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Christine Lagarde

President, European Central Bank

Since November 2019, Christine Lagarde has been the President of the European Central Bank. Between 2011 and 2019, she served as the eleventh Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Prior to that she served as French Economic Finance Minister from 2007 to 2011 after having been Trade Secretary from 2005 to 2007. A lawyer by background, she practiced for 20 years with the international law firm Baker McKenzie, of which she became global chairman in 1999. In all such positions, she was the first woman to serve.

Michael Wirth

Chief Executive Officer, Chevron

Michael K. (Mike) Wirth, 60, is chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Chevron Corporation. He was elected to these positions by Chevron’s board of directors in September 2017 and assumed the roles on February 1, 2018.

Prior to his current role, Wirth served as vice chairman of the board in 2017 and executive vice president of Midstream & Development for Chevron Corporation from 2016 – 2018. In that role, he was responsible for supply and trading, shipping, pipeline and power operating units, as well as corporate strategy; business development; and policy, government and public affairs.

Kristin Peck

Chief Executive Officer, Zoetis

Kristin Peck was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Zoetis in January 2020. In this role, she leads the world’s leading animal health company, a Fortune 500 organization with approximately $6 billion in annual revenue and 10,000 employees worldwide. Ms. Peck is also a member of the Zoetis Board of Directors.

Prior to becoming CEO, Ms. Peck was executive vice president and group president, U.S. Operations, Business Development and Strategy at Zoetis.  Ms. Peck helped usher Zoetis through its Initial Public Offering in 2013 and has been a driving force of change in many roles at the company including Global Manufacturing and Supply, Global Poultry, Global Diagnostics, Corporate Development, and New Product Marketing and Global Market Research.  

Before joining Zoetis, Ms. Peck served as executive vice president, Worldwide Business Development and Innovation at Pfizer Inc. and as a member of Pfizer's Executive Leadership Team. In this role, she was responsible for the evaluation of strategic alternatives for Pfizer's Animal Health and Nutrition businesses – paving the way for a public animal health company and attractive investment opportunity.  

Prior to joining Pfizer, Ms. Peck held roles at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) as well as in private equity and real estate finance at The Prudential Realty Group, The O'Connor Group and J.P. Morgan.  

Ms. Peck is a member of the Business Roundtable, and also serves on the Advisory Board for the Deming Center for Quality, Productivity and Competitiveness at Columbia Business School. She previously served as a member of the Thomson Reuters’ Board of Directors. As a recipient of the 2019 Feather in Her Cap Award, Ms. Peck has been recognized for her leadership and contributions to the animal health industry, and her work in mentoring women and helping them advance their careers in animal health. 

Ms. Peck holds a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Darren Walker

President, Ford Foundation

Darren Walker is president of the Ford Foundation, a $13 billion international social justice philanthropy. Under his leadership, the Ford Foundation recently became the first nonprofit foundation in US history to issue a $1 billion social bond in the US taxable bond market to increase grant making to stabilize and strengthen nonprofit organizations in the wake of COVID-19. He is a member of Governor Cuomo’s Reimagining New York Commission and co-chair of NYC Census 2020. He also chaired the philanthropy committee that brought a resolution to the city of Detroit’s historic bankruptcy.

Before joining Ford, Darren was vice president at Rockefeller Foundation, overseeing global and domestic programs. In the 1990s, he was COO of the Abyssinian Development Corporation, Harlem’s largest community development organization.

Darren co-chairs New York City’s Mayoral Advisory Commission on City Art, Monuments, and Markers, and has served on the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform and the UN International Labour Organization Global Commission on the Future of Work. He co-founded both the US Impact Investing Alliance and the Presidents’ Council on Disability Inclusion in Philanthropy. He serves on many boards, including Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the National Gallery of Art, Carnegie Hall, the High Line, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture. In the summer of 2020, he was appointed to the boards of Square and Ralph Lauren. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is the recipient of 16 honorary degrees and university awards, including Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Medal.

Educated exclusively in public schools, Darren was a member of the first Head Start class in 1965 and received BA, BS, and JD degrees from the University of Texas at Austin. He has been included on numerous leadership lists: Time’s annual 100 Most Influential People, Rolling Stone’s 25 People Shaping the Future, Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business, Ebony's Power 100, and Out magazine’s Power 50.

Mahathir Mohamad

Former Prime Minister of Malaysia

Speaker bio coming soon.

Shan Weijian

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, PAG Group

Bestselling author of Money Games and Out of the Gobi

Weijian Shan is chairman and CEO of PAG, a leading Asia-focused private equity firm. Prior to PAG, he was a partner of the private equity firm TPG, and co-managing partner of TPG Asia (formerly known as Newbridge Capital). Over two decades, Weijian Shan has led a number of landmark transactions that have returned billions of dollars in profit to his firms' investors. Previously, Shan was a managing director of JP Morgan, and an assistant professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. In his youth, he spent several years working as a laborer in the Gobi Desert of China. He holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.B.A. from the University of San Francisco. Shan is the author of "Money Games: The Inside Story of How American Dealmakers Saved Korea's Most Iconic Bank" (2020) and "Out of the Gobi: My Story of China and America" (2019). His articles and commentary have been published in the Financial Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs and many other publications.

Najwa Shihab

Newscaster & Anchor, Metro TV Indonesia

Speaker bio coming soon.

Alan Joyce

Chief Executive Officer, Qantas

Alan Joyce was appointed Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Qantas in November 2008.

He is a Member of the Safety, Health, Environment and Security Committee.

Mr Joyce is a Director of the Business Council of Australia, a Member of the International Air Transport Association’s Board of Governors, having served as Chairman from 2012 to 2013 and a Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. He is also a Director of a number of controlled entities of the Qantas Group.

Mr Joyce was the Chief Executive Officer of Jetstar from 2003 to 2008. Before that, he spent over 15 years in leadership positions with Qantas, Ansett and Aer Lingus.

At both Qantas and Ansett, he led the network planning, schedules planning and network strategy functions. Mr Joyce spent eight years at Aer Lingus, where he held roles in sales, marketing, IT, network planning, operations research, revenue management and fleet planning.

Tsitsi Dangarembga

Award-winning Zimbabwean author

Speaker bio coming soon.

Peter Wennink

President & Chief Executive Officer, ASML

Peter Wennink was appointed President and CEO of ASML on July 1, 2013. He joined the company in 1999 as Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and as a member of the Board of Management. Peter has an extensive background in finance and accounting. Prior to ASML, he worked as a partner at Deloitte Accountants where he specialized in high technology with an emphasis on the semiconductor equipment industry.

In addition to his position at ASML, Peter is a member of the Royal Dutch Institute of Chartered Accountants, the chairman of the supervisory board of the Eindhoven University of Technology and a member of the Advisory Board of the Investment Committee of the National Civil Pension Fund (Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP, the Dutch pension fund for government employees). Peter also serves on the board of the FME-CWM, an employers' organization for the technology industry in the Netherlands.

Dr. Reza Baqir

Governor, State Bank Pakistan

Dr. Reza Baqir was appointed as the Governor of Pakistan's central bank, the State Bank of Pakistan, by the President of Pakistan on May 04, 2019. Prior to this appointment, Dr. Baqir had eighteen years of experience with the IMF and two years of experience with the World Bank. He was the Head of the IMF's Office in Egypt and Senior Resident Representative since August 2017. He has also held positions as IMF’s Mission Chief for Romania and Bulgaria, Division Chief of the IMF's Debt Policy Division overseeing IMF’s work on debt relief and sovereign debt restructuring, Head of the IMF delegation to the Paris Club, Deputy Division Chief of the IMF's Emerging Markets Division overseeing IMF’s loans and policies in emerging markets, IMF Resident Representative to the Philippines, and numerous other positions.

Dr. Baqir's academic research has been published in top journals of the economics profession, including the Journal of Political Economy and the Quarterly Journal of Economics. Dr. Baqir holds a Ph.D in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley and an A.B. (Magna cum Laude) in Economics from Harvard University.

Dr. Friederike Otto

Associate Director, Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford

Friederike (Fredi) is the acting director of the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, and an Associate Professor in the Global Climate Science Programme.

Her main research interest is on extreme weather events such as droughts, heat waves and storms, and understanding whether and to what extent these are made more likely or intense due to climate change. She leads several projects understanding the impacts of man-made climate change on natural and social systems with a particular focus on Africa and India.

Fredi is the co-lead of World Weather Attribution (WWA), an international effort to analyse and communicate the possible influence of climate change on extreme weather events, hosted at the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford. Through rapid attribution studies, which provide timely scientific evidence showing the extent to which climate change influenced a given event, WWA has helped to change the global conversation around climate change, influencing adaptation strategies and paving the way for new sustainability litigation.

In 2019 Fredi was named one of New Scientist's 'Ones to Watch' and in 2020 climate change attribution was named one of MIT Tech Review's top ten breakthrough technologies. In 2020, Fredi became one of just 10 international climate scientists to join the core writing team of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Synthesis Report of the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) - the document that will integrate all the IPCC reports in the current assessment cycle.

Fredi's work has been featured extensively in global media including the FT, Economist, Times of India, the Sun, Wall Street Journal, Telegraph, Guardian, New York Times, Washington Post, Daily Mail, Die Zeit, Der Spiegel, BBC, and CNN.

Sandeep Mathrani

Chief Executive Officer, WeWork

Sandeep Mathrani is the Chief Executive Officer of WeWork, where he also serves as a member of the Board of Directors. Prior to WeWork, Sandeep most recently served as CEO of Brookfield Properties Retail Group and as Vice Chairman, Brookfield Properties. Prior to that, he served as CEO of GGP Inc. for eight years, during which the company was recapitalized in November 2010, experienced eight years of growth, and in August 2018 was sold to Brookfield Property Partners. Prior to joining GGP in 2010, Sandeep was President of Retail for Vornado Realty Trust, where he oversaw the firm’s U.S. retail real estate division and operations in India comprised principally of office properties. Before that, he spent nearly a decade as Executive Vice President at Forest City Ratner, where he was tasked with starting and growing a new platform of retail properties across the five boroughs of New York City. Sandeep holds a Master of Engineering, Master of Management Science and Bachelor of Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Nidhi Razdan

Associate Professor of Journalism, Harvard University

Nidhi Razdan is an Associate Professor of Journalism at Harvard University, making a switch from journalism to teaching in September 2020. She was an award winning anchor and reporter with a NDTV,  India’s leading television news network where she worked for 21 years, rising to the position of Executive Editor. Nidhi has reported extensively on Indian politics and foreign affairs. She anchored NDTV’s flagship prime time news show and was the recipient of several awards including the IPI (International Press Institute Award) for journalism in 2019. Nidhi’s first book, ‘Left, Right and Centre- The Idea of India’ was published by Penguin in 2017.

N Chandrasekaran

Chairman, Tata Group

Natarajan Chandrasekaran is Chairman of the Board at Tata Sons, the holding company and promoter of all Tata Group companies. The Tata Group companies, across 10 business verticals, have aggregate annual revenues over US $110 billion and a market capitalization of over US$ 165 billion.

Chandra joined the Board of Tata Sons in October 2016 and was appointed Chairman in January 2017. He also chairs the Boards of several group operating companies, including Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Power, and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) – of which he was Chief Executive from 2009-17.

In addition to his professional career at Tata, Chandra is a Director on the Board of India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, since 2016. Chandra is on the International Advisory Council of Singapore’s Economic Development Board. He is the Chairman of Indian Institute of Management Lucknow as well as the President of the Court at Indian Institute of Science Bengaluru. He is also the Co-Chair of India US CEO Forum.

Chandra has been awarded several honorary doctorates by leading Universities in India and internationally. Chandra is also the author of Bridgital Nation, a groundbreaking book on harnessing technological disruptions to bring Indians closer to their dreams.

Chandra is an avid photographer, and a passionate long-distance marathon runner. Born in 1963, Chandra lives in Mumbai, with his wife Lalitha. Their son, Pranav, is at university.

Sebastian Thrun

Founder, President & Executive Chairman, Udacity

Sebastian Thrun is a scientist, educator, inventor, and entrepreneur. As the Founder, President, and Executive Chairman of Udacity, Sebastian’s mission is to democratize education by providing lifelong learning to millions of students worldwide. He is also the founder of Google X, where he led projects including the Self-Driving Car, Google Glass, and more.

Previously, he led the Stanford Racing Team whose robot “Stanley” won the DARPA Grand Challenge. Sebastian has been named the 5th Most Creative Person in Business (Fast Company), among the 50 Smartest People in Tech (Fortune), and highlighted in 50 Best Inventions of 2010 (Time). He is the first recipient of the inaugural Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award for Education, and is also featured in the recent film Lo & Behold: Reveries of the Connected World by award-winning writer and director Werner Herzog.

Irma Hidayana

Co-Founder & Co-Leader, LaporCovid19

Speaker bio coming soon.

Bhavish Aggarwal

Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Ola

Speaker bio coming soon.

Bobi Wine

Presidential Candidate Uganda

Speaker bio coming soon.

Ann Daniels

Polar Explorer 

Speaker bio coming soon.

Vijay Shekar Sharma

Chief Executive Officer & Founder, Paytm

Speaker bio coming soon.

Bruno Jaspaert

General Director of DEEP C, Industrial Zones Vietnam

Speaker bio coming soon.

Patricia Espinosa

Executive Secretary, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Speaker bio coming soon.

Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu

Director General, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC)

Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu is the Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and was until January 2018, the Acting Director of the Regional Centre for Disease Control for West Africa. Dr Ihekweazu trained as an infectious disease epidemiologist and has over 20 years’ experience working in senior public health and leadership positions in several National Public Health Institutes, including the South African National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), the UK's Health Protection Agency, and Germany’s Robert Koch Institute (RKI). Dr Ihekweazu has led several short- term engagements for WHO, mainly in response

Edward Yau Tang-wah

Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government

Mr Yau assumed the post of the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development on July 1, 2017. His portfolio covers policy areas from trade, commerce to telecommunications and broadcasting, and from promotion of creative industries, intellectual property and consumer protection to boosting inward investment and tourism development.

Mr Yau has his full career in the public service. Before taking up the current post, Mr Yau was the Director of the Chief Executive's Office from 2012 to 2017, assisting the Chief Executive in formulating policies and setting policy goals and priorities. He was the Secretary for the Environment from 2007 to 2012, overseeing policies on environmental protection, energy, nature conservation and sustainable development.

Mr Yau started his civil service career as an Administrative Officer in 1981. During his long service as a civil servant, he held various positions, including Director of Information Services, Deputy Secretary for Education and Manpower, Deputy Director-General of Trade and Industry as well as Director-General of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Washington, DC, USA.

Mr Yau graduated from the University of Hong Kong. He received further education at Oxford University and at Harvard University.

Bahren Shaari

Chief, Executive Officer, Bank of Singapore

Speaker bio coming soon.

Dr. Fred Hu

Chairman, Primavera Capital Group

Fred is the founder and Chairman of Primavera Capital Group, a private investment firm focused on innovative industries.

As an economist Fred’s research interests include entrepreneurship, technological innovation, and international development. Fred served as the co-director of the National Center for Economic Research and a professor at Tsinghua University, and he is currently an adjunct professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Peking University. He served at the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC, and has advised the Chinese government on financial market reforms and economic policies. Fred also served on the Hong Kong SAR Government's Strategic Development Committee and the Advisory Committee of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission.

Fred is the non-executive chairman of Yum China Holdings Inc.,and is a director of several corporate boards including Ant Group, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited, ICBC, and UBS Group AG. Fred is also the cochair of the Nature Conservancy’s Asia Pacific Council, a trustee of the China Medical Board, a member of the Council of Foreign Relations’ Global Advisory Board, a member of Harvard University’s Global Advisory Council, and a member of the Advisory Committees of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at Harvard Kennedy School, and the Jerome A. Chazen Institute of International Business at Columbia University. Previously Fred was Chairman of Greater China and a Partner at Goldman Sachs, where he was instrumental in building the firm's franchise in the Asia Pacific region.

Fred holds a Master in Engineering Science from Tsinghua University, and a Master and Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University.

Waad al-Kateab

Filmmaker, Activist & Founder, Action For Sama

Waad al-Kateab is a Syrian activist and award-winning filmmaker. She became a citizen journalist in 2011, after protests broke out across Syria against the Assad regime, and in January 2016 she began documenting the horrors of Aleppo for Channel 4 News in a series titled, “Inside Aleppo.” which received an International Emmy for breaking news coverage.

Waad’s first feature documentary, For Sama, documented her life over five years in Aleppo. The film, directed with Edward Watts, received worldwide critical acclaim, winning numerous awards, including the Prix L'Œil d'or for best documentary at Cannes Film Festival, Best Documentary at the BAFTAs and a nomination for Best Documentary Feature at the 2020 Academy Awards. Waad has also received several personal recognitions for her work as an activist and filmmaker, including the IDA Courage Under Fire Award and a place in the 2020 Time100 List of Most Influential People.

December 2016, Waad, her husband, and their two daughters now reside in London, United Kingdom. Waad continues to work with Channel 4 News, is a mentor for the Marie Colvin Journalist Network and the International Center for Journalists, and dedicates time to her advocacy campaign, Action For Sama

Dwayne Matthews

Education Strategist & Founder, TomorrowNow Learning Labs

Dwayne Matthews is an innovation evangelist and “future of education” consultant. He converges and shares knowledge on the future of education, disruptive technology, and the evolution of work.

Dwayne is the founder of TomorrowNow Learning Labs, which offers a future focused approach to personalized learning and assessment.

Matthews is also an advisory board member for XPRIZE Connect, Future of Learning Lab, a new learning initiative that focuses on the democratization of access to learning through technology that empowers the next generation of innovators

Dwayne is the former president of NeuroEdX, a company that uses neurotechnology to prepare students for the exponential growth of the 4th industrial revolution.

Matthews also served as the Senior Education Lead for the Faubert Applied Research Centre. The Faubert Applied Research brings together researchers and experts in cognitive human performance from industry, government, and academia to bridge the gap between research and unmet real life applications. Matthews recently addressed the UN on issues and opportunities around digital literacy, cognitive abilities and the 54 countries of Africa.

In addition Matthews was the Canadian Executive Director of an intelligence firm and focused on finding disruptive and future looking technologies for the Fortune 500. Some of his clients included senior and executive leaders from Barrick Gold, Suncor, P&G, GSK, Magna and DuPont.

Before that Matthews was an international educator at one of the top 5 private schools in South America and the junior chairperson at a TDSB school in Toronto, Canada. He was also a member of the core strategic planning team at The FDR International School, in Lima, Peru.

Dwayne can be seen on national Canadian television on CTV’s Your Morning and The Marlyn Denis show. Over the last 24 months Matthews has had over 1.6 million views on his collective social media posts focused on the relationship between the future of work and education.

Dwayne works to review future trends in education that are driven by technological advancement. Dwayne’s career path over almost two decades has afforded him an incredibly unique perspective on future technologies and its fundamental impact on education and work.

Mudassir Sheikha

Chief Executive Officer, Careem

He started his career with Trilogy Software before joining San Francisco-based mobile experience startup Brience at the height of the dot-com bubble in March 2000. Mudassir then joined the founding team of mobile testing and monitoring startup, DeviceAnywhere, where among other things, he led its offshore development center in Pakistan. DeviceAnywhere was acquired by Keynote Systems, and Mudassir joined management consulting firm McKinsey & Company in Dubai.

In 2012, he left to build something big and meaningful with ex-McKinsey colleague Magnus Olsson. Their mission was to simplify and improve the lives of people in the Middle East region and build an awesome organisation that inspires. They founded Careem in 2012 and today, it is the leading technology platform for the region, operating in more than 100 cities in 14 countries, with 3000+ colleagues and more than one million Captains (drivers).

Mudassir graduated from the University of Southern California with dual degrees in Economics and Computer Science, and obtained his Masters in Computer Science with a specialization in Databases from Stanford University.

Fola Fagbule

Senior Vice President, Africa Finance Corporation

Speaker bio coming soon.

Professor Jeffrey Sachs

Economist & Director, Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University

Jeffrey D. Sachs is a world-renowned economics professor, bestselling author, innovative educator, and global leader in sustainable development.  He is widely recognized for bold and effective strategies to address complex challenges including debt crises, hyperinflations, the transition from central planning to market economies, the control of AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, the escape from extreme poverty, and the battle against human-induced climate change.  He has been advisor to three United Nations Secretaries-General, Kofi Annan, Ban Ki-moon, and Antonio Guterres.  

Professor Sachs was the co-recipient of the 2015 Blue Planet Prize, the leading global prize for environmental leadership. He was twice named among Time magazine’s 100 most influential world leaders and has received 28 honorary degrees.  The New York Times called Sachs “probably the most important economist in the world,” and Time magazine called Sachs “the world’s best known economist.” A survey by The Economist ranked Sachs as among the three most influential living economists.

Professor Sachs serves as the Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University.  He is University Professor at Columbia University, the university’s highest academic rank.  Sachs is the Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and a commissioner of the UN Broadband Commission for Development.  Sachs was Director of the Earth Institute from 2002 to 2016. He is author of many books including the recent The Ages of Globalization (2020).

Khin Omar

Burmese Democracy Activist

Speaker bio coming soon.

Salman Khan

Founder and CEO, Khan Academy

Sal Khan is the founder and CEO of Khan Academy, a nonprofit educational organization that offers free lessons in math, science and humanities in multiple languages, as well as tools for parents, teachers and districts to track student progress.

Dominic Price

Work Futurist, Atlassian

Born to Joy in the harsh Manchester Winter of 77, Dominic has a career that has reached far and wide through Europe, US and Asia PAC.

Dom is proud to work at Atlassian, the home of the most intelligent t-shirt wearers in business. As our resident Work Futurist. Dom is our in house “Team Doctor” helping Atlassian scale by being ruthlessly efficient and effective, and spends over half his time helping our customers navigate transformation, agility, and the future of work.

Dom helped pioneer our Team Playbook and has a deep passion for understanding of teamwork and the changes we need to make today to build thriving businesses.

He has previously been the GM Program Management for a global gaming company and a Director of Deloitte.

A keen traveller, Dom has traversed over 50 countries so far, but after 17 years on these shores, he calls Australia home.

Ilarion Merculieff

President, Global Center for Indigenous Leadership and Lifeways

Ilarion (Larry Merculieff) was raised in a traditional Unangan (Aleut) way and received his Unangan name Kuuyux. The name is given to one person in each lifetime amongst his people. Kuuyux means an arm extending out from the body, a carrier of ancient knowledge into modern times, a messenger. Today he is living the legacy of his name.

Merculieff is co-founder and former chairman of the Alaska Indigenous Council on Marine Mammals; former chairman of the Nature Conservancy, Alaska chapter; former co-director of the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society, Alaska chapter; as well as co-founder of the International Bering Sea Forum, the Alaska Forum on the Environment, and the Alaska Oceans Network. Merculieff served on the National Research Council Committee on the Bering Sea Ecosystem and presented at numerous scientific conferences. He chaired the Indigenous knowledge sessions (that involved representatives from 80 nations) at the Global Summit of Indigenous Peoples on Climate Change, chaired the scientific working group for Snowchange that involved representatives from 8 Arctic nations focused on climate change, and served as the U.S. chair for the 2008 North American Gathering of Indigenous Peoples for the Healing of Mother Earth in Merida, Mexico.

He has authored Wisdom Keeper: One Man’s Journey to Honor the Untold Story of the Unangan People, and co-authored Stop Talking: Indigenous Ways of Teaching and Learning, and Perspectives on Indigenous Issues: Essays on Science, Spirituality, Partnerships, and the Power of Words.

Close to Merculieff’s heart are issues related to cultural and community wellness, traditional ways of living, Elder wisdom, climate change and the environment. Having had a traditional upbringing, Merculieff has been, and continues to be, a strong voice and activist calling for the meaningful application of traditional knowledge and wisdom obtained from Elders in Alaska and throughout the world in dealing with modern day challenges. He founded and currently heads the Global Center for Indigenous Leadership and Lifeways (www.gcill.org). His present work is with a new organization he has founded called the Wisdom Weavers of the World, www.wisdomweavers.world to take the messages of Elders from throughout the world to global attention.

Mohamed Adow

Director, Power Shift Africa

Mohamed Adow is the Director of Power Shift Africa, a climate and energy think tank based in Nairobi.

Alessandra Galloni

Global Managing Editor, Reuters

Alessandra Galloni is Global Managing Editor of Reuters, overseeing journalists in Reuters’ 200 locations around the world.

She joined Reuters in September 2013 as Editor of the Southern Europe bureau, after spending 13 years at The Wall Street Journal in various positions as correspondent, economics and business writer and editor in New York, London, Paris and Rome.

Alessandra is the recipient of an Overseas Press Club Award in the U.S. and a UK Business Journalist of the Year Award. She is co-author of “From the End of the Earth to Rome,” an e-book on Pope Francis. Alessandra, an Italian national, is a graduate of Harvard University and has a Masters degree from the London School of Economics.

Adar Poonawalla

Chief Executive Officer, India’s Serum Institute

Adar Poonawalla (born on 14 January 1981), is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and the Executive Director of Serum Institute of India. Founded in 1966 by his father Dr. Cyrus Poonawalla, it is the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer by the number of doses produced, as of 2017.

Adar Poonawalla joined the Serum Institute of India in 2001, after graduating from the University of Westminster in London. Then exporting its products to 35 countries, Poonawalla concentrated on the company’s international market and on getting new products licensed and pre-qualified by the World Health Organization, for supply to United Nations Agencies including UNICEF and PAHO. As of 2015, the company now exports its products to over 140 countries worldwide, out of which 85 percent of its revenues are from the overseas.

In 2011, he became the CEO of Serum Institute with complete control of the day-to-day operations of the company. In 2012, he played a major role in the acquisition of Bilthoven Biologicals, a Netherlands-based government vaccine manufacturing company. Poonawalla is also associated as a board member of the GAVI Alliance, which is the global Vaccine Alliance.

He initiated and launched Serum Institute’s Oral Polio Vaccine in 2014, which addressed a global shortage of Polio vaccines at that time, and every year plans to launch a new vaccine for public health starting 2017. In 2014, it was reported that he also planned to expand the product portfolio to include vaccines for dengue, flu and cervical cancer.

He is the recipient of many business and philanthropy awards from CNBC TV18, CNN TV18, Economic Times, Hurun and many others, to name a few in the recent past.

In 2013, he hosted His Royal Highness, Prince Charles of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, during a private visit to Serum Institute’s manufacturing facility in India.

He was also listed as one of the 50 most influential young Indians by the GQ Magazine and also was awarded Philanthropist of the year in 2016.

In 2011, he founded the Villoo Poonawalla Foundation, in memory of his late mother Mrs. Villoo Poonawalla, which today comprises of 6 schools, 1 hospital, 25 water plants at different locations, 250 trucks and machinery picking up and processing waste in and around the city of Pune. His vision is to help address the inequality that exists in India, and around the world, in the focused areas of: Healthcare, Education, Water, Sanitation and the Environment.

Hugh Young

Managing Director, Aberdeen Standard Investments

Hugh is responsible for leading Aberdeen Standard Investments’ business in Asia Pacific. He is a director of a number of group subsidiary companies and group-managed investment trusts and funds.

Hugh was previously a main board director and Head of Investments for Aberdeen Asset Management. He joined Aberdeen Asset Management in 1985 to manage Asian equities from London. He founded Singapore-based Aberdeen Asia in 1992 and built the company into one of the largest and most well-respected managers of such assets globally.

Hugh started his investment management career in 1980. Before joining Aberdeen, he held posts at Fidelity International and MGM Assurance.

Michael Friedenberg

President, Reuters

Michael joined Thomson Reuters as president of Reuters News in December 2018. In this role, he leads all aspects of the company’s media business and operations.

Michael possesses deep background in advancing digital transformations and driving both business-to-business and business-to-consumer growth in the media industry. Prior to joining Thomson Reuters, he served as global CEO of technology, media, and advertising firm International Data Group (IDG) Communications, leading the company across 147 countries. Other positions he held there included CEO of IDG Communications U.S. and CEO and President of IDG Enterprise.

Michael holds a BA in business finance from the University of Delaware’s Lerner College of Business and Economics.

Iyinoluwa Aboyeji

Tech Entrepreneur Co-Founder, Andela

Speaker bio coming soon.

Steve Gan

Editor-in-chief, Malaysiakini.com

Steven Gan is co-founder and editor-in-chief of Malaysiakini (Malaysia Now). Since it went live in 1999, Malaysiakini has become one of the most influential political news websites in the country.

Malaysiakini received the Free Media Pioneer 2001 award from Vienna-based International Press Institute, and Gan is recipient of New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists’ International Press Freedom Award 2000. The website was ranked 18 on Asiaweek’s Power 50 in 2001, and Gan was also selected as one of 50 most influential individuals in Business Week’s ‘Stars of Asia’.

Malaysiakini won the bronze prize (for top media brand) at the Putra Brand Awards twice - in 2010 and 2014 – and the silver in 2015.

In 2015, Malaysiakini won the editorial excellence in investigative reporting award from Hong Kong-based Society of Publishers in Asia (Sopa) for its four-part investigative report titled ‘The rise of the Johor royal family's business empire’. Last year, Malaysiakini again won the Sopa award for best in breaking news for its coverage of the 2018 general election.

Gan was arrested a number of times and was adopted Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience in 1996.

Dr. Pandu Riono

Epidemiologist & Senior Staff, University of Indonesia, Faculty of Public Health

Dr. Pandu Riono is a Senior Staff at University of Indonesia, Faculty of Public Health. He was the recipient of Fogarty/NIH Fellowship to finishing his PhD (Epidemiology) in UCLA, 2001 with dissertation title is “Sexual Network among Men and STD/HIV Epidemic in Indonesia”.

He was involving in HIV/STI Surveillance at MOH. He was involved in building and strengthening Integrated Behaviour & Biological Surveillance at MOH since 2002.

Since 2010, He was also appointed as Technical Consultant National TB Program, Developing National TB Estimation Methods. He is also a member of Indonesia TB Research Network (JetSet-TB) . Previous Chairperson of Jet-Set TB 2017- 2020.

He has prior experience as an International Consultant for UNICEF Bangkok and WHO Geneva. He is currently still active as TB and HIV member of Experts Commission – MOH. He is still active as a senior consultant for some on going projects with World-Bank, UNICEF, USAID, ADB, and AusAID.

Rod Sims

Chair, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

Rod Sims was appointed Chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in August 2011 for a five-year term, reappointed for a further three years in August 2016, and now a further three years until July 22.

Rod has extensive business and public sector experience.  Immediately prior to his appointment to the ACCC he was, for example, the Chairman of the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal of New South Wales, Commissioner on the National Competition Council and was also a Director of Port Jackson’s Partners Limited where he advised the CEOs and Boards of some of Australia’s top 50 companies on commercial corporate strategy over many years.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Rod worked as the Deputy Secretary in the Commonwealth Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet responsible for economic, infrastructure and social policy and the Cabinet Office. He also worked as Deputy Secretary in the Department of Transport and Communications. From 1988 – 90 he was the Economic Adviser to Australia’s Prime Minister.

Rod Sims holds a first class honours degree in Commerce from the University of Melbourne and a Master of Economics from the Australian National University.

Olivier Tichit

Leader of Sustainability, Musim Mas

Speaker bio coming soon.

Axel Threfall

Editor-at-large, Reuters

Axel Threlfall is Editor-at-Large, Reuters, based in London. Alongside his editorial duties, he hosts high-profile engagements and thought leadership events for and on behalf of Reuters and Thomson Reuters, such as the Newsmaker series and the World Economic Forum news programming in Davos. He was previously Lead European Anchor for Reuters Digital Video. Prior to joining Reuters, Axel spent five years as an anchor for CNBC in London. Before that, he was an editor with The Wall Street Journal in New York and a news reporter for Bloomberg in London. He has also advised businesses and NGOs on their dealings with the international media. Axel is frequently asked to moderate events for international organizations, including the United Nations, the IMF and the OECD. He has a BA in History from Durham University and a postgraduate degree in journalism from City University, London.

Twitter handle is: @Axelthrelfall

Sonny Swe

Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Frontier Myanmar

Speaker bio coming soon.

Ravi Muthayah

Secretary-General, Malaysia Plantation & Commodities Ministry

Speaker bio coming soon.

Neil Roberts

Head of Marine & Aviation, Lloyd's of London Market Association

Joined the market in 1985. Responsible for the marine and aviation activity at the LMA. Member of the IUMI Political Forum.

Rob Cox

Global Editor, Reuters Breakingviews

Rob Cox helped found Breakingviews.com in 2000 in London. From 2004 he spearheaded the startup publication's expansion in the United States and edited daily Breakingviews columns in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Rob, now based in Zurich, has worked as a journalist in London, Paris, Milan, New York, Chicago and Tokyo. Rob was named Global Editor of Breakingviews in December 2012, three years after it was acquired by Thomson Reuters and became the financial commentary arm of one of the largest news organizations in the world. Rob frequently appears on Monocle Radio and CNBC and his columns have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, BuzzFeed, USA Today, the Globe and Mail, la Repubblica and other publications. Prior to co-founding Breakingviews, Rob worked as European finance editor, South Europe bureau chief, and as a Wall Street reporter at Bloomberg News. Rob graduated from Columbia University's Journalism School and the University of Vermont, which gave him its Alumni Achievement Award in 2014 for his work on gun violence prevention. After the shooting in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in his hometown of Newtown, Connecticut, Rob co-founded Sandy Hook Promise with fellow members of the community and some of the victims' families. In his spare time, Rob plays ice hockey, runs slowly and skis aggressively.

Stephen J. Adler

Editor-in-chief, Reuters

Stephen J. Adler is Editor-in-Chief of Reuters, the world’s largest international news provider, where he oversees all editorial functions. Under his leadership, Reuters has received scores of top journalism awards, including six Pulitzer Prizes, while reaching billions of people daily with trusted video, text, pictures, and graphics.

Adler joined Thomson Reuters in 2010 as Senior Vice President and Editorial Director of the company’s Professional Division and was named Editor-in-Chief of Reuters the following year. Previously, he was Editor-in-Chief of BusinessWeek and a reporter and editor at The Wall Street Journal. There, in addition to managing investigative reporting teams and overseeing the Wall Street Journal Online, he co-taught the ethics and standards course required of all news employees. He was editor of The American Lawyer from 1983 to 1988 and began his career as a reporter at local newspapers in Florida.

Adler is chairman of Columbia Journalism Review’s board of overseers, chairman of the board of Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and a member of the board of the Committee to Protect Journalists. He is a member of the International Media Council of the World Economic Forum, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Gerald R. Loeb Awards board of final judges.

A graduate of Harvard College and the Harvard Law School, Adler is author of the book The Jury: Trial and Error in the American Courtroom, which won the Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association. With his wife, the novelist Lisa Grunwald, he was co-editor of three popular historical anthologies. He is a frequent speaker at journalism conferences, universities and public forums.