Category: Invited guests

Chairman of Lee International IP & Law Group and of Infinite Ldt. since 1985. He is also Director of the Digital Times since 2011 and Director of the Pearl S. Buck Foundation Korea since 2007. He serves as Honorary Advisory Counsel to the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade since 2006. He is a non-executive Director, PoongSan Corporation and Director of the Security Management Institute. He graduated from Georgetown University, Columbia University and Seoul National University.

Advisor for Strategic Affairs and Asia to the French President. Former Deputy Director of the Policy Planning Staff for the French Foreign Office. He was France Ambassador to Turkmenistan (2006-2009), Deputy Director of the South-East Asia section for the Foreign Office (2002-2006), Diplomatic advisor on International Affairs for the Minister of Defence, Sir Alain Richard (1997-2002) and Chief Clerk of the Asia-Pacific section at the Delegation for Strategic Affairs for the Department of Defence (1992-1996). He holds a PhD in Sovietics Studies, a Master’s Degree in Econometry and a Master’s Degree in International Relations.

Investment Banker, LionTree. Former Executive Committee member and managing partner of Oddo Corporate Finance. After stints at Euris, an equity fund, and Editeuris, which holds Euris’s shares in various publishing and media groups, she became CEO of Compagnie européenne de presse professionnelle. She then created her own business, Intermezzo, an advisory M&A firm specialized in media. In 2003, she partnered with Jean-Marie Messier to found Messier Partners LLC. Three years later, she created Partanéa, a small investment bank with shareholders worldwide. In 2008, she sold the bank to Oddo & Cie, where she currently works. She graduated from the Institut d’études politiques de Paris and received financial analyst training at the Société française des analystes financiers.

Ambassador, Head of the European Union Delegation in the Kingdom of Morocco. Embarking very early on a political career, he became a member of Spain’s Basque Parliament in 1980, representing the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE). Turning his attention to the European Community, he was appointed as the European Commission’s Director-General for Regional Policy and Cohesion in 1986. From 2000 to 2003, he served as the Commission’s Director-General for Enlargement, being ship negotiator with candidate countries. He served as the Commission’s Director-General for External Relations (2003-2009). He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Notre Europe think tank, founded by Jacques Delors in 1996.

Honorary Chairman of Lafarge. From July 2015 to April 2017, he co-chaired the Board of Directors of LafargeHolcim. He was previously Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lafarge (2007-2015). He began his career at Lafarge in 1983 and held numerous positions in finance and international operations. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). He is Lead Independent Director of ArcelorMittal and was a Board member of EDF from 2008 to 2019. He chaired the Sustainable Development Commission of the MEDEF (Mouvement des Entreprises de France, the French employers association) from 2014 to 2018. He graduated from the Hautes Etudes Commerciales business school (HEC, Paris) and the Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA, Paris).

Medical Doctor and Psychiatrist, member of the Supervisory Board of Edeis as well as member of Surveillance Board of Edeis.com and active member of Bealy.io. He is specialized in the management of conflict situations, and in particular in the management of post-traumatic syndromes. He participates in work on sleep, biological rhythms, and physiological and psychological adaptation factors. He has been practicing in Paris for 40 years, with an involvement in corporate work. He has carried out numerous consulting missions including with Progress, Danone, Rians, Laboratoires Debat, Spie Batignolles, L’Oréal, EDF, Normédic, La Poste, and with the government of Senegal. He also collaborated with IMS Health and the General Management of Manpower.

Former Under-Secretary of State, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, Helsinki, former Director-General for Political Affairs and Ambassador of Finland to the United States (Washington, DC) and to the United Kingdom (London). Other diplomatic assignments include Paris, Geneva, Warsaw, Belgrade and Madrid. He has a B.A. from Stockholm University and M.A. from the University of Helsinki. Fellow at the Center for International Affairs, Harvard University 1985-86.

President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Chairperson of ADB’s Board of Directors. He was Special Advisor to the Cabinet of Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi and professor at the Graduate School of Economics at Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo. He was also Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs. He was seconded to the International Monetary Fund. He has authored several books on monetary policy, exchange rate, international finance policy coordination, international taxation, and international negotiations. He holds a BA in Law from the University of Tokyo and a Master of Philosophy in Economics from the University of Oxford.

Counsellor of Paris since 2014. Former Secretary of State in charge of Prospective and Development of digital economy, Mayor of Longjumeau (Essonne), member of Parliament for Essonne, Regional Councillor for Ile-de-France and Deputy Secretary General of UMP (Union for a Popular Movement, French political party of the mainstream right). She was technical adviser (ecology and sustainable development) to the Prime Minister (2002), Policy Officer to the Chief Strategy Officer of Alstom (2001-2002), Secretary of State in charge of Ecology (2007-2009). She graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique and the Ecole nationale du génie rural, des eaux et des forêts and she is part of the Corps des ingénieurs du génie rural et des eaux des forêts.

Chairman/CEO of National Research Council for Economics, Humanities and Social Sciences, Korea. He was a professor at the Department of Economics of Seoul National University and Dean of the College of Social Sciences. He was also the founding President and Chairman of Korea Information Strategy Development Institute (KISDI), a Korea Monetary Board Member and Commissioner of Financial Supervisory Commission of Korea. He was President of the Korea Economic Association. He wrote many books and articles on international economics, and Korean economy. He graduated from the Law College of Seoul National University, and majored in European economic integration at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (MA and Ph. D).

Professor Emeritus of the Chair of Economics and Management of Health Services at the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (CNAM) and Founder of the Pasteur/CNAM School of Public Health. He is a member of the National Academy of Technologies of France and a member of the steering committee of the Médecins du monde Foundation. Former Consultant to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, he served as Visiting Professor at Yale University, Under Secretary at the French Ministry of Health in charge of hospitals and Advisor to the Prime Minister. He is a Columnist for Le Point.fr. He holds a Master in Agronomy from the Institut national agronomique Paris-Grignon, a MBA and a Ph.D. in Socio Economics from Cornell University.

Professor of Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) and Director of the MGIMO Centre for Sustainable Development and ESG Transformation, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Russian International Affairs Council. He is also Honorary Consul General of Monaco. He graduated in Economics from Moscow State University (MSU).

Chairman and CEO of several firms, including CESSCO, Chemical Supplies & Services Co. and Delta Energy Services Co. He was Vice-President of Arab Organization for Human Rights in Jordan and Professor of Political Science at Jordan University. He is also Spokesman and Member of the Executive Board, National Reform Front, Jordan. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Arab Forum and of the Ebal Organisation. He earned his PhD in Political Science from the University of London.

Chancellor of the Euro-Mediterranean University of Fes and member of the Hassan II Academy of Science and Technology, Mohamed Kabbaj was Advisor to His Majesty the King Mohammed VI. Former Minister of Finance and Foreign Investment, he was also President of the Development Committee of the IMF and the Work Bank and Minister of Public Works, Vocational and Professional Training. He was also governor of Greater Casablanca, member of the Moroccan Parliament and he founded the World Sacred Music Festival in Fes. He graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, and the National School of Civil Engineering. He holds an advanced degree in econometrics from Sorbonne University, Paris.

Former French Ambassador to Morocco. He was posted at the French Embassy in Washington, DC (1978-1982) and the French Permanent Mission to the EU in Brussels (1986-1990), Chief of Staff of the Minister for European affairs(1995-1997), Director of Strategy, Ministry of Defence (1997-2001), Ambassador, Permanent Representative of France to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, in Vienna (2001-2003), Director for African affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2003-2006),Deputy Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2006-2007), Deputy Diplomatic Adviser, in charge of Africa at the Presidency of the Republic (2007-2009). He graduated from the ’Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris and the Ecole Nationale d’Administration.

Programme Director in the European Union research programme at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. He is a member of the Advisory Board on Human Rights, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. He was a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the European Union Institute for Security Studies, Paris (2009-2010), Advisor at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland (2009), Director of the University of Helsinki Network for European Studies (2008). He graduated from the University of Birmingham (UK), in Politics and International Studies and he holds a PhD, University of Bristol (UK), in Politics.

Member of the Directorate of the Austro-French Centre for Rapprochement in Europe. Former Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs, Permanent Representative to the United Nations and to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), President of the Security Council, and Vice President of the Steering Committee of the International Energy Agency. He studied law, political science and modern languages at the University of Vienna and at The Hague Academy of International Law. 

Entrepreneur, Member of the Moroccan Parliament, on behalf of the National Rally of Independents (RNI), former president of the AFEM (Moroccan Women Entrepreneurs’ Association), Vice President of the Association “Club Entreprendre”, member of the school board of the IRFCJS (Royal Institute of Training of Youth and Sports Administrators). She is currently managing the three companies that she set up, Locamed, Orhtoprotech et AKR. She is a founding member of the MENA Arab Network of Businesswomen. In 2010, she participated in the national debate on media and its future in the Moroccan society and she contributed to the creation of a white paper about it. She holds a doctorate in Pharmacy from the University of Paris XI.

Dr Mo Ibrahim is the Founder and Chair of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, which he established in 2006 to support good governance and exceptional leadership on the African continent. Born in Sudan, Dr Ibrahim has had a distinguished business career. In 1989, he founded Mobile Systems International (MSI), a world leading cellular consulting and software provider and in 1998, Celtel International, one of Africa’s leading mobile telephone companies which was acquired by Zain in 2005. Dr Ibrahim is also the Co-founder and Co-chair of the Africa Europe Foundation, which was launched in 2020 to reset and bolster Africa-Europe relations.

Former India’s Ambassador to the USA. Chancellor of English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, member of International Panel on Democracy & Development of UNESCO, Professor Emeritus at Indian Institute of Foreign Trade and at the Foreign Service Institute of Ministry of External Affairs, Chairman of Ghalib Academy and Vice President of Rumi Foundation. He is a member of Academy of the Kingdom of Morocco and BP Koirala Foundation. He was Special Rapporteur to UN on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, New York.

Chairman of Seoul Financial Forum, Chairman of the Board of the Korea Center for International Finance. He is also a Board member of Doosan Shareholding company. He served as Ambassador of Korea to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. He also held the position of Vice Minister for the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, Secretary to the President for National Agenda, Senior Economist for the International Monetary Fund. He holds a MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and graduated from the Department of Business Administration at Seoul National University.

Founding Secretary General of The Global Foundation, the Australian-based citizens’ organization concerned with shaping major global issues, including global food security, green growth, the digital economy and empowerment and better governance. He has served as Chair of the Advisory Board for the international television service of Australia’s national broadcaster.  Concurrently, he is a private advisor to a number of global companies and institutions, with a particular focus on China, Indonesia, Europe and Australia. He was Vice-Chairman of the Global Private Equity Association. He was awarded the Ordre national du Merite by the Government of France in 2004 for services to dialogue between France and Australia.

Jim Hoagland has been contributing Editor to The Washington Post since January 2010, after serving two decades as Associate Editor and Chief Foreign Correspondent. He has served in a variety of reporting, editing, and opinion-forming roles since joining the newspaper in 1966. He was awarded two Pulitzer prizes and other journalism honors. He began his journalism career as a reporter with The Rock Hill Evening Herald in 1960 while still in college. He is the author of a book, South Africa: Civilizations in Conflict, published in 1972. He graduated with an A.B. in Journalism from the University of South Carolina and he has done graduate work at the University of Aix-en-Provence and Columbia University.

Assistant Professor of Government at the College of William & Mary and research associate at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law, and the Centre for the Study of Civil War at the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO). He is the co-creator of the Social Conflict in Africa Database (http://www.scaddata.org). He received his PhD in Political Science from the University of California, San Diego.

Founding Partner of Industries et Finances Partenaires (1998) and PracSys (2015). After beginning his career in strategic and organizational consulting (Sora/IDHR), Emmanuel Harlé joined the SAT/Sagem/CSEE group to launch a new subsidiary in the telecoms business. In 1980, as CFO of Mors, a listed company in difficulty, he took part in the company’s turnaround and later oversaw a large-scale acquisitions project. He then joined the Indosuez investment banking department at Suez group before becoming Investment Director for Astorg, a private equity firm and group subsidiary. In 1988, after successfully taking part in a second business turnaround (the German subsidiary of Sanara, a listed transport group), he has set up the France Capital Development Fund specialized in majority buyouts and build-up transactions. In 1995, he worked with Morgan Grenfell & Company to raise funds and make initial investments.

Ambassador of the Plurinational State of Bolivia to France. Former Head of the Graduate Program in “Public Policy and International Relations of the European Union”, at the Catholic University “San Pablo” of La Paz, Bolivia. He served as Director-General of Bilateral Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the Plurinational State of Bolivia. He has extended professional experience on international relations related to migration and international cooperation. Professor at various main universities of Bolivia and Mexico. Publication: Les Migrations boliviennes et la mondialisation, Editions Syllepse, Paris, 2004.

Managing Director of Bordier & Cie in Geneva. Former Managing Partner of EFG Bank in Geneva, his area of expertise is private asset management. He is a member of the Board and Treasurer of the WPC Foundation. He previously worked as a money market dealer at the Al Saudi bank in Paris, then as Treasurer for Europe at the National Bank of Abu Dhabi in Paris. He received a degree in Economics from the University of Neuchâtel and an Advanced Management Degree from the École des cadres de Lausanne.

Governor of the American Hospital in Paris, Vice Chairman of the American Hospital of Paris Foundation. He also serves on the Board of Atlas Network, a free market think tank in Arlington, Virginia and is a member of the Leadership Council of United Way Worldwide. He joined the investment banking firm of Weild Capital LLC, after 5 years with the New York based Galileo Group. From 1998 to 2014, he held various positions with Citigroup, Country Corporate Officer for France, Global Relationship Bank Market Manager for France, Belgium, and Luxembourg, and Director of Citibank International PLC. From 2011 till 2014, in charge of global relationships with European Multinationals at Citigroup HQ. Member of the Board of United Way Worldwide between 2014 and 2020, he chaired its Development Committee from 2017 to 2020. He has a Ph.D. in Law from the University of Lyon, France, and a Master in Political Science from the same institution. He completed the Executive Program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Dr. Thomas Gomart (PhD in History at Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, and EMBA at HEC) is Director of Ifri. He was its President for Strategic Development from 2010 to 2015 and the Director of its Russia/NIS Centre from 2004 to 2013. As Lavoisier Fellow at the State Institute for International Relations (University-MGIMO – Moscow), Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Security Studies (European Union – Paris) and Marie Curie Fellow at the Department of War Studies (King’s College – London), he has acquired a diversified international experience. As Researcher, he is currently working on Russia, digital governance, country risk, and think tanks. He recently published Notre intérêt national. Quelle politique étrangère pour la France? (ed., with Thierry de Montbrial), Editions Odile Jacob, 2017; L’affolement du monde – 10 enjeux géopolitiques, Editions Tallandier, 2019 (Prix Louis Marin and Prix du Livre de Géopolitique); Guerres Invisibles. Nos prochains défis géopolitiques, Editions Tallandier, 2021. He is a member of the scientific committee of the Institute of Advanced Studies in National Defence (IHEDN). He is also a member of the editorial board of the French journals Politique étrangère, Etudes, and Revue des deux mondes.