Speakers

Alejandra Cardini is Director of the Education Programme at the Centre for the Implementation of Public Policies for Equity and Growth (CIPPEC) in Argentina. She is professor of education policy at the School of Politics and Government of Austral University and the School of Education of San Andres University. Since 2018, Cardini has been Task Force Co-chair at the Think20. At this forum, she has led education discussions on early childhood development, education and digitalisation, financing, international cooperation and global responses to COVID-19. She worked for many years as a researcher and as Minister advisor for Argentina’s National Ministry of Education. She is a primary teacher and a sociologist. She obtained her MA in Policy Studies in Education from the Institute of Education, University of London, and her PhD in Education from University of San Andres – Institute of Education, University of London.

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.

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.

Arjun Jayadev is a Professor of Economics and Director at the School of Arts and Sciences at Azim Premji University (APU), Bangalore. He is a Senior Economist at the Institute for New Economic Thinking. He has also worked as an Associate Professor of Economics at University of Massachusetts (UMass), Boston, (2005-2017), as a Fellow at Roosevelt Institute, New York, USA (2009-2011), & as a Research Fellow at the Columbia University Committee on Global Thought, New York, USA (2007-2009). He is also a board member of Oxfam India. His research interests are economics & development, with focus across multiple areas such as, macroeconomics (especially issues of debt, balance sheets, the political economy of finance and central banking and macroeconomic policy choices), income distribution and inequality (classical approaches to distribution, and group based inequalities), intellectual property, and the economics of power. Arjun was also the co-editor of ‘The Journal of Globalization and Development’ from 2013 to 2018. He has won numerous awards for his research.

Claudia Fiaschi, born in Florence and resident in the province of Florence.
From February 2017 until today is Spokesperson of the National Forum of the Third Sector and member of the National Council for Cooperation and Development (CNCS) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. Member of the National Council of  the Third Sector of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies. Member of the strategic steering committee of the Fund to combat child educational poverty; member of the Director’s Cabin at the Presidency of the Council of Ministers on 26 February 2019.

From 2016 at today is President of Confcooperative Toscana and Vice-President of Confcooperative Italiane.

Giovanni Fosti is the President of Fondazione Cariplo. He is Associate Professor of Practice of Government, Health and Not for Profit at SDA Bocconi and Adjunct Professor of Public Administration Economics and Management at the Bocconi University, Milan. Until December 2018, Giovanni Fosti was, among other, in charge of the Social and Social Care Services Area of CeRGAS – Centre for Research on Health and Social Care Management of the Bocconi University. Formerly, he served as director of the executive master EMMAP – Executive Master in Management of Public Administration at SDA Bocconi. Giovanni Fosti has also served as Chairman of the Fondazione Social Venture – Giordano dell’Amore, operative and strategic arm of Fondazione Cariplo’s programme for Social Innovation.

Dr. Fransen is senior policy advisor of several different institutions, businesses and think thanks. She advised the CEO of Royal Philips Health Technology Company and the UN on the development of a global strategy to implement the SDGs with private sector in Africa and globally. President Prodi asked her to head an expert group and co-author a high-level report on social infrastructure investments, which inspired InvestEU. She advises T20/G20 on Covid-19 vaccines manufacturing worldwide, especially in Africa.
Dr. Fransen co-created the platform P4TT and the COVID Education Alliance (COVIDEA). She supports Olafur Elliasson’s Little Sun initiative to increase the access to light for children in off-grid regions. She received several awards for her work on health and HIV, including a life achieving award for health and human rights in India. She worked for 23 years in the European Commission at senior management level in numerous policy areas.

She is medical doctor specialized in infectious diseases, global public health and social policies worldwide and worked in several countries in Africa and Asia. She has a PhD in social policies from Antwerp.

Sociologist and economist, after graduating in Economic and Social Sciences at the Bocconi University in Milan, he earned a doctorate in Social Sciences in Canterbury in 1991.
Since 2002 he has been Full Professor of Sociology at the Catholic University of Milan. Visiting fellow at the University of Edinburgh and Canterbury, he was visiting professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, at the Catholic University of Buenos Aires and at Notre Dame University (USA).
He is director of ARC – Centre for the Anthropology of Religion and Cultural Change and columnist for Il Corriere della Sera. He has been a member of the Steering Committee of Fondazione Cariplo since 2013.

Murray Leibbrandt is Professor of Economics at the University of Cape Town and a Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow at UNU-WIDER. In this capacity, and as Director of the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, he led the South African arm of UNU-WIDER’s Inequality in the Giants project that resulted in the 2021 book, Inequality in the Developing World.
Professor Leibbrant’s research focuses on South African poverty, inequality and labour market dynamics using survey data and, in particular, panel data. He has written extensively on these topics in a wide range of journal articles, book chapters, and books. He was a Principal Investigator of South Africa’s national household panel survey, the National Income Dynamics Study, from 2007 to 2019. Currently, Professor Leibbrandt directs the African Centre of Excellence for Inequality Research and leads the inequality sub-component of a joint project between UNU-WIDER and the National Treasury, “Southern Africa – Towards Inclusive Economic Development”.

Paolo Magri is the Executive Vice President of the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI) and Professor of International Relations at Bocconi University. He is a member of the Strategic Committee of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, of the Europe Policy Group of the World Economic Forum (Davos) and of the Board of Directors of the Italy-China Foundation. He is also a member of the Scientific Committees of the Elcano Royal Institute, the Center of Excellence for Stability Police Units (CoESPU) and of the Military Center for Strategic Studies (Ce.Mi.S.S.). He is a regular speaker, writer, and commentator to various media outlets on global issues, US foreign policy, Iran, and Middle East. Previously, he served as Programme Director to the UN Secretariat in New York and, up to 2005, as Director of International Affairs at Bocconi University in Milan.

Raghuram Rajan is the Katherine Dusak Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago’s Booth School. Prior to that, he was the 23rd Governor of the Reserve Bank of India from 2013 to 2016, as well as the Vice Chairman of the Board of the Bank for International Settlements from 2015 to 2016. Dr. Rajan was the Chief Economist and Director of Research at the International Monetary Fund from 2003 to 2006.
Dr. Rajan’s research interests are in banking, corporate finance, and economic development, especially the role finance plays in it. He co-authored Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists with Luigi Zingales in 2003. He then wrote Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy, for which he was awarded the Financial Times-Goldman Sachs prize for best business book in 2010.

Born in 1964, Roberto Rossini is married and has two daughters. Graduated in Political Sciences, he is currently professor of Sociology at the Canossa Campus, Brescia. He is member of Acli (Christian Associations of the Italian Workers) since 1994. From 2000 to 2016 he has been member of Acli Provincial Presidence of Brescia, with responsibility for Education and, later on, for Communication. He held the office of Acli Provincial President from 2008 to 2016. Acli National Council appointed him delegate for Communication in 2010 and responsible for Acli National Research Office in 2013. He has been Acli National President of Acli from 2016 to 2021. He is the currently spokesman of Alliance against poverty in Italy.

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.

Stefano Scarpetta is Director for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs at the OECD. Mr. Scarpetta joined the OECD in 1991 and held several positions in the Economics Department and in his current Directorate. He led, and contributed to, several large-scale research projects. From 2002 to 2006 he worked at the World Bank, where he took over the responsibility of labour market advisor and lead economist. In this capacity, he coordinated a Bank-wide research program of Employment and Development and contributed extensively to the Bank’s investment climate assessments, and returned to the Economics Department of the OECD in November 2006. Mr. Scarpetta holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Science Sociales (EHESS), Département et Laboratoire d’Economie Théorique Appliquée (DELTA) in Paris and a Master of Science in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Mrs. Vera Esperança dos Santos Daves de Sousa, was born in Luanda and has a degree in Economics from the Catholic University of Angola (UCAN). She is the first woman to be appointed as Minister of Finance in Angola. Until the date of her appointment she was Secretary of State for Finance and Treasury. Her curriculum includes the Course on Banking Techniques and Practices by the Institute for Banking Training in Portugal, and Derivatives and Bond Markets Course (ICAP). She has worked as finance technician at Sonangol ESSA, Director of the Products and Research Office in Banco Privado Atlântico, Lecturer of Financial Markets at the Executive MBA promoted by the Catholic Business School Alliance, Lecturer of Public Finance and Economic Integration at UCAN – Business School. From 2014 to 2016 she was the Executive Director of the Capital Market Commission and from September 2016 to October 2017 she was Chairman of the Capital Market Commission. Mrs. Vera Daves de Sousa also played the role of economic commentator in various media. She was the co-author of a book on Public Finance.

Simone Cecchini is Senior Social Affairs Officer of the Social Development Division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), based in Santiago, Chile.
At the ECLAC, he leads research and advises governments on poverty, inequality, and on the design, implementation and assessment of social protection policies. His work is characterized by a multi-disciplinary approach and a focus on equality and human rights. Between 1998 and 2002, Mr. Cecchini worked at the World Bank’s Poverty Group.
Mr. Cecchini holds a Degree in Political Science from the University of Florence, Italy, a Master’s in International Trade and Investment Policy from George Washington University, Washington D.C., and an MBA from the Universidad Católica of Chile.

Serial Entrepreneur, President & CEO of TZoro IBC, a Global Strategic Advisory & Consultancy firm, SADC Tripartite and AU endorsed African candidate for the ILO DG role in 2022, potentially the first African in 101 years, since 1919, if successful; IOE Vise-President to the ILO & ILO Vice-Chairman (Geneva, Switzerland), Productivity SA Chairman, Chairman of the Human Rights & Responsible Business Conduct Policy Working Group of the IOE, South African Norwegian Association (SANA) Chairman & Adjunct Associate Professor of Law at the University of the Western Cape (“UWC”). B20 Italy Co-Chair of the Employment & Education Task Force.

Tito Boeri is full professor of economics at Bocconi University. He was Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics, where he is currently Senior Visiting Professor. After obtaining his Ph.D. in Economics from New York University, he was senior economist at the OECD from 1987 to 1996. He was also consultant to the IMF, the World Bank, The European Commission, the ILO, and the Italian Government. From 2015 to 2019, he was President of the Italian Social Security administration. He is Scientific Advisor of the Ing. Rodolfo Debenedetti Foundation and he is research fellow at CEPR, CEP-LSE, IZA, Netspar and Igier-Bocconi. He is the founder of the economic policy watchdog website www.lavoce.info, in the editorial board of www.voxeu.org, and the Scientific Director of the Festival of Economics in Trento.