Picture of Tim Adams
Tim Adams
President and CEO, Institute of International Finance

Tim Adams is the President and CEO of the Institute of International Finance (IIF). The IIF is the global association of the financial industry.


Picture of Ong-Ang Ai Boon
Ong-Ang Ai Boon
Director, Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS)

Mrs Ong-Ang Ai Boon is the Director of The Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS).  She was appointed in 1982 and has since led the ABS with her extensive regulatory and operational experience in the banking industry.


Picture of Michael Arena
Michael Arena
Vice President, Talent & Development, Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Michael Arena is the Vice President of Talent & Development for Amazon Web Services (AWS).


Picture of Susan Axelrod
Susan Axelrod
Broker-Dealer Compliance Oversight Executive, Bank of America

Susan F. Axelrod is the Broker-Dealer Compliance Oversight Executive for Bank of America. In this role, she has responsibility to oversee activities across all the firm’s broker/dealers to identify opportunities for driving consistency, connectivity and enhanced risk monitoring across the regions and entities. Prior to that she served as Chief Supervisory Officer (CSO) for Merrill Wealth Management where she oversaw supervisory risk culture, driving shared accountability for end-to-end supervision at all levels of leadership.


Picture of Albert-László Barabási
Albert-László Barabási
Robert Gray Dodge Professor of Network Science and University Distinguished Professor, Northeastern University

Albert-László Barabási is the Robert Gray Dodge Professor of Network Science and University Distinguished Professor at Northeastern University.


Picture of Clare Bolingford
Clare Bolingford
Director of Banking & Insurance, New Zealand Financial Markets Authority (FMA)

Clare Bolingford is the Director of Banking & Insurance for the New Zealand Financial Markets Authority (FMA). Clare leads coordination and market engagement for the expected conduct licensing regime of banks and insurers.


Picture of Senator Andrew Bragg
Senator Andrew Bragg
Senator for New South Wales, Australian Senate, Chair, Select Committee, Australia as a Technology & Financial Center

Senator Andrew Bragg is the Chair of the Select Committee on Australia as a Technology & Financial Center. Andrew Bragg is a Liberal Senator for New South Wales. Prior to his election to Federal Parliament in 2019, Andrew was an author and accountant.


Picture of Brian Brooks
Brian Brooks
Former Acting U.S. Comptroller of the Currency

Brian Brooks is the Former Acting US Comptroller of the Currency from 2020 to 2021. He is currently the CEO of Bitfury, a bitcoin mining company based in Amsterdam.


Picture of John Seely Brown
John Seely Brown
Former Head, Xerox PARC and Co-Chairman, Deloitte’s Center for the Edge

John Seely Brown “JSB” was the Chief Scientist of Xerox Corporation until April 2002, and director of the renowned Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) until June 2000.


Picture of Michael Brown
Michael Brown
past-Director, Defense Innovation Unit

Michael Brown was the Director of the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) at the U.S. Department of Defense from 2018 to 2022.


Picture of Wayne Byres
Wayne Byres
Former Chair, Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA)

Wayne Byres is the Former Chair of the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA).


Picture of F. Christopher Calabia
F. Christopher Calabia
Chief Executive, Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA).

Christopher Calabia is the Chief Executive for the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA). Chris is an experienced supervisor with expertise in global standards and innovation. Prior to his appointment, Chris worked from 2017-2021 at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as the Senior Advisor for Supervisory & Regulatory Policy in Financial Services for the Poor.


Picture of Damon Centola
Damon Centola
Elihu Katz Professor of Communication, Sociology and Engineering, UPenn

Damon Centola is the Elihu Katz Professor of Communication, Sociology and Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is Director of the Network Dynamics Group. He is also a fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. Author of two books, most recently Change: How to Make Big Things Happen, his research centers on social networks and behavior change.


Picture of Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic
Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic
Chief Innovation Officer at ManpowerGroup

Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is the Chief Innovation Officer at ManpowerGroup, a professor of business psychology at University College London and at Columbia University, co-founder of deepersignals.com, and an associate at Harvard’s Entrepreneurial Finance Lab.


Picture of Alexandra Chesterfield
Alexandra Chesterfield
Head of Behavioural Risk, Natwest Group

Alexandra Chesterfield is the Head of Behavioural Risk for the NatWest Group where she leads a team of behavioural scientists to help get better outcomes for employees and customers.


Picture of Siew Kai Choy
Siew Kai Choy
Former Managing Director, GIC

Siew Kai Choy is a former MD at GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, where he was Director of the Data & Analytics Department, Head of Governance and IT in the Public Markets Group, and founded GIC Innovation Labs.


Picture of Nicholas Christakis
Nicholas Christakis
Professor of Biosocial Science, Network Science, & Behavior Genetics, Yale

Nicholas Christakis directs the Human Nature Lab at Yale University, and is the Co-Director of the Yale Institute for Network Science. He is the Sol Goldman Family Professor of Social and Natural Science, appointed in the Departments of Sociology; Medicine; Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; and Biomedical Engineering at Yale University.


Picture of Bill Coen
Bill Coen
past-Secretary General, Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS)

Bill Coen is the past Secretary General of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS). He is currently the Chair of the IFRIS Advisory Council. He also serves on the Global Advisory Board of MUFG and the Board of Directors of China Construction Bank.


Picture of Gary Cohn
Gary Cohn
Vice Chairman, IBM, Former Director, NEC, Former President & COO, Goldman Sachs

As Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director of the National Economic Council (2017-2018), Gary Cohn managed the US economic policy agenda, stimulating economic expansion, job creation, and wage increases through historic tax and regulatory reform. Prior to that he was the President and Chief Operating Officer at Goldman Sachs where he worked for more than 25 years.


Picture of Karen Cook
Karen Cook
Ray Lyman Wilbur Professor of Sociology, Stanford University

Karen S. Cook is the Ray Lyman Wilbur Professor of Sociology; Director of the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences (IRiSS); and Vice-Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity at Stanford. She conducts research on social interaction, social networks, social exchange, and trust. She has edited or co-authored numerous books and articles on the subject of trust in the organization.


Picture of Mark Cooke
Mark Cooke
Former Group Head of Operational Risk HSBC

Mark Cooke joined HSBC in 2014 as Group Head of Operational Risk. In that role, Mark led a team of risk officers across the firm’s global footprint, overseeing non-financial risks such as compliance breaches and staff misconduct, before taking a sabbatical in 2020. Earlier, Mark held senior leadership roles at Barclays and UBS in risk, finance and operations. Today he is Chairman of ORX, the financial services industry association for Operational Risk Management.


Picture of Zachary Coseglia
Zachary Coseglia
Co-Founder of the R&G Insights Lab

Zachary Coseglia is the Co-Founder of R&G Insights Lab, the legal consulting arm of Ropes & Gray LLP


Picture of Alison Cottrell
Alison Cottrell
CEO, Financial Services Culture Board

Alison Cottrell is the CEO of the Financial Services Culture Board (FSCB) which works to raise standards of organisational behaviour, competence and culture for all financial institutions in the UK.


Picture of Diane Coyle
Diane Coyle
Bennet Professor of Public Policy and co-director of the Bennett Institute, University of Cambridge

Professor Diane Coyle is the Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge and the author of the book Cogs & Monsters: What Economics Is, and What It Should Be.


Visit the Starling 2023 Bookshelf

Where you can find the books that have inspired us

Find a list of the books that sit on our bookshelf.  We hope that some of our readers will be inspired to give one or tow of these terrific books a glance.