Category: Invited guests

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.

Mayor and Governor of Vienna from 1994 to 2018 and Chairman of SPÖ Vienna. He is member of the Social Democratic Party Committee for the 16th district of Vienna (Ottakring). He was Executive City Councillor for the Environment and Sports of the City of Vienna (1988-1994), Member of the Vienna Provincial Parliament and Vienna City Council (1983-1988), elected chairman of the JG Vienna and deputy chairman of the federal JG organisation, co-opted to the executive committee of SPÖ Vienna (1982). He was a research scientist at the Vienna Museum of Natural History (1975-1983). He holds a PhD in biology from the University of Vienna.

Cofounder and Chairman of the Board of Associés en Finance, University Professor at Sciences Po Paris, Vice President of the Cercle des économistes and board member of Klépierre and Presses Universitaires de France. He was visiting Professor at UC Berkeley (1982), Stanford University Graduate School of Business (1976-1979) and the Hoover Institution (1983-1992). He was also Professor at HEC (1970-1983), Lille University (1979-1982) and Paris Dauphine University (1983-2001). He was a member of the French Council of Economic Advisors (2006-2010). He graduated from HEC and Sciences Po Paris. He holds a MBA, Harvard Business School and a PhD in Financial Economics, Paris Dauphine University.

Chairman of Profilo Holding AS. As a leading industrialist in Turkey, he is Member of the Board of the Istanbul Chamber of Industry. He has performed duties as an adviser to the Prime Minister of Turkey for Turkey-EU, and Turkey-US relations, and acts as a Voluntary Ambassador for EU Affairs. Mr. Kamhi is a Founding Member of the Chairman’s Club of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Member of the Board of the World Business Council (USA). He was the first and only Turkish industrialist to be selected as a member of the European Round Table (ERT). He has a degree from Yıldız Technical University.

Director of Corporate Communications & External Affairs, Koç Holding. She began her professional career in 1992 at the Turkish Prime Ministry Privatization Administration. She joined the World Bank and held the position of portfolio manager for the Middle East and North Africa region. Beginning in 2001, she served as chief advisor to the Ministry of Economy. In 2003, she joined Koç Holding as an advisor to the CEO. She serves notably on the Boards of the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV) and of the Corporate Volunteer Association (OSGD). She graduated from the Department of Business Administration at Middle East Technical University, and from George Washington University with an MBA in International Business.

Professor of International Affairs in the School of Foreign Service and Government Department at Georgetown University. He was Director for European Affairs on the National Security Council during the first Clinton administration and worked in the U.S. Department of State on the Policy Planning Staff. Prior to government service, he was an Assistant Professor of Politics at Princeton University. He received a B.A. from Harvard University and M.Phil. and D.Phil. degrees from Oxford University. He is the author of No One’s World: The West, the Rise of the Rest, and the Coming Global Turn (forthcoming 2012).

Partner at global private equity firm, The Riverside Company, since 2006 and Chairman of the EVCA (European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association). Prior to Riverside, he was Managing Partner of an independent corporate finance firm in Brussels, advising on numerous transactions across Europe. He also spent five years with GE Capital Europe, including as Chief Operating Officer of TIP and Modular Space. He started his career with Danske Bank in Copenhagen. He holds a BSc (econ) from the Copenhagen Business School and a Masters in Management from EAP, European School of Management (now ESCP Europe).

Head of Global Public Affairs at Novartis since 2006. Prior to that, she was Head of EU Public Affairs for the Novartis Group. She began her career with GlaxoWellcome in Hamburg as Head of Healthcare Policy Unit. She later became Director of Heatlhcare and Public Affairs at SmithKlineBeecham in Munich. Upon the merger of SmithKlineBeecham with GlaxoWellcome to form GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), she led all corporate and EU government affairs across GSK’s subsidiaries in the European Union. She joined Novartis in 2004. She holds a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and a Master in Public Health from Hannover Medical School in Germany.

Founder and Managing Director of Susan Liautaud & Associates Limited, a firm advising on complex ethics matters for leaders in the corporate, non-profit and governmental sectors internationally. She is Chair of Council (trustees) of the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Chair of the Stanford University Freeman Spogli Institute for International Affairs Advisory Council. She teaches cutting-edge ethics courses at Stanford University and is the author of The Power of Ethics and of The Little Book of Big Ethical Questions. She also founded a non-profit platform for innovative ethics called The Ethics Incubator. She serves on the Stanford HAI and SAP’s AI Ethics Advisory Panel. She also serves on a number of other boards and advisory boards, including: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Yale Divinity School Advisory Council; the French Ambassador’s Foreign Trade Advisory Council in the UK; the American Hospital of Paris Board of Governors and Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières US Advisory Board (former Chair). She recently completed her term as Vice Chair of the Global Partnership for Education. She is a member of The Council on Foreign Relations. Susan holds a Ph.D. in Social Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a JD from Columbia University Law School, as well as two BAs and a MA from Stanford and a MA in Chinese Studies from the University of London SOAS.

Francis Lorentz is a Founding Partner and Chairman of LD&A Jupiter, (European “boutique” dedicated to M&A and corporate finance for TMT midcaps). He served as Executive Vice-President of Lyonnaise des Eaux (water and energy distribution). He was Chairman and CEO of RATP (Paris public transportation system). He was also an Associate Professor at Paris Dauphine University. He headed the restructuring of the Galeries Lafayette technology services branch, as co-CEO of LaSer. He was also Chairman (and is still a board member) of IDATE- Digiworld Institute, a think-tank and consultancy organisation dedicated to telecoms and Internet. He holds an MBA from HEC and is a former student of ENA (Ecole Nationale d’Administration).

President of the Cercle des Economistes, Professor at Paris-Dauphine University, Advisor to the Supervisory Board of Compagnie Financière Edmond de Rothschild. He started his career in 1975 as Professor of Economics at the Paris XIII University and the Ecole Normale Supérieure. He was Adviser to the President of Havas Group, Economic Adviser to the French Prime Minister (industry, services, telecommunications), CEO of CEA Industrie. He authored several books and articles and he participates in different radio and television programs. He holds a doctoral degree in Economic Sciences.

Dean and Professor in the Practice of Public Policy of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. He previously served for 33 years in the Singapore Foreign Service and was Permanent Secretary of the Foreign Ministry (1993-1998). He was included in the list of Top 50 individuals who would shape the debate on future capitalism, Financial Times, 2009, and was named as one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers, Foreign Policy, 2010. He is the author of Can Asians Think? published in Singapore, Canada, US, Mexico, India and China and his articles have appeared in a wide range of journals and newspapers, including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Time, Newsweek and The New York Times. He graduated in philosophy from Singapore and Canada.

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.

Senior partner at IJ Partners, an investment boutique for ultra-high-net-worth individuals based in Geneva. He was managing partner at Rainbow Insight, an advisory boutique which he founded, providing tailor-made intelligence to investors. He headed the Global Risk Network at the World Economic Forum. He worked as a Chief Economist and Strategist of a major Russian investment bank and as an Economist at the EBRD in London, in think tanks and academia (both in New York and Oxford) and in the Prime Minister’s office in Paris. He was educated at the Sorbonne and Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris and at St. Antony’s College, Oxford. He holds two MAs (in Economics and History) and a PhD in Economics.

Full professor for linguistics and didactics of Roman languages at the Institute of Romance Studies at the University of Vienna since 1989. He has given lectures in almost every country in Europe, in Cuba, in Chile and in Peru. He is member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and honorary member of the Romanian Academy of Sciences. He is co-founder and co-editor of the Romanistisches Kolloquium, the Lexikon der Romanistischen Linguistik and the Cinderella-book series. He studied Romance philology at the universities of Basel, Zurich, Salamanca, Coimbra and Padua. Doctorate in 1969 in Ibero-Romance philology, French linguistics and Italian literary studies at the University of Basel.

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. 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.

Head of Basic Research (Erste Group) and Senior Fellow at the Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI). He is an expert on population change, international migration and demographic aging, their economic impact and their implications for retail banking and social security systems. In 1979 he joined the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Between 1992 and 2003 he was head of the Department of Demography at Humboldt University, Berlin. He was visiting professor at the University of California at Berkeley, Universities of Bamberg, Frankfurt, Klagenfurt, Vienna and Zurich. He has worked as consultant for the European Commission, the OECD and the World Bank. He holds a PhD from Vienna University.

Founder-Chairman of Infosys since 1981, a global software consulting company headquartered in Bangalore, India. He is an IT advisor to several Asian countries. He serves on the boards of HSBC, Ford Foundation and the UN Foundation. He served as a member of the Unilever board (2007-2010). He served as Chairman of the International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore (2002-2012) and Chairman of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (2002- 2007). The Economist ranked him among the ten most-admired global business leaders in 2005. He is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering and a foreign member of the US National Academy of Engineering.

Former Governor of the State of West Bengal, former Special Advisor and National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of India. Led India in institutionalized security and strategic dialogues with several countries including Brazil, France, Japan, Sri Lanka, Germany, Russia, UK and the USA. Prior to this, was Director of the Intelligence Bureau for two terms and Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee. He also headed the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Developing an Integrated Capability to address Internal Security Challenges. He has dealt extensively with a whole range of issues concerning internal, national and global security, including aspects such as Counter-Terrorism, Counter-Intelligence and Strategic Analysis. He was awarded the Padma Shri, a National Order in 1992. He holds a Master’s Degree in Economics from the University of Madras.

Chairman of the Board of the University of Vienna and President of the Austrian UNESCO Commission. She entered the Austrian Foreign Service in 1973.She served as Counselor to the Austrian Mission at the United Nations in New York. Then, she was appointed Foreign Policy Advisor to the Austrian Federal Chancellor. She was the Austrian Ambassador to France (1992-1997) and the Austrian Ambassador to the Court of St. James (1997-1999) and the Austrian Ambassador to the United States of America, with accreditation to the Commonwealth of the Bahamas (2003-2008). She retired from the Foreign Service in October 2008. She studied at the University of Vienna with history as her major subject and German literature as a minor and received her Ph.D. in 1968.

Governor of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB) since 2008. He served as CEO of the Austrian BAWAG P.S.K. Bank für Arbeit und Wirtschaft, Vice President and Member of the Executive Board of the European Investment Bank (EIB) and President of the Governing Board of Österreichische Postsparkasse (P.S.K.). He was an elected Member of the Austrian Parliament. He served as Full Professor at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, where he also held the position of Vice-Rector. He studied law and government sciences at the University of Vienna and economics at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Vienna. He holds a doctorate in law from the University of Vienna.

Adviser to the CEO of Basic Element, Mr. Deripaska, and Member of the Supervisory Board of the company since 2005. He also sits on the Board of Vol’noye Delo, a charity foundation. He was Deputy CEO responsible for International Affairs and Public Relations at Basic Element (2003-2005), Vice President of the M.I.C. Industries (USA) and Co-Chairman of the International Press Center and Club “Moscow”. Prior to his career in business, he held several diplomatic positions with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He graduated with a degree in International Relations from Moscow State Institute of International Relations and holds a degree in International Public Diplomacy and Public Relations from the Diplomatic Academy in Moscow.

Senior fellow and director of the program on international institutions and global governance at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Previously he was Research Fellow at the Center for Global Development. He served on the Secretary of State’s policy planning staff (2002-2005) and was research associate at the Center on International Cooperation at New York University, where he also taught U.S. foreign policy (1997-2002). He also served as a professional lecturer in international relations/conflict management at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. He is the author or co-author of four books and writes the blog “The Internationalist”. His most recent book is Weak Links: Fragile States, Global Threats, and International Security. He graduated from Stanford University with a BA in human biology and received his doctorate in international relations, as well as two masters degrees, in international relations and European history, from Oxford University.

Managing Partner of the Clean Energy Forum (CEF) and Managing Director of Pflüger International GmbH. He is Senior Advisor at Berlin Global Advisors (BGA) and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Zukunft Gas (The Voice of the Gas and Hydrogen Economy). He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Institute for Climate, Energy and Mobility (IKEM) and Senior Fellow at the Global Energy Centre of the Atlantic Council, Washington D.C. He has previously served as press secretary to former German President Richard von Weizsäcker. He was also a member of the Bundestag (1990-2006), Chairman of the Bundestag Committee on the Affairs of the European Union (1998-2004) and Deputy Minister of Defense in the first Merkel Government (2005-2006).

Advocate registered with the Supreme Court of India since 1976. In 1986, he opened an office in Paris to advice French and European Companies doing business with India. Phadke Law has vast practical experience in the international disputes settlement & institutional arbitration in the energy, aviation & construction industries and also a background on policy matters as advice has been sought in making Indian Governmental policy decisions on taxation, defence & aviation policies. He graduated from the University of New Delhi, the University of Cambdrige and the University of Geneva.