Speaking & interviews
The experience to speak with authority. The curiosity to ask better questions.
Vikas Shah MBE DL is an entrepreneur with multiple exits, an investor and a board director. He is also the founder of Thought Economics, through which he has interviewed more than 600 influential figures across business, science, culture and public life. His keynotes and conversations connect the practical realities of building and leading organisations with ideas from far beyond the boardroom. Available for keynote speaking, live interviews, conference chairing and broadcast or podcast appearances.
TEDx Manchester · NASDAQ MarketSite, New York
Interviews
Two ways to put Vikas in the conversation.
Interview Vikas
A business-builder, investor and board director with a wide-ranging view of leadership, entrepreneurship and society. Vikas is available for broadcast, podcast and editorial interviews on building and selling businesses, leadership under pressure, governance, technology and the human side of success.
Book Vikas as your interviewer or moderator
Drawing on years of in-depth conversations for Thought Economics, Vikas brings preparation, curiosity and informed challenge to live interviews and panel discussions. For organisers who want a conversation that gets beyond familiar talking points.
Topics
What he speaks about.
Every talk is built for the audience in the room. These are the themes Vikas returns to most.
Building, scaling and exiting
The decisions that turn a business into something valuable, and the realities behind growth, acquisitions and an eventual exit. Lessons from more than 25 years building and leading companies, including what success asks of the founder along the way.
For
Founders, owner-managers, scale-up leadership teams, investor and adviser communities.
The room leaves with
- —How to tell a business that is growing from one that is merely getting bigger.
- —The choices that strengthen a business and its exit options long before a sale.
- —What an exit actually asks of the founder, before, during and after.
Keynote, 30 to 45 minutes; or fireside, 45 minutes.
Leadership when the stakes are high
How leaders make decisions when the information is incomplete and the consequences are real. A candid perspective on uncertainty, responsibility, trust and maintaining judgement through sustained pressure.
For
Senior leadership teams, management conferences, leadership development programmes.
The room leaves with
- —A practical model for deciding under uncertainty when the data will not arrive in time.
- —How to communicate bad news to staff, customers and lenders while keeping their trust.
- —Protecting your own judgement, and health, through a sustained crisis.
Keynote, 30 to 45 minutes; or workshop, 90 minutes.
What effective boards do differently
Governance that improves decisions, not simply the paperwork. Drawing on commercial, regulatory and government board experience, Vikas explores constructive challenge, risk appetite, assurance and the relationship between boards and executive teams.
For
Boards, non-executive directors, audit and risk committees, governance professionals, regulators.
The room leaves with
- —The questions a well-run audit and risk committee asks, and the ones it should stop asking.
- —How to set risk appetite so that it changes decisions rather than sitting in a document.
- —What public accountability teaches about governance in private companies.
Keynote, 30 minutes; board briefing, 60 to 90 minutes.
AI, innovation and the decisions facing leaders
What leaders need to understand about AI beyond the headlines: business models, governance, risk and the challenge of turning technology into a sustainable business. Perspectives from investment, advisory work and board roles in technology and regulation.
For
Professional services firms, regulators, technology and investment conferences, executive education.
The room leaves with
- —Where AI genuinely changes a business model and where it is only a productivity tool.
- —The regulatory and governance questions leaders should ask about AI.
- —The governance questions every board should be able to answer about its own use of AI.
Keynote, 30 to 45 minutes; panel or fireside.
What remarkable people teach us about success
What changes when you ask exceptional people how they think, rather than simply what they have achieved? Drawing on more than 600 Thought Economics conversations with Nobel laureates, founders, artists, athletes and heads of state, Vikas explores ambition, judgement, creativity and the different meanings of a successful life.
For
Conferences and summits, corporate events, universities, book festivals and general audiences.
The room leaves with
- —The habits of thought shared by people who have shaped their fields.
- —Why the most useful ideas tend to come from outside your industry.
- —How to hold a conversation that changes what both people think.
Keynote, 30 to 60 minutes; ideal as a closing session.
Success, pressure and mental health
An honest personal account of depression, recovery and the pressures that can accompany achievement. The subject of his TEDx talk, viewed more than 110,000 times. Vikas draws on his own experience to explore openness, support and why a successful career is not a substitute for wellbeing.
For
Leadership teams, wellbeing programmes, professional bodies, founder communities, universities.
The room leaves with
- —What depression and anxiety look like from the inside of a high-performing career.
- —What helped, what did not, and how to tell the difference.
- —How leaders can make it safe for their people to speak, starting with themselves.
Keynote, 20 to 40 minutes; or in-conversation.
Formats
On stage, on air, in the chair.
Keynote
A focused talk shaped around the audience, event theme and desired discussion.
Fireside conversation
Vikas as the guest, discussing entrepreneurship, leadership and the ideas behind his work.
Live interviewer
A researched, substantive conversation with your featured guest.
Conference chair or moderator
Connecting sessions, testing ideas and keeping the discussion relevant to the audience.
Broadcast, podcast and editorial
Interviews and commentary on business, leadership, governance, technology and society.
Selected events & speaking engagements
TEDx Manchester · The Economist · NASDAQ · Meta · TCS · Cambridge Judge Business School · Coutts · Venturefest · Manchester Digital · Insider Media · Business Masters · GovTech Transfer
Selected media appearances
BBC · Sky News · Financial Times · The Economist · Harvard Business Review · Business Live
Teaching & academic experience
Alliance Manchester Business School · University of Salford · Lancaster University Management School · The Lisbon MBA, delivered with MIT Sloan
Conversations he draws on, through Thought Economics
Sir Richard Branson · Maya Angelou · Usain Bolt · Sheryl Sandberg · Matthew McConaughey · Bear Gryllsand 600 more.
Watch
Vikas on stage and in conversation.
Selected talks and interviews on entrepreneurship, leadership, governance and the human side of achievement.
Featured · TEDxManchester
How to Save Your Own Life
A personal talk about a life-changing crisis and the decade-long journey of recovery that followed. Viewed more than 110,000 times.
Boards & governance
How Frameworks Create High-Impact Boards
Making boards more effective: performance indicators, feedback channels with CEOs and founders, and lessons from the boardroom.
Enter the Boardroom, with Oliver Cummings
Entrepreneurship
“People think being a CEO is all glamorous; it’s not”
Starting businesses as a teenager, buying and building his father’s textiles company, and what running a family business teaches about resilience and change.
Greater Manchester’s Greatest Minds
Entrepreneurship
I Started a Business at 14 to Pay for Flying Lessons, and Lost It All
Starting at 14, growing it, losing it and rebuilding. The personal challenges behind early success, later ventures and the MBE.
The Money Game
Leadership
Getting Back to Business: Leadership and Entrepreneurship
Leadership lessons from building businesses since his teens and from interviewing some of the world’s most successful people.
KJG LLP
Leadership
UoMStories: Professor Vikas Shah
Speaking to 400 PhD students in Whitworth Hall on entrepreneurship, business and what comes next.
The University of Manchester · 2019
Purpose & society
The Role of Capitalism in Society: An Entrepreneur’s Perspective
Capitalism and the role of entrepreneurship in society, drawing on the interviews behind Thought Economics.
TBI Podcast, with Ninder Johal
Purpose & society
Knowing Your Values and Finding Your Purpose
Discovering purpose, aligning personal and organisational values, and why speaking openly about depression helped others.
In conversation with Jeff Dewing
Entrepreneurship
On Entrepreneurship, Investment, Philanthropy and Business
The pressure that comes with honours, entrepreneurship as a buzzword, and what makes a life valuable.
Thinking Deepa
Purpose & society
Ideas or Problems: How Creativity Creates Peace in Offices and War Zones
How creativity contributes to peace, from the workplace to the conflict zones where In Place of War operates.
Pecan Partnership, with Andy Loveless
Mental health
Why Therapy Can Make You Better at Your Job
Anxiety and depression across an entrepreneurial career, and how that journey shaped an approach to leadership.
Harvard Business Review, The Anxious Achiever with Morra Aarons-Mele
Mental health
Breaking the Grind: Mental Health and Entrepreneurial Success
Challenging grind culture, prioritising wellbeing, seeking professional support, and lessons from non-profit work.
In conversation with Emma Mills
Mental health
On His Personal Mental Health Battle
Separating work from life, the cultural pressures behind overwork, and the importance of open conversations about mental health.
The University of Manchester
Videos are embedded from YouTube and load only when you press play.
Gallery
Selected stages.
How to Save Your Own Life
Photograph: Fiona Finchett
Entrepreneurship and music, for Coutts
Speaker at The Economist's MENA conference
Building, losing and rebuilding it all, at the NASDAQ Center
Broadcast interview on the conference floor
The digital future and creativity
Teaching the next generation of business leaders
Master of Change
Modern leadership frameworks
At the NASDAQ MarketSite
Innovation and entrepreneurship
Speaking at the DAYA Shine Gala
Collaborate, innovate, accelerate
Judging at the NASDAQ MarketSite
Innovation and entrepreneurship
Booking
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