Panel: Leadership Resilience in the Age of Automation and Geopolitical Change

At the G20 Leaders’ Summit and B20 South Africa Forum in Johannesburg, Dr Kate Barker participated in a high-level panel alongside heads of state, multinational CEOs, and economic advisors to explore the new leadership imperatives of an AI-driven global economy.

Her intervention focused on board-level capability governance, ethical foresight, and resilience-building across industries navigating automation and geopolitical volatility. Dr Barker argued that true resilience is not about reaction speed but about leadership coherence, ethical clarity, and the ability to sustain trust under pressure.

She introduced a Leadership Resilience Index, a framework connecting corporate culture, decision agility, and stakeholder trust to performance outcomes, which drew strong interest from both public- and private-sector participants.

Her contribution influenced the B20 South Africa Policy Recommendations on Inclusive Innovation and Leadership Agility, formally presented to the G20 Presidency. The session reinforced her standing as a trusted bridge between policy foresight and enterprise transformation, advancing the global conversation on leadership, trust, and accountability in a hyper-connected age.