Simon Baptist is Editorial Director and Chief Economist at The Economist Intelligence Unit. Prior to his current role, he has held a number of other senior management and editorial positions in the business, including Managing Director for Asia, Regional Director of our Asia editorial team, Director of Global Forecasting, and Consulting Director in both Europe and Asia

Simon’s focus is on the global economy, national and international political developments, and public policy. He engages with business, government and international organisations, helping them to understand the operational and strategic implications of the EIU’s forecasts.

He has a doctorate in economics from and was a lecturer at Oxford University, along with degrees in economics and science from the University of Tasmania. His academic research investigated technology and the determinants of productivity in manufacturing firms.

Ann Bernstein is the executive director and founder (in 1995) of CDE and a respected public policy analyst and commentator. Regularly interviewed by South Africa’s leading media, she writes thought provoking op-eds and is invited to speak to the boards of many of the country’s largest companies, and at conferences and events focused on economic growth, employment, skills and development.
She was a member of the transition team and then the board of the Development Bank of Southern Africa between 1994 and 2001, and sat on the Brenthurst Foundation board between 2007 and 2017. In 2013, she was a Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Centre, Washington, DC. In 2005, she was a fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington, DC. In 2008 and 2009, she was an invited faculty member, World Economic Forum, Davos.
She is author of The Case for Business in Developing Economies (Penguin 2010) which received favourable reviews in the South African media, the Economist, Financial Times, Forbes and elsewhere. She is the winner of the Sir Anthony Fisher Award 2012, Atlas Research Foundation, Washington DC for this book.

Cas is CEO of Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) and the former Managing Director of The Banking Association SA (BASA). He is the Chairperson of the National Business Initiative. He serves on the Board of the Centre for Development & Enterprise. He is the immediate past President of the International Banking Federation (IBFed). He serves as a Council member of the University of Witwatersrand. He is also on the board of the Nepad Business Foundation. He also serves on the Steering Committee of the CEO Initiative. Cas obtained his B. Com from the University College - Durban in 1971. He completed the Housing Finance Course with the Wharton Real Estate Centre at the University of Pennsylvania. He also completed the Effective Directors Programme with the Kagiso School of Leadership. He has contributed to numerous articles and publications on housing finance, civil society, local government and the role of civic organisations in governance.

Herman Warren is The Economist Corporate Network’s Network Director for Africa. Herman works with corporate clients to provide insight and analysis on a range of topics related to the broad and specific African context, helping clients to prosper in one of the world's fastest growing and most dynamic economic zones. He regularly chairs and moderates events and delivers custom briefings to senior executives. Herman is the author of a number of white papers on infrastructure, financial and commercial developments in the region. Herman has previously worked as a management consultant with Bain & Company, started and run a successful mobile technology company and has held senior posts in both public- and private-sector corporations. Herman holds a BBA degree in Finance from Howard University.