Stephen Heidari-Robinson was a leader within McKinsey & Company’s Organization Practice, where he focused on energy clients and the practical implementation of reorganizations across all sectors. His work at McKinsey took him to the caravansaries of Azerbaijan, the deserts of Saudi Arabia, the megacity of Mumbai, the sewage treatment works of London, and the offices in Wichita, Kansas. Stephen has also seen organizations and reorgs from the other side: as an official in the UK Ministry of Defence, as the corporate head of a charity (Asia House), as a private equity analyst, as a vice president at Schlumberger, and, most recently, as UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s advisor on energy and environment. Stephen read history (with a focus on architecture and political thought) at Oxford and the University of London, and also found time to place third in England in five thousand-meter freestyle swimming. He is a fluent Farsi speaker. He is supported by his lovely wife, Neggin, who helps him make up for his lack of personal organizational skills.
Suzanne Heywood is Managing Director, Exor Group, and sits on the boards of a number of companies, including The Economist Group and CNH Industrial, and is Deputy Chair of the Royal Opera House. From age seven to seventeen, she sailed around the world on a seventy-foot schooner called Wavewalker, during which time she educated herself largely by correspondence. After that she negotiated her way into university and followed that with a career that began in the UK Treasury, then at McKinsey & Company, and more recently at Exor. At McKinsey she co-led, for several years, the firm’s Organization Design service line globally, and personally led McKinsey’s support to more than fifteen major reorganizations in companies across different sectors. Suzanne is passionate about opera, ballet, and the visual arts, perhaps having not been able to experience them as a child. As a result, she has been involved for many years in helping arts institutions in the UK be more effective, both commercially and organizationally. She is the proud mother of three wonderful children, is writing a book about her childhood on Wavewalker, and still loves to travel.