Preston Keat

• Managing Director and Head of Political and Country Risk, UBS London

Preston Keat is a managing director and head of political and country risk at UBS. His team focuses on economic, geopolitical and policy analysis, country ratings and exposure limits, stress-scenario development, and climate change forecasting. He also leads the firm’s internal "Economist Forum" and “Risk Think Tank.”

Prior to joining UBS, Preston worked for ten years at the political risk consultancy, Eurasia Group, where he was a research director, head of the Europe practice, and a member of the management committee. He is co-author of The Fat Tail: The Power of Political Knowledge for Strategic Investing (Oxford, 2009). He holds a Ph.D. from UCLA, an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics, and a B.A. from the College of William and Mary.

Wendy Thomas

• CEO, Secureworks
• MIBS '98

As CEO, Wendy Thomas leads Secureworks to fulfill our purpose of securing human progress via innovative, battle-tested security solutions. She first joined Secureworks in 2008 leading Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), where she helped to execute strategic acquisitions that scaled the business and Secureworks' IPO in 2016. As Strategy lead and Chief Product Officer, she developed the vision for Secureworks' future, fueling the team that built and launched Secureworks® Taegis™. Prior to becoming CEO, Wendy served as President of Customer Success, where she drove a customer-centric approach to help organizations achieve better security outcomes. In this role, Wendy was recognized in the number one position in The Software Report's "Top 25 Women Leaders in Cybersecurity of 2021." 

Wendy leverages over 25 years of experience in strategic and functional leadership roles, and has worked across multiple technology-driven companies such as FirstData, BellSouth, and Internap Network Services, Inc. Wendy is a graduate of the University of Virginia, with a double major in Economics and Foreign Affairs, and she holds an International MBA from the University of South Carolina School of Business. 

Wendy currently serves on the Board at IonQ, an industry leader in quantum computing. Additionally, she serves as a Liaison for AFS Intercultural Programs, an international youth exchange organization, and is a member of The Executive Committee of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. Wendy is an alumna of Leadership Midtown Atlanta, a program designed to propel established leaders to further serve their communities.

Bill Browder

• Founder and CEO of Hermitage Capital Management
• Head of the Global Magnitsky Justice campaign
• Author of Red Notice and Freezing Order

William Browder was the largest foreign investor in Russia until 2005, when he was denied entry to the country and declared “a threat to national security” for exposing corruption in Russian state-owned companies.

In 2008, Mr. Browder’s lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, uncovered a massive fraud committed by Russian government officials that involved the theft of US $230 million of state taxes. Sergei testified against state officials involved in this fraud and was subsequently arrested, imprisoned without trial and systematically tortured. He spent a year in prison under horrific detention conditions, was repeatedly denied medical treatment, and died in prison on November 16, 2009, leaving behind a wife and two children.

Since then, Mr. Browder has sought justice outside of Russia and started a global campaign for governments around the world to impose targeted visa bans and asset freezes on human rights abusers and highly corrupt officials. The United States was the first to impose these targeted sanctions with the passage of the Sergei Magnitsky Accountability Act in 2012, followed by the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act in 2016.

Since then, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Baltic states, the European Union and most recently Australia have passed their own versions of the Magnitsky Act. Mr. Browder is currently working to have similar legislation passed in other countries worldwide including New Zealand and Japan, to name a few.

Eleanor Beardsley

• MIBS '92
• 2024 Distinguished Alumni Award Winner
• Lead NPR European Correspondent

Eleanor Beardsley began reporting from France for NPR in 2004 as a freelance journalist, following all aspects of French society, politics, economics, culture and gastronomy. Since then, she has steadily worked her way to become a leading correspondent for NPR in Europe, including leading the coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine from the frontlines in February 2022.

Beardsley was an active part of NPR's coverage of terrorist attacks in Paris and in Brussels. She has also followed the migrant crisis, traveling to meet and report on arriving refugees in Hungary, Austria, Germany, Sweden and France. She has covered the turmoil in Ukraine from early on, including the flashpoint eastern city of Donetsk, and she also reported from Athens on the Greek debt crisis.

In 2011, Beardsley covered the first Arab Spring revolution in Tunisia, where she witnessed the overthrow of the autocratic President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. Since then, she has returned to the North African country many times.

In France, Beardsley has covered three presidential elections, including the surprising win by outsider Emmanuel Macron in 2017. Less than two years later, Macron's presidency was severely tested by France's Yellow vest movement, which Beardsley followed closely.

Beardsley especially enjoys historical topics and has covered several anniversaries of the Normandy D-day invasion as well as the centennial of World War I.

In sports, Beardsley closely covered the Women's World Soccer Cup held in France in June 2019 (and won by Team USA!) and regularly follows the Tour de France cycling race.

Prior to moving to Paris, Beardsley worked for three years with the United Nations Mission in Kosovo. She also worked as a television news producer for French broadcaster TF1 in Washington, D.C., and as a staff assistant to South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond.

Reporting from France for Beardsley is the fulfillment of a lifelong passion for the French language and culture. At the age of 10 she began learning French by reading the Asterix the Gaul comic book series with her father.

While she came to the field of radio journalism relatively late in her career, Beardsley says her varied background, studies and travels prepared her for the job. "I love reporting on the French because there are so many stereotypes about them in America," she says. "Sometimes it's fun to dispel the false notions and show a different side of the Gallic character. And sometimes the old stereotypes do hold up. But whether Americans love or hate France and the French, they're always interested!"

A native of South Carolina, Beardsley has a Bachelor of Arts in European history and French from Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, and a master's degree in International Business from the University of South Carolina.

Beardsley is interested in politics, travel and observing foreign cultures. Her favorite cities are Paris and Istanbul.