• CERAWEEK 2025 | March 10-14, 2025
  • CERAWEEK
  • March 10 - 14, 2025

Laura Manson-Smith

Korn Ferry

Global Leader Organization Strategy Consulting

Laura Manson-Smith leads Korn Ferry’s Organization Consulting practice, a global team that helps clients transform their business by aligning their leaders, people, culture, and organization to strategy.

Laura was named in the top 25 strategy consultants and leaders globally in 2023 by the Consulting Report.

In her work with clients, Laura helps CEOs and Executive teams decode their strategies and turn them into practical plans. When doing this in the energy sector, she draws on her love of science, a strong grounding in finance and a deep understanding of leadership and large-scale behavioral change.

Laura has architected multiple Korn Ferry research and thought leadership projects. She is the Executive Sponsor for Korn Ferry’s work with Fortune on the World’s Most Admired Company rankings, including the 2024 supplemental research on growth and innovation.

Before Korn Ferry, Laura was a partner at Big 4 professional services firm, focused on the energy sector. Laura has a global outlook through work across multiple industries in Europe, the US, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

Laura is now based in the US, but when living in the UK she was a founding Board Member of POWERful Women, a cross industry and government organization focused on increasing female representation at senior levels in the energy sector.

Laura is a chartered accountant and has a BSc honors degree in physics with a year in Europe from Imperial College, London. This included research at the DESY particle accelerator in Hamburg.

Sessions With Laura Manson-Smith

Tuesday, 19 March

  • 04:00pm - 04:40pm (CST) / 19/mar/2024 09:00 pm - 19/mar/2024 09:40 pm

    Making Strategic Choices in a Time of Change
    Energy Transition

    Multiple transitions are unfolding around the world from geopolitical to technological. Meanwhile, the pace of change is accelerating as evidenced by the impact of Gen AI in just the past 12 months. The current energy transition is complex and multidimensional. Setting linear, global targets and predefined emissions pathways, which do not account for important aspects of the energy trilemma, have proven counterproductive. Net-zero targets for many countries go beyond 2050. And there are significant policy uncertainties in a year when over half of the world’s population is going to the polls. What strategies will endure in such a turbulent period? How are companies deciding on capital allocation across their portfolios and managing technological and policy risks? Why do investors seem skeptical about energy transition investments?