2023 Speakers

Dame Carolyn Fairbairn DBE

Business Leader

Dame Carolyn is an experienced business leader who from 2015 to 2020 was Director General of the Confederation of British Industry.

An economist by training, Carolyn spent her early career with the World Bank then as a journalist at The Economist, where she was one of the founding writers for the paper’s Finance section. In 1988 she joined McKinsey, where she became a partner and leader of its UK media practice. From 1995-1997, Carolyn was a member of Prime Minister John Major’s Number 10 Policy Unit in Downing Street, leading on health policy.

As BBC Director of Strategy from 2000-2004, she led the BBC’s digital strategy and launched Freeview. From 2007-2010, Carolyn was Strategy Director at ITV, where she helped lead the broadcaster through the 2008 advertising crash and develop its diversification strategy into content production.