Something to talk about

Global Finance, Dec 1997/Jan 1998 by Moline, Julie

Public speaking is an art, quoth Aristotle. So, too, is choosing a speaker for a business conference. We canvassed three leading speaker's bureaus for orators geared to an international business or finance audience. But don't expect these guys to come cheap. Keynoters in this group are in the $15,000-50,000+ range per engagement.

We've divided our picks into three groups: political analysts, business/economic practitioners, and futurists and generalists. But to get into this elite assembly each speaker defies such narrow classifications.

GLOBAL POLITICAL ANALYSTS

1 Mikhail Gorbachev. The politico turned Nobel Peace Prize winner skillfully addresses the political landscape in Russia and Eastern Europe. He also specializes in international leadership and ecological law.

2 Malcolm Rifkind. A former British foreign secretary, Rifkind dazzles on global business affairs, particularly the European Union and economic prospects in emerging markets.

3 Richard C. Holbrooke. A shuttle diplomat in the Henry Kissinger mode, Holbrooke has been US ambassador to Germany as well as US assistant secretary of state for European and Canadian affairs and for East Asian and Pacific affairs. Now vice chairman of CS First Boston, he holds forth on the interdependence of foreign affairs and international politics.

PRACTITIONERs

4 Howard Stringer. As president of Sony Corporation of America, Stringer oversees global strategy for Sony's three US divisions: music, electronics, and movies and television. He's eloquent on the subjects of communications, distribution, managed competition, and reengineering.

5 Rene Cortazar. Now president of Chile's public TV network, Cortazar earned kudos for his striking success as Chile's minister of labor and social security. His framework for privatizing the social security system remains a model for developed and developing countries alike.

6 Kenneth Courtis. Chief strategist and first vice president of Deutsche Bank's Capital Markets Asia Group, Courtis is the best-known foreign economist working in Japan and a world voice on East Asia and the former Soviet bloc countries.

FUTURISTS AND GENERALISTS

7 Kenichi Ohmae. Author of The End of the Nation State: The Rise of Regional Economies, the Stanford professor traces how the world economy is becoming virtually borderless. A management consultant wunderkind (he was chairman of McKinsey's Japanese offices and published the best-selling The Mind of the Strategist before he was 30), Ohmae advises governments and multinationals on global competitiveness in the 21st century.

8 Nuala Beck. Economic futurist and consultant Beck is credited with identifying the technology-driven "new economy" and helping companies position themselves to profit from the world's fastest, most intense period of change ever. Author of the best-selling Shifting Gears, she is soon to publish Excelerate: Growing in the New Economy.

9 Michael Boskin. Chairman of the US Consumer Price Index Commission, as well as a former professor of economics at Stanford and chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, Boskin is known for trenchant analysis of the confluence of technology and demographics.

10 Larry King. As host of CNN's Larry King Live, King has rubbed shoulders with more politicians, celebrities, and blackguards than even Sir David Frost, who coincidentally is handled by the same speaker's bureau. King, whose off-the-cuff remarks are pure stand-up, works especially well following intense working sessions. -Julie Moline