SPEECHES

I’ve given many speeches over the years, the very first in 1980 in Buenos Aires at the Anglo-Argentine Cultural Society on English 18th century theatre, bizarrely enough. I was hungry and did it in order to eat.

Next I gave a talk at Stanford University on Central America’s wars, around 1984.

Then there was a long pause (though the Stanford speech went down surprisingly well, as I recall) before I started giving talks in South Africa during the Nineties on the political situation there before various groups, from Wits University to a formidable outfit called the South African Union of Jewish Women. Then I spoke at Boston University on South Africa’s political transition.

Later, around 2005, there was a talk I gave at a Microsoft conference in Barcelona on Real Madrid’s marketing strategy (based on my book ‘White Angels’), which was particularly lucrative.

Since 2008, when my book on Nelson Mandela, ‘Playing the Enemy’, came out I have spoken before many very varied audiences in, among other places, New York, Washington, London, Barcelona, Madrid, Johannesburg, Geneva, Caracas, Ljubljana and Copenhagen. Some have been in Spanish, some in English – about half and half, I’d say.

Here are a few concrete examples of companies, institutions, places where I have given speeches or participated in panels and round tables in the last four years, mainly on Mandela-related themes, such as leadership, team-building, business strategies, reconciliation:

– Inditex (world’s largest clothes retailer, owner of Zara)

– Wilson Center, Washington (annual NGO fundraiser)

– Standard Bank (South Africa)

– IE Business School, Madrid (number 3 in Forbes world rankings; number 6 in FT rankings)

– British Museum, London (talk on Shakespeare and Mandela)

-Caracas (at major Venezuelan journalism prize-giving)

-Bogotá (to inspire Colombian politicians as peace process unfolds after 50 years of war)

– Córdoba, Argentina (annual national farmers’ union congress)

– IESE Business school in Barcelona (sixth ranked business school in the world by Financial Times) four talks May/June 2013 on “Nelson Mandela, leadership and negotiation” for IESE.

– Clifford Chance, UK Legal Firm (with Francois Pienaar)

– Puig, Spanish company that owns fashion brands Carolina Herrera, Nina Ricci, Paco Rabanne

– ISS multinational executives

– Caixa Forum

– Caixabank

– Various forums in Buenos Aires and Mendoza, Argentina