Rafael Paz is currently the executive director of the National Competitiveness Council, where he develops the strategic agenda to strengthen the competitiveness of the Dominican Republic. He has extensive training in areas such as governance, public management, business, leadership and political communication. Paz served for six years as Executive Vice President of the National Council of Private Enterprise (CONEP), was a member of the National Social Security Council (CNSS), and on the Board of Directors of the Patrimonial Fund of the Reformed Companies (Fonper). He was the first secretary of the National School of Electoral Training and Civil Status (EFEC) of the Central Electoral Board.

Qiaomei Fu is the Head of the Ancient DNA Lab at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the leading science institution in China. Her work has reinvigorated research into the origin of humanity through ancient DNA extracting techniques and advanced, next-generation gene sequencing to decode ancient humans' genomes.

Miranda Qu Fang is Co-Founder and President of Xiaohongshu.
Founded in 2013, Xiaohongshu is China's leading lifestyle platform with over 260 million monthly active users, and is continuing to grow rapidly. With millions of users sharing their lives in an authentic way on Xiaohongshu, many of whom are at the forefront of trends, the platform has become a gathering place for the latest lifestyle trends in China and a destination that empowers users to make informed consumption decisions. Xiaohongshu has also developed into an important brand marketing platform and an emerging e-commerce platform, where over 170,000 brands have a presence.
Over the past decade, Qu has continued driving innovation at Xiaohongshu, playing a key role in building up a unique business model that enables the company to constantly adapt to market changes and maintain rapid growth. She has a keen understanding of Chinese consumers and valuable insights, allowing Xiaohongshu to become a leading gauge in China's business and consumption trends.

Byju Raveendran is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of BYJU'S, an EdTech created from his passion to create self-initiated and lifelong learners. A teacher by choice and an entrepreneur by chance, he launched BYJU'S Learning App in India in 2015 and has helped 150 million students learn better.

Atika Rehman is a journalist with over a decade of experience working as a reporter and editor in Pakistan. She is now based in the UK, where she is the foreign correspondent for Dawn, a widely respected English daily in Pakistan. Atika covers a breadth of local and international stories. She reports on Pakistani politics and the sizeable British Pakistani community in the UK and covers major developing stories such as Brexit, the elections and landmark court cases. Previously, she was the Managing Editor of Dawn.com, Pakistan's highest traffic English news site which has a digital audience of 90 million a month. Currently, Atika is also the Deputy Editor at The Third Pole, a digital publication which covers Asia's water crisis and its effects on migration, food security and livelihoods. Her work has earned both national and international recognition. Atika is a 2019 Acumen Fellow.

Viridiana Rios is an expert in Mexico’s sub-national economy, citizen security and rule of law. Her career has taken her from positions as a public officer and applied researcher, to entrepreneur and journalist. She has served as an adviser to Mexico’s Minister of Finance and to the Mexican President’s spokeswoman. She was awarded the 2014 American Political Science Award to the best doctoral dissertation written in the last two years. She also received Harvard’s Merit Fellowship for Outstanding Research in 2011, was selected as one of the top-12 young experts by NBER’s Working Group of the Economics of Crime in 2012 and profiled at Harvard Gazette as one of the 15 Harvard’s stellar graduates of 2013.

James Rogers, is preoccupied with tipping civilization into an era that will allow us to regard the ‘plastic age’ the same way we regard the ‘stone age’. After receiving his PhD from UCSB in Materials, James founded Apeel with two graduate school friends. Apeel uses materials found in nature to create an invisible ‘peel’ on the outside of fruits and vegetables that allows them to live 2-3x longer. James’ time building Apeel led him to think of technology as a catalyst for system change. He is obsessed with expanding our concept of community beyond the people that we can keep track of on our own mental ledger.

Michele Romanow is a serial entrepreneur who started six companies before her 35th birthday. A “Dragon” on CBC’s hit show Dragons’ Den (Canada’s Shark Tank), Michele is the Co-founder and Executive Chairman of Clearco (formerly Clearbanc). Clearco has invested more than $5B+ into 10000+ companies making them the biggest ecommerce investor in the world. She previously co-founded SnapSaves, acquired by American tech giant Groupon, and Buytopia.ca, which acquired ten competitors, including Shop.ca and WagJag.

A prolific investor, Michele was recently named Fortune’s 40 under 40, a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, one of Canada’s Most Powerful Women, Canada’s Angel Investor of the Year and winner of RBC’s Women of Influence, Innovation Award.

Michele co-founded the Canadian Entrepreneurship Initiative with Richard Branson to encourage more women entrepreneurs. Michele has worked driving new digital solutions to many of the world’s leading brands, including P&G, Netflix, Starbucks, and Cirque du Soleil. In addition, she’s advised Fortune 100s and governments on innovation, AI, blockchain and the new economy.

During her Civil Engineering undergrad at Queen’s University, Michele founded The Tea Room, the first zero-consumer-waste coffee shop. At Queen’s, she was given the Queen’s Tricolour — the highest honor awarded by the university — and, after completing her Queen’s MBA, she founded Evandale Caviar, a vertically integrated commercial fishery.

Michele is a director for Vail Resorts (NYSE: MTN), BBTV and Queen’s School of Business. Previously she was a director for Freshii, Whistler Blackcomb, SHAD International and League of Innovators.

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of WOS. Veronica Ruiz del Vizo has led the communication strategist of global brands, advised Venezuelan foundations, celebrities and democratic organizations on digital strategy. She is also the Co-Founder and Director of Bootcamp Vero, Team Remoto, Amarillo and Dar Learning reaching more than 20,000 online students around the world only during the first year of the pandemic.

Vivek Salgaocar is an experienced operator, innovator, creator, and investor. He is founder of Prospect Innovation, a first-of-its-kind ecosystem supporting start-ups and innovators as they build, pilot and scale frontier technologies to address the biggest challenges facing the natural resource and mining industries in a sustainable and socially responsible way. He is Director at the Vimson Group, a family-owned conglomerate with interests in mineral resources, real estate and financial services. The group is also actively involved in philanthropic initiatives, particularly in healthcare and sports. Within the Minerals Division at the Vimson Group, Salgaocar oversees sales, marketing and trading, along with global business development and expansion. As Co-Head of the Vimson Group Family Office, he spearheaded the efforts to create and institutionalise a multi-asset, multi-strategy investment enterprise with global interests.

Vivek earned his MBA from Columbia Business School, and his BA summa cum laude, from Emory University. He was designated a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2020 and served on its Advisory Group. He is also a part of the Young Leaders Circle at the Milken Institute. Vivek is a Board Member, Chair of the Outreach Committee and Member of the Governance Committee of Magic Bus, whose mission to alleviate poverty by taking individuals from childhood to livelihood. The organisation currently has roughly 500,000 participants and successfully secured over 87,000 white-collar job placements in 2022.

He is a Board Member of the Global Family Enterprise Program at Columbia Business School, and a member of the Singapore Chapters of Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO), and Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO). He serves as the Group’s representative to the Confederation of Indian Industries’ India Business Forum, Singapore Business Federation, and the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

Kabir Sehgal is a 16x Grammy Award & Multi-Emmy Nominated Artist/Producer/DJ.

He is the CEO of Tiger Turn, a multimedia company & record label that makes music and film.

He is also a New York Times & Wall Street Journal bestselling author of 19 books such as “Coined” and “Carry On.” He is a CNBC, HBR, and Fortune contributor.

Sehgal is a US Navy veteran and reserve officer.

Previously, he was a vice president at J.P. Morgan and First Data.

He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the London School of Economics.

Shani Senbetta is founder and CEO of the for-profit social enterprise Kidame Mart, Ethiopia's largest last-mile distribution network, empowering rural female micro-entrepreneurs to earn incomes by selling high impact goods door-to-door in their communities. Shani is also director of Zeleman Communications, Advertising and Production, the largest communications and advertising company in Ethiopia with over 140 full-time employees. Shani has a BA from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, an MBA from Harvard University and was a Fulbright Scholar. She is passionate about addressing social problems with innovative private-sector solutions.