William Lauder to address TFWA conference

Andrew Pentol

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Esteé Lauder Companies executive chairman William Lauder will be the keynote speaker at the TFWA World Exhibition conference

Tax Free World Association (TFWA) has announced that Esteé Lauder Companies (ELC) executive chairman William Lauder will be the keynote speaker at the conference at this year’s TFWA World Exhibition in Cannes on Monday October 19 2009. The conference, entitled The Challenge of Change: Investing in People and Mankind, will include an interview-style keynote address led by BBC HARDtalk presenter Stephen Sackur, in which Lauder will offer his perspective on guiding a successful prestige beauty enterprise through economic highs and lows. The interview will include a discussion on ELC’s principled approach to global, environmental, economic and women’s health issues. Lauder will also examine how duty-free and travel-retail might evolve over the next 25 years. Following the interview with Lauder, former Boomtown Rats lead singer and now humanitarian Bob Geldof will look at global geopolitical trends and their impact on business and populations in developing countries.

Meanwhile, the opening conference address by TFWA president Erik Juul-Mortensen will focus on the evolution of duty-free and travel-retail over the past 25 years, assess the channel’s current status and look forward to the future of the industry and how current global issues and initiatives may affect it. Juul-Mortensen will be followed on stage by economist, historian and futurist Jacques Attali, who will offer a sociological and economic perspective of society, human behaviour and the cyclical nature of economics and economic trends.