 150 countries and is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum.
Ibrahim Warde
Professor of International Business
The Fletcher School
https://fletcher.tufts.edu/people/ibrahim-warde
Ibrahim Warde is adjunct professor of international business at The Fletcher School of Tufts University. His books include The Price of Fear: The Truth Behind the Financial War on Terror, which has been translated into French, Italian, Japanese, and Czech, and was selected by Foreign Affairs as one of the best books of the year about economic, social, and environmental issues, and Islamic Finance in the Global Economy, now in its second edition. He has previously taught at the University of California, Berkeley, at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, and at other universities in the United States and abroad. He was a Carnegie scholar focusing on informal finance in the Islamic World. He is also a writer for Le Monde Diplomatique and a consultant.
He holds a B.A. from Université Saint Joseph in Beirut, Lebanon, an MBA. from France’s Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales, and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley.
Harish Natarajan
Head of Economic Risk
AKE International
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/harish-natarajan-4a526627
Harish Natarajan is a senior economist and geopolitical research professional known for devising deep analytical insights. He has a strong ability to deliver impactful insights to drive key business strategies. He has exemplary stakeholder management abilities, ability to manage, lead and inspire direct teams.
Harish is also an award-winning debater, including winning IBM’s third Grand Challenge against an artificial intelligence machine, and extensively covered in the world press.
Rama Sridhar
Executive Vice President, Digital & Emerging Partnerships and New Payment Flows
Mastercard
https://sg.linkedin.com/in/ramasridhar2018
Rama Sridhar is an experienced Business Head, Strategist, and an Expert in Payments. Her goals include expanding the company’s stakeholder base to new client segments – digital ecosystems; strategic partnerships and establishing Mastercard’s presence in new payment flows across businesses and consumers. During her 13 years at Mastercard, she is widely recognized as an expert Business Manager with deep and strategic insights on emerging trends in payments across Asia Pacific and brings her sharp commercial acumen to drive brand leadership across all client segments.
Rama’s passion for creating businesses to achieve profitable and high growth trajectories has continued through her 30-year career across Technology, Financial Services, and Payments industries. She takes nascent businesses to market and turns around distressed business situations.
Driven by a mission to make a difference as a Senior Woman Executive, Rama is best known for her critical commercial and strategic acumen; developing leagues of high potential talent and inspiring them to new heights of excellence and corporate leadership. She is constantly looking to espouse causes that can make meaningful changes to the future of the female gender – education, career mentoring, entrepreneurship guidance, and health care.
Dante Disparte
Founder & Chairman
Risk Cooperative
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dantedisparte/
Dante Disparte is the founder and chairman of Risk Cooperative, a strategic risk advisory and insurance brokerage based in Washington, D.C., and licensed in all 50 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Dante also serves as an appointee on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) National Advisory Council and has served on various subcommittees reviewing insurance and mitigation, capacity building and long-term strategy. He is the founder and chairman of the Business Council for American Security and an ex-officio board member with the American Security Project, a non-partisan think tank focused on comprehensive security issues for the twenty-first century.
Dante is a frequent speaker and commentator on business and political issues shaping the world. His views on risk, economic competitiveness and global security are regularly featured in leading media and publications, such as Harvard Business Review, BBC, Forbes, and International Policy Digest, among others. Dante is a graduate of Harvard Business School and holds an MSc. in Risk Management from the NYU Stern School of Business and a B.A. in International and Intercultural Studies from Goucher College, where he is the recipient of the school’s highest public service award. He is the co-author of Global Risk Agility and Decision Making (Macmillan, 2016) and was recognized as one of the 40 leaders under 40 by the Washington Business Journal and in the inaugural Powermeter 100 list.
DJ Peterson
President
Longview Global Advisors
https://www.linkedin.com/in/djpeterson/
DJ Peterson’s mission is to help corporate leaders and investors make sense of critical political, economic, and social issues shaping their business and the environments in which they operate around the world.
In 2013, DJ founded Longview Global Advisors, a consultancy that works with clients on a range of tasks from strategic planning to market intelligence, thought leadership, and executive positioning. To tackle their needs, the firm draws on a network comprised of country, sector, and issue experts around the world. Backed by this well-sourced team, DJ develops insights that “bring the outside in” and enable executives to think and talk about the world, not just the business.
DJ has advised firms in a range of sectors, including financial services, insurance, consumer goods, automotive, industrial products, energy and mining, technology and telecommunications, life sciences, and professional services.
Bhaskar Chakravorti
Dean of Global Business
The Fletcher School
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bhaskar-chakravorti-6172826
Bhaskar Chakravorti is the dean of global business at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and founding executive director of Fletcher's Institute for Business in the Global Context. The Institute's objective is to "connect the world of business with the world." At the Institute, Bhaskar has launched multiple initiatives, e.g. The Digital Planet, Inclusion Inc., The "Turn?" Conference series, among others.
In addition, Bhaskar also serves on the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, is an advisory board member for the UNDP's International Center for the Private Sector in Development based in Istanbul, is a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution India, and is the Senior Advisor for Digital Inclusion at the MasterCard Center for Inclusive Growth. He is a regular writer and columnist for multiple widely read publications, e.g. Harvard Business Review, Forbes, The Guardian, Indian Express, Huffington Post, and is a former op-ed columnist on Innovation for the Washington Post. He is the author of the widely acclaimed book, "The Slow Pace of Fast Change: Bringing Innovations to Market in a Connected World" (Harvard Business Press). His papers and articles appear in top-tier academic journals, multiple books and in widely-read media, e.g. New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Washington Post, CNN, Foreign Affairs, BusinessWeek, and CNBC. He has provided commentary to the media, e.g. BBC, National Public Radio, Al Jazeera, CCTV, NBC, New York Times, WSJ, The Economist, The Times of London, and Times of India, among many others, on a variety of issues ranging from innovation to digital transformation to sustainable development.
Prior to joining Fletcher, Bhaskar was a partner of McKinsey & Company, on the faculty of Harvard Business School and a distinguished scholar at MIT's Legatum Center. He was a leader of McKinsey's Innovation and Global Forces practices and taught innovation and entrepreneurship at Harvard. Prior to McKinsey, he was a Partner at the Monitor Group, a game theorist at Bellcore (formerly Bell Labs), on the economics faculty of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and was selected to be an officer of TAS, the "talent pipeline of leaders" for India's Tata Group.
In a 30 year career, he has been an advisor to CEOs and senior management of over 30 companies in the Fortune 500 and worked across the Americas, EU, Asia and Africa, and multiple industries. Bhaskar's Ph.D. in Economics is from the University of Rochester and his M.A. from the Delhi School of Economics and B.A. (honors) from Delhi University's St. Stephen's College.
Adrian Anderson
Senior Director, Renewable Energy Group
Microsoft
https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrian-anderson-361050b
Adrian Anderson is a Senior Director at Microsoft’s Renewable Energy Group. Previously, he wored as Senior Lead for Energy at Google, where he helped the company secure infrastructure and clean reliable power for data centers across the globe. Before that, he worked as an energy procurement manager for Amazon Web Services and a global supply manager for Apple. Prior to working in IT, Adrian was a renewable energy developer and originator for juwi Americas. Adrian earned a bachelor's degree in Political Science and Philosophy from Bates College, and a Master’s in Business and International Relations from the Fletcher School at Tufts University.
Will Pearson
Founder & Director
Triskel Global
https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-pearson-1884952/?originalSubdomain=uk
Will Pearson is a Founder and Director of Triskel Global, a project consulting and investment advisory services firm focused on the Southern Africa region.
Will was previously Policy Director at Camco Clean Energy, which manages the Renewable Energy Performance Platform, a £150m fund investing in energy access across Sub-Saharan Africa. Will lived in Zambia before joining Camco. He was director of GET FiT Zambia, a KfW-sponsored programme implementing the Zambian government’s renewable energy strategy. He also worked for the International Finance Corporation as a Senior Transaction Adviser focused on bringing private investment to targeted infrastructure and agribusiness projects in Zambia.
Prior to moving to Zambia, Will was Director in the Global Energy and Natural Resources practice and Head of the London office at Eurasia Group, a consultancy. He started his career as a Portfolio Analyst on the electricity trading desk at Sempra Energy, an integrated energy company in San Diego, California.
Will has written for The Economist, Financial Times and Foreign Policy, and has featured as a guest speaker and panel moderator at conferences and roundtables across the US, Europe, Africa, and Asia.
Anna Ebers Broughel
Ecological Statistician
Tetra Tech
https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaebroughel
Anna Ebers Broughel is a renewable energy economist and statistician in Tetra Tech’s environmental services division. Her technical expertise includes economic and policy analysis that uses the state-of-the-art statistical techniques. Prior to joining Tetra Tech, Dr. Ebers worked at the Solar Energy Technologies Office at the U.S. Department of Energy as a Science & Technology Fellow. She has completed four years of post-doctoral training at the Institute for Economy and the Environment at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, and the Center for Global Sustainability at the University of Maryland. Dr. Ebers is a Council Member and the Government Committee Member at the U.S. Association for Energy Economics. She earned a Ph.D. in economics and policy from SUNY-ESF in association with Syracuse University.
Mary Cline
Senior Advisor, Geostrategic Business Group
EY
https://www.ey.com/en_uk/people/mary-cline
With more than 20 years of experience across the private, public and academic sectors, Mary Cline is a political risk leader, problem solver, writer and analyst who drives strategic initiatives in the Office of the EY Global Chairman. She is a team member with the EY Geostrategic Business Group.
Her perspectives have been leveraged by presidential campaigns, including as a national security coordinator in 2016, as well as by top multinational companies and leading higher-education institutions spanning the globe.
Mary shapes how we talk about crucial topics surrounding business and its social impact. She serves as a strategy officer for the World Economic Forum, bringing perspective to its initiatives on economic progress, gender parity and the future of education and work.
In prior careers, she has worked in consulting, academia at Georgetown University and foreign policy for the US Department of State. Mary holds a PhD in Political Science and Government from UCLA.
Amy Myers Jaffe
Research Professor
The Fletcher School
https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-jaffe-80baaa9
Amy Myers Jaffe is a leading expert on global energy policy, energy and sustainability, and geopolitical risk. She is currently a Research Professor and Managing Director of the Climate Policy Lab. She was formerly the David M. Rubenstein Senior Fellow for Energy and the Environment and Director of the Program on Energy Security and Climate Change at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Jaffe previously served as senior advisor for sustainability at the Office of the Chief Investment Officer at the University of California, Regents and as executive director for energy and sustainability at University of California, Davis where she led research on low or zero carbon fuels and transportation policy. Jaffe has taught energy policy, business, and sustainability courses at Rice University, University of California, Davis, and Yale University. Jaffe is widely published, including as co-author of Oil, Dollars, Debt and Crises: The Global Curse of Black Gold, with Mahmoud El-Gamal.
Her forthcoming book Energy's Digital Future: Harnessing Innovation for American Resilience and National Security will be published by Columbia University Press in 2021. She is chair of the steering committee of the Women in Energy Initiative at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy policy.
A frequent media commentator, Jaffe is president of the U.S. Association of Energy Economics and holds a Senior Fellow award from that organization for her career contributions to the field of energy economics.
Jaffe is a member of the Global Future Council on Net Zero Transition at the World Economic Forum (Davos).
Rachel Kyte
Dean
The Fletcher School
https://fletcher.tufts.edu/people/rachel-kyte
Rachel Kyte is the 14th dean of The Fletcher School at Tufts University. A 2002 graduate of Fletcher’s Global Master of Arts Program (GMAP) and a professor of practice at the school since 2012, Kyte is the first woman to lead the nation’s oldest graduate-only school of international affairs, which attracts students from all corners of the globe and at all stages of their careers.
Prior to joining Fletcher, Kyte served as special representative of the U.N. secretary-general and chief executive officer of Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL). She previously was the World Bank Group vice president and special envoy for climate change, leading in the run-up to the Paris Agreement. She was also vice president at the International Finance Corporation responsible for ESG risk and business advisory services.
In her U.N. role and as CEO of SEforAll, a public-private platform created from an initiative of the U.N. and World Bank, Kyte led efforts to promote and finance clean, reliable and affordable energy as part of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. She served as co-chair of U.N. Energy.
In the 2020 New Year Honours, Rachel was appointed as CMG for her services to sustainable energy and combating climate change.
Kyte is a member of the U.N. secretary-general’s high level advisory group on climate action and an advisor to the U.K. government in its preparations of the climate talks in 2021 as a Friend of COP26. Kyte is chair of the Rwanda Green Fund, chair of the ESG committee of the board of the Private Infrastructure Development Group. She serves on a number of not-for-profit boards, and advises private sector corporations in areas of climate, energy and finance.
A citizen of the U.K., Kyte earned her undergraduate degree in history and politics from the University of London. Kyte is married to Dr. Ilyse Zable and they have two children.
Larry Cristini
Head of Global Crisis Management
https://www.linkedin.com/in/larrycristini/
Larry Cristini has more than 15 years of experience helping corporations to anticipate and manage risk through more resilient and robust planning and proactive crisis and issues management. Mr. Cristini currently serves as the Head of Global Crisis Management for Facebook. In this role, he is responsible for leading Facebook’s global crisis management program and its planning, training, exercising, and real-time response activities across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus. Mr. Cristini previously worked at Eurasia Group where he advised executives on managing strategic risks in emerging and frontier markets. Prior to that he worked in Marsh & McLennan’s Crisis Consulting group. At MMC he developed and implemented crisis management programs for clients across a wide array of industries. He also led the group’s Exercise & Simulations team. Larry received his BA from Providence College and MBA from The George Washington University.