Leaders Unplugged

About Leaders Unplugged

Leaders Unplugged is real talk with the impactful. Candid, honest, actionable – and fresh from behind the scenes. Presented by IMD in collaboration with Remote Daily. Hosted by IMD’s president, David Bach and Felix Zeltner.

Publisher

IMD

Category

business · business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

21 Mar 2025

Latest episode

20 Aug 2026

Latest episodes

22 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   20 Aug 2026

   IAE chief Fatih Birol on how to navigate the age of electricity

   We are entering what Fatih Birol describes as “the age of electricity”: AI and data centers, electric vehicles and surging demand for air conditioning are reshaping energy consumption – and turning access to reliable power into a question of competitiveness and geopolitical influence. As Birol, who leads the International Energy Agency (IEA), puts it: “Whoever wins the AI race will get the upper hand in the geopolitics and global economy as well.” In our new episode of Leaders Unplugged, hosted by IMD President David Bach, Birol makes a powerful case that energy policy has moved far beyond climate. For Europe, electrification “is a sovereignty issue.” For governments and companies, diversification is becoming essential. And as geopolitical tensions expose vulnerabilities from Russia to the Strait of Hormuz, Birol argues that “the most scarce commodity in the energy world today is trust.” The result: leaders may increasingly pay a premium for secure, reliable, and politically trusted energy relationships. From Africa's energy poverty to Europe's solar giveaway to China – this conversation is built for executives who need to understand energy risk not as a utility bill, but as a strategic issue. Our guest Fatih Birol is Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), one of the world’s most influential institutions on energy security, markets, and the clean-energy transition. Since taking the helm in 2015, the Turkish economist has broadened the IEA from its traditional focus on oil security into a global authority spanning electricity, renewables, critical minerals, and the energy transition, while expanding its reach into major emerging economies. Birol joined the IEA as a junior analyst in 1995 and rose to Chief Economist, overseeing its flagship World Energy Outlook; before that, he spent six years at OPEC in Vienna. Today, his counsel is sought by governments and business leaders navigating the increasingly fraught intersection of energy, competitiveness, and geopolitics; a role that has earned him a place on TIME’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people in both 2021 and 2026.

2. 

   11 Jun 2026

   Florence Gaub on reading the future: War, weak signals, & wild scenarios

   Leaders are drowning in crises, yet Florence Gaub argues their real competitive edge lies in how they imagine the future. In this episode of Leaders Unplugged with David Bach, the NATO Defense College research director, futurist and military strategist explains why “strategic foresight is the gym for the mind,” how weak signals from distant places, online communities and emerging technologies can reveal tomorrow’s shocks, and why reducing surprise buys organizations their most precious asset: time. Gaub dissects the Strait of Hormuz, Russia’s war on Ukraine, and China’s climate strategy to show how wishful thinking at the highest levels can cripple even the most sophisticated governments – and what executives must do differently. Gaub insists that “all companies above a certain size today will be affected by geopolitics” and that every leadership team should build an annual discipline of horizon scanning and scenario work. She argues that whoever “finds the right answers to climate change first” will define the next global power hierarchy, that science fiction is a good indicator for future conflicts, and shares answers to a deceptively simple question: “What future would you be willing to fight for?” Our guest Florence Gaub is a Franco-German political scientist, military strategist, and futurist. She is Director of the Research Division at the NATO Defense College in Rome. Before joining NATO in her current role in 2023 (she also worked at NATO from 2009-2013), she was Deputy Director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies in Paris and served as a foresight adviser within the EU system. Her books include The Future: A User’s Guide (https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/the-future/), and Szenario, a current nominee for for the German non-fiction award. She is also the co-host of the Munich Security Conference podcast The Art of Diplomacy (https://open.spotify.com/show/5GghlDp7DBGSUdWQmV1suJ?si=fe452159d4d14fe6). Resources mentioned in this episode Fears of a Setting Sun: The Disillusionment of America’s Founders https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691210230/fears-of-a-setting-sun (https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691210230/fears-of-a-setting-sun) New Scientisthttps://www.newscientist.com/ (https://www.newscientist.com/) NATO Archives: https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/declassified.htm (https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/declassified.htm)NATO-Russia Founding Act, 1997: https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_25468.htm (https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_25468.htm) 2018 US National Defense Strategy https://media.defense.gov/2020/May/18/2002302061/-1/-1/1/2018-NATIONAL-DEFENSE-STRATEGY-SUMMARY.PDF (https://media.defense.gov/2020/May/18/2002302061/-1/-1/1/2018-NATIONAL-DEFENSE-STRATEGY-SUMMARY.PDF) 2022 US National Security Strategy https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Biden-Harris-Administrations-National-Security-Strategy-10.2022.pdf (https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Biden-Harris-Administrations-National-Security-Strategy-10.2022.pdf) The Weaponisation of Everything: A Field Guide to the New Way of War — Mark Galeotti https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300270419/the-weaponisation-of-everything/ (https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300270419/the-weaponisation-of-everything/) Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World — Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Rönnlund https://www.gapminder.org/factfulness-book/ (https://www.gapminder.org/factfulness-book/) NATO 2099 https://www.ndc.nato.int/nato-2099-the-science-fiction-anthology/ (https://www.ndc.nato.int/nato-2099-the-science-fiction-anthology/)https://www.ndc.nato.int/nato-2099-a-graphic-novel/ (https://www.ndc.nato.int/nato-2099-a-graphic-novel/) Florence Gaub and Roderick Parkes: “Is Europe Too Soft to Fight?” https://warontherocks.com/is-europe-too-soft-to-fight/ (https://warontherocks.com/is-europe-too-soft-to-fight/) Enjoyed this conversation? 🔔 Subscribe to Leaders Unplugged for candid conversations with the impactful: Apple (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/leaders-unplugged/id1803572933) | Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/3yNFN82NfiTcNwaV0E8FNm?si=ecaa98951ffe44b0) | YouTube (https://youtu.be/gxmiCp7cpko?si=g0qAwPbb3WptvGgD) Connect with IMD: Follow IMD on Instagram: @imdbusinessschool Follow IMD on LinkedIn: @imd-business-school Follow IMD on BlueSky: @imdbusinessschool.bsky.social Follow IMD on Facebook: @imdbschool Follow IMD on Substack: https://substack.com/@ibyimd

3. 

   4 Jun 2026

   Jake Sullivan on power, industrial strategy, and the new global order

   What does it mean to lead in a world where the United States — the anchor of the post-war order — has become "the biggest disruptor in the world"? In this episode of Leaders Unplugged, IMD's David Bach sits down with Jake Sullivan, former National Security Advisor to President Biden, for a frank, wide-ranging conversation on the forces reshaping global business, geopolitics, and the social compact. From the collapse of allied trust to Iran's newly proven ability to close the Strait of Hormuz, this is the geopolitical briefing every senior executive needs. Sullivan argues that Trump "does not believe that allies are assets — he thinks they are liabilities," that the Iran war was "entirely a war of choice, an elective war," and that the era of assuming innovation dominance without industrial strength is over: "The United States has to concern itself with being able to build." On AI and the future of work, he warns that we need "fundamentally new answers" to the question of "where does the human fit in, in an age of exploding technology?" — and that no political leader has yet emerged to deliver them. Our guest: Jake Sullivan served as National Security Advisor to President Joe Biden from 2021 to 2025, helping shape U.S. responses to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, strategic competition with China, the wars in the Middle East, and the growing intersection of technology and geopolitics. A longtime adviser to both Biden and Hillary Clinton, Sullivan was also one of the architects of the Iran nuclear deal during the Obama administration and a leading voice behind the idea of a “foreign policy for the middle class.” Today, he is the inaugural Kissinger Professor of the Practice of Statecraft and World Order at Harvard Kennedy School, a faculty affiliate at Harvard’s Belfer Center, a Senior Fellow at the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey School of Public Policy, and co-host of the foreign policy podcast “The Long Game” alongside his former deputy Jon Finer. Harvard Kennedy School faculty profile: https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/jake-sullivan (https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/jake-sullivan) X: @jakejsullivan Resources Jake Sullivan, “The Tech High Ground,” *Foreign Affairs:    https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/tech-high-ground-jake-sullivan (https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/tech-high-ground-jake-sullivan) Kurt M. Campbell and Rush Doshi, “Underestimating China”:    https://www.foreignaffairs.com/china/underestimating-china (https://www.foreignaffairs.com/china/underestimating-china) The Long Game with Jake Sullivan and Jon Finer: https://podcasts.voxmedia.com/show/the-long-game (https://podcasts.voxmedia.com/show/the-long-game) Dan Wang, “Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future”: https://danwang.co/breakneck/ (https://danwang.co/breakneck/)

Who has been a guest on Leaders Unplugged

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Guilherme Loureiro
• Gideon Rachman
• Henrik Andersen
• Morten Bo Christiansen
• Bo Cerup-Simonsen

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

14,780

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

3 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 44 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

59

Social presence

0

YouTube

76

Engagement

0

Contact Leaders Unplugged

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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