Author: wpc_editor

Head of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO), where her team develops secure infrastructures for the analysis of sensitive administrative data in support of evidence-based public policy. Her team developed and runs Lomas, Switzerland’s first operational differential-privacy platform, allowing policymakers and researchers to generate insights while preserving individual confidentiality. The team’s work also contributes to United Nations working groups on privacy-enhancing technologies and responsible artificial intelligence.She previously served as Chief Innovation Officer at the Swiss Data Science Center and as Visiting Professor at the University of Geneva. Earlier, at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, she designed large-scale data platforms supporting research that informed environmental and health regulations.

General Manager of the Biedronka chain. He has spent his entire career with the Jerónimo Martins Group, which he joined in 1995. He began as a Deputy Store Manager at Recheio Cash & Carry and subsequently progressed through all stages of his career within the Group. In 2009, he was appointed Group IT Director, with responsibility for IT across all brands and geographic regions (Portugal and Poland). In 2012, he became General Manager of Pingo Doce, the leading supermarket chain in Portugal. Four years later, in 2016, he was appointed General Manager of the Biedronka chain (Jerónimo Martins Polska), a position he continues to hold today.

CEO and co-founder of Label4.ai, a French deeptech specialised in the identification of AI-generated and manipulated content: deepfake detection, digital forensics and content authenticity verification. A lawyer by training, former Data Protection Officer and General Counsel, he has taken an atypical path to address what has become a structural challenge: the ability to identify what has been generated or altered within digital flows, and to rebuild a foundation of trust in the AI ecosystem. In 2026, Label4.ai received both the Startup Award and the Research Award at the Forum InCyber (FIC), the first company to achieve this double distinction in the competition’s fifteen-year history. Label4.ai is actively engaged with the European Commission on the implementation of Article 50-2 of the AI Act.

Chairman & CEO Chief of Staff at Jerónimo Martins. He has extensive experience in the retail and distribution sector, particularly within the Jerónimo Martins Group, one of Europe’s leading food distribution companies. He began his career in 1996 at Jerónimo Martins’ Marketing and Distribution Company (JMD), where he served as Product Manager and Key Account Manager. In 2003, he joined Fromageries Bel, taking responsibility for managing international brands in Portugal. After three years, he returned to Jerónimo Martins, where he assumed a series of senior leadership roles across key business areas, including Sales and Marketing Manager at JMD, Human Resources Director at Pingo Doce, as well as Commercial Director and Operations Director. In 2016, Nuno Aguiar took on an international leadership role as Chief Executive Officer of Ara in Colombia, where he led the company’s development and consolidation in a highly competitive market over a five-year period. He returned to Portugal in 2021 to assume the role of Chief Operations Officer at Pingo Doce and became a member of the company’s Executive Committee. In this capacity, he oversaw operational efficiency, planogram management, and expansion strategy. He holds a degree in Management from the Universidade Católica Portuguesa.

Jean-Christophe Bas is the Vice President of the Aspen Institute France; he is the founder and CEO of The Global Compass and a professor at IRIS. From 1999 to 2008, he was the Head of Strategic Dialogue at the World Bank, in charge of strategic engagement and policy dialogue with key stakeholders, policy makers, academics and influencers. From 2008 to 2014, he served at the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations in New York as Head of Strategic Development and Partnerships. Then, he was the Director of Democratic Citizenship and Participation at the Council of Europe, running a team of 160 staff dedicated to fostering democratic participation and citizenship, intercultural understanding and cooperation. From 2018 to 2020, he served as CEO and chairman of the executive Board of the Dialogue of the Dialogue of Civilizations Institute in Berlin. He is the author of EUROPE A LA CARTE, a book of reflection on European identity. He is also the author of “André Bas, Combats pour l’Entente. He regularly contributes comments on international affairs in major media outlets: Euronews, EUReporter, Valeurs Actuelles, l’Opinion, CCTV, TRT, Bastille Magazine.

Thierry Lepercq leads executive circles bringing together CEOs, executive committee members, and board-level leaders from international groups in Paris, Lille, and Lyon. These groups meet monthly with experts to discuss the evolving nature of geopolitical risk. He also leads the Thucydide Circle, which brings together diplomats, military generals, senior civil servants, and geopolitical experts who exchange views on the complexity of today’s geopolitical landscape, drawing parallels with history. Having specialized in the United States for several years, Thierry Lepercq advises investors and international groups on the business environment and the evolving risk landscape in the U.S

Graduate of Ecole Polytechnique and holder of an MBA from Harvard. Christian Langlois-Meurinne has more than 50 years of experience in the investment sector with IDI, for which he oversaw the buyout in 1987. Previously, he was Director of Chemical, Textile and Allied Industries at the Ministry of Industry from 1979 to 1982.

Co-founder and CTO of Sahar. Sahar is a French company that develops solutions to transform large volumes of open-source data into actionable insights. It works with governments and major corporations in sectors such as defense, energy, and finance.
A data scientist by training, he is a graduate of École Polytechnique, ENSAE, and Sciences Po.

Chief Legal Officer for Sagint Inc., where he architects legal frameworks for digital infrastructure and the tokenization of real-world assets. He is also the Head of International Legal Affairs for the Mohammed Omar bin Haider Holding Group, overseeing cross-border investments in energy, real estate, and infrastructure. Nicholas Kairis is an international legal executive and financial strategist with over twenty-eight years of experience spanning Europe, the United States, and the Middle East. A specialist in regulatory architecture and digital securities, Mr. Kairis has held senior leadership roles for major investment platforms and multinational holding groups, including Khamis Buamim Investments and HBK Department of Projects. His expertise covers highly regulated sectors such as financial services, commodity trading, mining, and fintech. Admitted to the Supreme Court of Greece, he is a member of the Athens Bar Association and holds an LL.M. from the University of Heidelberg. Throughout his career, he has advised global corporations and served in various board and investment committee capacities, focusing on complex multi-jurisdictional compliance and international arbitration.

Former Prime Minister of Mauritania on two occasions. In the early 1990s, he oversaw negotiations with the International Monetary Fund that led to a three-year reform program aimed at strengthening the balance of payments and improving growth prospects. In 2005, he was again appointed Prime Minister to lead the transition to civilian rule. In this role, he oversaw the adoption of constitutional laws guaranteeing public freedoms and facilitating a peaceful transfer of power. Sidi Mohamed Boubacar also served as Minister of Finance and Minister Secretary-General of the Government. He held various technical positions within the Ministry of Finance, including Budget Director, Planning Director, and Treasury Director. He also had a distinguished diplomatic career. He served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Mauritania to Spain, Egypt, and France, and as Permanent Representative of Mauritania to the United Nations. He was a candidate in the 2019 presidential election, where he won more than 17% of the vote. Sidi Mohamed Boubacar obtained his bachelor’s degree from the National School of Administration of Mauritania, graduating as valedictorian in the Financial Administration track. He also received a postgraduate diploma in law from the Université d’Orléans (France). He has published “The African Exception” in Choc des Populations: Guerre ou Paix (Fayard, 2010).

Director of International and European Affairs at Bpifrance since 2019. She leads the bank’s international strategy to boost its visibility and support the growth of French companies abroad. Her responsibilities include managing relationships with European and global institutions, developing partnerships with sovereign wealth funds and long term investors, and advising foreign governments on building strong entrepreneurial ecosystems. She also oversees EuroQuity, the digital platform that connects innovative businesses with international investors and new opportunities. More than 20 years ago, Isabelle created Averroès Africa, the first European fund of funds dedicated to Africa. She continues to steer its successive programs, including Averroès Africa IV (2023) and the Averroès Venture Fund (2025). Altogether, the funds have invested over €250 million in 35 venture, growth and debt funds supporting startups, SMEs and mid caps across 40 African countries. Isabelle also sits on Proparco’s board and on the board of the Aspen Institute France. She co chairs the Montreal Group.

Vice President of Public Affairs for Renault Group since September 2025, Jean-André Barbosa previously served as Head of European Public Affairs and Regulation for France after joining the Group in September 2022. He began his career at the European Commission within the Directorates-General for Trade and Energy, notably participating in the WTO Doha Round negotiations and various energy-related negotiations with third countries. Between 2008 and 2020, he held executive leadership positions in the private sector across several multinational groups. These included Saint-Gobain, where he was General Manager for the CIS region (Packaging division), and AREVA, where he served as Director for Central and Eastern Europe, specifically in charge of public affairs. In 2020, he returned to the European Commission as an expert within the Chief Economist’s team at DG Energy. He is a graduate of the École des Mines de Paris and a Chief Engineer of the Corps des Mines.

Élie Tenenbaum is the director of Ifri’s Security Studies Center. After years of focusing on irregular warfare, counterinsurgency and counter-terrorism, his research now leads him to cover more general strategic issues, in particular European security and defense policy. He holds PhD (2015) in History and graduated from Sciences Po (2010), he has been a visiting fellow at Columbia University (2013-2014) and spent a year at the War Studies Department, at King’s College London (2006) ; he has taught international security at Sciences Po and international contemporary history at the Université de Lorraine. He is the author of numerous articles and books on history and strategy, including The Twenty Year War: Jihadism & Counter-Terrorism in the 21st Century, with Marc Hecker (Robert Laffont, Prix du Livre Géopolitique 2021).

Director of the Centre for Analysis, Planning and Strategy of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Prior to this, he served as chief of staff to the French Minister for EU Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot (2024). He has extensive experience in international and European affairs due to his previous functions, as deputy sherpa to the President of the European Council (2019-2023) and as diplomatic adviser to the EU Negotiator for Brexit, Michel Barnier (2016-2019). Tristan Aureau is a member of the French Council of State, where he started his career as an administrative judge and a legal adviser to the Government (2013-2016). In parallel to his different posts, he has been teaching international relations and public law in several academic institutions, notably Sciences Po, ENA and the College of Europe.

Director of Trilitech and Co-Founder of Tezos, a decentralized open source blockchain platform. Prior to becoming involved in Tezos full time, he worked at X and Waymo on self-driving cars. In his earlier career, he worked as a quantitative analyst at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. He graduated from the École polytechnique and holds a MS in financial mathematics from the Courant Institute at NYU.

Director of Sustainable Energy at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), he oversees a region comprising 56 member States across North America, Europe, and Asia. In this role, he provides strategic policy advice and analysis to governments to support the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement, while fostering international energy cooperation. With nearly 30 years of experience in the energy sector, he previously served as Chief Underwriting Officer at SACE, Italy’s State Guarantee Agency. There, he was responsible for export credit, the EU Green New Deal, and guarantees under the EU Temporary Framework. Mr. Liguti spent over a decade at General Electric (GE), holding senior roles in project finance, corporate strategy, and investment banking, eventually serving as Global Head of Government and Export Finance. His earlier career includes positions at the Council of Europe Development Bank and the European Commission. He holds an MSc in Economics from Bocconi University and an MA in EU Law from Leicester University. He began his professional journey at Cargill.

Gérard Larcher has served as President of the French Senate since 2014.

Former Foreign Minister of Mexico from 2000 to 2003. He is a renowned public intellectual, political scientist, and prolific writer, with an interest in Mexican and Latin American politics, comparative politics and US-Mexican and U.S.-Latin American relations. Dr. Castañeda received a B. A. from Princeton University and a B. A. from Université de Paris-I (Pantheon-Sorbonne), an M. A. from the École Pratique de Hautes Etudes, and his Ph. D. in Economic History from the University of Paris-I. He taught at Mexico’s National Autonomous University (UNAM) from 1978 through 2004, at Princeton University, and the University of California, Berkeley; from 1997 to 2025 at New York University, and at Sciences Po in Paris since 2022. Among his more than 15 books published in the United States and elsewhere are: Limits to Friendship: The United States and Mexico (with Robert Pastor), Utopia Unarmed: The Latin American Left after the Cold War (Knopf, 1993), The Mexican Shock (New Press, 1995), Compañero: The Life and Death of Che Guevara (Knopf, 1997), and Perpetuating Power: How Mexican Presidents Were Chosen (New Press, 2000); Ex-Mex: From Migrants to Immigrants (The New Press, 2007); Mañana Forever? Mexico and the Mexicans (Vintage, Random House, 2012); America Through Foreign Eyes (Oxford University Press, 2020).In April 2008, Castañeda was elected Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and International Member of the American Philosophical Society.

CEO of the French Army Foundation, a publicly recognised foundation of public interest, since the beginning of 2026. Having led banks and financial institutions for 35 years, he also founded and ran a renewable energy production and transition consulting company, and served as CEO of a microfinance and Social Business Foundation operating in over thirty-five countries across three continents. With extensive experience in France, the French Overseas Territories, and internationally, He defines himself as a committed executive and practitioner of sustainable finance in service of an economy that respects living systems.

Senior international advisor and economist, Dr. Bernard Salomé is currently preparing an international conference on innovation for domestic resource mobilisation in Africa, and advises on the development of AI and Agentic AI solutions to broaden the tax base across the African continent — placing him at the forefront of the intersection between artificial intelligence and public finance. Dr. Salomé holds a doctorate in Economic Development from the Université Paris Sorbonne and has accumulated over four decades of experience across international organisations, multilateral institutions, and presidential advisory roles. Early in his career, he served as Deputy Director of the G7 Support Implementation Group in Moscow, designing the comprehensive information system used by all embassies and donor agencies coordinating external aid to Russia. He subsequently served as Director of the Office of Economic Policy of UNMIK in Kosovo, acting as principal strategic advisor to Special Representative of the Secretary-General Dr. Bernard Kouchner. He later held the position of Special Representative of the Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt, and served as Managing Director of the Millennium Foundation for Innovative Finance for Health in Geneva. He has also advised at the highest level of government in Côte d’Ivoire as Senior Advisor to the President of the Republic. He is the author of eight books on development issues and has worked across more than thirty countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

Former Prime Minister of Sudan (2019 – 2021)
H.E. Hamdok (Ph.D.) is a Policy Analyst/Economist with over forty years of experience addressing development challenges in Africa and the Middle East at various levels (national and regional). Over the years, he has developed an interest in policy-oriented research and analysis, focusing on Regional Integration and Trade, Macroeconomics Policies, Governance, Institutional Analysis, Public Sector Reforms, and Resource Management. The primary author of many publications on African development challenges, including development finance, macroeconomics, governance, and other related issues. He served as a Senior Advisor Strategy and Partnerships, Trade and Development Bank, Deputy Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). Before that, he held senior positions at the UNECA, ILO, UNDP, the African Development Bank, Regional of International IDEA, for Africa and the Middle East 203-2008, and Deloitte & Touche. Prior to that, he was a senior official with the government of Sudan (Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning). Member of several Boards and High-Level Panels such as the Coalition on Dialogue for Africa (CODA); Member of the Board of Human Science Research Council (HSRC) of South Africa; Member of the Trade and Development Bank (TDB) Eminent Personalities Panel. Chair of the Advisory Council of Mo Ibrahim Foundation and Chair of the Technical Committee of the High-Level Panel (HLP) on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa.

President and Founder of Ardian, a world leader in private investment, Dominique Senequier is a pioneer in the private equity industry. She founded the firm in 1996 within the AXA Group before leading its independence in 2013, making Ardian a company majority-owned by its employees. Under her leadership, the firm has become a major global player, managing assets across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. A strong advocate for finance as a force for the common good, she introduced a groundbreaking profit-sharing model in 2008, redistributing a portion of capital gains to all employees across its portfolio companies. Her vision, “Architects of Lasting Change,” integrates sustainability into the core of economic performance. She also established the Ardian Foundation to foster social mobility. Promoted to Officer of the Legion of Honor in 2021, she was elected to the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques in 2023 A member of the French Actuarial Institute, she was part of École Polytechnique’s first mixed-gender class in 1972 and holds a postgraduate degree in economics from Paris-Sorbonne University. She began her career at the French Ministry of Economy and is consistently ranked among the world’s most influential figures in finance.

Dr. Moritz Maier is the 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.

A senior civil servant at the Ministry of the Armed Forces following his graduation from the École nationale d’administration (ENA, now the INSP), Guillaume Lagane has held positions at the Directorate General of Armaments (DGA), the Secretariat General for Administration (SGA), and the Directorate General for International Relations and Strategy (DGRIS). He currently serves as Political Adviser to the Chief of Staff of the French Army. An agrégé in history, he also teaches geopolitics at Sciences Po and has published several works on international relations.

Ambassador of Ireland to France and Monaco since 2021, he previously served as Secretary General of Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs, the highest diplomatic position, where he played a key role in securing Ireland’s election to the United Nations Security Council for a two-year term. A career diplomat, he has devoted much of his career to relations between Ireland and the United Kingdom, particularly cooperation with Northern Ireland. He served as Director General of the Anglo-Irish Division from 2010 to 2014, having previously been Director of the same division from 2004 to 2007. Earlier in his career, he held several international postings, including Consul General of Ireland in New York (2007–2010) and Vice Consul in Chicago (1987–1991). He also served as First Secretary at Ireland’s Permanent Mission in Geneva and as Head of Task Force in the Policy Unit of the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union in Brussels from 1997 to 1999. His career reflects extensive expertise in transatlantic, European, and multilateral relations.

Ambassador of the Slovak Republic to France since 2023, having presented his credentials to the President of the French Republic in February 2024, he is a career diplomat with extensive experience in European affairs and bilateral diplomacy. Prior to his appointment in Paris, he headed the Strategic Analysis Unit at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bratislava (2021–2023), following his tenure as Ambassador of the Slovak Republic to Italy, Malta, and the Republic of San Marino from 2015 to 2021. He previously served at the Office of the President of the Slovak Republic as Secretary General of the Cabinet (2012–2015) and Director of Foreign Policy (2010–2012). Earlier in his career, he held several senior positions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including Director of Analysis and Strategy, Head of the Energy Security Working Group, Director General for Bilateral Cooperation, and Director of the Europe Department. He also served as Ambassador of the Slovak Republic to Romania and Moldova (2002–2007), as well as Deputy Head of Mission in Paris and Bucharest. He speaks French, Romanian, Russian, English, and Italian. He is a graduate of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations and has received national distinctions from Romania and Poland.

Chief Geopolitical Officer and Head of research on Emerging countries at Crédit Agricole Group’s Economic Research Department. She used to be head of the Master’s in finance and strategy, at Sciences Po Paris, where she is still teaching economics and country risk analysis. She was several times jury member for the National School of Administration. She has been expert for the European Commission and member of the London Club for the restructuring of Russian debt. She has conducted numerous research papers on geopolitical risk assessment in the financial sector. She is also an author and has published six novels.

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Moldova to the French Republic, a position she has held since April 2026. She began her professional career as an editor for cultural publications in the Republic of Moldova. From 1992 to 1998, she served as Director of the Soros Foundation Moldova. In 1998, she was appointed Director of the Medialog Media Group. Since 2000, she has been based in Paris, where she has pursued professional activities in interior design and founded her own jewellery brand. She is the author of several volumes of poetry, translated into multiple languages. In 2023, she published the novel Legată cu funia de pământ (Bound to the Earth by a Rope), subsequently translated into French and German. She is a graduate of the Maxim Gorky Institute of Literature in Moscow and of the University of Dijon (France).

Head of Data Science and Managing Director in Ardian’s Infrastructure Team at Ardian. Since joining Ardian in 2011, Pauline has been a leader in innovation. She spearheaded the launch of data science to support value creation within investment teams and more recently of Gaia, Ardian’s firm-wide, in-house generative AI platform. She was at the forefront of creating Ardian Opta platform supporting investment in renewable energy as well as Ardian AirCarbon, Ardian’s proprietary software platform for measuring airports’ Scope 3 emissions. She has consistently pushed the boundaries of how technology can enhance investment practices, contribute to value creation and drive decarbonisation. Pauline Thomson is also Board member of Mila, a leading telecom operator in Iceland and Verne, a pan European data center platform, headquartered in the UK. Her ability to balance rigorous deal execution with long-term value creation embedded in data science as well as her expertise in applying cutting-edge data science, ability to deliver on transformative transactions, and climate-first approach, demonstrates her leadership in infrastructure investing.