Category: Invited guests

Executive Director of Maldon & Wat since 2011. She served as Advisor to the President of Romania (2009-2010). She held several positions at Unilever Central and Eastern Europe such as Business Development Director for Unilever Central and Eastern Europe (2009), Chairman (2005-2009), Marketing Director (2003-2005). She was also President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Romania (2011-2012; 2008-2009). She is a founding member of the Board of Aspen Institute Romania. She graduated from the Academy of Economic Sciences, Bucharest and from Wharton University.

Ambassador of the Republic of Tunisia to France since 2012. He served as Executive Director of Creova (2008-2012), Business Development Director of Cotrel (2004-2008), Quality Control Manager at Valeo (2003-2004), Logistics and Quality control at Cofat (2000-2003). He started his career at the Ministry of Industry (1998-2000). He is also responsible for International Relations at the party Ettakatol. He graduated from the Ecole supérieure de commerce de Paris and the Ohio State University.

Partner, Clifford Chance Europe LLP since 2008. He is also a member of the International Insolvency Institute (III), Insol Europe and the French Committee for Private International Law. He held the position of Partner at White & Case (1997-2008). He has acted for a broad spectrum of clients in fields including financial institutions, private equity funds, industrial corporations and insolvency trustees in France and abroad. He graduated from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques of Aix-Marseille, the University of Aix-Marseille and the University of Munich.

Director General of the Strategic Policy Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of Canada. He served as Ambassador of Canada to Poland (2009-2012). He held several positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs such as Director General for Intergovernmental Relations and Domestic Outreach (2005-2006), Director General for the European Union and Western Europe (2006-2008). He was also Chief of Staff to the Minister of Foreign Affairs (2002-2004). He graduated from the McGill University and the University of Massachusetts.

French Member of Parliament (Alpes-Maritimes) and Mayor of Cannes. He served as President of DDB International and President of the communication commission of the French Football Federation. He was also Marketing Director at Procter & Gamble. He also headed Eurocom, a subsidiary of Havas Group. He participated in the creation of the French TV channel Canal +.He graduated from HEC (Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales), Paris.

Executive Director, ELNET, since 2011. He made his career in the private sector as a consultant in communications, PR and international relations, dealing with Middle-Eastern and strategic affairs. He plays a crucial role in the French-Israeli relationship through his commitment both at the community and political levels. He seeks to strengthen ties between political leaders from France and Israel who believe that close relations between Europe and Israel are vital to both parties.

Special Advisor to the President of the African Development Bank. He served as Director of the Institute for Training and Technical Cooperation Division in the WTO, Chief Economist and Director of the Trade, Finance and Economic Development Division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and Director of the Trade and Regional Integration Division. He holds a PhD in International Economics from the University of Grenoble, France.

Consul General of Italy in Nice (France) since 2011. He served as Ambassador of Italy to Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Liberia, Niger and Sierra Leone (2007-2009). He was also First Counsellor to the United Nations in Geneva (2003), Deputy Secretary General of The First Conference of Italians in the World (2000), Consul General in Lausanne and Jeddah (Saoudi Arabia). He graduated from the University of Perugia, John Hopkins University in Bologna and the College of Europe in Bruges.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania since 2012. Previously, he served as Minister of Justice (2012), Senator and Chairman of the Foreign Policy Committee in the Romanian Senate (2008-2012). He was also an Elected Member of the European Parliament (2007-2008), Observer member of the European Parliament (2005-2006) and a member of the Romanian Parliament (2004-2007). He held the positions of Personal Foreign Affairs Adviser to the Prime Minister (2001-2003), and State Secretary, Department for Romanians Abroad (2003-2004). He holds a PhD in Law from the University of Bucharest.

French journalist and Co-President of the Institut de l’Iconomie. He was the head of the Nouvel Économiste (1997-2000), editor of La Lettre A (1993-1997), editor of the daily newspaper La Tribune de l’Expansion (1991). He was also Managing Director of La Tribune and l’Agefi (1984-1985), journalist in the economic section of Le Monde (1973-1984), journalist at the daily newspaper Les Echos (1970-1973). He is the author of La Crise Globale (2008) and La Dernière Bulle (2009) (Editions Mille et une Nuits, Fayard), Mourir pour le yuan (2011) Editions Bourin and  Le Choc des Empires (2014), Gallimard, Alstom scandale d’Etat, Fayard (2015). He graduated from the CFJ (French centre for journalism studies).

Ambassador of Sweden to France and to the Principality of Monaco. He served as Economic and Financial Advisor to the Swedish delegation at the OECD in Paris (1980-1983). He was appointed Deputy Minister, Ministry of Finance in 1988, then Deputy Minister for European Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1994 and Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sweden to the European Union in 1999. In 2002, he was appointed Minister in charge of International Economic Affairs and Financial Markets, Ministry of Finance. He also held the position of Ambassador to the United States (2005-2007). He graduated from the Universities of Uppsala and Stockholm and Columbia University.

Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Korea to the OECD since 2013. Previously, he was Deputy Minister for Trade at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (2011-2013). He also served as Ambassador to Poland (2006-2009). He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1980. He has worked, among other assignments, at the Korean Embassy in Washington, D.C. and the Permanent Mission in Geneva. In 2010, he was appointed Chief of Protocol of the Presidential Committee for the G20 Summit in Seoul. He graduated from Seoul National University.

Thomas Bagger has been Ambassador and Director-General for Foreign Affairs at the Office of the President of the Federal Republic of Germany since March 2017. He holds an M.A. in Government & Politics from the University of Maryland at College Park and a doctorate from Ludwig-Maximilian-University in Munich. He studied at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris in 1988/89. Before Dr. Bagger joined the German Diplomatic Service in 1992, he worked as a research associate at the Institute of International Affairs (SWP) in Ebenhausen / Germany. His postings abroad were Prague (1996-1998), Ankara (2002-2006), and Washington (2006-2009). Prior to his current assignment, Dr. Bagger served as Director of the Foreign minister’s private office (2009-2011) and as Head of Policy Planning (2011-2017) at the German Federal Foreign Office.

Ambassador of Qatar to France since 2003. He is also non-resident Ambassador of Qatar to the Principality of Monaco, to Portugal, to Switzerland and to the Holy See. He served as Head of the Qatari delegation during the France-Qatar strategic dialogue, Director of Cabinet of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, member of the Qatari delegation at the Annual General Assembly of the United Nations. He graduated in politics from the University of Portland and in international relations from the Institute of International Studies, University of Madrid.

Country Managing Partner of PwC Romania and Managing Partner of PwC for South-Eastern Europe (SEE). He joined PwC upon its incorporation in Romania (1991). Vasile Iuga is a member in a wide range of professional bodies and he was Vice-President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Romania. He is the co-author of the first Romanian book on strategy – Success Formulas for the Next Decade – released in 2011. He graduated from the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, and also attended trainings within Harvard Business School, London Business School, INSEAD and IMD Business School.

State Secretary with the Ministry of Public Finance since May 2012 and Non-Executive Board Member of Banca de Import Export a Romaniei – EximBank SA. He is also lecturing at the National School of Political and Administrative Studies, Bucharest. He received the prestigious “”Virgil Madgearu”” Romanian Academy Award for economics in 2007, for his book “Transnational corporations and global capitalism”. He holds an MBA degree from Stockholm University and a PhD from the Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest. He had a post-doctoral fellowship at the European Commission’s Joint Research Institute in Seville, Spain (2004).

Former President of Notre Europe – Institut Jacques Delors. He was also President of the general assembly of the Santander Totta bank and an associate at the law firm Cuatrecasas, Gonçalves Pereira & Associados. He was Minister for Parliamentary Affairs (1983-1985), judge on Portugal’s constitutional court (1989-1994) before being elected MEP (1994). He also served as Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister of Portugal (1995-1997) and European Commissioner for Justice and Internal Affairs (1999-2004). He holds a degree in law from the University of Lisbon and a master’s degree in political science.

CEO of Act III Consultants, a management-consulting firm dedicated to digital transformation, and McKinsey Senior Advisor. Previously she was Chairwoman and CEO of Vivendi Universal Publishing (€4B revenue, video games and book publishing), after spending 10 years within the Hachette/Lagardère group and 5 years within McKinsey. She is a board member of Proximus (Belgacom), GBL (Groupe Bruxelles  Lambert), Rexel, SNCF and a member of the supervisory board of Tarkett. She is also a board member of several non-profit organizations such as IDATE, the French-American Foundation and chaired the French governance institute (IFA) until June 2019. She graduated from Sciences Po Paris and Columbia University (MBA).

Director of the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA). She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Åbo Akademi University. Before, she was the Director of the Network of European Studies at the University of Helsinki (2003-2009). She has also served as Secretary of State at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland from 2007 to 2008. Dr Tiilikainen was the Special Representative of the Prime Minister of Finland in the Convention on the Future of Europe in 2002-2003. Currently, she is also Editor-in-Chief of Ulkopolitiikka – the Finnish Journal of Foreign Affairs.

Former Group Managing Director and Chief Executive of Kenya Airways. He joined the Magadi Soda Company in 1979 and became Managing Director in 1995. He served as permanent secretary to the Ministry of Information, Transport and Communications of Kenya and was a member of the Board of Kenya Airways (1999-2001). He is a board member of, among others, Kenya Airways Group of Companies, Maersk Kenya Ltd, and Access Kenya Ltd. He is also Chancellor of South Eastern Kenya University. He graduated from the University of Nairobi and the Harvard Business School.

The Honourable Donald Johnston joined the law firm of Stikeman Elliott in 1961. In 1973, he was a founding partner of Johnston Heenan Blaikie. Elected to the House of Commons, he joined the Cabinet of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in 1978. From 1980 to 1984, Johnston successively held senior Cabinet positions and served as Minister of Justice and Attorney General. He then served as President of the Liberal Party of Canada from 1990 to 1994. In 1994, Johnston was elected Secretary-General of the OECD. He began his mandate in 1996 and was elected to a second term in 2001. In 2006, Johnston rejoined Heenan Blaikie as a member of the International Business Law Group. He  was Chair and is currently Chair Emeritus to the McCall MacBain Foundation. From 2006 until 2010, he was Chairman of the International Risk Governance Council. He was given the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal and the Canadian Version of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for service to Canada. He was also awarded prestigious decorations from Japan, Belgium, Hungary, Slovakia, France and Canada. He attended McGill University receiving his BA and graduating as the Gold Medallist from the University’s Faculty of Law in 1958.

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

CEO Enel Russia (OGK-5), member of the Sophia Antipolis Fundation Board. He participated in the creation and development as Deputy Director of the Sophia Antipolis science park in Nice. He joined the Schlumberger Group in Russia (1993) as Country Manager for Russia and the countries of the CIS; he stayed in Russia and worked as a consultant and independent member on the boards of leading Russian energy companies. He graduated from La Sorbonne University, Paris, in engineering.

Member of Parliament and Former Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey. He was also a member of the National Security Council. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs (2007-2009). In 2002, he was elected to Parliament and appointed as the Minister of Treasury. In addition to his tenure as Minister of Treasury, he was appointed in 2005 as the first Chief Negotiator for Turkey’s accession negotiations with the European Union. He holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from the Middle East Technical University, Ankara. He received a MBA in Marketing, Organizational Behavior and International Business from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.