Resilience Bonds: Financing Protection Before the Storm

When heavy rains once again pushed parts of Porto Alegre in Brazil underwater last year, it underscored a pattern across many emerging markets: climate shocks are arriving faster than cities can rebuild. For emerging economies, climate-related disasters can cost approximately 0.3% of GDP annually, yet nearly 70% of those economic losses remain uninsured [1]. Floods…

Guns and Butter – Public Policy in the Age of Innovation. A conversation with Philippe Aghion, 2025 Nobel Laureate of Economics

Artificial intelligence, technological disruption, and geopolitical instability are reshaping the policy landscape. In an era defined by overlapping economic and technological transitions, governments face renewed questions about prioritisation: how should states balance immediate social pressures (“butter”) with longer-term strategic and security demands (“guns”)? The Wheeler Institute for Business and Development was delighted to host Philippe…

Democratising Corporate Governance: How to Implement Shareholder Assemblies

For over half a century, the doctrine of shareholder primacy has offered a simple moral compass for corporate executives: make as much money as possible. Popularised by Milton Friedman in his seminal 1970 New York Times article, the theory posits that by maximising profits within the bounds of law and custom, companies maximise social welfare.…

Europe, Greece, and Geopolitics in a Fragmenting World with George A. Papandreou

The Wheeler Institute had the pleasure of welcoming the former prime minister of Greece and current member of parliament, George A. Papandreou. Leveraging on his experience serving in public office and in diplomacy, Papandreou’s insights were timely given the current state of the world in which many countries seem to be more divided than they…

AI for Africa: Harnessing AI for jobs, growth and investment

Artificial intelligence is reshaping labour markets worldwide. For African economies, where more than 20 million young people will enter the workforce each year between now and 2050, the stakes are especially high. The Wheeler Institute for Business and Development, DFS Lab, and the LBS Data Science and AI Initiative recently held a panel discussion that…

Leapfrogging Healthcare: Digital Health & AI in Resource-Limited Settings

Artificial intelligence (AI) and digital tools are often presented as the future of healthcare. But for countries such as Nigeria and South Africa, the question is more urgent: can these technologies help address today’s gaps in access, quality, and affordability? With the support of Wheeler Institute for Business and Development, London Business School Health Club…

Leadership with Purpose in a Time of Transformation: A Conversation with the President of Iceland

London Business School was honoured to welcome President of Iceland, Halla Tómasdóttir, for a conversation on what leadership with purpose means today. Drawing on her career spanning both the private and public sectors, she argues that in a world facing a cross-sector and cross-generation trust crisis, leadership can no longer be driven from a single…

Nigeria’s Reform Pathway: Steering Stability Amid Transformation

In partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria and with support from J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, the Wheeler Institute for Business and Development at London Business School welcomed Olayemi Cardoso, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), for an in-depth conversation with Professor Hélène Rey, Lord Bagri Professor of Economics at LBS. A recording…