3rd edition of the conference series ‘Geopolitics on board agendas’

Session 1 | Economic security: impact on businesses and decision-taking

Esade Madrid · Thursday, 13 November 2025 · 9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.

Today’s boards must not only ensure profitability and regulatory compliance, but also integrate geopolitical, technological, regulatory and security factors into their deliberations that directly impact business sustainability. Anticipating scenarios, bolstering resilience and aligning corporate strategy with a rapidly changing global environment have become an unavoidable responsibility for those who govern companies.

In this context, and building on the success of previous editions, the Esade Center for Corporate Governance and EsadeGeo have organised a third conference series on geopolitics and boards, with the aim of exploring, over the course of three sessions, economic security, global value chains and technology.

In the first session, we will be looking at economic security, the new priority on the European private and public agenda. Growing trade tensions, export and investment restrictions, increasing use of economic coercion and exposure to critical dependencies – from chips to raw materials or energy technologies – have revealed vulnerabilities in the European economic fabric. Procurement is no longer merely a matter of efficiency but of survival. At the same time, Europe is shifting towards greater investment in security and defence capabilities as part of its economic architecture. The Defence Industrial Strategy, European funds for military capabilities and the emergence of a defence-oriented technology ecosystem are opening up new business opportunities. The third dimension of economic security is the effects of extreme weather events, which are increasingly frequent across the continent. Fires, droughts and floods impact critical infrastructure, supply chains and companies’ balance sheets. In this session, we will discuss how to anticipate, protect and transform business models in light of these three vectors of economic security.

Welcome and introduction to the series

Mario Lara, Director of Esade Madrid and the Esade Center for Corporate Governance
Emma Fernández, Independent Board Member and Member of the Esade Center for Corporate Governance Advisory Board 

Keynote
Damien Levie, Head of the Technology and Security Unit, Directorate-General for Trade, European Commission

Round-table discussion
Judith Arnal, Senior Research Fellow at the Elcano Royal Institute and Independent Board Member of the Bank of Spain
Damien Levie, Head of the Technology and Security Unit, Directorate-General for Trade, European Commission
Moderator: Juan Moscoso del Prado, Senior Fellow, EsadeGeo