Femi Oke
Femi Oke is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, podcaster, and professional moderator.
She is the co-founder of Moderate The Panel, a bureau focused on increasing diversity among event moderators. Her broadcast career spans BBC television and radio, Sky TV, all major UK commercial TV channels, CNN, Al Jazeera, and National Public Radio in the United States.
As a moderator, she has led high-profile international events including European Development Days for the European Commission, the UN Secretary-General’s SDG Action Weekend, and the UNDP’s Annual Human Development Report.
Based in Washington, D.C., Oke spent ten years presenting The Stream, a live interactive news and current affairs programme on Al Jazeera English. She now leads the team at Moderate The Panel and continues to facilitate global events.
Nik Gowing
Nik Gowing is the founder and director of the Thinking the Unthinkable (TTU) project.
Since 2014, the initiative has examined why political and business leaders face difficulties in adapting to accelerating global disruption. TTU’s work focuses in particular on leadership challenges related to sustainability, biodiversity, the natural environment, and the climate crisis.
Between 1996 and 2014, Gowing served as principal news presenter for BBC World News, anchoring programmes including The Hub with Nik Gowing, BBC World Debates, and Dateline London. Prior to this, he spent 18 years at ITN, holding posts as bureau chief in Rome and Warsaw, and later as diplomatic editor for Channel 4 News.
He has served on the governing councils of Chatham House, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), and the Overseas Development Institute, as well as on the board of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy and the advisory council at Wilton Park. He is currently a trustee of the Hay Festival.
Gowing was previously a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Geo-Economics and acted as a leadership adviser to the President of the UN General Assembly. He has been a visiting professor at King’s College London and at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
He holds honorary doctorates from the University of Exeter and the University of Bristol, and is a Distinguished Fellow at RUSI.