SPEAKER: HAMISH MCRAE

Hamish McRae is widely recognised as Europe's leading futurist. He is the author of the acclaimed work on the future "The World in 2020: Power, Culture and Prosperity" first published in 1994 and translated into more than a dozen languages, including Japanese, Korean and Chinese (two editions).

Since the publication of The World in 2020 he has been in demand world-wide as a speaker.

Hamish is also the principal economic commentator for The Independent, a columnist for Fortune, and a visiting professor at the School of Management of UMIST.

His other books include Capital City - London as a Financial Centre, co-authored with Frances Cairncross, and Wake-up Japan, co-authored with Tadashi Nakamae.

Awards include Financial Journalist of the Year in 1979, a special merit award in the first Amex Bank essay awards in 1987, and in 1996 Columnist of the Year in the Periodical Publisher's Awards.

He is a director of Gartmore British Income and Growth Trust and of Net Profit Publications. Net Profit Publications, which he helped found, is a specialist electronic publisher of information about the way the Internet is changing the business world, publishing newsletters, books and reports on the subject. Its clients include BT, Daimler-Benz, ABM-Amro Bank, National Westminster Bank, and Lloyds Bank.

His current areas of work include the economies of East Asia and the impact of the Internet on the global economy. "Wake-up Japan", published in Japanese in October 1999 by Nihon Keisai Shimbun, argues that Japan can best revitalise its economy by adopting structural reforms, and that a programme of reform is vital to the whole East Asian region.

He is currently working on a new book on the way the Internet is changing not just the business world, but also entire societies.

Hamish McRae was educated at Fettes College, Edinburgh and took an honours degree in Economics and Political Science at Trinity College, Dublin. He was deputy editor of "The Banker" and editor of "Euromoney" before becoming financial editor of "The Guardian" in 1975. In 1989 he moved to "The Independent" where he is now associate editor.

Apart from speaking all over the world, Hamish acts as Chairman for Deutsche Telekom's global conferences.

'Charisma, very flexible and innovative, Hamish is like a member of our 'family'. I can only recommend him.'
Deutsche Telekom

'Hamish was very well received by our delegates and provided us with a very interesting perspective on the future and the implications for our lives'

Axa Sun Life

'An outstanding guest speaker'

First Islamic Bank

'Good speaker - this was due to the long range outlook he presented which is different from our daily working environment'

Marks & Spencer PLC

'Hamish's feedback was very good'

Hewlett Packard

'Hamish really thought through his delivery and made the content relevant to the audience - highly enjoyable and very positive feedback from the CEO's. Well Done!'

BT