16 UK Business and Economics Academics to Book as Speakers

Sixteen UK business and economics academics you can book through PepTalk, grouped by what they deliver on stage. Economists who read the macro picture, business school professors working on leadership and governance, behavioural scientists working on customer decisions, and academics who hold a senior commercial role alongside a chair.

Academic speakers earn their place on a programme when the audience needs the reasoning behind a position, not just the position. The four groups below are ordered by the brief they suit, so you can go straight to the relevant section. For the wider roster, browse our academic speakers, economist speakers and educator speakers.

Which UK economists work well for business audiences?

These five explain monetary policy, trade and market structure to rooms that are not made up of economists. Between them they cover global macro, UK monetary policy, banking behaviour, the UK's relationship with Europe, and private capital. Book from this group for conference openers and strategy offsites, where the question is what happens next. For a wider view of the UK picture, see our roundup of economics keynote speakers on the UK economy.

» Explore: All economics speakers

Dr Linda Yueh CBE

Economist at London Business School and Oxford University, and the BBC's former Chief Business Correspondent. She advises the World Bank, European Commission and World Economic Forum, and sits on FTSE-listed boards.

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Trevor Williams

Chief Economist at Lloyds Bank for over a decade, now rotating Chair of the Institute of Economic Affairs' Shadow Monetary Policy Committee and Visiting Professor at the University of Derby.

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Richard Werner

Professor of banking and finance whose Quantity Theory of Credit reframed how credit creation drives growth. He introduced the term quantitative easing in 1995, and Princes of the Yen topped the Japanese bestseller charts.

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Anand Menon

Director of UK in a Changing Europe and Professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs at King's College London. Co-author of Brexit and British Politics, and a regular on Newsnight and Radio 4's Today.

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Ludovic Phalippou

Faculty at Oxford's Saïd Business School and Fellow at The Queen's College. Real Deals named him one of the 20 most influential people in European private equity, the only academic on the list.

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Related topics: global economy, tariffs and trade, geopolitics, emerging markets, banking, fintech and risk management. Also see our finance speakers and political analyst speakers.

Which business school professors should you shortlist?

All five hold or have held chairs at UK business schools, and all five work with organisations as well as teaching. Reach for this group when the brief is leadership, culture, governance or decision-making rather than the economy, and when the audience needs a method they can apply to their own team. Our guide to urgent leadership speakers, topics and skills covers the themes coming up most often in briefs.

» Explore: All leadership development speakers

Herminia Ibarra

Charles Handy Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School, previously on the faculties of INSEAD and Harvard Business School. Her Harvard Business Review article The Leader as Coach won the 2019 Warren Bennis Prize.

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Sir Andrew Likierman

Professor of Management Practice at London Business School and its Dean from 2009 to 2017. A former Director of the Bank of England and Chair of the National Audit Office. Author of Judgement at Work.

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Professor Laura Empson

Professor in the Management of Professional Service Firms at Bayes Business School, with research fellowships at Harvard Law School and Cambridge Judge. Thirty years of research into how partnerships are run.

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Dan Cable

Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School, ranked among the Academy of Management's top 25 most influential management scholars. Author of Alive at Work and Exceptional.

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Dr Margaret Heffernan

Professor of Practice at the University of Bath, a former BBC producer and US media CEO. The Financial Times named Willful Blindness one of the most important business books of the decade.

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Related topics: effective leadership, company culture, workplace culture, corporate governance, decision making, strategic decision making, psychological safety, change management and employee engagement. Several of this group also appear on our Thinkers50 speakers, executive speakers and CEO speakers pages.

Who covers consumer behaviour and behavioural science?

Three academics who work on why customers decide what they decide, and what that means for pricing, messaging and trust. All three consult commercially alongside their research, so the material lands with marketing and CX teams. This group works best when the room shares a job rather than a level. For adjacent options, see our roundup of the best customer experience speakers to book.

» Explore: All behavioural science speakers

Richard Shotton

Behavioural scientist and founder of Astroten, advising Google, Mondelez and Santander. The Choice Factory won best sales and marketing book at the 2019 Business Book Awards.

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Dr Simon Moore

Chartered psychologist with 25 years of commercial work, and founder of Innovation Bubble. Clients include Pfizer, Microsoft, HSBC and Virgin Atlantic.

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Dr Amna Khan

Senior Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School, with over 1,000 media contributions across BBC, ITV, Channel 5 and Netflix covering brands including Tesco, Primark and Deliveroo.

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Related topics: marketing, consumer trends, customer experience, customer loyalty, influence, communication and trust. For agency-side perspectives, see our advertising speakers and psychology speakers.

Which academics also work inside businesses?

These three hold university positions alongside senior commercial roles, so they bring current practice as well as research. Useful when a purely academic voice would feel too removed from the room's day job, and when the topic is moving faster than the literature. Our future of work speakers roundup covers the same ground from a workforce angle.

» Explore: All future trends speakers

Leo Johnson

Head of Disruption and Innovation at PwC and Visiting Business Fellow at Oxford's Smith School of Enterprise and Environment. He presents BBC World and Radio 4 series including FutureProofing and Hacking Capitalism.

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Dr Alex Connock

Senior Fellow at Oxford's Saïd Business School and Professor in Media and Artificial Intelligence at Exeter University. Author of a Routledge trilogy on the contemporary media business.

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Adam Kingl

Former Regional Managing Director for Duke Corporate Education in Europe. Author of Sparking Success and Next Generation Leadership, with degrees from London Business School, UCLA and Yale.

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Related topics: digital transformation, business strategy, innovation, disruption, artificial intelligence, generative AI and macrotrends. Also see our Oxford University speakers, business leader speakers, futurist speakers and digital expert speakers.

How to choose between UK business and economics academics

Start with what the audience needs to do differently on Monday. An economist gives them a picture of the conditions they are operating in. A business school professor gives them a method they can apply. A behavioural scientist gives a functional team specific tactics to test.

Format matters as much as topic. A 45-minute keynote suits an economist with a single argument to land. A management population usually gets more from a longer session, so it is worth looking at workshop facilitators and professional development speakers alongside the names here. If you need someone to hold the whole day together, our event hosts and broadcaster speakers are the place to start.

The practical constraint is diary. Academics teach to a term timetable, and the ones holding senior commercial roles alongside a chair have the least flexibility of anyone on this list. If your date is fixed, lead with the date rather than the name.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between booking an economist and a business school professor?

An economist explains the external conditions an organisation is operating in, covering trade, monetary policy, market structure and growth. A business school professor works on what happens inside the organisation, covering leadership, culture, governance and decision-making. Economists suit conference openers. Business school professors suit leadership programmes, and often overlap with business ethics and ethical leadership briefs.

Are these speakers available outside London?

Yes. Dr Amna Khan is based in Manchester, and Dr Linda Yueh CBE, Ludovic Phalippou, Professor Laura Empson and Dr Alex Connock are all based in Oxford. Dr Margaret Heffernan holds her professorship at the University of Bath. Most of this group travel nationally and internationally, and travel costs sit outside the speaking fee.

Can an academic speaker tailor their talk to our sector?

Most will, given enough notice and a proper brief. Trevor Williams has delivered economics sessions built around housing for local government and housing associations in Wales. Professor Laura Empson's research is specific to professional service firms, so her material already sits inside the law, accountancy and consulting context.

Do any of them host or moderate as well as speak?

Dr Amna Khan works as an event host and moderator alongside her keynote work. Several others have broadcast backgrounds that translate to panel chairing, including Dr Linda Yueh CBE, Leo Johnson and Dr Margaret Heffernan. Browse our event moderators for more options, and ask at enquiry stage, since moderation is usually quoted separately from a keynote.

Do you represent academic speakers outside the UK?

Yes. Our guide to academic speakers from America's premier universities covers the US roster, and we have a separate roundup of Ivy League professors as motivational speakers. You can also browse by institution, including our Harvard University speakers.

Looking for a business or economics academic for your next event? Send us a message via the chat and we'll shortlist against your date, audience and budget. Remember, it's always a good time to get a PepTalk!