At London Business, Shri Piyush Goyal opened with a debt of gratitude to an LBS professor, Sumantra Ghoshal. The two met in December 1999, on a seven-day train journey (Palace on Wheels) across Rajasthan organised for faculty from the world’s leading business schools. Goyal, then an investment banker, was one of the few non-academics on…
In a conversation at London Business School, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Sanjay Malhotra returned repeatedly to one idea: trust. He described it as fundamental to institutions, arguing that resilience depends not only on policy frameworks, but on whether people believe in the institutions managing them. Across a wide-ranging discussion on inflation, geopolitical shocks,…
Some lives are shaped by the country one comes from. Saad Mohseni’s was shaped by the countries he did not. Born in London in 1966 to an Afghan diplomat and his wife, he turned three in Damascus, midway through his parents’ drive from England to Kabul. By the time he reached secondary school the family…
On May 21, 2026, as part of the Wheeler Institute’s Journeys series, we were delighted to welcome Saad Mohseni, founder and CEO of the Moby Group, for a conversation on entrepreneurship, leadership, and resilience in one of the world’s most complex environments. In his recent memoir, Radio Free Afghanistan, Mohseni recounts returning to Afghanistan after…
If you were asked where people borrow from for their daily consumption needs, credit cards from mega-banks seem the obvious answer. However, across the developing world where brick-and-mortar banks are often inaccessible, individuals resort to local alternatives: ‘Kiranas’ or small grocery stores. No credit scores. No collateral. No paperwork. Just a shopkeeper’s quick judgment call,…
Over the centuries, innovation has transformed our way of life, giving rise to ideas and technologies that have significantly improved societal wellbeing. At the heart of these breakthroughs are pioneers such as Thomas Edison, inventor of the light bulb; Malvin De Groote, known for discovering a chemical composition for chocolate ice cream; and Nikola Tesla,…
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…
For decades, the U.S. dollar has served as the undisputed anchor of the global financial system – the primary currency for international trade, global assets, and central bank reserves. But as the world enters an era of increasing fragmentation, is that dominance under threat? At a recent Wheeler Institute event, Kenneth Rogoff, Maurits C. Boas…
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…
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…
