Speakers

Kristalina Georgieva currently serves as Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, a position she was selected for on September 25, 2019 and has served as since October 1, 2019. Before joining the Fund, Ms. Georgieva was CEO of the World Bank from January 2017 to September 2019, during which time she also served as Interim President of the World Bank Group for three months. Previously, Ms. Georgieva helped shape the agenda of the European Union while serving as European Commission Vice President for Budget and Human Resources. Before that, she was Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, managing one of the world’s largest humanitarian aid budgets. Ms. Georgieva began her career in public service at the World Bank as an environmental economist in 1993. After serving for 17 years, and in many senior positions, including Director for Sustainable Development, Director for the Russian Federation, Director for Environment, and Director for Environment and Social Development for the East Asia and Pacific Region, her career culminated in her appointment as Vice President and Corporate Secretary in 2008. Ms. Georgieva serves on many international panels including as co-Chair of the Global Commission on Adaptation, and as co-chair of the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Humanitarian Financing. Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 1953, Ms. Georgieva holds a Ph.D in Economic Science and a M.A. in Political Economy and Sociology from the University of National and World Economy, Sofia, where she was an Associate Professor between 1977 and 1993. In 2010, she was named “European of the Year” and “Commissioner of the Year” by European Voice in recognition for her leadership in the EU’s response to humanitarian crises. In October 2020, she received the Atlantic Council’s Distinguished International Leadership Award in acknowledgement of exceptional and distinctive contributions during her career of public service.

Josep Borrel Fontelles was appointed High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy as well as Vice-President of the Commission for a Stronger Europe in the World in December 2019.  Prior to this charge, he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, the European Union and Cooperation of Spain between 2018 and 2019.  He was Jean Monnet Chair of European Economic Integration at the Complutense University of Madrid between 2013-2016 and President of the European University Institute, Florence, in the period 2010-2012. From 2007 to 2009, he was Member of the European Parliament and Chair of the Committee on Development, as well as President of the European Parliament in the period 2004-2007.  In Spain, his home country, he was Member of the Parliament between 1986 and 2003, and Minister of Public works, Transport, Telecommunications and the Environment in the period 1991-1996. Prior to these charges, he served as State Secretary for Treasury between 1984 and 1991, and Secretary-General for Budget and Public Expenditure in the period 1982-1984.  After his master’s Degrees in Oil Industry Economics and Technology and in Applied Mathematics (Operations Research), obtained respectively at the French Institute of Petroleum, Paris, and at the Stanford University, California, Josep Borrel Fontelles was Mathematics Professor at the Higher Technical School of Aeronautical Engineering and Complutense University of Madrid between 1972 and 1982.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was elected WHO Director-General for a five-year term by WHO Member States at the Seventieth World Health Assembly in May 2017. In doing so, he was the first WHO Director-General elected from among multiple candidates, and was the first person from the WHO African Region to head the world’s leading public health agency.

Born in the Eritrean city of Asmara, Dr Tedros graduated from the University of Asmara with a Bachelor of Biology, before earning a Master of Science (MSc) in Immunology of Infectious Diseases from the University of London, a Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) in Community Health from the University of Nottingham and an Honorary Fellowship from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Following his studies, Dr Tedros returned to Ethiopia to support the delivery of health services, first working as a field-level malariologist, before heading a regional health service and later serving in Ethiopia’s federal government for over a decade as Minister of Health and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2005-2016.

Prior to his election as WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros held many leadership positions in global health, including as Chair of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, Chair of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, and Co-chair of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Board.

After taking office as Director-General, Dr Tedros initiated the most significant transformation in the Organization’s history and focused WHO’s work on the mission to “Promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable.”

António Guterres, the ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations, took office on 1st January 2017. Having witnessed the suffering of the most vulnerable people on earth, from refugee camps to war zones, the Secretary-General has centered his efforts on ensuring human dignity for all. In a period of unprecedented global challenges, he has drawn on his commitment to the UN Charter to mobilize people and launch action to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, address the climate emergency, advance gender equality, and achieve ambitious 21st century reforms to enhance the Organization’s vital efforts to secure peace, sustainable development, human rights and humanitarian aid. Prior to his appointment as Secretary-General, Mr. Guterres served as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from June 2005 to December 2015, heading one of the world’s foremost humanitarian organizations during some of the most serious displacement crises in decades and in a period in which the number of people displaced by conflict and persecution rose from 38 million in 2005 to over 60 million in 2015. Before joining UNHCR, Mr. Guterres spent more than 20 years in government and public service. He served as prime minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002, during which time he was heavily involved in the international effort to resolve the crisis in East Timor. As president of the European Council in early 2000, he led the adoption of the Lisbon Agenda for growth and jobs, and co-chaired the first European Union-Africa summit. He was a member of the Portuguese Council of State from 1991 to 2002. Mr. Guterres was elected to the Portuguese Parliament in 1976 where he served as a member for 17 years. During that time, he chaired the Parliamentary Committee for Economy, Finance and Planning, and later the Parliamentary Committee for Territorial Administration, Municipalities and Environment. He was also leader of his party’s parliamentary group. From 1981 to 1983, Mr. Guterres was a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, where he chaired the Committee on Demography, Migration and Refugees. For many years Mr. Guterres was active in the Socialist International, a worldwide organization of social democratic political parties. He was the group’s vice-president from 1992 to 1999, co-chairing the African Committee and later the Development Committee. He served as President from 1999 until mid-2005. In addition, he founded the Portuguese Refugee Council as well as the Portuguese Consumers Association DECO, and served as president of the Centro de Acção Social Universitário, an association carrying out social development projects in poor neighbourhoods of Lisbon, in the early 1970s. Mr. Guterres is a member of the Club of Madrid, a leadership alliance of democratic former presidents and prime ministers from around the world. Mr. Guterres was born in Lisbon in 1949 and graduated from the Instituto Superior Técnico with a degree in engineering. He is fluent in Portuguese, English, French and Spanish. He is married to Catarina de Almeida Vaz Pinto, Deputy Mayor for Culture of Lisbon, and has two children, a stepson and three grandchildren.

Sven Koopmans is a peace negotiation specialist, senior diplomat, national politician, and international lawyer. On May 2021 he has been appointed EU Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process until 2023. From 2017 to 2021 Mr Koopmans was a Member of Parliament in The Netherlands for the governing VVD party, first as spokesman on legal affairs, then on foreign affairs and military missions. He was Head of Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, President of the Dutch-French Contact Group, Chair of the Parliamentary Commission on Requests and Citizen Initiatives, and Member of the Parliamentary Assemblies of the Council of Europe and the OSCE. Between 2003 and 2016 he was political and legal advisor in peace processes, border conflict mediation and constitutional review processes under the auspices of the European Union, United Nations, African Union and OSCE. Between 2014 and 2016 he was senior mediation expert to the UN Special Envoy for Syria, between 2011 and 2013 advisor to the EU Special Representative for Sudan and South Sudan, and from 2008 to 2009 to the International Civilian Representative in Kosovo.

Ayman Safadi is currently Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of Jordan. In the mid-1980s, Ayman began his professional career in journalism and communications, before moving into politics and then management. During this time, he was the Director General of the Jordan Radio and Television Corporation, Editor-in-chief and columnist in “Al-Ghad” daily newspaper, and Editor-in-chief of the Jordan Times. Between 2008 and 2011, he served as an adviser to King Abdullah, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of State and government spokesperson. He was also a member of the Senate from September 2016 until his appointment as minister in 2017. He holds a Bachelor’s in English Literature from Yarmouk University and a Master’s in International Journalism from Baylor University. In January 2022, Safadi met with United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington, D. C., to discuss bilateral relations, economic cooperation, and issues in the Middle East including Syrian crisis, two-state solution, and support of Iraq. 

Staffan de Mistura is the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy on Western Sahara since October 2021. Previously, he has been UN Special Envoy for Syria from 2014 to 2018. In 2010, he was appointed Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan; in 2009, Deputy Executive Director for External Relations of the World Food Programme. Mr. de Mistura served in Iraq as the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative (2007-2009). He was Personal Representative of the UN Secretary-General of Southern Lebanon (2001-2004). He worked as WFP Project Officer in Sudan for the United Nations and has organized food aid and relief operations in Ethiopia, the Balkans and Rwanda. As an Emergency Relief Officer in Chad, he led the first-ever UN airdrop operation. He served in the Food and Agriculture Organization before returning to WFP as Director of Operations in Sudan. He also served as Director of Fundraising and External Relations at the UN Office of the Coordinator for Afghanistan, and has held a variety of posts with UNICEF. 

After graduating from the lyceum, he attended the Department of Computer Engineering for a few months and then decided to enrol in Law School. In 2007-2008, he was appointed Faculty Advisor and President of the Student Council and, together with several first-year students, he founded the studentigiurisprudenza.it Student Association, an independent association that is still active today in protecting student rights. While attending the “Federico II” University of Naples, he launched an e-commerce, web marketing and social media marketing business which is still run by his former business partners. In 2007, he became a member journalist and publicist of the Italian Press Association. In 2013, at 26, he was the youngest-ever Vice President of the Chamber of Deputies in the 17th Parliament, until 22 March 2018. Still during the 17th Parliament, he was a member of the 14th Commission on European Union Policies and Chairman of the Supervisory Committee on documentation activities and on the Chamber of Deputies Library.  Together with his staff, he activated the Business Microcredit Fund, financed with contributions from the salaries of the MPs and Senators of the M5S (Five Star Movement). On 2 June 2018, he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development and Minister of Labour and Social Policies. On 5 September 2019, he was sworn in as Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

Marina Sereni was appointed as Italy’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in 2019 and is a member of the National Directorate of the Democratic Party. At a very young age, she was engaged in student organizations and in Italy’s Movement for Peace. She was elected to the Regional Council of Umbria in 1985. From 1993 to 2001 she served as Counsellor for Budget, Personnel and Social Policies. She joined Parliament in 2001, within the Umbria constituency, and December of that same year she became the foreign affairs manager of the Democratic of the Left party. In 2005 she becomes the organizational manager, contributing to the birth of the Democratic Party (Partito Democratico). Sereni was re-elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 2006, she held the position of Vice President of the l’Ulivo Group until April 28, 2008. She then served as Vice President of the Democratic Party Group from 2008 until November 2009. At the 2009 Democratic Party Congress, she assumed the post of Vice President of the National Assembly of the Democratic Party. In the 2013 political elections for the Umbria constituency, she was elected Deputy Vice President of the Chamber of Deputies and became a member of the Foreign and Community Affairs Commission.

John R. Allen assumed the presidency of the Brookings Institution in November 2017, having served as chair of security and strategy and a distinguished fellow in the Foreign Policy Program. Allen is a retired U.S. Marine Corps four-star general and former commander of the NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and U.S. Forces in Afghanistan. Allen served in senior diplomatic roles following his retirement from the Marine Corps., as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Defense on Middle East Security, during which he led the security dialogue for the Israeli/Palestinian peace process. President Barack Obama appointed Allen as special presidential envoy to the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL. Allen’s diplomatic efforts grew the coalition to 65 members, effectively halting the expansion of ISIL.

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Lorenzo Guerini was appointed as Italy’s minister of defence in 2019, by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. Guerini began his political career at the beginning of the 1990s in the ranks of the Christian Democracy (DC). In 1994 he was chosen as the local coordinator of the new-born Italian People’s Party (PPI), the direct heir of DC. Together with many of The Daisy members, in 2007 he joined the Democratic Party (PD), the new centre-left party, born from the union between The Daisy and the Democrats of the Left. From 2005 to 2012 he served as Mayor of Lodi, his hometown. In March 2014, he was appointed by the Secretary of the Democratic Party, Matteo Renzi, Deputy Secretary along with Debora Serracchiani, a position that he held until May 2017. He graduated in political science at the Cattolica University of Milan.

Samantha Cristoforetti is an Italian European Space Agency astronaut, Italian Air Force pilot and engineer. She is the first Italian woman in space. Born in Milan, Italy, in 1977, Samantha Cristoforetti graduated in 2001 from the Technische Universität Munich, Germany, with a master’s degree in aerospace engineering. In 2001 she was accepted in the Italian Air Force Academy where she earned a bachelor degree in aeronautical science. She then attended the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training program at Sheppard Air Force Base in the United States, where she earned her fighter pilot wings in 2006. Samantha Cristoforetti was selected as an ESA astronaut in May 2009. She joined ESA in September 2009 and completed her basic astronaut training in November 2010. In March 2012 she was assigned to fly as flight engineer on the Soyuz TMA-15M, as part of the crew of Expedition 42/43 on the International Space Station, where she spent 200 days. Samantha has been assigned a second mission to the International Space Station. She is currently in training for this mission, which is scheduled for 2022. 

Mircea Geoană became NATO Deputy Secretary General in October 2019, after a distinguished domestic and international career. Mr Geoană is the first Deputy Secretary General from Romania. Prior to this commitment, he has been Chair of the Parliamentary Committee for Romania’s accession to the Schengen Area (2012-2014), High representative of the Romanian Government for Strategic Economic Projects and Public Diplomacy, President of the Romanian Senate and President of the Social Democratic Party. Mr Geoană is a strong advocate of transatlantic integration and has held a number of international positions, including OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in 2001 and personal representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for Georgia in 2005. He is President and founder of the Aspen Institute Romania and has published extensively on domestic and international affairs.

Ambassador Dr. Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak, holds a PhD in Business Administration from the University of Baghdad, He worked as an Assistant Professor in several Yemeni universities, and headed the Business Administration Centre for Graduate Studies at Sana’a University. In 2012, Dr. BinMubarak was appointed as a member of the Preparatory Committee in charge of preparing for the biggest turning points in the Yemeni transitional process as an independent representative and was elected as committee rapporteur. In 2014, he was appointed Director of the Presidential Office and in the same year appointed to be Prime Minister for which he declined in accepting the position. In July 2015, he was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Yemen to the United States of America, in Washington, DC, and has also functioned as non-resident ambassador to Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. He was also appointed as the Permanent Representative of Yemen to the United Nations during the year 2018.

Tim Lenderking is the U.S. Special Envoy for Yemen. Mr. Lenderking previously served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Arabian Peninsula Affairs in the Near East Bureau at the U.S. Department of State. He is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service. Mr. Lenderking served previously as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from 2013-2016. He served as the Director of the Pakistan Office at the Department of State from 2010-2013. From 2008-2010, Mr. Lenderking completed two tours in Baghdad, the first as the Senior Democracy Advisor at the US Embassy, and the second as the Policy Advisor to LTG Charles Jacoby, Commanding General of Multi-National Forces Iraq (MNF-I), based at Camp Victory. Before his Iraq tours, Mr. Lenderking served as the Economic Counselor and Acting Deputy Chief of Mission at US Embassy Kuwait. He was also the Political Counselor at Embassy Rabat from 2002-2006.

Olivér Várhelyi is a Hungarian lawyer and diplomat, and European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement from Hungary in the von der Leyen Commission since 2019. Várhelyi started his career in the Hungarian public administration in 1996 at the Ministry for Industry and Trade. He then moved to the Foreign Affairs Ministry, where he was tasked with alignment with the EU acquis. From 1998 to 2001 he was chief of cabinet of the head of the legal unit of the ministry. He then moved to Brussels at the Hungarian’s mission to the EU, as legal counselor and then head of legal service until 2006, after Hungary’s EU accession. For two years Várhelyi then served as head of the EU law department at the Hungarian Ministry of Justice. From 2008 to 2001 he briefly served as head of unit at the European Commission, in charge of industrial property rights at the Directorate General Internal Market and Services. He then moved back to the Hungarian foreign service, service from 2011 onward as deputy head and then from 2015 head of the Permanent Representation in Brussels, with the rank of ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary. Várhelyi obtained a Master of European Legal Studies at Aalborg University, Denmark, in 1994, and a Law degree at the University of Szeged, in 1996. In 2005 he passed the bar exam.

Najla El Mangoush is the Libya’s first female Minister of Foreign Affairs. She trained as a lawyer at Benghazi university and was later an assistant professor of law there. During Libya’s 2011 revolution, she headed the National Transitional Council’s (NTC) Public Engagement Unit which dealt with civil society organisations. Subsequently she was a Fulbright Scholar in the US and is a graduate of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU university in Virginia. As a conflict-resolution expert, she was the country representative in Libya for USIP (United States Institute of Peace). She has served as the Program Officer for Peace-building and Traditional Law at the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution in Arlington, Virginia and has a PhD in conflict analysis and resolution at George Mason university.

Mary Burce Warlik is the Deputy Executive Director of IEA. Ms Warlick retired from the US Department of State in September 2017 after a 34-year career during which she served most recently as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary and Acting Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs. Previously, she was Ambassador to Serbia under President Barack Obama, Consul General in Melbourne, Australia, and Counselor for Economic Affairs in Moscow. In her last assignment, she served for three years as the US representative on the IEA Governing Board and as Chair of the IEA’s Standing Group on Long-Term Cooperation. Since leaving government service, she has also served as team leader for the IEA’s recent in-depth peer reviews of the energy policies in the Netherlands and Canada.

Mr. Francesco La Camera is the Director-General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). He has more than thirty years of experience in the fields of climate, sustainability, and international cooperation. He formerly served as Director-General of Sustainable Development, Environmental Damage, EU and International Affairs at the Italian Ministry of Environment, Land & Sea. He played a key role in bringing together multilateral organisations to develop joint initiatives designed to implement the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals. Author of many publications, Mr. La Camera was a Lecturer of Sustainable Development at the University of Cosenza and of Environment & Land Economics at the University of Roma 3. He began his career as an economic analyst at the Italian Ministry of Budget and Planning.

Alanoud bint Hamad Al-Thani is the Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Chief Business Officer of Qatar Financial Centre (QFC). Prior to joining the QFC, Alanoud served as the Qatar Country Representative and Director for Silatech, a Qatar-based social initiative that connects young people to employment opportunities across the Arab region. Out of her deep belief in the need to support Arab youth empowerment, Alanoud greatly expanded Silatech’s operations within Qatar, helping connect thousands of young people to private sector opportunities and supporting economic development across the MENA region. Her efforts here extend several positions with UN agencies and international organisations specialising in economic development, education, and youth employment.

Riad Malki is Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates since 2009, and Chairman of the Board of Directors – The Palestinian International Cooperation Agency PICA, since 2016. He served as Minister of Information and as Official Spokesperson of the Government from 2007 to 2009. He was General Director & the founder of Panorama Center for the Dissemination of the Democracy & Community from 1991 to 2007. Previously, between 1981 and 1996, Mr Malki was Civil Engineering Professor at Birzeit University. Head of the Civil Engineering Department and Member of the steering committee of the Orient House, Jerusalem. In 2005, he was awarded with “The Italian Peace Prize”, Lombardia Region, in 2004 with “The Democracy Courage Award” (South Africa), and in 2000 with the “European Peace Prize”. 

António Manuel De Carvalho Ferreira Vitorino served as European Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs, from 1999 to 2004. Prior to joining the European Commission, he served as Deputy Prime Minister of Portugal. He has been member of the European Parliament, where he chaired the Civil Liberties and Internal Affairs Committee in charge of Migration, Asylum, Justice and Fundamental Rights. He served as Judge of the Portuguese Constitutional Court, and was Professor at the Lisbon Law School and Lisbon Nova University. He was President of Notre Europe/Jacques Delors Institute in Paris (2011-2016), Board member of the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) in Washington, D.C. (2005-2013) and chaired the New York based Advisory Board of the International Migration Initiative. Mr Vitorino was Commissioner of the Gulbenkian Foundation Forum on Migration and the Civil Society Platform for the Integration of Migrants. Currently he is a member of the Washington D.C. based Transatlantic Council on Migration (since 2007).

Majid bin Abdullah Al Qasabi is the Minister of Commerce of Saudi Arabia. In 1998 Al Qasabi left the King Abdulaziz University to become Secretary General of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce & Industry, a role which he held until 2002. In 2002, he served as director-general of the Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud Foundation and became an advisor at the Crown Prince’s Court in 2010, and president of Special Affairs for Crown Prince Sultan and his two successors between 2011 and 2014. Al Qasabi was named minister of social affairs of Saudi Arabia by royal decree on 29 January 2015. Within the first 100 days of his appointment, a center for studies and research called Nama was set up in Riyadh, to follow up on all initiatives carried out by the Ministry of Social Affairs.

Youssef El Khalil is the current Minister of Finance in the cabinet of Prime Minister Najib Mikati formed on September 10, 2021. Dr. El Khalil joined the Lebanese Central Bank as an Economist in 1982. His most recent appointment was as ​Executive Director of the Bank’s Financial Operations Department. He joined AUB as a part-time Lecturer in Economics in 1989. His main emphasis has been on Development Studies, the Economics of growth, Managerial Economics and Economic History. In parallel to his professional and academic career, Youssef El Khalil is the co-founder and president of the Association for the Development of Rural Capacities (ADR) and he heads also a number of non-governmental organizations in Lebanon and abroad, including the Euro-Arab Association for Development and Integration (READI) and the president of Teach for Lebanon (TFL).

Ahmed Aboul Gheit has been Secretary General of the Arab League since March 2016 and he was reconfirmed in March 2021. He was appointed Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2004 to 2011.  Previously, from 1999 to 2004, he served as Permanent Representative of Egypt at UN headquarters in New York.  He joined the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1965 and held different positions within it.  From 1992 to 1996 he served as Egypt’s Ambassador to Italy, Macedonia and San Marino. Mr Aboul Gheit was also Egypt Representative to FAO in Rome (2017). 

Rafael Mariano Grossi was appointed as IAEA’s Director General in 2019. Mr Grossi is a diplomat with over 35 years of experience in the field of non-proliferation and disarmament. In 2013, he was appointed Ambassador of Argentina to Austria and Argentinian Representative to the IAEA and other Vienna-based International Organizations. In 2019, Mr Grossi acted as President Designate of the 2020 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), and from 2014 to 2016 he served as president of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, where he was the first president to serve two successive terms. In 2015, he presided over the Diplomatic Conference of the Convention on Nuclear Safety, securing unanimous approval for the Vienna Declaration on Nuclear Safety – a milestone in international efforts in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident. From 2010 to 2013, he served as Assistant Director General for Policy and Chief of Cabinet at the IAEA. Previously, he held several senior positions in the Argentinian Foreign Service, including as Political Affairs Director General from 2007 to 2009. Mr Grossi was Chief of Cabinet at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague from 2002 to 2007. Prior to this, he held several positions within the Argentinian Foreign Ministry after joiningin 1985, including Chief of Embassy in Belgium and Luxembourg from 1998 to 2002, and Argentinian Representative to NATO from 1998 to 2001. Since 2017, Mr Grossi has been an International Gender Champion, promoting gender balance in the nuclear field. In 1983 he graduated from the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina with a Bachelor’s in Political Sciences, and in 1997 he graduated from the University of Geneva and the Graduate Institute of International Studies with a master’s and PhD in International Relations, History and International Politics.

Dr Nayef Falah Mubarak Al-Hajraf was appointed Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in February 2020, following his appointments as Minister of Finance, Chairman of the Kuwait Capital Markets Authority’s Board, and Minister of Education. Dr Nayef Falah began his career as an Assistant Professor at the Gulf University’s Accounting Department from in 2003 and was then promoted to Vice President of the University till 2010. Dr Nayef Falah obtained his PhD in Accounting and Finance from the University of Hull in 2002, following his Master’s in Accounting from the University of Illinois in 1997 and his bachelor’s from the University of Kuwait in 1994.

Ulrik Vestergaard Knudsen is Deputy Secretary-General of OECD since January 2019. His portfolio includes the strategic direction of OECD policy on the digital and technological transformation; global and UN relations; trade and agriculture. In June 2021, he was appointed OECD Gender & Diversity Champion, leading the organisation’s work on gender equality and diversity. Mr Knudsen led the transformation of the OECD Executive Committee in Special Session into the Global Strategy Group (GSG) to have a strategic forum to discuss issues of global relevance. He chaired the first GSG meetings from 2012-2017. 

Until the end of 2018, Mr Knudsen was Permanent Secretary of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Denmark. Prior to this, he served as Sherpa and Chief Diplomatic Advisor to two Danish Prime Ministers on Security Policy and on EU and Foreign Affairs in the Prime Minister’s Office. Mr Knudsen served as Ambassador to the OECD and UNESCO in Paris (2008-09). Besides his diplomatic career, which includes postings in London (2003-04), Washington (1998-2000) and Moscow (1997), he briefly served as Group Director for International Policy at Vodafone in London (2013). 

He holds a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Copenhagen (1994), where he also acted as External Lecturer, and he has published various papers and publications on Asia, WTO, trade policy and globalisation 

Winner of the 2016 International Children’s Peace Prize, Kehkashan Basu is an iconic global influencer, environmentalist, champion of women and children’s rights, TEDx speaker, Climate Reality Mentor, author, musician, peace and sustainability campaigner. A Forbes 30 Under 30 and the first-ever Winner of the Voices Youth Gorbachev-Schultz Legacy Award for her work on nuclear disarmament, Kehkashan is a United Nations Human Rights Champion, a National Geographic Young Explorer, a UN Habitat Young City Champion, the Regional Organizing Partner for North America for the NGO Major Group and one of Canada’s Top25 Women of Influence. Kehkashan is the Founder-President of global social innovation enterprise Green Hope Foundation, that works at a grassroots level in 25 countries, empowering young people, especially those from vulnerable communities, in the sustainable development process and she has spoken at over 200 United Nations and other global fora across 25 countries. She is the youngest Trustee of the Parliament of the World’s Religions, Council Lead of the Toronto-St. Paul’s Constituency Youth Council, Canada, Winner of the World Literacy Award for for Significant Contribution to Literacy by a Young Person, a member of the World Humanitarian Forum Youth Council, Winner of the Pax Christi Toronto Teacher of Peace Award and a Co-Leader of the UN Women Generation Equality Forum Action Coalition on Feminist Action for Climate Justice.

José Manuel Albares Bueno was named Minister of Foreign Affairs, the European Union and Cooperation of the Kingdom of Spain on 10 July 2021. Mr. Albares was born in 1972 and is a career diplomat and he previously served as the Ambassador of Spain to the French Republic and the Principality of Monaco. He has been Secretary-General for International, European Union, G20 and Global Security Affairs at the Office of the President of the Government. In this capacity, he was the President of the Government’s Sherpa for both the European Union and the G20. Over the course of his career, Mr. Albares has been Spanish Consul in Colombia, Counsellor for Culture at the Spanish Embassy in Paris, and held a post at the Spanish Permanent Representation to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). During his posting at the OECD he was elected Vice-Chair of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC). At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the European Union and Cooperation, he has held different management positions, both in Foreign Affairs and at the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID).

Miguel Ángel Moratinos Cuyaubé was appointed High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations in 2019. He began his diplomatic career as the head of the Coordination Section for Eastern Europe between 1977 and 1980. At the end of 1980, he was appointed to the Spanish Embassy in Yugoslavia and remained there until 1984. From Belgrade he went on to Rabat, this time as a political adviser, remaining there between 1984 and 1987. He was appointed General Deputy Director for Northern Africa (1987-1991) and then Director of the Institute of Cooperation with the Arab World (1991-1993). After his tenure at the Institute, he was appointed General Director of Foreign Policy for Africa and the Middle East, between 1993 and 1996, where he took part in the organisation of the historic Middle East Peace Conference in Madrid in 1992. After being Spain’s Ambassador in Israel from July to December 1996, he was appointed by the European Union as EU Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process, a mission in which he worked from December 1996 to June 2003. In 2004, he was appointed as Spain’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation. He graduated in Law and Political Sciences at the University Complutense in Madrid, and then in Diplomatic Studies at the Spanish Diplomatic School.

Ferid Belhaj took up the position of World Bank Vice President for Middle East and North Africa on July 1, 2018. Prior to this, Mr. Belhaj served 15 months as the Chief of Staff of the President of the World Bank Group. From 2012 to 2017, Mr. Belhaj was World Bank Director for the Middle East, in charge of World Bank work programs in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Iran, based in Beirut, Lebanon. Mr. Belhaj served as World Bank Director for the Pacific Department (2009-2012), and between 2007 to 2010 he was World Bank’s Special Representative to the United Nations in New York. Ferid Belhaj served as World Bank Country Manager for Morocco (2002-2007), where he developed a new and multifaceted dialogue with one of the best performing Middle-Income countries. A Tunisian national, Mr. Belhaj joined the Bank in 1996 as Senior Counsel in the Legal Department, managing a number of legal and judicial reform projects.

Joyeeta Gupta is professor of environment and development at the University of Amsterdam and IHE Delft Institute for Water Education. She is co-chair of UNEP’s Global Environment Outlook-6 (2016-2019) and of Future Earth’s Earth Commission (2019-2021). She has just won the European Research Council’s Advanced Grant for 2021-2026).

Qu Dongyu took up office as the ninth Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations on 1 August 2019. He is the first Chinese national to head the Organization. From 2001 to 2011 he was Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Between 2011 and 2015 he served as Vice-Chair of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in China and in 2015 he became Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, where he was involved in promoting international collaboration with organizations such as FAO and Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International. He trained to become a biologist, gaining a bachelor’s degree from Hunan Agricultural University, a Master’s in plant breeding and genetics from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and a Doctorate in Agricultural and Environmental Sciences from the University of Wageningen, Netherlands. 

Ghassan Salamé served as the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative (SRSG) and Head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), from 2017 until March 2020. In 2003, Mr. Salamé served as the Political Adviser to the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), where he played a crucial role in bringing together Iraqi factions.  He was then appointed as Senior Adviser to the Secretary-General (2003-2007, 2012).  In 2016, he joined the Commission on the Rakhine State (Myanmar) chaired by Kofi Annan.  For most of his career, Mr. Salamé was a professor of international relations at Sciences-Po (Paris) and he is the founding Dean of its Paris School of International Affairs.

Emanuela Del Re has been appointed EU Special Representative for the Sahel in 2021. Since 2018, she served as Italy’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. Sociologist and expert in international politics, she is a specialist in migration and refugees, conflicts, religious issues, minorities. Del Re is a researcher and professor of Sociology of political phenomena at the International telematic university “UniNettuno”, she taught for years at the Faculty of Communication Sciences of the “La Sapienza” University of Rome, where she was also “Jean Monnet” Professor with a teaching funded by the European Commission on European citizenship and governance. In 2017, she was elected National Coordinator of the Sociology of Religion department of the Italian Sociology Association (AIS) with which she launched the “Mondoreligioni” festival. Del Re has also conducted intervention projects since 2012 with the European Commission and others for the reconstruction of civil society in conflict zones (i.e. Iraq, Jordan). She has been an International Electoral Observer for the United Nations, The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and the European Union.

Paolo Gentiloni is an Italian politician serving as European Commissioner for the Economy in the von der Leyen Commission since 2019, following his time as the 57th Prime Minister of Italy from 2016 to 2018. Prior to that he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2014 to 2016, and as Minister of Communication from 2006 to 2008, and as the spokesperson for the Mayor and Commissioner in the City of Rome between 1993 and 2000. Gentiloni is also a former professional journalist, as well as a founding member of the Democratic Party, of which he became President in March 2019. He graduated in Political Sciences from the Sapienza University of Rome.

Stephanie Williams served as the Special Adviser on Libya for the UN between December 2021 and August 2022. Before covering this position, she had been the acting special representative of the secretary general (ASRSG) for Libya and head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL). Prior to this engagement, as the deputy special representative of the secretary general for Libya. During her tenure as the ASRSG, Stephanie led the United Nations’ mediation that resulted in a nation-wide Libyan ceasefire agreement signed on October 23, 2020 and a political agreement reached on February 5, 2021 that produced Libya’s first unity government in seven years.  Under her direction, the parties to the Libyan conflict also agreed to the holding of national elections on December 24, 2021. 

Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo of Nigeria began his tenure as Secretary General of the OPEC on 2016. Over the years he also worked in several key roles at OPEC. In 1986, he was appointed to Nigeria’s delegation to OPEC, and from 1993 to 2008, served as Nigeria’s National Representative on the Organization’s Economic Commission Board. In 2006, he was Acting OPEC Secretary General, and represented Nigeria on OPEC’s Board of Governors from 2009 to 2010. From 2009 to 2010, he was Group Managing Director and CEO of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Previous to that, he served as Deputy Managing Director of Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas. Earlier in his career, he was Special Assistant to former Minister of Petroleum Resources and OPEC Secretary General, HE Dr Rilwanu Lukman KBE. Mr. Barkindo has also been leader of Nigeria’s technical delegation to the UN climate change negotiations since 1991. He served as Chair of the Group of 77 and China at the UNFCCC and was elected to serve three terms as Vice President of the Conference of the Parties — COP13 (Bali, Indonesia), COP14 (Poznan, Poland) and COP15 (Copenhagen, Denmark), where he chaired the opening session.

Benedetta Berti is a foreign policy and security researcher, analyst, consultant, author and lecturer.  Her work focuses on armed groups and internal wars, analyzing the impact of insecurity on civilians and  studying how to build more peaceful and resilient communities. ​An Eisenhower Global Fellow and a TED Senior Fellow, Benedetta Berti is also Associate Researcher at the Institute for European Studies at Vrije Universiteit Brussels and a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. In 2015 the Italian government awarded her the Order of the Star of Italy (order of Knighthood). Since 2018, she serves as Head of Policy Planning in the Office of the Secretary General at NATO.

Natalina Cea has been appointed Head of Mission of the EU Border Assistance Mission (EUBAM) in Libya. She is an Italian civil servant who has worked at a senior level for more than 20 years, both in Italy – as Director of the International Cooperation and Technical Assistance Office of the Italian Customs Administration – and internationally, leading missions, programs and projects in the civilian security sector, particularly in the field of border management and related security and justice issues. On 22 May 2013, the Council of the European Union gave the green light for EUBAM Libya, a civilian Mission under the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), to support the Libyan authorities in improving and developing the security of the country’s borders. This civilian Mission supports the Libyan authorities in developing border management and security at the country’s land, sea and air borders.

Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani has been Qatar’s Minister of Foreign Affairs since January 2016. In 2003 he joined the Supreme Council for Family Affairs as an economic researcher and was then promoted until he reached the position of Director of Economic Affairs (2005-2009). He was appointed manager for the project supporting and developing small and medium-sized state enterprises at the Ministry of Business and Trade in March 2009, and Secretary of the Personal Representative of the Emir of Qatar for Follow-up Affairs at the Emiri Diwan in June 2010. 
In 2011 he became Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Aspire – Katara Investment Company. He attained the rank of Under Secretary in 2012. In January 2014 he was nominated Assistant Foreign Minister for International Cooperation Affairs. 

Abdallah Bou Habib is the current Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants of Lebanon. He began his career at the World Bank in May 1976 as an Economist and then a Senior Loan Officer in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. From May 1983 to February 1990, Dr. BouHabib served as Lebanon’s Ambassador to the United States. He rejoined the World Bank in February 1992 as Adviser to the MENA Vice President and Regional External Affairs Unit Chief. In March 2001, Ambassador BouHabib returned to Lebanon and served until August, 2005 as Senior Adviser to Lebanon’s Deputy Prime Minister. He founded and managed the Issam Fares Center for Lebanon (IFCL) from 2007 to 2015. Dr. BouHabib is a graduate of the American University of Beirut and holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. He was a Lecturer at Vanderbilt University, Notre Dame University and La Sagesse University. 

Appointed Minister on 13 February 2021. Economist, statistician and academic. Full professor (on leave) of economic statistics at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, where he taught Statistics and Analysis and Policies for Sustainable Development.

Chief Statistician of the OECD from 2001 to August 2009. President of ISTAT from August 2009 to April 2013. Minister of Labour and Social Policies from 2013 to 2014.

He is the co-founder of the Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development (ASviS), a network of more than 290 subjects of Italian civil society, of which he was spokeperson until 13 February 2021.

Until January 2021 he was President of the European Statistical Governance Advisory Board, member of the Executive Board of the Club of Rome, of the Global Happiness Council, Chairman of the Committee for the Report on the Economy Not Observed and Tax Evasion of the Ministry of Economy and Finance and member of the Scientific Committee of the Parliamentary Budget Office.

From May 2020 he is responsible for the Futura Network project.

On 18 May 2016, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Patricia Espinosa of Mexico as Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Ms. Espinosa took office on 18 July 2016. Ambassador of Mexico to Germany since 2012 and from 2001 to 2002, Ms. Espinosa was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico from 2006 to 2012. As Mexico’s representative on multilateral bodies and international organizations in Vienna, Geneva and New York, Ms. Espinosa has been engaged as leader in the global challenge to address climate change and its consequences, notably as President of the 16th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC leading to the adoption of the Cancun Agreements. Named by the UN Secretary-General to the High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post 2015 Development Agenda, she is a tireless supporter of multilateralism as a way to improve conditions for development in all regions of the world, understanding the inextricable link between the aims of the Paris Climate Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals. Elected Chair of the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly (1996) she played a key role in the process leading to the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action at the 4th World Conference on Women. Previous Ambassador of Mexico to Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia and UN Organisations in Vienna (2002-2006), she was Chief of Staff to the Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1989-1991) and responsible for economic issues at the Permanent Mission of Mexico to the UN in Geneva (1982-1988). Born in 1958, she has postgraduate studies in International Law from the Institut Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales in Geneva and is holder of a Degree in International Relations from El Colegio de Mexico.  

Widely known as a “Father of the Internet,” Cerf is the co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols and the architecture of the Internet. In December 1997, President Bill Clinton presented the U.S. National Medal of Technology to Cerf and his colleague, Robert E. Kahn, for founding and developing the Internet. In 2004, Cerf was the recipient of the ACM Alan M. Turing award (sometimes called the “Nobel Prize of Computer Science”) and in 2005 he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George Bush. Cerf began his work at the United States Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) playing a key role in leading the development of Internet and Internet-related data packet and security technologies. Since 2005, he has served as vice president and chief Internet evangelist for Google. In this role, he is responsible for identifying new enabling technologies to support the development of advanced, Internet-based products and services. He is also an active public face for Google in the Internet world. He also served from 2000-2007 as chairman of the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), an organization he helped form. Cerf served as founding president of the Internet Society from 1992-1995, and in 1999 served a term as Chairman of the Board. 

Esther Duflo is the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics in the Department of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a co-founder and co-director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). In her research, she seeks to understand the economic lives of the poor, with the aim to help design and evaluate social policies. She has worked on health, education, financial inclusion, environment and governance. Professor Esther Duflo’s first degrees were in history and economics from Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris. She subsequently received a Ph.D. in Economics from MIT in 1999. Duflo has received numerous academic honors and prizes including 2019 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (with co-Laureates Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer), the Princess of Asturias Award for Social Sciences (2015), the A.SK Social Science Award (2015), Infosys Prize (2014), the David N. Kershaw Award (2011), a John Bates Clark Medal (2010), and a MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship (2009).  With Abhijit Banerjee, she wrote Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty, which won the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award in 2011 and has been translated into more than 17 languages, and the recently released Good Economics for Hard Times. Duflo is the Editor of the American Economic Review, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. 

Sir Angus Deaton is Senior Scholar and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University and Presidential Professor of Economics at USC. He is the author of The Great Escape: health, wealth, and the origins of inequality and, with Anne Case, Deaths of despair and the future of capitalism. His interests span domestic and international issues and include health, happiness, development, poverty, inequality, and how to best collect and interpret evidence for policy. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, a Fellow of the British Academy, and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He is a past President of the American Economic Association. His BA, MA, and PhD are from Cambridge University, and he holds several honorary doctorates from universities in Europe and the US. In 2015, he received the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel “for his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare.” He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was made a Knight Bachelor in the Queen’s Birthday Honors List in 2016.

Jeffrey D. Sachs is a world-renowned professor of economics, leader in sustainable development, senior UN advisor, bestselling author, and syndicated columnist whose monthly newspaper columns appear in more than 100 countries. He is the co-recipient of the 2015 Blue Planet Prize, the leading global prize for environmental leadership, and has twice been named among Time Magazine’s 100 most influential world leaders.

Professor Sachs served as the Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University from 2002 to 2016. He was appointed University Professor at Columbia University in 2016 and also serves as Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development and Professor of Health Policy and Management. He is Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the Sustainable Development Goals, and previously advised both Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals. 

Vittorio Colao is the Italian Minister of technological innovation and digital transition. In 2020, he coordinated the Committee of experts in economic and social matters nominated by the Italian President of the Council of Ministers during the COVID-19 crisis. He started his career in 1986, in McKinsey. In 1996 he joined Omnitel (today Vodafone Italy) as general manager and he was appointed CEO in 1999. In 2011 he was nominated local CEO of Vodafone Group for Southern Europe and in 2003 his responsibility was extended to Middle East and Africa. In 2004, Vittorio Colao left Vodafone and became CEO of the publishing company RCS MediaGroup for a two year-long experience, after which he rejoined Vodafone as CEO Europe. In 2008 he was nominated CEO of the Vodafone Group and stayed in office until 2018. In recent years, Vittorio Colao has been advisor of General Atlantic, Non-Executive Member of the Board of Directors of Unilever, and Member of the Board of Directors of Verizon and Bocconi University. Colao is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Oxford Martin School and Cometa ONLUS, an organization focused on welcoming and training minors in Como. Vittorio Colao is Cavaliere al Merito del Lavoro (2014) and was nominated United Nations He4She Champion (2015), FT Women Champion (2017), and Stonewall Senior Champion (2018). He received a degree from Bocconi University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.  

Pascal Lamy (pascallamy.eu) is the President of the Paris Peace Forum and Brunswick Europe Chair. He is special advisor to the European Commission.

He shares his other activities between the Jacques Delors think tanks (Paris, Berlin, Brussels), the presidency of the UNWTO ethics of tourism committee, of the French Committee of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PEEC), Aspen meeting Europe/Africa, and the Musiciens du Louvre orchestra (Marc Minkowski). He is also holds positions in various French, European, and global boards or advisory boards (Mo Ibrahim Foundation, IFPRI, CERRE, TMEA, Transparency International, Alpbach Forum, Beijing Forum, World Trade Forum, WEF global risks, Europaeum, Collegium international etc.). He is affiliate Professor at the China Europe International Business School CEIBS, Shanghai, and at HEC (Paris).

From 2005 to 2013, Pascal Lamy served for two terms as Director General of the World Trade Organization (WT0). He previously was European Commissioner for trade (1999-2004), CEO of Crédit Lyonnais (1994-1999), Chief of Staff to the President of the European Commission Jacques Delors and his G7 sherpa (1985-1994), Deputy Chief of Staff to the French Prime Minister (1983-1985) and to the French Minister for Economy and Finance (1981-1983).

Latest publications: “Strange new world” (Odile Jacob 2020, “Où va le monde ? » (Odile Jacob 2018).

Pamela Coke-Hamilton has served as Executive Director of the International Trade Centre since 1 October 2020. She joined ITC from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), where she was Director of the Division on International Trade and Commodities. Ms. Coke-Hamilton has a breadth of experience and expertise in trade-related capacity-building and sustainable development. She served with the Jamaican Government, the Caribbean Forum in trade negotiations, and multilateral institutions, including the Organization of American States and InterAmerican Development Bank. She previously served as Executive Director of the Caribbean Export Development Agency, strengthening the private sector and micro, small and medium enterprises through investment promotion. She has a deep understanding of the challenges faced by vulnerable economies such as the small island developing States and least developed countries. Ms. Coke-Hamilton has worked extensively with the private sector across African, Caribbean and Pacific countries and academia to build trade-related institutional strength within member States. She also established the Women Empowered through Export (WeXport) platform to address the disadvantages that women-owned firms experience in accessing markets. Ms. Coke-Hamilton holds a Juris Doctor in Law from the Georgetown University School of Law in Washington, DC, and a BSc in International Relations and Economics from the University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica. 

Lawrence H. Summers is the Charles W. Eliot University Professor and President Emeritus of Harvard University. During the past two decades, he has served in a series of senior policy positions in Washington, D.C., including the 71st Secretary of the Treasury for President Clinton, Director of the National Economic Council for President Obama and Vice President of Development Economics and Chief Economist of the World Bank. He received a bachelor of science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1975 and was awarded a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1982. In 1983, he became one of the youngest individuals in recent history to be named as a tenured member of the Harvard University faculty. In 1987, Mr. Summers became the first social scientist ever to receive the annual Alan T. Waterman Award of the National Science Foundation (NSF), and in 1993 he was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal, given every two years to the outstanding American economist under the age of 40. He is currently the Charles W. Eliot University Professor at Harvard University and the Weil Director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at Harvard’s Kennedy School. He and his wife Elisa New, a professor of English at Harvard, reside in Brookline and have six children. 

Roberto Cingolani swore in as Minister for the Ecological Transition of Italy on February 13, 2021. He holds a degree in Physics and a PhD in Physics at Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa. In 2000 he was appointed Full Professor of General Physics at the Engineering Faculty of University of Lecce (Italy). In 2001, he founded the National Nanotechnology Laboratory (NNL) of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) in Lecce, one of the largest international nanotechnology laboratories. Between 2005 and 2019 he was the Scientific Director of Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia – IIT, where he launched the interdisciplinary program “Humanoid Technologies”. From September 2019 to February 2021 he was the Chief Technology & Innovation Officer of Leonardo, the Italian multinational company specialized in Aerospace, Defense and Security. Roberto Cingolani is author and co-author of more than 1100 papers on international journals and holds more than 100 patents in the fields of Materials Science, Semiconductor Technologies, Nanotechnologies, Chemistry of Materials, Sensor Technologies, Optoelectronics and Photonics, Robotics. He has served as technical advisor in different panels for the Ministry of Research and University, including the Commission for the Selection of Centers of Excellence and the panel of experts for the drawing up of the National Research Plan, as well as for the European Commission, especially in the field of Nanotechnologies, New Materials, and New Production Systems. 

He has received many national and international awards, including the honorific title of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic of “Commendatore della Repubblica” from the President of the Italian Republic. 

Michelle Bachelet is the current United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.   

Ms. Bachelet was elected President of Chile on two occasions (2006 – 2010 and 2014 – 2018). She was the first female president of Chile. She also served as Health Minister (2000-2002) as well as Chile’s and Latin America’s first female Defense Minister (2002 – 2004). 

During her presidential tenures, she promoted the rights of all but particularly those of the most vulnerable. Among her many achievements, education and tax reforms, and the creation of the National Institute for Human Rights and the Museum of Memory and Human Rights stand out. So do the establishment of the Ministry of Women and Gender Equality, the adoption of quotas to increase women’s political participation, and the approval of Civil Union Act legislation, granting rights to same sex couples and thus, advancing LGBT rights. 

Since the early 1990s, Ms. Bachelet has worked closely with many international organizations. In 2010 she chaired the Social Protection Floor Advisory Group, a joint International Labor Organization (ILO) and World Health Organization (WHO) initiative, which sought to promote social policies to stimulate economic growth and social cohesion. 

In 2011, she was named the first Director of UN Women, an organization dedicated to fighting for the rights of women and girls internationally.  Economic empowerment and ending violence against women were two of her priorities during her tenure. She has recently pledged to be a Gender Champion, committing to advance gender equality in OHCHR and in international fora. 

Daniele Franco was born in Trichiana (Belluno) on 7 June 1953. He has been Minister of Economy and Finance since 13 February 2021. He graduated in Political Science from the University of Padua in 1977; he obtained a Master’s degree in business organization from the Consorzio Universitario di Organizzazione Aziendale of Padua in 1978, and a Master of Science in Economics from the University of York, Great Britain, in 1979. In the same year, he joined the Economic Research Department of Bank of Italy, where he worked until 1994. From 1994 to 1997 he was an Economic Advisor at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs. Upon his return at the Bank of Italy, he was head of the Public Finance Division of the Economic Research Department from 1997 to 2007, head of Structural Economic Analysis Department from 2007 to 2011, Managing Director of the Economic Research and International Relations from 2011 to 2013. From May 2013 to May 2019 he held the position of State Accountant General at Italy’s Ministry of Economy and Finance. He was Deputy Governor of the Bank of Italy from May 2019 to December 2019, then Senior Deputy Governor from 1 January 2020 to 12 February 2021. Over the course of his career, he has widely published and held lectures on public finance, social protection and income distribution, and has participated in committees and working groups at various national and international organizations. 

Houlin Zhao was first elected 19th Secretary-General of the ITU at the Busan Plenipotentiary Conference in October 2014. He took up his post on 1 January, 2015. ITU Member States re-elected Houlin Zhao as ITU Secretary-General on 1 November 2018. He began his second four-year term on 1 January 2019.  

Prior to his election, he served two terms of office as ITU Deputy Secretary-General (2007-2014), as well as two terms as elected Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (1999-2006).  

Houlin Zhao is committed to further streamlining ITU’s efficiency, to strengthening its membership base through greater involvement of the academic community and of small- and medium-sized enterprises, and to broadening multistakeholder participation in ITU’s work. 

Joseph McMonigle was appointed Secretary General of the International Energy Forum in 2020. He has over 20 years of experience working on energy issues in the public and private sectors. Prior to that, McMonigle was the President & Co-Founder of the Abraham Group, and a senior energy analyst for Hedgeye Risk Management. He was also Chief of Staff at the U.S. Department of Energy between 2001 and 2005 and served two years as the former Vice Chairman and US Representative of the Paris-based International Energy Agency. Mr. McMonigle is an attorney, a member of the Energy Bar Association, and licensed in the District of Colombia and Pennsylvania state bars. He received his bachelor’s from King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and his Juris Doctor degree from Widener University Commonwealth Law School.

Former Secretary-General of the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 2006, Angel Gurría firmly established the Organisation as a pillar of the global economic governance architecture including the G7, G20 and APEC, and as a reference point in the design and implementation of better policies for better lives. He broadened OECD’s membership with the accession of Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Estonia, Israel, Latvia and Slovenia, and has made the Organisation more inclusive by strengthening its links with key emerging economies.  Under his watch, the OECD led the effort to reform the international tax system, and to improve governance frameworks in anti-corruption and other fields. He also heralded a new growth narrative that promotes the well-being of people, including women, gender and youth, and scaled up the OECD contribution to the global agenda, including the Paris Agreement  on Climate Change and the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals. 

Sigmar Gabriel is chairman of Atlantik-Brücke and a Senior Fellow at CES. In fall 2018, he served as a John F. Kennedy Memorial Policy Fellow at CES. Gabriel brings a wealth of experience at the local, federal and international level. He assumed several leading posts in the German government, most recently as Minister for Foreign Affairs (2017-2018) and Vice-Chancellor of Germany (2013-2018). Prior to that he was Germany’s Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy (2013-2017) and Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (2005-2009). Gabriel was one of the longest serving leaders of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) from 2009 to 2017.

Inger Ashing is Chief Executive Officer of Save the Children International. A respected child rights activist, Inger has been associated with Save the Children for more than 25 years, first serving as a youth advocate and later on the Boards of Save the Children Sweden and Save the Children International. Prior to her appointment in September 2019, Inger was Director General at the Swedish Agency against Segregation, where she worked to reduce segregation and social inequality, with a special focus on improving the situation in socio-economically disadvantaged areas. She has also served as the National Coordinator for Youth Not in Education or Employment for the Swedish Government, Deputy Director General of the Swedish Agency for Youth and Civil Society and the CEO of the Global Child Forum. Inger is also a member of the Ethics Council at The Swedish Migration Agency. She has been an expert to and board member of several authorities and committees such as the Delegation for Human Rights, the Swedish National Knowledge Centre on Violence against Children, the Delegation for the Employment of Young People and Newly Arrived Migrants, the Swedish Enforcement Authority, the National Board of Institutional Care, and the Monitoring Committee for The European Social Fund.

Geir O. Pedersen has been appointed as Special Envoy for Syria in October 2018. He brings to this position decades of political and diplomatic experience, having served both in government and United Nations capacities, most recently as Norway’s Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China (since 2017) and as Permanent Representative of Norway to the United Nations (2012 to 2017). Mr. Pedersen served the United Nations in various roles, including as Special Coordinator for Lebanon (2007 to 2008) and as Personal Representative of the Secretary-General for Southern Lebanon (2005 to 2007).  He also worked as Director of the Asia and Pacific Division in the Department of Political Affairs. Between 1998 and 2003, Mr. Pedersen served as the Norwegian Representative to the Palestinian Authority.  From 1995 to 1998 he held different positions at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Oslo, among them as Chief of Staff for the Norwegian Foreign Minister. In 1993, he was a member of the Norwegian team to the Oslo negotiations that led to the signing of the Declaration of Principles and the mutual recognition between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel. 

Carl Bildt has been Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden since 2006. From 1991 until 1994, Mr. Bildt served as Sweden’s Prime Minister. Prior to that, he was a Special Adviser for coordination functions in the Swedish Government (1976 – 1978). Mr. Bildt was also the Chair of the International Democratic Union (1992 – 1999). He was very active in resolving the conflict in the Balkans, serving as a Co-Chair of the Dayton Peace Talks on Former Yugoslavia (1995) and a High Representative of the International Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina for reconstruction and the peace implementation process (1996 – 1997).) Mr. Bildt was the first Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the Balkans (1999 – 2001). Bildt was previously a member of the Council for the Future of Europe.

Dr. Kalibata is the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the 2021 Food Systems Summit. She is the president of Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) since September 2014. Prior to joining AGRA, Dr. Kalibata was Rwanda’s Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI) from 2008 to 2014. Dr. Kalibata sits on various boards, councils and commissions including the Global Commission on Adaptation, the Global Agenda Council of the World Economic Forum, the Malabo-Montpellier Panel, the Food and Land Use (FOLU) Coalition, the Architecture for REDD + Transactions (ART), the International Fertilizer Development Corporation (IFDC), Biodiversity International, and Africa Risk Capacity, among others. She has a distinguished record of accomplishment as an agricultural scientist and policy maker. She was awarded the Yara Prize, now the Africa Food Prize, in 2012, Honorary Doctorate from the University of Liège in 2018, and the National Academy of Sciences’ Public Welfare Medal in 2019. She holds a doctorate in Entomology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

José Luis Chicoma is the Minister of Production of Peru. He previously served as executive director of Ethos Public Policy Lab, a Mexican think tank that promotes development and sustainable food systems. He was the editor and coordinator of the publication “Transforming our food systems: Inspirational stories and proposals” and has served as a core member of the Tortilla Alliance, the Mexican AgTech network, as well as other coalitions that advocate for sustainable and healthy food systems. He also frequently writes and speaks internationally about the intersection of food and politics.He previously held several high-level positions in the Peruvian government, including serving as Vice Minister of Small and Medium Enterprises and Industries and Director of Export Promotion for PROMPERU. The country’s prestigious Semana Económica weekly named him one of the 25 people under age 45 likely to change the Peruvian economy. He has lectured in various universities and contributes to Latin American magazines and newspapers such as Letras Libres, PODER, América Economía and Animal Político.

Vivien Foster is the Chief Economist for the Infrastructure Vice-Presidency of the World Bank; which covers the areas of Digital Development, Energy & Extractives, Transport and Infrastructure Finance. During her 20 years at the World Bank she has played a variety of leadership roles, including: Global Lead for Energy Economics, Markets and Institutions (2016-18); Practice Manager of the Global Energy Anchor (2012-16); and Lead Economist for Infrastructure in the Africa Region (2006-11). Throughout, her focus has been on the intersection between network infrastructures and economic policy. She has contributed to client dialogue, as well as advisory and lending engagements, in more than 30 countries across Africa, Latin America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Vivien has spearheaded several major policy research initiatives including: Water, Electricity and the Poor (2005), examining the distributional impact of utility subsidies; Africa’s Infrastructure (2009), a path-breaking analysis of the continent’s network infrastructure challenges; Building Bridges (2009), detailing China’s growing role as infrastructure financier for Africa and many others. Prior to joining the World Bank, Vivien worked as a Managing Consultant of Oxford Economic Research Associates Ltd in the UK, advising private and public sector clients in the water and energy industries, both in Europe and Latin America, with focus on the economic regulation of utilities.

Alicia Bárcena assumed office as the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in 2008. She had previously served as the Under-Secretary-General for Management at United Nations Headquarters in New York, Chef de Cabinet and Deputy Chef de Cabinet to the former Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan. Alicia Bárcena was the Founding Director of the Earth Council in Costa Rica, a non-governmental organization in charge of follow-up to the agreements reached at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992. Alicia Bárcena holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology, and holds a Master degree in Public Administration from Harvard University. She has completed the courses for a degree of Master in Ecology, and has initiated studies for a PhD degree in Economics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She has published numerous articles on sustainable development, public policy, environmental issues, and public participation.

Youssef Chahed is a Tunisian politician who served as the 14th Prime Minister of Tunisia from 27 August 2016 to 27 February 2020. Previously he was Secretary of State for Fishing from 2015 to 2016 and Minister of Local Affairs in 2016. He was a member of the Nidaa Tounes party until he formed Tahya Tounes. Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Youssef Chahed has received more than 183,988 page views. Her biography is available in 20 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 17 in 2019). Youssef Chahed is the 14,256th most popular politician (down from 12,756th in 2019), the 97th most popular biography from Tunisia and the 48th most popular Tunisian Politician. 

Stéphane Hallegatte is a lead economist with the Climate Change Group of the World Bank. He joined the World Bank in 2012 after 10 years of academic research in environmental economics and climate science for Météo-France, the Centre International de Recherche sur l’Environnement et le Développement, and Stanford University.

Mr. Hallegatte was a lead author of the 5th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He is the author of dozens of articles published in international journals in multiple disciplines and of several books.

He was the team leader for the World Bank Group Climate Change Action Plan, a large internal coordination exercise to determine and explain how the Group will support countries in their implementation of the Paris Agreement.

Mr. Rudd served as Australia’s 26th Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010, then as Foreign Minister from 2010 to 2012, before returning to the Prime Ministership in 2013. As Prime Minister, Mr. Rudd led Australia’s response during the Global Financial Crisis. Australia’s fiscal response to the crisis was reviewed by the IMF as the most effective stimulus strategy of all member states. Australia was the only major advanced economy not to go into recession. Mr. Rudd is also internationally recognized as one of the founders of the G20 which drove the global response to the crisis, and which in 2009 helped prevent the crisis from spiraling into a second global depression. As Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Mr. Rudd was active in global and regional foreign policy leadership. He was a driving force in expanding the East Asia Summit to include both the US and Russia in 2010. Mr. Rudd remains engaged in a range of international challenges including global economic management, the rise of China, climate change and sustainable development. He is on the International Advisory Panel of Chatham House. He is a proficient speaker of Mandarin Chinese, a Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University and funded the establishment of the Australian Centre on China in the World at the Australian National University. He was a co-author of the recent report of the UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel on Global Sustainability – “Resilient People, Resilient Planet” and chairs the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Fragile States. He also remains actively engaged in indigenous reconciliation. 

Adam S. Posen is president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Under his leadership, since January 2013, the Institute has grown to 45 worldrenowned fellows and won global recognition – including being named Global Economics Think Tank of the Year by Prospect five years in a row. A monetary economist, from 2009 to 2012, Posen served as an external voting member of the Bank of England’s ratesetting Monetary Policy Committee, and he co-authored Inflation Targeting with Bernanke, Laubach, and Mishkin while at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (1994-97). His current research addresses globalization’s future amidst China-U.S. conflict, including his widely cited recent articles, “The Post–American World Economy,” “The End of Globalization?,” and “The Price of Nostalgia,” all in Foreign Affairs, and “America’s Zero-Sum Economics Doesn’t Add Up”, in Foreign Policy. 

Uma Rani is Senior Economist at the Research Department of the International Labour Office. She is a Development Economist and has conducted research in informal economy, minimum wages and social policies. Since 2016, her research focuses on transformations in the digital economy, wherein she explores how labour and social institutions interact with public policies and can provide decent working conditions to workers. She has recently coordinated the publication of the ILO flagship report, World Employment and Social Outlook 2021: The role of digital labour platforms in transforming the world of work.

Anne Marie Engtoft Larsen is Denmark’s Tech Ambassador with responsibility for representing the Danish Government to the global tech industry and in global governance forums on emerging technologies.

TechPlomacy is a pioneering initiative elevating technology and digitalization to a crosscutting foreign and security policy priority of the Danish government. Prior to her appointment, Anne Marie worked at World Economic Forum in Geneva (2017-2020) where she led the World Economic Forum’s work on the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Global Public Goods. Before joining the World Economic Forum, Anne Marie co-founded an innovation house for student entrepreneurship; co-founded Democratic Capital; worked as political advisor in the Danish Parliament; and served on the Board of Directors of Copenhagen Business School and The Danish Consumer Council.

Mr. Juwang Zhu is currently Director of the Division for Public Institutions and Digital Government/DESA. This is the second time he coordinated the work of the Division: he served as its Director in 2014-2015. Among his various assignments at the UN Secretariat, he served as Chief of the Office of the Under-Secretary-General/DESA (2008-2013). He was Special Advisor to the Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). As Director of the Division for Sustainable Development Goals (2016-2019), he coordinated the Secretariat support for the High-level Political Forum, the UN Ocean Conference, and the Global Sustainable Transport Conference. Prior to his reassignment to DESA in 1993, Mr. Zhu had previously worked as a policy analyst in the secretariat of the UN World Food Council and in the UN Office in Geneva. He joined the UN Secretariat in 1985.

Sharan Burrow is the General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, representing 200 million workers in 163 countries and territories with 332 national affiliates.
Previously President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) from 2000 – 2010, Sharan is a passionate advocate and campaigner for social justice, women’s rights, the environment, and labour law reforms, and has led union negotiations on major economic reforms and labour rights campaigns in her home country of Australia and globally. She has also served as a member of the Governing Body of the International Labour Organisation and is represented on a number of international commissions concerning climate action, industrial transition, and economic reform.

Ms Andriana Sukova is currently the Deputy Director General of DG EMPL in the European Commission. She is an economist with a long experience in the national administration in Bulgaria (more than 15 years, from researcher to a Deputy Minister in the Ministry of agriculture) as well as in NGO sector (5 years) and business management (chairperson of the Board of Directors of a big foreign company). After Bulgaria’s accession to the EU, Ms Sukova joined the Cabinet of Commissioner for Consumer Protection Meglena Kuneva. Ms Sukova has numerous post-graduate trainings in the UK, Italy, Japan, USA.

Inger Andersen is Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme.

Between 2015 and 2019, Ms. Andersen was the Director General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).  Ms. Andersen has more than 30 years of experience in international development economics, environmental sustainability, strategy and operations and has held senior positions at the World Bank and the United Nations.

Mr Ernesto Ottone Ramírez is the Assistant Director-General for Culture of UNESCO. Prior to this position, Mr Ottone Ramírez served as Chile’s first Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage from 2015 to 2018. As Minister of Culture, he created a Department of First Peoples, a Migrants Unit and strengthened copyright laws and heritage protections. During this time, he also chaired the Regional Centre for the Promotion of Books in Latin America and the Caribbean (2016 – 2017). From 2011 to 2015, Mr Ottone Ramírez served as Director-General of the Artistic and Cultural Extension Center of the University of Chile, which manages the National Symphony Orchestra of Chile, the Chilean National Ballet (BANCH), the Chile Symphony Choir and the Vocal Camerata. From 2001 to 2010, he held the position of Executive Director at the Matucana 100 Cultural Center in Santiago.