Sofia Elizondo is a biotech entrepreneur. She is co-founder and COO of Brightseed, an AI company that discovers bioactive molecules for health based in San Francisco. Brightseed makes proactive, precision health a reality by using pioneering advancements in machine learning to identify bioactive molecules in nature. Brightseed has commercialized novel bioactives in gut health and has a pipeline with nutritional and therapeutic applications across a dozen health areas. It been selected as a Technology Pioneer by the WEF and awarded distinctions by Forbes, Nutritional Outlook, R&D World, Rabobank, FastCompany, Nutra Ingredients and Nutritional Business Journal.

Sofia has helped build multimillion-dollar companies and brands in the consumer goods, pharmaceutical, and technology industries. Before Brightseed, Sofia led the commercialization of plant-based protein products, including the novel mung bean protein isolate. She began her career at the Boston Consulting Group and was also a founding member of the BCG Henderson Institute; the consulting firm's think tank on the future of business innovation. She also served as a Special Advisor to the United Nations supporting their work with the private sector. Her decades of leadership now enable Brightseed's mission to illuminate nature to restore human health.

Sofia's accolades include Top 40 Under 40, San Francisco Business Times; WEF Young Global Leader; 100 Women of Influence, Entrepreneur Magazine; EXTRAORDINARY leaders in Health, Newsweek; Top 100 Female Founders, Inc. Magazine; Women in AI Award, VentureBeat. She has spoken at conferences ranging from nutrition industry with the American Nutrition Association to artificial intelligence and global affairs with the Milken Global Institute and JP Morgan Tech Revolution. Sofia holds a BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Marcela Escobari serves as the Assistant Administrator of USAID’s Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean. For over two decades, the Hon. Marcela Escobari led organizations focused on promoting inclusive economic growth. She is spearheading USAID’s efforts to advance a collaborative, regional response to the historic displacement of over seven million people across the LAC region. Working with the US Government and regional partners, USAID is driving forward a three-pronged strategy focused on addressing root causes, expanding legal pathways, and promoting the integration of migrants into host communities. She is also expanding the bureau’s efforts to help democratic reformers in the region to deliver for their citizens in the face of the economic contraction caused by COVID-19, which hit Latin America and the Caribbean harder than any other region in the world.

Escobari previously served in the Obama-Biden Administration in this role in 2016, during which time she reinforced U.S. support for Peace Colombia, helped mobilize a humanitarian response plan to Hurricane Matthew in Haiti, and helped unlock obstacles to deliver humanitarian aid in Venezuela. In response to Congress’ doubling of funding to Central America, she led changes in strategy, organization and execution to help USAID expand programs to improve citizen security, strengthen governance, and create economic opportunity.

Prior to serving in government, Escobari was Executive Director at the Center for International Development at Harvard University. During her tenure, the Center launched projects in 17 countries across five continents focused on unlocking constraints to economic growth. Most recently, as a senior fellow at Brookings, she created the Workforce of the Future initiative and applied international economic development models to map the industrial path of American cities and identify policies to help workers prosper in the face of evolving labor markets. She worked with US local leaders, companies and policy makers, including in Idaho and Texas, to strengthen paths to the middle class.

Her career has spanned the private sector, government and academia, with a common thread of producing growth that is inclusive and sustainable. She began her career as an investment banker at J.P. Morgan and worked across the globe on export competitiveness projects as a strategy consultant. The World Economic Forum named her a Young Global Leader in 2013. She co-authored the book “In the River They Swim: Essays from Around the World on Enterprise Solutions to Poverty.” She holds a B.A. in economics from Swarthmore College and an M.A. in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Karen Fang is Managing Director, Global Head of Sustainable Finance at Bank of America. Formerly, she was the head of Global Fixed Income, Currencies & Commodities (FICC) Cross Asset Trading, and the head of Americas FICC Sales & Solutions prior to that. She is a member of the Bank of America Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) committee, the Sustainable Markets Committee, as well as the firm wide Asian Leadership Council.
Prior to joining Bank of America, Karen was a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs where she was the head of the Pension, Endowment and Foundation Cross Asset Solutions Group. Previously, she held senior positions in derivatives structuring, including at Merrill Lynch in Tokyo and Deutsche Bank in London.
Karen was named one of Fortune’s “40 under 40”and a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum (WEF). She was selected to be a member of the WEF Expert Network. Karen was a member of the Bank of America team recognized by American Banker as part of their “Most Powerful Women in Banking and Finance” feature and was called out as one of five leaders who has made a significant impact in a short amount of time. She served as a mentor for the Global Ambassadors program, a Bank of America partnership with Vital Voices and was honored by the Women’s Venture Fund for her work with female entrepreneurs. Karen was chosen by Investment Dealers’ Digest as one of the “40 under 40” bankers and she was also a recipient of the Women’s Bond Club of New York’s “Rising Star Award.”
Karen holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Tokyo.

Jonathan Fantini Porter is a government official and executive in the private and social sectors. He currently serves as CEO of the public-private Partnership for Central America and previously held leadership positions at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, The White House, U.S. Congress, and McKinsey & Company.

Under his tenure, the Partnership raised $4.2 billion in foreign direct investment, procurement, and lending in 18 months for projects in the region and delivered programs to 5 million individuals across environmental, social, and governance programs to address the economic roots of migration in frontier and emerging markets. The Partnership has been cited by the President of Microsoft, Administrator of USAID Samantha Power, and the President of the World Bank as a case study on how to mobilize private sector investments for public-private economic development partnerships.

Jonathan previously served as an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company; advisor on national security and private sector engagement to the Presidential transition of Joe Biden; a White House advisor on transnational security during the Presidency of Barack Obama; as a senior congressional aide in the U.S. Congress; and Chief of Staff in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security where he oversaw management operations of a $6 billion homeland security budget supporting 22,000 personnel in 48 countries.

He was named a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and has served on advisory bodies to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, World Economic Forum, Amnesty International, and as a consulting fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Jonathan is a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Georgetown University and was awarded an Eisenhower Fellowship. He speaks Spanish, French, and German.

Michael Faye is the co-founder and CEO of Taptap Send, which is working to ensure everyone has access to fairly priced remittances consistent with the SDGs. He's also the Executive Chair and co-founder of GiveDirectly, which has recognized by FastCompany as one of the top 10 most innovative companies in finance, and on the Board of Crown Agents Bank HoldCo.

Michael’s work has been published in the American Economic Review, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Foreign Affairs and others. He is a term member of the Council of Foreign Relations, a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and was named one of Foreign Policy’s 100 leading Global Thinkers. Michael holds a PhD in Economics from Harvard, where he also studied Math and Classics.

Valerie is a Senior Vice President in Verizon Global Services with a focus on global location strategy and accelerated digitization and automation of service operations. Previously, Valerie served as COO in a cleantech start-up, as an Associate Partner in McKinsey's High Tech practice in New York and Beijing, as a policy advisor to the International Telecommunication Union, and as Adjunct Faculty at Free University Berlin. Valerie holds an M.Sc. in business management and a M.A. from University of Muenster, a Ph.D. from Free University Berlin, and an Executive Certificate in Technology and Operations Management from MIT.

Alvaro Fer­nan­dez runs Sharp­Brains, an inde­pen­dent mar­ket research firm track­ing how neu­ro­science and neu­rotech­ can improve health and per­for­mance across the lifes­pan. A fre­quent pub­lic speaker, he has been quoted by The New York Times, The Wall Street Jour­nal, CNN, Reuters, and Asso­ci­ated Press. Alvaro is the Editor-in-chief of a recent report on Pervasive Neurotechnology, and co-authored "The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness", translated into Spanish, Japanese, Polish, and Portuguese. He holds an MBA and MA in Edu­ca­tion from Stan­ford Uni­ver­sity and a BA in Eco­nom­ics from Uni­ver­si­dad de Deusto, in his native Spain. Previously he worked in McKinsey & Company, Bertelsmann and Ashoka: Innovators for the Public.

V. R. Ferose is Managing Director of SAP Labs India, responsible for research and development based in India. He drives innovation, customer-focused initiatives and delivers operational efficiencies at SAP Labs facilities. At the age of 33, he was one of the youngest managing directors of a global multinational in India. Ferose is also a Member of the IT Vision Group of Karnataka and a Member of the Development Advisory Board of HOPE worldwide in India, and he is actively involved with multiple non-profits in the education, disability and social entrepreneurial space. Ferose is Co-Founder of the World Economic Forum's Global Shapers Karnataka Hub, with a vision of creating opportunities for youth in Karnataka. He graduated from the National Institute of Technology in Warangal, India, in 1997 with a degree in Computer Science and Engineering. He is a regular speaker in academia and several industry forums.

Rossanna is the founder of All Minds Count, a sustainable apparel company that spreads positive messages on neurodiversity and invites us to celebrate the beauty of thinking differently.

Rossanna is also the co-founder at Wafels & Dinges, an urban food concept credited with pioneering the Food Truck revolution in 2007. Started in NYC, the company's award-winning products are paired with a strong focus on improving local communities & public spaces with its iconic, award-winning yellow food trucks, carts & kiosks, which have been showcased extensively in national and international media outlets and have consistently ranked Best in Class.

In 2016, in tandem with her work at Wafels & Dinges, Rossanna launched Perros y Vainas. This gastro-social venture creates awareness around Venezuelan issues and donates part of its revenue to organizations working to feed the children in Venezuela. Through a partnership with Venezuelan NGO Alimenta Venezuela, Perros y Vainas fed 125 kids per day in some of the poorest slums around Caracas.

Rossanna is proud to have crafted a fulfilling, successful, non-traditional career path. She has been a Diplomat to the United Nations, a banker on Wall Street, an executive recruiter finding and placing talent for her clients worldwide, and an effective executive coach who can draw from her experience to help others thrive.

Chief Executive Officer, DoSomething.org, the largest organization for young people and social change with 5 million+ members worldwide. Founder and President, DoSomething Strategic. Expertise in engaging and activating GenZ and Millennials worldwide. Specific focus on voter registration and government in the US for 2020 and beyond. Member of the Board: Change.org; Care for the Homeless. Adjunct Professor, New York University. Former Curator, Global Shapers New York City Hub and Young Global Leader (2016), World Economic Forum. Named to Crain's Business 40 under 40. BA in Economics and Political Science, Washington University, St Louis; Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders, Stanford Business School.

Justin Finnegan is Founding Managing Director of Bloomberg New Economy. Prior to joining Bloomberg, he held a number of positions including co-founder and Managing Director for Mountain Hazelnuts Group and later as a White House Fellow and Deputy at USAID for Feed the Future, the U.S. Government's Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative. Finnegan has more than 15 years of operating experience in Asia, speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese and served as a Fulbright and Trustman Scholar. He received his BA from Harvard University and an MBA from Stanford University and is a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum.

Marco Fiorese is the co-founder of IVITA HEALTH Investment Group, a Holding Company in NY, USA focused on direct investments in Consumer Health. Companies include Spring Foods (better-for-you foods), Circle Health (virtual home-care), Atida Health (on-line pharmacy). He is “Curator” of the Family Business Community at the WEF. He is member of the board of the MET Opera in NY. He studied at Bocconi University (Italy) and Harvard Business School (USA).