Farida Nana Efua Bedwei is the Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Logiciel (Ghana) Ltd, a software company developing banking systems for the microfinance industry. Her role involves assessing the industry and coming up with practical solutions, which are easy to use by persons with no formal banking training. She believes the informal sector, which make up between 60%-70% of the population across Africa, deserve the same banking services as those in the formal sector. Thus by building affordable banking systems for them, the microfinance industry will be able to realize their full potential and offer adequate banking services to their customers.

Prior to co-founding Logiciel, Farida worked in the telecom software industry, developing mobile gateways and services for mobile networks and content providers.

Farida is also an author and a disability-rights advocate, and has been featured on many media platforms, notable amongst this is C NN African Voices in February 2015. She has also won a number of local and international awards, and was adjudged the most influential woman in business and governance (finance sector) for her work in computerizing the microfinance industry. She currently serves on the Board of the National Communication Authority and Sharecare Ghana (an NGO which raises awareness for persons with autoimmune and neurological conditions).

Brian is Managing Director of the Open Source Security Foundation, a software consortium hosted at the Linux Foundation focused on securing the global software supply chain. He also serves on the boards of the Mozilla Foundation, Filecoin Foundation, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Formerly he was Chief Technology Officer at the World Economic Forum; Founder and Chief Technology Officer, CollabNet, a company focused on bringing open source collaborative software development tools and methodologies into enterprise environments; and an advisor at the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House in 2009 and 2010. Brian co-founded and served as the Founding President of the Apache Software Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit that organizes volunteer open source software development projects around key Internet technologies.

Venetia Bell is the Group Chief Sustainability Officer at Gulf International Bank (GIB), and Head of Strategy at GIB Asset Management. Amongst other responsibilities, Venetia leads GIB’s drive to embed sustainability and responsible banking principles in everything it does. In 2021, she was instrumental in the successful close of GIB’s sustainability-linked loan, making GIB the first Bahrain-headquartered bank to close such a facility. She also led an award-winning multi-stakeholder initiative to enhance data and funnel private capital towards humanitarian and resilience projects.

Venetia is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, a fellow of the Forward Institute, faculty for the Competent Boards Programme, and an alumna of the Mentoring Foundation. She is a Chartered Governance Professional, a designated Climate Competent Director, a Certified Investment Fund Director, and the Chair of Trustees of several charities.

Prior to GIB, she had several roles at the Bank of England, and has published a range of policy-focused research. Venetia graduated with an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics, an MA degree in Economics from the University of Cambridge UK, and the Advanced Management Programme at INSEAD, France.

Stefany Bello is a Head of Digital Partnerships and Strategic Alliances in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) at Mastercard. In her role, she is responsible for executing Mastercard's digital strategy with digital giants, marketplaces, streaming services, e-commerce software enablers, social media platforms, gig platforms, ride-sharing, fast fashion, gaming, crypto, and innovative startups. Stefany is responsible for expanding Mastercard's digital footprint, managing relationships with key players, and driving innovation and transformational efforts across digital payments in LAC. Before this role, Stefany led partner engagements with Operating Systems and Social Network players globally and with a broader Product team, launching proximity and remote wallet solutions leveraging the Mastercards tokenization platform. Stefany joined Mastercard in 2009 and has played a key role in driving Mastercard preference, product strategy, co-brand engagements, value-added services, and data insights. Stefany also holds a patent for the Mastercard Aid network, an end-to-end, non-financial service designed to streamline aid distribution even in the absence of telecommunications infrastructure. Stefany holds a B.A. in International Business Management with a double concentration in finance and Latin American Studies from Manhattanville College in N.Y. Additionally, she is fluent in English, Spanish, and Italian and proficient in French.

Mr. Moustapha Ben Barka is Deputy Secretary General at the Office of the President of the Republic of Mali. From 2013 to 2015, He has served in the Government of Mali as Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, in charge of Investment Promotion and Private Sector and Minister of Industry and Investment Promotion. Prior to joining the Government of Mali, Mr Ben Barka worked as Director for a Moroccan investment bank based in Senegal to manage Project finance and Structured finance transactions in West Africa. Before deciding to come back to Africa to contribute to its development, Mr. Ben Barka worked for the National Bank of Canada where he held the positions of Analyst, Senior Analyst and Internal Auditor at he Treasury and Financial Markets department. Mr. Ben Barka holds an Executive MBA from Université du Québec à Montréal, a Fellow of the Institute of Canadian Bankers, a Graduate Certificate from McGill University and a Bachelor in Finance and Inte rnational Business from HEC Montréal. Web presence

Dan is Founder & CEO of Spring Impact. Spring works with the world’s most promising social solutions – to end the world’s greatest social needs. At Spring, Dan has developed successful scaling strategies for over 140 organisations including Nike Foundation, Shell Foundation, Oxfam, PSI and Health Foundation. Dan developed Scale Accelerator, a programme to scale up the grantees of the 9 largest funders in the UK. Dan authored the Social Replication Toolkit which has been used by over 4000 social ventures globally. Dan is a regular presenter, writer, Clore Social Leadership Fellow, Young Global Leader at WEF, has a BSc in Management from Nottingham University, and is a Rothschild Fellow at the Cambridge Judge Business School and graduated from the Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education programme. He is a founding Trustee of the Bike Project for refugees and asylum seekers.

Fridtjof Berge is the Co-Founder & Chief Business Officer of Antler, the global venture capital firm backing the world’s most driven founders from day zero. With offices in 28 startup ecosystems across six continents, Antler rethinks how to support and back exceptional people from the earliest stages - regardless of their geography or background. Since 2018, Antler has invested in more than 750 portfolio companies, and it receives more than 100,000 applications annually to its residencies. A Norwegian native based out of Singapore, Fridtjof obtained his MBA from Harvard Business School and started his career in McKinsey & Company, where he focused his work on the retail, consumer goods, financial services and social impact industries. He is a Forbes 30 under 30 honouree.

Founder & Chief Investment Officer of asset management firm, Wincrest Capital. Barbara Ann was named as one of the top 50 Women in Hedge Funds globally by Ernst & Young and the Hedge Fund Journal in 2019. She co-founded the Variant Perspectives: Women in Value Investing Conference and was honored as a Young Global Leader in 2018 by the World Economic Forum. Her passion for investing goes back to her days of growing up in The Bahamas where as a teenager she persuaded legendary value investor Sir John Templeton, a fellow Bahamian resident, to take her on board for the first of what would become a series of summer jobs at Templeton, instilling a fundamental value-oriented investment approach to the public markets. Later, working in investment banking at Goldman Sachs, followed by alternative asset management at Deutsche Bank, and as an investment analyst at Holowesko Partners, she acquired a robust grasp of private market valuation and the hedge fund industry. Today, she is the portfolio manager of the Wincrest Contraria Fund, which is a global long/short equity fund of niche, esoteric investment ideas based on bottom-up "Go-See & Verify" research. Barbara Ann is a graduate of Li Po Chun United World Colleges ("UWC") in Hong Kong, Lakefield College School in Canada, and the London School of Economics, where she Chaired the LSE Business Society. She is currently a Director of the Lyford Cay Foundation and Chair of the UWC Bahamian National Committee.

Development Director, Yasmine Group, Morocco
ex-Counsellor of the Head of Governement-Morocco / Youth Employment (2017- today)
In charge of the TIZI Leadership Institute,
Graduated of ESSEC MBA (2003),
Leadership Executive Education Programms - Harvard Kennedy School (2011, 2015)
Political Communication Executive Education Programms - Hertie School of Governance (2009 ,2010).

Member of the Board of Yasmine Group (2010- today)
General Manager of Yasmine, Orfèvre de l'Immobilier (Real Estate) (2007-2017)

Co-founder of the Moroccan Leadership NGOs : 'Tariq Ibnou Ziyad Initiative-TIZI' (2011) and 'Les Citoyens'(2016).

Since 2012, he is in charge of the TIZI Leadership Institute which aims at promoting Leadership in Morocco and at identifying Moroccan Young Leaders .

Professor in Moroccan Engineering Shools (EHTP 2007-2015, Centrale Casablanca 2017)

Author of 'Be MiZen, grande fugues et petites réflexions' (2006-Senso Unico), 'De nos mains, un Maroc juste nous construirons' (2011 - TIZI Editions), 'Lettre à mon fils, le Maroc à construire pour le XXIème siècle' (2017-Senso Unico Editions).

With entrepreneurship running in her blood, Caroline has always been seeking the next big innovative challenge. As a young Canadian lawyer fresh out of McGill Law School, Caroline took the leap in moving to Asia in 1998 and has spent her life becoming an expert in Asian law with the goal to demystify Asia to SMEs and PE firms from the Western part of the world and contribute to their expansion in Asia.

It wasn’t long before she became the go-to source for people and SMEs and PE firms who want to understand how to grow the Asian market and navigate the Asian legal landscape successfully.

Today, she has an established reputation in the international business community as an entrepreneur of 5 start up over the last 2 decades and an expert advisor on M&A cross-border transactions, commercial law, technology transfer and intellectual property matters and has been the managing director of HJM Asia Law for the past 16 years.

In Caroline’s life, the only constant is growth.

She convinced her younger brother, Maxime, a trained industrial engineer, to join her in China in 2005 when they founded their first business, Jade & Co, a consulting firm for SMEs expanding in Asia offering engineering, legal, marketing and accounting services.

Later, in 2007, Caroline and Maxime founded AsiaTech QC, an automated quality control platform for engineering products manufactured in China, and significantly grew the value of the company, leading to its acquisition in 2013.

In 2010, the duo started Komaspec who is now a leading manufacturer of high-end metal and plastic industrial products based in Guangzhou, China. Today, the company boasts three state-of-the-art smart manufacturing facilities, employs 200+ workers, and serves more than 100 customers in more than 25 countries worldwide, recording 30% YoY growth with a turnover of more than USD 17 millions in 2022. At present, Caroline acts as board member of Komaspec.

A few years later, in 2016, she combined her entrepreneurial background with legal expertise, to bring to market ProsocecAsia, an innovative company providing secretarial, accounting, and compliance services for SMEs companies alongside an automated platform for compliance.

In 2015, she was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and became a member of YPO in 2021.

Understanding the role of not just mentorship, but sponsors in achieving entrepreneurial success, Caroline set up her own non profit organisation in 2016. The Young E3 Entrepreneur Fund inspires and supports a new generation of young entrepreneurs between 16 and 25 years old, by connecting them with industry experts and sponsors who can help them build a strong foundation for business success. She raises funds to finance these projects through her runs and many other initiatives.

Viewing growth and knowledge sharing as two parts of the same equation, Caroline is a regular speaker at international conferences and has been a visiting professor at Université Laval (Canada), Bocconi University, and the Sorbonne Assas Law School. She has authored the practical book "Doing Business in China" published in French and English, and has been featured in numerous magazines and newspapers, including Bloomberg, the Straits Times, the Business Times, Les Affaires, and La Presse.

She remains an active member of the international business community, sitting on multiple boards of listed and private companies, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce (President), the South Africa Chamber of Commerce in Singapore, the China Working Group of the International Bar Association, and is the appointed legal adviser of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Singapore. She is an independent director of Savaria (sis.to), a listed Canadian company in the mobility industry.

Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer
Dr. Katharina Beumelburg is SLB’s chief strategy and sustainability officer, a role she has held since May 2021. Since joining, Katharina has led SLB to be the first company in the energy services industry to announce a 2050 net-zero carbon emissions target inclusive of scope 3 and has been instrumental in building and executing the corporate strategy for the energy transition.

Danae Bezantakou holds the positions of CEO of Navigator Shipping Consultants and shareholder of KEFI S.A. & MATILDA HOTEL in Zakynthos Island. One of her biggest accomplishments is the organization of NAVIGATOR – THE SHIPPING DECISION MAKERS FORUM which is the oldest Greek Shipping Forum, enhancing the open dialogue among the stakeholders of the Greek and International Maritime Clusters annually since 2001. She is the Concept Founder of Young Executives Shipping (YES) FORUM - the platform of open dialogue among principals, executives and university students, recent graduates and young executives in Shipping and Sea Tourism Sectors. She also serves as Secretary General of International Propeller Club (Port of Piraeus) and President of iforU-Greek Mentoring Network, which empowers small and medium women entrepreneurs through mentoring & networking & chairs the education committee of ICC Women in Greece. Danae was appointed as European Young Leader in 2013 and as Young Global Leader at World Economic Forum in 2015.
Danae represented Greece twice in International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of State Dpt. in 2011 and in 2017. She is founding member and President of the Hellenic U.S. Alumni Association of State Department Programs. Her dedication to the growth of Entrepreneurship made her to be named as a Role Model in the campaign #Makingithappen organized by the U.S. Embassy to Greece. Recently she was chosen among 225,000 alumni of State Dept. As one of the 80 #FacesofExchange initiative highlighting 80 years of the IVLP and the impact of her work on the global community.
She regularly participates as a speaker, judge or mentor in startup competitions, Shipping fora, school and university lectures and events related to entrepreneurship.
She holds a Bachelor of Science in International Hospitality and Tourism Management from the University of Surrey. She has a 13 year old daughter.