What next? Leadership conversations for a better future

Guests Professor Mike Kenny, Head of Department at the Bennett School of Public Policy, University of Cambridge Jacinta Koolmatrie, Aboriginal heritage practitioner (Adnyamathanha and Ngarrindjeri) Episode overview Across many societies, trust between communities and institutions has fractured. People feel decisions are remote, economies no longer work for them, and institutions do not recognise t...

Clean and green growth has moved from ambition to execution, but the challenge is one of pace. Investment conditions are key: predictable rules, credible pathways, and coordination across value chains, finance and government. Helena Norrman describes what this looks like inside one of the hardest sectors to decarbonise – steel - including the reality of upfront capital investment, permitting and p...

Guest: Vilas Dhar – President, Patrick J. McGovern Foundation; philanthropist, technologist and advocate for human-centred AI What Next? Leadership Conversations for a Better Future explores how leaders can help build future-fit economies, bringing fresh perspectives, provocative questions and conversations with leaders shaping the future of markets, business and society. Artificial intelligence i...

Guests: Michael Liebreich – Managing Partner, EcoPragma Capital & CEO, Liebreich Associates Rory Sutherland – Vice Chairman, Ogilvy UK; behavioural science commentator What Next? Leadership Conversations for a Better Future explores how leaders can help build future-fit economies, bringing fresh perspectives, provocative questions and conversations with leaders shaping the future of markets, busin...

In this episode our hosts explore the role of philanthropy in shaping cleaner, fairer and more resilient economies. Philanthropy funds much of the world’s high-risk innovation, early-stage ideas and new economic thinking — often long before markets or governments are able to act. Hosts Lindsay Hooper and Marc Kahn are joined by two leaders reshaping the field: • Peter Bennett — founder of the Benn...

In this episode, Lindsay Hooper and Marc Kahn examine a critical question: what will it take to align global capital with a cleaner, fairer, more resilient global economy? At a time when sustainable finance momentum has slowed, the discussion looks beyond the ESG “hype cycle”, to the underlying barriers to progress – and the priorities for action now. The guests analyse why finance has struggled t...

The U.S. has become the centre of a global sustainability fault line: it hosts the world’s most advanced innovation ecosystem and deepest pools of private capital—yet remains locked in intensifying political polarisation, regulatory rollbacks, and an anti-ESG backlash. These tensions are reshaping climate policy, capital flows, and global markets. To understand this moment, Lindsay Hooper and Marc...

This episode examines the emerging “meaning deficit” – the collapse of coherence, trust and belonging that is driving anxiety, polarisation and disengagement across societies. Lindsay Hooper and Marc Kahn ask a blunt question: why are so many people struggling to find meaning, and what does that imply for leaders operating in fractured systems? The guests explore how meaning is routinely distorted...

In an era of market pressure, political backlash, and accusations of “purpose-washing”, do corporate values still matter? Why isn’t making money legally enough? And in markets that reward short-term performance above all else, what does it take to uphold principles, integrity and trust? This episode explores how values are a strategic imperative - not a “nice to have” - in shaping decisions, cultu...

This episode looks at the power shifts created by AI and digital systems - asks where real agency still lies. Hosts Lindsay Hooper and Marc Kahn sit down with Thomas Lingard, who previously founded Unilever’s Global Advocacy team to influence international public policy on sustainable development and who now heads the Centre for Future Generations, to explore where the real opportunity and agency...

This episode examines Africa’s energy transition as both an economic strategy and a question of agency, featuring insights from Professor Carlos Lopes and investment leader Jasandra Nyker. They argue that while the world often views Africa through the narrow lens of risk, fragility, or aid dependency, the continent increasingly sees itself as a driver of innovation, industrialisation, and clean en...

In this episode of What Next? Leadership Conversations for a Better Future, hosts Lindsay Hooper and Marc Kahn speak with innovation and sustainability leader Dominic Vergine about how artificial intelligence can be directed toward solving the world’s hardest engineering and energy challenges rather than fuelling hype or waste. Drawing on two decades at the intersection of technology, engineering,...

For years, we’ve comforted ourselves with the idea that young people will “save the world.” But is that hope realistic - or an unfair projection? Many young people care deeply about climate, justice and inequality, yet face economic precarity, political disillusionment and shrinking civic space. How can youth today find real agency and meaningful work amid systemic barriers and concentrated power?...

What Next? Leadership Conversations for a Better Future explores how leaders can help build future-fit economies, bringing fresh perspectives, provocative questions and conversations with leaders shaping the future of markets, business and society. This episode focuses on the industrial transition — how to decarbonise the “hard-to-abate” sectors that power modern economies, and how to sustainably...

How do we rebuild confidence in the future - and in our collective ability to shape it? How do we reconnect economic growth with social progress, fairness, and stability? And how do we harness innovation without widening inequality or navigate political tensions without retreating from cooperation? Responses to these questions demands new thinking - ideas that challenge assumptions, acknowledge wh...