Category: Invited guests

Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank since June 2011. He started his career as Research Assistant in the Department of Applied Economics and Institute for European Studies, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB). He served as Economist, International Monetary Fund, Washington D.C. (1978-1980), Professor of economics, ULB (1980-1987), Chief Economist, Générale de Banque, subsequently at Fortis Bank (1987-1999), Chief of Staff of the Belgian Minister of Finance (1999-2000), Executive Director of the Nationale Bank van België/Banque Nationale de Belgique (2000-2011). He holds a PhD in Economics, Université libre de Bruxelles (1980).

Focal point and policy advisor at UNDP for all G20 related matters. He is Coordinator for G20 and Multilateral Affairs, Strategic Policy since 2014. He acts as UN Sous-Sherpa in the G20, and UNDP representative in the G20 Development Working Group. He joined UNDP in 2007 as policy specialist on global governance issues. Prior to joining UNDP, he was the Executive Director of the European Think Tank “Confrontations-Europe”. Previously, he was a policy advisor on globalization issues to Mr. Francois Hollande. He was admitted at the National School of Administration (ENA), Paris. He holds a Master Degree in Political Science and International Relations from ‘Sciences-Po’ Paris, and a Degree in Philosophy from the Paris-XII University.

Former CEO of Raiffeisen Bank International. He joined Genossenschaftliche Zentralbank AG (now Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG, RZB) in 1973 and established the Foreign Trade Promotion Department. In 1987, he became Member of the Board of RZB and was appointed Deputy Chairman in 1995. He was CEO of Raiffeisen International Bank-Holding AG (2001-2010). He holds a master’s degree in business administration (1968) and a doctorate in Economics and Commerce (1972), Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration.

Former President of the Republic of Finland (1994-2000). He founded Crisis Management Initiative in 2000. In 2005 he facilitated the peace process between the Government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement. He acted as the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for the future status process for Kosovo (2005-2008). He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008. He has served most of his career in the Finnish Foreign Ministry and the UN, including Special Representative of the Secretary General for Namibia and State Secretary, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. He graduated from the University of Oulu.

His Royal Highness Prince Turki Al-Faisal served as the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the United States of America from September 2005 until February 2007. His Royal Highness is involved in a number of cultural and social activities. He is one of the founders of the King Faisal Foundation and is the Chairman of the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown, the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies, and the King Faisal Foundation. He graduated from Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. He subsequently pursued an undergraduate degree at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.

Chief Executive Officer of Kuwait Financial Center, Markaz since 2004. Markaz is a leading GCC asset management and investment banking institution in the Middle East with a strategic focus to achieve regional leadership in the Industry. Prior to joining Markaz, he held the position of Deputy Director of Investments at the Kuwait Fund for Arab and Economic Development. He serves as director or trustee ion several high profile private, government, educational and non-profit boards and committees. He is a Certified Financial Manager (CFM) from The Institute of Management Accountants (USA). He holds a Master of Science and Bachelor degrees in Civil Engineering from Kuwait University.

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), he previously served as Permanent Representative and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to the International Organizations in Vienna (2005-2009). He chaired the 2007 Preparatory Committee for the 2010 Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty Review Conference. Before that, he was appointed as Director-General for the Disarmament, Non-Proliferation and Science Department at the Japanese Foreign Ministry (until 2005) after serving as a governmental expert on the U.N. Expert Group on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Education in 2001. He graduated from the Tokyo University Faculty of Law.

Former Austrian Federal Minister of Finance (1970-1981) and former Vice Chancellor of the Republic of Austria (1976-1981). He served as Director General of the banking institution CA Creditanstalt Bankverein (1981-1989) and Consultant at the World Bank (1988-1989). In 1989, he founded AIC Androsch International Management Consulting GmbH. Today he is an industrialist and he is dedicated to economic-political, socio-political, and scientific-political matters. He has received numerous distinctions and awards and is the author of a multitude of publications. He has a degree in Business Administration and a PhD in Economics.

Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2003 and Mexican Sherpa for the G20 since 2008. She is also President of the Instituto Matías Romero and a member of the Mexican Council of Foreign Affairs (COMEXI). She was appointed Ambassador in 2002. She served as Director General for Global Affairs at the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as Deputy Representative at the Mexican Permanent Mission to the OAS. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations from El Colegio de México. She graduated in History and Foreign Policy from the Institut universitaire de hautes études internationales of Geneva and from the Inter-American Defense College (IADC), Washington, D.C.

Former French Minister of Justice, Keeper of the Seals. He joined the Paris Bar in 1951 and practiced law until 1981. He acted as defense attorney in the most important death penalty causes. In 1966, he was appointed Professor of Law including at the University Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne. French Minister of Justice, Keeper of the Seals (1981-1986), he brought to the Parliament the law for the abolition of death penalty. He was President of the Constitutional Council (1986-1995). He is the main inspirer and promoter of the Stockholm Convention of 1992, creating the “Court of Conciliation and Arbitration in the O.S.C.E.”, of which he was president until September 2013. In 1995, he was elected to the French Senate and reelected in 2004. In 2003, he was appointed by the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, to be part of the Panel in charge of working on a report of the UN entitled “A more secure world: our shared responsibility” (2005). He is the author of many books and writer of an opera libretto. He is member of the International commission against the death penalty.

Israel’s Defence Minister since June 2007. He is Chairman of the Haazma’ut faction 2011 and former Chairman of the Labour party. He previously served as Israel’s 10th Prime Minister and Minister of Defence from 1999 to 2001. He also served as Minister of the Interior and then as Foreign Minister under Prime Minister Rabin and Prime Minister Peres in the years 1995-1996. He received a B.Sc. degree in mathematics and physics from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1968, and an M.Sc. in economic engineering systems at Stanford University in 1978.

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

Corporate Vice President for Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing Group. He is responsible for a range of corporate programs that influence the security, privacy and reliability of Microsoft’s products, services and internal networks. He serves on the President’s National Security and Telecommunications Advisory Committee. Prior to joining Microsoft, he served as a principal at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Before that, he served as chief of the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS). He served as Chair of the G8 Subgroup on High-Tech Crime. He graduated from the Syracuse University College of Law and received his undergraduate degrees from the State University of New York at Binghamton.

Executive Vice-President, Chief Financial Officer, and Member of the Executive Committee, Sanofi-Aventis. Former Senior Executive Vice President, Deputy General Manager and Chief Financial Officer of Veolia Environment. Prior to this, he was Vice President Europe and Central Asia, Upstream Division of Total, and Finance Director & Treasurer of Elf Group. He is a graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique (X), France’s most prestigious engineering school, ENSAE, the national statistics and economics engineering school, and Ecole Nationale d’Administration.

Founding Director, James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, Rice University. He previously was U.S. ambassador to Israel (1993-1994) and to the Syrian Arab Republic (1988-1991), and assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs in both the George H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations (1991-1993). He also served in the U.S. Foreign Service for eight presidents, from John F. Kennedy to William J. Clinton (1962-1994). His book Danger and Opportunity: An American Ambassador’s Journey Through the Middle East was published in 2008. He has been awarded the Presidential Distinguished Service Award and numerous other honors.

President of the Austrian Institute for international Affairs (OIIP) in Vienna since 2011 and President of the supervisory board of Austrocontrol. He served as State Secretary in the Federal Chancellery (1994), Federal Minister of Interior (1995-1997) and as Federal Minister of Transport and Sciences, until 2000, member of the Austrian Parliament (2000-2007). He was also a member of the European Fundamental Rights Convention (2000) and of the European Constitutional Convention, President of the European Centre of Employers and Enterprises providing Public services (CEEP) in Brussels. He finished his law degree (PhD) in Vienna in 1971.

Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna (UNOV) since 2010. He holds the rank of Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations. He served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Court of St. James’s in London and as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation for International Organizations. As a member or head of Russian delegations, he took part in many international conferences and forums. He started his foreign service career in 1972 as a member of the USSR delegation to the United Nations Disarmament Committee in Geneva. He graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO).

President of the Republic of Austria (since 2002 and until 2016). He has been a member of the National Security Council and the Foreign Affairs Council of the Republic of Austria. Dr. Fischer was also Deputy Chairman of the Party of European Socialists (PES), Member of the National Council, Federal Minister of Science and Research and executive chairman of the Social Democratic Group in the Austrian Parliament. He is the author of numerous books and smaller publications in the fields of law and political sciences. He studied Law and Political Science at the University of Vienna from which he obtained a Doctor of Law degree.

Former Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany (1998-2005). He led the Green Party in its first participation in government, both at state level (Hesse) and at federal level. From 2006 to 2007, He held a professorship at the Woodrow Wilson School of International and Public Affairs at Princeton University (USA). He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group and of the Executive Board of the European Council on Foreign Relations. He is a founding partner of Joschka Fischer and Company.

Former Editor-in-chief and managing director of the daily newspaper Die Presse. He has been working as a journalist from 1991. He joined Die Presse in 2002. Prior to this, he worked at Kleine Zeitung and Der Standard.

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

Chairman of JPMorgan Chase International and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Group of Thirty (G-30). Former Governor of the Bank of Israel. He served as Vice Chairman of American International Group, Inc. (2004-2009) and as Chairman of Merrill Lynch International Inc. (2000-2004). Between 1991 and 2000 he served two terms as the Governor of the Bank of Israel. He is credited with reducing inflation in Israel and achieving price stability, liberalizing Israel’s financial markets, removing foreign exchange controls, and integrating the Israeli economy into the global financial system.  He was the Economic Counselor and Director of Research at the IMF (1987-1991). He is the author of numerous books and articles in the fields of International Economics and Macro-Economics.  He holds a B.A. in economics and political science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics, University of Chicago.

Diplomatic Advisor to the Federal President of Austria since February 2011. He served as Africa Director in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs (2008-2011), as Ambassador of Austria to South Africa (2004-2008) and as Ambassador of Austria to Lebanon (1999-2004). He also held various positions at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, including Director of the Office for Coordination in the Political Department. He studied law at the Universities of Innsbruk and Salzburg (Master and Doctor of Law) and at the Academy of International Law, The Hague. He holds a M.Sc.(Econ.) from the London School of Economics.

Chairman of the Board, Bellona Europa ASBL. Since 2001, he has been part of the Bellona Energy Team whose main focus is to advocate policies, technological solutions and economic incentives to reverse and stabilise climate change and alleviating poverty. Previously, he worked at the Norwegian Embassy in Beijing, Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Oslo, the OECD Secretariat in Paris. He was elected President of the European Movement of Norway in 2009. He holds a Master degree in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a Bachelor Degree in Political Science from The American University of Paris.

Professor at the Austrian Institute for International Affairs, Laxenburg/Vienna. He often lectures at the Universities of Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Columbia, Oxford and other American, European, and Asian universities and research institutes He is also a frequent commentator on European and Austrian television, radio, and print media, including CNN Europe and the BBC. He acts as a Special Adviser to the Austrian Ministry of Defense. In 2011, he published Obama and the Bomb: The Vision of a World free of Nuclear Weapons (Peter Lang publisher). He received the Bruno Kreisky Award for most outstanding Political Books: Models of European Security (1998). He holds a Ph.D. in political sciences and communication theory from the University of Salzburg

Vice President, International Strategic Initiatives at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce since 2012. He joined the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 1995. He held various positions there such as Vice President, Europe Policy & Global Initiatives (2008-2012), Vice President, Europe and Eurasia (2000-2008), Executive Director, Business Councils for Transition Economies (1995-2000). He also served as Associate, International Trade and Investment Division at the Law Offices of Stewart and Stewart, Washington, D.C. (1992-1995). He has received Juris Doctor degree from the George Washington University and pursued executive training at the Georgetown University.

Vice Chairman of the WPC. He manages the organisation of the annual conference since its first edition in 2008. He is also chairman and founder of Alandia, a restructuring advisory firm which helped various States or Sovereign funds to regain control over their industrial investments (Middle East, Africa and West Asia). Former Vice chairman of the Franco Indian chamber of commerce, he was more especially in charge of agricultural investments. He seats, or seated, at several Advisory Boards such as British Telecom or PWC. He published a book on globalization in June 2010: Mondialisation, un autre regard and one on restructuring issues in France (2015).

President of the Republic of Turkey from 2007 to 2014. He worked as an economist at the Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah (1983-1991). He was elected as Member of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (1991-2007). He also served as a member of the Turkish Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.  Following the elections in 2002, he became the Prime Minister of the 58th Government of Turkey. He served as the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs (2003-2007). He graduated in Economics from the Istanbul University, where he received his doctoral degree in 1983, after his two year academic work in London and Exeter.