Invited guests

Abdelatif, Soumeya

Medical doctor, director of companies. First Vice President of the Robert Schuman Institute for Europe, former auditor of the Institute of Advanced Studies in National Defence (IHEDN) and of the Center of Diplomatic and Strategic Studies (CEDS).

Participation

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2015 2021 2022 2023
Emmanuel Adamakis
Adamakis, Emmanuel

Elder Metropolitan of Chalcedon. He received his academic education in France, attending the Sorbonne in Paris, before continuing his studies at the Catholic Institute and the St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute. He was ordained a priest in 1985, he continued his doctoral studies at the Holy Cross Institute of Theology in Boston, Massachusetts in the United States. In 1995, he was appointed director of the Office of the Orthodox Church to the European Union in Brussels, Belgium. After being elected Metropolitan of France, he served as Vice President and President of the Conference of European Churches (CEC) as well as Co-President of the Council of Christian Churches in France. In February 2021 he was unanimously elected Elder Metropolitan of Chalcedon. He is Co-Moderator of the World Conference of Religions for Peace (WCRP) as well as Chairman of the Board of Directors of KAICIID.

Participation

2017 2018 2021 2022 2023
Ahmed, Masood

President of the Center for Global Development since January 2017. He enjoys a 35-year career driving economic development policy initiatives relating to debt, aid effectiveness, trade, and global economic prospects at major international institutions including the IMF, the World Bank, and the DFID. He served for eight years as Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department, earning praise from Managing Director Christine Lagarde as a “visionary leader.” In previous years, he also served as the IMF’s director of External Relations, and Deputy Director of the Policy Development and Review Department. From 2003-2006, Ahmed served as Director General, Policy and International at the UK government’s Department for International Development (DFID). Ahmed also worked at the World Bank from 1979-2000 in various managerial and economist positions, rising to become Vice President of Poverty Reduction and Economic Management. In January 2023, he received a knighthood (KCMG) from the UK government for his services to international development.

Participation

2013 2015 2016 2017 2021 2022 2023
Akita, Hiroyuki

Commentator of Nikkei. He regularly writes commentaries and columns, analysis mainly on foreign & international security affairs. He joined Nikkei in 1987 and worked at Political News Dept. where he covered Japanese foreign & security policies, domestic politics. He was Senior & Editorial Staff Writer, and he also worked at “Leader Writing Team ” of the Financial Times in London (Oct.-Dec. 17). Previously, he was Beijing Correspondent and Washington Chief Correspondent. In Beijing, he reported major news events such as death of Deng Xiaoping, Hong Kong handover to China. In Washington DC, he covered White House & Pentagon, State Department during Bush administration.

Participation

2021 2022 2023
Saeed Al Awar
Bio
Al Awar, Saeed

Managing Director and Head of Middle East at Rothschild & Co. Before that, he worked for Linklaters. He also serves as Independent Director of the Board of ADC SPAC and Xcube. He is an Advisory Council Member of the Dubai International Chamber of Commerce.

Participation

2022
Mohammed Al Bowardi
Al Bowardi, Mohammed

Cabinet Member and Minister of State for Defence Affairs of the United Arab Emirates. His Excellency Mohammed Al Bowardi joined the Federal Government in February 2016 as the Minister of State for Defence. In addition to his ministerial role, he is the Vice Chairman of Mubadala Development Company and Dolphin Energy Limited, and board member of Tawazun Holding. He is also the Chairman of the Committee for Developing and Implementing the Water and Agriculture Strategy for Abu Dhabi. Furthermore, Al Bowardi is the Managing Director and board member of the Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi, Deputy Chairman of the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund and the International Fund for Houbara Conservation- Abu Dhabi, and a member of the Board of Trustees of Abu Dhabi University ADU. Al Bowardi has previously held the positions of Undersecretary of the Ministry of Defence, Secretary-General of the General Secretariat of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council and Chairman of the Executive Committee. His Execllency Mohammed Al Bowardi holds bachelor degree in History and Political Science from Lewis & Clark College, USA.

Participation

2022
Mohammed Al Dhaheri
Al Dhaheri, Mohammed

Deputy Director General of the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy.

Participation

2022
Amer Al Ghafri
Al Ghafri, Amer

Senior Director of Space Engineering Department at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre. Head of the Satellite Development Program as part of the UAE National Space Programme. He held several leadership roles at MBRSC from SW unit, to Space Systems Section. He held different roles in the main MBRSC Space projects, as head of AIT of DubaiSat-1, Deputy Project Manager of DubaiSat-2, Project Manager of KhalifaSat, the first UAE satellite to be developed in the UAE, with 100% UAE leadership. He is currently the project Manager of MBZSat, named after HH Shielh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of UAE. This mission is in particular a key milestone for the Space industry im the UAE, as it has a major development fone by the UAE private sector. This mission aims at localising the Space economy with strong partnership between government and private sector. He was awarded the UAE Pride Medal in 2014, for his achievement in building the engineering and scientific capabilities of UAE nationals. He holds a bachelor degree in Electronic Engineering, and a Master degree in Aerospace Engineering.

Participation

2022
Reem Ebrahim Al Hashimy
Al Hashimy, Reem Ebrahim

Minister of the State for International Cooperation of the UAE since 2016. Her Excellency Reem Ebrahim Al Hashimy was appointed to the UAE Cabinet as Minister of State in February 2008. Prior to this, Reem led the UAE’s bid to host the World Expo 2020 in Dubai. She served as Managing Director of the Expo 2020 Dubai mega-event, following which she was appointed CEO of Expo City Dubai Authority. She also manages the Vice President’s Office for Political Affairs. She continues to serve as the Chairperson for Dubai Cares. She was also the former chairperson of the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority and has been appointed as Chairperson of Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi.

Participation

2022
Farida Al Hosani
Al Hosani, Farida

Official Spokesperson for the health sector in the UAE, Manager of Communicable Diseases Department of the Abu Dhabi Center of Public Health and Adjunct Associate Professor at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences at the UAE University. Dr. Farida Al Hosani contributed in the field of public health, as she participated in scientific and international research in health and infectious diseases and developed strategic plans for infectious diseases preparedness and dealing with pandemics. She is an expert of the World Health Organization in the field of emerging diseases.

Participation

2022
Marwa Rashed Al Mahmood
Al Mahmood, Marwa Rashed

Senior Executive of the International Organizations Unit of the Ministry of Finance of the United Arab Emirates. She is responsible for following up the implementation of joint activities with international organizations of which the Ministry of Finance is a member at.

Participation

2022
Al Mazrui, Abdullah

Chairman of Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Al Mazrui served as Managing Director of the National Bank of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank of Tunisia and the Emirates. In 1984, he decided to end his journey with government work and devoted himself to starting his own business. Today, Al Mazrui Group includes about 30 companies and is spread in many sectors, including oil and gas, retail, education, health care, foodstuffs and industry. He is also the Chairman of the BOD of Emirates Insurance Company, which he established during the 1980s.

Participation

2022
Mariam Al Mheiri
Bio
Al Mheiri, Mariam


Minister of Climate Change and Environment of the UAE. In this capacity, she leads the Ministry’s mission of spearheading the UAE’s drive to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change, protect the country’s ecosystems, and enhance its food and water security through developing and implementing effective measures, policies, and initiatives. Prior to her current role, Her Excellency Mariam Almheiri was appointed as Minister of State for Food and Water Security. Her responsibilities included monitoring national food stocks and water supply, channeling investments in food and water technology innovation, and building international partnerships in this area. Previously, Her Excellency Mariam Almheiri held the post of Minister of State for Food Security, where she oversaw the development of the necessary infrastructure to achieve the country’s food security objectives in line with the UAE Centennial 2071.

Participation

2021 2022 2023
Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak
Al Mubarak, Khaldoon Khalifa

His Excellency Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak is Managing Director and Group Chief Executive Officer of Mubadala. Through organic growth, acquisition and merger, Mubadala has become a $282 billion business with assets in more than 50 countries across six international offices. In addition to his commercial responsibilities, Khaldoon holds a number of UAE Government and Abu Dhabi Government responsibilities, including: a Member of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council since 2006; a Founding Member of Abu Dhabi’s Supreme Council for Financial and Economic Affairs; the Presidential Special Envoy to China since 2018; and the Founding Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Affairs Authority.

Participation

2021 2022
Salem Al Neyadi
Al Neyadi, Salem

UAE Ambassador to the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF).

Participation

2022
Al Saud, Prince Faisal bin Farhan

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia since 2019. His Highness Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud is also Ambassador of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques to the Federal Republic of Germany, as well as a member of the Board of Directors of Saudi Military Industries Corporation and Chairman of the Executive Committee. Previously, he served as Advisor at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Senior Advisor at the Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Washington (2017 – 2019). He was Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alsalam Aerospace Company and then Chairman of the Board between 2001 and 2013. He served in several administrations in both private and public sectors between 2001 and 2019.

Participation

2022
Ahmed Ali Al Sayegh
Al Sayegh, Ahmed Ali

Minister of State to the United Arab Emirates Cabinet since September 2018. With three decades of international experience and business leadership, H.E. supports the government actively in initiatives and efforts that drive the nation’s economic diversification plans and the sustainable future of the UAE. H.E. holds a number of positions including: Chairman of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), Board Member of Abu Dhabi Development Fund, Board Member of Etihad Aviation Group, Deputy Chairman of Emirates Nature – WWF and serves as the co-Chair of the UAE-UK Business Council.

Participation

2021 2022
Mina Al-Oraibi
Bio
Al-Oraibi, Mina

Editor in Chief of The National newspaper, a daily English language regional newspaper based in Abu Dhabi. An Iraqi-British journalist, Mina has over 18 years of experience covering Middle Eastern, European and American affairs. She has conducted multiple high profile interviews including with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa AlKadhimi, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former President of the World Bank Jim Yong Kim and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. Previously, she was a Senior Fellow at the Institute for State Effectiveness (ISE) and a Yale World Fellow.

Participation

2021 2022
Alaux-Lorain, Jean


Associate investor within the industrial ventures fund of Bpifrance, the French public investment bank. Prior to this, Jean worked in the merger & acquisition team of BNP Paribas based in Singapore and in the life sciences division of software editor Dassault Systèmes in France. A French civil servant, Jean graduated from École Normale Supérieure in Mathematics and is a Corps des Mines engineer.

Participation

2019 2021 2022 2023
Khalifa Shaheen Almarar
Almarar, Khalifa Shaheen

His Excellency Khalifa Shaheen Almarar was appointed Minister of State of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in the United Arab Emirates in February 2021, after serving as Assistant Minister for Political Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Director of the Department of International Organizations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abu Dhabi. Previously, he served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Arab Emirates to the Republic of Turkey, to the Islamic Republic of Iran, to the Syrian Arab Republic, and as a Non-Resident Ambassador to the Republic of Armenia.

Participation

2021 2022
Andler, Daniel

Professor Emeritus 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 impacts on 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 ?, La Cognition, du neurone à la société (co-authored) and Intelligence artificielle, intelligence humaine: la double énigme

Participation

2020 2021 2022 2023
Andrews, John

Author and journalist, specialising in geopolitics as a contributing editor to The Economist and Project Syndicate. A graduate in Arabic from Cambridge University and in education from London University, he taught at the University of Libya and then at the American University of Beirut before embracing journalism in time for the Lebanese civil war. His subsequent career with The Economist included positions in London as industry editor and Asia editor, along with foreign postings that ranged from Hong Kong and Singapore to Brussels, Paris, Los Angeles and Washington DC. More recently he has worked with the UN Environment Programme, with the Rockefeller Foundation on fragile states and with BBVA’s OpenMind on world conflicts. In July 2021 he became head tutor for The Economist’s first online course on global trends in geopolitics, with a particular focus on China and the USA.

Participation

2011 2016 2017 2018 2021 2022 2023
Florent Andrillon
Andrillon, Florent

Global lead of Capgemini Invent Sustainability Services. He advises organisation from different sectors on their climate, environment, and energy transition transformation projects. Florent graduated from EM Lyon in France in 2001. He started his career in the Energy Industry, before joining Capgemini Invent in 2005. Since then, he has worked with many companies players in the Energy and Utilities sector on strategy and transformation projects. For a couple of years now, Florent has been working a lot with clients from various industries willing to transform their business and operating model to reduce their environmental footprint.

Participation

2022
Antil, Alain

Director of the Ifri Sub-Saharan Africa Center. He works on Mauritania and security issues in the Sahel. He teaches at the Institut d’études politiques (IEP) of Lille and Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne University. He holds a PhD in political geography from the University of Rouen.

Participation

2008 2012 2014 2016 2018 2021 2022
Appert, Olivier

Chairman of France Brevets, Scientific Advisor of the Center for Energy and Climate of Ifri, former President of the French Energy Council. He is a member of the French Academy of Engineering. He has been General Delegate of the French Academy of Engineering. Previously, he was Chairman and CEO of IFP Energies Nouvelles (2003-2015). Prior to that, in 1999 he was appointed Director of the International Energy Agency’s Long-Term Cooperation and Policy Analysis Directorate. From 1989 to 1994, he headed the oil and gas department of the French Industry Ministry. He worked as Executive Vice-President of the IFP in charge of research and development activities (1994-1998). He graduated from the École Polytechnique and the École des mines.

Participation

2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023
Aslan, Ali

Internationally renowned TV presenter, talk show host, conference moderator, emcee and journalist. His international career in broadcast journalism spans more than two decades and three continents.  Throughout his career, Aslan has hosted numerous international TV talk shows with a global audience, often reaching over 100 countries and more than 100 million viewers weekly worldwide. Aslan is also one of the world’s most sought-after moderators and Masters of Ceremonies of high-level international conferences & summits, including for the UN, the EU, the G20, the World Bank, the IMF and the OECD. Aslan has interviewed and shared the stage with numerous presidents, prime ministers, CEOs, Nobel Prize winners and leading personalities from all over the world, including US President Bill Clinton, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellors Olaf Scholz and Angela Merkel, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, to name a few. Aslan earned two masters degrees in International Relations and Journalism from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in International Politics from Georgetown University.

Participation

2017 2018 2021 2022 2023
Bădica, Octavian-Bogdan

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Romania to the  United Arab Emirates in Abu Dhabi since June 2022. Beforehand, he was Head of Controlling and Reporting for The Private Healthcare Network Regina Maria. He also served as Consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers  in Romania. He obtained a degree in Business Administration from Bucharest University and one in Foreign Languages – English and Arabic from Dimitrie Cantemir University.

Participation

2022
Badré, Bertrand

Managing Partner and Founder, Blue like an Orange Sustainable Capital. Former Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer of the World Bank Group. He co-chairs the advisory board of Project Syndicate and the board of CGDev and IDDRI. Previously, he served as the Group Chief Financial Officer at Société Générale, and before that as the Group Chief Financial Officer of Crédit Agricole (2007-2011). He was Managing Director of Lazard in Paris responsible for the Financial Institutions Group (2004-2007). In 2003, he was invited to join President Chirac’s diplomatic team and was closely involved in the preparation of the G8 summit in Evian. He graduated from the Ecole nationale d’administration (ENA), the Institut d’études politiques de Paris, Sorbonne Paris IV University and from HEC.

Participation

2015 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023
Barakat, Maha

Assistant Minister for Health and Life Sciences in the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and also serves as the Director General of the Frontline Heroes Office in the UAE. Professor Maha Barakat is the former Chair of the RBM Partnership to End Malaria, has held the post of Director General of the Health Authority Abu Dhabi 2013-2018, and was Co-Founder, Medical & Research Director and Consultant Endocrinologist at the Imperial College London Diabetes Centre (ICLDC) in Abu Dhabi. She has served as a member of the Social Development Committee of the Executive Council of the Government of Abu Dhabi, and Board member of several Government of Abu Dhabi-related entities including the Board of Trustees of Khalifa University, the Family Development Foundation, the Abu Dhabi Quality and Conformity Council, and the Statistics Centre Abu Dhabi. As part of her role within the Health Authority, in addition to the fight against lifestyle-related disease, Professor Barakat has supported several public health eradication campaigns against communicable disease both within the UAE and internationally, including Africa and the Indian subcontinent.

Participation

2022 2023
Bark, Taeho

President of the Global Commerce Institute of Lee&Ko, a leading global law firm in Korea, President of Seoul Forum for International Affairs (SFIA), Professor Emeritus (former professor and Dean) of the Graduate School of International Studies (GSIS) at Seoul National University and Chairman of the Korean Committee of the Trilateral Commission and the Co-Chair of Korea-Canada Forum. Professor Bark served as Non-Resident Senior Visiting Scholar at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs of the Harvard Kennedy School. He has participated in the Task Force on Global Capitalism in Transition of the Trilateral Commission as an Asia-Pacific member. He served as Minister for Trade of the Korean government (from December 2011 until March 2013). In spring 2013, Dr. Bark was in the race for the Director-General position of the WTO as the Korean candidate. He also served as Chairman of the International Trade Commission of the Korean Government. He taught at Sciences Po, Stanford University and the University of Washington as a visiting professor. In addition, he was a visiting scholar at the IMF and consulted for the World Bank and the ADB. 

Participation

2014 2015 2016 2017 2019 2021 2022 2023
Barrault, François

Chairman and Founder of FDB Partners SPRL, an investment and advisory firm in TMT and publishing. In 2011, he was appointed Chairman of IDATE DigiWorld, the leading European think tank and consultancy organisation dedicated to Internet, Telecommunications and Media. He has had unique and diversified entrepreneurial and corporate experiences in the technology sector. He started his career as a researcher in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence with IBM Corporation. He served as President and CEO of Lucent EMEA and then as International CEO and corporate officer. He was also CEO of BT Global Services and a BT Group PLC board member. He sits in various boards and he is a frequent speaker in worldwide conferences on digital technologies.

Participation

2010 2011 2012 2013 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023
His All Holiness Bartholomew Ist
Bio
Bartholomew Ist, Dimitrios

Archbishop of Constantinople – New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch since 1991. His personal experience and theological formation gives him a unique perspective within ecumenical and inter-religious relations and environmental issues. Therefore, His All-Holiness Bartholomew I plays a vital role in the reconciliation within Christendom. Ordained to the Diaconate in 1961 and to the Priesthood in 1969, he served as assistant Dean at the Patriarchal Theological School of Halki and then as Director of the Private Patriarchal Office of Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios (d. 1991). He studied at the Patriarchal Theological School of Halki, the Pontifical Oriental Institute (Gregorian University) in Rome, the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey (Switzerland) and at the University of Munich.

Participation

2011 2012 2013 2017 2021 2022 2023
Behanzin, Francis

Co-Chairman of World Network of Security and Defence Professionals for prevention and combating terrorism. Former Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security of ECOWAS. General Francis A. BEHANZIN has notably managed with great efficiency and discernment political affairs, promotion of democratic governance, and peace in West African region. He has methodically and rationally led the development of the 2020-2024 regional action plan to combat terrorism. With several specialized military and police trainings in Europe, the United States, Canada and Africa, particularly on organized crime and peace operations, he is also auditor of the Institut des Hautes Etudes de Defense Nationale de Paris (IHEDN), lecturer at the Institut des Hautes Etudes de Défense Nationale in Paris and a member of the Benin Human Rights Commission of Benin. He holds a Masters in Law and Political Sciences from the National University of Benin. 

Participation

2022 2023
Bel Hadj Soulami, Amine

Head of Middle East and Africa of BNP Paribas Middle East & Africa for Corporate and Institutional Banking (CIB). He has worked for BNP Paribas for 32 years in a number of global roles, including leadership positions in Paris, New York & London. Prior to taking the position as Head of BNP Paribas Middle East & Africa, Amine was Senior Advisor to Global Markets. His previous roles also include Global Head of Sustainable Finance in Global Markets and Global Head of Research and Sustainable Investments within Corporate Institutional Banking. Amine also served as Global Head of Commodity Derivatives, and Head of Equity & Derivatives for the Americas. After studying at the Ecole Polytechnique in France, Amine joined BNP Paribas in 1987. He started his career as a precious metals options trader in 1990 in Paris and then New York, where he later headed up energy options trading (oil and natural gas). In 2005 Amine was named by Financial News among the 20 most influential Europeans in America. He is fluent in French, Arabic and English.

Participation

2021 2022 2023
Besnainou, Pierre

Honorary President of the French Judaism Foundation. He served as President of the European Jewish Congress (ECJ) (2005-2007) and of the French Unified Jewish Social Fund (FSJU) (2006-2014). He also co-chaired the Unified Jewish Appeal of France (AUJF) (2006-2014). In January 2010, he took over from David de Rothschild as President of the French Judaism Foundation, position he held until 2014. He started his career first as an entrepreneur in household appliance and then in internet with LibertySurf (internet service provider). He is also a member of the Board of Governors at the Shimon Peres Center for Peace and of the Weisman Institute France. 

Participation

2016 2017 2022
Beyer, Peter

Member of the German Bundestag. Peter Beyer is also the spokesperson of the Committee of Inquiry on Afghanistan as well a coordinator of Transatlantic Cooperation of the Federal Government (2018-2022). He studied law at the universities of Düsseldorf and Bonn. In 1999, he graduated from university and was admitted to the bar. Beyer began his legal career as an associate attorney for the US-headquartered firm of Mayer, Brown & Platt (now Mayer Brown). Beyer was directly elected in his constituency in the general elections in 2009, 2013, 2017 and 2021. A committed Atlanticist for many years, Beyer stands out among Members of the German Bundestag and his party as one of the most committed advocates of a strong transatlantic relationship with the United States and Canada. Beyer has been the Foreign Affairs Committee’s main rapporteur on the Western Balkans for twelve years. He is an active member of Atlantik-Brücke in addition to numerous organizations in his district.

Participation

2022
Biloa, Marie-Roger

Chief Executive Director of The Africa International Media Group and its branch MRB Productions. She is also Media Consultant and Adviser on African Affairs with Africa International, an umbrella entity including the “Club Millennium” and MRB-Networks.com, an issues- and solutions-oriented TV channel focussing on Africa’s development, in partnership with 10 major West-African TV. Born in Cameroon, educated in Cote d’Ivoire, France and Austria, Marie-Roger Biloa graduated from the universities of Abidjan, La Sorbonne in Paris and Vienna (German Studies, Political Science and History). Ms. Biloa is also an alumni of the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna, where her name is on the Hall of Fame, and of the Harvard Kennedy School of Governance. She is a frequent TV guest ( TV5Monde, France24, Aljazeera, RFI, i-Télé, ARD, ZDF) to comment current news and African politics.

Participation

2012 2013 2014 2015 2017 2018 2019 2022 2023
Jacques Biot
Bio
Biot, Jacques

Board-member and advisor to companies in the field of digital transformation and artificial intelligence. Jacques N. Biot 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. He currently serves as a Trustee to several scientific academic institutions. He currently chairs the Board of Directors of HuaweiTechnologies France.  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, a member of the Lion’s Order of Senegal and a Commander in the Order of National Education in the Ivory Coast.

Participation

2020 2021 2022 2023
Bittermann, Jim

CNN’s senior European correspondent in Paris since 1996. Previously he was an ABC Paris correspondent from 1990 to 1996 and the NBC Paris and Rome correspondents from 1978 to 1990. In his long tenure in France he has covered every Presidential campaign since 1981, and traveled widely throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa on major news stories. He covered Pope John Paul II for more than 25 years, has reported on famines in Sudan, the Iranian and Philippines Revolutions, the Gulf War, civil wars in Lebanon and Somalia, and the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 2009, Bittermann was named a Chevalier in the French Legion of Honor. His many journalistic honors include television Emmys and a Royal Television Society award for team coverage of the Paris terrorist attacks. He is on the juries for the Overseas Press Club and Emmy  television news awards. He is a member of the board of governors of the American Hospital of Paris and is the co-president and co-founder of the European-American Press Club. Since 1998, Bittermann has taught communications at the American University of Paris where he is now a professor emeritus.

Participation

2019 2021 2022
Bouquot, Geoffrey

CTO and Group Vice President Corporate Strategy & External Relations VALEO. Previously, he was technical advisor for Industrial Affairs at the Office of the French Minister of Defense, Jean-Yves Le Drian (2014-2016). He was also project manager at the Aerospace & Defence Unit, French Government Shareholding Agency (2011-2014), advisor for Industry at the Office of the Chairman and CEO of OCP Group (2009-2010). He graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique and the Ecole des Mines, Paris.

Participation

2009 2010 2011 2022
Bréchot, Christian

President of the Global Virus Network, professor of medicine at USF. Christian Brechot, MD, PhD joined the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine as Senior Associate Dean for Research in Global Affairs, Associate VP for International Partnerships and Innovation, Professor in the Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Internal Medicine, and heads USF’s Initiative on Microbiomes.  He is also President of the Global Virus Network.  In addition to his past role as President of the Institut Pasteur, he has held senior positions at Institut-Meriux, Inserm (the French NIH) as well as Paris Descartes University.  Dr. Bréchot’s research activities have focused on viral hepatitis, microbiomes, and viral infections. 

Participation

2009 2013 2014 2015 2016 2021 2022
Brown, Andrew

Junior Environmental Policy Analyst at the OECD. He is a young leader in resource and environmental policy who has been working on these policy issues for over 10 years. For the past 2 years he has worked for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), primarily on issues relating to resource productivity and waste management, with a strong focus on resource efficiency and the circular economy. In this capacity he has been an author of five recently published research papers, including the OECD’s “Global Plastics Outlook: Economic Drivers, Environmental Impacts and Policy Options”.  Before joining the OECD, Mr Brown worked in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service specializing in promoting wildlife conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. He holds degrees in Economics and Policy from University College London in the United Kingdom and the College of William and Mary in the United States.

Participation

2022
Cabestan, Jean-Pierre

Senior Researcher Emeritus at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (Centre national de la recherche scientifique), attached to the French Research Institute on East Asia (IFRAE) of the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilisations. He is also Professor Emeritus at Hong Kong Baptist University. Prior to September 2021, he was Chair Professor of Political Science, Department of Government and International Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University. He was Head of the Department from 2007 to 2018. He is also Associate Researcher at the Asia Centre, Paris and at the French Centre for Research on Contemporary China in Hong Kong. Named Officer of the Palmes Académiques in 2018, he has been a corresponding member of the Académie des sciences d’outre-mer (ASOM) since 2019.His main research topics include political, institutional and legal reforms in People’s China, Chinese foreign and security policy, China-Taiwan relations, the Taiwanese political system and China-Africa relations. His most recent publications include La politique internationale de la Chine. Entre intégration et volonté de puissance (China’s International Policy. Between Integration and Will for Power), Paris, Presses de Sciences Po, 2010 (updated second edition published in 2015, third edition published in 2022).

Participation

2018 2022 2023
Guillaume A. Callonico
Callonico, Guillaume

Geopolitical Risk Manager, Senior Director at CDPQ, a global leading public pension fund manager. He is a political scientist and risk manager specializing in International Relations, Democratization process and geopolitical risk. He leads the team responsible of cross-sectoral and geopolitical risk. His team identifies, assesses and monitors the main financial and geopolitical risks for global portfolio and specific investments. The team is also responsible to produce qualitative risk measures, develop tools and fundamental portfolio analysis supporting discussions with portfolio managers and board members. In the recent years, his responsibilities led him to work on the improvement of the risk management processes, the implementation of a geopolitical strategy, and to coach global companies to better understand and manage geopolitical risks. Mr. Callonico also teaches political and geopolitical risk management at the University of Montreal and is also the author of the Geopolitical Awakening of Finance (2023).

Participation

2022 2023
Chalmin, Philippe

Founder of Cercle Cyclope, Professor emeritus at Paris-Dauphine University, Consultant for various International Organisations (OECD, EEC, UNCTAD). He was a member of the Council of Economic Advisors in the Office of the French Prime Minister. He published around forty books including the latest Une brève histoire économique du XXème siècle, published in 2019. He has been the President of the French Observatory on formation of food products’ prices and margins since 2010. He graduated from HEC, he is “agrégé” in History and holds a Doctorate in Humanities.

Participation

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2018 2019 2022 2023
Charafeddine, Raed

Central and Commercial Banker, former First Vice Governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon. High-level senior finance professional with profound expertise in public and private sectors in the Middle East and Africa (MEA). International strategist in central banking, regulation and supervision, and financial markets, including direct operational experience in commercial banking. Board member of international and regional monetary and financial organizations. Social and economic reformist focusing on economic inclusion, poverty alleviation, women and community empowerment. Writer and speaker on strategy, leadership, monetary policy, finance, economics, and organizational and personal development.

His intellectual contribution is featured on his website.

 

Participation

2012 2016 2017 2021 2022 2023
Charbit, Stéphane

Partner in the Sovereign Advisory department of Rothschild & Co. He advises a number of governments, sovereign wealth funds and state-owned companies on economic development, financial policy and debt management, across Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, Central and Latin America. He is an active member of various think tanks and research initiatives related to economic and social inequality, and progressive reforms. He graduated from Harvard University, Sciences Po Paris, ESCP and holds Law and Economics degrees from Paris University.

Participation

2019 2021 2022
Coatanlem, Yann

CEO of DataCore Innovations LLC, specialized in “antifragile” investment strategies and member of the board of the Paris School of Economics. President of Club Praxis. He is the co-author of  Capitalism against Inequalities (PUF, 2022). In 2018, he received, from the Académie des sciences morales et politiques, the Special Prize of the Political Economy, Statistics and Finance section for his book The government of citizens as well as for the work he has done at Club Praxis, a think tank  that promotes the use of Big Data in policy making, in particular in revamping the tax and welfare system. Yann Coatanlem was also part of a Commission of economists appointed by the Académie des sciences morales et politiques, along with Olivier Blanchard and Thomas Philippon, to make recommendations on the teaching of Economics in High School. He graduated from ENSIMAG and HEC Paris. He is a recipient of the French National Order of Merit and of the Gold Medal of La Renaissance Française.

Participation

2022 2023
Laurent Cohen-Tanugi
Bio
Cohen-Tanugi, Laurent

Member of the Paris and New York Bars. Founder and managing partner, Laurent Cohen-Tanugi Avocats. He served as Chairman of the French governmental task force on Europe in the global economy (2007-2008). He was a Partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP (2005-2007), Senior Vice-President and General Counsel, Member of the Executive Committee of the Sanofi-Synthelabo pharmaceutical group (2004) and a Partner at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton (1991-2003). He also served as FCPA Independent Corporate Monitor appointed by the United States Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission (2011-2014). He graduated from Harvard Law School, University Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne Law School, the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (1980) and the Ecole Normale Supérieure. He has authored many influential books on democracy and the rule of law, European integration, transatlantic relations, and globalization.

Participation

2015 2017 2018 2019 2022
Jonathan Cordero
Cordero, Jonathan

Head of Corporate Development at Eurasian Resources Group (ERG), a leading diversified natural resources group – present in 16 countries with around 80,000 people. With over 14 years of senior-level experience in general management, strategy, and M&A, Jonathan D. Cordero is a leading advisor in the metals and mining industry. At ERG, he is responsible for global ventures development, strategy, and M&A, with a special focus on the group’s MENA growth platform. Mr Cordero is also an investor and mentor in the ResourceTech space, and co-founder and partner at Caesar Ventures, a seed-stage investment firm supporting entrepreneurs in the fields of clean energy, circular economy, and digital transformation. He has served as a board member at various companies and holds a Master of Science in Management from HHL- Leipzig Graduate School of Management.

Participation

2022 2023
Cotte, Basile

Basile Cotte is a high-ranking French official currently employed at the European Commission, within the DG COMP, with a particular focus on monitoring mergers and acquisitions within the basic industries, including the manufacturing and agricultural sectors. He is a graduate engineer from the “Applied Mathematics” program at the École Polytechnique, holding a master’s degree in Economic Policy Analysis from the Paris School of Economics. He also completed the Corps des Mines training program, which he joined in 2020. During his education, he had the opportunity to work for Morgan Stanley in London before joining Neoen in Paris, an independent renewable energy developer. His career has also been enriched by significant regulatory experience, as he had the opportunity to work for Euronext, the largest stock exchange in Europe, as well as for the DGCCRF (General Directorate for Competition, Consumer Affairs, and the Prevention of Fraud) in the field of digital and telecommunications regulation.

Participation

2021 2022 2023
Cozon, Stanislas


Executive Vice President of Capgemini. He has been 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 ‘Inspection Generale des Finances’ (French Treasury) and joined Capgemini in 1989. He holds a diploma of the ‘Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris and of the ‘Ecole Nationale d’Administration’.

Participation

2013 2017 2018 2019 2022 2023
Elena Daly
Daly, Elena

Founder and Principal of EM Conseil, an independent consultancy which provides strategic and legal risk assessment advice on sovereign debt management matters, investments in emerging markets, as well as on best practices in corporate governance compliance. She served in General Counsel, strategy and risk-related senior positions at alternative investment funds at Citigroup, Fortress Group and Nomura International PLC.  She advised the NYSE board on international issues. The first Russian lawyer to graduate from a U.S. law school (Berkeley), she started her career at Sullivan & Cromwell and Cleary Gottlieb.

Participation

2017 2018 2022
Lasha Darsalia
Bio
Darsalia, Lasha

First Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Georgia since June 2021. His responsibilities include to deal with the issues concerning the Russian-Georgian conflict, as well as neighboring countries and International Organizations. Mr. Darsalia is chief negotiator from Georgia to the Russian Federation in the Geneva International Discussions (GID). Prior to his assignment Lasha Darsalia was First Deputy Minister at the State Ministry for Reconciliation and Civic Equity. His main responsibilities included to work on the issues of the engagement policy with the communities on the Russian Occupied territories.

Participation

2022
David, Dominique

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 and of le Club des Vingt . 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

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2019 2022 2023
Antoine Delcourt
Delcourt, Antoine

Ambassador of the Kingdom of Belgium to the United Arab Emirates, since August 2022. Previously, he has been Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of the Kingdom of Belgium to the People’s Republic of China, and to Mongolia (2019 – 2022). From 2016 to 2019, he worked at the Directorate General for European Affairs (Brussels, Belgium); Horizontal EU external policy coordination, focal point for Belgium (European Correspondent 2017-2019); Coordinator for the Middle East and Northern Africa Regions (2016-2017); Belgian Senior Official for the Union for the Mediterranean, Belgian Coordinator for the relations between the EU and the Gulf Cooperation Council, and between the EU and the League of Arab States. From 2012 to 2016, he was Head of the Economic Department, Embassy of the Kingdom of Belgium to the Republic of India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and The Maldives. From 2009 to 2012, he worked as Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of the Kingdom of Belgium to Lebanon. Previously, he was Attorney at Law in Belgium (1999 – 2008).

Participation

2022 2023
Desouches, Christine

Honorary lecturer at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, expert-consultant to international organisations and member of the strategic council of IFRI. Through her research, relationships in the field and various positions held in the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), she has become a specialist in democratisation, crisis and conflict resolution, transition and peace-building processes, especially in Africa. In the OIF, her positions have included chief of staff, delegate for peace, democracy and human rights and special advisor for political and diplomatic affairs to the Secretary-General from 1988 to 2010. She holds a Ph.D. in political science and is a member of the Académie des Sciences d’Outre Mer, and a member of Ifri’s Strategic Advisory Board, founder member of the journal “Nouvelle Afrique Contemporaine”, and an Officer of the Legion of Honour.

Participation

2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023
Dorgnac, Catherine

Head of Middle East, Turkey and Central Asia at Bpifrance, the French Public Investment Bank. Prior to this, she headed the Middle East department of MEDEF International, the French business confederation, between 2018 and 2020 and was COO of a boutique advisory firm helping French companies address the Iranian market between 2016 and 2018. She held several positions in European Union agencies (Zimbabwe, Vienna) and the Project Finance team of the legal firm Clifford Chance in Paris. Catherine holds a Master’s degree in Business Law from Sciences Po and a Master’s degree in International Relations from the London School of Economics (LSE). She is member of the German Marshall Fund of the United States since 2018.

Participation

2022
Robert Dossou
Bio
Dossou, Robert

Lawyer at the Paris Bar and currently practicing at the Bar of Benin, President of the African Association of International Law. He is also a member of the Curatorium of the African Academy for Regional Cooperation and a member of the honorary committee of the Fondation René Cassin (France). Former Chairman of the Bar, Robert DOSSOU was a member of Parliament, Minister of Planning and then Minister for Foreign Affairs. Former President of the Constitutional Court of Bénin, expert consultant, he has carried out and still carries out various missions for various international organizations: UN, AU, ECOWAS, OIF… etc. He is an arbitrator of international trade. President of the National Preparatory Committee of the National Conference of Benin, he is the author of several publications on democracy, human rights and the democratic transition. A former professor at the University of Paris I and then at the University of Abomey-Calavi (UAC BENIN), and honorary dean of the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences of the UAC, he is also associate member of the French Académie des Sciences d’Outre-Mer, Grand Officer of the National Order of Benin and Commander of the Academic Palms (France).

Participation

2019 2021 2022 2023
Drouin, François

President of ETI FINANCE (SMEs and Midcaps financing), GAGEO (Asset based lending) and IFIMM (Real estate). Former chairman of the Board for the Autoroutes et Tunnel du Mont Blanc and of Société Française du Tunnel Routier du Fréjus,  former Vice President of the French Public Investment Bank (BPI). Former CEO of OSEO (the French Agency for Innovation and SMEs financing). Former Engineer at the Directorate of Navigation of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Region, Managing Director of the Caisse de Dépôts (French public financial institution) for the Normandie Region and later on for the Bourgogne region, Chairman of the Board for the Caisses d’Epargne (French savings banks) in the Midi-Pyrenees and for the Crédit Foncier de France (National mortgage bank of France). He holds a degree from the Ecole Polytechnique and from the ENPC (corps des Ponts).

Participation

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023
Dorian Duçka
Duçka, Dorian

Former Deputy Minister of Energy and Industry of Albania (2013-2015). He joined the international private sector in 2015. He has served as External Advisor on Investments to the Prime Minister of Albania since 2016. Previously, he was Director of the European Integration and International Projects at the Ministry of the Economy, Trade, and Energy of Albania (2009-2013). He was also Director of Project Management Unit for the TAP Trans Adriatic Pipeline. He has founded and been involved in several Albanian and international non-governmental organizations such as the Albanian Free Forum, IDEA Institute. He graduated from the Eastern Mediterranean University in Famagusta, Cyprus. He pursued postgraduate studies at King’s College London.

Participation

2017 2019 2021 2022 2023
Ducrot, Valérie

Executive Director of the Global Gas Centre based in Geneva/Switzerland (GGC). The GGC is an association bringing together leading stakeholders of the gas industry and was founded by major gas companies in December 2014. The GGC program consists mainly of meetings and roundtables organized by the GGC, sometimes in collaboration with one of their members or partners. Among the latter are the United Nation Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Bingmann Pflüger International (BPI), the International Society for Energy Transition Studies (ISETS), and Energy Policy Research Foundation Inc. (EPRINC). Valérie Ducrot advises the United Nations on energy and gas issues, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. Previously Valérie Ducrot was the Manager of the UNECE (the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe) Gas Centre from 2009-2014. Before she has occupied several positions in the French energy company named today ENGIE. During the last 27 years she has gained large experience in the gas sector at a worldwide level. 

Participation

2022 2023
Arash Duero
Bio
Duero, Arash

Managing Director of UAE-based Big Picture Strategy LLC. It is a consultancy that specializes in communication and marketing services for clients in the energy, climate and natural resources sectors. Moreover, he is a Principal at Strategic Minds Company, a founding company of the Berlin Advisors Group (BAG), where he heads its energy, infrastructure and commodities operations and has for over a decade provided strategic advice to a wide range of clients across multiple industries and functions. These include national governments, EU institutions, public and private corporations, infrastructure operators, SPVs, as well as national and international organizations.

Participation

2022 2023
Eizenstat, Stuart

Senior Counsel at Covington & Burling LLP’s international practice. His work at Covington focuses on resolving international trade problems and business disputes with the US and foreign governments, and international business transactions and regulations on behalf of US companies and others around the world. He has held key senior positions, including Chief White House Domestic Policy Advisor to President Jimmy Carter, US Ambassador to the European Union, Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs, and Deputy Secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton Administration. He has played a major role in providing justice to Holocaust Survivors in the Clinton, Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations. His articles appear in The New York Times, Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, Washington Post, and Foreign Affairs magazine. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa, cum laude from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and from Harvard Law School. He has received eight honorary doctorate degrees, and high civilian awards from the governments of France (Legion of Honor), Germany, Belgium, Israel, The United States, and Austria. He has written four books and his newest book The Art of Diplomacy, will be published in the Spring 2024.

Participation

2010 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022
Ekué, Serge

President of BOAD, the development finance institution of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) member countries. Prior to joining, this well-known expert with over twenty years of international experience in global finance, structured finance and capital markets, worked as Natixis’ Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) Country Manager for the UK in London as well as Head of Global Markets for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Head of Natixis’ Africa and Russia Departments. Between 2010 and 2016, he managed Natixis’ Global Markets for the Asia-Pacific region before taking over as Chief Executive Officer of the bank based in Hong Kong. He holds an Executive MBA from HEC Paris, a post-graduate degree in Banking and Finance from Paris V University and a degree from the Institut d’études politiques of Bordeaux.

Participation

2021 2022
Elbegdorj, Tsakhiagiin

Former President of Mongolia. He is a public servant, a freedom fighter, and a policymaker. In 1990, he was one of the key leaders of the Mongolian Democratic Revolution and since then has continuously served Mongolia as a member of Parliament four times, Prime Minister two times, and President for two terms. During his career, Mr. Elbegdorj prioritized strengthening the rule of law in Mongolia, fostering social justice, fighting poverty, combating corruption, supporting environmental sustainability, and advancing active participatory democracy. Currently, he is continuing his work to improve public policy, governance, and democracy through the Elbegdorj Institute, a think tank he found in 2008. Mr. Elbegdorj is now Commissioner of the International Commission against Death Penalty (ICDP), Patron of the World Sustainable Development Forum (WSDF), member of World Leadership Alliance – Club de Madrid and President of the World Mongol Federation. He holds Master of Public Administration from Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government (2002) and Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism from Land Forces Military Academy of Lviv City (Ukraine) of former USSR (1988). 

Participation

2017 2018 2022 2023
Elia, Roula

Attorney at Law, CEO of Echo for Peace Foundation and of Rased Lebanon (coalition of several NPO’s), member of Beirut Bar Association. She is a Founder and member of many NGOs and nonprofit associations. She is a Legal Consultant to many associations and civic organizations. She is also a journalist for Tele Lumiere and Noursat International TV, presenting social, political, and religious issues through talk shows. She conducted live interviews of well-known personalities in order to find solutions to national issues. She was delegated as “Lawyer and Journalist” to attend hearings in the Special Tribunal of Lebanon in The Hague, Netherlands (STL). She participated in several conferences and seminars in Lebanon and abroad, treating: Politic-Justice-Peace-Religion-Interfaith Dialogue-Globalization-Civil State, etc. She is a legal and social writer in many newspapers and reviews. She has a JD in Criminal Law from Lebanese University.

Participation

2022 2023
Erlanger, Steven

Chief Diplomatic Correspondent, Europe, for The New York Times, based in Berlin. Former London, Paris and Berlin Bureau Chief of The New York Times. He has served in numerous postings for The Times in Brussels, Jerusalem, Prague, Washington, Moscow, Bangkok and New York where he served as Culture Editor for two years. Previously, he worked for The Boston Globe as European Correspondent, based in London. He also reported from Eastern Europe, Moscow and revolutionary Iran. He was a Teaching Fellow at Harvard University. He shared in a Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for a series on Al Qaeda and global terrorism in 2002 and for International Reporting on Russia in 2017. He received an A.B. degree from Harvard College and studied Russian at St. Antony’s College in Oxford.

Participation

2009 2010 2011 2013 2016 2017 2018 2019 2022
Etourneau, Matthieu

Co-Founder and CEO of Royal Technologies Ltd., a Dubai-based insurtech company that intends to redefine the insurance industry in the Middle East. He is also the Representative of MEDEF International in the United Arab Emirates, the French business federation. Previously, he was the Managing Director for the Middle East of French insurance company Siaci Saint-Honoré. He also held various positions both in the private sector and the public administration: Managing Director of the Centre français des affaires de Téhéran, a business intelligence boutique advising French corporations on issues related to Iran, Head of Middle East at MEDEF and Economic Attaché at the French Embassy in Equatorial Guinea. Beginning on January 1, 2023, he will become a civil servant student at the Institut national du service public (INSP). He graduated from Sciences Po Bordeaux and the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Participation

2021 2022
Eyl-Mazzega, Marc-Antoine

Director of the Center for Energy & Climate of Ifri since 2017. Prior to joining Ifri, he spent six years at the International Energy Agency (IEA), notably as Russia & Sub-Saharan Africa Programme Manager where he conducted oil and gas market analyses and was responsible for institutional relations with these countries and regions. He also held various other positions, such as at the Robert Schuman Foundation, where he was in charge of a Ukraine observatory. A French and German national, he holds a Ph.D. from Sciences Po Paris in International Relations. He represents Ifri at the French observatory of raw materials for industrial value chains (Ofremi).

Participation

2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023
Fabius, Laurent

President of the Constitutional Council, President of the COP 21.  He played a crucial role in the negotiations and success of the Paris Climate Agreement, the first universal agreement to fight against climate change. Member of the Conseil d’État, he occupied several governmental positions in France: Minister for the Budget (1981-1983), Minister of Industry and Research (1983-1984), Prime Minister (1984-1986), Minister for the Economy, Finance and Industry (2000-2002), Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development (2012-2016). He was also member of Parliament from 1978 to 2012, and served twice as President of the French National Assembly, from 1988 to 1992, and again from 1997 to 2000. He is a former student of the École normale supérieure of the Rue d’Ulm, holder of an Agrégation higher degree in French Language and Literature and a former student of the École nationale d’administration.

Participation

2013 2018 2019 2022 2023
Felbermayr, Gabriel

Director of the Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO) and Professor at the Vienna University of Economics and Business since October 2021. After working as an Associate Consultant with McKinsey & Co, Vienna from 2004 to 2005, he held various teaching positions from 2005 to 2009 at the University of Tübingen and at the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart. From 2010 to 2019, he led the ifo Center for International Economics at the University of Munich. From 2019 to September 2021 he was President of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. His research and advisory activities focus on questions of economic global governance, European economic integration, and German economic policy. He has published a large number of papers in international scientific journals, in policy briefs, and newspapers. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.

Participation

2019 2022 2023
Figures, Tim

Associate Director EU & Global Trade and Investment of the Boston Consulting Group. Tim Figures is a senior expert on geopolitics and trade impact within Boston Consulting Group’s Global Advantage practice, working with private and public sector clients globally. He has 25 years of experience at the intersection of public policy, international geopolitics, business regulation, and strategy.  He has sectoral experience in international aviation, manufacturing, energy, transport and telecoms. He has worked extensively in the UK, EU, and international environments, including over 10 years spent in Brussels negotiating trade, investment and regulatory issues for both the European Commission and the UK Government. Following the Brexit referendum in 2016, he served as the Ministerial Advisor on EU affairs and trade to the UK Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. From 2019-2020 he was Policy Director for the UK’s leading manufacturing trade association, Make UK, working to help the industrial goods sector navigate the twin geopolitical events of Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Participation

2022
Flahault, Antoine

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
Foucher, Michel

Member of the Center for Higher European Studies (National Institute for Public Service, former ENA). He is, among other things, Senior Advisor to the Compagnie Jacques Coeur (since 2013). He was French Ambassador to Latvia (2002-2006), after having served as an Advisor to the French Foreign Minister (1997-2002), Special Envoy to the Balkans and the Caucasus (1999). He also served as Director of the policy planning staff of the French Foreign Ministry (1999-2002). From 2010 to 2013, he was Director of Studies and Research of the Institute of Higher National Defence Studies (IHEDN).

Participation

2008 2014 2015 2016 2017 2019 2022 2023
Frieden, Jeffry A.

Professor of Government at Harvard University. He specializes in the politics of international economic relations. He is the author of Currency Politics: The Political Economy of Exchange Rate Policy (2015) and the co-author (with Menzie Chinn) of Lost Decades: The Making of America’s Debt Crisis and the Long Recovery (2012). Jeffry Frieden is also the author of Global Capitalism: Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century (2007; second edition 2020), of Debt, Development, and Democracy: Modern Political Economy and Latin America, 1965-1985 (1992), of Banking on the World: The Politics of American International Finance (1987), and the co-author or co-editor of over a dozen other books on related topics. His articles on the politics of international economic issues have appeared in a wide variety of scholarly and general-interest publications.

Participation

2009 2012 2013 2014 2017 2018 2019 2022
Gadio, Cheikh Tidiane

President of the Institute for Pan-African Strategies, Peace-Security-Governance (IPS). He has been a member of the National Assembly of Senegal since 2017 and became Vice President in October 2019 until 2022. He was the Special Envoy of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to the Central African Republic from 2014 to 2017 and Special Representative of the OIC Secretary General for Africa from 2016 to 2017. He was Minister of Foreign Affairs in charge of the African Union and Senegalese Abroad from 2000 to 2002, before serving as Senior Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Senegal from 2002 to 2009. Former President of the “Dakar International Forum on Peace and Security in Africa”, he is currently the Special Envoy of the OIF (Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie). He holds a Diploma of Advanced Studies (DEA) from Paris-Sorbonne V University and a Ph.D. in Communication and International Development from Ohio State University.

Participation

2016 2017 2019 2021 2022
Galas, Godefroy

Project Manager in the Operations Department of the ANSSI, the French national cybersecurity agency. Previously, he worked for the industrial companies General Electric, Alstom, TotalEnergies and Vesuvius, as well as for the Private Equity fund Astorg in Paris. As a Corps des mines Engineer, Godefroy Galas is a French high civil servant. He is also a graduate Engineer of Télécom Paris, a graduate of the Grande École programme of HEC Paris and holds a Master’s degree in Public Affairs (Prép’ENA) from the Panthéon-Sorbonne University.

Participation

2021 2022
Gargash, Anwar Mohammed

Diplomatic Advisor to the President of the United Arab Emirates. He joined the Federal Government in 2006 as Minister of State for Federal National Council Affairs, and was later appointed Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. He was Chairman of the National Elections Committee, Chairman of the National Committee to Combat Human Trafficking, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Al Owais Cultural Foundation and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy (AGDA). He received his Ph.D. from King’s College, Cambridge and holds Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Political Science from George Washington University.

Participation

2021 2022 2023
Germay (de), Nicolas

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

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2022 2023
Girard, Renaud

Senior Reporter and International Columnist at Le Figaro. He has covered major worldwide political crises and armed conflicts for the past 40 years. Expert on geopolitics, he publishes every Tuesday his international column in Le Figaro. He wrote several books on the Middle East and the major diplomatic issues of the West. He regularly takes part in international conferences. He is also a Professor at the Institut d’études politiques de Paris and a member of the Editorial Board of the Revue des Deux Mondes. In 2014, he was awarded the Grand Prix de la presse internationale by the foreign correspondents in Paris. He graduated from the École normale supérieure and the École nationale d’administration.

Participation

2013 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023
Maurice Gourdault-Montagne
Gourdault-Montagne, Maurice

Former Ambassador, former Permanent Under Secretary of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After graduating from the Institut d’études politiques de Paris and the Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO) as well as from Paris-Assas where he completed a MA in Public Law, he joined the diplomatic service in 1978 in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where he had his whole career, alternating between positions in France and abroad. He has notably been spokesperson for the Ministry (1991-1993), Private Secretary for the Prime Minister (1995-1997), Senior Diplomatic Advisor to President Jacques Chirac as well as Sherpa of G7/G8 (2002-2007), he was also in charge of strategic dialogues with India and China. He worked abroad in India and Germany as Secretary and Advisor to the Embassies and then as Ambassador in Tokyo (1998-2002), London (2007-2011), Berlin (2011-2014) and Beijing (2014-2017).

Participation

2022
Gruffat, Jean-Claude

Vice Chairman of the American Hospital of Paris Foundation and Chairman of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free market think tank based in Washington DC. He also serves on the Board of Atlas Network and is a member of the Leadership Council of United Way Worldwide. He joined the investment banking firm of Weild Capital LLC, after 5 years with the New York based Galileo Group. From 1998 to 2014, he held various positions with Citigroup, Country Corporate Officer for France, Global Relationship Bank Market Manager for France, Belgium, and Luxembourg, and Director of Citibank International PLC. Member of the Board of United Way Worldwide between 2014 and 2020, he chaired its Development Committee from 2017 to 2020. He has a Ph.D. in Law from the University of Lyon, France, and a Master in Political Science from the same institution.

Participation

2009 2012 2013 2015 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023
Guérin, Gilles

Managing Director of Bordier & Cie in Geneva. Former Managing Partner of EFG Bank in Geneva, his area of expertise is private asset management. He is a member of the Board and Treasurer of the WPC Foundation. 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

2009 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Guigou, Elisabeth

Founding President of Europartenaires and former President of the Anna Lindh Foundation for the Dialogue between Cultures. She was first appointed Administrator at the Ministry of Finance and later Secretary General of the Paris Club. In 1981, she served as Advisor to Jacques Delors, Minister of Finance, before becoming Chargé de mission to the President of the Republic from 1982 to 1990. Minister Delegate for European Affairs from 1990 to 1993, then member of the European Parliament from 1994 to 1997, Elisabeth Guigou was Minister of Justice from 1997 to 2000. In 2000, she was appointed Minister of Employment and Solidarity. She was elected Deputy Seine-Saint-Denis between 2002 and 2017. Vice President of the French National Assembly from 2010 to 2011, she served as President of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the French National Assembly from 2012 to 2017. She has written a number of publications over the years, including L’Europe. Les défis à venir de la première puissance mondiale (Le Cherche Midi, 2014) and Pour une Europe juste (Le Cherche Midi, 2011).

Participation

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023
Traian Halalai
Halalai, Traian

Executive President of Exim Banca Romaneasca – a new commercial bank, ranking top 8 on the Romanian market, established after the merger of EximBank SA and Banca Romaneasca SA, at the end of 2022. Mr. Halalai acted as Executive President of EximBank SA since November 2012 and he successfully managed the first Romanian merger of a state-owned bank and a commercial-private one, establishing a significant benchmark for the local financial market. He also has extensive experience in top management positions in the Romanian banking sector, being part of the team that founded ING Securities in Romania in 1998. Along the years, Mr. Halalai proved vision and determination in establishing successful formats that supported the effective role of the banks in fostering the dialogue with local business community, promoting the national economy both in the country and abroad. Mr. Halalai holds a MBA degree from the Doctoral School of Finance and Banking (DOFIN) in Bucharest and completed a specialized fellow training at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Mr. Halalai also developed a teaching career as Associated Professor of Promotion tools and export programs under the Foreign Trade Master Program of the Faculty of International Economic Relations within the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest.

Participation

2012 2013 2015 2016 2017 2018 2021 2022 2023
Kerry Halferty Hardy
Halferty Hardy, Kerry

Co-Founder of Alcuin Advisors LLC, lecturer at ESCP in the new master’s program in International Business & Diplomacy, former Chief Development Officer of the American Hospital of Paris, speaker and Consultant. Her varied career has spanned the public, private, and non-profit sectors in Europe and the Americas, with a particular emphasis on the policy, agriculture, and healthcare fields. She created and lectures in a course in nonprofits and civil society and lectures on innovation, entrepreneurship and the policies and conditions that help promote them. Both as a Consultant and as a Board member, she advises companies and international NGOs. She holds a BA in German studies and an MS in Management.

Participation

2015 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023
Handley, Peter

EU official, Head of the Energy-Intensive Industries and Raw Materials Unit in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs. Previously, he was Head of Policy Coordination for Energy Union, 2030 Climate and Energy Package, Low Emission Mobility Strategy and the Circular Economy at the Secretariat General. Past EU Trade Negotiator (steel, WTO market access and industrial tariffs). Former UK government official, he coordinated UK preparations for the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). Graduated in French and Politics from the University of Bristol. Studied at the École nationale d’administration (ENA).

Participation

2021 2022
Hategeka, Emmanuel

Ambassador of the Republic of Rwanda to the United Arab Emirates. Prior to his appointment, he served since 2017 as the Deputy CEO and Chief Operating Officer of Rwanda Development Board (RDB), a one stop agency of the Government charged with fast tracking economic development through the private sector. Before RDB, he served as the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, a position he held for close to seven years since 2010. Ambassador Emmanuel Hategeka also served for 15 years in many positions of responsibility in the private sector. He began his career working for the National Insurance company of Rwanda, later moved to become Sales and Marketing Director for MTN (Rwanda) a global telecoms operator followed by his four-year tenure as CEO of the Private Sector Federation in Rwanda. He has proven knowledge and rich experience in corporate leadership, policy and strategy design, multilateral trade systems, Investment advisory and regional value chains frameworks. He is passionate about youth empowerment, innovation, entrepreneurship, and sustainable development. Ambassador Emmanuel Hategeka holds an MBA in Corporate Strategy and Economic Policy from Maastricht School of Management- Netherlands and a B.COM – Finance Bachelors’ degree from Makerere University- Uganda.

Participation

2022
Hecker, Marc

Director of Research and Communications at Ifri and Editor-in-Chief of Politique étrangère. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and taught for many years a course on Terrorism at Sciences Po. He published several books including La Guerre de vingt ans (Robert Laffont, 2021 with Elie Tenenbaum), Intifada française ? (Ellipses, 2012) and War 2.0: Irregular Warfare in the Information Age (Praeger, 2009 with Thomas Rid; translated in Chinese in 2011). His articles appeared in major journals (Policy Review, Internationale Politik, Commentaire, Études, etc.).

Participation

2008 2016 2019 2021 2022 2023
Horii Akinari
Bio
Horii, Akinari

Special Advisor and a member of the Board of Directors of the Canon Institute for Global Studies, a research think tank in Tokyo. Mr. Horii is also a member of several non-profit entities, e.g., Japan Association of Corporate Executives; the Trilateral Commission. Akinari Horii was a Central Banker until he stepped down as Assistant Governor of the Bank of Japan in 2010. He received his MBA with distinction, and as a Beta Gamma Sigma, from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and his BA in Economics from the University of Tokyo.

Participation

2015 2017 2019 2022 2023
Hosoya, Yuichi

Professor of International Politics at Keio University, Tokyo. He is Director of Research at the Asia-Pacific Initiative, Tokyo. He is also Senior Researcher at the Nakasone Peace Institute, Senior Fellow at The Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research, and Senior Adjunct Fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs. His research interests include postwar international history, British diplomatic history, Japanese foreign and security policy, and contemporary East Asian international politics. He was a member of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Panel on Reconstruction of the Legal Basis for Security from 2013 to 2014, and the Prime Minister’s Advisory Panel on National Security and Defense Capabilities in 2013. He was a Visiting Professor and Japan Chair at Sciences Po in Paris between 2009 and 2010, a Visiting Fellow at Princeton University between 2008 and 2009 and Visiting Fellow at the University of Cambridge between 2021 and 2022. Professor Hosoya studied International Politics at Rikkyo (BA), Birmingham (MIS), and Keio (Ph.D.).

Participation

2016 2017 2018 2021 2022 2023
Hur, Kyung-wook

President of the Korean Bretton Woods Club, Chairman of the Board of the Korea Center for International Finance. He is also a Board member of Doosan Shareholding company. He served as Ambassador of Korea to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. He also held the position of Vice Minister for the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, Secretary to the President for National Agenda, Senior Economist for the International Monetary Fund. He holds a MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and graduated from the Department of Business Administration at the Seoul National University.

Participation

2011 2012 2014 2016 2019 2022
Itoh, Motoshige

Professor Emeritus at The University of Tokyo. He was Professor of Economics at the Graduate School of Economics of the University of Tokyo, April 1996 through March 2016, and was the Dean of the Graduate School of Economics of the University of Tokyo, October 2007 through September 2009. He has been in various position advising the Prime Minister as well as Japanese government organizations. From 2013 to January 2019, he was serving as a member of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy. He received a BA of Economics from the University of Tokyo in 1974 and a Ph.D. of Economics from the University of Rochester in 1979. During the early period of his academic career he published various papers in international leading journals such as the Journal of Political Economy, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Review of Economic Studies, and the Journal of Economic Theory. Later he got more involved in policy issues in Japan and published more than 40 books on various aspects of policy issues. He regularly writes for several newspapers and magazines.

Participation

2015 2017 2018 2019 2022
Jacquet, Pierre

Professor of Economic Policy at the Ecole nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (ENPC, France) and member of the French Cercle des Economistes. Between 2012 and 2022, he was President of the Global Development Network (GDN), a public international organization headquartered in New Delhi (India), which strengthens research capacity in developing countries in order to promote development policies informed by sound analysis and evidence. He is the former Chief Economist (2002-2012) and Executive Director of Strategy (2002-2010) of the French Development Agency (AFD) and a former Deputy Director of Ifri. He chaired ENPC’s Department of Economic and Social Sciences between 1994 and 2012. He is President of the Scientific Council of the FARM Foundation (Foundation for Agriculture and Rural Development in the World), member of the Scientific Committee of Crédit Agricole S.A., and Non-Resident Fellow of the Center for Global Development (CGD, Washington D.C.).

Participation

2021 2022 2023
Joffe, Josef

Editorial Advisor of the German weekly Die Zeit. He is also Professor of Practice/International Affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington. From 1985 to 2000, he was a Columnist and editorial page Editor of Süddeutsche Zeitung. He co-founded American Purpose after the American Interest and is a regular contributor to the op-ed pages of the U.S. press like The Wall Street Journal. Since 2004, he has been a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. Now teaching at SAIS, he taught at Harvard and Stanford. His most recent book is The Myth of America’s Decline, published by WW Norton, NY. He obtained his Ph.D. from Harvard.

Participation

2019 2022
Karakullukçu, Memduh

Founding Board member and Founding President of the Global Relations Forum. He serves as the Venture Partner at the UK-based D4 Ventures, focusing on e-commerce, fintech and deep learning/AI investments. He advises tech companies on complex issues related to their NASDAQ listings. Previously, he was the Founding Managing Director of Istanbul Technical University’s (ITU) ARI Science Park. During his tenure, he was Senior Advisor to the President, Coordinator of the law, technology, and policy graduate program, and Strategic Advisor at the university’s Center for Satellite Communications. He has served as a member of the academic staff at ITU and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Earlier in his career, he worked as a specialist in structured finance in London and Istanbul. He received a BS in electrical engineering and economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an MSc in finance from LSE, and a JD from Columbia University. Mr. Karakullukçu recently co-authored a book on Turkish foreign policy, Değerler, Çıkarlar ve Dönüşüm, with former Turkish Undersecretaries of Foreign Affairs and Intelligence. He is a member of the New York State Bar Association.

Participation

2019 2021 2022 2023
Kastouéva-Jean, Tatiana

Research Fellow and Director of Russia/NIS Center of Ifri since January 2014. Before joining Ifri in 2005, she taught International Relations for the French-Russian Master at MGIMO University (Moscow State Institute of International Relations). At the beginning of her work at Ifri, she developed a rich expertise on issues linked to youth, higher education and innovation in Russia: she is the author of the book Les universités russes sont-elles compétitives ?, CNRS Editions, 2013. She currently heads the trilingual electronic collection Russie.Nei.Visions. She holds a degree from the State University of Ekaterinbourg, a Franco-Russian Master in International Relations from the University of Sciences Po and MGIMO University, and from the University of Marne-la-Vallée in France. In 2020, she published La Russie de Poutine en 100 questions (Paris, Tallandier).

Participation

2018 2019 2021 2022 2023
Kazatchkine, Michel

Special Advisor to the Regional Office of WHO for Europe, Professor Kazatchkine 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 has been 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. In 2021, he was a member of the Independent panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response convened by the World Health Assembly to evaluate the global response to Covid-19.

Participation

2020 2021 2022 2023
Keller, Daniel

President of Servir, la communauté des alumni de l’ENA et de l’INSP (former ENA Alumni Association) since 2017 and former member of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council of France as a qualified person (2015-2021), Daniel Keller is Chief Officer in charge of transversal projects of the Division of complementary pension and social action at Malakoff-Humanis. Graduate of the École normale supérieure de Fontenay-Saint-Cloud, holder of an Agrégation in Literature and former student of the École nationale d’administration (ENA), he began his career at the French Ministry of the Economy and Finance as a Civil Administrator in the General Tax Directorate and then in the Tax Legislation Department. He joined the Renault Group where he held various responsibilities in the sales department, in the distribution network, in France and in Europe, as well as in central functions, as Head of Worldwide Sales Quality for the Group. He then managed a group of Renault-Dacia car dealerships in the Paris region. President of the Grand Orient de France from 2013 to 2016, he was then Director of Transformation at Humanis, in charge of organization, project management and operational efficiency.

Participation

2018 2021 2022
Kepel, Gilles

Chair of Middle East and Mediterranean studies at École nationale supérieure in Paris and of the Middle East Freethinking Platform of the Italian Switzerland University in Lugano. Specializing in the contemporary Arab world and Islam in the West, he teaches at the University of Paris Sciences & Lettres. He is the author of widely-acclaimed books translated into many languages, including the latest one, The Prophet and the Pandemic / From the Middle East to Atmosphere Jihadism. The excerpt : The Murder of Samuel Paty, was released in the Spring issue of Liberties Journal (April 27th, 2021). His previous book’s English version, Away From Chaos / The Middle East and the Challenge to the West, was published in 2020 by Columbia University Press.

Participation

2022
Kervasdoué (de), Jean

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 National Academy of Technologies of France and a member of the steering committee of the Médecins du monde Foundation. Former Consultant to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, he served as Visiting Professor at Yale University, Under Secretary at the French Ministry of Health in charge of hospitals and Advisor to the Prime Minister. He is a Columnist for Le Point.fr. He holds a Master in Agronomy from the Institut national agronomique Paris-Grignon, a MBA and a Ph.D. in Socio Economics from Cornell University.

Participation

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2022 2023
Kim, Heungchong

President of the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP) since June 2020. Chairing the Korea National Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation, President Kim is currently President of the APEC Studies Association of Korea. He is a member of the Presidential Committee on Northern Economic Cooperation, an Advisory Board member for the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and the Chair on the Economy and Trade Division of the Korea-China Committee for the Future from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Prior to the current positions, President Kim was among the Advisory Staff to the Deputy Prime Minister/Minister of Finance & Economy of Korea, and had been a key Advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade on the Korea-EU FTA during the negotiation. He was a Fulbright Scholar in the UC Berkeley, and was an Honorary member of the High Table in Christ Church, Oxford.

Participation

2017 2022
Klich, Bogdan

Senator in the Polish Parliament since 2011. He is currently Chairman of the Foreign and European Union Affairs Committee in the Senate of the Republic of Poland. Between 2015 and 2019, he was Minority Leader of the Polish Senate. He served as Minister of Defence from 2007 to 2011 and was a member of the European Parliament. He managed the Information Department at State TV Centre in Cracow between 1990 and 1992. He then was Head of the International Centre for Development of Democracy in Krakow from 1993 to 1999 and Head of the Institute for Strategic Studies from 1999 to 2003. In 1998 and 1999, he was an Advisor to the government plenipotentiary for Poland’s accession negotiations with the EU. He graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the Krakow Medical Academy and the Faculty of Philosophy and History at the Jagiellonian University. He is a Lecturer at the Institute of European Studies at the Jagiellonian University. Senator Klich has authored numerous publications on foreign policy and international security. In 2001, he founded the Institute for Strategic Studies think tank in Krakow. In the late 1970’s and 1980’s he was active in the democratic opposition movement.

Participation

2013 2017 2018 2021 2022 2023
Koen, Vincent

Deputy Director of the Country Studies Branch in the OECD Economics Department, supervising work on around 50 member and non-member countries. He has authored or co-authored reports on a wide range of countries, including China, India, Indonesia, Russia, Japan, the two Koreas, Malaysia, Thailand, New Zealand, the euro area, France, the UK, Turkey, Poland and the Nordics. He has also served as the Department’s Economic Counsellor, as the main author of the OECD Economic Outlook and as OECD G10 Secretary. Earlier on, he was an Economist at the International Monetary Fund, in the Research and European departments. He started his career at the Bank of France. He holds an Economics Ph.D. from MIT, has published two textbooks as well as numerous articles and papers. He has taught at ENA, HEC and Paris-Dauphine University.

Participation

2022
Koleilat Khatib, Dania

Co-Founder and President of the Research Center for Cooperation and Peace Building (RCCP), a Lebanese NGO focused on Track II. She is a member of the working group at the Middle East at Hoover Institution, Stanford University. She is a member of the Steering Committee and an Advocacy Consultant for the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) National Agenda for the Future of Syria (NAFS) programme. She specializes in US-Arab relations and has a special interest in Syria. She is Editor of The Syrian Crisis: Effects on Regional and International Relations (2020) and has previously authored The Arab Lobby: Factors for Success and Failure (2016). She is a weekly Columnist in the Saudi newspaper Arab News and makes regular appearances on a series of Middle Eastern TV stations. She has co-directed, participated and presented scholarly papers in numerous conferences and workshops. She is currently working on a book project that researches the effect of regional competition on conflicts in Syria, Yemen, the Horn of Africa and Libya. She holds a Ph.D. in Politics from the University of Exeter as well as an MBA and a BBA from the AUB.

Participation

2017 2019 2021 2022 2023
Korsia, Haïm

Chief Rabbi of France since June 22nd, 2014. On December 15th, 2014 he was elected as a member of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques. He worked closely with the Chief Rabbis of France, Joseph Sitruk and Gilles Bernheim. He was a member of the National Consultative Ethics Committee (2005-2009), General Jewish Chaplain of the Army and the Polytechnic School and Director of the General Chaplain of the Air Force. He also served as General Secretary of the Association of French Rabbis (1999-2010). He graduated from the Jewish Seminary of France (SIF), and obtained an MBA from the Reims Management School, a DEA from the École pratique des hautes études (Sorbonne) and a Ph.D. in Contemporary History of the University of Poitiers, as well as a Ph.D. in Management Science from the University Paris-Saclay. He is the author of several books. The last one being, Réinventer les aurores, un plaidoyer pour la République, published in February 2020 by Fayard.
Credit of the photo: David Morganti

Participation

2015 2017 2022 2023
Randy Kotti
Kotti, Randy

Head of the regional economic service for Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur in France and economic advisor for the Regional Prefect, Mr. Kotti’s primary focus lies in supporting companies’ economic development and carbon transition. Prior to this, he was a consultant for the World Bank on financial inclusion and banking sector stability matters in the Middle East. He also worked for Neoen in Australia, an independent renewable energy developer. Mr. Kotti holds a Ph.D. in economics from the École polytechnique. He is also a graduate of the Havard Kennedy School and the Corps des mines program in France.

Participation

2019 2021 2022 2023
Kowal, Pawel

Professor at the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He is a political scientist, historian, columnist, expert on Eastern policy, Co-Founder of the Warsaw Rising Museum, lecturer at the University of Warsaw and Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Research Station of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Kyiv. Member of the Lower House of the Polish Parliament – Sejm, where he serves as Deputy Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. He served as Secretary of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2006-2007), and was a member of the National Security Council. From 2009 to 2014, he was a member of the European Parliament, working in the Foreign Affairs and Security and Defence Committees, and Chairman of the EU delegation to the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Committee. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the New Eastern Europe bi-monthly magazine and the Supervisory Board of Alwernia SA. He authored numerous publications on transformation processes in Central and Eastern Europe.

Participation

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023
Krisnamurthi, Bayu

Professor in Agribusiness Policy. President Commisioner of RNI-IDFood, the biggest SOE food holding company in Indonesia. Founder and Chairman of the Inclusive and Sustainable Agribusiness Initiatives. Chairs IPB University SDGs Network 2019-2021. Chair of the Association of Agribusiness Indonesia 2019-2023. He has held various strategic positions in the Indonesian government for nearly two decades, including Deputy Coordinating Minister for Economic Affair 2005-2010, Vice Minister of Agriculture between 2009 and 2011, and Vice Minister of Trade from 2011 to 2014. He also served as CEO of Indonesia Estate Crop Fund, Ministry of Finance, Republic of Indonesia between 2015 and 2017. Chairman of Indonesian Society of Agricultural Economics from 2011 to 2017, he also chaired the Board of Yayasan Danamon Peduli (Danamon Peduli Foundation) from 2015 to 2019. He was Senior Expert Panel of Indonesia’s Chamber of Commerce between 2018 and 2020. He has been a Board member of Yayasan Bina Swadaya (Self-Reliance Development Foundation) since 1999 and Executive Chair since 2018; as well as Board member of the Andgreen Fund, Netherland 2017-2023. Dr. Krisnamurthi got his Ph.D. in Agriculture Economics from the distinguished Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesia in 1998.

Participation

2018 2022
Kristoffersen, Helle

President Strategy & Sustainability of TotalEnergies and member of the Executive Committee. Before that, she was President Strategy & Innovation from 2019 to 2021, SVP Strategy and Corporate Affairs in Gas Renewables & Power from 2016 to 2019 and SVP Strategy & Business Intelligence from 2012 to 2016, within the Company she joined in 2011. Between 1994 and 2011, she held a number of general management positions within the Alcatel group, which became Alcatel-Lucent, and then Nokia. A dual Danish and French national, Helle Kristoffersen is a graduate of the École normale supérieure (Ulm) and the Paris Graduate School of Economics, Statistics and Finance (ENSAE). She also holds a Master’s degree in Econometrics from Université Paris Sorbonne. She is an alumna of the French Institute for Higher National Defense Studies (IHEDN) and a Knight of the Légion d’honneur.

Participation

2022
Kuleba, Dmytro

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. In 2003, Mr. Kuleba graduated with honour from the Institute of International Relations, Taras Shevchenko University (Kyiv, Ukraine), where he studied international law. In 2006, Mr. Kuleba obtained a Ph.D. in Law. From 2003 to 2010, he worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and at the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the OSCE. He also worked at the office of Ukraine’s Foreign Minister from 2010 to 2013 where he was in charge of the issues related to the image of Ukraine abroad, international organizations, and the relations with the United States. After quitting civil service in 2013, he chaired the Board of the UART Foundation for Cultural Diplomacy. In 2014, he returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Ambassador-at-Large to launch strategic communications. He introduced the concepts of digital diplomacy, strategic communications, cultural diplomacy and public diplomacy into the Ministry’s work. In 2016, Mr. Kuleba was appointed as Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the Council of Europe. From August 2019 to March 2020, he was Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine. He is author of the book The War for Reality. How to Win in the World of Fakes, Truths and Communities, 2019.

Participation

2022 2023
Kumar, Suresh

Professor in the Department of African Studies at the University of Delhi. He has shouldered the responsibilities of Head of the Department from 2009 to 2012 and from 2015 to 2019. He is the Chief Editor of the Africaindia.org. Professor Kumar has accomplished international projects with NIHSS South Africa, UNESCO Research Group in Brazil, SADC Hashim Mbita Project, Tanzania and nine national projects. He articulated his opinion on different aspects of Africa before the International Geography Union (2004 & 2008), India-Africa Forum Summit (2005, 2011 & 2019), Ronald H. Brown Institute (2008), United Nations Organisation (2012), World Policy Conference (2014, 2016 & 2022), European Commission of African Studies (2014), Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (2015), IBSA, BRICKS-IKS (2016, 2018 & 2019) and many others. About 164 articles have been published in different books, journals, and newspapers. He has actively contributed his opinion on India and Africa in the different international media channels of BBC, Aljazeera, ABC, Yomiuri Shinbun and All India Radio.

Participation

2014 2016 2022
Lablanchy, Jean-Pierre

Medical Doctor and Psychiatrist, member of the Supervisory Board of Edeis as well as member of Surveillance Board of Edeis.com and active member of Bealy.io. 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

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022
Mohamed Laichoubi
Bio
Laichoubi, Mohamed

Ambassador of Algeria. Former Minister of Labor and Social Protection and Minister of Youths and Sports of Algeria. He also served as Prefect, Deputy, President of the Finance and Budget Commission at the National Assembly, member of the Commission of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and Emigration. He is a member of the Royal Academy of Spain for Economic and Finance Sciences and of the Forum “Penser l’Europe”. Honorary member of the Barcelona Economics Network. Member of the Scientific Committee of the MS’10 Barcelona International Conference. He is Researcher, Lecturer and Teacher at the Higher School for Political Sciences at the Institute of Diplomacy and at the International Relations and the École nationale d’administration (ENA). He was a Board member of the High Institute of Management and Planning, National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as well as the National Office of Statistics. He was also member of the mediator’s team for the resolution of the Northern Mali and Northern Niger Conflict, and Co-Editor of the agreements. He graduated from the University of Law and Economic Sciences.

Participation

2013 2014 2015 2016 2018 2019 2022
Laïdi, Zaki

Personal Advisor to the High Representative and Vice President of the Commission EEAS. He has been a Professor at Sciences Po for over 20 years. He previously served as Special Advisor to Pascal Lamy, European Commissioner for Trade, and later as Strategic Advisor to the French Prime Minister from 2014 to 2017. Founder of the think tank Telos, he was Executive Director of the French think tank En Temps Réel. His fields of research are Europe as a global actor, trade and politics, and global politics. He is a prolific writer: he is the author of numerous books, academic papers, articles, comments in the press, etc. He was awarded the Légion d’honneur. He has a Ph.D. in International Relations from Sciences Po Paris.

Participation

2021 2022 2023
Lang, Nikolaus

Global Leader for the Global Advantage practice, Managing Director and Senior Partner of Boston Consulting Group’s Munich office. He supports clients on an array of globalization related topics: global trade, localization, international joint ventures, and digital ecosystems. Nikolaus Lang lived in Asia for ten years, and has worked in most of the world’s emerging markets. As a global expert in connectivity, autonomous mobility, car sharing, and fleet management, he is a Founder and Director of BCG’s Center for Mobility Innovation, a team of urban mobility experts and digital business builders. This team advises cities, public transportation operators, and mobility and automotive companies around the globe on innovative and state of the art mobility solutions. He has authored a number of publications and holds a Ph.D. and a Master in Business Administration from the University of St. Gallen.

Participation

2022 2023
Langlois, Bruno

Business Development and Partnerships Director at Carbios. He has over 25 years of experience in the Chemical Industry in developing business with innovative chemistries and establishing long term partnerships, innovating with customers and colleagues, observing and thinking how we could do and think differently. Carbios, with its unique technical solution, business model, and ability to make polyester (PET) circular is a perfect fit to passionately address the major issues to transition to a more sustainable economy by reducing plastic and textile waste. Bruno Langlois holds a Ph.D. from Clarkson University in New York.

Participation

2022
Lazrak, Omar

Managing Director at BNP Paribas, Middle East and Africa. He is Senior Banking Executive with a 20-year experience in leading coverage, structured finance and product platforms within top-tier international and regional Corporate and Investment Banks.

Participation

2021 2022
Lee, Hye Min

Senior Advisor of KIM & CHANG and Visiting Professor of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul. He joined the Korean Foreign Service in 1980. He became Minister-Counsellor of the Korean Permanent Delegation to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris in 2004. From 2006 to 2008, he served as Director General and Deputy Chief Negotiator for the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement. Then, from 2008 to 2010, he was Deputy Minister for Trade and Chief Negotiator for the Korea-EU Free Trade Agreement. Former Ambassador to the Philippines, he was Ambassador to France from 2012 to 2015. He held the position of G20 Sherpa as well as Ambassador for International Economic Affairs of the Republic of Korea from 2015 to 2017. Ambassador Lee graduated from Seoul National University and received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, France.

Participation

2012 2013 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023
Lévy-Lang, André

Founder and President of the Louis Bachelier Institute. Member of the Board of Ifri, affiliate Emeritus Professor in Finance at Paris-Dauphine University, Non-Executive Chairman of Les Échos, Chairman and Founder of the Fondation du Risque and Institut Louis Bachelier. He held various positions in the Schlumberger Group and he was CEO of Banque Paribas until the merger creating BNPParibas. He started as a Research Physicist at the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). He graduated from the École Polytechnique and holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University.

Participation

2008 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2022 2023
Liechtenstein (Prince of), Michael

Founder and Chairman of Geopolitical Intelligence Services AG, as well as President of the Think Tank ECAEF (European Centre of Austrian Economics Foundation). He is Chairman of Industrie- und Finanzkontor in Vaduz, Liechtenstein. From 1978 to 1987 he worked for Nestlé SA in the fields of controlling, financial management and marketing in various markets in Europe and Africa. H.S.H. Prince Michael of Liechtenstein completed his studies at the Economic University of Vienna, with a Magister der Sozial- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften (M.A. in Business Administration). During his studies he took various practical training periods and worked with banks and manufacturing companies in Canada, the United States and Belgium.

Participation

2014 2015 2022
Lipsky, John

Senior Fellow of the Foreign Policy Institute, at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Previously, he served as First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund from 2006 to 2011, and was Acting Managing Director during May-July 2011. Formerly Vice Chairman of the JPMorgan Investment Bank and JPMorgan’s Chief Economist, he also was Chief Economist of Salomon Brothers, Inc. from 1992 to 1997. He currently serves as the Chair of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and as the Co-Chair of the Aspen Institute’s Program on the World Economy. He also serves as the Vice Chair of the Bretton Woods Committee, and of the Center for Global Development. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), a Director of the American Council on Germany and a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He received a Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University.

Participation

2012 2013 2015 2016 2017 2019 2022 2023
Maïla, Joseph

Professor of Geopolitics and International Relations and Senior Fellow at ESSEC Business School. He was elected Dean of the Faculté des sciences sociales et économiques, before being the President of the Catholic University of Paris. He was Director of the Direction de la Prospective (Policy Planning Staff) at the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. He graduated as valedictorian from the Institut d’études politiques of Paris. He also graduated in Law, Political Science and Philosophy and he holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy and a Ph.D. in Sociology. He is a member of the Ifri Strategic board and a member of the Editorial board of Études.

Participation

2011 2019 2022
Mona Makram-Ebeid
Makram-Ebeid, Mona

Egyptian Senator and former member of Parliament. She is an Advisor to the UN High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, and is a Distinguished Lecturer in the Political Science Department at the American University in Cairo. She has been a member of the National Council for Human Rights since 2012 and an Advisor to the Minister of Labour and Immigration responsible for Egyptians abroad since 2011. She was a member of the World Bank’s Council of Advisors for the Middle East & North Africa Region. She was an Advisor to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces in 2012 and served on the Committee for Policy Development (UN, 2001-2004). She was awarded a fellowship at MIT in 2016. She is a graduate of Harvard University. She is a prolific writer in English, French and Arabic. She is an Officier de la Légion d’honneur.

Participation

2009 2010 2012 2013 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023
Manu Mallikarjun
Mallikarjun, Manu

Social entrepreneur working in the fields of International Relations and Development. His current projects include a film series, the goal of which is to find potential paths to a peaceful and sustainable world, for which as filmmaker he has documented his interactions with economists, activists, politicians, diplomats, academics, and spiritual leaders. The first film titled Birth of a Poet was an official selection at the Global Nonviolent Film Festival, 2019. Furthermore, he is writing a book for the same purpose. He has worked in the private sector in the fields of Real Estate, Information & Communication Technology, Finance, and Outsourcing. He holds a Master’s degree in International Relations from the School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University, a Master in Creative Writing from Universitat Pompeu Fabra, a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from R.V. College of Engineering, and is currently pursuing the part-time Master in Real Estate Development at IE University. He is fluent in English, Hindi, Spanish and Telugu.

Participation

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023
Manasseh, Nshuti

Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in Charge of East African Community of Rwanda since 1st May 2020.  From 2003 until 2005, he served as the Minister of Commerce, Industry, Investment Promotion, Tourism and Cooperatives. He was appointed the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning Ministry from 2005 until 2006. In 2006, he was appointed Minister of Public Service and Labor until 2008, when he was named as Senior Economic Advisor to the President of the Republic of Rwanda. Professor Nshuti Manasseh, was also the Chairman of Board of Promoters assigned to set up Umutara Polytechnic (University) in Eastern Province, Nyagatare District. He has over 23 years of University lecturing and administrative experience gained from high standards universities. He is a Professor of Finance, holding a PhD in Finance from Aberdeen University, UK, a Masters of Business Administration in Accounting, Aberdeen University, UK, and a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons.) from Makerere University.

Participation

2022
Mariton, Hervé

Former Minister, former member of the French Parliament, Mayor of Crest, Chairman of the Franco-British Council and of the Federation of French Overseas Companies (Fedom). Member of the steering comittee of the « Républicains » party, he was the whip of opposition in the finance committee, special rapporteur for the budget on ecology, energy, transport and agriculture, President of the Friendship Group with Russia and Vice-President with the United Kingdom as well as member of the Delegation for Overseas Territories. He has been Overseas Secretary in 2007. He is a Corps des mines General Engineer. He graduated from the École polytechnique and the Institut d’études politiques of Paris.

Participation

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2015 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023
Menilbekov, Madiyar

Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the United Arab Emirates. He started his career as a Senior Lecturer at the Nur-Mubarak University of Islamic Culture of Egypt in Almaty and at the Academy of Public Administration attached to the President of Kazakhstan. He then became Third Secretary of the Department of Asia and Africa of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan before he was appointed Attaché, Third Secretary and eventually Second Secretary of the Embassy of Kazakhstan in the UAE. In 2011, he was First Secretary of the Department of Asia and Africa then in 2012, Counsellor of the Embassy of Kazakhstan in the United Arab Emirates. From 2015 to 2017, he served as Minister-Counsellor of the Embassy of Kazakhstan in the UAE and then until 2019 as Consul General of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Dubai. He obtained a Bachelor from the Faculty of Arabic Language and Islamic Studies at the University of Islamic Appeal, Tripoli, Libya in 2002 as well as a Master of Philology at the Kazakh Abylai Khan University of International Relations and World Languages in 2004.

Participation

2022
Mey, Holger H.

Vice President of Advanced Concepts for Airbus Defence and Space in Munich, Germany. Before joining Airbus in 2004, he has worked for 12 years as a self-employed security policy Analyst and Consultant in Bonn, Germany. He conducted some 30 studies for the German Ministry of Defense and was a frequent TV and radio commentator, publisher, and lecturer. He is an Honorary Professor for Foreign Policy at the University of Cologne, Germany. He began his professional career in 1986 as a Research Associate at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (Foundation for Science and Politics). From 1990 to 1992, he served on the Policy Planning Staff of the German Minister of Defense and from 1992 to 2004 as the Security Policy Advisor to the Chairman of the Defense Committee of the German Parliament.

Participation

2017 2018 2019 2022 2023
Meyer, Jean-Claude

Vice Chairman International of Rothschild & Cie. Before joining Rothschild in 1989 as General Partner, he was Managing Director of Lazard Frères & Cie from 1976 to 1988. Previously, from 1973 to 1976, he was Advisor to DATAR (Délégation à l’aménagement du territoire et à l’action régionale), an office of the French Prime Minister. He is a member of the Board of Ifri. He is a Commander of the Légion d’honneur. Graduate of the Institut d’études politiques de Paris, he holds a M.A. in Law and has attended the Ph.D. Management Program of Paris Dauphine University.

Participation

2011 2012 2013 2015 2017 2018 2021 2022 2023
Michel, Jacques

Chairman of International Public Affairs at THOMSON BROADCAST. He has held various senior management positions across BNP Paribas international network, before retiring in 2022. His last position was CEO/Chairman of BNP Paribas Middle East and Africa for Corporate and Institutional Banking from 2015 to 2022. Between 2009 and 2015, he was CEO of BNP Paribas in India. Before joining BNP Paribas, he was Deputy CEO/Chief Risk Officer Asia-Pacific for Crédit Lyonnais, Calyon and Fortis Bank (1999-2009). Between 1995 and 1999, he was Country Manager of Crédit Lyonnais in Thailand and, between 1990 and 1995, Regional Manager of BFCE for South-East Asia based in Singapour. He has always been an active member of the Foreign Trade Advisors of France (CCEF, an official representative of the French business community overseas), he was Chairman of the Hong Kong Committee and is now President of the Bahrain Committee. He was Chairman of the French-Indian Chamber of Commerce and is now a member of the Advisory board of the French-Bahraini Chamber of Commerce. He graduated from ESSEC.

Participation

2018 2021 2022 2023
Nickolay Mladenov
Mladenov , Nickolay

Director General a.i. of the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy. He served as the UN Secretary General’s Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process between 2015 and 2020, where he focused on preventive diplomacy, helped avoid another war in Gaza and supported emerging Arab-Israeli ties. Prior to this appointment, he was Head of UNAMI and UN Special Representative for Iraq (2013-2015), brokering agreements, including on oil revenue sharing, between Baghdad and Erbil and helping the country form a national unity government in the aftermath of ISIL’s takeover of Mosul. For more than a decade Mr Mladenov was active in Bulgarian politics both in government and opposition. He served as Foreign Minister (2010 – 2013), and Defence Minister (2009-2010). In both positions he dealt with a multitude of international crises and promoted landmark reform legislation, while overseeing complex budget optimizations and institutional restructuring. Between 2007-2009 he was Member of the European Parliament. He also served as a Member of the Bulgarian Parliament (2001-2005) dealing with European Integration and Foreign Policy issues. He was a member of the EU Constitutional Convention.

Participation

2022
Montbrial (de), Thierry

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 institutions. Thierry de Montbrial chaired the Department of Economics at the École 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 École polytechnique and the École des mines, and received a Ph.D. in Mathematical Economics from the University of California at Berkeley.

Participation

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Pierre Monteiller
Monteiller, Pierre


Head of the risks department at the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Regional Environment Directorate. His activities involve the control of industrial installations as well as the management of natural hazards. Before becoming a senior civil servant, he worked for the hedge fund Meridiam, the Guerbet pharmaceutical laboratory and the M13h marketing firm. He holds an engineering degree from the Corps des mines and a degree in mathematics from the École normale supérieure de Paris.

Participation

2021 2022 2023
Moulin, Jacques

CEO of the DigiWorld Institute, European think tank for digital innovation and the digital economy, since 2017. Jacques Moulin began his career at Thomson SA. He joined the France Telecom-Orange Group in 1991 and participated in the transformation of the Group’s B2B, B2C, and HR sectors, in France and abroad. He also held various managerial and operational positions: Director of Human Resources and Communications for the Ile-de-France Est Region, Director of Human Resources for Orange Business Services, Regional Director for Lorraine and Territorial Director for the East Region (Alsace-Lorraine, Bourgogne, Franche-Comté). He went on to manage Orange France’s 11 territorial divisions as well as Orange France’s Human Resources Department (+ 80,000 employees). From 2011 to 2017, he was Managing Director of Sofrecom, an Orange Group subsidiary specializing in consulting and engineering services for international operators. Jacques Moulin is a graduate of Sciences Politiques. He also has a background in law, a Master’s degree from the Institut d’études politiques (IEP) and completed ESSEC’s “Economics and Business School’s international development” program.

Participation

2019 2021 2022 2023
Mourtada-Sabbah, Nada

Secretary-General of the University Leadership Council of the UAE. She was one of the dozen pioneer faculty members present at the creation of the American University of Sharjah, where she was subsequently elected by her peers as President of the University Faculty Senate, served as the Chairperson of the Department of International Studies, and was named as the founding Vice Chancellor for Development and Alumni Affairs of the American University of Sharjah, serving as pillar of institutional advancement of the university and senior faculty in international law, until she assumed the Secretariat General of the ULC. She has held visiting professorships at leading universities and research institutions in the US and Europe, including the University of California, the University of Michigan, the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies of American University, and the Congressional Research Service of the US Congress. Her books include Globalization and the Gulf (UK: Routledge) and The Supreme Court of the United States Political Doctrine (UC Berkeley Press). She has been invited as a member of the board of Amideast, a member of the board of Catholic University of Saint Benedict’s, and a member of the Commission for the Safeguard of the National Monuments of France, amongst other prestigious boards.

Participation

2021 2022 2023
Mayankote Kelath Narayanan
Bio
Narayanan, Mayankote Kelath

Former Governor of the State of West Bengal, former Special Advisor and National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of India. Led India in institutionalized security and strategic dialogues with several countries including Brazil, France, Japan, Sri Lanka, Germany, Russia, UK and the USA.  Prior to this, he was Director of the Intelligence Bureau and Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee. He also headed the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Developing an Integrated Capability to address Internal Security Challenges.  Has dealt extensively with a whole range of issues concerning internal, national and global security, including aspects such as Counter-Terrorism, Counter-Intelligence and Strategic Analysis. Holds a Master’s Degree in Economics from the University of Madras.

Participation

2011 2013 2015 2016 2017 2021 2022 2023
Nasr, Samir

President of ECE Consultants SAL since 1982. Chairman of Phoenician Funds Holding (Lebanon), and Executive Director of the Mouflon Fund (Cyprus). He was a consultant at the OECD and Professor of Economics. He has been Chairman at the National Investment Guarantee Corporation (1993-2018) and economic and financial advisor at various GCC countries. He received a Master’s Degree in Economics from the American University of Beirut and a PhD in Economics from Paris.

Participation

2012 2013 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022
Nicolet, Patrick

CEO of Linebreak, a global edge management platform. Patrick held a number of global leadership positions during his twenty years at Capgemini from 2000 to 2020 – the last seven as a Group Executive Board member. In his final role as Capgemini’s CTO, he oversaw the Group’s Technology, Innovation and Ventures agenda, as well as the global Cybersecurity and IT functions. Driven by a strong belief in planet-centric design and with values to match, Patrick initiates change and implements solutions that make an impact, with a specific focus on data, security, distributed and decentralized systems. He retains an extensive network of experts in the fields of technology, finance and business.

Participation

2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Anders Nordström
Bio
Nordström, Anders

Swedish Ambassador for Global Health at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Stockholm. Medical doctor from the Karolinska Institute. He worked for WHO as the Assistant Director General for General Management, Health Systems and Services and as Acting Director-General 2003-2008 and as the Head of the WHO Country Office in Sierra Leone 2015-17. He has served as Director-General for the Swedish International Agency for Development Cooperation (Sida). As the Interim Executive Director, he established the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria as a legal entity 2002. Recently he headed the secretariat for the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response. He has served as board member of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, GAVI, UNAIDS and PMNCH. He is currently a member of the Alliance for Health Systems Research’s board, the Chatham House Commission for Universal Health, the International Vaccine Institute Global Advisory Group of Expert and the Virchow Foundation for Global Health Council.

Participation

2022
Zaki Nusseibeh
Nusseibeh, Zaki

Cultural Advisor to the President of the United Arab Emirates. His Excellency Zaki Nusseibeh is also Chancellor of the UAE and former Minister of State for Cultural and Public Diplomacy.

Participation

2022
Obrist, Frank

Founder and CEO of Obrist Group which was founded in 1996. Before setting up his company, he studied as a mechanical engineer and worked closely with Felix Wankel where he became specialized in R744 compressors and test benches. Obrist Group owns today over 400 patents. Frank Obrist has devoted his professional career to the design of advanced machinery and to the creation of sustainable innovations. His main ambition has been finding the best technical solutions to fight climate change with the help of world-leading scientists. Frank is leading his company toward renewable technology, such as the Obrist aFuel; The world’s first climate-positive energy carrier. Obrist Group has developed this technology, to be applicable to the current infrastructure, affordable to consumers, and to be globally scalable. As a long-term goal, Frank Obrist wants to bring the world to a new “carbon sink-era”, which enables us to significantly reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Participation

2022
Okwulehie, Sam

Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of LATC Group – a proprietary investment firm with interests in marine logistics, retail, agriculture & manufacturing. He has vast experience in global logistics and commercial aviation having led commercial operations within the Air France/KLM & Kenya Airways group at senior levels in Africa, Europe & USA. Sam holds a BA in History & International Relations and is an alumnus of the executive management program of Columbia Business School. In addition to a number board positions, Sam is a member of the global advisory board of the Commonwealth Enterprise & Investment Council (CWEIC) in London and is a Senior Advisor at Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Besides English, Sam is fluent in French and has conversational knowledge of Spanish & Portuguese.

Participation

2022 2023
Oualalou, Fathallah

Senior Fellow at the Policy Center for the New South (PCNS), Morocco. He is an economist, with a PhD in Economics from the University of Paris (1968). He was Mayor of Rabat (2009-2015), Minister of Economy and Finance of the Kingdom of Morocco (1998-2008), Member of the Moroccan Parliament (1977-2002), President of the National Union of Students of Morocco (UNEM) (1966-1968). He has also been a University Professor, Chairman of the Association of Moroccan Economists (AEM) and of the Union of Arab Economists. He has authored many papers on economic theory, financial policy, international economic relations, with a focus on the Euro-Afro-Mediterranean area. La mondialisation et la pandémie. Chroniques de confinement (2021. PCNS. Rabat), La mondialisation et nous (2020. Ed. La Croisée des Chemins. Casablanca), La Chine et nous (2017. Ed. La Croisée des Chemins. Casablanca) are among his latest publications.

Participation

2009 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022
Paal, Douglas

Distinguished Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He previously served as Vice Chairman of JPMorgan Chase International (2006-2008) and was an unofficial US representative to Taiwan as Director of the American Institute in Taiwan (2002-2006). He was on the National Security Council staff of Presidents Reagan and George H. W. Bush between 1986 and 1993, as Director of Asian Affairs and then as Senior Director and Special Assistant to the President. Paal held positions in the policy planning staff at the State Department, as a Senior Analyst for the CIA, and at US embassies in Singapore and Beijing. He has spoken and published frequently on Asian affairs and national security issues.

Participation

2016 2017 2018 2019 2022 2023
Paugam, Jean-Marie

Deputy Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva since 2021. Before this, he was Permanent Representative of France to the WTO. Mr. Paugam has held various Senior Management responsibilities on Trade, Development and International Finance, with the French Treasury and with the UN system (International Trade Center). He also was Senior Research Fellow with the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri), France’s leading think tank on international affairs. Mr. Paugam graduated in 1993 from the French National Administration School (ENA) and holds a Master Degree in Business Law as well as a Diploma of Political Sciences from the University of Aix-Marseille.

Participation

2022
Pflüger, Friedbert

Director at the European Cluster for Climate, Energy and Resource Security (EUCERS) at the Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies (CASSIS), University of Bonn. He is Founding Partner of Strategic Minds Company GmbH. He has previously served as press secretary to former German President Richard von Weizsäcker. He was also a member of the Bundestag (1990-2006), Chairman of the Bundestag Committee on the Affairs of the European Union (1998-2004) and Deputy Minister of Defense in the first Merkel Government (2005-2006). He is also Chairman of the Internet Economy Foundation (IE.F) and (non-resident) Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Energy and Environment Program.

Participation

2011 2017 2022 2023
Nicolas Piau
Piau, Nicolas

Co-founder and CEO of TiLT Capital Partners, an asset management company dedicated to energy transition, with a first fund that first closed in April 2022 and focused on growth capital for European SMEs of the sector. TiLT reached its goal of €250m in AuM for its first fund and targets its hard cap of €300m by end 2023. Up until 2018, Nicolas was SVP in charge of M&A and Corporate Development for Engie, a Paris based energy company employing then over 150 000 people across 70 countries. He’s been working in the field of energy and project development / M&A for the last 18 years, after 5 years in HR working on social sustainability. He is also a First Mover Fellow of the Aspen Institute. Currently based in Paris, Nicolas lived in Brussels and Rome and spent a lot of time on transactions in the US, China, Russia, South-East Asia and South America. Sustainability and ethics have been at the core of his motivation, fueled by his graduation in Philosophy and Political Sciences and translated into a PhD in Economics on this topic, earned magna cum laude from Paris-Dauphine university.

Participation

2022 2023
Qiao Yide
Bio
Qiao, Yide

Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of Shanghai Development Research Foundation (SDRF) which is a non-profit institution with the purpose of promoting research on the issues of development. Outside Expert for International Finance and Economy at the Ministry of Finance. Mr. Qiao was enrolled into Kennedy School of Government at Harvard in 1985. After graduation, he entered Harvard Institute for International Development and did research work. In 1995, he returned to China as Chief Representative and Managing Director of New York Life until May, 2003. Then he entered Shanghai Development Research Foundation, as responsible for the daily work, a position he still holds today. Prior to studying in the United States, he conducted research at the Institute of World Economy, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, as an Assistant Director. He is the author of Great Changes in Global Finance (2021) and China’s Integration into Global Financial System and its Impact on the Rest of the World (2019).

Participation

2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023
Itamar Rabinovich
Bio
Rabinovich, Itamar

Professor Emeritus of Middle Eastern History at Tel Aviv University, President Emeritus and Counselor of the Israel Institute (Washington and Tel Aviv), and a Distinguished Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He is also the Vice Chairman of the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Tel Aviv. He served as Ambassador of Israel to the United States and Chief Negotiator with Syria in the mid-1990s, and as the President of Tel Aviv University (1999-2007). Prof. Rabinovich has been a member of Tel Aviv University’s faculty since 1971. He co-authored a book with Itai Brun, Israel Facing a New Middle East: In Search of a National Security Strategy (Hoover Institution Press, 2017). The same year, he published the biography of Yitzhak Rabin (Yale University Press). In 2023, he published Middle Eastern Maze: Israel, the Arabs, and the Region, 1948 – 2022 (Brookings Institution Press).

Participation

2013 2015 2016 2017 2018 2021 2022 2023
Rami Rafih
Rafih, Rami

Managing Director and Partner in the Dubai office of Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Rami Rafih has more than 15 years of consulting experience. He leads the Economic Advantage of Nations topic (FDI, clusters/hubs/SEZs, SME development, etc) globally for BCG. Rami is also a member of BCG’s Public Sector leadership team, a core member of Principal Investors and Private Equity (PIPE) as well as Global Advantage (GA) practice areas; and worked for government ministries and authorities in Europe, GCC countries, North Africa, and Asia, covering topics such as economy, commerce, investments, industry, healthcare, and tourism. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering from the American University of Beirut as well as a Masters in Management from HEC Paris. He is fluent in English, French and Arabic.

Participation

2022
François Regnier
Bio
Regnier, François

Country Head for BNP Paribas for the United Arab Emirates since 1st of October 2021. He also serves as Multinational Clients Coverage Coordinator for the Middle East region. As a seasoned professional, François has over 30 years of strong and diversified experience with BNP Paribas. He spent 10 years in Paris at the start of his career, both in Inspection Générale and then Coverage in a Banker role. From 2000 onwards, he held several senior executive roles in London and Central & Eastern Europe. He was Country Head for BNP Paribas in Hungary from 2005 until 2009, and then Country Head in Russia from 2012 until 2015. In London, he led the Acquisition Finance team in the early 2000’s and served as Head of Human Resources at the time of the BNP Paribas and Fortis merger. He was also Chief Operations Officer for BNP Paribas London Branch. Before coming to the UAE, he served as BNP Paribas’ Chief Compliance Officer, UK. Francois graduated in France as an Engineer from Ecole Nationale Superieure d’Arts et Metiers and he holds an MBA from EM Lyon.

Participation

2022
Ribeiro de Souza, Lívia

Co-founder and chief technology officer at Mimicrete, a spin-off from Cambridge University developing self-healing cementitious materials. She holds a BSc in Chemistry, MPhil in Mineral Science and Technology, and a PhD in autonomic self-healing cementitious materials. Lívia was a Senior Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Cambridge for 5 years, during which time she started working on the transition of laboratory solutions to commercial products. Now, she focuses mostly on the large scale manufacturing platforms and extending the utilization stage of construction products.

Participation

2022
Ricquier, Anita

Founder and Managing Director of Camelot Trust Pte Ltd. Her focus is on family wealth and businesses. She supports her clients on family governance, sustainability of business and wealth objectives in terms of risk management and succession planning to ensure smooth transition of leadership in business and wealth transference.

Participation

2014 2015 2016 2019 2022 2023
Arnaud Robin
Robin, Arnaud

Acceleration Manager within the Interministerial Digital Directorate, his role revolves around empowering state startups to increase their impact and scale their operations. Prior to joining the Prime Minister’s office, he had the opportunity to work for Jane Street, Google, the French railway group SNCF and the e-commerce giant Wayfair. He holds an engineering degree from corps des mines and Ecole polytechique, as well as a MS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Participation

2021 2022 2023
Olga Rosca
Rosca, Olga

Chief of staff to Moldova’s Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu. Olga Rosca joined Moldova’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development where she was leading Communications for some of the Bank’s largest markets, including Turkey and Ukraine. During her almost ten years at the EBRD, Olga was based at the London headquarters, the regional hub in Istanbul and most recently in Kyiv. Prior, she had been working in the media unit of the OSCE Mission to Moldova. Her previous experience also includes roles at the EU Delegation to Moldova and the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. She holds a master’s degree in Public Communication from the Moldova State University.

Participation

2022
Kevin Rudd
Rudd, Kevin

Australia’s Ambassador to the United States since March 2023. He served as Australia’s twenty-sixth Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010, then as Minister for Foreign Affairs, before a second term as Prime Minister in 2013. He was Member for Griffith in the Australian Parliament from 1998 to 2013. He started his diplomatic career in 1981 with postings to Beijing and Stockholm. In 1988, he was appointed Chief of Staff to the Hon Wayne Goss and served him as Premier of Queensland. He was Director-General of the Cabinet Office in Queensland from 1991 to 1995, and Senior China Consultant for KPMG from 1996 to 1998. He graduated with Honours in Asian Studies from the Australian National University and received his PhD from Oxford University in 2022. He also studied at National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei. In 2015, he became inaugural President of the Asia Society Policy Institute in New York. In 2020, he was appointed President and CEO of the Asia Society globally and, in 2022, he founded the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis. In 2019, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia for eminent service to Indigenous reconciliation, innovative economic initiatives, and major policy reform, and through senior advisory roles with international organizations.

Participation

2016 2019 2021 2022 2023
Sager, Abdulaziz Othman

A Saudi strategic expert specializing in international politics and regional security issues, he is the Founder and Chairman of the Gulf Research Center. Dr. Sager has also been a visiting professor at a number of universities, and member of various councils, advisory and academic committees, institutes and international research centers. He participates in international and regional conferences that address issues pertaining to the Gulf region. Notably, he has authored and edited numerous publications and has many articles in local and international newspapers related to Gulf affairs and regional issues, and he frequently contributes to major international media outlets. He is also the editor-in-chief of Araa a monthly Arabic-language magazine focused on Gulf affairs and is the editor-in-chief of The Gulf Yearbook. Dr. Sager holds a PhD in politics and international relations from Lancaster University.

Participation

2016 2019 2022
Haruka Sakamoto
Sakamoto, Haruka

Primary care physician and senior fellow at the Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research. She got her M.D from Sapporo Medical University and worked as a physician at St Luke’s International Hospital in Tokyo for several years. She then got a scholarship from the World Bank and got her MPH at the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health and PhD in public health at the University of Tokyo in 2021. From 2011-2013 and 2016, she worked at the international cooperation department, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan, where she was deeply involved in health policy activities in Japan. As part of the work, she participated in WHO meetings, G7 meetings, and bilateral cooperation activities through JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency). She’s also currently working as associate professor at the Tokyo Women’s Medical University, senior manager at the Health and Global Policy Institute (HGPI). Her current research focuses on health system strengthening, health care financing, and politics in global health.

Participation

2021 2022 2023
Sano, Tadakatsu

Attorney-at-law at Jones Day. His practice focuses on regulatory compliance and encompasses a broad range of government regulations, product safety, installment sales regulations, commercial transactions regulations, foreign direct investment regulation, energy and environment, and competition law. He represents various clients in civil disputes. He spent 35 years at the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. During his tenure as Director-General of the Trade Policy Bureau and Vice Minister for International Affairs, he worked in the field of international trade policy. He served as Chief Executive Assistant to Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama (2009-2010).

Participation

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2022 2023
Saran, Samir


President of the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), India’s premier think tank, headquartered in New Delhi. His research focuses on issues of global governance, climate change and energy policy, technology and media, and India’s foreign policy. He curates the Raisina Dialogue, India’s annual flagship platform on geopolitics and geo-economics, and is the founder of CyFy, India’s annual conference on cybersecurity and internet governance. He spearheads the foundation’s efforts to foster new international partnerships and incubate young leaders networks and youth led conversations globally. Samir is a member of the India-CEO Climate Action Group, Global Risks Advisory Board, and the Regional Action Group of the World Economic Forum (WEF). He has served as a Commissioner of The Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace. He is a member of the Board of Directors at ORF America. Samir has authored four books, edited important journals and publications and written several academic papers and book chapters. He is featured regularly in Indian and international print and broadcast media. His latest publications include The New World Disorder and The Indian Imperative with Shashi Tharoor and Pax Sinica: Implications for the Indian Dawn with Akhil Deo.

Participation

2021 2022
Schmid, Dorothée

Head of the Turkey / Middle East program at the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri). She joined Ifri in 2002 to work on the European policies in the Mediterranean region and in the Middle East, on the regional political and economic dynamics and on the Arab policy of France. She started the “Contemporary Turkey” research program in 2008, to follow the emergence of Turkey as a global power. Her present research focuses on Turkish diplomacy, new regional conflicts and their impact on Middle East economies. She directed the book entitled La Turquie au Moyen-Orient : une puissance régionale ? (Turkey in the Middle East: a regional power?), published by CNRS éditions in December 2011, and authored La Turquie en cent questions (A Hundred questions about Turkey, Tallandier, 2023). She graduated from Sciences Po Paris. She holds a postgraduate degree in applied economics and a PhD in political science. 

Participation

2008 2012 2016 2019 2022 2023
Louis Schweitzer
Bio
Schweitzer, Louis

Former General Commissioner for Investment (2014-2018). He served as Chairman of the French Foreign Affairs Council until 2017 and currently serves as Special Representative of the French Foreign Minister for the Franco-Japanese partnership. He was Chairman and CEO of Renault (1992-2005). During his tenure, he was also President of the Management Board of Renault Nissan BV (2002-2005). Formerly, he was a Civil Servant at the Budget Department and then served as Chief of Staff of Laurent Fabius, Minister of Budget in 1981, Minister for Industry and Research in 1983, and Prime Minister (1984-1986). Since 2012, he is vice chairman of IFRI.

Participation

2010 2011 2012 2013 2015 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022
Dmytro Senik
Senik, Dmytro

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the United Arab Emirates since May 2022. In July 2020, Mr. Senik was appointed Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine, Chief Digital Transformation Officer. In 2016 Dmytro Senik was appointed Ambassador of Ukraine to the Republic of Singapore. He also served as Ambassador of Ukraine to Brunei Darussalam and to New Zealand (with residence in Singapore). In 2014 – 2016 Mr. Senik held the position of the Chief of Staff to the Foreign Minister of Ukraine. In 2012-2014 he was Adviser to the Foreign Minister, and later to the Deputy Prime-Minister of Ukraine. In 2011-2012 Dmytro worked as principal assistant to the Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine. In 2007-2011 he worked at the political section of the Embassy of Ukraine in the United States. Mr. Senik joined the Foreign Service in 2004. He is a graduate of the Kyiv Institute of Economics and Management. Mr. Senik received Master in Diplomacy at the Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies, University of Malta. In 2019, Dmytro graduated from the Nanyang Technological University with Master in Public Administration.

Participation

2022 2023
Servan-Schreiber, Franklin

Co-Founder and CEO of Transmutex. Franklin received a bachelor in electrical engineering and a master’s degree in comparative history from Carnegie Mellon University. He was the Assistant Director of ELLE magazine in New York, member of the corporate philanthropy division of Shiseido Co. in Japan, Head of the user interface research lab for Sony USA Corp, Director of Communication at the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne, Founder and President of the award winning Zoomorama startup in Paris, advisor to the Executive Chairman at the World Economic Forum, Volunteering member of the Strategic Committee and Director of Communication at the Race for Water Foundation engaged in the fight against ocean plastic pollution, and now co-founder and president of Transmutex SA based in Geneva.

Participation

2022
Severino, Jean-Michel

Chairman of Investisseurs et Partenaires (I&P), member of the Académie des technologies and French General Inspector of Finance. Since 2010, he has been committed to social investments in Africa. He served as Director in charge of international development at the Ministry of Cooperation and Development, Vice President of the World Bank for Asia and, CEO of France’s International Development Agency (AFD) from 2001 to 2010. He has been a director of the board of EIB and Orange, has been the lead director of the Board of Danone, chaired the Board of Ecobank International and is a Board member of Michelin. He is a senior fellow of FERDI, the Fondation pour les études et la recherche sur le développement international. His last book, co-writen with Jérémy Hadjenberg, Entreprenante Afrique, dedicated to African entrepreneurship was published in 2017 by Odile Jacob.

Participation

2011 2012 2013 2017 2022 2023
Meir Sheetrit
Bio
Sheetrit, Meir

Former Member of the Israeli Knesset (member for 30 years). Born in Morocco, he emigrated to Israel in 1957 and served in a number of high-level cabinet positions, including Minister of the Interior, Minister of Housing and Construction, Minister of Finance, Minister of Justice, Minister of Intelligence Affairs and the Committee of Atomic Energy, Minister of Transportation and Minister of Education, Culture and Sports. He was first elected to the Knesset in 1981 and served as Mayor of the City of Yavne. He holds a BA and a MA from Bar-Ilan University. He is Head of leadership & public management in the MBA program at Ruppin Academic Center.

Participation

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2017 2019 2022
Daniel Shek
Bio
Shek, Daniel

Former Ambassador of Israel to France. During his 27-year long career in Israel’s diplomatic service, he also served as Director of European Affairs, Spokesman of the Foreign Ministry and Consul General in San Francisco. He has extensive experience in European Affairs and has participated in several chapters of Arab-Israeli negotiations, in particular while working with the late Shimon Peres. He has for many years taken part in devising media strategies for the Foreign Ministry and is considered an expert on public diplomacy. Since leaving the Foreign Service, he has co-founded NEXUS Elite Task Force and teaches Diplomacy at Tel Aviv University. He is among the leaders of the “Track II Environmental Forum”, an Israeli-Palestinian NGO devoted to resolving cross-border environmental challenges through Environmental Diplomacy.

Participation

2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022
Sigal, Robert

CEO of the American Hospital of Paris since 2017, a worldwide renowned, non-for-profit hospital. He is also leading the International Patients working group of French Healthcare, an organization created under the auspices of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development. From 2014 to 2016, Robert Sigal has been President and Chief Commercial Officer of InSightec, the leading MedTech company for MR guided Focused Ultrasound. From 2007 to 2013 Robert Sigal spent seven years at GE Healthcare, first in the Hospital and Healthcare Solutions business unit (2007-2009), then as General Manager and President of GE Healthcare France (2010-2013). Prior to joining industry, Robert Sigal had a seventeen-year career at Institut Gustave Roussy, the largest comprehensive cancer center in France. He was successively staff radiologist, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Radiology, and finally Executive Medical Director.

Participation

2018 2019 2021 2022 2023
Simon, Tobby

Founder and President of Synergia, a strategic think tank and incubation company that works in the area in deep tech and advanced technologies. He is a Commissioner with the Global Commission for Internet Governance (GCIG) and a member of the Trilateral Commission. He served as advisory board member of the Center for New American Security (CNAS), the International Council of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. He has been adviser to several international organizations such as The World Health Organization, Médecins Sans Frontières and AEDES-EU. He is a university topper, holds post graduate degree in management, is a graduate from the Harvard Business School and a Research Associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is currently pursuing his doctoral studies in strategic security.

Participation

2013 2014 2015 2016 2018 2022 2023
Sinapi-Thomas, Lucia

Executive Director of Capgemini Ventures, since January 2019,  Ms. Lucia Sinapi graduated from ESSEC business school (1986) and started her career as a tax and business lawyer in 1986, was admitted to the Paris bar (1989), before joining Capgemini in 1992. She was successively Group Tax Advisor (1992), head of Corporate Finance, Treasury and Investors Relations (1999), taking over Risk Management and Insurance in 2005. She was appointed Deputy Chief Financial Officer in 2013, and from January 2016 Executive Director of Business Platforms Unit. Lucia Sinapi-Thomas is a member of the Board of Directors of Capgemini SE, Bureau Veritas since May 2013 and Dassault Aviation since May 2014.

Participation

2021 2022 2023
Sławek, Jakub

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Poland to the United Arab Emirates. From 2004, he worked in Polish diplomatic missions in Sanaa, Algiers and Riyadh. He is also the author of two books: Yemen – world of tribal values (2008); Arabic and Polish diplomatic and political vocabulary (2016). Jakub Sławek graduated from the Faculty of Arabic Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow in 2002. He also followed a course of Arabic in Damascus and completed post-graduate studies in the field of diplomacy and international relations at Collegium Civitas, Warsaw. Jakub Sławek holds a Ph.D. in the field of humanities (Yemen studies) from the Oriental Institute at the Warsaw University.

Participation

2022 2023
James Stuewe
Bio
Stuewe, James

Director, Strategic Business and Planning Division, Natural Resources Canada, Government of Canada. Previous to his current role, he has worked at the heart of the Canadian federal public service in both the Privy Council Office and Treasury Board Secretariat. He has also worked in consulting for Deloitte and the Royal Bank of Canada in Toronto. He is a Fellow of the Action Canada public policy leadership program. He graduated with a Masters degree from Dalhousie University.

Participation

2017 2018 2019 2021 2022
Sur, Serge

Member of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques. Agrégé in Public Law, he is Emeritus Professor of Public Law, University of Paris Panthéon-Assas, where he set up the Master of International Relations (2000-2012). He was Deputy Director of the UNIDIR, Geneva (1986-1996) and ad hoc Judge at the International Court of Justice in The Hague (2009-2012). He is the founder and was Director (1999-2012) of the Thucydides Center-Analysis and Research in International Relations, and Director (2000-2020) of the French Yearbook of International Relations (AFRI). He is also Editor-in-chief of the bimonthly journal Questions internationales since 2003 (Documentation française). In 2008, he received the Edouard Bonnefous Award from the Académie des sciences morales et politiques, Institut de France.

Participation

2009 2010 2011 2012 2014 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022
Suzuki, Kazuto

Professor at the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Tokyo, Japan, and Director of the Institute of Geoeconomics at International House of Japan. He graduated from the Department of International Relations, Ritsumeikan University, and received Ph.D. from Sussex European Institute, University of Sussex, England. He has worked in the Fondation pour la recherche stratégique in Paris, France as assistant researcher and the Associate Professor at the University of Tsukuba from 2000 to 2008 and served as Professor of International Politics at Hokkaido University until 2020. He served as an expert in the Panel of Experts for Iranian Sanction Committee under the United Nations Security Council from 2013 to July 2015. He currently serves as a member of the National Space Policy Committee of the Cabinet Office, the Government of Japan, and the President of Japan Association of International Security and Trade. His research focuses on the conjunction of science/technology and international relations; subjects including space policy, non-proliferation, export control and sanctions. His recent work includes Space and International Politics (2011, in Japanese, awarded Suntory Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities), Policy Logics and Institutions of European Space Collaboration (2003) and many others.

Participation

2021 2022 2023
Riad Tabet
Bio
Tabet, Riad

President of Berit International Holding SA, President of Batiliban-France, Franco-Arab Consortium for development, board member of the executive committee of the Franco-Arab Chamber of Commerce, Paris, board member and founding member of the Lebanese American Chamber of Commerce, Beyrouth. He was Advisor to the Lebanese President for the French-speaking world (1986-1988) and Advisor to the Minister of Finance for the private sector (1999-2001). He is the author of numerous books and studies on economic development, environment and land-use planning. He graduated from the Institut d’Urbanisme, Paris-Sorbonne University.

Participation

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023
Narendra Taneja
Bio
Taneja, Narendra

Chairman, independent Energy Policy Institute, a New Delhi think tank. He is rated as India’s top expert on national and international energy issues. He is also the Founder President of the prestigious World Energy Policy Summit (WEPS) and a Visiting Professor at the NTPC School of Business in India, focusing on energy policy and governance. He served as Chairman of Energy Security Group of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Chairman of the Energy and Green Economy Working Group (India) of the BRICS Business Council. Mr. Taneja is well-known in public life as a thinker, politician, TV debater and conversationalist. He had served as a National Spokesperson of the BJP, India’s governing party. He has authored several books, including Mantras for A Golden India and Glory. Growth. Goals. – India’s Oil and Gas Industry.

Participation

2010 2012 2015 2022 2023
Alain Tchibozo
Tchibozo, Alain

Chief Economist of the West African Development Bank (BOAD). He is responsible for improving the Bank’s access to international capital markets at a time when the institution is committed to strengthening its equity capital to support the economic and social development of WAEMU countries. A senior financial analyst with nearly 30 years of experience with European banks and investment banks, he began his career with the Crédit Agricole Group (Paris-France) in 1987 where he held, among other responsibilities, the position of Head of the team of financial analysts responsible for monitoring European banks. His career path led him successively to Paris and London within the teams of Exane BNP Paribas, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, ING Wholesale banking and Mediobanca Securities.

Participation

2022
Máximo Torero Cullen
Torero Cullen, Máximo

Chief Economist of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Mr. Maximo Torero Cullen joined the Organization in January 2019 as Assistant Director-General for the Economic and Social Development Department. Prior to joining FAO, he was the World Bank Group Executive Director for Argentina, Bolivia, Chile Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay since November 2016 and before the Bank Mr. Torero led the Division of the Markets, Trade, and Institutions at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). His major research work lies mostly in analyzing poverty, inequality, importance of geography and assets (private or public) in explaining poverty, and in policies oriented towards poverty alleviation based on the role played by infrastructure, institutions, and on how technological breakthroughs (or discontinuities) can improve the welfare of households and small farmers. His experience encompasses Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia.

Participation

2022 2023
Aminata Touré
Bio
Touré, Aminata

Senegalese politician and Human Rights activist. Member of the Committee of Experts on Public Administration of the United Nations (UN/CEPA). She held several governmental positions including Prime Minister (2013-2014), Minister of Justice (2012-2013), President’s Special Envoy for Internal and External Affairs (2015-2019), President of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (2019-2020), and elected representative of the National Assembly (July 2022). Dr. Touré worked for 24 years in the United Nations Organization where she held technical expert positions in Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal. She also headed the Gender and Human Rights Direction at the United Nations Population Fund Headquarters in New York. At the early stage of her career, Dr. Touré worked in the private sector and with the Senegalese branch of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. From 2014 to 2020, Dr. Touré led and co-led Presidential election observation missions on behalf of the African Union and The Carter Center in Mauritius, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Liberia and Guyana. Aminata Touré holds a Master in Economics and an MBA from the University of Aix-Marseille in France and a PhD from the International School of Management in Paris. Dr. Touré directed more than 30 United Nations publications and authored in 2021 a book highlighting Africa’s contribution to International Penal Law through the Extraordinary Judiciary Chambers that tried Hissein Habré, former President of Chad.

Participation

2017 2019 2021 2022 2023
Trichet, Jean-Claude

President of the French “Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques”. He is honorary chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bruegel Institute (Brussels), honorary chairman of the Group of Thirty (Washington) and former European Chairman of the Trilateral Commission. Jean-Claude Trichet was President of the European Central Bank (2003-2011). He was Governor of Banque de France (1993-2003) and Undersecretary of the French Treasury (1987- 1993). He was President of the Paris Club (debt rescheduling) (1985-1993), President of the European Monetary Committee (1992-1993), President of the Group of 10 Central Banks Governors and President of the Global economy meeting in Basel (2002-2011). He was President of Sogepa (Société de Gestion des Participations Aéronautiques) (2012-2013) and Director of Airbus Group (2012-2018). He was named “Person of the Year” by the Financial Times in 2007 and n° 5 of the “World Most Powerful” in the Newsweek list (2008). Born in Lyon in 1942, Jean-Claude Trichet is an honorary inspecteur général des Finances and ingénieur civil des Mines. He is a graduate of the Institut d’études politiques de Paris, of the Université de Paris (in economics) and of the École Nationale d’Administration. Jean-Claude Trichet has been awarded honorary doctorates by several universities.

Participation

2008 2010 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023
Trinkler, Patrick

Founder and CEO of CYSEC. Before launching CYSEC, Patrick Trinkler played an active part in the world’s first exit in quantum technologies. Patrick has specialized in creating business value from security for governments, banks, the industrial sector and telco, using his deep experience in security, especially in technologies relating to quantum computing and cryptography. Patrick earned an undergraduate degree in engineering at the University of Applied Sciences and a Master in Project Management at the Geneva School of Business Administration.

Participation

2022
Tuakli, Juliette

Medical Director of FCA/Lucca Health Group in Ghana. She has achieved significant, sustainable impacts in public health, pediatrics, ethics, and philanthropy in Africa, the USA and Europe. As Chair of the Board of Trustees for United Way Worldwide from 2019 to 2022, Dr. Tuakli oversaw the diversification and strengthening of the organization’s governance within a complex global context. Since 2019 she has served annually as a judge in the health category for the UAE El-Zayed Sustainability Prize. In June 2022 she oversaw the launch of an Africa-wide Safe Surgical partnership between Mercy Ships and WHO, and the Global Mercy – the largest hospital ship in the world. In November 2022, Mercy Ships appointed her in the newly created role of Diplomatic Ambassador for Africa. Dr. Tuakli remains a Zenith Bank and Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative International Board member, and she is also on the the board of the Global Vaccine Network. Most recently she joined the board of CarePoint: an Africa-focused healthcare company. She co-founded the MOREMI/UN Women Girls’ Leadership & Development program. She also spearheaded Women’s Initiative for Self-Empowerment for several years. The African Union has recognized her contributions to the continent. She has had a leading role in creating a focus on Health, as well as several speaking roles, at the WPC. Prior to working in Ghana, Dr. Tuakli was the first African female medical Professor at Harvard Medical School. Her highly acclaimed medical practice in Accra, Ghana was recently acquired by the US-based Black Ivy Group.

Participation

2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Tybring-Gjedde, Ingvil Smines

Non-Executive Director of Norge Mining. Ingvil Tybring-Gjedde brings an exceptional level of experience to Norge Mining’s Board as a Non-Executive Director. A representative of the Norwegian Progress Party (FrP) and the former Deputy Minister in the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, she will be a guiding light as the country explores its exciting economic next steps. Ingvil was also the Minister of Public Security in the Ministry of Justice and Public Security from January 2019 until January 2020. And she previously worked as a Senior Advisor in the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and in oil and gas management positions at Innovation Norway. Committees of the Board: Remuneration (Member) & ESG (Chair).

Participation

2021 2022
Van Genutgen, Saskia

Associate Director at MacroScope Strategies. Before joining M2S, she served as Strategy and Policy Advisor at the Netherlands Ministry of Defense. She was also a Senior Research Fellow at the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy in Abu Dhabi, a Political Affairs Officer for the UN Mission to Libya (UNSMIL), a Manager in the Government and Public Sector Advisory arm of PwC, and a staff member of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Development Cooperation of the Senate of the Netherlands. She is a Non-Resident Research Fellow at the Royal Dutch Defense Academy and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Middle East Institute (MEI) in Washington DC. She has an extensive publications track-record in international affairs related issues, both in Europe and the Middle East. She holds a Ph.D. in European and Middle East Studies from the Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), an MA in International Relations and International Economics from Johns Hopkins University (SAIS), an MA in the History of International Relations and a BA in Italian Literature from Utrecht University. She speaks English, Dutch and Italian.

Participation

2022
Roman Vassilenko
Vassilenko, Roman

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, since January 2022. Roman Vassilenko has been on Kazakhstan’s diplomatic service since 1996, first as Third Secretary and later as Second Secretary at the Embassy of Kazakhstan to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. He worked as Assistant to the Head of Prime Minister’s Office of the Republic of Kazakhstan (1999 – 2000), Chief Inspector of the Secretariat of the Secretary of State of Kazakhstan, Consultant of the President’s Chancery of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and Deputy Chief of Staff to the Secretary of State of Kazakhstan (2007 – 2009). He served as Chairman of the Committee for International Information of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, overseeing the communications for the Ministry during such important periods as Kazakhstan’s chairmanships in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (2009 – 2012). He served as Deputy Director (2012 – 2013) of the Nazarbayev Center, a multifunctional scientific, analytical, humanitarian and educational public institution. He was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan (2016 – 2019). He served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the Slovak Republic (2019 – 2022). He was appointed as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan again in January 2022.

Participation

2022 2023
Védrine, Hubert

Founder of Hubert Védrine Conseil, a public affairs consultancy specialized in international, economic and geopolitical issues. He was President of the Institut François Mitterrand until 2022. Prior to that, Hubert Védrine served as Minister of Foreign Affairs under the government of Lionel Jospin from June 1997 to May 2002. From 1996 to 1997, he was a partner in the law firm Jeantet et Associés. He was a member of the French Council of State as maître des requêtes in 1986-1988 and 1995-1996, and then in 2002-2003. From 2005 to 2021, he led a seminar at Sciences Po Paris on the perception of threats in international relations. From 1981 to 1995, he was diplomatic advisor to the Presidency of the Republic, spokesman and, from 1991 to 1995, Secretary-General. Before that, he was a civil administrator in the Ministry of Culture from 1974 to 1981. In 2020, he was appointed by France to participate in the group of personalities in charge of a reflection on the future of NATO in 2030. He is the author of numerous books. In June 2020, he published an essay on the pandemic, Et après ? (Fayard), in 2021, Dictionnaire amoureux de la géopolitique and in 2022, Une Vision du Monde (BOUQUINS) which brings together his main texts of the last 30 years. Mr. Védrine also has a degree in history, and is an alumnus of ENA.

Participation

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2022
Véron, Nicolas

Co-founder of Bruegel in Brussels in 2002-2005, joined the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington DC in 2009, and is currently employed on equal terms by both organizations as a Senior Fellow. His research is primarily about financial systems and financial services policies, with a main geographical focus on Europe. A graduate of France’s École Polytechnique and École des mines, his earlier experience includes senior positions in the French government and private sector in the 1990s and early 2000s. He is also an independent board member of the global derivatives trade repository arm of DTCC, a financial infrastructure company that operates on a non-profit basis. In September 2012, Bloomberg Markets included Véron in its yearly global “50 Most Influential” list with reference to his early advocacy of European banking union.

Participation

2009 2018 2021 2022
Romuald Wadagni
Bio
Wadagni, Romuald

Senior Minister in charge of Economy and Finance of Benin. Romuald Wadagni had a leading international experience within Deloitte. He developed cutting-edge expertise in several fields, serving customers in various sectors of activity and various governments and donors. In 2012, he was promoted to Managing Director and Partner at Deloitte in recognition of his professional achievements, his expertise and knowledge of European, American, and African economic issues. In 2015, he created a new office in the Democratic Republic of Congo and was appointed Audit Manager and Director of Professional Practice for all of Deloitte’s activities in French-speaking Africa. In charge of the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Benin since April 2016, he implements a policy articulated around two axes: on the one hand a transparent, proactive, and innovative management of public finances in order to make Benin trustworthy with public and private international donors, and on the other hand the improvement of the business climate and the strengthening of the resilience of the private sector in the face of exogenous crises. He plays a major role on the West African stage. As Chairman of the Statutory Council of WAEMU Finance Ministers, he led negotiations with France and signed the agreement in December 2019 to put an end to the franc CFA in West Africa.

Participation

2022
Wang, Jisi

Professor in the School of International Studies and President of the Institute of International and Strategic Studies, Peking University. He has been Peking University Boya Chair Professor since 2017. He is Honorary President of the Chinese Association for American Studies, and was a member of the Foreign Policy Advisory Committee of China’s Foreign Ministry (2008-2016). He taught in Peking University’s Department of International Politics (1983-1991), and then served as Director of the Institute of American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences until 2005. From 2005 to 2013, he served as dean of the School of International Studies at Peking University. He was concurrently Director of the Institute of International Strategic Studies of the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China (2001- 2009). He was a Global Scholar at Princeton University (2011-2015). He obtained an MA degree from Peking University. 

Participation

2012 2016 2018 2021 2022
Weymuller, Bruno

Member of Total Professeurs Associés, and of the French Energy Council. He was Executive Vice President at Total in charge of Strategy and Risk Assessment (2000-2008). He was Chief Financial Officer of Elf Aquitaine (1994-2000). He began his career at the Ministry for Industry (1972-1978), then he joined the Prime Minister Raymond Barre’s cabinet (1978-1981). He graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique, and the Ecole des mines in Paris. He holds a Master of Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Participation

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2019 2022 2023
Yaha, Mohamed Abdellahi

Chairman and CEO, Maurinvest Group, which he founded in 2011. It is a company that develops industries and add values through fundings with international partners. He is also the Chairman/CEO of MAURILOG a logistics services & transport company for Industrial Projects, Oil & Gas and Mining activities in Mauritania. He started in the fishing business at the age of 28. He is the founder of MIP SEAFOOD, the unique Mauritanian company able to reach Europeans standards allowed to export directly transformed products from the sea. He has been providing outboard motors for the fishing sector for the past 20 years. He served as in Charge of the Promotion of Private Investments between 2007 and 2008. He graduated from ENSM (Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Mécanique) in France.

Participation

2017 2019 2022
Yim Sung-Joon
Bio
Yim, Sung-joon

Senior Advisor at Lee International IP & Law Group. Previously, he held the position of President of the Korea Foundation (2007-2010). He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1974 and served, among others, as Korean Ambassador to Canada (2004-2007) and Egypt (1996-1999). In 2001, he was Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and in 2002, he was appointed as the National Security Advisor to President Kim Dae-jung. He formerly co-chaired the Korea-Canada Forum. He graduated from Seoul National University, Oxford University and Keio University.

Participation

2009 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2022 2023
Hyosung Yim
Yim, Hyosung

Hyosung Yim is currently Vice President at the Corporate Strategy Center of Hyosung Corporation in Korea. He is the assistant to the Vice Chairman/Chief Operating Officer of Hyosung Group, who administers and runs the everyday operations of the multinational business group. Mr. Yim is also currently responsible for managing and coordinating the hydrogen business within Hyosung. Prior to joining Hyosung, Mr. Yim was a stock analyst at Daiwa Securities Capital Markets Korea. He also served as a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP), a government think-tank responsible for advising the government on international economic and trade issues. He holds a BA in business administration from Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea and an MBA from the Graduate School of Yonsei University.

Participation

2022
Estelle Youssouffa
Youssouffa, Estelle

Member of Parliament of the French National Assembly since her election in June 2022 and she seats in the Foreign Affairs Commission. She is the representative of the first electoral district of her native island of Mayotte, a French overseas territory located in the Eastern African Mozambique Channel. Estelle is part of the Center-Right political group “Libertés, Indépendants, Outre-mer et Territoires”. Her civic engagement as the head of the citizens movement in Mayotte and her election followed her 20-year career as a TV journalist and communication and international affairs consultant. Among various international companies and institutions, Estelle worked for the World Bank as well as the African Development Bank as a consultant and as a journalist for France 2, TV5 Monde, Al Jazeera English and LCI. She created a conference called The Leaders’ Seminar which gathered 60 Western, Arab and African leaders in Marrakech in 2014, Abidjan in 2016, Kigali in 2017. She is a member of the Africa Leadership Network, an alumna of the Young Leaders program of the French-American Foundation (2011-2012) and the German Marshall Fund’s Atlantic Dialogues Young Leaders program (2013). Born in 1978, Estelle graduated with a degree in journalism studies in Tours, France, before studying international relations and political studies at Quebec University of Montreal, Canada.

Participation

2015 2021 2022 2023
Yurgens, Igor

Chairman of the Management Board of the Institute of Contemporary Development. Vice President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), he was President of the All-Russian Insurance Association, President of the Russian Association of Motor Insurers, and President of the National Union of Liability Insurers. He is a member of the Presidential Council for Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights, and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Russian International Affairs Council. He is also Honorary Consul General of Monaco in Moscow and Director of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) Centre for Sustainable Development and ESG Transformation. He graduated in economics from Moscow State University (MSU).

Participation

2011 2012 2013 2015 2017 2018 2021 2022 2023
Lionel Zinsou
Zinsou, Lionel

Co-Chair of SouthBridge, a Financial Advisory Service company dedicated to Africa. Chairman of Terra Nova think tank. Former Prime Minister of Benin (2015-2016). He started his career as a lecturer in economics at the University of Paris 13 and was a member of the Department of Industry’s Minister’s Office and the Prime Minister’s Office. In 1986, he joined Danone where he held various positions, including Corporate Development Director and member of the Executive Committee. In 1997, he joined the Rothschild Bank as General Partner; he was Head of the Consumer Products Group, Head of Middle East and Africa. He then served as CEO of the Private Equity firm PAI Partners (2009-2015). He graduated from École Normale Supérieure, Sciences Po, the London School of Economics and La Sorbonne in History and Economics. He is a professeur agrégé de sciences économiques et sociales.

Participation

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2015 2017 2018 2021 2022 2023