Plenary Speakers

Our Battle for a Better World

CASE conference participants - now is our time to make the case for education, stronger than ever before. Never has it been so easy, and never has it been so hard. Dazzling developments in technology are bringing us together, but they’re also pulling us apart, disrupting our well-worn ways of thinking about ourselves and our world. The battle for education is a fight for individuals, but also for our societies, and the way we live. Lyse is a world renowned journalist who has reported on the Arab Spring across the Middle East and North Africa and has covered all the major stories in the region for the past 20 years. Her work also has also focussed on the aftermath of major natural disasters and the impact of war on communities. Doucet has received many accolades, including a Peabody and David Bloom Award in 2010, Sony Radio Academy Award and honorary doctorates from the University of York (2011), University of St Andrews (2014), and Liverpool Hope University (2015). She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to British broadcast journalism. What disruption means to Lyse: “Disruption is—a knock or a nudge which makes us think outside the box, even throw away the box.

As Chief International Correspondent, Lyse Doucet covers events world-wide, but particularly those in and affecting the Middle East and Asia. Lyse has covered every major conflict in the region since the mid-1990s including the Arab Spring and the civil war in Syria. 

Lyse looks at what all the uncertainty might mean, and relates the risk organisations face with the sort of risks she takes to cover a story. She explains how people demonstrate reasons for hope, displaying warmth and resilience in the toughest of circumstances. 



She has received many international awards for her journalism and reporting, including Emmy, Peabody, and Sony Gold awards.

Disruption on a Global Scale: How Risk Management and Prediction Underpins the Modern World

Dr Ferngreen is the Founder and CEO of Indemnify Global Ltd – one of the world’s leading international disaster prediction, scenario-planning and insurance companies. Founded in 2002, Indemnify Global now has representatives in over 100 countries and, through its subsidiaries, is now probably the Western world’s foremost disaster mitigation agencies. Dr Ferngreen has recently led a significant expansion in Indeminfy Global’s data-analytics capacity; directing algorithmic prediction, quantum computing and power of the crowd to help nations and businesses understand risk – not just in the near future but over the coming decade.

This is one of Dr Ferngreen’s first public speaking engagements in Europe – and we are delighted that he has agreed to provide CEAC delegates with a unique insight into to how disruption management at a global scale has relevance not just to how universities approach strategy, but also to how team plan and respond to an era of almost constant change.

Dr Ferngreen will also talk about his passion for education – which has led to him establishing a virtual Chair of Fake News at the University of Canberra’s Bruce Campus in Australia.

Leading a 21st Century University

Without doubt, this is a challenging time for communicating the value of our institutions. This environment calls on leaders to be agile and strategic; compassionate and visionary; focused and collaborative. This conversation with vice-chancellors, moderated by CASE President and CEO, Sue Cunningham, will look at leadership during uncertain times. It will revisit the core purpose of our institutions as vehicles for transforming lives and society and explore how leaders choose to embrace, manage, or move through disruption depending on circumstance.

AI and the Future of Work

Working in academia, the public and private sectors, Daniel is a leading expert in artificial intelligence as well as its applications and the social, commercial, economic and ethical implications. Daniel will outline a framework for understanding data-driven decision making. He will discuss what AI is and is not, as well as identifying the future challenges and opportunities for AI. He also asks how organisations need to change their structure and how these ideas could scale to a planet. Daniel will argue why we need to embrace these emerging technologies and will discuss the philosophical and ethical issues surrounding them.