Engineer

Gugu Msibi is a Senior Partner at Ernst & Young. She is the Public Sector and Government Leader in Africa and a priority account leader. She was appointed to the leadership team of the African firm and contributes to leadership of the firm across the globe. In a short time, she has made a meaningful contribution to the firm in a number of different ways. Msibi has demonstrated her leadership strengths among her colleagues by engaging them strategically in significant areas of the business related to both its market and people strategies. As such, she has earned their respect and is often sought for her advice and guidance. Msibi is one of South Africa's pioneering women working across business and government with a focus on global financial services. She has also been adviser to many senior government leaders at a ministerial level. As a Fellow of the Aspen Institute's African Leadership Initiative, Msibi has been identified as a leader within Africa who is a role model as well as pioneer across disciplines.

BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, Oxford; MBA, Harvard Business School. Twenty years of experience in private equity from mid-cap PE to large-scale infrastructure. Former Partner, TPG, a global private equity house; has worked at the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, Unilever Ventures, Parthenon and Goldman Sachs. Currently, Managing Partner and Founder, Greensphere Capital LLP, a sustainable investment firm. Former two-term Council Member, Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House). Currently, Non-Executive Director, Forterra. Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum. Passionate supporter of various environmental charities in the Pacific Northwest.

Lara Setrakian is an Impact Partner at Fresco Capital and the Co-Founder of News Deeply, a new media company working to advancing coverage of complex global issues. Setrakian spent more than five years as a foreign correspondent, covering the Middle East for television, radio and digital platforms, for ABC News, Bloomberg Television, the International Herald Tribune and Monocle Magazine. She has since focused on the fusion of news and technology. Her first platform, Syria Deeply, launched in December 2012 to wide acclaim. TIME Magazine dubbed Syria Deeply “The Future of News”, Fast Company named her to its list of the “100 Most Creative People in Business”, while Inc Magazine called her one of "8 Women Who Could Own the Future". Setrakian was widely acclaimed for her ground-breaking use of social media in reporting on Iran's 2009 election protests and the Arab Awakening of 2011. She was named a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and an inaugural fellow of the Peter Jennings Project at the National Constitution Center.

Premal co-founded Kiva.org — a crowdfunding non-profit that’s raised over $1 billion in 0% interest capital for microfinance entrepreneurs in +70 countries. Premal started Kiva after volunteering at the Gandhi Ashram in India, where he developed a deeper appreciation of Gandhi’s teachings on compassion and truth. Today, Premal is launching Renewables.org — a ‘Kiva for climate change’ crowdfunding site which aims to accelerate clean energy across India and Africa. Premal also serves on the boards of Change.org and the Center For Humane Technology (the non-profit behind Netflix’s most watched documentary ‘The Social Dilemna’). Premal began his career as one of PayPal’s first product managers and graduated from Stanford University. For his work as a social entrepreneur, he has been recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, an Obama White House Champion of Change and selected to FORTUNE magazine’s “40 under 40″ list.

Dr. Shah serves as President of the Rockefeller Foundation, a global institution with a mission to promote the well-being of humanity around the world. The Foundation applies data, science, and innovation to improve health for women and children, create nutritious and sustainable food systems, end energy poverty for more than a billion people worldwide, and enable meaningful economic mobility in the United States and worldwide.

In 2009, he was appointed USAID Administrator by President Obama and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Dr. Shah reshaped the $20 billion agency’s operations in more than 70 countries around the world by elevating the role of innovation, creating high-impact public-private partnerships, and focusing US investments to deliver stronger results. Shah secured bipartisan support that included the passage of two significant laws – the Global Food Security Act and the Electrify Africa Act. He led the U.S. response to the Haiti earthquake and the West African Ebola pandemic, served on the National Security Council, and elevated the role of development as part of our nation’s foreign policy. Prior to his appointment at USAID, Shah served as Chief Scientist and Undersecretary for Research, Education, and Economics at the United States Department of Agriculture, where he created the National Institute for Food and Agriculture.

Shah founded Latitude Capital, a private equity firm focused on power and infrastructure projects in Africa and Asia, and served as a Distinguished Fellow in Residence at Georgetown University. Previously, he served at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he created the International Financing Facility for Immunization which helped reshape the global vaccine industry and save millions of lives.

Raised outside of Detroit, Michigan, Dr. Shah is a graduate of the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and the Wharton School of Business. He has received several honorary degrees, the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award, and the U.S. Global Leadership Award.

Ms. Shakhnovskaya was born in 1979 and graduated from Faculty of Law, Moscow State University in 2001. She has worked in Russian and international law firms, then held numerous leadership positions at RAO UES, the former electric power monopoly of Russia. At the time, the company underwent a period of extraordinary reorganization as the liberalisation of utility market was happening in Russia. In 2008-2009 as Director of the Iris Art Support and Development Foundation she managed the creation and construction of the Garage Centre for Contemporary Culture and organization of large-scale projects, including exhibitions of Ilya and Emilia Kabakov and François Pinault Foundation collection. The Garage Center has become the leading modern art exhibition centre in Russia. Since 2009 she held leading positions at the Polytechnic Museum, national science and technology museum first as the CEO of the Polytechnic Museum Development Foundation leading an unprecedented $500m fundraising campaign for the Museum's new building and the renovation of its historical building. Since 2013, she is the CEO of the Polytechnic Museum itself leading its transformation from an old-style Soviet institution to a modern science museum.

PhD. Founder and Director, Harvard International Negotiation Program and Associate Director, Harvard Negotiation Project. Affiliate Faculty, Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School; Associate Professor, Psychology Department, Harvard Medical School/McLean Hospital. President, Integrative Dynamics. Former Chair, Global Agenda Council on Negotiation and Conflict Resolution, World Economic Forum. Co-Author (with Roger Fisher), Beyond Reason: Using Emotions as You Negotiate.

Chilean entrepreneur. Founder of Start-Up Chile, eClass & Cumplo. Founding president of the Chilean Association of Entrepreneurs (ASECH), Socialab & TODOS. Former advisor of entrepreneurship & innovation to the Chilean Ministry of Economy. M.Sc. Management from Stanford, M.Sc. Education from Columbia, B.A. in business and economics from the Catholic University of Chile. Married, 5 children, 1 dog.

Simon Sheikh is the CEO and co-founder of Future Super, a fast growing ethical investment focussed asset manager in Australia with AUD$10.5b + under management across pension and managed investments. The pension fund has approximately 280,000 investors and helps everyday Australians divest from fossil fuels and invest in climate solutions.

Simon's background is as a community activist, having run the 1 million strong group GetUp. In this role he led campaigns on clean energy, carbon pricing, mental health reform and water policies. Prior to joining GetUp as its second National Director, Simon worked at the NSW Treasury as a Financial Analyst. Simon is passionate about parenthood and climate action. He is the father of a 7 year old who loves surfing and skateboarding.

Ramallah, Palestine

Shireen is Partner and Managing Director of the Center for Engineering and Planning (CEP), a leading Palestinian engineering firm that’s based in Ramallah, Palestine. Under Shireen’s leadership, CEP has grown to have operations in Canada, UAE, Iraq, Libya, and Jordan. Shireen leads technical teams of national and international experts in spatial, strategic planning, and infrastructure development for urban and rural communities.

Shireen is also co-founder and CEO of Shelleh Medical and Pharmaceutical Supplies. And although company recently established in 2017 that’s also based in Palestine, yet has already become the sole regional supplier of world renowned health products and medical supplies.

Shireen holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Birzeit University in Palestine, and an Executive MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, USA. Shireen has been selected by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader of the Year 2016 (YGL). She is a board member of the Palestinian Business Women Forum (BWF), and a member of several other social and technical organizations.

Contact Shireen at shireen@cep-palestine.com

Lawyer, politician, chairman of the Successful Ukraine political party, Minister of Environment and Natural Resources of Ukraine (2014-2015), presidential candidate (2019)

Experience: Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine; Advisor to the Prime Minister of Ukraine; Managing Partner, Shevchenko Didkovskiy and Partners, a law firm; Founder and President Emeritus, Ukrainian Bar Association; Founder, Forum of Young Ukrainian Leaders. Education: BA, School of International Law, Kyiv Taras Shevchenko National University, Ukraine; LLM, University of Minnesota, US; studies at Yale and Harvard universities. Expertise and interests: politics, law, healthy lifestyle.