Speakers

Biography

Dr.Sultan Abu Orabi, is an organic chemist, who obtained his P.hD from the University of Michigan, USA in 1982.

Currently he is the Secretary General of the Association of Arab Universities since 2011, which has its headquarters in Amman, Jordan.

Prof.Abu Orabi previously served as President of Yarmouk University (2009-2011), Jordan’s second largest public university, President of Irbid National University (2001-2005), and Tafila Technical University in Jordan (2005-2009).

He was also President of the Jordanian Chemical Society and President of the Arab Union of Chemists. He was a visiting Professor at Bahrain University (1989-1990) and at King Fahd University for Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia (1990-1993 & 1996-1998).

Dr. Abu Orabi is an Editor-in-chief of two international journals, and is a member of many editorial boards.

He has as well organized, served on advisory boards, and presented lectures at numerous international conferences.

He has also received several research fellowships and awards, and published over eighty papers throughout his career spanning thirty five years. Supervised and served on examining dissertations for more than seventy M.Sc and Ph.D students in Jordan, Arab World, India and Europe.

Biography

Titulaire d’un diplôme d’études supérieures en électrotechnique et électronique de puissance, M. Andriantavy intervient depuis plus de 20 ans dans le secteur électrique et, plus particulièrement, dans les Energies Renouvelables (EnR) et l’Electrification Rurale.

Après avoir travaillé dans la conception, la vente et l’installation de systèmes photovoltaïques, il s’est ensuite tourné vers le métier de consultant, spécialisé dans le développement de projets innovants mettant en œuvre les EnR pour l’électrification rurale. Ces projets utilisent des schémas de financement mixtes, associant des fonds publics et des investissements privés.

Son activité pour l’Agence de Développement de l’Electrification Rurale (ADER) à Madagascar concernant l’aspect institutionnel, financier et formation a été fort appréciée.

L’ADER étant le gestionnaire du Fonds National de l’Electricité. M. Andriantavy connait les mécanismes de gestion des fonds de développement du secteur de l’électrification rurale.

Ensuite, il a fondé le cabinet CEDRE. Toujours actif dans le domaine de l’énergie, il a mis en œuvre, sur financement de la Banque mondiale et pour le compte du projet Pôles Intégrés de Croissance (PIC), le processus pour la mise en place d’une gestion autonome d’un centre d’exploitation de la JIRAMA – très centralisée, à travers la création d’une direction autonome.

Hary a par la suite monté un programme d’accès à l’énergie et d’amélioration des services avec un financement de l’OFID (Fonds OPEC)

Depuis novembre 2015, M. Andriantavy dirige l’Association Africaine pour l’Electrification Rurale – CLUB-ER. Basée à Abidjan - Côte d’Ivoire, c’est une plateforme regroupant les Agences et les Structures nationale africaine en charge de l’Electrification Rurale. Fort de plus de 40 membres dans 35 pays, le CLUB-ER a pour objectif d’accélérer l’accès à l’électricité à travers le renforcement de capacité des membres, la capitalisation des acquis et la mobilisation des ressources.

Biography

Kate is an Executive Director at Lion’s Head Global Partners. Straddling the development and financial communities, LHGP specialises in conceptualising and effecting innovative transactions that both contribute to the advancement of public goals and provide a financial incentive for their continuation. Kate leads the health team, acting as advisor to a range of development finance institutions, industry corporates, governments in low- and middle-income countries and entrepreneurs. Kate previously managed the Global Health Investment Fund, a $108 million fund that invests in drugs, devices, diagnostics and vaccines for infectious diseases. Recently, Kate worked to establish the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, launching in January 2017 with $480 million. She is also working on various initiatives creating financial incentives to tackle anti-microbial resistance.

Kate joined LHGP from J.P. Morgan Asset Management where she worked in high yield debt. Before a Masters from Columbia University and the London School of Economics, she spent time living and working in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.  Kate holds a BA (Hons) in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Magdalen College, Oxford and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Biography

Pedro Antunes leads a team of economists responsible for the production of the Conference Board’s suite of economic forecast products, as well as other reports and economic indicators that relate to Canada and its regions. Mr. Antunes is a spokesperson for the Conference Board and has provided expert testimony before parliamentary committees. He makes numerous presentations on economic topics and dialogues with Canadian leaders, the public and media about issues important to Canada.

Mr. Antunes joined the Conference Board in 1991 after working with the Canadian Forecasting Group at the Bank of Canada. Before being appointed Deputy Chief Economist he was director of the national and provincial forecast team and of custom economic services—a role that allowed him to conduct numerous studies on economic issues. He specializes in building econometric forecasting models, analysis of economic impacts, demographic and labour markets.

In addition to the regular forecast publications that he oversees, Mr. Antunes also led research on the impact of demographic change on the financial sustainability of public health care, productivity and other issues affecting the long-term economic growth for Canada and its provinces. Pedro also worked on several international projects, helping decision-makers in Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan and Ukraine develop appropriate forecasting and policy analysis tools. Mr. Antunes also serves on the Board of Advisors of SyENERGY, an energy efficiency technology firm headquartered in Magog, Quebec.

Pedro is fluent in both official languages. He is married with one son and his interests include coaching and playing soccer.

Mr. Antunes holds an M.A. (Economics) from Queen's University and a B.A. (Honours Economics) from Bishop's University.

Biography

Bertrand Badré is CEO and Founder of BlueOrange Capital, an investment fund with the objectives to finance the Sustainable Development Goals with market level financial returns. Previously, Mr. Badré was Managing Director of the World Bank Group and Chief Financial Officer.

Prior to joining the World Bank Group in 2013, Bertrand was the group chief financial officer at Société Générale. He also served as group chief financial officer of Crédit Agricole from 2007 to 2011. Between 2004 and 2007, Bertrand was a managing director of Lazard in Paris and responsible for the Financial Services Group. In 2003, he was invited to join President Jacques Chirac's diplomatic team and was closely involved in the preparation of the G-8 summit in Evian. In that capacity, he served as the president's deputy personal representative for Africa and as a spokesman for the working group on new international financial contributions to fight poverty and fund development, which produced the Landau Report. In 2002, he was a member of the World Panel on Financing Water Infrastructure chaired by Michel Camdessus.

In 1999 Badré joined Lazard, where he spent 18 months as assistant director in London before transferring to New York as director of the mergers and acquisitions department with specific focus on the financial services sector. From 1995 to 1999, he served in the French Ministry of Finance where he led a number of control, audit, and consultancy missions for the French National Audit Office. He began his career in 1989 as assistant group controller for BFI-IBEXSA, a Franco-American company that is now part of Avnet.

Bertrand has served as director on a number of boards, including the supervisory board of Eurazeo between 2010 and 2012, Haulotte Group between 2005 and 2013, various boards of the leading French regional daily newspaper group Ouest France, and represented Crédit Agricole and Sociéte Générale on the boards of a number of their subsidiaries. He is a member of the advisory board of the newly created International Water Bank and of the Paris based IDDRI (Institute of Sustainable Development and International Relations). He is a board member of the French-American Foundation, an honorary member of the Cincinnati Society and a fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He is chair of the Global Future Council on International Governance, Public-Private Cooperation and Sustainable Development and an advisor for the World Economic Forum.

He has taught and is currently teaching in a number of schools and universities, and is the author of several books, the most recent being “Money Honnie, si la finance sauvait le monde?” which is expected to be published in English in 2017.

Bertrand is a graduate of ENA (Ecole Nationale d'Administration) and Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris. He also studied history at Paris IV University (La Sorbonne), and graduated from HEC (Hautes Etudes Commerciales in Paris) business school.

Biography

Helena Barnard is a full professor at GIBS and responsible for the GIBS doctoral programme. She was on the organising committee for the Academy of Management Africa conference at GIBS in 2013, serves on the editorial board of the Global Strategy Journal and is the Academy of International Business (AIB) Vice President for Administration for 2017 to 2020.

Biography

Till Bärnighausen is Adjunct Professor at the Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He also serves as Program Director for Health Systems and Impact at the Wellcome Trust Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies in South Africa, one of the Trust’s four Major Overseas Programmes. He is also a faculty affiliate at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies.

Till works on health care access, transformation of health services, and the causal impacts of HIV treatment and other global health priority interventions on population health, economic, social and behavioral outcomes.

Till and his team have established the population impact of HIV treatment – delivered under the real-life conditions of a public-sector health system in rural Southern Africa – on mortality and life expectancy, employment an educational attainment, and health seeking and sexual behavior. They have also shown that in a rural Southern African community with high HIV prevalence and incidence neither sexual partner concurrency nor large age gaps between young girls and their male partners are important drivers of the HIV epidemic. Finally, Till has introduced several methods innovations for applied, population-based HIV research: new approaches to estimate HIV incidence using cross-sectional data on recent HIV infection; Heckman selection models to remove selection bias from HIV prevalence estimates; regression discontinuity for causal inference in clinical an population-based cohorts; and novel approaches to use geographical information system data to determine distance and exposures.

Biography

The Honorable Sandy K. Baruah is president and CEO of the Detroit Regional Chamber, one of the largest in the country. Under Baruah’s leadership, the Chamber’s signature initiatives include Forward Detroit, a comprehensive, forward looking regional development approach; MICHauto, a state-wide strategy to advance next generation automotive and mobility developments in Michigan, and the Mackinac Policy Conference, one of the nation’s largest and longest running public policy conference hosting national keynote speakers and the state’s top public and private leadership.

Baruah joined the Chamber in 2010 after a distinguished career in Washington, D.C. He served as President George W. Bush’s last Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). In this role, he was the chief executive responsible for the SBA’s 4,000 national employees and $18 billion small business loan portfolio. Baruah was one of the senior officials shaping the federal government’s response to the 2008 credit crisis and assistance to the U.S. automotive industry.

Prior to leading the SBA, Baruah served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce. In this role he had responsibility for the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA), served as the Senior Advisor to the Commerce Secretary for the 2010 Census and represented the U.S. government before the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, France.

Before serving in the George W. Bush Administration, Baruah was a corporate mergers and acquisitions consultant for the Performance Consulting Group. He also served in the administration of President George H. W. Bush (1989–1993) and was on the staff of U.S. Senator Bob Packwood.
After leaving government service in early 2009, he was a Distinguished Fellow at the U.S. Council on Competitiveness, a Washington, D.C.- based think tank comprised of corporate CEOs, university presidents and labor leaders focused on American economic competitiveness.

Baruah holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Oregon and a Master of Business Administration from Willamette University. Baruah serves on the boards of the U.S. Council on Competitiveness, Automotive Hall of Fame, Detroit Economic Club and Riverfront Conservancy. He is a former Advisory Board Member of Wavepoint Ventures and Spain’s Orkestra – Institute of Competitiveness.

In 2016, Baruah was appointed by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder as Chairman of the 21st Century Economy Commission. He is a frequent commentator on local and national media regarding national political developments, automotive industry matters and Detroit and Michigan issues.

Sandy and Lisa Baruah have one son, live in a household run by the family pets and previously lived in Portland, Oregon and Washington, D.C.

Biography

Laurence Batlle is Chairwoman of the RATP Dev Executive Board, and has sat on the RATP Group Executive Board since 1st January 2017. She joined RATP Dev in 2007 as CFO, and since then has played a major role in defining its strategy and supervising its international growth. She became a member of the Executive Board in 2011, and was in charge of its Americas-Africa and Sightseeing Business Units from 2014 to 2016. She has also been an independent Board member of Elior Group since 2014.

Laurence Batlle has a proven executive management track record: prior to joining RATP Dev, she spent 14 years driving sales growth in major consulting firms, first for PricewaterhouseCoopers and then as VP Global Finance Support at Atos Origin for two years. She is a graduate of Harvard Business School and Institut Commercial de Nancy, and is a Knight of the French National Order of Merit.

Biography

Osama Bedier is the founder and CEO of Poynt, the creator of the world’s first smart payment terminal. An Egyptian-American entrepreneur and investor with a deep passion for improving lives through technology, Osama has spent the last two decades pioneering consumer internet, e-commerce and payments services.

Prior to founding Poynt, Osama served as the Vice President of Payments at Google and head of Google Wallet. Prior to Google, Osama spent nine years running product and engineering at PayPal, building and scaling much of what made them a household name. He has also held engineering leadership roles at eBay, Gateway Computers and AT&T Wireless.

Osama actively invests and advises many fintech start-ups mainly through NYCA partners. In addition, he currently sits on the boards of QIWI(QIWI:NASDAQ), WePay and PayRange. He lives with his wife Nancy and
their five children in Atherton, CA.

Biography

Sheri Berman is a professor of Political Science at Barnard College, Columbia University.  She is the author of two books on social democracy and European political development and  has written extensively on European politics and political development, comparative democratization and consolidation, fascism, populism and the history of the left for numerous scholarly and non-scholarly publications.  She currently serves on the board of several journals and is the chair of the Council of European Studies.  She is spending this year finishing up a book on the development of democracy and dictatorship in Europe from the ancien regime to the present day. 

Biography

Jean-Stephane Bernard is Associate General Secretary for the Secrétariat du Québec aux Relations canadiennes of the Ministère du Conseil exécutif since March 2018.

Between October 2014 and March 2018, he was Deputy Minister of the Ministère des Relations internationales et de la Francophonie, after being the Assistant Deputy Minister for the Bilateral Affairs of the same ministry from August 2012 to October 2014. He was before that Québec Delegate to New England, from February 2011 to August 2012, and he represented the Québec government in Washington DC as Director of the Québec Office, from November 2007 to February 2011.

Mr. Bernard began his career in the Québec public service in 1994. From 1994 to 2007, he held a variety of positions at the Régie des rentes du Québec (provincial pension commission), serving as Financial Management Analyst; Assistant to the Vice-President, Client Services; Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer; and finally as Director of the Internet Services and Corporate Security Branch. In March 2007, he was appointed Director of Revenu Québec’s Online Services Development and Planning Branch.

Over the years, Mr. Bernard also served on the Board of the Québec Public Administration Institute (IAPQ). In addition, he chaired the Young Explorers Program and the Public Service Youth Forum, as well as coordinating the Public Service Executive Forum (FDGO) and the Public Service Expertise Centre (CEGO). In 2005, he served on the provincial Healthcare and Social Services Task Force chaired by Jacques Ménard. M. Bernard currently serves on the boards of directors of the Institute of public administration of Canada and the Caisse Desjardins of Sillery St-Louis de France.

Mr. Bernard received a degree in administrative sciences (finance and accounting) from Laval University and a master’s in public administration from the National School of Public Administration (ÉNAP) in Québec City.  He also completed an executive education certificate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 2018, he received from the ÉNAP for his exceptional contribution the medal of the 50^th anniversary of the University of Quebec and in 2019, for its 50^th anniversary, ÉNAP named him one of its eleven influential graduates.

Biography

Dr. Barry Bloom is recognized as a pioneer in the field of global health. Trained in immunology, he has made important contributions to infectious diseases, vaccines and global health policy. His lifelong commitment has been to bring knowledge and methods of cutting edge basic science to alleviating the burdens of disease in developing countries.

His research has been primarily focused on the immunology and pathogenesis of leprosy and of tuberculosis. Dr. Bloom has published more than 350 articles, edited 7 books, and continues to provide commentary on current issues in public and global health. Dr. Bloom’s scientific contributions have made him a trusted advisor in public health policy. He has served as an advisor to the White House on International Health Policy. For more than 40 years, he has been an advisor to the World Health Organization, where he chaired the Research Advisory Committees on Leprosy, Tuberculosis, Malaria, and Tropical Diseases and was a member of the WHO Advisory Committee on Health Research.

He taught the first course in immunology in India at AIMS. His past service includes membership on the National Advisory Council of the US National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the Scientific Advisory Board of the National Center for Infectious Diseases of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the National Advisory Board of the Fogarty International Center at the National Institutes of Health, as well as the Governing Board of the Institute of Medicine. He is a former investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and served on their Medical Advisory Board. He served as President of the American Association of Immunologists and of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.

He currently serves on the scientific advisory boards of the Wellcome Trust Institute for Human Genetics, Oxford, UK, and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Clinical Scholars program, the KwaZulu Natal Institute for Research in Tuberculosis and HIV (K-RITH), and the Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) program. Dr. Bloom came from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health as Dean of the Faculty in 1999, which he served for a decade. He received the first Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Research in Infectious Diseases, shared the Novartis Award in Immunology in 1998, and was the recipient of the Robert Koch Gold Medal for lifetime research in infectious diseases.

Dr. Bloom was elected to membership in the US National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, and the American Philosophical Society.

Biography

André Bourbonnais is President and CEO of PSP Investments, one of Canada’s largest pension investment managers with $116.8 billion of assets under management as at March 31, 2016.

Prior to joining PSP Investments in March 2015, Mr. Bourbonnais spent nine years with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) where he was Senior Managing Director & Global Head of Private Investments. As such, he was responsible for a portfolio of private investments totaling over $65 billion. He previously oversaw the 2005 initial public offering of Addenda Capital Inc., a leading fixed income manager, and managed private equity portfolios for the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec from 2001 to 2004.   

A lawyer by training, Mr. Bourbonnais began his career in 1986 with Stikeman Elliott LLP. After three years in Europe working for a merger and acquisition consulting firm, he joined Teleglobe, a leading international telecommunications company, where he became Chief Legal Officer in 1995 until its acquisition by BCE in 2000.

Mr. Bourbonnais is a graduate of the University of Ottawa (1982) and of the London School of Economics (1986).

Biography

Amira Boutouchent is the co-founder and CEO of Bridgr, a technology company that helps small and medium manufacturing companies find and collaborate with the right curated experts to solve operations challenges. The company was part of the winter 2016 Founder Institute graduates. Amira is a computer science engineer from Algeria and held an MSc in Management from HEC Montreal.

Biography

Noah Breslow has served as OnDeck’s Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the OnDeck Board of Directors since June 2012 and as Chief Operating Officer from October 2011 to June 2012, Chief Product Officer from October 2009 to September 2011, Senior Vice President, Products and Technology from March 2008 to September 2009, and Vice President, Products and Technology from June 2007 to February 2008. Prior to joining OnDeck, Mr. Breslow was Vice President of Marketing and Product Management for Tacit Networks, Inc., a provider of wide area network optimization solutions, from December 2003 through January 2007. Mr. Breslow holds an S.B. in Computer Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. with distinction from Harvard Business School.

Biography

Jean-Jacques Bresson is Head of Dengue Company within Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of Sanofi, which provides more than 1 billion doses of vaccine each year, making it possible to immunize more than 500 million people across the globe. He is a member of the Company’s Executive Committee.

As Head of Dengue Company, Jean-Jacques is responsible for managing an international, cross-disciplinary team of over 500 employees dedicated to the global introduction of the world’s first vaccine against dengue fever. This global launch project requires oversight on launch strategy and planning for markets around the world where dengue is a major public health priority. The dengue vaccine is the culmination of 20 years of Sanofi Pasteur’s commitment to discover and develop a vaccine against dengue that could help reduce the human and economic disease burden worldwide, as well as to support endemic countries in their efforts to achieve the WHO 2020 disease reduction goals for Dengue.

Jean-Jacques Bresson first joined Pasteur Mérieux Connaught in South America in 1995, serving as Marketing Manager for the CANAC region, based in Colombia. He then worked as an entrepreneur in several small companies including his own, before re-joining the Sanofi Pasteur team in Lyon in 2002 as Business Operation Manager for Asia. In 2004, Jean-Jacques was appointed General Manager in the Philippines and then General Manager in Mexico for Sanofi Pasteur. In Mexico, he worked and negotiated a Public Private partnership with Birmex and collaborated with Mexican authorities to secure supply of Flu pandemic vaccine for the Mexican population. His experiences expand to other businesses in the Sanofi Group, both in strategic and operational positions in France and Asia. At Sanofi French affiliate, he successively held the positions of Strategy and Business Development Director and Director of an operational Business Unit, before moving to Thailand as General Manager of Sanofi Thailand & Myanmar. He was appointed Chief Commercial Officer, Dengue Company, on January 2015. During those last two years, he directed the global strategy for making the Dengue vaccine available in endemic countries, in particular through interactions with National Regulatory and Health Authorities.

Jean-Jacques Bresson graduated from Lyon Business School with a major in Finance.

Biography

Guy Breton has been named the Université de Montréal’s 11th rector. A professor at the Faculty of Medicine and radiologist by training, he has been teaching at the Université de Montréal since 1979. He has held a number of positions, including Department Director and Executive Vice Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. Guy Breton has played a key role in the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM) project, serving as Vice President of the Société d’implantation du CHUM (SICHUM) and Director of Planning for CHUM 2010. In 2009, he received the Albert-Jutras Prize from the Association des radiologistes du Québec, an organization where he served as secretary and president for 17 years, in recognition of his outstanding career in hospitals and universities.

Biography

Thierry Breton has been Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Atos SE since 2009.

Atos is an international IT services company with annual revenues of $14 billion and 100,000 employees in 72 countries. Serving a global client base, it delivers hi-tech transactional services, payment services, consulting, system integration and managed services. Atos is the Worldwide IT Partner for the Olympic Games.

Prior to that, he held several global leadership positions, including CEO of electronics multinational company Thomson (1997-2002) and CEO of Europe’s largest telecommunications company France Telecom (2002-2005).

He served as France’s Minister for the Economy, Finance and Industry (2005-2007) before becoming a professor at Harvard University (2007-2008).

Thierry Breton has been named one of The 100 Best-Performing CEOs in the World (2010) by the Harvard Business Review and has been granted the Montgelas Prize (2015) for outstanding actions in favor of French-German cooperation.

He has been elected President of the French National Association for Research and Technology (2015) and member of the French Academy of Technologies (2016).

A Commander of the National Order of the Legion of Honour, Thierry Breton graduated from the Paris École Supérieure d’Électricité (Supelec), and the Institut des Hautes Études de Défense Nationale (IHEDN, 46th class).

Thierry Breton
Chairman and CEO, Atos

Biography

Professor Brown was appointed Assistant Professor at Tufts University in 1985 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1992. Her primary area of research is in the application of large scale general equilibrium models to the study of international economic integration in the Western Hemisphere. Professor Brown has also undertaken research on trade policy concerning international labor standards and child labor. Recent publications have appeared in the Journal of Economics Perspectives, The World Economy and the Review of International Economics.

Biography

Nathaniel Bullard is BloombergNEF's Chief Content Officer. He writes weekly for Bloomberg Green on energy, transport, technology, climate and finance.

Biography

Carl Burlock was appointed Senior Vice-President and Global Head, Financing and Investments in May 2014. Since joining EDC in 1997, Mr. Burlock most recently served as Vice-President Commercial Markets and Small Business where he was responsible for account management and business development activities for Canadian businesses in the commercial and small business segments. He also served as Vice President of HR Client Services, overseeing a broad portfolio of critical HR functions, Director of EDC’s Extractive and Resources Financing team, as well as various positions within EDC’s industry sector areas.

Prior to joining EDC, Mr. Burlock spent nine years as a Mechanical Engineer for Nova Scotia Power Inc., primarily in mechanical design and construction. He holds an MBA from Dalhousie University and a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from Dalhousie University/Technical University of Nova Scotia.

Biography

Luis Castilla is the CEO of ACCIONA Infrastructure since January 2014. It covers the Construction, Concessions, Water, Industrial and Services divisions of the ACCIONA Group, employing over 30,000 people in more than 40 countries. In 2016 these businesses generated revenues of 3,600 million euros.

Luis Castilla is an MSC/MEng Civil Engineer from the Politécnica University of Madrid. He has been working for more than thirty years in the civil and industrial infrastructures construction business. In addition, within the World Economic Forum, Luis leads as Co-Chair the Infrastructure and Urban Development Industries.

Biography

From successful entrepreneur to angel investor and mentor, it’s all about Passion! Mike gets involved where it counts and where he can bring value. As an entrepreneur: Beltron from 1984 to 2000 and iBwave from 2003 to 2015. As an investor and mentor: over 30 companies in the past 10 years. Mike is visibly involved in the angel investing community through Anges Quebec and many other initiatives. Nurturing entrepreneurship is his gift!

Biography

Jean-Marc Chouinard est président de la Fondation Lucie et André Chagnon depuis septembre 2016. Il a auparavant occupé le poste de vice-président, Stratégie et partenariats et est associé au développement de la Fondation depuis ses débuts en 2001. Il est détenteur d’un baccalauréat en sociologie et d’une maîtrise en urbanisme. En marge de ses activités à la Fondation, Jean-Marc Chouinard est activement impliqué dans de nombreuses causes au service de la société québécoise. Il a ainsi reçu, en 2013, le prix Frederick Todd de l’Association des architectes paysagistes du Québec pour sa contribution exceptionnelle à l’avancement de ce domaine. En 2014, il est nommé au Conseil supérieur de l’éducation du Québec. Il est par ailleurs administrateur de plusieurs OBNL dans son quartier et à l’échelle provinciale. Sportif de haut niveau accompli, M. Chouinard a mené une brillante carrière en escrime : dix fois champion canadien, champion du Commonwealth en 1986 et 1990, champion panaméricain en 1983, vice-champion du monde junior en 1983, et vice-champion du monde universitaire en 1987. Il a aussi participé aux Jeux olympiques de Los Angeles, Séoul, Barcelone et Atlanta. Ses performances sportives lui ont valu d’importantes distinctions au Québec et au Canada.

Biography

Catherine Clark is a Canadian broadcaster, columnist, blogger, public speaker, emcee and communications professional.

She was the longtime host of a national television show featuring one-on-one interviews with Canada’s most influential people, and is the host and co-producer of three historical documentaries.

Catherine is a member of the Board of Directors of CARE Canada and The Writers Trust of Canada and the Board of Governors of the Community Foundation of Ottawa.

Biography

Elected Mayor of Montréal on November 3, 2013, Mr. Coderre is also Executive Committee Member responsible for Economic Development, International Relations, Mont-Royal and Montréal’s 375th Anniversary.

From 1997 to 2013, Mr. Coderre represented constituents in Bourassa who returned him six times to the House of Commons. He held several ministerial positions in the Government of Canada.

Denis Coderre played a crucial role in issues of critical importance to Montréal, including establishment of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s headquarters in Montréal.

Mr. Coderre holds a Bachelors of Political Science from the Université de Montréal and an Executive MBA from the University of Ottawa.

He is married to Chantale Renaud and they have two children, Alexandre and Geneviève.

Biography

Dr Cool is the Chief Operating Officer of Hybrid Enterprises LLC, the worldwide exclusive reseller of Lockheed Martin’s Hybrid Airships. Prior to the establishment of Hybrid Enterprises, Dr. Cool was the operations subject matter expert for Lockheed Martin on the development of its Hybrid Airships. Dr. Cool was also the President and Chief Engineer of Kivalliq Marine Exploration in Canada, an Arctic and Antarctic marine exploration, survey and logistics company that served many governments and large mining and oil & gas companies. Dr. Cool is a Professional Engineer and holds a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering in spacecraft design, and a BASc in engineering from the University of Toronto.

Biography

Guy Cormier has been President and Chief Executive Officer of Desjardins Group since April 2016. Desjardins is the leading cooperative financial group in Canada and sixth in the world, with assets of over $248 billion. It is one of the 20 largest employers in the country, supported by the skills of its 47,000 employees and the commitment of more than 5,000 elected officers. Drawing on the strength of its caisse network in Quebec and Ontario and its subsidiaries across Canada, Desjardins Group offers a full range of financial products and services to its millions of members and clients. Desjardins specializes in wealth management, life and health insurance, property and casualty insurance, personal services, and business and institutional services.

Mr. Cormier has been with Desjardins since 1992, and was General Manager of several caisses in the network. He was Vice-President of Cooperative Network Finance from 2009 to 2012, before being appointed Vice-President of Cooperative Network, in 2012, and then Senior Vice-President of Cooperative Network and Personal Services in 2013.

Mr. Cormier has always encouraged audacity, agility and innovation to improve the experience of members and clients. Under his leadership, the organization's AccèsD Services earned their 11th Customer Operations Performance Center (COPC) certification, making Desjardins the only financial institution in the world to hold the certification that long. It was also under Mr. Cormier that new innovative technology-focused service centres were launched, earning several awards internationally.

In 2014, he was invited to give lectures and take part in round tables for events organized by the World Health Organization and the International Summit of Cooperative.

In 2013, the Quebec MBA Association recognized Mr. Cormier as one of 40 Quebecers with a major influence on business in the province.

Biography

As veterinary surgeon and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health, Dr. Susan Corning has enjoyed a career working internationally in both human and animal health. She has led organizations and held senior executive positions in both the corporate and not-for-profit sectors in healthcare, animal health and welfare, and pharmaceutical industries.

With multi-national citizenship, Dr. Corning has travelled extensively, motivating industry stakeholder alliances and leading international programs to address human and animal health and welfare concerns. Currently located in Europe, much of her career has been based in sub-Saharan Africa.

Her experience working in developing countries motivated her to promote donor alliances to optimize their global input. She established a Global Health Philanthropy Summit, which was endorsed by Nobel Laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Dr. Oscar Arias, and supported by leading international health organizations and institutions. Prior to that, Dr. Corning was Deputy CEO of the International Federation of Health Funds, and she successfully launched the European establishment of the international medical relief organization Project C.U.R.E., as its Chief Executive.

For the past five years, Dr Corning has worked for the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), where she is the Senior Advisor to the Deputy Director General, International Standards and Sciences. She serves on the Steering Group of the Global Health Security Agenda and the Advisory Group of the Joint External Evaluation Alliance to support the WHO International Health Regulations (IHR, 2005) Monitoring and Evaluation Framework.

On behalf of the OIE, she advocates One Health stakeholder engagement, promoting the development and facilitation of cross-sectoral approaches to address health risks at the human-animal interface.

Biography

Born on June 26, 1957 in Montreal, Philippe Couillard earned his doctorate in medicine in 1979 and neurosurgery degree in 1985 from Université de Montréal, a specialist certificate from Collège des médecins du Québec and a specialist certificate from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in 1985.

Mr. Couillard served as Chief Surgeon in the Department of Neurosurgery at Hôpital Saint-Luc from 1989 to 1992 and co-founded the Dhahran Department of Neurosurgery in Saudi Arabia, working there from 1992 to 1996. Subsequently, he was a Faculty of Medicine professor at Université de Sherbrooke from 1996 to 2003 and Chief Surgeon and Director in Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Sherbrooke’s Department of Surgery from 2000 to 2003.

From 1999 to 2003, he served as the Canadian representative on the Board of Directors of the Société de Neurochirurgie de Langue Française. He sat on Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada’s Board and Committee of Public Affairs and Policy Research from 2000 to 2003.

Philippe Couillard has also been a member of the James IV Association of Surgery since 2002, a partner of PCP (Persistence Capital Partners) Investment Fund, a member of the International Advisory Board established by Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Health, a member of the Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC), a member of the Amorfix Life Sciences and Thallion Pharmaceuticals Boards and the Chairman of the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation and Québec Network for Personalized Healthcare. In addition, he was a Strategic Advisor in Healthcare and Life Sciences at Secor in February 2011 and a consultant in a private capacity.

Elected Liberal MNA for Mount Royal in 2003, Philippe Couillard was re-elected in Jean-Talon in 2007, serving as the Minister of Health and Social Services in the Charest cabinet from April 29, 2003 to June 25, 2008.

In January 2009, he was the director of research in Health Law at McGill University, acting as a professor until December 2011.

He received the Medicine, Culture and Society Prize from the Université de Montréal Faculty of Medicine in 2006 and the Jacques Cartier Medal in 2007.

At the end of the QLP leadership race, Philippe Couillard had the support of 58.5% of the 3,000 delegates at the convention on March 17, 2013 in Verdun.

On the 7^th of April 2014, Philippe Couillard was elected MNA of the electoral division of Roberval, and by the same occasion became the31^st Premier of Quebec.

Biography

A man of action, Pierre Gabriel Côté makes our clients’ satisfaction one of our organization’s highest priorities. Excellent listening skills, a proactive stance and quality service are the pillars of our client-based approach for this astute businessman, who headed up several large manufacturing companies before taking the helm of Investissement Québec.

Mr. Côté was appointed President and CEO of Investissement Québec in December, 2014.

A management consultant since 2012, he has experience running large North American and international companies. He was President and Chief Executive Officer of Fibrek from 2008 to 2012, President of Bombardier Aerospace’s Business Aircraft division from 2006 to 2008 and President and Chief Executive Officer of Lantic Sugar from 2001 to 2005. In addition, he held a variety of management positions in the forestry industry for nearly 20 years.

Over the course of his career, Mr. Côté has served on numerous boards of directors. Until recently, he was a director of D-Box, Dessau, Centre for Commercialization of Innovation for Manufacturers and Fondation de la Maison Michel-Sarrazin. He has also supported the Grand défi Pierre Lavoie since 2010.

Mr. Côté has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Université Laval and completed a training program at the McGill Executive Institute.

Biography

Minister Pardo Cruz joined the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) in 1963 and a year later he was sent to the USSR to study advanced military and technologies as part of the Coheterile Anti-Air Troops. He was later assigned to the Industrial Military Company in the successive positions of Radar Technologist, Head of Radar Technology Group, Head of Technical Section, Chief Engineer and General Director until 1991 when he became the General Manager of the Mechanical Plant. In 1996 he was appointed General Coordinator of the Military Industry Company and reached the rank of Brigadier General.

After leaving the Military Industry Company, he was appointed as Minister of the Iron and Steel Industry. When the Cuban Government decided in 2012 to create the Ministry of Industries by merging the Ministries of Light Industry and the Iron and Steel Industry, Minister Pardo Cruz was appointed head of the new body.

Biography

Tina Davis is the managing editor of energy and commodity reporting in the Americas for Bloomberg News. In that role, she oversees 70 reporters and editors in 17 bureaus. Tina joined Bloomberg in 2005 as an energy policy and regulation reporter in Washington, where she covered the U.S. Energy Department, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as well as energy committees in the House and Senate. Prior to Bloomberg, she worked for The Economist, the Sunday Times of London and The Energy Daily. She lives in New York City and is the co-author of Hess: The Last Oil Baron, a biography of Leon Hess and the Hess Corp.

Biography

Biography

Oleg Deripaska was appointed as RUSAL’s President in November 2014. He oversees new development strategies for the Company. Since January 2009, Oleg Deripaska was Chief Executive Officer of UC RUSAL.

In 1997, Mr Deripaska, then Director General of the Sayanogorsk aluminium smelter, created Russia’s first vertically integrated company – Siberian Aluminium (in 2001 renamed Basic Element) that later incorporated a number of Russia’s leading aluminium production facilities. In 2000, Siberian Aluminium became one of the world’s top ten aluminium producers..

Between 2000 and 2003, Mr Deripaska was Director General of RUSAL, which was created through the merger of Siberian Aluminium and Sibneft’s aluminium and alumina assets. In 2007, Russia’s RUSAL and SUAL and Swiss Glencore merged to create United Company RUSAL, the world’s largest producer of aluminium. In 2009, the year of global economic recession, Oleg Deripaska once again stepped in to head up RUSAL.

Mr Deripaska graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Physics Department of Moscow State University and later received a degree from the Plekhanov Academy of Economics.

Oleg Deripaska is Vice President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Chairman of the Executive Board of the Russian National Committee and a member of the Competitiveness and Entrepreneurship Council which is a Russian Government Agency. He also serves on the Boards of Trustees of the National Science Support Foundation, the Bolshoi Theatre and the Schools of Business Administration of the Moscow and St. Petersburg State Universities.

In 2004, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin appointed Oleg Deripaska as Russia’s Representative in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Business Advisory Council. In 2007, he was appointed Chairman of the Council’s Branch in Russia.

In 1999, Mr Deripaska was awarded with the Order of Friendship. In 1999, 2006 and 2007 he was named «Businessman of the Year» by the Russian leading business daily Vedomosti. He was also named the Industry Ambassador of the Year at 2013 Metal Bulletin Global Aluminium Award for Excellence.

Biography

Mrs. Claire Deronzier holds a Degree in Communications and she is an Accredited Chartered Director. She has over 25 years of experience in the field of government communications and public administration particularly in the field of strategic advice. As an Assistant Deputy Minister for the Quebec government, she notably led the development of public policies in diversity management and immigrants’ integration as well as the implementation of the Quebec- France Agreement on the Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications. She coordinated the development activities and the land-use planning of the Montreal metropolitan region. She also led the modernization of the immigration services in Quebec and abroad in the increased competitive context of international mobility. Mrs. Deronzier has been the Quebec General Delegate in Tokyo since August 2013.

Biography

Mr. Déry, who holds a master’s degree in economics from Laval University, has been Superintendent, Solvency since February 2013.
In this capacity, Mr. Déry is responsible for the oversight and regulation of insurance companies, trust companies, savings companies and financial services cooperatives carrying on business in Québec in order to protect consumers, increase confidence in Québec’s financial sector and promote its development.

His staff, made up of 90 employees specializing in various areas, ensure that businesses subject to AMF oversight meet Québec’s legal, normative and regulatory requirements. The financial soundness and management of these businesses are regularly assessed to ensure that they are solvent and that they follow sound business practices. AMF Solvency also ensures the development, review and implementation of guidelines, notices and standards relating to the areas for which it is responsible.

At the national level, Mr. Déry represents the AMF at the Canadian Council of Insurance Regulators (CCIR) and the Credit Union Prudential Supervisors Association (CUPSA).

Mr. Déry also served as Superintendent, Client Services, Compensation and Distribution from July 2011 to September 2012, during which time he helped develop the AMF Index, which measures the knowledge and behaviour of consumers of financial products and services in Québec, implement the current framework for money-services businesses and modernize the AMF’s business systems (MISA project), among other achievements.

During his career, Mr. Déry has also held several high-level positions in Québec’s civil service. In particular, he was part of the Québec Ministry of Finance for some 12 years, where he helped manage the impacts of the 2007–2008 financial crisis on the major financial institutions operating in Québec.

Mr. Déry has been a member of the Board of Directors of Hydro-Québec since October 2012.

Biography

He joined Power in 1981 and assumed the position of Vice-President the following year. In 1984, he led the creation of Power Financial to consolidate Power’s major financial holdings, as well as Pargesa Holding SA, under a single corporate entity. Mr. Desmarais served as Vice-President of Power Financial from 1984 to 1986, as President and Chief Operating Officer from 1986 to 1989, as Executive Vice-Chairman from 1989 to 1990, as Executive Chairman from 1990 to 2005 and as Chairman of the Executive Committee from 2006 to 2008. He also served as Vice-Chairman of Power Corporation from 1991 to 1996.

After Power Financial and the Frère Group of Belgium took control of Pargesa in 1990, Mr. Desmarais moved to Europe from 1991 to 1994, to develop the partnership with the Frère Group and to restructure the Pargesa group. From 1982 to 1990, he was a member of the Management Committee of Pargesa, in 1991, Executive Vice-Chairman and then Executive Chairman of the Committee; from 2003 to 2019, he was Co-Chief Executive Officer and he was named Chairman of the Board in 2013. He has been a director of Pargesa since 1992.

He also serves as Chairman of Power Financial and is a director of many Power Corporation group companies in North America, including Great-West Lifeco, Canada Life, Empower Retirement, Putnam Investments, IGM Financial, IG Wealth Management and Mackenzie. In Europe, he is Chairman of the Board of Groupe Bruxelles Lambert and a director of SGS. He was a director of LafargeHolcim until 2020 and of Total until 2017.

Mr. Desmarais is Chairman of the Board of Governors of The International Economic Forum of the Americas (Canada), a Trustee of The Brookings Institution, Co-Chair of the Brookings International Advisory Council and a member of the Brookings Executive Committee (Washington), a member of the Global Board of Advisors of the Council on Foreign Relations (United States), a member of the Global Advisory Council of Harvard (United States), a member of The Business Council (United States) and of The Business Council of Canada. He is also active on a number of philanthropic advisory councils.

In 1994, he received the Insigne d’Officier de l’Ordre de la Couronne of Belgium. In 2005, he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada and he received the Executive of the Year Award from the Academy of International Business. In 2009, he was named an Officer of the Ordre national du Québec and in 2012, Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur in France. He holds a number of honorary doctorates.

He obtained a Bachelor of Commerce degree from McGill University and an MBA from the European Institute of Business Administration (INSEAD), France.

Biography

David Dufresne is Venture Partner for 500’s Canada fund. David started his career in the Canadian VC industry in early 2000s, then acted as CEO of music tech company Bandzoogle for 5 years. He recently worked with music platform Bandcamp, before returning to VC and joining the 500 global family. Outside of work, David is a total music snob, an aging offensive defenseman at both hockey and soccer, and he likes to take his 2 daughters explore the city and the great outdoors.

Biography

Philippe has dedicated the past quarter century helping his clients build a sustainable energy future. He has had the honour of leading a first-rate team of professionals, and the privilege of supporting forward-looking governments, utilities, businesses and non-profits throughout North America.

Philippe’s experience spans the full array of demand-side energy resources: from building efficiency to demand response, renewable energy, storage and clean mobility. He has designed plans and programs, developed leading-edge policies for governments and others, assessed the potential – technical, economic and achievable – of solutions across vast markets, and advised on evaluation, cost-effectiveness frameworks and a host of other issues. Among his more enjoyable endeavours: designing public policies and market strategies, brainstorming with the team on methodology, helping clients tackle complex problems, translating findings into a clear narrative, testifying at regulatory hearings, public speaking, and serving on the boards of organizations with a public purpose.

He is currently Vice Chair of the Canadian Energy Efficiency Alliance, among other positions.

Biography

Allen Eaves, OBC MD PhD FRCPC, was the Founding Director of the Terry Fox Laboratory for Cancer Research (1981-06) and Head of Clinical Hematology at University of British Columbia (1985-03).  Currently Professor Emeritus of Hematology at UBC, he has devoted himself to building STEMCELL Technologies Inc, a company he founded in 1993 to provide standardized tissue culture reagents for regenerative medicine and those doing cancer and immunological research.  Always profitable and with only 3% of its sales in Canada, STEMCELL is now Canada’s largest biotech company with over 1000 employees and a global network of sales offices and distribution centres serving thousands of customers.

Dr. Eaves has published over 200 papers in leading peer-review scientific journals. He has been elected as President of the International Society of Cell Therapy; President of  the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation; founding Treasurer of the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cell Therapy; and has been a Member of Health Canada’s Expert Working Group on the Safety of Organs and Tissues for Transplantation.  He sits on the boards of The Canadian Stem Cell Network, The Canadian Stem Cell Foundation and The Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine.

He is passionate about providing excellent tools and reagents for researchers and creating rewarding employment for those who love science.

Biography

Michael T. Eckhart is a Managing Director and Global Head of Environmental Finance and Sustainability at Citigroup in New York City. In this role he supports Citi's goal to be the leading financial services firm in renewable energy, energy efficiency, clean water and related areas, serving clients with corporate banking, investment banking, equity and debt capital markets, global transaction services, trade finance and private banking.

Mr. Eckhart serves on the governing bureau of the REN 21 global policy network in renewable energy, on the Renewable Industry Advisory Board of the IEA, and as an Observer to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

From 2001 to 2011, Mr. Eckhart was founding President of the American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE), a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization with more than 600 organizational members in wind, solar, hydro, ocean, geothermal, biomass, biofuels and waste sources of electricity, thermal energy, hydrogen and fuels. Previously, he developed financing for solar energy under the SolarBank Initiative in South Africa and India; was Chairman & CEO of the power generation development firm United Power Systems, Inc.; Vice President of the venture capital firm Areté Ventures, Inc.; a strategic planner of General Electric Company's power systems sector; and a Principal with the energy practice of Booz, Allen & Hamilton where he conducted many of the original national studies on new energy technologies in the 1970s including renewables, advanced coal, synfuels, advanced nuclear and others.

Mr. Eckhart has received several awards in the area of social entrepreneurship. He served in the U.S. Navy Submarine Service. He received a degree in electrical engineering from Purdue University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Biography

Ian Edwards is President, Infrastructure. In this role, Mr. Edwards leads SNC-Lavalin's global Infrastructure and related businesses, which include the Company's Infrastructure Concession Investment (ICI), Infrastructure Engineering, Infrastructure Construction, and Operations & Maintenance business units. He has over 30 years of experience delivering complex infrastructure projects and leading businesses in many sectors and across a dozen countries.

Mr. Edwards also heads the Infrastructure Construction business unit, which provides construction services for infrastructure projects in a variety of sectors, including urban transit and heavy rail systems, super-hospitals, highways, bridges, airport terminals and water facilities. The Infrastructure Construction business frequently works in an integrated fashion with the Infrastructure group’s concession investments, engineering, and operations and maintenance businesses.

Mr. Edwards joined SNC-Lavalin after six years in senior roles with the Leighton Group. In 2012, he became Managing Director, Leighton Asia, India and Offshore, where he led a diverse business of 20,000 employees spanning the construction, infrastructure, oil and gas and mining sectors in 14 countries. For four years prior to this, Mr. Edwards was Executive General Manager, Leighton Asia Limited, where he secured sustainable, year-on-year business growth and significantly enhanced shareholder returns.

Mr. Edwards holds Higher and Ordinary Certificates in Civil Engineering from Lancashire University in the United Kingdom. He is also an incorporated Member of the Chartered Institute of Building and a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, as well as the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers.

Biography

Jennifer Esposito is Worldwide General Manager of the Health and Life Sciences organization at Intel Corporation.

In this role, Jennifer leads a worldwide team of technology leaders and subject matter experts to develop solutions that use information and communication technology to transform the health and life sciences industry.

Jennifer has nearly 20 years of experience on the front lines of the medical imaging industry, global health systems and academic medicine.

She worked as the Executive Director for the High Value Healthcare Collaborative—a consortium that included 20 leading U.S. health systems working to improve healthcare quality, outcomes, and costs of care, and to serve as a model for healthcare reform. She was also a General Manager at GE Healthcare, leading the Interventional Radiology and Cardiology Service business, where her efforts focused on driving a digital transformation of the technical and Customer support organization. She championed the development of an innovative, remote, proactive maintenance analytic platform that reduced Customer downtime and improved overall product reliability.

Jennifer was awarded a patent for creating a system to track and optimize radiation dose in interventional radiology and cardiology, using machine and medical imaging data. Since 2015, Jennifer has served as a Core Member for the Working Group on Health for the Broadband Commission, the aim of which is to expand broadband access in every country to accelerate progress in achieving national and international development targets.

Jennifer is also a Steering Committee member on the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) Private Sector Roundtable (PSRT), and chairs the PSRT’s subcommittee on Technology and Analytics. Jennifer holds an MS in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, and a BA from Dartmouth College. She is a member of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

Biography

Naser Faruqui is Director, Technology and Innovation. Previous roles at IDRC include Senior Program Officer with the Environment and Natural Resource Management program, and Team Leader for the Urban Poverty and Environment program. He has also worked as Chief, Water Coordination and Transboundary Water Issues at Environment Canada. He has published widely on water management issues, including the groundbreaking Water Management in Islam (UN University Press, 2001). He holds a master’s in environmental engineering from the University of Ottawa, and an Executive MBA from Queen’s University.​

Biography

Ms. Faye specializes in the application of economics, statistical analysis, and strategy to the areas of antitrust, competition, finance, and public policy. She has experience in a broad range of matters involving intellectual property, consumer products, finance and securities, and commercial litigation within various industries. Ms. Faye has assisted testifying experts in all phases of the litigation process, including expert report, deposition, and trial preparation in complex engagements such as the evaluation of class certification claims in the financial and primary manufacturing industries, the quantification of damages related to product liability claims, the assessment of monopolization and price-fixing allegations in retail markets, and the analysis of structured finance products, including residential mortgage-backed securities. Her recent case work includes strategic and economic analyses relating to cartel enforcement in Europe and the United States, and an economic impact analysis of an oil refinery.

Biography

Former President and Chief Executive Officer of Desjardins Group from 2008 to 2016, Monique F. Leroux is the President of the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) and the founder and Chair of the International Summit of Cooperatives.

She is also Chair of the Board of Investissement Québec, Chair of the Quebec Economic and Innovation Council, appointed by the Quebec Government in 2016 and a member of The Canada-U.S. Council for Advancement of Women Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders, created in February 2017.

She is also chair of the Board of Governors of the Society for the Celebrations of Montreal’s 375th anniversary and Metropolis 2017. She serves as an independent Board member of global companies such as Bell (BCE), Couche-tard (ATD), Michelin (ML-France), Crédit Mutuel/CIC as well as S&P Global.

Ms. Leroux is a Member of the Order of Canada, an Officer of the Ordre national du Québec and a Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur. She also holds honorary doctorates and awards from eight Canadian universities.

Biography

Suzanne Fortier has served as Principal and Vice-Chancellor of McGill University since September 2013. Prior to her appointment as Principal, Professor Fortier was President of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) from 2006 to 2013, and held the position of Vice-Principal (Academic) from 2000 to 2005 and Vice-Principal (Research) from 1995 to 2000 at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, where she was a Professor in the Department of Chemistry and in the School of Computing (1982-2006).

A native of St-Timothée, Québec, Professor Fortier graduated from McGill with a BSc (1972) and a PhD in Crystallography (1976). Her research work has focused in the development of mathematical and artificial intelligence methodologies for protein structure determination. She has also made contributions to the development of novel techniques in crystallographic data mining to gain new insights from the large structural databases.

Professor Fortier was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2018. She is also an officer of France’s National Order of Merit, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was named a Specially Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (2015). She holds honorary doctorates from Thompson Rivers University, Carleton University, and the University of Glasgow.

Professor Fortier currently serves as Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global University Leaders Forum (GULF), as a member of the HEC Paris International Advisory Board, on the Boards of the McCall MacBain Scholarships at McGill and the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), and is an Academic Member of the Board of Governors of the Technion Israel Institute of Technology. She also serves on the Canadian Business-Higher Education Roundtable, the Catalyst Canada Advisory Board, as well as the Boards of Directors of Montreal International, and the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation.

She has previously served as a member of several boards and councils, including the federal government's Council of Science and Technology Advisors (CSTA), the Board of Directors of the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Steering Committee of the Networks of Centres of Excellence, the Ontario Task Force on Competitiveness, Productivity and Economic Progress, Universities Canada, the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal, the Canadian Federal Minister of Finance’s Advisory Council on Economic Growth, the Conference Board of Canada, and served as a member and Vice-Chair of the Science, Technology and Innovation Council (STIC).

Biography

Marie-Claude Francoeur was appointed the Québec Government Delegate in Boston in May 2014.This is her second term in Boston.

Ms. Francoeur formerly served as the Assistant Deputy Minister for Policies, Multilateral and Francophone Affairs and as Acting Chief of Protocol, from 2011 to 2012, at the Québec Ministère des Relations internationales et de la Francophonie.

Ms. Francoeur was also Chief of Staff for the Québec Minister of Transportation and the Minister of Labour. Throughout her career, Ms. Francoeur has worked to shape and promote Québec’s policies on climate change, labor, transportation, energy and francophonie, both at home and internationally.

Ms. Francoeur holds masters’ degrees in both public administration and international relations from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, as well as a bachelor’s degree in applied sciences from Laval University in Québec and a certificate in advanced management from the McGill Executive Institute. Ms. Francoeur has also completed the Senior Managers in Government program at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Biography

Neil Fraser is the President of Medtronic Canada and Regional Vice-President - Canada, Medtronic plc, one of the largest medical technology, services, and solutions companies in the world. Through innovation and collaboration, Medtronic helps to improve the lives and health of millions of people each year.

Neil is also the Chair of MEDEC and a Board Member of Baycrest Health Sciences. In 2014, he was a member of the federal Advisory Panel on Healthcare Innovation and the Ontario Health Innovation Council.

He is a frequent speaker on the topics of value-based procurement, outcomes-based healthcare, and the medical device sector’s role in improving clinical outcomes, economic value, and access to quality healthcare.

Biography

Ms. Freeland was first elected as the Member of Parliament for Toronto Centre in a by-election in November 2013 and then re-elected in October 2015 as the Member of Parliament for University–Rosedale. Between November 2015 and January 2017, she served as Canada’s 18th Minister of International Trade.

An esteemed journalist and author, Ms. Freeland was born in Peace River, Alberta. She received her undergraduate degree from Harvard University before continuing her studies on a Rhodes Scholarship at the University of Oxford.

After cutting her journalistic teeth as a Ukraine-based stringer for the Financial Times, The Washington Post and The Economist, Ms. Freeland went on to wear many hats at the Financial Times, including U.K. news editor, Moscow bureau chief, Eastern Europe correspondent, editor of the FT Weekend Magazine and editor of FT.com. She served as deputy editor of The Globe and Mail between 1999 and 2001 before becoming deputy editor and then U.S. managing editor of the Financial Times.

In 2010, Ms. Freeland joined Canadian-owned Thomson Reuters. She was a managing director of the company and editor of Consumer News when she decided to return home and enter politics.

She has written two books: Sale of the Century: The Inside Story of the Second Russian Revolution (2000) and Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else (2012).‎ Plutocrats is an international best-seller and won the Lionel Gelber Prize and National Business Book Award. In 2013, Ms. Freeland gave a TED Talk about global income inequality, based on the issues dealt with in Plutocrats. It has been viewed almost two million times.

Ms. Freeland speaks English, French, Ukrainian, Russian and Italian.

Ms. Freeland is married and has three children. She and her family live in University–Rosedale.

Biography

Bestselling author of The World is Flat and New York Times foreign affairs columnist Tom Friedman is renowned for his direct reporting and sophisticated analysis of complex issues facing the world. According to Foreign Policy magazine, “Friedman doesn't just report on events; he helps shape them.” Winner of three Pulitzer Prizes, he has covered the monumental stories from around the globe for The New York Times since 1981.

In his latest bestseller, Thank You For Being Late: An Optimist's Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations, Friedman offers a blueprint for overcoming the stresses and challenges of a world being transformed by technology, globalization, and climate change.

His previous New York Times bestseller, co-written with Michael Mandelbaum, was That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back. According to The Christian Science Monitor, “Anyone who cares about America’s future ought to read this book and hear the authors’ compelling case.”

Friedman's The World is Flat has sold four-and-a-half million copies and won the inaugural Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award. In 2012 Friedman updated his National Book Award-winner, From Beirut to Jerusalem, adding a fresh discussion of the Arab Awakenings and Arab/Israeli relations in a new preface and afterword.

Friedman's Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution — and How It Can Renew America, was a #1 New York Times bestseller. Friedman's other bestsellers include Longitudes and Attitudes: The World in the Age of Terrorism, and The Lexus and the Olive Tree, which Kirkus Reviews called “simply the best book written on globalization.”

Ranked #2 on The Wall Street Journal's list of “influential business thinkers,” named to the 2011 Thinkers50 and the 2013 list of Foreign Policy's Top Global Thinkers, and considered one of “America's Best Leaders” by US News & World Report, Friedman is a frequent guest on programs such as Meet The Press, Morning Joe, and Charlie Rose. His TV documentaries, Searching for the Roots of 9/11, The Other Side of Outsourcing, and Addicted to Oil, have aired on the Discovery Channel. Friedman is featured in Showtime's climate change documentary series Years of Living Dangerously, executive produced by James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In awarding Friedman his third Pulitzer Prize, the Pulitzer Board cited his “clarity of vision, based on extensive reporting, in commenting on the worldwide impact of the terrorist threat.”

Biography

Hernán Galperin (Ph.D., Stanford University) is Research Associate Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California, where he is affiliated with the Annenberg Research Network on International Communication. Previously, he served as Associate Professor and Director of the Center for Technology and Society at the Universidad de San Andrés (Argentina). He is also a Research Fellow at CONICET, the national science council of Argentina, Steering Committee member for DIRSI, a regional ICT policy research consortium based at the Instituto de Estudios Peruanos (IEP) in Lima, Peru, and Research Fellow at Telecom CIDE in Mexico City, Mexico.

Biography

Marc Garneau has served his country his entire professional career, beginning with the Canadian Navy and then as an astronaut and President of the Canadian Space Agency, and now in political life.

He began his service to Canada as a Navy combat systems engineer. In January 1986, he was promoted to Naval Captain and retired from the Navy in 1989.

Marc Garneau made history by becoming the first Canadian Astronaut to fly in space in October 1984.

In October 2008 he was elected as the Member of Parliament for Westmount—Ville-Marie and, in his first mandate, served as the Liberal critic for Industry, Science and Technology as well as the Leader’s representative for Québec. He was re-elected in Westmount—Ville-Marie in May 2011 and served as House Leader for the Liberal Party and Critic for Foreign Affairs. He was re-elected for a third time in 2015 in the district of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount.

In November 4 2015, he was named Minister of Transport.

In August 2003, Marc Garneau was made a Companion of the Order of Canada, Canada’s highest civilian honour.

Biography

James K. Galbraith holds the  Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair in Government/Business Relations at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and a professorship in Government at The University of Texas at Austin.

He chaired the board of Economists for Peace and Security from 1996 to 2016 (www.epsusa.org) and directs the University of Texas Inequality Project (http://utip.lbj.utexas.edu). He was Executive Director of the Joint Economic Committee of the United States Congress in the early 1980s . From 1993 to 1997, he served as chief technical adviser to China's State Planning Commission for macroeconomic reform, and in the first half of 2015 he served as an informal counselor to Yanis Varoufakis, the Greek Minister of Finance.  In 2016 he advised the presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders.

Galbraith's books include: Welcome to the Poisoned Chalice: The Destruction of Greece and the Future of Europe (2016); Inequality: What Everyone Needs to Know (2016); The End of Normal:  The Great Crisis and the Future of Growth (2014); Inequality and Instability:  A Study of the World Economy Just Before the Great Crisis (2012); The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too (2008); Unbearable Cost: Bush, Greenspan, and the Economics of Empire (2006); Inequality and Industrial Change: A Global View (with M. Berner) (2001); Created Unequal: The Crisis in American Pay (1998);

Macroeconomics (with W. Darity Jr.) (1992); and Balancing Acts: Technology, Finance and the American Future (1989).

Galbraith studied economics as a Marshall Scholar at King's College, Cambridge, and holds degrees from Harvard University (BA) and Yale University (MA, M.Phil, PhD). In 2010, he was elected to the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei.  In 2014 he was co-winner with Angus Deaton of the Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economics.

Biography

Jürgen Gerke serves as CEO and chairman of the board of management at Allianz Capital Partners since 2015. Jürgen oversees the Renewables investment business, Legal and Compliance as well as Communications.

Prior to becoming CEO he was CFO at Allianz Worldwide Partners from 2013 to 2014, and CFO of Allianz France from 2007 to 2013. Jürgen has among others held roles in Dresdner Bank, Euler Hermes and the European Commission.

Jürgen holds a degree in law from the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, and participated in executive programs at INSEAD, Harvard and IMD.

Biography

Clément Gignac has amassed a wealth of experience after 30 years in the public and private sectors, including as an MNA and minister in the Quebec government between 2009 and 2012.

During the previous 20 years, Mr. Gignac held various positions in several prominent financial institutions, notably Vice President and Chief Economist at National Bank Financial from 2000 to 2008. During this time, his team regularly ranked among the best economic and strategy teams in the country. Also, in 2012, he was asked by the prestigious World Economic Forum to sit as chair on the Global Agenda Council on Competitiveness.

Finally, in addition to acting as Senior Vice-President and Chief economist since December 2012 at iA Financial Group, M. Gignac is the spokesman for economic issues, chairs the firm’s asset allocation committee and manages diversified funds with assets exceeding $4 billion.

Biography

Eric Girard is the treasurer of National Bank since November 2011. As Treasurer of National Bank, Mr. Girard is responsible for the Bank’s and its subsidiaries Liquidity, Funding and Structural Interest Rate Risk. Mr. Girard also serves as chairman of the Bank's pension fund committee.

Mr. Girard has over 25 years of experience in the fields of investment and financial markets. His various mandates within National Bank have allowed him to acquire deep knowledge of capital markets as well as portfolio and market risks management. He was, among others, responsible for Proprietary Trading and the market-making of interest rates derivatives

Particularly interested in the economy, education, sports and politics, he serves on the boards of directors of the Fondation CHU Sainte-Justine and previously was a member of the boards of the CIRANO and l’Académie Saint-Clément in addition to being actively involved in his community as a hockey coach.

Mr. Girard holds a Joint Honors Bachelor in Economics and Finance from McGill University and a Masters in Economics from Université du Québec à Montréal.
In 2015, he ran for public office in the Federal Election.

Biography

Lendio has the ability to solve a complex problem for a small business owner's need of capital. That is a really unique and fulfilling position for Jim as the COO of Lendio. By developing and scaling a dedicated team through Lendio's technology, company culture, work ethic, and distinct competitive advantages Jim has helped deliver successful outcomes for both the borrower and lenders.

Prior to Lendio, for nearly a decade, Jim managed companies involved in online lending verticals and asset based lending, allowing him to be a valuable asset to the Lendio team and specifically the marketplace team. Most importantly, he is a loving father and husband to Ryan and Carrie.

Biography

Rebeca Grynspan is the Secretary General of the Ibero American Conference an international multilateral institution which brings together the 19 Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries of Latin America plus Spain, Andorra and Portugal.
She was unanimously elected in an Extraordinary Meeting of 22 Foreign Ministers held on February 24, 2014 in Mexico City and took office as Ibero-American Secretary General on April 1, 2014.

Rebeca Grynspan was born in Costa Rica, on December 14, 1955, and prior to this appointment she held the post of Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations and Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) since February 2010. As a recognized leader in promoting human development, she has greatly helped to focus the attention of the world and Latin America on critical issues such as the reduction of inequality and poverty, gender equity, South-South cooperation as tool for development and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, among others. Previously, from 2006 to 2010, she was Deputy Secretary General of the UN and UNDP Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Before joining the United Nations, she served as Vice President of Costa Rica from 1994 to 1998. She was Minister of Housing, Minister Coordinator of Economic and Social Affairs of her country and Deputy Minister of Finance; also, she was a member of the High Level Panel on Financing for Development convened by the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in 2001.

Grynspan is a member of Global Council on Poverty and Sustainable Development at the World Economic Forum.

She has contributed to key UN initiatives such as the Millennium Project on Poverty and Economic Development, and the High-Level Panel on Financing for Development. She was also delegate to the United Nations Commission for the Reconstruction of Haiti, a group composed of representatives of the Haitian government, the U.S. President Bill Clinton and other relevant international members.

In June 2014 Rebeca Grynspan was elected Chairman of the Board of the International Institute for Environment and Development, an influential policy research organization working at the interface between development and the environment.
In 2014 and 2015 she was recognized as one of the 50 leading intellectuals of Latin America.

Biography

Mansoor Hamayun is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of BBOXX, a dynamic young company that designs, manufactures, distributes and finances innovative solar systems to improve access to energy across Africa and the developing world.

Since 2010, BBOXX has sold 70,000 solar kits and impacted 350,000 lives across 40 countries.

Born in 1988 in Pakistan, he was raised in Sweden and studied Electrical Engineering at Imperial College London.

From 2008-2010 he was the founder and leader of a student charity, e.quinox, which brought electricity to 6 villages in Rwanda. Following university, Mansoor worked as a manager for Rolls-Royce Civil Aviation business, supporting the introduction of Boeing 787 Dreamliner for LAN airlines, working on corporate cost reduction in the Asian region service and overhaul business.

As CEO, Mansoor leads BBOXX in all aspects of its business – from its engineering lab in London to its factory in China, to distribution from its 32 local shops in Kenya and Rwanda.

Mansoor is a Pakistan-Swedish national with fluent English, Swedish and Urdu. He resides in London.

Biography

M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu earned his B.A. degree in Economics and Management from Gazi University in Ankara. After completing his undergraduate degree, his career started in family business and currently he is the Chairman of Eskihisar Group of Companies, which operates in the fields of construction, construction materials, export and import, investments, land development, food industry and automotive sector.

After a one year vice-presidency period at The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) , the largest non-profit business organization in Turkey, covering 365 Chambers and Commodity Exchanges and representing 1.5 million companies, Hisarcıklıoğlu was elected as the President of TOBB and was re-elected respectively in 2002, 2005, 2009 and 2013.

Hisarcıklıoğlu has received the Legion of Honour by the French Republic, Gold Medal of Merit by the Austrian Republic, the 'Commendatore' from the Italian Republic, the Medal of Inspiration from Mongolia, Medal for Development of Friendship and Cooperation from Kazakhstan and the Mediterranean Leadership Award by the John Hopkins University, USA.

Hisarcıklıoğlu was awarded with the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber Gold Medal, Medal of Honor from the Assembly of French Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Honorary Membership Award from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania, Medal of Honor by Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Medal of Honor by Georgian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Gratitude Award from the Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Hisarciklıoğlu holds honorary doctorate degrees from the Kyrgyzstan-Turkey Manas University, Karadeniz Technical University, Izmir University of Economics, Niğde University, Bayburt University, Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University and Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University in Turkey.

Hisarcıklıoğlu has received the Honorary Townsman Awards, by Edirne, Çankırı, Kırşehir, Niğde, Kırıkkale and Kütahya Hisarcık municipalities.

Biography

Benoît has over 20 years of experience managing organizations and projects, specializing in strategic planning, facilitation and capacity building. He is particularly interested in the development of individual and organizational leadership and in continuous improvement within public institutions.

As part of his work on the PGF team since 2007, he has led numerous strategic and operational planning exercises, facilitated meetings and supported management teams in various organizations both in Canada and at the international level. He has worked with many organizations of the Canadian Francophonie in the areas of education, health, culture and economic development and supported the planning exercises of various West and Central African agencies.

Benoît holds a BA in Political Science and Canadian History from the University of Ottawa and a Master’s Degree in International Relations from the University of Sussex in England. He is accredited by the Centre for Creative Leadership in Raleigh, USA, as a facilitator of 360-degree feedback exercises, and also completed an advanced course in peacekeeping at the Lester B. Pearson Canadian International Peacekeeping Training Centre. Benoît is fluent in French and English, both spoken and written.

Always interested in meeting others, Benoît volunteers at the head of a unique mentoring program for young leaders offered by La Maison des Leaders in Montreal. He serves on the boards of the Fondation pour l’avancement du théâtre francophone au Canada and the Québec Planetree Network, an organization dedicated to advancing patient-centred health care.

Biography

Rosalind (Roz) L. Hudnell is a vice president in Human Resources, director of Corporate Affairs at Intel Corporation, and president of the Intel Foundation. In this role, she oversees professionals in nearly two dozen countries working to inspire and engage the world’s next generation of technology innovators, continuing Intel’s long-standing commitment to corporate responsibility and social impact.

A 20-year Intel veteran, Hudnell joined Intel as a public affairs manager and has held various leadership positions in community relations, government relations, media outreach, employee volunteerism and human resources at the company. Most recently, Hudnell was chief diversity officer and helped to launch Intel’s Diversity in Technology initiative, a multiyear effort backed by a $1 billion investment to accelerate diversity and inclusion across the technology industry at large.

Hudnell led the development of the 10k Engineer’s Initiative for President Obama’s U.S. Council on Jobs and Competitiveness and served as a consultant to the development of the documentary film Girl Rising. Hudnell is also widely known for directing the implementation of the Intel Computer Clubhouse Network, a global, award-winning program bringing leading-edge technology to underserved youth around the world. She also co-founded Intel’s Black Executive Council.

Hudnell routinely speaks on employer branding, communications and diversity and has been interviewed by numerous media outlets including Forbes, CNN, Fast Company and MSNBC, to name a few. She serves on the Center for Talent Innovation Board of Directors, the Global Business Coalition for Education Advisory Board and serves on the World Economic Forum “Internet for All” Steering Committee and is a member of the Executive Leadership Council. She is a co-author of the research report “The Battle for Female Talent” published in the Harvard Business Review, and selected as a “Woman Helping the World” by Forbes Magazine and 10×10. In 2015, Ebony Magazine selected her to the Power100 List, Fast Company Magazine selected her as one of the most creative leaders in business; the National Action Network presented her with the Triumph Award. In 2016, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich presented Roz with a lifetime achievement award for her impact on diversity and inclusion.

Hudnell completed her undergraduate studies in management at St. Mary’s College, pursued advanced study at UCLA Anderson School of Management and is a Senior Fellow through the American Leadership Forum.

Biography

Glenn Hutchins is Chairman of North Island and North Island Ventures and a co-founder of Silver Lake. He is a director of AT&T, Virtu Financial and Digital Currency Group; Co-Chair of the Brookings Institution and CARE; Vice Chair of  the Obama Foundation; on the Executive Committee of the Boston Celtics Basketball Team; and a board member of the New York Presbyterian Hospital. He is also a member of the International Advisory Board of GIC Private Limited, the sovereign wealth fund of Singapore.

He was a Director and Chair of Audit and Risk Committee of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 2011- 2020.  Mr. Hutchins also served President Clinton in both the transition and the White House as a special advisor on economic and health-care policy.

He was previously chairman of the board of SunGard Data Systems, Inc. and Instinet, Inc. and a long-time director of Nasdaq, Inc.  He was also a director of the Harvard Management Company for a decade and co-chairman of Harvard University’s capital campaign.

Mr. Hutchins and his wife, Debbie, founded the Hutchins Family Foundation which, among other projects, is supporting the construction of the Obama Presidential Center and has created the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University; the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at The Brookings Institution; and the Chronic Fatigue Initiative, which conducted basic research into the cause of chronic fatigue syndrome.

Mr. Hutchins has published essays on economic and public policy in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times, Fortune and Foreign Affairs. He is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Mr. Hutchins holds an A.B. from Harvard College, an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Biography

From 2012-2016, Dr. Jafari was Director of Global Polio Eradication and Research at WHO. In this role, Dr. Jafari also served as the overall lead for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Previously, Dr. Jafari served as Project Manager of WHO’s National Polio Surveillance Project in India on assignment from CDC. As Project Manager of NPSP from 2007-2012, Dr. Jafari was the main technical advisor to the Government of India in implementation of the nation’s polio eradication activities and directed WHO’s network of almost 2,500 field staff. India was declared polio free in large part because of Dr. Jafari’s work.

Before his assignment in India, Dr. Jafari served as Director of the Global Immunization Division at CDC. Dr. Jafari began his career at CDC in 1992 as an EIS Officer at the National Center for Infectious Diseases.

Biography

Ramatu Jalloh is National Coordinator for the Scaling up Nutrition and Immunization civil Society Platform hosted by FOCUS 1000. Responsible for coordinating nutrition, immunization and health system strengthening programmes among civil society partners in Sierra Leone to support government efforts to improve nutrition and health outcomes.

She served as Communication for Development Specialist in WASH UNICEF Sierra Leone and India for over five years, working closely with the Communication for Development and, Advocacy and Partnership Sections to support the planning and implementation of Communication Strategies for Hygiene and Sanitation.

Ramatu also worked in the United Kingdom as an Approved Social Worker for over seven years for The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and South London and Maudsley Mental Health Trust working with clients age 18-65 suffering from severe and enduring mental health and dual diagnosis. This included supervising clients in the community under the UK Home Office Mental Health Sections, conducting mental health assessments and providing collaborative support to clients and family through health, education, children protection, housing and social services.

Biography

Tom Jessop is the President of Chain, a provider of blockchain technology to leading financial organizations including Visa and Nasdaq. In this role, Tom is responsible for leading all facets of Chain’s commercial efforts.

Prior to joining Chain, Tom was global head of Technology Business Development at Goldman Sachs where he led efforts to invest in and partner with early stage technology companies across several enterprise domains including blockchain, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.

Previously, Tom was a founding member in and senior leader of Goldman’s Principal Strategic Investments group (PSI), where he spent the majority of his 17-year career at GS. In this role he
managed a global team focused on investments in exchanges, e-trading platforms, post-trade networks, and other fintech solutions across the fixed-income, currency, commodity, and equity markets. From 2008 to 2012 he built and led PSI’s Asia-Pacific efforts out of Hong Kong. In 2015 he was named to Institutional Investor’s inaugural “Fintech Finance 35” list.

Tom holds an MBA from New York University and a BA, Economics, from The College of the Holy Cross. He is a director of Tuesday’s Children, which provides assistance to 9/11 families and other victims of global terrorism, and is Co-Chair of the Holy Cross Leadership Council of New York.

Biography

David G. Knott is a Senior Partner in McKinsey & Company's Health Care Practice and leads the Firm’s Center for US Health System Reform.  Over the past 28 years, he has worked with many of the leading health insurers, health systems, health agencies, and large employers. David advises clients on both strategy development as well as transformation programs, including care delivery and payment model re-designs, administrative and medical cost restructuring, future operating visions, organization re-designs, capability building efforts, and M&A integration.

In addition to his client commitments, David previously served on the Advisory Boards of two venture capital backed start-ups, AthenaHealth and Castlight Health.  He is also an ardent supporter of the arts and serves on the Advisory Boards of the New York Metropolitan Opera, Manhattan School of Music, Glyndebourne Opera (UK), and Improbable Theater Company (UK).  In 2009, he was a David Rockefeller Fellow with the Partnership for New York City.

Prior to joining McKinsey, David completed a Ph.D. and Master's in Political Philosophy from Oxford University as well as a B.A. Honours degree in Canada from Queen's University.

Biography

F. Labeau is the Associate Dean (Faculty Affairs) in the Faculty of Engineering of McGill University, where he holds the NSERC/Hydro-Québec Industrial Research Chair in Interactive Information Infrastructure for the Power Grid. His research interests are in applications of signal processing to healthcare, power grids, communications and signal compression. He has authored more than 175 refereed papers in refereed journals and conference proceedings in these areas.

He is the associate director for operations of STARaCom, an interuniversity research center grouping 50 professors and 500 researchers from 10 universities in the province of Quebec, Canada. He is junior past president of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Vehicular Technology Society, President-Elect of the IEEE Sensors Council, and the past chair of the Montreal IEEE Section. He was a recipient in 2015 and 2017 of the McGill University Equity and Community Building Award (team category), of the 2008 and 2016 Outstanding Service Award from the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society and of the 2017 W.S. Read Outstanding Service Award form IEEE Canada.

Biography

I have always been interested in the international sphere and fundamental concepts governing interstate relationships; namely, sovereignty, territory and borders. When I arrived at the Faculty of Law in 1998, research focussed almost exclusively on the territorial domain. Since then, I have developed a passion for maritime law. Thanks to technological advancements, an important reserve of resources is to be found in the oceans, which has turned them into an object of desire with the potential of disturbing international relations. This is particularly true of the arctic region, my domain of speciality, which is currently undergoing major upheavals related to climate change. International law’s capacity to resolve challenges posed by maritime nationalism and the over-exploitation of resources, as well as the need to protect maritime environments and their biological diversity, is a fascinating and inexhaustible subject.

Biography

David M. Rubenstein is a Co-Founder and Co-Executive Chairman of The Carlyle Group, one of the world’s largest private equity firms.  Mr. Rubenstein co-founded the firm in 1987.  Since then, Carlyle has grown into a firm managing $174 billion from 31 offices around the world.

Mr. Rubenstein, a native of Baltimore, is a 1970 magna cum laude graduate of Duke, where he was elected Phi Beta Kappa.  Following Duke, Mr. Rubenstein graduated in 1973 from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was an editor of The Law Review.

From 1973-1975, Mr. Rubenstein practiced law in New York with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.  From 1975-1976, he served as Chief Counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments.  From 1977-1981, during the Carter Administration, Mr. Rubenstein was Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy.  After his White House service and before co-founding Carlyle, Mr. Rubenstein practiced law in Washington with Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge (now Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman).

Mr. Rubenstein is Chairman of the Boards of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Council on Foreign Relations; a Fellow of the Harvard Corporation; a Trustee of the National Gallery of Art, the University of Chicago, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and the Institute for Advanced Study; and President of the Economic Club of Washington.

Mr. Rubenstein is the Vice Chairman of the Board of the Brookings Institution, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Business Council, Harvard Global Advisory Council (Chairman), Madison Council of the Library of Congress (Chairman), Board of Dean’s Advisors of the Business School at Harvard, Advisory Board of the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University, and Board of the World Economic Forum Global Shapers Community.

Mr. Rubenstein has served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Duke University and Co-Chairman of the Board of the Brookings Institution.

Biography

Award-winning business journalist Amanda Lang has been covering business in North America for 20 years. Lang was an anchor for Bloomberg Television Canada, on Bloomberg North with Amanda Lang. Previously, Lang was CBC’s senior business correspondent, reporting for its flagship nightly news program, The National, and host of The Exchange with Amanda Lang, a daily business program airing on CBC News Network. For five years before that Lang hosted The Lang and O’Leary Exchange, with Kevin O’Leary. Prior to that the pair co-hosted SqueezePlay, on BNN, for 6 years.

Lang studied Architecture at the University of Manitoba, before becoming a journalist. Her first job in journalism was for the Globe and Mail, and subsequently Lang joined the Financial Post newspaper, where she became the paper’s New York correspondent. In New York she made the leap to television, where she first was part of the team that launched BNN and before long wound up at CNN as a reporter and anchor. Lang is also a best-selling author. “The Power of Why,” (HarperCollins, October 2012) explores the connection between curiosity and success. “The Beauty of Discomfort” (HarperCollins, April 2017) examines how difficult change can be, and set out strategies for how to achieve it.

Biography

Jean Lebel was appointed president of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) on May 1, 2013. As part of Canada’s foreign affairs and development efforts, IDRC champions and funds research and innovation within and alongside developing regions to drive global change. Dr Lebel leads IDRC’s contributions to Canada’s international priorities. He is responsible for significant funding partnerships with foreign governments, philanthropic organizations, and the private sector.

Dr Lebel previously served as vice-president of the Program and Partnership Branch, overseeing all IDRC programming. Before joining IDRC, he worked in both the academic and private sectors. He holds a PhD in environmental sciences from l’Université du Québec à Montréal and an MScA in occupational health sciences from McGill University.

Dr Lebel has served on boards of the International Institute for Sustainable Development, the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research, the Centre for Global Pluralism,‎ the International Economic Forum of the Americas, and the World Economic Forum’s Stewardship Board on Economic Progress. Dr Lebel was also a mentor with the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation (2016-2017).

Biography

Jordan LeBel is an Associate Professor in the department of marketing at the John Molson School of Business (Concordia University) in Montreal where he heads the Luc Beauregard Center of Excellence in Communications Research. He has taught at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration and has led numerous executive seminars in various venues such as the Boeing Leadership Centre. Jordan is a founding member of Concordia’s Food Culture Research Group and he is a member of the Concordia Centre for Sensory Studies.

He has consulted on the development of national and local communication campaigns for companies both in Canada and in the United States. He has won numerous teaching awards, including the 3M National Teaching Fellowship for the quality of his teaching and his leadership in higher education. He co-developed and teaches the award-winning online course “Marketing Yourself.”

Biography

Yves Leterme, a Belgian national, is the Secretary-General of the Stockholm-based intergovernmental organization International IDEA. Prior to International IDEA, Leterme served as Prime Minister of Belgium (2007 to 2011) and then as Deputy Secretary General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris (2011 to 2014). Before serving as Prime Minister, Leterme held a variety of political posts in Belgium.

After starting his career as an Alderman in his home town of Ypres, he became a Member of Parliament in the Chamber of Representatives, Group Chairman and leader of the opposition, Secretary-General and Chairman of the CD&V party, Minister- President and Minister for Agriculture of the Flemish Government, Federal Senator, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of the Budget and Mobility, and Minister of Foreign Affairs. During Leterme’s tenure as Prime Minister, Belgium held the Presidency of the European Union. Leterme has also worked, inter alia, as a deputy auditor at the Belgian Court of Audit and as an administrator at the European Parliament. Leterme, who was born on 6 October 1960, has degrees in Law and in PoliticalSciences from the University of Ghent.

Biography

Enrico Letta is the Dean of the Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA) at Sciences Po in Paris and also the President of the Jacques Delors Institute.

He was the Prime Minister of Italy from April 2013 to February 2014. Before he served as Minister for EU Affairs (1998-1999), as Minister for Industry, Commerce and Crafts (January-April 2000, during the second D’Alema Government), as Minister for Industry, Commerce and Crafts and Foreign Trade (2000-2001, during the second Amato Government) and as Undersecretary of State to the Prime Minister of the centre-left government led by Romano Prodi from 2006 to 2008.

Between 2001 and 2015 he was Member of the Italian Parliament, excluding between 2004 and 2006 when he was Member of the European Parliament. He also served as deputy Secretary of the Democratic Party (PD) from 2009 to 2013.

From 1993 to May 2013 he managed an independent think tank, Arel, founded by the late Beniamino Andreatta. He was also Vice Chairman of Aspen Institute Italia, President of the Italy-Spain Dialogue Forum, and a member of the Trilateral Commission.

He was born in Pisa (Tuscany) in 1966 and he spent the first years of his life in Strasbourg. He graduated in International Law at the University of Pisa and obtained a PhD in European Union Law at the School for Advanced Studies “Sant’Anna” of Pisa.

Biography

Rob Lloyd joined Hyperloop One as Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board in September 2015 after 21 years at Cisco Systems. Prior to joining Hyperloop, he was president development, sales and the internet of everything responsible for 45,000 employees operating around the world.

Lloyd led numerous innovation programs within Cisco, including the company’s Intercloud strategy, its data center and server strategy and the development of its architectural sales and go to market programs. He was deeply involved in many of the company’s largest customer and partner relationships in the government, enterprise and telecommunications markets. Lloyd has worked and lived internationally, including four years as president Europe, middle east, Africa and Russia.

Prior to joining Cisco Canada as GM in 1994, Lloyd was an entrepreneur in the personal computer and networking industry founding and growing a company that became one of the largest value added computer resellers in Canada. Lloyd currently lives in California with his wife and four sons.

Biography

Elizabeth MacKay was appointed Delegate for the Québec Government Office in Los Angeles, responsible for the Western US in September 2015. Ms. MacKay is also responsible for the Québec Trade Office in Silicon Valley since its opening, in October 2015. Previously, she held the position of State Director - Deputy Director - Québec Region at the Ministry of Finance. During her 30-year career, mainly in the public sector, she managed several organizations. She also has nearly a decade of experience as Chief of Staff and Assistant Deputy Minister in many departments.

As a graduate in communications, Ms. MacKay adds to her expertise recognized leadership along with a strong ability to seize strategic and policy issues. Her professional skills enable her to defend Québec's interests in her territory including promoting partnerships for the fight against climate change and to support trade between Québec and the Western US.

Biography

Caitlin MacLean is director of innovative finance at the Milken Institute. She oversees the research, development, execution and follow-up of our Financial Innovations Labs, which promote financial solutions to overcome economic and social challenges. During MacLean's tenure at the Institute, the Labs have resulted in concrete outcomes, including the creation of new investment funds to support biomedical research and the implementation of government policies to facilitate the growth of the renewable energy sector.

She is the co-author of many Lab reports and related journal articles. Prior to joining the Institute, MacLean worked in the for-profit sector developing marketing campaigns and communication strategies for Fortune 500 companies. She also worked in the nonprofit sector managing fundraising and program administration for arts development organizations.

MacLean is a graduate of the New School University and has an M.B.A. in finance from the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Biography

Angelique Mannella is McGill's first Associate Vice-Principal of Innovation and Partnerships. In this role, Ms. Mannella has a mandate to promote and expand McGill's innovation agenda by creating new partnership and entrepreneurship opportunities for McGill researchers.

Her team, which currently encompasses the groups Invention Development & Entrepreneurship Assistance (IDEA), McGill University Business Engagement Centre (MUBEC), and Innovation in Practice, works to create a bridge between research and application, by providing opportunities for both students and researchers to orient their work toward engaging with social or market challenges outside the academy. Before taking on the role of AVP in June 2016, Ms. Mannella advised corporate clients and venture capital firms on R&D commercialization, investments, and joint ventures.

Previously, she was the founder and CEO of Decode Global, a social enterprise that developed mobile games. She has 15 years of experience in technology product design and business development, and has worked for companies such as Cisco Systems and Nokia in North America, Europe and Asia. Ms. Mannella is a professional engineer, and has degrees from McGill University (BEng), the London School of Economics (MSc), and INSEAD (MBA). She is also an Entrepreneur-in-Residence with the Digital Entrepreneurship Program at the World Bank Group in Washington D.C.

Biography

Jean-François (“JF”) Marcoux has 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur and investor. Before co-founding White Star Capital with Eric and Christian in 2013, he was the cofounder of Ludia Inc., a leading video game publisher, and served as its EVP & CFO. While at Ludia, JF managed all non-product related operations including Finance, Legal, Strategy and HR. JF gained extensive operational experience with his role at Ludia which grew from a startup to a highly-profitable 250 employees at the time of his departure. Ludia was acquired in late 2010 by FremantleMedia, a leading global TV producer. Prior to co-founding Ludia, JF held senior positions in M&A, financing and VC in the media and technology sectors, with a large publicly-traded media and printing company, a leading Canadian Investment Bank and one of the largest institutional fund managers in Canada.

He represents White Star on the boards of Mnubo, Immunio, Gymtrack and Salesfloor.

JF graduated from HEC Montreal, holds an M. Sc. in Finance from the University of Sherbrooke, and is a Chartered Financial Analyst. He divides his time between Montreal and New York.

Biography

Eric Marquis began his mandate as Québec Government Delegate in Chicago on October 31, 2011.

Prior to his appointment, Mr. Marquis was Director for Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, at the Ministère des Relations internationales et de la Francophonie du Québec.

A graduate from the University of Victoria in British Columbia and Concordia University in Montréal, he taught American history and American foreign policy in various Québec universities.

Mr. Marquis has been working for the Québec government since 1999, and his work has generally focused on Québec-United States relations. He has held a number of positions both in Québec and abroad, including a three-year mandate as Director of the Québec Government Office in Washington from 2004 to 2007.

Biography

Éric Martel was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer, Bombardier Inc. on March 11, 2020 and officially started in the role on April 6, 2020. He is also a member of the Corporation’s Board of Directors.

Prior to his appointment, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of Hydro-Québec since July 2015. From 2002 until 2015, he held positions of increasing responsibility within Bombardier, including President of Bombardier Business Aircraft, President Bombardier Aerospace Services, Vice-President and General Manager of the Global and Challenger platforms and he also worked at Bombardier Transportation from 2002 to 2004 as Vice President Operations for North America. Prior to joining Bombardier, Mr. Martel worked for various other high-profile multinational companies, such as Pratt & Whitney, Rolls Royce, Procter & Gamble and Kraft Foods.

Éric Martel holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Laval University and was awarded an honourary doctorate by Concordia University in 2019. He is also a member of the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec.

On February 18, 2021, Mr. Martel was appointed to serve on the Board of Directors of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA). In addition, he has been actively involved with Centraide of Greater Montreal for over 20 years. He served as co-chair of the organization’s 2019 campaign. Mr. Martel also co-chairs the fundraising campaign of the Fondation de l’Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal. He sits on the board of Robotique FIRST Québec and is a member of the advisory board of Concordia University’s Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science.

Biography

Géraldine Martin has served as editor-in-chief and assistant publisher of Groupe Les Affaires since January 2013. Prior to this, she was managing editor of Les Affaires, Quebec’s business publication, until December 2011.

Géraldine Martin was previously in charge of content for Les Affaires. In addition to overseeing the newspaper’s Investir supplement, she was responsible for the content of the LesAffaires.com website.

She boasts 17 years of experience in the field of communication and finance. After earning her master’s degree in finance from Université Paris II Assas, she delved into the world of communications in 1998 when she joined the Bloomberg news agency in Paris as interview manager for the U.S. company’s French television channel.

Géraldine Martin immigrated to Quebec in 2000 to work as a researcher at Radio-Canada for Capital-Actions, a French-language business and finance program. In 2002 she went on to become a journalist for the show, then hosted by Claude Beauchamp. She then moved to Journal de Montréal in 2004, where she worked in business and economic news as part of the launch of Votre Argent, a business weekly. During Journal de Montréal’s 2009 lockout, Martin was recruited by Transcontinental Group.

Géraldine Martin is the first woman to hold the assistant publisher and editor-in-chief position at Les Affaires since its inception 87 years ago. She was 37 years old when she was appointed to the position in 2013.

In addition to overseeing Quebec’s biggest business publication, she is often asked to speak at and moderate conferences. Last fall the French Embassy in Canada asked her to host a number of meetings with French president François Hollande. At key forums, she has also been asked to interview major figures such as Quebec premier Philippe Couillard and Desjardins Group president Monique Leroux.
In November 2014, Géraldine Martin was celebrated for her achievements in the Notable Awards, where she took top honors in the Journalism category as a remarkable young professional. The Notable Awards pay tribute to young professionals in Ontario, Quebec, and Western Canada who stand out for their professional dedication and commitment to the community, as well as for being a source of inspiration for their teams.
Géraldine Martin volunteers her time in support of three causes: the advancement of women in business, promoting immigrant integration, and helping young people succeed in business. She sits on the board of mentors for Jeune chambre de commerce de Montréal, the city’s youth chamber of commerce.

Biography

Alan Mayberry is the Associate Administrator for Pipeline Safety, within the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration in Washington, DC and serves as the senior career official for pipeline safety oversight. Previously, Alan served as the Deputy Associate Administrator for Policy and Programs, leading PHMSA's development of comprehensive oversight programs including regulatory development, engineering and research, state grants, federal enforcement and the Training and Qualifications Division. Prior to August 2013, Alan was the Deputy Associate Administrator for Field operations overseeing US pipeline safety oversight through PHMSA's five regional offices.

Alan has over 34 years of experience in the energy industry, equally divided between pipeline operations and design engineering. In 2006, Alan first joined PHMSA's Office of Pipeline Safety in a senior engineering role in the Engineering and Emergency Support Division. Alan was appointed Director of the group in 2008. In his role as PHMSA's technical lead, Alan was responsible for supporting programs and the regional offices on nationwide pipeline issues to ensure uniform policies. Additionally, Alan led the agency's response to major pipeline incidents. In 2010, Alan was appointed as Deputy Associate Administrator for Field Operations.

Alan is a Civil Engineering graduate of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and is also a registered professional engineer.

Biography

Rt Hon Lord Jack McConnell was First Minister of Scotland 2001-2007, the youngest person ever to hold the post. He was a Member of the Scottish Parliament 1999-2011 and served as Minister for Finance 1999-2000 and Minister for Education, Europe and External Affairs 2000-2001. He was appointed to the House of Lords in 2010, where his interests include peacebuilding, international development and support for vulnerable young people.

As First Minster, Lord McConnell introduced significant public sector reforms in Scotland, Scotland’s ban on smoking in public places, and a national youth volunteering programme, Project Scotland. He refreshed Scotland’s international image, established the Fresh Talent initiative and created Scotland’s international development policy, including the unique cooperation with Malawi.

From 2008 to 2010 Lord McConnell was UK Special Representative for Peacebuilding. He currently serves as Vice President of UNICEF UK and is Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development. He is a board member of the UK-Japan 21st Century Group and the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy. He is a consultant and guest lecturer on global affairs in several countries and is an Ambassador or Patron for a number of international and UK based NGOs, including serving as Chair of the McConnell International Foundation.

Lord McConnell was previously a Mathematics teacher and member of the Scottish Constitutional Convention.

Biography

Gérard Mestrallet is a graduate of the French engineering school, École Polytechnique, and of École Nationale d’Administration. Having held various positions at the Treasury Department and on the staff of the Minister of Economy and Finance (Jacques Delors), Gérard Mestrallet joined Compagnie Financière de SUEZ in 1984. In 1986 he was appointed Senior Executive Vice-President in charge of industrial affairs. In 1991 he was named Chairman of the Management Committee of Société Générale de Belgique. In 1995, he became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Compagnie de SUEZ. Gérard Mestrallet was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of GDF SUEZ (now ENGIE) when SUEZ merged with Gaz de France on July 2008. Since May 3 2016, he is Chairman of the Board of ENGIE and Chairman of the Board of SUEZ.

Biography

Peter Misek is a partner in the IT Venture Fund, based in Toronto. He comes with over 14 years of venture capital experience as an Advisor/ Venture Partner for DN Capital including direct involvement in 2 unicorns. He has almost 20 years of investment banking experience as Managing Director and Co Head of Global Technology Research for Jefferies in NYC and as Director of Research and Global Technology Analyst for Canaccord.

Peter holds a CA, CPA, CPA from Illinois as well as a CFA. He is a hobby programmer who has founded technology companies.

Biography

A lawyer by training, Andrew Molson is a partner and chairman of RES PUBLICA Consulting Group, a Montreal-based holding and management company for two leading professional services firms, NATIONAL Public Relations and Cohn & Wolfe | Canada, both offering strategic public relations counsel to a wide range of businesses.

A seventh-generation member of the Molson family, he sits on the board of directors of the Molson Coors Brewing Company. He is also a member of the board of directors of Groupe Deschênes Inc., The Jean Coutu Group (PJC) Inc., Dundee Corporation and the CH Group Limited Partnership.

Andrew became a member of the Quebec Bar in 1995 after studying law at Laval University in Quebec City. He also holds a bachelor of arts degree from Princeton University and a masters of science in corporate governance and ethics from University of London (Birkbeck College).

Fully bilingual, Andrew serves on several non-profit boards, including the Institute for Governance of Private and Public Organizations, Concordia University Foundation, The Banff Centre, the evenko foundation for emerging talent and the Molson Foundation, a family foundation dedicated to the betterment of Canadian society. He is chairman of the Montreal General Hospital Foundation and of Pointe-à-Callière, Montreal Archaeology and History Complex. He also serves as Honorary Colonel of the Royal Montreal Regiment and Honorary Commissioner of the Quebec Council of Scouts Canada.

Biography

Joris Myny is Senior Vice President and Country Division Lead for two of Siemens Canada’s divisions: Digital Factory and Process Industries and Drives. Mr. Myny is responsible for the overall strategic direction and management of these businesses in Canada, including sales, marketing and service operations within the fields of Automation, Drives, Industrial Gear Systems, Motion Control, Instrumentation, Industrial Control and PLM Software.

Mr. Myny is an Electrical Engineer. He began his career with Siemens Belgium in 1990 and has extensive international management experience, most recently as the Vice President, Sales Integration, Siemens Product Lifecycle Management Software Inc., headquartered in Plano, Texas. Prior to that assignment, he was the Business Development Director for Automation in Siemens' head office in Germany covering Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Mr. Myny is an Electrical Engineer. He began his career with Siemens Belgium in 1990 and has extensive international management experience, most recently as the Vice President, Sales Integration, Siemens Product Lifecycle Management Software Inc., headquartered in Plano, Texas. Prior to that assignment, he was the Business Development Director forAutomation in Siemens' head office in Germany covering Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Mr. Myny is Chairman of Electro-Federation Canada.

Biography

Marta Morgan was appointed Deputy Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship effective June 27, 2016.

Before this appointment, she served as the Associate Deputy Minister of Finance and the Associate Deputy Minister of Industry where she also held the positions of Assistant Deputy Minister, Industry Sector, and Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy Sector.

Prior to Industry Canada, Ms. Morgan held positions at the Forest Products Association of Canada, the Privy Council Office, and Human Resources Development Canada.

Ms. Morgan has a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Economics from McGill University and a Master in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Biography

Bill Morneau was appointed as Minister of Finance of Canada on November 4, 2015, following his election as the Member of Parliament for Toronto Centre.

Prior to that appointment, he had a very successful business career. He has been an active volunteer in Toronto Centre for more than 20 years.

When Bill became President of Morneau Shepell in 1992, the firm employed 200 people and provided employee benefits and pension services. Under his leadership, the company expanded to become the largest Canadian human resources company, employing 4,000 people in Canada and around the world, and he took the company public in 2005 on the TSX.

Bill studied retirement issues as a member of the Government of Ontario's Pension Advisory Council, and in 2012 he was appointed as Pension Investment Advisor to Ontario's Minister of Finance.

Bill's community service in Toronto Centre is extensive. He has worked to support the arts, help street kids, and improve access to health care and education. He was chair of the board of St. Michael's Hospital, Covenant House and the C.D. Howe Institute, and sat on the boards of the Loran Scholars Foundation and The Learning Partnership.

Internationally, Bill founded a special school for Somali and Sudanese girls in an African refugee camp.

In 2002, Bill was named one of Canada's Top 40 Under 40. He has co-authored a book, The Real Retirement, and has authored numerous articles on public policy issues. Bill holds a BA from Western University, an MSc (Econ) from the London School of Economics and an MBA from INSEAD.

Biography

David Murray took office as President of Hydro-Québec Distribution in September 2016. This Hydro-Québec division provides a secure supply of electricity to the Québec market by means of a distribution grid comprising more than 112,000 km of lines. The division has 6,000 employees serving 4 million customers throughout Québec.

Biography

Patrick O’Carroll, MD, MPH, FACPM, FACMI, is head of The Task Force’s Health Systems Strengthening Sector. In this role, Dr. O’Carroll provides overall strategic and operational direction to the sector that currently consists of the Public Health Informatics Institute, TEPHINET, and the African Health Workforce Project. Dr. O’Carroll also serves on The Task Force Executive Team. Prior to joining The Task Force, Dr. O’Carroll was the Regional Health Administrator for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Region X serving Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. He was also HHS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health (Science and Medicine) and Senior Advisor to the Acting Assistant Secretary for Health.

Biography

Oleg Mukhamedshin was appointed Deputy CEO, Director for Strategy, Business Development and Financial Markets in 2012. Prior to his current position, in 2011 Mr Mukhamedshin was RUSAL’s Head of Equity and Corporate Development, RUSAL’s Director for Financial Markets, and Director for Capital Markets from 2007 to 2011.

Oleg Mukhamedshin is responsible for Company's strategy development and implementation, M&A deals and growth projects, raising finance and RUSAL's debt portfolio management.

He was also in charge of restructuring RUSAL’s USD 16.6 billion debt in 2009-2011 and RUSAL’s USD 2.2 billion IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and Paris’ Euronext in 2010. Under his leadership, RUSAL become the first company to launch a Russian Depository Receipts programme.

From 2006 through 2008 Oleg Mukhamedshin took part in preparing and implementing major M&A transactions, including the acquisition of a 25% stake in MMC Norilsk Nickel and merger with SUAL and Glencore’s bauxite and alumina assets.

From August 2004 through March 2007, Mr Mukhamedshin was RUSAL’s Deputy CFO, overseeing corporate finance.

From 2000 to August 2004, Oleg Mukhamedshin was Director of RUSAL’s Department for Corporate Finance.

Prior to joining RUSAL, Oleg Mukhamedshin occupied various executive positions in corporate finance in leading Russian natural resourse companies including TNK (now TNK-BP). Between 1999 and 2000, he was an advisor to the principal shareholder of the Industrial Investors Group. From 1994 to 1995, he worked with the investment bank PaineWebber to help establish the Russia Partners Fund, one of the first international direct investment funds in Russia.

Oleg Mukhamedshin was born in 1973.

Oleg Mukhamedshin holds a BA in Economics with Honours from Moscow State University.

Biography

A recognised industry figure, Jess has excellent all round corporate level experience operating as Senior Executive with small, medium and large corporations, all since leaving the British Army. Jess’ experience covers all aspects of business, including sales, marketing, business development and customer support as well as technologies and solutions including: IoT, M2M, Managed Services, Secure Wired & Wireless IP Networks, Storage Area Networks, Big Data, Cloud Based Services, Server and Storage Virtualization, Voice, Data & Multi-Media communications.

Prior to ESEYE, Jess was Managing Director – EMEA for Trilliant Networks and has held senior / executive positions with Companies such as REACT, ACC & Ericsson.

Biography

Douglas E. Turnbull is Vice Chairman and Country Head, Canada at DBRS. Mr. Turnbull has been in the position since January 2016. In his role, Mr. Turnbull is responsible for overseeing all of DBRS’s day-to-day operations in Canada.  As part of the global management team, Mr. Turnbull, 59, also focuses on the strategic development of DBRS’s rating business and senior outreach activities for the company.

Mr. Turnbull has more than 36 years of experience in the investment banking industry, most recently as Deputy Chairman, TD Securities Inc. Mr. Turnbull has worked in Toronto, Tokyo and New York, where he advised government, corporate, infrastructure and public sector clients on numerous public and private market transactions.

In addition, Mr. Turnbull has held a number of board positions with public sector and not for profit organizations, including, Metrolinx, the Ontario Financing Authority, George Brown College Foundation, the Toronto Financial Services Alliance and ORBIS.  In 2014, Mr. Turnbull was appointed by the Government of Canada as one of two Co-Chairs of the Canada-Assembly of First Nations, Joint Working Group on Resource Development, and delivered the final report in 2015.

Biography

The Hon. Brian Tobin was named as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2013 for his contribution to Canadian public policy as a federal and provincial politician, and for supporting economic development in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Mr. Tobin served as the Federal Minister of Industry from October 2000 to January 2002, prior to which he served as the Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador from 1996 to 2000.  Mr. Tobin served as a Member of Parliament from 1980 to 1996 and served as Minister of Fisheries and Oceans in the federal cabinet from 1993 to 1996.

Mr. Tobin is currently Vice Chair with BMO Capital Markets in Toronto.  Mr. Tobin serves as Chairman and director of New Flyer Industries Inc., Lead Director and Chairman of Aecon Group Inc.  and is a director of Element Fleet Management Corp.

Mr. Tobin also served as Executive Chairman, President & CEO of Consolidated Thompson Iron Mines Ltd.  Mr. Tobin lead the negotiating team that sold CLM to Cliffs Natural Resources for 4.9 billion dollars which was one of the biggest global mining deals in 2011.

Mr. Tobin is a member of the Institute of Corporate Directors and a graduate of the Directors Education Program. Mr. Tobin has been awarded honorary degrees by both St. Francis Xavier University and Brock University.

Biography

Antoine Tayyar joined Coca-Cola Ltd Canada in 2015 as Director of Public Affairs and Communications. He is based in Montreal and in charge of Quebec and Eastern Canada for government, stakeholders, and media relations.

Antoine has spent a total of 12 years with The Coca-Cola Company, most recently with Coca-Cola Middle East, looking after all countries across Levant and Gulf Cooperation Council regions. In that role, he was in charge of policy debate, lobbying and corporate communication, and partnerships with civil society and media relations. He led communications, sustainability and community programs, strategic health and wellness debate, and crisis management across the 12 countries in the Middle East region.

Antoine has a total of 25 years of experience in advertising, public relations, corporate communications, reputation management, public affairs and sustainability.  He has worked with leading communications agencies such as IMPACT/BBDO and with FMCG multinationals such as The Coca-Cola Company, United Distillers and Vintners (now DIAGEO) and British American Tobacco, as well as assumed roles as advisor in Communications with regional companies and semi- governmental organisations in the Arab Gulf region.

Antoine is a member of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce in Quebec (FCCQ) and President of the FCCQ committee on over-regulation and taxation. He is a member of the Canadian Beverage Association in Quebec. Previous to moving to Canada, he was elected as Board Member and Vice- President Membership of the American Business Council in Dubai and Northern Emirates till 2015, and was Board Member of Injaz Al-Arab Middle East and North Africa (Junior Achievement Worldwide) (2103-2104), Board Member of the Emirates Environment Group (from 2012 to 2015), and a Founding Member of ‘Partners for a New Beginning’ (PNB) Jordan Chapter in 2011.

Antoine completed his high school studies in 1985 at the Collège Notre-Dame de Jamhour (Lebanon) with a dual French and Lebanese Baccalaureates, and graduated with a B.A. in Political Sciences and Public Administration from the American University of Beirut in 1989. He pursued the MA program in Political Sciences at the Université St. Joseph (Lebanon) while working as a Research Associate at the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies.

Biography

Christine St-Pierre was born in Saint-Roch-des-Aulnaies on June 10, 1953. She studied at the Université de Moncton from 1972 to 1976, where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in social sciences.

She then launched a career that included journalism and politics. In 1976, she joined Société Radio-Canada and became a journalist and parliamentary columnist both in Québec City and in Ottawa, then a correspondent in Washington from 2001 to 2005.

In the spring of 2007, she decided to transform her solid experience of parliamentary journalism into a political commitment. She was elected MNA for Acadie riding in the March 26, 2007 general election, then re-elected on December 8, 2008, September 4, 2012, and April 7, 2014. During her first two mandates, Premier Jean Charest appointed her Minister of Culture, Communications and the Status of Women. She also sat on the Comité ministériel du développement social, éducatif et culturel.

From September 2013 to April 2014, she acted as official opposition critic on international relations, then on culture and Greater Montréal.

Following the April 7, 2014 general election, Premier Philippe Couillard appointed Ms. St-Pierre Minister of International Relations and La Francophonie. She also sits on the Comité ministériel de l’économie, de la création d’emplois et du développement durable.

Ms. St-Pierre is keenly interested in culture and firmly involved in her community.

Biography

Jean-Antoine Zinsou is a physician by training, specialized in emergency medicine and catastrophe management. He has been working in the field of vaccines and vaccination for almost fifteen years, five of which he was in charge of the Sanofi Pasteur Regional office for French-Speaking Africa, and three years leading the activities of Sanofi Pasteur in South Africa. During the eight years that Dr. Zinsou spent in Africa, he worked actively to improve the vaccination coverage rate, thus contributing to better protection of African children against vaccine-preventable diseases. In 2013, he joined the Sanofi Pasteur Global Team dedicated to the dengue vaccine development. As a member of the Sanofi Pasteur Global Public Affairs and Advocacy Team, he has been instrumental in the publication of the WHO position paper which is providing some guidance on the use of the first dengue vaccine.

Biography

Ethan Zindler is Head of Americas at BloombergNEF, a provider of insight, data and news on

energy, advanced transportation, commodities, and emerging technologies. He manages analyst and commercial teams in New York, Washington, San Francisco, and Sao Paulo while also overseeing Climatescope (www.global-climatescope.org), a project profiling clean energy conditions in developing countries.

He joined BNEF (originally known as New Energy Finance) in 2005 as its first U.S. employee and has held several positions with the group.  His prior employment includes stints at The Cape Cod Times, the White House, and MTV.  Zindler is a Senior Associate (non-resident), at the Center for Strategic and International Studies Energy and National Security Program.

Zindler holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA from Georgetown University.

Biography

Adam Wolfensohn is Co-Managing Partner of Encourage Capital. The firm is a unique partnership of disciplined investors and creative problem-solvers working with major asset owners to deploy investment capital into profitable solutions to critical problems such as global ecosystem decline, climate change, and bringing financial services to the world’s poor. Previously, Adam was Managing Director at Wolfensohn Fund Management and also managed the Wolfensohn family office cleantech and environmental markets strategies.

From 2003 to 2006, he produced the climate change documentary, “Everything’s Cool,” that debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007. From 2002 to 2003, he worked with Conservation International to create a market for carbon credits from avoided deforestation projects.

Prior to 2002, Adam composed music for numerous films, television commercials and theater productions as founder and CEO of “Red Ramona,” an award winning music and sound design studio in New York City. He is a Trustee of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Yad Hanadiv, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and Bang on a Can. He is a member of the investment committee of Rockefeller Brothers Fund and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Adam earned a B.A. from Princeton University and an M.E.M. from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

Biography

Robin Wigglesworth is the FT’s global finance correspondent, based in Oslo, Norway. He focuses on the biggest trends reshaping markets, investing and finance more broadly across the world, with a particular focus on technological disruption and quantitative investing, and writing longer-form features, analyses, profiles and columns.

He was previously the FT's US markets editor, spearheading its coverage of financial markets and asset management across the Americas, deputy head of FastFT, capital markets correspondent, and Gulf correspondent.

Biography

Thierry Warin is interested in the themes of international finance, macroeconomics and international political economy. Thierry Warin is Vice President at CIRANO (Canada) and academic director at SIE-Sun Yat Sen University in Canton (China). Alumni at the Minda Centre of Gunzburg on European studies at Harvard University, Thierry Warin obtained his PhD in monetary and financial economy at the ESSEC Business School (France). At CÉRIUM, he's a member of the European Union Centre of Excellence (EUCE).

Biography

Josée Touchette is an accomplished public sector leader with a passion for public policy and its implementation.

As Chief Operating Officer for the National Energy Board of Canada, she leverages her extensive experience in managing collaboration with key stakeholders, including government officials, leaders of industry and international partners to foster excellence in regulatory outcomes. She has held a variety of senior positions in the Public service of Canada over almost thirty years.

Previously, she was Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Policy and Strategic Direction at Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada. Prior to that, she held Assistant Deputy Minister positions at National Defence, Justice Canada and the Canadian International Development Agency.

A member of the Québec bar, Josée is also a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA), holds a Masters in Business Administration from Queen's University, as well as a Bachelor's degree in social science and an LLL from the University of Ottawa.

Biography

William M. Tatham is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of NexJ Systems Inc., providing executive oversight and vision for the company’s enterprise customer management solutions for financial services. Mr. Tatham is also Founder and Executive Chair of NexJ Health Inc., a provider of cloud-based population health management solutions delivering patient engagement for chronic disease management. Previously, Mr. Tatham was Founder, Chair and CEO of Janna Systems Inc., an enterprise customer relationship management software company, and Founder and Managing Partner of XJ Partners, a venture capital and advisory services firm. He started his career as a University of Waterloo cooperative education student at IBM and as a management consultant at Arthur Andersen & Co.

Mr. Tatham is Chair and Co-founder of the Canadian Association for Person-Centred Health, a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to promote a person-centred model for healthcare. He is a past member of the Board of Directors of Elizabeth Arden, a global prestige beauty products company. He is Former Chair of the Quality Committee and Vice-Chair of the Board of Governors of the North York General Hospital.

Mr. Tatham holds a BASc in Systems Design Engineering with options in Socio-economic Systems and Management Science. He is a Doctor of Engineering, honoris causa, and a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council, Engineering, for the University of Waterloo. Mr. Tatham is also Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health at York University.

Biography

Philip Stephens is a commentator and author. He is associate editor of the Financial Times where as chief political commentator he writes twice-weekly columns on global and British affairs.

He joined the Financial Times in 1983 after working as a correspondent for Reuters in Brussels and has been the FT’s Economics Editor, Political Editor and Editor of the UK edition. He was educated at Wimbledon College and at Oxford university.

Biography

Bernard Spitz is the President of the French Insurance Federation (FFA) which gathers the French Federation of Insurance Companies (FFSA) and the Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (GEMA) since 8 July 2016. Mr Spitz was the chairman of FFSA since 2008. He also chairs the Club des Juristes Commission on Cyber Risks launched in September 2016.

A Board member of MEDEF, the French employer’s organization, Bernard Spitz has chaired International and Europe since July 2013. In charge by MEDEF of the Social Agenda of the B20, the international business leaders and employers summit which coincided with the G20 held under French Presidency at Cannes in 2011, Mr Spitz coordinated the ever first joint declaration of employers and workers represented by the B20 and the L20, the international Unions summit. He remains an active member of the B20 representing France and working on the Task Forces related to employment and the financing of growth.

Bernard Spitz is a graduate of the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris and the École supérieure des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales (ESSEC), as well as of École nationale d’administration (ENA) from 1984 to 1986. He was an adviser to Prime Minister Michel Rocard from 1988 to 1991 ; a Maître des Requêtes at the Council of State ; and an executive Director at the head of Canal+ from 1992 to 1996. From 2000 to 2004, he was Chief Strategy Officer of Vivendi Universal.

Bernard Spitz has served as a rapporteur to the French Competition Council, a member of the French Economic and Social Council and of the Security Council. He has overseen a number of public reports and efforts, among which President of the Diversity In Media Committee (2010); Coordinator of the Estates General of the Print Media, commissioned by President Nicolas Sarkozy (2009); and in charge of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for Prime Minister Lionel Jospin (1998).

Bernard Spitz is a member of the boards of Air France and Ecole Alsacienne (Paris), the President of think tank Les Gracques and the Vice-President of the association Michelrocard.org. He also sits on the Policy Board of the Aspen Institute (France), and is a member of several leading European think tanks, including Astrid (Italy), The Lisbon Council (Belgium) and En temps Réel (France).

He wrote several books on how to reform the State, including Notre Etat (In Our State), with Roger Fauroux, published by Robert Laffont in 2001; C’est possible ! Voici comment... (It’s possible : Here’s How), with Michel Pébereau, published by Robert Laffont in 2007 ; Le Papy Krach (The Grandfather Krach), published by Grasset in 2006 and On achève bien les jeunes (Our children betrayed) published by Grasset  in 2015.

Biography

On the 10 December 2014, M. Christos Sirros took up his position as the newly appointed Québec Agent-General in London and will represent Québec in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the Nordic countries.

Prior to this, Mr. Sirros was Québec’s Agent-General in Brussels during the negotiations of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the European Union.

As a member of the National Assembly from 1981 to 2004, Mr. Sirros served as Minister for Health and Social Services, Minister for Native Affairs and Minister of Natural Resources. He was also awarded the title of Commander of the Ordre de la Pléiade.

Biography

The Rt Hon Patricia Scotland QC took office as Secretary-General of the Commonwealth of Nations on 1 April 2016. In a career of firsts, she is the first woman to hold the post of Secretary-General.

Born in Dominica to a Dominican mother and an Antiguan father, she moved to the UK at an early age and was brought up in a large close-knit Caribbean family where she was taught the importance of hard work, education, pride in her heritage and the obligation to give back to the region of her birth and to the society in which she was raised. This ethic has guided her throughout her dynamic career in law, public service and politics.

Patricia Scotland is a lawyer by profession. She became the first black and youngest woman ever to be appointed Queen's Counsel. She was the first black woman to be appointed Deputy High Court Judge, Recorder, Master of Middle Temple, and the only woman since the post was created in 1315 to be Attorney General for England and Wales.

As a UK government minister, she undertook major reform of the criminal justice system, including the introduction of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act, and during her term of office from 2003-7 crime in England and Wales was reduced to its lowest level since 1981. During this period, she chaired the Inter-Ministerial Group on Domestic Violence which collectively worked together to reduce domestic violence by 64% and led to £7.5bn reduction in the economic cost of domestic violence in England and Wales.

Since 2014 Patricia Scotland has been Chancellor of the University of Greenwich in the United Kingdom.

Biography

Dr Amadou A Sall is the CEO of Institut Pasteur de Dakar in Senegal and the chairman of the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network. Dr Sall is a virologist with a PhD in Public health. Dr Sall is an expert in epidemics response and control more specifically for arboviruses and viral hemorrhagic fevers (Ebola, Zika, Yellow fever…). He is member several expert groups for WHO, OIE and scientific advisory board (CEPI, Institut Pasteur International Network). He has worked, taught and been consultant in Europe, Asia, Africa and America.

Biography

From 2005 to 2015 he served as Chairman of the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) time during which he was an active promoter of the energy reform in Mexico. In 2006 he was elected as Vice-President of the Ibero-American Energy Regulators Association (ARIAE), and from 2011 to 2015 he was the Chair of the same association.

Prior to being a regulator, he served as a Chairman of the Energy Committee at the Chamber of Deputies. He also was involved in the Chemical Sector for several years.

Mr. Salazar holds an MSc in Public Financial Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science, a BSc in Chemical Engineering from the Autonomous University of San Luis Potosi, and Diploma studies in Law and Economics from Universities in Mexico and the United Kingdom. He has taught courses on Public Finance and Monetary Economics at local universities in San Luis Potosi, and written on the use of economic instruments in environmental public policy, as well as on energy policy and regulation. Mr. Salazar has also participated as member of editorial boards from major newspapers and business magazines in Mexico.

Biography

Michael Sabia is President and Chief Executive Officer of la Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. Appointed in March 2009, Mr. Sabia is responsible for the strategic direction of the fund and the global growth of the organization.

Before joining la Caisse, Mr. Sabia was with BCE, holding such positions as resident and Chief Executive Officer, Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Executive Officer of Bell Canada International. From 1993 to 1999, he occupied various roles with Canadian National Railway, including Chief Financial Officer. He spent the preceding decade working as
senior official in the Government of Canada.

Mr. Sabia obtained a Bachelor of Arts in economics and politics from the University of Toronto and holds graduate degrees in economics and politics from Yale University.

Mr. Sabia is a member of the Canadian government’s Advisory Council on Economic Growth. He is a trustee of the Foreign Policy Association of New York and a member of the Canada-Mexico Leadership Group and the Asia Business Leaders Advisory Council. Among many other community activities,

Mr. Sabia currently co-chairs the capital campaign of Université de Montréal, Polytechnique Montréal and HEC Montréal.

Biography

Mr. Henri-Paul Rousseau obtained a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Economics at the Université de Sherbrooke. He continued his education at the University of Western Ontario, where he received the T.M. Brown Thesis Prize for the best doctoral dissertation in economics.

Mr. Rousseau has been a Vice-Chairman of Power Corporation of Canada and of Power Financial Corporation since 2009.

Previously, he held the position of President and Chief Executive Officer of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. Prior to that, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Laurentian Bank of Canada, and served as Vice-Chairman and President and Chief Executive Officer of Boréal Assurances Inc., as well as Senior Vice-President of the National Bank of Canada. He was a professor of Economics at both Université Laval and Université du Québec à Montréal.

He is a Director of several Power group companies, including Great-West Lifeco Inc., The Great-West Life Assurance Company, Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company, London Life Insurance Company, Canada Life Financial Corporation, The Canada Life Assurance Company, IGM Financial Inc., Investors Group Inc., Mackenzie Inc. and Putnam Investments, LLC. He is a Director of Santander Bank N.A. As well, he was a member of the Board of GFMA (Global Financial Markets Association) from October, 2010 to July, 2014.

In recognition for his contributions as an economist, accomplished manager, and involved citizen, he was awarded honorary doctorates from Concordia University, Université Lumière Lyon 2, Université Laval, and Université de Sherbrooke. In 2006, he was named a “Great Montrealer” by the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal’s Academy of Great Montrealers. He is Chairman of the Montreal Heart Institute Foundation and is active in a number of community and not-for-profit organizations in the sectors of health and education.

Biography

Elected Mayor of the City of Dallas in June 2011, Michael Rawlings brings three decades of high-level business and civic leadership to Dallas City Hall. As the Mayor of Dallas, Mayor Rawlings’s appointment to the DFW Airport Board runs concurrently with his mayoral term.
Mayor Rawlings came to Dallas in 1976. He worked his way up from an entry-level position to become the CEO of Tracy-Locke. After a 20-year career in marketing and advertising, Mayor Rawlings took the helm as CEO of Pizza Hut. Under his leadership, the company had a major upturn in business and was named D Magazine’s “The Best Company to Work for in Dallas.” Most recently, Mayor Rawlings served as Managing Partner of CIC Partners, a Dallas-based private equity fund. He was also Chairman and CEO of Legends Hospitality Management.

Mayor Rawlings has served as a volunteer civic leader. He served as President of the Dallas Parks and Recreation Board and Chair of the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau. During the five years Mayor Rawlings served as Dallas Homeless Czar, the city reduced its number of chronically homeless by nearly 57 percent. Currently, he sits on the Board of Trustees of Jesuit College Preparatory. He has been an active lecturer at many universities and an adjunct professor at Southern Methodist University.

Mayor Rawlings has received many honors throughout his professional and civic career. He was awarded the 2007 Innovation Award from the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness for his commitment to tackling the homeless situation in Dallas. He also received the Dallas Historical Society’s Award for Excellence in Humanities, the Anti-Defamation League’s Humanitarian of the Year for 2010, and the 2011 Destiny Award for his commitment and effort toward bridging relationships between racial communities within DFW.

Mayor Rawlings graduated magna cum laude from Boston College, where he earned a Bachelor's degree in philosophy and communications. He and his wife Micki have two adult children, Michelle and Gunnar.

Biography

Gabriela Ramos is the OECD Chief of Staff and Sherpa to the G20. Besides supporting the Strategic Agenda of the Secretary General, she is responsible for the contributions of the Organisation to the global agenda, including the G20 and the G7. She leads the Inclusive Growth Initiative and the New Approaches to Economic Challenges and also oversees the work on Education, Employment and Social Affairs (including gender).

Previously, she served as Head of the OECD Office in Mexico and Latin America, co-ordinating several reports on Mexico to advance the health and education reform. She developed the OECD’s Mexico Forum and edited and launched the “Getting it Right” flagship publication series.

Prior to joining the OECD, Ms Ramos held several positions in the Mexican Government, including Director of Economic Affairs (and OECD issues) in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Technical Secretary at the Office of the Minister for the Budget.  She has also held several positions as Professor of International Economy at the Universidad Iberoamericana and at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México. Ms Ramos holds an MA in Public Policy from Harvard University, and was a Fulbright and Ford MacArthur fellow. She was decorated with the Ordre du Merit by the President of France, François Hollande, in 2013.

Biography

Paul Podolsky is a Portfolio Strategist at Bridgewater Associates. He is a senior member of the research group with expertise in portfolio structuring and the foreign exchange, interest rate, commodity, and equity markets. Paul is a contributor to Bridgewater's Daily Observations. He also works with Bridgewater's clients to develop investment strategies that meet their objectives and to provide insight into the research group's thinking on global markets and economic conditions. Paul has been with the firm since 2004. Prior to joining Bridgewater, Paul was a Managing Director and head of interest rate and currency strategy at FleetBoston Financial. He was also a regular contributor to National Public Radio and The Wall Street Journal. He received a BA from Brown University and a Master's Degree in International Monetary Policy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, part of Tufts University and in association with Harvard University.

Biography

John Parisella joined NATIONAL’s Montreal office on January 23, 2017, and is currently Senior Advisor, Business Outreach. More recently, he was executive director of the major fundraising campaign for HEC Montréal, Polytechnique Montréal and Université de Montréal (Campus Montréal) and he will continue to be associated with this campaign during the transition period.  He serves as invited professor in the political science department at the University of Montreal and at ENAP (Quebec’s school of public administration). He is associated with the Chaire Raoul-Dandurand, a center for U.S. studies, at Université du Québec à Montréal and a Fellow at the Center for International Studies and Research (CERIUM).  He currently is on the board of the CORIM, Montreal International, Fusion Jeunesse, Canada World Youth, Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP), as well as on the Honorary Committee of the Fondation Jean Duceppe and the Strategy Committee of the Dr. Julien Foundation.

In November 2015, he published a book entitled La politique dans la peau which talks about diversity, integration and his years in Québec politics. Author of several publications and speaker at several forums, he is also co-author of the book Elections:  Made in USA (published in 2004 and 2008) and was a regular blogger for America’s Quarterly (2010-2015).  From 2008 to 2013, he was also a blogger on U.S. politics for Macleans magazine.   He acts as a political analyst with several media across the country.  Currently, he is a political analyst on U.S. politics at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (French sector) and is a blogger at Latin America Goes Global regarding Canada – U.S. interests. Recently, he acted as a consultant on the documentary television series – Fièvre politique - aired on Télé Québec

A graduate of McGill University in political science, education, and management, and Concordia University in political science, John Parisella holds a certificate in senior government management from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.  Throughout his career, he has worked in education, politics, community development, diplomacy and philanthropy.  In politics, he served as Director General of the Liberal Party of Quebec, Chief of Staff of the premiers Robert Bourassa and Daniel Johnson, as well as adviser to the Premier Jean Charest.

In business, he served as president of BCP, a Montreal-based marketing and advertising company. In addition, he chaired BCP Consultants, specializing in reputation management and crisis management. In 2008-2009 he was the chief negotiator of the Government of Quebec in the dispute with the Mohawks of Kahnawake regarding lands along Highway 30.

From 2009 to 2012, he served as Québec's Delegate General in New York – Washington.  In addition, to his professional activities, he has served as a volunteer administrator on numerous boards of directors in the areas of culture, education, health, community development and the business sector.

Mr. Parisella was made a member of the Order of Canada in 2017,  an Officer of the National Order of Quebec in 2016 and he was named Personality of the TOP 20 Diversity Award at the Grand Prix Mosaïque – Lys de la Diversité du Québec in 2014.

Biography

Marko Papic joined BCA Research in September 2011 and is currently BCA’s Senior Vice President, Geopolitical Strategy. Marko launched Geopolitical Strategy in March, 2012, a service that blends BCA’s macroeconomic research with the geopolitical methodology, with the goal of avoiding bias and providing investment-relevant forecasts.

The GPS service is the financial industry’s only dedicated geopolitical strategy. Prior to joining BCA he was a Senior Analyst for STRATFOR, a premier global intelligence agency where he contributed to the firm’s global geopolitical strategy as well as its analyst recruitment and training program.

Marko is a sought after geopolitical strategist, having been interviewed by numerous media organizations – including The New York Times, CNN, BBC, CNBC, Al Jazeera, Associated Press, etc. Before joining BCA, he also helped create the Center for European Union Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

Marko holds graduate degrees from the University of Texas at Austin and the University of British Columbia, and has lived in 8 countries on 3 continents.

Biography

Robert Palter is a Senior Partner based in McKinsey & Company’s Toronto office. He is the Global Co-Head of McKinsey’s Capital Projects & Infrastructure Practice, with special emphasis on the Americas Region. The focus of his client work is investors (pension funds, private equity funds, and corporations) looking to participate in infrastructure assets (particularly energy assets) directly or through PPPs.

Robert has an M.B.A. from the University of Western Ontario (with Honors) and an Honors Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations from the University of Toronto. He was named Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 in 2005. He is also the author of the Private Equity Canada series of reports that has been published from 2002 to 2011.

Biography

Murat Ocalan is the founder and CEO of Rheidiant, provider of secure Industrial Internet of Things solutions for upstream, midstream, and downstream oil and gas operators. Under his leadership, the company has brought to market a unique pipeline integrity management system that can sense and locate previously undetectable leaks, resulting in radically improved asset risk management and incident response. To enable this product, Rheidiant built and deployed a secure long-range connectivity platform, providing an end-to-end monitoring and control solution which is being commercialized in various other energy verticals.
Prior to Rheidiant he spent 12 years at Schlumberger, holding various positions in research, engineering, and manufacturing. He managed and contributed to various projects in drilling, artificial lift, intelligent completions and sand control verticals, providing expertise in wireless sensor networks, smart materials, acoustics and electromechanical design.
He is a named inventor in 20 US patents and holds a B.S. from Middle East Technical University, M.S. from Pennsylvania State University, and a PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, all in Mechanical Engineering.

Biography

Thomas M. O'Flynn, 57 years old, has served as EVP and CFO of the Company since September 2012. Previously, Mr. O'Flynn served as Senior Advisor to the Private Equity Group of Blackstone, an investment and advisory group and held this position from 2010 to 2012.
During this period, Mr. O'Flynn also served as COO and CFO of Transmission Developers, Inc. ("TDI"), a Blackstone-controlled company that develops innovative power transmission projects in an environmentally responsible manner. From 2001 to 2009, he served as the CFO of PSEG, a New Jersey-based merchant power and utility company. He also served as President of PSEG Energy Holdings from 2007 to 2009.
From 1986 to 2001, Mr. O'Flynn was in the Global Power and Utility Group of Morgan Stanley. He served as a Managing Director for his last five years and as head of the North American Power Group from 2000 to 2001. He was responsible for senior client relationships and led a number of large merger, financing, restructuring and advisory transactions. Mr. O'Flynn is the chairman of the IPALCO and AES US Investments Boards and previously served as a member of the Boards of DP&L and its parent company, DPL, Inc.
Mr. O'Flynn also served on the Board of Silver Ridge Power, a joint venture between AES and Riverstone Holdings LLC from September 2012 through July 2014. He is also currently on the Board of Directors of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and was the inaugural Chairman of the Institute for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern University, of which he is still an active Board member.
Mr. O'Flynn has a BA in Economics from Northwestern University and an MBA in Finance from the University of Chicago.

Biography

Inuuteq Holm Olsen is Minister Plenipotentiary and Head of Representation at the Greenland Representation at the Danish Embassy in Washington, DC as of January 1, 2014. As of October 2015, he is also accredited to Canada.

Mr. Olsen has been invitited to a be a speaker and panelist at  numerousinternational international

conferences, universities and think tanks, in Europe, United States and Canada on issues pertaining to

Greenland’s self-determination process and role in international affairs, developments in the

Arctic, effects of climate change and security issues. He has been involved in the negotiations and

drafting of the chapter on foreign affairs in the Danish-Greenlandic Commission on Self-Government

of 2008. He has also served as member of the the Danish Defense Commission of 2008 representing

Greenland.

 Prior to coming to DC he was at the Danish Foreign Ministry as Senior Adviser for Greenland and Arctic affairs.  He has served as Deputy Minister for the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Greenland, from 2004 to the end of 2012. He began his career at the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1996 and was Private Secretary to the Premier from 1997 through 1999.

He was posted at the Danish Foreign Ministry in Copenhagen and was at the Greenland Representation in Brussels from 2000 through 2003. He thereafter returned to Nuuk to be Head of Department at the Department of Foreign Affairs from 2003 - 2004. Mr. Holm Olsen earned a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1994 and a M.A. in International Affairs from The George Washington University in 1996.

Biography

Mr. Padmanathan, a professional Civil Engineer with over 35 years of experience, has served ACWA Power from 2005 as the company grew from a startup to where it is today; a leading private developer, owner and operator of power generation and desalinated water production plants headquartered in Saudi Arabia. The company has an investment value in excess of USD 32 billion and can generate 23+ GW of power and produce 2.5 million m3 /day of desalinated water to be delivered on a bulk basis to state utilities and industrial majors on long term off-take contracts under Public-Private-Partnership, Concession and Utility Services Outsourcing models.

While ACWA Power is focused on reliably delivering electricity and desalinated water at the lowest possible cost and is thus technology neutral and fuel agnostic, and owns and operates some of the largest fossil fueled power plants, the company is also very active in the area renewable energy leading cost reduction of renewable energy on a global scale.

A graduate of University of Manchester, UK, Mr. Padmanathan started his career as a consulting engineer delivering infrastructure projects financed by the national treasuries and multilateral financial agencies and moved on to develop privately financed power, water and wastewater projects in over a dozen countries. A substantial period of his career before ACWA Power was with Black & Veatch, a US headquartered multinational engineer & constructor where he served as a Vice President and Corporate officer.

Mr. Padmanathan also serves on the board of directors of several companies all operating in the water and power sectors.

Biography

Holder of a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of British Columbia and a master’s degree in Business Administration (M.Sc.) from HEC Montréal, Michel Patry is currently Full professor at the Département d’économie appliquée of HEC Montréal and Director of HEC Montréal, a major international business school.

In the past, Mr. Patry has served in other administrative capacities at HEC Montréal, as Associate Director – Academic Affairs and Strategic Planning; Director of the Doctoral Program and Director of Research; and activities outside of HEC Montréal, more specifically as President and CEO of the Center for Interuniversity Research and Analysis of Organizations (CIRANO), an important research, liaison and transfer center dedicated to the improvement of organizations’ and markets’ efficiency and competitiveness; Director of the Romanian-Canadian MBA Program, Director of the Joint Ph.D. in Administration Program offered by the four Montreal universities, and Secretary-Treasurer of the Société canadienne de science économique.

In Canada and abroad Mr. Patry sits on several Boards such as HEC Montréal (www.hec.ca), Fondation HEC Montréal, Université de Montréal (www.umontreal.ca), Chair of the Bureau de coopération interuniversitaire (BCI), Conseil du patronat du Québec (www.cpq.qc.ca), Conseil des relations internationales de Montréal (www.corim.qc.ca), Revue Gestion, European Foundation for Management Development (www.efmd.org), Global Foundation for Management Education (www.gfme.org), Fédération canadienne des doyens des écoles d’administration (www.cfbsd.ca). He is a member of the Advisory Board of ICN Business School and EFMD North America and of the Conseil Consultatif sur l’économie et l’innovation du Ministère de l’Économie, de l’Innovation et des Exportations. He was a volunteer of the 2011 and 2012 Campaign Cabinet of Centraide of Greater Montreal and Chair - Government Corporations and Public Organizations of Centraide; member of the Advisory Board for Quebec of TALISMAN (2011-2013) and Association of MBAs (2008-2014). He was a member of the Boards of Collège André-Grasset (2009-2014), Finance Montréal (2010-2013), CIRANO (2001-2006), AACSB International (2009-2015), CEFRIO (2007-2009) and ACFAS (2002-2005).

Michel Patry is an expert in the economics of organizations and regulation. At the moment, his teaching and research deal with the economic analysis of organizations, the economics and strategic analysis of outsourcing and P3, the economic analysis of regulation, as well as the economics of IT and e-commerce.

Professor Patry has published over a hundred research documents of scientific and professional nature, articles in academic and professional publications, book sections, monographs, research reports, etc., as well as many transfer and public education articles. He has supervised and participated in the supervision of close to a hundred students in Business Administration, Economics and IT postgraduate programs. He also serves as a consultant to many private and public organizations.

Biography

Biography

Dr. Srinivasan Raghavendran is a Lecturer in Economics in the National University of Ireland, Galway. The primary focus of my research lie in Macroeconomics with a special emphasis on the interrelation between the real economy and the financial sector in the context of modern financialisation. His current work in macroeconomics is on engendering macroeconomics, with a particular focus on unpaid domestic work and its impact on aggregate demand, distribution and economic growth.

Biography

Rakhi Sehgal is labour researcher and trade unionist in India currently working on issues of contract labour, social reproduction of labour, violence at the workplace, and industrial relations and discrimination. She has worked as consultant with the International Labour Organization (ILO) on issues of contract work in the garment industry in India. She was principal investigator for a study supported by Worker Rights Council (USA) on working conditions in the garment factories and compliance with national labour laws and international buyer corporate social codes as well as in a study “Labour in the Indian Textile and Apparel Industry: Understanding the Impact of Government Policies” supported by the V.V. Giri National Labour Institute. She has presented widely in seminars and conferences organized by UN Women, Association of Indian Labour Historians (AILH), and universities. These include “Precarious Work and Worker Voices in the Manufacturing Sector of India (2014), “State, Capital and Labour in the Garment Industry in India” (2014), “Feminized Labour, Structural Vulnerability and Global Value Chains” (2014), “Precarious Working Conditions and Social Reproduction: A Challenge for Contract Workers” (2011). Her publications include “State, Market and the Household: Social Reproduction of Third World Labour in an Era of Globalization” in Debdas Banerjee and Michael Goldfield (eds.) Labour, Globalization and The State: Workers, Women and Migrants Confront Neoliberalism (Routledge 2007), “Social Reproduction of Third World Labour in an Era of Globalization: State, Market and the Household” Economic and Political Weekly.

Biography

Jean-Paul Servais is the Chairman of the Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA). He is also Vice chairman of IOSCO and a board member of several international supervisory bodies for the financial sector: IOSCO, ESMA, ESRB and EIOPA. He teaches at ULB where he is also the deputy director of its special Master in Tax Law and Professor of LL.M. « International Business Law ». Author or co-author of numerous contribution in particular in areas of relevance to the FSMA's activities and the academic and scientific activities undertaken at the ULB.

Biography

Alan Shepard is serving since 2012 as the president of Concordia University in Montreal.

Biography

Maria do Carmo Trovoada Pires de Carvalho Silveira, from São Tomé and Principe, accumulates more than twenty seven years of professional experience, the last twenty years in the banking system of her home country. She has held high-level positions in the Public Administration there.

She has a Master degree in Public Administration by Ecole Nationale de l’Administration, ENA, Strasbourg and previously got the title of Master of Science in Economics by the University of Donetsk. She started a PhD program by Lisbon University (ISCSP) in the field of socioeconomic developement. She made additional training in Leadership (Portuguese Catholic University), Negotiation skills (GALPForma), Banking Supervision (IBFI, Bank of France), Economic and Financial Statistics (The IMF Institute, Washington), Macroeconomic Policies and Financial Planning (The IMF Institute, Washington), General English Course (Central School of English, London).

She has worked as an Economist in São Tomé and Príncipe in several public institutions, such as the Department of Industry and Energy (Ministry of Industry), Department of Multilateral Cooperation (Ministry of Cooperation and Foreign Affairs), Department of Economic Planning (Ministry of Planning and Finance) and Department of Economic Studies (Central Bank). In the Central Bank she has also occupied other positions such as Head of Office of the Governor, Economic Advisor to the Governor and appointed Governor twice with a total tenure of approximately twelve years.

In 2005, in a period when the country faced a sociopolitical crisis, she was appointed Prime Minister and Head of Government, and Minister of Planning and Finance of the X Constitutional Government of São Tomé and Principe. During this period she managed to set a framework of sociopolitical dialogue which led to the normalization of the situation. In the economic field during the same period the country was able to resume the economic rescue program with the IMF and the World Bank, which was suspended since 2003, and has achieved the completion point of the HIPC Initiative.

As Prime Minister she also revealed special relationship skills in the context of political cohabitation.

She has other experiences such as Economic Adviser to the Prime Minister of São Tomé and Principe, President of the Commission for the Installation of Petrogas (National Oil Company), Lecturer at the Lusíada University of São Tomé and Principe (a subsidiary

of the Lusíada University of Portugal) and President of the Saotomean Women's Forum, a Federation which includes all local NGO's dealing with gender issues and the affirmation and promotion of women in society.

In November 2016 she was appointed Executive Secretary of the CPLP and took office in last January, being based in Lisbon, where CPLP headquarters are located, since then.

Biography

Sebastián Siseles is responsible for creating, communicating and aligning the freelancer.com’s international expansion strategy, leading the team of regional directors and country managers worldwide. Sebastián is also directly involved and responsible for international launches, establishing and consolidating Freelancer's presence and growth in both developed and emerging markets. An Argentine entrepreneur with an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh, Sebastián has a background in law specialising in corporate finance and M&A and has taken post-graduate courses at the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange and the Southwestern University School of Law on International Business Transactions.

Biography

Henry Siu is an Associate Professor in Economics at VSE, and a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He is a macroeconomist whose research focuses on business cycles and the consequences of macroeconomic forces on the labour market. He has spent time as a visiting researcher at the Federal Reserve Banks of Chicago, Minneapolis, and St. Louis, the Reserve Bank of Australia, and the Bank of Canada. He was also the inaugural recipient of the Bank of Canada Governor’s Award in recognition of my contribution to macroeconomic research. On top of this impressive resume, he also reportedly makes some pretty amazing American-style barbeque.

Biography

Patrick Snider’s Parliament Hill experience started over a decade ago, when he worked in the mailroom. He has been working his way up ever since. As an Ottawa native he has been around politics for most of his life. He has a background in policy and political issues combining experience in both partisan and non-partisan offices on Parliament Hill and in a number of non-governmental organizations.

Patrick Snider completed the Bachelor of the Humanities program at Carleton University in Ottawa, and went on to a Master’s in Political Science at that same institution, with a focus on political theory. His studies included time spent abroad, living in Texas to study non-profits and charities. His professional work in Canada has included a range of policy studies on topics as diverse as healthcare, cooperative businesses, education and immigration. In those positions he used his background to identify issues, and offer solutions to political questions.

His background helps him provide innovative analysis, combining a wide range of sources on a wide range of issues, allowing him to offer insightful commentary and a fresh perspective.

Biography

Sue Szabo is the Director of the Inclusive Economies program at the International Development Research Centre, leading a multidisciplinary team that strengthens policy research capacity in developing countries on issues of economic policy, governance and health systems. Sue has more than 20 years of experience in international development, including positions at Canada’s Department of Finance, Aga Khan Foundation Canada, and the World Bank. Sue holds a PhD and an MPhil in economics from the University of Cambridge.

Biography

Paul Taylor is president and chief executive officer of Fitch Group. Mr. Taylor was appointed to this position in April 2012 and is based in London. He is also president, chief executive officer and chairman of Fitch Ratings.

Mr. Taylor was appointed president of Fitch Ratings in January 2010, overseeing the firm’s analytical teams around the world. He spent the prior two years as global head of structured finance ratings, presiding over numerous ratings reforms following the 2007 collapse of the U.S. housing market. Previously he was the global head of sovereign, public finance, corporate, and financial institution ratings and also headed the agency's operations in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Mr. Taylor joined Fitch Ratings in June 2000 following the merger with Duff & Phelps Credit Rating Co. (DCR), where he was executive vice president of DCR International. He was responsible for all rating activities outside North America as well as chairing the international group credit and criteria committee. Previously he was senior vice president in charge of European ratings activities.

Prior to joining DCR in July 1994, Mr. Taylor was a director and head of European structured finance for Standard & Poor's ratings group. He began his career in corporate lending at Lloyds Bank Limited.

Mr. Taylor has a BS in management and marketing from the University of Lancaster.

Biography

Nicolas Van Praet is Quebec correspondent for the Report on Business. He joined The Globe and Mail in 2014 after eight years at the National Post, where he covered the North American auto industry crisis and several other major stories. He started his career in daily journalism at the Montreal Gazette, doing a stint as a political reporter in Quebec’s National Assembly among other assignments.

Biography

Kathleen Weil, Member of the National Assembly for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce since 2008, was appointed Minister of Immigration, Diversity and Inclusiveness in 2014. She was also appointed Minister of Immigration and Cultural Communities in 2010 and Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Québec in 2008.

She was admitted to the Québec Bar in 1983 after graduating in Civil and Common Law at McGill University where she also received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and History.

After having practiced law, she held various positions both in the public and not-for-profit sectors. Just before entering politics, she was President CEO of the Foundation of Greater Montreal.

Biography

Werner Wnendt was appointed Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Canada in September 2012.

Prior to assuming his present position, he served as Assistant Deputy Minister for Culture and Communication at the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin.

From 2005 until 2007, Mr. Wnendt was Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, having previously completed an assignment as Senior Deputy High Representative of the International Community to Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2003 to 2005.

Between 2000 and 2003, Mr. Wnendt served as a foreign adviser to Germany's Federal President. From 1998, he was Deputy Head of Mission at the German Embassy to the Czech Republic. Before that, he had been Chef de Cabinet to the Minister of State for European Integration in Germany's Federal Government from 1995.

Mr. Wnendt joined the German Foreign Service in 1980. He also held positions in missions to the European Union in Brussels, to the U.S., Pakistan and Kenya.

Mr. Wnendt studied geosciences and law and has a Master's Degree in geology. Before joining the Foreign Service, he worked from 1976 until 1978 for the German Development Agency in Myanmar.

He is married and has five children.

Biography

Stavros N. Yiannouka is the CEO of the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE), a major initiative of the Qatar Foundation. WISE is a multi-sectoral, multidisciplinary platform dedicated to building the future of education through innovation. WISE flagship programs include an annual summit dubbed the ‘Davos’ of education and the WISE Prize for Education, the first global prize of its kind to recognize an individual or team for making a major contribution to education. To find out more about WISE please visit www.wise-qatar.org.

Prior to joining WISE in August 2012, Stavros was the Executive Vice-Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKY School) at the National University of Singapore. He joined the LKY School in June 2005 to spearhead the implementation of an ambitious growth strategy, which he had helped develop as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company. Today, the LKY School is widely recognized as the leading global policy school in Asia. Together with Kishore Mahbubani et al. Stavros is the co-author of Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy: Building a Global Policy School in Asia, World Scientific (2012). To find out more about the LKY School please visit www.lkyspp.nus.edu.sg.

Before joining the LKY School, Stavros spent five years with McKinsey & Company from 2000-2005 serving private and public sector clients in Singapore, Indonesia, South Korea and Canada, predominantly in finance, healthcare and education. Prior to joining McKinsey, Stavros practiced corporate law in the City of London from 1995-1998 with the firms Gouldens and Mayer, Brown & Platt. Stavros holds an MBA (with Distinction) from the London Business School and an LLB (with Honours) from the University of Bristol. He is a member of the Law Society of England and Wales, a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) and an Adjunct Professor and Advisor at the LKY School.