Gerald Ashley

Gerald Ashley is a former banker, now an expert on risk and behaviour, disruption and decision-making.

Looking at risk from all industries and areas of life and study, Gerald seeks to challenge the classical economic models which attempt to predict behaviour with linear, rational processes. He states that people simply don’t work like the way economists traditionally expect, whether it’s consumers choosing what product to buy, or business leaders deciding corporate strategy or investment options.

With examples ranging from forest fires to Hollywood actresses, Gerald takes an entertaining, insightful look at where many conventional, accepted ways of viewing problems, making decisions and assessing risks are flawed. By highlighting that there are sometimes no perfect solutions, many ‘known unknowns’, and that we are influenced by context rather than facts - instinctive biases rather than rational analysis - he leads audiences to new ways of thinking.

Covering risk analysis, strategy, behavioural economics and change management, Gerald speaks on topics that affect any organisation at any level. He asks other important, but unconventional business questions such as how are decisions made, why don’t people always do what they say they will (or should), what are ‘nudges’ and how do they work, and can businesses think more like doctors and less like mathematicians?

Gerald has over thirty years experience in international finance, having worked for Baring Brothers in London and Hong Kong (departing just weeks before the bank collapsed), and the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland. He is now a non-executive director of Equitile Investments, a strategy and risk consultant, commentator and author of books including The Tangled World - Understanding human connections, networks and complexity, and Two Speed World: The Impact of Explosive and Gradual Change - Its Effect on You and Everything Else.