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Keynote SpeakerMark Berrisford-Smith

Independent economist, formerly of HSBC

Mark Berrisford-Smith is an extremely well respected Economist and a regular on the speaking circuit. An accomplished public speaker, having undertaken more than 2,000 presentations during his career. He gained degrees in economics from Sussex and London Universities and has spent most of his career working as an economist at... Read more

Topics

Popular Talks

Outlook for the global and UK economies
Farming and food
Corporate distress – “The zombie apocalypse”
Gazing into the crystal ball
Sundries

More talks

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Biography

He gained degrees in economics from Sussex and London Universities and has spent most of his career working as an economist at HSBC. From 2012 until 2023 he was Head of Economics for the Bank’s Commercial Banking division in the UK, where his role involved advising the Bank’s senior management and it’s clients on developments in the global and UK economies. To this end, an important part of his role was to speak at client events as well as externally in a wide range of settings, ranging from breakfasts for local businesses to keynote addresses at industry conferences.

Mark’s work is extensive and has involved making sense of the causes and consequences of the global financial crisis of 2008-09, and the subsequent debt crisis in the Euro Area; detailing the economic consequences and practicalities for businesses of Brexit; and explaining the long-term damage done to the UK and other major economies by the Covid pandemic. In the past year or two his presentations have focused on the once-in-a-generation challenge posed by the resurgence of inflation. In particular, he warned in the summer of 2021 that the acceleration of inflation was not a temporary phenomenon.

Mark Berrisford-Smith speaks on a variety of areas with topics ranging from the U.K. economy through to a global outlook. Specialist areas include farming and the food industry. He delivers keynotes, full presentations and also contributes written articles for the media and industries. He continues to offer advisory work too for a carefully selected client portfolio.

Popular Talks by Mark Berrisford-Smith

Outlook for the global and UK economies
This presentation starts with a quick run-through of global developments, focusing especially on trends in commodity prices, what’s happening to the major economies, how everybody else is getting on with tackling inflation, and following on from that, where they are in the interest rate cycle. It then moves on to...

This presentation starts with a quick run-through of global developments, focusing especially on trends in commodity prices, what’s happening to the major economies, how everybody else is getting on with tackling inflation, and following on from that, where they are in the interest rate cycle. It then moves on to the UK, discussing why our recovery has been so poor, how consumers have fought back against the “cost of living crisis” by bidding up their wages, and why the labour market remains so tight. That leads us to the outlook for inflation, and hence interest rates. If required, he can round off with a brief detour into the prospects for sterling, and also say something about the corporate landscape.

A useful variant is to increase the global content, and to reduce the UK portion. This works well for events put on by global organisations, such as the international networks run by accountants and lawyers, where the majority of the audience represent their offices around the world, but where there is a sizeable UK-based minority. In that case, finishing up with half a dozen UK slides works quite well, while it’s fairly easy to generate some responses from the international attendees when they see how badly we’re doing.
Farming and food
Brief global presentation followed by the relevance to farming and food sectors in the UK, and concentrating on the prospects for borrowing costs and sterling’s exchange rate. With some additional content on the global commodity markets for agricultural products, the demand and supply balances, trends in UK farm profitability, and...

Brief global presentation followed by the relevance to farming and food sectors in the UK, and concentrating on the prospects for borrowing costs and sterling’s exchange rate. With some additional content on the global commodity markets for agricultural products, the demand and supply balances, trends in UK farm profitability, and maybe material on food exports and imports, which is a topic which is guaranteed to get audience participation and comment.
Corporate distress – “The zombie apocalypse”
This keynote is based on requests focused on corporate turnaround and recovery. Mark would present a shortened version of the standard presentation, but embellish it with material on the corporate landscape, talking about profitability, failure rates, debt levels, and so on. The gist is that failure rates are high, and...

This keynote is based on requests focused on corporate turnaround and recovery. Mark would present a shortened version of the standard presentation, but embellish it with material on the corporate landscape, talking about profitability, failure rates, debt levels, and so on. The gist is that failure rates are high, and likely to remain so until interest rates fall. Companies went into this difficult period with a relatively low burden of debt (unlike the late 1980s and 2000s), but have suffered from declining profitability in recent years. As time wears on they are falling victim to high borrowing costs, as well as director burn- out. A good title for such a talk would be “Zombie apocalypse”, with many of the current crop of failures being firms that were kept alive by cheap finance by ever-eager banks during the 2010s.
Gazing into the crystal ball
This keynote is based on presentations that look a bit further into the future. These could be adjuncts to a shortened version of the standard offering or stand-alone talks. A UK- focused version might be titled “Dealing with our debts” and would discuss the parless state of the public finances;...

This keynote is based on presentations that look a bit further into the future. These could be adjuncts to a shortened version of the standard offering or stand-alone talks. A UK- focused version might be titled “Dealing with our debts” and would discuss the parless state of the public finances; how long it will take to get things sorted out; and the tough choices that will be needed along the way. Another variant that would cover some of the same ground might be titled “How to get Britain growing again”, and would deal with the vexed issues of near-zero growth of productivity, and the fraught choices about population growth.
An international version could be titled “Debt and demography – why the next 30 years won’t be like the last 30 years”, and will focus on ageing populations, high debt levels (it’s not just a British problem), as well as increased protectionism and deteriorating geopolitical relations.
Sundries
This keynote includes the UK’s trade performance and trends, foreign direct investment flows, and the “green transition”. The basic structure of such a presentation would begin by explaining the “glide path” to Net Zero; how we’re doing (okay so far)’ and the hard choices that still need to be made....

This keynote includes the UK’s trade performance and trends, foreign direct investment flows, and the “green transition”. The basic structure of such a presentation would begin by explaining the “glide path” to Net Zero; how we’re doing (okay so far)’ and the hard choices that still need to be made. It would focus on the UK, and more on the business and technology aspects, rather than the fund management and financial aspects, which can be quite complicated.