Invited guests
Managing Director & CEO of Canal Sugar, a UAE-Egyptian multibillion dollar agricultural industrial group in Egypt that aims to ensure Egypt self-sufficiency in sugar. Dr Kamel Abdallah is a national food security expert, specializing in turnaround management and leadership of large agricultural industrial groups in the region. For over twenty years, he has led large regional companies with emphasis on Agri-Food companies in the Middle East with turnaround mandates. He has served in Board Director/Managing Director/CEO positions in Agri/Food based companies, including Baladna QPSC, Aujan Industries/Rani Investments, and Exeed Industries/National Holding. Dr. Abdallah remains integrated with the industry and with academia, where he has served as Asst Vice President of the American University of Beirut; and Professor of Strategy and Finance as well as being a tenured Prof and department chair at accredited business schools in the USA. Dr. Abdallah holds a Ph.D in Strategic Management & Finance with minors in International Finance and Economics from Ohio State University, and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Agri Business seminar management program.
Participation
2023 2024
Foreign & Security Affaires Commentator of Nikkei. He entered Nikkei in 1987 and served in various positions, including Correspondent at the Beijing Bureau (1994-98), Staff Writer of the Political News Dept. (1998-2002), and Chief Correspondent at the Washington, D.C., Bureau (2002-06). He worked at Leader Writing Team of the Financial Times in London (16/10-12). He was also an Associate of the Program on US-Japan Relations at Harvard University (2006-2007). Mr. Akita is the author of two books about US-China-Japan relations (Nikkei, 2008, 2016). He received the Vaughn-Uyeda Memorial International Journalistic Prize in March 2019 for his exceptional international reporting. Mr. Akita graduated from Jiyu Gakuen College in 1987 and received an M.A. in International Relations from Boston University in 1991.
Participation
2021 2022 2023 2024
Investor in the Large Cap division of Bpifrance, the French Public Investment Bank, he supports entrepreneurs and companies in the industry, technology, and aerospace sectors. Previously, he worked in mergers and acquisitions at BNP Paribas in Singapore and in the Life Sciences division of Dassault Systèmes in France. Jean Alaux-Lorain is a former student of the École Normale Supérieure in mathematics and an engineer from the French Corps des Mines.
Participation
2019 2021 2022 2023
Managing Partner and Founder of Blue like an Orange Sustainable Capital. Former Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer of the World Bank Group. He chairs the advisory board of Project Syndicate and he is a member of the board of CGDev and IDDRI. He is also a trustee of the IFRS Fondation. 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 2024
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, a position he held until 2014. He started his career first as an entrepreneur in household appliances 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 2024
Co-founder of EcoPeace Middle East, he has served as its Israeli Director for three decades. Founded in 1994, EcoPeace Middle East is an environmental peacebuilding organization uniting Palestinians, Jordanians, and Israelis to advance sustainable regional development and foster the conditions for lasting peace. Mr. Bromberg, an attorney by profession, is an alumni of Monash University in Australia, Washington College of Law at American University, and Yale University’s World Fellows program. Mr. Bromberg has been immersed in the environmental peacebuilding world for over 30 years and has written extensively on the relationship between natural resource diplomacy and Middle East peace. He has presented on these issues before the UN Security Council, US Congress, European Parliament, UN Climate Summit, and in other local and international forums. Gidon is a member of the jury of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Award.
Participation
2024
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, and Professor Emeritus at Hong Kong Baptist University. He is also Senior Researcher at Asia Centre, Paris, Associate Research Fellow at the French Centre for Research on Contemporary China in Hong Kong and a Non-Resident Visiting Senior Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States in Washington DC. His most recent publications include China Tomorrow: Democracy or Dictatorship?, Lanham, MD, Rowman & Littlefield, 2019 translated into Chinese, updated and published under the title 中國的未來會走向民主還是獨裁, Taipei, 八旗 Gusa, 2024; Facing China: The Prospect for War and Peace, Lanham, MD, Rowman & Littlefield, 2023; Deng Xiaoping, révolutionnaire et modernisateur de la Chine (Deng Xiaoping, Revolutionary and China’s Moderniser), Paris, Tallandier, 2024 and Taiwan. Une démocratie face à la Chine (Taiwan: A Democracy Facing China), Paris, Ed. Le Cavalier Bleu, Coll. Idées Reçues, 2026.
Participation
2018 2022 2023 2024
Economist and President of Club Praxis, a multidisciplinary think tank that advocates for the integration of Big Data into public policy, specifically for the modernization of tax and welfare systems. His work has earned multiple accolades, including the Special Prize of the Political Economy, Statistics, and Finance section of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques. Having spent the majority of his research career at Citigroup as Managing Director and Head of Multi-Asset Quantitative Analysis, he is now the co-founder of GlassView, the pioneers of Neuro-Powered Media™, and member of the board of the Paris School of Economics. He is the co-author of Le Capitalisme contre les inégalités (Capitalism against Inequalities) (PUF, 2022), and recipient of the “Prix Turgot” and the “Prix Louis Marin”. Since 2023, he has been a pivotal voice in highlighting the “cost of failure” within the innovation gap between Europe and the United States. In 2026, he co-authored a strategic piece for the Atlantic Council proposing original frameworks for the Climate Club to catalyze green financing. He graduated from ENSIMAG and HEC Paris. He is a recipient of the French National Order of Merit, of the Gold Medal of La Renaissance Française and of the Médaille d’honneur des Conseillers du commerce extérieur.
Participation
2022 2023 2024
Deputy Head of the Banking Affairs Unit at the French Treasury. A graduate of École polytechnique (Applied Mathematics) and holder of a Master’s degree in Economic Policy Analysis from the Paris School of Economics, he joined the Corps des Mines in 2020. He previously worked at the European Commission (DG Competition) on merger control, as well as at Euronext and Morgan Stanley. His professional experience spans investment banking, financial markets, energy, and regulation.
Participation
2021 2022 2023
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 2024
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 Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), the International Society for Energy Transition Studies (ISETS), and the Energy Policy Research Foundation Inc. (EPRINC). From 2009 to 2014, Valérie Ducrot was the Manager of the UNECE (the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe) Gas Centre. Previously, she occupied several positions in the French energy company named today ENGIE. Over the last 27 years she has gained extensive experience in the energy sector, particularly the gas sector, at a global level. She holds an MBA from the Grande Ecole EMLYON and graduated in Business Administration in 1995. She also received a Master’s Degree in Political Sciences from the University of Lyon, France, in 2004. Additionally, Valérie has finished the Executive Diploma Program in International Relations and Business offered by the Ambassador Partnership, an international consultancy of former Ambassadors from 15 countries.
Participation
2022 2023 2024
Founder and Owner of Kreab Worldwide(1970), a global advisory firm with Financial, Corporate and Public Affairs communications experts in 30 countries, and Kunskapsskolan Education (1999) – personalized education for 40,000 students in 6 countries. He is a Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, IVA. He was Chef de Cabinet of ICC, the world business organization (1973-1981), Chairman of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (2010-2014) and Board member of the Nobel Prize Outreach (2011-2024). Recipient of the King of Sweden’s Medal of the Twelfth Dimension in Blue Ribbon for achievements as business leader and entrepreneur. He has a BA from the University of Stockholm and is a graduate of the Owner/President Management Program from Harvard Business School.
Participation
2019 2023 2024
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 2024
Lecturer and member of the steering committee of the Cycle des hautes études européennes (National Institute of Public Service, former ENA), member of the steering committee of the Institut des droits fondamentaux numériques (IDFRights.org, Paris) and senior advisor for geopolitical studies at MEDEF (Network of French entrepreneurs). He served as advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs (1997-2002), Director of the Policy Planning Staff (1999-2002), French Ambassador to the Baltic States (Latvia, 2002-2006), and Ambassador on European Affairs (2006-2007). He was Director of Studies and Research at the Institute for Higher National Defence Studies (IHEDN 2009-2013) and held the Chair of Applied Geopolitics at the College of Global Studies (Fondation de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, 2013-2020). He was a professor at Lumière Lyon II University, the École Normale Supérieure (Paris) and the College of Europe in Natolin (Poland). His latest publications are Conseiller le Prince, à la lumière de la géographie politique (L’Aube, 2023) and Ukraine Russie, la carte mentale du duel (Tract N° 39, Gallimard, May 2022 and October 2023).
Participation
2008 2014 2015 2016 2017 2019 2022 2023 2024
Deputy director of the cabinet of the CEO of the Direction Générale des Entreprises (DGE), a French government agency attached to the Ministry of the Economy and Finance. He contributes to the design and implementation of public policies supporting business development. Previously, he was technical analyst in the Operations Department of the ANSSI, the French national cybersecurity agency. Before that, 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
Special Advisor and member of the Board of Directors at the Canon Institute for Global Studies, a research think tank in Tokyo for which he regularly writes articles. He is also a member of Keizai Doyukai (Japan Association of Corporate Executives); the Trilateral Commission; and the Board of Councillors of the Institute for International Monetary Affairs. He was Assistant Governor at the Bank of Japan in 2006-2010, responsible for the Bank’s all international activities and represented the Bank at G7D, G20D, FSB, OECD/WP3, et. al. Before that, he had worked at the Bank for three decades and also at the BIS in Switzerland and Japan’s Ministry of Finance. After he left the BoJ, he worked as an advisor or a board member at Tokio Marine Holdings (2011-2023); Nomura Securities(2012-2018); Promontory(2010-2016); Japan International Cooperation Agency(2017-2022); the US-Japan Foundation(2012-2022), et al. Mr. Horii 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
Professor of medicine and diplomat, former Executive Director of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; former ambassador on HIV and communicable diseases and UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy on HIV in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. More recently he was a member of the Independent panel on Pandemic Prevention., Preparedness and Response called by the World health Assembly after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Participation
2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
President of “Servir en Entreprise” since September 2024, the ENA alumni community in the corporate sector, previously President of Servir (former ENA Alumni Association) from 2017 to 2023 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 and Digital at Humanis, in charge of organization, project management and operational efficiency, before becoming Deputy Director for the supplementary pension businesses from 2019 to 2022.
Participation
2018 2021 2022 2024
Senior Consultant with the OECD and Asian Development Bank, currently working on Malaysia, Kazakhstan and Bhutan. Former Deputy Director in the OECD Economics Department, he supervised work on around 50 member and non-member countries. He authored or co-authored reports on China, India, Russia, Japan, the two Koreas, Thailand, New Zealand, the euro area, France, the UK, Türkiye, Poland and the Nordics. He also served as the 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 2024
Deputy Head of the Savings and Financial Markets Unit at the French Treasury (Direction générale du Trésor), where he contributes to coordinating France’s position on the Savings and Investment Union and to the mission dedicated to enhancing the attractiveness of the Paris financial center. He previously served as Head of the State’s Regional Economic Service in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, overseeing regional economic development and industrial decarbonisation policies. He has also worked as a consultant for the World Bank on financial inclusion and banking stability issues in the Middle East, following earlier experience with Neoen in Australia, an independent renewable energy developer. He is also a graduate of École polytechnique and the Harvard Kennedy School. He a PhD in economics and is also part of the French Corps des mines.
Participation
2019 2021 2022 2023 2024
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 2024
Managing Partner and co-founder of ALVEN, one of the largest and most active Private Equity funds in digital technologies in France (software, artificial intelligence, fintech). The fund manages 1,5bn€ of capital, and has invested in 170 companies, mainly in Europe and the United States. Charles Letourneur started his career in M&A with LAZARD in New York, and then Paris. In 1999, he was appointed Executive Director of LAZARD and became a member of the Executive Committee of EURAZEO. He graduated from Ecole Polytechnique, ENSAE and Science Po.
Participation
2024
Member of the Institut de France and President of the Geneva Center for Security Policy Fondation Council (GCSP), Jean-David Levitte has had a distinguished and outstanding career in the French Foreign Service. Ambassador Levitte was the Senior Diplomatic Adviser and Sherpa of President Sarkozy from 2007 to 2012. Ambassador to the United States from 2003 to 2007, he was previously Ambassador to the United Nations between 2000 and 2002. He served as Senior Diplomatic Adviser and Sherpa of President Chirac from 1995 to 2000. From 1990, he held senior positions in the French Foreign Ministry, first as Assistant Secretary for Asia and then as Undersecretary for Cultural and Scientific Cooperation. In 1988, he served as the French Ambassador to the United Nations Office in Geneva. When he joined the Foreign Service in 1970, he was first posted in Hong Kong and Beijing. A few months after his election in 1974, President Valery Giscard d’Estaing asked him to work on his staff at the Elysee Palace, where he stayed from 1975 to 1981. Ambassador Levitte earned a law degree and is a graduate of Sciences-Po and of the National School of Oriental Languages, where he studied Chinese and Indonesian.
Participation
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
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 2024
Social entrepreneur working in the fields of International Relations and Real Estate Development. His projects include a film series, for which as filmmaker he has explored potential paths to establish global peace and harmony. The first film titled Birth of a Poet was an official selection at the Global Nonviolent Film Festival in 2019. Furthermore, Manu has penned a book that is slated for publication soon, in which he shares his reflections on various themes of global significance, through a multi-dimensional analysis of the contemporary history of India. Having been in the real estate industry over the past several years, he has had extensive private sector experience previously as well in the fields of Information & Communication Technology, Finance, and Outsourcing. Manu describes the real estate industry as a “key driver of the world’s socio-economic progress” and stresses the universal need for fair, sustainable and environmentally conscious practices. He is an Electronics and Communication engineer (R.V. College of Engineering, Bangalore) and holds three Master’s degrees: MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University (School of Advanced International Studies, Washington D.C. and Bologna), Global Master in Real Estate Development from IE University (School of Architecture and Design, Madrid), and Master in Creative Writing from Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona School of Management). He is fluent in English, Spanish, Hindi and Telugu.
Participation
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023 2024
Journalist and TV news anchor. Terry Martin is a Berlin-based broadcaster with decades of experience in international news. Formerly an anchor with CNN International, he is now Senior Anchor with DW News, Germany’s global service. He is also the Founder and Director of the research communications agency SPIA. As a television correspondent, he has provided live coverage from G7 summits, UN climate conferences, and multiple national elections. He has hosted scores of tv discussion programs and interviewed countless political and business leaders, scientists, and activists around the world. Frequently in demand as an event moderator, he has moderated major conferences for public and private-sector clients in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. He is a regular host at international conferences including The GLOBSEC Forum, The Warsaw Security Forum, The Delphi Forum, and the World Knowledge Forum in Seoul. He wrote the European Commission’s widely used guidebook “Communicating research for evidence-based policymaking”. Born in Canada, he studied English and philosophy at universities in the US (B.A. Elon College, Masters studies Wake Forest University) before moving to Germany shortly after the fall of The Berlin Wall.
Participation
2023 2024
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 and Chairman of the “Cercle de la Bibliothèque nationale de France”. 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 2024
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
Senior Advisor to Mohamed Kallala, Chief Executive of Natixis since January 2025. He has over 37 years’ banking experience, primarily with Morgan Stanley and Natixis. At Morgan Stanley he was latterly Managing Director, Vice Chairman of the Commodities Division and Chairman of the firm’s African business. His experience at Morgan Stanley also includes co-founding the bank’s oil trading activities in London in 1986, establishing its energy trading activity in Asia in 1988, and setting up its Singapore office for commodities in 1990. Before joining the finance industry, Marc worked three years for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Cultural Attaché in Hong Kong, and then at Elf Aquitaine (now Total) for over four years as a crude oil trader. Marc joined Natixis as a Senior Adviser in March 2017, was appointed Global Head of Global Markets Commodities in October 2017, promoted Executive Chairman of Global Commodities Markets in 2019 and became Global Co-Head of Commodities in January 2021. Marc holds a Master of Science degree in business administration from Sup. de co., Marseille, a D.E.A in business administration from ESSEC/ IAE, Aix en Provence and a D.E.S.S in international trade and transportation from Aix Marseille University. He taught international finance at HEC for four years. Marc was Chairman of the Trustees of the Friends of the French Institute in London for 12 years and remains a Trustee. He is Commissioner and Chair of the Crown Estate Paving Commission, Conseiller du Commerce Exterieur, Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres and Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur.
Participation
2015 2016 2018 2019 2023
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 2024
Chairman of Linebreak, a specialised service provider working with enterprises to drive efficiency and growth with intelligent, real-time decisioning. With over 30 years’ experience in technology transformation and strategic development, Patrick’s career includes more than two decades at Capgemini, where he held various leadership positions and served as a Group Executive Board member for seven years. Since 2021, Patrick has focused on building innovative distributed technologies and services, with a conviction that transitioning from centralised to distributed models is essential to tackle the most pressing societal, environmental and economic challenges.
Participation
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Executive Vice President and Director of Studies at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. His research addresses a wide range of topics at the interstice of economics, political science, and international relations, most recently focusing on the global impact of Trump Administration policies regarding tariffs, mass deportations, and Fed independence. His areas of geographical knowledge and interest include Asia and Africa where he has lived and worked, and the Middle East. In the past he has written extensively on the economies of Japan, Korea, and China, and is unique among American economists in having devoted serious scholarly effort to the problems of North Korea and the prospects for Korean unification.
Participation
2014 2017 2018 2019 2021 2023
Former Ambassador of Switzerland to France (2002-2007). He joined the Foreign Service in 1971. He held several positions such as Ambassador to Guatemala and to other States of Central America, Head of the Swiss Delegation to UNESCO, Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the international organizations in Geneva and chairman of FN Conseil. He contributes regularly to the Swiss newspaper Le Temps. He studied law and international relations at the University of Fribourg and the Graduate Institute for International Studies in Geneva.
Participation
2013 2014 2015 2017 2018 2024
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
Current Ambassador of Poland to Morocco. Former Polish ambassador to France, then to Italy. He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1990. He served as Chief of Protocol at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2005-2007). He held the position of Deputy Director of the Division for the United Nations System and Global Issues at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2004-2005). He was also Secretary General of the Polish National Commission for UNESCO (2001-2004). He graduated from the University of Łódź, the University Nicolas Copernic in Torun and the University of Poitiers. He is corresponding member of the Académie des Sciences morales et politiques.
Participation
2012 2013
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 2024
Co-founder and CEO of TiLT Capital Partners, an asset management company dedicated to energy transition. Its first fund focused on growth capital for European SMEs in the sector has reached €320m in subscriptions. To date, TiLT has invested in 9 companies in France, Germany, Spain and Norway. 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 13 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 2024
Investment director and Chief of Staff to the CEO of Meridiam, an investment company specialized in sustainable infrastructure. Former Advisor for Energy, Industry and Innovation in the private office of the French Ministry for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition. He held various positions in the French Ministry of Economy and Finance, in the fields of energy and corporate financing. He also worked for Total Gas & Power New Energies USA and L’Oréal. He graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique and Mines Paristech, Paris, France.
Participation
2017 2018 2019 2021 2023
Deputy Director General of the French Geological Survey BRGM. He is in charge of defining and implementing the overall scientific strategy of BRGM in the field of water and global warming, critical raw materials and circular economy, natural and technological risks, the development of geological knowledge and associated numerical data and services. He is also for 2023 and 2024 the Elected president of EuroGeoSurveys, association of the European National Geological Surveys. Before joining BRGM, Christophe Poinssot worked for 25 years in the French Atomic and Alternative Energy Commission (CEA) where he held several management positions in the field of R&D. From 2008 to 2018, he directed the CEA research department in charge of developing the recycling technologies of nuclear fuels, before being from 2018 to 2020, the Nuclear Counsellor at the French Embassy in China (Beijing) and the CEA Representative in this country. At CEA, he developed a recognized expertise in environmental and nuclear chemistry. He authored over 60 papers in international journals, over 120 oral presentations in international conferences, and has been teaching in many universities and engineering school. His work in the 2010’s on the environmental footprint and the sustainability of nuclear energy, was awarded in 2017 by the Roger Van Geen Prize from the Foundation for Scientific Research (Belgium). He has been an Officer of the Palmes Académiques since 2017 and a Knight of the Legion of Honor since 2025.. Christophe Poinssot is a former student from the École Normale Supérieure of Paris where he graduated in Earth Sciences and Materials Science. He got his Ph.D in Materials Science in 1997 from the Paris University, an HDR (Habilitation to Manage Research) in 2007 in Chemistry from the Saclay University, and was awarded from the Institute of National Defense Studies (IHEDN) in 2023.
Participation
2023 2024
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of TotalEnergies SE. He joined TotalEnergies (formerly Total) in 1997 and held positions in Angola and Qatar starting in 1999. He subsequently held several senior leadership roles within the Group, notably in Exploration & Production, Refining & Chemicals, and on the Executive Committee, before being appointed Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer in December 2015. Prior to joining Total, he served in various positions within the French Ministry of Industry and in ministerial cabinets (1989–1996), including as Technical Advisor for Environment and Industry to the Prime Minister (1993–1995) and Chief of Staff to the Minister for Information Technology and Space (1995–1996). He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Capgemini and Institut polytechnique de Paris, Mr. Pouyanné is Vice-Chairman of the French association, Entreprises pour l’Environnement (EpE), after having been its Chairman between June 2022 and June 2025. Mr. Pouyanné has also been the Chairman of the Alliance pour l’Education – United Way association from June 2018 to January 29, 2025, having accepted this office as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation. A graduate of École Polytechnique and a Chief Engineer of France’s Corps des Mines. Mr. Pouyanné is an Officer of the Légion d’honneur.
Participation
2015 2016 2017 2019
First Vice President National Liberal Party, member EPP. He served as Minister of Justice of Romania (2008-2012), Interim Prime Minister in 2012 and Interim Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2009. He was also Senior Managing Partner at Zamfirescu Racoţi Predoiu, Law Company (2007-2008), Senior Managing Partner at Racoţi – Predoiu, Law Company (1995-2006). He co-authered “Companies”, second edition, revised, Bucharest, 2003. He graduated from the University of Bucharest and Caen Bar, France, Training program in Commercial Law Practice.
Participation
2013 2015
President of Alcen, group composed of high technology companies in the fields of Defense and Security, Energy, Medical and Healthcare, Aeronautics and space, Large Scientific Instruments. He started his career as President of Tabur Marine and of Dufour. He served at Matra Group as Senior Vice President in charge of 4 departments (car electronics, robotics, computer-aided design and watchmaking). He set up and managed a telecommunication operator, Kaptech and an equipment manufacturer, Cirpack. He studied at the Ecole Polytechnique and at the Insead.
Participation
2010 2011 2012 2013 2015 2017 2018 2019
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 2024
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). His forthcoming book, Syria in Revolution: The Civil War and the Fall of the Assads (with Carmit Valensi), will be published in Hebrew and English in 2026.
Participation
2013 2015 2016 2017 2018 2021 2022 2023 2024
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
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 2024
Deputy Chairman of the CDU/CSU Parliamentary Group in the German Bundestag with responsibility for foreign affairs, defence, European security, and human rights. He is a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the German Bundestag. He was chairman of the committee from 2014 to 2021.From 2009 to 2012, he was Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. He has been a Member of the German Parliament since 1994. During his mandate Dr. Röttgen has fulfilled key functions within the Christian Democratic Party (CDU). Dr. Röttgen, who is a lawyer by profession, holds a PhD in Law from Bonn University. He is the Co-Chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) and Board Member of various institutions, such as the Atlantik-Brücke, Asia House, Club of Three, the Hertie School of Governance Berlin and the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP).
Photo : Jonas Makoschey
Participation
2016 2023 2024
A Saudi expert on Gulf politics and strategic issues, Dr. Abdulaziz Sager is the founder and Chairman of the Gulf Research Center, a global think tank based in Saudi Arabia with a well-established presence and worldwide network of partners and offices in both the Gulf region and Europe. In addition to having authored and edited numerous publications, Dr. Sager frequently contributes on major international media channels. 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 has also chaired and moderated the Syrian opposition meetings in Riyadh in 2015 and 2017. Dr. Sager holds a PhD in Politics and International Relations from Lancaster University, with a focus on Gulf security affairs.
Participation
2016 2019 2022
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 2024
Fellow of the Academy of technologies, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P), Inspector General of Finance, Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Foundation for International Research and Development (FERDI), Jean-Michel Severino has been Director of Development at the French Ministry of Cooperation, Vice-President for East Asia at the World Bank and Director General of the French Development Agency. He has been a lead director of Danone, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ecobank International and a director of Orange, as well as the Carrefour, Sanofi, Alstom and Avril foundations. He chairs Veolia’s “critical friends committee” and the governance committee of Michelin’s supervisory board. He was also a Senior Fellow of the German Marshall Fund, an advisor to the European Commissioner for Development and a member of the French Foreign Affairs Council. He regularly publishes in the French and international press and is the author of several books on international economics, Africa and development.
Participation
2011 2012 2013 2017 2022 2023 2024
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 2024
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 serves as a private consultant 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. Since October 7 2013, he has been directing the international operations of the Forum of Families of Hostages, a civil society-based NGO.
Participation
2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2024
CEO of the American Hospital of Paris since 2017, a worldwide renowned, non-for-profit hospital. From 2014 to 2016, he has been President and Chief Commercial Officer of InSightec, the leading MedTech company for MR guided Focused Ultrasound. Previously he spent seven years at General Electric 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 the 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 (Paris XI University), and Executive Medical Director.
Participation
2018 2019 2021 2022 2023 2024
Ambassador of France. He was advisor to the French Foreign Minister and the Minister of Cooperation. He served in numerous embassies all over the world, notably as Counselor and Consul General before being appointed as French Ambassador to Central African Republic (1996-2001), to Nigeria (2001-2003), to Gabon (2003-2008), and to Côte d’Ivoire (2009-2012). He was also a Representative to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and to the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS). . He was alternate MP of Oise from 2012 to 2022, and is currently Chairman of Eurafrique Stratégies SAS. He graduated from Paris II Assas University in Public Law.
Participation
2012 2013 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2024
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 Bureau Veritas since May 2013 and Dassault Aviation since May 2014, and has been a Board member of Capgemini from 2012 to 2024.
Participation
2021 2022 2023 2024
Chief Financial Officer of Cellectis, a NASDAQ-listed biotechnology company using its gene editing platform to develop life-saving cell and gene therapies, notably in oncology. Arthur oversees the finance, business development and investor relations functions. He began his career at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition, controlling global pharmaceutical mergers such as the Novartis/GSK and Sanofi/Boehringer Ingelheim asset swaps, Pfizer’s acquisition of Hospira, and Teva’s acquisition of Actavis Generics. He later became Head of the Hospital Financing unit at the French Ministry of Health, where he led a team responsible for the €80bn hospital budget. Arthur graduated from ENS Ulm & Cambridge University, and holds a diploma in Immunotherapy from the Université Paris-Descartes. Arthur is also a member of the French Corps des Mines and a member of the advisory board of Life Science Cares, a not-for-profit US organization.
Participation
2016 2017 2018 2020
Director, Explosives Regulatory 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 his Masters degree from Dalhousie University.
Participation
2017 2018 2019 2021 2022
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. He was appointed President of the Customs Scientific Council (2022–2026).
Participation
2009 2010 2011 2012 2014 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2024
Professor at the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Tokyo, and Director of the Institute of Geoeconomics at International House of Japan. He graduated from the Department of International Relations, Ritsumeikan University, and received a Ph.D. from the Sussex European Institute. He has worked in the Fondation pour la recherche stratégique in Paris as assistant researcher. He was also 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 the Iranian Sanction Committee under the United Nations Security Council from 2013 to 2015. He currently serves many advisory committees of the government of Japan, inter alia, the National Space Policy Committee of the Cabinet Office, the Government of Japan, and is the President of Japan Association of International Security and Trade. His research focuses on the conjunction of science/technology and international relations; subjects including economic security, space policy, sanctions, non-proliferation, and export control. His recent work includes Space and International Politics (2011), Policy Logics and Institutions of European Space Collaboration (2003), editing work includes Economic security and technological advantage (2023) in Japanese, and many others.
Participation
2021 2022 2023 2024
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
Senior Managing Partner at Ardian (the leading investment firm, 170 Bn of AUM) and Global Head of International Affairs. He is also Vice President of the French GCC Business councils at MEDEF International, the French largest business organization as well as Head of the Sovereign Wealth Funds Council. Prior to joining Ardian, he had served in the French Foreign Office for 15 years, including as MENA advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He is Board Member at Siaci Saint Honoré Group (Paris), a leading European insurance brokerage firm and at Dedalus, a world leader in IT software solutions for healthcare. François-Aïssa Touazi is Knight of the Legion of Honor.
Participation
2023 2024
Senegalese politician and Human Rights activist. 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
Former 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 2024
CEO at TD International, a top global advisor on geopolitical strategy, market intelligence, and risk compliance. Prior to joining TDI, he served as CEO of Veracity Worldwide, the New-York based risk advisory firm. He previously was a leader at McKinsey & Company on strategy and risk management topics spanning five continents and multiple industries. As a career Foreign Service Officer, he had tours as Chief of Staff at the US Embassy in Pakistan and as Special Assistant to then-Deputy Secretaries of State William Burns and Antony Blinken, with additional diplomatic postings in Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, and at the US Mission to the OSCE. Jay is a US Navy reserve Foreign Area Officer specialized in Europe and Africa. He is a former Fulbright Scholar, Boren Fellow, and Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. He holds degrees from Stanford, Harvard, and the Fletcher School at Tufts, and he speaks French, German, and Russian.
Participation
2023 2024
Mercy Ships International Diplomatic Ambassador for Africa since 2022. She facilitates partnerships with governments, diplomatic entities and communities, supporting Mercy Ships’ mission to deliver free medical and surgical care to those in need across the African continent. In May 2022, she played a key role in the christening of the Global Mercy™ – the organization’s flagship hospital ship, in Dakar, Senegal. A distinguished pediatrician and reproductive health specialist, Dr Tuakli was the first African woman clinical professor in Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Her work in there contributed to the creation of a special Community Medicine Department at Children’s Hospital of Boston. She was the Founder and Medical Director of CHILD Accra in Ghana, and her contributions to child health education in Africa and the USA have been internationally lauded. As the first female Rotary president in Ghana, she advanced child protection legislation for Africa’s children, earning recognition from the African Union. She also initiated a Rotary funded surgical rotation that has grown into an accredited WHO-supported Safe Surgery in Africa course onboard the Mercy Ships fleet. She has served on several international boards, including Mercy Ships, Zenith Bank, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), the Global Virus Network and CarePoint. In 2022 Dr. Tuakli retired as the first female and non-white Chair of United Way Worldwide’s international board of trustees. She is an acclaimed leader and contributor to global health, and the recipient of numerous awards, including a UN Global Citizens Award and several lifetime achievement honours.
Participation
2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2024
Minister of State of Belgium. Former Chief of Staff of the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, and in that capacity he was EU ‘Sherpa’ to the G8. Mr. van Daele joined the Belgium diplomatic service in 1971 and throughout his extensive diplomatic career he has been the representative of Belgium in the Security Council and the permanent representative of Belgium to the EU and NATO, as well as Ambassador to the US. He is a former Director of the Cabinet of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and has held various other positions in the Belgian Ministry of Foreign affairs (i.a. Director-General of Political Affairs). Mr. van Daele holds a Master in Philosophy and Arts (romance philology) from the University of Leuven. Between 2013 and 2017, he served as Chief of Staff to His Majesty the King of the Belgians. On retirement Baron van Daele was appointed Minister of State.
Participation
2018 2019
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, since January 2022. Roman Vassilenko has been in 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 the 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 2024
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. In 2024, he edited the collective work Les Grands diplomates (Perrin), published a new edition of his Atlas of Crises and Conflicts (with Pascal Boniface) and wrote a very personal text entitled Camus, notre rempart (Plon). In January 2025, he published Nouveau Dictionnaire amoureux de la géopolitique (Plon). 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 2024
Mark Malloch-Brown is a Visiting Professor in Practice at the London School of Economics (LSE), a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House. He was knighted for his contributions to international affairs, and is currently on leave from the British House of Lords. Mark Malloch-Brown has had a long career in international affairs, development, business, and communications. At the United Nations, Mark Malloch-Brown led the global promotion of the UN Millennium Development Goals as head of the UN Development Programme (UNDP). At the UNDP, and previously as vice president of external affairs at the World Bank, he led reform efforts to increase the impact of both organisations. He later served as Kofi Annan’s chief of staff, and then as UN Deputy Secretary General, before joining the British government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, as minister responsible for Africa and Asia from 2007 to 2009. Most recently, he was president of the Open Society Foundations, the world’s largest private funder of independent groups working for justice, democratic governance, and human rights.
Participation
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2022 2024
Deputy Head of the Risk Prevention Division at the Regional Directorate for the Environment of Île-de-France. His role revolves around the implementation of public policies to prevent industrial pollution and risks. Before joining the French civil service, he worked for Neoen, a renewable energy producer, in Sweden, and for the rail company Eurostar in London. He also had the opportunity to work on the issue of drug shortages, with a focus on public policy and supply-chain resilience. He is a graduate of École polytechnique and a member of the Corps des mines.
Participation
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2022 2024
French senior civil servant, Hugo Pouzet serves as Deputy Head of the Sustainable Finance, Corporate Law, Accounting and Corporate Governance Unit at the Direction générale du Trésor, within the French Ministry for the Economy, Finance and Industrial, Energy and Digital Sovereignty. A Mining Corps engineer, he held positions during his training across both the public and private sectors, in France and internationally. He notably served as Transformation Project Manager at L’Oréal in Tokyo, and as Decarbonization Engineer at Orano Mining. A graduate of the École normale supérieure and of Mines Paris – PSL, he is also the co-author of a study on drug shortages, analyzing structural vulnerabilities in pharmaceutical supply chains.
Participation
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2022 2024
Head of the Industrial Decarbonization Unit at the French Ministry for the Economy. He oversees the design and implementation of public policies aimed at decarbonizing French industry, including sectoral and technology roadmaps, the design of support schemes, budget negotiations, and European policy engagement. Previously, he served as Head of the State Economic Service for the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region and as economic adviser to the Regional Prefect, contributing to regional economic development and supporting the decarbonization of companies. He also worked at McKinsey & Company, where he advised African governments and development banks on energy transition and industrial decarbonization, and at ENGIE, where he contributed to the Group’s climate strategy. Long committed to environmental issues, Angel Prieto is a co-founder of the movement Pour un réveil écologique and led the French delegation to the G7 Youth Summit in 2024, where he was in charge of negotiations on environmental matters. Angel Prieto is a member of the French Corps des Mines and a graduate of École polytechnique.
Participation
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2022 2024
Director for OECD Global Relations and Co-operation, as well as the OECD Sherpa to the G7, the G20 and APEC. He supports and co-ordinates the OECD’s contributions to global governance under the leadership of OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann. He and his team implement the OECD Global Relations Strategy, engaging with over 100 partner countries aound the globe at the ministerial level and building a global level playing field by increasing adherence to OECD standards and policies. Andreas’ expertise includes two decades of conceptional and strategic work on foreign affairs, national, international and global economic policy, and global governance. Prior to joining the OECD, Mr Schaal held various positions during his work for the German Federal Government, including: Deputy Director G8 Summit/German Sherpa Office, Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Technology; Economic Counsellor, German Permanent Delegation to the OECD, Paris; Vice Chair (elected 2005-2006) of the OECD’s Economic and Development Review Committee (EDRC); and Policy Advisor and Chief of Staff to Parliamentary Secretary of State Siegmar Mosdorf, MP, Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Technology. Andreas Schaal is a non-Resident Senior Fellow of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China (RDCY). He holds a Masters in Public Policy and Public Management from the University of Konstanz, Germany.
Participation
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2022 2024
CEO of Synera, an AI software company trailblazing the field of AI agents for engineering. With a background in aerospace engineering and a PhD in product development processes, Dr. Maier has spent his career at the intersection of engineering practice and digital transformation. Before founding Synera, he worked extensively in generative design and process automation, gaining firsthand insight into the inefficiencies and fragmentation that slow down engineering teams today. At Synera, he’s leading the company to build a new foundation for engineering work where AI agents become collaborators. Dr. Maier’s long-term vision is to build a “JARVIS for engineers”: an agentic AI coworker that understands engineering context, collaborates across tools, and scales expert knowledge across organizations. His work aims to rethink the engineering process from the ground up using AI-first principles – moving beyond isolated tools toward adaptive, agentic engineering that learns and improves over time. He holds a PhD in Production Engineering from the University of Bremen with research on bionic lightweight design methods.
Participation
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2022 2024
Senior Fellow, Bruegel and Peterson Institute for International Economics. Nicolas Véron cofounded Bruegel in Brussels in 2002-05, joined PIIE in Washington DC in 2009, and is currently employed on similar terms by both organizations. 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. A graduate of France’s Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole des Mines in Paris, his earlier experience was in the French government and private sector. Véron’s research focuses on financial development and stability policies. He has long advocated supervisory integration in Europe, including in banking union (for which Bloomberg Markets included him in its yearly global “50 Most Influential” list in 2012), anti-money laundering, and capital markets supervision.
Participation
2009 2018 2021 2022
Founding President of the Institute of International and Strategic Studies at Peking University and Professor in the School of International Studies. 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
Chairman and CEO of 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. Through Maurilog, and in global partnership with the world leader in logistics DB Schenker, the group plays a central role in major projects in West Africa, such as the GTA gas project. He has established key international partnerships, including a 30-year exclusive representation of Yamaha Motor in Mauritania through MAY SARL, and a collaboration with the French Saros group in the agri-food sector, leading to the creation of MIP Frigo, a factory specializing in the processing of seafood products targeting European and Japanese markets. 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
Former Ambassador of the Republic of Iraq to France (2010-2016) and later to the United States (2016-2022). He was until recently Iraq’s Climate Envoy (2023-2025). He is currently Secretary General of the Iraq Pugwash Association, an international movement of scientists dedicated to nuclear disarmament and international security. He has worked and consulted for various UN agencies and think tanks, including the UN Climate Change Secretariat (UNFCCC). He served as Head of Policy Planning, Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Diplomatic Advisor to Deputy President Adil Abd al-Mahdi. He is a Member of the American Physical Society and of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He was made Commandeur of the Légion d’Honneur (France) in 2016. He was educated in Iraq, Switzerland and the United States. He is a graduate of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Participation
2012 2013 2021 2024
President of KSI Strategic Institute for Asia Pacific, an independent non-profit think tank. He is also President of the World Digital Chamber and Chairman of the Asean Economic Club He was previously CEO of the Asian Strategy & Leadership Institute (ASLI). He has over 40 years of senior corporate management, consulting and boardroom experience. He is also Deputy Chairman of the Economic Club of Kuala Lumpur, a Director of the British-Malaysian Chamber of Commerce and a General Committee member of the Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Michael has served the Government including as Malaysia’s Representative (Ambassador rank) to the ASEAN High-Level Task Force on Connectivity, Member of the Malaysia Competition Commission and Commissioner in the Human Rights Commission (SUHAKAM). He was recently appointed as Vice Chairman of the United Nations ESCAP Sustainable Business Network (ESBN). He holds a degree in Economics from Monash University and is Doctor of Laws (honoris causa) from the University of Nottingham.
Participation
2011 2012 2013 2014 2017
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
Director of the MGIMO Centre for Sustainable Development and ESG Transformation, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Rating Agency Expert RA, a member of the Management Board of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, a member of the Board of Trustees of Russian Council on International Affairs, a member of the Council of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), and a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for European Reform (CER). Igor Yurgens graduated with a degree in economics from Moscow State University. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics.