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.
James B. Steinberg
Deputy Secretary, US Department of State since 2009. Prior to his appointment, he served as dean of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, as vice president and director of Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. (2001-2005), as deputy national security advisor to President Bill Clinton (1996-2000) and as Sherpa of the president to the 1998 and 1999 G-8 summits. He has also been a senior analyst at RAND in Santa Monica, California (1989-1993). He is the author of and contributor to numerous books and articles on foreign policy and national security topics, including Difficult Transitions: Foreign Policy Troubles at the Outset of Presidential Power. He received his B.A. from Harvard and J.D. from Yale Law School.
Walter Stadtler
Member of the Atlantic Council of the United States. As a career officer in the United States Foreign Service for 35 years, Ambassador Stadtler was assigned to the United Kingdom, Germany, South Africa, Ethiopia, Sweden and Benin. He served as Advisor to the US Secretary of Defense, European Advisor to the US Mission to the United Nations, Vice President of National Defense University in Washington, DC, and as an advisor to the leaders of the Baltic Republics on developing their post-Cold War policies. From 2008 – 2010, he was President and CEO of the National Defense University Foundation. A graduate of Fordham University in Classics, he pursued graduate studies at Columbia University and also studied at the Sorbonne and the University of Perugia in Italy. He is interested in political-military affairs as well as development issues such as the provision of clean water and micro-enterprise capacity building.
Gordon Smith
Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo, Ontario. He is Executive Director of the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria. Earlier in his career he was Deputy Foreign Minister of Canada and the Prime Minister’s Personal Representative (Sherpa) for the G7/8 summits. He has been Ambassador to NATO and the EU. He has also occupied the position of Associate Secretary to the Cabinet. He was Chairman of the Board of the International Development Research Centre.
Eugen Simion
President of the National Science and Art Foundation. Former President of the Romanian Academy (1998-2006). Professor of modern literature at the University of Bucharest. Between 1970 and 1973 he was professor at Sorbonne University, Paris. He published about 30 books on the Romanian and European literature among which Ficţiunea jurnalului intim I-III (The fiction of the intim diary I-III), Genurile biograficuluiI-II (Biographical genre I-II), Tânărul Eugen Ionescu (The young Eugène Ionescu), Mircea Eliade un spirit al amplitudinii (Mircea Eliade A spirit of Amplitude), Întoarcerea autorului (sau Contre, Sainte-Proust). He holds a PhD in Philological Sciences.
T.V.R. Shenoy
Eminent Indian journalist and columnist. He served as the Editor of the weekly news magazine The Week and Sunday Mail and held various posts in Indian Express and Malayala Manorama. He contributes to several national and international newspapers, website and magazines on the issues ranging from national politics, economy, social issues, international affairs to current affairs. Presently he regularly contributes articles and opinion to Indian Express, Gulf News, Rediff.com, Newstime and Matrabhumi and Indiafirstfoundation.org. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of India First Foundation. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan award in 2003.
Meir Sheetrit
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.
Narcís Serra
President of IBEI, Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals. He is also Vice-President de Telefónica Chile and Councillor of Telecomunicaciones de São Paulo S/A –TELESP. Previously, he was President of CIDOB (2000-2012) and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya. He also served as Vice-President of the Spanish Government, Minister of Defence and Mayor of Barcelona. He holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Barcelona and a Ph.D. in Economics from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB).
Ernst Ulrich Weizsäcker (von)
Co-president of the International Resource Panel and co-president of the Club of Rome. He served as Dean of the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California. He chaired the University of Kassel before serving as Director at the UN Centre for Science and Technology in New York. He was Director of the Institute for European Environment Policy in Bonn, Paris and London (1984-1991), Founder and President of the Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy in Wuppertal, Germany (1991-2000), member of the German Parliament (1998-2005). He graduated from the University of Freiburg, with a PhD in biology.
Louis Schweitzer
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.
Samir Saran
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.
Kevin Sara
Chairman and CEO of Nur Energie. After working as a management consultant at McKinsey& Co., he co-founded the European Telecom and Media Investment Banking Practice at the Investment Bank Salomon Brothers (now Citigroup). In 2008, he founded Nur Energie, an industrial scale solar power plant developer. He obtained a B.A. in Physics from Vassar College (New York) and a MBA from the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (Paris).
Tadakatsu Sano
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).
Amit Roy
Former President and Chief Executive Officer of the International Fertilizer Development Center. Currently he advises several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa on their agricultural sector development. Over the course of his career, Roy has been highly influential in shaping policy decisions, speaking before Heads of State and Ministers of Agriculture. In 2014, he co-edited Sustainable Phosphorus Management: A Global Transdisciplinary Roadmap. In 2012, he was appointed to the Steering Committee of the Global Nutrient Management Project of the UN Environment Program. He received his M.S. and Ph.D degrees in Chemical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, USA.
William Reilly
Chairman of the Board of the ClimateWorks Foundation, Founding Partner of Aqua International Partners, LP, Senior Advisor to TPG Capital, LP. In May 2010, he was appointed by President Obama to co-chair the National Commission on the BP Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. He was Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the Administration of President George H. W. Bush, President of the World Wildlife Fund, head of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Earth Summit at Rio in 1992. He holds a B.A. degree from Yale, J.D. from Harvard and M.S. in Urban Planning from Columbia University.
Anil Razdan
Former Power Secretary of India. Energy expert and international negotiator. He was India Chair of World Energy Council. He is currently chairing the Energy and Environment Foundation, New Delhi, India, and also the Expert Appraisal Committee of the Ministry of Environment for Infrastructure and Coastal Projects. He is also Scientific Consultant for Energy Technologies, Office of Principal Scientific Advisor to Government of India for developing Advanced Ultra Super Critical Technology. He studied Physics and Law at Delhi University and has been a Visiting Fellow of the University of Oxford. Among various awards, he received the Hiralal Daga Gold Medal in Law.
William Ramsay
Former Director of the Energy Program at Ifri. He formerly served as Deputy Executive Director at the International Energy Agency (IEA), where he also managed relations with non-member countries. He also held the posts of Deputy Assistant Secretary of State at the US State Department and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Congo. As Head of the Office of Energy Producing Countries, he oversaw bilateral discussions on energy issues between the United States and Mexico, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf Cooperation Council and Japan. He received a MBA in International Marketing from the University of Michigan and a Master’s in International Business and Raw Materials at Stanford University in California.
Mireille Quirina
Executive Coach and Business Consultant. Former Western Europe Director, General Counsel and Vice President, Corporate and Governmental Affairs ,Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) for DuPont de Nemours. She holds an Advanced Master Degree of International, Comparative and European Law from the Law Faculty of Paris .
Xing Qu
President of the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS). Professor at China Foreign Affairs University (CFAU), he teaches mainly on China’s Contemporary Diplomacy and History of China-France Relationship. He was Vice President of CFAU and Minister to Chinese Embassy to France. He graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) in French language and literature, from China Foreign Affairs University (CFAU) in Diplomatic History and from the Institute of Political Studies (IEP Paris) with a doctor degree in politics.
Pierre Prieux
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.
Márcio Pochmann
President of the Institute for Applied Economic Research, Brazil (IPEA) since 2007. He is Associate Professor, Institute of Economics, State University of Campinas. His fields of specialization are Labor Economics, Welfare Economics and Trade Unions. He was a visiting scholar at several universities, including the Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (Paris) and Universita degli Studi di Brescia (Italy). He has worked as a consultant for the ILO, ECLAC, UNESCO, UNIDO, and IBD. He was Sao Paulo City Secretary for Development, Labor and Solidarity (2001-2004). He has a Ph.D in economics from the State University of Campinas, Sao Paulo.
Samuel Pinheiro Guimarães
Minister for Strategic Affairs for the Federative Republic of Brazil
William Pfaff
Regular contributor to The New York Review of Books; he has also written for The New Yorker (from 1971 to 1992), Foreign Affairs (New York), Commentaire (Paris), Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Politica Exterior(Madrid), etc. For a quarter century he wrote a political column for The International Herald Tribune in Paris. Author of nine books on American foreign policy, international relations, nationalism, political romanticism and utopianism, etc. The most recent of these books, The Irony of Manifest Destiny: The Tragedy of American Foreign Policy, dealing with the present American crisis, was published in 2010 by Walker & Co. in New York.
Amir Peretz
Member of Parliament since 1988 and member of several Knesset committees including the Economic Affairs and Foreign Affairs and Defense Committees. He served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, until June 2007.Born in Morocco, he emigrated to Israel at the age of four. He was elected Mayor of his town Sderot in 1983, bringing the left back to power. He publicly voiced his support for an independent Palestinian State and led peace-promoting initiatives between residents of the town and their neighbors in the Gaza Strip.
Heung-Shin Park
Born on 16th of February 1954, His Excellency Mr. PARK Heung-shin Graduated from the Department of International Relations at Seoul National University in Seoul in 1976. During his career, he also received training sessions at the National Management School (ENA, Ecole nationale d’administration, Promotion Montaigne) in France. Appointed as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the French Republic, Mr. PARK Heung-Shin presented his credentials on January 15, 2010. He was awarded Commander, 1st Class, of the Order of the Lion of Finland.
Pier Carlo Padoan
OECD Deputy Secretary-General since 2007 and Chief Economist since 2009. Prior to joining the OECD, he was Professor of Economics at the University La Sapienza of Rome, and Director of the Fondazione Italianieuropei, a policy think-tank focusing on economic and social issues. He was the Italian Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund (2001-2005). He has been a consultant to the World Bank, European Commission, European Central Bank. He has a degree in Economics from the University of Rome. He has published widely in international academic journals and is the author and editor of several books.
Dan Oiknine
Chairman, Chamber of Commerce and Industry France India, since 2009. He founded the India Trade Centre in 2007. He worked in the high-tech and internet industry, holding managing positions for technology leaders such as Netapp and Enition. He started in the luxury goods industry, heading several demanding positions, from Marketing to Business development, within famous brands (Dior, Celine, Lagerfeld, etc.) which he helped develop on the American continent. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Sorbonne University and a Master’s Degree in Science and Techniques from Dauphine University, Paris.
Craig Mundie
Chief Research and Strategy Officer of Microsoft Corp. He serves on the U.S. National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee and the Task Force on National Security in the Information Age, and was appointed by President Barack Obama to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Mundie has spent much of his career building startups in various fields. He has served as Microsoft’s principal technology-policy liaison to the U.S. and foreign governments. Mundie holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s degree in information theory and computer science from Georgia Tech.
Terence Mullane
Hon Consul General of Morocco to Australia since 1980. He is concurrently accredited as Morocco’s Special Envoy to 12 of the Pacific Small Island Nations and the Pacific Islands Forum. He has been a member of Moroccan Delegations to International organisations, forums and meetings, including the United Nations and Pacific Islands. He has served as both State and National Chairman of the Australia Arab Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He has been twice decorated by His Majesty the King of Morocco, most recently as rank of Commander Wissam Alaoui. He is a past board member of the Macquarie University School of Middle East and North African Studies, Sydney. His interests are the history of the Morocco and its Sahara, the Pacific Islands & African history and politics.
Amr Moussa
6th Secretary General of the League of Arab States. He was Director of the Department of International Organizations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ambassador to India. In 1990, he became the Permanent Representative of the Arab Republic of Egypt to the United Nations, New York and the year after, Minister for Foreign Affairs. He graduated from Cairo University, LLB Faculty of Law.