Category: Invited guests

Ambassador of France, he served as ambassador to Libya (1982-1985), to Lebanon (1985-1987) and to the Islamic Republic of Iran (1988-1991). He represented the President de la République during three mandates as member of the Supreme Council of the Judiciary (1991-1998). He was also the Special Advisor to the President of the oil group TOTAL in charge of international relations (1991-1993). He is associated searcher at the Institute for research and studies on the Arab and Muslim world IREMAM – C.N.R.S..

Managing Director for Guggenheim Partners and a senior member of the Marketing and Sales team for Guggenheim Investment Advisors. Prior to joining Guggenheim in 2005, he served as Deputy Chief of Staff to Governor Sonny Perdue of Georgia and also served in the White House as Special Assistant to the President George W. Bush for Economic Policy. He holds a BA degree from Davidson College in North Carolina.

Member of the Conseil d’Etat (French Council of state). At present, he is judge in the 10th Chamber of the judicial division of the Council of State. Formerly, he was advocate general in the 3rd chamber of the judicial division of the Council of State. He graduated from l’Ecole normale supérieure and l’Ecole nationale d’administration.

Chairperson of the National People’s Congress Foreign Affairs Committee of China. Former Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs. She was Staff Member and Attaché, Chinese Embassy in the Socialist Republic of Romania (1978-1982), Attaché, Department of Translation and Interpretation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) (1982-1985), Deputy Office Director and First Secretary, Department of Asian Affairs, MFA (1990-1992), Director-General, Department of Asian Affairs, MFA (2000-2003), Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of China to Australia (2003-2006), Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of China to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (2006-2009). She completed advanced studies at Kent University (UK).

President of Wageningen University and Research, in the Netherlands since 2014. She combines a long academic career as professor in Wageningen and Amsterdam. She is a member of the Dutch Royal Academy of Sciences and of four foreign Academies, as well as Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Academy of Sciences of South Africa. She served for nearly ten years as Assistant-Director General at the food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN. She is also a Member of the Trilateral Commission. She serves as a non-executive director of Unilever. She is a member of the Council of Advisors of the World Food Prize. She was granted her doctoral degree with honours from Wageningen University in 1986, where she specialised in tropical agriculture.

Chief Diplomatic Correspondent, Europe, for The New York Times, based in Berlin. Former London, Paris and Berlin Bureau Chief of The New York Times. He has served in numerous postings for The Times in Brussels, Jerusalem, Prague, Washington, Moscow, Bangkok and New York where he served as Culture Editor for two years. Previously, he worked for The Boston Globe as European Correspondent, based in London. He also reported from Eastern Europe, Moscow and revolutionary Iran. He was a Teaching Fellow at Harvard University. He shared in a Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for a series on Al Qaeda and global terrorism in 2002 and for International Reporting on Russia in 2017. He received an A.B. degree from Harvard College and studied Russian at St. Antony’s College in Oxford.

After being successively First Vice Chairman of the Culture and Art Development Committee, Minister of Culture, member of Parliament, Prime Minister, Chairman of the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party, Chairman of the State Great Hural Parliament of Mongolia, he was acting as the President of Mongolia from 2005 to 2009. He was Bachelor of Science in Literature and Language at the Literature Institute in Moscow, Russia, and English training at the Language Training Course of the Leeds University, United Kingdom.

President of Lagardère News. He was Director of News for Antenne 2, Chairman of France Télévision (French public service television) and personal Advisor to Jean-Luc Lagardère and Arnaud Lagardère for media strategy. Then, he was Chairman of Europe 1 and of the French Parliamentary Channel “Public Sénat”, hosting a weekly literary program called “Bibliothèque Médicis”. He is the author of a documentary entitled François Mitterrand: conversations avec un président, 2001.

Senior Counsel at Covington & Burling LLP’s international practice. His work at Covington focuses on resolving international trade problems and business disputes with the US and foreign governments, and international business transactions and regulations on behalf of US companies and others around the world. He has held key senior positions, including Chief White House Domestic Policy Advisor to President Jimmy Carter, US Ambassador to the European Union, Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs, and Deputy Secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton Administration. He has played a major role in providing justice to Holocaust Survivors in the Clinton, Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations. His articles appear in The New York Times, Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, Washington Post, and Foreign Affairs magazine. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa, cum laude from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and from Harvard Law School. He has received eight honorary doctorate degrees, and high civilian awards from the governments of France (two Legions of Honor), Germany, Belgium, Israel, The United States, and Austria. He has written four books and his newest book The Art of Diplomacy, published in May 2024.

President of ETI FINANCE (SMEs and Midcaps financing, Asset based lending). Former chairman of the Board for the Autoroutes et Tunnel du Mont Blanc and of Société Française du Tunnel Routier du Fréjus,  former Vice President of the French Public Investment Bank (BPI). Former CEO of OSEO (the French Agency for Innovation and SMEs financing). Former Engineer at the Directorate of Navigation of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Region, Managing Director of the Caisse des Dépôts (French public financial institution) for the Normandie Region and later on for the Bourgogne Region, Chairman of the Board of the Société régionale de financement (Sorefi) for the Caisses d’Epargne (French savings banks) in the Midi-Pyrenées, of the Caisse d’Epargne in the Midi-Pyrénées and of the Crédit Foncier de France (National mortgage bank of France). He graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique and from the ENPC (corps des Ponts) and holds a degree in Economic sciences (Paris X).

Special Adviser of LafargeHolcim General Manager. He was, up to the merger between the two groups, Executive Vice-President and a member of the Executive Committee of Lafarge. Previously, he was Regional President for Asia Pacific at Lafarge and played a major role in the Group’s development in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. He started his career at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was deputy Undersecretary of State for arms control. He is a graduate of the Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA) and the Institut d’Etudes Politiques of Paris. He also holds a Master in Economics.

Senior Fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution and Senior Advisor at Sabanci University. He was Minister of Economic Affairs of Turkey. He also served as Head of the United Nations Development Program, member of the Turkish Parliament, Vice President of the World Bank, and member of the Convention on the Future of Europe. He earned his Bachelor and Master’s degrees from the London School of Economics, and his PhD in economics from Princeton University.

Partner and CEO of Corrs Chambers Westgarth, one of Australia’s leading national law firms. He is one of the three Prime Ministerial representatives on the APEC Business Advisory Counsel (ABAC), and is Chair of ABAC’s Sustainable Development Work Group, he is one of two Australian delegates appointed by the Prime Minister and Treasurer to the newly formed B20, a business reference group as part of the G20, board member on the Commonwealth Business Council and the Asia Society Australasia Centre. As a former diplomat with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, John Denton has extensive international negotiating expertise.

President of KSI Strategic Institute for Asia Pacific, an independent non-profit think tank. He is also President of the World Digital Chamber and Chairman of the Asean Economic Club He was previously CEO of the Asian Strategy & Leadership Institute (ASLI). He has over 36 years of senior corporate management, consulting and boardroom experience. He is also Deputy Chairman of the Economic Club of Kuala Lumpur, a Director of the British-Malaysian Chamber of Commerce and a General Committee member of the Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Michael has served the Government including as Malaysia’s Representative (Ambassador rank) to the ASEAN High-Level Task Force on Connectivity, Member of the Malaysia Competition Commission and Commissioner in the Human Rights Commission (SUHAKAM). He was recently appointed to the Executive Council of the United Nations ESCAP Sustainable Business Network. He holds a degree in Economics from Monash University and is Doctor of Laws (honoris causa) from the University of Nottingham.

Director for Strategic Studies at the Atomic Energy Commission. Former member of the IISS Council and Advisor to the French Prime Minister for politico-military affairs and permanent Consultant to the Policy Planning Staff of the French Foreign Affairs Ministry. She studied philosophy and is the author of seven books including L’Appel de l’Ombre, Puissance de l’Irrationnel (2010).

Executive Director of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation since 2010, and co-Secretary-General of the Africa-Europe Foundation since 2020. She is a member of International Crisis Group (ICG), of the European Council of Foreign Affairs (ECFR), of the comité éditorial of the Revue Commentaire, and of the Conseil scientifique of IHEDN. She served as Inspecteur général des finances at the French Ministry of Economy and Finances between 2007 and 2010, after having been Africa advisor to the French Ministers of Foreign Affairs from 2002 to 2007, and advisor to the French Ministers of Development between 1995 and 1997, and between 2002 and 2004.  She began her career at the French Sénat, where she served at the Finances and Budget Commission from 1984 to 1995 and from 1997 to 2002, auditing a number of public expenditures, notably in the defense, foreign affairs, development, environment, research, education, telecoms and media sectors.

Seán Cleary is Chairman of Strategic Concepts (Pty) Ltd., Founder and Executive Vice Chair of the FutureWorld Foundation, Diplomacy Moderator of the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator, a member of the Advisory Boards of EIT-Climate-KIC, World Leadership Alliance-Club de Madrid, and the Institute of Advanced Studies, Kőszeg, a Special Advisor to the Global Solutions Initiative, and a Senior Advisor and Senior Fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar and co-author, with Thierry Malleret, of Resilience to Risk, and Global Risks, as well as numerous articles and chapters . He studied social sciences and law at the University of South Africa, the University of Cape Town and Pahlavi University in Iran, and holds an MBA from Henley Management College.

Director of Russian Aluminium (RUSAL) International Department since July 2001. He has held several positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia since 1984, including Deputy Director of Department of North America, Special Adviser to the Russian sherpa in G-8, Director of the Economic Section of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in the USA (Washington) and Deputy Director of the Department of Economic Cooperation. He graduated from Moscow International Relations Institute and obtained a doctorate (PhD) in Economics.

Senior of counsel in Covington and Burling LLP and member of the White Collar Defense and Investigations practice group. He served as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. He also served periodically on the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council, and on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. He served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (2003-2005). Before becoming a federal judge, he was the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. He has received numerous awards and two honorary doctorates. He graduated from Harvard Law School

Founder of Cercle Cyclope, Professor emeritus at Paris-Dauphine University, Consultant for various International Organisations (OECD, EEC, UNCTAD). He was a member of the Council of Economic Advisors in the Office of the French Prime Minister. He published around forty books including the latest Une brève histoire économique du XXème siècle, published in 2019, and Journal de la dissolution in 2024. From 2010 to 2023, he was the President of the French Observatory on fixing food products prices and margins. A graduate from HEC, he is “agrégé” in History and holds a Doctorate in Humanities.

Co-President of the Fondation Alcen pour la Connaissance des Energies (raising awareness and knowledge of energies). President of Technochabs. Former Delegate-General of the Council of French Defense Industries (CIDEF), the Group of Telecommunication and Professional Electronics Industries (GITEP-EDS) and General Manager of the Industrial Laser Company (CILAS). Former Vice-President Defense Strategy in the Aeronautic branch and Secretary-General of the International Department within Thompson-CSF Group. He graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique, the ENSAR; he obtained a master’s degree in quantum optics and a degree INFO II (CIRO-Defense computer science).

President of the Global Virus Network, professor of medicine at USF. Christian Brechot, MD, PhD joined the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine as Senior Associate Dean for Research in Global Affairs, Associate VP for International Partnerships and Innovation, Professor in the Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Internal Medicine, and heads USF’s Initiative on Microbiomes.  He is also President of the Global Virus Network.  In addition to his past role as President of the Institut Pasteur, he has held senior positions at Institut-Meriux, Inserm (the French NIH) as well as Paris Descartes University.  Dr. Bréchot’s research activities have focused on viral hepatitis, microbiomes, and viral infections. 

Director of the International Department of GDF SUEZ. She was Vice-President Asset Management North America, Asia, Middle East and Africa within the Tractebel Electricity & Gas International (EGI) branch. She was Head of the Finance, Treasury and Tax Department of the recently renamed Suez Energy International (SEI) branch. She was Executive Vice President and also a member of the SEI General Management Committee. She was also granted a specific mandate to set up the Community of Practice of Business Development within GDF SUEZ. She is still chairing it.

Ambassador-at-Large of his Majesty Mohamed VI, the King of Morocco, Dr. Assia Ben Salah Alaoui is as well: Co-Chair of the Malabo-Montpellier Forum (African Agenda 2063) Vice President of the Association of Moroccan-Japanese Friendship and a member of the BOT of a number of institutions: The Orientation Council of the Royal Institute of Strategic Studies (IRES), Rabat, Morocco; The Moroccan-British Society; the CITpax (Centro Internacional de Toledo para la Paz), and of the Association Leaders for Peace, Paris. Dr. Assia Ben Salah Alaoui holds a Ph.D. in Law, Paris II University and a Master in English Studies, University Mohamed V, Rabat, Morocco. Dr. Assia Ben Salah Alaoui is “Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur” of France.

Chairman and Founder of FDB Partners SPRL, an investment and advisory firm in TMT and publishing. In 2011, he was appointed Chairman of IDATE DigiWorld, the leading European think tank and consultancy organisation dedicated to Internet, Telecommunications and Media. He has had unique and diversified entrepreneurial and corporate experiences in the technology sector and founded 7 companies. He started his career as a researcher in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence with IBM Corporation. He served as President and CEO of Lucent EMEA and then as International CEO and corporate officer. He was also CEO of BT Global Services and a BT Group PLC board member. He sits in various boards and he is a frequent speaker in worldwide conferences on digital technologies.

8th Secretary-General of the United Nations. He was Korea’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He was also First Secretary at the Republic of Korea’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York, Director of the United Nations Division at the Ministry’s headquarters in Seoul and Ambassador to Vienna. He has also been actively involved in issues relating to inter-Korean relations. He was awarded numerous national and international prizes, medals and honours. He received a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Seoul National University. He earned a master’s degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He received an honorary Doctoral Degree from Seoul National University.

Senior Director of AEye Strategic Solutions. Entrepreneur, venture capitalist and philanthropist who has realized great success in real estate, parking, biotech and other areas thanks to the strong values and principles acquired through his long military career. The tenets and cornerstones of his business philosophy are creativity, flexibility, persistence and an infallible moral code. In his current role, he crafts innovative strategies to navigate complex security landscapes, empowering clients to achieve their strategic objectives. He serves on the board of directors of several companies and is actively involved in charity and political organizations.

Partner responsible for coordinating all PricewaterhouseCoopers network activities in Morocco. For many years, he worked as a statutory auditor for major French companies. Before becoming a managing partner in Morocco, he developed and launched the PwC network’s human ressources and change management consulting services. He has co-authored several books and also serves as a court expert at the Paris Court of Appeal. He graduated from HEC (a French prestigious business school).

Former Conservative Member of Parliament and lawyer (QC). He is a member of the Privy Council. He is a member of the Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-proliferation. Lord Lothian was first appointed to the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament in 2006, on which he continues to serve. He was a member of the Shadow Cabinet (1997-2005), Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (2001-2005), International Affairs (2003-2005), Defence (2005), Deputy Leader of the Opposition (2001-2005). He was also Chairman of the Conservative Party (1998-2001), Minister of State, Northern Ireland Office (1994-1997). He graduated from Christ Church at the University of Oxford in History, and the University of Edinburgh, Scotland in Law. He is now a member of the House of Lords.