Gabriela Ramos is the Assistant Director-General for the Social and Human Sciences of UNESCO, where she oversees the contributions of the institution to build inclusive and peaceful societies. Her agenda includes the achievement of social inclusion and gender equality, advancing youth development; promotion of values through sports; anti-racism and anti-discriminatory agenda and ethics of artificial intelligence. Her appointment at UNESCO allows her to continue supporting an agenda of inclusive growth, and the respect of human rights and human dignity.

Prior to this position, Ms. Ramos served as the Chief of Staff and Sherpa to the G20/G7/APEC in the OECD, contributing to the global agenda as well as leading the OECD's

Dr. Sandie Okoro (she/her/hers) is Senior Vice President and General Counsel for the World Bank Group, and Vice President for Compliance at the World Bank. She is also the Chair of the World Bank Group Task Force on Racism.
A British national and the first black woman to hold this role, Sandie is the principal advisor and spokesperson on all legal matters for the world’s leading development finance institution. She also heads the Compliance Vice Presidency that is responsible for developing and overseeing the World Bank data privacy framework based on the World Bank Group Policy on Personal Data Privacy. The two Vice Presidencies are separate and distinct. In her role as the Chair for the World Bank Group Task Force on Racism, Sandie is bringing the topics of race and racial equity at the forefront of Bank Group staff and operational matters, convening discussions and proposing action steps to help ensure racism and racial inequalities have no place in the institution, its operations, and the countries it serves.
Prior to joining the World Bank, Sandie was General Counsel for HSBC Global Asset Management, Deputy General Counsel of HSBC Retail Banking and Wealth Management, and Global General Counsel at Barings.
Sandie is an Honorary Bencher of Middle Temple in the United Kingdom (2018) and was named one of the Upstanding 100 Leading Ethnic Minority Executives (2016), Top 20 Global General Counsel (2019) by the Financial Times, and was recognized as Britain’s 5th most influential person of African and African Caribbean heritage by Powerlist (2018). She holds Honorary Doctorates in Law from City University London (2014), London Southbank University (2018), and her alma mater Birmingham University (2019). Sandie received a lifetime achievement award from the UK Black Solicitors Network (2016), was named one of the Power 100 Women by City A.M. and 100 Women to Watch by Female FTSE Board.
Sandie was appointed inaugural Chair of the UK-based charity WOW-Women of the World Festivals in June 2021. She received the Howard University 2019 Vanguard Women Award for her accomplishments as a woman of color who has blazed the trail and her commitment to mentoring young women and advancing the rights of women and girls globally. She is also the recipient of the Beyond the Glass Ceiling Award presented by the Leadership Institute for Women of Color Attorneys (2019), the Chambers 100 Outstanding Global General Counsel (2019), and an honoree of Harvard Law’s 7th Annual International Women’s Day Portrait Exhibit (2020).
Sandie is an ardent defender and champion for women empowerment, gender equality, and justice for all. Outside of work, Sandie is a Governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and prior to joining the World Bank Group, she was a council member of the human rights organization JUSTICE, Ambassador for the Law Society’s Diversity Access Scheme and sat on the Equality Standards Panel of the Premier League.
You can follow Sandie Okoro on Twitter @SandieOkoro.

Lord Bilimoria is the founder of Cobra Beer, Chairman of the Cobra Beer Partnership Limited and of Molson Coors Cobra India, both joint ventures with the global brewing company, Molson Coors. He is also the founding Chairman of the UK India Business Council.  In 2004 he was appointed Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for services to business and entrepreneurship, and in 2006 he was appointed an Independent Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords and was made Baron Bilimoria of Chelsea in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, making him the first ever Zoroastrian Parsi to sit in the House of Lords.  

In Parliament, Lord Bilimoria is active in a wide range of matters including commerce, entrepreneurship, education, diplomacy, minorities’ contributions, and academia. In his frequent speeches in the House, he has spoken of the need to reform immigration policy to allow the brightest and best to come to the United Kingdom to develop their skills and business plans. He has been acknowledged as an ambassador for Britain, India and the Parsi Community. In 2013, he established the Zoroastrian All-Party Parliamentary Group, which is intended to provide an official forum for parliamentarians to increase their awareness of this ancient religion.

An alumnus of Birmingham, Professor Pritam B. Sharma is the founder Vice Chancellor of Delhi Technological University, and Founder Vice Chancellor of Rajiv Gandhi Technology University, Bhopal. In 1978, Professor Sharma received a Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Birmingham. Professor Sharma has made distinguished contributions in the areas of Green Energy Technologies and Knowledge and Innovation Management. 

Dr Danny Sriskandarajah became Chief Executive Officer of Oxfam Great Britain in January 2019. Prior to that he spent six years as Secretary General of CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance. He has previously been Director General of the Royal Commonwealth Society, Interim Director of the Commonwealth Foundation and held various posts at the Institute for Public Policy Research. He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Global Public Goods in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. From 2018 to 2019 he was a member of the UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel on Digital Cooperation, co-chaired by Jack Ma and Melinda Gates, and from 2015 to 2016 a member of the High Level Panel on Humanitarian Finance. He has been a Trustee of the Baring Foundation, Comic Relief, and International Alert, and a member of the Lead Group of Scaling Up Nutrition.

Mike Adamson is Chief Executive of the British Red Cross, the country’s leading voluntary crisis response organisation, and part of the worldwide Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
Mike is responsible for all of the British Red Cross’ UK and International work. Prior to his current appointment, he held several other senior positions within BRC, including Managing Director of Operations. Mike has also worked as a Director of Commissioning in the NHS and spent five years as Managing Director for Services at another national charity. He began his career as an economist in management consultancy.
Mike is currently:

• Chair of Voluntary & Community Sector Emergency Partnership
• Trustee of National Emergency Trust
• Member of the NHS Prevention Board
• Trustee of Catch 22
• Member of the Foreign Secretary’s Human Rights Advisory Panel
• Trustee of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC)
• Member of CASS External Advisory Panel for Charities Masters

Mike also chaired the NCVO review on how charities enable donors to give consent.

In June 2021 Mike has been awarded a CBE honour for services to the humanitarian sector and the Red Cross Movement.

He lives in Gloucestershire with his wife Lorna and two daughters Eleanor and Sophie. In his spare time he likes to run, cycle and read – he is also a founding member of his local film club.

Mike has an MPhil in economics from Oxford University and an MBA with distinction.

CEO, Thomson Reuters Foundation

Antonio is the CEO of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the corporate foundation of the global news and information services company.

Through news, media development, free legal assistance and convening initiatives, the Thomson Reuters Foundation combines its unique services to advance media freedom, raise awareness of human rights issues and foster more inclusive economies. Antonio is the founder of Openly, the world first platform dedicated to fair, accurate and impartial coverage of LGBT+ stories with global distribution through the Reuters wire. In 2018, he ranked first in the OUT-standing list of third sector LGBT+ executives published by the Financial Times. In 2017, he was named a European Young Leader by Friends of Europe and was awarded the Talented Young Italians Award by Italian Chamber of Commerce in 2016.

Antonio is a One Young World Ambassador and a World Economic Forum agenda contributor. He sits on the boards of All Out and the International News Safety Institute (INSI). Prior to his present role, Antonio was Director of Communications and COO at the Thomson Reuters Foundation, and Executive Producer at Bloomberg Television in charge of news, factual programming and documentaries for Europe, Middle Easy and Africa, developing award-winning TV series.

Andrew Mitchell was Secretary of State for International Development in the British Government from May 2010 until he became Government Chief Whip in September 2012. He was appointed to the Privy Council in 2010. 

Prior to joining the cabinet in 2010, he also held numerous junior positions in Government (1992-1997) and in opposition (2003-2010). He has been the Member of Parliament for Sutton Coldfield since 2001. 

Andy Street was elected as the first Mayor of the West Midlands in May 2017 and re-elected to serve a second term as Mayor in May 2021. The primary function of the role is to chair the West Midlands Combined Authority and brings with it significant powers over transport, housing, skills and jobs.

As Mayor, he is leading the WMCA to accomplish one of the World’s most ambitious net zero targets. The West Midlands is aiming to be net zero by 2041. This requires changing how we think about all aspects of cities and developing creative and status quo-challenging solutions that ensure that no one is left behind. 

Before becoming Mayor, Andy combined a career with John Lewis, Britain’s most successful workers’ co-operative, with a host of high-profile economic development roles, working with local and national government.

Starting on the John Lewis graduate scheme, Andy rose through the ranks to become Managing Director, overseeing one of the most successful periods in the company’s history.

He was the Chair of the Greater Birmingham & Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership between 2011 and 2016, helping to build the relationships that have underpinned the economic growth of the region. Additionally, he has been lead non-executive director for the Department for Communities and Local Government as well as a member of the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Group.

In June 2015, Andy was awarded the CBE for services to the national economy. He was named the ‘Most Admired Leader’ of the year by business magazine, Management Today in 2014. He received the ‘President’s award’ from the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce in for his work in the region. He holds three honorary degrees, from Birmingham City University, Aston University and the University of Birmingham.

Jim Skea is Professor of Sustainable Energy at Imperial College London with research interests in energy, climate change and technological innovation. His current main role is as Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group III for the 6th assessment cycle. He was Research Director of the UK Energy Research Centre 2004-12 and Director of the Policy Studies Institute 1998-2004. He has operated at the interface between research, policy-making and business throughout his career. He was a member of the UK Committee on Climate Change from its inception in 2008 until 2018, and is currently the Chair of Scotland’s Just Transition Commission. From 2015-17, he was President of the UK Energy Institute. He was awarded a CBE for services to sustainable energy in 2013 and an OBE for services to sustainable transport in 2004.

Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr OBE was sworn-in as Mayor of Freetown in May 2018 with a commitment to transform Freetown using an inclusive, data-driven approach to address challenges in the city. The 3-year Transform Freetown plan details 19 concrete targets across 11 sectors and covers issues ranging from tackling environmental degradation to facilitating the creation of jobs in the tourism sector. A finance professional with over 25 years of private sector experience in strategic planning, risk management consulting and project management, Mayor Aki-Sawyerr’s public sector engagement began with her work during the 2014-2015 Ebola epidemic and her subsequent role as Delivery Team Lead for the second phase of a multi-stakeholder programme to drive socio-economic recovery in Sierra Leone post Ebola. Mayor Aki-Sawyerr is a Chartered Accountant and holds an MSc in Politics of the World Economy from the London School of Economics and a BSc Hons in Economics from Fourah Bay College. She was recently recognize in the BBC 2020 100 Women list.

Henry Dimbleby was given the role of lead non-executive board member of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in March 2018. In June 2019 the Environment Secretary appointed Henry Dimbleby to lead the National Food Strategy, which he published in July 2021.

Henry Dimbleby co-founded the Leon restaurant chain (2004). He was a co-founder of the Sustainable Restaurant Association (2009), the charity Chefs in Schools (2018) and co-authored The School Food Plan (2013), which set out actions to transform what children eat in schools and how they learn about food. 

Henry previously worked as a Strategy Consultant at Bain & Company (1995-2002) where he advised businesses on strategy, performance improvement and organisational design. Before that he worked as a journalist on The Daily Telegraph and a chef at the Michelin-starred Four Seasons Inn on the Park

Mark is Vice-Chair of KPMG UK and a Global Experton Health Systems. For 11 years, Mark was Global Head of Healthcare at KPMG International and Global Chair of Infrastructure, Government and Healthcare for 3 years. In that time, Mark oversaw $7 billion of annual revenue, supporting 45,000 staff across 157 countries.

He is one of the foremost global experts on healthcare systems and has a pioneering and inspiring global vision for health in both the developed and developing world. Mark has dedicated his entire professional life to healthcare and has led organisations at local, regional, national and global levels – provider and payer, public and private. Over the past 11 years, he has worked in over 80 countries on circa. 345 occasions, gaining a unique first-hand experience.

Mark was appointed Chief Executive of University Hospitals Birmingham in 2000. He masterminded the largest new hospital build in NHS history, established the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine and developed one of the highest performing healthcare organisations in the UK.

He went on to run the NHS region from Oxford to the Isle of Wight before joining the NHS Management Board as a Director-General at the Department of Health, where he developed High-Quality Care for All with Lord Darzi. He joined KPMG as Global Chairman and Senior Partner for Health in 2009 and has established a successful worldwide health practice.

Between 2014and 2018, Mark sat as a member of the Global AgendaCouncil on the Future of the Health Sector for the World Economic Forum and sits on the Advisory Board of the China Center for Health Development at Peking University. He is also an Honorary Professor at Taishan Medical University School, Shandong Province and holds honorary doctorates from Birmingham City University and the University of Wolverhampton.

Mark is the author of "In Search of the Perfect Health System", published by Palgrave Macmillian. The book has sold in over 109 countries, including translations into Mandarin, Korean and Portuguese, and was recognised by Chinese Medical Doctors Association as best health book in China in 2017, and in the UK by the British Medical Association, 2016. Mark’s new book, “Human: solving the global workforce crisis in healthcare” was published by Oxford UniversityPress in March 2019. It sold out it's first print run in 4 months and was recently translated to into Mandarin.

Mark has been a Non-Executive Director at Dr Foster, a trustee of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service and a Board member of Prostate Cancer UK. He survived prostate cancer at the age of 42 and has donated all royalties from the sale of this book to ProstateCancerUK. He is a Board Trustee of the King’s Fund and Executive in Residence at the Rotman School of Management, Toronto.

Professor Shahbaz Khan (Australian) is the Director of the UNESCO Office in Beijing and UNESCO Representative to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Japan, Mongolia, People’s Republic of China, and the Republic of Korea.

Prof Khan joined UNESCO in 2008 at its Headquarters as Chief of the Water and Sustainable Development Section. Then he served as the Director of the Regional Bureau for Sciences in Asia and the Pacific in Jakarta, Indonesia, and UNESCO Representative to Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Timor-Leste (2015-2021).

Prof Khan has worked in Australia, France, Indonesia and Pakistan in various research, consultancy and policy positions. Before joining UNESCO, he was Professor and Director at the Charles Sturt University (Australia). His work has been widely recognized e.g. 2019 China Friendship Award, Great Wall Friendship Award China 2017, FEIAP Engineer of the Year Award 2016, UNESCO Team Award for Managing Hydro Hazards 2009, Land and Water Australia’s Eureka Prize 2007, CSIRO Medal 2007, Biennial Medal of the Modelling and Simulation Society of Australia and New Zealand.

Prof Shahbaz Khan is currently Adjunct Professor at the University of Canberra and Western Sydney University (Australia), Adjunct Professor at the Lincoln University (New Zealand), Distinguished Professor at the National University of Science and Technology (Pakistan) and Distinguished Professor at the Capital Normal University (China).

Professor Shahbaz Khan holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in Civil Engineering (1990) from the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore (Pakistan), a Master of Science degree in Water Resources Technology and Management (1992) and a Doctorate in Civil Engineering (1995) from the University of Birmingham (United Kingdom). He also holds a Master’s degree in International Environmental Law (2005) from Macquarie University (Australia) and a Master’s degree in Applied Environmental Economics (2007) from Imperial College London (United Kingdom) as well as a Hon Doctorate Environment and Development from the National University of Malaysia (2016) Hon DSc from the University of Birmingham (2018).

Preet Kaur Gill is the Member of Parliament for Birmingham, Edgbaston, Shadow Cabinet Minister for International Development, and the UK’s first female Sikh MP. Born and raised in the West Midlands, Preet was a social worker and a Councillor and Cabinet Member for Public Health and Protection prior to entering Parliament. She is Chair of the Co-operative Party Parliamentary Group, a patron of social housing charity Spring Housing, and Vice-President of the Local Government Association.  

In Parliament Preet chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for British Sikhs, and co-chairs the APPG for International Freedom of Religion or Belief, the APPG for the West Midlands, APPG for the Commonwealth Games, the APPG for Birmingham and APPG for the West Midlands. Preet is Vice-President of the British Group Inter-Parliamentary Union and Co-Chair of the West-Midlands Co-operative Task Force. 

In 2018 Preet featured on Birmingham City University’s Brummies Who Inspire and presented an award for Sikh Woman of Substance by the Sikh Women’s Alliance. In 2020, she was named MP of the Year by the Patchwork Foundation.  

Charles Godfray is a population biologist with broad interests in the environmental sciences and has published in fundamental and applied areas of ecology, evolution and epidemiology. He is interested in how the global food system will need to change and adapt to the challenges facing humanity in the 21st century, and in particular in the concept of sustainable intensification, and the relationship between food production, ecosystem services and biodiversity.

Charles is the Director of the Oxford Martin School and Professor of Population Biology at Oxford University, and directs the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food. He is also Chair of Defra’s Science Advisory Council, a Trustee Director of Rothamsted Research and a Trustee of the Food Foundation. He sits on the Balzan (science) and Heineken (environmental science) Prize committees. In 2017 he was knighted for services to scientific research and for scientific advice to government.

Interim Chief Executive, Birmingham City Council

After gaining a degree in politics, she began her career in 1984 with the London Borough of Newham, before moving to Birmingham City Council where she worked on major regeneration projects and gained a master’s degree in economics. 

Moving to Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council in 1996 as Head of Policy, Deborah gained a second master’s in management, before taking up a two-year secondment with the Department of Environment Transport and the Regions as Local Government Advisor to the Ministerial Team.

In 2003, after being appointed the Audit Commission's Best Value Service Lead Inspector for the London region, she became Chief Executive at St Edmundsbury Borough Council, before becoming Chief Executive of the East of England Development Agency.

Deborah was Chief Executive of Suffolk County Council from 2011 to 2017 and has also been interim Chief Executive of Waveney District Council, Babergh District Council and Mid-Suffolk District Council.

She is a trustee of the Joseph Rowntree Trust and Joseph Rowntree Housing Foundation and as a dedicated and passionate female advocate at the forefront of the public sector, Deborah recently won the First Women Award for Public Service.

Deborah is listed in Local Government Chronicle’s ‘100 Most Influential in the Sector’ and was awarded an OBE in 2006 for services to local government.

Alice Roberts is an anatomist, author and broadcaster. Her research interests focus on evolutionary anatomy, osteoarchaeology and palaeopathology. She has considerable experience in science communication: she has presented several landmark series on the BBC and written seven popular science books.

Chief Executive and Secretary General of the ACU Dr Newman joined the ACU in April 2017 and is responsible for fostering and promoting the aims of the ACU, as defined by its membership, in developing inter-Commonwealth relations in the field of higher education.

Before joining the ACU, Joanna was the Vice-Principal (International) at King’s College London where she was responsible for all international matters for the university. In previous positions, Joanna represented the UK higher education sector as Director of the UK Higher Education International Unit (now known as Universities UK International) where she negotiated the UK’s role in Brazil’s Science without Borders mobility scheme, launched HE Global and initiated a number of international partnerships on behalf of the UK higher education sector. Before this, she was Head of Higher Education at the British Library where she commissioned the Google Generation report and was responsible for introducing researchers to one of the world’s greatest research libraries.

Joanna is a Senior Research Fellow in the History Faculty at King’s and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Southampton and has taught history at University College London and the University of Warwick. In 2014, she was honoured as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in recognition of her work promoting British higher education internationally.

Joanna is on the board of the School of Advanced Studies, University of London International Academy, University of London; The Conversation UK and the VITAE external advisory board. She has been a judge on the Times Higher Education Awards. She regularly speaks at conferences, roundtables and on international platforms representing the UK on issues relating to higher education and internationalisation.

Dame Una O’Brien, was Permanent Secretary at the UK Department of Health between 2010 and 2016.  A Civil Servant for 27 years, Una held a wide range of senior leadership roles in government and in the NHS.   Between 2017 and 2020, she served on the panel of a major public inquiry in Northern Ireland, investigating a failed green energy scheme that led to the collapse of the devolved government.   Una is a trustee and Council member of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; Lloyd’s Register Foundation and of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. Una grew up in and maintains strong links with the City of Birmingham.  She studied at History St Anne's College, Oxford, where she is now an Honorary Fellow, and International Relations at Harvard and the LSE. 

Dr Mo Ibrahim is the Founder and Chair of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, which he established in 2006 to support good governance and exceptional leadership on the African continent.

Sudanese-born, Dr Ibrahim has a distinguished business career. In 1989 he founded Mobile Systems International (MSI), a world leading cellular consulting and software provider, and in 1998, Celtel International, one of Africa’s leading mobile telephone companies which pioneered mobile services in Africa.

Dr Ibrahim is also Founding Chairman of Satya Capital Limited, a private investment firm primarily focused on Africa.

Dr Ibrahim has received numerous honorary degrees and fellowships from a range of academic institutions including University of Birmingham, Bradford University, De Montfort University - Leicester, Imperial College - London, London Business School, Royal Academy of Engineering, SOAS - University of London, University of Pennsylvania and Lancaster University.

Dr Ibrahim is also the recipient of a number of awards including The GSM Association’s Chairman’s Award for Lifetime Achievement (2007), The Economist Innovation Award for Social & Economic Innovation (2007), BNP Paribas Prize for Philanthropy (2008), Oslo Business for Peace Award (2009), Raymond Georis Prize for Innovative Philanthropy in Europe (2010), Clinton Global Citizen Award (2010), the Millenium Excellence Award for Actions in Africa (2012), the David Rockefeller Bridging Leadership Award (2012), the Africare Leadership Award (2013), the Kiel Institute Global Economy Prize (June 2013), the Eisenhower Medal for Distinguished Leadership and Service (May 2014), the Foreign Policy Association Medal (June 2014), International Republican Institute (IRI) Freedom Award (2015), Danish CSR Honor Prize (2015), David Rockefeller Bridging Leadership Award (2017).

Dr Ibrahim is the Co-founder and Co-chair of the Africa Europe Foundation, which was launched in 2020 to reset and bolster Africa-Europe relations.

David Nabarro is Chair of Global Health and Co-Director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at the Imperial College London.  He supports systems leadership for sustainable development through his Switzerland based social enterprise 4SD. From March 2020, David is appointed Special Envoy of WHO Director General on COVID-19.   

David secured his medical qualification in 1974 and has worked in over 50 countries – in communities and hospitals, governments, civil society, universities, and in United Nations (UN) programs.   He worked for the British government in the 1990s as head of Health and Population and director for Human Development in the UK Department for International Development. From 1999 to 2017 he held leadership roles in the UN system (starting with the World Health Organization and finishing in the office of the UN Secretary General).  He focused on disease outbreaks and health systems, food insecurity and nutrition, then climate change and sustainable development. In October 2018, David received the World Food Prize together with Lawrence Haddad for building action coalitions for better action on nutrition across the Sustainable Development Goals. 

In August 1996, Laura Liswood co-founded the Council of Women World Leaders with President Vigdís Finnbogadóttir of Iceland located at the UN Foundation in Washington, DC.  Ms. Liswood is the Secretary General of the Council, which is composed of women presidents, prime ministers, and heads of government.  It is the only organization of its kind globally.

From 2001-2016, Liswood was also named Managing Director, Global Leadership and Diversity for Goldman Sachs and later became a senior advisor.  She continues to speak to audiences globally on diversity, equity and inclusion.

Liswood holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.A. from California State University, San Diego.  She holds a J.D. degree from the University of California, Davis, School of Law, and is admitted to practice law in California and Massachusetts.  After the events of 9/11, she became a reserve police officer in the Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department and retired as a sergeant.

Liswood is the author of three books The Loudest Duck-Moving beyond Diversity, Women World Leaders, and Serving Them Right.  She is a long time participant with the World Economic Forum and is a Steward of the Forum’s Education, Gender and Work Initiative.

She is a commissioner for the New Mexico State Personnel Review Board, a board advisor for EDGE, and a member of the Washington DC Metro Transit Police Investigative Review Panel.  She divides her time between Bethesda MD and Santa Fe NM.

Winnie Byanyima is the Executive Director of UNAIDS and an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations. A passionate and longstanding champion of social justice and gender equality, Ms Byanyima leads the United Nations’ efforts to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030. Ms Byanyima believes that health care is a human right and was an early champion of a People’s Vaccine against the coronavirus that is available and free of charge to everyone, everywhere.

Before joining UNAIDS, Ms Byanyima served as the Executive Director of Oxfam International, a confederation of 20 civil society organizations working in more than 90 countries worldwide, empowering people to create a future that is secure, just and free from poverty.

Ms Byanyima was elected for three terms and served 11 years in the parliament of her country, Uganda. She led Uganda’s first parliamentary women’s caucus, championing ground-breaking gender equality provisions in the county’s 1995 post-conflict constitution.

Ms Byanyima led the establishment of the African Union Commission’s Directorate of Gender and Development and also served as Director of Gender and Development at the United Nations Development Programme. She founded the Forum for Women in Democracy, an influential Ugandan nongovernmental organization, and has been deeply involved in building global and African coalitions on social justice issues. A global leader on inequality, Ms Byanyima has co-chaired the World Economic Forum and served on the World Bank’s Advisory Council on Gender and Development, the International Labour Organization’s Global Commission on the Future of Work and the Global Commission on Adaptation.

Ms Byanyima is a recipient of several awards, including an honorary doctorate from the University of Manchester, United Kingdom, an honorary doctorate from Mount Saint Vincent University, Canada, and the 2018 Human Rights and Solidarity among Peoples Prize, awarded by the Latin American Council of Social Sciences.

She holds a master of science degree in mechanical engineering from Cranfield University and an undergraduate degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Manchester.

Ms Byanyima is married and has one son. She loves birds, gardening and hiking. Ms Byanyima has seven given names, one of which is Kyegiragire, which means “I can make myself whatever I want to be”. Ms Byanyima says this has shaped her attitude to life!

Vaitea Cowan is one of the three cofounders of Enapter. Sebastian, Jan and Vaitea worked on the Phi Suea House in 2016, which became a lighthouse project for green hydrogen in Southeast Asia. In 2017, they cofounded Enapter and grew the team from 11 to 200 by 2021. Today, Vaitea heads Enapter’s communications and is based in the Berlin office. Vaitea is on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Energy 2020. Among other awards, she supported Enapter in winning the inaugural Earthshot Prize “Fix Our Climate” launched by Prince William and The Royal Foundation. Vaitea graduated with a Bachelors in Commerce from Concordia University, John Molson School of Business (Montreal). Her personal mission is to bring green hydrogen to the islands; and to hire more women along the way.

Kevin Kung is the co-founder and CTO of Takachar since 2018. From 2012 to 2017, Kevin built Takachar’s core technology as part of his Ph.D. research in the field of biofuels and renewable energy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where through the support of the Tata Trusts, he travelled to India extensively and designed the technology to meet specific local needs. Prior to that, Kevin had six years of experience conducting engineering design in resource-constrained settings, including borehole restoration in Uganda, interlocking stabilized construction materials in Ghana, and renewable energy systems in Kenya and India. In 2015, Kevin co-founded a company (Safi Organics) in Kenya that produces carbon-negative, high-yield fertilizer from crop residues, improving farmers’ harvest yields by 30 percent. He helped grow the company to 10 full-time employees, 3,500 customers, and financial breakeven.

Olubanjo Olugbenga (Olu) is the Founder & CEO of Reeddi and a MASc (Master of Applied Science) Graduate of Civil Engineering at the University of Toronto.

Reeddi’s mission is to bridge the gap of accessibility through limitless and sustainable innovation. Reeddi’s award winning innovation, the Reeddi Capsule leverages its proprietary hardware-as-a service model to provide clean, reliable, and affordable electricity to individuals, households, and businesses operating in the energy-poor regions of the world.

Reeddi Capsule currently serves more than 600 combined households and businesses monthly in Nigeria and have been recognized by organizations including MIT, Stanford, Cisco, IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineer), and ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers), World Energy Council, and the German Energy Agency.

The Reeddi Capsule was recently announced as one of Prince William's 1 million pounds prestigious EarthShot Prize 15 finalists. The Innovation was also recently named one of Time’s (Time Magazine) Best Invention of 2021.

Olu was awarded the John Wesley J. Hall Award for Excellence in Entrepreneurship at the University of Toronto Black Graduation Celebration. He also received the University of Toronto 2019 Social Innovation Award. In addition, he was one of the ten outstanding entrepreneurs selected as a BP OneYoungWorld Advancing Energy Scholarship for his innovative approach to business and obsession with social & environmental impact.

Beyond his startup, Olu has proffered innovative solutions to companies and Industry leaders. He was awarded a Distinction Award by Fashion Zone in Ryerson University for his innovative solution proposed to Oxford Properties Group, Canada. 

Olu has a keen interest in using entrepreneurship for social and environmental impact. He was the former Co-chairs of the Massey College Entrepreneurship Committee and Massey College Community Service Committee.

A life mission he holds dearly, Olu constantly seeks to make a globally beneficial social, environmental, and economic impact with technology and market-creating innovations.

Dr Seye Abimbola is a health systems researcher from Nigeria. He is currently a senior lecturer at the School of Public Health, University of Sydney in Australia. He had his initial training in medicine at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife in Nigeria. He gained his PhD from Sydney University in 2016, on a wide-ranging institutional analysis of primary health care governance in Nigeria. From 2018-2019, he was a Sidney Sax Overseas Early Career Fellow at the University of Oxford.

Dr Abimbola uses realist methods and theories from institutional economics to study community engagement in health governance, decentralized governance of health systems, and the role that governance plays in the adoption and scale-up of health system innovations. Abimbola is the editor in chief of BMJ Global Health. He is also a member of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Health System Governance Collaborative and serves on the advisory council of Global Health 50/50.

Matt Hammond is PwC’s Head of International Markets for the U.K. and Senior Partner for the Midlands. Based in Birmingham he has overseen the growth of PwC’s investment in the Midlands over the last 5 years with the creation of 1,000 new roles, leading a team of 3,000 across the Midlands. He is a Deals and Restructuring Partner with 30 years experience in professional services. He Chairs the West Midlands Growth Company working closely with the region’s leading Universities, inward investors and local government.

Gwen was appointed CEO of Save the Children in July 2021, after having joined the charity in 2018 as Executive Director of Global Programmes in March 2018. She has worked in international development for 20 years, most recently as International Programmes Director at the Department for International Development (DFID), where she led the Multilateral Development Review, benchmarking 41 organisation and identifying areas for improvement.In 

Prior to that she was UK Executive Director for the World Bank Group (2012-2015), where she helped to broker major reforms to the Bank's procurement and evaluation policies and provided oversight of Britain's $5bn funding. Gwen has also held the post of Country Director for DFID in Bangladesh and Malawi, and she has played a variety of strategic roles shaping the UK's engagement with Africa through the G8, DFID's strategy on HIV/AIDS, and approaches to EU enlargement. 

As Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Transfer, Heather is responsible for delivering the University’s research strategy and for positioning the University amongst the leading universities in the UK. Heather is committed to research that matters; research which breaks new ground, shapes thinking, creates innovation and changes the world. Heather oversees all aspects of research development, innovation and delivery, including research post-graduate students, research partnerships, research grants and innovation. She sits on the University Executive Board and is Chair of the University Research Committee.

Heather is a moral philosopher and has been at the University since 1999, and the John Ferguson Professor of Global Ethics since 2009. She led, with others, the development global ethics, and is author of Global Ethics: An Introduction and co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Global Ethics, and is known for her distinctive claims about the problems of consent, particularly, but not only, in genetics. She has held grants from the AHRC, the ESRC and the European Commission and she held a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship. Heather is Deputy-Chair of the Philosophy sub-panel in REF 2021 and was a member of the Philosophy sub-panel in REF 2014. She is also active and committed beyond academia. She served as a member of the UK Biobank Ethics and Governance Council (2007-2013) and served the maximum term on the Nuffield Council on Bioethics (2014-2020).

Her most recent book, Perfect Me: Beauty as an Ethical Ideal (Princeton University Press), was described by Vogue as ground-breaking. She continues to write on the rising demands of beauty and the way visual and virtual culture is shaping human experience. She co-runs the Beauty Demands blog and is the founder of the #everydaylookism campaign.

Farahnaz Karim is a Harvard-educated social entrepreneur, political scientist, and humanist, with decades of field experience designing and managing development programs in countries such as Afghanistan, India and Kenya. She is the founder and CEO of Insaan Group, a boutique impact investment entity that allocates philanthropic capital to tackle poverty, and the Chief Impact Officer of GOODFOLIO, an impact-driven investment platform. She is also a board member of the Oxford Institute of Charity and Charity Futures.

Kirsty McNeill is Save the Children's Executive Director for Policy, Advocacy and Campaigns, leading teams to galvanise the public and influence policymakers on humanitarian action, global development and help for children here in the UK. 

Previously, she founded a consultancy advising some of the world’s leading social purpose organisations and spent three years as a Special Adviser in Number 10. She came to Downing Street having led the policy and influencing work of DATA, Bono and Bob Geldof’s advocacy organisation, in Britain, Germany, France, Italy and the EU institutions. 

Before joining DATA she was on the board of Make Poverty History and managed the Stop AIDS Campaign, successfully negotiating a commitment to universal access to AIDS treatment from the 2005 G8. 
Today she chairs Larger Us, the Civic Power Fund and the Aid Alliance and is on the boards of the Holocaust Educational Trust, the Coalition for Global Prosperity, IPPR and the Center for Countering Digital Hate. She tweets at @kirstyjmcneill. 

Marco Bertacca joined Quorn Foods as CEO in January 2020, bringing over 25 years of global food and drink experience to the company.

Prior to moving to the UK to undertake the role, Marco was based in the Philippines where he was the Managing Director of Alaska Milk Corporation, a Friesland Campina Company, for over three years. He first moved to South East Asia in 2013, taking the role of Business Development Director in Singapore for Friesland Campina. He went on to hold a number of MD roles across Singapore and Thailand. Before joining Friesland Campina Marco was President of Europe at CSM Bakery Products, and began his career working for Unilever for 10 years, leading the company’s supply chain operations.

Marco joined Quorn Foods with the ultimate goal of encouraging more sustainable diets, for the health of both people and planet. Under his leadership, the business has already announced it will be the first major food brand to roll out carbon labelling on its products, and has committed to achieving Net Positive status by 2030, by which time he has set the ambition to serve 8 billion servings of Quorn a year, the equivalent of one serving for every person on the planet.

Mrs. Neo Jane Masisi, became the First Lady of the Republic of Botswana when her husband, HE Dr Mokgweetsi E.K Masisi took office as President in 2018.
The First Lady is committed to issues involving children (particularly the girl child), youth and women empowerment. She also advocates for the prevention of Gender-Based Violence and child abuse in Botswana. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she intensified and broadened the scope of activities targeted at a diversity of groups in addressing Gender Based Violence and child abuse issues.
Mrs. Masisi is an Accountant by profession, she worked initially for the private sector in her home country and later embarked on a career as an International Civil Servant with the United Nations. She served in three countries between 2004 and 2018; United States of America, Ethiopia and Central African Republic. In addition to her CIMA qualification, Mrs. Masisi holds an MBA from De Montfort University.
In 2019, Mrs. Masisi was appointed as the UNAIDS Special Ambassador for the Empowerment and Engagement of Young People in Botswana. Mrs Masisi is also a member of the Organization of African First Ladies for Development (OAFLAD). She sits on the International Council of Global HOPE which serves to address childhood cancer and blood disorders, with the overall aim to improving paediatric cancer care in Africa.