Ida Auken is the former Minister for the Environment in Denmark (2011-2014). She is a Member of the Danish Parliament (2007-) for The Social Democratic Party. Ida Auken held the position of President of the European Environment Council and was Head of the EU Delegation at the Rio+20 conference, where the UN Sustainable Development Goals were agreed. Ida Auken was nominated a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and has also been elected as one of the 40 most promising young leaders in Europe. With her 15 years of experience in the Danish Parliament, Ida Auken has been key in fostering the green transition in Denmark. She was one of the architects of the Danish Climate Law that has one of the world’s most ambitious climate change targets and recently she introduced the paradigm shift in the approach to offshore wind by establishing energy islands. Ida Auken is the author of several books and in May 2022 “Believe it – climate, hope and vigour” was published.

Politician, Our Ocean Conference 2024 Coordinator, Member of the Hellenic Parliament and Chair of the Environment Committee of the Hellenic Parliament, Chair of the Mediterranean Parliamentarians on Sustainable Development, Director of the European Institute of Law, Science & Technology, Attorney at Law, specialized in International Environment, Energy, Water and Climate Change Law and Finance.

Christoph Baumann is Envoy for Sustainable Finance at the State Secretariat for International Finance (SIF). In this role, he leads the Swiss government's sustainable finance activities, ranging from negotiations in multilateral bodies (such as the G20) to domestic initiatives. Christoph is a Policy Fellow at the University of Cambridge. He holds an LLM in international law from the University of London, a master's degree in economics from the University of Zurich, and is a CFA charterholder.

Christoph is focused on making global financial flows consistent with a pathway to net-zero carbon emissions and a nature-positive state in his multinational roles as head of delegation of the G20 Sustainable Finance Working Group, Co-Chair of the Working Group on Transition Finance of the International Platform on Sustainable Finance, Member of the Stewardship Council of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, as well as Swiss Sherpa of the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action. Domestically, Christoph led the mandatory implementation of climate-related reporting standards - based on the TCFD recommendations. Before joining SIF, he worked in executive positions in the private sector, being instrumental in establishing a securities dealer, a digital bank, and a fintech focused on foundations.

Natalia Bayona, current Executive Director of UN Tourism and the first person under 40 to reach this position, was distinguished as one of the 10 most influential Colombians residing in Spain and one of the most influential in Latin-America (Bloomberg). Natalia is also member of the World Economic Forum (WEF) network, and one of the 100 world leaders in innovation according to COTEC.

With an Executive MBA from the IE Business School, and a degree in International Relations from Universidad Externado de Colombia, Natalia Bayona was recognized with the Eisenhower Fellowship for her leadership and commitment to fostering a more prosperous and fairer world through her work in the tourism sector.

After an extensive career working for Colombia´s public sector, Natalia Bayona was Vice President of Spain Startup-South Summit; she then joined UN Tourism in 2018 and created the Innovation, Education, and Investment Department, where the Organization has undertaken ground-breaking initiatives that include more than 10 global entrepreneurship competitions, numerous national challenges, and over 20 innovation and technology forums.

These efforts have fostered the first Global Innovation Network comprising more than 10,000 start-ups from 100 countries, entrepreneurs, companies, public institutions, educational institutions, accelerators, and investors; this dynamic ecosystem has facilitated the acquisition of over US$214 million (as per Jan 2024) in financing for disruptive companies. Hence, the delivery of important technological results for the tourism industry

Furthermore, Natalia has been instrumental in establishing the first UN Tourism Online Academy to enhance opportunities in education for the tourism industry, boasting students from more than 150 countries and offering courses with scholarships available to students worldwide in partnership with some of the best universities in the world such as Les Roches, HSLU (Lucerne University of Applied Schiences and Arts), Basque Culinary Center, IE University, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, or Sharjah University among others. In addition, she enjoys sharing her knowledge as lecturer in different universities including Harvard, Cornell and MIT,

Following her aspiration of generating investment opportunities for tourism, Natalia created the first Official UN Tourism Investment Guideline; she has worked alongside more than 50 countries on the construction of their Tourism Investment Strategies (including Dominican Republic, Tanzania, Uzbekistan, Chile among others) generating a concrete outlook that reflects their potential for international investors and the opportunities for diversification.

Oana Bîzgan is a Member of the Romanian Parliament on the Gender Equality Committee, one of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders, a Vital Voices fellow and an ambassador for the international Girl2Leader Campaign, run by the Women Political Leaders Forum. She fights for women’s rights, children’s rights and global social justice.

As a progressive and an independent MP in the General Assembly, she managed to propose and pass ten new bills regarding social justice and equal opportunities. She holds the strong conviction that equal opportunities are the real levers for the sustainable social and economic development of every society, particularly in the midst of the digital revolution we are undergoing. She wants to leverage the power of communities to change people lives for the better, as an MP and furthermore. Her vision is to empower every stakeholder to play hers/his part in ensuring social justice and invest strategically in building up the society we all want to live in. More details here: www.oanabizgan.com.

Jaime is the Climate Envoy of the Netherlands. He has an extensive diplomatic career in forging partnerships for innovative solutions to complex global challenges. He was the Senior Advisor on Private Sector Partnerships to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), where he worked on the energy transition in refugee settlements. As the Ambassador of the Netherlands to the Holy See (Vatican), he partnered on peace, climate action and forced migration. As Special Envoy for Natural Resources, he initiated the Responsible Mining Index and set up conflict-free supply chains of metals and minerals in the DRC with the private sector and civil society. He was a member of the Cabinet of the European Commissioner for Competition, worked in the field as Political Advisor to the Dutch Commander of the NATO Peacekeeping Mission in Afghanistan and helped set up the Netherlands Embassy in Iraq. He has held various other functions in MENA, Africa and Latin America. Born in the Netherlands in 1972, he holds an MA from Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a BA from Brown University. He is married and has two young daughters. Concurrently he is a Member of the Board of the Forum of Young Global Leaders (WEF).

Graduate in Economics, University of Cambridge; Sloan Fellow, London Business School. Investment Banker; 1991-98, with Baring Brothers, including Director; 1998, Chief Executive, Manek Investment Managers; 2001-08, Managing Director, ABN AMRO; 2008-10, Managing Director and Head, Advisory, Barclays Capital; 2010-15, Senior Managing Director, Blackstone; 2014-2022, Member of the Board, UK Government Investments. Currently Member of the Board of the Court of the Bank of England; Rolls-Royce Holdings plc; Taylor Wimpey plc, Compare The Market Limited; Bourne Leisure and Accord Healthcare. Appointed as Member of the House of Lords of the British Parliament in August 2016. Former Trustee: Guy's & St Thomas' Charity; National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts, UK. Current Chair: British Asian Trust, established by His Majesty King Charles.

Ms. Elissa Golberg was appointed Assistant Deputy Minister - Strategic Policy at the department of Global Affairs Canada in September 2017. In that role she is responsible for developing, leading and coordinating Canada's emerging foreign, economic and international development policy agendas. She is also Champion for Innovation and Experimentation. From February 2015 to September 2017, she served as Assistant Deputy Minister - Partnerships for Development Innovation, where her team programmed some $330 million annually in development aid to reduce poverty in 126 countries, working with international and Canadian civil society, academic, professional associations and the private sector. From September 2011 to February 2015, Ms Golberg was Canada's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva and to the Conference on Disarmament. Prior to that, she held several other responsibilities within the Canadian government including Director-General - Stabilization and Reconstruction Task Force (START), and Representative of Canada in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Ms. Golberg has a Master's degree in International Relations. She is a member of the UN Secretary-General's Advisory Board on Disarmament. She is a recipient of the NATO ISAF General Service medal, the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal, the Public Service Award of Excellence, and several Ministerial Awards for Foreign Policy Excellence. She was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2010, and served on the WEF's Global Agenda Council on Violence and Fragility, and Global Future Council on Global Governance, Public-Private Partnerships and Sustainable Development.

Master's in Society and Politics, CEU University, UK. Since 2004, Representative for Fidesz, Hungary and Member, European People's Party, European Parliament and European Democrats, European Parliament. Director, Roma Integration, EPP-ED Working Group. Member, Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs; EPP-ED Group, Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality.

Economist. Co-Head of the Bank of England’s Climate Hub, setting the strategy for ensuring the UK economy and financial system are resilient to the risks from climate change and managing the implications for the macroeconomy and financial stability. Previously a Distinguished Policy Fellow at the London School of Economics working with Lord Nicholas Stern, leading policy work for the G7, G20, COP and Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action on the intersections of climate change, international finance and economic development. Also served as Chief Economist and Director of Research of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum and as Senior Economic Adviser to the ICAEW and Managing Economist of the Centre for Economics and Business Research. University of Oxford BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics and an MSc in Economics for Development. Selected by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader in 2022.

2001, diploma, IEP Paris; 2002-04, studied at ENA (National Administration School); postgraduate diploma (DEA) in Philosophy. 1999-2001, worked for philosopher Paul Ricoeur. Former senior official and 2004-08, Inspecteur des Finances, Ministry of Economy, in charge of the Commission for French Growth (Attali commission) and project leader; 2008, joined the private sector as Investment Banker (Partner), Rothschild. 2012-14, Deputy Secretary-General, Presidency of the French Republic. 2014-16, Minister of Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs of France. Since May 2017, President of the Republic of France.

The first in her family to attend university, Sanna Marin became the youngest Prime Minister in Finnish history and the world’s youngest female state leader. She has encouraged new approaches to the future of work, social services and gender equity in her country and the world.