Ticket Information
STOP PRESS: SINGLE SESSION TICKETS (£10) NOW AVAILABLE
We’re delighted to be able to make available a limited number of Single Session Tickets (price £10 each) for selected sessions of The Weekend of Mistakes
Please note that all places are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. We recommend arriving early to secure your spot.
Alice Sherwood
Alice Sherwood is the Co-Director of the Weekend of Mistakes. She is the author of the award-winning Authenticity: Reclaiming Reality in a Counterfeit Culture (HarperCollins 2022), which argues that although our counterfeit culture is shaped by the most powerful forces of economics, evolution, and technology, we can still come together to reclaim reality. Currently a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at The Policy Institute at King’s College London, she has been a director of an open-source intelligence company, worked as a management consultant for Accenture, in retail strategy consultancy and private equity, and for the BBC in education and multimedia. She has under-graduate degrees in philosophy and in chemistry, an MBA from INSEAD, and an MA in literary criticism and narrative non-fiction. She is a trustee of the Hay Castle Trust, chair of the Beit Scientific Fellowship at Imperial Colleget, chair of the Rising Tide women’s network, and lives in London and Wales. Authenticity is Alice’s first book. It won a Royal Society of Literature Giles St Aubyn Award for Non-Fiction.
Lord Gus O’Donnell
Gus O'Donnell served as Cabinet Secretary and Head of the British Civil Service from 2005 to 2011, during which he oversaw the formation of the first coalition government since World War II. Prior to this, he was Permanent Secretary to the Treasury (2002–2005) and represented the UK on the IMF and World Bank Boards. Recently stepping down as Chair of Frontier Economics after 11 years, Gus continues to support the consulting firm in an Ambassadorial role. He also holds several other positions, including Strategic Advisor and Board Member for Brookfield Asset Management, President of the Council of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), and Honorary President of Pro Bono Economics (PBE). Additionally, he is a Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics (LSE) and University College London (UCL), as well as a member of the Economist Trust. Gus studied Economics at Warwick University and Nuffield College, Oxford, before beginning his academic career as a lecturer at Glasgow University. Knighted in 2005, he was appointed to the House of Lords in 2012, where he sits as a crossbencher. He is also an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences
Emma Slade
Emma Slade was educated at Cambridge University and London University and attained the CFA qualification as a Chartered Financial Analyst. She had a very successful career as a Senior Financial Analyst for HSBC, largely based in Hong Kong from 1994-1999 and, later, in private equity and hedge fund analysis.
As an investment analysis she assisted on investing $1bn in Asian securities. Then, in the turmoil of the Asian financial crisis of 1997, on a business trip to Jakarta, she was held in her hotel room by an armed gunman. This event proved a turning point in her life and kick started her on a quest to think what she really wished to do with her life and contribute to the world.
Already a Buddhist and an experienced yoga teacher it was on her first trip to Bhutan in 2011 that she met Lama Nima Tshering who became her teacher and who, a year later, instructed her to follow a path of renunciation and compassion and become a nun.
In 2022 she became the first and only Western woman ever to be fully ordained in the Himalayas itself when a historic event occurred in Bhutan when 142 nuns were given full ordination on a level equivalent to monks.
In 2015 she set up the UK charity - Opening Your Heart to Bhutan - to help special needs children in Bhutan. The charity has raised £800,000 and played a major role in building the first purpose-built special needs school in Bhutan.
With her in-depth understanding of the country of Bhutan and its contribution to writings on happiness and her personal story of transformation she is often featured in international events. She donates such engagements to her charity.
A Hay Happiness Index: Measuring What Matters to Us
Hay-on-Wye is a town renowned for its creativity, independence of spirit, and original thinking. Since 1st April 1977, when Richard Booth famously declared the town independent—and himself King—Hay has been proud to be a little bit different.
Now, we bring you another bold idea when we ask: Could Hay have its own Happiness Index?
Since 1972, when the King of Bhutan proclaimed that "Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross Domestic Product," the idea of measuring what truly contributes to our well-being—rather than just what makes us wealthy—has inspired nations across the globe. Countries have developed their own Happiness Indexes, tailoring the concept to reflect their unique cultures and values:
Bhutan includes measures of spiritual well-being, reflecting its Buddhist belief in interconnectedness and mindfulness.
New Zealand incorporates Te Ao Māori—the indigenous worldview—into its happiness measures.
South African nations emphasise community cohesion, guided by the philosophy of Ubuntu: "I am because we are."
South America values the role of festivals, collective joy, and pura vida (harmony with nature).
Scandinavian countries—who frequently top the World Happiness Report rankings—include concepts like: Hygge (Denmark’s famed coziness—or as we like to call it, Cwtch with a Scandi accent), and Sisu (Finland's unique blend of stoicism, grit, and perseverance).
But just how do you develop a Happiness Index? If Hay had one, what would it look like? What truly matters to the people of Hay and the surrounding Borders?
Building on our earlier panel [Gross National Happiness -Saturday 9.45 am] about measuring well-being, we roll up our sleeves to dig into how you create a Happiness Index, Chaired by Festival Director Alice Sherwood. To guide us, we welcome Emma Slade, a key figure in implementing Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness project, to share her expertise and inspire us with ideas from around the world. She’s joined by Lord Gus O’Donnell, former UK Cabinet Secretary and Head of the British Civil Service, and a prominent advocate of measuring what matters and integrating well-being into economic policy.
Alice Sherwood
Alice Sherwood is the Co-Director of the Weekend of Mistakes. She is the author of the award-winning Authenticity: Reclaiming Reality in a Counterfeit Culture (HarperCollins 2022), which argues that although our counterfeit culture is shaped by the most powerful forces of economics, evolution, and technology, we can still come together to reclaim reality. Currently a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at The Policy Institute at King’s College London, she has been a director of an open-source intelligence company, worked as a management consultant for Accenture, in retail strategy consultancy and private equity, and for the BBC in education and multimedia. She has under-graduate degrees in philosophy and in chemistry, an MBA from INSEAD, and an MA in literary criticism and narrative non-fiction. She is a trustee of the Hay Castle Trust, chair of the Beit Scientific Fellowship at Imperial Colleget, chair of the Rising Tide women’s network, and lives in London and Wales. Authenticity is Alice’s first book. It won a Royal Society of Literature Giles St Aubyn Award for Non-Fiction.
Lord Gus O’Donnell
Gus O'Donnell served as Cabinet Secretary and Head of the British Civil Service from 2005 to 2011, during which he oversaw the formation of the first coalition government since World War II. Prior to this, he was Permanent Secretary to the Treasury (2002–2005) and represented the UK on the IMF and World Bank Boards. Recently stepping down as Chair of Frontier Economics after 11 years, Gus continues to support the consulting firm in an Ambassadorial role. He also holds several other positions, including Strategic Advisor and Board Member for Brookfield Asset Management, President of the Council of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), and Honorary President of Pro Bono Economics (PBE). Additionally, he is a Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics (LSE) and University College London (UCL), as well as a member of the Economist Trust. Gus studied Economics at Warwick University and Nuffield College, Oxford, before beginning his academic career as a lecturer at Glasgow University. Knighted in 2005, he was appointed to the House of Lords in 2012, where he sits as a crossbencher. He is also an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences
Emma Slade
Emma Slade was educated at Cambridge University and London University and attained the CFA qualification as a Chartered Financial Analyst. She had a very successful career as a Senior Financial Analyst for HSBC, largely based in Hong Kong from 1994-1999 and, later, in private equity and hedge fund analysis.
As an investment analysis she assisted on investing $1bn in Asian securities. Then, in the turmoil of the Asian financial crisis of 1997, on a business trip to Jakarta, she was held in her hotel room by an armed gunman. This event proved a turning point in her life and kick started her on a quest to think what she really wished to do with her life and contribute to the world.
Already a Buddhist and an experienced yoga teacher it was on her first trip to Bhutan in 2011 that she met Lama Nima Tshering who became her teacher and who, a year later, instructed her to follow a path of renunciation and compassion and become a nun.
In 2022 she became the first and only Western woman ever to be fully ordained in the Himalayas itself when a historic event occurred in Bhutan when 142 nuns were given full ordination on a level equivalent to monks.
In 2015 she set up the UK charity - Opening Your Heart to Bhutan - to help special needs children in Bhutan. The charity has raised £800,000 and played a major role in building the first purpose-built special needs school in Bhutan.
With her in-depth understanding of the country of Bhutan and its contribution to writings on happiness and her personal story of transformation she is often featured in international events. She donates such engagements to her charity.
Oliver Bullough
Oliver Bullough is an award-winning author and journalist from Hay, who writes about financial crime, kleptocracy and money laundering, often with a connection to the former Soviet republics. His most recent book 'Butler to the World' was called "razor-sharp" by the FT; while 'Moneyland' was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize, and won the Welsh non-fiction book of the year prize. His journalism appears in the Guardian, the New York Times, the Sunday Times, in various magazines, and on the BBC.
Professor Helen Thompson
Helen Thompson is Professor of Political Economy in the Department of Politics and International Studies at Cambridge University. Her most recent book Disorder: Hard Times in the 21stCentury was published by Oxford University Press on 24 February 2022 and was shortlisted for the 2022 Financial Times Business Book of the Year. She has written for, among other outlets, the Financial Times, the New York Times, the Sunday Times, the Guardian, Foreign Affairs, Project Syndicate, the London Review of Books, New Statesman, UnHerd, Nature, and Prospect. She co-presents the politics podcast These Times.
Nick Butler
Nick Butler is an energy economist and Visiting Professor in the Policy Institute at Kings College London. He was Group Vice President for Strategy and Policy at BP from 2002 to 2007 and subsequent senior policy adviser to Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
'Drill Baby Drill' Trump, Energy, and Carbon
Has Trump ‘broken ranks’ on climate change? Or is the U.S. under his leadership simply acknowledging a world still deeply entrenched in oil? Either way, his policies promise continuing carbon emissions that far exceed current climate goals.
Join leading political economist and These Times podcaster Helen Thompson and influential energy economist Nick Butler as they explore the risks and realities of America’s energy agenda under Trump. What will it mean for global climate goals? And are we ready to confront the consequences?
With his ‘energy dominance’ agenda front and centre, a second Trump term could turbocharge fossil fuel production — slashing regulations, expanding drilling, and sidelining renewables and clean energy innovation. Emissions targets and climate agreements could take a backseat as fossil fuel industries are given free rein.
As America’s retreat from climate leadership emboldens other countries to follow suit, will a second Trump term leave global net-zero targets a distant dream? Will America cede its position at the forefront of the clean energy sector to the likes of China? And is carbon capture technology — promising yet unproven — the answer?
Join us for this critical conversation on where Trump’s energy agenda will take us — and the planet.
Oliver Bullough
Oliver Bullough is an award-winning author and journalist from Hay, who writes about financial crime, kleptocracy and money laundering, often with a connection to the former Soviet republics. His most recent book 'Butler to the World' was called "razor-sharp" by the FT; while 'Moneyland' was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize, and won the Welsh non-fiction book of the year prize. His journalism appears in the Guardian, the New York Times, the Sunday Times, in various magazines, and on the BBC.
Professor Helen Thompson
Helen Thompson is Professor of Political Economy in the Department of Politics and International Studies at Cambridge University. Her most recent book Disorder: Hard Times in the 21stCentury was published by Oxford University Press on 24 February 2022 and was shortlisted for the 2022 Financial Times Business Book of the Year. She has written for, among other outlets, the Financial Times, the New York Times, the Sunday Times, the Guardian, Foreign Affairs, Project Syndicate, the London Review of Books, New Statesman, UnHerd, Nature, and Prospect. She co-presents the politics podcast These Times.
Nick Butler
Nick Butler is an energy economist and Visiting Professor in the Policy Institute at Kings College London. He was Group Vice President for Strategy and Policy at BP from 2002 to 2007 and subsequent senior policy adviser to Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Alice Sherwood
Alice Sherwood is the Co-Director of the Weekend of Mistakes. She is the author of the award-winning Authenticity: Reclaiming Reality in a Counterfeit Culture (HarperCollins 2022), which argues that although our counterfeit culture is shaped by the most powerful forces of economics, evolution, and technology, we can still come together to reclaim reality. Currently a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at The Policy Institute at King’s College London, she has been a director of an open-source intelligence company, worked as a management consultant for Accenture, in retail strategy consultancy and private equity, and for the BBC in education and multimedia. She has under-graduate degrees in philosophy and in chemistry, an MBA from INSEAD, and an MA in literary criticism and narrative non-fiction. She is a trustee of the Hay Castle Trust, chair of the Beit Scientific Fellowship at Imperial Colleget, chair of the Rising Tide women’s network, and lives in London and Wales. Authenticity is Alice’s first book. It won a Royal Society of Literature Giles St Aubyn Award for Non-Fiction.
Oliver Bullough
Oliver Bullough is an award-winning author and journalist from Hay, who writes about financial crime, kleptocracy and money laundering, often with a connection to the former Soviet republics. His most recent book 'Butler to the World' was called "razor-sharp" by the FT; while 'Moneyland' was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize, and won the Welsh non-fiction book of the year prize. His journalism appears in the Guardian, the New York Times, the Sunday Times, in various magazines, and on the BBC.
Smurfs and Smishing: A Refresher Course on Money Laundering and Financial Fraud
Join Oliver Bullough, bestselling author of Moneyland and Butler to the World, as he exposes the staggering scale of financial fraud. Chinese citizens launder their money via North Korea’s drug cartels and Smurfs. Each year, hundreds of billions in illicit wealth—stolen by kleptocrats, oligarchs, and criminals—flow through British banks. State actors—we’re also looking at you, Mr. Putin—weaponise dirty money networks to undermine democracies and electoral systems. As sanctions falter, and the debate as to whether to ‘freeze or seize’ illicit assets stalls, this session will ask whether governments are doing enough to combat global fraud.
We see the effects of financial fraud all around us. Who hasn’t received a ‘smishing’ scam text? Or a ‘Nigerian Letter’ email? And why, in a supposedly ‘cashless’ world, are there—paradoxically— record-breaking levels of US dollar bills in circulation?
Join us to explore systemic challenges, personal risks—and the role of Smurfs!—in the murky underworld of money laundering.
Chaired by Alice Sherwood, Senior Visiting Researcher at The Policy Institute at Kings and Co-director of The Weekend of Mistakes.
Alice Sherwood
Alice Sherwood is the Co-Director of the Weekend of Mistakes. She is the author of the award-winning Authenticity: Reclaiming Reality in a Counterfeit Culture (HarperCollins 2022), which argues that although our counterfeit culture is shaped by the most powerful forces of economics, evolution, and technology, we can still come together to reclaim reality. Currently a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at The Policy Institute at King’s College London, she has been a director of an open-source intelligence company, worked as a management consultant for Accenture, in retail strategy consultancy and private equity, and for the BBC in education and multimedia. She has under-graduate degrees in philosophy and in chemistry, an MBA from INSEAD, and an MA in literary criticism and narrative non-fiction. She is a trustee of the Hay Castle Trust, chair of the Beit Scientific Fellowship at Imperial Colleget, chair of the Rising Tide women’s network, and lives in London and Wales. Authenticity is Alice’s first book. It won a Royal Society of Literature Giles St Aubyn Award for Non-Fiction.
Oliver Bullough
Oliver Bullough is an award-winning author and journalist from Hay, who writes about financial crime, kleptocracy and money laundering, often with a connection to the former Soviet republics. His most recent book 'Butler to the World' was called "razor-sharp" by the FT; while 'Moneyland' was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize, and won the Welsh non-fiction book of the year prize. His journalism appears in the Guardian, the New York Times, the Sunday Times, in various magazines, and on the BBC.
Professor Christel Koop
Professor Christel Koop
Christel is a professor of political economy at King’s College London and a leading expert in economic regulation. She was educated in the Netherlands and Italy, and has done extensive research on the independence, accountability, and legitimacy of economic regulators and other technocratic bodies, in the UK and elsewhere. In recent years, her work has focused on the re-politicisation of independent economic regulators – and politically insulated expert bodies more generally – and the organisational responses this has triggered. She also has a keen interest in citizen engagement by regulators.
Ed Richards
Ed Richards is a co-founder of Flint Global Ltd. Flint works with companies and other organisationswho seek to navigate successful developments in the policy, political and regulatory arenas. The company works globally from six offices across Europe and the Asia Pacific region. Ed works across a broad range of sectors including digital/tech and other network industries, as well as on general policy, competition, and regulatory issues.
Before co-founding Flint, Ed spent more than eight years as the Chief Executive of Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator. Earlier in his career Ed worked as an adviser to the UK Prime Minister in 10 Downing Street covering a wide range of domestic policy areas and helping to coordinate the introduction of significant legislation. Prior to this, he led the Corporate Strategy team at the BBC during the development of digital technology and services.
In addition to his position as Founding Partner at Flint, Ed is also Chair of Nesta, the social innovation charity and Chair of the Behavioural Insights Team (the Nudge Unit).
Lord Terence Burns
Lord Terence Burns, often known as Terry Burns, is a British economist, made a life peer in 1998 following a civil service career as Chief Economic Advisor and Permanent Secretary to HM Treasury. He served as Chairman of Ofcom and was also a non-executive member of the Office for Budget Responsibility. He was Chairman of Santander UK, Welsh Water, Marks and Spencer and Channel 4 Corporation. He is a former President of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research and of the Society of Business Economists. He was Chairman of the Governing Body of the Royal Academy of Music and is currently Chairman of YCAT (Young Classical Artists Trust).
Regulating the Regulators: Does the 'Gentleman in Whitehall' really know best?
How do we strike the right balance between regulatory independence and government oversight? Ensure democratic accountability? What challenges do regulators face in the UK today, and what are the implications for key sectors like media, communications, and public utilities?
We try to keep politicians out of technical decisions, but many of these technical decisions have political and human consequences. Decisions about energy price caps (Ofgem), what content is appropriate for broadcast (Ofcom), whether water companies are investing enough in infrastructure to prevent sewage spills (Ofwat) or whether financial products are marketed responsibly (FCA) affect us all.
So, who really does know best? Whitehall or Westminster? Experts or elected politicians?
Join Ed Richards (former director of OFCOM) and Lord Terry Burns (former Chair of Channel Four, OFCOM, and Welsh Water) as they delve into these pressing questions. The discussion is led By Professor Christel Koop, expert in regulation at King's College London. An important and in-depth look at the state of regulation in the UK—and its impact on our democracy and society.
Professor Christel Koop
Professor Christel Koop
Christel is a professor of political economy at King’s College London and a leading expert in economic regulation. She was educated in the Netherlands and Italy, and has done extensive research on the independence, accountability, and legitimacy of economic regulators and other technocratic bodies, in the UK and elsewhere. In recent years, her work has focused on the re-politicisation of independent economic regulators – and politically insulated expert bodies more generally – and the organisational responses this has triggered. She also has a keen interest in citizen engagement by regulators.
Ed Richards
Ed Richards is a co-founder of Flint Global Ltd. Flint works with companies and other organisationswho seek to navigate successful developments in the policy, political and regulatory arenas. The company works globally from six offices across Europe and the Asia Pacific region. Ed works across a broad range of sectors including digital/tech and other network industries, as well as on general policy, competition, and regulatory issues.
Before co-founding Flint, Ed spent more than eight years as the Chief Executive of Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator. Earlier in his career Ed worked as an adviser to the UK Prime Minister in 10 Downing Street covering a wide range of domestic policy areas and helping to coordinate the introduction of significant legislation. Prior to this, he led the Corporate Strategy team at the BBC during the development of digital technology and services.
In addition to his position as Founding Partner at Flint, Ed is also Chair of Nesta, the social innovation charity and Chair of the Behavioural Insights Team (the Nudge Unit).
Lord Terence Burns
Lord Terence Burns, often known as Terry Burns, is a British economist, made a life peer in 1998 following a civil service career as Chief Economic Advisor and Permanent Secretary to HM Treasury. He served as Chairman of Ofcom and was also a non-executive member of the Office for Budget Responsibility. He was Chairman of Santander UK, Welsh Water, Marks and Spencer and Channel 4 Corporation. He is a former President of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research and of the Society of Business Economists. He was Chairman of the Governing Body of the Royal Academy of Music and is currently Chairman of YCAT (Young Classical Artists Trust).
Alice Sherwood
Alice Sherwood is the Co-Director of the Weekend of Mistakes. She is the author of the award-winning Authenticity: Reclaiming Reality in a Counterfeit Culture (HarperCollins 2022), which argues that although our counterfeit culture is shaped by the most powerful forces of economics, evolution, and technology, we can still come together to reclaim reality. Currently a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at The Policy Institute at King’s College London, she has been a director of an open-source intelligence company, worked as a management consultant for Accenture, in retail strategy consultancy and private equity, and for the BBC in education and multimedia. She has under-graduate degrees in philosophy and in chemistry, an MBA from INSEAD, and an MA in literary criticism and narrative non-fiction. She is a trustee of the Hay Castle Trust, chair of the Beit Scientific Fellowship at Imperial Colleget, chair of the Rising Tide women’s network, and lives in London and Wales. Authenticity is Alice’s first book. It won a Royal Society of Literature Giles St Aubyn Award for Non-Fiction.
Professor Anja Shortland
Anja Shortland is a Professor in Political Economy at King’s College London. She studied Engineering Science at Oxford and for her MSc in Political Economy and PhD in International Relations at LSE. Anja specialises in institutional economics and the economics of crime. She is fascinated by private ordering in the world’s trickiest markets: hostages, hijacked ships, stolen art, looted antiquities and ransomware. Her research focuses on trades between legal and illegal enterprises and insurance as governance in criminal markets.
Anja’s Books include Lost Art: The Art Loss Register's Case Book Vol 1. Kidnap: Inside the Ransom Business
'We Know You Can Pay a Million': The Dark Economy of Digital Extortion
Ransomware attacks—where hackers break into computer networks and lock up digital information until the victim pays for its release—can be devastating. How worried should we be? And are we doing enough to protect ourselves? Barely a week goes by without a ransomware attack. No sector is safe. In recent years, city councils, political parties, schools and universities, pension funds, hospitals, companies of all kinds—including software providers, airlines, postal services, and banks—have paid hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars to extortionists to restore their services and communications.
Ransomware has become a multibillion-dollar industry and is widely recognised as a serious threat to national security. But it is also a threat that feels intensely personal. Every time we connect to the internet, we knowingly risk being hacked and extorted. Join economics of crime expert Professor Anja Shortland of King's College London in conversation with WoM Co-Director Alice Sherwood to discuss her new book.
Alice Sherwood
Alice Sherwood is the Co-Director of the Weekend of Mistakes. She is the author of the award-winning Authenticity: Reclaiming Reality in a Counterfeit Culture (HarperCollins 2022), which argues that although our counterfeit culture is shaped by the most powerful forces of economics, evolution, and technology, we can still come together to reclaim reality. Currently a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at The Policy Institute at King’s College London, she has been a director of an open-source intelligence company, worked as a management consultant for Accenture, in retail strategy consultancy and private equity, and for the BBC in education and multimedia. She has under-graduate degrees in philosophy and in chemistry, an MBA from INSEAD, and an MA in literary criticism and narrative non-fiction. She is a trustee of the Hay Castle Trust, chair of the Beit Scientific Fellowship at Imperial Colleget, chair of the Rising Tide women’s network, and lives in London and Wales. Authenticity is Alice’s first book. It won a Royal Society of Literature Giles St Aubyn Award for Non-Fiction.
Professor Anja Shortland
Anja Shortland is a Professor in Political Economy at King’s College London. She studied Engineering Science at Oxford and for her MSc in Political Economy and PhD in International Relations at LSE. Anja specialises in institutional economics and the economics of crime. She is fascinated by private ordering in the world’s trickiest markets: hostages, hijacked ships, stolen art, looted antiquities and ransomware. Her research focuses on trades between legal and illegal enterprises and insurance as governance in criminal markets.
Anja’s Books include Lost Art: The Art Loss Register's Case Book Vol 1. Kidnap: Inside the Ransom Business
Sir Philip Augar
Sir Philip Augar is an author and former investment banker. A PhD in History, he has been speaking, writing and broadcasting about the challenges of modern capitalism and banking for twenty five years. He has written seven books, contributes to the Financial Times, Sunday Times and the BBC. Philip has held a number of advisory and non-executive roles in the public and private sectors and chaired the panel reviewing post-18 education for the UK government in 2018-19. He was knighted in 2021.
Professor the Baroness Alison Wolf DBE
Professor the Baroness Alison Wolf DBE is the Sir Roy Griffiths Professor of Public Sector Management at King’s College London. She sits as a cross-bench peer (Baroness Wolf of Dulwich) in the UK House of Lords. She specialises in the relationship between education and the labour market. She was the founding Chair of Governors of King’s College London Mathematics School, and remains a governor and vice-chair, and she is a trustee of the University Maths Schools Network.
Alison Wolf served in the No 10 Policy Unit, as a part-time expert adviser on skills and workforce to the UK Prime Minister, from February 2020 to February 2023. She was a panel member for the ‘Augar Review’: the independent Review of Post-18 Education and Funding chaired by Sir Philip Augar, which reported in 2019. In March 2011 she completed the Wolf Report which led to major reforms in vocational education for 14-18 year olds, and she was also a member of the Sainsbury Review which led to the creation of T-levels. Publications include The XX Factor and Does Education Matter?
James Newby
James was appointed President and Chief Executive of NMITE in September 2022. NMITE is a new Higher Education institution launched in 2021 to deliver a completely new model of degree level education.
James gained his Higher Education later in life earning two degrees with the Open University. He now champions the role of Higher Education as a driving force for social mobility, up-skilling, regional regeneration and for creating new opportunities. He also advocates for new providers, and new models, in Higher Education as a driver of innovation. He now writes and speaks regularly on the need for reform in HE.
Prior to joining the Higher Education industry, James worked in the private sector and as an entrepreneur.
How Universities Go Bust: Education on the Brink
As universities face unprecedented financial struggles, some are teetering on the brink of collapse. It seems more than plausible that some universities will go under in 2025. But how did we get here, and what happens when a university goes bust?
Join us as we examine the critical issues at the heart of the crisis in higher education. We’ll explore how financial mismanagement, shifting student demographics, and rising costs have led to this crisis, and ask: What happens to creditors and to the students who are left stranded by a failing institution? With overseas students crucial to university revenues, will this crisis affect international recruitment? Could the failure of one major university trigger a larger systemic breakdown?
Or, are universities, like banks, too big to fail?
Be part of the conversation with Sir Philip Augar (Chair of the 2019 report to Parliament into university funding and education) Professor the Baroness Alison Wolf DBE (Sir Roy Griffiths Professor of Public Sector Management at King’s College London) and James Newby (President and CEO of NMITE, the groundbreaking technical institute in Hereford) as we explore the challenges and potential solutions to this growing crisis in education.
Sir Philip Augar
Sir Philip Augar is an author and former investment banker. A PhD in History, he has been speaking, writing and broadcasting about the challenges of modern capitalism and banking for twenty five years. He has written seven books, contributes to the Financial Times, Sunday Times and the BBC. Philip has held a number of advisory and non-executive roles in the public and private sectors and chaired the panel reviewing post-18 education for the UK government in 2018-19. He was knighted in 2021.
Professor the Baroness Alison Wolf DBE
Professor the Baroness Alison Wolf DBE is the Sir Roy Griffiths Professor of Public Sector Management at King’s College London. She sits as a cross-bench peer (Baroness Wolf of Dulwich) in the UK House of Lords. She specialises in the relationship between education and the labour market. She was the founding Chair of Governors of King’s College London Mathematics School, and remains a governor and vice-chair, and she is a trustee of the University Maths Schools Network.
Alison Wolf served in the No 10 Policy Unit, as a part-time expert adviser on skills and workforce to the UK Prime Minister, from February 2020 to February 2023. She was a panel member for the ‘Augar Review’: the independent Review of Post-18 Education and Funding chaired by Sir Philip Augar, which reported in 2019. In March 2011 she completed the Wolf Report which led to major reforms in vocational education for 14-18 year olds, and she was also a member of the Sainsbury Review which led to the creation of T-levels. Publications include The XX Factor and Does Education Matter?
James Newby
James was appointed President and Chief Executive of NMITE in September 2022. NMITE is a new Higher Education institution launched in 2021 to deliver a completely new model of degree level education.
James gained his Higher Education later in life earning two degrees with the Open University. He now champions the role of Higher Education as a driving force for social mobility, up-skilling, regional regeneration and for creating new opportunities. He also advocates for new providers, and new models, in Higher Education as a driver of innovation. He now writes and speaks regularly on the need for reform in HE.
Prior to joining the Higher Education industry, James worked in the private sector and as an entrepreneur.
Merryn Somerset-Webb
Merryn Somerset Webb was founding editor of Moneyweek magazine in 2000. She remained at the magazine as Editor in Chief until late 2022. Merryn was also a Contributing Editor to and weekly columnist for the Financial Times until September 2022. She is currently a Senior Columnist at Bloomberg writing about wealth, investing and personal finance and hosts the 'Merryn Talks Money' podcast. Merryn is also an experienced non executive director and currently sits on the board of two listed investment trusts.
Siobhan Cleary
Siobhan is Head of ESG and joined Baillie Gifford in 2022. Her extensive career includes pivotal work with stock exchanges to enhance corporate ESG disclosure and promote broader sustainability practices. She has also worked with NGOs, UN bodies, investors, and listed companies, on topics such as biodiversity, gender equality, human rights, and climate change. Siobhan holds an MSc in Climate Change from King’s College London, an MBA from the University of Cape Town, and an MA in International Relations and Economics from Johns Hopkins University.
ESG - Dead or Alive? Is ‘Doing Well by Doing Good’ Working for Investors?
ESG investing— ‘socially responsible investing’—aims to prioritise Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors or outcomes. For a time, it seemed like an obvious choice for both corporate and individual investors. But many would argue the results haven’t lived up to the hype, and now the concept, and its priorities, are under attack.
This session explores why ESG-centric funds—particularly those focused on the ‘E’—have often miserably underperformed and asks whether retail and institutional investors are still willing to commit to ESG principles if it means sacrificing returns. How solid is the evidence that companies excelling in ESG screenings outperform their lower-scoring peers? And how can investment managers—or institutions like pension funds, which entrust assets that they own to these managers—balance their fiduciary duties with the pursuit of ESG-driven strategies?
Hear from leading voices in the field as Siobhan Cleary from the renowned investment firm Baillie Gifford, and Daniela Barone Soares, CEO of the leading impact investment group Snowball Capital, tackle these critical questions and assess the future of ‘doing well by doing good.’
Merryn Somerset-Webb
Merryn Somerset Webb was founding editor of Moneyweek magazine in 2000. She remained at the magazine as Editor in Chief until late 2022. Merryn was also a Contributing Editor to and weekly columnist for the Financial Times until September 2022. She is currently a Senior Columnist at Bloomberg writing about wealth, investing and personal finance and hosts the 'Merryn Talks Money' podcast. Merryn is also an experienced non executive director and currently sits on the board of two listed investment trusts.
Siobhan Cleary
Siobhan is Head of ESG and joined Baillie Gifford in 2022. Her extensive career includes pivotal work with stock exchanges to enhance corporate ESG disclosure and promote broader sustainability practices. She has also worked with NGOs, UN bodies, investors, and listed companies, on topics such as biodiversity, gender equality, human rights, and climate change. Siobhan holds an MSc in Climate Change from King’s College London, an MBA from the University of Cape Town, and an MA in International Relations and Economics from Johns Hopkins University.
TICKETS FOR THE WHOLE WEEKEND
Tickets covering the entire weekend, offer access to two exciting strands this year, with a wealth of sessions to choose from.
We have three ticket types for the Weekend—Regular, Premium, and the Patron Pass—to enable you to tailor your level of participation and access.
Scroll down to select the ticket class below that best suits your desired level of engagement and exclusivity.
While we’ll do our best to accommodate everyone’s preferences, please note that all places for regular ticket holders are on a first-come, first-served basis.
We recommend arriving early to secure your spot.
Regular Tickets - £150
Access: Up to 10 of the main programme sessions
Extras: Friday-night welcome drinks in the Great Hall at Hay Castle.
Experience: Over 10 sessions, the main programme offers detailed historical perspectives and insights into a range of pressing contemporary issues. All sessions are delivered by top experts in their fields.
Premium Tickets - £285
Access: Up to 10 main programme sessions, plus 3 exclusive extra sessions with our top investment experts over breakfast and lunch.
Extras: Friday-night welcome drinks in the Great Hall at Hay Castle, plus Saturday-evening private networking drinks.
Experience: Guaranteed access to preferred sessions (Session Choices Form). Enjoy deeper insights, exclusive content, and the chance to engage further with speakers and other participants. All sessions are delivered by top experts in their fields.
Additional: Invitations to WoM London events.
Patron Pass - £1,200
A unique opportunity to engage in depth with our Weekend of Mistakes speakers.
Access: Everything included with Premium tickets.
Extras:
- Assistance in arranging travel to, and accommodation during, the weekend, if required
- Invitation to the Speakers’ Dinner (Friday night) and the Saturday evening buffet dinner with speakers
- Access to the Green Room
- Guaranteed front-row seating for all selected sessions (Session Choices Form)
- Option to have your—or your company's—name displayed on the event website
- Invitations to WoM London events and dinners
GET YOUR TICKETS TODAY!
