Category: Invited guests

Board Member, Director, The Institute of Energy Economics, Japan (IEEJ). As a Board Member for the Institute and the Director in Charge of the Energy Data and Modelling Center, she is responsible for quantitative and qualitative analyses on energy and climate change policy issues. Her modeling team prepares the annual IEEJ Energy Outlook, continues to develop a Practical Approach to Climate Change and performed analyses that contributed greatly to Japan’s debate on a national energy mix. She has been leading miscellaneous international and regional programs in the area of energy cooperation through IEA, APEC, ERIA and IPEEC. She is currently a Council member of the International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE).

Chairman of Linebreak, a specialised service provider working with enterprises to drive efficiency and growth with intelligent, real-time decisioning. With over 30 years’ experience in technology transformation and strategic development, Patrick’s career includes more than two decades at Capgemini, where he held various leadership positions and served as a Group Executive Board member for seven years. Since 2021, Patrick has focused on building innovative distributed technologies and services, with a conviction that transitioning from centralised to distributed models is essential to tackle the most pressing societal, environmental and economic challenges.

Former Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva. He served as Executive Director of the Kofi Annan Foundation (2008-2011) and as UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Cyprus (2006-2008). Between 2001 and 2006 he was Director for Political, Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Affairs in the Office of the Secretary-General, while serving concurrently as Deputy Chief of Staff for the last two years of that period. He served as Head of the Office of the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs at UN headquarters (1997-2001). He began his career in 1979 with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. He graduated from Johns Hopkins University, United States, and the University of Sussex, United Kingdom.

Ambassador of Paraguay to Switzerland and Liechtenstein since 2014. In 1991, she joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs occupying different positions, such as Vice Minister of Administration and Technical Issues. She also served as Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany, with concurrent accreditation to Poland, Latvia and Denmark (2004-2009). From 2001 to 2003, she was Executive Director of the National Fund of Culture and Arts (FONDEC) and then Technical Advisor of the Presidency of the Republic. She graduated from the Catholic University in Asunción and the Institute of Public Relations in Paraguay.

President of the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), the French space agency, since 2013. He is also Chair of the Council of the European Space Agency (ESA) and President of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF). He is a qualified engineer and scientist who has devoted his entire career to the European space program, holding positions within the French National Scientific Research Agency CNRS, several French ministries, at Novespace and a first stint with CNES before joining Starsem and Arianespace for 12 years, where he was CEO then Chairman & CEO. He is a member of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA). He has received several awards from France, the Russian Federation, the Government of Japan and Israel.

Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Former Director for the United Nations, Federal Foreign Office, Berlin (2010-2013). He worked at the NATO Defense College, Rome (2009-2010). He was also  Head of External Relations and Protocol, Senate, Berlin (2005-2009), Head of the Task Force for Global Issues, Federal Foreign Office, Berlin (2002-2005) and Head of the Office of Minister of State Helmut Schäfer, Bonn (1994-1997). He studied Law in Freiburg and holds a PhD in public international law.

Chief Rabbi of France since June 22nd, 2014. On December 15th, 2014 he was elected as a member of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques. He worked closely with the Chief Rabbis of France, Joseph Sitruk and Gilles Bernheim. He was a member of the National Consultative Ethics Committee (2005-2009), General Jewish Chaplain of the Army and the Polytechnic School and Director of the General Chaplain of the Air Force. He also served as General Secretary of the Association of French Rabbis (1999-2010). He graduated from the Jewish Seminary of France (SIF), and obtained an MBA from the Reims Management School, a DEA from the École pratique des hautes études (Sorbonne) and a Ph.D. in Contemporary History of the University of Poitiers, as well as a Ph.D. in Management Science from the University Paris-Saclay. He is the author of several books. The last one being, Réinventer les aurores, un plaidoyer pour la République, published in February 2020 by Fayard.
Credit of the photo: David Morganti

Director of Research for the Gulf Research Center. He also leads the Tafahum Project on a Security Roadmap for West Asia and the Arabian Peninsula sponsored by the German Federal Foreign Office and is a member of the Bertelsmann Foundation Strategy Group on “The EU and Russia, Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia: Strategies for the EU Neighbourhood”. From 2018 to 2020, he was a Senior Advisor and Director of Research at the Bussola Institute in Brussels, Belgium. Prior, he served as Director of the Gulf Research Center Foundation, Research Program Leader on Gulf-Europe Relations at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai and as Head of Strategic Studies at the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research in Abu Dhabi. He is the Editor of eight books; author of Politische Entwicklung in einem arabischen Golfstaat: Die Rolle von Interessengruppen im Emirat Kuwait, coauthor of Establishing a Regional Conference on Security and Cooperation in the Gulf Region, as well as numerous chapter contributions and journal articles. Dr. Koch received his Ph.D. from the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg.

Partner, Global Head of Sovereign Advisory, Rothschild & Cie. She started her career at Lehman Brothers in 1999, Debt Capital Markets (“DCM”). She headed Lehman’s DCM practice for Northern Europe, then she co-headed Lehman’s Global Finance practice for France. She was a Senior Banker (M&A, DCM, ECM) for French corporates based in Paris. She joined Rothschild in 2009. Partner since 2014, she heads Rothschild’s Sovereign advisory group and Rating advisory practice. She graduated from HEC and Sankt Gallen, and also holds a Master’s degree in Mathematics.

Ambassador-at-Large and Policy Advisor in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Singapore.  From 2001 to May 2013, he served as second Permanent Secretary and then as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He had previously served in a variety of appointments including as Director for Southeast Asia, Director for East Asia and the Pacific and as Deputy Secretary for Southeast Asia.  He was also Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York and Ambassador to the Russian Federation. He graduated from the Raffles Institution, the University of Singapore and Columbia University in New York.

Dean of the School of International Studies of Peking University. He received his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1988. He has taught in University of Vermont, Cornell University, University of California at San Diego, University of Sydney in Australia as well as Peking University. He was a research fellow at the Brookings Institution, a visiting professor at the University of Vienna and a CNAPS fellow at the Brookings Institution. He is a member of the Standing Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. He is also Director of the Institute for China-US People-to-People Exchange of the Ministry of Education, Vice President of the Chinese American Studies Association, Vice President of China International Relations Studies Association, and Vice President of Chinese Japanese Studies Association.

Professor Emeritus at The University of Tokyo. He was Professor of Economics at the Graduate School of Economics of the University of Tokyo, April 1996 through March 2016, and was the Dean of the Graduate School of Economics of the University of Tokyo, October 2007 through September 2009. He has been in various position advising the Prime Minister as well as Japanese government organizations. From 2013 to January 2019, he was serving as a member of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy. He received a BA of Economics from the University of Tokyo in 1974 and a Ph.D. of Economics from the University of Rochester in 1979. During the early period of his academic career he published various papers in international leading journals such as the Journal of Political Economy, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Review of Economic Studies, and the Journal of Economic Theory. Later he got more involved in policy issues in Japan and published more than 40 books on various aspects of policy issues. He regularly writes for several newspapers and magazines.

Special Advisor and a member of the Board of Directors of the Canon Institute for Global Studies, a research think tank in Tokyo. Mr. Horii is also a member of several non-profit entities, e.g., Japan Association of Corporate Executives; the Trilateral Commission. Akinari Horii was a Central Banker until he stepped down as Assistant Governor of the Bank of Japan in 2010. He received his MBA with distinction, and as a Beta Gamma Sigma, from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and his BA in Economics from the University of Tokyo.

Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister since May 2017. Immediately prior to taking up this role, he was Director for Strategy, Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1998 after a brief period as an academic at Oxford University. Before that, he had been working in the Home Office where he was responsible for counter-terrorism and security powers and policy.  Prior to that he worked at the independent Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq conflict and for three years in the cabinet of the European Trade Commissioner, where he was responsible for trade negotiations with South Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific regions and EU economic issues.  He has also worked on a range of security and multilateral issues in the FCO and overseas.

Professor Aviation Management, Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Former Vice President, Strategy & Partnerships in China, Air France. Before joining Air France, he worked at Bossard Consultants. He has been working at Air France since 1979, where he has held various positions, including in the Operational Research – IT Division. He was in charge of the Planning and Development Division and of recovery and restructuring projects for the Group. He also served as Vice President of Routes for Air France Caribbean & Indian Ocean, Asia & Pacific, and Americas. He graduated from the Ecole Centrale.

Former Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honor and Chancellor of the National Order of Merit. He was admitted to the second section of warrant officiers (officiers généraux) on February 28, 2010. He became Chief of the Military Staff of the President of the Republic in 2002. He was promoted to Army General on October 3, 2003, and then appointed Chief of the Defence Staff of the French Army on October 4, 2006. Promoted to Brigadier General in 1997, he was appointed Assistant General to the 11th Airborne Division and joined the SFOR (Stabilization Force) as Head of the “Plans and Policy” Office in the former Yugoslavia. He was admitted to the Ecole Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr in September 1967. He then chose to serve in the infantry and joined the Ecole d’application de l’infanterie (Infantry School) in Montpellier.

Canada’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the World Trade Organization (WTO), he plays a key role in multilateral trade negotiations, having served as Chair of the WTO’s General Council, and formerly as Chair of the Dispute Settlement Body. Formerly, he served as Canada’s Ambassador to Japan, Executive Director for Canada, Ireland and the Caribbean at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister; Senior Assistant Deputy Minister for the Department of Finance and Canada’s G7 and G20 Finance Deputy. He is a member of the Steering Committee the e15 initiative on strengthening the Global Trading System.

Ambassador of the Slovak Republic to the Swiss Confederation and the Principality of Liechtenstein since 2014. Previously, she was Director General of the Section of European Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of Slovakia (2012-2014). From 2005 to 2011, she served as Head of the Representation of the European Commission in Slovakia. She also served as Counsellor and Deputy Permanent Representative of Slovakia to the OSCE, UN and other international organizations in Vienna. She graduated from Comenius University, Bratislava. She is pursuing PhD studies at Matej Bel University, Banská Bystrica.

Group Head of Public Affairs, Axa Group. Previously, she served as Deputy Director General of the French Treasury, where she was also Chief Economist and Head of International Relations. Prior to her latest functions at the Treasury, she worked as Adviser to the President of the Republic for economic policy and public finance and as Head of the Economic Forecasts Division at INSEE. She graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique and the Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l’Administration Economique (ENSAE).

Honorary lecturer at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, expert-consultant to international organisations and member of the strategic council of IFRI. Through her research, relationships in the field and various positions held in the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), she has become a specialist in democratisation, crisis and conflict resolution, transition and peace-building processes, especially in Africa. In the OIF, her positions have included chief of staff, delegate for peace, democracy and human rights and special advisor for political and diplomatic affairs to the Secretary-General from 1988 to 2010. She holds a Ph.D. in political science and is a member of the Académie des Sciences d’Outre Mer, and a member of Ifri’s Strategic Advisory Board, founder member of the journal “Nouvelle Afrique Contemporaine”, and an Officer of the Legion of Honour.

President and Co-founder of McLarty Associates. Prior to co-founding McLarty Associates in 1998, he served in the White House as Special Advisor to President Clinton on Western Hemisphere affairs and as General Counsel at the White House Office of Administration. He previously served as General Counsel of the Senate Judiciary Committee, under then-Chairman Joseph R. Biden. Before moving to Washington, he served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York (1988-1994). He is a member of the Secretary of State’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board, the Department of State’s Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy. He graduated from Yale College and Stanford Law School.

Emeritus director of reseach at the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris and member of the Academia Europaea and the European Academy of Sociology. Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Ricardo Palma in Lima, Peru. Ex-Editor of the French Journal of Sociology and member of a dozen editorial committees of international scientific journals, he leads the GEMAS Studies in Social Theory, Bardwell Press, Oxford. He wrote numerous papers and books, including Essai sur l’islamisation (2018). He taught in many higher education institutions such as Sciences Po and many universities: Paris IV, Paris V, Lausanne, Geneva, Casablanca, Rabat, London, Nuffield College Oxford.

Former Finance Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand (2008-2011). He is currently Chairman of Thailand Democrat Party Policy Unit. Previously, he was President and Chairman of JP Morgan Securities (Thailand) (2000-2004). He spent much of his career in the finance sector since his early age at SG Warburg, London. He then co-founded JF Thanakom Securities with Jardine Fleming and was its President for 11 years. After the merger of Jardine Fleming and JP Morgan, he became President and subsequently Chairman of JP Morgan Securities (Thailand). He left to run for Bangkok Member of Parliament in October 2004. He graduated in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) from St. John’s College, University of Oxford.

Ambassador of Israel to Switzerland and Liechtenstein since 2012. Previously, he served as Deputy Director-General for Media and Public Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2009-2012), Ambassador of Israel to the Republic of Korea (2005-2009) and Director, North East Asia Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2001-2005). He was also Minister (DCM), Embassy of Israel, Tokyo (1996-2001), Director, Information Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1993-1996) and Counsellor (DCM), Embassy of Israel, Stockholm (1989-1993). He joined the Foreign Ministry Training Program in 1977. He graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Former Federal Councillor, Head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), Switzerland, since 2012. Former President of the Swiss Confederation (2014). He was elected Federal Councillor in 2009. He served as Head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA). He was Member of the Council of States (2007-2009) and Member of the National Council (2003-2007). He was also President of the Communal council of Neuchâtel on three occasions (1994, 1998, 2001). From 1991 to 1995, he served as a member of the Communal Council of Neuchâtel. He was a member of Neuchâtel Cantonal Parliament (1990-2001). He graduated from the Faculty of Economics, University of Neuchâtel.

Chairman & CEO of Burelle and Honorary Chairman of Plastic Omnium. Honorary President, MEDEF International (2005-2016). Manufacturing engineer at L’Oréal (1966-1967). He was Department Head, General Manager, Chairman & CEO of Plastic Omnium (1967-2001). He was among others Director and President of the Compensation Committee of Essilor International (1997-2009), Board Member of the German-French Chamber of Commerce and Industry (1997-2003), Director of the French-American Chamber of Commerce (1999-2005) and Director of Lyon School of Management (EM Lyon) (2004-2010). He was also member of the Executive Committee of Medef (2002-2005). He is a member of the Supervisory Board of Banque Hottinguer since 2005. He graduated from the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. He holds a MBA from Harvard University.

Founder and President of Compagnie Financière Jacques Cœur – CFJC. He started his professional career in 1987 within investment banks. In 1998, he opened the French subsidiary of a Swiss bank and developed the business with professional investors. In 2003, he founded Compagnie Financière Jacques Coeur – a leading European financial multi-specialist broker dedicated to institutional investors. He graduated from IEP of Bordeaux and holds Post-graduate degrees in Public Law and in International Relations from the University of Paris II.

CEO of Roland Berger. He joined the firm in 2001 as Senior Partner in the Paris office, where he headed the Financial Services and Energy & Utility Competence Centers as well as the firm’s Private Equity activities. He became President & Managing Partner of Roland Berger for Greater China in 2006. Since 2009, he is heading the Asian Leadership Team. Prior to joining Roland Berger, he was Vice President of another leading global strategy consultancy (1997-2001). He started his career as an investment banker at Société Générale (M&A and corporate finance) in Paris and London. One of his latest books, Light Footprint Management – Leadership in Times of Change, provides an innovative set of principles by which leaders can succeed in an increasingly challenging environment.