Presenters & HostsSusannah Streeter is a global financial commentator and former BBC business anchor who is sought after as a thought leader on trends affecting the world economy.
She provides award-winning analysis to the world’s media as part of her role as Head of Money and Markets for the UK’s largest retail investment platform, Hargreaves Lansdown.
As a bilingual BBC anchor with a career spanning two decades in broadcasting, she presented flagship global business shows on TV and radio and now speaks and chairs debates at major conferences worldwide, focusing on macroeconomics, energy, sustainability, defence and artificial intelligence.
She frequently interviews prime ministers, CEOs, central bankers and military leaders at high-level events, which have included The World Green Economy Summit in Dubai, Arctic Frontiers in Tromso, the Global Air and Space Chiefs Conference in London, the Global Fund Conference in Lyon, the Our Ocean Summit in Oslo, the Sustainable Finance Forum in Abu Dhabi and the EU Nuclear Forum in Prague.
Susannah also speaks on resilience, team building and leadership in a fractured world, drawing on her experience as an RAF Reserve officer. As a Squadron Leader, she led the force’s mobile news team for almost a decade on exercises and operations worldwide.
Susannah is in demand as a guest commentator on cryptocurrencies and the challenges digital coins and tokens pose to the financial system. She also covers seismic changes affecting the retail landscape after the pandemic, digital shopping trends and sustainability targets.
Susannah Streeter is also a popular podcaster. She hosts the HL Switch Your Money On investment podcast, presents the Tech Directions podcast with Microsoft and EY, anchored the How to Grow a CMO series, co-hosted the BackSpace and Beyond tech podcast, featured on BBC Radio 2, and was a presenter for the World Business Report podcast on the BBC World Service.
Specialist topics include:
- Economics
- Financial Markets
- Personal Finance
- Digital Disruption
- The Future of Retail
- Consumer Affairs
- Artificial Intelligence
- Environment
- Sustainability
- Technology
- Business
- Female Financial Empowerment
- Gender Pay, Investment and Pensions Gap
Popular 2023 speaking titles include:
Taking the Temperature of the Global Economy
Following a year of shocks, from the invasion of Ukraine to commodity price spirals and bond market mayhem, investors are set to remain highly sensitive to further upheaval, particularly given that a third of the world is set to enter a recession in 2023. Inflation is showing signs of easing, and consumers are proving more resilient than expected, but investors are much more highly attuned to the potential for threats to escalate.
Susannah Streeter constantly takes a temperature check on the world economy in her role as a senior investment and markets analyst. She explains the task ahead for central bank officials, still trying to rein in inflation:
Susannah says, “Policymakers are valiantly trying their hand at being master chefs by trying to stop inflation burning spending power whilst avoiding the economies sinking like undercooked souffle. The recipes show some signs of working, with price spirals finally edging down from painful peaks, and there are hopes recessions will be shallower.
The FTSE 100 is the flavour of the month as inflation eases, consumers appear more resilient, and China reopens. Investors appear to have fallen back in love with UK assets after a difficult period when FTSE 100 was the wallflower among global indices. But there is a risk this could be a short-lived crush. There are still niggles of worries which could blow up about ebbing consumer and company resilience in the months to come around the world.
Europe’s energy crisis has retreated for now, but even more difficult issues are looming, from the rise of AI to devastating climate change and the challenge of ageing populations. We may be overcoming short-term hurdles, but it’s time to start tackling the long-term mega-threats emerging.”
How to Re-Connect a Geo-Politically Fractured World
We are facing an increasingly fractured economic and political world, so finding new forums of communication and collaboration to find our way through the fog of war and corporate dislocation is increasingly vital.
Susannah has a unique view of the power of communication and how it can help change the world for the better. This spans from her early days in uniform as the founding member of the Royal Air Force mobile news team when she used the power of film to enact change, to her senior anchor position for the BBC, up until now as a sought-after analyst and chair of politically sensitive global debates.
Susannah says, “True inclusivity involves bringing polarised views together. We need to learn from ostracised but powerful individuals, rather than shutting down unwelcome voices, and create new cross-feed lines of dialogue alongside traditional institutions.”
Why The Collision of Crypto and Celebrity Worlds Could Hold Back Fintech
Social media and the crypto world have collided with Kim Kardashian’s single post about a token considered to be the biggest financial promotion in history.
As head of money and markets, Susannah has witnessed the FOMO effect wave, which gathered speed since the pandemic, and has swept vulnerable consumers up in a frenzy of speculation.
The boom of high-risk investing has caused huge nervousness among regulators, with the Financial Conduct Authority increasingly concerned. Now, with the cost-of-living squeeze intensifying, Susannah argues the focus should instead be on ensuring consumers have a resilient pile of savings and lower-risk investments to fall back on.
While the charge of new younger customers into the stock markets is a welcome trend, there is woeful knowledge about the financial dangers of investing in high-risk products, which include investment-based crowdfunding. It’s clear that education needs to be sharpened up pretty pronto. But there are also risks of going in too hard on the regulatory front.
