Guest Speakers

Jon Sopel

Conference Host

Jon Sopel for the past three years has
been the presenter of the Politics Show on BBC1, interviewing all the major figures on the national stage. In 2007 he was voted Political Journalist of the Year. He is also a senior presenter on the BBC News Channel where in the past few years he has anchored coverage from the middle east during the Israel Lebanon war, Sri Lanka after the tsunami and New Orleans after Katrina. He will be in Beijing for the Olympics and will front the Channel’s US Presidential election coverage. Before becoming a full time presenter, Jon was the BBC’s Paris Correspondent. He was sent from there to report on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Before moving abroad he was the BBC’s Chief Political Correspondent at Westminster, during which time he wrote an acclaimed biography of Tony Blair. He started his career as a reporter in local radio at Radio Solent.

Karren Brady

Key Note Speaker

Karren Brady began her career at LBC when she was 18 years old and swiftly moved onto Saatchi & Saatchi as junior Account Handler. She joined Sports Newspapers Ltd in 1988 and became Director within a year. Karren is now known as the first woman in football. She has been Managing Director of Birmingham City Football Club since 1993 and has turned the Club’s fortunes around.She took over Birmingham City when it was in administration, and in her first year at the helm, the Club recorded a financial trading profit. In 1996 the Club made an overall profit for the first time in modern history and in February 1997 the Club launched on the Stock market valued at the time of float at £25,000,000; she was the youngest Managing Director of a PLC in the UK. During the past years Karren has increased the average gate of the Club from 6,000 to a sell out capacity of over 30,000. In 2007 her business was valued at over £60million.

Karren has been awarded numerous accolades, amongst them in November 2006 she won the Cosmopolitan Woman of the Year, in the category of Women Who Have Changed the World and on October 2007 Karren was voted Business Woman of the Year. Karren has written four books, the latest of which is called ‘Playing to Win’, about successful women in business. 

Dr Kjell Nordstrom

Key Note Speaker

Dr. Kjell A. Nordström is the enfant terrible of the new world of business. He talks to audiences all over the world, he writes books and articles and reads - everything from Playboy to Architectural Digest to Pinter. His performances are high touch, dynamic, highly interactive, thought provoking and always in line with time. The 2007 Thinkers 50, the world’s first ranking of management thinkers, ranked Nordström and his partner Dr. Jonas Ridderstråle at number thirteen in the world. His dynamic style makes him a highly appreciated speaker through out the world.