Hot topics and expert insights: Breakfast Briefings recap

Cardiff Business School’s Breakfast Briefings across 2025 delivered a series of compelling sessions, featuring experts across a range of industries, dealing with some of the biggest challenges facing Wales and beyond.

From Improving the Employers Disability Confident Scheme in Wales to Exploring the Culture of Innovation with Amazon Web Services, the series featured diverse topics and renowned voices, including senior leaders from the public, private, and third sectors.

The Breakfast Briefings continue to serve as a key network for academics, business practitioners, policymakers, media, and other stakeholders to share knowledge, debate ideas, and explore solutions to critical issues.

Our 2025 Breakfast Briefings series included:

Post-Budget: The Welsh Business Outlook

At this briefing, Guto Ifan, a researcher of Wales Fiscal Analysis (WFA) within Cardiff University’s Wales Governance Centre explored the recent UK, and subsequent Welsh Government, budget and the implications that these have had for Welsh Business.

Chaired by Cardiff Business School's Peng Zhou, Professor of Applied Economics, the session included an analysis of the key policy shifts that could affect and influence future economic growth and investment in Wales.

Unlocking Value: Leveraging Public Sector Assets to Deliver Sustainability

We were joined by Alexia Course, Chief Commercial Officer at Transport for Wales (TfW), Owain Taylor-Shaw, Head of Business Development at TfW ffeibr, and Professor Max Munday, Director of the Welsh Economy Research Unit at Cardiff Business School, as they explore how investment in public services can consider commercial opportunities to help ensure long-term financial sustainability and to also deliver societal impact.

The Chancellor's Spring Forecast: What the future holds

Following the Spring statement by Chancellor Rachel Reeves, our Breakfast Briefing unpacked some of the implications for how the economy will evolve in the coming months and years, and how it might affect the economy and households across the UK and especially in Wales. Huw Dixon, Professor of Economics at Cardiff Business School led the discussion, providing expert insights into the Budget and its wider economic impact.

Professor Laura McAllister in Conversation with Rhuanedd Richards

As Director of BBC Cymru Wales, Rhuanedd has overall responsibility for the Executive team and for all the content strategies and editorial priorities across their radio, video and online services. Rhuanedd started her career with BBC Wales as a journalist before presenting some of its flagship news and political programmes on radio and television.

Trade Talks: Demystifying Tariffs

An insightful session with Paul Brooks, Head of UK Nations & Regions at the Chartered Institute for Export & International Trade, who delved into the complex world of current international importing and exporting uncertainties and their associated impact on global trade.

Improving the Employers Disability Confident Scheme in Wales

In this Breakfast Briefing, hear the story behind Research Exploring Ways to Improve the Disability Confident Employer Scheme in Wales, a unique coproduced project between Welsh Government and disabled people from the Disability Rights Taskforce.

Speakers include Professor Debbie Foster, Sharon Cross, Emma Sullivan, Damian Bridgeman, and Willow Holloway.

Explore the Culture of Innovation with Amazon Web Services

An exclusive breakfast briefing with Andrew Proctor, at Amazon Web Services (AWS) to discover how one of the world’s most innovative companies fosters a culture of continuous invention and digital transformation.

Under Investigation Transforming Disciplinary Practice in the Workplace: Avoidable Harm, Compassionate Leadership and Safer Systems at Work

It was inspiring to hear from Andrew Cooper, Dr Adrian Neal, Liz Rogers, Rhiannon Windsor and Debra Hughes on the growing focus around avoidable employee harm and the real-world impact of organisational processes on staff wellbeing and patient care.

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