Margrethe Vestager, executive vice president of the European Commission; and Laurence Boone, chief economist of the OECD, are among the latest speakers to join the third edition of the FT’s Global Boardroom event in May.
Vestager, the EU’s competition chief and head of digital policy, warned Big Tech companies in January that they must cooperate with Brussels and its approach to regulation if they want to avoid “a completely fragmented European legal system”.
The third edition of the Global Boardroom will take place virtually across May 4, 5 and 6, featuring live-streamed discussions and interviews on topics such as climate change, trade and geopolitics, and the future of tourism.
In an exclusive interview with the FT’s EU correspondent Javier Espinoza on May 6, Vestager will discuss her plans to create a fairer playing field for tech companies in Europe and to make online platforms more accountable for their content.
A year on from the first event – which focused on how to address the immediate challenges of the pandemic – the May edition is an opportunity for FT journalists and leading figures in policy, business and finance to assess the practical steps to build a resilient, sustainable recovery, and to develop strategies to support future growth and competitiveness.
The OECD’s Laurence Boone will join Olivier Blanchard, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and Jason Furman – a Harvard professor who served as chief economic adviser to US president Barack Obama – to discuss the latest global economic outlook with the FT’s chief economics commentator Martin Wolf.
Governments and central banks have rolled out unprecedented stimulus measures to support economies battered by the pandemic, and Boone has called for this to continue, arguing that fresh austerity measures or tax rises would risk a popular backlash.
Other speakers joining in May include: Julia Gillard, chair of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London and former prime minister of Australia; Johan Lundgren, chief executive of Easyjet; and João Doria, governor of São Paulo.
More than 62,000 people tuned in from 142 countries to watch the second edition of the Global Boardroom in November, which featured speakers including Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada; Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England; Carmen Reinhart, Chief Economist of the World Bank; and John Williams, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.