George D. TSOPELAS

Chairman at McKinsey & Company, Greece & Cyprus

George D. Tsopelas is the Chairman of McKinsey & Company, Greece & Cyprus. He joined McKinsey in 1994 in London and has worked extensively in the banking, insurance, energy and industrial sectors as well as in the areas of public policy and economic development in Europe, Middle East and Africa.

He has led McKinsey's seminal "Greece 10 Years Ahead" work which determined Greece's economic development and growth strategy overall and across 14 economic sectors. More recently, he led "Net Zero Greece" which defines the economically optimal path for Greece to achieve its 2030 and 2050 emission reduction targets.

George holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. His undergraduate studies include a BSc in Economics & Econometrics and a BSc in Business Administration.  

Neil PEARSE

Partner at McKinsey & Company

Neil Pearse is the European leader of Aberkyn, McKinsey's specialist unit for change and leadership development. He is sought after as a top team facilitator and executive coach, supporting his work in organizational transformation.

Neil has been helping clients with large-scale transformation programs for over thirty years. He leads projects globally and across a wide range of industry sectors, including oil and gas upstream and downstream, energy supply, life sciences, steel manufacturing, construction materials, and banking and real estate. While living in London, he has in the past decade served major clients based in the UK, Italy, Spain and Germany, as well as in the United States, South Africa, Russia, South Africa and Mexico. His clients range from tech start-ups to long-established organizations.

Neil has been leading the development and application of McKinsey/Aberkyn's thinking on the five shifts in leaders and organizations. His work now primarily focuses on supporting clients to embed the shifts to accelerate their transformations, and for the last 18 months he has supported a global science-based corporate to implement the five shifts across a network of hundreds of teams.



Neil taught Philosophy at Oxford University, and has trained in psychoanalysis in Cambridge, Massachusetts and in London. He was personally mentored (and influenced) by renowned organizational thought leaders Chris Argyris and David Kantor. 

Thomas KOLSTER

"Mr. Goodvertising", Post Purpose Preacher, Marketing & Sustainability Advisor, International Keynote Speaker and Author

Thomas Kolster is a frontrunner and one of the most recognised thinkers globally where marketing, business and sustainability meet. He has written two books Goodvertising (Thames & Hudson 2012) and The Hero Trap (Taylor and Francis, 2020). With his first book Kolster popularised the term Goodvertising to describe advertising delivering positive environmental or societal benefits. With his second book he forewarned about a post-purpose market, where people don't buy your values or your "why", but rather who you can help them become. He continuously challenges the status-quo with his vocal, and often provocative, views on values, purpose, and leadership.

Thomas is an international keynote speaker who has featured in over 80 countries for companies like Meta, adidas, P&G, and IKEA, to conferences like TEDx, SWSW and Advertising Week. As the founder of the Goodvertising Agency, he advises Fortune 500 companies, start-ups, non-profits and governments on more creative strategic approaches to brand and business impact. His pen rarely rests as he writes for the likes of The Guardian, Ad Age, and Adweek. Monthly, Thomas joins Adage's podcast Purpose Hits and Misses taking a critical look at global purpose campaigns. Together with climate solutions platform, We don't have time, he runs a streaming show called Climate Punk, where he interviews diverse people in the climate space.

Thomas continues to drive industry change through his active participation in leading forums, such as The International Advertising Association's Sustainability Council, D&AD's Impact Council and Act Responsible. He helps to promote best practice as go-to judge of top award shows such as Cannes Lions and D&AD.

Thomas is also an eager entrepreneur and has launched impact platforms such as Projector, WhereGoodGrows and ImpactPimp because his belief is simple: Change begins with you!