World Economic Forum 2024

As business and political leaders gather for the 2024 World Economic Forum in Davos, CNBC has curated an insightful agenda of fireside chats and panels to address this year’s theme of ‘Rebuilding Trust’.

Global challenges need global solutions, and sessions held at the Filecoin Sanctuary will convene some of the world’s most powerful and influential voices to give practical solutions on topics like geopolitical uncertainty, supply chains, leadership, innovation and sustainability.

Speakers

H.M. Queen Máxima of the Netherlands

Her Majesty Queen Máxima of the Netherlands has served as the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA) since 2009. As Special Advocate, she is a leading global voice on advancing universal access to and responsible usage of affordable, effective and safe financial services. The UNSGSA raises awareness, serves as a convener, encourages leaders and supports actions to expand financial inclusion at a global and country level, all in close collaboration with partners from the public and private sector. An important focus of her work is on enabling responsible technology for financial
inclusion in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). According to the latest Global Findex (2021), 76% of adults now have an account, up over 50% since 2011—and therefore have a better chance
to transform their lives and build resilience.
Queen Máxima is Honorary Patron of the G20’s Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) and a Global Agenda Trustee for the World Economic Forum’s Global Challenge Initiative on the Future of the Global Financial System. She also convened the CEO Partnership for Economic Inclusion. In the Netherlands, she is a member of the Dutch Committee for Entrepreneurship and Honorary Chair of the Dutch Money Wise Platform. In all her roles, Her Majesty aims to unlock development opportunities and economic inclusion for all.

Jimmy Wales

Ranked by Forbes Magazine as a “Web Celeb”, Jimmy Donal Wales is a U.S. Internet entrepreneur, wiki pioneer, and technology visionary, who is best known as the Founder of Wikipedia, an international collaborative free content encyclopedia on the Internet, and the Wikimedia Foundation. He is also the founder of WikiTribune, a groundbreaking ad-free news platform that produces evidence-based journalism, and co-founder of Wikia, a privately owned free web hosting service he set up in 2004.

In 2003, Mr. Wales founded the Wikimedia Foundation, a nonprofit charitable organization dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free, multilingual content, and to providing the full content of these wiki-based projects to the public free of charge. The Wikimedia Foundation operates some of the largest collaboratively edited reference projects in the world, including Wikipedia, the 5th most popular website in the world.

In 2017, Wales founded WikiTribune, an ad-free global news platform that aims to address the idea that “the news is broken and we can fix it.” By pairing standards-based journalism with a team of dedicated community contributors and a crowdfunded business model.

Mr. Wales is a Fellow of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School. He serves on the Board of Directors of Socialtext, a provider of wiki technology to businesses and the non-profit organization Creative Commons. Mr. Wales has received an honorary doctorate from numerous academic institutions, including Knox College of Illinois where he was presented with a Pioneer Award from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Maastricht University, where he received the Common Wealth Award of Distinguished Service.

Mr. Wales received his bachelor's degree in finance from Auburn University and started with the Ph.D. finance program at the University of Alabama, where he left with a Master's. After that, he took courses offered in the Ph.D. finance program at Indiana University. He taught at both universities during his postgraduate studies, but did not write the doctoral dissertation required to earn a Ph.D.

Eric Usher

Eric Usher Heads the UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative, UNEP FI, a global partnership bringing together the UN with a global group of banks, insurers and asset managers working to develop the sustainable finance and responsible investment agendas. Eric oversees governance, strategy and day-to-day management of UNEP FI’s work programme and global network development. Over the years UNEP FI has established some of the most important sustainability oriented frameworks within the finance industry, including the Principles for Responsible Investment (2006), the Principles for Sustainable Insurance (2012) and the Principles for Responsible Banking (2019). Since joining in 2015, Mr. Usher has focused on accelerating the deep integration of sustainability risks into financial practice, including addressing climate change, natural capital loss and human rights abuses, as well as building out the frameworks for positive impact finance needed to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Eric sits on several industry bodies including as UN representative on the Board of the Principles for Responsible Investment, and as a member of the governing boards of the Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative, the Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance, the Investor Agenda and the impact fund REPP Africa.

Prior to leading UNEP FI, Mr. Usher has over twenty years of experience in the low carbon sectors, spanning technology commercialisation in Canada, solar rural electrification in Morocco and financial sector development across emerging markets. During 2011, Mr. Usher worked on the establishment of the Green Climate Fund and led efforts to create its Private Sector Facility. Eric has been an editor of the Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment report published annually with Bloomberg and was lead author for finance of the IPCC Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources. Earlier in his career, Eric was General Manager of a solar rural electrification company based in Morocco.

Lila Ibrahim

Lila Ibrahim is Chief Operating Officer of Google DeepMind, overseeing how the organisation operates, builds responsibly, and engages with the external world. Lila has helped establish, scale and shape the values of multiple global technology organisations over the past three decades, through engineering and business leadership roles at Intel, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Coursera. Deeply passionate about access to education, Lila is also co-founder of Team4Tech, a non-profit bringing technology curricula and infrastructure to students in underserved communities. A respected voice of the industry, she sits on the UK’s AI Council, which advises the British government on artificial intelligence, and is a member of the non-partisan Council on Foreign Relations. She also serves on the Bloomberg New Economy Forum Advisory Committee and has been recognized as an Aspen Institute Crown Fellow (2011) as well as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader (2007). In 2021, she was named a Distinguished Engineering Alumnae by Purdue University, where she earned her electrical engineering degree in 1993.

John Kerry

Mr. Kerry is the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate. Appointed by U.S. President Joe Biden in 2021, he is the first person to hold the position. He previously served as the 68th U.S. Secretary of State from 2013 to 2017 under President Barack Obama. Mr. Kerry was the Democratic nominee for President in 2004 and served as a Senator from Massachusetts from 1985 until 2013. He is a highly decorated statesman having been bestowed with the Legion of Honour in France and the Grand Cross from the Federal Republic of Germany.

Gary Steele

Gary Steele is Splunk’s President and Chief Executive Officer and a member of our board of directors. A highly regarded technology executive with over 30 years of experience, he has a proven track record of successfully scaling SaaS operations and growing multi-billion dollar global enterprises. Prior to joining Splunk, Gary was the founding CEO of Proofpoint, where he led the company’s growth from an early-stage start-up to a leading, publicly traded security-as-a-service provider. He previously served as CEO of Portera and held various leadership roles at Sybase, Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard. Gary has also served as a member of the board of directors of Upwork, a talent freelancing platform, since 2018. He holds a B.S. from Washington State University.

Dr. Tan See Leng

Dr Tan See Leng was appointed as the Minister for Manpower and Second Minister for Trade and Industry on 15 May 2021. Prior to this, Dr Tan was the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Second Minister for Trade and Industry and Second Minister for Manpower from 27 July 2020.

A veteran medical practitioner, Dr Tan was Group Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director at IHH Healthcare Berhad, one of the largest listed integrated healthcare providers globally, from 2014 to 2019. He was also concurrent CEO and MD of Parkway Pantai from 2011 onwards till 2019 when Parkway Holdings was merged with Pantai Holdings. During Dr Tan’s tenure, the group doubled its revenue and expanded its presence to 11 countries with 84 hospitals employing over 50,000 employees.

An entrepreneur, Dr Tan founded Healthway Medical Group in Singapore in the early 1990s and was its Chief Executive Officer from 1992 to 2003. He expanded the GP clinic chain to more than 40 locations with a turnover of S$20 million per annum, making it the second largest private primary healthcare provider in Singapore.

Dr Tan has served on the boards of several medical committees including the Singapore Ministry of Health’s Medishield Life Review Committee. He also sat on the Advisory board of the Lee Kong Chian School of Business at the Singapore Management University and has guest lectured at international symposiums including the Harvard Business School’s seminar on healthcare entrepreneurship.

Under his leadership, IHH Healthcare Berhad has won numerous awards, including Best Managed and Best Overall Corporate Governance Poll awards by Asiamoney. He has also earned awards from his own medical community in Singapore, including the Albert and Mary Lim award from the College of Family Physicians and the Merit Award from the Singapore Medical Association.

Helle Thorning-Schmidt

Helle Thorning-Schmidt has an extensive background spanning politics, international relations and business. In 2017 she was named as one of the world’s greatest leaders by Fortune magazine.

As Prime Minister of Denmark from 2011-2015, Helle steered Denmark through a difficult financial crisis while reducing child poverty and increasing spending on education. She also served as leader of the country’s Social Democrat party for a decade, and was the first woman to hold both positions.

Following her term as PM, Helle was the Chief Executive of Save the Children, overseeing the work of 17,000 staff in 120 countries to reach around 50 million children every year in some of the most difficult and challenging contexts. She was deeply engaged in highlighting the humanitarian crises in Yemen and Syria, and the Rohingya refugee crisis.

Ms Thorning-Schmidt remains deeply engaged in these geopolitical issues as a member of several foreign policy think tanks, including the US Council on Foreign Relations, the European Council for Foreign Relations, and the Atlantic Council International Advisory Board. Helle is also a member of the Berggruen 21st Century Council.

In 2017, Helle was a co-chair of the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, and is on the board of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. Today Helle uses her deep political and international expertise to advise a range of businesses and not-for-profit groups.

Helle is non – Executive Director for a number of Boards - Vestas, one of the world’s leaders in sustainable energy; DJE Holdings, a global communications firm that partners with businesses and organisations to evolve, promote and protect their brands and reputations; Safelane, a global leader in clearing landmines and the explosive remnants of war; Carsøe, a leading manufacturer of retail, customised, and OEM solutions for key suppliers of food processing equipment across the world; and VISTA Equity Partners, an American investment firm focused on financing and forwarding software, data and technology-enabled startup businesses. In 2020 Helle was appointed Co-Chair of The Oversight Board created to help Facebook answer some of the most difficult questions around freedom of expression online; as well as Chairman for the Danish Football Union’s Governance Committee.

Also in 2020, Thorning-Schmidt was appointed by the World Health Organization's Regional Office for Europe to serve as a member of the Pan-European Commission on Health and Sustainable Development.

Helle devotes much of her time to defending and renewing progress, social justice, and democracy. As a strong champion of women and girls’ rights throughout her time in government and at Save the Children, she continues to remain passionate about women’s empowerment.

Helle was previously a member of the European Parliament. She has a Master’s Degree in Political Science from the University of Copenhagen and a Master’s Degree in European Studies from the College of Europe in Bruges.

Brad Garlinghouse

Brad is the CEO of Ripple. Prior to Ripple, Brad served as the CEO of file collaboration service Hightail. He was President of Consumer Applications at AOL from 2009 to 2012, and held various positions at Yahoo! from 2003 to 2009, including Senior Vice President. Brad formerly served as CEO of Dialpad Communications, held management positions at SBC Communications and @Home Network, and was an advisor to Silverlake Partners. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Animoto and OutMatch and has held board positions at Ancestry.com and Tonic Health.

Cenk Alper

Cenk Alper received his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Middle East Technical University in 1991. He has a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the same university as well as an MBA from Sabancı University.

Mr. Alper joined the Sabancı Group in 1996 at Beksa, later taking on managing positions in Belgium and the US at Bekaert between 2002 and 2007. In 2007, Mr. Alper returned to Türkiye as the Global Technology Director at Kordsa and completed the establishment of its R&D center and Innovation division. After serving as COO, he led Kordsa’s transformation and secondary public offering as CEO between 2013 and 2017. In 2017, he took on a new role as Sabancı Holding Industry Group President. As of August 2019, Cenk Alper is the CEO and Board Member of Sabancı Holding. In recent years, he has been focusing on sustainable growth, entrepreneurship and technology management.

He is a member of the Turkish Industry and Business Association (TÜSİAD), the World Economic Forum (WEF), the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the CNBC ESG Council, WORLD. MINDS and General Assembly of 30% Club Türkiye Campaign.

Alexander Schallenberg

On 6 December 2021, Alexander Schallenberg was appointed Federal Minister for European and International Affairs of the Republic of Austria.

Alexander Schallenberg was born on 20 June 1969 in Bern as the son of an Austrian diplomat. From 1989 - 1994 he studied law at the University of Vienna and at the Université Paris II Panthéon-Assas. He also holds a degree in European law from the College of Europe in Bruges.

Alexander Schallenberg joined the diplomatic service of the Republic of Austria in 1997. He completed his training at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in various departments, primarily in the Section for EU Affairs. Alexander Schallenberg was first posted abroad as an EU legal expert to the Permanent Representation of Austria to the European Union in Brussels.

In December 2005, Alexander Schallenberg returned to Vienna, where he served as spokesperson to Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik as well as to her successor Michael Spindelegger. He held further functions in the diplomatic service of the Republic of Austria including head of the Strategic Foreign Policy Planning Unit and head of the EU Affairs Section. Since March 2018, he served as head of the EU Coordination Section at the Federal Chancellery.

In June 2019, Alexander Schallenberg was appointed Foreign Minister in the Austrian Federal Government of Brigitte Bierlein. At the same time, he was entrusted with the management of the agendas for the EU, arts, culture and media. From January 2020, Alexander Schallenberg was Federal Minister for European and International Affairs in the Second Government of Sebastian Kurz until he assumed the office of Federal Chancellor of the Republic of Austria on 11 October 2021.

Bill Anderson

William N. (Bill) Anderson has been a member of the Board of Management of Bayer AG since April 1, 2023. He became Chairman of the Board of Management (CEO) of Bayer AG on June 1, 2023.

Bill Anderson was born on August 23, 1966 in Ohio, Texas, USA. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Texas and a Master of Science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), both in Chemical Engineering. He also holds a Master of Science in Management from MIT’s Sloan School.

Bill started his professional career in 1989 at Ethyl Corporation, a U.S.-based specialty chemical company, with postings in Belgium and the Netherlands. In 1995, he joined Raychem Corporation, a U.S.-based material science and electronics firm. In 1997, Bill moved to Biogen, an American biotechnology firm, as a finance manager. He then became GM of the UK affiliate and eventually Vice President of Biogen’s Neurology Unit. Bill joined Genentech, a pioneering biotechnology company, in 2006, eventually serving as Senior Vice President of the firm’s oncology business.

In 2013, he joined Roche Pharmaceuticals, the parent company of Genentech, as Head of Global Product Strategy and Chief Marketing Officer. In 2016, he moved back to Genentech to assume the position of Head of North American Operations before becoming CEO of the company in 2017. In 2019, Bill became CEO of Roche Pharmaceuticals based in Switzerland.

Bill Anderson is married and has three adult children.

Mark Malloch Brown

Mark Malloch-Brown is president of the Open Society Foundations, the world’s largest private funder of independent groups working for justice, democratic governance, and human rights. In his career of service, Malloch-Brown has worked to advance human rights, justice, and development in a variety of roles: serving as deputy secretary general of the United Nations under Kofi Annan; heading the United Nations Development Programme; directing external affairs at the World Bank; and working as a British government minister.

Malloch-Brown co-founded Crisis Group, which works to prevent and resolve deadly conflict. More recently he chaired Best for Britain, an organization advocating internationalism as a practical approach to global problems. He has worked with a range of private companies and has led the boards of the Royal Africa Society, the UN Foundation, and the Business Commission for Sustainable Development.

Nicola Mendelsohn

Nicola Mendelsohn is the Head of Global Business Group at Meta, where she leads the company’s relationships with top marketers and agencies, as well as global partnerships and engineering.

Nicola previously served as Vice President for Europe, Middle East and Africa for Meta, a role she held from 2013 to 2023. During that time, Nicola spearheaded the growth of EMEA into a multibillion dollar business and led Meta’s expansion into countries like Israel, Norway, Austria and Denmark.

She is currently a non-executive director of Diageo, sits on the Mayor of London’s Business Advisory Board, and is co-president of the charity Norwood. In 2019, Nicola founded and launched the Follicular Lymphoma Foundation, a charity focused solely on raising funds to help the thousands of people living with Follicular Lymphoma to live well and get well.

Prior to joining Meta, Nicola worked in advertising for over 20 years at BBH, Grey and Karmarama. Her previous roles include: first female president of the IPA (the advertising industry trade body), trustee of The White Ribbon Alliance, chairman of Women’s Aid Development Board, and president of the Women in Advertising and Communications London club. She was also a director of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, member of the UK government’s Digital Economy Council and co-chair of the UK Government's Creative Industries Council. Previously, she served as a director of Cosmetic Executive Women and The Fragrance Foundation in the UK.

In 2015, she was awarded a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for services to the creative industries in the UK. Her greatest joy in life comes from her husband Jon and her four children Gabi, Danny, Sam and Zac.

La June Montgomery Tabron

La June Montgomery Tabron is the president and CEO of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) in Battle Creek, Michigan, one of the largest private foundations in the United States. As president and CEO, Tabron leads the Kellogg Foundation in its work to support thriving children, working families and equitable communities.

Prior to becoming the first African American president and CEO to lead the foundation in its history, she served in a variety of positions at the Kellogg Foundation after joining the organization as the controller in 1987. Most recently, she was the executive vice president of operations and treasurer, which included oversight of all financial plans, policies and relationships within the financial community and WKKF’s Technology, Human Resources and Administration, Finance, Program Services and Quality & Organizational Effectiveness functions. In this role, she was pivotal in connecting and integrating WKKF’s leadership committees: the Executive Council, Program Leadership Council, Talent Board and Organizational Advisory Team, ensuring unified execution of the organization’s mission and strategic framework across all programmatic and priority place areas. She also provided leadership for WKKF’s place-based grantmaking in Mississippi and New Orleans since 2011, launching a significant effort to help set young males of color on the path to success in 2013.

Tabron has played an active leadership role in the Kellogg Foundation’s racial equity, diversity and inclusion work for more than two decades – both internally through work with its board and staff, and externally through its work with grantees, partners and vendors.

Other earlier positions at WKKF included: chief operating officer and treasurer; senior vice president/chief financial officer and treasurer; vice president – finance and treasurer; and assistant vice president for finance and assistant treasurer. Prior to joining WKKF, she was an auditor for Plante & Moran CPAs.

Throughout her more than 30 years in philanthropy, Tabron has participated in numerous sector efforts to enhance philanthropy, including: the policy and annual conference committees for the Council on Foundations and the board development and transparency committees for Independent Sector.

As a community and civic leader, Tabron is a member of the Kalamazoo Chapter of the Links, Incorporated. She also serves on the boards of Battle Creek Community Health Partners, Bronson Healthcare Group, Kellogg Company, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), and the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA). Tabron is also the chair of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Trust.

Tabron holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor and a master’s degree in business administration from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. She received honorary doctorates from Elms College, Grand Valley State University, Ithaca College, Marygrove College and Union Institute & University. She is a certified public accountant. She is also a graduate of the inaugural class of the Council on Foundations’ Career Pathways Program. In 2020, Tabron was named the recipient of the Bynum Tudor Fellowship at Kellogg College in Oxford, England. The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies awarded Tabron the Louis E. Martin Great American Award, the organization’s highest honor, in 2022.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), founded in 1930 as an independent, private foundation by breakfast cereal innovator and entrepreneur Will Keith Kellogg, is among the largest philanthropic foundations in the United States. Guided by the belief that all children should have an equal opportunity to thrive, WKKF works with communities to create conditions for vulnerable children so they can realize their full potential in school, work and life.

The Kellogg Foundation is based in Battle Creek, Michigan, and works throughout the United States and internationally, as well as with sovereign tribes. Special attention is paid to priority places where there are high concentrations of poverty and where children face significant barriers to success. WKKF priority places in the U.S. are in Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and New Orleans; and internationally, are in Mexico and Haiti. For more information, visit www.wkkf.org.

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is a National Leader of Belarus and a Head of the United Transition Cabinet of whom independent observers agree won the presidential election on August 9, 2020, against the long-lasting dictator Aliaksandr Lukashenka.

After the start of Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 24th, 2022, Tsikhanouskaya reformatted the leadership of the movement by creating and chairing the United Transition Cabinet, the decision-making center of the movement. Led by Tsikhanouskaya, Belarusian anti-war activists conducted underground resistance in Belarus by sabotaging railway transportation of Russian troops as well as volunteering Belarusian-staffed units fighting for Ukraine. As the leader of the Belarusian democratic movement, she has visited 28 countries, gathering support and advocating for the release of more than 1500 of political prisoners and a peaceful transition of power through free and fair elections. In meetings with President Biden, Chancellor Merkel, President Macron, President von der Leyen, President Charles Michel, Prime Minister Trudeau and other world leaders, Tsikhanouskaya emphasized the need for a braver response to the actions of the Belarusian dictatorship.

Tsikhanouskaya’s story began when she entered the race after her husband Siarhei Tsikhanousky was arrested for voicing his presidential aspirations. Lukashenka publicly dismissed her as a “housewife,” saying that a woman cannot become president. Nonetheless, Tsikhanouskaya united and successfully led the democratic coalition. Following her forced exile, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya inspired unprecedented peaceful protests in Belarus, with some rallies numbering hundreds of thousands people. When the war has started, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya announced the anti-war movement to prevent the participation of Belarus in the war against Ukraine. Mass campaign of disobedience and dozens acts of sabotage took place aimed to stop Russian troops from entering Ukraine from Belarus territory.

In 2020–2023, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya became a symbol of the peaceful struggle for democracy and strong female leadership. Among dozens of distinctions, she is a recipient of the Sakharov Prize awarded by the European Parliament, 2022 International Four Freedoms Award, and Charlemagne Prize. In 2021 and 2022, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda and Members of the Norwegian Parliament respectively. Tsikhanouskaya has been recognized in Bloomberg’s Top 50 Most Influential People, Financial Times’ Top 12 Most Influential Women, and Politico’s Top 28 Most Influential Europeans.

Sanda Ojiambo

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed Sanda Ojiambo of Kenya as Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations Global Compact.

For the past two years, Ms. Ojiambo served as the Executive Director of the UN Global Compact, leading the development and roll out of an ambitious new strategy to accelerate and scale the global collective impact of business to uphold the Ten Principles of the Global Compact, and deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Ms. Ojiambo brings over 20 years of experience to this position spanning the development, UN and private sectors. She joined the UN from Safaricom Plc in Kenya where she served as the Head of Sustainable Business and Social Impact, leading the implementation of several public-private partnership initiatives between Safaricom and UN organizations at both local and global levels. Prior to this, Ms Ojiambo worked with IPPF Africa, UNDP Somalia and CARE Somalia leading public policy and capacity development work across multiple sectors. Throughout her career, she has cultivated and managed partnerships with key business entities, civil society organizations and philanthropies. Ms. Ojiambo holds a Master of Arts in Public Policy from the University of Minnesota, USA, and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and International Development from McGill University, Canada.

In her role as Assistant Secretary-General, Ms. Ojiambo will be responsible for leading the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative, building the strategic partnerships needed to drive impact and advocacy at local and global levels. She will advise the Secretary-General and the Deputy Secretary-General on the contributions of the private sector to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, on the engagement of the United Nations with business and on key organizational partnerships with the private sector. She will also manage and coordinate the engagement of the UN Global Compact in United Nations inter-agency affairs, engaging with relevant multilateral and international organizations, alongside developing new, innovative partnerships with the private sector.

Launched in July 2000, the United Nations Global Compact is the Secretary-General’s strategic policy and advocacy initiative calling for the alignment of business operations and strategies with ten universal principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption, and motivates companies to integrate the SDGs into their core business strategy and operations.

With over 16,000 corporate participants and other stakeholders from over 160 countries engaged through 69 country networks, it is the world’s largest voluntary corporate sustainability initiative in the world. Endorsed by chief executives, the Global Compact is a practical framework for the development, implementation, and disclosure of sustainability policies and practices, committing businesses to sustainability and shared responsibility for achieving a better world.

Simon Cooper

Simon joined the Group as CEO, Corporate & Institutional Banking in April 2016. He assumed the additional responsibility for Commercial Banking in March 2018 and was appointed as the Chief Executive of Europe and Americas in 2020. Based in Singapore, he is a member of the Group Management Team and Chair of the Group Diversity & Inclusion Council

Simon has extensive experience across our markets and client segments. He was previously group managing director and chief executive of Global Commercial Banking at HSBC, having joined HSBC in 1989 and held a number of senior roles including deputy chairman and chief executive officer, Middle East and North Africa; chief executive officer, Korea; and head of Corporate and Investment Banking, Singapore. He has significant experience in the areas of corporate finance, corporate banking and transaction banking.

Simon is a member of the advisory board of the Lee Kong Chian School of Business. He is a trustee of the Standard Chartered Foundation.

Robert F. Smith

Robert F. Smith is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners. He directs Vista’s investment strategy and decisions, firm governance and investor relations. Vista currently manages equity capital commitments of over $100Bn and oversees a portfolio of over 80 software companies that employ over 100,000 people worldwide. Since Vista’s founding in 2000, Smith has overseen over 590 completed transactions by the firm representing more than $290 billion in aggregate transaction value.

In 2020, Smith was named as one of the TIME 100 Most Influential People in the World. In 2017, Smith was named by Forbes as one of the 100 Greatest Living Business Minds. Robert has also been named Cornell Entrepreneur of the Year.

Born in Colorado to two parents with EdDs, Smith trained as an engineer at Cornell University, earning his B.S. in Chemical Engineering. Following his MBA from Columbia Business School with honors, Smith worked at Kraft General Foods, where he earned two United States and two European patents. In 1994, he joined Goldman Sachs in tech investment banking, first in New York and then in Silicon Valley.

Smith is the founding director and President of the Fund II Foundation, which is dedicated to preserving the African American experience, safeguarding human rights, providing music education, preserving the environment while promoting the benefits of the outdoors, and sustaining critical American values. In January 2016, Cornell University honored Mr. Smith’s leadership by naming the Robert Frederick Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

In 2017, Smith signed on to the Giving Pledge. His gift of $20 million was the largest by an individual donor at the time to the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Smith is the Chairman of Carnegie Hall. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Business Roundtable, the Board of Overseers of Columbia Business School, as a Member of the Cornell Engineering College Council, and is a Trustee of the Boys and Girls Clubs of San Francisco.

Smith has been a leading voice advocating for companies to take diverse internship candidates in STEM fields. Under his leadership, in 2019, Fund II Foundation launched internXL, a platform to match leading companies with diverse internship candidates.

In 2019, Smith received an honorary doctorate from Morehouse College and made headlines by announcing that he would cover the student loans of nearly 400 Morehouse College 2019 graduates in a commencement address. After his Morehouse pledge, Smith founded the Student Freedom Initiative to relieve the crushing burden of student debt for STEM students at all HBCUs.

He also co-leads the Southern Communities Initiative, a catalytic program for racial equity across six southern communities representing half of the Black population in the U.S.

His Excellency Ahmed Jasim Al Zaabi

His Excellency Ahmed Jasim Al Zaabi is member of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED), the catalyst for economic growth in the emirate. In this role, H.E. is spearheading strategies and initiatives to further enhance the soaring, diversified, smart, and sustainable “Falcon Economy”.

With a strong experience in the finance and investments sector, H.E. Al Zaabi has managed and executed multi-billion-dollar investment transactions and led numerous restructurings across a multitude of sectors.

H.E. is also the Chairman of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the international financial centre located in the UAE capital and cementing Abu Dhabi’s status as a leading financial hub and “Capital of Capital”. At ADGM, H.E. has been playing a pioneering role in positioning Abu Dhabi as the gateway of opportunities for regional and international businesses and attracting them to operate and expand in Abu Dhabi.

H.E. Al Zaabi is the Chairman of Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development (KFED), the socio-economic development entity encouraging entrepreneurship, innovation culture, and supporting the SMEs through highly targeted financing, services, and training initiatives and programmes.

Recently H.E. was appointed the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Hub71, supporting the acceleration of Abu Dhabi’s global tech ecosystem growth, and building of globally enduring, homegrown tech companies by providing access to global markets, capital ecosystem and global network of partners, governed by forward-thinking regulation.

H.E. serves as a board member on multiple private sectors, government and commercial state-owned entities across the energy, investment, technology, real estate, and healthcare sectors. H.E. has also served on the boards of numerous banks and financial institutions in the past.

He started his career at the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) and was also the Group Chief Financial Officer (GCFO) of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC). He also held an executive position to manage the central treasury of the Government of Abu Dhabi while holding several leadership roles in the past across multiple private and government related entities in finance and investments, transformation and turnarounds, strategy, and corporate governance.

H.E. Ahmed Jasim Al Zaabi holds a Master’s degree in Economics from the United Kingdom.

Laura Cha

Mrs Cha is Chairman of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd and a member of the Hong Kong-United States Business Council.

Mrs Cha is also an Independent Non-Executive Director of Ant Group Co., Ltd. , a Senior International Advisor of Foundation Assets Management Sweden AB and a member of Sotheby’s International Advisory Board. In addition, she is also Vice Chairman of the International Advisory Council of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, and a Director of the World Federation of Exchanges.

Mrs Cha became the first, and to-date, the only person outside Mainland China to join the Central Government of the People’s Republic of China at the vice ministerial rank when she was appointed as Vice Chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission in January 2001. She served in that position until 2004. Mrs Cha worked for the Securities and Futures Commission in Hong Kong from 1991 to 2000, becoming its Deputy Chairman in 1998.

Mrs Cha was a member of Executive Council of the Government of Hong Kong from 2004 to 2022. She was also Chairman of The Financial Services Development Council of Hong Kong from January 2013 to July 2018, and Chairman of the University Grants Committee from 2007 to 2011.

She was awarded a Silver Bauhinia Star in 2001, a Gold Bauhinia Star in 2009 and the Grand Bauhinia Medal in 2017 by the Hong Kong Government for her public service.

Alfred Stern

Alfred Stern is Chairman of the Executive Board and Chief Executive Officer of OMV AG since September 2021. Under the purpose of re-inventing essentials for sustainable living, OMV is transitioning to become a leading provider of innovative and sustainable fuels, chemicals and materials with a focus on circular economy.

Prior to joining the OMV Group in April 2021 as Board Member of Chemicals and Materials, he was CEO of Borealis since July 2018. During his tenure of 14 years, Stern held a series of other executive positions at Borealis, latterly as Board Member for Polyolefins and Innovation & Technology. He started his career at DuPont de Nemours, leading to extensive international experience in Switzerland, Germany, and the US across the spectrum of Research and Development, Sales and Marketing, and Quality and Business Management.

Stern studied at the Montanuniversität Leoben in Austria. He holds a PhD in material science and a Master in polymer engineering and science.

Kees Aarts

Kees is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and founder of Protix. Kees is a frequent speaker at international forums, and he is widely recognized as a visionary and innovator in the food and feed industry thanks to his work in reimagining global food supply chains. He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Future Council on Food Security and Agriculture, serves on the board of The Shadow View Foundation and is a member of the Druid Collective. Prior to founding Protix, Kees started his career as an advisor at McKinsey on R&D innovation and business development. Kees holds a MSc title in Aerospace Engineering.

Ester Baiget

With more than 25 years of global experience, Ester Baiget brings a wealth of knowledge in science and sustainability and has held positions in manufacturing, technical, commercial, and strategic roles. She came to Novozymes in 2020 after working as president for Dow’s Industrial Solutions business unit and a member of the executive leadership team. She joined Dow in 1995, and with her more than 25 years of international experience as a technical and commercial business leader, Ester has driven transformational change, enhanced profitability, and set a strong foundation for sustainable growth across a diverse range of industries. As CEO of Novozymes, Ester is a compelling advocate for the power of biotechnology and the positive change biosolutions can have for the green transition.

Ester serves as Member of the Board for Akzo Nobel and holds a number of leadership positions in the sustainability and climate space, including Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders and CEO Action Group for the European Green Deal, Member of the Board of Trustees of Science Based Targets Initiative, Member of the Board of Trustees and “Sustainability Champion” for the United States Council for International Business (USCIB) and Vice-Chair of the B-Team.

Ester holds a chemical engineering degree and an MBA from the University of Tarragona (Spain).

Henrik Andersen

Danish nationality. Born in 1967.

Current position: Group President and CEO, Vestas Wind Systems A/S.

Previous positions: Group President and CEO, Hempel A/S from 2016 to July 2019. Spent more than 15 years with ISS A/S, a global leader in facility services, holding leadership positions in UK and Denmark, including Group CFO and COO EMEA.

Current key positions of trust: Board member of H. Lundbeck A/S (DK), member of the investment committee of Maj Invest Equity 4 & 5 K/S (DK).

Education: Holds a Graduate Diploma in International Business, Aarhus School of Business, Master of law from University of Aarhus and has completed studies at IMD.

Henrik lives north of Copenhagen, Denmark, together with his wife and two daughters.

Matthew Zielinski

As the leader of Lenovo’s International Markets since 2021, Matt Zielinski is responsible for Lenovo’s go-to-market charge cross markets throughout Asia Pacific, Japan, EMEA, Latin America and North America. Matt leads the global sales teams to drive revenue and profit for all Lenovo businesses, while reinforcing a customer-centric culture and growing the company through its transformation from the world’s leading PC provider to a global technology solutions powerhouse. He is also a member of Lenovo’s Executive Committee and serves on the company’s Diversity and Inclusion Board.

Prior to leading International Markets, Matt served as the President of the North America Intelligent Devices Group since 2018, where he was responsible for sales, daily operations, growth and profitability for the United States and Canada. The business closed its strongest year ever in fiscal 2020 with records in PC market share, shipments, revenue, and profit. Other tenure highlights include Lenovo reaching number 1 in PC share in Canada four times and number 2 in the U.S. consumer market for the first time, in the first quarter of FY20. The record-setting FY20 results followed what was previously the NA IDG organization’s best-ever year in FY19.

Prior to joining Lenovo in February 2018, Matt was the Corporate Vice President and General Manager, head of worldwide OEM sales at AMD. He was responsible for leading AMD’s end-to-end efforts for all strategic OEMs, as well as global responsibility for end-user sales through all consumer and commercial routes to market.

Matt spent more than twelve years at AMD, holding several key global sales roles. Earlier in his career, he also held various sales positions at Infineon Technologies and Sun Microsystems.

Matt holds a BSE in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and lives in Austin, TX with his family. He serves on the board of NAF, a national network of education, business, and community leaders working together to ensure high school students are college, career, and future ready.

Tejpreet S. Chopra

Tejpreet S. Chopra is the Founder & CEO of Bharat Light & Power Group (BLP). BLP is one of the leading clean energy generation (IPP) and technology companies in India. BLP has 3 companies in the group. The first focuses on developing, owning, and operating utility scale wind and solar farms. The second is an investment vehicle in partnership with AP Moller Capital focused on responsibly investing in infrastructure assets in India with a primary focus on transport, energy and digital infrastructure sectors. The third group company, “Industry.AI” is an Enterprise AI and Industrial IoT software product company. It provides end to end monitoring, reporting and advanced analytics that improve productivity, efficiency and sustainability across industries including manufacturing, infrastructure, energy, steel, auto, oil & gas etc. The BLP Group has had joint ventures with the Italian utility, Enel Green Power, and the Norwegian utility, Statkraft.

Tejpreet’s 22 years of global management and finance experience was gained in various business roles held in France, England, Hong Kong, India and USA, of which over 14 years were at General Electric.

Until 2010, Tejpreet was the President & CEO of General Electric in India, Sri Lanka & Bangladesh, and was responsible for directing GE's strategies for growth in these countries.

Prior to that, Tejpreet served as President & CEO of GE Capital (Commercial Finance) in India, where he successfully restructured and expanded the business, thereby establishing GE Commercial Finance as one of the premier financial institutions in India.

Since joining GE in 1996, he has held positions in marketing, structured finance and risk management, in Stamford and Hong Kong for GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS). In 2005, he moved from the unit's headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, to open GECAS’s office in Delhi. As Senior Vice-President and Country Head-India for GECAS, Tejpreet arranged over US$1 billion in financing for India's growing airline industry.

At present, he is an Independent Director on the board of SRF Limited, the Anand Group (top 5 Automotive Component Groups in India), IEX (Indian Energy Exchange), Tube Investments of India (Murugappa Group) and Chairman of the board of APM Terminals Pipavav port (A.P. Møller - Maersk A/S group). He is also on the board of the World Economic Forum Foundation (WEF) for YGL’s; and the London based global philanthropic organization, the Clean Air Fund. Tejpreet was recently nominated to the Board of Governors of the Lawrence School, Sanawar. He is the National Skill Development Corporation (Govt of India and Indian Industry initiative) Nominee Director on the Board of the Power Sector Skill Council.

Tejpreet is involved in various industry associations. He is a member of the National Council of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), was the Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in India (AMCHAM), and was on the Board of Directors of the U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC). He is a member of the Council of Management of the All India Management Association (AIMA). Tejpreet was appointed the Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s, Global Future Council (GFC) on Advanced Energy Technologies, the Stewardship Board on the Future of Energy, and is a member of WEFs CEO group on Advanced Manufacturing. He is a participant of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and the Cornell University Council. He is also an Aspen Institute Fellow, a part of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. He was nominated as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2010. Tejpreet has also spoken at several international conferences, including Asia Society’s CEO Forum Series in New York and LA, the Economist’s India Business Summit in London, the Wharton India Economic Forum, the Harvard Business School India Conference, and the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos.

He graduated from The Lawrence School, Sanawar. Tejpreet holds an MBA degree from Cornell University, a B.A. Honors degree in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University and attended an executive program at the Harvard Kennedy School. He enjoys sports and music – and was a national level swimmer.

Clara Shih

Clara Shih is CEO of Salesforce AI, the world’s most trusted Enterprise AI for CRM designed to anticipate, initiate, and build powerful customer relationships.

A digital pioneer, Clara has been named one of Fortune’s “Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs,” TIME “Most Influential People in AI,” and a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum. Clara is a member of the Starbucks board of directors and serves as Executive Chair of Hearsay Systems, a privately held digital software firm she founded in 2009.

She graduated #1 in computer science at Stanford University, where she also received an M.S. in computer science. She also holds an M.S. in internet studies from Oxford University, where she studied as a U.S. Marshall Scholar.

will.i.am

As a creative artist, entrepreneur, and the Founder & CEO of FYI.AI (a Web 3.0 AI messenger) will.i.am has been recognized by a CLIO Award, an Emmy Award, nine Grammy Awards, the James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award, A TIME 100 Impact Award, the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award, and an Honorary Fellowship by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).

He is simultaneously a creative innovation advisor, futurist, multi-platinum Grammy-winning music artist, film & TV entertainer, and a tech entrepreneur as part of his cross-disciplinary career. He identifies, invests and develops businesses in a range of sectors including creativity & productivity tools, automotive, consumer-tech, fashion, food & beverage, software (AI, Natural Language Understanding, Voice Computing) and telecom.

Highlights of his work as a Futurist and market opportunity spotter moved into high gear with Beats Electronics. As a founding equity stakeholder in the company, will.i.am was instrumental in helping to transform Beats By Dre™ into a global consumer electronics brand. Beats Electronics was purchased by Apple in 2014 for US$3 billion.

will.i.am teams with the world’s leading companies helping them to embrace future technologies, what’s next in cultural trends and develop new business initiatives. A sampling of organizations he has collaborated with includes Apple, Atom Bank, Coca-Cola, Deutsche Telekom, Epic Records, Expo 2020, Formula 1, Honeywell, Intel, Majid Al Futtaim, Marvel Comics, Mercedes-AMG, Microsoft, Penguin Publishing, Pepsi, and Salesforce.

In 2023, will.i.am switched up how and where music is enjoyed by forging an innovative collaboration with Formula 1, the world’s largest motor sports organization. He is their first artist in residence and also serves as a Curator of the program. Two F1-inspired songs have been released, “THE FORMULA” and “LET’S GO.”

What drives will.i.am’s entrepreneurial spirit in innovation and technology is his work as a philanthropist, where he encourages inner-city, disadvantaged youth to apply themselves in STEAM fields so they can get prepared for an AI, autonomous, robotic and highly technical tomorrow.

His i.am Angel Foundation supports STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) education programs for more than 13,000 disadvantaged youth in grades K – 12 in Los Angeles, including the i.am College Track after-school tutoring center and college scholarship program, the Boyle Heights STEM Magnet High School in East Los Angeles, and hundreds of after-school robotics clubs in partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School District. He also sits on the boards of directors of College Track and FIRST Global, and serves as a Goodwill Ambassador with Stand Up 2 Cancer.

He is active in the World Economic Forum (WEF) community as a Cultural Leader as well as a technology committee advisor to The Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution/San Francisco, and Artificial Intelligence working groups that monitor the impact of technology on society, people and work.

Meredith Whittaker

Meredith Whittaker is Signal's President. She has over 17 years of experience in tech, spanning industry, academia, and government. Prior to joining Signal, she was the Minderoo Research Professor at NYU, and served as the Faculty Director of the AI Now Institute which she co-founded. Prior to NYU, she worked at Google where she founded Google's Open Research Group, and co-founded M-Lab. She also helped lead organizing at Google and was a central organizer of the Google Walkout. She has advised the White House, the FCC, the City of New York, the European Parliament, and many other governments and civil society organizations on privacy, security, artificial intelligence, internet policy, and measurement. And she recently completed a term as Senior Advisor on AI to the Chair at the US Federal Trade Commission.

Vaishali Sinha

Vaishali Nigam Sinha is Co-founder of ReNew, a leading decarbonisation solutions company listed on NASDAQ under the ticker ‘RNW’. As Chairperson Sustainability, Vaishali has been responsible for ReNew’s emergence as a global ESG trailblazer, advancing the Net-Zero agenda, and delivering outcome-driven ESG strategies with top global rankings. Vaishali is also the Founding Chair of ReNew Foundation—the company’s philanthropic arm—driving the ReNew India Initiative for pathbreaking work in corporate social responsibility.

Initiatives led by Vaishali have had an impact in the remotest corners of India, positively shaping more than 1 million lives across 250 villages in the country. One of the projects designed and implemented under her leadership has been a first-of-its kind program, showcased at the 2022 Sharm el-Sheikh Climate Change Conference (COP27), to train thousands of salt pan women workers in the country, helping them secure more remunerative jobs with significantly better working conditions in the clean energy sector. Her commitment to social causes such as sustainable and inclusive development has placed her as a key figure in the energy sector from the global south.

A member of the World Economic Forum’s South Asia Regional Action Group and a senior advisor at their Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders, Vaishali is an active member of their global advisory council for the 1 Trillion Trees Initiative. Further, she is part of the Global Alliance for Sustainable Energy and serves on their Sustainable Markets Initiative’s Energy Transition Taskforce.

Vaishali sits on multiple boards, including the UN Global Compact Network India, and is the chairperson of their gender committee. She also chairs the Confederation of Indian Industry’s National Committee on Women in Energy. Additionally, Vaishali is on the advisory board of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) and the Columbia Global Centre, Mumbai.

A regular speaker at international forums such as the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, World Economic Forum and the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum, Vaishali has written extensively on sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and gender parity in India and abroad. Vaishali is co-editor of the T20 compendium of essays, Pathways to Equality, which explores the social, political, and economic facets of achieving gender equality. She has been listed among the ‘100 People Transforming Business’ by Business Insider in 2022.

Vaishali has completed the Owners and Presidents Management Program from Harvard Business School and has a master’s in public policy from Columbia University’s SIPA, where she has been an American Association of University Women scholar.

Eswar Prasad

Eswar Prasad is the Tolani Senior Professor of Trade Policy at Cornell University. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, where he holds the New Century Chair in International Economics, and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He was previously chief of the Financial Studies Division in the International Monetary Fund's Research Department and, before that, was the head of the IMF's China Division.

Jack Hidary

Jack is the CEO of SandboxAQ which focuses on enterprise SaaS solutions at the convergence of AI and quantum tech. SandboxAQ is backed by Eric Schmidt, who serves as Chairman of the company, T. Rowe Price, Marc Benioff, Jim Breyer, Guggenheim Partners, Amadeus Capital, and other leading investors.

Jack worked previously at Alphabet leading AI and quantum teams. Jack is the author of Quantum Computing: An Applied Approach, published by Springer. This work, now in its second edition, is one of the leading textbooks in the field and is used both in undergraduate and PhD programs, as well as corporate training sessions.

Jack is a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of several tech companies, including EarthWeb/Dice (NYSE: DHX), which he led from its founding through IPO. He also co-founded Vista Research, a fintech company, which he and his team sold to S&P/McGraw-Hill.

Jack is a trustee of the X Prize Foundation and has been a board member of Trickle Up, which helps thousands of entrepreneurs start small businesses each year. His foundation, The Hidary Foundation, is dedicated to medical oncology research and has supported work at Sloan Kettering and UCSF.

Jack has been recognized for his leadership by organizations such as the World Economic Forum and is a member of YPO. Jack studied neuroscience at Columbia and subsequently received the Stanley Fellowship in Clinical Neuroscience at NIH where he worked on functional brain imaging and neural networks.

Rishi Khosla

Rishi Khosla is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, investor, and the CEO and co-founder of leading financial technology company, OakNorth, which launched in September 2015. OakNorth is transforming how entrepreneurs of scale-up businesses ($1m-100m revenue) are supported in order to boost growth, prosperity and innovation for the benefit of communities. To date, it has lent over £10bn to businesses across the UK and across a multitude of sectors, directly supporting the creation of tens of thousands of new jobs and homes across the UK. Prior to this, he built his first business, Copal Partners (which later became Copal Amba) in 2002 with his business partner, Joel Perlman. Together, they grew this data and analytics business to 3,000 employees across 11 markets, before selling it to Moody’s Corporation in 2014. Rishi is an early-stage investor in Paypal and Indiabulls, with other investments including About Energy (battery technology), Spiracheck (biotech), and Xometry (3D printing and manufacturing).

Andy Yen

Andy has long worked to advance privacy and freedom online and has spoken at TED and the Internet Governance Forum. Previously, he was a scientist at CERN and has a PhD in physics from Harvard University and degrees in physics and economics from Caltech. Andy has lived in Switzerland, the US, and Taiwan

Vladimir Lukić

Vladimir Lukić is the global leader for Boston Consulting Group’s Technology & Digital Advantage practice, including BCG Platinion. Vlad works with leading organizations to accelerate the successful delivery of large-scale end-to-end digital transformations powered by digitization, data, and analytics.

Vladimir is passionate about AI and analytics and their application to business transformation, and shaping bold, tech-centric agendas for clients. He works to drive innovation in the tech stack, deploying technology (whether building or buying), rewiring operating models, and orchestrating large-scale transformations to accelerate the adoption of AI at scale. Vladimir believes organizations must have tech at their core to thrive and gain a competitive edge.

Vladimir joined BCG in 2006. He co-leads BCG’s AI at Scale offering globally, working closely with BCG X to support clients in their AI transformation journeys.

Vladimir is committed to developing the next generation of tech CEOs through his work in the tech community, within and outside of BCG. He is a steadfast champion of BCG’s DE&I agenda, particularly with respect to attracting and retaining the best and most talented women in tech.

Before joining BCG, Vladimir was at Gisdata in Zagreb, Croatia, where he worked on business development across southeastern Europe and on implementation of complex IT solutions

Zak Brown

As Chief Executive of McLaren Racing, Zak Brown has overall responsibility for the business, including strategic direction, operational performance, marketing and commercial development. In his role Zak leads McLaren’s direction and involvement in professional motorsport, spearheaded by the McLaren Formula 1 team. Operating at the pinnacle of global motorsport, McLaren uses the white heat of competition to drive innovation and develop synergies across the group.

Born and raised in California, Zak raced professionally around the world for 10 years before developing his skills in motorsport’s business and commercial worlds.

In 1995, he founded JMI, which grew to become the largest and most successful motorsport marketing agency in the world. When JMI was acquired by CSM, a division of Chime Communications, in 2013, Brown became the company’s Chief Executive Officer. He then relinquished that post to embark on his journey at McLaren in the winter of 2016.

A passionate racer, collector and enthusiast, Brown also sits on the board of Cosworth Engineering and competes and races as a partner and driver in Anglo-American racing team United Autosports.

Jose Minaya

Jose Minaya is Chief Executive Officer of Nuveen, a leading global asset management firm with more than $1 trillion under management.

Jose is responsible for Nuveen’s vision, strategy and day-to-day operations. He and his leadership team set and execute key growth initiatives and oversee the firm’s investment teams, product strategy and management and client businesses. He chairs the Nuveen Executive Committee and is also a member of the TIAA Executive Committee. Jose is also the executive sponsor of the Inclusion and Diversity initiative for TIAA, working to build and promote a diverse and inclusive environment across the company. He joined TIAA as a fixed income portfolio manager in 2004 and has more than 29 years of investment experience at firms including AIG, Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan.

Jose was previously President and Chief Investment Officer, responsible for overseeing all global operating and investment activities across equities, fixed income, real estate, private markets, natural resources, other alternatives and responsible investments.

He serves on the boards of multiple companies and charitable organizations, including Moody’s, the Robert Toigo Foundation, the National Forest Foundation, the Investment Committee of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution and the Investment Company Institute. Jose is also on the board of Trustees of Manhattan College, where he received a bachelor’s in finance, and is the Chairman of the Amos Tuck School of Business MBA Council at Dartmouth, where he received an MBA.

Igor Tulchinsky

Igor is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of WorldQuant, which he established in 2007 following 12 years working as a statistical arbitrage portfolio manager at Millennium Management. As CEO, Igor provides vision, leadership and both strategic and tactical guidance to Research, Portfolio Management and other parts of the organization. He is the author of multiple articles and books, including The UnRules. Prior to joining Millennium, Igor was a venture capitalist, scientist at AT&T Bell Laboratories and video game programmer (the latter while still in high school). He holds an MA in Computer Science from the University of Texas, completed in a record nine months, and an MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurship from the Wharton School.

Christopher Abbott

As Pivot Bio’s Chief Executive Officer, Chris is focused on increasing farmer profitability and resiliency, as well as driving a dramatic improvement of the agriculture supply chain’s environmental sustainability by replacing synthetic fertilizers with new crop nutrition technologies.

Chris has invested in and helped build companies across the ag and food value chain from on-farm biological and digital solutions to midstream processing and logistics, down to the food ingredient and brand manufacturers. With a distinct focus on agriculture, fertilizer efficiency and agtech, deep industry relationships, and capital market expertise, Chris has served as an investor and advisor to dozens of sustainable technology companies.

Prior to joining Pivot Bio in 2023, Chris was Co-Head of Continental Grain's Conti Ventures, where he helped build the company’s portfolio as a diversified global investor in food and agribusiness. Chris launched his career in agriculture on Wall Street at Piper Jaffray & Co., EcoAlpha Asset Management and Craig-Hallum Capital Group. As an advocate for creating programs to support youth, Chris serves on the board of InnerCity Tennis. Chris holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Minnesota.

Benjamin Hung

Ben was appointed Standard Chartered’s Chief Executive Officer for Asia in January 2021. He sits on the Group’s Management Team and is the Chairman of Standard Chartered Bank (China) Limited.

Ben joined Standard Chartered in 1992 and has held a number of senior management positions spanning corporate, commercial and retail banking. Prior to the current role, he was Regional CEO for Greater China & North Asia, and CEO of Retail Banking, and Wealth Management business globally. He is based in Hong Kong and has international banking experience in the United Kingdom and in Canada.

Ben is a member of the Hong Kong Chief Executive’s Council of Advisers on Innovation and Strategic Development, the Exchange Fund Advisory Committee, the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited’s Board of Directors and the General Committee of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce. He was previously the chairman of the Hong Kong Association of Banks, a member of the Financial Services Development Council, a board member of the Hong Kong Airport Authority and the Hong Kong Hospital Authority, and a Council Member of the University of Hong Kong.

Daniel F. Feldman

Dan Feldman co-chairs Covington's ESG and Business & Human Rights practices. He was Chief of Staff and Counselor to Secretary John Kerry when he was appointed the first Special Presidential Envoy for Climate (SPEC) by President Biden. In this role, Dan helped drive the U.S. government’s international climate agenda, including preparations for COP26. Previously, Dan served as deputy and then U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan at the U.S. Department of State in the Obama Administration, as Director of Multilateral and Humanitarian Affairs at the National Security Council in the Clinton Administration, and as Counsel and Communications Adviser to the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Tim Ryan

Tim Ryan is PwC's US Senior Partner with 35 years of diversified experience serving clients across the globe. A forward-thinking leader committed to driving human-led, tech-powered outcomes to build trust in society and solve important problems, Tim has a proven record in advancing strategy, growth, collaboration, innovation, and upskilling. He has reimagined PwC for the modern era, leading a complete digital transformation and launching a bold new strategy – The New Equation – to get ahead of the rapid pace of change in the industry bringing the best people, capabilities and technology together to support clients in building trust and delivering sustained outcomes. Equity is foundational to Tim’s trust-based leadership – he is also the founder of CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion, the largest CEO-driven business commitment to advance DEI in the workplace with over 2,400 signatory organizations.

Sheila Warren

Sheila Warren is the CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation - the premier global alliance for advancing the promise of this new technology through research, education and advocacy.

In 2023, Sheila was voted one of the most influential women in DC by the Washingtonian. Prior to the Crypto Council. She founded the World Economic Forum’s blockchain and digital assets team and was a member of the Executive Leadership Team for the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. She oversaw tech policy strategy across 14 countries and regularly briefed ministers, CEOs of the Fortune 100 and Heads of State.

She spent significant time as a lawyer and executive in the nonprofit sector helping companies work with emerging technology to solve problems and increase efficiency. She was on the leadership team at TechSoup and built NGOsource, an online service that helps US foundations reduce costs on cross-border grants.

Sheila began her career as a Wall Street attorney at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP after earning her J.D. at Harvard Law School. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with a degree in Economics.

She is the co-host of Money Reimagined, a CoinDesk TV show and podcast.

Waleed Al Mokarrab Al Muhairi

Waleed serves as Mubadala’s Deputy Group Chief Executive Officer, and has strategic oversight of the company’s broad investment portfolio and special projects at the group level. He is also a member of the investment committee, which is mandated to develop Mubadala’s investment policies, establish investment guidelines, and review proposed projects and investments to ensure they are in line with business objectives.

Waleed is also the Chairman to Mubadala's new investment and business planning committee, which approves deals within a certain financial threshold in addition to the responsibility of annual and multi-year business planning. Furthermore, Waleed has oversight of the Real Estate & Infrastructure, and Disruptive business platforms.

Prior to joining Mubadala, Waleed worked with the UAE Offsets Program Bureau as a Senior Project Manager. Past roles also include working with McKinsey & Company as a consultant.

Waleed holds a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from Harvard University, USA, and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, USA.

Board Positions: Chairman of Waha Capital, Mubadala Capital, Global Institute for Disease Elimination (GLIDE), and the US-UAE Business Council. In addition, Waleed is the first Vice Chairman of Aldar, and a member of the Board of Trustees of Cleveland Clinic in the United States. He is also a board member of First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), Hub71, Ellipses Pharma Limited, Abu Dhabi Investment Council, Investcorp, Tamkeen, and M42

Sunil Kaushal

Sunil is the CEO of Standard Chartered Africa and Middle East (AME), and a member of Standard Chartered’ s Global Management Team, the highest Executive Body within the Bank. Prior to this, Sunil was the Regional CEO of Standard Chartered South Asia and CEO India.

He has been with the Group for nearly 24 years and has approximately 34 years of banking experience in diverse markets across North Asia, South East Asia, South Asia, Middle East and Africa. Sunil has held senior roles across Wholesale, Retail, SME Banking.an Country Management within the Group. Sunil has served as the Head of Corporate Banking in UAE, Head of Originations and Client Coverage in Singapore, Global Head Small and Medium Enterprises and New Ventures in Singapore and Chief Executive Officer of Standard Chartered Bank (Taiwan)

Sunil has led the acceleration of Standard Chartered’s digital transformation in the AME region, with the launch of digital banks across 9 key markets across Africa. The Bank also digitised its wealth management offering and has grown accounts by around 700,000. The successful establishment of these digital banks through Sunil’s leadership have served as a testament to the bank’s growing digital footprint in the region and presence as a leader in digital banking technologies.

In 2018 and 2019, Sunil was named the Banking CEO of the Year by EMEA Finance and CEO Middle East magazine respectively and was also featured amongst Forbes’ Middle East Top Indian Leaders for two consecutive years in 2019, 2020 & 2021. Sunil was also awarded Forbes’ Global Meets Local Top 50 Executives Regional Executives Heading International Companies in 2020 and featured in Gulf Business’s top Indians leaders in the GCC during 2020 & 2021.

In March 2021, Sunil joined MoneyTap, one of the leading Fintech companies in India, as a Global Advisor. Prior to joining Standard Chartered in 1998, Sunil held various positions in Investment Banking, Corporate Finance and Commercial Banking and Foreign Exchange at NatWest Markets, SocGen-Crosby, and American Express Bank in Mumbai, India.
Sunil holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Bombay University, India, and a post-graduate qualification as a Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. He has also completed general management courses at Harvard Business School, INSEAD, Oxford University, and London Business School.

Badr Jafar

Badr Jafar is the CEO of Crescent Enterprises, a diversified conglomerate operating across nine industry sectors in 15 countries. Badr is actively engaged with a diverse range of non-profit organisations and initiatives focused on humanitarian aid and international development, strategic philanthropy, corporate governance, entrepreneurship, education and the arts, including serving as a member of the UN Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Humanitarian Financing and the UNESCO International Commission on the Futures of Education. Badr is also appointed to serve on the Advisory Committee and as a Special Representative for Business & Philanthropy & Private Sector for the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In 2010 Badr founded the Pearl Initiative, in collaboration with the UN Office for Partnerships, to promote a corporate culture of transparency and accountability within the Gulf Region. He is also the Founding Patron of the Centre for Strategic Philanthropy based at the Cambridge Judge Business School, which is dedicated to enhancing the impact of strategic philanthropy both within and from the world’s fastest growing economies; and is the Founding Patron of MENA’s first Strategic Philanthropy Initiative at NYU Abu Dhabi to study and promote high-impact philanthropy in the region.

Daphne Kis

Daphne Kis is the President of WorldQuant University (WQU), a global not-for-profit whose mission is to make advanced, quality education accessible to capable students everywhere by leveraging technology at scale to deliver entirely online, tuition-free programs in the data sciences. With its MSc program in Financial Engineering and Applied Data Science module, WQU currently serves nearly 4000 students in over 90 countries.

The arc of Kis’s career has been far from traditional. As a dynamic entrepreneur, she has been at the forefront of identifying, chronicling, and transforming trends in technology, education, and business for decades. Passionate about global entrepreneurship opportunities, especially for women, Kis serves on the board of Springboard Enterprise’s Tech Council and the advisory boards of SheEO and Mindshift Capital.

Frank McCourt

Frank H. McCourt, Jr., is a civic entrepreneur and executive chairman of McCourt Global, a private family company with a 130-year legacy and steadfast commitment to building a better future through its work across the real estate, sports & media, technology, and capital investment industries.

Frank is also the founder and executive chairman of Project Liberty, a far-reaching effort to build an internet where individuals have control over their data, a voice in how platforms operate, and more access to the economic benefits of innovation. Project Liberty is supported by a $500-million commitment and encompasses the work of the Project Liberty Foundation – a 501(c)(3) with an international partner network that includes Georgetown University, Stanford University, Sciences Po, and other leading academic institutions and civic organizations – and Amplica Labs, a technology business launched by McCourt Global that is focused on developing the next generation of digital infrastructure. In 2021, Project Liberty released a groundbreaking, open internet protocol – the Decentralized Social Networking Protocol (DSNP) – to support a new, healthier internet era.

A proud Georgetown University alumnus, Frank has served on the school’s Board of Directors for many years. In 2013, he made a $100 million founding investment to create Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy. He expanded on this in 2021 with a $100 million investment to catalyze an inclusive pipeline of leaders and put the school on a path to becoming tuition-free.

Frank owns the French football club Olympique de Marseille and formerly owned the Los Angeles Dodgers. With family roots in infrastructure development and construction, Frank’s real estate work includes the development of Boston’s Seaport and large, mixed-use projects worldwide.

His forthcoming book, Our Biggest Fight: Reclaiming Liberty, Humanity, and Dignity in the Digital Age, will be published by Crown on March 12, 2024.

Marco Alverà

Marco Alverà has more than 20 years of experience in energy companies. He is the author of The Hydrogen Revolution. He began his career at Goldman Sachs before starting and selling a telecom company, and then joining Enel, one of the world’s largest green electricity companies. He subsequently worked for Eni, the oil and gas major, for over 10 years in senior positions, and from 2016 to 2022 he was CEO of Snam, which Marco positioned as an international leader in green gas and green gas infrastructure. Since 2017 he has been non-executive director of S&P Global, where he is also chair of the Finance Committee.

Ilham Kadri

Dr. Kadri successfully led the turnaround of Solvay between 2019 and 2023, delivering double-digit EBITDA growth and 18 consecutive quarters of positive free cash flow, deleveraging the balance sheet and promoting superior people engagement. During her tenure she established the company Purpose; drove the Group’s G.R.O.W. strategy and fulfilled its economic objectives two years ahead of schedule. She led the holistic Solvay One Planet sustainability program, which outperformed the CO2 reduction objectives set by the Paris Agreement. Ms. Kadri has extensive leadership experience across a variety of industries on four continents and with leading industrial multinationals, including Shell, UCB, Huntsman, Dow and Sealed Air. Prior to Solvay, she was CEO and President of Diversey in the United States of America, having led the company’s return to profitability, and subsequent spin off and divestiture to Bain Capital. She is an independent Board member at A.O. Smith and L’Oréal.

Ms. Kadri is active in non-profit organizations, as Chair of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), member of the steering committee of the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT) as well as a permanent member of the World Economic Forum’s International Business Council (WEF).

Hossein Rahnama

Hossein Rahnama is a Professor at the MIT Media Lab and Toronto Metropolitan University. He is also the Founder and CEO of Flybits, an Ai/ Data Science company. His research is focused on the design of Human-AI Systems , data governance for generative Ai, human-computer interaction, and the system of system design of data-driven applications. He has published more than 40 papers and holds 23 patents in computer and data science. He previously served as a council member at NSERC (National Science and Research Engineering Council of Canada) and is currently on the board of directors of Home Capital Group and Canadian Science Publishing. He is a fellow at the MIT Connection Science Group (since 2021) and one of the 7 Global Directors of MIT Media Lab’s City Science Group. He Was on MIT Technology Review Global TR35 list (2012) and Canada's Top 40 under 40 (2017).

Rich Nuzum

Rich is Executive Director, Investments and Global Chief Investment Strategist for Mercer. He works with some of Mercer’s largest, most sophisticated clients, and is accountable for Mercer’s “innovation agenda,” including the creation and development of thought leadership and related products and services across the firm.
Over the last 30+ years, Rich has provided investment advice to clients in more than 20 countries, including many of the world’s largest institutional investors. He has also led social security and other long term savings reform projects in five countries and one US state. Rich has led Mercer’s work in several projects with the World Economic Forum, including work related to transformational investment, and to the longevity economy.

Rich was President of Mercer’s Investments & Retirement business and a member of Mercer’s Executive Leadership team from 2017 to 2022. Prior to that, he led Mercer’s investment management business globally and served in various other leadership capacities while based in Tokyo, Singapore and New York, including serving as global Chief Investment Officer for Mercer’s investment management business.

Rich holds an MBA (with high honors) in analytic finance and accounting from the University of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree (with honors) in mathematical sciences and mathematical economic analysis from Rice University in Houston, Texas. Rich also did graduate work in international economics at Tokyo University. He is a CFA® charterholder and a member of the CFA Institute.

Rich has repeatedly been named to CIO magazine’s annual list of the world’s most influential investment consultants and received CIO’s 2017 Industry Innovation Award as Consultant of the Year.

Adam Posen

Adam S. Posen is president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Under his leadership, since January 2013, the Institute has grown to 45 world-renowned fellows and won global recognition – including being named Global Economics Think Tank of the Year by Prospect five years in a row. A monetary economist, from 2009 to 2012, Posen served as an external voting member of the Bank of England's rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee, and he co-authored Inflation Targeting with Bernanke, Laubach, and Mishkin while at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (1994-97). His current research addresses globalization’s future amidst China-U.S. conflict, including his widely cited recent articles, “The Post-American World Economy,” “The End of Globalization?,” and “The Price of Nostalgia,” all in Foreign Affairs, and “America’s Zero-Sum Economics Doesn’t Add Up”, in Foreign Policy.

Bold Baatar

Bold Baatar was appointed chief executive, Copper in February 2021. Prior to this, from 2016, he ran the Energy & Minerals product group. During this time, he has helped drive the optimisation of Rio Tinto’s portfolio, and generated significant shareholder value through a responsive market approach and development of new products and markets.

Under his leadership, Energy & Minerals maintained a strong focus on sustainability and extraction of critical minerals from our existing ore bodies such battery grade lithium, scandium and monazite.

Previously a member of the RT Iron Ore ExCo, as managing director Iron Ore Sales and Marketing and Marine, based in Singapore, with accountability for the Group's iron ore sales and ocean freight business servicing global operations.

Bold joined Rio Tinto in May 2013 as president of Copper International Operations, responsible for a diverse portfolio of greenfield and operating sites in South Africa, Australia, Indonesia, USA and Mongolia. Bold served as an advisor to the Group from 2010 on its investments in the Oyu Tolgoi, copper and gold mine in Mongolia.

He previously held executive leadership positions with a diversified investment management business and a local gold mining company in Mongolia. Until 2009, Bold was an investment banker with JPMorgan for 11 years in New York and London focusing on private equity and leveraged buyout transactions, M&A and issuance of public equity and debt securities.

He was the chairman of Mongolian Stock Exchange from 2010 to 2012, chairman of the Mongolian Mining Association from 2012 to 2014 and served as a non-executive director on the board of Southgobi Resources Ltd from 2013 to 2014.

Dorit Dor

Dr. Dorit Dor, Chief Technology Officer at Check Point, spearheads Check Point’s rocket initiatives. Since joining the company in 1995, Dr. Dor has served in several pivotal roles in Check Point’s R&D organization over the years, including Chief Product Officer.

She has been instrumental to the organization’s growth and managed many successful product releases. Dr. Dor holds a Ph.D. and M.S degree in computer science from Tel-Aviv University, in addition to graduating cum laude for her Bachelor of Science degree. She has been published in several influential scientific journals for her research on graph decomposition, median selection and geometric pattern matching in d-dimensional space. In 2019, Forbes named Dr. Dor as one of Israel’s most powerful women and she is a member of the World Economic Forum Centre for Cybersecurity. In 1993, she won the Israel National Defense Prize.

Manish Pant

Manish leads the Operations for Schneider Electric in Pacific, India, Middle East Africa and South America. He is Member of the Executive Committee of Schneider Electric and is based in Singapore. He is responsible for bringing sustainable innovations to customers and seeks to empower all to make the most of their energy and resources, ensuring Life Is On everywhere, for everyone, at every moment.

Manish has been with Schneider Electric for more than 24 years and has worked in both Operations and Strategic roles. Prior to current appointment he was Zone President for East Asia region. From 2014 to 2021 he was Executive Vice-President for Schneider Electric’s Home and Distribution Division. The Division focused on bringing solutions to the Residential and Small Business customers from Schneider Electric, through its network of Channel Partners namely Distributors and Electricians. During his time as EVP of the Home & Distribution Division, he had concurrently led the company’s E-Commerce channel.

Manish had served as Managing Director of Luminous, a subsidiary of Schneider Electric in India. He also assumed the Country President position in Thailand and took on the responsibility as General Manager of JV companies in the energy management sector in China. Prior to arriving at Schneider Electric, Manish started his professional career at Larsen & Toubro Ltd India, spending six years leading Sales and Marketing in the Electrical Business Group.

Manish has held diverse positions across Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Thailand, and India.

Manish has a Master of Business Administration from the Asian Institute of Management, a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology and Transformational Leadership Programs from Harvard Business School and INSEAD.

Dr. Arun Majumdar

Dr. Arun Majumdar is the inaugural Dean of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. He is the Jay Precourt Provostial Chair Professor at Stanford University, a faculty member of the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Energy Science and Engineering, a Senior Fellow and former Director of the Precourt Institute for Energy and Senior Fellow (courtesy) of the Hoover Institution. He is also a faculty in Department of Photon Science at SLAC.

In October 2009, Dr. Majumdar was nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate to become the Founding Director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E), where he served until June 2012 and helped ARPA-E become a model of excellence and innovation for the government with bipartisan support from Congress and other stakeholders. Between March 2011 and June 2012, he also served as the Acting Under Secretary of Energy, enabling the portfolio of Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Office of Electricity Delivery and Reliability, Office of Nuclear Energy and the Office of Fossil Energy, as well as multiple cross-cutting efforts such as Sunshot, Grid Modernization Team and others that he had initiated. Furthermore, he was a Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Energy, Dr. Steven Chu, on a variety of matters related to management, personnel, budget, and policy. In 2010, he served on Secretary Chu's Science Team to help stop the leak of the Deep Water Horizon (BP) oil spill.

Dr. Majumdar serves as the Chair of the Advisory Board of the US Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm. He led the Agency Review Team for the Department of Energy, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission during the Biden-Harris Presidential transition. He served as the Vice Chairman of the Advisory Board of US Secretary of Energy, Dr. Ernest Moniz, and was also a Science Envoy for the US Department of State with focus on energy and technology innovation in the Baltics and Poland. He also serves on numerous advisory boards and boards of businesses, investment groups and non-profit organizations.

After leaving Washington, DC and before joining Stanford, Dr. Majumdar was the Vice President for Energy at Google, where he assembled a team to create technologies and businesses at the intersection of data, computing and electricity grid.

Dr. Majumdar is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, US National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His research in the past has involved the science and engineering of nanoscale materials and devices, especially in the areas of energy conversion, transport and storage as well as biomolecular analysis. His current research focuses on redox reactions and systems that are fundamental to a sustainable energy future, multidimensional nanoscale imaging and microscopy, and an effort to leverage modern AI techniques to develop and deliver energy and climate solutions.

Prior to joining the Department of Energy, Dr. Majumdar was the Almy & Agnes Maynard Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering at University of California–Berkeley and the Associate Laboratory Director for energy and environment at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He also spent the early part of his academic career at Arizona State University and University of California, Santa Barbara.

Dr. Majumdar received his bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay in 1985 and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1989.

Sarah Kate Ellis

Sarah Kate Ellis was named President and CEO of GLAAD in early 2014 after a successful career as a media executive.

In short order, Ellis refocused GLAAD’s crucial advocacy to accelerate acceptance of the LGBTQ community through a variety of compelling and effective initiatives, campaigns, and programs.

A powerful communicator, Ellis has used GLAAD’s position as the world’s leading media advocacy organization to demand fair and accurate coverage of the LGBTQ community. Ellis also commissioned GLAAD’s annual Accelerating Acceptance report, providing a window into national sentiment towards the LGBTQ community. In 2018, Ellis launched the GLAAD Media Institute (GMI), which focuses on research into LGBTQ representation and acceptance, consulting on LGBTQ storylines in media and Hollywood, and training activists on LGBTQ media advocacy and storytelling that creates change. Over the past few years alone, the GLAAD Media Institute has trained over 10,000 people and consulted on hundreds of media projects. Ellis is also the Executive Producer of the GLAAD Media Awards, which is the most visible LGBTQ awards show in the world. The GLAAD Media Awards recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the LGBTQ community and ultimately raise the bar for LGBTQ inclusion across all forms of media.

Under her leadership, Ellis has evolved GLAAD from a media watchdog organization to one of the most powerful cultural change agents across industries. At a time when LGBTQ issues were being largely left out of the mainstream conversation, Ellis, GLAAD, One Iowa, and The Advocate co-hosted the first Presidential Candidate Forum on LGBTQ issues during the 2020 election cycle in September 2019. This was the first time an LGBTQ-focused Presidential forum had taken place since 2007. In December 2019, Ellis & GLAAD also worked through the media and behind-the-scenes with The Hallmark Channel to reinstate TV ads which were pulled from air for featuring a same-sex couple. In response to the unique and disproportionate challenges facing LGBTQ people during the pandemic, Ellis executive produced “Together in Pride: You are Not Alone,” a digital event which highlighted the LGBTQ response to COVID-19 and raised critical funds for local LGBTQ centers providing life-saving services.

Ellis has also taken her mission of LGBTQ acceptance to a global level. In June 2019, Ellis travelled to Cannes-Lions, where she spoke about increasing LGBTQ inclusion in marketing and advertising and the workplace on panels with the world’s largest companies. For the past several years, Ellis has also brought LGBTQ issues to the forefront at the World Economic Forum. In 2020, Ellis organized a standing-room-only event during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos with P&G on the power of LGBTQ representation in advertising, and presented groundbreaking new research on how exposure to LGBTQ images in advertising and media leads to greater LGBTQ acceptance. As part of her mission to expand GLAAD’s work in advertising, Ellis has worked with global brands including Dow, P&G, Skittles, Ketel One, Wells Fargo, Hilton, and more on LGBTQ-inclusive marketing, public relations, and ad campaigns.

A forceful spokesperson for LGBTQ acceptance, Ellis regularly appears in media including CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, Associated Press, USA Today, PR Week, and hundreds of other outlets. In June 2019, The New York Times spotlighted Ellis’ ability to turn GLAAD from an organization that was struggling to adapt to one of Hollywood’s most powerful change agents. Oprah Magazine said that Ellis helps “helps LGBTQ people feel seen.” A thought leader in the space, Ellis has spoken about LGBTQ acceptance and the crucial impact of GLAAD at Princeton University, the Milken Institute Global Conference, SXSW, the Association of National Advertisers, the Women’s March, University of California Berkeley, the Sundance Film Festival, the Academy Awards, the Public Relations Society of America, and more.

Ellis has been widely recognized for her leadership. Most recently, Ellis has been named to the 2023 TIME100, its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. She has also been recognized by Adweek & ADCOLOR’s 2020 Champions of Diversity and Inclusion, Crain New York Business’ 2020 Notable LGBTQ Leaders & Executives, Logo30, Stevie Awards for Women in Business, Webby Awards, Variety’s Power of New York, OUT100, and Guardian’s World Power Pride List.

Ellis co-authored a memoir with her wife, Kristen Ellis-Henderson, titled “Times Two, Two Women in Love and the Happy Family They Made,” released by Simon & Schuster. The autobiography chronicled their simultaneous pregnancies and road to motherhood. The two were featured on the groundbreaking “Gay Marriage Already Won” cover of TIME Magazine. They were the first same-sex couple to have their marriage ceremony performed in the Episcopal Church of New York State.

Prior to joining GLAAD, Sarah Kate Ellis led national media brands, notably growing Real Simple into one of Time Inc.’s most respected and successful magazines. Her vision also transformed and energized leading media outlets including Vogue, InStyle, New York, and House & Garden. She served as Senior Vice President of Global Marketing at Martini Media, a digital firm specializing in online branding, public relations and marketing.

She earned seven MIN Awards for marketing innovation, two President’s Awards, and MIN’s Sales Executive Team of the Year award in 2012.

As co-chair of OUT at Time Inc., she led programming to spotlight the diversity of the LGBTQ community and educated the organization’s straight allies on a wide range of LGBTQ issues.

Ellis earned her B.A. from Russell Sage College and also attended the Tuck Executive Education program at Dartmouth.

Ellis and her wife Kristen are the proud mothers of two adorable children.

Rebeca Minguela

Currently the founder & CEO of Clarity AI and the former Founder & CEO of Blink Booking (acquired by Groupon), Rebeca is an entrepreneur. She has also worked in tech and digital at large corporations (Santander Bank as Global Head of Digital Transformation, Groupon as Sr Director of Product & Ops), in private equity (Bain Capital), management consulting (Boston Consulting Group), and in engineering, as an engineer, at German Aerospace Agency, Siemens and IBM.

Rebeca is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, a European Young Leader, and an advisor at several startups. Additionally, she and her ventures have been featured in top publications, including, but not limited to, Forbes, The Economist, and FT. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and MSc in Telecommunication Engineering from Universidad Politécnica in Madrid, both with Distinction.

Kim Wilson

Kim Wilson is Director of Sustainability at McLaren Racing. Since joining the team in January 2022, Kim has built and directed the team’s strategic sustainability programme. Under Kim’s guidance, the team is now focused on clear sustainability goals falling into four key pillars: Net Zero, Circular Economy, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and Health & Wellbeing.

Kim trained as a chartered accountant at KPMG and has built her career on the solid foundations of this experience as a sustainability assurance provider, consultant and in-house specialist. Kim held leadership positions in sustainability with ERM and EDF UK prior to joining McLaren.

Esther O’Callaghan OBE

From Manchester to the Metaverse, Esther has had a multi-award winning unconventional career. From being the first female DJ/producer to own a specialist vinyl store to multi-award-winning creative producer and programmer, Esther dedicated her voluntary work to tackling youth and social issues, resulting in hundreds of thousands of children and young people supported across the UK and worldwide. This unique journey has culminated in founding hundo.xyz - the product of her life’s work with a vision to bring together educators, employers, parents and policy makers to enable learners to have access to the skills they need for the 1.1BN frontier tech roles needed globally by 2030 - and reverse increasing youth unemployment rates which are a growing concern.

Rachel Kyte

Rachel Kyte is a founding co-chair of the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative, a multistakeholder international organization enabling a high-integrity voluntary carbon market to deliver on the Paris Agreement.

She is Dean Emerita of The Fletcher School at Tufts University. Kyte has served as special representative of the UN secretary-general and CEO of Sustainable Development for All (SEforALL) and World Bank Group vice president and special envoy for climate change. Kyte has advised the UN secretary-general on climate action and the energy crisis response to the invasion of Ukraine. She is a director of PIDG, trustee of ODI and a board member of the Climate Policy Initiative.

Kyte advises private and philanthropic capital and development finance on financial architecture reform, climate action and delivery against the SDGs and speaks, lectures and writes on climate diplomacy. She has been recognized for her leadership on both sides of the Atlantic and was made a Companion of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 2020 New Years Honors.

Medha Parlikar

Medha is co-founder and chief technology officer of Casper Labs, where she oversees product development. Medha has more than 30 years of tech experience, including leadership roles at Adobe, Avalara and mp3.com. As Casper Labs CTO, Medha is on a mission to make blockchain the platform for doing business in the future.

Svenja Gudell

Svenja Gudell is the Chief Economist at Indeed, the #1 job site in the world, with over 250 million unique visitors per month. She oversees Indeed’s Economic Research Team - the Hiring Lab - which is a global team of economists and data scientists, leading the global labor market conversation. The team is recognized by a wide audience of media, policymakers and professionals for its impartial, data-driven insight into the labor market, the broader economy and the relationship between the two. All of the team’s work can be found at hiringlab.org.

Svenja currently serves on the Board of Directors for the National Association for Business Economics and serves as the Vice Chair of the Federal Economics Statistics Advisory Committee (FESAC). Prior to joining Indeed, Svenja was Chief Economist at Zillow Group. Previously, Svenja worked on economic, financial and strategic consulting for Analysis Group, and was an assistant economist in the research group of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Svenja has a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Rochester, a master’s degree in economics from New York University, a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Rochester, and a Ph.D. in finance from the University of Rochester.

Russ Shaw CBE

Russ Shaw CBE is the founder of Tech London Advocates and Global Tech Advocates. He originally founded Tech London Advocates in 2013 to ensure an independent voice of the technology community was heard, but with a focus on the private sector. Since then, he has been championing London as a global tech hub and campaigning to address some of the biggest challenges facing tech companies in the UK.

Global Tech Advocates, founded in 2015, is now present in 33 hubs around the globe, with over 30,000 members. In 2019, Russ launched the inaugural GTA Festival, taking place in China and bringing the international network together for the first time. The second edition of the Festival was held in India in 2022.

Russ was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours List 2021 for services to technology and to business in London. He is a founding partner of London Tech Week and an Advisory Board member for Founders4Schools. In 2019, Russ was recognised as a Tech Titan; in the Evening Standard's Progress 1000 list of London's most influential people.

Ronald Menzel

Ronald is a visionary entrepreneur, activist, and adventurer who has dedicated his life to making a positive impact in the world. He is the Co-founder of Dreamscape Immersive, the Hollywood backed company who is aiming to introduce the next major platform shift in immersive storytelling. He began his career in the music industry at 17, founding two production companies while studying economics in Switzerland and business strategy in the UK. He then switched to the banking industry, where he led the creation of the e-commerce platform for Deutsche bank. At 34, he retired from the corporate world and launched a 10-year oceanographic expedition and founded several NGOs to protect the environment along the way. Throughout his career, he has always tried to innovate imagining disruptive projects that use cutting-edge technology to create extraordinary customer experiences. Ronald is a passionate traveler, hiker, sailor, diver, and underwater cameraman who has explored the beauty and diversity of our planet in some of its most remote parts.

Cedric Robillot

Dr. Cedric Robillot is the Executive Director of the Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program. Prior to this, Cedric was Director for the Reef Trust Partnership and eReefs, providing strategic advice and program management services in a range of sectors.

Cedric is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Queensland School of Biological Sciences, holds a PhD in environmental toxicology from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris and an engineering degree from the Paris School of Physics and Chemistry (ESPCI). He has 20 years’ experience in both the private and public sectors, delivering and managing large infrastructure and R&D programs.

His previous roles include: Executive Manager, Seqwater, in charge of the Western Corridor Recycled Water Scheme and Gold Coast Desalination Plant; 10 years in biomedical device development, co-founding biotechnology company Cleveland Biosensors; and managing international multidisciplinary projects in Europe, the UK and US.

Jane Goodall

Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and UN Messenger of Peace, is a world-renowned ethologist and activist inspiring greater understanding and action on behalf of the natural world. Dr. Goodall is known for groundbreaking studies of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park, transformative research which continues today as the longest running wild chimpanzee study in the world.

At 26, Jane followed her passion for wildlife and Africa to Gombe, Tanzania. There, under the mentorship of paleoanthropologist Dr. Louis Leakey, she began her landmark study of wild chimpanzees. Her revelatory observation that chimpanzees make and use tools rocked the scientific landscape and forever redefined our understanding of the relationship between humans and other animals.

Jane’s work builds on innovative science, growing a lifetime of advocacy particularly through her global organization the Jane Goodall Institute, founded in 1977. Her trailblazing efforts advance community-led conservation through JGI’s Tacare approach which empowers local communities to own the process of sustainable development and conservation, and through Roots & Shoots, JGI’s international youth program which supports young people in more than 60 countries to create positive change in their communities.

Today, Jane continues to connect with worldwide audiences, despite the challenges of the pandemic, through ‘Virtual Jane’ including remote lectures, recordings, and her podcast, the “Jane Goodall Hopecast.” In 2021, Jane was the recipient of the Templeton Prize, and published her newest book, “The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times.”

Jane is truly a global icon spreading hope and turning it into meaningful positive impact to create a better world for people, other animals, and the planet we share.

PHOTO CREDIT: Stuart Clarke

Nile Rodgers

Nile Rodgers is a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee and a multiple Grammy Award winning songwriter, composer, producer, arranger, and guitarist.

In 2023 he became the first creator to be awarded a Lifetime Achievement Grammy for his legacy in the same year as being awarded a Grammy for his new work with Beyoncé on the smash hit “Cuff It”.

As the Co-founder of CHIC, Nile pioneered a musical language that generated chart-topping hits like "Le Freak”, the biggest selling single in the history of Atlantic Records and sparked the advent of hip-hop with "Good Times” and “Rapper’s Delight”.

His work in The CHIC Organization, including “We Are Family” for Sister Sledge and “I’m Coming Out” for Diana Ross, and his productions for artists such as David Bowie (“Let’s Dance”), Madonna (“Like A Virgin”) and Duran Duran (“The Reflex”), have sold more than 500 million albums and 100 million singles worldwide, while his innovative, trendsetting collaborations with Daft Punk, Daddy Yankee, LE SSERAFIM and Beyoncé reflect the vanguard of contemporary hits.

Nile is the first, and only Producer In Residence at Apple Music and helms the award-winning Apple Music 1’s “Deep Hidden Meaning” radio show celebrating the work of great songwriters. Nile served as the first-ever Chief Creative Advisor for the incomparable Abbey Road Studios and is the Chairman of the Songwriters Hall of Fame as well as Co-founder of Hipgnosis Songs, the multi-billion-dollar investment fund listed on the London Stock Exchange’s FTSE 250.

In 2001 in the wake of 9/11 Nile co-founded the We Are Family Foundation (WAFF) at first to bring everyone together following the tragedy to start the healing process. It quickly evolved into an organization dedicated to the vision of a global family by creating and supporting programs that promote cultural diversity while nurturing, mentoring, and amplifying the vision, talents and ideas of young people who are positively changing the world.

WAFF is focused on empowering young people globally through its acclaimed youth leadership, storytelling and mentoring program, Three Dot Dash; Youth To The Front Fund, designed to support BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color), youth at the forefront of fighting systemic racism, inequality and injustice; and Youth To The Table, bringing youth voices to decision making tables that are shaping humanity’s future.

Nancy Hunt

Nancy (she/her) is Co-Founder of We Are Family Foundation (WAFF), along with her partner in life Nile Rodgers, and has served as President creating and guiding WAFF's initiatives since its inception in 2002. Prior to WAFF, Nancy co-founded Smock Media Inc., an art-based media company, and Notorious Entertainment, with Sean "Puffy" Combs. Nancy oversaw joint ventures, the publishing of Smock and Notorious magazines and the extensions of each brand. She is an award-winning photographer, has a Master's degree in clinical psychology and is a proud breast cancer survivor.

Cherie Blair CBE KC

Cherie Blair CBE KC is a leading King’s Counsel, committed campaigner for women’s rights and wife of the former British Prime Minister. Cherie set up the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women in 2008 to support women in low and middle income countries to start, sustain and grow successful businesses so that they can be financially independent, have a stronger voice in their societies, and contribute to their communities and economies. She is also founder of Omnia Strategy, a pioneering international law firm that provides strategic counsel to governments, corporates and private clients.

Cherie is an advocate and ambassador for women entrepreneurs globally, working tirelessly to encourage the private sector, governments and civil society to do more to support women business owners. She generously gives her time, expertise and resources to advance women's economic empowerment through the Foundation, travelling to visit our projects and partners, building collaborations, inspiring change and mobilising what's needed to close the gender gap in business ownership.

Cherie was awarded a CBE in the 2013 New Year’s Honours List for services to women’s issues and to charities in both the UK and overseas.

Maejor

Inspired by sound therapy, Maejor is on a global mission to heal through music. Over his career, the Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter, and powerhouse producer has worked with the likes of Justin Bieber—with whom he collaborated on the #1 hit album Purpose—as well as Drake, Ciara and T-Pain, and countless others. He is also one half of the EDM duo known as Area21 alongside superstar DJ Martin Garrix. Maejor’s work as a solo artist includes the hit single "Lolly" featuring Juicy J, which peaked at number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart, as well as his album Vol 1: Frequency. Maejor has also scored film soundtracks for Bratz: The Movie (2007), The Princess and the Frog (2009), and Think Like a Man (2012). He also has produced music for video games including NBA2K and FIFA as well as national campaigns for Pepsi and the Boston Celtics. Maejor resides in Los Angeles, CA.

Aidan Gomez

Aidan Gomez is Cofounder and CEO at Cohere, a provider of cutting-edge NLP models that’s solving all kinds of language problems, including text summarization, composition, classification, and more. Prior to Cohere, Aidan co-authored the paper “Attention is All You Need,” which introduced the groundbreaking Transformer architecture. He also collaborated with a number of AI luminaries, including Geoff Hinton and Jeff Dean, during his time at Google Brain, where the team focused their efforts on large-scale machine learning. Based in Toronto, Aidan holds a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Toronto, and is currently a doctoral student of Computer Science at the University of Oxford.

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

A storyteller, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is the recipient of two Academy awards for her films, which have led to legislative change. Last spring, Obaid-Chinoy infused her signature style and verisimilitude she brings to her nonfiction projects to her narrative directorial debut for Marvel’s critically acclaimed series, MS.MARVEL.

Leandro von Werra

Leandro von Werra is a Machine Learning Engineer in the open source and research teams at Hugging Face. He is the creator of a popular Python library called TRL, which combines transformers with reinforcement learning. Furthermore, he co-leads the BigCode project that aims at developing large language models for code in an open and responsible way with models such as StarCoder.

Florian Bressand

Mark Hughes

Mark Hughes is president of Security for DXC Technology. He is responsible for DXC’s Security business including cyber defence, digital identity, secured infrastructure and security risk management.

Mark joined DXC from BT, a world-leading global telecommunications provider, where he most recently served as chief executive of BT Security. He joined BT in 2002 and held a variety of senior appointments, including key government customer-facing roles. In 2013 Mark led the formation of BT Security, which has become a global leader with 3,000 cyber security experts across 15 security operation centres globally and double-digit annual revenue growth.

Earlier in his career, Mark was the commercial director at MWB Business Exchange. He began his career in the British Army.

Mark has served on national boards, including the Cyber Growth Partnership for the United Kingdom, and the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Cybersecurity Board.

Awarded a BS with honours by the University of Leicester, Mark trained at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and the Junior Division of Staff College. He was awarded military advanced certificates in French and German from the University of Westminster.

Beata Javorcik

Beata Javorcik is Chief Economist of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London. She is on leave from the University of Oxford, where she is the first woman to hold a Statutory Professorship in Economics. She is also a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford and the Director of the International Trade Programme at the CEPR in London. She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee at ifo Institute, University of Munich, as well as of the Executive and Supervisory Committee of CERGE-EI in Prague. Before taking up her position at Oxford, she worked at the World Bank in Washington DC, where she focused on research, lending operations and policy advice. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Yale and a B.A. in Economics (Summa cum Laude) from the University of Rochester.

Hugh Evans

Hugh Evans is Co-Founder and CEO of Global Citizen, the world’s leading international advocacy organization working to end extreme poverty now, an internationally renowned humanitarian, and one of the most recognized leaders in international development. Under his leadership, Global Citizen has grown into an unstoppable movement of tens of millions of people around the world taking action to defeat poverty, defend our planet, and address the systemic barriers that keep people trapped in inequality.
Powered by a worldwide community of everyday activists raising their voices and taking action, the Global Citizen movement is amplified by campaigns and events that convene leaders in music, entertainment, public policy, media, philanthropy and the corporate sector, including the Global Citizen NOW thought leadership summit and the world renowned Global Citizen Festival, which takes place in New York’s Central Park’s and coincides with the UN General Assembly each September. Over the past 10 years, $43.6 billion in commitments announced on Global Citizen platforms has been deployed, impacting nearly 1.3 billion lives.
Evans’ passion for poverty eradication was sparked at the age of 14, when he spent the night in a slum in Manila, Philippines. The experience led him to co-found the Oaktree Foundation, Australia’s first youth-run aid organization, which focuses on creating education opportunities to countries in need across Asia Pacific and African regions, and is still run today by people aged 16 to 26. In 2006, Evans coordinated the ‘Make Poverty History’ campaign in Australia, which culminated in a concert on the eve of the G20 meeting in Melbourne with support from Bono and Pearl Jam. As a result of the campaign, the Australian Government agreed to double its investment in international development. Immediately following, with a grant from the United Nations, Global Citizen was born.
Over the course of his career, Evans has been named Young Australian of the Year (2004), one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business (2014), and Billboard magazine’s Humanitarian of the Year (2015); he featured on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list (2012), and received GQ’s Man of the Year Award for Chivalry (2014) and the Diamond Ball Award for humanitarian work from Rihanna’s Clara Lionel Foundation (2018). He holds a Bachelor of Law and Science from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and a Master of Philosophy in International Relations from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, and has received Honorary Doctorates from Utah State University in Utah, St. John’s University in New York and Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. He is based in New York City.

Nomzamo Mbatha

NOMZAMO MBATHA is an actress and humanitarian who joined Global Citizen in 2018 for the Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100 in Johannesburg, South Africa to commemorate the 100th year of Nelson Mandela.

A leading voice for young women and girls, Nomzamo has pushed for the rights of girls and children in South Africa and across the continent alongside Global Citizen and through her foundation. Nomzamo also joined Global Citizen in 2020 for Vax Live: The Concert to Reunite the World to demand world leaders ensure COVID-19 vaccines are equitably distributed to everyone, everywhere; as well as appearing on stage at Global Citizen Live to Defeat Poverty and Defend the Planet in 2021.

Nomzamo also helped launch Global Citizen’s 2022 campaign: End Poverty NOW, alongside former Prime Minister of Norway, Erna Solberg in February 2022. In 2023, Nomzamo participated in the second Global Citizen NOW calling for global education funding, hosted the fifth Global Citizen Prize Award Ceremony, and joined Global Citizen in Kigali, Rwanda for Women Deliver.



Nomzamo also joined Global Citizen in Central Park as the Global Citizen Festival's backstage host, speaking with the performers about the major issues driving extreme poverty, including the climate crisis, gender inequity, and food insecurity.





Sir Tim Berners-Lee

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, a renowned computer scientist, is best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web. Currently a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Berners-Lee made a monumental contribution to technology by developing the first web browser and server. His groundbreaking work in the early 1990s revolutionized information sharing and communication, leading to the internet as we know it today. A visionary in digital innovation, his work has profoundly transformed the global landscape of information and technology.

Chief Nixiwaka Yawanawa

Chief Nixiwaka is one of the most relevant indigenous leaders of our time. He has dedicated his life to reclaiming his people’s ancient culture and spirituality. After reconquering the rights over their ancestral territory, Nixiwaka, alongside his family, led the opening of their culture to the outside world. Its main element is the Yawa Festival, which is held annually since 2002 in the village of Nova Esperança (“New Hope”). In the past years he has spent most of his time in the Sacred Village, dedicated to spirituality and healing, receiving teachings from the elders, in order to carry on the Yawanawa legacy. In his few journeys out of his village to represent his people, he’s also visited other spiritual leaders around the world and has partaken in the sharing of many cultural traditions.

Chief Puttany Yawanawa

Yawanawa spirituality is a sacred territory where never a woman had dared to step, for since ancestral times, it had belonged exclusively to men. In 2005, Putanny and her sister were the first women to make the sacred oath of the Yawanawa people. They have since been recognized as the first women to undergo Yawanawa spiritual training. After a year of strict diet, Putanny earned her communities’ respect as spiritual leader, opening the way into this sacred path for other Yawanawa women. A break in tradition that united the male and female universes – and brought the magic of feminine spirituality to strengthen the Yawanawa culture. Together with her husband, Chief Nixiwaka, Putanny currently leads the place of origin of the Yawanawa people, considered the cultural sanctuary of this Nation.

Chief Isku Kua Yawanawa

For many years, Isku Kua has been supporting his father chief Nixiwaka in the administration of tribal affairs. Today he is chief of Nova Esperança (“New Hope”) village, with a population of 300 people. Isku Kua represents the young generation and has already been through the higher spiritual initiations of the tradition. He is also a talented musician and guitar player, who adapted many traditional songs to the guitar, and travels frequently to Europe and the United States to share his people’s culture and spirituality. Isku’s knowledge of his culture gets deeper every day as a result of his commitment to the studies and his conduction of the Uní ceremony impresses even Yawanawa elders.

Johanna Mair

Johanna Mair is a Professor of Organization, Strategy, and Leadership at the Hertie School. Her research is primarily focused on how organizations and innovative forms of organizing can contribute to economic, social, and political progress. She is also a Distinguished Fellow at the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society and serves as an Academic Editor of the Stanford Social Innovation Review. Additionally, Mair is the Co-Director of the Global Innovation for Impact Lab and has previously co-directed the Social Innovation + Change Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School. She has served as a faculty member at IESE Business School, held a visiting position at the Harvard Business School and INSEAD, and has authored award-winning research published in books and leading scholarly journals. Mair also advises companies, governments, and social impact investors on social innovation, and serves on the board of foundations and organizations. Prior to earning her PhD in management from INSEAD, she worked in executive decision-making in international banking. In 2008, the Aspen Institute recognized her as a "Faculty Pioneer" in Social Entrepreneurship Education.

Marta Belcher

Marta Belcher is the General Counsel and Head of Policy at Protocol Labs and the Board Chair of the Filecoin Foundation and the Filecoin Foundation for the Decentralized Web. She also serves as special counsel to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Marta is a pioneer in cryptocurrency law and has spoken on the topic around the world, including in U.S. Congress, European Parliament, the New York Senate, the OECD, and in Davos during the World Economic Forum. Marta has drafted amicus briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. appellate courts for high-profile public interest organizations, including EFF, the Center for Democracy & Technology, Public Knowledge, the Cato Institute, the National Consumers' League, Project Gutenberg, and the Blockchain Association. Marta has been recognized twice by the Financial Times Innovative Lawyer awards, was named to Law360's list of Top Attorneys Under 40, and was #18 on CryptoWeekly’s list of Most Influential Women in Crypto.

Sara Sabry

Sara Sabry, a trailblazing astronaut and founder of Deep Space Initiative (DSI), stands as the first Egyptian, Arab woman, and African woman in space, making history with her pioneering contributions. As the executive director and founder of Deep Space Initiative, she champions accessibility in the space field, fostering global opportunities for research and education. Currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Aerospace Sciences, Sabry's NASA-funded research focuses on the next generation of planetary spacesuits. A multifaceted expert in Mechatronics, Robotic Surgery, Stem Cell Development, Augmented Reality, Formula 3 Car design, and Bioastronautics, Sabry, as an acclaimed international speaker, passionately advocates for representation in space exploration. As Chief Business Officer at Extremo Technologies, she leads innovations in Carbon Capture and Oxygen production for both Earth and Space applications. Her entrepreneurial success, including prestigious awards like the IAF Emerging Space Leader and STEAM Innovation, aligns with her commitment to inclusivity and equality, as she continues to inspire others globally through her impactful journey.

Tim Shephard

Tim Shephard is the Lockheed Martin Space Vice President for Enterprise Strategy, based in Colorado, focused on the firm’s defense, intelligence, civil and commercial space portfolios. Tim reports to the LM Space Senior S&BD Vice President, Dan Tenney. Prior to December 2022, Tim was responsible for leading the business development function at Lockheed Martin Space since 2018.

Lockheed’s strengths in system integration, operational architectures, and the collaborative development of critical technologies combine the largest network of science, aerospace and defense suppliers and partners in the world. Tim’s current strategy role leverages his experience driving top line organic growth. The strategy function supports C-Suite growth targets, change-management objectives, optimization efforts, competitive intelligence and mergers and acquisitions. Beyond supporting core P&L objectives, Tim proactively partners with this strategy counterparts across the corporation to drive shared investments and concepts of operations focused upon unlocking stranded capacity and value across the firm’s unrivalled portfolio of sensors, platforms, and effectors.

Over the past 30 years, Tim has helped guide his aerospace and defense business teams in both domestic and international campaigns covering aviation, space, intelligence, and armaments. Prior to joining Lockheed Martin, Tim was Orbital ATK’s Corporate Vice President for international. He organized Orbital ATK’s international strategy monetizing intellectual property, opening new markets and creating a billion dollars of new revenue. Prior to joining Orbital ATK, Tim spent 16 years with Northrop Grumman. His last role at Northrop as the Regional Vice President of a Euro-Americas region, headquartered in Brussels.

Beyond the office, Tim currently serves on the national board of GlobalMindED, supporting development of first-generation university candidates from diverse and disadvantaged backgrounds. He is also Lockheed Martin Corporation’s Executive Champion to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Tim is a founding member of the Board of Advisors for George Mason University’s Center for Government Contracting and is an active Board member on the Colorado Business Round Table (COBRT). He is a regular contributor at both the Organization of Economic Development Space Forum (OECD, Paris) and the Wharton Aerospace Conference. In the past, Tim served as the National Defense Industry Association’s (NDIA’s) US representative to NATO in the role of the NATO Industrial Advisory Group (NIAG) and served as the Vice-Chairman for the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) International Council.

Jonathan Dotan

Jonathan Dotan is the founding director of The Starling Lab where he leads applied research on the decentralized web and human rights. He is a fellow at the Stanford Compression Forum and Stanford’s Center for Blockchain Research, and an innovation fellow at the USC Shoah Foundation. He brings to Starling over 20 years of experience navigating the intersections of media, tech, and policy as a c-level tech executive, producer, and investor.

Megan Klimen

Megan Klimen is the co-founding officer of Filecoin Foundation and Filecoin Foundation for the Decentralized Web. Previously, she was co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of 3Scan, a biotech startup that developed 3D robotic serial sectioning microscopes, with the mission of enabling big data analysis of human tissue for applications including clinical diagnostics, drug discovery, 3D organ printing, and brain mapping. In addition, Megan co-ran an open data project in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, that organized and made available academic and military research, co-organized the open-source “BIL” Conference, and is a founding member of Women in Hardware.

Daniel Erasmus

For more 25 years Daniel Erasmus, has been leading large scale global transformation processes for private and public institutions –– guiding, for example: the transformation of a city to a low carbon economy, a major bank to prepare for the global financial crisis; Central Bank’s scenarios & innovations leading to the first instance of Central Bank issued Digital Currencies (2015), blockchain and AI policies; re-designing breakthrough GameChanging innovation system for an oil super-major; etc.

As a response to food security challenges due to COVID-19 identified as an edge risk using Erasmus.AI the Digital Thinking Network facilitated a process, set up in 3 months which has given 58 million meals to vulnerable people in Southern Africa by end 2022, starting from 1 million meals in 2020.

Daniel is CEO of the planetary scale NLP sense-making AI platform NEWSCONSOLE/ Erasmus.AI, processing 1/4 Billion URLs per day and developed over the last 18 years to reinvent news; disrupt traditional investment practice and risk management; achieve breakthrough insights in innovation and medicine and gain global overviews where none existed. The platform has been used by Fortune top 10 companies to identify multi-billion dollar unknown risks and opportunities.

In public sector transformation the DTN created the International Advisory Board and Economic Development Board for the City of Rotterdam, which led to the groundbreaking initiative in 2006 to half Rotterdam’s CO2 emissions by 2025 and become the number one intercultural city in Europe.

He has written three books on breakthrough innovation (redesigning Shell’s breakthrough innovation process GameChanger), the future of the Internet and the future of Fintech. He was editor of Convergence, authored the column The Economy of Ideas and The Information Society, the latter column for The Financial Times Review.

Caroline Pham

The Honorable Caroline D. Pham, Commissioner, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission

The Honorable Caroline D. Pham was sworn in as a CFTC Commissioner on April 14, 2022. Commissioner Pham is a recognized leader in financial services compliance and regulatory strategy and policy. Her substantial experience spans key international issues such as prudential regulation and systemic risk, financial markets, fintech and digital assets, ESG, implementation of global regulatory reforms, and addressing the impact of major disruptions like the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. Commissioner Pham is the sponsor of the CFTC’s Global Markets Advisory Committee.

Previously, Commissioner Pham was a Managing Director at Citigroup where she held various senior roles, including Head of Market Structure for Strategic Initiatives on the Institutional Clients Group Business Development team; Head of Capital Markets Regulatory Strategy and Engagement; Deputy Head of Global Regulatory Affairs; and Global Head of Swap Dealer and Volcker Compliance. She was a member of firmwide governance forums and has held leadership roles in many industry organizations.

Commissioner Pham is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and has received various professional awards. She has a B.A. from UCLA and a J.D. from the George Washington University Law School, where she has served on the Dean’s Advisory Council for Business and Finance Law and was a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Law, Economics and Finance.

Danny O'Brien

Danny O'Brien is Senior Fellow at the Filecoin Foundation, and the Filecoin Foundation for the Decentralized Web. He has been a tech journalist, developer and activist for online free speech, privacy and an open internet for over 20 years, including over a decade at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). His work within the technology sector has included being a founding employee at the Virgin brand's ISP, Virgin Net. As a journalist, he served as Silicon Valley correspondent for the London Sunday Times and the Irish Times, and defended reporters globally from online harassment and cyber-attacks at the Committee to Protect Journalists.

In a previous century, Danny wrote and performed the only one-man show about Usenet to have a successful run in London's West End. His geek gossip zine, Need To Know, won a special commendation for services to newsgathering at the first Interactive BAFTAs. He also coined the term "life hack": it has been over a decade since he was first commissioned to write a book on combating procrastination.

Bernhard Kowatsch

Bernhard Kowatsch leads the UN World Food Programme's Innovation Accelerator, which he created in 2015. Under his leadership, it is now the world's largest social impact startup accelerator, running a total of 16 social impact accelerator programmes per year, addressing issues like hunger, climate change, healthcare, gender equality, and emergency response. In 2022, the portfolio of 150+ startups and innovations impacted 37 million people globally. He also created the global leading fundraising app, ShareTheMeal, which has raised more than $130M and was named Best App of 2020 by Apple and Google. Bernhard is a social impact thought leader and speaker on global challenges at events like TED, World Economic Forum, and COP.

Dante Disparte

Dante Disparte is Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Global Policy at Circle, responsible for overseeing company strategy, communications, policy and public affairs. Since joining Circle in 2021, his leadership in driving market expansion, regulatory engagement, and more have been integral in furthering the company’s mission to raise global economic prosperity through the frictionless exchange of financial value.

Prior to joining Circle, Dante served as a founding executive of the Diem Association, leading policy, communications, membership and social impact. He also brings two decades of experience as an entrepreneur, business leader and global risk expert, most recently as founder and CEO of Risk Cooperative. He also served as an appointee on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) National Advisory Council. Currently, he is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Digital Currency Governance Consortium and a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Additionally, he is co-author of “Global Risk Agility and Decision Making” (Macmillan 2016). He earned a bachelor’s degree from Goucher College, is a PLD graduate of Harvard Business School, and has an MSc in risk management from NYU Stern School of Business. Outside of work, Dante enjoys speaking and commentating, such as in media outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fortune, BBC, Forbes and Diplomatic Courier.

Shyam Nagarajan

Shyam currently leads Responsible AI and Blockchain led transformation efforts for clients across all industries globally. He brings deep expertise in driving business and process transformation for clients. Shyam is responsible for growing Blockchain and AI adoption in core areas such as supply chain, banking, insurance, trading, payments (corporate, retail, healthcare) through disruptive business models, intelligent automation addressing both revenue and cost drivers while helping financial institutions shift towards the new digital age. Shyam has been a featured speaker at World Economic Forum Davos 2022, Consensus 2019-2020 and other Blockchain / Web3 forums. He is also an active advisor to number of Web3 / Blockchain/ AI startups.

Casper Klynge

Casper Klynge has been serving as Denmark’s Tech Ambassador in Silicon Valley. Prior to this role he was Ambassador of Denmark to Indonesia, Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea & ASEAN and to the Republic of Cyprus.

Prior to that, Klynge worked in several positions within the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as the Senior Civilian Representative / Deputy Head of NATO’s multinational Helmand Provincial Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan and as Head of the European Union’s civilian crisis management mission in Kosovo). Earlier in his diplomatic career he lived and worked in Brussels, working with the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers of the EU.

Klynge holds a master’s degree in political science from Copenhagen University, and is a 2009 Marshall Memorial Fellow.

Clara Tsao

Clara Tsao is the co-founding officer of the Filecoin Foundation & the Filecoin Foundation for the Decentralized Web. She was recently the co-founder and board member of the Trust & Safety Professional Association 501(c)(6) and Trust & Safety Foundation. She was formerly a White House Presidential Innovation Fellow, executive director of the US Congressional App Challenge, and the Director of the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee. She also served as the Senior Advisor for blockchain policy at the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency and Department of Homeland Security. Clara has also spent 5 years working in developer evangelism, tech policy, and ecosystem growth roles across Microsoft, AT&T, Mozilla, Google, and Apple. Her MBA (from Imperial College, London) focused on the Chinese startup ecosystem.

Yann LeCun

Yann LeCun is VP & Chief AI Scientist at Meta and Silver Professor at NYU affiliated with the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences & the Center for Data Science. He was the founding Director of FAIR and of the NYU Center for Data Science. He received an Engineering Diploma from ESIEE (Paris) and a PhD from Sorbonne Université. After a postdoc in Toronto he joined AT&T Bell Labs in 1988, and AT&T Labs in 1996 as Head of Image Processing Research. He joined NYU as a professor in 2003 and Meta/Facebook in 2013. His interests include AI, machine learning, computer perception, robotics, and computational neuroscience. He is the recipient of the 2018 ACM Turing Award (with Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio) for "conceptual and engineering breakthroughs that have made deep neural networks a critical component of computing", a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the French Académie des Sciences.

Karl Friston

Karl Friston is a theoretical neuroscientist and authority on brain imaging. He invented statistical parametric mapping (SPM), voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and dynamic causal modeling (DCM). These contributions were motivated by schizophrenia research and theoretical studies of value-learning, formulated as the dysconnection hypothesis of schizophrenia.

Mathematical contributions include variational Laplacian procedures and generalized filtering for hierarchical Bayesian model inversion. Friston currently works on models of functional integration in the human brain and the principles that underlie neuronal interactions. His main contribution to theoretical neurobiology is a free-energy principle for action and perception (active inference).

Friston received the first Young Investigators Award in Human Brain Mapping (1996) and was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (1999). In 2000 he was President of the international Organization of Human Brain Mapping. In 2003 he was awarded the Minerva Golden Brain Award and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2006. In 2008 he received a Medal, College de France and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of York in 2011. He became of Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology in 2012, received the Weldon Memorial prize and Medal in 2013 for contributions to mathematical biology and was elected as a member of EMBO (excellence in the life sciences) in 2014 and the Academia Europaea in (2015). He was the 2016 recipient of the Charles Branch Award for unparalleled breakthroughs in Brain Research and the Glass Brain Award - a lifetime achievement award in the field of human brain mapping. He holds Honorary Doctorates from the University of Zurich and Radboud University.

Alan Ransil

Alan leads the Filecoin Green team, which aims at building decentralized tools to pull verifiable environmental information through the economy in real time. He has worked to accelerate the transition to renewable energy for more than a decade, approaching this work as an academic and industry researcher, and startup co-founder. During his doctoral research at MIT focused on energy storage systems, he worked on projects for ARPA-E and DARPA.

AGENDA

10:35AM

HOW WILL THE CRYPTO INDUSTRY REBUILD?

Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of US crypto company Ripple, talks to CNBC Senior Tech Correspondent Arjun Kharpal about the future of the business, how blockchain technology is developing, and whether the industry is moving on from its recent traumas.   

Brad Garlinghouse, CEO, Ripple

Moderator: Arjun Kharpal, CNBC Senior Technology Reporter

11:00AM

HOW AI IS REVOLUTIONIZING AND RESHAPING INDUSTRIES

Programmed by CNBC Catalyst, the commercial arm of CNBC, in partnership with WorldQuant

How are AI and predictive technologies changing our world? As the prevalence of AI grows, industries across medicine, finance, manufacturing, transport will rely on the use of predictive technologies. How are these advanced tech tools and capabilities reshaping the way we operate and do business now and in the future? How can leaders effectively harness the power of AI? Leading industry figures discuss the breakthrough opportunities in their sectors – as well as the role of human talent in effectively leveraging these new technologies.

Igor Tulchinsky, Founder, Chairman and CEO, WorldQuant
Hossein Rahnama, Professor, MIT Media Lab and Toronto Metropolitan University; Founder and CEO, Flybits Inc.
Tejpreet S. Chopra, Founder and CEO, Bharat Light & Power Group

Moderator: David Fergusson, CNBC Catalyst Moderator

11:30AM

THE INTERNET IS BROKEN. THESE TECH LEADERS HAVE IDEAS TO FIX IT.

A growing number of tech leaders and innovators warn about the power of Big Tech firms and believe the current state of the internet is broken. We hear about their fears and their ideas to reform the internet.   

Jimmy Wales, Co-Founder, Wikipedia
Meredith Whittaker, President, Signal
Andy Yen, Founder & CEO, Proton
Frank McCourt, Executive Chairman and Founder, Project Liberty

Moderator: Arjun Kharpal, CNBC Senior Technology Reporter

12:10PM

UKRAINE CONFLICT

Almost 2 years on since Russian troops invaded Ukraine, the war rages on. President Zelenskyy has voiced his fears that the conflict in the Middle East has overshadowed what is going on within his country, and implored the international community to remain committed to protecting Ukraine. But the war has caused diplomatic tensions from Brussels to Washington, with Ukraine’s accession a key issue for European leaders, and aid to Ukraine becoming a political football in Congress. We try to answer the tough questions on where the conflict is heading, and how the Ukraine economy can rebuild after the invasion in 2022.

Beata Javorcik, Chief Economist, EBRD
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Belarus Opposition Leader; Belarus Political Activist

Moderator: Silvia Amaro, CNBC TV Reporter & Correspondent

12:30PM

INNOVATING TO FEED THE WORLD

The world’s population has doubled in just 40 years to more than 8 billion and is forecast to rise another 2 billion in the next 30. Today, 250 million people face acute hunger or starvation, according to the Food Security Information Network. But as the population grows, food supplies are threatened and prices are rising as climate and conflicts ravage communities and agriculture. This panel explores these challenges, discusses the innovative solutions and analyses what else needs to happen to make basic nutrition sustainable for everyone.

Kees Aarts, CEO and Founder, Protix
Christopher Abbott, CEO, Pivot Bio
Bill Anderson, CEO, Bayer

Moderator: Silvia Amaro, CNBC TV Reporter & Correspondent

1:00PM

THE BUSINESS CASE FOR RACIAL EQUITY

Programmed by CNBC Catalyst, the commercial arm of CNBC, in partnership with The W.K. Kellogg Foundation

George Floyd’s murder was a turning point for America; it put a spotlight on the urgent need for global racial healing. Coinciding with Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and the U.S. National Day of Racial Healing, this discussion will shine a light on the role business leaders can play in fostering environments where people from all identity groups can thrive at work and beyond.

W.K. Kellogg Foundation President and CEO, La June Montgomery Tabron, will be joined by Robert F. Smith, CEO of Vista Equity Partners, to discuss their partnership – Southern Communities Initiative – a program that leverages the $340B+ in racial equity commitments made by corporations to tackle endemic problems faced by communities of color. The audience will gain insights into how bridging systemic racial divides provides CEOs and executives an opportunity to drive economic growth and prosperity across all industries and sectors.

La June Montgomery Tabron, President and CEO, W.K. Kellogg Foundation
Robert F. Smith, Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Vista Equity Partners

Moderator: Emma Crosby, CNBC Catalyst Moderator

2:00PM

THE NEXT FRONTIER IN SPACE

Programmed by Venue Partner, Filecoin Foundation

We’ll explore how decentralized technologies can be the backbone of communications infrastructure for the emerging space economy.

Marta Belcher, President & Chair, Filecoin Foundation
Sara Sabry, CEO & Founder, Deep Space Initiative
Tim Shephard, Vice President, Enterprise Strategy @ Lockheed Martin Space

Moderator: Michael Casey, Chief Content Officer, CoinDesk

2:30PM

LEADING THROUGH CHANGE AND REINVENTION

Programmed by CNBC Catalyst, the commercial arm of CNBC, in partnership with PwC

In today’s ever-changing environment, leaders are faced with more headwinds than ever before. PwC US Senior Partner Tim Ryan will discuss leading through these uncertain times, including building trust with stakeholders, reinventing business models, upskilling people on AI and more.

Tim Ryan, US Senior Partner, PwC

Moderator: Emma Crosby, CNBC Catalyst Moderator

2:50PM - 4:30PM

SUSTAINABLE FUTURE FORUM

Network

Many businesses, policymakers and investors have built a shared commitment to sustainable production and consumption practices around the world. Now, facing immediate economic pressures, international conflicts, political uncertainty and elections in many countries, how can we keep our focus on a sustainable future?

2:50PM

LESSONS FROM COP 28: CHARTING A PATH FOR CLIMATE ACTION

COP 28 in Dubai ended with ministers agreeing to transition away from fossil fuels. What needs to happen in 2024 to make progress? And with stakeholder nations facing economic pressures, political uncertainty, and increasing geopolitical tensions, will pledges be honoured? This panel examines what needs to happen to stay on course.

Badr Jafar, CEO Crescent Enterprises and COP28 Special Representative for Business and Philanthropy
Daniel F. Feldman, Partner, Covington and former Chief of Staff and Counselor to Secretary John Kerry
Rachel Kyte, Founding Co-Chair, The Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI)

Moderator: Dan Murphy, CNBC Anchor and Correspondent

3:35PM

CNBC FIRESIDE CHAT WITH SANDA OJIAMBO

Sanda Ojiambo, CEO and Executive Director, UN Global Compact

Moderator: Tania Bryer, CNBC Host and Executive Producer

3:50PM

NAVIGATING THE ENERGY TRANSITION

COP 28 climate summit reached a historic deal to transition away from fossil fuels but did the agreement go far enough? According to the IEA’s World Energy Outlook for 2023, countries must do more to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius as demand for oil, coal and natural gas is set to peak by the end of the decade. This panel looks at how countries can diversify energy supplies while maintaining economic stability.

Marco Alverà, CEO, TES
Vaishali Sinha, Co-Founder, ReNew
Alfred Stern, Chairman & CEO, OMV
Bold Baatar, CEO, Rio Tinto Copper
Henrik Andersen, CEO, Vestas

Moderator: Steve Sedgwick, CNBC Presenter and Anchor

4:30PM

CNBC Fireside Chat

Hugh Evans, Co-Founder and CEO, Global Citizen
Nomzamo Mbatha, Actress, Humanitarian, and Global Citizen Ambassador

Moderator: Tania Bryer, CNBC Host and Executive Producer

5:00PM

CNBC INTERVIEW WITH NILE RODGERS AND NANCY HUNT

Tania Bryer talks to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee, Grammy Lifetime Achievement winner and recipient of one of the World Economic Forum’s 2024 Crystal Awards for his extraordinary commitment to giving back and making a difference as Co-Founder & Chairman of the We Are Family Foundation. Nile will be joined by Co-Founder & President of the Foundation, Nancy Hunt.

Nile Rodgers, Musician, Co-Founder & Chairman, We Are Family Foundation
Nancy Hunt, Co-Founder & President, We Are Family Foundation

Moderator: Tania Bryer, CNBC Host and Executive Producer

10:00AM

USING AI, BLOCKCHAIN, AND PREDICTIVE MODELING TO PROTECT OUR PLANET

Programmed by CNBC Catalyst, the commercial arm of CNBC, sponsored by Filecoin Foundation

Discover the potential of blockchain, AI, and machine learning in addressing climate challenges.

Jonathan Dotan, Founder, EQTY Lab
Megan Klimen, Founding Officer, Filecoin Foundation
Daniel Erasmus, CEO, NEWSCONSOLE/ Erasmus.AI
Alan Ransil, Founder, Filecoin Green

Moderator: David Fergusson, CNBC Catalyst Moderator

10:30AM

ARE REGULATORS FINALLY READY TO TACKLE THE CRYPTO INDUSTRY?

Controversy has stalked the crypto industry, from the collapse of FTX and the subsequent criminal trial of its founder Sam Bankman-Fried, to Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao admitting criminal charges as part of a $4.3 billion settlement with the U.S. government. Now the industry waits to see if U.S. regulators act. Our panel discusses what comes next for the crypto industry.   

Eswar Prasad, Tolani Senior Professor of Trade Policy, Cornell University
Sheila Warren, CEO, Crypto Council for Innovation
Medha Parlikar, CTO, Casper Labs

Moderator: Arjun Kharpal, CNBC Senior Technology Reporter

11:00AM

AI TRANSFORMING WORK - SKILLS-BASED EDUCATION FOR AN INCLUSIVE AND ADVANCED WORKFORCE

Programmed by CNBC Catalyst, the commercial arm of CNBC, in partnership with WorldQuant University

As AI fundamentally reshapes the world, how do we provide training and skills development to equip the workforce to participate in a new era of the economy? It is critical that we re-evaluate the ties between education and business through the lens of AI and advanced technologies to address the prevailing gaps in both skill and opportunity. What does the future of the workplace look like – and how do we ensure the workforce is equipped with the right skills to succeed? From reskilling and upskilling to reforms in our education systems – education leaders will discuss the business and societal imperative of skills-based education, and how we can leverage technology to broaden access to quality education to students globally.

Daphne Kis, President, WorldQuant University
Gina Mastantuono, Chief Financial Officer, ServiceNow
Svenja Gudell, Chief Economist, Indeed

Moderator: David Fergusson, CNBC Catalyst Moderator

11:30AM

CNBC FIRESIDE CHAT WITH NICOLA MENDELSOHN

Nicola Mendelsohn, Head of Global Business Group, Meta

Moderator: Tania Bryer, CNBC Host and Executive Producer

11:50AM

CATALYSING GLOBAL TRADE: CONNECTING DYNAMIC MARKETS

Programmed by CNBC Catalyst, the commercial arm of CNBC, in partnership with Standard Chartered

Globalisation has delivered economic growth and lifted living standards for millions. However, some developing markets and smaller businesses have been left in its wake and are struggling to keep pace with the benefits enjoyed by larger economies. 

How can we enable the participation of smaller markets and businesses to ensure a fairer, more inclusive, and sustainable future? As global trade continues to power prosperity, how can the public and private sectors do better to connect capital to where it’s needed most?

Simon Cooper, CEO, Corporate, Commercial & Institutional Banking and CEO, Europe & Americas, Standard Chartered

Moderator: Emma Crosby, CNBC Catalyst Moderator

12:10PM

FUTURE WITH AI PC

In this session, we will talk to Lenovo on its vision in AI PC development, the strides in technological advances, and the unavoidable hurdles that accompany the AI PC landscape.

Matthew Zielinski, Executive Vice-President; President, International Markets, Lenovo

Moderator: Arjun Kharpal, CNBC Senior Technology Reporter

12:30PM

ABU DHABI: UNLEASHING HIGH GROWTH MARKETS FOR GLOBAL PROSPERITY

Programmed by CNBC Catalyst, the commercial division of CNBC, in partnership with Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development will be hosting a high-level discussion focusing on Abu Dhabi’s Falcon Economy.

Abu Dhabi is targeting opportunities in high growth sectors to inspire international investors and partners to join its journey towards a sustainable and prosperous future.

Continuing its diversification away from oil, Abu Dhabi’s Falcon Economy Strategy focusses on opportunities in high-growth sectors – including artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing – to cultivate a knowledge-based economy. With emphasis on global collaboration and talent development Abu Dhabi is striving to inspire more international investors and partners to join its journey towards a sustainable and prosperous future – based on sustainable and forward-thinking economic development.

His Excellency Ahmed Jasim Al Zaabi, Chairman, Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development
His Excellency Waleed Al Mokarrab Al Muhairi, Deputy Group Chief Executive Officer, Mubadala Investment Company

Moderator: Emma Crosby, CNBC Catalyst Moderator

1:30PM

HOW AI MAKES HACKERS SMARTER – AND WHAT THE CYBERSECURITY INDUSTRY IS DOING TO FIGHT BACK

Generative artificial intelligence gives hackers new tools to commit cyberattacks. Our panel discusses the threat to people and businesses and how security firms are fighting back.

Dr. Dorit Dor, Chief Technology Officer, Check Point
Gary Steele, President and Chief Executive Officer, Splunk
Mark Hughes, President of Security, DXC Technology

Moderator: Arjun Kharpal, CNBC Senior Technology Reporter

2:00PM

Navigating the Crypto Regulatory Landscape

Programmed by CNBC Catalyst, the commercial arm of CNBC, sponsored by Filecoin Foundation

A U.S. regulator and blockchain industry leader sit down to discuss their approaches to crypto regulation and the road to regulatory clarity for the digital assets space.

Caroline Pham, CFTC Commissioner
Marta Belcher, President, Filecoin Foundation

Moderator: Mariam Zaidi, CNBC Catalyst Moderator

2:40PM

CATALYSING GLOBAL TRADE: DRIVING GREATER CONNECTIVITY

Programmed by CNBC Catalyst, the commercial arm of CNBC, in partnership with Standard Chartered

Central to global trade dynamics, major trade hubs serve as the key nodes, driving greater connectivity and boosting both intra-regional and global trade. Leveraging their strategic locations, regional hubs within the Middle East play a pivotal role in linking Europe, Asia, and Africa, presenting opportunities to facilitate global trade and advance cutting-edge industrialization.   

How can hubs like the UAE deepen trade and investment ties with fast-growing economies? And how can inter-connectivity between the Middle East and Africa promote innovation and drive inclusive and sustainable growth?

Sunil Kaushal, Regional CEO, Africa and Middle East (AME), Standard Chartered
Dr. Adam Posen, President, Peterson Institute for International Economics

Moderator: Emma Crosby, CNBC Catalyst Moderator

3:00PM

CNBC FIRESIDE CHAT WITH SHARMEEN OBAID-CHINOY

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Academy Award Winning Director

Moderator: Tania Bryer, CNBC Host and Executive Producer

3:15PM

CNBC FIRESIDE CHAT WITH SARAH KATE ELLIS

Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO, GLAAD

Moderator: Tania Bryer, CNBC Host and Executive Producer

3:30PM

IOT POWERING THE DIGITAL ECONOMY: WHY STAY FOCUSED ON SUSTAINABILITY?

Fireside chat, sponsored by Schneider Electric

Manish Pant, Executive Vice President, International Operations, Schneider Electric

Moderator: Steve Sedgwick, CNBC Presenter and Anchor

3:45PM

IOT POWERING THE DIGITAL ECONOMY: WHY STAY FOCUSED ON SUSTAINABILITY?

Panel, sponsored by Schneider Electric

Half the world’s largest publicly listed companies are already committed to achieving net-zero targets. However, with increasing economic pressures and geopolitical uncertainty, executives are more reluctant to place sustainability at the core of their company’s business strategy. This panel analyses how sustainable values can help drive long-term capital growth.

Rebeca Minguela, CEO, Clarity AI
Ester Baiget, CEO, Novozymes
Cenk Alper, CEO, Sabancı Holdings
Eric Usher, Head of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative
Dr. Ilham Kadri, CEO, Syensqo

Moderator: Steve Sedgwick, CNBC Presenter and Anchor

4:30PM

LEADING WITH TRANSPARENCY: A COLLABORATIVE BLUEPRINT FOR AI GOVERNANCE

Programmed by CNBC Catalyst, the commercial arm of CNBC, in partnership with Salesforce

The race to build and deploy AI solutions is well underway but not everyone has a seat at the table. How do we ensure that today’s emerging technology doesn’t become a vehicle for exacerbating existing inequities? How can we increase comfort and competency with AI solutions among the broader public? Join us for a conversation on how trust, collaboration and governance must pave the way forward.

Clara Shih, CEO, Salesforce AI
Rishi Khosla, Co-Founder & CEO, OakNorth
Vladimir Lukić, Managing Director & Senior Partner; Global Leader, Tech and Digital Advantage, Boston Consulting Group

Moderator: Emma Crosby, CNBC Catalyst Moderator

10:00AM

HOW WEB3 TOOLS PROTECT AND PROMOTE HUMAN RIGHTS

Programmed by Venue Partner, Filecoin Foundation

Global connectivity and decentralized technologies offer new avenues for trust and transparency in humanitarian aid. Cryptographic proofs can establish trust in our most sensitive digital records. We share real-world examples of decentralized tools being used by activists and journalists to defend human rights, on the ground and in the courtroom.

Danny O’Brien, Senior Fellow & DWeb Strategy, Filecoin Foundation for the Decentralized Web
Bernhard Kowatsch, Head of UN World Food Programme Innovation Accelerator
Jonathan Dotan, Founding Director, Starling Lab

Moderator: Brittan Heller, The Carr Center for Human Rights

10:30AM

CNBC FIRESIDE CHAT WITH H.M. QUEEN MÁXIMA OF THE NETHERLANDS

H.M. Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development talks to CNBC’s Tania Bryer about why financial inclusion is such a crucial global issue.

H.M. Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development

Moderator: Tania Bryer, CNBC Host and Executive Producer

11:00AM

ADVANCING GENDER EQUALITY, ECONOMIC INCLUSION AND FEMALE LEADERSHIP IN A FRACTURED WORLD

Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Former Prime Minister of Denmark and Co-chair of the Oversight Board
Cherie Blair CBE KC, Founder, Cherie Blair Foundation for Women

Moderator: Tania Bryer, CNBC Host and Executive Producer

11:20AM

THE FUTURE OF AI WITH THE CEO OF COHERE

Global AI company Cohere, co-headquartered in Toronto and SF, is one of a crop of AI companies focused on large language models. Aidan Gomez, the company’s co-founder, talks to CNBC Senior Tech Correspondent Arjun Kharpal about the technology’s development and the applications it will serve.

Aidan Gomez, Co-Founder & CEO, Cohere

Moderator: Arjun Kharpal, CNBC Senior Technology Reporter

11:35AM

CATALYSING GLOBAL TRADE: ASIA’S GROWTH STORY

Programmed by CNBC Catalyst, the commercial arm of CNBC, in partnership with Standard Chartered

Fueled by shifts in global supply chains and a growing digital economy, Asia continues to stand as a growth anchor for the world, amid persistent uncertainties such as inflation, soaring interest rates, and political headwinds.

A connector for finance, technology and innovation, Asia has taken an influential and transformative role in shaping global trade dynamics. As the region continues to grow in scale and navigate the trade landscape, what will it take to bridge the East-West gap and continue leveraging opportunities to foster equitable and sustainable growth?

Benjamin Hung, Chief Executive Officer, Asia, Standard Chartered
Laura Cha, Chairman, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd (HKEX)
Dr. Tan See Leng, Minister for Manpower and Second Minister for Trade and Industry, Singapore

Moderator: Emma Crosby, CNBC Catalyst Moderator

12:00PM

POWERING TOMORROW: NAVIGATING THE GLOBAL ENERGY TRANSITION THROUGH STRATEGIC INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTING

Programmed by CNBC Catalyst, the commercial arm of CNBC, in partnership with Nuveen

Institutional investors and wealth managers are increasingly prioritizing sustainable assets, renewable energy, and resilient infrastructure. What are the opportunities and challenges at the nexus of the energy transition and infrastructure investing? How do sustainable practices and green technologies shape real estate investing? And how does renewable energy adoption influence agriculture and farmland investment?

Jose Minaya, CEO, Nuveen
Rich Nuzum, Executive Director, Investments and Global Chief Investment Strategist, Mercer
Dr. Arun Majumdar, Dean, Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability

Moderator: Emma Crosby, CNBC Catalyst Moderator

1:00PM

ELECTION AND ECONOMY

2024 is expected to see over 70 countries worldwide hold general elections, with some of the most consequential taking place in the European Union, Taiwan, India, the United Kingdom and the United States. The outcome of these elections will influence, and be influenced, by factors beyond the borders of the countries themselves and nowhere is this more the case than in America. In this session, we will explore why certain elections will be crucial and what their outcomes will mean for the global economy.

Alexander Schallenberg, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Austria
Mark Malloch Brown, President, Open Society Foundations
Johanna Mair, Professor of Organization, Strategy, and Leadership, Hertie School of Governance

Moderator: Silvia Amaro, CNBC TV Reporter & Correspondent

1:30PM

REGULATING EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES

Programmed by Venue Partner, Filecoin Foundation

This session will convene leading figures from across the public policy landscape to lay out a sustainable path forward for emerging technologies that simultaneously promotes innovation and cleans out the bad actors.

Marta Belcher, President and Chair, Filecoin Foundation
Dante Disparte, Chief Strategy Officer; Head, Global Policy at Circle
Shyam Nagarajan, Global Practice Leader, Executive Partner, Blockchain and Responsible AI, IBM
Casper Klynge, former Danish Ambassador for Technology

Moderator: Michael Casey, Chief Content Officer, CoinDesk

2:00PM

AI AND DECENTRALIZATION

Programmed by Venue Partner, Filecoin Foundation

We’ll explore how the power of AI can be in the hands of everyone rather than just a few powerful companies, and how decentralized technologies can help with AI data integrity, accessibility, and verifiability.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Inventor of the World Wide Web; CTO, Inrupt
Clara Tsao, Founding Officer, Filecoin Foundation
Yann LeCun, Chief AI Scientist, Meta
Karl Friston, Chief Scientist, VERSES

Moderator: Gillian Tett, Chairman of editorial board and editor-at-large; Provost; Financial Times US; King’s College Cambridge University

2:30PM

USING FORMULA 1 KNOW HOW TO HELP SCALE CLIMATE SOLUTIONS

Programmed by CNBC Catalyst, the commercial arm of CNBC, in partnership with McLaren Racing

Motorsport is at the forefront of innovation in technology and manufacturing and can play a vital part in developing new solutions to tackle sustainability challenges. Hear from McLaren Racing’s CEO, Zak Brown, and Sustainability Director, Kim Wilson, about how the team is using motorsport know how, insights and a high-performance mindset to help scale climate solutions at pace and support the restoration of one of the seven natural wonders of the world: the Great Barrier Reef. Joining them is Dr Cedric Robillot, Executive Director of the Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program at the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, to speak about why partnering with McLaren Racing will help the foundation accelerate their mission to protect and restore the reef.

Zak Brown, CEO, McLaren Racing
Kim Wilson, Director of Sustainability, McLaren Racing
Cedric Robillot, Executive Director, Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program, Great Barrier Reef Foundation

Moderator: Emma Crosby, CNBC Catalyst Moderator

3:00PM

BUILDING GUARDRAILS AROUND AI

Lila Ibrahim, chief operating officer of Google DeepMind talks to CNBC Senior Tech Correspondent Arjun Kharpal about the company’s advancements in artificial intelligence, how to develop technology responsibly, and whether AI is a threat to humanity.

Lila Ibrahim, COO, Google DeepMind

Moderator: Arjun Kharpal, CNBC Senior Technology Reporter

3:15PM

SHAPING TOMORROW: WHAT ARE THE NEXT AI BREAKTHROUGHS?

AI is developing rapidly, with high adoption rates among businesses and consumers globally. But what comes next? Our panels makes predictions for 2024.  

Florian Bressand, Chief Business Officer, Mistral AI

Moderator: Arjun Kharpal, CNBC Senior Technology Reporter

3:25PM

CNBC FIRESIDE CHAT WITH LEANDRO VON WERRA

Leandro von Werra, Lead Researcher, Hugging Face

Moderator: Arjun Kharpal, CNBC Senior Technology Reporter

3:35PM

CNBC FIRESIDE CHAT WITH JACK HIDARY

Jack Hidary, CEO, SandboxAQ

Moderator: Arjun Kharpal, CNBC Senior Technology Reporter

3:50PM

CNBC FIRESIDE CHAT WITH JOHN KERRY

John Kerry, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate

Moderator: Tania Bryer, CNBC Host and Executive Producer

4:00PM

CNBC CONVERSATION WITH WILL.I.AM

will.i.am, Creative Artist, Innovator & Entrepreneur

Moderator: Tania Bryer, CNBC Host and Executive Producer

4:30PM

DISCOVERING THE FUTURE OF LEARNING AND WORK WITH HUNDO AND DREAMSCAPE LEARN

Discussion about the future of learning and work in an increasingly technological world with Esther O’Callaghan OBE founder of hundo – World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer and Ronald Menzel co-founder of Dreamscape.

Esther O’Callaghan OBE, Founder, hundo and World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer
Ronald Menzel, Co-Founder, Dreamscape
Russ Shaw CBE, Founder, Global Tech Advocates

Moderator: Mariam Zaidi, CNBC Catalyst Moderator

4:50PM

SOUND HEALING WITH MAEJOR

Maejor, Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter, and producer

Moderator: Tania Bryer, CNBC Host and Executive Producer

5:00PM

THE CHIEFS FROM THE BRAZILIAN AMAZON

Chief Nixiwaka Yawanawa
Chief Puttany Yawanawa
Chief Isku Kua Yawanawa

Moderator: Tania Bryer, CNBC Host and Executive Producer

5:15PM

CNBC FIRESIDE CHAT WITH JANE GOODALL DBE

Jane Goodall, PhD, DBE, Founder, the Jane Goodall Institute, UN Messenger of Peace

Moderator: Tania Bryer, CNBC Host and Executive Producer

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