The effect of a country’s national image on the brands based there and the economy as a whole is now widely acknowledged. In a global marketplace, it is one of the most important assets of any state, encouraging inward investment, adding value to exports and attracting tourists.
2015 sees fDi magazine become the official publication partner of the Brand Finance Nation Brands report. To celebrate this fact, this year's forum will have a particular focus on the ways a nation brand can be used to attract inward investment. The results of the 2015 Brand Finance Nation Brands report, our analysis of the value and strength of the world's top 100 nation brands, will also be revealed.
Join us as we explore this fascinating topic with speakers who can share first hand experience from academic, journalistic, brand-expert and diplomatic standpoints.
Diplomats
Investors
Marketers
Investor Relations Practitioners
Finance Directors
Nation Branding Authorities
NGOs
Academics
15:30 - Registration
16:00 - Introduction
16:10 - Daniel Mulhall, Irish Ambassador to the UK
16:30 - Aytuğ Göksu, Commercial Counsellor at the Turkish Embassy in London
16:50 - Q&A session
17:00 - Courtney Fingar, Editor, fDi magazine
17:20 - Nicholas Niggli, Head of the Economic, Finance, Science and Innovation Section,
Swiss Embassy in the UK
17:40 - Q&A session
18:00 - David Haigh, CEO, Brand Finance
18:20 - Networking drinks
20:00 - Event concludes
David is the Chairman and CEO of Brand Finance Plc – the world’s leading brand valuation consultancy. He has worked in the area of branded business, brand, and intangible asset valuation since 1991. He specialised entirely in the field after becoming the Director of Brand Valuation for Interbrand in 1995. He subsequently left Interbrand in 1996 to launch Brand Finance which is celebrating 25 years in business this year.
David represented the British Standards Institution in the working parties responsible for crafting international industry standards: ISO 10668 on Brand Valuation in 2010 and ISO 20671 on Brand Evaluation in 2019.
David is a passionate writer and has authored many articles on brand valuation, published in numerous marketing and finance newspapers and magazines, such as: Financial Times, Accountancy Age, and Marketing Week. He has also lectured on the topic of brand valuation for Harvard, Chicago, and London Business Schools.
David graduated from Bristol University with an English degree, qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse in London, and obtained a postgraduate diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM). He is a Fellow of The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and has a practising certificate with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).
In 2005, he joined the Ministry of Economy. Having worked on standards and trade including the technical harmonisation of the Turkish telecommunications sector with the EU and bilateral and multilateral commercial relations, he was appointed as the Chief of Cabinet to the Undersecretary in 2011. Since he took office in London in August 2014, he has been responsible for trade and investment relations between Turkey and the UK.
Mr. Goksu holds a B.A. in International Relations from Ankara University and an MPA from Woodrow Wilson School of International and Public Affairs at Princeton University.
Born in Waterford, Ireland in April 1955, Daniel Mulhall joined the Department of Foreign Affairs of Ireland in 1978 and has held positions in the Department’s Economic, Political, Development Cooperation and Press Sections. He has had diplomatic postings in New Delhi, Vienna, Brussels (EU), Edinburgh (Consul General of Ireland in Scotland).
Between 2001 and 2005, he was Ireland’s Ambassador to Malaysia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. In August 2005, he was appointed Director-General of the European Union Division at the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin. Prior to his appointment in London he was Ireland’s Ambassador in Berlin between 2009 and 2013.
Among his interests are Irish history and literature, on which he has published many articles and a book, A New Day Dawning: a Portrait of Ireland in 1900 (Cork, 1999).
Courtney Fingar is the editor-in-chief of fDi Magazine, a specialist publication from the Financial Times, and the head of content for its associated data division, fDi Intelligence. In her role she oversees all elements of editorial production for the bimonthly magazine and its website, as well as editorial outputs for fDi Intelligence. She is also the presenter for the ‘fDi On Location’ video series.
A trained journalist, she interviews political and business leaders at the highest levels about economic and investment issues, and has covered business stories in all major regions of the world. She is a popular panellist and moderator at international economic gatherings and has appeared on television and radio in dozens of countries as a commentator on international investment.
Before joining fDi in 2004, she served as the editor of Trade & Forfaiting Review, a London-based magazine focusing on trade finance. She worked previously in Washington, DC.
Nicholas C. Niggli currently heads the Economic, Finance, Science and Innovation Section at the Embassy of Switzerland in the UK and serves as Chairman of the Association of Economic Representatives in London (AERL – aerlondon.org.uk), the capital’s premier diplomatic network for economic and commercial attachés. In parallel, Nicholas lectures on policy making, global governance, leadership and negotiation dynamics at the Graduate Institute of International & Development Studies in Geneva.
Before his arrival in London, Nicholas was part of Switzerland’s Trade Diplomacy team at the WTO. Nicholas was Vice-Chairman of the Task Force for the organisation of the 2009 and 2011 WTO Ministerial Conferences. From 2007 to 2012, he was Chairman of the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), leading and successfully concluding negotiations at ministerial level to improve internationally agreed disciplines for this key world economy sector in 2011. Nicholas holds 1st Class Honours Masters Degrees in Economic History & International Relations.