AESC Virtual Conference November 2021

Steven Van Belleghem is an international keynote speaker. These past years Steven has given more than 1,000 presentations at events in over 40 countries. His core expertise is the future of customer centricity. The combination between customer-centric thinking, the latest technologies and the human touch is the guiding principle in Steven’s stories.
Steven is an entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of inspiration agency Nexxworks and social media agency Snackbytes. As an investor he is also involved in the fast-growing digital agency Intracto and AI scale-up Hello Customer. Finally, Steven is also on the board of directors of Plan International. In addition to his entrepreneurial activities Steven is also a part-time marketing professor at the Vlerick Business School and a guest lecturor at London Business School. His opinion is often shared in media like Forbes, Warc, The Guardian,…
Steven has authored five international bestsellers and has sold more than 150,000 books. His work has been translated into seven languages and he is the recipient of a variety of awards (most innovative marketing book, best marketing book, best international business book).

Karen Greenbaum is President and CEO of the Association of Executive Search and Leadership Consultants (AESC), the global association representing the $15b+ profession worldwide. AESC is dedicated to strengthening leadership worldwide. AESC’s rigorous Code of Professional Practice guides its members, spanning 1,200+ offices in 70+ countries and beyond, to serve as strategic advisors on behalf of their clients. AESC Members are best positioned to provide companies with a competitive advantage—the ability to find, attract and develop the best talent in the world and ensure that executives are successfully integrated.
Ms. Greenbaum is an experienced business leader having served as the President and COO for the $1 billion US business of Mercer Consulting/MMC, a Fortune 200 company and later as COO for Nixon Peabody LLP a nearly $500 million global 100 law firm. She also served as an executive search consultant and partner before being selected as President and CEO of AESC.
Ms. Greenbaum is committed to diverse leadership, representing AESC as an official member of the 30% Club, a global group of Chairs and CEOs committed to board diversity and The Committee of 200, a global non-profit focused on advancing women in business. AESC recognizes that diversity is a business imperative. As trusted advisors to those companies that drive economies, lead innovation, and compete across vital sectors and geographies, AESC members know first-hand the power of diverse corporate leadership.

Kirsty Graham is the CEO of the Global Health practice at Edelman. She sits on Edelman’s Global Operating Committee. Kirsty brings over 25 years of public affairs experience to Edelman, where she leads a diverse team of over 600 healthcare and public affairs professionals across Edelman’s global network. Together with her team, Kirsty is focused on helping clients – from companies to governments to NGOs – navigate change, manage risk, and communicate to their stakeholders through policy and public affairs campaigns.

Prior to joining Edelman, Kirsty spent 10 years at Pfizer Inc, where she most recently served as Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs for their Biopharmaceuticals Group. In that role she oversaw the full scope of Corporate Affairs for Pfizer’s innovative medicines businesses, which operate in more than 125 countries and have a portfolio of more than 600 products generating approximately three-quarters of the company’s revenues. Kirsty was previously SVP, Global Policy and International Affairs at Pfizer.

Before joining the business world, Kirsty spent 16 years in the New Zealand Foreign Service working on a wide range of economic, security and trade policy issues with responsibilities spanning bilateral relations with China, Japan and the United States. Her diplomatic assignments included a secondment supporting the Foreign Minister, Sir Don McKinnon (1994 to 1996 ), a 5 year posting to Washington DC (1996-2000), a secondment as Deputy Spokesperson at the British Embassy in Washington (2001), and 5 years as New Zealand’s Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations (2006-2010.)

She holds a BA in English Literature and a postgraduate degree in Philosophy from the University of Otago.

Katherine is pioneering Executive Coach, Board Facilitator, and Leadership Advisor who works with CEOs, C-Suite Executives, and Top Teams to accelerate their performance. Her purpose is to ‘inspire and stretch global leaders, and coaches, to make a positive impact in the world.’ As the founder of Wisdom8, and Chair & CEO of the Association for Coaching, she is a leading authority within her field, as well as a speaker, author and coach mentor. With over 17 years of coaching experience, Katherine has developed CEOs, senior leaders and teams from over 35 different countries and cultures.’

As a global leader in her own right, Katherine has over 10,000 coaching hours. Her previous commercial background working internationally at executive levels within professional services, technology, and start-ups within Strategy, Brand, and running P&L’s, equip her to understand her client’s worlds. She is known for her dynamic, positive and stretching style, specialising in ‘CEO & Board Development’, ‘Influence and Impact, ‘First 100 Days’, Personal Branding, ‘Building High-performing Teams, ‘Leading through Change’ and ‘Executive Resilience’.

Katherine received the accolade of Coach/Mentor of the Year by Coaching at Work; the Global Coaching Leadership award at the World HRD Congress, and two AC Honorary Awards for Impacting & Influencing the Coaching Profession, amongst others. She is also a co-author in in Leadership Coaching; ‘Coaching Global Top
Teams, Excellence in Coaching; ‘Coaching within Organisations’; and Diversity in Coaching, ‘Coaching within Europe’ (Kogan Page).

John Dawson joined Oxford Biomedica’s Board as a Non-Executive Director in August 2008, and was appointed Chief Executive Officer in October 2008. Prior to this he held senior management positions in the European operations of Cephalon Inc., including Chief Financial Officer and Head of Business Development Europe. While at Cephalon he led many deals building the European business to over 1,000 people and to a turnover of several hundred million US dollars. In 2005, Mr Dawson led the $360 million acquisition of Zeneus by Cephalon. Prior to his time at Cephalon he was Director of Finance and Administration of Serono Laboratories (UK) Limited.

“People, Planet, Purpose and Prosperity” – that is Gerd Leonhard’s motto. As one of the leading futurists worldwide, having presented at over 1600 leading conferences and events over the past 20 years and worked with the likes of Microsoft, NBC, Visa, Google, the European Commission, L’Oréal, Audi and IBM, just to name a few, Gerd has had the opportunity to influence and inspire Millions to “imagine and create a better tomorrow” – which led to him being named to Wired UK’s 100 Most Influential Europeans in 2015 and to be listed #7 in the global ranking of futurists.

As a leading voice on the pitfalls of unregulated exponential technologies and the bestselling author of “Technology vs Humanity: The Coming Clash Between Man and Machine” Gerd has built a storied reputation as the go-to keynote speaker and thought leader when it comes to digital ethics, human-centric technology, sustainability, and the need for a new form of capitalism.

In addition to being one of the top 10 virtual keynote presenters worldwide, Gerd is also a former professional musician, a filmmaker, a successfully failed dotcom paper-millionaire, a Forbes column contributor, a fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (London), and a Visiting Professor at the Fundação Dom Cabral in Brazil.

Gerd is no stranger to media, frequently sharing his often controversial but always prescient views with pieces in The Guardian, Harvard Business Review, Business Insider, Wired UK, and interviews with the likes of BBC, CNN, Arirang TV, Swiss SRF, ZDF, ARD, ARTE, and inclusion as a special guest in over a dozen documentaries.

He is based in Zurich Switzerland.