On December 24, 2020, at 48 Maia Sandu was sworn in as the first female President of the Republic of Moldova.
Sandu founded the Action and Solidarity Party (PAS) in May 2016, a political formation she presided until December 2020, resigning after winning the presidential election. From February to June 2019, she acted as a Member of Parliament of the Republic of Moldova.
In June 2019, she was appointed as the Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova, a position she held until November 2019.
Prior to her political career, Maia Sandu held various positions in the public administration of the Republic of Moldova, both in the Ministry of Economy and Trade and Ministry of Education which she led as Minister between 2012-2015.
Civil service career alternated with the work for the World Bank, both in its office in Chisinau as well as Adviser of the Executive Director of the World Bank in US.
President Sandu holds a Master’s degree in public policy from Kennedy School of Public Administration at Harvard University as well as a Master Degree in International Relations from the Moldovan Public Administration Academy and a Bachelor Degree in Management.

Rob Portman was first elected to the United States Senate in 2010, winning by 18 points.  He was reelected in 2016 by an even more impressive 21 points, winning 84 of Ohio’s 88 counties and receiving over 3.1 million votes – the second highest vote total for any elected official in Ohio’s history.

Rob has built a reputation in the Senate as a conservative leader who can bring people together to deliver results.  President Trump has signed dozens of Portman’s bills into law, including legislation to combat the addiction epidemic, curb human trafficking, help people better save for retirement, and support members of our military and their families.  Rob’s leadership was critical to Congress passing the historic tax cuts and tax reform, and his strong and steadfast support publicly and behind the scenes helped send Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court.  Rob has an A rating from the NRA and a 100% rating from National Right to Life.

Prior to his service in the Senate, Rob served Ohio and our nation as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the United States Trade Representative, and a member of the House of Representatives representing Ohio’s diverse, seven-county Second Congressional District.

Rob is a small business owner and grew up in a small business family, where he learned early on the value of hard work, leadership, and fiscal responsibility.  Rob was born and raised in Cincinnati, where he still lives today with his wife Jane and their dog Huckleberry.  Together they have three children: Jed, Will, and Sally.

Borys Gudziak is the current Archeparch of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia. He founded the Institute of Church History and served as the rector and president of the Ukrainian Catholic University. He was previously ordained as a priest, and later a bishop.

Dara Khosrowshahi is the CEO of Uber, where he has managed the company’s business in more than 70 countries around the world since 2017.

Dara was previously CEO of Expedia, which he grew into one of the world’s largest online travel companies. A seasoned executive with a background in both engineering and finance, Dara oversaw a number of acquisitions that bolstered Expedia’s offerings and aggressively invested in mobile, which now accounts for more than half of Expedia’s traffic. He was also beloved by Expedia’s employees and named one of the Highest Rated CEOs on Glassdoor. Dara was promoted to Expedia CEO after serving as the Chief Financial Officer of IAC Travel, a division of IAC, which purchased Expedia in 2002 and spun it off in 2005. He was also instrumental in the expansion of IAC’s portfolio of travel brands.

Before joining IAC, Dara served as Vice President of Allen & Company and spent a number of years as an analyst. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Expedia and Catalyst.org and was previously on the board of the New York Times Company. He’s a passionate advocate for refugees in crisis around the world, having himself left Iran during the Iranian Revolution at the age of 9.

Dara grew up in Tarrytown, New York, and received his bachelor’s degree in engineering from Brown University.

Anastasia joined the Ministry team 1.5 years ago and leads the Digital Transformation. Previously she served as deputy head of Odesa Regional State Administration. For over 15 years before that she has worked within transatlantic corporations and telecommunication companies in Ukrainian, European and Asian markets.

Education:

Higher education at the Institute of International Relations of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.

Academic Degree of a Candidate of Economic Sciences in International Economy and Finance and the Master’s Degree in International Economic Relations

Work experience:

20 years of experience in the financial sector and investment banking.

He held managerial positions in leading investment organizations, in particular as the Director of the Concorde Capital investment company and one of the heads of the Ukrainian subdivision of the Amstar International Direct Investment Fund headquartered in the USA, whose assets under management amounted to more than $3 billion at the time of his employment. Implemented fundraising projects using such instruments as IPO, private placement, Eurobonds and syndicated financing.

Banking experience includes the signing of more than 30 agreements on interbank lending with leading global financial institutions for a total amount of more than $300 million and the development of the financial and risk controlling system at the Ukrainian branch of HVB Bank, Germany. The total amount of assets in project management experience in various industries exceeds half a billion US dollars.

In June 2021, he was appointed as a freelance adviser to the Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine.

Participated in the preparation of international loans to Ukravtodor, development of the public-private partnership strategy, preparation and implementation of intergovernmental agreements, negotiations with IFIs regarding the financing of large-scale infrastructure projects in Ukraine.

Co-author of a number of amendments to legislative acts of Ukraine.

On 13 December 2021, by order No. 1651-r, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine appointed Oleksandr Hryban as the Deputy Minister of Economic of Ukraine.

David Arakhamia is a Ukrainian politician, businessman and volunteer of Georgian descent. He is a member of the Servant of the People political party. Arakhamia was elected to the Verkhovna Rada in 2019. In parliament he was elected as his party’s faction leader on 29 August 2019.

n 2002, Arakhamia co-founded the IT company ‘TempleteMonster’, which develops website templates for business and e-commerce. In 2013, the company was sold to a private American fund. The cost of the deal is not known for sure, the Internet contained information about $ 100 million.

In 2014, with the beginning of the Russian aggression against Ukraine, Arakhamia began to volunteer. In August 2014, he was appointed the adviser to the chair of Mykolaiv regional state administration.

In September 2014, Arakhamia was appointed a Commissioner of the Minister of Defense for Procurement.

In 2016, Arakhamia developed a new project – ‘Weblium’ web platform.

In June-July 2019, Volodymyr Zelensky appointed Arakhamia a member of the Supervisory Board of ‘Ukroboronprom’ and Secretary of the National Investment Council.

On March 13, 2021, Arahamia headed the political council of the ‘Servant of the People’ party.

Born in 1973 in Lviv.

In 1995 he graduated from Lviv State University with a degree in law science, specialty – lawyer.

In 1995 Herman Haluschenko got a second higher education. He graduated from the Ukrainian Academy of Foreign Trade with a degree in management of the foreign economic activity, has a master’s degree in International Management.

Has a degree of PhD in Law.

From February 1994 to June 1995 he worked as a lawyer of JV “DOMAR Travel and Tours Trans LTD” in Lviv. Later, from June 1995 to April 1996, he was an assistant prosecutor at the Prosecutor’s Office of Lviv region.

During the year, from April 1996 to March 1997, Herman Haluschenko served as Attaché, third secretary of the Contractual and Legal Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

From March 1997 to June 2010 he worked in the Secretariat (Administration) of the President of Ukraine – senior consultant, chief consultant, head of division, deputy head of the Department of the Secretariat (Administration) of the President of Ukraine.

In 2011, he worked for a short period as the chief legal adviser of the SE “State Expert Center “of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.

From April 2011 to July 2013, he worked in the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, where he held the positions of Assistant to the Minister of Justice, Head of Department on Court Proceedings of the Ministry of Justice.

In 2013-2014 he worked as an Executive Director on Legal Support of SE NNEGC Energoatom.

Starting From September 1, 2014 – associate professor of private international law chair of the Institute of International Relations of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.

By the order № 493-p dated March 6, 2020, German Galushchenko was appointed to the position of Vice President of the SE NNEGC “Energoatom”.

April 29, 2021 – appointed as Minister of Energy of Ukraine.

Has an honorary title “Honored Lawyer of Ukraine” (2004).

Awarded with the Order of Danylo Halytsky (2009).

Since September 7, 2022, Rustem Umerov is the Chairman of the State Property Fund of Ukraine. From August 29, 2019 until his appointment to the post, he was a People’s Deputy of Ukraine.

He began his career in 2004 at a telecommunications company, holding various management positions. In 2013, he founded the investment company ASTEM and the charity fund ASTEM Foundation:
– ASTEM manages investments in the fields of communications, information technology and infrastructure.
– ASTEM Foundation is one of the donors of the Ukrainian Emerging Leaders program at Stanford University, which aims to train Ukrainian politicians, lawyers, social entrepreneurs, businessmen, and community leaders.

In 2019, he was elected a People’s Deputy of Ukraine. While working in the Verkhovna Rada, he headed the Special Temporary Commission for Monitoring the Receipt and Use of International Material and Technical Aid. He was a co-chairman of the Crimea Platform parliamentary association, a member of the Ukrainian negotiating group with the russian federation.

Graduate of the Crimean Boarding School for Gifted Children of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Ukraine. He is a Fellow of the Future Leaders Exchange Program (FLEX) of the USA; the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Program; the American-Ukrainian Leadership Program; the European Youth Parliament; the AEGEE European Students’ Forum; the Forum of the Future Summit and the European Law Students’ Association. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and a Master’s degree in Finance from the National Academy of Management.

Sviatoslav (Slava) Vakarchuk is the leader and founder of the rock band “Okean Elzy”, a social activist with a PhD in theoretical physics.

In 2003 Sviatoslav became an Honorary Ambassador of Culture in Ukraine.
In 2005 he became a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Program.

In 2015 Sviatoslav Vakarchuk was declared as the most active Ukrainian philanthropist.
In 2015, Sviatoslav Vakarchuk became a Yale World Fellow. He was the third fellow from Ukraine since the program launched in 2002. The program is designed for mid-career professional with a significant record of achievements. From 2015-2016, Slava gave several lectures and presentations at UC Berkeley, Fordham, Columbia and Harvard.
In fall 2017, Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) invited Mr. Vakarchuk as a visiting scholar.

Slava Vakarchuk is also the founder of “People of the Future” Charity Foundation.  In 2017-2019  the Foundation purchased equipment for Ukrainian hospitals in the Anti-terrorist Operation zone in Ukraine.

With the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, he began to travel with speeches to the military at the front and civilians in the centers of immigrants, performed at train stations, city squares, became a volunteer. His foundation helps hospitals in front-line cities, in particular those where are children and adults,  injured during Russian missile attacks, helps civilians in liberated cities and defenders of Ukraine.

In 2015 Serhii Sukhomlyn was elected as the Mayor of Zhytomyr. From the first days he proved himself as a balanced and purposeful leader who enjoys the respect of his subordinates and citizens, and immediately started implementing programs to develop Zhytomyr.
In 2020, he was re-elected for a second term in the first round with 51,3% of the votes.

During his term, significant expenditures were allocated from the local budget to ensure financial support and development of municipal health care institutions: more than UAH 38 million from the local budget (equipment, PCR laboratory, personal protective equipment and disinfection, hot meals for medical workers). During the active phase of COVID-19, Zhytomyr city hospitals registered up to 300 patients daily. All hospitals in Zhytomyr were provided with oxygen stations. Thanks to the personal standing of Serhii Sukhomlyn, the supply of oxygen was smooth and delay-free.

Zhytomyr actively cooperates with sister cities and partner cities. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Zhytomyr has become a humanitarian hub that not only received aid, but also provided logistics for the delivery of humanitarian aid to the de-occupied and most war-affected cities. In March and April, Zhytomyr residents in need received food packages and hygiene products.

Today Zhytomyr actively helps the de-occupied cities. In particular, Mykolaiv, Kupiansk, Shevchenkove received generators, water purification systems, food, warm clothes. The cooperation continues to this day.

Serhii Sukhomlyn is a demanding and unflinching leader; his team and the public treat him with respect, he is well regarded among colleagues and residents of Zhytomyr community.

For conscientious work, significant personal contribution to the development of the city of Zhytomyr he was awarded with diplomas of Zhytomyr Regional Council and Zhytomyr Regional State Administration.

DANIEL KURTZ-PHELAN is Editor of Foreign Affairs and Peter G. Peterson Chair at the Council on Foreign Relations. He previously spent three years as Executive Editor of the magazine and served in the U.S. State Department, including as a member of the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff. His narrative history of George Marshall’s post­–World War II mission to China, The China Mission, was published by WW Norton in 2018 and named a best book of the year by The Economist and an editor’s pick by The New York Times Book Review. His writing has also appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic.

Ben Driggs is President of Global High Growth Regions, with broad responsibilities for leading business across a diverse set of geographies that include China, India and Southeast Asia; Central and Eastern Europe; the Middle East and Central Asia; Africa; and Latin America.
Previously, Ben served as Vice President of Strategic Accounts and Corporate Development, where he played a leadership role for all efforts with 25 of our most important customers. These included major global retailers to oil and gas companies to logistics companies to aerospace manufacturers.

Prior to this role, Ben served in a variety of positions with Honeywell including President, Aerospace Aftermarket; Latin America President; Vice President, Airlines; Vice President, Aerospace Asia Pacific; and Vice President, Propulsion Engines.

Before joining Honeywell, Ben was an associate principal with the consulting firm McKinsey & Company in Los Angeles, working in the industrial practice. Ben holds a master’s degree from Oxford University, where he was a Swanson Scholar and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Arizona, where he was also student body president and a Flinn Scholar. He is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese as well as English.

Edward Felsenthal is the Editor in Chief and Executive Chairman of TIME. He is TIME’s 18th top editor since its founding in 1923 and led the organization as Editor in Chief and Chief Executive Officer from 2018 to 2022. Under Felsenthal’s leadership, TIME has grown from a magazine and website into a global media company with a vastly expanded suite of products and platforms, returned to growth with its highest year-over-year revenue increases in well over a decade, and increased the impact, relevance and reach of its world-class journalism.

Today, in addition to its iconic magazine and digital platforms reaching 100 million people around the world, TIME includes an Emmy-award winning film and television division TIME Studios, a fast-growing global live events business built around its TIME100 and Person of
the Year franchises, an industry-leading web3 division, an award-winning branded content studio, the website-building platform TIME Sites, and the sustainability and climate-action platform CO2.com, and more. In 2022, Felsenthal was named one of Most Powerful People
in Media by The Hollywood Reporter.

Felsenthal joined TIME in April 2013 as editor of TIME digital, and led a major expansion of TIME’s digital footprint, including the establishment of a 24/7 newsroom and video operation. During that time, TIME’s audience tripled, with monthly video streams exceeding
100 million across platforms and social media followers exceeding 50 million.

In 2016, Felsenthal was named Group Digital Director of News and Lifestyle at Time Inc., a role in which he led digital content and growth across a dozen titles, including TIME, Health, MONEY, Real Simple, Southern Living, Travel & Leisure and Food & Wine.

Felsenthal began his career at The Wall Street Journal, rising to deputy managing editor in 2005 and serving as the founding editor of Personal Journal, where he led coverage that won two Pulitzer Prizes. Earlier in his career, he covered the U.S. Supreme Court in
the Journal’s Washington bureau.

In 2008, he was the founding executive editor of The Daily Beast, a role in which he built and managed a digital newsroom that quickly grew from a startup to a nationally known brand.

A native of Memphis, Felsenthal graduated from Princeton University. He has a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a master’s in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts. He is admitted to the bar in the District of Columbia and Tennessee.

Yaroslava Gres is a Ukrainian public figure, journalist, entrepreneur and philanthropist.

Head of the “Corruption Park” for the European Union Anti-Corruption Initiative in Ukraine. Curator of the “Museum of News in Ukraine”. Co-founder of the “Gres Todorchuk PR” agency.

She was the world’s youngest editor of the Hello! magazine. In 2018, she was included in the rating of “100 most influential women in Ukraine” by Focus magazine.

Andriy Shevchenko, is a Ukrainian football manager, a former professional football player and a former politician. Shevchenko played as a striker for Dynamo Kyiv, AC Milan, Chelsea and the Ukraine national team. He was head coach of Serie A club Genoa. Shevchenko became the Vice President of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine on 17 November 2022.

Shevchenko is considered one of the most lethal strikers to ever play the game. He is ranked as the seventh top goalscorer in all European competitions with 67 goals. With a tally of 175 goals scored for Milan, he is the second most prolific player in the history of the club, and is also the all-time top scorer of the Derby della Madonnina (the derby between Milan and their local rivals Inter Milan) with 14 goals. Furthermore, he is the all-time top scorer for the Ukrainian national team with 48 goals.

Shevchenko’s career has been highlighted by many awards, the most prestigious of which was the Ballon d’Or in 2004 (becoming the third Ukrainian, after Oleg Blokhin and Igor Belanov, to receive it). He won the UEFA Champions League in 2003 with Milan, and he has also won various league and cup titles in Ukraine, Italy and England. He was also a Champions League runner-up in 2005 and 2008. He was named in the FIFA World XI for 2005. In 2004, he was named as one of the Top 100 greatest living footballers as part of FIFA’s 100th anniversary celebration.

In his international career, the striker led Ukraine as captain to the quarter-finals in their first ever FIFA World Cup appearance in 2006, and also took part at UEFA Euro 2012 on home soil.

He returned to football in 2016, as assistant coach of the Ukraine national team February to July, at the time led by Mykhaylo Fomenko. In July 2016, Shevchenko was appointed Ukraine’s head coach, and led the nation to the quarter-finals at UEFA Euro 2020.

Scott Joseph Kelly is an American engineer, retired astronaut, and naval aviator. A veteran of four space flights, Kelly commanded the International Space Station (ISS) on Expeditions 26, 45, and 46.

Kelly’s first spaceflight was as pilot of Space Shuttle Discovery during STS-103 in December 1999. This was the third servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, and lasted for just under eight days. Kelly’s second spaceflight was as mission commander of STS-118, a 12-day Space Shuttle mission to the ISS in August 2007. Kelly’s third spaceflight was as a crewmember on Expedition 25/26 on the ISS. He arrived at the ISS aboard Soyuz TMA-01M on October 9, 2010, and served as a flight engineer until he took over command of the station on November 25, 2010, at the start of Expedition 26. Expedition 26 ended on March 16, 2011, with the departure of Soyuz TMA-01M.

In November 2012, Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko were selected for a year-long mission to the ISS. Their year in space began with the launch of Soyuz TMA-16M on March 27, 2015, and they remained on the station for Expeditions 43, 44, 45, and 46. The mission ended on March 1, 2016, with the departure of Soyuz TMA-18M from the station.

Kelly retired from NASA on April 1, 2016. His identical twin brother, Mark Kelly, is also a retired astronaut, and the junior U.S. senator from Arizona.

Anne-Sylvaine Chassany is the Financial Times’ world news editor, overseeing coverage of politics and the economy from the foreign bureaus. Prior to this role, she was the FT’s Paris bureau chief and the FT’s global private equity correspondent. Before joining the FT in 2012, she worked for Bloomberg News and Dow Jones/The Wall Street Journal in Paris and London, reporting on mergers and acquisitions, energy and European financial institutions.

A graduate of French business school HEC and a former associate at Paribas in Paris and New York, she won the ‘OneToWatch’ award from The Work Foundation’s WorkWorld Media Awards in 2006 for ‘Heat builds on Mittal to improve safety and wages’ following a reporting trip to Kazakhstan. She is the co-author of ‘Enron, la faillite qui ébranla l’Amérique,’ published in 2003.

Director, CEE & Transatlantic Public Policy. Marta joined Google in 2012. She leads the Public Policy & Government Relations Team in Central and Eastern Europe and Transatlantic Relations for Google Europe. Previously she was responsible for privacy & security policies in Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Marta is an Atlantic Council Millennium Fellow. Graduate of the University of Cambridge and the University of Warsaw.

He is based in Amsterdam. In this capacity, Alex engages with stakeholders in the audiovisual industry—including representatives of the public, private, and non-profit sectors—in a wide range of territories, in support of their efforts to promote vibrant and sustainable creative ecosystems. Prior to moving to Amsterdam in 2020, Alex was based in Netflix’s Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore. Before joining Netflix four years ago, Alex worked on technology policy matters for Google in the United States and in South & Southeast Asia. He has also worked in educational and not-for-profit organizations in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. Alex completed his undergraduate studies at Georgetown University and obtained a Master’s Degree from Princeton University.

Kersti Kaljulaid served as the President of the Republic of Estonia from 2016-2021. During her time in office, she made her presence felt in both her homeland and the international arena.

Previously she had been serving as a Member of the European Court of Auditors, advising Prime Minister Mart Laar and holding different top level positions in energy, investment banking and telecom sector. Genetic engineer and economist by education, she has been a member of the Supervisory Board of the Estonian Genome Center and the Council Chair of the University of Tartu from 2012 to 2016.

In summer 2021, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed President Kaljulaid to the position of Global Advocate for the ‘Every Woman Every Child’ strategy on the health and well-being of women, children and adolescents around the world for the next two years. She was also the first Estonian to be featured in the Forbes World’s 100 Most Powerful Women.

Kersti Kaljulaid has become a sought-after speaker at high-level forums on digital, security and foreign-policy topics and more broadly for analysing and interpreting societal and economic change.

President Kaljulaid is a vocal advocate of human rights, rule of law, freedom of speech and democracy. One of the principles in the office of president has been the one she set out upon her inauguration: “I am never silent when our security is in question, when our freedoms are at stake or when those weaker than us are treated unjustly.”

As Executive Director of the World Food Programme, David Beasley continues his life’s work bridging political, religious and ethnic boundaries to champion economic development and education. At WFP, Mr. Beasley is putting to use four decades of leadership and communications skills to mobilise more financial support and public awareness for the global fight against hunger.

Zanny Minton Beddoes is the Editor-in-Chief of The Economist. She is a renowned global economics expert, sought-after for her authoritative perspectives on the world economy. She previously worked at the IMF, and as an adviser to the Minister of Finance in Poland.

Elina Svitolina is a Ukrainian tennis player, former world No. 3 who has set many national records. She has won 16 WTA tournaments including WTA Finals 2018 and Ukraine’s first ever Olympic medal in tennis at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic games.

In 2019 Elina founded her Charitable Foundation in Ukraine with the main task to support young talents and develop tennis/sport in Ukraine. In 2022 at the invitation of the president Zelenskiy, Elina Svitolina became an ambassador of the fundraising platform United24.

Major General Kyrylo Budanov
Chief of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine.
Since 2014, he has been taking part in the russo-Ukrainian war. He has been wounded several times. He has performed special tasks, the information about which is classified. He is full Cavalier of the Order “For Courage”.
A number of successful combat operations against the russian occupation forces were carried out under the direct leadership of Kyrylo Budanov. In particular, supply of ammunition, delivery of food, and evacuation of wounded servicemen from Mariupol surrounded by the enemy and liberation of Zmiyinyi Island from the invaders. In September 2022, Kyrylo Budanov took part in the operation on the largest POWs exchange between Ukraine and russia, when 215 Ukrainian defenders, including more than 100 warriors and commanders of “Azov” regiment, returned home.

Oleh Derevianko is a visionary business and social entrepreneur.
He is the Co-founder, Chairman, and Chief Vision Officer of ISSP, a private international cybersecurity company founded in 2008 in Ukraine and currently operating globally while remaining a leader of the Ukrainian cybersecurity industry.

ISSP acted as the first responder to and investigator of many of the most sophisticated cyberattacks in history and was named by WIRED as ‘the go-to firm for victims of Ukraine’s cyberwar’.

Before founding ISSP, Oleh worked as CEO and Board Member in Ukrainian and international companies. In 2015-2016, Oleh Derevianko served as Deputy Minister and Chief of Staff at the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. As cybersecurity expert Oleh has presented at MIT, Stanford, Texas A&M, The Atlantic Council, The Aspen Institute, the NATO-Ukraine Platform on Countering Hybrid Warfare, many impactful international cybersecurity events, and has been referenced in two bestselling books on cybersecurity.

Krystina Waler is the Director of Ukrainian Initiatives at the Temerty Foundation. Most recently, Krystina was the Executive Director of Help Us Help Charity, an organization that helps venerable children and veterans across Ukraine.

She has lived and worked in Ukraine for various periods since 2005. Throughout this time, she has been involved in many humanitarian efforts there. Most notably, from 2014-2018, Krystina worked with the Canada-Ukraine Foundation, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine to coordinate and execute surgical missions that operated on Ukrainians who sustained traumatic facial and upper extremity injuries while fighting for Ukraine’s sovereignty in Eastern Ukraine and Crimea. This initiative saw Canadian and Ukrainian medical professionals work together to reconstruct the bodies of hundreds of defenders of Ukraine and continues to this day.

In Canada, she has served as a member of the board of directors for the Children of Chornobyl Fund, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress – National, and the Canada-Ukraine Foundation among others.

Krystina holds a Master of Science degree from the University of Toronto. In 2019 and 2021, Krystina was a candidate in the federal election in St. Catharines, Canada. She is passionate about supporting a free Ukraine and the uniting the global efforts to support Ukraine.

Chairman of the Charity Foundation «KOLO» in 2014-2017 and from 2019 to the present. Before a full-scale war, the foundation works in the areas of education, culture and medicine.
From February 24, 2022 аreas of activity were changed in accordance with the needs of wartime. During the war, the Foundation, together with the volunteer community, transferred more than 1,500 tons of humanitarian aid, more than 74,000 food kits were transferred in the Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhya, Odesa, and Dnipropetrovsk regions. More than 2,500+ received evacuation assistance to Western Ukraine, 1,786 children and 945 guardians and accompanying persons were evacuated to Turkey as part of the “Childhood without War” project together with guardians.
In the medical direction: more than 35 ambulances were purchased, more than 200 pieces of medical equipment and consumables (anesthesia stations, ventilators, patient monitors, ultrasound machines and for the treatment of wounds with negative pressure (vacuum wound therapy, etc.) were transferred for more than 30 hospitals.
More than 40 institutions of the social sphere and educational institutions received generators of various capacities.
During the full-scale invasion, more than 150 cars, 10 tons of protective equipment and equipment, and 55 generators were transferred to the needs of the Armed Forces. More than 500 trainees from the Armed Forces have already completed training at the UAV control school, and 550 drones have been handed over.
Despite the military actions, the foundation implements projects for the preservation of cultural heritage and popularization of Ukrainian culture.

On December 9, 2022 was awarded with award of the President of Ukraine – “Golden Heart” .

Max Liashko is a CEO and Member of the Supervisory Board at Parimatch. As a top-manager and shareholder of an international sports betting major – born in Ukraine in 1994 – he utilizes his vast experience and unique skillset to steer the company’s dynamic growth and strategic restructuring, ensuring consistency of the company’s philosophy and sustainability of its vision globally.

Oleksii Reznikov is a Ukrainian lawyer and politician who has served as the Minister of Defence of Ukraine since 4 November 2021.

Reznikov previously has served in several other positions in the government of Ukraine; Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration from 2016 to 2018, and deputy mayor-secretary of the Kyiv City Council from June 2014 to December 2015. Reznikov also served as Head of Ukraine’s National delegation in Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe from 2015 to 2016, and was chosen by President Volodymyr Zelensky on 5 May 2020 to represent Ukraine in the working political subgroup at the Trilateral Contact Group regarding a settlement to the War in Donbas.

Oleksiy Chernyshov is a Ukrainian entrepreneur and politician, Head of the Executive Board of National Joint Stock Company “Naftogaz of Ukraine” since November 2022, Minister for Communities and Territories Development from March 2020 to November 2022.

Oleksiy Chernyshov did his undergraduate studies at Kharkiv University of Humanities “People’s Ukrainian Academy”, receiving a degree in Economics in 1999. He then proceeded to Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University to study Law until 2002.

In 1999, he completed a professional course on the standards of the International Project Management Institute at Westinghouse in Pennsylvania.

In the early 2000s, Chernyshov’s interest in commercial real estate and development led to the implementation of several successful projects in Kharkiv, after which cooperation with AVEC Concern began. In 2004 Chernyshov – Vice President of the Development, since November 2005 – President of Concern and AVEC Group. From 2008 to 2013 – Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Concern and the AVEC Group. Chernyshov forms a portfolio of new commercial real estate projects with a total area of 350,000 m². The businessman attracts significant foreign partners working in FDI (foreign direct investments) in commercial real estate development, including UNIQA Real Estate AG, New Century Holdings (NCH), ECE and others.

Oleksandr Kubrakov was born in 1982 in the city of Pershotravensk, Dnipropetrovsk region.

Education:

1999-2004 – Vadym Hetman Kyiv National Economic University (specialty – marketing)

Activity:

2003-2004 – Economist at the Marketing Department of the Plastic Cards Department of Joint-Stock Company Commercial Bank “Pravex-Bank”

2004-2006 – Research and Development Manager, P5 Commerce LLC

2006-2007 – CJSC “Kyivstar”, Head of Market Monitoring

2007-2009 – JSCB “Finance and Credit”, Head of Strategic Marketing

2009-2011 – PJSC “Kyivstar”, Head of Fixed Business Marketing Unit

2014-2016 – Director of the Directorate for Management of Transport Infrastructure Projects at the Municipal Enterprise of the Executive Body of the Kyiv City State Administration “Kyiv Investment Agency”

2015-2016 – Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, Head of the Project Office

2016-2019 – Director, Deputy Director of LLC “City for People”

August 2019 – December 2019 – People’s Deputy of Ukraine

November 2019 – May 2021 – Chairman of the State Agency of Motor Roads of Ukraine

May 20, 2021, – appointed Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine

December 1, 2022 – appointed Deputy Prime Minister for Restoration of Ukraine – Minister for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine.

Oleksandr Senkevych was born on February, 4, 1982 in Mykolaiv.

He has two higher educations. In 2004 he graduated from Mykolaiv State University named after Petro Mohyla, and in 2007 – from Educational-scientific complex «Institute for applied system analysis» of the National technical University of Ukraine «Kyiv polytechnical institute».

His labour activity he started on December 2002, while being a lecturer in Mykolaiv branch of the private enterprise «Computer academy «SHAG».

From June, 3, 2005 till November, 2015 he has been working in «Kvadrologic» LLC. First he took up the post of engineer-programmer. From September, 2005 till December, 2006 he was personnel and communal services director. On December 2006 he became the head of «Kvadrologic» LLC. He has been working as the head of this enterprise till November 2015.

In 2014 in order to take an active part in Mykolaiv city life he founded a public organization «Golos gromady».

On November, 24, 2015 he was elected as Mykolaiv City Mayor.

Oleksandr is the youngest mayor of the regional centre of Ukraine. The main his task, as a mayor of a half a million city, is transformation of Mykolaiv into the best city for the citizens’ life. In his opinion, it is needed to declare about competitive city ambitions as a relevant player on the world investment market. With the purpose of tasks fulfilment, he introduces new effective standards of the city economy management, including open and rational use of Mykolaiv budget, setting up a system of quality and available services for the city citizens, investments attraction.

Vitali Volodymyrovych Klitschko is a Ukrainian politician and former professional boxer who serves as mayor of Kyiv and head of the Kyiv City State Administration, having held both offices since June 2014. Klitschko is a former leader of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc and a former Member of the Ukrainian Parliament. He became actively involved in Ukrainian politics in 2005 and combined this with his professional boxing career until his retirement from the sport in 2013.[9][14][15] He holds a Doctoral Degree (Ph.D.) from Kyiv University’s Physical Science Department.

As a boxer, Klitschko won multiple world heavyweight championships. He held the World Boxing Organization (WBO) title from 1999 to 2000, the Ring magazine title from 2004 to 2005, and the World Boxing Council (WBC) title twice between 2004 and 2013. Overall, he defeated 15 opponents in world heavyweight title fights,[17][18] and made 12 successful title defences. In 2011, Vitali and his younger brother Wladimir Klitschko entered the Guinness World Records as the pair of brothers with most world heavyweight title fight wins (30 at the time; 40 as of 2020). From 2006 until 2015, Vitali and Wladimir (also a multiple world champion) dominated heavyweight boxing, a period widely known as the “Klitschko Era” of the division. Klitschko’s last fight was in 2012, but he remained the WBC heavyweight champion at age 42 when he announced his retirement in December 2013.

Klitschko formally began his political career in 2006 when he placed second in the Kyiv mayoral race. In 2010, he founded the party Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform (UDAR) and was elected into parliament for this party in 2012. He was a leading figure in the 2013–2014 Euromaidan protests, and he announced his possible candidacy for the Ukrainian presidency but later withdrew and endorsed the eventual winner Petro Poroshenko. He was elected Mayor of Kyiv on 25 May 2014.[23] He headed the election list of the winner of the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election, the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, but he gave up his parliamentary seat to stay on as Mayor of Kyiv. On 28 August 2015 the UDAR party merged into Petro Poroshenko Bloc. Klitschko thus became the new party leader. Klitschko was reelected as mayor on 15 November 2015. Klitschko revived UDAR, and left Petro Poroshenko Bloc with it, in May 2019 and simultaneously announced that UDAR would take part in the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election autonomously. UDAR however failed to win any seats.

Klitschko was re-elected to a second term as mayor in 2020, securing 50.52% of the votes in the first round of voting and thus avoiding a run-off. Following the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine, Klitschko and President Volodymyr Zelensky have been internationally praised as symbols of Ukrainian resistance.

Andy Hunder is President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, representing more than 600 US and international investors and corporate members.

A native Londoner, Andy was a TV presenter on a leading Ukrainian television channel. He headed the Public Relations department at Ukrainian Mobile Communications (now Vodafone Ukraine) and subsequently was External Affairs and Communications Director at GlaxoSmithKline with responsibility for Ukraine, Central Asia and the Caucasus.

Hunder was the director of the Ukrainian Institute in London, regularly delivering analysis and comment on Ukrainian current affairs on BBC, CNN, SKY, Bloomberg TV, ITV, Al Jazeera, and others. He has spoken on Ukrainian affairs at the UK Houses of Parliament, House of Lords, Oxford University, London School of Economics, and University College London.

From 2016 till 2020, Andy Hunder served as Treasurer of AmChams in Europe, the umbrella organization for American Chambers of Commerce in 43 countries throughout Europe, accounting for more than $ 1.1 trillion in investment on both sides of the Atlantic.

Andy is a member of Ukraine’s Business Ombudsman Council, National Reforms Council, and National Investment Council, and a member of the Supervisory Board of the Investment Promotion Office UkraineInvest.

Yuliya Badritdinova, Managing Director of McDonald’s Ukraine, Czech Republic, and Slovakia. McDonald’s is a leading trusted food-service company in all 3 countries with more than 17,000 employees in corporate restaurants and restaurants of franchise partners.
Yuliya has been working at McDonald’s for more than ten years. In her previous leadership role at McDonald’s Ukraine, Yuliya was responsible for the Marketing, Consumer & Business Insights, Corporate Relations functions, and strategic planning across the company. She became a Managing Director of McDonald’s Ukraine in April 2019 and in 2022 her role was extended to 3 countries.
Yuliya is a strong supporter of charities and social causes. She has a variety of experiences serving in not-for-profit Boards. She is a strong supporter of national and local cultural institutions and projects.
Yuliya is an active member of the American Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors in Ukraine since June 2019 advocating for transparent partnership between business and state.
Yuliya is the Chair of Ronald McDonald House Charities Board of Governors in Ukraine. Since the beginning of the war, RMHC Ukraine activated special programs to support communities and hospitals, the purchase of necessary medical equipment, and providing food kits for Ukrainians in the most affected regions for around 95 mil UAH. With the help of more than 400 McDonald’s volunteers the Charity produced and delivered over 160 000 Food kits and 420 VACs that speed up the healing of complex wounds. At the same time the RMHC Ukraine continues supporting opened Family Rooms in the hospitals and working on the opening of the 1st Ronald McDonald House in Kyiv.
A native Ukrainian, Yuliya graduated from the University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy with an Economics degree and the Charted Institute of Marketing.

Born on October 26, 1974 in the village of Dobrovody, Zbarazhsky district, Ternopil region. In 1991 he entered the law faculty of Chernivtsi State University. In May 2007, he was appointed Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. In 2010, focused on the Party of Arseny Yatsenyuk’s Front of Change project, where headed the party control committee. In the 2012 parliamentary elections, became deputy head of the Batkivshchyna headquarters, and in December became the leader of the Yatsenyuk group in the Batkivshchyna faction and first deputy head of the parliamentary committee on regulatory issues. On June 2013, after the “Front of Changes” association and the All-Ukrainian association “Bat’kivshchina”, was elected one of the deputy leaders of the “ Bat’kivshchina ”. March 21, 2014 was appointed head of the board of Oschadbank.

On 10 October 2022, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, officially introduced to the National Bank of Ukraine its newly elected Governor, Andriy Pyshnyy.

Dr Werner Hoyer is the President of the European Investment Bank. He was appointed on 1 January 2012 and was re-appointed for a second term in office, with effect from 1 January 2018.

Dr Hoyer has overseen a significant expansion and transformation of the Bank. One of the most notable successes under his tenure has been the European Fund for Strategic Investments, a key initiative to foster job creation and economic growth in the EU.

Under Dr Hoyer’s leadership, the EIB has also consolidated its position as the leading multilateral provider of climate finance worldwide. In 2019, the EIB set a world precedent in the fight against climate change by announcing that it will end financing for fossil fuel energy projects by the end of 2021 and support €1 trillion of climate action and environmentally sustainable investment in the decade to 2030.

tephanie Mehta is CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures, the business media company that publishes Fast Company and Inc. She previously spent nearly four years as editor-in-chief of Fast Company, overseeing its print, digital, and live journalism. Under her leadership, Fast Company was a National Magazine Award finalist in the design category three years in a row.

Mehta began her career as a business reporter at The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Virginia, before moving to The Wall Street Journal to cover small business, venture capital and technology.

She has held senior writing and editing positions at Fortune, Bloomberg Media and Vanity Fair, where she coedited the annual New Establishment and curated the invitation-only New Establishment Summit.

She is the author of Fast Company Innovation by Design: Creative Ideas that Transform the Way We Live and Work, published in September 2021. She serves on the boards of the Women’s Forum of New York, the American Society of Magazine Editors, and Airbel Impact Lab, the research and innovation arm of the International Rescue Committee.

Mehta received a B.A. in English and an M.S. in journalism from Northwestern University. A Chicago-area native, she now lives with her husband and two daughters in Scarsdale, New York.

Named one of Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” in both 2012 and 2018, and awarded the 2015 National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama, Chef José Andrés is an internationally-recognized humanitarian, culinary innovator, New York Times bestselling author, and educator. In 2010, Andrés founded World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit organization that provides fresh meals in response to crises while working to build resilient food systems with locally led solutions.

As chef/owner of José Andrés Group, which operates nearly 40 restaurants in the U.S. and beyond, Andrés has earned awards and distinctions including the 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Association of Culinary Professionals and “Outstanding Chef” and “Humanitarian of the Year” by the James Beard Foundation. Andrés co-chairs the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition, and alongside World Central Kitchen was awarded the Princesa de Asturias Foundation’s 2021 Concordia Prize for humanitarian achievement. As a naturalized citizen originally from Spain, Andrés has been a tireless advocate for immigration reform.

Shortly after settling in Washington, D.C., and introducing the city to Spanish Tapas, Andrés began volunteering at DC Central Kitchen, where he started to think big about philanthropy. Over the course of his career as a chef and restaurateur, he saw the role of cooks – and the power of food – to change the world. This path inspired Andrés to found World Central Kitchen in 2010 after a devastating earthquake in Haiti, with the support of his wife Patricia, as well as his business partner Rob Wilder and his wife Robin. As World Central Kitchen’s Chief Feeding Officer, José has continued to push to share a humble plate of food while revolutionizing the emergency food relief industry.

Since its founding, Andrés and the World Central Kitchen team have served over 250 million nourishing meals to communities in almost 50 countries around the world. In 2022, Andrés and his team arrived at the Poland-Ukraine border within 24 hours of the Russian invasion, and quickly began providing meals for as many people as possible by working with local restaurants, caterers, and food trucks, while also cooking from WCK field kitchens, in Ukraine and neighboring countries. Through this effort, World Central Kitchen has delivered meals to Ukrainians across eight countries, including 1,100 cities and towns in Ukraine alone, and with over 500 restaurant, food truck, and catering partners. World Central Kitchen has mobilized a network of cooks, community organizers, and volunteer organizations to provide food, when, where, and how it’s most needed across Ukraine.

Andrii Yermak is a Ukrainian film producer, lawyer and current Head of the Presidential Administration. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed him on 11 February 2020. He is also a member of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine.

Andrii Yermak was born on 21 November 1971 in Kyiv, Ukraine.

In 1990, he started and in 1995 Yermak graduated from Kyiv’s Taras Shevchenko National University’s Institute of International Relations with a master’s degree in international private law. The same year he received his license for law practice. In his second year of university, at the request of one of his teachers, he started working for the law company Proxen.

In 1997, Yermak founded the International Law Firm and was engaged in the field of intellectual property and commercial law. Between 2006 and 2014 he, in his profession as lawyer, aided Party of Regions MP Elbrus Tedeyev.

In the 2010 Ukrainian presidential election, Yermak was a proxy of candidate Arseniy Yatsenyuk in Kyiv’s 216th constituency.

Yermak founded the Garnet International Media Group in 2012 and is the producer of such films as Rule of Battle and The Line.

Yermak worked in Zelenskyy’s election campaign team of the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election.

On 21 May 2019, newly elected President Zelenskyy appointed Yermak as Presidential Aide for Foreign Policy Issues. In this role he negotiated major prison exchanges with Russia during the War in Donbas. Yermak was the point of contact for Kurt Volker and Rudy Giuliani on behalf of Zelenskyy during the buildup of the Trump–Ukraine scandal.

President Zelenskyy appointed Yermak as Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine on 11 February 2020. Yermak additionally became a member of the NSDC the following day.

Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, Ukrainian journalist, media manager, producer and the long-term CEO of the 1+1 Media Group. From 2019 to 2020 – People’s Deputy from the political party “Servant of the People”, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy.

Graduated from the Faculty of Journalism of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Received a diploma from Harvard Business School in the program “Business of Entertainment, Media, and Sports”. In 2018 studied at INSEAD Business School in Singapore under the program “Value Creation for Owners and Directors”.

Minister for Culture of Lithuania, Lithuanian politician, former Deputy Mayor of Kaunas City and Kaunas City Councillor.

Graduated from Vytautas Magnus University with a bachelor’s degree in Political Sciences. Obtained a master’s degree in Law at Mykolas Romeris University.

Mr. Firsov is 34 years old Ukrainian lawyer.

Since February 24, when Russia launched a full scale invasion, he has been serving as a military medic, evacuation driver and shooter. He was serving in the Donetsk direction (Avdiivka – Bakhmut).

Before the war, in civilian life Mr. Firsov used to be the member of Parliament of the 7th and 8th convocations.

Head of the State Environmental Inspectorate in 2019-2020.

Since 2020, Head of the NGO Office of the Environment, which deals with environmental issues.

Author of articles on military topics in the New York Times, Washington post, Politico.

Iryna coordinates the Local Economic Development Program under which Western NIS Enterprise Fund supports local projects with economic and social impact. In particular, the e-public procurement system ProZorro, 1991 Open Data Incubator, CANactions School of Urban Studies, reconstruction of schools in the post-war territory, the projects “Hub Schools”, and New School Menu. In Moldova, the program supported the development of the MTender e-procurement system.

Iryna is a founder of the International Mayors Summit, a knowledge exchange platform for local government leaders, a place where projects and partnerships are born. WNISEF organizes International Mayors Summit since 2016. Also, for five consecutive years, WNISEF supports Technovation Girls, a women’s leadership program through IT entrepreneurship, and Iryna became a Regional Ambassador of the project in Ukraine.

Previously, Iryna was a Director General at ADETEF, a public agency of French international technical assistance under the Ministry of Finance of France that ensures intergovernmental cooperation between the two countries at the national and regional levels in the field of public finance, audit, public service reform, energy efficiency and transport. Prior to that, she had experience working in bilateral cooperation projects between Ukraine and the EU.

She is a member of the Board of the Professional Government Association (PGA), which brought together graduates of foreign universities to support the reforms. In 2014, Iryna conducted a study on the role of graduates of foreign universities as change agents in Ukraine, the results of which were provided to the team of reformers at the Presidential Administration.

In 2021, Iryna published the first book for children “The City Is Me” and presented it at the International Book Arsenal Festival.

Master of Advanced European Studies at College of Europe (Warsaw), Iryna taught European integration policy at the National Academy of Public Administration, where she did her thesis. Iryna periodically publishes columns in Ukrainska Pravda and NV.

Andriy Sadovyy is the mayor of Lviv, Ukraine, elected to his fourth term in 2020. Previously, he was chairman of the TV and radio firm Lux. Prior to this, Sadovyy founded the NGO Samopomich (Self-Reliance), which in 2012 became a political party in Ukraine. Earlier in his career, he was a Lviv City Council member from 1998 to 2002, during which time he led its economic policy commission. A member of the Ukrainian-Polish Unification Council, Sadovyy is the past board chair of the Institute of City Development and the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytskyy Cultural Foundation of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church supervisory council.

Member of Parliament of Ukraine, Deputy Chairman of the Committee on National Security, Defence and Intelligence of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Chairman of the Permanent Delegation of Ukraine at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly

As a member of Parliament, Mr. Cherniev focuses largely on issues related to strengthening the state’s defense capabilities, increasing military support for Ukraine, achievement of the criteria necessary for NATO membership, maintaining and strengthening ties with parliaments of NATO member countries, as well as parliamentary control over the implementation of NATO standarts in Ukraine.

Mr. Cherniev an expert on Digital and Innovation economy. He has more than 10 years of experience in Ukrainian IT and telecom sector on managing positions.

Mr. Cherniev is a former participant of Russian-Ukrainian war, participant of hostilities, volunteer soldier.

Michael Capponi is known as one of the instrumental key pioneers in shaping the image, popularity, and growth of Miami Beach. Over the past 30 years, Michael has been a leading force in the hospitality and entertainment industries and one of the most accomplished residential real estate developers in South Florida. Michael has since fully retired from the private sector and focuses 100% of his time and efforts to Global Empowerment Mission (GEM). He now brings the skills of his prior endeavors to his philanthropic work with GEM. Michael has built an international organization that is disrupting the disaster sector through innovative, efficient, and modernized systems. GEM has the ability to immediately respond to all phases of disasters around the world. By harnessing the power of social media, influencers, strategic public-private partnerships and a strong, knowledgeable base of experienced volunteers, Michael has created a replicable formula to have an efficient and effective response to global disasters. GEM has responded to disasters in 46 countries, distributed over $250 million in supplies, coordinated over 336 disaster mission trips and built or repaired more than 148 homes, 15 schools, and has supported children in Haiti with their education for the last decade.

Since the first days of the war in Ukraine, Michael with GEM team was on the ground providing help to Ukrainians fleeing the war, establishing viable logistical operations, extracting people in war-torn areas, relocating Ukrainians to the safe places and delivering critical aid supplies throughout Ukraine. In addition to serving more than 134 Ukrainian cities on a regular basis, GEM’s focus is on rebuilding civilian infrastructure (apartment buildings, homes, schools and medical clinics) to give a chance to hundreds of people to return home, and thousands of students to be back to schools.

Illia Samoilenko started military service in the ATO zone as part of the Azov Regiment at the beginning of 2016 and grew from a soldier to a staff officer. He was injured in December 2017. However, despite severe wounds, Illia did not retire from service.
Since the beginning of the siege of Mariupol, which began on 24 February 2022 and lasted until 20 May 2022 (as part of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine), Illia and his comrades were at the Azovstal iron and steel works. The plant was the heart of one of the remaining pockets of resistance, was well-defended, and was described as a “fortress within a city.” During the battle of Mariupol, he was in the position of an intelligence officer and gave a two-hour briefing from the blocked Azovstal plant for foreign media representatives.

Masi was born in Afghanistan during the war, in 1984. Since 1990 together with his family he has been living in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Graduated from International Solomon University, Faculty of Law. In 2012, Mr. Nayyem founded “Miller”, a law firm. Currently, the company has 30 lawyers and lawyers who provide legal protection to public figures, businesses and activists, and the military.
In 2015, he was mobilized to the Airborne Assault Brigade. In 2022, after a full-scale Russian invasion, he joined the ranks of Military intelligence. Currently, Mr. Nayyem is an officer, and lieutenant of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Pediatric anesthesiologist, MD, Ph.D., head of Kharkiv Regional Perinatal Center, and associate professor of Kharkiv National Medical University.

Ms. Kondratova graduated from Kharkiv National Medical University, Ukraine. For 20 years, she has been working as a pediatrician and pediatric anesthesiologist. She is an expert in neonatal intensive care, respiratory therapy, perinatology, and pediatric palliative care. Dr. Kondratova took an active role in the creation of the 3-level regionalized perinatal system in Ukraine. She is also a respiratory therapy trainer with the “Creating family-oriented services for children with special needs” project with support from UNICEF.

Since 2014 her perinatal team has provided medical and psychological care to more than 3000 pregnant women from the Lugansk and Donetsk regions of Ukraine, where Russians began their military aggression.
Since February 24, 2022, under continuous shelling and air raids, the Perinatal Center has been continuing to take deliveries, providing telemedical consultations and premature newborn follow-up sessions to the Ukrainians on the occupied territories, and helping wounded children and pregnant women.

In March 2022, doctor Kondratova, as the head of the perinatal center, received access to the Instagram page of the well-known football player David Beckham. Mr. Backham provided an access to his page so that Iryna could share with the whole world information about the problems faced by doctors and patients during the bombing of Kharkiv.

Ukrainian military servicemember, paramedic, volunteer, designer, psychologist and president of the Aikido Federation. She is also a member of Ukraine’s Invictus Games and Warrior Games national teams, competing with which she won 2 gold and 1 bronze medal in Orlando.

During the Revolution of Dignity, she was a Euromaidan medic. Serves as a Volunteer paramedic since 2014.
Since 2015, she has been the commander of the volunteer unit “Angels of Taira”, which has taken out about 700 soldiers from the line of fire. The number of civilians to whom the unit provided assistance is more than 3,000.
From 2018 to 2020, she served under contract in the Armed Forces and headed Mariupol’s evacuation department of the 61st mobile hospital.
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia in 2022, Taira has been in Mariupol, where she assisted as a paramedic in the 555th military hospital. On March 16, 2022, she was captured during the evacuation of civilians from the occupied territory but was fortunately released from captivity on June 17, 2022.

Since then, Taira has made every effort to help prisoners and their families, defend human rights, protect the interests of prisoners of war, and achieve a tribunal for war criminals.

Recently, Taira founded the Ukrainian foundation “Mriya”, the purpose of which is to help the families of prisoners to survive the terrible times of waiting and an unknown future. The foundation provides legal, psychological and material assistance to the families of Ukrainian prisoners. To support the prisoners of war families and give them some courage and strength to wait for their dearest defenders, Taira and the team try to make their dreams come true.

Ulyana holds a Management position in the Creative Industries Development Office, promoting creative industries and working on investment opportunities (fashion, arts&crafts, design, and entertainment industries).

Previously, Ulyana held Management positions in UkraineInvest, advising the Government of Ukraine on foreign direct investments. Worked with major transnational corporations in Ukraine and new strategic investors.

Ms. Khromyak Organised local and international events. Coordinated high-profile state events with multiple stakeholders, e.g., Ukraine House Toronto, Ukraine House Davos, and coordinated meetings and discussions between high-level officials and the international business community.
Ulyana has twelve years of legal experience working for local and international law firms. Advised GE, Mondelez International, Hearst Corporation, and others.

Yulia Klymenko (born October 5, 1976, Kyiv) is a Member of the Parliament of Ukraine, Voice Faction, First Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Transport and Infrastructure, Deputy Minister of Economic Development of Ukraine 2015-2016. Member of the Permanent Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization. Member of the groups for inter-parliamentary relations with Germany, Great Britain and India.

Anastasia Radina is Head of the Committee on Anti-Corruption Policy in the Verkhovna Rada, the parliament of Ukraine.

Born July 5, 1972 in Kyiv.

Higher education. In 1994 graduated from the Ukrainian State Pedagogical University named after M.P. Dragomanov and received an honors degree in defectology.

Bachelor and Master in International Relations, referent-translator from English at the Institute of International Relations, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, from which she graduated in 1998.

In 1993 she studied international relations at the State University of Montana (USA) and in 1992 – the course “History of Ukraine. Ukrainian Literature” in summer school at Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University (USA).

She started her career in 1993 as project manager at the Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research in Kyiv, where she later headed the Department of International Relations.

From 1998 to 2002 she worked at the Kyiv Center of the Institute “East-West” as project manager and during one year worked as director of the Center.

During 5 years (from 2002 to 2007) worked as correspondent of Ukrainian Service BBC Radio in the USA (Washington) and in the Caucasus (Tbilisi).

Since October 2007 worked as deputy director of programs, and later – as director of the international charity organization “Open Ukraine Foundation”. Was responsible for strategic planning and operational implementation of the Foundation’s programs aimed at supporting Ukraine international cooperation, public diplomacy, promoting a positive image of the country, international dialogue on security issues.

From mid-2011 led Yalta European Strategy – an international independent network aiming to promote the development of fair, democratic and prosperous Ukraine and support the reforms required for European integration of Ukraine.

From November 2014 was elected people’s deputy of Ukraine, worked as First Deputy of Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Foreign Affairs, headed the Permanent Delegation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

Co-author of the book “Black Sea Region: Cooperation and security.”

Fluent in Ukrainian, Russian and English. Understands and speaks Polish, Hungarian and Georgian.

Married. Has two daughters.

On April 14, 2016, was appointed Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration.

In the July 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election Klympush-Tsintsadze was placed tenth on the party list of European Solidarity. She was elected to parliament.

Nick Bilogorskiy is a member of the founding team at Cyphort, a next-gen anti-malware startup. Since 2012, he has been an angel investor and has invested into 2-3 seed stage companies each year in the social and security niches. He is also the founder and Co-Chairman of Nova Ukraine, the largest Ukrainian charity in California, which helps the country by fighting corruption, delivering humanitarian aid, and increasing awareness about Ukrainian culture in the U.S.

Malcolm Nance is an internationally recognized expert on counterterrorism, intelligence and international security.  Mr Nance is a multi war combat veteran with 35 years service the United States intelligence community. He is also a four times New York Times best-selling author, and news media commentator most recently for MSNBC. He left the world of Defence policy analysis to become a soldier in the International Legion for the Territorial Defence of Ukraine, a battalion in the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Victor Pinchuk is a Ukrainian businessman and philanthropist. He is the founder of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and EastOne Ltd. An international investment advisory company, EastOne has a portfolio comprising more than 20 businesses and large-scale projects, including INTERPIPE, as well as assets in oil and gas, ferroalloys, media and other industries in Ukraine and abroad.

For over 20 years, Mr. Pinchuk has developed philanthropic projects in Ukraine and around the world. In 2006, he consolidated these activities within the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, which thereby became the largest private Ukrainian philanthropic foundation. Its mission is “Empowering future generations to become the change makers of tomorrow.” It focuses on education, Ukraine’s international integration, healthcare and access to the inspiration of contemporary art.

The projects of the foundation include the following: the largest private scholarship program in Ukraine, Zavtra.UA; an international scholarship program for Ukrainian students, WorldWideStudies; public lectures with international leaders for Ukrainian students; the founding of the Kyiv School of Economics; a network of modern neonatal centers throughout Ukraine, Cradles of Hope; the Davos Ukrainian Lunch organized annually at the occasion of the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos; and the largest and most dynamic contemporary art centre in Central and Eastern Europe, the PinchukArtCentre. The PinchukArtCentre provides free admission and has welcomed over 2.7 million visitors as of today. It also awards the biannual global prize Future Generation Art Prize for artists up to the age of 35 and the biannual PinchukArtCentre Prize for young Ukrainian artists.

Mr. Pinchuk has long promoted closer ties between Ukraine and the EU. In 2004, he founded Yalta European Strategy (YES), an independent organization that promotes Ukraine’s European and global integration.

On February 19, 2013 Mr. Pinchuk joined the Giving Pledge, a philanthropic initiative founded in 2010 by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, and thereby committed to giving half or more of his fortune away during his lifetime and afterward to philanthropic causes.

Since Russia’s assault on Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Victor and Olena Pinchuk help Ukraine defend against Russian aggression.

Humanitarian aid for civilians, medical equipment, armoured ambulances, protective gear, medical kits for soldiers and supplies for ambulances in war zones among others are supplied in substantial quantities.

Resources for these activities come also from the Ukraine Relief Fund, a joint $ 6 million charitable initiative launched with Schmidt Futures, to which Eric and Wendy Schmidt, Robert F. Smith and Vista Equity Partners, the Minderoo Foundation, founded by Andrew and Nicola Forrest, Bill Ford and the General Atlantic Foundation contributed among others.

Mr. Pinchuk advocates through personal conversations, events and articles for stronger and quicker support from Europe and the West for Ukraine’s defence of freedom.

Liev Schreiber is best known for Showtimes’ Ray Donovan, for which he earned five Golden Globe nominations and three Emmy nominations. His film credits include the Scream trilogy, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The Manchurian Candidate, Spotlight, Isle of Dogs, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, The French Dispatch, and the narrator for Don’t Look Up. His stage credits include Glengarry Glen Ross,
for which he won a Tony Award, A View from the Bridge, (Drama Desk Award), Talk Radio, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Cymbeline, (Obie Award), Hamlet, Henry V, and Macbeth.

Upcoming projects include Across the River and Into the Trees, Asteroid City, and Ray Donovan: The Movie. Liev is a co founder of Bluecheck Ukraine an NGO whose mission is to identify, vet, and fast track financial support to Relief groups on the ground in Ukraine. To donate please go to usukraine.org/bluecheck.

Keith W. Dayton (born March 7, 1949) is a retired lieutenant general in the United States Army who currently serves as the director of the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Dayton served as the U.S. Security Coordinator for Israel-Palestinian Authority in Tel Aviv, Israel from December 2005 to October 2010. He has also served as the Director of the Iraq Survey Group, as a senior member of the Joint Staff, and as U.S. Defense Attaché in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Russia.

After graduating from the College of William & Mary in 1970, Dayton was immediately commissioned as an artillery officer through the Reserve Officer Training Corps. He received Russian language training at the Defense Language Institute and trained as a foreign area officer (FAO) with an emphasis on the former Soviet Union. Prior to his current assignment, he spent 37 years in a variety of command and staff assignments, most recently serving as the director of the Iraq Survey Group during Operation Iraqi Freedom and as Director of Strategy, Plans and Policy, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-3, United States Army, before his assignment as U.S. Security Coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Other key assignments include deputy director for Politico-Military Affairs, Joint Staff; United States Defense Attaché, Moscow, Russia; senior Army fellow on the Council on Foreign Relations, New York; commander, Division Artillery, 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized), Germany; and commander, 4th Battalion, 29th Field Artillery; 8th Infantry Division (Mechanized), Germany.

He has written many technical articles over the course of his career, as well as was one of the co-authors of The Future of NATO: Facing an Unreliable Enemy in an Uncertain Environment, a study on the future of NATO published in 1991.

Lt. Gen. Dayton served five years as the United States Security Coordinator (USSC) for Israel and the Palestinian Authority. His leadership of the USSC team included overseeing the training of Palestinian Authority forces. Lt. General Dayton was widely lauded for his “rebuilding” of the Palestinian National Security Service, with thousands of members training in neighboring Jordan. He left Israel in October 2010 and retired from the military in December 2010. In 2018, Defense Secretary James Mattis appointed Dayton to serve as the senior U.S. defense advisor to Ukraine.

In December 2019, Politico reported that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump was considering Dayton to be the nominee for U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine. On May 1, 2020, President Trump announced his intent to nominate Dayton to the position. On May 14, 2020, his nomination was sent to the United States Senate. On January 3, 2021, his nomination was returned to the President under Rule XXXI, Paragraph 6 of the United States Senate.

Prof. Dr. Alexander Rodnyansky is a Ukrainian presidential adviser (since 2020), a member of the supervisory board of the State Savings Bank of Ukraine (since 2021), and an associate professor of economics at the University of Cambridge (since 2017, currently on sabbatical leave), a research affiliate of the CEPR, and a member of the CFM. Alexander is also the former chief economic adviser to the Prime Minister of Ukraine (2019-2020). Alexander received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 2017. Alexander’s primary research fields are empirical macroeconomics and finance. Alexander is President Zelensky’s envoy on recovery and reconstruction, and he is designated to lead the future recovery and modernization agency.

Iurie Țurcanu is a Moldovan politician. He was born in Corlăteni, in the Rîșcani District. Țurcanu currently is the Deputy Prime Minister for Digitalization of Moldova. This post was created on 6 August 2021 and is responsible for coordinating the activities of three Moldovan institutions: the E-Governance Agency, the Public Services Agency and the Information Technology and Cyber Security Service. In September 2021, Țurcanu represented Moldova at the international conference Connecting Municipalities in Digital Era: Best practices from the EU and talked about the problems and objectives of Moldova in the digital realm. Later, in December 2021, Țurcanu said that, during the tenure of the Gavrilița Cabinet, it is possible that Moldovans could start to engage on electronic voting, although he did not give guarantees for members of the Moldovan diaspora.

Curriculum vitae
Date of birth 13 December 1988

Education background
2016 Institute of International Relations and Political Science of Vilnius University; Master of Political Sciences (Eastern Europe and Russia)
2012 Institute of International Relations and Political Science of Vilnius University; Bachelor of Political Science
2007 Graduated from Vilnius Vytautas Magnus Gymnasium

Work experience
From 28/12/2020 Vice-Minister of the Economy and Innovation of the Republic of Lithuania
04/2017 – 12/2020 lobbyist, own business
11/2015 – 04/2017 individual activities, Policy and Public Relations Consultant
10/2014 – 11/2015 Vilnius City Municipality Administration; Chief Official of the Economics and Investment
2013 – 10/2014 Individual activities
06/2012-06 – 12/2012 Lithuanian Free Market Institute; Project Manager

Miscellaneous
2011 – 2014 ‘Students For Liberty’; Member of the Board and founder of the organisation in Europe
Foreign languages English, Russian
Hobbies Painting, futurology
Co-author of the book ‘Lithuania 2120’

Yevgenia Belorusets is a Ukrainian artist, writer, and photographer born in Kyiv in 1980. In her works, she calls attention to the most vulnerable sections of Ukrainian society. Yevgenia is a co-founder of the journal Prostory, a member of the interdisciplinary curatorial collective Hudrada, an author of the photo series Victories of the Defeated and books Lucky Breaks (recipient of the International Literature Award — Haus der Kulturen der Welt in 2020) and Series of Lectures on the Modern Life of Animals.

Her works meet at the intersection of visual art, literature, journalism, and activism making a solid connection between document and artistic language. The most recent work is The War Diary was presented alongside the wartime work of Ukrainian artists Nikita Kadan and Lesia Khomenko on the occasion of their exhibition at the 59th Venice Biennale.

She lives and works in Kyiv and Berlin.

First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine – Minister of Economy of Ukraine. Since 2015, she has held senior positions in Chernihiv Regional State Administration incl. as Head of Regional State Administration.

Graduated with honors from Kyiv National University of Trade and Economics and received a master’s degree in Antitrust Field Management.

Yuriy Belousov have been working for 15 years in law enforcement and human rights sphere. Former police officer, UN peacekeeper, human rights defender. Last 3 years Mr Belousov works for the PGO as a Head of Department, investigating human rights violations in law enforcement and penitentiary institutions. Since February 2022 actively involved in war crimes investigation.

Timothy Snyder is the Richard C. Levin Professor of History at Yale University and a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. He speaks five and reads ten European languages.

His eight chief books are Nationalism, Marxism, and Modern Central Europe: A Biography of Kazimierz Kelles-Krauz (1998); The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999 (2003); Sketches from a Secret War: A Polish Artist’s Mission to Liberate Soviet Ukraine (2005); The Red Prince: The Secret Lives of a Habsburg Archduke (2008); Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin (2010), Thinking the Twentieth Century (with Tony Judt, 2012); Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning (2015); On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (2017); and The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America (2018).  He has also co-edited three further books: The Wall Around the West: State Borders and Immigration Controls in Europe and North America (2001); Stalin and Europe: Terror, War, Domination (2013); and The Balkans as Europe (2018). His essays are collected in Ukrainian History, Russian Politics, European Futures (2014), and The Politics of Life and Death (2015).

Snyder’s work has appeared in forty languages and has received a number of prizes, including the Emerson Prize in the Humanities, the Literature Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Václav Havel Foundation prize, the Foundation for Polish Science prize in the social sciences, the Leipzig Award for European Understanding, the Dutch Auschwitz Committee award, and the Hannah Arendt Prize in Political Thought.  Snyder was a Marshall Scholar at Oxford, has received the Carnegie and Guggenheim fellowships, and holds state orders from Estonia, Lithuania, and Poland.  He has appeared in documentaries, on network television, and in major films.  His books have inspired poster campaigns and exhibitions, films, sculpture, a punk rock song, a rap song, a play, and an opera.  His words are quoted in political demonstrations around the world, most recently in Hong Kong.  He is researching a family history of nationalism and finishing a philosophical book about freedom.

Andrej N. Lushnycky is a Senior Associate of the Interfaculty Institute of Central and Eastern Europe (IICEE) at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. He has authored numerous articles on contemporary Ukrainian history, as well as culture and diaspora studies and is co-editor of two volumes of the prestigious series Interdisciplinary Studies on Central and Eastern Europe, Vol. 1 Ukraine at a Crossroads (Nicolas Hayoz, Andrej N. Lushnycky) and Vol. 4 Ukraine on Its Meandering Path Between East and West (Andrej N. Lushnycky, Mykola Riabchuk) and contributing author in Vol. 14 Ukraine after Euromaidan. He has contributed to the Atlantic Council Ukraine Alert, the Kyiv Post, Novoe Vremya (nv.ua), as well as Swiss and international newspapers and journals.

In addition to advising numerous government officials and civil societies in Switzerland and abroad, he is the founder and moderator of the Ukraine Forum at the Parliament of Switzerland and the Secretary of the Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Group Swiss-Ukraine.

Finally, he has served as the president of the Ukrainian Society of Switzerland for the past 24 years, Honorary Consul of Ukraine in Switzerland since 2014 and is a member of the Foreign Advisory Board of the Ukrainian World Congress.

Andy Hunder is President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, representing more than 600 US and international investors and corporate members. A native Londoner, Andy was a TV presenter on a leading Ukrainian television channel. He headed the Public Relations department at Ukrainian Mobile Communications (now Vodafone Ukraine) and subsequently was External Affairs and Communications Director at GlaxoSmithKline with responsibility for Ukraine, Central Asia and the Caucasus.

Hunder was the director of the Ukrainian Institute in London, regularly delivering analysis and comment on Ukrainian current affairs on BBC, CNN, SKY, Bloomberg TV, ITV, Al Jazeera, and others. He has spoken on Ukrainian affairs at the UK Houses of Parliament, House of Lords, Oxford University, London School of Economics, and University College London.

From 2016 till 2020, Andy Hunder served as Treasurer of AmChams in Europe, the umbrella organization for American Chambers of Commerce in 43 countries throughout Europe, accounting for more than $ 1.1 trillion in investment on both sides of the Atlantic.
Andy is a member of Ukraine’s Business Ombudsman Council, National Reforms Council, and National Investment Council, and a member of the Supervisory Board of the Investment Promotion Office UkraineInvest.

Rostyslav Shurma is responsible for economics, finance, energy, industry and recovery in President Zelenskiy administration.

Before joining Presidents team Rostyslav Shurma spent more than 15 years at executive positions in the corporate business.

His career started at multinationals Procter & Gamble, Boston Consulting Group and then developed into industrial businesses specifically in mining, steel and energy. Rostyslav Shurma was at executive and board positions at Metinvest, Zaporizhstal, Trametal, Promet and others

Jonathan Swan currently serves as a national political reporter for Axios.

Swan is regarded as one of the best-sourced reporters covering both parties in Washington and one of the most groundbreaking interviewers on American television. He has broken some of the biggest stories of the recent era, including a series of deeply-reported stories on President Trump’s final days in office that have been cited repeatedly in Congress and served as a first draft of history. His podcast accompanying that series, “How it Happened,” hit number one on the Apple charts.

As the star of Axios’ HBO show, Swan has interviewed global leaders including President Donald Trump — an astonishing interview seen and shared by more than 100 million people for which Swan received an Emmy Award, as well as the 2022 Aldo Beckman Award for Overall Excellence in White House Coverage — Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Director General of the World Trade Organization Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Iraq’s President Barham Salih, and Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan. He has interviewed the most powerful Democrats and Republicans in the United States — ranging from Senator Bernie Sanders to Senator Mitch McConnell.

In 2010 Anton Drobovych graduated from the National Pedagogical Dragomanov University with a Master’s degree in Philosophy. Four years later he defended his Ph.D. thesis and worked at the departments of Cultural Studies and Philosophical Anthropology till 2019. In 2018 finished his second education and received a Master’s degree in Law.

Completed certificate programs “Rethinking the Culture of Tolerance. Groups, Conflicts, and Reconciliation” at Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca (Italy) and “Good Governance” at Ukrainian Catholic University (Ukraine).

In 2013-2016, he was Assistant General Director and then Head of Department of Strategy and Development for Museum Planning at Mystetskyi Arsenal. In 2016, he worked as an advisor to the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine. From 2017 to 2019 was an expert at the think-thank Institute of Social and Economic Research. In 2019, he directed the educational programs at Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center.

Since December 2019, he has held the position of a Head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance. From 2021 Member of the Board of Trustees, EVZ Foundation (Germany).

He is an alumnus of the leadership seminars “Values and Society” (Aspen Institute Kyiv). Author of more than 50 scientific publications, as well as five educational courses and programs in philosophy, cultural studies, and history of culture. He has published a number of expert materials on social development, education, and culture for the leading Ukrainian media.

Deputy State Secretary on Digital Transformation Affairs. Government CIO. Digital Transformation sector unit responsible for national and government digital transformation policy & strategy development and steering. Current focal areas of the team are public service digital transformation, government ICT governance & government as a platform implementation and building ecosystem to fuel data economy.

More than fifteen years of professional work experience in Digital government in different positions, initiator of several EU recognized and awarded nationwide initiativess, such as digital awareness program for citizens and digital government benchmark.

Professional moto: “As for the future, your task is not to foresee it, but to enable it.” /Antoine de Saint-Exupéry/

Luukas Ilves is Government Chief Information Officer of Government of Estonia from January 2022. Before joining the Ministry of Economics and Communications of Estonia, Luukas was a Head of Strategy at Guardtime, where he lead Guardtime’s work with governments, international organisations and NGOs. He focused on solving tricky challenges and areas of strategic importance, such as digital sovereignty and cloud adoption, trustworthy AI, and the response to COVID-19. He has chaired the Council of Europe’s expert committee on the human rights and ethical dimensions of Artificial Intelligence and is a member of the advisory councils of Stanford University’s Libraries and the Lisbon Council, a Brussels-based thinktank.

He is founder of the Tech Green Pledge, a network of tech companies committed to combatting climate change. Luukas has served in various positions for the Government of Estonia and the European Commission, including leading digital policy during Estonia’s 2017 Presidency of the EU Council, as a member of staff for European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes and as Head of International Affairs for RIA, Estonia’s e-government and cybersecurity agency. Luukas is a graduate of Stanford University, a reserve officer and a member of the Estonian Defence League’s Cyber Defence Unit. He has been decorated by the President of Estonia with the Order of the White Star, one of the youngest recipients in the history of the award.

Jörg Frieden’s career at the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, from 1986 to 2018, covered a broad range of posts and responsibilities. He worked as coordinator in Mozambique, advisor for the World Bank in Washington, and as Head of the Eastern and Southern Africa Section in Bern. Between 1999 and 2003, his professional career took a sidestep to the Federal Office for Refugees where he held the position of Deputy Director. In 2003, he returned to the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) where he took up the position of Resident Director of Development Programmes in Nepal. From 2008 to 2010, he was Deputy Director of the SDC and headed the Global Cooperation Department.

He was also an advisor to and representative of Federal Councillor Micheline Calmy-Rey in the UN Commission on Sustainable Development. From 2011 to 2016, Jörg Frieden was Executive Director of Switzerland at the World Bank Group, specifically at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and then Swiss Ambassador to Nepal until 2018. Jörg Frieden is also a board member of Helvetas, an NGO working in the field of development cooperation based in Zurich, and member of the development commission of the Canton of Fribourg. He has also recently been appointed to serve in an expert panel to assess the internal evaluation function of the World Bank.

Dr. Eugene Finkel is the Kenneth H. Keller Associate Professor of International Affairs at the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. Dr. Finkel was born in L’viv and grew up in Israel. His research focuses on how institutions and individuals respond to extreme situations: violence, state collapse, and rapid change. He has published widely on genocide, mass violence, Ukrainian and Russian politics and societies. He is the author of Ordinary Jews: Choice and Survival during the Holocaust (Princeton University Press, 2017) and co-author of Reform and Rebellion in Weak States (Cambridge University Press, 2020). His next co-authored book, Bread and Autocracy in Russia is forthcoming with Oxford University Press and focuses on how Putin uses food as a political and economic weapon. On April 5, 2022 Dr. Finkel published in The Washington Post an opinion article titled “What’s happening in Ukraine is genocide. Period” and his writing and commentary on Russia’s violence against civilians in Ukraine has appeared in The Independent, Newsweek, Financial Times, Der Spiegel, Die Zeit, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Asahi Shimbun, and numerous other media outlets.

Ambassador Paula J. Dobriansky is a Senior Fellow at Harvard University’s JFK Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Vice Chair of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.  She brings over 30 years of government and international experience across senior levels of diplomacy, business, and defense.

From 2001-2009, she was Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs and established and led the U.S.-India, U.S.-China, and U.S.-Brazil Global Issues Fora.  She also served as the President’s Envoy to Northern Ireland (2007-2009) and received the Secretary of State’s highest honor the Distinguished Service Medal for her contribution to the historic devolution of power in Belfast.  Other appointments include:  NSC Director of European and Soviet Affairs, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, Defense Policy Board, the Secretary of State’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board, Eximbank’s Advisory Council and Chair of Eximbank’s Council on China Competition.

Ambassador Dobriansky was also Senior Vice President and Global Head of Government and Regulatory Affairs at Thomson Reuters and held the Distinguished National Security Chair at the U.S. Naval Academy.

From 1997-2001, she was Senior Vice President and Director of the CFR Washington Office and the first George F. Kennan Senior Fellow for Russian and Eurasian Studies.  Ambassador Dobriansky received a B.S.F.S. <em>summa cum laude</em> from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Soviet political/military affairs from Harvard University.  She has received high-level international recognition from Poland, Lithuania, Romania, Hungary, and Ukraine’s Order of Merit.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy was elected President of Ukraine on April 21, 2019

On 20 May, 2019 sworn in as the 6^th President of Ukraine

January 25, 1978 – Born in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine

2000 – Graduated from Kyiv National Economic University, with a law degree

1997-2003 –  Actor, performer, script writer, producer of the stand-up comedy contest team «KVARTAL 95»

2003-2011 – Executive producer, “KVARTAL 95”, LLC

2011-2012 – Chief Executive, PJSC “Inter TV Station”

2013-2019 – Executive producer,  “KVARTAL 95”, LLC

Founded “The League of laughter” NGO. Produced 10 feature length movies, won more than 30 awards of the National Television Award of Ukraine “Teletriumph”. President Zelenskyy is a prize-winner of numerous international film festivals and media forums.

From the outset of the hostilities in Donbas Volodymyr Zelenskyy and “KVARTAL 95” rendered support to the Armed Forces with funds, equipment and arranged shows on the front line and in different military units.

Married to Mrs Olena Zelenska, with 2 children – daughter Oleksandra and son Kyrylo.

Mykhailo Fedorov became Vice Prime Minister, the Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, on August 29, 2019. He is the youngest minister in the history of Ukrainian politics. Graduated from the Faculty of Sociology and Management of Zaporizhzhia University. 

Before working in the government, he ran a business in the digital marketing sphere. In December 2019 he was appointed as Head of the Digital for Volodymyr Zelenskyy Presidential campaign.

Mykhailo Fedorov is an innovator and visioner. With the Ministry of digital transformation’s team, the main goal is to make Ukraine the most convenient state in terms of receiving public services. In 2020, Diia project has been launched; which now consists of a wide ecosystem of products: Diia mobile app; Diia web portal; Diia. Digital Education, Diia. Business, Diia. City etc.

Education
Academy of Performing Arts, Bratislava, Slovak Republic

Further Education

Higher Education Certificate, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Centre Européen de Recherches Internationales et Stratégiques, Brussels, Belgium, M.A.
Université de Paris 1, Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris, France, DEA

Professional Experience

2020 – Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Investment, Regional Development and Informatization of the Slovak republic

2016 – 2020 National Council of the Slovak Republic (member, Deputy Chairwoman of the Committee for Education, Science, Youth and Sport)

2014 – 2018 Councellor, Local Council – Bratislava Staré Mesto, Slovak Republic

2013 – 2014 Lecturing Comenius University Bratislava, Slovak Republic, Catholic University, Ružomberok, Slovak Republic

2004 – 2013 European Commission

Language skills:

English, French, Spanish

Vittorio Colao, 60, is the Italian Minister of technological innovation and digital transition.

In 2020, he coordinated the Committee of experts in economic and social matters nominated by the Italian President of the Council of Ministers during the COVID-19 crisis.

He started his career in 1986, in McKinsey. In 1996 he joined Omnitel (today Vodafone Italy) as general manager and he was appointed CEO in 1999. In 2011 he was nominated local CEO of the company for Southern Europe and in 2003 his responsibility was extended to Middle East and Africa.

In 2004, Vittorio Colao left Vodafone and became CEO of the publishing company RCS MediaGroup for a two year-long experience, after which he rejoined Vodafone as CEO Europe. In 2008 he was nominated CEO of the Vodafone Group and stayed in office until 2018.

In recent years, Vittorio Colao has been advisor of General Atlantic, Non-Executive Member of the Board of Directors of Unilever, and Member of the Board of Directors of Verizon and Bocconi University. Colao is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Oxford Martin School and the Cometa ONLUS, an organization focused on welcoming and training minors in Como.

Vittorio Colao is also Cavaliere al Merito del Lavoro (2014) and was also nominated United Nations He4She Champion (2015), FT Women Champion (2017), and Stonewall Senior Champion (2018). He received a degree from Bocconi University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Francesca has an International Law and Human Rights background and 10+ years’ experience in working in international organizations (United Nations and World Economic Forum) on action oriented research, capacity building and technical assistance in international justice, crime and security. She has developed her expertise on cybercrime, cybersecurity and misuse of technology, recently focusing on opportunities, risks and threats created by new technologies. At the Institute, she is leading the development of knowledge and initiatives on disruptive technologies and how to increase resilience through capacity building.

Mark Boris Andrijanič graduated with honours from the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana, and he holds a Master of Public Policy (MPP) degree from the University of Oxford. As of April 2021, he has chaired the Strategic Council for Digitalisation of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia. From 2016 to 2021, he worked for the American technology company Uber, most recently as Head of Public Policy for Central and Eastern Europe.

Prior to joining Uber, Mr Andrijanič was a Visiting Fellow at the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies in Brussels, where his research focused on the EU’s digital and economic policies. Before coming to Brussels, he advised the Government of Sierra Leone on economic reforms. In Slovenia, he co-founded and led a number of NGOs aimed at promoting active citizenship and entrepreneurship, including Mreža idej (Network of Ideas). He still leads the Oxbridge Club Slovenia, which brings together Slovenians who have studied at Oxford or Cambridge. Since 2017, he has been a David Rockefeller Fellow at the Trilateral Commission and a Millennium Fellow at the Atlantic Council. In 2021, he became a member of the Rotary Club Ljubljana. He has been a speaker at numerous international conferences on new technology both in Europe and the United States.

Petr Očko studied information management and European integration at the University of Economics in Prague and also completed his Ph.D. studies in information economics at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague. As an expert in the field of European economic integration, he has been working at the Ministry of Finance since 2001 in the field of EU structural funds, since 2004 he has worked as an advisor to the Deputy Minister of Finance for the financial market and in 2006 he was entrusted by the government with the function of national coordinator of the introduction of the euro. Since August 2007, he has worked in the private sector as a coordinator of EU projects at Telefónica O2.

He returned to the state administration in 2009 as Chief Director for the EU Budget and Funds at the Ministry of Transport, and from August 2010 he worked as Section Director for EU Funds, Research and Development at the Ministry of Industry and Trade. In 2012-2013, as the authorized CEO, he was also in charge of the stabilization and development of the CzechInvest agency for business and investment support. Since 2015, he has led the Department of Financial Instruments and Project Management at the Ministry of Industry and Trade and has been preparing in particular the National Innovation Fund project and the transformation of the Czech-Moravian Guarantee and Development Bank. In March 2016, he was appointed chairman of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic by the government. Since 1 July 2018, he has been Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, managing the Digitization and Innovation Section.

Party

Swedish Social Democratic Party

Areas of responsibility

Digital development in society

Energy

Personal

Khashayar Farmanbar was born in 1976. He lives in Nacka. He is married and has two children

Educational background

2000–2003 – Degree in Industrial Marketing, Luleå University of Technology (Degree completed in 2015)

1995–2000 – Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, Luleå University of Technology (Degree completed in 2015)

Positions and assignments

2021– present – Minister for Energy and Digital Development

2013–2021 – Shadow Municipal Commissioner, Nacka Municipality Member, digital transformation preparation committee

2014–2021 – Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions

2018–2021 – Member, County Council Assembly, Stockholm County

2011–2013 – Second Deputy Chair, Nacka Energi

2002–2013 – Managing Director, Agency9 AB

2001–2003 – Member of Federal Board, Swedish Social Democratic Youth League

1995–2000 – District Chair, Norrbotten Swedish Social Democratic Youth League

From 2018 to 2020 – Deputy Minister of Health responsible for informatization of the health sector, including supervision over the Centre of Health Information Systems. During this period, projects such as the Patient’s Internet Account, e-prescription and e-referral were successfully implemented.

Since April 2021 – Vice-Chairman of the Council for Digital Affairs. With their knowledge and experience, members of the Council support, among other things, the Council of Ministers Committee for Digital Affairs. The Council for Digital Affairs provides opinions on strategic documentation and other documents related to digitisation, communications and the development of the information society.

From November 2020 to 7 June 2021 – the first Deputy Mayor of the city of Chełm. He was responsible, for example, for raising funds for investments and supervised the preparation of a plan for the transformation of the city’s heating plant in connection with the necessity to meet EU climate targets.
He worked as an advisor of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki at the Ministry of Development and the Ministry of Finance and headed the Department of Small and Medium Enterprises at the Ministry of Development in 2016-2017.

He ran a company providing business and legal advice to entrepreneurs in the SME sector.

From 2009 to 2014, he worked for one of the largest companies in the telecommunications area.

The Secretary of State for Digital Affairs in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister performs tasks assigned by the Minister competent with regard to informatisation. He also coordinates, in terms of content, the implementation of tasks within the governmental administration responsible for informatisation.

The Government Plenipotentiary for Cyber Security coordinates activities and the implementation of the Government’s policy with respect to ensuring cyber security in the Republic of Poland.  

Bozhidar Bozhanov is an IT expert and entrepreneur and a promoter of an information security company. He has significant experience in e-government development; as an expert he has been involved in drafting a number of amendments to laws and strategy papers. He is member of the Da, Bulgaria Executive Council.

Bozhidar Bozhanov is a graduate of Goldsmiths, University of London. He was a member of the group of IT experts Obshtestvo.bg working to develop better digital tools for communication between the Government and citizens. He takes an active part in e-government promotion.

Bozhidar Bozhanov was born in Bourgas, Bulgaria and grew up in Dimitrovgrad. He has lived in Sofia and Amsterdam.

Member of Parliament (47^th National Assembly), elected on the ticket of Democratic Bulgaria in the 26^th Multi-seat Constituency, Sofia Region.

Minister of e-Government in the cabinet elected by the 47^th National Assembly on 13 December 2021.

Born in 1975 in Lviv.

Has higher education. In 1997 he graduated from Lviv Polytechnic National University with a degree in production management (mechanic engineering), engineer-economist. Ph.D. in Economics (2003).

From 1995 to 2009 Denys Shmyhal served in leadership positions at enterprises in Lviv.

From 2009 to 2013 he worked in Lviv Regional State Administration.

In 2014 Denys Shmyhal was appointed deputy Head of the Main Department of the Ministry of Revenue and Duties in Lviv region.

2015-2017 – Advisor‚Vice President‚ CEO, Member of the Supervisory Board of Lvivholod Ltd.

2017-2019 – deputy Director General for social issues of PJSC DTEK Zakhidenergo, Director of DTEK Burshtyn TPP, acting deputy Director General for social issues, PJSC DTEK Zakhidenergo; Burshtyn, Ivano-Frankivsk region.

From August 2019 to February 2020 – head of Ivano-Frankivsk Regional State Administration.

On 4 February 2020, Denys Shmyhal was appointed Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, Minister of Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine.

Dmytro Kuleba was born in 1981 in Sumy, Ukraine.

In 2003, Dmytro Kuleba graduated with honour from Institute of International Relations, Taras Shevchenko University (Kyiv,Ukraine), where he studied international law. In 2006 Mr.Kuleba obtained Ph.D. in Law.

From 2003 to 2010 he worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and at the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the OSCE.

He also worked at the office of Ukraine’s Foreign Minister from 2010 to 2013 in charge of the issues related to the image of Ukraine abroad, international organizations, relations with the United States.

During January-June 2013, Mr.Kuleba served as advisor to Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian Affairs.

After quitting civil service in 2013, Dmytro Kuleba chaired the Board of the UART Foundation for Cultural Diplomacy.

In 2014 Dmytro Kuleba returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Ambassador-at-Large to launch strategic communications. He introduced the concepts of digital diplomacy, strategic communications, cultural diplomacy and public diplomacy into the Ministry’s work.

In 2016 Mr. Kuleba was appointed as Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the Council of Europe.

From August 2019 to March 2020 – Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine.

Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine since March 04, 2020.

Dmytro Kuleba is author of a book “The War for Reality. How to Win in the World of Fakes, Truths and Communities”.

He is married and has two children.

Odile Renaud-Basso became the seventh President of EBRD on November 2^nd 2020 following her election by the EBRD’s Board of Governors during their 29^th Annual Meeting in October.

She replaced Sir Suma Chakrabarti, who stepped down in July after serving two full four-year terms, and is the first ever female head of a multilateral development bank.

In her previous role as Director General at the French Treasury, Ms Renaud-Basso oversaw the development of France’s economic policies, leading on European and international financial affairs, trade policies, financial regulation and debt management.

In this position, she also served as Vice-President of the European Economic and Financial Committee, deputy to the G7 and G20 groups and French Governor or Alternate Governor of the World Bank, EBRD and African Development Bank . She was also Chair of the Paris Club.

Prior to that, she was Deputy Director-General of the Caisse des Dépôts, a large French public financial institution.

Ms Renaud-Basso is a graduate of the Paris Institut d’Etudes Politiques (Sciences Po), and an Ecole Nationale d’Administration alumnus. She also attended Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Makhtar Diop is IFC’s Managing Director. He assumed this position on March 1st, 2021. Prior to this appointment, he was the World Bank’s Vice President for Infrastructure, where he led the Bank’s global efforts to build sustainable infrastructure in developing and emerging economies. In this role, he oversaw the Bank’s critical work in energy, transport, digital infrastructure, and public-private partnerships.

Prior to this, Mr. Diop served for six years as the World Bank’s Vice President for Africa, where he oversaw the delivery of a record-breaking USD$70 billion to Sub-Saharan Africa to help tackle development challenges such as increasing access to energy; boosting women’s and youth’s economic empowerment; and promoting an enabling environment for more innovation and technology adoption. A passionate advocate for Africa’s right to clean and affordable electricity, he also called for greater investment in renewable energy and pushed for stronger regional interconnectivity in the power and transport sectors. He previously served as World Bank Director for Finance, Private Sector & Infrastructure in the Latin America and the Caribbean Region; Country Director for Brazil, where he helped finance major infrastructure work; and Country Director for Kenya, Eritrea, and Somalia.

Mr. Diop brings to the post a deep level of experience and understanding of development challenges and a firm grasp of the public/private sector interface. His main priorities will be to mobilize investments in the poorest and most fragile countries and create the conditions for a resilient, inclusive, and sustainable recovery. In addition to his international organization experience, Mr. Diop, an economist by training who started his career in the banking industry before joining the IMF and later the World Bank, has extensive private sector experience. He has also held government positions, most notably as Minister of Economy and Finance of Senegal, where he played a key role in instituting structural reforms that helped build a strong foundation for Senegal’s growth in the late 1980s.

A recognized opinion leader in the economic and social development field, Makhtar Diop has been named one of the 100 most influential Africans in the world. In 2015, he received the prestigious Regents’ Lectureship Award from the University of California, Berkeley.

Mr. Diop holds degrees in economics from the Universities of Warwick and Nottingham in England.

Natalie A. Jaresko is a recognized International Finance Executive with successful transformational experience in the private sector, public service, and non-governmental organizations. She is a force for positive change as a result of her ardent desire to achieve sustainable growth and to improve the quality of people’s lives. She thinks strategically and is deeply experienced at driving efficient operations. She has been the leader others seek for challenging negotiations, value creation, collaboration and alignment, fundraising and increasing investment. Natalie has over 30 years of successful leadership experience, navigating through numerous crisis periods, applying passion, analysis and data driven solutions.

Natalie recently served five years (2017-2022) as the Executive Director of the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico. She led the sustainable negotiated exit from the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, while working to restore the Island’s fiscal health, enabling a return to capital markets. Notwithstanding a critically difficult period of environmental and political instability during a pandemic, she resourcefully focused limited budgetary resources on improving critical essential services such as education, public safety, and health, while strengthening sustainable budgetary practices, financial reporting, and transparency.

Natalie served as Minister of Finance of Ukraine (2014-16) at one of the most difficult times in Ukraine’s history, rocked by a deep recession, Russian occupation and war on part of its territory. She led the successful negotiation and implementation of the largest IMF program in the institution’s history, including reduction of budget deficits, introduction of budgetary transparency, improved corporate governance at state owned banks, reduction of monopolistic practices in the economy, as well as a complex sovereign and sovereign guaranteed debt restructuring. As a result of her leadership, Ukraine enjoyed its first signs of economic recovery, including stabilization of the domestic currency, growth in banking system deposits, sharply reduced inflation, and growth in industrial production.

She spent two decades in the private equity industry focused on small and medium-sized business in the region, as co-founder and CEO of Horizon Capital, a fund manager with over $600 million under management, and as President and CEO of the Western NIS Enterprise Fund. Natalie led the fundraising campaigns, served on the investment committee, and worked hand in hand with portfolio companies to successfully grow their businesses in a way that would support their shareholders, as well as local communities – an early social impact investment experience.

Natalie has extensive board experience as a Board member in many private portfolio companies, ranging from banks to insurance and from consumer goods to agriculture.

She began her career in Federal government serving in the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C. from 1989-92, as Chief of the Economic Section of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine from 1992. Natalie was responsible for building a new economic relationship between the United States and newly independent Ukraine. Her passion for development finance stemmed from these experiences in post-communist economies evolving out of the former Soviet Union.

Ms. Jaresko has done extensive public speaking and media appearances, including CNN and CSPAN. She has guest lectured at Stanford Business School, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Ukrainian Catholic University, Notre Dame, Cambridge University, University of Michigan. Two Presidents of Ukraine have awarded her for her service to Ukraine. She is a Certified Public Accountant. She also serves as Chairperson of Aspen Institute Kyiv, a not-for-profit Board.

Ambassador John E. Herbst is senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and served for thirty-one years as a foreign service officer in the US Department of State, retiring at the rank of career minister. He was US ambassador to Ukraine from 2003 to 2006, when he worked to enhance US-Ukrainian relations, help ensure the conduct of a fair Ukrainian presidential election, and prevent violence during the Orange Revolution. Prior to that, he was ambassador to Uzbekistan (2000-03), where he played a critical role in the establishment of an American base to help conduct Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. He also promoted improved US-Uzbek relations, in part by encouraging the government in Tashkent to improve its human rights record.

In his last four years at the State Department, he served as the coordinator for reconstruction and stabilization, leading the US government’s civilian capacity in societies in transition from conflict or civil strife, and to provide support to countries at risk of instability. He oversaw the establishment of the Civilian Response Corps of the United States, the US civilian rapid response force for reconstruction and stabilization operations overseas.

Ambassador Herbst previously served as US consul general in Jerusalem; principal deputy to the Ambassador-at-Large for the Newly Independent States; the director of the office of independent states and commonwealth affairs; director of regional affairs in the Near East Bureau; and at the embassies in Tel Aviv, Moscow, and Saudi Arabia.

He most recently served as director of the center for complex operations at National Defense University. He has received the Presidential Distinguished Service Award, the Secretary of State’s Career Achievement Award, and the State Department’s Distinguished Honor Award. Ambassador Herbst has written book chapters, articles, and op-eds on stability operations in Central Asia, Ukraine, and Russia. His writings have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, the National Interest, and Foreign Policy. He has been a frequent guest discussing the Ukraine crisis on television and radio.

Ambassador Herbst earned a bachelor of science in foreign service from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, Phi Beta Kappa, and a master of law and diplomacy, with distinction, from the Fletcher School at Tufts University. He also attended the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies Bologna Center.

Paul Grod is President of the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC). He served as its Vice President for 10 years prior to his election in November 2018. During that time Paul Grod was responsible for many key initiatives and chaired a number of committees and projects including several international election observation missions to Ukraine and UWC’s Council in Support of Ukraine, among others.

Professionally, Paul Grod is a lawyer and business leader. He is President & CEO of Rodan Energy Solutions, a leading North American energy management company. Prior to founding Rodan Energy Solutions, Paul was a corporate and investment banker with CIBC World Markets and a lawyer with Gowling WLG, a leading global law firm where he practiced corporate finance and M&A law. Paul Grod is past-President of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, which coordinates and represents the interests of one of Canada’s largest ethnocultural communities (1.4 million).

Paul Grod is a recipient of many awards and recognitions, including:
– Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in recognition for his significant contributions and achievements in service to Canada;
– Ukraine’s 25th Anniversary Jubilee Medal – awarded personally by the President of Ukraine for his significant personal contribution to strengthening the international authority of Ukraine, promoting its history, heritage and contemporary achievements;
– Shevchenko Medal of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress for outstanding contribution to the development of the Ukrainian Canadian community;
– Top 100 (#21) people influencing Canada’s global future by Embassy Magazine & Hill Times’ Power and Influence magazine;
– One of 13 Canadians (only non-government official) sanctioned by Russian President Vladimir Putin and barred from entering Russia.
Paul Grod is a member of the Law Society of Ontario and holds Bachelor of Political Science, Bachelor of Laws, and Master of Business Administration degrees. Paul is married and has four children.

Catarina Buchatskiy is a student at Stanford University studying International Relations with a focus on International Security. She grew up in Kyiv, though her father’s family is from Odesa.

At Stanford, she was a research assistant at the Hoover Institution and a mentee at the Hoover National Security Affairs Mentorship program. In January of 2021, she co-founded the Shadows Project, Ukrainian-led and Ukrainian-focused NGO focused on preserving and popularizing Ukrainian culture amongst the next generation of Ukrainians.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Catarina has been working at the Shadows Project alongside Ukrainian museums to provide them with protective equipment to preserve Ukrainian art and artifacts from destruction. She works in the intersection of culture and national security and believes that a strong cultural protection policy is key to a comprehensive national defense policy.

Oksana Kis is a feminist historian and anthropologist, a head of the Department of Social Anthropology and a Leading Research Fellow at the Institute of Ethnology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (in Lviv). She obtained her academic degree “kandydat nauk” (Ph.D. equivalent) from Ivan Krypiakevych Institute of Ukrainian Studies, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in 2002; in April 2018 she completed her habilitation (“doctor nauk” degree). Since 2010 she serves as a President of the Ukrainian Association for Research in Women’s History. She is also a co-founder and a vice-president of the Ukrainian Oral History Association. In 2014-2020 Oksana Kis was an Editor-in-Chief of the academic website Ukraina Moderna, and she is a member of the editorial team of Aspasia: The International Yearbook of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern European Women’s and Gender History. In 2018 she was elected to the Scientific Council of the National Research Foundation of Ukraine.

Oksana Kis authored two books Zhinka v tradytsiinii ukrainskii kilturi druhoi polovyny 19 – pochatku 20 stolittia (Lviv, 2008; 2n ed. in 2012) and Ukrainky v GULAGu: vyzhyty znachyt peremohty (Lviv, 2017; 2nd revised ed. 2020), the latter was recently included into the list of the 30 most significant books of the Ukrainian Independence by the Ukrainian Book Institute. Its English version Survival as Victory: Ukrainian Women in the Gulag (Harvard Series in Ukrainian Studies) was awarded the Translated Book Prize from Peterson Literary Fund in December 2021. She also edited and co-edited several volumes including the award-winning book Ukrainski zhinky u hornyli modernizatsii (Kharkiv, 2017).

Dr. Kis is a recipient of several academic awards. The areas of her expertise include Ukrainian women’s history, feminist anthropology, oral history, and gender transformations in post-socialist countries. Her current research focuses on everyday lives of the Ukrainian refugees in the displaced persons camps in post-WWII Europe.

Dr. Evelyn N. Farkas, Executive Director of the McCain Institute, has three decades of experience working on national security and foreign policy in the U.S. executive, legislative branch, private sector and for international organizations overseas. In 2019-2020 she ran to represent New York’s 17th Congressional District in the House of Representatives. She was President, Farkas Global Strategies from 2016-2022, as well as a Senior Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States and the Atlantic Council and National Security Contributor for NBC/MSNBC.

She served from 2012 to 2015 as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia/Ukraine/Eurasia, Balkans, Caucasus, and conventional arms control. From 2010 to 2012 she was Senior Advisor to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe and Special Advisor to the Secretary of Defense for the NATO Summit. Prior to that, she was Executive Director of the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism and senior fellow at the American Security Project.From 2001 to 2008, she served as a Professional Staff Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee responsible for Asia Pacific, Western Hemisphere, Special Operations Command, and policy issues including combatting terrorism, and export control.

Farkas was a professor of international relations at the U.S. Marine Corps Command and Staff College and served in Bosnia with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). She obtained her MA and Ph.D. from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and speaks several languages. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Board of Directors for the Project 2049 Institute, Supporters of Civil Society in Russia, Leadership Council-Women in National Security, and the Board of Trustees of her alma mater, Franklin & Marshall College.

Wayne Jordash QC, President of Global Rights Compliance Foundation. Described by the Legal 500 UK 2017 as “one of the world’s leading international criminal lawyers”. He has acted as legal counsel before the European Court of Human Rights, the Human Rights Council, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia; the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the International Criminal Court (ICC). He has conducted a range of on-the ground criminal investigations and fact-finding missions in fragile and conflict-affected states on behalf of a range of states, international and national CSOs (e.g., ICJ, Human Rights Watch, Coalition for Peace in Donbas, etc.,). Wayne also has significant expertise in gender issues, having led UN efforts to develop best practices for SGBV prosecutions, contributing to The Hague Principles on Sexual Violence, and representing victims of sexual violence in Bangladesh/Myanmar (Rohingya) before the ICC.

Wayne has advised a range of Governments on international law issues, including the Government of Bangladesh, the Serbian Government (before the International Court of Justice), the Government of Libya (before the ICC), Armenia, the Netherlands, and the Maldives. He has supported the Ukrainian’s Prosecutor General’s Office since 2015 and currently acts as an advisor to the Office on a range of international criminal issues relevant to the investigation of war crimes committed by the Russian military.

Matthew Kaminski is POLITICO’s Editor-in-Chief, overseeing all editorial operations of the publication.

Starting as a freelancer from Eastern Europe before his senior year in college, Matt has reported on international affairs, politics and business on and off for the past quarter century. He covered the former Soviet Union for the Financial Times and Economist in 1994-97, and in 1997 joined the Wall Street Journal in Brussels as a correspondent. He subsequently held various writing and editing roles with the Journal in Paris and New York. In 2004, Matt was awarded the Peter Weitz Prize by the German Marshall Fund for a series of stories on the European Union. His coverage of the Ukrainian crisis won an Overseas Press Club prize in 2015. He was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in commentary that year.

He joined POLITICO in late 2014 to become the founding editor of the European edition, which launched in April 2015. He moved to Washington in the fall of 2018 to help lead the publication’s global expansion efforts, and took on his current role in April 2019.
Born in Poland, Matt immigrated to the United States as a child and grew up in Washington. He holds degrees from Yale College and the University of Paris and lives in Washington with his wife, Alexandra Geneste, and their two children.

Olga Rudnieva works as Executive Director of Elena Pinchuk Foundation (www.antiaids.org/en) since 2003 and coordinates HelpsUkraine Center as volunteer since march, 2022 (www.helpukraine.center).

Previous experience includes work for the Ministry of Health of Ukraine; local NGO; publishing house “Women’s Health”.

Olga’s expertise lies in fundraising, SCR, project management, event management and social campaigns in media.

Olga is a social media influencer and columnist in ELLE Ukraine, Novoe Vremya magazine and often covers HIV/AIDS, gender equality and charity topics for high profile Ukrainian media.

Starting in 2018, four years in a row, Olga is listed amongst TOP 100 successful women of Ukraine according to Novoe Vremya magazine.

Olga’s professional network includes local and international NGOs, large corporations, charitable foundations, local and international celebrities.

She resided in the USA, Switzerland, Russia. Currently based in Ukraine.

Graduated from National Economy University in 2001 with excellence (Master of International Business Administration).
Since 2014 alumni of Aspen Institute Ukraine.

In 2008 finished LBS course “Foundation endowment asset management”.

In 1996 was an exchange student in the USA (MBA course).

Björn Geldhof, Artistic Director of the PinchukArtCentre (Kyiv). Geldhof has curated numerous projects internationally, including: Ukrainian National Pavilion at the 56th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia (2015), Future Generation Art Prize exhibitions in Venice (2011, 2013, 2017, 2019) and This is Ukraine: Defending Freedom, an official collateral event of the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia (2022). He has curated many solo-exhibitions and thematic exhibitions, such as China China, Fear and Hope, Loss: in Memory of Babyn Yar, Suns and Neons above Kazakhstan, Democracy Anew, Fragile State, and The Forbidden Image and has worked with among others: Damián Ortega, Olafur Eliasson, Anish Kapoor, Ai Weiwei, Jenny Holzer, Berlinde De Bruyckere, Tony Oursler, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Shilpa Gupta, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Marina Abramovic, Santiago Sierra, and Carlos Motta.

Between 2015 and 2018, Geldhof combined his position at the PinchukArtCentre with the role of artistic director of YARAT contemporary art in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Before coming to Kyiv, Geldhof worked directly with the Belgian artist Jan Fabre and as an independent curator and manager of the art and culture magazine Janus.

Geldhof studied at Katholieke Universiteit of Leuven, Belgium.

Ievgen Klopotenko is a Ukrainian chef, restaurateur and social activist.

Ievgen is on a mission to revive centuries-old Ukrainian recipes, modernize them and show Ukrainian rich heritage through food. He favors local ingredients in the true farm-to-table approach.

After Russian invasion, his Kyiv restaurant 100 Rokiv Tomu Vpered restaurant become a frontline canteen to feed anyone who needs. In March 2022 during the war Ievgen has opened another restaurant Inshi in Lviv, where he and his team are cooking for Ukrainians displaced by the war, including those who are fleeing from the horrific violence in Mariupol.

In 2020, Ievgen launched the initiative to get borscht recognized as Ukraine’s intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO.

In Ukraine Ievgen is also well known for his project CultFood aiming to change meals in school canteens and the school nutrition system in general. In 2018, Ievgen started implementing new recipes for Ukrainian schools. One hundred ten new dishes were officially adopted and piloted in 5000 schools across Ukraine. In 2020 the school meal issue was lifted to the national level. Upon Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska call, a working group was set up to entirely re-set the school meal system in the country. From 1 September 2021, schools were officially presented with a completely new menu of 160 dishes for four weeks.

In 2021 Ievgen has been recognized as one of the most promising leaders in the world of gastronomy and entered 50 Next, a global list of 50 people under 35 who are shaping the future of gastronomy.

Anna Bondarenko is founder and chief executive officer of Ukrainian Volunteer Service. She is an author of the national telephone befriending initiative My Phone Friend and the youth empowerment program Agents of Volunteering. Bondarenko teaches volunteer management at the state educational program Youth Worker and at the Ukrainian Catholic University in the only master’s program in non-profit management in Ukraine.
Ukrainian Volunteer Service (UVS) is a non-profit organization, whose mission is the development of the culture of volunteering in Ukraine. UVS trains promising civic activists to build public-private partnerships and promote sustainable activism. Since its establishment in 2017, over seven hundred organizations have joined its community, and more than 5,000 activists have graduated from its training programs. With the start of the full-scale war, UVS has mobilized thousands of volunteers throughout the country to coordinate humanitarian assistance for people impacted by the Russian invasion and support other volunteer organizations depending on their needs. The team uses its wide network and innovative tech solutions to match humanitarian, medical, IT, and other types of resources to communities in need.

Joseph E. Stiglitz is an American economist and a professor at Columbia University. He is also the co-chair of the High-Level Expert Group on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress at the OECD, and the Chief Economist of the Roosevelt Institute. A recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2001) and the John Bates Clark Medal (1979), he is a former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank and a former chairman of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers. In 2000, Stiglitz founded the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, a think tank on international development based at Columbia University. In 2011 Stiglitz was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Known for his pioneering work on asymmetric information, Stiglitz’s research focuses on income distribution, climate change, corporate governance, public policy, macroeconomics and globalization. He is the author of numerous books including, most recently, People, Power, and Profits, Rewriting the Rules of the European Economy, and Globalization and Its Discontents Revisited.

Ms. Lange works as an international finance and development consultant after holding positions at USAID, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the OECD and the US Treasury Department.

As Senior Financial Sector Advisor for USAID in the Office of Economic Growth, Bureau for Europe and Eurasia from 1994-2007, she designed, implemented and managed over $300 million of economic growth and financial sector technical assistance projects for 15 countries in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union. These projects promoted private sector led economic growth through banking sector reform/privatization, capital markets development, financial sector supervision, SME access to finance, economic governance and public financial management.

Post Dayton Agreement, she led the USAID team that designed the successful multi-year $278 million Bosnia Reconstruction Finance Facility and related comprehensive technical assistance. The facility helped to jump start economic growth and job creation for demobilizing soldiers, returning refugees and the general population by providing liquidity to the economy channelled through the banks to the commercial and industrial sectors. In Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia, Ms. Lange led teams that designed the initial USAID financial, enterprise and fiscal reform programs in collaboration with donors and international financial institutions.

Ms. Lange has a B.A. from Brown University and a Masters from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She also serves on non-profit Boards including the International Executive Service Corps.

Yuriy Gorodnichenko, a native of Ukraine, is Quantedge Presidential professor at the Department of Economics, University of California – Berkeley. He received his B.A. and MA at EERC/Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (Kyiv, Ukraine) and his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan. A significant part of his research has been about monetary policy (effects, optimal design, inflation targeting), fiscal policy (countercyclical policy, government spending multipliers), taxation (tax evasion, inequality), economic growth (long-run determinants, globalization, innovation, financial frictions), and business cycles. Yuriy serves on many editorial boards, including Journal of Monetary Economics and VoxUkraine (http://voxukraine.org/). Yuriy is a prolific researcher. His work was published in leading economics journals and was cited in policy discussions and media. Yuriy has received numerous awards for his research. RePEc ranks Gorodnichenko as the top young economist in the world.

Torbjörn Becker has been the Director of the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE) at the Stockholm School of Economics in Sweden since 2006 and is a board member of several economics research institutes in Eastern Europe, including the Kyiv School of Economics. Prior to this, he worked for nine years at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), where his work focused on international macro, economic crises and issues related to the international financial system. He holds a Ph.D. from the Stockholm School of Economics and has been published in top academic journals and has contributed to several books and policy reports focusing on Russia and Eastern Europe.

Katya Soldak is a New-York-based journalist and the editorial director of Forbes Media’s international editions. Katya is the director of the documentary The Long Breakup about Ukraine struggle to escape Russia’s embrace.
Her strongest focuses are Eastern Europe and anything related to Post-Soviet territory.

Member of Parliament of Ukraine,
Deputy Chairman of the Digital Transformation Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine,
Chairman of the Permanent Delegation of Ukraine at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly,
Deputy Chairman of the Advisory Board to the President of Ukraine on the Provision of Rights and Freedoms of Defenders of Ukraine

Mr. Cherniev an expert on Digital and Innovation economy. He is co-author of several government strategies such as Digital Agenda for Ukraine, the Strategy of Innovation Development of Ukraine, Export Strategy of ICT of Ukraine etc. In 2019 he, together with other market experts, developed the Strategy of Digital Economy Development of Ukraine 2030, part of which became the president’s digitalization program.
He has more than 10 years of experience in Ukrainian IT and telecom sector on managing positions.
As a member of Parliament, Mr. Cherniev is the author of such laws: «Law on Stimulating the Development of the Digital Economy in Ukraine» (Diia City), «Draft Law on Personal Data Protection» etc.
Mr. Cherniev is a former participant of Russian-Ukrainian war, participant of hostilities, volunteer soldier.

Oleh Sentsov is a Ukrainian filmmaker, writer and activist from Crimea. He is a director and writer, known for Rhino (2021), Gamer (2011) and Numbers (2020).
Following the Russian annexation of Crimea he was arrested in Crimea in May 2014 and illegally sentenced by Russia under fake charges in 2015 to 20 years imprisonment.
In 2018 he declared an indefinite hunger strike until all Ukrainian political prisoners were released in Russia. Oleh Sentsov was forced to end his hunger strike after 145 days. He is the author of five books. Oleh was awarded the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought (2018), the Sergei Magnitsky Human Rights Award (2018), PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award (2017).

Maryna Babchynitser is the Correspondent officer of the press center of the Operational Battalion named after the Hero of Ukraine General Mayor Serhiy Kulchytsky of the National Guard of Ukraine.
She was born on May, 12, 1981 in Cherkasy, Ukraine in the family of the military officer and the kindergarten teacher.
During her childhood traveled a lot due to her father’s military service.
After graduating from the Cherkasy State Technological University traveled to Norway as AuPair and stayed there for two years.
After returning to Ukraine started work as legal secretary in the International Law Firm “Dentons” (previous name “Salans”).
During the events on Maidan Maryna was an active participant and volunteer of the Revolution of Dignity.
But after annexation of Crimea and russian invasion in 2014 she started to help First Reserve Battalion of the National guard of Ukraine. During two next years she helped with ammunition, uniform, radiostations, cars and other important and required things. Though, in 2016 she signed her first contract with NGU and became officially the part of the Battalion (the Operational Battalion named after the Hero of Ukraine General Mayor Serhiy Kulchytsky of the National Guard of Ukraine – official name from the December 2016).
During next years of war Maryna repeatedly went to the Joint Forces Operation area, where she performed combat missions as a part of the Battalion.
Among different tasks and duties one of main was to help civilians, to communicate with school students and preparing national-patriotic and fatherland’ defense lessons.
Since the full-scale invasion started on February 24, 2022, Maryna concentrated her work on coordinating requests from colleagues and providing volunteer assistance plus coverage of everyday life and work processes of the unit on the official FB Page of the Battalion.

Following a career in the private, and non-profit sectors, Cynthia Hansen joined the Adecco Group in August 2017 to head the new Adecco Group Foundation. Cynthia’s areas of expertise include corporate governance, social responsibility, partnerships and impact. Prior to joining the Adecco Group, she spent nine years at the World Economic Forum, in leadership roles across Civil Society, Strategic Partnerships, Professional Services industry and Content Strategy. Previous roles include Director of Management Consultancy at boutique consulting firm Action Planning, Director of the US State Department’s International Visitor program for the State of Washington under the World Affairs Council, and Head of Admissions for Amity Institute, an international teacher exchange program. Cynthia has served on the boards of a number of non-profit organizations, including the Center for Women and Democracy, EU Consult, and The Internationalist magazine. In addition, she was an official delegate of a Washington State women’s mission to Cuba (2003) and an election monitor in Jordan (2003) under the auspices of the National Democratic Institute. Cynthia holds an MSc in Management of NGOs from the London School of Economics, and a double BA (Hons) in Asian Studies and English/Literature from the University of Puget Sound.

In December 2019, Olga Magaletska was appointed Head of the Office of the National Investment Council of Ukraine. The National Investment Council of Ukraine is an institution that promotes investment in Ukraine and provides advisory solutions for investors. The institution is focused on promoting Ukraine to attract foreign investments, enabling high-level dialogue with government stakeholders and launching legislative measures to significantly improve the investment environment. From 2018-2019, Ms. Magaletska worked for Ukrnafta as Head of Government Relations, to develop cooperation with high-level stakeholders and key politicians and improve regulations for the oil and gas sector. During 2015-2017, she worked as an advisor at the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade and the Project Office of the National Reform Council as Investment Promotion Project Manager, responsible for investment strategy creation for Ukraine and for establishing a new Investment Promotion institution, setting the foundation for the Office of the National Investment Council of Ukraine. M. Magaletska is also co-author of the Limited Liability Companies law. From 2009-2016, she worked as an Associate Vice President for Citibank and Raiffeisen Bank, supervising various functions. Olga is highly interested in technology and innovations, since 2013, investing in several early stage start-ups and co-founding two startups in the education and IT education sphere. She is an EMBA candidate April 2021 at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She has an MBA from Kyiv Mohyla Business School (kmbs) and is a graduate of the State Flight Academy of Ukraine, the National Aviation University, earning a masters degree and bachelors with a major in Aviation Engineering and a minor in Air Traffic Control – Management. Her personal interests are running marathons and painting.

Volodymyr Osadchuk is the CEO of COFCO Agri Resources Ukraine, part of Chinese global grain corporation COFCO INTL, one of the world’s largest producers, processors, and traders of agricultural products. With total investments in Ukraine of $145 million and 590 employees, COFCO Agri Ukraine has 8 business lines in the country, including operating an oil extraction plant in Mariupol and a grain terminal in the Mykolaiv seaport; grains, oilseeds, vegetable oil and meal exports, and inland storage facilities. In 2019 COFCO exported over 6 mln mt of product out of Ukraine.

Gideon Lichfield has been the editor in chief of MIT Technology Review since December 2017. He spent 16 years at the Economist, first as a science and technology writer and then in postings to Mexico City, Moscow, Jerusalem, and New York City. In 2012 he left to become one of the founding editors of Quartz, a news outlet dedicated to covering the future of the global economy that is now widely recognized as one of the most innovative companies in digital media. Gideon has taught journalism at New York University and been a fellow at Data & Society, a research institute devoted to studying the social impacts of new technology. He grew up in the UK and studied physics and the philosophy of science.

Called the “closest thing Silicon Valley has to a conscience” by The Atlantic magazine, Harris was the former Design Ethicist at Google. He is a world expert on how technology steers us all, leaving Google to engage the issue publicly. Harris spent over a decade understanding subtle psychological forces, from his childhood as a magician, to working with the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab, to his role as CEO of Apture, which was acquired by Google. He has been featured on 60 Minutes, TED, The Atlantic, the PBS News Hour, and more. He has worked with major technology CEOs and briefed Heads of State and other political leaders. He is the co-host of the podcast, “Your Undivided Attention.”

Mykhailo Shelemba is the CEO of Datagroup, the leading telecom player in Ukraine with over 22,000 km of fiber optics infrastructure providing telecom services to over 100 Ukrainian cities and towns. Datagroup is the operator of choice for Ukrainian banking sector (with 93% of banks being its clients), transport and logistics, as well as retail and government sector. Datagroup is also providing connectivity services to over 600 other telecom operators in Ukraine, indirectly servicing over 3 million retail clients.

In 2016 Mykhailo Shelemba joined Datagroup as its CEO to drive a full-scale transformation of the company. He was one of the many young Ukrainian professionals who returned from abroad to build up business in Ukraine. In 2019 Mikhaylo has been recognized as one of Ukraine’s TOP-5 CEOs according to TOP-100 magazine.

Prior to joining Datagroup, Mykhailo spent 6 years at McKinsey&Company leading transformation projects in banking, metals and mining, as well as telecom sectors in Ukraine and in the Middle East.

Yaroslav Prygara is Chief Executive Officer of Sherp, a Ukrainian manufacturer of unique amphibious vehicles. Sherp is a fast-growing company, selling its products globally. In 2019, Sherp became the first Ukrainian company, official supplier of World Food Program (the biggest humanitarian mission in the world and division of United Nation) and supplier of Fortune500 companies. Sherp was featured in leading global media, including CNBC, cited by Kanye West, Jay Leno and Kevin Hart.

Prior to joining Sherp, for a decade Mr. Prygara was CEO of Mercedes-Benz Ukraine, responsible for 7 markets and also, CEO of Maserati Ukraine, Ducati Ukraine and JEEP Ukraine.  Mr. Prygara holds a MA degree in International Economics from National Technical University and an MBA from Steinbeis University Berlin.  He is a member of the Young Presidents Organization and Board member of the Kyiv Chapter of YPO.

Dr Aura Sabadus is a senior journalist at ICIS, a leading provider of news, pricing information and analytics covering the petrochemicals and energy sectors. ICIS is part of RELX, a FTSE 100 global provider of information-based analytics.

Aura has over 10 years in covering emerging energy markets, focusing on Ukraine, Romania and Turkey.

She holds a PhD in International Relations from King’s College London and is a research associate of the European Centre for Energy and Resource Security, a London-based think tank.

Aura has written extensively on the liberalisation of energy markets, has contributed academic and professional articles for the Atlantic Council, the NATO Association of Canada and has been quoted in the international mainstream media in the US and Europe.

Nico Rosberg became Formula 1 World Champion in 2016 with Mercedes AMG Petronas and announced his retirement 5 days later. Since his retirement Nico continues his work as an ambassador for many international brands and has become a Greentech entrepreneur. He has investments in a variety of companies such as Formula E, Lilium, Chargepoint & Lyft and has also now co-founded the GREENTECH Festival which launched in May 2019. He remains linked to motor sport through his commentary for SKY & RTL, his Rosberg Racing young driver’s academy and his engineering company TRE. His recently launched podcast ‘Beyond Victory’ topped the charts for download and his Youtube and other social media channels are a big passion. When he is not working he spends as much time as possible with his wife Vivian and two young daughters.

Ruslana, is a World Music Award and Eurovision Song Contest winning recording artist, holding the title of People’s Artist of Ukraine. She is also a former MP serving as deputy in the Ukrainian parliament (Verkhovna Rada) for the Our Ukraine Party. Ruslana was the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in Ukraine in 2004-2005. She is recognized as the most successful Ukrainian female solo artist internationally and was included in the top 10 most influential women of 2013 by Forbes magazine.

Shpyliasti Kobzari is a Ukrainian folk music band playing traditional Ukrainian string instruments and banduras. Shpylyasti Kobzari was founded in 2011 and quickly became famous thanks to the TV show “Ukraine’s Got Talent.” Apart from Ukraine, the band has toured over 20 countries. Combining folk songs with modern music, Shpylyasti Kobzari promotes Ukrainian culture — among local audience as well as abroad.

Yaroslav Dzhus is Ukrainian bandura player, composer, arranger, DJ, laureate of all-Ukrainian and international competitions, semi-finalist and winner of the audience’s prize of the TV show “Ukraine has Talent-2”, founder of the group “Shpyliasti kobzari”. Yaroslav Dzhus initiated the creation of “Ukraine” innovative art producing agency, with BanduraSTYLE being one of its new directions.

Svitlana Grytsenko is a Board Member of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, an international, private philanthropic foundation based in Ukraine that was established in 2006 with the aim to empower the young generation to change their country and the world.

Among others, Svitlana coordinates the Ukraine Relief Fund, a collaborative philanthropic effort supporting Ukrainians in need because of war, founded by Victor and Elena Pinchuk and the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, Eric and Wendy Schmidt and Schmidt Futures, Robert F. Smith and Vista Equity Partners, Minderoo Foundation of Andrew and Nicole Forrest and General Atlantic Foundation.

Svitlana also leads Zavtra.UA and WorldWideStudies scholarship programs, as well as public lectures by world leaders for Ukrainian students. Over the past 15 years, these two scholarship programs have graduated about 3,000 young Ukrainian leaders. Mrs. Grytsenko is also a core team member of the Yalta European Strategy (YES) Annual Conference that for over a decade remains the strongest platform for a dialogue between Ukrainian and global opinion and decision-makers.

Ms. Grytsenko is a member of the Ukraine House Organizing Committee that launched the first-ever Ukrainian House in Davos alongside the World Economic Forum in 2018, as well as in 2019, 2020 and 2022.

Jean-Christophe Laloux is the Director General for the Head of Lending Operations at European Investment Bank (EIB). He holds a Commercial Engineering degree from the Catholic University of Leuven, a Post Graduate in Management (magna cum laude) from the University of Ghent, and a Master of Business Administration (Distinction) from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University – USA. He speaks English, French, German and Dutch.

Since the start of his EIB career in 1999, he has held different professional and managerial positions in the front office, both inside and outside the European Union, as well as in EIB’s subsidiary, the European Investment Fund. He was also Advisor to the President (2002-2005) and Head of Personnel (2011-2013). Prior to joining the Bank, he worked for 6 years as a management consultant for PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the Boston Consulting Group.

Shannon is Venture Partner at GOBI PARTNERS, a Southeast Asian/ Chinese Focused Fund managing over 1.1 Billion USD across 11 funds in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia and now Thailand. We focus on multi-stage investments – IT, Tech, digital media and consumer-facing startups and SMEs.

In 2013 – 2017 – Shannon Co-Founded Orami, and was the former Chief Marketing Officer of [formerly MOXY] – the largest e-commerce destination for women in Southeast Asia, with 3 M&As under its belt, and global investors such as Eduardo Saverin [Facebook], and Gobi Partners [Alibaba Fund Manager, HK, China], and was one of the first Thai companies to roll out a regional play.

An Entrepreneur and a passionate Equality Advocate. She is a mover and a shaker, dedicated to building businesses and deeply connected in sectors of Technology, Business, Entertainment & Media, and Social Development for Equal Rights and Education in Thailand and in Asia.

Shannon is deeply involved in the Start up, Technology and Business sectors and devotes time to Mentorship, Programs and Projects. She is currently a Mentor at the MOX China Accelerator, UNDP Regional Hub’s Youth Co:Lab, Mentor for DTAC Accelerate Batch 5, 6, 7 [2017 – 2019], frequently invited Speaker and Judge at various Conferences, Venture, Start Up, Case Competitions through out the region, such as Tech in Asia, Unbound Innovfest, e27’s Echelon, WPP Stream, Siam Commercial Bank’s Digital Venture, Thammasat University Case Competitions, to name a few. In 2016, Shannon was chosen to represent Asia at the FORTUNE’s Most Powerful Women Summit, nominated in the “40 under 40” to watch by Campaign Asia and honored to be Thailand’s Founder of the Year at the Start-Up Awards.

Shannon is a Women’s and Equality Advocate and remains active in the non-profit sector, a board member at Pratthanadee Foundation, a foundation that helps disadvantaged women and girls in Thailand, and frequently speaking at the UNDP and UNESCO and other United Nations events and forums. She has helped to raise awareness and funds via celebrities and socialites with good causes, such as mentorship and scholarship programs and aiding the fishing rehabilitation projects during the Andaman Tsunami Disaster in 2005. In 2017, Shannon joined the UN Women’s HeForShe campaign to be a voice for Gender Equality.

Background:
In her former life, prior to technology, Shannon started her career in Investment Banking, at Lehman Brothers’ Global Real Estate and Structured Finance Group – Asia, Ex-Japan. She then started a 1 year Tsunami Disaster Relief Program in Phangna, Phuket, and Ranong in 2005, raising funds and managing development for a tsunami stricken village. In late, 2005 – she joined Singha to become its youngest Director in International Corporate Planning & Strategy overseeing 44 countries worldwide, with focus on the restructuring of the USA market, establishment of the Australian market, and co-developing the UK market.

Her entrepreneurial journey started with 2 companies: Iconic Media focused on media, events, festivals, integrating TV formats and media applications such as Asia’s Next Top Model, and with Altus Transactional Services, a Financial Advisory Group, with focus on acquiring, building and restructuring conglomerates throughout South East Asia. Altus’ project included the Building of a HD Digital Terrestrial Television Station, from Strategy, Business Case, Winning a Government Concession, and the actual Development, HR, Operations, Content Planning, and Execution [project size: 5 Billion THB, or 157 MM USD] for Dr. Prasert Prasartthong-osoth, www.PPTVThailand.com, Channel 36.

The start up bug bit Shannon, when she joined Rocket Internet’s Lazada in 2011, with a leading role in creating “Thailand’s Amazon” ecommerce platform, www.Lazada.co.th. She shortly left to start MOXY/ ORAMI, in 2013 and the rest is history.

Oksana Lyniv is a principal conductor of the Graz Opera and the Graz Philharmonic Orchestra in Austria.

She is a founder and art director of LvivMozArt Festival, Lviv (Ukraine) and founder, conductor and art director of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine/YsOU.
Oksana Lyniv is a Ukrainian conductor, and recognised as one of the most prominent women-conductors on the world stage. She is a winner of the prestigious TREBBIA International Awards in nomination “For Art Activity” and winner of “Ukrainian Woman of 2019 Award” in the nomination for “Culture”. She was awarded with “Star of the Year 2015” status for “Classics”, and she won prize of Munich Opera Festival in 2015.

The artist’s calendar of Oksana Lyniv is fully scheduled through to the 2023/24 seasons with productions and concerts in prominent performance halls all over the globe.

Member of the Corporate Governance, Remuneration and Nomination Committee (independent member)

International advisor to central banks and deposit insurance agencies in Europe and Central Asia, Ms. Easky has broad experience in the financial industry and specific expertise dealing with financial crises and problem banks. Working with the highest levels of government, she is a confidential liaison resolving highly sensitive regulatory issues and matters of public interest. Having served in a senior level position for the U.S. government through three financial crises (1982 to 2012) she is recognized as an expert in problem bank restructuring and resolution, focusing on financial and operational stability, protecting the interests of the government and private citizens, and moving economies forward. She has contributed to the development of international best practices in the areas of bank restructuring, bank resolution, and problem loan management. She has demonstrated success as an executive leader working within and across organizations to solve complex problems, overcome obstacles and achieve success even in the most difficult circumstances.

Ms. Easky began her career as a business and credit analyst, and in the early 1980s achieved significant success as a loan workout and restructuring expert, personally negotiating very large, complex, and politically sensitive borrowers. She rose through the ranks of the FDIC where she developed her expertise and retired as Executive Director. She has managed very large organizations and all functions involved with the resolution and liquidation of failing and failed banks. After the global financial crisis of 2008 – 2011, Ms. Easky retired from the FDIC and began work as a U.S. and international consultant assisting client banks and regulators with bank restructuring and bank resolution; she has been a featured speaker on these topics at many U.S. and international events.

Ms. Easky’s areas of technical expertise include:

• problem bank management, recovery, and resolution
• loan administration and non-performing loans restructure, recovery, and sales
• crisis management, problem solving and conflict resolution
• development of strategic and cooperative alliances with internal and external stakeholders
• strategic planning and organizational development.

Olga Afanasyeva serves as the Executive Director of UVCA. Financial Times and Google nominated as a Changemaker New Europe 100 in 2016. In 2017, Olga was appointed as Ukraine’s Ambassador of Women in Venture Capital. Olga holds a PhD in Finance at the Ukrainian banking academy of the National Bank of Ukraine. She has been studying at the University of Applied Sciences of the Deutsche Bundesbank, Academy of Capital Market Leaders at Lesław A. Paga Foundation (Poland). Olga has 8 years of experience lecturing at Ukrainian banking academy of the National Bank of Ukraine, University of Greenwich (London, UK), as well as at the Jean Monnet Program of Erasmus. She has experience in corporate governance and international cooperation. She also worked at the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Olga is the member of EU Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum Working Group “Economic Integration & Convergence with EU Policies”. She is an author of more than 50 scientific papers, researches, and 3 books in finance, investments and banking. Olga was co-organizer of Ukrainian Davos Nights (January 2017), and initiator of first-ever Ukrainian Startup Pavilion at Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas.

Born January 25, 1978 in the city of Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk region.

Citizen and resident of Ukraine. In particular, has been residing in Ukraine over the last ten years.

In 1995-2000 studied law at the Kyiv National Economic University, graduating with JD.

1997-2003 – actor, screenwriter, creative director of the stand-up comedy contest team Quarter-95.

2003-2011 – artistic director at the Studio Kvartal-95, LLC.

2011-2012 – general producer of the private JSC TV Channel Inter.

2013-2019 – artistic director at the Studio Kvartal-95, LLC.

Founder of NGO The League of Laughter Youth Center. Has held no elected posts.

Mr. Zelenskyy’s movie career includes 10 feature films, over 30 accolades of the Ukrainian National TV Awards Teletriumph and multiple prizes of the international movie-, and telefestivals and media forums.

Played the lead role in The Servant of the People TV series that won the WorldFest Remi Award (USA, 2016) and made the comedy film finalist short-list of the Seoul International Drama Awards (South Korea). The Servant of the People also won the Intermedia Globe SILVER award in the Entertainment TV Show category at the WorldMediaFestival in Hamburg (Germany).

From the very beginning of hostilities in Donbas, together with the Studio Kvartal-95 colleagues, assisted the army by sending money and equipment, and visited the frontline and military units with concerts.

An independent.

Married to Оlena Volodymyrivna Zelenska. The couple has daughter Olexandra and son Cyril.

Has no criminal convictions for disclosure.

On April 21, 2019, Mr. Zelenskyy won the regular election with 73.22% of the vote and on May 20, 2019, was sworn-in as the President of Ukraine.

Oksana Karavanska is one of the most creative fashion designers in Ukraine. Her signature style illustrates a combination of old traditional pieces with contemporary design elements. Oksana mainly creates exclusive couture garments with unique tailoring. Oksana Karavanska’s designer identity lies in Ukrainian roots echoed throughout her collections as an unpredictable amalgam of old precious embroidery with the latest fabrics and modern hand- made details.

Five years ago Oksana Karavanska launched ‘Vyshyvanka Couture III century’ as the totally exclusive one of the kind things as a way to bring vintage Ukrainian traditional costume back to life by rethinking and recreating them as contemporary fashionable timeless pieces juxtaposed with feminine details. This line grown to Ukrainian Haute Couture aimed to promote the image of Ukraine in the world. The collection presentations were held in New York, USA (National Arts Club, 2014) with UN Ambassador support, Paris and Senlis, France, 2016 for Ukrainian Catholic University fundraising events, at the Kyiv Security Forum 2017.

Misha Rogalskiy is a Co-Founder of Monobank, Ukraine’s first mobile-only bank established in 2017. Due to virtual business model, a convenient mobile app, as well as a big amount of competitive, low-priced services, just in two years the bank attracted 1.5 million customers, with 80% of them joining by word of mouth.

Misha is also the co-founder of Koto, a unique fintech project based in the UK. Koto is a credit app making it possible for customers with a thin credit profile, or the ones new to a country, to get a “stress-free” credit. The mobile application also supports debit accounts with a virtual and physical card for various expenditures, layered in a great customer experience.

The UK is the first foreign market for the team behind monobank, being keen to export their expertise in mobile banking and lending to different markets all over the world.

Before Monobank, Misha Rogalskiy was the Head of Payments and Money Transfer business at Privatbank, one of the largest banks in Eastern Europe. He led the division’s revenue growth eightfold, making it the second most profitable retail division in the bank.

Noa Gafni is a Social Innovation Fellow at the University of Cambridge and the Founder and CEO of Trust Collab. Noa began her career as an entrepreneur, founding a social network for women in 2005. She then joined the founding digital team at Hearst Magazines as Head of Social Media. During her MBA at London Business School, Noa became deeply interested in the world of international organizations and social change. After completing her MBA, Noa joined the World Economic Forum as a Global Leadership Fellow and the Head of Communications for the Global Shapers Community. Shortly after leaving the World Economic Forum, Noa launched Impact Squared, a movement-building consultancy that worked with UNICEF, International Crisis Group and a number of leading foundations before being acquired by Dalberg in December 2017. In 2018, Noa launched Trust Collab, a platform focused on rebuilding trust in society. Noa is a regular contributor to the Harvard Business Review, Huffington Post and New York Times.

David Arakhamia is a Ukrainian politician, businessman and activist.  He is a member of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Servant of the People political party, elected to the Verkhovna Rada in the Parliamentary elections held on July 21, 2019.  He was elected as his party’s faction leader on August 29, 2019 and heads the largest party in the Parliament of Ukraine.  In June 2019, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky appointed Mr. Arakhamia Secretary of the National Investment Council.  “I do not want to declare much at the start, but all preliminary consultations with large investors show that Ukraine can at least triple the current volume of investments into the country. I received the task from the President to make this process as fast as possible,” David Arakhamia commented on his appointment.

Mr. Arakhamia is a co-founder of several IT companies during the course of his career. He served as an Adviser to the Governor of Mykolaiv Oblast. In October 2014, Arakhamia became Adviser to the Minister of Defense and Chairman of the Council of Volunteers at the Ministry of Defense.

He studied Economics at the European University in Ukraine and passed the Professional Management master course at Open University in London.

Born 1986, Vladyslav Kryklii graduated with honors from the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv in 2009 with a degree in Finance (Master’s Degree in Economics); candidate of economic sciences (2015).

From 2002 to 2008 – Head of Securities Market Department at Interbank Commercial Bank. During 2008-2010 he worked in the Corporate Finance Department at the Astrum Investment Management company. During 2011-2013 he was a director of Cinema Theater LLC.

In 2014-2015 Vladyslav Kryklii was an Adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.

Since November 2015 – Head of the Main Service Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.

On July 21, 2019, Vladyslav Kryklii was elected People’s Deputy of Ukraine on the electoral roll of the Servant of the People political party.

On August 29, 2019, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the 9th convocation appointed Vladyslav Kryklii as Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine.

Rashad Kaldany is Partner, CIO and Founder of Blue like an Orange (BlaO) Sustainable Capital. (BlaO’s first fund is focused on investing in private debt products in the Latin America region. In December 2018, BlaO announced its first two investments.) Previously, Rashad was the Executive Vice President of Growth Markets for Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec (CDPQ), an institutional investor that manages public and para-public pension plans and insurance programs in Quebec Province.

As Executive VP, Rashad built and implemented the strategy to double CDPQ’s assets in growth markets to $35 billion, opened offices in Singapore, New Delhi, and Mexico City, and increased investments from $0.5 billion to $4 billion from 2013 to 2016. Rashad spent 25 years at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) where he held senior positions managing global teams, structuring cross border transactions, and leading investments across emerging markets in sectors such as infrastructure, energy, financial institutions, and healthcare.

His most recent position was Vice President and COO, where he led the IFC’s investment and advisory services and realized profits of over $1 billion in FY 13. He also served in numerous Vice Presidential capacities, which included: overseeing Global Industries, leading advisory and investments in Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Middle East/North Africa; and managing IFC’s global investments in infrastructure, telecoms, oil, gas, mining, power, transportation, agriculture, and financial services.

In his earlier career at the IFC, Rashad served as Director of the Infrastructure and the Oil, Gas, Mining, and Chemical departments. Currently, Rashad is Co-chair of the World Economic Form Global Future Council on Infrastructure. He also served as Director of the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA). Rashad is a graduate of State University of New York – College at Purchase and subsequently earned his PHD in Biochemistry from Columbia University, and MBA from Stanford University.

John M. Beck is Founder and Chairman of Aecon Group Inc. A graduate in Civil Engineering from McGill University, Mr. Beck has more than 50 years of experience in the construction industry in Canada and internationally. His background includes corporate leadership in numerous construction activities including heavy civil projects and public-private partnerships for the development of infrastructure, such as airports, toll roads and transit systems.

Mr. Beck is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Ontario Financing Authority and the Royal Conservatory of Music, and has been Co-Chair of the Infrastructure & Urban Development Industries at the World Economic Forum. He is a member of the Advisory Council for the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary and also a member of the Business Council of Canada. He was previously Chairman of the Board of the Ontario Power Authority, a government agency with responsibility for planning and procuring all of the province’s power needs for the next 20 years. Mr. Beck received the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2019 Award in the Manufacturing and Construction category for Ontario and the 2018 Par Excellence in Business Award from the French Canada Chamber of Commerce – Ontario. He also received the LiUNA Builder’s Award at the 2018 Ontario Business Achievement Awards (OBAA) and was named P3 Champion of the Year by the Canadian Council of Public Private Partnerships in 2013. In recognition of his distinguished achievements and career-long service to the engineering profession, Mr. Beck was inducted as a Fellow into the Canadian Academy of Engineering.

Vitaly Sedler is the co-founder and CEO of Intellias, a software engineering company ranked among Ukraine’s top 5 fastest growing large-scale IT firms. Intellias delivers services globally to a wide range of businesses: from startups to Fortune 500 enterprises.

Vitaly is one of the pioneers of the tech industry in Ukraine, being part of it since the mid-1990s. He is an active contributor to the local community: investing in infrastructure projects, co-organizing industry events, and supporting educational and cultural projects in his hometown of Lviv. While guided by Mr.Sedler, Intellias has become one of Ukraine’s largest IT companies, Ukraine’s top IT employer, featured in 2019 The Best of The Global Outsourcing 100 List by IAOP, and recognized by GSA UK Awards.

Alex Chubay is Chief Technology Officer at SoftServe. Alex leads technology strategy and execution, creating a sustainable competitive advantage through continuous technology-driven innovation. Alex joined SoftServe in 2001 and has over two decades of engineering and business leadership, with a solid track record of transformational experiences combining innovation, technology, and leadership into wining solutions. Alex held numerous leadership positions within SoftServe, including SVP Client Success, VP Consulting, VP Delivery, and Software Development Office Director. He has been at the forefront of business development and services delivery for strategic accounts in multiple global geographies, consistently driving business growth and delivering positive business impact to his clients. Alex holds a master’s degree with honors in applied math from Lviv Polytechnic National University.

One of the most far-seeing political economists of our time, Robert J. Shiller is known the world over for his brilliant forecasts of financial bubbles and his penetrating insights into market dynamics and how human psychology drives the economy. For his empirical analysis of asset prices, Robert was awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in Economics. He has offered audiences unerring predictions of the last two bubble collapses and road map for reversing the financial crisis.

A best selling author, Dr. Shiller has written many books on finance. His new book, Narrative Economics: How Stories Go Viral and Drive Major Economic Events, offers a new way to think of the importance of popular stories that may have an economic life of their own. Using a rich array of historical examples and data, Shiller argues that studying popular stories that affect individual and collective economic behavior — what he calls “narrative economics” — has the potential to vastly improve our ability to predict, prepare for, and lessen the damage of financial crises, recessions, depressions, and other major economic events. The stories people tell — about economic confidence or panic, housing booms, the American dream, or Bitcoin — affect economic outcomes. Narrative Economics explains how we can begin to take these stories seriously. It may be Robert Shiller’s most important book to date.

Shiller is also the author or co-author of several other finance books, including Phishing for Phools: The Economics of Manipulation and Deception (coauthor George Akerloff), the New York Times bestseller Irrational Exuberance, published in March 2000 and a revised/expanded Third Edition, NYT bestseller, (with Akerloff) Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism, The Subprime Solution, and Finance and the Good Society. He is also the author of The New Financial Order.

Robert is a famously successful innovator in the emerging field of behavioral finance. He co-created the most widely quoted home price index in the country (the S&P/Case-Shiller Index). He also helped launch an active market in house-price futures and options on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. He cofounded MacroMarkets LLC, which uses the Case-Shiller methodology to develop innovative financial instruments to facilitate investment and risk management. He contributes regularly to the Economic View column of The New York Times and to Project Syndicate.

Dr. Shiller is the Sterling Professor of Economics, Yale University, and Professor of Finance and fellow at the International Center for Finance, Yale School of Management. He has strong connections to the securities industry.

Robert Shiller is a strong presenter for audiences looking for inspiration and innovation in financial markets and financial services, and to understand the impact of financial crises on the social fabric.

Daniel Gilbert is the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. He has won numerous awards for his research and teaching, and his students have voted him one of “Harvard’s Favorite Professors” every year for more than a decade.

Dan’s popular book, Stumbling on Happiness, spent 6 months on the New York Times best seller list, has sold more than a million copies worldwide, has been translated into more than 35 languages. He hosted and co-wrote the award-winning PBS television series This Emotional Life, which was seen by more than 10 million viewers in its first airing. He also stars in television commercials for Prudential that are meant to help Americans overcome the psychological obstacles to saving for retirement. This campaign has been one of the most successful in the history of the financial services industry.

Dan is a contributor to TIME, The New York Times, and NPR’s All Things Considered, and he has been a guest on The Today Show, The Colbert Report, The Late Show, 20/20, and many other television shows. In 2014, Science magazine named Dan one of the world’s 50 most-followed scientists on Twitter. Dan’s TED talks have been viewed more than 20 million times, and his first TED talk on “The Surprising Science of Happiness” remains one of the most popular of all time.

Roy Sosa is Founding Partner of MPOWER Ventures and Chairman and CEO of MPOWER Labs. He founded the socially committed venture fund and affiliated business accelerator with his brother Bertrand in order to identify, create and invest in early-stage financial services companies focused on underserved markets. The MPOWER Ventures portfolio companies span international payments, mobile payments, retail financial services and asset-building and investment products and operate in regions across the globe, including North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. Sosa is an accomplished entrepreneur who pioneered the multi-billion-dollar prepaid debit market as the co-founder of NetSpend Corporation, a highly successful company that serves millions of unbanked Americans. As a leading voice for underserved consumers around the world, he pledged to the Clinton Global Initiative to bank five million consumers in five years through the work of the MPOWER group of companies, and he serves as Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Financial Empowerment.

Aleksandr is a serial entrepreneur. At the age of 21, he launched an online store of security equipment which eventually became one of the leading security equipment distributors in Ukraine. After this Aleksandr decided to make a bodacious move — to replace cumbersome security systems with the smart user-friendly gadgets. That is how Ajax was born in 2011. Today, Ajax Systems is one of the leading security system companies in Europe, manufacturing 250 000 units of next-gen security equipment in-house monthly and exporting it to over 93 countries worldwide.

Victoria Repa is CEO and Co-Founder of BetterMe — an ecosystem of Health&Fitness apps, #1 iOS publisher in the world (AppAnnie 2019).

Victoria was one of three Ukrainian students who won a grant for a free education at Kyiv School of Economics. Right upon graduation, she was hired by a large FMCG company where she was in charge of logistics and received a corporate award for her optimization project. 

In 2016 Victoria switched to tech to pursue the mission of making people happy and healthy. When she was only 24 Victoria co-founded BetterMe and after 3 months her company released the first app with a team of three. It reached the TOP 3 of the US AppStore within a year. For three years BetterMe has published 8 apps with over 50 million installs in more than 10 countries. 

Victoria graduated from Stanford Executive program. In 2019 she was accepted to Apple Entrepreneur Camp for women in app business where she received valuable feedback from the company’s executives and developers.

Oleksandr Bornyakov was born in Bolgrad, Odesa region, and was fond of computers since childhood. Later this passion transformed into his major line of work.

In the days of Mr Bornyakov’s fledgling career, he worked in a company developing software for a retail pharmacy chains automation, as well as in a U.S. software development company and other IT companies. He received his first degree in Marketing at Kyiv National Aviation University in 2004.

Oleksandr continued his studies at the University of New Brunswick Canada and received an MBA  in 2009. In 2019, he graduated from Columbia University of the New York City with a Master of Public Administration degree.
At the age of 26, he founded Adtelligent, video ads monetization platform, which was recognized by Deloitte Technology Fast 500 ™ rating and was among 5,000 fastest growing private companies in USA by Inc. 5000 in 2016-2017. Having 100+ active SaaS product customers, the company serves more than 20 million ads per day. Main markets are the United States, Israel and Ukraine.

Oleksandr is also a co-owner of Intersog, an international software outsourcing company. Awarded TOP-5 App Developers in Chicago by Clutch and TOP-10 by Odesa’s DOU Top Employers. 500+ successfully developed mobile apps, 12 million downloads in the App Store and Google Play. More than 170 IT specialists in the USA, Ukraine, Mexico and Bulgaria.
Apart from the aforementioned Oleksandr is a Co-founder and a Managing Partner of WannaBiz Investment Fund. 580+ applications since 2012 and 20 funded startups, 11 of which have raised additional investment. Investment geography covers Ukraine, Central and Eastern Europe, Western Europe, USA, with up to $ 50,000 investment. The investment portfolio (assets under control and owned/managed companies) includes: Kwambio, Reply IO, Rallyware, Influ2, Petcube, 3Dlook.

Mr Bornyakov was appointed as the Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation in October of 2019 and has been boosting the growth of Ukraine’s IT industry.