I am delighted to announce that the International Private Client Forum returns to the Villa d’Este, on the shores of Lake Como, Italy, on 14-16 November 2019.

Joining our distinguished chairs, Basil Zirinis, Sullivan & Cromwell and Clare Maurice, Maurice Turnor Gardner is Professor Ian Goldin, who will be welcomed on stage to inform the audience about what the “Second Renaissance Means For The Private Client Community.”

Goldin’s session will seek to highlight the shifts in modern society, which are reflective of past patterns and hold societal, cultural and religious parallels with the Renaissance period. This, Goldin believes, will help us to direct our own future.

Echoing the International Private Client Forum’s 2018 theme of globalisation, the original Renaissance was fueled by globalisation and ended abruptly with disasters such as the Inquisition, religious wars, repression of diversity and attacks on intellectuals. Times have changed, but similar exponential change is being seen today. As such, we need to educate ourselves and practice that education within our societal and governmental spheres to avoid the disasters of our predecessors.

In 2019, we are past a “fourth industrial revolution” and instead into the second Renaissance for humanity, something which has been demonstrated in cultural shifts such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, the decrease in global poverty, and the explosion of knowledge and interconnectivity both virtual and physical.

Given the speed of change, the future will be characterised by shock. As a result, the only way to succeed is not only to expect more uncertainty but to embrace it. The private client community will be at the centre of the regulatory minefield, because the challenge of these new risks is that we have no precedent.

The community will be looked to more frequently as new risks emerge and old risks are compounded by complexity. To avoid the mistakes of our past, we need to not only embrace the wide-spread knowledge of our ‘age of discovery,’ but we need to practice it. Governmental control will waver and mistrust in our systems will rise. Place matters more than ever, and thus headquarters will become less desirable as firms see the value in utilising multinational workforces to minimise the risks clients are facing. There is no wall high enough to stop disasters. But they will block expertise and collaboration.

Ultimately, it is vital that you not only stay ahead of the curve but re-establish and protect the trust and faith of your firm’s reputation in order to weather the change we expect and to avoid disaster.

Professor Ian Goldin was the founding Director of the Oxford Martin School from September 2006 to September 2016. He is currently Oxford University Professor of Globalisation and Development and the Director of the Oxford Martin Programme on Technological and Economic Change. He is a Senior Fellow at the Oxford Martin School and a Professorial Fellow at the University’s Balliol College. From 2003 to 2006 he was Vice President of the World Bank, and prior to that the Bank’s Director of Development Policy (2001-2003). He served on the Bank’s senior management team and led the Bank’s collaboration with the United Nations and other partners as well as with key countries. As Director of Development Policy, he played a pivotal role in the research and strategy agenda of the Bank. From 1996 to 2001 he was Chief Executive and Managing Director of the Development Bank of Southern Africa and served as an advisor to President Nelson Mandela.