Paul Polman
Former CEO, Unilever; Sustainable & Responsible Business Leader
Sustainable Business, Capital, and Technology Speaker
Taking a wide ranging look at both the challenges and opportunities leaders face, Marga explores everything from supply chains and resource scarcity to geopolitics, climate and technology. Looking at how global organisations have evolved, she asks fundamental questions about strategic autonomy, sustainable investment and new business models.
Marga Hoek is a business leader, thinker and bestselling author who examines the forces reshaping business and the global economy. She brings a distinctive perspective on how technology, geopolitics, resource scarcity, supply chains, strategic autonomy, sustainable investment and innovation are collectively changing markets, business models and competitive positions. She explores the complexities leaders now need to consider and how companies are responding to a new era where business sovereignty and strategic resilience have become essential competitive concerns.
Through a global research platform and extensive network of leaders, investors and innovators, Marga identifies emerging business models, trends and pioneering companies across continents. She considers how organisations can translate global and commercial changes into meaningful opportunities for growth. She explores the intersection of technology, innovation, geopolitical transition and investment strategy, demonstrating through real business cases how companies are adapting their models, supply chains and capital strategies in response to new pressures and opportunities. Her perspective spans AI and advanced technologies, sustainable investment, resource management and the shift towards greater strategic autonomy in global business.
Marga is the author of Tech For Good: Imagine Solving the World’s Greatest Challenges, examining how technology could tackle fundamental challenges from climate and ecological change to inequality, balancing purpose with new markets and opportunities. In The Trillion Dollar Shift, she looks at how the UN's Sustainable Development Goals present commercial opportunities across sectors, building on idea from her first book, New Economy Business, which highlighted how business, sustainability and innovation could create impact. She also contributes to major international publications including the Financial Times and MIT Technology Review, and speaks at international forums including G20 and COP summits, global leadership conferences and Fortune 500 boardrooms.
Marga has held three CEO roles across private and public organisations, and has served as Chairman of the Dutch Sustainable Business Association. She has extensive experience as an international board member, advisor and investor, working with governments, multinational institutions and companies from startups to global investment firms. Recognised by Thinkers50 as one of the world's top 30 management thinkers, Marga draws on boardroom and CEO experience to identify how seemingly separate developments interact and reshape competitive advantage.
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