Performance Leaders’ Residential

Dr Maha Hosain Aziz is a professor, author and speaker in global risk and future trends based at NYU’s MA International Relations Programme, leading the annual global prediction project with crowdsourced consultancy Wikistrat; she is a risk expert on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council, co-chair in policy at think tank Digital Economist and senior advisor at Enlighten Advisory. She has written a trilogy of books: award-winning bestseller Future World Order (2020), Global Spring (2025) and 10 Shock Events By 2030 (2025). She also created award-winning VR/AR political comic book The Global Kid (2021), drew the award-winning original (2016) and is working on Evolution (2025) – a comic book about global extremism partly created by generative AI. She is a global citizen with Pakistani Muslim roots who grew up in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Europe and the US, studying at Brown (BA), Columbia (MA) and the LSE (MSc, PhD).

Amelia joined the University of Surrey in January 2019 as Head of the Department of Politics, and Chair in European and International Affairs. Previously she worked as Director of the Centre for European Studies (CEFEUS), a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence at Canterbury Christ Church Uni (2013-2018), after positions in Brussels at the Vrije Universiteit Brussels and the Institute for European Studies, where she directed the Euromaster degree, as well as the Educational Development (EDU). Amelia is a long-standing Jean Monnet Chair in European Foreign Affairs, allowing her to successfully obtain Erasmus+ funding for the University of Surrey’s Centre for Britain and Europe (based in the Department of Politics), establishing it in 2020 as a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence. Amelia’s researching, teaching, consulting & postgrad supervising covers a wide range of areas on EU foreign and security policy, as well as new forms of EU-UK relations. These include Common Foreign and Security Policy, Common Security and Defence Policy, EU-US and EU-Canada relations,  EU-Russia relations, EU Neighbourhood Policy, EU Development policy (with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa), as well as Arctic & northern governance issues. Additional areas of interest include foreign policy analysis, international and diplomatic history, the role of sovereignty in political history, International Relations theory, international political economy, public policy analysis, the Commonwealth and EU education policy. Amelia is regularly called upon as a guest speaker, external supervisor, research partner, consultant and media pundit on areas of EU foreign affairs, and of late, EU-UK relations.  In January 2021, Amelia was appointed Dean International of the University of Surrey, leading the International Engagement Office in supporting the strategic goals of the university on partnership with other universities and networks world-wide, enhanced cutting-edge research cooperation, as well as staff/student mobility. From October 2023, Amelia was appointed Associate Vice-President of External Engagement, helping to deliver the University of Surrey’s international strategies, alongside community engagement, public affairs, and developing new partnerships at local, regional, national and international level. 

Geoff is a global advocate, campaigner and consultant in addressing the stigma of mental ill-health in the workplace and elevating wellbeing to a strategic priority in the C-Suite. He provides a real practitioner’s perspective on these issues. 

He is a sought-after keynote speaker, who inspires and provokes organisations to put wellbeing at the centre of everything they do, with a reputation for energising and motivating audiences to take action in creating workplaces that enhance the lives of all employees.

His campaigning work has seen him participate in a number of BBC programmes and campaigns regarding mental health and wellbeing, as well as writing and producing articles for the Huffington Post, The Financial Times and HR-related journals. He previously convened a meeting at No. 10 Downing Street with Prime Minister David Cameron and CEOs from Footsie 100 Companies to address their role and agree actions to break stigma in the corporate world. He also provided some support to the Royal Foundation (The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and The Duke of Sussex) in their mental health campaign.

Geoff has over the last 11 years worked all over the world and across all sectors and in addition to the above is a Trustee of several charities including the Burnt Chef Project and The Baton of Hope, and acts as a strategic advisor to a number of companies with respect to elevating wellbeing to being a strategic imperative.