smartnership

Dr. Keld Jensen is an internationally recognized expert and advisor on negotiation. He works with governments and major corporations to apply the techniques of SMARTnership negotiation.

Dr. Jensen has made over 200 international TV appearances and is a former contributor to Forbes magazine. His corporate clients include Vestas, Novo Nordisk, LEGO, Johnson & Johnson, Carlsberg Group, Siemens, Rolls-Royce, SAB Miller, Bang &Olufsen; he has also worked extensively with UNICEF and several national governments.

A prolific author, Keld has written 27 books, reaching more than 3 million readers and being available in more than 38 countries. In 2016, he was named one of the world’s Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trust. His concept of SMARTnership won the award "best negotiation/tender strategy" by The Organization of Public Procurement Officers and the Innovation Award from IACCM in 2017. 

Keld delivers over 50 keynotes globally annually and was nominated "best public speaker in Denmark." In 2025, his latest book, The SMART Negotiator, was released. You can visit Keld Jensen's website for more information. In 2021, Keld was accepted into the prestigious Global Gurus Top 30, and he is currently #3 globally.

Michael Gates is Associate Fellow of Saïd Business School and owner of Michael Gates CrossCulture.

He is an internationally recognised teacher and writer on cross-cultural management and speaks regularly at large corporate and government events.

Michael was previously with Richard Lewis Communications from 1990, first as Managing Director of the Finnish company and subsequently as Nordic Regional Director. He was appointed Group Managing Director in 2000 and Vice Chairman in 2012.

Michael has also contributed chapters to books published in the United Kingdom, Finland, Denmark and India. He received the Most Innovative Technology Award for CultureActive at the US Center for International Business and Education conference, hosted by Duke Fuqua Business School and the University of North Carolina.

Two recent programmes he worked on for Video Arts, on remote teams and cross-cultural teams, both won awards from World Media Festivals – the latter getting the Grand Award for best training video overall.