Ian Bremer; President, Eurasia Group, and Expert on Global Politics and Risk Management

November 9, 2011 in Authors, Economy Speakers, Speakers for Business Groups

Ian Bremmer is a sought-after adviser on international risk management who reads the global political and economic landscape.

In 1998, Bremmer founded Eurasia Group with just $25,000. Today, the company has offices in New York, Washington and London, as well as a network of experts and resources around the world. Eurasia Group provides financial, corporate, and government clients with information and insight on how political developments move markets.

Bremmer created Wall Street’s first global political risk index, and has authored several books, including the national bestseller, The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and Corporations?, which details the new global phenomenon of state capitalism and its geopolitical implications. He also wrote The J Curve: A New Way to Understand Why Nations Rise and Fall, which was selected by The Economist as one of the best books of 2006 and The Fat Tail: The Power of Political Knowledge for Strategic Investing. One of the Financial Times A-list’s globally renowned thought leaders; Bremmer is a contributor for The Wall Street Journal and writes “The Call” blog on ForeignPolicy.com. He has also published articles in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Newsweek, Harvard Business Review and Foreign Affairs. He is a panelist for CNN International’s Connect the World and appears regularly on CNBC, Fox News Channel, National Public Radio and other networks.

Speech Topics include:

Managing Risk in an Unstable World

To navigate globalization’s choppy waters, every business leader analyzes economic risk when considering overseas investments or looking at market exposure. But do you look beyond reassuring data about per-capita income or economic growth–to assess the political risk of doing business in specific countries? If not, you may get blindsided when political forces shape markets in unexpected ways–from European accession in Turkey, social unrest in India, or protectionist legislation on China. Acclaimed political analyst and entrepreneur Ian Bremmer explains that by blending political and economic risk analysis, you make savvier investment decisions–seizing valuable opportunities around the globe while avoiding danger zones.

-How to spot political risk on the horizon and balance it against economic opportunities–and what it means for your global investments
-How to understand the opportunities, and dangers, of dramatic Chinese growth
-What are the trends around global terror, proliferation and shifting geopolitics, and how it impacts the global markets
-What growing political risk means for the global economy–and where the opportunities are
- The factors that made this downturn the Great Recession.
- The timeline for a full economic recovery.
- The outlook for a changed economic landscape.

The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and Corporations?

A generation after communism’s collapse, the future of free market capitalism isn’t what it used to be. Public wealth, public investment, and public ownership have made a stunning comeback. Certain that command economies are doomed to fail but afraid that truly free markets will spin beyond their control, the political leadership in China, Russia, the Arab monarchies of the Persian Gulf and other authoritarian states have invented a new system: state capitalism. Each in their own way, they’re using markets to create wealth that can be directed toward the achievement of political goals. Governments now dominate key domestic economic sectors. The oil companies they own control three-quarters of the world’s crude oil reserves. They use state-owned companies to manipulate entire economic sectors and industries. They own enormous investment funds that have become vitally important sources of capital for Western governments and banks weakened by financial crisis. An expert on the impact of politics on market performance, Ian Bremmer illustrates the rise of state capitalism and details its long-term threat to relations among nations and the future of the global economy.

-The rise of state capitalism
-Why it exists and how it works
-The threat to free market capitalism

China, India and Beyond: The Opportunities and Pitfalls of Asian Growth

China bestrides the world as a colossus, and business leaders can’t get enough from the promised riches of Asia. But does unprecedented growth mean that your company will benefit from it? Ian Bremmer, intellectual entrepreneur and President of Eurasia Group, explains the dangers of Asian growth for global investors seeking to build a presence in international markets; for companies seeking to sell their products there; and for the global markets more broadly.

-How to read the political and economic landscape in China, India and beyond
-How geopolitics is creating greater risks–and opportunities–for investors in Asia

America’s Role in the 21st Century

America’s global power was unchallenged in the immediate aftermath of the Cold War, but today international terrorism, nuclear proliferation, the rise of China and an increasingly globalized world all pose threats to America’s continued leadership. Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer, founder of the world’s largest political risk consultancy, discusses America’s national interests, its foreign policy and the potential for a shift to a multipolar world. The implications for world politics–and the global markets–are critical.

-How America’s foreign policy succeeds, and fails, in an increasingly globalized world
-Where America’s national interests are critically challenged by international forces…and where it doesn’t matter
-Who are the winners, and losers, if present world trends in politics and economic continue–in the United States and beyond

The Politics of Global Energy

Oil prices are increasingly susceptible to international politics–for both the world’s supply and demand. Ian Bremmer, founder and president of the world’s largest political risk consultancy, shares his views on what’s in store for the politics of global energy–from spiraling Chinese and Indian growth in consumption to the dangers of future oil export from the Middle East, Russia and the Caspian, and West Africa.

-Why international politics matters to oil investors, financial institutions and consumers alike
-How to assess the real threats to oil production, and discount the headlines that don’t matter
-How a shift in global relations between the US and China will affect the global energy market

Click here to learn more about Ian Bremmer

Dan Buettner National Geographic Writer, Renowned Explorer, Author, Founder of Blue Zones

November 7, 2011 in Authors, Motivational Speakers, Speakers for Business Groups

Dan Buettner is an internationally recognized researcher, explorer, and New York Times bestselling author and National Geographic Fellow. He founded Blue Zones®, a company that puts the world’s best practices in longevity and well-being to work in people’s lives. Buettner’s National Geographic cover story on longevity, “The Secrets of Living Longer” was one of their top-selling issues in history and a made him a finalist for a National Magazine Award. His books The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest (2008) and Thrive: Finding Happiness the Blue Zones Way (2010) appeared on many best seller lists and were both featured on Oprah.

In 2009, Dan Buettner and his partner, AARP , applied principles of The Blue Zones to Albert Lea, Minnesota and successfully raised life expectancy and lowered health care costs by some 40%. He’s currently working with Healthways to implement the program in the Beach Cities of Los Angeles. Their strategy focuses on optimizing the health environment instead of individual behavior change. Writing in Newsweek, Harvard University’s Walter Willet called the results “stunning.”
Dan also holds three world records in distance cycling and has won an Emmy Award for television production.

Topics Include:

Blue Zones: Secrets of a Long Life

National Geographic writer Dan Buettner has traveled the globe to uncover the best strategies for longevity and happiness. He identified Blue Zones — places where have the greatest life expectancy and where more people reach age 100 than anywhere else. Working with a team of experts, Buettner distilled their secrets into nine common denominators he calls Power 9™. What is the optimal diet for making it to a healthy age 90? Should you be running marathons or doing yoga? What supplements work? Does stress really shorten your life? Dan debunks the most common myths and offers a science-backed blue print for the average American to live another 12 quality years. Using National Geographic photography and a dynamic delivery, Dan takes audiences to each of the Blue Zones and leaves audience with an actionable plan to live longer, healthier lives.

Thrive: Unlocking the Secrets of Happiness

Science shows that where we live–not education, marital status or wealth– is the biggest, controllable factor that determines our happiness. So where should we live? A tropical island? Paris? Las Vegas? It’s not where you think.

Working with Gallup, The World Values Survey and the World Data Base on Happiness, Dan and his team found the three pockets around the world where people report the highest level of well-being–or happiness. Then, on assignment for National Geographic, he researched each of these hotspots and distilled down the common denominators in each place. What can governments do to maximize the well-being of their citizens? And more importantly, what can we do as individuals to stack the deck in our favor to maximize happiness?

His presentation incorporates National Geographic photographs and short video clips. It transports audiences to places around the globe where people are living happy and meaningful lives. It offers universal strategies on how to best achieve that life balance we all seek.

The Making of A Healthy City

In 2009, Albert Lea, Minnesota, a statistically average American city, completed a one year community health experiment that raised life expectancy by three years, trimmed a collective 12,000 pounds off waistlines and dropped healthcare costs of city workers by some 40%. USA Today, Good Morning America, AARP, ABC Nightline, CNN and U.S. News and World Report all covered the story. Harvard’s Dr. Walter Willett, writing in Newsweek magazine called the results “stunning”. Dan Buettner, founder and director of the AARP/Blue Zones Vitality Project created a “perfect storm” of health that transformed a city. He tells the fascinating story of how one typically obese American city of 18,000 reversed the trend and also got happier. Dan’s presentation takes audiences on the year long journey as this town adopts 28 evidence based ways to change their environment to live longer and better. They got healthier without thinking about it.

click here to learn more about Dan Buettner

Robert Bryce Author of Power Hungry: The Myths of “Green Energy” and the Real Fuels of the Future.

November 2, 2011 in Authors, Speakers for Business Groups

Robert Bryce is one of America’s foremost energy journalists. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications including Atlantic Monthly, Slate, New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, The Nation and The American Conservative. His first book, Pipe Dreams: Greed, Ego, and the Death of Enronreceived rave reviews and was named one of the best books of 2002 byPublishers Weekly. In 2004, he authored Cronies: Oil, the Bushes, and the Rise of Texas, America’s Superstate, which provided an inside look at the decades-long influence that Texas has had on Washington and the White House. His March 2008 book, Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of “Energy Independence,”established his reputation as “hard-nosed” and “an equal-opportunity smiter” of energy myths, according to William Grimes of The New York Times. Grimes went on to say that Bryce “reveals himself in the end as something of a visionary and perhaps even a revolutionary.”

Bryce’s newest book, Power Hungry: The Myths of “Green Energy” and the Real Fuels of the Future, solidifies his status as a provocative and incisive authority on the world’s energy future. Deftly presenting the realities of the world’s current energy requirements, Bryce dismantles commonly held beliefs about green energy’s capabilities, exposing its logistical failures and relating how widespread adoption of these technologies may cause more harm than help to the environment. The Wall Street Journal writes that Power Hungry is a “supercharged polemic” with “shocks that are delivered with forensic skill and narrative aplomb.

Writing about the US energy business since 1989, Bryce spent 12 years as a staff writer at the Austin Chronicle newspaper and is currently working as the managing editor of Houston-based Energy Tribune. He is also a contributing writer for the Texas Observer and a regular contributor to Al Eqtisadiah, an Arabic-language business newspaper based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He has appeared on dozens of TV and radio programs that have aired on the BBC, MSNBC, and Australian Broadcasting Corporation. In addition, he’s been on Inside Politics, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, and NPR’s “Fresh Air with Terry Gross,” as well as “Talk of the Nation.”

Topics Include:

• The myths of “green” energy and the real fuels of the future
• The false promises of “energy independence”
• Leadership lessons from the energy sector: Why Ken Lay went broke and Rich Kinder became a billionaire

click here to learn more about Robert Bryce