Semafor Unveils 450 Top Global CEOs and Government Leaders for Semafor World Economy 2026

Speakers include White House NEC Director Kevin Hassett, Anthropic Co-Founder Jack Clark, Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, Senior White House AI Advisor Sriram Krishnan, Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing, Bank of France Governor François Villeroy de Galhau, Honeywell CEO Vimal Kapur, Barclays CEO C.S. Venkatakrishnan, Senator Mark Kelly, White House Cyber Director Sean Cairncross, Iberdrola CEO Pedro Azagra, Senator Rick Scott, Lilly CEO David Ricks, Lazard CEO Peter Orszag, and more

WASHINGTON, March 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Semafor today announced a new slate of CEOs and global leaders joining the 2026 Annual Convening of Semafor World Economy, the definitive live journalism platform on the new world economy, with confirmations from senior government officials and chief executives continuing to come in ahead of the April 13–17 convening in Washington, DC. The speakers and participants comprise a global cohort of more than 450 CEOs and government leaders from across every sector spanning the G20 economies — including US Cabinet secretaries, central bank governors, finance ministers, and the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies — at a scale that makes it the largest convening of top global CEOs and government officials in the United States.

Held in Washington during the week of the IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings, Semafor World Economy uniquely unites private and public sector leaders to exchange ideas that will shape the future of the world economy.

The agenda for the 2026 Annual Convening is powered by Semafor's newsroom — bringing the same rigor, curiosity, and global perspective that defines Semafor journalism — across five themes: navigating complexity in AI, geopolitics, and trade; seeing into the future of health, biotech, and emerging technologies; constructing new networks in digital assets, mobility, and infrastructure; driving human aspiration through education, workforce, and culture; and powering change through energy, innovation, and sustainability. The 2026 Annual Convening program can be found here.

More than 450 top global CEOs will take part in Semafor World Economy; today's announced group joins a distinguished roster of chief executives, investors, and other private-sector leaders already confirmed. The full list of speakers can be found here.

Speakers include:

Kevin Hassett –– Director, National Economic Council, White House

Ken Griffin — Founder & CEO, Citadel

Sriram Krishnan — Senior Policy Advisor for Artificial Intelligence, White House

Steve Daines — Senator, R-MT

Mark Warner — Senator, D-VA

Sheldon Whitehouse — Senator, D-RI

Mark Kelly — Senator, D-AZ

Todd Young — Senator, R-IN

Rick Scott — Senator, R-FL

Pete Ricketts — Senator, R-NE

Sean Cairncross — National Cyber Director, White House

Christian Sewing — CEO, Deutsche Bank AG

Jack Clark — Co-Founder & Head of Public Benefit, Anthropic PBC

Joanna Geraghty — CEO, JetBlue

Peter Orszag — Chairman & CEO, Lazard

C.S. Venkatakrishnan — CEO, Barclays

John Kerry — Co-Executive Chair, Galvanize Climate Solutions / Former US Secretary of State

Henry M. Paulson Jr. — Chairman Paulson Institute, Former United States Secretary Of The Treasury

Mukesh Ambani — Managing Director & Chairman, Reliance Industries

Gina Raimondo — Former US Commerce Secretary

Penny Pritzker — Former US Commerce Secretary, United States Department of Commerce

Henry Kravis — Co-Founder & Executive Chairman, KKR

David Rubenstein — Co-Founder & Co-Chairman, The Carlyle Group

Robert Rubin — Former United States Secretary, Department Of Treasury

John Rogers Jr. — Founder, Chairman & Co-CEO, Ariel Investments

Ted Leonsis — Founder, Chairman, Managing Partner & CEO, Monumental Sports & Entertainment

Roger Lynch — CEO, Condé Nast

Jens Stoltenberg — Minister of Finance; Former Secretary General of NATO, Norway

Cristiano Amon — President & CEO, Qualcomm Incorporated

Kyriakos Pierrakakis — Greece Minister Of Economy & Finance & President Of The Eurogroup, European Parliament

Carlos Cuerpo — Minister of Economy, Trade & Business, Spain

Gabriel Makhlouf — Governor, Central Bank of Ireland

H.E. Hadi Badri — CEO, Dubai Economic Development Corporation

Neil Blumenthal — Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Warby Parker

Kristupas Vaitiekūnas — Minister of Finance of Lithuania, Lithuanian Government

John Waldron — President & COO, Goldman Sachs

François Villeroy de Galhau — Governor, Bank of France

Maria Luís Albuquerque — Commissioner for Financial Services & The Savings & Investments Union, European Union

Orlando Bravo — Founder & Managing Partner, Thoma Bravo

Harvey Schwartz — CEO, Carlyle

Ermenegildo Zegna — Group Executive Chairman, Ermenegildo Zegna Group

Barbara Humpton — CEO, USA Rare Earth

Anne Wojcicki — Founder & CEO, 23andMe Research Institute

Austan Goolsbee — President & CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

Bob Jordan — President & CEO, Southwest Airlines

Vimal Kapur — Chairman & CEO, Honeywell

Scott Strazik — CEO, GE Vernova

David Ricks — Chair & CEO, Lilly

Pedro Azagra — CEO, Iberdrola

Chuck Robbins — Chair & CEO, Cisco

Nikesh Arora — CEO, Palo Alto Networks

Brad Garlinghouse — CEO, Ripple

Amos Hochstein — Managing Partner, TWG Global

Paula Kerger — President & CEO, PBS

Michelle Gass — President & CEO, Levi Strauss & Co.

Patrice Louvet — President & CEO, Ralph Lauren

Ynon Kreiz — Chairman & CEO, Mattel

Kevin Plank — Founder & CEO, Under Armour

Salil Parekh — Managing Director & CEO, Infosys

Andrea Orcel — CEO, UniCredit

Zach Reitano — Co-Founder & CEO, Ro

Patrick Pouyanné — Chairman & CEO, TotalEnergies

David McKay — President & CEO, Royal Bank of Canada

Carlos Hank González — Chairman, Grupo Financiero Banorte

Dina Powell McCormick — President & Vice Chair, Meta

Rene Haas — CEO, Arm Holdings

Reid Hoffman — Co-Founder, LinkedIn & Manas AI

George Kurtz — CEO, CrowdStrike

Christopher Nassetta — President & CEO, Hilton

Dan Schulman — CEO, Verizon

Jenny Johnson — CEO, Franklin Templeton

Brett Schulman — Co-Founder & CEO, CAVA

Alex Soros — Chair, Open Society Foundations

Mark Ein — Founder & CEO, Capitol Investment Corp

Daniel Heaf — CEO, Bath & Body Works

Diane Hoskins — Global Co-Chair, Gensler

Horacio Rozanski — Chairman, President & CEO, Booz Allen

Rich Lesser — Global Chair, Boston Consulting Group

Paul Griggs — US Senior Partner & CEO, PwC US

Steve Rattner — Chairman & CEO, Willett Advisors LLC

Valdis Dombrovskis — Commissioner for Economy & Productivity, Implementation & Simplification, European Commission

Jacob Silverman — CEO, Kroll

Ian Bremmer — President & Founder, Eurasia Group & GZERO Media

Jimmy Iovine — Founder, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist; CEO, Iovine & Young Academy

Lorenzo Simonelli — Chairman & CEO, Baker Hughes

Greg Case — President & CEO, Aon

Bill Demchak — Chairman & CEO, PNC

Tom Wilson — Chair, President & CEO, Allstate

Sebastian Siemiatkowski — Co-Founder & CEO, Klarna

David Miliband — President & CEO, International Rescue Committee

Ursula Burns — CEO, Integrum

Noubar Afeyan — Founder & CEO, Flagship Pioneering

André Esteves — Chairman & Senior Partner, BTG Pactual

Patrick Healy — CEO, Hellman & Friedman

Chris Britt — Co-Founder & CEO, Chime

Simpiwe K. Tshabalala — CEO, Standard Bank

Divesh Makan — Founding Partner, ICONIQ Capital

Maverick Carter — Co-CEO, Fulwell Entertainment

Anthony Scaramucci — Founder & Managing Partner, SkyBridge Capital

Mark Lazarus — CEO, VERSANT

Jim Lanzone — CEO, Yahoo

Thasunda Brown Duckett — President & CEO, TIAA

Ariane Gorin — CEO, Expedia Group

Joanne Crevoiserat — CEO, Tapestry

Brieane Olson — CEO, PacSun

Michel Khalaf — President & CEO, MetLife

Tim Walsh — Chair & CEO, KPMG LLP

Amy Howe — CEO, FanDuel

Jon Winkelried — Partner & CEO, TPG

Christian Ulbrich — Global CEO & President, JLL

Dambisa Moyo — Principal, Versaca Investments

Winston Weinberg — Co-Founder & CEO, Harvey

Jason Warner — Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Poolside

Ben Lamm — Co-Founder & CEO, Colossal

Mike Fey — Co-Founder & CEO, Island

Henry Ward — CEO, Carta

Matthew Cabe — President & CEO, Michelin

SEMAFOR WORLD ECONOMY

Semafor World Economy is dedicated to empowering global decision makers to navigate extraordinary complexity by curating insights, ideas, and diverse perspectives on the new world economy. Held in Washington, DC April 13-17, the 2026 convening will span five days of on‑stage conversations and in‑depth interviews with global CEOs, government officials, and other senior decision‑makers from every major sector across the G‑20.

For media inquiries and coverage requests, please contact: [email protected].

ABOUT SEMAFOR

Semafor is the world's fastest-growing independent news media company delivering intelligence through its reporting and live convenings. Founded in 2022 by veteran media executives Justin B. Smith and Ben Smith, Semafor provides intelligent, transparent journalism that cuts through the noise and distills complexity for leaders to navigate the complex and interconnected new world economy. With a global sensibility, reach, and reporting hubs that span from Washington D.C. to Silicon Valley and Wall Street to sub-Saharan Africa and the Gulf, Semafor's journalists around the world power its suite of daily first-read email briefings and signature live journalism convenings. Semafor's flagship World Economy Summit, anchored in Washington, D.C., is the largest gathering of top global CEOs in North America, and its convening on emerging economies, The Next Three Billion, is held annually at UNGA and expanded this year to South Africa, East Africa, and the UAE. In 2024, Semafor was named to Fast Company's Annual List of the World's Most Innovative Companies for "rewriting the story" on international reporting.

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