Thomas Eymond-Laritaz is the Founder & CEO of Highgate, a strategic advisory firm expert in dispute resolution and special situations. Over the last 25 years, Thomas has advised dozens of Presidents, Prime Ministers, CEOs and prominent individuals on their strategy, international relations, communications, philanthropy, dispute resolution and crisis management throughout the world. Before setting up Highgate, Thomas was Managing Director at Mercury, and Executive Director at APCO Worldwide, where he built and led APCO Global Solutions, a global practice specialised in disputes and geopolitical challenges.Thomas also served as an adviser to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili in Tbilisi and Bulgarian Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Cobourg in Sofia. He worked five years as Chief of Staff of Victor Pinchuk, a prominent Ukrainian investor and philanthropist. Thomas started his career in the French public administration. He worked in the offices of French Prime Ministers Lionel Jospin and Jean-Pierre Raffarin where he was in charge of inter-ministerial coordination on European Affairs for environmental, industrial and energy issues.Passionate about philanthropy, he cofounded the Aspen Institute UK and the Aspen Institute Kyiv. He also created and led the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, then the largest private philanthropic foundation in Eastern Europe. Thomas is a French and British citizen. He graduated from the Ecole des Mines de Paris and the Corps des Mines.