KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
KEYNOTE SPEAKER - DR. PETER CORNELIUS, Global Head of Research, Alpinvest Partners
Dr. Peter Cornelius is one of the world’s leading economists and experts on global competitiveness. Few people have held as many senior positions in the world’s prestigious economic institutions.
Currently, Peter is Global Head of Research at Alpinvest Partners, one of the world’s largest private equity investors. He headed the Global Competitiveness Programme at the World Economic Forum (WEF) where he served as Chief Economist and editor of the Global Competitiveness Report and various other studies on economic growth and development.
As the former Group Chief Economist of Royal Dutch Shell, he analyzed global trends, advised on structural shifts, especially in the oil and gas markets, and contributed to the company’s global, regional and business scenario planning.
He has also served as the Head of International Economic Research at Deutsche Bank and was a Senior Economist of the International Monetary Fund; he was the IMF's resident representative in Lithuania from 1993-1995. A former Staff Economist at the German Council of Economic Advisors and a former consultant to UNIDO and the EU, Cornelius has also been an adviser to Deutsche Asset Management, an Adjunct Professor at Brandeis University, and a Visiting Lecturer at WHU School of Management Koblenz. He was also a Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Institute for International Development at Harvard University.
Dr. Cornelius is a visiting professor at the Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School and lectures at the new European School for Management and Technology in Berlin.
Dr. Cornelius is the editor, with Bruce Kogut, of Corporate Governance and Capital Flows in a Global Economy, sponsored by the WEF, INSEAD and the Wharton School of Business. The book collects essays from senior economic researchers, policy makers and business leaders analyzing how corporate governance practices impact investments in developing countries. This is a must-read for anyone interested in financial crises, international risk management and global competitiveness.
Dr. Cornelius studied Economics and Philosophy at the London School of Economics and Political Science and received his doctorate in Economics from the University of Göttingen.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER - MARK BLAYNEY, Author- Consultant, Turnaroundhelp Ltd.
Independent international turnaround and strategy consultant specialising in crisis financial management and mentoring of owner managed businesses in recovery, as well as full ‘hands on’ interim turnaround and business development / strategy consultancy work.
Blayney is the author of the book named “Turning a Business Around” in which he tells how firms may determine the risk indicators on time and turnaround their business to survive in the market.
Blayney, who creates various success stories on companies ranging from small and big size companies experiencing cash crisis, managerial handicaps, fiscal shortages and bankruptcy and serve them with financial management consultancy, turnaround advice and mentoring.
Mark Blayney’s background is in insolvency and turnaround where he trained with PwC working in the UK and overseas, as well as being seconded into one of the UK’s main commercial banks before being involved in setting up PwC’s business turnaround unit. Blayney had also experience in various manufacturing sectors and served in metal article, furniture and automotive sectors at managerial levels.
He went on to work in a FTSE 250 company and as the ‘turnaround’ partner in a UK top 20 firm before setting up his own independent consultancy Turnaroundhelp Limited and Creative Finance, a brokerage.
More recently he has begun to acquire small manufacturing businesses in difficulty and turn them around for himself and due to his works he has been rewarded as the “Small Business Turnaround Champion” by “Society of Turnaround Professionals”
He is a member of the Institute For Turnaround, the UK’s accrediting body for turnaround professionals and an ex director of the Turnaround Management Association in the UK.
He speaks and writes extensively on a business matters and has published four books for owner managers on business turnaround, small business finance and buying and selling businesses.