(Plenary Panel 1) Investing in People: Four Pathways to Prosperity and Peace
What happens when we broaden the meaning of investment from deploying capital to investing in people and their potential? In this conversation, the four 2026 King Husein Global Business & Interfaith Peace Award recipients share four distinctive pathways for turning such investment into prosperity and peace: Dame Elizabeth Corley, mobilising responsible and impact investment to strengthen communities and create long-term value; Sanjoy K. Roy, harnessing culture, literature and the arts to bridge religious and cultural divides while generating sustainable economic opportunity; Matt Eyring, pioneering social impact employment by connecting overlooked talent with education, skills and global employers; and Tzu Chi Foundation, represented by CEO Po-Wen Yen, transforming faith-inspired compassion into professionally managed humanitarian action serving people regardless of religion or belief. Together, they demonstrate that investing in people, whether through capital, culture, opportunity or compassionate service, can unlock human potential, strengthen social cohesion and build the foundations for shared prosperity and lasting peace.
(Plenary Panel 2) The Economics of Kindness: Reimagining the Purpose of the Economy
What would an economy look like if kindness, communion and goodness were treated not as constraints on economic performance, but as sources of human flourishing and sustainable prosperity? Moderated by Dr Brian Grim, this conversation brings together three leaders advancing complementary approaches to a more human-centred economy: Adrian Bettridge, whose Economics of Kindness work at Baringa explores the relationship between kindness, trust and successful business leadership; Lawrence Chong, Group CEO of Consulus and a leading Asia-Pacific advocate for the Economy of Communion, which places people, relationships and shared prosperity at the heart of enterprise; and Dr Rey-Sheng Her, who advances the Economy of Goodness, drawing on Tzu Chi’s experience of translating compassion and altruism into sustainable social action. Together, they will explore how these ideas can move from aspiration to practice, reshaping how businesses invest, employ, lead and create value, and asking whether an economy that puts human dignity and the common good at its centre might ultimately be a stronger economy as well.
(Keynote) The Sunshine Approach: Vertical Integration as a Model for Peace and Prosperity
Drawing on more than three decades across the global food industry, Don Larson brings an unusual perspective to the challenge of rural poverty. As former Head of Cocoa Purchasing for Hershey Chocolate, he saw first-hand how sophisticated businesses use capital, contracts, information, risk management and control of the value chain to protect quality and commercial returns. He also discovered that efficiency need not mean eliminating jobs: at Hershey, he helped shift an automated production process to a more labour-intensive model in Mexico that delivered better quality, higher margins and roughly ten times as many jobs. Those experiences ultimately led him to ask a radically different business question: what if the same disciplines companies use to protect their margins were deliberately redesigned to protect the dignity, opportunity and future of the people at the beginning of the supply chain? In Mozambique, particularly in communities recovering from conflict, Larson has turned that question into the Sunshine Approach, vertically integrating farmer organisation, fair purchasing, local processing, employment, branding and access to global markets so that more of the value created by agriculture remains with those who need it most. Rather than treating smallholder farmers as recipients of aid, his model invests in their capacity to become increasingly self-reliant, giving them greater income, skills, bargaining power and ownership of their economic future. It is a compelling demonstration that commercial discipline and human dignity need not compete, and that enterprise designed around those most vulnerable to exclusion can create the foundations for both prosperity and peace.