Michael O’Mara Books is to publish an indispensable collection of interviews and conversations curated from entrepreneur and philanthropist Vikas Shah’s Thought Economics website.

Thought Economics: Conversations with the Remarkable People Shaping Our Century will feature essential thoughts and ideas from notable figures – from world leaders to Nobel prizewinners, global artists to Olympians – with a foreword by Lemn Sissay. 

Interviewees contributing on topics including identity, leadership, culture, discrimination and injustice include: Maya Angelou, Melinda Gates, Noam Chomsky, Mark Cuban, Elif Shafak, Jameela Jamil, Heston Blumenthal, Muhammad Yunas, F.W. de Klerk, Laura Bates, Black Thought, Deepak Chopra, Rankin, Marina Abramović, Tracey Emin and many more.

Vikas Shah MBE is Managing Director of Swiscot Group, a Manchester-based textiles and commodities trading firm, with operations worldwide. A Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship (The Lisbon MBA with MIT Sloan), he has built businesses in diverse sectors for twenty years and serves as a trustee of charities including In Place of War and the Manchester Cancer Research Centre. A columnist for British Airways Business Life magazine, he established Thought Economics in 2007 and it is now a hugely successful website with readers in over 120 countries.

Vikas Shah said: “We have always talked about markets, the economy, culture, society and politics as phenomena that exist outside ourselves when, in fact, they are the product of ideas, of people. They are not apart from us, they are us. The name Thought Economics was borne of the fact that it was thinking, ideas, concepts – the products of thought – that create our world, and so perhaps ‘Thought Economics’ could be the study of that.”

Jo Stansall, Commissioning Editor at Michael O’Mara Books, said: “Vikas has an incredible knack for securing interviews and his voracious curiosity about the world, together with his love of art and discovery, shine through in this amazing collection. Thought Economics has been such an exciting project for us, and these important conversations around leadership, equality and identity feel particularly poignant in these unprecedented times.”

Thought Economics: Conversations with the Remarkable People Shaping Our Century will publish in hardback on 4^th February 2021, priced £16.99. World All Language Rights were acquired by Lesley O’Mara in a direct deal with Vikas.

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For more information contact: 

Saskia Angenent, Head of Publicity, Michael O’Mara Books Ltd | saskia.angenent@mombooks.com | 0207 819 5911 

• Michael O’Mara Books is an award-winning, independent publishing house known for their innovative and diverse non-fiction list, comprising best-selling biography, autobiography and lifestyle in addition to popular science and history. The company was established in 1985 and now, with a backlist of over a thousand titles, it is still a family firm, producing bestsellers and one hundred and fifty new books a year. Michael O’Mara’s children’s imprint, Buster Books, publishes commercial children’s activity and reference titles, and in 2015 the art-inspired imprint, LOM ART was launched. For more information, visit: www.mombooks.com
• Vikas Shah MBE is Managing Director of Swiscot Group, a Manchester-based textiles and commodities trading firm, with operations worldwide. He is also Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship (The Lisbon MBA with MIT Sloan) and an honorary professor at the Alliance Manchester Business School. He has built businesses in diverse sectors around the world for almost twenty years, and is also a consultant and advisor to numerous entrepreneurs and organizations globally. He is President of the North West region chapter of TiE (the world’s largest entrepreneurs’ network), a respected speaker on entrepreneurship, business and social issues, and a regular columnist for British Airways Business Life magazine. He is an advisor to many civic and community groups, advises the government as part of the IDAB and is a trustee of charities Mustard Tree and In Place of War, Executive Patron of the Manchester Cancer Research Centre, and a member of the University of Manchester General Assembly. For more information, visit: https://vikas.work and https://thoughteconomics.com.