Sudhanshu Palsule is regarded as one of the leading thinkers in the fields of Complexity and Transformative Leadership. His work on 21st century leadership brings together the latest research emerging from neurology and cognitive psychology, and his own exploration of human thinking and behavior over the past thirty years. He is deeply passionate about re-humanizing leadership in a 21st century context of digital technology, complex global problems, and rapid change.

Sudhanshu teaches at several business schools around the world. He is an educator at Duke CE  and a Fellow at the University of Cambridge (CISL).  He consults to several global organizations, including the United Nations in the areas of leadership, change; and organization development. He also works as a coach to several C-suite executives around the world.

Trained as a scientist, Palsule draws upon principles of quantum mechanics and ecology in his work on building effective 21st century organizations and teams that can thrive in non-linear conditions. His notion of “Self-Ware”– the unconscious program of thinking, emotions, and beliefs that drives us, remains central to his work on leadership.

Author of several books, his two recent books are:  Rehumanizing Leadership: Putting Purpose Back Into Business (2020), and Guiding the Tide: The Call for Agency in 21^st Century Business Leaders (2025)

He has lived and worked in four continents, and considers himself to be a global citizen.

Gianpiero Petriglieri is Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD and an expert on leadership and learning in the workplace.

His award-winning research and teaching focus on what it means, and what it takes, to become a leader. He is particularly interested in the meaning and practice of leadership in the age of “nomadic professionalism,” an age in which people have deep  bonds to work but loose affiliations to organisations, and authenticity and mobility have replaced loyalty and advancement as hallmarks of virtue and success.

The intent of all of Gianpiero’s work is to humanise leadership, that is, to account for the complexities and contradictions within and between people and organisations, and to help leaders be grounded as well as flexible, sustainable as well as effective, purposeful as well as portable. This work has earned him a spot among the 50 most influential management thinkers in the world.

Robert Ward is Director of Geo-economics & Strategy, Japan Chair at The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), an organization that is a world-leading authority on global security, political risk and military conflict.
Robert was the Editorial Director at the Economist Intelligence Unit, until recently, where he led the EIU’s country, industry and data analysis and forecasting teams, setting the direction for EIU’s global economic, political analysis and forecasts. As one of the Economist Intelligence Unit’s most seasoned speakers, for many years Robert played a leading role in articulating the EIU’s global view to business audiences around the world, through his lively and informal speaking style. Able to explain complex issues in an engaging and entertaining way, he is at home with audiences of all sizes and levels of seniority.

Robert is an expert on global, political and economic issues, Japan & China business, developed & emerging market economies and politics, political risk analysis, economic forecasting, advisory, new product development & strategy, subscription publishing, online publishing, change management in teams, large-team development and management.

A fluent speaker of Japanese, he regularly contributes to international and Japanese media and also appears frequently on the BBC, CNN, CNBC and other broadcast media.