Events


Find information about upcoming and past events for LSE IDEAS Alumni, from public LSE IDEAS events to exclusive alumni events.

Alumni Network Events

Private discussion events held at LSE IDEAS exclusively for executive MSc International Strategy and Diplomacy Alumni with leading practitioners and academics. 

Meet the Leader

In the Meet the Leader series, LSE IDEAS hosts fireside chats with leading practitioners of strategy and diplomacy, who have achieved distinction in public and private sectors. This series is part of the LSE IDEAS Alumni Network.

Catch up on previous Meet the Leader sessions below.

Leslie Maasdorp sq

Leslie Maasdorp, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the New Development Bank
Monday 11 October 2021

Leslie Maasdorp is Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the New Development Bank. In this role he is responsible for the treasury, portfolio management, finance and accounting functions of the Bank.

Click here to watch the session.

Ailish Campbell

Dr Ailish Campbell, Canada's Ambassador Designate to the European Union
Wednesday 5 May 2021

Dr Ailish Campbell was appointed Canada's Ambassador Designate to the European Union in October 2020. In this role she leads diplomatic representation to the EU and strategic engagement of Canada's second largest trade and investment partner.

Click here to watch the session.

Meet the Leader Naheed Nenshi sq

Naheed Nenshi, Mayor of Calgary
Thursday 5 November 2020

Naheed Nenshi, A’paistootsiipsii, was sworn in as Calgary’s 36th mayor on October 25, 2010 and was re-elected in 2013 and 2017. Prior to being elected, Mayor Nenshi was with McKinsey and Company, later forming his own business to help public, private and non-profit organizations grow. He designed policy for the Government of Alberta, helped create a Canadian strategy for The Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy, and worked with the United Nations to determine how business can help the poorest people on the planet. He then entered academia, where he was Canada’s first tenured professor in the field of non-profit management, at Mount Royal University’s Bissett School of Business. For his work, Mayor Nenshi was named a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, was awarded the President’s Award from the Canadian Institute of Planners, and received the Humanitarian Award from the Canadian Psychological Association for his contributions to community mental health.

Click here to watch the session.

Meet the Leader Jimmy Wales

Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia
Wednesday 3 June 2020

Internet and technology entrepreneur Jimmy Wales is founder of the online non-profit encyclopaedia Wikipedia and co-founder of the privately owned Wikia, Inc. including its entertainment media brand, Fandom powered by Wikia. Wales serves on the board of trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit charitable organisation he established to operate Wikipedia. In 2019, Jimmy launched WT Social, a news focused social network. In 2006, Jimmy was named in Time magazine’s ‘100 Most Influential People in the World’ for his role in creating Wikipedia.

Click here to watch the session.

Jitesh Gadhia

Jitesh Gadhia
Thursday 30 January 2020

Jitesh Gadhia is an investment banker and businessman and Member of the House of Lords since September 2016. Jitesh was previously Senior Managing Director at Blackstone based in London and has over 25 years’ investment banking experience, having also held senior positions at Barclays Capital, ABN AMRO and Baring Brothers. He has advised on a wide range of high profile M&A transactions across developed and emerging markets. Jitesh is currently a Board Member of UK Government Investments, the centre of excellence for corporate finance and corporate governance for the UK Government, managing major assets including the Royal Bank of Scotland. He also serves on the Boards of BGL Holdings (owner of comparethemarket.com, the UK’s leading digital price comparison website for financial products and household services) and Accord Healthcare (a leading global supplier of generic pharmaceuticals). Jitesh graduated with a degree in Economics from Cambridge University and attended the London Business School, where he was a Sloan Fellow. He has served as a Trustee of Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity and of Nesta. He was selected as Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

Jules Chappell MTL

Jules Chappell, OBE
Thursday 14 November 2019

Jules Chappell is Managing Director for Business at London & Partners, the official promotional agency for London. In this role, she is responsible for the teams that attract and retain foreign direct investment; that bring major business events to London and capital into regeneration projects; and that support London’s scaling business to expand internationally. Previously, she spent 15 years with the Foreign Office, based in Jordan, Iraq, the US, Ethiopia and Guatemala, where she was UK Ambassador. She supported the National Security Council’s work to strengthen UK relations with countries such as India and China and helped to expand the GREAT Britain Campaign to 250 cities around the world, promoting the UK as a place to study, visit and do business.

Policy Weekend

The June 2019 Alumni Policy Weekend was entitled Cold War Ends: Liberalism Triumphant? False Dawn?.

The June 2018 Alumni Policy Weekend was entitled The Return of Great Power Politics and debated the future of great power relations and global conflict. Speakers included: Barry Buzan, IDEAS Directors Christopher Coker and Michael Cox, Nana De Graaff, Amelia Hadfield, Gideon Rachman, Meera Sabaratnam, Kori Schake, and Maximilian Terhalle.

The first Alumni Policy Weekend event, held in June 2017, was entitled The Rise of Populism and the Crisis of Globalization: Brexit, Trump and Beyond. Speakers included: IDEAS Director Michael Cox, Tim Oliver, Uta Staiger, Brian Klaas, Barry Buzan, Leslie Vinjamuri, Mukulika Banerjee, Yu Jie, and Sir Robert Cooper.

Breakfast Series

Organised Crime: An Industry that Carries a $4 Trillion Cost
11 May 2017

New analysis by the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime suggests that across a selection of six private sector industries the scale and cost of organized crime is between $3.6-$4.8 trillion. The staggering level of private sector victimisation has gone largely unreported and unrecognised. 

Speakers:

  • Mark Shaw, Director, Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime  
  • Tuesday Reitano, Deputy Director, Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime
  • Robin Cartwright, author of the Global Initiative's forthcoming flagship report Hidden Battalions: Transnational Organised Crime and its Impact on the Private Sector.

Poppies and Poverty: Implications of Afghanistan’s Continuing Search for Security 
30 March 2017

After invasion, intervention, and insurgency, Afghanistan’s weak state and economy now pose the greatest current danger to its own citizens, its neighbours, and the West. Horia Mosadiq and David Mansfield discussed the growing threats that joblessness, migration, and the drug trade represent for human rights and regional security.

Speakers:

  • David Mansfield is an LSE IDEAS Fellow and consultant advising on operational issues with regard to illicit drugs. 
  • Horia Mosadiq is Amnesty International’s Afghanistan Researcher. She was awarded the Afghanistan Simurgh Human Rights Award by the Arman Shahr Foundation. 
  • Chair: Mary Martin is a Senior Research Fellow in LSE IDEAS and the LSE Department of International Relations.

Decline of the West and Crisis of Democracy?
7 February 2017

Populism is on the rise across the West. How far does this reflect a decline in Western economic power? And how much does it threaten liberal democratic institutions? Podcast available below.

Speakers:

  • Brian Klaas, Fellow in Comparative Politics, LSE;
  • Gideon Rachman, Chief Foreign Affairs Columnist, Financial Times;
  • Chair: Leslie Vinjamuri, Director of the Centre on Conflict, Rights and Justice, SOAS.

Beyond Obama: the Four Years Ahead

What impact will President Trump have on foreign policy? Is a 'grand bargain' with Russia and China possible?

Speakers:

  • Chair: Luca Tardelli
  • Peter Trubowitz, professor of International Relations, Director, LSE US Centre
  • Steven Erlanger, London Bureau Chief, The New York Times
  • Xenia Wickett,  head of the US and the Americas Programme, Chatham House

Thinking the Unthinkable

After a proliferation of ‘unthinkable’ events over the last two years, how can leaders continue to first identify then adapt to the new, fast changing normal?

Speakers:

  • Nik Gowing, Visiting Professor at Nanyang University, Singapore
  • Chair: Michael Cox, Director, LSE IDEAS

Prospects for the Chinese Economy

What does the future holds for the Chinese economy - is the debt burden too large or is there further growth to come? 

Speakers:

  • Chair: Jonathan Fenby, Co-Founder Trusted Sources and Director, China Research, LSE IDEAS Associate
  • Dr Linda Yueh, Fellow in Economics at St Edmund Hall, Oxford University
  • Guy de Jonquières, Senior Fellow at European Centre for International political Economy

NATO at the Crossroads
29 June 2016

Confronting Putin? Surviving Trump? Where is NATO – and indeed the whole Transatlantic relationship – likely to be heading in these deeply uncertain times? Podcast available below.

Speakers:

  • Jamie Shea, NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges
  • Anne Applebaum, former LSE IDEAS Philippe Roman Chair
  • Chair: Michael Cox, Director, LSE IDEAS

Brexit - Britain at the Crossroads: European Consequences, Geopolitical Risks? 
3 May 2016

This strategic breakfast assessed the international consequences of the forthcoming referendum on the United Kingdom’s membership in the European Union. Podcast available below.

Speakers:

  • Gideon Rachman, Chief Foreign Affairs Columnist, The Financial Times
  • Steven Erlanger,  London bureau chief, The New York Times
  • Yu Jie,  China Foresight Project Manager, LSE IDEAS
  • Tim Oliver,  Dahrendorf Fellow on Europe-North America Relations, LSE IDEAS
  • Chair: Michael Cox, Director, LSE IDEAS

Understanding and Confronting ISIS

This breakfast discussion focused on the growing jihadi threat in the Middle East and beyond. Professor Jean-Pierre Filiu, former French ambassador to Syria, advisor to the French Prime Minister and Defence Minister, and author of From Deep State to Islamic State,  discussed the prospects of ISIS and of the broader jihadi movement as well as the limits of current Western efforts aimed at curbing it.

Speakers:

  • Jean-Pierre Filiu, former French ambassador to Syria

Alumni Breakfast podcasts

Listen to recorded presentations from past Alumni Breakfasts. Q&A and discussion remains private.

Decline of the West and Crisis of Democracy?

Populism is on the rise across the West. How far does this reflect a decline in Western economic power? And how much does it threaten liberal democratic institutions?

Speakers:

  • Brian Klaas, Fellow in Comparative Politics, LSE;
  • Gideon Rachman, Chief Foreign Affairs Columnist, Financial Times;
  • Chair: Leslie Vinjamuri, Director of the Centre on Conflict, Rights and Justice, SOAS.

Listen to the podcast

NATO at the Crossroads

Confronting Putin? Surviving Trump? Where is NATO – and indeed the whole Transatlantic relationship – likely to be heading in these deeply uncertain times?

Speakers:

  • Jamie Shea, NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges
  • Anne Applebaum, former LSE IDEAS Philippe Roman Chair
  • Chair: Michael Cox, Director, LSE IDEAS

Listen to the podcast

Brexit - Britain at the Crossroads: European Consequences, Geopolitical Risks?

This strategic breakfast assessed the international consequences of the forthcoming referendum on the United Kingdom’s membership in the European Union. 

Speakers:

  • Gideon Rachman, Chief Foreign Affairs Columnist, The Financial Times
  • Steven Erlanger,  London bureau chief, The New York Times
  • Yu Jie,  China Foresight Project Manager, LSE IDEAS
  • Tim Oliver,  Dahrendorf Fellow on Europe-North America Relations, LSE IDEAS
  • Chair: Michael Cox, Director, LSE IDEAS

Listen to the podcast

 

For full LSE IDEAS events listings, please click here. You can also sign up to the LSE IDEAS Events Newsletter.

Additionally, for all LSE events, please click here.