Speakers

Thomas Friang is the Executive Director of the ESSEC Institute for Geopolitics & Business, where he leads research, graduate, and executive education initiatives on how companies can anticipate and manage geopolitical shocks to their business models.

Before joining ESSEC Business School, he served as advisor to the French Minister for Development and International Partnerships.

He is also the founder of the Open Diplomacy Institute, a non-partisan think tank working on policy and leadership responses to the polycrisis preventing the UN from achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Thomas created and chaired the Y20 Summit in 2011 under the G20, and the Y7 Summit in 2019 under the G7. His leadership in multilateral engagement has been recognized internationally: he was named an SDG Goalkeeper by the Gates Foundation in 2023 and selected as a Young Leader of the Aspen Institute France in 2024.