Invited guests
Daniel Andler is emeritus professor at Sorbonne Université and a member of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques. He began his academic career as a mathematician, specializing in logic and teaching at Paris 7 and other universities, He then was appointed as professor of philosophy of science at the universities of Lille, Nanterre and finally Paris IV. He is chiefly interested in cognitive science and artificial intelligence, and in their import for education, collective decision and public policy. He was the founder and first director of the department of cognitive studies at the Ecole normale superieure in Paris. His latest books are La Silhouette de l’humain, quelle place pour le naturalisme aujourd’hui ? and La Cognition, du neurone à la société (co-authored). His book on the significance of the present surge of artificial intelligence is forthcoming.
Participation
2020
Nardos Bekele-Thomas is Resident Coordinator for Nations (UN) in South Africa. She was previously the Senior Director of the Office of the Secretary-General. She also served as the UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in the Republic of Kenya and the Republic of Benin. Her interest includes promotion of human development; anchored on the principles of economic, social and political rights for all. She has excelled as a Private Sector Policy Adviser focusing on the promotion of trade and investment in African countries through private/public sector partnerships in the United States. She holds a Master’s Degree and a Ph.D. Candidate Certificate in Economic Development, Monetary Economics and Econometrics from New York University (NYU). She is the author of several papers and monographs, and she is fully bilingual in French and English.
Participation
2020
Michael is a policy analyst at the OECD, and is specialized in health systems performance assessment, quality of care, performance indicators and primary care. His current work is driven by the ambition to move towards a new generation of indicators that will enhance international learning on the value of healthcare as reported by patients themselves. He is passionate about international collaboration and as a member of the OECD Health Division, he helps countries achieve high-performing health systems. Michael studied sociology, wrote a PhD thesis in the area of primary care and has been working on health services research and policy advice more than eighteen years. Michael is managing the development of an international survey of chronic patients within the framework of OECD’s Patient Reported Indicator Surveys initiative.
Participation
2020
Jacques N. Biot currently serves as a Board-member or advisor to companies in the field of digital transformation and artificial intelligence, and a Trustee to several scientific academic institutions. He has international professional experience in higher education and research (First executive President of Ecole polytechnique, 2013-2018), life sciences (Roussel-Uclaf, Pasteur-Mérieux Serums and Vaccines, now parts of Sanofi; JNBD, strategic consulting firm in health technology, divested to ICON; and Guerbet, GBT, Euronext), industry and technology financing, and public administration (Prime Minister’s office). The motto of his career has been about how to turn scientific innovation into societal and economic value. Jacques is a graduate of Ecole polytechnique (X71) and a member of the Corps des Mines. He is an Officer of the Legion of Honor and of the French Orders of Merite, and a member of the Lion’s Order of Senegal.
Participation
2020
Roberto Burioni, MD, PhD, is Professor of Virology and Microbiology at the Medical School of the Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele in Milan, Italy. Before that, he was Assistant Professor at the Medical School of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome. He began his career in the United States where he held several research positions, most recently at the Center for Molecular Genetics at the University of California, San Diego, and at the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, in Dr. Dennis Burton’s laboratory. He is currently leading a lab active in the development of human monoclonal antibodies against human infectious agents and is the medical director of the site www.medical facts.it.
Participation
2020
Founder and Executive Vice-Chairman of the FutureWorld Foundation and Chairman of Strategic Concepts (Pty) Ltd. Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Global Economic Symposium, Advisory Council member of Climate-KIC and IAS Köszeg; and a Director of companies, Faculty Member of the Parmenides Foundation, and co-author, with Thierry Malleret, of Resilience to Risk, and Global Risks, as well as numerous articles and chapters. He studied social sciences and law and holds a MBA from Henley Management College at Brunel University, United Kingdom.
Participation
2020
Stanislas Cozon is Executive Vice President of Capgemini. He was Managing Director in charge of global industry sectors within Capgemini (consumer products, retail, utilities, tax and welfare, public security, telecommunications, financial services and manufacturing). The transformation of corporations and governments is at the heart of this role. He started his career at the French Treasury (Inspection Générale des Finances) and joined Capgemini in 1989. He holds a diploma of the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris and of the École Nationale d’Administration.
Participation
2020
Advisor to the Executive Chairman, Ifri, Editor of Politique étrangère and co-director of the annual report Ramses. He is also President of the Austro-French Centre for Rapprochement in Europe. Former Executive Vice-President of Ifri. Previously, he was in charge of the Security Studies department at Ifri. Before joining Ifri, he was Deputy Director of the Institut français de polémologie (French Institute of Polemology), and then Secretary General of the FEDN (Fondation pour les études de défense nationale). He also taught at the Military School of Saint-Cyr, at the Paris I University and at the Institut d’études politiques de Paris (IEP). His studies and publications deal with strategic issues, particularly with French strategy and European issues.
Participation
2020
Prof. Sally Eaves is a highly experienced Chief Technology Officer, Professor in Advanced Technologies and Global Strategic Advisor, Author and Speaker on Digital Transformation, Sustainability, HealthTech and Social Impact. She specializes in the application of AI, Cloud, CyberSecurity, Blockchain, IoT & 5G disciplines for both business and societal benefit at scale. Sally is Senior Policy Advisor for the Global Foundation of Cyber Studies & Research and has founded ‘edtech’ enterprise Aspirational Futures to enhance accessibility, inclusion and diversity in education, technology and beyond.
Participation
2020
President of the Policy Center for the New South, and Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences and Executive Vice-President of the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University. From 2005 to 2012, he worked at the Central Bank of Morocco as the Director of Economics, Statistics and International Relations. Prior to this, he served as an economist at the World Bank. He holds scientific and advisory positions in various institutions, including the Malabo-Montpellier Panel, the Moroccan Capital Market Authority, and the French Institute of International Relations. He is also advisor to the CEO and Chairman of the OCP Group, and serves as a board member of the OCP Foundation and as a global member of the Trilateral Commission. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Bordeaux.
Participation
2020
Director of the Institute of Global Health at the University of Geneva. Professor of Public Health at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Geneva. In 2019, he was elected as Co-Director of the Swiss School of Public Health in Zürich. He previously served as Founding Director of the French School of Public Health, Co-Director of the European Academic Global Health Alliance, and President of the Agency for Public Health Education Accreditation. He has conducted his research in mathematical modelling of communicable diseases and he has chaired the WHO collaborative centre for electronic disease surveillance. He is member of the Académie suisse des sciences médicales and corresponding member at the Académie nationale de médecine in Paris. MD, and Ph.D. in Biomathematics.
Participation
2020 2022 2023
Global Head of the Cardiovascular and Established Products Franchise at Sanofi. With more than 20 years of experience in the healthcare field, he is a trusted and strategic executive possessing a proven track record of enabling innovative and winning strategies to achieve significant and sustainable results across markets. Before joining Sanofi in 2016, he held several positions for Pfizer as Global Established Pharma Regional President for Japan-Asia-Pacific, Director Worldwide Marketing Group, General Manager. Alexandre de Germay earned two master’s degrees in business administration and finance from Paris XIII University in France.
Participation
2020
Vice Chairman of the WPC. He manages the organisation of the annual conference since its first edition in 2008. He is also chairman and founder of Alandia, a restructuring advisory firm which helped various States or Sovereign funds to regain control over their industrial investments (Middle East, Africa and West Asia). Former Vice chairman of the Franco Indian chamber of commerce, he was more especially in charge of agricultural investments. He seats, or seated, at several Advisory Boards such as British Telecom or PWC. He published a book on globalization in June 2010: Mondialisation, un autre regard and one on restructuring issues in France (2015).
Participation
2020
Director-General of the World Health Organization since 2017. Prior to his election, he served as Ethiopia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2012 to 2016 and as Minister of Health from 2005 to 2012. He holds a PhD in Community Health from the University of Nottingham and a MSc in Immunology of Infectious Diseases from the University of London. He is globally recognised as a health scholar, researcher, and diplomat with first-hand experience in research, operations, and leadership in emergency responses to epidemics. Throughout his career Dr Tedros has published numerous articles in prominent scientific journals, and received awards and recognition from across the globe.
Participation
2020
Managing Director of Banque Bordier & Cie, Geneva. He is also a member of the Board and Treasurer of the WPC Foundation. His area of expertise is private asset management. He was formerly Managing Partner at EFG Bank in Geneva. He previously worked as a money market dealer at the Al Saudi bank in Paris, then as treasurer for Europe at the National Bank of Abu Dhabi in Paris. He received a degree in economics from the University of Neuchâtel and an advanced management degree from the École des Cadres de Lausanne.
Participation
2020
President of the Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development, a global public policy think-tank based in Belgrade, and Editor-in-Chief of the quarterly magazine Horizons – Journal of International Relations and Sustainable Development. He is also the leader of Serbia’s opposition People’s Party. In 2016, he participated in the official election for UN Secretary-General and finished in second place. In 2012, he was elected President of the 67th session of the UN General Assembly. During his term in office he played a leading role in steering the UN towards the establishment of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. He served as Serbia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2007 to 2012.
Participation
2020
Special Advisor to the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, he has over 35 years of experience in global health as a leading physician, researcher, administrator, advocate, policymaker, and diplomat. He is Emeritus Professor of Immunology at Paris Descartes University, Senior Fellow with the Global Health Centre of the Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies in Geneva, and a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy. He was Executive Director of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Director of the French Agency for Research on AIDS, French ambassador on HIV/AIDS and communicable diseases, and UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
Participation
2020
Professor Emeritus of the Chair of Economics and Management of Health Services at the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (CNAM) and Founder of the Pasteur/CNAM School of Public Health. He is a member of the French Academy of Technologies and a member of the executive board of the Médecins du Monde Foundation. Former Consultant to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, he served as Visiting Professor at Yale University, Under Secretary at the French Ministry of Health and Adviser to the Prime Minister. He holds a Master in Agronomy from the Institut national agronomique Paris-Grignon, a MBA and a PhD in Socio Economics from Cornell University.
Participation
2020
Director of the Healthcare activities of the AXA Partners Group. He is a specialist in the development of healthcare services in France and around the world. Before joining the AXA Group, where he launched medical teleconsultation for the general population in France, he was Director of New Services for the Malakoff-Médéric Group, Director of Development for Europ Assistance, Director of International Health Subsidiaries for the Gras Savoye Group. He also worked in the French public sector, including in the Oil & Gas and Automotive Departments of the Ministry of Industry and in the Treasury Department of the Ministry of Finance. Jean Kramarz is an alumnus of Sciences Po Paris and ENA.
Participation
2020
Medical Doctor and Psychiatrist, member of the Supervisory Board of Edeis. He is specialized in the management of conflict situations, and in particular in the management of post-traumatic syndromes. He participates in work on sleep, biological rhythms, and physiological and psychological adaptation factors. He has been practicing in Paris for 37 years, with an involvement in corporate work. He has carried out numerous consulting missions including with Progress, Danone, Rians, Laboratoires Debat, Spie Batignolles, L’Oréal, EDF, Normédic, La Poste, and with the government of Senegal. He also collaborated with IMS Health and the General Management of Manpower.
Participation
2020
Vice President of Advanced Concepts, Airbus, Munich, Germany. Before joining Airbus in 2004, he worked as a self-employed Security Policy Analyst and Consultant. Among many other functions, he served as President & CEO of the Institute for Strategic Analyses which he founded in 1992. He is an Honorary Professor for Foreign Policy at the University of Cologne. He began his career as a Research Associate at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik. From 1990 to 1994, he served successively as Security Policy Analyst on the Policy Planning Staff of the German Minister of Defense and Security Policy Advisor to the Chairman of the Defense Committee in the German Parliament.
Participation
2020
Thierry de Montbrial is Executive Chairman of the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri), which he founded in 1979. He is Professor Emeritus at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers. In 2008, he launched the World Policy Conference. He has been a member of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques of the Institut de France since 1992, and is a member of a number of foreign academies. He serves on the board or advisory board of a number of international companies and institutions. Thierry de Montbrial chaired the Department of Economics at the Ecole Polytechnique from 1974 to 1992. He was the first Chairman of the Foundation for Strategic Research (1993- 2001). Entrusted with the creation of the Policy Planning Staff (Centre d’analyse et de prévision) at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he was its first Director (1973-1979). He has authored more than twenty books, several of them translated in various languages, including Action and Reaction in the World System – The Dynamics of Economic and Political Power (UBC Press, Vancouver, Toronto, 2013) and Living in Troubled Times, A New Political Era (World Scientific, 2018). He is a Grand Officer of the Légion d’honneur, Grand Officer of the Ordre National du Mérite. He has been awarded the Order of the Rising Sun – Gold and Silver Star, Japan (2009), Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2016) and other state honors by the French and several foreign governments. Thierry de Montbrial is a graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique and the Ecole des mines, and received a Ph.D. in Mathematical Economics from the University of California at Berkeley.
Participation
2020 2021
Founder, Chairman and CEO of WISeKey. Before founding his company in 1999, he served as United Nations Expert on cybersecurity during 17 years. He is recognized worldwide as an Internet pioneer and has a unique profile, which combines extensive high level international diplomacy experience and emerging technologies expertise. He has received many international awards for his commitment to secure the Internet. He is very active in disruptive cryptotechnology, AI, blockchain, IoT and cybersecurity. He is also an expert in M&A, fundraising, IPOs, and listed companies. He is the coauthor of The transHuman Code bestseller book.
Participation
2020
Chairman of the Diplomacy Forum, Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator; Senior Adviser, Macro Advisory Partners; and Member of the Board of the Kofi Annan Foundation. Former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva (2013-2019). He served as Executive Director of the Kofi Annan Foundation (2008-2011) and as UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Cyprus (2006-2008). Between 2001 and 2006 he was Director for Political, Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Affairs in the Office of the Secretary-General, while serving concurrently as Deputy Chief of Staff for the last two years of that period. He served as Head of the Office of the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs at UN headquarters (1997-2001). He began his career in 1979 with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. He graduated from Johns Hopkins University, United States, and the University of Sussex, United Kingdom.
Participation
2020
Patrick Nicolet is Capgemini’s Group Chief Technology Officer responsible for the technology, innovation and corporate venture agenda for the organization. Throughout his career Patrick has held a number of executive leadership and operational excellence roles such as Chairman of the Board of Capgemini Brazil and Executive Leader for India Operations. It was during this tenure that Patrick successfully led the integration of 30,000 new colleagues into Capgemini following the acquisition of iGate. He started his career in operations by turning around businesses notably as partner of the corporate recovery practice of Ernst & Young Switzerland and later within Capgemini as Group sales director or CEO of the Infrastructure Services business. Patrick has been recognized by the World Economic Forum as a Global Leader for Tomorrow at Davos (the precursor to the Forum for Young Global Leaders).
Participation
2020
Former Ambassador of Switzerland to France (2002-2007). He joined the Foreign Service in 1971. He held several positions such as Ambassador to Guatemala and to other States of Central America, Head of the Swiss Delegation to UNESCO, Ambassador to the United Kingdom and Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the international organizations in Geneva. He contributes regularly to the Swiss newspaper Le Temps. He studied law and international relations at the University of Fribourg and the Graduate Institute for International Studies in Geneva.
Participation
2020
President of Alcen, group composed of high technology companies in the fields of defense, energy, medical machines and aeronautics. He started his career as President of Tabur Marine and of Dufour. He served at Matra Group as Senior Vice President in charge of 4 departments (car electronics, robotics, computer-aided design and watchmaking). He set up and managed a telecommunication operator, Kaptech and an equipment manufacturer, Cirpack. He studied at the Ecole Polytechnique and at the Insead.
Participation
2020
President of Alcediag, Founder of SkillCell. Alexandra is a graduate of École centrale Paris (2005) and of the MIT Sloan School of Management (2009). She began her career as a junior analyst in the Transaction Advisory Services in Ernst & Young. After her MBA, she joined the McKinsey & Co Paris Office where she worked as a consultant and as a junior manager. In 2012, she joined the Alcen family group which is made up of over thirty high-tech companies active in the following sectors: defense and security, energy, medical and healthcare, aeronautics and space, large scientific instruments. She first took on the role of Head of Development, working on Alcen’s proprietary technologies such as renewable energy (thermodynamic solar power) and nanotechnologies. In 2016, she became president of Alcediag, an Alcen subsidiary focusing on precision diagnostics and developing blood biomarkers and tests for mental health and more particularly bipolar disorder. In addition in 2017, she founded SkillCell, a biotech company developing miniaturized tests for health, food and environment based on a proprietary synthetic biology and biomimicry technology.
Participation
2020
Chief Business Officer and member of the Executive Committee of Cellectis. Prior to this position, he was Vice President, Corporate Development at Cellectis, responsible for program management, strategy and business development. Cellectis is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing gene-edited allogeneic CAR-T immunotherapies in oncology. Arthur began his career at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition, controlling global pharmaceutical mergers such as the Novartis/GSK and Sanofi/Boehringer Ingelheim asset swaps, Pfizer’s acquisition of Hospira and Teva’s acquisition of Actavis Generics. He later became Head of the Hospital Financing unit at the French Ministry of Health, where he led a team responsible for the €80bn hospital budget. Arthur graduated from the École Normale Supérieure, Paris and Cambridge University, and holds a diploma in Immunotherapy from the Université Paris-Descartes. Arthur is also a member of the French Corps des Mines.
Participation
2020
Elhadj As Sy is the Chair of the Kofi Annan Foundation Board, and Co-chair of the WHO/World Bank Global Pandemic Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB). In addition, Mr. Sy is also a Commissioner for the Global Commission on Climate Adaptation, Governor at the Wellcome Trust, and a member of the Governing Board of Interpeace as well as numerous other boards and organizations. Mr. Sy has extensive experience in leadership roles in the humanitarian, health, environment, development sectors, and has previously served as the Secretary-General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) – the world’s largest humanitarian network. Prior to this appointment, he served at a senior level with UNICEF, UNAIDS, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and other agencies for more than 25 years. For instance, Mr. Sy was UNICEF’s Director of Partnerships and Resource Development in New York, and from 2005 to 2008, he was Director, HIV/AIDS Practice with the United Nations Development Program in New York. Before that, he worked with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria as Director of Operational Partnerships and Country Support in Geneva. Mr. Sy graduated from the University of Dakar, the University of Graz, the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna and the École normale supérieure in Dakar.
Participation
2020
Dr. Juliette M. Tuakli is United Way Worldwide’s Chair of Governance Committee and a Member of their Leadership Council. She is also the acclaimed medical Director/Founder of Family CHILD & Associates, a Board Member of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, co-Founder of MOREMI Leadership program and a Member of Child Healthcare Information for All. She has more than 30 years of pediatric, family medicine and public health care experience. She was on the Harvard and Boston Medical School faculties, and a Pediatric Professor. As Pediatric/Adolescent medical Director of the Children’s Hospital of Boston affiliated community health center, she initiated seminal cross-cultural, service-directed, operations research (CHILD), for many years.
Participation
2020
General Secretary of the Fondation Dr Henri Dubois-Ferrière Dinu Lipatti and board member of several charity foundations in Geneva. In charge of administration, accounting and human resources for several companies in various industries. Member of the board of the WPC Foundation since 2013.