As a public speaker, she tackles the complex webs of supply chain finance, geoeconomics and geopolitics with unusual clarity. She holds influential advisory positions as Chief Economic Advisor to the Defence Security and Resilience Bank Development Group, an Associate Partner in the T3i Partner network and is a member of the Alphen Group. Her governance roles span from the Steering Committee of the Club of Three to the Advisory Board of the European Centre for Economic Security, Technology and Resilience.

Through her strategic advisory business, Rebeccanomics, she works at the cutting edge of international trade and trade finance, specializing in sustainable trade and the increasingly critical fields of defence and security finance and digital trade. Her impact was recognized in 2022 when she received the “Net Zero Entrepreneur of the Year” award at the Scale-up Group’s Enterprise Awards.

Harding’s entrepreneurial vision has materialized in three data-driven technology ventures within the data, digital trade and ESG space. Her academic and research credentials are equally impressive: she has held positions as Senior Research Fellow at the British Foreign Policy Group, Head of Corporate Research at Deloitte, and Senior Fellow at London Business School. Beyond academia, she previously served as Chief Economist at both the Work Foundation and at UK Finance (formerly the British Bankers Association). Her advisory reach extends to roles as a Senior Advisor to the Treasury Select Committee and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Entrepreneurship, demonstrating her influence on policy at the highest levels. Her tenure as a Trustee of the German British Forum between 2004 and 2016 underscore her long-standing commitment to international economic cooperation and cultural exchange.

A compelling and insightful keynote speaker and moderator, Harding draws on a powerful blend of hands-on experience and rigorous academic research in international economics, political risk and trade. More recently she has pioneered the innovative public speaking format of “war-gaming”—staging fictional geoeconomic and environmental crises and “gaming” with live audiences the consequences for strategy and business.

She is the author of The World at Economic War: How to Rebuild Security in a Weaponized Global Economy (2025), which was selected by Martin Wolf for the Financial Times “Books of the Year” list. She has co-authored several influential works on trade and geostrategy, including The Weaponization of Trade: the Great Unbalancing of Politics and Economics (2017). She has authored eight additional books on the German economy, global innovation policy, SME financing and Venture Capital.

With a commanding media presence featuring regular appearances on BBC Television and Radio, Bloomberg, Sky News, CNBC, and Times Radio, combined with thought leadership pieces in the Financial Times, the Guardian and The Economist, she has established herself as one of the most authoritative voices on global economic security and the future of international trade.